Battlefield Heroes mod for BF1942...

The Battlefield Heroes conversion for BF1942 can be found here!
Mod Download, Serverside Mods and Custom Maps
Post Reply
User avatar
Apache Thunder
Posts: 1210
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:48 am
Location: Levelland Texas, USA
Contact:

Battlefield Heroes mod for BF1942...

Post by Apache Thunder »

Battlefield Heroes'42 is a total conversion mod that brings Battlefield Heroes maps, vehicles, graphics, weapons and gameplay to the Battlefield 1942 franchise. Now you can enjoy BFHeroes in first person and with full singleplayer/coop support! This mod sits along side the likes of DesertCombat and DC Final in modding achievement so don't let this one pass you by! :D

LATEST BUILD HERE:

Finally got around to uploaded the "standalone" version of Battlefield Heroes'42. (also my original mega account was nuked so any mega links I had to the last version no longer worked)

This will probably be the final build of the mod:


https://mega.nz/#!qChRSbBS!JerXvxBV_GtU ... 0AWo6afMTs


This merges BFH'42 into the bf1942 directory. I stripped out unused vanilla assets and modified the EXE to mount the rfa files from a different location as well as change the naming of a few commands. So as a result existings mods won't work properly on this build of bf1942. Though it's not recommend you attempt that anyways since I had stripped out unused assets.

Also note this build of BFH can NOT be used with the non standalone version of the game as I have not made this version available on it. I have also made the same EXE changes to bf1942_r and the dedicated server exe. Did not do the same to the linux exe though one could add my changes to that reletively easily. Just compare the differences to the vanilla Windows EXE and translate the changes to the Linux binary.

The "dev" files:

https://mega.nz/#!rLA0DALJ!1suBYBFHc1ny ... AjK1-COGjQ

This is the entire game unpacked and playable in bf1942_r. This is how I debug and build the rfs files for the mod. To this day I still don't use newer GUI tools to build the mod files. I still pack the RFAs old school with the debugger and command line stuff. :P

Changelog:

1. Merged Battlefield Heroes'42 into vanilla BF1942 and removed unused vanilla assets. This mod is now a fully independent version of Battlefield Heroes'42 and no longer requires a previous installation of Battlefield 1942. This can also exist along side BF1942 and won't interfere with it.

2. Various bug fixes here and there. There was a large time gap between me initially making this build and uploading it. So I have forgotten all the small tweaks I've done.

3. Redid lightmaps Alpine Assault and maybe one or 2 other maps I might have forgotten doing. Enabled sky shadows during lightmap render and makes lightmaps much higher quality. Also tweaked light settings in the level's init.con file. I did plan to redo the lightmaps for most of the maps but it was a time consuming task and I didn't have the time.

4. Coastal Clash Doomsday backported from my Halloween special for Battlefield Heroes Revive (which was used in a few other revival projects of BFH). This includes the skeleton death effect which is used exclusively on this map. Due to energy/time constraints I did not port all the Doomsday maps I did, but at least I finished this one. BF1942 handles the skeleton death effect a little better then BFH too. Parts go flying higher if soldier dies from explosion. The individual parts inherit the momentum the body had just before it died. This was not the case for BFH. One more thing BF1942 did better then BF2/BF2142. :D



Old details/builds below:

https://github.com/ApacheThunder/bfheroes42/releases/tag/v5.2

Change log:
1. Add ability to trigger Troop Traps/Kegs with guns. Troop Trap and Kegs can now be detonated by most weapons. (excluding sniper rifles because their fire velocity is too high to work with proximity fuses and slowing them down would compromise the usefulness of these weapons)

2. Troop Trap trigger radius reduced. They aren't quite as overpowered now. :P

3. Fixed broken vehicle icon on Greenwood vehicle.

4. Lowered mass of Sticky TNT.

5. Made tracer projectile for shotguns visible. They have better bullet visibility now.

6. Also added new camera view for jeeps for a BFH style third person view. (for the most part)

7. Enable more then 64 bots in Singleplayer mode (via Instant Battle menu only). Note that some maps will lag pretty bad if you go over the standard maximum. Use with caution. :P
Of notable mention are the 4 new maps in this release. All of which were ported from Avatar Star. Unlike the other maps, these levels are entirely infantry only and are made up entirely of mesh and do not use the terrain system. So the only down side is lack of dynamic shadows on the ground. But otherwise, they seem to perform pretty well in BF1942 as I have optimized them by separating them into pieces. The original map was imported as one big mesh in 3DS Max, so unlike the ports of BFH content, whatever object structure Avatar Star may have had couldn't be preserved, so I had to create my own. Avatar Star unlike BFH uses an entirely different game engine and the game content is locked in a proprietary encrypted file format (PDE files). Thus I had to use DX3DRipper to rip the mesh from video ram.

Initially I didn't expect this to work very well as normally most games don't render very much off screen. Anything beyond the camera view isn't actively being rendered and can't be saved to file with this program. However, being the cheap knock off game that this is, I was suprised to see how lazy the coders were. The game engine is so inefficient that the ENTIRE level geometry including other player avatars was always being rendered AND there was no LOD system. Thus the game doesn't use any lower detail meshes for objects at distance. Everything is rendered at their maximum polygon count regardless of how far away they are or how far off from the camera view that they are on. No wonder this game had trouble running well on lower end machines.

Perhaps this is the norm for small close quarters combat games, but from the other games I worked with with, this came as a surprise. :P

So in the end their lazy programmers made it easier for me to rip their content out. So much for their oh so special PDE file format. Means nothing if entire level scenes can be ripped out as one mesh for easy conversion. :P

I created a couple new effects for these levels. Flying birds can be spotted on the outskirts of the levels. This was achieved via animated sprites, and honestly don't why I didn't think of doing this before. Even BF2 had something like this. :P

Just make sure you have Battlefield 1942 installed with the latest patches installed. This mod is now discontinued in terms of any active development, and any future release if any, will be to correct any major bugs that users might find. However I believe I have fixed most of the major bugs for this mod.

I welcome any future modders out there to continue where I left off. Perhaps one with more time and dedication then me work on getting more weapons and content into this mod. But for me, this is the time I hang my hat and retire from modding. I have been modding for almost 4+ years and have done everything I can do with this game. At this point the only thing that might bring me back to modding this game is if EA does the unthinkable and releases the source code for this ol' game engine. Until that day it will be up to others to pick up where I left off. :D

For those who want to get an inside view of how I made this mod and the other things I have worked on, you can find my archived modding files here:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1330

I have uploaded almost all the files I had used in my modding of BF1942 for those to learn and work off of. Just note that some mods contain content from other mods that aren't of my creation, so just be aware that some of it isn't 100% free to use in future mods. Just be sure to post credit where it's due. That is all folks! :D




Archived information posted below:

I have ported Victory Village in it's entirety and most of the handweapons. I still have much more to do.

Here's what's finished:

1. Soldier Class and Commando Class kits and handweapons finished.

2. Victory Village finished.

3. SinglePlayer for Victory Village finished.

4. Sound effects for all handweapons ported thus far finished.

5. Explosion sound effects finished.

6. Global Ambient sound for Victory Village ported as well.

What still needs to be done:

1. Completion of Gunner class kit/handweapons. Still got the keg and MG to go.

2. The jeeps haven't been ported yet. Vanilla jeeps in as placeholders

3. Gunner Keg ability not ported yet.

4. Further tweaks to the damage system still needed.

5. Soldier meshes still use vanilla ones at the moment.

Videos of the mod in development:

Video showing the birth of my snow effects: :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8l7409vLNs

Videos of weapons:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufUWq9OXM44
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4lfB9nRD_8

Video of first singleplayer testing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77kd-7cfK1g


Instructions for manual install version:

Download both RAR files to one location and extract part to the mod folder of BF1942.


If there is enough interest I can throw together the server files for those who want to try it out on their servers.

Change Log:
Changes in v4.0:

1. Fixed broken network info for the cannon turret for the bri_boat_elin vehicle.
2. Replaced footstep sounds with BFH ones.
3. Fixed a spawn bug on Alpine Assault that would cause someone to spawn at the wrong flag. A spawnpoint for Wood Camp was linked to the wrong spawn group.
4. Simplified mod version text in main menu. (displayed at bottom right corner)
5. Offset mod version text to the left 10+ pixals to make it line up with the background better.
6. Updated Coastal Clash Winter lightmaps to the new DDS standard.
7. Generated a new minimap for Riverside Rush Nights and Victory Village Nights.
8. Added new AiBehaviors file to improve AI. Tweaks courtesy of Dnamro from BFSP forums.
9. Ported a ton of new statics for use in the new map: Lunar Landing.
10. Ported Lunar Landing and new skydome.
11. Created modified digger tank meshes that are added to tanks on Lunar Landing.
12. Alternate space textures for tanks and jeeps.
13. Made a "Day 2" version of Lunar Landing that features jeeps and tanks and expanded combat area.

Promotional Video of final release:




Download links:

User friendly Installer: [OUTDATED USE NEWER BUILDS ABOVE}
BFH42_Setup_v4.exe

Non-Installer version: [OUTDATED USE NEWER BUILDS ABOVE}
bfheroes_v4_client.rar

Server Files: [OUTDATED USE NEWER BUILDS ABOVE}

bfheroes_v4_serverfiles.rar

v5.0g (beta version. Not final build!) [OUTDATED USE NEWER BUILDS ABOVE}

bfheroes42_v5g.rar

Updated Animations.rfa: (fixes bugged ragdoll animations for headshots) [OUTDATED USE NEWER BUILDS ABOVE}
bfheroes42_v5g_anifix.rar
ImageImageImage
I have cameras in your head!
freddy
Posts: 1267
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:58 pm

Re: Battlefield Heroes mod for BF1942...

Post by freddy »

yeh im interested :) but i think i wait for the finished mod, will try the alpha a bit.

iwé been thinking of making a mod for a while (just something simple) and i´m curious about the planes in BF Heroes, will have to take a look at it and see if i can make something out.
User avatar
Apache Thunder
Posts: 1210
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:48 am
Location: Levelland Texas, USA
Contact:

Re: Battlefield Heroes mod for BF1942...

Post by Apache Thunder »

Coming soon in next release:



Jeeps! :D

And only the keg ability left to do and the gunner class will be finished!
ImageImageImage
I have cameras in your head!
User avatar
HJGF
Posts: 233
Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2010 10:28 pm

Re: Battlefield Heroes mod for BF1942...

Post by HJGF »

Yess finally worked on SP just try to put it on compatibility mode of windows98
Last edited by HJGF on Wed Mar 31, 2010 4:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
Image
Image
freddy
Posts: 1267
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:58 pm

Re: Battlefield Heroes mod for BF1942...

Post by freddy »

seems like you got the reload without having the weapon in hand to work?
User avatar
Apache Thunder
Posts: 1210
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:48 am
Location: Levelland Texas, USA
Contact:

Re: Battlefield Heroes mod for BF1942...

Post by Apache Thunder »

Yes in this game you have to have the weapon in hand for it to reload. Haven't found away around that as of yet.

Anyways, I had a good network test run with HJGF, and the mod passes with flying colors.

So I will release it to the masses. Here is the full feature list in the "beta" release:

Code: Select all

Features for v1.0b:

1. Complete conversion of Victory Village

2. Conversion of all basic handweapons including a few abilities.

3. The following abilities are available: Keg (Gunner), Grenade Spam (Soldier), Troop Trap(Commando), and the medkit(soldier).

4. All three classes are available: Gunner, SOldier, and Commando.

5. Two vehicles. The Royal and National Jeeps.

6. Sound effects. Most sound effects like gun firing, death screams, and explosions have been ported.

7. Menu/HUD changes. Loading screen has been arranged to look like the original game and HUD changes like new crosshair and health/ammo bars.

8. All weapons have unlimited ammo.

9. TNT is actually sticky like it is in the real game!

10. Some effects were created to look like the original, however it is not exact.

11. New ground decal effects. RPGs, Kegs, and vehicle death explosions now leave a nice dark spot on the terrain where the explosion occured.

12. Bullets leave behind smaller version of the decal mentioned above.

13. Troop Traps use my APMine system originally created for the DC Unauthorized mod.

14. Sniper rifles are the only weapon you can use zoom on.

15. Sniper Rifle scope HUD also ported.

16. Victory Village has fully functional singleplayer.

17. No other mod is needed to run this mod. Just vanilla BF1942 is all you need!


Known Issues:

1. Handweapons do not reload if you don't have them active. This is a limitation of the game engine and thus this aspect of BFheroes can never recreated.

2. Damage system might need futher tweaks.

3. COOP mode will crash dedicated servers upon load. I have not found why and this will probably never be fixed. However singleplayer works fine and COOP mode via ingame server works fine as well.

4. This mod might CTD if the end user is using Vista or Windows 7. It is recommended the user run the game in Win98 or WinXP compatiblity mode with full admin rights. Any CTDs relating to use of the mentioned operating systems falls outside my area of expertise and I can not and will not help to solve issues relating to these operating systems. It is recommended you run the game and this mod in Windows XP as it is the last OS that the game was most stable in.

5. Trees don't look that great, but because the BFheroes trees use on average 60+ sprites per tree, there is now way of using them without major game lag. Thus the a lower detail lod mesh was used for the leaves. The trees will take on the appearence of trees in the real game when the real game is on Low or Super Low graphics modes.

6. There is no undergrowth. BF1942 does not support this feature.

7. Currently spawning at the Orchard and GaurdPost control points in Victory Village is disabled. Have not yet found a way of limiting Orchard to Royal spawn only and visa versa for the other one.
However spawning can be reenabled at the server admin's discretion.
Download Link:

BFheroes42_v1b.exe

This version has the MG and Keg finished! And better AI then last version. Enjoy!
ImageImageImage
I have cameras in your head!
User avatar
HJGF
Posts: 233
Joined: Fri Feb 05, 2010 10:28 pm

Re: Battlefield Heroes mod for BF1942...

Post by HJGF »

Apache Thunder wrote:Yes in this game you have to have the weapon in hand for it to reload. Haven't found away around that as of yet.

Anyways, I had a good network test run with HJGF, and the mod passes with flying colors.

thats me lol also for some vista users try to run it with windows 98 compatibility and if u can use the debugger to the game be more stable also the Sp doesnt works all time or at the first time u must try and try till get it works. And as I say if it works on my pc it will work on urs :D again ty Apache for the mod
Image
Image
User avatar
Apache Thunder
Posts: 1210
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:48 am
Location: Levelland Texas, USA
Contact:

Re: Battlefield Heroes mod for BF1942...

Post by Apache Thunder »

Code: Select all

ObjectTemplate.isSticky 1
The code causes CTDs if you use it on a projectile that has network info. If you intend to use it on landmines, grenades, or C4/TNT, you must remove the network info or the game will crash if the projectile is on the map at round end or if the player's kit that layed it dissappears before the projectile or if the vehicle it is sticked to dissppears before it detonates.

Using the code on non networked projectiles seems 100% stable. Have had no issues with it thus far in BFheroes mod.
ImageImageImage
I have cameras in your head!
User avatar
Apache Thunder
Posts: 1210
Joined: Mon Oct 19, 2009 2:48 am
Location: Levelland Texas, USA
Contact:

Re: Battlefield Heroes mod for BF1942...

Post by Apache Thunder »

Update! New version ready!



Changes in v1.1b:


1. 2 new maps! Coastal Clash and Riverside Rush!

2. Jeeps now float in water. But will take damage from doing

so!

3. Keg projectile floats in water now!

4. Dedicated server CTDs with coop mode now fixed!

5. Death boxes added to all buildings! If you try to glitch into

one, you will die instantly!

6. AI for Victory Village tweaked a bit.

7. Medkit reload behaiver changed for now.

8. Damage system tweaked.

9. Buffed grenades/grenade spam.

10. Buffed pistols.

11. Buffed SMG.

12. Extended time that some ground decals stick around.

13. Projectile trail for sniper has delay on it now. Doesn't

obstruct sniper's vision as much.

14. Shrunk the size of the trail for grenades/grenade spam.

15. Primary water damage disabled on jeeps. However if you get deep enough for it to float, it will then take damage.


Download Link:
BFHeroes42_v1_1b.exe
Update:

Converted the first tank!:



Took almost 2 days to get it the way I wanted but it was worth it. Hopefully the national tank won't take as long. Then I will do the planes and the stationary AA. Once done with that I can work on converting Seaside Skirmish!
ImageImageImage
I have cameras in your head!
tekk
Posts: 171
Joined: Fri Dec 11, 2009 6:12 pm

Re: Battlefield Heroes mod for BF1942...

Post by tekk »

Thats wicked!! Will this mod work in Multi-Player?
Nodbrother- "getting whiped every single game by some over-active 9 year old kid with too much spare time and a reaction time that is a third of yours."
Post Reply