The ABCs of OPTs
by Scott
(A'Kula) Schimmels
(continued)
Ok, now that you know what OPTs basically are (3D meshes and textures) and where they are located (IVFILES directory), you're probably asking, "What do I do now?" There are several possiblities, the first being to take advantage of someone else's hard work and download your favorite and/or desired Star Wars ship that wasn't included in XvT/BoP. As I mentioned earlier, the best place to find new OPTs is at the OPT Project, part of the DataMaster's site.
OPT Project:
The OPT Project, started in February of 1998, is a public and cooperative effort dedicated
to editing the latest additions to the X-Wing series of games by Totally Games (TG) and publisher LucasArts (LA). Its intention is to
add to the enjoyment of this award-winning series of games, thereby prolonging its life
span. Although originally started to determine the data contained in files with the
extension of .OPT (found in the /ivfiles subdirectory), the project has expanded to
include many other aspects of editing the games. This includes missions, ACT files (the
background images in missions), and even the executable itself.
(NOTE: This came directly from the OPT Project introduction page.)
So where has the OPT Project been, where is it now, and where is it going? As indicated above, the project started approximately one year after the release of X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter (XvT). Due to such a large gap, the interest in editing the game was not as high as it could have been. Due to the encouragement brought to the community by the research of Lt. Hag, a small group of people rallied together at Datamaster's Website and, despite not having much previous experience in either game editing or 3D graphics, the OPT Project was born! Since then, we have deciphered (for the most part) some of the key file formats for XvT and BoP. Right now, unfortunately, most of the research has been taken over by the Code Alliance and individual slicing organizations such as Phoenix Technologies. Research here, for now, is almost a thing of the past. However, the OPT Project is still the home of discussions and files. Hopefully, with the release of X-Wing: Alliance, there will be plenty of new things to research and work on. With a little bit of luck (and the Force on our side), the project will not only become more organized and professional, but will grow in popularity among Star Wars gaming fans around the world. The more people attracted, the more collective knowledge; and as the cliché goes, knowledge is power. Power to fuel the creation new ships and new ideas for one of the best (if not the best) simulation series ever created!
The OPT Project Archive has nearly 130 OPTs. These include both Imperial and Rebel capital ships, starfighters, transports, shipyards, etc. Several of these OPTs are well done and I'll discuss them below. Others are, well, not so carefully crafted (i.e. hitzones non-existant, hardpoints misaligned) by their creator and as such, are of not much use. When I discuss OPT Creating/Editing, I'll explain what I mean.
Imperial OPTs:
Of the Imperial Capital ships located in the OPT Archive, my two favorites are a revised Super
Star Destroyer (SSD), and the Eclipse Star Destroy (ESD). The revised SSD (or
more commonly known as the Executor class, named after Darth Vader's command ship)
had its bridge improved and scaled correctly, and was converted from TG's 8 km size to the
correct size of 16 km by Andy Kroell,
a long-time member of the OPT Project. A close-up of the corrected bridge is shown
below:
Super Star Destroyer (Executor-class) w/revised bridge
The Eclipse command ship (ESD), also 16 km in length, first made its appearance in the Star Wars universe during the Dark Empire series, when Luke followed Anakin's footsteps and served under Emperor Palpatine's clone, learning the ways of the Dark Side of the Force. Ensconced on the planet Byss, Palpatine's crazed clones used the Eclipse-class Star Destroyer, with it's imposing black matte surface, and jutting prow, to intimidate the New Republic forces. Dreadnott, now very active in the OPT Project, modified the Super Star Destroyer to create a very aesthetic recreation of the ESD. The final result is shown below:
Eclipse-class Star Destroyer
A comparison of the corrected SSD versus the ESD is shown below:
SSD vs ESD
There has been a host of TIE fighter variants created. Most are simply revisions of the TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor or TIE Advanced and may include: shields, ion cannons and/or proton torpedoes. In other word, they are simply TIEs modified to match up against the Rebels X-Wing, A-Wing or B-Wing in regards to shields and missile capacity. The two most noteable exceptions are the I-7 Howlrunner and A-9 vigil, both are show below:
I-7 Howlrunner
A-9 Vigil
Rebel - New Republic OPTs Until recently, the majority of the work done on creating Rebel or New Republic OPTs has concentrated on fighters. One of the first developed (by Andy Kroell), and then refined (by Steele), is the New Republic E-Wing shown below:
New Republic E-Wing
Another fine OPT is the Rebel snowspeeder, used on the planet Hoth to face Imperial AT-AT walkers during the Rebel evacuation. This OPT will be showcased in the Atmospheric Shipset, currently under development. The snowspeeder is one of Andy Kroell's creations and is shown below:
Rebel Snowspeeder