First-Person Walking on Imported Ships

[MarkoBarthel]

Imported ships can optionally support first-person walking in singleplayer. Ship creators can define an entry point and add simple collision boxes for floors, walls, and consoles. Every time the player enters first-person mode, they return to the configured entry point, even if they walked away from it before switching to the exterior view.

Set up walking in the Ship Editor

1. Open your ship in Ship Setup and select FPS setup.
2. Place the FPS entry marker at foot level, on top of the intended floor. Set Entry yaw to choose which way the player faces.
3. Select + Collision box to add a floor. Use the wireframe preview to position, resize, and rotate the box. Add more boxes for walls and obstacles as needed.
4. Turn FPS walking on, select Save JSON, and start a new voyage to test the setup.

The entry needs a walkable floor and enough clearance for the player to stand. If the entry is blocked or has no walkable floor, the game keeps the current camera view and shows a message.

Configure boat.json directly

Add this optional section to your existing boat.json:

Positions and sizes are in ship-local centimeters, with X forward, Y starboard, and Z up. sizeCm is the full size of the box. In this example, the floor is 20 cm thick and its top is at Z = 100 cm, matching the entry height. You can add up to 64 collision boxes. Omit firstPerson or set "enabled": false to keep walking disabled.

The boxes move with the ship and block the player without applying physical forces to the vessel. In first-person mode, the ship uses LOD 0 and its 3D bridge instruments update normally.

[MarkoBarthel]

First-Person Collision for Imported Ships

Imported ships can now use an optional collision FBX for first-person walking in singleplayer. You can use it on its own or combine it with the collision boxes already available in Ship Setup.

Prepare the collision model

Export a lightweight Collision.fbx using the same origin, axes, and scale as the visual ship model. Each mesh object in the file becomes one convex collision hull.

Use separate solid shapes for decks, walls, and consoles. A solid wedge works well for stairs. To keep a doorway open, use separate shapes on either side and above the opening. A single hull spanning the doorway will block it.

Configure and test

1. Place Collision.fbx next to boat.json in your ship folder.
2. In Ship Setup, select the FPS entry point and enter Collision.fbx in the Collision FBX field. The FBX appears as a blue wireframe and the collision boxes appear in green.
3. Place the entry point at foot level on a walkable surface, enable FPS walking, and save.
4. Start a new voyage to test the entry point, walkable areas, and doorways.

You can also configure the file directly in boat.json. Add collisionFile to your existing firstPerson section and keep any boxes entries you still need. Here is a minimal example using only the FBX. Replace entryCm with the position of your own entry point.

When sharing the ship, include Collision.fbx in the package. It provides collision for the walking character and follows the ship as it moves.