[UPDATED] Hand weeder for small scale weeding

[ar1g3]

In the FS11 days I used to make mods. Made a few maps, trailers and frontloader tools. Life took over and didn't play FS for years. The game has changed a lot, and modding is a little more complicated now, but I decided to try my hand at it again with this mod.

Because I don't like running the tractor with weeder through a freshly germinated field, I decided to make a garden tool that is designed for weeding. In small scale organic farming, this is what is used to remove weeds. It is a blade, attached to a wooden handle. It looks like a hoe, but is smaller and more delicate.


With a working width of 0.3m at the moment, this is obviously aimed at the small scale farmer. Also, this mod will only really be useful in conjunction with Seasons. Removing a complete field of weeds with this, is a huge job. However, removing Seasons' patchy weeds is very easy and rather quick. This means it might even come in handy on larger scale farms.
In real life you can use this tool even when crops are fully grown, and since this game is a simulator I tried to replicate this. This weeder can be used up to growth stage 4, where as the default mechanical weeders can only be used up to growth stage 2.

Price will be 43€, because that's the actual price for this tool in the real world. Weight is 900gr, also the real weight of this tool.



I tried to make it low polycount to improve performance ingame. This is a very small mod, and it's impact on performance should be in proportion to that. Textures were made in photoshop, with a specular map to simulate the matte finish of wood vs shiny finish of metal. I know it's overkill..

It works as an object that you pick up, then you rotate it and point it at the ground. Walk around and it will remove weeds. The rigid body dynamics are set up to ease handling of the tool when picked up. For example, it is possible to run when holding this, something which is not always possible with picked up objects.

Currently the mod is ingamed, and works error free. Now comes finetuning, adding details (possibly particles, wearable, ...) and optimizing textures. Current filesize is 1.09Mb. The plan is to release it on the ModHub, and also make it available for console.

Video and ingame pictures coming soon.

MOD IS UPDATED: https://www.farming-simulator.com/mod.p ... tle=fs2019

[Bryan83]

I'll be looking forward to this one. Starting to complete the hand tool set with the shovel and bucket, and to an extent the wheelbarrow. This definitely seems like a logical next step.

[ar1g3]

Update:
Refined the textures a bit, and added particles and wearability. Now I'm testing the wearability to make sure it works.

Here is an ingame picture:


And here's a video displaying how to use and handle it:


EDIT: Optimizing textures reduced mod size to 356kB

I'll be looking forward to this one. Starting to complete the hand tool set with the shovel and bucket, and to an extent the wheelbarrow. This definitely seems like a logical next step.

Thank you! I may be making even more hand tools after this one!

[Illinois Farmer]

That's pretty cool. I don't think I will use it just because I don't like weeds irl, so I turn them off in the game ha, but I will still download this if available. Looks cool.

[Bryan83]

Not sure how to make it work, but an idea I had for a hand tool would be an axe.

[Farmercaseih]

Not sure how to make it work, but an idea I had for a hand tool would be an axe.

I've seen that in fs17. Its basically a chainsaw but it swings when you use it and sounds like it is hitting a tree instead of a chainsaw sound.

[ar1g3]

Nice to see there is interest for my mod!
I might be looking into making an axe, I've also thought about that. I think it will indeed need to work like a chainsaw, but with different animations and different sounds. Will need to figure the animation of handtools out, they seem to work slightly different than vehicles. For reference, this mod is considered a vehicle by the game. I might look into making it a handtool, but I'm not sure this is possible without extra scripts. I want this mod to be eligible for console release, and then you can't use extra scripts, you have to use base game functionality.


Update to the mod: It was ready for release, but I decided to refine it a bit more. Seems like FS19 uses a different texturing system, and I'm trying to figure that out. Currently the textures are built with a diffuse, normal and grayscale specular map like you would have done in earlier versions of the game. However this won't work on console. Again, I want to release this on console as well. Using the FS19 texturing system will also allow the tool to wear, and to get dirty. I think that would be really nice, so I'm now looking into making this work.

[ar1g3]

UPDATE

I redid all the texturing to make use of the FS19 texturing system. This enables dirt and wear. This also made it possible to add color selection. I also added tension belt support, so you can throw it in the back of a car/trailer/... and transport it. Need to sort out a few details and an issue with foliage bending, but it's nearly finished. As far as I can tell when looking at the guidelines, the mod will be console ready. Just need to wait for what Giants say about this.

[ar1g3]

The mod is released for PC/Mac and console!!!

[Bryan83]

Hey, thanks for getting this out. I got home from work this afternoon and downloaded it. Even got a chance to try it out and it works great!

However, I may have found one bug on it, at least on console. If i hold it at a certain angle and begin to run, I start levitating off the field, until eventually the thing goes flying out of my hand and I drop back to earth.

But as far as pulling weeds up it worked great. Again, thanks for the work you did on this, and I'll be waiting to see your hay fork.

[ar1g3]

Hey, thanks for getting this out. I got home from work this afternoon and downloaded it. Even got a chance to try it out and it works great!

However, I may have found one bug on it, at least on console. If i hold it at a certain angle and begin to run, I start levitating off the field, until eventually the thing goes flying out of my hand and I drop back to earth.

But as far as pulling weeds up it worked great. Again, thanks for the work you did on this, and I'll be waiting to see your hay fork.

Thanks for letting me know, I also experienced this once but as it didn't happen again I thought it was just something random. I'll try and figure out what causes this, and will update the mod if I can fix it!

[Bryan83]

I was thinking about this this morning and I thought if you do figure out what causes the flight, maybe you could help with the crop duster mod.

[ar1g3]

So I did some testing and I can't really find a cause for why this tripping over the tool happens. Seems like once you define a collision mask, this starts happening. The collision mask is what tells the game engine what kind of object the tool is. You need to define a proper collision mask to allow the ingame triggers like the sell or repair trigger to work. And as not having those triggers work is a fail for certification testing, setting a proper collision mask is necessary. I think this is caused by the game engine being developed for driving around, and not for running around with an object you picked up. After all, picking up objects is a relatively new addition to the game engine.

I suggest to pick the tool up by the end of the handle when you run around with it, that seems to reduce the amount of tripping for me. If I find any way of fixing this myself, I will surely update the mod!

[Bryan83]

Yeah, some other people in another thread were saying this is actually quite common.

But still, great work! I've already used it a few times and this certainly isn't a game breaker for me.

[Dairydeere]

I was thinking about this this morning and I thought if you do figure out what causes the flight, maybe you could help with the crop duster mod.

Sorry to hijack this thread, but what do you mean by crop duster mod?