[REL] Reduced campaign layers for GWX
 

Hi,

one drawback of the great GWX campaign layers are the long loading times. Inspired by a recent mod of Hitman, I have modified the GWX campaign layers in order to reduce the loading times. In addition, some issues with the GWX campaign layers have been fixed (most importantly, the aircover of the Bay of Biskay). Here is the readme:


Reduced campaign layers for GWX. Readme.


This mod contains modified campaign layers for GWX. It contains six different campaign layers which show traffic in different areas. The areas are (see maps for details):

NA: Traffic only in the North Atlantic (1.99/3.87)
NANS: Traffic in the North Atlantic and the North Sea (4.47/5.11)

USNA: Traffic in the North Atlantic and US East Coast (2.38/4.79)
USNANS: Traffic in the North Atlantic, US East Coast, and the North Sea (4.90/6.03)

SACaUSNA: Traffic in the North Atlantic, US East Coast, Carribean, and South Atlantic, i.e., no Med, no North Sea(2.96/6.18)
SACaUSNANS: Traffic in the North Atlantic, US East Coast, Carribean, South Atlantic, and the North Sea, i.e., no Med (5.48/7.41)

All the traffic that does not enter the chosen area has been deleted. Inside the chosen area the traffic is exactly the same as in standard GWX. The size of the SRC and RND files are given in the brackets. Stock SH3 values are (2.58/5.77) and GWX (6.99/8.37).

Remark: Traffic around Gibraltar is included in the NA so that one can try to sneak into the Med. after an Atlantic patrol. Inside the Med. one has to go directly to a port. Another possibility is to stop in Cadiz before entering the Med. and activate Hitman's Med. layers:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=160862

ATTENTION: This mod is based on the original GWX RND file. For the SRC file I have used the one from the 'St Naz and Schluese V3' mod without additional units:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...hlight=nazaire

Thanks to the GWX team for their excellent campaign files (especially to BBW) and the permission to use them. I would also like to thank BBW for his help.

The different layers are JSGME-ready. Just put the folder for the area where you want to patrol (NA, USNA,...) in your mod folder and activate with JSGME. ACTIVATE ONLY IN PORT!

Use on your own risk.

Cheers, LGN1

PS: The 'GWX_3_St_Naz_and_SchlueseV3 campaign fix' folder contains campaign layers with all the traffic (SACaUSNANSMed, as in the stock GWX layers), but with some small fixes. Especially, the air cover over the Biscaya has been fixed.


You can get it here:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=1536

Examples:

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/9290/35457509.jpg

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/5554/nans.jpg

http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/9089/sacausnans.jpg

If this will work, you have made a great mod! Long time I was wandering, why there are no campaign mods for the rest of the world :up: How big are the loading time difference?

And must I start a new campaign?

Outstanding LGN1. This looks really useful. Good work :up:

I tried it (NA). It's too bad that this is only full-harbour version - the harbours without lite-harbour mod are killing my computer :cry:

Use SH3CMDR to start at sea.

Would you please elaborate; what is the problem and what did you do to fix it?

There were some units not deleting on last waypoints or docked units with speed - half a dozen IIRC
And some of the aircover over Biscay not looping

LGN pointed out a couple to me and I spotted the rest
lol
Have altered those in my next planned release also so :up:

Hi Irish1958,

as BBW said, nothing really serious. The most serious part are the Wellington/Beaufighter/Mossie/Mossie(T) units that do not loop and are not deleted on the last waypoint. Now they loop, so there should be more aircover over the Bay of Biscay.

Thanks again, BBW, for your help.

Cheers, LGN1

Nice work and good collaboration.
Downloading now. Thanks guys :up:

This is also an excellent idea :up: SH3 load times are in dire need of a modular approach to the campaign files, and if possible a simplification of the whole traffic.

In fact, I don't see a big difference in loading times with the "NA" module, and the drawback for me is, that I can no longer swim into the harbour, but must start the patrol at sea, so I think that the default GWX campaign+lite harbour traffic is after all more efficient on my PC.

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One question - should I enable the "GWX_3_St_Naz_and_SchlueseV3" mod before using this campaign files?

Hi Verte,

yes, you have to activate the "GWX_3_St_Naz_and_SchlueseV3" mod before you use this mod.

Cheers, LGN1

Hi Hitman,

thanks for the kind words. If you look at the files sizes of the different versions without the North Sea, you can see that most of them are close to the stock SH3 files (some even smaller). So, I guess it is hard to reduce the loading times much more by reducing the campaign files. To be honest, I expected a larger impact of the mod on loading times. I am wondering which other things impact the loading times? And how much?

Cheers, LGN1

Could someone create reduced campaing layers for WB USAM MOD ??