SUBSIM Radio Room Forums
Page 1 of 2 1 2
Show 20 post(s) from this thread on one page

SUBSIM Radio Room Forums (https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/index.php)
-   SHIII Mods Workshop (https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/forumdisplay.php?f=195)
-   -   flag illumination problem (https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=152415)

warlimont 06-03-09 06:13 PM
flag illumination problem
 
I'm having trouble recognising ship nationalities at night due to the poorly illuminated flag on the staff. the lights arent aimed right toward the flag
and it renders the flag black.

anyone here think the problem may be in coordinating the spotlight beams better to illuminate the flag better? and does anyone here know what file would contain the information for the x,y,z coordinates?

thanks

Rubini 06-03-09 10:25 PM
I donīt know your anwser but i agree that in SH3 the visualisation of the flags at night is very difficult due computer limitations, in real life you probably had more colors and better definition, or at least others ways to know the nationality of the ship (intercepting radio conversations as an exmaple) and probably some unique caracteristics of the ships that the Kaleuns must knew at that time. All these are absent in SH3, so, I agree that the flags must have a better way (better illumination?) to be spotted.:hmmm:

irish1958 06-04-09 07:21 AM
The cheat is to hit the "." key and ID the flag.
Actually, what you need to do is attack the dark ships and leave the ones that are lit alone, as they are neutral.
If a neutral ship is traveling in an enemy convoy, it is fair game.

onelifecrisis 06-04-09 11:10 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by warlimont (Post 1111814)
I'm having trouble recognising ship nationalities at night due to the poorly illuminated flag on the staff. the lights arent aimed right toward the flag
and it renders the flag black.

anyone here think the problem may be in coordinating the spotlight beams better to illuminate the flag better? and does anyone here know what file would contain the information for the x,y,z coordinates?

thanks
Isn't this a moot point? I mean if the ship is illuminated then it is neutral, and if it isn't illuminated then there are no lights aimed at the flag. Where is the problem?

melnibonian 06-04-09 03:41 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by onelifecrisis (Post 1112126)
Isn't this a moot point? I mean if the ship is illuminated then it is neutral, and if it isn't illuminated then there are no lights aimed at the flag. Where is the problem?
True :yep::yep:

Jimbuna 06-04-09 03:55 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by onelifecrisis (Post 1112126)
Isn't this a moot point? I mean if the ship is illuminated then it is neutral, and if it isn't illuminated then there are no lights aimed at the flag. Where is the problem?
Sounds good to me....hence the lit and unlit models :yep:

Rubini 06-04-09 04:22 PM
Yes, it's obviously easy to know when a ship is neutral or not just noticing that spot light on the flag (anyway it have some exceptions during the campaign game)...but is really difficult (if not frequently impossible) to correctly identify a ship flag during night in SH3. Would be great if we had also anothers ways to identify the ships as in RL interception radio chats, unique details of the ships, etc. But i guess that this is beyond the game engine capacity.

Kpt. Lehmann 06-05-09 12:08 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rubini (Post 1112371)
Yes, it's obviously easy to know when a ship is neutral or not just noticing that spot light on the flag (anyway it have some exceptions during the campaign game)...but is really difficult (if not frequently impossible) to correctly identify a ship flag during night in SH3. Would be great if we had also anothers ways to identify the ships as in RL interception radio chats, unique details of the ships, etc. But i guess that this is beyond the game engine capacity.
I have often pondered the same questions.:hmmm:

DivingDuck 06-05-09 02:29 AM
Moin,

I can think of a way to enlighten the flags just a little. Youīd have to alter the 'self illumination' byte of each texture in the flag.dat / flagS.dat. Raise the value a tiny bit and the flags will get brighter. But be careful, if you increase it to much, the flags will "glow". A tiny bit will probably do and the flags may look as if lit by the moon or dim light reflected by the water. Donīt worry about side effects during daytime. You will not recognize the 'glow' by day.


Use the hex editor and it will be the 31th byte of the node (type 02/00), 11th byte after the nodeīs ID.

Use S3D and search for the material properties. The value you have to alter is called 'Emission' or 'Emissive', IIRC



No matter which method you use, you will have to do this for every single texture file in the flag.dat / flagS.dat. IIRC there are quite a lot, more than 50 per file for sure.

Regards,
DD

Captain Nemo 06-05-09 05:08 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by onelifecrisis (Post 1112126)
Isn't this a moot point? I mean if the ship is illuminated then it is neutral, and if it isn't illuminated then there are no lights aimed at the flag. Where is the problem?
I agree, no real need to ID the ship if it's running with all lights blazing. Having said that, in my experience, not all neutrals sailing alone have their lights on. I sunk a US ship approaching the Bristol channel once that wasn't lit up. For 24 hours I had to suffer attacks from Irish hurricanes because of this transgression. Since then when running in TC I have noticed that when my watch crew spot a neutral and this could be a long way out as I use the 16km atmosphere, my game only drops to 8 TC and I don't get the verbal announcement "ship spotted". When an enemy is spotted I get the verbal announcement and the game drops to 1 TC. I instantly know if it's enemy or not, a bit of a cheat but not intentional on my part (is there any way to change this?). Neutrals in convoys of course, are a different matter altogether.

Nemo

Rubini 06-05-09 09:07 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by DivingDuck (Post 1112589)
Moin,

I can think of a way to enlighten the flags just a little. Youīd have to alter the 'self illumination' byte of each texture in the flag.dat / flagS.dat. Raise the value a tiny bit and the flags will get brighter. But be careful, if you increase it to much, the flags will "glow". A tiny bit will probably do and the flags may look as if lit by the moon or dim light reflected by the water. Donīt worry about side effects during daytime. You will not recognize the 'glow' by day.


Use the hex editor and it will be the 31th byte of the node (type 02/00), 11th byte after the nodeīs ID.

Use S3D and search for the material properties. The value you have to alter is called 'Emission' or 'Emissive', IIRC



No matter which method you use, you will have to do this for every single texture file in the flag.dat / flagS.dat. IIRC there are quite a lot, more than 50 per file for sure.

Regards,
DD
Great DD!:up:

If you yourself will not do this then I can look at it ASAP. This could be the best solution (as per game limitations) for SH3. IMO, a tiny enlight of the flags will do the trick and the game will have a new strategic approach then.

IFRT-WHUFC 06-05-09 09:17 AM
The term "Shoot first ask questions later springs to mind"!

ok
Rick

Rubini 06-05-09 11:54 AM
Thanks again DivingDuck! Works very very well, no problems at day light.
I will posta pic in some minutes. If someone is interested I can release it as a mod with all credits to DD!:up:

DivingDuck 06-05-09 12:45 PM
Moin Rubini,

just go ahead and do it. I donīt have any objections, how could I?

Regards,
DD

Rubini 06-05-09 01:12 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by DivingDuck (Post 1112845)
Moin Rubini,

just go ahead and do it. I donīt have any objections, how could I?

Regards,
DD
Thanks mate!
I made some tests and seems that 50 is a good number for GWX 3.0 standard and also to the more dark environment (that I use). The more lighten flags (that have more white or lighten colors on it ) could have a bit less. Than I plan to launch the mod with two options: 50/50 or 30/50 (more "lighten" flags/more "dark" flags).:up:

Using 50 is now enough to recognize a more dark flags at ~500m using 4.5x, or ~900m using 10x. Well, we cant forget that i'm daltonic (color blind) so I have a bit more trouble on the matter.:DL


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:31 PM.
Page 1 of 2 1 2
Show 20 post(s) from this thread on one page

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright Đ 1995- 2024 Subsim®
"Subsim" is a registered trademark, all rights reserved.