[gap]

Originally Posted by Kendras

It depends. I prefer as terrain object because it's much easier, but we may add them as land units if you want. Side effects can be cured. This has already been explained by me :

As terrain location :

 

PROS :
+ icon is always visible on the navigation map, it's also possible to add colors to the icon
+ always placed at the same altitude, whatever the depth of the sea
+ no collision spheres to add to the 3D model

CONS:
- 3D model can be hidden underground if placed on land
- not possible to custom the LH with an .eqp file

As land unit :

 

PROS :
+ will always be placed on the ground
+ possible to custom the LH with an .eqp file

CONS:
- altitude depending on the depth of the sea (3D model submerged in deep areas)
- icon visible on the map only when in visual range, always green icon (for neutral units) (can be solved by this trick : a land unit with no icon, and a terrain location at exactly the same placement, without 3D model but with an icon always visible on the map)
- collision spheres to add (can be solved by this trick : only the reef is a terrain location (not placed on the sea bed), and the lighthouse is a land unit and is placed directly on the sea bed)

You have already found a workaround to overcome the icon problem. As for the rest:

- altitude depending on the depth of the sea (3D model submerged in deep areas)
The lighthouse "main unit" can be made into an hidden simple mesh which will always lay at the soil/seabed level. This basic unit can be proxy-cloned as many times as the lighthouses that we want to add in game (proxy cloning is the process of duplicating an unit by cfg file, without actually duplicating its dat file). Lighthouse models themselves and, where they apply, the rocks/shoals under them, can be stored in a library file and linked to a couple of eqp nodes in the dummy unit. In this way we can finetune the height of each offshore lighthouse + its rocky base by changing (in Wings3D) their vertical (Y) position in global coordinates.
I will make any effort to give those models the correct heights from the beginning. The height (absolute and AMSL) of most lighthouses around the world is given in the website that I pointed you to a few days ago. Knowing that, I calculate the correct height for the rock model based on the approximate sea depth at each location, as measured in Google Earth. As long as sea depths are more or less correct in SHIII, by following this method we should get fairly accurate results and minimize the need of doing many adjustements. Should we notice that the seabottom is too deep where we want to place a given lighthouse, that would mean that devs got it way off, but we can always raise it using Terrain Extractor. I can deal with that.
For generic offshore lighthouses that we want to place at different locations, I can do their rock models higher than it is usually needed, and we can link them to customized dat units whose equipment nodes can be placed at different heights depending on the need.


- collision spheres to add
Not necessarily. If we want ligthouses to take damage some collision spheres and damage zone boxes might be needed, but for what I have in mind, doing our "moudular" lighthouses damageable/destroyable might do things a bit too complicated and I am not even sure that we would succeed.
At least for a start, we can keep things simple by getting rid of the zon file/ColisionableObject controller at the unit level, and by adding StaticObject controller and colllision meshes (as for terrain objects) to each rock/lighthouse in the library folder instead. I have already tested this method in SH5, and it works like a charm. It should work for SHIII too

Originally Posted by Kendras

So, why not as land unit, but for what benefits ?

Tou mean attacks by british airplanes ? Lights not working only during war ? I don't guess what you are thinking about ... please clarify.

Have you read the essay that I pointed you to yesterday?
Air raids over our lighthouses would be a nice side effect, though I am not sure that they would happen (IIRC in SH5, where land unit interaction with other unit types is severely bugged, ship and aircraft just ignore coastal defences; I don't know if the same applies to SHIII too).

By making lighthouses into units and by playing with their eqp files we can:

• change the type of light they emit, where/if justified by historical accounts (early during the war, most belligerents dimmed their light beacons so not to offer obvious landmarks in the event of enemy night bombings);
  
  
• switch them on/off during the course of the war, following a realistic pattern (at least in France, soon or later most lighthouses were switched off permanently, Manche, Finistère and offshore lighthouses being the first and Mediterranean lighthouse being the last to be obscured; I a m still looking for detailed information on other countries);
  
  
• where historically accurate, remove some lighthouses from map and possibly replace them by date with smoking ruins (as you know, some lighthouses didn't make it through the war).

There might be other uses of my idea, but those are the main points. I hope I have been clearer now

Originally Posted by Kendras

What country are you from ?

On est voisins: je suis italien