U-BOOT_HAHD Official Thread - Page 19

Hans Witteman · 02-21-11, 03:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by postalbyke

Just stumbled upon this thread poking for new stuff for my type II, amazing work!
it's probably too late, but i'd like to throw my two cents on the periscope interface, i like the range/AOB-finding tool and the TDC access from the scope on the OLC gui mods

also, about to try your tip about the anti-aliasing on my ATI card, *crossing fingers*
If i had more skill, i would offer my support for the hahd team, but all i'm "good" at is bashing mods together and changing specs to make things work on my laptop

Again, AMAZING WORK! keep it up, can't wait to play it!

Hi mate,

Thank for the good words, and for your periskop question makman is our GUI specialist in the team you should ask him about that

And by the way changing specs is a start to serious modding career we all start like this

Best regards Hans

fitzcarraldo · 02-21-11, 07:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hans Witteman

Hi mate,

Thank for the good words, and for your periskop question makman is our GUI specialist in the team you should ask him about that

And by the way changing specs is a start to serious modding career we all start like this

Best regards Hans

The MaGUI of Makman have the AOB and TDC in periscope screen, it is based in OLC GUI. Securely, Makman include those stuff in the GUI for the new mod.

Best regards.

Fitzcarraldo

Hans Witteman · 02-21-11, 07:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fitzcarraldo

The MaGUI of Makman have the AOB and TDC in periscope screen, it is based in OLC GUI. Securely, Makman include those stuff in the GUI for the new mod.

Best regards.

Fitzcarraldo

Thank mate

makman94 · 02-21-11, 01:20 PM

hello to all !

the gui will have a new ( designed from scratch ) kurswinkel (aob) tool (for getting range and aob) which is 100% accurate builted.two versions(degrees and mils) are allready ...ready !
of course it will have the TDC availiable on scopes's pages and still is in discussion some other parts of the gui (as,for example, the 'sliding' dials that i ,personally ,...hate or the look of main console...my vote is Olc's look at main console )
the gui so far is very very nice (i really like it a lot) and i would like to show you some screenies (Hans is informed of the 'way' it will look) but as nothing is finally decided will wait a little bit for this.
also, there are some thoughts about the TDC page . more info later on this
the main reason that i haven't started building the final files is becuase i still don't have the final-official specs for u2a scopes in order to make the optics as the real thing.
so , i am calling once again the community to start co-operating at this effort (if anyone has an idea about u2a's scopes specifications ...please share it with us) or else i will proceed to some 'acceptable' to history adjustments like ...x1,5-x6 zooms and fov=38(attack) or 36 degrees(obs) <---that is 'strange' ,according to the current infos it seems that obs had a 'shorter' horiz fov .is it possible to was that way back then?

basically...just some official data are needed...nothing more !

fitzcarraldo · 02-21-11, 01:53 PM

Hans: Do you know this site?:

http://www.centroeu.com/uboote/pictures.html

There are some interesting images of Type II U -Boats.

Best regards.

Fitzcarraldo

reaper7 · 02-21-11, 04:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by makman94

hello to all !

the gui will have a new ( designed from scratch ) kurswinkel (aob) tool (for getting range and aob) which is 100% accurate builted.two versions(degrees and mils) are allready ...ready !
of course it will have the TDC availiable on scopes's pages and still is in discussion some other parts of the gui (as,for example, the 'sliding' dials that i ,personally ,...hate or the look of main console...my vote is Olc's look at main console )
the gui so far is very very nice (i really like it a lot) and i would like to show you some screenies (Hans is informed of the 'way' it will look) but as nothing is finally decided will wait a little bit for this.

Sounds Good mate, any chance you gonna do a widescreen version as well.

.
No worries if not i'll convert it to widescreen - My laptop in non standard anyway (1366x768 instead of 1360x768), those extra 6 pixels mean I end up with a strip of sea view visible of the side of the Ui

.

fitzcarraldo · 02-21-11, 04:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reaper7

Sounds Good mate, any chance you gonna do a widescreen version as well.

.
No worries if not i'll convert it to widescreen - My laptop in non standard anyway (1366x768 instead of 1360x768), those extra 6 pixels mean I end up with a strip of sea view visible of the side of the Ui

.

Same request. I like a WS version of the GUI. The problem is if all the stuff of Hans in his mod is compatible with the HiRes Fix.

Best regards.

Fitzcarraldo

postalbyke · 02-21-11, 04:51 PM

@fitzcarraldo + makman94;
Thanks, guys! I haven't tried the MaGui yet, gonna go try that

@All;
Thank you all for responding so quickly, and so positively! Just know that even though i might not post every day, i will probably be checking in every day to look for updates or *gasp!* downloads/pics!

Right now i'm playing NYGM with OLC MkIIG with the 15k enviro turned down so my computer doesn't bog down when i look out the scope, with a few other bits & pieces to give me the icons on the map so i can check solutions... seem to have misplaced some nice tools when i did that, tho lol. Rockin' and Rollin' in my IIA til this mod comes out!

Hans Witteman · 02-22-11, 12:03 AM

Hi shipmates,

Ok go get a coffee since this post will be a bit technical and a bit long

First i like to annouced that Brett25 has join our team he have experience in 3d textures and design so with reaper7 we will have two team members on ships texturing. So let's welcome our new team member with a beer and sausage

Talking about ships texturing now since you all know we have a special way of texturing our ships i will explain a bit here the worflow involved as a primer for the team folks.

I just start doing the Fletcher new UVW layout when i realised that it's was not a good idea to just throw you the template and let you start on your own without knowing the procedure i develop to attain the most out of the SH3 graphic engine.

First i will detail the procedure by steps just so you get familiar with it and later on this week i will do a complete step by step video so you guys could start to unleash your creativity at it.

Generally speaking if you look at the ships in SH3 the first thing you noticed is how blend they look under any kind of lighting the reason is quite obvious it is the lack of shadow and decent specular mask.

And most ship have a very messy UVW layout that omit you from texturing both side differently + under hull have an horrible stretch on the bow and stern fortunately for us we have custom layout to correct all that.

For the shadow we solved the problem in a very elegant way since all shadows made the HAHD way are taking zero additional resources on the graphic engine because we blend the shadow pass in the diffuse pass in the paint program so as you see that what give us an edge

Next thing to keep in mind is that we can only exploit 2 texture channels, most ship used both solely on a texture base ex : channel 1 main hull and side cabins on deck channel 2 deck wooden part and cabin top.

The reason they do it this way is because it would look horrible to have all the ship UVW layout on 1 single channel on a 512X512 resolution so they split it on both channels to have higher resolution on certain parts of the ship.

So we bypass this limitation with blending our different pass in the paint program and for the specular pass we use an alpha channel embed in our texture with the use of the specular mask controller.

Don't worry on the technical jargon i used because the video will show you the process step by step with my beautiful broken English accent

Ok the steps involved are as follow :

1. Using S3D editor to export the different ships sections.

2. Importing the OBJ to your 3d application.

3. Unwrapping the UVW layout the HAHD way.

4. Painting the skin ship on the new UVW template in your paint program.

5. Using RTT or render to texture feature in the 3d application to get the shadows pass and specular.

6. Blending the shadow pass in the paint program.

7. Adjusting the specular mask and save it in the alpha channel as TGA.

And voila now we have the nicest ships ever in SH3 they even look better than the SH5 ones no joke i will show you proof this week.

Take note that all ships template are made at 2048X2048 to start the painting because by experienced the skin will look much better when re size to 1024X1024 or even for lower spec machine 512X512 it is common practice in the industry. For the very large battleship like the Bismark and other capital ships 2048X2048 is required to get decent details.

It might sound complicated and tedious but i can assure you that after 2 or 3 ships done this way it will become second nature for you and in term of time i can do a complete ship in a day so there is no big deal there to attain such beautiful result

it is normal that you will swear in the first time and will probably throw darts at my picture but hey at the end you will be damn proud of your work

Ok so for reaper7 and Brett25 you will have to wait until the next weekend so i can put up the process on video because i am currently using the Fletcher as a demo to show you the step by step.

Also very important i need a safe way to share the assets and files toward each others in a private manner because i don't want everybody to have access to it and claiming it was their work the reason for this is quite obvious many here didn't help me at all on certain aspects when they knew how to do it so i am just returning the change to them. And don't worry only the video show the technique correctly even if someone read this post he would not attain the same result at the end.

But i am not a greedy kind of guy because after the mod is release i will make all videos public

Sorry for the hefty post but it was required for the team setup.

So i am waiting your solutions regarding assets sharing in a confidential matter because Makman is waiting for files to begin his work.

Also in my 15 years in the business i gather quite an impressive texture collection and some are custom to fit certain needs so when we have a good sharing files solution i will provide amazing texture perfect for ships texturing.

Also important note on screen resolution for our mod i know some will be displease with that but to have all the detail assets and stability in gameplay we have to work with the default 1024X768 every bit of the code is optimized for that resolution and by testing believe me i know what i am talking about.

Random CTD happen when trying higher resolution and frequently when encounter with large convoy so we have to make compromised between beautiful assets and stability.

Go back to see the video on the first page and you will see that when everything is well texture and optimized it look really good on 1024X768.

Feel free to test further at higher res but don't come back to me to solve the issue because i won't spend time on that.

Best regards Hans

postalbyke · 02-22-11, 01:57 AM

Word.
I know a few guys have accounts on file sharing websites that require a login and password to access the files within, so set up one of those and use subsim chat or private messages to coordinate the login and password with each other, thus your team has freedom to upload and download, and can work seamlessly!

Just a humble idea from your friendly "bilge rat"
keep up the great work, guys!

Hans Witteman · 02-22-11, 02:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by postalbyke

Word.
I know a few guys have accounts on file sharing websites that require a login and password to access the files within, so set up one of those and use subsim chat or private messages to coordinate the login and password with each other, thus your team has freedom to upload and download, and can work seamlessly!

Just a humble idea from your friendly "bilge rat"
keep up the great work, guys!

Hi mate,

Yep i know i saw some few sites with up to 1 GB upload for free but they have a 5 days retention so this is a no go for us.

mediafire is only public sharing private folder cannot be shared

Some folks wich i work with on a pc RPG where having a kind of intranet accessible only to the team but i don't remember how it was setup or even if it still possible for free today

I also tough of a password archive but anybody can used a rar archive bruteforce password cracker and within a week he can get access to our files.

I'm sure we will find a way

Best regards Hans

reaper7 · 02-22-11, 02:34 AM

Excellent mate, Cant wait to get started

.

You can use my fileserve account to upload to hanns and send us links to the files.
I can send you login details for the account.

Hans Witteman · 02-22-11, 02:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reaper7

Excellent mate, Cant wait to get started

.

You can use my fileserve account to upload to hanns and send us links to the files.
I can send you login details for the account.

Hi mate,

First sorry i steal the Fletcher for demo purpose i hope it was not a sentimental choice of your

If so i can take another one just say

And thank for the fileserve option but have you look if it enough secure for the team??

Not that i am paranoid but i just want our hard work safe from vicious hands

Best regards Hans

fitzcarraldo · 02-22-11, 06:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hans Witteman

Generally speaking if you look at the ships in SH3 the first thing you noticed is how blend they look under any kind of lighting the reason is quite obvious it is the lack of shadow and decent specular mask.

In the My Documents\SH3 folder and in the Data\cfg folder in main SH3 directory(when your saved games there are), there is a "main.cfg" file. In this file, in the sector "video", there is an option "Dynamic shadows", by default is "no", but I change the option by "yes". There isn´t an option in the in-game graphics menu of the game for that. I note, with "yes", the ships have a better "reaction" to the lights (at dawn, the colours of the ships looks better, and the there is some pretty bright in the surfaces and specular effect; I use an ATI Radeon 5970 card).

Only a little tip, for the development team. (I think they know that, but...).

Best regards.

Fitzcarraldo

Hans Witteman · 02-22-11, 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fitzcarraldo

In the My Documents\SH3 folder and in the Data\cfg folder in main SH3 directory(when your saved games there are), there is a "main.cfg" file. In this file, in the sector "video", there is an option "Dynamic shadows", by default is "no", but I change the option by "yes". There isn´t an option in the in-game graphics menu of the game for that. I note, with "yes", the ships have a better "reaction" to the lights (at dawn, the colours of the ships looks better, and the there is some pretty bright in the surfaces and specular effect; I use an ATI Radeon 5970 card).

Only a little tip, for the development team. (I think they know that, but...).

Best regards.

Fitzcarraldo

Hi mate,

For the dynamic shadows i already now the trick to activated them but unfortunately they are broken on many parts and they eat too much resources for nothing that why our baked shadow technique take absolutely no resources at all so it is hard to beat.

And when you know some nifty little 3d dirty trick you can make them look really great even if they are static.

I will show the before and after with the Fletcher destroyer so all can have a look at what the ships will be in the mod.

Thank for the feedback this is what i like from our supporters because with your comments and positive critics we can make it even better

Best regards Hans

02-21-11, 01:20 PM	#274
makman94 Hellas Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 2,325 Downloads: 182 Uploads: 7	hello to all ! the gui will have a new ( designed from scratch ) kurswinkel (aob) tool (for getting range and aob) which is 100% accurate builted.two versions(degrees and mils) are allready ...ready ! of course it will have the TDC availiable on scopes's pages and still is in discussion some other parts of the gui (as,for example, the 'sliding' dials that i ,personally ,...hate or the look of main console...my vote is Olc's look at main console ) the gui so far is very very nice (i really like it a lot) and i would like to show you some screenies (Hans is informed of the 'way' it will look) but as nothing is finally decided will wait a little bit for this. also, there are some thoughts about the TDC page . more info later on this the main reason that i haven't started building the final files is becuase i still don't have the final-official specs for u2a scopes in order to make the optics as the real thing. so , i am calling once again the community to start co-operating at this effort (if anyone has an idea about u2a's scopes specifications ...please share it with us) or else i will proceed to some 'acceptable' to history adjustments like ...x1,5-x6 zooms and fov=38(attack) or 36 degrees(obs) <---that is 'strange' ,according to the current infos it seems that obs had a 'shorter' horiz fov .is it possible to was that way back then? basically...just some official data are needed...nothing more ! __________________ Knowledge is the only thing that nobody can ever take from you... Mediafire page:http://www.mediafire.com/folder/da50.../Makman94_Mods

02-21-11, 01:53 PM	#275
fitzcarraldo Argentinian Skipper Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Somewhere between Buenos Aires and the Bungo Suido Posts: 5,154 Downloads: 3227 Uploads: 0	Hans: Do you know this site?: http://www.centroeu.com/uboote/pictures.html There are some interesting images of Type II U -Boats. Best regards. Fitzcarraldo __________________ *My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity - Wilfred Owen.*

02-22-11, 12:03 AM	#279
Hans Witteman Kaleun of U-3 Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: somewhere in 1939 Posts: 1,816 Downloads: 123 Uploads: 0	News and updates on workflow Hi shipmates, Ok go get a coffee since this post will be a bit technical and a bit long First i like to annouced that Brett25 has join our team he have experience in 3d textures and design so with reaper7 we will have two team members on ships texturing. So let's welcome our new team member with a beer and sausage Talking about ships texturing now since you all know we have a special way of texturing our ships i will explain a bit here the worflow involved as a primer for the team folks. I just start doing the Fletcher new UVW layout when i realised that it's was not a good idea to just throw you the template and let you start on your own without knowing the procedure i develop to attain the most out of the SH3 graphic engine. First i will detail the procedure by steps just so you get familiar with it and later on this week i will do a complete step by step video so you guys could start to unleash your creativity at it. Generally speaking if you look at the ships in SH3 the first thing you noticed is how blend they look under any kind of lighting the reason is quite obvious it is the lack of shadow and decent specular mask. And most ship have a very messy UVW layout that omit you from texturing both side differently + under hull have an horrible stretch on the bow and stern fortunately for us we have custom layout to correct all that. For the shadow we solved the problem in a very elegant way since all shadows made the HAHD way are taking zero additional resources on the graphic engine because we blend the shadow pass in the diffuse pass in the paint program so as you see that what give us an edge Next thing to keep in mind is that we can only exploit 2 texture channels, most ship used both solely on a texture base ex : channel 1 main hull and side cabins on deck channel 2 deck wooden part and cabin top. The reason they do it this way is because it would look horrible to have all the ship UVW layout on 1 single channel on a 512X512 resolution so they split it on both channels to have higher resolution on certain parts of the ship. So we bypass this limitation with blending our different pass in the paint program and for the specular pass we use an alpha channel embed in our texture with the use of the specular mask controller. Don't worry on the technical jargon i used because the video will show you the process step by step with my beautiful broken English accent Ok the steps involved are as follow : 1. Using S3D editor to export the different ships sections. 2. Importing the OBJ to your 3d application. 3. Unwrapping the UVW layout the HAHD way. 4. Painting the skin ship on the new UVW template in your paint program. 5. Using RTT or render to texture feature in the 3d application to get the shadows pass and specular. 6. Blending the shadow pass in the paint program. 7. Adjusting the specular mask and save it in the alpha channel as TGA. And voila now we have the nicest ships ever in SH3 they even look better than the SH5 ones no joke i will show you proof this week. Take note that all ships template are made at 2048X2048 to start the painting because by experienced the skin will look much better when re size to 1024X1024 or even for lower spec machine 512X512 it is common practice in the industry. For the very large battleship like the Bismark and other capital ships 2048X2048 is required to get decent details. It might sound complicated and tedious but i can assure you that after 2 or 3 ships done this way it will become second nature for you and in term of time i can do a complete ship in a day so there is no big deal there to attain such beautiful result it is normal that you will swear in the first time and will probably throw darts at my picture but hey at the end you will be damn proud of your work Ok so for reaper7 and Brett25 you will have to wait until the next weekend so i can put up the process on video because i am currently using the Fletcher as a demo to show you the step by step. Also very important i need a safe way to share the assets and files toward each others in a private manner because i don't want everybody to have access to it and claiming it was their work the reason for this is quite obvious many here didn't help me at all on certain aspects when they knew how to do it so i am just returning the change to them. And don't worry only the video show the technique correctly even if someone read this post he would not attain the same result at the end. But i am not a greedy kind of guy because after the mod is release i will make all videos public Sorry for the hefty post but it was required for the team setup. So i am waiting your solutions regarding assets sharing in a confidential matter because Makman is waiting for files to begin his work. Also in my 15 years in the business i gather quite an impressive texture collection and some are custom to fit certain needs so when we have a good sharing files solution i will provide amazing texture perfect for ships texturing. Also important note on screen resolution for our mod i know some will be displease with that but to have all the detail assets and stability in gameplay we have to work with the default 1024X768 every bit of the code is optimized for that resolution and by testing believe me i know what i am talking about. Random CTD happen when trying higher resolution and frequently when encounter with large convoy so we have to make compromised between beautiful assets and stability. Go back to see the video on the first page and you will see that when everything is well texture and optimized it look really good on 1024X768. Feel free to test further at higher res but don't come back to me to solve the issue because i won't spend time on that. Best regards Hans __________________ Last edited by Hans Witteman; 02-22-11 at 06:32 AM.

02-22-11, 01:57 AM	#280
postalbyke Chief Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: In the past... Posts: 321 Downloads: 89 Uploads: 1	Word. I know a few guys have accounts on file sharing websites that require a login and password to access the files within, so set up one of those and use subsim chat or private messages to coordinate the login and password with each other, thus your team has freedom to upload and download, and can work seamlessly! Just a humble idea from your friendly "bilge rat" keep up the great work, guys! __________________ God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh. -Voltaire

02-21-11, 04:51 PM	#278
postalbyke Chief Join Date: Feb 2011 Location: In the past... Posts: 321 Downloads: 89 Uploads: 1	@fitzcarraldo + makman94; Thanks, guys! I haven't tried the MaGui yet, gonna go try that @All; Thank you all for responding so quickly, and so positively! Just know that even though i might not post every day, i will probably be checking in every day to look for updates or gasp! downloads/pics! Right now i'm playing NYGM with OLC MkIIG with the 15k enviro turned down so my computer doesn't bog down when i look out the scope, with a few other bits & pieces to give me the icons on the map so i can check solutions... seem to have misplaced some nice tools when i did that, tho lol. Rockin' and Rollin' in my IIA til this mod comes out!

02-22-11, 02:34 AM	#282
reaper7 sim2reality Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: AM 82 Posts: 2,280 Downloads: 258 Uploads: 30	Excellent mate, Cant wait to get started . You can use my fileserve account to upload to hanns and send us links to the files. I can send you login details for the account.