New Graphic & Sound Mod for Aces of the Deep

[Mister_M]

Great work here !

Do you intend to re-do the sound effects and speeches too with more "realistic" ones ? But maybe this kind of mod already exists, I don't know, I'm pretty new to this... old game.

[Andreas86]

Originally Posted by Mister_M

Great work here !

Do you intend to re-do the sound effects and speeches too with more "realistic" ones ? But maybe this kind of mod already exists, I don't know, I'm pretty new to this... old game.

Thanks!


Yes, in fact I do! I have been working on it for a while

[Andreas86]

UPDATE 19.01.22 (added to first post!)

-New control room screen for the Type XXI!
-New map view, torpedo room and damage control screen for the type XXI.

While Dynamix gave the type XXI some deserved attention in their adddon, it did little visually other than change the tower view. All the rest of the screens were the same as for the older subs, except for a new radar screen and an active sonar button on the map view. With this in mind I set out making a completely new control room for the type XXI, based on the real control room of the last XXI in Hamburg. A small liberty had to be taken with the periscope, as in the real sub the scope is placed in a different part of the control room, not near the gauge wall. But overall I am very satisfied with the way it all came out, and thanks to some great photos online I was able to match this up quite well. I hope you will enjoy
spending time in the new control room, the crew is ready! The gauges has also been changed visually

In addition I made a modified map screen for the type XXI, as well as a new torpedo loadout screen and damage control screen. I hope you will appreciate the small historic touches.

The control room .SCR file is independant and can be placed in your SIM folder, but the new type XXI ingame screens will overwrite my older ones so I suggest backing those up. I suggest installing these screens when
you are planning on using the type XXI. In the future I might write a simple .bat file to make it easier to change between the screen packs.

Download link:

See latest version.

[Hitman]

Awesome, great job!

Incredible that this game is still being modded and loved in 2022

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by Hitman

Awesome, great job!

Incredible that this game is still being modded and loved in 2022

The tools to mod AOD are all right here Hitman; spin some more of your magic.
If nothing else, at least it's a LOT quicker and easier to test mods vs. the SH series.

[Andreas86]

Originally Posted by Hitman

Awesome, great job!

Incredible that this game is still being modded and loved in 2022

Thank you very much Hitman!

[iambecomelife]

Excellent work?

Question:

Is there any chance at all of modding the ship, sub, and plane models? That would be dreamy.

I just binge-played Aces of the Deep the other day when I was flying cross country, so I'm glad to see mod work on it.

[Andreas86]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

Excellent work?

Question:

Is there any chance at all of modding the ship, sub, and plane models? That would be dreamy.

I just binge-played Aces of the Deep the other day when I was flying cross country, so I'm glad to see mod work on it.

Thanks!

I have not found a way to do this yet, but I hope that through our collective effort we can maybe get to these files in the future. But I got a related surprise coming soon..

[John Pancoast]

The grid lines added to the tactical map view are perhaps the best graphical mod done.
They are a huge addition to the game and make plotting intercepts much better.
In my current career, the difference between playing with/without them is readily apparent and it is a must have mod for AOD.

[Andreas86]

UPDATE 04.02.22



New in version 1.3

-New bridge view for the type VIIC! Both with and without watch crew on duty.
-Updated map view screens for all u-boats. 3 different colors to choose from, plus minor graphic fixes.

I am happy to be able to bring you a completely new bridge view for Aces of the Deep. Using an excellent 3D model of the type VIIC made by talented creator "splatypi" on www.blendswap.com, I used the program Blender to produce the 64 frames needed for a complete 360 view in Aces of the Deep. A lot of time and effort was put into finding the right viewpoint, exporting, palette conversions, graphic editing, fine pixel work, sourcing good sprites for the crew, aligning them correctly in each frame, and much, much more. I have made a version both with and without the watch crew on duty, so you can choose depending on your preference. Some may like to have an unmanned bridge with a free line of sight, but for authenticity I recommend using the bridge with a watch crew! I really hope this will add a lot to the immersion in the game.

The second, smaller feature in this version is updated map screens for all u-boats. My original white map screen has been replaced by an updated version with a different font on the top, shadows for the small items on the table, and you can now choose between 3 different colors for the map view (both for the regular u-boats and the type XXI). The colors are tan, blue-grey and grey. This update was made following a request by John Pancoast for a map that is both more pleasing for the eye, as well as more authentic. The tan colored map should resemble actual Kriegsmarine maps more than my original white. I used the closest shade I could find in the map screen palette. The two other colors are there if you like them. In the future I will also work on making the strategic maps more realistic.

Many thanks to John Pancoast for good advice and ideas, sending me various files, testing, feedback and motivation! Without your help this would not have come out as nice! I really appreciate it.

Download here:

See latest version.

[John Pancoast]

Well done ! No need to thank me; I've done nothing. You've done all the work, you started and took on this project and the community owes you a huge debt of gratitude.
Incredible talent, skill, and creativity.

[astvitaliy1982]

Большое спасибо!) Шикарная работа!)

[SnipersHunter]

Just updated to 1.3. Excellent work guys

[Andreas86]

Thanks guys!

[Andreas86]

UPDATE 20.02.2022

New in version 1.4:

-All new type VII control room screen!
-New scope graphics in the control room, rescued from the AOD demo.
-Weather mod with new texture and colors, unused clear sky texture rescued from the AOD.DYN archive!
-New ingame crew face graphics!
-Tactical map gridline color fix.
-New alternative single mission screen.
-Updated type XXI control room screen.

This is a big update which has taken a lot of time and thought.

In the months since I made the first type VII control room, I felt there were much room for improvement. Unfortunately there were limitations in the photos I had from inside U-995. Either there were visitors I had to cover with sprites or edit out, or the camera angle was too wrong for the AOD gauges to fit. Also, the fluorescent tube lighting within U-995 is too artificial compared to the real lamps they used back then and lighting is hard for me to change to any meaningful degree. So I chose to look to other subsims for material. Initially I had hopes that Silent Hunter III would produce the right control room perspective and mood for a new AOD screen. John Pancoast tried hard to help me with this, and sent me many good shots from SH3. Unfortunately, the room perspective produced by SH3 just wasn't right for what I needed. Luckily I found that Silent Hunter 5 was much better suited. And I certainly hope you like the results. I had to redraw a lot of details, but I think this is the most realistic control room I possibly could make for AOD. All gauges and details has been sourced from SH5 and carefully drawn in where AOD needs them to be. To make this work I had to take the liberty of having the scope a bit further to starboard than it is in reality. But seeing as the real thing is very cramped I do not feel it detracts from the immersion.

Next, I had a look at the long self-running demo of AOD to check out if the control room scope animation was different and could be used. Not only is it different, but it seems Dynamix had to sacrifice a lot for the final version of AOD. In the self-playing demo the scope graphics gradually changes perspective as it extends up. Not so in the final version. Additionally the handles are extended when the scope is fully up, also not in the final version -although the extended handles are there in the final SCOPE.BMP file! Strange.. Unfortunately I cannot yet do anything to bring this function back. But I was able to rescue a fitting perspective scope frame from the demo scope graphics, to better match the control room perpective. Even better, the demo version scope graphic is cleaner and more defined pixel-wise! I recolored it grey to blend better with the final version elements. The file can be found in the control room folder.

Another goodie that seemed lost in AOD was an unused clear skies texture. In AOD.DYN there is a file named CLEAR.BMP. It is similar to STORM.BMP in that it consists of 4 frames that combined makes for a texture of 1024 x 160. It is obvious that Dynamix intended to use this texture for clear skies weather. It is also showed in the demo. But something must have gone wrong at the last minute forcing them to program it out, and falling back on the incredibly dull and completely wrong shade of blue for clear skies. All because the last frame in the sprite BMP file is partially corrupted. The EGA-like blue sky in the game has bugged me since I bought Command: Aces of the Deep in 1998. Luckily I was able to rescue the texture, airbrushing in what was missing. So now we have a beautiful clear day blue sky, with light clouds -like Dynamix must have intended. It is also well suited for all other weather conditions, and the weather conditions been improved accordingly!

This brings me to the next modification, namely the palette files. For the rescued blue sky texture to work, I had to edit the relevant palette file to both improve the shade of blue, and to make it gradient. Of course I then could not resist to improve the rest of the weather palettes too, and utilizing the new texture there are now proper overcast, cloudy and storm skies. I also changed the palette colors for the ocean, so the sea will reflect the current sky conditions with more color variation. I have also experimented with new realistic sea foam textures, but for now the original foam files are fine. The greyscale for the bridge has also been altered somewhat to improve lighting during clear and cloudy conditions. Let me just say that palettes can be incredibly confusing to work with in old games like this, but I hope you like the new environments. In clear weather you even get a hint of a pink sunset effect at dusk. These palettes are REQUIRED for the new sky texture to work, and to enhance the bridge lighting.

Perhaps the most challenging feature in this update was the new crew faces. All 18 faces has been changed. I was never happy with the original crew faces ingame, many of them are quite awkward and out of place. And the lighting made them all too pink. They don't really seem like a real uboat crew and the backgrounds are mostly random control room graphics. Now, getting good hi-res quality face shots to translate to tiny pixel faces is difficult to say the least, especially as the face frames uses a very limited palette. I had to try and fail A LOT before I found a good "formula" to get them right.

Moving on, I added another small update to the map files, the inmap gridlines are now light grey instead of solid black. It should be more realistic, if you don't agree just leave them be. As a small bonus I made an alternative new "Single Mission" screen, based on a nice promo shot I found for Silent Hunter II.

Finally, the type XXI room has been changed. I removed the generic officer I had originally put in as he looked a bit out of place, and contorted. I replaced him with the chief engineer from the first type VII screen, since I like him and he needed a place to go.

That's it for now. Enjoy the mod!

DOWNLOAD:
See latest version.



Day changing to dusk, with the new sky texture: