[WIP] Lighthouses mod

Originally Posted by gap

The good news is that, with the motivation of some good subsim mates as you, soon or later I will finish them all.

Originally Posted by gap

1) As I told you a while back, the Düne (Helgoland) leading lights are 100% ready. I know that at this stage you are mostly focused on French lights and that the Helgoland-Düne islands are poorly implemented in SHIII, but nonetheless I think they might make a nice addition to the game. If you are on it, I can import the models in a set of SH files, and send them your way

In fact, the Düne is not at all represented, but however we may still place your lights on the main island, or perhaps directly in the sea (in this case we need a rock model) !

About Helgoland, here is what I've found :

You can see the lighthouse on the island :



and here the LH :

[gap]

Originally Posted by Anvar1061

Hi, gap!
"The best rest is a change in the type of work" I. Pavlov

Originally Posted by mikey117us

My work habit is identical to gap!!! So makes sense to me, looking forward to lighthouses.

Originally Posted by Anvar1061

Not step back, only forward!

Originally Posted by Kendras

Thank you for your encouragement guys

Originally Posted by Kendras

In fact, the Düne is not at all represented, but however we may still place your lights on the main island, or perhaps directly in the sea (in this case we need a rock model) !

The Düne range light is composed of two lights: rear and front.
The rear light has the shape of cylindrical tower ca. a ca. 15 m in heigth and it is located on the southern shore of the island (Position: 54°10'56.26"N, 7°54'50.58"E, 2 m asl).
The front light is placed on top of a metal pole anchored to the sandy soil by a square concrete base and it is located about 110 m SSW of the rear light (Pos: 54°10'52.79"N, 7°54'48.53"E) in the foreshore (thus, in game it can be anchored both to the land or to the sea bottom).
The alignment of the two lights shows the safest route to the harbour in Helgoland and to the channel between the two islands (this is what leading lights are generally meant for). Changing the two light's position would defeat their original purpose. On the other hand, I think Düne is a bit too big to be represented as a rock model.

What do you know about Terrain Editor? Creating small islands, sand banks and shoals witin the editor shouldn't be too complicated.
Here is a general view of the two islands (Helgoland and Düne):

For reference, her is a chart taken from openseamap.org showing the two islands and the relative positions of the leadings lights on Düne:

Originally Posted by Kendras

About Helgoland, here is what I've found :

You can see the lighthouse on the island :



and here the LH :

Good pictures!

I have found a postcard view of the same:



...and a picture of it together with the first lighthouse built by the British in 1811:



Unfortunately the 1901 lighthouse was destroyed during an air raid in 1945. Interestingly, the aerial picture you have posted also shows the current lighthouse, built in 1941 and then used as a FlaK tower (source: The Lighthouse Directory)

Originally Posted by gap

What do you know about Terrain Editor? Creating small islands, sand banks and shoals witin the editor shouldn't be too complicated.

I never tried. But I think it's a good idea to improve the island. Maybe we could ask to HanSolo.

Originally Posted by gap

Unfortunately the 1901 lighthouse was destroyed during an air raid in 1945. Interestingly, the aerial picture you have posted also shows the current lighthouse, built in 1941 and then used as a FlaK tower (source: The Lighthouse Directory)

The aerial view has been taken in 1935. Where do you see this flak tower on it ?

[gap]

Originally Posted by Kendras

I never tried. But I think it's a good idea to improve the island.

In SH5 we have these editors inbuilt into the game:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B48...?ddrp=1&hl=en#

Is there anything similar for SHIII?

Originally Posted by Kendras

Maybe we could ask to HanSolo.

Yep, good idea. HanS, if you are reading us...

Originally Posted by Kendras

The aerial view has been taken in 1935. Where do you see this flak tower on it ?

If you look closely at the aerial picture you have posted, a bit to the left of the 1901 leuchturm, there is a much smaller tower, but you are right, it can't be the FlaK turm. Now that you got me thinking about it, I think to remember that that specific tower was part of a building hosting some office of the Kriegsmarine naval command. You can see it better from the other picture of the Helgoland lighthouse you had posted (on the right):

I've found this : http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=1315

Now two problems :

- how does it work ?
- what map should we modifiy ? Vanilla or WAC ? ...

[SquareSteelBar]

TerrainEditor + Tutorial by ref

[gap]

ops... while writing my previois reply I had missed SquareSteelBar's link (thank you mate!)

Originally Posted by SquareSteelBar

TerrainEditor + Tutorial by ref

This version of the download also contains detailed instructions on the SHIII terrain format and on its editing

Originally Posted by SquareSteelBar

TerrainEditor + Tutorial by ref

SH3 Terrain Editing.pdf : that was the file I needed ! Thank you mate !

[gap]

Originally Posted by Kendras

I've found this : http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/down...o=file&id=1315

Got it

Originally Posted by Kendras

Now two problems :

- how does it work ?

The package comes with a readme file, but instructions are not too clear, and apparently they only explain how to merge in game a ready-made terrain modification, but not how to create a new one. Probably once the SHIII terrain is excrated using yhe tool, a set of heigth masks is created. From a comment on the download page, I get that this information might be in RAW format. If that was the case, any photo editor capable of importing/exporting from/to the RAW format could be used to edit the heigth information.

Hopefully someone better informed on the topic we are discussing will pop up and he will shed some light

Originally Posted by Kendras

- what map should we modifiy ? Vanilla or WAC ? ...

Well I would start from the most detailed SHIII terrain available (I don't know which one is the best between WAC and GWX). If I got it right, once the terrain data is extracted and modified, there are two ways it can be released:

- as a package containing only the modified areas, which can be re-merged to any version of the SHIII terrain data using the Extractor/Repacker;

- as a ready-to-use terrain data which can be enabled as normal mod using JSGME

The first method would contain the download size and it would allow more flexibility, because it would let any player free to choose which terrain data (mega mod) he wants to use as base for the merging of our modifications. The con, is that its installation would be a bit trickier.