flag illumination problem

warlimont · 06-03-09, 06:13 PM

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 don´t 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.

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

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

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

Jimbuna · 06-04-09, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by onelifecrisis

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

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

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.

DivingDuck · 06-05-09, 02:29 AM

Moin,

I can think of a way to enlighten the flags just a little. You´d 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. Don´t 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 node´s 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

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

Moin,

I can think of a way to enlighten the flags just a little. You´d 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. Don´t 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 node´s 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!

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!

DivingDuck · 06-05-09, 12:45 PM

Moin Rubini,

just go ahead and do it. I don´t have any objections, how could I?

Regards,
DD

Rubini · 06-05-09, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DivingDuck

Moin Rubini,

just go ahead and do it. I don´t 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).

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.

06-03-09, 06:13 PM	#1
warlimont Helmsman Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Nevada Posts: 104 Downloads: 122 Uploads: 0	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 __________________ USN 1963-1966 USS Estes AGC-12 USS Oriskany CVA-34

06-03-09, 10:25 PM	#2
Rubini Ocean Warrior Join Date: May 2005 Location: São Paulo Brazil Posts: 2,728 Downloads: 132 Uploads: 0	I don´t 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. __________________ One gamer's must-have mod is another gamer's waste of time. -Sailor Steve

06-04-09, 07:21 AM	#3
irish1958 Ocean Warrior Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Carmel, Indiana Posts: 3,250 Downloads: 320 Uploads: 11	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. __________________ Irish1958

06-04-09, 04:22 PM	#7
Rubini Ocean Warrior Join Date: May 2005 Location: São Paulo Brazil Posts: 2,728 Downloads: 132 Uploads: 0	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. __________________ One gamer's must-have mod is another gamer's waste of time. -Sailor Steve

06-05-09, 02:29 AM	#9
DivingDuck Grey Wolf Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Germany Posts: 902 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 1	Moin, I can think of a way to enlighten the flags just a little. You´d 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. Don´t 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 node´s 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 __________________ http://www.filefront.com/user/DivingDuck \| OpenHatch_V3_RH (SHIII)

06-05-09, 09:17 AM	#12
IFRT-WHUFC Engineer Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: By the Nordsee Posts: 200 Downloads: 374 Uploads: 0	The term "Shoot first ask questions later springs to mind"! ok Rick

06-05-09, 11:54 AM	#13
Rubini Ocean Warrior Join Date: May 2005 Location: São Paulo Brazil Posts: 2,728 Downloads: 132 Uploads: 0	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! __________________ One gamer's must-have mod is another gamer's waste of time. -Sailor Steve

06-05-09, 12:45 PM	#14
DivingDuck Grey Wolf Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Germany Posts: 902 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 1	Moin Rubini, just go ahead and do it. I don´t have any objections, how could I? Regards, DD __________________ http://www.filefront.com/user/DivingDuck \| OpenHatch_V3_RH (SHIII)