GWX Skin Pack

ichneumon · 03-04-07, 03:58 PM

GWX Skin Pack
By Ichneumon, Boris, and Fubar

This skin pack is for use only with GWX. It will not work with stock SHIII or any of the other supermods. The objective of this skin pack is to allow historically accurate changes in ship paint schemes with time. These skins and the changes in skins with time are based on photographs made during the war and other records. An excellent article on The Development of Naval Camouflage by Alan Raven is available online. This article describes the concepts as well as the general trends in color and style used by the Americans and British during the war. There were, however, exceptions to these general trends (especially with the British) which can be found in the records and photographs made during the war. There is also a short article on German paint schemes online.

This mod is more than just a chronologic ordering of the skins in GWX. Much new content was needed to achieve the objectives. Many improvements and additions were made during the course of this work. These include:

1) NEW BASE TEXTURES. Fubar provided excellent new base textures for some of the warships. Ichneumon also created new textures drawing on pieces of Fubar’s work for consistency. These new base textures were used to improve the look of some of the weaker skins in GWX as well as provide more variety for the merchants. Some of the merchants now vary not only in paint scheme but also in texture and simulated 3D details.

2) NEW PAINT SCHEMES. Gaps in the GWX skins for certain time periods meant new paint schemes needed to be made in order to have a variety of skins for any date. Boris created some of these skins when he started this project and Ichneumon added many more.

3) NEW WEATHERING EFFECTS. Fubar’s excellent weathering effects and some of Ichneumon's have been used to increase variety for certain dates and through time. During some periods there was little or no variety in paint schemes (1939 British warships and late war merchants for example). In these cases we used variable weathering effects so when two of the same ship are seen together they will look at least a little different. Also, some ships age with time and become more weathered and sometimes rusty.

4) NEW ALPHA CHANNELS. All the skins in this mod have improved alpha channels. The alpha channel controls how shiny a surface is. This is important because a lot of the 3D look of the ships comes from a 2D image painted on the flat surfaces of a model. The new alpha channels help provide the illusion of 3D detail by keeping seams between hull plates, portholes, rivets, rust, and other details from shining as much as the flat surfaces. You can only see this effect when sunlight reflects off a surface but it adds a lot when done well.

This skin pack is over 500MB so the download has been divided into four parts. To install you will need to unzip and copy all files into your \SH3 Commander\Date\ folder. When you launch SHIII from SH3 Commander the appropriate skins for your patrol date will be copied into your SHIII installation. See the SH3 Commander documentation for more information on installing and using this skin pack. Due to the large number of skins being replaced you can expect SH3 Commander to take several minutes to copy the files into the SHIII folders. You will not be able to view paint schemes changing with time by browsing the dates in the museum, in SHIII this only shows changes in weapons loadout. To view skins for a different date you will need to exit SHIII and launch the game from SH3 Commander for that date.

GWX Skin Pack – Capital Ships - 120MB http://files.filefront.com//;6859190;;/
GWX Skin Pack – Destroyers - 120MB http://files.filefront.com//;6859471;;/
GWX Skin Pack – Escorts - 130MB http://files.filefront.com//;6859780;;/
GWX Skin Pack – Merchants - 150MB http://files.filefront.com//;6860148;;/
GWX Skin Pack ReadMe.txt http://files.filefront.com//;6860162;;/

MD5 hashes:
f17000eebb30e8c58e3e99be6272e70c *GWXSkinPack_Merchants.7z
a76e59c70a3ce3607695a59581ae658a *GWXSkinPack_CapitalShips.7z
710efbe4817e25556d21b2613f88bdff *GWXSkinPack_Destroyers.7z
4234311f43784f8899f5f352f06875f9 *GWXSkinPack_Escorts.7z

Mirror 1:
Capital Ships - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CQBP61SY
Destroyers - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0LHOAMH0
Escorts - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XSRV949H
Merchants - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=H8WMMC9H
Readme - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FGJY6YB8

Mirror 2: Thanks to Danlisa for this smaller single file download version! It has much better compression and contains all four parts in one file only 164MB in size. This version starts with the Date folder so you just need to copy it into your SH3 Commander folder to install.

Combined GWX Skin Pack - 164MB
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4HLEYMQQ
http://files.filefront.com/GWX___Com.../fileinfo.html

03-04-07, 03:58 PM	#1
ichneumon Sailor man Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 47 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	GWX Skin Pack GWX Skin Pack By Ichneumon, Boris, and Fubar This skin pack is for use only with GWX. It will not work with stock SHIII or any of the other supermods. The objective of this skin pack is to allow historically accurate changes in ship paint schemes with time. These skins and the changes in skins with time are based on photographs made during the war and other records. An excellent article on The Development of Naval Camouflage by Alan Raven is available online. This article describes the concepts as well as the general trends in color and style used by the Americans and British during the war. There were, however, exceptions to these general trends (especially with the British) which can be found in the records and photographs made during the war. There is also a short article on German paint schemes online. This mod is more than just a chronologic ordering of the skins in GWX. Much new content was needed to achieve the objectives. Many improvements and additions were made during the course of this work. These include: 1) NEW BASE TEXTURES. Fubar provided excellent new base textures for some of the warships. Ichneumon also created new textures drawing on pieces of Fubar’s work for consistency. These new base textures were used to improve the look of some of the weaker skins in GWX as well as provide more variety for the merchants. Some of the merchants now vary not only in paint scheme but also in texture and simulated 3D details. 2) NEW PAINT SCHEMES. Gaps in the GWX skins for certain time periods meant new paint schemes needed to be made in order to have a variety of skins for any date. Boris created some of these skins when he started this project and Ichneumon added many more. 3) NEW WEATHERING EFFECTS. Fubar’s excellent weathering effects and some of Ichneumon's have been used to increase variety for certain dates and through time. During some periods there was little or no variety in paint schemes (1939 British warships and late war merchants for example). In these cases we used variable weathering effects so when two of the same ship are seen together they will look at least a little different. Also, some ships age with time and become more weathered and sometimes rusty. 4) NEW ALPHA CHANNELS. All the skins in this mod have improved alpha channels. The alpha channel controls how shiny a surface is. This is important because a lot of the 3D look of the ships comes from a 2D image painted on the flat surfaces of a model. The new alpha channels help provide the illusion of 3D detail by keeping seams between hull plates, portholes, rivets, rust, and other details from shining as much as the flat surfaces. You can only see this effect when sunlight reflects off a surface but it adds a lot when done well. This skin pack is over 500MB so the download has been divided into four parts. To install you will need to unzip and copy all files into your \SH3 Commander\Date\ folder. When you launch SHIII from SH3 Commander the appropriate skins for your patrol date will be copied into your SHIII installation. See the SH3 Commander documentation for more information on installing and using this skin pack. Due to the large number of skins being replaced you can expect SH3 Commander to take several minutes to copy the files into the SHIII folders. You will not be able to view paint schemes changing with time by browsing the dates in the museum, in SHIII this only shows changes in weapons loadout. To view skins for a different date you will need to exit SHIII and launch the game from SH3 Commander for that date. GWX Skin Pack – Capital Ships - 120MB http://files.filefront.com//;6859190;;/ GWX Skin Pack – Destroyers - 120MB http://files.filefront.com//;6859471;;/ GWX Skin Pack – Escorts - 130MB http://files.filefront.com//;6859780;;/ GWX Skin Pack – Merchants - 150MB http://files.filefront.com//;6860148;;/ GWX Skin Pack ReadMe.txt http://files.filefront.com//;6860162;;/ MD5 hashes: f17000eebb30e8c58e3e99be6272e70c GWXSkinPack_Merchants.7z a76e59c70a3ce3607695a59581ae658a GWXSkinPack_CapitalShips.7z 710efbe4817e25556d21b2613f88bdff GWXSkinPack_Destroyers.7z 4234311f43784f8899f5f352f06875f9 GWXSkinPack_Escorts.7z Mirror 1: Capital Ships - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CQBP61SY Destroyers - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0LHOAMH0 Escorts - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=XSRV949H Merchants - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=H8WMMC9H Readme - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FGJY6YB8 Mirror 2: Thanks to Danlisa for this smaller single file download version! It has much better compression and contains all four parts in one file only 164MB in size. This version starts with the Date folder so you just need to copy it into your SH3 Commander folder to install. Combined GWX Skin Pack - 164MB http://www.megaupload.com/?d=4HLEYMQQ http://files.filefront.com/GWX___Com.../fileinfo.html __________________ Last edited by ichneumon; 03-08-07 at 05:42 PM.