[REL] New plants for northern waters

[Zuyax]

Hi Guys.

CaptainCox's smaller plant mod got me thinking and so I made some new plant textures for my own amusement. While Kelp isn't usually found in the South Pacific, if you are patrolling the waters north of Japan then maybe these could be of use.

Well I figured I should offer to share them so if anyone is interested you can find them here.... http://www.spitfire-digital.com/SH4/Kelp_Forests_1.zip

*update*

I added an optional texture set that reduces the plants to 50% in height and helps compensate for the sparseness which is a side-effect of the reduction in height.

The new file which incudes both versions is here
http://www.spitfire-digital.com/SH4/Kelp_Forests_1_1.zip

Large ..
http://www.spitfire-digital.com/SH4/kelp_01.jpg

smaller..
http://www.spitfire-digital.com/SH4/Kelp_sml_2.jpg

Jan

[kakemann]

Woow! These look nice! :up:

[Mush Martin]

Nice touch:up:

[shad43]

Hey skipper...nice work :up:

[AVGWarhawk]

Those look nice! Why do I feel like I should drop my fishing line in those grasses to see what I can catch?

[Kaleun Suhren]

Hey, the new plants look very nice, thank's :up:

[t0maz]

Next step - adding fishes to SH4 :rock: :rotfl:

Nice work mate :up:

[BBury]

...cool...

[CaptainCox]

Very NICE! gonna get me some new plants NOW! :up:

[Der Graf Von Rudklide]

:up:
Great work - Thanx

[MaxT.dk]

Are those plants as big/high as the default ones?

[CaptainCox]

I took a look at the .dds and yes, i think they are. Tried to resize them but don't look as nice then actually, and Kelp gets freaking big, that's a fact.

"luetkeana grow as fast as half a metre a day, ultimately reaching 30 to 50 m"

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a138/CaptainCox/kelp.jpg

And mind you, there are 30 different main species of kelp

[akdavis]

...but they only grow along the shoreline. :(

[Mechman]

They can grow at up to nearly 300 feet of water, which is good enough that most of the areas where you can see the kelp are areas it could grow in, depth wise.

[shad43]

I can just see the skipper ordering a crewman overboard to clean the kelp outta the bowplanes..."but skipper what about sharks" :o

[Alex]

Absolutely gorgeous, mate !!!! :huh:

:rock:

[Zuyax]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

...but they only grow along the shoreline. :(
yeah they do but Unfortunately I dont think there is much that can be done about that without better access to certain parts of the code :(

I took a look at the .dds and yes, i think they are. Tried to resize them but don't look as nice then actually, and Kelp gets freaking big, that's a fact.
I have updated the origian post to include links to a new version in which I reduced the height of the plants by 50% for any which are bothered by the height of the full size set. As you noted they didnt look as good so I increased the texture size to compensate...It didnt make too much diference to my framerates but I guess if someone is just hovering on the edge of playability as it is then perhaps they might want to give the smaller height plants a miss.

Just for fun I did mess around with replacing the plants altogether and having schools of tiny fish in their place, but yeah I didnt really like the result in the end, hehe.

anyway have fun all and happy hunting! :D

Jan

[SimJack]

Great work on the plants................can you make the rocks disappear?;)

[akdavis]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

...but they only grow along the shoreline. :(
yeah they do but Unfortunately I dont think there is much that can be done about that without better access to certain parts of the code :(

I took a look at the .dds and yes, i think they are. Tried to resize them but don't look as nice then actually, and Kelp gets freaking big, that's a fact.
I have updated the origian post to include links to a new version in which I reduced the height of the plants by 50% for any which are bothered by the height of the full size set. As you noted they didnt look as good so I increased the texture size to compensate...It didnt make too much diference to my framerates but I guess if someone is just hovering on the edge of playability as it is then perhaps they might want to give the smaller height plants a miss.

Yes, the way it implemented is a barrier, but let me offer a broader statement to indicate where I am coming from: my real issue is with the choice of giant plants to represent the covering of the ocean bottom globally in the game. This seems a very odd choice, as leafy plants in general (and giant kelps in particular) form a very small portion of the covering of the ocean floor. Giant kelp may be capable of growing to 300 feet (and this is truly extraordinary when it occurs), but that does not mean that where ever there is 300 feet of water, you will find giant kelp (or any large plants). To represent the floor of the ocean globally at all depths and all distances from shore, sand, mud, encrusted rock and filter feeders would be more appropiate. I think the desire to replace the obviously bizarre giant plants included by the devs with a "more realistic" plant is misplaced. Ideally, these plant objects could be used to give the sea floor more texture and depth without making it look like a scene out of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

[leovampire]

If some time under water if we picked up biologics on the sound heads like a whale maybe even see one cresting from time to time while on the surface!

But reguardless great job on the plants guy and thanks!

Dave

[GSpector]

Any chance in the next update, you could shrink those rocks, not the kelp.

Biologicals would be great as a seperate mod. So anyone that can do it will make a lot of people very happy, starting with me.:yep:

[CaptainCox]

Now that's a hard one...
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=114029&page=2
I will try to figure that now and then...and anybody chipping in is welcome like I said before;)

[CCIP]

Hi folks,

A quick request: does anybody have a copy of this file?

[GSpector]

Is this the file you are referring to:
Kelp_Forests_1_1.zip

If so, I wish I could help but I can't even find it on the internet and the link here, as I'm sure you already found out, was hi-jacked by another site.