[REL] S3D - Silent 3ditor

[Webster]

Go to shells .dat find the one you want to work on, copy the ID. Go to the .zon file and Edit/find and it will show you the zon file for that shell.



If you want to work on a specific gun, you should check the shell it uses in the gun file. I did find one once that used the wrong shell (at least not the same size as the gun. something like a 5 inch gun using a 4 inch shell) but I don't remember which one it was.

Peabody


is there a way to add a name to them so i dont have to keep going back to the dat? i know i can add a name but is it "safe" to change the label name? will it still work in the game with a different name?

i would rather spend time attatching names to them all so later it make life easier.

[skwasjer]

You can attach a label chunk to a controller, the game won't mind generally speaking (unverified). Just remember that using a reserved name might cause issues (again unverified), and as chunks get reused often it's also more work to manage. That said, I still recommend you remove them from 'published' work because it's best to stay as close to original stock chunk-layout as possible, because it will only be more confusing in the long run (to others anyway).

I just use search function, to me it's faster than adding labels to all chunks.

Another tip is to reorder chunks in a zon or sim-file to match the DAT. Sometimes in stock this isn't the case.

[Webster]

i want to be sure we are talking about the same thing so let me explain my plan.

in the shells.zon every node has the same name, they are all labeled "AmmoDamageInfo" and they only have different ID numbers to tell them appart.

what i wanted to do was take the name of the coresponding node in the dat and use it to be the new label name.

so in the zon file "2:node - AmmoDamageInfo" has the parent ID 0x765548d9c98196cc

and in the dat file "node 203: 30mm_HE_shell" has its parent ID 0x765548d9c98196cc

so if they share the same parent ID and that means zon "2:node" is for the "30mm HE Shell"

so what i wanted to do was take the zone files "2:node" and give it the exact name i copied fron the dat files "node 203:" and name it like this:

2:node - 30mm_HE_shell

and when i do that the 3:node (child node) automatically becomes

3: !30mm_HE_shell ! - AmmoDamageInfo


i thought it was best if i was going to name things in the zon, it would be best to name them exactly the same way as they were named in the dat file so the game would recognize it. i dont know if my thinking that is correct or not.

hopefully that makes clear my question.


so is this something ok to do or could it cause problems.

[skwasjer]

Do not change the name of the controller... Perhaps it works, but I rather think it won't and suggest doing as indicated.
You can attach a label chunk to a controller

[Webster]

Do not change the name of the controller... Perhaps it works, but I rather think it won't and suggest doing as indicated.



ok, i will not change anything. :salute:

i'll just write it all down somewhere to use as a reference when i need it.

[Anvart]

:rotfl:
In HexEditor you can see your work in details ...

Sorry ... of topic ...

[jimbob]

ok, i will not change anything. :salute:

i'll just write it all down somewhere to use as a reference when i need it.

Tought I did that about a year ago:

[TEC] Shells.dat + Shells.zon Node Numbers in 1.5 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=796274)

Now in download (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=47) section too.

[DarkFish]

Hey skwasjer,
I want to change some of the in-game fonts but S3D crashes whenever I open an off file. I've tried both editing existing .off files and creating a new one, but whatever I try it just don't work :damn:
I've tried it on two different PC's, one XP and one Vista, but all I get is the following message (in Dutch but that shouldn't be a problem to you;)):
Kan bestand of assembly Menu, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=17f8ca7d3b368c56 of een van de afhankelijkheden hiervan niet laden. Het systeem kan het opgegeven bestand niet vinden.
I'm using S3D v0.9.4
I hope you can fix this or tell me how to successfully edit those files if it's not s3d related

[keltos01]

http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/3511/55inchbrass.jpg (http://www.imagehosting.com/)


S3D does not look in the texture directory but the .dat's directory for the texture !!! :nope:

I had to create a new separate dir with the gun.dat and the occlu and texture to test the .dat...

keltos

[DarkFish]

weird... I always put custom textures in the textures\tnormal\tex folder. And I've never had any problem with textures not showing up.:hmmm:
Were you working in your normal game folder (...\Silent Hunter 4 Wolves of the Pacific\Data\....) or a different directory? Cause probably S3D can't find the textures folder if the texture folders are placed in another directory (e.g. ...\AnotherDirectory\Data\textures\...).

[Nisgeis]

S3D does not look in the texture directory but the .dat's directory for the texture !!! :nope:

There are different types of material. If you tell it to look in the same directory for the material, then it will. There are some system labels that it uses and replaces to get the directory, that's what the cfg_TXR and other such lables mean in the mateiral property. You can also have internal textures, that have the graphics contained within the .dat file and of course external textures. It will only look where you tell it :-).

[skwasjer]

Hey skwasjer,
I want to change some of the in-game fonts but S3D crashes whenever I open an off file. I've tried both editing existing .off files and creating a new one, but whatever I try it just don't work :damn:
I've tried it on two different PC's, one XP and one Vista, but all I get is the following message (in Dutch but that shouldn't be a problem to you;)):

I'm using S3D v0.9.4
I hope you can fix this or tell me how to successfully edit those files if it's not s3d related
Hi DarkFish, it seems like I've mistakenly left out one DLL from the installation program which is required for editting the OFF files. Thank you for the information, I will fix this asap. I can not give you a quick fix right now, because I don't have a copy of the DLL anymore that works with 0.9.4 as changes have incremented over the past months resulting in an incompatibility. Stay tuned for a full fix in the next weeks.

[skwasjer]

S3D does not look in the texture directory but the .dat's directory for the texture !!! :nope:

I had to create a new separate dir with the gun.dat and the occlu and texture to test the .dat...

keltos
It does, but the search routines are a bit different from the game because S3D also has to take into account your mod directory. However, the local directory where the .DAT resides takes precedence over the global texture folder. Not only that, S3D takes this into account:

* Search local folder in your mod: <MODS>\<Your mod>\Data\<Folder with Dat-file>
* Search local folder when MOD is installed in game: Data\<Folder with Dat-file from your mod>
* Search global texture folder in your mod: <MODS>\<Your Mod>\Data\Textures\TNormal\tex
* Search global texture folder: Data\Textures\TNormal\tex

Additionally, S3D obviously also looks for internal textures.

As you can see, it's a little bit more complex than it appears ;)

Conflicts can happen when the material is not set up correctly, like Nisgeis indicates, or when textures with the same name are used (and worse, stored in more than one of the locations mentioned above), resulting in incorrect representation in the 3D viewer. There's more odd scenario's possible when mods are intermixed, enabled over eachother, etc. where you expect a texture to show up, but S3D can't find it because it's outside its search path, or if S3D finds another (old one) first.

A good example of unexpected texture loaded is the prop_black.tga which comes with each airplane. The game has that file in the global texture folder but also each plane has it as internal texture. Replacing the internal texture will not yield expected result as the global texture is still used (it takes precendence over internal textures, although it makes more sense if it didn't). Only after removing the global texture will you see the new internal one.

I tried to best match the game load behavior but since mods during design time generally reside in their own \MODS location, I had to deviate from the game it's method of loading and resolving textures. That and the fact that it's not documented by Ubisoft how textures are resolved, all I could do was guess/test and try to come as close as possible.

[DarkFish]

Hi DarkFish, it seems like I've mistakenly left out one DLL from the installation program which is required for editting the OFF files. Thank you for the information, I will fix this asap. I can not give you a quick fix right now, because I don't have a copy of the DLL anymore that works with 0.9.4 as changes have incremented over the past months resulting in an incompatibility. Stay tuned for a full fix in the next weeks.okay, thnx. I already figured it was something like that (what else can a missing assembly be?) but I had absolutely no idea what file was missing from where.
.off eding isn't exactly the most used function of S3D so I guess it's not hard to forget adding the .dll
BTW thanks for creating S3D, I've used it ever since v0.7 and it just keeps getting better and better! :yeah: can't wait for v1 to be released!

[thyro]

Please could someone give me some tips on how to get a texture be applied on a 3D object.

ouside S3D I have an object with texture

On S3D when I import the object plus add its texture on the node it shows the object with the texture. But when I launch SH4 the object is black.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong...

S3D doesn't complain on object import and it shows the object with correct texture... so why SH4 doesn't show the correct texture? :damn:

Help!!! :06:

Thanks

[DarkFish]

Please could someone give me some tips on how to get a texture be applied on a 3D object.

ouside S3D I have an object with texture

On S3D when I import the object plus add its texture on the node it shows the object with the texture. But when I launch SH4 the object is black.

I don't know what I'm doing wrong...

S3D doesn't complain on object import and it shows the object with correct texture... so why SH4 doesn't show the correct texture? :damn:

Help!!! :06:

ThanksThere are a number of things that could cause this. 1st, are you sure the uv2-map is textured right? just enable ambient occlusion map in S3D model preview to check this. maybe it's just the O01 texture that's causing the blackness.
2nd: SH4 doesn't seem to like it if the index of the texture is higher than the object's index. Look if the texture is placed above the object in the S3D tree (as it should) or below.
I've had this problem a number of times and usually it's one of these 2 problems that causes black textures.

[skwasjer]

Correct :up:

[thyro]

here are the pictures

http://www.ribeiros.co.uk/img/s3d.jpg

http://www.ribeiros.co.uk/img/s3dobj.jpg

Now the above 3D object appears black on SH4... what I'm missing here? Thanks

[skwasjer]

Your material has the same texture linked for the lightmap (ambient occlusion map) which is wrong. The lightmap is always a different texture, which contains lighting/shading info. Secondly, do you even have the texture coordinates for the lightmap (uv2) on the model? If not, then you should remove the 'yellow bulb' chunk, so the game can render the model with only a diffuse pass. If you do, then the 'yellow bulb' chunk should point to a proper ambient occlusion texture, for the ambient occlusion pass to work. If not, well, black... ;)

Note: S3D behaves a little differently in some scenario's.

[Seeadler]

Import problem

I have build a simple box in 3ds Max 9 and assigned to it a Multi/Sub material with 3 map ID's (red.tga, blue.tga, green.tga). The box is devided in 3 parts and the faces in each part has a material ID (assigned from top -> 1, 2, 3) and a uvw mapping in map channel 1, so in Max it looks correct.

http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/alben/91/3063991/1280_6532393861386233.jpg

I export the model to the obj format and open it in a different app which can read obj files and it also looks ok.
http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/alben/91/3063991/1280_3536343238346233.jpg

Now I import the obj model into a DAT file. The DAT contains the 3 textures (red.tga, blue.tga, green.tga) as separate materials and these materials are assigned to the box node but the preview is not correct and also not ingame (SHIII).

http://foto.arcor-online.net/palb/alben/91/3063991/1280_3831633462616635.jpg

If I export this model again and import it into 3ds Max 9, the material ID's are re-assigned as in S3D and the uvw mapping is corrupted.

Requires each material its own mapping channel or does S3D not support the import of Multi/Sub material in one mapping channel in a correct manner?

Here is the MTL file of the box exported by 3ds Max 9
# Max2Mtl Version 4.0 Mar 10th, 2001
#
# Multi/Sub 01_-_Default (3) to come
#
newmtl Material__25
Ka 0.5879999995 0.5879999995 0.5879999995
Kd 0.5879999995 0.5879999995 0.5879999995
Ks 0.8999999762 0.8999999762 0.8999999762
d 1
Ns 0
illum 2
map_Kd red.tga
#
newmtl Material__26
Ka 0.5879999995 0.5879999995 0.5879999995
Kd 0.5879999995 0.5879999995 0.5879999995
Ks 0.8999999762 0.8999999762 0.8999999762
d 1
Ns 0
illum 2
map_Kd blue.tga
#
newmtl Material__27
Ka 0.5879999995 0.5879999995 0.5879999995
Kd 0.5879999995 0.5879999995 0.5879999995
Ks 0.8999999762 0.8999999762 0.8999999762
d 1
Ns 0
illum 2
map_Kd green.tga
#
# Multi/Sub 01_-_Default done
#
# EOF

[skwasjer]

Thanks Seeadler, I think this relates to the same bug reported to me about 2-3 months ago via another forum. I will test this scenario in my local build when I can, but I think it is fixed already for next release (whenever that is!?). Unfortunately I'm horribly tied up IRL right now. Haven't touched S3D since January, my goals for final release have been postponed, and postponed... and postponed... Anyway, you get it... :shifty:

But, at least there's a positive note to add that things are somewhat stabilizing so hopefully in some weeks... :-?

[jean74]

Hi Skwasjer,

First Many thanks for your incrédible soft S3D. :up:

I use your version 0.9.4 for SH3 :oops:and I enjoy it very much.
On your website I have seen (on your screenshot page) that we can have an Damage model edit function.

But I'am unable to found and use it. Perhaps, this function will include in your next release.

Please, Can you confirm ?

Many thanks for your reply,

Best regards,

Jean

Ps Sorry for my bad english language.:oops:

[skwasjer]

Hi jean74,

Yes, the zone editor is not yet available but will be in next release. I posted the screenshots a while ago because initial plan was to release that version somewhere late januari, but due to some critical flaws/bugs I haven't done so yet. I hope soon...

skwas

[jean74]

Thank you very much

for your answer and for your great job.:salute:
So I'm Waiting for your next release.

Have a good day,

Best regards,


Jean

[iambecomelife]

Hey; I was wondering if any Windows XP users are having problems with S3ditor? Since the most recent automatic update released by Microsoft, it crashes at startup, stating that it has "encountered a problem". I've been trying to fix it for hours - no luck. :nope:

[vickers03]

Hey; I was wondering if any Windows XP users are having problems with S3ditor? Since the most recent automatic update released by Microsoft, it crashes at startup, stating that it has "encountered a problem". I've been trying to fix it for hours - no luck. :nope:recently updated too via internet explorer, frame network 3.5, no problems..

[iambecomelife]

Never mind - problem solved.

[skwasjer]

iabl:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=857304#post857304

Problem is a corrupted config file. Can be fixed by simply removing it.

[Anvart]

Today tried to edit *.sim file by S3D and has received extra code ... Type 10 with rubbish ...? :hmmm:
Ver. 0.94

[Wolfling04]

Anybody have any suggestions on a good 3d modeling program. I really dont have 2k to spend on 3d's Max 9 :cry:

[DarkFish]

try misfit model 3d.
http://www.misfitcode.com/misfitmodel3d/
Misfit is a great 3d modeling program, and it's free!
if you're not afraid of using betas you really should try the 1.3.8 release.

[peabody]

Anybody have any suggestions on a good 3d modeling program. I really dont have 2k to spend on 3d's Max 9 :cry:

Another good one if you can figure out the weird interface is Blender. I have seen a lot of nice work done with it, but it has a very strange interface. Also free. There are a lot of tutorials about it on the net, if you have the time.

Peabody

[Wolfling04]

Thanks a lot for the help gents, I REALLY wanna get into modding...creating playable ships and such but i just couldn't find and program to do that with.

BTW I did successfully create a giant hole in the Iowa...:D It was funny to watch it cruising about with a giant hole in it.

Everyone has to start somewhere...Ill start by making giant holes

[mad]

Hello, guys. When I export 3d models with S3D and try to import them into 3dmax I get message that I missing textures .tga so in 3d max I have no textures. Up to recently I used Pack3D with S3D so when I import 3d model in 3d max 2009 I manually add path to folder where I have previously exported model with Pack 3d so it uses textures from there. Problem is that Pack3d cannot open guns_radars.dat file. S3D can but I have no textures, or i do not know how to export textures from .dat file with S3d. Any help will be much apriciated.

[mad]

Anyone? Plz...

[Captain von Keldunk]

Hello, guys. When I export 3d models with S3D and try to import them into 3dmax I get message that I missing textures .tga so in 3d max I have no textures. Up to recently I used Pack3D with S3D so when I import 3d model in 3d max 2009 I manually add path to folder where I have previously exported model with Pack 3d so it uses textures from there. Problem is that Pack3d cannot open guns_radars.dat file. S3D can but I have no textures, or i do not know how to export textures from .dat file with S3d. Any help will be much apriciated.
Say in NSS_Uboat7c.dat you need to export embedded image.
With S3D open NSS_Uboat7c.dat. open node NSS_Uboat7c_hull.tga,
click on embedded image and on right side is import/export option in blue color.:woot:

[Seeadler]

S3D can but I have no textures, or i do not know how to export textures from .dat file with S3d. Any help will be much apriciated.
guns_radars.dat file does not include embedded textures, only references to them. The textures for the models in guns_radars.dat file are stored here:
\Silent Hunter 4 Wolves of the Pacific\Data\Textures\TNormal\tex

[ETR3(SS)]

I'm looking for an easy way of copying the data in one node to another. I'm trying to get the tube door opening animation correct. Currently the doors open outward instead of inward like they should. I know the cause of the problem, the tube doors were originally mounted opposite ( you would order tube 1 opened and tube 2 to would actually open). When they were mounted opposite the doors opened inward like they should have. I'm thinking it's as simple as swapping the values, left for right right for left. So short of changing each value individually how else could I swap values?

[DarkFish]

S3D v0.9.4 features a copy-paste function. In your case all you have to do (if I understand you correctly) is copy the animation node and all of its contents (KeyFrameAnimStartParams, PositionKeyFrames and RotationKeyFrames).
to do this select one of these properties, press the copy button and the paste button. Now you've got a duplicate. Repeat this for each one, change the parent ID and index of them, and you're finished.

[ETR3(SS)]

Thanks DarkFish. The key was changing the parent ID. I had discovered the copy and paste method but couldn't figure out how to get it under the right node. What you posted was spot on. :up:

[ichso]

Sry if this was asked here before, but I couldn't find anything that fits.

I'm having a slight problem with the 3D model viewer. If I activate the diffuse or occlusion map, the whole model will be displayed in black instead of showing the correct texture.

This applies to some models, not to all. The textures show up in the game for all models but for some they don't in S3D.

Thanks in advance, i.

EDIT: Don't worry, I seem to have answered the question by myself. I found out that some of the submarines had differing name structures for their textures.
Like the gato (which was already working i s3d) had NSS_Gato_T0x.dds while the s-18 had NSS_S18_body_T0x.dds. So I renamed the latter ones to NSS_S18_T0x.dds and it now works in S3D too.

[asanovic7]

But I have to praise this program once more, I don't even use museum, I have s3d.
Everything so easy to use, simple, perfect..

I open 5 files, delete 5 things from those 5 files, test it ingame, if I am not satisfied come out, apply undo for every file, perfect..


Skwasjer..
:salute::salute::salute::salute::salute:

[skwasjer]

Thanks for the kind words.


I was wanting to say this for some time now, but hoped I wouldn't have to. Unfortunately, now I do have to inform everyone I will be abandoning the S3D-project. Due to difficulties in my personal life for the past months I was unable to do any work on S3D, and things have gotten worse for me the past week. I do not feel like dropping my personal issues on a public forum, but simply put I just need to move on with my life in a new way.

I have deep regret that I am unable to release the final version of S3D, as it had some interesting new features. Therefor I will try to deliver the last beta I released to private testers (back in January) in a couple of weeks, so that everyone can use the latest version available.

I want to thank everyone for their support in the past 2 years while I worked on S3D, especially to the guys at kickinbak, I want to thank those that donated, and obviously Neal/Subsim for providing a place to discuss and hang out.

Enjoy S3D!

Kind regards,

skwas

[ichso]

Uh ... I'm sorry to read that. Don't be worried about us, personal life always comes first.

Thanks for your great efforts in any regard and good luck with whatever went wrong for you. And of course, feel free to come back any time it feels appropriate again to you.

i.

[DarkFish]

aww... sorry to hear this.:wah: but however much we'd all love the final release, we mustn't be selfish, your personal life is much more important than us being able to mod a few more functions.
I want to thank you for the massive amount of work you must have put into S3D. Without it many mods wouldn't have been what they are. All in all, S3D is something you should be very proud of.

Looking forward to the beta.

heel veel geluk in je prive-leven, ik hoop dat alles nog goed komt!

[polyfiller]

Skwas - really sorry to hear about your problems - I hope you get them sorted and wish you better luck in the future.

Do you want me to release the Beta version by posting on filefront ?

[keltos01]

I'm really sad to hear that but RL first !

I can't begin to thank you for all the help you provided our community and myself personnally, our mods wouldn't be what they are without you :yeah:

I intend to add a tribute to you and your work in all my coming mods.

take care,

keltos

[Madox58]

Skwas,

You've done an OUTSTANDING job!
I Salute your time and efforts.

I wish you the Very Best at everything you do.
Gods Speed Mate!
:salute:

Regards,
Jeff

[Carotio]

especially to the guys at kickinbak
Where I sent you a cheer up :03:

Enjoy S3D!
I think everybody does :yep:
And a big THANK YOU for that :yeah:

[LukeFF]

Your legacy will carry on, Skwas. :yep:

[peabody]

Skwasjer,
Thank you for all you have done, and good luck !!! I hope this is only a temporary setback and things work out. Best wishes!!!

Peabody

[Mush Martin]

I am a bit late.

:salute:

Wow what a grievous loss to the community.

The Best of Luck and the Best of Life.
M.:|\\

[keltos01]

I made a new Narwhal model, but when I try to import it in s3d it says :

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/9104/46176610.jpg (http://img36.imageshack.us/i/46176610.jpg/)


do you know why ?

thanks

keltos

[DarkFish]

not sure but it seems there's something wrong with the uv map.
It says there are too many texture coordinates, so I guess either the model has so many texture coordinates S3D can't handle it or there are more texture coordinates than there are vertices.
Try resaving the model, sometimes when I import a model S3D gives an error until I resave the model.

[keltos01]

not sure but it seems there's something wrong with the uv map.
It says there are too many texture coordinates, so I guess either the model has so many texture coordinates S3D can't handle it or there are more texture coordinates than there are vertices.
Try resaving the model, sometimes when I import a model S3D gives an error until I resave the model.

tried... gave the same screen...

first time ever this happened to me !

keltos

[ensign bob]

dict.tu-chemntiz.de (http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/)De <> EnDe >> EnEn >> DeEnglishDeutschProverbs (En)Sprueche (De)


Excellent work on the editor works great. thanks for your efforts

[Silverwolf]

To keltos01, I ran into that same problem when importing another sub I've been working on. (Not the Blackwolf) I also ran into a too many triangle error. from what I can tell it's probably an importing cap so you don't import more than S3d can handle. There are two ways to solve the problem.

1. break the ship up into separate parts so the texture coords are less.
2. use the UV map for the texture and bake the AO map from it.

The texture coordinates I got my sub down to so I could finally import just the hull was 53,242.

[Sledgehammer427]

great time to have a problem

I am doing some modification to a .dat file, and whenever I try to add a 3d model to a node as a child node it just drops it to the bottom where its useless, and I can't import it because it says it is not associated with a parent node. but i added that 3d model as a child node and when I collapse the node, you can still see the 3d model child node?

Help?

Edit: okay, it will let me copy/paste into another node, but sometimes it does this and sometimes it doesn't?

[DarkFish]

you must link the parent node to the child 3d node instead of the other way around.
Select the parent node, in the right screen open the 'Linked 3d model' section. Now in the 'Model Id' box paste the ID of the 3d model. They should be connected now.

[DarkFish]

I've got a problem myself too, when using (semi-)transparent textures. In S3D everything looks as it should, but in game the colors get all messed up:
http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc333/DF_3852/badcol-1.jpg
the texture used by this model is just a plain texture, RGB 167;167;255, alpha 128, but depending on the models orientation the color changes.
It should be possible to have semi-transparent textures, look at the flying dutchman for example, that one hasn't got any rainbow effect.

Anyone have any ideas how to get it working?

[Silverwolf]

I have a suggestion, why don't you take the material from the Dutchman and export it as a raw chunk. Then import it with the mod you want and see if that works. I don't know what the folder for the Dutchman is called though but I'm sure tweaking the already made material could produce the effect you want.

(edit)
Found it, the folder is NFD.

[DarkFish]

Yep I already tried that, using the exact same texture the FD uses. But instead of a ghostly green I get a colorful rainbow:damn:

[Silverwolf]

Hmm, just messed around with the texture and I can't get anything better than you can. I too would like to know how to get this to work cause I have a sub that's gonna need clear pieces for two parts.

[Nisgeis]

I've got a problem myself too, when using (semi-)transparent textures. In S3D everything looks as it should, but in game the colors get all messed up:
http://i525.photobucket.com/albums/cc333/DF_3852/badcol-1.jpg
the texture used by this model is just a plain texture, RGB 167;167;255, alpha 128, but depending on the models orientation the color changes.
It should be possible to have semi-transparent textures, look at the flying dutchman for example, that one hasn't got any rainbow effect.

Anyone have any ideas how to get it working?

It's yet another 'feature' of SH4. Depth charges have the same property. the first time you start a game, then depth charges have a rainbow effect on them when they are created for launch from Y throwers, very similar to the effect you posted. If you can, start the game, start a campaign / single mission, quit out of it and then restart the mission and you should see the colours properly. Why on Earth the game does this, I have no idea. Just another bug I guess.

EDIT: It should be noted that ships in game don't have this effect, but generated objects do (like depth charges) so there may be some controller affecting the behaviour. Either way, there's no excuse for things to behave differently after restarting a mission.

[Madox58]

Take a look at how the Glass is handled in the Aircraft.
Perhaps that will help?

[DarkFish]

I tried restarting the mission, but it doesn't work.
Looking at the aircraft glass didn't get me further either, it's not too different from some other transparent examples in game (FD, trees)
Judging from these it must be somehow possible to eliminate the rainbow effect, but I just can't figure out how:damn:

In the meantime I did find out that there doesn't have to be an alpha channel in the texture, just enabling alpha+disabling z-buffer write in S3D is enough to get this strange effect.:hmmm:

[Madox58]

You don't have the unifiedrender controller active do you?
I notice the Glass does not use that controller.

[DarkFish]

I didn't, I just set up a test mission with the model using a UnifiedRender controller and IT WORKS:DL

Apparently models need this controller to counter the rainbow effect

all thx for your help:salute:

[Madox58]

Very cool.
:up:

Maybe the Glass stuff has a hard coded controller then.
:hmmm:

Anyway,
Glad you got it sorted.
:yep:

[skwasjer]

tried... gave the same screen...

first time ever this happened to me !

keltos
I've already replied to Keltos in pm a week ago, but the game is limited to 65K (65536) uv indices per model. Depending on how good the uv-map can be compressed, this equates to a similar amount or more number of texture coordinates, but there's no rule here.

The solution is to break up the model into two or more parts... This is recommended anyway, because the bigger a model, the more CPU/GPU power is needed to be rendered, as opposed to having the same model in 10 submodels. Clipping a model, computing a bounding box, lighting computations, hitzone/intersect calculations, running it through a shader, etc, all can usually be done faster on several smaller models...

[Madox58]

Good information.

Also,
It's easy to get a bit carried away with doing 3D models.

I studied some tutorials on low poly modeling.
And that helped alot.

[skwasjer]

Very true. This is actually the hardest part of modelling, making a high poly model look good at half or even less the number of polygons (as far as 10x smaller) from the original.

I forgot to add, any modern game uses a form of lazy loading, meaning it won't load an object unless is has to (S3D does so too partially). Translate this to a huge single model vs 10 smaller ones, anyone can understand why breaking up models is faster. If sections of the model are not in view, it shouldn't need to load them. It saves precious system memory, doesn't need to access your disk, doesn't need to upload the model from system mem to GPU mem, and so on...

The opposite is true for materials/textures, 4 1024x1024 textures is usually worse than one 2048x2048, but it depends a bit on the situation.

[Madox58]

Do you think or know that the models in SH series are broken up because of this?
As an example,
detaching some faces even though a part of a single obj file?

[skwasjer]

Detaching objects in 3D program as you've indicated in the past is usefull for making unique vertices (with different normals) for a plane, allowing for hard edges. But if you import it as a single object, it's still one object, just with a little bit more (duplicate) vertices. So in context of what I wrote above it won't make alot difference as far as performance is concerned.

But if you import the subobjects from an OBJ-file into seperate 3D chunks, then they are considered seperate objects that can each be loaded (or unloaded for that matter) whenever needed. When an object is loaded into system mem but can be clipped because it's outside of the view frustrum, then it won't pass through the entire render phase, leading to better FPS. Big objects that are only visible for 10% still need to pass through the render phase completely, which hurts performance, especially when you run low on GPU mem...

So yea, in some way the developers definately considered this, although it's not apparent (or not needed) in all game files.

[Madox58]

Very cool.
That answers a few things.
Thank you.
:salute:

[skwasjer]

One thing I'd further like to add is, don't go overboard by dividing a model into too many submodels either. In the end, more models have a little bit more overhead in terms of system memory, matrix computations and device state changes (swapping a material, setting renderflags), so you have to balance it out a little. The best rule of thumb probably is to stay away from large models with big dimensions that will always be in view when they are not cut into pieces. In interiors you can probably get the best improvements, for instance:

- don't use one big model for the hull because then it will always need to be drawn no matter where you look.
- Don't combine two desks in an interior that are spaced apart 40 meters...
- etc.

For the very same reason, ship hulls (even though big dimension), are usually one big model, because you are likely to see it completely anyway (you are not supposed to be only 50 meters away from it right?), so breaking it apart doesn't give you a performance boost, on the contrary...

Confusing? :hmmm:

[keltos01]

clear as day !

making the guns decks a separate obj in the Narwhal sub allows me to work on it without having to go through the hassle of rebuilding the whole hull and hull AO map everytime -> faster too

Thanks Skwasjer !

keltos

[skwasjer]

Patience... I can't access my home computer right now because I had to move out temporarily (I recently seperated), but I will post it as soon as I can.

Regards...

[Rubini]

Hi guys,

I already asked skwasjer but he recall me that he don´t have his files for a while.
So, can someone send me a link (by PM ) of the last S3d beta with zones edition feature?

Thanks!:up:

Rubini.

[iambecomelife]

Hi guys,

I already ask skwasjer but he recall me that he don´t have his files for a while.
So, can someone send me a link (by PM ) of the last S3d beta with zones edition feature?

Thanks!:up:

Rubini.

Same here, please. :DL

[skwasjer]

Hi guys,

I already ask skwasjer but he recall me that he don´t have his files for a while.
So, can someone send me a link (by PM ) of the last S3d beta with zones edition feature?

Thanks!:up:

Rubini.
Please do not ask this. My testers are strictly forbidden to provide any link, be it in public or private. In fact, (re)distribution has always been a no.

I have my reasons for this:

- I want to host an official download, for tracking/statistics.
- The testers have a build that is not for public use. Period.
- The last build I have is 0.9.8 at home, NO tester has ever received this build. This is the build that will be released.

The last thing I want to see is that build 0.9.7 is being used by general public. I know why it shouldn't be and that's all you need to know...

Just be patient... I know it's crap but this is the way it is...

[Rubini]

Understood and waiting for it when it comes!:up:
(Excuse me by my requestion, I thought that it could be open for testers, this is why I request it by PM :oops:)

Cheers,

Rubini.

[skwasjer]

Don't worry about it, I understand the enthusiasm ;)

[Rubini]

Don't worry about it, I understand the enthusiasm ;)
:up:

[iambecomelife]

PLEASE PLEASE hurry up - with your latest version I think I can figure out a way to get subs to comply with the Prize Rules! :arrgh!:

j/k - Take your time! "A watched pot never boils", etc. :rotfl:

[skwasjer]

I've just released v0.9.9. Have fun...


FINAL NOTES

S3D is nearing version 1.0, and as such I am wrapping this project up. For over 2 years I have put my heart and soul into this application for everyone to use free or charge. In that time, I uncovered many more secrets of Silent Hunter, allowing for awesome new mods and idea's to come to reality, and even with this release new mods will be possible (animations, damage model, etc.). I released over 20 versions of S3D, and have well over 18.000 downloads in total since I started measuring (since version 0.5.4, in january 2008!). The last beta was downloaded close to 5000 times by itself! Quite a feat for a game in a niche market, and I'm interested to see how this release will do. I enjoyed all the feedback and excitement by the users (you!). All of you made this a great asset for the game, I just built it... ;)

But it has to end somewhere, and that moment is now. There are still a couple of things left on my wish list but I don’t any more time to spend on this project, it’s time to move on for me. Thanks to everybody that supported me, and thanks for the open community spirit that I have strived for. I like to believe I have made my mark on the community, and hope everyone appreciates my efforts to bring all modders together. I wish everyone the best.

Have fun using S3D!!

skwas

[Rubini]

Again, many many thanks mate!
And, yes, sh3/4 community have reached this grade of development because we have S3D, this is for sure!:up:

Thanks and i hope that you can make the same for others good games in the near future!

Triple cheers for skwasjer!!:salute::salute::salute:

[DarkFish]

thank you

there's not much else to say, no existing words in this world can express how grateful we all are, for all of the work you have put into S3D all these years. I just hope this didn't contribute to your 'personal problems'.
I think I can speak for all of this modding community if I say you've been one of the most important 'modders' around here. Without you SH4 wouldn't have been what it is today. If you look back on all those years you should be very proud of all you've done. Not many people would put so much effort into a program and then distribute it for free.

But as we Dutch say, "Er is een tijd van komen en een tijd van gaan". En nu is de tijd van gaan aangebroken.

Dank je:up:

[Anvart]

Опа ... как я вовремя подоспел к раздаче ...
Надеюсь многие ошибки 0.94 версии исправлены ...
Thanks.
Good luck.
:salute:

[keltos01]

We'll miss you Skwas. If you ever drive by Belgium you are always welcome for a beer and a lunch ! (just pm beforehand)

I was so into using .094 that I didn't notice your release of 0.99 !

thanks again for this beautiful tool and all the help you provided. :yeah:

keltos

[sergbuto]

skwasjer,

As a modder since the start of SH3 decoding, I can indeed understand the amount and degree of work you 've done and truly appreciate your efforts. You get my respect for keeping going under any circumstances. Congratulation on well executed project.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Thanks for everything, good luck to you in your future endeavors :yep::up:

[AVGWarhawk]

:up: Skwasjer! Good luck sir!

[Carotio]

Thank you, skwas http://www.silenthuntermods.com/forum/Smileys/extended/bow1.gifhttp://www.silenthuntermods.com/forum/Smileys/extended/clap1.gif

[Wilcke]

S3D is probably the greatest single contribution to the modding community. Thank you sir!

[THE_MASK]

Thanks for all your hard work , cheers , sober out .

[nautilus42]

Thank you for your great Tool, it`s the best Moddingtool in the net:up::up::up:. Good luck to you!

greetz

nautilus42

[Anvart]

I repeat here too ...
Yes, export/import mesh with mesh animation works well ...
As example ...
I exported existing flag (with "animation") from stock SH3 flagS.dat... imported in 3D Studio Max 2009 all 25 objects...
Scaled flags (25 objects) in three directions using different values ... then exported 25 objects
from 3D Studio Max 2009 and then imported model and "animation" in dat-file with a flag. All OK.
...
It is inconvenient, that it is impossible to import "animation" to a file where there is no model...

[skwasjer]

It is inconvenient, that it is impossible to import "animation" to a file where there is no model...

I understand but I struggled with this to make it work (due to internal S3D code paths). So I chose to always require a model as it was just easiest to implement. The whole animation portion was a quite complex bit of code. It could be made easier in UI, but due to time constraints I had to accept this 'nuisance'...

It's not a big problem though. You can quickly set up a temp node, with an empty model and the materials, do the import and then just remove the temp chunks again for those situations where you need it, but you already figured that out. :up:

[Anvart]

...It's not a big problem though.
Yes, of course ...
You can quickly set up a temp node, with an empty model and the materials, do the import and then just remove the temp chunks again for those situations where you need it, but you already figured that out. :up:
Yes, i do it ...

[I'm goin' down]

I think I am at the right place. I have a 3 50 deck gun. How can I speed up the time it takes to load a new round? Once I have made the adjustment, do I convert it to a mod and how do I that?

[tater]

Why is S3D not sticky? Single most important/powerful tool ever. Anyone new needs to see this on page one.

[Donner]

Stickied...as it should be! :ping:

[skwasjer]

Neal moved/grouped a bunch of stickies into a single thread. That said, most of the other threads get way more discussion that S3D ;)

[tater]

I missed the group sticky, and I'm an old hand.

The reality is that members are frequently answering FAQ type questions for noobs. Having them find the Swiss Army Knife (these days I suppose "Leatherman" might be better) of SH tools easily should be a priority in the mods forum.

<S>

tater

[ivank]

Thank you for your hard work. The Surface Warfare Super-Mod Team is forever in your debt.

[TwinStackPete379]

Ihope you guys can help. I only got a taste of s3d before something very strange happened. So i have s3d gimp and the internet up and running. I'm browsing for textures and i accidentally get one of those "your comp is infected" things, except i can't get rid of it, can't X out alt+f4 won't work and this thing is trying to box me into saying ok. so i do a hard reset while gimp, s3d and the internet are up. i restart, everything is fine except, now, when i try to open s3d i automatically get a "s3d has encountered a serious error and must sut down" error message. i tried uninstalling/reinstalling many times, no go. i tried uninstalling, repairing and defragging the registry, then reinstalling...nope still get the error. i did a windows update then installing again, nope...same error message. anyone have any ideas?:cry:

[skwasjer]

What OS do you have? If Vista/Win7, then open this path:

(Start > Run) %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local

and delete the folder named 'skwas'.

This will reset S3D to default settings. Probably the config file got corrupted during the reset.

[I'm goin' down]

I am pretty good at the game. But I do not know a thing about making mods, etc. Where is the best place to start. Where is the best place to learn about S3D. I have no idea what the posters are talking about. Maybe I do not have enough experience with computer technology.

[skwasjer]

Check out my (and other) tutorials (both video/text):

http://sh4.skwas.net/docs.aspx
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=138983
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=154550
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=135177
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=142615

[TwinStackPete379]

The reality is that members are frequently answering FAQ type questions for noobs. Having them find the Swiss Army Knife (these days I suppose "Leatherman" might be better) of SH tools easily should be a priority in the mods forum.

<S>

tater[/quote]

Well said Tater, I'm as noob as you get with all this stuff. I have a ton of questions, but i try my best not to bother ppl with unless i'm truly at a dead end. Skwas just helped me the other day, because i was hopelessly lost (if he hadn't i would have been sunk for a while). A centralized easy to tear apart knowledge base would be awesome.

[ETR3(SS)]

I've come across an odd error while using JSGME in conjunction with S3D. This error has occurred since the V2.3 update of JSGME. What's happening is when I open a file using S3D to work on a mod, and then attempt to enable/disable the mod via S3D, JSGME attempts to make a new MODS folder in the S3D root folder. If I open JSGME before opening S3D, it works fine. I've made a post in the JSGME V2.3 thread as well.

[jf3000]

I am trying to work out how to decrease the load time of the torpedo but I can't seem to find the correct file, can someone shed some light on which file I am supposed to change, please. Thank you.

[peabody]

I am trying to work out how to decrease the load time of the torpedo but I can't seem to find the correct file, can someone shed some light on which file I am supposed to change, please. Thank you.

Well, I would suggest you don't bury your question inside another thread, easier to get an answer if people find the question.

Make a backup of the file before you try anything. Using Silent 3Ditor (S3D) open data/submarine/"Subname.sim" '
Open the wpn_Subtorpedosys and in the right hand window "Property Tree" find the "Rooms" open that with the +sign. Find Fore or Aft and open that and you will find "loadtime" change the value.

Peabody

[jf3000]

Thank you, I only have one last question, the subs hull, where can I find how much damage it can take?

[keltos01]

Thank you, I only have one last question, the subs hull, where can I find how much damage it can take?

in the subname.zon file in the sub directory

keltos

[broken999]

Hello my name is Toni and I am Italian, I do not write very well in English.
I read the discussion, but I do not know where I can get useful information for building ships and other 3d.
Seeking information, manuals for building .... where can I get?
Thanks
Toni

[jf3000]

Is there an option to change the amount of torpedos you actually get plus the torpedos with the red heads how can I change from a basic explosion to larger like nuclear?

[Wilcke]

Is there an option to change the amount of torpedos you actually get plus the torpedos with the red heads how can I change from a basic explosion to larger like nuclear?

Do a search for Rockin Robbins, sub nuclear torpedo mod. Then you can open up his files with S3D and see what he changed.

Happy Hunting!

[etheberge]

Well I hate to bother you guys with a basic question like that but my forum search skills have failed me on this one.

How do I get all the parts of a model to show up in the model viewer? Specifically turrets/guns on warships? Do I have to somehow import other nodes to be able to see them?

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=103&pictureid=718

Basically I just want to load up warship models with all the parts showing in the viewer, I don't want to modify them or anything. I just need to take screenshots of the full ships for a mod I'm working on.

Keep in mind I'm just starting out with S3D so if you could keep your answer to noob level I'd appreciate it :-)

Thanks for any help,

[iambecomelife]

Well I hate to bother you guys with a basic question like that but my forum search skills have failed me on this one.

How do I get all the parts of a model to show up in the model viewer? Specifically turrets/guns on warships? Do I have to somehow import other nodes to be able to see them?

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=103&pictureid=718

Basically I just want to load up warship models with all the parts showing in the viewer, I don't want to modify them or anything. I just need to take screenshots of the full ships for a mod I'm working on.

Keep in mind I'm just starting out with S3D so if you could keep your answer to noob level I'd appreciate it :-)

Thanks for any help,

I don't think there's a solution. If I need a screenshot of a ship with all its parts I usually import the model & skins into wings3d, along with the turrets etc and place the subparts in the correct positions.

[etheberge]

I don't think there's a solution. If I need a screenshot of a ship with all its parts I usually import the model & skins into wings3d, along with the turrets etc and place the subparts in the correct positions.

Bummer. I thought I was just missing something really stupid.

I took a quick look at Wings3D and it's way over my head for now, plus what you're describing seems like a lot of work for a screenshot.

I'll try to think of another way to get what I need.

Thanks a lot for the reply :yeah:

[skwasjer]

Indeed, S3D only loads 3D objects from the local file. All 3D objects that are referenced from libraries are never loaded. It would make S3D as an editor too heavy for it's purpose (I would need to scan all game files in library folders for relevant objects)

[iambecomelife]

I wanted to know if anybody has successfully managed to import triangulated .obj files using wings3d and S3ditor? S3ditor won't import any obj files unless I use the triangulate function in wings3d, so that all the 3d model faces are triangular. This seems to affect the number of vertices in the uv map, so that once I try to import the triangulated 3d model I get an error message about missing vertices about 75% of the time. This has been a major problem with my attempts to mod ships.

Thanks to anyone who can help me out.

[Nisgeis]

This seems to affect the number of vertices in the uv map, so that once I try to import the triangulated 3d model I get an error message about missing vertices about 75% of the time. This has been a major problem with my attempts to mod ships.

Can you import channel one OK, but not channel two?

[sergbuto]

I wanted to know if anybody has successfully managed to import triangulated .obj files using wings3d and S3ditor? S3ditor won't import any obj files unless I use the triangulate function in wings3d, so that all the 3d model faces are triangular. This seems to affect the number of vertices in the uv map, so that once I try to import the triangulated 3d model I get an error message about missing vertices about 75% of the time. This has been a major problem with my attempts to mod ships.

Thanks to anyone who can help me out.

See if the following proceedure makes it work in your case.

Open the triangulated .obj file with Wordpad or similar editor. Choose Replace menu and replace

//

for

/1/

Replace All. Save and try to import to SH3.

[keltos01]

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/7941/nataleo.jpg (http://img13.imageshack.us/i/nataleo.jpg/)

I love those bells ! a very nice thought Skwas !

Merry Xmass and Happy New Year

keltos

[skwasjer]

:D

Happy holidays everyone :woot:

[Anvart]

:D

Happy holidays everyone :woot:
Similarly!
...
:oops: Sorry... How about Skeletal animation and Skin morphing features for S3D?
Or it will be necessary to write own executed code for this purpose...?

[skwasjer]

How about Skeletal animation and Skin morphing features for S3D?
Or it will be necessary to write own executed code for this purpose...?

I have stopped working on S3D about 5 months ago as you know (and boy do I enjoy the free time ;)). While I do have a portion of code ready for skeletal animations I can't release anything that works because I only know roughly 60-70% of how this data is stored in the files. It's actually the only real missing thing of the DAT-file specification to me. I could find it out over time, but I really don't care to...

Even if I have the specification 100%, it is just way to much work to finish in reasonable time because I also need to introduce a new 3D-file format that supports skeletal animations.

So yes, you will need to write your own code/tools for it.

That said, if you ever have code (and the full file specification written down) or an application ready, then perhaps I can include it with S3D's installer so you have a complete toolkit.

[Anvart]

OK.
Don't see prob's...
Theme is closed...

[skwasjer]

A hexeditor, patience and alot of time. None of these 3 I have right now :D

I don't remember well where I left of, it's been over 9-10 months since I looked at this. I remember I had found out how the bone structure was stored, but missed info on matrices and the weights of each joint (or perhaps the latter I did find out, don't remember). The big thing is putting it all together how the timeline is built with all the animations/poses, the transformations of each bone, etc. I have all kinds of parts but not the big picture due to missing info/understanding of some key areas of these chunks, stuff like relationships etc. I have spent hours upon hours finding links/relationships between the chunks (id's and stuff) but constantly ran into a wall... I would find out eventually but have no further interest.

If you find out, then perfect, but I really don't see me spend a whole big deal of time on it, especially since SH5 has a new animation engine (based on freely available tools I'm told by Dan).

[keltos01]

just checked the towers : they all have the "obj_conningtower" in the .sim ????
what does it do ?

it caused CTD in two of our subs..




keltos

[Celloplayer5]

can i get the link to download SH3editor? plz thanks

[Nisgeis]

can i get the link to download SH3editor? plz thanks

The download info is in the first post of this thread here http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=608770&postcount=1

Make sure you read all the extras you need to download first!

[keltos01]

Peabody just showed me how to use the play anim button in S3D :oops:

I had never seen that before, cool !

but :

Skwasjer you said ? that one could flip faces that showed the wrong side up in S3D ?

how ?

it seems everytime I export from 3DS and import in S3D some faces get flipped, not always but often..

thanks

keltos

[skwasjer]

- Reverse face winding

:yeah:

[Murmur]

Good program!
I can`t understand one thing, how export ship model to 3dsmax in one piece?
When I open model in S3D, I see many nodes - part of model (SH3).
I use search, but not find solution.
Its possible?

[Murmur]

No chance? :dead:

[pontius]

No, I don' think so.
I think you have to export all *obj and place them in you 3D-Software.

-pontius

[skwasjer]

There's no batch function. I've never been able to due to time...

[Rubini]

Hi skwasjer,

Some hours ago I was moding sh3.sdl with last S3D and noted that when i exit the game I got an error (winxp point to sound.act). After some hours trying just small modifications on any sh3.sdl using S3d (just to try to found the bug) i noticed that the problem just go away when i deleted the first entry that S3d put on the sh3.sdl, the one that s3d uses to identify it´s version, etc.

I tried with all my sh3 installations and even with stock unmodded sh3 and the problem and the solution was always the same: the problem remains on the first entry forced by s3d. Note that the problem is present even if you load the game and just exit, without made anything more. It also happens after I played a SM. The interesting is that I didn´t noticed this problem before.:hmmm:

Any idea?

Cheers,

Rubini.

[keltos01]

do you know why there always seem to be flipped faces when importing to and from 3D Studio Max into S3D and vice-versa ?

more than annoying...

regards

keltos

[Nisgeis]

Never had that problem. How are you exporting the models? Have you got any 'optimize' options turned on? Try turning them off.

[urfisch]

we definitely need s5d...please consider to continue work, skwas.

:)

[skwasjer]

No, no and no. Not going to happen. Unless you get all 10000 users - who are eagerly using my 2-year work for free - to pay up 20 EUR each, so I can make it my dayjob.

You know, since my last release (summer 2009), where I more directly asked for donations through a 'nag' screen at first launch of S3D, only 4 people decided to do so (that's 9 months ago). It's not so much I want the money, but it is an indication to me of how unappreciative many users are... I am not wasting more time on this project, especially with Ubisoft screwing up with SH5/DRM.

[Mikhayl]

I made great use of S3D, I did donate 15 or 20€ sometime in 2008 I think. Disappointed almost nobody bothered, without this tool the amount of "game changing" mods wouldn't even near 1/10th of what it is today, every mod user should consider it, not just S3D users.

Yet people rush to shell 50$/50€/28£ for some unfinished crippleware with gimmicky modding tools that lack crucial functionality. When people realize that they'll have to shell $12.500 to have a real modding tool for SH5 maybe they'll understand the gift that S3D is :)

[Smartcom5]

[…]
You know, since my last release (summer 2009), where I more directly asked for donations through a 'nag' screen at first launch of S3D, only 4 people decided to do so (that's 9 months ago). It's not so much I want the money, but it is an indication to me of how unappreciative many users are...
[…]

For sure, it's a real shame … I fully support and understand your attitude since i'm also a [let's say] spare-time coder. ;)
Besides that, S3D actually reads almost every kind of files [since SH V is actually SH IV; on filetypes and files for sure], so i don't know why you should renew S3D or implement some new fileformats or something similar … :arrgh!:

In this sense

Smartcom

[virtualpender]

I'm not a user of S3D but I recognize that all of the mods I enjoy wouldn't be possible without all of your hard work. I just donated 20 Euros ($28 for us in the US) and I hope some others will see this and do likewise.

Here's a link to access the PayPal donation box:
http://sh4.skwas.net/downloads.aspx

Thanks again, Skwas.

[urfisch]

No, no and no. Not going to happen. Unless you get all 10000 users - who are eagerly using my 2-year work for free - to pay up 20 EUR each, so I can make it my dayjob.

You know, since my last release (summer 2009), where I more directly asked for donations through a 'nag' screen at first launch of S3D, only 4 people decided to do so (that's 9 months ago). It's not so much I want the money, but it is an indication to me of how unappreciative many users are... I am not wasting more time on this project, especially with Ubisoft screwing up with SH5/DRM.

10.000 people should pay 20 eur each? ...;)

seriuosly. i understand you very much. what sum you want to be reached...we might get this solved, with a donations run. please tell me...as we modders in sh5 need this tool! 500 euros? 1000 euros? lets get this started...

:yep:

it really pisses me off, we need to mod this game to a state, that is acceptable - i know. but you must admit, the graphics and the potential of this game is enormous...things are possible, we ever dreamed of in sh3 and sh4.

so, which amount would you make continuing work. its not, you would have to rewrite the whole program, dude. there are things need to be changed...but this might be not that complex. but tell me...and leave an amount, we need to get you back to work.

:salute:

best regards
the fish

[skwasjer]

Thanks vp, appreciate it.

My last post wasn't really a cry to get people to donate though. I never really opened my mouth about it (except for the nag screen), I'm fine with it, what I've done and the fact it's free. But that's that. I'm finished it. It's a bit annoying that I 'should just make it compatible' without people really realizing how much time was involved in making S3D.

I just don't have much free time to continue making it compatible with SH5. There's new controllers, new file-formats, and especially the .gr2 fileformat is a pain in the ass (proprietary undisclosed file format). Basically, I'll be looking at another 6 months to a year of development on several nights a week. I don't have the energy to do that anymore. I have to make a living too huh? ;)

That said, S3D remains free in it's current form as long as it doesn't cost me money (it has cost me some dev-tools, and now only hosting), and anyone willing to donate is free to do so. No obligations. Just don't ask for more :p

[skwasjer]

10.000 people should pay 20 eur each? ...;)

seriuosly. i understand you very much. what sum you want to be reached...we might get this solved, with a donations run. please tell me...as we modders in sh5 need this tool! 500 euros? 1000 euros? lets get this started...

:yep:

it really pisses me off, we need to mod this game to a state, that is acceptable - i know. but you must admit, the graphics and the potential of this game is enormous...things are possible, we ever dreamed of in sh3 and sh4.

so, which amount would you make continuing work. its not, you would have to rewrite the whole program, dude. there are things need to be changed...but this might be not that complex. but tell me...and leave an amount, we need to get you back to work.

:salute:

best regards
the fish
I totally agree that SH5 has great potential, but 1000 euro's = 2 days work for me (I am freelancer with lots of overhead in software tools, etc). In 2 days, I can get nothing done.

Of course 200K is a bit over the top, I was merely saying that 10000 people use S3D and 20 euro's isn't exactly much for what you get is it? But again, I was just making a point.

But calculate with me: S3D has taken me roughly 1500 hours... This is just a rough guess. At a VERY low rate of 20-30 euro an hour, that adds up to 30K-45K. So basically I lost 45K minus some 500 euro's in donation - in total - while making S3D... Think about that, each time you start it up.

You may think it's not alot of work to make it compatible with SH5, but I can tell you it is. But urfisch, really, the point isn't the cash. I just don't have much time. I'm seperated since one year, have a son to raise, looking for a new house and have two businesses to run... I'm kindof tied up you see :hmmm:

[urfisch]

i invested round about 500 hours (with learning stuff, etc.) in modding sh3 and 400 hours in subwolves...and also never had a cent out of it. mostly this is modding for...doing things for free, right? and personally i think every time about the work the modders have done, when using such stuff...i am also a modder!

;)

i also worked as a freelancer and know exactly what you are talking about. even i have no son and no house to look for...etc. but please consider to take a look at the file structure of "baza_fx.dat" this is the effects file and i the effects extremly need to be modified! as i know how this stuff works with the particles, this is my mod wish. but i cannot do anything without an editor to change the controllers, add new ones, etc.

and your tool reads the data nicely, but only to the controllers. you will see what i mean, when opening it. instead of controller properties, theres just "data type byte" written...as s3d dont knows the whole file structure of the new dats.

just take a look and define some kind of time you would need...is that possible?

:)

:up:

[skwasjer]

Seeing that you need S3D so badly, you would not have been able to do your 500hr modwork if I hadn't done the gruntwork...

Besides, it's not the point, I never asked for money, prosecuted people that 'forgot' to include a credit notice to S3D (while creditting everyone else), nor am I an attention whore seeking praise of the entirety of the SH-community. S3D is what it is, free and finished. I have no further interest in working on S3D, and I have reached a point that my time isn't worth it any more:
But urfisch, really, the point isn't the cash. I just don't have much time. I'm seperated since one year, have a son to raise, looking for a new house and have two businesses to run... I'm kindof tied up you see :hmmm:

[urfisch]

yes, your tool was very handy, even most of my time i edited 3d and 2d data without s3d, just used it for import. later i used it quite often to modify the particle effects.

YES, YOUR TOOLS WAS THE CLUE FOR MODDING of SH3! And it should be the clue for sh5 as well...but...

ok, understand. if pleasing and the perspective to get you working againg with a donations run is not that interesting for you...ok. you have no time...what a pitty!

:cry:

but i have a last wish, as you are my last hope - even the devs can not help me. please do not deny...

please look into the baza_fx.dat with your tool and tell me, how much work it would be for a guy, who can code, to modify the tool - so it can read/save the [byte] phrases (especially particle controllers!) well again. my feeling is, that it cant be so much additional work, as 90% of the dat is read properly!

but i am no expert, you are.

:)

[skwasjer]

Does it matter? I have no idea how much time is involved but my controller parser can't deal with SH5 right now properly because some controllers that exist in SH3/SH4 have been updated and some new ones are introduced. I need to add new controller definitions without interfering with the older definitions much like you see two menu's now in S3D for both SH3/SH4. The controller definitions themselfs aren't the problem, but updating my parser is. This alone takes at least a few days. Then there's other problems that would need to be resolved as well, it isn't just with the controllers. You may think it fully supports dats, but how can you be so sure? For all I know it has some new bits and bytes in some places that S3D doesn't understand, saving the file causing it to go corrupt or worse, make a file work but unstable. THen there's the obvious lack of support for 3D files (gr2), which is a huge problem. So I need to test many files, then I need to update my installer, website, etc. And I don't like doing half work anyway, so it isn't going to happen.

You could try changing the controller definitions yourself. Check out \controllers folder. Make a mod for S3D...

Donations are always welcome btw, but please don't use it as an incentive to 'get me to do more stuff'. I find that a bit of an insult.

[urfisch]

thanks a lot for this answer...

this is promising, as long facing the facts. i simply do not have any coding skills and just looked into the controller files. thought: you must be kidding...meaning ME to change it. i sincere would love to be able to!!!

cause then:

i wouldnt have to crouch around on my knees to bag for some help on the new dats here and could do everything on myself.

:shifty:

...

now, i guess. you take your time...and maybe rethink this in a quite, calm moment. maybe you can change your tool or maybe not. i can just ask for help, nothing else.

:(

[VonHesse]

I just wanted to say thank you , Skwasjer. That's it. Thanks for S3D.

I got it about a month ago, and have been trying to learn how to use it, and all the cool things it does. I have to admit that when I first got it, I was so excited to get to modding that I ignored the "donation" popup with the intention of donating later (no internet on my gaming computer, anyways). Then I got so busy modding that donating slipped my mind entirely.

Seeing your recent posts, and realising that I too had neglected to donate made me ashamed of myself:nope:. Well, donation sent. You've earned every penny, and if I had more to give, you would have earned that too.

Thanks again, and sorry it took so long. :salute:

[skwasjer]

Hey thanks VonHesse, appreciate it.

Urfisch, I hope you see it's not that I don't want to support SH5 or that I don't want to help you. I like the game, and would like to help if I could. But supporting SH5 is just too much work. I will be more of a player, and will support Luke's to-be-made mod (and obviously I will help other's where I can), but that takes not as much time as developing S3D further. I'll be in the backseat this time around... Now, let's put this to rest.

Regarding the controller-templates. They are not that difficult. Just open goblined, take a look at the controllers in there, and translate that to a template. For a ParticleGenerator you can compare it to S3D's included template, and update it to work with SH5. In most cases for existing controllers, just few new entries need to be added. The only thing to keep in mind is that it will no longer work with SH4/SH3 then (you'll get the byte[xx] data), because you can't define seperate templates for SH5, like I have for SH3/SH4. You can work around this by copying S3D's install folder, and change the controllers in this copy (just know you can't run two S3D's at the same time).

[urfisch]

yes, skwasjer...thanks for the answer.

appearently i managed to modify the templates a bit - you where right its not that complicated. but i just can add a new top layer entry (e.g. new "depthtestbias" under the "depthbias") for sh5, but what if the new entry needs a sub entry? e.g. there is a new entry called "timetostart" and it needs 2 sub-entries - delay and variation, etc.

http://d.imagehost.org/0882/particle_mod2.jpg

?

;)

and there are so called "entry" labels for the single bitmaps you define...which where former called 0, 1, 2, etc. can i just leave them the way they are in s3d?

http://i.imagehost.org/0654/particle_mod3.jpg

thanks a lot!

[skwasjer]

The 'entry' labels are the same as the indexes in S3D [0], [1], etc.

For delay and variation you would create a new class, adorned with a SHType-attribute and then just dump in the two floats. Look at the rest of the controller templates for examples. It's all in there...

[ensign bob]

I REALLY appreciate all the hard work you put into S3D, without it the game would be collecting dust on the shelf somewhere. Thank you to all who worked on this great program. :yeah: :yeah:

[urfisch]

The 'entry' labels are the same as the indexes in S3D [0], [1], etc.

For delay and variation you would create a new class, adorned with a SHType-attribute and then just dump in the two floats. Look at the rest of the controller templates for examples. It's all in there...

really? i looked yesterday...and cannot find these classes defined somewhere. any specific file i would have to look into?

thanks!

[slestat]

skwasjer (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/member.php?u=230811), i'm a progammer with lot of years behind me, i have a kid too and I can understand you in a very perfect way.

Years go away, time escapes with them,
but our passion is alive until the last day of our lifes.

Thank you very much indeed,
S3D was by far a very helpfull friend to me.

Good luck.
(sorry if i make english grammar mistakes, i usually speak another languaje)

[skwasjer]

Understood perfectly fine, thanks :up:

[Royale-Adio]

Hi. I just want to know how to add INTERNAL torpedo reserves on a sub that hasn't got any.

Thanks

[urfisch]

i felt free to build a beta release for new particle templates ;) in the sh5 mod section.

but what really annyoing is, to replace all existing particle controllers by hand. the parser needs an update...but this is definitely nothing i can do...

;)

[Royale-Adio]

anyone care to answer?

[Nbjackso]

In the cameras.dat file, which camera, (node) is used for the US sub control room when the game first loads? I want to change the starting viewpoint.

[Bubblehead1980]

So I would like to use this tool to fix a few things in SH 4/TMO such as making magnetic detonators even less reliable, and changing some other things. Any tutorials? Where is the latest version? using vista.

[aergistal]

I'm having some issues with the OBJ export in 0.9.9. Even if I select the top-most parent the 3d viewer displays only a partial mesh when the 'Show only selected object' is enabled. And that is exactly what gets exported, a partial mesh without the masts etc.

It looks like it's not exporting all the child-nodes. Am I doing something wrong?

edit: this happens with SH4 models

[Nisgeis]

It looks like it's not exporting all the child-nodes. Am I doing something wrong?

You're not doing anything wrong, you have to export each seperate object individually.

[skwasjer]

As Nisgeis indicates, there's no batch import/export function due to limitations in the OBJ-file format. Each model must be exported seperately.

[aergistal]

Thank you both for your answers. Don't know why but I was almost sure it worked in a previous version.

I'll just import the pieces separately and reposition them according to the node info.

The software is excellent. Many thanks skwasjer!

[JoeCorrado]

Probably already asked and answered but this is a huge thread and rather than spend hours looking;

Can somebody tell me how to match ammo to the gun. I am wanting to modify the damage done by the 25mm_single_barrel_Jp machine gun (AA) so that it does less damage.

I found the weapon listed in the Guns_radars.dat file, but I don't know which ammo to adjust in the shells.zone file.

Can anybody help?

[Nisgeis]

Open up guns_radar.dat (or file 2) and find the gun you want. Copy the ID of the top node for that gun.
Search (CTRL-F) for that ID in guns_radars.sim (or file 2) to find the wpn_Cannon node that corresponds to it.
Open up the wpn_Canon node underneath it and copy find the type of ammo you are looking for (large guns have only one type). The value is under wpn_cannon.ammo_stroage.AP.shell (or instread of AP, HE or AA). Copy that ID value.
Open up shells.zon and search for that ID.

[JoeCorrado]

Thanks for your help! :salute:

[Madox58]

@Skwasjer,

I'd like the ability to run two open applications of S3D.
One modified for SH5.
The other running stock to compare SH3/4 files to SH5 files.
Aside from running 2 systems, can this be done?

[Ducimus]

Dumb question. Probably a very basic question, and i'm sure the answer is easy, and i could find it on my own if i give it enough time, - but i have much to go through, and it would be a super time saver if someone could just tell me.

Anywho, what would cause an object that was transparent in SH3, to appear black in SH4?

[Madox58]

A misplaced assignment to a texture would cause this.

[Ducimus]

That occured to me (black almost always means missing texture). The textures in this case were still located in the dat, and the resource node not calling on an explicit texture. So i'm sitting here scratching my head. I even replaced the texture with another one. No effect. Maybe it's opacity. I dunno.

[Madox58]

Check the opacity and the diffuse color, specular color.
Also check the UnifiedRenderController settings.
Depending on what you are trying to implement?
There may be a secondary TMAP that's looking for an AO map.

EDIT: OK.
I see what you want to do.
I believe there is a setting in his files that demands a certain file.
SH4 does not need that setting.
It's a call to an explicit TGA file.
I'll look it up.

[Madox58]

Under the Image TGA file is a setting for Ambient Occlusion
that calls a TGA file.
It's a Green box thingy.
Try removeing that.

[Ducimus]

EDIT:

Thanks again for the help.

[Ducimus]

Under the Image TGA file is a setting for Ambient Occlusion
that calls a TGA file.
It's a Green box thingy.
Try removeing that.

Thanks, ill keep that in mind if i run into more problems.

[Madox58]

The UnifiedRenderController and other settings (Roster cgf) call the AO in SH4.
So it's not needed in the dat.
Only in SH3.
:salute:

[Bubblehead1980]

any tutorials around on how to use S3D? Would like to learn.

[Nuc]

any tutorials around on how to use S3D? Would like to learn.

http://s3d.skwas.com/docs.aspx

[ancient46]

The installer can't find InstallUtilLib.dll and rolls back. I have installed the XP .net framework to 3.5 and the file is there in the v2.0.50727 folder, but the installer can't find it. Do I have to move this file to another folder so it can be found by S3D? I tried to reinstall 2.0 but it is now not compatible with the current version and halts.

UPDATE: I downloaded netfx_setupverifier.exe from MS and it did not like my installation. I downloaded the dotnetfx_cleanup_tool from MS and removed all the .net installations on my computer. I then downloaded all of the iterations of .net to 3.5 SP1 and reinstalled them. Ran the verification tool, all OK. S3D installed, problem solved. I hope this helps anyone else that has a problem.

[Madox58]

S3D Version 0.9.9
I open an SH4 val file and the FoamWave shows error?

Anyone have info so I can correct this?

[Jan Kyster]

Which .val file?

Tried a handful here with same S3D version and found no errors?

[Madox58]

Weird but I'm not getting the errors now.
:hmmm:

Perhaps there was a confict in system memory or something.
After makeing changes to some controller files they were not accepeted right off.
Restoreing the original files did not fix the error until
I let the system sit for a few minutes.

[SteelViking]

Ok guys, some help would be much appreciated.

I just reinstalled .NET framework 3.5, and I followed the link provided on the first post to the DX9c managed extension download, and installed that. But I cannot install S3d.

Here is what is happening upon double clicking on the loader:

Notepad pops up and sits there for about 20 seconds blank, and then a bunch of nonsense with a few blocks of actual text. None of the text really means much though.

Does anyone know what is going on here? I am probably missing something painfully obvious.

[Sailor Steve]

Perhaps there was a confict in system memory or something.
Or in your own memory.

Flies in the eyes.
Water on the brain.
Head in the skies.
Missed the 'A' train.

Sorry, couldn't resist. I bought a new toy today, and I'm still giddy.

[SteelViking]

:haha::damn: It was painfully obvious. I was running a way outdated version of Windows installer.

[skwasjer]

@Skwasjer,

I'd like the ability to run two open applications of S3D.
One modified for SH5.
The other running stock to compare SH3/4 files to SH5 files.
Aside from running 2 systems, can this be done?
Unfortunately not. Upon launch of the exe, it checks if an instance is running, brings it to the foreground and shuts down. Additionally, the very first instance that is started dynamically compiles the controller templates to a temp-DLL. This DLL is stored in a fixed place (under your userprofile) and is locked when loaded, so it can not be removed until all running S3D windows shut down (as with any other DLL). This technique makes it impossible to launch a seperate instance, unless I had implemented a dynamic generated filename/path for this DLL. But these are choices made in the past, and it wouldn't be an issue anyway if I would have continued development as I can simply fix it by code. I will try to release one more S3D version with an altered controller engine that supports SH5 next to SH3/4, but it may take a while as I am very busy with RL projects...

[Madox58]

Thanks Mate.
That's what I figured the answer would be.
I have figured out that adding a _SH5 Name Space and moving things around will allow what I want.
:up:

Now, SH5 has a few controllers not in S3D.
Type 10/1000 and Type 10/1001.
(Maybe more?)
So far that's not much of a problem except that you can not add that type.

Any update on a possible fix to address this?
I'm doing alot of work on the S3D files to get it working for SH5.

Ah, you answered while I was typeing.
Fair enuff.

[skwasjer]

You can support most controllers by using the [Optional] attribute, but the downside is the templates get messy and are unusable to add 'new' controllers via S3D's interface for either SH4 or 5. S3D simply doesn't know if it must add a SH5-style controller or a SH4-style controller, but you probably have figured that out already.

And yes, the different subtypes are mostly hardcoded, and not configurable via the templates, so this requires a fix from me. Keep up the good work on the controllers. I will be happy to include portions of it (or improve on them) when I am ready to release a fix.

[Nisgeis]

Privateer, instead of two systems, you could have a simple virtual machine set up and run a modified instance in that.

[Madox58]

Use whatever I do as you see fit Mate.
:up:

I'm sure you'll do a better job then me!
I do have one more question if you have the time.
In the SH5 Sim, ship_color, which is in the Unit_Ship controller.
It's 3 floats to define the color.
So we see:
ship_color 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
It's a float r, float g, float b, structure.
How best to declare this so S3D understands?

[Madox58]

Also.
If we started a new thread for S3D in SH5 Mods workshop?
Would that help to define S3D/SH5 issues?
Goblin is lacking in many areas that S3D excels at.
Hexing is not an option for most (Due to learning curve)
so I would like to push S3D as a better Tool for those modders.
And as I'm working on the files and such for S3D,
it would consolidate things as far as SH5 issues.
Just a thought.

[Madox58]

Privateer, instead of two systems, you could have a simple virtual machine set up and run a modified instance in that.

I wanted to get things as easy for new users of S3D as possible.
(I count myself in that group to an extent)
By doing the _SH5 Name Space the problem is solved to a great degree.
My goal is to create files that allow the SH5 modders to use S3D now.
Until Skwasjer updates needed areas?
It's also my goal to figure out how to work between Goblin and S3D when needed.
So if we want a 10/1000 type controller, Goblin must be used to add said controller.
If infact Goblin adds a type 10/1000 or is that a leftover thing?
Goblin allows no choices in many areas so is sorely lacking!
As a primary tool?
I give it a c-

[skwasjer]

Use whatever I do as you see fit Mate.
:up:

I'm sure you'll do a better job then me!
I do have one more question if you have the time.
In the SH5 Sim, ship_color, which is in the Unit_Ship controller.
It's 3 floats to define the color.
So we see:
ship_color 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
It's a float r, float g, float b, structure.
How best to declare this so S3D understands?
There's no wrapper for this (new) color type. Either use a Vector3 (3 floats xyz) or define a custom 'struct' (not class!) which contains 3 floats r g b. Either works, the latter has the benefit of less confusion. Unfortunately, the built-in color editor can't be used though...

[Madox58]

OK.
I kind of get it.
:haha:
It will just take me actually doing it to sink in.
Thanks very much!
:up:

[skwasjer]

Also.
If we started a new thread for S3D in SH5 Mods workshop?
Would that help to define S3D/SH5 issues?
Goblin is lacking in many areas that S3D excels at.
Hexing is not an option for most (Due to learning curve)
so I would like to push S3D as a better Tool for those modders.
And as I'm working on the files and such for S3D,
it would consolidate things as far as SH5 issues.
Just a thought.
Sounds ok to me. I will make an 'official thread' somewhat later tonight.

[Madox58]

That would be great!
As most of the SH5 Modders don't stray much?
This is a needed area for them.
And the SH4 Modders don't need to be bothered.
(But they are the Masters so maybe they will peek in and offer advise)
:yeah:

[skwasjer]

Here's an example:

[SHType]
public class MinMax
{
/// <summary>
/// Minimum value.
/// </summary>
public float Min;
/// <summary>
/// Maximum value.
/// </summary>
public float Max;
}

With the attribute [SHType] and 'class' for this type, it means S3D (and the game) will expect the 'Min' and 'Max' field names preceding the actual value (followed by nullchar).

public struct MinMax
{
/// <summary>
/// Minimum value.
/// </summary>
public float Min;
/// <summary>
/// Maximum value.
/// </summary>
public float Max;
}

Make it a struct, and remove the attribute, then the field names are not 'expected' and the size of the field is explicit by field type (float in this case). This struct is a mere total of 8 bytes, much less then the first 'class' (at 24 bytes).

[Madox58]

OK.
You should make this (And much more) a part of the Documents on S3D.
:)

Since S3D is written in C#, would formulas (for lack of a better term)
work in add-on files?

Say something like declaring Mylong = Ulong, Ulong, Ulong
(With the correct terminalogy of course)

[skwasjer]

OK.
You should make this (And much more) a part of the Documents on S3D.
:)

Until SH5 there wasn't really a reason to, and since I didn't have much time it never made it into documentation. Perhaps over time. But as I indicated, if I know something (obscure) may help you or anyone and is fairly easy to explain I will support where I can and post how.


Since S3D is written in C#, would formulas (for lack of a better term)
work in add-on files?

Say something like declaring Mylong = Ulong, Ulong, Ulong
(With the correct terminalogy of course)
Yes and no, depends on the situation. And for that reason I'd say it would only make it more complex for others to read (non-coders) if I had mixed different declaration styles.

PS: a shorter notation for nullables btw is to append a ? (question mark) after the type.
'Nullable<float>' is the same as 'float?'

[Travis Reed]

I've run into a peculiar problem while modifying engine RPM (both for surfaced and submerged propulsion). SH4 is not recognizing my changes (and yes, I've made certain the file I've modified is the one it should be using). Instead, it seems to have defaulted the RPM to some default setting, likely based on the stock RPMs for fleet boats...or something else entirely.

I've been tweaking the beta of Silverwolf's Interceptor to make it quieter. My first attempt proved successful. However, further tweaks have caused the issue I'm running into now. I've avoided setting either RPM value to absolute 0 in an attempt to avoid potential issues. Of course, upon encountering the problem mentioned above I tried many things to fix it, including setting both RPMs to 0. No dice. The problem remains. While it's not a huge issue for DDs and such to detect the Interceptor, since it can flat out outrun them, and shoot guided torps at them to boot, I would like to regain the ability to remain undetected.

Does anyone have any thoughts as to why SH4 might be refusing to acknowledge the values I set?

EDIT: Further experimentation has revealed that it's only ignoring the 'eng_rpm' value for the 'E_propulsion'. Setting the 'eng_rpm' on the regular 'Propulsion' seems to still work. Any idea if this is normal behavior?

[skwasjer]

I think you have to ask someone with experience modifying sub characteristics. I've never done that myself :D

[Major Johnson]

Normally I like to read an entire thread before asking a question, but 81 pages is a bit much for me. :DL Please allow me a noob class question. Can this tool edit the keyboard mappings, and if so will those changes be reflected in the F1 help menu that's in-game? Thanks.

[Nuc]

Normally I like to read an entire thread before asking a question, but 81 pages is a bit much for me. :DL Please allow me a noob class question. Can this tool edit the keyboard mappings, and if so will those changes be reflected in the F1 help menu that's in-game? Thanks.

See here for keyboard mapping:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=168297

I believe the help file is a text file you can edit.

[tater]

Skwas, you know what would be a cool feature? A "sim" editor sort of like the "zon" editor mode. Open dat. Open sim. Click a button on model view, then you see sectioned spheres that show the turret objects' arcs of fire a a mesh sphere with sections missing where they cannot fire. Changing the min/max values would redraw the arcs of fire. Would make masking out guns far easier.

[Tessa]

Is there just some problems with the ISP right now, currently I can't download the editor from any links on these pages or the dedicated thread page. Anyone have an alternate d/l location like filefront or wherever that I can get this from?

[SquareSteelBar]

ftp://maikhaas.dyndns.org/Volume_1/Sharing/SH3COMMUNITYMODS/SKWASJAER

[keltos01]

can't access the download anymore, anyone has the version 0.99 posted elsewhere ?

thanks

keltos

[SquareSteelBar]

http://www.mediafire.com/Maik

[keltos01]

is that the link to the s3d utility ?

[skwasjer]

The server went down last night. I have reset the site now.

[keltos01]

The server went down last night. I have reset the site now.

ok ! thought it had crashed for good :wah:

I now have an intel i5 processor, is that 64 bits ?

regards,

keltos

[skwasjer]

ok ! thought it had crashed for good :wah:

I now have an intel i5 processor, is that 64 bits ?

regards,

keltos
Yes it is, but without a 64-bit OS you don't reap maximum benefits.

[keltos01]

right, I have xp pro on my machine, guess it still uses 32 bits doesn't it ?

got s3d downloaded again, thanks ! can't do without it !!!!

regards O Skwasjer Bewan ;)

keltos

[skwasjer]

XP is also available in 64-bit. Whether you have that I can't say but if you don't know yourself chances are you don't. Check 'Properties' of 'My Computer'.

I must say that 64-bit XP isn't as good as Vista/Windows 7 though, stability/driver issues are common. Vista was better but I still had minor issues. Windows 7 64-bit is very stable, fast and no driver issues at all (although experiences may differ from system to system).

[Mescator]

XP is also available in 64-bit.

It's labeled as XP64 though. There's no home/pro version. If he's running XP Pro it's 32bit.

[skwasjer]

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/default.mspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP_Professional_x64_Edition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP_editions#Windows_XP_64-Bit_Edition

You are talking about the Itanium release...

The x86-64 XP version 'is' labeled 'Pro'. :DL

But you are still a bit right, there is no 'Home' edition...

[Gerald]

Yes it is, but without a 64-bit OS you don't reap maximum benefits. It has helped me many times in different context,to what extent can I use the S3D, when I run the linux-based app? :hmmm:

[skwasjer]

I don't quite follow you... S3D is a windows-app. :)

[Mescator]

You are talking about the Itanium release...

The x86-64 XP version 'is' labeled 'Pro'. :DL

But you are still a bit right, there is no 'Home' edition...

Aha! I stand corrected. Well played good sir. Seriously though, it's labeled as 64bit as well, so if it lacks that your probably on 32bit ;)

[grim9892]

I download that program and i whant to make a u-boat and i dont know what to do next. I have look on the interenet about the program and found no instucion on how to yous the program. Can anybody tell me how do i yous the programa or give me a website that i can go to figuir it out and i have bin on the main website and look? So can anybody help me ?

[Gerald]

I don't quite follow you... S3D is a windows-app. :)when I'm doing some projects sometimes

[Bubblehead1980]

Fooling with UStorpedo.sim to change the dates on the pistols to be more historically accurate.Duds will persist until September 1943 as in RL.Now in the pistol that becomes active that day for Mark 14 I want no duds but plenty of prematures if set to magnetic.I set the premature chance HIGH but it has the the setting "magnetic=false" so does this mean the magnetic detonator does not work at all, even if turned on in game or that its just not the default? I want it so magnetic is never reliable as was in RL but does work in game if selected after September 1943, want this because Fremantle boats did not disable them until January 1944.I plan to release a mod

So if leave magnetic set to false, itll leave default pistol to contact but if magnetic is selected it works and will be unreliable as set via S3D correct?

[skwasjer]

Afaik, if you set magnetic=false, the magnetic pistol setting is 'disabled', so you can only use the impact pistol...

As far as tuning reliability of torpedoes, I am definately 'not' the man to ask ;)

[keltos01]

Afaik, if you set magnetic=false, the magnetic pistol setting is 'disabled', so you can only use the impact pistol...

As far as tuning reliability of torpedoes, I am definately 'not' the man to ask ;)

Glad to hear from you Skwasjer !! so you haven't deserted us ! you just do your God's job : watch from above ! ;)

regards

keltos

@Bubblehead : ask Elanaiba directly, maybe he can help.

[skwasjer]

I am not really active no... I don't have much interest left and am much too busy with other projects. I visit every now and then to reply to PM's and posts, but that's about it, so yes, I watch from above :O:

[LukeFF]

Fooling with UStorpedo.sim to change the dates on the pistols to be more historically accurate.Duds will persist until September 1943 as in RL.Now in the pistol that becomes active that day for Mark 14 I want no duds but plenty of prematures if set to magnetic.I set the premature chance HIGH but it has the the setting "magnetic=false" so does this mean the magnetic detonator does not work at all, even if turned on in game or that its just not the default? I want it so magnetic is never reliable as was in RL but does work in game if selected after September 1943, want this because Fremantle boats did not disable them until January 1944.I plan to release a mod

So if leave magnetic set to false, itll leave default pistol to contact but if magnetic is selected it works and will be unreliable as set via S3D correct?

If I'm understanding your questions correctly:

1. 'Magnetic=False' means the magnetic detonator will be permanently disabled in game for the time period specified in the file.

2. You can add a new set of dates with the Add Array item command. I did this with RFB, so that I could disable the magnetic detonator before September 1943 but keep the awful contact detonator settings up to the end of September 1943.

I've worked with these files a lot, so let me know if you have any more questions.

[Bubblehead1980]

If I'm understanding your questions correctly:

1. 'Magnetic=False' means the magnetic detonator will be permanently disabled in game for the time period specified in the file.

2. You can add a new set of dates with the Add Array item command. I did this with RFB, so that I could disable the magnetic detonator before September 1943 but keep the awful contact detonator settings up to the end of September 1943.

I've worked with these files a lot, so let me know if you have any more questions.

Thanks Luke, I figured that is how it worked.I actually did the "add array" thing so could keep the awful contact pistol until September 43 but lose the magnetic in June 43 in TMO RSRD. What day in September did you set it to, if you remember?

Does RSRD change torpedo files or just left to mods like RFB and TMO? I didnt see any US torpedo files in RSRD so assume it does not.

[LukeFF]

Thanks Luke, I figured that is how it worked.I actually did the "add array" thing so could keep the awful contact pistol until September 43 but lose the magnetic in June 43 in TMO RSRD. What day in September did you set it to, if you remember?

I set the 'expiration' date for the awful contact pistol for 29 September 1943, as the first boat to head out on patrol with the fixed contact pistol did so on 30 September 1943 (Barb, from Pearl Harbor, sailed with 20 torpedoes fitted with the fixed contact detonator).

Does RSRD change torpedo files or just left to mods like RFB and TMO? I didnt see any US torpedo files in RSRD so assume it does not.RSRD doesn't touch anything with the torpedo parameters.

[Bubblehead1980]

I set the 'expiration' date for the awful contact pistol for 29 September 1943, as the first boat to head out on patrol with the fixed contact pistol did so on 30 September 1943 (Barb, from Pearl Harbor, sailed with 20 torpedoes fitted with the fixed contact detonator).

RSRD doesn't touch anything with the torpedo parameters.


Thanks for the info.

So just to clarify, if the pistol is set as magnetic=false, the mag detonator does not work in the game correct? Even if player switches it on in game? Always thought mag detonator worked when you switched it on.

[LukeFF]

Thanks for the info.

So just to clarify, if the pistol is set as magnetic=false, the mag detonator does not work in the game correct? Even if player switches it on in game? Always thought mag detonator worked when you switched it on.

Correct. The magnetic detonator will not work, even if the player switches it to that setting.

[Bubblehead1980]

Correct. The magnetic detonator will not work, even if the player switches it to that setting.


Cool. What files usually deal with the dive alarms? I would like to change the crash dive alarm to the standard dive alarm(crash dive alarm is annoying, prefer the standard as it was in stock for both regular and crash dive) this is for TMO but usually in same paths so.

[ZigmundFreund]

I download that program and i whant to make a u-boat and i dont know what to do next. I have look on the interenet about the program and found no instucion on how to yous the program. Can anybody tell me how do i yous the programa or give me a website that i can go to figuir it out and i have bin on the main website and look? So can anybody help me ?

There is some explanations here: http://s3d.skwas.com/docs.aspx but I admit it is scarse and this thread is scary ginormous to say the least.

So far I just did some modification on .dds files and previewing the result in the game with nothing else than DDS converter and Gimp. I'm ready for the next level but what a jump to take.

As far as I understand S3D is a specialized application to work in between SH4 and 3D modelers. 3D modelers I can search for that but...

Could it be possible to refer some links, info on where to find disembiguation for the very basics? for example; Defining what the different chunks do and their hierarchy.

We just need enough info so we can stop endless research, start destroying things and eventually be able to help you in serious modding.

Maybe a new [TEC] sticky or something?

For virgins like us it's getting hard to get the startup info to get involved.

I know I should've been there four years ago but I wasn't. Now I have the kick and time to do it and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. Something tells me a lot of modders would love to have some help for the repetitive tasks...

[skwasjer]

I don't really have time to explain basics, perhaps someone else can, but this thread is interesting for sure for newcomers:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=154550

[ZigmundFreund]

I don't really have time to explain basics, perhaps someone else can, but this thread is interesting for sure for newcomers:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=154550

Very interesting indeed, thanks! I didn't find this thread so you've already made my day or should I say my week. I totally understand you have other things to do and I think it's obvious you've done more than enough already. Maybe if I bribe you for it...?? ... come on Skwasjer PM me your price hehe...:arrgh!:

Hopefully someone else here will work on some explanations. the only thing I can do right now is to comment on the (TUT) thread after going through it so maybe someone can complete what is left blank there.

Think about it guys, you need more brains/hands to get your super mods out? You need some over-enthousiastic wannabes like me. Below is what I found in this thread about starting to write this bible. I'm posting it again as a refresh for the suscribed:

Yes, a tutorial of all the types of chunks is a very good one as it will help understanding the fundamentals, and I think many modders would love such a document. I'll be happy to provide any input needed from my end.

How about a controller table, where each controller is briefly explained? Not so much each and every property, but just a quick reference guide.

I want to also do some walkthroughs of the UI, but I think this is best done as a video tut, like I've done in the past. Seeing certain actions and tricks done in a video says more than a written tutorial, and it tends to stay longer in memory.

And along the line, some more advanced tuts, like working with keyframe animations (specifically quats is a black box to 99% around here I guess), mesh anims, etc.(...)

The next S3D has a built-in quat calculator (I've been using it cpl of months ago extensively on the fan blade mod ;)...), however, it is still wise to discuss rotation animations in a tutorial, because things like 181 degrees animation must be defined in 3 keyframes as opposed to 2 keyframes, or how do you rotate 360 degrees, or other tricks like I used in my fanblade mod.(...)

[Ducimus]

Is there a D/L mirror anywhere? I can't get skaws site to load.

[polyfiller]

Ducimus - what are you looking to download ? I can mail Skwas for you and also have the install files for S3D .... although given the amount of modding you've famously done ... I'm guessing you've already got it ;-)

I think I did download some of SKWAS' video tutorials at some point ... I'll have rummage around ... just let me know what you are looking for.

[Ducimus]

Was looking for the latest version of S3D (0.99?). I uninstalled in a couple months ago, and didn't keep the install file handy.

[Gerald]

http://s3d.skwas.com/

[polyfiller]

I thought that Duc was having a problem with the website .... seems to be up and available to download today .... but if you still have problems, I have the installer somewhere.

[Jan Kyster]

Was looking for the latest version of S3D...http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z15/subject_rod/smilies/heartbeat.gif

Holding breath... http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z15/subject_rod/smilies/munching_out.gif