[WIP] - Japanese Merchants for SH4 & SH3

[iambecomelife]

I made a large British freighter the other day and I realized that if it was shrunk it could be used to make several generic Japanese freighters. Two of them are almost finished and I am planning a third that will look similar but will have the superstructures closer together. Ideally I would like them to be useable for both SH3 and SH4. These skins are early war but it will be easy to create grey and green camo skins for Spring 1942 - Summer 1945.

ONI-208-J and similar manuals are really useful for finding out ship shapes. Many of the merchant classes were very similar - it can be tough to make each one visually interesting on its own.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/Mit1-1.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/Mit2-1.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/AL3.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/AL1.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/Manu1.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/Manu2.jpg

[kriller2]

Looks good, I have waited for you to make some better merchants for SH4 :up: knowing your nice work from SH3 modding forum :yep:

[McHibbins]

Yeah !! The Merchant-Master of SH3 is here ! Great :D

[tater]

Woot!

tater

[AOTD_MadMax]

Oh yes iambecome, this is really great. :up:
You know, i love you ...........

Cant wait to get it !

Greets

Maddy

[Ducimus]

Those ships are beautiful. It would almost be a crying shame to put a torpedo into one of them! :up:

[CCIP]

Woot!

tater

same thing! :D

I've been tempted to message you a few times and ask if you were planning to convert some applicable merchants from your work to SH4 - but I figured you had your hands full enough with the Merchat Fleet for SHIII...

REALLY glad you came over here and are working on this too :)

[DeepIron]

Really excellent work! I'm with Ducimus, it would be a pity to torpedo them, they look so good... But I could get over it! :up:

If you don't mind me asking, what are you using to model these in?

[THE_MASK]

Step this way:lol:

[LukeFF]

Good, good, good!

[Jimbuna]

You can never have too big a selection http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/9026/wolfthumbsuprw5.gif (http://imageshack.us)

[Jace11]

Will you be able to add the caustic effects, the overlay and normal maps too..?

It would be nice if they had all the same effects as the existing ones so they don't look out of place.

Things I think are difficult...

1. Caustics - think this is just a dat file edition
2. Overlay - I have no idea how they are generated to look as they are, but the alpha is just the basic Texture file in greyscale.
3. Wakes etc, imported ships often have huge wakes - think this is an easy fix too... just dat editing and making nodes etc.
4. Reflections - ???
5. Interior damage model -????

[iambecomelife]

Really excellent work! I'm with Ducimus, it would be a pity to torpedo them, they look so good... But I could get over it! :up:

If you don't mind me asking, what are you using to model these in?

They are all modeled in Wings3d.

Will you be able to add the caustic effects, the overlay and normal maps too..?

It would be nice if they had all the same effects as the existing ones so they don't look out of place.

Things I think are difficult...

1. Caustics - think this is just a dat file edition
2. Overlay - I have no idea how they are generated to look as they are, but the alpha is just the basic Texture file in greyscale.
3. Wakes etc, imported ships often have huge wakes - think this is an easy fix too... just dat editing and making nodes etc.
4. Reflections - ???
5. Interior damage model -????

I do not know how to add these things because I usually don't work on SH4 ships. Later on, I may browse the SH4 forums for any posts on the conversion process.

[thasaint]

::rolls out the red carpet::
1 word... WOOT!

[AVGWarhawk]

Once again...superb work and looking forward to some variety of surface skimmers to sink. :up:

[DeepIron]

They are all modeled in Wings3d. Wow! I've used Wings for a few years now and it's the modeler I always go back to. I must say though, your skill with it is really first class. :up:

Did you use the UV mapping in Wings as well?

[iambecomelife]

They are all modeled in Wings3d. Wow! I've used Wings for a few years now and it's the modeler I always go back to. I must say though, your skill with it is really first class. :up:

Did you use the UV mapping in Wings as well? Actually I never UV map my ships - I have found that Pack3d never accepts my changes when I try. The part of the hull with the company name displayed is actually a deckhouse from the stock Liberty Ship model.

[DeepIron]

They are all modeled in Wings3d. Wow! I've used Wings for a few years now and it's the modeler I always go back to. I must say though, your skill with it is really first class. :up:

Did you use the UV mapping in Wings as well? Actually I never UV map my ships - I have found that Pack3d never accepts my changes when I try. The part of the hull with the company name displayed is actually a deckhouse from the stock Liberty Ship model.Very cool... I was working on some auxilliary vessels, barges, patrol boats and small coastal freighters last year with the anticipation of getting thm into SH4. As the SH4 .dat format is different than that of SH3 and we're unable to import the new material for the time being, I set my work aside...

Then accidently deleted it thinking I had a backup... :damn:

[iambecomelife]

They are all modeled in Wings3d. Wow! I've used Wings for a few years now and it's the modeler I always go back to. I must say though, your skill with it is really first class. :up:

Did you use the UV mapping in Wings as well? Actually I never UV map my ships - I have found that Pack3d never accepts my changes when I try. The part of the hull with the company name displayed is actually a deckhouse from the stock Liberty Ship model.Very cool... I was working on some auxilliary vessels, barges, patrol boats and small coastal freighters last year with the anticipation of getting thm into SH4. As the SH4 .dat format is different than that of SH3 and we're unable to import the new material for the time being, I set my work aside...

Then accidently deleted it thinking I had a backup... :damn:

I feel for you. Once I almost lost about 80% of my Merchant Fleet Mod work b/c of computer problems. I pulled an all-nighter and managed to save the mod using a new installation of Windows ME (I then transferred the salvaged files to XP). NOT a nice experience.

[rascal101]

Hi there IAMBECOMELIFE,
I wanted to ask if there is any progress re your Merchant Fleet mod, I've been waiting for this for ages and wondering if its still on the cards and if I should still await the mods release. The next upgrade for GWX is due soon and I'm hoping your incredible merchant skins will be a feature or at least compatable.

Regards
J

I made a large British freighter the other day and I realized that if it was shrunk it could be used to make several generic Japanese freighters. Two of them are almost finished and I am planning a third that will look similar but will have the superstructures closer together. Ideally I would like them to be useable for both SH3 and SH4. These skins are early war but it will be easy to create grey and green camo skins for Spring 1942 - Summer 1945.

ONI-208-J and similar manuals are really useful for finding out ship shapes. Many of the merchant classes were very similar - it can be tough to make each one visually interesting on its own.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/Mit1-1.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/Mit2-1.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/AL3.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/AL1.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/Manu1.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/Manu2.jpg

[LukeFF]

Hi there IAMBECOMELIFE,
I wanted to ask if there is any progress re your Merchant Fleet mod, I've been waiting for this for ages and wondering if its still on the cards and if I should still await the mods release. The next upgrade for GWX is due soon and I'm hoping your incredible merchant skins will be a feature or at least compatable.
Dude,

Show some courtesy to the rest of us and don't repost iam's images in your quoted text. It's unnecessary and takes up space for no reason at all. A PM works just as well, especially considering your question isn't even related to SH4.

[McHibbins]

I Think it´ll be damn hard job to add new ships to SH4 even more to make them compatible to all these mods outside. Try, what you´ve done for SH3 before. Keep up the good work Skipper:up:

[DeepIron]

I Think it´ll be damn hard job to add new ships to SH4 even more to make them compatible to all these mods outside.Actually, there has been quite a bit of work done in this and we're only missing a couple of key components, both of which are being worked on currently.

It's only a matter of time true believers...:up:

[iambecomelife]

Hi there IAMBECOMELIFE,
I wanted to ask if there is any progress re your Merchant Fleet mod, I've been waiting for this for ages and wondering if its still on the cards and if I should still await the mods release. The next upgrade for GWX is due soon and I'm hoping your incredible merchant skins will be a feature or at least compatable.
Dude,

Show some courtesy to the rest of us and don't repost iam's images in your quoted text. It's unnecessary and takes up space for no reason at all. A PM works just as well, especially considering your question isn't even related to SH4.

These ships actually are part of the MFM progress. I am releasing them for both SH3 and SH4. There has been a tremendous amount of progress made compared to the first version I submitted to the beta testers - nearly every freighter and many tankers have been revamped thoroughly. I am also developing a new, SH3Commander-friendly way of changing skins as time goes on - this can also be used to adjust parameters like tonnage, ship durability, and average top speed as the war progresses. At first I was conflicted but now I'm glad I didn't make the beta tester's version the release version.

[tater]

Necro-bump!

As you can tell from a raft of necro-bumps, I'm getting jazzed on jap merchants again...

A couple hundred bucks worth of new books probably has something to do with it :)

[Jimbuna]

Necro-bump!

As you can tell from a raft of necro-bumps, I'm getting jazzed on jap merchants again...

A couple hundred bucks worth of new books probably has something to do with it :)

Okay, I'm interested...what books have you been buying?

[Sailor Steve]

This is indeed great! I can run them without problem in SH4. Well, the ones that have been imported already, anyway.

Will you be able to add the caustic effects, the overlay and normal maps too..?

It would be nice if they had all the same effects as the existing ones so they don't look out of place.

Things I think are difficult...

1. Caustics - think this is just a dat file edition
2. Overlay - I have no idea how they are generated to look as they are, but the alpha is just the basic Texture file in greyscale.
3. Wakes etc, imported ships often have huge wakes - think this is an easy fix too... just dat editing and making nodes etc.
4. Reflections - ???
5. Interior damage model -????
Jace, you're one of the legends around here, though we haven't seen you in awhile. Maybe you could take these and do that work. Or teach me how to. I also want to see the animated crew on the new ships, and don't know how to do it.

[tater]

Crew is trivial.

Open dat with s3d, add some P nodes if they don't exist. Add SH4 animated guys with the eqp file to the P nodes (or any other, really, the nodes don't seem to care :) ).

[tater]

IABL, in another mod you made some trawlers. The F02B bears a striking similarity to a VERY needed ship for the pacific, the Sea Truck.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d54/iambecomelife/Tra4.jpg
http://members.spinn.net/%7Emerrick/Stuff/SD2.jpg

The primary large difference is that they were gaff rigged to sail. Easily solved I think (dump the sail texture altogether, or furl it in the texture).


And the F01B looks like a Steel Sea Truck:
http://members.spinn.net/%7Emerrick/Stuff/SCS1.jpg

This would be a cool addition.

[keltos01]

nice trucks !

[tater]

I have a DL called USSRUnits, and inside is a NDE_BH1.

I think the author is Vaa? (the readme is in russian).

Any way to get a hold of him, it looks pretty close (with a little work) to a few jap subchasers (Cha-103 type of which there were 7)

[ivank]

Those ships are beautiful. It would almost be a crying shame to put a torpedo into one of them! :up:

Key word being ALMOST

[McHibbins]

*bump*