[REL] Merchant Skinpack v1 [Archive] - SUBSIM Radio Room Forums

sergei

09-08-09, 01:50 PM

A set of skins to replace those used for all freighters, tankers and troop transports.

Works with Stock, TMO 1.9 and RFB.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: TMO 2.0 has v2 included. If you are running TMO 2.0 you do not need this. I'll leave it here in case anyone is still running 1.9.

I can't figure out how to add images to the forum :doh: so here are some image shack links

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/4150/akita1.th.jpg (http://img171.imageshack.us/i/akita1.jpg/) http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/5003/hakusika2.th.jpg (http://img168.imageshack.us/i/hakusika2.jpg/) http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/4932/haruna1.th.jpg (http://img35.imageshack.us/i/haruna1.jpg/)
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/9154/horai3.th.jpg (http://img41.imageshack.us/i/horai3.jpg/) http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/2082/kiturin2.th.jpg (http://img6.imageshack.us/i/kiturin2.jpg/) http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/2430/nippon3.th.jpg (http://img179.imageshack.us/i/nippon3.jpg/)
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/412/taihosan2.th.jpg (http://img89.imageshack.us/i/taihosan2.jpg/) http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/369/zinbu1.th.jpg (http://img89.imageshack.us/i/zinbu1.jpg/)

If you like the look of any of these then give 'em a try.

Screenshots of every skin included in the download so you can weed out the ones you hate!

Download link
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=1329

VERSION 2 NOW AVAILABLE

No new skins I'm afraid. But a smart suggestion by McHibbins led to this.
Included now are revised roster files.
Rather than replacing all the stock skins, version 2 now has my skins as additions.
Get all stock skins plus all my skins in the game.
Twice the fun, at no extra cost. :DL

Version 2 for TMO 1.9 (with or without RSRD)
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=1644
IMPORTANT UPDATE: TMO 2.0 has this included. If you are running TMO 2.0 you do not need this. I'll leave it here in case anyone is still running 1.9.

Version 2 for RFB 2.0 (with or without RSRD)
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=1643

I'll knock up a version for stock if anyone wants it.

Hitman

09-08-09, 03:02 PM

Excellent! Downloading now :up:

Fish40

09-08-09, 03:28 PM

They look good to me:yep: Need confirmation on compatability with RFB though. Just out of curiosity, is there any historical basis for these? Just asking:hmmm: They look better than stock, and I doubt the stock ships were painted historicly anyway. Good job!

AVGWarhawk

09-08-09, 03:33 PM

These are very nice. I like what you have done with the skins. :yeah:

sergei

09-08-09, 03:41 PM

Hey Fish!

You are right about the RFB compatability issue.
I've had a quick look at the RFB Sea and Roster files and it looks ok to me - but I've never done anything like this before (I'm p*****g in the dark to be honest with you) so would appreciate anybody with more knowledge than me (ie. anyone!) to check this out.

As for historical basis - I'm afraid this skinpack has absolutely zero historical basis. I did many google searches but all the images I came up with were in mono. I was just tired of continually sinking Marus that looked like scrapyards so I changed them to something a bit more aesthetically pleasing. I like bright colours, many other people may not.

If anyone can supply me with colour pics of WW2 Japanese Marus then I am game to give it a go. Until then - this is what I got!

keltos01

09-08-09, 05:03 PM

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/369/zinbu1.jpg (http://img89.imageshack.us/i/zinbu1.jpg/) http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/zinbu1.jpg/1/w1024.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img89/zinbu1.jpg/1/)

just paste imageshack's link in here.

good job !

keltos

lurker_hlb3

09-08-09, 05:09 PM

Very nice work:up:

Distortion

09-09-09, 06:12 AM

Thanks m8, very well done!!

Pumpkin

09-09-09, 06:18 AM

These look great. :woot:

I'm downloading them now...

captgeo

09-09-09, 06:49 AM

:yeah::yeah:very nice work:salute:

Fish40

09-09-09, 08:17 AM

Don't know if this will help you: http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geu.abpKdKAKsA025XNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTByamlqaW9 mBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMwRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkAw--/SIG=1337tm3m4/EXP=1252587035/**http%3a//smg.photobucket.com/albums/v641/H-44/Actual%2520Ship%2520Marine%2520Art/ It said "actual marine art", so I thought they might be drawings of actual Marus. By the way, has anyone tested these with RFB yet. I want to try them, but I don't want to be a Guinee Pig either:haha:

Sailor Steve

09-09-09, 12:49 PM

Looks good. The generic appearance of the stock ships has been one of the biggest complaints about SH4.

etheberge

09-09-09, 02:36 PM

Wow, great job Sergei.

My favorite from the ones you posted is the green Taihosan, I can't wait to sink that baby :-)

Thanks for the mod.

sergei

09-09-09, 04:56 PM

Hi Fish

Earlier today I created another SH4 install. Enabled RFB 1.52 then the skinpack.
Checked out the museum and everything seems to be where it is supposed to be. Did career starts in Pearl, Manilla and Brisbane - no problems noticed.
I'd say you're good to go mate :)

Oh thanks for the link btw.

iambecomelife

09-09-09, 07:40 PM

Nice skins. According to some photos & text accounts the Japanese kept some ships in their civilian colors up until 1942, around the time of the Guadalcanal campaign.

Fish40

09-09-09, 08:42 PM

tater

03-20-10, 03:30 PM

Actually, the "stock" nature of the skins in SH4 would not really be much of a problem had they picked the right skins, lol.

The prewar japanese merchant marine effectively was divided roughly into thirds before the start of the war. The IJN took a third, the IJA took a third, and a third remained commercial ships.

2/3 then, got military paint on them, and many of the remaining 1/3 as well, I think most after some point in 1942.

The RL colors tended towards greenish gray, or outright light green with many sporting dazzle paint in IJN/IJA service.

The palette seems to have been a darker green, lighter green, dark gray ("battleship gray," or darker), light gray (like "haze gray"), black, and white.

Images below from Iwashige's excellent site (his book is great, too, though I cannot read most of it :) ):
http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/modellist.htm

Gray:
http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/kinugasamarumod.jpg
(IJN aux transport)
Most all oilers early in the war had been commandeered by the IJN, and took gray paint. I saw 1 in Iwashige's book that was green.

Dazzle:
http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/zenyomarumod.jpg
(IJA transport)

Green:
http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/kazuuramarumod.jpg
(IJA transport—note the dazzle paint on the inset image)

http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/hitachimaru04mod.jpg
wartime standard merchant ship (not sure who she belongs to, they came from the yards in this paint, though, I think).

Overall, I like variation, but it should IMO be somewhat rare, and really rare by 1943.

The green and dazzle paint would be the neatest thing to see :yep:

I tried some reskins, but clearly I lack your skill, sergei, cause I gave up quickly in utter frustration.

tater

03-20-10, 05:13 PM

Here's a sample page from the excellent book I referenced. There are hobby stores that sell it for around $45. It's worth every penny.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o222/tatersw/Shipping/mdg22989_1.jpg

Note the color chart in that image, BTW.

Another thing is that the ships were heavily armed by SH4 standards, least the IJN/IJA ships. Even in 1942, the Nagara sized units were far more heavily armed than Nagara is.

cdrsubron7

03-20-10, 07:29 PM

Very nice job, sergei. Shooting at merchants that look the same all the time is kinda boring. So far, these skins are working very nicely with RFB. :up:

McHibbins

03-20-10, 07:40 PM

Is it possible to make this as an addition like the "merchant variety pack" once for SH3, not only as an replacement ?

sergei

03-21-10, 01:29 PM

Sorry Tater, I totally missed your posts in this thread.
There hadn't been any activity on this thread for months, so I stopped checking on it a while back.
Some very interesting stuff you have posted here, and some very good pics.

Unfortunately, as we have already discussed, the dazzle camo is beyond my ability to do. Unless we can find someone who knows how to edit the occlusion maps, we're stymied on that one.

However, I would be happy to redo the skins to be more in line with what you have posted.
Keep about a third of my civillian skins in there for the early part of the war.
Do the rest in a mix of greys and greens, with maybe the civillian skins being phased out as the war progresses.

Thoughts? :DL

EDIT: Oh yeah, and remove the kanji from the ships that have them. I thought it was super cool when I first did it. Now it just annoys the hell out of me whenever I see one.

sergei

03-21-10, 01:33 PM

Is it possible to make this as an addition like the "merchant variety pack" once for SH3, not only as an replacement ?

Just to clarify, you mean the game would have all the stock skins plus my skins for all ships?
If so, then yes, entirely possible.

tater

03-21-10, 02:03 PM

I'd certainly be willing to help.

Really, with the roster files all that matters is that there be a lot of skin choices (is there a max number?) and then have almost all end with certain cfg dates.

Alternately, all the "civilian" schemes could be given pre-war cfg dates. They'd have to be specifically chosen in the campaign then to show up, unless the campaign used default cfgs.

IJN paints:
http://www.shipcamouflage.com/images/Ijn2_sheet.jpg

Looks like most prewar schemes had all black hulls (with stripes, etc). Some have a hinomaru on the side, too (I tried that once myself, hard to do).

tater

03-21-10, 02:11 PM

Many of the dazzle schemes are shades of gray, some are greens.

I think the O-map method can work, but ideally via some sort of template that would allow painting something that looks like a ship, THEN breaking it into all those tiny bits.

Perhaps spraying the paint on a 3d model in some modeling app?

Dunno how that works, it's way out of my league.

sergei

03-21-10, 02:27 PM

Dunno how that works, it's way out of my league.

Mine too I'm afraid. And I don't have access to any 3d model apps.

I don't think there is a max number of entries in the roster file for the skins.

Give me a couple of days. I'll take one ship type and knock up some skins for it.
A few civillian with black hulls, and also one in grey and one in green.

I'll post screenies back here to see what you think.

McHibbins

03-21-10, 06:23 PM

Just to clarify, you mean the game would have all the stock skins plus my skins for all ships?
If so, then yes, entirely possible.

All stock + yours
Sounds good man :up: Now I´ll have to find out how

virtualpender

03-21-10, 08:54 PM

Woohoo! Good news. Can't wait to see the additions. Thanks Sergei and Tater.

tater

03-21-10, 11:25 PM

Ugh, now I need another japanese book for the library.

$200. Ouch.

I'll have it by next weekend :)

McHibbins

03-21-10, 11:49 PM

Ugh, now I need another japanese book for the library.

$200. Ouch.

I'll have it by next weekend :)

And $100 for the translation ? :D

sergei

03-22-10, 08:36 AM

All stock + yours
Sounds good man :up: Now I´ll have to find out how

Sorry McHibbins, I didn't actually mean 'Yeah sure it's possible, now you go figure out how to do it!' :DL
I can knock it up today, just requires some tinkering with the roster files.
I just wanted to make absolutely sure of what you meant before I started work.
Should be ready tomorrow.

sergei

03-22-10, 12:48 PM

McHibbins see PM please.

tater

03-22-10, 01:17 PM

From Iwashige's page on paint:

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/~iwashige/camouflage.htm&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhgi971sNtRWtiv1ujRF7rv5uASB9w

Japanese marchantships were applied gray-pattern camoufrage from the start of the Pacific War. Hull and all structures were gray (stated to blend small amounts of blue but appeared to seen almost mere newtral-gray), and each deck was dark gray (wooden deck was not painted). But the regulation was not applied strictly.Many cases were knew that the deck were not covered with gray, left there anti-rust painted.

sergei

03-22-10, 03:46 PM

Good find. That is a really interesting read Tater. :DL

I had another look at the tex files today, and there may be couple of hulls where I can get a camo or rudimentary dazzle effect to work.
In most cases though, we are going to have to settle for a single colour paint scheme.

So what are we thinking now? Mostly grey skins?

EDIT: Just remembered. If you are going to be buying that 200 dollar book, it makes sense to defer any decisions until you've had a chance to look at it :DL

sergei

03-22-10, 04:53 PM

Version 2 now available.
Has my skins as additions, rather than replacing the stock skins.
Twice the fun at no extra cost :DL

See updated first post for download links.

TH0R

03-22-10, 05:04 PM

Thanks! Downloading now.

tater

03-22-10, 05:40 PM

Well, I have a few on the japanese merchant marine already.

The alternate skins you have will certainly work as pre-war paint on civilian ships—nearly 1/3 the total jap tonnage. As the war progressed, they were haphazardly switched to gray. Looks as if many of the greens were later in the war, but IJA ships show it earlier (the fact that the Imperial Japanese ARMY had a large navy of its own is pretty interesting, actually—though the US Army was similar, the US Army was in fact in the top 5 navies on earth at some point, lol)

Any ship in an invasion convoy was likely gray, camo or green—weighted towards the first 2 I think.

tater

03-22-10, 05:49 PM

Wow, skimming Iwashige's book The Visual Guide of Japanese Wartime Merchant Marine, in his chapters on invasion convoys (listing every ship for each) show the models, and fully 50% have some sort of disruptive scheme.

McHibbins

03-23-10, 12:35 AM

Downloading at once ! Fantastic work mate :salute:

sergei

03-23-10, 07:20 AM

Something along these lines?
Large images coming up.

Civvy Street

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/9379/civvy1.jpg

http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/214/civvy2.jpg

Grey Days

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/7203/grey1.jpg

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/3151/grey2.jpg

http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/515/grey1f.jpg

http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/3151/grey2.jpg

Meditations In Green

http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/3328/darkgreen.jpg

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/1294/lightgreen.jpg

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/1793/2tonegreen.jpg

Bear in mind these are not finished skins, they each require a bit more work. The greens especially I feel are too vibrant. I need to desaturate them a bit.
And I haven't changed the decking from model to model.
But is this the sort of mix we are looking for?

McHibbins

03-23-10, 08:06 AM

Wooot :rock:

Nice Grashoppers out there. I think we´re going to need more Paral instead of Torps, eh ? :D

Just joking ! Amazing job, mate !!!

sergei

03-23-10, 09:58 AM

The new skins will come with a free supply of this :DL

http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/8559/deet.jpg

Seriously - they won't end up that bright. The green skins will have their saturation knocked way down.
What you see here is just a few quick numbers I whipped up this morning so I could visualize how the tex file applied the colours to the hull.

McHibbins

03-23-10, 10:05 AM

:har: :rotfl2: :har:

BTW : left this Thread open on my desktop while visiting a costumer. My secretary asked me if there are red or pink ones around when I returned to office ( woman...........)

virtualpender

03-23-10, 11:05 AM

Sergei - is there anyway to make the green more of a grey-green similar to what Tater posted in Post #17?

tater

03-23-10, 11:29 AM

Cool.

When I was mucking around with the % %$@#!$#@! O-map for my erzatz Coast Defense ships and IJN DDs (shadows were on wrong sides of moved objects, etc) I decided it would be nigh on impossible to do Dazzle paint using the O-map file alone.

I'd really need to load up the whole model in a 3d program, then redo the O-map entirely.

At first I planned on taking all the bits off the O=map, and putting them as 1 are per layer in a file, then move the layers around so that it looked like a ship. THEN I would paint, THEN move the layers back where they belonged in the O-map. It was way too frustrating and I gave up.

I'm welcome to gettin' learned by someone with more 3d skills (which is to say ANY 3d skills).

sergei

03-23-10, 11:50 AM

Have updated the pics in my above post.

The grey ships I was trying to go for a slightly blueish grey, and a slightly greenish grey. I don't think I went far enough, it's really difficult to tell the difference.

The green hulls, whilst still not quite there yet, are a lot better than my first efforts I think.

The light green one looks a bit too minty. :DL

You're right about the O map problem.
In order to get the dazzle to work I think we'd need new O maps for each ship.

Help anyone? :DL

virtualpender

03-23-10, 12:32 PM

Sergei - the grey variants all look perfect. As for the green, I vote for either the second or third version.

I really appreciate you taking this on - this is going to be a great fix.

tater

03-23-10, 12:40 PM

All the rust, etc is in the o-map as well, right? I might be inclined to have a less rusty version of many as well. IN the South Pacific, they got rusty fast, largely from lack of supplies, though paint was apparently short period.

sergei

03-23-10, 01:30 PM

All the rust, etc is in the o-map as well, right?

That's right.
Take another look at my grey hull, pics 1 and 2.
That is actually the same skin.
The difference is for version 2 I knocked back the O map by about 30%

Could do that with all of them, its real easy, and just requires a little additional roster edit.

Could work out quite well for us. Give us 2 or 3 variations without changing the base colour too much.

McHibbins

03-23-10, 01:49 PM

OT :

Just noticed the reflections on the water (ships).
Is that W_Clears Environment mod ? You´re using TMO as Supermod, right ?

sergei

03-23-10, 01:56 PM

Just straight TMO 1.9.
So the environment is whatever env mod Ducimus used for TMO.

Fish40

03-23-10, 07:42 PM

This is gonna be good!:up:

sergei

03-24-10, 08:26 AM

Note to self.
Alter the roster files so these skins don't show up on friendly ships.

cgjimeneza

03-24-10, 08:43 PM

thanks mate, good looking targets

McHibbins

03-25-10, 05:33 AM

Ok, met them ingame and they´re looking even better than on the screens.
Love the markings on the funnels :up:
Are you going to enlarge your Mod or even make one for UBM+OM ?

sergei

03-25-10, 06:50 AM

The next step is what myself and Tater are working on.
The mixture of civilian and grey skins at the start of the war. The civ skins being slowly phased out to be replaced by grey. Then later in the war the green paintschemes start showing up.

A version for UBM+OM?
Dunno at the moment.
This project is already snowballing into a lot of work.
Plus there are so many new ships in OM with their own really good skins that you won't really need this I think.

AVGWarhawk

03-25-10, 09:18 AM

These new colors and skins look wonderful. BTW, this work is not wasted. Someone made a dazzle skin for a vessel, the God honest truth, the damn vessel blended in with the cloudy background of the sky. It was part of a convoy and just about plowed me down. Looking forward to these skins! :up::rock:

sergei

03-25-10, 09:31 AM

Oh man, I wish I knew how they had done that.
Neither Tater nor myself have had any success trying to make one.

AVGWarhawk

03-25-10, 07:18 PM

Whatever the case I just downloaded TMO version :yeah:

virtualpender

04-03-10, 01:12 PM

Sergei - not to pester you but just wanted to see how it was coming. I'm really looking forward to this updated release.

sergei

04-03-10, 02:06 PM

Gimme another week or two.
Should have it wrapped up by then :DL

cdrsubron7

04-03-10, 02:43 PM

Gimme another week or two.
Should have it wrapped up by then :DL

Looking forward to your new release. Your mod has really added another dimension to the game. Excellent work, sergei. :salute: :yeah:

virtualpender

04-03-10, 08:41 PM

Excellent! Thank you.

Armistead

04-09-10, 09:30 PM

Great job, love all the new skins, makes you feel like you're shooting different ships.

McHibbins

04-12-10, 11:45 AM

Any news sergei ? Are you still working on this great mod ?

SteveUK

04-14-10, 04:19 PM

Just found and installed this mod - dazzle skins!!!

Just sunk my first Hog Island Type A looked so nice as it was going down :DL

Amazing work really does help the immersion element - thanks this is great :yeah:

TH0R

05-01-10, 05:58 AM

Any ETA on the final release?

sergei

08-08-10, 06:51 AM

The Merchant Skinpack is no more.

But The Japanese Merchant Marine is about to take its place.
It has a much broader scope than originally planned.

Myself and Tater have been hard at work behind the scenes for several months now.
Expect full details soon.

Teasers

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/6267/biyociv03aociv01.jpg

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/1979/biyogrey02.jpg

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/4849/biyogrey01dazzlegrey01.jpg

http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/9963/biyogrey01dazzlegrey03.jpg

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/3117/biyogrey01dazzlegrey04.jpg

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/7111/biyogreen01dazzlegreen0.jpg

http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/8895/nightconvoy.jpg

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/1636/convoy3.jpg

Sorry 'bout the delay folks.

cdrsubron7

08-08-10, 09:34 AM

It just gets better and better, looking forward to the new release, guys. :salute:

Sailor Steve

08-08-10, 09:46 AM

Very, very nice! :sunny:

mobucks

08-08-10, 10:17 AM

well done!

virtualpender

08-08-10, 07:15 PM

Wow!!! I'm so glad you were able to get the two-tone green camouflage measure working. Looks amazing.

Will you guys include Tater's resized smaller flags?

Thank you so much to both of you for continuing to make the game more realistic and immersive.

tater

08-08-10, 07:24 PM

The flag mod is trivial, I'll release that separately on the off chance anyone actually likes the stock flags. I might make another version with the flag turned entirely to alpha channel, too, so you can scrag the lot of them.

Heck, maybe I'll zip it up tonight for ya.

Right now the trick with the skins s getting the civilian skins to show up in an appropriately rare way (they should be very rare, IMO, though I'm open to contrary evidence).

tater

08-09-10, 10:49 AM

If I get permission from the Battle for the Baltic guys, we can use this:

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o222/tatersw/SH4/kitbash_2d.jpg

Looks very much like a Japanese Standard Type 2D (particularly after I scaled and altered the model ;) )

virtualpender

08-09-10, 11:01 AM

I know I'm getting dangerously close to just brown nosing, but seriously, Tater - that looks awesome, resized and with the smaller flag.

Do you guys have a ballpark ETA on these?

Any word from IABL if he is OK with you borrowing his trawlers?

tater

08-09-10, 11:17 AM

I posted about it on his thread, need to check. Think I PMed, too, but my box is rather more full than I'd like, and I keep some old PMs "just because" and that keeps it full (some PMs with Dave, etc :( ).

tater

08-09-10, 11:48 PM

The upcoming mod is more than a skinpack, BTW (as totally great as that would be, frankly, it's hard to test and not take a million screen shots <S> Sergei ).

It will include more variability in merchant appearance aside from the paint---though frankly the paint will wow you so much you won't notice the rest.

Some new gun platforms---note that the stock game had the searchlight platforms armed with AA guns (Nippon). Yeesh. Many armament changes will become obvious as well. Some ships will be less armed, some will be considerably MORE armed.
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o222/tatersw/SH4/nippon.jpg

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o222/tatersw/SH4/platforms.jpg

A pretty picture (you can see a hint of a tarp on the forward well deck of Nagara):
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o222/tatersw/SH4/convoy_dusk.jpg

JoeCorrado

08-10-10, 03:58 AM

Looks great! Looking forward to the release with much anticipation! :rock:

Mescator

08-10-10, 11:04 PM

Sent one of these to the bottom last night. Was almost a shame. Absolutely gorgeous.

Props mate.

tater

08-11-10, 09:54 AM

@$#@% Kinposan Maru.

It'd be nice if they had made it look, I dunno, ANYTHING like the real thing.

It's amazing how many of the "official" ships in SH4 are just weak kitbash efforts.

/rant

tater

08-11-10, 01:26 PM

Kinposan is starting to look like a real ship. Heck, she even looks a little like Kinposand Maru now :)

Pics soon.

sergei

08-11-10, 01:52 PM

Kinposan is starting to look like a real ship. Heck, she even looks a little like Kinposand Maru now :)

Ooh, that sounds intriguing.
Looking forward to it.

tater

08-11-10, 02:04 PM

I keep seeing really cool Kinposan paint jobs and I was thinking what a shame she didn't actually look like, you know, a SHIP. :)

I added a deckhouse on the island, but I'm having AO troubles with it.

tater

08-11-10, 02:30 PM

POS stock Kinposan (someone at ubi must have looked at it, then said, "put some piles of cargo around, maybe no one will notice it is the buzyun hull redecorated (slightly).":
http://silenthunter4.uk.ubi.com/images/ships/ship_850_kinposanmaru.jpg

Improved:
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o222/tatersw/SH4/kinposan_wip.jpg

It's odd, it looks OK (some problems no one will see I assume) in S3D, even with the AO map on, but not in game, where the AO causes it to go black.

Argh.

Nisgeis

08-11-10, 03:10 PM

It's odd, it looks OK (some problems no one will see I assume) in S3D, even with the AO map on, but not in game, where the AO causes it to go black.Argh.

That sounds more like it's a lack of an AO causing it to go black. Have you recreated the material? The material needs to be in the right place, the material has to be defined with an ID higher than the ID of the object that uses it, or it won't get assigned in game (but S3D works).

tater

08-11-10, 03:46 PM

That sounds more like it's a lack of an AO causing it to go black. Have you recreated the material? The material needs to be in the right place, the material has to be defined with an ID higher than the ID of the object that uses it, or it won't get assigned in game (but S3D works).

I got it to work.

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o222/tatersw/SH4/kinposanfixed.jpg

tater

08-11-10, 07:01 PM

I might scrag those stupid ventilators in front of the stack

McHibbins

08-11-10, 07:08 PM

Wow...fine fine:rock:....but aren´t they a little bit..hm...too clean ?:hmmm:

tater

08-11-10, 07:25 PM

Wow...fine fine:rock:....but aren´t they a little bit..hm...too clean ?:hmmm:

They need some rust as a possibility for the all over gray, and maybe a little on the dazzle.

The stock paint made it look like they painted them in 1930, then ran out of paint for the duration. ;)

Version 1.0 might not have that. We'll see.

tater

08-12-10, 12:15 AM

rant

So why the hell did they put lifeboat davits on so many base hull models instead of using them as separate objects?

Then, having decided for whatever reason to have them part of the hull...

WHY DID THEY PUT THEM ON SO MANY WELL DECKS?

Seriously, WTF?

You have huge cranes to life heavy cargo... then put davits that make loading/unloading the ship impossible!

Now I have to export the hulls, delete the damn davits, then reimport them.

Then find a good place for the lifeboats.

/rant

sergei

08-12-10, 03:49 AM

A vast improvement.
The stock Kinposan is, imho, one butt ugly SOB.

tater

08-12-10, 08:33 AM

A vast improvement.
The stock Kinposan is, imho, one butt ugly SOB.

I liked some of the splinter patterns on your paint jobs so much I needed to make her not suck so I could appreciate the paint :)

iowa101

08-12-10, 04:59 PM

guys check this link, theres a few free ships and decent models you might find some new ships to add, i dont really know for sure i have only looked at carriers and destroyers myself.

http://www.turbosquid.com/Search/Index.cfm?keyword=ships

bare in mind that they aren't all free so dont bite my head off at the cost, but take a look and you mind find a few things.

tater

08-12-10, 06:52 PM

If they had a real Kaibokan or Matsu Class DD, I'd pony up the money, actually. I haven't looked in a while there, though.

mobucks

08-12-10, 08:19 PM

200-500 for a 3d model? How many man hours is that? If only one persone buys it, id say theyre SOL.

iowa101

08-13-10, 06:27 AM

they aren't all that much some lower just as good models and some more that are well done and textured brilliantly, take a look around it's amazing im getting a kitty hawk and using it to make it playble lol, beens im not that good a modeling but dont worry all credit will to go to person i buy it from.

tater

08-13-10, 10:50 AM

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o222/tatersw/SH4/dazzle_kinposan.jpg

McHibbins

08-13-10, 06:17 PM

Hell tater...that is a nice one ! :yeah:

virtualpender

08-13-10, 07:49 PM

Looking good! Are those the rescaled Daihatsus?

tater

08-13-10, 08:24 PM

Yeah. The base model was over 19m long. There was a 17m version of the LC in RL, a 15m, and a 14m. The most common was the 14m.

cheese123

08-13-10, 11:22 PM

I don't know if you guys know this already, but there is a large section of the under-cover missing from the Kiposan bridge.
http://img695.imageshack.us/i/kipok.jpg/

virtualpender

08-14-10, 11:58 PM

Sergei - I know you are knee-deep in the merchants but maybe I can plant the seed to revisit the IJN carriers, too. Found these images of CHUYO that are pretty impressive:
http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/8535/55683007.jpg

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/2134/76962431.jpg

Just file away for later....
:D

tater

08-15-10, 09:46 AM

For the whole war, IJN carrier paint measures were pretty interesting.

Getting a useful O-map for them might be difficult given the large size, and the necessity to have the flight deck also be as continuous an object as possible—and no submarine would see it unless she took a heavy list ;)

tater

08-15-10, 12:37 PM

Keltos, what would I do in wings 3d to easily rake the bow on the "Road Schooner" from BftB?

Here is a pic:
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o222/tatersw/SH4/kitbash_2d.jpg

I want the bow to look more like:
http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o222/tatersw/SH4/TypeD_mod.jpg

I was hoping to just grab a bunch of vertices, then squish it... doesn;t work well :)

Is there a way to intersect it with a V shape, and subtract?

tater

08-15-10, 02:56 PM

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o222/tatersw/SH4/2D_WIP1.jpg

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o222/tatersw/SH4/2D_WIP2.jpg

(yeah, I need to fix the rigging).

iowa101

08-15-10, 04:32 PM

very nice guys, they look great. :up:

tater

08-18-10, 02:04 PM

Perhaps we need a Japanese Merchant Marine (JMM) thread...

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o222/tatersw/SH4/2Dhull.jpg

My first attempt at a Wartime Standard Hull for the JMM. Obviously she still needs a transom, etc.

Real Type 2D:
http://members.spinn.net/%7Emerrick/Stuff/cargo_carriers.jpg

The 2D is the "Steel Sea Truck" aka "Sugar Charlie Sugar." 103 were built.

A very similar 3d year Type 3D (the number is the year of the building program):
http://ww6.enjoy.ne.jp/%7Eiwashige/hitachimaru04mod.jpg

virtualpender

08-18-10, 07:01 PM

Tater and Sergei - on one hand it is so exciting that the badly neglected and inadequate merchant ship selection is being improved in quality, quantity, and accuracy - on the other hand, it is like torture seeing these beautiful screenshots and not being able to hunt them!

:D

You're off to a great start with the standard building program, Tater. Can't wait to see where you go with this.

keltos01

08-19-10, 05:26 AM

tater

08-19-10, 08:04 AM

Was thinking of just replacing the hull with a real one :)

tater

08-19-10, 11:39 PM

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o222/tatersw/SH4/rough_2D.jpg

very rough. Needs loads of work. Superstructure is stolen from a stock SH4 model for now. Still, looks like a 2D, and is the right size (she displaces rather too much compared to an earlier build, needs a little scaling).

virtualpender

08-20-10, 07:56 PM

Probably belated but another view of a passenger/cargo ship with the two-tone green anti-submarine camouflage measure:

http://i540.photobucket.com/albums/gg335/lazer_one/J_MVIkutagawaMaru-1944C.png

virtualpender

08-20-10, 08:19 PM

Tater, do you think either of these ships could be imported from SH3? Look broadly similar to standard classes.

http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/7205/np013ot.png

http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/2221/013jo.jpg

I found them in this thread:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=97328

The download links are dead but perhaps AG124 (the creator?) or someone else still has the files?