[TEC] Adding/Importing new units / SH5 Damage/collision models

[TheDarkWraith]

Hope you can spot them, they show better in motion.

ah, ok, those are the caustic effects. Never noticed that problem actually till you brought it to attention :hmmm:

Try disabling the caustic effects in the Unified Render Controller and adding a regular caustic effects controller and see what happens.

[Zedi]

What still bothers me is that damn rust on the ship hull. Is not like I dont like it, but it should not be there. In the first version of TDW Elco boat I managed to apply the new skin properly and cover everything, but in the latest version I have transparency.. the old texture is slightly visible through the new one. The difference.. first version had an external dds texture file, the latest and embedded tgs.

Anyway, if the stupid occlusion map glowing effect is fixed thats already a huge step ahead. You guys are awesome, hats off!!

This topic for STICKY

[stoianm]

This topic for STICKYyes... for sure:yep:

[TheDarkWraith]

What still bothers me is that damn rust on the ship hull. Is not like I dont like it, but it should not be there. In the first version of TDW Elco boat I managed to apply the new skin properly and cover everything, but in the latest version I have transparency.. the old texture is slightly visible through the new one. The difference.. first version had an external dds texture file, the latest and embedded tgs.

Anyway, if the stupid occlusion map glowing effect is fixed thats already a huge step ahead. You guys are awesome, hats off!!

This topic for STICKY

Ok, send me a ship in question that has this problem or tell me which ship it is in the latest archive you sent me. I have an idea...

[Rongel]

Try disabling the caustic effects in the Unified Render Controller and adding a regular caustic effects controller and see what happens.

Did this, but still almost same effects, caustics only on one side... :06:

[Rongel]

I think this start to look pretty good! The wake needs tuning and the watersprouts too, but I'm liking it. This bothers me that light is showing on the wrong side! When I go to the opposite side, it's not illuminated.

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/SH5Img2011-05-03_194739.jpg
Maybe we could add SH 5 guns and objects to the ship, it worked with crew members.

[TheDarkWraith]

I think this start to look pretty good! The wake needs tuning and the watersprouts too, but I'm liking it. This bothers me that light is showing on the wrong side! When I go to the opposite side, it's not illuminated.

try inverting the occulsion map RGB channels.

[Zedi]

Ok, send me a ship in question that has this problem or tell me which ship it is in the latest archive you sent me. I have an idea...

Any ship. Look at the textures I sent you, then look at the result in the game. Ofc, embed first my textures in you latest DAT files.

There is something that causing everything to look wrong, will fault the shadows, light &dark side, water reflection on hull etc. The old rusty skin should be absolutely invisible.

[Rongel]

Any ship. Look at the textures I sent you, then look at the result in the game. Ofc, embed first my textures in you latest DAT files.

There is something that causing everything to look wrong, will fault the shadows, light &dark side, water reflection on hull etc. The old rusty skin should be absolutely invisible. Be sure that the dat file isn't using any other files, I had this problem. Delete all dds files (or move the somewhere safe!) and keep only the three targa textures in your ship folder. They should be exactly same as those that were embedded in your dat file just in case. I can see now in S3d if the ship looks like it should, and it saves some precious time:

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/s3d.jpg

[TheDarkWraith]

Any ship. Look at the textures I sent you, then look at the result in the game. Ofc, embed first my textures in you latest DAT files.

There is something that causing everything to look wrong, will fault the shadows, light &dark side, water reflection on hull etc. The old rusty skin should be absolutely invisible.

the reason is because the x_Oxx map is being rendered also. It appears that the x_Oyy and x_Tyy maps are being blended together and rendered in game. Maybe we need to fix the alpha channel on the x_Oyy map :hmmm:

[Rongel]

Okay, last notes for the day:

I don't think we have to embed anything. Been testing without and no problems for me. So maybe we can use .dds files everywhere??

Managed to import guns and searchlights from SH 4. They have textures and at least the guns are working (currently they are robot guns, no crew needed :D). It seemed that SH 5 objects (other than crew) won't render so this might help.

[TheDarkWraith]

Okay, last notes for the day:

I don't think we have to embed anything. Been testing without and no problems for me. So maybe we can use .dds files everywhere??

Managed to import guns and searchlights from SH 4. They have textures and at least the guns are working (currently they are robot guns, no crew needed :D). It seemed that SH 5 objects (other than crew) won't render so this might help.

will look into the above.

There is something of interest here: take the type 2/0 _Txx node and the type 2/0 _Oxx node and the Type 2/0 _Nxx node and give them names of 'texture', 'occlusion' and 'normal' respectively. Problem that Zedi was having is gone :D Now I'm checking to see if we can leave the _Txx node as cfg#TXR_ or not....

Anothing thing to note is the game reads the x_Oyy map and the x_Nyy map ONLY from the \data\Sea folder of the ship. It does NOT read the x_Tyy file from there. If you want to override the embedded texture then you have to place it in \data\Textures\TNormal\tex. Been doing a LOT of testing/figuring out today :yep:

[TheDarkWraith]

@Zedi: how does this look ;)
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4169

:D:|\\

For the above this is how I made it work:

- class name for this ship is NMFMPC (\data\Sea\NMFMPC)
- all the embedded images are .tgas
- the occlusion (_Oxx) embedded image had the strange alpha channel as found in SH4 occulsion images
- the Type 2/0 Node for the texture map (_Txx) was named texture and it uses an external texture named 'class name_T01.tga' (this map has NO alpha channel)
- the Type 2/0 Node for the occlusion map (_Oxx) was named occlusion and it uses an external texture named 'class name_O01.tga' (this map has an alpha channel - the screwed up looking one common in SH4 style _Oxx maps)
- the Type 2/0 Node for the normal map (_Nxx) was named normal and it uses an external texture named 'class name_N01.tga' (this map has NO alpha channel)
- the 'class name_T01.dds' was located in \data\Textures\TNormal\tex (this was Zedi's texture he provided)
- the 'class name_O01.tga' was located in \data\Sea\class name
- the 'class name_N01.tga' was located in \data\Sea\class name
- all the Type 2/0 nodes are using linear filtering with no in-memory compression
- the Type 2/0 nodes for occlusion and normal maps are 2 sided
- every Type 4/0 node was checked to see how many texture sets were defined. If 3 were defined then the maps in order were:
class name_T01.tga
class name_O01.tga
class name_N01.tga
- the DMG_col node had NO textures defined for it
- the DMG_ nodes had all 3 textures defined for it
- all the Reflect_ nodes had all 3 textures defined for it
- placed Zedi's NMFMPC_T01.dds file in \data\Textures\TNormal\tex

NOTE: setting ANY of the Type 2/0 nodes to names of cfg#TXR_x where x = class name resulted in texture/lighting problems
NOTE2: removing the embedded texture for the 'class name_T01' resulted in texture/lighting problems
NOTE3: sun shines on correct side (normal and occlusion maps are working correctly)
NOTE4: damage/collision model working correctly (no damaged texture problem)
NOTE5: caustic effects are only rendered on sunlight side
NOTE6: Unified render controller settings:
MediumLODDistance: 15.0
LowLODDistance: 80.0
BumpEnable: True
SpecularMaskEnable: True
SelfOccEnable: True
UseSpecularFromDiffuse: False
NOTE7: between far away distance and close distances the 'lighting' of the ship DOES NOT snap from light/dark to dark/light

same ship rendered with it's embedded T01 image (deleted Zedi's .dds file from \data\Textures\TNormal\tex):
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4170

[Rongel]

Too tired to analyze anything but I got too quite good results! Sun shines on correct side! I played around with the unified render controllers:

MediumLODDistance: 0 or below if possible
Bumpenable: False
SpecularMaskEnable: True
SelfOccEnable: True
UseSpecularFromDiffuse: False

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/SH5Img2011-05-04_005046.jpg

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/SH5Img2011-05-04_005135.jpg

Otherwise looks good, but when you go really close to the ship, the sun illumination changes like snap, not sure if this can be disabled.... I'm not sure if this is better or worse than TDW's current setup, have to compare.... But now to sleep...

[Zedi]

Looks very good TDW, finally the rust is gone.. but the whole ships is a bit too white. But I think I can fix that.

In the meantime I tested the baby in Mare Nostrum campaign and here is coming out nicely from fog and then being into a generic traffic.

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH%20ships/01.jpg?t=1304459228

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH%20ships/02.jpg?t=1304459228

Inside a convoy is very easy to spot it as is white, instead of gray as the rest of the ships. And there is a small problem with the balance when she is sailing on high waves. The ships is bouncing a bit too much ...

But overall looks good. TDW pls send me an update with the files you got fixed. Im also too tired to read and understand stuff now.

[TheDarkWraith]

Looks very good TDW, finally the rust is gone.. but the whole ships is a bit too white. But I think I can fix that.

In the meantime I tested the baby in Mare Nostrum campaign and here is coming out nicely from fog and then being into a generic traffic.
Inside a convoy is very easy to spot it as is white, instead of gray as the rest of the ships. And there is a small problem with the balance when she is sailing on high waves. The ships is bouncing a bit too much ...

But overall looks good. TDW pls send me an update with the files you got fixed. Im also too tired to read and understand stuff now.

Looking good :yeah: I'll send you the updated NMFMPC ship here very soon. Just have to package it up. It is using the stock normal and occlusion maps (.dds) files so you may want to change them. Your texture is located in \data\Textures\TNormal\tex. Delete it to use embedded T01 texture.

[Rongel]

Ok, have to compare my setup with your ship. I have otherwise working ship, except that the lighting snaps when really close. But not today!

[TheDarkWraith]

Too tired to analyze anything but I got too quite good results! Sun shines on correct side! I played around with the unified render controllers:

MediumLODDistance: 0 or below if possible
Bumpenable: False
SpecularMaskEnable: True
SelfOccEnable: True
UseSpecularFromDiffuse: False

Otherwise looks good, but when you go really close to the ship, the sun illumination changes like snap, not sure if this can be disabled.... I'm not sure if this is better or worse than TDW's current setup, have to compare.... But now to sleep...

the rust is showing on yours which means the occlusion (_Oxx) and the texture (_Txx) maps are being blended together during rendering. Check the occlusion map and you'll see it's the one with the rust on it....Shouldn't have to disable bump map either (BumpEnable = False above)

[Rongel]

My occlusion map has some rust in it :D On the other side to be correct

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/rust.jpg

[TheDarkWraith]

exactly...that shouldn't be showing up in game. The occlusion map is just for that occlusion testing for lighting...no rendering. That is the problem. You shouldn't see any of that rust unless it's also on the texture (_Txx)

[TheDarkWraith]

NKMCS_Akita looks excellent now :D
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4171

NMFMSSS_Kasagisan looking good now also:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4172

and the PT boat is looking killer!
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4173

[Rongel]

exactly...that shouldn't be showing up in game. The occlusion map is just for that occlusion testing for lighting...no rendering. That is the problem. You shouldn't see any of that rust unless it's also on the texture (_Txx) Are you sure about this? Because the rust is visible in SH 4. I've tried to mimic Sh 4 .dat files and my ship is basically the same, no images embedded. I can modify my occlusion map and the rust can be painted off. I managed to get rid of the lighting change too. We should compare our ships to see that which is the best and easiest way to go. I can send you my ship tomorrow and it would be great to have a look what you have done :yeah: Okay, good night all!

EDIT: Thanks for the files, tdw!

[TheDarkWraith]

Are you sure about this? Because the rust is visible in SH 4. I've tried to mimic Sh 4 .dat files and my ship is basically the same, no images embedded. I can modify my occlusion map and the rust can be painted off. I managed to get rid of the lighting change too. We should compare our ships to see that which is the best and easiest way to go. I can send you my ship tomorrow and it would be great to have a look what you have done :yeah: Okay, good night all!

EDIT: Thanks for the files, tdw!

No I'm not sure at all. I played SH4 for maybe a whole 10mins then it became a dust collector. From the little I know about 3D modelling/imaging (from books) occlusion maps should be just for light occlusion - they should do nothing for rendered images (it's for a game engine's lighting calculations for objects). All the image rendering should come from the texture(s) defined for the 3D model.

The one thing you have to look for to see whether what you're doing is looking right or not is view the object at an angle to the light source. You shouldn't see any 'artifacts' on the rendered image. Let the sun be low on the horizon and don't look at the object broadside but rather almost parallel (looking front or back) with the camera very close to the object and see if you see any 'artifacts' or not.

[THE_MASK]

I can alter them in photo shop to show diffrent colors on the object . For example i can add rust to Uboat7A_O01 dds to give a rust look to parts of the conning tower .. I admit this isnt the right way to do it .

[Zedi]

A lot of data here, but a bit confusing. So where is the right _T and _N is stored now? Embedded in DAT, externally stored in Sea or in Tex ? Because I see the same texture in all of these locations and I wanna clean up a bit. Also, what type of tex we use now, tga or dds?

There is a small problem with Elco. She is listed as.. escort ship in the roster. And that will make the game to use her as generic escort for convoys. Now having this guys to cross the Atlantic as escort.. is a bit too much to ask. And to change every single traffic/convoy in all the campaign files just to customize the escorts.. is too much for me. So what can we do with this guys to assign him only to coast patrol? Create a new type entry in the roster?

Later edit: Is impossible to make screenshost in campaign with the ships. Played almost 3 hours and used max TC, but all ive got was light fog, heavy fog, ridiculous fog and so on. If someone can remove the fog from the game, he will be my hero. Anyway, in TDW version the skined ships finally lost their rust and transparency on the hull, but they are almost white.. like some hospital ships. I presume this si also related to the occlusion map or something. I will add skin to the new ship and make some more test later.

[Rongel]

Hi again! I tested TDW's ship, and it I found too that the occlusion map had wanished. It took away the rust, but also lighting effects and made the ship look somewhat crude in my opinion. I have those effects but I have other small problems that need fixing.

I think the rust should be visible if it's visible in the occlusion map. I made a test with SH 4 with Zedi's white ship. Still using stock occlusion map with rust:

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/SH4Img4-5-2011_92848_899.jpg

As you can see, the rust is visible. Nice looking ship in sh 4 too!

[Zedi]

I think the rust part is stored in the alpha channel of the occ map. If I could manage to add the new texture as an alpha channel to this map, problem could be solved. But that alpha channel is made in a way that is beyond my understanding. Somehow its stored only a transparency layer of the original texture map and I have absolutely no clue how is this done.

Im a noob in working with game texture files and found no tutorial that explain how to set up a similar alpha channel that stores only transparency, actually I saw no game doing this. Usually the alpha channel is used to show/hide parts of the texture or elements in the graphic file, not only the transparency level. I dont even understand why is needed to store the transparency of a texture. So im a complete noob, or those who did this are because was the only way to hide a bug.

[Rongel]

I think the rust part is stored in the alpha channel of the occ map. If I could manage to add the new texture as an alpha channel to this map, problem could be solved. But that alpha channel is made in a way that is beyond my understanding. Somehow its stored only a transparency layer of the original texture map and I have absolutely no clue how is this done. I believe that the rust is just showing in the occlusion texture, not alpha channel. You can paint it off, and we could probably use also SH 5 occlusion map (wonder what that would look like)? Yes, the alpha channel looks weird, but I think it's just adding effects to some areas, like details, pieces of metal that shine in the sun... The rust is showing simply because we use occlusion map with rust. And the rust won't show if we don't use occlusion map at all. If I would use occlusion map completely without rust (I haven't done this yet) there wouldn't be rust. I think rust is not the issue! :D Of course I might be completely wrong too!

I could Zedi send my ship to you and see what you think of it, but I try to fix the small problem first.

[Zedi]

...
I could Zedi send my ship to you and see what you think of it, but I try to fix the small problem first.

Please do. As I said, TDW version is oke regarding the texture transparency, but now is all white like a hospital ship. I can make the textures more darker, but Im not sure this is the right direction to go.

[Rongel]

Please do. As I said, TDW version is oke regarding the texture transparency, but now is all white like a hospital ship. I can make the textures more darker, but Im not sure this is the right direction to go. Little delay, I'm pretty sure I had it working, but then changed something and can't seem to get it back.... :damn:

[Zedi]

Here is Akita in campaign, but with the same issues.. the texture is white. But the ship itself looks very impressive!

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH%20ships/1-1.jpg?t=1304507928

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH%20ships/2-1.jpg?t=1304507928

[Rongel]

Okay I sent a link to my ship to Zedi and TDW. There is two issues with it that I know... I thought I solved it but something happened or I was wrong.

My ship is almost like the one in Sh 4 folder. All the images and materials should be using same system than in SH 4. It uses .dds files and no embedded pictures. Basically the only difference is the DMG_col-addition!
All the maps and textures show basically correctly and it looks pretty much the same like the one in SH 4 (NOTE: this uses Sh 4 stock occlusion map).

Otherwise the import works (well, no reflections) but for some reason the sun light was showing on the wrong side! It's a nice effect that I couldn't see in TDW's version, and I struggle to keep it.

Well I managed to correct the sunlight direction by editing the UnifiedRenderControler and changed MediumLODDistance to -4. Now the light works as it should and it doesn't change back even though the camera is near the ship.

This would be almost perfect but something bad happens when I changed the value: The holes don't show anymore below the water (they were visible before the LODdistance edit). The other thing is that I managed to add visible SH 4 guns to the ship that were rendered. Now they are black. :damn:.

So what is causing the sunlight direction bug? I bet it's the UnifiedRenderContoler, Sh 5 ships don't have that. I think we should use this Dat-file structure, it's the same in SH 4, so the importing would be almost like drag and drop!

[Zedi]

Ow.. btw.. I have a similar bug, the green military blanket used on the deck of these 2 ships are now just a black hole. Thats in TDW version.

I think is more comfortable to send you booth my textures then you guys just play with it and try different approaches until somehow these issue will gets sorted out. I have my hands full with the campaign files anyway...

[Rongel]

Ow.. btw.. I have a similar bug, the green military blanket used on the deck of these 2 ships are now just a black hole. Thats in TDW version.Yes I noticed that too before! But when I changed back to SH 4 system it went away and turned to green like it should be. But please try my ship, you have "clean" eyes and maybe notice something that I didn't. :DL

[TheDarkWraith]

Please do. As I said, TDW version is oke regarding the texture transparency, but now is all white like a hospital ship. I can make the textures more darker, but Im not sure this is the right direction to go.

how come in post #272 I got color on the ship and yours is all white? The texture needs to be in .dds format with no alpha channel (the _Txx) and stored in \data\Textures\TNormal\tex. Leave the embedded texture as is. The normal and occlusion maps are .dds files and stored in \data\Sea\class name. Leave the embedded normal and occlusion maps as is.

[TheDarkWraith]

There is a small problem with Elco. She is listed as.. escort ship in the roster. And that will make the game to use her as generic escort for convoys. Now having this guys to cross the Atlantic as escort.. is a bit too much to ask. And to change every single traffic/convoy in all the campaign files just to customize the escorts.. is too much for me. So what can we do with this guys to assign him only to coast patrol? Create a new type entry in the roster?

you can change it's type to something else. I'm not sure if we can make new 'types' or not. Actually I'm not even sure of all the types defined by the game. I haven't located anything in the .exe or any of the .act files that says x types are the only types recognized by the game. The only clue I've found is in the \data\Roster\Names.cfg. At the top it defines Merchant, Warship, etc. Maybe add a new entry there and see if it shows up in campaign.

[Zedi]

I sent you booth the textures for all these 4 ships, including their normal maps.

Thanks Stoian for the no fog fix!! Finally I can see the ships. So here is the latest test in campaign with Rongel's version ship included:

The rust is there, but no other bug. Light map seems to be ok.
http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH%20ships/5-1.jpg?t=1304511626

Akita is white. Dunno why, used only what you sent me. The texture is dds with no alpha channel and is placed in the tex folder.
Also her bow seems to be lower in the water than her stern. The green blankets are still a black hole.
http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH%20ships/4-1.jpg?t=1304511627

Here are booth ships one after another in a large convoy:
http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH%20ships/3-1.jpg?t=1304511624

I will have to test to add a new type .. hope it will work, or tis will be a huge problem. I just cannot edit the million generic trafic included in te game and cutomize all of them. Is just impossible as it would take me months.

[Rongel]

The rust is there, but no other bug.It's not a bug! :D I truly believe that it should be there if the occlusion map has rust painted in it (and that is the case in my ship). That is the way it works in SH 4 so the import is fine. The bug that is killing me is the opposite sun light. Now in my ship I took it out by setting the Unifiedrendercontroler's Loddistance to a negative number. But this seems to cause couple of other small problems. If we can't fix this, then maybe it's better to take off the sunlight effect completely :damn:.

[TheDarkWraith]

If we can't fix this, then maybe it's better to take off the sunlight effect completely :damn:.

remember we are treading on new ground here. There is much to learn/figure out still. Don't get aggravated. I don't know how many times I tried and failed to make something work in SH5 before I finally found the right combination that worked. We will eventually find the right combination here also :up: The more people working/experimenting with importing new ships the quicker we will get there :yep:

[Zedi]

I agree, the rust should be the last problem on the list. Fixing the light map, shadows, transparency, reflection on water are more important right now. Wish a dev could hop in and give few hints as they said importing ships is possible even if its a bit tricky.

[Rongel]

remember we are treading on new ground here. There is much to learn/figure out still. Don't get aggravated. I don't know how many times I tried and failed to make something work in SH5 before I finally found the right combination that worked. We will eventually find the right combination here also :up: The more people working/experimenting with importing new ships the quicker we will get there :yep:Agreed! I think just that this task is starting to damage my real life soon, I'm absolutely obsessed with this now. People should be warned how addictive this is :haha:. I hope too that when we are close enough we can make a really detailed and easy tutorial and others will join!

Wish a dev could hop in and give few hints as they said importing ships is possible even if its a bit tricky. My thoughts exactly! If somebody would just say "you need to untick this button" and it will work nicely :D

[TheDarkWraith]

I sent you booth the textures for all these 4 ships, including their normal maps.

Akita is white. Dunno why, used only what you sent me. The texture is dds with no alpha channel and is placed in the tex folder.
Also her bow seems to be lower in the water than her stern. The green blankets are still a black hole.
http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH%20ships/4-1.jpg?t=1304511627


@ Zedi: maybe I'm missing something but this ship is rendered exactly the way it should be according to the texture defined for it. I loaded up the texture in Photoshop and compared it to what shows in game. It matches. It's grey/white because you made the texture that way. What am I missing here? :hmmm: What's wrong with the light map? Granted I don't know what I'm exactly looking for in this area so tell me what I should/should not be seeing. To me it looks fine.

[Rongel]

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/SH5Img2011-05-04_171653.jpg

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/SH5Img2011-05-04_171528.jpg

Here is my version of Akita. I made it really quickly, copied the Sh4 ship folder to Sh 5, replaced Zedi's textures, didn't touch the dat-file (so the damage modelling isn't in place) but looks good to me, no need to embed I guess. Don't know if you can spot anything crucial from the small image, though.

PS. Note the wrong illumination in the sunset picture :D.

[TheDarkWraith]

Think I found the right combination:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4174

What I did:

- all the embedded textures were removed for the Type 2/0 nodes below
- The first Type 2/0 node uses external texture (class name_T01.tga) and it's name is cfg#TXR_class name. It is not double sided and uses linear filtering with no in memory compression.
- The second Type 2/0 node uses external texture (class name_O01.tga) and it's name is cfg#TXR_class name. It is double sided and uses linear filtering with no in memory compression.
- The third Type 2/0 node uses external texture (class name_N01.tga) and it's name is cfg#TXR_class name. It is double sided and uses linear filtering with no in memory compression.
- Unified Render Controller settings:
MediumLODDistance = 15.0
LowLODDistance = 0.0
BumpEnable = True
SpecularMaskEnable = True
SelfOccEnable = True
UseSpecularFromDiffuse = False
- the class name_T01.dds is Zedi's and is located in \data\Textures\TNormal\tex
- the class name_O01.dds is stock SH4 and is located in \data\Sea\class name
- the class name_N01.dds is Zedi's and is located in \data\Sea\class name

This has the light shining on the right side (correct illumination), the holes show under water, the damage texture problem doesn't exist, the light map works, the rust doesn't show, and the lighting doesn't snap from dark/light or light/dark as camera moves closer/farther away from unit...looks quite excellent :D

The only anomoly is when the camera is very close to the ship the lighting is turned off and the texture gets darker. You can tell that the game switched to some other light mode and all.

and in bright daylight here is what it looks like:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4175

big difference from my previous pictures of this ship.

[Rongel]

This has the light shining on the right side (correct illumination), the holes show under water, the damage texture problem doesn't exist, the light map works, the rust doesn't show, and the lighting doesn't snap from dark/light or light/dark as camera moves closer/farther away from unit...looks quite excellent :D

OMG! Have to try this! If this works I think we're back on track! :D

[TheDarkWraith]

OMG! Have to try this! If this works I think we're back on track! :D

Yes, please verify that you can duplicate results on different ships also :yep: I'm testing on different ships also.

Trying another ship reveals that it's still blending the _Txx and _Oxx maps together and using that blend for final rendering. I know this because the rust showed on another ship. So to remove the rust one must edit the _Oxx file and remove it (or add more if that's the effect wanted). I don't understand why they put rust on the _Oxx map and not on the _Txx maps. I guess if you wanted the rust to be visual no matter what texture is used could be a reason why.

[Zedi]

@ Zedi: maybe I'm missing something but this ship is rendered exactly the way it should be according to the texture defined for it. I loaded up the texture in Photoshop and compared it to what shows in game. It matches. It's grey/white because you made the texture that way. What am I missing here? :hmmm: What's wrong with the light map? Granted I don't know what I'm exactly looking for in this area so tell me what I should/should not be seeing. To me it looks fine.

Here is the hull part of the texture I did. The basic gray texture is the same used by many merchants in SH5. Its a light grey texture and not white. If you see it differently on your side, let me know.

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH%20ships/NKMCS_Akita_T01.jpg?t=1304522467

Problem I see is that the hull is reflecting to much of the ambient light, thats why is so white and shiny. So the ambient reflection should be a bit lowered.

I had the same problem with the Elco boat when I did the first texture for her, but there I fixed it by using a much more darker texture. So the texture itself was almost black, but in game was rendered gray. Maybe I should apply the same trick here too, thats an easy fix.

LE: As you can see, this problem exist only on hull and where this texture is used. The rest is rendered ok.

[Rongel]

Yes, please verify that you can duplicate results on different ships also :yep: I'm testing on different ships also.
I'm not sure if it's my setup, but I still see sunlight bugs, bit different when I was adjusting the MediumLODDistance. If I go really close to the ship, the sunlight snaps opposite again. I guess we could eliminate this by setting the LowLODDistance to a negative number (it worked before) but I believe it will cause the underwater damage graphics to dissappear.

Also, again, I'm using Sh 4 guns in my ship that should be textured, but they are rendered black. Only when I go really close to the ship, it will show the textures. But does it really work for you, TDW? If you go so close to the ship as you can get, does the sunlight stay ok? And if so, do the damage graphics show underwater? Is it my settings?

[TheDarkWraith]

I'm not sure if it's my setup, but I still see sunlight bugs, bit different when I was adjusting the MediumLODDistance. If I go really close to the ship, the sunlight snaps opposite again. I guess we could eliminate this by setting the LowLODDistance to a negative number (it worked before) but I believe it will cause the underwater damage graphics to dissappear.

Also, again, I'm using Sh 4 guns in my ship that should be textured, but they are rendered black. Only when I go really close to the ship, it will show the textures. But does it really work for you, TDW? If you go so close to the ship as you can get, does the sunlight stay ok? And if so, do the damage graphics show underwater? Is it my settings?

no, I said the only anomoly is when you get really close to the ship the game engine shifts to a different lighting model. But you have to be really close. If you outside that distance everything looks good. Same for you?

[Rongel]

The only anomoly is when the camera is very close to the ship the lighting is turned off and the texture gets darker. You can tell that the game switched to some other light mode and all.Oops! I was so excited that I missed that! I was mistaken that the problem was gone altogether. Yes, I had the same situation, it was almost the same results when I was messing with the MediumLODDistance. I've tried to change every other setting in the Unified Render Controller but no luck. Maybe I couldn't explain my situation correctly.

You know, maybe this is something that we can live with but I would really like to get rid of this bug. It disables the textures on SH 4 guns too, unless you go right next to the ship.

[Rongel]

I'll list here our current situation, TDW and Zedi can comment if you have something to correct:

Good things :D

- High quality, functional ships imported from SH 4 with all maps and textures working
- Illumination, sun affects ships lighting
- Ships take damage from Deck Gun and Torpedoes
- Damage graphics (holes and internal structure) show when looked underwater
- Possibility to add SH 5 wakes
- Animated, fully working Sh 5 crew
- Possibility to add SH 5 or Sh 4 guns and instruments to ships
- Basic importing is fast

Bad things :nope:
- Ships don't cast shadows
- Ships don't reflect through water when looked above waterline
- Illumination anomaly (wrong side of the ship illuminated) when camera is really close to ships
- Damage graphics (holes and internal structure) don't show when looked above waterline
- Guns are rendered completely black, Sh 4 guns show textures only when camera is really close to ships
- Caustics show only on one side (SH 4 feature), Sh 5 caustics don't seem to work

Uncertain things (haven't been tested yet) :06:
- Flooding modelling is unfinished
- Some ships seem to bounce and roll too much when travelling

[Zedi]

If im going wild and I create a ship in Max, how would I import it in SH5? Is that possible at all?

[Rongel]

If im going wild and I create a ship in Max, how would I import it in SH5? Is that possible at all? It makes my head hurt just thinking about it :wah: Who knows, maybe it's easier than this stuff!

By the way, one weird thing I have noticed is that we can edit .val file, and the changes show, we can make a nice wake and foam, but why is .sim forbidden? I mean I can edit it in S3D or in Goblin, but haven't seen any changes in game. And it contains all the nice stuff, reflections, caustics and so on....

[TheDarkWraith]

If im going wild and I create a ship in Max, how would I import it in SH5? Is that possible at all?

Export to .obj format. Create new Type 4/0 node and import 3D model into it (using Pack3D). I can do this really fast using hex editor....

@ Rongel: if you look at the ships I sent you they all have the new SH5 wake controllers added. Look at the wakes (they even make their own waves at high speeds) :D

[TheDarkWraith]

after much thought about why the caustics effect is only showing on one side (for DAT file units) I came to the conclusion that the shader isn't 'interpreting' the normal map correctly. More specifically since the normal map is mirrored to the other side of the ship it will pose problems for the caustics pixel shader (upon looking at what the caustics pixel shader was doing I was correct). So I made some changes to the caustics pixel shader :DL
Here's what I've done:
the pixel shader takes the light direction and the texel normal and does a dot product on them (both of these are vectors). It then throws this into a saturate function which just clamps the value to between 0 and 1. Do you see the problem??? I do. If the light direction and texel normal basically point in the same direction (texel is facing light) the dot product value will be > 0. If they point in basically opposite directions the dot product value will be < 0 (texel is facing away from light). Recall the saturate function clamps to between 0 and 1. Now since the normal map is mirrored on the other side of the ship, the side facing away from the light will always have a dot product value < 0 (the light direction is from the object to the light source not the other way around). PROBLEM :timeout: To fix this I made the pixel shader for the caustics check the dot product value and if it's < 0 then flip the light direction (so now the light source is coming from the other side of the unit). Now caustics are displayed on both sides of the ship :yeah::rock:

[THE_MASK]

Another problem solved , thankyou .

[TheDarkWraith]

Here you can see the effects of my Caustics PS change. Clearly you can tell the sun is shining on the other side of the ship :D
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4181

Once again unlit side in brighter daylight. I increased the caustics effect range on the unit. Instead of rendering only to a little area next to the waterline it renders more up the side of the unit. Should it render even higher :06:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4182

[stoianm]

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4181


very nice... will be cool if you will find a solution to put caustic on plants and rocks... i can not do that:damn:
btw... the water color is from last dynamic?... if yes you think is to much green?:hmmm:

[TheDarkWraith]

Whoever wrote the Unified Render shaders needs their head examined :shifty:

[begin rant]
Let's see....caustics effects.....they are sunlight reflections/refractions off the water onto the unit.....so why would someone model them as sunlight striking the side of the unit :damn: I rewrote the pixel shader so that the light used for lighting calcs for this effect is modeled as light coming off the water and not from the sky. Now light is absorbed by water and reflected/refracted more underwater...this is a given. So why would someone model the caustic effect above water and below water the same :damn: Once again I rewrote this part of the pixel shader so that the caustic effects above water are much more vivid than below water. The light used for the light calculations for the caustic effects below water uses light coming from the sky. C'mon now, this stuff isn't rocket science. It's quite evident that the person who wrote this shader has no clue about nature and general physics :stare: And this is the first shader I've looked at...there are many more....:dead:
[/end rant]

Almost all the problems (I believe) we are having with rendering units with .dat files is because of the shaders.

Now I must pull out my reference books on shaders and do a little reading up/refreshing....

[Rongel]

Great work TDW! I was concerned that the shader change would mess with other, regular ships, but nice to know it's only for the dat ships.

You know I did some progress too! I think I have eliminated the illumination bug/anomaly! I can use high LOD values, guns are rendered and the lighting is good! Ships take damage and it's seen underwater.

I did few things:

1. Used SH 4 stock Normal Map (I think there may be something wrong with our maps)
2. Assigned one (and only one) material to DMG_col-nodes. It seems the material has to be the last of the list in dat-file. The one that has no cfg#TXR text, but just a "1" or "2".

But yeah! We can take some of those Bad Things out of the list!:woot:

Try it out when you have time! And shouldn't you be sleeping at this time? Here is beautiful morning already!

[Zedi]

Even Bdu is very impressed with this work you guys do! Here, a present from papa Donitz :D

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/titbeer.jpg?t=1304577285

[Rongel]

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/SH5Img2011-05-05_091401.jpg

Some proof! Don't know if you can see it, but the guns aren't black anymore even when I'm far away from the ship. This wasn't possible before.

EDIT: Whoa! Spilled my morning coffee!

[Zedi]

Some proof! Don't know if you can see it, but the guns aren't black anymore even when I'm far away from the ship. This wasn't possible before.

EDIT: Whoa! Spilled my morning coffee!

Hope not on you keyboard!

And how about the search light?

[AOTD_MadMax]

Hi,

i see that you are doing here a great job with converting ships from SH4 to SH5 and i beleave that you will fix all the small last problems.

If you need some more units you can get my ships i have build for SH4, fore example some US DD´s like the Porter Class.

http://www.aotd-flottille.de//FOTRS/Upgrades/Bilder4/Porter_neu1.bmp

PM me if you want them.

Regards

Maddy

[Rongel]

Hi,

i see that you are doing here a great job with converting ships from SH4 to SH5 and i beleave that you will fix all the small last problems.

If you need some more units you can get my ships i have build for SH4, fore example some US DD´s like the Porter Class.

Thanks and wow, great looking shot! :up: When the importing goes fine enough I think it could be added to game, but I guess that is up to Zedi, if he wants to use them in his new campaign fix.

[Zedi]

SH5 needs more merchants but I have nothing against, 1 new warship can find her place in the escort groups. And this one is very well done, really good and quality stuff. Its up to you guys if you can make her to shine and act like her sisters from SH5. Qestion is if AOTD_MadMax have also merchants or only warships?

Im a bit concerned about the generic traffic as that one is set to take randomly ships from the roster. So it might happen that at some point inside the small convoys we would see only imported ships and thats not good. There is already a battle going on between the new ships and the Liberty fleet :DL

[AOTD_MadMax]

Hi,

i got also some merchants and another very nice looking US DD´s :

The Bagley-Class :

http://www.aotd-flottille.de//FOTRS/Upgrades/Bilder4/Bagley_neu1.bmp

The Gearing-Class/ Allan M. Sumner-Class :

http://www.aotd-flottille.de//FOTRS/Upgrades/Bilder4/Gearing_neu1.bmp

Some Gearing and Sumner did an hard job in the ATO from 1944.
Perhaps they are interesting for an campaign until end of war.

I will make some pics from my merchants i worked out for SH4.

Regards

Maddy

[AOTD_MadMax]

Hi,

here you got pictures of some merchants i have build for sh4.

1.) german merchants from DDG-Hansa Line

medium split freighter

http://www.aotd-flottille.de//FOTRS/Upgrades/Bilder5/Hansa1.bmp

http://www.aotd-flottille.de//FOTRS/Upgrades/Bilder5/Hansa2.bmp

http://www.aotd-flottille.de//FOTRS/Upgrades/Bilder5/Hansa3.bmp

2.) an US Supply / Trooptransportship based on Victory

http://www.aotd-flottille.de//FOTRS/Upgrades/Bilder5/Victory2.bmp

3.) Small Tanker ( enlarged Haruna )

http://www.aotd-flottille.de//FOTRS/Upgrades/Bilder5/Haruna2.bmp

4.) Medium split freighter : ( same modell as the german one )

http://www.aotd-flottille.de//FOTRS/Upgrades/Bilder5/Hansa1_2.bmp

5. ) Whalefactoryship : ( based on iambecomelife´s big old tanker )

http://www.aotd-flottille.de//FOTRS/Upgrades/Bilder5/WF1.bmp

http://www.aotd-flottille.de//FOTRS/Upgrades/Bilder5/WF2.bmp


6.) Whalechaser :

http://www.aotd-flottille.de//FOTRS/Upgrades/Bilder5/WC1.bmp

7.) US Tugboat :

http://www.aotd-flottille.de//FOTRS/Upgrades/Bilder5/USTUG.bmp

Iam workin on some more units but they are not ready yet.

Regards

Maddy

[Zedi]

Holly cow... they look awesome.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_hP7xcLhEaK8/TE9bh_AjZDI/AAAAAAAABTM/D0EdkF0dIY0/s320/excited+face.jpg


So let me get this right... these ships are built by you from scratch? If so.. thats good news and is very related to what I asked TDW about importing new units in SH5 just yesterday:

If im going wild and I create a ship in Max, how would I import it in SH5? Is that possible at all?

Export to .obj format. Create new Type 4/0 node and import 3D model into it (using Pack3D). I can do this really fast using hex editor....


So the question is.. can you export them as .obj ?

[AOTD_MadMax]

Hi Zedi,

these vessels are built by me, only the Whalefactory-Hull and Bridge is a clone from iambecomelife´s big old tanker.
The other vessels are clones from Hakusika, Akita, Warmelody, Haruna and NATF-Tugboat and Victory.
They got an SH4 damage-modell.
You can get them if you want them for your project.

With your own ambient-oc-maps and your special textures they will look much better in SH5 :rock:

I also got some more US DD´s like the benson-class, benham-class and the Essex-Class Carrier :

http://www.aotd-flottille.de//FOTRS/Upgrades/Bilder4/Ticonderoga2.bmp

http://www.aotd-flottille.de//FOTRS/Upgrades/Bilder4/Ticonderoga4.bmp

http://www.aotd-flottille.de//FOTRS/Upgrades/Bilder4/Ticonderoga1.bmp

Regards

Maddy

[Stormfly]

...real beauti`s MadMax, especially the warships ! :yeah:

[urfisch]

hey max.

back at duty?

impressive work!

[TheDarkWraith]

You know I did some progress too! I think I have eliminated the illumination bug/anomaly! I can use high LOD values, guns are rendered and the lighting is good! Ships take damage and it's seen underwater.

I did few things:

1. Used SH 4 stock Normal Map (I think there may be something wrong with our maps)
2. Assigned one (and only one) material to DMG_col-nodes. It seems the material has to be the last of the list in dat-file. The one that has no cfg#TXR text, but just a "1" or "2".

I'm having trouble duplicating this. Can you give me a specific name for 2. above?
How do the caustics effects look with my new caustics pixel shader? I included it in the update I sent you.

EDIT:

Ok, got your method to work. Yes it does stop the lighting anomoly bug BUT the lighting is now 'flat' and has problems:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4188

:hmmm:

[Rongel]

I'm having trouble duplicating this. Can you give me a specific name for 2. above?
How do the caustics effects look with my new caustics pixel shader? I included it in the update I sent you. Heya! It really works for me, no sunlight bug. Your pixel shader is great, caustics show now on both sides.

Okay, so this should do it (it's the same way that SH 4 does it), I use the Kasagisan for example. I use clean dat-file from SH 4, I have only added DMG_col_ to the main node and given it a link to it's 3d model. Then I select material to it. In the dat file there are three materials, two of those have the cfg#TXR_NMFMSSS in the label. The third one has only "1" in it's label. So that's the right material for the DMG_col-node. I can use now default LOD values. I can send you a link to my ship too.

[Rongel]

Ok, got your method to work. Yes it does stop the lighting anomoly bug BUT the lighting is now 'flat' and has problems:I think that is the way it should work. As you can see the third material is also being used in the original DMG_ nodes.

EDIT:

And I can see the sun affecting to the ship, it illuminates the sunny side. But it could be that the effect is a bit different than was before.

[TheDarkWraith]

I think that is the way it should work. As you can see the third material is also being used in the original DMG_ nodes.

EDIT:

And I can see the sun affecting to the ship, it illuminates the sunny side. But it could be that the effect is a bit different than was before.

the sun should light up the side of the ship like this: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=1656487&postcount=295

Why don't you send me what you have and I'll look at it in-game also :06:

EDIT2:

I think the ship I'm using is flawed....Trying another ship (Akita)

[Rongel]

Here is my results, I'll send you a link to my ship soon!

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/SH5Img2011-05-05_171826.jpg

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/SH5Img2011-05-05_171747.jpg

You know, I'm not sure which one did the trick, maybe the corrected Normal map, or the material assignment. So if it was the last one, then we can use Zedi's normal maps. The results will change a bit but I think with this setup we have all the functionality and no bugs.

PS. The last image has the shadows of the railings showing, but it's not a bug, this ship uses two textures, and the other one has railings painted in it's textures. So the sun enchances the railings, but with this texture, it's a bit weird.

[TheDarkWraith]

You know, I'm not sure which one did the trick, maybe the corrected Normal map, or the material assignment. So if it was the last one, then we can use Zedi's normal maps. The results will change a bit but I think with this setup we have all the functionality and no bugs.

The ship I was using before is flawed. Now using the Akita everything works :yeah: I can confirm that the problem was the normal map (NO map entries needed for DMG_col node). Using what I sent you all I had to do was replace the normal map with the stock one. I set the MediumLODDistance to 15.0 and the LowLODDistance to 80.0

Hindsight is always 20/20 :nope: It should've hit me that the normal map was the problem :damn: As we moved the camera closer to the unit the Unified Render Controller was invoking the bump map when we hit the MediumLODDistance. Since the normal map wasn't 'correct' it couldn't render the bump map correctly and thus we got a darkened unit. Now with a 'working' normal map (the stock one) we get BEAUTIFUL bump mapping. Just look at the details here :o:rock:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4189

Now need to figure out how to get shadows and reflections of unit/parts of unit on water....

[Rongel]

The ship I was using before is flawed. Now using the Akita everything works :yeah: I can confirm that the problem was the normal map (NO map entries needed for DMG_col node). Using what I sent you all I had to do was replace the normal map with the stock one

Great! We have now pretty good looking ships :yeah:

Now one thing I noticed is that the guns and instruments have textures but no normal maps or occlusion maps. So they are rendered plain. Is it because Granny format can't touch the old guns?

And here's something spooky I saw earlier. I had sunk my ship and played around then saw something moving in the water and zoomed there:

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/SH5Img2011-05-05_143448.jpg

Invisible ghost ship? No, it was the SH 5 foam effect still going strong, full ahead. Soon it disappeared. Weirdness, maybe my own bad import of the effect or a real problem. Haven't seen it since.

[TheDarkWraith]

Great! We have now pretty good looking ships :yeah:

Now one thing I noticed is that the guns and instruments have textures but no normal maps or occlusion maps.

Yes we do have pretty good looking ships now :yeah: Excellent job :up:

Check the files I sent you. One of the ships contains textures in \data\Textures\TNormal\tex for the _Nxx and _Oxx for the guns.

[Rongel]

Check the files I sent you. One of the ships contains textures in \data\Textures\TNormal\tex for the _Nxx and _Oxx for the guns. I checked them and the seem to be the same as in SH 5 texture folder (or some mod has put them there) But I just can't get any shadows or lighting affecting them, no idea. You see the spotlight in one of the pictures above.

The shader business was pretty nice work, do you think that it could contain the resolution to our weird underwater/above damage graphics. It's a shame if we can't get the hole show in above the waterline. I tested Sh 4 again, and you can shoot the ships full of holes, really nice effect. And basically it seems that these ships could do it too.

[TheDarkWraith]

I checked them and the seem to be the same as in SH 5 texture folder (or some mod has put them there) But I just can't get any shadows or lighting affecting them, no idea. You see the spotlight in one of the pictures above.

The shader business was pretty nice work, do you think that it could contain the resolution to our weird underwater/above damage graphics. It's a shame if we can't get the hole show in above the waterline. I tested Sh 4 again, and you can shoot the ships full of holes, really nice effect. And basically it seems that these ships could do it too.

Why don't you concentrate on the guns and I'll continue playing with the shaders to try and get these holes to show above water :yep:

[Rongel]

Why don't you concentrate on the guns and I'll continue playing with the shaders to try and get these holes to show above water :yep:Sounds like a plan. I'm not sure if I can figure it out though. And it may be that it's something for tomorrow, must do RL stuff.

One more thing I was interested in was the lifeboats. We have now some mods that add them to the debris (maybe even your FX mod!) but Sh 4 had those covered really well with high quality boats, animated sailors and all. When ship went down, lifeboats were spawned, bigger the ship, more boats. I managed to import lifeboats to custom mission, but they had no crew and I have no idea how to add them. But this can be looked later on, it's not crucial.

[TheDarkWraith]

been investigating as to why the DAT rendered unit doesn't render under the waterline when viewed from above water. I have one piece of the puzzle figured out now. The game engine doesn't think it needs to render anything below the waterline. In the screenshot below is an NLL (a GR2 rendered unit). You can clearly see black below the waterline showing where the game engine should render the object below the waterline (it looks all funky because I'm playing with the water PS):
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4192

Now with a DAT rendered unit the black area below the waterline doesn't exist. Thus the game engine doesn't render anything. Here is the Akita (a DAT rendered unit):
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4193

Notice that nothing is 'drawn' below the waterline.

Now the question is how do we tell the game engine to render that part? What controls that? :hmmm: I'm still looking at the shaders as I think they hold all the answers.

[Zedi]

Inject a dll and add your own instructions? :06:

[JU_88]

Nice progress coming along here :)
If any one wants to get seriouse about building more units for SHV, I got a bunch of ex GWX 4 models laying around.
Mostly historical U.S built maritime aircraft (None of which are in SHV currently)
But also a few Costal Merchies and some Non German Subs
They will need light map/ occlusions possibly, but other than that they ready to go.
Drop me PM if intreasted.

Below are some screwy Sh4 imports i did a while back...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll118/v11cu96/SH4Img2010-06-06_205114_062.jpg
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll118/v11cu96/SH4Img2010-06-15_0019.jpg

Max renders

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll118/v11cu96/b17f.jpg
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll118/v11cu96/b25-1.jpg
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll118/v11cu96/JU88A.jpg

[urfisch]

the amount of different vehicles increases obviously...nice job guys!!! you really rig up the game...

great.

:salute:

[Rongel]

Nice progress coming along here :)
If any one wants to get seriouse about building more units for SHV, I got a bunch of ex GWX 4 models laying around.Nice shots! I hope that we get to a point when this will be possible...

Now with a DAT rendered unit the black area below the waterline doesn't exist. Thus the game engine doesn't render anything. Here is the Akita (a DAT rendered unit):
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4193

Notice that nothing is 'drawn' below the waterline.

Now the question is how do we tell the game engine to render that part? What controls that? :hmmm: I'm still looking at the shaders as I think they hold all the answers. Good luck with that, TDW! Beautiful image :DL

I'll post quickly what I found about the gun shading problem. I think I figured out, but can't fix it. Sh 5 has all the same gun textures (same name and location) as SH 4 so it explained why the textured showed up in the first place. It has also the correct occlusion map stored in the textures folder and it should use it. I get it working in S3D, nicely rendered guns.

Now the problem is in my opinion in one of the controllers in guns_radars.dat. Every texture in the file has a chunk called "Texture Map" (type 13/0). It sets a texture map for the basic gun texture and the default setting is Ambient occlusion. So everything should work, all the files are there. But for some reason it doesn't do anything, and changing to different map type doesn't affect anything. It seems it just doesn't work in SH 5.

So I tried to add Unifiedrendercontroler, or specular map node instead but that crashes the game or causes really weird graphic bugs. There can't be two render settings in one ship it seems. So right now I'm out of clues, will continue later!

[Budds]

Sounds like a plan. I'm not sure if I can figure it out though. And it may be that it's something for tomorrow, must do RL stuff.

One more thing I was interested in was the lifeboats. We have now some mods that add them to the debris (maybe even your FX mod!) but Sh 4 had those covered really well with high quality boats, animated sailors and all. When ship went down, lifeboats were spawned, bigger the ship, more boats. I managed to import lifeboats to custom mission, but they had no crew and I have no idea how to add them. But this can be looked later on, it's not crucial.


I just popped in my fav SH4 lifeboat mod when I installed SH5 many months ago,,, it it worked just fine... I thought.
I never really looked into the Mod... but its still installed, and appears to work fine for me.... no edits.... am I missing something ?
:hmmm:

And JU 88......

NICE !!!
Love the work Bro......
:rock:

[Stormfly]

Nice progress coming along here :)
If any one wants to get seriouse about building more units for SHV, I got a bunch of ex GWX 4 models laying around.


Hi 88,

say do you also have the New Orleans cruiser class in GWX4 ?

...i liked this cruiser very much in GWX3, and SH5 have not to much cruisers :hmmm:

[JU_88]

@Stormfly, Nah The New Orleans was not my work, Ref did it - but dont bother contacting him since he dissapeared of Subsim/modding scene years ago and doesnt even respond to emails.
Maybe check with Jimbuna if you want port it - i expect its fine though. There was no GWX 4 rework of it as far as I can recall.

But its true that everything in SH3 needs a wee make over before going to SHV
Textures need updating and occlusions added at the very least.
Sh3 units (in there current state) really do look like crap under the SHV engine.
Things came along way in the space of 5 years :)

I hope SHV reaches Sh3/4s modded greatness It looks like its already well under way thanks to the efforts of TDW and other modders here :)

[renthewog]

Sounds like a plan. I'm not sure if I can figure it out though. And it may be that it's something for tomorrow, must do RL stuff.

One more thing I was interested in was the lifeboats. We have now some mods that add them to the debris (maybe even your FX mod!) but Sh 4 had those covered really well with high quality boats, animated sailors and all. When ship went down, lifeboats were spawned, bigger the ship, more boats. I managed to import lifeboats to custom mission, but they had no crew and I have no idea how to add them. But this can be looked later on, it's not crucial.

Yeah and imagine how good it would be if we could get sailors swimming in the water after a ship sinks as well as the lifeboats surrounding them in the debris field...that would be cool :DL

[stoianm]

Sounds like a plan. I'm not sure if I can figure it out though. And it may be that it's something for tomorrow, must do RL stuff.

One more thing I was interested in was the lifeboats. We have now some mods that add them to the debris (maybe even your FX mod!) but Sh 4 had those covered really well with high quality boats, animated sailors and all. When ship went down, lifeboats were spawned, bigger the ship, more boats. I managed to import lifeboats to custom mission, but they had no crew and I have no idea how to add them. But this can be looked later on, it's not crucial.
It is a mod from sh3 that is working in sh5 without editing... just install with JGSME... but is to graphical diferent for SH5 and you can not see the oil spots from TDW FIX if you install that one... you can try it:

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=170965&highlight=Wooden_Lifeboats_Mod_1.1&page=4

[iambecomelife]

Nice progress coming along here :)
If any one wants to get seriouse about building more units for SHV, I got a bunch of ex GWX 4 models laying around.
Mostly historical U.S built maritime aircraft (None of which are in SHV currently)
But also a few Costal Merchies and some Non German Subs
They will need light map/ occlusions possibly, but other than that they ready to go.
Drop me PM if intreasted.

Below are some screwy Sh4 imports i did a while back...

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll118/v11cu96/SH4Img2010-06-06_205114_062.jpg
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll118/v11cu96/SH4Img2010-06-15_0019.jpg

Max renders

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll118/v11cu96/b17f.jpg
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll118/v11cu96/b25-1.jpg
http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll118/v11cu96/JU88A.jpg

Please do! That is some top-flight work right there.

I'd love to use some of those allied planes (disassembled) as deck cargo for some of the new freighters & tankers I'm building. Much more interesting than wooden crates - lol.

[jwilliams]

One more thing I was interested in was the lifeboats. We have now some mods that add them to the debris (maybe even your FX mod!) but Sh 4 had those covered really well with high quality boats, animated sailors and all. When ship went down, lifeboats were spawned, bigger the ship, more boats. I managed to import lifeboats to custom mission, but they had no crew and I have no idea how to add them. But this can be looked later on, it's not crucial.


SH5 already has a lifeboat model with fully animated crew. But I've never seen any spawn when a ship go's down. :hmmm:

SilentHunter5\data\sea\CMD_small_boat

here it is in goblin....

http://img815.imageshack.us/img815/5509/lifeboat.png

[Zedi]

...
But its true that everything in SH3 needs a wee make over before going to SHV
Textures need updating and occlusions added at the very least.
Sh3 units (in there current state) really do look like crap under the SHV engine.
Things came along way in the space of 5 years :)
...

This is very true. A SH3 ship into a SH5 convoy looks .. lets just say.. wrong. It can ruin your game xp when you looking through the scope and spot a very low polygons ship, the difference is clearly visible even at great distances. Im up for realism, but also for quality. Best candidates for import should be only from SH4 or stuff created by the community.

On the other hand, there is a problem with the manpower. There is only 2 moders working on importing stuff and they still learn how to make it right. Only enthusiasm is just not enough, this is a very time consuming process. Sadly, there is not many who would like to involve into this project.

[Rongel]

Holy cow, the lifeboat looks great, I didn't know that! I want it in my game!

This is very true. A SH3 ship into a SH5 convoy looks .. lets just say.. wrong. It can ruin your game xp when you looking through the scope and spot a very low polygons ship, the difference is clearly visible even at great distances. Im up for realism, but also for quality. Best candidates for import should be only from SH4 or stuff created by the community.

On the other hand, there is a problem with the manpower. There is only 2 moders working on importing stuff and they still learn how to make it right. Only enthusiasm is just not enough, this is a very time consuming process. Sadly, there is not many who would like to involve into this project.

I agree! And if we can't make the guns and instruments look better (occlusion map), that basically leaves warships out of the game. Warships are weapon platforms, and if it looks like it's 3d model from 1997, it's no good. I can live with small merchants who have small tiny ugly guns, I guess the were unarmed until the end or middle of the war??

And one more thing, my mission is completed when Zedi has the 5-8 small merchants in his campaign, that was the reason I joined this quest in the first place, to get the campaign ready :D! So after that others have to start importing. We'll make a new tutorial, it's really quite easy, the basic steps atleast, really almost like drag and drop. I have only made one change to the dat file (!), all other work is fine tuning.

[Zedi]

I think I figured out how to work with transparency levels stored in alpha channels. I need an update of one of these ships (if possible Akita) so I can test stuff. But one that use only dds files for texture, no embedded tga or other funky stuff.

[Rongel]

I think I figured out how to work with transparency levels stored in alpha channels. I need an update of one of these ships (if possible Akita) so I can test stuff. But one that use only dds files for texture, no embedded tga or other funky stuff. Hi Zedi! I can send you my version of Akita. It's a basic version, no fancy stuff, like crew, guns or sh 5 effects.

And no luck with the guns, but I noticed that these ships do spawn lifeboats when sunk. They are not connected to the debris, but use some other system. I just placed the SH 4 lifeboats to my mod. Bad thing is that they don't have any crew, at least not yet...

[Zedi]

Ok, send it.. I wanna test if the light will be reflected in a different way if I use a alpha with trasnparency.

Regarding the lifeboats, the game has one and is used in the spy mission. I also used it in the Open Horizon campaign, Its right there in the roster, the special ops boat listed in the Others folder. I also found a texture file for a larger wooden life boat, but there is nothing in the roster that can link to this texture...

And if you found a way for the ships to spawn lifeboats, you may need to link the right boat from the roster to have also crew on board.

[Rongel]

Got stuck with the import business, but found out something really interesting!
This is unmodified SH 5 stock ship, when it was destroyed, this happened! Don't know yet if this works 100%, or how stable it is, but looks promising! Will post a WIP soon!

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/SH5Img2011-05-07_131555.jpg

[Zedi]

Looks great. But there is a problem with the small boats .. they bounce too much on high waves and I dont think this can be fixed. Maybe that was the reason why the devs decided to not include them in SH5. In OH campaign I set 2 of these boats to travel between 2 ships and in bad weather they look weird by bouncing like some empty barrels.

Anyway, great find :up:

[Rongel]

Sweet jesus! I just sunk Huge Liner and look what happened:

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/SH5Img2011-05-07_135039.jpg

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/SH5Img2011-05-07_134939.jpg

Larger ships spawn more boats! Medium and small boats spawned only one or none at all, but this monster spawned about 15 of them! The lifeboat system is in place in SH 5 but I wonder why they didn't the add the lifeboats? Even in the 1.2 patch? And this is really a Spec Ops Boat... Didn't make my computer freeze by the way.

Looks great. But there is a problem with the small boats .. they bounce too much on high waves and I dont think this can be fixed. Maybe that was the reason why the devs decided to not include them in SH5. In OH campaign I set 2 of these boats to travel between 2 ships and in bad weather they look weird by bouncing like some empty barrels.

Anyway, great find
I can edit atleast the speed of the boats, so I can't see why I couldn't edit other mechanics. SH 4 lifeboats were also bouncing on the waves but i think Webster made a fix for those. I've already reduced their speed. But this needs some serious testing.

EDIT:

I'll make a new thread for these. This addition doesn't really have nothing to do with adding Sh 4 ships.

[stoianm]

Can you test to see if is affect the ''oil spot'' from the TDW FIX?... when i used life boats that was covered the oils spost after you sunk a ship

[TheDarkWraith]

This is the Akita, an SH4 ship that is rendered using DAT files. What is different now? :cool:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4215

Took 2 solid days to figure out how to make the pixel shader do this. It's not perfect as when the camera is near the water and the slope of the underlying terrain is not flat parts of the underwater area of the unit will not render (only applies to DAT rendered units). GR2 rendered units render fine like they always have. From long distance the underwater part of the vessel will not be visible. As the camera moves in closer it will start to fade in.

A side benefit of my additions to the pixel shader are also visible in the screenie. See that creme colored land just above the ship? That land is underwater. Yes, terrain that is within a certain distance from the top of the water will be rendered also.

So caustics effects and visible underwater from above water fixed for DAT files. Still working on reflections and holes (damage) only being visible underwater.
:|\\

[jwilliams]

This is the Akita, an SH4 ship that is rendered using DAT files. What is different now? :cool:

:|\\


You sir, are amazing. :yep:

The difference is I can now see the underside of the ship though the water. :yeah:

:rock::rock::rock:

[jwilliams]

I did it... My first import. :rock: Thanks to the info provided by TheDarkWraith. :yeah:

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/6736/testimport.png


Now where can I get my hands on some SH4 ships (Merchants) so I can try to import some better looking ships??

I only have SH3.

[Rongel]

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4215

Took 2 solid days to figure out how to make the pixel shader do this. It's not perfect as when the camera is near the water and the slope of the underlying terrain is not flat parts of the underwater area of the unit will not render (only applies to DAT rendered units). GR2 rendered units render fine like they always have. From long distance the underwater part of the vessel will not be visible. As the camera moves in closer it will start to fade in.

A side benefit of my additions to the pixel shader are also visible in the screenie. See that creme colored land just above the ship? That land is underwater. Yes, terrain that is within a certain distance from the top of the water will be rendered also.

So caustics effects and visible underwater from above water fixed for DAT files. Still working on reflections and holes (damage) only being visible underwater.
:|\\Wow! You did it!

Sadly I got nowhere with the guns rendering problem, I would be so great if we could use Sh 5 equiptment. And also I'm having difficulties getting good sinking mechanics. But this is great thing, let's enjoy this for a while! :DL

[stoianm]

I did it... My first import. Thanks to the info provided by TheDarkWraith. :yeah:




Now where can I get my hands on some SH4 ships (Merchants) so I can try to import some better looking ships??

I only have SH3.
nice:yeah:.... i think is easy from some that have the SH4 to send to you the ships folder:salute:... i am watching also the S3D tutorials and tdw tec... now i have a bit time and i want to learn also

[JU_88]

I did it... My first import. :rock: Thanks to the info provided by TheDarkWraith. :yeah:

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/6736/testimport.png


Now where can I get my hands on some SH4 ships (Merchants) so I can try to import some better looking ships??

I only have SH3.

Good job Is that Serges Sh3 Vosper? Wheres Alex? I swear he did a superb model of this boat which was imported to SH3 a few months ago.

[Zedi]

Very nice job TDW, im really happy to see that you finally had that working. And grats jwilliams for you first imported ship.

But there should be a limit on import stuff, we dont wanna replace the whole sh5 fleet with the one from sh4 :D What I would really use is a model for Graf Zeppelin. i wanna place her in Kiel, but nor sure how an ark royal will look like there.

[jwilliams]

Good job Is that Serges Sh3 Vosper? Wheres Alex? I swear he did a superb model of this boat which was imported to SH3 a few months ago.

The author is ccazan. At least thats what S3D author info says. I'd imagine that the file/model was added to SH3 by GWX.

This is just a test model so I could learn how to import ships. It will not be released.

[Rongel]

I did it... My first import. :rock: Thanks to the info provided by TheDarkWraith. :yeah:Congratulations jwilliams, even if it's a test!

Zedi made a list sometime ago about SH 4 ships that he would like to include in his new campaign mod. Maybe we could concentrate on those ships at first. Could you, Zedi, post again your wish-list? I have SH 4 and can help with the ships.

[HanSolo78]

Hi everyone!

I´ve a small question... can someone give me some hints how to get the illumination working correct on new 3d models in sh5?
I would like to give the new harbour addion units (now only Sh3 units)
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=166104
a sh5 like illumination and I suppose I need a lightmap?
How do I create one?

Thx
Han

[Rongel]

Hi everyone!

I´ve a small question... can someone give me some hints how to get the illumination working correct on new 3d models in sh5?
I would like to give the new harbour addion units (now only Sh3 units)
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=166104
a sh5 like illumination and I suppose I need a lightmap?
How do I create one?

Thx
Han Hi, quick answer, don't know if it helps... Most objects have a controller called UnifiedRenderControler in their dat-file, so I think you need that. There you can tell the game how to render your object. Ships at least use Normal map and Occlusion map textures. You can create Normal Map in Photoshop for example. Don't know if these rules apply to your work though.

[Zedi]

Congratulations jwilliams, even if it's a test!

Zedi made a list sometime ago about SH 4 ships that he would like to include in his new campaign mod. Maybe we could concentrate on those ships at first. Could you, Zedi, post again your wish-list? I have SH 4 and can help with the ships.

Here (http://www.zumodrive.com/share/cljEZTZmNW). NMFMPC, KSSSKasagisan and Akita is done by Rongel and TDW.

[HanSolo78]

Hi, quick answer, don't know if it helps... Most objects have a controller called UnifiedRenderControler in their dat-file, so I think you need that. There you can tell the game how to render your object. Ships at least use Normal map and Occlusion map textures. You can create Normal Map in Photoshop for example. Don't know if these rules apply to your work though.

Hi Rongel!

Thx for the first hints... the unified controller I know from modding in .dat files... as far as I know it is there since Sh4. So I have to create a .dat file with this controller.. a normal map is there for the units... if u think of the normal texture mapping.. do you knwo what has to be done in the next step?

[TheDarkWraith]

... if u think of the normal texture mapping.. do you knwo what has to be done in the next step?

I'm not following you in your question of the next step? The unified render controller will take care of the illumination based on the _Txx, _Oxx, and _Nxx maps supplied (and defined for each 3D model part). There are specific vertex and pixel shaders used just for this controller.

[Zedi]

Not sure what im doing wrong, but i see no changes..

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH%20ships/6-1.jpg?t=1304870381
http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH%20ships/7-1.jpg?t=1304870380
http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH%20ships/8-1.jpg?t=1304872623

[chrysanthos]

i can wait for a playble ship.....dont worry i am still 36;) we have time....

[TheDarkWraith]

Not sure what im doing wrong, but i see no changes..

what changes are you trying to see? Did you place the shaders I sent to you in their correct folders? From the screenshots you posted the water pixel shader either isn't installed correctly or you forgot it. You should be able to see the new unit's underwater parts when viewed above water with the water PS.

[jwilliams]

Here (http://www.zumodrive.com/share/cljEZTZmNW). NMFMPC, KSSSKasagisan and Akita is done by Rongel and TDW.

Thanks. :salute:

[chrysanthos]

the hard part is to make them playble...

[jwilliams]

I've started with the Paula.

After many hours of staring at invisible, black, semi transparent, Even a green ship in the museum...

I got this.

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/5426/sh4importtest.png

It's atleast visible, and the texture seems to be being displayed... but it looks a bit washed out. What am I doing wrong??

I've run out of time for tonight... will look into it some more tomorrow.


Update: I darkened the texture and It look much better... So the texture prob needs to be reworked.

[Rongel]

It's atleast visible, and the texture seems to be being displayed... but it looks a bit washed out. What am I doing wrong??

I've run out of time for tonight... will look into it some more tomorrow.


Update: I darkened the texture and It look much better... So the texture prob needs to be reworked. Hi! This is SH 4 ship, am I right? The stock textures should work without need to modify them. Okay, here is quick tutorial how I do the basic import (I'm not saying it's the right way to do it, but it is really fast.) Advanced stuff comes later.

1. Copy Sh4 ship to Sh5 (data/sea/) and copy also the roster file (for example data/roster/british/). Include all files you find in SH 4 ship's folder.

2. Open the ships dat file with S3D.

3. Click a 4/100 node that contains the basic ship node (for example 7: Node - Nippon). Now there should be a blue "Model preview" text in the lower middle section of the screen. Click it and you should see the ship. Above the ship is several icons, including four "lightbulb" icons. By clicking them you can see how the textures affect the ship. If you can see the textures here, they also should appear in game. No need to mess with the occlusion and normal maps.

4. To get the ship take damage you need to only make a one new entry. Click again the ships main node and create a child node (4/100 node) . Create a label node for the new node and call it DMG_col_*** where *** is the main node's name, Nippon for example. Now there should be a another blue text where reads Linked 3d model. Copy the main node's 3d model's ID number and paste it here.

Now you should have a ship that takes damage, and all the textures should work also. Good luck, and sorry for the lack of screenies! Ask away more!

I'm a bit worried about the damage modelling. I've seen my ships do strange thinks when they are destroyed. I hope that linking the DMG_col_ to the main node doesn't mess up everything... In SH 4 these ships sink beautifully... Have you TDW examined this yet?

[marleymen]

edited

[TheDarkWraith]

Where to start.......I wanted to make new characters for the game. I needed new characters for the PT Boat because I didn't like using the ones already included with the game (I wanted my own customized characters that I could make look how I need them to look). I made a copy of a GR2 file and then opened it up with hex editor and changed the names of the bones. Then opened it up with Goblin editor so I could get the new IDs from the new bone names to update the .chr file parent IDs. I defined a new animation routine for the character and then updated the waypoint_info file to call this new animation routine and to reference the new bone name in the GR2 file. Then the waypoint for the character was offcenter (another reason why I wanted to make new characters) so I wrote an app to allow me to edit the bones in the GR2 files. It's functional but not complete as I don't totally understand the whole GR2 file format yet. You'll notice in the filename that I'm editing my new character I made :rock:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4246

Now using that app I was able to set the waypoint back to world origin. In case your wondering why it's says Bone X it's because I can't figure out how to map the bones to the names in the GR2 file. But no worries, opening up Granny Viewer tells me the names of the bones so I know which one to edit. The waypoint is Bone 1 in this screenshot. You'll notice that there are model and DAT versions for position and rotation. I did this so if you wanted to connect something to a bone you have the X,Y,Z and Pitch,Yaw,Roll to input into a DAT file. Easy as pie.....I needed these DAT values for the new version of FX Update (smoke in interior of the sub when damaged anyone???)

After successful making of one new character I made 2 more. The PT Boat needed an officer and 2 crew members and that's what these new crew members are for. Here you can see them in-game. They are animated and will look around, look through the binoculars, scratch themselves, etc. :D
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4247

What a day it's been......:|\\

[stoianm]

:salute::rock::salute::rock::o

[Trevally.]

Great breakthrough:rock:

[stoianm]

@TDW
Will be cool to have smoke on sub when damaged as you said you will do... he he... very realistic:yep:

[marleymen]

What can I say? You did it again. Those men look awesome with lifejacket. :oAre them from SH5 or you made from scratch?

:up:

[TheDarkWraith]

What can I say? You did it again. Those men look awesome with lifejacket. :oAre them from SH5 or you made from scratch?

:up:

they were made from parts available in SH5 :up:

[PL_Andrev]

After successful making of one new character I made 2 more. The PT Boat needed an officer and 2 crew members and that's what these new crew members are for. Here you can see them in-game. They are animated and will look around, look through the binoculars, scratch themselves, etc. :D

Does it mean that crew at enemy / AI submarine bridge will be possible in near future?

BTW. At first "train" mission we have captain character on deck.
Do you think that is possible to put captain's characters (with his white cap) on vessels?

[TheDarkWraith]

Does it mean that crew at enemy / AI submarine bridge will be possible in near future?

7A AI sub:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4166

Now that I can make new characters I can change the character layout on this 7A AI sub I did :D

[PL_Andrev]

Now that I can make new characters I can change the character layout on this 7A AI sub I did :D
:o

What can I say...

:yeah::yeah::yeah:

[Zedi]

I knew it.. when TDW is silent for a long time, something big is being cooked.. hah. Awesome stuff! :yeah:
Devs should give you full support in developing an importing tool...

[reaper7]

My First attempt at Importing my SH3 unit failed. I've got it in ok and its texture displaying ok but as soon as the sim starts my units rear end is under water and causes the ship to sink.
What do I need to look at to get it floating correctly :06:

http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/x477/U-Boot_HAHD/Subsim-Sink.jpg

Unit is one I'm working on for the SH3 Mod U-Boot_HAHD and shall be available after the release in SH3. ;-)

[TheDarkWraith]

the CG is different in SH5 than in SH3. Move the CG forward in the .sim file a very little at a time (0.01 increments) :up:

[reaper7]

the CG is different in SH5 than in SH3. Move the CG forward in the .sim file a very little at a time (0.01 increments) :up:

Cheers TDW, will give it a shot :up:

[reaper7]

Nope didn't do the trick, moved it gradually from 0.5 up to 1. Still the same outcome just sinks in about 5 seconds from the rear. :hmmm:

[TheDarkWraith]

Nope didn't do the trick, moved it gradually from 0.5 up to 1. Still the same outcome just sinks in about 5 seconds from the rear. :hmmm:

I'll be happy to take a look at it :up:

[reaper7]

I'll be happy to take a look at it :up:

:har: My Fault - It was the centre of gravity I pushed it the wrong direction so was making the problem worse not better.
Pulled it back towards the rear of the boat and not the front and it did the trick.
Still needs a little fine-tuning but shes floating.

Thank You TDW. :yeah:

[Zedi]

This is a small fishing boat, right? Is newly created unit, or an old model?

[reaper7]

This is a small fishing boat, right? Is newly created unit, or an old model?

Its a reworked and UV wrap optimised version of the stock SH3 NF_Boat_1.
Its part of the WIP Mod U-Boot_HAHD that will be released for SH3,
Here's a vid showing the comparison between stock and rework: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKg5k7tBcKg
and will be available for SH5 after the Mod release.

The UV Unwrap method we do allows for complete texturing of the ship with percise texture for all aspects of the model even both hull sides are seperate ;)
Also other 3D models like Tyres and lifeboays have been added. Still more to do with it yet ;-)

Thanks TDW its floating correctly now. Next to get the damage working :up:

http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/x477/U-Boot_HAHD/Random/Subsim2.jpg

http://i1183.photobucket.com/albums/x477/U-Boot_HAHD/Random/Subsim1.jpg

[TheDarkWraith]

Did a lot of testing today with the alpha channel of the _Oxx maps. I've concluded that the alpha channel is like the specular intensity factor. If I make that alpha channel black (0x00000000) I get no specular reflections from sunlight. If I make it white (0xFFFFFFFF) I get amazing specular reflections.

Still playing with the alpha channel of the _Txx maps.

These shaders are responsible for the rendering of the _Oxx map:
\data\Shaders\UnifiedRender\URTex2PLightSMPS controls rendering from long distances (>= LowLODDistance)
\data\Shaders\UnifiedRender\URTex2PLightSMNMPS controls rendering from close distances (< LowLODDistance)

If you look at the alpha channel of the SH4 _Oxx maps you'll notice that they have NOTHING to do with the RGB channels. Recommend either deleting that alpha channel or setting it to some shade of white.

Adding/Removing alpha channel from the _Txx maps appears to have no effect on final rendering.

[SteelViking]

Did a lot of testing today with the alpha channel of the _Oxx maps. I've concluded that the alpha channel is like the specular intensity factor. If I make that alpha channel black (0x00000000) I get no specular reflections from sunlight. If I make it white (0xFFFFFFFF) I get amazing specular reflections.

Still playing with the alpha channel of the _Txx maps.

These shaders are responsible for the rendering of the _Oxx map:
\data\Shaders\UnifiedRender\URTex2PLightSMPS controls rendering from long distances (>= LowLODDistance)
\data\Shaders\UnifiedRender\URTex2PLightSMNMPS controls rendering from close distances (< LowLODDistance)

If you look at the alpha channel of the SH4 _Oxx maps you'll notice that they have NOTHING to do with the RGB channels. Recommend either deleting that alpha channel or setting it to some shade of white.

Adding/Removing alpha channel from the _Txx maps appears to have no effect on final rendering.

I am pretty sure you could just remove the alpha channel of SH5 shadow maps. They really make no difference.

Edit: Yup, just tested it, removing the alpha channel altogether looks just like if you set the image to full opacity.

[TheDarkWraith]

I am pretty sure you could just remove the alpha channel of SH5 shadow maps. They really make no difference.

Edit: Yup, just tested it, removing the alpha channel altogether looks just like if you set the image to full opacity.

Just deleting the alpha channel though doesn't look correct when sun is low on horizon. The specular reflections are way too strong. I think a color of medium white (alpha of 0x7F) is a good balance.

[SteelViking]

Just deleting the alpha channel though doesn't look correct when sun is low on horizon. The specular reflections are way too strong. I think a color of medium white (alpha of 0x7F) is a good balance.

TDW, could you please send me the Oxx map for the NMFMPC after you have done this?

[TheDarkWraith]

TDW, could you please send me the Oxx map for the NMFMPC after you have done this?

I'm using a different ship now. The Akita. Do you have it? If not, I'll send it to you after this last test I'm doing.

[SteelViking]

I have the NKMCS_Akita.:yep:

[TheDarkWraith]

I have the NKMCS_Akita.:yep:

Using Photoshop I adjusted the levels of the RGB channels of the _Oxx map. I set the output levels to 122. I set the alpha channel to 0xB4B4B4 and set the alpha channel of the _Txx map to 0x3A3A3A. Looks really good :D

[naights]

Did a lot of testing today with the alpha channel of the _Oxx maps. I've concluded that the alpha channel is like the specular intensity factor. If I make that alpha channel black (0x00000000) I get no specular reflections from sunlight. If I make it white (0xFFFFFFFF) I get amazing specular reflections.

Still playing with the alpha channel of the _Txx maps.

These shaders are responsible for the rendering of the _Oxx map:
\data\Shaders\UnifiedRender\URTex2PLightSMPS controls rendering from long distances (>= LowLODDistance)
\data\Shaders\UnifiedRender\URTex2PLightSMNMPS controls rendering from close distances (< LowLODDistance)

If you look at the alpha channel of the SH4 _Oxx maps you'll notice that they have NOTHING to do with the RGB channels. Recommend either deleting that alpha channel or setting it to some shade of white.

Adding/Removing alpha channel from the _Txx maps appears to have no effect on final rendering.

Hi:

Whats the color of the texture? specular maps in very white textures reacts more shinier than in darker ones (the light intensity affects too), probably you need to find good balance (rgb grey scale).

If the model comes with shadow maps, you can try adjusting white input to be darker, so all de model will take darker tone, lowering lightness of the diffuse will help too.

Bye !!

[SteelViking]

Using Photoshop I adjusted the levels of the RGB channels of the _Oxx map. I set the output levels to 122. I set the alpha channel to 0xB4B4B4 and set the alpha channel of the _Txx map to 0x3A3A3A. Looks really good :D

Off the top of my head, that sounds like a pretty solid setup.:yep:

[TheDarkWraith]

Off the top of my head, that sounds like a pretty solid setup.:yep:

I set the alpha channel of the _Oxx map to 0xC8C8C8 for a little more specular intensity. Really liking the look of it now.

So here's what I did to the Akita:
- using Photoshop I adjusted the RGB levels of the _Oxx map. I set the output levels to 122
- I deleted the alpha channel of the _Oxx map. I made a new alpha channel and set the entire color to 0xC8C8C8.
- I added an alpha channel to the _Txx map. I set the entire color to 0x646464

All the shots were taken at the equator (location in world)

This is 1230 time:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4255

This is 1730 time:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4256

and this is 0130 time:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4254

I think it looks really good. What do you think Zedi?

[Zedi]

I set the alpha channel of the _Oxx map to 0xC8C8C8 for a little more specular intensity. Really liking the look of it now.

So here's what I did to the Akita:
- using Photoshop I adjusted the RGB levels of the _Oxx map. I set the output levels to 122
- I deleted the alpha channel of the _Oxx map. I made a new alpha channel and set the entire color to 0xC8C8C8.
- I added an alpha channel to the _Txx map. I set the entire color to 0x646464

All the shots were taken at the equator (location in world)

This is 1230 time:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4255

This is 1730 time:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4256

and this is 0130 time:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=487&pictureid=4254

I think it looks really good. What do you think Zedi?

Perfect, now finally this ship look like a sh5 one and will not make a difference in a convoy. Sent you guys the normal maps.. somehow thos I made were lost and replaced with the sh4 ones. Now it should look just perfect. But please fix the gravity center on Akita, the bow is too low.

Here a report from my last tests in campaign when stalking a convoy:


Im not complaining about anything as this kind of things can happen in a convoy under attack, but this guy did nothing to get out of the troop transport way.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2191/5720929811_f87980993b_b.jpg

Here is 2 minute later, notice the bow splash traveling alone
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2183/5720929851_80fe8ee017_b.jpg


I have to double check this .. but maybe when ships have cargo on board they travel low on water.. is the first time I see this guy traveling low in a convoy, so this need more testing.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2269/5721488812_ff638540c6_b.jpg


Anyway, this is a completely different game now.. its just amazing how much the game changes in the last months.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2231/5720929931_8fe43e86bf_b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3047/5720930003_7df91bb7e9_b.jpg

[stoianm]

But please fix the gravity center on Akita, the bow is too low.



I just fixed for you... check your email and tell me if is oke like this

[SteelViking]

I set the alpha channel of the _Oxx map to 0xC8C8C8 for a little more specular intensity. Really liking the look of it now.

So here's what I did to the Akita:
- using Photoshop I adjusted the RGB levels of the _Oxx map. I set the output levels to 122
- I deleted the alpha channel of the _Oxx map. I made a new alpha channel and set the entire color to 0xC8C8C8.
- I added an alpha channel to the _Txx map. I set the entire color to 0x646464

All the shots were taken at the equator (location in world)


I think it looks really good. What do you think Zedi?

TDW, can you please send me the textures used in those pics?

[Zedi]

I will send them to you.. but please guys, finish this job before start moding something else, I really need these ships finished for the campaign.

[SteelViking]

I will send them to you.. but please guys, finish this job before start moding something else, I really need these ships finished for the campaign.

No worries Zedi, I am still on board to do anything you need texture/shadow map wise. I am just waiting for one last package from TDW because I want all of us to be on the same page with this.

[TheDarkWraith]

Here is 2 minute later, notice the bow splash traveling alone
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2183/5720929851_80fe8ee017_b.jpg


Was this a one time occurrence or does it happen all the time :hmmm:

[Stormfly]

i saw that also 2 times, ithink its emitted by the sinking wreck, which gain speed by sinking.

[TheDarkWraith]

i saw that also 2 times, ithink its emitted by the sinking wreck, which gain speed by sinking.

which ship(s) do this :06:

[SteelViking]

When this is showing up, how long has the ship been under the surface?

[Stormfly]

dont know which atm, of course one of the new ships, i will watch it next time...

and how long ? ithink maybe 10-20 secs ? ...you know a sinking ship need a little dept and time before gaining higher horizontal speed when sinking, sometimes they sink only or nearly only vertical, then this effect cant be shown, ithink it need horizontal speed.

[SteelViking]

dont know which atm, of course one of the new ships, i will watch it next time...

and how long ? ithink maybe 10-20 secs ?

Hmmm, 10-20 secs? Maybe we should look at a depth test on that controller TDW? Lots of possibilities to solve this problem Stormfly, just going to take some work.:yep:

[TheBeast]

looks like the Bow ShipWake Height Control is not working.
Maybe changing from SH4 ShipWake to SH5 Shipwake will fix it.

In SH4 there is like 5 Controllers used together for ShipWake.
In SH5 there is 1 maybe 2 Controllers used together for ShipWake.

[Zedi]

The splash is linked to the ship so its traveling with the ship until the ships will despawn, so there is no time limit involved. I saw this happening with the Rongels ship, but I suppose is something common for all of them.

TDW, you reduced the collision detection range in IRAI32? Because all unit are getting much to close to each other. Is why the incident between the new ship and TT happened. Also in port is chaos, the traffic is having hard time to avoid obstacles and after few minutes all ships are stopped sounding the alarm. Not sure if you can do something about but this is a very serious problem already. And now that we have more enviro units like mines, buoys, dolphins etc.. things got worst.

Another thing related to IRAI.. the convoys are circling when under attack. Saw this happen in MN where they got close to a air group spawn point and they just got into an endless circling loop until all ships got sunk by the planes. I think you should leave them to zig-zag and continue their original path while the escorts try to deal with the danger and keep it away from the convoy. This is how things worked in reality, except the hk groups whom role is to search &kill.

[Sepp von Ch.]

This is exactly my problem as I now have. I use now great tiny-torpedo mod and testing WIP-Das Campaign. It is very difficult to sink the ship with tiny-mod (usually need 3 torpedoes, some tankers 4-5)-very relistic - very good immersion-I can recommand it to all with brilliant Das Campaign mod! But shooting into the ship for several hours (shoot from the convoy and then I finish it wit 2-3 torpedoes), but after the last torpedo hit the ship sink within 1-2 minutes! Destroyers I can destroy with one torpedo and the destroyer sink within 15 seconds!

With TDW´s FX-mod (now some mods overwrites this FX mod) happened this not by me and the ships sunk a long time even after the ship was destroyed.

I can fire the torpedoes into a ship several hours (I like this), but once it is marked on the map as destroyed, the ship sink during several seconds... It happens now by all ships in SH5.


I found, that the ship Akita is too immersed in the sea bow, but stoianm write, that this is already fixed:-) Great work woith this SEMI-MEGAMOD "Das Campaign" Grey Wolves of the subsim!

[stoianm]

This is exactly my problem as I now have. I use now great tiny-torpedo mod and testing WIP-Das Campaign. It is very difficult to sink the ship with tiny-mod (usually need 3 torpedoes, some tankers 4-5)-very relistic - very good immersion-I can recommand it to all with brilliant Das Campaign mod! But shooting into the ship for several hours (shoot from the convoy and then I finish it wit 2-3 torpedoes), but after the last torpedo hit the ship sink within 1-2 minutes! Destroyers I can destroy with one torpedo and the destroyer sink within 15 seconds!

With TDW´s FX-mod (now some mods overwrites this FX mod) happened this not by me and the ships sunk a long time even after the ship was destroyed.

I can fire the torpedoes into a ship several hours (I like this), but once it is marked on the map as destroyed, the ship sink during several seconds... It happens now by all ships in SH5.


I found, that the ship Akita is too immersed in the sea bow, but stoianm write, that this is already fixed:-) Great work woith this SEMI-MEGAMOD "Das Campaign" Grey Wolves of the subsim!
With vanilla you need 3-4 torpedo tu sunk a ship also... did you ever playied vanilla?:)

[SteelViking]

This may seem like a dumb question, but how do you make the flags show up and function with an imported ship. If I leave the old SH4 relic of a flag it works, but then only that flag shows, and not the country I put the ship in for in the roster.

Any help would be appreciated.
:salute:

[Zedi]

Uekel from the german forum who imported dozens of ships from sh4 (and we use 2 ships from his mod (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=1637139&postcount=24)), has a flag.dat in Library. He already mixed the ships and placed them in every nation roster. So maybe the flag.dat is the answer.

[SteelViking]

Says file has been deleted, can't download. Can anyone else upload this mod.

[Zedi]

I have his mode, its over 120Mb, I can upload it again, but .... not sure if is this permuted... maybe the owner dont wanna share his mod anymore? I have permission only to extract few ships from his work, not to deal with the whole mod itself. I really dont need another one accusing me of stealing stuff, just had enough with Privateer.

[gap]

Hi there,
as promised, I would like to do my first attempt at importing SH3/4 ships in SH5.
Though being quite good photoshop-wise (but Zedi and SteelViking are taking care of this aspect already), I am a total newcomer as for other modding aspects. Also, my time is limited, so don't expect fast results.

On this topic I have some questions/request for the concerned modders:

1- wich ship should I start from? I know we are focusing on SH4 small merchants, but wich is/are the one/s on the top of the list?

2 - by now there's so much scattered information on the various aspects of ship importing, that I am getting confused. Things could be a lot easier for beginners like me if some veteran could collect all the knowledge gathered until now, organize it and put it in a single post. Even better if this someone could also try to keep the tutorial updated, let's say on a weekly basis, with all the new discoveries.
I know this can be a boring task, but IMHO such a complete tutorial would encourage ready and willing people to join the project.

[JU_88]

2 - by now there's so much scattered information on the various aspects of ship importing, that I am getting confused. Things could be a lot easier for beginners like me if some veteran could collect all the knowledge gathered until now, organize it and put it in a single post. Even better if this someone could also try to keep the tutorial updated, let's say on a weekly basis, with all the new discoveries.
I know this can be a boring task, but IMHO such a complete tutorial would encourage ready and willing people to join the project.

Excellent Idea :up:, hell I might even have stab and porting over some new aircraft and stuff if I can figure it out - (cant promise anything as I suck with imports.)

[Rongel]

Hi there,
as promised, I would like to do my first attempt at importing SH3/4 ships in SH5.
Though being quite good photoshop-wise (but Zedi and SteelViking are taking care of this aspect already), I am a total newcomer as for other modding aspects. Also, my time is limited, so don't expect fast results.

On this topic I have some questions/request for the concerned modders:

1- wich ship should I start from? I know we are focusing on SH4 small merchants, but wich is/are the one/s on the top of the list?

2 - by now there's so much scattered information on the various aspects of ship importing, that I am getting confused. Things could be a lot easier for beginners like me if some veteran could collect all the knowledge gathered until now, organize it and put it in a single post. Even better if this someone could also try to keep the tutorial updated, let's say on a weekly basis, with all the new discoveries.
I know this can be a boring task, but IMHO such a complete tutorial would encourage ready and willing people to join the project.

Good point. And the import data is scattered to two forums now. This whole thing started with the TDW's tutorial and the torpedo boat example. I joined in with no knowledge of almost anything, and we just started to try out things, now SteelViking is also on board :DL. So many of those early posts contain false data, the basic import routine is relatively simple. I'm not saying this is the best way to do it, but we have tried A LOT of stuff, and current method is the easiest and most succesful. We have some serious restrictions now, like:

-no reflections, no dynamic shadows, ship don't render underwater when looked above (with TDW's shader some graphic cards apparently make this happen), and some smaller bugs (like the random foam wake when ship is already destroyed).

Anyway, it would be great to have more importers, everyone usually finds out something new and that way improves the whole thing. TDW is currently working with something else, and that's really okay. I could make a small tutorial, but the first post is TDW's, and I would not like to start a new thread. And if I post the tutorial here, it will get lost in other posts... What is the best way to do this? :06:

Zedi can help with what ship to import. Good luck! :DL

[gap]

Nice to see that you're appreciating my idea!

@ Rongel

Thank you for your willingness. I hope this task is not going to divert you from the rest of your tasks for too long! :DL
If you don't want to start a new thread I see two solutions:

1 - after you have it finished, you PM your tutorial to TDW, who on his turn would make it available in the first post of this thread (but in this way you should disturb him everytime you want to update the tutorial);

2 - even better: you post your tutorial anywhere in this thread, by asking TDW to put a link to it in the first post.

What do you think of it?

[TheDarkWraith]

This may seem like a dumb question, but how do you make the flags show up and function with an imported ship. If I leave the old SH4 relic of a flag it works, but then only that flag shows, and not the country I put the ship in for in the roster.

Any help would be appreciated.
:salute:

cfg#FLG nodes are supposed to control the flag showing for the country. Usually you place a cfg#FLG node and the game takes care of placing the correct flag. This is not happening?

[Zedi]

Main target should be the small tonnage ships. The reason... SH5 has built in only huge ships with over 5k tons. So no wonder we have millions of tonnage sunk in just a month of patrol and this must be fixed. We need more merchants, but low tonnage merchants.. normal ships, not monsters.

I reduced the campaign mission requirements very much, instead of 200k, now we have max 50k tonnage, mostly 20. But with the sh5 fleet this requirement can be achieved in a single patrol. If we import low tonnage ships, the 20k requirements can be difficult to achieve. This way the whole campaign can be more realistic.

Here is a small pack (http://www.zumodrive.com/share/cyJnNmYzMz) with ships extracted from Uekels mod, ships with low tonnage, but also with NOLNippon which is a huge and beautiful tanker. Not sure about this one as in reality tankers were a pretty rare sight and this one never sailed in Atlantic... but hey, I dont think anyone would mind sinking this fat lady :P

[Rongel]

cfg#FLG nodes are supposed to control the flag showing for the country. Usually you place a cfg#FLG node and the game takes care of placing the correct flag. This is not happening?

I think it's working for me, didn't have to edit anything. When I first put the originally Japanese Kasagisan ship to British roster, I get British flag in the game. Same thing happens when it's in American roster, I get American flag.

Here is a small pack (http://www.zumodrive.com/share/cyJnNmYzMz) with ships extracted from Uekels mod, ships with low tonnage, but also with NOLNippon which is a huge and beautiful tanker. Not sure about this one as in reality tankers were a pretty rare sight and this one never sailed in Atlantic... but hey, I dont think anyone would mind sinking this fat lady :P And now there is these ships already being imported, so no duplicates please:D:

-PTelco
-KSSSKasagisan
-KMCSAkita
-PSTyohei
-NAMC

These ships have many names, so you need to check them carefully. Studying sea/roster cfg-file helps!

2 - even better: you post your tutorial anywhere in this thread, by asking TDW to put a link to it in the first post.Gap, I think this is pretty good idea. But I'll start slowly and just tell the basic steps to get the ship to game and take damage. I won't deal with texture modification, others (TDW, SteelViking, Zedi) know that better than me, and it's also a matter of taste. Also Importing airplanes is a good idea, I made a quick test months ago, and Sh 4 airplanes automatically spawn debris-wings when destroyed, something that doesn't happen in SH 5. The importing method might be different though.

But you have to wait the step 1. tutorial a bit longer...

[Rongel]

Importing Silent Hunter 4 Stock Ships to Silent Hunter 5 Tutorial

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/SH5Img2011-05-13_000344.jpg


Part 1. Basic Import

To begin, you need a copy of SH 4 and Skwasjer's great Silent 3ditor and a very limited modding skills. There is example import included at the end of the post.

1. Select a ship you want to import from SH 4 (SH4/data/Sea) and copy it to SH 5. I suggest you make a new mod for it. Copy also the selected ships roster file (SH4/data/Roster/*Nation name*/Sea/) and place it to your mods roster folder to the nation you want it to have. Keep the same filestructure that Sh 4 has.

2. Your new import ship works already, and should show in game, but it doesn't have Collision model yet. So open your ships dat-file with S3D. I'm using as an example NKSSS_Kasagisan-ship. Now click the ships main node, in this case it's called 7:Node - NMFMSSS. Create a new child node (type 4/100) to it by right clicking it. Then create a new child node to the node you just created. This time select 8/0 Label-node. Now give the label node a name called DMG_col_NMFMSSS. This is the most important thing! NMFMSSS means here your ships main nodes name.

You notice when you click your new node that there reads in blue text Linked 3D model. Currently there is none. So open again the ships main node 7:Node - NMFMSSS and click it's 3D model node. Up center of the S3D screen there reads the 3D models ID number. Copy it and paste it to your new nodes Linked 3D model/Model ID field. Then uncheck the DMG_col-node's Visibility. Voila! Now you have basic damage model to your ship.

3. Search (Ctrl + F) for WaterReflection and delete all those nodes and their child nodes too. SH 4 water reflections just don't seem to work, so it's not neccessary to keep those.

4. It's ready, and fully functional*! Save and apply your mod. Check the situation in Mission editor, if your ship doesn't show there, something is propably wrong with the roster file. Create a new single mission and test your ship in action!

*Known Bugs:

-Ships don't break in half
-Ships don't cast shadows
-There is no water reflections
-Ships don't show through water when looked above waterline

Download (http://www.gamefront.com/files/20343233/TestImport_Tutorial.7z) Kasagisan example import ship mod!

Note: I'm not saying this is the right way to import ships, but this is the easiest and most functional way that I know. And after this you need to add guns and crew to your ship, possibly tweak your ships floating mechanics and adjust the textures. But that is a story for another night!

Big thanks for this goes to TDW! If I forgot something, please tell and I'll update this. SteelViking can also add if there is mistakes. And sorry if it's not understandable, making a tutorial is much harder than it sounds... I hope that you also study the import threads, there is no point importing if you just follow instructions, you need to know what is going on too! Good luck :yeah:

[Rongel]

Reserved by Rongel!

[TheDarkWraith]

I linked your tutorial in post #1 :up:

[SteelViking]

Nothing to add here, sounds good Rongel, that really is all you need to get a ship into SH5 and have it functional.:up: Making it look pretty takes a good bit more work, but nothing too complicated.

Honestly the most time consuming part when importing is redoing the shadow map and base texture for it.

[SteelViking]

cfg#FLG nodes are supposed to control the flag showing for the country. Usually you place a cfg#FLG node and the game takes care of placing the correct flag. This is not happening?

Aha, the name of the node for the flag on the NAMC did not match that. Changed the node name, and flag is now working. Thanks TDW:yeah:

[gap]

Importing Silent Hunter 4 Stock Ships to Silent Hunter 5 Tutorial

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/SH5Img2011-05-13_000344.jpg


Part 1. Basic Import

To begin, you need a copy of SH 4 and Skwasjer's great Silent 3ditor and a very limited modding skills. There is example import included at the end of the post.

1. Select a ship you want to import from SH 4 (SH4/data/Sea) and copy it to SH 5. I suggest you make a new mod for it. Copy also the selected ships roster file (SH4/data/Roster/*Nation name*/Sea/) and place it to your mods roster folder to the nation you want it to have. Keep the same filestructure that Sh 4 has.

2. Your new import ship works already, and should show in game, but it doesn't have Collision model yet. So open your ships dat-file with S3D. I'm using as an example NKSSS_Kasagisan-ship. Now click the ships main node, in this case it's called 7:Node - NMFMSSS. Create a new child node (type 4/100) to it by right clicking it. Then create a new child node to the node you just created. This time select 8/0 Label-node. Now give the label node a name called DMG_col_NMFMSSS. This is the most important thing! NMFMSSS means here your ships main nodes name.

You notice when you click your new node that there reads in blue text Linked 3D model. Currently there is none. So open again the ships main node 7:Node - NMFMSSS and click it's 3D model node. Up center of the S3D screen there reads the 3D models ID number. Copy it and paste it to your new nodes Linked 3D model/Model ID field. Then uncheck the DMG_col-node's Visibility. Voila! Now you have basic damage model to your ship.

3. Search (Ctrl + F) for WaterReflection and delete all those nodes and their child nodes too. SH 4 water reflections just don't seem to work, so it's not neccessary to keep those.

4. It's ready, and fully functional*! Save and apply your mod. Check the situation in Mission editor, if your ship doesn't show there, something is propably wrong with the roster file. Create a new single mission and test your ship in action!

*Known Bugs:

-Ships don't break in half
-Ships don't cast shadows
-There is no water reflections
-Ships don't show through water when looked above waterline

Download (http://www.gamefront.com/files/20343233/TestImport_Tutorial.7z) Kasagisan example import ship mod!

Note: I'm not saying this is the right way to import ships, but this is the easiest and most functional way that I know. And after this you need to add guns and crew to your ship, possibly tweak your ships floating mechanics and adjust the textures. But that is a story for another night!

Big thanks for this goes to TDW! If I forgot something, please tell and I'll update this. SteelViking can also add if there is mistakes. And sorry if it's not understandable, making a tutorial is much harder than it sounds... I hope that you also study the import threads, there is no point importing if you just follow instructions, you need to know what is going on too! Good luck :yeah:

WOW that was fast! :D
Thank you Rongel, I am putting myself at work now! :salute:

[SteelViking]

Unless anyone has any objections, I will start importing the NKSCS_Taihosan from SHIV.

[TheBeast]

Aha, the name of the node for the flag on the NAMC did not match that. Changed the node name, and flag is now working. Thanks TDW:yeah:
Does the cfg#FLG 4/100 Node also require a specific Node ID?:06:

[SteelViking]

Does the cfg#FLG 4/100 Node also require a specific Node ID?:06:

What I did was simply delete the 3D model and mesh controller from the node, and change the node's label to cfg#FLG_NAMC for the NAMC ship. Works perfectly......other than that the flag was backwards at first, so I flipped the node around.:up:

[TheDarkWraith]

Does the cfg#FLG 4/100 Node also require a specific Node ID?:06:

No. the cfg#FLG tells the game engine that it needs to put a flag there of the country of the unit

[gap]

Hi,
I decided to give a go to the Nippon Tanker suggested by Zedi.
After applying the changes pointed out by Rongel in his tutorial, the ship is collisionable. In game tests confirmed that it takes damage from torpedoes and deck gun BUT the game freezes whenever hitpoits reach zero.

I digged in this thread for some clue about this issue, but is seems that I'm the first one experiencing it.

Besides the latter problem and the common bugs listed by Rongel in his tutorial, here are some remarks:

pro:
- original textures seem to me quite good even for SH5 standards;
- on both sides the ship doesn't look washed out as other imported ships;
- ship's pitch and roll were adjusted with the help of stoianm. Some further finetuning may be required, but in general the look okay.
- as far as I could see from my tests, ship sinks correctly, depending on where it was hit and wich compartments are flooding (tested without FX updtate)

con:
- bow spray and stern wake could be better (especially the latter: it is too light);
- deck guns are rendered black;
- no 2d/3d damage decals on torpedo/shell hits;
- during some of my tests, after a successful torpedo shoot on the side of the ship, there was fire being rendered on the sea close to the impact area instead of being on the ship's deck.
- during my last test, I torpedoed the ship 2 times on her stern. After being hit she stopped and she was on fire. She started having floodings too, but the hit point bar wasn't showing any damage. Is that normal? :hmmm:

This is the link to what I've done so far, in case someone wants to have a look to it. JGSME ready. Custom test mission with two tankers in sight on your 360° bearing included:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q7NQ9LPH

later I will post some in game screenshots. Suggestions on the freeze problem very wellcomed, as I have no clue on it... :damn:

[TheDarkWraith]

Hi,
I decided to give a go to the Nippon Tanker suggested by Zedi.
After applying the changes pointed out by Rongel in his tutorial, the ship is collisionable. In game tests confirmed that it takes damage from torpedoes and deck gun BUT the game freezes whenever hitpoits reach zero.

Did you verify that the zones defined in the boxes (for collisions/flooding) exist in SH5's \data\Zones.cfg? Sounds like there are incompatibilities (and/or missing entries) here.
The game is probably freezing because the Zone is trying to play an effect that doesn't exist in SH5.

[gap]

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/8562/97162681.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/62/97162681.jpg/)
The Nippon Tanker from SHIV. IMHO stock textures are not so bad. But notice the black deck guns and spotlights, and the poor bow spray (ship was moving at 5 kn).


http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6686/83399236.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/215/83399236.jpg/)
Stern wake needs a rework too.


http://img34.imageshack.us/img34/7245/49539180.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/34/49539180.jpg/)
Another view of the tanker, showing the deck and the starboard side of the ship. I forgot to take a screenshoot of the other side before
I started my ballistic exercises :arrgh!: but I can ensure you that even the side opposite to the sun is looking okay. Water reflection and
sunlight reflections are missing, though.


http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/5236/78392112.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/38/78392112.jpg/)
After putting a terpedo on the bow the ship is on fire. Notice also that it starts to list on the back, due to flooding.


http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/3686/99511650.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/155/99511650.jpg/)
After the second torpedo propellers stop and the listing on the stern becomes more evident.


http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/2358/93991500.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/84/93991500.jpg/)
Another view of the ship emphasizing her listing.


http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/3420/72994805.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/709/72994805.jpg/)
The tanker start to return my fire. Weird: after two torpedoes on her bow, hit point bar is still at its full... :hmmm:


http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/9594/19582666.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/69/19582666.jpg/)
Time to put a third torpedo on the port side


http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/7846/60414876.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/195/60414876.jpg/)
Center! :arrgh!: but now the sea in on fire. An oil spot maybe? :hmmm:


http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/8240/89452017.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/23/89452017.jpg/)
This time hit points decreased as supposed


http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/4862/42629213.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/824/42629213.jpg/)
As you can see from this image and from the previous one, after my third shot the tanker started listing on both the stern and the port sides. A few deckgun shots
were enough to finish her and to... freeze the game :damn:

[Zedi]

I see nothing wrong in the hp. This is a huge tanker, 10k one. So its normal to take more than 2 fish to sink it. And it sinks just perfect. Of course, this need more work than a simple small merchant, but none is rushing you.. there is stil plenty of time to finish all details on this ship. So far so good.

[gap]

Did you verify that the zones defined in the boxes (for collisions/flooding) exist in SH5's \data\Zones.cfg? Sounds like there are incompatibilities (and/or missing entries) here.
The game is probably freezing because the Zone is trying to play an effect that doesn't exist in SH5.

:hmmm: something in my mind was telling me that it had to do with the .zon file, but I was to lazy to trust it :D

Okay I'll try to decipher the part of your tutorial about zones and I'll report back as soon as I finish. I hope to work out the problem by myself. Thanks!

[Rongel]

:hmmm: something in my mind was telling me that it had to do with the .zon file, but I was to lazy to trust it :D

Okay I'll try to decipher the part of your tutorial about zones and I'll report back as soon as I finish. I hope to work out the problem by myself. Thanks!

Nice looking ship, great work Gap! :up:

Can't really help you with your problem, never encountered that... I only heard that sinking a friendly ship may crash your game, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Have you tried your ship without any other mod? That's the best advice I can give, lame... :oops:

SH5 guns are always rendered black for some reason, that's why we use SH 4 guns. And you can fix the anemic SH 4 wave/foam with SH 5 effect controllers. Can't help more now... Good luck!

[Sepp von Ch.]

My lovely target - big tanker!:o Very good work gap!:up:

[Chevelless]

you are making progress everyday! :salute:

Good job:) keep it up. Finally we may see a total different SH5

[Stormfly]

also working on importing my first ship (New Passenger/Hospitalship by AOTD|MadMax 09.07.2008), nearly finished nr. 1 ...

...i hear impacts and see damage and so on but i cant hear explosions or burning fires, sinking sounds are present... and what to do spawning live boats :06:

[TheBeast]

@ Gap
you may want to check Armor level in ZON file and compare with native tanker settings.

in SH4 I have had this Nippon Tanker leave a fire trail up to 2Km long before it sank. Posted pic of it in SH4 Forum around 2 years ago.
Not sure if I was using TMO or FoTRS at the time.

[Stormfly]

...some screens of the current progress (Passenger/Hospitalship by AOTD|MadMax)

Passenger Ship
http://www.pictureupload.de/originals/pictures/200511040407_SH5_I1.jpg
...all damage is working and showing, sinking without a problem, effect sounds for explosions and fires are missing at current.


http://www.pictureupload.de/originals/pictures/200511040712_SH5_I2.jpg
sim file reworked (mass and CG hight)... maybe Stoianm have to review it... added SH5 bow/stern ship wakes.


http://www.pictureupload.de/originals/pictures/200511040845_SH5_I3.jpg
added TDW`s advised alpha and Oxx.dds setting using photoshop... not shure if the effect is strong enough.


http://www.pictureupload.de/originals/pictures/200511041056_SH5_I4.jpg
reworked textures a bit (they are a bit low in res) exchanged wood deck, added rust bumps to some areas, added crew spotlights and aa-guns.


http://www.pictureupload.de/originals/pictures/200511041217_SH5_I5.jpg

...the Hospital-Ship will be next, have to figure how to lighten them (nav & window lights).

[nozaurio]

:oThis is really great, thanks to these great masters, this simulator becomes more interesting.

:yep:I do not regret buying this game ...

[urfisch]

yes, it is getting interesting...

[Sbygneus]

I visit this site every day and always there is something very nice and new. Heil to the modders! :salute:

[JU_88]

Looking good :)
I agree that the lack of transpancy and reflections, and splitting up damage is a shame - but its a small price to pay for having more ships.
Now some great things can really start to happen for SHV.
Kudos to all those involved :up:

[Stormfly]

I visit this site every day and always there is something very nice and new. Heil to the modders! :salute:

a normal THX instead of "Heil" would be very kind :yawn:

[Zedi]

Stormfly, is that a sh3 ship or just the texture quality is bad?
If you plan to do this a hospital ship, pls place the cfg into a RedCross folder. Is what Im using for the campaign.

[Stormfly]

Stormfly, is that a sh3 ship or just the texture quality is bad?
If you plan to do this a hospital ship, pls place the cfg into a RedCross folder. Is what Im using for the campaign.

its just the texture size (i see a difference only on very close range, for that i added those rust bumps), but workable... regarding RedCross, this is allready done ;)

...but the missing FX sounds giving me some fear, did you guys have sounds of burning fire, explosions (not shell impact) on the new imported vessels :06:

[Sbygneus]

a normal THX instead of "Heil" would be very kind :yawn:

I didnt mean to abuse any feelings with "Heil" (it sounded quite innocent to me as an ancient Germanic greetings or something like that). And ofcourse THX!!!

[stoianm]

a normal THX instead of "Heil" would be very kind :yawn:
Hey Stormy.. why you imported a red cross ship?.... because you are ''pacifist'' in general?... or because you hoped that on red cross ships you will see some nurses?:D

[Stormfly]

I didnt mind to abuse any feelings with "Heil" (it sounded quite innocent to me as an ancient Germanic greetings or something like that). And ofcourse THX!!!

no one but Nazis use this greeting here in germany, and its fine that this "ppl" are very rare to find.

find a nice interview here ("mein kleines braunes Häschen") :up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPjiLm6_Z0w

[Stormfly]

Hey Stormy.. why you imported a red cross ship?.... because you are ''pacifist'' in general?... or because you hoped that on red cross ships you will see some nurses?:D

we have enough nurses here, see the link above :D

[stoianm]

we have enough nurses here, see the link above :D
he he... nice nurse:D

[Stormfly]

he he... nice nurse:D

:D :up::rotfl2:

[Stormfly]

while trying to rise the textures a bit, this old lady get more and more rust, there is also some kind of wet effect noticable (bow). It may be that you have to rise your displays brightness to see the additional rust layer.

http://www.pictureupload.de/originals/pictures/210511025204_SH5_I6.jpg

...seams that i cant do much more for the textures, but she also got a much better wood deck, new crates, some other things and new live boat textures. ...some minor fixes, after that i try to get the fx sounds working.

[gap]

Did you verify that the zones defined in the boxes (for collisions/flooding) exist in SH5's \data\Zones.cfg? Sounds like there are incompatibilities (and/or missing entries) here.
The game is probably freezing because the Zone is trying to play an effect that doesn't exist in SH5.

Ok, I've checked the .zon file in both s3d and goblin editor (by opening the .dat file and then merging the .zon file).
Maybe I looked at the wrong entries :oops: but all of the types found in Poperty Tree => Boxes, for each of the SH3ZonesCtrl nodes, are matching in number the entries found in SH5 zones.cfg [Zones List]. Did I do something wrong?
I've seen that i the zon file there's also a node called SinkingEffects that could be related with the freeze problem, but I am not able to see its parameters either with s3d and Goblin Editor. :-?

I am stuck now, so if someone got a clue and/or wants to look into the imported ship himself I will owe a beer or maybe two to him!

I've posted the link some posts back, but here it is again:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q7NQ9LPH

@ Gap
you may want to check Armor level in ZON file and compare with native tanker settings.

in SH4 I have had this Nippon Tanker leave a fire trail up to 2Km long before it sank. Posted pic of it in SH4 Forum around 2 years ago.
Not sure if I was using TMO or FoTRS at the time.

Thank you TheBeast,
I've changed the ArmourLevel in ColisionableObject node according to Cimarron Tanker settings (from 17 to 19). I'm not sure if that's what you were referring to, but it didn't work either: in my last test it made very difficult to sink the tanker (she ate 6 pills before sinkig!) but after the hp reched 0 the game freezed again...

[Rongel]

Ok, I've checked the .zon file in both s3d and goblin editor (by opening the .dat file and then merging the .zon file).
Maybe I looked at the wrong entries :oops: but all of the types found in Poperty Tree => Boxes, for each of the SH3ZonesCtrl nodes, are matching in number the entries found in SH5 zones.cfg [Zones List]. Did I do something wrong?
I've seen that i the zon file there's also a node called SinkingEffects that could be related with the freeze problem, but I am not able to see its parameters either with s3d and Goblin Editor. :-?

I am stuck now, so if someone got a clue and/or wants to look into the imported ship himself I will owe a beer or maybe two to him!

I've posted the link some posts back, but here it is again:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q7NQ9LPH



Thank you TheBeast,
I've changed the ArmourLevel in ColisionableObject node according to Cimarron Tanker settings (from 17 to 19). I'm not sure if that's what you were referring to, but it didn't work either: in my last test it made very difficult to sink the tanker (she ate 6 pills before sinkig!) but after the hp reched 0 the game freezed again...

Hi Gap!

I made quick import on Nippon (only added the DMG_col_Nippon) and it sunk just fine! So the bug must be either related to deleting the Reflect-nodes, or your single mission. I don't know much about making missions, but your ships showed green on your mission, I have British ships shown always in red... And remeber that there was a bug somewhere that made the game crash if you sunk allied ship. Anyway, there isn't anything wrong in the ship itself. Hope this helps! :D

Screenie: ship was destroyed and spawned lifeboats

http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/SH5Img2011-05-21_225118.jpg

[stoianm]

he made the mission in 1938... was not in that time:DL

[Rongel]

he made the mission in 1938... was not in that time:DL

Exactly! So make a new mission for example in 1940 and see if it works! And if it works, gap, you owe me a beer! :D

[stoianm]

Exactly! So make a new mission for example in 1940 and see if it works! And if it works, gap, you owe me a beer! :D
italian beer it is not good... and do not get to close to gap... he is sicilian... did not ring a bell for you?... sicilia... cosa nostra... belive me he is very very dangerous:timeout:

[SteelViking]

I have not looked at anyone's files for that ship, but I know that deleting the reflect nodes should not cause problems, I have done it for 3 ships now, and they are still functional. Watched em sink about 100 times now.:haha:

[stoianm]

I have not looked at anyone's files for that ship, but I know that deleting the reflect nodes should not cause problems, I have done it for 3 ships now, and they are still functional. Watched em sink about 100 times now.:haha:
Pls speak with trevally to make the corect mesurements for the new imported ships before you will release the mod

[SteelViking]

Pls speak with trevally to make the corect mesurements for the new imported ships before you will release the mod

Sure thing. I was just thinking today about the need to set everything up in the .cfg files so that the recog manual entries will be correct.:yep:

[Trevally.]

You can check your shio sizes with ToniloCoyotes Mod (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=179718)

SteelVikings NAMC
Mast 34.2m
Draft 8.9m

http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/889/steelvikingnamc.jpg

http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/8035/steelvikingnamc2.jpg

:oops:Sorry I forgot to do the length. I will do them tomorrow if you want.

[Trevally.]

Uekel PS Tyohei
Mast 22.8m
Draft 4.8m

http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/1290/uekelpstyokei.jpg

http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/184/uekelpstyokei2.jpg

[Trevally.]

Rongel KSSS Kasagisan
mast 27.1m
Draft 6.2m

http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/1296/rongelkssskasagisan.png

http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/98/rongelkssskasagisan2.jpg

[Trevally.]

Uekel KMCSakita
Mast 28.3m
Draft 8.6m

http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/5743/uekelkmcsakita.jpg

http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/4100/uekelkmcsakita2.jpg

[SteelViking]

Wow, did not know about this tools. Thanks for bringing it to my attention Trevally!:yeah:

If you would like to do the measurements for me, that would be helpful, but with this tool I could do it on my own. One way or another we will get the info we need.:yep:

[Trevally.]

Wow, did not know about this tools. Thanks for bringing it to my attention Trevally!:yeah:

If you would like to do the measurements for me, that would be helpful, but with this tool I could do it on my own. One way or another we will get the info we need.:yep:

Glad I could help Steel:salute:

Yes Tonilo wanted to take all the doubt away from ship sizes.
I think he succeeded:D

[Stormfly]

@Zedi...

http://www.pictureupload.de/originals/pictures/220511045035_SH5_I7.jpg

http://www.pictureupload.de/originals/pictures/220511050315_SH5_I9.jpg

http://www.pictureupload.de/originals/pictures/220511045645_SH5_I8.jpg

http://www.pictureupload.de/originals/pictures/220511052316_SH5_I10.jpg

ouch, that was short... is that good enough :06:

[Zedi]

The texture badly needs an update. Do you want this ship to be a hospital ship? Asking because I know not much about hospital ships, their routes, how to handle such a ship in the campaign.

[SteelViking]

@Zedi, couldn't you just add it to the roster under Red Cross? The red cross would be neutral throughout the war, so it would be realistic.

@Stormfly, I mean no offense comrade, but if you'd like, I will redo the textures for that ship.

[Zedi]

@Zedi, couldn't you just add it to the roster under Red Cross? The red cross would be neutral throughout the war, so it would be realistic.

...

Thats the plan.. but what I should do with this ship then? I dont have time to make a research on this subject, is why im asking.. where this ship would travel.. only along the coast, over Atlantic unescorted?

If anyone redo the texture for this one, make it all white with a big red cross on it so there will be no doubt about what ships is this.

[Stormfly]

...sirious ??? :rotfl2:

yes, there are some problems regarding bluring if watching from front to the side at some distances and a little texture at a mast near the bride is flickering, iam also not shure if the occlution map is working but something is missing (i never worked with that) but painted allready 16h to get the textures up... some are 2048 now.... would be nice if you could keep the current style and bumps.

...thank you for your offer, uploading via pm incl. psd file:salute:

[Stormfly]

Thats the plan.. but what I should do with this ship then? I dont have time to make a research on this subject, is why im asking.. where this ship would travel.. only along the coast, over Atlantic unescorted?

If anyone redo the texture for this one, make it all white with a big red cross on it so there will be no doubt about what ships is this.

the ship above is no red cross ship,. its a passenger liner, the red cross version is following :arrgh!:

[Zedi]

Stormfly, the main plan is to fit these ships into the sh5 fleet, so all will look like out of box and there will be no major differences. Later anybody can work out extra skin packs for these ships and release it as a separate mod. The reason is that maybe not everybody likes customized skins. To remake the skins, use the skins for the sh5 merchants, I did the same on every new imported ships and trust me, is hard to make a difference when these ships sails in a convoy, the only difference is the shape.

[Stormfly]

Stormfly, the main plan is to fit these ships into the sh5 fleet, so all will look like out of box and there will be no major differences. Later anybody can work out extra skin packs for these ships and release it as a separate mod. The reason is that maybe not everybody likes customized skins. To remake the skins, use the skins for the sh5 merchants, I did the same on every new imported ships and trust me, is hard to make a difference when these ships sails in a convoy, the only difference is the shape.

i can follow you regarding special SH5 grafic features and all should be done what is possible to archive that also that special SH5 look, but much of the original ships, escpecially the merchants wont look so good, maybe only my taste.

The new imported ships have a special nice look, i like them... maybe we need only a working occlusion map for this liner.

regarding ship`s have to fit in the convoys... ithink you speak about the texture lightning of them ? and you wont like if some are glowing a bit more... yes that is true, i hope we can fix that.

[Zedi]

The sh5 ships textures are high quality ones, but if you will let SteelViking to fix it, Im sure it will look just great.. he knows what it needs to be done. He can also work out 2 textures, one for a liner, 1 for a hospital ship... place them in the right roster entry etc. Hopefully he will release a mod pack that will sums up all the new ships, ofc with the right credits given. Will be a great help for my campaign mod.

[Stormfly]

i realy dont know what you have with the textures of it, they are reworked, most of them to higher resolution, the wood deck and roof textures are 2 times higer as normal, same for the hull texture... they even have additional bumps (was to long without service, rusty old liner)

i know that some textures still need work, and iam also no real painter but if you say the textures above are ----, then one of us must be blind ;)

if you say it wouldnt fit in a convoy because of texture lightning or some special color, which is needed to have it in some kind of a convoy camo, then i could understand what you mean.

but anyways, iam still no texture expert, but i know what i like and i like what i did :yep:

[SteelViking]

The problem is that the shadow map is missing. Without a proper one, it will never completely resemble an SH5. I will do what I can to get it close. But, I cannot build shadow maps from scratch, even with it being a .dat format ship.

[Stormfly]

The sh5 ships textures are high quality ones, but if you will let SteelViking to fix it, Im sure it will look just great.. he knows what it needs to be done. He can also work out 2 textures, one for a liner, 1 for a hospital ship... place them in the right roster entry etc. Hopefully he will release a mod pack that will sums up all the new ships, ofc with the right credits given. Will be a great help for my campaign mod.

...give credits to AOTDMadmax

i wont do any more ports, to much hours for nothing.

[Stormfly]

The problem is that the shadow map is missing. Without a proper one, it will never completely resemble an SH5. I will do what I can to get it close. But, I cannot build shadow maps from scratch, even with it being a .dat format ship.

and what about the orignal one, i mean AOTDMadMax must have used a SH4 ship as a base... brb

[Stormfly]

ok... just looked at AOTDMadMax`s readme again:

"This vessel was created from the SH4 Troopship Horai by using Skwasjer´s S3D Tool, Pack3D and Wings3D."

maybe the Horai have a occlution map which is easy reworkable.

[SteelViking]

Excellent! If it is even close, I should be able to make it work. It will take a lot of work and time though.

[SteelViking]

Found the ship, and it has a shadow map. Will look into making it work tomorrow, gotta go get some sleep.

[gap]

I don't know much about making missions, but your ships showed green on your mission, I have British ships shown always in red... And remeber that there was a bug somewhere that made the game crash if you sunk allied ship.

Sure!!! :doh: My mission was set on jan 1st 1938, and by that time british weren't enemies yet... My bad, I overlooked your suggestion about the game bug when you turned me on that direction the first time, because I was sure that I had set the tankers as british, but I should have noticed that on the map their contact icons were green. :88)

Exactly! So make a new mission for example in 1940 and see if it works! And if it works, gap, you owe me a beer! :D

Thank you Rongel, I didn't prepare a new mission yet, but of course I do owe you TWO beers of your choice! :DL

italian beer it is not good... and do not get to close to gap... he is sicilian... did not ring a bell for you?... sicilia... cosa nostra... belive me he is very very dangerous:timeout:

Dunno what stoianm is blathering here about beers and mafia, but he too deserved his beer. This one: :D

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100918133658/mafiagame/images/thumb/5/54/Mafia_II_-_Digital_Deluxe_Artbook-360.png/586px-Mafia_II_-_Digital_Deluxe_Artbook-360.png

[Stormfly]

Found the ship, and it has a shadow map. Will look into making it work tomorrow, gotta go get some sleep.

thank you for making it true, the textures should be ok or ?.... i dont know if i did the normal map texture right (bumps are showing with some kind of 3d effect, used nvidia normal map`s filter with custom settings)

...the version you got have also new bull eye`s, maybe you can add some leaking rusty water to on or two of them.

...ohh before i forget, the bull eyes render also for the aft side part of the ship, where normaly no bull eyes would be, this is because of the texture is repeating... i allready moved them a bit to remove texture parts showed also direclty on the stern.... i dont know but maybe it would be possible adding a blending texture to the dat file which is covering this aft side part of the ship, hiding them there :06:

[Stormfly]

ohh just digged the link to AOTD_MadMax`s SH4 Ship Yard threat out...

you will also find his original and red cross version of the ship there !

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=136146

...someone should also make versions with working navigation lights for both of them (Trevally`s), if they sail as neutral "single driver"

[luismmm]

.... I´m pleasured that my mod to use is for something ....

Amazing good work uekel :yeah: :yeah: :yeah:

Thanks:up:

[Zedi]

There is a problem I have in the campaign. I asked many times for small ships, even selected a pack from Uekel's mod.. still only big ships were imported. The only one small ship under 5K is Akita. So overall we have no only 2 ships under 5K tonnage: Akita and the small cargo from stock sh5.

Now that the traffic is improved, having 20-40K tonnage/month is easy even on high realism. Can anyone import at least 1 small ship, so I can divert the big ones in the ocean and have only small ships for coastal traffic?