[REL] Open Horizons II (old thread)

[Zedi]

http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/picture.php?albumid=385&pictureid=4516

This mod is developed by me and Trevally with the kind help and contribution of many friends around subsim: TheDarkWraith, Reaper07, SteelViking, Uekel, Rongel, Stormfly, AOTDMadMax, stoianm, Obelix, TheDivingDuck, Gap. There are many contributor to this mod, if I left out anyone is not intentional and I apologize in advance for this. Also many thanks to Ruby2000 and Ustahl for testing the mod while under developement, they helped a lot in tracking down problems and have them fixed.

Changed mod name because some of the german players found a bit weird the naming "Das Campaign". This mod is a improvement over my first attempt to create and extended campaign, Open Horizons (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom//showthread.php?t=178257).

The mod is in public beta test. Instead of releasing patches that sould solve problems reported by the players, we decided to release a public beta test version first. After gathering bug reports and fix them all, we will release a final version. Hopefully this will happen soon.


====================================== EDITED BY TREVALLY ===========================================
New Updates 07/08/11
Added new terrain for Kiel harbour by Sober
Added more and better flags by Rongel

New Updates 13/08/11
Released a new add-on mod "OH II Terrain Add-on"
By Sober Thfeu58 and Trevally

New Updates 17/8/11
Merged tearrain addon by sober (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=186632) anf thfeu58 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=168545&highlight=harbour+terrain+flag) into full and base
fixed MN campaign
fixed Coastal Waters campign (missing map id)
added buoy fix by sober to full and base (buoys will not show through objects)
added ship dds fix by sober to full and base

update OH II v1.2
Added rongel fix for flag.dat
Fixed errors in defside.cfg
Added flag.dat fix by TDW
Fixed coastal waters - points and brief
Changed Mines and sub nets so they can not be heard by hydro
Fixed errors in roster
add campaign image to main menu

Update OH II base v1.2.1
Fixed roster where it caused errors in ME2

Update 05/09/11 v1.3
re-worked scapa for better fps
fixed subnets in scapa flow (thanks again TDW) Edit: When game first load the subnets will start with a few meter sticking out of the water. This will last only a few moment and the will sink to the correct level where only the floats will be seen on the surface.
Rongels frozen flag fix
fixed silent (hydro) coastal ships - (type from 104 to 108)
made fishing boats and tugs silents in hydro and no hydro line on map - (type from 108 to 104)

OH II v1.4
Fixed missing engine sound - Thanks Stormfly for the fix
Fixed museum ctd due to zombie ships - Thanks Rongel
Added Rongels new Coastal Boat within Fishing layer and playerbases
Fixed Western Approaches campaign points.
Fixed coastal Waters to give more time at start of Operation Weserubung
Fixed issue where most side missions were partol x. Now we have intercept, spy, recon, commando and supply.
Added Rongels Fix to ship kasagisan where graphics and lighting are improved - also its flag is unfrozen.
Added Rongels fix for his coastal boat where damage will now be shown.

Update 15/11/11 v1.5
OHII v1.5
Fixed errors in mission CFG (click click)
Added Uekel fix to frozen flags
Changed scapa mission start date and fixed BB game entry date
Added map marker to HappyTimes SS mission
Fixed errors in base where TDWs validator would show errors for PTElco and Mine_Chain
Added Rongel fix - graphical update that fixes graphical bugs, All ships now use 1024 x 1024 textures, black textured ghost ship, a crash in museum with one Z-ship and few other small tweaks.
Fixed Rommel supplies and OP in campiagn Battle of Med
Added cerberus wonderful ship mod - Thanks Cerberus
Added the OHII campaign radio messages
Fixed Arctic convoy campaign victory conditions
Fixed Op Drumbeat Blitz mission
Fixed The Final Year objectives
Fixed airbase layer in the Med campaigns
Fixed campaign Battle of Med where there was a chance that convoys/traffic would get stuck and backlog - resulting in new ships spawning but none leaving (causes ctd after time (100+ ships))
Added Rongels new ship fixes - mostly dealing with ships draft values, removed the occasional bug where ships are half submerged in harbours. There is also included TDW's shader that gives caustics to both sides of the imported ships.
Fixed Scapa Flow in the Coastal Waters campaign - removed spawn nodes and added direct spawn ships by date. Adjusted spawn area and fixed paths for DDs to match.
Added new option for higher tonnage objectives in each campaign

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To give users as many options as possible - this mod is in 4 parts.

Part 1 OH II Full
This is the full version of the campaign with all added extras

Part 2 OH II Base
This is just the base mod. It has no environmental or ship units. This does have all the other extras (convoys, wolfpacks etc)

Part 3 OH II Enviro
This is an addon for the base mod (OH II). All environmental units will be added.

Part 4 OH II New Ships
This is an addon for the base mod (OH II) and will add the new ships.

Note: Do not use part 2,3 and 4 together. Use the Full version.

Also an option for "Elite Skippers" - higher tonnage requirments in each campaign (add after OHII and allow overwrite)



DOWNLOAD HERE
Open Horizons II Full v1.5 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=3337)
Open Horizons II Base + parts v1.5 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=3338)

PATCH for Open Horizons II Full v1.5 - none
PATCH for Open Horizons II Base v1.5 - none
PATCH for Open Horizons II Base + enviro v1.5 - none
PATCH for Open Horizons II Base + new ships v1.5 - none

Minefield Map - for TDWs UI (http://www.gamefront.com/files/20718832/OH+II+Minefield+map.7z)
Minefield Map for IO_StrategicMap_for_CSPMagui (http://www.gamefront.com/files/20917935/MineField_Map_for_IO_StrategicMap_for_CSPMagui_7z)

Open Horizons Light v3 (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downloads.php?do=file&id=3425)
Light v3
This version is just the new campaign objectives and war end 1945
It has no extra ships, mines, fishing boats etc. This version can be used for those who have a low spec PC and cant play the base version.

Credit to Sober and Thfeu58 for permission to use their terrain work in the terrain add-on


Important notes.
The mod is compatible with TDW UI, FX and IRAI. Install OHII last.
JSGME ready.

When starting a new campaign using OHII - DO NOT PLAY THE TUTORIAL - you will get a ctd when returing to Kiel at the end of the tut. Select "Skip Tutorial" when starting.
If you are not getting an option to skip the tutorial when starting a new career, go to Documents\SH5\data\cfg\CareerHistory.cfg and edit the file with Notepad. Change the following line:

HasCompletedTutorial=false
with
HasCompletedTutorial=true


When you are in the Bunker - check that you can get to ask the officer for upgrades. If this option is greyed out - save/load to fix.



Links and mods

Ruby2000 DeutschMod
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/2513/kampagnedeutsch.jpg
See here (http://forums-de.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1151033738/m/1141044309?r=5131074309#5131074309)

Uekel MTNS for OHII
Images (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/album.php?albumid=473)
Thread (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=1708348&postcount=166)

OH II on Silent Hunter Mods Forum
See here (http://www.silenthuntermods.com/forum/index.php?board=27.0)


====================================== Trevally Edit Ends =============================================

If for any reason after accepting a mission in the bunker and ask permission to leave dock you find yourself teleported on sub without having a loading screen, make sure you end patrol/doc and accept the mission again. Its very important to have a loading screen when leaving the bunker, or the game will fail to load properly the game layer and weird stuff can happen, including crash.


Trevally's help desk (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom//showthread.php?t=185409)
This is where Trevally can help & upload fixes etc while for various reasons I cant answer and Im not active.




========GENERAL INFO====================================

Mod status: Beta test





FEATURES:

Mines, nets, icebergs, dolphins, buoys, whales. *
Improved port defense in enemy harbor, Scapa Flow will get special attention.
New (imported) ships. **
Reworked (and new) missions
- All missions requiring to hunt escorts and capital ships are modified or removed.
A lot of important convoys will be added into the campaigns at their exact historical date.
SH5 campaign extended up to 1945.
New campaign covering the 43-44 timeframe.
Reworked port traffic with buoys.
Improved convoy traffic with ships from all nations, neutral ships.
* Imported by TDW. Buoys made by TheDivingDuck for SH3
** List of contributors here (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom//showthread.php?t=182667) and here (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom//showthread.php?t=183904)






WISHLIST - unfinished features

Redoing the crew story line, character development.

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/OH2.jpg

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH5Img2011-06-01_002612.jpg

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH5Img2011-06-01_0026122.jpg

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH5Img2011-06-06_024833.jpg

[stoianm]

:woot:

[HanSolo78]

Very nice!

Btw. what environment mod do you use?
Overwater and underwater env looks quite good, especially on the mine shot.

And... do you think about reworking the swimmers of the subnet? they look quite sh3 stylish...

[reaper7]

Nice one mate :up: Maybe I'll start to play SH5 yet ;)

[pascal4541]

:sunny:Great!!! :up:

[Sepp von Ch.]

:o:o:o:o:o Looks absolutely superb!:o:o:o:o:o

http://i886.photobucket.com/albums/ac68/Hans_Witteman/Kaleun_Salivating.gif

[stoianm]

DOLPHINS-MINES-ET-SUBNETS-SOON-IN-SH5-MOVIE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65ud1-86q-s)

[jwilliams]

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH-1.jpg?t=1303718537

:rock::rock::rock:

Awesome. Really looking forward to the release.

:salute:

[Zedi]

Very nice!

Btw. what environment mod do you use?
Overwater and underwater env looks quite good, especially on the mine shot.

And... do you think about reworking the swimmers of the subnet? they look quite sh3 stylish...

The pics with the net and the mine are enhanced a bit just to give a better view of how they looks like.

I 100% agree on the aspect of these stuff and is a big concern for me. I dont wanna use any old low polygon stuff from SH3, but we have no other options so far. If anyone can give me a tutorial about how to rework the textures, or wanna jump in and help with those.. would make me very happy as I already have my hands full with placing these stuff in the campaign engine.

Biggest problem right now is the small boat, it looks very ugly as it is now freshly imported from SH4 by TDW. Same with the dolphins. I will try to enhance the textures of mines and the net floaters, but Im lost on the boat skin.

Hopefully in the meantime Iambecomelife will manage to import at least 1 merchant from SH4, so I will place that too in the campaign. But there will be also a lot of work to fix the texture of the ship.

This mod also improves the campaign objectives. I was about to remove the carrier hunt in Total germany and replace it with another mission .. but I had few interesting readings about a incident where Ark Royal was really hunted and was recorded an attack on the ship SW of England. After that incident the royal navy removed the carriers from the HK groups. So actually, that is a historical mission and not just a fantasy. Thats why I did not replaced the mission, but I made the carrier to report her position a bit much more .. is like Bdu giving you more intel on the ship location.

Added the historical german taskfroces sailing to Narvik in Op. Weserubung, so the player will have the chance to see them hitting Bergen, Trodheim and Narvik on the exact historical date. When these guys will enter in the Norvegian waters/ports, there should be a lot of smoke if they encounter any resistance. You just need to be in the right place at the right date to see them. No way to travel with them as they sail with 32knts +

[HanSolo78]

@zedi

Maybe I can do small texture jobs or 3d remodelling jobs. But I only have limited experience in this work. but small jobs could be possible.
pm me if you have ideas for improving.

greetings
Han

[Zedi]

@zedi

Maybe I can do small texture jobs or 3d remodelling jobs. But I only have limited experience in this work. but small jobs could be possible.
pm me if you have ideas for improving.

greetings
Han

Your more than welcome as I dont have any experience at all in this field. Let me know what you wanna do and what you need.

[TheDarkWraith]

The texture for the new Patrol boat is located in \data\Textures\TNormal\tex\NPT.dds. All the textures for the mines, subnet, and dolphin are in \data\Textures\TNormal\tex also.

The good thing about .dat files is that it's easy to extract the 3D model out of them. One can extract the 3D model (using Pack3D) and then set the tesselation level greater (or use smoothing in Wings3D) and then re-import the 3D model back into the .dat file using Pack3D. That will give you a higher resolution (more polygons) model. This cannot be done to the dolphin though. Reason is because the 3D model has an animation attached to it. In order to make the dolphin higher resolution one would need to extract all the keyframes from the dolphin, increase the tesselation level of each keyframe, and then rebuild the animation node with those keyframes.

[arnahud2]

@Zedi : :yeah:

[SteelViking]

Can't wait to see a release of this.:yep:

[Magic1111]

I thinks its time to announce this mod as WIP. I was about to release it as a surprise mod few days ago, but things are shaping up constantly so I will have to wait a bit longer. This mod will have included TDW's icebergs, mines, nets, dolphins and .. boats, all in one. My hope is that very soon we will have a imported ship from SH4, so I will include it in the dynamic campaign engine. So far, I included the small boat imported by TDW in the port defense and the tests looking very good so far.

The mod will also include at least 1 new mission and and few enhancements on the SH5 campaign objectives. Here is sneak peak from the upcoming mod.

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH-1.jpg?t=1303718537

WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL !!!!!! :rock::rock::up::rock::rock:

It looks very, very nice !!!! :yep:

Best regards,
Magic:salute:

[mookiemookie]

If you guys can pull this off, I'm going to have to reinstall my copy. :yeah:

[Zedi]

Things are shaping up slowly, I managed to work out a bit the boat textures and she also have now reflection from water and sun. I have no xp working with skins, but I wanna make this baby shine! Even with these test colors, it looks just awesome in the game, im very excited to see it alive an kicking!

This is a WIP on the boat textures as it is now. Of course, the blue is just to help me out in identify the texture areas, the whole boat has numbers on it right now.

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/y.jpg?t=1303756667

[FurphyForum]

yip yare !!! :rock:as an alternative to SH3/4 boats, why dont you try using the boats out of PT Boats Knights of the Sea :hmmm:

[jwilliams]

Alot of info on naval minefields here http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Ops-Minelaying.htm#1
It's also a very interesting read.


It also mentions that...

The minefield laid was far smaller than the declared area and 50 'dummy mines' were also laid. These were set to be visible at half tide so they would be easily seen by aircraft or shipping in order to create the impression of a far larger mined area.

Will you be adding dummies? I think it would be cool if this could be added.

[Zedi]

We have no dummies, but during the numerous test I did, there is a low chance on hitting a mine or even see one. Is more like the russian roulette, you can pass month after month a minefield without even notice any, then one day just hit one.

What I discovered during the test is that the floating mines set as Veterans will start moving. Discovered this behavior when by mistake I forgot to set a test minefield as Poor, so when I got close to one.. he sudden started to move fast straight to my boat. I panicked as I was at full speed and got no time to stop, he missed me just by few meters. The behavior is very similar to a magnetic/acoustic mine. So, the floating mines sometimes will move, mostly when blowing up some, or getting too close. Thats why sailing slow in a minefield would be the best thing to do.

Regarding the areas, Im very sure that I placed them in their historical position. At the beginning of the campaign (39) will be only a couple of them, then slowly the number will increase, so after Jan 40 you will have to be very careful when planing your trip. Mines are placed only in North Sea and ports. Few are placed around Norway, but the kriegsmarine will clear the area after taking over Norway.

Going through the english channel will require huge balls. Same with Gibraltar. So going in Mediterranean to do mission in the Open Horizons campaign will be almost like mission impossible. And those who use real nav and low TC, will have to use the Save Game option more often :P

[stoianm]

just awsome... good job:up:

[Zedi]

Update on the boat. I replaced the old and ugly textures with some nice quality ones and now the PTB looks like a genuine SH5 boat and not like an imported ship, its a real beauty. :sunny:

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/z.jpg?t=1303816124

Only the gun and light is left out as I dont have any texture files for them. Hope that TDW can help with those.

[Sepp von Ch.]

Wonderful boat Zedi!:rock:

[stoianm]

Very nice zedi... very nice:up:... what about the dolphins... did you had time to rework that texture?

[Zedi]

Wonderful boat Zedi!:rock:

Your contribution was appreciated, thanks for the drawings that inspired me in doing the camo. :up: This boat will be very hard to spot now, its a real threat!

Very nice zedi... very nice:up:... what about the dolphins... did you had time to rework that texture?

Is the next on to do list soon as I finish some fine details on the boat.

[pascal4541]

waouh!!! very nice :up:

[Duval]

Fantastic Commander Zedi :DL

Duval

[TheDarkWraith]

Update on the boat. I replaced the old and ugly textures with some nice quality ones and now the PTB looks like a genuine SH5 boat and not like an imported ship, its a real beauty. :sunny:
Only the gun and light is left out as I dont have any texture files for them. Hope that TDW can help with those.

PT Boat looks excellent!

I can but it won't be till later or tomorrow. Work is eating my time currently :shifty:

[TheDarkWraith]

Will you be adding dummies? I think it would be cool if this could be added.

I can make dummy mines if Zedi wants to implement them :yep:

[Zedi]

I can make dummy mines if Zedi wants to implement them :yep:

No more room :D
But yeah, no problem.. I can replace/mix few real mines with dummies, so sailing through a minefield will be really like a russian roulette.

[stoianm]

No more room :D
But yeah, no problem.. I can replace/mix few real mines with dummies, so sailing through a minefield will be really like a russian roulette.
you have some space left in bunkers main bases:D

[TheDarkWraith]

No more room :D
But yeah, no problem.. I can replace/mix few real mines with dummies, so sailing through a minefield will be really like a russian roulette.

these dummies should be floating mines only correct? :hmmm:

[Zedi]

Yes, the dummies role is to be very visible.

[Jaguar]

I did some research to help you guys with the numbers of ships in a given convoy and its escorts.

First, because I was playing this campaign, a list of the artic convoys in 1942.

http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/1598/articconvoys42.jpg

PQs 16/17/18 had strong support groups against surface attacks. As can be seen, the merchant to escort ratio was just 2, and some of the escorts were slow trawlers, dangerous to subs but yet underpowered and underarmed in relation to dedicated escort ships.

Second, some sample convoys in UK.

http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/2770/sampleconvoysuk.jpg

As observed, the escorts usually didn´t stayed with the convoy during the whole journey, so the numbers can be misleading and this information is limited.

To counter this, Uboat.net has information about the Great Convoy Battles, so with some adjustments it´s possible to stablish the escorts involved when U-Boats were attacking.

http://img845.imageshack.us/img845/9364/convoybattles.jpg

Keep in mind that some convoys changed escort groups and/or received reinforcements during those battles.

:salute:

[Zedi]

Wow! Thanks a LOT Jaguar for this info! Is exactly I was looking for, as I intend to add every major convoy to the campaign at their exact historical date. Also, I will reduce the escort numbers so we will not see weird convoys where the escort ship are more numerous than the merchants. So, thanks a lot.. I will place in the campaign everything on this list you posted now. Thanks again!

I already added SC42 to the campaign as a mission/objective and I plan to add SC7 too maybe. SC7 was a very tragic story, after I read it I had to stay away from SH for few days as I hated very much the uboats. These guys left Sydney/Canada as a slow convoy with 35 merchants and only.. 3 escorts! A convoy filled with slow merchants carry nothing special but timber, coal etc. They tried to dodge the wolpacks by diverting on a route close to Greenland, but .. life sucks. A single uboat sighted them then alarmed the whole Atlantic, so a instant wolpack formed on just to hunt down this doomed convoy. The escorts were completely overhelmed .. all they were able to do was to rescue survivors. Lately the convoy was reinforced, but it was already late, the damage was done. Some of these stories are so tragic that is already hard to read :dead:

Back on topic.. I wanna hear you guys opinion about the Operation Weserubung mission, what to do with it. The mission include 2 objectives, sinking 5 merchants then 1 battleship. Now .. this is a important historical mission and I dont wanna scrap it and turn it into a "sink xy tons" mission. But Im not sure what to do. Leave the objective as it is and improve only the reports about the BB location, extend the objective to any warship type and not only a BB, or .. turn in into a "sink any enemy ship entering Norway territorial water"? Im open for suggestions.

[Jaguar]

"sink any enemy ship entering Norway territorial water" seems to me the most realistic option. :up:

[jwilliams]

"sink any enemy ship entering Norway territorial water" seems to me the most realistic option. :up:

^^
This gets my vote.

:salute:

I don't want to have to sink battleships. It's not realistic to fail a mission if you don't sink the battleship.
I highly doubt uboats were ordered to sink battleships. If you sink the battleship... Great. But please don't make it compulsory.

[Zedi]

Though this is a noble idea, I see a couple of potential problems. Are you leaving the convoys randomized, or will they be scripted with the actual ships? Will you even have the specific individual convoys or will all the 'HX' convoys be represented by a route with the actual convoys randomized? The reason I ask is that if every specific convoy is placed on the map, players will be able to look them up and track them from start to finish, which ends up being less realistic rather than more.

Ducimus faced a similar problem in his work on SH4. Which is more realistic - having things exactly as they were, which gives the player information he wouldn't have had in real life, or making things worse than they really were, which makes the player realistically cautious?


Not every nation had every kind of ship. Estonia, for example, had only twenty-three ships in her merchant fleet, and the very newest of them was built back in 1918. I can help provide a lot of the information on individual ships based on the research I've done for my SH3 Ship Names mod, but as I said I believe there's a possibility that the more detailed you make it the less realistic it becomes, since hindsight gives us information no one could possibly have had at the time.

Steve, the SH5 campaign engine is very different form any previous version, its brilliant and Im in love with it. Now that I have learned the basic knowhow, we can do amazing things with it. Its just a question of time and manpower as rewriting the wole campaign its a huge task.

How it will work? Well, there are 2 possibilities. Using every convoy historical route by forcing them to follow a scripted path, or let them having their own fate by just pointing out when and where to start and where to end, so the route is their own decision. I choose the second option, no scripted route. That way, you will never find the same convoy in the same spot, no matter how many time you play the mission. And you may never find these convoys and blame me by a lousy job, just because their randomness when choosing a route :)

How convoys works right now in SH5? The system is based on generic ships and convoys. Every major convoy name is already set in the game and they appear in the game at their correct timetable. For example, there a generic convoy named HX_ that will leave Halifax to Liverpool every 5 day between 40-41 set with FollowPath=False. These are the big convoy we see in the game. Even the liners and famous battleships are in and they sail at their correct date. Found out that Bismarck and Hood are set to leave ports also on their historical date, but dunno if they ever will meet. Because the campaign is based on randomness and if they meet an enemy on route, there will be delays. Not to mention the mines I already put into the campaign.. they can seriously interfere with the traffic :P

Anyway, my plan is to add every important convoy to the campaign at the exact date and if possible with the exact content. So there will no more only brit or american convoys and you may wanna be more careful when choosing a target. I could go further with this and add every ship in the convoy their original name, load and ship type.. but thats already way to much work.

Now Im placing in the campaign the convoys from the list provided by Jaguar, already done with half. What is more important in this plan, is the escort size. No more convoys where the escorts are more than the merchants. So Steve, if you can and want to help with more info on the convoys, you have new ideas .. you are more than welcome to contribute as I know you are expert with these things. Im glad you asked, thanks.

Btw, Im using convoyweb.org.uk (http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/hague/index.html) for details on these convoys, if anyone else have a better online database, pls let me now.

[Zedi]

^^
This gets my vote.

:salute:

I don't want to have to sink battleships. It's not realistic to fail a mission if you don't sink the battleship.
I highly doubt uboats were ordered to sink battleships. If you sink the battleship... Great. But please don't make it compulsory.

I finally figured out what to do. I will not change the missions location, only the objectives. So you will be sent out to patrol an area where you may also hop onto a big BB or carrier. Engaging them will be your choice, not something mandatory. So this will add more fun to the campaign.

Regarding the tonnage objectives, how is this:

OLD - NEW (tonnage)
200.000 > 20.000
100.000 > 15.000
50.000 > 8.000

If you had reach the tonnage objective, just set up your own patrol area and sink stuff until a new mission will be available. And now that we will have new ships with less tonnage, the game will be more realistic. No more only huge ships with at least 5-7k tons/ship.

[sentenc3]

Btw, Im using convoyweb.org.uk (http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/hague/index.html) for details on these convoys, if anyone else have a better online database, pls let me now.

I leave here a link to another page of the convoys, if it's any more help

http://www.warsailors.com/convoys/index.html

[Zedi]

Booth sites are cross linked, using each other data.

But there are few differences, for example HX90 with 49 merchants and only 3 escort according to uboat.net vs 41 merchants and 8 escorts (35 ships TDS) on Hague's records (http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/hx/index.html).

The difference is because on route convoys merged or ships left and also new escorts were assigned, but I cannot do this in the campaign engine. So Ive put 40 merchants and 8 escorts for now.

[jwilliams]

I finally figured out what to do. I will not change the missions location, only the objectives. So you will be sent out to patrol an area where you may also hop onto a big BB or carrier. Engaging them will be your choice, not something mandatory. So this will add more fun to the campaign.

Regarding the tonnage objectives, how is this:

OLD - NEW (tonnage)
200.000 > 20.000
100.000 > 15.000
50.000 > 8.000

If you had reach the tonnage objective, just set up your own patrol area and sink stuff until a new mission will be available. And now that we will have new ships with less tonnage, the game will be more realistic. No more only huge ships with at least 5-7k tons/ship.

I guess the tonnage amounts needed, will need to be play tested. And maybe tweeked in the future. You dont want the tonnage to be too easy, but you also dont want it to be impossible.

[Zedi]

Im all ears and open to suggestions, this should be based on the community wish. So what would be a more acceptable tonnage requirement? Keep in mind, there are missions with different time frame. From 2-3 months, up to 1 year or more.

[Jaguar]

Is this tonnage thing really needed? I may be very much mistaken but why not just patrol a given area, or areas and other stuff like that?

If one sinks ships one gets promoted and/or receive awards (very poorly modeled in the game btw) like Iron and Knight´s Cross, U-Boat clasp and such...

As a compromise, is it possible to have two types of campaigns, one with "normal" and other with "realistic" objectives?

Just some ideas for hardcore players.

[Jaguar]

But there are few differences, for example HX90 with 49 merchants and only 3 escort according to uboat.net vs 41 merchants and 8 escorts (35 ships TDS) on Hague's records (http://www.convoyweb.org.uk/hx/index.html).
The difference is because on route convoys merged or ships left and also new escorts were assigned, but I cannot do this in the campaign engine. So Ive put 40 merchants and 8 escorts for now.

HX90 is indeed a good example. According to Hague´s it departed from Halifax on 21 november 1940 and arrived at Liverpool on december 5. It had 8 escorts according to Hagues´s records:
HMCS Assiniboine (http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4360.html)- DD of C class, escort 21-22/11 (*)
HMS Folkestone (http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3880.html) - sloop of Folkestone class, escort 02-05/12
HMCS French (http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4360.html) - auxiliary patrol vessel, escort 21/11(*)
HMS Gentian (http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4759.html) - corvette Flower class, escort 02-05/12
HMS Laconia (http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/3357.html) - AMC, escort 21/11-02/12
HMS Vanquisher (http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/5457.html) - DD, V&W class, escort 05/12
HMS Viscount (http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/4265.html) - DD, V&W class, escort 01-05/12
HMCS Windflower (http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/5487.html) - corvette Flower class, escort 21/11(*)

Those three ships (*) only escorted the convoy near Halifax. Actually, between 22/11 and 01/12 the only escort available was the AMC Laconia so 5 escorts instead of 8 seems a good compromise IMHO:03: .

Dunno if it´s possible but a suggestion would be to have small hunter killer groups patrolling around the western approaches. Coupled with IRAI´s ability to convoys send distress messages and be reinforced by near warships (within a 30 km radius?) it may be a usefull workaround. Or not :O: .

[Zedi]

Speaking about weird escorts, see HX 79 ... they had a sub as escort :doh:

There are several HK groups patrolling, but to actually meet them is something based on luck. Is also very possible that none will notice these new convoys I added as the ocean is huge and they use very random routes. But if you will track the reports on map, that may help to track them down.

Anyway, this is hard. Worked almost all day and I managed to add only half from the list. I think this mod will take another month of hard work to get somewhere.

[jwilliams]

/snip/
Anyway, this is hard. Worked almost all day and I managed to add only half from the list. I think this mod will take another month of hard work to get somewhere.

Take as long as you need. There's no rush.
I would rather wait and have a very good modded campaign, than a rushed and unfinished one.

[randybandit]

I must say a huge thankyou to zedi and all the other modders that make SH5 a far better game to play than when it was released . :salute: :D

[SilentSnake]

Were these already hidden within the game files. Well you did a great job anyway, thanks.

[Zedi]

I had a close look at the Mare Nostrum campaign and I must say .. its a brilliant campaign and very well done, but for a warship sim. There is almost no merchant traffic in the western and middle Mediterranean, no wonder that all we get is only capitals ships all over. And no wonder that the only 1 time I played this campaign, I had encountered absolutely not a single merchant on route to Malta, but warships. Its just crazy.

Im also pretty upset about the lack on information about the Mediterranean convoys. There is almost no description about them, like how many ships, escorts etc. Only their movement and date of departure. Mediterranean Sea was actually huge battlefield, but for the surface fleet.

So what I will do is to add some random merchant traffic and increase their spawn rate, mostly on the Gibraltar-Malta route and some on the Gibraltar - Alexandria route. I will change the hunt for capital ship objectives into patrol objectives and also add maybe some new ones. This should make this campaign a bit more fun to play as you will have plenty of opportunities to sink capital ships while waiting and hunting merchants nor raiding ports. There are also a lot of active enemy subs ...

[Jaguar]

Im also pretty upset about the lack on information about the Mediterranean convoys. There is almost no description about them, like how many ships, escorts etc. Only their movement and date of departure. Mediterranean Sea was actually huge battlefield, but for the surface fleet.

Mediterranean convoys were few and far between, Mare Nostrum didn´t allow the same freedom of movement as North Atlantic.

Zedi, if you want I can do a table with the information available in the usual sources :03:.

[Zedi]

I finished Mare Nostrum and replaced the hunt for capital ships missions with tonnage hunt and also added a new mission + increased the merchant traffic. But the rest is there, so there will be plenty of ocassions to meet heavy taskforces. If you think there is something more to add, Im listening.

[Jaguar]

I finished Mare Nostrum and replaced the hunt for capital ships missions with tonnage hunt and also added a new mission + increased the merchant traffic. But the rest is there, so there will be plenty of ocassions to meet heavy taskforces. If you think there is something more to add, Im listening.

Some convoys? Operation Pedestal or something similar like a few convoys to Malta around august/42? I really don´t know and what you did is already very good. :yeah:

[Zedi]

MN end in 41. There was only 1 single merchant ship that had a route from Gibraltar toward east, the rest of the traffic was only heavy taskforces. Now there are plenty more merchants, convoys with war materials, oil, troops.. so enough to have a good hunt. But is still a hard campaign as an attack on a convoy may attract much more than the convoy escorts.

Malta area is the major point of interest, there is a new mission in the area and also the Luftwaffe raid the port almost on daily basis. Plus a lot traffic. And dolphins. And mines...

[Jaguar]

Forgot MN ends in 41:oops:.

Malta... for pete´s sake, those new campaigns will be SH5 patch 3.0!

[stoianm]

@ Santa zedi... can you put Whales:



Whales-Movie (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc5zZtviGNs)



and Sharks


SHARKS-MOVIE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhxHue71T8k)


in our campaign pls.... for instance i will prefer to add a lot of white sharks in the areas where MiTon and Gap wanted to make scuba diving... will be a big surprise:D

[dcb]

Hooray for sharks! Looking good!:salute:

[Sepp von Ch.]

Nice videos.. but remains the question... When will it all be?:o

[stoianm]

Nice videos.. but remains the question... When will it all be?:o
They work in sh5... the movie that i made was done in sh5... zedi it is working allone to putt all these in campaigns... also he rework in same time all the campaigns.... so if will be more persons that can help him than soon... if not... than not so soon... anyway all of them will be in the new MO

[Sepp von Ch.]

But this mod with dolphins, sharks, mines, nets, icebergs etc. will be released too as a separate mod (not only not only as part of Magnum opus), right?

[stoianm]

But this mod with dolphins, sharks, mines, nets, icebergs etc. will be released too as a separate mod (not only not only as part of Magnum opus), right?
I dunno

[Stormfly]

i know it is WIP and the whale is looking very good, but i must ask this:

...what is the shark doing, ...did he ate a Momsen Lung ? :timeout:

[stoianm]

i know it is WIP and the whale is looking very good, but i must ask this:

...what is the shark doing, ...did he ate a Momsen Lung ? :timeout:
I just took out some olds mods from sh4... reworked a bit and installed in my sh5.. and that was all.. i know the sharks do not look good but i can not rework the animation...are used .dat files and i dunno to well to work with those files.... but the whale is nice

maybe tdw can try to rework the shark animation... and of cource we will need the autor permision to use i think... i do not want chun to hunt me again:D

[Zedi]

But this mod with dolphins, sharks, mines, nets, icebergs etc. will be released too as a separate mod (not only not only as part of Magnum opus), right?

Separate and also included in new version of MO. None will be left out :)

I decided to release a test version of Mare Nostrum that include these stuff and also the the new ships worked out by TDW and Rongel. We need a public test to help improve and fix stuff. I need to make few adjustments then tomorrow or the day after the test version will be available for play.

[Stormfly]

:yeah:

can you post how much new different objets are included, you dont need to go to much into detail, i dont want to loose the supprise...

[Zedi]

Mines, nets, dolphins, buoys, new ships, completely reworked Mare Nostrum without the hunt for capital ships objectives. Not sure about the nets tho.. they are floating and can block the traffic. Maybe I will set up few outside the player base just for showoff and testing. Icebergs are in, but to see them you will need to get out in north Atlantic and thats not an easy task anymore.

[Stormfly]

thx, what about some wales ?

another question, maye TDW can help...

...would it be possible giving the wildlife some artifictional intelligence, i mean dolphins for example are very curious animals and travel very often a long side of vessels for some hours, sharks often follow merchants because of the kitchen garbage they throw over board etc...

(my father own a very old b/w photo (from his father), it shows a caught shark on deck of a old mechant where the crew just opened the sharks stomage, it show a human skull and some bones... (they missed the ship`s boy and decided to investigate that following shark).

i mean perhaps it would be possible to have different animal ai classes for them ? :hmmm:

[chun]

I just took out some olds mods from sh4... reworked a bit and installed in my sh5.. and that was all.. i know the sharks do not look good but i can not rework the animation...are used .dat files and i dunno to well to work with those files.... but the whale is nice

maybe tdw can try to rework the shark animation... and of cource we will need the autor permision to use i think... i do not want chun to hunt me again:D


stoiam not worry:haha:

[stoianm]

stoiam not worry:haha:
:haha:... i am happy that you understood my joke... no bad resentiments... friends again:sunny:

[Sepp von Ch.]

Separate and also included in new version of MO. None will be left out :)

I decided to release a test version of Mare Nostrum that include these stuff and also the the new ships worked out by TDW and Rongel. We need a public test to help improve and fix stuff. I need to make few adjustments then tomorrow or the day after the test version will be available for play.

Hello Zedi, thanks for answer. Sounds great!

This means that it will not be one the package with additional ships as in the case of Cerberus additional ships for the entire campaign?

I am now in 1944 - Open Horizons mod (and I looked forward to news ships and mines and icebergs).


I know that you are doing an excellent job and it takes much time... just ask ...

[Zedi]

The new ships can be released as standalone mod too, if they are listed in the roster the campaign engine will automatically use them in the convoys. But is no point in doing that, they will be listed in the new campaign mod along many other new entries, including the Elco boat that will patrol the ports.

If your in 44, Im looking forward to see your experience with the D-Day mission. Any feedback on OH can help me to improve that campaign as I plan to rework it a bit.

Seems like finally I will get some help, Stoian, Trevally and maybe more are willing to join me in this quest and thats great because this is just too much work for a single person. I will share my knowledge in working with the campaign engine and who knows... maybe we can add even new campaigns.

[Sepp von Ch.]

The new ships can be released as standalone mod too, if they are listed in the roster the campaign engine will automatically use them in the convoys.


Oh Jesus, would be so great!:yep:

[Zedi]

Josef, you are invited to test the version I will release soon with the Mare Nostrum campaign. It will not interfere with the OH campaign in any way. I know you are a serious player and Im counting on your feedback too. When this mod will be finally done, it will include OH too.. and maybe even 1 or more new campaigns.

[THE_MASK]

Can the campaigns file structure be made more user/modder friemdly . What i mean by this is
Campaigns/CampaignProjects/Total_Germany/ (new folder)Ports/Willhelmshaven
In other words split the large PortTraffic_TG up into individual ports . This way someone could work on an individual port .

[Zedi]

Not sure what you mean exactly. But to make it short.. if you wanna join us and help, your welcome! I said many times that if the campaign will be reworked, thats not a one man show. I started by placing mines and nets into the campaign and ended up reworking the whole thing.. and thats just to much work for me. Trevally already joined me, Stoian too.. and there is plenty of room for more. Just let us know.

[Zedi]

Test version of Mare Nostrum campaign released, see post no 1 for details.

[Stormfly]

hmm nice... :up:

there is a new zones.cfg, does it included TDW FX update ?

...am asking because i tryed to remove the red distress flare but it wasnt there, so iam just asking about the other things needed for FX update, did you forgot including them :06:

...just added the 2 new Rongel liveboats SDL entrys !

[Jaguar]

Congrats Zedi and all the others! Going to test it.

[Zedi]

zones is compatible with fx, its made by TDW. Same goes with names.cfg
SDL is not compatible with Rongel's mod, need to be edited/merged.

[Stormfly]

THX !

guys, dont forget to save your game and restart SH5 after you got on board your sub in the bunker, otherwise it could be that harbor piers, and buildings and also the new navigation buoys wont render !

[stoianm]

THX !

guys, dont forget to save your game and restart SH5 after you got on board your sub in the bunker, otherwise it could be that harbor piers, and buildings and also the new navigation buoys wont render !
Yes and also Zedi told me something very important that i did not noticed untill now:
1) you start a new campaign
2) you go to the oficer, chose a patrol and start the patrol

VERY IMPORTANT:

IF YOU WILL BE IN THE NEXT SECOND ON YOUR UBOAT IN BUNKER, JUST AFTER YOU STARTED THE PATROL IT IS NOT GOOD... PUSH THE ''end patrol button''... you will be again in buker... repeat again the steps: chose a new patrol, start the patrol... after you chose the patrol you must to have the loading screen and after that you will be on your uboat in bunker... so: each time when you start a new campaign and after you choose a new patrol and you do not have the loading screen it is not good... repeat the steps:up:

[Stormfly]

...just leaving port now, it seams that the nav bouys are a bit to deep in the water, i see mostly only the lights on top, high tide ?

with that rising sun at 07:30, the harbor buttom looks realy good from surface (Stoianm Eviroment 2 test).

[Zedi]

...just leaving port now, it seams that the nav bouys are a bit to deep in the water, i see mostly only the lights on top, high tide ?

with that rising sun at 07:30, the harbor buttom looks realy good from surface (Stoianm Eviroment 2 test).

The buoys need to be worked out, its a fast import from DivingDuck's mod who gave me the permission to use them. But im not qualified to work them out, except the texture part. There is a floating problem with them and they also need the sounds fixed and attached to the sdl file. So anyone who wish to fix them...

[stoianm]

The buoys need to be worked out, its a fast import from DivingDuck's mod who gave me the permission to use them. But im not qualified to work them out, except the texture part. There is a floating problem with them and they also need the sounds fixed and attached to the sdl file. So anyone who wish to fix them...
Sound was fixed and added... but the bouys that you added has not a ringing bell on them... if you will use the ones with ringing bell you will hear the sound also (the white ones)

I will see if i can fix the flotation... but i can not guarantee.. i will ask TDW or Rongel how i can rework a .sim that has not a gr2 in sh5 (maybe i must to look in the .dat file)... they have sure an answer for me

[Stormfly]

theese so called "white ones", could it be that they are/was yellow ?
...if so, these are for marking a dangerous area like a wreck in shallow waters.

[stoianm]

theese so called "white ones", could it be that they are/was yellow ?
...if so, these are for marking a dangerous area like a wreck in shallow waters.
yes... those ones... they are yellow but the light is white... the ones for dangerous areas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGZQ2PY2qKs

[Zedi]

theese so called "white ones", could it be that they are/was yellow ?
...if so, these are for marking a dangerous area like a wreck in shallow waters.

Thats correct, the yellow buoys have white lights and means danger. I had written in the first post, outside the La Spezia port I set up a small minefield that is marked with the yellow buoys. If you follow the coast and the green lights you cant miss them.

The bouys are set up according the IALA A standard and will guide you out and inside the port and also mark the safe waters, see here (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom//showpost.php?p=1660622&postcount=35). This system will be implemented in every player base in all campaigns.

If Sober will work out the terrain, these buoys will be a great help when sailing in shallow waters.

[TheDarkWraith]

You may see 'floating' subnets if you save/reload. I'm trying to figure out why currently. Just some FYI so people don't freak out about it :salute:

The PT Boats will act strangely or irratically until IRAI v32 is released.

[Zedi]

You may see 'floating' subnets if you save/reload. I'm trying to figure out why currently. Just some FYI so people don't freak out about it :salute:

...

ops :oops: I removed them from this test version just to avoid complains about the floating nets. Hope you dont mind. :oops: This is mentioned in te first post.

But of course the nets will be there in the release version, no doubt.

[Stormfly]

iam about 80Km NW of Malta at current, there is a battlegroup in range including 1 Dido light cruiser... german Stuka bombers, equipped with bombs attacking the cruiser, they fly in dive bomb attacks and sometimes manage to break through the AA defence but wont drop any bombs on it :hmmm:

...iam following this group quite a while and at the beginning the group had 2 dido cruisers, not shure if this is the same group or if german planes sunk the second cruiser.

[Zedi]

iam about 80Km NW of Malta at current, there is a battlegroup in range including 1 Dido light cruiser... german Stuka bombers, equipped with bombs attacking the cruiser, they fly in dive bomb attacks and sometimes manage to break through the AA defence but wont drop any bombs on it :hmmm:

...iam following this group quite a while and at the beginning the group had 2 dido cruisers, not shure if this is the same group or if german planes sunk the second cruiser.


They will drop it eventually, this campaign is full with Luftwaffe vs Royal navy battles and the germans are deadly precise. And Malta is just a huge battlefield.

Make sure you save the game before approaching Valletta!! :P

[Stormfly]

then 2 Sunderlands approached me, i dint fire and they just flow over my head doing nothing, then the sunderlands together with a BF109 approached an british DD and bombed him...

...i must say the german secret military service use damn dirty tricks here :o

[Stormfly]

...And Malta is just a huge battlefield.

Make sure you save the game before approaching Valletta!! :P

i approach Valletta better from the south :o:yeah:

[Stormfly]

beep bep beep beep beee...

--- damn... smoke trails everywhere... i better wait for the night and sneak close to the coast, diving... U186 ---

[stoianm]

beep bep beep beep beee...

--- damn... smoke trails everywhere... i better wait for the night and sneak close to the coast, diving... U186 ---
I think that Doenitz will give me the iron cros:shucks:... i am a very good Kaulein... and i am in Valleta and i can not see your uboat there... where are you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXm3032yDoY

[Stormfly]

and the germans are deadly precise

just saw that, two "88`s" attacked a clemson and sunk him with first approach, than i saw a stopped smoking PT close to the coast where i dived 20 minutes ago, and 1 of the "JU`s" finished him of with a direct hit in the middle of it :o

...damn PT`s ithink he was allready after me :88)

[Zedi]

just saw that, two "88`s" attacked a clemson and sunk him with first approach, than i saw a stopped smoking PT close to the coast where i dived 20 minutes ago, and 1 of the "JU`s" finished him of with a direct hit in the middle of it :o

...damn PT`s ithink he was allready after me :88)

Consider yourself lucky, those boats are deadly once they spot you. Do not forget about the mines ;)

Just had my first encounter with dolphins. Note: when the sonar reports slow merchants, you better listen by yourself :P

[Sepp von Ch.]

Josef, you are invited to test the version I will release soon with the Mare Nostrum campaign. It will not interfere with the OH campaign in any way. I know you are a serious player and Im counting on your feedback too. When this mod will be finally done, it will include OH too.. and maybe even 1 or more new campaigns.


Thanks Zedi for your kind words and trust. I just returned from abroad home (CZ) and found that you released a WIP campaign wit all the new stuffs. God, that´s sounds beautiful! Thanks to all modders! I can not wait to come home from the office:rock:

[Zedi]

Its only a playable test version of the Mare Nostrum campaign. The mod its still a WIP and a lot of work to be done. We need a feedback from the community to see what problems are and how to improve stuff. We also need fedback on the new ships imported from SH4.

This test version will not interfere with any progress you made in other campaigns, it rewrites only the MN campaign and nothing else. But.. it add new ships to the roster and those will be visible in the rest of the campaign also. So if for any reason you dont wanna test the reworked MN, you can test only the new ships in any campaign, but its required to install the mod while in bunker.

Josef, play this campaign as you do usually. No rush, just play it slowly and with fun. See the new objectives/missions and try to complete them. If you encounter anything wrong with the mission or anything else, please report back.

Forget about the briefings attached to the missions, had no time to write new ones. If a hunt area is marked on map in a mission, make sure you hunt only inside the area even if maybe the briefing officer will send to patrol outside the patrol area (Im referring only to the blue circle areas). When this happens, you are sent to patrol outside the designated hunt area, pls report back and let me know in which mission happened.

If someone is curious about the icebergs or only wish to smeel the Atlantic brezee.. try to break through Gibraltar, if possible with high realism settings. Report back if you made it :P

Have fun.

[Sepp von Ch.]

it add new ships to the roster and those will be visible in the rest of the campaign also.


Great!:yeah: I will test the new ships in 1944! I can not wait to look in the museum, which ships have been added!




Josef, play this campaign as you do usually. No rush, just play it slowly and with fun. See the new objectives/missions and try to complete them. If you encounter anything wrong with the mission or anything else, please report back.

...

Have fun.


I do! And THANK YOU VERY much!:yep:

[Duval]

Th Commander Zedi.


Duval

[Sepp von Ch.]

Hello Zedi, I have some questions.

1) The two new ships is wrong displayed in repaer´s UI Mod (v.4.14)-"Erkennungshandbuch":


http://s1.postimage.org/31p2cxlhg/image.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/31p2cxlhg/)


2) Your mod make changes in floatation model? The ships sinking now by me too fast!

I installed only 2 new mods (Das Campaign MN and stoianm Dynamic Enviro 2.0). Before I had not such problem.

My latest mod list:

http://s2.postimage.org/50nggspw/image.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/50nggspw/)
http://s2.postimage.org/50p4057o/image.jpg (http://postimage.org/image/50p4057o/)

[Stormfly]

question,

in SH3 we have a routine preventing units to spawn if a player sub is within 30km range...

i just sit infront of Valetta (coastal side angle) and sink those cimmaron tankers anchoring infront of the harbor... after some time 2 "Dido battlegroups" including escorts spawned 6km away from my position, is there a way using some kind of spawn restriction if a player sub is in visual range ?

btw those mine and U-class suprises are nice :up:

[Zedi]

@Josef
1. ERM from Reapers ui mod does not rescale the sil files to fit in the manual, so it need to be done manually. Download this fix (http://www.zumodrive.com/share/cq5CYTQ3NW), includes the rescaled .sil files for these new ships. No need to load in bunker or anything fancy.

2. Are you referring to the new ships or any ships? At me, the ships sink much too slow and im using the same combo of fx+tiny as you do. Just last night I shot a blind salvo in a convoy and hit 1 ship in stern.. she just sailed away without any problem. Luck that luftwaffe joined the show so i had my revenge :P
But maybe you are good and managed to hit those ships right in their critical spot.

@Stormfly
Its a stock bug, happened with me once when a huge convoy spawned right over my head just when I was searching of a docked target. MN in stock campaign has all kinda weird bugs, was one of the reason I never managed to finish this campaign.. was a nightmare for me. But I will keep an eye on this issue and see what I can find...

[Stormfly]

@Stormfly
Its a stock bug, happened with me once when a huge convoy spawned right over my head just when I was searching of a docked target. MN in stock campaign has all kinda weird bugs, was one of the reason I never managed to finish this campaign.. was a nightmare for me. But I will keep an eye on this issue and see what I can find...

maybe also the spawn frequency of those groups is to high, i have now 50+ vessels (and rising) in the harbor entry area, because 2 groups are just sitting there trying to hear something... iam allready far away, but my framerate is going down more and more, could be that it only needs 48 hours and you can walk between Malta and Sicily by feet... :timeout:

[Rongel]

Hello Zedi, I have some questions.


2) Your mod make changes in floatation model? The ships sinking now by me too fast!

I installed only 2 new mods (Das Campaign MN and stoianm Dynamic Enviro 2.0). Before I had not such problem.




I think I saw same behaviour too.

Could it be that this mod's zone.cfg is not compatible with TDW's FX Update? This mod will overwrite zone.cfg. FX Update has it's own sinking mechanics that allow boats to float even after destroyed.

By the way, great work Zedi! :yeah: Haven't tested enough yet to say more.

[Stormfly]

yes, something is different, i tryed to remove the red distress flare but it was gone allready...:hmmm:

[Zedi]

I think I saw same behaviour too.

Could it be that this mod's zone.cfg is not compatible with TDW's FX Update? This mod will overwrite zone.cfg. FX Update has it's own sinking mechanics that allow boats to float even after destroyed.

...

zones.cfg is made by TDW and he said is compatible with FX and everything he made so far. On my side this mod was installed on top of everything and I have no issues with fast sinking ships.

How about the new ships? Do you guys had see them already, can you guys see their hull under the water? Can you sink them, are they causing any trouble or have some weird behavior? This is the most important feedback we are needing now, so please post your impression regarding the new units. Bad or good.

[Xrundel]

Quit game, installed mod, started game, pushed "New Campaign". It asking me to chose name of the captain. I typed "silentotto" and I have regular beginning with only "Total Germany" available. I did not find any other place where I can type "silentotto"
I feel really retarded.
What did I do wrong?:damn:

[stoianm]

Quit game, installed mod, started game, pushed "New Campaign". It asking me to chose name of the captain. I typed "silentotto" and I have regular beginning with only "Total Germany" available. I did not find any other place where I can type "silentotto"
I feel really retarded.
What did I do wrong?:damn:

watch this movie

realnavpart1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33sXTKl4Qt8)

[Stormfly]

@Xrundel
captains name have nothing to do with typing "silentotto", just type it when the name dialog is closed...

@Zedi
i saw 1 type of the new ships @Valetta (small passenger carrier), looks good nothing strange, keel is visible under water from surface, it is also destroyable and shows all effects, have to go for convois now...

til now, only the one who is listing a bit to the bow (i think it was "Medium Old Composite Frighter") need work with the balance, but iam shure you know about (saw that in museum).

[Xrundel]

@Xrundel
captains name have nothing to do with typing "silentotto", just type it when the name dialog is closed...




Got it. Sorry - I were looking for some kind of window to type it in.
Thanks.

[Zedi]

..
@Zedi
i saw 1 type of the new ships @Valetta (small passenger carrier), looks good nothing strange, keel is visible under water from surface, it is also destroyable and shows all effects, have to go for convois now.....

This is the feedback I was expecting. Because I cannot see it, only in single missions, not in campaign.. and this is odd.

Maybe this issue is somehow related to the video card and drivers? Running with a gtx 220 here... Everybody else can see the ship hull under water looking from above?

[Xrundel]

Meet first dolphin. It was identified as "Merchant". But it was stationary, found it by taking camera underwater. Returned to sonar station and there was 3 or 4 directions where sounds came from. Probably whole family...

[Stormfly]

just found the other 2 new merchants in a big mixed convoi, escorts also in a good mix... included also a Kent class cruiser. it have much better variation now with this new ships, only the textures are to mutch lighten (white) in comparison to the other (partly camo) vanilla ships.

[Stormfly]

...further saw that the Black swan or maybe HMS Stork (Gold Edition), fire left K-Guns but without deptcharges rendered for them and also no explosion for those left K-gun charges.

i must say that i disabled MO and have no "equipment fixes" enabled at current, not shure if that have something to do with it.

Ships are sinking as usual... not shure if axis planes also have parachuting pilots but i miss them ! couldnt test with allied til now, not shure if this have something to do with my edited zones.cfg. (testing without the big red explosion cloud), result til now no ctd`s any more with my system.

[SteelViking]

Hey, not sure if this has been reported yet. But some buoys have serious buoyancy problems. Wasn't thinking at the time to get a screen shot, will take one if I see it again.

It was almost totally underwater and on its side, and the weather was clear.

[THE_MASK]

Hey, not sure if this has been reported yet. But some buoys have serious buoyancy problems. Wasn't thinking at the time to get a screen shot, will take one if I see it again.

It was almost totally underwater and on its side, and the weather was clear.
Fixed by stoianm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWpvu52u4JM

[SteelViking]

Fixed by stoianm

Excellent! Sorry for not following the forum closer guys. Will report anything else I see. I am mostly playing the game right now trying to get ideas of what to do mod wise, and how to do them.

Cheers
:salute:

[THE_MASK]

People are starting to import ships into SH5 :yep:

[Rongel]

Okay, here is my somewhat detailed report, played about 3 hours and saw all sorts of things! This time I used map contacts, for testing purposes. Not all issues are related to this mod :DL

First off I don't think the zone.cfg is compatible with a latest FX Update, the numbers are totally different (checked them with Winmerge). Latest FX Update has ten times higher values in most entrys...

Anyway, my mission was the "Rock" where I needed to sink 20.000 tons in Gibraltar area. I started in La Spezia and was immediately suprised how narrow the harbour passages were. While I was wondering this, we hit our boat to the harbour concrete! :oops: We'll it was only a small scratch but a very bad omen about what is to come... Before anyone could notice what had happened, I escaped to the open sea.

So we started our journey to Gibraltar and after a couple of uneventful days, the weather turned bad. Light fog and windspeed of 15 m/s. I ordered to dive because there was no hope of contacting anything in that weather. So we kept going submerged and only surfaced to recharge batteries. One night, when weather was still really bad, we finally got a contact, but it wasn't too pleasant suprise: a task force was coming our way! I ordered to surface we fled the scene. It would have been a suicide to try anything in those conditions and with that opposition.

We were maybe half way to Gibraltar when the soundguy spotted a merchant convoy! Maybe 8 merchants, no warships nearby! Goldmine! We surfaced to get in to good position, but the cursed fog took all hopes of visual contact. So maybe hour later we were in good position and waited for the merchants to come closer when I remembered something. I rushed to the sound guy and grapped the listening gear. Screeches and whining everywhere. I actually was horrified at first, like choir of the damned was coming closer. But no, my contacts were a pack of dolphins! I gave my sound guy an evil look, and continued patrolling.
http://i1138.photobucket.com/albums/n527/rognels/SH5Img2011-05-12_233155.jpg

Finally we reached our patrol destination, but no contacts again. Crew was getting frustrated, so I decided we take a small peak to the nearby harbour, Oran. I was pretty nervous because of the mines and maybe patrol boats I kept hearing about, but to my suprise it was totally empty. So we took off and continued patrolling.

And then finally jackpot! A huge (real) convoy was coming in our direction. There was maybe seven escorts too, but I couldn't miss this chance. Battlestations! We got ourselves to good position between the escorts, dove to 100 meters and shut engines and then just waited and prayed that they don't spot us. The escorts passed us by and I ordered speed of 1 knots and periscope depth. I looked to the periscope and the water was full of ships, all around me. I spotted one new, but very familiar looking white ship. I think it was Small Split Freighter from eastern waters... The bad thing was that the waves were too high to get a good view, all i could see was masts. And then they spotted me too. I panicked and fired all five torpedoes to differents ships, no calculating, just guessing... Ordered to dive to 140 meters. The escorts started to ping me, and I listened and hoped for torpedo hits while diving. Then two explosions, my bird eye view told me that I had injured two small boats... Not too great result.

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

And you know the rest. Three escorts depthcharging and pinging. No damage yet, but it's only a question of time. Good thing is that the two ships sunk maybe 20 min later (I use FX updates zone.cfg) and I could see the lifeboats in the water. Saved the game and went to sleep, I'm not sure if I'm going to make it... Anyway, not the most exciting patrol, but I had fun!

So to make things clear I'll list some things that came to mind while testing this:

-Zone.cfg overwrite issue
-Dolphins need a voice! The hydrophone audio is good but there should be a sound when you are close to dolphins.
-New ships seemed to work okay, they looked whiter than the rest because shadows don't affect them the same way. You could spot them form the convoy. Maybe the textures need to be darker to compensate this? Also the ship you used, Kasagisan didn't have crew on board, and the equiptments were using un-textured SH 5 models. I can fix this and send you a new version.
-Also I didn't see the new ships through water. The shader was working, it affected all other ships and shallow water but not this new ship.:hmmm:

Anyway, great work and a good start!

[stoianm]

I think too that we should add sound to dolphins not only in hydro... the entry is in the sh file... you just need to put the name of the wav on it... i think the wave it is also there

[Sepp von Ch.]

@Josef
1. ERM from Reapers ui mod does not rescale the sil files to fit in the manual, so it need to be done manually. Download this fix (http://www.zumodrive.com/share/cq5CYTQ3NW), includes the rescaled .sil files for these new ships. No need to load in bunker or anything fancy.



Thank you Zedi, works fine!:up:

[Zedi]

Thanks a lot Rongel, I enjoyed very much your report :)

Regarding the zones.cfg .. I hope that TDW is reading this. Because he said is compatible with his mods, I cant do anything about.

Regarding the ships.. yeah, Im very disapointed about how they look :nope: These days I wil try to play with the alpha channel and add a darker texture, even if Im not sure at all that this trick will solve the problem. I have the same problems with the buoys too, they are almost white, no matter how dark I make the texture.. the occlusion, bump and uv map need serious fixing but they are missing or need to be redone.

Im surprised to hear that you also fail to see the ships hull underwater... but at least its not only me. More reports can help to figure out why some of us can see the hull and some not. Send me your work because these ships are from one source, TDW. Thought its a merged mod.

Oran is a friendly port and is not mined. Same as any friendly port.. none will raid our port anyway. I can set up few taskforces that will raid the enemy ports, but that would be not realistic, sound more like an invasion and I dont wanna change history. But on the later campaigns I wanna increase the air raids on our ports, so you can feel that things are start to turn bad.. no more happy times. And if we manage to add at least 1 new campaign, that will have to be dark and hard to survive.

And about the dolphins sound.. Im sure that Stoian can fix this part, he did a great job on buoys so far. Hope he will work out the whales too, then the sonar guys will be really busy in finding a valid target :P

[Rongel]

Thanks a lot Rongel, I enjoyed very much your report :)

Regarding the ships.. yeah, Im very disapointed about how they look :nope: These days I wil try to play with the alpha channel and add a darker texture, even if Im not sure at all that this trick will solve the problem. I have the same problems with the buoys too, they are almost white, no matter how dark I make the texture.. the occlusion, bump and uv map need serious fixing but they are missing or need to be redone.



Don't be too dissapointed with the new ships! You know they don't look that bad, I think it's more that they stand out from SH 5 ships. And it's pretty much because of the SH 5 shadows that don't work with these ships. All the SH 4 textures are working, we aren't missing anything. And I wasn't that bothered that the ships didn't show underwater like others.

Also I think it's possible to have several skins for one ship. So that in convoy there are different variations of the same ship model. For example the Kasagisan ship comes with two textures in SH 4.

Almost all SH 5 ships are dark grey colored, so these white ships are easy to spot. Maybe just make them more gray?

When I have time, I could take a look at the Kasagisan ship, it has become quite dear to me! :DL I'll add the crew, fix the guns and try to get second ship texture to it.

[Zedi]

The texture is already dark, if you use the texture I made for these ships on any sh5 ship it wil become almost black. Is why there is not much control from the texture file but from occ map. And those whos video card dont support pixel shader will never see the hull under water. Also the missing shadows and water reflection is also annoying.

This kinda makes me angry... yeah, we can import ships but no tool or proper documentation is given :/ And I dont want to go backward and make the game to look like SH3.. it must be a way to make these units to look better.

[SteelViking]

Hey Zedi, upon hearing that there was a problem with the shading on the new ships, I took a look. The main textures are embedded in the .dat files for these ships right? Well, I looked at the shadow maps for them, and they are only about 30% opaque!! Shadow maps should be 100% opaque, that is probably why they are showing up in game way to light colored.

They should be made opaque and then they will need totally blank places in the shadow map filled in.

If you like I can go ahead and do this conversion for one of the ships and send you the file.

[Rongel]

Hey Zedi, upon hearing that there was a problem with the shading on the new ships, I took a look. The main textures are embedded in the .dat files for these ships right? Well, I looked at the shadow maps for them, and they are only about 30% opaque!! Shadow maps should be 100% opaque, that is probably why they are showing up in game way to light colored.

They should be made opaque and then they will need totally blank places in the shadow map filled in.

If you like I can go ahead and do this conversion for one of the ships and send you the file.

Now this sounds very interesting :DL. I have to try this too when I get off from work. Ary you seeing any change Steelviking when you mess with the opague value? Darker shadows? And what does that mean: they will need totally blank places in the shadow map filled in? Anyway I really hope you are into something :yeah:

[SteelViking]

Now this sounds very interesting :DL. I have to try this too when I get off from work. Ary you seeing any change Steelviking when you mess with the opague value? Darker shadows? And what does that mean: they will need totally blank places in the shadow map filled in? Anyway I really hope you are into something :yeah:

Just to see if I was right, I went ahead and redid the NMFMPC, and sure enough, I can make her as dark or as light as we want!:D

I will PM you a link to a JSGME ready mod so you can see for yourself.

Only took me about 30mins to completely fix it, I can do this for any ship with a properly UVed shadow map.

Might take a look at the occular occlusion maps next.:yep:

[stoianm]

Just to see if I was right, I went ahead and redid the NMFMPC, and sure enough, I can make her as dark or as light as we want!:D

I will PM you a link to a JSGME ready mod so you can see for yourself.

Only took me about 30mins to completely fix it, I can do this for any ship with a properly UVed shadow map.

Might take a look at the occular occlusion maps next.:yep:
nice... now the imported ships will fit better in sh5 graphics:up:

[Rongel]

Just to see if I was right, I went ahead and redid the NMFMPC, and sure enough, I can make her as dark or as light as we want!:D

I will PM you a link to a JSGME ready mod so you can see for yourself.

Only took me about 30mins to completely fix it, I can do this for any ship with a properly UVed shadow map.

Might take a look at the occular occlusion maps next.:yep:

Thanks for the link! I did a quick test but it's hard to say anything about that boat, because I haven't seen it in game that much... I have to confess that I don't really understand these textures and how they work. We used stock SH 4 textures in our imported ships and they had this alpha channel in this particular texture, not white as you have it in your texture, but partially visible, partially masked. I thought that is the way it should work in SH 5, but I might be wrong.

Anyway, you know these things better, please continue examining those textures :yeah:. And maybe you could explain a bit more so I wouldn't be so confused :DL.

[TheDarkWraith]

Just to see if I was right, I went ahead and redid the NMFMPC, and sure enough, I can make her as dark or as light as we want!:D

I will PM you a link to a JSGME ready mod so you can see for yourself.

Only took me about 30mins to completely fix it, I can do this for any ship with a properly UVed shadow map.

Might take a look at the occular occlusion maps next.:yep:

Can you send me that link also? I'd like to see/understand what you changed. I was just about to re-write the pixel shader responsible for rendering these maps......

[SteelViking]

Can you send me that link also? I'd like to see/understand what you changed. I was just about to re-write the pixel shader responsible for rendering these maps......

PM sent with link. If all agree with me that what I did to this ship fixed the problem, I would be glad to redo all the shadow maps for the ships. It is really easy for me since I have redone so many other shadow maps in the game.:yep:

[TheDarkWraith]

PM sent with link. If all agree with me that what I did to this ship fixed the problem, I would be glad to redo all the shadow maps for the ships. It is really easy for me since I have redone so many other shadow maps in the game.:yep:

It appears that you just made the alpha channel totally white :06: Well not totally, there are a few bits and little pieces of black here and there.

[SteelViking]

It appears that you just made the alpha channel totally white :06: Well not totally, there are a few bits and little pieces of black here and there.

Exactly. increasing the intensity of the Alpha channel is what needs done.

Edit: when it comes to shadow maps, you can actually remove the alpha channel all together, the image has to be 100% opaque anyway. Alpha channels are only used for transparency, which is not needed here.

2nd Edit: I also filled in where there was no color at all.

[TheDarkWraith]

Exactly. increasing the intensity of the Alpha channel is what needs done.

Edit: when it comes to shadow maps, you can actually remove the alpha channel all together, the image has to be 100% opaque anyway. Alpha channels are only used for transparency, which is not needed here.

2nd Edit: I also filled in where there was no color at all.

I'll send you the NMFMPC ship. I can't tell that much of a difference with the whited out alpha channel. Some strange things appear also when sun is glancing off side of the ship now :hmmm:

[SteelViking]

I'll send you the NMFMPC ship. I can't tell that much of a difference with the whited out alpha channel. Some strange things appear also when sun is glancing off side of the ship now :hmmm:

Okay, I will take a look. I checked in game several times with the ship that comes with the Campaign mod, and I didn't see anything weird happen.:hmmm:

[TheDarkWraith]

Okay, I will take a look. I checked in game several times with the ship that comes with the Campaign mod, and I didn't see anything weird happen.:hmmm:

In what I sent you load the single mission and change the time of day hour to 17. Then start mission. Place camera near side of ship almost parallel with the side so you can see the sunlight reflecting off the side. You'll see what I'm talking about.

[SteelViking]

Without even firing the game up, I am going to guess it looks like the surface of the ship looks like glass........That is because the base texture is 100%, that is not right. Almost all base textures in the game are transparent. Let me take a look in game to see if this is the case.

Edit: It looks like that is exactly what we are dealing with, let me play around with the texture to see if I can get it to work right, will PM you what I do.

[SteelViking]

Hmmmm, I am also seeing some weird behavior from the occular occlusion map. This may actually be what you are referring to. Give me some time to look at that as well.

[Trevally.]

Update:

Reworked campaign "Western Approaches"
No more find and sink 2 Cruisers if you don't want too:up:

[stoianm]

Update:

Reworked campaign "Western Approaches"
No more find and sink 2 Cruisers if you don't want too:up:
nice:up:

[SteelViking]

Hey, TDW, how is the new set of textures looking for you?

[TheDarkWraith]

Hey, TDW, how is the new set of textures looking for you?

Sorry, haven't looked yet :oops:. Too busy adding damage smoke to every compartment on the sub :D I'll look at it now :up:

[SteelViking]

Sorry, haven't looked yet :oops:. Too busy adding damage smoke to every compartment on the sub :D I'll look at it now :up:

Hey, you take your time with that, I have been waiting for that for a long time.

[SteelViking]

@Zedi, the shadow map itself has rust on it! Let me whip up a map without the rust and see if that solves the mystery of the unwanted rust.

[Zedi]

Thanks you so much for this SteelViking. If you can do these improvements on all units, then finally these ships will fit the sh5 fleet.
Who knows.. maybe one day you guys can find a way to add shadows and the transparency of the ship hull underwater so there will be absolutely no difference between any ship.

[TheDarkWraith]

Who knows.. maybe one day you guys can find a way to add shadows and the transparency of the ship hull underwater so there will be absolutely no difference between any ship.

When a GR2 unit is rendered the game engine adds the verticies of the unit that are underwater to a depth map. This depth map is then used in the water pixel shader to determine whether that pixel is deep water color or the color of the ship that is underwater (it is linearly interpolated). No such thing exists for DAT rendered units. That is why you can't 'see' them underwater from above water. I made a revised water pixel shader that made them show but it's not perfect. It will take modifying the sh5.exe to do it correctly.

[Rongel]

Thanks for the files Steelviking! I made another test, quick test, but I can't see much difference... :88) Am I missing something? Maybe some screenshots? The one big thing that separates these ships form SH 5 ships, is the light/dark side. SH5 has really big contrast, but here it's almost the same... What do you think TDW, you have been looking at these ships some time too?

Well I'll get back on this soon, have to go now. But great work everyone :yeah:.

[TheDarkWraith]

Thanks for the files Steelviking! I made another test, quick test, but I can't see much difference... :88) Am I missing something? Maybe some screenshots? The one big thing that separates these ships form SH 5 ships, is the light/dark side. SH5 has really big contrast, but here it's almost the same... What do you think TDW, you have been looking at these ships some time too?

Well I'll get back on this soon, have to go now. But great work everyone :yeah:.

Yes I have same problem. Can't tell much of a difference at all :hmmm:

[Zedi]

Lets wait for the results on the shadow map from SteelViking.
The big improvement so far is that finally the new ships are not white like some hospital ships.

[SteelViking]

Okay, if you can't tell the difference with that one, let me make one that ya can't miss.:know:

[SteelViking]

Okay fellas, apply this and look at the NMFMPC and see if you can tell the difference.:haha:

http://www.mediafire.com/?yf5sxgv1ovqa691

@Zedi, I am almost done removing the rust. It was coming from the shadow map like I thought.

[SteelViking]

Here is the NMFMPC shadow map with no rust(well, very little), just apply in JSGME over the campaign mod and take a look.

http://www.mediafire.com/?3row13gbtsdc4m7

[Zedi]

Its oke now, no rust. So finally this a solved issue.
Light/dark sides are visible but not so much. The ship is still a too much bright compared to the sh5 ships and at night is very visible even from great distances. Here is a comparison, pics taken at morning when the sun is low:

Looking in to the sun direction. Notice the shadows from flag and guns, only objects that cast shadows.
http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/001.jpg?t=1305393884

Looking from the other side. There is not much of difference.
http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/002.jpg?t=1305393885

But there are some dark/light area, for example on the deck
http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/003.jpg?t=1305393886

I cannot figure out how come I can see the ship hull under water in single missions but none in campaign.. :nope:

[SteelViking]

Well, there is the situation:

I can make the ship darker, that is no problem.

The certain parts of the deck are dark(like where overhangs are) are coming right from the shadow map. I can do anything we want in regards to that.

However, one side of the ship being brighter than the other, I cannot fix with shadow maps. I didn't even realize that was happening.:hmmm:

We need to find a way to add dynamic shadows to the ship, that would put the non-sunny side in the dark.

[Rongel]

Well, there is the situation:

I can make the ship darker, that is no problem.

The certain parts of the deck are dark(like where overhangs are) are coming right from the shadow map. I can do anything we want in regards to that.

However, one side of the ship being brighter than the other, I cannot fix with shadow maps. I didn't even realize that was happening.:hmmm:

We need to find a way to add dynamic shadows to the ship, that would put the non-sunny side in the dark.

Yes, agreed! You know, I have wasted maybe 6 hours looking into this, in S3D there are just the right tools to edit explicit materials. We can darken the diffuse color and lighten the specular color to make more contrast. Here is one example:

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

and the other side:

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

So both pictures are from the same ship. I can darken shadows and brighten reflections to adjust the look to more SH 5 style. What makes me mad is that I get good results in S3 editor, but I never get any changes to show in game. I have tried just about any material combination and order, embedded textures or not... It looks to me that these settings just don't work in SH 5.

What looks great in SH 4 is just too bright in SH 5.:damn:

[TheDarkWraith]

What looks great in SH 4 is just too bright in SH 5.:damn:

It's because of the vertex and pixel shaders for the Unified Render Controller. I'm almost 100% certain :yep:

[SteelViking]

Yes, agreed! You know, I have wasted maybe 6 hours looking into this, in S3D there are just the right tools to edit explicit materials. We can darken the diffuse color and lighten the specular color to make more contrast.

So both pictures are from the same ship. I can darken shadows and brighten reflections to adjust the look to more SH 5 style. What makes me mad is that I get good results in S3 editor, but I never get any changes to show in game. I have tried just about any material combination and order, embedded textures or not... It looks to me that these settings just don't work in SH 5.

What looks great in SH 4 is just too bright in SH 5.:damn:

It's because of the vertex and pixel shaders for the Unified Render Controller. I'm almost 100% certain :yep:

Exactly, I didn't expect what would work for SH4 to work here. That is why shadow maps are the way to do things. They are in the SH5 files for a reason, lets use them. I have shown that they can be used to do anything in regards to lighting except gradients from light side to dark side.

@TDW, I think you are right, but before you spend time on the URC, lets look into getting dynamic shadows to work.

If we can get dynamic shadows to render, I see all of our problems being solved on this issue.

Then the ships hulls not rendering under water when viewed from the top needs tackled.

[TheDarkWraith]

@TDW, I think you are right, but before you spend time on the URC, lets look into getting dynamic shadows to work.

Dynamic shadows, reflections, and related items are for Granny files only. The devs didn't take these items into account when they added DAT functionality :nope:

The reflection passed to the pixel shader from the game engine for DAT units is blank :shifty: There's one reason I know this.

I've explained why the ship's hulls are not rendering underwater when viewed from above water. If you want to dive into the sh5.exe and figure this out go for it :up:

[SteelViking]

Dynamic shadows, reflections, and related items are for Granny files only. The devs didn't take these items into account when they added DAT functionality :nope:

The reflection passed to the pixel shader from the game engine for DAT units is blank :shifty: There's one reason I know this.

I've explained why the ship's hulls are not rendering underwater when viewed from above water. If you want to dive into the sh5.exe and figure this out go for it :up:

:haha: I know Python, I know controllers, and I know textures, but editing the .exe......I am afraid that is way above my pay grade.:har:

Well, do you think you can get a gradient from light to dark side by changing the URC?

If you can get that gradient, we are set. My offer to redo the shadow maps is still on the table.:yep:

[TheDarkWraith]

Well, do you think you can get a gradient from light to dark side by changing the URC?

You can make the final rendering of anything look however you want by changing the vertex and pixel shaders. That's the one great thing about them - they can be edited and are not hardcoded in the game.

[Rongel]

:haha: I know Python, I know controllers, and I know textures, but editing the .exe......I am afraid that is way above my pay grade.:har:

Well, do you think you can get a gradient from light to dark side by changing the URC?

If you can get that gradient, we are set. My offer to redo the shadow maps is still on the table.:yep:

Please stick around SteelViking! I think these ships need all the help that is available. Maybe the fastest, temporary cure would be to use only really dark textures for these ships to blend in. And all the ships still need proper SH 4 armament and SH 5 crew. I can send my Kasagisan ship with the right stuff to Zedi tomorrow.

[SteelViking]

Hey Zedi, do you want rust on the ships or not? I am guessing not since you didn't want it on the NMFMPC but I figured I would confirm before I redo the other ships.

[Zedi]

Nope, the main goal is to make these ships to look like out of box. Later on anybody can add skin packs to these ships and customize their look, thats why I wanna make them look like the ones from stock game, nothing more, nothing less.

[SteelViking]

Nope, the main goal is to make these ships to look like out of box. Later on anybody can add skin packs to these ships and customize their look, thats why I wanna make them look like the ones from stock game, nothing more, nothing less.

Okay, no rust it is.:)

[SteelViking]

Zedi, I really think we should stick with the old green normal maps for these ships.

I am able to get them to look perfect(props to TDW for finding a good balance on the texture's opacity levels:yeah:) even when the sun is very low in the sky when I use the old normals. But the second I switch to using the SH5 style normal maps for them, they look terrible. I thought that they were working, but I hadn't checked them at all angles of the sun until now.

I just think that the shaders for these ships are set up to better utilize the old style normals.

[TheDarkWraith]

I just think that the shaders for these ships are set up to better utilize the old style normals.

The shaders are almost 100% identical to SH4 shaders for unified renderer. That is why I replaced Zedi's normal maps with those from SH4.

[SteelViking]

The shaders are almost 100% identical to SH4 shaders for unified renderer. That is why I replaced Zedi's normal maps with those from SH4.

That is what I figured. Thanks for confirming TDW.:salute:

Either way, I should have these ships ready by the end of the day. That's textures set to proper opacity, shadow maps redone, and rust removed.

[Zedi]

Well, this is not good because those normal maps are done for the old texture. But I will take a look on this issue when you guys are done with the ships and send me an update.

Please, clean up the roster cfg and remove any unused texture path etc. Thanks a lot.

[Rongel]

Every ship also has to be fine tuned, we must add the right weapons and SH 5 crewmembers. Some ships need also tweaking in the floating mechanics, they roll too much in the water, especially in low speeds. I can help with this stuff. Also it would be great to have multiple textures in all of them, I tried this with one ship and it worked fine.

This is simple stuff and I can help in it, TDW can focus on much greater things! :DL

[SteelViking]

Hmmm:hmmm: It appears that certain objects on the ships do not like having a shadow map applied to them. Even using TDW's setup things like crates get huge spectral phenomena. Not a big deal, I can just make no shadow on these objects, but I am afraid they might end up looking too light colored. Lets hope they look okay.

[TheDarkWraith]

Hmmm:hmmm: It appears that certain objects on the ships do not like having a shadow map applied to them. Even using TDW's setup things like crates get huge spectral phenomena. Not a big deal, I can just make no shadow on these objects, but I am afraid they might end up looking too light colored. Lets hope they look okay.

For those objects you need to remove the alpha for them (black that section out in the _Oxx map).

[SteelViking]

Okay folks here are the ships. I repaired the shadow maps and applied the setup TDW outlined to them(once again TDW thank you for saving me the time of finding a good setup:salute:). I removed the rust from them, moved textures that should have been in the Sea/xxx folders from the Textures/TNormal/tex folder, and cleaned up the .cfg for the ships in the Roster folder. The .cfg files were pointing to .tga files but we have .dds files here.

Anyway, I know they are not 100% perfect, but this is just a rough job. I will work on refining them tomorrow, just thought I would let everyone take a look.

If you look on the stern of the NMFMPC and the Akita, there is a patch of really light hull.....I am not sure where that is coming from, it does not look like the shadow maps are responsible. I will keep digging at it though.

Cheers Mates
:salute:

http://www.mediafire.com/?xr7lxp3blq87gmd

[Rongel]

Thanks for the textures SteelViking!

I have some time during start of the week, so please Zedi send me the most recent version of the ships and I'll add the crew and guns. Then we can apply the Steelvikings new textures on them. There are now many versions of these ships moving around, and some of them are really old, and unneccessarily complicated. I could clean them up a bit too.

[Zedi]

My latest version is in the released test mod, so I have no updates to send. Im waiting for you guys to finish what you have to do, at this stage for me is more important to have a clean cfg file so we can start placing these ships into other nations roster too and start build up the all nations fleet in the campaign.

[Rongel]

My latest version is in the released test mod, so I have no updates to send. Im waiting for you guys to finish what you have to do, at this stage for me is more important to have a clean cfg file so we can start placing these ships into other nations roster too and start build up the all nations fleet in the campaign.

Okay, I'll check these ships and put SteelVikings new textures on them. At this point I'm not going to make any big changes to cfg-files if they are working well and showing all the different textures in game. This way it's easier to compare them to their SH 4 cousins, and if I start renaming them, we'll soon have a compatability chaos. Let's do that little later :DL.

And that is the question, which nations should have these ships? In SH 4 almost every nation had the "Small Old Split Freighter"/Kasagisan ship. Do you have Zedi some ideas/plans?

[THE_MASK]

Ships placed as terrain objects dont have a collision model . Or i dont know how to give it one .

[Zedi]

...
And that is the question, which nations should have these ships? In SH 4 almost every nation had the "Small Old Split Freighter"/Kasagisan ship. Do you have Zedi some ideas/plans?

Agree and Im open for suggestions. But I dont wanna add Liberty to any nations. My plan was to make a serious documentation on this matter, but it will be hard because is no help to know that Chile had only FunkyXYZ type of ships if we dont have it in the game. So Im thinking about mixing them manually and make sure that Liberty will be not the star of the show again. So if anyone has some good suggestions and ideas, lets hear it.

I consider the cfg files from Steelviking link to be clean, so I start to work with these.. hope there will be no more changes on them. I will remove the japy names and leave the rest as it is now.



Ships placed as terrain objects dont have a collision model . Or i dont know how to give it one .

Thats bad news as Im still counting on these wrecks for Scapa. As an extreme solution I was thinking to place there docked neutral ships and try to reduce their depth/flotation level so most of their hull will be under water.

Any progres on the terrain modifications, like shallow waters &stuff? Im working now on adding buoys so it would be the right time to send me something new.

[Rongel]

I consider the cfg files from Steelviking link to be clean, so I start to work with these.. hope there will be no more changes on them. I will remove the japy names and leave the rest as it is now.



Some cfg-files in SteelVikings package are older modified versions that don't support multiple textures, for example the Kasagisan ship and PSTyohei. I'll post here soon a new package with the Steelvikings textures that support different textures, please use it. The file structure system is also different, we don't need to put ship textures to "Textures" folder. I think it's best if these ships are modified only where it's necessary.

[Zedi]

Ok, then I wait a bit longer for the final update. Tehre is still plenty of work to be done, so no rush.

[SteelViking]

Some cfg-files in SteelVikings package are older modified versions that don't support multiple textures, for example the Kasagisan ship and PSTyohei. I'll post here soon a new package with the Steelvikings textures that support different textures, please use it. The file structure system is also different, we don't need to put ship textures to "Textures" folder. I think it's best if these ships are modified only where it's necessary.

Exactly, I purposefully moved the textures from the tex folder to the individual ship folders because the .cfg files were pointing there.

But, yeah, only some of the .cfg files I had were set up to use multiple textures.

[Rongel]

Exactly, I purposefully moved the textures from the tex folder to the individual ship folders because the .cfg files were pointing there.

Yes, I think that is the best system too :DL!

Okay, here (http://www.gamefront.com/files/20337138/SH4+Ships_16.6.2011.7z)are the revised ships, they use SteelVikings textures, but the normal maps are from stock. I didn't touch the PTElco patrol boat, TDW may have anyway better version from it. I cleaned the dat-file a bit too. Some new functions:

-Ships are manned with SH 5 crew members.
-Ships have SH 4 weapons, they start unarmed, but get guns later in the war.
-Ships have several textures that change randomly when the game loads textures for the ships.

I made a new slot for textures to the NMFMPC-ship. Now it has two exactly same textures, so all it needs is that some talented artist modifies the other one a bit.

Bugs:

-Some ships still turn and roll too much in the water. Stoainm seems like a good stabilator... great work on my lifeboats :D
-Mysterious moving wake/foam when the ship is already destroyed. Only happens with SH 5 foam effect.

[Zedi]

Japs names have to go, so give me few new names.
I would give them your nick.. Rongel, Urkel and .. not sure about Akita imported by TDW :)

[Rongel]

Japs names have to go, so give me few new names.
I would give them your nick.. Rongel, Urkel and .. not sure about Akita imported by TDW :)

Wow, that would be weird! But luckily those names you are pointing in the cfg don't ever appear in game! It's still the same Small old Split Freighter in recognition manual. So there can read almost anything, well nothing too coarse :D

[Zedi]

And that can be fixed. Im not a master in working in roster, but I think if those names are inserted in names.cfg they will be shown in rec manual too. You all deserve to have you names to be printed on these ships as you guys did such a great job importing these ships and give the community some new toys to play.

SteelViking .. how about you import another ship, so we can have your nick used on one of the new sh5 ships? :D

[skwasjer]

I'm not really following the discussions, but I just like to say/add that S3D only mimics the way the game renders. I wrote my own shaders for it to be as close as possible, and designed for SH4, and the shaders had to support all models (I did not write seperate shaders for interiors, characters, etc). F.ex. S3D renders SH3 units too bright by default.

The lighting model of S3D is obviously the most different from the game. I simply added 3 directional light sources (top, left and one I believe at an opposite intermediate angle) and some ambient light. I am not sure of the key-combo but you can move them around with CTRL+ALT+mouse or something (or other modifiers, don't remember).

So don't take S3D as a rule of thumb, in the way that it renders... especially in SH5!

[Zedi]

I have a problem with the harbor terrain and Im not sure who can help.. Sober maybe. There are months since I try to figure out why the patrol ships inside the ports are tend to get stuck after a while and they just sit there and sound the alarm. Even asked TDW to help with IRAI but no go. But now I think I found the source of the problem...

Most of you already know that the sea floor is constantly changing and there is also an invisible barrier that will not let the sub to touch the ground in shallow water. After many testing here is what I think is the source of the problem:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2398/5726738703_940b09f8f6_b.jpg

Every single ship that get stuck has a rock like these nearby and in some cases.. plants. I think that the ships dont have instructions to deal with these terrain objects so they get stuck. So I would need somebody who can lower the sea floor in ports and even remove the rocks and plants.. this might finally set the ships free. If someone is willing to help, pls lets do a test in Kiel because this port is my playground now.

[SteelViking]

I might have a go at importing a ship.

About those rocks Zedi, they aren't even collisionable objects. Are we sure that the AI even takes them into account at all?

[Zedi]

Believe me, there is more than a month I struggle to figure out why the ships that patrol inside the ports are get stuck after a while. Even TDW was so kind and helped me with test versions of IRAI, still no results. Then accidentally I discovered a rock near one of the ships and after a close look at the rest of the ships I discovered more rocks. So basically, every ship that was stuck and sounding the alarm, had a rock or a big plant nearby.

Is why Im pretty sure this is the reason why the ships have stopped. But to be 100% sure I need to test this theory by lowering the terrain in the ports and also remove every rock and plants. But I have no clue how to do it, is why I need someone to help test my theory. And this is happening with stock game but also with mods, there is no difference.

I need this problems solved somehow because right now Scapa Flow is not functional, no wonder that the devs put only 4 destroyer in the whole area.

[stoianm]

Believe me, there is more than a month I struggle to figure out why the ships that patrol inside the ports are get stuck after a while. Even TDW was so kind and helped me with test versions of IRAI, still no results. Then accidentally I discovered a rock near one of the ships and after a close look at the rest of the ships I discovered more rocks. So basically, every ship that was stuck and sounding the alarm, had a rock or a big plant nearby.

Is why Im pretty sure this is the reason why the ships have stopped. But to be 100% sure I need to test this theory by lowering the terrain in the ports and also remove every rock and plants. But I have no clue how to do it, is why I need someone to help test my theory. And this is happening with stock game but also with mods, there is no difference.

I need this problems solved somehow because right now Scapa Flow is not functional, no wonder that the devs put only 4 destroyer in the whole area.
I think rocks and sea plants are puted random by game in shallow waters... dunno for sure:hmmm:

[SteelViking]

Well that was easier than I thought. Working on importing the NAMC from SHIV, and I just sunk one in SH5:yeah:.

It of course needs a lot of work, same as all imported ships, but this is my first try at importing.

[reaper7]

Well that was easier than I thought. Working on importing the NAMC from SHIV, and I just sunk one in SH5:yeah:.

It of course needs a lot of work, same as all imported ships, but this is my first try at importing.

Well done Mate, May she always have coal abaord :D

[THE_MASK]

Still figuring out stuff .

[Zedi]

Well that was easier than I thought. Working on importing the NAMC from SHIV, and I just sunk one in SH5:yeah:.

It of course needs a lot of work, same as all imported ships, but this is my first try at importing.

The famous SteelViking merchant ship :up:


Still figuring out stuff .
Im counting on that :P

[THE_MASK]

Would this wall be off any use . Its a collisionable object :yep: Churchills barrier etc . No light on the top of that turret so a light bouy would need to be placed near it if used in friendly waters . I could cover the wall part with sand .
http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/5733/barrier.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/819/barrier.jpg/)

[Stormfly]

OMG, you finaly did it, you found it... it is true !!!

ATLANTIS :yeah:

[SteelViking]

Yes, I think that is the best system too :DL!

Okay, here (http://www.gamefront.com/files/20337138/SH4+Ships_16.6.2011.7z)are the revised ships, they use SteelVikings textures, but the normal maps are from stock. I didn't touch the PTElco patrol boat, TDW may have anyway better version from it. I cleaned the dat-file a bit too. Some new functions:

-Ships are manned with SH 5 crew members.
-Ships have SH 4 weapons, they start unarmed, but get guns later in the war.
-Ships have several textures that change randomly when the game loads textures for the ships.

I made a new slot for textures to the NMFMPC-ship. Now it has two exactly same textures, so all it needs is that some talented artist modifies the other one a bit.

Bugs:

-Some ships still turn and roll too much in the water. Stoainm seems like a good stabilator... great work on my lifeboats :D
-Mysterious moving wake/foam when the ship is already destroyed. Only happens with SH 5 foam effect.

Hey Rongel, have you tried just lowering the ships center of gravity a bit to stabilize them. Might be a simpler solution than adding more zone boxes or something like that.

[SteelViking]

I have the NAMC looking great!:yeah: Still needs some work, but it's coming along nicely.

[Rongel]

Hey Rongel, have you tried just lowering the ships center of gravity a bit to stabilize them. Might be a simpler solution than adding more zone boxes or something like that.

Hi! Yes, I have tried lowering it about a meter, I'm not sure if it did the trick, I think it made them little bit more stabile. Maybe I should try to lower it even more to see if it really has effect. Good luck with the ships!

The basic import is surprisingly easy :yeah: I made only one change in the ships dat-file, adding the DMG_col-node, and there you have it! More work comes when you add SH 5 controllers (foam/wake), and adjust the crew in place and so on.

[Zedi]

Dont lower it too much, because when the ships is loaded with cargos will be too low. Not to forget the high waves, Rongel ship already have the tendency to go through the waves like a sub.

Sober, not sure that a lighthouse will be approved by Churchill to be used as a barrier against subs :DL

[SteelViking]

:haha: I think you guys have gotten me addicted to importing ships. I know we can't get some stuff to work no matter what, but this is just plane fun.

Have the bow waves, foam waves and everything added to the NAMC. Also did what you said Rongel and added that DMG_col-node to get shells working with the ship. Have it stable in the water too.:yeah:

Only thing I don't know how to do is get the right weaponry to work, or how to get crew to work. I am guessing some messing around the .eqp files is in order.

[Rongel]

:haha: I think you guys have gotten me addicted to importing ships. I know we can't get some stuff to work no matter what, but this is just plane fun.

Have the bow waves, foam waves and everything added to the NAMC. Also did what you said Rongel and added that DMG_col-node to get shells working with the ship. Have it stable in the water too.:yeah:

Only thing I don't know how to do is get the right weaponry to work, or how to get crew to work. I am guessing some messing around the .eqp files is in order.

Great! Yes, it's very addictive to see your ship coming alive! The equiptment file needs indeed some tweaking. We decided to use SH 4 weapons, because SH 5 weapons rendered totally black in game. Weird thing is that SH 5 crewmembers work just fine, all texures no hassle. Another nasty suprise was that the SH 4 guns have textures but no lightmaps, they are quite crude looking.

Make sure you have library folder too where is Sh4_guns_radars zon, dat and sim files. That should give you the Sh 4 guns. And the SH 5 crewmembers are in Library folder, called Patch_2x2_v01 for example. Just replace them into the eqp-file. Good luck! And maybe you find something new that we missed... :yeah:

[TheDarkWraith]

And the SH 5 crewmembers are in Library folder, called Patch_2x2_v01 for example. Just replace them into the eqp-file. Good luck! And maybe you find something new that we missed... :yeah:

We can make new crewmembers also. I made 3 new ones for the PT Boat :DL

[Zedi]

Quoting names.cfg

DisplayName=Rongel Small Old Split Freighter
DisplayName=Uekel Medium Composite Freighter
DisplayName=TDW Torpedo Patrol Boat

Any complaints?

Asking just to be 100% sure.. can I delete the old textures I have from the tex folder, the new ships textures are hold only in Sea folder?

[stoianm]

Quoting names.cfg

DisplayName=Rongel Small Old Split Freighter
DisplayName=Uekel Medium Composite Freighter
DisplayName=TDW Torpedo Patrol Boat

Any complaints?

Asking just to be 100% sure.. can I delete the old textures I have from the tex folder, the new ships textures are hold only in Sea folder?
Will be a pleasure to sunk them all... sory about that but it is nothing personal:D

[TheDarkWraith]

Quoting names.cfg

DisplayName=Rongel Small Old Split Freighter
DisplayName=Uekel Medium Composite Freighter
DisplayName=TDW Torpedo Patrol Boat

Any complaints?

Asking just to be 100% sure.. can I delete the old textures I have from the tex folder, the new ships textures are hold only in Sea folder?

Do you have the PT Boat with my new crewmembers :06:

[Zedi]

If you gave Rongel and SteelViking your latest update, yes. I have your pt boat crew folder in library, but my version of ships now is from the link posted here by Rongel. Had no time to check it out tho...

[TheDarkWraith]

If you gave Rongel and SteelViking your latest update, yes. I have your pt boat crew folder in library, but my version of ships now is from the link posted here by Rongel. Had no time to check it out tho...

It's easy to tell if you have it or not. If the crewmembers are wearing lifevests and holding binoculars then it's the current one. If not, who do I need to send it to?

For you SH5 shipmakers, look into the hullwaterfilm controller. There are references to it in the shaders. Looks very interesting!

[Rongel]

No, the PT Boat is the same version than in Das Campaing test mod. So please TDW send your new boat to Zedi. Nice to see some new faces! Or new torsos, whatever!

Asking just to be 100% sure.. can I delete the old textures I have from the tex folder, the new ships textures are hold only in Sea folder? Yes, you can delete the ship textures form Tex-folder! Every SH 4 ship should have textures in the ship folder only, that is where the cfg is pointing.

[TheDarkWraith]

No, the PT Boat is the same version than in Das Campaing test mod. So please TDW send your new boat to Zedi. Nice to see some new faces! Or new torsos, whatever!
Yes, you can delete the ship textures form Tex-folder! Every SH 4 ship should have textures in the ship folder only, that is where the cfg is pointing.

How about I send it to you (or SteelViking) and you can move the textures and what all you all are doing to them. I think you guys have this under control :up:

[Rongel]

How about I send it to you (or SteelViking) and you can move the textures and what all you all are doing to them. I think you guys have this under control :up:

You can send it to me too, I'm idle now anyway :DL. I'll check it out. Somebody asked some time ago that could your boat fire torpedoes, I'm guessing that it can't right now, but do you know if it's possible to do, and how difficult it might be? It would be a great detail!

[stoianm]

You can send it to me too, I'm idle now anyway :DL. I'll check it out. Somebody asked some time ago that could your boat fire torpedoes, I'm guessing that it can't right now, but do you know if it's possible to do, and how difficult it might be? It would be a great detail!
Those boats cared torpedoes only for ships... not for uboats... i saw few pictures with boats like these that had few depth charges... so i do not think we sould add torpedo on them:hmmm:

[Rongel]

Those boats cared torpedoes only for ships... not for uboats... i saw few pictures with boats like these that had few depth charges... so i do not think we sould add torpedo on them:hmmm:

That is a very good point! And it's not that important anyway, I don't want to spend days figuring out stuff that has negative impact on realism. Ofcourse it would be great to see these little beetles charging to enemy convoys firing torpedoes, but I think there is already a game for that: PT Boats: Knights of the Sea (http://apps.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/ptboatsknightsofthesea)

I have heard awful things about it, even nastier comments than they said about SH 5 :D

[Zedi]

Made a test with the new units and this is the status.

Rongel's ship is just perfect. Has crew, the light/dark sides are correct, not much bouncing.

Elco has crew, but with no lifejackets, only 3 sailors/officers holding binoculars. Also the boat dark/light sides seems to be wrong/mixed.

Akita still have her bow too low in water. Has crew on board but her light side of the hull is a bit too shiny.

The passenger ship is a mess. Her light/dark side is mixed and the roll &pitch is too high.. is bouncing on the water like a lifeboat. Also, the dark side is too dark, almost black.

Nets are ok.

Mines or dolphins are causing "camera out of sector" error soon as I use the external camera. I dont know for sure which one as I dont have a separate mission for the updated versions, so im using the mission I made where all these new unit are placed all together. If you guys can use the external cam in that mission, pls send me your version of mines and dolphins.

Hope I can get an update on the buoys from SteelViking when done.

[SteelViking]

Made a test with the new units and this is the status.

Rongel's ship is just perfect. Has crew, the light/dark sides are correct, not much bouncing.

Elco has crew, but with no lifejackets, only 3 sailors/officers holding binoculars. Also the boat dark/light sides seems to be wrong/mixed.

Akita still have her bow too low in water. Has crew on board but her light side of the hull is a bit too shiny.

The passenger ship is a mess. Her light/dark side is mixed and the roll &pitch is too high.. is bouncing on the water like a lifeboat. Also, the dark side is too dark, almost black.

Nets are ok.

Mines or dolphins are causing "camera out of sector" error soon as I use the external camera. I dont know for sure which one as I dont have a separate mission for the updated versions, so im using the mission I made where all these new unit are placed all together. If you guys can use the external cam in that mission, pls send me your version of mines and dolphins.

Hope I can get an update on the buoys from SteelViking when done.

Zedi, the bouys do not have a shadow map. Not even embedded. I can extract the textures for them from the .dat files, edit them, and replace the old ones. But, I don't think that's what you were wanting.

Can you give me some guidance on this issue.

Edit: Are you wanting me to add a shadow map to them? Never done it before, but that doesn't mean we can't.

[SteelViking]

Zedi, I will go ahead and work a little magic for one of the buoys. I will send it to you and if you like it I will do the same for all the buoys. If you don't like how it turned out, back to the drawing board.:03:

[SteelViking]

Here Zedi, try this buoy.

http://www.mediafire.com/?0818v47byltcdaa

[SteelViking]

Well, the NAMC is about done. Guns are on, crew in place, bow wave perfected, sound for the bow wave added, etc.

Rongel, you said something about the SH4 guns looking bad. Well I have been playing with the texture, and I have them looking pretty decent now. Not SH5 quality, but a LOT better than they were IMHO.

Will send you guys everything once I've done the finishing touches on the NAMC.

[Rongel]

Well, the NAMC is about done. Guns are on, crew in place, bow wave perfected, sound for the bow wave added, etc.

Rongel, you said something about the SH4 guns looking bad. Well I have been playing with the texture, and I have them looking pretty decent now. Not SH5 quality, but a LOT better than they were IMHO.

Will send you guys everything once I've done the finishing touches on the NAMC. Can't wait to see your ship! And the guns!

TDW sent me the PT boat, I'll check it and I can also take a look at the passanger ship, and it's bouncing on the water. I'll put a link here to the two revised boats when it's done.

Oh yes, should we add a sound to the bow wave? I didn't think about that at all...

[SteelViking]

Can't wait to see your ship! And the guns!

TDW sent me the PT boat, I'll check it and I can also take a look at the passanger ship, and it's bouncing on the water. I'll put a link here to the two revised boats when it's done.

Oh yes, should we add a sound to the bow wave? I didn't think about that at all...

Yeah, I think we should put them on any imported ship. I put a bow wave sound on the NAMC. It is really easy.

When you add it though, make sure you create a separate node for it with S3D. For some reason SH5 will not accept sound sources that are on the same node as other controllers. Found this out the hard way, then I started reading back through TDW's posts, and come to find out, he already knew. :har: I should have asked first.

Edit: Duh,(I wasn't thinking)There should already be a node you can use, and it will already have a sound source on it. But, this stock sound source wasn't working on the NAMC. So, I deleted the old sound sources and added new ones in Goblin, copying and pasting the info into the controller from another SH5 ships sound source.

Hope this helps.

[SteelViking]

Also, I think it might be a good idea to remove all controllers and nodes for reflections. The reflections don't work for non-Granny files, and tidying up like that couldn't hurt.

[Rongel]

Also, I think it might be a good idea to remove all controllers and nodes for reflections. The reflections don't work for non-Granny files, and tidying up like that couldn't hurt.

Yes, good idea, I have just kind of let them stay and hoped that someday they would just kick in and start working, but I guess it's not going to happen... I have now the ship package open, so I'll tweak them again a bit. I'll wait for your ship, and study the bow wake audio from it, just in case. So Zedi, new versions of ships coming to your way again ;) Sorrryyy!

The cfg files aren't touched, so if you have modified them, you can overwrite these with your versions.

[Zedi]

Here Zedi, try this buoy.

http://www.mediafire.com/?0818v47byltcdaa

Its dark. But pls dont bother with it anymore, they look already good without any shadow map. Is just a waste of time, we have may other things to fix much more important. Take your time with the ships, all I need is only their cfg file. And thats not even so important as the new ships will be automatically placed into the generic traffic and convoys once their cfg is inserted into the roster.

I also waste way too much time on details.. there are days since I have no serious progress on the campaign. After almost 3 days spent on reworking Kiel based on historical photos, reports etc.. I just found out that it was a huge waste of time. If there are more than 10-15 ships in port around the player, the fps drop to 0.

There is no word to express my level of frustration and anger just because my dream was to build up living harbors with all kinda stuff in it, to have the feeling we leave or enter into a real port, not an abandoned harbor as it is in stock game. Im very disappointed about this issue, but there is nothing I can do about.

The design of this game is just bad from start to the end. There is no excuse on why only 10-20 ships can kill your fps when games like Mafia2 can render millions of cars, buildings and even ants on high detail without any stress on the player pc. This is really a bad quality product :nope:

[Captain Can]

After almost 3 days spent on reworking Kiel based on historical photos, reports etc.. I just found out that it was a huge waste of time. If there are more than 10-15 ships in port around the player, the fps drop to 0.

wow i can't believe that game engine can't handle more than 10-15 ships around harbor. what a shame on devs. :down:

[TheDarkWraith]

wow i can't believe that game engine can't handle more than 10-15 ships around harbor. what a shame on devs. :down:

It's not just harbors. Ever ran into a LARGE convoy of say 15+ ships? Same thing happens. If you look at the complexity of the units used I can partly see why. Another part of it is the relatively complex AI that they gave us. Since it is scripted it has to run through those routines for every ship. This takes CPU time to do.

[Rongel]

Its dark. But pls dont bother with it anymore, they look already good without any shadow map. Is just a waste of time, we have may other things to fix much more important. Take your time with the ships, all I need is only their cfg file. And thats not even so important as the new ships will be automatically placed into the generic traffic and convoys once their cfg is inserted into the roster.

I also waste way too much time on details.. there are days since I have no serious progress on the campaign. After almost 3 days spent on reworking Kiel based on historical photos, reports etc.. I just found out that it was a huge waste of time. If there are more than 10-15 ships in port around the player, the fps drop to 0.

There is no word to express my level of frustration and anger just because my dream was to build up living harbors with all kinda stuff in it, to have the feeling we leave or enter into a real port, not an abandoned harbor as it is in stock game. Im very disappointed about this issue, but there is nothing I can do about.

The design of this game is just bad from start to the end. There is no excuse on why only 10-20 ships can kill your fps when games like Mafia2 can render millions of cars, buildings and even ants on high detail without any stress on the player pc. This is really a bad quality product :nope:

I can understand the frustration... And agreed, this is no Mafia 2, or some well polished good product, far from it, sometimes it seems that really nothing works 100 % in the stock game, every single aspect needs fixing. But still, to me, ports with lets say 7 ships create a feeling of life. I'm quite okay with the starting harbours and their limited illusion of life.

What I don't like is to see, is totally empty ports when I sneak to some coastal city, and this happens many, many times. Almost like a ghost city, not even a single fishing boat... So if you could add even a small dose of life there, I would be happy. Don't know if it's possible or too big project... Anyway, I really respect your work on this!

[Stormfly]

yes, and it is known that good looking low poly models are much expensive in comparison to a model which use more poly`s to look even good.

[Zedi]

The enemy ports will be different now, Trevally is a huge help on this. We will bring life in every major ports all around the map, TDW boat is already placed all around UK and ofc will be present on US harbor defense.

But here is also another problem that I just cannot solve.. ships tend to get stuck after a while and I found no solution for this. Its just makes me angry to see that when I arrive in Scapa, all patrol ships just sit there and sound the alarm.. I can blow up the whole port and they will not react in any way. Its just a core bug we cannot resolve.

And the player ports... its a huge disappointment for me. This was my biggest dream in SH5.. to have a living port, to sail out with tc1 and admire the sight, to have the feeling of a real port whit busy traffic, horn blowing, aircrafts flying over me heading to the enemy ports.. to feel Im an important part of this war and not just a looser in some empty harbor. And this will never happen just because this game has such a bad design, maybe the worst in the whole game industry :wah:

yes, and it is known that good looking low poly models are much expensive in comparison to a model which use more poly`s to look even good.

Thats just not true, see Mafia 2. SH5 its all about bad design and concept.

[urfisch]

yes, vanilla sh5 is nice looking, but crappy, stinky bull----...thats right. this is what let me play the "game" for just 10min since it was released.

but i am taking part in this hopefully ongoing progress these nice handcrafters are doing here! Maybe "Kaleun Urfisch" is going again on service some day...like in good old sh3 days.

AND

Possible solution for fps drop in harbours: Use SH4 or SH3 ships instead of the SH5 models for ships, which are only "decoration" and more far away. This should leave some more cpu for the game.

OR

Clone existing SH5 ships and "cut" them down, to ghost ships with only the hull existing, without any routines and scripts. Maybe this also works.

:hmmm:

[Stormfly]

why should a high polygon model be more valued than a low poly if both models have the same quality but the high poly model eat more performance :06:

[SteelViking]

Guys, if I can just get one last thing working I will send you the NAMC with the new SH4 gun texture.

I cannot add the NAMC to a mission with the mission editor. The way I started testing the NAMC in game(and have been testing) was to just rename all the folders and .cfg files as one of the ships that came in Das_Campaign so I could just use one of the already made test missions.

That worked fine, but I am not sure why the mission editor won't let me add it.

Here is the error it is giving me:

The unit class NAMC from country British not found in the platforms library.

:06:

[Zedi]

...

Possible solution for fps drop in harbours: Use SH4 or SH3 ships instead of the SH5 models for ships, which are only "decoration" and more far away. This should leave some more cpu for the game.

OR

Clone existing SH5 ships and "cut" them down, to ghost ships with only the hull existing, without any routines and scripts. Maybe this also works.

:hmmm:

SH4 ships dont seems to make a big difference. But the idea of ghost/zombie ships is interesting and it may work. I have no clue how that can be done and anyway I already have my hands full with the work on the campaign.

High poly is not an issue here, the mafia 2 cars are much better models than any ships we have here. Its about optimizing the game and most of all, know how to do it right.

[reaper7]

Here is the error it is giving me:

The unit class NAMC from country British not found in the platforms library.

:06:

Hi Mate this is due to the Class unit name not being consistent through all your files.

You need the Following: Eg if your calling it NAMC

In the SEA Ship Folder in NAMC.cfg file: (Rename to your Class Type and Names)

[UnitClass]
ClassName=NAMC
UnitType=104 ;Unitype you can find in the Names.cfg in the Roster Folder
AppearanceDate=19420228
DisappearanceDate=19470101
DisplayName=Your Ship Display Name


[Unit 1]
Name=Ships Name eg The Rose
DOC=19420228
DOD=19470101

Then Under Roster for the Countries you use eg.Germany is a copy of the above for NAMC.cfg

[UnitClass]
ClassName=NAMC
UnitType=104
AppearanceDate=19420228
DisappearanceDate=19470101
DisplayName=Your Ship Display Name


[Unit 1]
Name=Ships Name eg The Rose
DOC=19420228
DOD=19470101

And last but very Important to not get your error.

In the Names.cfg file in the Roster folder.

Add an entry for your boat Classname type

NAMC=Your Ship Display Name

That will allow you to use your ship in the mission Editor with out library error :up:

[Stormfly]

if they are placed with option "docked ship", they are without ai or ?

[TheDarkWraith]

if they are placed with option "docked ship", they are without ai or ?

docked ships still have AI. IRAI has tactics for docked ships.

[SteelViking]

SH4 ships dont seems to make a big difference. But the idea of ghost/zombie ships is interesting and it may work. I have no clue how that can be done and anyway I already have my hands full with the work on the campaign.

High poly is not an issue here, the mafia 2 cars are much better models than any ships we have here. Its about optimizing the game and most of all, know how to do it right.

Couldn't we just remove the cmdr_AIShip controller and node? Wouldn't that make it a zombie ship.

[reaper7]

High poly is not an issue here, the mafia 2 cars are much better models than any ships we have here. Its about optimizing the game and most of all, know how to do it right.

Yes Optimization is key to good looking ships with low performance hit :yep:.
Hans will be making his tutorials on how to achiev this with the SH3/4 models once our SH3 WIP Mod is released.
And believe me he knows his stuff, so this will be available to all SH5 ship importers soon enough :up:

[TheDarkWraith]

Couldn't we just remove the cmdr_AIShip controller and node? Wouldn't that make it a zombie ship.

I did that to the mines and subnets. Zedi had a 'mine field' of 1000 of these things and it brought my system to it's knees...FPS 0-1. Game just can't handle a significant number of units at a time.

[Zedi]

True, that was a test version. Was hopping I can cover a large area with a single spawn point but failed. Now I got max 20 mines into a spawn point and even so its pretty resource hungry. And this is only a mine field, not some fancy ships. :nope:

[SteelViking]

I did that to the mines and subnets. Zedi had a 'mine field' of 1000 of these things and it brought my system to it's knees...FPS 0-1. Game just can't handle a significant number of units at a time.

So, are you saying that it helped to do that, or it didn't make a significant difference?

[TheDarkWraith]

So, are you saying that it helped to do that, or it didn't make a significant difference?

didn't make any noticeable difference at all.

[SteelViking]

didn't make any noticeable difference at all.

Darn.

Well, have we looked at just how much we can strip from a ship if it is going to be sitting still in port.

Particle generators, sound sources, the AI controller, if its an SH4 ship reflections, hmmmm.

[SteelViking]

Here she is folks! The NAMC. Let me know what you think.:yeah:

http://www.mediafire.com/?c9jopfor4i2mnyx

Also, the new texture for the SH4 guns is in this mod. I plan to work on it further, this is just a start.:up:

I am going to go ahead and import the NKSCS_Taihosan if no one has any objections to that.

[Zedi]

Grats for the new ships but.. whats new in zones.cfg, is different from what I had?

[Rongel]

Here she is folks! The NAMC. Let me know what you think.:yeah:

http://www.mediafire.com/?c9jopfor4i2mnyx

Also, the new texture for the SH4 guns is in this mod. I plan to work on it further, this is just a start.:up:

I am going to go ahead and import the NKSCS_Taihosan if no one has any objections to that.

Hooray! :yeah:

I'll look it more tomorrow, and spy the wake sound effect. I noticed one thing that may be an issue, and that is the Sh 4 texture files. SH 5 has the exactly same textures (same name too) in it's tex folder, so will this overwrite SH 5 guns? If it does, I'm quite sure we can somehow go around it.

Zedi, do you need the zones file in your campaign mod? The one you use is very much different than in TDW's FX update and takes away many nice things. You can check it with Winmerge program and see the difference.

[SteelViking]

Grats for the new ships but.. whats new in zones.cfg, is different from what I had?

No sir, didn't mean to include that. Made no changes. Sorry.

[Zedi]

Very well done and very impressive ship, nothing to comment... hats off. Here it is, the brand new SteelViking merchant ship. :salute:

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH%20ships/SH5Img2011-05-19_001510.jpg?t=1305753891

http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff366/Zhedi/SH5/SH%20ships/SH5Img2011-05-19_001830.jpg?t=1305753890

[stoianm]

Very nice ship Steel Viking :)

[7thSeal]

Here she is folks! The NAMC. Let me know what you think.:yeah:


Have to admit that I was thinking it would probably look pale in color like some of the earlier test ships being imported. It looks excellent and looking forward to spotting her in a convoy. :rock: