View Full Version : Aircraft roster additions
Looking at (modded) SH5 roster, one area that could still use some additional units is air forces. Out of 53 countries in game, only 8 have any kind of aircraft, and out of those 3 are simply reusing British planes - I hope to add some more variation to available aircraft.
I began with simplest thing to do, ie retexturing models we already have in game that were also used by countries currently lacking air units. SH5 gr2 models can use multiple textures (thanks Gap and Vecko for showing me how), so this doesn't require any importing / modelling, just some GIMP work.
Here's what I have been able to repaint so far:
1. Bulgaria - Arado 196:
https://i.imgur.com/Zxe2K4T.jpg
2. Brasil - PBY5 Catalina (camouflage based on "Arara" Catalina that sunk U199 in 1943):
https://i.imgur.com/2eS8ht9.jpg
3. Belgium: Hawker Hurricane (Belgian Air Force bought some of those in 1939 from Britain)
https://i.imgur.com/tE1doM3.jpg
4. Free French - Avro Anson (camouflage based on unit based in Kongo, conducting ASW patrols over south Atlantic):
https://i.imgur.com/T27gwoX.jpg
5. Finland - Me 109:
https://i.imgur.com/SNjGrts.jpg
6. Greece - Avro Anson. Hellenic Air Force used a squadron of Ansons for maritime patrolling and escorting convoys:
https://i.imgur.com/VZ1KHlR.jpg
7. Irish Avro Anson. Again, Ireland used small numbers of Ansons for patrolling its territorial waters. Neutral throughout the war, so mostly harmless unless it catches you shelling neutral ships:
https://i.imgur.com/8jRoomv.jpg
8. Brasil - P 47: Besides a bug with number, this one is a bit ahistorical. While Brasil used P 47's, they were based in Italy in late WW2 and I'm not sure we could add Brasilian patrol from Italian base:
https://i.imgur.com/9oW60xH.jpg
9. Spitfire - Portugal: these neutral fighters were based in Azores, supplied by Allies in exchange for permission to use bases there for Allied maritime patrols:
https://i.imgur.com/exsgFke.jpg
10. Turkish Spitfire: couldn't find any details on when and how they were used, sadly. Another harmless plane - unless one could create a fake "Free Turkey" nation for guarding passage into Black Sea :hmmm:
https://i.imgur.com/QuhC2C3.jpg
11. Yugoslavian Me 109 - Before it ended up in war with Germany, Yugoslavia purchased 73 Me 109 fighters in 1939. They were later fighting Luftwaffe over Belgrade:
https://i.imgur.com/LaV7vi0.jpg
12. Spain: Me 109 model repainted to act as HA 1109 fighter (which itself was Me 109 clone produced in Spain):
https://i.imgur.com/mrEdR4n.jpg
Captain_AJ
05-05-19, 08:15 PM
Awesome effort indeed !!
vdr1981
05-11-19, 04:51 AM
Looking good Kapuhy ! :up:
Alfatester
05-13-19, 08:52 AM
With What you are doing with SH5 after all these years i cant imagine what you do with Uboat once its finished what with Actual Campaign impact like your actions changing ammount of supplies in Britain Etcetera :Kaleun_Applaud::Kaleun_Applaud:
Sailor Steve
05-13-19, 09:31 AM
Outstanding!:rock:
XenonSurf
05-13-19, 01:23 PM
Hi Kapuhi,
very nice aircraft textures :up:
Alas, to contemplate these pictures in the game I would be dead soon because plane must be close and overflying my sub...:D
Strange thing: I never saw any bombs dropped from planes, I wonder if this is rendered in the SH5 grafics ?
Hey guys, thanks! :oops:
A small update from this weekend - it's Hurricane season:
Egypt:
https://i.imgur.com/TrYeGpw.jpg
Free French:
https://i.imgur.com/2ZizWBn.jpg
Portugal:
https://i.imgur.com/E9UWMku.jpg
USSR:
https://i.imgur.com/GK7iB35.jpg
Turkey:
https://i.imgur.com/xh9cCmF.jpg
Yugoslavia:
https://i.imgur.com/U01GLHn.jpg
Alas, to contemplate these pictures in the game I would be dead soon because plane must be close and overflying my sub...:D
I'd hate for my last thought to be "Hey, these textures are all wro..." :D
Strange thing: I never saw any bombs dropped from planes, I wonder if this is rendered in the SH5 grafics ?
It is. In test mission I've created to take aircraft screenshots, I've seen them drop bombs on ships.
-------------------------
I am struggling to find a workaround for a problem - despite switching material name from "skin" to "cfg#TXRskin" as Gap suggested in this post (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2057920&postcount=11), LOD file seems to ignore other textures. This happens to Catalina model as well (only aircraft I know to use multiple textures in stock game):
https://youtu.be/5jNL97bmiZs
So far only way I found to work is to remove LOD file altogether. Even overwriting it with copy of full resolution GR2 file doesn't work, which suggests the issue is not with GR2 file but the game being configured to ignore additional textures with all LOD files. Another way that would probably work is creating a separate folder with main and LOD GR2 files for every texture version, but I suspect this might be quite taxing for game engine.
Ehi, nice work kapuhi.
Probably you are already aware about that website, but I think that wings palette (http://wp.scn.ru/) has the largest online collection of aircraft drawings, featuring most warplanes from WWI to modern and portraying them with the paint/camo schemes of various Air Forces and sometimes even Wings and Squadrons using them. A precious resource for scale and 3D modellers and for photoshop artists :)
I am struggling to find a workaround for a problem - despite switching material name from "skin" to "cfg#TXRskin" as Gap suggested in this post (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2057920&postcount=11), LOD file seems to ignore other textures. This happens to Catalina model as well (only aircraft I know to use multiple textures in stock game):
https://youtu.be/5jNL97bmiZs
So far only way I found to work is to remove LOD file altogether. Even overwriting it with copy of full resolution GR2 file doesn't work, which suggests the issue is not with GR2 file but the game being configured to ignore additional textures with all LOD files. Another way that would probably work is creating a separate folder with main and LOD GR2 files for every texture version, but I suspect this might be quite taxing for game engine.
That's odd. Which aircraft are you trying to fix? :hmm2:
That's odd. Which aircraft are you trying to fix? :hmm2:
As far as I can tell it happens with every single .gr2 plane. In clear TWoS only one to use 2 textures is Catalina, so perhaps it's the best plane for testing this issue.
As far as I can tell it happens with every single .gr2 plane. In clear TWoS only one to use 2 textures is Catalina, so perhaps it's the best plane for testing this issue.
Do you mean the generic flying boat that in SH5 stands in for the Catalina? IIRC TWoS uses a slightly modified version of that plane. Can you please send me a copy of both its GR2 files (main and LOD model)?
@ kapuhy
I got your e-mail with the files I had asked for, and I must admit that after a first glance, the main material of both files seems to be configured correctly . In theory, the British (secondary) texture should be applied both to the main and the LOD model, and I remember having tested in the past the correctness of the above statement. Before I run some new tests, may I ask how did you set the float plane in the British roster?
Before I run some new tests, may I ask how did you set the float plane in the British roster?
Below, copy of the file from my British roster. As far as I remember I didn't change it, as I did no modifications to British version of this plane.
[UnitClass]
ClassName=SUSFloatEarlyWar
UnitType=304
AppearanceDate=19410201
DisappearanceDate=19480101
DisplayName=BR S Float Plane
[Texture 1]
TextureName=data/Air/AS_USFloatEarlyWar/FloatingPlane_T02.dds
LightmapTextureName=
NormalmapTextureName=
StartDate=19000101
EndDate=19991231
Frequency=1
[Unit 1]
Name=BR American Built Floatplane
DOC=19410201
DOD=19480101
Below, copy of the file from my British roster. As far as I remember I didn't change it, as I did no modifications to British version of this plane.
[UnitClass]
ClassName=SUSFloatEarlyWar
UnitType=304
AppearanceDate=19410201
DisappearanceDate=19480101
DisplayName=BR S Float Plane
[Texture 1]
TextureName=data/Air/AS_USFloatEarlyWar/FloatingPlane_T02.dds
LightmapTextureName=
NormalmapTextureName=
StartDate=19000101
EndDate=19991231
Frequency=1
[Unit 1]
Name=BR American Built Floatplane
DOC=19410201
DOD=19480101
Okay, when you get time, try if setting up the flying boat in the British roster as a completely new unit (i.e. a proxy clone of the SUSFloatEarlyWar unit) with its own texture, makes any difference.
Okay, when you get time, try if setting up the flying boat in the British roster as a completely new unit (i.e. a proxy clone of the SUSFloatEarlyWar unit) with its own texture, makes any difference.
Just tried it - sadly, without luck. Proxy clone exhibits the same behaviour unless it's given its own gr2 files.
Floating Plane's folder in TWoS contains some rather unusual files compared to other aircraft's folders:
https://i.imgur.com/YkggWmh.png
Looks like two planes (dat and gr2) sharing single folder, but I haven't seen the dat version in game, nor any roster entry referencing it.
Just tried it - sadly, without luck. Proxy clone exhibits the same behaviour unless it's given its own gr2 files.
Okay, I have finally found the discussion that I was telling you about. I didn't re-read it all (yet), but it might contain the key to your problem:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=2053415#post2053415
Floating Plane's folder in TWoS contains some rather unusual files compared to other aircraft's folders:
Looks like two planes (dat and gr2) sharing single folder, but I haven't seen the dat version in game, nor any roster entry referencing it.
If memory serves me well those files were inherited from OHII, and they are the remains of an attempt to import a more realistic Catalina model in SH5. IIRC the model used was the one contained in GWX, but after some failed attempts to make it damageable by other units, it was finally discarded.
After many years, I think that problems wasn't insurmontable, but I don't think that retrying to import the same plane again is worth it: I seem to remember that some later supermod for SHIII or SHIV has a better Catalina model, and some even better models are on my HD :yep:
Okay, I have finally found the discussion that I was telling you about. I didn't re-read it all (yet), but it might contain the key to your problem:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=2053415#post2053415
I know this thread :-) That's where I've learned how to make main model accept multiple textures. The problem is, LOD file for any gr2 plane in my game, even when I change its main material from "skin" to "cfg#TXRskin", keeps using only default texture.
I know this thread :-) That's where I've learned how to make main model accept multiple textures. The problem is, LOD file for any gr2 plane in my game, even when I change its main material from "skin" to "cfg#TXRskin", keeps using only default texture.
Okay, from the day after tomorrow I won't be at home and probably I won't have time to test anything, but maybe tomorrow I will; I want to see if the same problem happens on my rig and with vanilla game...
For Gap or anyone who'd like to help test it: I've put a simple single mission on file sharing website:
https://ufile.io/c5i2m7up
Unpack into "Single Missions" folder. It puts British Catalina right above player's boat, if you go to external camera and look up you should see it.
Speaking of LOD models, I was suprised to find that FloatingPlane_LOD.gr2 is actually.... the same model as FloatingPlane.gr2. At least, its number of vertices is the same and I don't see any visual difference either. And its not just this plane - half the GR2 format planes have LOD models with equal or higher number of vertices than the "detailed" model: US Heavy Bomber, Beaufort, Fulmar, Me 109, Arado, FW200, Savoia, C200 fighter...
Ok, I'm not a game designer or 3D modeler but I don't get what is the point of having a LOD model that is more complicated than regular model?
This mod is a great idea. I'd like to contribute a little. Let me present to you one of the less known plane from WWII era, Grumman J2F "Duck". For me the most badass plane ever build. Let's just enjoy the video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kX-CwMJ-is
https://i.postimg.cc/SnszWLVF/sh5-2019-06-14-07-59-25.png (https://postimg.cc/SnszWLVF)https://i.postimg.cc/CBjZFcMD/sh5-2019-06-14-08-02-12.png (https://postimg.cc/CBjZFcMD)https://i.postimg.cc/qzQ3hDsx/sh5-2019-06-14-08-03-15.png (https://postimg.cc/qzQ3hDsx)https://i.postimg.cc/VJGnTZ5k/sh5-2019-06-14-08-08-04-559.jpg (https://postimg.cc/VJGnTZ5k)
Found this forgotten legend somewhere on subsim long time ago. The model creator is Testpilot1978. It was created for SH3 with GWX. I just converted it for SH5 very quick and unpolished.
If there is interest I can provide files for implementing it in this mod.
This mod is a great idea. I'd like to contribute a little. Let me present to you one of the less known plane from WWII era, Grumman J2F "Duck". For me the most badass plane ever build.
Found this forgotten legend somewhere on subsim long time ago. The model creator is Testpilot1978. It was created for SH3 with GWX. I just converted it for SH5 very quick and unpolished.
If there is interest I can provide files for implementing it in this mod.
Hi Oby!
Sorry for belated reply, I've not been very active on forums recently but I plan to find more time for SH5 modding this month. Lovely plane! Provided Testpilot1798 gives his permission as well, sure, it would be a great addition. And, since quick Wiki check tells me it was also used by Argentinian Navy, it would (after making a second paint scheme) allow to add one more airforce that is not currently represented in game.
https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/<a href=https://postimg.cc/2VhYgBxp target=_blank>[img]https://i.postimg.cc/J4dhDNDh/sh5-2019-06-06-08-22-36-060.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/J4dhDNDh/sh5-2019-06-06-08-22-36-060.jpg (https://postimg.cc/2VhYgBxp)
I promised this long ago. Sorry for the delay but RL kicked in. Anyway here are the files for Grumman:
https://mega.nz/file/PeowGaBK#NjEKglINd40BtYBk-oteI5Y_GqmRXy1OdESS9Xh4x3Y
I promised this long ago. Sorry for the delay but RL kicked in. Anyway here are the files for Grumman:
Hi, and thanks :) I'll look at the files in the evening. From your screenshots though it looks like it's all ready and working in SH5 :up:
I promised this long ago. Sorry for the delay but RL kicked in. Anyway here are the files for Grumman:
https://mega.nz/file/PeowGaBK#NjEKglINd40BtYBk-oteI5Y_GqmRXy1OdESS9Xh4x3Y
Such a nice plane, thank you Oby and Testpilot1978 :yeah:
Hey guys, thanks! :oops:
A small update from this weekend - it's Hurricane season:
Egypt:
https://i.imgur.com/TrYeGpw.jpg
Free French:
https://i.imgur.com/2ZizWBn.jpg
Portugal:
https://i.imgur.com/E9UWMku.jpg
USSR:
https://i.imgur.com/GK7iB35.jpg
Turkey:
https://i.imgur.com/xh9cCmF.jpg
Yugoslavia:
https://i.imgur.com/U01GLHn.jpg
I'd hate for my last thought to be "Hey, these textures are all wro..." :D
It is. In test mission I've created to take aircraft screenshots, I've seen them drop bombs on ships.
-------------------------
I am struggling to find a workaround for a problem - despite switching material name from "skin" to "cfg#TXRskin" as Gap suggested in this post (http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showpost.php?p=2057920&postcount=11), LOD file seems to ignore other textures. This happens to Catalina model as well (only aircraft I know to use multiple textures in stock game):
https://youtu.be/5jNL97bmiZs
So far only way I found to work is to remove LOD file altogether. Even overwriting it with copy of full resolution GR2 file doesn't work, which suggests the issue is not with GR2 file but the game being configured to ignore additional textures with all LOD files. Another way that would probably work is creating a separate folder with main and LOD GR2 files for every texture version, but I suspect this might be quite taxing for game engine.
I think it's not about the LOD at all. The whole problem lies in the MipMaps DDS texture. I save in MipMaps 8 and this is quite enough to display the texture while reducing the visibility of the model. I have already encountered similar problems when I modified the games of the series in F1 Codemasters.
Here are my latest modding works for this game:
https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/firestone-indicar-tyres-mod.38363/
https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/bridgestone-tyres-mod.38248/
https://www.racedepartment.com/downloads/tyres-mod.38173/
I think it's not about the LOD at all. The whole problem lies in the MipMaps DDS texture. I save in MipMaps 8 and this is quite enough to display the texture while reducing the visibility of the model. I have already encountered similar problems when I modified the games of the series in F1 Codemasters.
Hi, thanks! I'm not sure I do quite follow though. The problem I described only happens when:
- aircraft has separate main and LOD models (named, for example, Thisplane.gr2 and Thisplane_LOD.gr2)
- aircraft has two or more textures (for example, it is used by several countries and each country has its own camouflage)
Normally, in GR2 file you can set texture name to cfg#TXRskin which tells the game to check units cfg file in roster folder for which texture to use. If no texture is specified or the above naming convention not used, plane uses default texture.
Except this does not work for LOD gr2 file, so when (like in my example) when a plane that which has American texture by default, but cfg file tells it to use British one, gets far enough away for the game to switch to simplified LOD model - British texture is replaced by American (default).
If there's no separate LOD model (even with the same textures used) the plane uses correct camouflage at every distance.
I don't see how changing texture's mipmaps would help, but if you know of a way I'd be grateful for explaining it because this problem is not only causing trouble with multitextured planes, but also prevents us from making varied, colourful skins for merchant ships. Solving it would be great.
Hi, thanks! I'm not sure I do quite follow though. The problem I described only happens when:
- aircraft has separate main and LOD models (named, for example, Thisplane.gr2 and Thisplane_LOD.gr2)
- aircraft has two or more textures (for example, it is used by several countries and each country has its own camouflage)
Normally, in GR2 file you can set texture name to cfg#TXRskin which tells the game to check units cfg file in roster folder for which texture to use. If no texture is specified or the above naming convention not used, plane uses default texture.
Except this does not work for LOD gr2 file, so when (like in my example) when a plane that which has American texture by default, but cfg file tells it to use British one, gets far enough away for the game to switch to simplified LOD model - British texture is replaced by American (default).
If there's no separate LOD model (even with the same textures used) the plane uses correct camouflage at every distance.
I don't see how changing texture's mipmaps would help, but if you know of a way I'd be grateful for explaining it because this problem is not only causing trouble with multitextured planes, but also prevents us from making varied, colourful skins for merchant ships. Solving it would be great.
I am currently drawing Messerschmitt BF 109 E and can see for myself exactly what the problem is
I am currently drawing Messerschmitt BF 109 E and can see for myself exactly what the problem is
Great :up: Keeping fingers crossed.
https://youtu.be/tU8yKD6lyK8
https://www.hostpic.org/images/2103240157110091.jpg
GeneralDeath99
04-16-23, 11:17 PM
Are these aircraft in TWoS mod? Because I dont see them in the museum. Or is there a separate mod to download?
Are these aircraft in TWoS mod? Because I dont see them in the museum. Or is there a separate mod to download?
Ah, this was one of my first attempts at creating mod for SH5. Unfortunately, I didn't know a bunch of stuff back then: one of them was the bug that prevents LOD models (low quality models used at longer ranges) from using any skin other than default one. This means all these skins would only be visible at close range and revert to original ones from afar.
As a result this project never got finished, though I still have those skins stashed somewhere. Good news is I used experience from this to create another plane mod for SH5 (https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?p=2745627#post2745627), which is available and compatible with TWoS.
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