RUB - IUB, visibility, and sub skins

[MidgetSub]

Okay, in my attempt to dig into the visibility thing (where in RUB it is possible, in fair weather, to be very close to things (like land) and not see the land, but see the trees rather clearly) and be close to ships (and not see some of their hulls until they scratch your periscope) - okay, a little exageration....

I dug into various threads and descriptions on this forum regarding visibiltiy. In the end, it seems that IUB had changed it so one can see much farther (16km, I think it was) on fair weather days. So, I took off RUB and installed IUB (finding out that IUB, in a sense, contains RUB, but had more).

For fun I compared the hex values in Scene.dat to try to locate the changes for visibiltiy. I was surprised at all the changes. The modders have done a great job digging into these things.

Now, to the sub skins... I was really enjoying the skin in RUB 1.45 for my type 7c. Then, after installing IUB (1.02) I was surprised at such a difference. I did start a new career (1941, late summer). The sub was squeaky clean... prop shafts shinning a mile away, sub shinning like a shinning night in armor. Looked brand new.

Since it is a new career, and likely a new sub, maybe that makes sense. The question is... will the appearance change later? That is, after a few patrols will it choose a different skin (like those in RUB - with a little rust, etc.).

So, in short, what is the story on these skins for the subs?

THANKS!
Midgetsub.

[HundertzehnGustav]

you like a different sub skin?
what you want is to manually install a different skin for the submarine.
you could download a few ones, and check out the TGA textures in your favourite painting program.

and when you find something that looks interetsing enough, you jhust install the thing... :D

[Marhkimov]

in the first place, subs really shouldn't be that rusty. This IS the German NAVY. I'd think they'd take care of their u-boats better than that... These are, after all, the pride of their naval fleet.

What message would they send if they had rusty boats? Believe it or not, the Germans care about this thing...


But anyways, if anyone can point me to a some rusty u-boat photographs, I'll gladly change my opinion. And don't point me to some junkyard Type2's or Type7B's. Obviously the German Navy would neglect their obsolete boats. Try and find some rusty pics of 7C's or 9C's... Tough luck...

[EAF274 Johan]

Just remove the relevant .tga files from the Texture folder (Data\Textures\TNormal\Tex). They will be named like NSS_Uboat7c_****.tga

This gives you back the skins from the original game.

[MidgetSub]

Thanks for the input! I've been digging into this more and even have looked at the TGAs, so your comments make plenty of sense now.

Also, thanks for the input regarding the rust aspect. As I've been using the new skins (which I understand to be the FUBAR ones) I am not only getting used to them, but appreciating them, for the very reasons you all pointed out.

I also build models (non-virtual) and in the modeling community there is the concept of "weathering", where often rust and other weathering effects are applied. Many models of u-boats incorporate rust and weathering. Perhaps these effects are over emphasized in models of submarines (giving a false impression). Well, that is a topic for model forums.

Anyway, thanks again!

Midgetsub