Hi,

I'm afraid I did not have time last night to do any more testing etc. For the next couple of days I will not be available for anything, and thereafter, for a couple of weeks I will only have access if/when WiFi is available - possibly won't be able to test much though. Sorry about the short notice. But I will watch the thread and respond when I can if needed.

Regards,

MLF

No problem. :up:

About the light's icon, reducing its size by 50 % is still acceptable :

http://i.imgur.com/Ekqq21v.png

What do you think ?

mmm... it can't be that. Have you really tested the tga file that I have put in the 'spare icon' folder? :hmm2:

What I have understood is that the game scales the tga overlay, no matter what is its pixel resolution, to fit the same space on map. That means that if a standard sized (1024 x 1024) texture is scaled down, let's say to 256 x 256 pixels, the result in game won't be an icon four times smaller than the unscaled version, but one having the same size than the original, but four times lesser smooth. This is exactly what is happening with the tga file I have placed in the Locations folder of the last alpha, and with the one you yoursels have scaled to 20% of the original size, both of which you have tested yestarday.

The correct way to make the icon smaller, is scaling not the whole tga file, but only the visible pixels within it. In other words, If we want the tower symbol to be four times smaller and as smooth as the original, we should select the area within the tga file with non-trasparent pixels, and scale it down to 25%, repeating the process for both RGB and alpha channel. This is exactly the approach I followed for creating the tga file in the 'spare icon' folder, and that's why it is important that you make sure you have tested it.
There is more: due to the size reduction, some icons and/or the text, might require their resolution to be increased in order to still look good. How to do it? If, folllowing the previous examples, we want the same icon to be four times smaller and four times smoother, we don't have to scale the tower symbol within the original tga file: all we need to do, is adding black/transparent pixels to it, so to modify its size from 1024 square pixels to
4096 x 4096. One might fear that by doing that the file size would increase exponentially but that's not really the case: with the compression method used for saving those files, black/transparent pixels get compressed, so the final file size will be bigger, but not so much bigger. :03:

Yesterday night I have been looking into the issue. Everything is apparently in order, but I will keep inspecting the files this afternnon.

Yep, I had listened the same sound when I was looking for sound loops which might apply to our model, but I discardes it, because it is the sound of crashing waves, not realistic during fair weather. At the end I opted for the wave lapping sound already featured in SHIII with GWX (but I believe it is in stock game too): it would be audible during calm days, and it would be covered by the ambience sound of heavy waves when the weather is stormy. What do you think? :hmm2:

Whatever is your decision, can you please send me your tweaked and/or added files when you are satisfied with them, so I can keep working on up-to-date files? :)

No problem MLF. Your help and suggestions are always appreciated, but take your time on them. Whatever you got planned for the next two weeks, I wish you to have a nice time! :salute:

Yes Sir.

Definitely not.

No, in fact I didn't test your original tga, because I knew that it was far too big. Here is the definitive evidence, the pictures speaks for itself (in game icon with your original tga) :O: :

http://i.imgur.com/dDGL2LY.png

Don't loose your precious time on that problem, i will see/test that myself. Keep going forward with 3D modelling, you're very good ! :yep:

Mmh, I don't know. Maybe it's not the appropriate sound for this beacon, but sure it will be for bigger islands. On the video, the sea state is not stormy. :03:

Yes, of course. I will send you v.8 during the afternoon.

Thank you :salute:

Regards,

MLF

Okay, that's an evidence :03:

Since we are at it...

50% relative to the tga version featured in the package I posted yesterday, and with text of unchanged size?
What about moving the text on the left size of the icon, so not to overlap the overaly used for the La Vielle lighthouse?

Thanks. Today, I will post an update with a few tweaks, I think I am up to something. Should I fail again, I will leave the issue to you :up:

But still it is wavy: I can see waves breaking against a large rocky coast. Believe me, that's not the kind of sound one would expect for gentle waves lapping against an isolated and streamlined obstacle in the middle of the sea. For the model we are currently working on, but also for biggers rocky shoals as the one of La Vieille, I see 'Submarine waves lap.wav' (in SHIII's Sound folder) more appropriate.
BTW, this same sound is used as SFX of both Maunsell forts featured in GWX :)

...or v.9, depending who will be faster :03: :D

Exactly.

Yes, sure. And it's very easy to do. You just have to enlarge the tga, without changing the size of the icon.

I will try that.

:up:

No problem. I have the texture in psd format and in original quality. I will do the changes :up:

Maybe try both sounds in game; from your tests, you can decide which one sounds more natural under different sea conditions :)

Tourelle de la Plate alpha v8
 

So Kendras, my new update is ready:

https://www.mediafire.com/?159pcbzq3aqv3yj

Change log:

• I have added/removed from our files empty, unknown, start, end, index, eof chunks to reflect similar stock files. I don't think those chunks make a big difference, but you never know...
  
  
• Following the example provided by SHIII antisub nets, I have made the rock and base models in the library file child to two newly added col_* nodes with collision meshes linked to them. The placement nodes of the dummy rock, in the Terrain/Locations folder now point to these col_* nodes, rather than pointing directly to the visible models.
  Shouldn't that work, I will make one last attempt at fixing the collison of those mpdels, and I will set them as I would in SH5. If also this last attempt will fail, I swear I will leave the struggle to you, and I won't deal again with that controller in my life :O:
  
  
• While digging into AntiSubNet.dat in SHIII's Library folder, I have noticed it got a Caustics controller, so I decided to restore back the controller in our files, but this time it is linked to the base model in the library file, not to the main lighthouse model.
  
  
• I have set all the WaterReflections controller per MLF settings. This should improve their look. If you or MLF want to further improve them, making them more "zigzagged", please go for it!
  
  
• I deleted the WaterReflection controller from the light effect as it made the game to CTD, but I have also made a copy of the file with the WaterReflection controller but without the RayTracedController one. This file was placed in a 'light reflection' subfolder of the main mod folder. Can you please test it, and tell us which version gives the best results.
  
  
• Lastly, I have edited the lighthouse icon as per our discussion of this afternoon. I hope you like it.

That's all I think. Sound settings are unchanged of course, I am waiting for your updates :salute:

Sorry, I got very lazy this afternoon. :yawn:

After testing sounds and collision solutions, I switched to the rockets mod, going on writting the readme, and searching for pics to illustrate it.

Back to our subject :

We need to add a new line into Sh3.sdl, even if the sound already exists. It must start with 'Land.' instead of 'Submarine.'. I don't like this sound very much, but it's still better than the ambient sound of buoys.

:rotfl2: It seems that it's working. I hit something, but what ? :hmmm:



I can't check that. My laptop's graphics card doesn't render reflections correctly.

Yeah, perfect :

No problem. BTW: did you ever manage making rockets to disappear from the racks once they are fired? :D

You are right, I didn't think about it! For maximum compatibility, I didn't want to add a new entry to Sh3.sdl, because many mods alter it, but since there's no other way... :up:

I can help you looking for a better sound... or do you still prefer the crashing wave sound? :doh:

:o no model? :wah::haha:
Hopefully I made an obvious mistake. The concrete base is set as the rock, and it is still rendered. BTW: did you try hitting it too?

Okay, maybe when we have everything more or less ready, we can pre-release the package as a single mission, so people can test it and report back with their impressions/suggestions.

BTW: what is exactly the advantage of adding the RayTracedHalo to the light particle effect?

:up:

Okay, I have found why the rock didn't show up: I had inadvertently unchecked the 'Visible' flag of the node LaPlate_Rock :D

Can you confirm that everything else is working? Tell me yes please! :O:

:haha: Will check that !

Unfortunately not. Damage inputs are always destroying the aircraft instead of the rocket ... :damn: So I gave up ...

Another sound would be great.

I have no idea.

http://et-38d7.kxcdn.com/emojione-3.0/1f91e.png

One day I will put myself on that, maybe I will be luckier than you :D

Okay, before I start overwhelming you with tens of sound loops you don't like, what don't you like exactly about the stock sound that I pointed you to, and I would you expect it to be instead? :)

Okay, let's wait for MLF to come back and test the effect with reflection but without halo :salute:

Ok. So the rock and the base are now solid (collision). The strange thing is that if I delete the 3D models circled in red, it's still working. What is special with the new 3D models (the 2 others) ?

http://i.imgur.com/abS6HOl.png

Else, the Caustics controller works on the base, the effect is visible underwater.

At last! :rock: :sunny:

What about foam? In SH5 the game automatically spawns foam on the water surface, around objects with a StaticObject controller on them. Does it work the same for SHIII, or we will have to add the effect through val file (provided that this is possible)?

That's not strange :yep:

In each tree, the first model is the one used for collision detection and it is invisible in game. The second model is the one you view in game; deleting it, or making it invisible, doesn't prevent the game from still detecting collisions when another object hits the collision model :03:

Nice, I didn't hope it would have worked so easily. :up:

Does it look nice, or it will need its parameters tweaked?
Should we add it to the tower (main unit) too? :)

Not automatic in SH3. I don't think it's possible to add this effect to a static object, but who knows ?

The strange thing is : why doesn't it work if you use only the red circled 3D models instead of the 2 others ?

I don't know, as this effect is also broken on my laptop. The model is only 'flashing', and that means that the effect is working.

You mean to the rock ?

Here is version 9 : http://www.mediafire.com/file/ajhtsd...La_Plate_v9.7z

Change log :

- deleted the Rock_LaPlate.dsd file from the Locations folder

- removed the aud_node in Rock_LaPlate.dat

- corrected the visibility of the 3D model in Lighthouse_Parts.dat

- added LLH_LaPlate.dsd

- added the Sh3.sdl file

- added the mission file with lighthouses (replaced by searchlights)

- added the Locations.cfg file (from WAC 4.1 + lighthouses)

Pity

I doubt it too, but if you are on it we can try. This effect would make our lighthouses so much more nice and realistic! :D

I don't know. In Sh5, collision models are the rule both for units with SH3ZonesCtrl/CollisonableObject controllers and for terrain objects using the StaticObject controller in place of the usual spheres and boxes. Digging in SHIII files, I have noticed that most objects with a StaticObject controller attached don't have collision models, so I thought the game didn't need them. That was obviously not the case for our model, don't ask me why. Luckily this afternoon I opened AntiSubNet.dat, and I got from it the clue I was missing. When I saw it had a col_ node I had an illumitation, as this prefix reminded me of analogous bones found in SH5 and connected with collision detection.

Okay, let's wait for someone with a better hardware and artistic skills to pop up and help us with the tedious but rewarding task of finetuning those effects :03:

If no one volunteers and we become too impatient for waiting MLF to get back to us, I might decide to once again istall the game on my computer :D

Do you think caustics would be needed on the rock? Who would see them? IMO they would be a waste of computer resources, and not very realsitic anyway. In theory the effect should be visible above water more than below water (which is not the case apparently, we will discover why). I was wondering wether to add the effect to the main lighthouse structure (LLH_LaPlate.dat), but again, that would probably be too high on the sea surface for realistically receiving caustics (in real life)... Do you agree? :hmm2: