Hitman wrote:

Yep, I forgot that but I agree.


To dcb: Big thanks for your advise. To me editing roster or command file won't be a problem but umark.dss -thing I have to study. I think I don't have a proper program to handle dss files. Maybe I could also give a try for spax language mod. I already tried Sh3toSh4 V.3, which includes the language package and it worked fine. Only thing was that radio messages seemed to be somewhat wrong as COMSUBPAC was acting as a sender. But yet I'm not sure it was Sh3to4 which caused this. And by ship sighted messages I meant the writen ones, not sounded.


Greetings,
-RC-

A decent free program that edits .dds files is Paint.net. It is no Photoshop but it is a pretty good program for free.

Lurker has put up a file to remove the arrow towards the end of the OpMonsun thread however, so there is no need to edit this if you don't want to.

It's called dds not dss
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirectDraw_Surface

Edit it with www.gimp.org (it's free - even open source) with the dds-plugin installed http://nifelheim.dyndns.org/~cocidius/dds/

This paint thingy might be alright to edit small, uncomplicated stuff like the umark.dds but for real texture work use a real graphics program like the above ;)

Err yeah.. I know very little about that stuff which is why I only know of a free program to edit them ;) I leave that stuff to you guys that know what you are doing :up:

I was actually thinking how good a Type II or VII would look with that "oil canning" effect of yours ichso :D

Ah ok,
an easy way (the best I can think of right now) is to use the Filling tool in pattern mode. Such tools are available in programs like gimp or photoshop.

You can create a small image that is supposed to show a single oil canning rectangle and use it as a pattern to fill a whole area with it. This image should feature a transparent background (because you want the underlying texture to shine through) and should otherwise just create this shadowy effect.

The way I did it was to use the pattern fill to just fill a large (enough) area with those rectangles and then cut and move this area over the texture to make them fit well together.

Erm, I send you a pm :DL

You don't need any kind of "paint" program to fix the issue of removing the UMark. Here what you do:

1. Open wordpad / notepad
2. Using the "save as" option, create a 0 length file called UMark.dds
3. Place new UMark.dds in data/misc directory

If you want to put it that way, you can also just delete the file instead of replacing it ;)

not delete
 

no, the file must still exist, else the game might crash or search for a reinstall of the file,

as I see it, the game seeks a file, if it doesnt find it, then its an OOPS for the game logic

I never had any problems, though. I wondered how the game would react internally when you just delete one of the files. But replacing it with an empty file should not be much better because the attempt to read data from it would not even find the expected image file header, or the header of the image compression format so other internal routines should fail either way.

The safest way to prevent this would be to replace the file with an empty image that just contains a transparent background at the size of the original umark.dds.

It has been a busy weekend here in Finland, but have to say it's great to have your support, guys. I'm totally noob if talking about modding, as everything I have done so far is some editing with notepad for my own use only. But I'm looking for a day next week I can start learning more. If I could learn how to deal with dds files, maybe the next thing would be a search for a "Complete Idiot's Guide for JSGME."

Edit:

Ok, couldn't keep my fingers out so I tried to go in harms way; just deleted Umark.dds and completed a short 10 minutes test dive at Kiel. No CTD or other problems. (But can I trust the results?) However, weird F9 behavior I mentioned before got my attention again. You can get a nice full screen pic if you hit F9 when at scope (in the boat without radar). And then you can get yourself back to CT just by hitting numpad ins. Also if you are in some other station you can get quite strange camera views through the F9.

To sledgehammer: roger that! ;)


Greetings,
-RC-

somwhere in the SH4 mods workshop (its stickied) is a modslist, crack open the modslist and look for a download called "Modding Tools"
in there is a .dds converter.

and,
thats how I started. I got tired of waiting for everyone else to make the playable ships Campaign-ready, so I did it myself, and then everybody found out, and i released them (if you read my disclaimers. you see I have a lot of fun doing them)

Personally I use Paint.net to edit dds files. Paint.net is a really good free image editor, and I hugely prefer it to gimp. As ichso says gimp has got a lot more functions, but its GUI is much less user-friendly. Even for 'real texture work' I only use gimp once in a blue moon, I can do almost everything I need to with Paint.net.
I'd say just use the program you like best. If you use a dds converter you can even edit it with MS paint;)

Hmm, don't think MS Paint supports alpha:hmmm:

printed
 

ok, its printed, will read the 24 pages to begin learning how the damage works, thanks

There are a few who are competent with damage modelling - Observer seems to be the real guru over at the subsim forums. I have used a lot of his knowledge and reckon I've cracked most aspects of the modelling ... although getting ships to sink realistically (AI ships) is tricky, and a matter of trial and error. Post here if you have question about the damage modelling side of things.

You may struggle to make progress without the yet to be released version of S3D however.

Ok, here is the list about what I have been building up and testing today. Maybe someone finds it interesting. Comments and feedback are welcome.

After I made a fresh and clean install of SH4/1.5 and enabled OM705 + Patch1, and DBSM:

1. Replaced UMark.dds with one borrowed from TMO170.
2. Replaced text "COMSUBPAC" at Data/Menu/Menu/4193 with "BdU". No more radio messages or contact reports signed by COMSUBPAC.
3. Replaced ship's names at Data/Roster/Names with minuses ( - ) as directed by dcb. No more autoidentified targets in torpedo data panel.
4. Replaced Commands-file in Cfg-folder with one borrowed again from TMO170. Is working quite nice with type IX. F9 is no more serving radar but gives access to CT. I think there's no more hotkey for sonar either but at least I don't mind it. You can always use the command bar. Go back (num pad ins) works great for TDC and obs. scope. From the attack scope go back takes you now back to the CT, not to the front of the scope. Needs more studies.
5. After several short test drives no CTDs or other problems.

If someone can see possible future or present problems in my "build up", please, leave a message. Only thing I can do is more testing.

Greetings,
-RC-