No, I'm actually having no trouble understanding what you are saying. I believe I understand all of your instructions perfectly. I will give it another try after dinner.

I think I figured it out late last night, but it was taking a long time to select that huge block. It appeared to be at least 40% of the .dat file. I was just wondering if there is a quicker way to select that huge block besides using the arrow keys. (The scroll on the particular mouse which i have here is broken).

Try shift+pageup/pagedown, it works on most editors.

There are three entries in the dat file for every texture, the tga data (type 03) the texture properties (type 02) and the texture label (type 08). Also there's a reference to the textures in the root node for the object (type 04) which points to the type 02 node.

Also, you may want to test UBOAT234 procedure very well before releasing a mod, I'm not saying he's wrong, but at the end of the file there's an index of each node and it's position on the file (type 1001), if you add or delete some chunks in the file , the most logical thing to do is to edit also the index, I didn't try it yet, but it must be there for something...

Ref

Small additions:
1) datBlock Type 2 - Material properties (Material on the basis of TGA file)
2) also Type 13 - child of Type 2

Anvart

HI,

If you want I send you all the ships multiskin, But is interestant for the future, Edit this in hex.
When I explain like adding other things. Like as an example modifying .sim and .zon files, a lot interesting with my bad English...

Sergbuto wrote
"You need to do hexediting of the DAT file and for the corresponding .TGA, which you want to have multiple copies, replace sections with identificators 02, 03, and 08 with the cfg#TXR_ section. Put the texture plate in the ship folder and name it accordingly"
...But not there is, one important edit. the more important, otherwise it does not work, and crash the game. (NOT MEMORY, HOW MANY TIMES, IS HAPPENED)

Is necessary add a id. in advance to the label. The id where is indicated in my tutorial for extract the .tga.
Second, delete the D-sided, in corrispondence of the SpecularMask.
And in end move the Byte 0A to the the label, and add the dimension in byte.
(I am making a lot of image, and in end my bad english is little important)

:lurk:


BEST REGARDS
UBOAT234

Hi,

Anvart, have you idea, to what he serves, all the index of id, in end of file?

BEST REGARDS
UBOAT234

Hi Anvart, do you know the structure for those nodes ?

TYPE 02

0200 Type 4 bytes dword
0000 Subtype 4 bytes dword
XXXX Size 4 bytes dword
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ID 8 bytes

the remaining bytes from size I don't know what they are...

TYPE 0D

0200 Type 4 bytes dword
0000 Subtype 4 bytes dword
XXXX Size 4 bytes dword
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ID 8 bytes
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX PARENT ? 8 bytes
XXXXXX ???? 8 bytes
XXXXXXXXX LABEL remaining bytes

Same for these...

Any info will be more than welcome

Ref

Umm, I basicaly sorta cheated with mine. I loaded up the original Type 34 DD Dat file and Serg's Type 34DD Dat file into Hexworkshop. I then did a compare. After that I just did the same bits to mine as Serg had done to his. As I said, sorta cheating, but I'm not really a coder, so I did it that way to expadite matters.

Normally with Mods I have worked on before, I just do the Models an Skins, others always coded them into game. This being my first ever game dabbiling with coding (of a sort) I am WAAAY behind the 8 ball ! Hell I had never used or even seen a Hex editor before SH3. :lol:

The SOP would have been for me to load the MDT (Mod Developers Toolkit) into Max, Maya, Lightwave, Milkshape or whatever 3D program was required to make the models and then make a TxT file of all the COORD's for where everything went on the base model (like if it was a ship then where all the guns an what not went) and hand that all over to some1 who would do the coding required to get it into game. This enabled me to just concentrate on doing the models an skins. I prefer that method since coding drives me NUTS. :D

Check your PM :up:

BEST REGARDS
UBOAT234

Hi, Ref.
I don't understand What do you want for?
You must to use this material properties whithout changing!
That you see below it not is absolutely accurate conception.
It is my reflections (meditations), assumptions and my terminology.
All this requires testing.
For example:

Data Block Type 2:
- 4 bytes unsigned long dataBlock Type
- 4 bytes unsigned long dataBlock SubType
- 4 bytes unsigned long data Size
- 8 bytes material ID
Next 28 bytes - material properties
- "FF" - 1 byte flag (delimiter)
- 3 bytes Ambient, Diffuse Color
- 1 byte boolean "00" or "01"
- 3 bytes Specular Color
- 1 byte Specular Level
- 1 byte Glossiness
- "00" - 1 byte maybe Self-Illumination
- "00" - 1 byte Contrast Level
- 1 byte Reflection
- 1 byte relative Reflection
- "0000" - 2 bytes always "00"
- 4 bytes unsigned long TGA Size
- 4 bytes float maybe bitmap Scale
- "00000000" - 4 bytes
- tgaName - Zero end string with TGA name
- "00" - 1 byte end of string

Cheerio,
Anvart :doh: :rock:

Thanks Anvart :up: .
I'm collecting info for a project I'm working on , more I understand the data, more easy is to program, so far I have too many unknowns, (a couple less now thanks to you )

Ref

[edit] Damn, they took a picture of me last night and change my avatar :rotfl:

Hi, Ref.
If to you interestingly look further.
About that, that I have written above: so-as one-byte pairs
of properties are somehow connected, there is an interesting
variant to unite one-byte numbers of material properties
in two-byte numbers (unsigned short)......???
Besides the structure dataBlock Type 2 can be truncated
if it has no own bitmap!!! (tgaSize = 00000000 is end of Block. Example: bodyXX.dat).

DataBlock Type 13.
This block is additional (child) to block Type 2.
In this dataBlock it is certain bitmap and its properties for special effects
"selfillumination", "specular" and others.
Example:
- 4 bytes unsigned long dataBlock Type
- 4 bytes un. long dataBlock SubType
- 4 bytes un. long dataSize
- 8 bytes object ID
- 8 bytes parent-object ID (Type 2)
Next 28 bytes of properties:
- 8 bytes symbols of parameter Name (selfillu or specular)
- 4 bytes un. long parameter Value ...?
- 2 bytes un. short the same, as in Type 2 dataBlock (2 bytes number variant)
- "0000" - 2 bytes the same, as in Type 2 dataBlock (2 bytes number variant)
- tgaSize - 4 bytes un. long TGA-file Size
- txtrScale - 4 bytes float bitmap Scale
- "00000000" - 4 bytes
- tgaName - Zero end string TGA-file Name
- "00" - 1 byte end of string

Sorry Ref,
I am not Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-American
my english is wrong and poor.
If to you interestingly test my assumptions.
I don't have time and desire.

Anvart :rock: :doh:

Thank's again Anvart, you've been very helpfull, those two chunks where the one's I've no info about. :up: :up: :up:

Ref

Hi, Uboat.
Any indexation serves for increase
speeds of objects search in a file!!!

DataBlock Type 1001 structure:
- 4 bytes unsigned long datBlock Type
- 4 bytes unsigned long datBlock SubType
- 4 bytes unsigned long datBlock Size
- 8 bytes object ID
- 4 bytes unsigned long object Position in dat-file
- 8 bytes object ID
- 4 bytes unsigned long object Position in dat-file
............................
And so on up to the end of the block

Anvart :rotfl:

Hi, Ref.
If you have desire and time you can make
kind of crew hands same as well as a kind of the faces.
For this purpose make changes in files bodyXX.dat in conformity
with my reflections, and also in a TGA-file change
hands color on a face color.

Goodluck,
Anvart :up:

Hi,

Good! :up:

Many thaks!



For all, Here Other Standard Ship Multiskin, in beta release. Not there are additional Texture. I will make in the next days. For any problem or mistakes, post here.

http://files.filefront.com/SMultiski.../fileinfo.html

They are included:

-NAMC
-NATF
-NBB_Bismark
-NBB_KGeorgeV
-NBB_Nelson
-NBB_Revenge
-NCA_Hipper
-NCL_Dido
-NCL_Fiji
-NCV_Illustrious
-NCVE_Bogue
-NCVE_Casablanca
-NDD_HuntII
-NDD_HuntIII
-NDD_J
-NDD_Soldati
-NDD_Somers
-NDE_Buckley
-NDE_JCB
-NHPB
-NLST
-NPC_Black_Swan
-NPT_Br
-NPT_Ge

The: NBB_KGeorgeV contain some error, I upload the correct version soon.

Important!
In my page of Filefront site, and in this .rar are present other ship, but is not my work. Iova ship and NCOT. And others is present only because, Filefront, it does not work correctly.
I have only rework for trasfom it, in Multiskin.
It is right to attribute the job of creation of the models to who has given much time for that one.
When the site is repaired, I will remove them.
I ask excuse in particular to AG124.


BEST REGARDS
UBOAT234

You should mention the other ships which you have also done on your fileshare site, including the other three coastal crafts and my Coastal Tanker. You forgot to credit me as the creater of the Coastal Tanker in the ReadMe though.

For Ref.
Material properties changing example:
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/8...perties8zz.jpg


Anvart :yep:

That's cool :rock:

Ref