wrong labels everywhere
 

Hi,

ok this may be an old (stock) bug and for most people certainly an absolute minor problem. I tried to ignore it but it still annoys me a lot: You all know perhaps the little black plates on gauges and machines, they are all over the place from bow to stern and all labeled wrong with terms of the TDC like "Schußwinkel", "Schiffspeilung", "Gegnerlage" (gyro angle, target bearing, angle of bow) etc., some of them even upside down...

I have TWoS installed and there are interior mods with changed a bit in comparison to the stock version, all great work of course, but this bug remained. My question: Is there a (modding) specialist among you, who can tell me if it is possible (and how) to change these labels or at least remove them completely? Or if there is a reason why it can´t be changed?


I wouldt be a big relief for me, not to have to see these absurd plates anymore!


Thanks a lot!

Hi Badileus,

if you want those labels fixed, maybe you can do a little inventory of them, specifying for each label: the Uboat compartment where it is found, the device it is placed on, its current (wrong) lettering and the correct term that we should use instead. For gauges not immediately visible, a screenshot might also be useful.

Hopefully, with this information, fixing the wrong labels shouldn't be too difficult :salute:

Perso, i would like to see them removed .... because with my Nvidia card, those labels are often flickering when not too close of them :yep:

Here now some screenshots, where i have marked the wrong labels with a red cross. I made suggestions for the correct labeling, if possible. The terms for that i have taken from pictures and videos of the U-995 here in germany, as far as i couldt recognise them (from the web, i had no time to visit it myself lately).
Perhaps you can tell me if it is possible to change, delete or just blacken the labels individually. And if that wouldt be compatible with TWoS.

Here are the pictures, 2 from the e-machine-room, the rest are located in the command room (Zentrale):
(I just see in the "posting rules", that i "may not post attachments". What does that mean? For now, i just insert the links...)





https://www.dropbox.com/s/thfnzg0fl4...0left.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/faudgzjb7b...right.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/sbatuaqxug...rale1.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yqd9xkag0b...rale2.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jxfe972mqm...rale3.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4agm0yzzh6...rale4.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7rurkht8ak...rale5.jpg?dl=0



https://www.dropbox.com/s/thfnzg0fl4...0left.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/faudgzjb7b...right.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sbatuaqxug...rale1.jpg?dl=0https://www.dropbox.com/s/thfnzg0fl4...0left.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yqd9xkag0b...rale2.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jxfe972mqm...rale3.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4agm0yzzh6...rale4.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7rurkht8ak...rale5.jpg?dl=0

Well done Badileus. I had no time to check them all, but most if not all the labels found in the rooms that you have pointed out, have their textures in CR9C_2.dds. Granted that the same labels are not used multiple times in different places, one could simply change the lettering of each label directly on that texture. Otherwise, changing the UV mapping of wrong labels (so that they use another texture), or removing the redundant ones, shouldn't be too complicated.

Compatibility with TWoS shouldn't be an issue either. In one of the next days I could deal with that, but you should send me the following files from your SH5/TWoS install:

data\Textures\TNormal\tex\CR9C_2.dds
data\Submarine\Common\Rooms\Room_CR.GR2
data\Submarine\NSS_Uboat7a\NSS_Uboat7a.TRA.GR2
data\Submarine\NSS_Uboat7c\NSS_Uboat7c.TRA.GR2

:salute:

Thank you for your time! I will send you the files. If I understand it right, the dds-file is the (only?) source for the plates-textures, and in the GR2-files they are placed at different locations in the room (CR = Control Room?).

But it seems to me that these plates were originally intended for the TDC in the tower (next to the attack periscope), where they are used correctly now. I think the devs used the same plates then for the whole boat, to save work and thinking, nobody will notice it (at least not english-speaking people...).

So if the plates in the dds-file as they are now are changed, will this not affect the TDC plates in the tower also? Or is it possible to add more labeled plate-textures in the dds-file, to have a greater "pool" of labels to choose from?

Files received :up:

After a first inspection, it seems so.

This is my suspect too. It should be noted that there are some discrepancies between the stock CR9C_2.dds file and the copy included in TWoS:

stock:
https://i.imgur.com/XI1H6hs.png

TWoS:
https://i.imgur.com/jDpQ8ZN.png

Unfortunately I don't speak German, but it is possible that who edited that file (probably SteelViking), in fixing the labels for the TDC/conning tower, messed them up for other devices/compartments.

If we simply edit the texture, they probably would.

This is exactly my idea. The model editor that we have now (TDW's GR2 Editor / Viewer) is not 100% functional, and depending on the file to be edited some of its features might not work, but in theory it should be possible making the labels to use another portion of the same texture, or even tu use a different texture. :yep:

Hi Gap,

Is it possible to change their texture so they will not flicker with Nvidia cards? :06:

I am currently running the game on a laptop with an NVidia card; in my SH5 install I have several visual glitches and flickerings, but I didn't notice any flickering labels.

That said, the problem you are experiencing might depend on the combination of several factors, such as GFX card, driver version, graphic settings AND some surfaces being too close to each other. In theory we could move those labels slightly away from the devices they are attached to, but doing that for all of them would be a little PITA. :O:

Are all the labels equally affected by the flickering?

Yes they are all equally affected.

I recently changed my PC with a new graphic card wich is Nvidia GTX 1050 TI (my old one was ZOTAC 580) and i have exact same visual glitches as before.

Of course i can live with them as i did for years now...
I have a flickering on the hydrophone round button left low side (not always - this button doesn’t have any fonction btw)
In the radio room beside the gramophone, there is a square panel that flicker too (not always)
All the labels mentioned in this thread are flickering in the command room (always)
When I choose a side emblem, looking with external camera it flickers often (a lot less with my new card)
And last glitche, looking up the sky I have strange triangular artefacts flashing very often.
With my old card, I had sometimes smoke bubbles glitches on the sea when close to other boats, but didn’t see it so far with new card…

Thanks to Nvidia for those additional visual effects! :haha:

Ps: I have latest drivers (Nvidia 417.35)

I have a GTX 850M, not exactly the top of the line and much older / lesser performing than your card. I used to have many of the visual glitches that you have mentioned, including the weird triangular artifacts that you have described (for me they appeared between sky and land IIRC); lately most of them have disappeared though I cannot say if it was a new driver or a change in graphic settings that (accidentally) solved or subdued them. The one glitches I still have, is terrain textures flickering in free camera view, when seen from a certain height, especially when the weather is cloudy and the borders of textures with an opacity layer applied (trees, some flags, etc.) becoming visible at times. If you want, I can send you a screenshot of my Nvidia Control Panel graphic settings, in case they can help you tracking down the flickering labels problem :salute:

I often experience flickering on ships

True, that's something I always had, even when I was playing the game on a PC with an ATI card. I think this glitch is not in stock game, but it was introduced with some camera settings included in NewUI's (part of TWoS) :hmm2:

@ Badileus:

before I start messing with textures and labels, can you make sure that some of the original labels replaced in TWoS by other labels (see my post #7), aren't more appropriate for CR/EER devices?

Yep, i forgot this too... but with my new card it seems calm down a bit.
At least it’s not always as before.

Unfortunately almost none of all these labels (in file CR9C2.dds; original and TWoS) are usable in any other place than the TDC, for which they are apparently created. If it is any help, here is a picture of the TDC with the corresponding german terms (I couldt not make out the meaning of every gauge though).

https://imgur.com/OAAb7EP

So, for example, every time i am in the EER and look at the gauges left and right, i see them all lableled with "Streuwinkel" (=spread angle), two with "Entfernung" (=range), and this of course is silly and i can´t get used to it. To make things not too complicated, for the EER perhaps it wouldt be enough to change these to plates with the term "Spannungsregler" (voltage regulator) and "Schaltautomat" (switching automat). Much more sense.

I found, that the file CR8C2.dds contains exactly these plates of the EER. If they are not needed elsewhere, they can be simply changed then, right? So, "Streuwinkel" -> "Spannungsregler" and "Entfernung" -> "Schaltautomat". There are two brighter plates labeled "Leistung". They shouldt be labeled with "Amp-Meter" and "Volt-Meter". But how to put them to the corresponding gauges (the 2 different scales: for Ampere and Volt)?

By the way, i noticed that some of the plates (CR9C2.dds, TWoS-Version) are nowhere correctly used, as far as i can see. Perhaps i missed something. These are:

"Frequenzbereich"
"Frequenzabgleich"
"Entfernungsskala"
"Abfragen/Einstellen"
"Null Stellen"

and "Schiffspeilung" is there twice . Perhaps they can be changed and used elsewhere.

I noticed, that there are some other (bigger) plates on some devices, such as "Heizungs- und Teleskopbeleuchtung" in the CR. Don´t know if this one is correctly placed and where the source is. Is it perhaps possible to change the graphics of some devices and "paint" labeled plates on them, so that they are fixed and individual?

I tried to change the black plates in the E-Engineroom (in the file CR8C_2.dds), and it seems to work! If i get no further problems, at least i am satisfied with the EER now (not tried changing the "Leistung"-plates yet). But better than nothing...

Can anyone perhaps tell me the optimal editing method for dds-files in SH5? I used Photoshop Elements 10 with a dds-plugin, but I am not sure if i have loaded and saved the file correctly. Here an image of my loading- and saving-dialogs.

https://imgur.com/a/FZftgru

Thanks!

Hi Badileus and sorry for my late replies. Please find them below :)

CR8C2.dds is not among the stock files, and I doubt that it is actually used in TWoS. It was probably created by the author of the interior mod included in TWoS, in hope that one day someone could import it in game: at that time there was no GR2 Editor at all.

Now we can do that, at least in theory :yep:

Can you send me that texture too?

Sure they can :up:

Not sure what you mean here. Could you please illustrate your question with a screenshot?

Well done!

You should check the 'Generate MIP maps' radio button and save as DXT5 (interpolated alpha). My suggestion is to redo your changes on a clean copy of the file, because with your current save settings, the alpha channel (used as specular mask) was lost.

Hi gap,

thanks for your reply. Here is the other dds-file:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/pxyzpos1as...R8C_2.dds?dl=0

With the "other plates" i mean these (for example), they seem to be individual plates:

https://imgur.com/a/spXpLxn

I followed your advice and saved the dds as you said, but when saving i got the message "image width and height must be multiple of four". Indeed the dds-files have all the width of 2047. I boldly changed it to 2048, but then in the game i get this:

https://imgur.com/a/zQfKPpd

So the area the game takes for the plates from the file is now double the width as before. I used a clean copy of the file. Are you sure with choosing "Generating MIP-Maps" and not "Using existing MIP-Maps"? I am not an expert in this, certainly you know what i did wrong...

I got the file, thank you too :up:


In which room?

Stock CR9C2.dds is 512 x 512. The textures you sent me double this resolution to 1024 x 1024. Where is this 2047-pixel width coming from? :hmmm:

You can resize game textures, but you need to keep the same width/height ratio as in stock textures (or redo the UV mapping of the objects using those textures). Moreover, if you want to save the resized textures as signed DDS images, both width and height must be multiple of four. This is because the DDS compression uses groups of 4x4 pixel as compression unit.
Mipmaps are a series of pre-rendered copies of the main texture with progressively lower resolutions. They are useful in 3D imaging because they relieve the GPU from having to resample the textures in real time, when (during gameplay) the said texture is seen from a distance. If a texture is edited, it is a good rule to recalculate its MIP levels before saving, otherwise what you see at close and far distance won't match each other :03: