Just a small update from my end regarding the stuff I'm assisting BH with.
The Is-Was and Slideruler are the main thing, but I've also been helping him out with some ship textures for his upcoming update. This should give the ability to have more civilian shipping in civilian "colors" in the Pre-PH days of 1941. For those that know how to do missions, this will give you the ability to start the war with colorful paint schemes, then swap out textures for civilian ships from their "colorful" schemes over to the gray and green schemes that came about later in the War as the war progresses.
Once done, civilian schemes will include NYK, OSK, Mitsui, Yama****a (I hate this AI "poopy-mouth" thing), Tatsuuma, Kita-Nippon, Toa-Kaiun, Toyo Kisen Kaisha, Mitsubishi, "K" Line, Kokusai -- you name it, I'm trying to put it as a texture so you can at least have the ship look as close as possible within the limits of the sim's models. Not all will be possible, but hey, we do what we can.
As well as the the Japanese, I'm also working to add several American shipping companies as well. This will allow someone to make the routes from Honolulu to the West Coast. So far I have the "White Sisters" of Matson Lines (Lurline, Mariposa, etc.) represented by the default "Conte Verde" for now, as well as some Moore McCormick, American-Hawaiian, Grace, etc.
My reasoning is that this will be more "immersive" (sp?) for the "work-ups" during the "New Construction" campaigns since you start on the West Coast anyway.
Should also see some USCG-painted tugs (ATF) to represent some of the USCG assets at US ports throughout the war, as well stationed overseas in the early days of the war -- such as the USCGS Tanney who was at the Honolulu Pier (USCG was not military back then unless wartime) during the PH attack.
I've done them in the white hulls with buff funnels topped by a black band scheme in use prior to the 1970's.
Again, you have to add all these nice things to missions and tracks once they are done since that's WAY over my head!
I'll admit, I've run into some problems with the War Melody/Melody Type freighters as well as some of the others simply because they are having some sort of "smearing" across the hull when seen in S3D. I don't know how to create a simple "test" mission where you have target ships like in the training, so I can't see if this is just an S3D display thing (I have AMD), of if the textures REALLY ARE messed up.
Anyway, more info and screens when able.
Saludos!
ElCid97