[WIP] Fairmile B Motor Launch

[kapuhy]

AKA my first attempt to create a ship model for Silent Hunter



This unassuming patrol craft is actually the most numerous anti-submarine vessel in WW2 (whooping 725 were built, serving as coastal convoy escorts in British, Canadian, Australian, Indian, French, Norwegian, New Zealand, Dutch and US Navy). Armed with 3pdr gun, 20 mm Oerlikon AA cannon, ASDIC and about 12 depth charges. Some were converted to MTBs or rescue ships as well.

Sadly, we don't have it in the game. Since I thought it would be fun to try to learn modeling a ship, Fairmile seemed like a good idea.

Here's the progress so far:

 

When it's finished, I plan to import it like SH3 ships as .dat as I don't know a way to export Blender model to .gr2

[vdr1981]

Looks great!

[kapuhy]

Hmm... I began working on textures and have a question - is it possible to have multiple texture variants on a ship model without adding multiple ship classes to roster?

It would allow me to add those:



Multiple camouflage schames would be nice eye candy too

[gap]

Originally Posted by kapuhy

...my first attempt to create a ship model for Silent Hunter...

Well done kapuhy, your model looks like a clean one

Originally Posted by kapuhy

When it's finished, I plan to import it like SH3 ships as .dat as I don't know a way to export Blender model to .gr2

There is no way to import blender files directly in game, neither as dat nor as gr2 units; you must export your models as wavefront (obj) files before you can import them in game using either Skwas' Silent3ditor or TDW's gr2 importer/exporter.

Due to the limits of the latter program, relying on the gr2 format might do things a bit more complicated, though gr2 models inported in SH5 look much better than dat ones, and they are better supported by the game engine. Considering the simple unit you are currently working on, you might give a try to Gr2 Editor

Originally Posted by kapuhy

Hmm... I began working on textures and have a question - is it possible to have multiple texture variants on a ship model without adding multiple ship classes to roster?

In SHIV and SH5 camouflages are painted on models' ambient occlusion maps. You can make those maps configurable via cfg file by prepending the 'cfg#TXR' string to the name of their respective material.

Once unit's materials are set up correctly, there are two ways that you can make it to use more than one texture: you can assign multiple texture definitions to the same unit using its roster cfg file, or you can create several 'proxy clones' (i.e. clones of a unit sharing the same dat/obj, sim, etc. files) and give each one one individual texture. Proxy clones can be made to be recognized as just one unit in the recognition manual btw.

Don't hesitate asking in case you need more details on either method

[vdr1981]

Originally Posted by gap

Once unit's materials are set up correctly, there are two ways that you can make it to use more than one texture: you can assign multiple texture definitions to the same unit using its roster cfg file,

This doesn't work very well since ships will always be rendered with the same paint, regardless of roster cfg settings if spawned in one convoy, for example.

Originally Posted by gap

or you can create several 'proxy clones' (i.e. clones of a unit sharing the same dat/obj, sim, etc. files) and give each one one individual texture. Proxy clones can be made to be recognized as just one unit in the recognition manual btw.

This is the only way to actually have different paints for different nations...

[kapuhy]

Originally Posted by gap

import them in game using either Skwas' Silent3ditor or TDW's gr2 importer/exporter.

Thanks! I wasn't even aware TDW's gr2 editor had import option, only after your answer I finally found it. I'll have to take a closer look at it.

Originally Posted by vdr1981

This is the only way to actually have different paints for different nations...

Considering no one has yet used this method to "paint" bajillion historical ship names / numbers on the hulls, I guess it does come with some drawbacks though?

[gap]

Originally Posted by vdr1981

This doesn't work very well since ships will always be rendered with the same paint, regardless of roster cfg settings if spawned in one convoy, for example.


This is the only way to actually have different paints for different nations...

Yes, that's a known drawback of the SH5 multi-texturing system, but are you sure that it doesn't apply to proxy clones as well?

Other than that, I think that despite the fact that we can have any number of textures set in the cfg file, only the first three texture definitions are actually used as early, middle and late war camouflages, set in GroupTypesDefs.cfg as 0, 1 and 2 respectively. This is a little disappointing because roster texture definitions have start/end dates and frequency settings, suggesting a random texture assignment based on in-game dates. Those settings can as well be the clue of an unfinished feature (as it is common in SH games), but before discarding them, has anyone tried setting the camouflage parameter to -1 and seeing if such a setting forces the game to use more that three textures and to apply date and frequency parameters?

Originally Posted by kapuhy

Thanks! I wasn't even aware TDW's gr2 editor had import option, only after your answer I finally found it. I'll have to take a closer look at it.

[vdr1981]

Originally Posted by gap

Yes, that's a known drawback of the SH5 multi-texturing system, but are you sure that it doesn't apply to proxy clones as well?

Pretty much, yes...

[gap]

Originally Posted by vdr1981

Pretty much, yes...

What about that?

Originally Posted by gap

has anyone tried setting the camouflage parameter to -1 and seeing if such a setting forces the game to use more that three textures and to apply date and frequency parameters?

[vdr1981]

Originally Posted by gap

What about that?

From my experience, one 3D model (gr2 or dat) = one paint , if rendered in the same scene (area). I cloned a number of dat units using S3D editor in order to bypass this problem.

Solution with roster cfg files can work pretty well in case of units which will probably wont ever be rendered in the same area, for example some British and German generic freighter, used by both nations...

[gap]

Originally Posted by vdr1981

From my experience, one 3D model (gr2 or dat) = one paint , if rendered in the same scene (area). I cloned a number of dat units using S3D editor in order to bypass this problem.

Solution with roster cfg files can work pretty well in case of units which will probably wont ever be rendered in the same area, for example some British and German generic freighter, used by both nations...

Yes, we already agreed on that, but my question was relative to a different (though related) topic. Please re-read my remarks on it:

Originally Posted by gap

...despite the fact that we can have any number of textures set in the cfg file, only the first three texture definitions are actually seen in game as early, middle and late war camouflages, set in GroupTypesDefs.cfg as 0, 1 and 2 respectively.

This is a bit disappointing because roster texture definitions have start/end dates and frequency settings, suggesting a random texture assignment based on in-game dates. Those settings can as well be the clue of an unfinished feature (as it is common in SH games), but before discarding them, has anyone tried setting the camouflage parameter to -1 and seeing if such a setting forces the game to use more that three textures and to apply date and frequency parameters?

[vdr1981]

Originally Posted by gap

Yes, we already agreed on that, but my question was relative to a different (though related) topic. Please re-read my remarks on it:

Can't really comment that. It needs to be tested...

[gap]

Originally Posted by vdr1981

Can't really comment that. It needs to be tested...

Okay. I think that that might be worth some tests since the same principle might also apply to sensors and armaments...

[kapuhy]

Guys, a quick question: is it possible to make flag smaller? (without changing the size of flags on other ships of course). The huge default flag simply doesn't fit the flagpole on such a small boat.

[gap]

Originally Posted by kapuhy

Guys, a quick question: is it possible to make flag smaller? (without changing the size of flags on other ships of course). The huge default flag simply doesn't fit the flagpole on such a small boat.

If you opted for the dat format, I think that you have no control on the flag size other than the naming of the flag node:

cfg#FLG = war ensign, large
cfg#FLS = war ensign, small
cfg#FLGC = civil ensign

It is likely that the same naming convention applies to GR2 units too, but chances are that the flag size of granny-format units can be fine-tuned further by using bone trasform (scale) data. My suggestion is you to have a look into this mod . By comparing its modded files with stock ones, you can easily understand how uekel achieved his smaller flags.