Any EASY way to add an emblem...

[GOZO]

....to the tower sides?

Tips and hints welcome.


Cheers

/OB

[TDK1044]

There is an emblem.upc file, but its empty. I think doing this in SH4 is trickier than it was in SH3. A modder would need to take a good look at it.

[ReallyDedPoet]

Originally Posted by TDK1044

A modder would need to take a good look at it.

Yeah, check with Digital Trucker or sqk, the Kill Flags lads, they should have something to offer you


RDP

[Digital_Trucker]

GOZO, what kind of tools do you have to work with? If you have anything that will work with a photoshop file (.psd), I can give you files that show you where to put the emblem on each of the American conning towers. These textures are in .dds format, so you'd either need Photoshop (with a dds plugin) or Paint.net (free software, with a dds plugin and a psd plugin). Since I have both, I could give you files in Paint.net format so that you wouldn't need the psd plugin, but since Photoshop is such a widely used platform, it probably wouldn't hurt to have it anyway.

If you're interested in Paint.net and processing .psd and .dds files visit here and there are instructions on what to download and how to install it.

The problem with using the emblem facility that's in the game is that each conning tower would have to have a node added to it to position the emblem on the conning tower. Guess I need to look at that possibility, though. Depending on the number of mods that change the conning tower .dat file, that might be a good way to get around the problem of different skins being used for different towers.:hmm:

[GOZO]

Thanks for the replies guys!

I have Paintshop Pro 7 and yes pleas, I´d love to give those files a shot .


In the end it might be a fine function if included in GWX4 or a SHIV commander-look alike type of software.

Thanks.

/OB

[tigone]

Digital_Trucker wrote:

> I can give you files that show you where to put the emblem on each
> of the American conning towers.

It would be very helpful to many of us, I think, to post templates or illustrations showing how SH4's DDS textures are applied to individual models. In my case, I have considerable facility with Photoshop and other tools, but it's largely a matter of trial-and-error in modifying textures and getting the placement to come out right in the game.

[Digital_Trucker]

Originally Posted by GOZO

Thanks for the replies guys!

I have Paintshop Pro 7 and yes pleas, I´d love to give those files a shot .


In the end it might be a fine function if included in GWX4 or a SHIV commander-look alike type of software.

Thanks.

/OB

I don't think GWX4 is going to touch the Fleetboat side of the game (I could be wrong, according to my wife I usually am:rotfl, but the commander type app that is in pre development stage is probably going to have that kind of function included. I'm going to look into using the emblem function included in the game (if it will work on the fleetboat side) to streamline the killflags system. Now that S3D has a model viewer, it would be easy to correctly place the emblem node on the conning tower so that a graphic could be used very easily (as long as the users conning tower had the emblem node in their conning tower .dat file).

Originally Posted by tigone

Digital_Trucker wrote:

> I can give you files that show you where to put the emblem on each
> of the American conning towers.

It would be very helpful to many of us, I think, to post templates or illustrations showing how SH4's DDS textures are applied to individual models. In my case, I have considerable facility with Photoshop and other tools, but it's largely a matter of trial-and-error in modifying textures and getting the placement to come out right in the game.

Funny you should mention trial and error:rotfl:. When sqk started the killflags mod, that's exactly what he had to go through to figure out where to place the emblems. Fortunately, he was wise enough to keep a file for each conning tower and time period so that building new boats would be immeasurably easier.

I've taken the files that I use to build new boats and stripped out everything except the latest emblem from the killflags mod for each boat (much quicker to upload 1 MB of data vs 100MB). These files are available here. The best way to use them to help place emblems would be either to note the location of the emblem or paste the texture from the skin you want to use in a layer behind the emblem, place your emblem in a layer over the emblem already there and then make the emblem already there not visible (or delete it). The way I build the new boats for killflags is to keep a layer for each possible skin background (black, clean, weathered, heavy weathered) and one for the emblem. That's why the files I have here are much larger than the ones I uploaded. Then I make an emblem (in a format that allows for transparency), size and paste it into the right place, make the old emblem invisible, make the skin background I want visible and then save the file to DXT1 DDS format.

[tigone]

Excellent. Just one problem now -- it's HOURS and HOURS 'til I can get home to try this. Got a mod to fix that?

[Digital_Trucker]

Originally Posted by tigone

Excellent. Just one problem now -- it's HOURS and HOURS 'til I can get home to try this. Got a mod to fix that?

As a matter of fact, I do have a "mod" that would handle that "problem":rotfl:, only thing is it has some pretty serious side-effects , so maybe it'd be better just to wait

[GOZO]

Thanks I will give it a try.

BTW, the link is not working....... Can u fix....please?

/OB



P.S

I could be wrong, according to my wife I usually am:rotfl:

Been there too mate!!

[Genferret]

Originally Posted by GOZO

Thanks I will give it a try.

BTW, the link is not working....... Can u fix....please?

/OB



P.S

Been there too mate!!

He had some odd bits of forum code smashed into his link, but I was able to find it.
Correct link: http://files.filefront.com/Killflag+.../fileinfo.html

Starting to play around with it myself now, as the one thing I really miss from SHIII is the ability to add your own emblem. Just need to figure out what now, as the old 31st Wrecking Crew emblem I used in SHIII seems oddly inappropriate fow Fleet Boats. :P

[Digital_Trucker]

Genferret, thanks for, ah, ferreting that out while I was away I've fixed the original link. Don't know where all that other garbage that was in there came from.

If using the games native emblem facility turns out to be feasible, I'll post back here with the results (unless someone else beats me to it:rotfl.

[Genferret]

Originally Posted by Digital_Trucker

Genferret, thanks for, ah, ferreting that out while I was away I've fixed the original link. Don't know where all that other garbage that was in there came from.

If using the games native emblem facility turns out to be feasible, I'll post back here with the results (unless someone else beats me to it:rotfl.

Just noticed you're the one who made the radio manager mod I love so much. :P I swear 1/2 the time I play SH4 is just to listen to the stations Fred made mods for, and managing all that became a lot easier with your mod.

Quick question. When I open the tower files in PS they're 1024x1024, but the files you linked to (at least the Porpoise ones) are 2048x2048. Is that because when editing them you just like to have them at a higher resolution, or is PS not opening the .dds files at the correct size?

I downloaded the DDS plugin for Photoshop, which I found a link to in an old texturing tutorial thread by CaptainCox.

[Digital_Trucker]

Those psd files are that resolution because we use Foo's super high res skins as the base for our killflags. If you're using one of his skins (or any other that's 2048x2048) you should be able to just paste the base skin texture behind the emblem for a high quality skin. You can find his skins at FooFighters Silent Hunter 4 sub skins page.

If you want to use the existing textures, then you could resize the psd file to match the skin size.

I forgot to mention earlier that, when I save to dds, I have PS create mip-maps. I've heard (long ago, in a galaxy far away), that saving without them makes the emblems disappear at distance. I never experienced, it but..........

I also forgot to mention that if you would like a skin that changes from the early war black to the later war grey color, you can combine skins. Take all the ..T01 and ...O01 files from the black skin and the ...T02 and ...O02 files from the weathered or clean skin and the skin will reflect the paint scheme used at a particular point in the war. Just make sure they're in the same places they were in in the original skin.

Thanks for the props on RSM, I'm glad it's doing it's job for you

[GOZO]

Thanks all. Now that problem again with having hours before gettin home....

/OB