DC - How do I...

[Chapeau]

Convert Targa (.TGA) files to .BMPs so I can alter them and turn them back into .TGAs? I want to, for example, punch out the areas around the helm view ports and make them three big, square windows.

Alter the maps to make the apparent shoreline more closely match the actual shoreline? Yes, I know, it's a big world, I would do it for only small areas.

Find a simple line-drawing program that can design and print plans (sides and topsides) of ships so I can make them into damage control screens? How do I make them into damage controls screens? :hmm:

[horsa]

Phew !! You've opened a whole raft of issues here which would be difficult to answer quickly.

Looks like you’ve discovered that DC has huge potential for modding and improvement . But you would be largely reinventing the wheel on most of these .
DC used to have a lot of mods which were downloadable but have since disappeared because of SH3 etc. Over the next month or so I’m going to build up a site containing many of these “forgotten� mods as a kind of resource centre. You might want to hold fire until you’ve seen some of them .

Anyway a few specifics ….

Convert Targa (.TGA) files to .BMPs so I can alter them and turn them back into .TGAs? I want to, for example, punch out the areas around the helm view ports and make them three big, square windows.

Definitely been done . Why do you want to convert them to BMPs ? You can work directly on TGAs in photoshop. Although I think you can open up the windows by altering just the artwork you will probably want to go further than this and will need a working knowledge of how to alter the DSF files which control their allocation. The design that Ultimation used ( small texture plates ) was a bit obtuse because they were trying to save on memory demands for low end machines and video cards . Much better to use one of the modded DSF files which use larger plates.

Alter the maps to make the apparent shoreline more closely match the actual shoreline? Yes, I know, it's a big world, I would do it for only small areas.

No one attempted this because it was so difficult. I can’t quite remember all the issues here but I think the modelled world didn’t quite match the real physical world in the game I think the whole map system needs ripping out and replacing with a totally new system Another possibility was to get into the map bump files. These are JRF files so you would need special tools to access them and I’m sure it would be a very slow process. Perhaps someone else knows some more about this ???

Find a simple line-drawing program that can design and print plans (sides and topsides) of ships so I can make them into damage control screens? How do I make them into damage controls screens?

Much easier to scan existing line drawings and integrate into the artwork. I leave the copyright issues up to your own conscience. Personally I justify it by saying I’m using them for private use and distributing them ( sort of privately ) amongst a bunch of enthusiasts.
You then need to access the DSF files to reallocate the damage areas to the correct part of the drawing …. a long and tedious job you’ll get sick of. There is a much easier method that required creating a special DSF file that acted as a template for virtually any vessel.
The damage rectangles were allocated to a generic ship schematic underneath a drawing ( line or otherwise) of the ship


You could do worse than take a look at the Kriegsmarine mod which has examples of many of these things.

http://www.amberphotography.co.uk/na...ne/DC_KM12.exe

[horsa]

I found this post from way back ..... relevant to the map thing ...

CBDR

Gents,

Just an observation: In DC, the map, as shown in F2 CIC, does not accurately correspond to the DC world as described by the NOAA data. It is my experience that one can accurately place a unit by real world latitude and longitude co-ordinates and that DC will exactly place the unit in the virtual world.

As an example, I placed a DD in Pearl Harbor using Latitude and Longitude co-ordinates from a chart. DC faithfully placed my DD where specified. I then got underway and sailed down the channel out to sea. All the time I could see (in F3 view) that I was in the middle of the channel. However, the F2 view map showed me to be about 500 yards East of my actual position - sailing overland through Hospital Point! As I did not run aground and was able to exit the channel, I concluded that DC's "fix" is very inaccurate close to land. Perhaps this was intentional.

My advice is to place your units by latitude and longitude using the most accurate nautical chart you can get your hands on. DC accepts entries up to six decimal places, so you can locate your unit to within at least +/- 0.11 m at the Equator - more than close enough for government work!

Floater

The screen maps in SH2/DC use a different data set to the collision detection, so you do get anomolies. The collision detection data is pretty accurate; it's the maps that are wrong.

I found this when writing Kriegstanz/KD, and, as Clive says, the data I use on screen for the high-res maps feature of KD is close to - maybe even exactly the same as - the collision detection data.

There's one of the major French ports in SH2 - I think it's Lorient, where you have to sail through land to get out. Mad!

[Chapeau]

I need to tie you and Hitman down and drain all this knowledge out of your brains. I'd like to understand how the DSFs, etc. relate to each other and what they do. Are there textbooks on these kinds of graphics systems that you know of?

Really appreciate your time with this, thanks for putting up with my questions! And TIA for the ones to come!

[Chapeau]

If I can help at all with collecting the mods, or anything else, please let me know. I have a lot of them, had more in the past but there were HD restores and I'm careless about backups

[horsa]

Are there textbooks on these kinds of graphics systems that you know of?

fraid not
The DSFs determine the layout of the graphics on the 2D screens and functionality such as hot spots etc . There's e few themes running thru them all but they often have unique functionality as well.

[Chapeau]

Can you give me examples of themes and unique functions? I'm
trying to understand how the different elements relate to each
other. And thanks for your patience with all this pestering. You and
Hitman and Fletcher, all you guys doing the mods, are The
Men.

[roverdog]

Horsa,
Looking forward to your new site on DC

I still have quite a few of the MODs on my own HD.

If you need any let us know and I'm sure the community will be glad to forward to you what they have.

There are not enough Naval surface sims out there and anything that can be done to keep DC alive is greatly appreciated.

Its too bad the there was not a follow up to DC called Naval Command, where all surface ships could be commanded.

DC almost had it. The only thing really missing was a gun director for the secondary guns for the Battleships and cruisers.
Come to think of it a third gun director for the 40mm AA guns would be good also.

The other thing would have been a better scenario editor, creater

Thanks

[Chapeau]

Man, there are too many things I wish they'd done with DC to list. I'd pay a lot just to be able to make new models or even just repaint them easily*. I was so disappointed when I realized that they'd released the game on the market only half-baked... it has so much potential!

* Speaking of which, are the repaint tools still around, and if so, where?

[horsa]

Repaint tool at Manuel Ortega's site

www.mp-labs.com

The other thing would have been a better scenario editor, creater

Kriegstanz does a pretty mean job of this ..

Can you give me examples of themes and unique functions?

A full description would fill a book but examples of themes common to them all includes
how the texture plates are allocated
multitexture hotspots

An example of a unique feature is the zoom feature found only in the Observation and Torpedo stations, Main Battery director.

it has so much potential!

Absolutely .... there was just never enough manpower to do all the necessary modding

Its too bad the there was not a follow up to DC called Naval Command, where all surface ships could be commanded.

This can be done already by simple editing of the scenario files. What it lacks is all the huge amount of extra work needed to create the appropriate station visuals and audio , some hex editing of the JRF files, creation of corresponding scenarios and campaigns .... and so it goes on

[Chapeau]

Again, Horsa, many thanks.