[WIP] The SH5 EcoMod

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The purpose of this mod is to bring a few improvements to the SH5 landscapes by replacing some global terrain files/parameters, and to add more variety to them by creating several new combinations of unique vegetation and terrain colors.

Only two new terrain types have been created so far but my aim is adding many other types, so to reflect the changes in world vegetation at the biome (for the least visited areas) or at the ecoregion level (for the busiest areas on the map). With this idea in mind, the information on terrestrial habitats and ecoregions compiled and made availble on the web by the WWF will be crossed with the climate classification and with selected climographs for each area, so to make sure that each terrain type will feature a vegetation realistic for its location, and that its look will evolve realistically over the year, following a realistic seasonality. If I will manage attainig this last goal, certain seasons will no longer occur in the wrong time of year, no snowy landscapes will appear where/when not expected in real world, no emerald-green grass will be visible during the driest seasons of seasonally arid and semi-arid areas, etc.

Change log


v0.2.1

• Testing missions
  
  - All four Brunsbüttel testing missions tweaked so that they are now compatible with OHII/TWoS terrain modifications.

v0.2

• Main mod
  
  - Fixed a bug where weird lens flares were visible close to the shores, when a dark texture was used on them.
  
  - Stock default_mask_field.dds (a generic detail mask used to increase the terrain detail in flat areas) was replaced with a better and higher resolution seamless mask, featuring sharper roads and paths which connect with each other instead of leading nowhere, and grass/dirt patches representing agricultural fields.
  
  - Fixed a bug where a segment of terrain located near the mouth of the Elbe river, just in front of Brunsbüttel, had an abrupt change in height caused by the mismatching of two adjoining terrain height masks.
  
  - Improved stock detail masks for the aforementioned area.
  
  - A new terrain type for the WWF Ecoregion PA0402, Atlantic mixed forests was added in game, together with a new set of trees of the appropriate type and size for that region, different sand, grass and terrain detail texture combinations for each season, and a rock texture taken from a picture of the 'Rotes Kliff', on the German island of Sylt; this texture will represent in game the glacial sediments abundant along the German Bight.
  
  
   

  Please note that in the current release this new terrain type will cover the whole extension of the PA0402 ecoregion, from W Denmark to SW France, but due to its big extension, to the big variety of landscapes that in real world can be found within it, and to its importance for the game (many player bases being located there), in the next releases of the mod it will be split in many smaller terrain types, each with it own characteristics.
• Season fine-tunings submod
  
  - Minor changes applied to ClimateZones.tga. For most of its extension, the new terrain type will lay on one climate zone with four seasons of equal length (spring: Mar to May; summer: Jun to Aug; autumn: Sep to Nov; winter, Dec to Feb) corresponding with Köppen's Cfa (mild oceanic) climate.
  
  
• Tree texture resolution submods
  
  - Both submods updated with textures from the new terrain type
  
  
• Detail mask resolution submods
  
  - Similar to the tree texture resolution submods, these recently added submods are available in two versions:
  
  
  • Full resolution detail masks: 1024 x 1024 square pixels.
    
    
  • Low resolution detail masks: 256 x 256 square pixels.
  
  As with the three textures, detail masks included in the main mod have an intermediate resolution of 512 x 512 pixels, comparable with their resolution in stock game and good for most situation, but not for appreciating the finest details I have drawn on the full resolution masks.
  
  
• Testing missions
  
  - Added four new testing missions (one for each season) located in Brunsbüttel, at the western end of the Kiel Canal, so to make easier the evaluation of the newly added terrain type.

v0.1

• Main mod
  
  - Stock default_mask_alpine.dds (a generic detail mask used to increase the terrain detail in mountainous areas) was replaced with a better and higher resolution seamless mask, featuring sharper roads and paths which connect with each other instead of leading nowhere, and more natural-looking grass patches.
  
  - Terrain types defined in stock TerrainTypes.raw and Terrain.cfg, but actually unused in game, were removed from files and the remaining terrain types were reorganized so to make space for the newly planned types.
  
  - A new terrain type for the WWF Ecoregion PA0403, Azores temperate mixed forests was added in game together with a new set of trees of the appropriate type and size for that region (see further below for a list of the trees featured and their expected approximate heights in game), different sand, grass and terrain detail texture combinations for each season, and a magmatic rock texture for mimicking the cliffs of volcanic islands.
  
  
• Increased tree density submods
  
  
   

  
  This is going to need some explaination. SH5 tree distribution is dictated by the file TerrainObjectsDistributio.raw, a bitmap image in shades of gray, whose pixels can get values from 0 (black) to 255 (white). This invisible mask is overlayed and tiled over the SH5 terrain for deciding whether in any particular point of the map there should be a tree or not; it is my understanding that black pixels mean no chance, white pixels a 100% chance, and grey ones an intermediate probability of a tree being rendered in any given spot.
  It replaces stock TerrainObjectsDistributio.raw with a better mask featuring more natural-looking tree clusters and increased average tree density, compensating for the general decrese in tree sizes of this mod over stock trees. The submod is available in two alternative versions:
  
  
  • 2x increased tree density: average grey value of the mask (this should be a rough estimate of how many trees will be rendered in game, see spoiler above for more on that): 14.63, standard deviation: 10.07 (this is a measure of how scattered are the trees). Stock values were 7.33 and 10.37 respectively.
    
    
  • 3x increased tree density: average gray value of the mask: 21.98; standard deviation: 19.96.
  
  NOTE: either of these optional mods might slow down your game. Remove them from your mod list if you experience any unexpected lag while sailing near land.
  
  
• Season fine-tunings submod
  
  ClimateZones.tga and ClimateZones.cfg (see post #2 in the Dynamic Environment thread for a detailed explaination on the meaning of those files) edited so that the newly created terrain type will lay on three different climate zones:
  
  - Csa (hot Mediterranean climate): long summer with partly dry grass lasting from mid May to mid September);
  
  - Csb (warm Mediterranean climate): "standard-duration" summer lasting from June through to August;
  
  - Cfa/Cfb (humid subtropical/mild oceanic climates): no summer, long autumn (July through to October), winter (November through to February) and spring (March through to June).
  
  NOTE: this submod is based on Dynamic Environment files, and it should be enabled only by DynEnv or TWoS users. Using it with vanilla game or with any other enviromental mod than the ones specified above WILL lead to the harshest of the CTD's!
  
  
• Tree texture resolution submods
  
  The resolution I have chosen for individual tree textures of the main mod is 512 x 512. This is probably the best compromise between eye-candy and performance. Should you experience significant lags while sailing near land, or should you want to enjoy the trees in their original resolution, you can enable one of the following optional mods on top of the main mod:
  
  
  • Full resolution tree textures: 1024 x 1024 square pixels individual tree textures;
    
    
  • Low resolution tree textures: 256 x 256 square pixels individual tree textures (as in stock game).
  
  
• Testing missions
  
  Azores are not around the corner. Should you decide to help me with some alpha testing, I suggest you to enable this optional mod, and run one of the four missions included (one for each season; only mission date changes, all other parameters are identical from a mission to the other).
  Included in each mission, but temporarily disabled, is a 30m-high ruler with 1m, 5m and 10m marks which I used for measuring/adjusting tree heights. Should you want to check their heights yourself, before you enable the mod you can open either of the misge files included in it using notepad, and replace the disabled rows (i.e. the ones starting with a semicolon) with the following rows:
  
  
   

  [Unit 2]
  Name=_Ruler#1
  Class=XXruler
  Type=408
  Origin=Environmental
  LayerOperation=0
  Side=0
  Commander=0
  CargoExt=-1
  CargoInt=-1
  Doctrine=0
  CfgDate=19440401
  MainEquipment=1
  SecondaryEquipment=1
  DeleteOnLastWaypoint=true
  DockedShip=false
  IsEscort=false
  GameEntryDate=19380101
  GameEntryTime=0
  GameExitDate=19451231
  GameExitTime=0
  EvolveFromEntryDate=false
  Long=-3051760.000000
  Lat=4539310.000000
  Height=11.765031
  IsFromSingleMis=false
  Heading=0.000000
  Speed=0.000000
  CrewRating=3
  DelayMin=0
  ReportPosMin=-1
  ReportPosProbability=100
  HighPrioContact=false
  RandStartRadius=0.000000
  TacticalUnit=false
  AvailStartDate=19380101
  AvailEndDate=19451231
  TempHeading=0.000000
  TempNextWP=0
  CombatSubmarine2D=false
  CombatRadius2D=30.000000
  CommandedSpeed2D=0.000000
  Num2DCombatKills=0
  Intercept2DCooldown=6.000000
  NextWP=0

Acknowledgments


- Mihai Stoian, a.k.a. stoianm, for pointing me to terrain files for the first time, during the assembling of 'Dynamic Environment'.

- Mihai Gosa, a.k.a. Pintea, who patiently taught me most of what I know about those files, who helped me with the tweaked shaders included in this mod, and from whom I have still a lot to learn.

- Ubisoft Romania, textures.com and outworldz.com, for some of the seamless textures used in this mod, though in most cases I reworked/recombined them.

- The many photographers and 3D artists from whose pictures and renders I extracted the tree textures and some of the seamless terrain/rock textures featured in this mod.

- Charles Hollemeersch, creator of Njob: a simple utility that I use for quickly creating height, normal and ambient occlusion maps from diffuse textures. I must say that so far it has done a superb job of all the textures I tried it on, with only minor manual adjustments required.

- Last but not least: subsim.com for hosting this mod and the relative discussion, and all the subsim friends who helped me with advise and beta testing. Your support is priceles guys!

Install instructions and compatibility issues


The mod and all the optional mods are JSGME-ready, they can be enabled in no special order and they should be compatible with vanilla game and with any other mod except for the 'Season fine-tunings' submod which should only be used together with TWoS or DynEnv (and enabled on top of them), and either of the 'Tree texture resolution' and 'Detail mask resolution' submods, which should be enabled on top of the main mod.

No campaign restart required.

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Well, I think that's all for now. If you have any remarks, bug reports or simple feature suggestions, or if you want to put your modding skills at work with this mod, I am very open to any kind of contribution and this is the right time showing your feed-back. But first have a look yourself; here is the download link

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Overview of the terrain types featured in this mod

 

Legend:

Stock terrain types

• Lime green: Rain forests
• Dark green: Temperate forests and taigas
• Ochre: Savannas
• Light yellow: Temperate grasslands
• Bluff: Montane grasslands and shrublands
• Pale green: Tundra
• Pink: deserts and xeric shrublands
• Grey: polar deserts
• White: polar ice caps

New (numbered) terrain types

1. PA0402, ATLANTIC MIXED FORESTS:
   • Western Denmark, Northwestern Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Northern and Western France
   
   
2. PA0403, AZORES TEMPERATE MIXED FORESTS:
   
   • Azores archipelago

List of trees/shrubs species, rock types and sand types featured in this mod, sorted by terrain type

 

1. PA0402, ATLANTIC MIXED FORESTS
   
   Trees:
   • European beech (Fagus sylvatica) - 22.6 m
   • European beech (Fagus sylvatica) - 25 m
   • Common oak (Quercus robur) - 18 m
   • Silver birch (Betula pendula) - 16 m
   • Scots pine(Pinus sylvestris) - 17.2 m
   • Scots pine(Pinus sylvestris) - 21.2 m
   • Norway spruce (Picea abies) - 17.5 m
   • Norway spruce (Picea abies) - 18.5 m
   
   Rocks:
   • glacial till
   
   Sand:
   • silica sand
   
   Terrain features:
   • Snowcover during the coldest months (December, January and February).
   
   
2. PA0403, AZORES TEMPERATE MIXED FORESTS
   
   Trees:
   • Azores heather (Erica azorica) - 5.5 m
   • Azores heather (Erica azorica) - 6.5 m
   • Faya tree (Myrica faya) - 8 m
   • Faya tree (Myrica faya) - 9 m
   • Azores white wood (Picconia azorica) - 7 m
   • Azores white wood (Picconia azorica) - 8 m
   • Azores laurel (Laurus azorica) - 10 m
   • Azores juniper (Juniperus brevifolia) - 6 m
   
   Rocks:
   • magmatic rock
   
   Sand:
   • black sand
   
   Terrain features:
   • Moderately dry grass on some islands during the summer.

Notice on SH5 trees

 

The trees we see in game are in reality 2D square "billboards" with a semi-transparent texture mapped on top of them; they rotate with the camera, so that they are always facing the observer, and from a distance we get the illusion that they are three dimensional objects, while they are not.

Only eight different trees per terrain type are allowed, each corrisponding to a square of fixed dimensions on a texture with 8:1 proportions. The mapping of each tree object on top of that texture is hardcoded, thus preventing us from increasing the number of trees for each terrain type and/or from importing simplified 3D tree models in place of two dimensional ones.

Tree sizes are randomized in game. The heights stated in the spoiler above, are relative to the highest specimens of each tree type. No matter how small is the scale of the 2D objects stored in vegetatio.gr2 file, if the whole texture-space assigned to each tree type is used, the highest specimens of that tree will have an in-game height of about 30 m. That explains why stock trees look so disproportionately big. For the above reason, the only way to make trees smaller (without editing the game code), is to make their texture smaller than the texture-space they are drawn on (a trick applied for the first time by our fellow subsim member echolot). This is a waste of memory indeed, but I could't think of any other workaround.

Conversely, we can make trees taller than 30 m by increasing the size of the 2D billboard they are mapped on, i.e. there not seem to be any fixed maximum size, and while there is a limit beyond which huge trees will look distorted, we will seldomly need to trespass that limit.

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The Kiel Canal and the Elbe river seen from Brunsbüttel in springtime:

 

Smooth glacial hills covered in a lush vegetation borther the mouth of the Elbe river:

 

Fall foliage in the mixed forests of the German Bight:

 

Snowy landscape in NW Germany:

 

Agricultural fields on the plains of Northern Europe:

 

Windy paths cross each others on the mountainous land of the Azores:

 

Springtime on São Miguel, Azores:

 

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RESERVED 3

[Fifi]

WOW!!
You are back with your amazing mod

TWOS compatible? Ahh campaign restart required...

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Originally Posted by Fifi

WOW!!
You are back with your amazing mod

Thank you mate. Already tested it in your game?

Originally Posted by Fifi

TWOS compatible?

I think so, unless Vecko has switched to any environmental mod other than Dynamic Environment or made substantial changes to any of its core files (ClimateZones.tga and ClimateZones.cfg).

Originally Posted by Fifi

Ahh campaign restart required...

I am not really sure about that. There is a chance that the game reads information on climate zone and terrain tipe "on the spot", only for the areas surrounding player's sub, in which case campaign restart might not be required. After so many tests carried out for tracking down possible causes of CTD's, Vecko might know more than me on this topic. In the doubt, I would stay on the safe side.