[WIP] Building an oil refinery

Originally Posted by gap

https://www.mediafire.com/file/sssuy...0_triangles.7z

Thank you very much, dear friend ! I will try this right now.

Originally Posted by gap

Please upload somewhere the latest version of your mod (together with your testing mission), for me to dig into its files. Maybe, with a fresher eye, I will be able to spot the problem

I will try again this morning to solve the enigma.

[gap]

Originally Posted by Kendras

Thank you very much, dear friend ! I will try this right now.

My pleasure

Originally Posted by Kendras

I will try again this morning to solve the enigma.

Okay, I am sure you will manage

Originally Posted by gap

Okay, I am sure you will manage

Indeed, I solved the problem during the morning.

Progress :



Next step is to build the harbor.

Testing a new black smoke effect ...

[gap]

Looking very nice.

My remarks in detail:

• Port and oil refinery structures look a bit uncolorful. Not really your fault, since stock textures used on them are quite boring
  
  
• Would if be possible moving/rotating the Aruba location, so that its outline matches better the local coast outline?
  
  
   

  
  
  
• Some of the oil storage tanks located farther from the shoreline look like they are standing directly from the grass; could you raise a bit the whole location so that the concrete pavement will stand higher than the underllying terrain in every portion of the refinery area?
  
  
• The smoke effect looks amazing, but maybe such a big dark plume is a bit out of place. I don't know what 40's US regulations on industrial emissions were (probably there wasn't any regulation), nor I know the technical details of oil refining of the time, but I know that black smoke is the result of incomplete hydrocarbon combustion, and I would expect a refinery to emit large quantities of it, only if it was set on fire, or if, due to poor offciency, there was a big quantity of side-products that had to be burned. In modern oil refineries, smoke coils getting out from cooling towers and furnace stacks are mostly composed of carbon dioxide and water vapour, and they are mostly white or white-gray:
  
  https://www.flickr.com/photos/horiavarlan/4273041695
  http://www.gettyimages.it/detail/fot...stock/85903068
  
  I think the only time you will see huge quantities of black smoke getting out from a refinery, it is when the plant has to be shutdowns/restarted, smoke getting out from the top of gas flares (the thin stacks used for burning-off the excess of natural gases, often surmounted by a pilot flame, other link):
  
  http://www.gettyimages.it/detail/fot...stock/85903068 (top picture)
  https://www.google.it/search?biw=153....0.VHimtYXT6KA

[propbeanie]

... looks to me like it took a few hits from an 88mm deck gun there gap...

I am astounded by the amount of work you two do with this game. Excellent stuff. Don't forget that you can use the GWX Terrain Extractor to "level the playing field" (play on words) to help the "concrete" pad of the refinery fit the hill. In other words, you could do some digital "excavating" and / or "land-filling". You might even have to "dredge a channel" for the big tankers to come in and load...

[gap]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

... looks to me like it took a few hits from an 88mm deck gun there gap...

You are probably right

If that was the case, the current smoke effect would be totally accurate, and my suggestion would be to add white smokes or pilot flames to some of the chimneys

Originally Posted by propbeanie

I am astounded by the amount of work you two do with this game. Excellent stuff.

I thank you for your praises, though I have no merit on this project

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Don't forget that you can use the GWX Terrain Extractor to "level the playing field" (play on words) to help the "concrete" pad of the refinery fit the hill. In other words, you could do some digital "excavating" and / or "land-filling". You might even have to "dredge a channel" for the big tankers to come in and load...

Sure, that's a possibility, but due to extremely low resolution of SHIII terrain masks/elevation maps, editing those files is more useful for making some large scale terrain adjustements than for small fine-tunings

Originally Posted by gap

Would if be possible moving/rotating the Aruba location, so that its outline matches better the local coast outline?

 

Yes, I'm working on this, with satellite views.

Originally Posted by gap

Some of the oil storage tanks located farther from the shoreline look like they are standing directly from the grass; could you raise a bit the whole location so that the concrete pavement will stand higher than the underllying terrain in every portion of the refinery area

I will see what can be done.

Originally Posted by gap

The smoke effect looks amazing, but maybe such a big dark plume is a bit out of place. I don't know what 40's US regulations on industrial emissions were (probably there wasn't any regulation), nor I know the technical details of oil refining of the time, but I know that black smoke is the result of incomplete hydrocarbon combustion, and I would expect a refinery to emit large quantities of it, only if it was set on fire ...

... that's the case

Originally Posted by propbeanie

... looks to me like it took a few hits from an 88mm deck gun there gap...

... that's the goal. For now, that's only land units which are emitting this black smoke. I have to create destroyable oil storage tanks, with the proper burning effect. I was testing the smoke effect. I would it to be bigger, as on this pic :



I have also to create the flames effect :





But I think I will need to create a special animation effect (I know it's possible, as in SH4 effects mod for SH3).

Originally Posted by gap

If that was the case, the current smoke effect would be totally accurate, and my suggestion would be to add white smokes or pilot flames to some of the chimneys

Yes, that's my plan too, as on this picture of Aruba refinery :

Originally Posted by gap

I thank you for your praises, though I have no merit on this project

You forgot the triangles ...

[propbeanie]

See gap? He's pulling you in...

As "coarse" as the SH4 GWX changes can be, is it even coarser in SH3? I forget... 255 colors?

[gap]

Originally Posted by Kendras

Yes, I'm working on this, with satellite views.

[...]

I will see what can be done.

Originally Posted by Kendras

... that's the goal. For now, that's only land units which are emitting this black smoke. I have to create destroyable oil storage tanks, with the proper burning effect. I was testing the smoke effect. I would it to be bigger, as on this pic...

You might increase particle size, but the effect would look coarser probably, or you might increase particle spawn rate and radius, but the effect would use more computer resources

Originally Posted by Kendras

I have also to create the flames effect...

But I think I will need to create a special animation effect (I know it's possible, as in SH4 effects mod for SH3).

Sure it is, and it is used in SHIII too: there is at least an explosion particle that I am aware of, using an animated texture

You can look on the web for a ready-to-use animated flame texture, or you can look for two or more flame textures, crop/resize them so they have the same size, and interpolate the animation frames between them with a morphing program

Originally Posted by Kendras

Yes, that's my plan too, as on this picture of Aruba refinery...

Amazing

Don't forget flames on top of flare stacks. Should SHIII miss a model of them, I think that extracting them from one of the 3Dwarehouse models and importing them in game shouldn't be too complicated

Originally Posted by Kendras

You forgot the triangles ...

Originally Posted by propbeanie

See gap? He's pulling you in...

Come on guys... a couple of triangles?

Originally Posted by Kendras

As "coarse" as the SH4 GWX changes can be, is it even coarser in SH3? I forget... 255 colors?

Probably coarser

Originally Posted by gap

... and interpolate the animation frames between them with a morphing program

Mmh, I have to figure out what it is and how it works.

Originally Posted by gap

Don't forget flames on top of flare stacks. Should SHIII miss a model of them, I think that extracting them from one of the 3Dwarehouse models and importing them in game shouldn't be too complicated

There is a high chimney model in harbours_kit.dat.

[gap]

Originally Posted by Kendras

Mmh, I have to figure out what it is and how it works.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphing
https://www.appginger.com/free-morphing-software/

Originally Posted by Kendras

There is a high chimney model in harbours_kit.dat.

I am not an expert on this topic, buy far as I can tell, there should be two main types of chimneys tha can be found in a oil plant:

- chimneys surmounting distillation columns (these should have white smoke)

 

- fase flares (much thinner and higher than the former, these should have a flame on top):

 

[MLF]

Hi Kendras,

Have you made any progress on the refinery?

regards,

MLF