A breath of fresh air for SH3!

[Hans Witteman]

Greeting to all!

For my birthday present my son offer me Sh5 he was surprised i didn't bought it already(drm hater), so i decide to give it a try even knowing my internet connection is not very reliable. After a few hours of frustration and intermittent disconnection from the ubi server and random ctd plus horrible lag fest and Hollywood style pyrotechnic i simply open control panel and uninstall the offender. Then i reinstall SH3 and finally i was enjoying that breath of fresh salty breeze on my type IIa.

Then i start looking at new mod like the new diesel engine room from Flakmonkey and Diving duck and i said to my self why not starting modding SH3 with all the knowledge i have being for the past 7 years teaching 3ds max and photoshop for gaming. Some might say everything has been done etc etc, but i don't think it's true many historical details are still to be ad as an example the type IIa deck is not accurate at all.

I was following this forum from the day i bought Silent Hunter 3, but i never post since now because i was very busy with a big personal project involving the creation of a 3d virtual museum of the axis military weapons, tank, airplane, soldiers and theater of operation. All the models i made so far are very high end details as far as electric wire and company logo on instruments. It's been 5 years in the making and it's almost finish i will include in my album some pre renders so you can have and idea of the scope of that project.

Ok, now to the point being teaching 3ds max and photoshop for game since the last 7 years i said to my self that after enjoying so much from this site it was time for me to give back. Unfortunately i cannot make donations because i have no credit card after a bad divorce and bankruptcy. But one thing i can do that worth a lot more than a simple donation is sharing my knowledge with the forum members and possibly making video tutorial for the members. Since i start a new modest mod to completely revamp the type IIa and i have a few questions to keep me going on this i have read all the sh3 mod workshop and shIV for answers on this and explanations are missing vital instructions maybe because of language barrier so here it is:

So far i have install the wonderful Sh3 editor from skwasjer and start playing around whit it, first thing i did was to redo the uvw layout to make it more convenient to texture and add more detail to deck with no repeated half clone texture I'm aware that ubi done that to save memory and optimized for the game engine but for good system with plenty of ram that might work OK. So here my technical questions about my next step:


Question 1: On post on import/export 3d model from skwasjer http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=119571 on step "4. After changing the map channel, you will be asked:" there is supposed to be a window prompt from sh3 editor to appear after i change the channel number but nothing happen on my machine and i can't import more than the first channel embed with the obj. format so i cannot add secondary channel for ambient occlusion map maybe Flakmonkey can answer this one cause he did it with is VIIC lightmap mod?

Question 2 : Since uvw index vertices are not on par with mesh vertices will it conflict somewhere in game?

question 3 : I saw a couple of post talking about enabling the unified render controler for ambient occlusion i found it in the sh3 controler but where am i suppose to put it in the node tree?

Sorry for the lengthy first post but it was need to address what stopping me from going on. Thank in advanced for any answers. And please excuse my bad English it is not my native language.


"If you can't beat them the first time, reincarnate, build your own 3d army and beat them with a mouse&keyboard"

[Hitman]

Amazing how much new blood is puring into SH3 Wellcome, and breathtaking first post I'm sure someone will be able to help you with the technical questions soon

[sharkbit]

Welcome aboard!

I had to stand up-all of your questions were way over my head.

Like Hitman said, there is plenty of talent available to answer your questions.

[flakmonkey]

1. For importing multiple uv maps i prefer to use seperate obj files (rather than max`s uvw files since im a maya man at heart)

If you are importing a mesh, lets call it mymesh.obj to use a second (or 3rd/4th etc) uv channel, export the mesh with the uv mapping you want from your 3d app with the name mymesh-uv2.obj
When you import the 3dmodel with s3d it will automaticly see any files with the same name that have the -uv2 bit in the name as long as you have the appropriate option selected. (see pic)


2. No idea, im guessing no

3. Not sure on this one either, although by the sounds of it youre wanting to add lightmaps to something, if so then just add a texture map node within the material and an embedded image as a child to that node (see pic2)




Hope some of this helps, in well known for being useless when it comes to
explaining things


ps, the lightmap mod for the type2a is pretty much done if youre looking to pretty up youre IIa sub

[Hans Witteman]

Thank for the warm welcome Hitman!

Believe me SH3 is like the Phoenix always reborn from it ash, this game almost feel like it has a soul of it own.

And personally after roughly looking at SH5 engine structure modders even the best will not be able to make it like SH3 with better graphic and don't forget that a poorly optimized game engine is not moddable.

Game publishers will hit a brick wall soon because system requirements are too high they have to scale down cause people in the very near future will not upgrade their system like they use to do in recent year they are gonna be more concerned on putting food on the table.

[Hans Witteman]

Wow that was a fast answer Flakmonkey truly appreciated will try that later on today, and yes i will be happy to combine your ambient occlusion map to my revamp type IIa i almost finish the exterior and since i am an historic freak i did research for correct ral to rgb conversion and it's looking great with historically correct deck without rust like most stock model have maybe in romania wood can rusted we never know lol

I even correct the emergency buoy it was 6 inch too big in diameter and 8 inch to far in the conning tower direction.

Since i'm not a paid member i have to find a host to upload screen capture cause a picture worth a thousand words and i will make a mediafire account to facilitate download and exchange of files.

Thank to all for the warm welcome i will try to do my best to help this great community.

[frau kaleun]

Welcome aboard, Hans, looks like you've fallen in with the right crowd already when it comes to getting your questions answered. Look forward to seeing some of your work when you're ready to unveil it!

[Kpt. Lehmann]

Originally Posted by Hans Witteman

Since i'm not a paid member i have to find a host to upload screen capture cause a picture worth a thousand words and i will make a mediafire account to facilitate download and exchange of files.

For uploading photos, try photobucket.com

It is what I use and it is free.

[Jimbuna]

Fair winds and following seas Hans.

Another free image hosting site (this one doesn't require you to store the images on your account):

http://imageshack.us/

SINK EM ALL!!

[Sailor Steve]

WELCOME ABOARD!

[Hans Witteman]

3. Not sure on this one either, although by the sounds of it youre wanting to add lightmaps to something, if so then just add a texture map node within the material and an embedded image as a child to that node (see pic2)

So far almost there flakmonkey everything went well for second uvw channel the only problem i have left is when i click on enable ambient occlusion in S3d model preview the sub turn black instead of the lightmap showing any clues on this?

Thank kpt Lehmann and Jimbuna for image host suggestions.

[flakmonkey]

I never did figure out why s3d does this sometimes, the lightmap will be visible in game though even if its not there with s3d.

[bigboywooly]

Cool another 3d modeller
Always needed around here

Welcome aboard

[el cheguevara]

Very good news, more mods for sh3. Always respect someone who knows more than me lol, can't wait to see it once all is ready . Keep us updated mate, and welcome to this wonderfull community.

[Hans Witteman]

Originally Posted by flakmonkey

I never did figure out why s3d does this sometimes, the lightmap will be visible in game though even if its not there with s3d.

Hi Flakmonkey thank again for the answer but i remember skwasjer mentioned something about the unified render controller but he never say where to use it or activated to fix the black sub problem.

By the way what start as a modest mod is now going full swing of big surprised since i test many 3d modifications and i mean heavy model tweaking plus totally new uvw unwrap of the mesh and i am simply speechless about the overall stability in game so far, almost no impact on fps very little.

Everything is going so well that i officially named the new mod to :UBOOTTYP_IIA_HAHD, HAHD stand for Historically Accurate High Detail

Here are the main features :

*Complete new deck with accurate railing protection and hawser.
*New UVW Unwrap skin highly detail of early Type IIA.
*Completely redone conning tower with accurate details.
*New UVW Unwrap skin highly detail of early Type IIA conning tower.
*Accurate new 2 cm flak gun with high detail skin.
*Instruments add on in control room and one surprised (no spoil lol).
*Completely redone interior with highly detail texture.
*New Interior lighting.
*Redone bow spray, wake and water spray from drain holes.

If people are please with this first mod i will go for :

*UBOOTTYP_VIIC_HAHD
*UBOOTTYP_IX_HAHD

First picture in game to be release tomorrow if testing go well tonight so i hope i put some smile on kaleun face eh eh!

____________________________
"If you can't beat them the first time, reincarnate build your own 3d army and beat them with a mouse&keyboard"