[TEC] Modding SH3

[Fahnenbohn]

Originally Posted by Anvar1061

Where you can download them? ... But why do not you upload your mod to download? Not all have to work with Photoshop and similar programs skills.

Hi Anvar. I plan to work on this me too, and to release my work with FBE v 1.2 (see here)

F.

[Anvar1061]

Originally Posted by Fahnenbohn

Hi Anvar. I plan to work on this me too, and to release my work with FBE v 1.2 (see here)

F.

[foz]

Hi guy`s , just been playing SH3 with some mods , for a long time NOW?. Always crap`s me out , [ the only polite thing l could think of ] that they play-up crash ,etc , even on different OS , eg win xp -vista -7-8 -?.
ONLY time they don`t play-up is 1st install ,eg: vanilla-install , STD install , OEM install. ???? . , [ just like l say to my kids , did you see the original version of this its great ]. LIFE .

[Tycho]

I'm here just for day, but this is enough for sharing the three quick tricks.

First one:
How to adjust axis direction to your needs.

One easy example is with UZO. The new modded boats and turms have this feature, but I don't have computer that will handle all these new models stuff, so I want to make this for stock turms.

You will work with the turm .dat file, in this example: "Turm7c_1_hd.dat".
First, if you give a dial controller (SolBearing) to the UZO node, it will rotate the X axis. So let's look, what will happen when the dial controller rotate the X axis.
This will not be good:

 

If you rotate the Z axis with -90°, this will put the X axis in the needed direction,
but because the 3d model is in this node, it is again not good:

 

So, you first create a new node, name it something recognizable, in this case "Turm7c_1_UzoRot".
For Translation X, Y and Z you give the same coordinates that are in the original UZO node (Turm7c_1_uzo_High).
Then rotate the Z axis with -90° (half a Pi):

 

Now, for the original node, you make it child of the new node. Change Parent id with the Id of the new node (UzoRot).
Give 0,0 for Translation X, Y and Z, and rotate the Z axis with +90°:

 

A small adjustment on Y and Z, to catch up some asymmetry between the UZO and its base when is rotated:

 

Now for test, you rotate manually the X axis of UzoRot, and you see that the rotation is correct.
Bring it back to 0,0 and save the file:

 

Next, you open the turm .sim file and create a new dial controller. Make it Type = SolBearing.
Make DispVal and RealVal = 0 - 360. And for Parent id: give it the Id of the UzoRot node from the .dat file.
Save the file:

 

Now in the game, the model of the UZO will rotate according to the bearing that is pointed:

 

[Tycho]

Uboat Aces screen.

Let's say, that for me is not interesting to compare myself with the real Uboat Aces.
It's not relevant, even with my over 100% realism game, I pretty quick overtake them.
So, why not to use the Uboat Aces screen to compare all of mine captains.
If you play with different the captain name for every new career and want this, it's very easy to do.
All you need, is notepad. And for more easy, JSGME.
I recommend to make it JSGME ready. So first, go in "SH3/MODS" directory and create there a folder "UboatAces", in this folder create folder "data", in data create folder "cfg".
Now go in "SH3\data\Cfg", copy from there the file "UboatAces.cfg" and paste it in the new mod folder.
From here on, after every patrol you disable this mod, edit the cfg file and enable it again.
All is very understandable if you look at the original UboatAces.cfg, but however I will explain.

After your first patrol, you open the file "UboatAces.cfg", delete everything and start from the beginning:

[INIT]
Nb=1   ;;;for now it is one captain, rise by one with every new captain

[ITEM0]   ;;;your first captain
Name=Hans Reitz   ;;;captain name
NbVal=1  ;;for now it is one patrol, rise by one with every new patrol for this captain

Date0=1939   ;;;end date for the first patrol
Month0=10
Day0=4
Tonnage0=8400   ;;;tonnage for this patrol

After second patrol, you rise NbVal= by one and add new date and tonnage.
Pay attention: the first patrol is Date0(Tonnage0), the second is Date1, the third is Date2 and so on:

[INIT]
Nb=1

[ITEM0]
Name=Hans Reitz
NbVal=2  ;;;now are two patrols

Date0=1939
Month0=10
Day0=4
Tonnage0=8400

Date1=1939   ;;;end date for the second patrol
Month1=12
Day1=8
Tonnage1=2400   ;;;tonnage for this patrol

OK. Let's kill this captain and start with new one. In the beginning of the file you rise by one
"[INIT]
Nb="
Then, after last entry of the first captain you add new one "[ITEM1]".
Pay attention: the first captain is [ITEM0], the second is [ITEM1], the third one is [ITEM2] and so on:

[INIT]
Nb=2   ;;;now are two captains

[ITEM0]
Name=Hans Reitz
NbVal=2

Date0=1939
Month0=10
Day0=4
Tonnage0=8400

Date1=1939
Month1=12
Day1=8
Tonnage1=2400

[ITEM1]   ;;;your second captain
Name=Walter Kuhl
NbVal=1

Date0=1940
Month0=1
Day0=18
Tonnage0=3000

And so on... Now for me is more interesting.
After you have 4-5 or more captains behind your back, they are compared and arranged according their tonnage in that time, and you see how your current captain do the job compared with your past captains.

[Tycho]

Some objects - texturing.

How to look from where exactly some model takes its texturing.
Because SH3 use one texture for many things.
Again, let's use UZO for example:

You open the Turm .dat file with S3D, select Uzo node and look which texture is used.

 

Open this texture with graphic editor (I use PaintNet), and look the resolution.
Now in S3D, you select the 3D model and make its UV map preview with the same resolution. Save as PNG.

 

Next, in the graphic editor, you add this PNG like second layer over the texture, and now you see from where exactly UZO takes its texture.

 

If you want, you may make a new texture. The resolution is not matter, now it is 512x512, or 256x256.

 

And create a new material with this texture.

 

Now if you give this new material to the Uzo model, you will have a new texture for the UZO, that is not cross with other objects.

 

Well, this is a very silly method, but is done only with S3D and graphic editor.
It is better to remap a little the texture coordinates, but this require more programs and time, and I will not explain it right now.

 

[Tycho]

I'm away of SH3 now, but this morning with coffee and cigarette, the idea has come to me, will be funny mod.
I go in the wild for the weekend, but after that I'll experiment with feasibility of this thing.

[astradeus]

Bravo, I see that you have advanced.

As you point out, it's a long task to modify the climatic regions of the "TerrainTypes.raw" file, add new missing regions in silent hunter and create unique textures for each region and seasons.

It seems that we had the same idea and intention almost at the same time.
I no longer play sh3. But according to your previous explanations, there are many common points between sh3 and sh5 files.

For information, sh5 uses two essential files in common:

C: \ Ubisoft \ Silent Hunter 5 \ data \ Terrain \ Terrain.cfg

C: \ Ubisoft \ Silent Hunter 5 \ data \ Terrain \ TerrainTypes.raw

The difference may be in the system of vegetation textures.

In sh5, textures are stored in

C: \ Ubisoft \ Silent Hunter 5 \ data \ Terrain \ Textures_and_Vegetation

They are 2048x256. Each texture is composed of 8 trees, representing a season. So there are 4 textures for a climate region.

The textures of the seasons are orgnanize with .ini files
like this one .

https://mega.nz/#!eEE3XSpY!VQyjJShr8...NKsDvf40Z6sQA4

I work on textures of 4096x512 and 2048x256 to create 2 versions.
One normal and one full resolution.

The graphics and the artistic part are the areas where I feel at ease. Conversely, the technical part bothers me and annoys me.

So I decided to concentrate for now, on the climatic regions that already exist in the game.

I will follow closely the evolution of your project.

[Tycho]

Originally Posted by astradeus

As you point out, it's a long task to modify the climatic regions of the "TerrainTypes.raw" file.

TerrainTypes.raw is not big problem, I finished it long ago, and liked it to be simple.
The long task in SH3 for me are the forests files.
The forest file is responsible for distribution of the trees on the terrain.
It's a .dat file with many placement nodes, where you call specific tree and give it coordinates. And one forest file may contain hundreds or thousands of placement, so it's tedious, I don't do it every day.

 

[astradeus]

Originally Posted by Tycho

TerrainTypes.raw is not big problem, I finished it long ago, and liked it to be simple.
The long task in SH3 for me are the forests files.
The forest file is responsible for distribution of the trees on the terrain.
It's a .dat file with many placement nodes, where you call specific tree and give it coordinates. And one forest file may contain hundreds or thousands of placement, so it's tedious, I don't do it every day.

 

Indeed, it is a Colossal work that you have undertaken. I even wonder if it's reasonable? Why give so much importance to the placement of these trees?

Here is the reference that I wish to use to modify the map "TerrainTypes" of the climatic regions.

This is the "köppen climate classification"

https://learn.weatherstem.com/module...ons/88/12.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B...classification

I think it is possible to create more than 20 climatic regions with their unique vegetation.

What do you think?

[astradeus]

Hello . I am testing new vegetation textures for sh5.
I am also shocked that the vegetation of the Mediterranean climate is not represented in the game and the very weak diversification of the vegetation in general. By doing research on the "TerrainTypes", I saw your subject. I notice that you have a good technical understanding of the subject. Maybe we could move forward this area of the game that has not yet exploited.

Some tests.

spring taïga and autumn taïga:





exemple texture full résolution :

[Tycho]

Originally Posted by astradeus

Hello . I am testing new vegetation textures for sh5.
I am also shocked that the vegetation of the Mediterranean climate is not represented in the game and the very weak diversification of the vegetation in general. By doing research on the "TerrainTypes", I saw your subject. I notice that you have a good technical understanding of the subject. Maybe we could move forward this area of the game that has not yet exploited.

Hi, astradeus!
I don't know nothing about SH5, I'm not familiar with SH5 files.
In SH3, now I work on new forest files, including Mediterranean, but it is tedious work, will not finish soon.
I'm with old computer, so I'm careful about computer resources and use low res textures.
And I accomplish my trees in completely different approach than original game.
But yours trees look very good, I'm tempted to test them in the game.

My Vegetation_kit.dat looks:

 

For Mediterranean, probably will use this set:

 

[astradeus]

thank you for your answers .

No answer, I thought you were gone.

I am currently testing a map that I have created and that seems operational. It contains 32 different types of vegetation zones. But I am not yet satisfied with the accuracy of the actual data. This is my trial version. I chose to make big, because even if all zones are not exploited immediately, it is possible to associate several [IdxConversion] with the same type of vegetation.

For example:

IDX 1 = 6; Tropical / rainforest
IDX 2 = 6; Tropical / rainforest
IDX 3 = 6; Tropical / rainforest

Originally Posted by Tycho

And I accomplish my trees in completely different approach than original game.

Can you give me more explanations on this subject?

In my experimentation for sh5, I am looking for a way to get a better rendering of the textures in the game. I thought to modify the models "vegetation.GR2"
Or use the normal map textures for trees.

What are you going to do?

[itadriver]

OOPSS!!!!!

what's going on here ?