Aircraft roster additions

[kapuhy]

Hey guys, thanks!

A small update from this weekend - it's Hurricane season:

Egypt:

Free French:

Portugal:

USSR:

Turkey:

Yugoslavia:

Originally Posted by XenonSurf

Alas, to contemplate these pictures in the game I would be dead soon because plane must be close and overflying my sub...

I'd hate for my last thought to be "Hey, these textures are all wro..."

Originally Posted by XenonSurf

Strange thing: I never saw any bombs dropped from planes, I wonder if this is rendered in the SH5 grafics ?

It is. In test mission I've created to take aircraft screenshots, I've seen them drop bombs on ships.


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I am struggling to find a workaround for a problem - despite switching material name from "skin" to "cfg#TXRskin" as Gap suggested in this post, LOD file seems to ignore other textures. This happens to Catalina model as well (only aircraft I know to use multiple textures in stock game):



So far only way I found to work is to remove LOD file altogether. Even overwriting it with copy of full resolution GR2 file doesn't work, which suggests the issue is not with GR2 file but the game being configured to ignore additional textures with all LOD files. Another way that would probably work is creating a separate folder with main and LOD GR2 files for every texture version, but I suspect this might be quite taxing for game engine.

[gap]

Ehi, nice work kapuhi.

Probably you are already aware about that website, but I think that wings palette has the largest online collection of aircraft drawings, featuring most warplanes from WWI to modern and portraying them with the paint/camo schemes of various Air Forces and sometimes even Wings and Squadrons using them. A precious resource for scale and 3D modellers and for photoshop artists

[gap]

Originally Posted by kapuhy

I am struggling to find a workaround for a problem - despite switching material name from "skin" to "cfg#TXRskin" as Gap suggested in this post, LOD file seems to ignore other textures. This happens to Catalina model as well (only aircraft I know to use multiple textures in stock game):



So far only way I found to work is to remove LOD file altogether. Even overwriting it with copy of full resolution GR2 file doesn't work, which suggests the issue is not with GR2 file but the game being configured to ignore additional textures with all LOD files. Another way that would probably work is creating a separate folder with main and LOD GR2 files for every texture version, but I suspect this might be quite taxing for game engine.

That's odd. Which aircraft are you trying to fix?

[kapuhy]

Originally Posted by gap

That's odd. Which aircraft are you trying to fix?

As far as I can tell it happens with every single .gr2 plane. In clear TWoS only one to use 2 textures is Catalina, so perhaps it's the best plane for testing this issue.

[gap]

Originally Posted by kapuhy

As far as I can tell it happens with every single .gr2 plane. In clear TWoS only one to use 2 textures is Catalina, so perhaps it's the best plane for testing this issue.

Do you mean the generic flying boat that in SH5 stands in for the Catalina? IIRC TWoS uses a slightly modified version of that plane. Can you please send me a copy of both its GR2 files (main and LOD model)?

[gap]

@ kapuhy

I got your e-mail with the files I had asked for, and I must admit that after a first glance, the main material of both files seems to be configured correctly . In theory, the British (secondary) texture should be applied both to the main and the LOD model, and I remember having tested in the past the correctness of the above statement. Before I run some new tests, may I ask how did you set the float plane in the British roster?

[kapuhy]

Originally Posted by gap

Before I run some new tests, may I ask how did you set the float plane in the British roster?

Below, copy of the file from my British roster. As far as I remember I didn't change it, as I did no modifications to British version of this plane.

 

[UnitClass]
ClassName=SUSFloatEarlyWar
UnitType=304
AppearanceDate=19410201
DisappearanceDate=19480101
DisplayName=BR S Float Plane

[Texture 1]
TextureName=data/Air/AS_USFloatEarlyWar/FloatingPlane_T02.dds
LightmapTextureName=
NormalmapTextureName=
StartDate=19000101
EndDate=19991231
Frequency=1

[Unit 1]
Name=BR American Built Floatplane
DOC=19410201
DOD=19480101

[gap]

Originally Posted by kapuhy

Below, copy of the file from my British roster. As far as I remember I didn't change it, as I did no modifications to British version of this plane.

 

[UnitClass]
ClassName=SUSFloatEarlyWar
UnitType=304
AppearanceDate=19410201
DisappearanceDate=19480101
DisplayName=BR S Float Plane

[Texture 1]
TextureName=data/Air/AS_USFloatEarlyWar/FloatingPlane_T02.dds
LightmapTextureName=
NormalmapTextureName=
StartDate=19000101
EndDate=19991231
Frequency=1

[Unit 1]
Name=BR American Built Floatplane
DOC=19410201
DOD=19480101

Okay, when you get time, try if setting up the flying boat in the British roster as a completely new unit (i.e. a proxy clone of the SUSFloatEarlyWar unit) with its own texture, makes any difference.

[U-190]

Originally Posted by kapuhy

Hey guys, thanks!

A small update from this weekend - it's Hurricane season:

Egypt:

Free French:

Portugal:

USSR:

Turkey:

Yugoslavia:




I'd hate for my last thought to be "Hey, these textures are all wro..."



It is. In test mission I've created to take aircraft screenshots, I've seen them drop bombs on ships.


-------------------------
I am struggling to find a workaround for a problem - despite switching material name from "skin" to "cfg#TXRskin" as Gap suggested in this post, LOD file seems to ignore other textures. This happens to Catalina model as well (only aircraft I know to use multiple textures in stock game):



So far only way I found to work is to remove LOD file altogether. Even overwriting it with copy of full resolution GR2 file doesn't work, which suggests the issue is not with GR2 file but the game being configured to ignore additional textures with all LOD files. Another way that would probably work is creating a separate folder with main and LOD GR2 files for every texture version, but I suspect this might be quite taxing for game engine.

I think it's not about the LOD at all. The whole problem lies in the MipMaps DDS texture. I save in MipMaps 8 and this is quite enough to display the texture while reducing the visibility of the model. I have already encountered similar problems when I modified the games of the series in F1 Codemasters.
Here are my latest modding works for this game:
https://www.racedepartment.com/downl...res-mod.38363/
https://www.racedepartment.com/downl...res-mod.38248/
https://www.racedepartment.com/downl...res-mod.38173/

[kapuhy]

Originally Posted by U-190

I think it's not about the LOD at all. The whole problem lies in the MipMaps DDS texture. I save in MipMaps 8 and this is quite enough to display the texture while reducing the visibility of the model. I have already encountered similar problems when I modified the games of the series in F1 Codemasters.

Hi, thanks! I'm not sure I do quite follow though. The problem I described only happens when:

- aircraft has separate main and LOD models (named, for example, Thisplane.gr2 and Thisplane_LOD.gr2)
- aircraft has two or more textures (for example, it is used by several countries and each country has its own camouflage)

Normally, in GR2 file you can set texture name to cfg#TXRskin which tells the game to check units cfg file in roster folder for which texture to use. If no texture is specified or the above naming convention not used, plane uses default texture.

Except this does not work for LOD gr2 file, so when (like in my example) when a plane that which has American texture by default, but cfg file tells it to use British one, gets far enough away for the game to switch to simplified LOD model - British texture is replaced by American (default).

If there's no separate LOD model (even with the same textures used) the plane uses correct camouflage at every distance.

I don't see how changing texture's mipmaps would help, but if you know of a way I'd be grateful for explaining it because this problem is not only causing trouble with multitextured planes, but also prevents us from making varied, colourful skins for merchant ships. Solving it would be great.

[U-190]

Originally Posted by kapuhy

Hi, thanks! I'm not sure I do quite follow though. The problem I described only happens when:

- aircraft has separate main and LOD models (named, for example, Thisplane.gr2 and Thisplane_LOD.gr2)
- aircraft has two or more textures (for example, it is used by several countries and each country has its own camouflage)

Normally, in GR2 file you can set texture name to cfg#TXRskin which tells the game to check units cfg file in roster folder for which texture to use. If no texture is specified or the above naming convention not used, plane uses default texture.

Except this does not work for LOD gr2 file, so when (like in my example) when a plane that which has American texture by default, but cfg file tells it to use British one, gets far enough away for the game to switch to simplified LOD model - British texture is replaced by American (default).

If there's no separate LOD model (even with the same textures used) the plane uses correct camouflage at every distance.

I don't see how changing texture's mipmaps would help, but if you know of a way I'd be grateful for explaining it because this problem is not only causing trouble with multitextured planes, but also prevents us from making varied, colourful skins for merchant ships. Solving it would be great.

I am currently drawing Messerschmitt BF 109 E and can see for myself exactly what the problem is

[kapuhy]

Originally Posted by U-190

I am currently drawing Messerschmitt BF 109 E and can see for myself exactly what the problem is

Great Keeping fingers crossed.

[U-190]

[U-190]