@to Reno and everyone else regarding ROW

[kriller2]

Hi Reno,

First I will ask you a question "Have you tried PE4" or have you only been looking at the screenshots from it?

Now I will try to explain why PE4 look the way it does, it's because I have changed the way the shader works, basicly I found out a way to control the postprocess filtering to remove the black seawater which Dave allways complained about and remove the strange colours when sunset which overrided me and Jaketoox and Dave's work on the sunsets, to make them as Dave was trying to get them look with ROW, this have the sideeffect that the colours look different on screen than the screenshots saved.

When we were developing ROW, there was limits to what we could change because of the tools that were existing at that time, Dave's favorite tool was "minitweaker" and this program he could change alot of things in the file "scene.dat" this is the file that controls how the sun reflects, how much fresnell the water should have and how the waves should behave under different circumstances. This is the "Brain" and allso controls how the sun sets on the horizon and it was with this file Dave worked his magic, hes work with getting the sun to follow another pattern on the sky so that we could have the nice sunsets and sunrise is and his work with getting the waves to act and look like real waves were awesome! but to make it work he allso needed new textures for how the colours around the player should be and in which colour the sun and sky should be.

For this purpose to get the sunsets working he worked very close with Jaketoox who helped him to archive what he wanted and if you know Dave (which you do I can tell ) you know he was very persistent When they were satisfied with it they send the files to me and I took over and changed the colours of the water and sky and sunsets, it took me allmost a month to get this working, looking at pictures and comparing and changing. When I was satisfied I send the files to Dave and the rest of the team and Dave was so satisfied that he asked me if I would like to have a graphics card! (that's the way he was ) I had just bought a new one so i rejected the offer, but it was a nice gesture.

With the PE project I have tried some new methods to control how the sun set, because suddenly it was possible to control everything with Skwasjers S3D editor, ambient light, clouds colour, sunligt power, bassicly all possibilities were open which I have been working with and learning how it all affects eachother and therefore the different versions have looked different, because I have listened to the users of PE and they want blue pacific ocean and another skycolours etc. etc.

There is alot of other work involved with ROW and PE, new shell effects, particle effects which Is4htl and Nisgeis have worked on, new water shaders which Nisgeis have made, new sound which Dave and LukeFF have been working on, seafoam which Seeadler delivered, ROW and PE is not a mod being made by one person, it's an ongoing project which has developed because of teamwork and contributions from many many different people, that is the spirit I have tried to live up and carry on the torch of a brilliant person and now you are putting down the one person who took a very sensitive task and tried to let his name be honored and remembered, because you dont' like the water colour? is that realy worth it Reno?

Here is the full list of contributors to ROW and PE which is included in PE4.

Credits for Pacific Environments 1-4 and (ROW)
Kriller2 – new bow wave, environmental colours, sky and reflection textures, terrain textures,
underwater-textures, modified seafoam, modified fireeffects and explosions, all japanese warships
retextured, scene work for PE4.
Dave / LeoVampire - for the original work on datafiles to control sun set, sun rise and alot of brilliant
ideas, RIP
Demonizer – Original bow wave which I have used and worked on to make it more realistic for PE4.
Mav87th - Free moving Camera and new periscope.
L3th4l for his fire and smoke textures.
Dr.Beast - for his work on the special effects mods for NSM4 and stock SH4.
Nisgeis - for the new Special effects for fire, smoke and oil-leak and depthcharge / shell hits and the new
enhanced water shader to show shallow waters and transparent water.
Jaketoox - for his first work on the sun sets and sun rises, which me and Dave since have improved.
Carotio – for his work on the moon texture and help with the texture for peak of waves.
Kapitain_zur_see - lightning effects and underwater bubbles and caustics for subs
Torps,LukeFF - for Sound-mod not included, which you can download from here, includes realistic
submarine interor and engine effects, fire sounds etc.

ROW sound mod vers. 9 (please read the manual if you are using TM or OM)
http://www.megaupload.com/dk/?d=IN68GMIR

Credits for help and parts of this mod:
"ROW recovery team" testers
Rcjonessnp175,Sqk7744,Donut,Letterboy 1,Snuffy,W_Clear,FooFighters,CaptainHaplo,Reallyde dpoet and
MushMartin.
and Monolith, Dr. Beast and others.
- Redwine: for torpedo explosions and underwater depth charge explosions
- Seeadler for his clouds shaders and sea foam, which I modified to match this mod.
- Wclear for his nice water spray effects and for his scene work, some of his ideas for reflections are used
in this mod. Thanks for your suggestion to use part of your mod.
- Kapitain_zur_see: For his work on the lightning DDS file's
- Rubini: for his debris mod which he let me include in PE4.
– Nauticalwolf for his work on the trees and helping me with the grass and sand textures.

Credits to testers of PE4:
AVGWarhawk, GlobalExplorer, reallydedpoet, Torps
DrBeast, Gunfighter, swdw, Torps

[Reno]

Kriller, because we already had a thread on this subject I answered here...
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...3&postcount=23

[Torps]

Originally Posted by Reno

Kriller, because we already had a thread on this subject I answered here...
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...3&postcount=23

That thread is closed. I have taken up the task in the past and have done some work and it is not easy. You seem to have a passion for this, why dont you download S3D, get permission to use PE 4, ENV 5 and ROW and create your own mod if the changes bother you so much?

In a lot of ways I agree with you there are minor color issues, but I can also enjoy the amazing work done by kriller2 and others. I have contributed to ROW and PE and I can tell you the members have nothing but the best intentions and to keep Daves memory alive. I have messed with the water colors and numerous aspects of SH4, I can go into great detail of how big of a pain in the a** it is when you change one color and how it affects everything else you worked on. When your a modder the best way to describe you enviornment is to many Chiefs and not enough Indians. If you take up modding you will come to appreciate the effort it takes to build a true mod when you step into the modders shoes.

And I am not looking to make this a discussion I just want you to contribute to the forum, instead of critizing everyones work. I think everyone would strongly agree.

Torps out...

[Admiral Von Gerlach]

I am a llife long student of naval matters history and depictions both photographic and otherwise. I am also a professional artist of 40 years and have painted the sea and the maritime environment in every condition, including historical pictures of some of the major conflicts of WWII. I have also been a very interested Naval wargamer for 35 years. so this game and the potentials of it fascinate me. I am studying the history and the library of mods carefully and Davids ROW mod is very very intriguing to me for many reasons. I have a highest end CAD monitor calibrated to a highly overly detailed degree and plan to study all the angles of this question with great interest and Reno's concern is very significant to me at this point. I also can see the earnest intent and care taken by all on the PE mod. So it will be very interesting to study it all. Thanks for all the detailed work and for the detailed posting and i look forward to loading up 1.4 SH4 and starting to study things from ROW on.