Multiple Skin Ships - C-3 Request

[iambecomelife]

People using my Merchant Variety Pack might have noticed that the C-3 is limited to only one skin, which goes into the data\tnormal\tex folder. This is frustrating, since it's one of the more interesting merchant vessels that the dev's included. I remember that Sergbuto found out how mod the dat files and convert some one-skin escort vessels to versions that support multiple skins. Is there anyone familiar enough with dat-file editing to help me out with this?

[R48]

I forgot Ihad this and haven't installed it yet. But here's the read me file from the warship mod:

It annoys me that warships of the same class but from different countries always appear in SH3 with the same skin. Also, it does not look impressive when multiple units of destroyers of the same class in some convoy or mission all wear the same paint. Therefore, I have tried to find out what can be done about this issue. It turns out that SH3 has a nice feature built-in. The skin of the unit can be changed by putting the corresponding number at the end of unit name in the mission file:

[Group 1.Unit 2]
Name=BR DD V&W#2
Class=DDV&W
Type=4
Origin=British
Side=1
Commander=0
CargoExt=-1
CargoInt=-1
CfgDate=19380101
DeleteOnLastWaypoint=true
GameEntryDate=19380101
GameEntryTime=0
GameExitDate=19451201
GameExitTime=0
EvolveFromEntryDate=false
Long=3129880.000000
Lat=3910800.000000
Height=0.000000
Heading=271.934998
Speed=15.000000
CrewRating=0
DelayMin=0
ReportPosMin=-1
ReportPosProbability=100
RandStartRadius=0.000000


#2 in the the line "Name=BR DD V&W#2" means that the game engine should pick up the number 2 skin. Each skin needs to be stored inside the corresponding ship folder in the SilentHunterIII\data\Sea directory. The skin texture TGA file name should end with _TXX where XX=01, 02, 03... is the skin number.

However, to use this built-in feature, one needs the proper DAT file for each vessel. Many merchant models already have such DAT files but none of the warships.

For now, my mod includes modified model (DAT) files, which allow for multiple skin usage, for C&D- and V&W-type destroyers, Flowers, and armed trawlers along with multiple skin textures. These vessels are used pretty often in the game.

I have tested this only in single missions but do not see any reason why they should not work in the campaign. I also think that there is no significant limit for the skin numbers because I saw numbering for V&W DDs higher than campaign files although I have done testing only the number of skins up to 3.

[Canaris]

Hm, if you need that file ...
It's done.

MfG
Canaris