[WIPs] More Crew and some underwater love

[Vanilla]

Originally Posted by Rickster1

great , can you add crew members in submarine?

Originally Posted by Zedi

Vanilla, you spent a lot of time to understand how this works, now maybe is time to put all into a mod. Step by step, start with the missing crew, the WP and so on. Is the way how big mods got born.

To do it I miss two things: ability to add waypoints (what Paris_England has done already, I just need to repeat it) and list of functions for scripts. I am trying now to add waypoints, hopefuly this will not take too long to figure out. And functions - well, most of the ones needed I already know, it will do for now. I'll do my best for sure to create a crew mod in a shortest time possible, but I am afraid that I will not be skillful enough to pull it off, that's why I create tutorials along the way so if I cannot do it the knowledge won't be lost. So no worries - I sleep and dream a full crew mod.

[stoianm]

Originally Posted by Vanilla

To do it I miss two things: ability to add waypoints (what Paris_England has done already, I just need to repeat it) and list of functions for scripts. I am trying now to add waypoints, hopefuly this will not take too long to figure out. And functions - well, most of the ones needed I already know, it will do for now. I'll do my best for sure to create a crew mod in a shortest time possible, but I am afraid that I am not that skillful, that's why I create tutorials along the way so if I cannot do it the knowledge won't be lost.

I think this will be your first mod and will be an AWSOME one... do not rush..better later than never

[Zedi]

Originally Posted by Vanilla

...but I am afraid that I will not be skillful enough to pull it off...

Yeah, right. Thats what all great moders say when start moding. Just give it a go, is none else who can make this mod anyway. Paris is off and low chances on his come back anytime soon.

[Vanilla]

These GR2 are really giving me hard time! I figured out how to attach a new file with waypoints by hex-editing: 'main' GR2 file holds special references to waypoints, these are either names for waypoints in special clause for the part of the model waypoints are in, the loader somehow reads them from bottom to top, or in other cases this clauses have link to another GR2 file in place of names - and that is the key - if I want to add a new file (a copy of an old one) I need to somehow insert a link to it into the main GR2 file. Seems easy at first glance, but the problem is that I cannot change the size of any GR2 file even by one byte, moreover the 'byte-distance' between the clauses should be the same or the game and Goblin crash. That means that the only way to add a link is to type it over existing waypoints or link. That works in terms of Goblin not crashing but it messes everything else and doesn't really help in many instances.
Not only that but Granny Viewer starts to complain about CRC of GR2-files I try to edit and won't open them anymore - this can bring more grave troubles later.

If only Paris was here to tell how he has done it...

I'll continue looking for a solution. Maybe debugging Goblin to see how he reads waypoints will help, although my meager skills with debugging will not help for sure...

Goblin nor SH5 cares about the CRC.
Just don't add or remove anything as that corrupts the Section Pointers.

Changeing the names of things in a GR2 also changes the ID it will be assigned.
So as long as everything in the file is renamed there should be no ID conflicts.

[anzacmick]

gday fellas...just to keep the information flowing in this topic...from post:
http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/showthread.php?t=182540
the following info from the man himself

Hi guys,

if it's any help here's how I added xtra waypoints:

For each room:

Copy GR2 & CHR files
OPEN the GR2 in a hex editor. You should see the waypoint names for the room. Change these to something unique and memorable --I'm not a hex editor so I just change a letter in each eg: QR2_BOSUN01 to QR3_BOSUN01

To get these waypoint to work in the game I cal them the same way as the engines are called by using the PRT file -- it's kinda like using 'includes' if you'e a programmer I guess

So in goblin open the submarine PRT file and insert a MERGE CTRL behaviour which points to your copied GR2 (with the renamed waypoints)

To add crewmembers to these new waypoints add SAPIENS to the ORIGINAL CHR file -- my memory is fuzzy here I'v been away from this for a long time but in Goblin you'll have to open the sub GR2 file I think which then loads in the relevant files. Select one of the new wayboints and add a Sapiens behavior and crate your new crewmember

And you can position the new waypoints the same as the old by referencing them in the ORIGINAL room_waypoints.TXT file.

Rinse and repeat for each room and each sub.

The existing crewmember behaviours file can be used to control their actions (idles etc).

NOTES:
Crewmembers cannot move from one room to another unless they are respawned in another compartment. There's some odd masking on the bulkheads which will give odd effects if you try to walk a crewmember from one room to another.

I never tried his technique with the external waypoints, but I expect i to work.

Sorry I can't be more specific -- I'm not in front of th machine I used for this, but I hope this is of some use.

And my apologies for not being able to work up my mod as yet -- too busy with RL -- but I'm very happy to see this issue being worked on.

Hope this helps

now get to work fellas pump out those extra crew dudes..... wish i understood it all

[Admiral Von Gerlach]

thank you for this idea and work..hope it comes out...look forward to it when it does thanks again.

[urfisch]

someone should take care of this work, paris has done!!! i think paris does not find the time to work further on this...

[stoianm]

Originally Posted by urfisch

someone should take care of this work, paris has done!!! i think paris does not find the time to work further on this...

i think that Vanilla already is taking care of this

[anzacmick]

im willing to help if someone is willing to teach Maybe we could do this as a collective??? ... god help us all

[Vanilla]

I am sorry for being a bit slow here. It is rather tedious thing to do. So far I have added custom waypoints for one room and made one sailor appear on those 'extra' waypoints just as a proof of concept. It works fine, however the problem is that with the way new waypoints are addeded it is not possible to check animations in Goblin needing to launch the game each time. My idea is to work around it by creating several 'submarine file sets' each one holding one waypoints set, check animations there and then combine them all together. Since it will take quite some time I switched to simple adding missing crew, it has to be done anyway, extra waypoints or not, and many people are eager to get extra crew ASAP. But having some issues in RL I've managed to add only 8 sailors in the time given. Need 12 more. And unfortunately I am away untill the 10th. I will continue to work on it afterwards. Sorry the delay.

[Vanilla]

Originally Posted by anzacmick

im willing to help if someone is willing to teach Maybe we could do this as a collective??? ... god help us all

Thanks mate! As soon as I finish the template there will be a need for somebody to give a hand in animations, since animating 50 sailors is quite big thing to do. I'll let you know.

[Paris_England]

Hi Vanilla,

Good to see you're working on this! I wish I had the time, but I haven't touched SH (or anything else for that matter) since February. Hope the method I described helped out a bit.

Best

P

[Paris_England]

oh -- and the underwater part of this thread has been handed to Stoianm who is already working on his mod Env that covers much the same as I was preparing to do -- only he's way ahead of what I had.

Finally, if anyone wants dolphins (whales, sharks etc) -- they're added the same way as DWs iceburgs. If you can find SH3 or SH4 dat files you can just add them to campaign (get the mod authors permission of course).

I say 'just add them' as if that's sooo easy, but you know what I mean

Good luck and good hunting

P

[stoianm]

Originally Posted by Paris_England

oh -- and the underwater part of this thread has been handed to Stoianm who is already working on his mod Env that covers much the same as I was preparing to do -- only he's way ahead of what I had.

Finally, if anyone wants dolphins (whales, sharks etc) -- they're added the same way as DWs iceburgs. If you can find SH3 or SH4 dat files you can just add them to campaign (get the mod authors permission of course).

I say 'just add them' as if that's sooo easy, but you know what I mean

Good luck and good hunting

P

I like a lot what you did on the textures for sands... we will rework a bit... the ones for plants i have better... also the filters and fog parameters they are my speciality... i spoked with vanilla and he will help me with the dolphins... so pls send me this work also... if i will be not able to do by myself i will ask Zedi, TheBeast or TDW for help... but i wanted to work with this kinds of file long time ago... so i think is time for me to start