[REL] SH 5 Lifeboats

[SteelViking]

Hey Rongel, I just got done changing this for Zedi's Campaign files, and I got a hunch that maybe the lifeboats had the same thing going on. The .cfg files in the Sea folder is pointing to a .tga for the texture, but the texture you have included in the mod is a .dds. Now, everything still works in game with this setup, but I wonder if we shouldn't go ahead and change it to .dds.

Like I said, I made this change in Zedi's campaign files, and I did not see a difference. But, I would think things might run smoother if we were in fact pointing to the correct texture file.

Just thought I would give you a heads up on this comrade.

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by SteelViking

Like I said, I made this change in Zedi's campaign files, and I did not see a difference. But, I would think things might run smoother if we were in fact pointing to the correct texture file.

Game engine doesn't care. If it can't find .tga and there is a .dds available (same name) it will use it. If both are available it will use the .dds.

I left the ships with Zedi's campaign as .tga in case someone wanted to use .tgas instead of .dds. Remember .dds is a compressed format that has to be uncompressed. TGA is not.

[SteelViking]

Originally Posted by TheDarkWraith

Game engine doesn't care. If it can't find .tga and there is a .dds available (same name) it will use it. If both are available it will use the .dds.

I left the ships with Zedi's campaign as .tga in case someone wanted to use .tgas instead of .dds. Remember .dds is a compressed format that has to be uncompressed. TGA is not.

I figured the game engine didn't really have problem with seeing the wrong file extension since it still renders the textures, but I don't see why we should be telling it the wrong one when we know exactly what it is. It is one more operation for the game engine to deal with......

Edit: Also, .dds files only get compressed if you tell GIMP to compress them, otherwise it leaves them uncompressed. Where as Photoshop requires them to be compressed.....just one of the reasons I will never switch to Photoshop.

2nd Edit: Just look at my interior mod, I didn't compress any of the textures because .dds compression damages images.

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by SteelViking

I figured the game engine didn't really have problem with seeing the wrong file extension since it still renders the textures, but I don't see why we should be telling it the wrong one when we know exactly what it is. It is one more operation for the game engine to deal with......

Not really. All of that is loaded/figured out at game start. If you think it's doing it dynamically then pick a texture and change it while in game. See if the game engine uses the new texture.

[brett25]

thanks for this excellent mod

[SteelViking]

Originally Posted by TheDarkWraith

Not really. All of that is loaded/figured out at game start. If you think it's doing it dynamically then pick a texture and change it while in game. See if the game engine uses the new texture.

Good point, wasn't thinking about it in terms of program overhead, but still. We know we are dealing with .dds files, why not tell it to look for a .dds? I just don't see an advantage.

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by SteelViking

Good point, wasn't thinking about it in terms of program overhead, but still. We know we are dealing with .dds files, why not tell it to look for a .dds? I just don't see an advantage.

The only advantage I see to leaving them as .tga is so that users who can't make .dds files can still make .tga files for them. Trying to cater to the broadest range of users is why I left them as .tga.

[SteelViking]

Originally Posted by TheDarkWraith

The only advantage I see to leaving them as .tga is so that users who can't make .dds files can still make .tga files for them. Trying to cater to the broadest range of users is why I left them as .tga.

Anyone who can make .tga files can make .dds files. If they can't, as in they don't have the right GIMP plug in, they can ask me for it, I will give it to them.

Edit: I really think we need to strive to clean up our mods, that is make them as stable as possible. Leaving loose ends like file extensions that are not correct seems like an unnecessary risk. But, I don't wish to argue, if this how everyone wants them left, so be it.

[Rongel]

Originally Posted by SteelViking

Hey Rongel, I just got done changing this for Zedi's Campaign files, and I got a hunch that maybe the lifeboats had the same thing going on. The .cfg files in the Sea folder is pointing to a .tga for the texture, but the texture you have included in the mod is a .dds. Now, everything still works in game with this setup, but I wonder if we shouldn't go ahead and change it to .dds.

Like I said, I made this change in Zedi's campaign files, and I did not see a difference. But, I would think things might run smoother if we were in fact pointing to the correct texture file.

Just thought I would give you a heads up on this comrade.

Hey! I have been wondering this too, why the config files have .tga instead of .dds. But this is something that even stock SH 5 ships have, for example if we look inside Cimmaron tanker's roster cfg-file there reads: LightmapTextureName=data/Sea/NOL_T3Cimmaron/NOL_T03_O01.tga

So the lifeboats have also the stock .tga file reference. Didn't change it because everything works, even if it's a bit weird.

[reaper7]

Originally Posted by Rongel

Hey! I have been wondering this too, why the config files have .tga instead of .dds. But this is something that even stock SH 5 ships have, for example if we look inside Cimmaron tanker's roster cfg-file there reads: LightmapTextureName=data/Sea/NOL_T3Cimmaron/NOL_T03_O01.tga

So the lifeboats have also the stock .tga file reference. Didn't change it because everything works, even if it's a bit weird.

The ships don't use the image paths in the cfg files so that extension is not called LightmapTextureName=data/Sea/NOL_T3Cimmaron/NOL_T03_O01.tg.
All the ship textures are in the texture folder

The actual image is embedded in the GR2 file and needs to be changed by hex to point to a different image.

[Rongel]

Originally Posted by reaper7

The ships don't use the image paths in the cfg files so that extension is not called LightmapTextureName=data/Sea/NOL_T3Cimmaron/NOL_T03_O01.tg.
All the ship textures are in the texture folder

The actual image is embedded in the GR2 file and needs to be changed by hex to point to a different image.

Hmm.. I know that the actual image is out of reach (so to say), but are the textures using different names? Because I can't find for example the Cimmaron occlusion map in textures folder or my lifeboat texture barca_pneumatica. The only place I have seen the ship textures is in the ship folder. Now i'm curious.

[reaper7]

Originally Posted by Rongel

Hmm.. I know that the actual image is out of reach (so to say), but are the textures using different names? Because I can't find for example the Cimmaron occlusion map in textures folder or my lifeboat texture barca_pneumatica. The only place I have seen the ship textures is in the ship folder. Now i'm curious.

Ah sorry Rongel - I thought you were referencing to the Base Texture.
This is indeed in the Texture Folder and is called via the GR2 file for that ship - this can be hex edited to point to a new texture.

The Ambient Occlusion map is in each ship folder and is used in-game to apply camo effects etc - cheap Dev trick rather than do proper multi skin textures. This can be assigned by the cfg file to point to another texture (Just remember this is applied like a shadow over the existing Texture so you can never paint white on top of the original texture (It just creates darker shades
of the existing texture).

Now a little trick can be used if you want to use the Ambient Occlusion map to paint proper textures.
That is to Hex Edit the GR2 to point to a texture of your own that is just painted completely white. Now you can paint the AO texture how ever you like and it will appear in full colour on your Ship

See here: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...7&postcount=30

[Rongel]

Originally Posted by reaper7

Ah sorry Rongel - I thought you were referencing to the Base Texture.
This is indeed in the Texture Folder and is called via the GR2 file for that ship - this can be hex edited to point to a new texture.

The Ambient Occlusion map is in each ship folder and is used in-game to apply camo effects etc - cheap Dev trick rather than do proper multi skin textures. This can be assigned by the cfg file to point to another texture (Just remember this is applied like a shadow over the existing Texture so you can never paint white on top of the original texture (It just creates darker shades
of the existing texture).

Now a little trick can be used if you want to use the Ambient Occlusion map to paint proper textures.
That is to Hex Edit the GR2 to point to a texture of your own that is just painted completely white. Now you can paint the AO texture how ever you like and it will appear in full colour on your Ship

See here: http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...7&postcount=30

Thanks for the tip, nice tutorial!

Luckily with the SH 4 ships we have been working with, we get all the textures (no embedded stuff) and it's easy to modify, well If only things that looked good in SH 4 would look good in SH 5...

[coronas]

I found this tutorial http://www.ne.elpea.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1398 for AoEIII. It could be usefull.

[SteelViking]

Originally Posted by reaper7

The ships don't use the image paths in the cfg files so that extension is not called LightmapTextureName=data/Sea/NOL_T3Cimmaron/NOL_T03_O01.tg.
All the ship textures are in the texture folder

The actual image is embedded in the GR2 file and needs to be changed by hex to point to a different image.

Aha, okay Reaper, thanks for clearing that up. See, I knew that the interior of the sub works like you are saying here, because that is how I assigned different textures to different rooms, was hexing the .GR2. But, I don't have enough experience with the ships yet, didn't know what was going on with the configs.