[WIP] Wolves of the Kaiser:1914-1918 Mod

[W.A.R.D.C_sOnar]

Thanks...

Send me the link (PM) to archived Blueprints ships that you need to. Welcomed a minimum of two views, for example, bow and broadside or top and broadside. It is difficult to model with one shot. I think you understand what I mean. Thanks and greetings

[iambecomelife]

Thanks...I am taking pictures of some German Destroyers now. I will send them soon. And you other guys, yes! I would love to have any WWI paintings etc so send them.

[iambecomelife]

Just fyi - no recent updates because of the tremendous amount of work I've been doing on the "Von der Tann". Not at all satisfied with how it looks but I'm going to pull this off...in modding, you fail and fail until suddenly, you succeed!

My goal is to be able to produce complex units like battleships and battlecruisers at a rate of about 1 new unit every few days.

Hope everyone is healthy, and I will be sending scans of German warships to you soon.

[keltos01]

Keep it up !

[iambecomelife]

Well, I got rid of the horrible gritty skin...I will not be using that skinning method for large ships again.

Progress shots; you will see that now most of the 5.9" casemates have been added.

It is a "mannequin" unit at this point, attached as a sub-object to the American cargo ship. That's why no funnel smoke/bow wave yet. And excuse her crooked "nose"; the bow sheer will be corrected this week..! I wanted to test its appearance in game ASAP before proceding. Good framerates, so it should work well on a variety of computers...my computer is quite old. Much more news later as I continue to add components.





EDIT: Model revised 4/23/16

[makman94]

hello Iambecomelife,

your tremedous work on this project is really amazing !

i am enjoying watching your new updates at posts and i am looking forward to its release.

if you can accept one notification , i would say that you should work more on your textures (player sub and ships).Although your 3d models are very VERY good , they don't look so nice due their texturing (imo). Not a big deal though, but i believe that with better textures will show all their beauty

all the best and don't get me wrong it is just my thought (allready the textures are ok but i think can be made much better and give to your mod all its shining and naturalism)

[iambecomelife]

No problem at all. I actually spent so much time on this model because the textures looked very bad ingame. The first skin and model looked TERRIBLE when rendered in the SH4 game engine...I trashed the skin and model 3x. The skin on the battlecruiser is a modified SH4 skin for the Japanese battleship Kongo, created by the developers.

If you can show me some screenshots of skins you like that would be a big help...I always want to improve. I always try not to leave the skins a Solid grey...instead I try to ad a little rust, scratches, and weathering....IMO if a skin is left solid the ship looks like a plastic toy.

One issue may be that my models have no AO maps because I am still learning to bake them...I tried using one last week on this ship and it was very ugly, so I had to get rid of it. All skins are just the external dds or tga file with no shading, etc rendered...Any recommendations for programs that can render AO, or skinning techniques, would be highly welcome...!

[makman94]

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

No problem at all. I actually spent so much time on this model because the textures looked very bad ingame. The first skin and model looked TERRIBLE when rendered in the SH4 game engine...I trashed the skin and model 3x. The skin on the battlecruiser is a modified SH4 skin for the Japanese battleship Kongo, created by the developers.

If you can show me some screenshots of skins you like that would be a big help...I always want to improve. I always try not to leave the skins a Solid grey...instead I try to ad a little rust, scratches, and weathering....IMO if a skin is left solid the ship looks like a plastic toy.

One issue may be that my models have no AO maps because I am still learning to bake them...I tried using one last week on this ship and it was very ugly, so I had to get rid of it. All skins are just the external dds or tga file with no shading, etc rendered...Any recommendations for programs that can render AO, or skinning techniques, would be highly welcome...!

Unfortunatelly , i have no idea on techiques for 3d models or texturing them
I am ,also, with you on that rust, scratches, and weathering on texturing.

To tell you the truth , i have never seen a good texturing in sh4 for giving you an example (but ,have in mind, that i am not following sh4 threads often so maybe i have missed good works on skins there).
I can tell an example of very nice modeling-texturing in sh3 (no idea if sh3'techniques can be applied in sh4 too).
Wise have reworked your M04B model and made it just...perfect ! have a look at it,also his last released u boats (models and texturing are beyond comparison).
Another example for very nice ships are the releases of The_Frog

[Julhelm]

I found the overall look of the stock ships in SH4 to be far too grungy and bumpy with lots of high-frequency noise in the textures whereas real ships tend to look a lot more smoother. The cleaner textures used in SH5 looked a lot better.

[Giesemaschine]

Gott im Himmel, I just found out about this mod and it's making me drool already.

Sadly my WW1 U-boat knowledge is limited...do I get still get to sink big, fat merchants?

[iambecomelife]

Yes, there will be many merchants to sink. There will be four main types:

-Cargo Ships
-Tankers
-Liners
-Bulk Merchants

Recent modeling updates; the skin now has less noise. Many more details are in place (launches, propellers, rudder, 5.9" guns, railings, bridgework) but some 88mm gun ports are still needed..

The anti torpedo net booms were removed after Jutland in 1916 - the nets were too thin to stop modern torpedoes. Plus, nets damaged the paint work & could wrap around the propellers, stopping the ship. They were also a drowning hazard if the crew had to abandon ship.

In WWII, effective nets were developed, but they were rarely used because they lowered a ship's maximum speed too much. As far as I know, no WWII battleships ever had their own torpedo net system.

[Sailor Steve]

Lookin' real good!

Originally Posted by iambecomelife

The anti torpedo net booms were removed after Jutland in 1916 - the nets were too thin to stop modern torpedoes. Plus, nets damaged the paint work & could wrap around the propellers, stopping the ship. They were also a drowning hazard if the crew had to abandon ship.

As I read it their main use was when anchored in foreign ports. That was also the reason they carried the steam launches with torpedoes. All of that went by the wayside when the war came.

[iambecomelife]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Lookin' real good!

As I read it their main use was when anchored in foreign ports. That was also the reason they carried the steam launches with torpedoes. All of that went by the wayside when the war came.

Yes. I was thinking about the "USS Cole" incident the other day, and it reminded me of how Torpedo Nets and Steam Launches were once used as a close-in defense for warships. Over 100 years after the "Dreadnought", the harbor defense need is clearly still there. It got me to wondering if some modern type of barrier (stowable on ship) could be used to stop suicide boats & so on.

Just found out that the net defence for the "Dreadnought" weighed 100 tons! Even allowing for the size of battleships and armored cruisers, these systems were heavy...No wonder they got rid of them once the latest torpedoes made 'em obsolete.

Closer view of the launches, which were built using plans from the HMS "Dreadnought" boat blueprints...not 100% right for German warships but close enough, based on my research.





Note the 3pdr gun platform on the bow...again, launches will be independent units in WOTK. Correct me if I'm wrong but 1 shot from a 3pdr would probably destroy your pressure hull. 'Wolves of the Kaiser" is NOT intended to be a mod where you can duel on the surface with patrol craft. Only the U-Cruisers had any armor, and I assume a WWI submarine's structural steel would only be proof against machine guns and cannon up to about 30mm? Any thoughts?

[Jeff-Groves]

I have the instructions from the Devs on how to do AO mapping.

It takes practice to get it right but it's near perfect.
The program I have is a free version but produces the same results.

Not sure if it will work with your 3 program but I'm willing to see what I can do to assist you.

The Animations in true SH4 format are also open now.
I can adjust or change as I please.

[U505995]

The curvature of a submarine's pressure hull could ricochet some higher caliber rounds. That is why gunners tended to aim at the conning tower or in between the tower and the hull.