Lighthouses in SH5

[Seaowl]

Small update for my part: Have localized lighthouses for regions where the first campaign takes place.
The coordinates match not to 100% the real world coordinates.
Thats not possible, because the SH5 world differs from the real world.
I tried to find the most plausible spot for lighthouses on the SH5 map near their real-world-locations.
As source I used mainly wikipedia. The lighthouses names are their present-days names (consistently without diacritical signs).




Reading Gap´s last information about his Ecomod, it seems to be best to wait with any further work on placing lighthouses until Gap proceeds.
I wasn´t able to place important lighthouses, because rocks and islands are missing.
Perhaps I will compile a list of those around Great-Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Norway.

Problem until now is:
Some .dat files appear in SH5, others don´t, even though I do exactly the same things, when importing them.
Will search through the TDW-unit-import-thread to find a solution.

The next step will be to import the lighthouse into a .GR2 file, namely the „church“ file.
To begin with I will do it without AO- or Normalmaps, because I had troubles with flickering.
Will follow TDW´s instructions and cry for help.
If someone knows some coprehensible tutorial, I would be grateful.

[gap]

Originally Posted by Seaowl

Small update for my part: Have localized lighthouses for regions where the first campaign takes place.
The coordinates match not to 100% the real world coordinates.
Thats not possible, because the SH5 world differs from the real world.

Can you please make a quick list of the lighthouses whose real location didn't find an exact match in the SH5 world?

Originally Posted by Seaowl

I tried to find the most plausible spot for lighthouses on the SH5 map near their real-world-locations.
As source I used mainly wikipedia. The lighthouses names are their present-days names (consistently without diacritical signs).

Don't always trust wikipedia: I don't say that its information is wrong, but more often than not the coordinates it offers are an approximation of the real locations. For still existing lighthouses, I always check them with Google Earth.

On a side note: the best all-around website on lighthouses that I have found so far is the lighthouse directory. Other websites with nautical charts that I like checking for minor and lesser known lights and beacons not listed elsewhere, are the following:

http://map.openseamap.org/
http://fishing-app.gpsnauticalcharts...avigation.html

Originally Posted by Seaowl

Reading Gap´s last information about his Ecomod, it seems to be best to wait with any further work on placing lighthouses until Gap proceeds.
I wasn´t able to place important lighthouses, because rocks and islands are missing.
Perhaps I will compile a list of those around Great-Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Norway.

Yes please!

Originally Posted by Seaowl

Problem until now is:
Some .dat files appear in SH5, others don´t, even though I do exactly the same things, when importing them.
Will search through the TDW-unit-import-thread to find a solution.

That's weird. Check if their 3D coordinates don't place them below the terrain/seabed level. Did you set them as terrain objects or as land units?

Originally Posted by Seaowl

The next step will be to import the lighthouse into a .GR2 file, namely the „church“ file.
To begin with I will do it without AO- or Normalmaps, because I had troubles with flickering.
Will follow TDW´s instructions and cry for help.
If someone knows some coprehensible tutorial, I would be grateful.

Always make sure that the GR2 file you start from, fits your present and future needs.

Most stock terrain objects lack 'bump' and 'additional bumpmap' (i.e. normal map) support. In addition to that, the model you have chosen also lacks "self-illumination" (i.e. ambient occlusion map) support. That is okay, because you said that you don't want your model to feature those maps, but if in future you will decide to add them, you might be forced to re-import your model in another GR2 file with a better texture support; in theory, on loading any GR2 file the latest GR2 Editor versions let you choose whether you want to add the missing strings to the file, but that never actually worked for me.

Something else you should look, is the number of meshes of the base_GR2 file, because you can't add new meshes. Church.GR2 has only two meshes, one for the visible model and one for the collision model. That's okay if you want to import you lighthouse as one mesh, but if you wanted to split it in one or more parts, or if you wanted it to use a lowpoly water reflection model you might better pick some other GR2 file with more than two meshes.

Lastly, I have recently discovered that the HarborObjectCtrl, used in SH5 for the rendering of snowy textures during winter and of windows lights at night, doesn't work on my pinnacle rock texture, probably because - looking for normal map support - I imported it the GR2 file of one of the icebergs which obviously don't need that controller. As you see, it is a matter of compromises, and often you will have to trade off some features for some other features

[Seaowl]

Of course Wikipedia has not the same level of information as sources altogether dedicated the lighthouse-topic.
On the other hand, it is a good point to start with:
you are not overwhelmed, the information is clearly arranged, there are direct links to OpenStreetMap and – because both are given – you haven´t to convert degrees into decimal values.

My workflow was as follows: Following the coordinates, I tried to find approximately the location of the lighthouse on the SH5 map.
Then I compared the location on the SH5 map with the location of the lighthouse shown at OpenStreetMap.
In the end I placed the lighthouse on the SH5 map at that position, where I had the impression, it would represent best his real world position.
Often I put it nearer to the shore or at some nice shore nose around.

Two examples:

Grottuviti lighthouse at Island: The position 64.165°/-22.02195° provided by Wikipedia is located at sea on the Sh5 map.
In SH5 the island Grotta – the original place of Grottuviti – isn´t modelled.
But a little southward there is a island on the SH5 map, where OpenStreetMap indicates mainland.
Hence I placed Grottuviti there, at: 64.155472°/-22.030581.

Vardo lighthouse in the North-east of Norway: The Wikipedia position 70.38876°/31.15635° is – although near the shore – at sea.
The whole islands there aren´t modelled in detail.
Finally I placed the lighthouse at 70.389732°/31.151344° at some tongue of land .
And so on.

In addition there is only a fraction of the real world lighthouses into that Mis-file.
At the moment my foremost goal is not to have an exact real world representation (what wouldn´t be possible), but to see the effect of these lighthouses during campaign.

But probably I could convert the OpenSeaMap values and insert them into the Mis-file.
Then one could clearly see, where the lighthouses on their original location, were misplaced or not on the SH5 map.

That´s the one thing, the other thing are missing rocks and islands.
I have to lump together my hand written notes on them or collect the information anew.
It will take some time.

Concerning GR2 file import: At the moment I´am in a sort of trial and error stage.
I would be happy, if I succeed to import the lighthouse in its most basic form.
Once I´ve figured out how it works, I will take into account all these aspects you mentioned.
Thanks for that.

And I will have an eye on the 3D-coordinates of the Dats.
Thanks for that hint, too.
Next thing I will try is to import a non-working model into a working one.
Most likely I only overlook some small detail, as always.

[Seaowl]

See the difference!

From close up (with shadow!):







From far away:







The left one is the lighthouse imported into gr2 files, the right one the common dat file.
Additionaly I have added an AO- and a Normalmap.
Of course there´s quite a room for improvement.
Especially concerning Blender, I´m not fully aware of what I´m doing.

Next step will be to understand how this bones-stuff works for adding the lighthouse-flare.

Because I´m intending to place a seperate model into the library, I´ve removed the lense from the lighthouse.

[gap]

Well done Seaowl!

Your first GR2 import looks promising, and your GR2/DAT comparison is very useful. Besides the obvious eye candy of dynamic shadows, It also demonstrates that GR2 model look much sharper too, though the additional texture maps you have added to the GR2 version of Flakmonkey's model, the in-memory texture compression/sampling settings (for the DAT version) might also play a role in that. I have a few questions/remarks.

Have you tried adding a specular map in the alpha channel of the main (diffuse) texture? A well done specular map can do miracles in increasing the realism of models.

Are the lighthouses set as terrain objects or as land units?
If the latter is true, you can add a LOD model for the GR2 version. Just look at stock sea/air units to see how their LOD models are set.
If the contrary is true (i.e. the lighthouses are simple terrain objects) no LOD model is possible, but I am curious to know if you applied this method to increase the rendering radius of the GR2 model.

Are the texture/materials of the DAT lighthouse version set as in SHIII or SHIV? SHIII has a limited multi-material support, but SHIV's UnifiedRenderController enables DAT models to have as many maps and textures as SH5's GR2 models and to similarly use dds (compressed) textures instead of tga ones. It would be interesting if we could put side by side a DAT and GR2 model at their respective best, and see how they will compare in game.

I can be wrong, but I seem to see a smoothing problem near the base of the model (below the door). If that's true you can solve it by splitting some of the model edges. Since you are using Blender, there is a edge split modifier you can use for quickly performing that task.

Storing the lamp/lens model and the flare effect in separate files than the main model is a good idea. If the main model is set as a unit, you can link the lamp to it by equipment node/bone and date-configurable .eqp file or, for any other type of model, via placement nodes (for DAT units) or via bones and .prt file (for GR2 units).
Creating new bones using GR2 Editor is not hard: you need to check and select one of the existing bones, right click on it and select "clone bone". Renaming the new bone, changing its parent bone and editing its position within the model is quite straightforward but let me know if you need help. Just note that the latest GR2 Editor version don't handle bones very well, so make backups (in case you file gets corrupted) and in case you fail performing the clone upload here you file and I will see which one of the previous GR2E versions I have on my HD will work better with it

[Seaowl]

Thanks for the reply, Gap.

Have you tried adding a specular map in the alpha channel of the main
(diffuse) texture? A well done specular map can do miracles in increasing the realism of
models.

For shading I have used the „Principled BSDF“ with Cycles Renderer in Blender 2.80-beta.
The Alpha channel of the texture is enabled, but consciously I haven´t added any special specular map.
In the „Principled BSDF“ though, I had to change some values particulary the roughness, to obtain an acceptable result.

But I suppose, it´s far from perfect and I´am thankful for every instruction.
As I said above: I´am at the very beginning of using Blender.
It´s a lot of fun but a ongoing trial and error.

Are the lighthouses set as terrain objects or as land units?
If the latter is true, you can add a LOD model for the GR2 version. Just look at stock
sea/air units to see how their LOD models are set.
If the contrary is true (i.e. the lighthouses are simple terrain objects) no LOD model is
possible, but I am curious to know if you applied this method to increase the rendering
radius of the GR2 model.

In my first attempts I set – as you have shown me – the lighthouse as terrain unit:
The problem was, that the lighthouseflare dissappeared like switched off in a distance of about 2700 meters;
the model itself was visible only a little bit longer (about 3500 m).

Later – likewise following your suggestion – I set the lighthouse as land unit.
Since then visibility is no issue any longer.
There is no noticeable popping up of the model itself.
The flare is visible from about 16-17 km.
(Edit: I refer here to the Dat-file flare. Don´t know how a GR2-lense with Goblineditor set particle-controller will act.)

Of course: the flare of real lighthouses reaches a lot farther.
Though thats a problem to address later.

As shell-unit figures the LCD_Bunker_Large file.
So far I haven´t neither added any LOD-model, nor changed
the Reflect and DMG_col mesh of the original unit.
I will deal with them in the next turn.

Are the texture/materials of the DAT lighthouse version set as in SHIII or SHIV?
SHIII has a limited multi-material support, but SHIV's UnifiedRenderController enables
DAT models to have as many maps and textures as SH5's GR2 models and to similarly
use dds (compressed) textures instead of tga ones. It would be interesting if we could
put side by side a DAT and GR2 model at their respective best, and see how they will
compare in game.

I have used the original SH3-dat.
Never managed to append AO-maps and Bumpmaps to converted SH3 units in SH4.
But – as far as I remember – in KSD-2 (really great mod by the way) there is a simplified model of Flakmonkeys lighthouse with additional Ao-map.
Could try to import it and – if there is any significant difference – post some comparision screens.

I can be wrong, but I seem to see a smoothing problem near the base of the model (below the door). If that's true you can solve it by splitting some of the model edges. Since you are using Blender, there is a edge split modifier you can use for quickly performing that task.

You are right, there is a problem.
Will try to solve it with edge-splitting.

Thanks again to taking the time to answer
and providing all the tips and hints.

[gap]

Originally Posted by Seaowl

For shading I have used the „Principled BSDF“ with Cycles Renderer in Blender 2.80.
The Alpha channel of the texture is enabled, but consciously I haven´t added any special specular map.
In the „Principled BSDF“ though, I had to change some values particulary the roughness, to obtain an acceptable result.

But I suppose, it´s far from perfect and I´am thankful for every instruction.
As I said above: I´am at the very beginning of using Blender.
It´s a lot of fun but a ongoing trial and error.

I know very little about rendering programs but how do your work with Cycles Renderer applies with the textures and materials we see in game?

Originally Posted by Seaowl

In my first attempts I set – as you have shown me – the lighthouse as terrain unit:
The problem was, that the lighthouseflare dissappeared like switched off in a distance of about 2700 meters;
the model itself was visible only a little bit longer (about 3500 m).

That's true. As I have discovered with the input of Jeff, the rendering distance of terrain objects is proportional to the radius of their bounding sphere, so if you want to increase it, you need to add a dummy mesh to your model. A big triangular face under the soil level (so that it can't be seen) will do the trick. How big, is a matter of trial and error

Originally Posted by Seaowl

Later – likewise following your suggestion – I set the lighthouse as land unit.
Since then visibility is no issue any longer.
There is no noticeable popping up of the model itself.
The flare is visible from about 16-17 km.
Of course: the flare of real lighthouses reaches a lot farther.
Though thats a problem to address later.

IIRC, units' rendering radius in stock game is 20 km. Beyond that limit, all the units are treated as immaterial points. One of TDW's patches can increase this limit. During your tests the lighthouse flare might have disappeared because you had trespassed that limit, or because the size of the effect had become too small compared to your creen resolution.

Originally Posted by Seaowl

As shell-unit figures the LCD_Bunker_Large file.

That's the bunker I have imported in game for TWoS. In general I wouldn't recommend you to use modded files for your own mods. Due to the unfinished state of GR2Editor, the modding of GR2 Editor might corrupt GR2 files in a way that it won't be obvious until you you try performing certaing operations on them

Originally Posted by Seaowl

So far I haven´t neither added any LOD-model, nor changed
the Reflect and DMG_col mesh of the original unit.
I will deal with them in the next turn.

You could attach the water reflection controller directly to the main model and replace the current reflect model with a simple dummy mesh with no controller atached to it, or you could create a low poly version of the main model (e.g. using Blender's decimate modifier) and use it as reflect and LOD model.

Originally Posted by Seaowl

I have used the original SH3-dat.
Never managed to append AO-maps and Bumpmaps to converted SH3 units in SH4.
But – as far as I remember – in KSD-2 (really great mod by the way) there is a simplified model of Flakmonkeys lighthouse with additional Ao-map.
Could try to import it and – if there is any significant difference – post some comparision screens.

Do you have SHIV? If not, just check one of the DAT ships included in TWoS to understand how the unified render controller works. It should be okay using it on units as well as on terrain objects.

Originally Posted by Seaowl

You are right, there is a problem.
Will try to solve it with edge-splitting.

Okay

Originally Posted by Seaowl

Thanks again to taking the time to answer
and providing all the tips and hints.

My pleasure

Let me know if in future you decide to experiment with the HarborCtrl controller (the one used in SH5 for adding night lights and winter snow to terrain objects). I tried adding it to my sea stack model but it didn't work probably because I imported it in the GR2 file of one of the stock sea units, (not a terrain object). I am not 100% sure about that, but here might be something in the materials of terrain objects that makes the said controller to work.

[Seaowl]

I know very little about rendering programs but how do your work with Cycles Renderer applies with the textures and materials we see in game?

Due to deleting the original material, my first import of the lighthouse looked like that:

So I tuned Specularity down and Roughness up.

(and applied face and edge smoothing of course)

These changes are transfered via the mtl. file.

In that case - as far as I´ve seen - especially by the Ns., Ks. and Illum values.

Is that the way, how the specular map works?

The Renderer itself appears only indirectly in game.

For exampel: the way you are doing AO-maps is determined by the specific renderer.

After a lot of efforts, I´m meanwhile able to create AO-maps in Cycles

(In the beginning they were pitch black), in Eevee or so, for whatever reason,

I´m at the moment not.

Would be interested, if AO-maps created with Cycles look differend from AO-maps created with other Renderers? Or if differences are only a matter of settings?

But concerning AO-maps: I would be thankful for every tip,

how to set up options and values to achieve good results in SH5.

Thanks at this point at the creator of ObjSort too:

Have to find the post with the link again, where I downloaded it from,
to give proper credit.

A great tool, that works very well and saves me a lot of time!

That's the bunker I have imported in game for TWoS. In general I wouldn't recommend you to use modded files for your own mods.

Initially I intended to use the church file as shell-file.

But when you open it, the church itself is miles away from zero point.

Annoyed by scrolling, I choose the bunker file instead and it was a good decision.
It´s a great import.

As you mentioned above, it´s cool to have the possibility to add AO- and Normalmaps.

And likely sooner or later, I will be able to make use of the damage and reflection model too.

Why there is an additional Bump map material: Bunker_Large_AB?
Would I be able to apply a Normalmap and a Bumpmap at the same time?

Until now I had no problems with the bunker file.
After all I read, I have expected much more instability.

IIRC, units' rendering radius in stock game is 20 km. Beyond that limit, all the units are treated as immaterial points. One of TDW's patches can increase this limit.

I need to test this again and moreover I will try to find this patch of TDW.

Do you have SHIV? If not, just check one of the DAT ships included in TWoS to understand how the unified render controller works. It should be okay using it on units as well as on terrain objects.

Yes, I have SH4. I will try to import Flakmonkeys lighthouse with SH4 features into SH5.

But – as far as I remember – the trouble with using unified render controller in SH5 is, that it doesn´t work with land units or terrain objects?

Yesterday, I managed to import the lense into the AmmoBoxGR2.
I dropped this file into the library.

It was easy to change the bone-position and to modify the lighthouse.eqp.

Problems started, as I attached a corresponding sim-file and tried to set the ParticleGenerator.

The lense vanished in Game as well as in Goblineditor.

Will experiment a bit more.
In the next step, I plan to transform the TDW_FXU_lighthouse_flare into a lense.sim.

And since you made me curious about this HarborController, I will have a look at it, as soon as possible.

[Jeff-Groves]

Originally Posted by Seaowl

Thanks at this point at the creator of ObjSort too:

Have to find the post with the link again, where I downloaded it from,
to give proper credit.

A great tool, that works very well and saves me a lot of time!

Your welcome.


http://www.mediafire.com/file/lzcrdp...jjf/ObjSort.7z

[Seaowl]

Thanks again!


Helped a lot to clear the first hurdle.
In continuous use now...

[gap]

Originally Posted by Seaowl

Due to deleting the original material, my first import of the lighthouse looked like that:

So you left GR2 Editor to update material properties from the mtl file of the imported model, didn't you?
That's a cool feature of GR2 Editor that IIRC is missing from Silent3ditor though I often skip the material import part and I keep stock materials. My bad for doing that: stock material settings are quite dull.

Originally Posted by Seaowl

So I tuned Specularity down and Roughness up.
(and applied face and edge smoothing of course)
These changes are transfered via the mtl. file.
In that case - as far as I´ve seen - especially by the Ns., Ks. and Illum values.

In other words you use Cycles for setting up the material properties that get exported in the .mtl file. Good

Originally Posted by Seaowl

Is that the way, how the specular map works?

See the specularity and roughness parameters stored in .mtl files as the luminosity/contrast knobs of an old TV. They can change the global appearance of an image on screen, but if the screen displays an uniform background, messing with those knobs won't improve that much its look.
More specifically, the roughness parameter governs the strength of the normal map; if no bump/normal map is used, I think roughness will do nothing. Conversely, the specularity parameter governs the intensity of the specular map, i.e. the strength of the texture used for defining the shininess of different portions of the same material; the lighter a portion of specular map, the more shiny the corresponding material will be rendered. In your case, using no specular map is equal to using a full white specular map which, on turn, determines all the strength of the specularity parameter to be applied to the material(s), with overly bright or dark objects showing no significant highlights (as with your first lighthouse import which looked 'entirely bleached').

For more on specular map and on their usage in conjunction with bump/normal maps see the following links please:

https://wiki.splashdamage.com/index.php/Specular_Maps
http://www.rastertek.com/dx10tut21.html
https://learnopengl.com/Lighting/Lighting-maps

Talking in general, specular maps are quickly obtained from diffuse maps, by desaturating them, by enhancing their contrast, by reducing their gamma and possibly by "cutting" all the dark/medium greys so they look black. Nonetheless, the reflective properties of various materials painted on the same texture have to be taken in consideration (wood or concrete are not as glossy as metal or wet stones), so different portions of the same specular map might need different treatments. Moreover, for very nice effects, you might want to blend on your specular maps fine detail which is not visible on the diffuse texture, so to simulate small surface features of glossy or semi-glossy materials that become visible only when we observe them from certain angles relative to the incident light

Originally Posted by Seaowl

The Renderer itself appears only indirectly in game.
For exampel: the way you are doing AO-maps is determined by the specific renderer.
After a lot of efforts, I´m meanwhile able to create AO-maps in Cycles
(In the beginning they were pitch black), in Eevee or so, for whatever reason,
I´m at the moment not.

Would be interested, if AO-maps created with Cycles look differend from AO-maps created with other Renderers? Or if differences are only a matter of settings?


But concerning AO-maps: I would be thankful for every tip,
how to set up options and values to achieve good results in SH5.

AO maps are another topic. They are pre-rendered shadows based on the geometry of each object and on light rays simulating a diffuse light. Due to their topological nature, they require to be 'baked' on non-overlapping UV projections. I know Blender can bake decent AO maps, but I never used that feature. For my AO maps I use Mod Tool, the free version of Autodesk Softimage which, as I was said, was the tool used by the devs.

Originally Posted by Seaowl

Thanks at this point at the creator of ObjSort too:
Have to find the post with the link again, where I downloaded it from,
to give proper credit.
A great tool, that works very well and saves me a lot of time!

Correct me if I am wrong: is that the tool that sorts objects files for secondary (AO) UV map importing?

If yes, I think that tool is by Jeff Groves. I would appreciate if you could find its link and post it here

EDIT: ops... Jeff beated me to it LOL lol

Originally Posted by Seaowl

Initially I intended to use the church file as shell-file.
But when you open it, the church itself is miles away from zero point.
Annoyed by scrolling, I choose the bunker file instead and it was a good decision.
It´s a great import.

Thank you sir

The big horizontal offset of stock meshes shouldn't have discouraged you though. I don't know exactly why devs set their objects that way (probably each model was part of a big scene with many objects that had to be arranged far from the origin, and when they exported them they didn't bother centering them again), but the displacement of stock meshes won't affect the centering of the new mesh. In any case, for terrain objects, only the vertical position of the object is important.

Originally Posted by Seaowl

As you mentioned above, it´s cool to have the possibility to add AO- and Normalmaps.
And likely sooner or later, I will be able to make use of the damage and reflection model too.

Those are very easy: you just need to import a low poly version of your model, and to link the proper controllers to the corresponding bones.

Originally Posted by Seaowl

Why there is an additional Bump map material: Bunker_Large_AB?
Would I be able to apply a Normalmap and a Bumpmap at the same time?

Don't ask me that. I don't know what's the exact meaning of this "additional bump map". It uses the same texture map as the "bump map" (which is actually a normal map by the way), and it is probably used for enhancing its effect, creating extra roughness. And yes, they are used at the same time.

Originally Posted by Seaowl

Yes, I have SH4. I will try to import Flakmonkeys lighthouse with SH4 features into SH5.
But – as far as I remember – the trouble with using unified render controller in SH5 is, that it doesn´t work with land units or terrain objects?

It doesn't? I never heard that, but you could be right. Did you read that information on the forum?

Originally Posted by Seaowl

Yesterday, I managed to import the lense into the AmmoBoxGR2.
I dropped this file into the library.
It was easy to change the bone-position and to modify the lighthouse.eqp.
Problems started, as I attached a corresponding sim-file and tried to set the ParticleGenerator.
The lense vanished in Game as well as in Goblineditor.
Will experiment a bit more.
In the next step, I plan to transform the TDW_FXU_lighthouse_flare into a lense.sim.

Try looking into FX Update how TDW added lighthouse flare effect to the stock ports

Originally Posted by Seaowl

And since you made me curious about this HarborController, I will have a look at it, as soon as possible.

Let me know if you find anything interesting

[gap]

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

Your welcome.


http://www.mediafire.com/file/lzcrdp...jjf/ObjSort.7z

Jeff, can you please remind me on the usage of this tool of you?

[Jeff-Groves]

The objsort program sorts through different obj files and arraigns the info to a more standard way that TDW's program didn't account for at the time.
I'll link the original example here.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/cmc5rg...-files.7z/file

Look at the included obj files in notepad or any text program and you'll see the issue objsort fixes.
(I forgot this file download was still active!)

Notice how things like v and vn along with f and vt are all sorts of messed up?
objsort reads the file, buffers all this then prints out a more common format.

No idea if this issue was ever fixed in TDW's program.

[gap]

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

The objsort program sorts through different obj files and arraigns the info to a more standard way that TDW's program didn't account for at the time.
I'll link the original example here.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/cmc5rg...-files.7z/file

Look at the included obj files in notepad or any text program and you'll see the issue objsort fixes.
(I forgot this file download was still active!)

Notice how things like v and vn along with f and vt are all sorts of messed up?
objsort reads the file, buffers all this then prints out a more common format.

No idea if this issue was ever fixed in TDW's program.

Okay, I will try you tool, I hope it will help with the secondary UV map importing, because often GR2 editor messed it up. IIRC at some point TDW addressed the problem and partly fixed his importing routine, but the preparation of the AO model and its importing are still a very delicate and problematic step of GR2 Editing. I think that if vertex order and UV faces are not identical in the AO model as in the main model, errors are still very likely...

[Jeff-Groves]

Originally Posted by gap

Okay, I will try you tool, I hope it will help with the secondary UV map importing, because often GR2 editor messed it up. IIRC at some point TDW addressed the problem and partly fixed his importing routine, but the preparation of the AO model and its importing are still a very delicate and problematic step of GR2 Editing. I think that if vertex order and UV faces are not identical in the AO model as in the main model, errors are still very likely...

I'll have to go back through that thread and refresh my mind.
I do know I pointed out better ways to get imports to work and give a smaller GR2 file size. I actually started the code to add to objsort back then that would produce a file ready for import that solved a lot of issues and jumped past the programs problems.
Pretty sure he started hateing me again about that time.

Get me an example with all the needed files and send it to my e-mail.
Without going back through that thread? I'm pretty sure you can hand edit the obj files to fix somethings.
Not the best way to do it but it can be coded.