[REL] S3D - Silent 3ditor

[Rick Fortens]

Thanks to both of you, Jeff-Groves and propbeanie, for your response to my post. I will look into your suggestions.

Jeff-Groves, you ask: "What exactly are you trying to do?"

I want to anchor barrage balloons to the ships, as was common on many convoys.

The story is that I revisiting a huge mod project I started a few years ago called "ARCTIC CAMPAIN". In that project I scripted a "historical" reenactment of the attack on convoy PQ-17, and on that convoy many ships were traveling with these balloons anchored to their decks. It's scripted to be a multiplayer game with the actual route of the convoy, the exact positions of the 10 U-boats involved, etc.

But it is part of a much larger project: the "historical" reconstruction of the Arctic Ocean as a theater of operations for U-boats, for the purpose of a single-player or multiplayer game. This theater offers many interesting advantages: the naval bases remain close (no need to waste time to reach the American coasts to launch a Paukenschlag operation); it takes place in a winter environment (opportunity to model ice and snow); but, above all, the presence of friendly air cover and heavy cruisers that add competition to the U-boats (sink the ship before the plane does); etc.

For this purpose, I have completely rebuilt the map of the Arctic Ocean to scale (with the Kriegsmarine grid inlaid inside). I don't know many SH3 players who are bothered by the imprecision of the map in the game, but it bothers me. So I rebuilt it using SH3 Terrain Extractor. In the game, the distance between Greenland and Novaya Zemlya Island is 8000 km. But actually, on the surface of the earth, it is only 2000 km. So it is on my map (much smaller theater of operations). See the image below.

About S3D, when I started this project, I was able to create drifting ice to put on the surface of the water and snow on the deck of the U-boat (see image) using Google's Sketchup and S3D, but I don't remember how I did it.

So that's exactly what I'm trying to do. At the moment, I would really like to be able to put balloons on these ships.

Thanks

Rick

[LUKNER]

Originally Posted by Rick Fortens

Thanks to both of you, Jeff-Groves and propbeanie, for your response to my post. I will look into your suggestions.

Jeff-Groves, you ask: "What exactly are you trying to do?"

I want to anchor barrage balloons to the ships, as was common on many convoys.

The story is that I revisiting a huge mod project I started a few years ago called "ARCTIC CAMPAIN". In that project I scripted a "historical" reenactment of the attack on convoy PQ-17, and on that convoy many ships were traveling with these balloons anchored to their decks. It's scripted to be a multiplayer game with the actual route of the convoy, the exact positions of the 10 U-boats involved, etc.

But it is part of a much larger project: the "historical" reconstruction of the Arctic Ocean as a theater of operations for U-boats, for the purpose of a single-player or multiplayer game. This theater offers many interesting advantages: the naval bases remain close (no need to waste time to reach the American coasts to launch a Paukenschlag operation); it takes place in a winter environment (opportunity to model ice and snow); but, above all, the presence of friendly air cover and heavy cruisers that add competition to the U-boats (sink the ship before the plane does); etc.

For this purpose, I have completely rebuilt the map of the Arctic Ocean to scale (with the Kriegsmarine grid inlaid inside). I don't know many SH3 players who are bothered by the imprecision of the map in the game, but it bothers me. So I rebuilt it using SH3 Terrain Extractor. In the game, the distance between Greenland and Novaya Zemlya Island is 8000 km. But actually, on the surface of the earth, it is only 2000 km. So it is on my map (much smaller theater of operations). See the image below.

About S3D, when I started this project, I was able to create drifting ice to put on the surface of the water and snow on the deck of the U-boat (see image) using Google's Sketchup and S3D, but I don't remember how I did it.

So that's exactly what I'm trying to do. At the moment, I would really like to be able to put balloons on these ships.

Thanks

Rick

Is it possible to do something similar in SH-4?

[Jeff-Groves]

Take the AerialBomb and do it as a loadout in the eqp file.

[Rick Fortens]

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

Take the AerialBomb and do it as a loadout in the eqp file.

That's a good idea. I'll try it.


Thanks

[Jeff-Groves]

;Barrage Balloon Loadout
[Equipment 76]
NodeName=M01
LinkName=Aerial_Bomb
StartDate=19380101
EndDate=19411231
Loadout=Barrage Balloon

[Rick Fortens]

Originally Posted by Jeff-Groves

Take the AerialBomb and do it as a loadout in the eqp file.

Thanks again for this suggestion but it don’t work either (for the moment at least).

I explain what I’ve done :

As exemple I take the ATug. In the file “ATug.eqp” I add your code to the bottom. The last item was “[Equipment 12]” so I put :

;Barrage Balloon Loadout
[Equipment 13]
NodeName=M01
LinkName=Aerial_Bomb
StartDate=19380101
EndDate=19451231
Loadout=Barrage Balloon

(Of course, using MultiSH3, I change my save folder).

Any idea, Something else I miss, I do wrong ?

Thanks again for your help.

[JapLance]

Originally Posted by Rick Fortens

Thanks again for this suggestion but it don’t work either (for the moment at least).

I explain what I’ve done :

As exemple I take the ATug. In the file “ATug.eqp” I add your code to the bottom. The last item was “[Equipment 12]” so I put :

;Barrage Balloon Loadout
[Equipment 13]
NodeName=M01
LinkName=Aerial_Bomb
StartDate=19380101
EndDate=19451231
Loadout=Barrage Balloon

(Of course, using MultiSH3, I change my save folder).

Any idea, Something else I miss, I do wrong ?

Thanks again for your help.

Since this is the SH4 section and it's the only game I play, what I say here may not work the same way in SH3, but I think you need to add some more text in the ship .cfg file (not in the .eqp file)

[Loadout 1]
Name=Barrage Balloon

Then the new loadout must be selected in the Mission editor to finally appear in the game.

[Rick Fortens]

Originally Posted by LUKNER

Is it possible to do something similar in SH-4?

Yes I think so, using GWX_SH4TerrainEX.

I tried SH4TerrainEX once and, if I remember well, it was even a little bit easier than sh3 terrain extractor. But it's still a huge and really annoying job. It's also laborious. The annoying part is when you begin to transfer the new map inside the two maps of the game : many strange things happens, like islands of hundred of miles long.

If you want to throw yourself in this job, I can give you my Arctic ocean map in Photoshop format (Photoshop 2005) (if I can remember where I put it).

[propbeanie]

astvitaliy1982 made a terrain mod for SH3, as well as doing a few "tiles" for SH4 for JapLances work on the Fort Drum mod. SH4 is definitely much easier to work with the terrain than SH3 is. However, there are a few caveats. You use GWX SH4TerrainEX to extract the desired 601x601 tile, which it puts a RAW file in the folder designating the Long/Lat location of under the Game /Data /Terrain /Data. You then open that with an app that can deal with a RAW file, such as Photoshop. As you edit the file, save it to a "native" format for the app you are using, such as PSD. If you save back to RAW, you can no longer edit that file, and you will end up with either "pillars" of earth at each of the four corners of the tile, or "walls", such as you describe Rick Fortens. Also, if you edit the file within 6 pixels of either edge of the 601x601 tile, you have to perform the EXACT SAME EDIT in the neighboring tile set. This can get very difficult, especially if you are in or near a "corner" of a tile, and might be dealing with 3 other files overlapping... I generally avoid editing near the borders altogether, unless absolutely necessary. Once you are finished editing your file, you Save As in the RAW format. Then use GWX SH4TerrainEX to convert from RAW to ZHF. It is best to be working outside of the game with this, but that can be difficult since you do have to load the terrain database and the color map in (see the GWX SH4TerrainEX pdf instructions), but you do want to put that Terrain /Data folder in a mod of its own, and "cut" the RAW and PSD files out of it, Pasting them to a folder you will remember for future edits - but again, only edit the PSD file and not the RAW. Something happens to them after the edits... One of the big things to remember is the learning curve here, and EXPERIMENTATION. It can be quite frustrating at times doing this kind of work

[LUKNER]

Originally Posted by propbeanie

astvitaliy1982 made a terrain mod for SH3, as well as doing a few "tiles" for SH4 for JapLances work on the Fort Drum mod. SH4 is definitely much easier to work with the terrain than SH3 is. However, there are a few caveats. You use GWX SH4TerrainEX to extract the desired 601x601 tile, which it puts a RAW file in the folder designating the Long/Lat location of under the Game /Data /Terrain /Data. You then open that with an app that can deal with a RAW file, such as Photoshop. As you edit the file, save it to a "native" format for the app you are using, such as PSD. If you save back to RAW, you can no longer edit that file, and you will end up with either "pillars" of earth at each of the four corners of the tile, or "walls", such as you describe Rick Fortens. Also, if you edit the file within 6 pixels of either edge of the 601x601 tile, you have to perform the EXACT SAME EDIT in the neighboring tile set. This can get very difficult, especially if you are in or near a "corner" of a tile, and might be dealing with 3 other files overlapping... I generally avoid editing near the borders altogether, unless absolutely necessary. Once you are finished editing your file, you Save As in the RAW format. Then use GWX SH4TerrainEX to convert from RAW to ZHF. It is best to be working outside of the game with this, but that can be difficult since you do have to load the terrain database and the color map in (see the GWX SH4TerrainEX pdf instructions), but you do want to put that Terrain /Data folder in a mod of its own, and "cut" the RAW and PSD files out of it, Pasting them to a folder you will remember for future edits - but again, only edit the PSD file and not the RAW. Something happens to them after the edits... One of the big things to remember is the learning curve here, and EXPERIMENTATION. It can be quite frustrating at times doing this kind of work

Эта технология мне известна. Я думал что то появилось оригинальней и практичней. По ней мы с astvitaliy1982 сделали Балтийское море. А astvitaliy1982 кроме всего даже смог Ладожское озеро сделать.
--------------------------
I know this technology. I thought something more original and practical appeared. According to it, astvitaliy1982 and I made the Baltic Sea. And astvitaliy1982, in addition, was even able to make Lake Ladoga.


Attachment 6141Снимок экрана 2025-03-11.jpg

[s7rikeback]

Originally Posted by Rick Fortens

Thanks to both of you, Jeff-Groves and propbeanie, for your response to my post. I will look into your suggestions.

Hello Rick Fortens,




I have added two X01 nodes, to the M35B, on both the F & B models from GWX-KC.

I then added the following to the M35B.eqp.

[Equipment 34]
NodeName=X01
LinkName=Aerial_Bomb
StartDate=19420630
EndDate=19451231

This would mean, the ship will "always" carry the balloons.

------------------------------------------------------------

To use this as a loadout.


1 - Build the X0 nodes to the ship models in question, X01 maybe already used, so use the next in sequence. X02 etc.

2 - Add the loadout call below to the ship.cfg file, Again, the (loadout 1) call maybe used, then use the next in sequence. [Loadout 2] etc.

[Loadout 1]
Name=Barrage Balloon (or whatever name you want, but both names MUST mirror the eqp (Loadout=xxxxxx) details listed below.
Type=1

3 - Open the ship.eqp, and copy and duplicate the list, and renumber the [Equipment xx] So if the original had 5 calls, you now have 10 calls, it would be like this:

[Equipment 1]
NodeName=M01
LinkName=CratePileL_2_M04B
StartDate=19380101
EndDate=19421230

[Equipment 2]
NodeName=M01
LinkName=PlatformL_M04B
StartDate=19421231
EndDate=19451231

[Equipment 3]
NodeName=M02
LinkName=OilDrumsL_M04B
StartDate=19380101
EndDate=19401101

[Equipment 4]
NodeName=M02
LinkName=PlatformL_M04B
StartDate=19401102
EndDate=19451231

[Equipment 5]
NodeName=A01
LinkName=NULL
StartDate=19380101
EndDate=19401230

[Equipment 6]
NodeName=M01
LinkName=CratePileL_2_M04B
StartDate=19380101
EndDate=19421230
Loadout=Barrage Balloon

[Equipment 7]
NodeName=M01
LinkName=PlatformL_M04B
StartDate=19421231
EndDate=19451231
Loadout=Barrage Balloon

[Equipment 8]
NodeName=M02
LinkName=OilDrumsL_M04B
StartDate=19380101
EndDate=19401101
Loadout=Barrage Balloon

[Equipment 9]
NodeName=M02
LinkName=PlatformL_M04B
StartDate=19401102
EndDate=19451231
Loadout=Barrage Balloon

[Equipment 10]
NodeName=A01
LinkName=NULL
StartDate=19380101
EndDate=19401230
Loadout=Barrage Balloon

4 - And lastly… Add the loadout call to the campaign/mission files.



Hope this helps !!

[Rick Fortens]

Originally Posted by s7rikeback

Hello Rick Fortens,


I have added two X01 nodes, to the M35B, on both the F & B models from GWX-KC.

I then added the following to the M35B.eqp.

Hey, thanks, s7rikeback!


I'd given up on this project, thinking it would never work, but your suggestion gives me hope. I'll try it and let you know how it goes.


Thanks again.

[Rick Fortens]

Originally Posted by s7rikeback

I have added two X01 nodes, to the M35B, on both the F & B models from GWX-KC.
I then added the following to the M35B.eqp.

When you wrote : “I have added two X01 nodes”, you mean the nodes of the ship inside the Silent 3ditor ( with no title and nothing else inside the node) like that ? :





That’s what I’ve done, on both the F & B models. So I got two nodes, one numbered 154 and one 301.


Then I applied your method to use it as a loadout and, effectively, this option appear as a loadout possibility for the ship in the mission editor. I selected it. Also the line “Loadout=Barrage Balloon” has been written by itself (inside the mission coding) when I saved the mission inside the mission editor.


So I run the game but, just after the words “Not so long ago…” appears, the game crashed. (Noticed that’s a good sign, because all my previous attempt shows the ship, but with no balloon).


What I do wrong ?


(for notice, I am on SH3, I tested it on the same ship as yours (M35B, Empire-type Freighter) but in the “Navigation” mission in “NavalAcademy” with the date adjusted to 1943).


Thanks again for your help. I feel to be really near to success.

[Bubblehead1980]

So is there a detailed tutorial on adding nodes to ships?

specifically, need to add depth charge racks to some escorts missing them and
would like to add them to a few merchants for defensive purposes.

[Jeff-Groves]

Download the S3D videos. There's good stuff in them.

https://www.mediafire.com/file/pchml...-vids.zip/file