[TEC] Adding/Importing new units / SH5 Damage/collision models

[Zedi]

Originally Posted by JU_88

...
But its true that everything in SH3 needs a wee make over before going to SHV
Textures need updating and occlusions added at the very least.
Sh3 units (in there current state) really do look like crap under the SHV engine.
Things came along way in the space of 5 years
...

This is very true. A SH3 ship into a SH5 convoy looks .. lets just say.. wrong. It can ruin your game xp when you looking through the scope and spot a very low polygons ship, the difference is clearly visible even at great distances. Im up for realism, but also for quality. Best candidates for import should be only from SH4 or stuff created by the community.

On the other hand, there is a problem with the manpower. There is only 2 moders working on importing stuff and they still learn how to make it right. Only enthusiasm is just not enough, this is a very time consuming process. Sadly, there is not many who would like to involve into this project.

[Rongel]

Holy cow, the lifeboat looks great, I didn't know that! I want it in my game!

Originally Posted by Zedi

This is very true. A SH3 ship into a SH5 convoy looks .. lets just say.. wrong. It can ruin your game xp when you looking through the scope and spot a very low polygons ship, the difference is clearly visible even at great distances. Im up for realism, but also for quality. Best candidates for import should be only from SH4 or stuff created by the community.

On the other hand, there is a problem with the manpower. There is only 2 moders working on importing stuff and they still learn how to make it right. Only enthusiasm is just not enough, this is a very time consuming process. Sadly, there is not many who would like to involve into this project.

I agree! And if we can't make the guns and instruments look better (occlusion map), that basically leaves warships out of the game. Warships are weapon platforms, and if it looks like it's 3d model from 1997, it's no good. I can live with small merchants who have small tiny ugly guns, I guess the were unarmed until the end or middle of the war??

And one more thing, my mission is completed when Zedi has the 5-8 small merchants in his campaign, that was the reason I joined this quest in the first place, to get the campaign ready ! So after that others have to start importing. We'll make a new tutorial, it's really quite easy, the basic steps atleast, really almost like drag and drop. I have only made one change to the dat file (!), all other work is fine tuning.

[Zedi]

I think I figured out how to work with transparency levels stored in alpha channels. I need an update of one of these ships (if possible Akita) so I can test stuff. But one that use only dds files for texture, no embedded tga or other funky stuff.

[Rongel]

I think I figured out how to work with transparency levels stored in alpha channels. I need an update of one of these ships (if possible Akita) so I can test stuff. But one that use only dds files for texture, no embedded tga or other funky stuff.

Hi Zedi! I can send you my version of Akita. It's a basic version, no fancy stuff, like crew, guns or sh 5 effects.

And no luck with the guns, but I noticed that these ships do spawn lifeboats when sunk. They are not connected to the debris, but use some other system. I just placed the SH 4 lifeboats to my mod. Bad thing is that they don't have any crew, at least not yet...

[Zedi]

Ok, send it.. I wanna test if the light will be reflected in a different way if I use a alpha with trasnparency.

Regarding the lifeboats, the game has one and is used in the spy mission. I also used it in the Open Horizon campaign, Its right there in the roster, the special ops boat listed in the Others folder. I also found a texture file for a larger wooden life boat, but there is nothing in the roster that can link to this texture...

And if you found a way for the ships to spawn lifeboats, you may need to link the right boat from the roster to have also crew on board.

[Rongel]

Got stuck with the import business, but found out something really interesting!
This is unmodified SH 5 stock ship, when it was destroyed, this happened! Don't know yet if this works 100%, or how stable it is, but looks promising! Will post a WIP soon!

[Zedi]

Looks great. But there is a problem with the small boats .. they bounce too much on high waves and I dont think this can be fixed. Maybe that was the reason why the devs decided to not include them in SH5. In OH campaign I set 2 of these boats to travel between 2 ships and in bad weather they look weird by bouncing like some empty barrels.

Anyway, great find

[Rongel]

Sweet jesus! I just sunk Huge Liner and look what happened:





Larger ships spawn more boats! Medium and small boats spawned only one or none at all, but this monster spawned about 15 of them! The lifeboat system is in place in SH 5 but I wonder why they didn't the add the lifeboats? Even in the 1.2 patch? And this is really a Spec Ops Boat... Didn't make my computer freeze by the way.

Looks great. But there is a problem with the small boats .. they bounce too much on high waves and I dont think this can be fixed. Maybe that was the reason why the devs decided to not include them in SH5. In OH campaign I set 2 of these boats to travel between 2 ships and in bad weather they look weird by bouncing like some empty barrels.

Anyway, great find

I can edit atleast the speed of the boats, so I can't see why I couldn't edit other mechanics. SH 4 lifeboats were also bouncing on the waves but i think Webster made a fix for those. I've already reduced their speed. But this needs some serious testing.

EDIT:

I'll make a new thread for these. This addition doesn't really have nothing to do with adding Sh 4 ships.

[stoianm]

Can you test to see if is affect the ''oil spot'' from the TDW FIX?... when i used life boats that was covered the oils spost after you sunk a ship

[TheDarkWraith]

This is the Akita, an SH4 ship that is rendered using DAT files. What is different now?


Took 2 solid days to figure out how to make the pixel shader do this. It's not perfect as when the camera is near the water and the slope of the underlying terrain is not flat parts of the underwater area of the unit will not render (only applies to DAT rendered units). GR2 rendered units render fine like they always have. From long distance the underwater part of the vessel will not be visible. As the camera moves in closer it will start to fade in.

A side benefit of my additions to the pixel shader are also visible in the screenie. See that creme colored land just above the ship? That land is underwater. Yes, terrain that is within a certain distance from the top of the water will be rendered also.

So caustics effects and visible underwater from above water fixed for DAT files. Still working on reflections and holes (damage) only being visible underwater.

[jwilliams]

Originally Posted by TheDarkWraith

This is the Akita, an SH4 ship that is rendered using DAT files. What is different now?

You sir, are amazing.

The difference is I can now see the underside of the ship though the water.

[jwilliams]

I did it... My first import. Thanks to the info provided by TheDarkWraith.




Now where can I get my hands on some SH4 ships (Merchants) so I can try to import some better looking ships??

I only have SH3.

[Rongel]

Took 2 solid days to figure out how to make the pixel shader do this. It's not perfect as when the camera is near the water and the slope of the underlying terrain is not flat parts of the underwater area of the unit will not render (only applies to DAT rendered units). GR2 rendered units render fine like they always have. From long distance the underwater part of the vessel will not be visible. As the camera moves in closer it will start to fade in.

A side benefit of my additions to the pixel shader are also visible in the screenie. See that creme colored land just above the ship? That land is underwater. Yes, terrain that is within a certain distance from the top of the water will be rendered also.

So caustics effects and visible underwater from above water fixed for DAT files. Still working on reflections and holes (damage) only being visible underwater.

Wow! You did it!

Sadly I got nowhere with the guns rendering problem, I would be so great if we could use Sh 5 equiptment. And also I'm having difficulties getting good sinking mechanics. But this is great thing, let's enjoy this for a while!

[stoianm]

Originally Posted by jwilliams

I did it... My first import. Thanks to the info provided by TheDarkWraith.




Now where can I get my hands on some SH4 ships (Merchants) so I can try to import some better looking ships??

I only have SH3.

nice.... i think is easy from some that have the SH4 to send to you the ships folder... i am watching also the S3D tutorials and tdw tec... now i have a bit time and i want to learn also

[JU_88]

Originally Posted by jwilliams

I did it... My first import. Thanks to the info provided by TheDarkWraith.




Now where can I get my hands on some SH4 ships (Merchants) so I can try to import some better looking ships??

I only have SH3.

Good job Is that Serges Sh3 Vosper? Wheres Alex? I swear he did a superb model of this boat which was imported to SH3 a few months ago.