[REL] FOTRS Ultimate Project

[XTBilly]

Originally Posted by Rockin Robbins

Amazing! We're all headed the same direction and this snowball is picking up size and speed downhill to the lodge.

This will give us a chance to compare XTBilly's and Florida Sailor's ship implementations so we can cherry pick the best of the best from both!

Can't wait to see how Sailor's AI modes are coming. Those guys are a big part of what will make FOTRS Ultimate a mold-breaking, revolutionary mod. This will be the GWX of Silent Hunter 4 with so much player customization they never need to actually play the game!

Hey Billy, be sure to put that line in our ads.

Oh, come on boss. You're giving me too much credit...
There's nothing to compare between the "scientific level modding" (copy-paste-test) I'm doing to import the v2.0 ships and what a real modder like Florida Sailor does. I'll keep testing though, just in case.

That line is great, indeed.

Goodnight to all,
Billy.

[CapnScurvy]

Originally Posted by Double R

FOTRS Ultimate v.04Alpha is up on the super secret file stash. Also a file called FOTRS2.0Import holds all the changes in JSGME format to change v1.3 into Ultimate.

So which of these should I be downloading? Both?

Does your modification plan have a player start with the FOTRS v1.3 English version, then add the Ultimate (our modifications) to it?

And, when I'm ready to put out what I've been doing....what do you want me to do? Add it to one of the two above; or, keep my changes in a separate mod that will overwrite one, or both, of these two mods? I'm not sure what's the difference between "Ultimate 04 Alpha" compared to the "FOTRS2.0Import"?

Guess I'm a little unclear as to what I should do?

[Rockin Robbins]

Capn, just download FOTRS Ultimate v.04. The other is just a backwards path to 1.3 so we can keep track of changes made and all be on the same page. 1.3 plus FOTRS2.0Import equals FOTRS Ultimate v.04.

[Jeffg]

Where can I find the download link? I have read all the 29 pages in this thread but still can not find a link for your new file.

Thanks,
JeffG

[Rockin Robbins]

Hey Jeff. This is the development thread for the mad scientists working on a new mod that's not released yet. We work in a shared and private Google Drive directory. That's why you can't find a download. When we're ready to release, we'll post in the Subsim download section.

It's great to see people really looking forward to playing Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate nine years after Silent Hunter 4 was released. Thanks for your interest. We don't want to disapoint you and hope you'll keep following what we're up to. Feel free to make suggestions or ask questions.

[Jeffg]

I will keep my eye on this thread. I am a flight instructor in St Augustine and I fly down to Deland and Ocala alot. Mybe a chance to meet up and talk submarines.

JeffG

[max-peck]

And I have run into problems already
The first ship I am doing I noticed had no occlusion or bump maps
It looks like quite a few of the ships may be like this

So - with my new civ skin looks good from a distance


But looks really shoddy up close


I do not have the knowledge or software to create occlusion maps or bump maps
Maybe if I get a bit creative with the texture I can make it look better

EDIT
PS can I just clarify. Does not look shoddy originally - just looks shoddy after I apply my new Civ Skin!!
They actually did a great job on this ship - my alteration is what makes it look so awful

[max-peck]

Well looks like with a bit of colour it doesn't look too bad

This is what I have managed with the M35Hansa (called Old Medium Freighter in game)











With a bit of dazzle on it I think it looks pretty good

Plus other good news
Rooting around the new ships tex files it looks as if quite a few of them already have beautiful looking civ skins, which we can just keep for the early part of the war.
Have a look at the following, which are already part of FOTRS (not my work!)





Personally I think these look beautiful

[max-peck]

And as an example this is the original FOTRS skin for the M35Hansa



Actually I think this looks a lot better than my civ skin
I think in many cases I will elect to keep the FOTRS civ skin, and just add the dazzles and greens as the war goes on

[max-peck]

On my second ship - getting much nicer results

Auxiliary Cruiser - and by the way what a beautiful ship model this is















This time I left the basic texture well alone and just changed the colours, and sharpened it a bit. Much better result. I am happy with these

In the case of the M35Hansa I tried to to add in a lot of detail, which just didn't work, as all the detail got stretched all over the ship model and ended up making the ship look worse
I was trying to be a little too cute there
As somebody has said already in this thread - EMULATE (Think it was CapnScurvy)
I will be redoing the M35 Hansa, the colours and dazzle patterns look good to me, but where my added detail has been stretched all over the ship I am not happy with

We live and learn

Oh God ... that looks wonderful.
I love this auxiliary cruiser ... with their four hidden 6 inch guns they are damn dangerous.

[max-peck]

OK new problem

Can anyone explain this to me

The last ship I did the tex files looked like this



But the next one I try looks like this


The whole thing looks transparent

Should I be worried about this?

[max-peck]

EDIT

In retrospect no - I should not be worried about this
I'll figure it out

I have a feeling I am oversharing and spamming this thread

[Rockin Robbins]

Originally Posted by max-peck

EDIT

In retrospect no - I should not be worried about this
I'll figure it out

I have a feeling I am oversharing and spamming this thread

1. DEFINITELY not spamming the thread. That my job and XTBilly's job. You are strictly an amateur and don't need to worry about it.

2. FOTRS is an eye candy mod. It's the most beautiful mod in SH4, on a par with GWX in SH3. Maddy was most proud of the beautiful ships he made and spammed his own thread.......a lot like you're doing!

Your work is in the best tradition of Fall of the Rising Sun and as such is very important to the success of the mod.

3. I have no expertise in skinning or modeling at all. Your posts are fascinating to me, and as an added bonus, I'm too ignorant to critique 'em! You get a free pass to post away!

4. This is a development thread where the problems encountered and shared are the most important thing we do. We're not showing off a shiny new mod here, we're working. We have complete confidence that you'll find difficulties and will mitigate or eliminate them.

5. CapnScurvy or iambecomelife are your goto graphics people around here. I guarantee either one can help you out of tight spots! Also Keltos comes to mind and as usual I'm sure I leave important people out.

6. You should see the PM I got from XTBilly when suddenly all the orders and mission objectives were given out in German! On second thought, no, you shouldn't, but we've all encountered difficulties and so far have worked around or through all of them. Sprechen sie Deutch? Neither do I. Mistakes are how we get better at what we do. Fix 'em, go on to the next mistake.

This is no foolish big corporation where "gotcha" is king and avoiding mistakes is more important than getting the job done. We like mistakes around here and encourage more of them. They're proof we're doing more than we're qualified to do and making it work anyway.

[CapnScurvy]

To Max-peck

That "NECT_Hansa_T01" image looks like they just wanted the wood grain effect from the image. The remainder of the ship is probably being overlayed by another image file. Unless the ship doesn't look right when its in-game.......I don't think there's anything to worry about.

Looks like you've got a good eye for what's right (or wrong) with the ship images, your efforts are going to be fantastic!