Star shell mod anywhere?

[Taurolas]

Folks,

I've been looking into the star shell thing... the only reference to star shells i've seen so far is something to do with the 88mm ( node 134 i believe) so if its in the game i'm assuming its on a ship (As I've seen DD's use star shells)... would it not be possible to check the weapon loadouts on the Jap ships and see how these are implemented and then try and clone the info into the relevent weapons loadout on a sub? (I have no experience at all with nodes and renaming or cloning stuff like that so i could quite easily screw it up)

or would it be easier to look at a gun like the 5.25 and see why they put the AP ammo info in there (check S3D) i take it something in the game uses 5.25 AP ammo but its not implemented in the ammo files for the subs... it is however easy enough to implement AP ammo on the 5.25 which in turn displays the correct ammo pics and ammo amounts when manning the 5.25 AP HE AA in that order.

Sorry if i've covered things others are doing, have done or have talked about but i'd really like those Star Shells!!!!

All the main modders out there... keep up the good work, you guys

[Digital_Trucker]

Those are all good thoughts, Taurolus. In my case, the exporting and importing of nodes is pretty close to the "edge of the envelope" as far as my skills go. The problem, too, is going to be how to get the on screen button to relate to the ammo. Right now, Leo is really busy getting recuperated and catching up on the changes 1.4 for the ROW mod. Since the hard coded part of the game changed considerably, it's going to be a major PITA to recreate IMO.

[Taurolas]

Hi DT, thanks for the reply

I take it by the on screen button you mean the shell graphic image which when clicked loads up the weapon with the selected ammo type? i'm assuming thats what you mean...

From the tinkering i've done so far i've got AP ammo loaded up on the 5.25 would it not then be possible to do away with the AP ammo which isnt a standard loadout on the 5.25 in sub format believe its AA and HE only, leave the onscreen image which we know works when AP ammo is set up to work on it and link the SS rounds to that? I'm assuming that the gun calls up the required ammo type from a cfg file for that to work, atleast then if the graphic is hard coded eg (3 rounds displayed only)we should end up with an AP graphic but when selected it'll load star shells?.

by the way i'm well over my head and sinking fast!

PS From the other posts i've read dotted about... it sounds like both you and Leo have got 95% of it working but are stuck on the graphic selection problem and if that is hard coded, would this not be a possible workround?

[Digital_Trucker]

Yes, that certainly should work as long as we substituted the star shells for the AP rounds. Leo and I discussed that and I had thought about doing a poll regarding it, but we also wanted to do everything we could to have our cake and eat it, too, so to speak, by getting them both working. Then Leo was out for a while and the patch came out and real life reared it's head (my oldest son got married and guess who gets to do the video/slide show DVD?) and, to be honest with ya, I hadn't thought much more about it.

I'm a bit over my head, too, when it comes to dealing with most of the games files. Any that are in "plain text", I don't have much problem with and the ones that are well labelled (and S3D or mini-tweaker accessible) I can muddle through, but some of the shells files have, like, 40 gazillion shells in them and none of them are labelled anything except "ammo".

I used the naming conventions that went along with what little was already on the menu for the star shells when I set up the on screen graphic "button", but I think there just isn't a star shell modelled for the submarines. I think we could probably clone the ones that the DDs use, but we'll have to figure out which one it is and I definitely need to learn more about how the files relate to each other.

[Taurolas]

DT yeah i know what you mean with regard the ammo info in S3D.. i think you underestimated the 40 gazillion shells...:rotfl:think its more like 50!!!

i'll have some testing time later and i'll fiddle with files and see if i can do with regard the AP ammo and integrating the Star Shells into their slot.

i'll keep you guys updated with any info i find within the ammo files etc just incase it can be used by you or Leo.

keep up the good work.

[TheDarkWraith]

look in \data\Cfg for the file Basic.cfg. Scrolling through it reveals:

highlighted in yellow are the rounds of SS shells allocated to the weapon. Currently only your 10.5cm SK C/32 and 8.8cm SK C/35 have starshells. This is assuming of course that SS is the same thing in SH4 as it is in SH3. I rarely play SH4 as I mod SH3.


[AMMO_TYPE0];10.5cm SK C/32
Idx=0
Year=1939
Month=1
AP=40
HE=60
SS=20
Renown=0
[AMMO_TYPE1];8.8cm SK C/35
Idx=1
Year=1939
Month=1
AP=40
HE=160
SS=40
Renown=0
[AMMO_TYPE2];3.7cm FK M 42 Twin
Idx=2
Year=1943
Month=12
AP=1600
AA=2400
Renown=0
[AMMO_TYPE3];3.7cm FK M 42
Idx=3
Year=1943
Month=12
AP=800
AA=1200
Renown=0
[AMMO_TYPE4];3.7cm SK C/30
Idx=4
Year=1939
Month=1
AP=400
AA=800
Renown=0
[AMMO_TYPE5];2cm FK C/38 Flakvierling
Idx=5
Year=1943
Month=5
AP=4000
Renown=0
[AMMO_TYPE6];2cm FK C/30 Flakzwiling
Idx=6
Year=1940
Month=7
AP=2000
Renown=0
[AMMO_TYPE7];2cm FK C/38
Idx=7
Year=1943
Month=1
AP=1000
Renown=0
[AMMO_TYPE8];2cm FK C/30
Idx=8
Year=1939
Month=1
AP=1000
Renown=0
[AMMO_TYPE9];2cm FK C/38 Flakzwiling XXI
Idx=9
Year=1944
Month=4
AP=2000
Renown=0
[AMMO_TYPE10];2cm FK C/38 Flakzwiling
Idx=10
Year=1943
Month=7
AP=2000
Renown=0

Seeing that the SS rounds have a number greater than 0 you should have SS shells. It could be that the SS rounds aren't in the particles.dat file. I will take a quick look. Duh!! I should know it is, I ported your SH4 particles and materials.dat files to SH3 Hmm...let me take a quick look at the shells.dat file for this ID: CC9681C9C15D5456
that is the starshell's shell object ID.
found it. Let's check the shells.sim to make sure it has effects tied to it: yep. Set to detonate at 1800 meters, using effect ID B389E6C2687816AC which in the particles.dat file is the event StarShell. Codewise to make the starshell is there. I would check your guns .sim files to ensure that the starshell's shell ID is located in the correct spot and it's amount is set to a value > 0.

I was bored over in the SH3 forum so I decided to pop over and see what was going on over here

Ok, I was really bored so I checked your \data\Library\USSubParts deck gun .sim files and either they were missing the starshell shell's ID and/or the amount was set to 0. That is one reason (and probably the only reason) why you don't have starshells

Racerboy

[Taurolas]

@ Racerboy

Thanks for mentioning SH3... you made me wonder why there is an 88mm star shell round but from what i understand nobody uses 88mm... So i'm thinking its the 8.8cm SK C35 star shell round from SH3.
the only reference to star shell rounds i'd seen so far in SH4 refers to that 88mm SS, which would also explain why i cant find anything else, looks like they left the ammo file in there by mistake

as for the ammo count i use S3D (which is an excellent tool ) and i have altered various files regarding ammo and weapons and this makes no difference.

So far i've added bow and stern 5.25"s changed the AA guns to Twin 40's and messed about with a hole lot of moddifications just for the hell of it but Star shells on the deck guns are eluding me .

[TheDarkWraith]

Ok, did some testing and the star shell does work in SH4. I was able to fire them and they light up and all just like in SH3. Here's how to do it (quick fix until I can figure out why the SS shell won't display):

in the data\Library\USSubParts are the deckguns for the subs. Edit the xxx.sim file via hex editor (or use S3D as you guys like to use) and replace the ID for the AA shell with the ID for the SS shell. Make sure to give it an amount like 0x10 (which would be 16 decimal) or something. Now when you click on the AA shell in your deckgun it will actually be the SS shell. Fire away and enjoy the sights
I'll look into why the SS shell won't display on the deckgun screen. I tried to make it display on the AA screen also with no luck :hmm:

[Digital_Trucker]

I can get the SS shell to display on the deck gun screen, I just couldn't get it to relate to the SS shell in the game. I'll use what you've come up with and see if I can get it to work correctly now.

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by Digital_Trucker

I can get the SS shell to display on the deck gun screen, I just couldn't get it to relate to the SS shell in the game. I'll use what you've come up with and see if I can get it to work correctly now.

would you mind please telling me how you got the SS shell to display on the deck gun screen? Just so I can see how you did it

[Digital_Trucker]

When I say, I got the shell on the screen, I got a radio button for it on the screen, but never could get the game to relate the button to the shells. The button is on the screen (I used the same nomenclature as the other shells in the hopes that would make the game realize that the button was for the star shells) but the button does not function whether you have Star Shells in the .sim or not. I think that the game just isn't looking for the menu id of the star shell button (or I haven't found the correct menu id yet).

I hadn't looked at this since before the 1.4 patch, so I need to double check whether it still functions with the patch. I'm in the process of checking it right now. Once I'm sure that it still displays correctly, I'll post the code I used in the menu.ini file and will upload the entire thing (with the graphics changes) so others can play with it and possibly get it to work.

[Digital_Trucker]

The code that I added to the menu.ini file is as follows :

[G38 I7]
Name=SS
Type=1036;Radio
ItemID=0x38010010
ParentID=0x38010000
Pos=127,-29,26,142
Zone= 901 505 26 142 0 1 0x38010003 1 -1 0x38010010 0 1 10 -1
Materials=8
Display=2;Linear
Mat 0=data/menu/gui/shells/us_shells.tga
Crop 0=0.703125,0.7656253,0.203125,0.2441344
Mat 1=data/menu/gui/shells/us_shells.tga
Crop 1=0.703125,0.7656253,0.203125,0.2441344
Mat 2=data/menu/gui/shells/us_shells.tga
Crop 2=0.09375,0.7656253,0.203125,0.2441344
Mat 3=data/menu/gui/shells/us_shells.tga
Crop 3=0.296875,0.7656253,0.203125,0.2441344
Mat 4=data/menu/gui/shells/us_shells.tga
Crop 4=0.5,0.7656253,0.203125,0.2441344
Mat 5=data/menu/gui/shells/us_shells.tga
Crop 5=0.296875,0.7656253,0.203125,0.2441344
Mat 6=data/menu/gui/shells/us_shells.tga
Crop 6=0.5,0.7656253,0.203125,0.2441344
Mat 7=data/menu/gui/shells/us_shells.tga
Crop 7=0.296875,0.7656253,0.203125,0.2441344
MatFlags=0x9
TexFmt=0x0
Font=0
Text=0
TextPosFlags=0x2
TextFlags=0x0
CheckBoxWidth=0
StatesColors=0xCDBEB4FF, 0xCDBEB4FF, 0xCDBEB4FF, 0xCDBEB4FF
ToolTipText=2233
 
[G38 I8]
Name=AA
Type=1036;Radio
ItemID=0x38010006
ParentID=0x38010000
Pos=87,-29,26,142
Zone= 901 455 26 142 0 1 0x38010002 1 -1 0x38010006 0 1 10 -5
Materials=8
Display=2;Linear
Mat 0=data/menu/gui/shells/us_shells.tga
Crop 0=0.703125,0.541016,0.203125,0.2441344
Mat 1=data/menu/gui/shells/us_shells.tga
Crop 1=0.703125,0.541016,0.203125,0.2441344
Mat 2=data/menu/gui/shells/us_shells.tga
Crop 2=0.09375,0.541016,0.203125,0.2441344
Mat 3=data/menu/gui/shells/us_shells.tga
Crop 3=0.296875,0.541016,0.203125,0.2441344
Mat 4=data/menu/gui/shells/us_shells.tga
Crop 4=0.5,0.541016,0.203125,0.2441344
Mat 5=data/menu/gui/shells/us_shells.tga
Crop 5=0.296875,0.541016,0.203125,0.2441344
Mat 6=data/menu/gui/shells/us_shells.tga
Crop 6=0.5,0.541016,0.203125,0.2441344
Mat 7=data/menu/gui/shells/us_shells.tga
Crop 7=0.296875,0.541016,0.203125,0.2441344
MatFlags=0x9
TexFmt=0x0
Font=0
Text=0
TextPosFlags=0x2
TextFlags=0x0
CheckBoxWidth=0
StatesColors=0xCDBEB4FF, 0xCDBEB4FF, 0xCDBEB4FF, 0xCDBEB4FF
ToolTipText=2232

Basically, I added the new [G38 I7] section, made a few changes in the old [G38 I7] (which is now the [G38 I8] and increased the rest of the chapter numbers to reflect the insertion (i.e. old [G38 I7] became [G38 I8]). I also added some graphical work to allow for a fourth shell type and idenifying the AA and SS shells.

The button still shows up, but doesn't function as it should. I'm still thinking that the game is not looking for any menu id associated with the star shell and that is why it isn't working. But I've gotten in trouble for thinking before:rotfl: , so someone please prove me wrong and get it to work

I've uploaded the work I've done so far to http://files.filefront.com/Shell+Mod.../fileinfo.html . This include the menu.ini changes, the graphic work for the additional shell (and identifying the AA and SS shells) and the .sim files for all three guns with 50 star shells.

If anyone can get this button to function, it would be wonderful. If not, then we can just insert the star shell id for the AA, relabel the AA shell to SS and make the changes necessary to have the shells loaded for all the guns. If that is the case, though, that means that there would be no way to use the AA shels later in the war, so a little trade-off is necessary.

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by Digital_Trucker

If anyone can get this button to function, it would be wonderful. If not, then we can just insert the star shell id for the AA, relabel the AA shell to SS and make the changes necessary to have the shells loaded for all the guns. If that is the case, though, that means that there would be no way to use the AA shels later in the war, so a little trade-off is necessary.

not necessarily so. Make a clone of the gun and change the AA ID back to it's original AA shell. Add a new entry in the .cfg file that references this new gun to start in whatever year it is supposed to start (for having AA shells). That's one way around that one

[Digital_Trucker]

Originally Posted by Racerboy

not necessarily so. Make a clone of the gun and change the AA ID back to it's original AA shell. Add a new entry in the .cfg file that references this new gun to start in whatever year it is supposed to start (for having AA shells). That's one way around that one

Excellent point It would be nice, though, if the fourth shell type could be implemented. I'm hoping that someone with a lot better grasp of the file relationships might be able to get it to work.:hmm: