[WIP] TMO: Nine Delta Two

[Ducimus]

Well gents, Sh5 done pissed me off!

Despite all logic and sanity, I've started a new mod, I'm not sure we could call it a supermod, it's certainly shaping up that way, but for now i prefer to think of it as an expansion on TMO. This mod will focus soley on the Type IXD2 that came with the Uboat Missions expansion for SH4. This will not be a full atlantic mod, although i may consider Operation drumbeat at some point in the future. So for now, realizing that all the "cool names" are taken up, and any use of the word "wolf" or "wolves" is entirely overused, allow me to introduce to you.......

Nine Delta Two

That'll be the theme anyway. And let me emphasis this is a Work in progress. Considering this is a solo project thus far, (anyone want to help?) i'll be awhile before i have something to post in the way of a download.

Scope of project:
- Patrols in the south Atlantic / south Africa, Indian ocean
- Type IXD2 Uboat only

So here's the status report thus far:

* Beta release.
I will not be reivisting this mod for a few months. So i'm posting what I have rather then have it languish on my hard drive.

Some screenshots.


Reworked the crew so to be more appropriate for the tropics. Including.... Pith helmets!

I figured out how to get the watch crew, and ONLY the watch crew to wear pith helmets.



Notice how some of the deck gun crew's wearing something other then a pith helmet.

Screenshot of the interior:

More interior screenshots here:



snorkel.


karamazovnew now included.


Thanks to Lurker, the full KM grid is now present.

Additional screenshots here:


Credits:

This mod adapts works from other large mods. The readme's of those mods have been included in the download and unaltered. The reason is, many modders contributed to those works as well. Modders below are the publishing author of cited works.



Flakmonkey - FM newInterior version 1.0

Lurker_Hib3 - Operation Monsun version 1.0

karamazovnew - Kriegsmarine Interface for UBM

Stormfly - some sound bytes used from Stormys DBSM collection SH5 v1.1

Othr - for orginal concept of conning tower emblems.

skwasjer - S3D

Ducimus - blah blah

Licenses & Permissions:

(1)Absolutely nothing found within this mod may be used for any commercial product of any size, shape or form.

(2)This mod is open source freeware, made by the subsim modding community openly and freely. All permissions of individual mods are subject to their author's permissions.

(3)You are free:
a.) to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit this work.
b.) to Remix – to adapt this work.

Under the following conditions:

a.) Credit List - You must mention who made the original work. (which is the supplying authors cited for specific parts in credit list herein)
b.) Attribution – You must attribute the work in the manner specified, but not in any way that suggests that I, or any mod author cited herein, endorse you, or your use of the work.
c.) Share Alike - If you alter, transform ,or build upon this work, either partially or in whole, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one. Don’t wanna share? Then don’t use!

Installation:
You need a clean, unaltered install of SH4 Uboat Missions. Enable mod with JSGME

D/L For beta release:
http://www.filefront.com/17133625/BE...-Delta-Two.7z/

[Royale-Adio]

ALLRIGHT!!

[Jan Kyster]

IXD2!

May you quit modding many, many times to come!

[Gorshkov]

Great idea!

Having even one German U-boot type tuned to be as realistic as possible along with realistic and fully functional German campaign on Pacific and Indian Ocean would be great improvement of SH4 and I think maybe a good modder community answer to sad UBI's SH5 story.

GWX4 has gone and stock SH5 is a ridiculous bunch of bugs so we have to think about some SH3+GWX3 replacement basing on SH4 engine...Sorry, but SH3 graphic engine is now too old, SH5 is quite a bit resources consuming game. Yet SH4 looks still good and has some potential.

[McHibbins]

Well Ducimus, shame above me that I´ve never tried TMO ´cause I´m pleased with RFB.

But I´ll definetly looking forward for this one. Keep up the good work
It´s always good to have options, especially for Uboat Missions.

[Sailor Steve]

Love what I've seen so far!

A (very) small suggestion: It might be more convenient if you shorten the first part of the name to its initials, and since it's in English use the actual radio jargon... TMO: Niner Delta Two.

Or the German for fun... TMO: Neun Dora Zwei.

Sorry, couldn't help sticking my sorry nose in.

[Hitman]

Forgot to ask: Will it need TMO, or will be a standalone mod? (Prefereable for me )

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Hitman

Forgot to ask: Will it need TMO, or will be a standalone mod? (Prefereable for me )

I see TMO in the JSGME on the first post.

[Gorshkov]

Would it be possible to introduce and fix several important things in your mod, Ducimus? I mean:

- snorkeling with working CO2 recirculation
- German speech-pack
- attacks on Allied shipping being within 20 km range from their harbors in the campaign mode
- more 1943-45 Electronic Warfare suites available for IXD2 - mostly RWRs (Samos, Naxos, Zypern, Borkum, Tunis) because all U-boat radars and sonars already are present in the game (GHG/KDB/Balkongerat, FuMO-29/30/61). In short better SH4's Electronic Warfare layer if it is possible.
- IXD2 submerging in about 50 seconds
- fixed German Indian Ocean campaign of course if you going to create such one at all
- more aggressive Allied escort
- karamazov's mod as an option

Having such realistic U-boat in SH4/UBM would be amazing because players would get for free more than They can found in the crappy stock SH5.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

I see TMO in the JSGME on the first post.

This may change. It may end up being stand alone. Infact, im leaning more on standalone the more i get into it.

- snorkeling with working CO2 recirculation

Snorkel, probable. Working CO2 recirculation. doubtful. Have read thats hardcoded issue.

- German speech-pack

I believe this already exists as it's own mod.

- attacks on Allied shipping being within 20 km range from their harbors in the campaign mode

Not sure what you mean here. I do intend to add harbor traffic as much as patience will allow.

- more 1943-45 Electronic Warfare suites available for IXD2

I probably will, though not historically correct for Uboats in the far east. Being so far from home, they did not have the latest and greatest equipment.

- IXD2 submerging in about 50 seconds

Already finished that.

- fixed German Indian Ocean campaign of course if you going to create such one at all

I intend to do Biscay bay, South atlantic and indian oceans.

- more aggressive Allied escort

Muahhhh. HAHAHAH HAHAHHAHAHAH!!!

- karamazov's mod as an option

Had planned to include it.

[Gorshkov]

What is so funny in more aggressive Allied escort? Lurker did it but you cannot?

[sergei]

Originally Posted by Gorshkov

What is so funny in more aggressive Allied escort? Lurker did it but you cannot?

I'm assuming you haven't had any experience of destroyer AI from TMO?
Oh boy, are you in for a shock

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Gorshkov

What is so funny in more aggressive Allied escort? Lurker did it but you cannot?

That was a laughter with evil intent. Asking me for harder AI, isn't neccessarly a good idea!

[Ducimus]

First off, i have to give props to Flakmonkey. Who gave me permission to use his interior from SH3.


Secondly, remember when i said this?

Originally Posted by Ducimus

Well gents, Sh5 done pissed me off!

What got me started on this kick was looking at FM interiors for SH3, and how well the 9D2's model was done in SH4. This was after playing SH5 for a little bit and being somewhat annoyed for various reasons.

It was then my thought that with a more robust 3d rendered interior, combined with a better exterior model, SH4 could be made to look just as good if not better then SH5.

Right now i have an entire watch section being rendered in 3d, after merging sections of Flak monkeys interior into the type 9 interior somewhat seamlessly. Plus extra battle station positions and damage control team. Now on that note, my point isn't to one up anyone, nor "compete" with lurker or anyone else. I'm only working on ONE boat, if you want the full Uboat game for SH4, use Operation Monsun. No, my intent was, for various reasons, to give SH5 the "one fingered salute" , and to show what SH4 is capable of. To that end, I think I've achieved that goal.



Radio room, looking forward.


Officers nook, accross the way is (im guessing) the 1WO bunk. To the right is the sonarman.




Forward, looking aft towards the control room hatch. Note that it is a hatch, and not open. I did this for two reasons. For one, by not making it open hatch, i believe it saves framerate and resources by not having one big open interior. And for two, it preserved the F9 hotkey to the radio room. In open hatch, the F9 Key didn't work.




I fixed it so that during battle stations, an officer is watching the sonar man. Presumably because in real life, i imagine an officer would be interested in what the sonar man would have to say, and to pass it along if neccessary.




Control room looking aft. You'll note the "xmas tree" in the back there. A line in U-571 stuck out to me.... "white for green". Anywho, the boat is submerged. The red and green lights to the left of it, there isn't anything *I* can do to those that would look good. So i left it alone.




Control room after calling battle stations.




Control room after calling battle stations, and damage control team. There's 3 of them being rendered in the control room, and one aft in the galley.




Control room looking forward. Same as above pic. Battle stations and damage control team active.




Aft quarters looking aft from the control room. I fixed it so that the crew birthing is part of the normal watch rotation, and is not an extra on the bottom of the crew management screen next to the damage control team. Ill post a picture of that later. (forgot to take it). The point here is, the crew will change appearance based on what watch is currently bunked there.




Crew birthing looking aft. The door you see shut is in the galley, but leads to the engine room.

I did NOT include the engine room for 3 reasons:
1.) I couldn't get the animation or sounds working correctly. I need help with that. With dead quiet and lifeless engine room, i figured it was better to not render it at all.
2.) The engine room was a major framerate killer.
3.) Engine room was incorrect for a type IXD2 which had 2 engines and 2 auxilaries. This one only had 2 engines. Minor detail, certainly one id normally overlook, but im using this as an excuse along with points 1 and 2.

I could easily add it back, but i have no intention to do so unless framerate can be improved.




In the galley looking forward. "Smutje" to the left.




Damage control team member wrenching on galley hatch.




Hmm what's this?




Sorry, i couldnt resist putting a crewman sitting on the toilet. While i haven't added it yet, i will at some point put some farting noises as an ambient audio at that location.

Overall its turned out rather well. The biggest handicap is crew animation. Im reusing what animations i can, but they don't all mesh well, and there is some clipping issues. As is, it's passible, but it could be ALOT better. I imagine someone who knows animation could make this kind of thing VERY life like.

Sh4, imo has alot to offer. More then what most Uboat fans on subsim will give it credit for. No DRM required here, every bit of a sim, fully rendered interiors possible with the right modeling, with more crewman being rendered then Sh5 has. So yeah.... Sh5, in the words of Bart Simpson... " eat my shorts."

edit:
And no, i haven't noticed any framerate loss with all these crewman being rendered.

[MoN]

I´ll keep it brief:

Outstanding work.