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

[gap]

Originally Posted by Rongel

Importing Silent Hunter 4 Stock Ships to Silent Hunter 5 Tutorial




Part 1. Basic Import

To begin, you need a copy of SH 4 and Skwasjer's great Silent 3ditor and a very limited modding skills. There is example import included at the end of the post.

1. Select a ship you want to import from SH 4 (SH4/data/Sea) and copy it to SH 5. I suggest you make a new mod for it. Copy also the selected ships roster file (SH4/data/Roster/*Nation name*/Sea/) and place it to your mods roster folder to the nation you want it to have. Keep the same filestructure that Sh 4 has.

2. Your new import ship works already, and should show in game, but it doesn't have Collision model yet. So open your ships dat-file with S3D. I'm using as an example NKSSS_Kasagisan-ship. Now click the ships main node, in this case it's called 7:Node - NMFMSSS. Create a new child node (type 4/100) to it by right clicking it. Then create a new child node to the node you just created. This time select 8/0 Label-node. Now give the label node a name called DMG_col_NMFMSSS. This is the most important thing! NMFMSSS means here your ships main nodes name.

You notice when you click your new node that there reads in blue text Linked 3D model. Currently there is none. So open again the ships main node 7:Node - NMFMSSS and click it's 3D model node. Up center of the S3D screen there reads the 3D models ID number. Copy it and paste it to your new nodes Linked 3D model/Model ID field. Then uncheck the DMG_col-node's Visibility. Voila! Now you have basic damage model to your ship.

3. Search (Ctrl + F) for WaterReflection and delete all those nodes and their child nodes too. SH 4 water reflections just don't seem to work, so it's not neccessary to keep those.

4. It's ready, and fully functional*! Save and apply your mod. Check the situation in Mission editor, if your ship doesn't show there, something is propably wrong with the roster file. Create a new single mission and test your ship in action!

*Known Bugs:

-Ships don't break in half
-Ships don't cast shadows
-There is no water reflections
-Ships don't show through water when looked above waterline

Download Kasagisan example import ship mod!

Note: I'm not saying this is the right way to import ships, but this is the easiest and most functional way that I know. And after this you need to add guns and crew to your ship, possibly tweak your ships floating mechanics and adjust the textures. But that is a story for another night!

Big thanks for this goes to TDW! If I forgot something, please tell and I'll update this. SteelViking can also add if there is mistakes. And sorry if it's not understandable, making a tutorial is much harder than it sounds... I hope that you also study the import threads, there is no point importing if you just follow instructions, you need to know what is going on too! Good luck

WOW that was fast!
Thank you Rongel, I am putting myself at work now!

[SteelViking]

Unless anyone has any objections, I will start importing the NKSCS_Taihosan from SHIV.

[TheBeast]

Originally Posted by SteelViking

Aha, the name of the node for the flag on the NAMC did not match that. Changed the node name, and flag is now working. Thanks TDW

Does the cfg#FLG 4/100 Node also require a specific Node ID?

[SteelViking]

Originally Posted by TheBeast

Does the cfg#FLG 4/100 Node also require a specific Node ID?

What I did was simply delete the 3D model and mesh controller from the node, and change the node's label to cfg#FLG_NAMC for the NAMC ship. Works perfectly......other than that the flag was backwards at first, so I flipped the node around.

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by TheBeast

Does the cfg#FLG 4/100 Node also require a specific Node ID?

No. the cfg#FLG tells the game engine that it needs to put a flag there of the country of the unit

[gap]

Hi,
I decided to give a go to the Nippon Tanker suggested by Zedi.
After applying the changes pointed out by Rongel in his tutorial, the ship is collisionable. In game tests confirmed that it takes damage from torpedoes and deck gun BUT the game freezes whenever hitpoits reach zero.

I digged in this thread for some clue about this issue, but is seems that I'm the first one experiencing it.

Besides the latter problem and the common bugs listed by Rongel in his tutorial, here are some remarks:

pro:
- original textures seem to me quite good even for SH5 standards;
- on both sides the ship doesn't look washed out as other imported ships;
- ship's pitch and roll were adjusted with the help of stoianm. Some further finetuning may be required, but in general the look okay.
- as far as I could see from my tests, ship sinks correctly, depending on where it was hit and wich compartments are flooding (tested without FX updtate)

con:
- bow spray and stern wake could be better (especially the latter: it is too light);
- deck guns are rendered black;
- no 2d/3d damage decals on torpedo/shell hits;
- during some of my tests, after a successful torpedo shoot on the side of the ship, there was fire being rendered on the sea close to the impact area instead of being on the ship's deck.
- during my last test, I torpedoed the ship 2 times on her stern. After being hit she stopped and she was on fire. She started having floodings too, but the hit point bar wasn't showing any damage. Is that normal?

This is the link to what I've done so far, in case someone wants to have a look to it. JGSME ready. Custom test mission with two tankers in sight on your 360° bearing included:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Q7NQ9LPH

later I will post some in game screenshots. Suggestions on the freeze problem very wellcomed, as I have no clue on it...

[TheDarkWraith]

Originally Posted by gap

Hi,
I decided to give a go to the Nippon Tanker suggested by Zedi.
After applying the changes pointed out by Rongel in his tutorial, the ship is collisionable. In game tests confirmed that it takes damage from torpedoes and deck gun BUT the game freezes whenever hitpoits reach zero.

Did you verify that the zones defined in the boxes (for collisions/flooding) exist in SH5's \data\Zones.cfg? Sounds like there are incompatibilities (and/or missing entries) here.
The game is probably freezing because the Zone is trying to play an effect that doesn't exist in SH5.

[gap]

The Nippon Tanker from SHIV. IMHO stock textures are not so bad. But notice the black deck guns and spotlights, and the poor bow spray (ship was moving at 5 kn).



Stern wake needs a rework too.



Another view of the tanker, showing the deck and the starboard side of the ship. I forgot to take a screenshoot of the other side before
I started my ballistic exercises but I can ensure you that even the side opposite to the sun is looking okay. Water reflection and
sunlight reflections are missing, though.



After putting a terpedo on the bow the ship is on fire. Notice also that it starts to list on the back, due to flooding.



After the second torpedo propellers stop and the listing on the stern becomes more evident.



Another view of the ship emphasizing her listing.



The tanker start to return my fire. Weird: after two torpedoes on her bow, hit point bar is still at its full...



Time to put a third torpedo on the port side



Center! but now the sea in on fire. An oil spot maybe?



This time hit points decreased as supposed



As you can see from this image and from the previous one, after my third shot the tanker started listing on both the stern and the port sides. A few deckgun shots
were enough to finish her and to... freeze the game

[Zedi]

I see nothing wrong in the hp. This is a huge tanker, 10k one. So its normal to take more than 2 fish to sink it. And it sinks just perfect. Of course, this need more work than a simple small merchant, but none is rushing you.. there is stil plenty of time to finish all details on this ship. So far so good.

[gap]

Originally Posted by TheDarkWraith

Did you verify that the zones defined in the boxes (for collisions/flooding) exist in SH5's \data\Zones.cfg? Sounds like there are incompatibilities (and/or missing entries) here.
The game is probably freezing because the Zone is trying to play an effect that doesn't exist in SH5.

something in my mind was telling me that it had to do with the .zon file, but I was to lazy to trust it

Okay I'll try to decipher the part of your tutorial about zones and I'll report back as soon as I finish. I hope to work out the problem by myself. Thanks!

[Rongel]

Originally Posted by gap

something in my mind was telling me that it had to do with the .zon file, but I was to lazy to trust it

Okay I'll try to decipher the part of your tutorial about zones and I'll report back as soon as I finish. I hope to work out the problem by myself. Thanks!

Nice looking ship, great work Gap!

Can't really help you with your problem, never encountered that... I only heard that sinking a friendly ship may crash your game, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Have you tried your ship without any other mod? That's the best advice I can give, lame...

SH5 guns are always rendered black for some reason, that's why we use SH 4 guns. And you can fix the anemic SH 4 wave/foam with SH 5 effect controllers. Can't help more now... Good luck!

[Sepp von Ch.]

My lovely target - big tanker! Very good work gap!

[Chevelless]

you are making progress everyday!

Good job keep it up. Finally we may see a total different SH5

[Stormfly]

also working on importing my first ship (New Passenger/Hospitalship by AOTD|MadMax 09.07.2008), nearly finished nr. 1 ...

...i hear impacts and see damage and so on but i cant hear explosions or burning fires, sinking sounds are present... and what to do spawning live boats

[TheBeast]

@ Gap
you may want to check Armor level in ZON file and compare with native tanker settings.

in SH4 I have had this Nippon Tanker leave a fire trail up to 2Km long before it sank. Posted pic of it in SH4 Forum around 2 years ago.
Not sure if I was using TMO or FoTRS at the time.