3D modelling

[Nerei]

I can definitely add it to my admittedly fairly long list. Any particular design (number of animals etc) you are interested in?

It might break the 900 tris but with a decent number of quadruped animals that is probably just the way it will have to be.

[Zuikaku]

I can definitely add it to my admittedly fairly long list. Any particular design (number of animals etc) you are interested in?

It might break the 900 tris but with a decent number of quadruped animals that is probably just the way it will have to be.

Thanks

One animal woul'd be enough for mule pack (one mule loaded with boxes). And two horses for horse wagon (even one woul'd do the job).

[MK4]

Not really sure what the best solution is.

The best solution is the one you`ve already taken: post a thread directed at George to see if he can help. Also, you might want to send him a PM or reply to one of his recent posts (when that happens ) to inform him of the thread. Since he`s a one man team he might miss that thread. Speaking of which, maybe the title could be made a bit more specific. "Is the game limited to 999 unit models?" or something like that.

Now, when it comes to explaining the situation... When you say "the game supports up to Unit ID 999" you are referring to the Mesh ID from DEFAULT.PICNUMS, right? Because there are unit IDs in DEFAULT.UNIT and those go into the tens of thousands from SR2020, iirc so it means you`re actually talking about the number of distinctive graphics, not the number of distinctive units.

If and only when this fails we could try to make the best of the situation by seeing what mesh entries were actually using the graphics of other entries instead of being unique. I don`t know how things have gone from SRCW to SRU, but back in the 2020/CW files this situation was present and I have some notes on this that might help. This being the not really ideal solution of course.

[Nerei]

Yes the thread might not have the best name and text. I am in the process of rewriting it.

edit: I did a count and if I release all I have I take up around 70 of the 99 spots from 901-999. I can get another 35 or so by taking the spots below 900.

Also yes I will probably poke George directly at some point. Maybe we should all poke him about a GoG release while we are at it. I want a GoG release. I will buy the game again if it comes on GoG

[Nerei]

For now I plan to also use the Sub-900 when needed. If I at some point can go past 1000 I might reshuffle that and the 901-999 range.

I hope to release something next week.

[Nerei]

Thought it would be good to get other people to test my tank-setup so here's the T-55 as a stand-alone release. It should be fully compatible with everything else so far. Installation should be the same as the other release. Remember to make backups and all that.

T-55 download link

[Nandu]

Which function plays a "shotpoint" mesh?

[Nerei]

From what I can tell it acts as some sort of guide for turret orientation. The name should not matter as it appears to be controlled by default.picnums.
I am still in the process of working out the exact mechanics behind this.

[MK4]

Why are you using the 884 slot for the T-55? The T-55 already exists in the game. It has the ID 146 in DEFAULT.PICNUMS. I was just about to test yours, but the nasty thing is that if you change the DEFAULT.UNIT (to change the mesh id of the unit) you need to recache for the change to take effect apparently. That takes quite a while in my case so I`ll have to leave it for the next day.

[Nerei]

I generally do not want to make an override for something that for now at least is a test release. The number was more or less picked at random.
What I will do in the end I do not know. For now I am planning to not assign any number to it at all.

If you want to override the existing model you should just be able to change the 884 to 146. Regional textures are assigned automatically and the base texture is saved in the mesh file

edit: give me 10 minutes and I will have an override version up.

edit2: dropbox link

[MK4]

Nevermind, I was just being silly. Been a while since I actually modded this game. Sorry for the extra trouble you went through!

Ok, I`ve renamed the files and just changed the default.picnums 146 entry. As far as the "test" went (I did this in SR2020) I got the tanks to go in all directions and also attack and I did not notice any issues. Is there anything in particular I should look at more closely?

Aesthetically the new tank is great btw.

[Nerei]

No need to worry about a bit of photoshop work and file renaming. It really is nothing in particular.

It is the first land unit I have made so it is really just testing the unit out in general to see if it works as intended. Not sure if 2020 supports revolving turrets but that is one thing to test. Then there is the colouration. Really it is as much if there is something that could/should be improved.
The more eyes that observe something the more likely anything that needs improvement gets spotted.

Here is my take on some late WW II and early Cold war bomber designs


All of them should make it for next release.
All are with nation specific textures. For generic the Ta-400 and G10N1 have a basic green while the Tu-95 and B-36 are mostly grey.
The G10N1 and Ta-400

Also for the sake of fun here is one of the latest planes I have made put next to one of the first


I am in the process of redoing the textures for the F-3. The mesh itself is good enough it is just the UV and texture maps that could do with an overhaul.

None of these will probably be ready for release soon. The F-2 for one will get a RoK paintjob on top of a generic one so it can moonlight as a F-16K and th F-3 is lrgely being redone

[MK4]

Not sure if 2020 supports revolving turrets

Not unless I`m driving the tank wrong. Yeah, that was my worry too (that there are moving parts in the recent SR editions).

Then there is the colouration. Really it is as much if there is something that could/should be improved.

Personally I would have made that light beige piece darker since, in game, it sticks out visually by comparison, but it`s the sort of small thing that`s not worth bugging the artist with or the project never gets finished.

Here is my take on some late WW II and early Cold war bomber designs

Those look awesome! Hard to pick a favorite...

The F-2 for one will get a RoK paintjob on top of a generic one so it can moonlight as a F-16K

Would it not make more sense to make a Korean texture for the existing F-16 model? Unless you`re planing to use the F-2 model for the F-16 of all factions...
Nice job on the Japanese F-2 texture btw!

[Nerei]

I can try and mess around with darkening the cloth cover. Maybe making it look more dirty etc. might be interesting.
I use a large number of layers on my textures so doing simple colour changes are very easy. On my new models I can basically swap the base colours of a model in a few minutes. The T-55 is not perfect for this but it is still fairly easy to make new camouflage patterns for it and I might throw in a DPRK pattern and maybe something generic eastern european.
Some of the more complex texture maps I have made for these models are probably on the better side of 200 layers.


Ideally yes it would be better to make it for the original F-16 rather than the F-2. Practically though there are a few issues.

For starters I do not have the raw texture file I only got access to the .dds which is flattened. I would probably have to redo a good portion of it unless I can get away with slapping some roundels on it but that would just be boring (and the ROKAF roundel is asymmetrical which it turns out is a problem).

Even solving that problem there is the issue with how the UV maps are built. This is entirely about personal preference but I generally dislike large scale mirroring and all aircraft does this extensively.
The perfect example of this is the F-4 phantom. The model is good and so is the texturing. However the limitations of the mirroring shows quite a lot in the camouflage pattern on the model. Basically I cannot do anything asymmetrical on them which bothers me quite a lot.
Naturally there are advantages to this and I can understand why this is done. For starters you can make the individual parts larger as you only have to put one wing on the texture map instead of two and you can make it larger. Also you can make only half the textures and still be done which is quite good when you got limited time.
Given that I am doing this in my spare-time I can better get away with wasting time texturing 2 wings individually (or making 7 versions of the F-104).

This is the reason why I am considering making models of units that are already in the game despite the quality as whole being quite good. Half my joy with doing this is ending up with a texture map that resembles what it might have looked like and this mirroring (and only having access to flattened textures) is a major restriction on that.


It might actually be just as fast for me to rework the F-2 into a true F-16 if I do it in a way where I can reuse part of the F-2 texture as it would be to retexture the existing F-16 (and it would be without this mirroring). I might actually end up taking this route instead.

[Nerei]

Okay been slightly delayed but I am now only really missing things like UGBITS and default.picnums for next release to be done.





Yes I cannot be bothered to create pretty images and yes the 2nd image is a mess but what I focus on with that one is if the turrets of the tanks work and they appear to do so.

I will probably have it up in a few hours or so. Probably tomorrow at the latest. Textures might need a bit more work here and there but I think I will stick with that for an update later down the road.

Also here is the updated Mitsubishi F-3. Personally I prefer this version