3D modelling

[Nerei]

My knowledge on how the game handles terrain is limited but from what I understand there is no way to have the game place the objects for you. Terrain appears to be largely handled like units.

I checked the terrain files and if you look at terrain (ter) files 114-144 they all appear to basically be a number of different forests built from what appears to be the same model or closely related models using the same textures but with placement and orientation changed.

[Uriens]

Just a small request - can someone make some UGV models? UGV = Unmanned Ground Vehicle.
Russia already has Udar and Vihkr UGV's in development.

Udar



Vikhr



Some other varied models for future units would be great too.

[Nerei]

For me the main limitation with making those is finding proper orthographic reference. Without that I find making the models takes a lot longer.

I have not had too much time to work on this but the An-2 is mostly where I want it.


Also the IAR-93/J-22 got most details done. Still a few things to fix on it though.

The texture is the T region group texture. Like the basic details it still needs a bit of work.

[Breznev]

For me the main limitation with making those is finding proper orthographic reference. Without that I find making the models takes a lot longer.

I have not had too much time to work on this but the An-2 is mostly where I want it.


Also the IAR-93/J-22 got most details done. Still a few things to fix on it though.

The texture is the T region group texture. Like the basic details it still needs a bit of work.

good job
Good to see these texture in the game , Specifically Middle east texture ( like iraq , syria , egypt , saudi arabia etc...)

Because, you know
The fighters are divided into several copies in terms of specifications and camouflage
For example, the Israeli F-16 fighter is different from the Saudi arabia F-16
Different in camouflage and in the possibilities and specifications as well
The same is true for Russian or eastern fighters
For example, you find the Algerian Sukhoi 30 different from the Venezuelan Sukhoi 30
In terms of camouflage, capabilities and specifications
The same is the same for Chinese aircraft in Pakistan
For example, the GF17 Thunder fighter project
It is a Chinese-Pakistani project
Where you find that the Pakistani GF-17 Thunder fighter is different in terms of camouflage, specifications, and capabilities from the Chinese GF-17 version
And so on and on in other countries
Thank you for the work you do, and I hope these units will be included in the next update of the game , and BG will add it to the game in the next update
Or at least compile these units in files and put them in the forum + put a way to add them to the game

[Nerei]

I try and make a decent number of different texture for nations where relevant but there are some limitations.
Venezuela is a good example of this in that it is worldavail O. I have not experimented extensively with it but from what I understand the game picks regional textures from worldavail.

O (other) is a very broad group. Outside of a lot of South America also includes such diverse nations as Indonesia, Vietnam, Fiji, Micronesia, Mongolia and Chad. There are also colonies like Guam and the Falklands.
Basically making anything for such a broad group is likely going to result in half of them looking wrong anyway.

The middle east is the same issue though less extreme. For ground vehicles in particular do I try and stick with fairly simple desert-esque textures. That is among the best options as they have to work for pretty much every country from Morocco to Pakistan. It is not perfect but to me at least it is better than olive green.

There is also region groups with some very dominant nations. R includes other nations like Belorussia and Ukraine but Russia/The USSR really is the main nation of that region group and my choice there is either not mark Russian aircraft properly or have some 2020 nations get stuck with say wrong roundels. In that case I do prioritise marking the Russian aircraft.


As for inclusion in the core game that is really up to BG. They are free to do so if they want and I am willing to try and provide support if needed. It does however not appear to be a priority and honestly I am fine with that.

The time it takes to overhaul the picnums is significant and probably better spend on something else, more substantial. Something that is just cosmetic should probably be low priority.
If all that happens is that they are made available in the meshes folder it really just saves you 5 minutes work.

The assets are available in the repository anyway.
link


Also regional variant X for the J-22/IAR-93. I will probably find a few things to adjust still.

The colouring is mostly based on Yugoslavian aircraft.

[Breznev]

I try and make a decent number of different texture for nations where relevant but there are some limitations.
Venezuela is a good example of this in that it is worldavail O. I have not experimented extensively with it but from what I understand the game picks regional textures from worldavail.

O (other) is a very broad group. Outside of a lot of South America also includes such diverse nations as Indonesia, Vietnam, Fiji, Micronesia, Mongolia and Chad. There are also colonies like Guam and the Falklands.
Basically making anything for such a broad group is likely going to result in half of them looking wrong anyway.

The middle east is the same issue though less extreme. For ground vehicles in particular do I try and stick with fairly simple desert-esque textures. That is among the best options as they have to work for pretty much every country from Morocco to Pakistan. It is not perfect but to me at least it is better than olive green.

There is also region groups with some very dominant nations. R includes other nations like Belorussia and Ukraine but Russia/The USSR really is the main nation of that region group and my choice there is either not mark Russian aircraft properly or have some 2020 nations get stuck with say wrong roundels. In that case I do prioritise marking the Russian aircraft.


As for inclusion in the core game that is really up to BG. They are free to do so if they want and I am willing to try and provide support if needed. It does however not appear to be a priority and honestly I am fine with that.

The time it takes to overhaul the picnums is significant and probably better spend on something else, more substantial. Something that is just cosmetic should probably be low priority.
If all that happens is that they are made available in the meshes folder it really just saves you 5 minutes work.

The assets are available in the repository anyway.
link


Also regional variant X for the J-22/IAR-93. I will probably find a few things to adjust still.

The colouring is mostly based on Yugoslavian aircraft.

Thanks for your reply
 And thank you also for the work you do
Especially in the new design of military units
Frankly, I hope BG will support you and take your designs into account in any upcoming game updates
Frankly, the game deserves some improvements in the design and capabilities of the military units
Such an action would increase the degree of the game’s realism more and more and improve it
Not to mention that there are many repeated designs in the game, many but with different names
At least it can be fixed and reduced
I am ready to support you in any way for any military unit, whether land, air or sea
And ready to help you by sending information about the technical capabilities of any military unit
Especially for third world countries such as Middle East countries, Eastern European countries, South America, some Central Asian countries and African countries
You are doing a good job
I was downloaded the file, and I will add it to the game soon, I will try it and give you my notes

last question
If possible, please explain to me
How can I add these files in the game
Thank you

[Nerei]

Editing existing unit designs or adding new ones is beyond what I am doing. All I do is make 3D models that can be used to change the appearance of already existing unit designs.
For changing existing designs or adding new ones the best I can suggest is to try and create the designs you think are missing or editing existing designs you think are wrong. The asset manager is good choice for doing this. It is fairly user friendly and includes information about what most variables are.


As for doing that changing models is fairly strait-forward. This looks more complex than it really is and once you have done it a few times it really becomes second nature.

I am writing this from memory as I currently do not have access to my desktop computer and I do not have games installed on my laptop (it is a mac anyway and modding the mac version is a pain). I do however have a copy of the unit database for some reason.


The first thing is really to install the files. The folder structure in the download is similar to how they should be in the game.
The UGBITS files goes into the graphics folder found in the SR root.
The .x models and .dds textures goes into the graphics/meshes folder.

The picnums.txt file contains the picnums entries. These control how model works and how to call them. The simplest option is simply to add the content of this txt document to default.picnums found in graphics/meshes. Default.picnums can be opened with any text editor or the asset manager. In this case though I recommend simply using a text editor.
Simply paste them in and it should be fine.


Once the installation is done you need to set what models is used for what designs.

If this is all you want to do the simplest option is probably to edit the unit database manually with a text editor (note that notepad does not like large files, notepad++ is a good alternative).
The alternative is to use the asset manager. The value to edit there is called picnum and is found in the display tab.

For the default scenarios what you want to edit is default.unit found in maps/data. For mods this might be different.

Here is a full entry for the B-47E. Lets say we want to change this to use model 1200.

12150, "B-47E Stratojet", 12, 86, 53, 73, 1, 4, 13, 3, 40, , U, 12, 3, , 12157, , , 896, 8, 30, , 1683, , 8, 18.7, , , 35.9, , , 6480, , 300, 2, 6, 75, 50, 75, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 55, 27, 30, 4, 6, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, , , , 0, , , , , , , , , , 0, , , , 38, 38, 43, 1, , 0, , , , ,

The second, highlighted value is picnums which is what you need to change to 1200. likewise in the asset manager simply change the picnum value to 1200

12150, "B-47E Stratojet", 12, 1200, 53, 73, 1, 4, 13, 3, 40, , U, 12, 3, , 12157, , , 896, 8, 30, , 1683, , 8, 18.7, , , 35.9, , , 6480, , 300, 2, 6, 75, 50, 75, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 55, 27, 30, 4, 6, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, , , , 0, , , , , , , , , , 0, , , , 38, 38, 43, 1, , 0, , , , ,

The picnums entries in picnums.txt should for the most part mention what each model is.


Once you are done changing models you need to recache for the changes to take effect.
Some patches ago BG added the option to do this in-game.
in game options there is an option called something like "recache for modding". Simply check this and start whatever scenario, sandbox or campaign you want to apply the changes to.
Depending on your CPU this might take a long time.
Once it is done it will start whatever scenario, sandbox or campaign you where recaching. There might be some graphics glitches (e.g. I have seen leader pictures being gone). Simply restart and it should be fixed.

[Breznev]

Editing existing unit designs or adding new ones is beyond what I am doing. All I do is make 3D models that can be used to change the appearance of already existing unit designs.
For changing existing designs or adding new ones the best I can suggest is to try and create the designs you think are missing or editing existing designs you think are wrong. The asset manager is good choice for doing this. It is fairly user friendly and includes information about what most variables are.


As for doing that changing models is fairly strait-forward. This looks more complex than it really is and once you have done it a few times it really becomes second nature.

I am writing this from memory as I currently do not have access to my desktop computer and I do not have games installed on my laptop (it is a mac anyway and modding the mac version is a pain). I do however have a copy of the unit database for some reason.


The first thing is really to install the files. The folder structure in the download is similar to how they should be in the game.
The UGBITS files goes into the graphics folder found in the SR root.
The .x models and .dds textures goes into the graphics/meshes folder.

The picnums.txt file contains the picnums entries. These control how model works and how to call them. The simplest option is simply to add the content of this txt document to default.picnums found in graphics/meshes. Default.picnums can be opened with any text editor or the asset manager. In this case though I recommend simply using a text editor.
Simply paste them in and it should be fine.


Once the installation is done you need to set what models is used for what designs.

If this is all you want to do the simplest option is probably to edit the unit database manually with a text editor (note that notepad does not like large files, notepad++ is a good alternative).
The alternative is to use the asset manager. The value to edit there is called picnum and is found in the display tab.

For the default scenarios what you want to edit is default.unit found in maps/data. For mods this might be different.

Here is a full entry for the B-47E. Lets say we want to change this to use model 1200.

12150, "B-47E Stratojet", 12, 86, 53, 73, 1, 4, 13, 3, 40, , U, 12, 3, , 12157, , , 896, 8, 30, , 1683, , 8, 18.7, , , 35.9, , , 6480, , 300, 2, 6, 75, 50, 75, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 55, 27, 30, 4, 6, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, , , , 0, , , , , , , , , , 0, , , , 38, 38, 43, 1, , 0, , , , ,

The second, highlighted value is picnums which is what you need to change to 1200. likewise in the asset manager simply change the picnum value to 1200

12150, "B-47E Stratojet", 12, 1200, 53, 73, 1, 4, 13, 3, 40, , U, 12, 3, , 12157, , , 896, 8, 30, , 1683, , 8, 18.7, , , 35.9, , , 6480, , 300, 2, 6, 75, 50, 75, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 55, 27, 30, 4, 6, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, , , , 0, , , , , , , , , , 0, , , , 38, 38, 43, 1, , 0, , , , ,

The picnums entries in picnums.txt should for the most part mention what each model is.


Once you are done changing models you need to recache for the changes to take effect.
Some patches ago BG added the option to do this in-game.
in game options there is an option called something like "recache for modding". Simply check this and start whatever scenario, sandbox or campaign you want to apply the changes to.
Depending on your CPU this might take a long time.
Once it is done it will start whatever scenario, sandbox or campaign you where recaching. There might be some graphics glitches (e.g. I have seen leader pictures being gone). Simply restart and it should be fixed.

Thank you for the response and interaction
And thank you for the link of the files And this is what I wanted in my previous reply !

According to what I understood from your words, You are not modifying designs or creating new designs.
 
Rather, you create 3D models that we can use it to change the appearance of the units in the game.
This is good and this is what I meant in my previous reply

And this way of working helps us to change the general appearance of some of the existing units
Especially since in the game there are a lot of similar units in appearance with different names and their appearance is not completely realistic
Thank you for this work, and I wish you more
Especially for land, air or sea units
In general, I have a Word Office program which is a good program for such work
I will soon collect all the files that upload your models and collect them in one file and start working on them to put them in the game.

Generally, thank you for responding, clarifying
I support your work , and hope that BG will take it into account in the game or any upcoming game updates
We expect more from you
Thank you

[Nerei]

I just want to ensure you do not have any expectations beyond what this actually is.
I tend to prefer to call this a modding resource rather than a mod as it really will not do anything on its own without modifying other files.

The main reason I recommend notepad++ is that I know it works. From what I understand programs like excel has a tendency to break the formatting of the file which can make the file unreadable by the game.


Also the files in the archive found under the releases tab is not the same as those you get if you use the "clone or download" option so if you want all models get both of them.

The files under the releases tab are the oldest so install those first.

There might be a few files that will be overridden both in your base install and from the releases files when the latest files are added. That should be okay. There might also be picnnums entries that are updated. You should just be able to replace the old line with the new one.

[sparky282]

notepad++ is a given as excel or word etc will definitely break the format as nerei says

also the content editor available through steam is 100% the best way to edit the default.unit file then I just use notepad++ for defaultpicnum file

[Nerei]

Another model that have been underway probably since early 2019.

Some of the minor props still need some texturing and I might end up doing the cranes as models instead of just drawn objects.
I like making warships and I do have plans for quite a few more but given the time it takes for me to make one of these compared to say the An-2 means there will likely be a lot more aircraft than warships.

[milivoje02]

Nice work I wonder have you ever tried to make a F 14 tomcate? it's a beautiful plane...

61zbZ6HoIRL._AC_SX679_.jpg

[YaYo7]

Nerei, are there any Chinese destroyers in your plans- Type 051B Luhai-class, Type 052 Luhu-class and Type 051C Luzhou class? And Frigate Type 054 Jiangkai I?

[Nerei]

Nerei, are there any Chinese destroyers in your plans- Type 051B Luhai-class, Type 052 Luhu-class and Type 051C Luzhou class? And Frigate Type 054 Jiangkai I?

I do have a Type 054 frigate. Technically based mostly on the Type 054A but it will probably cover the Type 054 also.

With regards to PLAN vessels I ultimately want to make just about everything. If I ever get there is naturally another question entirely but I do plan on working towards it.
Currently my plans are something like this though nothing are set yet. It is mostly written from memory so it is probably not entirely accurate.

Type 003 aircraft carrier
Type 054D DDG
Type 056 Corvette
Type 071 LPD
Type 075 LHD
Type 051C DDG
Type 051 DD
Type 052 DDG
Type 053 corvette (both a Jianghu and Jiangwei)
A variant of the Type 037 missile boats.
Type 022 missile boat.
Some variant(s) of the Type 900 range of replenishment ships (this will largely depend on what vessels I can find good reference for).
Some variant of Type 072-074 landing ships (again references will dictate what I will end up making).

Nice work I wonder have you ever tried to make a F 14 tomcate? it's a beautiful plane...

Does it count that I have an incomplete model? It is not very far along. For texturing it only have basic rendered shading. It is also somewhat old meaning it probably need a bit of work other than the obviously missing texturing.
I actually originally started on it after finding a beat up F-14 model kit in a thrift store. A surprising number of models started their life as something I found like that.

Plans are US (U) and Iranian (Z).

[sparky282]

all those Chinese ships would be rather cool if indeed you do ever get there the current ones are great