Couple of questions for modders

[rocketman]

I wonder if the following two mods are possible to create:

1) Invisible vehicles: I'm not trying to do some sci-fi mod  No, rather have the idea of making burning buildnings using invisible vehicles on fire inside buildnings. You can place them by first placing the vehicle in the editor and then the building on top of it. To make a burning buildning look credible one wants to have damage to walls and roof, but then the vehicle is visible (also if you go into the house). The invisible vehicle could be one that is seldom used and could be mod tagged like [burning house]. Think it would be cool looking. And I have a scenario idea that would use it. Possible?

2) Longer, bigger tracers (sorry, not meant to sound obscene ): A while back I did some extensive testing of the "HT Gunner Bullet Magnet" hypothesis. One conclusion was that it seems like the HT itself serves like a beacon that causes the gunner to be hit way to easily. It was a bit hard to capture, so I'm thinking of rerunning the test at night with camera 6 top down so that the pattern of incoming fire can be viewed more easily. Problem is that tracers don't show up too well. So, longer and thicker tracers would make this test more illustrative. Possible?

[Erwin]

Definitely there are tracer mods.  Can't see why on can't make textures blank - but that would make ALL similar textures on ALL vehicles blank/transparent.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

The first idea is rather neat. 

Would it not only effect the 'damaged' textures/models for a given vehicle type?  I'm not very familiar with mods.

Edited September 6, 2017 by Sgt.Squarehead

[rocketman]

2 minutes ago, Erwin said:

Definitely there are tracer mods.  Can't see why on can't make textures blank - but that would make ALL similar textures on ALL vehicles blank/transparent.

Textures are not shared among several vehicles are they? If they are, the mod should be for some exclusive vehicle. And as it would be mod tagged it will only be applied to certain scenarios. The tracer mods are not sufficient, the need to be (much) longer and preferrably thicker to be visible from high up. Note, only for testing reasons.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

One other minor issue is that the invisible vehicle would block action spots, maybe affect LOS and it would provide some cover, not a big deal really, but worth considering I guess.....If you made 'em I'd use 'em (lots of them if they were done for CM:SF or CM:USIICW CM:BS)

Edited September 6, 2017 by Sgt.Squarehead

[TheForwardObserver]

Rocketman it can be done.  I sacrificed ural trucks for these smoke plumes.    

[rocketman]

2 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

One other minor issue is that the invisible vehicle would block action spots, maybe affect LOS and it would provide some cover, not a big deal really, but worth considering I guess.....If you made 'em I'd use 'em (lots of them if they were done for CM:SF or CM:USIICW CM:BS)

My intention is that burning houses would be a "no go zone", so if action spots are blocked all the better.

[rocketman]

1 hour ago, TheForwardObserver said:

Rocketman it can be done.  I sacrificed ural trucks for these smoke plumes.    

Is it hard to do? I'm fairly good with Photoshop so I might be able to do it myself. What's the trick?

[TheForwardObserver]

Not tough.  Works exactly as you'd postulated.  Select the vehicle type that you want to serve as your smoke plumes.  Identify which textures it uses [in my example using black sea, I chose the ural, which has 4 textures to it; chassis, hull, wheel and rear].  Make those textures transparent and place them in your z file and you should be good to go.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Nice work sir! 

If you'd used almost anything Russian but the Ural, I'd ask you for a copy, but that's the one Russian vehicle I actually use in Trumpton! 

Edited September 6, 2017 by Sgt.Squarehead

[rocketman]

31 minutes ago, TheForwardObserver said:

Not tough.  Works exactly as you'd postulated.  Select the vehicle type that you want to serve as your smoke plumes.  Identify which textures it uses [in my example using black sea, I chose the ural, which has 4 textures to it; chassis, hull, wheel and rear].  Make those textures transparent and place them in your z file and you should be good to go.

Cool, thanks, I'll try that. Easier than imagined 

[TheForwardObserver]

39 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Nice work sir! 

If you'd used almost anything Russian but the Ural, I'd ask you for a copy, but that's the one Russian vehicle I actually use in Trumpton! 

Which 'vic-to-plume' would you like?  I'll put up a dropbox link.  

[Ithikial_AU]

That is actually a brilliant idea to add a bit of variety to an rubbled urban map.

[para]

Great idea

[A Canadian Cat]

I recommend using tags for these "transparent vehicles for making a building look like it is burning" because that way they can be tied to a specific scenario. If you do not use tags on the mod then all vehicles of that type in all games played on that system will be transparent.

[Sgt.Squarehead]

17 hours ago, TheForwardObserver said:

Which 'vic-to-plume' would you like?  I'll put up a dropbox link.  

That's very kind of you TFO, much appreciated fella.....Anything Russian or Ukrainian except the truck would do me just fine for Trumpton. 

I'll have to have proper look at mods & tags, I'm really impressed by this, it's just the sort of creative lateral thinking that I've always loved about the CM series. 

Edited September 7, 2017 by Sgt.Squarehead

[Ithikial_AU]

I'd agree with @IanL's comments about using modtags. I'd just add to pick a vehicle that is present in most if not all games (so something German) that isn't likely to be used in regular scenarios. Maybe a flak vehicle? Using something common like a Kubelwagon or Opel Blitz, you'll be back needing more retextures done down the track.