Knokke Posted September 10, 2008 Share Posted September 10, 2008 Hi, I need help from knowledgeable peoples to create some new objects for TOW: I'm trying to import in the game some new objects for a map about the Operation Market garden capture of the bridge over the river Maas at Grave. It seems to me that there are some files I need to mod that I can't find with SFSextractor. We have access to all the files for the vehicles, but I can't find any files for the static objects except the files in the 3dobj directory. There must be some file somewhere, which stores the parameters for the static objects. In /data/unit we can find all the files to modify the vehicles, but there is nothing about static objects (not unit.ini and no part.ini). The unit modeling guide for TOW mention doesn't say anything about static objects in particular. There is also mention in it of *.MCN files, but I can't find any files with this extension. the TOW modding FAQ 1.02 by Oudy doesn't mention anything about that either. I'd be very glad if someone could provide me with some information about this, as i've several models waiting to be included in my map. For thoses who wish to see what i'm trying to achieve, here are links to some pictures: My map looks very empty without the bridge in the background http://pigeonh.free.fr/Grave-2.jpg The missing bridge...: http://pigeonh.free.fr/Grave_bridge.jpg the LZ is also missing some gliders: http://pigeonh.free.fr/horsa01.jpg Thanks for any help you could provide. -Knokke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneaksie Posted September 11, 2008 Share Posted September 11, 2008 Did you make them yourself? Looks impressive! Bridges are complex statics and it's difficult to explain how to make them usable in the game without example. We'll release big bridge static (which is not in the game because of we didn't have enough time to finish the mission with it before game release) for you soon, so you'll be able to compare it with yours and make needed adjustments for your bridge or use this bridge instead (it's not quite like yours though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnasher Posted September 11, 2008 Share Posted September 11, 2008 What Sneaksie said! Very impressive! Only a suggestion but whole undamaged gliders look a bit unconvincing. IIRC a large percentage of the gliders were hit by flak causing greater or lesser damage especially to the troops within. IMO you've set yourself an impressive project goal. I think the main challenge will be creating realistic maps without exceeding the engine static object limits. IIRC Holland is the 2nd most densely populated country in the world which = lots & lots of objects especially within the battle area, although the battles of the 101st airbourne on Hells Highway offer good scenarios on fairly open terrain. FWIW I did some work on a market garden map but ended up breaking the engine http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=80165&page=3 Good luck looking forward to your success over my failure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knokke Posted September 12, 2008 Author Share Posted September 12, 2008 Hi, Thanks a lot for your offer to provide me an exemple of a bridge Sneakie. I used the Dunk_bridge5 as reference for the 3D model of the bridge, but it is much more simple than my bridge, and for the moment, I've the collision made differently (7 collision objects instead of three). Also, if it's not asking to much, it would be nice if we could have a house exemple (I've to model the St-Elizabethkerks church, the Van Sasse pumping station and the Overasselt mill - as well as a few other typical buildings of the area). The only unsolvable problem i'm faced with is that the battle area is just a bit to small compared to the real one: if I use the whole 4kmx4km to have both the north LZ in Overasselt and south LZ near Keent included in the map, the game crashes. I've to reduce the playable area to about 3kmx3km, which means the deployment zone for the paratroops who landed south of the bridge is very small. @Gnasher: The model for the Horsa is just a test: I'm planning to do several versions of the glider in more or less damaged states, and some with the tail unit opened. I'll need also to do a CG-7A glider. Your Arhnem map looks very impressive. Too bad it's crashing ingame The area I've choosen is not densely wooded in 1944, nor densely populated - at least not as much as Oosterbeek or Nijmegen - so I hope I'll not hit the static limit. For the moment, i'm well under the maximum number of statics, and I'm prepared to sacrifice some details. I agree that it is an impressive project goal and a lot of work, but not an impossible task to achieve in my opinion (only if I can have more info to add statics objects in the game) _Knokke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneaksie Posted September 12, 2008 Share Posted September 12, 2008 Max playable area is 2x2km, you can't make it larger (but you can make border zone historically accurate too). Maybe make two maps with common area and two missions? Thanks to two of you i now experience nostalgia about CC2: A bridge too far;) What a brilliant campaign structure it had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WiCkd1 Posted September 15, 2008 Share Posted September 15, 2008 Ah yes i remember even playing the first close combat demo when it came out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnasher Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 I fixed the Oosterbeek map but I had to remove a helluva lot of statics! I made massive cut backs on the number of tree objects too. I'm thinking of baselining what I have & then rebreaking the engine on a copy to see exactly where the edges are..... Knokke you are welcome to 1st dibs on this map for your Market Garden gig, if you want it. If not I'll upload to CMMODS sometime. It seems to me that the engine is more sensitive to the proximity of statics than the total number of statics, I have a map that runs absolutely perfectly & has > 4000 objects, however they are pretty well spaced out over the map. Here's a pic of the >4000 static object map (I love eye candy in posts!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knokke Posted September 17, 2008 Author Share Posted September 17, 2008 whaow!!! This map is very impressive... It remembers me of the second episode of "Band of Brothers". Thanks a lot for your offer about the Oosterbeek map Gnasher. By the way, I've a little something for you too... I've been at work on this since I can't find a way yet to import my bridge and gliders. I once read that you'd like to have a Typhoon for your British Bulldogs campaign. I'm in the process of trying to add one to the game. For the moment, I'm still stuck with tinkering with the files to make it work. It seems that Vista is giving me some troubles (It seems that I can't see all the files I extracted from the SFS with SFSextractor, or else all the files I need won't extract correctly) Here's a picture: Note that the textures are still WIP; I need to add weathering, and make them more realist. I'll do two versions: a early typhoon with car doors, and a late one with bubble canopy. regards, -Knokke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnasher Posted September 17, 2008 Share Posted September 17, 2008 That Tiffie looks bloody fantastic! I will definately incorporate it into the Bulldogs campaign when you get it into the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnasher Posted September 17, 2008 Share Posted September 17, 2008 whaow!!! This map is very impressive... It remembers me of the second episode of "Band of Brothers". LOL it should do! It's derived from a google earth shot of Brecourt Manor & is as accurate as I can make it with the game tools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knokke Posted September 17, 2008 Author Share Posted September 17, 2008 @Gnasher I've the Typhoon "almost" working in game. But I believe I've identified the problem: I have 1 text file missing and I can't figure out what should be inside: 3do/planes/uk/hurricane_mkiic/hurricane_mkiic_big.rect I think I may need this files for the Typhoon, but I can't extract it from the 3do.SFS correctly... the test mission is loading, but TOW close to the desktop as soon as the game starts. There is still the possibility that this file is needed only for positioning the pictures of vehicles at the bottom of the interface, and that I don't need it for a plane... in this case, the problem is probably with my meshes (although I'm pretty sure they're correct) @Sneaksie: Could you be of any help? regards, Knokke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sneaksie Posted September 18, 2008 Share Posted September 18, 2008 The ini file for your plane is probably incorrect, try to copy ini from other plane and change it. You don't need .rect file for non-controllable units, those files describe damage zones for unit in the GUI panel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knokke Posted September 19, 2008 Author Share Posted September 19, 2008 Thanks a lot Sneaksie, I'll check that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knokke Posted September 20, 2008 Author Share Posted September 20, 2008 I could not find anything wrong in the ini files (as far as I can tell). Could it be possible that the game crash because there is some problems in the material names in the mesh and *.mat files? If this was the case, I would expect the test mission to launch, and the plane displaying incorrectly, but I might certainly be wrong. regards, -Knokke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnasher Posted September 21, 2008 Share Posted September 21, 2008 Keep at it mate this is really good stuff. The guys over at All Aircraft Arcade may be able to offer advice if you get really stuck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnasher Posted September 22, 2008 Share Posted September 22, 2008 Sorry my bad, I see you've already done that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlapHappy Posted September 22, 2008 Share Posted September 22, 2008 I could not find anything wrong in the ini files (as far as I can tell). Could it be possible that the game crash because there is some problems in the material names in the mesh and *.mat files? If this was the case, I would expect the test mission to launch, and the plane displaying incorrectly, but I might certainly be wrong. regards, -Knokke I assume you've already checked to make sure the number of model faces, etc. is within the boundaries allowed by the game engine....there is a guide somewhere in this sub-forum posted by Sneaksie that gives the allowable ranges. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knokke Posted September 22, 2008 Author Share Posted September 22, 2008 The problem does not come from exceeding maximum number of faces allowed, I'm well under the maximum; but thanks for mentionning it. I'm still at a loss to know where the problem lies. I can see the Typhoon without problem under Supports in the ToW Battle generator. The test mission is launching, but the game crash when the mission is about 60/70% loaded. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnasher Posted September 23, 2008 Share Posted September 23, 2008 What does the log file say? Does it clearly point to the Typhoon as being the problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knokke Posted September 23, 2008 Author Share Posted September 23, 2008 I'm starting to understand better where the problem comes from, though i've not managed to make it work yet. I had a problem with collision object names in the hier.him file and part.ini file. The log files says that it's a problem with loading the hier.him file and/or the mesh file. java.lang.RuntimeException: INTERNAL ERROR: HierMeshObj: Can't load HIM 3dobj\planes\uk\typhoon_mkib\hier.him at com.maddox.core.HierMesh.Load(Unknown Source) at com.maddox.core.HierMesh.<init>(Unknown Source) at com.maddox.core.AMesh.newAMesh(Unknown Source) at com.maddox.core.AMesh.newAMesh(Unknown Source) at com.ic.bc.Precache.Precache.loadMesh(Unknown Source) at com.ic.bc.game.support.Support.precache(Unknown Source) at com.ic.bc.game.support.SupportManager.precache(Unknown Source) at com.ic.bc.entities.factory.MissionCreator2.createMission(Unknown Source) at com.ic.ww.game.Mission.loadMissionStart(Unknown Source) at com.ic.bc.gui.menus.Loading$BackgroundLoader.run(Unknown Source) at com.maddox.rts.BackgroundTask.doRun(Unknown Source) at com.ic.ww.game.MainWin3D.loopApp(Unknown Source) at com.ic.ww.game.Main.exec(Unknown Source) at com.ic.ww.game.GameWin3D.main(Unknown Source) I'm trying to have the plane load in the encyclopedia to see if it comes from the mesh -Knokke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knokke Posted September 23, 2008 Author Share Posted September 23, 2008 No luck with the encyclopedia trick either... I now have a Typhoon entry under the tab "car" (I set the Typhoon as a car, as the airplanes are not displayed in the encyclopedia), with correct name and description, but nothing is appearing in the viewer window: it is empty. No error message indicating that the hier.him or mesh doesn't load. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Jones Posted September 23, 2008 Share Posted September 23, 2008 Which files have you modified in trying to get the typhoon into the encyclopedia? br. Dr.Jones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knokke Posted September 23, 2008 Author Share Posted September 23, 2008 I modified the following files: theater of War\3dobj\cars\uk\typhoon_mkib\the same files as in the plane directory (with skins.ini modified to point to car directory) theater of War\data\local\en\encdescription_car.utf8 theater of War\data\local\en\units.utf8 theater of War\data\EncyclopaediaCont.xml theater of War\data\filesid.ini theater of War\data\cars\uk\typhoon_mkib (added correct hier.ini parts.ini and unit.ini modified with references to car type and the typhoon hier.ini) I think it is all the files I modified regards, -Knokke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Jones Posted September 23, 2008 Share Posted September 23, 2008 Knokke, open the 3ds file when converting to him file and check the option menu in MshConverter "Output/Filter Export/Generate Space Frames" this needs to be checked when converting to TOW but not for IL2. br. Dr.Jones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knokke Posted September 23, 2008 Author Share Posted September 23, 2008 I'm aware of this option, and believe I had set it correctly. I'll try to export again to make sure I didn't forget it by mistake. regards, -Knokke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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