[Berlin CMRT Map]

On 11/29/2022 at 1:06 PM, NPye said:

Unfortunately they are just silhouettes added in PS... Not in game this scene with be the last so i needed some surrendering German Soldiers.

 

Hehe... I did bits of guessed that. I´d tried messing with the surrender ani as well, but with still no proper access to MDS... ... but would be nice to have. Similar to old CM where POW had to be walked away.

On 11/29/2022 at 3:46 PM, JM Stuff said:

Ah thanks Harry to clarified, yes some darks point that we didnt before are more clear day by day, such deep research are really usefull, but we have to grab sometimes also the "forgot" mods availabe in the CMMODs III.

JM

There´s still so many great stuff at SD3 and GAJ. Before I start on creating my own things I keep looking there first. Don´t have time for reinventing the wheel usually. I also found some Mark´s mods I didn´t even know before.

On 11/29/2022 at 6:27 PM, Lucky_Strike said:

Yes for sure the game uses shaders for more than just movie mode and shaders on/off. Normal maps seem to be used for some objects but not other. We know they don't influence ground tiles, I'm also doubtful they have much influence on buildings. Some of the third party model parts for the chimney had ready made normal maps but I can't really see them working, though sometimes the effects of normal maps can be very subtle.

Yes, likely depends on normal map´s details I guess. I know fairly little about them ATM. Have tried making 2-3 myself with mediocre results. There might be just a certain valid range for CM NM colors and then beeing fed to the shader files. Needs bits more investigation. IIRC there must be some older forum threads about that already.

On 11/29/2022 at 6:27 PM, Lucky_Strike said:

The way the game handles destruction of buildings is quite simple, but introducing extra parts to buildings with all the mechanics to allow for destruction of those parts adds a lot to the modelling process. I can see why BF have limited the types of buildings we have to mostly just empty boxes.

Guess there was little demand for stuff like that so far. And BFC modellers likely more beeing busy with adding new verhicle models for the games, old or newer ones. Considering age of the game and graphics engine there might have been concerns re game performance. But that was 10 years ago. Or more. Now even me has a half way decent computer now. It´s just 3 years gone since I switched from a stone age WinXP scrap box.

On 11/29/2022 at 6:27 PM, Lucky_Strike said:

Yeah, it's a lot of extra work. Just testing and making the detsroyed parts required more than simply taking off chunks of the building. I did consider adding extra fallen masonry and metalwork but firstly wondered about how the engine would handle stuff outside of the bounds of the building - BF didn't do this'd be  so there may be a reason. There are certainly problems with visibility of building parts, the disappearing walls we already see is likely down to where the origin for a flat part can be placed since it seems that it must be in frame for the part to be visible, which means a damaged wall needs both front and back faces. Thus models of piles of rubble would perhaps need to be duplicated within the models several times to be visible. It gets very complicated and adds a lot to the memory footprint for each model.

Interesting and promising idea actually. Could made to work for mod builds maybe since there´s objects where other objects can be attached to. There´s nothing like that for indi builds IIRC. I guess basic planes and boxes are kept in a CM LUT. Why else ain´t there actual geometry MDR to be found for stone walls and such. That misteriously missing MDRs. For flat rubble one also needs to consider the game engine needs some free 1m nodes for rubble flavor auto placements. And this thing is bits of buggy already. (floating rubble FO)

On 11/29/2022 at 6:27 PM, Lucky_Strike said:

This all starts to feed into why certain elements like doodads are treated how they are - it's less of a burden on the game engine to have grass, for example, rotate to always face the viewpoint rather than have three or four of the same model present so that we can move around it and see it. Perhaps this is why trees are such a heavy load, imagine what it would be like if everything was 3D, we'd be lucky to get 1 or 2 FPS!!

That might well be. Considering the game engine´s age as said. I´m playing games like Skyrim, ARMA 3 etc and used to way better things graphically. I only run into issues when I max out each and every graphic setting but never goes down lower than say 10-15 FPS. And these ARE all real time and not WEGO. But BFC had to invent RT to CM....

On 11/29/2022 at 6:27 PM, Lucky_Strike said:

The second consideration with regard to adding extra rubble was that the last stage of destruction uses textures common to all the buildings so would affect all our ruins.

I think texture names (material) can be rerouted so then aren´t common anymore. Did that on couple of things actually. But buildings is bits of a different, more complicated breed unfortunately. And there´s that random element, where the game engine swaps texture sets when starting a game. One the bigger annoyances when carefully setting up facades/roofs for urban environments, then seeing CM f*cks it all up.

On 11/29/2022 at 6:27 PM, Lucky_Strike said:

Yeah they kinda slide out of the map to the Underverse, rather thank break apart. Good tip about having tests by the map edges

Some the things one discovers by chance usually. But helps on understanding and making use of some the games mechanics for own purposes.

[Berlin CMRT Map]

3 minutes ago, NPye said:

We now have Chimneys credit to Lucky strike for providing this excellent model... 

 

apocalyptic! Destruction has never been more beautiful!

[Berlin CMRT Map]

9 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

... extra detail - why can't I have pixeltruppen spotters at the top of that big chimney? winge, winge, winge ... cos the ladder's broken ...

hm....might find a way here. Remember the 88 put on the roof/balcony earlier? But that requires some likely complicated editing in Blender for preparation. We can´t put something on a "roof" that´s not there or beeing recognized by the game engine. So just take this as sort of my usual brain farting for now.

9 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

last click - nadda left - can't do much about this as it uses generic textures, just piles of rubble.

but could possibly enlarge the remains of surrounding wall objects in Blender. For indi builds it´s just textures, but for mod builds it´s single geometry objects then beeing assembled by the game engine. Could be tricky thing but in theory it sounds doable maybe. No way for the rubble ground texture it seems. It´s very likely a hard coded thing like other terrain deforming types, but we still know little to nothing about META...

5 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

5 hours ago, NPye said:

made me wonder if the kneeled down surrendering soldier could be modded on to a walking soldier.....lol?

Would be cool, but think the bottom half would have to be changed and we can't do that yet. Never know, Harry might come up with some hex mod for it.

don´t even know how Nigel got the germans surrendering in stand up position. Nigel?

3 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

The last stage is pretty much the same for all buildings - low rubble walls and a rubble floor. It's fun to see the tall chimney go as it does look like a demolition but we're still left with the same small rubble.

I found it quite interesting seeing the collapsing stuff keep falling below the ground mesh. Saw it by chance when game cam was outside map area. It´s quite interesting (and enlighting) to see objects extending to below the ground. Also for checking on any objects Z-axis placement changes made in Blender. Thus I place many my test objects near the map edge(s).

[Berlin CMRT Map]

11 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

It's basically a lot of trial and error for us since none really understands the shaders fully. I personally would rather stick with ReShade and perhaps using some LUTs in that for colour changes and other FX to influence things like specularity. At least with ReShade there's no need to mod anything and the results can be seen instantaneously. 

Same here. For the time beeing I´ll remain with ReShade as well. But CM shaders seem always involved, whether we switch on Shadows/Shader or not. Would be interesting to see if shader files could be deactivated entirely, coupled with removal of (some) normal maps. Then see what Reshade can do here. But I´ve my doubts it can get to work since ReShade is just an overlay basically.

[Berlin CMRT Map]

strange double post. Very rarely happens to me.

[Berlin CMRT Map]

16 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

What do you mean with (T) ?

It´s sort of a standard pose (skeleton) then animation sequences applied to it. That´s from my understaning. There´s surely more pro description somewhere in the net. Search "T-pose"

16 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

Mean that when we can have access to some such frames we can extract and modified them with hex edit interresting!! 

Just a maybe possible procedure (or theory of mine). No idea if it can be done without killing the MDS files data structure, thus making it unusable in the game.

16 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

Yes I forget always the titanest mod from Worghem from Lucky I use it already, but the nature is more for Normandie,hey Lucky you have some stuffs to do (just joking boy), I use also some from Falaise there are some that we can added in the period of CMFB before the snow coming.

Pity I´ve so little time for checking it all out ATM. Currently focusing on just Mark´s and Nigel´s mods. Might come back to Worgherns again but first lets see what Mark will have in the offers (like HH etc).

16 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

Nothing to say is already chinese for me 

It´s actually not thaaat much to learn on at least the basic things, then improve on them step by step. The harder things is getting knowledge applied to CM modding for the various limits we have there. But as we see, knowledge base gets broadened week by week ATM.

[Ez's Uniform mod for Gebirgsjäger ??? Can't find]

12 hours ago, Bubba883XL said:

I don't think this is it, as i have the m43 hat mod etc, and am happy as is it, the picture i refer to seems a more all in one type mod typical with uniforms etc as everything seems improved etc. 

Oh... could be hard then finding, if it´s an all in one mod package maybe. Or it was a custom made combo. Uniform from that and caps from another one. Thus far I rarely played missions with Gebirgsjagers involved so I lack an overview. But good luck. Interestingly remains of 6th SS Nord fought their last battles about 50km from where I live now.

[Question about infantry animation files]

17 hours ago, Falaise said:

I chose to keep it , the general look of the shooter is good this is only a problem with the place of the hands
I played the Desert scenario where the sdkfz are engaged from the start
I always had a lot of mg shooter losses
I found that it was better cashed with the mod, although it could be a coincidence

I´ll see if I can "improve" the M3 gunner´s position somewhat then. Pity we don´t have individual crew animation files for the many vehicles here, since so many got shared.

Yes, if HT tactics get applied in sane ways the SdKfz gunner should have better days. Unless enemy fires come in sideways. Then he´s doomed unfortunately. Something for BFC to think about for a more refined "open up" system.

Thanks again! A further update for remaining SdKfz will come very soon. It´s another half dozen or so. You playtested with an Africa mod sort of btw?

[Bug Tracker Thread]

On 11/22/2022 at 5:49 AM, RockinHarry said:

thanks for confirming. IIRC I got neither (FB & RT) but will check again.

New detail on CMRT ammo dumps. If making them "reinforcements" they will appear on map at set time. But still not at start of a battle (beeing not a reinforcement). Odd...

For AIP it´s similar but ammo will be distributed evenly for all appropriate types. Infantry with no fitting weapon type will make unneded ammo deleted from the game. I.e placing an ammo dump spawned from a dismounted mortar carrier truck will only distribute small arms ammo with mortar ammo beeing deleted, if there´s no on map mortar unit. Okay... makes sense.. to a certain degree... but if I want the mortar ammo dump beeing preserved with original load out and ammo not beeing distributed immediately? As said Iron game play mode. So ammo depot mechanics seem different between CMBN and CMFB/CMRT. Why?

[Berlin CMRT Map]

32 minutes ago, NPye said:

No mate didn't know of such a thing...please provide link....Cheers

Sure, it´s here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/5pta8tjh31ngk2l/Re Animate.rar?dl=0

There´s also bits of descriptive text in each sub folder. In case you see any oddities or have (new) problems, just let me know please. It´s made for CMBN but BFC recycles almost all animation files for all their games. So it should be 99% compatible with CMRT as well.

Edit: I´d recommend to not get distracted with it too much ATM. If you´ve some your missions working and finished, then try Re-Animate to see if it/they play different or "better". It´s aimed for "lower carnage", but side effects can be reduced infantry spotting and shooting opportunities.

[Short help pls !!!]

Haven´t much messed with TGA file formats yet so IDK ATM. Had a look at games foam.tga file and it seems having a 256 color alpha channel. So it then depends on target BMP file format and its alpha channel demands I guess. Does the target BMP has or needs an alpha channel? Should it be 2 or 256 colors? That´s the things I´d look for and that in PS CS2 for make sure proper 32bit BMP file gets saved/exported correctly, then beeing loaded by CM with no problems (black looks or "invisible"). 

[Berlin CMRT Map]

1 hour ago, NPye said:

Well this map I have played many times before and the Tigers generally never make it to where they did, there are X2 SOv 85mm AT guns plus X4 76mm AT Guns, but this time the Tigers smashed all of them...lol Their infantry seemed much more aware ie drop down as soon as being shot at??? and really hard to dislodge from buildings... groupings defo better...

Thanks for having a closer look!  Think the hard to dislodge from buildings thing was added with a previous patch already. Haven´t yet tested on 2.12 fixes/weaks re this particular behavior. Re AT guns if they´re beeing placed frontally and rather low range they´re made scrap metal in short time. Better have them placed and key holed for flanking shots.

Some well placed SOV snipers do the turret guys get their heads down quickly and Tiger spotting caps are reduced significantly. Same for those germans that might help on info sharing (HQ´s). Place snipers where they can engage 300m an up. At lower range they get discovered and killed fairly quickly. I´m also using high experience (crack and up), but low morale for these guys. Otherwise they get spotted/killed far too quickly when higher morale gets them keep their heads up and shooting for far too long.

You can do similar things on them (AIP) by means of scripting. Like "on the spot hiding" when giving movement orders in certain intervals. Off course they won´t move anywhere when waypoint is same as current position, but follow any other given scripting orders (and behaviors). One off course can give them real move orders so they´d move to a switch position in same or different AS. Combine that with key holed placements and Tigers stop having fun times. Hehe

Btw... did you try my infantry animation mod (Re-Animate) already?

[Combat Mission Red Thunder Battle Pack 1 pre-orders are now open]

16 hours ago, Aragorn2002 said:

Yes, that does look better, Harry. Perhaps removing the wooden structure would also be possible? Not meant as a request, just thinking aloud. 

on to do list, but experiments are just at the beginning. You might start reading from here and get involved maybe?

 

[2.12 Readme?]

13 hours ago, Sven said:

@RockinHarryThank you!

you´re welcome.

[Berlin CMRT Map]

3 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

I think someone tried this once, needs a lot of retexturing. If the game supported sophisticated lighting fx then there would be a lot we could do with that but it's just not possible with the existing shaders. I have been trying various wet look ground textures, but there are issues with lighting that are impossible to overcome, even switching off shaders and shadows don't seem to affect them.

Yep, fairly complicated thing. I´d tried as well then figured it got to be made with finely adapted ground/object textures, CM shader file tweaks then maybe enhanced further with some ReShade stuff. Time consuming affair.

Not tried yet but from my meager understanding normal map files take their part as well. At least where they are and can be used by the game. One can try removing given normal map files, then let do the CM shader files (blur_shader.* and bumpmapping.*) do their inbuilt default shading procedure. Then see how much CM shader file tweaks can do seperately (without effect from existing normal map files). Untried theory as said.

[Berlin CMRT Map]

14 hours ago, NPye said:

Old Faces for the Volkssturm... Poor old fellows should be putting their feet up beside the fire with a nice glass or 2 of Schnapps in their hands...

can you mix in some Pimpfe youngsters as well? Well done btw.

14 hours ago, NPye said:

The last squad, a few surrounded wehrmacht infantry discuss weather to fight or surrender, they fight of course, for what would life be worth under communist regime... 'Better dead than Red'...

 

if it´s Schutzstaffel it was usually both anyway. 

13 hours ago, NPye said:

LOL oh ya I forgot the American usage....

fag (gots), the musical instrument (bassoon) in german.

12 hours ago, NPye said:

The dug in panzers are perfect for covering the long straight streets in Berlin... made by Lucky Strike...Cheers bud

Nice but I´m bits in doubt they´re placed such openly. More into corners or side streets with long range of fire along a particular street. This at least was how it´s done in Breslau city. No idea for details in Berlin battle though.

11 hours ago, NPye said:

I would have thought you health was the last thing on your mind when dodging bullets on the front line, and all that methamphetamine would make one smoke like mad???

Panzerschokolade

[Berlin CMRT Map]

7 minutes ago, NPye said:

Question 4 U Harry, what makes the water blue in this game and can it be changed? I can't find anything???

From my understanding it´s based on some texture files then beeing dealt with by shader files "water_simple.frag" and "water_simple.vert" for in game rendering. Haven´t yet figured out how to manipulate these. I wanted water look more gray when it´s cloudy/rainy weather but couldn´t get it to work this far. Either I´m stupid or this feature ain´t fully implemented in the CM games. IDK.

[Berlin CMRT Map]

16 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

Also that I would like to know how BF present his dead soldiers probably with a script or something else because I dont see any pictures of dead soldiers in the game, this will be more easy of course linked with a mdr.

Dead soldiers is last frame of an animation sequence which then stops for good once a soldier is downed (KIA/WIA). Other animation sequences are loops based on a commonly used "T" pose model then replayed or followed by a different type loop if applicable. But as long as we can´t "extract" single frames from an ani sequence you won´t have access to them for modding purposes. (= the MDS files). With some effort one could probably figure out individual frames by means of Hex edit hacking and then cut out all frames except the last one (= dead soldier lying on the ground motionless). No idea if that´s doable, but that´s the idea if we can´t have access by means of a 3D editor understanding BFC´s MDS format.

16 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

Yes I see that is not really @aris vehicles but probably more @RockinHarry, did you make yours own textures soldiers and vehicles for this period, all seam to be more dirty and wet, also the ground is this the one from @Falaise, something that I appreciate are they already include in your mod You enter in Germany, or you did some news, if yes can you later provide a link about ?

The M4 Sherman examples is original Aris, then bits of adapted in my graphic apps. Mostly some contrast tweaking, bits of darkening and making colors more vivid (or saturated). For infantry it depends on base mod made by anybody else. Then adding bits of dirt and "wet" effects similar to mentioned above (vehicles).

For terrain (and objects) stuff it´s based on what´s available. So it´s a case to case procedure like with my YEG mod package. Can be original games ground tiles/textures then beeing modified by myself. Or the more pretty stuff from Mark or Worghern i.e Might grab some of Nigel´s stuff when ready as well.

If I understnad you correctly you want having a look into YEG mod set? DL link (dropbox) is included at mission download page if that´s what you mean. https://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/combat-mission-battle-for-normandy/cm-battles-for-normandy/cmbn-v4-mg-vp-you-enter-germany-introduction/

16 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

Dont pay attention too much to my jokes,  this is a must to me, but I really appreciated the talk that you are to explain like @Lucky_Strike, and @NPye to explain something in deep sense.

Hehe. No worries mate. Ya know If beeing asked I always do some further explanations if I do too much 中国人 talking.

[Berlin CMRT Map]

17 hours ago, NPye said:

Wouldn't that be awesome in game, starts off overcast with a rain shower in the middle of the game then turning out sunny...

definitely, yes. I´m used to dynamic weather from ARMA 3 so there´s no reason not including it with CM as well.

17 hours ago, NPye said:

The point i'm trying to make is wouldn't it be great if we could choose when to deploy our reinforcements, because what happened is just as expected, they deployed and where instantly under fire from the Demons of Death Tigers and mortars..

yes again. Reinforcement by choice or concerning AIP by means of a (terrain) trigger. All nations almost always had timed reserve and counterattack forces (if available, strength wise) destined to move into action when certain things happened automatically. No higher up HQ orders necessary. ...Like penetration into MLR or loss of a certain terrain objective. Okay, there´s some workarounds but require a large enough map and using AIP scripting in more elaborate ways.

17 hours ago, NPye said:

Oh well an amazing game and I think the AI is acting better since the update...It just seems a bit shaper?

what do you mean and saw exactly?

[Combat Mission Red Thunder Battle Pack 1 pre-orders are now open]

18 minutes ago, Aragorn2002 said:

Interesting, Harry. Would love to try your mod out, once it's finished. Yeah, sandbags. I don't think they were available most of the time and they look bloody awful.

you can get rid of them (texture, not geometry) by using this little file already. Everything else is just map placement techniques (ditch locks). Can use with your prefered trench mod (Juju, Aris or Umlaut´s maybe) but make sure my sandbags texture mod gets loaded after. Have fun.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kjiy5n9j6xu5u5g/sandbags.rar?dl=0

 

[Combat Mission Red Thunder Battle Pack 1 pre-orders are now open]

4 minutes ago, Aragorn2002 said:

That looks better indeed. In what way they are different, Harry? My morning coffee hasn't kicked in yet.

still WIP but basically just sandbags made invisible (preserving the bits of offered direct fire cover if there´s much of it at all) and different texture (uniform dirt something). And placing these into -1m blue type ditch locked action spots so vs direct fire cover is somewhat better (if pixeltroopers drop to prone at least). Otherwise if something heavy is coming in (direct or indirect), you better move into those wooden shelters ASAP. CM "trenches" are death traps and hardly any better than lying in the open. Even shellholes are "better" cover than "foxholes" IMO and CM TacAI is well aware of that.

[6 PDR?]

17 minutes ago, chuckdyke said:

Swansong. Bp1 in Battle for Normandy. I was actually born in a province next to that place, the island of Walcheren (Province of Zeeland the Netherlands). Look forward to an extension which will be battle for the causeway. That battle is two steps forward and one step backwards. British tactics play it like cricket. Openers, Middle Order, and Tailenders. Attack with Fast Bowlers, Spin, and control the field.

Thanks. If I find time I might give it a go. We need CW in FB ASAP!

[Combat Mission Red Thunder Battle Pack 1 pre-orders are now open]

24 minutes ago, Aragorn2002 said:

Man, those CM trenches are ugly. Even in George's splendid scenarios. Personally I never use them. Better to use foxholes.

I as well prefer my own mod set and placement techniques so it´s not thaaat much of ugliness.

eye level from farer way

same after some heavy Arty barrage

 

[Berlin CMRT Map]

23 minutes ago, NPye said:

Nothing wrong with that Harry,,, Yep great info for Berlin weather... it's just hard to truly represent wet conditions on all buildings ground and vehicles and troops... It would mean a complete new wet mod and even then just making a puddle look good is almost impossible with the current game engine???

yup, that was what I wanted saying. But as said whole wet condition mod set ain´t neccessary IMO. One can base it on what´s used in a particular mission only, which limits workload. That´s what I´ll most likely do then.

Here´s another nice example of "wet looks" T34/85  

Notice its dry looks at the start of the vid then turning to "wet" later.

 

[Berlin CMRT Map]

18 hours ago, NPye said:

Give it ago bud...

 

Might make this my this sunday´task maybe. Found a different vid that offers making all three of required sound loops which are vehicle move, engine idle and shut off. So CM sound loops would have required consistency I think.