Lucky_Strike

LOLOLOLOL Bonkers! Look at the YouTube recommendations this threw up: There's tons of this stuff on there. Fantastic! We need to merge games now!

Maybe ... I was thinking either on its side or just as is but chuck in a load of junk to reinforce it. I don't think the height is an issue. They seemed to use bricks and the like to reinforce them. Should be possible to punch holes in the model for busted out windows. I think adding it to something like an immobilised, invisible radio halftrack would give it just enough armour to simulate the bodywork of a tram. Add some rubble walls and bricks around it ... could it be converted into a building? I have no idea how buildings are constructed in game so this is probably a very random thought.

That's turned out really well Nigel, great work, massive improvement. From the boxcar as well? Really looks good. Can we turn it into a barricade, turn on it on its side and stuff it with debris? We might also be able to use some alpha channels to give it some transparent windows. Though ... I can't tell on the green version, do you already have transparent windows? They both look really cool, nice going. And there's more! An immobilised kitty. Great stuff. Your PS blur is nevertheless effective. ReShade is nice for that kind of stuff but the depth map in the game is very crude so getting it just right can be very hit and miss, least with PS you've got a lot more control.

wahhh! I stick to pictures. This is where my brain goes to mush. I know what the figures are related to but it all starts to go fuzzy before I can make much sense of it. It's a bit like when I try to understand code, it's why I could never do programming, had the same trouble trying to write a centipede game on my Commodore 64 back in the day - numeric dyslexic.

Thought they probably would be, thanks for confirming - Death Star bunkers!

This is interesting - how long after sbobovyc 39 had published his Blender addon was this. I wasn't really paying too much attention to this at the time.

Or there's some hard-coded stuff that needs looking at ... I've added it to Artkin's giant bug thread lets hope someone notices it eventually No I don't think he did. IIRC It was on his todo list along with moving the script to a newer version of Blender. There always seem to be two 'unknown' bits of metadata attached to the mdrs when imported, at least on the models I've looked at to date. I'm loath to get into changing metadata as I know how long it would take to test it all, and the margin for error just exporting is an added unknown. I still haven't even noticed if what I do changes any of the metadata, it's so hard to compare a before and after as is - maybe if there's some way to collate it all into a table it might be easier.

Yes FB has some very similar terrain to Normandy, much of the mod pack can be ported over with some renaming here and there. RT summer will be quite straightforward and I've experimented with autumn/spring stuff already so have some ideas. Winter is a real tough one. Specifically one of the biggest issues is how snow on tree leaf branches works. It's okay on very bare branches but with the pines the normal solution breaks down since the leaf branches have two faces using the same texture - we end up with snow on the bottom face of leaf branches. There may be a workaround with two textures but so far I haven't had a great deal of success. Sort of, yes, been looking at some ground textures and have already made a few trees. Need to revisit a lot of the work I was doing previously with trees as so far the results are not quite what I want. Well, first please yourself for sure, if players moan there are plenty of other choices for them. Terrain reconnaissance is an absolute must, peeping round corners, checking LOS and ground conditions are critical to success for the human player - as you say the AI has an absolute advantage, doesn't need visual clues nor tricks. We shouldn't necessarily be able to tell if ground is too soft to support a 50 ton tank just because it's a certain colour on the map and has this doodad or that. There's a mass of ReShade stuff on YouTube and elsewhere on the web. A lot is irrelevant to CM 'cos of the age of the engine but you'll be able to learn stuff for your other games. I'm actually going to take the plunge and install a newer version of ReShade in BN then do a video from that, it'll be more relevant. Also it's very easy to uninstall and reinstall, there's no harm me trying it, just a time issue really.

ALL the PaK bunker in CMRT have muzzle flashes that emanate from the concrete ABOVE the embrasure. This happens regardless of how the bunkers are emplaced:

Yep, should have some useful bits footprints FB. Obviously some foliage will need fixing, but the pine trees will work and bare trees don't look too bad. Ground textures can definitely be switched around. There are almost too many in the game, or at least there are some that I find no use for and some I wish we had instead. Hah. Great minds and all that ... I was using the same for grass/marsh switch in RT for Spring Awakening muddy terrain, until I got completely sidetracked by tags. Now I will have to do a report on what I found regarding tags, it's quite mind boggling. Nice! We need these darker terrains. It's also quite reasonable to manipulate the terrain so that players and AI have to make smarter choices about their movements. This might develop into a video ... just might be easier than tons of screen shots.

Bit like the rock'n'roll effect on tanks then! It's very odd as I would have thought the muzzle flash would be linked to the barrel muzzle as it is in tanks etc, but it seems linked to the structure instead, and yet the PaKs by themselves have a normal muzzle action point ... huh

Even more expensive than the one I mentioned!! I've had that on my wish list for a very long time, but never seen it at anything close to affordable. Don't understand why it's not been reprinted. There's a shorter version available, but I have no idea of the contents of either. The reviews of the short version are not so flattering regarding maps, the preview shows some quite large scale maps. @Gary R Lukas do you have a few specific places in mind, villages, towns or can you identify some map refs (google maps) I could at least see what is in the Objective Ponyri book for you, maybe even, huh hum, take a few snaps for you.

Thanks for the update Dave, glad you're back up and running.

Ah yes, I remember. This is the kind of thing that makes scenarios much more playable IMHO, having a terrain that is natural and reminiscent of something remembered or something seen. Basing scenarios on real topographical information makes a massive difference to this, and having something like your script to do a lot of the heavy lifting is a great advantage.

Cool, thanks will have to look into this. Well of course I had to go and try. Didn't work, or at least I couldn't make it work how I expected in RT. I thought it was working at first. I made a [muddy] tagged grass which I thought showed up when I did muddy conditions, I'm certain it worked. But this may have been in summer. I then thought well if that works I'll get the muddy conditions all set up for operation Spring Awakening in March 45. Cold, muddy, raining. I made a quick muddy ground dirt, ground yellow grass, ground dirt road etc. Nada. I think what was happening was all the cold tagged stuff kicked in instead. Made the weather warm, still no dice, which suggests cold is also season/date related. I then added a cold tag [cold muddy] which does work. It might just be 'cos it was late, but I think it sort of works depending on theatre, year and season. I think the automatic tags that are used by BF are kind of half-baked, [muddy] should employ muddy textures for everything at anytime, with alternatives for seasons if needed, cold, spring etc. When I got it to work it looks good, but it means tagging the scenario and doesn't just happen like I'd hoped for. I think this also means QBs can't benefit from it as they do with say snow. Also means muddy vehicles driving around in non-muddy-looking conditions, which is harder for the player to comprehend esp. re bogging risk - if something looks muddy chances are one ain't gonna risk taking one's trucks across it. Need to experiment some more cos I really liked how it looked. I'll have to take a look at my setup for you, I don't think I'm using SweetFX DoF. I'll find out what it's called and post you some screens to show what I needed to set up to get it working. It's very cool when it works, focus shifts as the viewpoint moves from near objects to far objects. I know, I should just focus on what I can do, not what BF missed and likely won't fix or improve in CMx2. Yes, OGL is very old now and I'm not even sure if much of what we'd desire is possible. The new Enfusion engine that ARMA 4 is going to use looks astonishing. I hope that BF takes notice of it for CMx3.

LOL, CM health warning: Not tested on animals, just retirees

No dice on these I'm afraid (at least not by me). Both use nodes in the models which I'm completely ignorant about. We don't employ them on CM models so I haven't learnt about them at all. They are used in newer versions of Blender by default. The single fence uses a painted texture with a complex mesh, that is it's not got a texture image but rather is coloured in Blender. The other multi fence model looked more promising with simpler meshes, but the image textures are applied via nodes and there are also painted textures which we don't use. I did notice we have two wooden fences in RT, the picket fence and a kind of split hazel hurdle style fence. So there's easily a model we could replace and still retain a wooden fence of some type for gardens if desired. If we can find a reworkable model then this is definitely something we could mod.

You could try deleting some of the nodes to reduce crowding, but I suspect there's both the nodes and metadata involved. On the Panzer IV bunker I thought it best to delete the action points from the decking where grenadiers sit when riding on a tank. Not good. They're easy to delete and the model exported with meta and without error, but there's still something that allows the pixeltruppen to mount the tank. Only they actually appeared to get inside or something, they just disappear into the vehicle, not via the hatches but rather by morphing into it. Same Yes, ideal would be to have them stop in the building then crawl out to a balcony if a command is given, AIP would use stop and crawl out, real player would have a choice with AI assisting if threatened. My thinking. Apart from a lot of smoke inhalation there's no discernible kick on a PaK in a bunker. Did discover a bug though, probably not the first to notice, but the muzzle flash for all the PaKs comes out of the wall above the Bunker aperture, not from the end of the barrel: Happens whether emplaced in an embankment as here or on level ground. This in RT don't know about other games.

Somebody has to be first! Well done for taking the plunge. Off the top of my head, so excuse complete ignorance here, is the slow start perhaps related to iCloud? Do you use iCloud? Maybe disable it temporarily if it's enabled. I doubt I'll go there yet as my Mac has to stay pretty stable for work as well as play, but will watch your findings with interest.

Not that I'm egging you on, and I hope you're not wishing away your holiday, but I feel your excitement! We wait with bated breath ...

Yes I noticed some in Nigel's Berlin maps which provided good vantage points for snipers and observers. But as you say ... one has to keep an eye on where the pixeltruppen decide to stand. I've gotten into the habit of making them hide on balconies, they still peep over but are less vulnerable. Yeah, I think we've had official feedback on that, and your experiments and recent test map have pretty much shown that they are just glorified traffic cones on the whole Of course you know what this means, I now have to go and spend time inside a PaK bunker to find out ... after watching several YT videos of surviving PaKs being gratuitously fired say hello to my PaK!

LOL < I have no idea, someone please explain what this is.

I haven't really looked at sounds in a very long time, there's so many, it can take a long time trying to sort out a good soundscape. I must have another go at them. Yes like when there's been heavy rain, this is why we need different mod packs for different weather conditions. I don't know what happens to the game mechanics when we set the ground conditions to muddy but I think it triggers a tag to invoke [muddy] vehicles. So can the same tag be used to automagically trigger [muddy] ground textures? Would be cool if it can. You Hürtgen battles could really benefit from that ability. I really like to use rain with mist, adding in a good dose of ReShade to produce some fantastic atmospheric effects. My biggest gripe with the shadows is that it's either all or nothing, whereas in RL shadows are always on they are just more subtle in overcast dull condition, they act as an important visual anchor. I really hate how objects float because they don't have some form of visual anchor when shadows are off, gets me every time. Yes, maybe. If it were possible to soften the shadows for overcast conditions and add some sort of light fall-off to them then we would have something that looked way better. But as you say OpenGL is a whole other massive learning curve. Oh I meant on my PC, on the Mac we don't have access to the drivers for the GPU in the same way as say an nVidia control panel, it's basically all done automatically, so the only control over AA is in game; I can't remember wether I have it turned on or not. Most of my mod development is done in my Mac where I tend to test pretty much exclusively in normal colour. It's odd, I know lots of people hate the saturation of the original game graphics but actually they are more true to life than the movie mode especially in BN. What is really needed is a way to render different lighting and atmospheric conditions as it's that which affects out perception of colours not a general overal filter to desaturate or shift the hue of everything. That's where ReShade really excels since it can do both light and atmospherics, as well as apply colour filters in a far more targeted way. And much of this with little or no perceptible overhead. Imagine if BF were to license ReShade for ingame use, having it optimised and built-in to control the look of the game to our desire ...

Yep, they're fine if your setup matches mine exactly - otherwise ... nah. Especially when dishing out some .50cal goodness from their M3's

Yes, I honestly haven't seen any crashes that I could link to ReShade; all it's doing is taking the game output and manipulating the image more or less. I've never played ARMA, nor many other games at all for that matter, but I've seen plenty of YouTube content about them and I certainly agree that some lighting FX would be great to have. ReShade can only go so far with things like bloom and other glow FX. It's interesting that we have ambient sound FX but not really much in the way of ambient lighting FX, other than the pretty crude shaders - guess it's just much easier to have sounds loop in the background. I'm certain I've seen some pine forest floor textures. The biggest issue is one of scale. Finding a texture that is the right scale for how much area the texture occupies. Someone did some experiments with how much the ground textures are stretched in game and I also did some to see how big all the textures would need to be to all have the same resolution. Grass is by far the worst, it would need to be something silly like 500MB to resolve the same as, for example, ground dirt. Just not practical. The forest floor textures are much better as they occupy a much smaller area. I actually use them instead of other textures quite often because of this. They make an excellent base for bocage for instance, especially because of their added brush. I'll see what I have. No, I get more of a hit just turning on shadows in game! Yes, I don't rely on in game AA anymore, it's just not that good and again adds to the overhead. I stil use your shader i=on my Mac though - it rocks Hah! Yes Butschi's script look fantastic. I love to make small maps for experimenting with mods so I will certainly be looking at it once it's finished.