Lucky_Strike
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Posts posted by Lucky_Strike
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15 hours ago, NPye said:
Cheers bud here's the link:
Thanks Nigel, I'll take a look, see what I think.
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On 10/8/2022 at 2:31 AM, JM Stuff said:
I found this, this is interresting on the beginnings but after is complicated to me if this can help somebody and let me know
Evental contacting the guy !!...
https://mino-git.github.io/rtcw-wet-blender-model-tools/publications/MDSFileFormat.html#MDSSurface
JM
Hey JM here's something that may be of interest to you (and others) in your quest for MDS goodness ...
I was rootling around the internet, like one does, searching for more info on the .mds format when I remembered the link you posted above. It happened to tie in with some other info I found on a dead forum about Castle Wolfenstein (CW), anyway the guy who was mentioned was the same guy as in your link above. So I went to your link drilled down through it ... surprise, surprise ... it's on a github page set up by a fella named Norman Mitschke who has written a very complete looking addon with tutorial for Blender to import and export MD3, MDC, MDS, MDM/MDX and TAG, all model formats linked to CW. Notice the MDS format is in there. More importantly the addon can be downloaded from his github.
Now, before you get too excited
on your holiday, unable to contain yourself and jump on the next plane, train or automobile home, I have already downloaded it and installed it into all the versions of Blender I currently have installed on my Mac - 2.79, 2.81, 2.83, 2.93.4 - it installed on all, though it's written for 2.80 (presumably upwards), and only complained on 2.79 that it was not meant for 2.79 so might not work. Of course I immediately tried to import a CM MDS file, but on all Blender versions, except in 2.79, I got an error which looks to be a script error perhaps - 'unpack requires a buffer of 52 bytes' - or something like that. In 2.79 I got a whole string of error messages about missing armatures (this perhaps suggests it's in the right ballpark).
Hmmm
. I don't really have enough interest in this to pursue it. My brain already hurts 
just from working with MDR files in Blender, but I know you are very keen to learn more about these MDS files. What I did notice is that at the bottom of the home page in the first link above is a copyright notice Copyright 2019 Norman Mitschke which is very recent (in CM terms), you can click on Norman's name to send an email to him ... he is based in Germany by the looks of his email address.
Maybe a step closer ...
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My new mod project - Girls und Panzer ...
THIS IS A REAL THING!!!
I'm going to bed now to dream about my next modding project!
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5 hours ago, NPye said:
Hey guys would this be possible to make a metal fence from this say by using Picket fence or something?????? Big city all have metal fences etc be nice to add to the collection. Cheers
Yes, why not. It would still retain the qualities of the picket fences, but look like a metal fence. I remember @Falaise wanted a stone wall with metal fencing on the upper part, like one sees in many towns and villages in Normandy, and here for that matter. I think both would be doable. Where'd you get that model Nigel?
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5 hours ago, JM Stuff said:
but for exemple "pallet" for Normandy is present in the brzs files but not in the editor, I keep this in my mind because this was the FO that I want to use for my dead bodies, and I was surprise because I have to choose another one and change the name also, but there are some more not used in the game or not present,
Yes there are several things like this scattered throughout the games. Odd textures or models not actually employed in the relevant game. I remembered a big discussion about SturmTigers not featuring in the CMRT Fire & Rubble module, but the model is there in the data folder, no doubt because of the shared nature of the game engine.
5 hours ago, JM Stuff said:Seeing the success that can have FOs, I think that BFC would introduce more in future module.
Yes, would be nice. Also maybe a set of free slots not categorised as anything but with some way to alter their cover and destructibility ...
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6 hours ago, JM Stuff said:
because for the time I am reading and writing with phone and all is little...
LOL this makes me laugh thinking about it
6 hours ago, JM Stuff said:Yes I know like you the story of the brzs, that you give me a copy of yours "empty" brzs after of course reoganized them in folders, we were talking about this a long time and personly now I am working with folders like mentioned above, for every CMs games that I have, but I keep again the original brz full because I found sometimes, that the game take long to load on the beginning but is perhaps only to me, we were talking about in the past.
Is this always the case to you, are you always working with "empty" brzs, or you are comming back to the original ones ?
Yes I remembered you mentioned this JM, and from time to time, usually if I haven't opened a game in a long while, I also find the game Can be slow to start. I don't know why, it might be because it's sifting through all the files trying to find something specific, though there are only data files in the folder so I can't think what it might be. Otherwise the games run perfectly. On my Mac which I use a lot more than my gaming PC the games all open really quickly, so it may just be something to do with the Windows file system.
I haven't reinstalled the original brzs since I emptied them out, just haven't needed to. I only access the Z folders in the game folders, never need to go near the actual game data except to copy original textures or mdrs over to my work drive. And since the games are on my main boot drive whilst my mod work folders are on fast external drive I don't worry that I might delete anything or move it accidentally.
6 hours ago, JM Stuff said:For furthers updates I don t see any problems if we are using this system, so long we are respecting the "order" of news added brzs when an update is available. ...
Yes that's how I see it.
6 hours ago, JM Stuff said:In case of update I guess that the game copy only the news files, and replace it by the news ones or he do more as that, how work exaclty an update or a patch ?
I'm pretty certain that when we get a new module for a game the assets will be installed in a new, separate brz which can then be opened and rearranged just like all the rest. If not then we revert to the original backups, update the game, then rearrange the brzs (which we've also backed up of course).
It's not for everyone but for those of us who mod and are happy to spend a bit of time organising stuff to our liking, then I think it can work quite well. Heck, I bet that BF don't constantly open up the brzs all the time when they're developing the game - would be an inordinate waste of time.
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8 hours ago, RockinHarry said:
As can be seen it´s not so much actual button size but rather a button matrix limitation which seems fixed at showing 4x4 only.
Ah yes I see, but you're right that having 16 for each category is actually quite a lot anyway and probably more than enough for most applications.
7 hours ago, RockinHarry said:Oh I wonder on quite many things beeing left out in the game series.
... he says in a resigned tone. LOL
7 hours ago, RockinHarry said:Might do some similar organizing as since my latest loading and messing with mods, another 10GB of HD space got eaten in shortest of times. I´m already down to below 200 GB of my 1TB HD.
It certainly doesn't take long ... my main drive is only a 500GB SSD so I have to manage the space quite carefully.
7 hours ago, RockinHarry said:I´ve un-BRZ´ed allmost all my games data files. Think I got to get rid at least of those that I don´t need or want to mess with NOW. ATM I want most of them remain, for my investigations on META data. That to compare different types MDR and updates between game versions, which can possibly be revealing re detail changes, both on geometry and it´s META accordingly. Yeah...BFC I´d like making new missions and maps instead.
I wonder what actual company "secrets" would be "revealed" if making certain data public and accessible. 
I really don't get the protectionism of their 3D models. I don't believe there is anything in them that is secret at all. There's no way anyone is going to open a 3D model, nor even an animation, and try to reverse engineer them into a competing game.
I was looking at the model for my Panzer IV bunker trying to figure out what makes it rock backwards and forwards when it fires its main gun, like all the tanks do in-game. Thought it might be an action point so I gradually deleted a whole load - nada. It's either buried in the metadata or, more likely, hard-coded in the app as a simple instruction for all the tank models. Can't affect it.
If we just had access to the skeletons and animations as well as the models, but with a tool that meant we don't get errors exporting them, that would be half the battle and might even encourage a few more people to give it a go. As it is we are quite close, IMHO, to running out of folks willing to take on modding. Many of the textures have been done already to a standard that most players are happy with, and it's so hard to get into the models that folks see little reward in doing it. I see tons of stuff I'd like to do but I know, and you know, and I'm sure Nigel knows, that we just can't do it all. And, whinge, whinge, whinge, it seems to me that BF could care less. I've not once seen them comment on ANY mods or congratulate a modder ... I love these games, and choose to do this stuff for myself firstly, then for this community, but I do feel that a little encouragement and a helping hand go a long way, otherwise folks might just bugg*r off and find something else to do. Whingey bit done.
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2 hours ago, Artkin said:
Do you mean Herrtom's presets? I couldn't get them to work with my Reshade as well, despite having all the effects and the HerrtomReshade.ini (Whatever it was called).
Harry's talking about my presets from my Hedgerow Hell mod, but yes same problem, I struggled with Herrtom's as well. I think that so much changes with ReShade as newer versions are released that preset become redundant quite quickly. Same issue with some I downloaded from various places, barely any work as expected sadly.
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5 hours ago, RockinHarry said:
I can very well imagine what hell a lot of work that all is!
But very cool you went that far with what you finished and published already. Just yesterday when (re-) installing HH in CMBN I wondered about seeing XMas trees in my YEG´s mission pine forests. 
Just then I went to HH´s folder structure and noticed the many variations of terrain types you added. 
So then took me some time to sort things I wanted see on this map. Yet also got to match with the mission´s own little mod set and replace things with your better textures. One easily can get lost with all this, but it´s cool. 
Yes, I do wonder if it's actually doable. Once I get stuck in I really enjoy it so what the hell I'm gonna try anyway.
Christmas trees ... that reminds me ...
Now if only there was some way to light it up and put a nice warm glow in the windows of the church and cottage it would look idyllic.
6 hours ago, RockinHarry said:As for CMRT (and CMBN) other seasons I´ll likely do required mod tags on my own if this makes HH files available where I want them to. My current focus is CMBN/CMFB autumn (hurtgen forest related stuff) and springtime CMRT. There I´d need appropriately textured trees and other foliage. Also some the forest floor and grasses would be fine with fallen leaves added to them. I might try layering some with my own collection of nature stuff, either from the net or those I photo shooted myself when traveling my homeland. I´ll see.
There are some very good free resources out there on the web for textures, so I say go for it. Customising it to your personal taste is what it's all about. If you want any of my original layered files give me a shout.
Now is certainly the time to get out and take some pictures of fallen leaves.
6 hours ago, RockinHarry said:Re HH reshade presets, they don´t seem to work for me. Nothing happens when loaded. But could be ini (or other files) are not at the right place yet.
Yeah presets can be a bit of a problem if the version of ReShade is different (newer). Lots of the fx may have been replaced or superseded. Even on my PC some of my older presets don't seem to load the complete set of FX.
6 hours ago, RockinHarry said:Anyway... with HH and Reshade it´s now quite a different CM experience and I love it!
So again, big thanks for all your efforts and help you provided thus far. 
The voyage ain´t over yet and hopefully we get all wanted things done before game engine X makes it all obsolete. 
Thanks Harry, you're more than welcome. And yes, I'm determined to get this one finished.
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7 hours ago, RockinHarry said:
Think I´ve seen AMD fidelity and FGFX in SweetFX package in my install of latest available Reshade. Haven´t tried yet as well.
I think SweetFX used to be a stand-alone app in itself some years ago. I'm definitely going to try the latest version of ReShade.
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9 hours ago, NPye said:
The Big Boss has landed.
Nice one! Like the texturing on the mantle.
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1 hour ago, Butschi said:
No new features, I just like the autumn looks on this map. Btw. this where I grew up. Well, at the base of the hill in the background in the middle.
Thanks so much Butschi.
Map pic looks great, does it look familiar to you? Does it look like home?
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9 hours ago, Ultradave said:
Never really played with it that much but I did just now. Annoying really. It seems to default to 1440x900. (MacBook Pro). If I set the resolution to 1680x1050, and then set the options to Desktop, that file changes to 1680x1050. Restart CMBN and it's running higher resolution. Unfortunately the options doesn't stay set at Desktop and will revert back to 1440x900, even if my desktop setting stays at 1680x1050 and not Desktop.
I seldom use the higher resolutions on mine as my eyes get really tired. 1440x900 is fine for me so I haven't played much with this.
Dave
This is interesting. I wonder if I create a file in the mentioned location would the game pick up on it, I don't see why not. I have a problem on my 5K iMac - it's such high res that running the game at native resolution makes the GUI really tiny. I use to the aforementioned EasyRes to switch my screen to a workable resolution, trouble is that's a little different than my preferred everyday resolution, so it would be good to have a specific resolution set just for the game without having to change it for all my other stuff as well. Worth a shot.
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3 hours ago, RockinHarry said:
No luck with adding more generic editor buttons and associated objects for flavor objects beyond 16. Game didn´t complain while loading my edited and then repacked BRZ data file (red thunder v100a.brz). But that´s not the problem. It seems editor UI ain´t prepared for loading more than 16 generic buttons. Anything tried to be loaded with 17+ buttons is messing up the 4x4 button matrix. New/different buttons will be sort of overlayed on top of existing buttons with tiny blue and green squares in an odd way.
Parts of them can be clicked (and flavor placement activated), but others not. So seems we´re stuck with 16 buttons/16 flavor objects per category.
Unless maybe @Battlefront.com reads this and decide for expanding the flavor object matrix to include more than possible 16 ones by default.
That's a shame, thanks for trying all this Harry. It did sound very promising in your explanation of your thinking.
I know it would be silly small but can we have an 8x8 matrix - I have no idea how big the buttons would be, tiny maybe only 4 pixels square? Lots of clicking within the matrix area might enable a full set of 64 objects to be placed, then revert to normal matrix of buttons. A thought - one could always reduce the resolution of ones display to artificially enlarge the game pixels, might make it easier to see the tiny buttons - this is sounding really desperate!
8 hours ago, RockinHarry said:Now with desired assortment of flavor objects (from 1-32) placed on map, one can do further placement in 3D editor with standard methods, ALT-SHIFT click (copy/paste), ALT click (grab and place) etc.
It´s bits of an awkward method, but for serious map design one does it just once, then having all desired flavor objects on map until it´s all finished. Then any unneeded objects can be deleted with CTRL click again. So that´s the theory.
Man don't you wonder why we have no copy/paste function to work between maps, another of my headscratching what-on-earth-were-they-thinking moments ... nearly up there with the lack of an undo feature, still! FFS!!
On an aside, regarding the brz files. The game doesn't actually care where you store the contents of these so long as it's in the Data folder. It does care that a file called red thunder v100a.brz for example exists, but not what's in it. I did some experimenting a year or so ago with the brz archives beCause I kept finding duplicates, old files and unused files in the original game brzs when looking for other stuff. It occurred to me that I could unpack them and clean out all the old junk that they contain, stuff that has been updated and no longer needed. What I discovered, as a side effect, was that these brzs are just a delivery method, serving no other purposes than to contain the textures, models and sounds, and, importantly, to determine which version of the game is installed and completeness of the installation. The base installation contains the majority of files, while each incremental module or update that we receive has brzs that are incrementally named to match, each containing that update/module. So long as files named exactly the same as each brz are present the game will register them and continue to run, the actual game files can be in the brzs OR in another folder in the Data directory in the same way as our Z folders work.
What I did was to expand all the brzs, creating empty versions of them to replace the originals. I then cleaned out the expanded files, removing all the redundant stuff - old versions of textures or models, unused files etc, then reorganised the files into a new folder how I wanted them for easy access. This folder is alongside the empty brzs and my Z folder in my Data folder. No more messing with expanding and compressing brzs (except new ones of course), far less redundant data taking up HD space! and finding original bmps or whatever is a breeze cos my system search can find them now. I have backups of the originals just in case I need them, all I'm concerned about now is how an update might behave, hopefully I'll know very soon ... maybe ... someday ...
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8 hours ago, RockinHarry said:
Now with having HH in place for CMRT summer 44 and loving it.... do you plan on autumn and winter versions as well (for any the WW2 games)? Tagging the summer set for use in springtime germany 45 I can do myself though. Now with autumn I get reminded (again), we need a beautiful CM autumn set as well. Both for CMFB and CMRT.
Aah.. and just noticed you´d already included some Reshade presets with HH. Overlooked that somehow.
Autumn, winter, spring, everywhere - yes my plan was always to do a full set of vegetation for all the WW2 titles. Much of it can be ported across between titles so it's a little less work than it might seem. FI is the biggest challenge, the sheer breadth of seasons and climate variations is daunting. I tried HH in FI and, although it works well for some things, it was obvious that it fell short for much of the terrain. If I avoid doing ground textures which are already quite well covered, then it's really the trees and crops that would be most time consuming. Grasses tend to look similar across the wider European theatre, weeds, brush and flowers change a bit, whilst hedgerows and bocage will also need some work.
I did start RT but had to stop for a while. However now that I'm back into using Blender I can resume my work on trees and bocage. Probably what I'll do is a second version of HH with new tree models and revised bocage as well as some extras for the Low Countries and the Market Garden operations. Then the proper RT summer set. After that making the autumn/winter/spring sets will be easier, though snow covered stuff represents a bit of a problem which I have yet to resolve to my satisfaction. FI will borrow from all the rest with extras like olive trees and vineyards ...
So that's me busy for the next decade
, probably just in time for CMx3.
As for the ReShade presets in HH, I should probably replace them or not include them, they are pretty old now and I doubt they will give the intended results in the latest version.
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10 hours ago, Artkin said:
AMD fidelity works fine on my Nvidia gpu. It's one of the best effects I think. Bloom is a must for me, I don't even bother with levels when I use Bloom.
Lol yeah IDK what FGFX is exactly but it just makes the night darker. It seems much more realistic for the countryside, or in places where there isnt electrical lighting.
I'm not talking about night vision, but therw are effects for that too, though sort of annoying.
I'll have to give these a try next time I fire up ReShade. I don't remember seeing either AMD fidelity or FGFX, they might be from newer versions of ReShade than I have installed. Always cautious of updating ReShade as there are so many things that change it just gets a bit overwhelming and time-consuming to reset everything to how I like it. For one or two shaders though it should be quite trivial to install a newer version and test them, then go back to the previous.
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2 hours ago, JM Stuff said:
Ough ough ough cough cough !!
Splendide thank you Lucky, what do you think about ?
The pink color is because the shader or something else I guess, is only to you this is an effect of shader...?
Intro of music is also nice !
Merci to take the time friend.
JM
No, the pink was my purple haze specially commissioned for you.
Not sure what else uses the grey smoke texture. You'll have to experiment some more when your holiday is over.
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35 minutes ago, Warts 'n' all said:
Elizabeth scowls, "Noddlehead gets venison pasty, and quarts of Whitehall XXXXX every day."
Need a good dose of syrup of figs after that lot I should think!
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3 hours ago, RockinHarry said:
Short update on Flavor object editor buttons of which ATM we have 16 (4x4) for direct access. I´d resized the buttons further down to 9 pixel (36/2, 18/2) which off course is way too small for reading numbers. Anyway, that didn´t change the available button matrix, which seems beeing limited to always 4x4 (=16). So for now we can´t directly access more than 16 flavor objects from each flavor category, although more would technically be available. But I´ve noticed an oddity that might help working out something that allows accessing more than 16 the same time. Stay tuned. That´ll take a while.
I bet most folks on here don't even know that we can have 16 in each panel. Any more and we'll run out of ideas for objects!
Fascinated to see what more you have discovered.
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5 hours ago, RockinHarry said:
Yup, agree on all. The last thing on my purchase list with "old" engine will be CMFB CW module. Then will skip everything else, incl. stuff I´ve no (big) interest in anyway (FI, CMSF2, BS and CW). Then wait for game engine X. If we´re still among the living then off course.
Yes I'm kind of with you on that, get the complete set as it were. I also don't share any interest in modern warfare titles, save for the trees in SF2 which I envy.
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5 hours ago, Artkin said:
For reshade I just bind a key to enable or disable effects. You can find this as the second hotkey in the settings section. I bound mine to "insert", right next to "home" to open reshade settings in the first place. This bind is extremely useful.
AMD fidelity is one of the most useful options in reshade IMO. It brings out the detail from textures like no other.
I also use FXAA, MXAO, and a couple others that I forget.
I use bloom too, but around a .6-7 depending on the version of bloom that you use (There are a bunch).
I also use an effect called "FGFX ::LSPOirr" and it makes a pretty nice night time effect
Absolutely, I have my on/off keybinding set to the end key. I think the default is an F key or something.
I'm guessing AMD fidelity is for AMD GPUs. Bloom as you say has many variations but is certainly one to experiment with, great for so many situations and actually works quite well in CM.
FGFX ::LSPOirr catchy name! There are some very interesting night vision fx that can be made, or are ready made, great for modern warfare titles I would imagine.
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5 hours ago, RockinHarry said:
Though could do lots of these in GIMP as well and I´m fairly well aquainted with it. Hm... will see......
Well that's useful in itself as a lot of the shaders use terms you'll be familiar with, many are based on the common language of photo editing and colour grading apps.
5 hours ago, RockinHarry said:Yep it´s "Pos1" on my keyboard activating menues but "end" was what I was looking for when my brain started melting.
Heheh, yes every time I use ReShade I have to remind myself to switch it off when I finished so as not to have a psychedelic experience next time I fire up the game.
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7 hours ago, Ultradave said:
The "display size.txt" file is located here:
<userid>/Library/Application Support/CMBN/display size.txt
For other games replace CMBN with CMBS, CMCW, CMFB, CMFI, CMRT, CMSF2
Dave
Interesting. I hunted high and low for this, nowhere to be found on my Mac, wonder if it only appears under certain circumstances? What does you file contain? Is it the usual few spaced numbers? More importantly - does it actually make a difference?
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2 hours ago, JM Stuff said:
No chance to show a short clip when you turn the gaz of your monster ? I am so exited to see this on my PC!!!!
Lets say when you have time only, dont want to disturb too much your job !
JM
Oh alright then ...
Berlin CMRT Map
in Combat Mission Red Thunder
Posted · Edited by Lucky_Strike
This is very creative, could certainly change the look of those.
Yes, and 16 is a lot of mods to make, many of which probably only get used by a few players, especially 'cos they have to be added when a scenario is created, so takes effort. I reckon we get the defensive works set done then see how much interest there is.
I got a couple of external USB C enclosures for NVMe M.2 drives - they connect to my Mac via Thunderbolt (USB C) and are actually faster than the internal drive. I have one just for real life work stuff and the other is where all my CM stuff and photos etc live.
Mmhuh ...
Interesting - does the PaK spring back at all - those things certainly have a kick.
Yep, witness the forums at the moment ...
For sure, we press on regardless. I get annoyed but at the end of the day folks here give me plenty of inspiration.
Yes, certainly wouldn't go amiss. We all have only so much time to give to this, even complete CM devotees have a RL somewhere and interests can easily wane over time. None of us is getting any younger. If BF are interested in making more games and / or money then the younger bloods are where they really need to focus, and those guys will have much higher expectations of their games that old lags like us had at the start. But I know all this has been said before ...