Lucky_Strike

Really? A cunning and subtle one? 😉

Angels on our shoulders ... 
Have run out of green heart stickers today for you M.Falaise, not sure how but never mind, here’s some other green things that I found to make up for it ... 🌲 🍏 🥬 🟢 🥗 

 
Oh, and look what I found ... 💚
 

I think Harry explained this pretty much. What is quite clear from doing these experiments is that the game's complexities tread a fine line between simulating reality and abstraction, quite often erring towards abstraction to solve a lot of the difficulties involved. BF are always telling us that when correcting bugs they can quite often create new ones; messing with the model geometry demonstrates how easy it is to break things in a visual way even if the under lying mechanics remain the same. This of course doesn't explain why some of the visual bugs hang around for so long, nor why BF didn't put more effort into better simulating defensive works.
From my perspective what is quite reassuring is that I can't really break the mechanics of the game with all this messing about, so it will continue.
When I dust off the trench mod and see what was happening with it I'll certainly look at the pause command thanks. I always forget we've got it as a command, probably explains why my pixeltruppen are so often knackered. I really want to get the trenches at least looking better, but we may have to compromise how they apparently function, we might have the troops knee-deep in the bottoms of trenches or climbing out a bit too often. The latter is more problematic if they are more exposed so it's the one thing I'm really keen to avoid. Perhaps when they're a bit closer to a general release you would be willing to do some play-testing for us?

Dragon's teeth texture 4. Very rough finish, moulded with thinner shutters than previous. This one also includes normal maps which come into play when shaders are toggled on.

We now have the Jagdpanther...although set in Normandy this one it is marked up on the rear as Muncheberg PD. Cheers

Thanks for sharing even more😁 Some of these look very graphic novel, but it appears some gangsters have gotten involved ...

some pics from the 3rd battle of cassino, march 1944... comments, critiques, etc. welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
cheers,
rob
 
 
 
 

Thanks for sharing - some great shots!

a few more...
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
cheers,
rob
 

some shots from arnhem/oosterbeek and other market garden locales... all comments, critiques, etc. welcome.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

cheers,
rob

This is something I and @kohlenklau played around with last year? The bottom of the trench can be lowered but there's a limit to what the pixeltruppen will seem to tolerate before they start to clamber out to see and shoot. I made this effort back then:




 
Notice the pixeltruppen are standing - not sure if it's an effect of the trench or the low bocage to their front - I'd have to go and check again, remove the bocage and see what they do. The trench was ditch-locked and the mesh altered to fill the ditch more convincingly.

Like a lot of these models the texture doesn't blend with the surroundings very well, it has a hard edge and there's no mechanics for creating a blend. Same applies to my Panzer IV bunker. It's possible to ameliorate this a bit by using flat mesh additions at the top of the model - like the rubble on the Panzer IV - then a healthy dose of flavour objects as camouflage for the edges. The only place the trench blends is at its ends. Flavor object camo netting might be good for trenches as well ...
Anyway I do believe we can improve the trenches a bit but I think foxholes are much more complex, they certainly don't seem to want to behave in the same way.
Yes I think we found the same issue, 1m is as much as they seem to accept, beyond that and out they jump.
Yes, and with the abstraction which is built into trenches and foxholes to compensate to them being at ground level we don't get much wiggle room to improve their looks - 1m.
I tried invisible bocage at the front of the Panzer IV bunker. Issues were that there's not much terrain deformation, not anything like the tall bocage; placement close to it is very difficult to achieve, the vehicle tends to rear upwards and sit right on it or just remains further back. It was essentially tidier and easier to place the vehicle in the ditch without the bocage mound in front but instead hide some rubble wall at the front which probably offers some enhanced cover. The origin of the Panzer IV was also lowered, so he's hull down, I don't know how far I can push it, I tried twice and at the second depth he lost LOS down the street ahead. I just wanted to see if it could be made to look good and functional first. I'll try some experiments now with some target practice.
I do still think we can do something with the bocage in terms of barriers since pixeltruppen can go right up close to it. Also could be used as say AT gun position, felled tree, PaK 40, you get the idea, stick it at the edge of some woods, camouflaged emplacement ... nice

This is something I and @kohlenklau played around with last year? The bottom of the trench can be lowered but there's a limit to what the pixeltruppen will seem to tolerate before they start to clamber out to see and shoot. I made this effort back then:




 
Notice the pixeltruppen are standing - not sure if it's an effect of the trench or the low bocage to their front - I'd have to go and check again, remove the bocage and see what they do. The trench was ditch-locked and the mesh altered to fill the ditch more convincingly.

Like a lot of these models the texture doesn't blend with the surroundings very well, it has a hard edge and there's no mechanics for creating a blend. Same applies to my Panzer IV bunker. It's possible to ameliorate this a bit by using flat mesh additions at the top of the model - like the rubble on the Panzer IV - then a healthy dose of flavour objects as camouflage for the edges. The only place the trench blends is at its ends. Flavor object camo netting might be good for trenches as well ...
Anyway I do believe we can improve the trenches a bit but I think foxholes are much more complex, they certainly don't seem to want to behave in the same way.
Yes I think we found the same issue, 1m is as much as they seem to accept, beyond that and out they jump.
Yes, and with the abstraction which is built into trenches and foxholes to compensate to them being at ground level we don't get much wiggle room to improve their looks - 1m.
I tried invisible bocage at the front of the Panzer IV bunker. Issues were that there's not much terrain deformation, not anything like the tall bocage; placement close to it is very difficult to achieve, the vehicle tends to rear upwards and sit right on it or just remains further back. It was essentially tidier and easier to place the vehicle in the ditch without the bocage mound in front but instead hide some rubble wall at the front which probably offers some enhanced cover. The origin of the Panzer IV was also lowered, so he's hull down, I don't know how far I can push it, I tried twice and at the second depth he lost LOS down the street ahead. I just wanted to see if it could be made to look good and functional first. I'll try some experiments now with some target practice.
I do still think we can do something with the bocage in terms of barriers since pixeltruppen can go right up close to it. Also could be used as say AT gun position, felled tree, PaK 40, you get the idea, stick it at the edge of some woods, camouflaged emplacement ... nice

Well, as suspected it's a rather complex model - when fully triangulated it's well over 25K triangle texels ...


... even more than the CMRT SturmTiger which is a pretty complex model
I did try a quick export based on it using the same hidden crate as your box car, but TBH it's well outside my experience zone - I haven't looked at all the stuff that @Aquila-SmartWargames did regarding his ship and other great models so would need to do a lot more genning up on it before any hope of getting this bad boy into the game. The textures are pretty simple actually so they are here is you want to grab them. I guess we would have to treat this more like any other vehicle in terms of how the Blender file and mdr are structured. There are a lot of separate objects in the Blender model, but many - most of the wheels for example use just the one simple bmp. So they should be able to be made into one mesh - though again I really don't know and would need to study Aquila's stuff and how our overlords make the vehicle models for CM.
For now I'd suggest you don't do too much work on the textures as they are pretty good and already have Deutsche Reichsbahn name plate on them. And until someone can get it working in-game, you don't want to waste too much time on it. I would take a look but it's going to take me a lot of work to figure out when there's probably somebody else who could handle it much more quickly.
One thing of note - the loco uses the correct narrow gauge so when placing it next to the boxcar it's clear that the wheels on the the boxcar need to be given a narrower gauge, should be possible in the model.

Another new edition Pzkpfw VA Panther, texturised and made into Muncheberg Panzer Division style.

Cool! Do like a PaK 40 mounted on something entirely inappropriate - still waiting for the Raupenschlepper Ost PaK 40 ... maybe in a vehicle pack.
Speaking of wonderful adaptations. I was browsing through PanzerWrecks' book Panzers in Berlin 1945 (highly recommended by the way) and noticed quite a few Panzer IV hulks being used a makeshift bunkers similar to the commonly depicted Pantherturm.

Basically an older Panzer IV minus wheels etc concreted into the ground or hastily buried in concrete and rubble, so ... with a couple of 1m deep ditchlocked squares and some tinkering in Blender ...




Has to be immobilised for obvious reasons - can't have this driving around trashing the roads ...


Still quite a few issues to resolve - shadows from missing/invisible skirts persist, quite a few gaps at the back of her rubble skirt, play testing ...

Cool! Do like a PaK 40 mounted on something entirely inappropriate - still waiting for the Raupenschlepper Ost PaK 40 ... maybe in a vehicle pack.
Speaking of wonderful adaptations. I was browsing through PanzerWrecks' book Panzers in Berlin 1945 (highly recommended by the way) and noticed quite a few Panzer IV hulks being used a makeshift bunkers similar to the commonly depicted Pantherturm.

Basically an older Panzer IV minus wheels etc concreted into the ground or hastily buried in concrete and rubble, so ... with a couple of 1m deep ditchlocked squares and some tinkering in Blender ...




Has to be immobilised for obvious reasons - can't have this driving around trashing the roads ...


Still quite a few issues to resolve - shadows from missing/invisible skirts persist, quite a few gaps at the back of her rubble skirt, play testing ...

Well, as suspected it's a rather complex model - when fully triangulated it's well over 25K triangle texels ...


... even more than the CMRT SturmTiger which is a pretty complex model
I did try a quick export based on it using the same hidden crate as your box car, but TBH it's well outside my experience zone - I haven't looked at all the stuff that @Aquila-SmartWargames did regarding his ship and other great models so would need to do a lot more genning up on it before any hope of getting this bad boy into the game. The textures are pretty simple actually so they are here is you want to grab them. I guess we would have to treat this more like any other vehicle in terms of how the Blender file and mdr are structured. There are a lot of separate objects in the Blender model, but many - most of the wheels for example use just the one simple bmp. So they should be able to be made into one mesh - though again I really don't know and would need to study Aquila's stuff and how our overlords make the vehicle models for CM.
For now I'd suggest you don't do too much work on the textures as they are pretty good and already have Deutsche Reichsbahn name plate on them. And until someone can get it working in-game, you don't want to waste too much time on it. I would take a look but it's going to take me a lot of work to figure out when there's probably somebody else who could handle it much more quickly.
One thing of note - the loco uses the correct narrow gauge so when placing it next to the boxcar it's clear that the wheels on the the boxcar need to be given a narrower gauge, should be possible in the model.

Best viewed in 4K, my new vehicles driving around Berlin....

A lot of really cool things happening in this thread. I've been watching from afar with great interest. 

From what I've seen, the DPM did not see much combat use, if at all, during WW2. I have chosen to replace it with the more accurate DT-27 tank machine gun in infantry use.
This has UI icons for vanilla and Juju's UI. It does not change magazine size or any other specs on the machine gun.
https://www.mediafire.com/file/grotcbjjkj3lcff/DT+for+DPM.rar/file

I really like to use bocage with ditchlocking to create the sunken lanes of Normandy, tried it with trenches and foxholes as well with varying degrees of success and failure.
Yeah I think shifting the origin (or how it´s called in 3D) is a good idea but sadly I think something controls the perceived ground-level and relationship to spotting etc so the pixeltruppen start behaving in odd ways.
Flavor objects is an interesting approach - if only we had something like a bare bocage earth bank I reckon we could achieve something useable AND which looked good in game.

Thanks. I did consider normal maps and may do them if I can figure out how they work WRT the mdr, as you sat they would be great for added texture.

Just a quickie as I must dash out. I couldn't resist those 🦷 so had a quick look at the hedgehog objects. Now this is only a first attempt and the texture is distorting like crazy - even though it looks fine in Blender (always happens) but I give you the Westwall ... 🎶 We're gonna hang out our washing ... 🎶



These are in your Entering Germany map. As you can see there's a lot of distortion, the 🦷 need some 🪥. Otherwise the objects come in quite well. The size is about the same as a hedgehog so they space out quite well and en masse give a pretty convincing effect. Next would be to test with yer actual tanks and breaching teams to see how they deal with them. If you would like to have a go I can upload this somewhere for you to grab.

Just a quickie as I must dash out. I couldn't resist those 🦷 so had a quick look at the hedgehog objects. Now this is only a first attempt and the texture is distorting like crazy - even though it looks fine in Blender (always happens) but I give you the Westwall ... 🎶 We're gonna hang out our washing ... 🎶



These are in your Entering Germany map. As you can see there's a lot of distortion, the 🦷 need some 🪥. Otherwise the objects come in quite well. The size is about the same as a hedgehog so they space out quite well and en masse give a pretty convincing effect. Next would be to test with yer actual tanks and breaching teams to see how they deal with them. If you would like to have a go I can upload this somewhere for you to grab.