Knokke

That's true, there was a map simulating the crossing of the Waal by 504th PIR in CC2; I forgot about that one. The battle started on the river bank and the american paratroopers had to cross a barred stretch of land in front of the german positions. It was a map where the player took heavy casualties, but it was managable with good fire support. I would really have liked to see on map mortar support implemented in ToW as it seems to have been planned at the beginning (I remenber some nice old screenshots showing a german mortar team). Do you know why it was dropped in the final version? Anyway, off map mortar support is available, even if it would be nice to have an on map mortar team to give support on a smaller scale. I'd like to see your adaptation of the 3 CC3 maps. I liked this game very much too.

I've been playing CC2 a lot. I think the parts I identified as the most ressembling the actual operation is the Arhnem railway bridge map and the Arnhem higway bridge map. I think the campaign in CC2 was very well done, with good ideas like weather affecting the drop of supplies and reinforcements, and a sense of progression in the campaign. The last map was good, with tank fighting on the causeway. i would say it was pretty accurate, despite the limits of the game engine. The battles of the 82nd airborne before entering Nijmegen could also be simulated in ToW1, because a lot of fighting was done out of buildings in open areas: The capture of the Grave bridge, capture of the bridge at Heumen, the battle for the drop zones around Groesbeek heights and the Grafswald, the skirmishes around Berg en Dal. In Nijmegen, a lot of fighting took place in builded areas, so it would be difficult to simulate in ToW, as will be the crossing of the Waal by the 2nd Batallion of the 504th PIR, as we lack assault boats.

That's an excellent name indeed. I'll have to read that book as well. By the way, I found a "strange" RAF reconaissance picture of the Arnhem bridge dated from the 6th september (before the operation began), but the picture shows the vehicles of Gräbner on the bridge, almost where they where destroyed on the ramp. The picture is not of good quality enough to make sure they where destructed at the time the picture was taken (I would say they appear intact, because there is not trace of burning on the road and no wreckage). This would mean the picture is really from the morning of the 18th September, not the 6th, and looks like it was taken only seconds before the destruction of the Hohenstoffen recon squadron. The final position of the vehicles on the bridge is a little bit further up the ramp on other pictures showing the wreckage. By comparison with pictures taken on the 19th september clearly showing the destroyed vehicles and the surrounding area, I'm pretty sure this picture was taken on the 18th, because there is are two british fox-holes just a the entry of the bridge showing on the 19th september picture and one of them is missing from the "6th september" picture. One sure can learn a lot from aerial recon photographs. A set of photograph really from the 6th september clearly shows the german FLAK positions on the south bank of the Rhine near the brickworks opposite the Museum, that stopped the progression of the 1st Para on the 19th. Cornelius Ryan in "A bridge too far" states that the flak position where located in the brick factory, but the aerial photograph clearly shows that they were located on the western side of the building, outside the brickworks.

OK; in the mean time, I'll keep working on my other models. Just tell me when you'll be ready, so I can start working on the textures. regards, -Knokke

Hi Dr. Jones, Did you had time to make any progress with your Maus project? BR, -Knokke

Hi Gnasher, Unfortunately, I still can't make the Typhoon (or any other of my models, wether static objects or controlable units) work in game. I suspect there might be a problem with the output of MshConverter, as I'm pretty sure my files are correctly set now. If we're lucky, Dr.Jones might find a solution to this problem while working on his Maus. In the mean time, i'm still doing some more models in the hope I can add them to the game later. Don't worry, i'll also make a crash-landed version of it (it's only little more work), and will make it available to you as soon as I manage to have this working. After all, I made this typhoon specially for you and your British Bulldogs campaign. regards, Knokke.

That's where Theater of War is filling the gap. Though I would have wished that the campaigns would have been more like CC in Theater of war.

Very nice map. I hope for the Germans that there are no AT-guns lying in ambush at the end of the causeway or worst, to the right and left of it.

Thanks a lot for the reply Sneaksie. It looks like I've made some mistakes while packing the files for the Typhoon (putting old incorrect Body.msh and wrong hier.ini): My latest version of the hier.him file doesn't have the wrong line with 'Attaching' string in _ROOT_ section (this is a silly mistake from my part). My latest version of the Body.msh have only one material listed in [Materials] section, and the string is called skin1, not Material0. I see the spitfire msh file saved by MshConverter as two strings in the [Materials] section: glass and skin1. For the Typhoon, I used only one material for each LOD - skin1 for LOD0, skin2 for LOD1, skin3 for LOD2, skin4 for LOD3 and LOD4, and didn't use the glass material for the cockpit transparency, but used an alpha channel in the skin1.tga DDS texture instead, to set the transparency of the glass. I don't know if this is correct, or if it is mandatory to have a different material for the transparent parts, but I'll rebuild the typhoon model with sub-materials with different ID for skin1 and glass, assuming I need to have a different material for transparencies. I assume that the section [Materials] is used for listing only the materials of the LOD0 (the spitfire msh file saved by MshConverter is listing only two materials, glass and skin1) As to the [FaceGroups] section in Body.msh, the msh file of the spitfire saved with MshConverter has only 3 strings instead of the 4 you're mentionning. I don't really know what this section is made for, but I suppose it is for listing all the groups of faces with a different material. If i assume correctly, the 4 strings in the Spitfire should for the materials skin1, glass, gear and wheels - but when I open a 3DS file of the spitfire converted with MshConverter, I can find only 2 materials with ID 1 for the transparency of the cockpit (glass?) and ID 2 for the whole rest of the plane except the transparent canopy (skin1?). Perhaps this is a problem with MshConverter, and Dr. Jones will be able to confirm if it is or not. Also, I've exported my 3DS file from 3DSmax9. But the 3DS file would probably not be usable straight as it is (even if I save it in 3dsMax version 6 or 7), because of the restriction to 10 characters for the names of the objects. In my 3DS file, all the objects have a shorter name because of this, and I've to rename them correctly in MshConverter before exporting to Msh file. Since the other 4 models i've tried to import in Tow (one bridge and three Horsa gliders) have all the same problem of not appearing in game or in the viewer, I suppose it is because I've an incorrect setting of the transparency materials. I'll redo all models with sub-material with different ID for the parts that have transparency, and see what happens. Of course, there is still the possibility that the problem comes from a bug in MshConverter, but first I've to redo the models exactly like they're set-up in TOW to make sure the problem doesn't come from my part. If it's still not working, i'll send you the updated and corrected version of the Typhoon for further analysis, in case the artists have more time to spare later and would have the kindness of looking into this. Anyway, thanks a lot to you and the devellopers that are taking the time to help me. I really appreciate. Best regards, -Knokke

You're welcome. the same is also true to launch the editors.

are you using Vista or XP?

Hi, If you're using Vista, just make sure you run the game as an administrator.

Dr.Jones, Tell me when you have something ready. There is no need to start the mapping to early, tough. I'd hate to have to redo it several times -Knokke

@Dr.Jones Let me know if I can help you with this, as I really would like to be able to add new models to ToW. I can texture the thing, do the UV, color map and normal map, even modelling if you want. -Knokke

Thanks for the update Sneaksie. regards, -Knokke

@Sneaksie I've sent the files at the above mentionned e-mail adress. Thanks for the bridge. It's going to be very useful Seeing the way it was made make me think i'll have to redo my bridge collision objects in the same way.

Many thanks Sneaksie! I'll have a look at this big bridge, and I'll pack the files of the Typhoon with the latest changes I've made to it. This is awesome support; I really appreciate it regards, -Knokke

I noticed I have the exact same problem of the 3D model not displaying in the encyclopedia with the british Sherman I tank added with JSH 1.2 mod. Anyone knows where the problem was (don't know if this was corrected with JSH 1.3)

@Dr.Jones: Ok, I succeeded having the hurricane displaying correctly in the encyclopedia. I can see the 3D model, but only if the data/unit/cars/uk/hurricane_mkiic/unit.ini MeshName section is pointing to 3dobj/planes/uk/hurricane_mkiic/hier.him if it points to 3dobj/cars/uk/hurricane_mkiic/hier.him, nothing is displayed in the preview window (can't see any 3D model), even if the two hier.him files are the same. It almost looks like ToW will accept only the default files with the default path. I've set the typhoon in the exact same way to be displayed in the encyclopedia, but it's not working.

No luck with DXT5 format either. Also, I'm not sure that we need DXT5 since in ToW modding FAQ 1.02 it is mentionned that DXT3 should be working. But again, info about files in the modding FAQ is different in many respects to the files we are extracting (for exemple, hier.him are called hier.mcn and they're written differently) I've tried setting up several statics objects I've modelled to import them in the game, but have the same result: nothing showing in the preview window, even when I believe i've set everything up properly

I've saved the textures in DXT3 *.dds in all my new objects. I'll try with DXT5 version. For the plane in the encyclopedia, I have the unit.ini set correctly (just copied a car unit.ini and changed the name to Typhoon Mkib and the Meshname pointing to the typhoon hier.him

that's too bad... I would really have liked to see playable boats in the game, to make river crossing actions with rubber dinghies or assault boats...

I have a question for the sound specialists here: It seems that there are preset files for sounds of trains and ships, but I don't remember having seen any train or boats moving in game and/or making any sound Any idea what theses sounds are?

Again, I need more help Does this file exist?: ToW/data/units/Units_Classes.ini If it exists, what's its use? I can extract only a folder with this name with SFSextractor, but if this file exists, it should be a text file.

A lot of time could pass before I manage to have the typhoon working, so don't wait for me! Keep working on your excellent campaign, this is good stuff.