Knokke

I can't really help with this one, but I seems to remember that there is range data stored in two different files (one for the game GUI-range vs penetration and one for the actual determination of the trajectory and range of the ammunition)

What is in the bottom pic is not really a bump map. it is a greyscale picture showing the relief of your map with highlights and shadows (light seems to come from the top of the picture). Your picture shows a highlight on the side of each "canyon" that receive light, and a shadow on the other side. Processing this texture in the Nvidia DDS plug-in will give you a normal map, but it will not reflect the real elevation you're expecting. Darker and lighter areas on the textures are not supposed to be a depiction of highlight and shadows, but are supposed to depict micro-details of the ground elevation: the lighter the color, the higher the elevation is. White is for the highest point on the map, while black would be the lowest elevation, with all the gradations in between depicted in various shades of grey. So the lighter shades of grey should be found on the flatter higher areas, while the bottom of the canyons should be the darkest where the ravines have more depth. With which 3D utility did you generate the greyscale picture? I'm using microdem to create all the elevation files I need, and I remember there is a mode where you can extract a greyscale texture like the one you show above from your SRTM elevation data, but its purpose is only to help visualise the relief of the DEM, not to create an elevation map. It's probably the reason why you're not able to obtain a correct normal map. Besides, I don't understand what you mean by "What I got was this. Compared to what should have been as in the bottom pic" Once you process your greyscale picture in the Nvidia plug-in, you should obtain a "blue" image (or rather a Red-Green-Blue) picture where the amount of each of theses three colors correspond to a x,y,z orientation of each pixel of the texture.

About theses issues, the only solution I can think of would be to have battlefront/1C releasing a pack similar to the modpack with all the default game files not being compressed in *.bin format, or at least give us the permission to upload the extracted files ourselves to the repository. By the way, there is a lot of things missing from the mega mod pack meshtools that I would dearly like to see released: -updated plug-ins for 3DSmax so that we would be able to create *.mcn files for ToW2 without having to massively edit the resulting *.mcn files and *.tse files to make them functionning in ToW2 (right now, the tools are only for ToW, but can be made to work with ToW2 with a lot of manual editing) -the plug-ins we have are only to create vehicles like tanks and statics for ToW. It would be nice if the plug-in to create planes, soldiers, enterable buildings etc... would be released too. For now, I can create any type of objects by creating a *.mcn file manually, but it is a painfull process, and I still can't create *.vbl files to make new soldiers. -I would like to be able to edit the MainTex.tga, and being able also to create a brand new from scratch, and be able to save it in compressed format so that it takes less space on the HD and saves some memory. -I would like to have the utility to create damaged textures for vehicles and soldiers (*.rect files) I know this is asking a lot, but still... I can't help dreaming of what we could do if we had all the tools needed.

try IRfanView, it can open the textures if I remember well

About the red pathfinding cells. If everything is OK with your map, there should be no need to repaint the red pathfinding cells when you delete a building: simply delete the building, then save the map. While saving, the editor will recalculate the pathfinding cells automatically. You'll not see the result immediately, you'll have to reload the map to check that the red pathfinding cells are no longer here. If anything goes wrong and the pathfinding cells are no longer working, you may need to force the editor to recalculate them. First delete the content of the pfsmap.bin and pfswatermap.bin (files created automatically to allow a faster loading time of the map). Simply open them in notepad, then delete everything in the file, and save again with the same name to create an "empty file". Perhaps simply deleting the files will work (they might be created again when you save the map - not sure about that). Better to make a backup of theses files first before trying to modify anything. To recalculate the pathfinding cells, use the menu View -> recalculate pfscells in the map editor.

How to create the mainnormal.dds file: You need to have the Nvidia DDS plug-in installed in Photoshop (http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html). open NearHF.raw in photoshop using the following options: channels->count: 1 depth: 16 bits Bytes order: IBM PC Convert image to RGB Run the image through the Nvidia DDS plug-in with the following options: Height generation: filter type: 4 samples MinZ: 0 Scale: 600 3D view options: Animate light. turn it on Alpha Field: select Unchanged click OK to valid your settings and create the normal map. You may need to blur the image a little bit if you find the result is a bit too pixellated.

I've installed the extractor on successively 3 different computers too, and it has always been working for me (never tried with a 64bits system though) old Athlon with winXP Toshiba Satellite M-60-189 with XP HP Pavilion DV-9649em with Vista 32bits All theses with ToW, ToW2 africa, ToW2 Kursk (altough for Kursk, it worked only when installed inside ToW2 africa)

Perhaps Openoffice?

I've experienced what you call "lag" only once with the latest Kursk patch installed, and never in ToW2 Africa. I've a computer well below your specs, with only 2Gb RAM and i'm playing at half-speed. I can assure you that the game slow-down have nothing to do with the LOD display. It would seems to me that it comes from either very intensive calculations in case of a big firefight or bombardment taking place, or from some other problem related to AI calculations. I've not been able yet to find the cause behind of the occasional slow-downs I was experiencing before the latest patch.

I believe that it is mandatory to have the unit listed in the fileid.txt for it to work in game, but the path for the icons textures can probably be omited in offline mode (not sure if this has an impact in multiplayer). The best bet would be to try to organize it just like it is in the original game file.

Now that's strange. I would think that the list you provided is correct (if the new models in Caen are named "Norm_*" instead of Kursk1943_*). If it's not working, it may be that the Norm_* nomenclature is some left over, and that the models probably have a different name. There is no way of knowing, except by someone having the skill to create a filelist from the game (I know that some of the users of this forum know how to do that, but this is not my case, and I would dearly like a tutorial to do that) Is there any info in the data files relating to the possible path to the models? I can't check, I don't own the Caen extension yet.

I'm afraid it may be so. It would be worth testing

There is something I don't understand Filelist.txt and filesid.ini are two different files. Filesid is very important for multiplayer, has the numbers are used to synchronise between the host and the players. If I understand well, having two diferent filesid makes the game no longer compatible. Filelist.txt is used only by SFSextractor to extract files from the SFS files. I'm not aware there is a limit in the numbers, not having reah such high numbers yet.

I'm asking that, as some where used by the germans on the western front. It might be interesting for doing battles in Normandy.

I would like to hear about your findings too

I'm not sure to understand what your problem is, but I'll try to give some help. I believe there should be one hook for each passenger (named Passenger_01 to Passenger_n. Not sure about that, but I suppose that hook number might have an influence on which seats are occupied in priority. In order to add new hooks, you need to edit the 3D model of the vehicle, not only the file data/unit/myunit/.../hier.him If you can extract the mesh of the vehicle and convert it in text/mesh format with MshConverter 1.18, you don't really need to edit the 3D model to add new hooks, as you can add these directly into the model by editing the mesh file in text format (entering a line for each new hook, with the hook coordinates) Hope this is of some help to you.

Arzok, What about making a german skin for the R-35?

Here is what I know about theses two files: data/AI/messages.xml is the file that is used to display messages in the UI in game (soldiers status, vehicle status...etc, like the message "soldier is under attack") data/settings/navigation.ini is used to determine the behavior of units relating to pathfinding (for example, the area in pathfinding squares that a unit is occupying, how the units react to obstacle - crush or go around). This is where you can set how far around a vehicles trees or soldiers will be crushed, how much space they occupy (and so, if they can or cannot pass between two obstacles) So, it seems to me that you don't need to modify any of theses files for your new units.

That's a big drawback. It would be a hassle to have a mutiboot system just to use this utility

Have any of you guys tried the 64bit version of SFSxtractor? If I'm not mistaken, Dr.Jones had made such a version. Having never tried it, I don't know if it works with windows 7 though. here is the link to the repository http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=314&func=fileinfo&id=441 @Arzok If you need any help, don't hesitate to ask. I'll help you as much as I can.

For me, SFSExtractor works only if I'm installing it in ToW2 Kursk, with the path of the files to extract set to ToW2 Kursk. If you installed SFSExtractor inside ToW2 Kursk, it might be the reason why it's not working. I might do more detailed tutorials, but such things take a lots of time to do, and the tutorials available are really enough to get anyone started. I'm willing to help anyone trying to create new ToW models, though.

It is already possible to mod almost everything in the game right now without step-by-step instructions from the developpers (The only thing I don't yet know how to do is creating a new soldier model from scratch) . Everything else should be possible by reading the various tutorials you can find in the repository (that includes making new maps with brand new statics objects, new vehicles, new weapons, new airplanes). The only limit for vehicles is an easy way to create the files with the damaged areas, as we don't have the utility needed to do that. creating new soldiers from scratch seems a bit more difficult for me, as I suspect some plug-in might be needed to import 3DSmax skinning to convert the 3DSmax model to a body.mesh file with the mod tools. With everything that is already possible to do with the meshtools, I don't thing the problem is a lack of means to mod the game, but rather a lack of peoples having the time or will to learn how to do it.

I'm really a fan of the grenade rifle in the game, but it's a shame that the AI doesn't like it as much as I do, as my soldiers are always trying to get rid of it as soon as possible. Anyway, it's a great portable AT weapon, and really usefull in game.

I still can't see what the problem is after looking at Lt.Bull pics and vids. The vid shows that the tank as no line of sight through the foliage (as seems to be normal to me). the first pic shows a tanks having line of sight and line of fire up to 320m (if i'm not mistaken) No surprise to me here, as the ground seems to be uneven. The next pic with the line of fire closer to the tank can be a bit more open to debate. But if you keep in mind that the sight from the gunner eye sight is very narrow, it could start to make sense. The point is aiming at could be outside the field of view of the gunner looking through is sight. I believe the problem that peoples have with the LOS in the game comes from the difference of what they're expecting to see, and what the game engine "really" see. For obvious reasons, the game engine can't calculate the obstruction of every single leaf in a tree or bush. The g

I second that. We need at least a tutorial from 1C on how to add human models to the game. I don't think the Mod Tools have the mandatory scripts to do that. Adding human 3D models in the game with animations is the only thing I've not being able to do yet.