kohlenklau

MDR and MDS files: If you import a vehicle mdr and probably plan for it to be the parent, you can import other mdr's as children and "paste" them on the vehicle. permgear is permanent, but sometimes there is optiona and optionb so that is why you see tanks have a bucket but sometimes not. spare roadwheels, gas cans, sections of track, etc. For uniforms on soldiers, these are mds files and so far we cannot deeply examine them, can't import into Blender to alter the 3D model. But they can be opened in HxD and some stuff can be messed with. A certain uniform is taken by the game code and "cards are dealt" in accordance with the game code. Radioman gets a radio on his back. I have no idea if this is in the mds file, I think not. I think it is in the game code. LMG soldier gets LMG ammo pouch, etc. I am making changes to the mds file text to get my French Bir Hakeim guys kitted out. If I get an item of gear on them through tricks A and B, I then can do trick C which is to Blender edit the gear mdr to have more gear. canteen AND gas mask. This is required so the soldiers look properly equipped visually. The game code still allows reloading even if they have no ammo pouches. Radio still works even if there is no 3D radio with the company commander. I am not trying to act like a professor, just leaving some breadcrumbs for others to follow. I am open ears to others lessons learned. Forward together!!!

dropbox link to trench 1 with rusted corrugated metal, no sandbags visible, colored to match desert areas, modtagged as [birhakeim], extra pickles, no mayo. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ana78z4t1720kb7/AAA7gnW_y7P9EtwjAwXFigpsa?dl=0

The trench mdr's reference the already existing sandbag mdr. In Blender tree structure, these children are sometimes called odd things, like sphere or box. If you don't have the texture bmp in the folder as you import, then it doesn't grab it to show you the name sandbag.bmp - but it was there. The same with lots of vehicle mdr's.

Maybe we have just 1 trench (parallel to map edges with the ditch system H/H-1/H) like this and leave the angles unmodded as the areas to put your HMG and LMG teams.

here is a version with corrugated metal. I lowered it down a bit and alpha layered out the sandbags. They are still there but invisible. Streamlined look. We can still slap some flavor objects around the front. A dirt berm kind of flavor object maybe. Fill in that sloped area. This is in a ditch of 1 level lower than front and back.

My pixel-lawyers have advised me to refrain from any such promises!

Old mdr trick that is needed when doing Blender mdr shennaigans: Open the final mdr in notepad++ and search/find the names of the child mdr's and you can slightly change their name. For example, I am tweaking with the sandbag and sandbags on trench 1. I changed those names to sandbat and sandbats. Therefore, elsewhere in the game, anything that uses those 2 mdr's isn't affected by accident.

I don't know what to tell you, there are animations for standing and shooting for LMG soldiers. I will continue to enjoy tinkering to see what happens. Part of the fun, the game inside the game so to speak. I haven't decided to go and do them all yet. I am still tinkering with trench1.

It sure does!

I am glad that a few guys are experimenting with changes to the classic CM trench aka the "little kids wading pool"...! My goal today is to finish a scenario for CMRT Warsaw Uprising Mod that will utilize a modtagged modified trench. For that scenario, at this point I think I will only need to modify trench1. It runs parallel to map edges.

There are many trench mdr files, maybe 7 or is it 9 I forget. Like walls, it has all the various types of interface, the t, the angled t, the angled end, etc. Each trench mdr must be processed in Blender to get all at the same level BUT as Falaise said, the MMG or HMG needs to be at a certain (lower) level to fire. I did a series of NEW experiments for CMRT Warsaw. I alpha layered the sandbags and ALL trench. Interesting results as a dug out trench (Blue 19 with Black 21's) in firm ground with no wood support or sandbags. This fits the Warsaw event. You only see the dirt. OH! It was also placed a foot path in the squares. I will post photos and the test scenario/map.

BLENDER TIP FOR CM WORK: (for anybody that is listening or cares!) @Frenchy56 taught me this one... Many mdr's are a parent with 1 or more children. Often the children have 1 or more of their own children. To unlock this, you go up into the upper right corner tree structure area and "mouse click-hold" one of the children and drag it to the left. There is a tiny notice window that says "Drop to clear parent". So drop it and that item becomes independent. Once each item is its own group, you can modify things easier. Make some groups invisible with the "eye" symbol so things are decluttered and clarified. Box select in wireframe view to grab the back side of objects for scaling, moving, rotating, extruding, copying. Once done, you can drag children back to the parent as needed. Then select the final hierarchy and export...

Oops.

Yes, trench1 [birhakeim].mdr. Hey Lucky, please feel free to open in Blender and change it! Run with the ball and score a TD! This is football, not golf. I always try to cooperate with other forum guys! :-)

Have fun with the PROTOTYPE if you wish. I see the below issues and will address: 1. soldiers die and are partially buried 2. the usual weird legs up at an angle when prone in the tench. I think I always see that with regular trenches. Right? 3. some 3D faces need a face, 3D issues I can rectify. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7pzog4ahsbweknq/AADZ_FfAqN-zJyfyR3gVI_wpa?dl=0

BLENDER TIP FOR CM WORK (for anybody that is listening or cares!): For my knowledge/skill level in blender, after I scale anything <like this trench>, it loads/loaded in the game and somehow (will go)/goes to a high elevation. I counter this by importing an unchanged flavor object and making the trench the child of the flavor object, my go to is the simple "rock1" I then can alpha layer the rock1's usual bmp so you cannot see it.

It is really like this, my other image was wrong. I had both options but the below is the one you actually see.

a little experiment. I 3D modded the trench in Blender. Made it taller on the wall area. BUT dropped the floor back down. THENNNN I placed it in a certain elevation pattern on the map. @Blazing 88's calls it the "firing pit"... Oh, the weird bluish color is my work in progress with corrugated metal sides versus wood. Have you been to Home Depot lately? Wood prices skyrocketed. Free French gotta do this on the cheap! Rusty old corrugated metal from WW1. Some of the dudes are staying standing! Amazing.

You just gave me an idea! Standby...

Can we all say this together? BFC CM trenches are a really poo poo effort!!!! They couldn't get the trenches actually down in the ground? Then try and work late one night and kick butt with an animation for crouching down and then coming up to fire with eyes just above the lip of the trench? Not in 20 years?

Merci!

oh dang. I will take a look. It probably is a file that didn't get properly set after being in GiMP! I will fix ASAP. @Falaise https://www.dropbox.com/sh/78rdti9d4gdr3ve/AABU6Gj3PbueCVIXvAOz8f5va?dl=0 I can do that. Give me a while. I have gone back and forth on modtags when I was trying to make Quick Battle maps for Afrika. QB apparently doesn't "see" the modtags.

something I am messing with is to TRY to make stuff look more adapted for the North Afrika region... Like the trenches. Here is V1.0 with just the soil changed. Next step is to ditch the wood and go with corrugated metal and metal stakes...? I reckon... also dust up and lighten the sandbags...