chocice Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Good evening all. Can anyone tell me, the screenshots that are present when a game is loading, are they real authentic WWII photo,s, "staged" propaganda photo,s or WWII enthusiasts in mock scenarios?? my guess is a mixture of all three, your thoughts please gents. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theFightingSeabee Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 I think they are authentic. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Childress Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Staged: 1- The Mutt 'n Jeff Panzerschreck team. 2- The U.S. mortar group. Intensely aware of the camera. And how come no new ones with the CW module? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Medex Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Yeah I thought we would be treated to some CW screenshots. I want some pics of bagpipers assaulting the ears of some stubborn Germans held up in a pillbox. Who needs crocs and avres when you got pipers. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocice Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 Staged: 1- The Mutt 'n Jeff Panzerschreck team. 2- The U.S. mortar group. Intensely aware of the camera. And how come no new ones with the CW module? Def the u.s. mortar team staged, also the machine gun pair. Not sure i,ve seen the shreck team, will keep an eye out for it. Would have been great to have seen some new one,s in the cw module, esp cw troops. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger33 Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Was thinking about gathering some up and making a mod, it's a bit weird only seeing American troops when there must be thousands of photos of the other nationalities out there. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpabrams Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 I think "Miniature Nazi Commander in Biker’s cap and Leather” is staged. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocice Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 Was thinking about gathering some up and making a mod, it's a bit weird only seeing American troops when there must be thousands of photos of the other nationalities out there. Good idea Ranger, look forward to seeing them. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Was thinking about gathering some up and making a mod, it's a bit weird only seeing American troops when there must be thousands of photos of the other nationalities out there. Eh? There are plenty of German ones in the bunch. At least as many German ones as US ones, IIRC. I /think/ they're context sensitive though, so if you only play as US you'll only get US photos. There are already some mods which add additional loading photos. The one I've got includes a shot of a German para firing an MG42 from the standing position in a pine forest. Whoever put that set together has selected some really interesting photos. Sometimes I'm almost sad the load is complete, I love being forced to really /look/ at the photos, and picking up the little details you always miss when just skimming over images. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 I think "Miniature Nazi Commander in Biker’s cap and Leather” is staged. ISTR someone here mentioned that's Eberbach, as a divisional commander on the Eastern Front sometime in early-ish 1944. It doesn't strike me as posed, or not overly so anyway. By that I mean those four guys probably really were together for a real briefing, although the photographer might have asked them to “scootch in a bit closer for the photo”, or sumfink. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger33 Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Eh? There are plenty of German ones in the bunch. At least as many German ones as US ones, IIRC. I /think/ they're context sensitive though, so if you only play as US you'll only get US photos. Obviously, there are indeed German photos I meant adding photos for Commonwealth troops now that we have them in the game. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YankeeDog Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 "Staged" is a relative term. I think only few of those photographs are bona fide, as-the-lead-is-flying shots. Of the body of photographs available from WWII, relatively few are of this type. But many, if not most, of the loading screen shots are impromptu, minimally staged shots taken in the general combat area of operations. In some of them, the photographer has clearly staged things a bit -- told the soldiers to stand still for a moment so he can take a photo, possibly had them pose a bit, etc. But I think only a few of them are truly completely staged, pre-planned propaganda shots (the aforementioned shot of the panzershreck team comes to mind as one that looks like it carefully done with a fair amount of advance planning). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 @ Ranger33 Ah. Gotcha Yes, that would be grand. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger33 Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 Okay, so finding good pictures, resizing them and putting into the correct format is no problem, but does anyone have tips on how to apply the color filter (ie the reddish color with dark corners)? I have no experience with photo editing. I've downloaded GIMP and am tinkering around with it, but if anyone could point me in the right direction that would be great. Edit: For my own sanity, I've decided to just give them as close of the same hue as I can, I don't think anyone will mind. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Childress Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 ISTR someone here mentioned that's Eberbach, as a divisional commander on the Eastern Front sometime in early-ish 1944. It doesn't strike me as posed, or not overly so anyway. By that I mean those four guys probably really were together for a real briefing, although the photographer might have asked them to “scootch in a bit closer for the photo”, or sumfink. Nope. It's the aristocratic Hasso von Manteuffel, commander of the Großdeutschland Division in Russia. In the West, his formation, an army group, achieved the deepest penetration of Allied lines in the Bulge, almost to the Meuse. And, yes, he was really, really short. Dudley Moore short. From WIKIPEDIA: 'He spoke fluent, even sophisticated, English, and was an honored guest in the United States, visiting the Pentagon and, by the invitation of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the White House. In 1968 he lectured at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and worked as a technical adviser on war films and was featured in Cornelius Ryan's The Last Battle. He also featured in the acclaimed documentary, The World at War.' He died in '78. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted March 21, 2012 Share Posted March 21, 2012 The German loading screens are from the German Federal Archive, and since the information is included it's easy to find them and their attached information. The two parked PzKpfw IV's belong to 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitler-Jugend", in Belgium during an inspection in early 1944. The Marder III is in France, May 1944. The Panther parked in a town's central square is from Belgium, June 1944 and it belongs to LSAH. The group of German officers are in northern France, 1944. A Panther driving on road somewhere in France, summer of 1944. That march column of young looking Landsers is from June 1944. The Jagdpanzer IV with foliage in a narrow street is also from June 1944. And that Panzerschreck team was photographed in Estonia in 1944. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger33 Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 I've found quite a few images, but it's hard to find good high resolution ones, so if you have one you want in send me a link. I'm also having to wrestle some around since the game requires a rather exact sized image or it won't look right. Also, if I use a narrow vertical image (like the last one below), it very unhelpfully sets the image on the left instead of in the center, so I'll have to tinker with those to get them centered. Aaaanyway, here's a few nice ones I've found, as a teaser: Do you guys like the blue tint for the German pics? I think it looks cool alongside the red tinted Allied ones. Or would you rather have plain gray like the stock ones? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Huh. That's interesting. I knew the US captured a swag of Goliaths on UTAH, but I hadn't realised the British had captured a bunch too. Every day is a school day. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Canadian Cat Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 It doesn't strike me as posed, or not overly so anyway. By that I mean those four guys probably really were together for a real briefing, although the photographer might have asked them to “scootch in a bit closer for the photo”, or sumfink. I vote for not posed for that one too because the photographer has placed focus on the guy standing in the back. Next time you see it have a look at how in focus each of the men is. The guy at the back is the one with the sharpest look. The highest ranked officer is just a bit soft and the guy giving the briefing is noticeably less sharp. Don't get me wrong it is a great picture showing interaction and I think it is a great addition to the game. But while the game is loading I have spent quite a bit of time staring at it:) Lord knows I have taken more than a few shots that were less good than they should have been because I miss focused. But if it was a posed shot then I would expect the photographer would have made sure the focus was on the highest ranked officer. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Canadian Cat Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 Do you guys like the blue tint for the German pics? I think it looks cool alongside the red tinted Allied ones. Or would you rather have plain gray like the stock ones? I personally am not a huge fan of tinted B&W pics. If I had to choose I would go with a sepia tint (red) rather than the silver (blueish). I too would love to see some Commonwealth forces loading screen shots too. On the subject of centring pictures. If the game does not centre images you can just re-size the canvas to be the full size expected by the game. Then position the actual picture in the centre and fill the background with black (or what ever colour the rest of the loading screen is). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger33 Posted March 22, 2012 Share Posted March 22, 2012 I guess the easiest thing would be to just offer two versions, tinted and not. Then people can mix and match as they please. I just thought it odd that in the stock pictures, the Allies get a sepia tint, while the Germans are unaltered. Thanks for the tip on centering, I was thinking it would be something like that, but as I said I am totally new to photo editing and am learning as I go. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noob Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 Staged: 1- The Mutt 'n Jeff Panzerschreck team. I think the Panzershreck team look like Richard Burton and Guy Pierce. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyD Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 I recall reading a loooong time ago that a Hollywood director (John Huston?) went to Italy to shoot documentary war footage for newsreels. But he was horrified by how 'uncinematic' real battle is. Everybody doing their best to stay out of LOS (not to mention LOF) does not make for compelling moviemaking. I think he resorted to having units, after an action, recreate what they had just done in a more 'showy' manner for the camera, which could now be placed conveniently to capture the action. I can imagine to the poor G.I.s participating this had something of a 'Catch-22' absurdists feel to it. Or maybe a touch of Bill Mauldin cartoon lunacy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranger33 Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 Alrighty, I culled down the massive pile of photos I accumulated to about 30 of my favorites. Over half are Commonwealth, with the rest split between new German and American shots that I just couldn't pass up. I ran into a hurdle with the way the game selects loading screens. Basically, the photos must be numbered in sequential order, and if you skip a number, every shot after that will never be selected. This creates a conflict with other loading screen mods, as I can't just start my numbering at 200 or something as I intended. I set it up assuming that, like me, you already have the New Force Backgrounds - Blue (and Red) installed. If you don't, you just have to do some renaming of the files. This is all explained in the readme, and isn't that big of a deal as long as you read it. Uploading file now, should appear in the repository sometime in the near future! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fizou Posted March 23, 2012 Share Posted March 23, 2012 Ranger33, good news and thanks for the effort. But will the game be able to know when you play CW or US, or is it just Allies or Axis? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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