Lucky_Strike Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 (edited) Dragon's teeth texture three - a bit more weathered and aged (aren't we all?) ... in the foreground Inspired by HArry's question about how the teeth look at night ... Westwall night combat - into the Dragon's Maw ... Edited October 16, 2022 by Lucky_Strike 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JM Stuff Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 25 minutes ago, Lucky_Strike said: Dragon's teeth texture three - a bit more weathered and aged (aren't we all?) ... in the foreground Inspired by HArry's question about how the teeth look at night ... Westwall night combat - into the Dragon's Maw ... All hope devotion wishes admiration is in, is when we are in Blender, I tell you guys this is a sickness, strong as the Covid and healthy... Very nice I like really much all Ideas pictures from Harry NPye and the finish models from Lucky, all wishes of each others, I have already some of these pictures in 3d have only to import export in mdr, so if I can help with, just tell me... Nice also your new avatars NPYe almost not recognized you Soon I will present you my news wrecks and more for almost all modules,bn fi rt fb bs, bs give me a lot of works, but when you have some wishes tell me that I can added... JM 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockinHarry Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, Lucky_Strike said: Think how well a lot of the Roman concrete structures have lasted ... At least if France decided to invade you've already got half the wall built! Think roman concrete was the best around due to that pozzolanic ash addition. German stuff rather keeps crumbling. Just show, no durability. Better dust off the Ostwall but it´s in Poles hands now. 1 hour ago, Lucky_Strike said: Another case for low bocage ... easy to lay down in the editor, provides cover and concealment - would always be visible on map though, so no chance of hiding one's positions from the opposition ... OK yes I admit it I'm bocage obsessed If blending bocage with surrounding terrain wisely one can still make (non AIP) opponent guess about that. I as well like low bocage capabilities much as said. It also gets additional capabilities when mating with ditchlocked terrain or other creative things. So count me in to the fanboy club. 1 hour ago, Lucky_Strike said: @kohlenklau did some work on the sandbag positions for his North Afrika mod set, he probably has some insight as to what might be possible. I think overall that defensive works haven't received much in the way of attention since CMBN was released, kinda the poor cousins of CM - could really do with an overhaul, especially considering how important they were in late war to the Axis forces. Also, what do they do in CMCW for prepared positions, thinking of highly camouflaged bunkers and the like? What was the bunker bug that you mentioned previously? I´ve seen in CMFI forum somewhere but there´s no download link? If just taking a peek into MDR files since I don´t own CMFI. Today I´s toying around with foxholes again. Also thanks to me finding some my old notes and tables which I swapped from my old computer but forgot about them since. Think I mentioned somewhere that I got pixeltroopers sink more into the ground when they enter foxholes. But I´s wrong and confused with pillboxes where you can actually manipulate individual "crew" positions. So lowering all the "Z´s" (or Y?)made them actually "sink". There´s none that option for foxholes and I still bits of wonder how these actually work. Beside removing the sandbags child object I bits of changed shape and size, as well as manipulating center point (or how it´s called in 3D). Thus far it´s just some visual changes with little impact for pixeltroopers usage. They still remain on top of the ground mesh. Guess FH´s are treated more like "berms", thus their molehills apearance. Ground mesh cover can only be achieved by placement in ditchlocked AS. Still no clue what the META data all do. Still suspecting number of bounding boxes sort of in there and few other unknown data. Also exported them to be flavor objects. Though makes no sense as the center point occupies the 1m node that got to be used for pixeltrooper placement. So no going into that foxhole flavor object which was to be expected. Thus far so (not so) good.... Also changed textures to uniform type ones. For the purpose used some the "dirt" ones downscaled to 512x512. In Blender In game As said, just toying around and no practical use of it yet. Edited October 16, 2022 by RockinHarry pics added 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockinHarry Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 1 hour ago, Lucky_Strike said: Dragon's teeth texture three - a bit more weathered and aged (aren't we all?) ... in the foreground Inspired by HArry's question about how the teeth look at night ... Westwall night combat - into the Dragon's Maw ... Nice, nice! Btw, do normal maps work on them too? Haven´t tested yet but I´d guess they do work if making some. There´s none with the stock games hedgehogs, but likely there wasn´t a benefit for adding. Could be an additional way getting a "rougher" looks as well as adding certain little details on teeth objects now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NPye Posted October 16, 2022 Author Share Posted October 16, 2022 (edited) 2 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said: I think overall that defensive works haven't received much in the way of attention since CMBN was released, kinda the poor cousins of CM - could really do with an overhaul, especially considering how important they were in late war to the Axis forces. Yep agree, I have made a lot of beach maps and it would be awesome to have Belgian Gates, Mines on Tripod logs, mines on poles, anti para posts and most of all a copy of some of the WN fortifications, Tobruk MG, copulas....I suppose the list is huge... oh well I wonder if they will ever update the whole game engine to something open source, Unreal Engine maybe? On my Utube channel I can see the age of my visitors... guess what not one person under 50. Once we get to old then where do they go???? This franchise is awesome but it could be better, Gates of Hell is RTS and 1st person Shooter at the same time and the graphics reflect the region you are in very well? But I still love this game more than all others but I just wish they would modernize the game as a whole rather than keep releasing new games that use the old technology... which is out of date for sure??????? Still love ya though CM. Edited October 16, 2022 by NPye 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NPye Posted October 16, 2022 Author Share Posted October 16, 2022 53 minutes ago, RockinHarry said: As said, just toying around and no practical use of it yet. Hi, good idea maybe a cross between Foxholes and Craters where the is rough texture around the foxhole to look like recently dug up ground??? also can you alter the height of things in blender, I would love to have deeper trench systems, 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NPye Posted October 16, 2022 Author Share Posted October 16, 2022 2 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said: Dragon's teeth texture three - a bit more weathered and aged (aren't we all?) ... in the foreground Love them night scenes bud,,,looking awesome 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucky_Strike Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 1 hour ago, NPye said: Awesome dude. TY again 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. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucky_Strike Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 25 minutes ago, NPye said: Yep agree, I have made a lot of beach maps and it would be awesome to have Belgian Gates, Mines on Tripod logs, mines on poles, anti para posts and most of all a copy of some of the WN fortifications, Tobruk MG, copulas....I suppose the list is huge... Yeah and for a handful of scenarios they probably just felt it was not important enough to model them. I can empathise with that give how much work is involved in some of the models, but some of the simple things like dragon's teeth and asparagus are pretty easy to make and probably wouldn't add much to the overhead. But I do really wish they had done a better job with trenches and foxholes. 24 minutes ago, NPye said: also can you alter the height of things in blender, Yes but ... 24 minutes ago, NPye said: I would love to have deeper trench systems, ... odd things start to happen like the pixeltruppen don't want to use them as they can't see out even though they could if they stood up ... 32 minutes ago, NPye said: I wonder if they will ever update the whole game engine to something open source, Unreal Engine maybe? They must have considered Unreal - there is so much already made for it that could just be picked up and dropped in leaving them to concentrate on the actual game mechanics rather than worry about the modelling. AND it's a modern well supported engine. 35 minutes ago, NPye said: On my Utube channel I can see the age of my visitors... guess what not one person under 50. Once we get to old then where do they go???? Yep, and it may not appeal to a lot of younger gen folks who have high expectations regarding immersive game play. We grew up with it and except the way it is, to a certain extent, but coming to it fresh will really challenge some (a lot of) players. Mind you we are all probably of a similar gen to BF themselves so a dinosaur mass extinction event will just consign us all to memory ... 40 minutes ago, NPye said: But I still love this game more than all others There's nothing like it ... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucky_Strike Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 1 hour ago, RockinHarry said: If blending bocage with surrounding terrain wisely one can still make (non AIP) opponent guess about that. I as well like low bocage capabilities much as said. It also gets additional capabilities when mating with ditchlocked terrain or other creative things. So count me in to the fanboy club. 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. 1 hour ago, RockinHarry said: Think I mentioned somewhere that I got pixeltroopers sink more into the ground when they enter foxholes. But I´s wrong and confused with pillboxes where you can actually manipulate individual "crew" positions. So lowering all the "Z´s" (or Y?)made them actually "sink". There´s none that option for foxholes and I still bits of wonder how these actually work. Beside removing the sandbags child object I bits of changed shape and size, as well as manipulating center point (or how it´s called in 3D). Thus far it´s just some visual changes with little impact for pixeltroopers usage. They still remain on top of the ground mesh. Guess FH´s are treated more like "berms", thus their molehills apearance. Ground mesh cover can only be achieved by placement in ditchlocked AS. Still no clue what the META data all do. Still suspecting number of bounding boxes sort of in there and few other unknown data. 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. 1 hour ago, RockinHarry said: Also exported them to be flavor objects. Though makes no sense as the center point occupies the 1m node that got to be used for pixeltrooper placement. So no going into that foxhole flavor object which was to be expected. Thus far so (not so) good.... Also changed textures to uniform type ones. For the purpose used some the "dirt" ones downscaled to 512x512. In Blender 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucky_Strike Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 1 hour ago, RockinHarry said: Nice, nice! Btw, do normal maps work on them too? Haven´t tested yet but I´d guess they do work if making some. There´s none with the stock games hedgehogs, but likely there wasn´t a benefit for adding. Could be an additional way getting a "rougher" looks as well as adding certain little details on teeth objects now. 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. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucky_Strike Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 44 minutes ago, NPye said: Love them night scenes bud,,,looking awesome Thanks. Does add a certain drama, and I was very lucky that the Sherman Flail cooked off just at the end of the turn so his explosion cloud of smoke froze for me to take a pic or two. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NPye Posted October 16, 2022 Author Share Posted October 16, 2022 55 minutes ago, Lucky_Strike said: 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. Cheers for looking bud really appreciated... TY I'm still happy we got transport cars, and they now look great so no worries bud. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NPye Posted October 16, 2022 Author Share Posted October 16, 2022 2 hours ago, JM Stuff said: Nice also your new avatars NPYe almost not recognized you lol ya thought it was about time... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockinHarry Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 1 hour ago, NPye said: Hi, good idea maybe a cross between Foxholes and Craters where the is rough texture around the foxhole to look like recently dug up ground??? also can you alter the height of things in blender, I would love to have deeper trench systems, I´m fairly sure you could expand that sort of FH/crater flavor by modifying the FH object or creating new geometry. Re deeper trench system I believe it´s the same issue we´d have with deeper foxholes. You can´t push the pixeltroopers deeper down and below the ground mesh. Unless there´s some META data that got to be found yet (I doubt there is any). Here´s the trench when loaded into Blender. One also can make a guess why they´re 2m wide (1m node placement...). So to get the pixeltroopers deeper, the only method I (we) found is getting the trenches deeper into the accordingly deformed terrain mesh. By ways of ditch locking. This then gives the following graphical and practical effect. Pixeltroopers receive full benefit from ground mesh cover when kneeling or lying down. Not so much when standing up off course. My animation file mod dealt with that sufficiently. Pics here use my standard trench mod. Sandbags is still there but hidden with an opaque alpha. Guess it also preserves any benefits as maybe given from the seperate child objects META data. In case there´s any at all (hit- or bounding box defining cover or "armored" area). As can be seen pushing the trenches down 1m into ditchlocked depressions (of the blue color kind), they´re almost level with surrounding terrain. FOW is not of much concern here. The zigzag ditchlocked terrain will be suspicious to human player, but not to AIP. So again...play with house rules and not go birds eye view during the game will solve this sufficiently IMO. This works with -2m ditch locks as well but TacAI pathfinding doesn´t like it as it always seeks LOF/LOS outside this construction and moves always few pixeltroopers out onto the edges. But I will do some further experiments with that and maybe find out some more. Another issue remaining is the ground mesh deformations offering "alternative" good cover. These slopes are one the TacAI most prefered cover position in the game. This is when pixeltroopers jump out the foxholes or trenches when there´s just a tiny crater very close to them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artkin Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 A lot of really cool things happening in this thread. I've been watching from afar with great interest. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NPye Posted October 16, 2022 Author Share Posted October 16, 2022 11 minutes ago, RockinHarry said: This works with -2m ditch locks as well but TacAI pathfinding doesn´t like it as it always seeks LOF/LOS outside this construction and moves always few pixeltroopers out onto the edges. But I will do some further experiments with that and maybe find out some more. Nice!!!!!! Looks much better. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NPye Posted October 16, 2022 Author Share Posted October 16, 2022 1 minute ago, Artkin said: A lot of really cool things happening in this thread. I've been watching from afar with great interest. Cheers bud 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockinHarry Posted October 16, 2022 Share Posted October 16, 2022 52 minutes ago, Lucky_Strike said: 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. Think spotting comes always from the soldier models eye level likely as beeing defined within their MDS files maybe. Tested it thoroughly with the animation file mod. But there´s also spotting related info buried in the vehicle files as is maybe in building files too. I mean the likely existing "aperture" bounding boxes that defines a crew or pixeltrooper FOV out- and inside an object. That´s my "theory" at least. 58 minutes ago, Lucky_Strike said: 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. Hm... if no terrain mesh deformation is involved or needs to, then a flavor might do these purposes. Re cover, it still got to be found out what makes an objects "armor" value (META?). If you like using the terrain mesh cover or some the default deformations of certain terrain types (bocage, road-ditches, foot paths, ditch lock...) I could imagine that maybe when making the bocage object invisible, then you just get the terrain deformation from it. Combine that with a flavor object of your choice, then we might get something like you mentioned. Though haven´t tested yet. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NPye Posted October 16, 2022 Author Share Posted October 16, 2022 (edited) Best viewed in 4K, my new vehicles driving around Berlin.... Edited October 16, 2022 by NPye 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucky_Strike Posted October 17, 2022 Share Posted October 17, 2022 7 hours ago, NPye said: Best viewed in 4K, my new vehicles driving around Berlin.... 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 ... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NPye Posted October 17, 2022 Author Share Posted October 17, 2022 Morning... Awoke to this new idea... love it bud, inspired me to do something with that destroyed wall...u are bringing great stuff to the table old boi. Cheers 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockinHarry Posted October 17, 2022 Share Posted October 17, 2022 (edited) 11 hours ago, NPye said: Best viewed in 4K, my new vehicles driving around Berlin.... Gorgeous stuff again! Scenery really makes one feel how it was in a bombed out mega city like Berlin of 1945. I also like one the other vids like this one: Btw what´s that background battle sound file? Is that one of yours and available for download anywhere? Edit: ah...just found some related YT stuff. Now download few files and convert for CM use. Edited October 17, 2022 by RockinHarry 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NPye Posted October 17, 2022 Author Share Posted October 17, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, RockinHarry said: Btw what´s that background battle sound file? Is that one of yours and available for download anywhere? Sorry got that wrong its from the Sound Mod HQS 5.0 CMBN CMFI CMRT CMFB available on a few good men. Sound files very useful. Cheers Y Edited October 17, 2022 by NPye 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NPye Posted October 17, 2022 Author Share Posted October 17, 2022 Another new edition Pzkpfw VA Panther, texturised and made into Muncheberg Panzer Division style. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.