Berlin CMRT Map

[Lucky_Strike]

12 hours ago, NPye said:

One of the images I'm going to promote the New Mod... if only we could get the game to look like this?

Hehe, great stuff - looks like Turner's been in the paintbox again!

Are we getting that sky - do we even have sunset skies or are they just the generic sky with a colour tint?

 

[Lucky_Strike]

12 hours ago, NPye said:

Awesome can't wait... will really add to the flavour of the game...

Okay here is the factory with the big chimney, the original. Nigel you can use this one if you want as a standalone building but it will replace ALL the stock factories, so you might get a big cluster of chimneys. I have added a few features and some extra sauce for fun ...

... cluster of four in various states of destruction. All from the one stock factory model with tricksy modding ...

... the other side ...

... extra detail - why can't I have pixeltruppen spotters at the top of that big chimney? winge, winge, winge ... cos the ladder's broken ...

 ... hello stumpy.

Fully destructible chimney (well kind of) - option+shift click roof will gradually reduce the chimney and attached details - 1st click = holes in the factory roof as normal; 2nd click roof gone, broken bit of ladder gone, more bits of pipes gone, factory top floor gone; 3rd click chimney made stumpy, most of ladder and pipes gone, factory down to ground floor; last click - nadda left - can't do much about this as it uses generic textures, just piles of rubble. However, it's quite good fun to blow it up, and as the building reduces so does the chimney to a lesser or greater extent. If it's destroyed quite early in the destruction cycle then we get a funny animation of the whole chimney falling down reminiscent of a bit of Fred Dibnah explosives action.

Interesting to make this as it was quite revealing of how the buildings work. Only major caveats are:

1. No pixeltruppen can climb or otherwise interact with the chimney - they'll just walk on through it

2. There are slight flickers here and there when moving around it - this is down to game mechanics which seem to dictate that for the model to be viewable from every angle we must be able to see the origin somewhere in frame, individual features like the chimney have their own origin but to make it viewable from every single aspect would mean repeating the model multiple times inside of itself. As it stands I have five versions (layers if you like) within the build to accommodate most viewpoints and states

3. There are still some UV mapping/texture issues - the game either has a limit on curved surfaces (how many facets can make them as there are no truly curved surfaces) or some other structure that I can't fathom. Most of the surfaces are reasonably curved and smooth looking, but sometimes, because of issues with the way UV maps are handled, I was forced to cut/split/divide curved surfaces which introduces angles that I don't yet know how to remove. The choice is either this or have the nasty zigzaggy or stretched textures which in my view look way worse than a few extra angles. In this model it's most noticeable on the last stage around the grey base of the chimney.

If you're ready to texture it Nigel I can send you the files by carrier pigeon. Need to give you some extras for this as it's a little more complex than the regular buildings. In the meantime I'll make the FO's and other two factory/engine houses.

 

[NPye]

Dam been asleep since 5pm, i'm ready bud send them via the old Carrier Pigeon, I just spent the last 15 mins just drooling lol Looks awesome and I didn't expect a 3d Ladder... Awesome. Cheers bud massive thank you...    

 

[NPye]

5 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

Are we getting that sky - do we even have sunset skies or are they just the generic sky with a colour tint?

 

We can do, the only trouble is for users is that this sky works great dawn and dusk but its the overcast cloud, so all scenarios using overcast clouds will have that sky... maybe there's a way to make it scenario specific by mod tag.... Cheers

[NPye]

5 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

Hehe, great stuff - looks like Turner's been in the paintbox again!

 

Mate I really enjoyed making those images... PS is so awesome. Cheers

[NPye]

1 minute ago, NPye said:

Hehe, great stuff - looks like Turner's been in the paintbox again!

 

This scene is directly after going through the Brandenburg gate, looking right and heading north... I gave it some special treatment and more destroyed tah before and added some Archways which lead to the Gardens of the US Embassy... Oh yeh and some surrendering Germans which aren't in game obviously, made me wonder if the kneeled down surrendering soldier could be modded on to a walking soldier.....lol?

[Lucky_Strike]

40 minutes ago, NPye said:

Dam been asleep since 5pm, i'm ready bud send them via the old Carrier Pigeon, I just spent the last 15 mins just drooling lol Looks awesome and I didn't expect a 3d Ladder... Awesome. Cheers bud massive thank you...    

Obviously needed a rest 

Okay I figure out a package for ya to get stuck into.

3D ladder came ready made as a kit - great stuff just needed to put it together and add multiple extensions like virtual Meccano (is that still a thing even?).

40 minutes ago, NPye said:

We can do, the only trouble is for users is that this sky works great dawn and dusk but its the overcast cloud, so all scenarios using overcast clouds will have that sky... maybe there's a way to make it scenario specific by mod tag....

Mod tags should work as it's a texture, [dusk_til_dawn] 

Set it on a per scenario basis, should do it. Give it a go.

24 minutes ago, NPye said:

made me wonder if the kneeled down surrendering soldier could be modded on to a walking soldier.....lol?

Would be cool, but think the bottom half would have to be changed and we can't do that yet. Never know, Harry might come up with some hex mod for it.

 

[NPye]

3 minutes ago, Lucky_Strike said:

Okay I figure out a package for ya to get stuck into.

 

Do you need my email bud, can't remember if you got it?

[Lucky_Strike]

56 minutes ago, NPye said:

Do you need my email bud, can't remember if you got it?

No I'll PM you a DropBox link in a bit, just writing some notes now.

[quakerparrot67]

5 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

 ... hello stumpy.

 

broken one making me think of stalingrad.... would be great with a half collapsed  ( 'layers'...(?)  wizardry??? )  section lying next to it.  imagining a tractor factory map with the old bitgovorod  factory gubbins plus all your and nigel's latest  tricks-  mmmmmm.....  one can dream, right?

 

cheers,

rob

[NPye]

9 minutes ago, quakerparrot67 said:

broken one making me think of stalingrad.... would be great with a half collapsed  ( 'layers'...(?)  wizardry??? )  section lying next to it.  imagining a tractor factory map with the old bitgovorod  factory gubbins plus all your and nigel's latest  tricks-  mmmmmm.....  one can dream, right?

 

cheers,

rob

The Grudinin Mill  still standing in Stalingrad (Volgograd)

Edited November 29, 2022 by NPye

[NPye]

13 minutes ago, Lucky_Strike said:

No I'll PM you a DropBox link in a bit, just writing some notes now.

Nice 1 bud, i'm up and fresh to get on it...lol

[Lucky_Strike]

36 minutes ago, quakerparrot67 said:

broken one making me think of stalingrad.... would be great with a half collapsed  ( 'layers'...(?)  wizardry??? )  section lying next to it.  imagining a tractor factory map with the old bitgovorod  factory gubbins plus all your and nigel's latest  tricks-  mmmmmm.....  one can dream, right?

Yeah it could probably be done with a flavour object next to the building. The way that buildings collapse in game is not very smart, they just gradually disappear with a few rubble piles inside the building, nothing scattered around outside. The last stage is pretty much the same for all buildings - low rubble walls and a rubble floor. It's fun to see the tall chimney go as it does look like a demolition but we're still left with the same small rubble.

I actually have a model that looks quite similar to that Grudinin Mill chimney, so maybe alter after we finished with Berlin there could be new model goodness added to the Stalingrad mod, we'll see, maybe not just a dream ...

33 minutes ago, NPye said:

The Grudinin Mill  still standing in Stalingrad (Volgograd)

Maybe, maybe ...

[RockinHarry]

16 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

What do you mean with (T) ?

It´s sort of a standard pose (skeleton) then animation sequences applied to it. That´s from my understaning. There´s surely more pro description somewhere in the net. Search "T-pose"

16 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

Mean that when we can have access to some such frames we can extract and modified them with hex edit interresting!! 

Just a maybe possible procedure (or theory of mine). No idea if it can be done without killing the MDS files data structure, thus making it unusable in the game.

16 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

Yes I forget always the titanest mod from Worghem from Lucky I use it already, but the nature is more for Normandie,hey Lucky you have some stuffs to do (just joking boy), I use also some from Falaise there are some that we can added in the period of CMFB before the snow coming.

Pity I´ve so little time for checking it all out ATM. Currently focusing on just Mark´s and Nigel´s mods. Might come back to Worgherns again but first lets see what Mark will have in the offers (like HH etc).

16 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

Nothing to say is already chinese for me 

It´s actually not thaaat much to learn on at least the basic things, then improve on them step by step. The harder things is getting knowledge applied to CM modding for the various limits we have there. But as we see, knowledge base gets broadened week by week ATM.

[RockinHarry]

strange double post. Very rarely happens to me.

Edited November 29, 2022 by RockinHarry

[RockinHarry]

11 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

It's basically a lot of trial and error for us since none really understands the shaders fully. I personally would rather stick with ReShade and perhaps using some LUTs in that for colour changes and other FX to influence things like specularity. At least with ReShade there's no need to mod anything and the results can be seen instantaneously. 

Same here. For the time beeing I´ll remain with ReShade as well. But CM shaders seem always involved, whether we switch on Shadows/Shader or not. Would be interesting to see if shader files could be deactivated entirely, coupled with removal of (some) normal maps. Then see what Reshade can do here. But I´ve my doubts it can get to work since ReShade is just an overlay basically.

Edited November 29, 2022 by RockinHarry

[NPye]

We now have Chimneys credit to Lucky strike for providing this excellent model... 

 

[RockinHarry]

9 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

... extra detail - why can't I have pixeltruppen spotters at the top of that big chimney? winge, winge, winge ... cos the ladder's broken ...

hm....might find a way here. Remember the 88 put on the roof/balcony earlier? But that requires some likely complicated editing in Blender for preparation. We can´t put something on a "roof" that´s not there or beeing recognized by the game engine. So just take this as sort of my usual brain farting for now.

9 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

last click - nadda left - can't do much about this as it uses generic textures, just piles of rubble.

but could possibly enlarge the remains of surrounding wall objects in Blender. For indi builds it´s just textures, but for mod builds it´s single geometry objects then beeing assembled by the game engine. Could be tricky thing but in theory it sounds doable maybe. No way for the rubble ground texture it seems. It´s very likely a hard coded thing like other terrain deforming types, but we still know little to nothing about META...

5 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

5 hours ago, NPye said:

made me wonder if the kneeled down surrendering soldier could be modded on to a walking soldier.....lol?

Would be cool, but think the bottom half would have to be changed and we can't do that yet. Never know, Harry might come up with some hex mod for it.

don´t even know how Nigel got the germans surrendering in stand up position. Nigel?

3 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

The last stage is pretty much the same for all buildings - low rubble walls and a rubble floor. It's fun to see the tall chimney go as it does look like a demolition but we're still left with the same small rubble.

I found it quite interesting seeing the collapsing stuff keep falling below the ground mesh. Saw it by chance when game cam was outside map area. It´s quite interesting (and enlighting) to see objects extending to below the ground. Also for checking on any objects Z-axis placement changes made in Blender. Thus I place many my test objects near the map edge(s).

[RockinHarry]

3 minutes ago, NPye said:

We now have Chimneys credit to Lucky strike for providing this excellent model... 

 

apocalyptic! Destruction has never been more beautiful!

[JM Stuff]

5 hours ago, RockinHarry said:

apocalyptic! Destruction has never been more beautiful!

This cannot be CM, this is a lie, all is only propaganda, but so nice and incredible realist job from Lucky assisted with Harry and Nigel, simply wonderful.

JM

[NPye]

5 hours ago, RockinHarry said:

don´t even know how Nigel got the germans surrendering in stand up position. Nigel?

8 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

Unfortunately they are just silhouettes added in PS... Not in game this scene with be the last so i needed some surrendering German Soldiers.

 

[NPye]

1 hour ago, JM Stuff said:

This cannot be CM, this is a lie, all is only propaganda, but so nice and incredible realist job from Lucky assisted with Harry and Nigel, simply wonderful.

Cheers bud...

[JM Stuff]

8 hours ago, RockinHarry said:

It´s sort of a standard pose (skeleton) then animation sequences applied to it. That´s from my understaning. There´s surely more pro description somewhere in the net. Search "T-pose"

Just a maybe possible procedure (or theory of mine). No idea if it can be done without killing the MDS files data structure, thus making it unusable in the game.

Pity I´ve so little time for checking it all out ATM. Currently focusing on just Mark´s and Nigel´s mods. Might come back to Worgherns again but first lets see what Mark will have in the offers (like HH etc).

It´s actually not thaaat much to learn on at least the basic things, then improve on them step by step. The harder things is getting knowledge applied to CM modding for the various limits we have there. But as we see, knowledge base gets broadened week by week ATM.

Ah thanks Harry to clarified, yes some darks point that we didnt before are more clear day by day, such deep research are really usefull, but we have to grab sometimes also the "forgot" mods availabe in the CMMODs III.

JM

 

[Lucky_Strike]

10 hours ago, RockinHarry said:

Same here. For the time beeing I´ll remain with ReShade as well. But CM shaders seem always involved, whether we switch on Shadows/Shader or not. Would be interesting to see if shader files could be deactivated entirely, coupled with removal of (some) normal maps. Then see what Reshade can do here. But I´ve my doubts it can get to work since ReShade is just an overlay basically.

Yes for sure the game uses shaders for more than just movie mode and shaders on/off. Normal maps seem to be used for some objects but not other. We know they don't influence ground tiles, I'm also doubtful they have much influence on buildings. Some of the third party model parts for the chimney had ready made normal maps but I can't really see them working, though sometimes the effects of normal maps can be very subtle.

10 hours ago, RockinHarry said:

hm....might find a way here. Remember the 88 put on the roof/balcony earlier? But that requires some likely complicated editing in Blender for preparation. We can´t put something on a "roof" that´s not there or beeing recognized by the game engine. So just take this as sort of my usual brain farting for now.

Haha, I have no idea if the engine sees the chimney or not. All the metadata is intact for the factory and all elements of the chimney have it as well. When the chimney is destroyed by HE it is animated along with the rest of the factory, it's quite interesting to see it go down. I'm sure with a little bit more knowledge we could get objects like this to actually be in the game rather than them being imaginary. The way the game handles destruction of buildings is quite simple, but introducing extra parts to buildings with all the mechanics to allow for destruction of those parts adds a lot to the modelling process. I can see why BF have limited the types of buildings we have to mostly just empty boxes.

10 hours ago, RockinHarry said:

but could possibly enlarge the remains of surrounding wall objects in Blender. For indi builds it´s just textures, but for mod builds it´s single geometry objects then beeing assembled by the game engine. Could be tricky thing but in theory it sounds doable maybe. No way for the rubble ground texture it seems. It´s very likely a hard coded thing like other terrain deforming types, but we still know little to nothing about META...

Yeah, it's a lot of extra work. Just testing and making the detsroyed parts required more than simply taking off chunks of the building. I did consider adding extra fallen masonry and metalwork but firstly wondered about how the engine would handle stuff outside of the bounds of the building - BF didn't do this'd be  so there may be a reason. There are certainly problems with visibility of building parts, the disappearing walls we already see is likely down to where the origin for a flat part can be placed since it seems that it must be in frame for the part to be visible, which means a damaged wall needs both front and back faces. Thus models of piles of rubble would perhaps need to be duplicated within the models several times to be visible. It gets very complicated and adds a lot to the memory footprint for each model.

This all starts to feed into why certain elements like doodads are treated how they are - it's less of a burden on the game engine to have grass, for example, rotate to always face the viewpoint rather than have three or four of the same model present so that we can move around it and see it. Perhaps this is why trees are such a heavy load, imagine what it would be like if everything was 3D, we'd be lucky to get 1 or 2 FPS!!

The second consideration with regard to adding extra rubble was that the last stage of destruction uses textures common to all the buildings so would affect all our ruins.

There is probably some way we could add something to improve the visual appearance of buildings as they are destroyed, but the effort involved starts to outweigh the net result. It's again why BF went for a generic approach to rubble and ruined buildings. 

10 hours ago, RockinHarry said:

I found it quite interesting seeing the collapsing stuff keep falling below the ground mesh. Saw it by chance when game cam was outside map area. It´s quite interesting (and enlighting) to see objects extending to below the ground. Also for checking on any objects Z-axis placement changes made in Blender. Thus I place many my test objects near the map edge(s)

Yeah they kinda slide out of the map to the Underverse, rather thank break apart. Good tip about having tests by the map edges

 

 

[Lucky_Strike]

10 hours ago, NPye said:

We now have Chimneys credit to Lucky strike for providing this excellent model... 

Cool  Your texture looks sooo much better. Great images - bit of the old dark satanic mills going on there.

Could you send me a copy of the bmp so that I can integrate it with the models for the FO chimneys.