Lucky Strike's Mods: Hedgerow Hell - something for aspiring arborists ...

[Lucky_Strike]

28 minutes ago, Erwin said:

I like that one can be at level 1 and see units through the tree trunks.  Usually one has to turn off trees to see units.

Any ETA on releasing the mod?

The mix of trees has to be right to achieve player LOS at level 1, too many 'hairy' old spruces and one can't see a thing. Of course the graphics don't affect game LOS, that's writ in stone.

I don't really know when I can release this lot. Normally when I do a mod I like to make a complete pack because I will often revisit earlier drafts to get the colour a little more coordinated for instance. However these might come out as single tree mods or possibly a forest mod for use across various games. I need to do some more testing to make sure I don't break anything, then I can think a bit more about how best to bring them to you all.

Edited August 22, 2021 by Lucky_Strike

[Erwin]

1 hour ago, Lucky_Strike said:

Normally when I do a mod I like to make a complete pack because I will often revisit earlier drafts

This makes perfect sense and I applaud you for making sure everything is as perfect as possible b4 releasing - despite folks clamoring for early release.  Personally, I dislike having to update mods.   It can get too confusing.  I was just curious re a possible ETA is all.

[Lucky_Strike]

1 hour ago, Erwin said:

This makes perfect sense and I applaud you for making sure everything is as perfect as possible b4 releasing - despite folks clamoring for early release.  Personally, I dislike having to update mods.   It can get too confusing.  I was just curious re a possible ETA is all.

I appreciate the encouragement you give Erwin, and know you aren't pressuring . I will try to give you some idea once I get over all the excitement of Blender and have learnt enough to feel confident in my products. There is just so much to explore ...

[Lucky_Strike]

It's amazing what a wee dram of the good stuff will do ... feeling all warm and fuzzy inside reminded me of winter so off I went to explore what could we do with winter trees (yes I know it's not CMBN). Found a real beauty online that needed to get into the game. Quite a few nips and tucks later, some swearing, a bit more of the tonic and I think we could be onto something. The textures need to be massaged a bit, but in principal ... we may get four seasons yet ...

... it's the big one on the left 

[Warts 'n' all]

3 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

we may get four seasons yet ...

But will it be Tony the Red Priest's "Four Seasons" or Frankie Valli's? 

[slippy]

Your doing some amazing work Lucky Strike. Your Hedgerow Hell is one of my favourite mods, looking forward to what you have for the future, hopefully Battlefront can free up some more slots in CMBN .

 

Well done mate, really good work.

 

Regards

Slippy

[Lucky_Strike]

8 hours ago, Warts 'n' all said:

But will it be Tony the Red Priest's "Four Seasons" or Frankie Valli's? 

Tony's of course, we don't like crooners here.

[Lucky_Strike]

6 hours ago, slippy said:

Your doing some amazing work Lucky Strike. Your Hedgerow Hell is one of my favourite mods, looking forward to what you have for the future, hopefully Battlefront can free up some more slots in CMBN .

Well done mate, really good work.

Regards

Slippy

Thanks Slippy, your support is much appreciated.

Would be nice to know if @Battlefront.com have any intention of adding extra tree slots to BN, though I doubt they will, not really much demand for it, most players, aside from map makers, have probably never even noticed. But would, nevertheless be a welcome addition, pretty please , for arborists.

 

[Lucky_Strike]

Here's another tree that someone might like to see - Hammy Hamster perhaps?

Once again this is a found model brung into CM with lots of wrangling. In practice it works quite well, but the leaves do not sway, leads me to think there's something in the leaf models I missed which determines movement. This is good as I might be able to isolate the setting that gives us sway. Or probably not! The leaf models here are very differnt than normal BF leaf models so that may also be the issue. I don't actually think I could model this with our standard leaf model.

The trunk texture is messed up again, but now I know roughly what causes it I can hopefully remedy the issue.

So thinking about what @Erwin asked regarding releasing these - I'm leaning more towards tree packs rather than full terrain mods. Most of the models I've made lately can be used in any of the games, with little or even no interaction from the player they can be dumped into your Z folders and off you go. Any thoughts out there?

Ta

[Erwin]

You are doing such a fine job, I recommend you complete the work to your satisfaction then release.  As you already know, no matter what you do there will be feedback and suggestions for improvement.  

[Sgt.Squarehead]

You should rename this thread 'Lucky Strike's Botanical Gardens'.....Absolutely beautiful stuff.

Do you have CM:SF2 at all.....There's a particular shrub I'm after for CM:H&E. 

PS - Your Spruce Trees are astounding, I had to look twice to be sure some of them were actually in game.....Truly beautiful.

Edited August 22, 2021 by Sgt.Squarehead

[Lucky_Strike]

28 minutes ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

You should rename this thread 'Lucky Strike's Botanical Gardens'.....Absolutely beautiful stuff.

Do you have CM:SF2 at all.....There's a particular shrub I'm after for CM:H&E. 

PS - Your Spruce Trees are astounding, I had to look twice to be sure some of them were actually in game.....Truly beautiful.

Thanks Sgt  

I don't have SF2 but if it's a bush or tree rather than brush you can send me the models (mdr files and bmp textures) and a ref of what you might want. I haven't done much with bushes (no jokes please ), but they're essentially little trees, so no reason why they can't be improved. I do know that some of the tree models in SF2 (from the demo) use a different structure than other CM games but I'm pretty sure the engine will handle the older style as well if needs be, let's try.

Blimey is that the time, must go and get a sandwich ...

[Lucky_Strike]

4 hours ago, Erwin said:

You are doing such a fine job, I recommend you complete the work to your satisfaction then release.  As you already know, no matter what you do there will be feedback and suggestions for improvement.  

Thanks Erwin.

Just looking at another potential models style, so there won't be anything imminently, but I do favour the tree packs approach, maybe tailored to terrain type, mountain, forest, steppe, farmland etc, as well as for each base game. Then players can have a kinda tree pick'n'mix.

[JM Stuff]

On 8/22/2021 at 8:19 PM, Lucky_Strike said:

Here's another tree that someone might like to see - Hammy Hamster perhaps?

Once again this is a found model brung into CM with lots of wrangling. In practice it works quite well, but the leaves do not sway, leads me to think there's something in the leaf models I missed which determines movement. This is good as I might be able to isolate the setting that gives us sway. Or probably not! The leaf models here are very differnt than normal BF leaf models so that may also be the issue. I don't actually think I could model this with our standard leaf model.

The trunk texture is messed up again, but now I know roughly what causes it I can hopefully remedy the issue.

So thinking about what @Erwin asked regarding releasing these - I'm leaning more towards tree packs rather than full terrain mods. Most of the models I've made lately can be used in any of the games, with little or even no interaction from the player they can be dumped into your Z folders and off you go. Any thoughts out there?

Ta

Just beautiful LS the new aspect is very welcome.

[Lucky_Strike]

2 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

Just beautiful LS the new aspect is very welcome.

Thank you kind sir.

Still haven't gotten them to sway yet  Made another discovery, albeit probably obvious, if the leaves are not modelled in the same fashion as the original CM trees, then HE impacts will blow them all off in one go rather than partially strip them with the first explosion. But I do have an idea for how we can get a convincing weeping willow with swaying leaves, which succumbs to HE in the proper manner ...

[Erwin]

Don't kill yourself over wind in the willows.  Many scenarios do not have wind.

[JM Stuff]

You know Mark I am confident to all your works... this will be like always overwhelming!

 

[JM Stuff]

13 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

Thank you kind sir.

Still haven't gotten them to sway yet  Made another discovery, albeit probably obvious, if the leaves are not modelled in the same fashion as the original CM trees, then HE impacts will blow them all off in one go rather than partially strip them with the first explosion. But I do have an idea for how we can get a convincing weeping willow with swaying leaves, which succumbs to HE in the proper manner ...

You know Mark I am confident to all your works... this will be like always overwhelming!

JM

[Lucky_Strike]

13 hours ago, Erwin said:

Don't kill yourself over wind in the willows.  Many scenarios do not have wind.

It's probably just a minor issue with the models. I'll examine a fix more out of concern that it's concealing some other underlying problem. Last thing I want is to break the game in some way, though I've only ever managed to crash it once with any of my mods.

[Lucky_Strike]

42 minutes ago, JM Stuff said:

You know Mark I am confident to all your works... this will be like always overwhelming!

JM

What's really exciting about what I've managed so far with the trees is that I can now more easily apply it to all the games, at least all the WW2 games, so I have more hope that I will be able to make mods for them. Before it seemed like an almost impossible task. I just wish the same were true of the doodads - grass, crops etc - these are still a lot of work.

[Lethaface]

Looking great as usual!

[Lucky_Strike]

5 hours ago, Lethaface said:

Looking great as usual!

Thanks Lethaface.

Here's one of the trees I'm cooking up for the MG mod, Populus Tremula ...

Still in early development, needs a bit of a tidy up.

[JM Stuff]

1 hour ago, Lucky_Strike said:

Thanks Lethaface.

Here's one of the trees I'm cooking up for the MG mod, Populus Tremula ...

Still in early development, needs a bit of a tidy up.

I see with the time, MG reborn, The Netherlands is already a flowers country, so you will be in your element  !

Edited August 25, 2021 by JM Stuff

[Lucky_Strike]

15 minutes ago, JM Stuff said:

I see with the time, MG reborn, The Netherlands is already a flowers country, so you will be in your element  !

LOL!  <  best I can do, sadly the time period for MG is outside of tulip season. More likely to get fields of  & 

[Lucky_Strike]

I was pondering about what @AlexUK said regarding hawthorns and got to thinking that our bushes are a bit uniform and neglected so I decided to see if I could first make a large, shaggy bush ...

OK at this stage I will say it so that nobody else has to ... titter ye not!

Right, now moving on ...

just for a quick experiment I took one of the tree models into Blender, scaled it and replaced the textures, bush one; repeated and rotated a few bits - two much bigger bushes, a hazel and a hawthorn. What's nice is that if a single or double bush is integrated onto a bocage tiles they will add real depth to that run of bocage AND, because they're bushes NOT bocage, they sway with the wind, something that bocage doesn't do - so it gives a bit of life to the very static bocage. So here's a few pics to give you a flavour, they're by no means done, and need more work, but you'll get the idea ...

A 250/3 parked between a couple of hawthorn bushes for scale ... yes he's sporting a bit of foliage camo, something else I played around with ...

... that PaK 40 again, nestled behind a great wall of bocage, hawthorn bushes on the same tiles appear embedded in the bocage ...

... three of the original bushes in the foreground with a couple of hazel bushes, left and hawthorn, right, on the edge of a copse. They can be used as small trees as well, could even do a version with some form of fruit for a young orchard.

Anyway, there you have it - big bushes. Next maybe several bushes on the same base with a variety of sizes, or perhaps a very large bramble patch ... all sorts of possibilities.