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

[Warts 'n' all]

8 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

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

 

Very popular. They had a No.1 with "Silence is golden", back in '67.

[AlexUK]

Great idea about incorporating into the bocage

 

I was wondering whether changing the model has any impact on LOS/LOF? 

[Erwin]

2 hours ago, AlexUK said:

I was wondering whether changing the model has any impact on LOS/LOF? 

Visual mods like these are eye-candy and do not affect LOS.  Otherwise two players playing H2H would have completely different experiences.  

[Lucky_Strike]

4 hours ago, AlexUK said:

Great idea about incorporating into the bocage

Thanks Alex.

Just to be clear, the bushes are integrated when the map is made in the editor. I am adding some different pieces of foliage to the bocage to give it a bit more variation in height and depth, but the bushes remain as independent models, thus affected by wind. The effect, nevertheless, is that the bocage has more variety.

4 hours ago, AlexUK said:

I was wondering whether changing the model has any impact on LOS/LOF?

2 hours ago, Erwin said:

Visual mods like these are eye-candy and do not affect LOS.  Otherwise two players playing H2H would have completely different experiences.  

Yes, thanks Erwin, these have no effect on LOS in the game, they only effect the players own ability to spot and see stuff with their own eyes, if one plays down at ground level, with visual aids switched off, one will soon loose track of both their own and the opponent's pixeltruppen 

[Lucky_Strike]

12 hours ago, Warts 'n' all said:

Very popular. They had a No.1 with "Silence is golden", back in '67.

The Tremeloes not The Poplars (various) nor The Aspens (various), always an education. They, The Tremeloes, also recorded an Italian version, E in silenzio ... interesting pub quiz/seven degrees type of nonsense - Silence is Golden was originally written and recorded by The Four Seasons, who got a mention a few posts ago ...

Edited August 26, 2021 by Lucky_Strike

[slippy]

Great work Lucky Strike. The large and small bocage are two of my least liked forms of vegetation in the game.

Most of the vegetation is pretty passable but thier models are really poor, so anything you can do to help cover them up gets the thumbs up from me mate.

 

 

 

[Lucky_Strike]

1 hour ago, slippy said:

Great work Lucky Strike. The large and small bocage are two of my least liked forms of vegetation in the game.

Most of the vegetation is pretty passable but thier models are really poor, so anything you can do to help cover them up gets the thumbs up from me mate.

Thanks Slippy.

Yes the bocage was also the thing that I disliked the most as well (and grapevines). I understood why it was designed that way from the point of view of the original game release. But it's a shame that BF have not updated what is an essential part of the game, at least for Normandy.

Bocage is an oddity in some respects. The textures it's made of use a 1 bit mask, which is why it appears so jaggy compared to all the other foliage which uses an 8 bit mask. It also doesn't sway in the wind, again unlike all other foliage. Yet it can easily be outnumbered by other foliage textures on a map, grass, crops, trees etc, so it's low quality masking is not likely connected with how numerous it, or it's constituent parts are. There must have been a good reason to not make it as smooth looking as the other foliage, but we can only guess. Thus far I haven't been able to discover how to alter the masking or movement, so I suspect these things are hard-coded into the game somewhere unreachable to us mortals.

What these bushes help to do, as you rightly noticed, is to cover some of the bocage when placed on the same tiles, hence less jaggies.

[Lucky_Strike]

I can see it's been a while since I gave my fellow tree-huggers an update so ...

I'll start with the bocage, or rather sunken lanes. I've been doing some experiments with other ways of creating sunken lanes. Previously I had just put two rows of tall bocage on adjacent, parallel rows of tiles. This provided a not too bad version of the sunken lanes we see in Normandy, but I felt it could be improved upon, or at least made differently. So starting with the same two rows of tall bocage what I tried was to ditchlock the bocage in ditches of 1-2m depth running their length, any more and the ground becomes very distorted whilst surroundings become harder to manage. The ground texture is, at the moment, just plain old dirt, but other textures might well be useful, forest light can look effective, but does introduce quite a bit of vegetation so the path becomes less distinct. A custom tagged ground texture might be the way to go on these. The result, with lots of heavy bocage, is a tunnel-like experience that I would imagine provides almost total concealment, and which induces a real sense of claustrophobia. They are just about wide enough for smaller vehicles though corners are likely to stop movement. Probably best treated as footpaths. Here's a little sample map with trees off ...

At left a zigzag path running uphill south to north, forking at the top, the other down the middle running along a field edge. As you can see they are somewhat narrower than the regular dirt road, at left and right. At ground level ...

... the track through the middle, just about wide enough for a 250, probably navigable, but a bumpy ride ...

... hunting through the dappled shade further up the path ...

... it's dark in there, even on a sunny day!

Now back to trees ... As it stands I have now done enough exercises and experiments in Blender to successfully export tree models, new or modified, with proper wrapped bark texture on the trunks and nicely swaying leaves for windier conditions. I've learnt some more of the limitations of the game engine. I've figured out an approach to making LODs that works in both the same way as the originals but also, I hope, enhances the look of them somewhat. I can pretty much make any tree that I desire to see in the game, and have it appear in pretty much all seasons, though winter is still to be worked on just because how snow looks on trees can vary tremendously depending on the amount of precipitation, so coming up with a single solution for all snowy conditions is unlikely to give the best results. This will also apply to bushes. This all assumes that BF DON'T change the way trees work in all the existing WW2 games since I discovered SF2 has a quite different approach that I think will be more difficult to mod in such a pleasing manner.

So, introducing the Scot's Pine (Pinus sylvestris) or my take on it.

It's the tall ones centre left. (These are in BN) I have made these deliberately taller than the stock pine trees.

They stand head and shoulders above other trees and are more like the type that might be seen in a mature plantation rather than the more twisted forms that are also commonly seen. Pines are generally used in game to represent plantations or vast forests so it seemed appropriate. Going forward I will probably increase the height of some of the other trees a bit as they're on the small side IMHO. Any tree can of course be made to represent whatever tree we want by reworking the model and a little tagging or renaming. We can even have a set of say just pines and conifers to represent a heavy coniferous forest seen in more northerly or mountainous regions.

A small plantation.

Scot's Pines are found throughout much of mainland Europe so are a good species to represent. The models are a bit more complex and natural than the game originals but they seem to work without problem in game.

Running the game at balanced or improved which are the recommended setting means that LODs are used more often. What I discovered is that the LODs are actually used a lot more than I originally suspected. So long as a tree isn't moving then it's probably a LOD, usually LOD level 1 but more often LOD 2 or LOD 3 are used. What this means is that the lower detailed models are used even when quite close to them. LOD 1 will be in view at ranges of less 50m commonly, and in some cases when it's almost right next to the viewpoint, LODs 2 and 3 are commonly seen from about 100m out to 400m, whilst LOD 4 (the star-shaped trees viewed from high above) are seen at anything from 100m to a few km depending on quality settings and how many trees are featured on the map. Incidentally LOD 3 is the model used for bare tree trunks when trees are toggled off. What I've tried to do is make the detail levels of the first three LOD levels a bit closer to the detail level of the normal model, reducing it as the LODs become more distant. I have also tried to make LOD 4 look a bit more like a tree in the distance but also, importantly for very large dense forests, allowed it to work when viewed from a bit closer. I can't control when LODs kick in, but I can make the models a bit more detailed to compensate for this. 

Morning on the edge of the Zon Forest near to the town of Best (MG Outstanding Gallantry). The distant trees are LOD 4.

At the edge of the forest - a lot of trees! The foreground is Normal and LOD 1 but the scene quickly starts to use LOD 4 models because of the sheer number of trees rendered. Of note, the LOD 4 models don't cast or receive shadows.

The other side of the forest in sunlight, the trees in the middle are LOD 4, notice how the light doesn't affect their trunks, can't alter this ...

... but, IMHO, they do blend quite well, especially considering they are used relatively close up, as on the right here.

Another benefit of the extra details, hopefully, is that the jerkiness and flickering associated with trees won't be so noticeable when transitions between LODs are a little smoother, but this is yet to be demonstrated with multiple new models.

Things like the lack of shadows on LOD level 4 are stuff that I can't influence. Increasing ones quality settings in-game pushes the point at which LODs are introduced further form the camera, but at a serious cost in render speed and frame rate. The shadows under the trees move back a bit but they are still missing in the distance. A mistake in my opinion since the shadows at that distance bind the trees to the ground and create a sense of distance and depth, they're what makes it look three dimensional, makes it pop! Look at a landscape with distant woods and you'll notice that the underside of trees and the ground below, even on dull days, is much darker, whereas in game it's light and indistinct. I know that there are compromises with how the game has to work and what is rendered, limited by consideration for hardware, but I do believe this one is an error in judgement ... IMHO. If I could fix one thing it might be this ...

The Rhone Valley as appears in game on a bright day but not full sun (with my mods)

Artist's (huhhum) impression with shadows under distant trees. Perhaps a consideration for the next engine ...

As always your feedback is greatly appreciated. And remember to plant a tree 

[Vacillator]

Love the larger pines, they remind me of my youth spent (or mis-spent but I don't think so) in various Forestry Commission forests in Northern England and Scotland.  I tended to either be up a tree (when I could find enough strong branches) or at least off the beaten tracks, so perhaps in thicker undergrowth than some of the screenies show.

You know I'm a fan, and happy to test anything if needed .

[JM Stuff]

7 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

I can see it's been a while since I gave my fellow tree-huggers an update so ...

I'll start with the bocage, or rather sunken lanes. I've been doing some experiments with other ways of creating sunken lanes. Previously I had just put two rows of tall bocage on adjacent, parallel rows of tiles. This provided a not too bad version of the sunken lanes we see in Normandy, but I felt it could be improved upon, or at least made differently. So starting with the same two rows of tall bocage what I tried was to ditchlock the bocage in ditches of 1-2m depth running their length, any more and the ground becomes very distorted whilst surroundings become harder to manage. The ground texture is, at the moment, just plain old dirt, but other textures might well be useful, forest light can look effective, but does introduce quite a bit of vegetation so the path becomes less distinct. A custom tagged ground texture might be the way to go on these. The result, with lots of heavy bocage, is a tunnel-like experience that I would imagine provides almost total concealment, and which induces a real sense of claustrophobia. They are just about wide enough for smaller vehicles though corners are likely to stop movement. Probably best treated as footpaths. Here's a little sample map with trees off ...

At left a zigzag path running uphill south to north, forking at the top, the other down the middle running along a field edge. As you can see they are somewhat narrower than the regular dirt road, at left and right. At ground level ...

... the track through the middle, just about wide enough for a 250, probably navigable, but a bumpy ride ...

... hunting through the dappled shade further up the path ...

... it's dark in there, even on a sunny day!

Now back to trees ... As it stands I have now done enough exercises and experiments in Blender to successfully export tree models, new or modified, with proper wrapped bark texture on the trunks and nicely swaying leaves for windier conditions. I've learnt some more of the limitations of the game engine. I've figured out an approach to making LODs that works in both the same way as the originals but also, I hope, enhances the look of them somewhat. I can pretty much make any tree that I desire to see in the game, and have it appear in pretty much all seasons, though winter is still to be worked on just because how snow looks on trees can vary tremendously depending on the amount of precipitation, so coming up with a single solution for all snowy conditions is unlikely to give the best results. This will also apply to bushes. This all assumes that BF DON'T change the way trees work in all the existing WW2 games since I discovered SF2 has a quite different approach that I think will be more difficult to mod in such a pleasing manner.

So, introducing the Scot's Pine (Pinus sylvestris) or my take on it.

It's the tall ones centre left. (These are in BN) I have made these deliberately taller than the stock pine trees.

They stand head and shoulders above other trees and are more like the type that might be seen in a mature plantation rather than the more twisted forms that are also commonly seen. Pines are generally used in game to represent plantations or vast forests so it seemed appropriate. Going forward I will probably increase the height of some of the other trees a bit as they're on the small side IMHO. Any tree can of course be made to represent whatever tree we want by reworking the model and a little tagging or renaming. We can even have a set of say just pines and conifers to represent a heavy coniferous forest seen in more northerly or mountainous regions.

A small plantation.

Scot's Pines are found throughout much of mainland Europe so are a good species to represent. The models are a bit more complex and natural than the game originals but they seem to work without problem in game.

Running the game at balanced or improved which are the recommended setting means that LODs are used more often. What I discovered is that the LODs are actually used a lot more than I originally suspected. So long as a tree isn't moving then it's probably a LOD, usually LOD level 1 but more often LOD 2 or LOD 3 are used. What this means is that the lower detailed models are used even when quite close to them. LOD 1 will be in view at ranges of less 50m commonly, and in some cases when it's almost right next to the viewpoint, LODs 2 and 3 are commonly seen from about 100m out to 400m, whilst LOD 4 (the star-shaped trees viewed from high above) are seen at anything from 100m to a few km depending on quality settings and how many trees are featured on the map. Incidentally LOD 3 is the model used for bare tree trunks when trees are toggled off. What I've tried to do is make the detail levels of the first three LOD levels a bit closer to the detail level of the normal model, reducing it as the LODs become more distant. I have also tried to make LOD 4 look a bit more like a tree in the distance but also, importantly for very large dense forests, allowed it to work when viewed from a bit closer. I can't control when LODs kick in, but I can make the models a bit more detailed to compensate for this. 

Morning on the edge of the Zon Forest near to the town of Best (MG Outstanding Gallantry). The distant trees are LOD 4.

At the edge of the forest - a lot of trees! The foreground is Normal and LOD 1 but the scene quickly starts to use LOD 4 models because of the sheer number of trees rendered. Of note, the LOD 4 models don't cast or receive shadows.

The other side of the forest in sunlight, the trees in the middle are LOD 4, notice how the light doesn't affect their trunks, can't alter this ...

... but, IMHO, they do blend quite well, especially considering they are used relatively close up, as on the right here.

Another benefit of the extra details, hopefully, is that the jerkiness and flickering associated with trees won't be so noticeable when transitions between LODs are a little smoother, but this is yet to be demonstrated with multiple new models.

Things like the lack of shadows on LOD level 4 are stuff that I can't influence. Increasing ones quality settings in-game pushes the point at which LODs are introduced further form the camera, but at a serious cost in render speed and frame rate. The shadows under the trees move back a bit but they are still missing in the distance. A mistake in my opinion since the shadows at that distance bind the trees to the ground and create a sense of distance and depth, they're what makes it look three dimensional, makes it pop! Look at a landscape with distant woods and you'll notice that the underside of trees and the ground below, even on dull days, is much darker, whereas in game it's light and indistinct. I know that there are compromises with how the game has to work and what is rendered, limited by consideration for hardware, but I do believe this one is an error in judgement ... IMHO. If I could fix one thing it might be this ...

The Rhone Valley as appears in game on a bright day but not full sun (with my mods)

Artist's (huhhum) impression with shadows under distant trees. Perhaps a consideration for the next engine ...

As always your feedback is greatly appreciated. And remember to plant a tree 

Lucky is only grandiose "I cannot breathe" this is so beautiful !

[Lucky_Strike]

3 hours ago, Vacilllator said:

Love the larger pines, they remind me of my youth ...

Thanks @Vacilllator, your support is greatly appreciated. I will bundle the Scot's Pine up when I have corrected a few file names and made sure it's ready for beta.

2 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

Lucky is only grandiose "I cannot breathe" this is so beautiful !

@JM Stuff remember to breathe, it's important  !

Thanks as always for your support

[slippy]

15 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

I can see it's been a while since I gave my fellow tree-huggers an update so ...

I'll start with the bocage, or rather sunken lanes. I've been doing some experiments with other ways of creating sunken lanes. Previously I had just put two rows of tall bocage on adjacent, parallel rows of tiles. This provided a not too bad version of the sunken lanes we see in Normandy, but I felt it could be improved upon, or at least made differently. So starting with the same two rows of tall bocage what I tried was to ditchlock the bocage in ditches of 1-2m depth running their length, any more and the ground becomes very distorted whilst surroundings become harder to manage. The ground texture is, at the moment, just plain old dirt, but other textures might well be useful, forest light can look effective, but does introduce quite a bit of vegetation so the path becomes less distinct. A custom tagged ground texture might be the way to go on these. The result, with lots of heavy bocage, is a tunnel-like experience that I would imagine provides almost total concealment, and which induces a real sense of claustrophobia. They are just about wide enough for smaller vehicles though corners are likely to stop movement. Probably best treated as footpaths. Here's a little sample map with trees off ...

At left a zigzag path running uphill south to north, forking at the top, the other down the middle running along a field edge. As you can see they are somewhat narrower than the regular dirt road, at left and right. At ground level ...

... the track through the middle, just about wide enough for a 250, probably navigable, but a bumpy ride ...

... hunting through the dappled shade further up the path ...

... it's dark in there, even on a sunny day!

Now back to trees ... As it stands I have now done enough exercises and experiments in Blender to successfully export tree models, new or modified, with proper wrapped bark texture on the trunks and nicely swaying leaves for windier conditions. I've learnt some more of the limitations of the game engine. I've figured out an approach to making LODs that works in both the same way as the originals but also, I hope, enhances the look of them somewhat. I can pretty much make any tree that I desire to see in the game, and have it appear in pretty much all seasons, though winter is still to be worked on just because how snow looks on trees can vary tremendously depending on the amount of precipitation, so coming up with a single solution for all snowy conditions is unlikely to give the best results. This will also apply to bushes. This all assumes that BF DON'T change the way trees work in all the existing WW2 games since I discovered SF2 has a quite different approach that I think will be more difficult to mod in such a pleasing manner.

So, introducing the Scot's Pine (Pinus sylvestris) or my take on it.

It's the tall ones centre left. (These are in BN) I have made these deliberately taller than the stock pine trees.

They stand head and shoulders above other trees and are more like the type that might be seen in a mature plantation rather than the more twisted forms that are also commonly seen. Pines are generally used in game to represent plantations or vast forests so it seemed appropriate. Going forward I will probably increase the height of some of the other trees a bit as they're on the small side IMHO. Any tree can of course be made to represent whatever tree we want by reworking the model and a little tagging or renaming. We can even have a set of say just pines and conifers to represent a heavy coniferous forest seen in more northerly or mountainous regions.

A small plantation.

Scot's Pines are found throughout much of mainland Europe so are a good species to represent. The models are a bit more complex and natural than the game originals but they seem to work without problem in game.

Running the game at balanced or improved which are the recommended setting means that LODs are used more often. What I discovered is that the LODs are actually used a lot more than I originally suspected. So long as a tree isn't moving then it's probably a LOD, usually LOD level 1 but more often LOD 2 or LOD 3 are used. What this means is that the lower detailed models are used even when quite close to them. LOD 1 will be in view at ranges of less 50m commonly, and in some cases when it's almost right next to the viewpoint, LODs 2 and 3 are commonly seen from about 100m out to 400m, whilst LOD 4 (the star-shaped trees viewed from high above) are seen at anything from 100m to a few km depending on quality settings and how many trees are featured on the map. Incidentally LOD 3 is the model used for bare tree trunks when trees are toggled off. What I've tried to do is make the detail levels of the first three LOD levels a bit closer to the detail level of the normal model, reducing it as the LODs become more distant. I have also tried to make LOD 4 look a bit more like a tree in the distance but also, importantly for very large dense forests, allowed it to work when viewed from a bit closer. I can't control when LODs kick in, but I can make the models a bit more detailed to compensate for this. 

Morning on the edge of the Zon Forest near to the town of Best (MG Outstanding Gallantry). The distant trees are LOD 4.

At the edge of the forest - a lot of trees! The foreground is Normal and LOD 1 but the scene quickly starts to use LOD 4 models because of the sheer number of trees rendered. Of note, the LOD 4 models don't cast or receive shadows.

The other side of the forest in sunlight, the trees in the middle are LOD 4, notice how the light doesn't affect their trunks, can't alter this ...

... but, IMHO, they do blend quite well, especially considering they are used relatively close up, as on the right here.

Another benefit of the extra details, hopefully, is that the jerkiness and flickering associated with trees won't be so noticeable when transitions between LODs are a little smoother, but this is yet to be demonstrated with multiple new models.

Things like the lack of shadows on LOD level 4 are stuff that I can't influence. Increasing ones quality settings in-game pushes the point at which LODs are introduced further form the camera, but at a serious cost in render speed and frame rate. The shadows under the trees move back a bit but they are still missing in the distance. A mistake in my opinion since the shadows at that distance bind the trees to the ground and create a sense of distance and depth, they're what makes it look three dimensional, makes it pop! Look at a landscape with distant woods and you'll notice that the underside of trees and the ground below, even on dull days, is much darker, whereas in game it's light and indistinct. I know that there are compromises with how the game has to work and what is rendered, limited by consideration for hardware, but I do believe this one is an error in judgement ... IMHO. If I could fix one thing it might be this ...

The Rhone Valley as appears in game on a bright day but not full sun (with my mods)

Artist's (huhhum) impression with shadows under distant trees. Perhaps a consideration for the next engine ...

As always your feedback is greatly appreciated. And remember to plant a tree 

Blimey Lucky Strike, there is no stopping you mate! Superb work again, I can't believe the difference just one more type of tree makes to those screen shots, amazing. And the Bocage screenshots also look superb also.

Couple of questions, as it is a new tree does it take up a slot from another tree or is it a completely new addition? Did you plan to look at the bush objects at all? As I remember they are pretty puny and uninspiring.

Great work again, looking forward to the release.

regards

slippy

[Vacillator]

Definitely need the pines for the Gladiator mod:

Edited October 4, 2021 by Vacilllator

[Lucky_Strike]

3 hours ago, slippy said:

Blimey Lucky Strike, there is no stopping you mate! Superb work again, I can't believe the difference just one more type of tree makes to those screen shots, amazing. And the Bocage screenshots also look superb also.

Couple of questions, as it is a new tree does it take up a slot from another tree or is it a completely new addition? Did you plan to look at the bush objects at all? As I remember they are pretty puny and uninspiring.

Great work again, looking forward to the release.

regards

slippy

Thanks @slippy.

Answer to your first question, it's a completely new model but has to take the slot of one of the existing trees. So for BN there are five trees, for FI six, for RT eight, this one will take the slot of one of them, probably for most situations the existing Christmas Tree, but it could work in any of those five slots with a little file renaming. Incidentally, when a model is initially created the textures for the model are tagged in the model code so that the model always calls for those particular textures when it's rendered in game. Consequently renaming the model to a different slot will not change the look of the model. So if a pine tree type e is renamed to tree type a it will still look like a pine in every respect. One would then have two identical pines in game. The only way to completely alter what a tree looks like is by remodelling. New textures will only change the bark and leaves.

For your second wish Aladdin ... about a page ago I showed what I will probably do with bushes as an option. I am still using both in my test maps and don't really see any issues with them. I'm thinking that I may also do one other that is more like a thicket or bramble patch. You Englanders will know what I mean if you've ever been out foraging for wild blackberries ...

 

[Lucky_Strike]

3 hours ago, Vacilllator said:

Definitely need the pines for the Gladiator mod:

Hehe. Love that film, who'd have known that scene was filmed in Surrey! Also can't believe it's twenty years old now!

Edited October 5, 2021 by Lucky_Strike

[Lucky_Strike]

Have been doing some more work on our beloved Bocage this week, trying to remember how far I'd gotten and how to do stuff in Blender. The good news is I have now got a good solid technique going which I can repeat for all the various sections of bocage. I can now make bocage that is very different from the original game stock and will hopefully give us a more naturalistic gaming environment ...

... this image shows the one section model that I have reworked thus far - bocage-straight-1.mdr - repeated three times on a straight run of bocage. What you can see immediately is that it has a much more ragged profile with a bit of light coming through the underside and NO beanpoles, those you can see are from other unmodified sections. Here is the Blender render of the model ...

... fully clad ...

... leaves removed from the main body. Blender tends to give a smoother render than the game engine.

As you can see from the last image we have a large ash sapling to one side which gives immediate height, the supporting branches are now more bush like and there is a good layer of undergrowth at the bottom. The ash sapling and undergrowth are fixed, extra textures whilst the body of the bocage is variable. So depending on the number of boccage textures present in your Z folder, there are an almost infinite number of combinations that can appear in-game. This is just one section remember, by the time I have reworked the other fifteen  section types for tall bocage alone the variations will be legion. With different extras textures for the other sections along with variations on height and depth we can finally have a representation of bocage that gets us closer to what I envisioned when I started this project last year.

If anyone would like to take this for a spin let me know and I'll make a little bocage bundle to drop in your z folder.

[JM Stuff]

3 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

Have been doing some more work on our beloved Bocage this week, trying to remember how far I'd gotten and how to do stuff in Blender. The good news is I have now got a good solid technique going which I can repeat for all the various sections of bocage. I can now make bocage that is very different from the original game stock and will hopefully give us a more naturalistic gaming environment ...

... this image shows the one section model that I have reworked thus far - bocage-straight-1.mdr - repeated three times on a straight run of bocage. What you can see immediately is that it has a much more ragged profile with a bit of light coming through the underside and NO beanpoles, those you can see are from other unmodified sections. Here is the Blender render of the model ...

... fully clad ...

... leaves removed from the main body. Blender tends to give a smoother render than the game engine.

As you can see from the last image we have a large ash sapling to one side which gives immediate height, the supporting branches are now more bush like and there is a good layer of undergrowth at the bottom. The ash sapling and undergrowth are fixed, extra textures whilst the body of the bocage is variable. So depending on the number of boccage textures present in your Z folder, there are an almost infinite number of combinations that can appear in-game. This is just one section remember, by the time I have reworked the other fifteen  section types for tall bocage alone the variations will be legion. With different extras textures for the other sections along with variations on height and depth we can finally have a representation of bocage that gets us closer to what I envisioned when I started this project last year.

If anyone would like to take this for a spin let me know and I'll make a little bocage bundle to drop in your z folder.

One day you will be able to working of the sun light, and let it see his shadow on the flowers !

Very nice job Lucky !

Edited October 9, 2021 by JM Stuff

[Aragorn2002]

On 10/4/2021 at 2:01 PM, Vacilllator said:

Love the larger pines, they remind me of my youth spent (or mis-spent but I don't think so) in various Forestry Commission forests in Northern England and Scotland.  I tended to either be up a tree (when I could find enough strong branches) or at least off the beaten tracks, so perhaps in thicker undergrowth than some of the screenies show.

You know I'm a fan, and happy to test anything if needed .

Me too. Seems I will be having more time available in the coming time. Stunning work, LS. Really, stunning.

Perhaps in the future you can also use your skills for the autumn season in CMRT and CMFB.

 

Edited October 9, 2021 by Aragorn2002

[JM Stuff]

9 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

Have been doing some more work on our beloved Bocage this week, trying to remember how far I'd gotten and how to do stuff in Blender. The good news is I have now got a good solid technique going which I can repeat for all the various sections of bocage. I can now make bocage that is very different from the original game stock and will hopefully give us a more naturalistic gaming environment ...

... this image shows the one section model that I have reworked thus far - bocage-straight-1.mdr - repeated three times on a straight run of bocage. What you can see immediately is that it has a much more ragged profile with a bit of light coming through the underside and NO beanpoles, those you can see are from other unmodified sections. Here is the Blender render of the model ...

... fully clad ...

... leaves removed from the main body. Blender tends to give a smoother render than the game engine.

As you can see from the last image we have a large ash sapling to one side which gives immediate height, the supporting branches are now more bush like and there is a good layer of undergrowth at the bottom. The ash sapling and undergrowth are fixed, extra textures whilst the body of the bocage is variable. So depending on the number of boccage textures present in your Z folder, there are an almost infinite number of combinations that can appear in-game. This is just one section remember, by the time I have reworked the other fifteen  section types for tall bocage alone the variations will be legion. With different extras textures for the other sections along with variations on height and depth we can finally have a representation of bocage that gets us closer to what I envisioned when I started this project last year.

If anyone would like to take this for a spin let me know and I'll make a little bocage bundle to drop in your z folder.

Just an idea did you try to created your own mdr files and added some lods with existing ones just reworking it ?

[slippy]

13 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

Have been doing some more work on our beloved Bocage this week, trying to remember how far I'd gotten and how to do stuff in Blender. The good news is I have now got a good solid technique going which I can repeat for all the various sections of bocage. I can now make bocage that is very different from the original game stock and will hopefully give us a more naturalistic gaming environment ...

... this image shows the one section model that I have reworked thus far - bocage-straight-1.mdr - repeated three times on a straight run of bocage. What you can see immediately is that it has a much more ragged profile with a bit of light coming through the underside and NO beanpoles, those you can see are from other unmodified sections. Here is the Blender render of the model ...

... fully clad ...

... leaves removed from the main body. Blender tends to give a smoother render than the game engine.

As you can see from the last image we have a large ash sapling to one side which gives immediate height, the supporting branches are now more bush like and there is a good layer of undergrowth at the bottom. The ash sapling and undergrowth are fixed, extra textures whilst the body of the bocage is variable. So depending on the number of boccage textures present in your Z folder, there are an almost infinite number of combinations that can appear in-game. This is just one section remember, by the time I have reworked the other fifteen  section types for tall bocage alone the variations will be legion. With different extras textures for the other sections along with variations on height and depth we can finally have a representation of bocage that gets us closer to what I envisioned when I started this project last year.

If anyone would like to take this for a spin let me know and I'll make a little bocage bundle to drop in your z folder.

You amaze us all again Lucky Strike, incredible work mate again. I would definitely like to try it out please.

Regards

[Erwin]

Beautiful work LS!

[Lucky_Strike]

Thanks @Erwin @JM Stuff @slippy @Aragorn2002 your support is much appreciated.

I'll bundle this section up so you can try it yourselves.

8 hours ago, Aragorn2002 said:

Perhaps in the future you can also use your skills for the autumn season in CMRT and CMFB.

Always in the grand scheme. I have experimented with autumn leaves. It's not so much work to make them and is a natural progression from the summer mods. I will probably finish BN and RT summer mods along with some extras for MG before moving onto the autumn/winter sets for FB and RT. Now that I have some repeatable methodology it's all a bit more straightforward. Finally I will look at what I can do for the sprawling mod set for FI. Side benefit is that anyone who plays BS (I don't and have no inclination to) can easily port this stuff to that for themselves with very little effort. It will also partly work in SF2 and maybe CW, but, again, I won't be supporting those games.

8 hours ago, JM Stuff said:

Just an idea did you try to created your own mdr files and added some lods with existing ones just reworking it ?

For trees I am creating new mdrs and LOD packs, reusing my previous leaf branch texture mods from Hedgerow Hell. LODs for trees need to look like the normal model otherwise there is quite a bit of flickering between LODs over distances. I spent the best part of a week figuring out how the various levels of LOD relate to distance and what is used when, also in relation to game options detail settings.

For the Bocage I am making new mdrs except for what are called endcaps in the mdr object groups, whilst again reusing the leaf branch textures I made previously with some minor reworks for practical reasons. There seem to be some quite specific naming of meshes within the various bocage mdrs which I am carefully trying to stick with since I believe these parts are referenced elsewhere. But there are also instances of seemingly random naming schemata which I don't think are referenced. Bocage is unique within the game foliage, they are treated differently in terms of rendering in game, they have a randomisation element which none of the other foliage have, they are treated as walls when adding to maps and can be combined with other foliage, whereas other foliage cannot reside on the same square together. I also did some blowin' sh*t up experiments with bocage to see what happens to the variously named parts if different names are used. With trees if part names are changed then the tree does not destruct in the expected way, disappearing all at once or suddenly going leafless for instance. With bocage it's either there or gone so far as I could determine. I dropped prolonged barrages of 170mm cannon and 301mm nebelwerfer on a bunch of bocage which made one or two holes in it, the rest just stayed intact, even the added ash sapling was unaffected by direct impacts, until it disappeared along with it's associated bocage section. The game does not treat bocage in the same way as it treats trees and bushes in this respect - in my view a partial oversight.

In terms of their LODs - the ones that exist in game are basically the most distant and only seem to get used when in God's-eye view, and there is only the one LOD for all types of shapes of bocage. I will probably leave these LODs alone since anything I make will not really impact play or improve the visuals of the game particularly.

In summary, and to hopefully give you all something to look forward to, I am now able to magic up new trees, bushes (essentially small trees) and bocage models using Blender, and, importantly, make them work as expected in game, so I can now move on to the making rather than messing about with Blender for interminable hours trying to fathom such an illogical interface.

[JM Stuff]

1 hour ago, Lucky_Strike said:

Thanks @Erwin @JM Stuff @slippy @Aragorn2002 your support is much appreciated.

I'll bundle this section up so you can try it yourselves.

Always in the grand scheme. I have experimented with autumn leaves. It's not so much work to make them and is a natural progression from the summer mods. I will probably finish BN and RT summer mods along with some extras for MG before moving onto the autumn/winter sets for FB and RT. Now that I have some repeatable methodology it's all a bit more straightforward. Finally I will look at what I can do for the sprawling mod set for FI. Side benefit is that anyone who plays BS (I don't and have no inclination to) can easily port this stuff to that for themselves with very little effort. It will also partly work in SF2 and maybe CW, but, again, I won't be supporting those games.

For trees I am creating new mdrs and LOD packs, reusing my previous leaf branch texture mods from Hedgerow Hell. LODs for trees need to look like the normal model otherwise there is quite a bit of flickering between LODs over distances. I spent the best part of a week figuring out how the various levels of LOD relate to distance and what is used when, also in relation to game options detail settings.

For the Bocage I am making new mdrs except for what are called endcaps in the mdr object groups, whilst again reusing the leaf branch textures I made previously with some minor reworks for practical reasons. There seem to be some quite specific naming of meshes within the various bocage mdrs which I am carefully trying to stick with since I believe these parts are referenced elsewhere. But there are also instances of seemingly random naming schemata which I don't think are referenced. Bocage is unique within the game foliage, they are treated differently in terms of rendering in game, they have a randomisation element which none of the other foliage have, they are treated as walls when adding to maps and can be combined with other foliage, whereas other foliage cannot reside on the same square together. I also did some blowin' sh*t up experiments with bocage to see what happens to the variously named parts if different names are used. With trees if part names are changed then the tree does not destruct in the expected way, disappearing all at once or suddenly going leafless for instance. With bocage it's either there or gone so far as I could determine. I dropped prolonged barrages of 170mm cannon and 301mm nebelwerfer on a bunch of bocage which made one or two holes in it, the rest just stayed intact, even the added ash sapling was unaffected by direct impacts, until it disappeared along with it's associated bocage section. The game does not treat bocage in the same way as it treats trees and bushes in this respect - in my view a partial oversight.

In terms of their LODs - the ones that exist in game are basically the most distant and only seem to get used when in God's-eye view, and there is only the one LOD for all types of shapes of bocage. I will probably leave these LODs alone since anything I make will not really impact play or improve the visuals of the game particularly.

In summary, and to hopefully give you all something to look forward to, I am now able to magic up new trees, bushes (essentially small trees) and bocage models using Blender, and, importantly, make them work as expected in game, so I can now move on to the making rather than messing about with Blender for interminable hours trying to fathom such an illogical interface.

Showing yours (almost) perfect result, I was sure that you did something differents that the regular CM files, they are looking differents that the stock one, and your Blender work is something that you manage with passion, so I was not far away from the true.

Our Lucky is a fox.

 

Is interresting to see some holes after some big shots from big calibre of yours teats these bocage seem to be indestructible, this dont  reflect really the realty, with your added job I hope yes.

Edited October 9, 2021 by JM Stuff

[Lucky_Strike]

12 minutes ago, JM Stuff said:

Showing yours (almost) perfect result, I was sure that you did something differents that the regular CM files, they are looking differents that the stock one, and your Blender work is something that you manage with passion, so I was not far away from the true.

Our Lucky is a fox.

Heh - they are very different. I am just about to upload these so take a peak at the files to see for yourself.

13 minutes ago, JM Stuff said:

Is interresting to see some holes after some big shots from big calibre of yours teats these bocage seem to be indestructible, this dont  reflect really the realty, with your added job I hope yes.

They are for most purposes indestructible. I can't change this unfortunately  as this is the default behaviour in game, anyway most players are used to it. They can still be blown up by breach teams - do they carry more explosive than a 301mm nebelwerfer shell could deliver - somehow doubt it, but hey ho ... Also your Sherman Rhinos can still batter their way through.

 

[Lucky_Strike]

Okay here you go guys, a sample of the proposed style of new bocage to try out, grab it here for a limited time ... unzip it and drop it in your z folder, it should override anything else you have installed. Couple of things to point out: this is just one section, the rest of your bocage will still be the same as you normally play with; if you take a look in the extracted folder (I hope you do) you will notice there are some textures with names that are not used anywhere else in game. This is how I am managing to add extra features to the bocage - eg your ash sapling - and NOT affect the game default bocage nor trees and brush etc. If you don't like it delete the folder and your bocage will be back to plain vanilla.

Enjoy!