Silencer Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Hi, I noticed there are some inconsistencies in the armour ratings. ex, the 38(t) did'nt have 50mm front armour at all in poland or the BOF (only later, in Russia, it was upgraded to 50mm) which files i need to open to changes values? (if it's possible) thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sturmmann Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 All the data for the game is hard coded so editing them as far as I know is out of the question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr.Jones Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 I dont think that are hardcoded, just encripted. br. Dr.Jones Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sturmmann Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 1C usally makes sure they are the only ones that can modify/change files. I played IL2 since it came out and its the same way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinnN Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Actually with an (unofficial) extraction tool you can modify files, including ones that seem to control armour values for every little bit of a tank. Dig down a bit and you'll find a thread talking about just that courtesy of Dr.Jones. I'm already working on a major infantry mod (hence my question in the other thread) and I'm sure others are experimenting too. Potentially the game is amazingly moddable, but it'd be nice if we had an official comment on whether or not it's ok to release things. I've tried asking...but no response... Have fun Finn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pad152 Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 FinnN Are you able to add new/different infantry detachments, two MG, two Anti-tank squads and/or create new backpacks(loadouts)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinnN Posted June 5, 2007 Share Posted June 5, 2007 Yes - and I've had them working ingame too. I'm currently getting a basic database together so that I can easily update and regenerate the necessary text files. Textures and (I think - this is the only bit I haven't tried yet) the 2D icons can also be customised, and I did plenty of this sort of thing a while back for the MS flight sims. I'm still not sure where I stand on releasing stuff as obviously some of it is based on copyright material from the game that isn't easily accessible (without Dr.Jones' help I wouldn't be able to do anything). So far I've just been doing minor fiddling, but my girlfriend is going away for a few days tomorrow and that's when I can start going intensively - not back until after the weekend so I should have something to show about then. Have fun Finn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starlight Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Are you talking about values coded in the game or display information in the Encyclopedia. It has been mentioned in other threads that the stated armour thicknesses are as shown from source materials which vary in perpendicular thickness and horizontal thickness, yet these figures are then corrected at the core level for ballistic calculations. Do a search on armour thickness for more about this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinnN Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 You can see the files for both, I've not edited them to see what affect they have as I've been concentrating on the infantry (and I don't know much about armour etc in any case) - but it seems on the face of it possible to mod both the encyclopedia entry and the actual armour entry. Every piece (even aerials etc) has a top/bottom/left/right entry, the figures look like 0 degree values to me - but that's just a guess. The devs have said that angle is taken into account so I'd guess plate angles are stored elsewhere (3D model maybe?). Difficult to say for sure though. Have fun Finn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTorpedo Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 As for realising mods I think not encouraging doesn´t mean you can´t. I don´t know where battlefront stays on this one. On Faces of War, also a 1C game published by Ubisoft (on a third party engine) moding is encouraged the all game is a modders even Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oudy Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Dr. Jones and FinnN are correct. You can alter the data of the vehicles themselves. Just as a test I set up the following engagement. I pitted a Pz. IIc with a 20mm Kw.K.30 L/55 against a Kv-1. The tanks were set just under 500 meters apart. At this range the Pz. IIc has no chance of penetrating the 75mm Kv-1 frontal armor. Penetration rates at that range for the Kw.K.30 are about 16mm with AP shell and 23mm with APCR shell. Needless to say, all of the shots bounced off with no damage. Next I altered the armor values of the Kv-1, reducing all of its armor to 5mm. Reran the test and after moving forward to about 300 meters the Pz. IIc penetrated and destroyed the Kv-1. Again the penetration rates are just over 16mm and 23mm respectively. Finally, just for fun I restored the normal Kv-1 armor and gave the Pz. IIc a 88mm Kw.K.43 L/71. This is the same gun from the Tiger II. This time from 500 meters my uber Pz. IIc blew the turret off the Kv-1. My conclusions are that you can mod changes in the actual vehicle data and have those changes reflected not only in the encyclopedia but in the game as well. All the best. Oudy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silencer Posted June 6, 2007 Author Share Posted June 6, 2007 can u guys provide me with a linky plz for the tools? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zasgard Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Yea, no kidding. Is there someone out there willing to "teach" someone how to alter the stats of vehicles (as long as the developer doesn't mind of course!)or email an example of how to do that? Thanks Zas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oudy Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Ok, for my Pz.IVF1 I just replaced the gun graphic from the 75mm Kw.K.40 L/43 to the 75mm Kw.K.37 L/24. I used the Pz.IVF2 as my base tank and took the gun from the Pz.IVC. There are a few slight skin issues, but it looks pretty good. Can't change the mesh files, but that's mainly because I haven't the slightest idea how to do it, but is increasingly clear that the game is extremely moddable. It would be nice to hear from battlefront about modding. I really don't want to upload any modded missions until we know what the dev's attitude will be. I don't have anything to do with the SFS reader, so I wouldn't feel right passing it on without permission. Here is a screen shot of the Pz.IVF1 with the short 75mm gun. I changed the gun stats, gun graphic, and armor stats. You can see the slight issues with the skin of the gun. <a href="http://www.divshare.com/download/860750-d86"> All the best Oudy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlapHappy Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Oudy I was looking at those files and noticed that some had a mesh file called GUN and others didn't. I pretty much chalked that up to inconsistency in their naming conventions, though. Can you verify the barrels all have their own separate mesh files? I also got the impression that in some cases, the tank guns are in sections. Or rather, there are more than one mesh for the entire barrel length. Incidentally, even though I could look at the texture files, it wasn't clear whether the barrel textures were included with the main texture file (the 512 x 512 one). I think it looks alot better than I originally thought it would without altering the texture files. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oudy Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Slaphappy Some of the guns are named gun and others are named Stvol.msh. I think it has something to do with what type of gun it is. I had to move the Stvol and Mask meshes to move the gun. I'll try to write up instructions when I get the chance. I don't believe barrels have their own texture files. They are included on the large tank skin, skin1.tga. Now where they are located I have now clue. Someone else will have to figure that one out. I'm still waiting for the patch before spending too much time modding. We really need to get some people who can do 3d modeling to look at the mesh files and see what can be done. Oudy [ June 06, 2007, 09:06 PM: Message edited by: Oudy ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pandur Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 wow, nice progress. i really hope that noone official pops in and makes an end to it. i mean its pretty quiet in here from official side and why would that be if they just could say "its OK". well lets hope for a bright future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinnN Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 It's interesting that no-one has said 'no' either and I'm sure these threads have been read. What we're missing is an import/export plugin for something like 3DS Max - the 3D modelling would probably be fairly easy (I've done some in the past - I used to be a moderator at the official gMax support forums). If you look at the meshes of the vehicles they're all fairly low poly, most of the detail is textured on. Nice find though, I guess it'll make adding some of the closer variants to existing models pretty easy now. Have fun Finn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markus86 Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Have you ever thought about of working "together" on one project ? Maybe it would bring the community more, than 123 small mods. Just an idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oudy Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Markus Eventually there would have to be some way of keeping track of all of the mods because you have to make a unique identifier to any new units you create for the game in the filesid.ini file. the line would look like this: 2166 data/units/tanks/ger/pz_ivf1 the number 2166 has to be unique so it couldn't be used by any other modder. Right now, I think people are just trying to figure out what can be done. Oudy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinnN Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 The way I've been doing my experiments I've been is using the tool that's used with Silent Hunter mods - the JoneSoft generic mod enabler. You put all your files in their own folder that matches the game structure. When you enable a mod it makes a backup of any overwritten files and restores them if you disable a mod. Very handy! filesid.ini contains a list of folders with a number for each one. I'm thinking of writing a little .exe where you put in a list of modded folders in a .txt file, it'll go through the folders and check to see they exist in filesid.ini and if they don't it'll add them with a new number. So, to add a mod you'll enable it using the JSGME and then run the exe and it'll sort out the numbers automatically. More of a problem though is the names that the game uses to read in the data (not file names), these can't be repeated, so what I do is prefix any I've created with sd_ (from 'supadetail', which is what I used when I used to do flight sim stuff) - that way I know that I'm not overwriting the stock files so all the campaigns will still work and if someone else creates a unit that represents one that I do then there's no chance of a conflict. I'd suggest that everyone does the same. I think a modding group/forum is a good idea, maybe a Google group for people with the extraction tool would be a good start? Have fun Finn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oudy Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 FinnN I get the impression by looking at the mesh files and the skin files that the models are fairly simple. There are 68 little .msh files for the Pz. IVF. The mesh files are linked together in the hier.him file, which is just a text file. theoretically if you could look at the 3d .msh files, which I can't, you could modify them for different variant tanks. The problem would be you would have to generate a new skin1.tga. The 3d stuff is way beyond my capability. Hopefully, someone will develop an export/plugin for them. All the best Oudy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oudy Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 I am currently working on a modding faq to explain how I added the Pz.IVF1 and Pz.IIIG and came to a realization that once someone comes up with a export/plugin for 3d mesh files, every aspect of TOW is moddable, and I do mean every aspect, down to being able to rewrite AI routines if you want. It is all quite complicated and will take a lot of work to identify all of the files needed change, but you will be able to whole new units to the game. I imagine that someone will even figure out how to create new maps. Looks like the sky is the limit. Oudy [ June 07, 2007, 05:23 PM: Message edited by: Oudy ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmatt Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 I have read this thread and I haven't said NO yet have I? Not sure what 1C might say though, it is their code afterall...Give me some time to 'broach' the subject with them.... They are Russian afterall... Word of advice, don't use words like "crack" and "hack" though... Madmatt [ June 07, 2007, 03:36 PM: Message edited by: Madmatt ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlieMike24 Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Some people like playing the game, some people like taking it to bits! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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