Kind plea for a soldier model mod - if possible

[Shorker]

To all modders and artists among the CMBN community,

I wonder if you could do me a great favour (and maybe others too):

Among the German soldiers, there is always a unit model that is wearing

a single tarpaulin (in German: "Zeltbahn") in height of it's shoulders.

For me this does not look good and makes no sense as it would constrain

the soldier as it is incommodious and I've also never seen a German soldier

on any WWII picture who was wearing a single tarpaulin at this position

if he was not carrying his full equipment (in this case it had to be there, of course).

Is it possible to replace this unit model by another that is wearing less equipment

(for example the gun crew models) so that the "single tarpaulin soldier" is no longer

appearing in the game?

[Rambler]

Is this what you're looking for?

Unfortunately, the red circles show where the 3D model leaves behind some traces since the alpha channel doesn't totally eliminate the model. Can't seem to get rid of them either. Anyone have any ideas on how to make the model totally transparent?

Let me know if you want this even though it doesn't totally erase the zeltbahn roll. I'll warn you, it is pretty noticeable in-game.

[Earl Grey]

Whta he wants is not to delete the Zeltbahn entirely but rather that the zeltbahn is either NOT shown or shown bein worn in the right place. That's a code thing, though, and I'm not sure we can actually tinker with the equipment files enough to get that to work...

[Shorker]

Dear Rambler and Earl Grey, thank you very much for your time and effort!

I'm sorry that my English is not so clear and that my question left space for interpretation.

You are both right - the tarpaulin must not vanish completely from the equipment list - but

only the the soldier (the 3D model) who is wearing a single tarpaulin a this high position.

I must say that I have no knowledge at all about the CMBN programme files and I also do not

know how to make them visible.

I only assume that the soldiers are not painted sprites but 3D polygon-models - some with equipment

on their back and some without (I don't think that the equipment is only painted) and that there is

a code for every model. And - if it is that way - for example the "single tarpaulin soldier" is model "C"

(or has the code "C") and a gun crew member with no equipment on his back is model "E".

Now when the programme is showing a Grenadier Group of eight men in the game, it chooses

by coincidence let's say two soldiers "A", three of kind "B", one of "C" and two of "D".

Now my idea is to replace the model "C" by model "E" so that the game is always showing a gun crew

soldier instead of the "single tarpaulin soldier".

But the scripting itself is not effected, there is now only a different model connected (or behind) this particular soldier code.

Is this a way how the "tarp-mod" could be working?

[Vein]

I believe that the gear aren't part of the soldier model but is a bunch of separate models that are put in a number of differing places on the soldiers in reference to the type of unit it is.

So a gunner may have the Zeltbahn in position A, a rifleman A, B, or C, NCO: C or D etc.

So where the gear goes on which unit can't be changed I'm afraid (so we'll have to wait for the MP40 pouches to show up as well).

[Earl Grey]

I'm not 100% sure either - for that we'd have to take a look at the files structure. I'd rather not bother Charles with such a question. Maybe we can work something out...

[Rambler]

Whta he wants is not to delete the Zeltbahn entirely but rather that the zeltbahn is either NOT shown or shown bein worn in the right place. That's a code thing, though, and I'm not sure we can actually tinker with the equipment files enough to get that to work...

I'm sorry that my English is not so clear and that my question left space for interpretation.

You are both right - the tarpaulin must not vanish completely from the equipment list - but

only the the soldier (the 3D model) who is wearing a single tarpaulin a this high position.

I'm afraid I wasn't very clear with my screenshots as well. I didn't totally get rid of the zeltbahn from every soldier, rather just the high position zeltbahn. The gear combination that has the low position zeltbahn and what I believe is the mess kit(?) still appears. If you open up the german gear.bmp, you'll see there are two zeltbahn textures with the mess kit texture in between. The upper zeltbahn texture is the texture applied to the high position zeltbahn. The lower zeltbahn texture appears on the mess kit/low position zeltbahn gear combination. I created an alpha channel that deletes the high position zeltbahn, though there are some issues with it. I'll continue to play around with it, and I'll also post some screens to further clarify when I get home tonight.

I also believe Vein is correct in that the gear isn't a part of the soldier model. It's similar to how the tank's bustle racks in CMSF appeared with different gear combos. Kinda like a decal system for 3D models.

[mjkerner]

The gear, helmet, boots and uniforms are all separate files. Helmets and uniforms come in several varieties; the German gear is all in one file with all the accoutrements in it. The US gear is in two files. The code appears to pick and choose different pieces of gear for each soldier. I think that is the purpose of the files with the "mdr" extension, since there are a couple of dozen of those in each gear file, with only the one gear bmp and several different helmet bmp's. So I think that the only thing we can do is modify the way they look, or "dissappear" them altogether like Rambler did...but not move them around.

This brings up something I have been meaning to ask BFC--if you can code the gear to appear on model X in a certain loadout, and a different gear loadout on model Y, will they eventually code the game to allow for a different uniform model for US officers and NCO's so we can have rank insignias? The Germans have a completely different 3D model for their officers, which allows us to mod their uniforms separate from the Landser. It would be nice to have the same option for the US Officers, even though the uniform itself is basically the same as the Dogfaces. Separate models = separate uniform choices = separate modded uniforms.

[Earl Grey]

I *think* if we fiddle around long enough we can find the right gear setup files and exchange fro those that either show no zeltbahn at all or only in the right position,. Currently am testing the different setups; will report my findings.

[Shorker]

I would like to fiddle around with CMBN too, if I could

Changing units in CMBB and CMAK was very easy by just renaming

the *bmp-files or by repainting them - but in CMBN I don't know how

to get to the unit's files. :confused:

Would someone of you be so kind to tell me which programme (extractor?)

I must use, please?

Again I must say that I'm very grateful for all your time and your findings

that you've reported here so far and for your interest in this mod.

Maybe - allthough I'm unable to look at the refering files yet - I can give you an idea too:

As a matter of fact the German soldiers that belong to a gun crew or mortar crew do never

have a zeltbahn (only breadbag, water flask, gasmask canister) and the sappers (engineers) and

officers are having no equipment gear at all.

So maybe as some kind of a "quick solution" it would solve the problem by just giving the "equipment code"

that exists for gun crew soldiers to just every soldier that belongs to a rifle group, grenadier group,

panzerschreck, tank hunters, sharpshooters etc. - just everyone who might "receive" a zeltbahn.

Maybe this is a way - what do you think?

[stikkypixie]

I would like to fiddle around with CMBN too, if I could

Changing units in CMBB and CMAK was very easy by just renaming

the *bmp-files or by repainting them - but in CMBN I don't know how

to get to the unit's files. :confused:

Would someone of you be so kind to tell me which programme (extractor?)

I must use, please?

Again I must say that I'm very grateful for all your time and your findings

that you've reported here so far and for your interest in this mod.

Maybe - allthough I'm unable to look at the refering files yet - I can give you an idea too:

As a matter of fact the German soldiers that belong to a gun crew or mortar crew do never

have a zeltbahn (only breadbag, water flask, gasmask canister) and the sappers (engineers) and

officers are having no equipment gear at all.

So maybe as some kind of a "quick solution" it would solve the problem by just giving the "equipment code"

that exists for gun crew soldiers to just every soldier that belongs to a rifle group, grenadier group,

panzerschreck, tank hunters, sharpshooters etc. - just everyone who might "receive" a zeltbahn.

Maybe this is a way - what do you think?

If you are running windows, the extract programs are in the Mod Tools folder. There is a readme as well.

[Rambler]

Shorker,

The problem is that we don't have access to the code that controls where the gear is placed on the model.

I did a bunch of testing on this over the weekend and this is what I found out. The .mdr files that you find in the gear folders of the German and US are all model files containing the various bits and pieces of gear. The offending .mdr file is german-zeltbahn-1.mdr and it's following lod .mdrs. It's not really the model itself, but rather the bit of code that contains the coordinates to where the zeltbahn model is placed on the soldier model. We don't have access to the soldier .mdrs either, but I don't think it would really matter anyway. The system set up for handling the gear seems to be very similar to a texture decal system.

I did a F-4D skin for a flight sim called Strike Fighters that uses a texture decal system to handle the aircraft markings. I had to create all the necessary art files for the markings and then create a .ini file that conained code for how the decal was placed on the model. Here's a sample piece of code from that ini:

[Decal008]

MeshName=wing_left_outer

DecalLevel=0

DecalFacing=BOTTOM

FilenameFormat=f-4d/119FIG/dec/usaf

Position=-4.241,-0.94

Rotation=-40.0

Scale=3.0

DecalMaxLOD=4

That little bit told the game that Decal008 (an USAF insignia) was to be placed on the bottom left wing mesh at the indicated coordinates, rotation and scale. I strongly suspect there is something similar going on for the placement of gear on the soldier models. Without that bit of code, we can't do much of anything.

However, what we can do is substitute one of the other gear .mdrs for german-zeltbahn-1.mdr. The best one to substitute it with is german-a-frame-cluster.mdr and it's accompanying lods. What you need to do is find the Normandy v100A.brz and Normandy v100B.brz in the Data folder. Copy and paste these into the input folder for RezExplode (you'll find this in the Mod Tools folder). Run the rezexplode executable and it will unpack the brzs in the exploded folder. You will then navigate to a>soldiers>german>gear. Copy and paste the three a-frame .mdrs into your Z folder (where all your mods are installed. If you don't have a Z folder, create it inside of the Data folder). Once the .mdrs are copied into the Z folder, rename them to match the names used for the three german-zeltbahn-1.mdrs. This will now display the A frame gear combo instead of the high position zeltbahn roll. Unfortunately, the A frame is placed higher up the back and the mess kit sticks up above the soldier's shoulders (beacuse we can't change the coordinates), but at least there isn't a lone zeltbahn up there anymore. I also created some dummy german-zeltbhan-1.mdr files to see if that would eliminate it, but it only caused the game to crash when it was loading the scenario.

Our other option, and the best looking one, is to create an alpha channel in the german-gear.bmp that "erases" german-zeltbahn-1.mdr. I'm currently working on this option and have figured out which texture is called by that .mdr. It is highlighted below in red:

I'm currently on a pixel hunt to totally get rid of the stray texture that is still on the model even after the area highlighted in red is alpha channelled out. (if you aren't familiar with alpha channels, they are a seperate texture channel utilizing only black and white to control transparency of the texture). I'll let you know when I finish it up.

[winkelried]

is there some kind of documentation for the .mdr files available? tools?

[Ryujin]

Currently BFC do not support editing code/models. The .mdr/.mds is a pretty non-standard format too, most likely you'd need to write your own plugin/converter to open any of those. Seems like an inhouse BFC format or something very obscure, I've never seen that format before.

Most likely they are pretty standard UV mapped models, I'd be amazed if it had any oddities like the .ini mentioned above. If you know what you're doing, you may have some luck with a hex editor and hunting through the German soldier model for a relevant string doing the call for the offending model and hope the calls are separate for the different spots on the model. Then redirect it to a duplicate empty/transparent model.

That is of course if BFC wrote the relevant bits it in such a way that you can achieve what you want only by manipulating strings. So the hex editing thing may or (more likely) may not work.

[Earl Grey]

My findings are what Rambeler found out, too - although we have two different Zeltbahn MDRs, both seem to use the same "coordinates" and we can't get rid of the Zeltbahn placed betweeen the shoulders. One could cautiously ask the developer's if they could change that tiny bit, though...

[Marco Bergman]

I'm currently on a pixel hunt to totally get rid of the stray texture that is still on the model even after the area highlighted in red is alpha channelled out.

Don't be surprised if you can't get rid of all of it. The engine is fond of wrapping around textures at the edges, often by 3-4 pixels, but making the transparent portion that much bigger often encroaches on nearby other texture stuff and leaves that part with a transparent strip instead.

Also not unknown is that the inside of the item has a texture showing, often some random part of the texture... or even some other texture.:eek:

The 3D models are all done in 3DSmax, but use some weird format for in the game.

[winkelried]

would it get possible to make one of these instead of the dart like signs?

[winkelried]

Or even a borne Michelin?

[Rambler]

Don't be surprised if you can't get rid of all of it. The engine is fond of wrapping around textures at the edges, often by 3-4 pixels, but making the transparent portion that much bigger often encroaches on nearby other texture stuff and leaves that part with a transparent strip instead.

Also not unknown is that the inside of the item has a texture showing, often some random part of the texture... or even some other texture.:eek:

The 3D models are all done in 3DSmax, but use some weird format for in the game.

Yeah, I'm about to throw my hands up in trying to make that zeltbahn totally transparent via alpha channel. Very frustrating having those extra bits hang around! Although, it works fine if you make the whole gear texture transparent . Thanks for explaining why it's so difficult to erase gear.

would it get possible to make one of these instead of the dart like signs?

Unfortunately, no. You'd have to create a new 3d model of that sign, texture it and then import it into the game. As Ryujin said, we don't have the tools to put new models into the game.

Now for some good news. I found what might be an acceptable work around to the zeltbahn problem. I got the idea of swapping in some US gear for zeltbahn-1 to see what would happen and found that the us-compass-pouch.mdr works almost perfectly. The game places the model inside the soldier mesh so you don't see it from the outside. The only problem comes when the guys start running. The top edge of the pouch slightly clips through the soldier's back. Here are some pics to illustrate:

These guys all had the zeltbahn 1 mdr attached to their shoulders. It is now gone with the us compass pouch substituted for it.

This is what happens when they start to run. The edge of the pouch clips slightly. This is the only time it clips. When they are shooting, crouching, standing and walking you can't see it at all.

Doesn't solve it all the way, but gets pretty dang close. Probably as close as we can get tbh.

[Earl Grey]

That would have been my next idea probably... Nice to already see a working solution. Well done!

[Stingray]

These guys all had the zeltbahn 1 mdr attached to their shoulders. It is now gone with the us compass pouch substituted for it.

Doesn't solve it all the way, but gets pretty dang close. Probably as close as we can get tbh.

Fantastic. Good job. When can you release the "zeltbahn invisibility mod" ?

It certainly gives the pixel truppens a more authentic appearance.

Cheers,

[Shorker]

Dear Rambler,

what a clever idea!

This is absolutely great! Really fantastic!!!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

Are you going to upload this to Battlefront's mod repository, please?

I can't await to install it!

I also would like to thank Earl Grey and all others in this thread

for their time and effort and interest in this matter.

You are a great community!

Maybe - later - when Charles sees this mod, BF themselves will take care

of this issue an delete this baleful, inauspicious, annoying single zeltbahn nonsens.

Again: MANY MANY THANKS TO YOU!!!

[Rambler]

That would have been my next idea probably... Nice to already see a working solution. Well done!

Thanks Earl!

Thanks Stingray, and you're more than welcome Shorker! Glad to have helped y'all and found a workable solution. I just uploaded it to the repository, and it's available for immediate download at GaJ's CMMods site here: http://cmmods.greenasjade.net/mods/4476/details Enjoy!

Edit: Well, right after I uploaded it I had the great idea of changing the US compass pouch to a darker tone so it will blend in better on the German soldiers when it slightly clips through as they run. Looks a lot better. I fixed the upload at CMMods with the correct version, so download from there until I can fix the upload on the repository. I apologize for any inconvenience.

[Collingwood]

I just uploaded it to the repository, and it's available for immediate download at GaJ's CMMods site

Great, but that link gives a page not found error, and I can't find your mod when searching via author or upload date

edit - link works now thanks!

[Rambler]

Yeah, if you read my edit in the post above yours you'll see why . It's back up now!