Minor Japanese Ship Gfx Glitch

[scl]

Just spotted a minor graphics glitch with the Battleship Chin Yen. There appears to be some "clipping" around the rear port casemate for the 152mm L40 gun. I know it's not much, just a flickering, but it's the only ship I've seen with this problem. Overall, I'm amazed at the amount of detail the designers have got into the ships - right down to the ratlines and railings. Incredible! :clap: :thumup: :hurray:
Cheers
Ken

[saddletank]

Ken, I really like your avatar image. Have you a link to a bigger version of it please?

[scl]

Hi Martin!

our paths cross yet again :laugh: Check your email

Cheers
Ken

[Commodore Rob]

its a small world:)

[madashellestes]

Thanks , I found that I had left a duplicate face at exactly where you said it would be . It caused some z fighting as the engine could not determine which face to display . I also moved the rat lines a bit .

I am sending the fix on to Norm though I can't say when the fix will be added to the game .

thanks
Again
Steve

[Porkchop]

Wow Mada, now that's what I call service. Not sure if this is your dept, but quite a few ships have missing textures, ie. white. inside the crows nests.

[scl]

That's great news Steve! Thanks for the quick response. I've got a soft spot for the Chin Yen - don't know why as she's a little on the ugly side. I think that's what's interesting about these ships: there's some real diversity in the fleets. I reckon the Russian ships generally have the upper hand for good looks, the Japanese seem more "business-like" - and it often shows!

Cheers
Ken

[WallysWorld]

I often wondered why the Russian had their ships painted black and yellow and made them very easy to spot as compared to the Japanese navy grey painted ships. The Russian paint scheme was obviously helpful to the Japanese gunners.

[scl]

But I've also seen Russian ships with a very light grey (almost white?) hull as well. Perhaps it depends on the location of the fleet in question - maybe it depends on the theatre they're operating in?

I must admit, I wouldn't mind having a crack at repainting some of the ships - make a change from MS Train-sim! I don't recognise the file format the textures are saved in though. Anyone any ideas? Not that I'm knocking the original texture artist in the slightest. I'd just like to personalise it a bit ;)

[saddletank]

Wasn't there summer and winter paint? (White/black maybe?)

Or was it perhaps peacetime/wartime related?

Or maybe the theatre of operations?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Ken, no CSL or ATSF Tsesarevitch please! :)

[WallysWorld]

Seems like the big ships of the Imperial Russian Navy were colored black and yellow.

I like the paint scheme of the ships in DG and don't want it to change. It is historically correct. Books have referenced the Japanese having no problems seeing the Russian ships due to these colors.

[madashellestes]

Hey Guys ,

If you can tell me which ships have problems and where they are I can get the fix in real quick . Also if the problem shows up only after the ship takes damage.

thanks
steve

[Porkchop]

NOW your asking, lol. I think there's a few of these. :D

[saddletank]

I would think the yellow funnels would be quite helpful. It's surprising how helpful a spot of colour can be as an aiming point: in 1939 the Germans went to war with solid white painted crosses on their tanks. After the Polish campaign they noted that the Poles had used these as aiming points so from winter 1939 onwards they painted a thinner grey cross inside the white one giving the more well known Balkencreuz.

But then I think any contrasty colour would aid spotting. A black hull on a dull grey sea would be easier to see than a grey hull.

I think a number of navies overpainted their black hulled warships with grey after the RJW, the French among them IIRC.

[saddletank]

If you can tell me which ships have problems and where they are I can get the fix in real quick . Also if the problem shows up only after the ship takes damage.

I am 90% sure the Dimitri Donskoi has a see-through polygon (triangle) on the starboard side of her stern quite near the sternpost. I was playing Tsushima last night and was sure I could see through her to the sea beyond. Before damage.

[scl]

Wasn't there summer and winter paint? (White/black maybe?)

Or was it perhaps peacetime/wartime related?

Or maybe the theatre of operations?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Ken, no CSL or ATSF Tsesarevitch please! :)

Haha! Well, when I got to seeing those Russian Black and Yellow ships, I thought the ACL had reached Manchuria - or looking at it conversely maybe the Russians influenced the ACL!! :laugh:

Don't get me wrong - I love the way things look right now, but I am intrigued about the possibilities of making a few "changes".

[Hinchinbrooke]

Looking at reference books and models in game, the Russian units were painted in a variety of ways. Black and yellow (Navarin, etc.), plain black (Peresviet, etc.), greyish-brown (Gromoboi and friends), etc., etc. It's hard to make sense of, unless, given Russian industrial conditions, paint was a rare commodity!? The Japanese look much more efficient; more RN-like. Doesn't stop me sinking them though.!:D

I noticed the flaky poly on Chin Yen also. Will take a look around for any other glitches.

Thanks for setting things right.

[Admiral Nelson]

I've read Russian vessels pariticpating in reviews were often freshly painted only on the side that would be visible to spectators... :)

[saddletank]

I bet they hoped the reviewing Kings royal yacht didn't get a jammed rudder..

[madashellestes]

I am 90% sure the Dimitri Donskoi has a see-through polygon (triangle) on the starboard side of her stern quite near the sternpost. I was playing Tsushima last night and was sure I could see through her to the sea beyond. Before damage.
All done . any more ?

[saddletank]

http://www.atomic-album.com/showPic.php/22426/ChinYen_1.jpg

http://www.atomic-album.com/showPic.php/22426/ChinYen_2.jpg

http://www.atomic-album.com/showPic.php/22426/Dimitri_Donskoi.jpg

Wow, fast work. I just fired up the game to take screenshots, came back to show you and you've fixed it!

Anyway, here's the pics... :)

The Chin Yen thing is two separate issues I think. A polygon has been wrongly texture mapped on the railings below the port secondary casemate, plus on the curved wall of the casemate itself is the shimmering polygon. This actually looks like it may be the alpha chanelled texture for the railing as from some angles it looks like a steel grating on end.

[madashellestes]

Looking at the screen shots I saw that indeed there was another problem with the chin yen . I didn't see it the first time , and indeed until rotated the camera around that spot ( in my 3d program ) that i could see it since it was hidden by the railing I also found a couple of other things that well since I was there I tidied up .

thanks agian .

[Porkchop]

http://194.150.120.33/chop/Chitose.jpg

Here's one. The Chitose. See the missing textures in the crows nests. There's a few more. I'll post when I spot them.

[Porkchop]

Here's 3 more with textures missing on the crows nest/s:

Protected Cruiser Yoshino
Protected Cruiser Kasagi
Protected Cruiser Takasago

cheers

[madashellestes]

Fixed the crows nests on the ship models . And sent the files to Norm

thanks guys
steve

[Porkchop]

Ships with missing 'damage' textures that I've noted:

DD Harusame
DD Murakumo
DD Shiranui
DD Hayatori
DD Mursasame

cheers

[Ironhand]

Nicely done all around.

[madashellestes]

You mean the destroyers do not show any damage when hit ?

[Porkchop]

Yes. White squares where the damage texures should be.

[Porkchop]

Here's a few more. Same problem, white textures were the damage ones should be.

Armoured Cruiser Chyoda
Armoured Cruiser Asama
Protected Cruiser Naniwa
Protected Cruiser Akashi

cheers

[pbhawkin]

Hi all,
Is the Chin Yen the same ship as the Ting Yuan?
It appears to be very similar but with a few modifications.
I will post a pic of a model I have.
I believe there were two ships in this class built by the German Vulcan yards specifically for the Japanese navy.
They were also armed with 2 torpoedoes but dont appear to have these in the game and the rear gun in the pics above is a round turret like on the bow on my ship and finally the two side guns (not the main turrets) were not built out like they appear in the game!

regards
Peter

[Admiral Nelson]

The two were sister ships. AFAIK TING YUAN went to the bottom in the Yellow River battle.

[madashellestes]

Ok , I think I know what this is ... ,

[madashellestes]

hmmmm.... Now am not so sure I know what the problem is. I think I found something with the asama but the Naniwa checks out as does the murasami.
Please post a screen shot of one of these missing textures. If you can do it from two different angles all the better. That way I can go to exactly that area. separate it from the rest and ask it what texture it is calling for. If it is calling for the correct texture then perhaps somehow in translation from 3ds Max to direct x the texture coordinates were lost in which case I can replace or remove the bad areas. But I will need to have screen shots from the game in order to find them.
You see on my end everything looks OK, I don't see any white textures when I open up the models. It is possible that an old texture is still being called but already I've checked for that (again) and I am not finding any.

Thanks in advance
Steve

[Porkchop]

I've been sending images to support. They are not seeing what I'm seeing. The last email I received about this, after running some tests for them, is they'll investigate.

[mbv]

To back up Porkchop I am also seeing the missing damage textures with white areas showing up on damaged ships only. Here are some examples I have managed to capture so far on screenies - click all to enlarge.....

Idzumo
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_Idzumo.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/Idzumo.jpg)

Destroyer Usugumo
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_DDUsugumo.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/DDUsugumo.jpg)

Destroyer Oboro
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_DDOboro.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/DDOboro.jpg)

Asahi
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_asahi.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/asahi.jpg)

[Porkchop]

Thanks MBV. Strange thing is, I've never seen this on any Russian ships, only Japanese. Can anyone confirm this observation? :lier:

[mbv]

Never seen it on Russian ships here either.

[Rhetor]

Here's mine:

http://www.strategyzoneonline.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=16956&stc=1&d=1155299168
Distant_Guns_Jasio2 1 backup_265440_seconds.jpg

[saddletank]

Guys, I think this has got to be an issue with the local machine, possibly video card or driver related. I ran through Tsushima the other night setting the AI to play itself and I watched mianly just to see what the game would/could do. After 3 hours the two sides had kicked seven bells out of each other with many ships on both sides damaged. I never once saw a single white patch on any damaged Japanese ship (nor Russian), and there were dozens of them dotting the ocean.

[mbv]

I'm on the Nvidia 84.21 driver, how about the rest of us seeing this problem, what drivers are you on ?

[Porkchop]

ATI catalyst 6.6 This makes me think it's nothing to do with drivers or graphics card.

[saddletank]

I don't really have the time to fight battles just to damage ships to see if their graphics display right, but if someone has a battle saved with damaged Jap ships in it that DEFINITELY show these white marks on their machine, by all means send me the save game file and I'll look at it on my machine and let you know what I see - screenshots as well.

If someone has some web space or ftp space maybe the file could be posted publically and anyone who is interested could get it. It's need to be a historical scenario I think not a game generated one as I understand there is problems if the GG one isn't on the PC?

[mbv]

Indeed, it would be odd for two separate makes of card to coincidentally have drivers which would show up the same problem. It needs further research, but I do not suspect the drivers at the moment.

[madashellestes]

thanks for the srceenshot of the idzumo . I could see clearly that the game is calling for an older version of the texture . why ? I dont know , but as you can see in the enclosed zoom of the idzumo pic a hand texture . that old version of the texture hand the crew in an non alphaed area . this was removed when the damage modeling was done ,but somehow the old file with the same name is being loaded.

[Mish]

Looks like protected cruiser Idzumi (ex Esmeralda) got a wrong shape.
It should be like:
http://www.moreeresort.com.au/other/Idzumi_drawing.gif


But in the game it is quite different:
http://www.moreeresort.com.au/other/Idzumi.jpg

You can see the front gun is underneath the deck and the rear gun is half below the deck.
So it looks like it got the wrong shape from the other ship.

[Porkchop]

Mada, thanks for the possible insight to this problem, however, it's strange that some people are seeing this and for other's it's not there.

[mbv]

Here is a savegame from the computer v computer Tsushima (Engaged) with 1.008 Tsushima1.zip (http://www.sunnymeade.plus.com/Downloads/Tsushima1.zip) At the point where the save has been taken I can see the following white texture areas:

Japanese

Fuji - on deck
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_Fuji.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/Fuji.jpg)

Kasuga - in crowsnest
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_Kasuga.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/Kasuga.jpg)

Nisshin - in crowsnest
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_Nisshin.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/Nisshin.jpg)

Kasagi - in crowsnests/platforms
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_Kasagi.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/Kasagi.jpg)

Chitose - in crownests/platforms
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_Chitose.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/Chitose.jpg)

Asahi - small on the stern tip
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_Asahi2.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/Asahi2.jpg)

Suma - on deck
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_Suma.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/Suma.jpg)

Chiyoda - on deck
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_Chiyoda.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/Chiyoda.jpg)

Niitaka - on deck
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_Niitaka.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/Niitaka.jpg)


Russian (yes I am now seeing it on Russian ships after looking for it! )

Adm Nakhimov - on deck
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_Nakhimov.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/Nakhimov.jpg)

Imp Nikolai I - at the bow on the starboard hull side - small
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_NikolaiI.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/NikolaiI.jpg)

Adm. Senyavin - small white wedge below bridge
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_Senyavin.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/Senyavin.jpg)

[Porkchop]

Checked the files you uploaded. Yep, I can see them on the Russian ships also. Never noticed it on the Russians previously. Thanks, MBV. BTW, I think Mada has corrected the crows nest problem on some of the ships. See his previous post.

[mbv]

Last two locations I could not fit into the last post (as only 12 images can be included in a post)

Aurora - ditto
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_Aurora.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/Aurora.jpg)

Dmitri Donskoi - ditto
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/th_DimitriDonskoi.jpg (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v94/markwalters/Distant%20Guns/DG%20texture%20Problems/DimitriDonskoi.jpg)

[madashellestes]

Yes indeed that wrong model was uploaded . Ive just fixed it and will be sending it on to Norm

[madashellestes]

Mada, thanks for the possible insight to this problem, however, it's strange that some people are seeing this and for other's it's not there.

Two possible reasons for this is that the origianl texture had an area on it that was opaque and contained the images for the crew in white uniforms . there was still some undefined area on it that was also white . The rest of the texture has stuff on it that would appear to be damage or at least would appear transparent where it was supposed to be transparent so it goes on un noticed . The models may have more than one damage mod so it may appear randomly

the other possiblity is that the game has coded in two textures with the same name > dont ask me how .
More likely is that at some point the old textures were uploaded with a new patch or were not over written by the final textures or something like that .

anyway I just talked to norm and I will be sending him the exact textures the game needs .


Now for the crows nest problem I will simply have to examine each model and fix that as I find it .

thanks
for the help guys .
Steve

[scl]

Hi Steve,

as a quick update, I've spotted these glitches on the following Japanese ships. These are all crows nest problems:

AC Kasuga
AC Nishin
PC Chitose
PC Kasagi

BTW I'm using the 1.008 update version of the game.

You may well already have dealt with them, but just in case.....;)

You're doing a fantastic job Steve. Thanks for your quick reponses.

To all
I think gfx card types were mentioned earlier for comparison. If it's any use I'm running an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro with Catalyst 8.231 driver.

[scl]

Hi all,
Is the Chin Yen the same ship as the Ting Yuan?
It appears to be very similar but with a few modifications.
I will post a pic of a model I have.
I believe there were two ships in this class built by the German Vulcan yards specifically for the Japanese navy.
They were also armed with 2 torpoedoes but dont appear to have these in the game and the rear gun in the pics above is a round turret like on the bow on my ship and finally the two side guns (not the main turrets) were not built out like they appear in the game!

regards
Peter

Hi Peter,

looking at Brassey's Naval Annual 1896 it shows a Chin-Yuen-Go (Ex Chen Yuen), a BB of 7400 tons built at Stettin. A later edition of the Naval Annual for 1904 shows the same vessel now being called the Chin-Yen. This is the Chinese battleship that was captured after the battle of the Yalu River at Weihai. Even more confusingly, and according to Wikipedia, it was called Zhenyuan, but Chen Yuan in older books! This link might help, especially as it also shows the Ting Yuan in the OB for the Yalu River battle:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Yalu_River_(1894)#Ships_involved

In the 1906 edition of the Naval Annual the poor old Chin-Yen as been relegated to a third-class battleship of doubtful efficiency! :OHNO:

Hope this helps
Cheers
Ken

[WallysWorld]

Found that the Russian coastal battleship General Admiral Apraksin is graphically showing two 254mm guns in the rear turret while it really only had a single 254mm gun there as the Ship Information screen correctly shows.

Sorry for the poor quality as I am just using Printkey for screenshots for now.

http://img162.imageshack.us/img162/6035/shipinfoyl6.gif

http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/1728/genamdapraksinch5.gif

[madashellestes]

I will relay this on to Norm . I build the guns , he tells them where to go .

[saddletank]

The old Japanese auxiliary cruiser Kasuga Maru exhibits some strange graphics when it is damaged. I noticed last night that the funnel leaned over to starboard but the black funnel cap remained vertical in it's undamaged position. The leaning funnel had it's cap so the ship had two funnel caps.

Some of the ships boats are lost when damage reaches a higher level but the sterns and sides of the boats are still on the davits, only the top (canvas?) area is not drawn. As the inside of the boats hulls are not textured the result is a weird see-through boat from above but just visible from alongside and astern. The boats that I saw incorrectly drawn were the fore and aft ones on the port side and the midships one to starboard.

This ship also has no armament depicted anywhere on it's decks although it does have embrasures in the side plating for guns to fire through.

Sorry I didn't get a screenshot as my FRAPS has inexplicably decided to stop working with DG.

The duplicate leaning funnel graphic is also evident on an old Russian cruiser, one near the tail of the line in the Tsushima scenario but again, sorry I don't know which one, it has three funnels I think and in her case the original funnel remains whole and upright and a new leaning one sprouts out from it :)

[madashellestes]

[Some of the ships boats are lost when damage reaches a higher level but the sterns and sides of the boats are still on the davits, only the top (canvas?) area is not drawn. As the inside of the boats hulls are not textured the result is a weird see-through boat from above but just visible from alongside and astern. The boats that I saw incorrectly drawn were the fore and aft ones on the port side and the midships one to starboard.


this is happening on just the ship kasuga maru ?


The duplicate leaning funnel graphic is also evident on an old Russian cruiser, one near the tail of the line in the Tsushima scenario but again, sorry I don't know which one, it has three funnels I think and in her case the original funnel remains whole and upright and a new leaning one sprouts out from it

I will check on that ...

[saddletank]

this is happening on just the ship kasuga maru ?

She is the only one I have noticed it on so far. Something I'll watch out for in future battles.

[madashellestes]

ok I found the kasuga maru aka hiei , problem but I need more specifics as to which russian ship your mentioned . I looked at the scenario ,and so far i have not found any funnel cap problem in the ships at the rear but I may be looking at the wrong ones . Sounds like the vlad_ but that only has two funnels .

[madashellestes]

Was it the svetlana ? So far the model checks out ok.

[saddletank]

this is happening on just the ship kasuga maru?

She is the only one I have noticed it on so far. Something I'll watch out for in future battles.

Having suddenly started coming across quite a few Japanese auxiliaries in my campaign I have now had the pleasant opportunity to note that the Kinshu Maru and Nikko Maru exhibit the same graphical behaviour when damaged :).

Sorry still haven't been able to track down which Russian cruiser it was yet.

[madashellestes]

yes all the maru's are essentially the same model . I sent the fix upstream yesterday .
the russian cruiser is probably the svetlana . I noticed in the game that the funnels were not in the right place.
In my model the funnel model which is loaded seperately so that it can be damaged Appeared to be A-ok . so I think its a problem with the location data . I sent Norm a screen shot last night .

[Admiral Nelson]

I've found a problem with PC NANIWA.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/Ships/PCNaniwaAfloat.jpg

It just isn't visible under normal circumstances....:)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v106/NelsonAndBronte/Ships/PCNaniwaTurtle.jpg

[Mobeer]

I've just noticed an odd report for the Russian gunboat Otvashni:

17086

Note the aft torpedo mount seems to have fallen off.

[Bullethead]

Don't know if these have been mentioned already (too lazy to read all the posts) but here's a few I've seen:

1) AC Gromoboi
75mm mounts #30 and #42 show up in the "I" screen but not on the ship model in the game. On the "I" screen, they're shown in the same places as the aft 8" guns. Maybe the 75mm guns are there but are totally obscured by the 8"?

2) BB Fuji
76mm mounts #22 and #26 are right next to the mainmast, far from the ship's side, instead of being on the sides of the aft superstructure.

3) Other IJN BBs
Actually, Fuji is just the worst offender in this regard. All fore and aft superstructure 76mm guns in all the IJN BBs are in the wrong place to some extent. Although all except Fuji's aft pair are at least on the right bit of deck, they're all either too far inboard, forward, or aft of their correct positions.

[madashellestes]

ok . sent the fix for Naniwa upstream .
the weapons mounts problems should probably be a new thread as its Norm that codes where the weapons go . I am afraid that it might not be noticed as quickly in this thread .

thanks

[Bullethead]

ok . sent the fix for Naniwa upstream .
the weapons mounts problems should probably be a new thread as its Norm that codes where the weapons go . I am afraid that it might not be noticed as quickly in this thread

Thanks for the work and info.

Do you have control over the colors of ships? I was wondering if you could repaint the screws of all the ships in a corroded bronze color instead of red :).

[madashellestes]

Thanks for the work and info.

Do you have control over the colors of ships? I was wondering if you could repaint the screws of all the ships in a corroded bronze color instead of red :).

Well I though about doing that in the beginning ,but I just didn't think the screws would be visable long enough to tell they were painted in something other than red lead .
To change it now would mean changing the color of every screw on every model and damage model and re exporting . Its more work than I can get to at the moment , but I will design the ships for the next game with non red screws ( and no I can not tell you what that is .)

[Bullethead]

Well I though about doing that in the beginning ,but I just didn't think the screws would be visable long enough to tell they were painted in something other than red lead

Except for some things like the IJN auxilliary cruisers, where they bob out of the water with nearly every passing wave, screws ain't visible very often or for very long when they are. However, even though ships capsize quickly, most folks like to pause the game while that's happening, to gloat or mourn over the corpse and take some screenshots, and then the red screws stand out sharply :).

To change it now would mean changing the color of every screw on every model and damage model and re exporting

Drat! I was hoping it was just 1 common texture used by all the models, so it would be a pretty simple fix. But since it's not, I can live with it. Oh well :).

I will design the ships for the next game with non red screws ( and no I can not tell you what that is .)

Thanks ;).

BTW, what 3D modeling program do you use? I'm looking for a good one myself, but don't feel like spending thousands of dollars :). Got any recommendations that only cost a few hundred?

[Dogbert]

I'm not madashellestes, but here's what little I know...

In the olden days, there was GMax, which was sort of a free lite edition of 3D Studio Max... it couldn't save in any common formats however, so was pretty much only useful for learning the Max interface (which is actually quite a useful thing since Max is very popular) or for exporting models to the provided game formats (the software was free, but the game publisher had to pay a license for adding an exporter for their game). It's no longer being offered, but I'm pretty sure there are still downloads floating around on the net.
I think 3DS Max has a free trial these days, though.

Milkshape 3d is fairly simple to use, and is cheap... doesn't have a lot of features though.

Blender is free and apparantly quite full-featured... I found the interface quite incomprehensible, but YMMV.

[Bullethead]

I was thinking of Deep Exploration, by Right Hemisphere. There's a version of it that's only a couple hundred dollars but still has a lot of features. I'm willing to drop that cash given as I pay that much for good tools, be they software or reciprocating saws :). But I don't know anybody who uses this one, so I'd like some real word on it before I buy it.

Another cheapy out there is AC3D, but it doesn't have much in the way of features. There seems to be 3 main choices: cheap/free stuff without many features, fairly well-featured things for $200-500, and the truly professionally featured stuff that costs $2000-5000.

[Dogbert]

If you want to go a step further, get something that can export to DirectX X format, makes it "relatively easy" to import the object into a program running Managed DirectX under .Net (Visual C# Express Edition + the DirectX SDK are free from MS), if you fancy trying to code your own game :D

[madashellestes]

I use 3ds max .its what I am used to using . However I have used and taught college kids Blender .
Yes its interface takes a bit of getting used to but if your not used to anything else its not too bad. blender has some things that the other cheaper softwares don't that is a way to map your textures the same way you can in max . Textureing tools is where most of the cheaper softwares fail IMHO .
Blender has lots of import and export formats .( most all of them ) .

Blender is also oriented for game creation .

Blender is free!
now on the downside . As freeware what blender does not have is a refined tool box . What i mean by this is you can do pretty much anything you need to do but it will take a few more steps ro do it .

The standard raytracer is good but i found it difficult to control. ther is another render yafray but i have not exploredit enough .

The bones and Ik systems are also not as refined as could be .
But the modeling tools are quite good for polygons but the nurbs modeling is lacking .

[Daedalus]

I use 3ds max .its what I am used to using . However I have used and taught college kids Blender .
Yes its interface takes a bit of getting used to but if your not used to anything else its not too bad. blender has some things that the other cheaper softwares don't that is a way to map your textures the same way you can in max . Textureing tools is where most of the cheaper softwares fail IMHO .
Blender has lots of import and export formats .( most all of them ) .

Blender is also oriented for game creation .

Blender is free!
now on the downside . As freeware what blender does not have is a refined tool box . What i mean by this is you can do pretty much anything you need to do but it will take a few more steps ro do it .

The standard raytracer is good but i found it difficult to control. ther is another render yafray but i have not exploredit enough .

The bones and Ik systems are also not as refined as could be .
But the modeling tools are quite good for polygons but the nurbs modeling is lacking .


Yafray is what I loaded up on mine, and that is the way to go as far as I have learned so far.
Like the rest it has taken me a little time to get used to using it, but I like it better than what they had!
You will see a lot of improvement when you use it. At least I did.

[Bullethead]

Thanks for the advice, guys :)

[saddletank]

The Marus seem to have incorrectly placed textures when they take damage:

http://www.atomic-album.com/showPic.php/22426/Maru_texture_1.jpg

http://www.atomic-album.com/showPic.php/22426/Maru_texture_2.jpg

I also noticed that the masts and funnel cap are a uniform mid grey and show no texture while the hatch covers and crane booms etc do seem to have been correctly textured.

[madashellestes]

ive been on vacation visting family in South Carolina , but I will look into these problems asap . What do you know about water heaters ? Mine's leaking a bit .

[madashellestes]

I am sending off corrections to the cargo ships and troopships today . What I saw in the screen shots looks like duplicated faces , that are z fighting i.e which face will be rendered . However I did not find any duplicated faces at those locations . I did find two polygons that had back faces at another location and removed them even though they would not be a problem as their normals are facing the other way . I did change the masts etc textures . I had done the previous texture intentionally to give the masts a smooth even texture , but since you mentioned it I went ahead and changed it and a few other small things I noticed .

There are no damage models for thse ships. there are just the damage effects . We thought that since these ships are un armored they would sink fast enough not to warrent the extra work for me and the program to create another 75 to 150 mods .

thanks
Steve

[Mobeer]

The torpedo tubes on Japanese torpedo boats seem to have gone a bit funny:
17565

Notice the two forwards mounts are end to end. I think this torpedo boat was hit repeatedly and had both all three mounts knocked out of action (they snapped from pointing at my cruiser to their position in the image).

[madashellestes]

I have forwarded your post and image on to Norm . The problem is not so much a graphics glitch as a programing one. i.e what happens to the position of the tt 's in the game is something that is programed in .


but thanks for the heads up >

Steve

[Zakalwe]

Hi,

I discovered a small one too, the smoke goes transparent when the wiring of the masts (don`t know the right word) comes in the way.

Greets

Z.