WOV - Target Object Placement Interface Tool WIP

[+Stary 2,427]

Just like we needeed! Looks very good

[krfrge 742]

Swambast,

 

Without question this is superb work. This will truly make object placement much much easier than in the past, especially if you are trying to build new targets such as airfields.

 

Thank you for all of your hard work.

 

KRFRGE

[eraser_tr 29]

Since it reads ini stuff...shouldn't it work with targets from any game and version anyway?

[+swambast 717]

Hey, thanks all for the feedback, much appreciated! To answer a few questions posted here and there:

 

1) Yes, I consider CombatAce my "home turf." That means for the community here, I will extend a special invitation to a very small select group of individuals and ask them if they would like to join the STT Beta Team. Obviously, I am going to take preference to those with the most experience; those modders who have already poured their soul into doing it the hard way, and those who also have the potential to return the most value back to the community.

2) Wings Over Vietnam with SPv08.30.06 is the only officially supported Thirdwire title that STT supports at this time.

3) I don't own any of the other Thirdwire titles except for First Eagles which I haven't played in a loooong time, but as eraser_tr mentioned, I believe the program could quickly be adapted to other titles.

4) I am unsure exactly what changes have been made in the latest patch to WOV, I would have to examine the _TYPES.INI, _TARGETS.INI, and assess whether any folder structures have changed. If it is OK to distribute these files since I already own the game, then please send to me. Otherwise, I will examine these at a later date.

5) Yes, the program examines all objects that are created within FSSC against Thirdwire's _TYPES.INI file. It's so simple, just put a check in the box and run a quick test. So, if you are using FSSC and you add a "Sampan" object, and "Sampan" does not exist in your VIETNAMSEA_TYPES.INI, the program will tell you there is an error, highlight the exact row in red, and present you with a summarized output log, like the screenshot below shows. I give absolute full credit, thanks and acknowledgement to "Tannethal" for this. He was the one who originally "challenged" me with the concept. Out of respect for his past work on the airbases and his heavy use of "non-stock" objects, I feel like this is my small personal tribute to him!

 

 

6) Guys, yes I take requests to help improve the program. For those already asking about whether I accept donations, I could not be more grateful. I would say hold off on the donations to me for right now - I would ask that you send them to Dave "Wrench" in support of this great CombatAce community. What I need now is just encouragement and more creative ideas to make the program incredibly useful, user-friendly and valuable - maybe later I'll ask for the donations. I want this to save you time and effort, and allow us to populate scenery with (target) objects as quickly as possible. You modders are miles above me in terms of skills and you know the pains you continually have to go through each time, so let me know what else I might be able to do to help in return.

7) No, at this time it is against my licensing agreement to use the program for any commercial purposes whatsovever.

8) Someone asked what they might be able to offer in return: here's what would interest me greatly: if anyone has ever made "junk" airfield objects, things like: big stacks of plane cargo, pallets/crates/boxes, airfield mechanics, airfield ground crew, US Jeep with an actual driver, groups of U.S. Soldiers and Vietcong in varying sizes/formations, etc. so that "we could place these around the airfields to make them come alive?" And yes, I already am a proud owner of Yankee Air Pirate (YAP), but of course using those objects in conjunction with my program would not allow for a public release and would be illegal - please don't ever do this.

 

Regards,

Swambast

[squid 21]

if i got the info correct, this isn't out yet right ? :) How about a beta release and we drown you in feedback ? :D lol hehe

[+swambast 717]

New beta release will be available within 2 weeks: a small group of special invites went out already. Thanks to those who have responded and are joining our Beta Team! :yes:

 

Although I wish to keep the team small and focused on those with previous experience (FSSC prior experience is a huge plus), we're going to take a few volunteer requests as well. So if you're interested, just PM me and let me know if you have the time to actively participate over the next month, what your FSSC experience is, and tell me how much you can help make the WOV world a greater place by beta testing STT...

 

-Swams

[+Julhelm 266]

Well any updates on this?

[+swambast 717]

All, thanks for your continued interest and patience. A special note goes out to all of you who were recently added and recommended for the Beta Team - please Stand-By! The next Beta release of the program will be by far the largest, most comprehensive release to date. Tannethal's been working overtime to deliver extra object treats supporting STT. The 1.5 beta release is taking much, much longer than expected, but I believe it will be worth the wait.

 

Major updates will include:

* now over 200 fully supported target objects complete with proper scaling and .ini entries - covers all of the stock objects, the Factory Place, Polak's Object Library Set and CA_Stary's hangars with special thanks and appreciation going foremost to Tannethal and Polak - and Wrench and CA_Stary

* Backward compatibility with previous/custom FSSC files - STT will now convert previous FSSC files into the custom STT format allowing you to save your original file and leverage the power of STT compatibility going forward

* Ability to parse out and work on any single .INI section from within any Targets.INI file (greatly accelerating time saved especially if you like to work on one area at a time)

* Greatly enhanced translation and conversion error-checking: will detect missing objects from your Types.ini file and highlight them within STT line by line to show you exactly what's missing and where, enhanced output/error logs, and perhaps the greatest feature still is TITS - Target Intelligent Translator Syntax. TITS will automatically resolve errors/missing object entries written out by FSSC - a major break-through for those that have ever used FSSC and were stuck renaming and fixing hundreds of faulty Macro# entries! All those headaches and wasted time are no more - STT will dynamically fix many of these automagically during the conversion process including missing coordinates, missing file names, broken rotations, etc.

* Advanced Array Loading Code from FSSC to .INI - now loads approximately 100 target objects in 2-3 seconds (increased speed of about 20% over previous versions)

* Completely revised user interface with enhanced single-click file viewing and directory navigation for quick access to the files you need to reference most

* Support for the ActiveYear target objects variable added

* Unofficial support for the October 2008 Patch update (testing still in process)

* Quick Start Guide Tutorial: complete with graphics and step-by-step getting started guide

* FSSC Support using Background images will now properly convert with STT into Thirdwire .INIs (see the awesome example below!)

* And a lot of other minor fixes, tweaks and enhancements...

 

Some screenies:

Main Screen

 

Tannethal's "tests"

 

 

Edited April 8, 2009 by swambast

[+331Killerbee 840]

Oh Man,

I've been waitin' on this. I've got some Projects to keep it busy. Many thanks for Your hard Work on this Swambat. The Community should sure appreciate this wounderful Tool.

 

 

Semper Fi!

 

331KillerBee

[+Timmy 1]

HOLY SH!T. That is truly amazing.

[+Stary 2,427]

Oh man

[+Soulfreak 6,510]

looks real interesting!!!!

[+EricJ 4,213]

Wow

[+Brain32 265]

I can easily see how would I finish some stuff with the help of this :)

I can only comment this as spectacular tool, *thumbs up* man this is awsome :)

[+swambast 717]

Great, thanks again for all the positive feedback. Forgot one cool screenie though; shows how easy it is to add a new properly scaled target objects. Just right click anywhere on the grid, select a new macro from the menu, and choose from the pre-categorized list of populated WOV target objects! If you look closely at the screenshot, you can see how we have all the objects nicely already categorized for you (i.e., Airfield Objects, Harbor and Naval, Vehicles, etc.). The other cool thing is if you just click a macro object, you can quickly get a graphical thumbnail picture of the macro, too. I think you will find that after a while of using the tool, it becomes so easy to manipulate objects and create the respective target area .ini, that you start craving more objects! So, if anyone has more objects they would like added to our library, please feel free to PM me and I can provide you more details. Enjoy all, thanks again for your support!

 

[kct 5]

That, is a MASTERCLASS. Awesome.

[+swambast 717]

And more great news from this giving community... Special thanks and appreciation goes out to both 'Gepard' and 'EricGen' for permission to include their Airfield Objects in the distribution...! Man oh man, it just keeps getting better (and bigger...yikes, now over 35MB of object goodies!). By the way, my plans also include the creation of a customized professional installation package, and let me tell you the programming alone just to get all of these things in the right spot will be a challenge in itself. More good things to come, stay tuned!

Edited April 8, 2009 by swambast

[+Monty CZ 209]

I see superb work here! Thanx for the effort.

Is this tool able to add something, what is missing in WOx world - trains and rails?

I have some and can do some more, if there is interest

MontyCZ

 

 

And more great news from this giving community... Special thanks and appreciation goes out to both 'Gepard' and 'EricGen' for permission to include their Airfield Objects in the distribution...! Man oh man, it just keeps getting better (and bigger...yikes, now over 35MB of object goodies!). By the way, my plans also include the creation of a customized professional installation package, and let me tell you the programming alone just to get all of these things in the right spot will be a challenge in itself. More good things to come, stay tuned!

[DWCAce 19]

Holy crap that thing looks AMAZING!

[Canadair 16]

Holy crap that thing looks AMAZING!

 

It does indeed. Will simplify scenary creation immesely, freeing the mind of all the modders. One question. I understand there is an oject library. Will it be possible to add objects as a user to this library? (i.E, downlaod a ground object, or a vehicle, and add it to the already existing libray?)

[Guest a10boar]

Mr.Swambast,enjoy your tutorials and easy to follow.Have 2 questions?1,When your product is finally released (not rushing you),will tutorials be released also?

2,Are you also the voice for tutuorials of Lock-On Gold flight training?Very similar voices if not all the same.

[Wrench 9,806]

Swam, did I ever send you my target layouts notes????

 

There's one, the 'army base with barbed wire fencing" that really needs a major overhaul, as the 0,0 point ain't EVEN near the center of the camp....by about 1100 meters!!

 

If I haven't , let me know and I'll shoot them all to you

 

wrench

kevin stein

[+swambast 717]

RESPONDING TO YOUR QUESTIONS

 

Monty: Regarding trains and rails - it depends on how they are currently allocated .tod, .lod, etc. If you have something you would like for me to test, please Private Message me and I would be happy to check it out. If it is a target object esp. a .lod format, you should be able to precisely place each object within 1m of the next and quickly "add track." I am fairly confident that it can be done. The only problem right now is that there is a 730 object limitation due to memory constraints so the "track" pieces should be in very long sections.

 

Canadair: Regarding adding objects, the answer is generally a "Yes" if you really know what you are doing. But honestly, that is not my long-term vision at all. What I am really hoping for going forward is to publicly package and begin to standardize object sets - this means that as users create new scenery areas, they don't have to worry about whether it is "compatible" with another user's current install (i.e., do they have such and such .lods, .inis, target_types.ini has to be updated, etc.). This means more things move out to the community vs. being kept in each user's super-duper customized TYPES.ini, Targets.ini, etc. I can't really go into all the details right now, but for those Beta Testers they will soon see what I mean - instead of downloading and updating Factory Place, Polak's library sets, some of Gepard's objects, Stary's hangars, etc. EVERYTHING YOU NEED IS CONSOLIDATED IN ONE PLACE DURING A SINGLE INSTALLATION! Everything gets updated all at once - your Types.ini, Targets.ini, all the .lods, data.inis, etc. all properly installed in the terrain folder, the scaled dimension files get written out, and everyting else. So I know that when one user creates a Scenery Area and wants to share it with another user that has the same base package installed - everything should be there that they need - this is so we can focus more on Scenery Creation vs. Scenery Compatibility.

 

 

A10boar: Yes, tutorials will be included. The first tutorial will show you how to load up Da Nang Airfield, add some barracks/vehicles and then reconvert for use with the game. If you have watched the demos already, you will be repeating what I did. After that, I believe most things will be very user-friendly to understand, especially now that I'm overhauling the User Interface. No, it was not my voice in the flight training tutorials - don't know if that's a good or bad thing...LOL

 

Wrench...check your PM, send along what you have.

[Icarus999 70]

This is a huge advance that will increase the enjoyability of the game 100 fold. All I can say is WOW!!!! It dawned on me that if this tool could also read the objects/ aircraft folder it would be a fantastically fast and efficient way to populate airfields with the aircraft of your choice.

Edited April 10, 2009 by Icarus999

[+swambast 717]

Just a quick update and opportunity for those who might be interested: STT v1.5 has officially landed and is currently in Beta Testing by our team, which is invite only. I've decided to open up just a few more beta testing slots. Thirdwire modding experience and FSSC prior experience is a huge plus, but not mandatory. If you're interested, just PM me and let me know if you have the time to actively participate over the next month. Thanks! Please remember, you cannot be affiliated with any for-profit or commercial endeavors whatsoever.

 

Swambast