Samurai's Shipyard

[+WhiteBoySamurai 1,092]

Yes, this is a long-hull straight-deck Essex (CV-14 and most of her sisters that followed), as originally requested.

 

Unwrapping is nearly finished, except for the catapults, arresting wires, and eventually the blast deflectors for the Korean War era refit. I've started with some texturing already, to make sure I have uniform scaling for the deck edges and other areas.

 

I'm also working on a seamless texture for the deck. I'm basing it off of photos and professional scale models, like this one:

 

 

[Wrench 9,473]

Wow!!!

[Stratos 3,168]

Great work WBS!!

[+WhiteBoySamurai 1,092]

I'm finally doing initial in-game tests. No major issues so far.

Finishing the painting and entering the data for dozens and dozens of guns will take quite a while. I'm shooting for mid/late September. 

 

A couple more questions:

-How many arresting wires? Some drawings seem to show a ton of them, at least on the early versions.

-Can I get some clarification on the search radars? The references I've been using show an SK-2 radar:

That's already complete.  But, other sources say the ship (or at least some variants) had a rectangular SK radar:

Or some combination of both. ...Which means I will have to build an entirely new set. 

 

 

[+Coupi 4,279]

Whouawww!

Edited August 31, 2015 by Coupi

[colmack 659]

the arresting wire thing, I think they had a mess of them because the ship(s) could recover in reverse in case of battle damage to the stern I know Lexington class and the Yorktown's had that option

[KJakker 875]

The SK radar was replaced by the SK-2 on almost all ships Cruiser size and above by the end of the war. Anything after WWII is unlikely to have an SK. As much as I would like historical accuracy it might be easier to just stick with the SK-2.

 

As for the arresting wire, use primary source photos as your first resource. From what I can see they had 11 wires aft of elevator 3 plus one over elevator 3¹ that I believe had brackets that the wire could be pulled through forward of the elevator to move it out of the way when the elevator was in use.² They also had 4 wires forward of elevator 3 between the 5 sets of Barrier wires. I believe these 4 wires were left unstrung and the arresting for them below deck may have been removed as early as the late 1940's as I can't find images of these wires post WWII.³

 

Please see the attached 7zip file at the bottom of the post for a number of photos of Essex class ships with the arresting wires visible plus more pictures of Essex class radar fits grouped by Long-hull or Short-hull, the ship name, and then date of pictures for that ship.

 

1: Twelve arresting wires plus two sets of barrier wires. Note the sheave for an arresting wire with no wire attached just forward of the one for the aft most barrier wires, its starboard side counterpart also without wire is visible in picture 3.

 

2: In the upper left you can see the wire pulled around the front of the aft elevator, also note the lack of arresting wires between the four visible sets of barrier wires.

 

3: 1948 picture with two of the barrier wire sets visible put no arresting wires between them. In addition the wire over elevator three is in place but the outline of the alternate position from photo 2 is visible on the deck.

 

Essex Class Wire and Radar Photos.7z

 

[+WhiteBoySamurai 1,092]

Got it, thanks for the photos.

 

Main battery, catapults, and wires are now operational.

...The bullet holes? Uh, I neglected to remove all the enemy aircraft in the test mission and ran afoul of some Zeroes.

The AI has no trouble landing either.

 

Finishing the textures and installing the AAA guns will take a lot of work, but I'll try to at least get the WW2 version done before the end of September.

[KJakker 875]

If you want to farm out the AAA I can do that part for you.

[+WhiteBoySamurai 1,092]

The 40mm guns are halfway done. I could definitely use your help with the 20mm guns once I place them all.

 

[Stratos 3,168]

Samurai, any chance of seeing this in the future...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Garrett_County_(LST-786)

[+WhiteBoySamurai 1,092]

Samurai, any chance of seeing this in the future...

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Garrett_County_(LST-786)

 

Sorry, I doubt it. I've got way too many models in the pipe as it stands.

Acesfakia did a couple of LSTs which are of the same design lineage, I think:

http://combatace.com/files/file/15123-landingshiptank-mk-i/

http://combatace.com/files/file/15226-lst-mkii-2/

 

 

Currently testing out parked aircraft on the Essex. I wish the Hellcat had folding wings.

[Stratos 3,168]

Sorry, I doubt it. I've got way too many models in the pipe as it stands.

Acesfakia did a couple of LSTs which are of the same design lineage, I think:

http://combatace.com/files/file/15123-landingshiptank-mk-i/

http://combatace.com/files/file/15226-lst-mkii-2/

 

 

 

I wanted the Vietnam version. Thanks anyway.

[+WhiteBoySamurai 1,092]

Testing out decals using stock cvn numbers for now.

20mm Oerlikons have been added, but not enabled. There are 48 mounts around the ship, and they contribute a total of 12000 polygons on the close-in LOD. That's about as many triangles as one of my modern frigates.

 

[+76.IAP-Blackbird 3,545]

Man, I would even pay you for the late 1970`s Essen, less armament to code and usefull for Vietnam era. 

 

Damn lets start a crowdfunding for WBS!

[+WhiteBoySamurai 1,092]

Man, I would even pay you for the late 1970`s Essen, less armament to code and usefull for Vietnam era. 

 

Damn lets start a crowdfunding for WBS!

 

Most or all of the late 70's Essex units were the SCB-125 version, which is a stock model. I may do some SCBs at some point in the future, but I'd like to get back to smaller ships for a while.

 

I really appreciate the thought of crowdfunding. On one hand, I want to say "I don't need your money, I'm doing this for love!" But it would be nice to have some new software. For example, I ran into a problem when trying to bake the textures for the Essex: Max 2009 kept crashing on me because it ran out of memory. According to what I've read, newer versions of Max take full advantage of 64-bit OS and can use all 8+ GB of RAM, so they don't have this problem. *shrug* But while I might decide to accept donations someday, I'll never charge you guys for access to my models.

 

 

Anyway, the long hull Essex is done and being uploaded now. 

I want to take a moment to explain my thought process, because this is a big departure from my previous models.

 

I said "yes" to this project 3 years ago. Can you believe it? There was a lot of procrastination, scrapping and restarting, and nearly giving up at several points. I experimented with new texture patterns, new brushes, new ways of building objects. And I had to put a lot of thought into "what do the CombatAce members want from this model?"

 

The trend I've been seeing, from the requests I get and the screenshot thread, is that folks want carriers, and they want stuff in super-high detail for photo ops. Other kinds of ships get little or no representation in screencaps. So I went balls-out with this boat. The result is the most insanely detailed model I could possibly manage:

• 100,000 polygons (2x my Ticonderoga cruiser)
• 4096x4096 + 2048x2048 main textures (more than double any of my previous models)

I'm aware that some of you have Essex class (probably short hull) ships from other sources. How does mine compare to Yankee Air Payware?

• Designed specifically for SF2
• Both WW2 and Korean War variants included in one package
• Far more detail at similar poly count
• Distance LODs, custom collision LOD
• Bump mapping; will add specular mapping if enough people request it
• Templates available on request if anyone wants to do measure/splinter camo schemes
• Full names list and decals for entire line of ships instead of one ship with number painted onto the texture
• Parked aircraft generation
• FREE

And if you angle the camera just right, you can watch aircraft take off from the bridge.

 

 

So anyway, I'm sorry this ship took so long to finish. I hope you all enjoy it.

[Wrench 9,473]

 

How does mine compare to Yankee Air Payware?

 

 

There is NO comparison .. I've looked at all three versions ..

YAP

DAT

and this one

 

send the other's the breaker's yards, boyos. THIS one sets the standard

[+Hans Topp 115]

Thanks WBS for this great model, its amazing!!!!

[Eole 1,032]

There is NO comparison .. I've looked at all three versions ..

YAP

DAT

and this one

 

send the other's the breaker's yards, boyos. THIS one sets the standard

 

better for all aspects + accessible for all people here + for free, thank you for sharing this masterpiece

[Do335 382]

Hi WBS,

 

Thank you for this masterpiece!!!

 

Awesome!

[krfrge 742]

WBS,

 

I want to express my sincere apprecaition for all the naval craft you have brought this community over the years. I remeber seeing some of your intial ships and thought, "Hey that's pretty cool". For a very long time I have been an SFP1 guy and since crossing over to SF2 all I can say is your work is truly exceptional. The detail is simply amazing. If it weren't for modders like you and the others I fear this program would have died a long time ago. You are truly a master at your craft and as one of this larger community i offer you many thanks for your dedication and selfless sharing of your projects.

 

Kindest regards.

 

Krfrge

[+WhiteBoySamurai 1,092]

Thanks so much, everyone. Knowing that so many people enjoying my work really makes my day brighter.

 

I'm going to be out of town on business for the rest of the week, but I'll pick up my virtual welding torch again as soon as I get back. I'm focusing heavily on Asia, starting with cold war and modern Korean ships.

[Gatling20 748]

Great-looking ship, thanks again WBS.

It is a huge number of polys, and I have found that missions set up with more than one ship in a formation turn into a slide-show pretty quickly.

I have a pretty fast rig, which copes with most things, but this is a big one.

 

One small question about the decals is that I can get the CV number (14 for the Ticonderoga, for example) to show up at one end of the flight deck but not at both.

There will be a "14" at the back of the flight deck, or at the front, but not both.

 

The Decals.INI is the stock one included with the package - it seems that the first entry is ignored, and no number shows up at the front of the ship, only at the stern.

I see the same problem in one of your screenshots above.

 

[Decal001]
MeshName=flightdeck
DecalLevel=2
DecalFacing=TOP
FilenameFormat=USNCV
Position=-1.0,112.5
Scale=18.00
DecalMaxLOD=4

 

[Decal002]
MeshName=flightdeck
DecalLevel=2
DecalFacing=TOP
FilenameFormat=USNCV
Position=-1.0,-131.0
Scale=18.00
DecalMaxLOD=4

 

Does anyone have any idea about this?

[Gatling20 748]

Never mind, I figured it out.

A single mesh, like the FlightDeck mesh on the CV-14, will only accept a particular decal once (front or rear, but not both).

I can put the stock USNCV number (the plain white ones) at the rear  and the stock USNCVNUM (white with a black shadow) at the front, or vice versa, but not the same decal at both the front at rear at the same time.

Strange, I've never struck a problem like that before. However I have it working now.

 

One other point to make is that all the decals in this package are set up as DecalMaxLOD=4, but in the INI file only uses three LOD levels.

I have added two more, and to reduce the slide-show effect with this ship I have changed the Decals.INI to DecalMaxLOD=3 for all decals and changed the ship's INI file to read:

 

[LOD001]
Filename=CV-14.lod
Distance=250

 

[LOD002]
Filename=CV-14lo1.lod
Distance=1500

 

[LOD003]
Filename=CV-14lo1.lod
Distance=2500

 

[LOD004]
Filename=CV-14lo1.lod
Distance=10000

 

[LOD005]
Filename=CV-14lo2.lod
Distance=20000

 

You can adjust to taste, but this set-up uses the most highly detailed LOD out to a much shorter distance, and only has the decals visible out to 2500 meters, which is about as far as you can see them anyway.

I also changed all the BMPs to JPGs and reduced the size of the biggest ones by half, and the effect on frame rates is good.

 

WBS: we do have a Hellcat with folding wings, a big improvement on Geo's original 2005 version, and this new CV-14 needs the best:

Edited September 29, 2015 by Gatling20

[Wrench 9,473]

wouldn't it have been easier to just edit the decals inis?

 

and if your having a slide show, there's something "off" on your machine, cause even with max flak and aircraft, frame rates are good for me. Check your card setting (there's a good Nvidia tweek that Fubar512 came up with, if you're using Nvidia)