WWII Terrain Editing Questions

[DARoot 6]

Greetings, All

 

I have been having a grand time fooling around with "Terrain Editing" recently (nevermind why...).

However, I have come across a couple of ... anomalies (?) ... that have raised questions.

I've consulted the other posts here, in the "Knowledge Base" section, but none of them seem to focus on these issues I've encountered, so I'm posting a General Question(s), in hopes that the experts (such as Wrench, Baltika, and you others) will read it (them) and, perhaps, respond ---

 

(1) If the Terrain "Targets.ini" (or Campaign file) calls out "AAA" as a Ground Object, is that a specific model, or does the SFP1 Game Engine just pick randomly from whatever AAA-class ground objects are installed and available?

 

The reason I ask is, when checking some of my Terrain edits (using Wrench's suggestion of a specific Single Mission, starting near the area), I noticed that DIFFERENT AAA models are often displayed in the same spot, each time the Mission is flown.

To use Edward's WWII "New Guinea" Terrain (updated by Wrench) as an example, Target Area "Alotau" has 3 AAA gun defense emplacements (I added "af1aagun_single" sandbag emplacements for each, so I could easily find them from the air).

Sometimes, the AAA gun model looks like a 40mm Bofors [single barrel, 2 crew, 4-wheel carriage]. Sometimes it looks like a German "88" single barrel, gunshield, twin recoil pistons, quadruped carriage, some boxes added nearby -- well, we all know what an "88" looks like...].

Sometimes it looks like a "Type96" (Japanese!) gun [twin barrel, 2 crew, with its own (smaller) whitish sandbag emplacement]. Sometimes, it looks like a single soldier behind (what looks like) a German 37mm AAA gun, or a U.S..50 Cal or .30 Cal (water jacketed) MG, with its own smaller) whitish sandbag emplacement, etc.

?????

Is this normal? Please enlighten me....

 

(2) Again, picking on WWII "New Guinea" and Target Area "Alotau" ---

Placing Ground Objects (new) on existing terrain seems to work fine.

However, MOVING an existing Target Area from one area of the map to another sometimes results in ground objects becoming "buried" fully or partially under the terrain.[Trying to place a "Liberty Ship" anywhere other than on a "water" tile (z-Level = 0) illustrates this perfectly].

In New Guinea's "Alotau," the terrain the "town" sits on slopes up from water level (it's got PT Boats, Docks and Wharves, as well as the main buildings of the "town," so it's designed to be on a slope).

One (and only one) of the "USTruck" objects (parked in front of a building near the middle dock, so it's REAL close to z=0 height) is buried up to it's axles in the existing terrain. [several OTHER trucks, jeeps, etc. are placed elsewhere, further "up-slope," and display normally].

I ended up moving that truck down onto one of the closest dock/wharf areas, since nothing I could do would make it appear "normally" at it's default location.

 

So, what governs how a Ground Object is displayed, visually?

-- Adding a "z axis" entry to it's "Offset" value doesn't seem to help [although, I note that some Modders DO add a 3rd "Offset" entry to their Ground Object model callouts...]

-- Is this caused by "moving" a Target Area?

-- Is this related to the Ground Object mesh/lod/Data parameters, or to the Terrain Heightmap/Tiles parameters, or a combination of both?

-- Or something else?

?????

Please enlighten me ....

 

(3) Because everybody always asks about the following information, I'll supply it --

-- I am using SFP1, patched to 08/2006 [sFP1.exe v.8.30.6.9]

-- Stand-Alone PTO Installation [NO WWII German planes or Ground Objects installed !!! Where that "88" came from?...a mystery]

-- Formation.ini, Nations.ini, etc. all set to the most recent versions I could find...

-- Windows XP OS, Service Pack 3

 

(4) Lest I forget, many, many thanks to those modders (we'll mention Wrench, Baltika, Edward, and Gepard, but we intend this for ALL of you) who have done so much over the years to make SFP1 (and it's successors, and SFP2) so interesting!

 

(5) Oh, Yeah!

Amidst all that (seeming) frustration, I found time to do a re-skin of one of my A-Team Ki-61 Hien ("Tony") fighters, to try to make it (sort of)resemble the one depicted in the "Loading Screen."

 

http://i1219.photobucket.com/albums/dd424/DARoot1/Miscellaneous/TONY-Y.jpg

 

Came out pretty good, I think.

(Simple edits -- paint the spinner yellow, add a 2nd white stripe, and use the "19Sen2Chu" decal from Wrench's Ki-61 SkinPak.)

 

Which brings up another question (but, still related, somewhat, to "Terrain Editing") --

-- I cannot use Christian59's "Ki-61 Family" Data.ini files in New Guinea -- Invariably, the aircraft crash into a mountain when "Alt-N" is utilized to "move things along" -- Doesn't help the Mission Scores....

-- I went back to the original A-Team FMs, then edited them according to Wrench's previous "Knowledge Base" posts (or, was it here, in "PropHeads"?) concerning aircraft "jumping" on runways, and "pitching up" when using Autopilot. That improved things IMMENSELY!

[Thank You, Wrench!]

-- I also moved the CGPosition [to "=0.0,0.0,0.0"] and played with the Landing Gear spring and damping factors [again, following Wrench's

tutorial/suggestions elsewhere here].

-- As a result, the plane flies great, but still it (and, a few other models) will occasionally "End Mission" with an ignominious crash into a

mountainside in New Guinea [doesn't seem to be a problem with Solomons, Midway, etc -- Their terrain is pretty flat).

Seems to me I remember reading something about Japanese aircrews actually having to do something to "get over" the mountains (Owen

Stanley?) in New Guinea in RL, in WWII ....Them mountains can sure be treacherous ...]

-- I THINK what I need to do, is edit my "MissionControl.ini" file, to, like, double the [Altitude] values - but I will wait to see what you guys

suggest.

 

Well, there it is. Anybody got any suggestions/comments, etc. (besides, "..fly the Mission yourself in real time..."?)

["I once shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I'll never know..." -- Groucho Marx]

 

Thanks in advance

 

DARoot