p10ppy

Timmy its totally up to you how many maps you use

I paste all of TK's (and your Mig-9) together in a grid anyway when i skin them and cut them apart at the end

big file, but if you use lots of PS overlays its the best way to colour/effect match

To disagree with Stiglr a little

When I UV map (which is by far the hardest part of modelling IMHO)

I focus on things in this order...

1. Good unwrap with no distortion and the ability to paint features fairly easily in PS (panel lines perpendicular to the BMP if possible, etc)

2. Packing the UV chart as tightly and efficiently as possible, Every blank unmapped pixel on a bmp is still loaded in the game

you are wasting resources if you don't do this, fill all the holes and have the wires almost touching

3. Scaling thing fairly consistently and as large as possible, the widest mesh span should go from one side of the map to the other etc...

Sometimes its a good idea to upscale small but important features so you can paint them reasonably (and you may as well fill those holes completely)

downscale things that are not seen often or are very dark so you can get a bigger overall scale on the rest of the model

4. Making it easy for the skinner (what Stiglr is talking about),

a well named template with wires will achieve most of this anyway

in game efficiency and as large a scale mesh UV per map as you can achieve is more important than being able to line up a few bits easily in PS

a little trial and error in and out of the game soon fixes that.... :yes:

You have to juggle all this stuff and it never quite works out... but that's the way I prioritise my compromises

IMHO

It definitely doesn't happen in my FE+EP+Peter01FM's install either, so I'm kinda confident it isn't my DX9, or vidcard drivers.

 

Bucky

If you are using FE+EP+Peter01FM unpatched which seems to be recommended practise (all my installs are fully patched though)

there's a possibility that TK used some new video/DX9 features in the newest patches (and since the shaders et,al work in vista now, its a reasonable bet that he has imho)

which might explain the difference you are seeing between the two versions...

with the damage boxes I've overlapped them before with no noticeable problems

each inied mesh is its own entity with hitpoints so you are in theory giving the total vert tail area double the structure

you can always compensate with a smaller hit box or reduced structural factor if it seems to be a issue

4 x 2k maps you say

just let me expound the virtues of a single map a little more (4k now giggle)

makes it easier to understand the whole model

and means you can do much longer continuous segments of individual mesh parts (up to 4k/2k long instead of 2k/1k)

only one map to worry about

much easier to keep it all in scale

just my opinion :yes:

reduced rez

map the whole airframe to a 2k bitmap ;)

I've never understood the reason for multiple smaller bitmaps except for modular bits (other aircraft)

makes it a pita to camo and colour match and there's more bigger holes to utilise for small things on a single 2k map

otherwise you are right

you need to do what you are saying for the damage modelling and it works fine

Using decals works fairly well for this

the main problem is the pseudo projection mapping used in decals, so they don't wrap so well

It was pretty funny reading very old posts at TW about decals, describing them as a high rez solution to insignia,

skins seem to have left them way behind these days on the rez front

I try to make my decals at atleast the same rez as the underlying skin...(can get unmanageable if you have a lot)

while I haven't done quite what you are talking about I do use the skin bmp under all my airframe specific decals now at full skin rez

registration skin for the fuse decals above

the hard part is lining them up with the skin (trial and error)

I usually make a "line up" skin with some registration marks / squares on it where the decal is to go

and a line up decal of the same skin cropped (but not scaled) to the decals size with corresponding line up marks then spend a couple of hours playing with scale and position in the decal.ini... and testing in game...

its usually possible to make them match to within a pixel...(persistence) and that's the only hard work

then its just a matter of using the cropped decal,removing the line up marks (layers) and blending your decal over the top...full size decal template matching the underlying skin

clear as mud

Ps 520x520 32bit TGA = ~1 meg

can not replicate it sorry Southside Bucky

my default clean install and my "proper" install won't do it... and I think I tried most of the graphic settings

maybe post your graphic setting (option.ini)

mine are

[GraphicsOptions]

DisplayDeviceID=0

DisplayWidth=1680

DisplayHeight=1050

DisplayDepth=32

AspectRatio=1.600000

LensFlare=0

DetailLevel=4

ObjectDetail=2

ObjectTexture=3

CockpitTexture=3

CockpitMirrors=0

CockpitReflection=0

EffectsDetail=2

TerrainDetail=2

TerrainTexture=3

HorizonDistance=3

GroundObjectDensity=3

WaterDetail=2

CloudsDetail=0

Shadow=1

AntiAliasing=0

if you have any 3rd party effects packages installed, they may cause it as well

check near the end of your PARTICLESYSTEM.INI (shudder ) that the fire material looks like this (PARTICLESYSTEM.INI lives in the FlightData.cat)

[FireMaterial]

DepthBufferCheck=TRUE

DepthBufferWrite=FALSE

IgnoreRenderOrder=FALSE

AlphaTestEnabled=FALSE

LightEnabled=FALSE

UseLightLevel=FALSE

SpecularEnabled=FALSE

EmissiveEnabled=FALSE

AmbientColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

DiffuseColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

ZBufferOffset=2.000000

PriorityLevel=3

BlendOp=BLEND_INV_SRC_ALPHA_ADD_SRC

NumTextureStages=1

TextureStage[01].TextureName=Fire.tga

TextureStage[01].MipMap=FALSE

TextureStage[01].FilterEnabled=TRUE

TextureStage[01].StageColorOp=TEXTURE_MODULATE_DIFFUSE

TextureStage[01].StageAlphaOp=TEXTURE_MODULATE_DIFFUSE

I'd be surprised if it didn't though...and it would affect much more than the muzzle flashes

maybe try updating your directx9 and vidcard drivers (always a pain I know)

post TK a screeny he will be able to help I'm sure

yeah Franco's always been one of my favourites... :no2:

no worries

glad to help :yes:

ah

ok thats much clearer :yes:

glad you worked out the stock problem Southside Bucky

the decal setup on those 3rd party planes is a little weird... and out of date I presume if it used to work....

you need a fuller path to the decal folder

replace things like

FilenameFormat=Jasta4/D/TCross

with

FilenameFormat=SchuckertD3/Jasta4/D/TCross

and all the decals should appear fine

find and replace with a competent text editor makes it semi painless... (i use Notepad++)

I had a better play with this and I don't think I have been able to replicate your problem

So it probably isn't anything to do with the alias.lst...

I have found one weird bug that may be related

running at default graphics (from a clean install) that seems to be related to the Camel (atleast i never saw it anywhere else...)

the fuselage roundel being randomly replaced (during the mission,multiple times) by random tga files... which flick back to the roundel with a view change or Screenshot

so that bug is most likely graphics related, I never saw it with my normal install (max graphic settings) only with the lower "default" settings... where it was quite regular

note it could just be a weird thing with my vid card running non-native

examples

If this is the problem you guys have, TK's probably got no idea what you mean...

If its a different problem (as i think) you probably need to post more info,

flight date

specific aircraft

reproducible

drinking a cup of tea at the time

graphic settings

modded install

screen shot

etc

before TK can help you

sorry i couldnt help more

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showt...mp;#entry212044

think it maybe a bug...

i had a quick look at it

it "looks' like the alias.lst may not be working for you guys (its a new feature)

i have not tested enough to see if i have the problem as well

there's 3 "new" nations and they use some of the decals from older nations which is pointed to by the alias.lst

NATION.ini

[Nation019]

Name=GERMANY_TEMP

ActiveDate=03/20/1918

AlternateDecal=GERMANY_OLD

[Nation020]

Name=GERMANY_OLD

[Nation021]

Name=RAF_OLD

DisplayName=Royal Flying Corps

[Nation022]

Name=USAS_OLD

DisplayName=US Signal Corps Aviation Section

ALIAS.LST

Insignia021.tga Insignia003.tga

Fuse021.tga Fuse003.tga

Insignia022.tga Insignia001.tga

Tail022.tga Tail001.tga

you can try extracting the second decal (objectdata.cat) on each line of the ALIAS.LST to your object/aircraft folder

and renaming them to the first decal on each line

bypassing the ALIAS.LST

worth a try anyway

i will try to have a better look in the next few days... (busy weekend)

good luck :yes:

Expansion pack is not stand alone

I'd recommend you get them both tho

hmmm, thats strange ...

just to be clear the zip i just posted contains no new selectable countries

it contains Nation004 (GERMANY)

its the default where the "other" germanys get their info from

its important to do it in this order (i think) with the lower numbered nations being the later dated nations(in this case the 004 is the Balkenkruez)

nation019 is the transitional cross (next most "modern")

nation020 is the Iron cross, the oldest

the game looks at the nations in the ini and if the mission/campaign includes germany and the date is before ActiveDate=06/10/1918 it goes to AlternateDecal=GERMANY_TRAN (nation019)

when it finds GERMANY_TRAN it looks at the date and if it is before ActiveDate=03/18/1918 it goes to AlternateDecal=GERMANY_OLD (nation020) effectively the decal default

I guess check the folders where you have put stuff, Nations.ini in FLIGHT and the decalXXX.tga in OBJECTS/AIRCRAFT

and make sure you test with a stock aircraft (i used the Dr.1) some 3rd party stuff does not use the nation level decal

and check your mission dates...

and one other thing which i just thought of...

I'm using a fully patched version of FE + Addon only...

and I couldn't get this to work before the last patch... (the 3rd decal change) so that might be the problem...

failing all that, one of our installs is borked I guess....

Ok you resparked the interest in me :yes:

And with a bit of fiddling I got the 3 nation cascading date change working (either TK fixed it with the last patch, or most likely I stuffed up last time)

this means that the German insignia can change 3 (probably unlimited now) times seamlessly by date with no effect on anything apart form the decals

included in the zip is a modded nations.ini which goes in your flight folder (backup your nations.ini first)

and 2 new sets of decals for Nation019 and Nation020 which go in the object/aircraft folder

the Nation020 decals are redone versions of the stock Nation019 decals,

you could extract the stock Nation019 decals instead and use the if you like them better, you would need to rename them to XXXX020.tga though

the new Nation019 decals are modify version of the transitional decal i posted in the old thread...

transition dates are (flavour to suit... should be obvious where to change the dates in the ini...)

before 03/18/1918 (iron cross)

03/18/1918 to 06/09/1918 (transitional)

after 06/10/1918 (Balkenkruez)

have fun :)

new_insig.rar

well i've never actually added a whole nation...

but the decals need to go in the object/aircraft/ folder (but not in a specific aircraft folder)

And tho i'm pretty sure you can add nations no worries... it will probably need more than just the nations.ini file modded

and it wont work in the campaigns (unless you edit the campaign of course)

hope that helps

have a look here

http://bbs.thirdwire.com/phpBB/viewtopic.p...p;hilit=balloon

sorry Heck, bet you

You are right about the prop ..when its stationary there's nothing you can do about it (because of the engine animation rigging)

you could repaint the xxprop.tga's for the slow and fast prop but i doubt you would notice it in game and it would still be 2 bladed when it stopped

for the headrest

You will need to make a copy of the SE5a folder and rename it and all the associated ini's I'm afraid, and alter the new SE5a.ini file to reflect the changes (a new aircraft)

extract the SE5A_DATA.INI from the ObjectData.CAT and put it in the new folder and then edit it with this...

in the [Fuselage] section add

[Fuselage]

ModelNodeName=Fuselage P

ShowFromCockpit=TRUE

HasAeroCoefficients=TRUE

--------snip---------

SystemName[009]=BombRack4

SystemName[010]=HeadrestR

DetachNode[001]=Aldis Sight

and under the [bombRack4]

add a whole new section

[bombRack4]

SystemType=WEAPON_STATION

--------snip---------

MinExtentPosition= 0.14,-0.33,-0.68

MaxExtentPosition= 0.01, 0.27,-0.54

[HeadrestR]

SystemType=WEAPON_STATION

StationID=5

StationGroupID=2

StationType=EXTERNAL

AttachmentPosition=0.00,0.00,0.00

AttachmentAngles=0.00,0.00,0.00

LoadLimit=1

AllowedWeaponClass=FT

AttachmentType=NATO,WP

NumWeapons=1

ModelNodeName=Headrest

PylonMass=0.0001

PylonDragArea=0

FuelTankName=

works well

have fun :yes:

yeah sorry looking back at that post it is a bit obscure

a brief overview

In the NATIONS.INI file countries are designated by number

Germany (default) is [Nation004] = Balkenkruez

and GERMANY_OLD is [Nation019] = Iron Cross

GERMANY_OLD is a subset of Germany and the only thing this really changes (I think) is the nation decals (DecalLevel=1)

in the NATIONS.INI under

[Nation004]

Name=GERMANY

---snip

ActiveDate=03/20/1918

AlternateDecal=GERMANY_OLD

this is the date that the [Nation004] decals become active and the decals to use before that ([Nation019])

I didn't find a way (and I didn't try all that hard) to have three decal sets for a country i.e Iron Cross, Transitional cross, Balkenkruez

so you really need to replace one or the other with the Transitional cross...

hope that's clearer

To actually do this

I don't "think" its possible to delete a file from the XX.Cat files

nor is it necessary, it just a matter of finding the correct place/folder to stick the override files

In the case of the nation decals its straight in the \Objects\Aircraft folder (not in specific aircraft folder)

And you will deed to rename them to the nation you have decided to replace (FUSE019.tga or FUSE004.tga for example)

and that should do it

as an aside I always paint as much of the aircraft as I can on to the skin, this so far has always included the national insignia

paint schemes are not shared often between country's anyway

This particular case (changing decals at a certain date) is a good reason to use the decal system for the national insignia I guess

but in most other cases skin painting can look better than a generic decal IMHO

hope that helps :yes: