WhiteBoySamurai

"Hey there, friend. Looks like you're having some engine trouble. Do you think it could have something to do with the 30mm cannon rounds I hit you with?"

DD-112 Makinami performs an interception drill against anti-ship missile targets with ESSM. Missile cam. Two targets destroyed by a single shot.

The Ulsan class is coming along steadily. Also, I haven't done any JMSDF escorts in a long time and felt inspiration calling, so I decided to start an Abukuma class. The overly-complicated mast will probably take longer than building and texturing the rest of the ship.

They did the unveiling at Nagoya Aerospace Systems Works, less than an hour from where I live. (But I couldn't get in because I don't have a press pass...) I really like the 3D TVC paddles. A similar design was also used on the X-31 and F-18 HARV super-maneuverability demonstrators. This tells us something about the capabilities they intend for the final product to have.

File Name: Republic of Korea Navy corvette pack File Submitter: WhiteBoySamurai File Submitted: 20 February 2016 File Category: Frigates This is a package of 4 modern corvettes of the Republic of Korea Navy: Donghae class (c.1983), armed with a 76mm gun and three twin 30mm AAA guns Pohang Flight II (c.1984), armed with a 76mm gun, two twin 30mm AAA guns, and two Exocet missiles Pohang Flight III (c.1986), armed with two 76mm guns and two twin 40mm AAA guns Pohang Flight IV (c.1988), armed with two 76mm guns, two twin 40mm AAA guns, and four Harpoon missiles These ships are modular and share a common hull design with different weapon loadouts. They are considered frigates for task force generation. See the readme for full details and credits. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or constructive criticisms regarding this model, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you! Click here to download this file

You're very welcome! The corvette pack is being uploaded now. I'm going to keep focusing on the Far East and Pacific, since Angelp has been doing a good job with European boats. I'll be working on more Korean ships (North and South), at least one modern Russian ship, and a couple of very big Japanese vessels.

My thoughts exactly. This is why I don't see myself giving up this game any time soon. Also, Strike Fighters is my substitute for plastic models. With a click of my mouse I have a huge collection of toys to play with, and they take up no space in my house.

Sorry for the radio silence. Travelling, family stuff, and work have been getting in the way. Here are some screenshots of the South Korean corvettes. All of the Pohang series are pretty much done. I still need to finish the earlier Donghae, and then I'll upload the pack. The Flight III/IV versions with 2x 76mm and 4x 40mm have quite a big broadside for such cute little ships.

File Name: Essex class (long-hull) aircraft carrier File Submitter: WhiteBoySamurai File Submitted: 27 September 2015 File Category: Aircraft Carriers This model represents the long-hull straight-deck Essex class aircraft carriers, beginning with CV-14 USS Ticonderoga circa 1944. These ships were about 5 meters longer than the original CV-9 Essex, and featured heavier anti-aircraft armament. Two versions of the ship are included: The original WW2 configuration, and the jet-capable Korean War era modernization. Decals for each unit are included. Random aircraft parking has been designed for currently available models with folding wings. In addition to its complement of aircraft, each ship is armed with a battery of twin 5" guns and single 5" guns, plus a vast number of 40mm Bofors and 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns. Please see the readme for full details and credits. Because this is a very high-poly, high-definition model, instructions are also included to improve framerate for those of us without premium supercomputers. This model is dedicated to Wrench, who requested it, and who provides us with great playgrounds for all our toys. Click here to download this file

Yep, that's the one. Thanks. I'm planning on releasing the Donghae, Pohang, and Ulsan classes in one pack. I'll follow that with each of the three "KDX" destroyers, and some NK boats and mini-subs for targets.

Sorry I was away and couldn't address the recent questions. The ship's decals and "skins" are set up in such a way that the main texture setting, "USNgrey," will automatically apply the proper decals when the game engine assigns the ship to a task force. This is how the stock ships work. But in addition to that, there is a texture folder for each ship of the class, with a fixed decal assigned. This is so that if you set up a single mission without a task force and want a specific number ship, you can do so simply by selecting the matching texture name. Almost all of my major vessels are set up this way. You might never use that little feature, but it's there. Oh, and please use the included decals for the deck instead of stock ones. I made them semi-translucent and faded so that the creases of the deck planks are visible underneath. Speaking of skins, Sokol is working on historical camo for the ship. He's got a screenshot up in the support topic thread in case you missed it. With regards to the decal.inis, I remember reading that normal maps count as a decal level, so I wasn't sure if setting them to 0 would work. To be honest, I just copied those settings from my other ships which I knew for a fact work properly. Unrelated note: Here's a gun for a Korean corvette I'm working on. It's also used on quite a lot of smaller cold-war-era ships and lower-budget modern navies.

Would it be possible to get some data to back that up, please? I've been under the impression that the time/processing power to decompress a JPG negated any advantage of smaller file size. I've experimented with DDS textures for smaller ground objects before, using DXT1 compression, but I'm wondering if there are more optimal settings for this sim. What's the best compression scheme to mimimize loss of quality? Also, is there any advantage to using a non-compressed DDS compared to a BMP? Should I generate mipmaps, or does the game auto-generate them?

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.

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.

Soon.

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.

No, they can be located in any game folder if you have all the titles merged. Here are the requirements for auto-generated task forces in summary: 1. The terrains need to have the "NavalMap=TRUE" line set in the .ini 2. There must be a water map with properly placed zones for friendly and enemy surface groups 3. The nations you want to spawn ships must be set as FriendlyNation001= and EnemyNation001= in the nations.ini file 4. Those nations must have capital ships and escorts available The game will attempt to build task forces around one or more capital ships, i.e. aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers, and transports. If no aircraft carriers are available, it will check for battleships. If no battleships are available, it will check for cruisers. If all ship types are available, the game may create up to three groups centered around a carrier, battleship, and transport. The battleship's surface group will typically be forward relative to the carrier's position, and the amphibious group will be behind the carrier group. The game will attempt to spawn at least the minimum number of escorts for each surface group. Destroyers and frigates are always escorts, but battleships and cruisers will also be assigned as escorts if available. When using the mission editor or creating a custom campaign, however, you can create any sort of fleets you like in any formation you prefer. However, I'm pretty sure that only one carrier can be active per group, and it has to be the flagship of the group for carrier ops to work correctly. Other carriers should have their own task forces.

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.

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

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.

It'll happen one day! Actually I'll be building the Hyuga next after the Essex, and eventually the Izumo.

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.

The one in that pack is the Komatsu LAV (Light Armored Vehicle), which is a completely different animal. I could put together a LAV-25 fairly quickly if you really need one.

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: