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[max_thehitman]

I have been thinking of changing that code.

I often use a tool called UVMapper, which is very useful as you can load in an object and drag the UV coords around.

Do you want me to add that capability to the tool?

Hello again Stainlesss,
If you find this capability useful to you, it might also be useful to me and other skin-artists.
I have never tried it before.
Sounds interesting.

This little "Stainless UV_mapper" of yours , to me, is a real great program and very useful for my skin art.
It saves time on painting and knowing EXACTLY what to paint, for that skin to look its best in this game and on the 3d-model.

Skin textures in any game are very important part of what makes it appealing and look more realistic as possible.
Some 3d-models may have less polygons and some may look like "LEGO toys", but if the texture and paint on it is done properly,
it will look great. IL2-1946 is a very old game, but it still has a lot of potential.

[asheshouse]

Sounds like a very useful utility.

[Stainless]

The main use of this capability would be to allow you to add detail to particular parts of a mesh.

Say you want to add some kill marks below the cockpit, but the polygon in the mesh where you want to place them is tiny. You could drag the UV coordinates for that polygon around to give you more pixels to work with. You would then have to save the bitmap, AND the mesh, but it would work.

The problem with doing this is that the base texture is very hard to get right.

By changing the scale of a single polygon, you create a discontinuity between adjacent polygons. If you are not really careful, this will appear as a seem and look shit.

Give me some votes to see if this is worthwhile doing.

[max_thehitman]

Well, it sounds like a good idea, but honestly, it may not be worth the effort on your
part to go to so much trouble in doing such a thing. Personally, I am very very happy with the
original UVW-Mapper you created and I use it a lot.

Painting such tiny details on a skin is already possible if an artist knows what he is doing with Photoshop and
can read the details in the UVW_Mapping-Skin. There will always be some type of warping in the skin
details when they get wrapped around the 3d-model. It all depends on how good the 3d-model is created.

 No need to do such more work on this mod-gadget. It´s great as it is!
Thank you Stainless

[Stainless]

Okay so since I have had some requests for it, I've gone back to the effect editor.

It basically works rendering the particles in 2D, but that's not really a lot of good for look and feel. It's essential for debugging, much easier to see what is going on in 2D, but for the actual look of the effect as it would be in game, well pretty crap.

So I have added a 3D mode.

I've started by adding a sky cube and a ground plane, once I have that in as a frame of reference, I'll drop in a 3D particle system and massage the parameters to match the IL2 format.

I will need a HELL of a lot of feedback and testing to get something that looks the same in the editor as it does in the game though.

[dyingtofly]

Sounds great. Testing will that reguire installing of stuff or can it be done online in browser.
I have an old sluggish PC, and even older one that I hope to convert to "chromebook" & started saving for dedicated sim machine.
Thanks for your effort.
Sorry for bad English. Mike

[DarkBlueBoy]

That's a fair point Mike - will you let us know a recommended PC spec for testing, Stainless please?

[Stainless]

As long as you can run windows with .NET (I think I'm on .NET 2.5 .... but not sure) It should be fine.

The mod tool uses more grunt than the effects editor will, so if you can run that... you will be fine.

[solotk]

Gremlin Graphics - Now there's a great name from the past. I still think the late 80's, early 90's were the greatest time to work in the industry, before things got totally corporate Gremlin did some great stuff, didn't Gremlin get some covers for Zool and Lotus series from Emap and Future? Great times, brilliant parties, lots of co-operation. I miss those days.

[Stainless]

Yes.

Some of the shows were epic. We built a huge space invader for one show in London.

I gate crashed the Domark party wearing a Gremlin T-shirt.

Hired Stringfellows for the evening.

Good fun and epic hangovers

[solotk]

Oh Lord the epic hangovers! No meetings before 10 Ocean parties were epic, Microprose, EA and Virgin put on a good do too. Not so bad at ECTS which was trade only, but bloody awful at Olympia which was open to the public too , with every sound system cranked up and the lights making it feel you were a mile from the sun, hordes of kids and adults trying to rip stuff off the stand, we nailed everything down

Not so bad for the devs, you could hide in the bar, but on my side urrrrrgh. Counting down the hours till we could get into the Slug and Lettuce or off to the next party. Wandering round the publishers stands seeing how much money they'd spent, epic amounts in some cases, or having a drink and a convo with Lara Croft/Nell McAndrew a really really nice lady. I think she was the most popular Lara Croft, and miles better, to my mind than the one she replaced.

I'm still in contact with a lot of people from the period, some of whom are now the big bosses , but yes, we all miss those days

[Stainless]

The effect editor is starting to come together.



I have some real concerns though, I'm not sure what is going on with the colour equation.

When I look at effects that are supposed to be coloured, like FlareRed.eff the colours are quite low.

Code: [Select]

    Color0  0.55 0.55 0.55 0.60
    Color1  0.55 0.55 0.55 0.60

To get the effect to look "red", I have to boost the values a lot. Something is definitely wrong.