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[Aioros]

Gentlemen as some of you know I’m working on a 3d model of the Nebelwerfer 42 and my intention is to add it as a fully functional artillery piece to the game.

The LOD0 is ready (859 Polys/1933 Triangles) I have readed a lot about unwrapping and texturing and I'm getting the idea... but my weakest point is the understanding of the game requirements for an object of this nature to work in the game, so  please can some experienced SAS modder tell me if my understanding of the requirements so far is right or wrong based on the following conclusions that reflect what I have learned from studying various working samples.

1-To create a proper working artillery piece [Nstationary in the FMB jargon] I need the following:

a.A scene called "Body" (whose sole model is the gun's carriage) That contains a collision box, a box called "Ground_Lev" and three LODs of the carriage with their respective shadow models, all of them pointing to the negative Y axis from the top view.

b. A scene called "Gun" (whose sole model is the gun's barrel) it must contain a dummy object called "Gun <BASE>" , three LODs of the barrel with their respective shadow models, all of them pointing to the positive X axis from the top view, with their pivot point located in the barrel's rotation axes and centered in the 0,0,0 coordinates.

Question: The "Gun <BASE>" object defines the rotation axes of the gun?

c. A scene called "Head" (whose sole model is the gun's elevating and traverse gears) it must contain a box called "SmokeHead ", three LODs of the Head with their respective shadow models, all of them pointing to the positive X axis from the top view, with their pivot point located in the barrel's rotation axes and centered in the 0,0,0 coordinates.

Question: Is the "SmokeHead" an effect emitter or is it used to define the horizontal rotation axis?

d. A scene called "Dead" it must contain the objects called: Gun <BASE>,SmokeHead, Ground_Lev, an object called "collision", Three LOD's of the destroyed version of the object with a shadow model for each LOD, all of them in a hierarchy tree under a parent object called [Dead] (presumably a 3DS max dummy object).

e. A scene called "Hier" which contains all the components of the artillery piece, with the same alignment, and pivot point locations that in the previous "Scenes/Meshes", but this time with a proper hierarchy tree created for every main component, with an object called [_ROOT_] located at the top of the hierarchy and centered at the 0,0,0, coordinates, like this:



f. A texture set for every LOD starting with a 512*512 texture for the LOD0.

g. A texture set for every LOD of the “dead” mesh  starting with a 512*512 texture for the LOD0.

Question: And here is where the things become hairy, there is any standard for the names of the textures and the materials?

h. The following picture shows the textures and materials for the MG42 (Summer), can someone please explain me which is the function and settings of the materials, in this case.



g.Question: Which is the function of the “Dead.sim” file and its relation with the object called “Collision” present in the “Dead” mesh ?


2-I just started to learn Java but I know from what I have seen that all mods that insert a new working 3d model in the game contain various files with names like “1A3CA07826860054” these of course are classes, can someone please explain me which is the content of these files?, does it follow a standard pattern according to the expected behaviour (Aircraft,gun,vehicle) of the new 3d model or every object requires special programation according to its characteristics to make it work?, and more importantly how can I decompile and/or create these files to study them?

3-Can someone please explain me which is the function of the following files in the game (I have always used Modpacks so my experience with them is small):

Stationary.ini
technics.ini
technics.properties

4-I have a lot of questions, but I know that this is a long path for me to follow, and its better to digest small bits of information at every step, but... is the following plan a good plan to follow, to successfully finish this project:

A-Unwrap the LODs for the normal and destroyed versions of the model.
B-Paint and apply all the textures.
C-Export the model using the buggy buggy exporter.
D-Test it with the great Stainless’s “IL2Modder” tool.
E-Ask someone to create the Classes and additional file lines for the object.
F-Test the object in the game
G-Release it.

Hell, its a shame that we lack the proper official documentation to mod Il-2 1946 (I love SDK’s), Its  a a really long learning curve and a big deal of old posts reading but it adds to the experience, and worth it if we want to keep this simulator working in the future.

PD: Does anyone have an original copy (the big .zip file) of the Il-2 Modeling Bible as described here:

http://www.smsp.org/il2/3d_modeling_bible/index.html

Thanks for your answers.

[Mission_bug]

That is some list of questions Aioros, it might be better to concentrate on each stage at a time to avoid brain overload.


While the ultimate aim is to get a fully functioning model in game I personally would concentrate on just making a static object first off before
getting more involved in the working parts; with that done you can then detach the necessary parts to make the working version.

Leave class work until it is really needded, one of us can do that for you and take you through the entries you will need to add.

You can actually extract your object first without actually mapping it just to test the scale is correct before you proceed.

Mapping will I think be done in different ways in the various 3d programmes, I use gmax and Lithounwrap, 3dsMax and Blender might do it another way so you need advice from those who actually use the same system as you.

My Lysander was mapped as individual sections or parts, some programmes do it for you in one go, the general advice is do each part separately.

Leave mapping untill you know all the parts are done otherwise as I found out you are continually changing your template that is used to make the skin.


Take care.

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[Zoran395]

I cannot really answer any of your questions but I am on the same path, trying to improve the bridges of Leningrad/Petersburg. So here are my two bobs..
I created plates so far (for airfields, roads and rivers) they are quite simple and I have used Gmax/buggy-buggy exporter. I only added to static.ini.
At this stage I am getting lost with the moving parts (the bridge collapsing when it gets destroyed) so you can see that I am no 3D modder...

Question: And here is where the things become hairy, there is any standard for the names of the textures and the materials?
Having played around in Gmax I would say no but the mesh files must point to .tga files that exist in the folder structure you are using.
I believe you see the same names over and over because modders are used to specific naming patterns and folder structures.
In your example it is convenient to use "damage512.tga" for the highest resolution but you could have called it "checcozalone.tga" if you wanted to.

Question: Is the "SmokeHead" an effect emitter or is it used to define the horizontal rotation axis?
Would this be the location where the smoke effect will be placed when the gun fires? Then just above the muzzle? Would this be called by the java class when created to assign the smoke emission to a point in space?

3-Can someone please explain me which is the function of the following files in the game?
technics.ini has all definitions for artillery objetcs so when yours is finished you will need to add the lines for your object. This is the same for planes (air.ini) or buildings (in static.ini). You create something new, it has to be added to these files to be loaded and available for missions/campaigns/maps.
technics.properties has readable descriptions linked to the object names:

Code: [Select]

ObjectName           Object Name with spaces for humans
1-T26_Early       1x Soviet Light Tank T-26 (early type)This also allows to link object names to localizations like technics_ru.properties (??) where the object name is linked to a description in Russian.

---
PS thank you for your questions, I found where radio stations are defined (in technics.ini), I am going to create "Radio Leningrad" straight away !

[vpmedia]

I'm no modeller but I often replaced a stock vehicle with new 3d for testing if there was no slot yet. That wont requires any ini editing. In this case I'd use the 3do/Cars/OpelBlitzMaultierRocket/ slot for testing. You can learn a lot just by looking at an existing artillery, imho you need to get the sfs extractor and the msh converter from this site. PM me if you need help with it.

[Aioros]

Thanks for your answers guys, they shed a bit of light on my path....

I'm going to create an even simpler static object to learn the basics first, once I succed at that I will continue working on the nebelwerfer.

My Lysander was mapped as individual sections or parts, some programmes do it for you in one go, the general advice is do each part separately.

Leave mapping untill you know all the parts are done otherwise as I found out you are continually changing your template that is used to make the skin.

Thanks for the advice Mission_bug, as it seems that the Unwrapping and in general the texturing aspect of a 3d model is a whole art, and as such there are multiple techniques, I'm going to use the following one. After getting all LODs and special objects finished following your advice:

I cannot really answer any of your questions...

You gave answer to some of them and I really appreciate that my friend!

...Would this be the location where the smoke effect will be placed when the gun fires? Then just above the muzzle? Would this be called by the java class when created to assign the smoke emission to a point in space?

Well it seems that it is the smoke emitter that is triggered when the object is destroyed here is the test subject.



Here is the "SmokeHead" (The blue box) in relation to the whole object.



And here is the same object in relation with the "Head" Object:



And here is the object after being "fatally wounded" 

I'm no modeller but I often replaced a stock vehicle with new 3d for testing if there was no slot yet. That wont requires any ini editing. In this case I'd use the 3do/Cars/OpelBlitzMaultierRocket/ slot for testing. You can learn a lot just by looking at an existing artillery, imho you need to get the sfs extractor and the msh converter from this site.

Thanks for the tip vpmedia, about the sfs extractor I'm already using it, along all the tools available here in SAS to disect some of our beloved objects...we surely can't thank enough the creators of these tools, without them to mod this game would be impossible.

...PM me if you need help with it.

Thanks man is good to know that I can count with your support!