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[slipper]

Sutnikshock

I have been playing around with this map in the unlocked fmb, adding detail to airfields and cities etc. I deally i would like the map to include the eastern uk so that RAF and USAAF bomber airfields, Berlin, Dresden, Nuremburg and Dresden may be included.

I have asked for some advice on expanding a map, but so far no luck, is there anyway you might be willing to expand the map please? i would be willing to add textures, airfields etc, i just need the map made bigger.

cheers

slipper

[Sandbag69]

Hi  Cheers for this massive map.

I have installed it under 4.09m and is playable.

My only gripe is the land textures at night are far to bright for nightfighting.  Are there any dark textures available that I can use to make the landscape so dark that it cant be seen from above 1000m? 

apart from that its a great bomber command map. 

Cheers

[Uufflakke]

My only gripe is the land textures at night are far to bright for nightfighting.  Are there any dark textures available that I can use to make the landscape so dark that it cant be seen from above 1000m? 

It's something you can do yourself in let's say 15 minutes time.
Open the .tga files in your photo editing program. If you don't have one download GIMP (Freeware) and decrease brightness and/or contrast to your taste and save it with the same name.
Don't forget to back up the original .tga's. Just in case... 

[Sandbag69]

Thank You, I will give it a go

Cheers

[Sandbag69]

My only gripe is the land textures at night are far to bright for nightfighting.  Are there any dark textures available that I can use to make the landscape so dark that it cant be seen from above 1000m? 

It's something you can do yourself in let's say 15 minutes time.
Open the .tga files in your photo editing program. If you don't have one download GIMP (Freeware) and decrease brightness and/or contrast to your taste and save it with the same name.
Don't forget to back up the original .tga's. Just in case... 

Tried it today but doesnt work.  I have opened files with GIMP, changed mode to RGB, adjusted brightness/contrast , chnaged mode back to indexed and saved.  Map wont load   Dont see any errors.

Wonder if anyone else has any luck darkening the textures.

[Uufflakke]

This is the way I edit textures: in Gimp changing mode to RBG, adjusting brightness/contrast or whatever (I don't select 'indexed' afterwards). Instead of 'save' try 'save as'  and save it as a .tga with the same name. When a window pops up and says something like 'this filename already exists, do you want to overwrite?' click Yes and in the next screenie uncheck 'RLE compression'.
Just try it out with just one edited texture and leave the rest unedited, when the map loads go ahead with the rest of the textures.

If the map still won't load press SHIFT TAB and a list shows up. At the bottom of it you'll see what's wrong.

I can not try it out myself because I don't have this map installed.

[Sandbag69]

This is the way I edit textures: in Gimp changing mode to RBG, adjusting brightness/contrast or whatever (I don't select 'indexed' afterwards). Instead of 'save' try 'save as'  and save it as a .tga with the same name. When a window pops up and says something like 'this filename already exists, do you want to overwrite?' click Yes and in the next screenie uncheck 'RLE compression'.
Just try it out with just one edited texture and leave the rest unedited, when the map loads go ahead with the rest of the textures.

If the map still won't load press SHIFT TAB and a list shows up. At the bottom of it you'll see what's wrong.

I can not try it out myself because I don't have this map installed.

Thank you.. That worked perfectly. Now maps is nice and dark.  I just need to do something about the moon now and it will be perfect for night air battles.

Cheers again

[mandrill]

On the subject of darkness, is there something that can be done generally re the lighting on the map to make it darker? I remember Avala was messing with a "lighting" file in his Serbia map.

As well, are the runway lights a mod or a stock feature of Il-2? I have never flown at night before. If they are a mod, where do I d/l it?

[sputnikshock]

On the subject of darkness, is there something that can be done generally re the lighting on the map to make it darker? I remember Avala was messing with a "lighting" file in his Serbia map.

As well, are the runway lights a mod or a stock feature of Il-2? I have never flown at night before. If they are a mod, where do I d/l it?

Aarrrrrrrrrrrgh! I had just written an excessive answer to your post when I ccidently hit the back buton in my browser! 
So I this will a quick one now. Sorry for the shorthand. 
But first, welcome to the dark side of the Il-2 day. 

Ok, runway lights:
- lights themselves have been around a long time.
- runway lights only being turned on at your request with airifelds being darkened by default (as they should be in a warzone)
  was added in v4.10. 
- how to use: 
   1. Open map or mission in FMB
   2. In the objects menu select stationary objects and scroll down until you find Lighttype 1, 2, 3 and 4.
   3. #1 and 4 are white lights (different intensity), #2 and 3 are red and green lights
   4. Place on airfield(s)
   5. Lights by default are assigned to army/side white(none). Such lights will be ALWAYS ON.
   6. To have lights being turned of and only come alive when request them from tower, assign them to your own army/side.
   7. In order for the tower to actually turn them on, you need to: request them, be close to the airfield  (very close! , and no enemy
      planes in the vicinity.*

Night lighting:
- since 4.10 Il-2 has a new dynamic night lighting engine. (Most important new feature IMHO, together with radio navigation).
- This means Il-2 sets night darkness according to lunar phase, thus mission date
- A default FMB date (15/6/40 IIRC) is a very bright night. Lookup a historical new moon date and adjust by going forward and backward in
  time by 2- or 3-day steps until you like what you see (FMB night lighting preview is misleading! Check by flying on this date).
- Finally, you can add a bit of weather, poor or blind for example.
- With these steps, you will be able to get very dark nights in Il-2. It can become pitch black darkness actually   
 
EDIT: Next paragraph can be disregarded. Please see Uufflakke's comments in the next post.
If however you still feel the need to tune down land brightness in the map, it can be done.
It's a hassle if you use a map that comes with the stock game or mod pack you are using. If it's a downloaded extra map in your mods folder however, it's not too diffcult.
First create a set of new textures you would like to use, or change existing ones and save them with a new name. Then, open the load.ini of the map you'd like to change, and adjust the map texture paths in this file so they point to the textures you just saved. Now fix all bugs  . No big deal in theory, but as always, one will make small mistakes somewhere and then spend ages finding them...
You will find all the necessary in-depth info in this procedure in the SAS mapmaking forums.

Tuning down textures was a v4.09 technique for nightflying (most prominent example: asheshouse's Ruhr map).
However, with the new lighting model and proper mission date this is no longer necessary in 4.10 IMHO.

Light mods:
- Santobr's Relistic Lights v1.5 tweaks the appearance of runway lights.
  https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,3718.0.html
  It's a great mod, but do a before/after comparison, because depending on your install it may not be necessary to use it.**
- My own Realistic Airfield Lighting v1.0 (beta)
  https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,21562.0.html
  Adds low visibility taxiway lighting (always on but invisible from the air).

Anyway, as always, try without mods first and see if everything works.


Notes:
* On certain airfields, on certain maps, under certain conditions (we still don't understand this really) there is a known bug that the game ignores your request for landing lights. Very rare, but can happen. Thread here: https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,18834.0.html

** Lights used for runway lights are the same lights used as a/c nav lights. Therefore, any mod or modpackage that modifies aircraft lights, has an effect on runway lighting as well. Can lead to lights being too bright, too dark, too whatever, and this is exactly where this mod comes in handy.


Ooops, became a long post again. Anyway, hope I could shed some light on nightflying in Il-2.

Best
sputnikshock



 

[Uufflakke]

@Sputnikshock: Making landscapes darker can be done in an easier way just by changing the two parameters of the Landlight.mat.
That's a lot easier than editing texture for texture and changing their path in the load.ini.
The Landlight.mat file is responsible for brightness, darkness and contrast.
Something Avala explained in another thread.

Both screenshots were taken in clear weather conditions at 14.00 o'clock.
I changed the .mat file to a more extreme value just to show what happens.

Default Values of Landlight.mat:



Edited Values of Landlight.mat:

[sputnikshock]

Very cool trick Uufflakke! Didn't know this. Thanks!!!

[mandrill]

Thanks to both for taking such time and trouble to fill me in on stuff.