stickman's Modifications

[Old Dux]

ShadowShooter,

Nice set of pics. Rather poignant one of the Defiant crews. I wondered how many might have survived the Battle?
Who left the step out on the Hurri? Could easily get caught in some bugger's washing line.

stickman,

Thanks for the 'welcome back'.

[ShadowShooter]

Who left the step out on the Hurri? Could easily get caught in some bugger's washing line.

Yes mate, washing lines are the poor man's barrage balloon.

[whizkid]

I think we need a Sticky called Modifications by Members,
or some such. Is this a good idea?

I've been assiduously wading through all the Posts on BoB2 back to when the Forum started and came across this one, which left me wondering, "Was Stickmans idea ever acted upon?"
If not, I think it's an idea that should be acted upon, as it's a real chore to try and find a specific Mod in the mass of info. available to us. For instance, I've been trying to find any Mods about changing the Terrain, both in color and in Texture, and still haven't pinpointed it yet.
Maybe it could be called "BoB2 Mods" and simply be a listing of all available Mods made by Members from the start of BoB2 that are considered worthy of use. It could be broken down into Sub-headings such as "Aircraft Mods", "Terrain Mods", Building Mods", etc, etc. I've seen this on other Flight Sim Forums, and it saves an enormous amount of time when looking for stuff to modify your game. Any discussion about the Mod could still be seen in the Forum from a link to the Download, perhaps. Although I'm a newcomer here, and not too literate Computer-wise, I'd be happy to help find these Mods and collate a useable Post. It would sure save my eyesight, if nothing else! Thoughts?

[tipsypo]

I reckon thats the subscriber modifications post although is not sticky and does not really contain an "heres all the mods" list but rather everyone posts what they have created or are working upon in there so is still alota post searching to get what you want and even then the links might be for an old version.

http://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtop ... 10&t=12021

[whizkid]

May I comment on two things, Stickman? Firstly, why does your post on the DITHERS come in wider than all the other posts, so I have to use the slider to see all of it? Secondly, Could you darken the cement a little as it seems awfully lite for a used runway, and perhaps add some tire streaks at the beginning of the runway, denoting landing marks? Thirdly, (oops!), why do all the grassy areas in the villages seem out of focus, while the houses are in focus? Is this just the way it is with terrain, or what?

[stickman]

Firstly, why does your post on the DITHERS come in wider than all the other posts, so I have to use the slider to see all of it?

I like big pictures. Sorry that many of mine are too big. I like to show as much detail of what I do as I can.

Secondly, Could you darken the cement a little as it seems awfully lite for a used runway

Yes, quite easily. Wait.. I will supply a darker version some days later.

and perhaps add some tire streaks at the beginning of the runway, denoting landing marks?

No I cannot, due to the nature of the landmap2 textures. The tire marks would never line up the way you want.

However! Ben did make a flat tyre marks for airfields object for ObjectAdds:
#1178 TYREMK tyremarks for airfields

This can be placed as desired, and rotated as desired. It is wide and will extend off of concrete runway strips into the grass,
but for BoBII, it is OK, I think.
Ben made this tyre marks object, but he never placed it at any airfields that he made.
The only airfield that I made for v2.12 is Manston. I did place this #1178 TYREMK there for experimental purposes.
It looked OK. Do not recall if I left some of them in there. I shall look again.

why do all the grassy areas in the villages seem out of focus, while the houses are in focus? Is this just the way it is with terrain, or what?

The short answer is that
the building objects are not subject to the DITHER files,
whereas the Landmap2 ground texture files are subject to the influence of the DITHER files.

Tweaking the DITHER files in BoBII is kind of a Black Art that I am not very good at. Also a source of much frustration with better artists than I!
Also.. Too many textures in BoBII are shared by other totally different things.
Example, here, img0030 (the concrete land texture)
and the town and city land texture both share the same DITHER_4 family of DITHER files.

The DITHER_4 family of textures are therefore whore textures. (one texture shared by many other separate and different things).
A whore texture can fit good with only one thing. The others find only disappointment.

Often (monthly) at the BDG, I pound my fist on the table BAM! "I hate whore gauge pointers!"
I can't fix this, and no-one else cares to do so. So I make the best compromises that I can, with what I have.

Don't get me wrong about real life whores. I was a US Navy sailor for 6 years, and real life whores were OK by me. Never got ripped off.
95% of them are poor girl victims of nasty abuse. I always treated them with respect.

Whore textures do NOT belong in a Flight Simulation or a War Game, though.
So I pound my preacher's fist on the pulpit at the BDG every Sunday, telling the congregation how evil whore textures are.

----

I see that you wish to make a better bomber airfield that was not remade for BoBII and needs attention.

If so, I will supply a darker concrete, img0030.

The #1178 TYREMK tyremarks for airfields.
already rests in game waiting for someone to use her.

[PV]

why do all the grassy areas in the villages seem out of focus, while the houses are in focus? Is this just the way it is with terrain, or what?

The short answer is that
the building objects are not subject to the DITHER files,
whereas the Landmap2 ground texture files are subject to the influence of the DITHER files.

The longer answer is that the buildings are textured with chunks of
texture file, typically about 1/6th of a 2048 pixel square texture,
or more than 300x300 pixels detailing the skin of the object body.
The landscape is also tiled with 2048 square textures, unless you
set a lower value in the bdg.txt to ease the load on your vid card,
but in this case those pixels are distributed over 1.4km of terrain.
This means each pixel is covering 0.7m square of terrain, so the
terrain surface is going to be painted very low res. The renderer
smooths that out, so you don't see 70cm blocks everywhere, just
a blur; and the dither files make grass textures look chunky up close,
and beach sand look rippled, etc. Considering the size of the map
that has to be painted, the result is quite reasonable for the amount
of resources it uses.

[stickman]

whizkid,

I made a slightly darker concrete for you.

This is the one I first made made:


This one darkened a little bit. Not dark enough? I can get very dark.
I understand about the attempts to camouflage the concrete in 1940.
Then, again quite often, I get complaints from some players saying "I cannot see the bloody airfield to land!"
That is why I made my mod light. Some like light, some like dark. I aim to please both:


You mentioned tyre marks. Ben made a flat object and texture for them.
Since he never used it, I assume that it is because he did not quite polish it yet to his satisfaction.
It is available, and it could use some refinement.
Tyre marks under the aircraft, here:


I placed 7 of these TYREMARK objects at Tangmere. Based upon on how the AI aircraft land, and how some aircraft landing from other directions may screech.

[stickman]

Well.. I did not ultimately like Ben's TYREMARK texture.
I spent this Saturday refining a modification whereas it would only fit the concrete air strips.
Also, I wanted to tone it down a bit. Not so heavy an influence. I like to get gentle kisses, not blood-sucking hickeys!

So.. I refined this tyremark texture, today. I ain't a very good artist or blacksmith. I do like to hammer on and change things, tho.

Narrowed and limited the Mask much with an aim to reduction.
It took about 7 hours, but I arrived at something that I like.

Here at Tangmere I got a better look, with the tyremarks subdued and narrowed to within the concrete strip.


When I first looked at it this image, I was taken back to the Montana of my youth,
just after the snow melts and the gravel roads are turned into deeply rutted mud!
Back in Montana, after the snow melts, only 4-Wheel Drive pickup trucks can get to town!
And then.. only if they are out-fitted with a WARN winch, and your truck bed has a 30 pound maul and at least two iron stakes, (a yard long each)
to self-pull yer truck out of the deep and rutted mud!

Then you can get to town, and buy some beer and baby diapers!

Back to BoBII.
My line up is not perfect here, but I am happy that I made something that somewhat fits, and is not too obtrusive.
I can tune this fiddle up a bit better.


An over head view. Using my older cleaner concrete:


Another over head view. Using my later dirty concrete:

[Cherkassov54]

Looks good Jeff, I like the effect you get with it only at the ends of the runways which leaves the rest lighter and hopefully easier to see because of the contrast.

S!

[whizkid]

That last one looks great, SM, but looking at photos of actual working airfields the tire markings look considerably darker, black like rubber, which of course it is! Your amount and position looks about right, I'd say. A great addition when ready, I think. So back to the beer and music!

[whizkid]

Glad that you like the new mod re. tire marks! Never seen a runway without them. I'll be interested to see that mod.
Nothing wrong with beer! I've drunk my share in years gone by, but the memories of the morning after are still with me, so I limit myself these days.
As for various drugs, 'nuff said. I hate all of them, especially meth, after seeing its effects on my daughter and husband. America totally changed after pot started, and has gone downhill ever since. Yeah, I know, I'm an old man talking so what do I know, right?
Back in Hogarths day, Gin was called "Mothers Ruin" and with good cause! His drawings illustrate its effects better than any words could. Having said that, I love a nice G & T on a hot day!

[stickman]

On page 1, first post, I replaced my previous stickmans Concrete mod with a darker concrete concrete and my modified tyre marks texture.
Here, too:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/72omi ... _Marks.zip

Bill also suggested that just putting tyre marks at the ends of concrete air strips would be good, so that's what I did.

Tangmere. On the longer strip I placed 2 tyremark objects next to each other, and on the shorter strip, just a single object at each end.


Kenley. All doubled up objects at the strip ends:


Biggin Hill. The short strip with single objects. A closer view:


Debden. All double objects at ends:


Debden in Instant Action Takeoff. Close view of the tyre marks. I tried to make the marks smaller than they were, with not much effect.
I am not too good editing .DDS file masks. I did greatly reduce how much they show up on the underlying texture.
Also I cut away about 70% of Ben's original big and wide tyremarks texture, which I think, he made for grass fields?
I made the tyre marks for only concrete fields, hence, the reduction.


Note!
For Instant Action Takeoff, the position that the Player's aircraft starts is the same positional coordinates that Red Leader of the (1st) Squadron's position
will be placed in Campaign on takeoff. These coordinates are determined in the mainwld.bf file in the BFIELDS folder.
In previous versions of BoBII, if the Player would do the Takeoff IA mission at Kenley, the aircraft would not be even on the concrete strip. This always bothered me.
Ben changed most all of the RAF airfield terrain different, including the concrete strips, too.
So I had to edit mainwld.bf file coordinates so that all of the Player's aircraft in Instant Action Takeoff missions,
and most all of the Red Leader's aircraft of the (1st) Squadron position with concrete airfields, would be centered good on the concrete strip.
This I am proud of doing, for the better. I learned a lot about the mainwld.bf and MAINWLD.bfi file while reforming Airfield Operations at RAF fighter fields, for 4 months.

Colerne. This field has only a capacity of one Squadron. So I can place the Campaign Squadron that uses this field anywhere I like, as long as they are Regular or Veteran skilled pilots.
Novice and Poor skilled pilots land like moronic crazy idiots,
so I think I placed this Colorne placement to take into account how poor pilots land, and reducing their crazy landing behavior.
Anyway.. Red Leader starts centered OK to the concrete OK here, as I ordered him to do.


Northolt. This field has a capacity of three Squadrons. I looked at and edited many times, how even all three Regular Squadrons take off and land.
I compromised here, using Poor skill Squadrons, too, considering good and bad.
I can make it better if all pilots land decently, and not act like idiots!
This can be made better with a CODE help change, whereas POOR pilots can at least... land their aircraft OK.
Before they go into the air and fight veterans!
I always laid out my RAF airfield operations coordinates to make 3 Squadrons that are taking off at the same time,
and landing at the same time..
in Line Abreast, so as not to be running into each other badly when they land and taxi back to reform.
I can stack them like on a carrier. In a column for takeoff. When they all land at the same time, though, it looks like a real traffic jam!


North Weald. Similarly to my other compromises, I could not line up Red Leader goodly to the concrete strip.
Oh well.. cannot please everybody.


---------------

Must eat, and consider some other real life problems.

[Fish 40]

Looks great Stickman! D/L and installed in JSGME.

[Old Dux]

Good job! It certainly gives the runways that used look.