Copy of a post made at the Gen
This picture is nothing unusual



You can see IM's Spit 9 multiskins, but the exe I was using does not have the 1517 hard coded lines listing the pairs of textures and special textures.
This is because it is reading the mapping from two string files "TextMap1.str" and "TextMap2.str".

There is a bit more I need to do, but it is looking very good right now
It is much easier to edit a string file than the exe.

Jel

Hi Tony.

Firstly, your being very naughty [read sticky above]

Secondly, I thought this might be a solution, but it's simply not going to be of any use.

The reason why is, if we can add new texture links, these might clash with other models, thus causing unexpected CTD's, because of missing tra files.

The texture links need to be kept in the exe, to force everyone to keep to a fixed way of skinning models.

I explored a few ideas with Ralf, but we decided there really was no better way for now.

I'm adding new texture links, to the 3dload.c so aircraft models will have an additional transparency link to use. It's just going to take me a while to do, because one link is several hundred lines code, which need to be written for all MS models/slots.

What I posted is not code, but comment as it has all been remmed out.

Well it is working flawlessly now with the default 1517 pairs of names in the two string files.



The benefit is that to make new links the editor only needs to add the corresponding filenames to the text versions of the two lists, save them and convert them back to string files. This is much easier and safer than editing and recompiling the eaw.exe, and avoids having to release a new one every time.
Nobody in their right mind would change the existing links unless an error in them was found (which would also be in the old hardcoded table), and who would want to use their version of the stringfiles if they did.

Jel

Not sure I can help out much with this. Sadly, I'm merely a high level technician while you guys are engineers.

I know which buttons to push but not why.




Maybe this is the time to bring up the ole "backwards compatible" issue again as John's comments seem to indicate this approach will cause a break in the way we produce models.

But I'm not even sure about that.

Sorry.

Ray

In simple terms there is a list of "tpc" files which have special textures associated with them hard coded in the eaw.exe.
I think that there were originally 70 pairs of names.
As the 1.28 series grew more and more were added. Currently their are 1517 pairs, and John wants to add even more.
This means editing the table in the exe, compiling it, and releasing a new exe every time more need to be added.

What I have done is to make an exe that reads the current 1517 pairs of names from two string files "TextMap1.str" which lists the "tpc" files and "TextMap2.str" which lists the corresponding special texture files.

That way only the string files need extending without the need for a new exe.

Jel

Ok, I can see an argument for both ways of doing this.

Ease of use vs a set standard that can't be fiddled with.

I will say that with so few of us still engaged in model making that an external file system that's easy to add to shouldn't be too hard to keep straight.

I'm fine either way, as long as I know what's going on and how to use the system.

I kinda got left by the way side on the whole transparency thing. I think the increased number of links was discussed around the time my wife was on her last legs so EAW wasn't too high on my list.

OK Guys.

Lets say we go with Tony's str file idea, but we agree that no one touches the links in it, so we don't mess things up.

There are so many textures out there, with funny pcx/tpc names we need to be very careful when adding links, because we need to be sure they have never been used, or the result will be an unexpected CTD.

Because, I'm the oldest surviving model maker, and I've seen just about every strange texture names there are around, I would like to propose that only I add new links to this file.

I was going to add one new link for aircraft to use, which would make 6 links per model. This should be more than enough for a model, and cockpit.

Also, I was going to add one link for each Tmod slot, so we can have glazed windows in buildings and vehicles, where needed. I've always wanted to add glowing panels in buildings, which would be seen though the windows of a building. It would look very nice at night, but as you get close the model switches and there no longer would be a light.

But that would be it. I really can't think of a reason to add any more.

I agree Col, you do the new links.
Later they can be documented so that people making new stuff for 1.28E stay with the system.

Jel