Nearing completion:



VonBeerhofen

Looks like it could be a building

VBH is that a High Res shadow?

Very good Brit, it IS a building.

Mark, you just gave me an idea. Like the mirrored 3D plane shadows in EAWPRO the groundobjects can potentially have the same thing, but in terms of memory it is an expensive one. Maybe usefull for some people's super computers, which I do not own, lol. But it won't harm to give it a try. Personally I favour what's been done in Gunship, which just adds a shadow polygon to the object itself, like in the recent housefix, which actually is a GS model.

The advantage is that it'll only cost a single node and needs no drawing, as it's using a grey single colored poly which doesn't use texture information. I wish I'd have thought of the GS shadows before, it'll take a lot of time to change all my models and add the shadow polygon.You see, just when you think you have it all sorted something like that make's you rethink everything and it's back to the rawing board.

VonBeerhofen

Welcome to my Dojo, it's not entirely finished yet but from here on it's about what else to add to the model to get the most out of it and perhaps create a few alternative temples. Anyway this is the base I'll work from.

VonBeerhofen

I had a feeling it was Asian by design, just the way the roof is shown in that "shadow" outline. Aw well I should have posted that before.

Practically every building in NW Europe that was of masonry construction was fought-over, and likely shot-up with artillery/tank fire, bombed, or both, as the situation demanded. Many such caught fire and burned as a result. This particular building, depending on the terrain, might have served as a Observation Post.

I suggest that such buildings were very often targeted, and destroyed as "Likely Enemy Targets" even if not actually such, as the infantry front-line approached them, and were often machine-gunned if they were in the path of returning fighter escorts ordered to attack 'Likely Enemy Targets" on their way home.

So, may I suggest that a shot-up, or burned-out version of the building be considered? Having a few of such, appropriately situated, might be more realistic, particularly in late-war scenarios. Some reference to photos of similar burned-out buildings might be a starting point, and old photos of similar buildings that came under artillery/tank fire might also be of use.

By the same token, such "Damage Models" could be expanded to other things besides buildings. For example, the Germans often used forested areas to mask the presence of armored vehicles parked underneath the trees during the day, when it was dangerous to travel, due to Allied Air. the Allied pilots became aware of this, and so began shooting up likely buildings and forest areas. So, how about the possibility of a shot-up grove of trees, and flaming, smoking German vehicles underneath the fallen trees? for that matter, how about a grove of trees shot up with no vehicles underneath it, simply because some artillery unit or fighter pilot thought it "might" harbor a German unit?

I realize this requires at least as much work as the original creation, and work of a different nature, but I submit the suggestion for your consideration. You seem to be a stickler for realism (it shows!), and so my suggestion.

Every object in EAW has a destroyed version RiBob, this one won't be any different. Thx for your suggestions but I think I already have plenty of examples of shot up buildings after 20 years of collecting information. Don't forget I'm from Holland which was right in the middle of it and I was brought up with the destruction caused by WWII and all it's side effects. Even today there are visible remnants of the war in my village, including minefields and pillboxes, anti tank walls, etc. My village was a part of the Atlantic Wall and as such almost completely destroyed to make room for the defenses. Its álso very close to a submarine harbour. I'll do my best to make it look realistic.

VonBeerhofen

As a newbie, I did not know that. I suppose I should have expected such, but I was ignorant.

There are many things I do not know, and I rely in the "Old Hands" to educate me.

Thank you!

ETA, is there some simple way to make the shadows anything other than dead black? Null Black probably works best from the air, but closer to the ground, dead black is unrealistic. Perhaps simply substituting a shade of grey, or a muted/darkened shade of the terrain on which the shadow falls? Yes, more work for you, but more realistic.

I suppose I am asking a question which has no simple answer, but asking anyways.

It does have a simple answer, the shadow can be any color, I normally use the color which you see in the planeshadow but a new feature in EAWPRO allows the use of semi transparent shadows as well. The reason for making it all black was that it was an easy way to show Microprose's Gunnship approach as mentioned earlier on in this thread. I've not decided yet about what to do with it but if I'll keep it then it won't be dead black. In EAW shadows are not calculated from the model as in more recent games, it's merely a black polygon underneath the model and in this case it is not seperate like the one's in v1.2. With various orientations of the model the shadow also gets that same orientation, meaning that the shadows will be criss cross throughout the EAW world.

It's why they were removed in EAWPRO and used for something else, usually a street or road drawing. You can draw a darker shadow on that as well, but there are a few techniques to choose from. I personally do not miss them when not there because in the 1.2 version about 60% didn't have any either. There just aren't any realistic options, it's up to the modder to decide what to do with em, I've pretty much tried anything I could think of but usually didn't find the result satisfactory. It looks better with a shadow attached but not when the objects have different orientations. They could even be drawn onto the terrain tiles, but doing it in the right spot where the object is placed is not going to be easy and besides that it's near impossible to do for anything which is a target in EAW as such targets are not fixed onto a certain tile but use a world coordinate instead.

I don't want to overload you with information on the subject but perhaps you get some insight into the problems we face with this old girl when it comes to creating theatres.

VonBeerhofen

There's been a lot of what you are suggesting already packed into different versions of EAW.

For instance, in the 2015ETO Target upgrade included with 1.6 some hospitals are camouflaged AA sites.

Some armament factories have groups of tanks and armored cars lined up outside waiting for delivery to the front. Most are inert but now and again one will shoot back.

These are just examples, there are other surprises that I will not describe, else they wouldn't be surprises.

Responding to VB (above) and you, here:

Obviously, as a newbie, I'm ignorant about most of the past work on EAW. The more questions I ask and the more suggestions I make, the greater the possibility for learning becomes, Mostly for me, but who knows? I might discover something that would be a positive contribution.

In any event, if my asking questions/making suggestions causes anyone to take a look at what has been done with the game from a different perspective, or provokes some useful thought, then that is all to the good.

I am reminded of an exchange between Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson wherein Watson made a series of conjectures. Holmes replied that the suggestions were very valuable, not because the suggestions themselves had any merit, but they caused Holmes to think of the matter at hand in a different light, and the solution to the investigation soon became apparent.

in addition to stimulating discussion for new upgrades and such, your questions give us a chance to tout what we've already done.

There's so much been added to EAW over the 20 years since release that it's easy to forget all the mods that have been added.

So ask away.

But not in this thread, I'm waiting for the Mystery Object...as in on topic.

Sorry, RiBob, the forum police have arrived.

Thx Mark, let's try to ignore Rotton's friendly social behaviour of hijacking threads again and move on with the topic.

Here's the one that will go very nicely with the above model. I''ll have a look on how high I can make it and possibly find a more suitable texture for a temple.



I'm sort of tweaking my own 2006 model here,

VonBeerhofen

Ah yes, well, so much for detente.

As this thread joins the long list of threads feeding the dumpster fire at least maybe Ribob will get a sense for where the problem lies.

Ah yes, well, so much for detente.

As this thread joins the long list of threads feeding the dumpster fire that is the EAW forum at least maybe Ribob will get a sense for where the problem lies.

Them there building blocks VBH.

Yep and I just put a few on top of eachother, Wonder what else I can give it, loads of room left.

VonBeerhofen.