Hi all, been away awhile, but still kickin.....

I'm sure this was thought of before, but I dont know if it was ever tried?
A moving ship wake made from a contrail, like the torpedo?

Saw a ship wake in IL-2 and it reminded me of a contrail. Just curious.....

AO

The ships in SPAW and the ETO2015 Target upgrade have wakes. Just a simple "foamy" transparent element added to either side of the bow and at the stern of the models. Works pretty well.

Good to see you Roller- any chance of your flying EAW online again?

Floatplanes have wakes too

Jel

Like with most other addons, my wakes also use transparent polygons which are animated through animation codes and use their own drawing, but they're shadow replacements when not incorporated in the ships . Still it's not a bad idea to have both possibillities and it shouldn''t be too hard to incorporate. I'll keep it in mind for a boring December night or something. Thx AO.



VonBeerhofen

VBH:

After your pic I went back to check the wakes in the EAWPro release available from Mark.
To be sure I re-installed it in a new 1.2 folder and ran it as is with the only change being to the "eaw.ini" file so that my joystick worked properly.

I ran an Allied interdiction to Ostend which generated a sea convoy, and as result some issues emerged.


The destroyers have a substantial wake, but the transports have none.
The individual wave crests are OK but I guess they are placed by EAW_TTD.dat and the different tile orientations have them running in random directions.
I find this effect a bit wierd.

I have noticed before that EAW_TTD.dat seems to be generating some strange debris or seaweed on water tiles and I cannot determine what it is meant to be.


Other issues:
There is a sprite problem in the Spit 9 hangar.
I cannot download your bug fixed exe that you reported in the other thread because the link is not working.

I have not seen reports of these problems from other users in this forum, but they may want to check them out.

Cheers

Jel

I've seen the "seaweed" effect before, maybe a year and half ago,I think I told VBH about it. I never understood what it was for, It looks like little Flak explosions I think.

The bug fixed FXEXE exe is the same thats in the recent download on my mediafire account (I uploaded it just last week I think).

It IS a seaweed drawing, with fish mapped onto a tree 3DZ and lowered quite a bit below sealevel to mimic the ocean floor. It's a very old idea to add a 3D deep water effect. The original game can not benefit from the additional effects like the new polygon types, semi transparency and movement or animation, or the newly programmed use of the shadowslots. In general the 3D models are native to EAWPRO but I've tried to maintain as much backward compattabillity as possible as well as incorporating the possibillities of other EXE's. Ofcourse it couldn't be done without a trade off but there are only minimal side effects.

If you don't like it you simply remove the 3DZ model or replace it with one you like better. I do have better models now, as the semi transparent animated wake in in the picure, which give an even better effect, as they can move through the use of animation codes They may find their way into the addon or not, who knows. Ofcourse the best stuff is kept for The Final Cut.

I thought I gave all the ships wakes but maybe I forgot in all the turmoil. The Cruiser's wake can simply be copied into the transport ship's slots and the animated waves can simply be removed or replaced. Mr. Jelly should know that, after all he's very skilled in putting my models into his game version.

Some smart people will understand that the creation of addons is a very personal matter and will not take into account other people's desires, unless it's my desire too, but as has been common throughout the years of this game, you're welcome to screw things up if you know how, you're just not authorised to take posession of it.

There is NOT a problem with the Spit9 hangar, it merely contains the first ever edited hangar animation in EAW of a bug rolling onto it's back, once again if you don't like it remove it's offending .WSP file and restore the old animation. It's purpose was only to entice other people in trying to do the same.

As was written in this forum many times over, if you don't like it, don't play it, there's plenty of alternative addons. I like it and that's the only thing that matters to me, things I don't like, like unfinished or flawed 3D models, will simply not find their way into my game as they have a tendency to crash the game and simply don't look cool.

So if Mr. Jelly doesn't like it he has a problem, I can't be bothered to make his problem my problem too, it's not a bug but a WIP. Attention to detail can only be given on a priority basis and when the energy is there to do so. So like everyone else Mr. Jelly just has to wait for the next release and hope that something changes in the things he doesn't like.

The bugfixed EXE was taken down after seeing there were no additional views on it's release thread. The new EXE resides in the latest EAWPRO download at Mark EAW's helpsite.

VonBeerhofen

Not sure i have seaweed/ocean floor effect in the FXEXE Patches Help document, I'll have to see.
Thanks for the explanation.

So the sprite effects over the teacups, and the flypast across the hangar door are really meant to be like that for the players who download your stuff?
I cannot see a bug rolling onto its back.

As I wrote before, remove the offending screen or add the empty .WSP file to it, we all know that you're well capable of doing that. It's not an issue on the Launchpad's version and it'll have to wait untill I find the time and energy to look into it. Have a nice day.

VonBeerhofen

I fixed that ages ago, so it has never been a problem for me. The issue is that it is still a problem for anyone who downloads and installs the current version of EAWPro.

I also edited your EAW_TTD.DAT file so that the wave-crests and seaweed no longer appear.

Cheers

One issue with ship wakes is that ships that are not moving but appear with significant wakes look strange. I have seen cases where there are two ships at 180° to each other, which remain the same distance apart and the player sees them as obviously not moving. If even one of them has a wake it looks really bad.
With 160 we have the luxury of 1000 TMods, so we are able to use versions of the same ship, one with a wake for moving TMods and one without for static TMods.

Yeah you keep saying that over and over again like a broken record but v1.60 isn't capable of doing what EAWPRO is doing or vice versa. They're entirely different games targeting entirely different groups of players, which only shows the diversity EAW's addons are capable of. I've had a look at some of your 1000'ds of TMODS and most of em have a flawed R/S with disappearing or shine through polygons, but I understand the problem, there are simply not enough modders who really understand how the 3DZ format works and you're reliant on their and my creations.

I've taken EAWPRO to the limit of my and my friend's legacy computers and beyond, which is all that matters to me. Your 1000'ds of TMODS are the cause of v1.60 crashing these people's and my machines so I can not go beyond that capabillity, and to be honoust I'm happy with the fact that we can play the game all out at very high FPS and enjoy what EAWPRO has become. It's not meant to be competive with other games, it's meant to be different then anything else I've played before.

I hope we get to see your 1000'ds of tmods some day when they're fixed but. if you're happy with what you have then that's great, I'm happy with what I have and the hundreds of TMODS and various theatres I've thusfar created for EAWPRO, after all it's only a hobby to keep me going, nothing more, but if I can share some of that fun with others then that's an additional reward. Wether they like your version or mine better has no impact on improving EAWPRO further and it will just widen the gap between versions.

If you have so much problems with EAWPRO why don't you simply erase it from your machine and be done with it, you'ré obviously not very content with the addon you stole and I wouldn't feel the least bit sorry about it if you did. You can go your own way and I'll go mine, OK?

VonBeerhofen

This is to clarify and refute erroneous statements.

There are somewhere around 330 TMODs in the ETO2015 European scenario which is the highest number we've been able to produce. The vast majority have been used in one for or another in numerous scenarios for at least 15 years.

SPAW was created when we had a 255 TMOD limit so it isn't even as much of a strain on an old PC as that.

There is NO DANGER in using them. Despite claims, no one has ever had a CTD due to "TMOD overload". A really old PC might have frame rate slow downs when flying over target rich environments but it ain't gonna crash. There may be OTHER reasons for a CTD as this whole modding thing can get pretty complicated.

We've experienced a number of these claims from one member, up to an including the claim that some mod would not only crash the PC but would actually wipe a hard drive. Having played, modded and tested this game for close to 20 years, with as much knowledge as anyone else in this forum, I assure you that is not the case.

You can use the 1.6 series in complete confidence that you are in a safe gaming environment.

They're not erroneous Rotton, as you yourself mentioned in a recent thread, asking Mr. Jelly wether the model was causing a CTD. You appearently fixed it but it doesn't change the fact that such models can crash the game when the conditions for it are favourable. I just hate to have to search for such issues and fix them, it's way to timeconsuming and the only way to not have such issues is to calculate a proper R/S on these models.

VonBeerhofen

Completely wrong, VBH. Nothing as complex as you make it out to be.

I simply made a long distance view model ( S ) from the middle distance model ( M ) and forgot to remove the hardpoints thus causing the CTD.

Had another one recently with the ETO2015 target set. Any time I hit the target key the game CTD'd. Tony and I worked through the problem TOGETHER, in the interest of improving the game.

The thing is, Tony finds problems like this with my work from time to time, it's inherent in the modding process. The different is I don't act like a thin skinned infant and reply with snide comments about HIS work.

And again, no one has ever experienced a hard drive wipe caused by some EAW mod.

No one.

Ever.

You've made claims like this for two decades now without showing one single shred of evidence and I think it's about time you stop doing it for the good of the community.

The fact still stands Rotton, irrespective of your explanation. I know what causes CTD's with 3D models, after all I've build them for 18 years now. I could write a list of issues I've encountered but I'm not going to. So the public now knows that leaving hardpoints in certain 3DZ's will cause a CTD, but that's just one of the possible issues people may encounter, is it not? I'm just telling the public and you that ANY fault in the 3DZ can cause a problem, as I've learned from experience, and that includes R/S flaws. It's not any different for the other files in EAW.

You can challenge my expertise but I know what I know, if you know better then me then show it in the models you create and make em right. If you can't then you shouldn't tell the public what I say is erroneous. I can tell you one thing, Tony won't find any such issues in my models, not even the one's I created without an R/S calculator, as I've spend loads of time figuring out what worked, what not and why, but should there be any then I'll gladly repair them.

What is good for this community is that you learn how to build proper models, if you can't then it's you who puts this community at risk since I'm doing it all according to the rule book and I will keep on pointing that out untill things change for the better.

VonBeerhofen

So, not satisfied with denigrating Tony's work you now turn to my work, insinuating that I don't know how to make models and that somehow MY models are a THREAT to folks HD's?

Nice try.

Unfortunately for you, facts beat fiction.

But that's you to a "T".

20 years worth of insinuations and oblique references to things that "could go wrong" in so many areas of EAW.........yet never any evidence.

20 years worth of backbitting, snide comments and a demonstrable lack of ability to take ANY criticism. Don't have to go further than this thread to see that.

It's too bad really. A group effort by the Code Group members, including you, 10 years or so ago could have really made EAW shine, but you don't do group efforts, do you?

Can't have others hogging the limelight, right?

Words twister, I've said that ANY flawed 3DZ can cause CTD's when the conditions are favourable. This statement is absolutely true wether you like it or not and you proved my point. Because of that I'm not willing to test your or C.G.'s models anymore, I get plenty of CTD's from working on the one's I create myself. Favourable conditions means that there are a lot of factors at play, both within the game as externally and may even involve conflicts with standard processes running in the back ground. There is no telling when disaster strikes. The problem has only gotten worse with later operating systems. All I can do is pay attention to the signs I've seen.

It's a bit silly to state that people who suffered harddrive or O.S. crashes never reported EAW as the cause. There's no way someone can find reasons for such happenings after the crash. When they'd find that eaw caused it I'm sure they wouldn't even bother to report, they'd simply bin their version of the game and play another which is more stable and secure. I've made that same statement app. 10 years ago, when it was also ridiculed by you and others who didn't know how to create a proper R/S, and my feelings haven't changed since then. In fact I've only read more proof of these facts and as a programmer I have to take such issues into account. It would be imprudent, to say the least, to neglect such issues as I have too much at stake.

Don't expect me to start lying for the benefit of EAW alone as there's a reason for disclaimers in addons. The only good way to handle the issues is to try and stay as far away as possible from them, so that's what I'm doing. The last thing I want is to see the Launchpad pilots go after 10 years of service, you should take a simmilar stand. I put my own computer at risk app. 100 times a day, rather then putting other people's computers at risk. and I have suffered severe consequences on the computers which were solely and entirely dedicated for modding EAW. I have no idea what invoked disaster but I definately didn't like it and as a result it wasn't easy to pick up the pieces and get back on track.

VonBeerhofen

It is not just flawed 3dz files that cause CTDs. Many flawed files can cause a CTD, along with incompatible "*.MSN" files when theatres are switched.
However, there is a big difference between a CTD and a hard drive crash.
Past comments about users risking the possibility of a hard drive crash when using the code group's exes were made without one iota of supporting evidence.
AFAIK nobody has reported a crash of their hard drive that could be linked to the use of one of out exes in over 10years of use.