Improved pistols

Next problem: the early period short pistol now looks nice but the standard short pistol looks grotty:


This is because stock guns have texture files with pitifully low resolution - 128x64. So, a bit of Google image searching for some real Queen Anne pistols, some Photoshopping of pieces of pistol into a 512x256 version, and this is the result:


Barring any objections, I'd like to put that into the game, replacing the stock texture. The model is the same, and as it's a plain-looking Queen Anne pistol, interface pictures don't need to change - it's just a straight drop-in replacement for the texture file.

Grey Roger said:

Barring any objections, I'd like to put that into the game, replacing the stock texture.

Click to expand...

I fully support that! Looks good.

Likewise, here's the model used for the brace of small pistols, "pistol7":


Now also with new texture:

And now for "pistol2", the long pistol. On the left, the original; on the right, the improved version.


And this is "pistol201", one of @Jack Rackham's pistols for "Woodes Rogers". It looks very similar to both:


"pistol201" appears to be a retexture of AoP's "pistol5", which is basically an improvement on PoTC's "pistol2" - same frame design, same trigger guard, even the same angel wing decoration on the left side. Compared to the AoP version, "pistol201" has a richer wood colour and a bronze barrel. So, to make my "pistol2" look a bit different, I've used the CoAS:GoF version, which has a slightly different angel wing, and I've gone the other way, toning down the wood and smoothing out the barrel detail to make it look more like a round barrel. The net result would be that "pistol201" would be what it has always effectively been - a customised, more polished version of the standard long pistol.

Pending comment by @Jack Rackham, I've included the new version in the update but have not altered "initItems.c" to use it. For now, the new long pistol is "pistol2a". If you want to try it out, download the update, then edit "initItems.c" and edit the line for "pistol2" to change it to use model "pistol2a".

They both look pretty good! Hopefully you can actually notice the new detail in the game too.

Giraldo Annibal, one of Ardent's officers, shows off the basic short pistol, while Donna Lucia has the bronze-barrelled, ivory-handled version used for the brace of pistols:


Excuse me, Lucia - could you raise your arms so we can see that pistol a bit better?

Here's Giraldo again, now showing the original "pistol2" on the left, and the newer "pistol2a" on the right.


The difference would probably be more noticable on a modern, high resolution monitor, but even here you can see the difference on the angel wing decoration, and on the hammer if you look closely.

Second one looks much nicer.

Next: "pistol5" and "pistol9", which are the horse pistol and brace of horse pistols:

Apart from the low resolution, this one doesn't even use its texture file properly. You can't see the mechanism on "pistol5" properly because it's smeared half way down the grip - the texture for that part is too far back. "pistol9" tries to move it forward so that the mechanism displays properly, but now the frizzen spring is duplicated further along the frame. So improving the horse pistol by improving the texture file isn't going to work unless someone volunteers to rebuild the model, which I'm not going to ask anyone to do.

That leaves two options:

• Leave the pistol as it is.
• Replace the pistol entirely with a new model imported from somewhere else.

The snag with replacing it is that I can't use one from AoP because they've all been bagged for use in "Woodes Rogers", and I can't use the one from CoAS:GoF because that's the one I used for the new duelling pistol. Or maybe I can... If I make a retextured version of "pistol3_14", which is Jack Sparrow's pistol, then I can use that for the duelling pistol. The unmodified GoF "pistol5" can become the new PoTC horse pistol, while the modified version becomes the new brace of horse pistols.

Maybe @LarryHookins knows another source of pistol weapon models?

I have this one from POTEHO which I think is a beautiful pistol.

If you're interested I can upload what's needed.

Definitely interested! I've made quite a lot of progress with the new duelling pistol, which I don't want to throw away, and anyway formal duelling pistols only appeared in the late 18th century whereas that looks like a fairly early pistol. So what I suggest is to do for the flintlock pistol ("PiratesPistol") what I did for the short pistol, which is have a different version for earlier periods - in this case, "Spanish Main" and "Golden Age". That pistol looks perfect for the earlier flintlock.

Alternatively, maybe just use that one as a straight replacement for "pistol8", which is the brace of flintlock pistols, and which at present is another retexture of the "pistol2" model. It has a left-handed mechanism, which works nicely if it's the second pistol of a pair. (Or, for that matter, if you normally fire your pistol with your left hand, which is what all PoTC characters do because their right hand is holding their sword.)

Ok here it is. I moved the gun-fire locator close to the end of the barrel like other POTC guns.
You can change size of the pistols with the TOOL if you want to switch which is which.

The texture file is "Miquelet.tga.tx", so I looked up "Miquelet" on Wikipedia. Two features associated with miquelets, though not always present, are an external mainspring and a large ring on the top jaw of the hammer, both of which can be seen on this model. The type is most strongly associated with Spain.

So, we can make this an early flintlock (Spanish Main and Golden Age), tie it to Spain, or both of the above.

Meanwhile, this is the original Jack Sparrow flintlock:


This is a pair of real duelling pistols from the Napoleonic period:
Bonhams : A pair of English flintlock duelling pistols by Wogdon & Barton

And here is my attempt to convert the former into the latter:

Jack Rackham said:

Ok here it is. I moved the gun-fire locator close to the end of the barrel like other POTC guns.

Click to expand...

I think I know why later games moved the locator forward. It sets the position for the smoke cloud when the gun fires, but it's a position inside the cloud. So when the gun fires, it does this:


I moved the locator forward and, after a bit of trial and error to get the position right, it now does this:


And here it is among the other guns I've been working on (console is wonderful for giving yourself free weapons to try out ):


Next: does POTEHO have a decent model of a quad-barrel pistol which is not the same as the AoP / GoF one? The PoTC quad-barrel pistol is a Pepper-box which was invented in 1830, the late end of our "Napoleonic" period. It's a version with a percussion firing system - the hammer is wrong for a version suitable for PoTC.

Well, if it looks better with the smoke cloud a bit away from the barrel end then maybe all pistols should be changed some time...

On both pictures maybe up just a little with the smoke. Right in front of the barrel.

Any pistol I've been working on, which is most of those from the stock game, are indeed getting the locator moved forward a bit. And in some cases, I also used TOOL's "Scene editor" to move the entire pistol forward a bit so that any character holding it is holding the grip properly.

The most recent pistol to be upgraded is "pistol6", the double-barrel pistol. AoP's "pistol6" has a texture file which appears to be for a similar pistol, though AoP's "pistol6" is actually its quad-barrel pistol - the one used for PoTC's quad-barrel grapeshot pistol. The quad-barrel pistol doesn't use the brass bits but they're in the texture file anyway, so I just increased the size of the PoTC texture file and copied parts of the AoP file into it. (And then fixed the position and locator of the model.)

POTEHO has this 4-barrel pistol. 2 flintlocks and 4 barrels.

There is also pistol26 already in POTC which I imported as a quest gun for someone a little too eager to copy what I had made.
Maybe you can use that one as well. I made it a grapeshot pistol. Not necessary at all.

Aha. maybe I thought of the blade's end locator when I moved the locator.