Ship Adjustments

[craiggbrown]

Could you share your improvements with us when you are done with them?

If you're on about my corvette stuff, I'm not keeping it exclusive to my game.
When it's applied to all corvette models, I'll upload the changes.

Thank you EC! Did you check out the new ships i uploaded to the PoTC FTP?

To ALL: Is it possible to make the ships recognize more than 3 hulls in CoAS? and do any of you know how to merge GM files together or cut and past parts of one model and put it on another model?

 

[Armada]

Thank you EC! Did you check out the new ships i uploaded to the PoTC FTP?

Just so you know, I've got something special planned for the Corvettes. (and, if successful, other stock ships too, perhaps).
I haven't checked those ships yet, but I will do when I get a chance.

and do any of you know how to merge GM files together or cut and past parts of one model and put it on another model?

All I can think of myself is a workaround: like Seb's extra details, just put a locator on the main hull, for each extra detail model, so that it fits perfectly in-game, and looks like it's been merged.
As for copying and pasting, that's probably a bit more complicated.

 

[Armada]

Just so you know, I've got something special planned for the Corvettes.

Ever looked at some of our stock ships and thought, even after modifications, that "there's still something missing"?
I expect most of us have, so here's a preview of what I've added to fill that empty space...

[attachment=5628:Rerigged_Corvette.jpg]

Ropes! Lots of ropes! 24 more to be exact! What do you think?
Adds a bit more character to her, in my opinion.

 

[craiggbrown]

Looks much more realistic. Nice Job.

I like surprises. especially when they make ships look better. :will

 

[Armada]

Exactly my intention, and I'm glad you like it.

It's now 26 new ropes, by the way. Another couple added to link the lower spanker mast to the stern.

 

[craiggbrown]

You guys should add these rope things. I'm sorry I don't know what the heel there called. :j3

[attachment=5629:Rope things.jpg]

 

[Pieter Boelen]

GoF = Gentlemen of Fortune http://forum.piratesahoy.net/topic/16224-how-to-apply-to-be-part-of-the-gof-compiling-team/ Its more a rename for the CoAS CM Mod.

AH! Of course; I forgot about that.

Thanks for the info Pieter. How do you make a link to the FTP?

http://www.pyratesahoy.com/coas/Craiggo/

Do any of you know how to merge GM files?

What do you mean with "merge"? What do you want to do?

Ever looked at some of our stock ships and thought, even after modifications, that "there's still something missing"?
I expect most of us have, so here's a preview of what I've added to fill that empty space...
[...]
Ropes! Lots of ropes! 24 more to be exact! What do you think?
Adds a bit more character to her, in my opinion.

That IS nice! I was just thinking a couple of days ago it'd be nice if the game would display the ropes regardless of distance from the camera.
Computers nowadays should be good enough to handle ropes everywhere. I don't think we can change that for PotC though.

 

[Armada]

You guys should add these rope things. I'm sorry I don't know what the heel there called. :j3

I would if I knew how to do so. I can do locators, but not so much fiddling with GM files themselves.

That IS nice! I was just thinking a couple of days ago it'd be nice if the game would display the ropes regardless of distance from the camera.
Computers nowadays should be good enough to handle ropes everywhere. I don't think we can change that for PotC though.

Well for certain ships it DOES display all ropes (like the corvette ) regardless of camera zoom.
I think it's mostly larger ones, where the camera zooms out further, which do not display all ropes when zoomed out.

And, of course, if you like what I've done with the corvette, I'll move on to some more stock models and do something similar...

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Ah, draw distances. Yes greater draw distance is better, but I'm not sure it would work with ropes over large distances. One thing one can do to help ropes show up better is to set ones video card to "high quality" or whatever its highest setting is. That should turn off all "optimizations" and give the greatest draw distance. Also setting the antialiasing and anisotropic filtering (AA & AF) to 16X makes an even larger difference in showing the ropes. To me, this is a large ship (the old Surprise)seen at max distance and the ropes are still visible.

PS: Yes! More ropes!

 

[craiggbrown]

Do any of you know how to merge GM files?

What do you mean with "merge"? What do you want to do?

I want to add the ropes you see in the picture in my earlier post to EC plus detailed cannons with rigging. The problem is that I have two hulls. One with ropes and detailed cannons but no see through cabin windows and one with see through cabin windows but no ropes and detailed cannons. I know how to view the locators in GM view but i don't know how to modify them.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Can you have a look at one of the steamfrigates? Even when I set everything to max, the ropes disappear when zooming out.
And while some things did look a bit sharper, the main noticeable effect was the FPS that went way down to unfunny.
And that's with what is supposed to be a pretty darn good laptop!

 

[bumpkin]

You guys should add these rope things. I'm sorry I don't know what the heel there called. :j3

[attachment=5629:Rope things.jpg]

Those rope thingies are called the Deadeyes. The rope between the upper and lower deadeye blocks is part of the running rigging, whereas the shroud and back stays, which are served, parceled and tarred, are considered standing rigging. Their purpose is to allow adjustment of the shrouds and stays to tune the rig. Though this not done very often. The bottom deadeye is stropped to a metal bar or a couple stout chain links which are through bolted to a hull frame. On the bottom they terminate at the chain plates (the plank that sticks out from the side of the hull and acts as a spreader to give a wider purchase). On modern sailboats this function is perform with a turnbuckle. On Schooners there are usually one adjustable port and starboard backstay for each mast. The reason for this is because the force applied to the mast and windward shrouds by the big gaff sail can stretch the shrouds to the point were the lee shrouds become slack. The adjustable backstay helps tension the rig on the fly. The small footropes between the shrouds which form a latter structure are call 'ratlines' usually pronounced 'ratlins'.

With regard to ropes. The more the better I say. If you look at a typical square sail there are around 8 to 12 control lines for each sail. A pair of braces to pivot the yard for and aft. Two sheets to draw the lower corner of the sail (I believe its called a clew, hence the term "get a clew") down. Two clewlines to draw the lower corner of the sail up to the yard. For the topsail and course you have a pair of leechlines to bring the edge of the sail forward, buntlines to draw the edge of the sail up, helps for reefing. Finally two to four lift lines used for furling the sail. Oh forgot the halyard used for raising the yard up the mast, all yards except the course, sprit yard, driver boom and crossjack yard move up and down the mast when the sail is stowed or set.

hope this helps, sorry did not mean to be so long winded. Likely I am preaching to the choir anyway.
Greg.

 

[Armada]

Can you have a look at one of the steamfrigates? Even when I set everything to max, the ropes disappear when zooming out.
And while some things did look a bit sharper, the main noticeable effect was the FPS that went way down to unfunny.
And that's with what is supposed to be a pretty darn good laptop!

I've noticed those exact same effects myself, both the steam frigate and the lower FPS with higher quality anti-aliasing etc.
That's with a pretty decent processor and High Def graphics card, too. I partly blame my lack of free hard disk memory (now 10.5GB).

And judging by general responses, it looks like I'll be doing up a few more ships...
@bumpkin, that's very interesting stuff; there's more nautical terms in there than I've ever seen in a couple of paragraphs!
Unfortunately I can't achieve that degree of accuracy with these new ropes. :wacko:
But luckily what I've done seems to do the job.

EDIT: While I think about it, are there any specific requests for the next stock ship for me to 'upgrade'? I was planning to do the battleships next, but after that...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I've noticed those exact same effects myself, both the steam frigate and the lower FPS with higher quality anti-aliasing etc.

I've still got 304 GB left. I don't think the HD space makes much of a difference.

EDIT: While I think about it, are there any specific requests for the next stock ship for me to 'upgrade'? I was planning to do the battleships next, but after that...

Uhm... maybe work your way down through the classes? Though skip the Manowars and Warship models; they're not very good anyway.
The frigates and maybe your lineships sound like a good place to continue to me... :?

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Well, I got the console to work at letting me scroll thru the ships, but before it got to the steamfrigates it ctd'ed 3 times in a row. I'm now saving my piastres to just buy one of the things.

A curiosity. I started a new game, so was at Spieghtstown. I walked out on the spit of land next to the dock until the lugger's ropes were visible, and then started scrolling. The only other ships that showed ropes were some of the VCO ships. Is it possible to adjust the thickness of the ropes? I know that old games generally have long draw distances and the new games have very short draw distances. Somehow it seems to be tied into things like detail bias and number of sub images. I think. ops2

Yes, those things do lower the fps. Maybe you should only do it when taking screenies and testing. It doesn't make that much difference to me. I drop them down, but start cranking them right back up again. It is only when the fps gets below 25 or so that it get noticeable. Methinks movies run at 30fps.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Well, I got the console to work at letting me scroll thru the ships, but before it got to the steamfrigates it ctd'ed 3 times in a row. I'm now saving my piastres to just buy one of the things.

Do you know at which ships it CTD-ed? That's important to know for us!
Also, you don't need to scroll through the ships to get the steamship; you can just use this line instead. That's what I do:

GiveShip2Character(pchar,"FR_SteamFrigate","Jeanne d'Arc",-1,FRANCE,true,true);

A curiosity. I started a new game, so was at Spieghtstown. I walked out on the spit of land next to the dock until the lugger's ropes were visible, and then started scrolling. The only other ships that showed ropes were some of the VCO ships.

That is probably because those ships have their ropes modeled onto them. Because when you're using the console to give you any ship,
the sails, flags and ropes don't show up until you next reload to another location or to sea.

Is it possible to adjust the thickness of the ropes?

Yes. In RESOURCE\INI\rigging.ini:

[ROPES]

; TEXTURE NAME
TextureName = sail_rope.tga

; length of segments
fSEG_LENGTH = 2.0
; rope width
fWIDTH = 0.03	// Petros: stock value is 0.025 - LDH set back from 0.05
; end conus length
fEND_LENGTH = 0.01
; ampitude
fWAVE = 0.1
; minimum coordinate change for recalculate all rope
fMaxCh = 0.1
; length of rope accord one texture
fTexHeight = 0.2
; êâàäðàò ìàêñèìàëüíîãî ðàñòîÿíèÿ ñ êîòîòðîãî âèäíû âåðåâêè
fMaxDist = 5000.0
; ñêîðîñòü èçìåíåíèÿ ãëóáèíû ïðîãèáà âåðåâêè
fDeepChangeSpeed = 0.15
; ñêîðîñòü êà÷àíèÿ âåðåâêè
fRotateSpeed = 0.08
; ìèíèìàëüíîå çíà÷åíèå êîýôôèöèåíòà èñïîëüçîâàíèÿ ïðîãèáà âåðåâêè
fMinDeepMul = 1.0
; ïðåäåë èçìåíåíèÿ êîýôôèöèåíòà èñïîëüçîâàíèÿ ïðîãèáà âåðåâêè
fVarDeepMul = 0.7
; àìïëèòóäà óãëà êà÷àíèÿ âåðåâêè
fRotateAng = 0.5

Set fWIDTH to something higher. There's already some comments there indicating it's been touched before,
been increased and then decreased again. I don't remember why, but possibly when you set it too high, it starts looking weird.

It is only when the fps gets below 25 or so that it get noticeable. Methinks movies run at 30fps.

Back when I was in primary school, I once made an animated movie. That was 24 fps. Films generally are 25, yes.

 

[Armada]

I've still got 304 GB left. I don't think the HD space makes much of a difference.

You just put my 72.4GB total HD space to shame!

Uhm... maybe work your way down through the classes? Though skip the Manowars and Warship models; they're not very good anyway.
The frigates and maybe your lineships sound like a good place to continue to me... :?

Can do, but why skip the Manowars and Warships? Any improvement is an improvement, right?
Besides, the least I can do for the Warships is put the stern ensign on the spanker...

Do you know at which ships it CTD-ed? That's important to know for us!

I just had a quick look myself; seems it's Battleship4. :? I'll look into it.

Is it possible to adjust the thickness of the ropes?

Yes. In RESOURCE\INI\rigging.ini:
[...]
Set fWIDTH to something higher. There's already some comments there indicating it's been touched before,
been increased and then decreased again. I don't remember why, but possibly when you set it too high, it starts looking weird.

I guess it would look better for bigger ships, but for the really small ones, it would look stupid (huge ropes on a Tartane? : ).
Shame it can't be dependant on ship size... can it? :?

EDIT: About Battleship4, it seems it was missing the "fonar_day" and "_night" GM files, so if you copy and paste Battleship3's versions, then rename to Battleship4, that fixes it. However, it seems that both these ships have their mainmast locators too high up, such that the masts are floating. :blink: I'll sort this one out, too, while I'm at it.
EDIT2: Two more things:

1. The masts on Battleship4 have reverse lighting. -> Fixed by copying and pasting Battleship3's masts
2. Battleship4's 1st person camera won't move! -> Fixed by copying and pasting Battleship3's path

 

[Pieter Boelen]

You just put my 72.4GB total HD space to shame!

ops2

Can do, but why skip the Manowars and Warships? Any improvement is an improvement, right?
Besides, the least I can do for the Warships is put the stern ensign on the spanker...

You don't have to skip them. I just thought that since they're big and sluggish, most people don't use them.
And their models aren't too nice anyway, so your efforts are better spent on ships that are already nicer and more commonly used.
But either way, it's your choice.

I guess it would look better for bigger ships, but for the really small ones, it would look stupid (huge ropes on a Tartane? : ).
Shame it can't be dependant on ship size... can it? :?

Don't think so, no...

... About Battleship4 ...

Thanks for figuring all that out!

 

[Armada]

You don't have to skip them. I just thought that since they're big and sluggish, most people don't use them.
And their models aren't too nice anyway, so your efforts are better spent on ships that are already nicer and more commonly used.
But either way, it's your choice.

Well certainly the Warships could do with the Ensign moving, at least.
I'm thinking about what the player sees in encounters, too, so even if it isn't a popular choice, it will still look right from a distance.
But I agree that the nicer models are more worth my time.

I guess it would look better for bigger ships, but for the really small ones, it would look stupid (huge ropes on a Tartane? : ).
Shame it can't be dependant on ship size... can it? :?

Don't think so, no...

Just some quick brainstorming: what if we could assign each ship a 'size' attribute (e.g. small, medium, large), and then used 'if' statements (or something like that) to determine the rope thickness for each category. Is that possible?

... About Battleship4 ...

Thanks for figuring all that out!

No problem. I've no idea how long those problems have existed, but now that's several less issues to worry about!

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Well certainly the Warships could do with the Ensign moving, at least.
I'm thinking about what the player sees in encounters, too, so even if it isn't a popular choice, it will still look right from a distance.

I can't disagree with that one.

Just some quick brainstorming: what if we could assign each ship a 'size' attribute (e.g. small, medium, large), and then used 'if' statements (or something like that) to determine the rope thickness for each category. Is that possible?

The main issue is to convince different ships to use a different rigging.ini file that has a different rope thickness.
That might be possible in a "Different Flags" mod kind of way, but is not simple to code at all.