My leopard 2 a4... need sum help!

[GeneralMortars 0]

Hi! Have started to work on a German Leopard 2 A4 to give the tank fanatics in OFP (including myself) sumthing to play with.

Unfortunately a problem appears that annoying me since sum time. Whenever putting a texture over a selection, and viewing the result in Buldozer, the texture is blurry and  important details are missing. Investigate yourself...

Texture used in example is 512x1024. Should be enough to get a more detailed output than on the picture shown, don't you think! Could anyone help me out of this??

I wouldn't have blurry textures in my addons. As long i doesn't start to make clouds or sumthing  

Regards.. GM

[Scorpio 0]

here's a tip...when you make your textures in whatever program you are using, export the texture to .jpg format. Then, fire up TexView, and save it as a .paa texture inside the Data folder, in the O2Viewer folder. Then, go to O2, and skin your Leopard with the new texture thats inside the Data folder. Or you could try to make it a bit more high res..

[cam0flage 0]

Wow! A Leopard 2A4 ... didn't know that one of these was in the works. Too bad I am not an addon maker so I cannot help you, but please try to finish this model It would be nice to have a Leo in Finnish Defence Forces camo also, because we just bought 124 of these from Germany.

Keep up the good work!

[der bastler 0]

What picture format do you use? I'm using the tga format -besides the possibility of defining transparent areas it provides best results for me...

Or do it the hard way: place the textures (I think one can distinguish between up and down); save your work; use a hexeditor and replace all ".paa" or ".pac" with ".jpg"; stuff the p3d with jpg-versions of your textures.

Advantage: skinning new variants is much more easier (no need for paa-jpg-paa-conversion)

Disadvantage: in case of future editing in O2 the jpg-textures don't show up in buldozer...

[PSC 0]

The textures you see in Bulldozer are just preview textures. They are not shown in full resolution (I thinnk Bulldozer can only show textures up to 256x256). But my knowlege might be out of time. I'm still using my first version of Bulldozer.

For full resolution you need to check your model in the game.

PSC

[GeneralMortars 0]

Ok... Thank you all, especially PSC! In the meanwhile i also find out on some other (inoff) addon, that buldozer previews are much more lowres than ingame.

What is the reason? I use Oxygen2 Light (the freeware thing). Does anybody know about some (secret) buldozer options, where one can raise detail level and such??

Even it's a disadvantage, because my model isn't ready for ingame yet, i'm feeling abit better now, coz it's seemingly not my failure, that model is so blurry in buldozer.

So, further progress on Leopard is given! But i doesn't know when it's finished coz i'm beginner in making addons, eventhough i'm sumwhat skilled in most mod-concerning topics.

@cam0flage:

Probably i'll do different versions of the Model, as soon the A4 is finished.

The first version i create is the German-Army model in 3 colour camo, introduced in 1985.

Perhaps later i'll add camouflaged version. A5 and A6 model, and probably even finish camouflage. Depends on how much time i have to invest in that thing!

@DerBastler:

I use Paint Shop Pro 7 to create the textures. Save them into Jpg, load into TexView11 by BIS, and convert into pac or paa.

I also use that Mip-Mapping. Doesn't know if that's really necessary or not.

Well... best regards

Everytime there's sum major progress (Ingame and such), i'll post into this thread.

Over and Out

GM

[GeneralMortars 0]

Ok... That thing seems to go well! There's still sum more or less important problems, but i'll guess with a little search in the forum(s) i get rid of them.

Leo 2A4 Model is now ingame. Take a look...

Though there's still alot of work to do, to make it that perfect as i want to have.

Regards

GM

[cam0flage 0]

Looks very nice! Keep up the good work and maybe post some new screenshots? A view from the tank's front would be very nice.

[GeneralMortars 0]

Voila! 2 new frontviews...

Picture 1

Picture 2

A Hell of work to texture all that Leopard by hand. Some details are taken from real pictures, but however there's stuff left, that has to drawn by hand.

Quiet an effort i'll put in the interior, which is by far the most difficult part of whole tank. Fortunately i've found sum excellent sources to have a deeper look to the interior.

Well. I also think the engine sound i created is near as possible to a real leo. Have sampled and upload it to my webspace. Example .mp3 of 4 LEO's coming down the street, until they cross the way of 2 soldiers, you can find here...

Boosting LEO Sound

Though i use Munger's Soundmod which is far more better than the original in my oppinion, it may be that the sound isn't that awful great on conventional OFP-Sound-Engine! Please report if you discover the sound is somewhat terrible to your ears, so i can fix it!

Regards!

GM

[cam0flage 0]

Nice work! I'm very impressed by the model. When you get something done with the interior, could you post us some pictures? The engine sounds pretty similar to that Bundeswehr mod Leopard, but I guess that's how it's supposed to be.

How about those 2 machineguns 2A4 has? I don't see them in the model ...

[GeneralMortars 0]

More pictures wanted? Yes of coz, but first let me finish the interior of that thing!

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">How about those 2 machineguns 2A4 has? I don't see them in the model ...<span id='postcolor'>

German Leopard 2A4 has 2 x 7,62mm MG3A1 machineguns. One is embedded in the turret coaxial to the main gun. There's a little hole in the turret, on the right side of the gun-barrel. Just take a close look, and you'll find that!

The other MG is supposed as air defense weapon, mounted on the turret near the loader hatch. However due to the fact that not even BIS itself has installed them onto their tanks, i'd not implemented that yet.

And even have no real plan how to implement something like a machinegun on top of the turret. You Understand? Two Weapons on just 1 turret (Maingun, MG). I doesn't know if it's possible!

Though i could make it static object. Dunno know what to do at the moment.

Regards

GM

[cam0flage 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">German Leopard 2A4 has 2 x 7,62mm MG3A1 machineguns. One is embedded in the turret coaxial to the main gun. There's a little hole in the turret, on the right side of the gun-barrel. Just take a close look, and you'll find that!<span id='postcolor'>

Found it! Had to use magnifier though ;P As far as I know it is impossible to have more than 1 gunner proxy in a model, so maybe you should leave it out. It is true that none of the BIS models have NSV mounted on top of them.

[GeneralMortars 0]

Ok. Even the Interior isn't half as finished in the meanwhile, i decided to release sum more pics, coz it will still need sum time before the final release.

Sum more...

Advancing Leopard from the back

A look from the driver position

Front snapshot, showing another problem i have...

... The "Light-Texture" is shown even on bright day! I already compared my Model with the settings from the Demo T72, but i haven't found anything to avoid this. Could anyone help me please??

Wow. Had to rescale and retexture the whole tank over and over, coz the basic model i did with 3DMax was too inaccurate. It's damn shit to find out that sumthing is really wrong when work is still in heavy progress.

Regards

GM

[granQ 293]

my friend also has the "glowing" problem.. now a question, the little "weapon shield" on the turrnet.. don't know if it "has" to be there to be realism thingy, but i would rather see you made it to the squad logo. Would be neat.. Anyway, really really great work..

[cam0flage 0]

I am very impressed with the textures! Looks a lot better than before. Keep up the good work!

One thing, about the main gun and machineguns, how are you planning to "name" the ammo? Just plain sabot, heat and mgun, or are you going to name them like for example in AaronAsh's realism mod?

[FlipeR 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (GeneralMortars @ Nov. 17 2002,00:43)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">... The "Light-Texture" is shown even on bright day! I already compared my Model with the settings from the Demo T72, but i haven't found anything to avoid this. Could anyone help me please??<span id='postcolor'>

Have you added the cfgModels section to your .CPP? For the lights (and other stuff like muzzle flash,etc.) to work properly the cfgModels section must be defined!!!

FlipeR

[GeneralMortars 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">now a question, the little "weapon shield" on the turrnet.. don't know if it "has" to be there to be realism thingy, but i would rather see you made it to the squad logo.<span id='postcolor'>

The emblem or "logo" covered on the turret is (as long i'm informed) showing the insignia of the batallion where the tank belongs to. At least for the german army (Bundeswehr).

Dunno know at the time if i would or could exchange that with a clan or squad logo. I guess i've seen sumthing that shows how to make it on Demo T72. But i surely have to examinate that a little closer.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">One thing, about the main gun and machineguns, how are you planning to "name" the ammo? Just plain sabot, heat and mgun, or are you going to name them like for example in AaronAsh's realism mod?<span id='postcolor'>

At least for the 7,62mm Coaxial MG i've made an own solution with own name "Machinegun MG A1", own sound and own config entry. The "realism" of the maingun is the same as on M1A1 Abrams used in OFP. Both (as in reality) are using the "Rheinmetall" 120mm L44 (M256) smoothbore gun.

But perhaps i'm changing the properties abit. At least the name property.

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Have you added the cfgModels section to your .CPP? For the lights (and other stuff like muzzle flash,etc.) to work properly the cfgModels section must be defined!!!

<span id='postcolor'>

Already inserted the cfgModels section into the .cpp.

Looks like this...

class CfgModels

{

class Default {};

class Vehicle: Default {};

class Tank: Vehicle {};

class Leopard2A4: Tank {};

}

Dunno know if that's enough or not. Doesn't be so familiar with the deeper secrets of config.cpp. Of course i have several documentations, however i couldn't check and agree that all in a few days, especially when sum of the properties are "encrypted" in czech, like when doing things in Oxygen.

Regards

GM

[granQ 293]

i am not sure, but think you just assign a part of the model with the texture "bis clan".. found in data.pbo.. and if there is no squad xml, it will not show up.. once again not sure but i think it is possible to keep the current "insignia" for those without a squad.xml and for singelplayer but when a squad logo is find it will be drawn over..

[GeneralMortars 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">i am not sure, but think you just assign a part of the model with the texture "bis clan".. found in data.pbo.. and if there is no squad xml, it will not show up.. once again not sure but i think it is possible to keep the current "insignia" for those without a squad.xml and for singelplayer but when a squad logo is find it will be drawn over..<span id='postcolor'>

Thanks for that info! I will care about this and see what i can do to realise that kind of "gimmick"!

Regards

GM

[CrunchyFrog 0]

Darken the textures?

[GeneralMortars 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Darken the textures?<span id='postcolor'>

What do you mean?? You don't think the textures of the example pictures are dark enough?!

I dunno have plans to improving or change texture colours.

Worked so long on it! Now it suits my needs, and comes very close to a real Leopard 2!

p.s. You have really funny avatar and signature picture!  

Regards

GM

[GeneralMortars 0]

Well. Progress is going on to the Leopard Project.

Have made sum kind of the relationship with the BW-MOD in the meanwhile, allowing me to use their tank crew, and in exchange my tank will be released in next BW-Mod-Demo.

Here's another pic of the interior...

It's the commander's view. The gunner before him is taken from the OFP-Resistance-Tankers. Will be replaced with that BW-MOD-Soldiers soon.

Two more actual pics about the tank are also available...

Tank from the side in highest LOD. Infront a BW-MOD-Tanker holding a MP2A1 (Uzi) (Own made! )

Three Leo's advancing in line. "Photo" taken in the northern parts of Everon.

Ok. All for today. The Model is as good as finished. Still in work are both the outside and interior textures. The higher priority is on the interior, as it's the most difficult part to texture. (Could need more interior photos! So if someone has some, send to my Email address!

Another problem concerning the addon: It seems to be impossible to include damage-textures like on soldiers and other vehicles! And where to activate those "texture-darken" when damaged like seen on the official tanks from BIS  is beyond my imagination! Could anyone help.

Would be great to see some answers.

ps. Arrival of the addon --> High probably before x-mas!  

[GeneralMortars 0]

Hi!

Well, some time passed since my last addition to this thread.

At the moment it seems i could finished my Leopard before

Christmas Eve. Some minor problems still left, but after all

the Model is as good as finished and the textures are about

75-80 %

Here's another picture showing a tank platoon equipped with

the Leopard:

Some strange kind of problem occured that is worth a note.

It seems the tank is "floating" some few centrimeters in the

air, and i also discovered that on some of the Original OFP

T72's in a recent mission.

Has anyone similar effect? What could i do against this, or

is it just another minor bug in the game engine??

Note: This Leopard hasn't to do with the Swiss Mod Leopard

(Pz87) released a few days ago!

Regards

GM

[Ex-RoNiN 0]

Its looking very good I like the "smoke" texture on the tank

Are you planning on releasing it seperate too, or just in conjunction with the BW mod?

Have you found them interior pics yet?

What about the damage problem, have you found a work around for that yet? Maybe ask the guy that made the new Soviet Tanks, he may know Don't remember his name, but there's a thread of his in Addons+Mods: Completed

[GeneralMortars 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Are you planning on releasing it seperate too, or just in conjunction with the BW mod?

<span id='postcolor'>

At the moment it seems both options are open. But i still have to talk with leader of Bw-Mod about that topic.

Myself i would like to have it both included in BW-Mod-Demo, and as a standalone.

The standalone would give me more possibilities to modificate it to my wishes (add diverse camo settings, etc.)

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Have you found them interior pics yet?

<span id='postcolor'>

I could find some more pictures on the net in the meanwhile. Unfortunately no one really could support me in this case. I still miss some textures showing how the top and bottom of the Leopard 2 interior looks. I had to improve without those pics, and doing it by imagination. Best guess method  

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">What about the damage problem, have you found a work around for that yet? Maybe ask the guy that made the new Soviet Tanks, he may know  Don't remember his name, but there's a thread of his in Addons+Mods: Completed <span id='postcolor'>

I guess you mean Sigma6 who does the russian tank improvements, right?? Well, i haven't asked him directly about the problem, but the topic was discussed in another thread, and luckily there i found a way to darken the textures, like it's done with the Original OFP-Tanks. So, another problem solved!  

Regards

GM