WWIIEC : Caen 1944

[emperor77 0]

Yes i know, but why use three question marks?

[Red Devil 0]

Three question marks gets you three answers!

1. appoligies for a little quiet time within the community, every mod has them, but we have re-grouped and everyone has kind of just picked up were they left off, Caen is well on its way again!

2. we have been hard at work on all the coding fun and games for the mod, sorry for lack of screenshots.

3. everyone else is going through all the extra details, moddeling equipment, weapons, objects. The tanks have had a complete overhaul as well.

P.S. we've taken the main site down temporarily as it hasn't been used for news posting and the OFP WW2 community is rather thin on the ground now.

[Fab. 0]

Any Caen44 news???

We posted news two pages ago. Asking for more news is a waste of time, we will post more news when we feel like we have something to show.

@ all the others: yes the 3 question marks make it sound rude and annoying. But remember not everyone has been on the internet long enough to have assimilated the whole internet "standard" of posting of what means what. For example plenty of people use UPPER CASE everywhere in their posts not realising its extremely annoying to read and generally means shouting.

Plus discussing the 3 question marks for 3 more posts is just as annying as the question marks themselves.

The only reason i still post news in this thread is it's been generally clean of spam and futile posts so far (everyone hates a thread that has 10 pages of useless spam posts for every 1 interesting post), so please keep it this way in the future, only post if you have something interesting to ask about the mod or any constructive criticism will always be welcomed.

As for news, i'm still working on code, other team members are getting back to work but like i said nothing interesting to show for now.

@ all : thanks for your interest in the mod,

Fab

[lecholas 2]

A few pages back lecholas requested a video, then said "Offcourse I'll understand if you would like to keep it misterious till the release date." (sorry for replying so late btw)

Hi. Thanks for the fast reply . In return I took a liberty to thank for your reply with such a delay

The only reason i still post news in this thread is it's been generally clean of spam and futile posts so far (everyone hates a thread that has 10 pages of useless spam posts for every 1 interesting post), so please keep it this way in the future, only post if you have something interesting to ask about the mod or any constructive criticism will always be welcomed.

Fab

I hope that's an interesting question I'm going to ask. I was playing today with ARMA and vilas WWII pack while using Wofrug's Dynamic Sound AI (with enableRadio set to false) and I must say that it adds a lot to immersion. Do you plan to implement something similar for your mod? Are you going to leave default OFP voices for commands or record your own without radio statics like Inv44 did or maybe disable voices completely like WGL or lastest versions of VTE? In my opinion OFP's robotic radio voices don't fit WWII era and it would be a good think to get rid of them. Maybe you colud use ECP's Dynamic Voices?

By the way: keep up the good work.

[Fab. 0]

I hope that's an interesting question I'm going to ask. I was playing today with ARMA and vilas WWII pack while using Wofrug's Dynamic Sound AI (with enableRadio set to false) and I must say that it adds a lot to immersion. Do you plan to implement something similar for your mod? Are you going to leave default OFP voices for commands or record your own without radio statics like Inv44 did or maybe disable voices completely like WGL or lastest versions of VTE? In my opinion OFP's robotic radio voices don't fit WWII era and it would be a good think to get rid of them. Maybe you colud use ECP's Dynamic Voices?

Well it is an interesting question since it actually has something to do with the mod

Right now the plan goes like this :

- disable radio completely (except in some particular situations)

- use scripted live voices instead, attached to that eventhandler system i was talking about earlier.

Since this hasnt been developed yet (only the scripted eventhandler structure behind it has been), and therefore not been tested, cant confirm at 100% that it will turn out this way but it's definitly what we're aiming at right now. Another solution would be like you mentionned replace ofp voicefiles by live voices like i44 did but personally, even though its a big improvement, i think it's not nearly as good as real scripted live voices would be.

Thanks for your support,

Fab. --> back to anim code

[lecholas 2]

Another solution would be like you mentionned replace ofp voicefiles by live voices like i44 did but personally, even though its a big improvement, i think it's not nearly as good as real scripted live voices would be.

Thanks for replying.

I agree that Inv44' solution isn't perfect. It gets rid of radio statics but it's still a radio. Commands are always the same loud no mater if a speaker is 1 or 1000 meters from you. The trouble with dynamic scripted voices is that you don't hear leader's commands anymore. In ARMA you could script it with new functions (assignedTarget or currentCommand) but I think in OFP it's not possible (or am I wrong and your virtual eventhandlers can handle it? ).

Cheers.

Thanks for your support

I'm embarased a bit. I do it for selfish permises . Your team's approach to modding OFP just suits me very well. Caen mod aims to replace some IMHO very important aspects of OFP and to add some completely new ones instead of just going for high resolution textures that have to be switched off if you want to play like some other mods do...

So good luck!

[OFPCAT 0]

Just a query may be asked by somebody else. Is there any Waffen SS troops in the upcoming new mod for Caean battle? It seems the first, second,9th, 10th and 12th Waffen Divisions joined the battle in Caean against British and Canadian troops in history.

[emperor77 0]

I bet those Germans with spotty uniforms are SS. (correct me if i'm wrong)

[Fab. 0]

Just a query may be asked by somebody else. Is there any Waffen SS troops in the upcoming new mod for Caean battle? It seems the first, second,9th, 10th and 12th Waffen Divisions joined the battle in Caean against British and Canadian troops in history.

Wouldnt quite be "the battle for Caen" without them... especially the 12th SS...

The ones with dot44 camo tunic and (and also that splinter "tailor made" tunic for WH troops) were experiments with swapping background in the tunic and trouser textures. It worked pretty well so these will definitly make it to the final version of the mod although that dot44 might be updated. the problem with SS troups is, i need to make a smock model for it, so that's extra work... in the end they might not all make it to the first release (we'll still include the dot44 ones) especially since we want to limit the first release to british infantry vs 21st panzer division and static infantry divisions (all wehrmacht). the plan is to then patch it with more infantry units, including proper waffen SS, canadians and a lot more vehicles, bigger island and more missions (and more effect scripts while we're at it) - and of course patch any bugs we havent caught while beta testing it.

In conclusion, right now, by the progress we've made so far:

1. for the first release :

- WH static division (sure at 100%)

- WH with zeltbahn puncho (sure at 100%)

- WH officers with tailor made splinter camo uniforms (sure at 100%)

- british infantry (sure at 100%)

- 21st panzer division (50% chance of being there)

- canadian infantry (50% chance of being there)

- dot44 waffen SS as bonus (50% change of being there)

- waffen SS with smock camo, italian camos for 12th SS (25% chance of being there)

- Luftwaffe static divisions (25% chance of making it)

2. for the second release :

- any infantry units that hasnt made it to the first release.

- some less important ones might be delayed to a 3rd release

It all depends on progress and motivation... when i go back to working on infantry (adding all the equipment made by H.m and Battling Bitch) i might get one of my big peak of motivation to do a particular uniform or piece of equipment needed to make one more set of infantry (a bit like when i decided to get the zeltbahn puncho done for good). Adding one more infantry set usually means making one more piece of equipment or one more piece of uniform model or texture... which isnt that much work, but i'd rather focus on having a basic and fully finished set of infantry on both side + code + anim + script + weapons + equipment + some vehicles + vegetation and a small map for the first release rather than getting the "infantry fever" and focusing on 1000 infantry sets and not even have a descent mini island to play with.

so it's all about progress, motivation and priority. In the end they'll all be there but definitly not all in the first release

[Fab. 0]

some news at last... works never really stops but it's true we dont take much of our time to make screenshots for the public. so here are a few...

Here are a few screenshots of our kar98 accessories.

credit goes to :

k98 : FAB/Vibes

grenade launcher, bayonet and zf39 scope : H.m.

All lods have been completed, also note that this is all quite optimized since there is only a single texture for the k98 and all its accessories (1024x512). The grenade launcher version has two grenade models, AP and AT. Brightness on some bits like the grenade launcher might be adjusted to match the k98.

Here is a wip of our mg42. Note that this isnt finished, i got some more details to add and i intend to give the final version a shinnier look...

credit goes to :

original mg42 by i44 (used with permission)

original bipod by liberation mod (used with permission)

remodeling, remapping, retexturing by Fab

drum magazine by BattlingBitch

Here is our M41 ammo box (for mg34/42)

credit goes to BattlingBitch

note that all screenshots were taken from bulldozer

Hope you like it,

Fab

[Fab. 0]

Here are a few screenshots of our enfield No4 accessories and Bren mk. I.

credit goes to :

enfield No4 : FAB

enfield scope model : Jagy

enfield scope mapping and texture : BattlingBitch

enfield bayonet : H.m.

bren model and textures : Guy

bren o2 import and texture adjustments : H.m.

All lods have been completed, once again all the accessories for the enfield are within the main enfield texture (1024x512).

note that we might do some more adjustements on the bren mk.I textures, and that the enfield No4 (T) butt's extra wood piece isnt textured at the moment.

Here is our Feld.fu b/c (german backpack radio)

credit goes to H.m.

all screenshots were taken from bulldozer

cheers

Fab

[bennie1983nl 0]

Heej FAB,

nice pics!

[lecholas 2]

Looks beautiful. And here's a question (a bit connected to the one I asked you previously) for you. Are you planning to make use of the radio in your missions? I mean will for example only radioman be able to contact HQ or other groups for support? There were some attempts to cover this area in OFP: e.g. Inv44, VTE, BAS but they were all down to one possibility and one restriction: a radio can be carried by a man and a group in which there is no man carrying a radio cannot contact other groups or HQ. But the best solution would be such as in Vietcong game - leader of the group must be close to radioman to make use of the radio (which was acompanied by animation of holding a handset).

Anyway, keep up the good work.

[belgerot 33]

An awesome update worth taking a look at! Very good job on the models as well as the textures, all look top notch!

Most noteworthy is the British pack, but I cannot forget the accurate K98 models with accessories and that redone MG42. Looks so much better!

I hope such an option as lecholas mentioned would be possible, then it would really boost the communications' importance in game whenever contact with HQ or other groups was needed.

[Fab. 0]

Looks beautiful. And here's a question (a bit connected to the one I asked you previously) for you. Are you planning to make use of the radio in your missions? I mean will for example only radioman be able to contact HQ or other groups for support? There were some attempts to cover this area in OFP: e.g. Inv44, VTE, BAS but they were all down to one possibility and one restriction: a radio can be carried by a man and a group in which there is no man carrying a radio cannot contact other groups or HQ. But the best solution would be such as in Vietcong game - leader of the group must be close to radioman to make use of the radio (which was acompanied by animation of holding a handset).

short answer to your question, yep thats pretty much the plan. Cant promess that this feature will fully be implemented in our first release (additional scripted features might come in patches) but thats definitly what we're aiming at. also worth noting is the radios are basically configed as dummy AT weapons. So if your radioman gets killed you can just go to him and exchange it for whatever AT proxy you're currently carrying (if any).

@ all thanks for the nice comments on behalf of the whole team

cheers

Fab

[belgerot 33]

That's good, so in this case it is not a total loss in case the soldier carrying the radio falls.

One question regarding the bolt-action rifles, will there be new animations for attaching bayonets or reloading rifle grenades?

[Fab. 0]

One question regarding the bolt-action rifles, will there be new animations for attaching bayonets or reloading rifle grenades?

basically all of these (fix bayonet, reload grenade etc..) will share the same anims. Only difference with original OFP will be, there will be one reload per stance (one for stand, one for crouch and one for lying) - and just like the rest of our anims these will be made from scratch

[OFPCAT 0]

Very nice work as ever, FAB! Know the good work need time for finishing. So my Waffen SS elite just fighting now against Soviets and American guys and waiting in patience for your awesome british troops in battle for some day...

( By way, whether could you make rank details for your british troops , maybe also officer in visor cap... Hope dont ask for too much, sorry.)

[Fab. 0]

I updated our old P38, here is a screenshot.

Hope you like it

cheers

Fab

[belgerot 33]

Wonderful, the textures really bring out the details in the model. It will definitely look good with those new pistol animations!

[AKM 0]

Fab: In the event that you, or any part of the team end up in my part of Canada, I will proceed to track you down and buy you beer or your preferred alcoholic beverage.

As always, if you require assistance on things historical, let me know and I'll do my best to oblige. From PMs we've exchanged earlier, I believe you've got prettymuch all the visual references you need. I've read three excellent books on the Normandy operations by the Canadian Army, which include operations in and around Caen, and have a book detailing the operations of the 12 SS "HJ" Kampfgruppe in Caen itself.

[Fab. 0]

Fab: In the event that you, or any part of the team end up in my part of Canada, I will proceed to track you down and buy you beer or your preferred alcoholic beverage.

mmmmh delicious free beer... thanks for the offer, i'll definitly let the rest of the team know there are free beers waiting for them in Canada hehe

I've got quite a lot of ebooks about Normandy and Caen more specifically, but its always nice to have someone around that actually had the time to read them properly, as always dont hesitate to point out innacuracies or give suggestions regarding historical accuracy etc... feedback is always welcome.

btw as you probably noticed, that p38 magazine's butt is too bright on that screenshots, but no worries it's been fixed already.

cheers

Fab

[chops 111]

Fantastic looking work!

If I may make a suggestion...

A couple of things that impressed me about the SJB weapons pack were the magazine models (as opposed to the ugly BIS pouch thing), which ORCS did too and also the transparent lenses on the rifle scopes. Just a matter of individual taste, I know.

I'm especially looking forward to trying out this new animation system.

[Fab. 0]

If I may make a suggestion...

A couple of things that impressed me about the SJB weapons pack were the magazine models (as opposed to the ugly BIS pouch thing), which ORCS did too and also the transparent lenses on the rifle scopes. Just a matter of individual taste, I know.

separate magazine models will definitly be there, as you can see from that p38 screenshot i got the magazine model sorted out just for that reason. I even made all the cartridges we need / will ever need for the mod so my teammates can reuse them when they work on magazines (so all cartridges have lods etc... and share the same texture file).

in this screenshot :

7.65mm (for walther PPK)

9mm parabellum

.380 revolver (for enfield No2 mk.I)

.45 ACP

.30 carbine

7.92mm kurz (MP43)

7.92mm mauser

.303

.30-06

.50

these are also used for machine gun belts in the first few lods (after that the bullets are no longer in 3d). the empty cartridges are also currently being used to replace the default empty cartridge model for each weapon. they also stay on the ground for a few second (to avoid a huge pile of them which would leads them to start bouncing like crazy)

as for optics we dont have final ones yet but well you can expect pretty descent ones.

cheers

Fab

[Dr.Rebus 0]

WOOOOOOOOOOW

Fab... fantastic!

Great and professional job! Sincerly!

I can't wait for a release!

Excellent job!!!