Multihex military buildings

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 10:32 pm

After completing those train icons I thought about finishing up that project I started with the buildings in the Ter61 file...they were originally imported from SPWW2 and didn't display correctly on SPWAW maps.

What I did was re-create all the icons in the proper size, and also to modify many so that they could be joined to form large, continuous structures for urban maps. I re-worked a few so that they sit within the 7-hex area better, and by clearing a hex (or 2, or 3) a few others are ideal for placing in 'special' locations (like when you need a structure that only occupies the lower 5 hexes, etc). And I also edited the 'star-wars' buildings that were in the file, removing the radar dishes and other non-WW2 era features.

There's probably about a day or two of work remaining (mostly 'SP-Fixing') before they're finished, but I'd like to know if there's any interest among designers. I believe I have a solution for the main problem of getting the files distributed: if the consensus is that the files are worth incorporating into SPWAW, we can ask Leo to include them in a future H2H patch.

I uploaded the maximum zoom level (Ter61z4.shp) here: http://home.cfl.rr.com/lagoon/upload/ter61z4.ZIP if anyone wants to check them out. As always, comments and suggestions are more than welcome.

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Sun Feb 09, 2003 10:37 pm

Sorry, I meant to post this to the 'scenarios/campaigns' forum.

Panzer Leo · Post by **Panzer Leo** » Mon Feb 10, 2003 1:12 am

Nice work, Tracer !

I would be more than happy to put it in the patch...any improvement is welcome

I'm also trying to convince Hauptmann Jake to donate his Winter icons (and extend them a bit further), so we can have a "winter mode" in H2H...

Did you run tests, if existing maps are effected when your terrain files are used ?

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Mon Feb 10, 2003 4:09 am

Leo,
If a map contains any of the military buildings (multi-hex, option 6) it will be affected. Luckily, not many designers used them since they all required manual editing to display properly...if placed 'as is' the center hex of these structures appears in the upper left, so you wind up with 3 hexes that look clear but actually are 'height 10 stone building' and 3 hexes of the building icon sitting on 'mixed' (clear) hexes. Even after manual editing most of the buildings would have parts that extended into adjacent hexes.

If Jake would send me the icons I'd be happy to add them; Ter61 has less than 50 icons in it, and it can hold 100. Rockin Harry sent me a winter icon of a church which I plan to add...the more the merrier

In fact if anyone has created a multi-hex stone building and would like to see it used, this is probably your best chance of distributing it. Just mail me the BMP and I'll add it.

The current size of all 4 files (zipped) is only about 500k, so they won't increase the size of a patch all that much.

Thanks

Panzer Leo · Post by **Panzer Leo** » Mon Feb 10, 2003 4:28 am

Yep, I noticed the odd alignment of the big houses and I'm happy someone gets his hands on that

The winter houses from Rockin Harry are already included in H2H (take a look at the scenario "Ardennes '44") and I really would like to extend that (including stone houses and especially troops, like Jake did)...

Battles in winter with snow covered houses and white camo tanks and troops look just extremely cool

Seems like we will get some nice stuff assembled for the patch

RockinHarry · Post by **RockinHarry** » Mon Feb 17, 2003 6:05 pm

All good ideas!:)

Some notes to my winter "wooden" buildings that I used for the "Ardennes44" scenario: The building shapes were taken from wooden building file Ter26, but in Freds Editor I attributed them to stone buildings. Actually most buildings when covered with snow look the same so, probably just a small set of snow covered stone buildings is needed!

I did very much unnecessary work in this regard with the wooden buildings! :rolleyes:

I think what is needed are <=20 single stone buildings, row houses (3-4 types per straight and diagonal). It´s different with the big multihex buildings. Probably each of them needs it´s own winter version.

Whadda ya think?

Panzer Leo · Post by **Panzer Leo** » Mon Feb 17, 2003 10:09 pm

Originally posted by RockinHarry

Whadda ya think?

What I think ? Well it sounds to me as if someone is volunteering to help us here

I am pretty much occupied with work on the OOBs and weapons testing, that simply doesn't leave me much time for icon and terrain work...

What about you guys, Harry and Tracer putting your heads together, getting Hauptmann Jake into the boat (he didn't really answer till now...) and bundling a nice winter set.

I have in mind:

- wooden, stone and row houses (as Harry said, a few of each are only needed)
- some unique multihex (like churches and some military, e.g.)
- Jake's winter infantry and vehicle icons for at least Germany, Russia and Finnland (don't know if other nations made real use of winter camo - only scattered, I think)

This will be put in one set of Terrain and Icon files, that can independently be activated, when you want to play a winter battle.

So what do you guys think, do you want to take the job ?

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Mon Feb 17, 2003 10:19 pm

Thanks Harry; all good ideas. With regard to the buildings in Ter61, I checked and almost half of them (19) are predomiantly white and already work as 'winter' icons. If I added winter versions of the remaining buildings to the same file it would save time and make things much simpler for end-users (they wouldn't have to swap SHP files for different maps). Does this sound like the best way to go?

Panzer Leo · Post by **Panzer Leo** » Mon Feb 17, 2003 11:13 pm

Great News, Hauptmann Jake just gave it's o.k. on his icons...

I will check out the winter icons and assemble a set of the most important vehicles (we will not make all in winter camo - that's too much work to paint every special thingy that existed only a dozen times). - maybe we're lucky and Hauptmann Jake can deliver the one or other icon to expand the set...

Tracer, can you take care of the whole houses thing ? I'm sure Harry has some invaluable additional hints in the back of his mind and with his help, we should get it done...me the icons, you the terrains - deal ?

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Tue Feb 18, 2003 9:21 pm

I'm on it. I'll contact Harry and Jake so we can compile a list of all the updated terrain icons, then we'll figure out the most efficient way to plug them into the SHP files. In regards to the winter icons, I'd like to do away with the need to 'swap' files for different maps since this could lead to problems.

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Tue Feb 18, 2003 9:35 pm

Almost forgot: if anybody else has buildings or other terrain icons they have created, this is your chance to have them distibuted. If they're still in BMP format I can incorporate them into one of the SHP files...there's literally hundreds of empty slots available. PM or e-mail me...this isn't a beauty pageant: if your icon fits into one of the files it will be included!

RockinHarry · Post by **RockinHarry** » Wed Feb 19, 2003 7:45 pm

Originally posted by tracer
I'm on it. I'll contact Harry and Jake so we can compile a list of all the updated terrain icons, then we'll figure out the most efficient way to plug them into the SHP files. In regards to the winter icons, I'd like to do away with the need to 'swap' files for different maps since this could lead to problems.

I second that!;)

there are way enough free slots to avoid file swapping. I also posted to yet another thread, so we could coordinate our efforts a little better. Hopefully some more creative people drop in too!:)

HauptmannJake · Post by **HauptmannJake** » Sat Feb 22, 2003 6:59 pm

I don't think I can make it alone.... winter stuff for three nations! It would be good to have some Russian and German icons first.

Panzer Leo · Post by **Panzer Leo** » Sat Feb 22, 2003 7:42 pm

Originally posted by HauptmannJake
I don't think I can make it alone.... winter stuff for three nations! It would be good to have some Russian and German icons first.

I sent you a list with what I already got...we're making good progress and I was able to test the first all-white battle on Rockin' Harrys Ardennen map...looks great

RockinHarry · Post by **RockinHarry** » Tue Feb 25, 2003 6:04 pm

Originally posted by Panzer Leo
What I think ? Well it sounds to me as if someone is volunteering to help us here

I am pretty much occupied with work on the OOBs and weapons testing, that simply doesn't leave me much time for icon and terrain work...

What about you guys, Harry and Tracer putting your heads together, getting Hauptmann Jake into the boat (he didn't really answer till now...) and bundling a nice winter set.

I have in mind:

- wooden, stone and row houses (as Harry said, a few of each are only needed)
- some unique multihex (like churches and some military, e.g.)
- Jake's winter infantry and vehicle icons for at least Germany, Russia and Finnland (don't know if other nations made real use of winter camo - only scattered, I think)

This will be put in one set of Terrain and Icon files, that can independently be activated, when you want to play a winter battle.

So what do you guys think, do you want to take the job ?

thanks,..I´ve sent finished stuff to tracer. For now it´s just the old jungle huts stuff and a hospital tent graphic that just needs to be imported into the appropiate shape file (Ter82).
I currently don´t have time to make any new stuff like above mentioned snow covered stone houses ect, sorry!:(
Ususally I add new stuff first when I need it for a particular scenario. This was the case with the ARDENNES44 (winter woodedn buildings) scenario and WATCHTOWER mega cam (jungle huts). I´ve a couple of unfinished stuff, like mediteranean single hex stone buildings, but they are (still) reserved for first use with a special scenario project. Greetings to Fabs at this point!:)

If anybody wants to help converting standard SPWAW stone buildings to winter version, whether they are single hex or multi hex, this is how I did:

After exporting of shapes to BMP format in Freds ShapeEditor, the BMP´s then were converted to 256 gray scale (Paintshop Pro). A final tweak then was to go with "Highlight, Midtone, shadow" feature in Paintshop to get the greyscale BMPs to their final looks. I mainly increased "Highlight and Midtone" values to be lighter until I was satisfied with the look. As said,..this is as the winter wooded buildings were made. Quite easy, isn´t it?

Off course this needs to be made for each zoom level seperately. :rolleyes:

Finally the BMPs were converted to 24 Bit color again (what color?

), so they can be reimported into Freds Shape Editor.
Centering information simply was copied from the original "colored" wooden buildings.

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Tue Feb 25, 2003 7:19 pm

Originally posted by RockinHarry

Off course this needs to be made for each zoom level seperately. :rolleyes:

Finally the BMPs were converted to 24 Bit color again (what color? ), so they can be reimported into Freds Shape Editor.
Centering information simply was copied from the original "colored" wooden buildings.

I'd like to see ideas from as many folks as possible, so here's an offer: send me the BMPs of your icons at maximum zoom...I'll make the other zoom levels and do the centering. At max zoom your BMP for a multi-hex structure should be 180x180 pixels, and a single hex building is 72x72 pixels (make sure you set the resolution to 72 pixels/inch in your photoeditor program). Send them via PM or e-mail. I'll include a text file in the final release crediting all contributors.

darroch · Post by **darroch** » Mon Mar 10, 2003 5:22 am

Sorry if this an old question:

I have a Kharkhov map that comes bundled with SPWAW 7.0 - I think it is by Brent Richards...

It has numerous multi-hex buildings...

I've designed a nice battle for it but in testing I find that units can "see through" and tanks can "drive through" the buildings!!!

Before I replace them all with single hex buildings, does anyone know if this phenomenon was ever addressed?

Thanks in advance.

Brad

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Mon Mar 10, 2003 6:53 am

HA! I initially started this whole project to fix the Kharkov map! That map uses many of the structures in the multihex military buildings (MMB) file...they were imported from a different version of SP (SPWW2), and don't display correctly when used. Another feature of that map is an abundance of very high buildings (heights up to 100), which cause some very confusing LOS's to occur.

The bad news is that once the corrected MMB files are installed, any map that uses them (i.e., Kharkov) will still not display correctly. These maps will need to be edited: a matter of removing the original MMB's and replacing them with those in the updated files.

FWIW I plan on editing the Kharkov map once the new files are released, and then of course passing it on to Brent for his approval.

darroch · Post by **darroch** » Mon Mar 10, 2003 5:54 pm

Tracer,

What an ironic coincidence!

I like that map and besides the part where tanks drive through buidlings, it makes a nice setting for battle in built up areas...

you never know what's around the corner and when you find out it is usually at VERY close range...

The battle I am working on will be on the shelf for 1-2 months - do you think you may have your fixes finished by then? If so, I can wait and upload the new version if that's OK.

I'm glad to hear you're working this.

Brad

tracer · Post by **tracer** » Mon Mar 10, 2003 7:38 pm

There are actually two versions of this map: regular and winter. One is one the 4th page of custom maps and the other is on the 5th.

Multihex military buildings

Multihex military buildings

Editing of the unit icons

Re: Editing of the unit icons