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CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2019 7:34 am
by sluggy2010

Hi all,

I wanted to commend the devs for the fantastic work on CMO I'm really looking forward to firing the money cannon at it [:)] next week - the maps look great.

I've had a look at TACVIEW as well - which is also a great piece of work BTW - and I note it has about 60 or so models in it and tries to match its 3d objects to the object being tracked.

For those with as many milsims as myself TACVIEW allows 3rd party .obj files to be loaded into its repository - so I looked to my old favorite Dangerous Waters and note that it is possible to convert the J3D files in Dangerous waters, Sub Command and the LWAMI mod to .obj's.

So if you own DW and/or SC then this may be a good option to boost your TACVIEW models base.

Rgds

Sluggy

RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2019 9:34 am
by BradOrbital
Interesting, thanks sluggy2010!

RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2019 11:30 am
by sluggy2010

Sorry - forgot to mention how

J3D Files -> i3dConverter to .OFF ( currently free ) -> Meshlab to .obj and you're done.

RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Sat Nov 09, 2019 1:40 pm
by JOhnnyr
ORIGINAL: sluggy2010


Sorry - forgot to mention how

J3D Files -> i3dConverter to .OFF ( currently free ) -> Meshlab to .obj and you're done.

Here are the steps I've figured out:

1)Extract the .J3D Files from DW, following steps 2-6

2)download decompress.exe from https://www.subsim.com/radioroom/downlo ... le&id=3122
3)grab the 3d.ndx file located in the DW install > Graphics folder, and make a copy of it, and place the copy in the same folder as decompress.exe
4)open a command prompt and get into the directory where decompress is
5)type: decompress.exe 3d (or whatever the file name of the .ndx is)
6) files are now extracted

7)Use i3dConverter (http://www.i3dconverter.com/) to convert the .j3d files to .OFF
8)Use Meshlab (http://www.meshlab.net/#download) to convert the .OFF to .obj
9)Import the .obj to Tacview: https://www.tacview.net/documentation/3dobjects/en/
10)Profit!

It's a shame Tacview doesn't support textures, but I suppose that keeps things simple!

One concern I have is how underwater is rendered in tacview, or rather, how it *isn't*, looking at the dev videos there is no sense of the subs being underwater.

RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 2:53 am
by sluggy2010

Yep - that's it exactly, you have two options after performing the above use the base model - or if feeling adventurous you can add the superstructure on as well - but that is a bit more fiddling about with alignment and not conducive to performance etc.

To your point about sea levels - I believe the video below at ~27 secs shows the sea levels ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OL_yotxnRo at ~27 secs



RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 6:04 am
by AlGrant
If creating additional models for use in Tacview, keep the file size in mind!
These Dangerous Waters files sound like a good idea, but does anybody have any idea what size are the models once extracted and converted to .obj format?

I have done some model conversions that work in Tacview and from what I've seen, smaller is better - typically below 1mb

The Tacview size doesn't mention file size but does advise 'typically less than 4000 triangles per object' to avoid performance issues.

RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 6:38 am
by sluggy2010

Hi, good steer for the 4000.

The biggest file is the naval base - ~5000 faces, the average is way less.

The P3C one of the most complex models at 5600, (and you need to lop off the props in meshlab )

Shipyard - only ~4400 faces, Seawolf ~4300 so most of these should work fine.

Meshlab can also perform a quadratic simplification of the faces to say the target 4000, so good as you say to target 4000 as a working target maximum, ta for the tip.

Just tried on the Seawolf and dropped it to 1500 faces and you can't tell - it actually looked better.

When using mesh-> filters -> remesh -> simplification it just drops the un-needed details mostly, we're after general shape not the exact number of vents etc.

Note that I am not going to post any of these works - happy to guide those who also have bought them - but Sonalyst's produced a great product and I am not going to betray them by distributing any of their work.





RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 11:28 am
by JOhnnyr
ORIGINAL: sluggy2010


Hi, good steer for the 4000.

The biggest file is the naval base - ~5000 faces, the average is way less.

The P3C one of the most complex models at 5600, (and you need to lop off the props in meshlab )

Shipyard - only ~4400 faces, Seawolf ~4300 so most of these should work fine.

Meshlab can also perform a quadratic simplification of the faces to say the target 4000, so good as you say to target 4000 as a working target maximum, ta for the tip.

Just tried on the Seawolf and dropped it to 1500 faces and you can't tell - it actually looked better.

When using mesh-> filters -> remesh -> simplification it just drops the un-needed details mostly, we're after general shape not the exact number of vents etc.

Note that I am not going to post any of these works - happy to guide those who also have bought them - but Sonalyst's produced a great product and I am not going to betray them by distributing any of their work.

Where are you doing the simplification? (which program?)

ORIGINAL: sluggy2010

To your point about sea levels - I believe the video below at ~27 secs shows the sea levels ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OL_yotxnRo at ~27 secs



Yeah, but the subs don't look like they are underwater at all, it looks like they are at periscope depth all the time, and the ocean doesn't look like the ocean.

I'm picky, I know :)


RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 11:52 am
by sluggy2010
Simplification in Meshlab - FILTER->REMESH->SIMPLIFICATION QUADRATIC EDGE COLLAPSE not with texture

E.G. KiloChi636_7b.off 50% face removal ( e.g. dive plane too many really )

Settings used attached - could probably drop the normals as TACVIEW adds its own.



Image

RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 4:35 pm
by JOhnnyr
ORIGINAL: sluggy2010

Simplification in Meshlab - FILTER->REMESH->SIMPLIFICATION QUADRATIC EDGE COLLAPSE not with texture

E.G. KiloChi636_7b.off 50% face removal ( e.g. dive plane too many really )

Settings used attached - could probably drop the normals as TACVIEW adds its own.



Image

Could you share the XML files? (If you've made them yet) for TacView?

RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2019 7:22 am
by sluggy2010

I have not created them yet - but started using the following https://github.com/Vyrtuoz/Tacview to build them, you'll find all you need in there.

Rgds

Sluggy

RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2019 8:26 pm
by thewood1
I would suggest waiting until CMO's release before expending a lot of effort. I think there was a lot of work done on populating TacView.

RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2019 6:15 am
by sluggy2010
Yes - I notice in the stream from the weekend they said they were expanding the models, just looking to the possibilities :)

And I assume the Beta 4 release here is not coincidental timing ,

http://dogsofwarvu.com/forum/index.php/ ... 894b979c46

RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2019 5:08 am
by Dimitris
Thanks guys, this is handy information.

We also now added some new material on our WS downloads page: http://www.warfaresims.com/?page_id=1876

Specifically, texture tiles based on the Sentinel-2 imagery, and SRTM30-Plus elevation tiles to closely match CMO's default terrain info.

Hope you'll find them useful!

RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2019 10:45 am
by sluggy2010

Thanks chap that's great - money cannon has been fired and good luck with the launch

RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2019 11:07 am
by JOhnnyr
ORIGINAL: Dimitris

Thanks guys, this is handy information.

We also now added some new material on our WS downloads page: http://www.warfaresims.com/?page_id=1876

Specifically, texture tiles based on the Sentinel-2 imagery, and SRTM30-Plus elevation tiles to closely match CMO's default terrain info.

Hope you'll find them useful!

I can't seem to download the textures in bulk (unless I do them one by one).

Is there any way you could host the files somewhere other than onedrive?

Thank you!

RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2019 11:12 am
by sluggy2010
or just zip them instead of the individual files?

RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2019 11:43 am
by sluggy2010
yeah OK - the maps are a little more detailed than CMANO - I found my house...

RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2019 11:47 am
by JOhnnyr
ORIGINAL: sluggy2010

or just zip them instead of the individual files?

I wonder if we actually need these? Dimitri, do we need these? It says these are lower res than in the game?

RE: CMO and TACVIEW

Posted: Thu Nov 14, 2019 3:22 pm
by MirabelleBenou
That's for Tacview only and yes, much recommanded to have them,