Investigating Bf109E4 visual damage modelling *pics* - Printable Version

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+---- Thread: Investigating Bf109E4 visual damage modelling *pics* (/showthread.php?tid=53096)

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Investigating Bf109E4 visual damage modelling *pics* - Bee - 23.03.2008

Hi all,
This is not a mod, just a proof of concept thing. Many others have more skill than I with this stuff. I just thought I'd put the info out there for discussion


If you are anything like me, you've cringed at the look of the craters that appear all over the 109 series when it takes damage. I started having a look-see at the way the damage is represented, Here is what I found.

The damaged model gets holes applied to it, probably via interchangeable wing/fuselage meshes that have these holes "built in". These then have a .tga overlay applied that adds detail (albeit poorly) to the top of these holes. The tga is damage2o.tga and the pathway is 3do\plane\bf-109e-4\damage2o.tga. The logic of this is probably the same for all aircraft.



I opened the tga with the splashscreen technique and found it looks like this.



All a bit confusing, until I remembered the void layouts. I removed the white in PS2 and put one of Canon UK's excellent skins underneath...



I was like, Ah! now it makes sense
So as you can see, I added some quick stringer and former detail to the rudder. Then took it up in QMB to buzz some flak. Here is what happened:




The new detail actually showed up
Early days, but it seems like it will be possible to change the visual damage for a more updated look. High resolution too. The original damage tga is 512x512 whereas my test one is 1024x1024.
I'd be interested to hear what people think of the idea.

Oh, and just as a recap, here is the stock damage model (yuk):

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- CKY_86 - 23.03.2008

VERY nice find Bee

Might have a play with the A6M2-21 damage tga.

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- canonuk - 23.03.2008

I'll be able to help here. Since I skinned the default Betty, Val, F6F for PF I had to also make the damage TGA so I know how it works. PM me if you have any questions

p.s. the Bf 109 damage is one that's always bugged me too!

Joe

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- aj906 - 23.03.2008

K- I've never seen certain bits of the damage there.... Excellent effort. But agree, it does look rather random..

Anyway - the radio antenna - is that a mod or is it something I've missed in my own install. I've always wanted to see aircraft with this... Can you tell me how to get it?

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- Bee - 23.03.2008

Cheers Canon :wink:

I did wonder why the Betty and Val skins were a cut above the norm.

Been messing about a bit more. I noticed that the damage1o.tga seems to represent the light mg damage, while the damage2o.tga is more for the heavy stuff.

What I'd love to know, is what governs the shape of the holes in the aircraft skin. If I could manipulate that, I'd be able to get some much more realistic effects happening. Any ideas?

Here's a wee test of some new bullet holes and whatnot. You can see the bare default holes in this shot too:

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- GentleKiller - 23.03.2008

now thats more realistic!

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- Dudok22 - 23.03.2008

If somebody going to work on this, it can be released as New Damage effects mod I think.

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- canonuk - 23.03.2008

The holes are governed by the alpha channel associated with the damage TGA. If you're using the background trick to view the TGA, you'll never see the alpha channel.

The actual holes are part of the skin1.TGA alpha channel, and the damage graphics are part of damage2.TGA

If I get some time later I'll show you what I mean

Joe

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- Bee - 23.03.2008

I thought maybe skin1.TGA had something to do with it I happened to open one of the new default skins I had created and noticed that the holes were auto generated onto it. I was wondering if I were to change the shape of the holes on skin1, would it change the shape of the holes on the in-flight model?

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- canonuk - 24.03.2008

Yes, the alpha holes on skin1.TGA are the damage holes on the ingame model. Damage1.tga and damage2.tga are the graphics that get displayed around the holes.

If you want, I can make a new damage layer for the Emil. Or, if you're wanting to do that I'll leave it to you

Joe

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- Dowly - 24.03.2008

This works for I think every texture in the game. For example, you can make windows to building that you can see thru by just altering the alpha channel. :wink:

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- Bee - 24.03.2008

canonuk Wrote:Yes, the alpha holes on skin1.TGA are the damage holes on the ingame model. Damage1.tga and damage2.tga are the graphics that get displayed around the holes.

If you want, I can make a new damage layer for the Emil. Or, if you're wanting to do that I'll leave it to you

Joe

I don't mind either way. Although I know that anything you do would be far ahead of my own measly efforts

Btw, I tried filling in some areas of the skin1o.tga to change the shape of the holes, but it had no effect. I'll have a look at it again. Does the default skin actually use skin1o.tga to display itself, or is that the tgb, I wonder. Maybe if I fill in with black it might go better. If wurst comes to worst, it might be necessary to just dress up the existing holes if they can't be altered.

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- Jaypack44 - 29.03.2008

where did you find the damage files? I'd like to try my hand at editing some of those textures!

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- rigamortiz - 29.03.2008

Wow, thats genius!

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- Bee - 29.03.2008

In the 3DO/Plane folder there are sub folders for each aircraft. You'll find the damage1o/2o tga's there.

Btw, still can't figure out what governs the shape of the actual holes. Modifying skin1o.tga has no effect. :?

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