[VonBarb.]

Hi

Just a few pics of a quick Map_T and load.ini modification I made for Kurland. It's no ground breaking addon, but I figured someone else might be interested.

I've tried to diversify the landscape which only used a couple of different textures by default. The main improvement is that there is now a separate texture slot for the seaside (rivers and beaches used to use the same texture slot) I added fields (quite a few ) and used Rus Andrey's Autumn textures because, well, it's Kurland Autumn isn't it ?





I will make a winter version in the next few days, borrowing heavily from MayBug's Winter Slovakia and Gilb's recent Kurland Winter.

The new Map_T has allowed me to create a campaign-specific version of the map for FlatSpinMan (Nocturnum) 's 'RAF Pilot : France' campaign which uses Kurland as a hack for Northern France. It's one of my favourite offline campaigns, and I cannot recommend you to play it enough. This version of the map will give it a more western European feel, similar to Normandy :


I will also make a winter version for this one, that will be accurate for the winter Phony War missions in the campain.

Cheers

Nico

[fly_zo]

cool ....


looking forward to it


Z

[skarden]

looking great!will give me a reason to play through RAF pilot again

[VonBarb.]

OK, so now I think I have a better idea why the default map wasn't more detailed : it is much larger than I had estimated, and at this stage unlockedFMB is struggling to load the map (only works once outta three-four attempts) and to save changes (4-5 mins)
Does anybody know what the smallest/lighter default actors.static would be, or by default, if I canload a map with a blank .static file ? This is the only way I've found around the memory issue when loading maps in unlockedFMB.

Cheers

Nico

[may-bug]

hi Porco,

to avoid long time for loading the map (if you only retexture), just use an empty actors.static. For example, name it actors00.static, and replace the line in your load.ini:

[static]
actors.static

to

[static]
actors00.static

Done. You just have to change this line to default one when you want the map with objects.

[Nocturnum]

Hey vonBarb,
Never knew it was you till just recently. Anyway, really sorry for rudely not acting on all the good advice you sent me. It was very ungracious. And now I see you recommending my campaign! Aargh - where's as tone to crawl under?!
Anyway, this is looking good. I'll follow it with interest.
Thanks,
FlatSpinMan

[VonBarb.]

No hard feelings . I was doing this for myself and thought I'd share it with you in priority. To be honest I had given up the idea until recently when I started fiddling with Map_Ts and a decent looking European landscape became possible.

Anyhoo... time to share an early draft of the MOD, see what ya'll think of it so far. Here goes :

Kurland Autumn :


Kurland Winter :


Kurland Autumn as Spring Northern France :


Kurland Winter as Winter Northern France :


Download link is here :
http://files.filefront.com/Default+KURLA...einfo.html

Follow the instructions in the readme there's a couple MODs you need to have installed first.

Any and all feedback is welcome !

Cheers

Nico

[VonBarb.]

Really, no one ?

Cheers

Nico

[agracier]

Love the winter versions of the maps.

I did however have an odd experience with the Autumn version. Don't know what caused it, but it looks like some trees were acting very oddly. They looked like boxes or something

[img]

Any idea of what could be causing this? I haven't a clue.[/img]

[VonBarb.]

Neither do I... do you have all of Rus Andrey's files ? Is this a known issue with his trees ?

Cheers

Nico

[agracier]

Rus Audrey? Doesn't ring a bell ...

Where can I get these files?

[VonBarb.]

I provided a link in the readme

Looks like you have some of his files (probably came with another map...) since you have an autumn forest texture. Try re-downloading his entire textures pack from the link in the readme.

Cheers

Nico

[agracier]

Sorry, but I reinstalled and extracted the map pack and looked carefully at the readme.txt file.

There is no link in the file.

Here is the full text:

______________________________
This pack is made of 10 standard IL2-1946 winter maps renewed with new textures : some are using new Mbug winter Slovakia texs, the others are made by me, based on Compans, CanonUK & also standard 4.09 (slovakia) textures.

All are installed as new maps, all beginning with "GW_" in their name. You can use them to replace default winter maps : just rename "GW-xxxload.ini" in default ini name.
I provided original load.ini file for each one in order to deal with default replacement and back.

MAPS PROVIDED :

GW_Ardennes
GW_Kurland_Winter
GW_Stalingrad
GW_Balaton_winter
GW_Moscow
GW_Murmansk
GW_Net1Winter
GW_Net2Winter >>> modified texture placement (map_T file)
GW_Normandy_March >>> modified texture placement (map_T file)
GW_Normandy_january >>> modified texture placement (map_T file)
GW_Norway >>> modified texture placement (map_T file)

All are winter maps.
All are made 4.08 compatible in order to play on them standard missions & campaigns.

I also reworked the ingame 2D maps to reflect the changes.
I provided Mbug Slovakia winter texs (but with size degreased to 256c - no visible change in the game) to avoid user to make separate download.

Some maps have also different highclouds covers (Moskow & Norway have an overcast layer of highclouds) and winter trees (not so successfull due to the poor 4.08 original 3D trees.

I also reworked some texs for airfields runways to mix well with my landscapes.
Snowy runways for winter maps. But also summer runways because some maps use summer ones.
The latest have less saturated colors and work (in my opinion) correctly with other summer maps...
If you don't like them, just delete them (in 3DO/airfield/...)

Thank's to :
Mbug, Compans, CanonUK, Tab & Fly-Zo for their work, and also IL2 & Slovakia map team.

[VonBarb.]

This isn't my readme This is Gilb's winter maps pack readme.

Here's mine :

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Default Map upgrade : Kurland Beta 0.9

This pack includes four new versions of the Kurland map. My aim was to try and add some diversity to the ground textures, using textures from the Slovakia and Bessarabia maps as well as seasonal textures by May_Bug and Rus_Andrey. At the heart of the modification is a new Map_T file. This was originally a quick modification for my personnal use, but I figured someone else might be interested, so here it is

The four versions include a new version of both default Autumn and Winter Kurland maps, as well as two campaign-specific versions intended to be used with FlatSpinMan's 'RAF Pilot : France' which uses Kurland as a hack for Northern France. I higly recommend you try this campaign, it's one of my personal favourites. The Kurland FRANCE versions of the map will give it a more western european look with lots of fields, more appopriate to depict the Franco-Belgian border area the campaign is set in.

Installation :
This MOD requires :

-VPmedia Default Map Upgrade Pack : (The link is inoperative)

-May_Bug's Slovakia Winter Map : viewtopic.php?t=10025

-Rus Andrey's Autumn textures : viewtopic.php?t=7102&highlight=bob+autumn+textures


Install these MODs as indicated in their readme files.

When this is done, put the 'Map_t' file in your (by default) Program Files/Ubisoft/Il2-Sturmovik 1946/MODS/MAPMODS/maps/Kurland folder.
Then put the load.ini/wload.ini (and their _online counterparts) files of your choice in the same folder.
If asked to overwrite, click yes.

Tadaa, run the game and enjoy .

Thanks :
Oleg and 1C for a terrific sim.
The AAA community for making it possible to modify it.
VPMedia for lighting the path.
FlatSpinMan for his great campaign.
May_Bug for his Winter textures.
Rus Andrey for his Autumn textures.
Everybody who helped me get started with editing maps, Fly_Zo and all.
Mandrill7 for early beta testing.

This is my very first MOD, so any and all feedback is of course most welcome !

Happy landings !

Porco Rosso/VonBarb.