The Black Pearl 3.0

[Pieter Boelen]

So, Pieter and, everyone, in your opinion, is it worth it having climbable crows nest?

I do like the feature, but only if the crow's nest's view isn't obstructed by another sail.
At the moment on the Black Pearl, I don't quite see the point, though at least she proves it IS possible.
Of course a real ship's crow's nest is ABOVE all the sails. If it can be arranged so the sails don't obstruct,
it'll be a wonderful feature in realistic game mode and using DirectSail.

u dont need to remove any locators ,u can just delete the gm file containing those boats

PotC crashes or gives you a black screen when you refer to a GM file that doesn't exist... :?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

In just tried the new version of the Black Pearl and she's definitly better.
No more odd cannon wheels or texture clipping issues. And the camera behaves normally now too.
Few things I did find:

- Some missing ropes

- No flags and pennants

- Two pixels on the port side of the "window" above the captain's cabin still need to be "alpha mapped".
Now they appear as two floating grey pixels.

Question: Why don't you allow the player camera to go into that captain's cabin?
It looks detailed enough to stand up to that.

 

[Kazeite]

- Two pixels on the port side of the "window" above the captain's cabin still need to be "alpha mapped".
Now they appear as two floating grey pixels.

Um, yes, it's because the whole stuff was supposed to be semi-transparent (dirty), and it's not - everything under certain threshold is invisible. Apparently, those two pixels weren't transparent enough. But frankly, I don't want to mess with this transparencies anymore

Question: Why don't you allow the player camera to go into that captain's cabin?
It looks detailed enough to stand up to that.

Because on every ship captain's cabin is a separate location.

Of course a real ship's crow's nest is ABOVE all the sails. If it can be arranged so the sails don't obstruct,
it'll be a wonderful feature in realistic game mode and using DirectSail.

Yes, but that would require every ship to have at least one indestructible mast, and that would be rather undesirable, now, would it?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Um, yes, it's because the whole stuff was supposed to be semi-transparent (dirty), and it's not - everything under certain threshold is invisible. Apparently, those two pixels weren't transparent enough. But frankly, I don't want to mess with this transparencies anymore

Too bad that semi-transparent won't work. But those two pixels look weird as well.
Maybe someone else could do something about it?

Because on every ship captain's cabin is a separate location.

It's still nice to be able to spend some time in your captain's cabin in 3D sailing mode as well.
Especially when you're using DirectSail mode and are spending a looong time at sea.

Yes, but that would require every ship to have at least one indestructible mast, and that would be rather undesirable, now, would it?

Actually, I have no objections to that. I don't expect someone is going to add a crow's nest to ALL ships anyway.
And what if one mast can't be blown off? In the stock game, masts NEVER fell off.
And in DirectSail, I can imagine going up into the rigging could indeed help.

 

[simking]

ok newbie question how do you install them what folders?
I love the idea that u can go in the crows nest wish all ships you could some have horrible forward visibility

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Once finished, she'll be in the Build 14 WIP files.
That's easier, because right now all her model files need to be renamed from BlackPearl1 to BlackPearl.

 

[SuperChango]

Congrats ! looks nice with the alpha !... now i think i've seen some dirty window texture around...
How did you worked the alpha issue anyway ?

 

[simking]

roger that can't wait i love the night lighting always wanted that sailing with the lamps reflecting off the water...

 

[Kazeite]

Congrats ! looks nice with the alpha !... now i think i've seen some dirty window texture around...
How did you worked the alpha issue anyway ?

Dunno - it was ZarethPL who converted the texture. I have no idea whatsoever why my three copies of ConverterTX refuse to convert it, while Zareth could do it using the very same .tga

All those windows and lamps are supposed to be dirty, but, I... is it even possible? Is the transparency a simple 2bit affair? Either visible or invisible?

You're free to do your own experiments

 

[ZarethPL]

Congrats ! looks nice with the alpha !... now i think i've seen some dirty window texture around...
How did you worked the alpha issue anyway ?

Dunno - it was ZarethPL who converted the texture. I have no idea whatsoever why my three copies of ConverterTX refuse to convert it, while Zareth could do it using the very same .tga

All those windows and lamps are supposed to be dirty, but, I... is it even possible? Is the transparency a simple 2bit affair? Either visible or invisible?

You're free to do your own experiments

if you would want to set up a partial transparency that is done in maya in material properties ,thou in case of low poly stuff might look a bit wierd,best option would be giving them a bit more polys for the frame and the glass itself

 

[Kazeite]

Status update: still there, merrily adding and moving ropes

Of course, I've found some embarrassing texture errors along the way

Anyway, transparency:
I've removed those two two pixels on the port side of the skylight. Well, I just made them darker, since apparently they weren't dark enough to be counted as transparent As far as I can tell, ZarethPL has converted texture flawlessly - it's just that CoAS engine simply doesn't support partial transparency - a pixel can be either transparent, or not. Oh well...

(But modelling each pane of the glass and giving them separate texture, as Zareth suggests above is not an option, since they're gonna have the exact same problem with transparency ) Well, it looks good enough for me as it is

While I was fixing the aforementioned pixel problem I've decided to change the texture on those four small windows on either side of main cabin entrance. And this is the result:



Window frames are much better and clearer looking now, and windows themselves have new, bigger texture :ty If only I had a better looking door texture...

Crows nest: I think I'm going to remove it. We've proven that the basic idea is viable, but since we all seem to agree that it doesn't exactly work on the Black Pearl, there's no point of keeping it.


And I have a question: has anyone made a stand-alone Black Pearl mod for CoAS?

 

[Captain Maggee]

No one has made a stand alone... I sent the files for the old pearl and the dutchman to someone, but they tried to post it as an attachment and wouldnt listen to me about the FTP

Its look very nice

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Brilliant, Kazeite! I was beginning to wonder if you might be able to have a working a version finished by next weekend.
Then she can go in Build 14 Beta 1.

 

[morgan terror]

i've been thinking here... how would it be if the lanterns had a really tiny and consistent particle effect in them? there would be no actual ambient lighting, but it would be a slight improvement. you might be able to see them from quite a distance at night.

 

[SuperChango]

i've been thinking here... how would it be if the lanterns had a really tiny and consistent particle effect in them? there would be no actual ambient lighting, but it would be a slight improvement. you might be able to see them from quite a distance at night.

Now that's a cool idea... the fire effect pieter created, finetuned and placed together with a fonar light, in a different lamp mesh with custom glasses, and there you go, a realistic looking fonar...

 

[morgan terror]

think of the work though. at least 3 lanterns on each ship... that makes hundreds of little lamps.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

That sounds like it actually might be possible.
We can get particle effects to follow the ship.
Worth experimenting with, I suppose.

 

[Darth-me]

That would definately be useful, if it was added to the mod. I don't use directsail partly because I refuse to fight at night. Argue that it's realistic all you want, I disagree at the moment. In RL you would be able to see a ship from quite a way away (I imagine) because they'd have lights. Not to mention how it always seems to be cloudy at night. Anyway, this looks really good, I'm really looking forward to the next alpha (or will it be a beta?).
Good work all.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Next version will be Beta 1.

Note that with Screwface's Sea AI modifications,
enemy ships can no longer magically see through darkness and fog.
So when you can hardly see them, at least that also works the other way around.

I agree about night-time battles. When I'm on the worldmap,
I always try to time my engagements to be during day-time.
Stern lanterns would be good, so Morgan's idea's definitly worth a try.

I think the concept is quite easily proven.
But then the coordinates would need to be found for the stern lanterns of 200+ ships.
Now THERE's a big job!

 

[Iron Roger Flint]

Why not wait a bit longer till we get the source code? I bet somebody will find a quick solution for the flares without going into trouble with those fire effects