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The Staff of SOH
Toko-Ri facility?
- Thread starter Squiffy
- Start date
FOO FIGHTER
Charter Member
I don't know, I'll have to agree with Nonato. Toko-Ri could be anywhere NW of Wonsan as far as I could tell, with so many rivers converging. Is there anyway to find out for sure? I mean is there actual mission info somewhere?
OT - I was looking for info on LST activity at Wonsan Bay and came across some Korea action reports from USS Bairoko (CVE-115). It seems the area around 38*05'N/125*16'E was a real nasty place for AC to be. Google earth shows it to be a very remote and desolate area with a very small population and some minor development. Just a bit North are hills/mountains and nearly every one of them has what appears to be trenches with bomb craters surrounding them(?). Some have eroded, others are as plain as day. I just thought that was a little eerie. The next time I climb into my computer generated Panther I think I'll reflect alot more on the mission I'm about to fly and the guys who were there that did it for real.
OT - I was looking for info on LST activity at Wonsan Bay and came across some Korea action reports from USS Bairoko (CVE-115). It seems the area around 38*05'N/125*16'E was a real nasty place for AC to be. Google earth shows it to be a very remote and desolate area with a very small population and some minor development. Just a bit North are hills/mountains and nearly every one of them has what appears to be trenches with bomb craters surrounding them(?). Some have eroded, others are as plain as day. I just thought that was a little eerie. The next time I climb into my computer generated Panther I think I'll reflect alot more on the mission I'm about to fly and the guys who were there that did it for real.
FOO FIGHTER
Charter Member
Squiffy
Charter Member
Bingo,
It's been a while since I read it through but we can compare the distances and other information to get a good picture. Those action reports were cool too.
Update: I am leaning towards just repainting the deck to Korea era paint. It's a little too fussy and weird to mask out the saratoga deck, and match the new facility file to the carrier model placement. There' something going on in the cockpit model and the terrain rings that cause the facility tile to blank out up close and only be visible at long zoom beyond a certain surrounding square, relative to the aircraft. With wind as low as ten knots, an full flaps, I can lift off just at the end of the saratoga deck. I've even trided the catapult stations and it's just a bit short. I may not have had full flaps at that point.
It's been a while since I read it through but we can compare the distances and other information to get a good picture. Those action reports were cool too.
Update: I am leaning towards just repainting the deck to Korea era paint. It's a little too fussy and weird to mask out the saratoga deck, and match the new facility file to the carrier model placement. There' something going on in the cockpit model and the terrain rings that cause the facility tile to blank out up close and only be visible at long zoom beyond a certain surrounding square, relative to the aircraft. With wind as low as ten knots, an full flaps, I can lift off just at the end of the saratoga deck. I've even trided the catapult stations and it's just a bit short. I may not have had full flaps at that point.
FOO FIGHTER
Charter Member
Whatever you do Squiffy, I'm sure it will be cool.
Did I do this one right? I just copied the layer that has the dive brake holes and gave it a layer mask (hide all). Saved the t.dds as a 2048, 8bit, no alpha and the r.dds as 2048, 1bit + alpha. Half of the dive brake (to the pilot's left) has a mask, the right just an r.dds unmasked. The masked side does appear to be almost transparent at certain angles and not nearly as reflective as before.
Did I do this one right? I just copied the layer that has the dive brake holes and gave it a layer mask (hide all). Saved the t.dds as a 2048, 8bit, no alpha and the r.dds as 2048, 1bit + alpha. Half of the dive brake (to the pilot's left) has a mask, the right just an r.dds unmasked. The masked side does appear to be almost transparent at certain angles and not nearly as reflective as before.
Whatever you do Squiffy, I'm sure it will be cool.
Did I do this one right? I just copied the layer that has the dive brake holes and gave it a layer mask (hide all). Saved the t.dds as a 2048, 8bit, no alpha and the r.dds as 2048, 1bit + alpha. Half of the dive brake (to the pilot's left) has a mask, the right just an r.dds unmasked. The masked side does appear to be almost transparent at certain angles and not nearly as reflective as before.
Wow, guys!
You boys are doing all the hard work! I feel myself quite useless around here.
Anyway, good job, you two! May this Toko-Ri pack represent a new breath for DPC Korea!
Non
Squiffy
Charter Member
...separate the norm background from the trans alpha mask. This is usually the best way as it helps avoid color bleed and trans corruption. So you would want to mask out the holes with black dots on the trans and color them128 gray on the norm skin. You will be able to see through the holes. My F-84 is set to do this already. Not sure if the F-86's was perforated or not.
Update: progress on surviving landings. Porposing was not helped by cg move. didn't have far to go anyway. looked at damping and compression. Boosting to 2.5 worked pretty well, surprisingly. 3 was silly! plane jittered up and down in ui menu.
Update: progress on surviving landings. Porposing was not helped by cg move. didn't have far to go anyway. looked at damping and compression. Boosting to 2.5 worked pretty well, surprisingly. 3 was silly! plane jittered up and down in ui menu.
Frosty
SOH-CM-2025
EDIT Sorry Squiffy, your second post wasn't on yet... So you can forget what I wrote below.
Guys, I have a different way of applying transparancy:
For this you need your normal _t texture sheet and an Alpha version where the colour white means solid and black is transparent. If you have no other transparencies other than your divebrake holes, the whole sheet can be white with only black spots where you need the holes to be. Save both files as .bmp's and then start DXTbmp. Open your normal texture in the main window and your Alpha in the small Alpha window on the right. Save this combination as the single _t .dds file needed for your model (I use DXT3 with Alpha). This should theoretically give you transparent holes for your divebrakes.
As far as I know, it is the Alpha part of the .dds that defines transparency, not the grey in the texture part of the .dds. Eg., if I do not use a .dds with Alpha for my groundtextures, the grey parts also show...
Guys, I have a different way of applying transparancy:
For this you need your normal _t texture sheet and an Alpha version where the colour white means solid and black is transparent. If you have no other transparencies other than your divebrake holes, the whole sheet can be white with only black spots where you need the holes to be. Save both files as .bmp's and then start DXTbmp. Open your normal texture in the main window and your Alpha in the small Alpha window on the right. Save this combination as the single _t .dds file needed for your model (I use DXT3 with Alpha). This should theoretically give you transparent holes for your divebrakes.
As far as I know, it is the Alpha part of the .dds that defines transparency, not the grey in the texture part of the .dds. Eg., if I do not use a .dds with Alpha for my groundtextures, the grey parts also show...
FOO FIGHTER
Charter Member
This is Squiffy's show. He's the one doing all the hard work. I'm just trying to throw a decent skin together.:mixedsmi:
Did as you said Frosty, except I saved in 565 16bit and got this. Should the t.dds holes be a specific color? Will experiment some more after work.
Some detail specific to Brubaker's Panther (grey area at the wing roots that extends aft) cannot be added due to the texture mapping. The panel lines for the gear doors and the flaps that extend under the fuselage will be gone too. If your interested I should have this wrapped up tomorrow. It will look better than pictured here.
Did as you said Frosty, except I saved in 565 16bit and got this. Should the t.dds holes be a specific color? Will experiment some more after work.
Some detail specific to Brubaker's Panther (grey area at the wing roots that extends aft) cannot be added due to the texture mapping. The panel lines for the gear doors and the flaps that extend under the fuselage will be gone too. If your interested I should have this wrapped up tomorrow. It will look better than pictured here.
Squiffy
Charter Member
Nice Foo. I can't remember the right dds format but if you don't have DXTbmp, one of us can edit it for you to finish that part. This model does have some weird splinters in it. The starboard side fuselage is pretty weird and it effects the wing and star. Otherwise looks good. Just trim back the wingroot effect and leave the flaps visible if you can. You want to be able to see them in other missions.
Here are my last of the test shots. This FM is good to go. Strong landing gear and a good headwind of 15 kts. Wind speeds are in m/s in the weather files so dont' over do it. 10 kts still made for some bad stall pancakes. No yeast.
We'll be ready to star packign it up this weekend. I can include a substitute gsl and global layer.cfg to have the Essex/Saratoga on the map. Other wise you can place it where you want for other missions. UI and base choices might not follow in that case.
So here are some shots of everyone down in one piece.
Here are my last of the test shots. This FM is good to go. Strong landing gear and a good headwind of 15 kts. Wind speeds are in m/s in the weather files so dont' over do it. 10 kts still made for some bad stall pancakes. No yeast.
We'll be ready to star packign it up this weekend. I can include a substitute gsl and global layer.cfg to have the Essex/Saratoga on the map. Other wise you can place it where you want for other missions. UI and base choices might not follow in that case.So here are some shots of everyone down in one piece.
Frosty
SOH-CM-2025
Nope, the holes on the _t .dds don't need to be a specific colour. In fact, I think that if you don't paint them at all (only on the Alpha mask), you get less colour bleed around the edges of the transparancies (but I usually use the grey that Squiffy mentioned if I need to paint something)
Thanks Squiffy, your remark about the grey lines surrounding the ground texture tiles just gave me something to experiment with!
FOO FIGHTER
Charter Member
Had to work OT at work Friday and did what I could before falling asleep on the keyboard. As you can see its just not quite there yet. I even forgot to add Brubaker's name! Squiffy do your thing and I'll upload this Sunday or Monday after I fix a few things on it (have to work this weekend).
Had to work OT at work Friday and did what I could before falling asleep on the keyboard. As you can see its just not quite there yet. I even forgot to add Brubaker's name! Squiffy do your thing and I'll upload this Sunday or Monday after I fix a few things on it (have to work this weekend).
Good one FOO!
Do you think you'll be able to upload the adorable Gracy Brubaker too???
:woot::focus:N.
lewis11777
Charter Member
Barry nice skins!