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.MOS Files for Buildings

gecko

Charter Member
This may be old news for some, but I was experimenting with the Dover Cliffs from ETO and found that by adding a .mos file and a winter texture I can have it change automatically between seasons the same way as aircraft winter textures work. However, I found the texture to be much grainier in both seasons with the mos file applied. Is there a way to fix this and restore the sharpness? I was also wondering if it was possible to add terrain detail textures to it via the mos. If that were possible, we could make the cliff texture nearly indistinguishable from the adjoining grass.

This could also have significance for other buildings that would change seasonally like trees and grass-covered blast pens (adding the detail texture would be good here too), or even for adding snow to rooftops.

However, mos files are a mystery to me, can anyone give me pointers on how to mess around with them?

Thanks,

Daniel
 
Hi Daniel, not heard of this one before! :applause: I think we'd always assumed that we were stuck with single season buildings, I don't think that any of the stock ones do this. Will have to play with it myself.

There's the help file with the MOS editor and other doc's in with the SDK. It's a matter of playing around with the mip and quality settings to sharpen the image up. There's also a trick with the editor in that you need to switch tabs once you change something in order for the changed parameters to stick.
 
I can't open the editor, it says I need managed Direct X 9 or greater installed. I'm running Win 7, so I know I've got better than Direct X 9. What gives?
 
Hi Daniel,

I was over at the OFF forum today, and one of the guys has just purchased a Windows 7 machine and was asking for some advise on setting it up for CFS3 based games.

one of the tips was this:

Once you have the new pc, you'll need to download and install MS's Directx June 2010 Redistributable in order to have dx9.0c fully functional.

I have no idea what that means, but I hope it helps. :salute:

regards Rob.
 
This may be old news for some, but I was experimenting with the Dover Cliffs from ETO and found that by adding a .mos file and a winter texture I can have it change automatically between seasons the same way as aircraft winter textures work. ...

Hmm, I think I experimented with that before - but with no result. Will have to try again because, as you correctly say, this is of great importance for grass covered structures. I currently use a grass colour that is somewhere in between the two seasons (so it isn't too conspicuous in both seasons) but a dedicated winter and summer texture would be best, of course. Back to the workshop!

And if I find a solution to the grainy textures I'll let you know. But you could start with a stock .mos file and switch to the correct texture size. The default setting is 1024x1024. Then start deleting the layers that you don't need. After that, you can start playing with the contents of the layers.

- Come and think of it, I think I started the first time with a terrain .mos file. That is perhaps coded differently compared to an aircraft .mos... Hmm, back to the workshop indeed!!!
 
Hi Daniel,

Please tell me how you got that to work...
I did some experimenting but I can't get a summer/winter coat to appear. What .mos file did you use (stock one from the game or one created with the aid of the Editor: general, aircraft of terrain), what did you alter and how did you name your files?
I created two temp. .dds files, green for summer and white for winter with the winter texture ending with "_w". I have used a stock aircraft .mos in which I have deleted the aircraft layers and pointed the base layer to my summer texture. Exported and started the game: object is green in summer and green in winter...

Thanks,

Joost
 
I can't open the editor, it says I need managed Direct X 9 or greater installed. I'm running Win 7, so I know I've got better than Direct X 9. What gives?

Daniel

Attached is a MOS fix installer that was originally on Ed Wilson's website. The problem that you are encountering is similar to what some folks see in xp sometimes. Not sure it will work in Win7 without Direct x9 installed. Ed use to call it the MOS editor wakeup.

Harryspin stated in win7 fix thread:

"One BIG caveat - some of the CFS3 tools will NOT work in Vista/Win7: that .MOS editor which gave you trouble needs XP - don't throw your XP CD away if that's important to you and put it on a separate partition (or HD - I fitted two to my rig)."

Give the MOS fix a try anyway, not sure Harry tried using the MOS fix.



Bob
 
I have Win7 x64 and the editor runs fine on my machine, with the redistributable installed that I had stashed somewhere from the days of my XP machine. But you might want to check if the Editor starts minimized of not. I had trouble getting it maximized. The trick turned out to be right-clicking the program link, to go to 'properties' and select 'normal window' or 'maximized' as opposed to minimized (or whatever the English version of Win7 calls it.).
Also, the editor from the Aircraft and Vehicle SDK sometimes has a habit of refusing to start. This also happened on my XP machine. My solution was to start the editor from the Terrain SDK, close it again and usually the other Editor would start up again. Weird but that's one of Microsoft's many idiosyncrasies...
 
Joost,

PM me your email (lost it when I switched email providers) and I'll send you a copy of what I have. I started with a mos file taken from one of Jaycee's P-47 standalone, which I imagine is just a copy of the stock P-47D-25 mos file made to work with his standalone. I edited it with m3ded so it called a new texture. The mos file was named according to the texture called by the cliff model: dover1_t.mos and then I had the summer and winter textures: dover001_t.dds and dover001_t_w.dds. I put all of them in the Cliff1 folder.

The one mos file I'm currently using is a copy of the Reg's Hanger Hurricane MK1 mos. Since it works with a hi-res texture I thought it might help the pixelation I got with the other mos. It didn't, but it still displays both textures like the old one.

I tried a terrain mos and an airfield mos as well, neither of which worked. Aircraft mos files must be set up differently I guess.

I hope this helps.

Bob, I'll try running the file you posted, maybe it'll work. Is it liable to mess up my system adding an older version of direct X on top of whatever newer version I'm running now?

Thanks,

Daniel
 
Daniel

No problem installing directx 9.0 on win7 with directx10.0 already installed

Did a search of M$ site and found this article.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Diagnosing-basic-problems-with-DirectX

Bottom of article states

"Some applications and games require DirectX 9. However, Windows 7 is installed with a more recent version of DirectX. If you install an application or game that requires DirectX 9, you might receive an error message, such as: "The program can't start because d3dx9_35.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem." The last two digits of the file name might vary. If you receive the same error message after reinstalling the application or game, go to the DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer webpage and follow the instructions to install DirectX 9 and receive updates to DirectX 9 and previous versions of DirectX."

Just a point was directx installed on your win 7 before net framework? If so try the mos fix and see if that wakes up directx.


Bob
 
Thanks Bob, I'm up and running now and making some progress - no more grainy textures! Now to figure out how to get the detail texture in....

Thanks!

Daniel
 
I 'll PM you my emailadress.

One question about your solution: for the Cliffs of Dover you don't need a damage model but this might be necessary for other buildings. With your filenaming, this suffix of "_N", "_D" and "_R" is lost. Now I prefer making more models rather than completeing them with Damage and Rubble models but do you know if this is still possible?

cheers,

Joost
 
Hello guys,out of curiosity,I have installed OFF2 on a new rig with a win7-32 OS.When I start the game I get the following message:" run time error 429" message :ActiveX component can't create object.
Does this have anything to do with the present discussion ?
Thanks
 
I've had a play with this too (Thanks for the files Daniel)

Initially I was getting a strip of corrupted texture at the base of the grass texture. I saved it as a DDS DXT1 (no Alpha) and that went away so it seems that the base layer can have no alpha, we need to confirm this though.

I only removed the alpha freom the w texture and the corruption also disappeared in the summer texture! So it seems that it may be loading and displaying both textures but with the seasonal one on the top.

Another oddity is that the terrain mos (as in airfields) require a mos for both winter and summer each calling up a different texture wheres the aircraft ones use a single mos based on the summer texture with the seasons being swapped via the 't' or 'w' suffix.

Again this is open to further trials! A very great find Daniel, why have you been away so long? :)
 
Just wondering why none of you haven't mentioned dx11.
I would think anybody with Win7 would be using dx11.

I stopped discarding my old PCs. Now I have Win 7, Vista & XP. What I can't do with one, I can do with another.
Older games & software that are incompatable with 7, I can run with Xp and newer games & software that won't run on XP
I can run on 7. Likewise editing. I also have multiple hard drives for each OS that I plug & unplug as necessary to run
what is installed on that particular drive. And I can swap between PC systems to edit or change or whatever with a usb
storage drive or network. again, what I can't do with one, I can do with another, if you get my drift.
 
Clive, you've got mail. I'm not sure what you're talking about with the texture corruption, could you post a shot of what it looked like? I didn't notice any on mine.

Rich, I'm pretty sure dx11 is what came on my PC. It's all a bit over my head but apparently some features required by CFS3 from dx9 are "dormant" in newer versions and needed the file Bob posted to wake them up. As far as I can tell, even with that file installed I'm still running dx11. Sounds like a pretty slick setup you've got, definitely good for running older games like CFS3. I've just got the one PC in functioning order so I make do with that.

Daniel
 
Here's what I'm seeing Daniel. This is at distance, as I get closer it disappears under the mesh of the landscape. I'm wondering now if it's part of an ongoing issue I have with my graphics card. http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/showthread.php?56083-graphics-issue&highlight=graphics

edit: in fact this is all dependant on what a/c I'm flying too. This is when using the Mud Pond PT19, if I use a Spit instaed that band of corrruption shows as camouflage..aargh!

Prbably best to ignore all I've said on the matter until I get this sorted!

View attachment 54261
 
Interesting Clive. I'm not sure if its graphics or not. I once had a similar problem when removing parts of an airplane using an alpha channel. I assumed it was something to do with the .mos file not liking alpha channels as I've not noticed any other problems on my system. Does it still do this using the new set of files I sent you?

Daniel
 
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