[MOD] Rheinland Texture Mod v1.0

[PicksKing]

 

Hi guys,

this is a texture mod for the Rheinland map. It includes the seasons summer, autumn and spring. The winter remains untouched. At least for now.  

Before you install it, older versions should be uninstalled to avoid conflicts.
 
download v1.0
https://drive.google.com/open?id=10PyLjtqGhEoCXacyf7qWVswx9f0rCsQO

 

Simply extract the archive into the main folder "C:\...\IL-2 Sturmovik\data\graphics..."

or into the designated mod folder of JSGME "C:\...\IL-2 Sturmovik\MODS\Rheinland Texture Mod v1.0\data\graphics..."

 

Screenshots with gamma 1.0

Edited February 2, 2020 by PicksKing
Update

[FoxbatRU]

I do not have BoBP, but I like it very much by screenshots. After the Kuban mod, I'm sure!

[DD_Arthur]

7 hours ago, PicksKing said:

 So gimme feedback.

 

It's great!  Helps break up the landscape into a more random, natural appearance and no noticeable performance hit either.

 

Good job

 

 

[HappyHaddock]

@PicksKing Hi, I've played around a bit with elements of map re-working;

 

The game engine readily accepts higher resolution textures for the map tiles but do you actually find they make a visible difference? At high altitude the extra resolution isn't needed and at low altitude there's some sort of blending algorithm used to blur pixels to avoid a look of hard pixilation on the ground.

 

From the tests I've done I tend to find it is enough to completely blur adjacent pixels into one another, doubling the texture resolution simply seams to lead to a block of 4x4 pixels being blurred out.

 

I concluded that to gain enough benefit from the higher resolution textures I'd need to find what ever bit of code that was blending pixels and reduce its severity (and haven't yet done so), though it might be that those playing on higher resolution screens than y own  do see some extra clarity?

 

Cheers

HH

[PicksKing]

@HappyHaddock I saw this too but couldn't figure out why the higher resolution had not the effect that I expected. Now I know. Thx.

It still does look better in my eyes but not as much as I hoped for. And for some reason only the field texture is affected by this blending algorithm. The "wild" grass texture, mainly found in south east of this map, isn't and looks way sharper now.

Once you found a solution, please let me know.

[Uufflakke]

I haven't tried your retexturing yet but please add sandy beaches or sand dune textures near the coastlines.

Now we have green acres ending abruplty in the sea.

And rather essential (and perhaps typically Dutch) are the small strips of acres with ditches in between.

 

In case you haven't read it you might get some inspiration by reading this thread where the Rheinland map gets critized:

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/54249-the-rheinland-map/

 

In relation to other seasons you possibly want to retexture: now we have a heavily snow covered NW Europe.

The early snow version is very interesting too. Unfortunately it stayed in development stage.

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/168-developer-diary/page/5/?tab=comments#comment-611219

Edited January 26, 2020 by Uufflakke

[Sakivano]

I love it. Beautiful, amazing... Wow!!! Much better than vanilla version ?

[fubar_2_niner]

@DD_Arthur love the vid! Are you using TrackIR or VR?

[jollyjack]

Being looking at a standard Rheinland map (not yours) with some user added bridges that should have existed probably in the 40-ies, and i miss some roads connecting them.

 

A (stupid?) Q remains: is it possible to add roads and or railways to a map?

Especially railways were the backbone of Nazi eastbound transports, and i'd love to see some more editable train work.

Vluki Railway yard shows a little what.s possible there. Maybe some more in the Rheinland industrial areas like that could be welcome too.

 

And when are we getting some Arras-time trains?

Edited January 26, 2020 by jollyjack

[fubar_2_niner]

@PicksKing

 

Great work, love what you're doing here.

[sevenless]

The map could use every help it could get. Definitively an improvement. If you could get it to your BoK standard that would be great.

[HappyHaddock]

2 hours ago, PicksKing said:

@HappyHaddock I saw this too but couldn't figure out why the higher resolution had not the effect that I expected. Now I know. Thx.

It still does look better in my eyes but not as much as I hoped for. And for some reason only the field texture is affected by this blending algorithm. The "wild" grass texture, mainly found in south east of this map, isn't and looks way sharper now.

Once you found a solution, please let me know.

 

If I do figure it out I'll be sure to tell you, though my own interests lie in WWI so I don't even own the BOBP map to check out where your work does or doesn't make a difference.

 

Just out of curiosity what difference (if any?) have you found the animated grass effects to have on this? Clearly if you've got waving blades of grass blowing in the breeze these will obscure, to some degree, the actual flat texture files imposed on the ground surface below. At very close range, ie zero altitude the impact of improved textures hidden by blades of grass might not be as relevant as at perhaps 1000ft where these blades of grass can't be seen.  Do these "wild" grass textures you say you see the big difference with actually have the animated grass effect imposed over the top of them?

 

HH

[DD_Arthur]

1 hour ago, fubar_2_niner said:

@DD_Arthur love the vid! Are you using TrackIR or VR?

 

Hi fuber.  Originally flown and recorded in VR.  After recording the track I reset the game in 2D mode with all th settings bumped up to max.  Nvidia DSR set to x2.  Restart the game with TrackIr enabled and record with shadowplay.

 

The more I use this mod the more I like it!  Nice one PicksKing

[PicksKing]

@HappyHaddock 
Since I dont have tank crew, I didnt care about waving gras blades yet and their effect on anything or vice versa. I am not flying THAT low ?
But I will put it on the check list. Maybe its worth the effort.

Edited January 26, 2020 by PicksKing

[LizLemon]

The max tile resolution is 1024x1024. You can bias the mips to make things look sharper. The noise texture that drawn on top of the landscape textures has a big impact on the apparent sharpness of the landscape, along with the brightness/contrast.

[PicksKing]

@LizLemon What "noise texture" do you mean? Cant find one.

[LizLemon]

detail.dds in the root folder of the map

[MarcoPegase44]

Hello

I think the winter map needs to be thought about for textures.  

it is too snowy, especially in the plains.

 in 1944, only melted snow fell.  

it really snowed only on the night of December 22 to 23 and it mainly concerned the heights of the ardennes.  snow held for the first 15 days of January.

 I am not a specialist in the weather of winter 1944 but textures only with simple traces of snow in the plains of Holland would be good

Edited January 27, 2020 by MarcoPegase44

[sevenless]

6 minutes ago, MarcoPegase44 said:

Hello

I think my winter menu needs to be thought about for textures.  

it is too snowy, especially in the plains.

 in 1944, only melted snow fell.  

it really snowed only on the night of December 22 to 23 and it mainly concerned the heights of the ardennes.  snow held for the first 15 days of January.

 I am not a specialist in the weather of winter 1944 but textures only with simple traces of snow in the plains of Holland would be good

 

They already where close back then. Don´t know why they changed it. Also they had evergreen spruces and firs in, which are also lacking now.

 

 

[PicksKing]

I fiddled a bit but I am not sure about this. There is way more to do - every airfield and every building is snow covered by default and needs to be changed. 

 

 

[sevenless]

37 minutes ago, PicksKing said:

I fiddled a bit but I am not sure about this. There is way more to do - every airfield and every building is snow covered by default and needs to be changed. 

 

I love it!

[Uufflakke]

Looks promising... for sure.

 

Question: besides repainting existing textures do you have plans to create new textures?

Because in many places on the map field textures have nothing to do with how The Netherlands, Belgium and parts of Germany appeared during WWII.

And even nowadays.

[PicksKing]

@Uufflakke I highly doubt that this is even possible without diving deeply into the code. Way beyond my skills.

[LizLemon]

Changing the tiles it easy. Texturemap.bmp controls which tile is used and texture.tini defines which color goes with which tile.

 

Making the buildings less snow is also pretty easy using exclusion layers in ps. Ditto for the landscape textures. Most of it can be semi-automated.

 

[Blooddawn1942]

This mod is incredible. Feels like a whole new sim. I'm super curious what else wonders you can do to the map.

[jollyjack]

PS; Your Rheinland map has a serious problem IMO:  the railways are missing if your su map is installed from the wi (standard) map ...

Edited January 29, 2020 by jollyjack

[DD_Arthur]

2 hours ago, jollyjack said:

PS; Your Rheinland map has a serious problem IMO:  the railways are missing if your su map is installed from the wi (standard) map ...

 

?  

[jollyjack]

as said no railway tracks on the wintermap ...

[DD_Arthur]

45 minutes ago, jollyjack said:

as said no railway tracks on the wintermap ...

 

Ah.... the railway tracks are indeed missing on the winter map with this installed.  However, the track bed is there and the trains run.

 

I'll take the re-texture thanks

[jollyjack]

Best of luck there, must be quite a job ... been looking at some cloud mods, but they also are not quite there yet ...

Try to make it on Prangsters recommended MOD list?

[PicksKing]

3 hours ago, jollyjack said:

as said no railway tracks on the wintermap ...

 

No problems on my end. Would you post a screenshot?

[jollyjack]

Cannot any more, sorry, reinstalled the original map ..

 

Edited January 30, 2020 by jollyjack

[Redeye]

Absolutely stellar job. Shame about the 'blur' at low level from the game engine. But this looks fantastic. Besides the textures themselves, what I find awesome is that the forests blend MUCH more naturally as you gain altitude. They used to looks strange, but now it is crisp as hell.

 

Great job, can't wait for the rest!

[bzc3lk]

On 1/30/2020 at 8:52 AM, PicksKing said:

 

No problems on my end. Would you post a screenshot?

 

No problems on my end either. The railway tracks are visible on the Winter map with your Summer map mod activated on my PC.

 

 

[PicksKing]

A small problem occured. 

For saving disk space the maps from BoBP, FC and TC are using textures from each other. Those of you who are owning FC might see, that this mod also changes some textures from the Arras map. In this case the field textures.

Corrupting files from other maps can be easily avoided but I need a volunteer, who owns the Arras map (which I dont) and makes sure that the arras map isnt going to be a mess. Please PM me. It will not take long.

Edited February 1, 2020 by PicksKing

[DD_Arthur]

31 minutes ago, PicksKing said:

makes sure that the arras map isnt going to be a mess. 

 

Yes, it does effect the Arras map but in a very good way!!  Looks much better imho

 

 

[PicksKing]

Maybe it also fits to the arras map but this is another project for another day. For now I would like to leave the arras map as it is. So would somebody do me a favour and check something for me?

 

just unpack this zip into the mainfolder. it doesnt affect anything else and the rheinland mod may not be uninstalled. 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LEyc9-M_SzYAivIueo0ec88qnEHBJtPB

 

Then take a short flight over arras. Check if the vanilla textures are back and let me know.

 

After that, navigate to data\graphics\LANDSCAPE_Arras_sp and delete the landtexturesquality folder and the textures.tini file, if you want the modded arras map back.

 

Done.

Edited February 1, 2020 by PicksKing

[LizLemon]

All you need to do is modify the last section of the texture names in textures.tini to stop it from changing arras too. Make the textures referenced something like "Color="041000200","graphics\LANDSCAPE_Rheinland_au\LandTexturesQuality\X041.dds" and make sure the corresponding textures in the landtexqual folder the same name. 

 

Also the above screenshot of the railway looks like its using the summer rail texture, and not the winter tex like on moscow/stal/lap/vl. Just change the texture reference in roadstextures.ini to one of the winter railway textures to fix it.

[PicksKing]

@LizLemon I think thats what I did. The arras map has its own 49 field textures in landtexturesquality folder now and I assigned them via textures.tini, simply by changing the file path from rheinland_su to arras_sp. But I want to have proof that this works as it should, before I upload buggy stuff.

 

I'll check the railway once again. Thx.

Edit: I have the summer railway even if I deactivate mods entirely. I dont think this is caused by the rheinland mod.

 

Here are some lines from the vanilla roadtexture.tini from "landscape_rheinland_wi\roads".

RailRoad_Diffuse=graphics/LANDSCAPE_Rheinland_su/Roads/Textures/railroads_512.dds
RailRoad_Specular=graphics/LANDSCAPE_Rheinland_su/Roads/Textures/railroadsSpecular_512.dds
RailRoad_Emb=graphics/LANDSCAPE_Rheinland_su/Roads/Textures/railroads_512_nasip.dds
RailRoad_Ties=graphics/LANDSCAPE_Rheinland_su/Roads/Textures/railroads_512_shpali.dds
RailRoad_Rail=graphics/LANDSCAPE_Rheinland_su/Roads/Textures/railroads_512_relsi.dds

 

References to the summer map by default.

Edited February 1, 2020 by PicksKing

[LizLemon]

Wait, are you having problems with it? Just change the lines in roadtexture to;

RailRoad_Diffuse=graphics/LANDSCAPE_Moscow_w/Roads/Textures/railroads_512.dds
RailRoad_Specular=graphics/LANDSCAPE_Moscow_w/Roads/Textures/railroadsSpecular_512.dds
RailRoad_Emb=graphics/LANDSCAPE_Moscow_w/Roads/Textures/railroads_512_nasip.dds
RailRoad_Ties=graphics/LANDSCAPE_Moscow_w/Roads/Textures/railroads_512_shpali.dds
RailRoad_Rail=graphics/LANDSCAPE_Moscow_w/Roads/Textures/railroads_512_relsi.dds