Kuban Autumn Nth Africa Desert Beta upload - Updated version to 8. 10-01-2023

[Stonehouse]

Very odd. The only sky/sun related file I can find in the Nth Africa mod is I believe the repaint of the hangar scene outside view. So nothing to do with the sun ie there is no sunglow.dds or similar nor folder data/graphics/sky/textures where such sun related files usually live I believe is present in the Nth Africa mod.

 

Just trying to clarify your comments a bit - you say "by loading this mod first" - using JSGME if there is a file clash then it is the last mod loaded that wins out and generates what you see.  So it would be by loading the Nth Africa mod last that you ensure you see it's files in play rather than another mods.

 

My guess is somehow you have another mod in action causing the issue..........it isn't totally clear from your post but have your tried loading the mod all by itself and nothing else? Have you ever stopped/killed JSGME part way through a load or unload of mods? This can leave files embedded in the game folders. If you have tried the mod all by itself with nothing else and still have the problem I would be thinking somehow you have some leftover files from another mod except you say you have just reinstalled................very confusing.

Edited May 31, 2021 by No457_Stonehouse

[Beebop]

4 hours ago, No457_Stonehouse said:

Have you ever stopped/killed JSGME part way through a load or unload of mods? This can leave files embedded in the game folders.

I can attest to the veracity of that.  I did that once with this mod and it took two days and a lot of help from Off_Winters (thank you very much sir) to clear it up.

[jollyjack]

Hi Rob .... jus' a little curious. Any news from down under?

In case of mess ups, i learned the hard way to keep a backup of a freshly downloaded new game version each time.

Start new with the mods fresh. So far less mess ups it seems.

[Off_Winters]

On 6/4/2021 at 5:02 AM, jollyjack said:

Hi Rob .... jus' a little curious. Any news from down under?

 

Hi Jollyljack,

Have been locked away here at work due to COVID restrictions and working 6 x 12hr days a week for the last 2 months, so not much time for modding, but I have been plugging away at a few things, mostly updating the in game map to have the desert themed names applied (about 60% done now). fixing the skins script and a few other things after the latest update changed some files, and adding in a few more historical squadron schemes. Also experimenting with a few of the new British assets introduced with the last update. Will be home on extended break from work in about 4 weeks, and plan on tidying up things and releasing new content then.

regards Rob.

[Vishnu]

Don't know if asked before, but the mission screen, I click on it, and it shows the 2 missions, and it says loading description, but nothing happens.   As well, is this just a mode for QMB?  

(PS not to be that guy, but it's desert, not dessert :)

[Off_Winters]

7 hours ago, Vishnu said:

Don't know if asked before, but the mission screen, I click on it, and it shows the 2 missions, and it says loading description, but nothing happens.   As well, is this just a mode for QMB?  

(PS not to be that guy, but it's desert, not dessert

Hi Vishnu,

After each update any 3rd party missions need to be resaved in the mission editor, this will fix the hanging load times. I have fixed them my side and will include with next update very soon. or if your familiar with the mission editor you can use the resave function under tools to do it yourself.

And thanks for being "that guy"  I'll fix the mission folder name. amazing how we can look at something numerous times and not see a mistake, and a fresh set of eyes picks it up. So thanks again.

regards Rob.

 

[Beebop]

9 hours ago, Vishnu said:

PS not to be that guy, but it's desert, not dessert

Except....THIS desert is a dessert!  ?

[Vishnu]

7 hours ago, Off_Winters said:

Hi Vishnu,

After each update any 3rd party missions need to be resaved in the mission editor, this will fix the hanging load times. I have fixed them my side and will include with next update very soon. or if your familiar with the mission editor you can use the resave function under tools to do it yourself.

And thanks for being "that guy"  I'll fix the mission folder name. amazing how we can look at something numerous times and not see a mistake, and a fresh set of eyes picks it up. So thanks again.

regards Rob.

 

Thanks for the response.   I’m  asking because I had to wipe my computer which totally sucked.  I had to redo all mods, skins, and joystick bindings.  

Yours was one of the first to test out.  So I went to missions and they were stuck. So I’m not sure what you mean by missions need to be re-saved.  Perhaps. I’m not understanding.  

 

Thanks in advance. 

[Stonehouse]

Pretty sure he means just to open the mission in the editor and then save it without changing anything. 

[Off_Winters]

14 hours ago, Vishnu said:

Thanks for the response.   I’m  asking because I had to wipe my computer which totally sucked.  I had to redo all mods, skins, and joystick bindings.  

Yours was one of the first to test out.  So I went to missions and they were stuck. So I’m not sure what you mean by missions need to be re-saved.  Perhaps. I’m not understanding.  

 

Thanks in advance. 

Hi Vishnu,

You dont have to open the mission in the editor.

Open the mission editor and select the tab half way across the top "Tools" then half way down select the option resave all missions in folder.

 

Then navigate to the folder your missions are located in and hit ok. thats it your done.

 

they will now work in game.

I have a folder on my desk top that I copy the files to, resave them and then place them back into my game folder. Its just easier navigating to desktop in the editor then finding the IL2 directory folders.

regards Rob.

 

[Vishnu]

Ahhhhh.  Ok.    I had no idea or inkling what the mission editor was.   I figured it out.  Thanks!

[Koenigstiger]

Hello,

 

a very nice map and the landscape is excellently animated. Unfortunately, the enemy forces on the ground are very inactive or ineffective when playing with TC - they do not attack or defend themselves. I have - I think - tried all the options of the editor - is there any trick?

 

Good luck

 

Guenther

[Falcon41]

Rob,

     Haven’t seen much activity on this topic lately.  Unfortunately my PC is down,  need to purchase a new one to continue flying and designing missions.  How are things on your end?  Any improvements to your desert MOD?
Regards,

Bill

[Off_Winters]

Hi All,

thanks for the nice comments, I have been side tracked a bit with real life, and I'm only just getting that all squared away. I have been working away on the mod when I had a bit of spare time.
V5 is complete and it's been uploaded and after a little bit of testing by Stonehouse just to make sure I haven't screwed anything up I'll update the link on page one of the thread. At 3.9GB in size I'd hate for people to get it downloaded and then we find theres an error causing grief.  

regards Rob.

[Beebop]

Real life is always more important than any game.  Glad to hear you're getting things taken care of and you can spend some time on this fabulous mod.

Also glad you and Stonehouse are doing QA for us.  It shows a dedication to quality "product". 

The wait will be more than worth it I'm sure. 

[Mtnbiker1998]

Sweet! Super excited to see a new update for this.

 

Can we get any hints on what new stuff to expect?

[Falcon41]

Mtnbiker1998,

     It appears from reading Rob's updated description on page one of this discussion he's included all the features that have been added and improved. The only thing now needed is a link to the new version of his great desert MOD.

Regards,

Falcoin41

[Blitzen]

Has the link to the newest version been posted yet??

[Off_Winters]

17 hours ago, Blitzen said:

Has the link to the newest version been posted yet??

No not yet, fixing a couple of small things. will upload Monday 8th Nov.

[Off_Winters]

Hi All,

The version 5 update is uploading now, once complete I'll add link to page 1 of thread.

A shot of my Boston shot to pieces in one of our online desert missions. I thought the ambiance of the scenery in this picture looked pretty cool.

 

regards Rob.

[Off_Winters]

One of the skins for the included mission set. quite happy with how this one turned out. You can also access the skins included with the mission pack from the custom skin tab if you have the mission set installed, if playing QC or Online missions.

Quick Combat B25 Escort.

Mod's default B25 skin.

 

 

Smaller airfield sand/dirt runway.

[Off_Winters]

Hi All,

the download link for Version 5 has been added to page one of the thread.

regards Rob.

[Stonehouse]

?

[Falcon41]

Rob,

     OUTSTANDING, great job to all that participated!

Bill

[Billsponge1972]

Looks fantastic!

Gonna try it out tonight.

Many thanks!

[Billsponge1972]

Flew the first two missions. Great fun! It reminded me of the excellent "checkertails over the Mediterranean" campaign for IL2-1946.

One weird thing, probably unrelated to the mod, but in the second mission (I get bored in Long flights so I set "Auto leveler" and speed up the time to 8x. I tend to go back and forth from real Time to 8x speed to correct my course. Anyway when I reached the enemy aircraft for a dog fight, it seems I was sort of stuck in slow motion. In other words the time speed (1/2 speed to 8x) didn't seem to work anymore.

Sorry for the long explanation but has anyone ever had this issue before? 

[Stonehouse]

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/3892-post-your-screenshots-here/?do=findComment&comment=1138867

[Stonehouse]

Custom plane set for this mod for use with Vanders EMG. I've set up the attached to be used with JSGME as I have several custom plane sets and I use JSGME to swap them in and out.

• It assumes that you have installed EMG to the folder \IL-2 Sturmovik Great Battles\EasyMissionGenerator
• If this is not the case then you will need to either copy the custom_planes.json file into the EMG folder manually or adjust the contents of the 7zip prior to use with JSGME.

 

 

Nth Africa Custom Plane set.7zip

Edited November 10, 2021 by Stonehouse

[Off_Winters]

I have revamped the P38 textures to 4K and added in this new skin.

Revised Default skin.


found the last German truck that was still presenting with grey paint in game. now has a coat of sand/yellow. (turns out this truck is a ford)

 

[Falcon41]

Rob,

     Where can I get the new P-38 skin you showed above.

Bill

[Off_Winters]

21 hours ago, Falcon41 said:

Rob,

     Where can I get the new P-38 skin you showed above.

Bill

G'day Bill,

its going into the next patch which I'm going to release Christmas Eve.

regards Rob.

[Falcon41]

Rob,

     Looking forward to it, Merry Christmas!,
Bill

[pjmack11377]

Operation Torch fictional skin<---get this here--->https://www.mediafire.com/file/iuz8nal5akyvla2/P38J25_desert++operation+torch+shark+no+anti+glare+wheels.zip/file

Edited November 19, 2021 by pjmack11377

[too-cool]

On 10/13/2020 at 5:53 PM, Off_Winters said:

UPDATED TO BETA-5.0 FILES 04-11-2021 link has been updated to V5 file.

Hi All,

This is the fifth installment that replaces part 4 of the mod that changes the Kuban Autumn map to North Africa. I've called it Beta-5 and I will continue to use this thread to post updates, changing name to beta6 beta7 etc. Please uninstall part 4 and delete. then install part 5 with jsgme.

It is JSGME ready, place the unzipped folder into your mods folder and install. (please note it should always be the last MOD installed into your game as many other mods also change some of the files I have edited, which will not hurt your install but it will take out some of the desert edits I've made and replace them with whatever the other mod has done).

It is compatible with game version 4.605

LINK for download Beta-5.0:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/kviip80xwp9t1el/Kuban_Autum-1943_Desert_Beta_5.rar/file
 

Readme included with installation instructions. PLEASE note: you need to tick the option "Enable MOD's" in your settings screen for this to work. The next update will be Beta-6 at some point in the future.

 

The files included change the following:
The main work has been the retexturing of ground files to replicate the look of something similar to Tunisia/Libya landscapes.

Additionally there has been a lot of work swapping out the Russian themed 3D models and paint schemes with those of US and British 3D model types and schemes. Example the Russian tanks models have been swapped for Sherman M4 models, with various styles of camouflage applied to each version. Static Russian aircraft have been replaced with various US and British aircraft.

Allied pilot models have been amended to replace the Russian pilot models. So in game in QC or missions that have not set the country designation to either US or British you see an RAF pilot flying the spitfires, Hurricanes, A20, P40’s P39, etc. rather than the Russian pilot model. The pilots have had new textures applied to be more in line with Nth African theatre uniforms.

Building models have also been swapped and repainted to be more in line with the Nth African/Mediterranean environment. Ships and trains have been repainted to show correct markings for German and Allied nations. I have changed all the default aircraft skins for the aircraft used and allied vehicles in the Desert War to desert schemed skins. And lastly I have modified in game menu screens to include historical content and to give the game more of a Desert War theme.

The ingame map has been completely reworked with all place names now replaced with real place names that fit geographically with real world locations.
Our own Stonehouse was the driving force behind getting the names sourced and then checking my poor spelling to make sure they were all correct. this part of the mod was a large amount of work, to photoshop out all the old names and then put the new names in across 3 sets of map tiles at different resolutions, 400 textures had to be altered in all. So please use the map to navigate  
Thanks Scott for all your help with this. There is another reason behind having the real place names that drove this work. But Stonehouse can make that announcement as its his baby..

In addition to my own work on retexturing, and the file manipulation of the items mentioned above, I have had a lot of help with the repaints for German vehicles and a lot of aircraft skins. The following people have generously given permission to use their existing work and have also volunteered to make specific skins to suit the Western Desert theatre of operations.
 

HBpencil skins ......................Malta spitfires, early and late spitfire camo schemes.

E69_julian57 ...........................Aircraft skins Me110.

SARFlytitus .............................Italian Stukas, Bf109g6, Mc202 skins, original idea for grass replacement.

FF*VaSoK*22…………………….. original idea, and base textures to work from for grass replacement.

FoxbatRU ................................Ju.88A-4, Captured Mc202.

Raptorattacker.........................Bf109E7, Hurricane skins.
SR603-flowbee…………………...Me110 skins.
Reflected………..........................Bf109E7 skins.

Beebop ....................................Ju52 Afrika Korps generic, P38 Torch generic.

SKG210_Molders......................helping co-ordinating work with his Tank Crew Mod. Also a desert Mod.

Detcord28.................................Complete desert repaint of German vehicles and German uniforms.

XQ_Lothar29…….......................Bf109 skin.
BP_Iceman…………………………..Ju87 Skin.
BlackHellHound1………………….Bf109 skin Stigler 1942.

No457_Stonehouse................helping with town names and locations to match the Kuban map  (fake Tunis) for game map repaints.
Meplanes1969……………………Allowed use of some of his effects textures for sand bullet strikes and the overall default.dds texture which imparts subtle desert hues over the main base colours.

I have included a text document that lists the aircraft in the mod that have had new paint schemes applied. It lists the aircraft skin number to match to the skins in the mission editor drop down menu and a brief description of what the skin relates to. The list also names person who created each skin.
This file is to help people identify a correct texture to apply to an aircraft in the mission editor. So that if you wish you can have correct Nth. African schemes on all the spawned aircraft in a mission.

For those who would like to have tree’s included in this MOD I have included a second file that you install after installing the main MOD. This will put the trees back in game.

There is a third file included with the download called "Kuban_Autumn-1943_Desert_Beta_5_mission_set-332FG"  a 14 mission set based loosely around the US 332FG flying P40's. Missions created by our own Falcon41 here on the IL2 forums. Access these via the single player mission screen in game. The pack includes 332nd P40 skins by Raptorattacker, and one skin by myself which is named to replace a skin originally done by Tom Weiss.
If installed this set will show up in the single mission folder in game, in a folder called "DAW - P40 332ndFG mission set" missions named 1 - 14 should be flown in numerical order.

You need to fully uninstall this MOD when flying in any other map area, or you will see desert schemed camouflage on Buildings, vehicles and some aircraft whilst flying in Europe. it does not hurt your install stock/vanilla in any way.

regards Rob.

 

Many new textures added with historical descriptions, both Allied and Axis.

more buildings have had textures changed to be more inline with desert location.

 

 

British drivable M4

US makes their entry to the drivable M4.

Detcord's great German vehicle textures.

slight alteration to river/lake water colour. A little less blue.

 

 

 

 

 

A random picture of our small online group in the desert. reworked some of the static ground models textures to reduce "glow" effect

Almost have all of the default skins now in desert schemes for aircraft you would expect to see in theater.

 

 

 

 

 

Could you possibly make these mission into multiplayer for me or give me some instructions on how to do it. I would like to replace the AI with my squad mates, just for our use only.  Thanks TC

[Off_Winters]

12 hours ago, too-cool said:

Could you possibly make these mission into multiplayer for me or give me some instructions on how to do it. I would like to replace the AI with my squad mates, just for our use only.  Thanks TC

G'day TC,

I personally do not know too much about the mission editor, but if you open the mission files in the editor and double click on the first item in the menu tree on the left, a window opens and one of the items just down from the top is listed as mission type, it has single selected, if you drop the menu box down you can select co-operative which I believe is the MP selection. then save the mission. 

make a back up of the mission file before you edit it though. I'm sure others with more knowledge will chime in with more information.

regards Rob.

Edited November 21, 2021 by Off_Winters

[Off_Winters]

Hi All,

I have updated the first page with a link to a small update, to take the mod from V5 to V5.1

the update includes a few new skins, additional ground/static models with desert paint schemes, revised ground strike textures for bullets and cannon shells. includes a revised skins.tab file to bring it in line with 4.701b game content.

This is an addition to the main V5 mod files, please install this new set of files once the main mod has been installed.

so a three step process in JSGME
1. install "Kuban_Autumn-1943_Desert_Beta_5"
2. install "Kuban_Autumn-1943_Desert_Beta_5-1_UPDATE_folder" 
3. replace the "Kuban_Autumn-1943_Desert_Beta_5_mission_set-332FG" mission folder in your mods folder with the one included in the download. these mission files have been resaved to work with latest game version.

Or for those who know how and are comfortable merging files, you can take the folder/files out of the update folder drop them into your main "Kuban_Autumn-1943_Desert_Beta_5" folder and then just install as a single item in JSGME.

regards Rob.

[Sheriff88]

Main beta file coming through download process as corrupted. No problem with update file.

worked OK on third try.

Edited January 26, 2022 by Sheriff88

[=VARP=Dragunov]

Glad to have this MOD. Thank you very much!

[Off_Winters]

Just a bit of fun..



I will be releasing V6 edition hopefully this weekend that will bring the mod in line with the most recent game version.

regards Rob.

[Off_Winters]

21 minutes ago, JSOflyer said:

Just to let you know when I played your mod the bombers turret gunners are standing on the outside of the planes I deleted the characters folder and it fixed the problem,it is since the last update.

your mod is very good and it works well with my desert war mod,many thanks for your work ?

Thanks JSOflyer,

theres quite a few things I have had to update in the MOD since the last update. the gunners was one of the first I noticed. also German pilots where not showing in game as well. but got it sorted now.

regards Rob.

 

Edited March 23, 2022 by Off_Winters