Skymod + Night Battles in RTW =

[HorseArcher]

Im thinking of getting this mod but im not so sure since i already liked what was in vannilla especially the summer day but in this mod i find there's alot more variety which is cool, so i want to ask a favour.
Can someone plz post a screenshots of a summer daytime (with the sun)?

I think I'm going to fire up my RTW and make some screenshots for the "non-converted" ones :laughing:

You need this mod......you really do, (*hypnotising this thread as i write)

[wlesmana]

Archer, quick few questions:
1) Is 1.32 (for RTW 1.2) SKYMOD features less contrast? I can't see a lot of difference in shadows with vanilla
2) I would like to ask your permission to include this mod in my mod

Thanks!

[repman]

skymod 1.32 (excellent!) makes a lot of difference in contrast/shadows compared to vanilla.
All stuff in NTO is free to use

[Koranis]

Hi, Archer.

Does the latest skymod (after 1/1/2006 update) contains the correct night battles, I mean the option "attack at night"? Thank you.

[DimeBagHo]

I think the current version does not add night battles to the Imperial Campaign (probably because doing that would make it much harder to combine this mod with other mods). But I have written up a guide to adding night battles here.

[Echolyn]

Hi, I just have one question, i'm currently working on some historical battles but I also want to ahve some specicfic weather for some battles. Now I know you can change the weather with the weather seed option in the battle editor but you can't see what number for the weather seed does what. Do you know perhaps where you can find the numbers and how they work?

[HorseArcher]

Hi, I just have one question, i'm currently working on some historical battles but I also want to ahve some specicfic weather for some battles. Now I know you can change the weather with the weather seed option in the battle editor but you can't see what number for the weather seed does what. Do you know perhaps where you can find the numbers and how they work?

I haven't looked into this yet, and unfortunately I don't know how the numbering goes with the weather seed thing.

but for another topic,

I am figuring out how to make the skies a little prettier , thanks for Adherbal giving me some tips.

Check out these custom clouds, (very very beta)

[Kaweh]

Looking great. But this are photos, right? I mean the sky and the clouds are photographed and added into the game, aren't they?

K.K

[HorseArcher]

Looking great. But this are photos, right? I mean the sky and the clouds are photographed and added into the game, aren't they?

K.K

Mine is a photo, yes. But the game uses some 'fake' clouds , which was generated by a 3d software (most likely terragen ) and they aren't real. Actually (IMO, they look kinda fake, cartoonish)
The game uses alpha channels to make the clouds 'see-through' . I can make alpha channels for my sky pics, but i'm not sure if it's really necessary, since I noticed that the sun still shines through the clouds.

Wait until i implement some real storm cloud pictures and post a better picture and you'll see the difference. Also check out the Lordz' Napoleon mod (which features real clouds), which is where I got the idea from:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=13382

[Kaweh]

Mine is a photo, yes. But the game uses some 'fake' clouds , which was generated by a 3d software (most likely terragen ) and they aren't real. Actually (IMO, they look kinda fake, cartoonish)
The game uses alpha channels to make the clouds 'see-through' . I can make alpha channels for my sky pics, but i'm not sure if it's really necessary, since I noticed that the sun still shines through the clouds.

Wait until i implement some real storm cloud pictures and post a better picture and you'll see the difference. Also check out the Lordz' Napoleon mod (which features real clouds), which is where I got the idea from:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=13382

Aha... That's interesting. But if I understood you right, only the clouds are photographed. They look great, and you're right, the whole sky looked cartoonish in RTW vanilla. I read somewhere that CA originaly wanted to have moving clouds, is that true? And could you explain how the sky is generated? I mean are this tga files or is it generated by txt files or what?

K.K

[HorseArcher]

Aha... That's interesting. But if I understood you right, only the clouds are photographed. They look great, and you're right, the whole sky looked cartoonish in RTW vanilla. I read somewhere that CA originaly wanted to have moving clouds, is that true? And could you explain how the sky is generated? I mean are this tga files or is it generated by txt files or what?

K.K

There might have been a plan for it, but I guess they changed the idea to the dynamic sky they have now , that slowly changes from one to another, but the clouds stay stationary.
The clouds are located in the data/sky/clouds/ folder ranging from light-medium-heavy. each of those folders contain .dds files, which are just like the unit model texture files, with the exception of it only looks like a white piece of paper with the alpha channel (black/white) outlining where the clouds should be. YOu need to have a .dds viewer or photoshop or paint shop pro to actually see them.
My skymods do not edits these clouds whatsoever, neither change any of the clouds. I used different technics to mod the sky, using textfiles to change their color/appearance/frequency of rotating)
There are numerous .dds files (on which I am still trying to figure out the order how they go) which builds up the sky.

Imagine a big piece of paper shaped like a dome with a whole on the top. No grab this dome cut it at one place, up to the middle, then unfold it.
You get like almos a circle-shaped flat paper with a pie shape missing to complete the circle.
Now, cut this piece of paper into 4 pieces, and add one more to finish the top missing part of the dome. Those 4 pieces are those files in the /sky/clouds folder + that top piece named something _top.tga.dds

There are 4 domes for each cloud types (heavy/medium/light) and as far as I noticed each dome shows up randomly in the game.

Why 4 domes you ask?

Good question. Because it's the remains of the idea, that RTW was gonna have 4 seasons and it would have added some extra visuals, by having a different cloud type show at different seasons.
(by the way, i did activate the 4 season skies in an earlier skymod of mine, but only partially and it only switched the sky around with different tones of colors)

The game calls in the clouds in the descr_daytypes.txt where the weather and the time of the hour is determined. if you would open the descr_daytypes.txt, you'd see that each weather event has it set clouds, haze, fog, rain,snow etc.

For example: the storm is using heavy clouds, dense fog, rain and gusty winds.
What we don't see very often in the vanilla RTW is the heavy clouds, since the fog level is turned up so high while it's raining, that you don't get to see clouds on the sky only the thick fog.
Some of the settings in my skymod allows you to see the sky more often and I have de-tuned the fog levels all around. It might give you a small performance hit, but nothing serious.

SPQR mod is using one of my older skymods (if i'm right) and it gives a much more dramatic view while fighting. (ask LT, which of my skymod he is using)



update: I tried messing with the clouds (inserting pictures) but it's damn difficult to implement the clouds without having those lines show up ( the dome shape piece of paper where the edges meet).

[wlesmana]

Looking awesome, Archer!! I've been experimenting with clouds (ever since I saw NTW2's screens) but all resulted in disaster. I never looked at the text files though, only added in photos of clouds. Looks like you got better results.

[Kaweh]

There might have been a plan for it, but I guess they changed the idea to the dynamic sky they have now , that slowly changes from one to another, but the clouds stay stationary.
The clouds are located in the data/sky/clouds/ folder ranging from light-medium-heavy. each of those folders contain .dds files, which are just like the unit model texture files, with the exception of it only looks like a white piece of paper with the alpha channel (black/white) outlining where the clouds should be. YOu need to have a .dds viewer or photoshop or paint shop pro to actually see them.
My skymods do not edits these clouds whatsoever, neither change any of the clouds. I used different technics to mod the sky, using textfiles to change their color/appearance/frequency of rotating)
There are numerous .dds files (on which I am still trying to figure out the order how they go) which builds up the sky.

Imagine a big piece of paper shaped like a dome with a whole on the top. No grab this dome cut it at one place, up to the middle, then unfold it.
You get like almos a circle-shaped flat paper with a pie shape missing to complete the circle.
Now, cut this piece of paper into 4 pieces, and add one more to finish the top missing part of the dome. Those 4 pieces are those files in the /sky/clouds folder + that top piece named something _top.tga.dds

There are 4 domes for each cloud types (heavy/medium/light) and as far as I noticed each dome shows up randomly in the game.

Why 4 domes you ask?

Good question. Because it's the remains of the idea, that RTW was gonna have 4 seasons and it would have added some extra visuals, by having a different cloud type show at different seasons.
(by the way, i did activate the 4 season skies in an earlier skymod of mine, but only partially and it only switched the sky around with different tones of colors)

The game calls in the clouds in the descr_daytypes.txt where the weather and the time of the hour is determined. if you would open the descr_daytypes.txt, you'd see that each weather event has it set clouds, haze, fog, rain,snow etc.

For example: the storm is using heavy clouds, dense fog, rain and gusty winds.
What we don't see very often in the vanilla RTW is the heavy clouds, since the fog level is turned up so high while it's raining, that you don't get to see clouds on the sky only the thick fog.
Some of the settings in my skymod allows you to see the sky more often and I have de-tuned the fog levels all around. It might give you a small performance hit, but nothing serious.

SPQR mod is using one of my older skymods (if i'm right) and it gives a much more dramatic view while fighting. (ask LT, which of my skymod he is using)



update: I tried messing with the clouds (inserting pictures) but it's damn difficult to implement the clouds without having those lines show up ( the dome shape piece of paper where the edges meet).

Thank you for the explanation, Archer!

K.K

[HorseArcher]

I have been thinking of how to implement some lightning, but i'm not sure if it's possible.

[lt1956]

I'm using 1.3 Patch version I dont know if thats the newer or older the 5.0 mod used the 1.2 version. I still miss the burning mod for 1.5. lol I liked that mod as well as the wall mod! I could never imagine playing RTW without the skymod again. :-)

I recommend to anyone wanting better battle experience to use the Skymod, and to my knowledge it doesnt effect game performance.

Lt

[HorseArcher]

Thanx Lt for your support and your words!

And some more info on this skymod I have. I'm sure some people are a little less-informed what it does, but it not only changes the sky as you would guess, but change the weather.
I have addes numerous more weather (more variety of snow/rain/windy days) along with increasing the visibility at some weather types (calm, clear etc)
With my mod, some of you will see farther into the distance.
I also changed how the light works in the game. I'm using a different day and night colors and how the sun reflects off from the units and the surrounding area. it changes the coloration a bit, but once you get used to it, you'll like it.
I also changed the frequency at which the weather and the sky changes. You'll see that the sky changes more frequently along with the weather.
I have added more stars for the night, I also made the moon appear more frequently and lower to the horizon, so you see it more (campaign)
I also added torches and night battles for RTW.

There are more changes all over the place, I can't remember all, but just see the first post in this thread; read the readme and play the game with it! I'm not even sure if i've listed all the changes I did, in the readme.txt :laughing:

[Prof]

@Archer: have you already released a version with the new clouds (I haven't been online much in the last time)

[HorseArcher]

@Archer: have you already released a version with the new clouds (I haven't been online much in the last time)

no, I deserted this mod. unfortunately, i cannot make new skies without having glitches shown, so no more. I also do not have my website up anymore, I'm trying to redesign it. so you might get invalid links if you try downloading it from there, but the TWC download section has some of my versions uploaded.

[Flogger]

Can anyone help, I just installed this mod + one other (Mundus Magnus for 1.5) and all of my FMV's have gone! They're still in the game files, but just not showing up in-game. I'm pretty sure it's this mod because Mundus Magnus does not change the BI files, and I have the same problem theree as well. Anyone know how to fix this?

[HorseArcher]

Can anyone help, I just installed this mod + one other (Mundus Magnus for 1.5) and all of my FMV's have gone! They're still in the game files, but just not showing up in-game. I'm pretty sure it's this mod because Mundus Magnus does not change the BI files, and I have the same problem theree as well. Anyone know how to fix this?

what do you mean "FMV"-s ?

you mean the videos in the game? I have no clue what can be causing it, since this mod had absolutely nothing to do how videos being shown in the game. :sign_what