SS 6.4 Hand held banners AND Sprite distance HELLLLLLLP!!

[bandongogogo]

This same post was posted on the M2TW General Section as it also my be of help there. I post it here because i use SS 6.4 (and the banners came with it)

Hello people!
I was playing SS 6.4 and i realized that the hand held banners (the small ones -realistic ones- not the big ugly arcade banners) dissappear at a certain distance. I'll explaine myself: Image a circle, on wich you are the center, and the 3d units spawn inside it. Outside it everyting will be a sprite. Now the thing is, the details of those sprites also change, if you take a close look, the banners appear while the units are still sprites, in other words, the 3d banners and the sprites doesnt change at the same time. There are two virtual circles, a bigger one (on the smallest setting about 100mts) for the "beginning" of the sprite details, like banners and stuff, and then a smaller circle (about 80mts) where everything is 3d.

Having that clear i want to know if it is possible to augment the sprite detail distance, so that the banners (small hand held banners not floating banners -i disabled those-) can be seeing from far, as they work independant of the unit status (sprite or 3d). In other word, i want to see those banners from far, imagine keeping the inner all 3d circle intact on 80mts but augment the sprite detail circle to its maximun, if possible.

So guys pls help me, i'd being working 2 nights and cant get a clue.
Much appreciated.

[LusitanPlayer]

Well i do believe you can do that. You can try to find the bannermen in models.db and change the distance they fade out.

this small post talks something about it. as well as this whole thread:

Spoiler for post: 

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...1#post14087740
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...dieval-2-units

[bandongogogo]

Oh men... thanks for the info, i tried to red it and my brain nearly blew. I'm gonna lv with you. Is there any way to request this "micro mod"? I study law and i'm currently under testing, test that mean book swallowing and law suppositorys. This game is all that keeps me alive at nights with my coffie jug. this is the last thing that my game need. i'll call it my masterpiece and i'll post sc as its done. you'll see.... =).pd: 12.000 C* Vs 11.000 + = 15.500 x.x love it!

[bandongogogo]

Imagine, a poor system like mine, can do battles with up to 24.000 soldiers. if i run it the first hour on 0.7x time it runs at about 18fps. When half are dead puting it on 1.0x nearly feels any difference, its a nearly free lunch that fps trick. And i run with permanent arrows mod so the only visual thing would be the dissapearing banners when i move the camera, i dont care about using sprites, on SS. 6.4 they are very well done, at far help identifing the nation without using radar, and the transition is instant. you'll never see a sprite from up close, not even on 26.000 (the limit using 250 units x 8armys) lagged 13fps battles. Besides i dont use the arcade game banners, SS came with realistic hand held banners (beautifuly done) and they identify the army but dissappear a little after the sprites. i dream with seeing the La Ilaha Il Allah, Muhammad'n Rasul Allah! banner over jerusalem from more than 80mts xD. An army raises over the dunes, the first thing you see.. the banners over the horizon...............

[bandongogogo]

I did a last effort and found this out. http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...-Draw-distance
I messes around with the .lod0mesh .lod1mesh .lod2mesh and .lod3mesh, changing the value for every variable and testing. The two variables set in the post above control the complete army visibility, aka no sprites, i want to keep the sprites but not loose the banners. I discovered that by messing with the numbers (ie 10000 to 200000, 4500 to 999999, and so i could modify the drawing distance, the banners and the whole army, but the results were random, i know the key is there, but idk what those lod variables mean, or wich one controls only the banners.

[bandongogogo]

Ok my hopes just went down. This is the deal. the maximun LOD (lets call it lod3 -if it is lod0 its the same just for reff) controls the banners, i thought there where two detail circles, lets call them lod2 and lod1 but no. I see the banners on sprite units because at least 1 unit is inside the lod3 (full 3d unit) and that triggers the banners, but just because the magic detail circle touches at least 1 unit. So the thing would be. is there a way to activate the banners so that they can be seen on higher lods? is there a way to have those small flags vissible on the whole map just like the sprites?? pls heeeeeeeeelp

[LusitanPlayer]

Calm down man! Try posting that on modding sections too

[bandongogogo]

yeah i need to calm down xDDDDD
Well that is the only thing i need to make my game perfect. I come from sh5 and il2 modding and i already suffered instaling ss. I for once would like it to be easy u.u

[LusitanPlayer]

try using different numbers for lod0 lod1 and lod2.
maybe if you use longer sight, but different numbers, might help, and try to do this ONLY for bannermans.

[bandongogogo]

Already tried, changing lod0, 1 2 and 3, nothing, the banners see from far if the unit is being rendered on 3d.
This is what i've found so far: Imagine a 82horseman unit. you put them in a 3horse thick- but deep formantion -big column-. The banners will be in the first 2 lines, (the first 3 or 6 horses deppending on 1 or 2 banenrs being held. If you go to the rear, far away from the first horseman and at least 1 (maybe the same last 3 horseman) are inside the 3d rendering circle radious, then the first horseman, no matter how far it is, will how a 3d banner, even when that horseman is a sprite. Conclusion: I need some way to show banners frmo far, undeppendant of the 3d "detail" radious.

[bandongogogo]

FINALLY FIXED IT! Here's how http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...3#post14095353
THANKS LusitanPlayer You gave me the clue i needed to fix all of this mess, Thankyou again =)
Cheer from Venezuela.