As a mod member to three total-conversion projects, and a resource contributor and playtester to many others (as well as retail products), I have no illusions about the value of modding.

There's much talent out there too, and a new generation of artistic and techno-savvy contributors should be encouraged to participate as often and as readily as possible too (and inevitably will). Luckily for the benefit of the greater sim community, modding is no longer the purvue of a few, but has become something that software designers anticipate, and promote in their game builds. Of course enabling some form of limited modability to a game only makes retail sense today (and has for a long time), in that more games sold, means more modding interest potential, and vice versa.

For this reason there's probably no "gate-keepers" in these hobby genres of ours anymore. This is especially true from the original design aspect too, something reinforced by the fact that new sims, as far and few between as they are these days, mainly originate out of Eastern Europe or the Republics of the former Soviet Union now. So if anything might be asserted as an important industry trend, it's the fact that the newest "gate-keepers" of growth for our military sims industry has now shifted to them. We can all understand, appreciate, and respect this, and should!

Certainly modding can add vibrance and longevity to gaming products, but the greatest need is for enterprising game designers with the talent, drive, and willingness to risk the creation of these new sims titles to do so, and this is the most important factor in sustaining our hobby.

There has been a GraviTeam forum running for over a year now, where Q&A, and suggestions have been on-going concerning the development of Steel Fury: Kharkov 42. How many here of the established mod-interest community have been participating on this forum???

The point is, input, suggestions, and ideas about game creation can most efficiently be forwarded while a game design is in a state of flux, and where changes might be most easily implemented, rather than waiting for the product's release and then stating disillusionment as the title nears distribution.

So as far as participation in the success of these two new up-coming tank sims goes, I wonder where the input has been coming from until now?

Many of us have already been participating, both in front and behind the scenes through contributions to these two new tank sim projects. If you don't appreciate what the designers of Steel Fury or T vs T have created, and you haven't participated in the process, you haven't anyone else to blame for not asserting your input but yourselves (you're quite literally late to the game).

Great a forum in russian for us to join in thats helpfull. You seem to be either stupid or deliberately antagonistic. Go crawl back under your rock.

LOL....can't believe this, you're unaware that there's simple Google or Babel Fish translators (this is too funny)!!!

So you really don't know what's been going on with these sim projects these past months (wait, we'll let that sink in).

Ok, it's more than obvious now why modding profits from (needs) new blood, and I'm sure there's talented guys who do respect designers from other countries, and already know how to communicate across language barriers.

Well, thanks to forum member LEADBELLY, he's taken the time to provide the English conversion for you (do find the link in the below thread if possible):

http://www.simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2416115#Post2416115

In the meantime, there's still time for others to get informed on Steel Fury's past development, or to discover translators.

Better yet for all of us who have read the instructions:


Translation: The line to buy the game starts back there........

If you think you can carry out technical discussions using a translation program you are more retarded than i thought.

Your lack of simple web knowledge here illustrates your own poor communication skills.

Your inability to understand stated instructions demonstrates other issues.

As the man said:


His english is perfectly understandable to forum members here, what is it that you can't comprehend?

I don't understand, why You resort to "argumentum ad hominem" and dare to offend other members of a forum? We here all like adult people? You the teenager? (It is rhetorical questions. I simply am interested.)



After an out an alpha of the version (January 2007) some people addressed on a forum.graviteam.com, asked questions and spoke the requests. Including in English.
http://forum.graviteam.com/viewtopic.php?t=280 (Translated by online-translator.com, Translated by Google )

And many from these requirements have been appreciated and many thing have included into game by the moment of an release. I assure you even if questions and requests were set in other languages (German, French, Italian, Spanish), we would try to translate it and if it probably to answer too.
Of course, the primary discussion goes on sukhoi forum (it is mentioned in credits of game).

Have you read and understood the posts this guy has been making?. If you had I don't think you'd ask why I got angry with him.

If your post is translated by a translation software then its a great example of why i have no faith in them. You guys have said before that you use a translation program and you yourself stated that you couldn't answer my questions because you couldn't understand them. As they were written in clear english and easily understood by people reading english it is yet another example why I do not want to waste my time asking questions through translation software.

If the Dev team comes here offering to answer questions then I think I am entitled to ask questions and not be fobbed off with half answers, nor to be antagonised by someone who belittles the the work of mod makers in a thread by mod makers, for mod makers and about mod makers.

No one has belittled you, or mod makers, or otherwise.

To the contrary, petty prognostications have flowed:





Quite to the contrary, 1_m has made an effort to communicate with you here, and he hasn't been ranting.

Quite to the contrray, GraviTeam has made an effort in their Steel Fury design to enable modding.

Furthermore, there has been a company forum running for over a year for input concerning questions and requests about Steel Fury's on-going development. So actually, the team behind Steel Fury's develpment has demonstrated exemplary access to all those that have been interested in their project. Additionally, GraviTeam has issued a number of demo builds, videos, and related media to their game, and have taken and responded to player feedback.

I'm sure modders and gamers in general will consider this sim based on it's playability, excellence in build, the rated treatment of its historical subject, its access, and the fact that it's one of only two up-coming new WW2 tank sims we're hoping comes to the wider marketplace in the not too distant future. So far Steel Fury is only available through the Russian market, but many gamers are looking forward to it's western debut for sure. This has been pretty apparent, and self-evident in fact, so finally getting the sim will demonstrate how well it plays, and how well it can be modded.


We're sorry if you two have become disillusioned already, but many gamers and modders will find things to enjoy with these two up-coming releases, even if they aren't perfect creations (what is).

Steel Fury seems to me an excellent tanksim. I like the demo and can't wait the release. Like Steel Beast the immersion is outstanding. The T 34 is well modeled and with later add ons for other tanks like Tiger I and T 34 M43 and PZ III J ( 50 and 50 L ; with and without schützen for 43 scénarios ) and other tanks, all the battles for Kharkov can be done. Moreover the editor if i have understood allow de doing of maps and scénarios from 1941 to 1943 in a time where one shot is not systematically one kill (except the 88 Flak 36 and tiger). Playing ASL, this period is nice to play.

Agree with Florent; don't understand this flame.

Which questions have remained without answers?



It has been told - only TGA. What is it - "World Machine"? In Terragen export to TGA is possible. You ask questions on foreign programs and demand on them answers? (It is rhetorical question.)



I do not understand... Water and bridges can be seen on many screenshots from game (it not a photoshop fake).



HZ What data we it is possible to give to you and what you with them will do, if you don't have game and editor?

Hello guys,
I managed to create a small command line application, which can extract the contents of the datapack archives used by SF (at least the ones from the demo).

I think this tool could come in handy for you modders and might throw a little bit more light to the darkness of SF's modding capabilities.

Some of you might like to know that the tool is even capable of extracting the contents of SF's *.polypack archive files,
which define the mission area and include the actual height maps etc.
But anyway the FINAL height maps aren't TGA's,
they seem to be a simple RAW format, 2048x2048 16 bit Height fields with a 28 byte header.
Unfortunatly G16Ed (an Unreal tool) can only read raw data upto 1024x1024 size...
Ok, still work to do ;-)

The tools executable inclusive readme can be found at:
http://www.lstyra.homepage.t-online.de/SteelFury/DecompSFDataPack.1.8.2.1.zip

the readme includes usage examples and even a small mod / tweak to the demo

cheers
Ludger

Well you answered 2 of them in this post. Re the bridges and water I haven't seen those particular screenshots. My experience of this game is only over the last couple of months since someone posted a link to the English demo on the SB Forums. In the Demo there isn't any water or bridges. So thanks for the Answer.
The other questions that remain un-answered is can the engine support vehicles with multiple turrets

and

How are roads dealt with in the sim, are they an item which has an effect on the ground or will the heightmap need to be made / edited with level bases for roads?.



I don't recall Demanding answers. I just asked if it was possible or would ever be possible to use these programs. If you don't know what world machine is then I guess that answers that question immediately. FYI World machine is a program similar to Terragen but with much better erosion modelling.



Well I got the small data pack you posted a link to and was able to answer most of my own questions from that. There were some differences between the stated data and the example data. You've said before that the Height map was 2048,2048 in a 32 bit TGA greyscale. In the example data the height map is a 256,256 24 bit TGA. What I was interested in also was the grass and vegetation maps. I had wondered whether they were coloured tiles to cover the whole map such as the Ogre engine uses. Now I have seen them I understand their nature. As to what I can do with them without the game and editor, well I was looking at adapting a landscape generator of my own to make heightmaps and any other data I may want. Having looked at the data itself I see that i could easily use my own code to produce them.

I can not answer for certain. I not the programmer. But theoretically it is possible, as for example in T-34 the main gun and a machinegun (in front) shoot separately.



Yes (they an item which has an effect on the ground). Probably later I share a fragment from video of lessons (Russian) that the principle was clear.


No, it is not obligatory, and possible to make if the author of polygon considers it necessary.



If this program is able to export to graphic heightmap it is possible. Erosion can be set and in a file of a configuration of polygon *.poly.

example erosion configuration from *.poly (To decipher while there is no sense. In most cases, change in these parameters is not required.)
//i_landgen
eros_seed = 0x23091980;
eros_passes = 2;
pass_len = 0.2;
rain_intens = 0.03;
blur_radius = 0.003;
eros_bias = 0.25;
add_mass_rel_delta = 0.024;
mass_neg_modulator = 0.6;
mass_degradation = 0.2;
max_radius = 0.006;
mass_to_rad_transmit = 150;
eros_min_hei = -0.027;
eros_max_hei = 0.012;
hei_map_rescale_h = 0.25;
coriolis_angle = 60;
stream_speed = 0.25;



2048,2048 - It was spoken not by me and not about a Heightmap. You are mistaken. Simps0n spoke about textures to models of technics.

The size of a Height map can be both 256x256 and 512x512 and 2048x2048 etc. 256x256 - default. This size can be changed in a file of a configuration of polygon - *.poly.
initial_size = 256;

Thanks.

What is the point of a 256,256 heightmap?. I mean at 1m ground spacing thats a 256 m per side map, what place does that have in WW2 tank battles. 2km x 2km is too small really but 256m would seem pointless.

Is it possible to set a different ground spacing to the heightmap on a user map?. If not is this something which could be considered for some future patch / update?. For some area of the world, especially North Africa, 1M spacing would not be nessecary. If we could set the ground spacing on our own maps then we could make larger than 2km maps with a corresponding drop in resolution.

I read his words 256x256 as a default. IE if nothinging else makes sence to the program 256 is assumed.

I Think he is saying it is a power of 2 map with the adjustment in elevation a ratio of the size?

Allen

Sorry, but I have not understood all your questions.

HZ..
Texture 256x256 (default)

256 pixels = 2000m
1 pixels = X m
=> 2000/258 = ~8 m (1 pixel) texture 256x256 pixel

512x512 = ~ 4 m (1 pixel) texture 512x512
2048x2048 = ~1m (1 pixel)

OK I understand.

What I am asking is in some future upgrade can the point spacing be user defined.

So that we can do things like:-

2048x2048 @ ~5m = 10km x 10km map

512x512 @ ~10m = 5km x 5km map

Now only 2km x 2km

Hi

I need contact to SF Modder!
sound Mod and DecompSFDataPack.exe Makers!

please send my a PN!