Splash

I had a similar problem awhile back with Alt+F12. Turned out to be a GeForce Experience overlay issue. Could you have something similar going on possibly? (Other software hogging that key combo?)

@Gladiator(911) Made one awhile back. Available at the German site.

We probably have differing interpretations of what a "texture template" is. For me -- admittedly a novice hobbyist -- it's typically a Photoshop (.psd) file with multiple layers separated by color, shading, dirt & weathering, etc. ... for example the other texture templates provided by other eSim artists in the "Vehicle Templates" download area for community use. From these, a modder could paint, say, a different camo for the texture, retaining other useful artistic details. What you've uploaded are several what I call "skins" or "textures" ... completed .dds files ready for use in the sim. They are, of course, excellent skins, and I would encourage anyone who wants to, to use them. But, just so there's no misunderstanding, my pack includes my own edits of the game textures to match the German, West German, Dutch, Canadian, Danish and Australian vehicle skins I've done. Doing this involves a single-color camo .dds skin (green or desert) from the sim, changing the dominant color to an alpha, and painting my new camo under the now-partially-transparent original. It can be an imperfect process and requires some fiddling but usually yields pretty good results. Having the artist's layered PS template, of course, eliminates the need for that workaround and yields a much better result. Admittedly, I could be missing something here. But thank you, nevertheless. 👍

Ok. Well, never mind, then. 🙂 I've completed the ones I intend to do.

That would be great. Thank you.

No video for this one. Since I had already invested some time in upscaling and detailing the Biber template for an Australian version, I decided to offer several more flavors in an upcoming package. They will include: German (NATO), West German (Gelboliv), Netherlands (NATO), Canada, Generic Green, Generic Desert Tan, and a rework of the default Denmark skin. Some will come with matching bridges and decal files painted by me; others will use the available stock bridge textures. Here:

Here:

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Thanks! What I was looking for, and more. 👍

I seem to have lost all of the map themes from the C:\ProgramData\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\maps\themes folder, with the exception of three self-created/edited themes. I did recently uninstall the SB Legacy Maps Installer, thinking I had no more use for it. Would that have wiped the eSim themes from the folder? Whatever caused me to nuke them, I'm sure it's an easy fix. Is there an easier way short of a full uninstall/reinstall? I tried re-running the bundle installer for the last patch, but it tells me my installation is all there and up-to-date. All I want back are the various eSim-authored themes ... the exact names escape me, but there were various Arid, Mountain, Desert, Summer, Spring, Winter, Snow, etc. themes.

Well, don't be too quick with your praise. 🤔 I sort of went down a rabbit hole there. With my second post I probably should have deleted or re-wrote my first one. Another day, a little more clarity (I hope), let me rephrase what I believe happens. The steps from the 3.002 Release Notes are not necessarily inverted, as I thought. But it's kind of misleading. And that might be because version 3.002 was several years ago. It does, actually work that way -- when there is no relevant nationality folder within the relevant seasonal folder. But the presence (or lack) of said nationality folder also plays a role, and is why your particular action didn't yield the expected results. Picture this: 1 My Documents\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\mods\textures\{current environment}\{nationality} 2 C:\Programs\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\textures\{current environment}\{nationality} 3 C:\Programs\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\textures\woodland\{nationality} 4 C:\Programs\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\textures\{current environment} 5 C:\Programs\eSim Games\Steel Beasts\textures\woodland Note the red text in step 2. The sim looks for that folder. A lack of this folder in the installation results in the next step (3) being followed. The presence of this folder in the installation (but no relevant texture) results in a jump to step 4. Beyond that point, if there's no file, I think it zigs back to step 3 and then step 5, but I'm not positive. I can't really test it without making my head hurt or altering files, and I think it's time for me to climb out of the rabbit hole and step away from it. In summation, you can kind of see this whole theory in practice with the desert folder. Note the ru2020 folder. No textures in it, but It's presence directs the search next to that base desert folder rather than taking the early sidetrip to woodland/ru2020.

One caveat to add here: It seems that in the absence of a nationality folder in the Program Files/../"current environment", the sim does divert to the Program Files/../woodland/nationality folder forgoing the relevant winter, desert or autumn folder. Example: Desert map, DE1980 selected camo. There is no file for the LeoAS1 in the player's de1980 desert mod folder. The sim looks next for a de1980 folder in Program Files/../desert. There is no such folder, so rather than staying in the desert folder (where there is an Australian LeoAS1 texture, by the way), it looks next to Program Files/../woodland/de1980, and finds a texture in that folder. End of search. Load German texture. But, in a winter theme, after finding no texture in the player's de1980 winter mod folder, it looks next for a de1980 folder in Program Files/../winter. It finds a folder but no LeoAS1 texture there, so it loads the snow-covered Australian camo skin living in the Program Files/../winter folder, rather than jumping to the Program Files/../woodland/de1980 folder as it did in the desert map. It is for this reason that I have copied eSim's German skin for the LeoAS1 to my winter/de mod folder, so I don't have a snow-covered Aussie tank in the Bundeswehr. 😉 Sorry that's vastly confusing, and again, all of this is moot if you just stick to the mod folders for mods ... but I understand now why Maddin25 was seeing what he saw. Stated slightly more simply: In his case, the de nationality folder in the winter folder causes the sim to look for a file in the winter folder before moving on to the woodland folder. If there were no de nationality folder in the winter folder, the sim would forgo the winter folder altogether and load what's in the woodland/de folder.

Yeah, it seems something weird is going on there. I think the Wiki entry (actually from the 3.002 release notes) has steps 3 and 4 inverted. IOW the path, in your situation, runs from mods/../winter/de (no file) to ProgramFiles/../winter/de (no file) to ProgramFiles/../winter (finds a stock file), and thus doesn't move on to ProgramFiles/../woodland/de, where your desired skin is located. Try as I might, I've never been able to locate a "complete search sequence (as) described in the user's manual." But in the end, it's best to heed the dev's advice to use the mod folders as intended. I say that even though I'm not a fan of the need to copy multiple iterations of the same file into various folders in cases like this. A one point, I wished for changes in the pathing that would poll all the MOD folders first ... (iow defaulting to the player's mod/woodland folder in the absence of a mod/winter, mod/desert, or mod/autumn file before polling any of the Program Files folders) ... but eventually realized that would present a similar need for duplicates in the event you wanted to use, say, a modded skin for woodland but were happy with the stock skin for winter or desert. Maybe a better system will come with version 5. Possibly using different filenames for season-specific and/or modded textures? and allowing skins to be somehow chosen individually by vehicle type or left as default. And if it were possible to have that selection made in the Planning Phase rather than baked into the sce., a lot more flexibility might be possible. Who knows?

Here:

Ok, color me naïve, but is that legit or just your version of Oleg Maddox's "two weeks, be sure"? 🤔

Absolutely. No one wishes for SBProPE to remain stagnant -- visually or aurally -- out of deference to modders. After all, modders, I think, generally aim to offer improvements where they think improvements are warranted. Indeed it seems there is agreement that certain sound improvements were warranted, as from the Release Notes it appears changes are coming that mirror what Ruki has been working on for all these many months. What I was saying, in case there was any miscommunication, was that I empathize with seeing a longterm project rendered moot before it's even shared. I think a lot of us are still interested in what Ruki is doing, so I hope it sees a release anyway -- and users can choose whether they think it enhances their experience or not. Likewise, the prospect of eSim upgrading a model for which I did a vehicle texture isn't going to discourage me from continuing to make vehicle textures I'd like to see in-game. Just hopefully the timing won't jerk the rug out from under me. 😏

Of course we all look forward to, and are thankful for, upgrade improvements ... but for some they can come as a kick to the nuts. I hope your hard work isn't all for naught.

Yeah, that works, and I like how you think. Cuts down on copy/pasting by about 75 percent. And, other than it being unsanctioned by eSim, it's unlikely to be an issue until patch/upgrade time rolls around -- and, even then, the files would be left behind when you uninstall, and not overwritten on installation of the new version. Probably. And there's the rub. If you should ever need eSim to troubleshoot some sort of user issue, they might take a dim view of modded files installed in unsanctioned places. They give us a dedicated mod folder structure for a reason. So, take that for what it's worth.