Splash

This already works in the sim. When I set up the situation depicted below (make the route 'retreat back if' and set it to 'under direct fire' and 'less than 5 members' the six-man squad pops smoke and (tactically) retreats back to WP1 10 seconds after it takes two casualties. They do not press on to WP2. What am I missing?

I think it looks great.

The upload section requires a version number for each new skin. And yes, putting the number in the title helps. But it doesn't really tell you whether a skin made for an older version will still work with the current version ... which was what Canadus asked. Ideally, modders would keep their files current. If I've uploaded a skin, and the model for that vehicle changes, it would be easy for me to edit the file description with a message like "Obsolete in versions 4.010 and later" or something similar. A Wiki section would be great ... listing, by version, model changes for each vehicle ... but a lot of work, I'm sure. And who would bother to consult it when downloading skins? What I do is compare downloaded skins with the originals in the sim's main folder, looking for changes in the layout. The problem with that is a lot of obsolete files are still living in those folders. It takes some sleuthing to figure out whether the sim is using T72M1 or T72M_M1, for example. So to answer Canadus's question: No. There is only trial-and-error.

That's very good, speckfire. I love the added detail. May I offer a bit of constructive criticism? Soften the lines. Edges should be defined by color and shadow rather than drawn lines. Otherwise you start to get a bit of a "cartoony" appearance. Know what I mean?

The snap view to the front (arrow up or thumb hat forward) does not work with TrackIR active. And why should it? That would defeat the purpose of TrackIR, which is natural, head-controlled viewing. (You CAN use the snap views to the left/right/back while TrackIR is active ... but that's an unholy abomination against the laws of god and man and imho should be disabled.) I did just test, and the up arrow DOES work as advertised when my TrackIR is PAUSED. So if it's not working for you, you must have a conflicting keymap of some sort going on. I'd suggest forgetting about finding a gamer gimmick to control your views and give orders to your gunner, and just do it like a tanker.

Pressing F7 while already in the M1A2SEP commander's position causes the CITV scan to jump to MANUAL. I stumbled upon this checking the map via F5 while in the TC's seat and then using F7 to return to that view. I wondered why my CITV was in manual scan when I knew I had left it in a GLOS setting. Just a heads-up to anyone who tends to do this. Getting back to the commander view from the map via F1 works fine and does not reset the scan. And neither does initially pressing F7 from any other position. But if you press F7 while in the TC's seat, the scan changes to manual. Works kinda like a hotkey (remember some had asked for hotkeys to operate the CITV?) but not in a desired way.

I tried this once with a 'girl back home' snapshot. The resolution of the turret interior surface areas is just too low. You only have about 40x50 pixels to work with. Something like a chart or map might pass better than a photo, but it would be too blurry to actually read.

Damn. That was quick. He's already built a wall. Y'all paying for it?

I'm probably of limited help because I don't know what PSP does or doesn't do. But in Gimp 2.8, channels are accessible in a tab in the same dialog box with the layers, paths and history tabs. You should make this edit on the final, flattened form of your skin; before you export it as a .dds. (Of course you can also do it on a finished skin from the folder -- that's what I did for the example -- but you lose some quality with the additional compression upon saving.) But I don't even bother with the channels dialog. I just use the scissors tool to 'cut' the part(s) from the flattened layer. (leaves the 'checkerboard' of a transparent layer. Then export it as a .dds (with mipmaps, rgbA8 format and DXT3 compression) and place it in both the nation AND seasonal root mod folders. Something not mentioned in the referenced thread: There's still some very subtle ghosting from, I suppose, the normal and/or specular maps. So it seems logical that editing those also would be necessary. I haven't messed with that myself. If you'e up to a challenge, it would be wicked cool to eliminate the CITV from the Aussie M1 (when using the M1A2SEP as a stand-in). This is absolutely doable -- but a little complicated because the CITV is composed of several noncontiguous parts on both the main skin and 'interior' skin.

Rotareneg revealed the how-to in this thread: Be sure to read all of Rotareneg's posts in the thread.

Yes, but it leaves a black hole. There is no texture mapped to the floor of the bustle.

Getting your gunner on-target when you have your head out of the hatch. A number of ways to accomplish this. When you spot your target, tell the gunner to scan in that direction using shift/left-arrow shift/up-arrow or shift/right-arrow. As the ai slews to that area he should see the threat and call "identified" ( or "on" for your Brits). [This is pending the fixing of the bug just noted here: Or ... click your vehicle icon in the lower right, and look for "suppress here" in the context menu. Click on the threat with the white marker/cursor. The ai gunner should slew to your target and engage. [There's also a post-4.0 command to "shoot here" and supposedly a hotkey "T" but I can't get that to work myself.] Or ... If the vehicle you're in has the capability (M1's, M60, Leo 1's, most IFVs) press the override button specific to that vehicle (most cases P, but not all) and slew the turret yourself toward the threat. This doesn't work in vehicles without this functionality, like the Challenger and Scimitar, as you've noted.

The ai gunner in my own tank (when I'm TC) seems blind to enemies until the palm or designate key is pressed. The problem is immediately evident in the M1 TC B tutorial.

Cool. Now maybe we can get back to the pretty pictures.

OK, I just hopped in the sim to check, and the M1A2 turret CAN be controlled from the eye view (Gunner F7) if you use the mouse. This is what Retro was talking about in the linked post above. I figure it might be the same in similarly equipped vehicles, but the OP is talking about the SEP. I never use the mouse for gunning, so I wasn't aware it was so. Using the joystick (which is how I play) doesn't control the turret. So I'm interpreting the original request to be a mapping option that gives a joystick axis the same control for the gunner in that view as the mouse does now. I'm not sure that could be done, given the multitasking nature of the mouse in SB (view, button-clicking, cadillac control, etc). I think the commander's position in the SEP is a good example of what he's looking for. You can sit back in the F7 view, see the commander's independent sight, the map, and your surroundings, and still with your joystick override and control the turret, all without going into the F2 sight view.

Ssnake, the PIP he's referring to is already in use in SB to an extent. The gunner position and commander position in several vehicles show a sight picture viewable in the F1 view. Scheintot887, I found a post by MAJ Fubar here discussing the biocular display: And Retro's post here seems to imply what you're looking for does, indeed work in some cases in SB: I haven't tested any of the vehicles for this, myself. My question would be, are you using TrackIR or the mouse for views? And I do remember, but can't find the post, bug reports about the T72 slewing the turret when out of the optics.

I was going to say Shadowplay worked fine for me last time I tried it, but that was before the new 3.0 version of GeForce Experience. So I went to update to the new version so I could try it and report back to you. And it crashed on update. When I went to Nvidia forums, I saw much wailing and gnashing of teeth over the update, so I'm thinking I might just leave that puppy alone for awhile. Sorry I can't help, but my guess would be it's GeForce update-related, since it did work fine with SBProPE with 2.11.4.0. And welcome to the forums.

Truer words were never spoken.

I wonder if this is the same issue I'm seeing on the M1A2. I noticed today two of the tanks in my platoon were missing the turret decals (in my modded case an F2 on the back IFF panel and the two infrared panels on the turret front, which I've done with decals rather than on the skin.) The other two tanks in the platoon showed the decals. Like the captain, I'm wondering if this is supposed to be part of the new randomness or if it's a bug.

By the way, wanderings through the vastness of the interwebs yielded but one pic of the panel. At a site called The AFV Database. Very low resolution (unreadable) but the longer word at the bottom. So I'm thinking the skin graphic is right; the animation is wrong.

I asked about this about 5 years ago, and I see it still exists in 4.004. Yeah, it's a super nitpicky thing and clearly hasn't gotten in anyone's way. I long ago modded the labels.dds skin so mine at least would match the action. This might have a home on bugzilla, or it might have just been forgotten. Anyway, I thought I'd necro it. A gunner could probably tell us which way up is.

Cata's artwork is very nice. I used that particular skin before 3.0. Unfortunately, this is what it looks like on the 4.0 model. The interceptordress model used by the U.S. in the sim is less obtrusive, especially at a distance, but still requires modding to do what you want. Although it certainly can be done, eSim neither recommends nor supports modding the normal maps. So while I might do it for myself occasionally (shhh), I'm not keen to release a skin that requires a normal map mod. To be blunt, explaining its installation might be difficult for players who, to put it delicately, sometimes are challenged by the mod folder structure. I used the first photo you supplied as a guide, and I think my texture is a passible knock-off. I'm afraid that's going to be the extent of my progress with the current model. Sorry.