VP Modpack

Started by _AH_Gunfighter, May 21, 2016, 12:27:58 AM

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_AH_fraggmann

Hey JD my last post is written in code. You must hold
it up to a mirror and then read it (wavey)   :lol
At one time we had Kingdoms ruled by Kings and Empires ruled by Emperors.
Now we have Countries ruled by....mY h3Ad sT!Ll hUrZt

_AH_Bear

I think if the 1st one goes youve got it.. just have them all in the same folder.. takes awhile to complete.. mine didnt stray from reading the 1st one either.. its the patches im having issues with now.. why cant they make things simple??


lmao at that code you wrote... hard to break..

_AH_fraggmann

I finally got the VPMedia modded game working. JD and I found some missing files
in the first folder. This version of the game is everything they said it is. We also added
5 versions of the F4U as well as the three (3) aircraft listed in Gunfighters previous post.
Here is the link to SAS where the 5 late F4Us are located

http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,21760.0.html 
At one time we had Kingdoms ruled by Kings and Empires ruled by Emperors.
Now we have Countries ruled by....mY h3Ad sT!Ll hUrZt

_AH_DarkWolf

Remember, any talk of group functions or campaigns with this version is very premature. We also have'nt messed with any individual aircraft installs of this nature for years for precisely the reasons you mention and the headaches it can cause. I don't know how much enthusiam there is to go down that road again.

DW


"In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Good Will" - Winston S. Churchill

_AH_Bear

Rgr... this is testing only.. no plans for switching over..

_AH_Col._Hogan

Wow, That is an awesome plane set.

Just a reminder to all -

This is a stand alone modded game and should not be included in your HSFX folder.

Also, as a Group we will not be using "Level Stab" for all planes. If you want to use it in your VP modded game, that's fine.


TD, you were never here, and you did not read this post.

S!

H.

_AH_Gator

S! Gun you we im just waiting for you to get it all right so I do not have to they download all the time and I have to put a bigger driver it the computer first so I can get it all buddy :drinking-29: S! Gator

_AH_DarkWolf

Just a thought about this, we're running HSFX 7.0.3 with two additional required mods, Expert Mode and the Carrier Takeoff Mod 5.7. Both of these additional mods come with HSFX (We had a couple people missing the Carrier Takeoff Mod and had to make it available but those were isolated cases) so they just need to be enabled in the same way as HSFX itself is and people have what they need to join our games.

If we go the route of adding ten or a dozen or more additional mods to any version, HSFX or VP, we're gonna end up running a game version that is unique to us. So unless people had all those additional mods we've added they would have issues trying to fly with us, they would be missing aircraft, missing ships or missing maps. It seems unlikely anyone but us would have that exact group of additional mods and nothing else. If someone had all those mods they probobly have even more stuff installed in their game too, which opens the door to potential mod conflicts like we've seen in the past like guys seeing red P-51s as blue Bf-109s.

So I think this would end up isolating ourselves in terms of game version. Maybe that's not a concern as the community in HL is not huge anymore anyways but it's something to consider.

DW


"In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Good Will" - Winston S. Churchill

_AH_DarkWolf

I installed a copy of the basic VP mod, not from JD's links but from the source at the SAS website. I did'nt install the extra mods as I think that's kind of a separate issue, I wanted to see what the VP mod itself has in terms of content vs HSFX.

The VP mod is based on 4.12.2 same as what we have now, so it's not bringing any of the new 4.13 gadgets to the table.

There are a few interesting WWII aircraft additions, the B-26, A-26, P-47N and Lancaster. There are some very-late war aircraft that might be fun to mess with in a qual room for poops and giggles, like the Spitfire 21, 22 and 24 and the Gloster Meteor. On the flip side there are a bunch of subtractions from what we have now. Among those missing are all the alternate P-51s including the later war D models. The alternate P-38s are gone, particularly the early F\G\H models. The Spitfire XVIes with the bubble canopy are gone. The Korean era jets seem to be all gone too, if you're into that sort of thing. The long and the short of it is, there are some aircraft additions but there seems to be just as many if not more subtractions.

Same story with aircraft loadouts. There are aircraft that have some additional ordnance loadouts in the VP mod but some other aircraft have fewer loadouts than we have available in HSFX. Again it's kind of a mixed bag.

At first I was not impressed at all with the map selection as there were many missing, then I read the following in the VP thread at SAS :

"#SAS\MAPMODS\MAPS\-all.ini is the secondary, larger ini, its easy to find because its at the same location as the other one. The active maps are the ones which I'd consider for inclusion in an official patch, the deactivated maps need work mainly because they use the textures from the 2001 game or worse.  This was a last minute decision, so I didnt think about it much. In my own install I'm cool with 200 maps which have excellent and in some cases cutting edge textures. I should have used two jsgme sets, I may include those in a future patch."

So following those instructions I switched to the other .ini to get all the "deactivated" maps to show, which results in a larger list. Overall there are a few additions here, the Rabaul map, Formosa and North Sea could be useful. Most of the other stuff map wise is what we have in HSFX and had in UltraPack. The only map I can't find in VP is one variant of Cannon's Channel Map that had a more detailed town of Dieppe and it's environs. That's a bummer as I had been tinkering with a Dieppe raid mini campaign awhile back. Overall there are a few map additions.

The included ships in VP is a bit of a step back though. No Yorktown class carriers. No Eagle. There are a number of other ships missing as well. Some mod ships that in HSFX have new 3D models are only repaints of the older stock ships in VP, which is to bad.

The topic of ships leads me into FMB issues and the compatibility of HSFX missions in VP. Though some of the mod ships in HSFX exist in VP, the latter uses a different file and naming structure. So when you load an HSFX mission into VP some ships just are'nt there. This will require either manually replacing them from scratch in the FMB or editing the .mis file and cut and pasting in the new names over the old once you know what they are. Either solution is kind of a pain in the arse. This difference in structure and naming extends to the objects as well, some of them match between the two versions and will show up properly in either, others do not. I tried loading the Fortress Malta warmup room in VP and almost all the runway, taxiway and hardstand sections I added to Hal Far are missing. The sections that should be there exist in the VP object list but the discrepancies in how things are organized between the two versions makes it think it's an object it does'nt have. I remember similar headaches going from UP to HSFX back in the day. I have'nt checked if these issues extend to artillery, armor and vehicles too.

Something that is missing from the VP FMB is Triggers. These allow you to make things happen automatically in missions either based on timing or the actions of friendly and enemy units. I know a bunch of us have made use of these, it would be a major bummer to loose that functionality.

In the end I'm just not feeling it with VP myself, it seems like it would be a sideways upgrade. VPmedia describes it, "I'd recommend this pack to those offliner people who want to (re)play a lot of stock dgen and scripted campaigns with all the community made improvements (new textures, new object 3d, effects, sounds, map repaints, etc) meanwhile enjoying the challenges of the improved 4.12 AI.".  Though he does say a couple pages later, "Imho online or offline doesnt matter, as far as I know if everybody has the same modpack you can play online without any problem.". Makes me think the VP mod might be more offline dgen centric.

DW


"In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Good Will" - Winston S. Churchill

_AH_Col._Hogan

Wow Dee Dub, that's quite a review. Very extensive.

QuoteMakes me think the VP mod might be more offline dgen centric

I concur.

S!

_AH_Col._Hogan

Great visuals on that video JD, love the new airfield maps.

The fat girl in the cockpit of that P-51 however, will get this new VP mod banned.

Just saying.....

S!

_AH_DarkWolf

Quote from: _AH_Jetdoc on June 14, 2016, 02:43:07 AM
When I installed the Hawaiians Island chain, there were no hard issues to the install to give a more historical map; the same one that we have been on since UP3 and HSFX.

Do you mean you installed new textures for that map? Cause the map itself is one of the "deactivated" maps but with slightly different ground textures.

Quote from: _AH_Jetdoc on June 14, 2016, 04:00:24 AM
This to show the hard work to bring this flight sim to the front and not let it die this
some of the maps that are being reworked and retextured watch the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVMwN6nf1cE

You know that's not a new video right? We actually have those maps in HSFX right now.



DW


"In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Good Will" - Winston S. Churchill

_AH_Bear

This is getting waaaay to complicated... I trust DWs assessment

_AH_DarkWolf

Quote from: _AH_Jetdoc on June 14, 2016, 12:21:38 PM
something you said in your review that there is a missing Channel map when I compare the two games in my current HSFX there are 7 channel maps; in my VP mod
game there are 15 channel maps here is a screen shot comparing the two

The map VP does'nt have is Channel 1942-45 vers. Dieppe (Can)(Cat).


Going by your VP screenshot, you are running with the more limited map set. If you follow VPMedia's instructions that I quoted and change that .ini it enables the "deactivated" maps that are still included with VP. For example to directly compare the western front section in your screenshot, it would change to this :



And one of the deactivated maps that now appears under the pacific front section is this alternate Hawaii :



Which looks alot like the Hawaii you installed separately? Albeit with some slightly different texturing.




Your HSFX map set being different is really wierd. All your maps appear to be in one section which seems old school, my HSFX has things divided into sub-sections, comme ca :



It would be interesting to know how many guys are running the one version vs the other.

DW


"In War: Resolution, In Defeat: Defiance, In Victory: Magnanimity, In Peace: Good Will" - Winston S. Churchill

_AH_Bear

The map VP does'nt have is Channel 1942-45 vers. Dieppe (Can)(Cat).

This is the Map im using for the campaign im building..