[WIP] Hanley's Historical Texture Pack

[Hanley]

Hello all,

Some of you may remember me as being one of the primary contributors to "Mr. Cheese's Historical Texture Pack".  I did most of the uniform skins featured and some of the vehicle ones.  Between work and classes I have slowly been working on something similar for Forgotten Hope 2, adding unit insignia to each map reflecting units that actually fought there, historically accurate symbols and much more.

By no means do I feel this is anywhere complete or near ready for release, but I figured I would use this thread to see general community feelings on the matter, the developer's feelings on the matter, and what-not.

Anyway, here's a short list of things I've worked on so far:

• Historically accurate symbols on German flags, vehicles and uniforms.
• Color correction for US uniforms [Don't hang me yet, check the screenshots to see what I mean].  Each map features three different color variations of jacket color and each map has a different distribution of Wool and HBT trousers.
• All allied forces in Normandy have specific unit insignia for each map.  I feel I did the research for these well, but i am by no means infallible.  If you see something that is wrong, tell me and I will correct it

• Anctoville - Seventh Armored Division.
• Battle of Brest - Second Infantry Division (Indian Head Division).
• Falaise Pocket - Tenth Canadian Infantry Brigade.
• Lebisey - Third Infantry Division
• Operation Cobra - Thirtieth Infantry Division
• Operation Goodwood - Eleventh Armored Division
• Operation Luttich - Thirtieth Infantry Division
• Operation Totalize - Fourth Canadian Infantry Brigade
• Pointe du Hoc - Second Ranger Division
• Port en Bessin - N^o 47 Royal Marine Commandos
• Purple Heart Lane - 101st Airborne Division
• Ramelle Neuville - Second Ranger Division/101st Airborne
• St. Lo. Breakthrough- Twenty-Ninth Infantry Division
• Villers-Bocage - Seventh Armored Division

• Color corrected US uniforms on Purple Heart Lane and Ramelle [WIP]
• Fallschirmjaeger skins on Purple Heart Lane [Very WIP]
• More I'm sure to remember and to finsih...

[Screen Shots]

Now, to be sure, there may some questions as to whether this can be played on multiplayer without issues.  Well, I can personally attest that I receive no errors from Punkbuster or FH2 servers while playing online with these skins.  As evidence I have not cropped or removed my HUD from these screenshots taken on the [762] and [HSLAN] servers.

Here are some screenshots of my work in progress US Airborne reskin for Purple Heart Lane.  Mostly color changes with work in progress jump boots.






Here is a shot of the 29th Infantry Division on St. Lo with helmet insignia and added shoulder insignia.  You can see what I ment by color correction, nothing in the way of what Ramelle provided.


Second Infantry Division on Brest


Here you can see a member of the Seventh Armored Division on Villers.


More to come later, if there is enough support for this that is.

[:| Hi]

Sweet! 

[[130.Pz]S.Lainer]

Nice.  I for one think it is about damn time.  Was not really much sense before with just Africa and all but now that we have so much content it seems like a wonderful idea.  Be nice if you could dig up the fella that did the sounds as well!  But anyhow....I for one would download it.

[Nissi]

While the "original flags" are a legal problem for the build (at least for Germany) I would really appreciate if the uniform work would join finally the official build of the devs. We love the mod due to its "a bit closer to reality than other games" and this work (which I really appreciate! thank you) is hopefully reviewed by the dev crew if they find some time between all the other stuff they're doing.

Cool stuff!
ps. yes, I gonna download it. But I always prefer to have such things in the official release so that everyone has the some texture settings. 

[Wilhelm]

But can't things like this cause problems with punkbuster?  I thought it was determined that this kind of client-side texture pack didn't work with BF2 like it did with BF1942.   

[Cory the Otter]

I love texture packs--adds just that little bit more detail into the game.  The space is definitely worth it even if it's just for one or two maps.

[SiCaRiO]

looks really good man, i would definitely download it ^^

[Hanley]

Sweet! 

Thanks.

Nice.  I for one think it is about damn time.  Was not really much sense before with just Africa and all but now that we have so much content it seems like a wonderful idea.  Be nice if you could dig up the fella that did the sounds as well!  But anyhow....I for one would download it.

Couldn't agree more.  I didn't want to do a simple add swastika mod, luckily the Normandy updates afforded more opportunity to add variety to the maps.

While the "original flags" are a legal problem for the build (at least for Germany) I would really appreciate if the uniform work would join finally the official build of the devs. We love the mod due to its "a bit closer to reality than other games" and this work (which I really appreciate! thank you) is hopefully reviewed by the dev crew if they find some time between all the other stuff they're doing.

Cool stuff!
ps. yes, I gonna download it. But I always prefer to have such things in the official release so that everyone has the some texture settings. 

I didn't want to leave anyone out, so I was planning on releasing two separate versions, one without the correct German symbols and one with.

I would also love for this to join the official build, but I'm just an amateur.  If the devs try it and decide they want, by all means.  I'd love to do the simple skin edits for each map, but I doubt the devs want that and might appreciate it as a separate download.  I'm really not that good at creating skins, just okay at editing them.  The German paratrooper skins have been the most work I've put into one, but they're nowhere near ready to show.  We'll see though.  By no means am I going to pressure the devs to include this officially.

But can't things like this cause problems with punkbuster?  I thought it was determined that this kind of client-side texture pack didn't work with BF2 like it did with BF1942.   

I've been using modified skins since Forgotten Hope 2.0 released and never had an issue with Punkbuster relating to their use. (In fact, the only Punkbuster issues I had were when I started using steam to launch FH2 and I didn't realize that Steam's community services and Punkbuster tend to butt heads)

I love texture packs--adds just that little bit more detail into the game.  The space is definitely worth it even if it's just for one or two maps.

Honestly, most skins have already been updated.  Almost every German vehicle, every Allied skin in Normandy is unique now, I even did some color changes to the Italian uniform. 

looks really good man, i would definitely download it ^^

I appreciate it, I've still a lot to do, but it's progressing.

[Guderian]

Well done Hanley! Keep up the good work.

Btw, did you play for CAL a few years ago? I seem to remember your tag. I played with clan OgV and I can remember scrimmaging a |US team on Sunday night's as a tune up for all our matches.

[Eat Uranium]

How does this work?  I mean, how can it have different textures for the same things on different maps consistently?

[Hanley]

Well done Hanley! Keep up the good work.

Btw, did you play for CAL a few years ago? I seem to remember your tag. I played with clan OgV and I can remember scrimmaging a |US team on Sunday night's as a tune up for all our matches.

I didn't play under the |US tag, but I did play in CAL briefly with my clan the 3d Armored Division, which started as the AL squad for XWW2 on BF1942.  We didn't stick around too long though, we were all more causal gamers who enjoyed playing together really, rather than competitive gamers.

How does this work?  I mean, how can it have different textures for the same things on different maps consistently?

Texture suffixes FTW.  Oddly, I had to add the suffix line to a couple maps, I believe Lebisey and Totalize (not sure about this one, it may have been Falaise), but it works flawlessly.

[Guderian]

How does this work?  I mean, how can it have different textures for the same things on different maps consistently?

IIRC, in the init.con of the map just below the player kits you'll see this.
texturemanager.customTextureSuffix "stlo" and you can make customized skins.

[Hanley]

IIRC, in the init.con of the map just below the player kits you'll see this.
texturemanager.customTextureSuffix "stlo" and you can customized skin.

Precisely.  Every map has a unique texture suffix, so adding a suffix to each unique skin makes it available to that map. Except in the cases where that suffix is missing, but a simple modification of that line and adding a suffix is all that is required.  The devs already laid all the groundwork, I'm just taking advantage of it.

[azreal]

yes, but the texture suffix is defined in the init.con, which is stored in the server.zip (can't be edited). Shouldn't this cause problems? I didin't think all of our maps have texture suffixes already defined.

[Hanley]

yes, but the texture suffix is defined in the init.con, which is stored in the server.zip (can't be edited). Shouldn't this cause problems? I didin't think all of our maps have texture suffixes already defined.

I thought the same thing, but all I had to do was open the init.con within the server.zip, edit the suffix lines to add a suffix, and update the zip, and as I've said I have played online on those maps, with the textures I made for them and no issues.  All Normandy maps except the two I've mentioned have suffixes, but it would seem adding a suffix to a map that does not already have one is easier than it would seem.