OK, I seemed to have figured it out. In the weapon's animationsystem1p.inc file, there is a line near the top called:
animationSystem.cameraSpring.amplitude which had values of 0.03/0.02/0.03.

It appears the 1st number controls how much the weapon swings to the side (and how far the iron sights drift out of alignment) when it's moved laterally.
The 2nd number controls how much the weapon swings up or down (and sights drift) when it's moved vertically.
Haven't figured out what the 3rd number does.

I dropped the values to:
animationSystem.cameraSpring.amplitude 0.001/0.001/0.02
and now the iron sights stay almost perfectly aligned when you swing the rifle around. If you know to look you can see them drift just a tiny fraction. I imagine even smaller values will virtually lock it in place, but this is sufficient for me.
I did drop the 3rd number a bit to see if there was any effect, but didn't see any difference. Might have been too small a change to notice anything.

Curiously, the Colt 1911's amplitude numbers are quite a bit higher at 0.1/0.035/0.2, yet its irons sights remain rock steady as you swing it around. Perhaps because it's a smaller/lighter weapon?

So, that's apparently what cameraSpring.amplitude does....

CORRECTION: Didn't word it correctly. I'd like to incorporate the ability to use permanent enemy weapons placements (machine gun nests, etc), and tanks. Is there a tweak/way to accomplish this?

Thanks!
Robbob42

Thanks Jan,
The pattern of events seemed to fit the hypothesis, but guess I'll have to look elsewhere. It's seems to be something that happens in-game, but I can't think of any other game event that would fit what's happening. And why only this map/level. There's gotta be something unique about it. Frustrating.... it's one of our more favorite maps.

I've successfully(?) imported a G3 into the game as part of the US Antitank class. I've run thru a half dozen US levels with no apparent problems. However, Pointe du Hoc crashes to desktop anywhere from 5-15 seconds after spawning in. I'm running in windowed mode and there are no msgs. It's just gone. Doesn't seem to matter what I do or don't do. I've even taken my hands off of everything - just let my player spawn in and just stand there. Seconds later - CRASH.

This is in coop play.

It didn't do this before the G3, but I can't imagine what I would have done to cause this - especially since all the other levels play fine. I've run thru weapons, kits, init.con, tmp.con - who knows what else - until I'm numb. Initially there was one itemIndex conflict that crashed the load 20% into it. But that was resolved early on. There are a couple of grappling-hook-specific pickup kits that aren't in the other levels, but I can't find anything odd about them.

What would cause it to crash AFTER the level starts? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

OK, probably the long way around (sorry, didn't see the Gimp suggestion until too late), but I got a working G3 dds icon:
1. Found a transparent PNG image of a G3A3.
2. Used FastStone Viewer to resize/crop it to 150x46. I suspect IrfanView, etc, would do the same as long as it preserves transparency.
3. Uploaded that to https://pixlr.com/editor (pixlr's online editor). Pixlr preserves transparency. Slid weapon image to the right edge if its transparent "frame", then added "G3 iron sight" label (in white) to lower-left. Saved.
4. Uploaded that to https://online-converting.com/image/convert2dds. This one has options to set 8,8,8,8 argb32 (or "A8R8G8B8 (32 bits)" as they call it), and no mipmaps. Clicked "Convert file".
5. Copied resulting dds to menu_client.zip\HUD\Texture\Ingame\Weapons\Icons\Hud\Selection.

Presto! A working icon with no crashes! I was not able to figure out the exact font used for other FH2 weapon labels, but 11pt regular Bahnshrift SemiBold came pretty close.

Thanks for reply Ts. Sadly I'm not sure what guiIndex is or how it works. I changed it from the 210 it was to 52 (same as the M1 Garand - and an online reference said 52 was "hit indication"), but it made no difference.
CORRECTION: the hit indicator (guiIndex 52) works! Swore I was hitting people before, but maybe not(?).

I actually have been running in window mode pretty much all thru this process. I put the tga file back in for hud/selection. Everything works fine until I scroll the mouse wheel to bring up my weapon selection menu. Then it instantly crashes to desktop and is completely gone (not still running on the taskbar). No error msg.

What do you recommend for creating/modifying a dds? All I had done was try to convert the existing tga to dds via an online converter, but they give no details on the file/graphic format they converted it to.

OK, I was able to add the weapon I wanted to the UW_Antitankassault kit (using index #7), rather than have it replace the Winchester. So now I have both the Winchester and the new weapon (an iron sight G3 I ported from another source - mainly for kicks for my nephew who has one).

HOWEVER....
Everything seems to "work" (animations, it fires, reloads, can switch to iron sight, etc) except it does no damage. You don't get that little flash indicating a hit, no bullet holes on a wall, nothing. It's like it's shooting blanks. What am I missing? I assume I missed setting up the proper projectiles and/or damage, but not sure where to start with that....

Thanks!

Looked thru a dozen pages of posts, and did a search, but can't find this topic/problem.

I'm new to modding, and have successfully replaced a few weapons in some of the kits (i.e. m1903a1 with springfield03a4scope in UW_Ranger_Scout.inc, etc).

Wanted to replace Winchester shotgun in US AntiTank kits, so I looked in the init.con file for a few levels (Bastogne, Brest, Omaha) to see what AT kits they use. When I look in those AT kit inc files in objects_server.zip they all list a Colt1911 (or some derivative). No shotgun in any of them. Yet in-game the AT class comes up with the Winchester Model 12. No pistol. All the other in-game AT weapons seem to match the kit inc - just not the Colt. There must be some kind of override going on(?), but I've looked every place I can think of and can't find it.

Including, but not limited to:

1. ClientArchives and ServerArchives.com within a level (where existed - Advance on Foy). Some additional kits were loaded via WaW archives, but no ATs.
2. tmp.con within the level
3. various other archives (common_client, common_server, objects_client, object_weapons_client, etc, etc)
4. the con & tweak files for the Colt1911 (and derivatives) and Winchester.

Some levels come up with the "correct" AT weapon list in-game (i.e. Eppeldorf), but they seem to use the UW_TankHunter_GarandGrenade kit as opposed to the UW_Antitankassault (and its derivatives).

I found a few grenade overrides (FewerGrenades.inc) in objects_server.zip\Common, so I assume it's something similar, but nothing for a Winchester/shotgun that I can find. I even manually unpacked several archives so I could do a file-content search for the words "Winchester" or "shotgun" within the inc, con, & tweak files. "Winchester" pops up in a couple of UW_Pickup... kits, but otherwise nothing.

I'm at a loss. If anyone has any insight I'd GREATLY appreciate it! Thanks!!

Other notes: we play exclusively coop.