Dyson

Yeo potty is bang on, I'm working on other projects and this project is in limbo. There's still a lot to do on it to make it ready for game even with bugs but as to its future that would need to be decided by freelancer.

I really hope we can drive that on land

The author of the moddel - Helljumper51, and if you dig depper he shared a pack of them.

Actually - http://nrw-modifications.com/filebase/index.php/Entry/132-USA-Mack-Engine/

I think I have one thing to contribute actually. Just tried experimentation with the em4 code, and there may be something that improves how textures are drawn in Em4.

This setting:

<var name="r_tex_mipbias" value="0.5" />

I have found out that "mipbias" means the MimMapping bias for the textures ingame. This means, that the game actually renders the textures smaller than the actual texture that the player/user puts into the game. This setting is linked to how the game makes textures smaller when the object is at a fair distance away from the viewer.

I set that value to -1.0 and noticed that the textures no longer looked blurry when viewed from a distance and in some cases, details like decals and license plates could be made out better from a distance. I am unsure of its effect on performance because I only looked at it a couple hours ago.

Good find! I'm on my pc now I'll have a look into its effects on fps

Which I believe is unfair to our less fortunate brothers and sisters who have Intel graphics.

Haha amen I have Intel too, they are crap graphics cards though let's be fair. But fortunately I have a second pc with ATI so been able to try it out.

The mastereffect/sweet fx plugin can be used on em4, a custom enb setup is required so you can have subtle graphics tweaks with little fps reductions or heavy alterations for high spec PCs. This does not work with Intel graphics.

Some script edits I've made in order to make the LAFD tiller work somewhat better than it did before.

Added in a fourth ladder segment, lengthened all other segments to prevent floating, improved the chances of the ladder being able to install to a building.

I was working on something similar, the ability to install to non open houses I could never implement my next stage which was to adjust the height though, no matter what the ladder always approached houses at the same height. If that makes sense. Interesting to see someone else had a similar idea I like it

Simply combining mod elements from two mods will always crash, you need to take the models from the other mod and create a new unit for them to work in the la mod, blindly copying and pasting will just cause crashes. No need for the logfile it's pretty obvious what the issue is.

No problem didn't mean to sound harsh

If it's still going to be essentially BoF with some new skins and a new map then it should still be a submod really, if you're planning on creating a significant amount of new models or new content then I think it would be fair

Make sure it's a sub mod as we discussed if you're using BoF as a base.

Ok, I don't know scripting very well so o don't know if this is possible but perhaps it could have a scrip where you click a start point and a end point and it will spawn traffic cones across the road which will re direct vehicles

This is essentially the ers berlin redirect script. It's a very complicated script to achieve though so I wouldn't expect it anytime soon on a U.S. mod

Very very nice, about time someone did some U.S. Firefighter models we've been way behind the Germans on that

Very nice ideas and smoothly put it place can't wait to try this out

Since my name has been thrown into this mix yet again I will go ahead and state my peace on this issue and hopefully it'll end here with it.

 

What I have noticed is that much of the tension that occurs here as of recent has came in the form of persons from the other english site roaming their way here with the explicit purposes of stirring the pot so to speak.  I know this because sadly for me, I've had to address it several times in recent weeks, which ultimately is not beneficial to the community and any potential "healing" that can take place.  Perhaps if people exercised the concept of "can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" things would be more amicable. For your part dyson, you are not one of those that seems to intend to stir the pot, others on the other hand have done just that in the process. People have their own agendas and I can tell you from long experience, many of them do not share the well-being of the community in mind.

 

To me with our issues that we encountered, the issues could have been addressed in a much more discreet manner (which would have suited everyone in the end I believe), unfortunately you made choices to make the issue quite public which propagated much of the tensions that are currently going on in this community.  While I cannot say you were aware of what Raf did do or did not do, he or someone else did ultimately take from my mod without permission and did so in a deceptive manner at best. I can say from what I was shown that it was in fact not a minor issue from my view, there were many models directly taken from my mod and altered to attempt to conceal where they originated, to me that is a pretty big deal considering the time I did put into those projects.  That being said, had we not had a previous misunderstanding which Hoppah addressed on my behalf stating very clearly and in concise terms that the content had to be removed it probably would not have been such a big deal to me either.  

 

Unfortunately, Hoopah did make it clear that the content from my NYC mod would have to be removed and Raf stated it would be removed per the request, but failed to actually follow through on his word does make what he did in fact a theft, not a misunderstanding.  Your culpability in the whole scenario as to how much you were aware of, as well as any potential part you had in the issues was debatable at best, especially considering that you yourself do not model, so chances are you never saw the wireframes to see they were in fact carbon copies of mine.  As such the only reason you had to have involvement was because of the fact you are the steward of those mods, which unfortunately makes you accountable to rectifying the situation we had.  You were not banned, nor actually warned as a result of any of this, nor should you have been given that there is no definitive tie to you and being directly responsible for the theft of that content.  Ultimately Raf should have owned up to that issue, it was taken on his good faith and his word that he resolved the problems the previous go-round we had, which he ultimately did not actually follow through on in the least.  That is what ultimately offended me more than anything, had it have been the first time we had any issues, it would not have bothered me as badly, but having the same issue crop up again when Raf assured it would be addressed was quite offensive and to be made into a villain when I in fact wronged in the first place was totally insane to me.  Perhaps you were a victim as well dyson, but that would be something to take up with Raf regarding, since he is the one who quite honestly lied to me as much as you.

 

I gave a fairly simple resolution to you, of which you can partake on either one of them to consider our situation resolved. The first being to remove all the offending content that was not from the LA mod but in fact came from the NYC mod, or alternatively to credit the materials from the NYC mod separately and with the caveat to contact me for permission to use it. If either of those steps are taken we would be perfectly fine and life would go on for my part in the crediting nightmare.  The content from LA I always let be out there just for ease of the fact that Hoop made the LA mod open to use by anyone, so that content is allowed to be used, NYC I did not make it free to use but simply required asking permission from me to use it, which most the time I permit.

 

Reskin mods do have their place in this community, they work as a great stop-gap between the new content created, as that takes a ton of time to do, especially when you have your life outside of this community to take into account.  Most of us have to work or goto school, on top of other personal obligations which limit our modding-time quite a bit.  Reskins work great to fill those voids between such steps forward in the format of new content, as well as giving new modders a venue to try to wade into the modding process.  To me though I have to be honest in that I miss the days when such reskin mods were classified as "sub-mods" of the original modification which they largely worked off of, since back then it was much clearer how much someone was actually responsible for vs how much was from the original people.  The problems we've had alot lately ultimately result from lax crediting processes by a good number of the modders in general, thus making it much harder for the reskinners to have proper accounting of the credits and who did what.

 

As an original content creator I can honestly say that for the most part what I find offensive more than anything is how people on both sides seem iron-willed to create the extremes of both sides of this argument instead of trying to see one another's perspectives and trying to find some understanding and more importantly respect for one another.  Fact is, the reskinners who wish to use the content out there would not have new content without the original guys taking the time to make it in the first place, the game would get very stale very fast as a result.  No matter how many times you respray a model, if it's unchanged it's still the exact same model as the one you've already seen countless times before.  To follow the wishes of these guys who are taking the time to make such content that you have access to because they do invest that time.  For some it's as simple as crediting them, for others they have more strict caveats, but if you want to release it for the public, you really should be following whatever these people deem.  If you don't want to have to worry about such hassles, the catch is that you'd do your project in private and could not distribute it... It's really that simple.

 

That being said though, original creators have to be willing to give a little bit in letting people use their stuff to start out.  We all started somewhere, and for most it was modifying other's works to learn the ropes, be it in this game or another game for most of us it's how we learned as well.  So there has to be some give to let people use the stuff to help them start their modding futures, that is one thing that several years ago made it quite trying to start out in modding this game.  A few years ago you did not have the luxury of so much content to source to kitbash together to make your own reskin mod, back then there was far less content and most of it was totally unavailable.  Now you have it out there with for the most part reasonable considerations to the original authors required to use them.  Please if you want to use other's stuff, including mine, take the time to credit them, and if they don't explicitly say "feel free to use it" ask them if you can use it in a project you intend to release.  It's a common courtesy and something quite honestly that has been forgotten and taken advantage of far too often in recent times.

 

Perhaps just perhaps if people were a little less extreme a bit more understanding of everyone things would calm down, but as I've said before many out there have their own vendettas and agendas they feel the need to pursue and are using such a time as this to their full exploitation.  What is really sad is that we as a community cannot see this conduct and clip it out.  If the community wants to be a community, healing starts from within, learn to be more understanding and ultimately more respectful, that goes for everyone out there... If everyone wants to be egotistical and selfish, then there is no point in calling it a community at all, Original creators need to be willing to help new guys start out, reskinners/new guys need to be willing to respect the guys  who make the content they themselves want to use.. If we can manage to get there perhaps the whole credit/permissions bs will calm down, if people continue to be unwilling to give and just want to take, then extremism will persist.

In regards to NYCERU copyright comments (off topic)

I completely agree with everything you've said, I do have to say that I don't agree with the deception you've suggested, yeah we used your stuff, I've held my hands up to that, I wasn't aware, my bad, I've already been speaking to you about resolving it and I really was hoping to just speak to you about it privately but itchboy has taken the opportunity to bring it up after I've been talking about only healing the community. So I didn't really want to speak about it, but I would hope that you'd realise, we've used a lot of stuff, from models to scripts from various sources and credited all of them, does it not strike you as odd that we would choose just you, the author of the Sierra (which I have since spoken to and he has given us permission) and a model from turbosquid, to "rip off". I understand the run in before and as I've explained this was solely to do with the tow trucks and was an understanding between ourselves and hoppah that was either misunderstood or just fell through. I really, really, really want to put all this behind us, like you say I had no knowledge of the usage of your stuff, raf is the modeler, but this boils down to bad communication within the team, that's our fault, I apologise again. But to think we would steal them, actively try and claim them as our own knowing that it'd be very easy to unravel is beyond me, but some people would have me down as a thief and that's up to them. I've spent the past month rectifying these issues best I can, not to just release in future, but to apologise to people we may have offended. But I need the community to know this isn't stealing, I mean mikey has been credited in every readme we've ever put out, sure back then you didn't need to specify what we were crediting authors for, but I knew that much of our mod relied heavily on his work, he's done so much for the community and I'm really grateful for that.

In terms of the community, I literally posted trying to help resolve this issue before it becomes an even bigger one. People seem to think its an us vs them kinda of deal, its really not. This community, all forums, all mods, only survives if we co-exist. We all break copyright, every single one of us, whether you're using models from another game, using logos of departments or even just car logos, it's all a violation. The only reason this game survived is because it was so open source, coupled with a community that provided for each other. This means yeah you'll get the basic reskin mod, but those mods can rise up into bigger things, but if you cull all of these attempts before anyone even had a chance, then that's when the community goes into decline. Less mods means less activity, less new things being added to the community collective. If anyone goes into this community with an ego, wanting, demanding that they be known for how good they are then thats when we have this issue. 

I feel I'm fighting a losing battle to keep the community I've spent a long time on in tact. There's a strong divide between those that can and those that can't and when you take away the nurturing element from this community it will just wither and die. 

This is the issue with the community, I'm trying to put things behind all of us and work towards the greater good but once again another topic has descended into arguments.

The reason I left this site is purely this, I felt like there was too much tension, I didnt make another site, I didn't get an army of keyboard warriors, I literally just moved.

This whole model theft has been blown way out of proportion, yeah there were some things raf used without my knowledge but they were never stolen, if you'll actually check all of our readme a have always credited Mikey he's actually a nice guy who is easy to level with, hell after all of this he still spoke to me and we sorted things out. The problem now lies with members uninformed carrying on this saga.

I don't really care what you do, I just knew the itchboy before all of this, that was so eager to help others and didn't care about anything else, now it just seems like you've changed and you've even started hindering all the people you once helped.

Yeah reskins aren't the best, but so what? If someone wants to make a mod that someone else will enjoy too who cares how complex it is? That's just where egos come into it and a community run by egos will fall apart pretty quick.

Anyway thanks for dragging up the whole model thing once again it's always fun. I know there's too many minds that are already made up so this entire post is pretty much in vain, but you all really need to start rebuilding the community if it's going to survive.

What's the reason why this project was cancelled? I saw this as a great community project and I remember back to when this was first started and itch told me he saw this as an opportunity to give back to a community he had been viewing for some time before even creating an account.

It is a shame, I hope you would reconsider but it is what it is, I know there's been some issue with credits etc and I understand if someone uses something they should credit the source, but all those who violated the rules have been spoken to and action taken, there's still so many projects both private and public that use the models you brought over to em4 who have done nothing wrong and always played by the rules.

Just something to consider, it'll probably not see much of an impact but if this community wants to heal it should take steps from its members to help return to normal.

All just my opinion many might disagree and I understand that, food for thought.

Corsair: Nothing, still have the problem. Thanks anyway, bro.

Yes! I've added several gangsters to the map. Let's say around 7-8. Interesting. However, at least I do know what might be the problem. Thanks! I experienced this problem a long time ago when I used to edit Rockport Modification, now Montana. Gangsters seems to be the problem.

Tah-dah

There you have it. Having pre set gangsters on map makes the game believe you still have an active event and will not trigger new ones. If you want to add gangsters they need to be scripted to activate as gangsters but thts another story. Remove them and your game will return to normal.

Hope this helped.

Have you added any gangsters to map? That caused the problem for me.

Also make sure they're looped else the patrol car will delete

Mine did it for a while then just started working again. With most things like this an ancient game engine is to blame glad you fixed it.

Yeah that's detail polygons they might not show up in the editor

Sorry man but every post is abaut one theme.

Then just group them within one post, fairly logical.

Nice skins, but 3 posts in a row, use the edit button man. 

I remember us back in those days, the submod days. I think back then we were all pretty crappy at mods (besides like LA and German) but we all pushed each other forward, heck I know you so generously allowed me to use that FDNY rig back in 2010, we've all come so far. It just pains me that we were so lucky to be given such a wide birth to make mistakes and start off that way. The players late to the game starting up now never had a chance. With such good mods already out and so many it can seem daunting and with so many people slating mods that begin as reskins, I know I'd never made it out of the starting block.

Overall I think times have just changed and the community spirit is broken, no-one seems to care about the mods of the future, only about the mods on the horizon, but lately that seems less and less. I'm happy to see so much activity in UK modding, that's an area that has been needing a facelift for some time.