Profile of Rosbone

So I'm having a unique problem with loading screens. I've attempted to make my own custom loading screen through Gimp but as soon as I get into game the loading screen appears black and I can see a vague pop-up message repeatedly appearing and closing as the map attempts to load.

Generically most people use 1920x1080 pixel, 24-bit TGA (ie No alpha channel). TGA can be compressed or uncompressed. Again, I only ever see UNCOMPRESSED images. The code to load an uncompressed TGA is very easy, that is why most games use it.

EDIT:
I will have to try some other types and see what happens...
- TGA 24 bit Uncompressed - WORKED
- TGA 24 bit Compressed - WORKED
- TGA 16 bit Uncompressed - Black screen on load. Game loaded and played ok.

DDS has too many options to test. I am not sure I would ever feel good about DDS working unless Relic has it posted what version to use. I have seen a map that was saved as DDS with DXT1 that works.

Approximate file sizes for 1920x1080 image:
- TGA 24 bit uncompressed 6.0 MB
- TGA 24 bit compressed 5.6 MB
- DDS using DXT1 compress 1.1 MB

ROSBONES HOT TIP #1

To make a cool fake depth blurred screenshot do the following:

1. Setup a scene in the worldbuilder. Place objects like tanks, planes, etc from the EPBS\Races folder on your map. DO NOT SAVE! I am using my map Novgorod Outskirts for this example.

2. Adjust the camera view to get a cool shot. Press CTRL+F3 to take a screenshot. The image will be in your COH2 screenshots folder.

3. Now select to view the depth buffer in the menu. DO NOT MOVE THE CAMERA VIEW! Press CTRL-F3 to take a screenshot of the Z depth buffer.


You should now have two screenshots: Raw and Depth.



4. Open the images in a good photo editing program with layer support(Photoshop, Gimp, etc). You will want to adjust the histogram(Contrast/Brightness/Gamma) of the DEPTH image to get the white sections as white as possible and the dark sections as dark as possible.

5. Make a copy of the RAW image and make it the top layer of the raw image. Now apply some BLUR to this new copy. We will call this image BLUR from now on.

6. Next create an alpha blend mask for the BLUR layer. Use the DEPTH image as the mask.

You should now have something like this:


You can flip the blur distance by inverting the BLUR layers mask (Negative image).


You can adjust the BLUR layers mask histogram to adjust the blur effect. Or adjust the mix value of the layer.

Once you are started you can try all kinds of fun stuff like blurring the alpha layer mask, etc. There are also more options to view in the worldbuilder like SPECULAR, GLOSS, etc. You now can add all kinds of shine to your images.

EDIT(08/25/2018):
7. You can add fog to your image by making a copy of the DEPTH layer. Set it to the top layer and mix it as SCREEN or HARD LIGHT. You may need to invert the colors. You can colorize the layer for different colors, etc. Again adjust the histogram(Gamma) to get just the right fog effect.


NOTES:
- Dont forget to clone tool out the RELIC logo and 3 axis gizmo indicator.
- nVidia control panel allows you to override the worldbuilder video card settings and force stuff like anti-aliasing for better quality shots. I have not tested AMD video cards.

I think he means why are the 1-20 ranks even a thing if they don't do anything.

And do not forget this fun non-linear stuff?


Playing 4v4 premade team your either a Level 7 or a 16 because it switches at rank 200

I just came across this post: Angermunde south spawn issue

Hopefully it was fixed from your 1st post about moving the base positions around.

Deep snow on the RHS sectors? (Needs to go, IMO)

I stand corrected. There were two small sections on the right side that appeared to be deep snow.

In the worldbuilder any snow greater than a depth of .25 is shown as DEEP SNOW and appears RED. So .251 will draw as red in the worldbuilder. Snow less than .251 will be drawn as yellow(Left side of picture).

However in the game .250 is indicated as deep snow with the snowflake mouse cursor. This map had several areas at exactly .250. Only two were in normal playing areas and they were small.

Using the TERRAIN COVER overlay (right side of picture) you can see the deep snow areas (RED Checker areas).