Hi Solotk,
With BAT and VP Modpack being the current state of the art modpacks for offline play, issues around this old (but great!) map have gotten even more complicated. I don't have BAT installed, which makes it a little tricky to advise specifically on BAT installs, but the modding principles are the same for all installs. I think the best approach is to review the history of the mod first, then go from there.
Step 1: First of all was Canon's beta Channel Map. The things that made it a great map were that it was a more accurate representation of the theater than anything that had gone before, and it was "dogfight" scale, or half-size, which made for nice short missions (if that's what you like). It was also more-or-less capable of being played on everyday computers--for example my computer STILL gets memory crashes with the full-size Canon map (and others) that came later.
Canons beta Channel map was installed to a modactivated game by downloading map, objects and texture files in to the MODS folder by the old school "manual modding" methods. All the files to do this are still available in the first post of this thread. Also, early packs like UltraPack and HSFX and DBW included this original beta map.
If your install already has the ORIGINAL map (only) RAF Tangmere will look like this in your game:
Step 2: Next was VP's awesome original map update. If your map looks like step 1 above, you can install VPs map update, also by following the instructions at the beginning of this thread. This update was specifically designed for DBW, but could also be "manually" installed to other mod-activated games or mod packs. The main upgrade was vastly improved objects from Canon's full-size Channel Map. The original home of the update is here:
https://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,24522.0.htmlIf your install already has the original map, plus the original update, it will look like this:
As far as I know, a number of current modpacks have this level install by default, but each player will need to check their own install. If you open the map and look at London, you'll quickly see if you're at this level.
Step 3: was the "RAF Airfield" update, created by myself using the principles of Spider109's airfield tutorial. This was to address the fact that all the airfields on the beta map (and many other airfields in the modding world, even some stock Maddox airfields) are not correctly designed: AI aircraft especially, are unable to Takeoff, Land and/or Taxi properly unless the airfield is designed and tested within strict parameters. The game engine AI restricts airfield parameters very tightly, and the best layout of runway, taxi and parking way-points is very constrained. Incorrectly designed airfields can ruin a carefully designed mission or campaign. That said, it's not that difficult to design airfields that look great, and function virtually 100% in the game. My update also addressed that Canon's original airfield layouts were mostly post-WWII layouts, which detracted from the game experience in BoB scenarios, particularly. Another feature of the airfield update was thousands of hand-placed treeline objects to match the terrain textures - which looks terrific in-game in my opinion. Due to time constraints I wasn't able to update all the airfields, but I did manage a good selection of RAF bases. The original airfield update -- CAN_Channel_1940s_RAF_v01.zip -- is still available in the first post. It can be used to update an install at the level of Step 2 above. Step 2 + plus the airfield update looks like this at RAF Hornchurch:
I still have this version installed with all the files in my 4.09 legacy build, so I can help anyone who wants to get to this level in their own install. In fact, my 4.09 install has nice upates for Mardyk and Abbeville too, which didn't get released (if I remember correctly).
Step 4: was VP's brilliant modpack, which included everything up to Step 3 above, among many, many other beautiful updates. This level is obsolete, see Step 5 below.
Step 5: is the latest development of the Cannon Beta Channel map, and it came about in the patches for VP modpack. It featured lots of beautiful new objects, and beautiful new textures, but there IS a problem. Because my airfield updates had hand-placed trees to match the then-current textures, the hand-placed trees no longer match the new textures. The current standard of the map in VP's modpack looks like this at RAF Tangmere:
The textures look great, but you can see the hand-placed treeline objects no longer match up, not a major problem, but not perfect either. Everyone with the latest patch for VPModpack will be at this level, and in my opinion this is the level everyone should try to get to if they can, see Step 6 below.
Step 6: Now things get complicated (if they weren't already!). I've made some slow progress on a new update for the Step 5 map. For some reason, the map editor isn't fully functional in 4.12.2 -- the "runway" object doesn't work properly in the map editor, so it's not possible AFAIK to edit airfields properly in 4.12.2. So... what I have on my computer is a dedicated "map-editing" 4.11 build, which has Step 3, plus all the new objects from Step 5 included as manually added files (which I can share with anyone who needs them). I use this install to modify the runway objects and taxi and parking waypoints--then switch BACK to my 4.12.2 VP Modpack install to hand place any other objects I need to match the latest textures. My latest airfield build is Calais-Marck: using this hybrid 4.11/4.12.2 map-editing setup, it's fully matched to the latest textures and looks like this:
Calais-Marck 1940, 4.12.2 VP Modpack Patch 14, manually map-edited.Pretty bloody good in my opinion!
I don't have a set of manual texture files, because switching from 4.12.2 to 4.11 JUST for the runway layouts I don't need to... if that makes sense.
Because I DO already have the new Step 5 objects in manual files, the textures are the only missing part that would be needed to manually update any other packs or manual installs to VP's latest standard, and then any further updates would be compatible for everybody. Potentially I could look at updating the textures for my 4.11 install and share them as a manual file?
I hope that helps everyone understand where they're up to with this map. Let me know if I can help out by uploading any of the manual files. I'm also using some manual visual mods: "original" grass runway textures (I find them preferable to the more "transparent" versions in VP Modpack) and high detail cranes and wire fences, I can upload those too. I can help with the file structure too, you just need to know where your own install picks up manual mod files, for example the "MODS" folder, or "#SAS" folder.
Cheers
KB
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Topic: 1940s RAF and Luftwaffe Fighter Stations for Cannon's Channel Beta/vpMedia (Read 19627 times)
