Soviet churchill graphic has become a Brit churchill

[cbssecman]

Had anybody else and this problem?

First let me say that I did not make any changes to any of the core files in BA2. I copied everything into a "test" folder in My Documents/My Games/BA2 (I'm using a Mac).

I copied in a core BA2 SQUADS.csv and added into it the Italian and British units from the BA master squads .XLS
I copied in all the UNIT, UNITTEXTURE and ICON files for those units.
I created UNITNAMES for all the ID numbers in a text file.

Everything worked fine except for this graphic problem with the Brencarrier and Churchill - wherein the soviet Bren carrier and Soviet Churchill III appear wearing the British texture.
After much futzing around with the DDS and S4F files during which either all the Brit versions came out Soviet or all the Soviet versions came out Brit, I finally just assigned the Brit Brencarrier the files for the Boys Carrier instead.

I could not fix the issue for the Churchills, though, and now somehow the Soviet Churchill appears as a British Churchill even if I open editor in a campaign other than my "test" campaign. I even created an entirely new campaign file and the Churchill III still appears wearing the Brit texture.

Any ideas how I managed to change the core files when I never edited them? Or how to fix this?

[pipfromslitherine]

My guess is that you somehow overwrote the textures with their BA equivalents.

Cheers

Pip

[cbssecman]

Since I've managed to screw up the core texture files for the soviet Churchill III, can anybody send the originals to me so I can replace them in my BA2 files?

[pipfromslitherine]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yrcke8xpryh4m ... s.rar?dl=0

Cheers

Pip

[Richcat]

Hi Guys
I don't think the Churchill Soviet texture not showing is an issue that the core graphic files having been changed.
If you check out the S4F file for the Churchill III it points to the texture for the Churchill and not the Churchill Soviet so this in theory should be effecting everbody. In my editor it appears as British.

[cbssecman]

Yeah, I saw that too, and it was one of the things that was driving me nuts. There's a similar situation with the Soviet LendLease Bren Carrier - the S4F points to the Wasp, which makes no sense at all to me. That's why I was thinking that there must be something hidden somewhere else in some file that points the Churchill III and the LendLease Bren Carrier to their soviet textures. I had no problem at all with the Soviet Stuart, LendLease GMC, Lendlease Sherman and LendLease M3 Halftrack because they all seem to be pointed to their respective Soviet textures.

[cbssecman]

Thanks for the .dds files Pip, but unfortunately that didn't help. Those are exactly the same as the core texture files I still have. I copied them into my BA2/Data/Battle/UnitTextures folder anyway to give it a try (and temporarily renamed the originals by appending an 'a' at the end of their filenames), but it didn't fix the problem. The Churchill III still comes up as a British Churchill, both in the editor and when I open the test scenario as a campaign.

I've tried changing the S4F so that it points to the Churchill_soviet rather than the Churchill, but that just crashes the game. It seems very weird that the S4F pointing to the Churchill file rather than the Churchill_soviet file never caused a problem originally (before I mucked up whatever I mucked up), so I'm really at a loss as to what is going on. Maybe I need to replace my Churchill_III S4F file with an original BA2 file? This is what the first line of my Churchill_III.S4F looks like:

…churchill.ddsdummy.tga_0Body,∑Ñ>Iå>Iå>è«>#!05pÁv@a5µbè+µi¿i@¸@–$ËA6¬÷æR

and I'm pretty sure that's what it was before I ever did anything, because I remember being surprised that it pointed to "churchill" and not to "churchill_soviet"...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/yrcke8xpryh4m ... s.rar?dl=0

Cheers

Pip

[pipfromslitherine]

I'm not sure what else it could be. I didn't set up the assets so perhaps one of the other guys has more of an idea. I know you can set different texture sets in the editor so perhaps that is what has been done.

Cheers

Pip

[makigono1]

From what little I can see, I think you've got yourself a genuine bug there. It seems that the Churchill III is looking for churchill_III_0.s3f file, instead of the churchill_III_0.s4f file if it tries to look for the churchill_soviet.dds, in my opinion. I surmise this because if I remove the s3f file, the game crashes when I try to load a churchill-equipped custom scenario that I created, but when I restore this file, the game runs again. This s3f file points to another Churchill dds file, and seems to be associated with the Kursk campaign assets.
"MAP C:\Development\BBC_BA\BA EAP1_8\Battle Academy 2 Early Access\Campaigns\KURSK-GERMAN\DATA\BATTLE\UNITTEXTURES\churchill.dds" (The odd thing is that this file is ALSO a Soviet skin.)

Specifically, I see these symptoms:
1.) If everything is left to the defaults for BA2, the Soviet Churchill III loads with a British skin, churchill.dds, rather than churchill_soviet.dds.
2.) If the user edits the churchill_III_0.s4f file to point to churchill_soviet.dds, upon loading the scenario, the game itself rewrites the s4f file to point to churchill.dds.
3.) If the user makes the aforementioned edit to the .s4f file, AND removes the churchill_III_0.s3f file, the game crashes. If the user merely removes the .s3f file, but leaves the .s4f file alone (still pointed at churchill.dds) then the game runs, but of course, with a UK skin on the Churchill rather than using the Soviet one. Basically, the game seems to, for some reason, be unable to find the soviet file and falls back to using the British one.

Only solution I see is to create an entirely new unit, using the existing skins, pointed at the Soviet textures, and see if that works. However, if there is a bug associated with the soviet texture file or its location, then the problem will persist. One could also create an entirely new unit for the British Churchill III also, make the default Churchill a Soviet one too, I suppose, with the same caveats.

*UPDATE: As I realize now was mentioned already before I even replied, the churchill_soviet.dds is not broken, in and of itself, as the user can rename it 'churchill.dds' and it works fine. However, it just seems like no matter what the user's actions, the churchill_III_0.s4f file will only seek churchill.dds, not churchill_soviet.dds.

[makigono1]

UPDATE: Okay, Pip solved it, actually! I wish I had read Pip's reply more carefully before I responded. There IS a bug, but it is a very easy one to solve.

The issue is that whoever placed the original Soviet Churchill skins in the game simply named the files 'churchill_soviet' and left it at that. This will not work. You can only have one set of skins for a unit within the same folder. To have British and Soviet Churchills available, you must create a subfolder inside 'UNITTEXTURES' called whatever you want to identify it, just like 'DESERT' is used for units operating in North Africa. I was a little cheeky and called mine 'RENTED'. Once you have that folder, you move the churchill_soviet dds files there, and rename them simply 'churchill' rather than 'churchill_soviet'. Launch the game editor, add a Churchill, select 'squad textures' > churchill III > RENTED (or whatever you choose to name the folder) and voila, you have a Red Army Churchill III.

Of course, it follows that your churchill III s4f file is pointed at 'churchill.dds' too.

[cbssecman]

Thanks Pip and Makigono! That fixed it most ricky-tick. I was wondering what that S3F file was doing in there.