Posts

Call to Arms: Panzer Elite - A Clear Shift Toward the Sim Crowd

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St. Vith and crossing of the river Our When I first saw Call to Arms: Panzer Elite , my immediate reaction was disappointment. It looked like another arena-style tank game, something in the vein of World of Tanks . Bright HUD elements. Helper overlays. A presentation that felt more competitive-arcade than tactical simulation. And to be fair that impression wasn’t entirely wrong. But Early Access development has revealed something important: the developers are listening. The Turning Point With recent updates, Call to Arms: Panzer Elite introduced configurable HUD presets: Immersive Casual Custom Players can now: Disable large parts of the interface Toggle the HUD completely Reduce helper elements Tailor the visual layer to match their preference That changes the conversation. Added the ability to quickly configure the HUD for realism versus accessibility Why UI Matters More Than People Think Simulation is not only about ballistic modelling or damage systems. It is also about: Informati...
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WW2 Tank Battle Map & Unity Terrain Generator

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WW2 Tank Battle Map & Unity Terrain Generator I created a terrain generator for Unity, anyone can create heightmaps for their Unity/Unreal games. WW2 Tank Battle Map & Unity Terrain Generator A  tool for visualizing 30 major WWII tank battles and exporting real-world terrain data as 16-bit heightmaps for Unity and Unreal Engine. Technical Architecture This application functions as a client-side Geographic Information System (GIS) and image processing pipeline: Geospatial Data: Embedded database of 30 battles across Eastern, Western, North African, Italian, and Pacific fronts, including elevation, combatant stats, and results. Terrain Capture: Utilizes html2canvas to grab specific map bounds while bypassing road/label overlays for "clean" terrain. Heightmap Processing: Converts RGB data to grayscale.  Normalizes data to 16-bit (0-65535) for professional game engine compatibility. Features for Game Developers Area Dimensions: Real-time calculation of width/height in kil...
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TvT_REDUX Patch 0.001 – Modern System Support & Script Overhaul

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I’m pleased to announce the initial pre-release of TvT_REDUX Patch 0.001 . This patch marks a major milestone in my ongoing effort to bring T-34 vs Tiger up to modern standards. The focus of this release is stability, modern OS compatibility, improved Level of Detail behaviour, and a deep overhaul of legacy game scripts . Patch 0.001 establishes a solid technical foundation on which future work can safely build. Verification & Stability Testing This build has gone through a two-stage verification process to ensure it behaves correctly on modern systems: Stage 1 Confirmed that the new REDUX base build installs cleanly and runs correctly on a fresh game installation. Stage 2 Applied Patch 0.001 to the REDUX base. Successfully completed the first two missions on both German and Soviet sides with no crashes or progression issues. Key Features in Patch 0.001 Modern Operating System Support Full integration of dgVoodoo ( d3d9.dll , DDraw.dll ) Not needed for age correct PC's Des...
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Decoding the "Missing Manual" for T-34 vs Tiger

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Resurrection:  The Quest: Digital Archaeology To mod T-34 vs Tiger (TvT) correctly, I had to reconstruct a 2007-era development environment from the ground up. I built a dedicated Windows XP Virtual Machine to host a specific stack of software: Maya 5 for modeling and Photoshop 5 for texturing (both sourced via the Internet Archive). This setup allowed me to finally utilize the original, proprietary G5 Tools and Shader Creator exactly as the developers intended. The Discovery: What the Manual Doesn’t Tell You The original G5 manual found in the tools folder is incomplete. It implies that after export, the object will "just appear" in the editor. Through days of trial and error, I’ve identified the "Four Handshakes" required to actually implement a custom asset: The Texture Handshake: The G5 exporter does not generate DDS textures. These must be created manually in Photoshop 5 and then converted to the game's .tex . Model in Maya5 The Model Handshake: ...
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How a Forgotten WWII Game Was Built to Last

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  Five Things T-34 vs. Tiger Got Right and Why They Still Matter Old video games are often treated as sealed artifacts. Their code is compiled, their assets locked behind proprietary formats, and the tools used to create them long gone. Approaching a mid-2000s title today usually means fighting undocumented binaries and opaque data structures. T-34 vs. Tiger is often assumed to be one of those games. It isn’t. I’ve known for years that it was built differently. I was part of the MMP mod team, and I’ve modified the game myself. What has changed since then isn’t the underlying design, but our ability to document it cleanly and explain why it works as well as it does. Looking through the game’s files today doesn’t reveal hidden cleverness so much as it confirms an engineering philosophy that was already evident at the time: use standard formats, keep data readable, and don’t over-engineer problems that don’t need it. This article isn’t about rediscovery. It’s about explaining w...
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Notes While Tuning Smoke Grenades in Panzer Elite’s Particle Editor

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  Panzer Elite's Particle Editor under Windows 11 Why I Opened the Particle Editor I’ve been playing Panzer Elite on and off for over quarter of a century. Some parts of the game still hold up well, especially the way it handles vision, ranges, and the general feel of the battlefield. But visually, some of the smoke effects always felt a bit thin or too clean. I wasn’t planning a deep dive. I just wanted to see if the smoke could be made a bit more convincing. Opening the Tool Panzer Elite includes a Particle Editor that has been circulated alongside other modding utilities for years. It’s clearly original PE-era, and the interface reflects that: multiple boxes per parameter vague labels effects that sometimes don’t preview without adjustment no obvious guidance inside the tool itself Running the Particle Editor on Windows 11 Getting the editor to launch on a modern system takes a bit of a dance. On Windows 11, it only ran reliably after enabling a few specific ...
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Episode 1: We Wanted Realism:

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Episode 1: We Wanted Realism The moment simulation felt real and why we didn’t see the end coming. Falcon 3’s HUD, 640 KB of memory somehow convincing you that you were really there. The Spark The first computer game I ever saw was on my mate’s BBC Micro. It was Spitfire , wire-frame lines and imagination and I was hooked straight away. The only problem was, I didn’t have a BBC Micro of my own. From that moment on I was chasing that feeling: that one day a screen could really make you believe you were flying. I was a flight simulation guy back then. It’s kind of sad that I’m not anymore but we will get to that, these days I’m more of a tank guy but then, it was flight everything. They were the cutting edge: graphics, gameplay, sound, the lot. I don’t think there was a sim I didn’t own. The Golden Age Falcon 3 with the MiG-29 add-on, TFX , Hind , Strike Fighter , Su-27 Flanker , I loved them all. Tornado was another big one; Digital Integration knew what they were doin...
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