Now that the UBI policy has change, see Bearcat's post here, we can discuss the use of mods in movie making.

What mods do you like?

The introduction of the Sound Mod is one of the best ways in long time to significantly improve your movie with very little effort. The original in-game sound effects are very poor for movies which meant it was necessary in the past to add sound effects in manually. A VERY laborious task, though worth it.

I used the Sound Mod in this demo a while back. If you didn't spot it then, listen again:
http://weebitfilms.blogspot.com/2008/03/josephines-beau-screen-test.html

What really impressed me, apart from the improvement in sounds, was the stereo effect. Only the very best sound experts have been able to add in a stereo effect manually, yet here it is all ready to go now with little effort on your part.

I also used the planeshine mod to give that little extra shine to the skins.

I would have used the Fluffy cloud mod too if I had known about it at the time. Guaranteed I'll be using it in the future. The enhancements to the clouds are spectacular.

For movies,the best mod I have found is the prop mod,as seen in this clip.Watch the in cockpit shots at 2.00
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YOzOD_Jofcw

I'll be positive and say that the MODs have finally come to a wise decision on the matter.

As for me, I have been away from IL2 flying for about a year...(as some know, I went beneath the Seas).

When I did look into the AAA Site, I found it confusing with regard to MOD installations. With Silent Hunter 4 and some other games, it is very easy to use the simple JSGME application to enable (and disable)selected MODs literally with the click of a button. The enabling/installation of AAA MODs seemed convoluted and there were variations and alternative procedures.

Is there a simple procedure yet, and which MODs would you recommend to start with? I know this is a bit OT for Movie-making, but I trust the folks here to be helpful.

There is a simple (ish) procedure posted at AAA.Best not to talk about it here.Basically once you have installed the 'core' mod,you can pretty much pick and choose what ones you want.

Doolittle check your PMs please.

On the visuals just about every mod is an improvement,
for me the best ones are;

Smoke mod, which gives a much better natural looking smoke column from downed aircraft, although nothing has improved much on the "jaggy" smoke trails from flying aircraft as yet.

Cloud mods, lovely detailed clouds

Cockpit repaints, for whatever is available which is basically Hurricane and all 109's and 190's I think, all excellent and a seperate 109F pit which is superb.


There's a couple of slight negatives strictly from a movie making visual point of view with a couple of mods, one is a brilliant white tracer smoke trail which while historically accurate only highlights the fact that the smoke trails in IL-2 are all wrong, ie dead straight solid rods. And some of the standard movie shots with the smoke mod dont really work, if you set up a static cam near a line of parked aircraft for the old standard strafe shot you cant see a bloody thing just a mass of black smoke, which again is more accurate but from the ground perspective in a movie doesn't really work.

Movies? lol I seem to be spending more time doing skins these days (now that everything is skinnable).

Though it's the prospect of better props that got me started on it.

quote:

Originally posted by JG52Uther:
Doolittle check your PMs please.

Please, JG52Uther, check yours.

Well I've been using the mods since last October and whenever a new one comes out I often think....'this would be great for the movie-makers'

the secondary explosion and smoke from static a/c...
better smoke/fire from vehicles and tanks...
ability to destroy small manned AAA guns on ships and have the resultant fire/smoke...
new flak sounds and smoke puffs....
longer range visibility for smoke/fire...
6DOF...
longer ship sinking times...
new ships/objects/buildings/airfields/maps...
figures raised to heights for manning structures or working on a/c wings etc....
new oil blotch/blood gore/canopy bullet holes...
sounds for flaps/gear/diving/hits/starting/switching-off/starting fire-up flames
reduced tank and take-off dust...
reduced nav lights or off for AI...
put your face in the dinghy/life-raft...

new vehicle/tank/train columns...
new carrier take-offs..

I've been experimenting with some of these listed, and also others I have found.

Have a look at the before and after when you use:

planeshine 1.1
flushys cloud mod 1
vp default mapmods 1.7

vanilla first, modded second:

...of course,

The Malta Map would have been very useful a couple of years ago

Smoke, no need to show how bad the old "Nelson's column" smokestack looked.

Vpmedia's static plane skin mod really makes this sim now, in my humble opinion. Planes on the ground in proper paint schemes. Here's a link to the post I made regarding this on the paint forum.
http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/45410763/m/5011066276

Man! That's so useful.

The amount of effort we had to use in the past to get the right skin on a stationary aircraft in a movie, and all the tricks that were developed to try and do so, and editing and cutting to mask any bloopers.

Remember trying to position an AI aircraft off runway, just to have it crash, or to have all the pilots bail and then disappear, lol!

Still in Beta, but you can get this working now with new textures. It's not an easy process yet, but there will soon be an installer (hopefully!):

More details http://www.simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2579146

I just thought of another one....the ship mod. It provides some modifications of the transports and tankers that are especially useful in movies. ie the HUGE tanker that would be useful as the SS Ohio in an operation Pedastal scenario off Malta.

Some of the damaged and run aground ships could be useful in movies as well.

The damage smoke mod...

I will download the 3rd Eye smoke mod and the new Field textures.

Surely looks amazing. Gotta get back to the world of IL2. Maybe I even try to make small movie.