A correction
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Around early to mid 1998, the SPCAMO Workshop was born almost by accident.
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Close..... but not quite.
The very first steps that became SP2WW2 started in early January 1998. The discussions with Piero occurred as the result of PBEM games we played in late 1997 but for sure the first steps toward SP2WW2 began very,
very close to exactly a quarter century ago today
Those steps were the investigation of how the unit icon numbers corresponded to their location in the SHP files and if anyone has ever looked at how those SP2 SHP files looked like will understand how much "fun" that was.
It was that work that led to the SP2 Icons being camo'd. As I figured out the correlation between the Icon number and their locations in the SHP files using Fred Chalands SHPEDIT the existing modern SSI icons were redone and their locations recorded so that they could be replaced with WW2 icons for what would become SP2WW2. The icon locations had to be mapped first otherwise the entire project would not have happened.
A side benefit of the SP2 Icon project was learning how the 256 colour game palette interacted to get the effects I wanted on the icons for the main project that was SP2WW2 though over time MUCH has changed from the early days and some of that comes from modifying the main game palette
Without SHPEDIT there would have been NO SP mods by
anyone. It was the KEY program that allowed all of what has transpired in the last 25 years to happen.
By Mid 1998 the mapping had been done and Andy was convinced to contribute his knowledge of OOB's and how the OOB's were put together using the program he developed to edit OOB's..... MOBHACK. Which is the second key component that allowed SP modding
And strange as it may sound it was the first "original" Icon I built that got him interested and that was a lowly Horse and wagon that another member of the early team had sent to him as an example. That Icon still exists (#304) and was the only wagon icon for about the first 5 years and has largely been replaced but is still used unchanged in 10 of the SPww2 OOBs. There is a slightly modified version of that icon is in MBT as 859 which just had some cargo added.