This mod aims to replace or improve textures in game with new high resolution work while retaining the original feeling and color palette of the game. Characters in game will be given much higher variety of uniforms, equipment and decals which will allow for much deeper experience for those who want to revisit the game or play it for the first time after long time. The textures are redone using original ones as base whenever possible (most are still nice and have at least basic realism) to retain original design, but all textures are upscaled to twice (or more) of original resolution, sharpened, and have decals either redrawn, or replaced with as much reverence to realism as possible. In effect the skins are extra realistic, but also don't look out of place - everything is done as to not ruin the original scene background and color palette that has been developed specially for SPR and MoHAA.
The infamous nazi machine of terror and death had many parts, and while the Gestapo was not exactly the main or biggest one, it is the most known of them, with the name taking on a role of proprietary eponym to cover similar nazi security organizations like SD, SiPo and others. Differentiating between them is topic for others, as thankfully today their only role is to provide enjoyment of dispatching them in game, with extra satisfaction due to having full certainty that they definitely deserved it.
In game you meet Gestapo as security forces in non-combat or civilian areas of France and Germany. The player meets them as security in mission 6 "Communications blackout" in german town, and also in mission 4 "Rescuing the G3" where they detain the downed pilot (which is also a reference to 1999 MoH game, where Gestapo were main enemies in that area). Although later devs weren't sure what else to do, and they reused same model to add them as high-ranking Waffen SS officers in "Papers Chase" mission... Hopefully that will be possible to change via .bsp hex edit, and proper models of Waffen SS will be added for that.
Since that model isn't supposed to be based on any historical data, I kept them in original semi-realistic setup. They will be in game in two variants, Gestapo guards on patrols outside have leather coats and civilian suits (left), and the SD officers in HQs have black SS gabardine coats (right).
Also, you can't exactly see it on the screen since it's from a distance, but thanks to Soares93, who taught me how to edit 3D models in MoH, I now fixed the models of headgear like these officer hats - in vanilla models the texture was mirrored at central point of hat's front, which meant that adding non-symmetrical decals like the SS Totenkopf/Death Head insignia was impossible. Now that is fixed and all headgear will have proper decals.
Well, generally overall, these skins look good. However, there are some significant mistakes made with them!
1) Shoulder straps - they are not correct in this case, besides, there are should be only one shoulder strap on the black uniform.
2) "SD-hauptamt" sleeve ribbon was been worn only by employees of the main department of SD before the war, the ribbon shold be just plain black without any inscriptions.
3) The Diamond like SD sleeve patch is missing, it should be on the sleeve of the overcoat just over plain black sleeve ribbon.
4) Rank is too high for a rather common enemy. (Standartenführer is equal to Army Colonel)
Good catch, thanks! I based this on earlier Waffen coat which had two and forgot to change it.
The cuff title I catched recently, so it's done.
The diamond I wasn't sure if they were added on officers' overcoats so I didn't add it then, I couldn't find actual example of gabardine overcoat for SD and not other branches. I'll add it now and will try to find some proper example of that actual coat.
As for 4, that's why they're not common enemy :) they're only in one mission where you sneak into high command meet (m4l3, Paper Chase), and in the Spearhead mission in Berlin Chancellery. Their role in other missions will be taken by lower ranking officers. For other common enemies there's nothing higher than hauptmann/obersturmfuhrer. Also this will be a point of rework too, as some missions will be further reworked to introduce proper ranks of enemies, as to actually make sense in units (including aforementioned HQ mission, where I want to add officers of proper units takin place there).