Realistic Sky Mod First Eagles
The reason that I got started modding the First Eagles Environemntalsystem.ini file was to:
1. Eliminate/reduce the lower horizon purple band in Clear weather,
2. Eliminate/reduce the lower horizon band in Overcast weather and
3. Eliminate/reduce the lower horizon band and overhead triangles in Inclement weather.
Modifying the clouds to make them more realistic was a byproduct of all the time spent "fixing" the first three items. I have tried to make the clouds as realistic looking as possible and at the proper altitude for each type.
In modifying the first Eagles Environmentalsystem.ini file, I used the same theme as TK used for the horizonclouds and broke out all 5 overhead clouds (versus the default Cloud1 for all weathers) into:
1. Cloud1 = Clear
2. Cloud2 = Scattered
3. Cloud3 = Broken
4. Cloud4 = Overcast
5. Cloud5 = Inclement
First Eagles default horizon clouds use the same method as the included horizonclouds included in this mod:
1. Horizonclouds 11-18 = Clear
2. Horizonclouds 21-28 = Scattered
3. Horizonclouds 31-38 = Broker
4. Horizonclouds 41-48 = Overcast
5. Horizonclouds 51-58 = Inclement
This way people can mix and match their particular horizon & overhead clouds (that other people have made) to their hearts desire and still have the original 3 fixes I did for the Clear, Overcast & Inclement weather.
Unfortunately due to internal FE game engine restrictions, I am not able to completely eliminate the Clear lower horizon band and can only transfer the lower horizon bands for Overcast and Inclement weather to above the clouds where you can still see the triangles above the Inclement clouds if you chose to fly above these clouds. From what I have read, without an artificial horizon in WW1 planes, not many pilots flew into/above thick Overcast or Inclement clouds because they could lose their orientation very quickly and did not want to subject their wood and canvas planes to all the turbulence within these clouds either.
I would like to give Marcel "Cellinsky" Aerni the biggest credit for starting me on this path of modding the sky, I have always admired all his great work in his “Widesky” mods. I have also included his Clear, Scattered, Overcast and Inclement Horizonclouds since they are very realistic and blend well with the FE’s horizon fog, as well as give credit to Polak for his Broken Horizonclouds; they really look like a front is coming through. I also give credit to Cellinsky and ShrikeHawk for their Cloud.tgas, they definitely improved the overhead clouds look.
Installation:
The easiest way to install this mod (other than using the great JoneSoftGenericModEnabler tool http://www.users.on.net/~jscones/software/...ucts-jsgme.html ), is to copy your “Flight” folder and rename it “Flight1”, then unzip all the included files into your original “Flight” folder.
Inclement weather will rain 100% of the time with the standard “particlesystem.ini”, but I can give no guarantees if you are using a modified “particlesystem.ini” file.
TallyHo;
Panama Red
It seems that I inadvertently removed the QHuts from the types ini.
Also, the Ashqelon fuel dump was too far inland.
This pak will fix that...it's the
Palestine_targets.ini
and
Palestine_types.ini
A couple of destroyed effects, in the types ini, have also been 'repaired' (ie: spelling eroor)
Just unzip to a temp folder, your desktop or directly to the /Palestine terrain folder. Allow for the overwrite.
My sincere apologies for this mistake!!!
(no screenie included)
Wrench
kevin stein
The game looks a bit dark at times. There is no way to change the gama settings. So I have lightened all the terrain files. Not by much but on my system it sure did make a difference.
Extract the files from the wwiVerdun.zip to the following path C:Program FilesThirdWireWWITerrainwwiVerdun
If you don’t like these files just delete them.
This is new 250x250km terrain for First Eagles, covering area of, well, the Strait of Gibraltar.
Named a beta, it has everything needed for some quick action, or maybe even a campaign if someone would be so kind to make one.
Included are several cities, some with port facilities, few scattered army camps, about a dozen aerodromes for both sides, new high resolution tileset, and some additional new objects.
Read the readme about additional info.
Requires Iron Duke by Hinchinbrook.
This is a modification of the summer terrain by Firecage, posted with his kind permission. The color scheme is warmer and is reminiscent of the old Flying Corps Gold terrain.
Many thanks to Firecage for the original summer terrain and his support and suggestions on this project.
Flanders Seasonal Coastal Tiles
This is a small add-on to previous third-party terrain packs, providing a set of new seasonal coastal tiles to allow the user to enjoy Stary's seasonal tiles with Edward's Flanders terrain. Installation is a simple 5-stage process, just follow the steps set out in the ReadMe file.
My part in this pack has been only to build upon other people's excellent preceding work. Major acknowledgements are due to Edward for filling an important gap by bringing us his comprehensive Flanders front in the first place, and to Stary for his wonderful seasonal upgrade which has brought a new dimension to First Eagles.
Serious personal acknowledgements go to B Bandy RFC and NathanKell for all of their advice, encouragement and coaching through the challenges of first-time tile editing. Thanks chaps, it was a long haul but you never let me give up!
Any errors or omissions are of course mine and nobody else's (though if someone can figure out a way of extending Stary's new-style buildings and trees onto the coastal terrain that would be great).
Mike
Test TERRAIN
=================
Test terrain is made for First Eagles.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
INSTALLATION
1.) unzip all files into your WWI/Terrain folder
Thats it.
***************************************
Test terrain is made for guys who want to test their new made planes under easy conditions.
You can fly all missions over test terrain, including offensive and devensive patrols, balloon defending, balloon busting, recon, army cooperation and truck hunting.
It contains only 2 airfields and to target areas with one balloon each.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Test terrain Beta is freeware.
If you find bugs please post them in StrikeFighters section of SimHQ.com forum or Combatace.com forum.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Hope you enjoy it.
Michael (Gepard)
Alternatice Solid Objects Alpha settings for First Eagles seasonal Tiles by Jan Tuma
-------------------------------------------
A) Original setting: BLEND_DST_ALPHA
B) New alternative: BLEND_SRC_ALPHA
Installation: Copy new filles in Terrain directory
Have fun, again watch that Hun in the sun!
Jan Tuma
http://www.tuma.tenzor.cz
See the post on the FE forum for more detail...
To install these BETA summer season town tiles into Jan Tuma's existing install:
Unzip and back up your ...\terrain\seasonal\early summer folder
(the tiles may work in the spring season and others, I have not tried yet...)
Drag these .bmp and .tga files into the active sim folder and replace old tiles.
Fly in July!
If 1024 x 1024 size is too intensive for your system,
resize in a photoediting program to 512 x 512 such as Gimp (shareware that mimicks Photoshop).
As mentioned on forum, I plan to tweak colours for each season as time permits,
but am willing to share the Photoshop files should someone be willing to help.
Cheers!
Read Me for First Eagles Spring, Summer, and Fall modded town and water tiles by Bandy.
These tiles only go with Jan Tuma's seasonal terrain tiles mod.
As the title says, these are only for Spring, Summer, and Fall;
winter is a work in progress.
Many thanks go to Jan Tuma for creating his FE seasonal town tiles that,
to me at least, have made a huge difference in the feel of the sim.
Thanks to TK and friends, and all 3rd party modders who make this a great community.
The town tiles are 1024 x 1024 in order to improve certain textures.
All other non-town tiles in this mod are 512 x 512. Resize as you require.
The water tiles replace the "turquoise" shaded water with a darker blue-gray.
If you like turquoise, then let me know and I will render a version with that colour.
I noticed a long time ago that one of the Flanders Town.tod files was mislabelled; a
replacement is provided.
To Install:
1) Back up your terrain folder.
2) Unzip this download and drag the corresponding folders into the
/Terrain/seasonal_tiles folder, and the /Terrain/Flanders folder
overwriting the files when prompted.
3) Fly!
Caveats:
I could not extensively test these tiles in all seasons and all terrains, I simply do
not have that much free time, so please post any errors or tweaks you think are required.
Some trees and buildings do funky things at the tile margins; short story, this is unavoidable.
I would like to have shifted the "statues" or monuments in some of the town squares,
but did not. If you can do this, that would be sincerely appreciated.
Dog fighting over towns is really enjoyable!
WW1 Palestine Terrain For First Eagles 2
This is a modification of my WW2 modificaton of Gepard's modern "Suez" terrain, backdated (once again!) for use in WW1 with the approximate timeframe of 1914-1918. It is designed ONLY for FE2, as it takes advantage of the DX10 shaders and such. It may be possible to use in FE/FEG, but this has NOT been tested, and is NOT reccomended. Without some editing to the terrain's data ini (as it's been updated to NextGen standards), it will most likely 'have issues'. Those VERY familiar with terrain ini editing are welcomed to try; you can, however, expect NO support from me. You're on your own...
This terrain REQUIRES the Desert terrain cat (or equlivant) to be present in your FE2 core install's /Terrains folder. -IT WILL NOT WORK WITHOUT IT!!- It has been tested with both the 1stGen SF Desert and extensivelly with SF2's Desert cat. You MUST have either SF or SF2 to copy the Desert terrain cat to you FE2 install. More details are in the "To Install" and "Selecting the Proper Terrain Cat" sections.
The targets and types inis have been extensively edited for to (hopefully) remove most of the 1940s-era items, and all the airfields have been replaced with stock WW1 types. The game-generated parking slots have also been edited to increase the number of parked aircraft (Unlimited Ground Objects setting only). While not a perfectly historical map some 'suspension of disbelief' will be required for play. As is true with all games...
There are several Ground_Attack routes for Army Co-Operation missions, as well as plenty for truck routes for Armed Recons. If shipping ever gets turned back on in First Eagles, there are shipping routes as well. However, there ARE several docked ships, and some 'convoy stations' for Strike missions (again, with these ittybitty bombs, don't expect to sink Naval vessels). Campaign builders, feel free to make whatever changes necessary to fix any an all errors I've created <grin>. Unlike my WW2 mods, I didn't research this one as intensely.
New planning maps have been generated, but these are 'plain', with no cities or aerodromes shown; just the land and sea.
Several new(ish) GroundObjects are included (ships for the most part), and several new guns for said ships, as well as 2 modified data inis for Geo's French 75 and German 77 mm artillery guns. Yes, they DO work! Weither they hit anything or not.....<grin>. It is also HIGHLY suggested you wander over to Geo's site and get the original WW1 objects, as they'll be needed here. Link is below
Geo's WW1 Ground Object Paks available at his site:
http://www.geos-aircraft.com/
You might also want any other ground objects that are available, such as infantry or whathaveyous.
As always, it's reccomended you unzip this to a temp folder somewhere's thats easy to find. This will give you access to the rest of the readme for full, detailed install instructions.
Follow these instructions herein =EXACTLY= and you should have no problems. It's HIGHLY reccomended you READ this document completly through before installing this mod. As always, there's the usual "Notes" section for notes, explinations, clarifications and demystificatons.
Good Hunting!
Wrench
Kevin Stein
The game looks a bit dark at times. There is no way to change the gama settings. So I have lightened all the terrain files. Not by much but on my system it sure did make a difference.
This is new 250x250km terrain for First Eagles, covering area of, well, the Strait of Gibraltar.
This is a modification of the summer terrain by Firecage, posted with his kind permission. The color scheme is warmer and is reminiscent of the old Flying Corps Gold terrain.
Test TERRAIN
Alternatice Solid Objects Alpha settings for First Eagles seasonal Tiles by Jan Tuma
See the post on the FE forum for more detail...