About This File
Welcome To Duty
Built with the extraordinary expertise and dedication of modders from CombatACE.com, Operation Desert Storm – 30th Anniversary Edition promises to be the most complete total conversion ever made for Strike Fighters 2 by ThirdWire.
Fly with more than 50 aircraft ranging from Cold War relics to the most advanced platforms. Gain air superiority in the mighty F-15C Eagle or challenge the Coalition with the agile Fulcrum. Support troops with the A-10A Thunderbolt II, bomb strategic targets with the stealthy F-117A Nighthawk, lead airfield denial operations in the iconic Tornado.
Enjoy a beautifully rendered scenario on a scaled and accurate terrain. Fly over the lakes and rivers of Mesopotamia, the oil-rich fields of Kuwait, the mountains of Iran and Turkey. Take-off from aircraft carriers stationed in the Persian Gulf to watch over Kuwaiti oil rigs. Perform landings and patrols in more than 90 airports and air bases in the Middle East.
Take part in different campaigns including the Iraqi blitzkrieg on Kuwait and the US-led liberation of the Kuwaiti Emirate. Discover how the Iraqi Army was one of the biggest in the world, through the eyes of American, British, Canadian, French, Italian and Arab pilots. Test your skills and abilities flying for the Iraqi Air Force during all stages of the conflict.
Thirty years after, Operation Desert Storm still remains the largest air operation of modern warfare to date. Modders and flight sim enthusiasts at CombatACE teamed up to bring you a unique product in the lite flight sim world. Exquisitely detailed aircraft and paint schemes are delivered in a well-researched and thorough order of battle.
The ODS 30th AE Development team would like to thank CombatACE.com, its admins, moderators and contributors.
We are sure you will enjoy and appreciate this high-quality freeware product. From the aviation enthusiasts, to the aviation enthusiasts... and for the pilots of tomorrow.
Minimum Requirements
Required products from ThirdWire:
- Strike Fighters 2
- Strike Fighters 2: Israel
- Strike Fighters 2: North Atlantic
Full support for:
- Mission Editor DLC
- Campaign Customizer DLC
System specs:
- OS: Windows 7 x86
- Processor: Dual Core 2.7 GHz
- Memory: 4.0 GB RAM
- Hard Drive: 17.0 GB Free Space
- Video Card: 1024 MB DirectX 10
Sneak Peek
Disclaimer
CombatACE.com shall at all times retain ownership of the Software as originally downloaded by you and all subsequent downloads of the Software by you. The Software (and the copyright, and other intellectual property rights of whatever nature in the Software, including any modifications made thereto) are and shall remain the property of CombatACE.com and of the respective developers/modders.
In no event, unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, shall CombatACE.com, or any person be liable for any loss, expense or damage, of any type or nature arising out of the use of, or inability to use this installer or program, including, but not limited to, claims, suits or causes of action involving alleged infringement of copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, or unfair competition.
The Operation Desert Storm: 30th Anniversary Edition modification does NOT comply with CombatACE's Freeware Licensing. Various contents of this modification are exclusive, as such you are NOT allowed to share, redistribute and/or make use of the mod and/or its contents for other purposes, without the consent of the mod's developers. Contents of the modification are the copyright of their respective authors.
Note
Beware, the mod is available only in the ISO format. You can either mount it on a virtual drive, burn it on a DVD like in the good old days, or unzip it with 7-Zip or equivalent software.
The installer should automatically detect your Strike Fighters 2 installation folder. Make sure that the installation path points to your Strike Fighters 2 game folder, not to a custom mod folder. The installer does not allow you to choose a custom mod folder path at this time. The mod folder will be installed automatically in the proper "X:\Users\YourName\Saved Games\ThirdWire\" path, like any other mod folder created by TW's stock Strike Fighters 2 games. After installation is over, simply run the mod by using the created Desktop and/or Start Menu links.
If you have the previous 0.9.0 or 0.9.5 version installed, please use the uninstaller to remove it completely. Clean installation is mandatory for version 0.9.6. You might want to make a backup of the Controls folder, so that you can easily restore your controller settings afterwards.
Suggestions for CTD issues
- Make sure that you are using your dedicated GPU. Strike Fighters 2 usually selects Intel's integrated GPU by default, but that one is not supported by this mod. Don't waste your time installing the mod on office laptops, it won't work.
- Got to Sound and set Sound Channels to 32. We got reports that 16 is not enough and will cause CTDs on some systems, due to the higher quality sounds included within the mod.
- Set Ground Objects to Medium or Low, Horizon Distance to Near, and Shadows to Medium or Low. These are the most troubling settings. Due to high number of aircraft and objects in the campaign, most featuring high number of polygons and 2k resolution textures, your video card can easily go out of memory in heavy load missions. Unlimited should only be selected for Texture and Effects settings, but only if you have a high-end GPU.
- The mod currently includes Mue's terrain shaders which increase distance of TOD trees and buildings. These shaders may require more processing power. We might remove them in future releases, if it may help with performance.
- Pray for TW/TK to work on a 64bit version of Strike Fighters 2, maybe even with support for DirectX 12. With that done, CTD issues would be an old memory.
What's New in Version 0.9.6.1
Released
v0.9.6.1 - January 19th, 2021:
- Recompiled installer with x86 compression, now 32bit systems should be able to execute the installer.
- Added improved ballistic coefficient data increasing accuracy of ground objects' guns, by orsin.
- Added decals to few Iraqi tanks, inspired by a similar mod by Gepard.
- Reworked FlightEngine.ini in order to improve performance and reduce chances of CTD when load is high.
- Reworked skins for the M60A1 and M60A3, removed meaningless distance LOD from the M60A3.
- Reworked small texture details for the F-15C/D cockpit, by orsin.
- Fixed MiG-25PD cockpit 3d model with most dials and switches now working, by orsin.
- Fixed unwanted regression with inner pylons missing on the AV-8B aircraft.
v0.9.6 - December 24th, 2021:
- Added Arabic speech audio files for the Iraqi TACC, made by GKABS.
- Added new MiG-25PD 3d model by Coyote Aerospace, with improved decals and skin.
- Added background sound of a typewriting machine to the Award Screen, by Viper63a.
- Added specific RWR sounds by MGGUY to all F-14s and F/A-18s.
- Added brand new RWR sounds to all Mirage F1 variants, by the Mirage F1 Team.
- Added M-84 main battle tank for Kuwait, created by GKABS.
- Added M109A2 howitzer with specific tweaks for ODS, created by GKABS.
- Added correct IRM rails to the OV-10D, by RustyKurnass with help by dtmdragon.
- Added empty Sidewinder launch rails as requested by RustyKurnass for the AV-8B, by yakarov79.
- Added minor texture bits missing on the F-16Cs, F-111s, RF-4C, F-5E, Iraqi Jet Provost and MiG-29A.
- Added newer version of the A-7E quality skins by yakarov79, including bonus post-war desert camo.
- Added 900804 Tank Buster mission, based on a game generated CAS mission for the Iraqi Su-25K.
- Added TODs to some tiles, replaced bad-looking city TODs with simpler ones from TW's stock terrains.
- Improved Saudi E-3A skin and decals, with few data tweaks and disabled bugged shadows, by Viper63a.
- Improved EF-111A, F-111E and F-111F skin textures, with help by Viper63a.
- Improved AGM-84 textures with correct letters and colours, by Viper63a.
- Improved many gun, AAA and other miscellaneous sounds by guuruu.
- Fixed numerous hitbox and collision point mistakes on almost all aircraft, alongside misc improvements.
- Fixed missing weathering details on the IrAFCamo1 skin for the MiG-23UB.
- Fixed wrongly referenced 2BR rack for the Mirage F1CK-2, as noted by RustyKurnass.
- Fixed fuel probe missing from cockpit view on the A-6E SWIP and EA-6B aircraft.
- Fixed misaligned display crosshair in the A-10A/OA-10A cockpits, by Viper63a.
- Fixed missing and/or wrong data about the BRU-3/A rack for the F-111E, as reported by dtmdragon.
- Fixed wrong position of objects in the Ras al-Qulayah Naval Base target area.
- Updated loadout and miscellaneous data for the P-3C aircraft, by Viper63a.
- Updated F-16A loadout and data to include the GPU-5/A gunpod, by dtmdragon.
- Updated all F-16 skins so that AGM-65 launch rails are properly green, by dtmdragon.
- Updated the included realSKY environment mod to the latest version.
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