First Eagles ScreenshotsThread

[+gterl 1,210]

shameless self promotion

 

[+VonS 1,424]

Accidentally made this shot while testing pilot cigarette smoke. I particularly like the morning and evening atmospherics in FE2.

Von S 

 

[+VonS 1,424]

Preview of things coming up for the ver. 9.7 FM update pack...the Roland D.6a FM has now been overhauled, will also do one for a D.6b (Benz-powered). Siemens-Schuckert D.III also now overhauled, and what an interceptor it is. Will also do an OAW and/or mid-cycle variant of the Fokk. D.VII (since we don't have one and it was the most prevalent of the Fokk. D.VII types, with the 180hp Mercedes au engine...should be around 195-6 kph top speed on that one)...and also will go over the Aviatik (first-generation) and Italian variant that Stephen posted recently, and the Anatra C.1. Ver. 9.7 will also include a newer FM for the Caproni bomber, plus a Halb. D.III variant (FM) of Geezer's Halb. D.V, and other modifications such as of the Longhorn and Shorthorn to reflect more realistic climb rates on those. The Sikorsky S-16 (version 3) and Pomilio FMs I'll leave for a later, ver. 10.0 of the update packs, including some two-seaters that I never got to so far.

Happy flying gents,

Von S 

 

Edited January 26, 2019 by VonS
Added a few more pics - high altitude climb, realistic post-damage effects, and the SSW D.3 leaving contrails.

[+VonS 1,424]

And one more post for this thread regarding the ver. 9.7 update . Have now re-tweaked all of the Fokk. D.7 data inis for more subtle altitude table data numbers and subtler variations for control surfaces, also combed over the Dr.1 variants too and re-did the alt. table numbers, as well as re-touched the control surfaces, also for the Fokk. D.8. Alt. table data numbers are slightly more refined now than previously for the rotaries, with intervals of about 700 instead of the original 900 meters between power drops...should work well for the Oberursels and gives them about 50-60% of total power at their ceilings, as was typical for many WWI engines, rotaries and inlines (no power curves here dropping to zero as for later piston aircraft but more of a stepped decrease until the alt. ceiling is hit). Will take a short break now  before looking over the Aviatik, SAML, and Anatra C.1 - then I have to package everything carefully by folder - hopefully this will all be released by Feb. or March. The packaging is often slower than the modding. Pics below of the OAW Fokk. D.7 and another classic that I need to fly more often since it's so much fun. (The OAW variant is a fine aircraft by the way - it can hold its own although with less power at alts. than the 7f variant...I think Mikael Carlson's D.7 has the 180hp (au) Mercedes typical of the OAW builds.)

Von S 

 

 

Edited January 27, 2019 by VonS
Re-uploaded pics since they didn't save properly.

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

I'm still enjoying Gterl's Italian terrain. I've spent the last two year's pretty exclusively in Galicia; it's refreshing to fly some planes I haven't flown for a while. 

(Emld's Hanriot HD1, my SPAD XI, Laton's Ansaldo SVA5)

Edited February 1, 2019 by Stephen1918

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

I was flying a recon mission in my SPAD XI when I was attacked by a group of HB Star Strutters. I tried to turn under them, where they couldn't bring their guns to bear, but one of them managed to knock out my engine. My gunner got one in the belly as he passed over and he went down. I was able to make it a nearby valley and land, but was behind the Austrian lines.  My wing man got away.

Edited February 1, 2019 by Stephen1918

[+VonS 1,424]

Ver. 9.7 FM update complete, now to package everything and write up the version notes, might take a couple of weeks. Have now combed over the Aviatik C.1, also the latest SAML S.2 (uploaded by Stephen yesterday) - and four different versions of the Aviatik Berg D.1 - an early 160hp variant, two versions of the mid-grade 200 hp variant, and a late 230 hp variant that also served as a test bed for the Berg D.II modification. The 230hp one is lovely...top speed around 210 kph on it. The 185hp variant was largely used for flight testing and has a similar top speed to the 200hp mount so I didn't bother with that one (I think there are enough sub-types now ). Also re-tweaked the Phonix D.IIa and went over the D.II variant as well. Pic. below is of a climbing test of the SAML S.2 - similar flying characteristics to the Aviatik C.1 but much more power and a good climb rate too. Will include a new sound to go with the Fiat engine as well.

Happy flying,

Von S 

 

[+Geezer 3,569]

Been having a good time with 1930's stuff - haven't played with them for nearly a year.  Got a small selection flying in Gterl's new Caporetto map.  Still need to tweak the pilots a bit, but they work pretty well in FE2.

[+LloydNB 212]

2 Mira, Royal Hellenic Air Force 1940

The Breguet 19A2B2 served in the Royal Hellenic Air Force from 1925 to 1940. Initially they carried the names of Greek cities and island but were later given code numbers.  

53 aircraft were purchased, including 12 from Yugoslavia in 1935, but only 18 were still airworthy by the start of the Greco-Italian War. By this stage it filled an observation/army cooperation role with 1 Observation Mira, under I Corp Command, based at Perigiali, near Corinth and with 2 Observation Mira under II Corps command, based at Larissa and Kozani.

I've include both the bmp files and the layered psp files for those of you who want to improve on the skin or make your own.

LloydNB

 

Edited February 20, 2019 by LloydNB

[+Geezer 3,569]

Welcome back!

[+VonS 1,424]

The Eastern front is usually sleepy but occasionally gives some fine skirmishes. Enjoying ver. 3 of Stephen's Galicia terrain below (looks fine even at medium settings in WineSkin on the Mac side and with the improved flight engine ini file installed - pics below are with dx9 only enabled).

Now with the Aviatik C.1 FM modded, I can set up some flights against Be2c and Be12 types...recreating the goodness of the 70s' BBC show "Wings" .

Happy flying,

Von S 

 

[+VonS 1,424]

The Kaiser's birdmen flying home after a short flight....  Thank you FE2 modders for your hard work...FE2 is a treasure-trove of undiscovered things...perhaps soon we'll have some hot-air ballooning too.

Von S

 

[jeanba 1,920]

My first try at the Hanriot :

1 Hansa and 1 DFWC1 shot down !

 

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

Emld's Hanriot is one of my favorite planes to fly. It handles well and it just looks good!

[jeanba 1,920]

21 hours ago, Stephen1918 said:

Emld's Hanriot is one of my favorite planes to fly. It handles well and it just looks good!

I agree, it is a very dangerous plane

 

I would like to repalce it with a Spad7 or Camel, just to see

[+VonS 1,424]

There's a kind of magic to dogfights in FE2 that I think (still) make it one of the best WW1 flight sims out there. Some pics. below, enjoying early war scenarios with ver. 3 of Stephen's Galicia terrain (and ver. 9.7 of my FM pack for FE2).

Happy flying,

Von S 

 

[Eugene2 327]

Now I create new skin for Hannover CL.II/CL.III.
There is screenshot from FE1 and FE2. Why in FE2 so poor quality of lozenges?
Graphic options in FE1 and FE2 exactly the same - "Object details" and "Texture detais" are HIGH.

[+whiteknight06604 934]

5 hours ago, Eugene2 said:

Now I create new skin for Hannover CL.II/CL.III.
There is screenshot from FE1 and FE2. Why in FE2 so poor quality of lozenges?
Graphic options in FE1 and FE2 exactly the same - "Object details" and "Texture detais" are HIGH.

is there an unlimited setting for textures in FE2? I think the FE2 settings are different. 

[Eugene2 327]

Thank You. Yes, unlimited texture setting is excellent.

[+VonS 1,424]

Did some flying again this weekend, first in ROF, but then I ended up spending more time in SF2 and FE2. ROF is definitely a respectable sim with great damage modeling, but I had much more fun in SF2 and FE2. Also the AI is I think noticeably better in the TW sims, particularly in FE2 where, depending on skill, aircraft sometimes disengage and try to head for home, or temporarily disengage and then jump back into the fray.

Von S 

 

[JacksonM 74]

W-wow! So beautiful pics! 

[+VonS 1,424]

On 2019-10-06 at 5:07 AM, JacksonM said:

W-wow! So beautiful pics! 

Thank you Jackson. Fully modded, FE2 is an amazing flight sim and the visuals are great too. I'm flying it again more and more after a small break to do some tweaks for WOFFue. Latest pics. from the Eastern front, an afternoon mission against the rare Pfalz and Fokker Eindecker, and then a lone-wolf mission early in the morning (using the modified mission control and formation ini files from my FM update pack to give lonely and often empty skies, as historical for these obscure theaters). Lone-wolf missions are particularly challenging. I'm thinking of flying a bunch of missions, this time for the Eastern front, using my DiD Rules that I came up with a while back, for even more immersion (https://combatace.com/forums/topic/92423-did-style-single-missions-for-fe2/).

Happy flying,

Von S 

 

Edited October 8, 2019 by VonS
Added pics.

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

Nice action shots. I notice that you have shadows turned off, is there a reason for that?

[+VonS 1,424]

36 minutes ago, Stephen1918 said:

Nice action shots. I notice that you have shadows turned off, is there a reason for that?

Hi Stephen, yes the shadows-off part is a long story.

I have them set to "medium" in SF2 since I installed it directly onto my Mac Pro 2013 (trash can model) in BootCamp - but FE2 I used to run originally on my Mac Mini (2012) with an integrated vid card (Intel HD 4000) where it was a good idea to keep shadows turned off to improve fps. Now that I've transferred FE2 to the Mac Pro too, I'll eventually get to turning on the shadows - but will probably leave shadows at medium settings since they look fine that way.

I just hope I didn't set shadows to false in the general ini files for my 200+ aircraft that I fly in FE2 since that will be a slow process to turn shadows back on.

Also I might leave shadows off for any FE1 era aircraft since, as far as I can tell in SF2, SF1 era aircraft with shadows on sometimes cast a strange, thin, long line to the ground (I think this was addressed somewhere in the SF2 or FE2 threads a while back, that it's actually the pilot's shadow that should be turned off on older aircraft, not the aircraft shadow itself). Will look into it eventually.

Von S

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

I understand. I have also had issues with frame rate. I know a lot of people don't agree with this, but in my installs, I have run most of the skins down to 512 x 512. It took some time, but I got a huge increase in frame rate. When I create a plane, I make the skins at 1024 x 1024, but all of my skins are designed to work well at 512 x 512. Bigger is always better, but when the game slows down too much, one needs to make sacrifices.

The long line to the ground is caused by a problem in the LOD and can only be fixed in 3DS. (For modders - the problem is caused when 2 vertices in same mesh are exactly superimposed, or when 2 faces in a mesh occupy  are overlapping in  the same plane. The problem doesn't show up in 3DS renders, it only shows up in the game.)

Edited October 10, 2019 by Stephen1918