SF2 Exp2 UPDATE Jan2011

[+Crusader 2,066]

http://thirdwire.com/downloads.htm

 

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Strike Fighters 2 Expansion Pack 2 Jan 2011

Readme File

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Table of Contents

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1. Update Notes

2. Troubleshooting

3. Contacting Customer Support

 

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1. Update Notes

---------------

 

This update is for Strike Fighters 2 Europe with the Expansion

Pack 2 installed, either stand-alone or merged to other Strike

Fighters 2 games.

 

This update contains all the fixes from previous updates, and

it can be applied to any version of the game. Earlier updates

do not need to be applied.

 

If you have installed any mods to the game, please check the

ChangeList.txt for a list of updated files. If any data files

you've extracted have been changed, you must manually delete

and/or updated these files, or the patched game may not run

correctly.

 

Previous campaign saved data may not load after an upgrade.

 

List of changes in this Update include:

 

Jan 2011

--------

 

* The carrier landing waypoints on in-flight map is updated to

keep up with the moving carrier.

 

* Waypoints on in-flight map sometimes not getting updated correctly

when mission is accomplished is fixed.

 

* Early Lightings are made more stable.

 

* Bump and specular maps for more aircraft are included.

 

* Campaign weather is made to change more often.

 

* Starting on Airfield option now works correctly.

 

--

[dsawan 613]

Kool. Finally a fix for the airfield thingy

[+FLOGGER23 2,834]

Arrived just on time!!! got to make it to work, hope it fixes my unability to see jpg pics...

Edited January 22, 2011 by FLOGGER23

[+Dave 2,319]

14 different installs, all patched with all the extras taken out for each type install i.e. Korea, OTC, NF4+, total time 32 minutes. Its that easy folks with the way he set this up for Win7. So much easier than before to do the patch dance.

[+FLOGGER23 2,834]

14 different installs, all patched with all the extras taken out for each type install i.e. Korea, OTC, NF4+, total time 32 minutes. Its that easy folks with the way he set this up for Win7. So much easier than before to do the patch dance.

 

Totally agree!!!

[Guest 97texan]

I totally approve of this thread topic.

Edited January 23, 2011 by 97texan

[tn_prvteye 36]

For those that are curious, the offending file is MISSIONCONTROL.INI. I had a modded version and was still getting the "air start" bug. I deleted my version and all is well. I think the entry that matters is:

 

TakeOffTime=25

 

That's the only difference I noted.

[+SidDogg 130]

...will it work for SF2 with same features?

[Gr.Viper 131]

The stability difference between early and late Lightning is still noticeable. Patch notes almost had me scared there.

[+Dave 2,319]

Patch is working really good here. Weather bug seems to be cured. I got some of my missing effects back.

[+paulopanz 2,853]

At last ... we can take off!

 

Paul

[Gr.Viper 131]

Patch is working really good here.

Taking up almost 100MB it'd better be!

[+Spillone104 553]

Is the "Bermuda triangle" at waypoint 8 for the AI planes got solved?

[FrankD 7]

For those that are curious, the offending file is MISSIONCONTROL.INI. I had a modded version and was still getting the "air start" bug. I deleted my version and all is well. I think the entry that matters is:

 

TakeOffTime=25

 

That's the only difference I noted.

 

that entry was already there after the Dec C patch, as far as I can tell.

 

 

 

[+Piecemeal 450]

I'll be interested to know of this patch has fixed the effects woes I've been having since I installed Exp2. Buildings, warehouses, fuel tanks etc. are just being replaced by the destroyed model when they're destroyed instead of erupting in a ball of flame and shrapnel.

[snakeman 1]

Yep fixed take-off Great. Not sure if I am missing something but can't get a second flight to take-off from airfield keep starting in the air, and can't edit waypoint one. Any ideas ? Thanks.

[+Dave 2,319]

You could never edit waypoint one as that is the intial take off waypoint. Same thing with the final landing way point. Also that 2nd flight could never be made to take off from the one you took off from that. I am thinking its a design feature and not a bug.

[tn_prvteye 36]

that entry was already there after the Dec C patch, as far as I can tell.

 

Hmmm...not sure which entry it was then. I extracted the new INI from the CAT and made the changes (flight altitude) and it still worked. Must be something I missed. Oh well, doesn't matter....it works.

[+Spectre_USA 7]

Is the "Bermuda triangle" at waypoint 8 for the AI planes got solved?

 

This is a good question.

 

I never did install the last patch, should I install it, then this one?

 

Or will this one cover the whole gamut?

[dsawan 613]

This jan patch covers all. No need to get the prev one.

Edited January 23, 2011 by dsawan

[Spinners 15,972]

Am I seeing things or is there more detail on the Phantom (F-4E_72 to be precise) around the nozzle area including the ducts immediately above the nozzles? This can't be bump mapping as I'm seeing it on one of my own pre-patch skins.

 

Anyway, installation was a doddle and the short amount of time I've had on it has revealed no problems.

 

Wreckermended!

[FastCargo 412]

Guys, check this out...TK has made a new exporter and has added SEVERAL new features:

 

MATERIAL

========

 

You can now also assign Bump (Normal) Map and Specular Map in material editor, and they can be exported and used by the game engine.

 

Bump Map

--------

 

To add Bump Map, check the box next to "Bump", select "Bitmap" as Map type, and then select the texture map you want. Only the texture map name is exported, and none of the other Bitmap parameters are used.

 

The texture map used in the game must be converted to RGB Normal Map format (you can find tools to convert B&W bump map to RGB Normal map on various game development sites, for example, on nVidia website http://developer.nvidia.com/object/photoshop_dds_plugins.html )

 

Bump maps are applied per model basis - ie, each aircraft model can only have 1 set of Bump maps - and should be included in the aircraft's main folder.

 

Bump Map only works when running the game in DX10 mode.

 

Specular Map

------------

 

To add Specular Map, check the box next to "Specular Color" in Maps, select "Bitmap" as Map type, and then select the texture map you want. Only the texture map name is exported, and none of the other Bitmap parameters are used.

 

The Specular color map (can be any format including .jpg and .bmp) is multiplied with the regular specular setting, set either in the INI file or using Specular Level checkbox, to reduce the amount of specular at each texture position. So white color (255,255,255) has specular as usual, any other color reduces the specular at that pixel, down to no specular with black (0,0,0). The R, B, G amount can be adjusted to shift the specular color as well, so red (255,0,0) pixel will have a red specular, etc.

 

Specular maps are applied per TextureSet basis, and should be included in each of the texture folder.

 

Specular Map only works when running the game in DX10 mode.

 

Effects on the Maximum Number of Decals per Mesh

------------------------------------------------

 

Adding bump map or specular map reduces the max number of decals you can have on each mesh.

 

The maximum number of decals you can have on a mesh without any effect layer is 7 (plus 1 for basic texture, for maximum limit of 8 texture layers).

 

Reflection takes 1 texture layer and subtracts 1 from the limit, reducing the maximum to 6 decal layers.

 

Adding Specular map also subtracts 1 from the limit.

 

Adding Bump map also subtracts 1 from the limit.

 

So a mesh with Reflection, Specular Map, and Bump Map has a maximum of 4 decal layers allowed.

 

 

OBJECT PROPERTIES

=================

 

There are 4 "User Defined Properties" that can be set to better control how the mesh is exported and rendered in the game engine.

 

Right click on a mesh, select Object Properties, and select User Defined tab to edit these properties. The following properties are available:

 

AllowDecals = True/False

CastShadow = True/False

CatchShadow = True/False

UseFlatNormal = True/False

 

AllowDecals

-----------

 

AllowDecals property, when set to False, causes this particular mesh to be exported as if it was using "Export - No Decals" button even when the "Export - Decals" button is used. It has not effect when exporting using "Export - No Decals" button.

 

Exporting using AllowDecals=False causes the vertex to be shared, so it can reduce the size of the .LOD but also causes decals to "bleed" along the edges.

 

CastShadow

----------

 

CastShadow property, when set to True, causes the mesh to cast shadow. By default, this is True for solid mesh, and False for transparent mesh.

 

The shadow is always cast using the mesh geometry, not by transparency on texture.

 

CatchShadow

-----------

 

CatchShadow property, when set to True, causes the mesh to catch shadow and be rendered with shadow on top. If this is set to False, the mesh will not be rendered with shadow on top. By default, this is True for solid mesh, and False for transparent mesh.

 

Transparent meshes cannot CastShadow and CatchShadow at the same time.

 

UseFlatNormal

-------------

 

UseFlatNormal property, when set to True, causes all normal vector of this particular mesh to be a straight up (0,0,1) vector. The default is always False.

 

This property should generally be left False.

 

 

ANIMATION

=========

 

Scaling and vertex manipulation animations are now also supported. When a mesh is animated at vertex level, 10 copies of the mesh are saved out (one for each key frame). This may cause the file size to be excessively large, so it should be used for mesh with small number of vertices.

 

For best result, animation controller should be set to use TCB type controllers. (Later Max versions default to Euler XYZ and Position XYZ). To assign animation controller, select a mesh with animation, go to Animation tab, select Assign Controller, and select "Rotation: Euler XYZ" (or "Position: Position XYZ"), then click on the "?" button right above the edit box, and select "TCB Rotation" (or "TCB Position").

 

If you want to keep the max default setting, you must set the controller type for each of the mesh animated, and for each controller, Rotation and Position. Or you can set default animation controllers to be TCB controllers by hitting the "make Default" button at the bottom of the Assign Controller dialog.

 

 

Some of the highlights include:

 

Specular mapping - You can now use bitmaps or JPGs to determine how 'shiny' something is...it no longer requires it to be hardcoded in the LOD file. This is perfect for aircraft where some versions had shiny paint, others had dull paint, or different parts of the paint job were shiny or dull depending on the user. Plus Julhelm will stop whining about not being able to do it this way...

 

Decal limits...because of these newer parameters, meshes may have more limits on amount of decals...future modelers take note.

 

Vertex animation - Scaling has been supported for a long time (used in nozzles) but now individual manipulation is supported. This is great for flexible things like cloth, drag chutes...and wings. Large aircraft structures can now be made to bend seamlessly verses having very obvious pivots.

 

Time to play...

 

FC

[+Piecemeal 450]

I'll be interested to know of this patch has fixed the effects woes I've been having since I installed Exp2. Buildings, warehouses, fuel tanks etc. are just being replaced by the destroyed model when they're destroyed instead of erupting in a ball of flame and shrapnel.

 

WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!! My effects are back to normal. Now I can enjoy a good picture show again when I blow up buildings and fuel tanks.

 

 

F**king yeahhh!

[Wrench 9,565]

and the propeller problem on my beloved WW2-era birds (read: Korea), and MOST of the smokestack effects. Still got one missing on the 'Schornstein2' I use at various and sundry factories.

 

interestering stuff on the exporter, FC ... looks like many hidden visual improvements.

 

wrench

kevin stein

[+daddyairplanes 8,929]

hi everyone just got back from 1st weekend drill. so if i am reading all this correctly everything is good with this patch? and the info in FC's quote/post about the exporter, is a simpler explaination avail in the knowledge base (Gen1 or 2)? i think it may finally solve my not being able to put friggin squadron/wing patches on the Phantoms intakes to match the other tailcodes.

 

OT a reserve MP unit. what the hell did i get myself into?