can't get Flyable RE8 to show up

[hurricane3 2]

I tried adding this post to the other RE8 topic but got no reply, I downloaded the Flyable RE8 and it shows in Windows Explorer aircraft list but not in game. I backed up the oridginal ,but would like to have a flyable RE8, what am I doing wrong?

[33LIMA 972]

Sorry to hear you are having diffs.

 

I'm getting called to dinner, will come back to you later this evening!

[hurricane3 2]

OK ,thanks ,meanwhile I'll keep trying and let you know if I have any luck.

[33LIMA 972]

I've been able to reproduce the problem. Not sure what is causing it but there is an issue with the RE8.ini file.

 

I have produced a new version of this which seems to work in FE1 and added this to the mod. I tried to upload just the replacement .ini file to this post but it won't let me upload that type of file. So I'm just gonna upload a compete update to the mod over in the downloads section, with an extra RE8.ini file for FE1 users for whom the plane doesn't show up, along with some extra instructions in the readme. Basically, the extra file is FE1-RE8.ini; you delete the file Objects/Aircraft/RE8/RE8.ini, replace it with FE1-RE8.ini, then rename the latter to RE8.ini.

 

Strange that it worked for me originally and for Stephen. What I saw in re-testing was that the original file looked ok in Wordpad but after running in FE1 and the RE8 not showing up, looking at it in Wordpad again the file had been corrupted; it was like FE was corrupting it when it tried to read it. Making it read-only stopped the corruption but still the RE8 did not show. Hence this new file version. I would upload separate versions for FE1 and FE2 but it seems some FE1 users don't have the problem - weird.

 

Sorry about the problem - I would be most grateful if you could let me know if the new update works, so I know if it's ok. It might take a while before the updated mod is cleared by the forum moderators, thanks for your patience.

[hurricane3 2]

Don't see anything yet,will it be in the objects mods section ,or as I see the RE8 is gone from the aircraft section ,be there as a new plane? By the way I'am making another post to the moderators that the instant email notifications don't work.

[33LIMA 972]

The updated mod will show up in the same section, under FE add-on planes, just as the original did, but as 'Version 1.1' and with a new changelog section under the 'description'. I can see it now, but it's sort of 'greyed out' (in pink!), I think others won't be able to see it at all till the new upload is approved by the mods.

 

The strange thing is that while in FE2 the sim locks up if I click 'Loadout' before a flight, the loadout screen in FE1 seems to work ok, letting me choose either 25lb or 112lb bombs (tho the plane can barely take off with these and is a sluggish climber even without them)'. Edit - this is a bug in my FE2 install, loadouts aren't working at the moment for anything!

 

I find that many add-on planes seem to fly very sluggishly in 'Hard' FM - which I use - but fly just fine in 'Normal', with their documentation describing them as 'optimised' for the Normal FM. The latter is I think the default FM for AI so it may be that any AI plane made flyable like the RE8 is best flown with the 'Normal' FM, unless its FM is modded to enable the 'Hard' to work, too.

 

If that turns out to be the case, I will have to see about an FM mod for the RE8 as I really prefer the Hard FM. In the meantime, the RE may need to be flown in Normal FM. I'm working on a mod to add the RE8 to the Bloody April add-on campaign, flying with 59 Squadron out of St Omer, possibly with a skin in squadron markings, so i will definitely want to have a Hard FM working for that.

Edited November 4, 2011 by 33LIMA

[+ojcar 157]

Errr....sorry to say, Lima, but the RE8 has been flyable for years (only difference using SPAD cockpit). Search in download section for Peter01 FMs and you'll have a perfectly flyable RE8 in hard FM (among many others (more of a hundred FMs really). Don't be surprised for the slugginess of the FM though. RE8s were stable, underpowered and unmaneouverable planes in RL

[hurricane3 2]

I'll wait for Lima's RE8 because I think the SE5A panel is more representitive of the real RE8. But thanks for the info Ojar

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

I'll wait for Lima's RE8 because I think the SE5A panel is more representitive of the real RE8. But thanks for the info Ojar

 

I took 33Lima's original RE8.ini file and copied and pasted the whole thing into a new Notepad document and that worked fine. I also had to copy the skins and Decal.ini from the original (First Eagles version) RE8 folder into 33Lima's RE8 folder. Everything worked fine in FE Gold after that.

 

 

I wasn't aware of Peter01's version, but I'm still flying in "Easy" mode all the time anyway.

Edited November 4, 2011 by Stephen1918

[33LIMA 972]

Errr....sorry to say, Lima, but the RE8 has been flyable for years (only difference using SPAD cockpit). Search in download section for Peter01 FMs and you'll have a perfectly flyable RE8 in hard FM (among many others (more of a hundred FMs really). Don't be surprised for the slugginess of the FM though. RE8s were stable, underpowered and unmaneouverable planes in RL

 

That's good to know, Ojcar, thanks for the tip. The fact that Peter's mod includes cockpits to make make AI planes flyable is buried in the download's readme, which si unfortunate. I think I will apply Peter's FMs to all the older add-on planes as they nearly all seem to have Normal-only FMs which fly badly in Hard mode.

[+ojcar 157]

You can combine Peter FM and your cockpit and have the both of both worlds!!!

[33LIMA 972]

I will certainly give that a try. At the monent I'm exploring campaign and terrain files to determine how to add a new plane to an existing campaign, will also check out the other TW forums where this this probably already covered somewhere.

[hurricane3 2]

It worked! I just redownloaded the updated flyable RE8 , deleted the RE8 .ini , renamed the FE RE8 ini and the plane now shows up in game. In hard mode the plane is almost impossable to get off the ground for two reasons,one when you give it throttle it banks sharply to the left which might be caused by tourge,P-factor etc.( I know I spelled tourge wrong,sorry). It also doesn't get up to speed before your in the trees ,so you better have crash detection turned off.

In easy mode it doesn't do this,just kind of pops right up, and doesn't lean left.

I can live with these things ,thankyou for a beautiful model and all your hard work.

[33LIMA 972]

Glad you got it working, the stock FE RE8 is such a nicely-modelled plane it's shame it's not flyable out-of-the-box. With care I can get airborne in FE1, managed it with a couple of 112lb bombs but it's as you say, and if you throttle up slowly to reduce the torque, you need an even longer take-off run. There's a bomber airfield mod available I think, which might suit the RE8 (and other flyable 2-seaters) better. She was on the verge of stalling as I climbed out too, gaining height really slowly and at under 60mph. Will try the Hard FM Ojcar mentioned.

 

What I would like to do is make an RE8 campaign mod which adds a flyable Harry Tate to the Bloody April campaign and also the stock Cambrai and Op Michael campaigns. From what I can see, the First Eagles campaign mission types which you can assign to each plane, enable you to limit 2-seaters to recce and bombing missions and to cut out balloon-busting and other fighter missions. With Stephen's new planes, there are now quite a few 2-seaters that are not in any of the stock or add-on campaigns, that could now be added to them as both AI and flyable planes. So there seem to be opportunities to expand FE into more 2-seater work, as is already available in OFF and RoF. I wonder if anyone else is working on this.

 

PS added some screenies of my first mission to the Gallery:

 

 

Edited November 5, 2011 by 33LIMA

[+ojcar 157]

Well, it can be done. Now I'm doing THE ENTIRE AIRWAR from August 1915 until the end in mini-campaigns of a month-10 missions. All squadrons flyable..... A f***ing lot of work, using the Cambrai, Verdun, Vogesen (and again Vogesen as Italy), but when it's done, I'll have the best substitute for good ol' RedBaron 3D.....

 

Unfurtunately there are a lot of placeholders that I'm using, and mods over other people mods, etc, (and, of course, updating when a new aircraft is available) so I don't think it can be posted, but it's more or less easy edit campaigns with a little practice.

 

So, if someone wants help in making campaigns, I can help (useful for more or less good order of battle and planeset, as I'm using the Western Front patch from Red Baron 3D as a template for Fatnce and another very old mod for RB3D for Italy). I'm not good in ground war, so in ground the troops are making the same battle on and on, but it works well in the air. The historical airfield names doesn't match either, so I'm placing units randomly, but in the correct map in the correct month (well, sort of, I'm not an expert).

 

Until now I have finished the Italian Front (lacking a lot of planes, using a lot of placeholders) and I'm in September 1917 in Cambrai map. As I said, a lot of work...

[33LIMA 972]

Now that sounds very interesting. It would be the First Eagles Ultimate Edition!

 

This would be too good to be just for one person! I wonder if it would be possible to upload it, by a combination of getting the permission of the original authors to incorporate or modify their work, and where not available, telling people what other things they also need to download.

 

I don't have much experience of this sort of thing but if I can help in any way, let me know....many hands make light work!

 

In the meantime, I would be very grateful if can you tell me:

 

1. where are the _ DATA.INI files, and the .TXT files, for the stock campaigns? I can find only the basic [campaign].ini for Cambrai, Op Michael etc.. The user-made Bloody April campaign has what seems to be a full set of files and there, I can see the two main files, [campaign].ini and [campaign]_data.ini plus all the various squadron and start/end .txt files, and see how they are used. But I can't find the _DATA file or these text files for the STOCK campaigns; there does not seem to be a .cat file for campaigns to hold this sort of thing. Where can they be?

 

2. Where do I find a list of available airfields, to which I can assign squadrons in the [campaign]_data.ini file? I think all the available airfields must be listed somewhere in the terrain file - it looks like it is the [terrain]_targets.ini file - is that right?

 

TIA!

[+ojcar 157]

Well, you are right. The airfields are in the [terrain]_targets.ini . About the files, the only really needed are the campaign.ini and the campaign_data.ini. All other can be created through notepad and some editing of the campaign.ini file.

I don't remember where are the Verdun stock campaigns, but i have all of them extracted and moddified adding a lot of planes. Not added new flyable squadrons nor the DH5, but here are they. Enjoy!!!

Stockmodded.zip

[+ojcar 157]

...And a nice surprise (I think there are only the normal available modded planes in this one, not tested yet). If you need something tell me. Also sorry for the rather silly text in Spanish (not deffinitive version).

FlandersFront22.zip

[33LIMA 972]

Wow! Muchas gracias Ojcar! I am off to try out these files now!!!

[+ojcar 157]

Sorry! I wanted to send this one! FlandersFront22 has two not public available planes....

 

And I forgot to say you must have installed the Capt Vengeur medals pack (including the Belgian one) to make this work, because it has a moddified Nations.ini with RAF (RFC) and RNAS as separate nations.

FlandersFront21.zip

Edited November 5, 2011 by ojcar

[33LIMA 972]

Help please!

 

In FEG, after loading the 4 modded campaigns and the flanders one, none show up in the campain list on the 'Create a Campaign' screen. The only one that does show up is the add-on Bloody April campaign, which I had installed previously - it's still there. The modded campaign and flanders campaign files and folders are all there, present and correct, in Windows Explorer. But none show up in game. When I restore the stock campaignss, all is well again. The only thing I can think of, is that the Bloody April campaign came with a special squadronlist.ini file, said to have all all the stock squadrons/planes plus those needed for the Bloody April campaign. For your campaigns, do I need to delete the Bloody April squadronlist.ini (and allow the stock one in the .cat file to be used again)? Or do I need a special squadronlist.ini, for your modded campaigns?

 

In FE2 (where I also have the Bloody April Campaign installed) the problem is a bit different. flanders22 shows up in the campaign list and works (apart from those missing planes) but while the stock campaigns DO display, there is something strange, they seem not stock but don't have all the planes in your modded campaigns. Again, I winder if the squadronlist.ini file from the Bloody April campaign might be the source of that problem, too.

 

I'll try deleting the Bloody April squadronlist.ini to see if that works - maybe you can confirm if your campaigns need a special squadronlist.ini?

 

EDIT - tried deleting the Bloody April squadronlist.ini (so that the game would default back to the ones in the Missiondata.cat files) but the problem is the same; so i think perhaps your campaigns may need a special squadronlist.ini? Or I have done something strange!

Edited November 5, 2011 by 33LIMA

[+ojcar 157]

I think you shouldn't delete anything.

 

I'm using the campaigns in FE2. For FEG, you should open the files and save them as ANSI files (they are saved as Unicode, that FEG can't read)

 

The modded stock campaigns are different. They have the same flyable squadrons that the stock ones, so the same flyable planes. All the modded planes (DH-4, Bristol, Pfalz, etc) are included in the not flyable units, so you'll encounter them as a friend or foes. Making some flyable is very easy if you look at my Flanders campaign. The modded stock campaigns were only a quick fix to have spiced up stock campaigns.

 

If you need any thing, please, PM.

[33LIMA 972]

That's fantastic - saving the campaign files as ascii worked a treat in FEG. I had no idea FE1/G was sensitive to the file format in that way! Have just had a quick try-out in the RE in the Flanders21 campaign - there aare still a couple of RFC squadrons with no planes, maybe ones I haven't got installed, will check that out. Will also have to see about getting them all working in FE2; nt sure if I have a problem there, or not.

 

This is brilliant - FE campaigns updated with new planes and AI flyables! You should definitely upload them!

 

Many thanks for sharing these!

[+ojcar 157]

Maybe when finished all of them.....And make a list of links and files needed. The problem is I don't remember where I have get some of them!

 

As I said, a lot of work. Until now I have done 23 campaigns for Italy (much more work needed) and 25 Flanders campaigns. At the moment no Verdun nor Vogesen campaigns.