Merging FE2 with SF2, an experiment.
By
KJakker, in Thirdwire: Strike Fighters 2 Series - Mods & Skinning Discussion
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By VonS
Hi All,
Have been doing a bit of tinkering lately with my FlightGear install (see this thread for more info.) - and results are pleasing enough in what is a free, open-source flight sim. Managed eventually to get accurate photo-scenery working in FG, which is a noticeable improvement over the stock (dated) scenery that has been available in that sim for years on end (see pic. below for photo-scenery at work in FG, in this case in the Mesopotamian/s. Iraqi area; the Alb. D.I is a re-skin and FM-overhaul of a model done by Lester Boffo).
On a hunch, I then converted a bunch of the photo-tiles from FG (stock format is DDS) to BMP format - so that they become visible in the FE2 terrains folder - and it does indeed work - but would require careful, aesthetic choices regarding what tiles to replace in the terrains folder, such as farms, cities, deserts, etc. - for best cohesion and not too many jarring disconnects between tiles.
Nice to see that stock trees and buildings are populating over the satellite/ortho-terrains too, in FE2. Photo-scenery is simply an improved "satellite" carpet that covers the stock scenery and terrain framework in FlightGear - and by extension works the same way in the ThirdWire sims but requires manual conversion to BMP format and manual placement in the terrains folder (perhaps the DDS format would work too, but I didn't bother tinkering with the various settings/text files this time around in the terrains folder).
The other good thing about FlightGear is that it is fully under the GNU GPL (General Public License; i.e., "copy-left" license) - so there are no copyright problems that I know of if one borrows such ortho-scenery for FE2 too (haven't bothered to test with SF2). And if working on such a terrain swap as a personal project - that is of course even simpler.
A few representative pics. below with just a few ortho-scenery tiles placed over Stephen1918's upgrade of the Mesopotamian theater for FE2. Results look pretty good, particularly when flying higher up, and I haven't noticed any FPS drop with the photo-scenery tiles loaded. Some old tiles are still in place in the pics., for comparative purposes. Any empty areas are where I didn't bother to load tiles.
Anyway - I hope you find this post interesting - it's perhaps the "cheapest" way of upgrading tiles across the various theaters available for FE2.
If I find enough free time I might tinker further with this side-project; will post comments if the results prove particularly successful.
Cheers & good flying,
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By JamesWilson
Hi everyone,
I recently got into weapon modding and wanted to edit some missiles.
I went for the Weapons Folder with the Weapons Editor, and some weapons were missing, even tho i can see them and equip them in-game.
I wanted to edit the AA-2D Atoll for my Su-22M3, but there's no AA-2 folder inside Weapons folder, nor inside plane folder, even tho the missile is equippable and i can see it/use it in-game.
Since there's no Atoll folder, i have no idea how is it possible for me to have it in-game, and even less i know on how am i supposed to edit it through Weapons Editor, since i can't select the folder.
I thought it may be a sort of "built-in-game" missile and for this reason not showing in weapons folder (idk i just made an hypothesis).
So i tried using the CAT Extractor, but seems like not working... no matter which CAT file i select, it says "error opening this .CAT file, no files can be extracted", how's that? How do i fix it? Am i doing something wrong?
Thank you in advance for helping me fixing all these issues or helping me find what i'm doing wrong
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By JamesWilson
Hi everyone,
I'm trying to recreate the 1st Gulf of Sidra Incident with my F-14A Tomcats and my Su-22M3 Fitters, doing it extremely historically accurate, paying attention to every little detail.
So far i've done everything, and it's almost identical to the real one, but there's ONE issue i can't figure out, let me explain:
During the morning of the 19th of August 1981 two F-14A Tomcats intercepted two Libyan Su-22M3 Fitters in the Gulf of Sidra.
The Fitters were equipped with two AA-2 "Atoll".
Just before the merge, while nose-to-nose, one of the two Fitters fired a missile to one of the two Tomcats, but being the missile a very old and primitive heatseeker, it started tracked and going for the Tomcat, but as soon as the F-14 made a slight break, the Atoll lost its track.
The PROBLEM IS:
There's no way i can make the Fitters shoot the missiles before merging, if only the AA-2, or any other equippable missile was all-aspect or radar guided just like the R-23, i think it would work.
I tried having a head-on merge with two Mig-23 Floggers equipped with radar guided R-23s and they shot at me before merging.
I tried all other available missiles and nothing changed, some didn't show either.
I tried copying and pasting the Data file from the Aim-7 to the R-60 Data file, and nothing changed.
I tried changing the loadout file to R-23, but the Fitters show up without any weapon since there's no R-23 option in loadout for Su-23M3s, so i think it's not possible to have them (and would be historically inaccurate too).
I tried changing enemy difficulty from Normal to Hard, but nothing changes still.
The only thing the Fitters do is shooting their guns just before the merge, but no missiles are fired when nose-to-nose.
Is there a way to fix this? A way i can make my Fitters fire at least one of their missiles when we're nose-to-nose, just like when i got nose-to-nose against Floggers equipped with R-23s?
Is it a problem with the enemy AI? Or with the missiles? Or maybe even with the Su-22M3 Fitter i'm using?
Thank you very much for helping me
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