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FE2 "Aces Over North Africa" PhotoShop 1024x768 Menu Templates
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Viper63a, in Thirdwire - First Eagles 1&2 File Announcements
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By tiopilotos
Atlas Giraffe fighter aircraft program
By 1984 SADF thought that Cheetah aircraft which was then under develpoment would not be ready to conduct operations on the ongoing border war. Atlas officials estimated that Cheetah will make its first flight sometime in 1985 with possible introduction to service date sometime in 1987 for the Cheetah E. The latter was regarded by many observers as an interim solution before Cheetah C become operational sometime in the early 90s. Cheetah E was actually a Mirage IIIEZ airframe conversion with some upgrades applied. It was fitted with a relatively simple avionics suite and radar but retained Atar 9C-3 engine. SADF decided that while avionics were good enough to counter FAPLA MiG-23s, lack of medium range air to air missile capability and engine performance were critical problems. With international embargo still active, South Africans decided to launch a parallel program code named "Giraffe".
Giraffe's goal was to acquire/produce a small number of relatively modern fighters with BVR capability and newer engines at low cost within minimum time so that the first airframes enter service the same time with Cheetah. There was no budget nor time for development of a completely new aircraft so the Giraffe team inside Atlas took into account that SAAF was already very familiar with French aviation technology so they decided to apply upgrades to existing aircrafts. Atlas officials came up with the idea that the RDM radar (with ground mode removed) and the M53-5 engine of the early Mirage 2000C could be acquired and fitted to older Mirage IIICZs. Also Giraffe team gained some access to early stage of Rafale program. On January 1985 development team presented to government and SADF the characteristics of the upgraded prototype which would be ready to make its first flight as soon as possible. The aircraft should be able to accelerate fast, carry at least 2 medium range AAMs and 2 short range AAMs, detect/track fighter size targets at 50/25 nautical miles, use defensive countermeasures and finally eqquiped with an internal jammer. RDM and M53-5 would be delivered through third countries while the medium range Super 530F missile would be acquired in secret cooperation with France. Short range AAM would be the domestic V3C Darter. The first flight was estimated to take place sometime in September 1985.
On May 1985 with the Cheetah on development stage and with the increase of military expenditures due to the ongoing conflict on Southern Angola, government prioritized Cheetah program as more important and terminated Giraffe. An artistic representation of how Giraffe could look like was published on Air International magazine (with little help from AI).
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By VonS
Hi All,
Have been doing a bit of tinkering lately with my FlightGear install - 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 CowboyTodd41
View File CowboyTodd41 New Loading Screen Sound
*New SF2 Loading Sound/Music by CowboyTodd41*
//======================================\\
Place in your flight folder. /MOD*/flight/ folder
This loading screen sound is a combination of two elements, music from Ace Combat Assault Horizon, and audio from Vietnam air combat.
Gives you an exciting pump up moment before the mission starts!
Credits:
Ace Combat Assault Horizon OST, "Horizon" - Keiki Kobayashi
© Bandai Namco Games (2011)
Vietnam War Radio Chatter- Air Combat- Dogfight 2
USAF via johnsmith on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hljX_QRL-ks
The incredible CombatAce Community for all their tutorials on modding anything for SF2
**This mod is available for use in any other mod according to the CombatAce Freeware Licensing Agreement**
Submitter CowboyTodd41 Submitted 10/04/2024 Category Menu Music
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By CowboyTodd41
*New SF2 Loading Sound/Music by CowboyTodd41*
//======================================\\
Place in your flight folder. /MOD*/flight/ folder
This loading screen sound is a combination of two elements, music from Ace Combat Assault Horizon, and audio from Vietnam air combat.
Gives you an exciting pump up moment before the mission starts!
Credits:
Ace Combat Assault Horizon OST, "Horizon" - Keiki Kobayashi
© Bandai Namco Games (2011)
Vietnam War Radio Chatter- Air Combat- Dogfight 2
USAF via johnsmith on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hljX_QRL-ks
The incredible CombatAce Community for all their tutorials on modding anything for SF2
**This mod is available for use in any other mod according to the CombatAce Freeware Licensing Agreement**
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By TheRealJuralumin
I don't really know how this happened, but the font for the menu and HUD has changed, text is now slanted and some letters and words are getting slightly cut-off, it's not game breaking in the slightest, but it is a bit annoying as some things have proven difficult to read. I will attach some screenshot examples. If anyone knows why this has happened and how I can fix it, it would be very much appreciated!
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