Limitations of available SF2 Freeware

[+streakeagle 869]

I am trying to build some nice screenshots to compare and contrast a max-modded SF2/Vietnam/F-4B/Coral Sea install versus FSX/TacPack/Vietnam/SimWorks Studios F-4B Beta release. What I have learned from doing this is:

 

1) Sundowner made some great templates available, which have to be modified to suit the particular unit/time frame I am trying to showcase. I am not very good at skinning and hate having to do anything more than download ready-made flawless skins by people with far greater skills than me. So, why doesn't SF2 have a complete library of skins that are hi-res/Sundowner quality for major stock aircraft the way SFP1/WoX did? MyTai did wonderful work for SFP1 and a mix between his work and the Sundowner templates is the way to go. But both the Sundowner template and the MyTai decals need to be modified to get nearly flawless results. I am spoiled from the past where everything I wanted just magically appeared (aside from Thunderbirds F-4E skins, and TK eventually improved that situation with a fairly decent DLC).

 

2) The stock provision for Coral Sea is still the stock Kittyhawk CV.

 

3) The freeware available at CombatAce for CV-43 supports SF2 NA carriers and is a huge improvement in many ways, but...

 

4) To this day, the only maxed out quality carriers for the SF series are YAP carriers, which don't inherently support SF2 and have the pretty, but impractical solution of having one version of the model for taking off and one version for landing. This looks great for hand written missions, but just doesn't work for generated missions, especially campaigns.

 

On a related note: I was trying to replicate Oyster flight from May 10, 1972 for a nice screenshot. SF2 does not inherently support the "OY" tail code for the Triple Nickel in 1972 and CombatAce does not have an SF2 skin available, much less a Sundowner qulaity skin for the OY tail code. Sundowner did release a generic F-4D skin that would probably work ok if I had the right decals for 1972 Triple Nickel "OY" F-4Ds. But I can see the collapse of the SF community that took place in the transition from SFP1/WoX to SF2. In consolidating the core games, TK gave up some skins/decal variations that he had fully supported between SFP1, WoV, WoE, and WoI. The community never fully provided updated, hi-res replacements for the huge volume of material published to enhance/expand SFP1/WoX.

 

So, what I really want, but am too unskilled/lazy to provide are:

Complete skins at a Sundowner quality level for every aircraft in the SF2 library, especially the F-4.

Freeware versions of all aircraft carriers that equal or surpass YAP carriers visual quality AND allow a single model to support both takeoffs and landings to be suitable for campaigns.

 

Someone out there needs to get hot so I can ignore/criticize their work while I revert back to DCS World in the time it takes you to try to support an obsolete/unsupported sim that eventually won't work with the latest PCs/Windows.

 

If you can't see the sarcasm/humor in my entire post, you can **** off!

 

On the other hand, if someone could quickly polish up the 3d models/textures for an SF2 CV-43 Coral Sea in 1965 on very short notice, I would actually use it for a few screen shots.

Edited April 13, 2016 by streakeagle

[+Sundowner 4,813]

I think I have OY coded birds on my HD somewhere....... I was doing every 'Nam unit at one stage....just for my own use...

[Wrench 9,806]

streak, this has got the be one of the most hilairous posts I've read in a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time!!!

 

as to the mytai skins, a know a number of us have converted them to SF2, albeit using the standard size, stock skins. It's just a matter of screwing around with the decal positionings, cleaning up some of the decals themselves, and (well, for me) simple small adjustments

 

Aren't they already in the downloads section? Or have they not been fully converted?

 

below, his VF-102 (2048x jpg skin maps, all his decals)

[+daddyairplanes 10,162]

My interest always having been post nam and Europe, what squadron was OY again? Hyper simple fix in the squadrin list ini although im confused as TKs Phantom markings are VERY much centered around Vietnam. It was one of the things that got me into modding was the lack SJs, MYs and such.

[+CrazyhorseB34 937]

You can convert all except the Essex YAP CVs for SF2NA campaign use.

 

Just take the Recovery version and put the cat data from the Launch version in the open cat positions on the Recovery version.

[MigBuster 2,884]

 

So, what I really want, but am too unskilled/lazy to provide are:

 

 

Did you see these?

http://yankeeairpirate.net/model-shop/

 

Though can't remember if these allow a single ship to be used

 

 

There are some higher res Carrier skins for the stocks and others?

 

http://combatace.com/files/category/742-improved-skins-for-ships/

[+streakeagle 869]

I have seen some of the later YAP releases. About the time YAP 3 was coming along and being given freely to YAP 2 owners, I had a bad exchange with 05 on SimHQ because he was pissed at TK for making changes that broke his bug exploits (like refueling, because TK decided negative fuel flow in imaginary engines was a bug not a feature). So I was banned/terminated from being a YAP customer. Funny thing is that he said he didn't want or need my money, yet he kept every dime I ever spent on YAP1 and YAP2. I loved the models and idea of max detail historical missions -- did not like 05 and his hypocritical views where it was a federal crime to steal anything from him when a lot files he was selling were stolen from other people.

 

So, short version: I can't buy YAP products, and I think that achievement ranks higher than being banned from the ATEAM, as anyone can get that by simply downloading more than one file in a year.

 

I have been poking around the SF2 and SF1 files looking for options to expand/upgrade SF2 for Vietnam. But there isn't a whole lot of obvious support for the one or two things I was looking to do. I almost have my Coral Sea F-4B finished to compare/contrast with the FSX F-4B in the same skin. There are still some inaccuracies due to MyTai's decals and Sundowner's template not being quite right for the earlier 1965 F-4B. But I have merged the two in a way that will look good to most unless you have photos from exactly that time frame to compare.

 

I would love to do a mission and some screenshots modeling Oyster flight on May 10, 1972. At this point, I know the tail numbers for three of the four that flew. But I would also need the tail codes for the two-ship Balter flight that was flying high as bait. I had gathered a lot of info to support doing this May 10 mission as accurately as possible. But I was trying to do missions in order starting with 1965 (see my F-100 and F-105 missions covering the first MiG kills and F-105 losses hosted on this site). I got frustrated when the very large mission I had worked on for so long got lost. I never rebuilt it and stopped trying to make historical missions from then on. I would love to model and fly every Red Baron report mission from the perspective of both sides. TK's all-knowing/all-seeing AI and super reliable missile patch for SF2NA kind of deflated my interest since a lot of missions require having one side approach the other undetected and/or for US aircraft to expend a lot of missiles for little or no results.

 

So, I will settle for campaign missions with the latest terrain mods for semi-historical fun.

[+CrazyhorseB34 937]

If you have YAP2 then you already have the Coral Sea models. All you have to do is convert them like I explained.

 

Don't know what that has to do with not getting along with some one. You bought the toys. Play with them!

[+streakeagle 869]

He didn't / won't give me the latest versions, even cut off the last patch or two to YAP2. Important thing is that the one model I wanted from the original YAP did come with YAP 2: a really great rendition of CVAN-65. It cost me around $200, but no one else has released anything even close. My dad built the Revell 1/720 scale model of the Enterprise for me when I was 5 or 6. I bought and built the same model for my son :)

[+CrazyhorseB34 937]

I built that same model too! HA!

 

So you do not have the Coral Sea from YAP2? or YAP1?

 

 

[+streakeagle 869]

I have both. I don't have YAP3 or one last patch for YAP2 (though I still have the no longer valid email link to the patch).

[Fubar512 1,350]

Well Streak, you could always request an SCB-110A modded Midway-Class from White Boy Samurai, as he does excellent work.  However, I suspect that he's busier than a sandwich maker at a Jersey Mike's during the noon-time rush 

[+streakeagle 869]

It is just interesting after all these years with so many user mods that the carriers remained neglected. At this point, the limited life remaining for this sim due to operating system/driver version issues makes the value of any further labor intensive addons questionable.

[Wrench 9,806]

I wouldn't say so much of "the carrier being neglected", but more of the case of the CODING ignoring carriers. Remember, before NA you could only use carriers in campaigns or scripted missions. Now, with the "NavalMap=TRUE" terrain coding, and proper water bmp, they turn up everywhere.

[+Sundowner 4,813]

     

 

 

 

 

[+Crusader 2,084]

OY!!!!