Some newbie questions

[+VonS 1,424]

Hi Geezer, yes I've tested it now and the nested folder works for the Euro Pilot too - and it's the 1930s one with the oxygen mask as you indicated - how that ended up in my FE2 folder I have no idea, but I've removed it now since it doesn't fit with WWI.

 

Here's a brief tutorial below for anyone struggling with invisible pilots in FE2, and my data inis.

 

Been tweaking some more and nested folders work well for many of the pilots. A nicely organized Pilots folder should look something like this:

 

 

The top four folders correspond with the German blue scarf pilot, British summer pilot, British winter pilot, and desert pilot. The next four are Stephen's cork helmet and/or scarf pilots (the order of the folders is not important, I'm simply referring to what's on my pic). The files that are missing inis and outs, such as WWIpilot01, should not be placed in nested folders but left as indicated in the main Pilots folder, otherwise they can't be called up by the data ini files for the planes.

 

Illustrated below is the inside of the British summer pilot folder, now renamed to wwiPilotNew5

 

 

Don't forget to edit the corresponding, top LOD entry inside the ini file of the relevant folder, so that the correct LOD file is called, as indicated below (leave the LOD002 stuff alone since any changes to that disable the nested folder from being called up by the plane's data ini file):

 

 

Relevant toggles in the data inis then become:

 

PilotModelName=WWIpilot (this is the old blocky-head pilot)

PilotModelName=wwiPilotNew1 (standard new pilot)

PilotModelName=wwiPilotNew2 (German blue scarf pilot)

PilotModelName=wwiPilotNew3 (standard new pilot, different colored coat)

PilotModelName=wwiPilotNew4 (standard new pilot, different coat color)

PilotModelName=wwiPilotNew5 (British summer pilot)

PilotModelName=wwiPilotNew6 (British winter pilot)

PilotModelName=wwiPilotNew7 (desert pilot)

PilotModelName=WW1pilot01 (Ansaldo pilot, fits into other planes but looks like he's 6 foot 8 inches when installed in something like a DH.2)

PilotModelName=CaudronPilot (nice generic looking pilot and fits well in other bombers and some planes, not only the Caudrons)

PilotModelName=narrowplt (this one is probably best to use in the H-Brandenburg D.I, will require some repositioning of coordinates for other planes)

 

Von S

[+VonS 1,424]

Edit: disregard the "Thumbs.db" file located in the pic of my main Pilots folder, that's a thumbnails database file generated automatically in folders on OS X.

 

Von S

[vonOben 55]

Thanks guys!

 

I didn't notice that part about adding new pilots in the "TweakedFlightModels" readme file, but now I have pilots in my Eindeckers!

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

 

[vonOben 55]

Hi

Some progress and a new question:

 6. I've edited the Campaignscreen.ini so I can use the Guitarclassic55_Menu_Screens without CTD in Campaign mode. But the text is yellow on yellow background so it's quite hard to read the text.
Does anyone know how to change the text colour in the campaign related screens?

12. I've got in contact with Steve regarding the  "Map Icons for First Eagles" problem. The work fine in default campaigns, but not in "Armchair Aces Redux" campaign for unknown reason...

15: I'm using the "Realistic sky mod" by Panama Red and with the Jan Tuma winter terrain the trees far away becomes white in overcast weather.
Trees nearby look ok.
Any ideas why this happens?

 

 

 

Hi

 

Thanks for your help guys!

 

I'll try MapDisplayLabels to FALSE!

 

Here are my remaining problems:

 

6. I've tested Guitarclassic55_Menu_Screens_with_MOVIE.zip and it was a nice improvement to the default screens, but the Campaign screen gave CTD. When I removed the Campaignscreen.ini no CTD, but when trying to delete an old campaign it also gave a CTD.
Any ideas how to fix this?

 

12. I can't get "Map Icons for First Eagles" to work. I followed the instructions but the icons doesn't change.
I've also tried "National counters for First eagles" and since I'm using "WWI Alternative Medals Pack for FE" I also installed Nations.ini nations17.ini.
With those nation ini's installed I get a CTD in Campaign when selecting the planning map.
Perhaps I can't change the map icons when I have already a campaign started?

 

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

[vonOben 55]

Hi

Back with a few more questions.

Is it possible to improve the river textures in Jan Tumas terrain with modded town and water tiles by Bandy?
The textures in the cities doesn't look the same as in the other river tiles.

My current graphical settings:



I still have problems with some flickering city objects:
Some houses flickers marked F in the image below but others don't flicker marked N below.
It's the green centre area on the larger houses that flickers, shouldn't that part be transparent anyway?

 

I'm using the "The terrain shaders for FE2" posted by mue here:
http://combatace.com/topic/85970-shimmering-tods-and-target-objects/

Thanks for any help.

Cheers

vonOben

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

I think the problem is with the alpha channel in the TGA file, rather than with the graphic settings or render engine. For the rivers, the shade of grey in the alpha channel has to exactly match in all the tiles, if you're using tiles made by different people, they may not match. You may have to do some copy and paste.

 

For the buildings, the shimmering is caused by having two surfaces on the same plane, the game is trying to show them both. In Jan Tuma's courtyard buildings, there are actually two buildings at the same location, but the alpha channel should remove the duplicate surfaces. Check the alpha channel in "Mesto.tga" and make sure it hasn't accidentally been altered or erased.

[vonOben 55]

Hi Steve

Thanks for replying, much appreciated!

"For the rivers, the shade of grey in the alpha channel has to exactly match in all the tiles"
Yes, that seem to be the problem! For the river the alpha channel is not "shade of grey" but a different river texture which doesn't fully match between the Brady and Tuma textures.

"Check the alpha channel in "Mesto.tga" and make sure it hasn't accidentally been altered or erased."
The alpha channel is there and uses colour 0,0,0, that is ok right?

"In Jan Tuma's courtyard buildings, there are actually two buildings at the same location"
Ok, so what is the reason doing it that way?

I've found the reason for the flickering buildings!
It was the WWIVERDUN_DATA.INI from a file called FE2_Edited_T_Datafiles.7z, that caused the flickering and the white trees i overcast weather!
I get less flickering and no white trees with Jan Tuma's original files and his edited data ini from New alternative-SCR.zip removes the flickering completely and makes the center part of the houses transparent as they should be and it also cures the white tree problem.

Some houses are not rendered 100% correct though.

And now a new question:
Is it possible to have a wider rear view in gunsight view?
In VIEWLIST.INI is gunsight view the same as WeaponViewClass?
I've tried increasing the AngleRates for the WeaponViewClass but it doesn't make the  rear view wider in gunsight view.

Cheers

vonOben
 

Edited July 10, 2016 by vonOben

[vonOben 55]

Hi Steve

I think the problem is with the alpha channel in the TGA file, rather than with the graphic settings or render engine. For the rivers, the shade of grey in the alpha channel has to exactly match in all the tiles, if you're using tiles made by different people, they may not match. You may have to do some copy and paste.

Selecting Water detail to High instead of Medium fixed the river problem:

 

 

S!

 

vonOben

[vonOben 55]

And now a new question:

Is it possible to have a wider rear view in gunsight view?

In VIEWLIST.INI is gunsight view the same as WeaponViewClass?

I've tried increasing the AngleRates for the WeaponViewClass but it doesn't make the  rear view wider in gunsight view.

 

 

Found the answer myself:

In Viewlist.ini:

ViewName=GunsightView

ViewClassName=NarrowCockpitViewClass

 

Editing:

[ViewClass014]

ViewClassName=NarrowCockpitViewClass

LimitYaw=FALSE // was TRUE

 

Changing LimitYaw to FALSE increases the check six view which was what I wanted.

Edited July 30, 2016 by vonOben

[vonOben 55]

Hi again

Back with some more questions.

In my ongoing Armchair Aces campaign I've in several occasions landed on enemy ground when my plane has been to damaged to continue flying, but I haven't been taken POW in any of those occasions.
Doesn't FE2 check if you land on enemy ground?

In one mission one of the squad mates was taken POW, but in the next mission 3 days later he was back again and not POW this time.
A quick exchange with an allied pilot perhaps?

Best regards

vonOben

[vonOben 55]

And another one:

To prevent your wingmen from landing on the edge of the aerodrome I tried this tweak by ataribaby:

Change to this in WWI_AIRFIELD1.INI:
[Runway001]
TouchDown=0,-150 <------ here is change!

But they still land on the edge of the aerodrome and when they pass the edge they disappear.
Is there anything else to do? Tweak the values further perhaps?

Cheers

vonOben

[Nicholas Bell 117]

Hi again

 

Back with some more questions.

 

In my ongoing Armchair Aces campaign I've in several occasions landed on enemy ground when my plane has been to damaged to continue flying, but I haven't been taken POW in any of those occasions.

Doesn't FE2 check if you land on enemy ground?

 

In one mission one of the squad mates was taken POW, but in the next mission 3 days later he was back again and not POW this time.

A quick exchange with an allied pilot perhaps?

 

Best regards

 

vonOben

I've had campaigns end when I was "killed" when I did a deadstick landing in enemy territory.  I've also escaped capture with no delay in days.  This usually occurs when I land near the front, albeit behind enemy lines.  So perhaps it has something to do with location.  OTOH it could be a simple die roll.  I have never seen a MIA or POW status for a pilot in FE2 - I'm envious!   Obviously this a carry over from SF2 where the possibility of escape, evasion and extraction are a possibility.  Have you tried hexediting the POW pilot back to being a POW?  Wonder if the program would once again "rescue" him ?

[vonOben 55]

Hi

 

Back with another question:

In the debriefing what does it mean when there are two rows for the pilot like in this example:

 

 

 

S!

 

vonOben

[+Crusader 2,101]

The 0 0 NA 1 means

that the pilot in question has killed 1 object (normally another aircraft) by collision , thus no ammo stats (0 0 NA) for the particular kill.

 

If you look at Bätcher, he has 2 kills.

1st, he fired 274 rounds for 40 hits, thats a 15% hits quote

2nd, he fired 0 rounds  for 0 hits ,hits quote Not Available

[+ojcar 157]

Second row is also used by gunner kills in two seaters.

[+Crusader 2,101]

Ah right... the AI gunner kills... 

[vonOben 55]

Thanks for the info guys

 

And another question:

In which cat file are the effects files stored?

There are some in FlightData.Cat but not all and in the FlightData.index file there is no folder structure.

So how can I tell which files that belong to the effects folder?

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

Edited September 18, 2016 by vonOben

[+mue 715]

Thanks for the info guys

 

And another question:

In which cat file are the effects files stored?

There are some in FlightData.Cat but not all and in the FlightData.index file there is no folder structure.

So how can I tell which files that belong to the effects folder?

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

 

If you are looking for all effects (*.fx) files inside your cat files, you can use my catextractor:

 

 

In the upper list box (1) select all cat files.

In the filter field (2) type "*fx".

Then all fx files are shown in the lower list box (3) and can be extractedl.

[vonOben 55]

Hi Mue

 

I didn't mean .fx files specifically, but all files that are in my modded Effects folder.
Since there are no Effects folder in any of the cat files that I have found, how do I know which modded files belong to the Effects folder?

For instance some effects mods have Animatedsmoke.tga in the Effects folder and some in the Flight folder, so which is the correct placement?

And if there is a file with the same name both in the Effects folder and in the Flight folder, which one will be used?

 

I've been using CatPack by Gerwin, but I also have your Toolbox downloaded.
So I'll test your CATExtractor instead!

Thanks for the tip and for making the Toolbox!

Best regards

 

vonOben

[Nicholas Bell 117]

von Oben,

 

I'd suggest downloading one of Stary's effect packs to find out where the files go.

[vonOben 55]

Hi Nicholas

 

It was actually Stary's effects that made me wonder about the correct folder for some of the effects files.

 

He has the same file in both Effects folder and Flight folder in a few occasions:
Animatedfire.tga
Dirthitspike.tga
Dirthitspike2.tga
Fire1.tga
Smoke2.tga
Smoke.tga
Sparkhit.tga

 

So which is the correct folder placement?

And if there is a file with the same name both in the Effects folder and in the Flight folder, which one will be used?

 

Best regards

vonOben

[+VonS 1,424]

Hi VonOben,

 

Below follow pics. of my Flight, Effects, and Objects folders - you can follow the files inside to see what effects go where (I have thrown files out of some of the folders that are not relevant to the effects so that I could make less pics. that way)  - but the relevant files are all in place. Hope this helps with file organization.

 

Happy flying,

Von S

 

 

 

 

And here is the top half of the Effects folder.

 

Von S

 

 

[vonOben 55]

Hi VonS

Thanks for the screenshots!

I see that you also have a few files in both Effects folder and Flight folder.

As far as I understand:

If Effect files with the same file name belong to the FlightData.cat, they should be placed in the Flight Folder only.

Files with new file names that are not in any cat-file should be placed in the Effects folder only.

Does that seem to be correctly understood?

Best regards

vonOben

[+VonS 1,424]

Hi Von Oben,

 

I would also assume that effects belonging to FlightData.cat belong in the Flight folder. Other effect files should go into the Effects folder.

 

I have not extracted any effects from the game itself, but have only installed the Stary and Laton effects from CombatAce in a somewhat convoluted way to get the effects looking as I like them, and for good frame rates (the Stary install puts a few of those Smoke.tga files into the Effects folder, even though the same files are already placed into the Flight folder by the game itself).

 

I first install the Stary "FE effects pack," then the "FE FX Update" also by Stary. This is followed by the earlier, better "AircraftEngineDamageEffect" also by Stary that eliminates the green smoke problem from engines.

 

I then install the Laton effects on top of the previous installs, replacing files with the same names. The Laton effects are installed in the following order: "Effects_test," then "smokeeffectv2," then my small tweaks to Laton's "AircraftSmokeEffect" file and to the generic "BalloonFireEffect" are installed (to improve frame rates) (available on CombatAce under the FrameRate forum for FE2 as "BetterSmokeAndBalloonEffects").

 

Finally, I replace Laton's Particlesystem.ini file with Stary's since Stary's contains a few extra effects, and I reduce some of the Emitter numbers at the top of that file to further improve frame rates.

 

Happy flying,

Von S

Edited October 2, 2016 by VonS

[vonOben 55]

Hi VonS

 

I've built my latest effects similary, but I've also added the effects posted by quack74 in the "More Flamers, Please!" thread on top. I've also removed unused tga files and if the original file belongs to the FlightData.cat I've moved the new file to the Flight folder, so there are no duplicates any more.
Currently I'm using Laton's Particlesystem file.

Best regards

 

vonOben