Jane's USAF mods: JUCE v1.2 is released with over 130 texture overhaul.

[Eagle114th 649]

Hello everyone!

I want to let everyone know that there are modding community for Jane's Figther Anthology and Jane's USAF.  You can find us by discord: https://discord.gg/a8rjdVEh

I started the project overhauling the texture with upscaling and "super resolution" techniques.  Jane's USAF runs smoothly on Windows 10 / 11.  I wrote the guide a while ago about how to install and run jane's USAF on Windows 10, which can be used on Windows 11.

Here is the link: (OUTDATED, no longer need to install new .exe and reshade, all is included in JUCE now. The only thing you need to do is to install Jane's USAF and update it with offiical Jane's USAF patch.)
https://www.vnfawing.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=31023#31023

DOWNLOAD LINK for JUCE v1.2:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/hvkjh94pshc6x6m/_JUCE+v1.2.zip/file

Jane's USAF deserve to be revived so people can re-experience masterpieces made by Jane's combat simulation team.

Here are screenshot, so you can see the difference:

Originial Jane's USAF:



JUCE version:

The texture is based on excellent work of MigBuster airport texture for SF2.  His name is included in README file as well. Please note, the texture is upscaled to 8x, then the texture get replaced with new texture, then re-sized back to 2x of the orignial resolution.  The reason why I stay with 2x resolution for now is due to the limitation of Jane's USAF engine for now.

UPDATE:  With help from Tcklbrry, I am able to have texture maximum of 1024 height / width instead of 512.  The new version of JUCE (v1.1 onward) will start using higher resolution texture up to 1024 height / width.

Thank you for enjoyng the mods

Cheers!

Edited November 27, 2023 by Eagle114th

[bazillius 1,258]

 Jane's best games, so thats good you are working. I am downloading your mod but i dont know when iwill try it. Thanks.

Oh the good old days when textures were stored in unencrypted archives! I look inside the archive.

For looking at the instruction it needs the registration at the forum. No guest view. Anyway i have even Windows XP

Edited November 8, 2023 by bazillius

[Eagle114th 649]

Hello everyone,

The new version of airbase in 4x resolution (up to 1024 width / height) are being worked on. Tcklbrry, one of modder in our community, did amazing job editing Jane's USAF, so it can support up to 1024 width / height texture.  The progress is looking good so far, more works to do ahead of me.   When airbase is completed, I am moving on next to the buildings and other textures.  The previous release have 2x texture (512 width / height) texture.  I hope that in new version, you can see the big difference.




Eagle114th

[Eagle114th 649]

Hello everyone,

There is a breakthrough in updating Jane's files, thank to Tcklbrry for making it possible to have 4x resolution instead of 2x.  The new version of JUCE is on the way and I do not have ETA for now.  The new 4x resolution texture is currently being polished and fixed.  I am still working on re-laligning the lanes and sand textures.  For now, here is the current process:










Eagle114th

Edited November 10, 2023 by Eagle114th

[Eagle114th 649]

Hello everyone!  

After working with "Shack" hanger, I learned a lot about transparent.  It is quite tricky.  I can not include 'semi transparent blur edge for curve part', otherwise bright blue would show up around edge of texture.  In order, to have clear transparent, I must have very clear texture without 'semi transparent' edge.  It works now after several attempts to get 'Y" shaped metal bar showing up without bright blue around edge.  It turns out a little bit rough looking, but still much beter than orignial Jane's texture.

Original version:

 


New version:





Eagle114th

[Eagle114th 649]

Hello everyone,

Here is screenshot of JUCE v1.1, to show you the result of improving the resolution from 512 heigth / width to 1024 height / width, along with an improvement to the hangars.  I am working on the rest of various building and bridge textures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eagle114th

Edited November 15, 2023 by Eagle114th

[Eagle114th 649]

Hello everyone!

The new version of JUCE v1.3 is now released with oaver 130 texture updated.  The file sizes jumps from 76 MB to 156 MB.  All texture files in stationary folder (in Resouce folder) is now completed. I am moving on to the next texture project, especaily on aircraft.

The screenshot from JUCE v1.2 will be posted here as soon I get the chance.

Cheers

[Eagle114th 649]

REPORT from JUCE v1.2:

What I have learned about creating texture and working with transparent background for Jane's USAF:  The system is primitive compared to modern where we can use .TGA, .PNG, and other file formats for texture.  In the old days of gaming, we had to use 256 color 8 bit BMP.  And in order for texture to have transparent, the game developer use one of color and turn it nto alpha.  For example, in Jane's USAF, the transparent color is 00FFFF (HTML color or 0, 255, 255 RGB).  It mean I can not use semi-transparent colors for smooth curves. Therefore, I am forced to try to 'smooth' the curve with rough edges.  It is one of big challenges.  Another challenge is to preserve the 00FFFF cyan color as I work with texture in GIMP, then move them to paint.net and save them in 256 color 8 BIT BMP while making sure cyan color is saved properly with exact 00FFFF.

Here is interesting projects I have worked on, but firstly, I want to thank to all aritsts out there who made the materials available for me to use, as well as powerful tools, such as chatGPT that saved my time A LOT.  Allow me to explain how i use AI to help me:

By heping me with upscaling the texture 4x and 8x while using various methods.  There is no perfect methods, so I use what is avaiable out there, especially with my RTX 3080TI and Stable Diffusion.  However, for texture part, I use my hand to polish, replace, or tweak when needed. AI is not that advanced yet, so I must be very involved.  However, I have this philosophy that AI is meant to be your partner, teammate, not your leader.  You are the one who leads with creativity and passions.  I, as artist / military aviation fan and hobbist, always make sure there is no mistakes with the textures.  However, without AI, I would probably get burned out working on over 130 texturs, and AI have saved my time from years to a few weeks.  For that, i am forever thankful.

How do I use AI upscaled texture? let's say I have 8 different methods of upscalng, then I compare them, then cut off what I like the most, then paste into one template,. If none of them provide good texture, then I find the excellent texture materials online. If there is none, then I use my hands. When working with P-14, P-35, and P-40, that was quite interesting part, used my hand to create the radar lines.  For example, here is P-14, so you can compare between orignial Jane's USAF and my new version:

Jane's USAF orignial (resized to 1024 pixel height / width):



By using this photo as reference:



This is my new version, took me a while to finish the radar dish part.





Here is P-35 (Jane's USAF orignial texture resized)



My new version



P-40 radar (Jane's original version resized)



My new version:

Edited November 27, 2023 by Eagle114th

[Eagle114th 649]

From now on, you will see two picturs (TOP / BOTTOM) which is Jane's orignial pictures (resized by either x4 or x8 of the orignial size) / New texture version so you can see the difference.  

 

 

 

 

Edited November 27, 2023 by Eagle114th