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Fly as a Wingman
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madvad, in Thirdwire: Strike Fighters 2 Series - File Announcements
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By pagsab
The two things which have always frustrated me most about the Third Wire sims are the unrealistically high altitude of the clouds and the inability to swap into a wingman’s plane as in European Air War. I found a way of doing the latter a few weeks ago (as I explain in https://combatace.com/forums/topic/100042-flying-as-a-wingman), and together with a beefed up version of Stary’s tweak which I just discovered at https://combatace.com/forums/topic/97376-clouds-altitude-hack/, I am now in virtual heaven as I practise prolonged formation flying through and above the 3D broken clouds, which look especially lovely at dawn and dusk. Menvra is right that Stary’s hack produces greater cloud popping, but for my money the gains far outweigh the costs.
I was dismayed to find that the cloud hack failed to work over the EuroWW2 terrain, despite most of this terrain containing exactly the flat plains it suits best. After a week of frustrated investigation and attempted remedies which caused as many problems as they solved, I have at last discovered the reason and how to address it. I will share my findings here for the benefit of others who wish to use Stary’s wonderful tweak. The difference between EuroWW2 and all the other terrains on which I have applied the cloud hack successfully is that the Alps reach much greater heights. Even though they almost never come into view, there is clearly something in the programme which invalidates Stary’s tweak if such high mountains are present anywhere in the terrain. More Google searching eventually led me to the old thread at https://combatace.com/forums/topic/80880-te-question-height-map-to-hfd/, in which Baltika’s hints on using the Third Wire terrain editor finally helped me to solve the problem.
First, you need to cut the HeightScale in the Bitmap Import section of the TerrainEditor.ini from the default 10 to 5. Then, use the terrain editor to export a copy of the EuroWW2.HFD file as a bitmap, create a new 1500x1500 km terrain in the editor, and reimport the bitmap. As Baltika explains, this will cap the Alps at 1280 metres, and you can save the result as a new EuroWW2.HFD file, replace your backed up original, and ditch the accompanying files generated by the save. A similar process should work for any other terrain containing distant high mountains. Obviously this is undesirable if the mountains actually come into play, but in that case Stary’s hack is inappropriate in any case.
I cannot believe my good fortune in belatedly finding the solutions to both of my greatest bugbears about the Third Wire sims. For me, they have just gained a wonderful new lease of life.
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By madvad
This edit in the original file allows you to fly as if you were the wingman of the formation.
You continue to be the leader, and giving orders to the rest of the squad, but flying as the right wing, giving the radio command 1-8-6.
To return to the original formation, just perform the radio command 1-8-3.
I like it, because I like flying as a wingman and "inserting" myself into the maneuvers and following the "leader", giving more immersion to the flight.
You just need to be careful when flying with nations where the pilots have "poor skills", as during the maneuvers the "leader" can spread and collide with you.
In this case, before the "action begins", I suggest giving the command 1-8-1 so that he moves away so that a collision does not occur.
Don't forget to make a backup of your original file in case you want to revert!
V 1.0.1
Greetings and check six!
Madvad
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