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realSKY Environment January 13th, 2019 (1st Release) by Menrva >For Strike Fighters 2 games This is my sky enhancement mod. It also combines the work of many other modders, in order to provide a realistic, better looking sky. Here below a quick summary of the changes: -Tweaked sky colours, something in between Cellinsky's widesky and the stock SF2 colours. -More realistic Night colours, sky and ambient are much darker. -More atmospheric, reddish transition from Twilight to Night. -New "dark blue" High Altitude colours (fly near space with a NF-104). -Moon produces a yellowish light instead of the default purple. -Sky is "wider" much like Cellinsky's widesky mod (background horizon clouds are bigger and more noticeable). -Added beautiful cloud graphics made by Cellinsky and ShrikeHawk, tweaked for each weather type. -Added a low number of stray clouds to Clear weather. -Added noticeable clouds to Overcast weather and Inclement weather, "fixing" a known SF2 "bug". -Combined various mods to produce a more interesting Rain Effect under Inclement weather. -Added Stary's lens flare effects from the SARCASM 2 mod, in place of Cellinsky's widesky effects. -Added Cloud Layer graphics by Stary, Fubar512 and Brain32. -Reworked secondary atmospheric effects, such as contrails and wingtip vortexes. In addition, the package includes alternative environment configuration files in the Alternative Weather folder; they enable different effects for the Inclement weather. You can choose between thunderstorm (default, adapt for most terrains), snowstorm (for cold, icy terrains) and sandstorm (for hot, desert terrains). For those who wish not to change the effect globally, I highly suggest to try the included terrain-specific environment example provided for stock SF2 terrains; the default global effect is thunderstorm, while terrains with their own environment file either use sandstorm or snowstorm as appropriate. Use this as a basis to customize other terrains. By setting the Effects to Unlimited, the game makes use of a DirectX 10 post processing effect; the stock game's post processing shader generates a pointless and horrible bloom effect which excessively blinds the player during twilight transitions. By default, realSKY includes a reworked post processing shader (TWPOSTPROCESS.FX) which provides more contrast, more vignetting, minor color correction and a daytime-only bloom effect, so it's miles better than what the stock game offers. Alternative post processing tweaks are included in the Alternative Shaders folder; choose the one you wish to try (check the included screenshots for fast comparisons) and overwrite the default one in your mod's Flight folder. If you don't care about the post processing effect, you may want to set the game's Effects to High in the Options menu. >Credits (in no particular order): -Cellinsky, for his fantastic widesky mod from which I borrowed some tweaks. -Stary, for his Thunderstorm and Heavy Snowfall weather mods, and his SARCASM 2 beta mod from which I borrowed some effects. -PanamaRed, for tweaks in regards to Clouds (especially the Broken weather ones). -Fubar512 and Brain32, for their Cloud Layer Top bitmaps, which I have smoothed for a better looking effect. -ShrikeHawk, for his CloudSkins mods, from which I took the spectacular cloud graphics. -BearGryllis, for his Thunderstorm Pack With Enhanced Lightnings 2.0b package. -Orsin, for his Improved Rain Effect and Heavy Rain 0.8 mods. -luk1978, for his interesting WeatherEffect package. -ArmedLightning, for his Special FX v2.2 mod for the GTR 2 game, from which I borrowed a lens flare effect. -baffmeister, for the idea of recreating sandstorm weather effects. -tiopilotos, for suggesting improvements on other subjects. -Eagle114th, for his Improved Wingtip Vortex mod which I have reworked. -JosefK, guuruu and Coupi, for their interest and support. I included the original readme files from the mentioned mods, where available, to the end of giving proper credit to everyone involved directly or not. >Disclaimer: This is a freeware; yet it can be redistributed ONLY in other CombatACE mods/mod packages. This mod may NOT in any way, shape or form be used in any payware additions.

Wings Over World Menu Screens January 13th, 2019 (1st Release) by Menrva >For Strike Fighters 2 games This package is my personal conversion of the beautiful Strike Fighters: Project One menu screens, with a number of enhancements for use in Strike Fighters 2. The main menu screen is a reworked version of the NACA Main Screen released by Camouflage (Checksix-fr.com). The title I chose for the main menu screen is "Strike Fighters: Wings Over World", in honor of the old WOE/WOV/WOI series of SF1 games. I find this name suitable for those who have a large mod folder spanning different world scenarios. Here below a quick summary of enhancements and additions: -All the music tracks from the SF games have been included; now there's a unique track for each screen. -Hangar Screen has got the hangar noise sounds which were present in the SF1 games. -Option to turn Lens Flare off as in the SF1 games is back. -Opportunity to change pilot at the Campaign Screen is reintroduced, as in the SF1 games. -Briefing Screen has been reintroduced for eye-candy (it has a small string "bug" with certain missions, since ThirdWire's removal of the FAC mission type). -Added generic _briefing.ini files for all the stock SF2 terrains (terrains without a _briefing.ini file might cause CTDs when accessing the Briefing Screen). -Added Launch/Fly button in the Briefing, Loadout, Flight Roster and Planning Map screens. -Added the missing PILOTPIC25 bitmap which is available in the SF1 games. -Loading Screen shows a generic runway and a new, longer loading sound is used. -Mission Editor DLC is supported with a new screen in the same style of the other screens. -Campaign Customizer DLC is supported with a new screen in the same style of the other screens. -Disabled unnecessary functions of the the System Menu, such as accessing ThirdWire's online site for viewing the game manual. As a bonus, the package includes 42 single missions taking place across all theatres of the SF2 series; most of them have been made by ThirdWire and released in their SF1 games. Five single missions are Instant Action scenarios of Strike Fighters 2, which I converted to be choosable and playable in the Single Missions Screen. Additional missions include historical scenarios created by guyran for the Israel theater. I renamed all single missions to use a nicer naming convention. Needless to say, all SF2 titles must be installed to be able to play all the missions. In addition, I have tweaked some Flight folder files to improve the realism of the game's HUD and in-game map. Since users may not like such changes, those files are not included by default, they must be installed manually. They can be found inside the "(Additional Tweaks)" folder. Here below a quick summary of changes they bring: -Disabled all the unuseful Labels when viewing the in-game map. -Disabled the arcade cones; lock your target and press F4 to visually track it. -Tweaked icons' colours so that they match the text's colours. -The in-game text background is less noticeable. -Text's font is now different, it is generally smaller and less obtrusive. -No more red and blue arcade squares when locking objects on; a faint yellow square is now used. -The white triangle showing the next waypoint is now a faint yellow, unlike the default strong white. -Disabled the radar box display; check the radar of your plane's cockpit, instead. >Credits (in no particular order): -ThirdWire, for the fantastic menu screens which are included in the stock SFP1 game. -kout, for the System Menu icon I have taken from his SF1 Grey Main Menu Replacement mod. -Camouflage, for the NACA Main Screen (still available at the archives of Checksix-fr.com), which I have reworked. -HomeFries, for the planning map enhancements available in his Semi-Transparent Map Icons package. -Viper63a, for the Loading sound, which I got from one of his menu mods. -paulopanz, for collecting and updating guyran's WOI custom missions properly to SF2 standards. -guyran, for the original custom missions he created for Wings Over Israel. -KJakker, for his interest and welcome support. >Disclaimer: This is a freeware; yet it can be redistributed ONLY in other CombatACE mods/mod packages. Any changes to the package's files and/or any copy-and-paste attempts of their contents are NOT authorized if you plan to release them in other mods. But permission might be granted to those who request it to me at CombatACE. This mod may NOT in any way, shape or form be used in any payware additions.