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BAC Lightning F.3 - 'The Red Arrows', Central Flying School, Royal Air Force, 1966

IAI Lavi

Facial Hair (Bear-D)

Nice to see you branching out...

Close up shot of WIP Italian vehicles and guns.

Well, Heatblur finally released the F-14B into Early Access. If you aren't familiar with DCS, you may like to know that you need to run the module in the DCS World OpenBeta, rather than the full-up version. I hadn't touched OpenBeta and only played DCS every now and again in the past, so I was glad to find that out. I'm quite impressed with the module to say the least. The Jester AI is easy as pie to interact with, making long-range engagements very straightforward. I did three sorties tonight, after a control shakeout (DCS likes to assign axes to everything!) and basic familiarization flight. The first mission I forgot to set the time to 1200 and left it on "Random". So, a pitch-black fight against a MiG-21 it was! I have the tags on, still, in part because the monitor can slip out of my glasses field of view with TrackIR, and I can at least see a little red blob against the terrain, so that helped, but it does feel like cheating and I'll be shutting it off at some point. I was able to down the Fishbed and get back to base. This is fine! No problem at all... Second fight was in Nevada doing long-range stuff to check out Phoenix. The final fight was the included "MiG-28" fight, which was a 4v2 which sees you take a catapult shot and bring the plane back to land. Because we had an E-2 in the area, we got a vector for the bandits, ROE was splash anything that went feet-wet. I still haven't figured out how to direct the wingman, so he was effectively along for the ride. At about 25NM, TWS-A selected, I loosed both AIM-54Cs at a MiG-28 a piece, both missiles tracked and splashed their targets. Next bandit I got with my second Sparrow missile. The final guy got a shot off at my wingman, but his missile took dash-2's flares. Both AIM-9 shots I took were trashed and I had to finish him off with the gun. Plenty of gas left, but now I know I've gotta put it down on the boat, and man am I glad I went straight home, because I think it took me about 10 tries to get back on deck, and that last try, let me tell you - one of those famous "we land NOW, GOD-DAMMIT!" one-wires where I just barely missed a ramp strike. Wasn't pretty and I know I damaged the plane because little holes appeared on the port-side of the nose of the model to signify that the section had taken a beating. Funny enough, in combat, I only put 6.8g on the plane! Cat on the 'Cat "Hi, there!" No kill like a GUNS kill! I think it would come as the understatement of the century to say I was anticipating this module, but I will also say that until Heatblur did their official announcement video, I had zero confidence it would ever get done. The DCS community has been burned plenty of times in the past, and HB had run into problems and setbacks of their own while in development. My mindset became: once it's on my hard drive, then I'll believe it. As videos began to roll in, however, it became more like a kid on Christmas "oh man, I can't wait." Well, now I have it, and I can share some first impressions. The model is friggin' fantastic. The level of detail on it is stunning both externally and in the cockpit. The rivet-counters will have a tough time on this one; the models are based on laser-scanned F-14s sitting in museums, and years worth of research. The sounds are also amazing, to include a lot of clickyness to the various buttons and switches in the cockpit. The view out of the cockpit is very good, as one would expect out of a bubble canopy, but not as good in the forward quarter as an airplane without the "jail bars" splitting the windscreen. That said, with TrackIR or VR, you can simply move your head a little, or lean forward or back to keep tally. You can see clear through the tails from the front seat. In this case, I just started flying through a cloud, so it's a little blurry. The Jester AI, like I mentioned earlier, is very intuitive and easy to interact with. Even without reading the manual on how to interact, I figured it out in the first combat flight I took. The single biggest thing that will take time to learn is the flight model and handling characteristics. The F-14 is truly a stick and rudder plane, and the F-14s in Strike Fighters 2 don't even come close to simulating the adverse elements of the F-14's handling, especially wing rock and control reversal. I wouldn't consider myself a contender online at the moment, and the fact that I was able to take out the AI aircraft in a gunfight at this stage is simply because they are AI. If you hop in expecting the plane to hold your hand like the F/A-18C module, you're in for a ride. It has no g-limiter, no alpha limiter, beta (yaw) limiter, etc. It's you talking directly to the control surfaces and them doing whatever the hell you tell them to, be it to your advantage or detriment. "Need to get out of the way of that missile and put the stick in your lap? Fine! 10g ain't the worst I've been through! Boot full of rudder? I'm not stopping you! Canopy jettison followed by...oh, you son of a..." In terms of overall maneuverability (sustained/instantaneous "g", roll rate, etc.) the airplane feels good. If I didn't jack it up and start rocking the wings, I was able to turn perfectly fine and loaded as much as 9.8g on the plane in one of my fights without complaint. A major saving grace against the F-5s when I got the plane out of shape is the fact that the B adds energy quick, and I was able to stabilize the plane and quickly curl inside their turns to go from defensive, to neutral, to offensive reliably and repeatedly. I actually had to get one of them off of my dead six o'clock (he shot a missile while there, but it took my flares) and was able to reverse the situation in a manner of seconds. The F110's power also gives the plane a lot of options, such as pushing the fight vertical, or un-f*cking your carrier approach when you jack it up and almost put yourself into the back of the boat for the fourth time. AoA and airspeed are very important to pay attention to, and the rudders will make or break you in a dogfight or at slow speeds. I still haven't felt out the slow speed regime intentionally yet. I have run the plane out of airspeed during some hamfisted dogfighting moments, but honestly, it recovers itself pretty quickly, and it maintains a degree of controllability even below 100KIAS, such that I was able to point the nose where I wanted with the rudders as the plane flopped over and began regaining speed. It also allows you to go to full flaps for slow-speed flight/fighting without needing to pull the aux flap circuit breaker (of the few things not [yet] modeled, one is the circuit breakers). As I build confidence, I'll start looking to test my skills against MiG-29s, Su-27s, etc., and eventually get into multiplayer, but right now, I'm still learning the thing. Overall, it's a really amazing module. Every video I've seen talking about this module says that Heatblur set a new bar for aircraft in DCS. I agree. The plane is spectacular. You'll need to put in the time to learn it, but man, is it rewarding to fly. At some point in the future, the F-14A will be released, and the package already comes with a carrier and A-6, so its steeper asking price of $79.99 gets you more than just a single jet. In my opinion, it's well worth the asking price. I'm sure that'll buff out...

The last update before completing the model, I have been working for the last 3 hours to complete it.

I was thinking of modeling some shrubs and trees and I know that this community has made almost everything, so if anyone knows if there is something that I can make to add to it, please let me know. As I received a request to make some trees, and I would like to know if there were trees already made, so I don't end up making the same thing, Thank you.

Hello all, Sorry for the lack of updates on this project of mine, as graduation and some other stuff did carry me away from this for a while. I managed to make two more skins for the aircraft - Hill Grey I and II, based around Alabama ANG's F-4D. Those units operated a Pave Spike/Maverick setup by that point, so i figured representing them on a Strike mission would look somewhat fitting. Still need to work on the decals and fuel tank's textures, but i sense most of the job on skinning is pretty much done. There they are: I'll update this thread as soon as I'm able to make those textures and decals look as smooth as possible, so keep na eye out here!

Red Arrows 1966

Testing ... just testing

PT-76 update the skin is 60% completed. More work needs to be done.

I have set up a Front just devoted to Italy WW1, I was hooked on the Italy and Caporetto terrains so with VonS WONDERFUL tweaked flight models and realism pack. I downloaded nearly all the WW1 planes in VonS Italy folder can't find the AviatkD1 / AviatkD1 230 / Voisin 3120 no problem I can live without them. Also on the I think it is the Caporetto map the telegraph post are solid looks like a graphic problem on my side any way I am enjoying FE2 so much. So a very big THANK YOU to you all that contributed to this great sim you have made an old man very happy, (one last thing don't tell anyone I have IL2 Flying Circus and at the moment it is not half as much fun as FE2 WW1 Italy)

I'm in a similar situation. Even though I bought 20 or so aircraft for Rise of Flight recently (at discount for about 2 dollars apiece), I still spend most of my time flying FE2, there's no beating the ThirdWire sim for seat of the pants flying and action, and the AI is very good too. If you're having trouble with solid telephone poles or square cows in the terrains, try the following tweaks I may have posted elsewhere on the site: Go into the relevant data.ini file for whatever terrain you're flying (such as Palestine_data.ini), scroll down to the SolidObjectTextureMaterial section and change the following entry: BlendOp=ONE should be changed to: BlendOp=BLEND_SRC_ALPHA Also, go to the following link and download Mue's FE2 shaders and copy the shaders into your terrain folder: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/85970-shimmering-tods-and-target-objects/ Once you've done that, go again into the terrain data ini file, under the SolidObjectTextureMaterial section, and tweak the following values: ZBufferOffset=2.0 change to: ZBufferOffset=5.0 Also I recommend using the improved flightengine.ini file located in my FM update pack for wider horizons and less popping in/out of scenery. The aircraft you're missing are located here... The Voisan type 3 https://combatace.com/files/file/12351-voisin-las-2-pack/ The Aviatik-Berg D.1 (early variant, my 160hp mod. is for this one, as is my early 200hp mod.) https://combatace.com/files/file/13044-aviatik-berg-di-early/ The Other Aviatik-Berg D.1 (late variant, my 230hp mod. is for this one, as is my "late" 200hp mod.) https://combatace.com/files/file/11953-aviatik-berg-di/ The 200hp variants are easy to install (simply drop the data inis into the relevant stock folders and override). To make the 160hp and 230hp variants, make copies of the relevant stock folders, rename to the names I've given my 160hp and 230hp folders, and then copy over my tweaked data ini and general ini files into the stock folders you've just renamed. This should give you the whole Berg "fleet." Happy flying, Von S

Northrop F-18L Bundesluftwaffe, 1986 Splittertarn camo Norm 72 and 72d (dark)

Hello Piecemeal, I am working on a FPS friendly stock desert terrain. Using JSF_Aggie highres desert tiles combined with new created tiles an lod files. A lot of nice maps like Desert4, Rends Germany rework. Make my frame rates drop below 60 FPS (stuttering). That's why I wanted to make a map that looks nice, and runs smooth on modest PC's I also did not like the amount of agriculture in a "desert" terrain and the lack of roads. I am using mostly Third Wire low poly objects to keep everything smooth.

En route at low-level

I also checked some terrain lods: buildings. The measured average floor height is around 2.5m. Seems it's real life scale.

There are some tree models available but they aren't always easy to find. No formal "tree objects" have been uploaded, to the best of my knowledge. Here are some I found included with some terrains. Fir tree groupings found on Rends Germany terrain, and probably others. I re-colored the base for winter use and used it in the Battle of the Bulge terrain: Here are some palm trees that may use the same lod as the fir trees but with a different tga: Both those screen shots show 3 individual tree objects as well. Not sure where I got them but they are flat objects so to get a 3d look you have to place them in an X pattern. I think having some tree objects, both individual and in groups is a good idea. I don't know anything about model building but it might be possible to make tree objects with different tga's that would match different climates, giving the terrain builder a choice of various tree types.

I wasn't aware of that sight, although I might very well of seen its listing when I viewed the Blackjack's detail page in a strategy game I play called Command Modern Air Naval Operations. Can something like that bombsight be modeled with accurately with the SF2 game engine? And if possible, where will you locate it in the cockpit?

as Menrva said there will be few issues with lod trees. I was already doing it some time ago. I think also that lod trees can be placed only on flat terrain... on hill lod will be aligned with terrain surface.

As I have said before, the 63% figure is per Wrench. I suggest you ask him. Wrench Known As Bob. Wrench ADMINISTRATOR 4,164 23,709 posts Gender:Male Location:Los Angeles, California Report post Posted September 11, 2016 now, with the visuals, its MUCH more clear. the 63% object just seem to "look right" against the ground. There's always been a scaling problem in the 3w games. But, there always seems to be a work around! Like Quote Terraformer Extraordinaire Making the Game Look Like the Real World Since 2007 "We are the Princes of the Ini-verse" "A little bit of something, is better than a whole lot of nothing" https://combatace.com/forums/topic/89548-1938/?tab=comments#comment-724314

I was only thinking of adding the models to put around the air base and certain places. they are as low as 8 poly to 200 max, for example, see the screenshot. Many thank for your feedback.

love it,thank you. If you plan to do more vehicles in the future i would like to suggest maybe a chinese tank or APC. like the Type 69 or type 63 APC.

I admire your patience.

Careful, I think you guys are talking about TOD trees, which simply are 2D tree graphics using .tga files. LOD trees are another matter, and are very rarely used; the stock IcelandNA terrain uses 3D LOD trees, it's the only one of stock terrains. Not only countless LOD trees may cause low FPS, they simply are not easy to add in huge numbers over a relatively big terrain. TOD trees and buildings are the way to go. We would need a TOD editor in order to easily create and edit those. But we still don't have one.

Some new trees would be nice but a rework of current ones to remove floating line above them would be a great improvement..

Wow many thanks VonS, I have not got round to doing it yet but will do. Yes you made a great job of the Ai. I have being with FE2 for so long Windows XP / Windows 7 and now Windows 10 they don't make em like they used to thanks mate.

I FEEL THE NEED, THE NEED FOR SPEED... Frankly when I have a really good day defending OLF Coupeville in real life, I just have this need to fire up a SF2 Tomcat and shoot MiGs down. So with that, here's the below after I just had a successful AIM-7 shot at a MiG-23 but got a wee bit too close to the trailer Flogger:

SME content above which blocks the video in the USofA.... #SIGH

Death from above. Delivery, courtesy of the US Navy.

Mod package has been updated to Version 1.2; two new lens flare effects have been added and some issues with fog colours have been addressed, now everything is how it should have been.

Just found a good photo of the wing spar attachments so now I have to alter the 3D model. Looks like the front wing spar was a rotating tube so the incidence angle could be adjusted by raising/lowering the rear spar. Back to the drawing board...

Nice Target. CL

The shimmering of TODs and target objects and the flickering of shadows in the thirdwire game engine always anoyed me. And since I'm playing FE2 recently, there this problems are more intense,I decided to have a closer look at this issue and possible solutions. This is what I came up with: As many of you already know, the shimmering of the objects and flickering of shadows is caused by the limited precision of the z-buffer. The precision of the z-buffer depends (besides the buffers bit depth) on two values: the near clipping plane distance (znear) and the far clipping plane distance (zfar). To increase the z-buffer precision you have to shorten the interval[znear,zfar], either by decreasing zfar or by increasing znear. Whereby increasing znear is FAR more effective for increasing z-buffer precision. Changing zfar: I'm not quite sure what *.ini setting defines zfar. But I think that decreasing the horizon distance in the game options menu decreases zfar. But I found to see any (minor) effect (regarding reducing shimmering/flickering) I had to change the horizon setting to Near. But I like the horizon setting at Very Far and I will let it at Very Far. Changing znear: znear is defined in the flightengine.ini by FE2: [NearSceneClip] NearClipDistance= SF2 with object fading disabled (fading enabled I haven't investigated yet): [ForegroundSceneClip] NearClipDistance= But there is an exception: If in the <aircraft>_cockpit.ini OpenCockpit= is set to TRUE, then znear is defined by (the usually smaller value) ExternalClipDistMin=. Thats the reason why in some aircraft the shimmering happens, while in the external view it does not. The external view uses the flightengine.ini setting. The znear value has to be increased as much as possible. Unfortunately this value can not be increased arbitrary without side effects: e.g. clipping issues. You have to experiment until you find a maximum znear value without side effects. If you are lucky then the znear increase was sufficient to stop the shimmering/flickering. If not, then you have to tweak further. Tweaks against flickering shadows: Against the flickering shadows I don't know any tweaks. The only solution is to switch them off: Shadow option = High switches TOD shadows off, = Medium also switches target object shadows off. The following tweaks are meant to reduce the shimmering caused by z-fighting between the terrain and the TODs / target objects. What the tweaks do is to increase the z value distances between the terrain and the TODs / target objects. Tweak against shimmering TODs: In the <terrain>_data.ini set [solidObjectTextureMaterial] ZBufferOffset=2.0 or higher (in FE2 I set it to 5.0 to stop the shimmering) That modifies the z value by an offset so that the TODs are put a bit "forward" in the z-buffer. But this doesn't affect target objects shimmering. Tweak against shimmering target objects (and TODs). The solution I found is to modify the terrain shaders: TERTERRAINEFFECT.FX (near terrain) TERFARTERRAINEFFECT.FX (far terrain) TERWATEREFFECT0.FX (terrain with water, Water Detail = Low) TERWATEREFFECT1.FX (terrain with water, Water Detail = Medium) TERWATEREFFECT2.FX (terrain with water, Water Detail = High) In each shader I added the following lines in the vertex shader code const float zOffset = 3.0e-7; output.pos.z += zOffset * output.pos.w; That adds an offset to the z value so that the terrain is put a bit "back" in the z-buffer. This tweak ALSO affects TOD shimmering. But it has a side effect: The TOD / target object shadows are a bit shifted if viewed from greater distances. It's a tradeoff: choosing a greater zOffset value lessens the shimmering but shifts the shadows more and vice versa. You can try to decrease/increase zOffset in small steps (e.g. 1.0e-7) to see which offset fits best. The terrain shaders for FE2: fe2_zbufferoffset_shaders.zip Put the shader files (*.fx) into the Terrains\<terrain> directory. @admins/moderators: I also have modified SF2 shaders. But I don't know if the combatace policy allows to upload modified LOCKED shaders. Update: The terrain shaders for SF2: sf2_zbufferoffset_shaders.zip