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Rare photo from inside the cockpit of IRIAF F-14 intercepting Iraqi Tu-22 at high alt

Another load of happy campers winging their way across the Pacific

ODS 30 anniversary, new helos FM testing ...

top banana in the west....

I just got back from receiving my second dose of the Moderna vaccine.

We have released a new patch V1.07 for WOFF BH&H II. Please see the WOFF BH&H II download page on our website. WOFF BH&H II CHANGE LOG: Version 1.07 4 May 2021 1) Fixed an issue with Time Advance whereby days in hospital or days in captivity were not carried over to the following month correctly. 2) Balloon Attack and Defence are now special assignments to B Flight only and take place with a limited number of pilots. 3) Implemented blipping in AI rotary AC and in AI controlled player rotary AC. 4) Revised engine startup and exhaust effects. 5) Reduced cloud flickering - thanks to Buckeye Bob. 6) Revised ground explosion effects. 7) Aircraft fixes; Aviatik C.I, B.II, & 2 Aviatik trainers fixed engine extra parts visible. Se5 series tweaks to lower wing tips.

U-33 goes to war in the epic U-boat sim - that's still being improved! Back in the day, I remember buying a bargain bin, jewel-cased CD release of the original Silent Hunter WW2 submarine simulation. Even then, its graphics were somewhat dated and it had no external view, however good it might otherwise have been. Besides, it was set in the Pacific, which is well and good but my main interest in subs is in what Churchill famously said was 'the only thing that ever really frightened me during the war' - what he called 'the U-boat peril'. Hence the next in the series, Silent Hunter II, was the one I jumped at - external view AND the ability to fight the Battle of the Atlantic in one of a range of different types of U-boats. A few years latter - in 2005 - along came Silent Hunter III, with a similar setting and an excellent, open-ended campaign system, lacking mainly AI subs and therefore the simulation of wolf-pack tactics, where several boats would on radio orders from Befehlshaber der U-Boote (BdU), form, abandon and reform patrol lines across suspected convoy routes, ganging up on any they came across. Despite being on your own, SH3 must surely rank as one of the most ambitious, most comprehensive and most immersive sims ever made, in any genre. I had a few years away from simming about that time so it was only earlier this year that I dusted off my original SH3 DVD - and then bought the on-sale Steam version instead, rather than having to fiddle to get my early, Starforce-DRM protected version running on a post-Vista O/S. Like later DVD editions, Steam SH3 comes pre-patched to the latest official version (1.4b) and doesn't have Starforce. So there was I, happily really playing SH3 as if for the first time, and thinking how great a sim it still is, as I sailed out of port in my chosen boat, here an early-war Type VIIB. Heck, I even managed to sink some ships in convoy... ...and even escape the inevitable retaliation, here directed at my larger Type IXC from an aircraft which caught me on the surface, leading to a rapid crash-dive. At first, I stayed away from mods, partly as I was delighted with the vanilla game, partly because I didn't want to break anything - having seen dark warnings of Steam SH3 needing a fix of some sort applied for some mods, to avoid subsequent issues. A widescreen mod was essential; though, and here I settled on ARB's one for 1080x1020. This needs a patch applied to enable the in-game map to display properly, but it all worked and worked well. My appetite for mods thus whetted, to my rescue came Fiedler's guide to installing SH3 on Windows 10 (I'm actually playing ATM on Win 7): How to run STEAM-SH3-V1.6b-GWX-WIDESCREEN on Win10 (donitzeliteflotilla.com) [link updated 6 May] Followed carefully, this led me to other indispensable tools like SH3 Commander... ... and the Doenitz Elite Flotilla's (DEF) SH3 front end, the former adding various goodies and the latter enabling me both to make a hassle-free second install of SH3 (to which I could apply my first choice of 'mega-mod' while not risking my near-vanilla one) and to apply at the click of a mouse the 'Steam fix' without which problems can ensue. Links to the stuff mentioned I'll post at the end of this thread. I was a bit wary of going for one of the several SH3 mega mods as I preferred to have a bit of choice in my set-up. But in the end, I went for what's possibly the most popular, the Grey Wolves Expansion 3 Gold edition, commonly known as GWX3. this comes as an easy-to-use multi-part installer and while you don't then enable it via the ubiquitous JSGME, this does create several optional sub-mods which you can enable at choice - such as a 'lite' version of GWX's excellent harbour traffic. GWX massively improved the already remarkable experience SH3 was giving me. The aforementioned harbour traffic (not the lite version) is probably my favourite addition; we'll see that in action soon. Other icing on my U-boat cake was provided by the Compulsory Head-dress mod (which makes the sloppy default crewmen wear a suitable cap) and the excellent TKSS18 German U-boat Compilation (GUC), which greatly improves the already-improved GWX boat models. On top of this there is a further GUC add-on which even further improves the early Type VIIs (but needs backed out if you survive till after about 1942, as it doesn't yet include the later conning towers for these boats). Finally, having happily used DEF's tools, I signed up with the online flotilla itself, which caters for single-player as well as multi-player action. This gave me dedicated storage on Mediafire to store my patrol screenshots, and the ability to role-play (before/during/after each patrol) interaction with a real human commander based on the real-life historical person, including making realistic simulated radio reports. This added a whole extra layer of immersion for me; I felt much more invested in my boat, my crew, and my mission. You can read and see the results here: http://www.donitzeliteflotilla.com/forum/index.php?topic=3368.0 As that career is still under way, with my second patrol in U-105 due to start very soon, I decided to run a second fully offline one in parallel. The main reason for doing this was to test the stability of the GUC mod, before relying on it in my next DEF patrol. I didn't want to take any chances - for one thing you can render career files un-loadable if you apply mods during a patrol. So I wanted to try out GUC before starting out again in U-105, using the GUC's Type IXB in place of the GWX version. Good - stock SH3 Type IXB: Better - GWX3 Type IXB: Better still - GUC Type IXB: My U-105 patrol started in mid-1941 and took my big-long-ranged boat down into the Central Atlantic off Freetown, where I ran into lots of aggressive and apparently radar-equipped escorts and aircraft. For this try-out career, I decided to go for the more common and smaller Type VII, choosing U-33 in March 1940, before the fall of France opened up the bases on the French Atlantic coast. U-33 was actually a Type VIIA (U-27 to U-36 inclusive) with a prominent external stern torpedo tube and the VIIB is the nearest available substitute in SH3. I'm based at Wilhelmshaven on the Baltic coast east of Denmark, so I won't have to sail through the Kiel Canal to get into my assigned patrol area. This is in Marine Quadrat AN21, which means I'll be operating just east of Scotland's Shetland Islands. Sadly I didn't get a screenie of the map so we'll start with the view aft from the bridge, looking towards the band which is playing us out of our berth, accompanied by well wishers who include the famous SH3 nurses chucking bouquets. SH3 fans will know all of this dockside activity is quite nicely animated. 'Kleine fahrt voraus!' I get the boat moving, so as to keep up with the minesweeper up ahead, which is evidently our escort out of port. The GWX map has many pull-down features, which include mini-maps showing 'friendly' nets and minefields protecting our ports. I don't know if these are really simulated obstacles, but I don't plan on finding out the hard way. The detail on the GUC bridge is vastly better than stock SH3. For one thing, the UZO surface sight (Uberwasser Ziel Optik) isn't permanently fitted to its pedestal (the blackened peg left of centre), only when you order it brought up to the bridge. To the right is the slot for the direction finding loop antenna, which is also raised on command. Apart from the tensioners and insulators on the jump wires (which were used as radio aerials) being much better rendered, another nice feature is that you have a beautifully-animated Kriegsmarine war flag, which a key command enables you to take down after leaving port. In Silent Hunter 5, your bridge watch is scanning with binoculars even before you've left U-boat pen or quayside, but in SH3, they are relaxed until several hundred meters out - much better. The first excitement of the patrol comes unexpectedly early. My watch officer turns around and warns of approaching aircraft! Are we to be bombed before we're even clear of the port? I hastily grab my own binos. Relief - that's a Heinkel III, unless I'm very much mistaken. The five or six Heinkels roar across the port. Happily, the flak people have also identified them correctly. And the fly-boys manage to miss the barrage balloons. After that, it's more uneventful. There's plenty to see, though, including the new battleship Tirpitz, which is laid up awaiting fitting of her armament... ...and a Hipper class heavy cruiser, led by a destroyer, which passes U-33 and our own, smaller escort to starboard, as we near open waters. There's also smaller traffic like fishing boats and a solitary coal barge. Clear of the defensive nets and minefields and anxious to be on our way across the North Sea, I plot a course to the north-west and we leave our escort behind. Down in the depths of the boat, courtesy I believe of the GUC's added detail, the cook stands by his tiny stove... ...the off-duty ratings - the 'Pairs' - relax as best they can in their accommodation in the bow torpedo room... ...while other crew members attend to the engines... ...and to our five torpedo tubes. What will the Tommies have in store for us? We'll find out, soon enough! ...to be continued!

Objects may look closer than they appear! I did violate his airspace

F-5A 2000 mod...

View File Kuwaiti Navy Al Sanbouk (TNC-45) fast attack craft Hello and thank you for downloading my work. https://gkabs.net What's included: Kuwaiti Navy Al Sanbouk (TNC-45) fast attack craft model. TNC 45 TECHNICAL DATA GENERAL: TYPE: TNC 45-021B FIRST OF CLASS: AHMAD EL FATEH FIRST COMMISSIONING: 1984 DIMENSIONS & CREW: DISPLACEMENT: 285 T LENGTH: 46 M BEAM: 7.3 M DRAUGHT: 1.8 M CREW: 33 (+ 3 EMBARKED) SENSORS: COMBAT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM SEARCH RADAR NAV RADAR EO SENSOR IFF ESM / ECM LINK MISCELLANEOUS: 1 RIB CAPABILITIES: ASUW EW MARITIME PATROL AND SURVEILLANCE OPERATIONS CONFINED AND SHALLOW WATER OPERATIONS PROPULSION: 4 X DIESEL TOTAL POWER: 11,480 KW PROPELLERS: 4 X CPP SPEED: 41 KTS WEAPONS: 1 X 76/62 COMPACT 1 X 40 MM DOUBLE BARREL 4 Exocet-40MM-B2 All my files should include the Strike Fighters 2 Series game file (.old) and the texture required. (tested and work only for SF2) Installation: Copy files to their proper folder If you need any further help please read the Knowledge Base at: https://combatace.com/forums/forum/268-thirdwire-strike-fighters-2-series-knowledge-base/ 1.0.0 LICENSE: You are allowed to use this model and everything included with it for personal non-profit use for Strike fighters 1 and 2. For use outside of this scope, you need to contact me for permission. gkabs@gkabs.net Credit goes to the following: Third Wire for making this outstanding game. For everyone who helped me with the data file and they are a lot to list and I am afraid to forget someone without them I wouldn't know how the data file structure work. thank you all again Credit goes to https://www.textures.com as I use a lot of their photos to create the skins. Google for some photos and information. And finally not to forget the wonderful site of https://combatace.com and all the nice members and their dedicated support for this game. Software used: 3d Max 2009 UVLayout v2 Pro Substance Painter Adobe Photoshop If you need any assistance please contact me at gkabs@gkabs.net Submitter GKABS Submitted 05/04/2021 Category Patrol Craft  

Can I believe my eyes? A Final, Final Rick Rawlings Challenge?! How can I possibly say no to a final, final challenge? I can't, of course. And just on the off chance, and WOFF chance, that you might do something like this, Rick, I held on to all the bits and pieces needed to create the proper accoutrement. Behold! Your newest Challenge Participation Medal is ready and waiting for your approval.

Hmmm I wonder. Should I ? I did like the video.

so i was trying out balkan terrain again thought it would be interesting to see the for the allied planes to go low to avoid serb fighters (came in at 139 characters. would go more, but there are no Super Tweets in 2021 )

Playing with the Bump and Spec Maps...

Ground support.

By compufat

More work on the Chinese weapon pack J-10 SEAD with TL-20 SDB, CM102 and YJ-91 Antiradiation Missiles J-10 Escort Mission with PL-10, PL-15, PL-21 AA missiles ang KG700 ECm Pod J-10 Strike mission with YL-5 2000lg LGB and WDm-7 Targeting Pod As test plane, I am using the J-10A from the site with an EOTS added via FakePilot method. I know that I see an J-10B /J-10C somewhere as a WIP but I think It got lost and never released. If anyone have some information about chinese munitions or wants a specif weapon drop me a MP .

ok, WHERE did that correct Canberra cockpit come from???? (or only for the G?) --------- required screenie "Ready On the Cat"

View File Basic skin for Nieuport 12 Skin for excellent Nieuport 12 by Stephen1918. I tried to add some "photorealistic" textures for more impressive image of this aircraft. I removed wing cockardes and rudder's tricolor from "Decals.ini" because they were integrated in my skin. Add to Nieuport12.ini: [TextureSetXXX] Name=N12_PhR Nation=France Squadron= Specular=0.60000 Glossiness=0.600000 Reflection=0.600000 Eugene Submitter Eugene2 Submitted 05/03/2021 Category Nieuport Skins  

Another pic from my DH2 campaign with RFC 32. The DH2 has its limitations as anyone who's flown it in WOFF knows, but when flown properly it is great fun.

Actually thinking on it... also note, one new feature in BH&H II is it has progressive wing damage in now. So if damaged, and you are still whizzing around your wings could be failing! The other thing it could be - sometimes happens that if you are in external view, and something bad happens to your aircraft, then later you jump into VC some stored sounds could play.

any map can easily be converted for CV usage. you just need the lines added to the main ini for NavalMap, and the correct style _water.bmp (in proper formatting) with the CV zone painted on

Living Silent Hunter 3 I haven't tried (tho I am using the improved U-Boats from Fifi's enhancement pack for LSH2020 in my 'less modded' SH3 install). The things I was wary of with LSH were reportedly much longer load times than other mega mods (perhaps the flip side of the amount of extra content) and the fact a separate install is needed to play single missions (GWX comes with a lot of extra ones, in the same install). NYGM (Not Your Grandmother's Mod!?) also sounded good. If it had been around at the time, I'd have been tempted to go instead for OneAlex's mod, which is GWX-based and I think includes the basic GUC mod - as seen in Adger's screenshots over on SimHQ: https://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4566922/re-adieu-st-nazaire#Post4566922

https://www.lsh3.com/v15/index_en.html

After a few more tests, for those who are using my ReShade preset files - I recommend loading the one for WOTR in BH&H 2, and using the one for WOFF only in UE/PE editions of WOFF. Shaders are already somewhat brighter in stock form in WOTR/BH&H 2 than in UE/PE, particularly with my modified shaders.xml file from PE added to WOTR and BH&H 2. Pics. below are with the WOTR preset file loaded in BH&H 2 (the WOTR preset has lumasharpen and vibrancy values about 20% lower than the WOFF preset for UE/PE). And let's call that a good day's work for these tweaks - I will be quiet for a while here on the WOFF forums (and on SimHQ) as I tinker with FE2 oddities - but I will definitely be enjoying my flights in BH&H 2 and FrankenWOFF 4.18. (You've all done very well, as the young Mr. Grace would say. ) Happy WOFFing all, Von S

Nice job! I look forward to test it.

Dutch Diana

problem solve.... 1 Was setting pivot when turrets where facing backwards 2. some meshes names different then the ones on the data file thanks all for the tips and suggestions

Ha Ha BB; Bagpipe, the following link will take you directly to the Backup Utility mod: https://thatoneplease.co/WOFF/WOFFUserFilesBackupProgram.zip You should take the time to peruse the site below because their are many interesting mods there: https://thatoneplease.co/WOFF.html

Be sure to have the pivoting axis well aligned with the turret, and in the position of 0 to all angles, (looking forward) even if it is also a tailgun, because it is going to be the reference position for the angles of the INI. Like this: I oriented the turret the same way for the front and rear ones, then the angles of operations are introduced by the INIs values. Just select your yaw moving part, orient it looking at the front of the aircraft an then select "Align to World". I remember to do that when I worked with turrets. This is the only reason why your problem happen that I can imagine hahaha

last touch

The Mirage F1CG has been upgraded to version 2.4, it will be available soon. Changelog : Improved Cockpit. Reworked ini files. Reworked skins Have fun.

Dark Fulcrum

JSF_Aggie's awesome South West USA terrain is available in the downloads section, however that is a Groom Lake airfield model I've made that is currently in wip for a future update to it. I've added a couple more bits to the final version below including the fuel farm & ammunition storage at the south end and permanent 737 JANETs (big thank you to Soulfreak) at the passenger terminal:

Updated.

Some more:

Busy day at Ataturk Airport as the summer holiday season gets underway... (I needed a short break from combat missions without re-installing installing FSX) Do we have any other civilian airports with terminals/gates on any of the other terrains?

"Ahhhh, Med cruising....Nothing like it. Come for the sun & relaxing atmosphere, stay for the missile shots."

"Up in the morning with the Rising Sun"..........

The Mirage F1CG v2.3 is uploaded avec and wait for approval This version covers only the early version from 1975 to 1984, a late version will follow.