Jump to content

Leaderboard


Popular Content

Showing most liked content on 01/18/2024 in all areas

  1. 12 points
    Finito . Will be available soon ... 2 weeks ;-)))
  2. 12 points
    I got my copy of Strike Fighters Project 1 shipped over to me just after the Wallmart release. Anything with Phantoms got my instant attention..........I "played" it for around 6 months then thought I'd have a go at this skinning lark, I uploaded my first skins to Avsim. In those days SimHq was the place to go & once SF P1 had got itself established a forum was soon set up over there but there still was'nt really anywhere to upload your work to other than Avsim....that's when Don aka Column5 setup the website as seen above. Most of us "modders" were in touch with each other behind the scenes using msn messenger or ICQ and that's the way we got stuff done, files were shuffled about between us so fast it was sometimes hard to keep up, I'd sometime have up to 10 skins on the go at any one time but tried to have one finished completely new ( as is, started from scratch, no lines,paint or anything ) skin a week, either for my own choice or for TMF or whatever project was on the go at the time. Those were the "good old days" always something new coming out, I'm mean "completely new", not like the re-release of a re-release that we get a lot of nowadays, there was always something to look forward to......then TK would release a patch which resulted in the mad scramble to see what's new and what had got removed or ended up broken. It was all good fun though, and even though most of us old heads have moved on or even worse died (RIP) it's good to see that we do still have an active community to keep the old girl alive and kicking. There are still plenty of quality mods available here to keep folks interested and that's what counts. But we must also remember that without Erik providing this haven for all our work then the whole Strike Fighters family would of died off a long time ago. So a big thanks to; TK Modders past and present Erik And good old "joe public" for enjoying what we do. Blimey......it's taken over 2 hours to type this lot up....
  3. 6 points
    I'm very happy to announce that v0.9.8 of Operation Desert Storm has just been uploaded and will soon be available for download here at CombatACE.com once it's approved. You're advised to read all details on how to properly install and run the mod. In case of issues, also have a look at the offered suggestions included in the mod's page, which have been updated with new solutions. In case you missed the previous announcement showcasing many of the new additions and improvements, you can read about it all here: Since the announcement was made, in a mere month the team has worked much to fix some other long-standing issues and improve the overall quality consistency of the mod even further! Here below a change log of all major tweaks on top of the ones already mentioned in the previous thread: Standardized brightness and range values of landing lights for all aircraft of the mod. Standardized values for the DetectSystem data of all aircraft, namely MaxVisibleDistance, BaseRCSModifier and HeatSignatureModifier. Added brand new Mirage F1CR by the Mirage F1 Team, with specific tweaks for the ODS mod. Added brand new, proper 3d model for the CVA-59 Forrestal-class aircraft carrier, made by guuruu. Added proper Saudi Arabian E-3A 3d model (E-3A with CFM engines) made by Sundowner. Added Victory Arch aka Swords of Qadisiyah landmark to Baghdad, with 3d models recreated by swambast. Added new hi-res skins for the KC-135A by using templates produced by yakarov79, alongside improved tail decals. Added new hi-res skins for the E-3B/C Sentry by daddyairplanes with templates produced by yakarov79. Added improved skins with more accurate panel lines and colors for the F-15C, F-15D and F-15E aircraft, by daddyairplanes. Added unused AI-only Transfer mission type to all cargo aircraft of the mod. Added missing position/navigation lights on the KC-10 and VC10 K2 aircraft. Improved all ECM data (fixed or removed where necessary) in all relevant aircraft of the mod in order to provide more realistic gameplay. Improved aircraft data for all Mirage F1s for proper AI use of ECM and countermeasures, by pvince. Improved SoundList.ini data for better doppler effects, extended sound range for engines and explosions, by guuruu. Improved LandingAimPoint values for the decks of the CVA-63 and CVN-68 carriers to prevent aircraft from missing the deck. Fixed several issues with AI failing to properly land with more than two dozens of aircraft in the mod (mainly cargo planes). Fixed the AI not landing properly on carriers with S-3, F/A-18s and AV-8B aircraft. Fixed inaccurate values of service ceiling, radius/range, empty weight and fuel capacity on AI-only heavy aircraft (cargo planes, tankers, etc.). Fixed missing or wrongly displayed landing lights on several aircraft of the mod. Fixed overlapping parking spot reported by Viper63a on Ali Al-Salem and Ahmed Al-Jaber airfields by Jimbib. Fixed weapon stations for the F-15C and F-15D aircraft, so that AIM missiles won't be hanging in mid-air without CFTs and their pylons. Fixed Harold pod hanging in mid-air on the center pylon of the Mirage 2000RAD. Fixed inaccurate ECM/CM data and avionics for the Jaguar A, by pvince. I want to thank all previous modders and contributors of CombatACE.com mod that have helped make this happen. In particular, I want to thank @guuruu, @Sundowner, @daddyairplanes, @swambast and @pvince for their last minute efforts in producing brand new additions and improvements. Brand new Forrestal-class aircraft carrier with working weapons and night lighting by @guuruu. Brand new Saudi Arabian E-3A (E-3A with CFM engines) 3d model by @Sundowner with skin and decals by @PeacePuma. Victory Arch aka Swords of Qadisiyah landmark in Baghdad with 3d models recreated by @swambast. While you're waiting for the mod to be approved or while it's being installed on your system, you can enjoy this video by fellow YouTuber and flight sim enthusiast "damson", whom I thank for his testing of the mod and for the very useful feedback he provided about it:
  4. 6 points
    I've been hit by a big wave of nostalgia!
  5. 6 points
    Tell me how you feel about seeing this page... I am very fond of Colum5, it brings back many good memories like when you remember a song... and from here I discovered the CA site... for the nostalgic, I leave you a link to the old one. site in all its glory https://web.archive.org/web/20100428115038/http://www.column5.us/aircraft.shtml
  6. 5 points
    If anyone experience the same problem as Sundowner did (TODEditor freezing after opening/saving some TOD files): I uploaded a minor update (version 0.1.2) of the TODEditor. It now uses the native Windows file dialog. That should fix the freezing issue.
  7. 5 points
    I always got a kick when Column5 would decorate his page commie style for May day.
  8. 4 points

    Version 0.9.8.1

    5,659 downloads

    Welcome To Duty Built with the extraordinary expertise and dedication of modders from CombatACE.com, Operation Desert Storm – 30th Anniversary Edition promises to be the most complete total conversion ever made for Strike Fighters 2 by ThirdWire. Fly with more than 50 aircraft ranging from Cold War relics to the most advanced platforms. Gain air superiority in the mighty F-15C Eagle or challenge the Coalition with the agile Fulcrum. Support troops with the A-10A Thunderbolt II, bomb strategic targets with the stealthy F-117A Nighthawk, lead airfield denial operations in the iconic Tornado. Enjoy a beautifully rendered scenario on a scaled and accurate terrain. Fly over the lakes and rivers of Mesopotamia, the oil-rich fields of Kuwait, the mountains of Iran and Turkey. Take-off from aircraft carriers stationed in the Persian Gulf to watch over Kuwaiti oil rigs. Perform landings and patrols in more than 90 airports and air bases in the Middle East. Take part in different campaigns including the Iraqi blitzkrieg on Kuwait and the US-led liberation of the Kuwaiti Emirate. Discover how the Iraqi Army was one of the biggest in the world, through the eyes of American, British, Canadian, French, Italian and Arab pilots. Test your skills and abilities flying for the Iraqi Air Force during all stages of the conflict. Thirty years after, Operation Desert Storm still remains the largest air operation of modern warfare to date. Modders and flight sim enthusiasts at CombatACE teamed up to bring you a unique product in the lite flight sim world. Exquisitely detailed aircraft and paint schemes are delivered in a well-researched and thorough order of battle. The ODS 30th AE Development team would like to thank CombatACE.com, its admins, moderators and contributors. We are sure you will enjoy and appreciate this high-quality freeware product. From the aviation enthusiasts, to the aviation enthusiasts... and for the pilots of tomorrow. Minimum Requirements Required products from ThirdWire: Strike Fighters 2, July 2013 patch Strike Fighters 2: Israel, July 2013 patch Strike Fighters 2: North Atlantic, July 2013 patch Full support for: Mission Editor DLC Campaign Customizer DLC System specs: OS: Windows 7 x86 Processor: Dual Core 2.7 GHz Memory: 4.0 GB RAM Hard Drive: 17.0 GB Free Space Video Card: 1024 MB DirectX 10 Sneak Peek Disclaimer CombatACE.com shall at all times retain ownership of the Software as originally downloaded by you and all subsequent downloads of the Software by you. The Software (and the copyright, and other intellectual property rights of whatever nature in the Software, including any modifications made thereto) are and shall remain the property of CombatACE.com and of the respective developers/modders. In no event, unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, shall CombatACE.com, or any person be liable for any loss, expense or damage, of any type or nature arising out of the use of, or inability to use this installer or program, including, but not limited to, claims, suits or causes of action involving alleged infringement of copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, or unfair competition. The Operation Desert Storm: 30th Anniversary Edition modification does NOT comply with CombatACE's Freeware Licensing. Various contents of this modification are exclusive, as such you are NOT allowed to share, redistribute and/or make use of the mod and/or its contents for other purposes, without the consent of the mod's developers. Contents of the modification are the copyright of their respective authors. Notes about the installer Beware, the mod is available only in the ISO format. You can either mount it on a virtual drive, burn it on a DVD like in the good old days, or unzip it with 7-Zip or equivalent software. The installer will automatically detect your installation of the required Strike Fighters 2 games by reading through the registry keys. Game folders that are copied from or manually moved from where they were originally installed are not supported. You need all three aforementioned Strike Fighters 2 games and they must be installed with ThirdWire's original installers, not manually copied from other sources nor moved elsewhere after installation to other folders or drives. If you do not meet any of these requirements, installation cannot proceed and you are on your own. If you install all required games properly, the installation of the mod will proceed correctly as intended. The installer then lets you choose where to install the mod folder; you can even install the mod on a different drive or partition than the one where Strike Fighters 2 is installed. No further user input nor manual edits after installation are ever required; the installer takes care of creating all proper links to your desired path for the mod folder. After installation is over, simply run the mod by using the created Desktop and/or Start Menu links. If you have a previous version of the mod installed, please use the uninstaller to remove it completely. Clean installation is mandatory. You might want to make a backup of the Controls folder, so that you can easily restore your controller settings afterwards. Suggestions on common issues Make sure that you are using your dedicated GPU. By default, Strike Fighters 2 usually selects the integrated GPU you may have on your CPU, which is much weaker in terms of VRAM. In case you have frequent crashes or black/missing textures, I highly suggest you download and install the DXVK graphics wrapper (x86 DLLs) into your Strike Fighters 2 game folder: https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk. You need a Vulkan-compatible GPU. The wrapper can greatly improve the experience with the mod. With DXVK I can play the mod on a mere Intel UHD 710, whereas without it the mod would always crash to desktop. Go to Sound and set Sound Channels to 32. We got reports that 16 is not enough and will cause crashes on some systems, due to the higher quality sounds included within the mod. The mod is pretty heavy for the game engine despite huge optimizations. Strike Fighters 2's engine is 32bit only and apparently does not manage VRAM properly; consecutive campaign missions might show black/missing textures on objects or cause crashes to desktop because the game does not release the occupied VRAM from the previous mission you played, thus the more missions are loaded consecutively, the more easily you may run out of memory. Set Ground Objects to Medium or Low, Horizon Distance to Near, and Shadows to Medium or Low. These are the most troubling settings. Avoid Unlimited settings as much as possible. If the mod used to work and suddenly crashes to desktop, updating or reinstalling video drivers should help. Make sure that DirectX June 2010 Redistributables are also installed, they are included inside the ISO disk image of the mod. Inside the mod folder, you'll find some extra text files. "(Coalition Order of Battle)" should be of your interest; the mod's terrain covers the entirety of Iraq, at the cost of not having all of Saudi Arabia; this means that a number of important units are based on airbases that are beyond the in-game playable area. With those units you always spawn near the target area, you'll never get to start from a runway nor to land on the assigned runway beyond the invisible wall. You have an entire list of the affected units in the aforementioned text file. By pressing ALT+N, the plane returns to base automatically. The mod is fully compatible with the Campaign Customizer and Mission Editor DLCs by ThirdWire. The Campaign Customizer might be an alternative way to experience those off map units I mentioned previously, since it assigns you to a random airbase of the in-game flyable area. Escort missions are often broken, this is not an issue of the mod, but a bug of the stock game; sometimes the AI flight you escort does not engage its target and keeps flying in a straight line instead of following waypoints, thus the trigger for mission success will never happen. Abandon the mission or retry it if the issue happens, sometimes it works. Pray for ThirdWire AKA Tsuyoshi Kawahito to work on a 64bit version of Strike Fighters 2, maybe even with support for DirectX 12. With that done, any out of memory issues should become an old memory.
  9. 4 points
    What got me into SF?? I don't want to think that far back....(2005). Lets just say, that coming from the Janes USNF/ATF/FA series (where I built a boatloao of novel conversion mission sets) I was given to understand this was 'the next FA". Unfortunately, it never had the in depth mission builder FA had. But hey, I"m still here. You bunch are stuck with me!
  10. 4 points
    The last eye candy , some additional tests and we're done .
  11. 3 points
  12. 2 points
    Saab Draken F.2A - No.23 'Red Eagle' Squadron, RAF Strike Command, 1991
  13. 2 points
    In 2003... I discovered SFP1 with later WoV, WoE and WoI. I played FE also. In 2006... I met Combat Ace and the TW games community. Today I play only with SF2. SF2 (and FE2) is in my opinion very playable with its full "moddability". Here at Combat Ace I have found plenty of friends thanks to the games of TK !!! P.
  14. 2 points
    As a kid Flight of the Intruder on the Amiga which was by the same guys that did Falcon probably swayed me towards the Cold War era - thinking it even had inbuilt ROE (?) dont know. Picked up SFP1 about 2004 which had Vietnam era jets so a natural progression - nothing else was like that.
  15. 1 point
    I've updated the downloads for the DxWnd profiles using a newer version of the Wrapper (wrapper by ghotik). I placed the profiles in a single download now. Current Location of this Download: https://eaw.neocities.org/files-my-downloads.html
  16. 1 point
    which can be easily bypassed https://combatace.com/store/
  17. 1 point
    and yet you use the "dont quote the dark magic to me witch" or "i was there, 3000 years ago" way too little....
  18. 1 point
  19. 1 point
    The communication ship SS Layton has become disabled and has wandered into foreign territory. A rescue operation will soon begin. Your mission is to give it air support. There are MiGs in the area. If you witness a hostile act, return fire. This is the real thing. This is what you've been trained for. Make us proud. Ice, Hollywood, sector two.
  20. 1 point
    I tried it on mine after I posted this and it looks like TracIR (or at least its drivers) override the workshop settings. Beard
  21. 1 point
    I saw a copy of Wings Over Europe on the shelf at Best Buy in the summer of 2006. Up to that point my flying games were Ace Combat or MSFS 2004. I tried LOMAC but my 13 year old dumbass didn't know what computer specs were so it barely worked on my home PC. I played it bone stock for about a year and then discovered that there were indeed mods for it when I found Column 5's old website and CombatAce soon after.
  22. 1 point
    is that the old F-16B? meanwhile, flying escort for an airdrop in the Balkans...
  23. 1 point
    Logans MiG-Ye-8 in action: Heading for incoming raid. Intercepting incoming raid. Successful attack The raider is going down Heading home. (Mission flown over Kuril Islands terrain. Normally the bird should have a Red Star marking, but since start of Ukraine War i have some problems with this marking.Thatswhy East German markings.)
  24. 1 point
  25. 1 point
    One of the most beautiful old school planes
  26. 1 point
    My father told me I couldn't learn to fly just by reading books, that I needed experience. When I was in the 5th grade, one of his friends had gotten his pilot license and started flying for the police department. First, I got a few minutes at the controls of a Piper Cherokee after we were already in the air, when everyone went up together. After that flight, the pilot and I went up in a Cessna 152, so I got 100% of the time at the controls. He taxied the Cessna 152 to the runway, then let me takeoff and fly for a bit. My takeoff was too steep, so he had me lower the nose a tad to avoid a stall. After I did some ovals and figure 8's, he took over to do some maneuvers like zero g stalls, falling leaf, etc. I didn't get to try landing. The same police pilot was going to take me up in the police helicopter. But the day that was supposed to happen, an upper level supervisor came to the field, so all I got was a nice lunch. I have had only one ride in a helo. I was hanging out the side door of a UH-1H flying nap-of-earth over the Hudson River. I would rather have gotten to try taking the controls, but it was still a great helo ride. When I joined the Civil Air Patrol in the 6th grade, they gave us some flight time in a Cessna 172. Each person got about 10-15 minutes on each flight. The ranking officer was an ex-Navy fighter pilot and he was the one taking us up. Both he and his son commented on the exceptional coordination of my turns with zero instruction. By the time I left the Civil Air Patrol in the 7th grade, I had maybe two to three hours total time at the controls. I don't recall doing any takeoffs or landings in the Civil Air Patrol. Fast forward to college: my father had met a young pilot flying cargo hops around Tampa Bay every day from 5 AM to 5 PM in a Piper Arrow that only had front seats. He had an empty seat and was more than happy to let me fly with him. So, I skipped classes and went to fly. He let me fly most of the route, including takeoffs and landings (there were multiple stops). He handled the radio calls. I had trouble steering/braking on the ground with the brake pedals: unlike before, I was now a licensed driver and instinctively tried to steer with the wheel and also had trouble using the pedals to steer while applying even or no pressure to the brakes. So, my biggest problem the entire day was slowing down after touchdown, when I would start inducing left/right oscillation. What impressed him was that we flew through several clouds and I had no problem flying by instruments. Other than a little oscillation trying to hold a particular altitude, I could stay on course and speed with a level bank. After that long day, plus a chance to fly out to the desert, land, and fly back to the airfield in San Diego while in the Navy, I have over 15 hours of stick time with several landings and even more takeoffs... none of it logged and no work toward getting a license. So, at about 10 years old with no formal training, I could fly visually from takeoff to a safe cruising altitude. By the time I was in college, I couldn't follow radio protocols and was very shaky at steering after touchdown, but could otherwise fly, including on instruments through clouds. I had zero flight time from 7th grade (1981) to college (1988). But I did have a Timex Sinclair 1000 (Sinclair ZX81 in Europe) that had a very basic flight simulator that was keyboard controlled and really slow update rate. Later, I had a Timex Sinclair 2068 (Sinclair Spectrum in Europe) that could use two Atari joysticks to fly an F-15 (Digital Integration's "Fighter Pilot" game) and an AH-64 Apache (Digital Integration's Tomahawk). While the graphics were crude, that forced you to fly by instruments rather than looking outside, which more than prepared me for flying a Piper on a cargo run. I could easily get off the ground, bore holes in the sky, and probably get back down on the ground without crashing in Cessnas and Pipers. But, I did not know how to communicate and had zero ability to use the charts and slide-rule tool to navigate. I did prove I could fly by beacons when provided the necessary information on the all-day cargo run. I wouldn't want to try to fly larger or faster aircraft without the opportunity to get a feel for the controls. But between my real-world experience in light civil aircraft and years of PC flight simming complete with rudder pedals and toe-brakes, I am confident I wouldn't do too bad in many fixed wing aircraft if I had to.There is a true story about a mechanic stealing an A-4 Skyhawk. He got it off the ground, did some aerobatics, and landed safely. His flight training/experience was being a decent glider pilot as a hobby. The military wouldn't let him become a pilot, so he decided to take the one chance he had to fly the Skyhawk. Most people would have been court-martialed and sent to prison. However, in this case, they decided that since his service record had been very good prior to this incident and he didn't damage the aircraft at all, that they would just discharge him immediately. He did have a lot of hours in gliders, but a 500 mph A-4 is a lot different than a glider. I would like to think that if he could pull that off, that I could have gotten an F-4 in the air, too. I don't think the landing would go as well, but who knows. Every chance I got to fly for real, I showed both a natural aptitude and a full understanding of what I was seeing both on the gauges and outside the aircraft. But there is one more part to my already long-winded story: my wife gave me an orientation flight as a gift one year. I had 30 minutes to try out flying a "sport" aircraft. The aircraft looked a lot like a Cessna, but was much smaller to meet the size/weight requirements for a fair-weather VFR day-only sport license. This was about 10 years ago, after years of flying flight sims. Because of its size and weight, it handled more like a large RC model than a Cessna. The controls were very light and easy to move. The cockpit was a modern "glass" cockpit with GPS navigation, real-time 3d maps, etc. The side-by-side seating was a little cramped with almost no headroom. The big difference was that as an older adult, I was now more concerned about overstressing the aircraft and flying smoothly/safely than having fun pushing the aircraft limits. So, unlike previous years, I flew more like a little old lady trying to slowly merge into high-speed 5-lane interstate traffic than someone who would have been willing to try to get an F-4 off the ground by myself. I am not the same confident/arrogant person I was during my college/Navy years, during which time I drove my 1974 Firebird and 1980 Corvette like I had a death wish. I am now fully aware of my mortality and how much pain a crash could cause as well as any financial penalties for totaling an aircraft and possibly damaging other people's property or even injuring/killing other people. But if I was in an F-4 that had rear seat controls, I would still try to fly the F-4 if given the chance with someone in the backseat to keep me from doing something too stupid. Of course, no one in their right mind would let me do that even if I were sitting in the backseat, so they could have full vision and full control.
  27. 1 point


×

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue..