OlWilly

Control of such aircraft in VTOL mode is taken care by different control inputs. The max control speed for rudder and ailerons in Harrier is 200km/h which means that below this speed they do nothing. The maneuvering below these speeds is governed by engines themselves which is how the game simulates differential thrust I assume. This is the correct approach but the game doesn't really like any aircraft staying in the air at airspeeds close to zero. Every time I tried to make any VTOL to hover it started to show the stall behavior (which is not correct, the lack of lift is compensated by engine thrust) and just fumbled uncontrollably

I don't have much experience with SF1 content, but apparently it uses one big weaponsdata.ini file which stores the data for existing weapons. You have to add new lines to it to activate new stuff. SF2 supports individual data files in folders, so you just put new folders into the general weapons folder

More discoveries! I was playing with rudder drag (CDdc coefficient) to simulate the drag during sideslip. This is really a dirty way of dealing the with issue, but as @mue points out, the game engine simply doesn't calculate the correct force - drag due to beta Cdb. It works as intended, it is possible to increase the drag so you would start to lose speed during any slip. The byproduct is that you would also experience increased drag during coordinated turns when you apply rudder to correct for adverse yaw, but as adverse yaw in SF flightmodels is not really strong, I can live with it. But the interesting part is that the value of CDdc also seems reversed. In all data files I've seen it is set in positive. Makes sense. So, this time I picked Yak-23 as the victim for my tests and started gradually increasing the value. Not only I haven't experienced any drag effect, aircraft actually started to accelerate at full rudder. Then, I went overboard and increased CDdc all the way to 1.0 - and voila, the poor Yak instantly accelerated to supersonic speeds at full rudder. After affixing the value to negative, it started to work as intended. I went back to my control subject, stock F-100A, and effect is similar. Positive drag value decreases drag and negative value increases it. This means that every stock and modded plane actually has a reduction of total drag when giving full rudder. It's just that the values are rather low and barely noticeable.

Download Thirdwire CAT extractor, then look for the needed file in the game base .CAT files. https://combatace.com/files/file/13040-3rd-wire-toolkits-april-2012/ The tool is not really user friendly, but it does the job

So, with the valuable input from Mue, the updated instructions on rudder related fixes in data.ini (preserve the original file though). Each problem now has two solutions for your choosing Rudder roll Pick up the aircraft of your choosing. Give right rudder. Aircraft should gently roll to the right. If this doesn't happen: Easy way Find rudder in control surfaces section (two of them for twin tail aircraft). Find Cldc coefficient and put it to negative (add minus sign before the value) Example: before Cldc=0.0008, after Cldc=-0.0008 More correct way Find Clb coefficient in wing sections (left wing, right wing, left outer wing, etc). It should be in negative. Increase the absolute value in each of them until aircraft behaves correctly. The increase should be the same for left/right sections, I.E. if you increase the left for 0.05, the right should get the same increase. If this doesn't help or causes weird behavior, decrease Cldc in rudder. Example: before Clb=-0.0182, after Clb=-0.0232 for both [RightWing] and [LeftWing] Slip Pick up the aircraft of your choosing. Give right rudder and left stick to keep the wings level. Aircraft should slowly change the heading clockwise. If this doesn't happen: Easy way Find rudder in control surfaces section (two of them for twin tail aircraft). Find Cydc coefficient and put it to negative (add minus sign before the value) Example: before Cydc=0.1130, after Cydc=-0.1130 More correct way Find Cyb coefficient in fuselage and tail related sections. It should be in negative. Increase the absolute value in each of them until aircraft behaves correctly. If this doesn't help or causes weird behavior, decrease Cydc in rudder. Example: before Cyb=-0.5053, after Cyb=-0.5553 for [VertTail] Excessive swaying on yaw axis Pick up the aircraft of your choosing. Start giving full right and left rudder in quick succession. If aircraft wiggles like mad: Easy way Find EmptyInertia= line. Set the third value to 1-2 times the EmptyMass of the aircraft. Example: before EmptyInertia=68970.9,20295.1,65332.2, after EmptyInertia=68970.9,20295.1,8000.0 More correct way Find EmptyInertia= line. Gradually decrease the third value until the behavior becomes acceptable After all changes Test the aircraft before and after changes. Set up a simple 1vs1 cannon only dogfight mission, then a simple but cannon only interception mission vs level bombers (Il-28, Canberra, etc), and, finally, do some aerobatics (knife edge, hammerhead, barrel roll with rudder, etc)

Ahh, I get you. Well, firstly, as we don't have access to source code, I can't really say what the game does when we switch it to easy. And secondly, I consider the main problem to be mostly solved. Now we have even two methods of dealing with it and with applied changes the rudder does behave like it should. Coefficients could be tweaked around, but this is another story for another day. Now they do Gunfighting is easier and you can do some tricks with it Now "Knife Edge" is possible Hammerhead too

Yes! But you see, the function of horizontal stab directly depends on the relation between CoL and CoG. If CoL is right below the CoG, stab should be a symmetric airfoil and not produce any lift for level flight. If CoL is in front of CoG, stab should produce the downforce aka negative lift. And if CoL is behind the CoG, stab should produce lift. But what I say is that Strike Fighters game engine does not take this into account. You can move CGPosition= wherever you want without changing a single parameter in horizontal stab, and aircraft will fly just fine. F-100 is and old aircraft, CoG is definitely in front of CoL and this means that horizontal stab is rigged for downforce. You move CGPosition two meters behind (I just did). What should happen? It should pitch up uncontrollably immediately as it gets fast enough. But this doesn't happen. It flies absolutely fine. Now let's look at F-16. We know that it has CoG behind the CoL, so horizontal stab produces lift. But I don't see any fundamental differences between stab parameters of F-100 and F-16. In fact, I just copied stab data from F-16 to F-100. It should pitch down instantly, but it doesn't. The game simply doesn't care. It doesn't calculate these forces deep enough. Yes, it works. In fact, we can just purge Cydc and Cldc from the rudder and work with wings, fuselage and tail instead. But effect is the same. I think the game treats these values as the same (Clb = Cldc and Cyb = Cydc). We can either increase Clb and Cyb values or simply put Cldc and Cydc into negative as "force multipliers". The latter is simply easier

Could be, but I really don't see the point in flying on Easy or Normal Flight settings. Even Hard is very forgivable compared to other sims or real life I wouldn't say so. The game was originally geared to jet gunfighter era, so you have stock planes that did (or were meant to do) a lot of gunfighting, like various MiGs, Super Sabres, Crusaders, French fighters, even Phantoms... But gunfighting without proper rudder is a torture. You need rudder to gently slip your aircraft left or right without banking to keep the sights where you need them to be. I can't say that I am particularly good virtual fighter pilot, but I know how to shoot. But in Strike Fighters, this turned out to be a real embarrassment for me. Even if target flying straight and I have all the time in the world to line up a shot - I still miss. The worst part was when I tailed enemy fighter for 20 (!) minutes, solid on his tail and still couldn't land a good shot. Yes, SF AI likes to jink very actively, but it does it in very predictable manner: up - down, left - right, force overshoot... I know that the problem isn't me because I never had such problems in Il-2 or Lock On or DCS... After fixing the rudder, gunnery became way more pleasant as aircraft does what I expect it to do and now I can enjoy some good jet dogfights

I concur. We apply right rudder. Vertical stab starts producing lift which pushes the tail to the left. But as aircraft "pivots" around its CoG the nose is getting pushed to the right! This is the yaw - Cndc. The CoG is the "pivot point" of any such movement. Notice that when you use elevators, the entire aircraft doesn't go up or down - it affects only the pitch, so you have tail going down but nose going up. This is very similar, only on different axis. The rolling moment is generated by different airflow over both wings. With right yaw, the right wing generates less lift, left wing generates more lift and you get the right hand roll - Cldc. And lastly, the yaw causes relative wind to hit the side of the aircraft, which turns it right and generates a substantial amount of drag - Cydc . This is why sideslip is often used to lose the energy quickly. Images attached. ------------------------ But if you still don't agree. Fire up any other flight simulator. DCS, Lock On, any of Il-2s, MSFS, X-plane, Flightgear, Falcon... Or hop in a real aircraft if you are lucky. Give hard right rudder. What do you see? The plane is yawing and rolling to the right. Apply left stick to keep the wings level. What do you see again? The plane is slowly turning to the right and bleeds energy quickly. Now do the same in any stock planes in Strike Fighters. They may rudder roll correctly (depends on the plane), but they won't slip turn at all. Then apply the changes I described - Cydc, Cldc and Cndc in rudder all negative. And you will see that the plane starts behaving correctly. Rudder turning can be used to turn the aircraft without banking - but it is inferior to banking turn because turnrate is much lower and drag increase is profound (also major risk of getting into a spin) But it is mandatory during air combat when you need to keep sights on the target without banking. I don't really have to touch other coefficients because the changes I described already do the job. The one issue I discovered though - the sideslip doesn't cause any additional drag at all. Even at hard sideslip the plane doesn't lose energy at all, you can even go supersonic. Do you think this could be fixed? I thought about increasing drag of the rudder as a crutch but this simply feels wrong.

For the clarity, let's establish what is a rudder and how it works. Vertical stabilizer is essentially a symmetric airfoil - it doesn't produce lift at zero AoA, aka aircraft flying straight. But as we deflect the rudder, the lift is starting to get produced. Imagine that vertical stab is a vertical wing, and rudder is a flap - this is easier to understand. Now, let's say we give right rudder. Vertical stab starts creating lift which pushes the tail to the left. Aircraft "pivots" around its center of gravity, so nose gets pushed to the right. Voila, we achieved a yaw, now longitudinal axis of our aircraft is misaligned to the vector of speed. This is called the yaw angle. This creates two effects. As we now flying "sideways", the airflow over right and left wings is different, and they create different amounts of lift. In our case, right wing creates less lift, left wing more, and aircraft rolls to the right. This is rudder roll. Then, the relative wind hits the side of our aircraft, in our case the left side. This pushes the aircraft to the right, making it slowly turn right. This is rudder turn. All of these effects happen on the same side - I.E., as we give right rudder, we get right yaw, right roll and right turn. For aircraft with unorthodox control surfaces like spoilers on B-2 or fully moving vertical stabs on YF-23 the effects are the same. After checking more rudder settings on modded and stock planes I found that most of them are messed up. I am not talking the tune-up of coefficients themselves, they simply have the wrong signs. With the default settings, rudder yaws aircraft correctly, but tries to roll and turn it in the opposite side. This is weird and wrong. After looking on the forum, I found this thread from 2009 with the guy complaining about the same thing: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/60218-question-about-flight-model-sideway-g-force/ So the issue is really old, and I can't think of how to explain it. I can't believe that this is an oversight, in so many planes and over multiple games and expansions packs and patches... Likewise, I don't think that the devs didn't understand how this works. The coefficients are in place after all. So the only answer is that this was done deliberately for some reason

I've been having problems with rudder behavior in SF2 ever since I picked up the game. It not only behaves weird, but also has very limited effectiveness. The two main problems: - sideslips and slipturns seem to be impossible. Aircraft barely reacts to rudder movements in these aspects and just keeps flying with barely any change in heading. This means that rudder gives you only yaw angle and no slip force at all. - the annoying "rocking", "swaying" motion. As you apply rudder (or return it to neutral) and aircraft yaws accordingly, it then starts to sway on yaw axis like a boat on the sea - before finally stabilizing. This is present in other sims too, but not to the same degree as in SF2. Moreso, in SF2 using rudder you can wiggle the aircraft on yaw like a dog's tail which is completely insane. For digging deeper I firstly picked up MiG-15bis from download section as it seems to have the worst rudder behavior. I will post excerpts from data file with my comments. [FlightControl] PitchDamper=0.0 RollDamper=0.0 YawDamper=0.5 AutoTrimLimit=0.0 Initially, I set up all these values to zero for the purity of experiment. Yawdamper is at zero in majority of aircraft I checked. Afterwards, I applied YawDamper=0.5 to damp the smaller swaying motion of the aircraft. Touching other parameters here is not required [AircraftData] EmptyMass=3668.0 EmptyInertia=21264.0,7800.6,1800.0 It goes as pitch, roll and yaw inertia. No need to touch the first two parameters, and the last is one of the main factors contributing to the said behavior. I played with values a little bit. At really high yaw inertia (I tried as much as 20 times the empty weight), aircraft sways slowly but with high amplitude, exactly like a boat. At lower values, swaying is faster but has smaller amplitude and ends quicker - which is more like the real thing. I think values of 0.5 - 2 times the empty weight are optimal here. [LeftAileron] / [RightAileron] CDdc=0.0201 //drag Cldc=0.0395 //roll Cndc=-0.005 //yaw ControlRate=4.0 I am not touching table data because I really have no idea about it. These coefficients are simpler to understand though. For the clarity, positive value means the movement opposite to the direction of deflection. Negative value is in the same direction as deflection. Thus, Cldc=0.0395 on left aileron means that aircraft will roll in direction opposite to aileron deflection. No need to touch CDdc. Cldc has no effect on the rudder, you can play around with it if you want better or worse roll rate. Cndc is the adverse yaw. Aircraft tends to yaw slightly in direction opposite to roll, the effect discovered long time ago by Wright brothers, so make sure this value is opposite to Cldc. ControlRate affects the speed at which control surface moves after your input. I don't think it is necessary to change it [Rudder1] /[Rudder2] (this model has split rudders with their effects combined, the same applies to models with one rudder) CDdc=0.0162 //drag Cydc=-0.12 //side force Cldc=-0.0024 //roll Cndc=-0.028 //yaw CDdc=0.0123 //drag Cydc=-0.10 //side force Cldc=-0.0016 //roll Cndc=-0.02 //yaw Once again, drag is ignored Cydc is the side force caused by slip. It should be in negative as aircraft will slip in the same direction as rudder applied. Curiously, original file had it positive and aircraft tried to slip in the opposite direction. This is the reason for lack of slip! Cldc is the rudder roll caused by different airspeeds over inner and outer wings during slip and thus, different amounts of lift. Likewise, should be in negative as aircraft rolls in the same direction as rudder applied, and once again, in original file it was positive. Cndc is the yawing motion and the main source of swaying. It should be negative too, otherwise, doesn't require much tuning. With the given changes, the handling of the aircraft (at least for me) improved a lot, and gunnery became way more easier. The swaying motion remained only on minute, abrupt rudder inputs and I can finally feel the rudder working, including slipturns too. To confirm my discoveries, I looked into the stock F-100A. It has the same behavior, persistent swaying on yawing, possible to be wiggled around violently and no slip present. [FlightControl] YawDamper=0.5 Applied yaw damper, rest left untouched. [AircraftData] EmptyMass=8226.0 EmptyInertia=68970.9,20295.1,8000.0 Original had yaw inertia well over 100000. Not sure why it is always set up so high, I set it up of around 1 time empty weight [LeftAileron] / [RightAileron] CDdc=0.0356 //drag Cldc=0.0690 //roll Cndc=-0.0075 //yaw All values left as in original, except I turned Cndc to negative. Curiously, original had it in positive meaning that it had no adverse yaw [Rudder] CDdc=0.0097 //drag Cydc=-0.1130 //side force Cldc=-0.0008 //roll Cndc=-0.0730 //yaw Didn't touch the drag and yaw, but, most curiously, original had Cydc and Cldc as positive! This means that on right rudder it tried to slip to the left which, if effect, left it flying straight. For some reason, even with Cldc positive it rolled in the correct direction - most likely other factors at play. Anyway, with Cldc at negative it performs rudder rolls better. I haven't changed the numerical values themselves in Sabre's rudder and aileron coefficients above - only turned three of them to negative. And just like with MiG, the handling improved a lot. Thus, the conclusion: - yaw damper 0.5 - yaw inertia 0.5 - 2 times of empty weight - make sure that adverse yaw is present - Cndc of ailerons has opposite sign to Cldc - make sure that Cydc and Cldc of rudder have the same sign as Cndc - tweaking coefficients not required! I attach both files for you to try, I am curious if you notice the improvement in handling or it became worse for you instead Oh, and forgot to add - all tested on Hard FM settings in options only F-100A_DATA.ini MIG-15BIS_DATA.ini

I fly around with no external indication at all, so to find my way around I have to use NAV equipment; in case of older planes this is navigational marker on radiocompass. Oftentimes, instead of correct bearing it chooses to show me the butt for some reason. This is the case, for example, for F-106 pit and others based on it After looking into the matter the culprit is found. Originally, it looks like this: [CourseArrow] Type=COURSE_ARROW NodeName=HSIcenter MovementType=ROTATION_Z ValueUnit=DEG Set[01].Position=00.0 Set[01].Value=0.0 Set[02].Position=360.0 Set[02].Value=360.0 [CourseCounter] Type=COURSE_ARROW CounterNodeFormat=course_dig%d MovementType=ANALOG_COUNTER ValueUnit=DEG While it should be: [CourseArrow] Type=BEARING_MARKER NodeName=HSIcenter MovementType=ROTATION_Z ValueUnit=DEG Set[01].Position=00.0 Set[01].Value=0.0 Set[02].Position=360.0 Set[02].Value=360.0 [CourseCounter] Type=BEARING_MARKER CounterNodeFormat=course_dig%d MovementType=ANALOG_COUNTER ValueUnit=DEG After looking into the pits made by Stary, the following is found too: [CourseArrow] Type=BEARING_MARKER //Type=COURSE_ARROW NodeName=course_arrow MovementType=ROTATION_Y ValueUnit=DEG Set[01].Position=00.0 Set[01].Value=0.0 Set[02].Position=360.0 Set[02].Value=360.0 [BearingMarker] Type=MAGNETIC_COMPASS //Type=BEARING_MARKER NodeName=bearing_marker MovementType=ROTATION_Y ValueUnit=DEG Set[01].Position=00.0 Set[01].Value=0.0 Set[02].Position=360.0 Set[02].Value=360.0 So apparently, CourseArrow became BEARING_MARKER while BearingMarker is now just MAGNETIC_COMPASS. Not sure when it happened, between SF1 and SF2 (never played SF1 for that matter), or later during updates... In case if you encounter the same problem and want it gone, find the node which is ought to show you the correct course and define it as BEARING_MARKER. Works for analog counters as well

Sadly, the implementation of ARMs in Strike Fighters is just bad. The only thing you can do with them is to loft them in LOAL mode, that's all. Thus, the only viable tactic is... To know the effective range of your missile at the given altitude and airspeed. Let's say we have Shrike and go low, this should be around 10-15NM. Then, you had to get the azimuth and range on the radar you want to attack, from RWR for example or from pre-flight. When the range is met - when you are closer than 15NM from the target, lob your missiles towards it and hope that they will lock, immediately turn away. Other modes of use are simply not modeled. For example, Shrike could lock before the launch, it was similar to Sparrow in floodlight mode, Shrike's seeker could lock emitters in the narrow cone in front - giving the pilot a tone when lock was obtained. Ho HUD, no dedicated display was needed - just turn on the target emitter and wait for a tone. Later ARMs displayed spotted emitters to the pilot either on display or on a HUD, letting the pilot to select them for attack. ARMs with more range were often paired with detecting equipment, which likewise spotted the emitters and displayed them to pilot. Missile will go most of the way on INS and switch to seeker when close to the target

Strike Fighters game engine does really have a problem with drawing distant objects, which is the most noticeable with stock assets. I assume the game was developed with having "markers on" in mind, so this wasn't considered as a some kind of problem. The solution is to have at least target markers on, otherwise, suffer from planes going invisible In my set-up, I have all indication disabled except for red box on selected target

Yes, it is a picture from Polish training dogfight, made by MiG-21bis One of a dozen photographs taken during a simulated dogfight during the visit of four Dutch F-16s (323 Squadron) to Zegrze Pomerania in 1999. The hit was made by the pilot, captain. Andrzej Kilar. The photograph was analyzed and processed by a senior staff member Wieslaw Sieradski - head of OKL. The photographs captured the beautiful sequences of the aiming, the hit itself, and the takeoff. The pilots were present together during the analysis of the materials. The photo above was given to the Dutch pilot as a reminder of the event