streakeagle

That is one cool paint job! I would like it better if the orange were the same as the German flag yellow, but it looks fantastic just the way it is. It is the original colors in Froot Loops plus the black nose for the beak :)

Good stuff :)

Aerial battleship? Really? In your dreams! Though there are some in power who think that way: B-1R Better yet, simply use large zeppelin as a combination AWACS/missile launcher. Endurance could be weeks... only limit would be crew supplies/comfort.

Love the dog dressed as an AT-AT.

The Luftwaffe's problem was just the reverse: instead of fielding the Me-262 as soon as they could have, they delayed service entry and when it did finally enter service misused it as an attack aircraft rather than air superiority. The Luftwaffe did exactly what you said they should do: they cranked out Bf109s (more or less equal to P-51s) forever and supplemented them with Fw190s (more or less equal to P-47s) throughout the entire war. If you look at the production numbers, the search for uber weapons didn't hurt Bf109/Fw190 production at all. They lost because they did not have the resources to sustain a two front war on the ground (really three once D-Day occurred: West, Med, and East), and steady bombing around the clock (US by day, Britain by night) certainly didn't help even if bombing didn't directly impact aircraft, submarine, and tank production. Like Japan, Germany needed to win quickly. Fortunately for the US, Britain and the USSR didn't play along :) The uber weapon they really wanted was a nuclear bomb... and we all know how that arms race turned out.

Your problem is very simple: somehow you are using an old SF1 style loadout ini file, which won't work with later SF2 F-4s models/ini files. Go to your mod folder, find the afflicted aircraft folders, and delete the loadout ini files. If you need to edit them for any reason, use the SF2 cat extractor tool to get them out. In the old 3d models/ini files, the fuel tanks and gunpods shared the same external point. In the new ones, they have separate stations. This allows the fuel tank to be part of the 3d model, which allows fuel tank textures to be part of the aircraft skin. However, your installation is putting the gunpod on the fuel tank station, which activates the built-in fuel tank model. So, deleting your loadout files will force the game to use the stock compressed ones in the cat files, which should fix your problem. The SUU-23 looks just fine in my SF2E installation :)

1. The correct shortcut modification may be "-window" not "-windowed"... have seen conflicting posts. 2. It will not work for SF2. As had been previous posted, SF2 does not support a windowed mode.

Impressive, but I bet ArmA 2 could be used to do a better version thanks to native animated people... just a matter of having comparable aircraft and ship models. The mostly static block head people kind of ruin it.

If they had ever gotten it up in the air, it might have turned out to be an awesome fighter. But jets came along and obsoleted all prop fighters.

No one likes "Always"? Plenty of great planes mixed with some decent humor, too AND passes for a chick flick.

I am running Windows 7 64-bit. Performance does not really change much if any between XP and Win 7 for the SF1 series, but the security setup in Win 7 causes some problems with the default installation. So, either Windows 7 has to be tweaked or the much easier solution is to install the games in an unprotected folder rather than the default "Program Files" folder. Also, if you run the series one games at a lower patch revision than the last WoI related patch level, the terrain shaders will cause the games to CTD upon ending a mission. There are only two ways to fix this: disable the shaders in the terrain ini files or apply the final SF1/WoX series patch. Upgrading to the SF2 series is definitely the way to go for performance, appearances, cockpit detail, avionics, and gameplay... too many improvements to list. But there are some losses. The most obvious is multiplayer. But almost no one uses multiplayer, so that is no loss for most people. In recent SF2 patches, there were changes made in the way objects are drawn at long distances which has made many people unhappy. TK has provided an ini switch to disable the new system, but that defeats its purpose of solving sorting issues and increasing performance when there are a lot of details. As part of this same "improvement", clouds cannot exist below a certain altitude, which makes clouds a lot less realistic/usuable, especially for historical weather patterns. There is a lesson here: if you complain to TK about a graphics issue, he will fix it, but you might not like the fix! Overall, SF2 with all of its expansion packs and latest patches is way better than SF1 at any patch level or even the earlier SF2 iterations. My sole interest in SFP1/Wox is for multiplayer.

Integrating multiple decals into one big decal is the way to go :)

They are less likely to jam if you fire in short bursts. Long bursts will jam almost every time.

There are only three problems you should have running the series 1 games on Win 7 64: 1) Folder permissions to write, which can be avoided by installing the game in C:\Thirdwire\ rather than the default program files folder. 2) DirectX9 not up to date: go online and visit Microsoft to update DirectX9. 3) CTD on game exit. This is caused by the water shaders. Patching the game up to the Oct 2008 patch fixes this, or if you need to run an older revision, then you have to go into the terrain ini and disable the animated water shaders. Anything else is due to problems not directly related to Win 7 64, such as a corrupt install or bad video driver, etc. Also, make sure the screen resolution selected in the graphics options in the game setup menu is one supported by your monitor. When that gets set to an illegal value for your video card and/or monitor, that can cause a CTD when you try to fly a mission.

With a good wing/tail combination, the F-104 would have been the US equivalent to the MiG-21. Instead, it was optimized for speed/rate-of-climb/altitude to put it out of reach of the MiG-15/MiG-17 class it was designed to beat. This strategy was a direct outcome of Korean War experience. When MiG-15bis fighters were flown correctly, they used their thrust-to-weight advantage to pounce on F-86s from above with boom-n-zoom passes. So, the goal of the next generation of US fighters was to restore the boom-n-zoom advantage that the US had always preferred over flat-turn angles fighters. This approach was actually quite correct and successful in Vietnam: the F-105 could use speed/power to escape MiG-17s and come back at their leisure to score guns kills. But the MiG-21 had more boom and zoom, better maneuverability, and missiles that the MiG-17 did not. By the time the USAF realized they needed an aircraft like the Lancer rather than the Starfighter, the YF-16 and YF-17 had jumped a generation ahead in technology. Ultimately, the F-16 is what the F-104 should have been from the start, with a bit more thrust and superior aerodynamics thanks to about 15 years of technological advances. For a glimpse of a "Lancer" class aircraft might have been like, check out the Mirage F-1C. The French figured out they were using the wrong wing, too! Unfortunately, they reverted back to the pure delta with the Mirage 2000. Only by adding the canard with the Rafale does the rear wing/delta configuration become practical or even superior to the conventional wing/tail for anything other than speed. Of course, the Rafale abandoned the pure delta and ended up with a wing a lot more like and F-16 than a Mirage. Performance aside, your screenshot above looks great! It looks a lot better without the t-tail. It looks like a MiG killer :)

The idea is simply to convert the F-4 radar from 60s avionics dll to 70 avionics dll. The original mod should mostly work, but may require some tweaks to accommodate any changes between WoX and SF2 70s avionics files.

I couldn't find cockpit photos of the F7F-3N Tigercat published anywhere on the internet, so I am posting them here for future reference :P I didn't think the pilot had a radar display, but he most certainly does. The lower panel is important as it has the fuel gage and the accelerometer. Would love to see this modeled in the SF2 series... <hint hint>

The name OFP may have belonged to Codemasters, but the game was Bohemia Interactive. Codemasters shutting down their shooter group is no loss to me since Bohemia is still going strong making the only shooter sim that I have ever liked and bought (unless you count Star Wars Battlefront).

There is a mild oscillation at transonic speeds meant to simulate the buffeting that occurs in real life. But this is just a visual indication and shouldn't affect your ability to fly the aircraft at all. I have no problems flying the new DLC Mirage IIIC at any speed.

In my original conversion of an actual F-4 Phantom's control stick into a PC flight sim USB joystick, I adapted a Microsoft Sidewinder USB Stick to accept the buttons presses and mechanical motion of the real control stick. This has worked adequately, but has a key disadvantage: no configuration software that will run on Windows 7 64-bit. As previously posted, I recently got a Warthog, which allowed be to give my son my X-52 Pro and free up my old X-45 for this project. The X-45 configuration software works great with Windows 7, includes a full throttle/rudder-rocker controller, and permits use of a shift key. I have already disassembled the X-45 to expose the necessary wires for the stick buttons and x and y axis potentiometers. All I need now is to modify the existing stick to accept the larger potentiometers and come up with a professional scheme for interfacing between the original control wires and the X-45 button and axis wires. Phase 3 would be to replace the potentiometers with hall effect sensors, but I don't know if or when I would ever get around to doing it.

Mission accomplished! The X-45 permitted a much cleaner installation than the MS Sidewinder. I ran into a Windows 7 64-bit driver issue with the X-45, but after deleting a registry key everything is working pretty darn well. What I would really like to do is disassemble my Thrustmaster Warthog stick and splice it into the F-4 B-8 stick as I am already using the Warthog throttle. The Warthog stick has a much higher precision than the X-45 and the F-4 stick eliminates the Warthog's biggest disadvantage: sticky detents when crossing dead center. But I am not cutting up my brand new $350 stick in the hopes that it could be merged with the F-4 stick as well or better than the X-45. My next step is to use the left over buttons of the X-45 to create control panel buttons/switches. I have a few leftover from the joystick and can hack up the throttle to get at its buttons. Since my primary sim is SF2 and my favorite aircraft is the F-4, it makes sense to mimic an F-4 cockpit and model switches/buttons that are common to both SF2 and the F-4: weapon selection, jettison, radar modes/range scales, etc.

Having reviewed the wiring, the Saitek is a superior solution to the MS Sidewinder. I needed isolated contacts for each thumb hat button on the MS stick, but the Saitek uses a single common just like the B-8. So, if I am willing to give up the paddle switch, I can eliminate the extra power supply, relays and wiring I had at the rear of the stick base. The paddle switch is normally on, so I would have to keep its relay and the 24VDC power supply to make it normally open for the Saitek interface. Then the only extra wiring is for the x and y axis pots. I think I am ditching the paddle switch for the cleaner install and elimination of a 120VAC extension cord that powered the 24VDC power supply. B-8 Stick Grip pin-out: A to E = Thumb Hat Left B to E = Thumb Hat Down C to E = Thumb Hat Right D is unused E = common for all Thumb Hat switches F to K = Bottom Button (pinky switch) G to R = Middle Button (side switch) H to N = Trigger (pulled all the way in to the 2nd stage switch) J is unused L is unused M is unused P to E = Thumb Hat Up S to T = Top Button (top switch next to thumb hat) Saitek X-45 Wiring: ---------------------- Fire Buttons ---------------------- B1 TRG Green Trigger B1 TRG Black B2 B Violet Top Button B3 A Gray Middle Button B4 Fire Red Bottom Button Common Brown B7 PKY Gray Spare B7 PKY Gray B8 C + Yellow Paddle B8 C - Blue ---------------------- Hat 1 ---------------------- H1U Violet Trim Up H1R Orange Trim Right H1D Brown Trim Down H1L Green Trim Left Common Black ---------------------- Hat 2 ---------------------- H2U Short White Spare H2R Red Spare H2D Long White Spare H2L Gray Spare Common Orange ---------------------- LEDs ---------------------- GND Blue S LED Yellow T FLock Black ---------------------- X-Axis ---------------------- VDC + white VDC X Brown VDC - Black ---------------------- Y-Axis ---------------------- VDC + white VDC Y Purple VDC - Black