streakeagle

When "free" and "3dsMax" are in the same sentence, it usually translates to "illegal" ;)

My wife's attempt to upgrade her laptop from Win7 to Win10 removed any doubts I had about staying with Win 7 x64. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. When I need Windows 10, I will most likely build a new PC rather than upgrade this one. My current PC is stable and fairly fast. As my primary sims still use DX9 or DX10, I have little or no incentive to upgrade. Since my video card is AMD, I haven't had the driver issues that nVidia users have had with SF2. Win10? Why would I want or need it at this point?

You don't have to find him, you just have to offer him enough money. TK didn't just suddenly decide to make First Eagles. Someone paid him, at least in part, to do that. For the right money, TK would surely make any exporter you want, and there is no one more qualified to do so.

TK may have never won the masses, but he got some of the most dedicated military aviation fans one could ask for. Choosing the first purchase can be difficult. I favor the F-4 and think Vietnam first, then Israel (I love recreating historical missions). But from a practical standpoint, SF2 Europe is the way to go. Diverse plane set and compatible with many mods (I am not sure what NATO Fighters requires anymore, but it used to be just Europe). When you buy the Expansion Pack 2 for SF2 Europe, you get the mission editor instead of buying it as a separate addon. So unless you need aircraft carriers immediately, really love the F-14A more than any other plane, or have some other preference that isn't covered by SF2 Europe and SF2 Expansion Pack 2, those are the first two things I would buy. After SF2 Europe, the choices don't get any easier. Vietnam for plane set and carriers? Israel for plane set? North Atlantic for F-14 and really great naval action? Again, Vietnam is my preference, and in this case it makes sense given all the cool planes and aircraft carriers. But Israel has its own unique plane set and a great looking terrain. If you are an F-14 fan, no contest if you didn't already get North Atlantic as your first choice. If you get Israel at some point, you may also want Expansion Pack 1. The original Strike Fighters 2 with the fictional map and mercenary campaign is the last thing I would buy. A completely fictional map with completely fictional countries is not my cup of tea. I enjoyed SFP1 until WoV saved me from fantasy hell, but I seldom go back to that map. The one thing to buy this for is the mercenary campaign. It is cool to start with almost nothing and build up your own air force with money you earn flying. Then you can slowly work your way through any remaining DLC you might fancy. I bought all of it as it was being released, so it didn't seem like such a huge purchase. AI Plane Pack 1 and AI Plane Pack 2 are good candidates... lots more planes to shoot down or mod into being flyable.

If I were strapped for cash, I would buy one game per month. Try it out. Don't worry about mods. Just play that one new game that month. If you can't enjoy it without the mods, you won't enjoy it much more with the mods. So, if any point you get tired of it or just don't like it, you stop buying more SF2 games. Of course, along the way you will be able to use more and more mods. But the gradual expansion gives you time to appreciate what each game adds to the merged installation: maps, planes, missions/campaigns for the cost of a fast food meal each week. A fully merged install is amazing with the variety of stock aircraft, both flyable and AI only. Of course, you will find mods to make almost any/all AI planes fully flyable. Just a matter of whether a good cockpit is available. I bought everything TK releases as he released it. So I have no idea how much I paid in total. I have ALL of the games and DLC. Of course, as amazing as the stock game is, addons like NATO make this game even bigger and better. So many planes to fly, so little time to fly them.

When you consider that I had built the F-4 stick and almost NEVER used the Warthog stick, it is really disappointing. At most, the stick has been exposed to dust and the thermal cycles of my PC room: 82 deg F max when I am not home in the summer and 62 max in the winter. The only times I really used the stick was for playing Steel Beasts Pro PE and flying the A-10C. The throttle has been in continuous use and has zero problems. My Saitek sticks (X-36 USB, X-45, X52 Pro) were as good or better than this after years of continuous use. I have two thoughts: 1) Lack of use somehow causes a problem? But this is very simple electronics: a switch connected to a multiplexer board. So, 2) my joystick extension I just installed added resistance to the switch circuit, so it didn't like the extra resistance? Since when did decreasing the voltage/current make something break? It seems to be dumb luck and others with Warthogs have had much worse luck right out of the box. If this board doesn't fix the problem, I will probably save up money and buy another Warthog because I do like the sensors/precision. But I might try other options like the Mamba or better yet the high end F/A-18 stick under development if it ever becomes available for sale. One thing about this problem: the damaged board could be used to make my spare helicopter B-8 grip into a Warthog compatible stick. The B-8 doesn't have nearly as many buttons, so having one failed doesn't hurt a darn thing. I just need an interface between the board and the Warthog base (basically a modified PS/2 connector) and a way to connect the button wires to the board (normally done with these cool little white plug-in connectors). I can see good coming from this because I was too lazy to order the black silicon chip and build the multiplexer circuit myself. If everything goes well, my Warthog will be fixed by the new board and I will end up with a Warthog compatible REAL B-8 grip :) Now I just need to save up and order the Warthog compatible German grip I have seen on SimHQ. Thrustmaster missed a golden opportunity by never making any other grips compatible with its Cougar/Warthog sticks. I probably would have bought any and all versions if they were a reasonable price and replicated the real stick as well as the F-16/A-10 sticks have. But I would prefer authentic materials. My B-8's aren't metal on the outside. They appear to be some sort of resin/plastic permanently glued together around a metal pipe core. The metal on the inside gives them weight, but they don't feel cold to the touch at all. B-8's also have a diamond texture like 1911A1 pistol grips. B-8's are very comfortable compared to the cold, angular, metal Warthog stick.

After recently committing to removing my real F-4 B-8 stick mod and replacing it with the more precise, more reliable, more buttons Warthog stick, my stage 1 trigger button (DX button 1) decided to stay on at all times. The default fire button of every single game I own is stuck on! Initially, I didn't notice this, because in DCS, I had been mapping the fire function to stage 2 (DX button 6) to match my F-4 B-8 grip. The B-8 grip has a two stage trigger, but both of the B-8's I own have no wires/pins connected to stage 1. So to be more realistic, I mapped most of my DCS aircraft modules' trigger buttons to the stage 2 position. It was when I tried to start up the latest Aces High 3 beta that I started having problems, and again when trying to fly SF2. The Microsoft function for testing/calibrating game controllers showed the issue: DX button 1 was always "red" (on). I disassembled the grip. The buttons are connected to a green PCB that converts the individual signals into a serial chain of bits. I move the stage 1 trigger to the stage 2 trigger connection and the stage 1 switch worked just fine. So this isn't a stuck switch. I am assuming that the PCB has a problem... bad resistor? bad transistor? I looked at getting another stick. No used grips on eBay. Thrustmaster does sell the stick without the throttle: about $275-$300 for the stick $400 for the complete HOTAS. So, if I went that route, I would probably just bite the bullet and buy a whole new Warthog HOTAS. My existing Warthog setup was purchased in 2011 for $350 during an online sale at Fry's. It is way out of warranty, but I contacted Thrustmaster for help. Their answer: I can get a new PCB for 40.8 Euros (about $45) including shipping. It might not fix the problem. It might not last very long. But $45 is a small risk compared to $300-$400. So that is what I am doing. Waiting for the new PCB. While I was troubleshooting the grip, I found the internal wiring to be delicate. I actually broke off one wire on the stage 1 trigger switch. That helped in the trouble shooting, but required me to shorten the wire to fix it with solder. So, I am going to have to be very careful replacing the PCB, or more wires (or more likely the same one) will break. Hopefully, the PCB solves the problem. One aircraft in particular benefits from the dual stage trigger: the A-10C. The first stage engages gun stabilization, then after the gunsight is where you want it, you pull stage 2 to fire. I don't fly the A-10C very often, but when I do, I need the gun to work! Re-assigning buttons to work around the break defeats the purpose of lying the DCS: A-10C with a Warthog HOTAS, where every button functions identically to real life. If the PCB swap doesn't solve the problem and I don't do any further damage to the stick, I will wait until I get some overtime cash to get another HOTAS... or simply re-install my F-4 B-8. Just waiting for the PCB to arrive from Europe.

Mine has been limited for years... but if you look at the time of some of my posts here and on Facebook, I trade sleep for free time. But I am often too tired to play any games/sims and don't have the patience to do stuff like thorough beta testing anymore. I want games/addons when they are ready for prime time (or as close as they are going to get), no energy for debugging alphas/betas.

Some things were changed on the fly as I got more parts that were really used for the seat and/or adjusted to problems encountered during construction. Here are some screenshots of my original sketchup design, which is still a very accurate representation of what I actually built despite any changes/short cuts I ultimately took:

Great news! Relax, recover, and get back to business.

A simple sturdy box can be built to mount a Warthog stick similar to the above using only standard 1x6 lumber. It is smaller and simpler than mine since it isn't intended to look exactly like an F-4 stick enclosure. If a 15 cm extension is used, this box will put the stick at the same height from the floor as an F-4 stick with the same range of motion in the pitch axis. The placement of the Warthog stick mounting holes is only approximate, the actual spacing between the holes is a metric measurement of 60 mm, which is 2.362 in. The original metal plate that the Warthog stick is mounted on can be used as a template for marking/drilling the mounting holes in the wood. The image below assumes the actual dimensions of the lumber will be 3/4" x 5-1/2":

May you have the luck of a billion dollar lottery winner :)

Where's the beer? or the whiskey? or the rum? I am not too picky. Congratulations on joining an elite fraternity... or something like that

Nothing wrong with setting big goals. You might even reach them!

Not yet, but as far as I know, very soon.

Downloading it now!

It is a great game on a tablet. It is even better on a PC with a large screen :)

Nice link. I wish the US government would be more supportive of US fighters being privately owned and operated.

I principally used it in recent years for 1 v 1 against AI alternately flying the Spit and the Bf109. I also did lots of takeoffs/landings and aerial tours as well as flying the instant action missions against the huge waves of bombers with escorts. I can't recall ever having had even one CTD or other glitch over all that time. Maybe my hardware/drivers combo was just lucky? Since DCS released so many aircraft from the UH-1H, Fw190, MiG-21, Bf109, F-86, MiG-15... I have almost 100% spent all my flying time in DCS. I need to install BoB2 on the newer computer I have been running for some time now. My installed/flyable copy is on the PC I handed down to my son so he could play minecraft and Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare at decent speeds and quality.

I was always disappointed that A2A never went any further with this game engine. They had planned to do more in the form of an AVG P-40 game and to create a similar update for MiG Alley. BDG did a great job of finishing what Rowan had started with the original BoB. This game never got the popularity and credit it deserved from the combat flight sim community. Unlike IL-2, I really enjoyed the flight modeling and dogfight AI as well as the spectacle of engaging masses of escorted bombers at playable frame rates with decent 3d models and textures.

I am really missing the B-8 stick after so many years of flying with it. With the extension, I have no feel. The return to center force is pretty much constant no matter how far I pull the stick back. I also need to try one or more of the online solutions for "sticktion". The extension reduces that effect, but does not eliminate it when I want to make very small corrections. Also, the cold anglular metal of the Warthog doesn't feel as good as the molded resin rounded and checkerboard textured grips of the B-8. I need to do two things at a minimum: retrofit a spring between the front of the Warthog extension and my home built stick cover box so that I can feel how far I have pulled back on the stick and figure out which lubricant will eliminate sticktion without damaging the Warthog. I don't know if I will get around to doing either one anytime soon, but it drives me crazy in a dogfight. Almost enough to bolt the B-8 stick back in despite the high maintenance pots. But I need the Warthog for the extra buttons/hats for more advanced aircraft and really like the extra precision of the virtually noise free 16-bit hall effect sensors. I guess I need to make an adapter to mate my B-8 grip with the Warthog for flying the F-86 and UH-1 and any other aircraft old enough to have similar button/hat/trigger configurations.

I love this sim and if it doesn't take too much time, I am more than willing to help when others request it. If I wasn't spending most of my time flying DCS, I would love to go back and make a dedicated flight manual for each aircraft, mixing the real-world flight manuals I own with the stock flight model and system behavior of the game. Despite the "lite" aspect in some areas, TK should never have called the SF series "lite". In many ways, it was much closer to a hard core sim than LOMAC/Flaming Cliffs, especially for aircraft that didn't have multi-function displays. The user controls may be simplified, but the cockpits of F-4 and earlier aircraft are extremely close to fully functional in terms of displays/indications and the original missile performance and unreliability that got nerfed after SF2NA was more realistic than any PC sim I have ever flown. Only in the last couple of years has DCS surpassed the SF series in overall realism of flight modeling. It is still working on catching up to SF in weapons modeling. DCS has taken over my F-86/MiG-15/MiG-21 flight simming, but SF2 is still the one and only place to go for Vietnam and the 1950s with the F-4, F-8, F-105, F-111, A-4, A-6, A-7, and the whole Century series. I can only dream of a DCS F-101 Voodoo, but I have spent countless hours using Genies to nuke incoming Soviet bombers with the F-101B in SF2 or intercepting/dogfighting MiGs in the F-101A/C. The terrain is so dated, but the gameplay in terms of large scale air-to-air fights remains top notch compared to the competition.

Wrench, if you could modify the title in the knowledge base post to reflect the inclusion of the RWR examples, that would be great. Perhaps the title of the thread should be: SF Series Guide: How to Use the F-4 Radar and RWR

If I can still edit the new post, I will append the RWR info.