FastCargo

With any speedbrake that doesn't have a hardcoded animation, all you should need is something similar to this: SystemType=AIRBRAKE DeployTime=3.0 RetractTime=1.5 ModelNodeName=LeftInnerSlatSB DragArea=0.3 RotationAxis=X-AXIS MaxDeflection=15.0 MinDeflection=0.0 Note the bolded lines. Those lines are the ones that determine which axis and direction the speedbrake displaces. You may have to use negative numbers to get it to deflect in the proper direction. FastCargo

Actually, not to totally hijack the thread, but that's something the terrain could use is some 'seasoning'...but that would involve a massive amount of repainting for all the textures. FC

Does this have any other consequences (ie something else gets messed up when the white border is fixed)? FC PS Actually, just checked it to answer my own question...it sort of doesn't make the trees look quite right. They look a lot more 'solid' than they should be.

This thread has outlived it's usefulness and is degenerating. FC

Nice pic of NAS North Island. FC

Take a look at another aircraft that uses decals. Actually, if you have a specific aircraft, take a look at it. Look at the decal.ini file (usually located in the texture subdirectory). Read it...you'll figure it out pretty quickly. Basically, you will need a new texture (you can copy one that you like), a new textureset.ini, and a new decal.ini. Decals normally go into the D directory. If you aren't sure what I'm talking about, look at this thread (overview of the directory layout): http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=26293 And this thread (how to add new skins): http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=25876 FC

By Column 5, USAFMTL, jtin. Edited by FastCargo and Wrench. The ThirdWire series of sims runs fine on Vista. However, there are a few things you may have to do first. 1. Make sure that you are running the latest Vista drivers for you video card, sound card and game controllers! 2. The version of DX9 that ships with Vista does not include the latest DX9 updates. You will need to go to Microsoft's DX site and download/install the latest DX9 update pacakage. The procedure is exactly the same as updating DX on XP. 3. There is an incompatability with Vista's DX9 implementation and the new Pixel shaders TK recently introduced for land and water effects. Disabling these shaders in the terrain INI file fixes this problem (Note: This has been fixed as of the October 08 patches). 4. You may have to change the 'rights' of the program and/or change it's location to get it to run fully. 5. A FLIGHTENGINE.INI tweak may be needed if you are getting CTDs. Lets examine each step in detail. All Vista users are highly recommended to get through at least Step 3. Steps 4 and 5 should only be done if you are still running into problems. Step 1: Pretty straight forward, go get the Vista drivers for things like your video card, sound card, etc. Step 2: Go to Microsoft.com to get the latest DirectX drivers (you will have to do a search on their website). Realize that sometimes they do very small updates that are not well advertised. Here is the link for the latest DirectX (as of March 7, 2008) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;DisplayLang=en Step 3: (Only for installs that have NOT been patched to Oct 08 standards) Stock terrains, Desert, VietnamSEA, GermanyCE and IsraelME have all their files 'packed' into the cat file, located IN each of the terrain folders. The file that needs to be edited, the XX_Data.ini is located inside. Using Skypat's Cat Extraction Tool, available here: -->Cat Extractor<--, extract the XX_Data ini (where XX is the terrain's name). As with other extractions, it will wind up inside the terrain folder in question. 3rd Party, or add-on Terrains will have this file already existant in their respective folders. Open the Terrain folder, and for each installed terrain do the following. (In this example, I'm using GermanyCE from WOE.) 1. Open the GermanyCE folder. 2. Find GermanyCE_DATA.INI 3. If the data INI is not present, extract it from GermanyCE.cat using the .CAT extractor. 4. Edit GermanyCE_DATA.INI and change any occurance of UseEffectShader=TRUE to UseEffectShader=FALSE. There should be two occurances, one for the NormalTextureMaterial and one for the WaterTextureMaterial, as shown below: [NormalTextureMaterial] UseEffectShader=FALSE //TRUE EffectShaderName=TerrainEffect.fx DepthBufferCheck=TRUE DepthBufferWrite=TRUE RenderedInOrder=TRUE AlphaTestEnabled=FALSE CullMode=CLOCKWISE LightEnabled=TRUE SpecularEnabled=FALSE EmissiveEnabled=FALSE FogEnabled=TRUE AmbientColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000 DiffuseColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.0000000 ZBufferOffset=0.000000 BlendOp=ONE NumTextureStages=1 TextureStage[01].TextureName= TextureStage[01].MipMap=TRUE TextureStage[01].FilterEnabled=TRUE TextureStage[01].StageColorOp=TEXTURE_MODULATE_DIFFUSE TextureStage[01].StageAlphaOp=NO_OP [WaterTextureMaterial] UseEffectShader=FALSE //TRUE EffectShaderName=WaterEffect.fx DepthBufferCheck=TRUE DepthBufferWrite=FALSE RenderedInOrder=TRUE AlphaTestEnabled=TRUE CullMode=CLOCKWISE LightEnabled=TRUE SpecularEnabled=TRUE EmissiveEnabled=FALSE FogEnabled=TRUE AmbientColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000 DiffuseColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000 SpecularColor=0.500000,0.500000,0.500000,1.000000 SpecularPower=5.000000 Reflectivity=1.00000 ZBufferOffset=4.000000 BlendOp=BLEND_SRC_ALPHA NumTextureStages=2 TextureStage[01].TextureName= TextureStage[01].MipMap=TRUE TextureStage[01].FilterEnabled=TRUE TextureStage[01].StageColorOp=TEXTURE_MODULATE_DIFFUSE TextureStage[01].StageAlphaOp=TEXTURE TextureStage[02].TextureName= TextureStage[02].MipMap=TRUE TextureStage[02].FilterEnabled=TRUE TextureStage[02].ReflectionMapping=TRUE TextureStage[02].StageColorOp=TEXTURE_BLEND_TEXTURE_ALPHA TextureStage[02].StageAlphaOp=DIFFUSE Basically what I found is that the game ran fine after I updated DirectX, but until I changed the above I would get a CTD every time I hit ESC to end a mission. Step 4: For those having problems with screenshots, adding 3rd party mods, or even running the program, read the following. In Vista (Vista Ultimate here, not sure about other versions) the computer bugs you about putting stuff in the program folder. If you are an administrator, it will ask you if you really want to do it (supposed to be good security or something) and if you are a normal user, you have to enter the admin password in order to do it. Also, screenshots and kmd saving will be disabled due to this. To get screenshots, just make the program (flightsim.exe) have administrative rights. If you want to get rid of the whole folder thing, just make the whole folder (in properties) make the normal user have admin rights for that folder (needs admin password). Don't know why it doesn't bug you about if you started the action after that, but it works. Do not unzip anything to your HD with Vista. Unzip files to a folder on your desktop. Vista does something to your main HD that protects it from accidental deleting of files and adding of harmful ones. Vista also makes a file with whatever username you gave your computer on log in. IE I have a folder called "usafmtl" in comprises of my doc, pictures, videos etc. There is where you can add files etc and modify them without interference from Vista. You can even drag the whole directory to the desktop and run it from there. Step 5: Open FLIGHTENGINE.INI (It might have to be extracted from FlightData.CAT) Find the section in it called [GraphicsSettings] if it exists. If the section already exists, overwrite it with the entry below. If not, just cut and paste the entry below into the FLIGHTENGINE.INI file. [GraphicsSettings] ZBufferDepth=24 MaxVertexCount=16384 MaxIndexCount=32768 MaxTextureCount=16384 MaxModelType=2048 MaxMeshPerScene=2048 MaxModelPerScene=4096 MaxLightPerScene=1024 AspectRatio=1.333333 <---- This number may be different depending if you have a widescreen monitor or not. Keep the value you currently have. MinPixelSize=1.0 Save the new FLIGHTENGINE.INI file. If after all of these steps, you are still having problems, please post your problem with your computer specifications (including hardware, specific Vista version, and exact symptoms) in the 'WoI/WoE/WoV/Project-1 General Discussion' forum at CombatAce.

Easy. Extract the NATIONS.INI file (if you haven't already) from the MissionData.CAT file located in the Flight folder. Here's a link to learn how to use the CAT extractor: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=32706 Then, add an entry (this one as an example): [Nation219] Name=Terra DisplayName=Terran Air Force Alignment=FRIENDLY PlayerFlyable=TRUE Mercenary=FALSE PilotNameList=NamesTerra.lst RankList=RanksUSAF.lst CallsignList=CallsignsUS.lst Formation.Fighter=USFighter Formation.Attack=USFighter Formation.Bomber=USBomber Formation.Transport=USBomber Formation.Tank=USTank Formation.MobileAD=USAD PilotTrainingStandard=EXCELLENT GenderRatio=0.95 DebriefSuccessMusic=DebriefSuccess.wav DebriefFailMusic=DebriefFail.wav DebriefKilledMusic=DebriefKilled.wav SpeechFile=USAFSpeech.cat SpeechTextFile=USAFSpeechText.str Medals=MedalsUSAF.ini MedalTextFile=MedalsUSAF.str As far as roundels go, you need to learn how to make decals using TGA files (Gimp is a good program to start with). Once you have the decals you want, it's a simple matter to add them to your aircraft...usually by putting them in the Objects/Decals folder, then refering to them in the Decals.ini file in your specific aircraft install. FC

Okay folks, lets take a step back and think about this for a minute. First, if you have 2 models of the same aircraft built by 2 separate modelers, how much do you think is going to be really transferable. The answer is, damn near nothing. The model parts will be named different, the mapping is almost certainly different, hell, it's probably going to be built differently. with different parts cut in different places. So that eliminates LODs, textures, decal placements. Loading, loadout, and hanger screens will be different too just because of modeler preferences (ie it's not much harder to make your own verses doing an obvious copy). Decals could be copied...but why would you want to. It's not like the decals you need aren't already in the game for generics. Again, different modeler techniques would probably end up necessitating different aircraft specific decals. Which leaves ini files. Assuming both aircraft have cockpits, I guarantee the cockpit and avionic inis will be different. Again, mainly because of differences in naming techniques, how to animate stuff, etc. The overall ini file (the ini file that names all the other aircraft ini files) is pretty specific in what files it needs to name...again, no use in copying it because it has to be tailored to the specific model (especially when it comes to naming textures, LOD files, etc). Now, let's examine the data.ini. The main sticking points are the numbers that determine the airfoil shapes. Why? Because the other entries are either A) exactly the same because it's based on the real aircraft (stall speeds, max G, etc), or B) are different because the LODs or location of the center of the model is different (weapon stations, animation names, part names, etc). Even the hitboxes will typically be different. So, the overall question...should I be concerned that airfoil data could be copied from one model to other? The answer is...not really. Something like that would be very hard to prove. As an example, the F-5F and F-5E both have the same horizontal slab. If for my F-5F model, I use the MF F-5E data for the horizontal slab, it would be hard to prove I didn't come up with the same numbers on my own. And this only applies to shapes that are cut at the same points and are the same size. And also, this can't apply to overall moments on the aircraft, for the same reasons as stated eariler (different center points, CG, size of parts, etc). In addition, if a person changes a few of the numbers by one iteration at the third decimal location, which might barely affect the flight model, but looks 'different' enough, can it be proven that it was copied? You get the idea. The best thing to do is work on your stuff and don't worry about the other stuff. FC

Interesting...a double delta (cranked maybe) but in a convex instead of concave setup. Is this aircraft supposed to be an advanced trainer (ie basic trainees go to this aircraft before progressing to their front line fighter)? FC

That picture looks much better. Hey, do you have a picture of the planform? Can't quite tell what the wing configuration is...delta? FC

What? No defrag should move folders around...that can cause serious damage to programs! Are you running some other disk utility when you defrag? FC

1. Check your key assignments. 2. Do you have radar lock when you try to fire? FC

Okay, that really makes no sense...maybe there is something else. FC

Run dxsetup and follow the prompts. FC

Oh...sorry. Just extract it to a temporary directory you make. The files are compressed...so it just uncompresses the files, then runs the setup program. FC

Best callsign ever is still the BUFF unit at Barksdale: Doom. Nuff said. FC

Shouldn't need to extract the file...its a self installer. FC

You need the brand spanking newest version of DirectX9.0c. Go to microsoft.com to go get it. FC

Heck, I thought this was a thread about Hrntfixr.... FC

Kevin, Well, you're right about parts disappearing if you 'eject'...but considering that parts are usually coming off your aircraft anyway... Also, I thought that a decal on an already 'humped' version of the A-4 would be a nice idea, I'm just not the person to do it. I have to admit, that would solve a lot of problems. I tried finding where the hump is mapped just eyeballing it, but wasn't successful. FC

Fake. See this thread: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=33567 And this article: http://www.reggiepaulk.com/2008/10/killath...-buzz-with.html No controversy to be had. FC

Adding the 'hump' via the weaponspack and pilot method are both outdated. The weaponspack method is problematic (as you can see). The pilot method works to an extent...however, it is outdated as of the new patch. What happens with the new patch is that when your airfields are populated by static aircraft, they have no pilots...which means any parts added as pilots will not show up either. So, to make your aircraft look right as a static and as flying model, the parts need to be added as ejection seats. But that also means you need to add a pilot. In other words, for every part you want to add, you must add a pilot AND his ejection seat (the seat is the actual part you want to add). The problem, some aircraft don't have room to add another pilot and hide it somewhere in the body of the aircraft. In addition, it may take a lot of trial and error to find where to put the pilot without him showing up where he shouldn't be. Solution? Build a 'fake' pilot. I've constructed a simple box .LOD file that is about .1 meter on a side, and is skinned with a completely clear tga file. I'll be uploading it soon. FC

Awesome! FC

Yes, I'd like to know too. I don't think anyone is going to be willing to install this (at least, anyone not willing to roll the dice) until they have a good idea what exactly the changes are. FC