FastCargo

Alrightly boys! You heard the man...download and try it out! Oh, THAT would explain why the triangle was always showing up no matter which radar display I kept moving... FC

The only problem (because I have played with this parameter) is that the AI can't handle it. FC

Spiff, Yep, I saw that too...it looks almost like the end of a tube when zoomed out enough. I figured that is real low priority since it's only visible when looking way back over your shoulder. A last note to folks. Remember, this is a beta cockpit, so there are other issues as well. We will do what we can, but until Mago can finish it, we may have to live with what we have.

Dave is right, I'm HOPING I can fix them without too much degredation in what the cockpit can do. The fact that got rid of one of the triangles means there is hope. I haven't had a chance to address it in the last couple of days due to other issues. Mainly, I'm having to do a brute force approach to find the right mesh. FC

Please consult with the A-Team for solutions to this issue. Also, note that this model and the Korean Air War mod are VERY old. FC

There is always going to be a conflict between the rights of the individual and the health of society as a whole. As an example, you can look at smoking. If you say outright that you can smoke anywhere at anytime, because it's your body, it sounds very good on the surface. But then you look at things like secondary smoke, that affects kids later on. Or if your health goes bad, and you rely on public hospitals, that means I have to pay for your bad habit. Or the smell affects public or social spaces. It doesn't sound so good anymore for a blanket rule. Darn near every issue today comes down to finding where the best compromise is. By definition, you are 'sitting on the fence' because you are drawing a line between total anarchy and total control. Name just about any contentious issue, and I'll bet you find exceptions that prove you can't have an easy 'one fits all' solution. FC

Well, I've eliminated the first triangle. I think I can eliminate the small square in the Right MFD. The upper triangle is giving me fits however...trying to find which mesh that is has been a slog. FC

JM and Ruggbutt, A-friggin-men! FC

There are several factors in play here before anyone gets TOO excited in either direction. First, the economy is still in the tank more or less. There's been debate for a long time over who's fault it is...but honestly, both parties had a hand in it. You can go back and forth and still not come up with a clear answer. Anyway, a sputtering economy almost always hurts the party in power at election time. Second, for all the flack GWB administration got for backroom dealing, not listening to 'the people', etc., the Obama administration has really shown that they aren't any better at avoiding this. In some ways, it's been even more blatent with regards to the healthcare overhaul (Nebraska's sweetheart deal, unions' healthcare non-taxation, rushing a HUGE bill through the legislature). Third, government expansion in general. The United States population more or less has always had a mild distrust of the government. Part of it of course goes back to our roots. You can also look at more recent histories of government overstepping it's bounds. All of these make people leery. What's especially damning is seeing numbers showing government jobs actually increasing in pay and numbers while the private sector takes it on the chin. I wouldn't consider this a revolution. What I would say however, is that BOTH parties need to start paying attention. In this day and age where more and more people can get their information from non-traditional news services, the 'throw the bums out' attitude continues to spread. The biggest thing that would shake both parties up would be a third party (like Libertarians) to start having a stronger influence in the political arena. Hopefully, that would cause both parties to stop trying to be monolithic (Since I believe A, I have to believe B because that's how we roll in our party) and maybe listen a bit more. People want leaders, not lawyers. Unfortunately, that's all they've got in Washington right now are lawyers. FC

EricJ, Send it to me, I'll take a look. (3ds Max 9, or 3ds Max 2009?) FC

Not that I have seen. The model is roughly the same model that Squiffy is having problems with. In fact, I added polygons to it during the update. The reason I have seen as to why it isn't self shadowing properly comes down to if the mesh considers itself 'concave' or 'convex'. If it is convex, it shadows properly. If it's concave, it won't shadow. I've seen this on models I've done where I've put too many 'dents' into the mesh. The problem is that it's not always easy to tell if the mesh has too many inward 'dents'... FC

Well, for all intents and purposes, the freeware accords agreement is basically what Kess said anyway. I'd say add him to the list, just put a note next to his name saying he was added by proxy via USAFMTL...that way we can blame Dave if anything goes wrong. FC

Specify...what distortion do you mean? Also, if you have a beta, there may be something in it that doesn't allow SF2I to work right. FC

Not really. KMD or Le Missioner will get you close. But there is nothing that is integrated into the TW front end or is as easy to use. FC

The Razbam skyraiders are NOT freeware. Razbam has already stated there will be a SF2 compatible version someday. FC

We expect stories from Food Flag! FC

TK has said himself that there won't be an SF3 for DX11. He doesn't see it being worth the effort because DX11 doesn't bring enough new to the table to justify upgrading the engine over DX10. And since Microsoft probably isn't going with a new OS for a while... Therefore, my guess would be that I could see a F-14 centered sim (maybe an SF2:Libya) with the new terrain model (which he has publically said he's been working on), but still based on the overall SF2 engine. FC

Certain loadouts are asymmetrical and cannot be loaded in the loadout screen. What you are seeing is the sims' response. The screen will show the slot as empty, but the little circles will show as filled. If you mess with the loadout screen at all, you will not retain the asymmetric loadout. What matters is the weapons showing up on the pylons in the correct fashion. These inis are based on real world loadouts for these aircraft, and so, there will be some asymmetry. This is normal. FC

I'm working on a potential fix. I've managed to get rid of one of the triangles so far. The other will take more time for me to troubleshoot. FC

Hey, I got land up there I'm going to retire on! FC

It is a bright idea...get on that will ya? FC

There is no DX10 for XP as released by Microsoft. By default that means that SF2 is running in DX9, which also means (I think) the UseAdvancedShaders parameter is not used (ie is zero). FC PS Nope, I'm wrong...even if I force DX9, the triangles don't show up as long as the UseAdvancedShaders parameter is set to 1.

Alrighty folks, I got some good news and I got some bad news. The good news is that I was able to duplicate the problem after I went into the OPTIONS.INI and set the UseAdvancedShaders= parameter to zero. The bad news...the problem is within the cockpit MAX file and can only be fixed by the cockpit creator. It seems now that meshes that are not assigned a material when exported (ie assigned a texture or color) will now show up as bright white that can be seen through everything. I figured this out after looking closely at the OUT file for the cockpit. In the older days, a mesh with an unassigned material might still be white, just not show through anything. Unfortunately, the only way it can be fixed from what I can tell is either turn the UseAdvancedShaders= parameter back to 1, or fix the cockpit MAX file. FC

I was thinking that too...the beta tester who had the problem was force running DX9 on SF2. FC

One of our testers encountered this problem as well. I was never able to duplicate the problem. And I didn't hear back as to if the problem went away (I assume it did) with a later beta release. FC