swambast

Shadows are a FPS killer, always been that way since Gen 1 series in addition with the horizon distance and even the "cockpit mirrors" option or whatever it's called.

logan4, sorry for the delay but THANK YOU for the information you provided. I'm having a suspicious behavior occurring on one of my models - meaning, I'm not sure the 2nd and 3rd level LODS are actually "switching over". To any modders out there that might read this, any creative ideas on how to best verify something like this?

Have to hurry, at airport and traveling...can someone please refresh my memory. What requirements exist for creating a 2nd/3rd level .LOD? Do you have to maintain mesh hierarchy, etc.? Or if I have a complex aircraft could I literally assign a cube as 2nd level LOD? Any requirements or can we use whatever?

Awesome Volker, this is just what's been missing to finish this up - keep up the great work and thanks! Thanks goes to B32 too for sharing the references!

Well, I'm partnering up with a great person on the F-100F, so it is next up on the list and together we should be able to make good progress. Don't worry about all that converting YAP crap as we'll get her a new form and bring her up to SF2 standards anyway. If anyone wants to step up and give her a righteous paint job after we get the UV unwraps/texture maps laid out, please drop me a PM.

Got it Dave, thanks a bunch man!

Someday there will be other options...someday...

Great work as usual Nils!

Man, I was seriously contemplating getting this during that exact same Steam sale when the time ran out. Looks like it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, thanks for reconfirming Caesar...!

Damn Kevin, that totally sucks man! I am so sorry to hear the news, and having been through a similar experience before I can relate. But don't give up man! You know us modders are a dying breed these days, in fact, I would suggest we're all already on the "endangered species" list. So despite all the B.S. and heart break that come our way, we need to fight to mod another day. I wish you all the best in your restoration efforts and hope you get back some peace of mind!

Thanks guys... Yes SoulFreak, I have already made it fully compatible with SF2 series (the ANSI/UNICODE conversion was a nightmare to code through but finally got through it)...

All, since I got tired of waiting/begging for 3d modeling help and decided to pick up some basic modeling skills myself, I ran into one strange problem that caused me to go bonkers for a while. PROBLEM I couldn't get a certain part of my mesh model to cast a shadow, while the other parts did. SOLUTION Long-story short, I ended up solving the problem by making sure in 3DS Max under the "Shader Basic Parameters" roll-out the "2-sided" checkbox option was NOT checked. (And yes I already know 2-sided parameters in general are not recommended, but in some cases they are needed/practical). Just thought I'd pass this along in case it could help anyone else out in the future.

Interesting you should say that....

At long last...after incredible time and effort...with thanks to a wonderful beta team...and perhaps one of the most awesome accomplishments...the latest breakthrough is complete. Integrated terrain tile to precisely place target objects...everything I could have hoped for is just about finished, now to clean up the code, update the installers and work on the quick mission editor features a few have requested. Terrain Tile imported for Precision Target Placement

Small tribute and project update finally posted here: www.whenthunderrolled.com

Hmmm, been a while since I’ve been around but if I recall correctly...I made an aircraft moving utility for Dave that I think he might have used for purposes such as these. It basically allowed you to check the boxes of installed aircraft that you wanted to have appear. You could even save a favorite “set list” that remembered all of your selections. You just did this prior to starting SF, then those planes would be made unavailable so that only the planes you wanted to appear would show up. When you finished you clicked a button to restore them all back. Always thought it was simple to use and know Dave appreciated it, maybe Dave still has that program around that could help…? EDIT: Oddly enough, I found an old work-in-progress screenshot of it on my computer!

Guys, interestingly enough, this was driving me bonkers and I had to get it figured out. Stary, you alluded to something that I also thought was suspect! I also have FRAPS, but did not have it loading in the background/on start-up. However, I think it still runs as a service, so it appeared to be interfering with Thirdwire’s ability to take screenshots. In the end, the best solution that seems to work for me is to disable or remap the Thirdwire “Screenshot” key (I remapped it from the existing “Print Screen” key to the new “*” Key). Then, within FRAPS itself I re-assigned the “Take Screenshot” key to “Print SCRN.” All seems to work just fine now, thanks much to everyone and hopefully this may help others in the future as well.

Hi all, I am having a heck of a time struggling with why my screenshots are not saving. No matter what directory I choose or format I select (.jpg, .bmp, etc.) the screenshot gets written out as 0kb and is basically corrupt. I thought someone else came across this, but I can't find that thread for some darn reason (of course when I need it). Any ideas/thoughts on how to fix would be most appreciated. SS

HF, I admire your ambition. Although a variant declaration would work I wouldn’t recommend it at all. If you know the source data coming in, you should proactively declare it in the appropriate format (string, integer, etc.) rather than relying on the default declaration (variant). That is because a variant will always consume the most amount of memory and tend to be slower anyway. Also, just a tip you might already know, but make sure since you’re using an array that at the end you are erasing/emptying the array so it’s not left in memory! I’m currently absolutely buried with my own large-scale project work, so there are no guarantees I’ll have the time either, but let me see if I might be able to give you a hand/provide some additional advice. Drop me a PM and we can discuss next steps on how I can help! By the way: My program is the Swambast Target Translator. At it’s essence, it is a translation program designed to graphically allow the user to place target objects using FSSC and then merge (e.g., format and translate) directly back into _targets.ini files. More details here, and note that I need to post an update soon, as I’m nearing completing on another comprehensive version that will natively support all Operating Systems and both Gen1/Gen2 series. http://combatace.com/topic/34895-wov-target-object-placement-interface-tool-wip/ ((I know people keep telling me to have Dave/FC or whoever move the topic over to the Mods forum, but it was born in the Gen1 General Discussion forum and has just lived there ever since which is fine with me really).

HF, you should be using a different language for this for sure, but anyway you need to think about the control set you have available in that language; you should load in as binary but don't load into ANSI base control sets such as text box controls. You are on the right path, use a binary read and load it into a fixed array. Then to determine whether ANSI/UNICODE, consider reading the first byte order type into an array and then pass the incoming file to a function, I just went through all of this gut-wrenching work with STT; something like Public Function TranslateSourceFileEncoding(IncomingFileName) and pass as a string (e.g., ...As STRING).

Yes, I've seen it and dropped Gerwin a PM for any ideas here. Umut, you should see what me and team have been up to with STT, will blow your freakin' mind and I know it's something you would appreciate. In collaboration with a true genius on my team and a lot of updated coding, we now have a working prototype where we can place objects precisely down on a 100 to 20m grid overlay, bringing object placement accuracy down to within 1 freakin' meter if you can believe that. Drop me an email bud, we're overdue for a catch up anyway!

Hi Umut, hope you're doing well, bud! That's the answer I was expecting, that only the .tfd output has that info but of course it's not "readable" when in that locked format. I'm not sure if there's any other way around this other than to manually create a look-up reference table/file with the needed information. Maybe others have ideas, but unfortunately I'm not expecting a positive outcome on this...so once again I will have to "code my way" through a solution to achieve my desired outcome.

Hi all, other than using/referencing the Terrain Editor itself… Is there any known way/ideas on how to determine what terrain tile filename is associated to what target area entry (that’s defined in the _targets.ini file)? Or basically would I have to create a reference look-up? For example: [TargetArea017] Name=Bitburg etc. = GERMANYC1.bmp Thanks for any creative ideas or suggestions...

All, thanks for the private messages and emails...I apologize for the delay but real-life demands have had me absolutely buried the past month or so. However, progress is definitely still moving forward! Thought I'd drop in and post a progress report of where things are. This is, by far, the best revision of STT ever and will natively support every Operating System and just about every Thirdwire game...thanks for the kind words and continuing interest.

Monty, I hope you are doing well and am humbled by your comments, thank you! You have been a great supporter to me personally and an incredible contributor overall. Rest assured that if you're interested, I've added your name to the user list when the latest version/updates are ready. I'll reach out to you via PM and provide personal help as needed when the time is right; I'm still making slow but steady progress...