swambast

You're the man Kevin, that's great info - thanks! Which one of your remakes do you think would be best to learn more from and leverage object .lods best for populating an airbase? Where would I find Polak's Object Library - I must have missed that!

For custom objects added into the Target_Types.ini files, how does one make it so they are not assigned as a potential target. Example, I've created and added a basic aircrate into the _TYPES.INI file and it displays just fine, but does that mean that an "Aircrate" could potentially be assigned a target - I would assume so...? Thanks for the clarification! Maybe I'm getting confused on where the .lods go - objects, terrain, etc...?

Basic question - how come sometimes certain .LODs will only appear in missions and can't be used as target objects in a location (i.e., an airbase). If I update them in the _TYPES.INI and properly reference these, shouldn't they in most cases show up as target objects too? I can get 95% of the .LODs that I want to appear, but every once in a while some of them just don't show up no matter how much I double-check and move things around. I understand the fundamentals of UseGroundObject=TRUE/FALSE and placing the .LODs, etc. in the Terrain folder, etc. but I must be missing something else. Thanks for any additional insight!

Irfanview will open this for you: http://www.irfanview.com/

New beta release will be available within 2 weeks: a small group of special invites went out already. Thanks to those who have responded and are joining our Beta Team! :yes: Although I wish to keep the team small and focused on those with previous experience (FSSC prior experience is a huge plus), we're going to take a few volunteer requests as well. So if you're interested, just PM me and let me know if you have the time to actively participate over the next month, what your FSSC experience is, and tell me how much you can help make the WOV world a greater place by beta testing STT... -Swams

Hey, thanks all for the feedback, much appreciated! To answer a few questions posted here and there: 1) Yes, I consider CombatAce my "home turf." That means for the community here, I will extend a special invitation to a very small select group of individuals and ask them if they would like to join the STT Beta Team. Obviously, I am going to take preference to those with the most experience; those modders who have already poured their soul into doing it the hard way, and those who also have the potential to return the most value back to the community. 2) Wings Over Vietnam with SPv08.30.06 is the only officially supported Thirdwire title that STT supports at this time. 3) I don't own any of the other Thirdwire titles except for First Eagles which I haven't played in a loooong time, but as eraser_tr mentioned, I believe the program could quickly be adapted to other titles. 4) I am unsure exactly what changes have been made in the latest patch to WOV, I would have to examine the _TYPES.INI, _TARGETS.INI, and assess whether any folder structures have changed. If it is OK to distribute these files since I already own the game, then please send to me. Otherwise, I will examine these at a later date. 5) Yes, the program examines all objects that are created within FSSC against Thirdwire's _TYPES.INI file. It's so simple, just put a check in the box and run a quick test. So, if you are using FSSC and you add a "Sampan" object, and "Sampan" does not exist in your VIETNAMSEA_TYPES.INI, the program will tell you there is an error, highlight the exact row in red, and present you with a summarized output log, like the screenshot below shows. I give absolute full credit, thanks and acknowledgement to "Tannethal" for this. He was the one who originally "challenged" me with the concept. Out of respect for his past work on the airbases and his heavy use of "non-stock" objects, I feel like this is my small personal tribute to him! 6) Guys, yes I take requests to help improve the program. For those already asking about whether I accept donations, I could not be more grateful. I would say hold off on the donations to me for right now - I would ask that you send them to Dave "Wrench" in support of this great CombatAce community. What I need now is just encouragement and more creative ideas to make the program incredibly useful, user-friendly and valuable - maybe later I'll ask for the donations. I want this to save you time and effort, and allow us to populate scenery with (target) objects as quickly as possible. You modders are miles above me in terms of skills and you know the pains you continually have to go through each time, so let me know what else I might be able to do to help in return. 7) No, at this time it is against my licensing agreement to use the program for any commercial purposes whatsovever. 8) Someone asked what they might be able to offer in return: here's what would interest me greatly: if anyone has ever made "junk" airfield objects, things like: big stacks of plane cargo, pallets/crates/boxes, airfield mechanics, airfield ground crew, US Jeep with an actual driver, groups of U.S. Soldiers and Vietcong in varying sizes/formations, etc. so that "we could place these around the airfields to make them come alive?" And yes, I already am a proud owner of Yankee Air Pirate (YAP), but of course using those objects in conjunction with my program would not allow for a public release and would be illegal - please don't ever do this. Regards, Swambast

Congratulations to all - this is absolutely outstanding! Thanks a million!!!

Swambast Target Translator ("STT") DEMOS: For some reason, the demo is all funked up when using Firefox (my personal preference) - so please use Internet Explorer to view! Click the link to view: Demo Part 3 - Converting an FSSC .SCN file back into a Thirdwire Targets.INI file Enjoy! Swambast

All, I have been working relentlessly to bring this to a reality, and have made significant progress. As promised, here are some quick demos of the beta in action. All of the coding for the beta is complete, and in the classic "2 weeks" or so, I may be looking for additional beta testers. Enjoy the demos, hope you find it exciting and full of potential! Swambast Target Translator ("STT"): For some reason, the demo is all funked up when using Firefox (my personal preference) - so please use Internet Explorer to view! DEMO Intros (just click the link to view!) Demo Part 1 - Converting an .INI file to an FSSC .SCN file Demo Part 2 - Manipulating and adding Target Objects within FSSC Enjoy! Swambast

Easy racin...try these links as these may help you out more...! http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=1494 http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autoc...p;showfile=7830

Grrr....after searching and searching over at SimHQ I still can't located this thread, anyone have a working link, sounds like exactly what I've been looking for, thanks!

Roopod = You are awesome, thank you for taking the time to answer my post! I just tested your idea and that so far has solved my problem....thank you, thank you, thank you!!! Note to CA_STARY: Might want to consider adding this into the Green Hell 2 Read Me? Thanks again for your awesome work, now I get to really enjoy it!

Hi Guys, I've recently installed CA_Stary's awesome Green Hell 2 with Brain32's tile update, but somehow ended up with this result...any ideas on what's causing the white "patches" and suggestions for correction? Also, on my third screen shot, is the river supposed to be that light and bright? Thanks much for your help! - Steve

Instant Classic Jedi...

Great progress today on the FSSC side, what an exhausting effort! Finally finished up an incredible 99 custom macros for FSSC based on stock Wings Over Vietnam target objects, all with specified width x length dimensions (which will still need to be tested for accuracy of course). Almost done now with the stock WOV Target Object Library file which will be pretty significant in my book...a few more screenies for ya to enjoy.... Next Critical Phase To Be Completed: Fully automated merge of Thirdwire converted .INI Target Area files directly into any specified TARGETS.INI file. Note that I absolutely didn't plan to do this for the Beta, but after all my time-consuming testing it became such an inconvenience, that I figured that I might as well take it on now. Man, this endeavor really seems to be coming together, my "Wow" factor is starting to really increase as I cannot believe how much time and effort is being saved here. For example, I just added a 27-barracks community and southwest shack in literally 5 minutes to the West side of Da Nang Airfield...it is just too fun and easy now!!! Finally, as a special treat, hopefully I will get around to creating a quick beta teaser video soon on how I did that, so stay tuned for that as well.

That's good stuff guys, great improvement and thanks for your efforts! CA_Stary, I thought at one time you were going to circle back around and update the city/urban environments for Vietnam...just wondering if anyone ever made improvements there?

All, thanks for the replies and encouragement, greatly appreciated! Kevin, The program is really designed initially to read existing Target Areas (i.e., Target Area 15 - Cat Bi) from a default Targets.ini file (i.e, VIETNAMSEA_TARGETS.INI), convert to FSSC format, and write it back out to a Thirdwire .ini format. FSSC is very, very nit picky and one wrong entry/file structure will throw up multiple errors. Now, with that out of the way, once someone understands the logic of how the headers are generated, it is very easy to make a 1-minute quick fix as a work-around. Tannethal provided me his custom Ubon Airbase Target Area, and I successfully imported his file which holds an incredible 446 target objects into FSSC for manipulation, and back out again to a 3rdWire .ini file. The only problem with this quick shot approach, is you may lose some benefits of my translation functions, which include proper scaling of the objects width/length...but again I've designed the program to be really open-ended and scalable, so even then you get around that limitation. So in summary, short-term custom files can only be converted using a quick work around, long-term I expect to integrate this capability. If you're really interested in the capability to work with your pre-built target areas, send them my way and I can give them a quick test.

All, Since I have owned Wings Over Vietnam, I have always been annoyed and disappointed by how barren and lifeless the airfields and target areas have been. After my initial complaining, I began to slowly educate myself on adding/placing objects. My insight led to a huge admiration first and foremost for the work and sharing by Comrpnt on statics and “populating airbases”, the many objects that Rebel Ryder created (PM me rebel!), CA_Stary’s mesmerizing “world makeovers” and Tannethal’s densely packed airfields (Ubon is a masterpiece) – just to name a few!!! I started to learn the internal structures of the Sim and began focusing on exploring methods/tools to place and manipulate target objects. As most realize, common techniques leverage using HUD debugs and hand-placement of target objects….but that all changed for me when I found an old forum thread on the work Polak had been investigating. Out of complete fascination and awe, I read everything I could about the ideas Polak pioneered, which focused on integration with another program called “Flight Simulator Scenery Creator (aka ‘FSSC’ written by the great Derek Leung).” I began to really get excited about this discovery, and was absolutely confused why the community had not adopted this solution or taken it any further. I corresponded directly with Polak who shared his knowledge, offered his encouragement and gave me a heads-up about current limitations and challenges. Ironically enough, I had worked with FSSC years ago during my MS Flight Simulator days, so I picked it up again and started dabbling around. Yes, the possibilities were still as relevant and achievable as they were during the time Polak uncovered them! Based on my rusty programming ability, I could see that a “target translator” interface would be needed between the Sim and FSSC. And so this Spring I kicked off my efforts and started work on picking up where Polak’s masterful idea had left off…and as usual, real-life “start-and-stops” jumped in the way. But, I have made some progress perhaps you may find interesting, so thought now might be a good time to share a sneak-peek, despite the enormous amount of work left… Quick Info: • Designed specifically to support Wings Over Vietnam with Patch v08.30.06. • Since still in Beta, converted Thirdwire .INI target areas are not currently imported / integrated directly back into the Targets.ini file (i.e., VIETNAMSEA_TARGETS.INI). Future releases will support this ability. • With one click, filter out Thirdwire target areas without target objects • Target .INI file conversions support ALL known parameters including Active Year, Location, Airfield Data Files, Num Squadrons, etc. • Conversions to FSSC .SCN files check for and report missing Target Objects against a “master” Target Object Library to report out missing / blank target objects • Over 75 .API custom macros programmed for FSSC each sized with width x length dimensions which greatly assists with object placement / scaling • Fully integrated Target Object Library that can be completely customized and freely updated by the user using just notepad Enjoy the screenshots, while it won't be the ideal target placement program we have all "dreamed of" - my "Swambast Target Translator (STT)" as I've named it, breaks the boundaries of what we have now in my humble opinion, but I must fully acknowledge that I am just carrying on the torch that Polak already lit some time back...

Yes, it is gorgeous! I have it as well but it is a KILLER on your frame rates - my poor comp plummets down in the single-digits at times! I really, really, wish they had made a few versions of the thing like a "Lite", "Medium" and "Full" version. Ah well...still a beautiful piece of work.

Anyone know if a library was ever composed of the stock Wings Over Vietnam Target object's Width and Length? Any suggestions on how to get this information, even if they are just "best guess" estimates (i.e., vehicles average approx. 20 ft. long by 8 ft wide, etc.)???

Thanks Wrench for the idea. Yea, with that Infantry pack though they are all "combat ready" with the bazooka deployed, etc. I was looking for some "relaxed" soldiers (was that even possible in Vietnam?) you might find on an airbase. Also familiar with the fuel truck and oil drums - guess I was looking for more variety on "collections of junk" like pallets stacked with various cargo, actual fuel handlers next to the fuel trucks (that would be cool), etc. Thanks for the suggestion though, other than in YAP, doesn't seem like there are many publicly available options at this time.

I'm just gonna float this one out here, because it's one WOV object that for some reason still hasn't been created...at least not that I know of. Anyway, to any mod designer that take requests, I would like to kindly ask that you consider creating: Groups of U.S. Soldiers and Vietcong in varying sizes/formations? Example: x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x and x (officer talking to his men) - x is supposed to be in the middle but this forum strips out the spaces x x x x x x Etc. It would also be cool if there was more airfield "junk" objects like stacks of cargo/boxes on pallets and clusters of 50-gallon barrels, a cargo truck, etc. Then we could place these around the airfields to make them come alive. Well, thanks for reading and for any potential consideration.

Absolutely touching and inspiring thread...thank you.

Aggie, that is extremely insightful, thank you very much sir! I guess that clears up the mystery around the "swimming" planes and the .lod file issues I was having. Wow, so you need a custom made .lod file to accomplish what I am trying to do then? So, is it also true that the WOV Static Aircraft Pack that was created can only be successfully used in combination with a Mission Builder / mission file then? If so, I can now completely understand why the majority integrate the static aircraft on a mission-by-mission basis vs. trying to integrate the static aircraft on a permanent basis! Hmm, it sounds like then only 3 options exist: 1) wait until the WOV upgrade patch, 2) integrate statics using a mission builder or 3) leverage what may exist via YAP or Capun's work... Sound about right?

Thanks a lot comrpnt, I was hoping you would reply! I have an understanding and have successfully integrated the statics through the MISSION files without any issue, so perhaps I didn't articulate my issue clearly. What I want to do is to permanently have the statics as part of the airfield, and NOT dependent on any specific mission files. Is it possible to make the statics a "permanent" part of the game, basically like a terrain object? I have made limited progress. For example, I added the info into the targets.ini and the types.ini files, and I am getting further. For example, I can now get the F-4E .lods to appear in the game (though without any textures), but they are sunk about 50% into the ground and I don't know why that is. I have the .lods directly in the VietnamSea terrain file, but I'm getting unexpected results like the sunk aircraft. Any ideas...?