Moggy

I was on a sabbatical pursuing other interests when 1.3 came out, so I never had it up and running but this is my understanding of it (mainly from Mr. Jelly I think}:

"EAW had always worked on a system of 30 aircraft slots. Any skin or 3dz files containing "p38h" were in the first slot, and any containing "V1V1" were in the 30th. This meant that the files were locked into slots. Not only that, but the flight model system was unhelpful. There were 30 individual flight model "flt" files, one for each slot, from "p38h.flt" to "V1V1.flt". Unfortunately other flight data files such as "planes.dat", "loadout.dat" and "pnames.str" covered all 30 slots. It was aggravating for modders.

However, during the development of 1.28D the Code Group found a way to break up those single files, such as "planes.dat", which contained data for all 30 aircraft slots. As a first stage, we were able to replace these with individual files for each plane. As a result we started working on an entirely new exe that could make use of this critical breakthrough. Principally through work done by Knegel, an exe was compiled which took the slot-free idea to its logical extent. The slots ceased to be named by or identified with the characteristics of particular aircraft (single, two engine etc). All thirty aircraft slots from 00 to 29 now had the full capacities available in any the previous particular slots. Any aircraft slot including the V1 slot could manage single and multi engine setups, props or jets.

This release was intended to be a public testing of the slot-free concept."

The great knock on from the slot free achievement was the introduction of new and additional 3dz "paste-on" files.

Yes, sadly not all of it. Real shame if that archive is gone for good.

Some of this seems to be on the Internet Archive:

https://web.archive.org/web/20050427220718/http://www.combatsim.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=76&hardset=1000&start_point=120

On 20/10/2019 at 11:56 PM, RIBob said:

My comment above was intended to propose a fair and just method of asking for "use" permission and for describing how attribution to other Modders, for use of their product, ought to be done in a fair and reasonable way.

I look forward to seeing ALL the Modders re-vamping their sites/files/comments in order to give prominent credit to those former Modders on whose shoulders current Modders stand.

 Again, this is a fair and just proposition, I think.  Simply give credit where credit is due.

Back in the day, we had SEAWC, and it dealt with this quite simply. See: http://www.thatoneplease.co/Tally-Ho/seawccharter.html

Quote

 

THE DECLARATION OF MODIFICATION

The members of SEAWC agree unconditionally to the following:

Please Note: The term 'file', as used below, refers to 'any type' of input to EAW, including aircraft/ground object 3DZ models, aircraft/ground object skins, terrains, special effects, sounds, campaigns and tools/utilities.

1) All those members of SEAWC, singularly or as part of a group effort, agree that any new or old files, created and posted/released by them, can be freely used or modified by anyone, without the necessity for verbal permission or written authorization from the originator.

2) All those members of SEAWC would ask that if any individual changes/amends any of their files and subsequently releases these files as their own work, that the individual gives due credit to the originator(s) in the readme file. If those involved in the history of the model/skin cannot be established, then a statement to that effect should be placed in the readme file. This would allow future updates to the readme file, should the information become available.

3) All those members of SEAWC agree that any work created by them is in the hope of enhancing EAW for the benefit of everyone and that no self importance, self esteem or financial gain is sought or inferred.

4) All those members of SEAWC agree that if only a modification has been carried out to an original file, the readme file should say that it is a modification, and the file should not be released as 'new'.

5) Last, but by no means least, all those members of SEAWC agree that, regardless of the level of your involvement, EAW should be enjoyed for what it is, a flight simulator. We are all here to have fun.

 

Can't do better than that. I've always tried to adhere to it.