Mike Dora

OK I admit this is probably a bit of fine-fine-tuning, but I've long noticed that when I fire up any of the SF2 variants, the default forward view seems to equate to the F1 key's "Front Cockpit View". But I prefer to fly with the "Wide Cockpit View" provided by the F2 key. I find it gives greater immersion and also greater situational awareness. This means that every time I start up, I have to immediately press F2 to get the view I want. Mildly annoying. So my question is this. What parameter do I have to change, to get the sim to start up already in the F2 "Wide Cockpit View" mode? Thanks Mike

Dear Hauksbee, Permit me to dispute your characterisation of de Havilland lack of success in WW1. From the British perspective, the DH2 was the antidote to the 1915-16 "Fokker Scourge", even if it may have been inexcusably draughty (cf. JTB McCudden's "Flying Fury"). Also, I notice you don't mention the very successful DH4 and DH9A? ..mind you, you'll notice I don't mention the DH9.. ;) Cheers Mike A

This is all very interesting, especially as it will allow the enhanced AG capabilities of ac like the F-4E as referred to by RL veterans like Ed Rasmussen. But I have a question. Is there a way to limit the CCIP graphic to appear only within the actual HUD? I'm finding that application of this mod has the CCIP wandering all over the instrument panel in a wholly unrealistic way.. Mike

Hello All, Having recovered control last week of my PC from Win10's invidious "Creator Update", I've been trying to get FE2 working fully properly under the regular Win10. Previously while away from home for a while, I had got FE2 working really nicely on my Win7 laptop, with all of the additions, updates, tweaks and fine-tuning adopted/adapted from years of tinkering with my old FE1 configuration. When I got back I thought, perhaps simplistically, that all I would have to do is copy everything over to the desktop, press "go", and er, just go. Not quite so simple. Of course. However I've now got everything running nicely ​except​ for the special effects. Like many of us, I have quite a few of these in the Effects folder, for things like AircraftEngineDamageEffect, AircraftEngineFireEffect, AircraftFuelFireEffect, AircraftSmokeEffect, BalloonFireEffect and so on. I have tried including the EffectShaderNames (effectLightLevel.fx, effectFire.fx) in the special effect files, but with inconsistent effect. The funny thing is that while one of these now works - the BalloonFireEffect shows the descending parachute sprite - most don't - I'm not seeing any engine-damage smoke, no fuel fires, no flamers, in fact no aircraft fires or smoke at all! I'm aware from previous threads that under Win10, the special effects files and the ParticleSystem.ini file in the Flight folder seem to have a peculiar relationship. However the effects that I modified inside the ParticleSystem.ini file are​ working (I have long disabled the wholly unrealistic engine exhaust effects, WW1 aircraft didn't pour out smoke like steam trains), alongside at least one of the special effects, the afore-mentioned BalloonFireEffect. It's this lack of consistency that is frustrating me so much. So, any advice please? Thanks Mike

Hello All A few days ago the Dear Leaders of Microsoft hijacked my PC and auto-installed Win10 Creator Update build 1703. When I go my machine back, I was horrified to find that my carefully-constructed desktop folders, with their icons grouped according to my usage-based preferences (eg in the WW1 Sims folder, first a line of FE2 variant icons, then icons for WOFF & related utilities, then a line of ROF icons & utilities, all set up in the order that I want. Which ain't vanilla alphabetical), had been replaced by a forced alphabetical auto-arrange system. What makes things worse, heinous even, is that there is now appears to be no way to cancel auto-arrange in Win10. Yes I know that Microborg has been forcing this auto-arrange system on us since Win7. Yes I also know of the previous Win10 regedit-ing workarounds to restore freedom and liberty* to users who want to organise their desktops their own way, not as dictated by the dark wizards of Seattle. (*Happy Fourth of July to our American friends BTW!) I was using such a workaround before this Creator Update downgrade.But now even those workarounds don't seem to work any more. And I can't even go back to a previous Restore Point, because the Seattle Gauleiters have thought of everything in their cunning plan for Global Hegemony. The Win10 Creator Update has deleted all my old Restore Points. Now, the oldest available Restore Point is _after_ this new flexibility-reducing update. You may gather from the foregoing that I'm more than a bit miffed by all this. Indeed, before embarking on a (so far fruitless) attempt to fix things, I found myself cursing with words that I didn't even know that I knew. So I'll end this wee rant here with an invitation to everyone else to post their thoughts on this subject. Especially welcome would be proposals for practical solutions! Thanks Mike

OK Chaps Problem solved. I think. First though, I found that the Win10 Creator Downgrade was worse than I'd feared. It had also totally mucked up my sound system, so that eg flying in SF2, I heard no sound facing straight ahead but heard left stereo if I "looked" left and vice versa. Also there were no wingmen's voices. Also the frame rate had been halved! So I went Nuclear. Found the method for rolling back to a previous build of Win10, set the ball rolling, then went to weed the garden. That last bit wasn't relevant to the process but it took my mind off things. When I came back in Lo! and Behold, everything seems back to normal. One final precaution, went into Control Panel and disabled auto-updates of Windows. Yes yes I am aware of the "risks", but on the one hand I face a hypothetical messing up of my system by viruses/malware from sources unknown, versus a 100% certainty of messing up of my system by "updates" from a source that is known only too well.. Cheers Mike PS there has been one side benefit to all this. The garden is looking pretty good now.

Thanks Migbuster But that doesn't solve my problem. Win10 CU hasn't wrecked my top-level desktop layout (thank goodness!). What it has done, is wreck the layouts within the task-specific folders on that desktop. The attached screenshot shows what I mean. I have a "Sims" folder, and embedded within that I have sub-folders for WW1 sims, WW2 sims, modern sims etc. Now I used to have all the shortcuts within those folders arranged for best convenience and efficiency. Now thanks to MS all of these shortcuts have been bulldozed into a rigid alphabetical auto-arrangement. There is no longer the order and structure that helps me run the program/utility I want quickly and efficiently. The ironic thing is that 25+ years ago one of MS' big selling points for its initial Windows incarnations, was that users could arrange their shortcuts on the desktop and within folders for their efficiency and convenience. I wonder where along the line the mighty corporation lost the plot, where it forgot that the client's needs always come first? And remember, I am only a casual, leisure user. Imagine the frustration for the serious professional (commercial.. ) clients! Mike

Migbuster, That was the very first check. Auto arrange remains "on" full time no matter whether one selects it "on" or "off". Mike

Hello Eccmo, The fin top fairing on the later RAF Phantom FGR2 was for the ARI 18228 Radar Warning Receiver. ARI 18228 was fitted to all RAF tactical aircraft from the late 1970's, you'll see its antennae mounted fore-and-aft - in several different ways - on the tails of Buccaneers, Harriers, Tornados, Vulcans, and even on the venerable Canberra PR9. It was neither a passive homing device nor an active ECM device, rather it gave warning of illumination by threat radars in the 2.5GHz to 18GHz range. Cockpit instrumentation consisted of a simple 4" CRT which indicated the relative bearing of the incoming signal, with the length of the strobe line being proportional to the strength of the signal. The system operator also received an audio signal which gave a rough indication of the level of the threat. Hope this helps Mike

Does anyone happen to know how the GunnerAimOffset parameter works in FE2? I have seen values for this ranging from 0.0050 to 12.000. The first one, 0.0050, seems to be the default. Can anyone advise on the effects of these values, where do they make a gunner's bullets "go" in relation to the target? In other words, is a high number "good" or "bad"? Taking these thoughts further, in SF2 the default GunnerAimOffset is 0.050 for modern types, while some SF2 WW2 conversions seem to use 0.0050. If, as some suspect, this parameter affects the amount of deflection applied by a gunner to his moving target, then clearly the deflection appropriate to a modern target, or even to a WW2 target, would be quite inappropriate for a WW1 target. Thoughts anyone? Mike

Many thanks for the analysis VonS, I'm now using a GunnerAimOffset setting of 0.080, which is giving good results. Gunners rarely (very rarely) shoot down a target, or even cause noticeable damage, though it can happen. However they do often make the target take evasive action or even break off altogether which I find quite realistic. If we're right that this parameter affects the gunner's deflection shooting, then a figure of 12.0 instead of 0.08 meant that the gunner was in effect aiming 150 times further ahead than he should of been aiming. Put another way, if the target's airspeed was 100kt , then the gunner's aim was being offset for an assumed target airspeed of 15,000kt... that's about 8 times faster than an SR-71 going at full chat... Thanks Again Mike

Many many thanks for this vonOben, You just brought my FE2 install menus up to the same visual standard as my old FE1 setup. I had struggled to port over Guitarclassic55's excellent original work, but never got it up to the standard you just delivered. Thanks Again! Mike

Hello All, I've been doing a fair bit of tinkering with FE2 lately, and one thing that I think I'm noticing is that while there are occasional collisions between friendly & enemy aircraft (often/usually when they're coming head-on at each other and neither gets out of the way), I don't recall seeing any friendly/friendly collisions. Indeed, unless my eyes deceive me, I sometimes see friendlies get so close that their wings overlap, but with no adverse effects. Any comments anyone please? Is FE2 set up so that friendlies can't collide? Thanks Mike

Hello again everyone, I now have evidence that in my FE2 setup that friendly/friendly collisions are not detected, please see attached screenshots which show two Albatros DII's flying through each other (the smoke in the background is from a head-on between an Albatros and a Sopwith Triplane). Is there maybe some parameter somewhere that I've overlooked, that sets friendly/friendly collisions to "off"? Thanks Mike

About thirty years ago I was living in Chester in NW England. One hot summer Sunday with all the windows open (no a/c in British houses!) I heard what sounded like a Tiger Moth, but too loud for a Tiger Moth. Ran outside and found was right on both counts. It was a loose formation of _12_ Tiggies, painted all colours, low-level ferrying I guess between airshows. Looked like the original Flying Circus!

Does anyone happen to know what would be typical maximum G factors for WW1 airframes? I'm asking because it has long kind of bothered me that many/most FE2 (& FE1) aircraft seem to have MaxG parameters of 5 or more, yet from WW2 aviation literature I've read that pilots tended to black out around 4G, which is why the British & Americans were developing g-pants by the end of that war. Even with g-pants, a novice can still black out between 3 & 4G (I know.. ;). So what do people think? Does anyone have details of specific maximum G limits for specific WW1 types (we know they did static load tests on prototypes), and even if they did, are these relevant to the sim when in real life the limiting factor may more likely have been the pilots' G-tolerance? The latter issue is making me think that maybe a generic MaxG value of, say, 3.5-ish may actually be the most appropriate for most types, with something lower for the "heavies". Mike

Thanks Again Gterl, Those AircraftObject.ini PilotGLimits parameters are exactly the same as the corresponding parameters for SF2. This is suspicious - the typical SF2 aircraft type is a modern jet where the pliot would be wearing g-pants and so would have enhanced G-tolerance. So those levels cannot be right for WW1 aircrew. I suggest that figures like these may be more appropriate for FE2/1? [PilotGLimits] BlackoutStartG=3.0 BlackoutAmount=0.01 RedoutStartG=-2.0 RedoutAmount=0.05 RestoreRate=0.05 For VonS, further to our PM discussions, I'm thinking that if we set MaxG=3.5 for most all types, then for the V-strutters we could set the lower wings' MaxG at, say, 3.2-3.3. Then when flying Albatri or Nieups, if you start blacking out and hear the wings creaking, it's time to unload! - before the airframe unloads a lower wing... Cheers Mike

Thanks Gterl, That helps a very great deal. To expand on my thinking, I recall from earlier training and later reading that typically modern airframes (= anything from at least WW2 onwards) tend to be stressed to about 1.5x the anticipated in-service load factors. So if you expect an airframe to typically pull 3G, you build it to stand 4.5G and so on. This chimes in well with the German specs above, when one bears in mind that the pilot would not be able to physiologically tolerate more than 3-4G. Where I am going with all this in the case of FE2 (& FE1 too), is that the virtual pilots all seem to adhere to the MaxG limits for the planes they are "flying". With typical MaxG levels well in excess of 5G, this may be why we see Camels, Tripes etc zooming around like F-16s. In this context therefore, as mentioned above I'm thinking that a MaxG=3.5 might be the most appropriate for most types, with MaxG=2.0 for the heavies (sidebar: even the famously maneuverable Avro Vulcan was limited to 2G in service). That may make sure that all the virtual pilots stay within human physical limitations, but would leave the question of how the human pilot (the player) becomes aware of approaching the G-limit. Which leads to the next sim-technical issue. Does anyone know how the Options.ini file "Blackout" parameter works? What do Blackout=0, =1, =2 mean? And also, can we set the Blackout-initiating G-parameter, and if so, how? Cheers Mike

I'm with you Trotskii - "the most dangerous thing on two legs = an officer with a map & a compass".. Confess that during my Cranwell training I was that "thing" :) recall a nightex on the Sennybridge ranges (South Wales mountains for everyone else) in Dec 76: task was to reach an RV in a very tight timescale, in crappy wx with visibility as dark as a badger's. Muggins here checked map & compass, then confidently led his team off at a very sharp trot, with SLRs & full packs of course. Just 180 degrees off from the correct heading... Half way into the allotted time figured out the mistake, turned round and had the whole team run all the way back to the correct RV. We actually made it on time. Didn't win any popularity contests that night. But sure learned a hell of a lot! & not just about map reading..

Agree with Troskii. This is not even on the same planet as Cranwell! Mike (Cranwell graduate 1977.. )

This may have been asked before, if so apologies, but how can we get the post-mission Debrief "statistics" screen to list rounds fired/hit for the gunners in 2-seat/multi-seat aircraft? I sometimes see enemy aircraft shot down by such gunners, and they certainly expend much ammunition, but their efforts are never reflected in the debrief stats. Is there a solution for this please? Thanks Mike

Thanks Ojcar So if Lt The Hon George Colthurst St Burleigh is the pilot of a two-seater, but can't hit a barn door at five paces with a telescopic sight, and Private S Baldrick is his gunner who repeatedly knocks down hostile aircraft, when it comes to debriefing old Georgie Boy will get all the credit & Baldrick will end up shining the officers' boots? How in keeping with the period! Cheers Mike

Thanks, I ask because when a 2-gun-type single-seater like an SE5a is involved in combat, the debrief lists rounds fired/hit for both the Vickers & the Lewis (both of which are of course forward-firing). But when a two-seater like a Bristol Fighter is involved, while the debrief may list both gun types, the forward-firing Vickers & the observer's Lewis, it only shows rounds fired/hit for the forward-firing Vickers, even when the observer has shot down an enemy aircraft - yet such observer kills are properly reflected in the debrief stats. A strange inconsistency. Mike

Thanks Snailman, very timely. The missing SAMs thing had been bugging me quite a bit recently. Now that I've changed the *types.ini SAM_RADAR and SAM_LAUNCHER ActiveYear setting to 1957, I am now seeing the SA-2's etc showing up where they should. BUT. When switching sides to Soviet/Warsaw Pact, I'm still not seeing common Western SAMs showing up, especially the HAWK family. Is there something further we need to do, to get them please? Cheers Mike