Baltika

Hi Canadair, Thanks for taking the time to do some troubleshooting, and thanks for pointing out the typos and duplicates in the TARGETS.INI. So far as AAA/SAM sites go, I did use a template for all of them, so unfortunatley the error you have pointed out is duplicated through quite a lot of target areas. I will thoroughly revamp all of the problem target areas and post an update A.S.A.P. So far as lock ups go, using the mod as posted I get hard lock ups when running the terrain in SFP1/WoE Oct 08 patch. I have tested this in a couple of my installs and same thing. Nothing that a reboot couldn't solve, so far as the computer goes. I found that deleting the limitednations entries completely from the NATIONS.INI file cured this. I am very interested that you can run the terrain as posted in Oct 08 builds. This really has me stumped, and is the main reason I posted this as an SF2-only mod. Of course, there's no real reson why SF2 terrains shouldn't work in Oct 08, with a DATA.INI file for that build, which is why I posted that file. I think it might be because I developed this terrain using a Win XP desktop and a Win7 laptop, copying the files between the two as required. There may be some ANSI/UNICODE/WIN7 weirdness going on. In future, I will develop stuff on one machine only, then test it on others when complete. Hi Eric, Agreed, uploading a completed fix is much easier. But I am really still troubleshooting and don't yet have a definitive answer. As soon as I do, it can go up. Cheers all, baltika

OK, after hearing about Derk's troubles I have been banging my head off a brick wall trying to sort this out. It seems the problem is caused by SFP1/WoX Oct 08 trying to read the [LimitedNationList] entries which appear in the Iceland02_nations.ini file. For WoX series, delete that header and all the nations listed in the iceland02_nations.ini file, so your nations.ini looks like this only:- [Theater] TheaterName=Iceland Location001=Gullbringusýsla Location002=Borgarfjarðarsýsla Location003=Snaefellsneg-Og-Hnappadalssýsla Location004=Árnessýsla Location005=Rangárvallasýsla Location006=Vestur-Skaftafellssýsla Location007=Austur-Skaftafellssýsla Location008=Suður-Múlasýsla Location009=Þingeyjarsýsla Location010=Grímsey Location011=Heimaey Location012=Bardastrandarsýsla Location013=Eyjafjarðarsýsla Location014=Isafjarðarsýsla Location015=Norður-Múlasýsla Location016=Skagafjarðarsýsla Location017=Húnavatnssýsla Location018=Myrasýsla I have tested this out in a couple of my WoX Oct 08 builds and everyhting seems fine now, CAS and anti-ship missions running. Obviously, you lose the limited nations functionality for the terrain, but at least it works. Sorry for any trouble this may have caused. Cheers, baltika.

Hi Derk, I'm really sorry to hear this has caused so much trouble for you, I hope everything gets sorted. All I can suggest is that people DO NOT run CAS/Anti-ship missions in WoX installs. If I get to the bottom of this I will post a fix, but the simplest fix is to run this terrain in SF2 only. Best wishes, Baltika

Glad to hear you are enjoying it Can I ask, if you are running in WoE, I assume you are at Oct 08 patch level? Do CAS/Anti-ship missions work on your set up? I get hard lock-ups on my WoX installs when trying to run those missions on this terrain. I can't work out why, and that is one of the reasons it was released as SF2 series mod. I switched from a WinXP WoE Oct 08 set up to a Win7 HP 32bit, SF2 setup in the course of building this, and something seems to have gone wrong somewhere. CAS should work in WoE, they just cause my old XP rig to lock up. If those missions work on your rig, I know it's something specific to my install/setup. Cheers

Thanks all, glad you are enjoying it. Cheers, Baltika

Exactly correct. There is a WoX DATA.INI in the WoX folder, and an SF2 DATA.INI in the SF2 folder. Default in the terrain folder is the SF2 DATA.INI, but, if you over-write it and want to go back, just copy out the file from the separate SF2 folder. Glad you like it Spectre Anybody find any "sea mountains" or coastal tsunami, give me a shout and I'll flatten them. Those fjords are reeeaaally tricky, and whilst I haven't flown the entire Icelandic coastline over the last two years, it's starting to feel like it Word of warning: for those who insist on not upgrading to SF2 series (like, get with the program, already!!!) if you run this terrain in WoX builds you may get hard lock ups on running CAS or Anti-ship missions. It does that in my various Oct 08 WoX builds. I don't know why, or how to fix it. I think it has something to do with the fact that development of this terrain shifted from my old Win XP WoX rig to my new Win7 SF2 rig. Like I say, I don't know why. Air to Air missions of all types run fine on WoX installs. Everything runs like it should on SF2 installs, although check your CatFile pointer in the ICELAND02.INI file as default is set to GermanyCE. Post your bug reports, hard-luck stories, and griping about how all the towns look the same right here. But, best advice for this terrain, is stay low, and stay in the cockpit - that way, you won't see so many joins Slainthe Baltika

View File Iceland02 Full-scale Terrain v1.0 *********************************** Iceland 02 Full-Scale Terrain v1.0 by Baltika *********************************** Thanks to:- Gepard for his terrain tutorials, which started this adventure off all those years ago. Also for his new WoE runways which are included here. JSFAggie for his Highway runway Mod, which has been altered and modded for use as glacier-based FARPs. Brain32 for sound advice on creating terrain tiles. Cheers mate;-) Your hi-res lava tile has not been used here, but may see the light of day if I ever manage a hi-res set for this little terrain. Wrench, Dave & all the gang at CA for invaluable advice on how to make things work, garnered over the years and hopefully put to good effect here. MajorLee, Deuces, Edward and anyone else who made a terrain mod and posted about how to do it. Thanks! TK for making the whole bag of bolts hang together. *********************************** Installation instructions:- Unzip and drop the "ICELAND02" folder into your Saved GamesThirdwireStrikeFighters2Terrains folder. If there is no terrains folder in your mod folder, create one and drop the ICELAND02 folder into it. That's it! Go fly, and fight for the liberation of Iceland. This terrain has been completed using SF2 June 2010 patch. It is not supported on WoX series or earlier patch levels. But, if you really must try, use the ICELAND02_DATA.INI file included in the "Use_in_WoX" folder for SF1 series. Your mileage may vary. *********************************** This terrain features a completely new Iceland map, scaled up to full size and with a completely new tileset. All mission types are flyable for Red and Blue force. It has taken a number of years and several false starts to get to this point. Like gepard said about his Israel terrain, I feel the journey may never be finished, so if you spot any oddities or bugs, drop me a line at CombatAce and I'll try to fix it. I will post targetisation updates as and when these are completed. For now, kick back, enjoy the Arctic scenery and have a blast. Slainthe! Baltika 27 October 2010 *********************************** Submitter Baltika Submitted 10/27/2010 Category Full Terrains

Way ahead of you Now available in the SF2 terrain d/l section:- http://combatace.com/files/file/11447-iceland02-full-scale-terrain-v10/ I have included an SF1 level terrain_DATA.INI file for those who have not yet made the jump, but development was completed on SF2 patched to June 2010 level, and this terrain will not be supported in SF1 level - you're on your own there This has truly been a long voyage of discovery and I am interested to know where things go from here. Slainthe to one and all

Final Map preview:- Now in the final stages of processing for upload. Not long to go now

Hello everyone This is what can only be described as a shameless plug of Kamchatka Krai terrain. For all of you JASDF guys who want a crack at Mother Russia, or, all of you comrades who need an excuse to fight for the Motherland in the face of Western Imperialism . . . Dawn Patrol over Kamchatka Krai in MiG-19 . . . Some beauty shots . . . Thanks to everyone who made this possible - Gepard for terrain tutorials Deuces for core tileset Stary for Forests & Farms mod ShrikeHawk for CloudScape 2.0 And the whole team at CA for making a hobby a way of life. Cheers All New terrain stuff v. soon from the Baltika stable - watch this space Meantime, I am chasing that 1000 d/ls for Kamchatka, so, go for it http://combatace.com/files/file/10530-kamchatka-peninsula-v-10/

Have seen exactly same problem on my laptop. Samsung R780, Win 7 Home, Intel Core i3-330M 2.16GHz, nvidia GT-330M 1GB, 4GB Memory, but. . . Onboard sound, Realtek drivers. You could try this solution:- http://combatace.com/topic/57617-sound-problem/page__gopid__441389 Regrettably, I have found that my batch conversion has not completely cured the issue. Standard MS drivers may help, although it didn't in my case. My interim solution is to rename the speech folder so the game can't load sounds. No voices . . but mostly no stuttering. Sadly I think it is a case of pure processing horsepower being marginal, especially with onboard sound. Complete defrag and re-install may help a bit, bit that is extreme for a heavily modded install. Otherwise, the usual advice about closing down all non-essential services and so freeing up CPU cycles is probably good here. Cheers, Baltika

"Churchill's Wizards" by Nicholas Rankin, essential reading on the history of military deception in all its guises:- http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/oct/04/history Rubber tanks were the least of it, and one can only imagine how Gen. Patton felt about being given a whole d**n army of them to command in the run up to D-Day

Progress Update:- Water tile .TGAs created and all water effects activated. Runway placement/flattening is well advanced. Targetisation is progressing, albeit somewhat slowly. Meantime, here's a quick tour round NOR Neskhaupstadur, in the Soviet-occupied Eastern Coastal region. Cheers to the insky group for their excellent Su-33 Sea Flanker, and to Gepard for his Euro airbases, both of which are featured here. Operation Polar Glory inbound

Thanks very much, glad you like it This is a fairly early beta build, you may see some misalignment of runways and tsunamis creeping up the shoreline. I am working on tidying all of that up and improving terrain targetisation (which is truly beta, except a few target areas round Edinburgh etc). If you spot any strangeness, give me a shout & I'll fix it for the next release. Cheers, Baltika

Happy Birthday Brain Have a (virtual) pint on me Slainthe! Baltika

Looks like a whole season of programmes on BoB:- http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/seasons/battle-of-britain-season/ Time to set the VCR Thanks for the heads up, can't believe I missed this

Have been struggling to sort this issue on my new(ish) Samsung R780 laptop. Uninstalled realek drivers, used MS ones, tried various combinations of settings. . . all to no avail, still got that stutter. Somewhere on the many threads here & at TW, someone mentioned bit rate, with realtek drivers converting on the fly. . . using up CPU cycles. Problem is, stock TW .wav files are in 16 bit, 11KHz format . . . and that is not supported by newer Realtek drivers, or the MS ones I used. So, your driver has to convert TW .wav files to its lowest setting - on my laptop, 16 bit, 44100Hz quality. Banging head off brick wall, and wondering if I would ever get this sorted - then, extracted content of speech.cat, batch converted all .wav files to 16 bit, 44100Hz quality, and dropped them into a new "Speech" folder in my SF2 mod folder - and the stutter is gone. Next step - pack all the new wavs into a cat pack and stick it in the main SF2 install program. Phew

Well, can't do "Raid Over Moscow" on this preview terrain. . . (Retro gamers unite!) But here's the Peter & Paul Fortress, Sankt-Peterburg*, for those who fancy their chances Let's just say, anti-aircraft defence is strong hereabouts. . . * Take your pick of names. As a local catechism proclaims, "Where were you born? St. Petersburg. Where did you go to school? Petrograd. Where do you live now? Leningrad. And where would you like to live? St. Petersburg." Said local never left his hometown all his life. Happily, he saw his wish come true. North Cape incoming. Targetisation is a beeeatch, spent a whole day on the fortress. Sweden will get short shrift in the initial release, focus is on, you guessed it, North Cape. But Helsinki is looking pretty busy now. And don't the Russians have a lot of naval bases in Kola Peninsula. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my Anti-ship missions are interesting on this terrain Cheers all, Baltika

This is a guide on how to create an alpha channel for a coastal tile, or indeed any water tile, using the gimp software. 1. Open up your newly created coastal tile .bmp file. 2. On the main toolbar, under "Dialogues," open up the "Layers" and "Channels" windows as this makes it easier to keep track of what's going on. 3. From the main toolbar, click on Layer/Transparency/Add Alpha Channel. You will see your alpha channel appear on the Channels dialogue box. 4. By left clicking in the channels dialogue, highlight your new alpha channel and deselect the RGB channels, although leave them visible for now. 5. From the main toolbar, click on Layer/Mask/Add Layer Mask. A new dialogue box will pop up with a number of options. Select "Initialise Layer Mask" to "Layer's Alpha Channel," and click "Add." A completely white box should appear next to your .bmp image on the "Layers" dialogue. That's the layer mask. 6. From the main toolbar, under the Layer/Mask options menu, ensure "Edit Layer Mask" is ticked, and that "Show layer mask" and "Disable Layer Mask" are unticked. Now, when you use any paint tool, you are editing the layer mask and not your image. 7. Select a paintbrush, colour black, and draw on the main screen to blank out the parts of the image which you do not wish water to appear on. The main image will go to grayscale, but in the "Layers" dialogue, you should see that your .bmp image is untouched, while what you are drawing appears on the white box next to your image. You can toggle the "show layer mask" setting to check this, but when it is visible you can't see your image so it's hard to know where to draw. 8. Once you have blacked out the areas you don't want to show up as alpha channel, toggle "show layer mask" to on. You should have an image which is partially black, where you have painted out the alpha channel, and partially white. The white part is your alpha channel. Using bucket fill, change the white to a shade of grey, with white being most reflective and dark grey being least reflective, depending on how much reflection you want from your sea. 9. Once you're happy, on the main toolbar, click on Layer/Mask/Apply layer mask. This is slightly disconcerting as the blacked out part of the image will turn to grayscale on all dialogues, but don't worry. 10. Select "save as," and save the edited image as a .tga file. Make sure you uncheck "RLE Compression" before saving. I don't know if "Origin bottom left" makes a difference or not. Any comments, questions etc to Baltika. Cheers all Just remember, when working with TE - be safe out there, it's a jungle

Discussion thereon:- http://combatace.com/topic/49530-american-constitutional-crisis-confederacy-2010/page__p__355755__hl__baltika__fromsearch__1#entry355755 Have to agree with Dave, carrier-on-carrier action is almost as good as. . . Well, what he says

Check out the bonus campaign, "Confederacy 2010," for lots of Confederate vs Yankee action, for all of those Civil War "enthusiasts" out there:- http://combatace.com/files/file/10211-in-defence-of-texas-alamo-2010-campaign/ And remember to tell Dave, "It's just a what-if, IT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN!" Slainthe! Baltika

Hiya FC, Yes, I remember that discussion, from a while back, even had a crack at it myself if memory serves, as you say, no dice. Would be a cool feature though, especially as there are a few different voicepacks around now. Slainthe! Baltika

Oh yeah, know that feeling If you reaally want to see endless possibilities open up, and lose the rest of your remaining free time for oh, about the next five years, take a read at Gepard's Terrain Editor Turorials in the KB http://combatace.com/forum/191-modding-terrainsenviroments/ Cheers Baltika

"Unimplemented feature" This from the NATIONS.INI of WoE patched to Oct '08:- [Nation002] Name=USAF DisplayName=United States Air Force Alignment=FRIENDLY PilotNameList=NamesUSAF.lst RankList=RanksUSAF.lst CallsignList=CallsignsUS.lst Formation.Fighter=USFighter Formation.Attack=USFighter Formation.Bomber=USBomber Formation.Transport=USBomber Formation.Tank=USTank Formation.MobileAD=USAD PilotTrainingStandard=EXCELLENT GenderRatio=0 DebriefSuccessMusic=DebriefSuccess.wav DebriefFailMusic=DebriefFail.wav DebriefKilledMusic=DebriefKilled.wav SpeechFile=USAFSpeech.cat <-------- OBSERVE! SpeechTextFile=USAFSpeechText.cat Medals=MedalsUSAF.ini MedalTextFile=MedalsUSAF.str UseFAC=TRUE And this:- [Nation005] Name=Soviet DisplayName=Soviet Air Force Alignment=ENEMY PilotNameList=NamesRussian.lst RankList=RanksRussian.lst CallsignList=CallsignsUS.lst Formation.Fighter=SovietFighter Formation.Attack=SovietFighter Formation.Bomber=SovietBomber Formation.Transport=SovietBomber Formation.Tank=SovietTank Formation.MobileAD=SovietAD PilotTrainingStandard=NORMAL GenderRatio=0 DebriefSuccessMusic=DebriefSuccess.wav DebriefFailMusic=DebriefFail.wav DebriefKilledMusic=DebriefKilled.wav SpeechFile=USAFSpeech.cat <-------- The same. SpeechTextFile=USAFSpeechText.str Observation:- There is no USAFSpeech.cat file in any version of the game. There is a speech folder with a whole stack of .wav files which contain the voices you hear. But, maybe someday. . . Although, don't hold your breath. TK has responded to numerous calls for a hebrew voicepack for WoI with the answer that voice acting is very expensive. No doubt true. Meantime, have seperate installs for your Red-flyable campaigns, and use Russian voice pack for that install, e.g. :- http://combatace.com/files/file/1801-soviet-comms/ by Fubar512, or http://combatace.com/files/file/2839-gramps-russian-speech-pack/ by gramps. Dos vedanya, Tovarisch! Baltika