Baltika

Wrench, man, you are bringing a tear to my eye. . . Great work, to all who contributed - S!

Seems like there is scope for a concerted effort here. Brain32 has posted that he had prepared multiple tile sets to cover the region, with appropriate variation for each country, and yeah, Southern Italy will look much different to Balkans region. . . You around, Brain? This terrain is crying out for a custom hi-res tileset, man ;-) Also, as you will know Wrench, there just aren't enough transition tiles in the GCE set, which is why C5 was getting coastal/city weirdness with his WIP map. Of course, I got the usual itch, and have been building this one up from scratch, using the fully transitioned tileset included with Kamchatka terrain, just for fun. The extra transition tiles mean the coastal and city areas tile properly using autotile, which cuts down a ton of hand tiling work. Also, as you will see, I have expanded the borders a bit to include Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as the host of Balkan nations. I was aiming for a more comprehensive "Southern Front" for NATO fighters, but as usual it's probably wildly overambitious. Once I get the capital cities for each nation plotted and a runway for each nation, I'd be happy to hand it over to whoever wants to take it further, if anyone ;-) But at least I can fly that nice Swiss DLC Hunter from its home base ;-)

column5 was working on an Adriatic map which would cover the region nicely. . . http://combatace.com/topic/40575-terrain-gurus-look-here-plz-adriatic-map/page__st__20__hl__+column5?do=findComment&comment=288582 But I don't know if that project was shelved indefinitely? Certainly looks like it would have been a great map, and a lot of work had gone into it.

Hi there, I just wanted to say, I didn't mean to be cheeky or anything like that, it's just that terrain building can be quite time-consuming so calling on volunteers to get it done is probably not going to get you very far - most folks who do it usually have a project or three on the go (I know I do, some of which will hopefully see the light of day . . .sometime ;-) ) On the other hand, it is a good idea for a campaign, so I don't want to discourage you. Gepard has said that he built his Israel terrain from scratch because he wanted to fly over Israel and no-one else was building it, so he did it for himself. Of course, that was a long time before SF2:I, or even WoI, but you get the idea that, if you want something like that done, often the best way is to take a crack at it yourself. Seriously, take a read at Gepard's tutorials, and if you work through them in turn they will enable you to get a basic terrain build together. After that, just keep on tweaking, and tweaking, and tweaking. . . If you have any questions about how it all works, take a read in the KB, and if it's not there, ask away. Slainthe, Baltika

Right here, gepard's terrain creation tutorials, numbers 1-6:- http://combatace.com/forum/191-modding-terrainsenviroments/ That's how I got started ;-) Good luck

If you look in the download for my WW2 British speechpack, you will see a spreadsheet file that contains all of that information for the TW speech files, cross-referenced against the name of the wav file. So it's already been done. And yes, listening to and taking notes on the 500 or so sound clips was exactly how I did it. . . Slainthe! Baltika

Nice one, Kevin Thanks for the update, all your hard work on WW2 stuff recently is persuading me I ought to construct a dedicated SF2 WW2 install. Cheers, mate

In a word. . . Stunning Thank you my friend

Great work

Thanks

Update:- Running the NA campaign using the SF2NA exe, I am getting more like 35-40 FPS over Iceland, but we always knew that terrain was a resource hog. On a more positive note, running a strike mission on the Kiev battlegroup, 6 of my flight of 8 A-7s were hit by ship-launched SAMs, including me. I think some tweaking of the SAM behaviour has been going on, but probably more testing is required. Still not seeing any stutters using avionics60.

Just installed the July patch, positive response from me so far. The FPS issues I have been having are now completely gone. Pre-July patch I was getting continual microstutters, and an average FPS of 25-30, with dips into the teens, no matter what in-game graphics settings I used. I have run several missions with the new patch, and I am getting rock-solid 60 FPS with everything set to unlimited ingame, at 1920x1080. I have set AA to 8x CSAA and forced Vsync on through nvidia control panel, so my framerate is limited by my monitor refresh rate. I also used the nvidia panel to set triple buffering and threaded optimisation on. I am running a stock combined install of all the SF2 games, plus both expansion packs and a few DLC planes. I ran my test missions using Stary's enhanced Germany tileset, otherwise no mods. I am also one of the lucky ones who do not seem to be affected by the avionics60.dll issue, I have tested it out on July patch with AA and AG radar running, no stutters. @Pureblue, I know TK has not posted a reply to the avionics60 thread over at TW boards, but on facebook he answered the question by saying they are still looking into what causes it, so it seems he is aware of the issue and trying to pin it down. I would be interested to know if those who have tried the new patch see a similar FPS boost to the one I have seen. Cheers all, Baltika

Hi all, Thanks for the suggestions. Kevin, if you could send me the zipfile that would be great, I'm hoping to be able to update the TODs without having to redo every single one, as that would save a ton of time. Cheers, Baltika

Good point Kevin In fact, the whole terrain needs some TOD love, but I regard that as a second sweep issue, after HFD, TFD, and targetisation ARGH Would help if anyone had Polak's Texturelist.ini for his PR desert terrain, means I wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel for all his cool buildings. . . Anybody know where it might be? Slainthe! Baltika

Just in case you guys missed it. . . We need more of this in sport

Kars is in, no worries Anyone else got any suggestions?

Thanks I must admit I am pleased with the way this one is turning out:-

Oh yeah, 1000km x 1000km, no upscaling for this one to keep the rugged mountains as accurately modelled as possible, so TK's usual 66% RL scaling applies. Even so, this neck of the woods is plenty big enough to fly around in

Progress update. . . Tiling work mostly complete, some corrections as I go along. About 40% through flattening airfields. Let myself go and bought TK's F-14A skinpack DLC - fits right in to this scenario CAP over Orumiyeh lake, Northwestern Iran, near to the border with Turkey:- Lining up for final approach to TAB1 Mehrabad International, Tehran:- Getting there, slowly but surely

Hi there, I recommend you try out these excellent add-on cockpits by Stary:- MiG-15, MiG-15bis & MiG-17:- http://combatace.com/files/file/12684-mig-15-mig-15-bis-mig-17-simplified-cockpit/ MiG-17PF/PFU:- http://combatace.com/files/file/12852-mig-17-pfpfu-cockpit/ Great work by Stary, they will get you started flying for Red Side Prost! Baltika

Try the new thirdwire web-based updater/installer from the link here:- http://www.thirdwire.com/downloads.htm You will need the email address and download password you used to download the manual game installers. The web-installer is a snap for downloading all of your purchased games, EPs and DLCs to the latest patch standards.

Hi all, Thanks for the suggestions. I am reading up on HDDs and SSDs now. The SF2 issue seems to be that the disk is accessed on the fly to load up the sound files for the various voice comms. This is causing a hiccup on playback, except when I have my main game install on the Corsair stick. i see the stick activity light flashing when comms play, but the in-game-stutter doesn't happen. So I reckon it is a speed of data access issue, pointing to my HDD combination. Good question, I have no idea what the answer is. I will try to find out. The computer is set up to use the 64 Gb Kingston SSD as a cache drive for the HDD, using Intel's Rapid Storage/Smart Response Technology. This is supposed to cache all frequently used files on the SSD to speed up access, and improve overall system performance, but instead I am getting this glitch. If I find time I can try to switch that off (maybe not if I need to reinstall windows) to see if that technology is causing the issue. The SSD and HDD are set up in a RAID 0 config, with the driver set to "Enhanced" acceleration. I think I can easily switch that over to "Maximised" mode to see if that helps any.

Hi Jedi, here's the rub: My new (-ish, now last year's model) rig:- Intel Core i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz (Sandy Bridge) 16.0 Gb RAM 64-bit Win 7 HP Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 1.5Gb Creative Soundblaster Audigy Samsung 2TB HD204UI HDD - 3Gb/s 5400RPM 32MB cache Kingston 64GB SSD (in cache mode for HDD) The weak link looks to me like the HDD, which turns out to be the Samsung Spinpoint F4EG EcoGreen Version. Not exactly as advertised by the vendor, who claimed a 7200RPM model, but that will teach me to buy off the shelf. So I am eyeing up a Western Digital 1TB VelociRaptor SATA 6Gb/s 64MB 10K 3.5" Hard Drive to put all my flightsims on Meantime, my Corsair USB stick is taking up the slack Slainthe! Baltika

Or Tweakers Anonymous United. . . Well, I have been kicking about here from the good old days of SFP1, when patches only came along once every couple of years. Man, how we bitched to get the old campaigns working when version 083006 came out, and yes, I am still patiently waiting for SF2:Operation Tainted Cigar - throw me a bone here guys And for a long time I was running hardware which frankly couldn't run the 08 level patches properly - we are talking 15 FPS on average, with frequent dips into single digits. But, you know, none of that mattered, 'cos I could tweak stuff, fiddle around to get an extra FPS or two, or perceived a marginal improvement, and anyhow I had campaign and terrain mods to finish, so, actually running missions was a bonus. Then, last summer, I got myself a proper modern gaming rig, so, I thought, I would be in SF2 nirvana, right? Well, not really, I have spent over a year tweaking, fiddling, testing, trying to sort a framerate hiccup on comms playback glitch. From 200+ FPS to freeze, to 4FPS, what's been going on? In every mission, on every detail setting, and, on every nvidia setting I could think of. No dice. Bandit calls, Red Crown, Wingmen soundbites - hiccup. Darn! I have changed vid card drivers, changed soundcard drivers, gone from onboard Realtek cr*p to Creative soundcard cr*p, all the while cursing, tweaking, cursing, tweaking and keeping on coming back. Well, all that has changed. On a hunch I tried an old WoX trick, and installed my combined main game folder (SF2; V; E; I; NA; EP1; EP2) to a 16GB Corsair USB Pen Drive. Guess what? It worked. Stutter gone. Hiccups gone. Running at an average 59-60 FPS (limited by my TFT panel with vsync enabled) with occasional drops to the mid 30s, unnoticeable unless I have the frmaerate counter running. I have run CAS missions, intercept, battlegoup strike missions, IcelandNA terrain, all the same. Fluid, beautiful, uninterrupted gameplay. At last, I can play SF2, with no stutters, no hiccups, just missile spoofing, ground-run-strafing, MiG-killing fun. I should be having fun, but you know what? I just d/led DCS World 1.2.0, running around in their free to play Su-25. The terrain stutters a bit when I pan around. It's bugging me a bit. Even though the switchology is a pain to learn, the canned missions are boring, and it's all so Russian, I want it to run right. Without hiccups or glitches. Play some SF2? It's running great now. Well, yeah, but I gotta research HDDs. I think I need to fit faster one. To get DCS running right. I mean, I won't play it that much, but, you know, I need something to tweak. . . AAAAaaaargh!!!

Well, I have this old, old wip on my HDD:- http://combatace.com/topic/46880-kurile-islands-campaign-remember-usnf-97/ Check out posts #11 - #15 for planning map/screens. Development stalled after Kamchatka terrain preview release, then my old school Iceland terrain took priority, but if there's interrest I can dig it up out of the vaults. . . It will take a long time to get it to releasable state, don't all hold your breath