Stwa

Map cropping, was seldom used in the heyday, maybe moreso now. But, the terrain, that led me over the hump regarding technique, was the Falkland Islands. On this terrain I employed, cropping, a terrain flat, skewing or streching the elevation data, and off map enemy air bases. My first custom terrain tiles were developed here. Now, I am no terrain expert, and that is for sure. But I enjoyed making this terrain from sea up. The islands are the only land mass in the terrain and it has 40 or more sea movement routes. The largest planning map is highly detailed showing the locations of all the harbors and towns, and important coastal areas. You can do any kind of mission, but CAP over the harbors, and friendly static cargo ships, are generally the most fun. Their is a single friendly air base, I believe the one the British constructed after the war. Of course, to keep things consistant and UNIFORM. The terrain uses WOE tiles. Here you get 2 colors. This might be a good time to discuss some of the techniques enumerated above, but I am guessing they are all common knowledge now.

Anyway, to the original creator of the Hunter Desert Camo skin, I want to express my sincere thanks. Now, all my Hunters, no matter where they deploy, look basically alike (i.e. UNIFORM). Last year I spent lurking (in the forums ), and I discovered a wonderful Cuba map (by Tonix). He had the actual foresight, and clarity of thought, to tile his rendidtion with WOE tiles. I started to drool before I could hit the download button. As expected, this terrain did not disapoint. But, the map included portions of Central America, so I reduced the terrain to 800 km's, cropping out these countries. Oh, I must mention, I retiled it ala WOV. I couldn't help myself. Years ago, I spent countless hours developing an autotexture scheme that is guaranteed to produce a tropical island (with or without rice paddies), in just 2 mouse clicks. I love this terrain, and its home for my fantasy fleet of USAF F-104G's. I base them in Florida, and the only thing faster to Havana is a ballistic missle.

OK, so we moved the Kuwait sqadrons to Quatar, since its impossible for Iraq to rumble into Kuwait City on this terrain. But, here we use the Hunters for CAP missions over the oilfields and air bases, and occassionly the all important Mosque. Once in a while there will be anti shipping missions. But one thing we never do, is send the Hunters across the Gulf to the other side. There is a monster SAM fence, and it has an exceptional warning system that detects us about half way there. Now, with so many countries using the same bird, this posed a serious uniformity issue. Fortunately, I was saved by a excellent skin. Anyway, it looked great on the aircraft, but when examining the skin bmp files, I noticed, additional stuff in areas that were basically not used by the 3d model. This caused a great amount of anxiety. So, I basically re-did the skin transfering the upper camo back to the original hunter under-side, and, oh yea, I removed the red stripe on the fusalage. Now, every country uses this same skin, with Arabic numbers. Its available in game as the FGA Mk.9, but in real life the export Mk's were different.

Did you guys like that fantasy F-100D with Israeli markings? I decided a long time ago, that addon aircraft (the free variety), would not be in keeping with the stock aircraft in the game. It's mainly a cockpit issue. I got the idea from downloading the Mystere IV about 50 times. One version used the F-100D cockpit, and then the lights came on. Anyway, my Israeli Air Force uses all American equipment, even though they lifted the F-100D's off the French. It keeps even my aircraft tidy and uniform. But I would like to switch gears to another fine Gephard terrain (the Persian Gulf) ... I just had to make it conform to my other terrains. Anyway, its 1979, the Soviets invade Iran by mistake, when their armored columns take a wrong turn in Khazakhstan. The Islamic revolution is on, so the invaders are igonred. Its the land of the F-15's, and its also the land of the Hunters. Everyone has one, even Kuwait, who's pilots cant reach their homeland on this map and must use the "near target" option.

Well, you know, I have seen alot of aerial photos of the Nile Delta, and they look dark green for the most part, with no patches of desert showing through. Funny though, I really stopped looking at aerial photos for tiling ideas when I was tiling Korea, one of my first maps. It occurred to me, your tileset provides you with about six basic colors. And that is what they look like from 20,000 feet, just colors. Here is Northern Lebanon ... looks a lot like NAM, eh? But it also looks like Germany, or Korea, or Tawain.

As you can see from above, I have created 5 tiles that were created from overlaying WOV farm tiles onto a SF1 desert tile. When making these tiles, (which only take a few minutes), you can dramatically create a different effect in the game. Now, I am not saying these tiles look like Israel, or Egypt, or Lebanon, or Jordan, which all look very different. The tiles can also stand some improvements, to get rid of any pattern look in the overview map. But, because of the uniformity with WOV/WOE, I like this set for Israel 2. (go figure)

OK, I am not going to go to SF2 at this time. Too much work, computer won't die, and I am thinking of a dedicated XP box, going forward. WoV/WOE, will join a handfull of other games, going to the dedicated box. Sooo, I thought I would REALLY punish myself for this decision, and resurrect, my old Prop Fighters folder, and start messin with it again. So, I need advise, on whether BoB is viable. If I download the big mod, does it include everthing I need to get started. (i.e. rather than downloading bits and pieces, which is what I usually do). I know the terrain was made by Gephard, and while I don't wan't to sound desparaging, I am sure I will re-tile the thing if it doesn't use WOE tiles. I will also cut the targets way back, but lets wait and see on that. (this is the real punishing part) Can anyone recommend a good course of action for immplementing this era of flight simming. (i.e. don't say CFS3)

NO WAIT ! I lied, its not really a pic from Libya. Its a pic of Nibiru. In 9 months or so, its all gonna be over.

Too LATE Don't worry Wrench, when I mod one of your terrains, I generally start by deleting everything but the hfd, tfd, and ini files. It mainly just saves me from obatining the hfd from the dem files, a savings of approximately 20 minutes. It doesn't look all that bad, either. The colors are all wrong, but it was that way with a lot of the older tile sets. I didn't know you had your policy.

Hi Gephard ! Don't worry, it only took a couple of hours to re-map the data file. Your terrain is great, I just have this thing about using "my texture set", which is an expanded WOE, etc... Couldn't find many cities when I was flying over. I think I saw Paris and London. Anyway, thanks for all the great terrains over the years. I am gonna put in some of the german and soviet air bases, and did you know this terrain is flatter than a tortilla. I started looking through my back-up files, and it seems I saved a HFD from long ago that matches this terrain. It probably came from one of the earlier versions. Once I finish the airbases for BoB (in this case East Germany vs Britain), I am gonna re-tile modern Libya. I discovered just today, that the texture list I used for Israel works exactly with Libya too. What a surprise. Cya, and thanks again, Stwa

Thanks Stary! I was kinda real late to the party, and just got these going from your 4 season set. I downloaded them a few months ago, but never really used em, because I was not on patch 08, etc. Anyway, this bud is for you!

Thanks for the link. It occurred to me, that I should mention all the guys that take on creating terrain tiles. And there have been a lot of people trying to specialize in this area. And its not easy, after all, its art, and its not like trying to skin an aircraft either. Terrain tiles are hard to get right. They may look good at first glance, and so they are, but they take on certain aspects of the lighting in the enviroment, etc... and so doing them properly is very difficult. So to all you terrain tile hacks, thanks a bunch for your efforts. I would start mentioning names, but I would leave someone out. Anyway, back on the ranch, new seasonal tiles, make for more work. As an example, see my base screens which are used by the campaign system. Depending on the squad you choose, you will see your base during the game. But now, I think I might have to do "seasonal" base screens.

NO ! WAIT ! I was just over at the download section, and it seems there is a MODERN version of this terrain. Sooo, I downloaded that, and the good news is it does use some of the GermanyCE terrain tiles. The bad news, well it renames these tiles with desert tile names, and reverses their "polarity", etc. (Kinda creepy) So retiling the terrain will be more of a pain, but it is doable, and me thinks I will get started with this a blow the WWII stuff off. OK, I have a new project, should keep me busy for several month's.

Hey guys, I stopped downloading stuff years ago, becuase I was under the belief that I had everthing I wanted. But, the CAT Builder, looks like its been up for about 4 years, and oddly I overlooked it, because it sounds NOT RIGHT, or illegal or something. Anyway, I would like to ask, who is using this thing, and how are you using it. I extracted every file from VietnamSEA.cat and GermanyCE.cat and then added all my custom terrain tiles to make one giant Terrain.cat. Terrain.cat now sits in my Terrain directory ... This way, each terrain folder (i.e. GermanyCE, VietnamSEA, IsraelMED, ... etc.), has only the terrain INI file in the folder. Each ini file references the same cat file like this. Catfile=..\Terrain.cat

Well people, I tried the 2008 patch for WOV/WOE, and I know I tried it back in 2008 too. The problem is, at least for me, it just doesn't do much for my installation, except produce a small task list of things I gotta go fix. So, I ditched it (again), and went back to the 06 patch, and I am calling it done this time, until I go to SF2 or maybe SF3 when it comes out. I am a person, that likes to simplify when I mod. For example, when I modified the menu system to support 1360 x 768, I got rid of the "Instant Action", and "Multiplayer" sections, but substracting the options from the menu system. The main problems, I saw with the 2008 patch, apart from the water animation, blending, etc, changing yet again, was ... 1. Seasonal tile support at the terrain level: Not as neat as you would think. For instance, you have the wait for the mission thingy, to randomize a date for the terrain (season), you might want to fly. I found this to be a hassle. 2. Random weather support at the terrain level. OK, its usefull, kinda, you can already randomize this, just not as accurately. 3. Static aircraft objects: For the most part, just makes the planning map more confusing, because I suppose static aircrat are showing up on the map, obscuring the operational squadrons that might fly against your mission. Maybe I am wrong? There is probably a lot more, but I didn't want to spend anymore time after I resolved the first 3 issues. It was basically a time waster, just messing with it. Anyway, you can still implement seasonal tiles with the 06 game (with seperate terrain folders), but the date that shows on the hangar screen and roster screen, might not match your season. So what I did was just fix the menu system, so the full date doesn't show on the hangar and roster screen and voila, problem gone. So now, the only place a full date shows, is on the campaign screen. So keep your campaign dates to a single season, and you are good.

Hehe, my bad! But wouldn't the AI be a whole lot better, on SF2 than SF1 patch 2008. Just wondering ...

Hi Lexx_Luthor I remember you from a long time ago. No doubt, SF2 has probably got some real advantages over SF1. My computer just won't die. Its got a lithium battery in it, and I don't want to give up XP. I remember you used to dable in a lot of stuff. Did you ever finish the Indonesia Terrain, or are you still messin with it? I might come over to SF2 down the road, but I got to ask you, can you kinda make a merged install with SF2:E and SF2:V. I really think the WOV/WOE thing, is the best thing that ever happened to me with flight sims. Plus, this game is the easiest to mod that I have ever seen. Everything on the outside if you want it.

Well thanks all, You guys have a real cool site here, and its helped me alot, in understanding what the SF2 series is all about. I posted this thread, to try to get some read on what mods from SF1 I might be able to move over. I got some of the questions answered, and I will probably move along and come back when I get SF2. Some time soon I hope. Anyway cya, Stwa

Also Wrench, You have probably forgotton, but I was rebuilding the menu system back in 2006 ANYWAY, because I wanted it to be 1360 x 768. I modified to WOV screens for that purpose. Just thought I would mention it. BTW, thanks for posting. RAVEN, Here is how I am doing the seasonal terrains.

Hi Wrench, Maybe I am confusing you, The work I did on the Menus, removing the instant action, multiplayer, was all back in 2006. I am just trying to help the poster out with that. Removing the date thing took about 5 seconds. Actually, its not even removed, it just displays in never never land. Here is how you do it. Just modify one line as so. Save the file and POOF, its gone. From the hangar screen, and similar code in the roster screen. [DateText] MenuItemType=TEXT TextSetting=OverlayTextSetting TextStringID=TXT_MENU_NOTAVAILABLE //TextPosition=50,100 TextPosition=1361,100 //displayed off screen to hide So, you see, it took about 5 seconds tops.

Oh, and in the first post, I wasn't that clear about the seasonal terrains. Prior to 08 patch, you can implement them by using a seperate "terrain" folder, for each season. This way you can select them, instead of waiting for the game to randomize a mission date that matches (falls within) your season dates. I find this a much better arrangement. Now, for each campaign, you have, you can simply mod them to use a specific seasonal terrain. In so doing, your campaign dates, should stay within what is acceptable for a given season. For example: I have now (thanks to Stary), four Germany CE terrains as follows: GermanyCE = original that came with game. GermanyCE.A = GermanyCE with Stary's Autumn tiles. GermanyCE.S = GermanyCE with Stary's Spring tiles. GermanyCE.W = GermanyCE with Stary's Winter tiles. The GermanyCE campaigns have dates basically in Autumn (Red Hammer, Red Thunder, etc... So change the terrain they use to GermanyCE.A, per the following, [CampaignData] CampaignName=1979 Red Lightning DataFile=woeCamp2_data.ini CampaignMap=GermanyCEA <-------------------------------- Service001=USAF Service002=RAF Service003=WGermany As an example, I made a GermanyCEA folder, with just the TFD, HFD, and INI file, and Stary's bmp and tga files. (I resized the bmp's to 256x256). The terrain ini is as follows, [Terrain] TerrainFullName=Germany CE.A Catfile=..\GermanyCE\GermanyCE.CAT DataFile=..\GermanyCE\GermanyCE_data.INI TargetFile=..\GermanyCE\GermanyCE_targets.INI TargetTypeFile=..\GermanyCE\GermanyCE_types.INI MovementFile=..\GermanyCE\GermanyCE_movement.INI NationsFile=..\GermanyCE\GermanyCE_nations.INI BriefingText=..\GermanyCE\GermanyCE_briefing.INI DogfightFile=..\GermanyCE\GermanyCE_dogfight.INI DogfightOnly=FALSE Longitude=10.817 Latitude=51.111 [Map] FilenameFormat=..\GermanyCE\GermanyCE_Map%d.bmp Width=1000000.0 Height=1000000.0 NumZoomLevels=3

Here is my mainscreen ini file. If you can't get it to work, I had to mod most of the other files as well, so we can keep looking till we figure it out. Notice, I still hade to reference Instant Action under the [Mission Control] heading below, but there is no option to select Instant Action in the main menu. [MainScreen] MenuType=NORMAL_MENU BackgroundImage=1360\USAF_CE\MainScreen.bmp MenuItem001=SystemMenuHotspot MenuItem002=BlankNameplate MenuItem003=SingleMissionHotspot MenuItem004=CampaignHotspot MenuItem005=BlankNameplate MenuItem006=MainScreenTitle MenuItem007=DestineerTM HotSpotImage= MenuCodeDLL=MainScreen.dll RememberMenu=TRUE DefaultSelection=-1 MouseAnimation=MouseAnimation BackgroundMusic=MainScreen.wav TextFilename=MainScreen.str [singleMissionHotspot] MenuItemType=HOTSPOT UseHotSpotImage=FALSE NormalAnimation=SingleMissionAnimation MouseOverAnimation=SingleMissionSelectedAnimation MouseDownAnimation= DisabledAnimation=SingleMissionDisabledAnimation DestinationMenu=SingleMissionScreen HelpText= InfoTextSetting=InfoTextSetting InfoTextStringID=TXT_MENU_SINGLEMISSION_INFO SelectionSound=click.wav [singleMissionAnimation] AnimationFilename=Icons\USAF\SystemMenuIcon.bmp LoopingAnimation=TRUE NumFrames=1 TicksPerFrame=0 Position=59,9 TransparentBackground=FALSE [singleMissionSelectedAnimation] AnimationFilename=Icons\USAF\SystemMenuIconHi.bmp LoopingAnimation=TRUE NumFrames=1 TicksPerFrame=0 Position=59,9 TransparentBackground=FALSE [singleMissionDisabledAnimation] AnimationFilename=Icons\USAF\SystemMenuIconDisabled.bmp LoopingAnimation=TRUE NumFrames=1 TicksPerFrame=0 Position=59,9 TransparentBackground=FALSE [CampaignHotspot] MenuItemType=HOTSPOT UseHotSpotImage=FALSE NormalAnimation=CampaignAnimation MouseOverAnimation=CampaignSelectedAnimation MouseDownAnimation= DisabledAnimation=CampaignDisabledAnimation DestinationMenu=CampaignScreen HelpText= InfoTextSetting=InfoTextSetting InfoTextStringID=TXT_MENU_Campaign_INFO SelectionSound=click.wav [CampaignAnimation] AnimationFilename=Icons\USAF\SystemMenuIcon.bmp LoopingAnimation=TRUE NumFrames=1 TicksPerFrame=0 Position=109,9 TransparentBackground=FALSE [CampaignSelectedAnimation] AnimationFilename=Icons\USAF\SystemMenuIconHi.bmp LoopingAnimation=TRUE NumFrames=1 TicksPerFrame=0 Position=109,9 TransparentBackground=FALSE [CampaignDisabledAnimation] AnimationFilename=Icons\USAF\SystemMenuIconDisabled.bmp LoopingAnimation=TRUE NumFrames=1 TicksPerFrame=0 Position=109,9 TransparentBackground=FALSE [blankNameplate] MenuItemType=IMAGE Position=1036,0 ImageFilename=1360\BlankNameplate.bmp [MainScreenTitle] MenuItemType=TEXT TextSetting=ScreenTitleTextSetting TextStringID=TXT_MENU_GAMETITLE [DestineerTM] MenuItemType=TEXT TextSetting=TMNoticeTextSetting TextStringID=TXT_MENU_DESTINEER_CR TextPosition=10,766 [TMNoticeTextSetting] TextFontName=Arial TextSize=12 TextBold=FALSE TextItalic=FALSE TextUnderline=FALSE TextStrikeOut=FALSE TextShadow=FALSE HorizontalAlignment=LEFT VerticalAlignment=BOTTOM ForegroundColor=128,128,128 TransparentBackground=TRUE BackgroundColor=0,0,0 UseANSICharSet=TRUE //----------------------------------------------------------------------------- #include "SystemMenu.ini" #include "MouseAnimation.ini" #include "InfoTextSetting.ini" #include "TitleTextSetting.ini" #include "OverlayTextSetting.ini" #include "ThemeChalkboard.ini" //----------------------------------------------------------------------------- [MissionControl] InstantAction=InstantAction SingleMission=SingleMission Campaign=Campaign //============================================================================= The three hot spots, on my system, all use the same icon, and are for the option, misson, campaign screens, in that order left to right. Here is a pic for your reference, so you can locate the hot spots etc...

Hi all, Just recently I felt shame because I was still running on the last 2006 patch for WOV/WOE. So I retried installing the September 08 patch. I still have a older (but still capable) system, that uses a Radeon 9600 video card. I thought I would post this, in case there are other losers like me still running this kind of system. Anyway, once patched to 08 WOV/WOE would not use the anti-alias feature of the video card. It would using the 06 patches. I could set the anti-alias methods using the ATI control panel, but pretty much all combinations would suck my box to its knees. Eventually (I am slow), I found a switch for this in the options.ini in main game folder. Open this file and find the following ... [GraphicsOptions] DisplayDeviceID=0 DisplayWidth=1360 DisplayHeight=768 DisplayDepth=32 AspectRatio=1.777778 LensFlare=0 DetailLevel=4 ObjectDetail=2 ObjectTexture=2 CockpitTexture=2 CockpitMirrors=0 CockpitReflection=0 EffectsDetail=1 TerrainDetail=1 TerrainTexture=2 HorizonDistance=1 GroundObjectDensity=1 WaterDetail=0 CloudsDetail=0 Shadow=0 AntiAliasing=4 <<+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ You can set this to switch to various values, and even if you make graphic changes in the game it won't affect this switch. Now you can set your video card back to application prefernece, which is what I prefer. Here are the values I tried and the results. 0 = no effect, no anti-aliasing 1 = no effect, no anti-aliasing 2 = good anti-aliasing 4 = very good anti-aliasing I am sure you guys probably figured this out a long time ago. I did search the topic first, and didn't find much.

OK Guys, Based on wrench's post, I made a Strike Fighters 2008 folder (yipee). Needless to say all that nation list stuff didn't work. I knew it wouldn't its more complicated than that. I will explain later, if anyone still following the thread. The good news The frames aren't as bad as I remember them. I probably tried this update in 2008. The anti-aliasing is not auto selected by the game, as with WOE 2006, so I have to set it from the ATI control panel, which is a drag, but some poor slobs reported that they couldn't get anti-alias to work at all on some of the older ATI cards, which is what I have (Radeon 9600). TK kinda evaded this issue. He probably never really had an ATI graphics card. The water effects are hosed, once you go to normal and above, but that might be partly terrain specific since I do have modded terrain data ini files. I set the water to low, and I am ok with that. The clear sky box looks goofy, but it may be WAD (working as designed). Anyway I will change it if I have time. The inclement weather has changed, its more like overcast, just worse. :yes: The randomized weather commands and season commands in the terrain ini work fine. (I expected this, but I probably never use them). The static aircraft dont really seem to be a problem, as I reported to Wrench. I will wait until I fly a campaign. Anyway, it took a few hours, so basically a time waster. So, until I get Win 7 and Direct X 10, this is about as far as I can go.

Hey wrench, thanks for all the intersting info and your enthusiasm. As you might imagine, it is more complicated than it seems on the surface, and of course part of the problem, is the limited information, on the various patches, new titles, etc, and functionality going forward. I thought I would make some inquiries, before seriously looking at the SF2 stuff. Its really not a money issue, its a hassle issue, and it is not TK's fault, It seems I am going to ride XP for several more years. I don't really expect, people to drop what they are doing to answer all my questions, but what really got me started, is when I saw a thread, where some guy was trying to create a "merged" installation of SF2, SF2:V, SF2:E, etc.. Anyway, the 08 patches broke my video card, especially, when you tried the Water Effects, but I never really cared for the reflections anyway, but the little triangles would appear in other cases. What is interesting, is my son has a new laptop with Windows 7, so we installed there just for fun, and the SF1 stuff worked great, no triangles, just the water reflections didn't work. (i.e. his box is using a different video card). But I am going to reinstall, with 08, and try out what you just explained. Part of the problem here used to be, the merged install for WOV/WOE. Once merged, when new patches arrive (i.e. 08), do you just use the WOE patch and call it done. Regards, Stwa