Centurion-1

Cool news I guess. Leatherneck has proven they can roll out quality products and they have the know-how.

 Anyone care to speculate about what the projects will be? Wasn't one supposed to be something with a "L" in it, so I guess P-38 Lightning? I am guessing at one jet, one warbird and one helo. Or possible no helo but two warbirds. As for what they might be I dont know. Cobra is a swede so I am crossing my fingers for a Draken. 

Yeah I feel ready for something "more" in the virtual flying area. I agree that there should be more diversity in the DCS lineup but it is an universal problem. I hope Belsimtek does a late model Cobra followed by the Hind. That would be amazing. The new terrain theaters should provide for some fun helo flying opportunities. In the mean time Arma 3s increased fidelity and large amount of different aircraft and terrain will probably keep me busy.

Well things sort of escalated, I talked about my idea to some guys at work and they immediatly shot down my PVC pipe idea and insisted it must be made out of metal. So a lot of welding, drilling and cutting later we are about 75% there mechanically, I will go and get a Logitech Extreme 3d pro joystick for 50 bucks that we will butcher for sensors. We are even trying to build some ghetto rudder pedals following this idea: http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb342/Charl_Hartman/DSC03051-1.gif

I still intend to try my initial lightweight solution at home, I can't store the monster we are creating here at work but it will be here for us to use after hours. I will post updates how it turned out, if it works or not and how it behaves in game.

EricJ yeah I have Arma3 also, that was another reason I wanted to get into helo flying.

Hi Guys, didn't know where to stick this topic but since it will be mainly for DCS I posted it here.

To cut a long story short I decided to finally buy some rudder pedals as a late Xmas gift for myself, one of the main reasons being I wanted to get into helicopter flying. After watching a bunch of helo training vids on youtube I realised my fixed wing HOTAS would not be up to snuff, and so I started to prowl the net for solutions. All off the shelf helo controls are really expensive, and I can't spare that kind of money now. Luckily there are a lot of DIY solutions on the net, and my two main sources of inspiration has been these two gents:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQrhrjTfu-s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1smUvU2V558

Since I have an old unused Logitech Attack 3 stick I intend to build my prototype out of it. It has a stick with X/Y motion, no twist, and a small throttle flap. I plan to remove the joytick grip from the base, stick an extension made out of some type of tubing, probably PVC and extend the wiring and run it externall like Dave Stevens has done.

Most of my planning is based on this excellent breakdown of the Attack 3 stick by Peter Vis.

For the collective, I plan on removing the throttle flap and situating it on the end of an arm like Daniel Liskas solution. The wiring will be extended and I will make some type of quick connector so it can be stored separately from the cyclic stick.

So guys, what do you think? Any potential pitfalls you can see?

Very nice! 

That sounds like a good plan FRPignion!

Cocas yeah I was just wondering about that, I know I was also supposed to help on that model but I guess I never did. I just checked it out and it looked quite good actually! So many red side birds to finish

I've solved all the problems 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes it is , but we don't need it at all.

Wow! That skin looks seriously good! Excellent work on the small details, very realistic final result. What about the camo skin? Ludo has pretty much nailed the SAAF camo colors in his latst F.1 skins, he can probably share the proper RBG values for the green and tan.

What else needed for it? What variant? I did loadouts, weapons are all done ('least for the Flogger), I used a stock data.ini so far, I plan on using the stock FM because the one was in the addon pack is ... weird to me. Avionics and cockpit.... well.

IIRC Martin has done a lot of modeling on the ML variant which will be the first to be reworked, but before we have everything sorted including cockpit, FM, avionics and template it will take a long time. Nevertheless, we have to start if we intend to finish  But the MiG-23 development discussion is not the one to be had here. The 3W ones will have to do in the mean time for scenarios. It's not like the MiG-17 or 21 models couldn't use a good renewal. 

Mats, in due time, i can ask you to speed up the MiG-23ML's to make the skins, and i had a semi started template for the MiG-21MF, with some time and patience i can make that skin to relieve weight and you can concentrate on other tasks :D just thinking out loud... 

The MiG-23 remap and landing gears is right next on my list after I can the SAAF Mirages checked off my list.

FRPignon: Ludo already made a Mirage IIICZ mod, but it has some problems probably caused by data.ini and LOD changes by 3W so that could certainly get a bit of touching up if you want to

Jeanba much appreciated, once Stratos has gotten the targeting down I am sure he will appreciate help with that.

Carlo: Ok no problems, can I use the templates you sent me to create some FAPA-DAA MiG-21 skins?

In other news the work continues, I made a buttload of transition textures and we are continuing to diversify the terrain.

Afaik the mirage 3 series is all DLC, only the CJ Shahak is bundled with a stock game.

If you wanted to you could try the freeware mirage f.1 cockpit available here at Ca, the early version. The radar is more advanced and so but it fits the bill

Nice, does anyone know Marcfighters? Martin? Knowing his models those look ready to go with minimal rework. BTW Carlo you wouldn't feel like doing some Angolan MiG-21 skins? You did such a nice job on the Iraqi ones :)

Yeah Snailman this is maybe THE arena for the MiG-23!

Hello guys,

as you might have seen, Stratos, Coupi and me are working on a new Angolan terrain that depicts most of Angola and a good portion of then South-West Africa now Namibia too. The reason for this is that a good terrain for flying the SAAF birds has been long overdue. The terrain is 1000km x 1000km. Coupi had started an even larger terrain that depicted most of SW Africa but in order to try to keep this managable we decided to go a little bit smaller and use a default TW terrain size.

This terrain is being created from scratch and we hope to have a reasonably good representation of the area when we are done. Ofcourse, the area is extremely diverse when it comes to natural features, but we will do our best with what we got. A special thanks goes to Gerwins new TFD tool that has enabled rapid and accurate targetization of the terrain. Stratos has added over 200 cities, airfields and target areas already. 

In the mean time I have been busy trying to recreate the diverse nature in the tileset, it's early days still but things are looking if not perfect then at least satisfactory! The tiles are all built from satmaps from this actual area. There will probably be closer to or over 10 different terrain types when we are done.

Marshy wetlands found in particular in NE Namibia. The tiles are build using satelite images from this area.

Savannah with some african trees visible. Will be even more diverse when done.

Semi-arid bushterrain (sans bushes) and rocky cliffs.

But we need your help guys, we are too small a team to make everything needed. Stratos did a good review of what we got for a bush war campaign and what we still are lack :

So that is what's cooking, so to speak. We are very eager to finish this, but there is a lot to do so any help would be welcome, whether research, ground units or objects, tileset help or whatever else you can do.

That's excellent! If we could make an easier to use 3rd party TOD file editor it would really help in making terrains look better!

More African Action!

Somethin' me n' the boys are cooking up

Thx Wrench, downloading now!

Yeah I know, just testing. As I said in my plan, I will go over and make rivers as the very last item, just wanted to test how it looks. The river should go  where the airstrip is, it would seem. is there any good really small airstrips in some terrain, like just a single dirt runway?

Well things are going rather well in terrain land! As I suspected the new features in Gerwins terrain tool makes targeting a breeze. I am now zipping up the proto terrain and handing it to Stratos for some targeting. 

Below you can see some test shots of the mountains and airstrip plus river, and also lots of action. The tiles are currently WIP of course, some color correction of the mountains will be necessary but overall I'm pleased for it to be this early. And something I created from scratch, no less (tho with a lot of borrowing from the excellent work here at CA).

That is weird. I will have to consider something, but are there any one else with this type of problem?

Unfortunately reducing polycount on a 3d model like this with a bazillion small 3d objects like switches is easier said than done.

A good read, I even learned some new stuff (never been such a big Vietnam war history buff)!

See this thread for clues:

http://combatace.com/topic/84635-issue-with-carriers-in-operation-desert-storm-mod-sf2/

Hmm Happy that sounds like a problem at some other end, while the polycount is high for SF2 standards it should not be that big of a problem for your system.  I can't really say. There are some tweaks outlined here in this thread, applies mostly to nvidia but maybe worth a shot? Beware of the ATI tray tools, one download I found had a virus. But it could be one way of getting more control of your system to see what the culprit is. 

YOu could try one more thing.. go to the F-5E_72_COCKPIT.ini file and change the following:

This way the cockpit won't load. Now try a similar place you would get stuttering and see if it still there. If so, it's some other problem. If not, I will have to think about the cockpit some more. Most of it is made by a guy named Sophocles who is super talented, but he does have a taste for the high poly stuff 

For the following releases and updates I will also try to incorporate some more LOD levels for the external model.

I don't know yet.. I guess it could be cool to be able to paste for example river tiles while in ref map mode and then go over them and just rotate them later. Either way, this is a huge improvement for terrain modding for sure!

Thx wrench, good save! Reimported!

Ok, so I might have a case of modding AD/HD, but Stratos PM'd me about my A-37B a day ago, and lamented the lack of a good terrain for the Alto Cenepa war of 1995 . I have been dabbling a bit in TE and thought, how hard could it be?  

Ergo, I now have a working prototype of the map that me and Startos are going to try to work into a campaign map for said war, and also other potentially interesting regional conflicts. But before we proceed, I want to check with resident terrain gurus about my workflow and planned approach for this.

What I have done so far:

1) Started new project

Terrain Map Size 1000km

Texture Tile Resolution 2000m

Height field resolution 500m

2) Imported my DEMs

Longitude 85W

Latitude 5N

Map scale 75% (I guess we do this to get more manageable distances?)

Height Scale 100%

3) I got this:

I guess by using 75% scale this 1000 in game km map equals 1333km of terrain IRL?

The plan:

A) Stratos starts filling out the cities list and targets ini at the same time

B) I do the necessary tile work. The Peruvian coast needs to be more or less desert, so I have started working off of Wrench excellent WOV texturelist, adding some desert tiles and also farm tiles. The tiles are by Stary for the jungle bits from the central america map and the desert bits are JSF Aggies as seen in the Desert 4 map.

C) Once we are more or less satisifed with targeting and cities, I do airbase flattening in TE.

D) Because I cant get the exclusion zones set up so that only the peruvian coast is autotextured with desert tiles, I will then do an autotexture times two, one for the jungles and one for the peruvian coast and by the magic of TFD editor I will cut'n'paste these into one. 

E) I/We will go over the map adding airbase tiles where needed and just generally ensure all cities are kosher.

F) Only then will I do tranisiton textures in Terrain editor. IF all goes well and there are enough transition tiles we should have a beutfiul map.

G) Now we will add all the necessary rivers using the new feature in Gerwins TFD tool (overlaying geographical map). Maybe some roads also.

So what haven't I thought of?