Bandy

...the first and foremost immersion killer is the "bloodthirsty animal" behavior of the AI. I am not talking about aggressiveness, but persistence of the interception. The reason why every dogfight eventually becomes a bloodbath, is because the AI won't settle until it sees it's enemy hit the ground. ...

Mentioned this some time ago, and suggested that if possible some code-based morale check challenge be implemented, i.e. if the odds were against one side they would turn tail and run 1 out of 2 times (well, that would only work for the German and French sides, mad dogs and Englishmen being one-and-the-same... ), or have a morale check if the AI flight leader was shot down, or a certain percent of aircraft in a flight were lost. Of course this may not be possible given the code environment of CFS3.

AND I have to agree with almost everyone else, the in-game map is terrible and does not reflect what is seen from the cockpit. Printing off real-life maps and using them is all fine and fun, but real-life maps don't reflect the in-game in-cockpit environment any more than... well you know.

Cut down on the number of waypoints included in a mission. Each campaign mission has about 10 waypoints and half of these are little more than stooging around your own base. Cut those out and the missions will go a bit quicker and smoother.

I agree with you, there are too many lousy loops around the home field. The only way you can get around it is to fast forward, or lead the flight yourself and ignore the waypoints. Either way you miss something. Fast forward is not an ideal solution as it is intrusive to real game play, and ignoring the way points means the enemy always have the height advantage. That sucks.

Reducing the gunner's pitch and/or yaw angles (not the pitchanglerate though) in the Aviatik.ini will reduce/restrict the amount the gunner can move, and perhaps resolve the poke-through. Lots of trial and error.

You may end up with an emasculated rear gunner though!

The max and min extent positions are the invisible hit boxes for the gunner, not where he shows up.

Hello fellas,

Is there a consensus on the ATI drivers? 10.6 or 10.4 ???

I have a 4870 1 GB, so should I assume that the new drivers are not going to make much difference for such an "old" card?

I find ATI drivers to be particularly flakey and problematic to delete/install, so am loath to make a change unless justified.

Thanks for any replies...

All I can say is this works in my FEG install. FE2 I think has new FX files, so maybe the code above is referencing FX that do not exist anymore.

Sorry, can't add anything more except that it is weird that those textures are not specified. There must be a default.

I lost water animation on installing Tuma's terrain as well.

If you have FE backed up elsewhere it is easy to find the relevant bits of code to re-install. In fact, I posted on this subject in Jan's terrain release thread (the really long one) when it came out.

EDIT from earlier post:

This reanimates the water, though I noticed there are some z-buffer water artifacts in Flanders when flying along the coast. It is only a slight PITA, and have not spent time trying to correct it further, yet.

...futzed about with old ini's and got the water moving and looking better. Not perfect, but better.

Works good in Vogesen thus far, don't know yet about the others, but should be fine AFAIK.

If interested try this in each terrainDATA.INI (includes Stary's tweaks for convenience) apologies for my code comments, I suppose everybody has their own style.

The code line following //Stock is the baseline, which is also commented out // followed by the effective change and whitespace to easily find each of them.

.

.

.

[WaterTextureMaterial]

UseEffectShader=TRUE

EffectShaderName=WaterEffect2.fx

DepthBufferCheck=TRUE

DepthBufferWrite=FALSE

RenderedInOrder=TRUE

AlphaTestEnabled=TRUE

//STOCK

//CullMode=NO_CULL

CullMode=CLOCKWISE

LightEnabled=TRUE

SpecularEnabled=TRUE

EmissiveEnabled=FALSE

FogEnabled=TRUE

AmbientColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

DiffuseColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

SpecularColor=1.000000,1.000000,0.900000,1.000000

SpecularPower=1.000000

//STOCK

//ZBufferOffset=4.000000

ZBufferOffset=6.000000

BlendOp=BLEND_SRC_ALPHA

NumTextureStages=2

TextureStage[01].TextureName=

TextureStage[01].MipMap=FALSE

//TRUE

TextureStage[01].FilterEnabled=TRUE

//STOCK

//TextureStage[01].StageColorOp=TEXTURE_MODULATE_DIFFUSE

TextureStage[01].StageColorOp=DIFFUSE

TextureStage[01].StageAlphaOp=TEXTURE

//STOCK

//TextureStage[02].TextureName=

TextureStage[02].TextureName=ref_color.bmp

TextureStage[02].MipMap=FALSE

//TRUE

TextureStage[02].FilterEnabled=TRUE

//STOCK below --other INI's have no ReflectionMapping

//TextureStage[02].ReflectionMapping=TRUE

//STOCK

//TextureStage[02].StageColorOp=TEXTURE_BLEND_TEXTURE_ALPHA

TextureStage[02].StageColorOp=TEXTURE

TextureStage[02].StageAlphaOp=DIFFUSE

[solidObjectTextureMaterial]

DepthBufferCheck=TRUE

DepthBufferWrite=TRUE

RenderedInOrder=TRUE

AlphaTestEnabled=TRUE

CullMode=NO_CULL

LightEnabled=TRUE

SpecularEnabled=FALSE

EmissiveEnabled=FALSE

FogEnabled=TRUE

AmbientColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

DiffuseColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000

ZBufferOffset=0.000000

//STOCK

//BlendOp=BLEND_DST_ALPHA

BlendOp=BLEND_SRC_ALPHA

NumTextureStages=1

TextureStage[01].TextureName=

TextureStage[01].MipMap=TRUE

TextureStage[01].FilterEnabled=TRUE

TextureStage[01].StageColorOp=TEXTURE_MODULATE_DIFFUSE

TextureStage[01].StageAlphaOp=TEXTURE

[AlphaObjectTextureMaterial]

DepthBufferCheck=TRUE

DepthBufferWrite=FALSE

RenderedInOrder=false

AlphaTestEnabled=TRUE

CullMode=NO_CULL

LightEnabled=TRUE

SpecularEnabled=FALSE

EmissiveEnabled=FALSE

FogEnabled=TRUE

AmbientColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.00000

DiffuseColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.00000

ZBufferOffset=2.000000

// STOCK

BlendOp=BLEND_SRC_ALPHA

NumTextureStages=1

TextureStage[01].TextureName=

TextureStage[01].MipMap=TRUE

//FALSE

TextureStage[01].FilterEnabled=TRUE

TextureStage[01].StageColorOp=TEXTURE_MODULATE_DIFFUSE

//STOCK

//TextureStage[01].StageAlphaOp=TEXTURE

//STARY's Suggestion follows...

TextureStage[01].StageAlphaOp=TEXTURE_BLEND_TEXTURE_ALPHA

Fade=NORMAL

StartFadeDistance=50.0

EndFadeDistance=50.0

.

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.

While tints etc. are certainly a matter of personal taste, what really happens at altitude is aerial perspective [Definition Here], the terrain colours become desaturated and contrast decreases due to atmospheric effects.

I like all the other effects illustrated, etc. but the green tint looks kind of day-glow to me and unrealistic on my monitor (maybe that's it, monitor differences?), but just my humble opinion, nothing personal.

In single missions as in patrols, you'll only see scouts. If you select intercept in single mission menu, you'll see 2 seaters and/or bombers. That's how it worked since FE1

If this is true (and it may very well be, I never paid that much attention before) then it makes absolutely no sense to restrict what shows up. Heck, they're supposed to be 'defensive patrols' so scouts or bombers should be able to show up, and an intercept should be the same way since you could be intercepting a reported flight of scouts, nit just bombers.

Maybe this is a throw back to the 3rd wire jet sim code?

Yeah, this question comes up about once a year. Some guys even tried to make a smaller pilot inside the main pilot, but didn't work. TK just won't support it...

I hate when they "beam out"...

Many of you likely heard of new developments in 3D for home theater and computers, but this review may be of interestHERE

Imagine your favorite flight sim in true 3D! Add some exhaust fumes, burning engine oil and dope fumes and you've got a party!

What I did for my Two-Seaters is I created a new "Aircraft" all together using different skins. ...

Hey, now I like that added benefit! Good idea.

It never ceased to annoy me that the default skin was all you got to see on random NME, that is, unless skin was assigned by squadron within a campaign.

Oh, just think about it this way that they dodging archie bursts. It was reality at least approaching the front and over NME lines most of the time.

Now, all we need is more and more active archie!!! Somewhere along the way after myriad mods my archie went to sleep it seems...

Anyone else?

Thanks gents.

Yes Heck, I thought of that too, but decided that to throw more HD space at the issue was not viable, especially since I hope to shift my sims drive to a solid state .

Hello,

As I've been testing tiles lately I have relied on single missions for any flying I've done, almost always defensive patrols.

As far as I know a defensive patrol should not limit the type of NME AC that shows up. However all I have seen for the past few months are scouts!!! No 2-seaters or bombers AT ALL.

In ruminating on this I think it may be due to sampling bias and the fact that there has been a proliferation of variants available for each fighter, i.e. Camel 110, 150, 180; SPAD with Lewis, with 2xLewis, with Vickers, with Vickers AND Lewis, N17 with... you get the idea.

The fact that there are so many variants swamps the random chance that a 2-seater or bomber will ever show up! Or at least that is my hypothesis. Anyone else have an opinion???

Other than culling the installed AC list, or flying campaigns (which I do love, but can't at this time), I see no way around to get more random single missions.

Here under FE/Add on aircraft/flight models

Yes, it looks confusing, but Peter01 has been updating the myriad numbers of aircraft over time. So pick a download that says ALL (or something like that) and then if you like download the others that appear later in 2's and 4's etc.

THIS ONE has 108 flight models...

If you JUST installed FE for the first time, then download Peter01's flight model mod, read the Readme, and implement.

The AI will make you weep!

Interesting you mention this, check outTHIS LINK to a very interesting project...

Thanks gentlemen,

Have been requested to replace the turquoise-like river colour with a darker blue-gray, and have always planned to do so once the Town tiles were done. So I just need to find the time to do ALL the water tiles now, and there are A LOT of them... Hopefully I saved all the Flanders coastal tile Photoshop files I made a while back, that would speed things up.

Has anyone figured out where the code is for the location of the churches that show up on the roundabouts in screenshot 2 above? The roundabout tile does not always have a church on it, so it can't be in the .tod file...

NB: I forgot to mention that if you go into the Flanders Terrain folder, look for the FRTown.tod file, it is incorrectly named. There should be FRTown1.tod, FRTown2.tod, and FRTown3.tod, so rename the file to whichever is not represented.

Thanks sinbad and stratos,

While my own PS workflow is not anywhere near a professional's, I can't even begin to imagine the amount of time Jan spent.

Wanted to also mention that the towns will NOT look like real old crowded/claustrophobic French or Belgian or German towns. It would be nice, but the number of buildings required and their arrangements would have to be done all over again.

The buildings have too much space between them, and likely too many trees. That said, the tiles do add an underlying structure and visual interest that was lacking in the stock 3rd wire tiles, and dog fights over the towns and into the streets between buildings are much more enjoyable now, at least to me.

Regards!

EDIT: the screen shots look a mite dark to me, and hide a lot of the effect, but maybe it is just my work computer...

Hello,

I've been replacing the stock portion of the town tiles that sit under Jan Tuma's incredibly detailed buildings. What I thought was going to be a relatively quick job turned into much more. I take my hat off to Jan (and all other 3rd party folks) who must have laboured long hours for our mutual enjoyment.

These 1024 x 1024 tiles will work in Jan's "early summer" season, though they might work in other seasons such as spring, I have not tried. My plan now that I have the Photoshop files/tiles complete is to tweak for seasonal colour variation as time permits. I will pass along the PSDs if anyone is interested in helping.

What I did to help with the max view distance of town tiles was to put the building roofs onto the 2D tile so that at least the roofs show up before the 3D buildings "pop up". In the first screenshot (taken from 10,000 feet) you can see one Vogensen town tile that chronically does not generate its 3D buildings (upper centre with roundabout), while this same tile does in other places in town.

These 2D buildings allowed me to add drop shadows as well. In fact I used extensive layers and drop shadows to fake a 3D effect as much as possible, though some may find it heavy-handed especially down low. However this means that shadows conflict across tiles (tiles can appear in 4 different orientations!)so some tile margins show up as lines in places because of the shadows. Fortunately they are mostly hidden between buildings.

So if you look for it, you will find imperfections, many of them. I do continue to tweak small things like shifting streets to better accommodate trees and poles. I tested mostly in Vogesen, but a recent flight over Verdun shocked me to see that some unique buildings, like churches and factories, were appearing in some towns (see 2nd screenshot) and buggering up things. These buildings must be coded into the campaign.ini as they do not appear on every tile of that name in that terrain. Also discovered that some tiles do not share the same .tod across terrains, so some trees etc. pop-up in unwelcome places consistently.

The number of different building patterns prohibits naturally seamless tiles. The tiles would have been best accomplished while the buildings were being laid out, or have some underlying street structure already in mind to go across tiles. Also some buildings themselves cross the margin of tiles, while others butt right up against the margin. Thus the streets do some funky turns, pass into buildings on occasion, etc. I simply did not/do not have the time resources to re-edit the building patterns to allow this, though I encourage anyone willing to do so to do so, and I will correct the streets to match.

That all said, I think they look good enough to release for beta testing. There is a small town in Verdun just south and west of the front that already has bridges across the river (see 2nd screen shot), but please note that churches appear uniquely on some of the round-abouts, but not others of the same tile. Please fly over different terrains and spot errant buildings that don't fit the tile and note position and take a screen shot.

PS: I noticed that the file limit to attach in forum is 4 MB, and all the tiles zipped are 45 MB. Guess I'll have to upload to the regular section in a short while.

I've posted this elsewhere, but the OFF forum is pretty active so I'm hoping to get a fast reply b/c I'm waiting to purchase CS5 at 80% off education price.

As the topic title asks, are any of the Photoshop Extended versions (CS3 to CS5 with their direct 3D manipulation tools to paint right onto a 3D mesh) able to create a texture that can subsequently be imported as skins into sims??? (ANY sim, though I know there are particular workflows for each...).

For example, OFF requires DDS files and the nVidia plugin but that is working from a 2D template. I would like to paint directly onto a 3D models' mesh and then import into sims.

So, can you use a 3D-program-made UV map (such as in Max, Maya, etc.) and the 3D model itself in Photoshop Extended to paint on and then import the skin into the sim afterwards?

Hope somebody knows or has tried and can pass along an answer. Meanwhile I'm poised over the "Buy Now" buttom

Got me at work on lunch again. Will have to wait to have a peek for you, but hopefully somebody can help before then.

BUT to my memory my FE install does not have a burning sound; try deactivating that.

I hear you about the multi-mods...

I use CS3 ...

OK, thanks for reply, BUT do you use CS3 Extended??? That is the version that has the 3D tools allowing you to paint onto a 3D mesh.

@ Fubar512

Doesn't matter really, but for the sake of argument let's say no, I'll be using CSx Extended for only new 3D models.

As the topic title asks, are any of the Photoshop Extended versions (CS3 to CS5), and their direct 3D manipulation tools to paint directly on a 3D mesh to create a texture, good for subsequent import as skins into sims???

I know SF series requires Max import for 3D models, but can you use a 3D-program-made UV map (such as in Max, Maya, etc.) and the 3D mesh itself in Photoshop Extended version to paint on and then import the skin into the sim afterwards?

Hope somebody has tried and can pass along an answer.