Wrench

Title says it all ... I want detailed, yet simple to follow, step-by-step instructions on creating an era-specific install for SF2. Pictures would be nice, too. After it's done, said data will go into the SF2 KB.

I want it all by itself, like we've always done with 1st Gens; none of this merged crap, none of the 'still have all this modern/post modern junk hanging around, taking up HD space'. Simple, direct, and self contained within ITSELF, with only the items needed for said specific era.

Yes, I've looked through the SF2 KB, and it's pretty unrevealing to this pointed question.

wrench

kevin stein

YAH!!!!

maybe I can talk him into looking at the FM on Monty's AD, too....hate to waste all that work 3D by mppd and my skins/decals!!

wrench

kevin stein

This is what happens when you ONLY pay attention to 'modern' stuff, and overlook the obvious WW2 answers.

As someone stated above (and this has been known since carriers first came out with WoV), they're unsinkalbe/undamagable because of the collision meshs for the flight deck. These selfsame meshs are what allow you to land and take off them them.

The answer was quite obvious, as also stated above; simply remove them from the data ini, create a completely 'new' vessal classed as WARSHIP, and have them do their thing. Several of my WW2 PTO, and 1 or 2 of the MTO terrain mods have the _T class vessels. They look real good in convoys, or CVBGs. AND you can add an operational carrier as well. AND you can even add Gepard's cheater invisible airfield for use in standard/garden variety game-generated single missions. Now, mind you, the invisible airfield will be a sea level, so you "it breaks my immersion" guys will have to just look the other way during take off.

It's a game limitation we've had to live with since the 1st carriers (3rd party addons) came out. No other way around it, then how I've outlined above.

wrench

kevin stein

jake: what's needed are flight model upgrades for the Mustang and Shooting Star. We've got several skins readly available

F-80C:

25th FIS

35th FBS (2 versions)

36th FBS

80th FBS

F-51D-30

12th FS

35th FBS

36th FBS

67th FBS (all by Dave, iirc. note: 35/36th traded up to shooting stars)

Generic NM by me

mind you there ARE several issues with Dave's Mustang skins, as they're designed for the V.2 lod of the D 'stang (after all, they're from 2004 fer cryingoutloud!!). There are some mapping changes Wolf did for Ver.3 release. They're easily adapted/repaired if one is familiar with the mapping.

Don't forget the various and sundry Panther mods I've released, and the Skyraiders. BTW, I've gotten a newer lod for Monty's Skyraider form mppd, and need to test the new mesh cuts to make sure the wing don't vanish on parked birds. And FM work, too....

Also, if you don't use my "The Hunters" Mig-15 skin, I'll be VERY upset!! What's a Korean Air War mod without 'The Crapshooter', I ask ya??????

Good news is, the tile importation went without a hitch. I just cheated, created yet ANOTHER TE install that has only GermanyCE and the new-ish Korea stuff, and BAM! it worked. TE now saves with no crashing.

So, what I'll probably do, is zip up this version of the TE, the entire terrain folder, the various and sundry groundobjects and give them to the main interested parties. The targets ini will need a lot of editing, just to put things in their proper places, etc. Fortunately, most of the airfields are already flattened, but some will most likely need repositioning and reflattening, etc and so forth

at this rate, i'm never gonna finish that damn ww2 tunisia map ... and if I get involved in 'an outside project', I've no idea how much time I'll be able to spend on MY mods, let alone the 5 other terrains I'm trying to work on (and the planes...and the this, that and other)

hgbn: might want to PM tazkiller too. KAW is one of HIS main areas of interest, too. He has my brand new KAW mainscreen and a few other trinkets.

another most important question/statment ... I'm working in 08 WoE, as SF2 is, well...not the best environment (imho). Given the issues of late....I think building for 08 levels is the safest. Tweeking for NextGens is easily done AFTER the main sections are finished, and major bugs fixed. Just my opinion, based upon personal experience with these 'new and improved' versions. (pity we can't have sarcasism in printed text...)

wrench

kevin stein

yup, those crap BN tiles are right out the window. Utterly useless for todays gaming pleasure.

these are 2 screenies from the TE with the abridged WoE texture list -only 77 showing (still have to add the missing textures, and then begin hand retiling. Which, as you all can see, is going to be EXTENSIVE and very time consuming. I'm not even THINKING about the regions further north in the PRC)

I just hope I can run 2 sessions of the same TE at the same time (done it with 2 different versions, just the same one with 2 different terrains at the same time ie: open GermanyCE and Korea3)

shot 1 is the yalu river at Dandong/Sinaju (?)

shot 2 is the han at incheon/seoul

you can see the 'preference' for the TE to use the R (rock) tiles all over the damn place!! Some nice snowy mountains also show up, probably where they don't belong. To say nothing of the missing "rivers" (sea-to-whatever). Total lack of city tiles .... oh yeah...gonna be a lot of work. But when done ... well, most folks should appricieate it.

wrench

kevin stein

Do the relevant Sparrow/AMRAAM stations have the code

AHM

in their callouts in the data ini??? (ie: AllowedWeaponClass=) If not, you'll have to add it. (also check LoadLimit= ; disremember if there's a large weight difference between the -7 and -120 =although I'm pretty sure the 120s are heavier)

wrench

kevin stein

one could always try downloading the aircraft....lod are usually included.

wrench

kevin stein

The Sea Fury should be here at CA....disremember exactly where mind you, but I KNOW I've seen it!

Skins exist for the Korean Era DAT birds (Banshee, SkyKnight, Kyushu Gypsies C-47, 13BG B-26s) all at my site, along with my hack job NKPAF IL-2 (minus the lod).

As to the appearence for 4/5 season germany? I'd have to say 'more of less'. Korea isn't really known for vast forests, since the Japanese pretty much stripped the country during their occupation (everything that wasn't nailed down, then went back and got the nails too!!!). A quick run through of the penninsular with google earth (an INDESPENSIBLE tool for targeting!!) should show lots of fields and mountains and such.

The full citylist, targets and types list already exist. The problem is, the coordinates aren't were they go on the map; which means retiling to match, then move, the retile (and flatten airbases as needed), repeat, repeat, repeat.

I"ll zip up everything, except the texture set, as I haven't had time to start re-adding the missing tiles. (methinks its something messed up in the TFD, as it was originally built with the BN series, which is only 70-something tiles long)

wrench

kevin stein

EDIT: I named the aircraft wrong; Razorback are D-20 and eariler. So the 'title is incorrct). Although, given the 100% equality of the mapping between both of Wolf's Jug (razor and bubble), the skin CAN be use on both. Although I don't think the 56th's D Bubbles were OD/Gray....

dswan: what does the first paragraph say?

wrench

kevin stein

that oceanic white line looks like a tile edge* ... possible an issue with the canopyglass.tga and the sea.tag?? Just guessing of course...

*but if that was the case,you'd expect to see more between the sea tiles...?????

wrench

kevin stein

Nope, sorry. Wrong.

Like EJ stated it's airbase SIZE; it has nothing to do with how the physical model in constructed. This has been an ongoing issue since the 06 patch --

To state it simply:

Large aircraft need large runways.

There is only ONE large runway in the entire series -- Runway 4 (or airfield 4)

However, that having been said, you CAN change this line: (shown is the B52D)

[MissionData]

NationName=USAF

ServiceStartYear=1966

ServiceEndYear=1973

AircraftRole=BOMBER

AircraftCapability=DAY_AND_NIGHT

Availability=RARE

Exported=FALSE

PrimaryRoles=STRIKE,CAS

SecondaryRoles=ANTI_SHIP

NormalMissionRadius=1864

MaxMissionRadius=4214

Ceiling=18288

MinBaseSize=LARGE

you can attempt to change to MinBaseSize=MEDIUM. But you may wind up trying to take you Buff or Bone off from Runway2, which is substantially shorter than Runway4, which is again shorter than Runways 1, 5, and 6, even though it's classed as a medium runway.

But personally, in the case of the Himalya terrain, I seriouly doubt you'll be operating a Buff from a base that's at 10+ thousand feet above sea level

Or, you can just do a simply copy/paste of a Runway4 set up over the exising medium runways on the Himalya terrain; which may cause other problems of the airbase NOT fitting within the required flattened zone for airfields.

I direct you to the ever ignored Knowledge Base, for a post on this selfsame subject:

http://forum.combatace.com/topic/12147-ctd-planes-in-single-missions/

although Dave's conclusion of using SMALL is slightly incorrect (as it should be MEDIUM), the gist is there

wrench

kevin stein

First, how can make a decal out of an image, like from a picture?

the same way as you do any other ... make sure the image is square (128x128, 512x512, etc) and centered in image (directly in the middle I mean to say) Convert image bmp or jpg to 32bit tga with alpha channel. Done it, literaly, a few hundred times.

Second, is there a tutorial on how to make multi-color decals?

No different than any other ... as seen on the several hundred full color nose arts I've done.

A little more detail is required; like, are we speaking of text with different colored letters within the words??? Or images (ie: nose art?) or things like serial numbers? (hint: get familiar with the paint bucket or flood tool)

TKs decal tutorial is in the downloads section, probably in the Utilites sub-section. Reccomended Required reading. Other than he states "4 decals max per mesh" -- rule of thumb that seems to work better, is "no more than 3 per mesh", as has been recently seen.

one main thing to remember, is the alpha channel acts like a hold-out matte (if you're familiar with how motion picture special effects mattes work), blocking all but the parts you want to show, from showing.

also having a really good image manipulation tool helps -PhotoShop is still be best, but GIMP comes fairly close (and it's free!!)

wrench

kevin stein

version 3 is the full scale with Brain's tiles and your trees ... you know, the one I screwed up badly on!! I don't have the payware versions, just the original freewares.

yesturday, I went back into one of 5 TE installs (I've split them for different terrains) and re-discovered that I do have a WoE tiled version. Unfortunately, there's a major glitch that I can't figure out....the texturelist is only 77 tiles long.

I've tried renaming/copy-pasting the full WoE texturelise in, and no matter what I do, nothing after SC75B shows up!! I can add tiles (like the VietnmanG-AB1 and my G-AB3), so I guess that I'll be adding the others -78 thru 125 (the 2 AB tiles) by hand. Then the rebuilding of the tiles can begin, and the retiling -gonna be a nightmare!!! arrgh!!!. And then the retargeting...and movements and etc.

I guess I'll get started on it when I finish WW2 Tunisia/Western Med in a few weeks. Unless, of course, somebody MUCH smarter than me wants to do it!

but doing it that way WILL allow the full 4 seasons, which i really think is the way to go. Expecially since so much happened in the winter of 51/52

edit: didn't rebel ryder do a long-barreled Sherman? that could be used instaed of Geo's. Also, isn't there an M-26 Pershing out, maybe by RR?? I don't know if M3 halftracks were still being used during the Korean War (meaning: I haven't seen any pictures of them), so the standard USTruck could be used, as also the 'generic' Soviet vehicles. There's a couple of T-34s out - Pasko's (also with a snow camo) and I think RebelRyder did a version or 2.

wrench

kevin stein

Remember, too, the old Skypat Cat extractor don't work on SF2 sims ... you'll need Gerwins extractor. Works a charm on the new series; albeit extracting ALL files from the cat; but you'll probably find something after extraction you'll be needing anyway....

wrench

kevin stein

No Fresco's in that time frame.

look in the Campaign's Forum ... hgbn is starting up a mod

wrench

kevin stein

I'll get you everything I have; and help out as much as I can (since I've already done up most of the aircraft and know where pretty much everything is/goes on the penninsula, and nearby China, Russia and Japan -well, at least the parts of Kyushu and Honshu that show on the map)

mind you, all 3 versions of the terrain I have need work -- I've been able to blend Edwards old 'regular' and winter together to give you 2 seasons, but the tiles have no correlation to each other (meaning, targets don't sit where you put them from the one season to the other)

version 2, based off the 63% map with Stary's tiles, is approx 80% completed, but it's only one season (fall it looks like)

version3, the full scale (100%) --well, we all know the story on that one.

What REALLY needs to be done, is create a completly new HFD & TFD, and use the GermanyCE tiles; that way you can have all 4 seasons with Stary's tile mod. That would be the best way to go.

As to the ADs, NONE of them we have are fully correct -- there were lots of -2/-3 being used (with only 2 wing guns, but that's really a small matter). Also, the mapping on the stock one is different, so none of the skins I've done will work on it. (and the fact that maybe not everyone HAS SF2V)

Also have to bug MPPD about Monty's Ver.7, with the fixed animations, cut meshes for wing pylons (as parked aircraft loose their outer wing panels!!! -unless another 3d Guy wishes to look at it. I have the MAX file, and a list of "requests for changes"

wrench

kevin stein

It's been over a year since Major Lee's site closed ... he had some REALLY cool stuff there.

iirc, ML had done one or another of the 56th FG squadron Razorbacks (have to check my SWOTL install to be sure). I'll look at it, and maybe upload it (if that's ok with Ken -I know he pops in once in a while; or he can upload if he wants). I know the decals are 'out of order' (missing the 000 number, but that's a super easy fix

wrench

kevin stein

RATS!!! How did I miss this!??? Well, better late than never!

Happy Birthday Otto! Many happy returns of the day!

wrench

kevin stein

I'll bet the problem is NOT in the data.inis at all, but in the main ini.

open the gepard.ini, and if it don't look like this (especially noting the highligted section):

[GroundObjectData]

ObjectFullName=Gepard

ObjectDataFile=gepard_DATA.INI

 

[LOD001]

Filename=gepard.LOD

Distance=110

 

[LOD002]

Filename=gepard_LOD2.LOD

Distance=250

 

[LOD003]

Filename=gepard_LOD3.LOD

Distance=3500

 

[shadow]

CastShadow=TRUE

ShadowLOD=M48A3_shadow.shd

ShadowType=1

ShadowCastDist=500

MaxVisibleDistance=500

it not gonna show up.

if you open the 2S6.ini and mroland.ini, you'll see that statement is probably missing as well

Knowledge Base links on the subject:

http://forum.combatace.com/topic/11815-ground-objects-format-update-no-groundobjectdata-ini-anymore/

and at the bottom of this post:

http://forum.combatace.com/topic/21870-the-mods-thread-a-listing-of-whats-available/page__view__findpost__p__113930

wrench

kevin stein

I haven't had any of those issues with the P-82, per se....

Unfortunatly, there's a LOT that needs adjusting in Wolf's Jugs (rolling radius, landing gear spring/damping -- driving me nuts as I've got one for Central America that bounces all over the runway!)

that having been said, one thing I've found is you don't PUSH these older (06 and eariler) birds too hard in 08/SF2. They will stop flying for no apparent reason. No more yanking and banking to the limits of the envelope, or they'll depart like crazy!

What is really needed is for all the FMs to be looked at by experts. (which we all know ain't happening anytime soon).

A lot got changed in the 08/SF2 FMs in regards to how stalls are modeled ... some aircraft have the StallMoment= line that can be adjusted (by shear guesswork) to around 0.50; mind you I have NO idea what the values represent (and some don't even have this line!). Other things are like landing gear rolling radius .. they seem to all sink into the ground a bit more than usual, or are sitting levitated off the ground! Tail wheel steering, must be a positive number, etc, etc, etc.

but definately check the stickies in the PH Forum ... I've been trying to post updates and things that help.

wrench

kevin stein

In the WW2 Euro, the "nazi HQ" building is a "terrain object", residing in the terrain folder. You can easily make it un-targable, by editing the _Types.INI, and give it a target value of 0 (zero)

Or, if you're like me, and still want to lay eggs on it , you can just rename it (please note, the destroyed effects/model have been tweekified):

[TargetType031]

Name=rowhouse

FullName=Communist Party HQ

ModelName=rowhouse.LOD

TargetType=COMMAND_BUILDING

ActiveYear=0

TargetValue=500

UseGroundObject=FALSE

DamagePoint=50.0

ArmorValue=100000.0

ArmorType=1

RepairRate=0.255

StartDetectChance=100

StartIdentifiedChance=100

IncreaseDetectChanceKey=0

MaxVisibleDist=12000.0

DamagedModel=

DestroyedEffect=MediumShortStructureCollapse

DestroyedModel=barrack1_destroyed

SecondaryEffect=LargeOilFire

SecondaryChance=100

while still remaing active, gives a more 'correct for the era' target

As to the cat pointer, use the GermanyCE, even though the objects (warehouses, barracks, city buildings, etc) are pretty generic and usually in all the cat.

I'd also do this to the main ini; I do this on ALL my terrains, expecially terrain mods I release. Just add these lines over any existing cat pointers:

//CatFile=..\Desert\Desert.cat

CatFile=..\GermanyCE\GermanyCE.cat

//CatFile=..\VietnamSEA\VietnamSEA.cat

You really DON'T want to use the IsrealME.cat for anything BUT terrains that are built using the IME tiles and/or naming conventions -they're completly different from all the others (which, in turn, are yet again different from each other). IME also has an expanded 'terrain objects' listing, with 7-10 new city buildings and an very nice arab-looking palace.

As to the fin rwr box issue, I'll bet the box is mapped on a different skin bmp than the tail. Use the 'panel finder' bmp we have --should be in the D/L section -it'll replace a single skin bmp (do them one at at time, renaming the orignal skin to xF4****.bmp), and it's color/number coded so you can figure out what goes where. It's a GREAT tool! My guess is, you'll find it on the fueselage bmp (but I'm just guessing)

as to removing the V-SEA terrain, just don't fly on it! Removing it's not good; at some point you'll be needing either it's tiles or it's cat for something. (I know for CERTAIN there are terrains that use the V-SEA cat, but don't have the VietnamSEA*** tiles included.

wrench

kevin stein

Unfortunatly, all the Unobtanium was used in building "Virgil", the deep-earth exploratory ship. So, we're stuck with Impevium

---

Yes, you can upgrade the armor in ANY part of the aircraft....fer instance, the statement below is for one of the fuel tanks in a P-47:

[FuselageFuelCell1]

SystemType=FUEL_TANK

FuelTankID=1

MaxFuelAmount=704.89

SelfHealing=TRUE

FireSuppression=TRUE

MinExtentPosition=-0.5,1.0,-0.5

MaxExtentPosition=0.5,3.0,0.5

HasArmor=TRUE

ArmorMaterial=STEEL

Armor[REAR].Thickness=6

Armor

from the main screen, there should be a button "Options", from there go to controls, and there should be a 'mouse sensitivity' slider. Play with that, and see what happens

wrench

kevin stein

ArmorType=Impervium

wrench

kevin stein