Aintry

Thanks, Mike, very much.

That's a really nice-looking airplane.

File Name: Minimalist Sky Mod, Part II

File Submitter: Tristan

File Submitted: 1 Dec 2006

File Category: SF Maps/Terrain Mods

Minimalist Sky Mod, Pt II.

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CONTENTS--

I.) Blank Horizon Textures

Enclosed are blank horizon textures for use by people who don't want any 2d cloud formations on the horizon when they play 'SFP1/WoV/WoE'. You can use some sets and leave the others uninstalled, or you can use all of them.

Blank horizon textures have an especially oppressive effect in the 'Overcast' and 'Inclement' modes that some people might like.

TO INSTALL:

1.) Back up your game's 'FLIGHT' folder.

2.) Open the enclosed folder of whatever weather mode you want to modify, i.e., 'Clear', 'Scattered', etc.

3.) Drag the corresponding horizon textures to your 'FLIGHT' folder. The game will continue to use the default horizon textures in modes in which blank textures are not used.

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II.) EnvironmentSystem.ini Tweak

The enclosed file changes some of the settings used in the 'EnviromentSystem.ini' file distributed with the first part of the 'Minimalist Sky Mod'.

The most noticeable change will be in the sun settings, which have been much toned down for head-on viewing. I didn't like the "supernova" effect produced with my first file mod, and I thought others might prefer less intense glare from the sun.

TO INSTALL:

1.) Back up the 'EnvironmentSystem.ini' file inside your game's 'FLIGHT' folder. If there is no file present, skip this step and proceed to step 2.).

2.) Drag the enclosed 'EnvironmentSystem.ini' file to your game's 'FLIGHT' folder.

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NOTE: There are no restrictions whatever against the distribution and use of these files. Do with them what you will.

Tristan

Click here to download this file

I'm guessing that the F-111s have data entries that allow them to use the stock engine sound file, so there wouldn't be any need to include another sound file with the F-111 package.

Yup.

Yes, they are.

File Name: Minimalist Sky Mod

File Submitter: Tristan

File Submitted: 23 Nov 2006

File Category: SF Maps/Terrain Mods

First of all, I don't claim this mod package as mine; the raw material belongs to Thirdwire. I just messed around with some of the stock tiles.

This enviro package is the product of boredom; I wanted to see if I could alter in-game light intensity and dynamics using the stock sky textures alone as the bases for a mod.

Accordingly, the stock textures have been shuffled and squashed, greyscaled and highlighted, and generally beaten into submission for the sake of this project.

'Overcast' and 'Inclement' horizon textures, however, have been left unaltered and are, therefore, not included in this mod package.

Provided you haven't installed any other horizon mods, your game will simply continue drawing on the stock 4x and 5x tile sets when run with this sky mod.

I should add that, if you're looking for horizon textures worthy of a landscape mural, this mod is definitely not for you! I've taken a decidedly *minimalist* approach to sky modding here.

I have included a modded cloud texture for added entertainment value. It isn't a graphical masterpiece by any by any stretch of the imagination, but it is something that I think goes reasonably well with the modded horizon tiles.

I have also included a modified 'EnvironmentSystem.ini' file. Simply delete this file if you prefer the stock environment settings.

Thanks in advance for trying out this mod. And thanks, TK and Thirdwire, for all the raw material.

Tristan

Click here to download this file

"x200 video" -- I assume this means you use integrated graphics and don't have a graphics card installed in your computer? If so, you'll keep having problems until you install a dedicated graphics card.

Youch -- I didn't think it would look *that* bad. Damn.

Oke.. it's not just only my game problem or my pc.

What did you change on the horizon textures ?

I didn't do anything really special. I took the stock horizon textures and changed everything to black and white, increased the transparency, and also increased the intensity of the cloud highlights. I did this with the 1x, 2x, and 3x tile sets; I left the other tile sets alone. Thank you, Paint.NET.

This isn't a perfect solution; I mean, the cutout mountains will still be there, obviously, after the modding is done. Mine just seem like less of an eyesore to me now. And, frankly, I wouldn't want them to disappear *entirely*; I regard them as a necessary part of the landscape, even though they don't look that great.

Addendum: I think I should add that most of the horizon textures you see in my screenshots are Polak's textures, or modified versions of Polak's textures. I started using modded versions of the stock horizon textures only very, very recently.

I've done tons of enviro tweaks and mods, but I've never found a solution to the cardboard-cutout-mountain problem. I think that's one of the reasons that I use such muted horizon textures now; it makes the mountain problem less noticeable.

This sounds like a 'Weapons Pack' problem.

If you don't have the latest weps pack installed, download it and install it. If the weps pack is already installed, you'll have to do some 'data.ini' and 'loadout.ini' edits for the aircraft in question to get the fuel tanks to show up in loadout.

You don't have to mess around with '.msn' files to do what you want to do. You *might* have to do some '.cat' file extraction to access the 'data.ini' and 'loadout.ini' files of the stock (not the 3rd-party) aircraft. There is a file extractor in the 'CombatAce' d/l section that should take care of the extraction problem for you.

There are instructions that come with the 'Weapons Pack' that should help you do the '.ini' file edits.

My God.

There are other planes uploaded here and elsewhere that have the CCIP mod. You'll just have to look around for them. Some third-party planes are, no doubt, still in the process of being upgraded.

The CCIP feature is available on all of the SF-series games.

Another idea, if you feel like experimenting:

Open the 'data.ini' file of the offending terrain. Scroll down to [WaterTextureMaterial]>LightEnabled. If the value = TRUE, set it to FALSE and see what happens.

Thanks; I'm glad you're enjoying the mod. It works with Deuces' new 'Waternormal', too, so people have another effects option.

File Name: Libya Terrain Water Mod

File Submitter: Tristan

File Submitted: 9 Oct 2006

File Category: SF Maps/Terrain Mods

These modified tiles activate the new water effects in USAFMTL's 'Libya' terrain. See the enclosed 'read-me' for installation instructions. Thanks, USAFMTL, for permission to offer this mod to the community!

Click here to download:

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autom...p;showfile=3308

This sucks -- I think this problem has been covered before and the solution is relatively simple. But it eludes me anyway.

If nobody else picks up this thread, you could probably find the solution through a forum search. Sorry for the lame advice.

Are you running it on a 3rd-party terrain or on a stock terrain?

Could you be more specific? Does it blow up on the runway? Does it cause a CTD when you try to load it? Does it not show up on the list of available planes? There are a number of things that might make a plane non-functional.

I've downloaded two different MiG-21bis files: one about 5MB in size and another about 8MB in size. I've gotten 'file corruption' error messages with both files while trying to decompress them.

Hey, Lexx --

I've done some experiments with SkyPanelHeight, both with stock panels and with Polak's panels. I've had fairly good results fiddling around with SPH, especially when employing Polak's panels, though I've decided to stick with the default SPH for the time being.

If changing 'SkyDistance' slowed my computer down, the decrease wasn't noticeable, and I ended up with a much "bigger-looking" sky.

What might slow your computer down is if you really ramp up the various 'MaxClouds' settings to compensate for the decrease in cloud density. I limited increases to somewhere in the neighborhood of 25% above default values and didn't notice a significant performance hit.

I believe the line you're looking for is [sky]>SkyDistance. I have the value set at 140000. I forget what the stock value is; I think it's somewhere around 70000.