malibu43

All Stary's new tiles are looking SWEET!

Yes, it will install into the SF2 folder by default, and you will have the content for both. You can install SF2E into a separate folder, and then they *should* behave as two separate games, needed to patched and updated separately. No content will be shared between the two.

It looks like groundoffensiveallowed= is set to TRUE for the friendly forces in both the Steel Tiger and Easter Offensive campaigns, where it should be set to FALSE. This was an oversight/error on our part. ... [Force001] Alignment=FRIENDLY Nation=USAF BaseArea=Saigon AirOffensive[001].Primary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[001].Secondary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[002].Primary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[002].Secondary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[003].Primary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[003].Secondary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[004].Primary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[004].Secondary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[005].Primary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[005].Secondary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[006].Primary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[006].Secondary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[007].Primary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[007].Secondary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[008].Primary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[008].Secondary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[009].Primary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[009].Secondary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[010].Primary=WAREHOUSE AirOffensive[010].Secondary=WAREHOUSE GroundOffensiveAllowed=TRUE <------- should be FALSE StartGroundOffensive=0 StartInterdiction=100 ... Try these updated files (make sure to put them in the corresponding folders). Back up the existing ones just in case: SF2V Ground Offensive Fix 2-23-11.zip Just a word of caution - the enemy will still go on the offensive and capture target areas if you fail to perform your missions. So, it is historically accurate in the sense that the US will not advance or try to "capture" Hanoi, but it is not historically accurate in the sense that if you perform poorly, South Vietnam will be overrun. It's a limitation of the campaign engine.

? Taking a look right now...

Folks, I got a new 320 GB hard drive for my MacBook for x-mas, so I saved the old 160gb hard drive, bought an enclosure for it on ebay and it's now a 160GB external drive. I did this the last time I upgraded with an old 80GB. Since I use both Mac and PC, and prefer to 1) be able to share the files between the two if I need to and 2) not have to determine how much space I need for each OS ahead of time, I formatted the 80gb hard drive as FAT32 (vs an OSX partition and NTFS partition). As of last night, I've done the same thing with the new hard 160gb drive (FAT32), but in reading on the internet, I see things about FAT32 having problems with larger capacity drives and potentially "inefficent" use of space. I didn't have any issues over the last few years with my 80GB hard drive. Is there any reason (other than a 4GB file size limit) that I should steer clear of FAT32 for backing up my files? Like I said, given that I use two OS's frequently, it's really the easiest format for me to use. If for some reason I should not be backing up on FAT32, I could alway have the 160GB hard drive be formatted for 110GB OSX and 50GB FAT32 (the FAT32 would just be for temporarily storing files that I want to move from the Mac to PC, for example, my ~40GB of music files), and then I could format the 80GB hard drive for NTFS for backing up gaming stuff from my windows install. So, like I said, FAT32 is a lot easier. So, given my intended use, any reason to steer away from FAT32?

You're the man. Thanks!

Thanks. Looks like I've been lucky with FAT32 so far and I probably want to chang my strategy moving forward. I'll probably just split the hard drive into HFS and NTFS and write to those partitions from their respective OS's. I know Mac's can read (but not write) NTFS and it looks like there are free drivers to allow winXP to read HFS, so I can still transfer stuff from one OS to the other easily using those two partitions. Plus I can look around for programs that allow the OS's to write the other format if I really need to. Thanks!

Looks like the blocky effects are related to an issue that was already brought up with effects and atmospheric fog. TK said he's working on a fix for the next patch. Also, I realized that the flare smoke trail issue is a problem in my stock install as well as my modded install after all, so I let TK know about it.

After a little more playing around, I found that the flare issue is only in my NF4+, SF2V Exp Pack, and '48 SF2I Modded installs. The flares in my stock install are working correctly. I tried simply removing the countermeasureeffect.ini file in the effects folder, but that didn't fix the problem. So I'm assuming it's with a TGA or modded emitter somewhere. As far as the explosions go, I can confirm now that this is in both my stock installs and modded installs. So I guess it may be something I have to live with. When viewed from far away, explosions are big and blocky, but when you zoom in, they look normal. It's not really a show stopper, more of an annoyance. I've started a thread for this issue at the TW forums. I encourage those with the same issue to let TK know. http://bbs.thirdwire.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=8259

I was playing around with a stock install after I posted this yesterday, and found that the problem wasn't there. Where I am seeing the problem is in my NF4+ install. In addition to the flare issues, every once in a while, I'll spot an effect that isn't working quite right as well (big white squares instead of smoke or shock waves). I wasn't able to figure out which effects they were, but I can check some more. Anyone else having these issues in their NF4+ installs after patching?

Hey guys. After updating to the Jan 11 patch, I'm getting that weird issue where the smoke trails from flares run from one flare to the other in addition to behind the flare (I know I saw someone post this before). Was there ever a fix for this? I didn't have the problem the first time I saw the issue posted, because I waited to patch up until the Jan 11 patch. Looks like maybe this is one thing that wasn't fixed...?

My issue is that new flight sims don't run smoothly on my old, underpowered laptop when I use high graphics settings. I'll head over to the TW forums and ask TK to release a patch for this issue.

Wow! Good for you. I wish I could solve all my flight simming issues like you!

Keep in mind that you can select "custom" graphics settings where you can have different combinations of low, med, high, and unlimited settings for different things (so, for example, you can have lense flare but have other things set to medium or low). You could start with medium settings across the board and then increase individual settings one at a time until you find the cuplrit. In the graphics setttings drop down menu, select medium. Then go back into the menu and select "customize". Make changes from there. Of course, given that shaders are part of the problem, this may or may not make a difference.

I will echo what JM said, and even raise it one - DO NOT GO WITH INTEL GRAPHICS FOR GAMING!!! My current laptop and my previous laptop both have/had intel graphics chips. The newer one (in my Macbook) is a little better than the old one. I can really only play SF on med settings (on average, some are set to low, some are set to high). Right after I got my Macbook, Apple started using the NVIDIA integrated graphics instead of the Intel for the same price. NVIDIA's integrated graphics are supposed to perform 5-10x better than the intel ones. So if you're going to get something with integrated graphics, go with NVIDIA. But for $1000, you should be able to get something better than integrated graphics.

Sounds good to me! I don't discriminate when it comes to virtual beverages!

OK. Looking back at my post now, I can see that it may have sent the wrong message. I did not intend to offend anyone who has put time and effort into all the WW2 stuff for the SF series. From what I've seen, it all looks pretty impressive (as are most of the mods that are out there for SF). Rising Sun actually looks very impressive, and, like I said, if it was free I'd try it in a heart beat. But, like I said, I can see how my post may have inadvertently conveyed a different message. And, to answer your question, no, I haven't really tried much of the WW2 stuff. So I don't have much room to talk, then, do I? Rising Sun as payware just doesn't make any sense to me given what's already out there. That's all I meant and all I should have said. Beers on me.

These are my opinions on RS. And that is all these are. Opinions. Well, most of it anyway... No offense intended to anyone and it's not meant to be personal. I'll be totally honest, all personal and ethical issues aside: Rising Sun doesn't look nearly as good as IL-2 (IMHO). And I can run IL-2 maxed out on my laptop. Rising Sun (ie WoX) I could use medium settings at best. I think IL-2 does a WAAAYYYY better job at simulating the feel and sensation of flying a prop aircraft (IMHO) than the SF series. IL-2 1946 inludes WAAAYYYY more aircraft/missions/campaigns out of the box, including all the Pacific Theater stuff. IL-2 1946 is cheaper. The only thing IL-2 doesn't do is "tell stories" the way the YAP/RS sun adverstises their product to do. Does that interest me at all? No. I read books and watch the Miliatary Channel for that. Does Rising Sun look pretty cool? Yes. Is it neat what they've done with the SF engine? Yes. Would I install it and give it at try if it was free? Absolutely. Would I pay for it? Not a chance.

When you run the patch, you need to point it to your WoE installation folder. If it isn't patching up, you must not be pointing the patch installer to the right place.

They are not stock items. They are available in the modded version of IL-2.

I would like to recommend this get added to the KB (unless it's already there and I missed it). I've seen a lot of posts here and at other sites lately asking about this... In Strike Fighters Project 1 and the other “1st Gen” games in the TW series (Wings Over Vietnam, Wings Over Europe, Wings Over Israel), any mods or addons were dropped into their respective folders in the game’s main install directory. That is no longer the case with the “2nd Gen” games (Strike Fighters 2, SF2V, SF2E, SF2I and SF2NA). Any mods or addons you download for the 2nd Gen games will most likely include a reference to a “mod” folder somewhere in the readme, where the user is supposed to put the downloaded files. However, there is no folder (nor should one be created) called “Mods”. The following is to help you understand what the “mod folder” is really referring to. When a 2nd Gen game is first installed, the game needs to be run at least once so that the game can create the “mod folder”. After the first time you run the game, a set of directories will be created in one of two locations, depending on whether you’re running XP or Vista/Win7. Assuming you ran the .exe for Strike Fighters 2, the directories created are as follows: WinXP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2\Effects C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents \ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2\Sounds C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents \ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2\Objects\Decals C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents \ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2\Objects\Pilots C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents \ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2\Objects\Weapons Vista/Win7 C:\Users\<username>\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2\Effects C:\Users\<username>\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2\Sounds C:\Users\<username>\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2\Objects\Decals C:\Users\<username>\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2\Objects\Pilots C:\Users\<username>\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2\Objects\Weapons So, most of the time, the term “Mod(s) Folder” is referring to the “StrikeFighters2” directory in the example above. When you run the game, the game will look here for any files or addons first before pulling files from the main install directory. If you ran Strike Fighters 2: Vietnam, the directory would be “StrikeFighters2 Vietnam”. If you ran Strike Fighters 2: Europe, the directory would be “StrikeFighters2 Europe”. Etc, etc… An addon or mod will usually have Effects, Objects, Campaigns, Terrains (etc..) folders contained within the zip file that are supposed to be dropped into your “Mods Folder”. You would drop those files into the StrikeFighters2 folder (in the example above) and allow to overwrite when asked. Notice that some folders are not created when the game is run the first time, and you may be required to create those folders first yourself. Prime examples being …\StrikeFighters2\Terrains and …\StrikeFighters2\Campaigns. There are too many to list all of them, but you get the idea. If the readme tells you to drop something into a directory that isn’t already there, make sure you’re looking for the right thing and that it really is missing, and then just create it yourself. Now, there are some more advanced applications of this, where you can create duplicate game installs and mod folders, or you can even change the location of your mod folder. More advanced stuff is covered here: http://combatace.com...knowledge-base/ And in this sub-forum, which can easily be missed: http://combatace.com...knowledge-base/ I recommend becoming familiar with the basic “Mod Folder” concept I went over above before diving into the more advanced stuff.

Correct. SF Gold is a release of the original Strike Fighters and is compabible with the "WoX" games. I don't know what makes it "gold". It was before my time. Strike Fighters 2 (SF2) is the first in the "second generation" of the series and is compatible with the titles I listed with it above.

Which terrain is that? Is that a variation of ANW? I've been seeing that one a lot lately.

Also, SF2:E is part of the SF2 series. SF2 series: SF2 SF2V SF2E SF2I SF2 Exp Pack 1, Exp Pack 2 The SF series: Strike Fighters Project 1/Gold Wings Over Vietnam Wings Over Europe Wings Over Israel

Profi is asking about AAA, I believe. I think Wrench is talking about surface to surface artillery. So there may be some confusion there... Profi - Off the top of my head, I can't say how to increase the visual range of the tracers. There could be lot's of factors at play, such as the HorizonDistance and EffectDetail settings in the game graphics options. Those are just guesses, though... Regarding random firing - the AAA units in game will not do it. Period. But they do fire at other aircraft. And when there are other aircraft in your vicinity, you will see tracers from AAA firing at them. There are add-ons at this sight (NatoFighters 4+, SF2V Exp Pack, SF2I 1948 mod) that add better AAA, tracer, and flak effects that may help you achieve the atmosphere you're looking for, without all the extra work on your end. These addons are in the SF2 campaigns download section. However, given that you are completely new to this game/sim, I would strongly recommend playing the stock game for a couple weeks and reading through the SF2 Knowledge Base before adding those. Otherwise you may have some troubles getting them to work.