malibu43

Hey guys, There is a possibility I may have a new (larger!) hard drive in my future, which means I will have to reinstall windows. The disk I have right now is XP. I've seen, in various forums, for various reasons, people post comments about FPS improvements in Win7 vs XP. If the improvement is significant enough, it might be worth it for me to hold off on the new HD installation until I can get my hands on Win7 (hard to find for < $100). I'd be interested to hear specifically what kind of improvements folks saw when they switched from XP to Win7. Is it only for high end systems, or across all levels of systems? Were you upgrading something else as well (new GPU, more RAM), or is it a straight apples to apples comparison with the same system running XP and then Win7? Obviously a straight comparison will result in some better data... Thanks!

Hmmm... I think i asked for 2GB of RAM on my xmas list, and if that's what I get, then that's what I'm going to have to stick with. I'll need to look more into Win7 and RAM requirements... So should I not expect the same FPS increase with 2GB of RAM?

Very nice!!!

The reason that most terrains and modders don't use the SAM placement method that you've described is because you've now made that terrain and target area "era specific" by specifying only one type and variant of SAM that can show up there. The way the stock terrains handle SAMs (SAMLauncher, SAMRadar, etc...) allows the game to automatically pick the right SAM system depending on the year that you're flying. Fly in the '70's and you get more modern systems like the SA-6, fly in the '50's and early '60's and you get older systems like the SA-2. And, FWIW, you're trying to set up an F-86 vs MiG-17 scenario, right? That would be something that would take place in the '50's, right? The SA-3 wasn't active until the early to mid '60's. So in your quest to create a "more realistic air combat scenario", you've actually created something that is very unrealistic.

Did you save the mission after the first time you flew it? Or were you just selecting the same parameters from the single mission generator? *edit* - never mind. I see this is SF1. As Fubar stated, it's random. Sometimes the engine will pick the same thing several times in a row.

I have the demo on the 360. Tones of fun with the AV8R-02 as a stick. This game should show up under the xmas tree for me!

Again, as I asked before, what SA-3 are you using? The latest available SA-3's (and necessary radars) included in NF4+ have accurate settings and provide quite a challenge. No editing required. You are reinventing the wheel, here. There are SAM systems available for download that work just fine. No need to Frankenstein together some SAM ground objects using different pieces of different objects from different downloads created for different patch levels of the game. There are SAM target layouts in every terrain out there that will self populate with SAM's and provide a challenging experience. If you can clearly and conceisely tell us what you're trying to accomplish (which is not currently clear to me) we can probably tell how to get it done with about 1/10th of the effort you are currently putting into it.

No need to uninstall!!! It is a compatibility issue with the RedTop and FireStreak that are included with NF4+, and it should be corrected in the upcoming patch to make NF4+ compatible with the Exp pack. Until the patch comes out, you can do one of three things: 1) Like Wrench said, compare the NF4+ _data.ini for those weapons with the stock and make the necessary changes 2) Just delete the NF4+ versions of the weapons and let the game revert to the stock 3) Run NF4+ through the StrikeFighters2 Europe.exe and use the StrikeFighters2 Exp2.exe to access the new content in a stock environment (how to do this is covered in the Knowledge Base). Again, just temporary options until the new NF4+ patch comes out.

OK. Where to start... Read through this forum: http://combatace.com/forum/268-thirdwire-sf2-series-knowledge-base/ Pay close attention to this thread: http://combatace.com/topic/40588-sf2sf2v-knowledge-base/ This specific post helps explain how to create multiple intalls: http://combatace.com/topic/40588-sf2sf2v-knowledge-base/page__view__findpost__p__306141 You may still have questions after reading through this, but at least reading these first will hopefully make things easier to help with. In short: 1) yes you can have NF4+ with the exp pack (although it will be a little buggy until the NF4+ patch comes out), 2) You don't need Exp Pack 1, 3) You should be able to have multiple installs. It's very easy and is covered in the threads I linked to. So read up and then let us know what you're still having problems with!

Which SA-3 do you have installed? Which Hawk do have installed? What weapons pack do you have installed? When you say ActiveYear, what file is that entry showing up in? Lastly are you flying blue or red? Because Hawks are blue and SA-3's are red, so depending on what aircraft you're flying, one them is never going to lock or fire at you. In general, you need to include more specific information when you post questions, so people can help you. Also, I would suggest (as others already have) just reading through and following these forums for a while (especially the knowledge base!!!), as well as just extracting files from the .cat files and looking through them to understand how the game works. Maybe download something like Nato Fighters 4 (don't necessarily install it - just unpack it somewhere and have a look at it) and look through the files there to see what people have done to implement different things in game. The Strike Fighters series requires baby steps and patience to learn how to mod. Good luck!

In case anyone wants some guidance removing unwanted aircraft from terrain/era specific mod folder created with a full merged install, here are the stock aircraft and ground objects for non-merged titles: SF2 SF2V SF2E SF2I *edit* - I had the "stock" expansion packs over their respective titles as well (SF2I+Exp1, SF2E+Exp2), but I don't know what happened to the images. I'll see if I can find them later, or if someone has them, they can post them instead.

Ooh! Pick me! Pick me! J/K It was not too hard. Only took a few minutes, although it was hard to determine for some aircraft (like all the MiG-21's and -23's) which ones belonged in which title. I may try and put together a list to help with that. Or just run each stock .exe (non merged) to get the aircraft folder and then snap a screenshot. With my last question about userlist and limited nations, I was just trying to make sure I understood how it all worked.

Just a quick question, again, related to unwanted stock items: Does the user list.ini only limit what AI aircraft/objects are used in a mission, or does it also limit what aircraft the player can select based on the selected terrain? I hoped it would do the later, but some initial attemps seem to show that the user can select any aircraft for any terrain...

Please bring a box of cigars back for me!!!

Thanks Boostjunky! I thought I had tried that already, but now it seems to work! I created a file named desert.ini with NOTHING in it, and dropped that in my Desert folder. That removed the desert terrain from SF2E (but then I deleted the file, cuz I do want that terrain!). Same thing for the stock campaigns. Merged it is!!!

OK. I'll give the merged install a try next time the opportunity presents itself. If I don't like it I can easily revert back to separate installs (something not possible back in the WoX days!). And I answered my own original question about additional Exp Pack 2 features in a merged install by... wait for it... READING THE PRODUCT DESCRIPTION AT THE TW WEBSITE!

I know I can go through and remove the unwanted aircraft from the mod folder, but I have been unsuccessful at getting unwanted stock campaigns to not show up. The same I think for terrains. These folders aren't created by the game in the mods folder (so I can't just delete them), and I've tried putting dummy folders in their place with no .ini files, but it hasn't worked. And even just to get rid of unwanted aircraft, it can be a lot of work. Although , if I can get the unwanted stock terrains to not show up, that coupled with userlist.ini should take care of the unwanted aircraft. I need to give this another try... or maybe someone's got it figured out and I just need to be "enlightened". But my original question was what does Exp Pack 2 add to a merged install that it doesn't add to a SF2E-only install? I'm assuming it's some additional flyable aircraft...?

OK. What's the deal with resizing textures? I see people often recommending that those with slower computers (ie - me) resize 2048 x 2048 textures down to improve performance. Does this still matter if you have texture quality set to medium or low? I believe that a "low" texture setting limits the texture sizes to 128 or 256, so does it matter if the original texture was 2048 x 2048? Does it still take the game longer to load the larger texture or something? So, if I should be resizing textures, what free program will make this simple (I have lot's of 3rd party aircraft hanging around!). FWIW - I don't have MS Picture Viewer on my system. Thanks!

OK. So reducing textures may reduce initial mission load times, but not necessarily improve FPS in game. Think I'll wait until I have a few hours with absolutely nothing else to do, then, before I tackle that.

I believe strikes have to be against targets in the targets.ini file for the terrain. Therefore, your options are to: 1. Make it a SEAD mission with the target area being whatever target area is closest to your SAM site. However, depending on the proximity of the SAM site to the target area and the game engine, the specific SAM site may or may not end up being a "primary target" 2. Make it an Armed Recon or CAS mission. Then you should be able to designate your custom placed SAM site as the primary target. *edit* - DW beat me to it!

Blasphemy!!! But seriously, it'll all get upgraded to the new standards in no time (well, maybe "two weeks"). This happens every time there's a major update (or any update) and it's all gravy once all the mods are brought up to date. If not, we'd all still be play and modding at the pre '06 SFP1 level!

Is there any program that will allow me to specify a directory and it will find and resize all of a certain file type in the directory, or do I have to do this one by one? Going through NF4+ and SF2V Exp Pack is gonna be a hassle!

One more update. Even more nodes added to slow the NVA advance toward Saigon, and movement.ini adjusted so Pleiku isn't instantly overrun at the start of the campaign. EasterOffensive_DATA.INI.txt SteelTiger_DATA.INI.txt SouthVietnam_MOVEMENT.INI.txt

Here are the updated files for Steel Tiger and Easter Offensive. I've added additional nodes to hopefully slow the NVA advance down the country. I've also made it so the US can't go on offensive. The result is that the US won't ever "accidentally" capture Hanoi or go north of the DMZ. The flip side of that is that if the NVA captures any S. Vietnamese nodes, it impossible to get them back. This should really put pressure on the player to complete CAS missions successfully! Please try these and let me know how they play out! The more people that try them, the better! EasterOffensive_DATA.INI.txt SteelTiger_DATA.INI.txt

So what was it?