ndicki

I'd sort of understood the bump maps in principle, but not the specular layers. I've just spent ALL DAY repairing a corrupt May 11 update... Download the whole series again, etc, etc. I'll take a look. If he's moved on to dds files, it's easy...

What specular maps? In SF2? Learning something here - keep talking... I hope you've installed my series of updated Bf109Gs and Ks in CFS3! They do a lot of things the stock ones don't... http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/local_links.php?catid=10 The British and German stand-alones libraries are largely filled with my efforts... And there are a few American ones, and assorted skins as well.

To be frank, my first priority would rather be getting these models sorted out with good descending LODs. I won't be the only one who finds many of them difficult to use in realistic numbers.

I admit I removed the "double" static gunsight from the "Spit" cockpit, and recoloured the base textures... A decent late Bf109-style one would be good too, I must say!

There is a fair amount of paint chipping here and there - nothing extreme, because I never seem to get it just right! - but it doesn't show owing to the limitations of the sim. It's the same with the riveting - it doesn't really show up even though it's all there. By contrast, here are a few from CFS3, which can be made very sharp indeed, and which I use for all my "to-print" screenshots as it looks so good. Well, not from the box, it doesn't, but once you sort a few things out, I mean! OK, I know I'm showing off... But the point is that SF simply doesn't render the detail so well, no matter what settings one uses.

This is the follow-on of the MkVb stand-in - from 15th August 1941, the order went out to overpaint the Dark Earth areas with a new grey shade made up on-station from mixing seven parts of Medium Sea Grey to one part Night. The resulting shade was given the official name of Ocean Grey, but had none of the blueish hue of the definitive shade of (unmixed) Ocean Grey introduced in mid-1942. This theoretically darker, blue-free shade was common up until the end of 1942, and predictably varied immensely in its application, ranging from a dark grey similar to Dark Sea Grey to a paler grey virtually indistinuguishable from the original Medium Sea Grey. These aircraft are from No.401 Sqn RAF - originally No.1 Sqn RCAF, which was renumbered in order to avoid confusion. A certain Pilot Officer Don Blakeslee (BL753 'H') may not be unknown to the Americans on the forum. Again, all serial numbers correspond to aircraft in service with 401 during the spring and summer of 1942, and mnay of the individual letters correspond to the serials. Quite a lot of work, actually...

Oh lovely stuff! Looks great!

I like read-mes. Mine are very good too!

Got it - looking very good. Thanks!

I think (HOPE!) that'll do the trick... I'm dying to find out what that "Spit" cockpit looks like in mine!

I'd suggest a re-upload (yes, I know...) but using one single type of compression. I think 7zip is trying to open the zip files AS WELL as the 7z shell, and it can't.

Just have - no change. Both from each download site do the same thing. They get as far as creating the zip files, but they're empty.

View File Spitfire MkVb, No.92 Sqn RAF, 1941 Spitfire MkVb, No.92 (East India) Sqn RAF, Biggin Hill, February - October 1941 After fighting throughout the Battle of Britain, during which it produced a number of noteworthy aces, No.92 stayed at Biggin Hill during the summer of 1941. This was the time when the RAF began its 'lean forward' into occupied France, effectively turning the tables on the Luftwaffe and finally taking the fight back to the Continent. In February 1941, No.92 was the first squadron to receive the new MkV Spitfire. The markings carried throughout 1941 included the Sky 'Fighter Command' band and spinner introduced in December 1940 and returned to the all-Sky undersides again after a brief period from December to April when the port wings of fighter aircraft were once again painted black. At this time, the spinner and band were in fact generally painted not Sky but Sky Blue for some reason; the correct Sky colour appeared more generally in the second half of 1941. Serial numbers in this pack correspond to MkVb aircraft used by 92 Squadron during 1941, although many of these aircraft were on strength only for some days, for obvious reasons. Where a pilot has been identified as having flown a particular aircraft (The Royal Air Force did not attribute aircraft to particular pilots, although many did tend to have their favourites) that pilot has been listed in the menu. Pilots of note included such well-known types as Brian Kingcome, Neville Duke, Titch Havercroft, Don Kingaby, Geoff Wellum, Trevor Wade and many others. For use ONLY with SF2 including the Israel Expansion Pack. This will NOT work if you do not have the stock TW Spitfires installed and working. Includes 2048 and 1024 size skin sheets. Credits: Model by Third Wire Flight Dynamics by ShrikeHawk based on TW Spitfire MkIXc Cockpit by Kesselbrut Skin, decals, data.ini modifications, formations, sounds and assembly by ndicki Guns by AvHistory Submitter ndicki Submitted 06/03/2011 Category Spitfire

7z is unzipping the outer shell, but the extracted zip files are 0kb, and empty. Even the jpgs are invalid - 0kb. Weird...

Odd. 7zip unzips the outer shell, but the zip files inside come up as invalid. Let me try again - maybe to do with settings or something. Nope. The diagnostic screen reads "Unsupported compression method for..." followed by the name of the zip file. A folder is generated, but it's empty. What version of 7zip are you using? I've got 4.65. It's worked so far...

Hi Stary - I think there must be a problem with the compression. I've downloaded it twice, from each link, and it opens the 7z file but says the zip files inside are invalid...

Good stuff! I've got the MkVb coming out soon, based on your FM.

This is a pretend Spitfire MkVb - Shrikehawk did the FM which I then fitted to the latest generation of stock Spitfire MkIX, and while it isn't visually perfect, it should go like a MkV and shoot like a MkV, and that's the main thing. These are early-production MkVbs of No.92 Sqn in the summer of 1941. 92 was a breeding-ground for aces, and included at that time Jamie Rankin, Brian Kingcome, Alan Wright, Geoff Wellum, Neville Duke, Don Kingaby, Titch Havercroft and a number of other noteworthy pilots. The dark earth/dark green/sky scheme more typically associated with the earlier mark numbers progressively gave way to ocean grey/dark green/medium sea grey with effect from 15th August 1941, although it continued in service in certain units into early 1942.

I don't think I need to say... The stock Spitfires, on a par with Monty's S-99.

Excellent work, Stary! And I'll go along with the generic concept, because it's better to have a reasonably credible cockpit than no cockpit at all... And they certainly do look the part.

8 .303 Brownings will give you serious FPS impact if it isn't right - good thinking Stary! By the way, AI bomber boxes with lots of guns kill my FPS dead the moment they all open fire. Any thoughts to make them less resource-intensive?

Actually, 303 was the first squadron. Never mind...

Yes, a hero in the truest sense of the word. I don't see why anybody should feel embarrassed about his opinion of the Germans. It seems reasonably accurate to me.