gerwin

Yes, that was not problem though. It is HeightMapScale=2.000000 in the data ini, which is so few that one cannot see any difference. HeightMapScale=25.000000 is much nicer. However it also causes a difference in sea height near the horizon, visible as white lines. This is fixed when I adjust the HM bitmaps like this: make sea level 50% grey and make the base ground color 50% grey. Then raise the HeightMapScale's to double the value: 50.000000. I can imagine that [HeightField] and [HeightOffset] have entries for something like this, but for now this works well. Please try the files in the attachment. Edit1: It messes up isafjordur airbase, uploaded a new one that works better. Edit2: It messes up the depth of ships, corrected now by using 25% grey as the neutral value (instead of 50%) IcelandNA_hm.zip

Yesterday I cleaned up the package in several areas, but it did not change anything noticable to the terrain. I added these small grayscale '_hm' heightmap images, and set the mysterious tag values in the tilemap as they are in the stock desert. But Neither seems to have any visible affect. If somebody knows more about these I would appreciate some info. The readme is updated, the SF1 datafile is updated, and I added a texturelist for the TW terrain editor. (Stary, would you be willing to share the object list for the tods with me, for completeness? ) Is there still interest in me hosting the older IcelandNA version that is compatible with the high-res tiles, but with a smaller range of tiles and such? The stone tiles are like the green tiles but adjusted as follows: - for transition tiles: select half the tile, or quarter, or three-quarters. - for transition tiles: feather selection 50 pixels, then optionally manually adjust this selection. - for snow tiles: mask the snow areas. - adjust color of selected area from green to brown: hue -14 / saturation +7 / lightness +9. IIRC. As already mentioned the shadow directions of all transition tiles was changed too, shadow pointing to the side that is likely to be the lowest side of a slope. Rock shadows are nice when they point in the right direction, but less so when they point the wrong way.

A Fill tool should be easy to implement. Copy mouse coordinates to windows clipboard too. Also I think I know how to read the object locations from the TOD files. (It holds IEEE 32-bit float coordinates within a 2000 range, being a tile of 2000x2000 meters) Making TOD files form scratch is a whole different matter, but the TW editor does it just fine already. Yesterday I managed to open a tilemap with the TW editor :) But first things first, it is not worth it when the allegro library is unreliable.

Iceland NA TFD version, Marcfighters Su-27. My F-14 burning nicely in the background.

You're welcome, I Uploaded a later version just a minute ago: says 'Upload No. 14' in the readme.

OK If you cannot describe the problem, maybe send me the entire terrain that gives this trouble.

Progress on this program is not going as I hoped. It relies on the open-source Allegro 4 game programming library, which I know very well. But it is now confirmed that even the latest version of the library 4.4.2 is not thread safe on multicore systems, when using the mouse control/cursor. (e.g. usage of the mouse cursor on a multi-core system gives a risk of crashing the application, and setting process affinity does not prevent it 100%) Allegro 5 should be more reliable, but is quite different and lacks user interface routines AFAIK. Since nobody seems currently serious in maintaining the Allegro 4 library, this issue will persist until I fix it myself one day. There are some workarounds, but I don't like working on it when the library is in this state.

The new version of the SFD Iceland is uploaded (location in 1st post). As I already announced, it now includes brown/stone colored areas, without vegetation. The other tiles were also worked on a bit. For one I changed the light direction of many tiles. I am sorry, but the higher resolution tileset by stary is incompatible for the time being, as the map now refers to additional tiles. As before the included standard-resolution tileset is a reworked version of thirdwire's + stary's + my work.

Soon the greenness of iceland will be reduced. I introduced a set of stone colored tiles in between the snow and the green hills. Pending are stone tiles that border with the ocean, then there are some trouble spots that need manual placement. Edit: New Screenshot, showing upload no. 14 level. (Marcfighters Su-27 with adjusted skin)

This week I gave it another try to get that midi music out of the classic Jane's Fighters Anthology game. I managed to get it out by fooling FA Toolkit in some sneaky way. It is midi music so it requires a (software) synthesizer to be available. Windows XP has one, don't know about Vista etc. Also it is XMI format: meaning that every XMI track contains a collection of subsongs that can be combined in many ways. Therefor I also included two XMI players for windows. Command line players, so just drag and drop your files on them, or use the included batch file "start". Edit: Added USNF and converted everything to the normal midi format, download is updated: Jane's USNF + Fighters anthology midi music The music is sometimes quite cool, other times it sucks. (PS. Check these files with your own scanner if you want, I only use MS security essentials now)

Thanks. never played this game back then or afterwards. The music sounds interesting, and very 90's. The World of game MIDs has the strike commander tracks in one zip file.

I do not know how to integrate it, but sometimes I start a playlist then run SF2 while keeping the music in the background. I updated the package, all is in .mid format now. The quality of the music depends on the quality of the midi synthesizer used for playing these files. MS Windows includes a Roland sample set software synthesizer that is OK.

Looking forward to that Beware that some of these textures are actually not shown in the TW extractor. You can still mod them though, if you know their name. Like the toned down rooftops in my Iceland map download. Edit; you wrote extra buildings, not the existing buildings. nevermind then. (Let me say in advance that I hope this does not trigger endless posts here about how people dislike the infamous locking ;) )

A while ago i was messing with the music files and I found out that none of the XMI subsong features are used. So there is no loss when converting the whole lot to ordinary midi files. Will upload a new package later.

Looks Impressive. The shadowing plays a major factor in that screen, but may seem odd when the sun is set low at the same side of the shadows. because logically the shadows would have to move to the other side.

AEROWINGS/AERO DANCING (series) This series can be considered the first true attempt of combat flight simulation on the game-console. Developed by CRI (CSK Research Institute) and published in Japan by that same company. Translated an published outside of Japan by Crave Entertainment and SEGA. All planes listed for the releases have a cockpit and are flyable. AeroWings (ENG, Dreamcast, 1999) / Aero Dancing (JAP, Dreamcast) The first game of the series. It is focused on formation flight and aerobatics, the player being a flight team leader. The Japanese version of the game licenced the Japan Air Self-Defense Force's display team 'Blue Impulse'. Aircraft included in this game: T-4, T-2, F-1, F-2, F-86, F-4, F-15. Combined with 10 map/weather variations. Aero Dancing: Special Disc (JAP, Dreamcast) New Sky Mission Attack levels, F-104 Starfighter, two new maps, data transfer ability, Gallery mode, plus an Aero Dancing F movie and demo. AeroWings 2 (ENG, Dreamcast, 2000) / Aero Dancing F (JAP, Dreamcast+Windows) With the title 'Airstrike' in the US, and 'Strike Force' in the UK. Features aerial combat simulation, but no ground attack. Aircraft included: F-86, F-104, F-4, F-14, F-15, F-16, F/A-18, T-2, T-3, T-4, F-1, F-2. Combined with 21 map/weather variations, some of which were already present in Aerowings. The main game mode consists of 30 fighter pilot missions. The title screen features a self rolling demo. The Japanese windows version has a 'Network Battle' option, with both Host and Join. Unfortunately this version suffers from z-buffer graphics glitches, as visible on ATI graphics, but less on Intel graphics. 'VS Play' is greyed out. The windows versions supports Joystick control and larger screen resolutions with filtering. Aero Dancing F 'Special Disc' 'FSD' (JAP, Dreamcast) Titled 'Tsubas's Virgin Flight'. Contains special data such as savegames for previous games. It also contains many replays and an Aerodancing i Preview version with 3 replays. Menu is in Japanese this time. Aero Dancing i (JAP, Dreamcast+Windows, 2001) This game was only released in Japan. The "i" stands for Internet, to emphasize the cross platform online mode. It was also the first in the series to offer air-to-ground missions. The menu and Aircraft HUD became more polished. The game contains all the aircraft from Aero Dancing F, but generally without the fantasy and air-show paintschemes and more realistic Flight Models. In addition it includes A-7, A-10, C-1 Transport, MiG-21, MiG-29, Su-27, Mirage 2000, Tornado ADV+IDS. The AV-8 Harrier was included with a special game mode focusing on its VTOL and hovering ability. All the map/weather variations of the previous release are there, and the new entries bring the total to 39. The windows version has bigger aircraft textures compared to the Dreamcast version and compared to the previous windows version. It has improved z-buffer handling. The Windows version does not support the 'Network battle' as before. It contains world War 2 bonus planes: the A6M2, P-51 and Bf 109. Which also appear in Aero Dancing i 'Special Disc'. Aero Dancing i 'Special Disc' 'iSD' (JAP, Dreamcast) Titled 'Jikai Sakuma de Machite Masen' meaning 'Waiting for the next version'. This special version contains most of the previous functionality, A Su-25 bonus Plane and a green AV-8B version. The original Survival mode was replaced with a similar mode focusing on the F-14 on a Carrier. The 32 missions were not included. It contains dozens of fan replays from the 'dancing audition 2001' event. Note: Cross platform Online play of all Aero Dancing i versions depended on Remote Game Servers. The service was closed down on March 31 of 2003. Note: Japanese Official Guide books were published By Softbank. At least for the Dreamcast Aero Dancing F and i releases. Aero Elite: Combat Academy (ENG, PS2, 2003) / Aero Dancing 4 (JAP, PS2) The series now switched to the PlayStation 2 Console. I contains the same Aircraft as Aero Dancing i Special disc, with the addition of the US-1A Amphibian Plane and three helicopters: Apache, Cobra and OH-6. The terrain engine and its terrain graphics were much improved compared to the previous efforts. More ground vehicles are included. The world war 2 aircraft are not included, neither is the self rolling demo in the title screen. Development of the Series was seized After Aero Elite / Aero Dancing 4. Sources: The games themselves Wikipedia ShinForce Japanese Flight Sim Page powered by TOK2 http://www.aerodancing.jp/ and the waybackmachine archived pages of that site. To be continued...

Unfortunately it is not easy to get (back) into combat sim business. Like this series and many others: the first two games are just too empty and have several flaws. Only after recycling earlier efforts and combined with new efforts and additions that a sim gets really interesting.

Energy Fighters? shouldn't it read Energy Airforce. Both that one and Over G fighters look excellent! But Energy Airforce appeals to me more. As Over G fighters shows a lot of BVR killing and story-centered radio chatter.

It just works as advertised. "A Strike Fighters .cat archive extractor and packer. There used to be skypats extractor for SF1, then this Catpack tool which for a while was the only one able to unpack SF2 archives. It unfortunately cannot extract the new cat format introduced in march 2011. The game publisher offers its own extractor now, which can extract most of the files, although some files remain locked on purpose." Except for the newer encrypted CAT format (2011 and later) there is no compression in CAT files. The version archived here is outdated. V1.22 is on my site: http://members.quicknet.nl/lm.broers/ "CatPack V1.22 Supports extracting a slightly new Cat format (no 3) as introduced between May and July 2011. Yet the compressed format that was also introduced is not supported. As SF2 since that time does not recognize version 1 cat archives, support for creating version 2 and 3 was added. Though without packing subfolders. For now it is recommended to just use format 2."

You cannot check out everything, I missed all these too, until now. And I would not care, if it was not for the Windows version of Aero Dancing i. Although in Japanese it is still worthwhile. The earlier games in the series are lacking a bit. Even this game is still very simple in certain areas. Like there are no wingmen, and maximum three enemies at once. Ground vehicles are usually harmless. Weather and speed effects are actually better then Strike Fighters 2, The image shows an F-2 in a rainy map. The game has a self rolling demo at startup with random aircraft on a random map, which is fun to watch. I tried the game on my eee PC netbook with intel Atom processor and intel graphics, and to my surprise it ran smoothly at 640x480. I will post more later in regard to an unofficial translation package I came across.

Some Screenshots From Aero Dancing i for Windows. Running at 1440x1080 on Windows XP. Images Scaled 50%. Showing: -Main Menu, with windows menu activated on top. The important things are in english but the subtitles are in Japanese. -Loadout screen of the F/A-18C with agressor skin, selecting an Air-to-ground loadout. -F-15 HUD without cockpit, Shooting two SRMs (Short Range Missiles) at a MiG-21. -AV-8B Harrier on LHA Carrier, in the last of the 32 missions. -Su-27 on afterburner in the Replay Theater, you can jump in and play at any part of the replay. -Cockpit of Tornado IDS with CCIP. In 'proffesional' mode pulling 1G is required for releasing bombs. Note that one cannot release weapons or rounds unless somewhat on target and in range.

Main custom 'lite' install: Nov 2011 Reference install: Latest patch, although I would have preffered to go back to before the missile effectiveness cheat: May 2012 IIRC.