gerwin

I keep three installs: SF1 2010 merged and modded, SF2 nov 2011 with mostly same content as that SF1 2010. Both installs are just 1,5GB each IIRC. Then there is the stock SF2NA level merged install, which I do consider unfinished as it is. Even though the campaign experience was excellent. It depends on the announced patch(es) whether SF2NA will be able to replace Nov 2011 or not... I hope so! I am not unhappy with the releases of thirdwire. It was fun when I first got into the series in 2007, and now don't want to go without the features released up until nov 2011. I find most of TK's design and business choices understandable. That does not mean TK did exactly what I want, but neither did other sim developers, and neither did modders. That's fine.

The rounds gives flashes of light after a certain travel time, that is true. video: Here is a fuse for 23mm: http://www.arcus-bg.com/products/fuzes/1_medium_caliber/1_mg25/1main.htm "MG-25 is a mechanical, nose, point-detonating fuze with delayed action. The fuze features self-destruction." It is certainly no proximity fuse.

I did another comparison, side view matches quite well. front cockpit view suggests some differences.

The shape and size of the cockpits seem.... questionable.

According to some posts here, that is how the First Eagles terrain works right? So if the game supports it, it is technically possible. Yet I have not seen any such terrain for SF2. Me, I find the current resolutions just fine, and find the artwork quality of much greater importance: The painting, hiding the square patterns, and especially the color choice. The stock terrains could have looked quite a bit better if only they got the colors right. I do see the problem with shorelines, roads and rivers. They are never exactly where you want them in relation to the heightmap. One can create and add alternate tiles that fit the spot better, but then one needs transitions too, and new TOD's, and new heightmap _hm.bmp's. So it is a lot of work. (That is why I am reluctant to add roads and rivers to IcelandNA.) With enough custom tiles things can look quite nice though. Like the suez canal port in IsrealME. As I like short loading times I stick to small tiles too. Looking forward to the arrival of my solid state disk. Did anyone else notice certain SSD prices decreased about 20% past days :)

Good, In a way it is nice that the classic TFD terrains are still going strong compared to the new terrain-type. I uploaded a new version v0.82. - B key pastes copied tiles as a 3x3 wide area. - Left-Shift+R reloads the targets.ini file. - Height values when fully zoomed in are now drawn op top of airfields instead of below them. - Left-Shift+TAB now cycles backwards through height values when fully zoomed in. There were some more procedures, which I used to create that IcelandNA terrain from scratch. But they were just quick hacks, and I cannot really see how they are gonna help anyone in their current form. So I removed them from the program for now. Note that TFDtool takes command line parameters, you can make a windows shortcut, and paste the path to the TFD file behind it. For example: "D:\TFDtool.exe D:\IcelandNA\ICELANDNA.TFD" Then when you start the shortcut, it will load up the terrain immediately. Well, that is that. I did intend to decrease my time on SF stuff for a little while, IcelandNA took quite a while too.

I found out more the meaning of the Tag value of each tile in the tilemap. At least, I called it the Tag value. The tiles below an airfield should keep tag value=0, otherwise the ground below the airfield will not be flat, somehow... I took me a while to find out what was causing the airfield problem in a modified Dhimar Desert map, but that was it. PS. As some of you probably know they have desert river artwork in the cat, but it is not used it in the map. funny.

The 2008 patch for WOV kinda breaks the Vietnam campaign: after a few missions you will only be targetting the same airfield IIRC.

The maximum value that does not break the F-15 and Harrier 3 cockpit light: NearClipDistance=1.5 (=1.6 breaks the light) And I leave this unchanged now: MinHeight=1.0 So the TOD shimmering is still there, but hopefully to a slightly lesser degree. The shimmering is expected to be worse with the lower TOD buildings. As their roof is closer to the ground tile.

OK, I was already hoping to get your opinion on this one. Argh... I will see what can be done, but I fear it remains a matter of choosing one bug over the other.

Oh, it figures actually. Because the SF2NA executable does not run on XP and therefor never prepares the SF2NA mod folder. The SF2NA mod folder is useless anyway on XP, because you cannot run the SF2NA executable. Instead copy "StrikeFighters2.exe" and name it "StrikeFighters2 NA XP.exe" run it. it will make "StrikeFighters2 NA XP.ini" and a "StrikeFighters2 NA XP" mod folder. edit "StrikeFighters2 NA XP.ini" and change this: [Module] ModuleDataFile=ModuleNorthAtlantic.cat (or something like that, I cannot check the actual cat name here) So the menu will be North Atlantic style.

@vietace1 -SF2NA is officially not compatible with windows XP, as written in red letters in the store page. -SF2NA can only be run on windows XP with a merged game, by starting another game from SF2 the series. -the SF2NA stock terrain will not render properly on Windows XP / DX9. Use the terrain mod to work around that.

Correction..... MinHeight=3.0 gives problems in cockpits when on the runway. This combination of values seems better so far: [ForegroundSceneClip] FarClipDistance=12500.0 NearClipDistance=4.0 [WorldSettings] MinHeight=2.0 Edit: this has another side-effect. when zooming in on an aircraft too much, you start to see through them... not to big a deal.

I updated the package slightly, hardly worth mentioning. Except that in a previous upload (no.9) NOISENORMAL.BMP was missing, so people using that one won't see detail textures close up. -> In that case be sure to update. I Kept the usual water-normalmap because in the other normalmaps the scale of the waves is to big. I added some grass objects (TOD). I changed the Tree rendering entries in the ini-file. they render a little softer. Some small tilemap adjustments.

These entris in FLIGHTENGINE.INI solved it for me: [ForegroundSceneClip] FarClipDistance=14000.0 //SF2: NearClipDistance=0.45 //SF1: NearClipDistance=249.9 //5.0 stops the shimmering of TOD building roofs, but intruduces sky color at the bottom when hugging the ground with the camera //The latter issue is worked around by setting MinHeight=3.0. NearClipDistance=5.0 [WorldSettings] SectorWidth=20 SectorHeight=20 SectorMaxObject=256 Border=80000.0 //SF2: MinHeight=1.0 //SF1: MinHeight=2.0 MinHeight=3.0 MaxHeight=35000.0 Also the TOD visibility was actually reduced in SF2 vs SF1!? so I changed it back. [LowDetailOption] //HorizonDistance=30000.0 HorizonDistance=45000.0 //DetailMeshSize=tod popup distance in km //DetailMeshSize=2 DetailMeshSize=3 ... [MedDetailOption] //HorizonDistance=42000.0 HorizonDistance=50000.0 //DetailMeshSize=2 DetailMeshSize=4 ... [HighDetailOption] //HorizonDistance=50000.0 HorizonDistance=60000.0 //DetailMeshSize=3 DetailMeshSize=5 ... [unlimitedDetailOption] //HorizonDistance=62000.0 HorizonDistance=75000.0 //DetailMeshSize=4 DetailMeshSize=6

a 10MB lod and NO distance lods!? combatace style...

I have this with any terrain in SF2, both stock and modded. DirectX 9. At a certain distance the lower building's roofs get hidden below the terrain tile at random, it seems.

I updated this package: It is now categorized. Also it is easier to play the tracks.

A loadout full of MK82's combined with CCIP does the job nicely. They still bite back though.

I never really used the one from NA, I will try it when I am back home. Is it this file: ICELAND_WATERNORMAL1.BMP? replacing WATERNORMAL.BMP in the data.ini file.

Spend some hours tweaking the tiling and textures. new file is up.

As I am working on that Iceland terrain I load the game with Iceland at Noon or in the Afternoon. As to get good light on the textures. But since April 2012 almost half the missions have sunsets and sunrises despite noon/afternoon. This gives the red glow and requires me to try another mission. Is this because Iceland is so close to the northpole? or what?

My pleasure. :) I added some rock patches in the snow today. new file is up.

I worked in the terrain again. One could notice square texture patterns from higher altitudes. That is a common issue with SF terrains, but I managed to reduce it quite a bit. Download link in the first post.

And that is quite something. In the past I tried modding Jane's USAF: A hard coded limit of 6 cockpits!, any new cockpit had to replace an existing one. I tried to change the wrong amount of gun ammo for the Phantom in an ini file: no respons, it just ignored certain values. The user made F-14 Tomcat wing sweep would only move by pressing the flaps button. I do not miss that one bit In Strike Fighters everything is right there in the ini files, and the game adds new items to the rest automatically. It is not because software works like that, it is because TK facilitated it.