gerwin

No problem, thanks in advance!

Nice, very nice.. But didn't you forget to give a little credit to the templates which you used for this? Being the original IAF third-wire skins recolored by me to the USAF Hill Scheme.

Thanks for that list, I already wondered what exactly the folder contained. Three flogger G's, and also a Flogger K! Wings over Europe was always the most planes for the buck.

They should prove more of a challenge indeed! Also there was a cockpit released for this MiG-23ML some weeks ago, at combatace I mean. from wikipedia:

MiG-21 Looks the same to me... But the MiG-23 does not, that is the tail of a modernised ML/MLD flogger 'G'! Which I requested on the TW forums. Now with a silver skin too. Wasn't it the other way around: like modernised MiG-23's usually with camo, and older ones usually silver? No problem though :) Also I like the new French Mirage Skin, the F-84F and of course the aircraft wreckages. Finally some worthwhile additions in the new series.

Good to read about your opinion on graphics versus other features. And indeed, I might not fully agree on the graphics emphasis of SF2, but it is still Strike Fighters and as TK works on it over time he will surely put in great new features in a solid way. Probably. There is an unofficial direct-X 10 for XP , maybe I will install that when I am bored. My processor is also 2GHz, the AMD ratings of the time like '3000+' differed from the actual megaherz. "wasted your money".. you mean on the current and feature SF2 games? Well, I put much more time in the games then money anyways ;) .. But as it stands I will probably not buy the other games of the SF2 series until they cover the same Aircraft/Terrains as the original. At that time I will decide. About PC hardware, solid state disks are what I am interested in, if only to just try one out for the heck of it. Also DDR3 RAM sounds nice. Loading times will be very fast with that. The 2008 games also have a 'Limitednationlist' tag for this. But I suspect it doesn't work 100% correct. Also I use my own iniswitch tool to quickly change installed aircraft and groundobjects and their default nation+skin. works well. : )

I think it differs from system to system. This is what I measured: With Windows 2K, AMD Sempron 3000+, 1GB+ RAM, and Geforce 6/7's: WOX 2006 a factor 1.35x more FPS then WOX 2008 and seemingly 1.64x more FPS then SF2. I know the advanced shader ini setting, but I haven't tried that one because I understood it was something Vista or Windows 7 specific? I know my system has sure lost its edge in gaming, but I am waiting it out a little until some hardware that I like gets affordable.

Sometimes not, but it doesn't matter, I am happy with my single Wings over everything install. Maybe In the future I will build a fancy system with Solid State Disks and low power but high performance CPU's and GPU's, and buy all the SF2 games for that one. :)

Not really, TK mentioned some days ago that the Suez addon is for the original WOI. He also wrote that it 'should' work without an additional WOI patch. I think the SFP1 and SF2 series are two different code-sources now, and TK won't have the means to work on them both, I guess. Personally I am not to happy with the new direction of SF2: higher poly aircraft and cockpits, higher res skins. more plane 'variants', and obvious incompatibility with the original games (LOD format). I mean, my systems have a hard enough time with the original patched games, and I think the original aircraft detail was fine. I would have rather seen the original series get expanded with proper helicopters, mission building features, terrain detail and interaction, stuff like that. Fortunately Suez should still work, and SF2 still retains most of the SFP1 series anyways.

You surely could just use it freely, but adding me in is nice, thanks :)

The new A-10 FM... I noticed it is merely the tweak I posted in the Third Wire forum. Funny to see it used in the DS patch. :) Anyways: Interesting screenshots!

You should indeed modify the GunsightFront entry. Maybe you haven't added a suitable gunsight .tga image to the cockpit folder? This worked for the MiG-21PFM, MiG-21PFM_Cockpit.INI: Directory=Cockpit HUDMode=CAGED,AA RippleQuantity=1,2,4 RippleInterval=50,100,200 [GunsightFront] ;HasGunsight=FALSE HasGunsight=TRUE GunsightMilSize=22 GunsightName=Sight.tga LeadComputing=FALSE MinLeadRange=100 MaxLeadRange=1000 DefaultLeadRange=300 MaxDepression=0

Thanks ordway, Concerning the external models, I found that the M/MF and ML do have some small differences, like the tail root (source; squadron signal publications); Link to image

Nice one, thank you all! Two questions; -The mirage factory MiG-23ML data ini seems to be from 2005, are there any updates to this datafile since then? -Can I use a thirdwire graphical model to properly represent the MiG-23ML airframe. like the 'Big-nose-cone' MiG-23M and MF models? Or to rephrase; are there externally visible differences between the MiG-23ML, M and MF? Thanks in advance

CatPack can; 1-Extract a version 1 Cat archive, for SFP1,WOV,WOE,WOI 2-Extract a version 2 Cat archive, for SF2 3-Create a version 1 Cat archive, for SFP1,WOV,WOE,WOI What you intend to do is to 'Create a version 2 cat archive', but that feature is not available in CatPack.

331Killerbee is right, but allow me to summerize; CatPack V1.1 (<- link) There is a text file in the zip archive. It is a native windows console application, it looks like Dos, but it ain't Dos. You can do three things with it: 1) Drag and drop a version 1 cat file on the programs' icon to extract its contents to a subfolder. 2) Drag and drop a version 2 cat file on the programs' icon to extract its contents to a subfolder. 3) Double click on the programs' icon to run it, it will then pack all files in its current folder to a custom version 1 cat file. For extraction (1 and 2) you only have to place the catpack icon somewhere in your view, such as on your desktop, so you can drag and drop the cat file on it. For packing/archiving (3) you have to temporarely place the catpack program inside the folder together with the files you want to pack, then run it. When an error is encountered it will be clearly displayed in red letters explaining what is wrong. (PS. I now finally bought SF2 myself, and sometimes noticed a small issue when unpacking version 2 archives. CatPack had a problem creating a subfolder for the extracted files when it contained subfolder info. Whenever this occurs you are advised to copy the cat file to the root of your disk and extract it from there. (until I fix this in V1.11...)) Edit: Jug, reading your post I suspect you are using an older version of the program, without version 2 cat file support.

I found this LimitedNationList tag in the official terrain files. I cannot find any info about it on this site. For now I suspect it restricts the aircraft nationalities in random single missions. Yet last time I tested it I had problems getting certain soviet aircraft to appear in WOI random single missions, unless I set these aircraft as exported=true. So I am still guessing... DESERT_NATIONS.INI [Theater] TheaterName=Somewhere in Middle East Location001=Kingdom of Dhimar Location002=Empire of Paran [Nation001] NationID=256 Name=Dhimar DisplayName=Dhimari Air Force Alignment=FRIENDLY PilotNameList=NamesArabic.lst RankList=RanksRAF.lst CallsignList=CallsignsUS.lst Formation.Fighter=USFighter Formation.Attack=USFighter Formation.Bomber=USBomber Formation.Transport=USBomber Formation.Tank=USTank Formation.MobileAD=USAD PilotTrainingStandard=POOR GenderRatio=0 [Nation002] NationID=257 Name=Paran DisplayName=Parani Air Force Alignment=ENEMY PilotNameList=NamesArabic.lst RankList=RanksRAF.lst CallsignList=CallsignsUS.lst Formation.Fighter=SovietFighter Formation.Attack=SovietFighter Formation.Bomber=SovietBomber Formation.Transport=SovietBomber Formation.Tank=SovietTank Formation.MobileAD=SovietAD PilotTrainingStandard=POOR GenderRatio=0 ------------------------------------- VIETNAMSEA_NATIONS.INI [Theater] TheaterName=Southeast Asia Location001=South Vietnam Location001.Nation=South Vietnam Location002=Thailand Location003=North Vietnam Location004=Cambodia Location005=Laos Location006=China Location007=Burma Location008=Hainan Island Location009=Gulf of Tonkin Location010=South China Sea [LimitedNationList] FriendlyNation001=USAF FriendlyNation002=USN FriendlyNation003=USMC FriendlyNation004=SVietnam EnemyNation001=NVietnam ------------------------------------- GERMANYCE_NATIONS.INI [Theater] TheaterName=Central Europe Location001=West Germany Location002=East Germany Location003=Poland Location004=Czechoslovakia Location005=Austria Location006=East Berlin Location007=Netherlands Location008=France Location009=Belgium Location010=Denmark Location011=Luxembourg Location012=West Berlin ------------------------------------- ISRAELME_NATIONS.INI [Theater] TheaterName=Middle East Location001=Israel Location002=Egypt Location003=Syria Location004=Jordan Location005=Lebanon Location006=Saudi Arabia Location007=Iraq Location008=Sinai Location009=West Bank Location010=Gaza Strip Location011=Golan Heights [LimitedNationList] FriendlyNation001=ISRAEL // added by me: FriendlyNation002=USN EnemyNation001=Egypt EnemyNation002=Syria EnemyNation003=Iraq // added by me: EnemyNation004=SOVIET

The Mirage factory MiG-29 and Marcfighters Su-27 have several 'lower detail LODs' included. So the game renders a simpler (thus faster) aircraft 3D model when it is at a distance. I am flying these two types alot past week and have no framerate issues. But that is without 'shadows'. PS. For fun I put a patched WOI on my retro Pentium-III-S 1.0GHz yesterday, It runs reasonably at 20..40 fps, at mostly-low settings 800x600x32 2xAA. :)

AFAIK Unicode is no programming language at all. It is a data format for text that allows more special characters then ASCII. It uses two bytes for every character in text files, instead of one byte.

This Release is amazing. The high quality is obvious, the stock skins look great. It improves the balance of the game by giving the soviet-side more modern Aircraft, from the era that I am familiar with. The lower detail Aircraft LOD's are included so my framerate won't suffer. I found the package to be a bit too big, so I only keep the variants I prefer. But surely these will never leave my 'Wings over' install. Thanks!

File Name: Texture for Spruance Class Destroyer File Submitter: gerwin File Submitted: 09 March 2008 File Category: Destroyers Texture replacement for the Spruance Class Destroyer Model By Gerwin 8-3-2008 DESCRIPTION: In the strike fighter games the Aircraft Carrier often goes without escort. Fortunately there is a free Spruance class destroyer model available that can be used in the game. The 3d model looks and interacts very nice, yet the texture is IMHO not the same quality as the stock carrier for example. I have spend quite a few hours painting over various parts of the texture, based on photographs of the actual ships. The resulting texture is included in this package. The number on the hull (963) refers to the first ship of the class: the USS Spruance. INSTALLATION: Copy the included file (Spruance_t.bmp) to a folder that contains the spruance object files, for example: WOE\Objects\GroundObject\Spruance\ (You may want to backup/rename the original texture first.) THANKS TO: Third Wire for the Strike Fighters Based Games capun for 3D Model conversion & Data ini of the Spruance Click here to download this file

For extracting archives it does not matter where you put the program file, as long as the icon is visible so you can drag 'n drop a cat file on it. For creating new cat archives you must (temporarely) place the program file inside a folder that contains the files you want to include in the new cat archive. good luck,

I don't feel like programming it from scratch, and the coding library I use has no good big-list functions. If you want a Graphical user interface It would be a good idea to team up with Dragon Unpacker or something similar, and see if a cat-plugin can be made.

The New CatPack Extractor/Packer is available for download as of now. So you can look under the hood of SF2! The new cat format gave me a few suprises so that's what delayed the release. Thanks go to Kreelin and Paolo for testing and reporting back on the program the past days. http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=35250

As requested by Kreelin, I have updated my CatPack tool to unpack the new cat format from Strike Fighters 2, I will upload it tomorrow.