gerwin

So I am trying to improve the Persian Gulf terrain. Handing over things properly from Claude AI chat to the next chat. But now Claude seems to have no clue on how to principially texture tiles for the tiling method it suggested itself. I have to explain the exact workflow to Claude up to the freaking pixel level. Pulling my hair out sometimes. But I am getting there. And I suppose it is still faster then doing it manually, but in some cases I even doubt that. Should have a new version up later today. But I think I will start a new topic concerning my terrain mods in general, instead of posting updates in the topic.

You can fly it now. Alpha Release is available. I prepared targets and routes and such, so there should be plenty to shoot at. As usual, the package is uploaded to my own website https://www.gb-homepage.nl/

TFDtool v1.30 is available for download New in this version: - .ini file loading is much faster. - .ini files in Unicode encoding can be read (but will internally convert to ANSI). - Texture loading and downsampling is now multi-threaded and can potentially be much faster. - The emboss effect on certain exports, such as planning maps, has been rewritten. It no longer slightly darkens certain flat surfaces. The strength of the emboss effect can be user-configured. - The water bitmap export was made more compatible with game expectations. - Textures in .DDS format can be read (experimental). https://www.gb-homepage.nl/

Terrain Tile Building Block Methods.pdf Here is a pdf summary of the different terrain tile methods. Advantages / disadvantages / considerations.

The in-game screenshot with F-15A I already made earlier shows mostly gravel, with some sand area on the right. In the foreground of the earlier MiG-29 screenshot is Sabkha = salt-flat. Also used for coast. These particular tiles have "novalogic-style" transitions and cannot be used directly as replacement for the 25%/50%/70% transition tiles in stock strike fighters terrain. But tile textures are one thing, I tried to make it so that the terrain has lots of transitions from one texture-type to the other. As you can see in the planning map as well.

Screenshots, TW F-14A over Iraq / MiG-29 over different shades of sand, gravel and salt.

My other project with AI Assistance. Shaping up nicely now. When the roads placement is done (halfway there), then the tilemap is done as far as AI assistance is concerned. I will tile the rest manually. Then I have quite a bit of manual texture work to do, though it looks fine already, in game. The terrain is 66% of real size. currently at 245 tile textures (256x256px). Besides the planning map, the second image is some internal-usage data image. Edit: updated planningmap, with actual texture colors and more airfields.

Let me know what comes out of that. If need be I will consider keeping things to myself. I don't have THAT much time invested in making 3D models from scratch, so not too much at stake for me personally. For some other modders here it is a different matter.

That is what I am thinking of doing. I will also make two variants. One that reads unobfuscated LOD v0, v1 and v5. Another version reads all versions. The simpler variant will be able to open 95% of the user made aircraft, except some LOD v2 variants made with the feb 2010 3DSmax exporter. Yesterday I had to work on the animation importing again. LOD format stores animations fragmented, as in every frame has the position/rotation key stored, even if there was originally only a starting point-key and end-point key. I am trying the options to reduce superfluous animation keys. Other then that I did everything possible to retain the data stored in the LOD. There are no "unknowns" left in the LOD handling. I also added a bonus script to change textures from bmp to jpg or dds, or the other way around. The importer is aimed at 3DSmax 2009 32-bit. I tested it briefly in 3DSmax 8 (2005) but the importer runs out of memory there. At this point I could make it a 3DSmax-version agnostic exporter too, but I haven;t thought about it much, because I am content with 3DSmax 2009. I am not at home in Blender either. Exactly. Repair and improve. As well as making aircraft variants, or adding distance-lods for framerate unfriendly models.

They are intact. In the screenshot, I moved the animation slider all the way to the right to extend the landing gear, exhaust nozzles, and so on. After re-exporting, everything works in the game just as it did with the original LOD file. Note that the smoothing groups and welded/unwelded vertices are also intact.

Proof of the second part of my message: TW F-14A '77 No manual adjustments needed.

I have been giving old shelved projects a try with some AI assistance. Most of it for another game series. ChatGPT seems good at the start, until it isn't good anymore, and just keeps wasting your time, it is like it is pulling your leg. Claude Sonnet/Opus is good. Miles better. But you have to keep token usage in check. I don't see how with a pro account you could give it all SF2 dll files and spit out a useful project within the token limit, not at all. Too much to parse. It will ask for decompiled C anyways. And claude may refuse because of copyright. Maybe one dll project at a time would be a feasible project. Then when one dll is replicated in source, it may not be able to do what was hoped because another dll is at its limits (no room or interface for expansion). I got my old 3DSmax workflow up to e new level yesterday. Basically it can get any LOD into 3DSmax with all features "restored" in 10 seconds. Like I can export it back to LOD again and it will be functionally the same. Or in other words, it is like the max source file for everything is there. Probably not what some people would like, and I understand that. But that is how it goes with these things, it is always a thin line. I am undecided on what to do with it. My other "Combat Mission" project: I could not release before, but now, since these games are in unprotected form at GOG.com, will never be patched again and the devs were bought out by Slitherine, I no longer had the objections I had before.

Good to hear that SF2 works on Linux with this terrain. I never had much luck getting Strike Fighters 2 to run on Linux through Wine. My system is at Wine v10 level and uses the AMD GPU driver. I have a Windows multiboot to run SF2 and such.

Congrats on the release! Bought it yesterday. The game is new me, so I haven't gotten far, yet. Yes I would also much prefer a GOG version. I have wrapped the Steam_Api.dll so it is practically a GOG version now, as it runs without the Steam Client. It runs in Windows XP 32-bit even. The Demo mode is neat. I noticed there are 4 Demo templates, but things play out a little different every time. Good to see it is still has all the original (low poly) assets, not some mixup with mods in a different style.

I assisted Wrench with this terrain at the time. Used Xplanet software to convert rectangular DEM format to a Spherical image. October 20, 2013: "Here is Norway and the North sea in gnomonic projection. As a TFD file. Silimal to Germany CE in scale, and 1500x1500km. A Part of Iceland is still visible on the top left."

I updated the terrain slightly. Upload no. 15. - Two additional red airfields in the north. Two blue off-map airfields in Japan (which the mission generator does not really use...) - Completed the tod objects for the cities in the forest surroundings.

Not quite. This is a 1999 engine, AFAIK running as it always was. https://www.mobygames.com/game/1126/star-wars-x-wing-alliance/

So basically you asked for an update and now you have (found) it. ;) Do you mean airbases or just general bases? I suppose any added target-area can be a target, so I am then forced to make it a challenging and complete target-area, with AAA+SAM defences and such.

I am in the Netherlands. Actually it is currently quite hot here as well, in the afternoon especially. It reads 26.5 degrees Celsius in the shade. There is no air conditioning in my house...

Just happened to read this. You are talking about TFDtool data.ini exporting? And TAE is somehow case sensitive here? TFDtool used to write uppercase N: "FileName=something". I just changed this to "Filename=something" with lowercase n. In version 1.20 that is (no other changes since may 2025). Edit: need to change the syntax in the terrain mods on my website as well.

Glad you like it. Last version is upload 14 from 27-03-2025 (readme used to say 27-02-2025, but that is a typo) I will propably add some more TOD objects for cities and rivers, plus more Target-Areas like bridges. But it is summer now, with nice weather, so less time for computer hobbies...

Sorry I don't have any other GOG files for EAW. It seems GOG currently only offers v1.20 for download. See screenshots.

I have it here setup_european_air_war_1.20_(45828).exe eaw.exe = 1.431.040 bytes / CRC32: C757AE47