gerwin

Reading all that.. my country must be a little behind in what the computer shops offer.. So I rented Chuck Norris at the video store, I hope it works.

I compared the weapondata.ini from WOI with the one from WOE. And the WOE ini contains all the entries of WOI and a few more. So no need to merge ini's just take the WOE file. Here is the utility I made to add/remove the stock planesets to a merged install, HOWEVER: I posted it without the required ini-datafiles, so if you want to use it you have to add them yourself. Hmm, actually I think the ini-switch tool also functions quite a bit without the data-ini-files, adding these files will give it the functionality to change the nationality of the aircraft. INIswitch.zip

I have some odd FPS drops on an nvidia 6200 256MB (somewhat of a low end card) F-15A external view, looking from the top, with only plain ground below 1024x768,32bpp,2xfsaa -medium graphics options but shadows low (off) - 44 FPS (that is good) -medium graphics options but shadows med (on) - 12 FPS (unacceptable) -medium graphics options but shadows med (on) - 17 FPS (using old shadow lod) -low graphics options but shadows med (on) - 17 FPS (what!) On the other similar PC, but with an nvidia 7600GS 256MB (a newer low/mid end card) things behaved not so extreme, but still: -medium graphics options but shadows low (off) - 67 FPS -medium graphics options but shadows med (on) - 38 FPS -low graphics options but shadows med (on) - 49 FPS ...I am so stubborn on this since even the ancient fighters anthology engine had shadows, and now after half a dozen of TNT/Geforce generations I'd better turn shadows off....

Some suggestions on this 1) it is better to make the final overwrite of the files from the objectdata.cats from WOE (not WOI) as WOE has more weapondata entries then WOI. 2) You can optionally pack everyting in the objects\decals folder to objectdata01.cat. But you have to use the WOI.exe to start the game, only then it reads the decals from that file. 3) The only downside compared to running the games separate is the fact that the random single mission generator gives you adversaries that not really fit the environment. (UK harriers and Egyptian Desert camo MiG's in Vietnam for example). It depends on what ini files you packed in the cat file (WOE/WOV/WOI) (I have solved this by a small utility I made that lets you easily add/remove planesets, but I am afraid it comes with ini files (xxx_data.ini) that are game content, and not free to share.. or are they?)

Good to hear your succes on building a merged install. I also could not resist and worked on a merged install myself. It seems it is reasonably easy: all is done and working here after just one evening of swapping files. It certainly illustrates just what a flexible game engine TK has created. the actual game engine files (.dll) seem identical in all three games. Indeed the CatPack program is quite indispensable for this matter (it was made it just in time). You can also pack all decals (5000+ files) in ObjectData01.cat, but you have to use the WOI executable for the game to use that cat file. Finally a high quality 'Jane's Fighters-Anthology' successor! I made the merged install as compact as it could possibly be; attached the installation folder index. MERGED.TXT

Same for me, First I did not touch WOI because it was incompatible with all my addon stuff. But since the august patch I give it another try and now it is the other way around, the opponents behave much more interesting, and that seems to count for more then being able to fly just that particular aricraft in WOE... I suppose that is a good thing.

I assume you mean the hill grey one on this page. ACIG - GD/L-M F-16A/B Netz in Israeli Service Seems like a good subject. I saw the tail art is already in the game as a decal. ...I can't seem to find the attach image button no more?

Thank you crusader, that slipped through quality control, I fixed and uploaded it a minute ago. @spinners: Sure, I will post the template in the days ahead.

The skin is now finished; Redone textures and added tail markings. Enjoy. When desired I could also upload my modified F-16 templates, to make it easier for other people to make skins for this aircraft model.

Yes I had that idea too, such an all-inclusive merged install is what I eventually hope to have on my Disk, (I am only waiting for the older games to get WOI flight-models with the expected patches) Good to hear it works, thanks for the feedback. Attached is a new version of CatPack. (You can delete the old one) Features: -Unpacking of cat archives (by dropping a cat file on the icon). -Much more error checking. -No seperate dll required. PS. you can press ctrl+break to interrupt+quit the program. CatPack.zip

Already looked up the Dassault Mysteres (IV) but they do not match the picture, I can only make it an F-84.

Okay, it took me a long evening, but look what I attached already! It is a little Cat Archiver program. It does not have much of a user interface, neither does it work with parameters, since these are hard to use in windows for most people. Instead it archives all files in the folder that it is started from, and always outputs to catpack.cat. But I figure that should enable modders to make any desired cat files reasonably easy. I am a bit unpatient to post it, it could use some more testing and finetuning, so please check what you create with it. So far I tested it with the files of menutext.cat and it produced a 100% exactly the same cat file. It also managed to repack all files from SFP1 objectdata.cat (quite fast) and it gave a functionally indentical file, except that the file order in my Cat file was sorted A-Z. So now I am curious too in what way this tool can be of use. (As I suggested before I suspect WOI by default will read from objectdata02.cat objectdata03.cat objectdata04.cat etc. when available) I am afraid I currently don't see any easy way to produce an enhanced file extractor. the coding libraries I work with have either poor or verry complicated handling of big file lists... they are not much use for making a selection of files to extract. PS1. the unidentified value of 2 in my first post refers to the number of file-extensions, which are listed right after the filename index. PS2. cat files do not contain any folder information by design. PS3. About CatPack: Freeware Beta version, use at your own risk. CatPack_Beta.zip

could also be the amount of cycles concerning game logic (not graphics), where it calculates things as movement and interaction of objects etc. just guessing

I personally did not think about writing things back to an existing cat file.. I was thinking since WOI has objectdata.cat and objectdata01.cat IIRC, maybe it will also read objectdataXX.cat with XX being any number. So you might put a specific aircraft LOD's and textures in objectdata02.cat or something? Admitted, also because cat files remain uncompressed, the usage of a packer is debatable...

I was looking at the cat file format, and with the aid of skypats extractor, it really is as simple as can be. 99% of the format is illustrated in the attached image. only the '2' (cyan underlined) value I have not yet traced, cat version maybe? It should not be to diffucult to make a combined extractor/packer for this. though I am not too familiar with writing winapi (the usual windows dialog programs).

I was considering painting some alternate tails for the WOI F-16A, but I just found that the game already contains a few nice ones. Especially the Flying Dragons look slick. Here are some pics.

View File Generic Hill Scheme F-16A (Netz) Skin for TW model Generic Hill Scheme F-16A (Netz) Skin for TW model version 1.0 by Gerwin 15..22-9-2008 DESCRIPTION: The F-16A Netz in Wings over Israel looks and flies great, but by default lacks an USAF Hill scheme in which most of the worlds F-16's are seen. This package contains such a Hill grey scheme and matching USAF markings. This is basically a cleverly recolored version of the original IDF camo skin. INSTALLATION: Copy the included folder with contents to the folder that contains the F-16A Netz files, for example: WOI\Objects\Aircraft\F-16A_Netz When in the game select the skin in the loadout screen. THANKS TO: Third Wire for the Strike Fighters Based Games Column5.us for their F-16A skin (colors reference) and tail code decals Submitter gerwin Submitted 09/15/2008 Category F-16 Fighting Falcon Skins

As far as I can see that is not the case with most of the stock aircraft, as the file names are the code only (like F-15A) Whilst the aircraft display name usually has additional characters (like F-15A Eagle). But thanks for the tip. I will try it out.

Just made a copy of the original F-15A folder and named it F-15C, changed the ini filenames to F-15C and edited F-15C.ini to point to the renamed files. That's all I did and then one gets a flyable aircraft which again messes op the aircraft list as described earlier.

Actually I did... Stock Wgerman and British F-4 phantoms behave fine, Non-Stock USAF F-16A and Wgerman F-104 do not. So the nationname does not seem to cause it.

Maybe.. So I removed all non-stock aircraft from the WOE installation, and then the aircraft selection list behaves properly :) . Unfortunately as soon as I add even one custom aircraft to the installation (A-7 or F-104 or F-16a or MiG-21) the list begins to mix up the selection. Like i select an F-100 but get the F-104, or the other way around.

I started fiddling with the thirdwire games again, and now I tried to add a playable mercenary unit to a WOE campaign. Now I don't own SFP1, so I just tried to find some ini settings on the internet and also I peeked in the existing ini files. I got it working 90% pretty easily. I did notice the game lacked an invoice background so I made one myself. Now I can choose a Merc. unit, buy weapons and aircraft, and earn money with missions. The only problem is the aircraft list in the loadout screen: the entries listed in the listbox do not trigger the proper aircraft. Example: I select an A-4 in the list, but everything else shows I selected an F-100. Any ideas on how to fix this, Maybe I am missing some mercenery related ini-file? I attached my current WOE-mercenery mod to this post. woe_mercs.zip

sure, except that is exactly what I wrote, so where did I write something not true? beats me.

The linked article showed the reviewer having to reinstall after using the weapons pack, I didn't know there was a workaround yet as you showed. anyway it sucks to read your quoted remark, can you be more subtile..