Geezer

More shots...

Progress shot of BoB camo, plus first stab at hi-res ground tiles.

My hitch in the USAF was spent maintaining B-52 tail gun systems. All B-52s through (and including) the G-model were equipped with MD-9/ASG-15 fire control systems, armed with four .50 machine guns. Only the H-model was equipped with the ASG-21 fire control system, armed with a 20mm Vulcan rotary cannon. Early radar-directed gunnery systems had difficulty getting enough 20mm cannon hits to destroy a target quickly. A .50 machine gun had a higher rate of fire than a 20mm cannon, so closely concentrating four of them in a turret created a kind of flying shotgun that would get more hits than a slower firing 20mm cannon. Eventually two things happened to change this: - Airborne radar gradually improved to where it could precisely, and continuously, track and hit a target - The Vulcan Gatling gun had a higher rate of fire than conventional 20mm canons or .50 machine guns The two combined to guarantee enough hits in a short engagement time. At about the same time, improvements in air-to-air missiles extended their effective range beyond a 20mm cannon's range, so the cannons were eventually removed to save weight. The flying shotgun:

File Name: Halberstadt D5 File Submitter: Geezer File Submitted: 07 June 2015 File Category: Other Central Powers Aircraft This aircraft is an all-new model, with hi-res skins. The D5 was basically a cleaned up D3. The upper wing structure was revised with a simpler strut system that improved pilot visibility, and the exhaust system was simplified. The D5 had provision for two Spandau machine guns, but usually just one was installed on the left side (to save weight). The D5's structure was very strong for its day, but the 120 hp engine was not powerful enough to match the performance of Albatross fighters so only fifty-seven D5s were built. A separate graphics pack will be posted soon, containing textures and templates. To install, unzip the contents to a new folder. For FE/FEG: I don't have them so I don't know how to install these files. If you run FE/FEG and have trouble loading these files, post a question in the First Eagles section here at Combat Ace - someone should help you. For FE2: Copies of three ini files - ENVIRONMENTSYSTEM, SOUNDLIST, VIEWLIST - go in your FLIGHT folder. A copy of the HalberstadtD5 folder goes in your OBJECTS/AIRCRAFT folder. A copy of the Pilots folder goes in your OBJECTS folder. A copy of the SOUNDS folder goes in your First Eagles 2 folder (alongside FLIGHT, OBJECTS, etc) There is a long list of guys who helped me produce this aircraft, or posted stuff that I used to complete the package: - Stephen1918 - Ojcar - gambit168 - Sully - Southside Bucky - Nixou - Viper63a I've probably forgotten someone - if so, my apologies. Enjoy! Click here to download this file

File Name: WW1 Airfield Figures File Submitter: Geezer File Submitted: 23 April 2014 File Category: First Eagles Object Mods This pack contains all new WW1 airfield figures. Click here to download this file

Stephen1918: your samples above look really promising. You're going in a good direction! I was wondering how many different kinds of smoke columns there are. Most photos generally show smoke going up much higher before dissipating. Are there some already existing smoke effects that rise up much higher, or are new smoke effects needed?

While finishing the Italian and British desert pilots, I had a little fun with bits and pieces cobbled together into a mash up. Shots below show new Brit desert pilot in Hinchenbrook's old Gauntlet over Gterl's WW1 Italian front map! Last shot shows new Gauntlet model being made for the 1940 desert mod.

The terrain is gterl's excellent WW1 Italian front map for FE/FE2. Click link below and DL "Italian terrain." http://combatace.com/files/category/363-first-eagles-wwi-and-early-years-terrain-and-environmental-mods/

Yes, I finished it in a hurry. I was tired of looking at it. I still am, so don't expect an update anytime soon.

Quick shots of the same art but running in Galicia. Much better. Finally getting decent pixel density. Shots of city/buildings show the 4096 airfield tile, all others are 2048 tiles.

Thanks. I'm gonna start all over again. When TK was making FE, he developed the smaller terrain tiles to improve the appearance of TW maps at low altitude. I'll fool around with existing FE maps that use 500 meter tiles to exploit that potential.

Yikes! That invalidates my testing, because I assumed the "normal" 500 meter FE terrain tiles. Is your Galicia map 500 meters, or something larger? Thanks. I'm still fooling around and don't really know what I'm doing - yet. I'm going to alternate between aircraft and maps for a while. I should figure out maps eventually. I hope.

Done enough testing to draw some preliminary conclusions. Looks like really hi-res tile art for airfields just aren't worth the effort - unfortunately. Previous airfield shots are of 4096 tile art, and the details still aren't large enough to look realistic. If the colors are well-chosen, a few simple colors will work OK. Maybe a TOD with a few small rocks and some thorn bushes will be a good way to add the missing detail? It also looks like there should be several micro-systems of terrain features. Beaches, cliffs, dry washes, rock fields, etc often extend for miles/kilometers so a collection of roughly half-a-dozen tiles will be needed to realistically simulate each terrain feature. Also, a number of intermediate tiles will be needed to smoothly link the terrain features together into something that looks realistic from the air.