Geezer

Also been tinkering with the Caudron R11, and have a question for experts on French WW1 camo. Note the metal fittings in the shot of the M-S Type AI - is the blue-gray paint typical?

Been taking some mood shots for the intro screens.

Below is a shot of Quack74's 1024 size art on a standard FE tile. I dropped some of my buildings onto the tile for scale effect. By increasing the art size to 2048, the increase in pixel density should be enough to sorta/kinda look realistic. Note this increase will only work in FE2 - only second generation games can run dds and jpg format art on ground tiles.

Quack74 has done some very creative work on his WIP Verdun map. He carefully made a city street grid match the building layout. I intend to explore this concept further, as it is the only way to make towns/cities look realistic.

Another consideration is jpg format degrades the depth of color. See below for the three main types of art files - bmp, dds, jpg - and their effect on the image. I can compensate for that to a limited degree by reducing the brightness of the finished art by just a hair.

I continue my experiments with terrain tiles in an effort to make FE2 sorta/kinda resemble the flight sims of the mid-oughts. I've successfully tested 2048 airfield tiles and using jpg files drastically reduces the amount of data to be processed, so I'm hoping it will be possible to use 2048x2048 jpg terrain tiles for the entire map. The latest test 2048 art looks promising even though I need to improve the roads, cobblestone streets, furrows, etc. Click for hi-res images.

When the Caudron R.11 is nearly finished, can I pick your brain about mixed formations? I did not someone had figured it out.

True. But then you could not recognize George Peppard.

Got a good start on the lozenge camo for the wings. Click for hi-res images.

Finished the LODs and pretty much finished the silver-gray fuselage art, but still gotta finish the wings art and make the cockpit. Shots below are of an experiment - the silver fuselage was converted to red to see how it looks. As usual, click on shots for hi-res images.

Fixed it - thanks for catching that.

Fool!

Got George Peppard working this morning. He may need a bit more work. As usual, click shots for hi-res image.

Making good progress on the skins - they are nearly finished. Then, LODs and cockpit. This illustrates why I don't release more aircraft. Making the aircraft model and skins - the fun part - is only 50% of the required effort.

I can see why VonS likes the triplane - there is something really appealing to the classic point defense fighter. No range or load carrying capability to speak of, but it climbs and dives like a bat outta hell. I can adapt a D.VIII to make a DR.I, but the middle wing root will be a fair amount of work. I like to "grow" my wing roots out of the fuselage to simulate the compound curves of a wing fillet. Also shots of a master craftsman making a wood fuselage shell for a D.VIII, and a factory shot of the two shells being mated together.

Not a problem. I'm sure some enterprising modder will make some Blue Max skins to go with the George Peppard pilot. Meanwhile, back at the factory...

Worked on the Pfalz D.IIIa skins and also started the Pfalz D.VIII. The work went quickly because I was able to adapt a lot of stuff from the D.III.

Thanks for your good work!

Tweaked the colors a bit. The skins are now good enough for testing - I'll finish them later, when VonS is done with his file magic.

Yep, damn shame about that but it's pretty typical for WW1 sims. They usually don't make enough money to justify development costs. I like FE2 because I like low-level dogfighting and FE2 is easier to mod than CFS3. I realize the WOFF guys - after many years of dedicated work - have a better looking sim, but they extensively modified CFS3 into something very different from the original Microsoft release. In addition to new aircraft, I keep fooling around with experimental ground tile art to improve FE2 at really low level.

Your G.IV is a really good job - I like it too! When VonS was working on the Pfalz FM, he also had problems with take off and landing roll. He eventually figured out how to achieve realistic take off/landing without compromising other flight characteristics. Possibly, he might be willing to help adjust the FM for you?

Got it working ingame using Stephen1918's Caudron G.IV files. Still a WIP, but it flys! Click shots for hi-res images.

Got the 3D model mapped and put together, but still lots of stuff to do before it can fly.

I read somewhere that the first experiments with 100+ octane fuel were done by the Brits in the 1920s. Their specific focus was wringing the most performance they could from experimental engines for the Schneider Cup competitions, not everyday use by commercial or military customers. Mass produced 100+ octane fuel for everyday use was not developed until the 1930s, and required concurrent improvements in engine technology.

Both gunners' stations could cover portions of the other's field of fire, but code limitations will probably prevent simulating this feature.