Gunrunner

Which version of Windows are you using ? If you are using Vista or 7, make sure you have Strike Fighters set to automatically deactivate Aero when it starts, it may make a noticeable difference. To get an idea of where the bottleneck is, use the ALT-D combination in game until you bring up the FPS count, it will indicate both the CPU and GPU FPS, if the CPU one is noticeably higher, then the GPU's your bottleneck (most likely), if both are close, then you're CPU bound. Also try to play with other factors like Anti Aliasing modes and levels, Anisotropic filters and mipmap levels with your graphic driver instead of letting the game decide, you might get a better compromise between quality and speed. Bear in mind that tweaking settings is a more cost efficient method to improve playability, as by purchasing more hardware you'll want to push the settings higher and end up where you started (albeit with a nicer looking game).

Ok, after testing, the only Shader being problematic with the 5xxx series seems to be envCloudLayer. So, there is a fix available without having to deactivate all the advanced shaders. Step 1. Extract environmentsystem.ini from FlightData.cat (in /program files/thirdwire/strike fighters 2/flight). Step 2. Copy it to /users/saved games/thirdwire/StrikeFighters2 Europe|Vietnam|etc.../flight Step 3. Edit it, replacing EffectShaderName=envCloudLayer.fx with EffectShaderName=twColor1.fx in the [CloudLayerMaterial] entry. Ideally, for each new Catalyst release or SF2 patch you should remove this modified ini to test if the problem's fixed, and if it is not after a SF2 patch, repeat the procedure instead of reusing the same file.

There should also be an environmentsystem.ini fix as this problem doesn't happen with NF4+ and a few other mods changing environment parameters (haven't looked into it yet).

You are indeed courageous to try such an endeavour, cornered as you are by O'Brian/Aubrey on one side and Forester/Hornblower on the other... so far so good

It's the trouble of our "modern" civilisation, seems we can't understand anymore that diseases, decay, pain and death are a natural part of life, that diseases can kill the weakest individuals, that an unusually cold winter or hot summer will reduce life expectancy of the oldest by several month... The whole thing is blown out of proportion by the media, the governments trying to prove to populations they are in control and scientists going on record without giving clues on the real meaning of some words and no precise context. Come on, in France, we had a scientist explaining that yes, we might end up with curfews, interdictions to assemble, the whole nine yards... should enough cases be spotted... Yeah right, almost martial law for what ? A nasty flu ? What would it be for anything nastier ? Burn all infected individuals alive with a flame-thrower ? Gah... people are morons -_-

Well, it makes for a better headline than "Government communication SNAFU, idiots panick, mayor takes opportunity to push his own agenda"

One is a phenomenon observed in recent times, documented, happening regularly, the casualties are the inexorable consequence of a known cause, another is one no-one witnessed in recent times, only a theoretical construction backed up by evidences it probably already happened thousands of years ago, but none it happened more recently, at least not on a scale and at such a high frequency as to be a credible explanation for the supposed mystery (can't be bothered to search for it now, but there is a survey of the region by the USGS and an interview of a USGS geologist on that topic online somewhere), it is a cause in search of a consequence, a solution in search of a problem, for it aims to explain something that bloody doesn't exist (the supposed abnormal number of ship disparition in the region) while not helping at all for the part that "might" be mysterious (the supposed freak magnetic field in the region, strangely enough only affecting planes (you never hear of ships having the same problem; probably the Atlants don't need their magnetic guns for ships, as they already have their methane torpedos for that purpose)). The easiest is to follow the money... If there was an abnormal number of incidents in the region, the insurance, financially hurt by such situations, would make it's utmost to either discover and eradicate the reason, or force its customer to change course if they want to stay insured... The insurance doesn't want to lose money. None of this happened, with Lloyds going all the way to check their records... On the other hand, there is money to be made by keeping the mystery alive, by publishing books claiming there are unsolved mysteries and paranormal or exotic explanations to them, ad revenues to be made by producing clever programs demonstrating the latest "scientific" explanation for an inexistant mystery. In short, more money is to be made by playing on the superstitious and stupid nature of humans than by searching and propagating the truth... It also fills the role of being "a place of adventure and mystery", something sorely lacking in our globalized and already well-surveyed world, we no longer can dream of the faraway coasts of africa with strange beasts, people walking on their heads, people with eyes in the back of their heads, people with only one giant leg... we know it's all malarkey, as TV shows us every day and a plane ticket will prove us... so we have to look elsewhere to find fantasy and adventure in this world, and legends and myths survive and are born because of this need to believe in weird things.

How can there be no offense when the choice of words is so poor ? "One crappier than the other" imply that BOTH objects compared are crappy, but one is significantly more crappy than the other... That's the most insulting way to say what you intented, managing to insult everyone...

Timmy> As a matter of fact I'm "working" on the A 32A version (and hypothetical A(J) 32A field conversion using B pylons wired for Sidewinders). I think the "issue" of the air brakes can be solved through INI only, I just haven't found how yet... And building them at the 1/72 scale must have been quite an experience, that's what I call dedication. :yes: From my point of view of eternal novice in 3D, your model as a A 32A is already very good, one of the things not present is the guns shutters, but there's no way to implement them in any realistic manner because : - You'd have to use up an animation. - They were opened automatically on safety off, an event which doesn't exist for the game (AFAIK). - If using an auto-opening sequence when firing, it will end up either so fast that it's not worth bothering adding the pieces and animating them, or too slow and will hamper use of the guns. I could do with the "missing" pylons though if you ever decide to work on that. You actual model "misses" A type pylons on position 2 and 5 (which should be easy, just clone existing A pylons where B pylons are situated). We could safely ignore the D centerline pylon (as I found not evidence they were ever used except to validate them) and the BF pylon (as the pics I saw show no significant external difference from the B type). We should also ignore the ability to dual mount rockets on A pylons as it should be done using a "rocket pod" to save up on pylon count. Besides, adding any more pylon would push me beyond the 32 pylons limit. For the J 32B there would be a few changes to be made : - Size and position of the gun ports (larger, rounder, higher and closer together). - Removal of the deflectors (even though it is a quick ini edit). - Modification and enlargment of the intakes (the J 32B intakes are slightly rounder, not flush with the cross-section of the fuselage when viewed from front, but it often takes good eyes to notice it, also the system to trap the boundary layer is slightly different, but it's barely noticable). - Changing the engine exhaust, which is longer, of larger diameter and straighter than on the A 32A. - C pylons on position 2 (lacking good pictures of it unfortunately) - S pylons on position 2 and 4 (lacking good pictures of it unfortunately) But in the end, this is your project, your time and your interest ^^ I'm only listing suggestions, but since you're interested in the bird already, you no doubt already had most of this list established. Spillone> Apparently the radar weight is a non-problem, it seems the non-radar equipped Lansen used ballast to compensate for mass repartition, akin to what was done with the early Tornado ADV and its "Blue Circle" "radar". That leaves only the back-seater, around 100kg of weight, so it's no difference at all between version when it comes to mass and weight repartition. Uhuh, we have to disagree (and thus started the first rivet-counter war) ^^ The gun ports on the actual model are in almost the right place, the only thing is the section of the ports, which is rounder than it should be, as the section with plates open was more rectangular. The exhaust seems right to me (in terms of length, diameter), the lid though is a good point. The intakes' boundary layer split are already there if you look closely, it's just they are very thin and hard to distinguish. Finally the D pylon is really not necessary, especially since we'd be out of pylon count to model it anyway.

Any clue on how to get the airbrakes to be deployed by default on the ground ? (as was apparently the case from what I've read and seen) I tried to extrapolate from the lines used to tell the AI which flaps settings to use, to no avail so far.

Only in campaign, by assigning a particular unit to that base.

Well, unless you want to make static displays, this is not necessary anymore, just have the spots where you want static planes to appear coded into the airbase definition and planes will appear there automatically without the need to create a static version. It works way better in campaign mode as the engine will then show at airbases only planes of units stationned there, never more than the surviving number of planes available, with the right skins and numbers.

Thanks Spillone, I'll have to get search inside Bunyap's WP... Thanks also for your modded J32B ini, I was spending far too much time trying to find the right numbers for wheels and lights. -_- I've just finished reorganising the pylons on the A32A... making for a total of 27 (each pylon being in double, because positions of rockets and bombs are not the same, plus the G pylons, plus the belly tank). For the BOZ 3 I was thinking of converting another BOZ pod as the size and shape are more similar. Anyway, thumb up to Timmy and Lexx for letting us play with the Lansen.

Has anyone found a rough estimate of the weight of the PS-431/A radar ? As only one A 32A out of four was equiped with it I'm making two sub-variants, an A 32A flight leader, with radar and navigator, and a "regular" without radar and navigator, but I haven't found an estimate of the radar weight so far (yeah, I know, I'm a rivet counter)... Also, do we have illumination bombs in any of the weapons pack ? I can't seem to find them.

So that's really why he was so nasty !

Spillone> Hehe, I see you're playing with it too ^^ although I'm more into getting it back to the A 32A it really represents. BTW, you should remove the fences under the nose if you're making it a J 32B.

Timmy, while you're around, could you answer a question for me ? I'm trying to make the Rb 04 pylon work properly (it's actually the composite one, with one simple small pylon for the rocket, with another pylon with spars in order to load the Rb 04), I'm trying to have both pylons appearing only when using an anti-ship missile, only the smallest when using rockets, bombs etc... and none when using nothing, but I haven't quite figured out the name of parts and the hierarchy involved yet. Don't bother, I found out, the only real thing still bugging me is that the plane's "floating" 10cm above ground.

Gwar, I'm not saying that the methane trick doesn't work... the science is good... I'm just saying it is highly improbable and completely unnecessary to analyse the Bermuda Triangle situation unless you are determined to attribute some rare quality to the region to explain the supposedly higher rate of incidents. The trouble is that the higher rate itself is a myth (and like all myths it has a kernel of truth, for there are incidents, there are historical reasons for the reputation, there are conditions making part of the zone dangerous to the unaware); so going all the way to find a scientific explanation for a problem that doesn't exist in the first place is only a clever way to cater to the sensationnalists while staying mildly rationnal.

Tsss, the region had a bad reputation for centuries... originally because of piracy in the Carribean and the Sargasso Sea, but in modern times the reputation endured and the masses had to find a more modern cause for a supposed higher rate of incidents... From what I recall the rates of real incidents is in fact lower that than the mean for such high-traffic storm zones... Add the the Sargasso Sea (and the near-windless zone where it resides), the regular storms, the proximity of the Gulf Stream and you explain away the boating incidents which are not complete fiction (ie. records do exist for the boat and the boat actually sunk in the Bermuda Triangle and not on the other end of the globe). Now there's planes... once again, the real incidents are really far fewer than the general public would like to believe and weather, human error and technical incidents explain away most if not all of the serious cases... Even the methane theory is not necessary, it's only a clever way to reconcile the myth and science.

I really love how the community's doing these days... Awesome work guys, I'm eager to get my greedy paws on the final release.

And that, children, is one of the reason why installers are a bad idea... sorry, couldn't resist...

No comment yet, but don't push the "incompetent cops" argument too far kids, it may well backfire and ruin a thread meant to respectfully mourn the dead...

Within your installation directory the path are : ./Effects ./Sounds ./Objects/Decals ./Objects/Aircraft (yes, drop the pilot files at the aircraft directory root) ./Objects/Weapons (you might have to create it and extract WeaponData.ini and WeaponData.dat from ObjectData.cat) and for seats, the path is ./Objects/Aircraft (yes, like the pilots, just drop the seat files at the aircraft directory root)

Nice start so far... Now, for those trying to fly without wing tanks, the changes to solve the "issue" of not getting any thrust (due to a lack of fuel), it's only a temporary fix using bits already present : In your MirageIVA_DATA.ini, 1) In the [Fuselage] section, add the following lines at the end SystemName[017]=FuselageFuelCell01 SystemName[018]=FuselageFuelCell02 2) In the [Nose] section, add SystemName[011]=NoseFuelCell 3) In the [LeftWing] section, add SystemName[013]=LeftWingFuelCell01 SystemName[014]=LeftWingFuelCell02 4) In the [RightWing] section, add SystemName[013]=RightWingFuelCell01 SystemName[014]=RightWingFuelCell02 I'll post the elevon values later on as they are purely cosmetic on a beta plane and won't keep the thing from flying.