stingray77

Yeah, the topic is brought to TKs attention already - let's hope he will be able to iron that out........ And it's not related to ATI - I have the same effects when looking in the mirrors (NVIDIA 8600). Concerning the missing carrier-picture: see my thread with the corrected files for campaigns (the XP refers to .bmp-formatted background pictures, whereas TK changed those files to .jpg's with the Dec 2009 patch. I changed all the .bmp's to .jpg's accordingly) Just download and let the new files overwrite the old ones. Finally eburger68 is working on a fix to set straight some other things in the XP which the Dec 2009 "broke"...

Dec 2009-patch has all the picture-format-data transferred from bmp to jpg. I changed all .bmp-entries in the XP-Gold-Campaign.INIS to .jpg-format. A first test shows this fix works well.... See attached - just let the new ones overwrite the old Campaign-data. new Campaigns.7z

I was missing a .bmp in the Rolling Thunder Campaign. Enclosed the corrected FULL set... (Btw: there a "Copies of..." campaigns Easter Offensive and Steel Tiger in the folders coming with the Expansion Pack. I don't know if those are needed for something. For the sake of completeness I changed the .bmp's to .jpg's in there too...) new Campaigns.zip

Thanks - I'll join you in on there... Maybe that will speed up some solution......

Right, the Gold (4 parts) plus the Tiles Update is v2.0 and the most current one - hey, and the package is just plain COOL!!! The one with the 134MB is the older v1.0, and there is a whole lot contents added from v1.0 to v2.0... Just go for the Gold and enjoy BIG TIME!

Can you please direct my to your post on the TW-forum - I can jump in on that one then, too... Hum, maybe we are the only ones reporting (maybe even noticing ) those bugs. I am quite sure, we're not the only ones running on the Dec2009-patch (although there IS a point in staying with the May2009b-level as was before - especially on older or XP-systems). Before going to the Dec2009 I saved copies of my original game-install, the "virgin" mod-folder and the mod-folder with the XP-Gold, so I CAN revert back to the old state if I want... But on my Vista-system the Dec2009 offers a couple of things (like Aero-compatability) I like a lot, so I'd rather want to get THAT one running properly... Hopefully Eric (eburger68) and TK will be able to supply some help there. AND not to have them do all the work alone I already delivered the "minor" fixes I have been able to change myself (the F-4s animated ailerons and the Campaign-screens that is). Those can/might/should be included in some "XP-Gold-Dec2009-compatibility-pack" hopefully coming up soon (Eric already announced he has something in the making). All the best Oliver

Very welcome - just to pay back you for YOUR efforts!

Was it just temporarily that I saw "square water-tiles" shwowing through the clouds on carrier-approaches (just like the trees) or is this "same kind of bug" as well? Yeah, that would be cool, if TK would/could supply a general fix to that......... Oh, and as said before (or elsewhere) the raising of min clouds doesn't sound like a sustainable "solution"...

Eric, seems to work well.

Ah, I guess, I need to change all the entries for "StartScreen" and "CampaignBaseScreen" in EVERY Campaign.INI from .bmp to .jpg, right? (Was looking for bmp/jpg-data...) Whoa, lots of changes....... I'll check that out - thanks

What file exactly do I need to change? ...Sorry, I'm still quite new to that kind of changes......

I just found out that when starting a campaign, the screen with the carrier floating through the South Cinese Sea (when the greeting scripts are typed) is gone now (Dec 2009) - do you know a remedy for that too, maybe?

Already thought so (I must admit) - but didn't want to miss asking... I didn't want to bother you, though, Eric. So, I'll just wait for your announced "accumuated-decals-fix"..... Thanks again for all your support this year! Oliver

The two Destroyers (E/RB-66C) do come with the A-6-cockpits. Are there "more realistic" B-66-'pits around? Any chance to get some with some other update in the future -maybe.....

Cool - thanks and merry Christmas to you....

Eric, can you go into detail, what your fix is? Did you delete some of those (too many) decals or did you (kind of) summarize them? So, will the new ones look like the ones before? (Great if yes ) Thanks Oliver

As far as I understood from TWs information, I assume (!) that you are just buying the titles in a combo for a good price. (Why should they take the hassle and create another merged installation?) So the installation remains up to your decision... But to make sure, you may ask in the TW-forum just as well...

The Vietnam Pack will have some problems if run on a MERGED install with SF2I! Aside from that, I am fine with SF2V most currently patched and the Expansion Pack v2 Gold... (Only trouble I have seen was trees shining through some low flying clouds sometimes...) My recommendation would be: go for it! But don't make a merged install...

Thanks for your hint, Kevin/Wrench. I will try that out and see the result(s)... And if there's nothing to be done about that - well, I will be able to live with it as is....... Thanks anyway!

...especially and namely eburger68, Sundowner, FalconCAF, Killerbee, Fubar512 (TK if you are around here somewhere)... - sure I have forgotten a ton of you - sorry for that, and please feel greeted and thought about just as well. I do owe you because you helped me (and many of us) so many times, answered my newbie-questions and (last but not least) by supplying your absolute fabulous add-ons (the Expansion Pack to SF2V just kicks ass - it sure is worth being sold as a product itself!) took the fun in playing several notches up! Thanks for all your work, determination and patience with us! I am sorry to hear (can well understand though) that some of you got weary from adjusting your add-ons to patches published or being directed back to certain things that did not work 100% as intended - if it's a matter of our thankfulness not getting well relayed to you (which I can understand) let me emphasize again, that we DO appreciate and honor your tremendous work. You guys are on my mind everytime I start the game... Thanks for that and I hope to "meet" all of you happy and healthy again in 2010! All the best! Oliver

Eric, thanks for the "No_Firing"! Works well... And maybe you can help on this: yesterday I spotted that the F-104C does not have the refueling pipe, when looking from the inside of the cockpit. (Viewed from externally everything is there...) The probe itself is seen, hanging in the air, though (circled)... Sorry, that I did not spot this before you issued the "Gold"..... See screenie:

In the SF2V the F-4's ailerons haven't been animated until TK fixed this with his Dec 2009-patch. After applying the patch and running the Expansion Pack v2 Gold, I see the F-4J's ailerons being animated, but none of the other F-4's. Comparing the stock mod-folder-generated-after-running-the-game-once with the XP-Gold-modded one, I see no DATA.INI's for the F-4's in the original version - so reason seems to be a value/entry overwritten by the XP Gold. I asked in the TW-forum, and here is, what I have been able to find out. First, this is what TK replied: "Well, I think you have modded (or extracted old) F-4 data.INI and/or .LOD file. You need to check the Aileron section and make sure the aileron model node name matches the node name in the LOD. What does your ModelNodeName= under [LeftAileron] and [RightAileron] say? If you're using current stock .LOD (ie, you don't have old .LOD extracted), they should say aileron_left and aileron_right ." Before checking that, I made a comparison between the J's and the other's // Control Surfaces: 1) The F-4J's DATA.INI included sections [LeftAileronDroop] and [RightAileronDroop] not found on the other F-4's. I asked whether adding those entries to the other F-4's would do the trick, but TK wrote: "...no, [LeftAileronDroop] and [RightAileronDroop] should only be in F-4J, as that version has the aileron droop for landing flap setting." So, no-go on that. 2) Instead (and in place) of the [LeftAileronDroop] and [RightAileronDroop] the other F-4_DATA.INI's have [LeftLEFlapInner2] and [RightLEFlapInner2] with only slight differences in the entered values. But the Droops do have "ReverseModelOrientation=TRUE", whereas the Inners don't have any such line. Next I checked and compared the [LeftAileron] and [RightAileron] entries for "ModelNodeName": The J has "ModelNodeName=aileron_left" whereas the other F-4's have "ModelNodeName=drooping_aileron_left" (both for "right" accordingly) entered there..... (Unfortunately I cannot check back if those names - without the "drooping" do match the ones in the .LOD - anybody can? But I think the Gold didn't rework the .LOD's - exception see below.) Well, TK said, those entries should read "aileron_left" and "aileron_right" - so my bold assumption is that changing those values accordingly might fix the problem. I changed those entries but was not yet able to test them yet (will do on the weekend). If you want to try before, I add revised DATA.INI's for all the F-4's (except the working J) included in the Gold - the ONLY change made was replacing the "ModelNodeNames" with "aileron_left" and "aileron_right", the rest remains unchanged. Just drop the new DATA.INI's into their respective aircraft-folders, overwriting the existing ones (and don't forget to save back-ups of the original DATA.INI's before!) A note on the OWL- and RIVET HASTE-F-4's coming into the game with the XP Gold: I didn't check those for working ailerons before and (if they were not animated) I cannot say, if this will work for both aircraft too, (as those may/do have modded .LOD's in the /Aircraft folder), but I noticed the OWL having the same entries like the B-E's (so the change might do the trick) and the RH does already have the same entry as the J - so no change necessary there. Just a disclaimer: there might be some more work necessary for those... I hope my changed DATA.INI's solve the ailerons not being animated...

Okay, here's the (fully tested) summary now... The fix works for the following: - EF-4C - F-4B - F-4B_65 - F-4B_67 - F-4C - F-4C_67 - F-4D - F-4D_67 - F-4D_69 - F-4E - F-4E_72 F-4's OWL, Rivet Haste and the to RF-4B/C do have their own set of .LODs - so the aileron-fix doesn't work there. Enclosed the (final!) zipped original and new DATA.INIs. Just drop the contents of the "new" into your /Aircraft-folder and let the DATA.INIs be overwritten with the new ones. The "original"-folder serves as back-up of the original DATA.INIs. F-4 DATA INIs.zip

...and no joy on the OWL - unfortunately...

Yup, that seems to work great (at least the two aircraft I checked have full ailerons now)... I only forgot same for F-4_67! You can easly do yourself: just delete "drooping_" from the ailerons in the DATA.INI BUT: I checked the Rivet Haste and it does NOT have animated ailerons... Anybody to shed more light on THAT?