VonBeerhofen

It's come to my attention that the parachutist's 3D model was inadvertently removed from it's 3D.FXE archive, hence I've uploaded the model to my FTP site so it can be easily extracted into your EAWPRO folder (where the EAW.EXE resides) to fix the problem. The file is available here: https://rabartel.home.xs4all.nl/Parachutist.zip Sorry for any inconveniences, VonBeerhofen

A small example of the differences between the stock effects and the ones used in EAWPRO. This drawing shows the stock effects in the left picture and one of EAWPRO's effects in the right one. As you can see there are 9 different animations in the stock drawing, the bright colored squares are used for the tracers, one square for each calibre, and only 4 frames are available for fires. All other animations use 8 frames. EAWPRO uses an entire texture for it's 16 frames per effect and besides the longer and hires animations another advantage is that the drawing's color palette is individual to each effect drawing and is therefore much more realistic, whereas the 8 stock effects have to share those colors in a single texture. EAWPRO also uses 8 calibre colors with the option to use 16, as apposed to just 4, I just can't think of any weapons to use the remaining 8 colors. Furthermore EAWPRO uses 16+ of such Hires effects drawings but each effect can also borrow frames from the other effects drawings, which with certain animations allows a selection out of 16 x 16 = 256 frames. I hope you understand that this approach allows all effects to be swapped freely with another by simply renaming the texture file or .SPT filename. The same goes for their TRA (transparency) counterparts. I hope this explains why swapping Sprite Tables or changing them isn't as usefull as one thinks, after all each animation is linked to some action in the game and the routines for these had to be completely rewritten in order to make this work and it's not just a swap in the Sprite Table, that won't work at all since the used animations are defined in their own specific routines which control their actions. VonBeerhofen

Interesting stuff RiBob, I just can't say if any of it is usable. EAW is very limited in it's capabillities and maintaining framerates is more important then accuracy. You may understand that the tracers are just a line on the screen which can only use the colors EAW has reserved for them. I've used what I possibly could use and made it look nice, I don't think I can do more then that. Within the available colors a rewrite of the code to have more is just not feasable or would take too much of my time. There's another 1000 things I want to tackle, so it's time to move on to the next issue. Thx for your input, it was an eye opener for me since us Dutch have no knowledge on bullets in general, as we're not allowed to carry arms and the info I already acquired was not very extensive. I think you'll like what I've done, :) VonBeerhofen

Hi RiBob, smokey tracers are very feasable in EAW and since they were appearently used more frequently at the beginning of the war I may be tempted to replace the colored tracers for the year 1940 only. I may even be able to add the corckscrew effect to the animation. I can't say when it'll be done but it's been added to my todo list. VonBeerhofen

I've programmed the tracer frequency under control of the EAW.INI entry LimitedAmmo= 1-15 max. The value 0 still is unlimited ammo. SInce it's a bitwise logical operand the sensible values are 1 3 7 or 15, the values in between will work too but makes the behaviour more irregular. Changing to a higher value will slightly improve framerate as well, because there will be more illuminated dots then tracers. The default value of 1 (stock EAW) will probably be the best choice for most people and will allow backward compattabillity, the higher values are mainly meant to improve FPS when necessary since the EAW.INI EffectsDetail setting was replaced with this option which simply is faster then the stock routine. The higher the value the less tracers. VonBeerhofen

Thx Mark, nice one. VBH

I made a few minor changes to EAWPRO's contrails which will benefit framerates, especially when large numbers of planes are battling it out. A Glide issue with the trails was also fixed and will be available with the next release of EAWPRO. A temporary fix has been uploaded to my FTP which restores full functionality but doesn't yet use the new improved version. Just overwrite your EAW.EXE in your EAWPRO gamefolder with this version: https://rabartel.home.xs4all.nl/EAWPRO_FIX.zip Mark if possible you can do the same thing with the download version at Mediafire, it would save me from having to construct a new .ZIP. These are how it will look with the next release: VonBeerhofen

They're fading alright. but can also have smoke trails. It's a bit of a disputed issue for some players though as it may obscure the player's view of the target, and I don't know how it'll play out on FPS. With the optimised and changed code there's room for several options. VonBeerhofen

Tracers are now set to app. 1 in 7 bullets and can be adjusted with a .LDR script. VonBeerhofen

Exactly, however EAWPRO is a NoCD/NoOS version and requires a FULL install of the game. Best way for this install is to just copy the entire CD onto your drive to prevent any registry entries being made. It will also work on working copies already installed. VonBeerhofen

It's adviced to install EAWPRO as suggested in the accompanying notes. The addon has all official upgrades up to v1.2 incorporated and is meant to be installed on top of the US/UK CD version. It may well work on other versions but can't be tested since those versions usually don't work on my legacy machine. You're welcome to try these versions at your own risk but no support is given when you try, as it's impossible to predict what other files will become part of your game. VonBeerhofen

Hi RiBob, EAWPRO should be loaded on top of an OFFICIAL RELEASE version of EAW. V1.28E is NOT an official release but a heavily modded version by the code group, hence it is not the right base for EAWPRO. VonBeerhofen

With the added 5 gun calibres came the need to display their tracers differently and this is how they look now: VonBeerhofen

Visit the EAW Launchpad for online games with EAWPRO, have a chat with like minded or for help and guidance relating to v1.2 derivatives! Teamspeak server details can be obtained via our (admission free) chatroom as it may change: http://www.chatzy.com/251310437564 Just leave a message or e-mail adress in our chatroom and we'll get back to you ASAP. Open all day ,no membership required, professional help or just a chat. And you can also have a look at my latest creations or just visit our screenshot gallery to get an impression of our games! https://rabartel.home.xs4all.nl/test/Gallery/image/ VonBeerhofen http://www.europeanairwar.net

The Ace skill level setting isn't a Flight Model entry but a Skill Level entry, the FM Multiplier doesn't change AI behaviour, just the FM. VonBeerhofen

I can get to that page just fine, not going to download it though. It's fine to have it there or anywhere else really. VonBeerhofen

Thx a lot Crusader, these are for the original v1.2 game and will work with the recently release v1.2 NoCD_NoOS and possibly with a few other versions. I think Mark EAW may have an interest in these for his EAW archive, much appreciated. VonBeerhofen

It's not about starting flamewars but preventing them, and about posting useless information which is irrellevant for EAWPRO and it's players and can only lead to confusion and possibly the destruction of their version of EAWPRO when they use programs which were not specifically designed for EAWPRO. It's also about breaking an agreement to which you committed yourself in a previous thread. You're obvioulsy not willing to honour that agreement which makes your comment highly provocative and indicates you're challenging Stratos's decisions and not respecting his request to stay in your own threads. Locked threads are not in the interest of EAWPRO and will merely have a negative influence on both EAWPRO as well as this forum and tend to drive members away as happened in another forum. Stay on your own side of the road as I do! VonBeerhofen

That sounds great Erik, the moreso since the agreement was already broken in my opinion. VonBeerhofen

I've been able to add 5 new weapon callibres and descriptions to EAWPRO. 3 of these are now in use and 2 remain open for whenever they're needed. The 50mm was already mentioned, as was the 8.8cm and the newest one is the 13mm which can double as a handweapon in a WWI scenario. I have no idea as to what the two remaining ones should be sensibly called. Weapons like the 25mm Japanese guns can be set now too or anything in between the other stock callibres and will use the nearest discription entry in the above displayed program. Anything in between the default callibres and the new ones will do the same, where obviously the 13mm displays as a machine gun and the 50mm and 8.8cm display as canons. VonBeerhofen

Thx for your consideration Stratos, good call. VonBeerhofen

A new feature was added to EAWPRO which changes the flightmodel's behaviour to allow for a wider range of aircraft. The feature was added to the EAW.INI entry FlightModel=X which now can use 4 values: 0 = off 1 = pre WWII planes 2 = WWII planes (default) 3 = post WWII planes There's probably a bit more to do but the switches are working. VonBeerhofen

You do whatever you must do Mr. Jelly, I have no need for your tools, as I told you on multiple occasions, why do you keep offering them? My hexeditor can enter ANY field in ANY file with ANY number. It can even change entire columns with a specific range of values with or without a certain amount of randomness, there's really nothing like it. It for instance can randomise a single object's postion in the EAW_TTD where ever that object is sitting in the file, or ANY range of TMODS. It can copy paste just those objects into a new file, so they're all sitting behind each other, the object or entire blocks of objects can be moved a line up or down or 100 lines, without destroying the data in that line, reverse or rotate the data, invert or encrypt their values, add or subtract a single value to a column, line or an entire block in which certain positions can remain untouched, it's possibillities are almost beyond comprehension and is the most powerfull tool I have ever created. Even today after 10 years of use I get new ideas on how to use it It can do this to all filetypes in EAW, including all 30 planes in the PLANES.DAT. I hope you can do something with that information because it renders all your editors practically obsolete I'm sorry to say. So I don't think there's any problem whatsoever and what you say only goes for your tool, which I'm obviously not using. It's just a hexadecimal value in a file and anyone can take control of it. VonBeerhsofen

Don't worry guys, I don't have any use for Mr. Jelly's tools, although I do occasionally use them. The tools I have develloped are way more sophisticated. As I said the ME262 with the .88 nose canon was tested to work fine in the Launchpad long ago. These are just hex values in a file and any hexeditor can change them. If I recall Mark is right, there is an earlier version which allows direct editing of the gun values, not sure if it's still active in later versions. It could have been the value in the top left pane, which shows the adress locations and the set value. I just no longer really need them but they served their purpose pretty well. VonBeerhsofen

Since stock v1.2's gunvalues don't allow the gun's full ranges to be used and the weapon names don't work when values are in between two callibres the routine was rewritten. It will allow deviations from the standard hitpower without loosing the weapon names and adds the possibillity of a 50mm weapon or higher. The stock values are 2, 4, 12, 24, however any single byte value can be used, so the maximum hitpower value can be 255. That would probably be a callibre the size of a medieval canonball or so, which is obviously not very usefull but it can be set. I've choosen 36 for the 50mm, since the value is the same when the 20 and 30 mm hitpower values are added up which I think will be a reasonable representation of the weapon. Ofcourse the ME262's nosemounted .88 is also a feasable option and I should have it's value somewhere when we tested it with an RAF pilot and friend, may he rest in peace, who flew Meteors in the Korean war and who also described the weapon's devastation It principally means that there's more room to precisely modify the PLANES.DAT's weapon's values to more historical accurate hitpower of weapons, which by default aren't incorporated. Another advantage is that in combination with the plane's armour values planes can be better ballanced against each other in terms of matching the planes advantages/disadvantages vs the other planes. Ofcourse the routine was optimised to run much faster, :) VonBeerhofen