UllyB

I wanted to change a ServiceStartYear of a plane from 1984 to 1991. I modified the data.ini aircraft plane entry accordingly but the start year in Single missions it's still ...1984. I thought of the reasons why but I don't see what I miss. The option.ini is set from 1960 to 2050 so there , there is no problem. I know that for data changing there are no other files involved except option.ini and aircraft data.ini entry file. Why can't I change that date and how can I change it please ? Thank you. PS - I checked the KB for this issue and there is no answer there.

I discovered why. The plane had an export date smaller then the new service day entry data.... Sorry.

You were right. With other ini file it worked. I didn't pay attention to readme, but still it dropped my frames with 3-4 units (from 37, 38 to 33, 34) I run the game in 1280x1024, I set the textures setting to unlimited and shadow to low and mirrors off, I use a multicore CPU , I have 3GB RAM and that graphic card and I use WinXP x86. It lookes somehow brighter. It looks as effect bettter from cockpit.There you notice the real difference. Outside the cockpit you notice just the light that is brighter. This tool is good when you have a powerfull rig and the drop of 10 frames or so won't matter in exchange for some real nice view effect from cockpit. My opinion.

I tried that mod but it didn't boost anything...I have a 8800GTS 512MB card and playing SF1 series. Furthermore the mod made my sky and clouds look ugly.

1.I noticed that if you include into aircraft folder that special TGA afterburner file (that beautiful orange TGA which is here somewhere in a thread) the plane "engine" when you look from rear has a burning fit look for idle. Nice effect. But this trick won't work with modern fighters in game (maybe it work but I don't know how) .I studied the dataini file , engine section, and one difference is that old planes don't have afterburnernode, but , of course , I am not sure if this could be one of the causes. Long story short, does anyone know, please, how can it be enabled for other planes, too ? 2.I tried a F-5 model. Evereything is fine except one thing that is annoying. If you disable (DEL key from numpad pressed) the cockpit , trying to concentrate in firing with gun only in a dogfight, when you fire the gun the muzzle light/flash is there in front of you bothering. I noticed that when are other planes and you disable the cockpit for the same thing , the muzzle is removed when you disable the cockpit. How can I remove the muzzle light, BUT ONLY when I am in that mode (cockpit disabled) ? Thank you!

About the muzzle flash I was giving some thought... What you see (the light effect of the muzzle) when you disable the cockpit is the same effect generated for the gun when you look from a 3rd view perspective the aircraft and see the gunfire effect ? Or is it generated separately for aircraft 3rd view and for 1st view when you are in the cockpit ? I was wonder if I make the muzzle effect smaller (tweaking the settings in data ini file) would it help ?

Now I got it , I understood the difference between the AF effect and what I thought it could be related to. Thank you. How can one map that effect onto the engine part ? Is that part of modelling into 3D model creating ? About "rosetta stone" (what's that, I am not familiar with the phrase) , well, I have to take your word for it. From my side the picture doesn't look so simple...believe me. For me, CAUSALITY it's a solid concept. Well now at least I have some answers and I turned up some pieces more of the big puzzle called modding aircraft.

Be more specific, you were trying to make one yourself...what ? A gun pod, a modded/changed MIG-21PF model (with hinged canopy)?

You were right, it WAS under a component (left and right wing) which had TRUE to ShowFromCockpit. I moved them to the NOSE where it is FALSE but it didn't help, though. The muzzle flash is still there when you disable the cockpit. The F4E Kurnass stock file (I checked now) had the gun under a component which had FALSE value to ShowFromCockpit but you see the muzzle if you disable the cockpit, so it's not it. It has to be some other way I think...

Sorry I forgot to include the idle engine effect picture I was talking about. Here it is.

Ok, let's see if I got it...So you are saying that no planes except SF2 (made for it) have no AF node , unless the author build one into its model, right ? The afterburner effect is that effect which is made by that TGA which interact with the afterburner.ini file for each plane (which is in the Effects folder). If so I have another two questions: How come that WOI aircraft, for instance, have all AF effect ? Did TK built for each AF node or I still didn't get it ? (I left the 3rd party planes aside here, though they are in the same situation , because you say that if they are built for SF1 series only, they don't poses,generally, a AF node) The second question is about that effect I was talking about above in fact, that , how should I call it ?, made by that TGA file which gives that effect of an idle engine (so it's different from the AF effect we all know, I hope you understood me what I am talking about) . I noticed that this effect , in older planes (by older I mean planes built in 2003/2004 and 2005 even, is reached ONLY by adding a TGA file like this (http://combatace.com...fterburner-mod/ ). In some other aircraft folder I saw that particular TGA put into skin folders but it didn't work (I am talking about what planes I saw they have this and I tried them to see that effect). I noticed that these "older" planes I am talking about they had no line into engine section regarding afterburner node, which is what you pointed out above. Newer aircraft or even some 3rd party built AFTER 2005 have that line into engine section (I know what you said , that it doesn't work if there is no AF node model) but they don't exhibit that idle engine effect (visual) if you just drop that TGA file into their folder. So...bottom line here, there is a WAY and a CAUSE for all these. I have a SU-9 from 2004 I think and it has a TGA file (afterburner.tga called which I switched it with the one I gave you the link and it works) and one can see that idle engine effect and all other aircraft , I can't make them exhibit that effect. To make them do that I have to understand WHY the effect works for a SU-9 and how is that effectively created. That's my goal here. You are saying: "What I suggested you do is complicated, but that's because you are trying to make something in the Generation 1 sims that does not exist and is outside of the sim's original abilities." Let's straight this out. Not the afterburner effect (are we talking about the same thing here?)to simulate I am looking for, I am looking for that IDLE engine effect (please see the picture included). I want to know how to make this effect ! The AFBurner matter , I said above, I just want to understand how it works, that's all. All the planes HAVE afterburner effect, that is easy to obtain, you have a ini file and a TGA into Effects folder and that's it, with or without AF node into engine section. Regarding what you were saying about learning the syntax for config files I am stunned. You say that people learned it from knowledge base, but that means there WAS someone initially who KNEW and wrote down that piece of knowledge.If so, it means that he must know it from somewhere. These things are preciselly , this is not game. It's like you wrote a program in a text and signs language.The compiler understands the syntax(language) and transform that or an engine 'knows" that very syntax to apply those config text lines. So this is not made just by logic and deduction ! You HAVE to KNOW the syntax, the text commands exactly. If so , that means someone created them , and there is a LIST of them. Such a language is not just spontaneous created, I'm sure you know what I mean. And even so, it's hard for me to comprehend that the tough modders here just "stole" info piece by piece from that knowledge base ! They seem to know a million time more then what's in it. I saw a guy who was playing effectively with config text commands. He said : "well if it doesn't make this way then we wrote this and this and this" !!! So that guy KNEW ALL or made me think that at least. Knowledge is power as someone said so to have a real chance to modd config files , I have to know that syntax (all of IT!! if possible) It crossed my mind another analogy, thinking of what you said about syntax learning. It's just you wanna learn english and someone tells you you can learn it reading from google on the net. You CAN'T learn English this way if you don't have a clue about what English language is about. It has a vocabulary( a minimum 10.000 words and you have to know them , in order to speak it; I left beside the grammar here, I just wanted to make a point) Anyway I appreciate you people want to help , though there are some moderators who mocked me and made my life a hell (moving all my threads into one and mixed them so no one could help me, answering to a particular issue that I raised but I put this behind, I'm minding of my business, I don't care if they are mean to me) So if you point me exactly in the right directon for the problems raised above I would appreciate. Thank you once again.

It seems complicate to make all these (an engine and to tweak it). I am trying to understand what is that afterburner NODE. If a modern fighter (I include this all that was made after 2008 oct official patch, correct me if I'm wrong) needs a afterburner node to make that effect , why an older one (from 2004 or 2003) don't need that (the AF node) ? I have to understand that. What is the difference , technical speaking , regarding the setting included for such thing/behaviour ? For me to solve a problem , first thing I have to understand the concept, how it works etc . I also , feel disadvantaged from other modders because they seem to know syntax (what exactly need to be add in a config file) . How do they know it ? The rules , I guess, TK "wrote" them when he did think the whole project (his game ). Do some people have acces to these knowledge ? If the acces is for everyone I would like to know where I can find documentation for that. It would help me tremendous to understand and to become a real modder. if I don't know syntax and designing concepts it's like people who know them they seem to speak a "foreign" language to me and I don't understand or I just understand bits of it. I'm sure you know what I mean. I saw a thread where a guy was speaking about making a mesh, and trying t attached the ...effect to the fuselage itself as a component etc... I know to little to understand what he was talking about... I also feel that I need to know which aircraft (how can I recognize them looking into their files) are new (the AF node issue) and which are old and support that effect just dropping a TGA file into their folder... The second problem I will look into it as soon as possible. Anyway, thank you for your guidance.I'll see what I can do...For the moment I am just looking in threads on this site about those afterburner effects...

I tried a SU-22 from the SU-17/20/22 pack in the download section. The plane flies fine except it tilts (is this the right word ?) on the right side. I mean it yaws slow to the right in time and is rotating to the right slow in time. I looked into aircraft data.ini file but all the symetric parts data looked fine to me. Any idea what can cause such behavior ? Can that be corrected ?

all values are + on right Wing and right stab and - (negative) for left wing and left stab, so no problem here. The values are different from what you suggest but they are symetrical. I discovered other things searching for the answer and I think these are the causes. The weapon station attachment points have different values (slightly but different) for LEFT and RIGHT. I couldn't suspect that from the very beginning of course. It would've been the last place I would search. First I didn't understand why were those small differences but in the end I got it. The plane (the model I have) have some ...asymetrical loadouts, some navigation pod and three other three special pylons. My guess is that who made it , it tuned it so fine to support all those original equipment. Truth is I didn't check his complex loadout scheme, I took his word for it. Instead I corrected slightly some values of the attachment points to obtain an equilibrium. Of course I didn't succeed 100% but I am satisfied with the results. Thank you anyway for guding.

Loadout is symetrical , of course. :)

I recently installed WOI on my computer and decided to give it a shot. I ran into some problems as it follows: 1. Randomly, 5 in100 times, the waypoints are blocked. the game refuses to show the next waypoint when press W, no matter if is a mission or campaign missions. Any attempt to go forth and back with waypoints is futile. Further more , sometimes it's getting worse , meaning that the game shows one waypoint but if you consult the map the direction is not right. You go into a wrong direction where the waypoint doesn't exist on the map, which I think it qualifies it as a real bug. Did anyone encounter that ? Is this a bug or is it just me ? Related to this aspect I ran into something new, this time in a campaign. I've got a mission where I was supposed to destroy a ship , but on the mission planning map the waypoints, the target waypoint respectively, was out of the map in the south west, so..out of the game map:), The map showed however , with that black ring, correctly the target area , but in opposite direction:). it crossed my mind that, maybe that kind a aircraft I choose doesn't allow this kind of mission (I was making some minor tweaks with the aircraft campaign files) but it did allow antiship mission ! So does anyone any ideea what was that ? of course I decided to go all the way with the experiment , thinking maybe the planning map was wrong but I ended with the planes near the border of the game , a manner of speaking, where things were going pretty nasty, no cockpit and a wild dance of two planes bumping into each other. this incident ocurred however only once , from three antiship missions in total had. The other two were in order. 2. When tweaking the campaing file (the third campaign 82 war) I discovered something odd. I noticed comparing the two campaing ini files that an entry from one was missing in the other, respectively a F-15 aircraft squadron , 106th. I completed the orther file accordingly and , in the campaign choosing menu I had , now this new squdron. I took the first mission, and the planes were having squadron marks, some orange stripes so, that mans this was once there or a test subject for Third Wire. Initially I looked into the net the real name of the 106th. It was The Second eagle squadron.When I changed the game into the menu showed another name (the spearhead squdron) so that means definetly this was part of the game once. Anyway I flew the mission , nothing extraordinary but in the end the game let me know that the campaign was ...finished:)...I thought this is a joke. I start another campaign with the same squadron, this time I pressed the ESC key imediatly , while the aircraft was still on the runway. Well the result was the same. The screen let me know that the campaign is finished ! Does anyone know why that squaron was hidden and why the campaign ends so abruptly ? 3. Related to this incident I encountered another issue. I wanted to add two more aircraft to the campaign files, one for the Israel , one for the Syrians(it's about the same 82 campaign) . I managed to add the one for Israel , it was shown into the campaign squadron choosing screen and I saw it even used in missions by the AI (I replaced two squadrons of the kfir plane with the Mirage Factory IAI -F21Kfir). So far so good. But the MIG-23MS I replaced with the whole (switched the folders), the same Mirage Factory MIG-23MS didn't appear in the game at all. I checked everything in its file and in the campaign ini file, it was all alright. The plane was chooseable in the game menu and working in simple missions. If the other worked why is this one not showing (in campaign)? Where could be the mistake I made ? 4.I wanted to add a sound effect to that MIG-23MS I mentioned above. I did all by the book, changing the gundata.ini file line, checking the syntax, putting the sound in sound folder and saving it with the gun editor.But the gun sound is not there, is missing, it simply doesn't work. Where is the mistake I made ? I ran out of options.

Kevin I was talking about landing gear lights. As I recall you don't just...simply see them...on the front landing gear. That is why this born my question and my idea in my head when I saw AmokFloo Mirage2000 at night taking off. In other words, not noticing them on the landing gear in common situations I asume that maybe they were part of the aircraft model (LOD file). What I understood (AmokFloo said above in a reply post) is that IF I can set straight those config lines in gear light section (of course , trying and adjusting, testing etc), I can have them for almost every plane. This is good news. Thank you, you are willing to help as always with your modding expertise.

Oh, I see...That's good news than.Thank you for your input. PS - what does exactly that parameter " LightSrcOffset" ?

Use the YELLOW TGA file afterburner effect. It's the most less "expressive" I shall say. Or , if you have WOI, try to use the one used by F-16A or F-15 Baz. They are subtle. See the download section , it has to be somewhere there a pack with afterburner effects.

alright, I see your point. For me if I can play with SF1 and the game it can be patch to oct 2008, that's wonderful. It is true , when we spoke last time about this campaign it was about the WOI + Iraq/Iran terrain. Fact is that when you said that ...that old terrain has issues with the oct patch (new update engine), I thought that goes for SF1, too. So that is why I didn't then bother ask that. I'm glad I saw that post.Things are not lost. As I said I can try the Iran/Iraq campaign these days.

I tried one of the modded campaigns (Attrition War) and after a wating of 4-5 years (game time, that's more than 30 missions) the campaign script made the first update (with RED stressed), the skin, but the second one (with BLUE stressed) didn't. Instead, it changed the skin to...IDFSilver1 , which obvious is not in the aircraft "scenario" from this squadron... Here's the paragraph: [AirUnit008] AircraftType=Shahak Squadron=113IDF ForceID=1 Nation=ISRAEL DefaultTexture=Desert BaseArea=Hatzerim Airbase BaseMoveChance=0 RandomChance=100 MaxAircraft=16 StartAircraft=16 MaxPilots=16 StartPilots=16 Experience=100 Morale=100 Supply=0 MissionChance[sWEEP]=70 MissionChance[CAP]=90 MissionChance[iNTERCEPT]=80 MissionChance[ESCORT]=100 MissionChance=50 MissionChance[CAS]=0 MissionChance[sEAD]=50 MissionChance[ARMED_RECON]=0 MissionChance[ANTI_SHIP]=0 MissionChance[RECON]=30 UpgradeType=FIXED Upgrade[01].Date=01/01/1969 Upgrade[01].Type=Shahak Upgrade[01].Texture=IDFCamo1 Upgrade[02].Date=01/01/1972 Upgrade[02].Type=Nesher Upgrade[02].Texture=Vietnam Supply[001].WeaponType=Shafrir2 Supply[001].Quantity=240 Supply[002].WeaponType=Mk82 Supply[002].Quantity=480 Supply[003].WeaponType=Matra-155 Supply[003].Quantity=120 Supply[004].WeaponType=LAU-3A Supply[004].Quantity=240 Supply[006].WeaponType=LAU-10A Supply[006].Quantity=120 Supply[007].WeaponType=M117 Supply[007].Quantity=120 Supply[008].WeaponType=UK500LB Supply[008].Quantity=120 Supply[009].WeaponType=UK1000LB Supply[009].Quantity=40 Supply[010].WeaponType=Tank1300_Mirage Supply[010].Quantity=240 Supply[011].WeaponType=AIM-9H Supply[011].Quantity=120 Supply[012].WeaponType=AIM-9G Supply[012].Quantity=40 Any idea why it failed to upgrade to the correct plane ?

Oh, I see... In that case...it means that WOI stock F4E is no match with that original from SF1, which, you must admit, it's a surprise. For me , it surely was. Cheers!

Yeap , it's the LOD model! It worked, many thanks man! But if you'll check the upload you made (the one we discussed above, in download section)) the LOD is not a F4E there, it's this: F-15APit.LOD and F-15APit.OUT ! So, if I were you I would go there and update the mod.Otherwise you'll be seeing guys like me asking about that issue :) Nice to meet you BTW and thank you once again for help! Benny

I came across a AmokFloo Mirage 2000D landing gear lights. They look very nice ! My question is: Can this be applied to any aircraft just changing the corresponding settings in aircraft data ini file, lights section or...those...fancy lights are part of that specific LOD model ?