tank03

It's not really off the wall, but I loved the old black and white movie "Them" when I was a kid. I saw it a couple of years ago, and it still was pretty good.

The shots were good, just a little tweaking is needed I think. Taking the shot if the F-104 (i think it is) as an example, (and keeping in mind these are just my suggestions, everyone has different ideas about what is good or not): 1. I would move in a bit closer to fill the image with more of the plane. 2. I would adjust the depth of field (smaller aperture, or by setting the camera to "Portrait") to throw the background out of focus (I know I've said this and don't want to beat a dead horse, but it's importnat) . Here you have cars, trees, utility poles all in focus cluttering up the background. The eye can only pay attention to so much and you want the bird to be the focus, not the stuff behind it. By throwing the background out of focus, the eye automatically attends to what is in focus- the plane. One of the first things taught to photographers is pay attention not only to your subject, but also what is behind your subject. 3. I would also try shooting a differnet angle. By getting a bit lower you would get more sky and less land (with it's cars, trees, poles, etc) into the shot. The color of the pedestal and the color of the plane work well together. By changining the perspective up by getting lower, you might be able to have those nice symetrical green trees as a backdrop (the vibrant green would highlight the pale color of the pedestal and plane), but the shot would be high enough to cut off the road and cars. However, against a blue sky the plane might get a bit washed out, so under-exposing a bit would really deepen the colors. Your shots are good, really. I just think that what is in the background clutters the shot and takes away from the planes. I used to do portraits and people wanted outdoor shots with the fall foliage standing out in clear focus behind them. I would ask them, "What do you want a picture of- your family or the trees? Because you can't have both and get both done well in a single print." The point is to decide exactly what you want a picture of and then do the things to accomplish that: change perspective, adjust exposure, increase/decrease depth of field. It is possible to have multiple main subjects in a photo, but more often than not it's best to have one subject, especially when just starting out. Most people take snapshots and very few people take photographs, if that makes sense. The difference is how much stuff is in the picture. You'll usually find that if amatuers and pro's photograph the same event, there is much less "stuff" in the pro's pictures. As with anything- practise makes perfect. And don't expect every shot to be magazine perfect. I shoot hundreds of frames and end up with dozens of keepers. It seems I'm starting to ramble so I'll stop here. If you ever have any questions don't hesitate to ask; I love to talk photos.

I would suggest stepping down your exposure to compensate for the brightness. I usually "bracket" my photos: take a couple of the same pix at exposure, take a couple underexpossed, take a couple over exposed. This ensures that I'll get a good shot. Also, by slightly underexposing the photo, colors really become deep and pop out. A neutral density filter can help ease up on exposure extremes if the camera is maxed out. I'd also suggest adjusting the depth of field (which refers to the portion of the picture that is in focus). By reducing the depth of field (by reducing the aperture setting) the background will be slightly out of focus (just slightly, not like fuzzy or anything) this will really make the subject of the photo, the plane, really pop out of the print. Reducing the aperture and keeping the shutter the same may also solve washed out effect while positively changing the depth of field. I have other suggestions but I don't want to seem critical. Let me know if you want hear it.

Since the camera is just a device for capturing light, I would suggest getting a dedicated, off camera, synced flash. The built in flashes aren't nearly powerful enough (fall off is about 15 ft.), and you often need to seperate your light source from your camera angle. A basic flash cna be picked up for less than $100, but they are so useful that it's worth investing in a good one. In my opinion the flash is nearly as important as the camera. Especially if you are doing night shots, you'll want a sturdy tripod (anything longer than 1/30 will need a tripod/stable base). With either flash, or long exposure, night shots can create very interesting results. I have great shot I made at night using a long exposure of flights coming and going at the local airport. Very cool results due to the a/c lights. A couple of filter woudl do you good as well. A star filter give interesting effects to night shots with lights, and a polarizer is almost essential. A neutral density filter for use during really bright situations gives you more leeway with your exposure settings. As far as moving objects; a slight directioanl blur lends a sense of motion and speed (at the loss of detail). Head or tail-on shots give the best chance for detail, while side shots, (though fast shutter speed can stop the blur) can give you that sense of speed with the blur. And I mean blur in a directioanl sense, not just out-of-focus fuzzy. Whatever you do, make sure you key in on the subject; don't have a little plane in the center of the photo surronded by tons of empty airspace. Zoom in and get close.

Use the "Rule of Thirds". Divide your view into three vertical and three horizontal sections and then try placing your subject at one of the intersects. This add interest and balance to the photos. You'll notice that good photos usually don't have the subject square in the middle; it's usually a bit off to the side or up or down. Use the WHOLE field of view. Don't end up with a photo with the subject a little spot in the center surrounded by useless background. Decide what the subject of the photo is and then use the whole camera view to show it off. Try using some framing; i.e. having some object in the foreground or background to add scale. Try taking shots from unusual angles. Don't just stand in front of the object; lay on the ground and shot up towards it, or get above it and shoot down on it. This adds an interesting perspective to the shots and makes them stand out. Try and shot in cloudy, but not overcast weather. The sun causes shadows, which can be used creatively, but clouds soften shadows and bring out depth and color. Try zooming in on a particular part of a subject that captures the essence of the subject, and take multiple shots of that part from different angles and perspectives. Take LOTS of shots. When I go on a photo shoot, I take hundreds of photos and end up with a couple of keepers. If you are up to it, play around with the exposure settings; depth of field is very useful to know about. If I think of more I'll post them. Good luck and have fun.

Mr Barnard: What do you want? Man: Well I was told outside that... Mr Barnard: Don't give me that, you snotty faced heap of parrot droppings! Man: What? Mr Barnard: Shut your festering gob, you tit! Your type really makes me puke you vacuous, toffy-nosed, malodorous pervert! Man: What? I came in here for an argument. Mr Barnard: Oh, oh oh I'm sorry, this is "abuse'. You want Room 12-A just along the corridor. Man: Oh sorry. Thank you very much, sorry, thank you. [shuts the door] Man: Stupid git.

We interrupt this program to annoy you and make things generally irritating.

Wow! Impressive graphics. I wasn't giving this too much thought until I checked out your screen shots. INow, 'm going to have to give this some consideration; I'm really impressed.

Is anyone interested in an online tool that would be : - a weapon database displaying the content of the weapons pack in a human readable manner That would be nice. - a comparing tool allowing to view side-by-side two or more weapons of the weapons pack Yes! That would be fantastic!

What do you say to something like this? It's unbelievable. Thoughts and prayers to all involved.

Thank you very much for posting this. Your tutorial answered a lot of questions I've alwyas had about editing the terrain files. I have no problem creating missions and placing ground objects, but I've always been a bit intimidated about fooling around with the terrain files, and I didn't know about the "Debug" use. You did a great job expalining it in an easy to understand form; I'm going to start placing things in the terrain ASAP. This sim just got even better. Thanks again!

This is not a topic of which I know much, but- I beleive you could populate the airfields during missions by using a mission editor (KMD, Le Mimmioneur). They are pretty easy to figure out and placing objects is pretty easy. Those objects would only be there for that mission however. Otherwise I think you're thinking of editing terrain tiles. I think that's what you would have to do in order to add building etc. I know nothing about terrain editing so I can't say much about how easy/hard that could be.

"Carl Spackler: I smell varmint poontang. And the only good varmint poontang is dead varmint poontang... I think." Great classic, never gets old!

I think a lot of people think that the categories are all there is and don't scroll down to see the uncatagorized stuff. At least that's what I did when I first started. In fact, I like the uncategoriezed stuff. Every time I scroll through all those pages I always turn up some gem that I overlooked before.

The F-111 is available here at CombatAce: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?autom...mp;showfile=917

As far as I know there isn't a tutorial for Le Missioneur, but it really is easy once you play around with it for a while. I would suggest using the editor to open a stock mission and playing around with it. Go to File/Open and browse to the mission folder in your SPF1/WOV/WOE/FE program file and select a mission. Be sure to use "save as" in order not to over-write the stock mission. It may seem daunting, but if you play around with it for awhile, it really gets easy quite quickly. If you have more questions just ask here.

Is the cockpit folder inside the aircraft folder? That's what happened when I first added it on. the cockpit selfextracted to the objects/aircraft folder and created it's own F-111 folder, which was different from the real a/c folder. It wsa just a matter of cutting and pasting the pit into the a/c folder.

A couple of years ago I was in the White Mountains of NH, a really remote area, and my buddy and I watched an A-10 wheeling around for about 40 minutes. He was letting off flares every now and then and rolling and turning to beat the band. It was pretty cool since he was realtively low. To this day I still don't know why he was there, we don't have a base sporting A-10's anywhere nearby.

You can edit the weapon station info (found in the data.ini file) to carry any weapon you'd like. Scroll down about 3/4 and under weapon station find the AllowedWeaponClass. A list of the weapon types is found at the bottom of this article from the knowledge base: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=12099 You'd also have to edit the loadout.ini if you want the bird to load up automatically. Otherwise you'd have to do it manually at the loadout screen of the game.

I would recommend using one of the mission editors and creating your own missions. That way you can go up against any aircraft you want/whenever and where ever you want (as long as you downloaded the a/c's and terrains). I'd recommend "le Missioneur" mission editor found over at Check6. It's pretty striaght forward and easy to figure out how to use it. Once you get the hang of it, making missions takes just a few minutes (or hours if you want to get elaborate) and it becomes addictive.

The cockpit isn't included in the package. If you read the installation instructions it will provide a website in which you can acquire the cockpits (there is a seperate pit for each version of the plane). The pit download is self-extracting so it's super easy to do. I have no idea about the sounds. Try assigning a new engine sound and see if that behaves the same way. What exactly are you editing, and what file is it in?

As far as I know there isn't. The game will only report the stats on the players flight. By creating the others, you have created seperate flights (regardless of the number of planes). Again, this is just what I know; others may be aware of a work around.

That'd be nice, though my understanding is that Bunyap is no longer doing the Weapons Pack.

Here's a "How to" article from the knowledge base on editing weapons: http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=12099

I've never actually seen an entire episode. I have vague memories of it from the 70's, but never really got into it. I have friends who absolutely swear it's the best thing since sliced bread. If I wanted to check it out what should I start with; new stuff? classic reruns? What's best?