33LIMA

The DFW is now player-controlled if you purchase it. They are working on getting the Breguet player-controlled as well (For purchase).

 

Then they plan on working on a player-controlled Bris Fit and an R.E.8.

Good to know, a Biff and a Harry Tate are just about's what's needed to make RoF's planeset acceptable in my eyes. Noticed the B14 and DFW were playables after I'd posted, but a few more 2-seaters is what's needed, certyainly at least one common, general purpose RFC/RAF type, the RE8 being the obvious choice, if less exciting than the F2B or the elegant and archetypal BE2c; after me now, everybody,

Oh they found a bit of iron wot some bloke had thrown away

And the RAF said "This is just the thing we've sought for many a day!"

And so they built the weirdest thing

Strangest engine ever seen

And they put it in a flying machine

And sent them out to fight.

When the blokes who had to fly them swore

The RAF said "They'll be all right!

The bus is as stable as can be

We thought of every bit of it ourselves, you see!"

They were so darn slow, they wouldn't go

And they called them RAF2c's".

Also unless I've missed something, RoF has precisely two 2-seaters, both AI, a B14 and a DFW CV. Even OOB, FE and OFF Phase 2 provided a minimalist but adequate selection of 2-seaters, a situation now much better. Flying for or against the RFC/RAF without at least an RE8 or a BE2 in the air is just plain silly/bone/naff.

RoF looks best for "flying WW1 planes" (scouts, anyway). But at the present, in my view it is for the above reason still a simply inadequate simulation of "flying in WW1", regardless of its other fine features. Each to their own of course but that's my position.

I hope the 2-seater selection, and the SP campaign, improve in due course, tho I'm not at all impressed at the idea of having to pay extra for what should have been a basic planeset and part of the basic package or an early patch.

There is no substiture for relying on an actual photo of the aircraft or unit you're representing.

A quick look at my Monogram 'LW camouflage & Markings' vol 2 shows an undated pic of some He111H6 s of KG26 in 70/71/65, no theatre markings, and the nearest aircraft, 1H+CH, clearly has the full code under the wings, 1+H C+H.

A colour profile of Ju87B2 2F+CA, said to be used by KG54 (!) in N Africa has 79 with 80 blotches, 65 below, and is shown by the artist with no letters under the wings (Monogram's research would be i think considered more reliable than Profile's) . A colour 2-view of Ju87B2 T6+BM of StG2 in N Africa - in in temperate 70/71/65 scheme - is shown with no letters under wings, individual letter B in white on the front of each wheel spat, and strangely, a painted-out letter C on the upper wings both sides outboard of the cross. A photo of wrecked Bf110F 3U+GS of 8/ZG26 near Fuka in 79/65, dated 13 Nov 42, has the red 'G' under the lower wings outboard of the cross. Ju88A L1+DN of 5/LG1 photographed in Sicily during 1941, in 70/71/65 with white theatre band, also has the individual letter 'D' under each wing in the usual position, outboard of the cross.

Most odd is a pic of a 70/71/65 Ju87B2, undated and unit n/k, which has the individual letter C behind the LH fuselage cross, no other fuselage letters visible, but has TWO (individual?) letters outboard of the left wing's lower-sufrace cross, a large L next to the cross and then a smaller A nearer the wingtip - the authors speculate this may have been a plane that changed units several times.

A pic of a nosed-over Ju-87D1/Trop WNr 2396, S7+KS of 8/StG3, captioned as shot sown by Allied fighters on 1 Nov 42, is in 70/71/65, white theatre band, and has the 'factory' Stammkenzeichen radio code under the wings, +MO being visible in black under the port wing.

The Ju88A Profile Publication has a 5-view colour profile of 5K+DC of II/KG3 in N Russia Summer' 41, with D in black under each wing outboard of the cross. The colour profiles mostly have the same arrangement, including two African Ju88s, L1+EH of 1/LG1 in Benghazi, 1942, and 7A+LH of 1 St (F)/121, Martuba, also in libya, 1942, both in 79/65. The artist's rendition of the letter E under the wing of L1+EH is confirmed in a pic of the plane crash-landed.

The Ju87B Profile has a 5-view of S2+AM of 4/StG 77 in 70 or 71/65 (should be 70/17/65?) said to be in France 1940 (but with yellow cowl & rudder, more likely to be in the Balkans in 1941?) plus two African Ju87B2s; first, in 79 with 80 blotches, 65 below, is S7+HL of 3/Stg3 at Derna 1942; also 1/StG3's S7+IH at Daba 1942, both represented with the individual letter in black outboard of the underwing crosses.

Overall, most common - relying on photos rather than artist's interpretations which can be wrong - seems to be the either the individual letter only OR no letter at all, in all Theatres. All four letters seem quite rare. Rarest are factory codes rather than unit ones, or multiple or overpainted letters. Some bombers including Stukas I recall having seen with individual letters in a light colour on the outer tops of wings but this is also rare, methinks.

Another source would be the Osprey "Stuka Units of the Med", I have the cut-back DelPrado issue about somewhere, IIRC it had some Desert Stuka colour profiles.

Yeah I was considering holding off [sic] for Phase 4 tho would be concerned that the recommended spec will be ramped up again to get best results. Even my current budget card makes (patched) FE look great with low but quite acceptable FPS (and runs SFP2E somewhat better than WoE; so can likely play FE2 without an upgrade and both better than it can play Phase 2, let alone Phases 3 or 4). I've never had, nor will ever have, a cutting edge PC and OFF's strong tendency towards that end of the range, as with RoF, tends to put me off [sic] when, as is the case with First Eagles, I can get something rather excellent without a stellar and expensive PC.

Like the saying goes, there's no point disputing matters of taste, but the question was asked so here's my take.

I'm not really keen on buying RoF. If I want to get the real experience of flight, including all the little real-world pilot stuff, I'll take flying lessons. Last time I looked, even FSX doesn't simulate you standing on the gear leg of your Cessna while hanging onto the wing and dipping a stick in the filler to check your tank is full. If I want fidelity to that sort of detail, I recommend flying lessons, for which no sim is a real substitute, not even FSX.

In a COMBAT flight sim I can happily live without (in fact, I much prefer not) having to worry about fuel mixture, carburretor heat, warming up my engine or watching my engine and oil temperatures and all the rest. That sort of thing is firmly at the bottom of my list of criteria for buying a combat sim. I can also happily do without having to make expensive upgrades to run at decent settings; irritating and/or intrusive DRM requirements; and limited plane sets.

RB3D was my kind of sim because it had the features that DID mater to me; reasonable graphics (with the mods), a great planeset, and an immersive campaign world. I also liked Rowan's Flying Corps Gold which, despite much fewer flyables and a quite different approach to campaigns, got the balance pretty well right, in its own way. Both these sims paid attention to the kind of things that mattered to me. Starting (of course!) with Biggles - being written by a real RFC/RAF WW1 veteran, it's not too far from reality - I've read a lot about WW1 air combat including the autobiographies of MvR, McCudden, Arthur Gould Lee, Duncan Grinnel-Milne, Rudolph Stark and a lot more besides. I've read the campaign histories, I've built the models (plastic and balsa), watched the movies (good and not-so-good) and I've bought and studied the Profiles, Aircams and Ospery Publications on the planes. I want a sim that gives me the feeling I get when I read the books, watch the movies (Blue Max and Aces High anyway!), study the profiles and build the models. I got that feeling from playing RB3D and FCG and now I get it from First Eagles, in spades.

First Eagles didn't appeal much to me when it came out; the latest patches transform it and it's my current favourite sim. Patched, it has gorgeous planes (and a decent variety of them, expanded considerably by mods) an immersive WW1 environment, good attention to historical and geographical detail, a decent campaign system, passable AI and flight models, an open architecture so even I can fine tune how it works, and no intrusive DRM. I'm not in the least bothered my plane starts with its engine running - does any sim have a 3d mechanic standing in front you can interact with to get him to spin your prop, so what's wrong with that? To me, FE is a great half-way house between FCG and RB3D but with excellent visuals, well up to current standards. Any WW1 air combat simmer who wrote off First Eagles on the basis of its first release and generally lukewarm reviews at the time is missing out on a real treat.

OFF I know so far only from Phase 2 where I find the AI and the clunky OFF-CFS3 interface somewhat frustrating; I plan on upgrading to Phase 3 soon.

33Lima, I have been following your quest with interest. Hope I havent spoiled your fun, but one way to remove the text from the middle of the screen, ie the message texts, is to edit the MESSAGESYSTEM.ini in the Flight folder.

 

MESSAGESYSTEM.INI

 

[MessageWindow]

;BackgroundImage=TextBackground.tga <--- edit with ;

;TopLeftPosition=0.22,0.8 <---

;BottomRightPosition=0.78,0.985 <---

;VerticalBorder=0.0015 <---

;HorizontalBorder=0.008 <---

 

No text at all on screen in game and only the edited map to go by. It makes for interesting sport. I hope this works for you.

 

Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm, I might not otherwise have bothered looking.

 

Cheers Grinseed

That's brilliant - I'd been fiddling around in all sorts of files looking for that and had about given up! Thank you! Will try it now.

As for enthusiasm, yes I'm thoroughly enjoying FE already; got it when it first came out but as an RB3D fan, I wasn't massively impressed, with the nice but slightly 'artificial' graphics, or the FM, AI, campaigns or damage modelling (doesn't leave a lot, does it) but with the latest patches it is transformed - it's still the same sim at heart of course but looks, plays and feels so much better, and that's before you add any of the many excellent mods or tinker with anything.

Apart from ROF's rather shiny ones, the FE planes are about the best I've seen in any sim, outside and in, thanks to great 3d models, excellent skins, authentic and varied markings (the decals look so much better than IL2s), dynamic lighting and animated parts and pilots. And you don't need a super computer or an expensive upgrade to see it.

Though some railyards and other ground targets besides airfeilds would be nice, FE's WW1 terrain and environment is immersive and rather beautiful, thanks to the lighting, subtle fog effects and exceptionally well-rendered towns and villages, roads and rivers. I still have my old WW1 maps somewhere from Rowan's Flying Corps and I'm gonna see if I can use them to navigate and identify the smaller towns and villages i'm flying over in-game; the larger towns like Cambrai and St Quentin seem to be in the right places and TW have obviously done a good deal of research into the names and locations of the real old WW1 airfields, something many sim players who aren't WW1 aviation buffs may not appreciate.

Overall, I reckon FE has a strong claim to being the best WW1 flight sim; OFF and RoF may have some stronger points but FE has some of its own and overall, can hold its own with the best of them. Once I get my new graphics card next month if not sooner, I'll be picking up FE2 which seems to look and run better still on Vista. With the patches, FE is already hard to beat.

Anyone who gave up on FE because of the lukewarm reception it got on release, is missing a real treat. Think I'll post something to that effect over on SimHQ; I get the impression that, even allowing for folk who write off FE because they can't fiddle with mixture settings, many tend to judge FE from it's release state and the original reviews, and would be pleasanly surprised if they took a fresh look at it, in its current form.

Thanks again!

Actually, the padlock helps you spot targets within visual range that you can't see because the monitor doesn't have enough resolution to render. Most games render long range targets larger than they should be so that you can see them or at least put a very visible black dot to help you see out to the range you could in real life. Third Wire sims don't render anything less than half a pixel in size (i.e. round down), so the only way you can spot out to the limits of human vision is to use the visual targeting keys. There is a visual spotting distance that determines whether you can "detect" and padlock visual targets, possibly a global one and/or per aircraft one. The ideal solution is to use a monitor with a large enough resolution to show 1 pixel at the limits of human vision. I don't know what resolution that is, but I know it is not 1600x1200. A work around is to not use targeting at all... don't hit the T key and don't padlock. Use track IR and zoom in to increase resolution. It is very difficult (unrealistically so), but does teach what real people doing visual searches have to do: focus at small distant areas and slowly scan the sky using patterns not unlike radar searches. But it does completely take away your peripheral vision.

Thanks for that; I did suspect that the padlockable-targets were not 'really' BVR and that is was the resolution thing. But I might still have preferred the max padlock range to be the one at which the sim can visibly render the target, in whatever form it does. Even if that gives my pilot inferior eyesight to the AI.

Glad to hear that the padlock is at least limited to a somewhat realistic range-of-vision, so I now know that it is not letting me see things that I would generally not be able to see in real life, albeit you have to get closer to see even the 'speck'.

So I remain reasonably happy with using the padlock/targeting system as compensation for the limits of sim-ing, which even with all the bells and TrackIR whistles is still a way short of replicating real-life situational awareness.

If, as seems likely, the inflight map plane icons become visible according to the same visibility range rules, I may restore them, but if so, I will use a single plane symbol for both sides, so as to prevent it providing too-easy IFF.

Re the second point, I still get the pesky 'SE5a targeted' text showing up even with the HUD at 'Hard', so I'm off now to see if I can find out where that lives and kill or cripple it.

Two things I want to do, but can't work out how/if they are possible.

First, I want to reduce the range that you can padlock a target. At the moment, I have the red box and red cone turned off, which I like. But at the moment, I can hit 'Next air tgt' and if I'm in padlock, I get a view of the sky (or the ground) where he is, but he's still too far away to be seen, not so much as a speck. So, I can spot and padlock targets beyond visual range. Not good. I want to reduce this so that when I do this, I can see at least the speck in the sky. RB3D worked this way, and it was a good way of simulating the scanning of the sky (by you AND you wingies) and compensating for the limitations of a PC/monitor (with or without TrackIR; I'm without). In RB3D, when you could padlock the tgt, you looked and the speck WAS there. That's what I want. I want to reduce the padlock range, down to the range you can actually really see the b***ers.

I hope that if that is possible, it might also reduce the range in the inflight map, where you can see the friendly & enemy plane icons. At the moment, this is also too long, giving a sort of AWACS effect, ok for the modern era or even WW2 with a radar and IFF-equipped Ground Controller, but not for WW1. At the moment I have turned the plane icons off but would turn them back on if I could reduce the range they appeared to the range a pilot could make them out as speck in real life. And replace the enemy/friendly ones with a generic plane.

Second, I want to stop the instant target ID that pops up in white text, bottom centre of the screen, when you padlock something. I already have the red target ID panel turned off, as it's just too unrealistic for a WW1 sim, even as compensation for the aforementioned PC/monitor limitations. When I target something, I don't want it to be identified. If I can't supress the displayed message altogether, I want to replace it with "Possible Hostile Aircraft targeted" rather than "SE5a targeted" (Can't use Bogey/Bandit, those are WW2 terms!).

Together, I think these changes would make FE more realistic by making the padlock/targeting feature a much better proxy for you and your flight's scanning of the skies. Now, they are too AWACS-like.

Anyone tried this or know where to look for such settings?

PS just realised from my manual that setting HUD display to 'Hard' might achieve my second objective, will give that a whirl.

Thanks for the replies guys, very helpful, will try some of that stuff.

As luck would have it, I finally got some replacements on the next mission, soon after I made the post, so maybe the High Command reads the forum here and was stung into action :)

As luck would further have it, I got shot down and killed on my first mission with some of the new guys. Sic transit gloria mundi.

anyhow, if the High Command IS reading this, thanks a heap Mein Herren, it's the thought that counts I know, but it was too little, too late :)

I remember seeing - think it was in the planningmap.ini file - somewhere the syntax seemed to allow wildcards - think it was to do with choosing which labels to apply to air and ground units in that particular map, they looked like they were calling a filename with a variable or wildcard in it, the '@' sign it was.

IF that is right, and IF it can be set up so as to allow multiple variants of a .wav file to be called with each of the briefing screens, we could have a set of non-specific but variable verbal briefings to accompany each screen - briefing, loadout, roster and planning map. Obviously, mission-specific sound file briefings would not be possible. Will keep poking around; thanks for the feedback.

According to TK, you can't get rid of the path lines from one waypoint to another. I slapped this together, if anyone wants it, I'll upload the new .tgas, and changes to the missioncontrol.ini as a mod. The Xs are waypoints, as if drawn in pencil on a map, the square is the initial point, and I left the red triangle for the target. The squadron CO put it in red, so you chaps wouldn't miss it. The dots are airfields, and no aircraft icons, friend or foe, appear.

 

http://combatace.com...19453-img00014/

Yes I for one would be interested in this, cheers. For airfield markerss, I have edited-in the Spad and Fokker plane symbols, that I have stopped appearing as 'plane-in-flight' markers, to appear instead as airfield markers, in place of the cross and cockade tga's. You might want to apply that too; I've just realised that it IS necessary to differentiate friendly and enemy airfields, because the March offensive has moved the front away from the old trench lines in my current campaign and so I can no longer tell where the current front is on the inflight map and therefore whether some airfields are ours or theirs. I like the waypoint/target markers tho, X marks the spot.

Next thing is to see if I can replace the ground unit and airfield symbols on the planning map with something less obtrusive, another job for the CO's big red pen maybe. From a quick look at the planning map's .ini file it doesn't seen immediately obvious - to me, at any rate - how that can be done but where there's a will...

Couple of questions here guys, if I may.

Am in the middle of my first FEG campaign, flying Albatros DVa's in late March 1918 for the aforementioned Bavarian Jasta. Apart from turning off most of the HUD info and map nav aids I'm flying with only landings and collisions on 'hard' so have run up a lot of kills (it seems to be counting some I got in single missions, must stop that, switch pilots first?). Nevertheless it's quite tense, nerve-wracking stuff and I have resurrected my pilot a couple of times, I have to confess. The planes, the clouds and the atmospheric visuals all look superb, a joy to behold (and apart from a few new planes and a reduced exhaust mod I'm flying stock). FE has come a long way from first release, even before you count the many great mods.

Anyhow, prob is, after my last mission I'm down to 5 out of 18 pilots, one is wounded but the rest are KIA, MIA and POW so I don't expect to see their cheerful faces back in the mess anytime soon. I've been trying to tinker with the roster to mix rookies and experienced types and rest people from time to time; however, the crunch is clearly coming soon and despite the March offensive going well and the Jasta having just been relocated to a captured RFC airfield, if I don't get some replacements soon, this can only have one end. I thought I read somewhere that there would be resupplies, but it's not planes and materiel I need, it's pilots. Soon.

So what does FE do in these situations? Am I going to get some replacements, or have to fight on to the last pilot, or is the High Command going to recognise my plight pull the Jasta out of the line before that?

And speaking of lines, the front in my sector has moved into former enemy territory and away from the old trench systems but there's no sign of the offensive that should be going on below, apart from some vicious archie from enemy airfields just the other side of the new front line from my caputred RFC 'drome. I thought I saw an 'active front mod' for FE somewhere but can't find it now; anyone know of such a thing?

TIA

these are all very old trick, dating back to SF1's first release (should be something somewhere in the old SF/Wo* KB)

 

here's another, to reove the background on the data display, and inflight messages:

 

[infoDisplay]

//BackgroundImage=TextBackground.tga <--

BottomLeftPosition=0.01,0.985

BottomRightPosition=0.99,0.985

DisplayWidth=0.20

VerticalBorder=0.0015

HorizontalBorder=0.008

EnemyTargetColor=1.0,0.0,0.0,1.0

FriendlyTargetColor=0.0,0.0,1.0,1.0

UnknownTargetColor=1.0,1.0,0.0,1.0

WaypointColor=1.0,1.0,1.0,1.0

TextFile=HUDText.str

NormalColor=1.0,1.0,1.0,1.0

WarningColor1=1.0,1.0,0.0,1.0

WarningColor2=1.0,0.0,0.0,1.0

AGLAltStart=609.6

AGLAltWarning=152.4

EnglishUnitUseMPH=TRUE

 

the real beauty of TKs stuff, is EVERYTHING is the same across the board!

 

wrench

kevin stein

Hi Kevin

Yes I think it was the knowledge base here, the thread on editing .ini files, where I found these tips, great stuff.

Is there a way to remove the actual in-flight messages as oposed to the backgrounds? Having supressed the red enemy 'target info panel' completely, but left a reduced-size target box/cone, I don't want the message popping up bottom centre, telling me "SE5A targeted" or "Approaching objective, Autopilot disengaged" as I prefer to work out for myself where I am and what that suspicious speck in the sky is, that I'm targeting.

Ivor

Have just realised the CampaignSceeen.wav file plays only BEFORE you enter the campaign mission breifing so replacing that would not work. The separate screens for the planning map and the roster have no associated wav files and are silent...which made me thing that MAYBE if I create a .wav file with the same name as each screen, it might just be played then - the convention with the screens that have a wav file is mostly that the filename is the same barring the extension, so I tried using a copy of the main menu .was renamed RosterScreen.wav but it didn't play...so much for that idea. Assuming it's the menu's .dll file that points to the music to be used it's presumably possible to edit that but obviously thst's a whole new ball game.

Update - not QUITE beaten yet. The menudata file has an ini file for each menu screen and in that it specifies the name of the .wav file to be used for that screen. So it's simple enough to add a .wav file to the mission briefing screen and to each if its component parts - the planning map, roster and loadout screens. But the same verbal briefing for each of those is gonna get a bit tired. Can't have multiple identical file names, so that's out. How to get the menu to choose at random or in rotation from a small bank of .wav files? Those who know about hand-editing these .ini files, is there any way, any syntax I could try, to offer multiple selections? Can I use wildcards, like 'RosterScreen*.wav' so that it would pick from 'RosterScreen.wav' one time, then possibly 'RosterScreen2.wav' the next?

I didn't like starting with engine off either.

But then I thought, it doesn't add much realism to a flight sim, especially a WW1 sim, just to hit a magic key and watch the prop spin, does it? Unless you are able to go through the whole drill, hitting keys or clickable cockpit switches to turn on the mixture, prime the fuel pump, like on Rowan's BoB/Wings of Victory - AND have a 3d animated mechanic standing in front of you telling you (how does it go now?) "Switches off, petrol on!" and then you repeating that and turning the fuel on, at which point he takes up the compression and then shouts "Switches on - Contact"; and after you click on the ignition and shout back "Contact!", he spins the prop and the engine splutters into life - well, unless the sim supports ALL of that, you might as well start with your engine running, really.

WW1 planes starting their engines without, at the minimum, a mechanic spinning the prop, just look hopelessly unrealistic. The CFS2 WW1 add-on 'Combat Aces' at least had some voice-acting of the above messages before your engine started with the 'E' key, ending up with the invisible mechanic wishing you good luck, which showed some imagination and was better than nothing.

In FE1, to remove the plane icons from the inflight map, I added two forward slashes to the 'Friendly/enemyicon' lines below in the MISSIONCONTROL.INI file after extracting it from Missiondata.cat in the Flight folder; I could I think have done that for other lines too, for example if I wanted to remove the waypoint markers and maybe also the 'heading line':

[Map]

UseRelativeAlignment=FALSE

RotateRunwayHeading=FALSE

MapIconSize=32

//FriendlyIcon=MapFriendlyIcon.tga

//EnemyIcon=MapEnemyIcon.tga

FriendlyRunwayIcon=MapFriendlyRunwayIcon.tga

EnemyRunwayIcon=MapEnemyRunwayIcon.tga

RadarIcon=MapRadarIcon.tga

WaypointIconSize=16

WaypointIcon=MapWaypointIcon.tga

IPIcon=MapIPIcon.tga

TargetIcon=MapTargetIcon.tga

WaypointLineColor=0.914,0.777,0.230

GridLineColor=0.0,0.0,0.0

GridTextColor=0.0,0.0,0.0

MinorGridLineColor=0.0,0.0,0.0,0.8

MinorGridTextColor=0.0,0.0,0.0,0.4

TextFontName=Arial

TextSize=12

To remove my plane and the targeted enemy plane's flight info boxes from the in-game 3D world, I added two forward slashes to the lines below in HUDDATA.INI file after extracting it from Flightdata.cat in the Flight folder:

[infoDisplay]

BackgroundImage=TextBackground.tga

//BottomLeftPosition=0.01,0.985

//BottomRightPosition=0.99,0.985

DisplayWidth=0.20

In the same file, I changed some of the entries in the sections below, to reduce the size of the enemy 'red box'/'red cone' marker, reduce the similar friendly blue box/blue cone marker, and remove the waypoint marker (white triangle and cone).

[Display001]

DisplayType=DIRECTOR

ObjectType=TARGET_ENEMY

[Display001]

DisplayType=DIRECTOR

ObjectType=TARGET_ENEMY

ConeSize=3

BoxSize=1

BoxType=SQUARE

BoxColor=1.0,0.0,0.0,0.75

ConeModelName=redcone

[Display002]

DisplayType=DIRECTOR

ObjectType=TARGET_FRIENDLY

ConeSize=3

BoxSize=1

BoxType=SQUARE

BoxColor=0.0,0.0,1.0,0.75

ConeModelName=bluecone

[Display003]

//DisplayType=DIRECTOR

//ObjectType=NEXT_WAYPOINT

//ConeSize=25

//BoxSize=10

//BoxType=TRIANGLE

//BoxColor=1.0,1.0,1.0,0.75

//ConeModelName=whitecone

All this removes the AWACS effect but means I can still use waypoints as navigation reference points. And I can still get a visible, but not too visible, box marker on padlocked planes, plus the edge-of-screen marker is still there; this I find useful if I snap back to the forward view to retain my orientation or momentarily lose my target behind a wing that I can't look over or around as easily as in real life. I would have liked the ability to switch off and on some of these things in-flight, but I having to make a choice I prefer them off; at the low speeds and altitudes involved I don't much miss having HUD data (I tend to fly in external view until just before combat, I just love the look of those planes).

Hasten to add that all of this is either taken directly from, or worked out using, the informative posts made here by others who know a lot more about this than I do.

Good luck with the work on the planning map, less icon clutter and more place names etc, this would be a VERY worthwhile mod.

the planning maps are locating in each of the terrain cat files; they're bmps and not too easily edited (even with the clone tool), but it CAN be done

 

there's an ini to edit that will remove all icons; just can't remember which one (it's the same for all 3W sims)

 

There are replacement icons (albeit for WW2), somewhere in the 1stGen SF/Wo* downloads section. Those'll give you some idea as to what's what. The FE/FE2 icons are in one of the Flight cats (disremember which)

 

edit: look in the MissionControlin, found in the MissionData.cat; a simple text edit will remove them

 

wrench

kevin stein

Cheers Kevin, I have just located the inflight map's plane icon lines in the missiondata.ini file and put a couple of forward slashes in front of each to comment them out. So am now flying with just the waypoints and my own 'heading line' shown on the inflight map, will try that for a while and if I feel ok with it, then see if I can aslo edit out the heading line and just keep the waypoint icons, without getting lost. At least I have lost the completely unrealistic AWACS effect which made life far too easy, as it seemed to me that it showed up planes which should be out of visual range. Back to scanning the skies for trails of "Archie" and watching out for the 'Hun in the sun', just like the real thing! I am now flying also with the 3D world's enemy and own plane 'info boxes' commented out too; with the padlock box and cone still available but reduced in size, FE is now looking a whole lot better as well as feeling a whole lot more realistic. Brilliant little sim, this, glad I got back into it.

Two things I want to try:

1. Planning map - compared to CFS3, this is really quite a good map but especially for FE, it is spoiled by being blotted out in places by the intrusive and 'gamey' symbols for friendly airfields and ground units. this isn't to bad for the other SF titles but for the crowded Western Front it's just a big mess of conventional symbols. What I would like to do is:

(i) replace the 'cross and cockade' airfield symbols with a simple, much less obtrusive black plane silhouette, the same for both sides. 'Ownership' will be evident from which side of the Lines it is on, tho it could be made blue or red, I'd go for just black for both sides.

(ii) replace the (ground) unit symbols with ones without the blue and red bacgrounds, just the divisional symbol , 'wire frame' style, with a transparent background.

I think this would make the planning map not just better to look at, but much better for orienting yourself before the flight - identifying landmarks for navigation, especially re your objective area, that sort of thing. I haven't seen a mod for this but if I manage to crack it , I'll post it up if there's any interest - I'm not much use with paint proggies but can probably manage this, assuming it's about locating and editing the 'offending' .tga files.

2. In flight map - this is too much like having an AWACS; fine for the modern era, even WW2 when you had planes operating with radar-equipped ground controllers, but not for WW1 without radios, let alone radar. This REALLY needs to change; it's about FE's least satisfacory single feature, right now. I'd like to see:

(i) as a minimum, no enemy plane icons.

(ii) preferably, no friendly plane icons either, just your own plane and flightpath.

(iii) best of all, no icons or markings at all, so you can navigate by eye, which looks very possible, considering the short distances involved and the fact the map can be related quite well with what you can see in the 3D world. This would introduce a whole new level of realism and interest to FE, not everyone's cup of tea but would be a big keeper for me (and I'm no study sim grognard).

I saw on the forum here that (ii) can be done but can't find where or how.

Any thoughts/suggestions/pointers, guys???

Have just realised the CampaignSceeen.wav file plays only BEFORE you enter the campaign mission breifing so replacing that would not work. The separate screens for the planning map and the roster have no associated wav files and are silent...which made me thing that MAYBE if I create a .wav file with the same name as each screen, it might just be played then - the convention with the screens that have a wav file is mostly that the filename is the same barring the extension, so I tried using a copy of the main menu .was renamed RosterScreen.wav but it didn't play...so much for that idea. Assuming it's the menu's .dll file that points to the music to be used it's presumably possible to edit that but obviously thst's a whole new ball game.

I always liked the EAW-style campaign mission briefings. Yes they were short and simplified but they really helped the immersion factor. While you studied the map there was a murmur of voices which died out as the CO got into his stride...

So I was thinking, maybe the same could be done for FE, by replacing the 'CampaignScreen' wav file with a verbal briefing. As you can't make it mission-dependent as in EAW, it would have to be a bit generic. So to avoid boredom after the first time, you would need multiple versions (plus a set for each nationality you could swap in or out manually or using maybe the JSGME mod editor). It could start with some EAW-style murmering, then something along the lines of "Right, chaps, pay attention now. The names for today's show are on the roster, so find out who you're up with. Don't forget to mark up your own map with the route. Note the bearings, speed and altitude for each leg - anyone who gets lost will be buying the drinks in the mess tonight, if the Huns don't get him! And I hope you have checked your belts are clean and properly loaded -the Armourer's life doesn't depend on your Vickers working but yours will! See you outside in 5 minutes - and good hunting!" You can see how it would be possible to produce multiple variations of that sort of thing, maybe with a bit of banter between pilots - a bit like you got in Crimson Skies, which did that unusually well, with a good deal of tongue-in-cheek banter between Nathan Zachary and his air pirates, which brought them to life!

So, does anyone know if you had, say, six different wav files in the Menu folder, all called "CampaignScreen.wav", would FE (a) crash (b) play just one or © pick between them more-or-less at random, so you got the variety? I suppose I could experiment and find out. But I daresay somebody has already tried this sort of thing and knows the answer already.

Another possibility, requiring just one track (for each nationality ideally) would be something to replace the pilot record screen music. Maybe based on the EAW nissen hut concept, where you had radio music, bedsprings creaking, and a bloke coughing, with a flypast engine sound every so often. Scratchy period gramaphone music, or maybe an RFC singsong like "The Only Way" in 'Aces High', some tinkling of glasses and other background noise or banter like you were in the Mess with the boys, an engine starting up from a test run outside, just something to give you the impression you are on a WW1 airfield, not staring at your monitor.

I prefer OFF...the movement within the cockpit is great in FE 2 but for me personally in every other area OFF beats it. FE2 has slightly cartoon look....look like RC planes to me (I do like them don't get me wrong).

 

Take a Bus up in haevy weather in OFF...check out those massive dark moody clouds that dwarf your flight...OFF has drama and amtopshere in spades..

 

RoF beats both games FM and the way the planes look...though again let down by the scenery and clouds...and has no amtosphere and little immersion...feeling of flight is superb though and I'm sure Multi player it shines but OFF beats it for an SP experience.

 

WOuld have been nice to see an expansion...and a terrain\sky update aswell as tweak the FM's...it would start to meet it's potential then.

 

As fr OFF getting hold of the engine...not sure I'd be happy....I'd want to see a complete overhaul so planes don't fly with half a wing missing etc..and make the planes look less toy like...the only bonus (and it is a biggy) is again I love the movement within the cockpit thus giving the Bus a 3d feel rather than a 2d image of a cockpit moving through 3D terrain.

Personally I think FE, on balance, is at least as good as OFF, comparing OFF Phase 2 (and what I have seen of Phase 3) with FE1 patched.

Both have a very limited range of 2-seaters. Neither has great AI but FE's AI is rather better, seeming to cope better with slow WW1 planes than does OFF/CFS3 eg no crashing on/after takeoff, slightly better formation flying, somewhat better evasive action (hate those low-level up-and-down antics in OFF). Patched, FE's planes look a LOT better, complete with dynamic shadows, animated pilots and guns/engines, and high-resolution textures; in particular, the FE Camel's external and internal models must be among the best seen in any 'survey' sim. I totally disagree that the FE planes are 'toy-like'; they are superb, beautiful to look at, in cockpit or external views. The FE planes 'decals' look a LOT better than the IL2 equivalent and give squadron planes a unique identity. The OFF clouds and scenery are somewhat better than stock FE's but FE's fog and lighting effects give the FE world a quite beautiful appearance and it has good mods for clouds and terrain. FE's rendition of roads, rivers and to a lesser extent, towns or villages is generally better than OFF's CFS3-based equivalent. FE's inflight and planning maps aren't great but they are better than OFF's map, based as it is on the truly appalling CFS3 low-resolution crud. The OFF WW1 world has a better ground war environment, tho FE's isn't bad. Both have flaws in damage modelling. FE has a great range of free addon planes, terrains ond other stuff. OFF's limitations on 'warping' may have been reduced in recent versions but FE's is not speed-limited. The OFF SP campaign has some nice features; FE's reminds me of EAW's; a few less trimmings to be sure, but somehow just as engaging.

Speaking as someone who has just got back into simming, it's evident that FE has come a long way since the original release. On balance, I think it now has a strong claim to being the best all-round WW1 sim currently available. What it may lack compared to OFF and RoF in some areas, it makes up for in others.

I'm just getting back into SFP1, WoE, WoV and FE (plus have just got 'WoE2' for comparison) and have naturally acquired some 3rd party planes. Now sone addons like the NATO fighters series seem to feature extra campaigns with add-on planes which is great but many add-on planes, while showing up as choicesand flyable in Single Missions, don't seem to appear in campaigns (amybe they do but I've just not seen one yet).

Now I'd not necessarily expect adding a plane to make that plane usable by the player in campaign mode, as that would need squadron and base data to be associated, but I was sort of hoping they would show up as AI planes. Especially in First Eagles, where the selection of enemy (and friendly!) 2-seaters is especially limited - one of the things I enjoy in good old Red Baron 3D was seeing FK8s and FE2s in the air as well as BE2s, that sort of thing. But I suppsoe AI planes in SFP1/FE maybe need base and squadron date too, not just the plane available for Single Missions.

Tried searching here but can't find the answer, so can anyone help? Is there a way of getting extra, third-party planes to show up in campaigns, short of d'l ing a campaign which features them?