Stephen1918

I miss this stuff too. Has First Eagles come to an end?

Yeah, a hard drive crash would be easier to recover from. In this case the software itself died. My copy of 3D Studio Max was about 15 years old. It started shutting down unexpectedly, then it started throwing error messages, then it refused to start. Autodesk stopped supporting it years ago, so no help there. I contacted everyone I know and tried everything I could think of, including reinstalling it from scratch. I finally gave up. This happened more than a week ago. I am over the bitching phase, and the feeling depressed phase, now I'm in the "Let's carry on from here" phase. I'm making good progress with Blender. The biggest downside is that I lost a huge library of components that I had created - but if I did it once, I can do it again, it's only a matter of time...

Bad news. My copy of 3DS Max has died and I am not able to resurrect it. So all the 3D models I've done for First Eagles are gone. However, Mue has made an LOD exported for Blender. I'm starting to learn Blender and hopefully I'll be able to make planes for FE again soon. Mue's exporter only works for FE2. I'm going to have to dust off my copy and get FE2 set up.

I've enjoyed working with all of Mue's utilities and have found them extremely helpful. I have a question about the LOD exporter for Blender - When I was working with 3DS Max, the exporter made LODs that worked in both SF1 and SF2. Now that I'm working with Blender, the exporter makes LODs that only work with SF2. My question is: what is the difference between the LODs for 1 and 2 and is it possible to convert down to 1?

I'm back to the Polish-Russian war. Finally started working on some new planes - Ansaldo Ballila for the Kosciuszko squadron.

All of my mods include complete installation instructions for both FE1 and FE2. Planes are probably the easiest to install, I would begin with some of them.

Also - Strike Fighters and First Eagles have different kinds of guns, bombs, pilots, etc. so after you bring an FE plane into SF, you would have to do some modding to the data files, and to the system resources to make it work.

I'm still playing from time to time. Mostly on the Eastern Front and the Spanish Civil War. Still modding a little bit too.

Sorry it took so long to answer, I've had health issues - in and out of the hospital, etc. If you want the Ford FT-B to operate as a tank, showing up in ground attack missions, simply drop the folder into your GroundObject folder. If you want to place static vehicles around the terrain, you need to have in your GroundObject folder, then add some lines to the Types.ini in your Terrain folder. I used the data for trucks in the stock game and modified the code. Add this to the end of your Types.ini - [TargetTypeXXX] Name=FordFTB DetailLevel=1 FullName=Ford FT-B TargetType=TANK ActiveYear=0 TargetValue=0 UseGroundObject=TRUE GroundObjectType=FordFTB RepairRate=0.555 StartDetectChance=0 StartIdentifiedChance=0 IncreaseDetectChanceKey=0 MaxVisibleDist=8000.0 DestroyedEffect=MediumFire SecondaryEffect=SmallRocketGroundExplosion SecondaryChance=100 Change the "XXX" to the next consecutive number in the Types.Ini. list Then you have to add the vehicle to the Targets.ini in the places you want it to appear, like any other target. I hope this isn't too late to be helpful.

I discovered a problem with the Nieuport 21. There were differences between the various LODs which caused the wings on one side of the plane to disappear as the plane moved into the distance. I tracked down the problem and fixed it. A new version has been uploaded, I highly suggest you get the new version. All skins, decals, and loadouts are unchanged. The only difference is in the LODs, so you can just swap the old ones with the new ones if that's easier for you.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings, to all my friends at Combat Ace!

View File Polish-Russian War - Russian Tachanka A tachanka was a horse drawn wagon or cart with a heavy machine gun mounted on the back. This made it possible to deploy machine guns quickly, especially on the wide, rapidly changing, Eastern Front. It was used by Russian cavalry in WWI and by Bolshevik, White Russian, Ukrainian, and Polish cavalry in the Russian Civil Wars. Germany used a similar vehicle on the Eastern Front during WWI. My tachanka is a troika (three horse carriage) with a Vickers machine gun facing the rear. It functions in First Eagles as a Truck; drop it into your Ground Objects folder and First Eagles will assign it to some of your Armed Reconnaissance missions. The machine gun is set for AA and will fire at enemy planes that come within its field of fire. The download includes three LODs and a destroyed version. My thanks to Gepard for suggesting this interesting vehicle. Installation Instructions For both FE1 and FE2 Unzip the file and open my "GroundObject" folder. Copy the folder named "Tachanka" to your FirstEagles/Objects/GroundObject folder. Then copy the file named "TachankaDestroyed.bmp" into your GroundObject folder. Note that the "TachankaDestroyed.bmp" file should not be inside any other folder. Submitter Stephen1918 Submitted 12/17/2021 Category First Eagles - WWI and Early Years - Object Mods

The tachanka has been uploaded, currently waiting for administrator's approval. The file is bigger than the trucks included in the stock First Eagles. I have included three LODs to help manage frame rate. I'm getting a decent frame rate (low 20's) on my computer. There is a destroyed version, just the wagon. Sorry, no bloody horses.

I don't see nor did I intend any anger there. I'm sorry if you took offense. Are you saying that I should stop uploading files because they're made for a slower computer?

Yes, we've talked about this before, and as I've said before, I make everything to work well on my machine. For me, playing the game is more important than showing off how much detail I can make. I include as much detail as I can without slowing down my computer too much, and that's what I upload. Of course, when you make yours, you can make it the way you want. The tachanka will be ready to upload later today.

I agree with Gepard, a larger horse team looks better. I made a troika version of the tachanka. In FE it functions as a truck (transport) and it shows up in Armed Recon missions. The gunner will shoot at enemy aircraft if they come into his target area. Since he faces the rear, he's perfectly positioned to shoot planes lined up for a strafing or bombing run. This turned out to be a bigger project than I thought. I got caught up in the challenge of getting the gunner to move in a big enough range to be effective. The file size is much larger that I like, I'll try to bring the size down. Then I have to make the LODs and finish the skins.

I used a two man crew so there would be enough room for the gunner to move. Otherwise his range of motion is too limited.

Beautiful skins, I'm looking forward to your uploads.

Today I uploaded the Nieuport 21. It was intended to be an escort and used a Nieuport 17 airframe with a smaller engine (to extend its range.) It was used by the French, British and Russians, and saw a lot of use post war. I have included two skins, a full set of decals, a fully functional cockpit, and my skinning templates. My thanks to Ojcar, who made the FM, which captures the fast climbing speed, but low power of this plane.

View File Nieuport 21 The Nieuport 21 was designed to be a long range escort fighter. It used a Nieuport 17 airframe with the smaller Nieuport 11 engine to reduce fuel consumption and extend its range. The lighter weight gave the plane a good climb rate, but the lower power engine reduced its speed. The Nieuport 21 served along with the Nieuport 17 on the Western Front. It was also licensed to the Dux factory in Russia and large numbers were used on the Eastern Front. My version of the Nieuport 21 is armed with a single Lewis gun mounted on the upper wing and has a loadout for eight Le Prieur Rockets for Balloon Busting missions. This package features two skins - one French, one Russian - a set of decals, and a fully functional cockpit. My skinning templates are included with the download. This plane uses the Le Prieur Rockets created by P10ppy and a sound file created by Nixou (included with his Realistic Engine Sounds package). Both of these files are available in the Combat Ace Download section. Both of these files are used by other aircraft, so you may already have them. I have included Nixou's sound file with this package in case you don't already have it. Credits: My thanks to Ojcar for making the data file for the Nieuport 21. My thanks to Nixou for making the sound file for the Le Rhone 80hp engine. Installation instructions: This aircraft uses P10ppy's Le Prieur rockets available in the CombatAce downloads section. You may already have it. If you don't, you'll have to download it and install it into your Weapons folder. For FE1: Unzip the file and move the folder named "Nieuport21" into your FirstEagles/Objects/Aircraft folder. If you don't already have it, copy the file named "LeRhone9c80hp1m4" from my Sounds folder into yours. For FE2: Unzip the file and move the folder named "Nieuport21" into your FirstEagles/Objects/Aircraft folder. Then in your FirstEagles/Objects/Decals folder, create a new folder named "Nieuport21". Move the folder named "D" from the Airplanes/Nieuport21 folder into the Decals/Nieuport21 folder you just made. If you don't already have it, copy the file named "LeRhone9c80hp1m4" from my Sounds folder into yours. Submitter Stephen1918 Submitted 12/05/2021 Category Nieuport