Lexx_Luthor

Awsum. Well, I don't really need skins at this point, working on other things. But if you like, you can help another with a Question if they need it. Teamwork I guess can cover enough knowledge to find a solution better. There is one "skin" that is bothering me...its Pasko's bubble nose addon to make MiG-17 into Pasko's MiG-17PFU. This is NOT an aircraft but is modded as a "weapon" addon to the nose!!! The radar nose is white, and have not found a way to make it SovieSilver like the rest of the plane--but then I have not spent time on it either (about 5 minutes tops). So its no problem now, but I am curious about this, and I have not asked Pasko about it. Don't worry about it unless you are interested in exploring the weird and the bizarre. btw....those early K-5 missiles and Pasko's radar mod are FUN because of the severe limitations of this primitive system. I am using Hard radar mode, so I need the cockpit light, but it works....kinda...and I bet the "kinda" is fairly realistic. The F-94B and F3D radar interceptors are really fun too, gunnery looking down into radar scope. F-94 found at http://home.earthlink.net/~pasko_patak/planes.html , I forgot where I found the F3D, probably COMBATACE. Bubble mod ~> http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?download=458 17PFU version 1 ~> http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?download=397 Good read on MiG~17PFU radar and missiles... http://www.brushfirewars.org/aircraft/mig_...pm/mig_17_2.htm later!!

Gettin there. I think. Imported my DEM, but for some reason always must load an HFD file first. Saved my DEM as HFD, and tiled it using desert tiles and texture list. Thanks Deuces. Now, I think I need to save my tiled New map as TFD to get it initially working in-game. I really need to stop posting my first thoughts in excitement, its very embarassing.

This thing goes all the way to the North Pole. ... there should be Zero linear distance across the top of the GTOPO30 map here, I think. fng2k tiled a Scandinavian map, apparently from the same block of GTOPO30 lattitude, and it seemed to work somewhat. I found the Import DEM in the TE menu under EDIT, but its disabled unless I first "File Open" the DEM, then I can do the Import. I setup the 89N and 60E in the Terrain Editor text file, and the Import dialogue box comes up showing these numbers. There I am stuck again. What to do with the DEM to convert it to a HFD?

Ouch, I am *thinking* now. This is very far north. DEM data is in polar coordinates, but stretched to be pictured as a rectangle on the website. In rectangular coordinates, the map would really look like a section of cone, wide at the bottom edge and narrow at top edge. I am guessing the maximum possible size for a square TE map would be the minimum top width -- about 1000km in this case judging by an old USSR map. I have read that TE maps must be square, so I am looking at a 1000km square map. Although, I could start at a somewhate lower latitude which would offer a larger distance across the top edge of the DEM map. ....worse, the polar DEM map confused me, and I looked at my USSR map wrong. Its nowhere near 2500km like I thought. :black eye: Some good reading about rivers at ThirdWire... TK to fng2k::

I GOT em. This is what I longed for ~~> http://edcdaac.usgs.gov/gtopo30/e060n90.asp The long horizontal island off the upper left coastline is "Novaya Zemlya" where much Soviet nuke testing was done. Much Cold War overflights or boundary flights off that one. I got the DEM file, but using WinRar I did not see the message that website posted above talks about... So, I just extracted and saw the DEM file among others. Now, how to get this into Terrain Editor and how much of it? The DEM is about 2500km left to right. I have no idea how to proceed here, but will continue to experiment. Thanks. I would love to use all 2500km...

And, I got it I think I changed the DESERT water terrain tga's to bmp's, Auto textured including transitions, and for good measure Rotated the new map 90 degrees. Put the new TFD file it into my SF DESERT folder and flew a mission over a terrain-rotated map. It functioned. Thanks Deuce. I have much to experiment with now. Where do you get those new HFD files?

Thanks. I'm on it.

I am lost. I think I need that standard texture.ini list. I thought it may be in the desert.cat but its not. Maybe I should start out experimenting with the Default SF map. I got the TE to tile the DBS map with one tile type. The texture list I modified but only "sea" showed in the TE.

*bump* Any luck? also, just looking for a place to post this. J~2 cammo? ~~> http://www.airwar.ru/enc_e/fighter/j2.html I almost did not see the airplane sitting there. I got this odd feeling in the pit of my stomach whenever the plane pops into view. Wierd.

Thanks. What I am hoping I can do is a "small" 2000+km section near the North Pole, on the Soviet side (maybe later a Canada side). Its a big place. Small section of this ~~> http://www.rb-29.net/HTML/77ColdWarStory/02.03rcnbgn.htm Just for starting out, I have thought of 4 terrain types to reduce complexity. It does not need fancy terrain tiles, and I personally don't really need any cities, roads, and rivers. (1) Mountain (2) Snow/Tundra (depending on season) .. (3) Sea/Sea+Ice (depending on season) (4) Forest ... I have fallen hopelessly in ~love~ with the Korea map forest texture. : When I have started certain "art" projects in the past, I told myself I don't need to get Fancy, but I end up not being satisified and making more. : (5) possible Ice Burgs...that would be sweet. If I can restrict Ice Burgs to be bounded only by Sea or Sea+Ice and no other terrain types, that would simplify things I guess.

Thanks Deuces. I am trying some stuff from your posts, and having very limited success so far, but some success nevertheless. I need to spend more time on it. I'll be back. Question:: The EAWeuro map area is 1500km wide, and AI aircraft follow waypoints in the exteneded area okay. The Euro landmass mapped out is smaller of course. Are there any limits to SF map sizes? From reading the simhq map threads, I know maps must be square, and possibly multiples of the Default 1000km. Also, what is the "real" SF map scale. I am confused at the posts I have seen about this. Thanx~

mmm, does it let you install WoV into a different folder than the Default folder? I installed WoV only once, so I doubt I will be of much help on this. I have un~installed and installed Strike Fighters at least twice...I think.

Odd. Before I posted above, to Be Sure I would not mislead you, I added that A4B cockpit line to my MiG~19S file in a clean unPatched SF install, and it shows up as selectable in Single -> Create mission, and it dumps me into the MiG just fine, with A4B cockpit. We must work on this. My SF CD is fairly new, came in a jewel box, and was version 12-25-03 and lets me start Patching with Service Pack 3. Hold off on the Skin until we work this out. I am fairly recent Newbie to all this, so somebody else here will probably Win that Skin. :yes:

Thanks. I will take that information and begin some Experiments. The small square tool buttons on upper left of TE -- are those specific functions not covered in the drop down menus?

Okay, each terrain folder has an HFD file, and they all work well in TE. You must zoom out and engage View ~ Height Field and you see the familiar looking map. For some reason, the Italy/Yugoslavia tutorial map does not work in the TE. I got stuck there for a while.

aha I got it...mmm I think. I found a prototype Korea folder with HFD map I had downloaded, and its working in TE. Thanks~

* EDIT ... you probably know ~all~ this, but for self~refresh and in case other Newbies will see something New... ----------------------------------- In the COCKPIT data file is Position using (x,y,z) coordinates--if not, add the Position line under ModelName. This is cockpit position relative to the airplane. If I recall ( ) x is left/right, y is forward and back, z is vertical up/down. B-58 is a tall plane and a long plane, so the small fighter cockpit Position z value may be far too low (and y value too far back). You have to play with the numbers to get the right position...too find that you will need some kind of external reference. I suggest that the delta wing not be visible from the B-58 cockpit position, but the forward tips of the inboard engine intakes can be seen (they extend ahead of the wing, and are lower than the cockpit). Possibly the outboard engine intakes can be seen too. You decide. :yes: Not a pilot cockpit shot, but close http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvburen/b-58/gfx/gallery/dd/19.jpg pilot shot, but straight ahead only http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvburen/b-58/molehole/dirga/07.htm lifted from ~~> http://www.xs4all.nl/~mvburen/b-58/ Here is part of my Yak-15 COCKPIT file, for which I use the "real" Yak-3 cockpit instead of the P-51 cockpit, and I had to change the Position (Offset is pilot position inside the cockpit in which you move pilot around inside the cockpit). You will probably need a positive number for the Position y value, as your cockpit may need moving forward along the larger plane B-58. Experiment.

This may help... SF Editing Notes ~~> http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=4078 First page deals much with the flight model ini

I am Total Newbie in FM subject, but if you are looking for B-58 flight modding, you might could start testing B-58 with the A~5B Vigilante and Mirage III flight models, experiment, root around, see how these Artists did their work, add some J-79s, and go from there. I don't know the FM sorcerer's secrets. A-5B is here http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?download=732 Mirage IIIC is here http://www.column5.us/aircraft.shtml Thanks! B-58 will go great with the heavy Soviet interceptors we have now and may be coming -- is there a way to make AI use afterburners when following high speed waypoints?

You must make it Flyable. For a quick fix add the bold line below to the MiG-19S text file...you use the A-4B cockpit. You can also use the F-100D cockpit. or CockpitDataFile=F-100D_cockpit.ini Green panel and black panel Russian language versions of the A-4B cockpit for this very purpose are found in the CombatAce aircraft download section. Read the readme file after downloading and unzipping and follow directions. It works! :yes: Much deeper cockpit file fixes allow you to see the MiG wings from inside the cockpit and other stuff like moving pilot face closer to instrument panel while keeping wide angle view (I use 120 degrees). But to start out with Making MiGs Flyable , use the basic A-4 or F-100 ideas above. A MiG~19 pit may be coming ... can't find the link now... mmm

Without more information detailing what you are doing, I am guessing you are.... (1) ...probably thinking indicated airspeed which the speedbar displays on the monitor, which is close to true airspeed near sea level, but at high altitude drops to maybe half the true airspeed -- for example, 600 as one sig-fig is about half of 1322, for example. Or... (2) ...you are using true airspeed but flying F~16 at sea level, but it needs to fly at high altitude to reach mach 2. On a related note -- AI supersonic dash. How to get AI to turn on their afterburners in normal flight. That B~58 will need high altitude supersonic waypoint capability in the hands of AI.

What you may need to do is pick an example plane for us, and we will try to replicate your problem. Most likely you will see how we do it. In my case...Make ALL downloads to a single folder with a simple name...in my case.. D:\b or the folder "b" on the D drive. Then unzip or unrar directly into that folder (at least rar does this auto), the extraction will create a subfolder... b\B-47E ... for the B-47E case. Then copy the new folder to where you need it to go...and/or copy the contents of the new folder. Sometimes you must navigate deep inside the newly created folder to find the final subfolder you need to copy .... the file creators are assuming in this case that you will unzip directly to StrikeFighters basic game folder so they include all the StrikeFighters folders and subfolders and subsubfolders etc... Perhaps most important, if you extract into non~game folder and copy what you need to the game folders, you will always have the unzipped (or unrarred) folders for backup if you need to start over from re~install, or make another install...and you will never have to unzip (or unrar) again.

Well that's new. ;) Ya, I guess removing land bases won't let you takeoff from carrier if carrier takeoff "create missions" don't happen. I was thinking of land bases only. If you do make changes make sure you make copies of original file for safety or as USAFMTL says you will end up Re~installing.

Here is MiG~25 on most "un flat" airfield... ;) ...just what we need!!! ~~> http://aeronautics.ru/mikoyan/mig25_31/mig-25rbk-003.jpg Some great, and some humurous, -25 pics here...this one should make great load screen. ~~> http://aeronautics.ru/mikoyan/mig25_31/mig-25p-008.jpg Lifted from... http://aeronautics.ru/mikoyan/mig25_31/

Just tested:: the Width and Height control the size of the hud radar display. I am still fairly new to this, and I am making Bad mistakes and misleading others... (1) HUDDATA file has lines that control the text displaying data on player or externally viewed aircraft; data like airspeed, altitude, etc... (2) There is another file called MESSAGESYSTEM that controls the onscreen messages from ground control or friendly aircraft. Here is my total message file...some Default settings are replaced but I saved them by just "remarking" them out with double slash //. I believe the Devs used ";" to also remark out certain lines with ";" and replaced them with others. my complete MESSAGESYSTEM file... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TextFontName=Arial TextSize=9 [MessageSystem] MaxMessages=4 MessageTime=8.0 MessageFadeTime=1.0 ;MaxMessages=25 ;MessageTime=200 ;MessageFadeTime=2.5 [MessageWindow] //BackgroundImage=TextBackground.tga TopLeftPosition=0.14,0.91 BottomRightPosition=0.90,0.99 //TopLeftPosition=0.22,0.8 //BottomRightPosition=0.78,0.985 VerticalBorder=0.0015 HorizontalBorder=0.008 ;TopLeftPosition=0.2,0.2 ;BottomRightPosition=0.8,0.985 ;VerticalBorder=0.0015 ;HorizontalBorder=0.00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here is my InfoDisplay in HUDDATA file.... [infoDisplay] //BackgroundImage=TextBackground.tga BottomLeftPosition=0.01,0.985 BottomRightPosition= //BottomRightPosition=0.99,0.985 DisplayWidth=0.30 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 ------------------------------------------------------------- Note, I "remarked" out ("//" ) the background image lines, as this text box covers the radar display where I have the radar placed now, although I am probably going back to using it, as it really helps seeing the text against white terrain like snow, and it does not really hurt the radar display. Or I could change the text colour to, say, green, but then that may conflict with green terrain. :)