Lexx_Luthor

Probably won't need any skins. The problem with building up a large cloud out of smaller balls is wasted polys that you won't see. But, that said, if you are inside a one large volume cloud (no collision points but see footnote below), it would be "clear" to the cloud boundary. Can't see beyond, but everything inside the volume would be visible. Big problem. That probably requires developer programming....and AI responding to the cloud on top of that. Smaller balls making up a large cloud can help create internal visual obstructions. On the other hand, a very few large towering cumulus clouds, very widely spaced apart, can be seen as atmosphere "terrain" -- eye candy -- visual things that you fly past on missions, and visible for hundreds of miles, like that (very large) cloud the F-105 is flying towards. I noticed the flat pancakes in one pic above. A flat thin 1D object might be possible, with holes in it, like a flat cloud layer. That would not cause any issues with seeing...you are either below it, or above it, but never inside it. oh, yeah, that footnote: ** a small collision area, or a group of them, one for each ball, could simulate extreme turbulence inside the cloud. Only a small chance of getting hurt, but its still there. Can't randomize it though.

I got the idea from the giant white radomes....here is one from the SF, forgot author but its really nice... ...its here at the combatace. Can't really see the polygon faces in the dome here (I did some lighting experiments on this dome, lighting up from the missile flame). 3D clouds, much larger, would light up in a 3D way like this by, say nuc explosions. SF moon also illuminates and shadows 3D objects, like the 3D clouds you are thinking of.

well dam, this is bizzaro. I'll have to think about this some more.

Ah, I wished I say your poast first. Is it possible to craft a closed single volume object with chaotic random appearing faces? Only external polygon faces are needed. ie... you won't need to waste polygons on otherwise never seen internal sides of spheres. I was thinking if I got the 3DMAX this is what I would try to do. But money is short so all I did was theorize. Its about all I can do anyways, and I'm not good at that even.

Yeah...notice the hard cloud edge. Until you get close to the cloud, the cloud has hard edges. Guess 90% of player time is far from the cloud, and so should be seen having hard edges if both are not possible to model -- multiple LOD levels? This is one reason why the old 3D solid clouds in 1990s sims -- at least Flaker 1.0 as that was the only one I played back then -- are today 14 years later a more accurate model of large cumulus clouds than today's "texture" puffs, even if they were *very* low polygons in the 1990s. Server, is your next step a single volume 3D shape with rather chaotic polygon faces?

THAT'S IT!!! Server seemingly small first step can, with extensive development and learning, grow into the greatest advances in combat flight sims since... Recall the ancient combat flight sims, the Sims of Olde, the Sims of Reknown. They had 3D cumulus clouds, although with very few polygons. DOS Su-27 FLAKER 1.0 from 1995 for example (don't know about F-16 FLACON). But something went wrong. For some reason, The Sims developers went "textures" instead, and cumulus cloud development in The Sims stagnated for a decade. 3D cumulus clouds would respond to the SF sun perfectly. Sunlit and shadow sides of clouds. Dark flat underneath where the SF Sun don't shine. Cloud polygon faces that face to the SF sun can turn gold or red in the sunset, depending on face-sun angle. Yikes....this is really neat stuff. :ok:

This could be interesting: Are the cirrus target buildings appearing? I'm using ModelName=GeneratorBuilding1.lod but then I don't use the gen buildings otherwise.

uh, Panic time. Your cirrus are always at the target area bottoms. Try replacing the first target object with the CirrusTarget. Target[001].Type=HQBuilding1 CHANGE TO CirrusTarget Target[001].Offset=-1502,-64 Target[001].Heading=90

Two things to try... Cirrus up an airbase. If that don't work, try an ENEMY airbase.

Delete all cirrus entries in your file -- word search to make sure they are all gone. Pick one (1) target, an airbase, then cirrus it up, and poast the complete text for that one target area here. Just that one target. And we'll look at it. Then we move from there if needed.

AWSIM nice metal skin

hgbn:: I'm doing a 20 year sentance for this crime, no parole. CAstary....CELEBES is the coolest island in the world. Very nice steep terrain...Fantastic for a fictional S. Pacific campaign WW2 or maybe late 1950s.....quick strike into the area, China provide the manpower and USSR the air force and ships. Kamtchatka also has nice exotic steep terrain. I hope the DBS folks include Kamchatka in their terrain (or is it out yet?).

At 70k feet, you are doing near space combat, near vacuum. Cannon shells keep going fast like Duracell Bunny. Gravity is still the same, but shells keep there speed for a long time. If I recall right ( )...one F-86 pilot in Korea regularly got 0.50cal kills at over a mile in the low density air at 30k+ feet, to the surprise of squad mates who couldn't understand it.

Wow Veltro these are really nice models. Very nice D detailing on the canopy frames and interior. These olde style jets are really nice.

Interesting. TYPES are the same as mine. Okay. TARGETS...mmm Target 155 should have cirrus as [015] not [013]. Target 156 is all messed up with out of place numbers. Should the [nnn] numbers be consecutive integers? I always assumed this. Some of the other cirrus'ed target areas seem to be numbered right, but I just briefly skipped over a few looking for more out of sequence numbering. You have alot of cirrus targets here. Try just one at an airbase (enemy if friendly does not work)... and not carrier station, and see if you can get THAT one airbase cirrus to work alone. I never seen that before...carrier station. I have only put cirrus at airbases, since the terrain I use is still very pre-Alpha.

Just poast the sections dealing with the cirrus stuff. Very small text block. That way everybody gets a look.

Yough server, can you poast the section of your Terrain_DATA.ini file that has the Cirrus target stuff? same thing from the Terrain_TYPES.ini ....the stuff that sets up the targets.

Marital Arts or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Pea Sitting Down in Two Weeks

Baloney. Its all about paperwork reduction. You know how many guys have told me.......... I was gonna fly Tomcats in TEH NAVY, but I messed up my knees. Everybody wants to be a Movie Star or Tomcat Pilot. Reduce the number of applicants. Ussian football is all about NAVY paperwork reduction. The greatest Conspiracy OF ALL TIME. Avoid football like the plague....take up Marital Arts!!!

Back when I was in the FB, I made the smoothest mission. I setup a ring of maybe 100 German observation balloon launchers in a valley surrounded by the steep forested Kuban mountains (south east Kuban map). That was the best immersive map in the early FB days. I setup a Russian AA piece that, under AI control, would fire against the balloon launchers. As each one got destroyed, the balloon would begin to slowly rise into the air forever. Player aircraft took off a mountain top (no airfield) and you fly down to the valley and start popping balloons. Rocket armed I-153 was alot of fun, then use the MGs. Best was TB-3, where you fly around and switch to various open gunner cockpits and pop balloons with a small MG. The TB-3 was slow enough that you had to pop balloons as fast as possible, because the balloons will eventually rise above your ability to climb the airplane. The fun mission got a good reception among people who downloaded it. One fella/fellatte poasted that his/her daughter loved the mission.

Yea, try leaving Adjust Start Heading and Adjust Takeoff/Land unchecked...ignore them. One or both cause jumping and blowups.

Oh yea, and clouds are condensed water vapour -- tiny water droplets. IR is blocked by this. So clouds are bad news. Just to clear up any confustion: even on "clear" cloudless days, there is still alot of IR absorbtion at low altitudes on humid days, less on dry days. At high altitudes, this is not an issue, its always dry. although sometimes water/ice clouds do get up near and into the stratosphere which would be a problem. I'm not sure about the IR absorbtion by ice however (cirrus clouds and thunderhead blowoffs). Never thought of that.

Hey yough 76. Inrared light is absorbed by water vapour -- the haze in the sky that turns the sky from blue to, well, haze. The hazier the air, the less IR radiation gets to the missile seeker. Ideally, you want a combat environment with minimal water vapour, cold temperature, and thin air. Vietnam was fought at low level, in hot air, with tropical style humidity water vapour levels. However, no matter where on Earth, you find the ideal conditions above say 30,000 feet near the stratosphere. Czech this article out if you have not seen it yet which describes the China/Formosa air war 1958 where the AIM-9B proved brutally lethal and dependably reliable at the high "korea-esque" combat altitudes. China and Taiwan since 1945; Part 1~> http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_145.shtml Word search for Arrival of the Snakes and read on down through the entire Turkey Shoot section to the end. It evaporates the pop culture Myth of Sidewinder "unreliability."

Yeah the link comments, ex-boyfriend?

Whoa. You were that close? What's it like out there?