Menrva

It's a bit early to define such news as good. Yes, we might have reached the peak a few days ago, when we had 800 deaths and almost 5000 contagions. Yesterday we had 600 deaths and more than 3000 contagions. It could be we reached the peak, or it might be a fluctuation, only future days will tell. Even if numbers are dropping, it's far from being manageable now. The hospitals in the north collapsed, there are field hospitals taking new patients in. Doctors have no masks and proper protective equipment, and are in danger of contracting the disease themselves. They are true heroes in these dark days. Fortunately many people made it through, survived the virus. But there are news of cases in Asia where a few contracted it again. So we are not even 100% sure they'll be immune.

New updates on recent progress. First of all, apologies to keep you guys waiting. Unfortunately, RL is a toll for everyone. The add-on will be ready when it's ready. From time to time new things that need improvement are found, but we're almost there. @yakarov79 has been instrumental in making the new cockpit 3d model; me and him have constantly worked together to bring you a nicer, more realistic Raptor cockpit; by realistic, I mean that MFDs have got a new layout to better resemble what the real Raptor's cockpit has got, within SF2 engine limitations of course. Julhelm has been very kind to allow yakarov79 to improve upon his previous 3d model. Here below a few comparison shots: Old cockpit 3d model by Julhelm, avionics by Crusader New cockpit 3d model by yakarov79, textures by yakarov79 and yours truly; avionics update by Crusader, reworked by yours truly. Since the package will keep you waiting some more, I added new extras to it; the skin pack will feature the below skin, directly inspired by Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War. Such a Raptor skin was part of a DLC of Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation.

@Dysko I live in the Marche region, luckily to the south. We have a number of cases, a couple even in my little town, but it's nothing compared to what you guys are experiencing to the North. The images of the convoy saddened me so much. And there are people in the EU still not realizing this is a serious matter... Well, we have our own problems now, we must resist. Divided we stand, united we will rise again. Andrà tutto bene.

Here's a list of all US Army ranks: https://www.military-ranks.org/army

@gerwin I am not claiming that the virus is deadly all by itself, but it is indeed speeding up the deaths of hundreds of elderly people each day (and by elder people, I mean those who are more than 50 year old). You see, my dad was diagnosed a rare blood disease last November. He's prone to get ill. If he ever gets the virus, I know what will happen to him, but I do not want to even think about it. Of those 300 that are dying everyday, many could have lived for years to come, even with their own previous diseases and conditions. The virus is not so light as others still make it believe. Just to provide an example close to me; a municipal employee in my province went to work with fever. He had the virus, and with his recklessness he infected lots of colleagues. A colleague of his infected his own father, and the father died. Last I have heard, the employee who started it all was in resuscitation. My grandma is 89 years old. Of course she has got some conditions with her age, but she is healthy nonetheless. With the virus, she'd be a goner. I hope that clarifies things. I am not willing to let old people die (and my father is not even that old, he's in his 60s)

Couldn't agree more with you, @Erik We Italians warned our neighbors as much as possible, but other EU countries did not want to listen. They preferred to keep activities open for money and economy. Now they'll have bigger trouble than us in a matter of weeks. This is what happens when you care more about money and less about health. The EU leaders thought they could get away with it, let Italy go into recession while they could grow their own economies. They didn't realize everyone is going to suffer from the consequences of the outbreak. And don't get me started about the "herd immunity" crap from UK's PM; I also read Netherlands wants to do the same, but not sure if it's true. Be ready to see your hospitals being overwhelmed, without remaining ICUs. Number of deaths will increase because of such horrible, Hitler-like decisions. A strong government will protect the weaker, a weak government will only let the "strong" live. For once, I am proud to be Italian. Our government took its time, but now is dealing with this very seriously. At the moment, we have more than 300 deaths a day, at this rate we'll have 2,000 deaths by the end of the week. The Northern regions' hospitals are collapsing due to ICUs being full. My town just got hit yesterday by the virus, with the first contagion. Me and my loved ones are all in lockdown, we have enough supplies for this week. PS: China is helping Italy by sending lots of medical supplies. The EU was somewhat mocking us and even blocked our orders of masks our doctors need. We payed for those, but we haven't seen them. So much for solidarity in the EU, pfff. Rant over, from the guy who believed in the EU.

Great addition, thanks for sharing, mate! I think it's a great opportunity to have the Strikemaster as well, lots of foreign users for it for many cool scenarios: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAC_Strikemaster

My total plan is to complete work on those two terrains (one for the First Indochina War, the other for the Vietnam War); it's already a huge amount of work, so do not expect that I'll be making complete campaign packages. My plan is to release them as standalone terrain packages. Wrench will worry about creating a package with all aircraft and objects for the First indochina War. Maybe, just maybe, I'll provide reworked .ini files for the campaigns contained in the SF2V expansion mod package.

Nope, that's my TexasASC terrain. Never bothered to fix it. It's just a wrong .TGA assigned to the terrain's tile TOD. SWUS currently does not have TODs. JSF_Aggie's terrain already looks great, and with TODs additions will look even better!

Holes textures must match same texture mapping and texture names and of your aircraft skin, just with "_holes" at the end of each texture name. For instance, if your aircraft skin folder does have "body1.jpg", "tail1.jpg", "wingl.jpg" and "wingr.jpg" textures, you'll want to create "body1_holes.tga", "tail1_holes.tga", "wingl_holes.tga" and "wingr_holes.tga" (even .dds works, but you'll need to correct the listed extension in the main aircraft .ini). Holes must be placed according to the texture mapping of each skin bit. Easier way would be to utilize layers.

Great addition! Are you planning to do anything similar for the other MiG-23s? The cockpit by Stary should be good for most M versions.

Believe me, it's necessary. Here in Italy some football players got the virus, matches should have been avoided long ago, but when the decision was taken, it was already too late. ICUs are pretty much full here. Soon doctors will have to decide who to try to cure and save, and who to leave to die. I don't think this is a situation you would like your loved ones to be in. I'm no believer, but I am actually starting to pray. About those who go on a buying spree (whom Wrench rightly defines lunatics), I am not surprised. There's no limit to human stupidity.

Nice to see that you're still working on that terrain, it's awesome! Here, try the following _data.ini statements for solid and alpha object texture shaders. Notice the ZBufferOffset. [SolidObjectTextureMaterial] EffectShaderName=terSolidObject.fx DepthBufferCheck=TRUE DepthBufferWrite=TRUE RenderedInOrder=FALSE AlphaTestEnabled=FALSE CullMode=CLOCKWISE LightEnabled=TRUE SpecularEnabled=FALSE EmissiveEnabled=FALSE FogEnabled=TRUE AmbientColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000 DiffuseColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000 ZBufferOffset=0.000000 BlendOp=BLEND_SRC_ALPHA NumTextureStages=1 TextureStage[01].TextureName= TextureStage[01].MipMap=TRUE TextureStage[01].FilterEnabled=TRUE TextureStage[01].StageColorOp=TEXTURE_MODULATE_DIFFUSE TextureStage[01].StageAlphaOp=NO_OP [AlphaObjectTextureMaterial] EffectShaderName=terAlphaObject.fx DepthBufferCheck=TRUE DepthBufferWrite=FALSE RenderedInOrder=TRUE AlphaTestEnabled=TRUE CullMode=NO_CULL LightEnabled=TRUE SpecularEnabled=FALSE EmissiveEnabled=FALSE FogEnabled=TRUE AmbientColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000 DiffuseColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000 ZBufferOffset=0.000000 BlendOp=BLEND_SRC_ALPHA NumTextureStages=1 TextureStage[01].TextureName= TextureStage[01].MipMap=TRUE TextureStage[01].FilterEnabled=TRUE TextureStage[01].StageColorOp=TEXTURE_MODULATE_DIFFUSE TextureStage[01].StageAlphaOp=TEXTURE However, it's odd that it happens on half tile. I think the issue may lie elsewhere...

I just heard the news about California... Jokes aside, it's hot temperatures that will most likely wash the virus away, so we gotta wait until Summer. You guys don't want to be in my country right now... I hope the US takes this matter seriously, it's not to be underestimated at all. The virus is silent, it shows symptoms only after a mean of 5 days. Cases surge exponentially, so containment and lockdowns are necessary. Our European neighbors are sleeping. In a matter of said five days, I fear they'll be in bigger trouble than my country's. Stay safe, people!