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Menrva

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Everything posted by Menrva

  1. @orsin Nice! Later I'll download it and check it! Do know that me and Gerwin fixed alpha channels on some other .tga files. I haven't uploaded a new version yet. If you plan a new AI remaster, I'll send you the latest files.

  2. Pardo's Push

    Menrva posted a topic in Military and General Aviation

    Probably most of you already know of this, but I just discovered this story thanks to a newspaper article. Thought about sharing it with any few other youngsters like me: Pardo's Push: An Incredible Feat of Airmanship (historynet.com)

  3. Version 1.0

    299 downloads

    Ethiopia, African Horn (1993-2028) Terrain December 13th, 2021 (1st Release) by Menrva >For Strike Fighters 2, Recommended Full-5 Merged I am proud to present a brand new terrain made from scratch! Initially proposed in private by tiopilotos, I later decided to create it in order to offer an accurate playground for different conflicts never recreated in Strike Fighters. The terrain completely covers Ethiopia, Eritrea and Djibouti, and a great portion of Somalia and Yemen. The tileset, based on JSF_Aggie's Desert repaint and Centurion-1's Desert 4 add-on, has been greatly expanded with necessary transition tiles. Expect long and very accurate river courses and all major lakes, the reddish deserts of the Horn of Africa and the green highlands of Ethiopia. Numerous target areas, such as civilian airports and airstrips, have been added in order to expand playability, targets of opportunity and year range. This terrain features a fresh new 250m resolution heightmap (instead of the stock 500m resolution), allowing for greater details and precision in elevation changes; overall it provides the whole terrain with a better look. The terrain spans from April 27, 1993 (the day Eritrea declared independence from Ethiopia) to December 31, 2028. This terrain is adapt for historical scenarios such as the Eritrean–Ethiopian War and for territorial disputes between Eritrea, Yemen and Djibouti. Somaliland is still considered as Somalia since Somaliland is not officially recognized, though you can spot the Somaliland flag over some of its cities. Targets reflect Real World events as accurately as possible; for instance, some airfields will appear at a given date, cities change their name at a specific year and so on, all according to Real World changes. Off Map Airbases have been added and long range AI flights can be generated from them. Having SF2NA is a must, as I have enabled naval ops; if your mod folder contains American, British and French aircraft carriers, sometimes you'll see fleets being generated in single missions. Ground Objects are not included. You can obtain the most needed ones from Wrench's old Eritrea/Ethiopia terrain release. >Credits (in no particular order): -Wrench, for working on Wingwiner's original Eritrea terrain, producing new target area layouts. -swambast, who provided me with invaluable help in tracking and fixing common and uncommon bugs. -gerwin, whose TFDtool has proved to be essential in today's terrain making. If the terrain is pretty accurate to RL it's also because of him. I included his very nice Airfield 7+8 Addon Pack, too. -mue, for the improved shaders he made, which I have included and reworked for the terrain, and for the tools he made for SF2 modding. -luk1978, for the waternormal bitmap he shared at the SF2 screenshots thread. Your mods are very interesting! -JSF_Aggie, for his great Hi-Res Runway Textures v2.0 which I included, and for the hi-res desert tileset. -Centurion-1, for expanding JSF_Aggie's tileset with more variety for the Desert4 terrain by Piecemeal. -tiopilotos, for his continuous support in all my terrain modding efforts. Thank you very much! -Stary, for old .TOD files which add trees and buildings on some tiles of this terrain. -Gepard, for his great tutorials about terrain making, in the SF1 Knowledge Base at CombatACE. It's a gold mine! -krfrge, who has produced a tutorial for recreating SF2-like planning maps, which prompted me to work on templates and my own high quality planning maps. Thank you very much! -comrpnt, for his Approach and Airfield Lighting Pack mod packages for SF1 series, which I reworked and included. Although scratch-made, the terrain makes use of most objects and target layouts from Wrench's Eritrea terrain; because of this, I included the ReadMe file from that package, to the end of giving proper credit to everyone involved directly or not. >Disclaimer: This is a freeware; yet it can be redistributed ONLY in other CombatACE mods/mod packages. Any changes to the terrain package's files and/or any copy-and-paste attempts of their contents are NOT authorized if you plan to release them in other mods. But permission might be granted to those who request it to me at CombatACE. This terrain may NOT in any way, shape or form be used in any payware additions.
  4. You might want to check my Speech Enhancement mod, in there I include other languages (including Italian, but no French) with correct or mostly correct dubbing. The mod you linked adds mostly random phrases in such languages, as such it is only for immersion and far from being correct for native speakers (I'm Italian BTW). As such, I won't include such random dubbing in ODS for quality consistency. Thank you for the positive comment! They are a rarity these days, so we're glad to hear others are enjoying our hard work! Take care.
  5. Never heard of this issue before. Make sure that no third-party AV software interfere, and run the installer as admin. Make sure that all content gets saved in the "X:\Users\YourName\Saved Games\ThirdWire\OperationsDesertStorm" path. I recall few had issues in other language versions of Windows; the stuff apparently would get copied in a different Saved Games folder for no reason.
  6. I think it's pretty complex to implement, at least for me, since Inno Setup makes use of Pascal language (not exactly what I'm into). What the installer does automatically is find where the SF2 game directory is (but it does not verify if all three games are in it). To run a check on all required .CAT archives is problematic to say the least; we have so many versions of SF2 (including the Complete Edition which only installs one registry key, not all separate ones of all included games), some do clean installations from the latest July 2013 installers, others install outdated versions and then apply the latest patches afterwards. To verify checksums of those CAT archives is simply not possible given these circumstances, I think they would differ in the case of manually patched games. Anyway, this issue is only related to elo82 as far as I can see. Most issues that were reported are about CTDs, and those are due to DX10 and Nvidia drivers. I state pretty clearly which SF2 games are required (inside the installer, in the download page and even on the custom DVD cover I created). Thankfully most users are not dummies and can read. In the future I may look into it, maybe add some more checks for the presence of the SF2 executables of the required games (though that alone does not suffice), but now I'm too demotivated to work on it once more all by myself. That being said, thank you for your detailed suggestion, Erik!
  7. Thank you, Steve. That was useful indeed. The DXDiag shows two problem signatures: nvwgf2um.dll (which should be NVIDIA D3D10 Driver) and GraphicsEngineDX10.dll (which is Strike Fighters 2's DX10 library for the graphics engine). This has nothing to do with the mod, sadly. Nvidia driver updates randomly cause game-breaking issues on old games like SF2 where the DirectX 10 implementation was done rather poorly. I strongly suggest the following: reinstall DirectX runtime libraries from June 2010 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109) and reinstall/update the Nvidia drivers on your end. Also avoid setting the Effects to Unlimited in the game's options. Hopefully this will sort the issue out.

  8. Iranian F-14s in Retrospect

    Menrva replied to MigBuster's topic in CombatACE News

    During the development of Operation Desert Storm: 30th Anniversary Edition, we found ourselves with so many sketchy details on the IrAF and the order of battle of Iraqi air units. Tom Cooper's data helped us quite a lot, but I personally went further to countercheck it with other sources I found with time. I still keep backups of them. It turns out I clarified few unit names in the IrAF, which aircraft they flew at the time of the Gulf War and on which airports they were based temporarily. It's a pity we do not have incontrovertible info; that 8 year long war left terrible wounds both in history of man and of aviation.
  9. First of all, this is not a standalone game, but a mod requiring you to own and have installed three Strike Fighters 2 games from ThirdWire. Second, you can't expect help when you keep ignoring my posts where I tell you what to check. Third, without any details, it's just childish to ask help like you do. You already did not one, but three times already. We cannot help you since you're on deaf ears and you still give zero clues of what you did on your end. This is the post you have ignored, just above yours, and I had pinged you. I always try to help. In this case, I cannot go further than this.
  10. @elo82 You should post in this support topic for help, not in the comments section. I wish I could help, but the issue you are having has to do with your system, the mod works for pretty much everyone else. You must point the installer's path to your Strike Fighters 2 game directory (you need all three SF2 games installed: SF2, SF2 Israel and SF2 North Atlantic), patched to the latest July 2013 patch. After installation of the mod, you should find something like this in your Strike Fighters 2 directory (not the mod folder): If you do not have all three SF2 games I mentioned and do not use the latest July 2013 patch, the mod simply won't work. I cannot help more than this, I'm not on your system and I simply cannot have a clear picture of what's happening on it.
  11. The entire mod has been re-uploaded and now awaiting approval. This is the same v0.9.6 version released in December but with the January Hotfix integrated into it. The only big difference is about the installer now using x86 compression, hence now it should run on a 32bit Windows OS. If you have already downloaded the mod and the installer works for you, there is little reason to download it again. Take care.
  12. That is not yours, that's the ripped off Ace Combat Assault Horizon 3d model converted (I guess by Insky) for use on SF2. Unless site rules change, we do not allow sharing of copyrighted material. You may want to remove that public link you posted, the site admins are not going to like it nor allow it.
  13. Thanks to you! Positive comments are a rarity these days. I would like to improve the mod even more, but nothing I can do without support. We have no third-party tool to edit .STR stringtable files, so I cannot replace call signs appearing in the speech subtitles for every language (Arabic is an exception, hex-editing was possible within file size limits). Also, not sure how the Persian language is actually Persian, I have no transcription of the call signs it uses, so I'm hoping for someone to come with that info eventually.
  14. For those interested, do know that alternatives exist. This is just an example, and it's free for those who know how to program and compile a little: https://github.com/xinntao/ESRGAN Even giants like Adobe and Nvidia are working on their own versions for various purposes. Results may vary greatly. For things like terrain tiles, this approach does not seem to work well enough yet. AI networks are trained on countless datasets, but it will take time until they can be trained to understand a million different use cases if not more. At the end of the day, nothing will beat human interaction. Skins and textures we produce may not be perfect, but they are the result of much thought and artistic expression. AI networks are a good thing, don't get me wrong, but they deserve to be applied on Real World problems more than on art stuff. AI was applied extensively on the remaster of the GTA Trilogy, it turned out to be a piece of crap; it got little to none quality control check by the developers.
  15. Mod package has been updated to Version 1.1; huge update, read the change log and updated description for further details. If you've been using a previous version of this mod, it's recommended that you completely remove the Speech folder from your mod folder before installing this new one.
  16. Of course you can! Where have you been? We've done it on ODS 30AE to enable given loadouts on specific days of the conflict. Even the B-52G you reworked for the mod should be using specific loadouts at given dates. More details on the parameters available for the loadout.ini here: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/78200-mig-31bm-mini-update-pack/?tab=comments#comment-755029 The site's search bar is incredibly powerful, with few key words you can soon find an answer.
  17. Add-on package has been updated to Version 1.1; read the change log for further details.
  18. Add-on package has been updated to Version 1.1; read the change log for further details.
  19. A clarification for the few ones that experienced a not working installer (without giving clues nor proof they could have given). The installer is a highly compressed package (15GB compressed to 3GB); this was possible thanks to a 64bit compression algorithm. This means that the installer may not work on 32bit systems; I am surprised people still use x86 systems in 2022 as my low-end PC already featured x64 architecture back in 2013. In the future I may plan to recompile the installer (it takes half a day if not more just to compress all files). I do not guarantee it will happen, definitely not soon. Thank you for your understanding.
  20. I'm working on a major expansion of the Speech Enhancement mod. Next version will include rather complete and correct speech packs for Italian, Spanish, Vietnamese and Arabic languages, obviously taken from different sources which will all be credited. A modified Nations.ini file, based on the one from my Nations Expansion mod, will add all such languages to the proper nations where these languages are official. I would like to add Russian, German, French and other speech packs, but the ones we already have are either much incomplete, a total mix of random words, or whatever. So I will not add those. The ones I will include are mostly complete and meant to be proper, not just for immersion. I also found what appears to be a Persian speech pack (from the Multinational Speech Pack available here at CA, it was wrongly classified as Arab, no idea where it comes from or who made it). No idea if it's coherent or if it's just a mess of casual words. Can someone tell if it's proper? In such case, can anyone help me transcribe which the callsign names are? Without a transcription, I cannot fix in-game speech subtitles and callsign names to reflect those of the speech files.
  21. @EBW For troubleshooting and support, you might want to post in this topic instead of the review section. Thanks for the positive comment, though! No idea why the mod does not work on your end, but if you have an old low-end system, you might try to set all graphics settings to Low. This is not stock Strike Fighters 2, the mod is much heavier on resources than stock ThirdWire games, hence you might not be able to use the same settings between the two. Also, you must have a dedicated GPU. Intel's integrated GPU is not supported and never will be, it simply cannot handle a big number of polygons and high resolution textures on this old game engine. Let me reiterate to anyone; Minimum Requirements about video card and CPU are what they are, minimum requirements. If you're just above them, don't expect to be able to run this mod with settings on High or Unlimited. Strike Fighters 2 is one thing, this mod is another. If you can run Strike Fighters 2 on High and Unlimited, the same cannot be directly applied to the mod. It all depends on your system. EDIT: Mod page appears as updated, but I simply added some more info in the Suggestions for CTD issues section. Mod package is the same of December, please do NOT re-download.
  22. The mod folder gets installed automatically on the system drive. If you run a stock game executable, I think a blank mod folder would be created in the same spot, so this shouldn't be a problem. You need all three TW games that are listed, one does not suffice. You might want to move the mod folder elsewhere and see if it changes anything, but then you'd need to fix the mod's path inside the Options.ini file manually. If you don't know how to do it, check the SF2 Knowledge Base: Running mods from a different disk partition - Thirdwire: Strike Fighters 2 Series - Knowledge Base - CombatACE Wish I could help, but you gave zero details. The above post may help you understand what may be wrong with your system. I cannot see nor imagine what the situation is on your end.
  23. My thanks to you for the kind words. It's nice to see our dedication being recognized. Some might take it for granted but should remember that many payware products don't get the same amount of bugfixing and end-user support. We are doing it for free, all for passion and fun of creating new virtual experiences. The mod also got its own page on ModDB, but just for spreading news about it. It's only available here. Got a pointless comment by a Guest user claiming that the mod is a scam, requiring users to buy it on the other site where it is hosted. We modders got no single dime from it, even though I'd need some for a new crate; ironically I can barely run the mod on my decade old PC due to excessive loading times. Maybe I should pride myself in seeing some amount of false and/or hateful statements. If we attract both flak and praise, it means we've done something special, I guess. In other news, I just added Suggestions for CTD issues at the end of the mod's description page, above the Hotfix. Those suggested settings should help end-users experiencing crashes to desktop.

  24. Scusate Il Ritardo! (ovvero, Terreno WIP)

    Menrva replied to Menrva's topic in Italiano

    Thank you so much for these kind words, Wilches. You even bothered to to use the translator, I really appreciate you saying this. It's not just the passive attitude of the community, but also a lack of free time in the coming months won't allow me to put effort into terrain modding. The lack of activity in the site is somewhat demotivating for such efforts, things used to be a bit different one or two years ago. Anyway, a WW2 version of the terrain is unlikely to happen, it would require many more researches, but there will be two versions, one for Cold War and the other for the 1990s conflicts in the Balkans. Thank you again for your support! Grazie molte per queste belle parole, Wilches. Ti sei anche preoccupato di usare il traduttore, apprezzo davvero tanto quanto hai scritto. Non è solo l'atteggiamento passivo della community, ma anche la mancanza di tempo libero nei prossimi mesi non mi permetterà di impegnarmi nel modding di terreni. La mancanza di attività nel sito è alquanto demotivante per certi sforzi, le cose erano un po' diverse uno o due anni fa. Ad ogni modo, una versione del terreno per la Seconda Guerra Mondiale è assai improbabile, mi richederebbe molte più ricerche, ma ci saranno due versioni, una per la Guerra Fredda e l'altra per i conflitti degli anni 90 nei Balcani. Grazie di nuovo per il tuo supporto! Ti ringrazio molto per le tue gentili parole. Come ti ho scritto in PM, è anche per una questione di tempo libero che non potrò più dedicarmi con la stessa cura alla creazione di terreni. Senza dubbio certi terreni sono meno affascinanti di altri. Tuttavia ho come la sensazione che qualcosa sia cambiato nella community, c'è un atteggiamento molto più passivo e meno attivo. Non so a cosa sia dovuto, ma in molti hanno più o meno lasciato SF2 e ad essere rimasti sembra siano per lo più utenti che scaricano mod passivamente e che anzi chiedono sempre di più anziché essere grati di quello che già c'è. Anche il mio terreno precedente a quello del Corno d'Africa, ovvero le Hawaii su scala reale, è passato quasi inosservato. In passato ho rilasciato terreni meno originali, eppure qualcuno si prendeva la briga di scrivere qualcosa. Il numero di download direbbe altro, ma non vedere più commenti o reviews sulle ultime release è un po' demotivante. Detto questo, spero di ultimare alquanto prima il terreno dei Balcani per una release. Non sarà mai perfetto come vorrei (SF2 ha le sue belle limitazioni), ma occorre ultimarlo con aggiunta di targets e correzioni manuali al tiling di città e paesini, affinché sia visivamente completo e un minimo giocabile per missioni singole ed eventuali campagne per chi avrà tempo di crearne.

  25. Scusate Il Ritardo! (ovvero, Terreno WIP)

    Menrva replied to Menrva's topic in Italiano

    Buon anno! Ho passato giorni poco piacevoli ahimè, e mi sono reso conto di non provare più alcuna soddisfazione nel creare nuovi terreni per Strike Fighters e poi condividerli. L'ultima mia release del terreno dell'Etiopia è passata largamente inosservata, e ho investito mesi di intenso impegno per crearlo con una topografia dettagliata ed accurata. Questo mi ha provocato un po' di dispiacere. Ho degli update a riguardo il terreno dell'Italia e dei Balcani. Ho speso dei giorni a cambiare nuovamente l'intero tileset, e stavolta sono deciso ad utilizzare quello che vedrete nelle immagini sotto tratte da TFDtool. L'Italia ora possiede anche un sistema di strade/autostrade che ha richiesto lungo tempo per aggiungerlo manualmente al tilemap, ma al momento non è ben visibile dalle immagini sotto. Non farò altrettanto per i Balcani e il resto dell'Est Europa, data la già immensa complessità del terreno. Ci sono voluti lunghi mesi per aggiungere tutti i percorsi dei fiumi e i laghi, dunque sono un po' schifato dall'idea di dover spendere altro tempo su dettagli a cui i più non fanno caso. Recentemente ho aggiunto tiles per rappresentare piccoli paesi, usati un po' dappertutto dall'Italia all'Albania etc. Detto questo, il terreno ha richiesto un grande sforzo finora, e non voglio che tale sforzo venga sprecato. Farò in modo di ultimarlo seguendo i miei soliti standard, compatibilmente con gli impegni della vita reale. Tuttavia, con quasi assoluta certezza questo sarà il mio ultimo add-on per Strike Fighters. Negli ultimi anni la community di Strike Fighters si è notevolmente rimpicciolita, e non ha senso per me condividere mod in cui mi sono tanto speso, per poi ricevere più critiche distruttive e indifferenza che altro. Penso che pochi, buoni utenti potranno apprezzare il terreno una volta ultimato e rilasciato.
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