Menrva

View File Ethiopia, African Horn (1993-2028) 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. Submitter Menrva Submitted 12/13/2021 Category Full Terrains  

Mod package has been updated to Version 1.4; read the change log for further details.

View File Nations & Medals Expansion Nations & Medals Expansion April 13th, 2019 (1st Release) by Menrva >For Strike Fighters 2 games This mod is an extension of the stock ThirdWire _nations.ini file. It adds new nations and respective national decals, missing from the stock game, and it adds numerous medals (made by Capitaine Vengeur and Charles) for the stock countries. Here below a summary of the changes: -Added a number of new service markings decals, for the added nations. -Remade decals for the fictive countries of SF2 to match the default 256x256 resolution of other national decals. -The Mercenary decal no longer shows Dhimari colours; now it's generic and adapt for various scenarios involving mercenaries. -The Soviet Air Force becomes the Russian Air Force since 1992, with proper new decals showing up since 2010. -The Soviet Naval Aviation (Russian Naval Aviation since 1992) has been added as a separate service. -The (Free) Libyan Air Force has been added and becomes active in 2012, in place of the Libyan Arab Republic Air Force. -Biafra and Katanga have been added and are active for a short number of years, as historically accurate. -The Rwandan Air Force has been added, active since 1962, with later finflash showing up since 2002. -The Niger Air Force has been added, active since 1961, with alternative insignia in use since 1980. -The Djibouti Air Force has been added, active since 1977, as historically accurate. -The missing post-Yugoslavia nations, namely Montenegro and Republika Srpska, have been added. -The missing ex-Soviet Union nations of Belarus, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have been added. -The Irish Air Corps has been added, with alternative decals in use since 1955. -The People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force has been added as a separate service, active since 1953. -The Somali Air Force is known as the Somali Aeronautical Corps before 1960, as historically correct. -The Burkina Faso Air Force is no longer active since 1964, now it's active since 1985; it shows up as the Upper Volta Air Force before 1985. -The Bahrain Amiri Air Force becomes the Royal Bahraini Air Force in 2002, as historically accurate. -Created and added low-vis insignia and finflash textures for the Pakistan Air Force. -Fixed a stock bug in SF2 with the Sultan of Oman's Air Force not being selectable since 1959, as it should be. -Fixed a stock bug in SF2 with the Republic of China (Taiwan) Air Force not using the old roundel as it should be before 1992. -Activated unused low-vis finflash included in stock SF2 for the Canadian Armed Forces. -Other very small changes here and there to other stock nations. -Added new medals for the following nations and respective services: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, East Germany, West Germany, France, Finland, Greece, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Korea, South Korea, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Soviet Union, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States. Modders and users are advised to tweak their _userlist.ini files and _data.ini files for aircraft and ships, to make use of the new naval aviation services added by this mod. >Credits (in no particular order): -Capitaine Vengeur, for his Modern Russian Federation Medals and Modern Ukrainian Medals packs. -Charles, for his Medals Pack v2.0 addon for SF1, which I have improved and updated to SF2 standards. -mue, for sharing info about the functionality of the alias.lst file. -paulopanz, for creating decals for Rwanda and Niger, which I have further tweaked. -eburger68, for few decals I borrowed from his huge campaign mods. I included the original readme files from the mentioned mods, where available, 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. This mod may NOT in any way, shape or form be used in any payware additions. Submitter Menrva Submitted 04/13/2019 Category ini File Edits  

Pilots, get ready for battle! The skies above a strategic and varied region of the world await you. You're being deployed to... Ethiopia, African Horn (1977-1990) The Ogaden War erupts, the Soviet Union aiding Derg's Ethiopia and the United States scrambling to support Somalia. Minor fights expected in Yemen, between the Western-backed North Yemen and the Soviet-backed South Yemen. Ethiopia, African Horn (1993-2028) The Derg regime in Ethiopia has fallen. Eritrea declares independence contesting borders with Ethiopia and Djibouti. A unified Yemen threatens the interests of the West in the Red Sea region.

Horn of Africa (1977-1990) Blue Side: Somalia, Djibouti, North Yemen Red Side: Ethiopia, South Yemen Horn of Africa (1993-2028) Blue Side: Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti Red Side: Eritrea, Yemen

Just for your information, eburger's package is much outdated and very inaccurate on many aspects (wrong topography of the terrain, inaccurate placement and start dates of air units, fictive IrAF order of battle and inaccurate order of battle of the Coalition, and so on). Since January of this year, ODS 30AE offers a much more accurate representation of the Gulf War and of its theater of operations; it has been made from scratch and shares very little with the old package. Christmas is around the corner, an update should happen by then.

Not sure if 2060 is feasible (it's more of a marketing thing), but the Typhoon is a fantastic multirole aircraft and can definitely live some more. As much as I love the looks of the F-22A Raptor, it has very little use (born mainly for air superiority, just few GBUs for AG, no HMD support) and Uncle Sam is doing the right thing about eventually replacing it before 2040. The Typhoon, on the other hand, can cover more requirements for the air forces of the UK, Italy, Germany and Spain. The F-35 gets so much hate, but let's remind it's got some of the most advanced avionics and it was born to be multirole; I doubt the future of military aviation rests on having dozens of different aircraft each with a single role.

I'm so glad you have recovered, Russ. I had sent you a PM time ago but I had no idea why you were inactive. Health comes first, take care, mate.

I bless the rains down in Africa Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

They are nice for a completely static version of the vehicle. Probably I'd get rid of the soldiers inside, they wouldn't be visible on most views, but that's just my preference for performance. Also make one without soldiers for more common gameplay uses, and that's perfect. A template for the soldier's textures would be useful; that way we can create different camos for various environments and time periods.

Those people who put likes to my posts are not generic users, but well renowned modders who clearly saw your bashing of our mods. Not only you are so ungrateful for the mods we make, you dare to criticize high quality add-ons (such as Dels' F-117 or the recent Raptor which has been the result of teamwork with greats like yakarov79, Crusader, baffmeister and guuruu) by pointing out fake issues. I repeated myself something like four times; immediately with the first post I mentioned to look at this MiG-31 or the other Russian aircraft, because they may well have wrong data for avionics and weapons. The MiG-31 does not even have a proper cockpit, it's just a stand-in with wrong avionics. But no, it has never dawned on you that the issue was there, you still insisted in "fixing" what is well researched and correct in the mods I mentioned above. Simply put, you don't deserve any answer to any question you make, given the low reputation you reserve to us. This is not a place for childish behavior, you may want to start from the basics and learn some manners.

@alexis99 very childish behavior on your part. Not only you insist in your wrong claims, you even put dislikes to all my previous posts where I took my time to explain some things you totally ignored. So much gratitude for us modders. What a shame.

Do you realize that we are on SF2 and no longer on SF1 which was last patched in 2008, thus having less features than SF2? Just because a very old topic says the RWR needs to be negative doesn't mean that what was said there is right. In this case, it absolutely is not. This is the most accurate info on how RCS works in SF2: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/94959-lets-talk-basercsmodifier/ The RWR.lst in EricJ's Super Hornet is outdated, the most complete one is included in the F-22A Raptor add-on and in ODS 30AE, it was compiled by guuruu. But you're free to use outdated stuff, no problem with that. What angers me is seeing people pointing fingers to issues that do not exist in what I release, that is truly not funny. The RWR works in the Raptor I released, all stock aircraft from SF2 are shown clearly by the RWR as far as I'm concerned. I already told twice that the issue is on third-party aircraft, either having a wrong RadarFamilyName or missing it entirely. So, as for the connection between RWR and RCS, there is none. But since it seems I speak a foreign language, I'll let others waste their time on explaining what I already explained.

@alexis99 with due respect, why are you editing the RCS values and the RWR list? The F-22 Raptor I released gets the RCS reduction values pretty right, and like Crusader said, it must not use negative values. Likewise for the RWR, the one included in the latest Raptor is the most complete list ever compiled by our dear guuruu. Either our answers were not enough, or you are determined in finding issues where there aren't or in looking in the wrong place. Editing the RCS means nothing to the RWR issues you're having. If you cannot get the MiG-31 or another aircraft to appear, you have to edit its RadarFamilyName in its data.ini, like Crusader mentioned above. The Raptor package I released is fine as is and its data should not be altered arbitrarily without any clues; it already includes a complete RWR.lst and all needed .tga textures for all objects listed in it. If the RWR doesn't seem to work because it doesn't display all third-party aircraft, most of the time the issue is on those other aircraft and not on the aircraft whose RWR you are using. Last but not least, if the enemy shoots you down so easily, you may have forgotten to activate the ECM (and the Raptor does have it, I created the ECM data myself). Also, most if not all engagements in SF2 happen in WVR and not in BVR, so even a Raptor and an F-117 can be shot down in such conditions, they are not godlike platforms. Moreover, realism in such dogfights much depends on how accurately third-party weapons have been reproduced in SF2; MiGs and Sukhois (and even ground objects) in your mod folder may well be using incredibly overpowered missiles due to their custom data, to the point that flares and chaff have no effect on them. Again, this is not a fault in the data we reproduced for the Raptor addon, but rather on some other outdated weapon and aircraft mods you may be using.

Why are you using that outdated Raptor? We released a brand new one and the RWR works: https://combatace.com/files/file/17741-f-22a-raptor-add-on/ If you don't see a third-party aircraft on the RWR, usually the problem is on that aircraft, not on the one you're flying. When it comes to missiles, it's a well known limitation with the game, AHMs are not shown on the RWR. SF2 is not designed for contemporary avionics. You'll find numerous topics about the matter: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/83245-mysteries-of-the-rwr/?tab=comments#comment-717317 or https://combatace.com/forums/topic/85846-rwr-detection-of-ahm/?tab=comments#comment-691189

Mod package has been updated to Version 1.6; read the change log for further details.

I spent the entire day on creating different presets of shaders. This weekend a new version of the realSKY mod will be released! By default, realSKY includes my personal version of the post processing effect, compare it with the stock game. No Post Processing (Effects=High) Menrva's Preset (Effects=Unlimited) In case you don't like it, don't be afraid! The package will include 15 different shaders for you to try! Here below a collage of them all.

Given that most users are not knowledgeable in HLSL, I'd rather provide alternatives myself. You can edit the shader by opening TWPOSTPROCESS.FX with Notepad yourself, but it's not easy for everyone. Does this light vignetting suit you?

Users complained about the vignetting effect and I could agree with them (though I even received a comment describing it as a bug, bah!), so I decided to rework it a little. Here below some comparison shots. realSKY 1.5 w/ No Post Processing (Effects=High) realSKY 1.5 w/ Stock Post Processing (Effects=Unlimited) realSKY 1.5 Post Processing (Effects=Unlimited); color correction (darker colors and brownish filter), stronger vignetting, bloom effect. Proposed Post Processing (Effects=Unlimited); color correction (slight brownish filter), minor vignetting, bloom effect. Feedback is appreciated. I could keep the post processing in realSKY 1.5 as is, if only end users would know that it's only available with Effects set to Unlimited (thus it can be disabled by setting them to High), but I've explained this 8492 times at least.

No patch can ever solve the issue you're having, it's not our fault. The executable of SF2 is meant to be run natively on Win7 x86. Without source code or TK's will to update the game, nothing we can do. Some ODS 30AE team members had the same crash issue. In their case, the solution was to install latest video drivers. Also, it's highly suggested that you tweak your graphics options in the Options menu screen. Unlimited settings should be avoided for everything except for textures.

Yes, I understood you were looking for TAW's map. Once I had started to work on it, but then I scrapped it; it's impossible to reproduce such a big area with all of TAW's cities and airbases in a reasonable time. Not to mention that Strike Fighters is not designed to handle full scale terrains but rather 60% scaled ones. We'd be lucky if I ever manage to finish the one I showed above. It seems to me that many underestimate the amount of complexity, work and time required to create a decent custom terrain for Strike Fighters. In order to recreate rivers and lakes, you have to place thousands of thousands of terrain tiles manually with a third-party tool, and that's not exactly something anyone would do in a heartbeat. And that's just one of the many parts of terrain creation. I could mention months of research for reproducing correct locations of cities and airbases, all needing to be placed and recreated manually one by one. A well detailed, full scale TAW terrain complete with all Real World rivers and lakes and cities is simply not manageable and it's not going to happen.

Any chance for an upgraded set of ODS decals for this latest 3d model? I still plan to update ODS 30AE from time to time.

I have a brand new one in the works, but it's been sitting on my HD for quite some time. Not sure when it will be finished. It doesn't cover the entirety of the Red Sea, but the north of it is already included in the stock IsraelME terrain. This new one offers many different scenarios. Eritrea and North Yemen are Blue Side. Eritrea will only appear after its independence date, before that it's part of Ethiopia. The same for Yemen, it's unified after May 22nd 1990, being completely Red Side.