Menrva

I agree with you that those tiles are too vibrant. The ones included in that expansion package are actually a repaint/mod of a tileset made by Brian32, which is way more subdued in its original form. The original tiles, which I prefer, should be available here: https://combatace.com/files/file/5300-vietnamsea-tile-repaint-v10/ Green Hell 2 is actually a complementary TOD improvement (trees and city buildings) for that tileset by Brian32, made by Stary and available here: https://combatace.com/files/file/7095-green-hell-2/ Green Hell 3, instead, is Stary's creation completely, both tiles and TODs.

I have read that even his daughter died in the crash... My condolences to the Bryant family. I was shocked about the news. As a European, it's difficult for me to follow NBA. But Kobe Bryant was such a famous name in the sport. He will be deeply missed.

Sorry, guys. I have been dealing with RL issues lately. I have good news for the add-on, though. Since I had to postpone the release, I have asked for some more changes to the cockpit and aircraft 3d models. The new changes are well worth the wait IMHO. The release is going to happen (on February or March), I have worked too much on this add-on, as well as the other members of the development team did. Just wait a little longer.

@beachav8r I see from the screenshots that your installation of Green Hell 3.5 is somewhat messed up. The terrain still uses Green Hell 2 TODs (trees and buildings) and some GH2 tiles still appear together with the new GH3 tiles. It's suggested that you use the original Green Hell 2 tileset (the one that comes with SF2V Air & Ground War Expansion) because target areas have been built by taking into account the placement of trees and buildings of the Green Hell 2 tileset. The SF2V Air & Ground War Expansion should also provide original GH2 tiles with more subdued colours. Those tiles were created by using satellite images, so it's more lifelike IMHO. Also, there should be a proper Skyraider cockpit already included in the SF2V Air & Ground War Expansion package (it's the one made by Dels and linked by Crusader in the post above).

What the man said. Once AI aircraft have been modified to be flyable, it's good to change their file properties to Read Only, and the game no longer overwrites their .ini files. As for the SF2V Air & Ground War Expansion, IIRC the Skyraider should be available in the other campaign set during the mid-late 60s, Operation Steel Tiger, not Rolling Thunder.

Not all is lost. AI strikes are indeed a problem, but let's see if starbases AKA flying carriers are possible. I wonder how the AI would take-off and land on those objects with huge z-offsets.

I am happy to inform all who are interested in the subject that @nuni has offered to experiment and to build more proper objects for the terrains. This is a great opportunity to push the game engine to new boundaries, and I'm glad for the help I have just received! Nuni, feel free to post screenshots of your works in this thread.

I wish... my PC is low-end for today's standards. Any video capture software degrades FPS on my end, so I would end up with a video which is much low-res, heavily stuttering and so on. Sorry about this. But I'll keep you guys updated with screenshots if there's anything new worth mentioning. When I feel like the terrains are in decent, playable state, there won't be any need of videos.

Keep us posted, then. Thank you for offering to help! In other news, I reproduced the Pulse Laser weapon/gun as seen in Ace Combat 7, with custom sound (placeholder) for better immersion: PLSL Stuff.zip

Well, the game does allow to fly up to 115,000 ft or so; when you get above the limit, the camera sways and you lose both view and control over your aircraft. I think this is really doable. The recent battlecruiser by @nuni (https://combatace.com/files/file/17224-bc-304-daedalus-class-battlecruiser/) acts like an aircraft. While parked on the airbase, it is made so that it floats; in reality, below the visible 3d model there is an invisible part of it which touches the ground. To create floating ground objects like orbital ships and space warfare carriers should be doable with the same principle; the 3d model should be created with a big z-offset. I'm no 3d modeller, though. The engine does allow to change gravity values. Moon and Mars have got their correct gravity values each, but to fly on Mars in SF2 is much easier than in reality (theorically) due to the fact that pressure values are Earth-like in-game (this is hardcoded and cannot be tweaked in any way).

Far away, into the clear starry sky... on the Moon... Farther away, a land of blood and ashes... that is Mars... I wasn't able to gain help from Stary regarding a texturing experiment in the TFD format. The terrains currently use a single yet nice tile texture. Both heightmaps have been remade from scratch, in order to overcome engine limitations explained in previous posts. Mars no longer features Vallis Marineris, but another portion of the planet with less elevation changes yet beautiful valleys. AI is limited to aircraft using custom userlist.ini files which refer only to specific terrain nations, which are United States Space Force, Russian Space Forces, People's Liberation Army Strategic Support Force (Blue Side) and fictional Settlement Defense Front (Red Side). There is no need to edit the game's global _nations.ini file, it's all contained within the terrains' _nation.ini files. The terrains need specific ground objects for Moon bases and Mars settlements, and custom spacecraft and maybe even flying aircraft carriers. The scenario wants to be what if but somewhat realistic; I'd love fictional yet believable designs, not fancy ones.

I'd say that about Iran, I am not convinced that much about Turkey. Since the fake coup d'etat in 2015, Erdogan has really strengthened his power. Add to that the fact the EU has given him millions to keep Syrian migrants away from Western Europe (shame on us); I am betting he is using the very same money to reinforce his army. Turkey is not to be underestimated; Erdogan has got interest in Libya, and I cannot be very happy about this; my country is way closer to Libya, and we do have important oil companies there. As for the list of future weapons, we can all agree that they would be lucky if they manage to complete 50% or less of them; it's really ambitious and in such cases only some abandoned prototypes come out of it.

I wonder why it's not standard procedure. I guess it would increase costs. But the passengers' lives are not expendable; all means to ensure their safety should be taken. In a different world maybe...

To be more precise, the issue is due to the Effects setting. Effects should be set to High, everything else can be set to Unlimited, AFAIK. As I stated countless times, with Effects set to Unlimited, the game uses specific DirectX 10 calls which have been implemented poorly, I guess.

No apologies needed, you did the right thing by investigating further. We are all concerned about protecting intellectual property. SimonMavrick should have double-checked what he was going to upload. It could have contained anything. Also, there's a good reason why mods are mostly distributed with ReadMe files. The few ones who care to read them know who deserves real credit. Thinking about this upload, I'd suggest it to be removed. One of the admins can re-upload it with a whole new description, a simple copy and paste of that ReadMe file would do, I suppose.

First of all, @russouk2004 linked what is an aircraft mod/add-on for HAWX, not a 3d model of HAWX. HAWX does not contain such aircraft. Second, if you downloaded the package, you'd notice a ReadMe.html file inside; this 3d model was reworked by YEYEYE (and AFAIK there is a lot of stuff from him here at CA, including well made cockpits, etc.). YEYEYE mentions a few other names as the original creators of the 3d model, referred to as "HAWX FFR-41MR MOD". It's the same HAWX mod linked by russouk2004. Who uploaded the mod should have copy-pasted the content of such ReadMe file as the mod's description, because the authors are mentioned and credited there! Of course, even who uploaded the mod did not care to have a look at the ReadMe file. Here's the mentioned file everybody literally ignored; Readme.html In the end, YEYEYE took this mod for HAWX and made it for SF2. He credited the original creators, but we do not know if it's a straight-away rip or if he obtained the source files and reworked them. I hope this clarifies what should have been clear since the upload was going to be made.

Aircraft add-on + extra skin pack coming soon...

Good to see you! Likewise, have a great 2020! 2019 has been a very positive year for me; I have engaged with the love of my life and I have passed many exams, so I am closer to graduation in IT engineering. However, back in November, my father started to feel bad. He's in hospital since December, and he's not in good shape. It hurts me not to see him at home anymore. Hopefully he'll soon be back. This reminds me how health is important in our everyday lives. So, I wish you all, dear members of the CA family, health and strength for this new year. Whichever obstacles you may encounter, know that friendship and love help get through them. Rob "Menrva" Minervini

You're wrong, Stratos. You can add a reference map in TFDtool, but I never used that function. It's less than ideal, because you'd need to find a perfectly squared reference map which matches the terrain's HFD exactly, otherwise the placement of things will be way off. I do what Gepard says; I use charts, Google Earth and the heightmap view function of TFDtool, which shows coastlines and even river valleys. It takes weeks of full work, but due to RL it takes months to add most of the Real World rivers by hand via TFDtool, on a rather big terrain area.

The terrain itself will suffice. I can test it anyway, without proper objects and aircraft.

Wrench, I have some time to look at the terrain in the next days. Feel free to send me a PM and I'll see what I can do to improve the terrain on various aspects. I can tile the missing Mekong Delta area if you have not started already.

Exactly. The same can be said about the F-22A Raptor's nose. While working on this aircraft add-on, I was puzzled to see that the nose of the Raptor looked different on various photos. In the end, I concluded that old Raptors have a darker nose, while newer ones still show a lighter shade.

Nope, it's ripped from Tom Clancy's HAWX, same skin layout of InSky's Su-34. Ace Combat models are much better IMHO. Anyway, it's ripped, so forget about it.

I have seen some screenshots of those peculiar prototype bombers. I wasn't able to find them anywhere here at CA. Are those from Capun's A-Team? If so, it's a pity we don't have "freeware" ones at CA. They seem a fun addition to the roster of what-if/experimental aircraft.

Yes, that version of Stary's GH3 was just an improved stock tileset, with added TODs and visual bump effects. The latest Green Hell 3.5 by Stary is instead totally new, made from scratch with hand-painted tiles. I still prefer Green Hell 2 (showed by Stratos) as it is based on satellite imagery. I will send you a PM in the near future. Right now RL is limiting my time and resources. I can have a look at the .inis as well for all sorts of tweaks. For instance, in the nations.ini I'd change South Vietnam and North Vietnam with French Indochina. It's nothing important, but when obtaining medals, you'd see a more correct name for the historical period being shown.