Menrva

The trees are messed up due to wrong TODs. We really need a TOD editor.

For now, live with it. The terrain uses a 250m heightmap, which is better than the stock 500m. I still have to find the perfect combination of values for the terrain's _data.ini to get rid of this issue. I am not planning to update all the terrain packages shortly.

Looking Glass, Storm. Requesting authorization for protocol Nova. Storm, Looking Glass. Standby for Nova confirmation... Storm, Looking Glass. Prepare to copy... message states; "you are clear for weapon release." I say again, National Command Authority has cleared you for weapon release. Looking Glass, Storm, copy. Weapon release is authorized. Nova is away! Looking Glass to all allied aircraft. Nova has been initiated. Pullback code is Safe Haven.

Not really necessary, IMHO. The custom skin in not meant to be dirty actually. The original aircraft skins of Ace Combat 7 are all weathered skins, and those making custom skins use them as a base. Ace Combat portrays aircraft used extensively in wars of a fictional universe. My bad, the image I linked above was full quality already, but you had to click on it to fully open it and download it as it was. Hence why I reuploaded the skin in a zipped form. Anyway, glad the tool works for you. I had borrowed some of the painted insignia from the Raptor skins of AC7, and converted those to .tga decals for SF2 use.

It turns out that this skin was saved as a .uexp file, not as the usual .ubulk file. In the end, after much surfing through the net, I found this tool: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LPkhshGJEJ69y_QZHSgFXRciZP-k6Oni/edit It's very easy to use, it comes with a graphical user interface, and with it you can open the .pak files and export the .uexp file to a .TGA or .PNG image. Here's the Maverick skin (my attachment space is limited so I will remove it in the future): f14d_00_D.zip With the above tool, it's easy for everyone to convert Ace Combat 7's skins anyway. I wish I had it when working on some custom F-22A Raptor skins, it really simplifies everything. Of course, let's always give credit to the original creators of the custom Ace Combat 7 skins. Their community is made up of a lot of fantastic guys. Would be cool to get them interested in Strike Fighters 2 sometime in the future.

Well, where do I start? You need Python installed on your machine first, otherwise you cannot run the script. This is getting more complicated though. I have Python. I'll unpack and convert the files for you guys.

I don't remember. I just found a python script which adds the .dds header to the .ubulk files, IIRC. Here's the link: https://github.com/CapitanRetraso/HEADER-7

Internet is your friend: https://github.com/TTFH/Ace-Combat-7-Mods Ace Combat 7 uses the Unreal Engine 4, but those .pak archives are somewhat coded, hence they made a tool to decompress those. The extracted skin files then must be hex-edited so that they can be opened as .dds textures in a painting software. I have used this for a few custom Raptor skins. The mentioned skin of Maverick is available here: https://www.moddb.com/games/ace-combat-7/addons/f-14d-tomcat-phoenix-top-gun-maverick However, decals are painted on the skin, and I think it won't be of much use in this case. I mean, decals will have to be remade from scratch. So true. I liked the old but gold Black Hawk Down, and more recently Dunkirk. Sure, there are inaccuracies here and there, but some movies are definitely better than others. Top Gun surely is not meant to be an accurate portrayal of the USN.

The 3d model of the cockpit has been reworked with more details. I think the avionics file has been slightly reworked as well, using your mod as a base. If you have time for it, just send me a PM and I will forward you the latest test files.

Thanks for the suggestion, will check! The 3d model has been reworked completely, and the skins are much more detailed than in the alpha version of the 3d model by Heberth. We will be providing templates when the package is ready to be uploaded. BTW, that white/light grey skin is a what if F-22N Sea Raptor, assigned to the USN's VX-9 squadron. The Raptor is obviously not aircraft carrier based, but there were concepts about one, so I decided to make such a skin. This skin is totally my idea, but I find it rather bare and uninteresting as it uses low-vis decals.

Hi, ladies and gentlemen! The separate skin package (which will be released alongside the main aircraft package) will contain 20 custom skins, of which 13 are Ace Combat themed skins, the other 7 are miscellaneous "what if" skins inspired by other videogames and concepts. Here below a sneak peek at the unique 14 liveries that will be available.

I am with you on that. But Erdogan's the problem, he wants to exterminate the Kurds, no matter what. Can't deal with a genocidal maniac like him.

Erik, do you think this is all part of Trump's attempt to gain votes for the next elections? That's the only thing I can come up with. Other than that, this is just pure suicide, militarily and diplomatically.

I am not sure I agree with you, Gepard. This retreat will be costing a lot more, with US troops relocating to Iraqi Kurdistan to watch over the IS prisoners there. Syria may not be of importance to the US, but to keep Turkey as a loyal NATO member is; however, Turkey is making agreements with Russia while the ceasefire agreed with the US was all but respected. And IS is all but knocked down, Turkish troops seem to be fighting Kurds and liberate the real terrorist scum that is IS. I for one am worried they'll come back as Erdogan's proxy army to terrorize Europe and keep us hostage of his mad policies. I remember that we, EU member states, paid him lots of money so that he kept the war refugees at bay in his borders. He surely used all that money for the army too, I guess. I just hope things will take a good turn for the Kurds. They're paying a cost that's not theirs, with their own blood, sweat and tears...

I eat what I said; apparently a new deal between Erdogan and Putin will allow the genocide, this time with proper Russian help it seems: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50138121 The Kurds have been stabbed in the back by everyone. The EU is just watching. If it was for me, I would dare sending heavy European support to the Kurds. Turkey is no longer in NATO by facts, yet it's still in it because for our so called leaders it's important to have such an ally with one of the biggest armies of Europe. Self defence my ass, if western Europe would need the help of Turkey, I would 120% bet that Erdogan turns his back on all of us, despite of NATO rules. Pretty ironically, the current events sort of remind me of Hitler. Strikes a deal with Stalin, we all know how it ended. Invades Poland, and the rest of Europe simply watches.

Your Super Hornets are really top notch content, @EricJ! By chance, have you also worked on some Arma 2/Arma 3 add-ons? I no longer play Arma, but I vaguely recall some addons. In the future, would it be possible to create a single skin package containing all of the additional skins you've made and you're making?

@Erik Would it be possible to differentiate a simple page description update from a real update of the downloadable package? Right now, if I simply update the page description, even the changelog's date (the "What's New in Version X" bit) would change, even if the downloadable package has not been touched at all. Not a real issue, I'm fine as it is. In case of real updates, I always advise users in the mod's relative support page.

Wrench suggested the issue happens when using the SF2NA executable, which is exactly what I have used. Whichever the case, it's kind of weird. As for when converting to 44100 Hz via Audacity, I have not noticed any big loss of quality. Obviously, there is going to be a loss of quality if you convert from a higher frequency to a lower frequency (from 48000 Hz to 44100 Hz, or from 44100 Hz to 22050 Hz). Also, a 32 bit .wav is clearly better than a 16 bit one, but the game requires 16 bit .wav sound files.

Just what mue said (I wasn't able to summarize it in my extra long posts, LOL!)

You might want to pin this thread, Kevin. Keep in mind what I said in the first post; the key is, you can use 44100 Hz 16 bit mono .wav sounds for your aircraft, if you use those 44100 Hz replacements for stock sounds from the linked mod; only then your other aircraft sounds will play as they are. Without those, they won't work correctly in stock SF2NA. The following stock .wav files need a 44100 Hz replacement; JetEngine, JetBurner, Gear, Flaps, Airbrakes, and even StallSound, TireTouch, Breathing and Windloop for certain aircraft add-ons. If you use the ones from Brennus' mod, your specific aircraft sounds defined in the aircraft's _data.ini will work. Stock sounds are meant to be generic, so everyone might want to use the ones from that mod, and you have an easy fix. Actually, I fear this same logic applies to custom gun, weapon, RWR and ground object sounds as well! Stock sounds should all be replaced with 44100 Hz ones to be extra sure. I recommend to use Audacity; you can easily re-save .wav files to 16 bit, at the desired frequency.

Oh well, the revamped Alaska terrain I have released, which baffmeister is using in the screenshots, it seems, is the closest we have at the moment. I had an idea of making a Greenland terrain, but I have more complex terrains in the works. We'll see what the future brings.

No. In the options you can only change the number of channels and the stereo setup, and they do not affect this behaviour as far as I've seen. Oddly enough, the FlightEngine.ini contains this bit of default settings, which cannot be changed in the menus; [SoundSettings] SampleFrequency=44100 BitsPerSample=16 DopplerFactor=1.0 The sample frequency is set to 44100 Hz, but most if not all SF2 sounds use a lower frequency. Whichever the case, this behaviour I have noticed should not be considered normal. I'd add this to the long list of bugs of Strike Fighters 2.

Erdogan rejects US ceasefire call: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-50064546 This can't be good, the situation is getting pricky. If Trump hadn't opened Pandora's Box by ordering the withdrawal of troops, now that madman wouldn't be so keen on genocide. I have heard reports of Russian troops putting themselves between the Turkish military and the Syrians, in order to avoid any confrontation between the two. I think Turkey is in for a big mistake, as Russia, the US and Syria are all on the same page.

Stock sounds should be mostly 11025 Hz Mono (RWR sounds are Stereo), export as .wav 16-bit PCM in a software like Audacity. Recently, some new sounds I added to my install required to be saved to 44100 Hz. Generally, if you have a high quality .wav file, you should leave it to 44100 Hz, otherwise it will be played with a weird pitch in-game. EDIT: it's pretty weird that custom sounds for the Hawk make your game crash. This makes me think it's a driver issue of your sound card. Or maybe, have you installed custom codec packs recently? Those can cause a number of issues if not properly registered in the system.