Jump to content

Menrva

+MODDER
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content count

    4,465

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    46

Everything posted by Menrva

  1. I've already thought about this for the ODS 30AE mod, but you'd need to spend money for those AI services that generate audio speech files, I haven't found viable freeware sources, and you'd also need a lot of patience and free time as a single complete speech pack requires more than 1,400 audio files. Do it for several languages, and you'd need to multiply that amount for each language/accent you intend to have. Those services cost money and the ones I had seen do not allow to automatize the creation of several audio files in one go, so they also cost in terms of time. I'll probably consider it at a later time, but that would mean spending my own money and what little free time I get over something that only few Strike Fighters fans would appreciate all for free. EDIT: That being said, it surely is the easiest way we currently have to make a more professional speech pack, but not as easy as I'd like.
  2. I would never do a LOD based terrain, performance wise it is terrible, one of the reasons SF2NA failed at launch. I definitely prefer the old system of heightmaps and tilemaps, much friendlier and easier to work with. Had the LOD terrain engine been optimized more, then it would cool to create some interesting things like underground and undersea tunnels which are impossible with the old terrain engine. There is only one modder who tried making LOD terrains, and that is Stary. He might be able to answer some of your questions, but these days he's rarely around here. Last but not least, I want to remind that my terrains are not covered by the freeware licensing agreement. As long as you take the heightmap only for reference, that's okay, otherwise you're not allowed to copy my work without permission.
  3. We're all using DX12 on Win11. The DX version supported by your graphics card and Windows system is totally unrelated, it does not mean the game is running on DX12, the game engine of SF2 is built on DX10 and it remains at DX10. Unless TK ever updates the game to make use of DX12 and 64bit (not gonna happen), we're stuck with this situation, an old game engine limited by a 32bit executable and outdated DX10 tech. That's why I'm talking about wrappers, those sort of emulate older DX libraries with current technologies. There's no such thing as a DX10 to DX12 wrapper, the only one that works in SF2 is DXVK, which makes DX10/9/8 games run with Vulkan rendering.
  4. Things change over time, DirectX 10 is now pretty old, and current video drivers for graphics cards clearly give priority to what's new. My only suggestion is to try the DXVK wrapper I link in the ODS 30AE download page; in converting DX10 to Vulkan rendering, it makes graphics a bit worse but it seems it reduces black textures and crashes to desktop by far. Before I bought my dedicated Nvidia GPU, I was using the integrated one by Intel which is very weak. I couldn't even load a mission in the ODS 30AE mod, but once the wrapper was added, I could finally load missions.
  5. Unfortunately it happens also when the game runs out of memory, and like it has been said before, it happens in large mods and objects with several high resolution textures. When textures become black randomly on parts that usually appear textured, that's when the game has memory issues and is close to a crash to desktop. It happens to me in ODS 30AE with consecutive missions unless I reload the game after each mission.
  6. It is so. However, even by resizing textures in the ODS mod (and I resized thousands of them for objects, weapons, pilots, aircraft, etc., it was no joke) the issue still happens. Some aircraft still feature 2k resolution textures otherwise quality would be compromised. The problem is also about mapping. An aircraft with a single texture takes a smaller toll on the game's memory compared to an aircraft mapped with 10 different textures. A mod tends to feature many more aircraft and ground objects with such mapping. We can get rid of crashes with even lower resolution textures, but that comes at the cost of compromising visual quality. I wonder if increasing size of the stack in the DLL and in the EXE would make any difference. There's a tool to do it: https://joeduffyblog.com/2006/07/03/modifying-stack-reserve-and-commit-sizes-on-existing-binaries/
  7. Don't bother, it happens randomly on my system with an RTX 4070 Super as well. It's a problem of the game's DX10 renderer, it's old and video driver updates can at times cause issues to it. The game's stuck on old DirectX 10 and it manages VRAM badly, so terrains and mods with several different objects and textures make the game run out of VRAM with consecutive loading of missions in a single playthrough. Without chances of TK ever updating his games to current DirectX standards and to 64bit, you can only hope for video driver updates to mitigate the issues. A DLL from SF2 also cannot get corrupted out of nowhere unless you've been playing around with it with an hex editor. A DLL from another SF2 installation to the same patch level won't solve your problem, it'll be the same one you have. Look for updated video drivers and reinstall DirectX 9 June 2010 redistributables, there's nothing else you can do. At some point in the future DirectX 10 will be so old that graphics wrappers for it will be needed. You can already try using a Vulkan wrapper, not sure if your GPU supports it though.

  8. Ejercito del Aire CR.12 Phantom IIs : A TMF Rebuilt project

    Menrva reviewed daddyairplanes's file in F-4

    Wonderful remake of the old CR.12, with brand new high quality 3d models and skins! My thanks to all involved in the making of this package, the TMF logo is a guarantee of top notch quality!
  9. If LODViewer is set to display hitboxes and/or collision points, and the data for those is broken (typos or other mistakes), the LOD is not loaded. Make sure the data for those is correct. I had the same issue while working on improving aircraft for the ODS 30AE mod, and in the end I fixed and/or improved hitboxes and collision points for more than a hundred aircraft.
  10. Due to tweaks I've done, and because of typos, I broke how the VDI works in TMF's F-14 cockpit that is used in the ODS 30AE mod. This is a hot-fix for anyone flying with the F-14 in the ODS 30AE mod: Tomcat_Cockpit_HotFix.zip
  11. @GKABS I had made major .ini updates to the Typhoon, including proper loadouts for each user/country. I also updated skins by ace888, there are skins for all Typhoon users in there. If you wish to collaborate, let me know. I also made a repaint of the cockpit, it's not fully finished but I like what I did so far.
  12. It's not strange, that's a bug/limitation of stock Strike Fighters 2. LGBs only work in Strike missions against terrain objects, they do not work against mission generated ground objects such as AA vehicles. There's a reason the default loadouts use CBUs and other unguided bombs for SEAD missions. Also, as explained before, the F-16s did not use any LGBs during Desert Storm. Moreover, pods in Strike Fighters 2 have no functionality other than eye-candy.
  13. Awesome work! I can imagine the stress for modeling all of those radars in detail
  14. Thank you for confirming it. I was sure about CM pods. Yes, that's what we did in ODS 30AE. I'm glad it did not affect loadouts as much as I initially thought, but indeed it removes flexibility to an extent. While we're on the topic, it's also worth noting that only one ECM should be added to the aircraft's data.ini; by adding more than one, the jamming becomes much overpowered for said aircraft. Probably a bug or an oversight by the developer.
  15. If I remember correctly, this only applies to the AI. The player can use external ECM pods with no issues, it's the AI-controlled aircraft that cannot.
  16. Yes, it's normal, it's an issue of the game engine, not of the mod. It doesn't always happen, it's random. When multiple effects are rendered, it is more likely that FPS drops in TV mode. Given the mod also features higher fidelity assets than the stock game, it is more likely to happen. But I also have the issue with the stock games.
  17. You can't, it's not a naval campaign like SF2 North Atlantic. By turning it into a naval campaign, night missions are always disabled (blame TK for this design decision). The only reasonable workaround would be to add static ships to the terrain around the area of the carriers. It's something I might do one day.

  18. realSKY Environment

    Menrva commented on Menrva's file in Environmental Mods

    That's no big problem. The mod offers alternative post processing effects you can choose from, and if they all are an issue on your end, you can just disable the post-processing by putting Effects graphics settings to High instead of Unlimited in the game's options.

  19. realSKY Environment

    Menrva posted a file in Environmental Mods

    Version 1.7

    3,410 downloads

    realSKY Environment January 13th, 2019 (1st Release) by Menrva >For Strike Fighters 2 games This is my sky enhancement mod. It also combines the work of many other modders, in order to provide a realistic, better looking sky. Here below a quick summary of the changes: -Tweaked sky colours, something in between Cellinsky's widesky and the stock SF2 colours. -More realistic Night colours, sky and ambient are much darker. -More atmospheric, reddish transition from Twilight to Night. -New "dark blue" High Altitude colours (fly near space with a NF-104). -Moon produces a yellowish light instead of the default purple. -Sky is "wider" much like Cellinsky's widesky mod (background horizon clouds are bigger and more noticeable). -Added beautiful cloud graphics made by Cellinsky and ShrikeHawk, tweaked for each weather type. -Added a low number of stray clouds to Clear weather. -Added noticeable clouds to Overcast weather and Inclement weather, "fixing" a known SF2 "bug". -Combined various mods to produce a more interesting Rain Effect under Inclement weather. -Added Stary's lens flare effects from the SARCASM 2 mod, in place of Cellinsky's widesky effects. -Added Cloud Layer graphics by Stary, Fubar512 and Brain32. -Reworked secondary atmospheric effects, such as contrails and wingtip vortexes. In addition, the package includes alternative environment configuration files in the Alternative Weather folder; they enable different effects for the Inclement weather. You can choose between thunderstorm (default, adapt for most terrains), snowstorm (for cold, icy terrains) and sandstorm (for hot, desert terrains). For those who wish not to change the effect globally, I highly suggest to try the included terrain-specific environment example provided for stock SF2 terrains; the default global effect is thunderstorm, while terrains with their own environment file either use sandstorm or snowstorm as appropriate. Use this as a basis to customize other terrains. By setting the Effects to Unlimited, the game makes use of a DirectX 10 post processing effect; the stock game's post processing shader generates a pointless and horrible bloom effect which excessively blinds the player during twilight transitions. By default, realSKY includes a reworked post processing shader (TWPOSTPROCESS.FX) which provides more contrast, more vignetting, minor color correction and a daytime-only bloom effect, so it's miles better than what the stock game offers. Alternative post processing tweaks are included in the Alternative Shaders folder; choose the one you wish to try (check the included screenshots for fast comparisons) and overwrite the default one in your mod's Flight folder. If you don't care about the post processing effect, you may want to set the game's Effects to High in the Options menu. >Credits (in no particular order): -Cellinsky, for his fantastic widesky mod from which I borrowed some tweaks. -Stary, for his Thunderstorm and Heavy Snowfall weather mods, and his SARCASM 2 beta mod from which I borrowed some effects. -PanamaRed, for tweaks in regards to Clouds (especially the Broken weather ones). -Fubar512 and Brain32, for their Cloud Layer Top bitmaps, which I have smoothed for a better looking effect. -ShrikeHawk, for his CloudSkins mods, from which I took the spectacular cloud graphics. -BearGryllis, for his Thunderstorm Pack With Enhanced Lightnings 2.0b package. -Orsin, for his Improved Rain Effect and Heavy Rain 0.8 mods. -luk1978, for his interesting WeatherEffect package. -ArmedLightning, for his Special FX v2.2 mod for the GTR 2 game, from which I borrowed a lens flare effect. -baffmeister, for the idea of recreating sandstorm weather effects. -tiopilotos, for suggesting improvements on other subjects. -Eagle114th, for his Improved Wingtip Vortex mod which I have reworked. -JosefK, guuruu and Coupi, for their interest and support. 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.

  20. Late Model RF-4C's : Photo Phantoms After Vietnam

    Menrva reviewed daddyairplanes's file in F-4

    Wonderful release! My thanks to daddyairplanes and to Sundowner for the major effort of revamping the RF-4C with higher fidelity skins and 3d models. The new TMF logo is the perfect way to honor the memory of fellow modder Oliver Anguille.

  21. Sabre Dogs - Jugoslovensko Ratno Vazduhoplovstvo

    Menrva reviewed yakarov79's file in F-86

    Fantastic addition for a "Cold War Gone Hot" what-if in the Balkans!

  22. A-6B mod0 & mod1 Intruder

    Menrva reviewed GKABS's file in A-6

    Much better Intruders were needed for Strike Fighters 2. My thanks to all involved in their creation. Looking forward to the later E variants!
  23. @Muesli I see you posted a 4-star review and explained why. Unfortunately, that is not an issue that daddyairplanes can resolve. Microsoft Defender and most browsers these days classify anything with a .7z format as a virus, while it clearly is not. It's a false positive, simply put. Defender and the likes are using machine learning algorithms to identify viruses. I wouldn't trust the AI for simpler tasks, let alone identifying viruses.
  24. @Viggen This is what I had, definitely not good enough since it was an early work in progress dating back to almost 10 years ago or so: CampaignT1.zip The OOB might be pretty wrong. What I recall is that the Chinese navy ships that JonathanRL used for the campaign actually are anachronistic. I don't know if we have more period correct ones.
  25. I may have something worth sharing. I recall that many years ago I modified JonathanRL's 1959 campaign to happen during the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis. Basically, grounded on this RL event but still keeping US involvement. I can't recall if I had fixed the OOB as well, but it's worth considering. Also, my Nations & Medals Expansion add-on fixes the insignia for the RoCAF. Due to an oversight by TK in the Nations.ini file, it was using the later '92 roundel instead of the proper one for Cold War years, despite the correct roundel texture exists in the game's files.
×

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue..

  I accept