Menrva

With all due respect, it is you who assumed that we modders and creators should all think and behave like you, that is to be non-caring about what others do with what we produce. I simply stated how it is for me and some other people I worked with. I never said nor assumed that everyone feels like me. Actually, my previous post is pretty clear on this aspect; I said that "not everyone is like me and like you". That is all but an ignorant thought/statement.

With due respect, what have you done for this community during all these years? All I see is you downloading mods for free, never say thank you and instead complaining for it. Why there's a limit per day? Sites are not magically maintained without money. This site relies on donations, so with that limit it encourages users either to pay for a membership, or to contribute with mods. I have been here for so long, contributing with various mods, to the point that my mod contributions granted me less restrictions, so I can download more than 5 files per day. This doesn't happen magically, it took time. Last but not least, you claiming that you'd be happy if someone uses your 3d model etc... Clearly you're not a modder, nor a 3d modeller. Many here have experienced what it feels like to see someone steal your own work and claim it as your own, or even make money out of it. This is why rules exist. I've been through a similar experience, and to see someone else copy paste your hard work of years, and then claim it as his own, is all but funny. I make mods and I am happy to release them, as long as people don't steal them nor claim them as their own work somewhere else. You instead are one of those users who downloads stuff, that is all. You also asked certain questions all for a single Su-47 3d model that is not used by anyone because it's incomplete and can't be completed. I still have that lost 3d model. I didn't share it with close friends or anything like it. I shared it with another modder in the past, who attempted to complete it, but nothing came out of it. So I don't know why you're obsessed about having an incomplete, messed up Su-47 that nobody uses. I have seen so many mods here not being released even if they are complete. But I don't complain about it. I am happy for what is here already, lots of content you don't see on other sites. This site is great for me as it is. No hard feelings. That's all.

You've made lots of wrong assumptions. First of all, there is a Su-47 available here, but it's far from being good. The other Su-47 which seems complete and better is actually much incomplete and far from being flyable decently. Source files of it were never available, so we are stuck with the 3d model as is, it cannot be modified. I for one don't feel like releasing something that's not mine, especially if it is not in good state. People are not all like you or like me. Everyone has the right to exercise his/her own reasons as long as doing so does not harm or insult others. There are still some 3d modellers here, and probably someone does have a better Su-47 in the works. So please, enjoy what this community has to offer already. Me and a lot of other modders have contributed much during the years, and to see this complaint is kind of heartbreaking.

Me too! I spent a lot of time to find the correct decals, they were low-res and I had to tinker with them a bit. The fonts should be much like the real thing! Placement is as good as it can be, given that the F-22A is not the YF-22. Speaking of the aircraft itself, I love the YF-22's shape more than the F-22A's; this YF-22 paint scheme is a "what if" for it is applied to the production Raptor.

The following story background is from DID's F-22 Total Air War game, dated 1998. The fictional skins are based on the F-22s appearing in DID's Total Air War scenarios. Skins and 3d model are still subject to updates. In the mid-1990s, most of the military might in the Red Sea region was found in only three countries; Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. All of the other nations, dealing with constant internal pressures and sporadic social unrest could ill afford any concentrated efforts at modern militarization. So the rest of the area’s nations would bide their time and wait for their opportunity to field a national army that could stand against the might of any one of the “big three.” Although there weren’t any formal declarations of war within the region, there were also no real alliances. Each nation was kept busy dealing with internal problems of various sorts, so much so that any external issues were usually left unresolved. Border disputes erupted from time to time and were usually settled as a result of some form of military stalemate with each side claiming to be the victor. An American F-22 wing forward deployed to Djibouti, still sporting the YF-22 paint scheme, 2007 Another factor within the region stemmed from the major cultural and religious differences between the peoples of the Red Sea area nations. The population in the southwestern part of the region was largely agrarian. Trading mostly foodstuffs and other essentials for survival, farming groups clustered into tribes and lay claim to several hundred acres of land. When arguments arose between neighboring tribes, the result was often bloodshed, as tribal land holdings sometimes crossed international borders. Cities and towns within the region were often defined by the religious beliefs of the residents. Rarely, were there populations of mixed beliefs. Only the largest trading and commerce centers could tolerate such religious diversity. Religious beliefs also played a major role in state and national rule, often affecting the decision making and negotiating thought processes of the country. American F-22s in their Pac West camouflage, executing an Air Interdiction mission over the Ethiopian highlands, 2018 With all of the diverse people and religious beliefs within the area, tension was an everyday side effect. Although no formal declarations of war had occured in the recent past, that did not mean that nations haven’t fostered ill will towards each other. Outright hostilities had not developed in the past because of the lack of either a credible military force or the capital required to support it. As a nation in the Red Sea area, you were either a “have” or a “have not” in the national forces department. But all of that was soon to change. New fortunes, created by the discovery of precious metals and oil reserves within the Red Sea operations area have lead to regional unrest. International power struggles for the control of these precious natural resources now bolster nationalism and strengthen each countries desire to fight. With the new regional income, formerly poor countries now can afford to train and equip national military forces. All armed forces within the region are ready and willing to test their newly purchased hardware. It is a very dangerous time. Saudi Arabia's F-22s, with their unusual Grey camouflage, crossing the "Empty Quarter" into Yemeni territory for a strike mission, 2022 While on an international antiquities excavation in southern Sudan, a professor and his archaeological team discovered unexpected oil reserves within that region. The oil deposits extended from within southern Sudan well into northern Ethiopia. Sudan and Ethiopia exploited the oil reserves and grew rich, becoming members of OPEC. The excitement over the discovery of new oil fields gave rise to new searches throughout the area for other oil reserves. Another series of large oil deposits were found in the coastal region of Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia. Although not quite as expansive as the fields discovered in Sudan, it was sufficient to provide these three nations with a 11% control over the world’s petroleum market. As the oil reserves along the Somali coast were being mapped out, researchers stumbled upon new gold deposits. As the initial gold strikes were quickly exploited, more were found. There were some days when the coastal nations ceased to function because almost every citizen was out with a pickax and shovel, looking for their share of the fortune. The nations of Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea became wealthy practically overnight. After much bargaining, Egypt acquired a few F-22s; here's one in its Woodland camouflage, conducting BARCAP over territorial waters in the Red Sea, 2015 To support the new military, the old infrastructure which had supported the former way of life had to be updated. Airfields had to be modernized to allow strategic and tactical aircraft operations. A large anti-aircraft network had to be established to provide warning and protection from invading hostile aircraft. National landmarks and governmental assets had to be protected from attack and reinforced to help repel any air strikes that might get through. Across all of the Red Sea theater area, nations prepared themselves for any outbreak of hostilities.

YF-22 Scheme USAF Pac West Saudi Grey Egyptian Woodland

Just like I imagined, so a VX aircraft would be less colorful and more low-vis. As for the prototype thing, I have made a YF-22 skin already, and very old games such as JetFighter 3 portrayed a playable F-22N but with the skin of a YF-22. I want to do something different. Below you can see the USN skin I described earlier; notice the F/A-22 decal, that's the name the Raptor got until 2005, and it really suits the Navy theme:

@EricJ Since you're expert with painting Navy aircraft, I'd really like to have some suggestions by you for the fictive F-22N Sea Raptor skin I made. Right now it's just plain light grey, with a few decals applied; numbers on the nose, squadron name "VX-9" on the fuselage behind the canopy, etc. The skin is obviously what if, but I really like to make it somewhat believable, as if it were a real prototype back in 1998-1999. What kind of colour should the plane be? Should it be the same grey colour of your Super Hornets? By being a concept/prototype, should it have fancy black vertical tails with the squadron emblem, hi-vis decals or low-vis ones? I will post screenies at a later time, but I really feel like it's the most uninteresting skin I've made, of the whole package.

@russouk2004 Are you still working on that Su-57 3d model? It would be the perfect antagonist for the upcoming Raptor addon. The Su-57 has finally received its NATO codename, "Felon" (https://theaviationist.com/2019/11/01/nato-code-name-felon-su-57-gets-its-reporting-name-and-it-couldnt-be-better/)

Yes, now I understand. What I mean is that we should use the psi rings as reference for when we test the blast radius on the Range terrain, with simple buildings being placed in the target area at different distances, not hardened structures. Armor values of hardened structures were given rather arbitrarily by TW, and maybe they are off for nuclear blast radius testing. Such structures may or may not resist to the nuke at different radiuses. Structures with no armor offer a better test, so to speak. Will have a look at your info at a later time.

Oh man, I almost forgot, you are the one who made the great CloudScape mods! And I credited you at the time I released the realSKY package... I'm getting old, LOL! Good to see you still around! Any new clouds by you are always welcome! They have the right feel. Keep in mind that we can even have different cloud graphics for each weather type. This is not implemented in realSKY yet, as I am not sure which clouds would be appropriate to which weather, and it's also a matter of taste. I'm open to your suggestions for future improvements of the mod.

@KJakker Man, you wouldn't believe it, I was having a look at NukeMap just a few seconds ago! Great minds think alike! I am rather busy with RL but I am willing to help when possible with the weapon files, especially sounds and tweaks to the effects (I want to test with different .fx shaders that are available, as I did for the weather effects in my realSKY mod package). This is important to check as well. However, part of me wants to keep it as correct as possible; we should find the perfect values that work for WarheadType=14 (A-bomb) and WarheadType=15 (H-bomb). The other two are simply inappropriate, and I'd rather use something that's included in SF2 for nuclear weapons and find a way on how to make it work properly. Better and even faster, I think we should focus only on a specific type of ground object, a hardened hangar or something as strong as a cement building. From what I see on NUKEMAP, the "Air blast radius (5 psi)" is what should be used as reference; most buildings would be destroyed within it. SF2 uses the following statements to determine how strong a structure is (example values are those of an hardened aircraft shelter and hangar respectively): DamagePoint=140.0 ArmorValue=24516080.0 ArmorType=2 DamagePoint=100.0 ArmorValue=516128.0 ArmorType=1 So... how about creating a PM group for anyone interested in this modding effort?

I am very interested in this, @KJakker. I am using a B61 10kt bomb (not retarded) for the upcoming F-22A addon. The 3d model I have is good looking and fine. What I am not fine with is the damage modelling of SF2. I'd really like to improve it and I am planning to improve the visual effects as well. I have been tweaking the weapon's _data.ini, unfortunately there is no way to simulate the damage of the shockwave. By using the correct values, Explosives=10000000.00 and WarheadType=14 (A-bomb), the blast radius is very small. I wonder how you standardize all of this. In general, it would be very cool to have this complete pack of nuclear weapons with same standards and decent damage modelling available. I find the megaton nukes to be ludicrous for the SF2 gameplay. However, small yield nukes can be used in a more realistic way.

Don't worry mate, I know. I was having a go at myself, I am very critic of my own stuff. The issue with trees could be easily taken care of, by simply removing the wrong TOD file for the associated tile. In the future I will double check all my terrain packages and improve upon them once more.

Good to see someone using the Madagascar terrain I've made; I really liked working on it.

It is not easy for sure. Mue even managed to create TODs with buildings of different shapes, using LOD objects converted to act as TODs. I'd like a "simpler" tool which only enables to make TODs as they are in SF2, to open them and to modify them, nothing too fancy like custom building shapes so to speak. It would still require a reverse engineering process of the TOD file format. Speaking of the TexasASC terrain, it's indeed the most rushed of all my terrain works. Other terrain packages I released are much better and more complete, target areas wise. I am busy with more important projects, and two interesting terrains. The F-22A Raptor project is now my priority. Once that is done and released, I'll be back at (my favourite and exhausting) terrain modding.

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.