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After more than a year from its first release, the much appreciated realSKY mod has received a major update. This is a glimpse of what to expect; Added different cloud textures for each weather type. Rebalanced sky colours; twilights have been reworked to be more dramatic and atmospheric, whilst keeping realism as the main aim. Here below, screenshots taken during Scattered weather (plus two suggestive shots with Broken weather). Notice the different cloud texture between the two, and the complete twilight transition. Following a suggestion by baffmeister, the realSKY mod will now include alternative files which provide different weather effects for Inclement; you can choose between thunderstorm (default), sandstorm (for hot, desert terrains) and snowstorm (for cold, icy terrains). Reworked rain effects; lightnings are now rare, added new rain drops as a camera view effect. Added alternative environment files for snowstorm and sandstorm effects. Screenshots show the new effects (especially the ones that look best when the camera is fixed). Sandstorm weather features darker, brownish fog. Snowstorm features a brighter fog than thunderstorm. Suggested by tiopilotos, the mod now will feature additional tweaks for some stock game effects, namely contrails, wingtip vortexes and exhaust emitters. Added better contrail effect (thanks to EMCON360 for an old comment on the subject). Added improved wingtip vortex effect (credits to Eagle114th). Added new exhaust emitter effects (credits to viper63a and NeverEnough). Contrails are no longer flat; they are volumetric and expand as much as possible, within the limitations of the game engine. Wingtip vortexes are brighter, more varied and longer. Those effects now use their own textures, instead of using the same texture for different purposes as in the stock SF2 game.

It happens on stock campaigns as well, IIRC. Simply, your mission has been successful, but the enemy forces attempted a second assault and conquered the place. At the planning map screen, you can see the enemy strength of each ground force before the mission. If the enemy strength is much higher than the one of allied ground units (it's clearly visible in the Germany campaigns), it's just a matter of time that the allied units will be defeated, even if your CAS mission has been successful. It's no real issue. The Germany campaigns are mostly scripted to have allied forces be crushed by the Soviets in the first days. The same concept applies to other campaigns. From my experience, the player has more impact on the campaign's progression later on.

It is from TK's Campaign Customizer DLC. It was included in one of SF2's expansions, IIRC. I used Mue's CatExtractor to find it. My SF2WOW menu mod includes a new, custom one. Of course, if you do not have the DLC or expansion with said screen, you won't be able to access it. EDIT: it's inside DLCData011.DLC archive, Mue's CAT extractor can open it.

The first one is a remod of Gepard's Israel 2 terrain, which is of Real World size. The other one is a rebuild of the stock TW's Isreal terrain included in SF2I, which is roughly 60% of Real World size (stock SF2 terrains are smaller to compensate for the lack of air to air refueling and to provide more packed action). All in all, if you're looking to play the campaigns, the stock terrain with Stary's tileset will do. To make campaigns work with those packages you showed, you'd have to edit campaign files. Look for eburger68's campaign expansions, there are so many for different terrain scenarios. They are comprehensive of many changes and additions, providing more more aircraft and more historically accurate units for campaigns. Here below the ones concerning Israel: EDIT: to answer your first question, there is no ultimate Israel terrain. Wrench's remod of the stock terrain is great (and might work with stock campaigns as it is), but it misses additional high resolution tiles to work together with Stary's tileset.

I'm a day late, his birthday was yesterday, but I wanted to post this. https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-52472132 This man is an inspiration to younger generations. His will is extraordinary. He's done so much for his community and nation at a ripe old age. His service during WW2 was not enough in his eyes. He pushed himself to new limits, and proved to the world that the elder are an important part of our communities. I admire him so much, as much as I despise those who believe that losing an entire generation of elders due to coronavirus is acceptable losses. People like him devoted their lives to give us a better world, free from the chains of brutal nazi fascism. They deserve better respect from all of us. They also constitute a memory we must never forget, of the darkest days of Europe. And how from that darkness, their courage and service brought a beacon of light to show us the way. Happy birthday, Colonel!

Damn... My condolences to the families of the crew.

If you're sure to buy it, with the pre-order you'll save some bucks, as the store page shows, $39.99 instead of $49.99.

IMHO it's always better to use .JPGs, given that they are at maximum quality. Photoshop allows me to save at maximum quality but it chooses a value of 10 by default, when it actually can be changed to the maximum value of 12. It will result in more heavy .JPGs, but will never weigh like .BMPs.

@dtmdragon My bad, I have all SF2 stuff. I simply thought you had worked on modified decals.ini and textureset.ini files for all skins, so I was saying they are not present in the package, as madvad pointed out. It's fine that they use the default ones! Generally, it's always better to include them though. Indeed, madvad is having issues because he renamed folders. Without renaming, paths are the same of the archived stock aircraft, so everything should work fine. Totally unrelated. You must not rename aircraft folders, as dtmdragon said, otherwise you won't have the "missing" stock files. It's easier that you port any additional skins over this latest MiG-23 mod.

The Complete Edition is no longer available. You had to buy all of the missing products, if you wanted to be eligible for it. Owners of the Complete Edition will obtain SF2 Windows 10 free of charge. 1) It's SF2 upgraded to work on Windows 10 with DirectX 12. Maybe, just maybe, TK took the chance to tweak something else etc., but who knows. But the main purpose is to make the game work natively on Win10 with latest DirectX libraries and video drivers. 2) If you do not have the Complete Edition, it seems so. All Win10 packages will be sold separately like their Win7 counterparts. 3) Of course. The game will use updated libraries, so the graphics will look better maybe, and some high-poly models might perform better. Other than that, it won't be much of a change I think. 4) Won't merge. they are two differect products. From what little we know, TK says additional DLCs for the SF2 Win10 Edition will appear as in-app purchases. So, it will most likely work as a Windows 10 app, not as an usual executable. In the end, it does not really matter. I expect the SF2 Win10 Edition to have its own mod folder, so it won't overwrite the one of SF2 Win7, so to speak. But to port mods over one other is a simple copy-and-paste job.

@dtmdragon I can confirm the same issues. The .ini files are indeed missing from the skins of the MF version. Double check! Also, there's no entry for Libya in the MiG-23MLDe_USERLIST.ini. Awesome work, nonetheless!

Damn. I'll take a look at it. EDIT: It has been fixed, it was a stupid bug. As soon as the package is approved, re-download and enjoy.

I will test. Anyway, I am on a low-end machine by today's standards, so I expect low FPS in any case. People with more recent hardware will surely offer a better test case. On a side note... My old PC performed much better years ago, always on Windows 10. I believe that after the discovery of the Meltdown and Spectre hardware vulnerabilities, Microsoft has pushed some OS software updates in order to somewhat overcome them, at the cost of performance. EDIT: I tested on stock TW's terrains; the cockpit does not create much issues on my crappy crate, it lowers FPS but that was expected. It will work without issues for mostly everyone. It's amazingly detailed, a real love letter to all Phantom enthusiasts. Great job, @ravenclaw_007

A Nighthawk was shot down over Serbia, back in 1999. Luckily, the pilot ejected and was rescued by SAR. Fun fact; despite being a bomber aircraft, the Ace Combat series of videogames included the Nighthawk as a playable attack aircraft, capable of dogfighting with a purposely added machine gun, which IRL does not exist. I guess it's because this aircraft looks so iconic and unique, that the Ace Combat developers couldn't force themselves not to include it in their games.

An addition to what I said before; since SF2 Win10 Edition is on the way, you guys might want to keep original copies of those extra detailed cockpits. They may not perform well on the current SF2, but on the next edition they may be usable without much of a hassle.

Hi, Raven! Speaking of the Anatolia terrain, it's a very particular one; it's much bigger than a stock TW terrain and it uses a lot of custom 3d models for airports, cities and so on. TODs affect FPS very much as well. So, it's no wonder you're having issues. Terrains like Anatolia, combined with highly detailed cockpits and aircraft, reach the limits of what the game can render at the same time. The SF2 engine is old and poorly optimized! By now, TK should be on his way to finalize work on the so called SF2 Win10 Edition; it will use DirectX 12, so lots of improvements should happen in this regard, given you're on recent hardware. It's really important that you reduce the LOD's size any way you can. Other 3d modellers might have suggestions. Some things are better left as textures+bump maps, instead of having them modelled.

Thank you, people!

@dtmdragon I remember when I had asked you about something like this, a full fledged update for all TW's MiG-23s. Thank you so much for your work on this! BTW, any chance to see Indian MiG-23s as well? We have the India-Pak scenario, which I look forward to update with a terrain rebuilt from scratch.

I guess this is the article you are talking about: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/how-did-covid-19-begin-its-initial-origin-story-is-shaky/2020/04/02/1475d488-7521-11ea-87da-77a8136c1a6d_story.html There's no certainty at the moment, but it is plausible indeed. It's not that the scientists created a new virus, most likely they were infected while collecting those bat coronaviruses without proper protective equipment. Analysis from all over the world point to the fact the virus is not man made. The article claims the Wuhan research laboratory was working at Biosafety Level 2, which is not enough in the case of contagious viruses. So, if this is the case, the origin of the virus lies in the wrong safety protocols being applied at a research lab. Coronaviruses were and are being studied all over the world, even before the outbreak happened. For instance, weeks ago an Israeli scientist was invited to an Italian talkshow, and discussed about his studies on coronaviruses. Without a doubt, the Chinese response to the outbreak was sloppy to say the least. And the WHO somewhat covered up how things were handled there. Everyone, literally everyone, underestimated the potential of this virus.

Terrain package updated to Version 1.01.

Terrain package updated to Version 1.01.

Terrain package updated to Version 1.01.

Terrain package updated to Version 1.02.

Terrain package updated to Version 1.02.

Terrain package updated to Version 1.03.