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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.

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...