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I can't agree more, you're right about it, mass media and political propaganda forces the population to think that it is better to compete rather than to cooperate, to be a consumer rather than to be a thinker. Regarding the migration problems, it is known that ISIS is controlling this kind of human trafficking in Libya and so they are gaining money and money to finance that new country of theirs, at the cost of thousands of innocent deaths. If the EU keeps watching ISIS rather than planning an action to stop them, we might have a real terrorist threat in the future. If we get rid of them in Libya and Middle East, that of course won't solve other problems such as the wars in the Horn of Africa and in Syria. Such tasks unfortunately, as Do335 says, can't be accomplished overnight. We must change our path, if we don't we'll never see something changing for the better, it seems we are currently going backwards rather than forward. Back on topic, do we know which Greek islands will fall into EU's pockets (or what remains of the EU without Greece) in case of bailout?

Last time I tried (on Win7 x64) it wouldn't work, I installed everything it needed, yet the program failed to initialize saying I didn't have a SAPI 5 speech engine installed, or something like that.

I agree with you guys. Snailman you're absolutely right when you say that "Communism was distorted and realized into Bolshevik-Dictatorship (aka. Stalinism). Democracy was distorted into Financial-Autocracy (aka. Corporatocracy)." Unfortunately only a few have realized that. I don't want to politicize, but for instance I do get the impression that most of the Americans during the Cold War referred to the USSR as a Communist country, when it did have little or nothing to do with the philosophy and ideals created by Marx and Engels (I have studied them so I know what I'm talking about). This didn't happen only in America, but in my Italy and I suppose in all the West as well. Words have their precise meaning, for instance we shouldn't say Communist instead of Bolshevik when we are talking about the USSR, but here in the West ask a common person what he thinks about Communism, and he will think about the USSR (not in this topic thankfully). Anyway we came to the conclusion that money is what matters nowadays, people struggle to reach the end of the month, while the 1% of the Earth's population detains much of the wealth, no matter if you live in the West or in the East, this is the world order that globalization created.

I once saw "In Time", that movie storyline was kinda strange at first, but then I realized it's pretty much what might happen in the future, excluding some details. Moreover, the clothes and cars used in that movie remind me of the 1970s or 80s, I might be wrong though, but it could be a connection to the globalisation and new consumer era that started in those years. Gandhi's quote is one of my favourites, let's add to it that although insignificant, the actions we decide to pursue should also inspire others. Talking about the decline of democracy, here in Italy we are currently being governed by governments which weren't elected by us citizens (even though shall I say Italians always elected bad ones in the past), but chosen (according to the requests of the EU) by our previous President of the Republic, who was elected by an elite group of corrupt politicians; all of this is happening because people lost hope and faith in the institutions, and so even less citizens now go to vote in case of elections, exactly doing what the 'companies' or 'multinational powers that be' want, as Snailman previously added. Hence why I think that what you guys have been talking about is very important; even if insignificant, our actions and decisions are all that matters, we must be that 0,000...1% of the Earth's population who fights (I'm not talking about violence) for the ideals it believes in, not the 99% (I'm exaggerating, I know) that carelessly amuses itself to death (I'm quoting both a rock concept album and a book) and pursues the hatred between nationalities. On top of that, I find it horrible that the EU has pretty much left us, Southern countries, alone dealing with thousands of immigrants coming from the Mediterranean Sea. More than 2,500 people died since that start of 2015, but in my country many compatriots and politicians are suggesting that we shoot these immigrants on sight, failing to realize they are just poor guys escaping from war zones we once created and left in the past (Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Eritrea, etc.). This economic crisis all in all is reminding me of the 1900s somehow, a conflict might be even closer than we think. Pretty ironic, the companies and multinationals don't care about nationalities, but they care about money, the poor people instead care about nationalities and religion when politicians give them their scapegoat. Thanks for this conversation guys, it's good to know that someone else has noticed how bad things are going, here in Europe. However, let's maintain our hope while we can.

Boresight, I see you haven't included Italy (my country) in the list of those in crisis. The situation here isn't all that good too. I'm a little shocked by what's happening in the EU in general, a break off of the European Union is not all that far IMHO

Antares, paulopanz mi ha detto che potevi aiutarmi per un progetto per Strike Fighters 2, ho cercato di inviarti un PM (private message) ma a quanto pare hai la casella posta piena, vedi se puoi svuotarla, così ti invio le info.

Yep, use the Mediator, now I'll try to explain how to use it: 1) Click on 'Add' and select the game executable (even the one you renamed for your mod, anyway you only need one, then the effect is applied to Strike Fighters 2 as a whole). 2) Then select either 'Direct3D 9' or 'Direct3D 10' (10 is better if you want more effects to work accordingly) and then press on Update. 3) Click on the 'Browse' button which is next to 'PresetFolderLocation' and select the following folder inside the ReShade Framework; ...\ReShade\PersonalFiles\Presets (this is where your presets will be, in case you want to zip and share them, here you can try to install the preset I attached in the post above) 4) Above 'PresetName' and next to 'Delete' button there is a void box, select 'DefaultPreset' for the time being, then change 'PresetName' to whatever you like and click on 'Add'. 5) There you go, now you can edit your preset. 6) Remember to click on 'Update' each time you mod a preset, you'll see the button instead of 'Add' (check step 4 above). 7) Click on 'Permanent Push To Application' and then on 'Apply', which is on the upper right corner (you'll see the following buttons 'Apply', 'Reset' and 'Offline Preview'). 8) Close the Mediator and run the game. I hope it works.

RIP

Thanks for the info, Stary. Indeed the transition colours are better in 1.5. My favourite sky colours are those of the WideSky mod, but it misses some variety and indeed SARCASM has nicer clouds graphics and fog effects. My favourite is the CFS1-style fog shown in the first screenshot.

Looking forward to it! What about sky colours? I've seen new ones in the screenshots above. TW stock ones are not bad but not all that great either. Moreover, am I wrong or do I spy with my little eye something with t... tileset?

Make sure you have removed all ReShade files from both your mod folders and Strike Fighters 2, with the latest version of ReShade no manual install is needed, then use the Mediator, it automatically adds the relevant files to the main directory of the game executable. Regarding AA, I have it set to 2, while by default it is set by ThirdWire to 4.

Sorry to hear that, maybe Microsoft is doing everything to make Windows 7 users to upgrade to Windows 10. Just joking, in the past I have encountered some faulty updates with Windows 7.

If you can, I'd suggest trying it, they have done lots of improvements since the old beta versions. You can even use a new screenshot feature with the software, you can select a .jpeg and so you can have a quick preview of the preset settings being applied to the image, the result is pretty close to what it's going to be ingame. Strange, but I had some problems with old presets, they won't work on the new and latest package, you have to create new presets using Mediator.exe. Moreover, try it with both DirectX9 and DirectX10 modes. EDIT: I've attached my (not so great) preset. Try if it works. StrikeFighters.zip

Well, actually my preset does kill some framerates (not many though), because I have a very weak video card. If you guys are interested, I might post a download for my preset, I can share the preset with no problem. Anyway these are the options that are currently enabled in my preset: CURVES - SweetFX FILMICPASS - SweetFX FILMGRAIN - SweetFX ADAPTIVESHARPEN - CustomFX HDR - SweetFX WATCHDOGS_TONEMAP - CustomFX GAUSS - CustomFX

Stary, are you talking about ReShade? Because in fact it took me a while to figure out how to make it work, it's pretty easy with the latest package available at the site, you select the mod executable (for instance StrikeFighters2 Europe.exe) then you can either choice DirectX 9 or DirectX10/11 rendering modes, both work very well, but the DirectX 10 option enables more effects, and they work even when you are not using stock ThirdWire DirectX 10 shaders (meaning you have the effects at the game's menu not set to Unlimited)

Stock shaders ReShadeFX shaders Stock shaders ReShadeFX shaders Stock shaders ReShadeFX shaders ReShadeFX is a sort of SweetFX, actually it's SweetFX plus many other special effects. It is easier to install since it comes with a framework/graphical user interface, so it's very easy to use; it allows to create and share presets and to choose the rendering mode (OpenGL, DirectX9 or 10, etc.) for each particular game executable, among other things. Unlike SweetFX, where you have to copy various files to your mod folders, ReShade automatically adds all the relevant files to the main Strike Fighters 2 directory, then it loads it regardless of the fact that you are running a mod or the stock game. If you want to know more about it and/or download it, this is the link: http://reshade.me PS: Comparison shots above were made with my (pretty bad) preset. Those who have better eyes than mine can, of course, create better presets.

Thank you for the info, russouk2004. Maybe I should wait for a Windows 10 compatible version, the last one is for Windows 8.

Ahaha, I can't stop laughing at these tweets. We'd better not to make fun of him, he might attack us with a modern, recently developed fleet of MiG-17s and T-34 tanks.

Impressive maneuvers! Poor F-35s...

Unfortunately as far as I can remember this is a known bug of the game that was not fixed by the latest patches.

I haven't tried that campaign yet, but you may be right, there is a reason why it always ends in a failure, because after all it's a withdrawal, and the campaign is scripted so that the Soviets control all of Norway, which by default is meant to be under Blue Side control. I might be wrong though.

No problem, Baltika, real life comes first. I had to stop a WIP terrain of mine too, when I have time I'll resume my work at it. Anyway I think I can say we at CombatACE are grateful for your terrain works, terrain making is very time comsuming. FRPignon, you are making very nice progress with these terrains, it's amazing, however let me say I don't like the HFD you are using for the Balkan terrain too much. You've managed to update it so now it's nice looking and all, it just misses much of (my) Italy and the southern Balkan countries, unlike the WIP by Baltika. If you guys could join the two projects together, it would be a dream. Anyway, it is by no means a request, I've never contributed so much to CombatACE so I'm in no position to make one. Just take it as a suggestion.

Ok then, no problem.

eburger68, I was taking a look at the package again and noticed that the terrain uses only my updated .TFD, while I have an updated .HFD which I may have forgot to sent to you. Most likely the new HFD has fixed some airbases which were not flattened. If you plan to update, PM me and I'll find a way to send it to you (I can't upload it as an attachement, the file is pretty big even when compressed).