Eagle114th

Your advice on GIMP is much appreciated! For now, I am thinking on how to start. I want to skin F-100 as a starting aircraft for my big project (Dhimar vs Paran). I designed new national symbols / flags for them. Now the next step is to create new skin, and then apply new decals. I am going to start virtually paint F-100 blue / white camo (Dhimar). From what I understand, it is practical to create multi-layers from F-100. From what I Have learned a bit from past, it is ideal to separate each item on a multi layer: (Always feel free to correct me if I am wrong on anything. ) - rivets / line - main external parts (separated from internal parts) - More ideal to also separate upper and lower part for upper and lower camo Now my questions are , what is the best way to separate each parts from the texture? that is where I am at now. May I ask for your advice on this,?

Thank you sir! Your encouraging words are appreciated! About the software, I am using both GIMP 2 and paint.net. Which one do you recommend the most?

I always wanted to learn how to skin. I am not quite skilled with it yet. I still need to learn the tricks on how to cut the certain part of the texture and change the colors or paint over it. What I understand is that it is heavily based on creating the multi layers in gimp 2 or paint.net. From what I understand about the usage of multi-layers, one of layer for dots and line, another for camo, and next for untouched part like inside, tires, etc. You know what, I'll give it a try! I will look for the tutorials on how to skin aircraft properly.

That is noted. As soon I get new a new out, I'll post it here. I have been working on designing new decals. It turns out that I don't only want to design new GUI for SF2, I also want to design new decal and other 2D graphics. I'll post screenshot as soon I get it working in SF2. Cheers!

Thank you for the advice! This helps a lot! I have one more question about nation_Insig, do I place them in flight folder where the nation.ini is in too?

If time permits, I can help with .ini editing or graphic designs (from GUI to any kind of 2D graphic).

Thank you for the help. After changing the code "MinBaseSize=" from medium to small, it still caused SFP2 to crash when trying to use single player editor for CAS or armed recon. UPDATE: IT IS SOLVED! I FOUND THE PROBLEM, it is MY FAULT! What happened is that I renamed A-10 to a different name and the name was too long. So if you have aircraft name being too long, it will cause mission editor to crash. I shorten the aircraft name and it is working perfectly now! For example, I named A-10 as this: (USAF) A-10C Thunderbolt II [2005] "Warthog" it crashed. I shorten it as this: (USAF) A-10C Thunderbolt II [2005] Now mission editor can load successfully!

Hello everyone, Thank you for this awesome mod pack! I installed it recently so I can experience flying all A-10s. By the way, I am having problem (Crash to Desktop) when trying to enter armed recon or CAS mission with new A-10s from the mod package. Have anyone experienced the same problems? I am troubleshooting through this. If anyone know the solution to this, please let me know. I was flying Desert (TW) terrain. I'll try another terrain.

Basically in SF2 engine, only rockets and missiles can have either proximity fuze and/or timed fuze? If that is the case, then I could do it with rockets / missiles and enable "has growling IR", in order, to allow AI to use it as well.

Hello everyone, I have some questions about modding aircraft gun to include proximity fuze and timed proximity fuze. I am working on adding a fictional new nation with their own weapons for an interesting fun experiences in SPF2. I have been looking at gun and weapons information. Before working on missiles (which is more complicated), I am starting with gun for now. I have been wanting to add two types of shells: 1) proximity fuze fir one type of shell. If the shells from 30 mm cannon would explode if it's right next to the aircraft. 2) Timed Fuze for second type of shell. The shells would explode at certain distance. I aim to be able to mod the times in seconds. I only see the code: TimedFuze=True So I want to know if it is possible to enable both types of shells. As always, thank you for the advice. Because of the community help, I am able to accomplish making mods! Cheers!

That is noted, thank you for the advice. Oh boy, after modding SF2 intensively for several months, I have learned so much about the structure of SF2. It is truly mind blown how TK really design SFP2 in purely modular structure. No other sim has done this. This is a perfect sim that other sims / games could learn from. I have a lot more to learn.

Oh my god, that looks amazing!!! I am really looking forward to downloading the new version of this mod! You are literally turning SF2 into a whole new sim.

This solved my problem with terrains. Your advice helped me a lot! From now on, I will have to keep every aircraft in SF2, even if I don't like it. At least, for any unused aircraft, I disable the cockpit by commenting it out in aircraft.ini. So it is not a problem at all. After restoring all aircraft, I am able to see all red side aircraft on the map. I am relieved. It means I have to do the same for another 4 of SF2 installation. Here comes my meditative coding times.

Haha, good joke! Good one. :) By the way, I see... Even though I used terrain's nation file to ensure only Soviet and China being red side, I still need to include all aircraft's export for another unused nations for the sake of the health of the sim itself?

By individualizing the aircraft in SF2... It could not be helped... Doing a lot of .ini modding is a meditative times for me. After asking for the advice about it in another thread, I stayed with the rules by not dividing aircraft from user lists into a unique aircraft folder for each nation. It could not be helped, because doing many .ini dancing made me feel relaxed. I just simply love to learn as I mod aircraft. Each time I study about each nation briefly, in order, to find the right abbreviate for them. To my surprise, I never knew that Central America nations had P-51s. I learned the same thing about another specific nations operating certain aircraft. Since I also could no longer stand seeing aircraft name with incorrect nation's aircraft. For example, seeing an Egyptian Mig-23s with (VVS) MiG-23s instead of seeing it with the proper nation's abbreviate. Hence, I would rather to see (EAF) MiG-23s for Egyptian MiG-23s. I had to break my self rules and started individualizing each nation's aircraft. It was done several times over as the lesson are learned about tweaking the .ini files. However, I was doing it slowly, gracefully as a fun hobby when taking a short break from modding SF2 screen and real life situations from time to time. I thought it might, would take me over a year, when in fact, it took me a few weeks to achieve it. I learned the tricks of using Windows 10 search function, PowerShell (Cmd), and other tools, to make my task much more effective and efficient. Not only it was fun doing it, I got to learn about the structure and the pro / cons between individualizing Nation's aircraft and using userlist. This is what I learned: Individualizing nation aircraft vs combined nation's aircraft (Userlist) method: NOTE: I applied the individualizing only on essential flyable aircraft (Example: P-51s, Vampire, MiG-21, Su-9, F-4s, etc.) . I do not apply it on non-important aircraft, such as An-12, C-47 and other transport aircraft. Individualizing nation Method Each an individualized aircraft that is deviated from core SF2's aircraft benefits this advantage: - Having their own customized weapon load (For example, I am able to make a specialized version of EAF MiG-21s and configure their _data.ini, so they can carry both Russi and NATO heat seeker missiles. - Nationalized weapons - I am able to mod any specific ordnance and make it only available for certain nations. With that, I can use an individualized aircraft to use that ordnance. - Less chaotic camo list - I was tired of seeing combined nation's skin for one aircraft, so by dividing them into nation aircraft, I am able to just select any skins by default quickly. - More dynamic way of learning about nation's aircraft - Because of that, I am able to experience the living library of learning about nation's own air force / naval force aircraft historically. - By keeping userlist (Even with one nation included), SF2 will still detect and use them in terrains. I get to see many aircraft with proper nation abbreviates, makes my SF2 much more enjoyable dynamically! Combined nation's aircraft (Userlist) Method This method benefit from this feature: - For any aircraft that you do not want individualized, will save you a lot of time. By having multi-nations list in USERLIST.ini, SF2 will automatically use exported aircraft in mission. However, there is a disadvantage to this, for anyone who are like me who prefer having organized aircraft list: - However, there is con about this feature: It will not work well with specific nation abbreviate tags. - There are no ways of telling me which aircraft have certain nations in the list. For example, if I select MiG-17F, and then I select on "nation", it give me a list of all nation, instead of limited nation list. I could select USAF for that MiG-17F. Note: I have not experienced any CTDs (Thank goodness!) and by studying ODS 30 mod, I realized this: As long I keep the core aircraft there, it won't ctd. So it means I can specifically use the cloned core aircraft being nationalized and placing them in the specific SF2 installation that covers the certain theater geographically. For example, I would move nationalized MiG-21s EAF / SyAAF / IrAF / etc to Sf2 - Middle East, while moving F-4Es ROKAF, F-104s ROCAF, etc. to SF2 - Asia. Same thing applied to a different SF2 installation. At the another hand, I made sure all SF2 installation have all core aircraft files. This is done on one of SF2 installation with the purpose of individualizing all essential, flyable aircraft. From there, I can use it to copy and pate into specific theater (geographically) version of SF2 installation. Here are the screenshots: (NOTE: I only installed a few add-on aircraft. I will install add-on aircraft in another SF2 installation later. Just taking it slowly in an enjoyable way.)

Hello everyone, I am working on a new menu for SF2. It is a slow WIP. I will share the progress here. For now, I have created two screens as my rough draft / conceptual arts. I am working on creating 3D looking buttons and Is still learning how to edit .ini files from various menu mods. I always wanted a Jane's Fighter Anthology style GUI / Menu for SF2. Now I have decided to give it a try! Here are screenshots SF2 Main Menu Mission Briefing (WIP, I am still tweaking and adding a few more items) Here are three versions of buttons: Regular, mouse hovering over it, and mouse clicking. Feedback are always appreciated.

Everyone, New version of SF2 Screen Overhaul is released.

Hello everyone, I just submitted new version of SF2 Screen Overhaul mod and is waiting for approval. It will be released soon. UPDATE: It is now released! Enjoy the new version! Cheers!

Good afternoon everyone! I have been working on adding more SF2 system icon with different aircraft. I also have template ready for any of you to create more as add-on download for SF2 screen overhaul mod. In a folder for SF2 system icon, you can see different aircraft to choose from: Here is a full preview of each SF2 system icon: I am working on one more project before releasing new version of SF2 screen overhaul. Cheers!

Wrench, thank you brother!

Thank you for sharing with me. It is interesting how you organize it this way. As you said, each of us have our own tastes / needs / wants in SFP2. If TK ever happen to decide to add the features in filtering / organizing the aircraft list, that would be Godsend! What I truly dream of is having the filter system on aircraft list working this way (For single mission, mission editor, and other screens.): - When selecting nations from the list, it would show the nation with (numbers) on right side, showing how much aircraft is available for flyable. - After selecting the nation, it would only display the list of aircraft flown by that nations - If anyone wants to see list of all aircraft available, can disable 'filter' system. - Customizable filter and display (For example, if I get to customize how aircraft name show up in both list and screen, for example toggle between '90 to [1990]. With that, I would be more than happy to wipe my current SFP2 installation and have a fresh start with the new system.

One of wise modder here would say, "You ain't really playing SF2 until you start modding SF2." He couldn't be more than true. As the modders have stated above, SFP2 is the simulation / game that allow anyone to customize it to their own liking completly. However, of course, I get to fly SF2 from time to time too! Thanks to the new updated, organized aircraft and ordnance list, I get to fly as Cuban MiG-15bis out of curiosity. It was challenging flying updated NA Terrains with MIM SAMs lurking around. I was flying low, nag to the earth. Then I happen to catch F-84s flying around, jumped on 'em and shot one of them down before I got caught off guard by one of MIM Hawk SAM missile. (NOTE: I use MiG-15 / MiG-15bis flight model from KAW mod. Their flight models is awesome!) (DARN THESE pesky SAMs!)

Thank you for the reply. Just curious, if you wanted the same goal as I do with the organized aircraft list, how would you do it? I like to explore how people would do it in their own various ways. By the way, I think maybe I am a bit too much insane, since I already reorganized weapon from big mod pack too. (Note: Like I said, .ini dancing is like a meditative time for me. Everyone can feel relax doing different things, like music, dancing, boxing, etc. Since I am deaf with low vision, music is not exactly a meditative time for me. When I just do .ini dancing, my mind goes into 'relax' mode where I Just automatically edit the codes and jump to next files in a flowing ways intuitively.)

Agreed! SFP2 is the only simulation / game with the incredible features of moddability as well as having the abilities to have multi installation for different theater / era. The way SFP2 is structured where you can edit .ini to almost every details is also incredible. The modern game / simulation developer should learn from TK about the moddability of the game / sim. There is no other sim like this existed out there yet.