Eagle114th

Hello everyone, I have reports to share about the progress with F8Us / F-8s avionics overhaul. Firstly, I want to exprress thanks to Dtmdragon for his excelelnt work with F8Us / F-8s avioincs overhaul, I am using his updated cockpits and avioics as base to enchant his works. With the new improved gunsight and further enchant the visual part of radar scope and contents init. First, I want to talk about tilted glasses, in my opinion, it is most important features. It make the big world of difference with visiblity, and this is why I love working with new cockpits amde by mods, because they usually provide texture to tweak the reflector or HUD glasses. However, TK's version of cockpits, in other ahnd, does not have texture nor 'polygon' in front of reflectors. Because of that, I am unable to adjust the tilt of glass. However, I thought of one interesting, workable solution to this; By adding 'area of tilt' in front of gunsight while ensuring there are gap between tilt area and border of refelctor / HUD glass. Becasue when you tilt the camera / pan around, the elements of 'HUD', always move around with your camera (gyro effects). However, to show you the difference; Gunsight without tilted area: Now with tilted area in front of gunsight: (NOTE: The instruction on how to remove the 'tilted' area and restore the gunsight system back to COCKPIT.ini based method will be provided., in case if anyone does not like the tilt area in reflector. The issues with this method is that, when you shift the view angle away from refelctor, sometime it will show the 'double gunsight' effect becasue there are two gunsight overlapping each other. I am stuck with this issues due to SF2 mmodding limitation, however If anyone know the solution to this, please let me know.) (Mark 11 Mod 1) (Mark 11 Mod 7) now next is updated radar in 1024 (tehre is also 512 version) and noe that 'Y" symbols now aligns with the horizontal bar when plane is level: AN/APS-67 (F8U-1E / F-8B and F8U-2 / F-8C) TW style version Next, AN/APG--83 (F8U-NE / F-8D) TW STYLE VERSION The next series of F8Us / F-8s are being worked on. Eagle114th

Hello everyone, I am re-creating the posts after hte ideas came up about the name of proejcts and what it is about. This project is to be known as SF2 Avionics Community Pack (SF2:ACP for short), because the purpose of this projects is to create the assets for anyone to usse for our mods, as well for customizing our SF2 installation. You will need to put them into aircraft folder and customize the .ini files, in order, for them to appear in-game. This is what I find so enjoayble and I noticed that not many simulation does this. This s project aims to bring the realistic, immersive expereicnes in cockpits with actual textures for radar scope, RWR, HUD, and any avionics that is currently moddable in SF2 and aircraft mods. I will exlpain the limitation of SF2 engine, so we can get better pictures of what we can and can't do for now. I said "for now, is becauuse I have the hope htat someday, somehow, someone manage to make it possible to make avioincs further moddable in SF2. 1) Texture issues: What can be done is chan ging radar scope texture. But the problem is that, the radar symbols / lines colors can not be changed. We are stuck with default green SF2 radar symbosl /lines / circles. And eve with new textures, the radar lines / symbols/ shapes will be applied on top of it. So it mean, if you have 'black line' on top of radar scope like A-4s as an exampe, the radar still overlap it. Another issues is that, most of SF2 default aircraft does not have texture-able radar scope for 'turned off' radar, so it seem strange how CRT (texture) would suddenly show up when turnig radar on. I wished that the radar scope woudl be texture-able, so that it seem taht only radar lines / symbols / shapes would appear, therefore preserving the immersive experiences. 2) Lighting, after attempting to use the actual colors of radar scope based on the pictures, as an example, they usually show upup too bright comnpared ot another instructments / avionics in cockpit. So they need to be darken, in order to blend naturall in cockpits. And another issue is radar colors of green, it need to be readable, therefore further darken the texture. So they might will appear darker compared to the photo. (I am currenlty wokring on this part on both F-89s and A-4s radar scope and RWR new textures). 3) Avionics DLLs, there are only two DLLs I believe, that we can use either one of Avionics DLL for early and modern aircraft. But I still have the hope. The reason why I have hope is because, I am part of the community that is modding Jane's series simulation. That simulation is almost 30 years old and people still mods it. It amazes me, therefore gives me hopes. Besides the lmitation, it does not stop us from wanting to create the mods that would improve the experiences in avioincs. What inspired me to do this, I was customizing SF2 installation for early cold war era (My favorite era), in Asia, midddle east, and other theatre, along with later cold war era, I noticed that there is always room of growth and improvement for cockpits. That is when I came up the awy to improve F-89 series radar scope, as you can see it in another theatre abou Stary's F-89 cockpits. Then here it is, SF2: Avionics Community Pack! What would be great help if we can share the pictures and information on the avioinics for various planes, so we can get busy with the avioniocs improvement. If anyoneo have the requests for radar scope, or any avioinics improvement, it would be great help if the resources can be provided too. The next posts will cover what I am doing with both F-89s and A-4s gunsights, radar scope, and rwr, along with F-89's radar scope. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ DOWNLAOD: SF2 ACP v0.2 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Cheers!

Hello everyone, After going through trial and errors, I learned that the gunsight texture must be same width and height. So therefore I had to add 'gaps' between border of image and both side of gunsight. BUT to make it accurate size, I did some math and it came out perfect in-game. I want to share withanyone in case if anyone struggle getting gunsight size showing up correctly in -game. So here is gunsight in 512 x 512 texture (TGA): What I do is measure the width of the gunsight from furthest left to right side and the image width in pixels. And like i said, width and height of image must be the same size. So here what I have: 512 x 512 image, therefore 512 width The width of gunsight is 367 pixel. Math: 512 / 367 = 1.39509536784741 And 100 mil, 100 x 1.39509536784741 = 139.5 -> 140 (rounded up) in Cockpit.ini: GunsightMilSize=140 (instead of 100) And for avioincs, originally I had ImageSize=0.135 for 100 mil 0.135 x 1.39509536784741 = 0.188 rounded up therefore, ImageSize=0.18 Like i said, the gunsight shows up just correctly in-game as 100 mil for outer circle. (This is F87-1 or F-8A with Mark 11 Mod 1 gunsight) And of course, can't forget the optional accessiblity feature too! Here is al alternative version with working firing cues: Eagle114th

Hello everyone I workin gon creating a completely new gunsight based on the fligh tmanual and information. What I learned is that F-8s had different gunsights through the variants and upgrades. I do not have exact information yet, but it makes sense. According to information I found, F-8s uses Mark Mod 1 / 2 / 7. Same Mark but different mod number. What I think is that F8U-1 (F-8A) uses Mark 11 Mod 1 while F8U-1E (F-8B) and F8U-2 (F-8C) uses Mark 11 Mod 2. From the recent maual recently found, the docunment stated that F8U-2N (F-8D) and F8U-2NE (F-8E) uses Mark 11 Mod 7 gunsight. I assume that F-8H and J uses Mark 11 mod 7 too, but i am still researching to double check first. Here is picture of Mark 11 Mod 1 from flight manual: And here is Mark 11 Mod 7: NOTE: I am still looking for the picture / diagram of Mark 11 Mod 2 rectile. If anyone have information no it, please share with me. So I can accurately create gunsight for Mark 11 Mod 2. What c onvienced me that F-8A may be using Mark 11 Mod 1 is from this website: http://gunsight.jp/b/english/data/sight-e-am.htm What I realized is that the TK's version of gunisght does not have exact same layout as shown in manual, so here is an example: LEFT (NEW GUNSIGHT) RIGHT (SF2 DEFAULT GUNSIGHT) NOTE: These are main stationary gunsight without secondary gyro gunsight. The difference seem a little, but the difference is stil difference. I rather to have precise historically accurate gunsight. If there is just a fe dots or lines difference, I am still including that. And notice that the very edge of gunsight touches the border of image border, I do that on purpose, so that way it will be accuate with the size in-game. SF2 uses mil numbers when displaying gunsight. if there is gap between image border and the gunsight, then the size wil be off. in cockpit, youc an see the codes: See the code: GunsightMilSize= At the same itme, the radar scope is being worked on in higher resolution (1024 and 512) and I want to share the video recenlty found, it is one of holy grail: (At 13:25, you will see how radar work and what it looks like) I wish there are more videos like this. Finally, here is table with data I have found so far related to F8Us / F-8s Eagle114th

Hello everyone The work on AN/APS-20 is now completed, and just like AN/APS-31, it ues half of upper circle for radar. It uses full 180 radar scope for both air and air to ground radar. I am now working on F8U / F=8 Crusader series before releasing the next version of alpha. What I am going to do is to upscale and create 1024 and 512 version of radar scope. Eagle114th

Hello everyone, it turns otu I made a big mistake with AN/APS-4 / 6/ and 19, and now I understand the different and the evolution from APS-4 to 6 to 19. I am glad I di dnot release the mod yet, I am fixing the my misunderstanding. For AN/APS-6, it will be used by F4u-5N while ADs will have proper radar for variants of ADs / A-1s. Avioincs is quite complicated topics and I am learning a lot from it in steps by steps. Ther are many different types of radar for difffernet roles, especialy having many tree lines of changes and upgrades. @Wrench After doing further research, I am quite suprised by different radars used by various ADs / A-1s. I created the table based on the docunments: (NOTE: for A-1H and J, i use 'N/A" because, even though they very rarely mount the radar pod, commonly they don not use radarright? Eagle114th

Hello everyone, AN/APG-6 and AN/APG-19 works in SF2 have been changed how it work to reflect the more realistic way they work. I realizedf that the primtive radar does not feature the acqistion then track, therfore it got me thinking how it woudl work. Therefore, using SEARCH: then BORESIGHT is closer to how it work. Becasue when using AN/APG-6 and 19, you use search mode to find target and align your plane heading toward target. Therefore using SEARCH to steer plane: sheading toward it horizontally, then switch to boresight to further adjut the pitch and heading more precisely. I am very happy how it works now. F4U-5N will have this as well. AD series have been great learning lessons for me when workong on WWII and post war avionics! Eagle114th

@OlWilly THANK YOU, i got it now. I think I understrand now. To clarify what you explained: BoresightElevation and BoresightAzimuth are hte offset for boresight to 'aim" by deafult. And that BoresightBeamAngle is 'core angle' like ice cream cone,s tart at one point, as it spread out toward 'searching' area. According to the radar set for AN/APG-6 I used the smallest angle, which is 40 from elevation of +20 and -20. Since I can:t define the angle of evelator / azimuth for boresight, so it:s best for me to use smalelst one. However, in-game, tested it, works perfectly! I set it to sesarch for target, then steered toward that, then switched to boresight, there it is , target with 'AIM DOT" to further ajust the path toward the target in AD-4 with radar. Works perfectly, which :simulate: AN/APG-6 peerfectly! Cheers! Eagle114th

Helo everyone, I have questionsa bout the contents under [AvionicsData]: But first, I have already defined the sweeping angles for radar And my questions is this: I am re-workin gon AN/APS-6 radar, I want to make it use boresight as second steps when using radar to detect fighter (SEARCH then BORESIGHT) to "simulate" primitive radr system wehre you wouldd use radar to search then align with target for night mission. However, what I do not yet understand is the last 3 codes of boresight. Does BoresightElevation and BoresightAzimuth add to an alreacy existing radar sweep angle defined in above codes? Or does it mean it have their own angle limitation? Next question; Can anyone explain more about BoresightBeamAngle? is it the limitation beam angle when beaming at target? If yes, it mean it have limitatino of 3.7 angle? It is my goal to have boresight having the same angle as search radar. Thank you Eagle114th

Hello everyone! The new texture for AN/APS-31 for A-4N / 4NL / 5N / 5NL are now completed. With the tweaks of avionics.ini, since I do not yet understtand how to turn radar into circular 360 radar scope like AWAC aircraft. But good news, fortunately, AN/APS-31 uses 160 degree scope (forward), therefore I am able to use +80/-80 degree scanning on radar scope. Here is information about AN/APS-31 from various sources: Therefore I can do this on regular radar scope (forward only) instead of 360 degree radar scope (which I Hoped for). Here is screenshot: TW STYLE VERSION Eagle114th

@Wrench Thank you for the manual! I am sharing the docunment here too! THis is what I have found from deep hunting and searching through internet; https://www.mediafire.com/file/kxkt6n9dhgg6240/A-1+Skyraider.7z/file Besides flight manual, if you look through pdf of flight characterists for each variatns of AD / A-1s, they have data on equipment they carried. Look for "Electric equipment" or something like that and then look for "RADAR. Eagled114th

Hello everyone! I am working on AN/APS-31, and here is a brief information: What I am trying to achieve is to turn A-4 radar into this kind of radar with 160 degree sweeping I am current stuck on trying to turn radar into this style. I am using avionics.60.dll and here is codes NOTE: I am using A-4E avioincs as base to start with, so I am modifying the codes to turn them into PPI and 160 degree scanning. The result is that the radar sweep stays at bottom of the radar scope, instead of moving to the middle, therefore I get mixed of upper and lower scanning on one screen: (Notice that the PPI sweep disappear due to going beyond the botom of radar scope) What else should I do to enable 'true' 160 degree radar scope? Thank you Eagle114th

Thank you for the information. It makes sense that AD-6 and AD-7 (later knwn as A-1H and J) does not have the radar. By the way, I want to ask you questionsa bout AD-4 and AD-5 to be specific; It is true that tearly AD commonly use AN/APS-6, and there is also docunment I recenlty read that statets AD-4 and 5 carrying AN/APS-19s which is basically more advanced version of AN/APS-6. So it mean there are mixture of AD-4ss and 5s with both AN/APS-6 and 19? Noteed about AD-4N and NL, it is like AD-5N that specificaly carries AN/APS-31 radar. Eagle114th

BINGO!!! I didn:t realize that if I stay true to the size of gunsight and adjust the offset of view inside cockpit, I am able to re-fit the gunsight in the reflector glass. From now on, with any gunsight, will stay true to the size of gunsight and tweak the offset. this time, the gunsight and cockpit seem mor natural. Eagle114th

Thank you and you rocks too! I aim to keep doing my best with the avinoics projects everyday! Cheers! Eagle114th

Hello everyone, Here is AD-4 with AN/APS-19. Please let me know if I have this texture correct or not. I am doing my best to find the pictures of AN/APS-19. I am unable to find exact picture of it, it is based on AN/APS-6. What I have learend is that AN/SPG-19 is improved and more advanced version of AN/APS-6. SCREENSHOT: (AN/APS-19 radar will be used by AD-4 / 5 / 6 / 7 while AD-5N use different radar, which is AN/APS-31. I am going to look into that radar and hope I can find information on it.) TW style version: Eagle114th

Hello everyone! I have been working on vey early radarr system and texture for AD / A-1 series Skyraider. Please note that, we can not accruately mod the radar to work the way old radar, such as AN/APS-6. Therefore to 'simulate' the way they work in simliar ways, the radar system have been heavily tweaked besides the rdar / scannign angles, etc. In order to use AN/APG-6, there is a very few and simple mode: target blips, aquistion symbol, and AIM dot, that's it. You steer plane toward AIM DOT and use target range to determine how far you are from target. Here are screenshot of AD-2W / AD-3W Skyradier: And here is TW style version: The work on radar texture is based on the flight manual and docunments: And from another simulation: The radar system / texture for next variants of AD / A-1s are being worked on. Eagle114th

hello everyone! This week have been quite busy week, so I have been wokring on project from time to time. During myf ree time, I spent most of time researching and searching for the flight manuls and looking through them. And that is when I realized that I can not use any simulation as reference for gunsight, since they are often different from the actual gunsight diagrams as shown in flight manual. So therefore, from now on, I am using flight manual as base for gunsight diagrams. It is my goal to have most accurate gunsight for different aircraft. Fore example, forr AD / A-1 series Skyraider, this is what I learned that A-1E / G / H / J uses Mark 20 Mod 4 gunsight: So instead of using cckpit codes for gunsight, I amusing HUD so pilot can switch between day and night gunsight, and here is screenshot: This is CAGED version WHen switching to AA or AG HUD mode: WIth "HUD", you can switch between CAGE for night gunsight and AA /AG mode for DAY gunsight. And please note, when switching between AA and AG ordiancne, you will need to switch to CAGE mode for night gunsight. It will take me a lot of time researching and seeeking for the gunsight diagrams for varous aircraft and that is okay. I can take my time. If anyoeno have library fo gunsight diagrams, please link it here or PM me. it will be great help. Thank you. Eagle114th

Hello everyone! A-4 series radar scope have bee re-worked and re-scaled to 1024 for quality and details. However, after talking wiht one of modders, I realized that not everyone have powerful video card, so I am going to create 1024, 512, and 256 version for anyon to choose and sue for their SF2 installations. The templates, in other hand, is 1024 by standard. From there, anyoeno can re-size it to any smaller size too. By the way, after studying the flight manual of A-4E and F, creaetd the new radar scope for A-4E / G and A-4F / H / L. Here are screenshots of A-4E and G radar scope: And A-4F - H - L new radar scope: Eagle114th

Hello everyone, I am currently trying to re-size or re-scale the radar on the area of radar scope, so it will cover the specific area, instead of covering the whole radar scole. I want to know if it is possibel to do that in SF2 through ini tweaking? The reason why I ask is because some aircraft I am working on for avionics overhaul that requires radar re-scaling, so it does not cover the whole scope. The advice are always appreciated. Thank you Eagle114th

Looks like Ihave an extra of work to do, re-doing A-4s and F-8s to have higher resolution with both textured and TW style. Fortuantely F-89s, F-102s, and F-106s already have both textured and TW style radar scope. When that is done, I can finally focus on F-94s and F-101s that uses Hughes FCS. I aim to finish working on all aircraft that uses Hughes FCS + radar then release the next version of alpha while moving on to next aircraft. Eagle114th

Hello everyone, I am shocked when I just realized something. Even thoguh,, am very happy that I am able to create various radar scope / avoinics textures, but the biggest issus that just hit me the hardest; Night mission I only tested the texture during day, not night. When testing the cockpit light setting, I realized I could barely read the radar due to very bright glowing of the radar symbols / sweeping, etc on the top of already glowing texture. this is biggest issues that is not fix-able without TW updating it in SF2 engine. I am not deleting the texture, I will keep it for now. However, from now on, I will be more focused on TW style radar scope, which mean black background with green lines and symbols. However, if the people here still want me to create the texture, I can do both at the same time; Just be warned, the texture version is very useful and great for immersive experience, it is meant to be day mission onnly. However, with TW-style radar scope, it is perfect for both day and night mission. Here is an example with F-8C new radar scope (textured version): And what happens when viewing at night mission? (WARNING: can cause eye pains when looking at the screenshot) I would like feedback on this please. Eagle114th

Thank you and I am happy you liked them! It gave me great joys! Cheers! Eagle114th

I am happy you liked the TW style version, it it is now part of the SF2 - ACP pack! About the manual, that is noted and please check your PM. About the radar texture, I am enjoying doing both, the more realistic (texture) version and TW (Stock) version now. Therefore, I am doing both for all avoinics projects from now on. Cheers! Eagle114th

Hello everyone! I spent all day working on F-89 series improved avionics textures and I am happy with the results! You can see big difference by going from 128 x 128 to 1024 x 1024: LEFT (128 x 128) vs RIGHT (1024 x 1024) In-game from F-89B to F-89J TW style version Eagle114th