Eagle114th

After re-adjsuting the darkness of the texture for radar scop eand RWR: Eagle114th

A-4's new radar scope, RWR, and gunsight I am stil researching on the different RWR variants of A-4s have used. The texture of RWR is based on the pictures of AN/APR-23, it can be found here: https://phantomphacts.blogspot.com/p/usn-ew-equipment.html I realized that the RWR may seem too bright, so I am re-working on the colors of RW and darken it (Due to SF2 lighting rendering system). And in the future, if anyone found more pictures avionics and requires re-texture, I am more than happy to do it, if time permits.

F-89 Radar scope, it is no longer too bright in cockpits and is readable. Feedback is always helpful, so should I make radar scope a bit darker? Eagle114th

NOTE: THe new screnshots with F-89s and A-4s radar scop eand RWR will be posted after further adjhusting the darkness of radar scope and RWRs. 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!

The radr scop etexture is based on two images found: One of them is AN/APG-33 radar website: https://aeroantique.com/products/radar-indicator-lens-an-apg-40-fire-control-radar?variant=6386100240414 And another from war thunder F-89 cockpit:

Hello everyone! It have been a long time since I have done any modding, I am doing small projects for SF2, such as avionics texture and effects modding. I have been modding Jane's series sim and thought i would like to do some for SF2 too. Here is screenshot of new radar scope for Stary excellent F-89 cockpits. I do realize this cockpit have been not updated for many years, so I want to bring this back up. If someone want new texture for radar, please let me know and I'll uplaod the file here. Cheers

Hello everyone, (To Mods, please let me know if I am doing anything wrong here. I intend to respect the rules while sharing how to open or view the files.) It have been a while since I posted, it can't be helped. The world rather have become more crazier as yaers have gone by, keeping all of busy for sure. However, our hobbies are always here for us when we come back to it. There have been requests asking me to sahre how I managed to view the core files. I will share what tools I ujse and I can not promise that you will see the sources. From what I can understand is that, if anyone have an access to the source codes, it is where you can see all codes with comments that tells you what code do. It is what is used by programmer to create the program. However, if you use tools to view the codes from the core, you are not really looking at the sources codes; Rather, you are only seeing codes without the comments. Therefore, messing with it can be 'hit and miss' and if you do not know what you are doing, you can break the whole files. Please make sure you make copies of back up before doing any experiments with the files. Two tools I use and please note, I am still newbie when it come to using the tools. 1) CFF Explorer - this is a vital tools that help you figuring out what type of file and kind of language the file is written in. This will be needed when using the 2nd tool. I consdier this tool as gem. I do not know how reiable this is, but I thave helped me a lot understanding what the type of file it is and what language it is written in. 2) Ghidra - this is most popular tools to view the codes inside the file. It is also where you can edit the codes by making patches for it or another methods. Alternatively, you can also use tool known as OllyDbg 3) Using Ghidra I will give you basic step-by-step so you can get familiar with quickly. It is all what I am familiar with so far; When running it, click on FILE -> New Project Make a new project, and when you finish with it, you will see a project folder in left sectino of the program. you can make a new folder within that project folder for organizing purpose. Then run CFF viewer, you need to know what type of file and what language it is written in: Then back to Ghidra, go to file then click on IMPORT FILE go to the file you want to import, and import it. New window will pop asking you what type of file and what language it is written in. use the information you learned from CFF viewer. Then, click on OK. You wil see import file summary, click on OK again. You should see a fil ebeing importd into project folder Next, double click on the file you want for program to analyze, then click on OK Then you will have Analysis Options window coming up, click on Analyze". You will see the list of assembly language with C++ on the right section. Sometime when you click on the group of assemlby codes, the right section will change to show what you are viewing in C++. That is what I figured so far. I do not know what to do next. If anyone know how to make patches or how to make changes to any files, let us know. Cheers

From now on, you will see two picturs (TOP / BOTTOM) which is Jane's orignial pictures (resized by either x4 or x8 of the orignial size) / New texture version so you can see the difference.

REPORT from JUCE v1.2: What I have learned about creating texture and working with transparent background for Jane's USAF: The system is primitive compared to modern where we can use .TGA, .PNG, and other file formats for texture. In the old days of gaming, we had to use 256 color 8 bit BMP. And in order for texture to have transparent, the game developer use one of color and turn it nto alpha. For example, in Jane's USAF, the transparent color is 00FFFF (HTML color or 0, 255, 255 RGB). It mean I can not use semi-transparent colors for smooth curves. Therefore, I am forced to try to 'smooth' the curve with rough edges. It is one of big challenges. Another challenge is to preserve the 00FFFF cyan color as I work with texture in GIMP, then move them to paint.net and save them in 256 color 8 BIT BMP while making sure cyan color is saved properly with exact 00FFFF. Here is interesting projects I have worked on, but firstly, I want to thank to all aritsts out there who made the materials available for me to use, as well as powerful tools, such as chatGPT that saved my time A LOT. Allow me to explain how i use AI to help me: By heping me with upscaling the texture 4x and 8x while using various methods. There is no perfect methods, so I use what is avaiable out there, especially with my RTX 3080TI and Stable Diffusion. However, for texture part, I use my hand to polish, replace, or tweak when needed. AI is not that advanced yet, so I must be very involved. However, I have this philosophy that AI is meant to be your partner, teammate, not your leader. You are the one who leads with creativity and passions. I, as artist / military aviation fan and hobbist, always make sure there is no mistakes with the textures. However, without AI, I would probably get burned out working on over 130 texturs, and AI have saved my time from years to a few weeks. For that, i am forever thankful. How do I use AI upscaled texture? let's say I have 8 different methods of upscalng, then I compare them, then cut off what I like the most, then paste into one template,. If none of them provide good texture, then I find the excellent texture materials online. If there is none, then I use my hands. When working with P-14, P-35, and P-40, that was quite interesting part, used my hand to create the radar lines. For example, here is P-14, so you can compare between orignial Jane's USAF and my new version: Jane's USAF orignial (resized to 1024 pixel height / width): By using this photo as reference: This is my new version, took me a while to finish the radar dish part. Here is P-35 (Jane's USAF orignial texture resized) My new version P-40 radar (Jane's original version resized) My new version:

Hello everyone! The new version of JUCE v1.3 is now released with oaver 130 texture updated. The file sizes jumps from 76 MB to 156 MB. All texture files in stationary folder (in Resouce folder) is now completed. I am moving on to the next texture project, especaily on aircraft. The screenshot from JUCE v1.2 will be posted here as soon I get the chance. Cheers

Hello everyone, Here is screenshot of JUCE v1.1, to show you the result of improving the resolution from 512 heigth / width to 1024 height / width, along with an improvement to the hangars. I am working on the rest of various building and bridge textures. Eagle114th

Hello everyone! After working with "Shack" hanger, I learned a lot about transparent. It is quite tricky. I can not include 'semi transparent blur edge for curve part', otherwise bright blue would show up around edge of texture. In order, to have clear transparent, I must have very clear texture without 'semi transparent' edge. It works now after several attempts to get 'Y" shaped metal bar showing up without bright blue around edge. It turns out a little bit rough looking, but still much beter than orignial Jane's texture. Original version: New version: Eagle114th

Hello everyone, There is a breakthrough in updating Jane's files, thank to Tcklbrry for making it possible to have 4x resolution instead of 2x. The new version of JUCE is on the way and I do not have ETA for now. The new 4x resolution texture is currently being polished and fixed. I am still working on re-laligning the lanes and sand textures. For now, here is the current process: Eagle114th

Hello everyone, The new version of airbase in 4x resolution (up to 1024 width / height) are being worked on. Tcklbrry, one of modder in our community, did amazing job editing Jane's USAF, so it can support up to 1024 width / height texture. The progress is looking good so far, more works to do ahead of me. When airbase is completed, I am moving on next to the buildings and other textures. The previous release have 2x texture (512 width / height) texture. I hope that in new version, you can see the big difference. Eagle114th

Hello everyone! I want to let everyone know that there are modding community for Jane's Figther Anthology and Jane's USAF. You can find us by discord: https://discord.gg/a8rjdVEh I started the project overhauling the texture with upscaling and "super resolution" techniques. Jane's USAF runs smoothly on Windows 10 / 11. I wrote the guide a while ago about how to install and run jane's USAF on Windows 10, which can be used on Windows 11. Here is the link: (OUTDATED, no longer need to install new .exe and reshade, all is included in JUCE now. The only thing you need to do is to install Jane's USAF and update it with offiical Jane's USAF patch.) https://www.vnfawing.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=31023#31023 DOWNLOAD LINK for JUCE v1.2: https://www.mediafire.com/file/hvkjh94pshc6x6m/_JUCE+v1.2.zip/file Jane's USAF deserve to be revived so people can re-experience masterpieces made by Jane's combat simulation team. Here are screenshot, so you can see the difference: Originial Jane's USAF: JUCE version: The texture is based on excellent work of MigBuster airport texture for SF2. His name is included in README file as well. Please note, the texture is upscaled to 8x, then the texture get replaced with new texture, then re-sized back to 2x of the orignial resolution. The reason why I stay with 2x resolution for now is due to the limitation of Jane's USAF engine for now. UPDATE: With help from Tcklbrry, I am able to have texture maximum of 1024 height / width instead of 512. The new version of JUCE (v1.1 onward) will start using higher resolution texture up to 1024 height / width. Thank you for enjoyng the mods Cheers!

Hello everyone! I am certain that there are simmers out there in this community that still fly old simulations for sake of nostalgic and enjoyment. For me, it is the wonderful old Jane's series simulation. There is no another sim that do amazing jobs with it, especially with the ACCESSBILITY. I had to say it many times. there were time when people asked me "Why didn'tyou fly Flaming Cliff 3 for "low fideity' sim? SF2 is so old? Jane's series sim, it is so ANCIENT sim!" Becasue it does not have accessbility that Janes' series sim and SF2 have: Subtitles and target box that help me spotting them, along with arrow for padlocking, due to sensory disability. Another amazing features of Jane's Fighter Anthology / Jane's IAF / Jane's USAF and another Jane's sim is amazing tutorials and training. it actually feel very involving and immersive experiences for me. No another sim does that before. I wish SF1 / SF2 would have that immersive experiences, but again, it was develloped by 1 man so it can't be helped. Jane's comat simulation was developed by team. However, another thing I love about Jane's series sim is excellent "low fideity" envoriment. SF2 is the only sim that came in excellent envoriment after Jane's series sim. However, SF2 still is lacking of enriched air to ground targetting system / radar / other anvionics that Jane's IAF / USAF / other sim have. (Jane's FA is too basic, I do realize, but it was their firs tsteps toward advacing into more advanced features in next generation simulation in the 1990s.) And this might will surprise peope, I am currently working on mods for Jane's Fighter Anthology and Jane's USAF. for jane's USAF, it is texture overhaul projects. I am currenlty on a break from SF2 because it requires too much times of researching for accurate data, being just one man project, I do not have that time for now. If I do have time for it with great resources on my hand, I might will restore the projects (SFCE). However, .I have been looking everywhere to find the right tools to view / open .P3D files for Jane's USAF. Have anyone successfully opened or view the old 3D models? With that, I wil be able to quickly preview the 3D model with the new super resolution texture (By upscaling them 4x or 8x, work on it, then re-size it to 2x of the orignial resolution). Just in case, if any of you wonder why I am modding ancient simulation? It is the same reasons with the people who mods the old classic car and modernize them. Same thing with old furnitures and technologies. I am like that with the old simulation. I want to modernize them as much as possible.with excellent software and technologies we have now. It is straight from passions and heart. it is a shinig gems for us who loves old simulation that enriched us with childhood joyful memories. I still fly SF2 from time to time, because it is also one of my gems. I wish there are newer simulation that does 'lwo fideity' like Jane's series sim and SF2, with excellent accessiblity features. Thank you, Eagle114th

That is noted and thank you for the advice. Eagle114th

Hello everyone, I have managed to find a way to view the codes inside dll. It was quite journey. However, it do not mean I have the full access or can edit it well yet. What surprised me is that, with the right tools, I am able to view the classes of files in C++ languages. It is quite interesting! Keep in mind, I want to do this ethically and the right way. I do not know what to do next, but to any modders who want to give it a try (experimenting with dll fiels), PM me.

Excellent suggestions for DLL editing, theoretically (I use word "theoretically" for now until it DLL editing experiment is actualy start being done by modders here.) I want to add more as well! Every avionics that is available in SF2 should be expanded and be experienced immersively in SF2. For example, when flying variants of A-4s, right now, it feel like they all are almost the same except for perfomance and cockpit. Now imagine, if having computer / avionics that is actually installed in different variants of A-4s? For example, computer level bombing guidance for specific variants of A-4 that have it? CCRP in F-100s? Being able to do extra tasks when using ECM? Actually being able to take photo when using recon pod? A bit more challenging when using radar, such as ground clutter if diving toward ground? More realistic technical limitation and issues when using radar in certain situations. WIth that, each variants of aircraft and their avionics upgrades actually can be experienced more depths, immersive, and details differently.

Ah i see, that is noted. My apologize for misunderstanidng. That is a good point. I agree with this. Same thing happened with Il-2 1946 that became IL-2 1946 B.A.T.S. If you don't mind me asking, I like to learn new thing severyday; What is the biggest leap or changes from Falcon 4.0 to BMS?

Thank you for posting your thoughts, and I can understand your frustration. It is perfectly normal to be skeptical and it is understandable. We all have been there. However, you will probably be quite surprised when I say this: There are still community that are still modding simulation that are even older than SF2, they are Jane's series simulatoin, as wel as IL-2 1946. Jane's Fighter Anthology came out in 1996, and IL-2 1946 came out after 2000 (Please correct me if I am wrong about the year IL-2 was first released). It is true that vast numbers of modders moved on or no longer are in this world. And yet, some of us still come back and start modding the old simulation again because, no matter what age we are, we stil miss the genius designs of these simulations. Now I think about it, I remembered the people saying "It's time to move on, we have to drop the old sims, no one is coming back" with the Jane's series sim and IL-2 1946, and yet they come back to it later on. About BMS and other simulation, regrettably I have to disagree with you due to this reasons: I am not fan of 'study' sim, that requires me tons of hours just to fly one aircraft. I am 'low fidelity" simulation guy that loves semi-realism / semi-complex sim like Jane's series simulation and Thirdwire SF2. There is no another sim like this, therefore I stick with Jane's series sim, IL-2 1946 (With complex engine management turned off), and SF2. If you know another sim that are like SF2 that is moddability and is low fideity, please let me know and I will happily check it out. I forgot to mention, Jane's series sim, Il-2 1946, and SF2 have captions and other features that are user-friendly for my sensory disabiliites. For now there is none after good sim that matches my desires and needs in the sim after searching for long times. The only one I can find that have potient to become like SF2 and that is TCA (Tiny Combat Arena). We will have to see how TCA develops through time. However, the life taught me one thing, life is filled with surprises, just like the community that still mods Jane's Fighter Anthology. My jaw was dropped and I did a small modding with them for sakes of nostaglic. Even though the community here is shrinking, it does not prevent us from having passions for SF2, despite how TK handled the community and his alcking of communication with us. This is why I want ot bring this up and see if anything comes out from it. It does not hurt to at least try. I have the hopes that this community always stay alive from now on to the future. I want to add one more thing, if this ideas do not come out as I hope it would, then I have no regert. It mean I would try again in the future until something greater eventualy appear. Cheers!

I am glad you bought this up, this is what we, combatace modders, intend to do: - Do this in ethical and non-commerical ways, combatace always stand on being free mods. This is why I love combatace, we always share the mods freely. - While we find a way to either ehtically share modified DLL files only or create installer / DLL wrapper that would modify the DLL and have it read an external modder created files, it still honor the most important condition: it requires a legal copy of SF2, therefore honoring the copyright. This is ilke situation with SAS 1946 and another communiteis that goes deep into core of IL-2 1946 engine, they stil require people to have a legal copy of IL-2 1946, in order, to run the mega mod packs such as B.A.T.S as an example. They respect the copyright of IL-2 1946 / properities. Thank you for bring this up, in order, to ensure we do not forget to respect the properities of TK simulation.

I agreed with you! It is like you said, there are huge passions that the communty have poured into SF1 and SF2 for many years and is still modding it to this very day. As I have stated before and will state it again, SF2 deserves to be given another chance of being expanded further with moddability.

That would be interesting, and I would like to add my persepctive here. I lvoe discussing something like this! I would ike your thoguhts on this: I believe it would be great if we could add more features to it while keeping it in the scope of being 'low fidelity' with semi-complex / semi reallism to it. For eample, what I believe is truy needed for SF2: - Gs limiter (FInaly no more going over 10 or even 12= Gs or over -4 Gs, even for AI - More details / depths in air to ground targets radar operation (We need air to ground lockable targets and other features, thhat is as details, if not more detailed than Air to Air radar. However, keep in mind, we do not want to turn this into DCS "Study sim' with millin butotns, BUT we can stay in between where SF2 iis now and add a bit more spices to it. :) - moveable / controlable FLIR / TV in MDF -> this have been very needed for a long time! - no more gunsight / CCIP going beyond glass panel / HUD - More to list