VonS

Hi Mike, Also check over the following two links that overlap with the good info. Geezer has posted above (should get rid of the shimmering oddities that way): https://combatace.com/forums/topic/91359-airfield-figures-help-wanted/?tab=comments#comment-738584 https://combatace.com/forums/topic/91359-airfield-figures-help-wanted/?tab=comments#comment-738564 Happy flying, Von S

Time for some fresh screenies from our favourite, niche WWI flight sim - FE2. Been doing a bit of WOFFing and a lot of ROFing lately on the BootCamp side of the Mac Pro (in Win10), and I'm pleasantly surprised how well FE2 holds up when compared to those sims. It seems that we have FMs now that are close to those in ROF (from what I've been able to compare in ROF), but AI that is closer (more varied) to the one used in WOFF - best of both worlds I think. Thank you modders for your continued work on FE/FE2. Early morning offensive patrol in the pics below, using Stephen's new Galicia terrain (pics. below are on medium settings in WineSkin, by the way, on the Mac side of things). Von S P.S. If you've put in enough "flight time" with the modded FMs in FE/FE2...you shouldn't have any special difficulty flying the FMs in ROF that have often been described as very difficult on full realism settings.

Love those old postcards with imitations of the Bleriot XI, Crawford - happy new year to you as well! Von S

Well this is a nice surprise! Welcome back Geezer. I think the Breguet XIV needs more work...that model is incomplete, and the Junkers J.I probably requires further tweaking of the 3-d model....other than that I think most of the aircraft you've been working on are as good as they come - there are about five or six uploads in total under this "new aircraft" thread where your nearly complete Nieups., Pfalzes, Halb., etc. have been posted. Happy new year to all, Von S

Good news on the WineSkin side of things too - dropping the dx9 driver into the FE2 game folder, within the WineSkin wrapper, improves the fps on the Mac side as well. Recommended is to set dx9 to "true" in the options.ini file, and enhanced shaders to off (0), as specified in the post above for BootCamp. Smooth fps can be attained then, and it's fine to increase the resolution to 1920 x 1080. The in-game (graphics) settings in FE2 running in WineSkin should be set to "medium" - otherwise there is slight stuttering at high settings. (The MacOS side doesn't crossover/link the two video cards on the Mac pro...while in BootCamp high/unlimited settings are fine in FE2.) It's possible that dropping the dx9 driver into the FE2 game folder even on Macs running Intel integrated vid. cards, such as the Mac Mini, might lead to fps boosts. Some representative pics below of FE2 in WineSkin with the dx9 driver in the game folder (pics. in the post above are from BootCamp...at unlimited/high settings.) GTerl's Caporetto terrain also works great in WineSkin, by the way. Happy flying, Von S NOTE: recommended, with the dx9 tweak, is the higher mesh size flightengine.ini file, for your Flight folder, even if you have FE2 installed in WineSkin - in BootCamp I have the higher mesh size flightengine.ini file running and it works fine, even with high/ultimate graphics settings in game. Pics. below are with the higher mesh size and medium graphics settings, in WineSkin. For integrated vid. cards, best is to use the simpler/default flightengine file (both are included with the ver. 9.5 FM update pack).

Hello gents', A quick heads up for those running FE2 in WineSkin on a Mac - keep in mind that FE2 is a 32-bit program. MacOS 10.15 and later will not be supporting 32-bit programs anymore (only 64-bit). This of course is a problem considering that WineSkin (and other Wine programs for Macs) are currently 32-bit. While WineSkin may eventually go 64-bit (this is a slim possibility), there is no guarantee that 32-bit programs like FE/FE2 will be able to run in it even if it is 64-bit, considering that MacOS 10.15 and later are stripping out most if not all of the 32-bit code from their OS. This leaves Mac fliers of FE2 in a precarious position. Options are eventually to go over to Windows and drop fiddling with WineSkin, or to keep running your older Intel Macs (like my 2012 quad-core Mini), or grab another Mac and sort of future-proof yourself, with something like a Mac Pro or the newer Mac Mini (2018), providing you don't upgrade past MacOS 10.14 (last one to support 32-bit). SF2 by the way is 64-bit, and so is WOFFue - so those are good to go into the future of 64-bit OSes, on the Windows side. No guarantees that you will be able to fly WOFF/SF2 in future Mac OSes however because WineSkin may remain 32-bit only (no telling what's going to happen with Wine on a Mac at this point). Have been reading some forums that the Wine folks may move over to Linux entirely if the Mac world drops 32-bit...not good news for legacy simming/gaming. Anyway, I'll probably future-proof myself in some way with an extra Mac or two since I like running FE2 in WineSkin and there's no dropping FE2 once you get the modding bug. Happy flying, Von S UPDATE: The CodeWeaver folks working on CrossOver (a fork of Wine) may be developing a way for 32-bit code/libraries to be loaded into a 64-bit version of Wine - something that may eventually be ported to the general branch of Wine too - but again this is work in progress and no telling what will happen until the dust settles down over the next couple of years, in terms of 32-bit gaming on a Mac, in Wine. Linux has a 64-bit version of Wine that can load 32-bit code for older games, and it seems to have had this for several years already - but this is not relevant to gaming on a Mac. Will update this post further if any (good) news emerges.

Representative pics with dx9 enabled (subtler clouds, better peripheral fog, classic rain drops visible together with the tga file raindrops, more realistic/subtle smoke and fire effects). Resolution at 1920 x 1080 in BootCamp, by the way. Von S

Hello fellow FE/FE2 flyers, here are the latest Mac-related updates. WineSkin is still the simplest choice up to ver. 10.14 of MacOS to run FE2 on your Mac side...ave. fps are between 50 and 80 at medium graphics settings and a resolution of 1600 x 900 on my rig (Mac Pro 2013). Also good is that FE2 now runs fine in Win10 on the BootCamp side of the Mac....the trick, as posted in another thread earlier by gTerl and others, is to include the dx9 driver directly in your FE2 game (not user directory) folder. I'm getting good results with the generic dx9 driver included with the enb-series v. 0.076 package, located at the following link: http://enbdev.com/mod_generic_v0076.htm The only thing you need from that file is the dx9 driver. Ave. fps range from about 60 to 150 on the Win10 side of the Mac Pro with that driver in the FE2 folder...my previous tests with the dx10 and dx11 drivers installed, and advanced shaders set to "1" (on) and dx9 set to "false," in the options.ini file, have been filed away...yes fps gets into the 200 to 300 range but the sky and clouds look less subtle, peripheral/horizon fog flickers on occasion, and the classic, thin line water droplets disappear from the inclement effects. Also nicer I think are the landscapes with the older driver - more atmospheric. Aircraft and pilot shadows may of course be set to on if you are running a discrete graphics card or two (not recommended on Intel integrated vid. cards). Occasional crashes were also experienced with the dx10 and 11 driver installed - no such problems with dx9. Recommended in the options.ini file is to set advanced shaders to off (0), to set dx9 to "true," and vsync off to "true." Also recommended are the following settings in the AMD control panel in BootCamp, basically the same ones that work well for WOFFue: - anti-aliasing mode (override application settings) - anti-aliasing level (4xEQ) - anti-aliasing filter (Edge Detect) - anti-aliasing method (Adaptive multisampling) - morphological filtering (off) - anisotropic filtering mode (override application settings) - anisotropic filtering level (8x) - texture filtering quality (high) - surface format optimization (off) - wait for vertical refresh (off, unless application specifies) - opengl triple buffering (off) - shader cache (on) - tessellation mode (override application settings) - maximum tessellation level (16x) - AMD crossfire mode (optimize 1x1) - frame pacing (on) The great thing about Win10 in BootCamp is that all of the in-game settings can be run at high/ultimate with no problems...the only recommendation, if you like shadows enabled, is to set them no higher than "medium," to avoid any possible shadow flickering (although with dx9 instead of dx10 enabled, there shouldn't be any flickering visible...). Happy flying, Von S

Finally successful with tweaks to get FE2 running in BootCamp on the Mac with no stuttering...will post relevant directions later under the relevant Mac thread once I tinker some more with this...all settings at high/unlimited, and the d3d10_43 dll dropped into the FE2 main (not user) folder...with advanced shaders on in the options.ini file....currently I'm incorporating shader (fx) calls into the relevant effects, particle, and environsys files, also have to turn shadows on in all the relevant inis...lots of work. FPS are between 200 and 300. Von S

Most addons for FE1/FEgold work fine in FE2, with minor tweaks to decals files, etc. Getting FE2 addons to work in FE1/FEgold may require a bit more work. Crawford has found a way to run several FE2 aircraft in FE1...I believe the relevant post is located under the "new aircraft" thread but I'm sure someone will pitch in with more detailed info. if necessary. Happy holidays, Von S

Attrition rates are wonderfully modeled in FE2 - noticed this when flying in 1918 for the Germans in the Ottoman theater...it became more and more difficult to survive, let alone to get hits. FE2 is full of surprises that I still discover on occasion. Obligatory screenie below from an early-war scenario. Happy holidays all, Von S

I've heard good thoughts about the Intel NUC SkullCanyon series...the top end ones with discrete graphics (probably would have gone with one of those if I wasn't a Mac person and decided on the MacPro instead). Top end NUCs are around 1500 USD, give or take a couple of hundred $ depending on configuration. The SkullCanyon series comes with no OS and RAM/HD I think...but you can build to taste on Amazon or shop around for different components for it. Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G3GKYMB/ Happy holidays, Von S P.S. For Win10, go with Pro instead of Home edition and you can meter/control OS updates more effectively - less updates, less hassle.

Further update to this Mac-related thread: FE2 and RB3D work fine in WineSkin on MacOS Mojave (10.14) - for FE2, the same recommended install procedure posted under the relevant WineSkin thread (under the stickies section) works fine, using the Wine8 ver. 1.5.1 engine, the best engine to use for FE2 since decent frame rates can be attained on it. Have also tested FE2 in Win10 under BootCamp on my MacPro and it bogs down at around 10 fps with the AMD FirePro D700 cards - but runs beautifully in WineSkin on the MacOS side. I included the higher quality mesh-size flightengine.ini file and frame rates still run around 50-60 fps, about 80-120 fps with the lower quality flightengine.ini file. If running FE2 on integrated Intel video cards - the lower quality flightengine.ini file is recommended. Have kept most settings in the FE2 game menu at medium since there wasn't much difference between medium and high, while fps suffer at high settings. Will do some further testing with FE2 on the BootCamp side to see if frame rates improve by running it in Win7 compatibility mode - otherwise WineSkin is still recommended for running FE2 on a Mac, in OS versions ranging from Snow Leopard (10.6) to Mojave (10.14). System 10.12 (Sierra) and above require however that you disable "system integrity protection" in the terminal window, or games in WineSkin won't load. Happy flying and happy holidays, Von S

Been busy "downgrading" the data ini for Geezer's Halb. D.V into a D.III variant (since the model is newer than the D.III available from A-Team). Also further tweaking of the FM for the Caproni, and more work on the Longhorns and Shorthorns - will roll these eventually into a ver. 9.7 of the FM updates. Also incorporated three more winds into the environsys files for the Flight folder - should work well for sudden wind change/gusts and to compensate for lack of true turbulence in the FE2 engine. Happy flying and happy holidays fellow FE/FE2 flyers! Von S

Hello gents', can confirm that it works just fine in FE2 - cloud height/base toggles in the environsys file, also average altitudes for missions in the missioncontrol file, per theater and per period (relevant tweaks included somewhere around ver. 9 and 9.1 of my FM update packs). Also works in my install of the regular/vanilla SF2 - can toggle cloud heights...in fact I'm using my tweaked environsys files from FE2 in SF2 and they work fine, giving me the same clouds and cloud heights across both sims - one of these days I will get to uploading the relevant, tweaked files for SF2 - but FE2 is my priority. Happy flying, Von S

For loadout screen CTDs, I recommend double-checking that you have a missioncontrol.ini in the Flight folder. Also, double-check under the [MenuScreens] entry of that ini file...and make sure that you have this setting present and enabled: UseLoadoutList=TRUE This is what got rid of the loadout CTDs for me, especially if using Cap'n Vengeur's wonderful medals pack. Happy flying, Von S Edit: As far as I know, ThirdWire sims don't model CoG changes with fuel consumption but some of our modders and specialists can of course pitch in with more info.

I recommend also checking out the FM tweaks for the 110, 130 and 150 hp Camels included in my FM update packs (the Camels were last tweaked around the ver. 9.1 update "Camels, Pups and Gasbags") - they now have historical top speeds and are slightly twitchier/spin prone than before, more yaw from aileron usage, etc....although I can do a set of "more dramatic" Camel FMs if anyone's interested down the road. Have read varied reports on their behavior - Kermit Weeks doesn't find them mythically difficult to fly (see his comments on Pups and Camels in one of the YouTube clips). Also good are Frank Tallman's comments from 'Flying the Old Planes.' Elevator sensitive, rudder too, ailerons somewhat heavy, climb rate excellent, possible to do tight turns and loops in the type (summary of Tallman's comments). The whole story about three turns to the right in the space/time of one turn to the left is probably exaggeration though. Tail heaviness was apparently rigged into the types on purpose, although how much fuel was in the fuel tank (positioned behind the pilot) would also determine whether she was tail heavy or level. The Clerget-powered ones were sometimes described as nose heavy if the fuel tank was near empty or half-full. Kermit finds the engine torque and prop-wash to be present but manageable on the Pup, etc. Many WWI fliers would have only 25 - 50 hrs. flight time before being stuck with the type - this perhaps accounts for the view that the Camel was very slippery and extremely dangerous. I recommend also checking out the YouTube vids of Mikael Carlson putting the Dr.1 through various tests - that fellow really pushes the rotary types but has commented that the rotary effects are mostly manageable. His Dr.1 is 110 hp by the way. Currently busy tweaking the data ini for Geezer's Halb. D.V into a D.III (will work well with Eugene's early Halb. skin), since it looks nicer than the dated A-Team one. Also looking into the Roland D.Va, and the Aviatik (first-generation) and Siemens-Schuckert from A-Team...hoping to release a new FM update pack early in the New Year...have been busy with work. Happy flying gents, Von S

Thought I'd refresh the screenshots thread gents' with some new action on the eastern front, using Stephen's superb update to the Galicia terrain (version 3). Great stuff and very immersive - thank you modders for your continued work on FE/FE2! Watch those turns, also take-offs and landings in the M-S I, she's a slippery type. Von S

An excellent idea - the formation.ini file should be located in the Flight folder of the FE2 user directory. It's worth checking into. Below are the entries I usually use for mid-war congestion (from my ver. 9.5 FM update pack). Worth toggling are the formation styles under the fighter and bomber entries, to see if it improves results when starting missions in-air. Von S ----- [FormationType001] Name=Fighter BaseLevel=2 Level[01].Name=Squadron Level[01].Size=3 Level[01].Formation[01]=Squadron_LeftEchelon <----- try replacing this one with another type of formation Level[01].Formation[02]=Squadron_RightEchelon Level[01].Formation[03]=Squadron_Trail Level[01].Formation[04]=Squadron_Wall Level[02].Name=Flight Level[02].Size=2 Level[02].Formation[01]=Flight_LeftEchelon Level[02].Formation[02]=Flight_RightEchelon Level[02].Formation[03]=Flight_Trail Level[02].Formation[04]=Flight_Wall Level[03].Name=Element Level[03].Size=2 [FormationType002] Name=Bomber BaseLevel=2 Level[01].Name=Squadron Level[01].Size=3 Level[01].Formation[01]=Squadron_Javelin <----- also try replacing this one with something else Level[02].Name=Flight Level[02].Size=2 Level[02].Formation[01]=Flight_Vee

I would then recommend a re-download of Stephen's HF.20 and a re-install, to double-check that the anomaly is not there with a fresh install of the aircraft. This will help to figure out if the problem is with the HF.20 files or perhaps some other file in your FE2 install. Let us know of your progress. Hopefully we'll figure something out. Von S

Offending gunner successfully removed from the F.11c model by Bort. (Thank you Stephen and Trotsky for tips for this, from the other thread.) Have also renamed the regular Farman 11 (Shorthorn) lod/out files and swapped them into the 11c folder, for good measure, and the trick works well as visible in one of the pics below...will upload these data inis in a few days after some more testing. The AI handles them nicely...the Longhorn takes off in the mid 70s kph, the Shorthorn in the mid 80s. Top speeds are mid-90s for the Longhorn, about 105 kph for the Shorthorn...climb rates are slightly improved from the previous data inis. The early Farmans, while slow, could lift weight/passengers quite well. Other pic. is of the Longhorn nicely handled by the AI. The types do well to about 2500 m alt., possibly a bit higher, although their theoretical ceiling is pegged around 3600 to 4000 m in the data inis. At any rate I'd sooner take them or one of the Morane Parasol types into an early conflict than the abysmally performing MS type G...the type H is not much better but at least it has a better climb rate than the type G. Von S

Could be a variety of things...mismatch between the cockpit. ini file and cockpit folder contents, or files thrown into the cockpit folder from different sub-variants of the same aircraft...happens to me on occasion if I'm not careful with my multiple FE2 installs. Have PM-ed you the cockpit.ini file and cockpit folder that I use with Stephen's HF.20 - perhaps it will solve the problem. Happy flying, Von S

Possibly an error with the cockpit folder? I doubt it is FM related although I have removed a redundant CL0MachTableData entry for the left stab on the HF.20 and unarmed variant. Will post the files with a v. 9.7 fm pack or maybe separately for now. Have also tweaked further the fms for the Longhorn and Shorthorn, slightly better climb now and greater difficulty diving at speeds above about 180kph, as historical. Will follow up with more info., still testing and removing the old blocky gunner as per Trotsky's comments in the other thread. Von S

Let me put in my vote too for a return to the CombatAce forums gents' - checked today and the SimHQ forums are still down for maintenance. Happy flying, Von S