VonS

Also, please see this thread if you are having trouble getting aircraft to show up in the FE2 game menu that are available in my FM updates pack (for several of those, modified copies of already available full aircraft folders will be needed, as outlined in detail in the post): https://combatace.com/forums/topic/91387-black-planes/ Von S

Hello RIBob, the four different "front" folders I have in my FM updates pack is to help with organization of different aircraft types per theater, and also since sometimes the same types have different service dates for different theaters. In order to access all four fronts (Italian, middle eastern, western, eastern, etc.), you need to build up four user folders in the relevant user directory for First Eagles 2 (in other words, you need four full folders ready that First Eagles 2 will access). For FE2 to call up the user folder, it should be called as follows and located in the appropriate place on your hard drive: user/Documents/ThirdWire/FirstEagles2 For example, I have four full folders installed under "Documents" (ThirdWire eastern, ThirdWire western, etc.) - in order to activate the theater I want, I rename it to ThirdWire, and I deactivate the current one I'm flying by placing extra info. in the name of the folder. A bit cumbersome, but once you're all set up then it's easy to toggle different theaters on/off. Same procedure applies to the SF2 titles as well. The good part to this kind of approach is that you can then have different ground objects installed per theater, weather, clouds, etc. - since each folder becomes a full install. For SF2 I tend to have only one full folder, but several terrain folders inside that one, several aircraft folders too, and a couple of weapons and ground objects folders - and then I toggle stuff on/off as per taste - but for FE2 I recommend the full four theater approach (or full five if you are also running the North Sea terrain) - since FE2 will give you full immersion in WW1 that way. Von S

Great stuff gterl, pleased to hear that. I've already started with one completed DiD single mission in the Palestine theater, with a new pilot, for July of 1918 when some Pfalzes arrived there. Post is below for immersion, and some "period" pics. too - will be interesting to see how long Ltn. Müller survives using the 20 DiD rules for missions that I posted. Von S --- First DiD Mission for Vzfw. Fritz Müller, Palestine theater, following the 20 rules for DiD --- July 27, 1918 "Today was a morning mission to bust balloons near Jericho. Weather was broken and with slight winds. I had a headache from the previous night's celebration to welcome our new flight officer, but the cool morning air, I was sure, would be beneficial. We had also received some Pfalzes recently, prior to our previous flight officer's replacement. They were sent by train, with some delays, but we were grateful to receive them finally at Jenin airfield. The Albatros D.II we were still relying on was a nearly useless type and I dreaded getting into one of them. Today was my first mission in the Pfalz, although I had already trained some on them back home. Their acceleration and climb is pleasant, although I am now more careful to watch my speed and stay out of spins - this I learned unexpectedly in flight school. Flying with me was a new fellow, Ltn. Eckard Steinmann, who already had five combat missions under his belt but no kills. It was a comfort to have him fly with me - I have had only two combat missions so far, both uneventful, no aircraft encountered the first time and the other time a brief fight with one of those English pusher-types. My guns had however jammed on the old Albatros and I wasn't able to fire a shot. Today would be different, I hoped, and so it was. Working our way towards Jericho between clouds, at around 2000 meters, we noticed a solitary balloon further south of the town. My flight companion who was above and in front of me made a signal and we dove on the balloon. It lit up rather quickly in a small ball of flame and disappeared below; soon after I turned and noticed the observer parachuting down into a field. Some large solitary English aircraft had been lumbering around in the vicinity and decided unwisely to attack us after our adventure with the balloon. He was however slow and with poor maneuverability and I got on his tail quickly. I had already experimented with a cockpit-camera device on the old Albatros and was eager to test it out on the Pfalz too. Fortunately I had time to install the device yesterday but there was no opportunity to test it. You see it works intermittently - the gun trigger is connected by wire with the device and every 20 rounds or so fired is one full exposure for a picture. Somewhat clumsy yes but I was pleased with it, and today especially for it captured the lumbering English type as it began to smoke and steam profusely. Cold by now and tired of our adventure, I made a wide turn north, south of Jericho, only to see what seemed to be two English scouts approaching rapidly, a new maneuverable type they have here, although in small numbers, and that I had heard stories of several times. Steinmann went after the lower fellow while I began a gentle climb to meet the other Englishman. We circled and circled for what seemed like ages, with my adversary outmaneuvering me most of the time, but I was careful to maintain speed and to use gentle movements, getting out of his way whenever possible. My camera again worked well when I found myself on the fellow's tail. His fuel tank was punctured; eventually I saw his propeller stop as he drifted southeast, with Steinmann following behind and his own adversary nowhere to be seen. Apprehensive of meeting with other unpleasant things, we decided to climb north into the clouds again, above Jericho, and then over the mountains for the long flight back to Jenin. Later that day the report came in that I would be awarded with three kills - a balloon, the lumbering Englishman, and the maneuverable and pesky scout that kept getting on my tail and even managed to put a few holes in my rudder. Steinmann congratulated me and was surprised that my lack of experience in combat, compared to his own, had not gotten in the way. I amusingly suggested that perhaps my lack of combat experience is what helped me this time and that flight school was correct by putting me in the cockpit of a Pfalz. Sometimes at flight school they'll tell you anything, and sometimes they are right. In all the excitement, I had nearly forgotten that I would be awarded the Honor Goblet and was being promoted to Lieutenant!" --- Note: Early war, lowest congestion settings from my ver. 9.5 FM updates pack are being used in the Flight folder for this series of adventures, to help further with the "light" aircraft activity setting in the FE2 game menu.

Hello gents', Thought I'd revive this thread since it's stickied anyway so everyone will see it. Let's do a quick poll of what aircraft you would like to see the FM tweaked for next...there are another nine or ten WW1 aircraft on CombatAce, also a few on the A-Team website that I haven't touched yet. While this is a fairly slow process, I'd like to get some input on priority aircraft FMs and ones that can wait a while longer. Here's a list I have so far, in no particular order. Let me know here on the thread which one you would like to see tweaked first and I will deal with those types first that get the most votes. Happy flying, Von S List: - Hannover CL.II and CL.III - Albatros C.3 - Vickers FB5 - Roland D.6a - Airco DH.5 - Sikorsky S16 rounded back (ver. 3.0; my current tweaked FM is for ver. 2.0, will require carrying over of the FM data and testing) - Aviatik C.1 first generation (from A-Team) - Siemens-Schuckert D.III (from A-Team)

Hello Silberpfeil, the FM has been extensively re-done to fit historical characteristics of the CL.IV - didn't do any tweaking however to the Gunner AI but I did do some dogfights today between a Camel and CL.IV and it was a very tough fight. The CL.IV displays excellent defensive maneuvers...or maybe the particular aircraft I encountered was at the ace AI level. To sharpen the gunner further, change the following two entries in the data ini: under the AIData section, change: GunnerAimOffset=0.005 to GunnerAimOffset=0.08 under the // Internal Guns section, change, for the Tailgun section: GunTypeName=7.92MM_PARABELLUM_MG14_Gunner to GunTypeName=7.92MM_PARABELLUM_MG14_HGunner (HGunner) has about 70 percent accuracy, while (Gunner) is about 40 percent accuracy if you like, also change the burstamount entry for a bigger volley of lead: BurstAmount=10 to BurstAmount=20 This should keep dogfights entertaining with the CL.IV. A couple of pics. below - in one the CL.IV managed to put a few holes in my top wing but eventually I hit his fuel tank - in the other pic., after attacking his friend, I received a volley of bullets in my top wing that eventually gave me the Sopwith monoplane conversion you see in the pic. Happy flying, Von S

Hello fellow flyers of FE2, Please find attached below the latest version of Geezer's nearly complete Halberstadt CL.IV. The FM has been extensively re-done. Also included are Geezer's latest skins for the model and Crawford's improvements for the skin on the top wings. You will as well find included two versions of the general ini file, one with shadows activated, the other with shadows off for better frame rates. As well included are my notes on the FM changes and suggestions for handling of the aircraft. Many thanks to Crawford, Jeanba, Coupi and Mike Dora for suggestions, tweaks and improvements, and of course to Geezer for the Halb. CL.IV model. Your friendly neighborhood FE2 aircraft construction team will in the meantime continue working on the Nieu. 27, Nieup. 21, Breguet XIV and Junkers J.1 models and we hope to release those under this thread when they achieve "nearly complete" status. The Halb. CL.IV, like the previous models posted, may be able to work in FE1/FEgold too. Happy flying, Von S

Perhaps the unicode to ansi batch converter can help, link below: https://combatace.com/files/file/11290-unicode-ansi-file-batch-converter/?tab=comments Crawford has also found a way of flying FE2 aircraft in FE1/gold...he will probably see this post eventually and add some suggestions that I've missed. Happy flying gents', Von S

I like the effect very much, adds to the atmosphere, especially for the Italian front. Would like to see something similar done for the Palestine theater too, such as sand dunes with bits of grass or weeds sticking out. Now if we could only come up with some kind of ini trick to make the trees solid like in WOFFue/RB3D, or to place some kind of field of "invisible poles" in the same area where there are lots of trees - and I will be very happy indeed. (Already happy with FE2 but it doesn't hurt to push it further.) Happy flying gents', Von S

Have now double-checked my tweaked data ini for the SSW D.1 and it is indeed possible to solve the problem with correct rpm tweaks for slow and idle prop...the tweaks of 200 and 300 for slow and idle that are included in the modded FM don't display the static prop problem. Reversing the values, however, to 300 and 200 for slow and idle recreates the problem when the engine is throttled down to zero. For most other aircraft it's fine to have a slow number lower than idle, for better representation of prop spinning. Von S P.S. Results may vary across FE1 and FEgold (my comments apply to FE2).

Hello fellow flyers of First Eagles 2, Please find attached below an all-in-one zipped file of the latest works in progress by Geezer. Geezer may in the future return to work on these projects further, but he is currently busy with real life and other hobbies. However, he has kindly given permission to the First Eagles 2 community to release the latest versions of his works-in-progress aircraft. You will find included in the zipped folder various types and sub-types, also a couple of extra sounds, the latest sounds ini file for your Flight folder, and also a Read Me file that includes more info. on the latest FM tweaks for these models. Work on Geezer's models not released yet as works-in-progress happily continues behind the scenes. A great many thanks to Crawford, Coupi, Jeanba, and Mike Dora for continued input on these works, and of course a great thanks to Geezer for these beautiful models. (Note: the Pfalz D.III was also used in the middle eastern theater - suggested service dates for that theater are from about July to October of 1918.) Happy flying, Von S EDIT: Attachment removed, will be placed in separate post as "consolidated" file with all latest updates, for convenience.

This is most likely LOD-related. Rpms at idle can be manipulated to some extent using the slow and idle settings, but I doubt this will cure the problem. For example, numbers in my tweaked FM for the SSW D.1 are: SlowPropRPM=200 FastPropRPM=750 MaxPropRPM=1000 IdlePropRPM=300 I often like to have the idle number slightly higher than the slow entry, for better prop rotation animation (more realistic). You can try switching the values to see if it will solve the problem, 300 for slow, and 200 for idle. Fast and max prop entries should be left alone or they will upset the realistic top speeds and climb qualities of the aircraft, among other things. Happy flying, Von S Edit: further info. on the Halske engines (link to a post by the venerable Dan-San Abbott on differences between the Sh.I and Sh.III/IIIa series of engines): http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/showpost.php?p=13891&postcount=5

Great pics Crawford....takes me back nicely into the history of WWI flight sims. The sequel "RB3D" with glide/3dfx graphics was a slight upgrade....see representative pics. below...and has inspired a lot of my historical FM tweaks for FE/FE2...especially inspiring were the wonderful Greybeard FMs used in RB3D...those were very hard FMs but I managed to "tip" the Alby. on its nose in the flight below, as seen . Von S

Hello gents', please find attached below the latest R.11 data ini file that replaces the old one posted in a previous post above, and that incorporates Crawford's correct node names. Also included is the cockpit ini file again if you find that a seating position fix is needed, and a general ini file with the correct calls. Don't forget to rename the aircraft folder itself to "Caudron_R11" for these files to work correctly. Some more info. on the latest changes below: ---------- Crawford's fix to one of the stuck engines (from previous updates) gave much more power to the aircraft than in my initial tweaks...with all the extra rpm now correctly at work (so that the top speed was exceeding 205 kph). The engines have now been properly de-tuned, and other tweaks applied to rudder/ailerons/elevator, for slightly less sensitivity. You will notice slight yaw if turning only with ailerons...also wing vibrations are present at extreme angles of attack and excessive climbs/dives. More specific stats on the latest data ini: - stalls below about 75 kph into vibrating side-slips usually - climbing below about 85 kph not advised - good climbs of about 3.5 to 4 m/s in 90s to 130s kph - climbs at about 3 m/s in 140s and 150s kph - elevator effective at maintaining dives to about 360 kph - take offs at around 120 kph are recommended - land at around 90 kph or so (wheels should touch down close to this speed) - speed near sea level is now close to 190-191 kph (sometimes recorded top speed for R.11) - speed at 5000 m alt. is 161-2 kph (close to historical of about 165 at that alt.) - rudder recommended for tighter turns and higher banking angles than possible with ailerons alone - fairly stable craft, tends to right itself if controls are let go - can still do a modern Immelmann but watch speed/coordination Von S Edit: link removed, please see all-in-one download link below.

Have now tested the effects inis and particlesys ini with the effectshadername entries added where relevant - didn't notice any difference on my setup since I had the effects working before, but below is a good link to detailed info. for those interested in tinkering with effects results further in FE2 (the info. is for SF2 but is probably applicable): https://combatace.com/forums/topic/41168-using-custom-effects-in-sf2/ Also below is a snapshot from another forum that summarizes what some of the effects mean. Happy flying, Von S

Thanks for this info. - I will try the same, might be able to give me DX10 goodness in WineSkin. For joysticks, I still use the old Logitech Attack 3 (easy to rebuild if the springs weaken). For a newer joystick, I'm thinking either of the Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X or maybe this unkown called "PC Joystick YF2009 USB Gaming Controller with Vibration Feedback and Throttle" - although the Hotas seems like a safer choice. For more expensive options, check out the higher-end Hotas variants. Von S

Yes, the particlesys file I use is a modded Stary particlesys file, but I use it with Laton's effects - might require tweaking on your system to give the best results (I run FE2 in WineSkin on a Mac...with the Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics...1GB system ram used by the integrated card) - effects look fine on my rig but most people aren't running this kind of setup. Von S

Yes, I don't have the info. in front of me now - but I think the "twColor" stuff is from FE/FEgold days, while "effectfire," etc., is for FE2. [see post https://combatace.com/forums/topic/92281-targetting-and-damage-hard-settings/?tab=comments#comment-745878 for more details on this]. The game engine first reads the particlesys file for relevant entries, and only goes to look for individual effect ini files, in the Effects folder, if entries are missing from the particlesys file. In short, the particlesystem ini file is the primary one, individual ini effects files are secondary (called up if missing from particlesys). Have PM-ed you my effects folder and particlesys ini file that I use for FE2 - maybe it will be of help. Von S

Some of our particle specialists can pitch in here with more info. if they like, but as far as I remember, those strange differences apply to the "age" of the shader being used...in other words, several of the "fx" entries changed from FE1/FEgold to FE2. Von S

The particlesystem.ini file gents' is located in the Flight folder of FE2 (in your user directory for the sim). Individual effect ini files, such as tracersmokeemitter, etc., are located in the Effects folder. Some individual effects are already called up within the particlesystem file in the Flight folder, and therefore are missing individual ini files in the Effects folder. I'm missing several individual effect ini files too, but as long as your particlesystem file is behaving, FE2 should look fine. The particlesystem ini file included with my ver. 9.5 of the FM updates pack is the latest one that I use (and fits with the reverse install for the Laton effects detailed in my post above). Happy flying, Von S

Hello gents', Tracer effects may be available in some of the FE/FE2 effects packs either by Laton or Stary. Those are available here: https://combatace.com/files/category/362-first-eagles-wwi-and-early-years-object-mods/?page=2 Peter01's flight model and weapons tweaks are available at the following page: https://combatace.com/files/category/387-flight-models/ Keep in mind that they have not been updated for nearly 10 yrs., only cover about 10-20 aircraft, and may or may not work properly, depending on the kind of FE/FE2 install you are running. I recommend my large FM and weapons update pack located at the top of that page (it currently covers over 200 aircraft types for FE/FE2) and is being updated fairly regularly - another 5-6 aircraft types to go. Also, behind the scenes, Geezer and I are working on several new models for FE2, with help from Coupi, Jeanba, Mike Dora and Crawford. Formal release dates are yet to be set for those newer models. My FM tweaks are always tested on "hard" FM mode in the sim. and should be flown at such a setting (no guarantees that they work at easy or normal settings - if you prefer flying at easy or normal FM settings, I recommend sticking with the Ojcar FMs that come stock with several of the aircraft types). Other helpful links, copied from the Read Me file for my FM update pack, are included below: Important Files to Install if Setting Up FE2 https://combatace.com/forums/topic/91337-problems-with-my-fe2/?tab=comments#comment-738368 Other Files and Technical Info. Regarding Plane Types https://combatace.com/forums/topic/91337-problems-with-my-fe2/?tab=comments#comment-738514 Info. on the Upgraded SPAD FMs https://combatace.com/forums/topic/87403-tweaked-flight-models-and-realism-pack-for-fe2/?page=6&tab=comments#comment-738317 The slightly older "Tweaked Smoke and Balloon Explosion Effects (for better framerates)" pack, mentioned in the "Important Files to Install if Setting Up FE2" link, is now located here: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/87403-tweaked-flight-models-and-realism-pack-for-fe2/?page=7&tab=comments#comment-744973 Also, my previous Siemens-Schuckert D.1 stand-in for the eastern front folder of my FM packs, mentioned in the "Other Files and Technical Info. Regarding Plane Types" link above, has been replaced by a modified FM for Stephen1918's beautiful SSW D.1 that was posted recently. The info. and link to that FM are located here: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/87403-tweaked-flight-models-and-realism-pack-for-fe2/?page=7&tab=comments#comment-745201 Happy flying, Von S

A beautiful plane indeed, many thanks for this one Stephen. A few other colors for the D.1 that our gentlemen-flyers might be interested in if they enjoy skinning. Von S