VonS

Hi All, just a very brief (new) post to indicate that - for those who are wondering where my WOTR GPU Tuner Patch can be found, as well as the little FM tweaks pack that gives a Mk.II Hurricane and Spitfire, as well as a BF-109 E7 - including links to helpful performance tips regarding the Hurri and Spitty - they are all located in the post linked below: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/92320-fm-tweaks-for-woffuepe/?tab=comments#comment-780879 Cheers all, Von S

Thank you Julio -- yes I like the fire effect too (it is present in the ver. 10.5 FM update addon for the Strutters, but the fire effect disappears in the 10.6 "proof of concept" addon, by the way, which gives limited rpm control for some of the Strutter sub-types). Speaking of limited rpm control on the rotaries, I have in the meantime experimented further with that -- so far I have enabled limited rpm control from about 1000 to 1200 rpms on the Fokk. Eindeckers series I through III -- I will consider also including such tweaks to the Morane Bullet, also the Nieups. 11 through 27 or 28, and the early and "gaskammered" variants of the Fokk. Dr.1. Other types, such as very early ones and/or types with poorer reputations (M-S Type H, M-S Parasols, the Pfalz Eindeckers and Parasols, etc.), I will leave at default (fully on or off), for the sake of variety. Limited rpm control will also be applied to the early Camel and Clerget Camel, as well as to the early and later one-gun Tripe variants (the two-gun Tripe variant, also any other higher HP rotaries and Siemens-Halske types, such as later Pfalzes -- will be left with full throttle capabilities as previously tweaked). If interested, click on the pic. below to see a 10 min. clip of testing with the Fokk. E.III, and other relevant details. One of the changes I particularly like with limited rpm control implementation present is that there is nice wing bobbing now present just before the engine goes into the blip switch "on" spectrum -- nice representation of gyroscopic effects from the rotaries that way. Once you push further towards full throttle, within the limited rpm control band, the effects become smoother and wing bobbing less noticeable. The AI also takes advantage of the limited rpm control band for smoother landings. Bit busy with work currently but I hope to cover all of the changes in a few months -- and will release them as FM update pack version 11. [EDIT: removed clip of limited RPM control - all latest tweaks now available in the ver. 11 FM/Realism package for First Eagles 2.] Cheers all & happy flying in FE2,

@C.Pascal, as far as I am aware, the only mods. from the FE1/FEgold generation that are compatible with FE2 are older aircraft models (for example I run several FE1-era aircraft in FE2). Other mods., such as objects, terrains, etc., are best run in the generation of FE for which they were built. For terrain and other mods. that are suitable for FE2, have a look under this link. Good terrain mods. that are compatible with FE2 include Caporetto and Caporetto Ver.2, Galicia and Galicia Ver.2, Vosges and Vogesen2, also Italian Terrain. As well compatible are Palestine Terrain (by Stephen1918, not the older Palestine terrain that is available), and North Sea Terrain. As well compatible is the package called First Eagles Seasonal Tiles (by Jan Tuma). As far as I know, of those custom terrains -- only the package by Jan Tuma includes terrains for several seasons. Obviously, stock terrains in FE2 always include seasonal changes. If you prefer running stock terrains in FE2 to some of the modded terrains, recommended also is the First Eagles Stock Terrains Visual Upgrade (by Stary) -- the upgrade may have been intended for FE1/FEgold but works just as well in FE2. In terms of visual anomalies such as black terrain tiles, missing tiles, shimmering objects, buildings, etc., recommended is to check over the info. and links in the top half of this post. Cheers & happy new year, Von S

Excellent news -- and if you ever find that mainstream Firefox is starting to slow down and/or use too much memory on your Windows 7 rig -- permit me to recommend a variety of Firefox "forks" that are usually lean and fast, and remind one of Firefoxes and Netscapes of yore (some representative ones to check out include Palemoon, Seamonkey, as well as the little-known ArcticFox that comes with a WinXP build but should be compatible with Win7 too). In the worst case scenario -- if you find yourself unimpressed by those various browsers, fire up a small VirtualBox install of a simpler Linux distro like LinuxMint, and run an updated Firefox, Opera, or anything else -- from within the virtual OS system itself -- but go down the VirtualBox route only if you have enough RAM on your rig -- recommended min. of 10-12 GB RAM if you want to juggle a virtualized OS install smoothly. Cheers all & happy browsing in lesser-known browsers, Von S

Quick bump to this thread -- good news: Swambast has managed to retrieve all of the Bleriot XI files after a hard drive crash of last fall. Next up are some final additions to the model, and then proper mesh splitting, pivot point adjustments, and other related features. After that comes the ini file crunching phase and FM testing. This will all of course take several more months -- ideally, I hope to have a working beta model, and that flies, by sometime next spring -- but it all depends on how the project develops further since both Swambast and I are also busy with other duties and real work. Will post again under this thread when important developmental milestones are reached with the Bleriot. Pic. below is one of the latest Bleriot renders done by Swambast. Cheers all, Von S

Most of the code in SF2/FE2 (for multiplayer) is still there. The problem is that the Microsoft service (DirectPlay) that was necessary for MP to work disappeared sometime around Windows 7 and/or Windows Vista. Hamachi as far as I know does not work with SF2/FE2 so, theoretically, you would have to re-install and/or re-enable DirectPlay in Win7/8/8.1/10/11 in order to get MP working in SF2. DirectPlay, by the way, is required both for MP over the internet and for LAN. So, without DirectPlay, there is no LAN capability either. Here is a lengthy thread detailing a long (and failed) attempt to get DirectPlay working again in SF2 (as far as I could tell from the thread, it requires an awful lot of DLL editing and whatnot). If you wish to experiment using some of the info. in that lengthy thread, recommended is to download the "dplay.dll" (DirectPlay driver that's missing from later vers. of Windows), unzip it, and pop it directly into the game folder for SF2 (not into the user mods folder) -- and then continue experimenting. (No guarantees however that any of that tinkering will work.) The missing DLL is available here (at dll-files.com), if you want to experiment with a possible, working LAN in SF2 -- unfortunately I can't offer any more info. since I abandoned bothering to tinker with MP in FE2 (in my case) yrs. ago -- it just wasn't worth the hassle. Cheers, Von S

While the multiplayer "components" are still a part of the SF2 (and FE2) code, the connection service that made everything work is long gone (was a part of older versions of Windows). See this helpful post for more info. Cheers (and happy flying in single-player mode in the TW sims.), Von S

According to these posts the WoFF series (UE/PE/BH&H2) should work on Linux, but will require some tinkering. Recommended, as seen in that thread, is WINE (a faster compatibility layer than emulation software - in layman's terms, use WINE instead of installing Windows in a virtual machine on Linux, for gaming). Also, as indicated in those Linux-related posts, you will probably have to check over my lengthy WoFF-on-Mac post too, for further tips on "Winetricks," etc. Cheers, Von S

Version 10.6 Mini Addon (Limited RPM Control on the Sop. 1B1 Variants), June 19, 2022 - A very small package that includes two alternative data inis for the Sop. 1B1 types included previously in the Ver. 10.5 FM package, and which allows for limited RPM control of the rotary engine. I will consider implementing such a change across many rotary-engine types included in my big FM pack (Ver. 10.0) in the future, time-permitting and if practical of course. A link to the mini addon pack is located below the pic. that follows. Cheers all, Von S EDIT: removed download package - now included in the ver. 11.0 FM/realism package.

Interesting points gents - as far as I remember, "wilmartson" attempted to incorporate several FE/FE2 aircraft into SF2 a few yrs. ago -- a gallery of representative pics. is located over here (scroll right to see the rest of the pics.). While there may be some action-view benefits to that, you lose the higher-res terrain and more subtle lighting/sfumato effects, cloud effects and whatnot, of FE2, by moving everything over to the SF2 engine. One other (oddity?) to keep in mind is that the FM engine in SF2 is not identical to the one in FE2 (for example, the F4U post-WWII Corsair has a top speed in the 750s kph in SF2; throwing the same data ini into FE2 gives an inaccurate top speed in the 880s kph). In short, air density seems to be modeled differently in FE2, to display better the lighter-handling qualities of WWI aircraft. Theoretically, it is possible to upgrade all FE2 FMs for SF2. I have, for example, upgraded the FE2 data ini for Geezer's Mk.I Gladiator for SF2, for one of my early WWII FM packs - but I would certainly not bother upgrading the 220+ data inis in my big FE2 FM packs, for SF2 - not worth the trouble in my opinion since I fly FE2 (and WoFF) mostly, anyway. General rule of thumb - the SF2 FM engine is better suited for jet aircraft, but may be made "to work" acceptably for WWII prop aircraft and 1930s stuff too. The period from the dawn of flight up to about 1920s barnstormers is better modeled (the floating quality of wooden aircraft, etc.) in FE2. I think that there were some (beta-stage) attempts to create inter-war scenarios for FE2 too several years ago (Geezer made some 1930s bomb packs, etc., also the Gladiator and one or two other aircraft) -- but as far as I know there was no further development in those areas. It's of course possible that some users are flying early WWII (or inter-war) scenarios in FE2. I've gone in the other direction, of keeping such scenarios for SF2, since many of the data inis for WWII aircraft were done for SF2 anyway (less work that way, to tweak things within the sim they were initially tweaked for). Cheers all and happy flying (in FE2 and SF2), Von S

Last update patch for FE2 is dated July, 2010. SF2 received another couple of updates after that, sometime around 2012, and then a last patch in 2013. So, technically, SF2 received two or three more patches than FE2. I am assuming that the additional patches offered for SF2 were regarding DX10 shader upgrades. FE2 also has DX10 shaders, but they are not as fully implemented, for all effects, as in SF2. If I've missed some information, I'm sure that any patch update specialists lurking on these forums will be willing to pitch in with more technical details. In terms of the action view (from SF2), I don't think that it works in FE2. It is easy to test, though; simply copy the action view setting from your SF2 Controls/Default.ini file into the same file in FE2, choose a key combination for the entry, save, and test. I may have tested that out a few years ago but I don't think that I had any results - otherwise I would have posted regarding the test. Cheers, Von S

Version 10.5 Addon (Stock Strutters Overhaul), June 10, 2022 - New types added are overhauled stock Strutters in FE2, as well as a Sop. 1B1 that is a lovely aircraft for sightseeing, recon., as well as light fighting duties (when it has no bomb load). Also added to all Strutters now are functioning and animated air brakes. As always, check over the included, main READ ME file for more info. and details. A link to the addon FM pack is available under the pic. below. For the big, ver. 10.0 FM pack, see the main download page of this series of posts (instead of these support threads). Cheers all and happy flying, Von S EDIT: removed download package - now included in the ver. 11.0 FM/realism package.

Almost done with the upgrades but I have to spend a day or two packaging everything -- more studying of the flaps/brakes system on the Strutters, in the meantime, has resulted in some more tweaks -- they function more so as a drag/braking system than lifting device (I initially thought that they provided drag/lift as traditional, small flaps). See the linked YouTube movie for a good illustration of how they actually work. Use of the airbrakes therefore requires that you include the following entry in your Controls/Default.ini file, since they are manually operated: AIRBRAKES_TOGGLE= (choose key combo. of some kind) Have also attempted implementing the brakes strictly as an inverted lift device but they then remain open constantly on AI-flown aircraft since the AI can't handle them properly. I've instead now combined some lift data that would otherwise be used for lift entries and, together with "SystemType=Airbrake," the data seems to work well - use of the airbrakes gives shorter landing distances and also a faster sink rate when flying at idle. Also good is that the airbrakes, when fully extended, cut down on the climb rate by about 30% or so (based on various tests at full throttle climbs). Will update again once the ver. 10.5 addon FM pack is released. Cheers all, Von S Airbrakes fully extended (in their correct position) Avoid prolonged blipping of the LeRhone 120-125 hp on the Sop 1B1 - tends to catch fire... And then spreads quickly...

Some representative pics. of the latest tweaks - looking over the stock Strutters in FE2 and currently including various changes. The "Sop 1A2" and "1B2" will largely have similar data inis, since they are attack and bomber variants, although I've included a more unreliable interrupter (Challenger) mechanism on the 1A2's front M.G., as well as for the "Strutter 110." More info. and performance specs. and details will follow in the "Read Me" file for the ver. 10.5 FM addon package. Cheers all, Von S Tweaks to the included cockpit.ini from the older Sinbad Strutter package feature more correct pilot seating position near the leading edge of the bottom wings Views toward the front, with the tweaked (Sinbad) cockpit.ini (that uses the stock cockpit position on the Strutters) Alternate, tweaked cockpit.ini file will be provided that works with Stephen's excellent cockpit from the B.E.2c series - view towards the front (slightly lower than with the Sinbad cockpit.ini but you can still barely make out the sights on the M.G.; otherwise Stephen's cockpit doesn't fit well) Further modified in Stephen's cockpit.ini is removal of several components such as the cockpit "cage," the B.E. series windscreen, etc., for it to blend a bit more effectively with the stock Strutters (don't forget to include the cockpit folder too, from Stephen's B.E.2c series, in your Strutter aircraft folder - if you choose this option - otherwise the tweak is incomplete - if you prefer the position/views of the tweaked Sinbad cockpit.ini, use that one instead - but that one works without a cockpit folder, so you get no dials in the stock cockpit) Addon package will feature FM overhauls for the RFC "Strutter 110" and "Strutter 130" (thanks Eugene for the great Strutter skins) Also included will be overhauls of the FMs for the French-built "Sop 1A2" and "1B2" Have decided to include a French-built "1B1" as well Also a Dux-built 1B1 FM, for the eastern-front FE2 flier Enjoying some performance tests with the French-built 1B1 FM (has a higher ceiling than the 1A2 and 1B2, among other things; have as well tweaked the FM on the 1B1 around a 120-125 hp LeRhone upgrade - and will include that for the 1B1 Dux too - the 1A2 and 1B2 will be 110 hp on the other hand, as well as the Strutter_110, while the Strutter_130 will get the 130 hp Clerget - should be plenty for variety of Strutter types that way)

Coming soon -- a ver. 10.5 addon pack for the big FM/realism pack, with stock Sopwith Strutter overhauls (now that I've made them player-flown for myself - haven't bothered with that until now***). FM tweaks will include the "Strutter 110," "Strutter 130," "Sop 1A2," "Sop 1B2," and additional "Sop 1B1" and "Sop 1B1 Dux" variants. Pics. below of the French-built 1B1 being tested - animated and functional flaps now included on the 1B1, and to be included on all of the variants. More pics. available under the FE2 pics. thread. Cheers all and happy flying, Von S Flaps auto-deploy/retract around 90 kph, for shorter landings *** NOTE for FE2-ers: stock Strutters are only AI-flown unless made player-flyable with the addition of a tweaked cockpit.ini file and/or both cockpit.ini and cockpit folder.

Version 10.0 (Rare Types & Sopwith Snipes), May 31, 2022 - New types added are the 110 hp (Lewis-armed) Nieuport 21, the early (Benz-powered) Albatros D.I 150 hp, the SPAD XVII 300 hp, as well as the Sopwith Snipe 230 hp and a re-tweaked (Bentley) Camel 150 hp. Ver. 10.0 also includes further minor tweaks to some files, improved (ReShade) shader presets for FE2, more streamlining of documents and folders, and a simplified, all-in-one "consolidated" folder that updates all files to the latest ver. of the FM/realism package for First Eagles 2. As always, check over the included, main READ ME file for more info. Happy flying, Von S

And one more post with a few other, representative pics. of latest tests for a ver. 10.0 of the FM/realism pack. Cheers all & happy flying, Von S While tweaking the FM for the Snipe, it was also necessary to re-visit the Bentley BR.1 Camel (150 hp) too - both that Camel and the Snipe now have slightly over-compressed engines The Bentley Camel, performance-wise, is now nearly identical to the Snipe, but more slippery (which can be a good thing too) Watch landings in the Bentley Camel, to avoid spinning and losing a wheel, or two Action shots of the tweaked Snipe tangling with that craft of "beaucoup speed" (the SSW D.III, model by A-Team in this case) NOTE: a big thanks to Eugene for the excellent Snipe and Camel photo-realistic skins. Also, the improved shaders preset that I am using in FE2 has been re-packaged with the big, ver. 10.0 FM/realism update pack (previously it was available as a separate download on the last page of the support thread for the FM/realism package).

Superb pilots - looking forward to their release. Should help to add even more immersion to FE2! Cheers all, Von S

Hi Silberpfeil, Improved shaders for FE2 (and SF2) are located at the following link (they are the shader presets that I released a while back, but I will include them in the ver. 10.0 FM update pack since I have too many separate packages currently under the support thread for the FM pack). All FE2 pics. that I have been posting over the last several months (year?) are with the ReShade custom preset loaded up. [EDIT: shader preset files for FE2/SF2 now included in the big, ver. 10.0 FM/realism package for FE2.] In terms of those various pilot models, the only ones I have are the seven or eight models that Geezer made available privately about two years ago, and that I may have PM-ed you a while back - that package includes the Bruno Stachel model. Julio did release a Max Immelmann pilot for the Eindeckers, also the US pilot as available in each of the three Nieup. trainer packs that he released (link here), but other than that I don't think that any new pilots have been recently released. One of Geezer's pilots was released, as allowed by him, publicly with the BE.2a FM upload (see the support threads for the FM pack - last page, p. 8, of that thread), and his pilot with the green scarf was also to be released publicly (as blessed by Geezer) with the Bleriot model and FM (unfortunately that project is currently frozen until/if Swambast manages to retrieve his lost Bleriot files). Cheers, Von S

Brief, further update to the thread - tweaks going well for a ver. 10.0 of the FM/realism pack for FE2. Have finished with an overhaul for a 110 hp Lewis Nieup. 21 (for Stephen's model); also now completed the Spad 17 300 hp and early Benz-powered Alb. D.I - now onto the Sopwith Snipe FM. Then some further streamlining of folders for the big ver. 10.0 pack. Will also think about looking at Stephen's Pomilio and the Halb. CL.II - or perhaps will leave those for a separate addon sometime later. Representative pics. (and comments) of the latest tests are located under this post. For a representative testing vid., click on the pic. immediately below. [Edit: vid. removed.] Will update again when the full FM package is released. Cheers all & happy flying, Von S MORE INFO.: stumbled onto this website that has interesting technical info. for several aircraft - might be of interest to others too who enjoy visiting the FE2 forums. Check over especially the links there called "early birds," "WWI aircraft," "zeppelins," and "aero engines."

Hello fellow FE2-ers, Uploading some latest screenies here of FM testing currently happening for an upcoming ver. 10.0 of the FM/realism pack for FE2 - always a pleasure to return to FE2, the tweak-friendly sim that keeps on giving. NOTE: improved ReShade shaders for FE2 (see relevant link for those) loaded in all representative pics. below. Cheers all, Von S 110 hp LeRhone upgraded Nieup. 21 (Lewis) does splendidly against mid-war types and dismantles wonderfully too I sometimes like to land and watch a dogfight in progress, for further evaluation of how a tweaked FM handles against the enemy Julio Junqueira's US pilot with the light blue scarf sits well in the 110 hp Nieup. 21 Close-up of an (en)tangled tangle, where I "got the wind up" and the Nieup. 21 was also dismantled while in air (sorry no pics. of that excitement) Proceeding to the SPAD XVII 300 hp: it works well in slash n' dash attacks at low altitude too, and may be used to get away quickly from a problem (suggested skin is the FrenchTan1 available for the stock, 220 hp SPAD XIII that has no hp-rating in its folder names; extract relevant skin folder using Mue's excellent CAT Extractor) The SPAD XVII however is much more suited for attacks above about 2000 m alt. or so, as with the example of this poor Pfalz If you lose an aileron or two on the SPAD XVII, or the rudder (even with ailerons still intact), might I suggest then avoiding tight maneuvers (here we have a flight mate falling into an irrecoverable spin after attempting a tight turn with an aileron missing, during a dogfight) A very close shave with a couple of Flying Razors Geezer's pilot no. 8 fits well with the SPAD XVII Working on the FM for the early, Benz-powered (150 hp) Albatros D.I that carried only one M.G., to save weight (Benz skin will not be supplied with the ver. 10.0 FM pack; it's a simple Paint3D re-coloring of Stephen's skin for the regular Alb. D.I and that can be found in that folder - I've used a shade of brown, opacity of about 40%); Geezer's pilot no. 6, by the way (green scarf fellow that I frequently like to use as a pilot), in the Benz Alby; recommended is one of the available Daimler sounds for the type, makes for nice, soothing flying Benz Albies in action against Geezer's Lewis Nieup. 21 with the 90 hp FM, and Stephen's Nieup. 12 The long flight home, just passing onto our side of the lines

Been a while since I saw fresh wish lists on the FE2 forums, so I thank you for opening the thread Wilches - and here is my list below: 1. Fokker D.V 2. Fokker D.VI 3. Fokker D.I (with the inline engine and the vertical, fish-like fin in front of the all-flying rudder) 4. experimental Aviatik-Berg Dr.1 (yes only two of them made, I think, but they look nice) 5. experimental Fokker V.7/III variant (with the Goebel Goe engine and four-bladed prop, slightly longer fuselage than the Dr.1, and the small wing from the landing-gear setup removed) 6. a fresh Pfalz Dr.1 (the one from A-Team is showing its age) 7. a completion of the Bleriot XI Anzani 6-cylinder project (if Swambast manages to retrieve the necessary files after a HDD crash of late 2021) Happy flying all, Von S

That's some fine and fast service Wilches - I thank you for the file. No wonder I was not getting results (I was using Fixed_Gun as the type, instead of Inactive). Now to do some more tweaking of the FM, then it's onto the Snipe, and other tweaking for a Spad 17 300 hp FM, which I am already tinkering with but have set aside for the moment. Stephen's Nieup. 21 has already been overhauled into a 110 hp LeRhone upgrade - more info. and pics. to follow soon under this thread. I've also done a few minor tweaks to some previous data inis and will probably release all as a big ver. 10.0 FM package that will be more streamlined than the current ver. 9.9 package. With the current package, there is both a 9.9 and 9.7-era set of files in it (too cumbersome) - as well as a bunch of individual FM packages under the support thread for the big FM pack. All will be rolled into the same file, for convenience. Will post some pics. later today or over the next few days, from testing. Cheers all, Von S