VonS

The Kaiser's birdmen flying home after a short flight.... Thank you FE2 modders for your hard work...FE2 is a treasure-trove of undiscovered things...perhaps soon we'll have some hot-air ballooning too. Von S

While patrolling the front today, I was attacked by this strange fellow - it seems that the Kaiser has a new instrument . To install, copy Stephen's DaVinci folder, rename as DerFlieger, and copy over the files included in the package below following the relevant file structure (the skin is Stephen's but I've re-colored a few things in Paint3D...should make for a good opponent to the DaVinci). The FM is similar to the DaVinci tweak but with slightly more pedal power and a slightly better ceiling, also a bit more weight so watch your dives since these things are delicate (top speed around 75 kph on this one from various tests near SL). Happy flying, Von S EDIT: Files removed, will be included in mini ver. 9.9 update of the FM pack under the relevant thread.

Took a break from my early WW2 tweaks to work on the FM for Stephen's wonderful Da Vinci flyer - enclosed in the file below is an updated sounds list for your FE2 flight folder, a new sound that works well for flapping wings, and the tweaked data ini for the aircraft. Some notes: top speed about 70 kph ceiling about 750 m if you really pedal well is somewhat unstable because of lack of traditional rudder (stable flying requires good coordination of throttle, left/right rudder, wing warping, also up/down elevator...a real workout and requires a bit of practice) tip to take off smoothly: increase throttle slowly to about 50-60% while keeping the tail down and direction stable other tip: to turn more easily left/right while flying, ease up on the throttle while using rudder and warping throttle is now an approximation of slower and faster pedaling to glide, turn "pedal engine" off with whatever key you've mapped to toggle engines - can also pick what position to lock the wings in when pedaling is off (wings up, level, or slightly down - this requires external view to check of course as you turn the engine off - seems to alter glide behavior slightly depending on the "off" wing position chosen) excessive dives and maneuvers will make you lose the wings, also the tail sometimes tweaked all sorts of other little lift values, alpha numbers, and added outer left/right wing panel data and outer left/right warping data as well ai flies it well (although the type is hard to fly on some of the high-alt dromes such as on the Galicia map, that are above 700 or 800 m alt...should work better for Flanders, Cambrai, Palestine, etc.) have included the Lebel rifle on the type and two reload chances (gun located roughly in the middle of where the two wings join the main wooden spar) will include the modifications eventually with a ver. 10.0 of the FM update pack but I'll leave the package here for now under this thread EDIT: Have included the Da Vinci FM tweaks with the Der Flieger package in the post further below (May 5, 2019). Happy flying, Von S

This is a lovely surprise - I look forward to flying it in FE2. And perhaps also testing it in "what if" dogfights against German-flown MS Type G variants.... Was thinking about the Wright Flyer B (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Model_B) and more dangerous Flyer C (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Model_C) variants over the last few days...so this is an interesting coincidence to see a "very early" model ready for FE2. Thanks for this Stephen. Link to history of various Wright aircraft: http://www.wright-brothers.org/Information_Desk/Just_the_Facts/Airplanes/Wright_Airplanes.htm Von S

More progress shots....the A-Team A5M4 data ini converted to an A5M1 for early-war PTO scenarios, and a rare high-alt Me109 E7-N (conversion of the A-Team E8), a small no. of which apparently were Japanese flown...should also be good for 1941 scenarios at least. Also tweaked is the Yak-1b (downtuned to the 1a, first batch of Yaks)...I think I got hit by shrapnel from the second fellow since my engine conked out...oh well, was able to dead stick it successfully. Now onto the Curtiss P-40 and other types. Happy flying, Von S

I've combed over about a dozen or so FMs for prop aircraft for the early Cold War period (1946 to about early 1960s) - those can be found at the link below: https://combatace.com/files/file/16990-sf2-cold-war-prop-and-flogger-fm-tweaks/ Simply disregard the MiG-23 files there if you don't like jets (the relevant folder in the package is the prop aircraft one - aircraft that correspond with those tweaks are all linked to in the Read Me file included with the package by the way). I'm currently working on 10 to 20 FM tweaks for a pre-WW2 and early WW2 SF2 install (approximately 1937 to 1941), and hope to upload that package in a couple of weeks...I still have several FMs to get through...but included below are a couple of links with representative pics from my PTO and MTO SF2 installs...I'm focusing on obscure and early variants, such as the early "Army Zeke," Polikarpov type 10 (Chinese flown), the Dewoitine 510, also early marks of the Hurricane and Me109...still need to look through the P-39 and P-40 types, also included in the pack will be a tweaked FM for the Dutch-flown Curtiss P-36 (should work well for the China and Taiwan maps). I'll look over two or three multi-engined types for the early WW2 install too...an early German multi-engine type, one for the Japanese, and perhaps the B-17 variant of the Fortress for the US...and maybe an airliner or transport plane of some kind too for the late 1930s.... If I find time in the future, I might do a small FM upgrade pack for a mid-war scenario (1942 to 1943), and then something for the late war (1944 and 1945)...consisting of maybe a dozen FM tweaks or so per package...but I'll leave that stuff for much later. Once I finish with this early war package I'll come back to the WWI stuff...have to look at the Sopwith Snipe, etc. Representative pics of my early WW2 experiments: MTO install https://combatace.com/forums/topic/77564-ww2-screenshots-thread/?page=40&tab=comments#comment-754169 PTO install https://combatace.com/forums/topic/77564-ww2-screenshots-thread/?page=41&tab=comments#comment-754282 Happy flying, Von S

I recommend running FE2 and SF2 in compatibility mode if you're having CTDs gents - I run mine fine in Win10 Professional, and FE2 also in WineSkin on the Mac side (Mojave 10.14) - having said that, you can set compatibility mode by right-clicking on your FE2/SF2 program, then choosing properties/compatibility and checking off the box next to "run this program in compatibility mode for" (and choose Win7 in the dropdown menu, and click "Apply," etc.). This has fixed some oddities for me in WOFFue - should work well for FE2/SF2 as well. Happy flying, Von S

Hello gents, I think that Gatling's post links up with the speech enhancement pack posted by Menrva over here (https://combatace.com/files/file/16919-speech-enhancement/), not with the older speech pack and older WW2 nations ini file that I posted links to here earlier this morning (before deleting them)...will test this on my rig too, to see if I can finally get Japanese in my PTO install...since, using the older WW2 nations ini and older multinational speech pack...there was no Japanese language available, only Chinese. Thanks for the heads up on this. Von S UPDATE: I've had some CTDs with the latest speech pack so I've reverted back to the older Wrench WW2 nations ini file and multi-language pack (links below) and all is well...two bits of info. to keep in mind however if going that (retro) route...keep in mind that WWII_China has an underscore in the nations.ini file (modify accordingly in the relevant textures.ini and data.ini files for the Chinese-flown aircraft for the nation calls to work well in the SF2 menu)...and also, if using the older language pack, include the relevant nation speech calls under the "SpeechFile" entries of the nation.ini file...otherwise only English comes through (also, since there's no Japanese in that pack...best option is to use Chinese for the Japanese aircraft too...humble apologies to any Chinese or Japanese speakers reading this ). Links: https://combatace.com/files/file/13552-multinational-speech-pack/ https://combatace.com/files/file/13095-ww2-nations-formations-inis/

And just a few more representative pics for this thread - currently tweaking the A-Team Polikarpov (I-16, type 24) into an earlier "type 10" used on occasion by the Republic of China - should be good for late 1930s scenarios using the China and Taiwan maps - will also include real engine sounds with the FM pack whenever possible...the Polikarpov rattle is great fun while flying. SF2 is an unexplored goldmine of WW2 possibilities...never liked any of the WW2 flight sims until I picked up SF2...great stuff gents'. For those wondering about how I get the crisp terrain graphics in the pics, especially at altitude, grab the "ATISetLod" app (if you have an ATI card, for non-ATI there are probably easier ways to set the lod) at the following link (https://community.hwbot.org/topic/137720-benchmark-tweak-software/) and set the LOD bias entry to a value of "-1" while in administrator mode, and save settings (I'm running such a value and have noticed crisper terrains in FE2, SF2, also WOFF and ROF). Von S

After finishing with my FM tweaks for the Cold War prop package, I decided to do a small early war "1938-1941" install for myself in SF2 too - will eventually get to uploading these early WW2 FM tweaks...several representative shots below of Mk.1 Hurricane and Me109 D adventures in the middle east...had to follow the fellow up to about 10,000 meters and forgot I was out of ammo. in all the excitement...I eventually found a solution that also gave me a Hurricane "glider conversion" . Von S

Hopefully I will soon have time to do FM tweaks for a 200, 220 and 235 hp Spad 13 for WOFF....and will also comb over the early Nieups. (10, 11, and especially the 16 that should have a higher wing loading than it currently does in WOFFue...also they are currently too fast in the mid 170s kph, getting the same speed as the Nieup. 17). Von S

Hello gents, If I'm limited to the choices in the list, I'd go - for an early war scenario - with the E.II variant of the Eindecker - similar hp engine to the E.III variant but more maneuverable with its slightly shorter wingspan. And preferably I'd go with the Parabellum MG on it - higher rate of fire than the Spandau. A great advantage over the Entente types from about the summer of '15 to the summer of '16 - Be2 types are useless against it, and even the DH.2, if you fly the Eindecker well, is not that difficult an opponent either. The only thing to worry about is the Morane Bullet but those are as rare as hen's teeth fortunately. For later war scenarios, I'd pick the 130 hp Clerget-powered Camel, best handling of the Camel types (the 110 hp variant is underpowered, the 150-160 hp Gnome variant is too quirky) - and it also has a top speed about 10 kph higher than the D.III variant of the Schuckert (the Schuckert is around 180 kph or thereabouts). The better, D.IV variant showed up quite late in the war to make much of a difference...plus there are fuel rations for the Germans starting around July or August of 1918...something like 20% for elite units and 10% for other airfields...which cuts down flying time to about half an hour, one hour tops, etc. (can't remember the specific info. now but it was discussed on The Aerodrome yrs. ago). In terms of the Fokk. D.VIIf variant, more were built than the D.III or D.IV Schuckert types, so they would have made more of an impact - although the most common engine for the D.VII was the engined-up D.III Mercedes (au) around 180-200 hp depending on what stats. are pulled up on it (still a fine aircraft...top speed in the mid 190s kph...but not as impressive as the VII f variant...the VII f can be pushed to about 210 kph near sea level if you go into the over-compressed throttle range...not recommended but it's there to use - at any rate a faster aircraft, theoretically, than the Schuckert types). If I can pick any WWI aircraft...then see the pic. below - better rate of climb than the Fokk. Dr.1 and with the over-compressed variant of the Siemens-Halske engine, you get a top speed close to 200 kph (although not too many of these were made, the lovely Pfalz triplane). Von S

Pleased to report that, after a couple of weeks of further tinkering, I've managed to put a cap on the SL speeds for the post-WW2 types being tested while managing to exceed those SL speeds noticeably at higher alts. Further discovery - best is to cap the MachLimit speed at about 30 to 60 or so kph higher than historical max speeds at alt. - similar to the "120%" rule I've been using for mach limits in FE2. This gives more accurate results at alts. in SF2 than the more liberal mach cap of 100 kph higher than historical (which leaves too much room for inaccuracies in speeds). Also been tinkering with the climb rates on some of the types, as indicated in the pic below I found on one of the WW2 forums. More thorough info. regarding the tweaks will be included in the Read Me file for the package itself - now to double-check the files and upload everything under the SF2 downloads section in the near future. All in all an interesting experiment and I'm happy with the results - hope others enjoy flying the tweaked types too. If I ever decide to do a WW2 install in SF2, I might use some of the discoveries from these post-WW2 prop. tweaks and then "roll them back" into the WW2 types - but this is a project for a later date. Once I upload this package I want to return to modding some of the types not yet touched in FE2...the Snipe comes to mind, as do some of the two-seaters. Happy flying, Von S

...more tweaks of data inis and atmospherics for an early Cold War prop install, will eventually upload the files (currently busy with the LA-7). Von S

That is strange...I run the different Zepp and airship types across several theaters so I don't experience that (maybe reduced congestion that way...). If you're running the airships using the old data inis, I recommend trying out my latest tweaks for them that came out around the ver. 9.5 FM update pack - might help to resolve the problem. If that doesn't fix things, then I recommend doing things the old way - delete all Zepp and airship folders from your installs, and then re-install them from stock, before tweaking further. (If installing the airship tweaks from my FM update pack, be careful to notice the difference between the player-flown airship data inis - those go into the aircraft folder of your install - and the AI-flown types - those files go into the ground objects folder instead - I've organized them by relevant folders in my FM update pack.) Von S

From what I remember, the peter01 FM is for the stock Alb. D3 that comes with FE2....as are my later FM tweaks. Getting the A-Team models to work with data inis not specifically made for them is a real pain. You'll probably have to compare collision points, min/max sizes between the two data inis to find what's wrong - also good is to double check the names of the components, support component names, etc., for wings, tails, fuselage sections - they are probably not the same across the two data inis. Hopefully someone who flies the A-Team Alb. D.III will be able to give more specific suggestions. Von S

Thank you for the info. - have been testing further and I've discarded my average of kias and ktas - found a better way of capping the ktas to within reasonable limits, using the MachLimit value under the FlightControl section of the data ini...was testing with the Spit 14 and now I can't push beyond about the 720s or 730s kph (when converted from the ktas value) at an alt. of about 7100 meters - the key is to "peg" the machlimit value appropriately. Limiting it to the historical top speed at alt. seems to "buffer" top speeds into somewhat low, unrealistic values...but capping the machlimit at a value that converts to about 100 kph higher than top speed at alt. works fine to keep the aircraft to within about 20-30 kph of historical top speed at alt. - so I'm happy with the results. I will still however leave the SL top speed uncommented since I'm getting better performance that way. For those who are following this thread, I recommend capping the machlimit value at about 100kph higher than historical top speed at alt. - seems to work well (this advice is for late prop aircraft in SF2...not related to FE2). The other good thing is that even with this cap in place, it doesn't limit dive speeds...some of the types like the Spits can approach Mach 0.9 in dives at full throttle anyway. In terms of the constantspeed "true" value, I agree that it's realistic in terms of post-WW2 and WW2 aircraft props. This I recommend tweaking as per taste or leaving it on for those who don't like fiddling with the values and want to have true auto prop behavior. Technically, on those constant speed props, you had a separate lever that you could use to chop down the rpms to taste - I don't know if this is possible in SF2 so I've resorted to turning the constantspeed off since otherwise I get constant, max rpms at all throttle settings, even at idle. Turning it off is a crude approximation of being able to control the rpms/prop pitch manually I suppose - at any rate it gives me a nice rpm of about 2300-2500 at full military throttle and rpms below 1000 at idle. I'm assuming that the automatic variable pitch then becomes "manual" variable pitch since the prop efficiency percentage changes across throttle settings...I usually get best prop efficiency (around 90 to 95%) somewhere in the 40 to 80% throttle range with constantspeed set to off - this seems historical...jet engines from what I've read are more efficient in the 80+ % throttle range. Once I start pushing towards full throttle I drop to about 70% efficiency at lower alts., but the efficiency improves slightly at max throttle (wep) at higher alts., etc. I suppose it's a tradeoff of sorts but seems to work well enough in SF2. Happy flying, Von S

Tweaking the FM on another classic for my early Cold War install, will eventually get to uploading these dozen or so data inis. Von S

Sure thing Wrench, it's fine with me if you want to sticky this thread. Once I tweak these data inis further I might post them under the downloads section for SF2 (I still need to comb over the A-team Spit 14, Paulo's Spit 19, and I found three more I want to check over for my install...Paulo's La-7, F-6 (French) version of the Mustang, plus the F4U-7 variant of the Corsair used by French naval services. That should be enough variety for an early Cold War prop install in SF2. Von S

Hello gents, I wouldn't be surprised at all if TK's formula for thrust in InducedVelocity is different from thrust calculations in the thrust formula - I haven't been able to solve that riddle but thanks for letting us know about it Mue. Maybe some SF2 jet specialists will be able to pitch in with their thoughts on it. On a different note, I'm happy with my latest tests for these post-WW2 prop aircraft so will most likely continue installing some of the tweaked types into my SF2 install as is, after the modifications. I've tried to go with an "accurate enough" approach for this stuff, while I tend to be nit-picky with the WW1 FMs. Have flown the first prototype of the Superbolt further, with the debug mode set to true in the huddata.ini file in the Flight folder, and was observing what happens. At alt., for example, it's misleading to look at the kph speed listed in the bottom left corner of the SF2 screen. Looking at the KIAS and KTAS numbers in the debug screen is more important. Flying the Bolt at an alt. of about 8120 meters, and at full WEP throttle, I get numbers like KIAS 334.3 and KTAS 514.0, while 93% throttle, just under WEP power, gives KIAS 324.2 and KTAS 498.6. I don't know how accurate the KIAS/KTAS numbers are in SF2...KTAS seems a little too high compared to the KIAS numbers, but an ave. of the low and high values at 93 and 100% (WEP) throttle gives me numbers of 411.4 knots and 424.15 knots. Such numbers translate to about 762 kph at alt. at non-wep, and 786 kph at full wep power. Seems like a reasonable difference to me, of about 25 kph with wep engaged, and I'm then hitting the 780s kph which is close to historical top speeds at alt. for the Superbolt (first prototype). [EDIT: have decided that it's better to set a mach limit value under the FlightControl section of the data ini for these post-WW2 prop aircraft than to use averages of KIAS and KTAS - setting the mach limit value about 100 kph above the historical top speed recorded at alt. for these types usually pushes them to within 20-30 kph of top historical top speed at alt. - avoid mach limit numbers identical to top speeds since top speeds are then too low by about 100 kph - this info is not relevant to the FE2 tweaks but SF2 is a learning process and anything of value, if possible, will be re-integrated into the FE2 data inis.] I'm not going to bother bringing the KTAS values down into the historical range since then KIAS will drop too much also - this will end up requiring some fairly low watt numbers for the engine power value under the Engine section of the data ini - so, if anyone wants to tinker further with this, I also recommend checking my lengthier post above where I've indicated some important entries, in bold, in the data ini - in that case for the La-11. Three things that haven't changed since I began testing these tweaks for my SF2 install: a) leave SL top speed uncapped under the Flight control section of the data inis for WW2 and post-WW2 prop aircraft, since it creates an artificial barrier for these powerful late-prop aircraft, and run at no more than "full military power" at near sea level (whatever the throttle setting might be in your data inis)....I've set this to about 80 or 85% depending on the aircraft...as indicated in one of my posts above, even if you push to full wep power at SL, you will get a slight boost in acceleration possibly, but it won't push the top speed that much if at all, until the relevant alt. table values for wep kick in (determined by the number indicated for the wep altitude startx value) b) a good difference between max engine power non-wep and with wep, under the Engine section, is about 200,000 watts...this gives a noticeable but subtle difference...no rocket-powered, artificial boosts are felt this way c) the third point: set the entry under the Engine section, for constantspeed for the prop, to FALSE (that's right) - most of those data inis have it set to TRUE - but testing in debug mode shows that the prop speed is then constantly at max. rpm value, no matter the throttle position, and the prop efficiency is constantly in the 95-100% range - setting that entry to False solves the problem (and then there are nice changes to prop rpm numbers, and efficiency, across the throttle bands) - hopefully that entry is not simply a cosmetic one ...but here are some numbers for the tweaked Bolt data ini, with constantpropspeed set to False: 3200 rpm, full wep 3067 rpm, minimum wep 3007 rpm, just under wep (93% throttle) 2407 rpm, 70% throttle (bit less than full military power) 1900 rpm, half throttle (cruise) 847 rpm, 10% throttle I might eventually post some of these tweaked data inis for the post-WW2 prop machines once I finish tinkering with my SF2 Cold War install....in the meantime the more relaxing skies of FE2 are waiting for me. Happy flying, Von S

Thank you for the info. - this will save me a lot of time with my SF2 install, not having to tweak such entries if they are only cosmetic. (Makes me wonder about what other entries are only cosmetic and that I've maybe been approaching too seriously.) In terms of watts used for powerdry/powerwep values, etc., one word of advice for those tweaking FMs is to be aware that historical watt numbers for the engines don't necessarily and always translate to historical results when flying in the TW sims. At least for my WW1 tweaks package, endless testing was needed to get the models behaving historically within FE2 - although sometimes this would require unhistorical engine power numbers, or higher/lower rpm values for the props, usually a balancing act between the two, etc., and of many other factors. Theoretically, historical numbers might work well in the data inis all the time, but this would probably require entire revamps of several data inis, a very time-consuming process....touching on drag values, lift/data tables for wings and stabs, etc. My approach with the WW1 models has been to "hammer" the FMs into a shape that works well historically, based on the wonderful FM work initially done by Ojcar, TexMurphy, and others - and even then it takes at least a couple of years to comb through the data inis. The A-team data inis usually require more work...I have limited myself to touching only 5 or 6 of their WW1 aircraft. Sure wish we had some kind of program for FE2/SF2 that would "visualize" (as in a wind tunnel) what's happening when we change and crunch numbers into the data inis...would be more efficient than doing endless cycles of testing in the sim itself...but it is what it is. Happy flying, Von S

While I've noticed that I get about 12-15 extra kph with the La-11 at around 5200 m alt. already, it would be a good test to include the HasWEP=TRUE value as well, under the Engine section. I am also comparing some of the types further with modifications to the Engine section based on my long post above...currently working on the Thunderbolt "M" upgrade tweaks and the what-if Superbolts from the A-Team...will post if I find any important differences between performance on the different types. Also, I recommend testing with the SLPowerWEP value also incorporated into the Engine section of the data ini, and then without that value included. I am currently testing with SLPowerWEP included for the Superbolt, and I am noticing some extra, subtle acceleration - although no change to the top speed. Fortunately I'm able to run it in the 780s kph which is close to the historical top speed for the first prototype of the Superbolt. It took some time to get everything running with the Superbolt since I had to incorporate many alpha and data table values for the wing sections, borrowed from the Thunderbolt data inis hosted on CombatAce. Otherwise, in stock form, the A-Team Superbolt would start descending, above about 5000 m alt., if running beyond about 650 kph, with no ability to correct the descent - now it works fine with the borrowed wing values in place. My engine dry/wep values for the P-72A-1 prototype are: SLPowerDry=3072665.0 SLPowerWEP=3572665.0 I will test further by reducing wep to about a value of 3272665 - I think a difference of a value of 200,000 units, approximately, between the non-wep and wep entries, should be adequate for subtle performance differences. Also, I have noticed some other oddities regarding the late prop aircraft that are worthy of some info. here, regarding the wep manifold pressures. From what I've been able to read over the past few days...manifold pressures, if wep power was available, for early WW2 types were around 52 inches, about 64 inches for late WW2 types, with a possible 70 inches being used on these post-war variants I'm currently tinkering with for my Cold War SF2 install. Manifold pressures of 72, 74 inches, etc., are only used on modern performance and racing planes. What is confusing in the data inis is that some files record these values in inches, others in "ata" (absolute atmosphere) units...I think TK was most likely using the ata units. The general rule is 30 inches of manifold pressure equalling about 1.0 ata units, so: early WW2 types, WEPManifoldPressure=1.73 late WW2 types, WEPManifoldPressure=2.13 post-WW2 types, WEPManifoldPressure=2.33 I've as well increased the WEPTempDelta value from 10.0 to 20.0, hopefully for more overheating chance although I haven't seen any differences so far. I've currently gotten rid of the entry for max alt. at which WEP operates, so that it operates no higher than the max alt included at the top of the data ini, and I've removed the max. time for WEP duration entry since it seems largely a nuisance at this point, although I will keep testing further. Von S

A good question...I think that only TK really knows how those formulas add up and work in FE2/SF2...my impression is that much of the number crunching that we tweak into the data inis are manipulations and changes to "already established" formula averages that were directly programmed into the TW series of sims. The trick is to figure out what units TK was using...most of the data inis are in metric (m/s, etc.), but some of the ratio numbers took a bit of guesswork to figure out, and actual testing in the sims. Perhaps Baffmeister knows more about thrust formulas, etc. - might be a good idea to ask him. Most of the mods I've done for FE2 are all hand-edited and then tested, over and over again, within FE2 - an approach that, while slow, works well for WW1, but I haven't really touched any of the jet-age stuff where thrust is handled in more complicated ways. Here are a few links I've managed to find on CombatAce that might be of some help: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/61789-calculating-a-boosters-acceleration/ https://combatace.com/forums/topic/93066-used-fm-units-of-measure/ https://combatace.com/forums/topic/89652-aircraft-acceleration-values/ Von S

Been tinkering some more with the data inis, this time with the Lavochkin-11 since it flies similarly to the Extra-300 aerobatic plane from what I've noticed in SF2 and is fairly high performance. Will incorporate this into several of the late prop aircraft soon hopefully and will upload the data inis under the downloads section for SF2 if anyone's interested (SeaFury, SeaFury export version, F4U-4 and F4U-5 Corsairs, Yak-9P, LA-9 and LA-11, also "Sprint" upgrades for the Thunderbolt, and I'm tempted to look at the A-Team Superbolt what-if models and Spit Mark 14, also Paulo's Mark 19 - this is enough for an early Cold War install - the WW2 stuff I doubt I'll look at tweaking since I'm usually busy with WW1, but using the tweaks below people can cook up their own solutions to the WW2-era types). Below follow the latest modifications for the LA-11 data ini, and I think that WEP power is now modelled correctly from what I've been able to experience. SLPowerDry=2037317.5 ----------> this value had to be increased noticeably from stock, sometimes by values of half a million, sometimes more, to give the engines the necessary brute force ThrustAngles=0.0,0.0,0.0 ThrustPosition=0.0,1.2,0.0 ----------> I've slightly reduced the middle thrust value on several of the types ThrottleRate=0.50 ----------> higher value for more acceleration, needed on these late prop, early Cold War aircraft IdleThrottle=0.12 CruiseThrottle=0.55 MilThrottle=0.80 WEPThrottle=0.95 ----------> important discovery, the WEP value should follow somewhere between military power and max throttle, not after the max throttle value (higher than max throttle) MaxThrottle=1.25 ----------> the "accordion" effect works when the wep value is lower than max throttle, then once we expand max throttle beyond a value of 1.00, the extra power kicks in (this I may tamper with further but wep values of 0.95 and max throttle of about 1.25 work well, giving a boost of about 15 kph once we go into the wep range at altitude, but not at sea level where it's disabled now) AltitudeTableNumData=61 ----------> this was incorrectly recorded as 64 initially, now fixed AltitudeTableDeltaX=350 ----------> smaller intervals in meters for more subtle changes AltitudeTableStartX=0.0 ----------> start at the zero interval for alt table data (sea level) AltitudeTableData=1.00,0.9999183,0.999698,0.999339,0.9988413,0.9982049,0.9974298,0.996516,0.9954635,0.9942724,0.9929425,0.991474,1.0297504,1.107311,1.224733,1.3020163,1.1291609,1.0261668,0.987311,0.984733,0.982016,0.980609,0.976166,0.963034,0.9597625,0.9563524,0.9528035,0.949116,0.9452898,0.9413249,0.9372213,0.932979,0.9285981,0.9240784,0.9194201,0.914623,0.9096873,0.9046129,0.8993998,0.894048,0.8885576,0.8829284,0.8771606,0.8712541,0.8652088,0.8590249,0.8527023,0.8462411,0.8396411,0.8329024,0.8260251,0.8190091,0.8118543,0.8045609,0.7971289,0.7895581,0.7818486,0.7740005,0.7660136,0.7578881,0.7496239 // ----------> wep values below are basically a reduplication of the non-wep alt. values included above (I've copied these from the Corsair files and then tweaked further as per aircraft type) WEPAltitudeTableNumData=61 ----------> fixed to 61, from 64 WEPAltitudeTableDeltaX=350 WEPAltitudeTableStartX=12.0 ----------> this took a while to figure out but is important since otherwise WEP does not work, the value corresponds to the value in the wep alt table data below, counting from zero, which is the sea level value (with a value of 12.0 for the startx value, the wep boost that gives me 125% throttle kicks in somewhere around 4700 meters alt. for the Lavochkin in the case of my tweaks, close to the "1.107311" value below, the power boost being most noticeable around "1.3020163" below, which places us around 5200 meters altitude where I can get to about 680 kph on full wep power) WEPAltitudeTableData=1.00,0.9999183,0.999698,0.999339,0.9988413,0.9982049,0.9974298,0.996516,0.9954635,0.9942724,0.9929425,0.991474,1.0297504,1.107311,1.224733,1.3020163,1.1291609,1.0261668,0.987311,0.984733,0.982016,0.980609,0.976166,0.963034,0.9597625,0.9563524,0.9528035,0.949116,0.9452898,0.9413249,0.9372213,0.932979,0.9285981,0.9240784,0.9194201,0.914623,0.9096873,0.9046129,0.8993998,0.894048,0.8885576,0.8829284,0.8771606,0.8712541,0.8652088,0.8590249,0.8527023,0.8462411,0.8396411,0.8329024,0.8260251,0.8190091,0.8118543,0.8045609,0.7971289,0.7895581,0.7818486,0.7740005,0.7660136,0.7578881,0.7496239 PropDiameter=3.375 ----------> this I increased slightly since it looked too small but such details are easy to modify PropPFactorCoefficient=0.0 PropTorqueFactor=0.02 PropRotationDirection=1 ReversePropOrientation=TRUE SpinnerNodeName=Spinner StaticPropNodeName=SlowProp SlowPropNodeName=SlowProp FastPropNodeName=FastProp // ----------> prop rpm values below are estimates but fairly close, most of these aircraft wouldn't/couldn't exceed about 3000-3100 rpm SlowPropRPM=1700 FastPropRPM=2500 MaxPropRPM=2900 IdlePropRPM=500 BSFC=0.01 ExhaustEmitterName=CleanExhaustEmitter ExhaustPosition=0.0,1.5,-0.3 FireSuppression=TRUE MinExtentPosition=-0.5,2.2,-0.5 MaxExtentPosition= 0.5,0.8, 0.5 MaxPowerAnimationTime=0.1 MinPowerAnimationTime=0.3 ConstantSpeed=TRUE // ----------> borrowed the more subtle prop efficiency numbers from the Corsair PropEfficiencyAdvanceRatioTableNumData=27 ----------> this was incorrectly recorded as 26, now fixed to 27 PropEfficiencyAdvanceRatioTableDeltaX=0.10 PropEfficiencyAdvanceRatioTableStartX=0.0 PropEfficiencyAdvanceRatioTableData=0.1039061,0.2017555,0.3307556,0.4630645,0.5773853,0.6674284,0.7350242,0.7854134,0.8242808,0.8561408,0.8837222,0.9080403,0.9388862,0.9455014,0.9572477,0.9641239,0.997018, 0.9976275,0.968019, 0.9698392,0.9732296,0.9955389,0.9699651,0.9443028,0.8800089,0.7018427,0.4483748 MomentOfInertia=4.0 ----------> this number was too powerful on some of the types, or too weak on others (lower number is more powerful)....the WWI types are usually in the 7.0 to 12.0 range, values of about 3.0 to 6.0 work better for these post-WW2 prop types Three other important things to be aware of: 1. leave the max sea level top speed commented out in the FlightControl section of the data inis since that entry is no good for late prop types (it will artificially cap top speeds at all altitudes, not just sea level) 2. for max realism, use only full military throttle near sea level...top speeds near sea level should be around 600-650 kph then....seems reasonable, less/more depending on what the top speed at alt. is anyway on the various aircraft types...the good thing now is that even if you go full throttle at sea level, you are not engaging wep boost that pushes beyond 100% throttle since you are not at the necessary alt. (determined by the startx value in the wep chart above) 3. I'm still thinking about whether or not it's a good idea to include the values for max time of wep power...since, technically, once a set time runs out, you can again lower throttle, go back up again, and you have wep power, unless there's some kind of timeout command that can be used to force an "interval" between wep on/off...I might not bother therefore with wep max time limits since wep already guzzles gas once you punch it up to max, so that's a good enough limiter itself Pics below of the LA-11 during tests and another Corsair that the AI lost control over during excessive maneuvers at high speeds - I'm thoroughly enjoying the increased realism now with these "brute force" machines. Von S

D folders usually all go into the "Decals" folder, but also worth double-checking is the decals.ini file located within the relevant skin or textures folder that resides within the aircraft folder itself - this usually gives clues or points in the right direction of where proper folder locations should be for the "D" folder. For example, below is an entry found in one of my skins folders inside the late Albatros D.II aircraft folder: FilenameFormat=AlbatrosD1/D/AlbD1Numbers/AD1Numbers This indicates that I should have a folder inside my "Decals" folder called AlbatrosD1, and then inside that folder, as you can see from the hierarchy, you have a nested D folder, a numbers folder, and numbers themselves. I sometimes share the same aircraft decals folder among several aircraft, as noticeable in my example above where the late Alb. D.II calls up the Alb. D.I decals folder. If you are flying lots of FE aircraft in FE2, you will have to tinker with some of those folder paths in your Decals.ini file, to make the decals show up. I've included some decals.ini files with a few aircraft, in my FM update pack, for aircraft that were very pesky to sort out for proper decal positioning, size of decals, etc. (such as the Siemens-Schuckert D.III by A-Team...took me a while to sort that decals.ini file - a lot of the names in many of the decals files don't point to obvious things). Many of the older FE aircraft don't even have folders that should be dropped into the Decals folder, only a local skin/texture folder that sits within the aircraft folder itself, so that can save a lot of time and hassle. Happy flying, Von S