VonS

Have now double-checked some of my FE2 installs and looks like most of the fast/slow prop files are, as posted above, in the main aircraft folders. I did notice a few, such as Geezer's Halb. D.V, that contain the fast/slow prop in its skin folder - so it's probably best just to leave the files in the directory where they are originally located (either aircraft folder or skin folder in some exceptions, without moving the files around....damage and holes files on the other hand all seem to be in the aircraft folders, never in a skin folder). Happy flying, Von S

Hi Don, all good questions. I'll try to answer them: 1. my detailed settings are as follows (all my FMs are tested and tweaked on "hard" FM settings by the way): enemy skill - normal (this gives the greatest variety of enemy AI) simulation difficulty - custom FM - hard weapons - hard visual targeting - normal HUD - normal landing - hard collision - hard ammo - hard fuel - hard 2. fast prop / slow prop / holes / damage files etc. should all be left in the aircraft folder (shouldn't be moved around)...illustrated in pic below 3. AI run out of ammo if the realistic settings are applied (as per instructions in no. 1 above); from what I've been able to tell, AI can sometimes lose track of you in the clouds (very realistic AI in FE2) 4. ground battles are easiest to see if you choose an "army coop" mission (I've spotted tank battles this way, for example, using the Italian front map) 5. to see the enemy as soon as possible, choose "near target" for the "mission start position," when flying quick missions (and yes, sometimes there are not many enemy aircraft, as realistic for WW1)....my recommended "congestion" settings for the fronts are as follows, for the "enemy air activity" setting: - western front: Aug. 1914 to about Oct. 1916 --- light // Nov. 1916 to about Feb. 1918 --- normal // Mar. 1918 to Aug. 1918 --- heavy // Sept. 1918 to Nov. 1918 - light - Italian front: May/June 1915 to about July/August 1917 -- light // Aug. or Sept. 1917 to about June/July 1918 --- normal // July/Aug. 1918 to Nov. 1918 - light - easterm front: Aug. 1914 to about Sept. or Oct. 1916 --- light // Oct. or Nov. 1916 to Dec. 1917 --- light (or normal)...no real, heavy air activity here (if set to normal from about Oct/Nov 1916, simply run as normal to end of operations in Dec. 1917) - middle eastern front: Jan. 1915 to about May or Jun. 1917 --- light // Jun. or July 1917 to Oct. 1918 --- light (or normal)....again, no heavy air activity here (if set to normal from about Jun/July of 1917, possibly reset to light again from about Jun/July of 1918 to Oct. 1918, as air operations wind down; also keep in mind that while skirmishes already take place by Oct. of 1914 in the middle eastern theater, and bigger battles by Nov. of 1914, no real air activity is there until Jan/Feb of 1915, with the Germans and Ottomans, and then the Entente - British and Australian - show up in the air by the spring of 1915....as tweaked in my modded data inis) Happy flying, Von S

Agreed, the Spad VII for FE2 is the one to use, simply make flyable using the directions for ver. 9.0 of the FM pack (using the cockpit.ini file available here on CombatAce for the Russian skins pack for the Spads...link included in the pdf). Never did an FM tweak for the Breguet but that is available at the A-Team site if you like the Breguet. Other aircraft that have been tweaked, such as the Pfalz Dr.1, also the Gotha bombers, are also available on the A-Team site. Everything else is available here at CombatAce. Von S

If you like the Be2 variants, I also recommend trying out the Be12, an attempt to transform the Be2 types into a single-seat fighter (with mixed results). It does well against other lumbering types, but also frequently takes a beating. Von S

Very nice to hear that the shimmering tweak works well to fix the terrains. That looks like the British winter pilot doing a stunt on the Be2c... . Can't remember what pilot I have in my modded data ini for the Be2 types...possibly wwiPilotNew1 or 3. Pilots no. 1, 2, 3, 4 fit well with the same seating coordinates, pilots numbered 5 and higher may require some tweaking to fit them nicely into the cockpits. Happy flying, Von S

That Cambrai map now looks great, hope the fix for shimmering works with Flanders and Verdun too. Never tested the shimmering fix on the JanTuma terrains - but I'm assuming that the same suggestions work as with the stock terrains for Cambrai and Verdun, also Gterl's great Italian map, and the Palestine/Mesopotamia theater. Happy flying, Von S

Hi Stratos, the suggestions Geezer posted above for the shimmering fix work well. Also good are the following three links, included in the pdf "read me" with my FM update packs, which link to aircraft skins, pilot installation tutorials, also some tips on how to handle the SPADs on takeoff, lots of other stuff there too included in a few posts for convenience: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/91337-problems-with-my-fe2/?do=findComment&comment=738368 https://combatace.com/forums/topic/91337-problems-with-my-fe2/?do=findComment&comment=738514 https://combatace.com/forums/topic/87403-tweaked-flight-models-and-realism-pack-for-fe2/?do=findComment&comment=738317 Happy flying, Von S

Apparently some of the Morane-Saulnier type G variants also had Anzanis installed (trainer variants bought as early as 1912 by the French, also some in possession by the Germans, and the Dux factory in Moscow obtained a license to manufacture them, by 1914). Have been busy tweaking FMs for these early, underpowered variants, and will include them with a ver. 9.1 FM update pack - they work well for early war scenarios and/or flight training . Most were removed from service by the second half of 1915, although, oddly, the Russians continued using them as trainers well into the 1920s. Some of the earliest types used in the war, by 1914, included the M-S type G. Slightly longer wingspan on them than the type H (especially for two-seater variants) - not so much for single-seater variants. Typical powerplants included the 60hp Gnome Omega, also the 6-cylinder Anzani (about 50-60hp). Also in use was the 45hp Anzani (possibly 3-cylinder) and the 25hp variant - sometimes designated as subtypes 16 and 17 by the French (and used as trainers). Detailed stats. on the types are lacking but, comparing with Bleriot XI variants, and the M-S type H, I think the tweaks should work well. Great fun trying to keep these in the air. Happy flying and happy new year!, Von S

Hi Jackson, The color data values are for red, green, blue. The fourth value is transparency for that particular color (I think that 1.0 is solid, and 0.0 should be full transparency). Having said that, I have not been able to get a full variety of colors to work (ones that work well are white, black, blue, cyan, also red and yellow, perhaps a couple of other shades too). To get rid of target icons and other identifying info., simply comment out the relevant entries (here is what I have in my latest huddata.ini that I will post with my ver. 9.1 FM update pack): [Debug] DisplayDebug=FALSE TextFontName=Verdana TextSize=12 [SmallLabelFont] TextFontName=Verdana TextSize=8 [HUDLabels] EnableLabels=TRUE LabelFriendlyAir=TRUE LabelFriendlyGround=FALSE LabelEnemyAir=TRUE LabelEnemyGround=FALSE [MapLabels] EnableLabels=TRUE LabelFriendlyAir=FALSE LabelFriendlyGround=TRUE LabelEnemyAir=FALSE LabelEnemyGround=FALSE [InfoDisplay] //BackgroundImage=TextBackground.tga BottomLeftPosition=0.01,0.985 BottomRightPosition=0.99,0.985 DisplayWidth=0.09 VerticalBorder=0.002 HorizontalBorder=0.004 EnemyTargetColor=0.0,1.0,1.0,1.0 FriendlyTargetColor=0.0,0.0,1.0,1.0 UnknownTargetColor=1.0,1.0,0.0,1.0 WaypointColor=1.0,1.0,0.0,1.0 TextFile=HUDText.str NormalColor=1.0,1.0,1.0,1.0 WarningColor1=1.0,1.0,0.0,1.0 WarningColor2=1.0,0.0,0.0,1.0 AGLAltStart=100.00 AGLAltWarning=25.00 EnglishUnitUseMPH=TRUE [Map] MapDisplayLabels=FALSE [Messages] ShowMessages=TRUE SystemMessageOnly=FALSE [Display001] DisplayType=DIRECTOR ObjectType=TARGET_ENEMY //ConeSize=5 //BoxSize=5 //BoxType=TRIANGLE //BoxColor=0.0,1.0,1.0,0.75 //ConeModelName=redcone [Display002] DisplayType=DIRECTOR ObjectType=TARGET_FRIENDLY //ConeSize=5 //BoxSize=5 //BoxType=TRIANGLE //BoxColor=0.0,0.0,1.0,0.75 //ConeModelName=bluecone [Display003] DisplayType=DIRECTOR ObjectType=NEXT_WAYPOINT ConeSize=5 BoxSize=5 BoxType=SQUARE BoxColor=1.0,1.0,0.0,0.75 //ConeModelName=whitecone Happy flying, Von S

I'm very excited about the Bleriot XI - been reading up on some of the powerplants used and top speeds...should be very entertaining to fly. Top speed for the 3-cyl. Anzani powered type is about 76 kph, with a ceiling of only about 900 meters. The 7-cylinder (70-80 hp) rotary types typical for 1914/early 1915 have a top speed of about 105-6 kph and a theoretical ceiling of about 2000 meters - slightly higher than the Morane Saulnier Types G and H. I don't have stats. on whether these were only 80hp Gnome (Lambda) powerplants or some of the earlier Le Rhone variants too of about 80 hp...power output would have been similar, and top speeds on both engines. There is a Gnome (Delta) engine by 1914 of 100 hp (9 cylinder) but I doubt this was ever used on the Bleriot XI types (one or two seater). Couldn't find any stats. for the earlier 7-cylinder rotary powered variant (Gnome "Omega"...about 50-60 hp) that was probably a one-seater type and typical from about 1911 to 1913. From some general calculations, I'm estimating that the Omega variant had a top speed of around 85-90 kph, and a ceiling between 1000 and 1500 meters. Some types also had higher hp Anzani engines installed, in the pre-1914 period, but most switched to rotaries by 1913/4. The rarest powerplant is an "engined up" version of the top-facing, three-cylinder Anzani (w configuration), giving about 40-50 hp, compared with the standard 25-30 hp variant. Only a few had this variant installed...probably no later than 1912 or 1913. The 40+ hp Anzani should give similar top speed and ceiling to the Gnome Omega variants. Also exciting is that the stall speed in level flight is about 60 to 67/8 kph on most of the Bleriot XI variants...this leaves maybe less than 10 kph between top speed and stall on some of the engine and air frame combinations used. Here's links to a 1910 Anzani (w configuration) of about 30 hp... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6hj1O0nJgc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tjRjHgAMPU This may be the 40+ hp variant, with the exhausts at the top of the cylinders... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHMAKVrNfMI Happy flying, Von S

I’ve managed to modify early Parasol, Farman, and Fokker data inis to shoot rifle shots, inspired by Whiteknight’s tweaks. This works well with Stephen’s armed observers, but for actual simulation of a rifle...that’s beyond my scope (sorry for the pun ). Stephen’s Taube has a rifle-armed observer that moves and fires his rifle, might be something to check into. Happy flying, Von S

I’ll do some research into its FM, been wanting to do a Bleriot XI FM for a long time. Should float nicely like a leaf with slight lack of power, and should naturally want to go nose up because of the noticeable wing angle of incidence that works as an air brake too. Happy flying, Von S

I'm assuming that there is a limit to likes that is in place for junior and standard members, about 10 likes per day/24 hrs. if I'm not mistaken. Happy flying, Von S

Testing the overhauled FM for the Sopwith Tripe and taking some screenshots to check color tweaks in the environsys ini file too at different times of day. Happy flying, Von S

Hi SkyHigh, Your install procedure as posted in your first post is correct; for all "new" plane sub-types not present on CombatAce or in the stock install of FE2, make a copy of the plane folder, then rename it as per the directions in my FM pack, and drop in the general ini file and data ini file from my plane sub-type folder that corresponds with the one you made. The Jacobs Dr.1 is a perfect example; when done with your install, you should have a "FokkerDr1_150" folder that contains my FokkerDr1_150_Data.ini file and the FokkerDr1_150.ini too. However, in order to get the plane showing up with a skin, you will have to extract either a skin from the object 3 cat folder of the sim (Jasta 7 skin for the Jacobs Dr.1) - or download one of the custom skin sets from CombatAce and include in the new plane sub-type folder that you made, in this case in the "FokkerDr1_150" folder. Same procedure works for the 220hp Spad 7, the Pfalz E.II, the 200hp Alb. D.5a, the 135hp Fokk. Dr.1, etc. Pilots are missing if you haven't installed Stephen1918's new pilots, and also his armed observers. All the helpful links are located over here: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/91337-problems-with-my-fe2/?do=findComment&comment=738368 You will find skins for the Dr.1 there, for the Spad 7 types, also for observers and pilots. The easiest way to figure out if you are dealing with a CombatAce model or stock aircraft, or one of my generated sub-types, is to look at the data inis listed per theater in my FM update packs. If you see that a data ini and general ini file are located in a folder, that means that a sub-type not available in game has been created. NOTE: I forgot to include the Alb. 200hp (D.Va) in a separate folder in my ver. 9.0 update folder, but in the consolidated ver. 8.9 folder you will see it listed correctly under its own nested folder for the western front, while its latest data ini is in the western front folder in the ver. 9.0 update. Happy flying gents', Von S

Hi Don, I also recommend testing with a stock user directory for FE2 and see if it brings back the bomb explosion effects. One thing that always worked for me to get most effects working is my "reverse install" of some of the Laton effects, as indicated here: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/88700-fe2-bad-framerates/?do=findComment&comment=716531 Hope you get your FE2 up and running as you like it soon. Von S P.S. The Weapons folder is an interesting one, technically a leftover from FE/FEgold days (the Guns folder being used for most weapons now) - but the Weapons folder still stores some weapons files (for example the Le Prieur Rockets, other weapons too) - and several bombs and bomb types go in there as well, including left and right Vickers guns, also left and right Spandaus, etc., that are not related to the Vickers, Spandaus, Lewises and other stuff available in the Guns folder. Some of the older models of the Nieu. 16 on CombatAce, and other types, use the weapons in the Weapons folders, while most models that came out in the last five or six years use the weapons in the Guns folder (I believe the difference is in how the guns are installed on the planes, the old Weapons folder way places a machine gun as a removable "node" on a top wing or on the nose of a plane, while newer plane data inis call up the relevant guns in the Internal Gun section).

For FE/FE2 Flyers interested in little oddities of WW1 flight, Thought I'd open a small mini-post with some interesting info. on cartridge ejection on WW1 machine guns, as related to my tweaked data inis. I usually like to keep the ejection-of-cartridges call set to True on single-seaters, including top-wing mounted Lewis guns, or Vickers or Spandaus that are in front of the cockpit. Toggle that setting under the Internal Gun section of your data inis to preference, either to True or False, if you're distracted by empty flying cartridges while flying. On two-seater and multi-seater types, especially for observers/gunners, I usually have that setting at False, since many observers had setups with cloth or leather bags attached to the guns to catch spent cartridges. One exception to the rule is of course the one-seater pusher type, such as the DH.2 - you don't want spent cartridges from those flying back into the engine or propeller (as historical). A good post on the topic is here: http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/150528.aspx?page=1 Also good is the opening, lengthy post on that forum. Happy flying, Von S

Try my effects folder, or copy over the relevant files indicated in my post above (that should give you proper bomb explosion effects) - have sent you the effects through private message. Happy flying, Von S

Also make sure that in the Effects folder of your modded install of FE2, you have at least the following ini and tga files for proper explosion effects of various sizes. Happy flying, Von S

Great stuff gents' - wonderful to see large scale modding for FE2 happening! I'm also tweaking the Camels further to include some of their flight peculiarites, also the Nieu. 11 is receiving an overhaul - since it was too "numb" in its earlier FM versions, and have corrected an obscure error with Cydc airfoil values that were missing for some of the ailerons on the Nieu. 16 types. Will include these fixes and previous ones for the Nieu. 28 and 24bis in a ver. 9.1 of the FM update pack, and will also try to get the FMs done for the Pup and Tripehound from A-Team for that update pack, including more varieties of observation balloon colors and realistic heights. It'll be a special edition of the FM update pack called "Camels, Pups and Gasbags." Happy flying, Von S

Looks beautiful! I’ll tweak the FM eventually for the older CL.IV that’s in the downloads area and then we can easily readjust some of the coordinates to make the data ini fit your greatly improved model Geezer. Happy flying, Von S

Never was able to get ROF running in WineSkin on a Mac - WOFFue and FE2, and RB3D, on the other hand, work just fine in WineSkin. I doubt that I'll try running ROF at this point especially (since it's no longer being developed or modded), or even that IL-2 Flying Circus stuff in the future considering that I'm very happy with FE2 and WOFFue, although competition in the small WW1 flight sim market is a good thing (for us too: greater user awareness of alternatives like FE2 and WOFFue, especially if users don't warm up to ROF/FC). I think with ROF/FC you also need to keep up with the latest technology regularly, otherwise frame rates suffer with every upgrade of the sim. Mid-range rigs on the other hand can run FE2 fine, also WOFFue on lower graphics settings. Happy flying in FE2 gents', Von S

Beautiful screenies gents' and glad to see that my non-FM tweaks are handy too - have now managed to fix the stall values in the general aircraft object ini file by incorporating some data from the top mid wing section of a Spad 7 (a thin wing profile that is typical of lots of early and mid-war types), so that data inis that are missing stall lift table data numbers will benefit from this. Ran some tests already and stalls/spins and buffeting are now more realistic especially across the early monoplane types (particularly the Eindeckers that were often prone to some strange flat-spins previously). Also now fixed are realistic service dates for balloons (Caquots, Drachens, Type Ae 800) and Zeppelins and British airships across theaters, and realistic operational heights (about 2600 feet for the Drachens, 4200 feet for the Type Ae, and 4900 feet for the Caquots) - this will give nice variety in FE2. I might also make some sub-folders with "low lying" variants of the Drachens and Caquots for earlier months in the war - perhaps something like 1300 feet for an early Drachen and 3300 feet for early sightings of the Caquot. This will give further variety across the theaters and fits into realistic height bands for these balloons - some of the Caquots would later in the war ascend as high as 4900 or 5000 feet. Also I've tweaked the movement of the balloons further, so that Drachens are now more "unstable" in high alt. winds as historical - this is the reason why the Germans switched eventually to the Type Ae imitation of the Caquot. The Zepps are now found at a more realistic height of about 18,000 feet, with British airships around 15-16,000 feet, and they pop up in theaters with historically realistic service dates. For example you might be able to spot a Zepp above the Middle eastern theater from about Nov. '17 to early '18 - when the famous L.59 was making a record-breaking voyage to Africa (to support German guerilla fighters): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LZ_104_(L_59) Will eventually roll all these tweaks into a ver. 9.1 of the FM update pack. In the meantime some obligatory screenies (I'm still tweaking high alt. sky colors in the environsys ini file). This session was particularly interesting - the Taube tends to glide around even with its fuel tank holed and the observer and pilot gone - eventually it crash-landed. Happy flying, Von S

Glad you fixed the telephone pole and cow problem. If you still experience shimmering buildings in the future, I also recommend checking the following post by Mue: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/85970-shimmering-tods-and-target-objects/ Install the FE2 terrain shaders listed there into the relevant Terrain folder that you're flying, and then in the relevant terrain data.ini file, under the SolidObjectTextureMaterial section, change the following value: ZBufferOffset=2.0 change to: ZBufferOffset=5.0 Also, if you find that buildings or trees are popping up oddly at the edge of your terrain when you fly around, tweak the numbers for the terrain mesh as indicated by 33Lima in this post: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/90108-fe2-terrain-objects-drawing-distance/?do=findComment&comment=728237 Or simply download my modded flightengine.ini file and place into the Flight folder of your FE2 user directory, for more panoramic scenery in the distance and no tree/building popping and disappearing (keep in mind that this modded flightengine.ini file hits frame rates - I'm storing it for a computer upgrade sometime in the future ). Happy flying, Von S

Airfield figures and objects (such as Geezer's maintenance objects and figures) all go into the relevant Terrain folder for whatever terrain you are flying. Those are of course messy to install. Here's Wrench's response to a similar question in another post: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/82532-ww1-airfield-figures/?do=findComment&comment=698260 If you want to take a shot at installing terrain objects, check out Heck's posts over here: https://combatace.com/forums/topic/91176-typesini-entries-for-geezers-objects/ Other objects such as tanks, balloons, cavalry, artillery, and so on, especially many of the ones that Stephen1918 has available for download, should be installed into the "GroundObject" folder of the "Objects" folder of your FE2 user directory (no need to fiddle with ini files to install Stephen's objects - just drop into the GroundObject folder and they will show up randomly on a map). Hopefully some terrain specialists will pitch in with more info. (I've never tried installing anything into the Terrain folders so can't offer much more help than the links here.) I do have two recommendations for the Terrain folders by the way: open the WW1_Airfield1.ini file in whatever terrain you're flying, and change the touchdown value under the Runway001 section to read as: TouchDown=0,-150 (this helps to make aircraft land a little bit earlier so they don't overshoot an airfield) also, in the relevant data.ini file for whatever terrain you're flying (such as Palestine_data.ini), scroll down to the SolidObjectTextureMaterial section and change the following entry: BlendOp=ONE should be changed to: BlendOp=BLEND_SRC_ALPHA (this helps to give proper looking telephone poles, cows, and some other objects on the fields - otherwise they show up as cows painted on a rectangle, poles painted onto a rectangle, and so on) Happy flying, Von S