Panama Red

This is a post by streakeagle over on a SF2 discussion thread about SF2 changes, but it would still apply to FE2 if TK ever "updated" this game for those agitating for change in FE2: Over the time frame from Expansion Pack 1 to SF2:NA's final patch were a lot of "little" changes per those listed above. The trend for the past few years has been to resolve complaints by making a change that causes worse problems than the original complaint. TK's forums have been a "Monkey's Paw". You wish for something, but get unintended consequences. For years people had complaints about the terrain engine: 1) The way ground objects popped into view. 2) Sorting issues with clouds and terrain. 3) The 1998 dated look of the terrain mesh height resolution and textures. TKs solution to these problems: 1) Make objects fade into view rather than pop-up. The new effect looked great, except that you couldn't even see the runways until just before landing. Of course the fade-in distance had been locked down. So, TK provided an ini key to disable the new system. But disabling it might cripple future changes and still didn't give you control over the view ranges. For me, the biggest problem associated with this change was the limits on view distance to aircraft. The "fix" that allows people to turn off the new system does not solve my problem: aircraft used to be visible as soon as they rendered as a single pixel AND met the ini file specified visibility range. Now, they appear at a hard-coded range per the horizon distance settings with no regard for the ini setting or 1-pixel rendering range. Even at the farthest horizon settings, B-52 size aircraft go from invisible to quite large, which makes fighting using visual spotting look as bad as the old system's terrain popping into view. 2) Since low level clouds and objects have sorting issues and many people using mods complained very heavily about these problems, TK hard-coded the clould altitude limits to a much higher level. This didn't fix the problem, it just hid the problem. Now you won't see as many sorting issues because the clouds can't be at historical low altitudes. I like to create and fly historical missions. A key component to getting historical results are the visibility conditions imposed by the historical weather. In Vietnam, the clouds were low, usually about 3,000 feet, but you can't make clouds any lower than about 10,000 feet. 3) Aside from much improved support for naval actions, SF2NA brought the new terrain. This new terrain cost TK a lot of time and money to develop. But, it comes at a high performance cost, doesn't look that good in its stock release, is partially locked down, and modders get no support in the form of tools or even answers to basic questions about how to make new terrains using the new system. There was also another little itty, bitty problem: the increased resolution came at the expense of the overall map size. If you want maps that look as good as first person shooters, then the maps have to be the size of first person shooters. Of course, the original terrain system was already limited in map size. It was a flat square rather than based on the real shape of the globe. But now it is a much smaller square. Now, you can still use the old terrain engine... but the way the game handles getting close to the edge of the terrain was changed which broke many modders' terrains. The Monkey's paw never fails to aggravate those wishing for improvements to the SF game engine. Call me selfish, but I never cared that much about the terrain. All I care about is the air-to-air fight. So, aside from the dramatic change to visibility ranges for aircraft and cloud ceilings, none of the above got under my skin too much. But, when people started complaining about missile reliability and how hard it was to win, the Monkey's Paw clubbed me over the head. Rather than suggesting that these players use less than hard settings, TK just changed the weapons to be dramatically more reliable for the player. As "lite" as the SF series was supposed to be, it was actually a pretty good simulation for the effectiveness of early air-to-air missiles. Now, later missiles are almost a sure thing and even some of the earlier missiles will hit very consistently. From the very beginning of SFP1, each major patch brought new things at the expense of new bugs. When WoV was released, the flight models and AI got hosed. The flight models were mostly fixed by WoE, but the AI didn't really improve until WoI was released many years later. SF2 brought DX10, which greatly enhanced the look and performance of the game, but that came at the cost of multiplayer. So, maybe the post on the Third Wire forums wasn't stated correctly in terms of describing the time frame, but I more than understand the frustration of the poster. As is mentioned above, you can't go back to earlier versions if you want to use later content. SF2 remains the best survey sim available that leverage current hardware capabilities. The stock flyable and AI aircraft library is simply amazing in scope and quality. Throw in the free user mods, and you still have an incredible range of options to fly anything in any time frame. But if TK could have addressed problems without limiting the modders or creating new problems, it could have been so much more. Now, his focus is mobile games. I look forward to any new SF2 content that may pop up, but I dread what problems are going to be caused by installing them. Of course, it is entirely possible that there will not be any more significant releases for SF2. I am not holding my breath waiting for Expansion Pack 3.

If noting was taken away, then why the smaller flying areas on existing maps ???

Some new photos I've never seen: http://www.historynet.com/gallery-wwi-planes.htm

Fantastic !!!

Since I have 172 different FE2 planes (just in the Western Front mod), I think that is a few to many to adapt to SF2, since SF2 is written for faster planes.

It will all transfer from FE2 to SF2, but the planes will not fly very well due to the differences in the way the game engine reads the FM's. The second problem is SF2 time frame in by year, where FE2 is by month.

Each screen has it's own music. You might make each screen use the same music, but it would start over each time you go to a different screen,

But if you already have DX10, why would you want to go backwards to DX9 ???? DX10 with it's internal HDR is better than the forced DX9 with a HDR mod.

Remember to change all three locations in the Options.ini file.

You mean like this in you Options.ini file: [Mods] ModsEnabled=TRUE Directory=E:\Users\Ernest\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2 Vietnam Expanded Editors=StrikeFighters

This is how you install new weapons into FE2/SF2 (i.e. the Weapons Mod folder system): http://combatace.com/topic/39282-sf2-weapon-layout/

FE1 is based on SF1. FE2 is based on SF2. When you under stand this, you now know to read the SF1 and SF2 Knowledge Base files and understand how FE1 and FE2 operate and they are modded, i.e. what ever is required to upgrade a SF1 item to SF2 is the same as what is required to upgrade a FE1 item to FE2.

Are you playing FE1 or FE2 ??? 1. If you are playing FE2, DO NOT, repeat DO NOT use the Weapons Editor. You must use the Weapons Mod folder method. Using the Weapons Editor in FE2/SF2 creates lot and lots of problems, which is why you use the Weapons Mod folder method. 2. On my DFW CI, the crosses are already painted on the skins, so there are no cross decals used.

Bamzi: Are you asking where to put your SF1 or SF2 mod files ??? The reason I ask is that you are asking about SF2 files in the SF1 section. SF1 and SF2 have their mod files in completely different locations. For where to put your SF1 files, you need to go read the SF1 Knowledge Base, and for where to put your SF2 mod files, you need to read the SF2 Knowledge Base. The reason these Knowledge Bases were created was answer exact questions like you are asking now.

If you had expansionist China as your neighbor, you would be nervous too.

Crazyhorse: Then you would like this article: http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/08/04/old-school-baseball-game-where-players-are-underhanded-unmanly-and-only-juice/

Here: http://combatace.com/forum/268-thirdwire-strike-fighters-2-series-knowledge-base/

How close are they to the "wall" ???

I put my SF2 on my HHD (D drive, 3 TB). Since SF2 automatically puts the "mod" folder on your "C" drive (my SSD, 256 GB), all I did was change the "options.ini" file in the "C" drive mod folder directory location back to the HHD. That way both the game and the real mod folder (208 GB mod folder and counting) are still on the 3 TB HHD and it minimizes what I have on my SSD.

Thank you and your site looks great.

What country, what channel ???

The TW Camel has been a stock plane ever since the FE1 Expansion pack. It sounds like you either have a bad install or bad download for the stock planes to cause problems.

The Nieuport 11 and 16 also needs a little bit of "love" too since they really have nothing more than "generic" skins.

For those who want a real steal, here is a $100 book for only $15.50, if you get it in time: http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Imperial-Russian-Air-Service-Famous-Pilots-And-Aircraft-Of-World-War-I-/310683093269?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item485627c915#ht_188wt_1141

I have this book and you are correct, $15.50 is a real steal since I paid about $100 for one years ago.