Crawford

No, these are completely different things! During the game, such glitches can really happen, which are on your screenshots. Also, allied aircraft can fly through each other. But this is a banal game engine glitch. At the same time, at the beginning of the mission, the engine does not do such nonsense. Your planes collide and explode. When you change the formation, this garbage disappears. I know this for sure, because I have encountered this problem before.

As for the austria thing, there may indeed be a few Austrias.

1 hour ago, lofty_c said:

why isn't austria showing up  in the single mission menu?  

Austria is not displayed because it is not in the list of available nations. I already told you: edit your NATIONS. INI file!!!
If you don't believe me that the whole reason is in the formation, conduct an experiment. Select in the "Loadout" menu fly alone (remove all your wingman) and start a mission in the air. And nothing will happen to your plane, it will not “explode”. Because it's not an "explosion", it's a collision!

On 02.02.2019 at 8:56 PM, Geezer said:

565 were built, parceled out in twos and threes to most all French observation squadrons.  It was also used by the British and Russians.

In 1916-1917, the MS Type P used by the French Aeronautique Militaire as a scout on the western front, together with the Parasols of early modifications. Not a single French squadron was fully equipped with the MS Type P, although in many squadrons several airplanes of this type flew. In 1916, 142 planes were transferred to the British. 2 divisions of the British "Moranes" took part in the battle of the Somme.

And here are clearly visible Russian identification marks.

Here are some more photos of the Smirnov's aircraft. In the late spring of 1917 pilot non-commissioned officer Ivan Smirnov on this airplane, together with Ensign Malyshev from the IVth Corps Detachment (also on a Monocoque), won one of his 9 victories. The aircraft had a standard 'yellow' camouflage, typical of French aircraft of the period 1916 - mid 1917. The entire aircraft was painted yellow, with one yellow paint used for wood and plywood parts, and another for canvas. Therefore, the nose part looks lighter. Identification marks (Russian cockades) were appeared in 4 positions. On the rudder, the emblem of the 19th KAO is a skull with crossed bones ('Adam's head'). The aircraft still has an outline along the fuselage spars and edges of the wings and tail.

Ivan Smirnov and his “guest” - the captured German aviator Alfred Heft. Flying on the MS Type I, Ivan Smirnov won his 2nd victory (he won the first on the Nie-10, the 3rd and 4th victories he scored on the Nie-17, but the 5th victory - again on the Morane I (September 8, 1917). All other victories he already scored on the SPAD VII.

Another Russian MS Type 6, 8th Fighter Squadron (presumably), spring-summer 1917. The aircraft received such a look and paint scheme after an overhaul in Russia.

As for the cockpit interior, it is difficult to say anything definite. I have a couple of photos of broken Monococks, but nothing is clear there...

17 hours ago, Geezer said:

Maybe you can help me with research?  I have been slowly working on two Morane-Saulnier aircraft that were used by Russia.  The M-S Type I was armed with a Vickers gun so the gun installation was different from the earlier "Bullet" types that were armed with Hotchkiss or Lewis guns.  Shot of the Type I model shows my best guess at the Vickers installation - but its only a guess.  Can you locate  better information?

On the famous photo of Ivan Smirnov some details of the cockpit interior are visible:

Morane-Saulnier I (serial number MS740) from the 19th Kao, which in March-April 1917 was flown by senior non-commissioned officer Smirnov, who scored his second victory on it.

19 hours ago, Geezer said:

Russia also used , but I can find only one reference and it shows a Madsen MG.  Is this correct?

According to the documents of the 19th KAO, on this machine (MS839) also used Lewis, but not Madsen, as depicted on the profile. By that time, Madsen machine guns were practically not used in Russian aviation.

Only a few copies of the M-S Type P (supposedly no more than 10) have arrived in Russia.

Here they were named a "Morane-4" or abbreviated - "Морчет", Morchet  (this corresponds to the reduction of the "Mor-four"). The “Morchets” used on the Russian-German front, in particular the 19th Corps Air Squadron (19th KAO) and the 1st Combat Air Group (1st BAG) of Kozakov. In the Kozakov's air group these planes were initially considered to be two-seat fighters, but by the spring of 1917 they were replaced by "Nieuports" and "SPADs". The plane did not win the sympathy of pilots. Despite the significantly increased rates, the aircraft lost all the pleasure inherent in the Type L, was strict in piloting and didn't forgive mistakes. This was due to the fact that the attempt to improve the flight data of the aircraft only by replacing the engine with a more powerful one and by improving the aerodynamics did not take into account the centering of the aircraft, the efficiency of control, etc.

The photo shows a Morane-4 of the 7th KAO.

Each time, better and better. I love to look at these pictures. Sometimes I look at the picture once in the morning, and then look out the window - it's already evening there ...

The project was covered with a copper basin ...

10 hours ago, lofty_c said:

Gentlemen, thanks for your concern; I will trouble you no more

You did not bother me at all ... With all these mods and addons, one thing doesn't run, then another. As a rule, reinstalling the game solves many such problems...

16 hours ago, lofty_c said:

.  frustrating...

  Well, there is a simpler way. First of all, we need to know which aircraft you are trying to fly when an explosion occurs (you and your wingman start a mission at one point). Then in the  NATIONS.INI file change the number of the formation (this file also needs to be extracted from MissionData.cat). For example, if such a nuisance happens to you with a Nieuport-28, you must find USAS in the NATIONS.INI file. Then change the the fighter formation for this nation as follows:

[Nation001]
Name = USAS
DisplayName = US Army Air Service
Alignment = FRIENDLY
PilotNameList = NamesUS.lst
RankList = RanksUSAF.lst
CallsignList =
Formation.Fighter = Fighter3       <------------------------  instead of the initial line 'Formation.Fighter = Fighter'
Formation.Attack = Fighter
Formation.Bomber = Bomber
Formation.Transport = Bomber
Formation.Tank = Tank
Formation.MobileAD = AD
PilotTrainingStandard = POOR

It is not you who explode; this is a collision with one of your wingman. Just change the formation in the FORMATION.INI file in the Flight folder (you may need to first extract it from MissionData.cat)

Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła 

7 hours ago, Geezer said:

Any real world professional knows that perfection is impossible, which is why - at some point - it is necessary to say "that's good enough.

EDIT: Crawford - I realize you have good intentions.  I'm not trying to piss you off, because I appreciate your help.  You must understand that I am busy with the Bleriot and interruptions disrupt my production flow.  

Affirmative

11 hours ago, Geezer said:

The only solution to this particular problem is to deform the wires by using a stretch modifier in 3dsMax.  That is more effort than I am willing to expend on a project that has already consumed months of my time.  Plus, I do not know if it would work ingame because of the old 1999 game engine.

Judging by Stephen1918's airplanes, a stretch modifier works. But, of course, no one can make you do what you don’t want to do.

22 hours ago, Geezer said:

I'll look at the model, fix it, and then post a new LOD1.

EDIT: Posted below is latest version, with new LOD1.

1-24-19 Caudron_R11.rar

Thank you. Already much better than before, but the problem has not completely disappeared, and a new one has appeared. Please, when you have time, look at the CaudronR11 again. It will be a shame if this beautiful model will be burdened with minor flaws.

(Don't pay attention to the lack of skins. This is a test flight and I haven’t yet changed the format of the skins for the model.)

9 hours ago, VonS said:

Should be entertaining trying to keep these models aloft.

Really, when you flying the Blériot XI, in this airplane you have very little power so you have to be not overly generous with the control movement because you can get yourself into an awkward attitude of the airplane where you may not be able to recover. So everything in this airplane is done very slowly.

10 hours ago, UllyB said:

So, you are saying that you CAN extract SF2 stock LODs ? That is what you are saying ? If so, TK must be worried if he finds out :),  and you must share with us how you do it :)

Yes it is. But I have nothing to share, since the game was ordinary and the extractor is ordinary. As Wrench said, file locking started after the 2012 patches. So, there were no blocking before the patches. And, as far as I know, for FE2 game I was talking about, new patches have not been released since the Jul 2010. That's all there is to it.

8 hours ago, UllyB said:

"I have a gunsight, I changed the view angle (to downward) in its cockpit.ini, in order to see radar image 100% and because of that, the angle that the helo gun fires at,  has changed too and the gunsight display-mark is positioned, now (a sort of) wrong. So I have to move the gunsight  downwards to match the change "

More clearly than that I can't.

As a rule, if there are not enough words, screenshots help a lot to explain.

However, the picture has already become so clear that it seems impossible to realize your plans for the crosshair. And I, too, was not so wrong when I said that the problem was in the game engine. The game considers that the aiming point should be somewhere in the middle. Therefore, even if you make a LOD file with a sight on the side of the cockpit, when you press the F3 key (GOTO_COCKPIT_GUNSIGHT_VIEW), you'll still look forward, rather than move to the side.

21 minutes ago, UllyB said:

Nope, you didn't, let me correct you: you extracted SF2 LODs from a THIRD PARTY aircraft, not from a SF2 stock model , which our collegue, above, already told you that is not possible. However with the LOD viewer you can see, via its ini file, the 3D model, but that's it.

That is why you made the whole confusion ;)

Did you understand what you wrote? Where in the CAT-file of FE2 can take a "THIRD PARTY aircraft" ???    Of course, I extracted the most natural FE2 stock model. 

I don't even know what the matter is. Maybe FE2 is really different from SF2 (this is hardly the case). Or do patches affect the ability to extract files? Or are the utilities different? ...

13 minutes ago, Sundowner said:

Nope, ALL SF2 series lods are locked away, always have been.

  Well, I don't know how about SF2, but I extracted LODs from FE2. It seems this is also a "SF2 series"?

1 hour ago, UllyB said:

The extractor utility, for SF2, can just READ the LOD, in fact it read the ini file. You cannnot extract any stock LOD from SF2 series. Third party maybe.

Who told you that? This is the first time I've heard about it.

Most likely, you were misled. In any case, the stock LODs are extracted from FE2 without any problems (using the same SF2 CAT extractor ).

14 hours ago, Geezer said:

Attached is the Caudron R11 cockpit LOD, plus the aircraft.

I noticed this bug a long time ago, but I didn't have a chance to ask you: can this be corrected somehow?

Okay, okay)) I'm not a debater and not a theoretician. I am a practician with a very sweet temper. Therefore, in order not to be a brawler in your eyes, I will pretend that I agree that any LOD files take precedence over the game engine.   Maybe we are just talking about different things. The language barrier, and we cannot do anything...

Quote

The cockpit LOD is not present and that is expected for SF2 (TK locked them all because of pirating resons, which is understandable). I need to move (down) a gunsight in a cockpit LOD, not to improve its texture .

Sorry, have you ever heard of the existence of the Extractor utility? But the cockpit LOD will not help you if you don't have the original 3D model of the cockpit.

On 22.01.2019 at 4:03 PM, UllyB said:

The gunsight view , theoretically, can be moved, so one can move it (if so, where are its coordinates, they are not in plane sight at all as one can notice??) in ANY plane or it's fixed. If it's fixed, its coordinates have to be related to the objects/files that contain the gunsight coordinates ...etc

All this is interesting theoretical reasoning, but ... the fact remains. All things you write about are governed by the game engine (i.e., DLL files). And you can't fight facts. No, the moderator who creates the 3D cockpit, of course, makes the aiming frame and assigns the sight textures, but the game engine is responsible for the behavior of all this in the game. However, you can ask those who make cockpits.
By the way, you may have noticed that some planes and helicopters in the game have no any references to the sight in the cockpit LOD files. But a crosshair appears in the game ...

And what are we talking about? Why do you want to move the gunsight icon? Moving will make it unsuitable for aiming. Probably the easiest way for you - to remove the gunsight icon completely.

P.S. I am now trying to solve an even more difficult task: I want to teach my virtual protagonist to look out of the cockpit (just as it is in FPS games: Lean to the Left/Right). But the game engine shows me the middle finger and says “You want too much of me!” 

In addition - two interesting links to the original aircraft and its copy:

http://www.pyperpote.tonsite.biz/listinmaeu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=241:bleriot-xis-septembre-1913&catid=47:les-appareils-en-pret&Itemid=56

https://www.shapeways.com/product/36F7X7R69/1-15-scale-bleriot-xi-2-wwi-model-kit-3-of-4

(you can get some idea about the interior of the cockpit)