Kursk VVS Campaign Released!

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Another Mission Completed:

SW

Try turning off the MIP mapping in your display settings and see if that will take care of the aircraft paint schemes blurring. I don't think it is just my eyes anyway

I was gonna ask about that, Captain. The red stars on my Il-2s and others are blurred. I will try your suggestion, thanks!

Meanwhile:
​

"title_string"=A_Kursk-NC_Il2-Orel-Front-Strike-13-2CT
"summary_string"=Dobroe utro comrades. Yastreb, your mission is a strike on the enemy defensive positions he is trying to establish, blocking the Kursk-Orel rail line. Your assignment is to smash his defenses and disrupt the enemy's attempts to dig in and reestablish his lines before our heroic ground forces arrive. You will take off at 0915 hours and fly due north, 000 degrees for 48 miles. There at RP-KOLYMA, you will pick up your escorts, Bronya's Yak-1 flight and proceed another 16 miles on a 330 heading to your target area at RP-AMUR. Hit the fascists there with everything you've got bombs rockets and guns in multiple attack runs and then, once you've expended your ordinance, withdraw SW to RP-KAMA, regroup and return to base.
"objective_string"=At about the same time as the previous mission, here on the southern side of the Orel salient, because of a mistake by Soviet command personnel, a small formation of Il-2s of the 198th ShAP (Attack Aviation Regiment) from the 233rd ShAD, commanded by the Squadron Commander Captain V.A Malinkin, took off without air cover. They were spotted by Nazi Me-110s and three Il-2s were lost in fierce combat. Only the aircraft of Lieutenant A.N. Efimov (at that time a little known pilot, but later on a Soviet Marshall of Aviation, twice Hero of the Soviet Union) successfully returned to home base, having shot down a twin-engined Messerschmidt.
"intelligence_string"=The weather looks good. Medium cloud cover, gentle NW wind and 15 mi visibility should greet you over the target area. You shouldn't have to worry about enemy fighters. because a flight of Yak-1s from the 1st GvIAD will be escorting you. The Nazis have plenty of AAA, so the ground fire should range from moderate to heavy. Our forces will follow up your attack with a frontal assault and you are their 'flying artillery.' Concentrate your efforts on the fascists' artillery positions and anti-tank units. Good hunting, and good luck, comrades!
"player_aircraft_name_string"=Ilyushin_il2-HC-37

Who says an Il-2 can't dogfight? I got 2 of the beggars!

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

SW

Try turning off the MIP mapping in your display settings and see if that will take care of the aircraft paint schemes blurring. I don't think it is just my eyes anyway

Tried it... still blurred. Any volunteers to do some painting?

 

[Roxane-21]

Your opinion, should I go ahead and finish up 1 and 2 and release them now or wait and complete and release all 4 parts in one package? I can have 1 & 2 release by next weekend. I'll go with the majority opinion.

Release everything in one package. It would make thing easier for users.

Thank you for making this campaign. There are too few campaigns made for Eastern Front.

 

[UncleTgt]

Tried it... still blurred. Any volunteers to do some painting?

If you have Martin Wright's DXTbmp, try saving the textures again, but make sure the "create Mips" box is unchecked. It could be the textures were created with Mips included...

 

[aussie]

Looks like a mip issue, try what UncleTgt suggested first. If they still give you grief I can take a look at the bitmaps but I'm sure UncleTgt's method will sort out the issue for you.

Cheers
Aussie

 

[Captain Kurt]

I'm assuming that it's only certain planes the have the blurring issue for you. If its every plane you have then its an issue with your graphics card. But again since I see your scenery and the tanks images are sharp I don't think that would be the case.

So yep. Kevin and Aussie point to the only possible other cause I would know of. The original skins are all sharp and should appear that way in your game too. Using DTXbitmap to re-save without MIPs is quick and easy.

Also just as an FYI for everyone, not all graphics cards have issues with MIPs. So unless your Thicko skins are blurry re-saving without MIPs would not be necessary. MIPmapping is supposed to be an additional, more efficient way for compressed texture files to be opened and read by the computer graphics program. As you can see, it's not always working depending on the graphics hardware you have.

For those who are interested in a more technical explanation you can read the Wiki about it here (It's over my head, but hey)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mipmap

 

[highpockets]

Shadow Wolf
I had same issues with some textures some time ago and I used Martin Wright's DtxBmp and saved to 512(?).
Sorry I cannot rember exactly and I am not where I can look back and see what I did. This was kind of swampy territory for me and still is. I have to be really careful when in this territory!

 

[skylane]

Your opinion, should I go ahead and finish up 1 and 2 and release them now or wait and complete and release all 4 parts in one package? I can have 1 & 2 release by next weekend. I'll go with the majority opinion.

Cheers

SW07

SW,
I would go for all four parts in one package.

 

[kdriver]

Hi Greg,

I agree with releasing all four parts together.

I fixed the fuselage and wing textures on my Il-4 by converting the bitmap to DXT1 without alpha. Your screenshots of that aircraft show the same display problem which I had. My Il-2 doesn't have any display problems.

Cheers,
Kevin

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Hi Greg,

I agree with releasing all four parts together.

I fixed the fuselage and wing textures on my Il-4 by converting the bitmap to DXT1 without alpha. Your screenshots of that aircraft show the same display problem which I had. My Il-2 doesn't have any display problems.

Cheers,
Kevin

Hi Kevin:

I am leaning in that direction myself. I just wanted to survey our "population" and see what they want. I am working on mission 50 now and have about 25-30 more to go. My thanks to you and the others, who have responded.

I will try to fix the textures tonight , using MW's DXTBitmap - DXT 1 without alpha on all my blurred textures. I could only wish for updates to these older but capable aircraft.

Cheers:

Greg

 

[Captain Kurt]

Hi Kevin:

I am leaning in that direction myself. I just wanted to survey our "population" and see what they want. I am working on mission 50 now and have about 25-30 more to go. My thanks to you and the others, who have responded.

I will try to fix the textures tonight , using MW's DXTBitmap - DXT 1 without alpha on all my blurred textures. I could only wish for updates to these older but capable aircraft.

Cheers:

Greg

Hi Greg

Convert to either DXT3 or DXT1 WITH Alpha. Not including the Alpha with DTX1 can also cause problems with some graphics cards.

 

[Allen]

Some add-on aircraft will use the MIP Map textures. Check your settings and the Max obejct texture size: or in the cfs2.cfg TEXTURE_MAX_LOAD= and make sure it is set to 1024.

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Thanks to UncleTgt's recent releases, I am finishing up 2 missions using the P-39K. I still need to test fly and make final adjustments to each..

The missions are two aspects of the same large attack on enemy positions on phase 2 of "Operation Kutuzov." I will try to get some screen shots and we'll see if my blurred texture issue persists. Mission 2, in which the P-39 is the player aircraft, is described below:

"summary_string"=Dobrym utrom, comrades. Lev yours is a CAP mission, where you will fly high cover over our strike group. The group is hitting the enemy defensive positions, blocking the advance of Central Front's push towards Orel from the south. Your squadron's assignment is to escort and cover the Il-2s, smashing the Nazi artillery and armor/tank positions. You will take off at 0730 hours and fly NNE, 015 degrees for 38 miles. There at RP-LAGODA, you will take up your covering position at 10,000 feet, over our attack elements, and proceed another 17 miles on a 000 heading to the target area at RP-PECHORA. You are to intercept and destroy any intruding Axis fighters that come into the target zone. If no bandits show or once you've cleared the skies, you ore free to attack ground targets of opportunity with gunfire before withdrawing SW to RP-DON. At DON you will regroup and return to base to refuel and rearm for your next mission.
"objective_string"=The Soviet Central Front began its phase of the counteroffensive on July 15 and aviation activity increased considerably. The overall plan of action called for a massive 3-wave strike by 16th Air Army, each wave included up to 300 aircraft. In total, on July 15th 16th Air Army launched 1002 sorties, compared to 40 from the enemy. Here, elements of the 16th Air Army -241st BAD, 196th IAP and 2nd GvShAD - are launching the second wave of attacks. NOTE: The number of aircraft and objects in this mission is greatly reduced for play-ability.
"intelligence_string"=The past 3 days' successes of Bryansk and West Fronts at the opening of 'Operation Kutuzov' have forced the Luftwaffe to withdraw a large number of aircraft back from forward bases at risk of capture. This should give us a few days respite from their fighters. You and our escorts should be able to easily handle them. The Nazi positions you will be attacking are well dug in and camouflaged and with plenty of AAA. The 1st wave should have reduced the ground-fire somewhat by the time you arrive. This morning's weather is good - sparse cloud cover above 13,000 feet. and gentile winds. Good hunting
"player_aircraft_name_string"=P-39K Airacobra 196IAP


Cheers:

SW07

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

The texture issue: One is an older Pe-2 model and texture ( ) and the other is UT's newer P-39K ( ). I guess this rules out a probable vid-card problem. I'll work with DXTBmp on the others this weekend.

 

[Rami]

Reply...

Shadow Wolf,

Tomorrow night we can discuss it!

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Well folks, I fixed the textur issue with the La-5F. I opened the fuselage and wing textures in DXTBmp, unchecked the MIP box and saved them (deleting my cdp, just in case). Next I'll do the sme with the others.

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

And more

Plus my next mission, ready for flight testing. 55 will be done once I do this one.


"title_string"=A_Kursk-NC_La5-Central Front S & D-16-1C
"summary_string"=Dobry den', comrades. Taifun you are tasked with a search and
destroy mission, hitting the enemy's hastily set up defensive positions, blocking
the advance of our ground forces. As part of our 3rd wave of the attacking air
armada. Your squadron is to go in just ahead of our main force and destroy the
Axis AAA defenses. You will take off at 1500 hours and climbing to 10,000 feet,
fly NNE, 020 degrees for 54 miles o RP-KEDR. There, you and your squadron will
pick up the Strike Group and proceed another 14 miles on a 312 heading at 10,000
feet to your target area - RP-BEREZA. Hit the enemy positions there at low level
with rockets and gunfire. Then take up intercept station between RP-TOPOL' and
RP-SOSNA. Engage and destroy any bandits that respond to our attack. Once you've
expended your ordinance, withdraw SW 10 miles to RP-YABLONYA. Regroup there and
return to base. Best of luck to you and good hunting!
"objective_string"=The overwhelming amount of munitions dropped on the 15th
allowed the Soviet army to quickly overrun the Nazi positions. Today, the 16th of
July, Luftwaffe activities increased noticeably and the Wehrmacht attempted
numeroous counterattacks. Again, 3 massive-waves of attackers with 3-hour
intervals struck the Axis 9th Army. Each wave involved more than 400 aircraft.
The first group consisted of 410 aircraft, the second - 444 planes and the third,
the most numerous - 469 planes (146 bombers, 126 attack aircraft and 188
fighters). In total, Soviet aviation made some 1713 sorties on this day. NOTE:
Once again, the number of aircraft and ground objects in this mission is greatly
reduced for play-ability.
"intelligence_string"=Our earlier strikes today have shown that at least some of
the Luftwaffe fighters have already relocated and are back in action. You and our
escorts should be able to easily handle them though. Yes, your mission is dual
role - strike and intercept. The Nazi positions you will be attacking are being
repaired and improved by the hour. The ground fire should be reduced but still
moderate to heavy. You may even encounter some mobile flakpanzer units. This
afternoon's weather is good again - sparse cloud cover above 12,000 feet and
gentle winds. Your squadron and the Il-2s will be attacking first, stacked 1
minute apart, then the mediums come in. The Strike Group's target area is, as was
yesterday's, shallow, dense and only about 1/3 of a mile wide. So study your
flight maps, stay on course and avoid collisions.
"player_aircraft_name_string"=Lavochkin La-5F

Cheers

SW07

 

[highpockets]

Textures and insignia looking good. I have not flown anything in the Eastern Front since Rami did his missions years ago.

 

[kdriver]

They're looking sharp now Greg - well done!

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Weekly update

They're looking sharp now Greg - well done!

Thank you, Kevin.

Fifty seven missions done, fifty five flight tested. I plan to test those two tonight and make corrections if needed I am still working on the Soviet counteroffensive in the north - "Operation Kutuzov" - up to July 18th. When I finish that, I will do "Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev" - the southern counteroffensive. These each will be a bit shorter than the 2 parts of "Citadel."

Cheers:

SW07.

"