Question for the CFS3 Vets here ...
- Thread starter Snuffy
- Start date
HouseHobbit
Charter Member
To Be honest, the stock bases in CFS3 do not look like any german or allied airbase I have ever seen in Europe..
I spent two years there, and No The Stock CFS 3 bases are not realisitc..
But they are FUN..
LOL..
:ernae:
I spent two years there, and No The Stock CFS 3 bases are not realisitc..
But they are FUN..
LOL..
:ernae:
Airbase and other objects on the map are controlled by the global layer. Yes, stock CFS3 has some bizarre placements of airfields, facilities, and even cities.
The global layer was the subject of considerable revision during the development of the ETO add-on for CFS3. When you start ETO, you are required to choose an "era" in which to operate. Depending on your choice, a different global layer is loaded. This also allows certain airfields to be, for example, grass in 1940 but paved in 1944.
The global layer was the subject of considerable revision during the development of the ETO add-on for CFS3. When you start ETO, you are required to choose an "era" in which to operate. Depending on your choice, a different global layer is loaded. This also allows certain airfields to be, for example, grass in 1940 but paved in 1944.
Autothrottle
Charter Member
Awhile back in CFS1, the original Grandaddy of Combat flight sims, there were many attempts to rectify the age old issue: Are the Luftwaffe, American and British bases accurate enough?
Many addons were made to enhance the airfields layout, most were excellent, even for the old sim ten years ago. I would go as far as to say CFS3 in most respects is not a big improvement over CFS1. If i only knew how to use FRAPS I would gladly show you guys what I mean.
The airbases in CFS1 were lovely and all, but even it was severely limited. CFS3 is a lot more dynamic than CFS1. When you progress in the campaign in CFS3, the supporting Army actually takes up residence in the area you conquer. CFS1 had 109's parked on the fields still in france even if you were running missions well into Germany proper.
Well I miss the old girl. I logged over a decade worth of play with her since she came out in 1998. My old PC took her with it to the grave, then I got into CFS3 because of a challenge from my Pilot friend. I've been hooked since, I don't think I can go backward, unless the end of the world came and we only had 32 bit computers left as our only means of communication.
Semper Fi
Many addons were made to enhance the airfields layout, most were excellent, even for the old sim ten years ago. I would go as far as to say CFS3 in most respects is not a big improvement over CFS1. If i only knew how to use FRAPS I would gladly show you guys what I mean.
The airbases in CFS1 were lovely and all, but even it was severely limited. CFS3 is a lot more dynamic than CFS1. When you progress in the campaign in CFS3, the supporting Army actually takes up residence in the area you conquer. CFS1 had 109's parked on the fields still in france even if you were running missions well into Germany proper.
Well I miss the old girl. I logged over a decade worth of play with her since she came out in 1998. My old PC took her with it to the grave, then I got into CFS3 because of a challenge from my Pilot friend. I've been hooked since, I don't think I can go backward, unless the end of the world came and we only had 32 bit computers left as our only means of communication.
Semper Fi
Pat Pattle
SOH-CM-2024
Hi Snuffy, (are you the Snuffy of B17 the mighty eighth fame?)
Firstly The stock cfs3 airbases are awful and the locations of many aren't even close. I reckon that M$ used the plans of some Mid-western chicken farms to base theirs on.
However a few of us have tidied up the UK to start with and CFS3/ETO now has best RAF airfield representations in any combat flight sim (for true fidelity the user addons in FS9/FSX are the best).
The next stage is getting some better representations for the LW airfields. We have one at present - Lorient - which will appear in 1.3 and later this year some BoB era ones for the Pas de Calais area.
They're not hard to make, with practice a basic layout can be knocked out in a few hours so if you fancy having a go step right up!
Pat
Firstly The stock cfs3 airbases are awful and the locations of many aren't even close. I reckon that M$ used the plans of some Mid-western chicken farms to base theirs on.
However a few of us have tidied up the UK to start with and CFS3/ETO now has best RAF airfield representations in any combat flight sim (for true fidelity the user addons in FS9/FSX are the best).
The next stage is getting some better representations for the LW airfields. We have one at present - Lorient - which will appear in 1.3 and later this year some BoB era ones for the Pas de Calais area.
They're not hard to make, with practice a basic layout can be knocked out in a few hours so if you fancy having a go step right up!
Pat
Snuffy
Happiness Consultant
I dunno if I'd call it "fame" ... But Aye, one and the same for all these years.
... Firstly The stock cfs3 airbases are awful and the locations of many aren't even close. I reckon that M$ used the plans of some Mid-western chicken farms to base theirs on.
However a few of us have tidied up the UK to start with and CFS3/ETO now has best RAF airfield representations in any combat flight sim (for true fidelity the user addons in FS9/FSX are the best). ...
Well I'm looking for these add-ons for my FSX environment and from my search there are few and far between. I've found some "fairly informative" lists on the net of location names ... but as to where exactly they are in relation to those names, I'm afraid that kind of info seems to be lacking from the lists, and I admit, I'm not good at digging up that info ... So if someone has that info already processed, I'd be happy to see it.
... The next stage is getting some better representations for the LW airfields. We have one at present - Lorient - which will appear in 1.3 and later this year some BoB era ones for the Pas de Calais area.
They're not hard to make, with practice a basic layout can be knocked out in a few hours so if you fancy having a go step right up!
Pat
Oh I know they're not hard to make, I'm a closet mud mover
... I'm running the latest version of ADE ... and I've constructed a few USAAF bases for my English Island, and I've imported some of IanP's stuff for the RAF.But I was hoping to find some target bases ... or at least bases in FSX where I can park all these historic aircraft that are comming out.
I was hoping that if CFS3 was accurate with locations of airfields for the Luftwaffe, it would give me a place to start ... But from what I'm hearing, it sounds as though CFS3 is bogus. :mixedsmi:
Thanks for the help guys.
crossram
Charter Member
I 'had' fairly good luck finding airfield coords using a earlier version of (free) Google Earth.
It gave the coords in the right format for CFS3, and it was just a matter of locating the airbase you wanted. The earlier version could be set to label historical places, that showed not only the airfields...but right down to particular pillboxes, and their types.
But, a while back (several months) while trying to use it, the program called to be updated. That update has never shown things as before, though it's still fairly good. The earlier version that I have refuses to open now.
It gave the coords in the right format for CFS3, and it was just a matter of locating the airbase you wanted. The earlier version could be set to label historical places, that showed not only the airfields...but right down to particular pillboxes, and their types.
But, a while back (several months) while trying to use it, the program called to be updated. That update has never shown things as before, though it's still fairly good. The earlier version that I have refuses to open now.
flashgordon
Charter Member
Hi Snuffy
Some years back I produced a new global layer for the BoB Era. This mainly concentrated on the UK airbases circa August 1940 but also included Luftwaffe airfields for the period. A number of these were already in the stock sim and I did not move these for fear of messing up missions and campaigns.
The new Lufwaffe bases were sited as accurately as possible from the available information - it was pre Google Earth! Many had subsequently been used by the allies and I found a database of the ALG co-ordinates whilst some others were still open. I had most trouble with the airfields in the Pas de Calais as these were just large fields that rapidly returned to agriculture after the Luftwaffe departed.
The BoB Global layer was used in ETO. You can tell those I put in from the stock ones from the ID code. If you open the bob_ global_layer.csv from ETO in Excell you will find the base ID code in row I. Stock airbases have the first 3 and last letters of the airbase name followed by a number. My additions again have the first 3 and last letters of the airbase name followed by 2 letters in capitals and a 3 figure number. The capital letters are BE for an airbase in Belgium, FR for France, GE for Germany and NE for the Nederlands. Stock airbases were originally used but Pat_Pattle did an upgrade for ETO and is now working his magic with custom bases. I understand he has managed to get better data on the positioning especially for those elusive Pas de Calais sites.
With the forthcoming ETO 1.30 I have added Bomber Command UK wartime bases to add to the USAAF ones that were in 1.20. In a number of cases I have had to re-site stock airfields because with airfields spaced just a few miles apart - as was the case in the UK in the later war years - the rather random MS positioning brought about too many clashes.
Some years back I produced a new global layer for the BoB Era. This mainly concentrated on the UK airbases circa August 1940 but also included Luftwaffe airfields for the period. A number of these were already in the stock sim and I did not move these for fear of messing up missions and campaigns.
The new Lufwaffe bases were sited as accurately as possible from the available information - it was pre Google Earth! Many had subsequently been used by the allies and I found a database of the ALG co-ordinates whilst some others were still open. I had most trouble with the airfields in the Pas de Calais as these were just large fields that rapidly returned to agriculture after the Luftwaffe departed.
The BoB Global layer was used in ETO. You can tell those I put in from the stock ones from the ID code. If you open the bob_ global_layer.csv from ETO in Excell you will find the base ID code in row I. Stock airbases have the first 3 and last letters of the airbase name followed by a number. My additions again have the first 3 and last letters of the airbase name followed by 2 letters in capitals and a 3 figure number. The capital letters are BE for an airbase in Belgium, FR for France, GE for Germany and NE for the Nederlands. Stock airbases were originally used but Pat_Pattle did an upgrade for ETO and is now working his magic with custom bases. I understand he has managed to get better data on the positioning especially for those elusive Pas de Calais sites.
With the forthcoming ETO 1.30 I have added Bomber Command UK wartime bases to add to the USAAF ones that were in 1.20. In a number of cases I have had to re-site stock airfields because with airfields spaced just a few miles apart - as was the case in the UK in the later war years - the rather random MS positioning brought about too many clashes.
Snuffy
Happiness Consultant
@ Crossram, Yeah I know about collecting lat/lon off of google or any other mapping program, I was just hoping I didn't have to do that ... LOL!
@ Flashgordon, so if I download the ETO update I can scrape your global edits out of there ... is that what you're saying?
Thanks again for all the help guys!
Who knows what might come from this exercise. :mixedsmi:
@ Flashgordon, so if I download the ETO update I can scrape your global edits out of there ... is that what you're saying?
Thanks again for all the help guys!
Who knows what might come from this exercise. :mixedsmi: