I came across TAW 2.0, but I want to know how realistic it is in terms of flight characteristics, avionics, and all that.

Short answer is that TAW is the most realistic F-22 sim out there.

Long answer is that this game was designed more than 12 years ago amid speculation about an aircraft that was still a prototype that had not yet been introduced operationally to the USAF. They made a lot of guesses, so don't expect Falcon 4.0 level of avionics fidelity.

That said, the sim does a great job of introducing the data fusion present in the 5th generation avionics. I can't speak to the details, but the general idea is there. Bottom line: there is plenty of depth in the sim to keep you interested, and the fun factor is right up there as well.

Lastly, the flight modelling is top notch. TAW is still considered by some to be the flight simming benchmark for digital fly-by-wire flight modelling.

TAW is considered by most people to be by far the best F-22 sim available, and for sure is the only one with a dynamic campaign. I wouldn't have spent my time modding TAW if it wasn't worth the investment.

Agreed.

FM wise you need to remember you're not flying a Cessna or Piper Cub. You're flying a state of the art jet who's primary job is to keep you in the air.

So how do you mod TAW? It looks like the textures aren't in bitmaps, nor are the models in normal mesh formats.

Allow me to link you to the Modding Article on the TAW Wiki , which has descriptions of the different file types and how they can be modded.

Be advised that this is a work in progress, but the information you need to modify texture and palette files should be available there.

For 3D files, Mikew and DrKevDog are our resident object gurus. Mike has created some apps that can convert 3 files to text and back to allow for individual edits. You should be able to find the active "3" thread on this forum.