#4445718 - 10/27/18 04:17 PM
Capabilities of the 160 exe
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MrJelly
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This document outlines the major capabilities of the 160 exe. It does not address any features of the 160 installation packages which include theatre and aircraft files. Many of these capabilities have been accumulated since the first release of the 1.28 exe, and some were included as a result of players' requests.
1. Gun convergence To me this is essential if you fly a plane with wing mounted guns
2. The use of external files containing data previously hard coded in tables in the exe itself. These include TMod data, convoy data, terrain tile data and formation data. This allows files to be edited, or even created. As a result the 160 exe can cope with a maximum of 1000 TMods, and each TMod type can have its own specific data file. Four engined bombers can do ground-starts without colliding with each other.
3. The use of the "Dir.set" system to reference files needed for theatres and aircraft.
4. Additional runway types which now allow the player to take off from an aircraft carrier which has a raised deck with the carrier situated on a genuine water tile.
5. More terrain tiles and flexible tile maps The eaw.tm file with 1 byte per tile has been replaced by the eaw32.tm file with 4 bytes per tile. This creates the possibility of having 1000s of terrain tiles. The "new map" versions of the exe can cope with a terrain map of any size. Other versions are locked into 640x320
6. No 30 plane data files This was a massive breakthrough. Each aircraft has its own files containing flight and skin data. It made real planesets possible
7. More interdiction types which include the possibility of a torpedo strike on ships. AI torpedo aircraft in a torpedo mission, or as the escorted planes in an escort mission fly at the appropriate altitude and speed when approaching their target.
8. Expansion of the possibilities with the railway files. A "flag" system determines whether or not a railway track graphic is rendered. If it is then the value of the flag determines the graphic to be used. This gives the possibilities of vehicle convoys running on roads, and ship convoys running on invisible railway lines which can change direction. Other files relating to the "flag" contain a list of the MGOs to be used in the convoy make-up, plus the speed, the number of columns, and the spacing. One result is having tug-boats and barge convoys on rivers, such as the Thames, the Seine and the Elbe. In one theatre we have three standard width plus one narrow gauge track running in parallel between London and the Midlands. Trains run in opposite directions, and there can be many of them.
9. Multiplayer Other versions have multiplayer code based on selecting an area, and a few other limited choices. 1.60 allows the selection of the actual target, the home base of the host (and friendly primary planes), and the home bases of the friendly secondary, enemy primary and enemy secondary aircraft. It allows the friendly secondary, enemy primary and enemy secondary aircraft types to be selected, whilst retaining the possibility of each player selecting his or her own aircraft. Aircraft altitudes can also be set.
10. Time and date When setting up missions in both single mission and multiplayer mode it is possible to set the exact time and date of the mission. When the date has been selected the times of sunrise and sunset are displayed. This allows the player to set times which give a mission with those lovely early morning and late evening skies.
11. Better graphics possibilities More 3dz file types Use of BMP files for skins an terrain, with thousands of colours not just 256. The possibility of using 512x512 graphics files and higher detail. Multiskins with individual squadron aircraft Ability to use Glide3
12. The "aircraft inventory" and "Planeset" folder system Currently I have two folders containing 45157 and 21475 skin and flight data files. Individual folders in these two folders are referenced by the 160 exe when it reads the "Pdir.set" and "FMdir.set" files to get the flight and skin data for the game. These files are provided in the support file downloads, but experienced users can make their own.
13. Floatplanes and amphibians Values in flight data files can define a plane as a floatplane or an amphibian. Floatplanes can only take off from or land on water. Amphibians can use land or water.
14. Ship convoys, and railway interdictions A "convoys.dat" file lists the port, an the start and the endpoint of a convoy associated with it. Ship convoy interdictions are no longer dependent on the port having a shipyard. Railway interdictions are no longer dependent on the target having a railyard. The nearest railway section to the selected target is used to determine the spawn point of the train.
15. Weapons. The "weapons.dat/str" files accommode 100 weapons. Values in the data file determine the type of behaviour. Some "bombs" released are parachute bombs which fall gently and explode when they hit the ground. Others are paratroopers, which spawn into soldiers when they hit the ground. Other "bombs" behave as torpedoes, or skip across the water, or bounce as the "Upkeep" mine did. The exe can handle an extended range of aircraft guns, including gunpods, "Shrage Musik" and revolver cannon. Flak rate of fire and accuracy is adjustable by an ini setting.
16. Additional TMods There are three other varieties of TMod. TMogs are the Axis version of the TMod files, and would be displayed (if present) in Axis territory. TMoFs and TMgFs are the Allied and Axis versions of the TMod, which are displayed when the position is close to the frontline. So, although I said that we could use up to 1000 TMods, it is effectively up to 4000. The theatre maker only needs to position the TMod. The exe will determine which one to use if they are present. If not, the default TMod will be displayed.
17. MPF and other files .There are a number of these, and they do the following things: Set the allied and axis capitals Set the virtual cockpit viewpoints Set the values shown in the year display (as opposed to 1940, 1943, 1944 and 1945) Set the engine sounds for individual planes Set the cruise altitude for different years and different plane types (bomber, fighter etc) Allow or disallow the WW1 take-off style Allow or disallow the use of the "Seasons" folder which has five different terrain sets for Spring, Summer, Autumn, light Winter and hard Winter.The one to be used depends on the mission date. Set the colour of tracers of different calibre Allow or disallow interdiction types. If a theatre is entirely land based there may be no need for ship/warship convoy interdictions. Turn frontline explosions on or off. Set values for Flak data. Set the make-up of ship, warship, truck and armored convoys. Colour setting for map icons
18. Surprise aircraft. Both random enemy and friendly aircraft can be scrambled when you fly close to a base. For this to happen two ini settings need to be made ("EnemyEncounter" and "FriendlyEncounter"). Setting the value to 1 or more turns them on. It only happens once in a game, so if a squad of 110Cs scrambles when you fly close to an Axis base you do not get even more when you fly close to the next Axis base.
19. Multiplayer and flight modelling. The ability to re-arm at a friendly airfield in multiplayer Host-only multiplayer missions- great for testing new theatres Multiplayer groundstart free-for-all games with no vulching Less restrictive time acceleration, even up to 40x The flight modeling system is able to handle late bi-panes to early jets. AI planes will land on carriers and park correctly. Counter rotating propellors are supported, and work correctly.
20 Little niceties Flare and smoke with engine starts. .
Last edited by MrJelly; 10/27/18 04:21 PM.
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4445720 - 10/27/18 04:21 PM
Re: Capabilities of the 160 exe
[Re: MrJelly]
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Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 24,029
oldgrognard
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Administrator
Lifer
Joined: Nov 2001
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USA
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How does it do with Win 10 ?
Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
Someday your life will flash in front of your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.
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#4445722 - 10/27/18 04:34 PM
Re: Capabilities of the 160 exe
[Re: MrJelly]
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 12,497
MrJelly
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Montagnac, L'Herault, France
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Variably, but that seems to be the same for all versions of EAW. Somehow graphics drivers keep getting changed by Microsoft, and the new ones do not work as well. I was just testing the aircraft numbers on my Win10 system by pressing F9 and counting in this single mission I had four planes as set, but I counted 68 Corsairs, 32 Kates, and 65 Zekes I ill do a re-test with Win7 shortly
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4445885 - 10/28/18 05:25 PM
Re: Capabilities of the 160 exe
[Re: MrJelly]
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Joined: Apr 2002
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MrJelly
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Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4446000 - 10/29/18 01:23 PM
Re: Capabilities of the 160 exe
[Re: MrJelly]
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Joined: Apr 2002
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MrJelly
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In another forum I have been asked to elaborate on the use of "mpf" and other files in the 1.28 series up to 160.
MPF files are text files containing numerical data which the exe reads
"CapSet.mpf" Sets the allied and axis capitals from their values in "targets.dat" They determine the sides of the frontline.
"BumpVal.mpf" Lists the tile numbers which have a corresponding bump tile with the number of the tile, or a value of -1 when there is no corresponding bump tile.
"Bounce.mpf" Sets the height of the bounce and the run of the bouncing bomb
"Catapult.mpf" This is a recent addition which sets data for a catapult launch with accelerated take-off speed.
"Border.mpf" Another rarely used recent addition which defines the border width of a target map graphic that has a border. Not many have one.
"Interdict.mpf" This has six values (0 or 1) that turn interdiction types on or off. For example it might be used with an entirely land based theatre to prevent the player from choosing a ship or warship interdiction.
"Torpedo.mpf" A cheat file for the modder. Normally a torpedo must be released at a height of 100 feet or less and a speed of 160 mph. Otherwise the torpedo sinks and disappears. It is a PITA to get this right when you are testing a plane with a torpedo, so the values in this file allow the modder to release at greater height and peed to check that things are working.
"TrainChance.mpf" This has a value from 0 to 255 which is the probability of a train convoy spawning. In some theatres too many trains may spawn, and this file can be used to reduce the frequency. A value of 64 would give a 1 in 4 chance of a new train convoy spawning.
"Rotation.mpf" sets the horizontal an vertical rotation speed for some rotating TMod, such as searchlights.
"TList00.mpf" .... "TList99.mpf" These files are used with the "render" flags of railway sections in "EAW_RRD.dat" If it finds a render flag of "5" the exe reads "TList05.mpf" The file should have 19 items. This is a copy of a "TList00.mpf"
45 48 46 49 45 45 49 47 45 46 43 44 8 10 16 43 2 0 1 ********** 19 items
vehicle0 vehicle1 vehicle2 vehicle3 vehicle4 vehicle5 vehicle6 vehicle7 vehicle8 vehicle9 vehicle10: Two extra vehicles added here for engine and tender vehicle11 Convoy size s Convoy size m Convoy size l Convoy speed (knots) Convoy additional spacing (feet) Column spacing(feet) Number of columns(feet)
The first 12 values are TMod numbers of the vehicles making up the convoy, and for real trains the 11th is the engine and the 12th is the tender. Only the first 19 values are read, the rest is for the information of the modder.
PRESENCE files are ones that the exe just checks to see if they are there. They are not read and contain no data.
"NoWW1TO" prevents the WW1 type of scramble take off from occurring. It is used in SPAW and other theatres that use carriers.
"NoFL_Explode" prevents the explosions close to the front line from occurring. Ralf introduced these, but they can be a problem in multiplayer theatres designed for groundstarts with bases deliberately set close to the front line.
"NoMiniPics" turns off the display of minipics in single mission parameters.
"UseSeasons" turns on the use of the five seasonal terrain sub-folders in the "Seasons" folder. The terrain used depends on the date of the mission. It is good with ETO based theatres.
"NoHangars" allows a multiplayer pilot to re-fuel and re-arm after landing safely at a friendly base. Normally the pilot needs to pull up close to a hangar, but in some theatres a number of bases have no hangars, and that is when this file is useful.
Older files associated with convoys
These all contain 10 items which are TMod numbers of the items in the convoy. They are used for ship, warship, tank and truck interdictions.
Truck interdictions use "TrukList.mpf" Ship interdictions use "ShipList.mpf" Warship interdictions use "Warlist.mpf" Tank interdictions use "Armlist.mpf"
"Trnlist.mpf" is redundant in 160 because the old "train" interdiction was replaced by "mixed" to allow sea convoys to invisible railway lines using the previously mentioned "TList00.mpf".. "TList99.mpf" files.
"ShipList.mpf" is the default file for a ship interdiction, but there is a neat variation. If I decide to do a ship interdiction at Dover the exe will look for a "Dover.con" file. If one exists the exe will use it instead of "ShipList.mpf". The file strucure is the same, but this system allows each port listed in "convoys.dat" to have its individual convoy file.
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4446309 - 10/31/18 11:39 AM
Re: Capabilities of the 160 exe
[Re: MrJelly]
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Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 12,497
MrJelly
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They are not squiggly In the screenie it is a distance view there had been a heap of B17 gunners firing at various enemy planes, some from the same aircraft, and others from different aircraft. So as the B17 guns are the same calibre there are multiple which may cross or merge, so it is hard to follow one individual track. In any case as the gunners' targets are moving, their own planes are moving, so their aim is continually changing and you would never get anything like a straight line There is also some tracer from Axis planes off screen, and others from Axis planes which are on screen but too small to see. This was done over two years ago, and the four values in the file are colours for the four default gun values. Now we have more gun values, so that will be addressed when I get back in mid-November. I am currently away in Lyon. Jel
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4446323 - 10/31/18 12:47 PM
Re: Capabilities of the 160 exe
[Re: MrJelly]
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Joined: Apr 2002
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MrJelly
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Mark As you have the EAW foundation installation, try flying different fighters at night with a groundstart. Using F9 then firing a short burst will give you the good paths and colours. With wing mounted guns you will see how the firing oscillates, and the effect of gun convergence Then you can take off and do some more shooting
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4446358 - 10/31/18 05:04 PM
Re: Capabilities of the 160 exe
[Re: MrJelly]
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Joined: Apr 2002
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MrJelly
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"CruiseAlt.mpf" This is a file that sets the cruise altitude values for the four EAW years It has 12 numerical values for the following altitudes in feet: 1940_low 1940_med 1940_high 1943_low 1943_med 1943_high 1944_low 1944_med 1944_high 1945_low 1945_med 1945_high Jel
Fly EAW online at GameRanger: GameRanger SiteFaceBook Pages UAW 160 downloadsEAW ClubMark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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#4446409 - 10/31/18 10:02 PM
Re: Capabilities of the 160 exe
[Re: MrJelly]
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Joined: Apr 2018
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RIBob
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On the question of depiction of military land convoys, this information may be of some use: it was obtained on GlobalSecurity web site, and based on US military manuals/doctrine:
"The convoy commander decides how the convoy is formed for movement. The three basic types of formations are close column, open column, and infiltration. They are described as follows: Close column provides the greatest degree of convoy control. It is characterized by vehicle intervals of 25 to 50 meters and speeds under 25 mph. Close column is normally used during limited visibility or on poorly marked or congested roads. Open column is the preferred formation used during movement. It is characterized by vehicle intervals of 100 meters or more and speeds in excess of 25 mph. Open column is normally used on well marked open roads with good visibility. Infiltration has no defined structure. Vehicle intervals and speeds will vary. This type of formation is normally not used during movement. Infiltration should only be used as a last resort in extremely congested areas or when the mission dictates."
During WW II, it is presumed that the intervals would remain very similar. It is possible that Brit (or Commonwealth) vehicles might use the left side of the road, and others the right side. This is why we so often read of high-level commanders being finicky about unit boundaries, and roads assigned by such boundaries; At least one of many reasons, that is.
In the above depiction of the broad-daylight, open highway/terrain convoy, the vehicles should be in single lane, and spaced at least 100M apart.
I have never heard of a road march conducted by vehicles in staggered formation occupying both lanes of a two-lane road, and I believe a depiction of such to be both historically inaccurate, and tactically unsound. There may, or may not be a single, or small group of vehicles overtaking/passing the convoy, but that is the exception. As an aviator, If I were to observe such, I would consider the small group of vehicles "passing" the main convoy to presumably be vehicles occupied by Command personnel, and so consider it a "High Value" target. If my mission allowed, the "passing" vehicles would take my initial attention/fire.
Submitted for consideration
Last edited by RIBob; 10/31/18 10:10 PM.
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