Where the new EE2 won the battle of the FLIR imagery, it takes a step back from the vast number of options that EECH allows for displaying graphics on the TSD (Tactical Situation Display). EECH allows you to cycle through different color palettes and display options (contour only, contour and shading, shading only, etc.) to tailor the TSD to your particular liking. EE2 only allows for the rather bland looking contour only map. Trying to force the TSD into different shades and modes after editing the eech.ini file caused a repeatable CTD.
The guys modding EECH really do have a huge advantage over the G2 crowd because they have an active community of people wishing for new and improved features that they regularly interact with. (Hint: G2 – Come visit our forums and do the same thing!) Fortunately for us, we also have benefited from some extremely talented programmers that have been able to do some incredible things with the EECH source code. Another example of that talent is the much better looking EECH Hokum HUD which features higher resolution text and adds a more functional (and better looking) pitch ladder as well as a G-meter and vertical velocity rate bar. These improvements (and there are a ton of them) really put the pressure on G2 to live up to some pretty high community expectations.
Of course, G2 did a fantastic job with the new self-shadowing effects (although they put some pressure on your video card). Also well done are the look of the water surfaces and wave action.
