I think they are IL2 textures, they are not the best i agree, but i would say its the best Heilkill can do for now and it still looks like a lot of work and im grateful for the effort.

I agree, and thank you Heilkill for all your hard work.

The textures are made by the same person that did the textures on this. Link I'm not sure if they are the same ones. I'm not worried though... all of Heinkill's projects have been top notch.

Hopefully what we lack in authenticity on the landscape tiles, we can make up in other ways...

My buddy Stickman from the Bob Dev Group has kindly mapped out the OoB and the historical locations of every heavy artillery emplacement on the island up to 1942 eg





The concentrations around Valetta will give any German pilot pause for thought...







For me, immersion is more about recreating real historical events, and reliving them through the sim, than about the eye candy, though it helps. Once I've got all the guns placed, I can't wait to see what it is like to approach in a gruppe of Stukas at 17,000 feet and then have to drop through a hail of flak with Hurricanes waiting at the bottom of the dive, while trying to plant a bomb on a ship deck. Or to see what it is like chasing Italian bombers through the flak in a beat up Hurricane, where the flak is just as dangerous to you as it is to the enemy...similarly, making the long flight overwater to 'Libya' (even if it is Le Havre) trailing oil and waiting for the engine to seize the whole way back...etc

Cheers

H

PS These shots are with tress set to LOW, if you want a more barren Malta, you can set to V LOW.

Modern Malta is more built up in places, but the rural
farmland looks much as it did in the 1940s - some
judiciously selected samples from google ought to
provide a good basis for a set of textures. Colours
should show more greens and browns, more cultivated
groves of ordered trees, dark patches of shrub, and
much more rock wall boundaries between fields. Do
some googling for Malta landscape images to get a feel.

Hi PV and others,

This is not a project to create an authentic Malta map and textures unfortunately (Team Fusion is embarked on that project and they will no doubt do what you are describing above), this project will simply use existing modded middle east textures to create a Malta mission set using Isle of Wight to represent Malta. And in case it comes up, also out of scope are new ships, aircraft and ground objects - the standard CoD set (which has many of the key 1940 combatants) will be used.

On the other hand, the hope is to deliver a compelling set of historically based missions which can flown from the Italian, German and British PoV.

H

'New project underway' suggests ongoing development, including landscape. No worries.

Superb project and Christmas present for CloD/BFM pilots!

My Grandfather Was a Navy Diver on HMS Cairo during Operations Harpoon and Pedestal. Cairo was Sunk off the coast of Tunisia after Intensive Air attacks by an Italian Submarine.......He survived this, Russian Convoys, Battle of the Atlantic but would never talk about it..

They who did the most, say the least.

Well said, Old Dux. Most of the WWII vets I've met, especially those in the most dangerous duties, usually don't have much to say about it. With some, it's probably borne of modesty..."Just doing my job like everybody else". With others, it's too painful to remember when they don't have to. The nightmares come frequently enough even after all those years.

And the tears...

Just thinking about what is the best way to release this, as very few (any?) people are using the desert textures and skins mod. The more people using it, the easier my job will be later!

So far this is the process, and anyone who wants to can get started on it now. For now it requires that you are comfortable moving files around manually though.

1. Make a copy of the Steamapps IL2 Sturmovik directory and all subfolders and files, and copy it to another area of the hard drive (eg a new folder called 'Malta'). This folder is usually in c: programx86/steam/steamapps/common etc.
2. Locate the launcher.exe file within the new copy and make a shortcut to the desktop and rename it eg to 'Malta' or 'MTO (med theatre of operations)
3. Download the desert textures mod and any skins you want: http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3323 and place them in the appropriate files
4: Modify your desktop shortcut (malta or mot) to add the 'switch' as described in the link above 'right click on shortcut and add -mod=desert ' (note, I had to take the Sweetfx files out of the download to get it working on my machine, as I am not a sweetfx user)
5. Run the Malta shortcut to get the desert theatre with current CoD missions etc. Note that this method will use all your current settings and files from the My Documents/1Csoftclub folder, so any changes you make to the options in the Malta mod, will impact your default install too eg tree levels), for better or worse.

This is what I did (I am no tech guru btw), and should be enough to get the mod working for most people so that later they just need to install the mission files when I have them ready. This gives you several weeks to get it up and running.

For the final package I am thinking of building 2 separate installers, for use after people create a new directory for the mod as in step 1 above:

A. an installer that puts the desert system mod files into the new root directory the player created for the 'malta mod'
B. an installer that puts the desert skins and the new Malta missions into the 1CSoftclub user directory

With my limited install building skills, I can't think of a way to build a single installer that will do it all, so this will end up being a three step process unfortunately. But for this, I will definitely put together a how to video.

In the meantime I might put together a 'demo' version of the Malta theatre, with a single (non Malta) test mission only, for people to get started with.

Anyway, just thinking out loud! Wanted to spell out the process in case anyone else than me wanted to fool around with the desert mod now.

H

If your package is as good as it seems plenty will start doing what they need to do to run it. I vote for Option 1, and I like your idea of a video. Looks great, thanks, please hang in there

+1

If the desert texture mod is like other kegetys mods there might be a way to install it using Jones Soft Mod Enabler.

The faux Malta Demo found elsewhere is a nice preview: