Nightstorm

Now available on DCS user files. Links added to first post. Enjoy.

Last I knew that feature still wasn't working in the VIper. The only way to do a custom cockpit is to unzip the cockpit textures, replace what you've change and zip it back up again and replace the original. Using a mod editor or backing it up of course. Not elegant at all.

Base textures by Haris Malik/Genysis Re-textured USAF low-vis Air to Air Weapons by lee1hy https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3313768/ CFT mod texture template by Thomas Vercauteren CFT mod by Scoobyon/Virtual Zeus Team CFT References and assistance Keraunos Adjustments, texture edites and assorted other stuff by Nightstorm. After consulting with the author I've been working on updating PAF liveries for the CFT mod. Here they are. They'll be uploaded to user mods tonight. The BORT numbers will not work due to the block 52 tail and to avoid texture warping the numbers had to spaced closer together than they usually would be. I tried to match tail color as closely as possible. DCS User files: PAF Squadron No5 Falcons (10904) (digitalcombatsimulator.com) PAF Squadron No5 Falcons (10909) (digitalcombatsimulator.com) PAF Squadron No9 Griffins (84711) (digitalcombatsimulator.com) PAF Squadron No9 Griffins (92730) (digitalcombatsimulator.com) PAF Squadron No11 Arrows (84705) (digitalcombatsimulator.com) PAF Squadron No11 Arrows (84723) (digitalcombatsimulator.com) PAF Squadron No11 Arrows (92731) (digitalcombatsimulator.com) PAF Squadron No11 Arrows (92781) (digitalcombatsimulator.com) PAF Squadron No19 Sherdils (14733) (digitalcombatsimulator.com) PAF Squadron No19 Sherdils (14737) (digitalcombatsimulator.com) PAF Squadron No29 Aggressors (86612) (digitalcombatsimulator.com) PAF Squadron No29 Aggressors (86618) (digitalcombatsimulator.com)

Minor file name error corrected on the tail only model. Updated as of 9:30AM Central time.

*UPDATED 01/11/24* CFT_Mod_2.0.1 (digitalcombatsimulator.com) Compatible with DCS 2.9.2.49940 Open beta *NEW* The mod is now in TWO parts. Download both. Fully functional engine/cockpit sounds for all versions. Added F-16CM Block 52 and F-16C Barak with correct engine specs. Remade thrust tables for all aircraft to correct data based on F100-GE-129 or F110-PW-229 engines. Used the engine specs for the new F100-GE-129 EFE "Enhanced Fighter Engine" for the F-16X. The F-16C Block 52, Barak and X can use stock F-16C liveries. You'll find their folders in the liveries path with some included liveries for each here: .\CoreMods\aircraft\F-16C\Liveries *NOTE* If you're using the F22 enhancement mod you will ALSO need this patch for the F22 mod to avoid a conflict with the CFT mod. https://www.dropbox.com/s/zia323bvadtkznl/F-22A External Weapons.7z?dl=0 By default, the single player F22 enhancement mod installs a copy of the A2A_Missiles.lua file in the root F22 folder in saved games. The CFT mod ALSO installs a copy of the file in the main game folder. There's no way to know if a person is going to use one or the other or both. The CFT mod needs it in the main folder, the F22 mod can also use it in the main folder but I don't want to install it there by default for the F22 mod as the rest of it is contained in saved games. I had also found that external missiles wouldn't show on the F22 unless that file was located in the main folder and that was the original reason this add on was created. However, it was obvious it couldn't be in both. File download size exceeded. Download from my Dropbox here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/xa4tw4j6zvb3055fkq8rw/CFT-Mod-3.1.4-Part-A.zip?rlkey=dtrf4kpc3s633nwfpxe8d6j8p&dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/km52d2c95dskc1jaj00re/CFT-Mod-3.1.4-Part-B.zip?rlkey=hq2bwvegnhpyffx9y5ya3rfp5&dl=0 For those using WinWing gear with SimAppPro, I've updated the javascript file to support the CFT mod. See this post:

Woohoo! Thank you! An aircraft long absent from DCS. Even if it's AI only it will be an awesome addition!

They will generally be found in the textures for the aircraft and they are unique to each aircraft. There isn't a single "global" pilot texture that I'm aware of. For example the F16C default pilot texture is in the zip file F16C_bl50.zip at .\CoreMods\aircraft\F-16C\Textures in your main folder. You'll have to poke around for the one you're looking for. .\CoreMods\aircraft\A-10\Textures\A10C_II.zip In there is pilot_a10c.dds.

At the time I didn't know they had added a new BORT method. I learned of it early AM on Sunday and spent the day updating the textures. I had to adjust almost every tail texture because the BORT are displayed higher than they should be on the model. Sadly, I can't fix that.

Updated the Pars and Bats/Eagles squadron with different coloring to reflect what they actually look like. The alternate textures are in the extra folder. Files updated on user files.

There are 12 different squadron liveries up on user files section. TUAF 132nd Squadron Daggers CFT (digitalcombatsimulator.com) TUAF 142nd Squadron Gazelles CFT (digitalcombatsimulator.com) TUAF 151st Squadron Vultures CFT (digitalcombatsimulator.com) TUAF 151st Squadron Wolves CFT (digitalcombatsimulator.com) TUAF 152nd Squadron Raiders CFT (digitalcombatsimulator.com) TUAF 161st Squadron Bat-Eagles CFT (digitalcombatsimulator.com) TUAF 181st Squadron Pars CFT (digitalcombatsimulator.com) TUAF 182nd Squadron Hawks CFT (digitalcombatsimulator.com) TUAF 191st Squadron Cobras CFT (digitalcombatsimulator.com) TUAF 192nd Squadron Tigers (digitalcombatsimulator.com) TUAF 193rd Squadron Oncels (digitalcombatsimulator.com) TUAF 401st Squadron Testers (digitalcombatsimulator.com) These are BORT liveries with two font options. Amarillo (USAF) style and Arial (TuAF) style. Amarillo is also used by the TuAF. There are also options for six different years. There is an "Extras" folder that contains the files for the font options as well as an alternat main textures with the signature and graphics on them. Just copy whichever you want to use to the liverie folder and overwrite. Base textures by Akın Parlak/sw1sterK https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3312080/ Re-textured USAF low-vis Air to Air Weapons by lee1hy https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3313768/ CFT mod texture template by Thomas Vercauteren CFT mod by Scoobyon/Virtual Zeus Team CFT References and assistance Keraunos Adjustments, texture edites and assorted other stuff by Nightstorm. In reality only two TuAF squadrons use CFT. Bat/Eagles and Pars Squadrons.

Welcome.

Awesome work!

I'm not sure about an easy way for the co-ordinates, probably just trial and error unfortunately. Did you find a way to get the full amount of fuel on station 5? Whenever I tried it I hit a limit of 9200lbs or so.

After some flight testing another point to consider. This actually works perfectly in my humble opinion. The CFT's on hard points 4 and 6 show up as "wing tanks" as far as the fuel management system and controls are concerned. So when you switch to wings or wings first its reading and using them. Also, they are NOT jettison-able nor should they be. I don't know if the drag will actually work or not but I have the value entered in my copies of the CFT_Right and CFT_Left. That value is: Cx_pil = 0.00054, That's 12% of the drag of the centerline fuel tank for 50% more fuel and no need to carry the wing tanks. And you have full performance of the jet up to 9G. If the drag isn't working in the addon lua files it could be added to the F16C.lua this way: { CLSID = "{CFT_Left}", arg_value = 1, Cx_gain_item = 0.00054, use_full_connector_position = false, connector = "disable", attach_point_position = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0}}, { CLSID = "{CFT_Right}", arg_value = 1, Cx_gain_item = 0.00054, use_full_connector_position = false, connector = "disable", attach_point_position = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0}}, Of course is so small, I don't know that it really matters.

Lol thanks. Here's the section of the F-16C.lua where I added the left/right CFT. local innerLeft = {} -- 4 left joinTbl(inner, innerLeft,{ { CLSID = "{CFT_Left}", arg_value = 1, use_full_connector_position = false, connector = "disable", attach_point_position = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0}}, --NIGHTSTORM CFT (Forward/Back, Up/Down, Right/Left.) { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2L*MK-82}", Cx_gain_item = 2.813, arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass}, -- TER-9A + 2*MK-82 { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2L*MK-82_Snakeye}", Cx_gain_item = 2.11, arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass}, -- TER-9A + 2*MK-82 SNAKEYE { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2L*MK-82AIR}", Cx_gain_item = 2.11, arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass}, -- TER-9A + 2*MK-82 AIR { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2L*CBU-87}", Cx_gain_item = 4.146, arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass}, -- TER-9A + 2*CBU-87 { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2L*CBU-97}", Cx_gain_item = 4.146, arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass}, -- TER-9A + 2*CBU-97 }) local innerRight = {} -- 6 right joinTbl(inner, innerRight,{ { CLSID = "{CFT_Right}", arg_value = 1, use_full_connector_position = false, connector = "disable", attach_point_position = {0.0, 0.0, 0.0}}, --NIGHTSTORM CFT (Forward/Back, Up/Down, Right/Left.) { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2R*MK-82}", Cx_gain_item = 2.813, arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass}, -- TER-9A + 2*MK-82 { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2R*MK-82_Snakeye}", Cx_gain_item = 2.11, arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass}, -- TER-9A + 2*MK-82 SNAKEYE { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2R*MK-82AIR}", Cx_gain_item = 2.11, arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass}, -- TER-9A + 2*MK-82 AIR { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2R*CBU-87}", Cx_gain_item = 4.146, arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass}, -- TER-9A + 2*CBU-87 { CLSID = "{TER_9A_2R*CBU-97}", Cx_gain_item = 4.146, arg_value = 0.5, add_mass = midPylonAddMass}, -- TER-9A + 2*CBU-97 }) I created two new lua files and referenced them in the entry.lua. Attached are all of the files I'm using and changes I made save for the F16C.lua and the code changes are above. CFT.lua CFT_Left.lua CFT_Right.lua CFTGround.lua entry.lua I renamed things just for simplicities sake in keeping things straight. Feel free to do whatever you like with these of course. The graphics files attached are referenced for the stores page in ME for each side.

Ok I do have an update. I did find a way to make it work. But.....there's always a but isn't there? It does come down to the wing tanks OR the CFT's. That also means of course that you can't use other stores on 4 or 6 as the hard points are "taken up" by the CFT's. I had to do some re-working of things and essentially what I did is copy the main LUA file which I've called CFT.lua to CFT_Right.lua and CFT_Left.lua. The main one is set at 0 everything like original and is only used for looks right now. The other two each have values that are equal to what each tank holds with the correct weight and amount based on information I could find. I've modified my F16C.lua file to add the new Left and Right CFT's each to station 4 and 6. I specified on the lines to disable the wing connector so that its not rendered. The end result is you have a Viper that looks like it has the CFT's on it AND it has the added fuel from them. The downside of course is that you can't use stations 4 and 6 for anything else. Those stations were the only ones that would add the correct amount of fuel. Now this isn't ideal, but it does work and you can still carry the center tank for about 12k lbs of fuel. What would make this work a little better would be a separate EDM file of each tank left and right. At the moment I referenced non existant EDM files in those LUA's so nothing is rendered. If we had actual models of each one I could use those instead. The best option and one I'll look into would be a few different EDM models for use. One with everything which we have, one with just the tail faring/ecm, one with just the two tanks and one each for left and right. If anyone else can come up with a better idea I'm all ears. I couldn't find where the the fuel use is limited to those pylons. That makes me think it's part of the SDK and might well be imbedded in the DLL.

So, it appears that someplace it's been coded what hard points can accept fuel and only those hard points. In addition to that, there is also a limit placed on the center station hard point of something around 2090lbs of fuel. Here's what I found: I can't get fuel to register from tanks placed anywhere except on stations 4,5,6 on the viper. Even if I create new hard points copied from the existing ones etc. If I place the CFT's on station 4 or 6 I get the full amount of fuel. I also get the pylon attached to the wing and the CFT's are not positioned correctly. That part can likely be corrected. If I place CFT's on station 5 the fuel is limited to roughly 9250lbs total which isn't much more than the normal 300g tank there. I don't know what the fuel limit is on stations 4/6 as I actually tested adding CFT's to both 4 and 6 with the though of creating a Left and Right CFT tank instead of both in one and it added ALL of the fuel. It's was like 16k lbs. There may be a way then to have the CFT's IN STEAD OF the 370g tanks but I don't know yet if there's another way. Still experimenting.

Yea I'm still testing a few different things and trying to get the extra pylon to work. I'll update when I have more.

A little more testing and I've found that if you place the CFT's on station 5 or 4,6 on the Viper and take them instead of the normal tanks there you do in fact get extra fuel in the jet. Of course the positioning of the rendered models is incorrect but that can be adjusted. I put them on in place of the 370's and I got 12k lbs of fuel with a centerline tank fitted. It showed both in the ME and in the cockpit. So...progress. And that also means that the amount of fuel is indeed controlled by the weight and empty weight as defined above. So what's interesting about this. For the Viper, fuel was only added when attached to existing pylons that are capable of accepting fuel. I tested adding 370g tanks to the new hard point created for the CFT's and got nothing. So...it might be a one or the other type of situation. 300g center/370g wing or CFT's. Still testing. What we need to know now is, how can we make the new hard point one that "accepts fuel".

I've not figured out how yet, but I'll share what I have found in the hopes we can get this to work. I modified these lines in the lua file and the weapon/fuel weight reads correctly in the Mission Editor display but once in the aircraft it was still reading normal fuel level. Weight_Empty = 410, Weight = 410 + 442.5 * 3.78, I've been trying to determine where fuel level is controlled. For example if you edit the F16C.lua file line: M_fuel_max = 3249, --NIGHTSTORM 7163lbs internal fuel It will also show the change in ME but not in the cockpit. 3249 is kg of fuel which equals 7163lbs and that's the normal internal max fuel for the Viper. In the file db_weapons.data.lua there are configurations for the various fuel tanks. For example this is the Viper's 370 wing tank: { CLSID = "{F376DBEE-4CAE-41BA-ADD9-B2910AC95DEC}", Picture = "PTB.png", Weight_Empty = 215.5, Weight = 215.5 + 364 * GALLON_TO_KG, attribute = {1, 3, 43, 11}, Elements = { [1] = { Position = {0, 0, 0}, ShapeName = "fuel_tank_370gal", }, }, -- end of Elements displayName = _("Fuel tank 370 gal"), Cx_pil = 0.00175, }, Note the attribute line: attribute = {1, 3, 43, 11}, Copying that line into the CFT lua just makes them not show up visually and not give any additional fuel. However, those lines reference two more files. Types.lua and wsTypes.lua and the numbers appear to represent the various attributes assigned to the "weapon" from a table in the wsTypes.lua. wsType_Air = 1 wsType_Free_Fall = 3 wsType_FuelTank = 43 F_16_PTB_N1 =11; I tried adding a new entry to the table and editing the attributes line to use it's name/number however that had no affect. The CFT's were invisible and didn't add fuel in the plane. A piece of the puzzle I haven't found yet is this: What controls how much fuel the air craft is given from internal fuel and external tanks? Where is it defined that a 370g tank gives x amount of fuel to your total and a 300g tank gives y amount? I looked in the F16C.dll file with a hex editor and I could find references to "get internal fuel and get external fuel" but nothing that indicated they were defined there. So...that's what I know so far about this. Maybe this will be helpful and I'll keep poking around.

The 421st Fighter Squadron is part of the 388th Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. It operates the Lockheed Martin F-16C aircraft conducting air superiority missions. The squadron is one of the most decorated fighter squadrons in the United States Air Force, being awarded three Presidential Unit Citations and seven Air Force Outstanding Unit Awards for Valor in Combat. Based on the work of lee1hy and released with permission. Here is a package for the 421st that contains the base skin and a few extras to make four different versions. lee1hy 's work shows that not all F16's should look the same. They have different weathering and each version is largely unique. This makes a great set for a flight of Vipers. The extra textures are located in sub-folders and only those that differ from the main folder are there. So backup the ones your about to overwrite. I've also included year options for the 421st from 88-91 and rank options for the pilot from O1-O6. The skin has been uploaded to the user files section and should be live soon. However, until then: https://www.dropbox.com/s/b0h4z1rfmfi7j23/USAF 421st Black Widows BORT.7z?dl=0

Search in the downloads section for Grinnelli F-22 and you'll find a bunch. Also, he's working on a new/updated much more functional version of this mod. The rumor is he hopes to release before Christmas. Check out Growling Sidewinder's recent vids.

If you're like me, you like to use 3rd party mods as AI aircraft in missions. Some popular examples would be the various VSN aircraft like the F-22 or F-35 or Grinnelli's F-22 and CubanAce's Su-57 etc. If you do, you're probably familiar with the lovely RWR symbol of the <U> which basically means Unknown contact. Or in other words, the aircraft isn't in the RWR database so it has no idea what to put on the display, so you get <U>. Well, I wanted to know which were 22's and which were 35's for example. So I set out to determine which file controls that. Once I found it, it was pretty obvious how it works and a few edits later I was able to add custom aircraft to the RWR database. So, I put together a modded lua file that contains a bunch of popular aircraft mods. If you don't have a particular mod installed it doesn't matter. It won't break anything from what I can tell and will simply not care if there are entries present for aircraft you don't have. You can of course just edit the file and remove any lines for ones you don't have or add ones you do have. It's very simple. The files is AN_ALR_SymbolsBase.lua located in the main folder path \Scripts\Aircrafts\_Common\Cockpit. Near the bottom of the file you can clearly see where new entries for official modules have been added. Heatblur for example: -- F-14 heatblur ['F-14A'] = '14', ['F-14B'] = '14', ['F-14D'] = '14', ['AIM_54A_Mk60'] = 'M', ['AIM_54A_Mk47'] = 'M', And the first part is simply the name of the aircraft as determined by it's lua file in whatever mod file it has and the last part is the two digit alphanumeric designation that will display on the RWR. For example: ['VSN_F22'] = '22', ['VSN_F35A'] = '35', I added all of my entries near the bottom of the file. This will not pass IC. DCS RWR Symbology (digitalcombatsimulator.com)

No worries. I tested again this morning and the version I've posted does still work in the current OB. I did include both copies of the entry.lua in a backup folder so that it can be used on the older version as well with full functionality.

I addressed your very same question immediately above your post. As in literally the post above yours. The version I have linked on the first page will work in the current beta but it cannot use the flaming cliffs .dll files as they were encrypted after version v2.5.6.49798. The limitations that result from that are also detailed early on in this thread. If you want full functionality then you need to install the open beta version v2.5.6.49798 and don't update it. However, it does work in the current version with the limitations stated earlier.