Translations for our friends around the world.

Click on banner for Tornado website

Click.gif 

Author Topic: Modding Tornado  (Read 227905 times)

0 Members and 8 Guests are viewing this topic.

Offline Asid

  • HAVOC
  • *
  • Posts: 26361
Re: Modding Tornado
« Reply #405 on: July 12, 2022, 11:23:50 PM »
Hey Frankie

I knew the modding would continue my friend  :roker
funny
0
informative
0
Thanks
0
No reactions
No reactions
No reactions

I stand against Racism, Bigotry and Bullying

Offline Frankie

  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 1506
  • From Dogs of War to Pipes Of Peace
    • Frankie's Moodurian
Re: Modding Tornado
« Reply #406 on: July 14, 2022, 08:26:28 AM »
198. Desert Colors of latest FLIGHT.EXE

Here is the latest FLIGHT.EXE (inclusive of all mods as of January 2022) with desert colors. Does that bring back memories of January 1991?



Caution: remember to rename your current FLIGHT.EXE before using the attached Desertised FLIGHT.EXE(!)

Regards
Frankie Kam

Update Sat 16/7/2022: I have updated the Desert FLIGHT.EXE to the latest FLIGHT.EXE of this post.
« Last Edit: September 18, 2022, 03:28:11 PM by Frankie »
funny
0
informative
0
Thanks
2
No reactions
No reactions
Members reacted Thanks:
Asid,Wexodius,

After the Dogs of War are let slip, let us smoke the Pipes Of Peace.

Offline Frankie

  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 1506
  • From Dogs of War to Pipes Of Peace
    • Frankie's Moodurian
Re: Modding Tornado
« Reply #407 on: July 14, 2022, 08:30:33 AM »
Winter Colors of latest FLIGHT.EXE

Here is the latest FLIGHT.EXE (inclusive of all mods as of January 2022) with winter colors. Does that bring back memories of Christmas 1991?


Regards
Frankie Kam

Caution: remember to rename your current FLIGHT.EXE before using the attached Winterised FLIGHT.EXE(!)

Postscript: I've re-uploaded the corrected Winter FLIGHT.EXE which shows winter coloured map displays in the MFDs and TV-TABs. SO you might want to re-download the FLIGHT.EXE. This executable is the same as my posts below dated 15th July 2022.
« Last Edit: September 18, 2022, 03:32:05 PM by Frankie »
funny
0
informative
0
Thanks
2
No reactions
No reactions
Members reacted Thanks:
Asid,Wexodius,

After the Dogs of War are let slip, let us smoke the Pipes Of Peace.

Offline Wexodius

  • New member
  • *
  • Posts: 5
Re: Modding Tornado
« Reply #408 on: July 14, 2022, 04:34:28 PM »
Thanks a bunch Frankie :howdy, I'm so hyped to try these out.
Gonna start with the desert one, gonna keep the winter one for when Christmas comes near.
If only we could find that source code for the expansion pack, I'm sure you would go mayhem on it :P.
funny
0
informative
0
Thanks
0
No reactions
No reactions
No reactions

Offline Frankie

  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 1506
  • From Dogs of War to Pipes Of Peace
    • Frankie's Moodurian
Re: Modding Tornado
« Reply #409 on: July 15, 2022, 04:23:44 AM »
199. Winter Colours again!

Hi All

I noticed that for the Winter FLIGHT.EXE file, the the TAB-TV and MFD map displays were showing up as the European green colours, which is of course inconsistent with the external and TIALD winter (whiteish) views.


Inconsistent MFD and TAB-TV map colours!


So I've modified the Winter FLIGHT.EXE. This time the TAB-TV and MFD map displays will show up in the proper winter colours. As shown below.


Consistent winter colors!

See the difference? You can almost feel the fluffy snow outside of the cockpit. You might want to RE-download the Winter FLIGHT.EXE. Hope this helps with the immersion factor.


Pilot cockpit MFD winter colors!

Cheers
Frankie Kam

Update Sat 16/7/2022: I have updated the Desert FLIGHT.EXE to the latest FLIGHT.EXE of this post.
« Last Edit: September 18, 2022, 03:32:35 PM by Frankie »
funny
0
informative
0
Thanks
1
No reactions
No reactions
Members reacted Thanks:
Wexodius,

After the Dogs of War are let slip, let us smoke the Pipes Of Peace.

Offline Frankie

  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 1506
  • From Dogs of War to Pipes Of Peace
    • Frankie's Moodurian
Re: Modding Tornado
« Reply #410 on: July 15, 2022, 04:57:43 AM »
LOL! I just realised that during the night missions, the Winter and Desert colors do not show up in the MDF and TV-TABs. Tornado has 4 night levels. In each one, the default European green colors show up for the MDF and TV-TAB Map displays. Like below.


Schizroprehnic colour displays!

All the more reason to source for the elusive and lost original source code of Digital Integration's Operation Desert Storm addon, circa 1995. Okay, failing that, the good news is there will be more forum post fodder for me, as I aim to correct these visual design 'wrongs'.

Cheers
Frankie Kam
funny
0
informative
0
Thanks
0
No reactions
No reactions
No reactions

After the Dogs of War are let slip, let us smoke the Pipes Of Peace.

Offline Frankie

  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 1506
  • From Dogs of War to Pipes Of Peace
    • Frankie's Moodurian
Re: Modding Tornado
« Reply #411 on: July 15, 2022, 05:04:33 AM »
Thanks a bunch Frankie :howdy, I'm so hyped to try these out.
Gonna start with the desert one, gonna keep the winter one for when Christmas comes near.
If only we could find that source code for the expansion pack, I'm sure you would go mayhem on it :P.

You're most welcome Wexodius! Yes I would go ape-sh*t-crazy if I had the original source code for the ODS expansion/addon. It's a pity no one I know, among the ex-Digital Integration staff, has it. A pity really as that source code was Tornado Version 1.0E which quite a few improvements to the code. Like in the close-proximity SAM and A2A missile warning sounds. My hacks (see http://dogsofwarvu.com/forum/index.php/topic,5046.msg41415.html#msg41415 and http://dogsofwarvu.com/forum/index.php/topic,5046.msg27302.html#msg27302) pale in comparison to the original.

Cheers
Frankie "Durian Defense" / "TornadoMan" Kam
Malaysia
funny
0
informative
0
Thanks
0
No reactions
No reactions
No reactions

After the Dogs of War are let slip, let us smoke the Pipes Of Peace.

Offline Frankie

  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 1506
  • From Dogs of War to Pipes Of Peace
    • Frankie's Moodurian
Re: Modding Tornado
« Reply #412 on: July 15, 2022, 05:09:52 AM »
Nice to know that after I made these couple of posts today, the number of visitors to this thread jumps up. People are curious about Tornado? 2022 fascination with pixel-screened old games? Or just a coincidence? Shrug.


We're talking here about a 29-year old DOS flight simulator, lulz.

Regards
Frankie Kam
funny
0
informative
0
Thanks
0
No reactions
No reactions
No reactions

After the Dogs of War are let slip, let us smoke the Pipes Of Peace.

Offline Frankie

  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 1506
  • From Dogs of War to Pipes Of Peace
    • Frankie's Moodurian
Re: Modding Tornado
« Reply #413 on: July 16, 2022, 05:03:03 AM »
200. This European colors FLIGHT.EXE has two improvements over tha last FLIGHT.EXE:

1. Alt+F5 now properly toggles between Allied and Enemy airplanes when in external mode (F1).



2. Pressing the "i" key when in external mode (F1) rotates the cinematic view with the player's Tornado properly centered in the screen.


The good news is I have incorporated these two new changes into the Desert FLIGHT.EXE and Winter FLIGHT.EXE executables. See the previous posts above.

Cheers
Frankie Kam
« Last Edit: September 18, 2022, 03:34:12 PM by Frankie »
funny
0
informative
0
Thanks
2
No reactions
No reactions
Members reacted Thanks:
Asid,Wexodius,

After the Dogs of War are let slip, let us smoke the Pipes Of Peace.

Offline Wexodius

  • New member
  • *
  • Posts: 5
Re: Modding Tornado
« Reply #414 on: August 02, 2022, 02:48:36 PM »
Hey Frankie,

Where you ever able to contact Eric Joiner, Basil Copeland or Heinz-Bernd Eggenstein? It seems they're the people that helped make the TSCS tutorial for starters. This TSCS-team also released an add-on called Desert Storm: Gulf '96 for 1.0d & 1.0e which helped fix some bugs. Makes we wonder if they had access to the source code of version 1.0e?!?
I might be completely wrong on this, I don't have any coding experience, but wanted at least to share this info with you. :-\
funny
0
informative
0
Thanks
0
No reactions
No reactions
No reactions

Offline Frankie

  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 1506
  • From Dogs of War to Pipes Of Peace
    • Frankie's Moodurian
Re: Modding Tornado
« Reply #415 on: August 02, 2022, 06:36:07 PM »
Hi Wexodius

I emailed Heinz back in October 2015 when he was working at the Max Planck Institute For Garvitational Physics. https://www.aei.mpg.de. If you search for his name in the link given, you will see it appear. He replied:

Hi! Indeed, that's me! OMG, seems like ages ago now.  How did you track me down? ;-)
bikeman



Over time I sent Heinz six emails but to no avail. Perhaps his career in astrophysics was/is now his life.


I also contacted Eric Joiner back in 2019. Via the Sim-Outhouse.com forums. http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums
His username is ejoiner and he was still active in the forums as recent as March 2021. His reply to me was:

Hi Frankie. yes, thats me. Same old guy as did the TCSC stuff many years ago with my friends Terry Goldman and Mark Hermonat. I loved that sim. Was great fun. Always wished that an updated version was done. Now I think something like DSC is the best venue for that. Anyway, Im still around. Dont do combat sims any more mainly because there really are not any. There are mods to Falcon 4, and DSC etc. but for now I am content zooming and booming with military aircraft in P3D. P3D could become the future platform though....I haven't messed with Tornado in several years.


So with the exception of Kevin Bezant, those whom I contacted just replied to me once and then zilch. I guess I was passionate (fanatical) enough about Tornado to track them down one by one. So anyway, no source code. I also sent and received email to/from the late David Marshall. Here's what David said to me in his email:

Hi Frankie. Well, this is a bolt out of the blue!  I really appreciate you getting in touch and thank you for all of your very kind words. With regards to making any changes to Tornado then I think it’s a forlorn hope.  The rights to the source code passed to Titus when they bought out DI, and Titus no longer exist.  That throws considerable double over the existence of the Tornado source.   Unfortunately I am in a very poor state of health and not fit enough to offer any assistance in locating source code, assuming that it still exists. After leaving DI back in 1999 I was rather “burned out” with all things involving simulation so I didn’t touch a flight simulation until February 2012.  I now amuse myself designing scenery and flying light GA aircraft on XPlane 10. Thanks for keeping the dream alive.  Those were exciting times. Warmest regards


I also contacted Rod Swift through his Twitter account. As for Robin Heydon, the brilliant chappie who wrote Tornado's famed and incomparable Advanced Mission Planner (AMP), I also contacted him through Linkedin. Here's Robin's reply to me back in May 2016:

Sorry, I don't have the C source code. I doubt I have the time to be involved in this. I have a full time job and do lots of part time charity work as well.


And then there's Nick Mascall who wrote the code that allowed all the 3D objects to be placed in the map. I emailed hin in April 2018. He informed me that the code is stored away in two Amiga Falcon machines that hadn't been switched on for more than 20 years. In fact he told me that quite likely there was Tornado 1.0E source code in one of the those Atari machines. In Nick's own words:

Matt’s (referring to Matthew Smith) statement is essentially correct, but I wrote and used two main software tools, plus a few minor ones, to create Tornado’s 3D content. The main two are an object editor used to create and export all buildings and vehicles, and a map editor which allowed for sculpting of terrain, placement of objects, and setup of road, rail and river networks. The one minor tool I can remember at the moment was used to create the river ‘tiles’ which were laid down in the main map editor.

These tools were all written in GFA Basic and used only on an Atari TT (rare ‘workstation’ variant of the Atari ST) . The good news is that I still have the TT (currently in storage), and all the software was GUI-driven. The bad news is that the machine hasn’t been powered up for about twenty years, and the only copies of the software reside on its ancient hard drive.

Regarding your other desiderata (source code for the front-end and the Desert Storm add-on), I may possibly have something useful, in the form of two Atari Falcons (rare final upgraded version of the Atari ST) which were supplied by Atari to be used to develop a version of Tornado which would run on them. At least one, and probably both, of these machines were used to develop the unreleased ST port of Tornado in parallel with the (severely cut down) Amiga version, and there’s almost certainly source code on them. Obviously the ST/Amiga version isn’t of much interest, but I think it’s possible that they may also have some of the original PC source from which the ports were derived. Once again, though, these are computers which haven’t been powered up for twenty years, and are currently in storage. I’ve been meaning to catalogue my rather large collection of ST/Amiga hardware and software in the hope of selling it off - not that I delude myself as to its financial value.


Sadly, Nick never replied to me since that one reply, despite me sending countless emails. Finally in 2019, his email address was discontinued. Dead end. So close, yet so far!

As for the Gulf'96 mod, it's available here in this link of Tornado mod compilation:
http://frankiekam.com/tornado/tor/mods/tornado_all_mods.zip

Here's the complete Tornado mod page on my website: http://frankiekam.com/tornado/home.html?http://frankiekam.com/tornado/tor/mods.html&content
which contains all the original 1990s mods by the brilliant Heinz and the TSCS Group trio of Eric Joiner, Basil Copeland or Heinz-Bernd Eggenstein.

I guess I'm quite a Tornado curator, eh?

Regards
Frankie Kam
« Last Edit: August 02, 2022, 06:54:51 PM by Frankie »
funny
0
informative
0
Thanks
0
No reactions
No reactions
No reactions

After the Dogs of War are let slip, let us smoke the Pipes Of Peace.

Offline Asid

  • HAVOC
  • *
  • Posts: 26361
Re: Modding Tornado
« Reply #416 on: August 02, 2022, 09:19:21 PM »
Awesome.

You should be a detective  :clap

It is great that you are keeping this alive  :winner
funny
0
informative
0
Thanks
0
No reactions
No reactions
No reactions

I stand against Racism, Bigotry and Bullying

Offline Wexodius

  • New member
  • *
  • Posts: 5
Re: Modding Tornado
« Reply #417 on: August 03, 2022, 02:39:48 PM »
Wow, that's quite the thorough investigation you launched there. Quit impressive might I say.
Thanks for the lengthy reply, you did not have to put so much effort in it, but I'm happy you did as it was an interesting read.
The game is almost 30 years old, and I still enjoy it to this day. It really left a mark on us, didn't it?

I find it also remarkable there's a version 1.0f of Tornado, while the expansion pack 'Desert Storm' only went to v1.0e.
Any idea how that v1.0f came to fruition?
funny
0
informative
0
Thanks
0
No reactions
No reactions
No reactions

Offline Frankie

  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 1506
  • From Dogs of War to Pipes Of Peace
    • Frankie's Moodurian
Re: Modding Tornado
« Reply #418 on: August 05, 2022, 06:02:25 PM »
2001. Credits window version

Thanks to feedback from user ajthenoob, I decided to put the mod 'version' (date really!) inside the Credits window. Activate by hitting the "\" key.


Thanks ajthenoob!
« Last Edit: September 18, 2022, 03:45:46 PM by Frankie »
funny
0
informative
0
Thanks
1
No reactions
No reactions
Members reacted Thanks:
Wexodius,

After the Dogs of War are let slip, let us smoke the Pipes Of Peace.

Offline Frankie

  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 1506
  • From Dogs of War to Pipes Of Peace
    • Frankie's Moodurian
Re: Modding Tornado
« Reply #419 on: September 18, 2022, 03:47:39 PM »
202. Unlimited Flares

This was a request by a user named Snakebreath.


Hit the Numlock key to go to the Kneepad vierw. Then hit the Zero (0) key to toggle the UNLIMITED flares ON and OFF. Consider it as a 'cheat' mode.
regards
Frankie Kam
« Last Edit: September 18, 2022, 04:13:08 PM by Frankie »
funny
0
informative
0
Thanks
0
No reactions
No reactions
No reactions

After the Dogs of War are let slip, let us smoke the Pipes Of Peace.

Tags:
     

    Desperately seeking GEnie Tornado debrief posts of the 1990s

    Started by Frankie

    Replies: 0
    Views: 2244
    Last post December 06, 2019, 07:01:25 AM
    by Frankie
    Team Tornado - Life on a Front-line Squadron by the Two Johns

    Started by Frankie

    Replies: 4
    Views: 5295
    Last post October 05, 2018, 02:08:31 PM
    by Frankie
    How British Tornados Used A Special Weapon To Ravage Saddam’s Airfields

    Started by Frankie

    Replies: 0
    Views: 2196
    Last post March 27, 2021, 04:33:39 PM
    by Frankie
    History of the Tornado

    Started by Frankie

    Replies: 0
    Views: 3806
    Last post September 12, 2019, 02:17:17 PM
    by Frankie
    Tornado wingman turbulence effects

    Started by Frankie

    Replies: 0
    Views: 3676
    Last post June 27, 2016, 02:24:44 AM
    by Frankie