Schoeler

eric, I agree wholeheartedly. Â As I said, I don't often side with protesters, but I respect their right to voice their opinion, and I even appreciate their opposition. Â How has man learned anything in this world except from those who give us a fresh and alternative point of view? Â I look at the opposition to any debate with respect for two reasons: Â 1)They give me a fresh perspective I would not have seen otherwise and 2)Even if I remain unconvinced by their arguments, they have done me the favor of solidifying my own point of view and strengthening my arguments in support of it. Kerry's stance on the war is somewhat troubling, but I believe that psychologists and philosophers have both stated that the sole difference between human and animal inteliigence is that human beings can hold two conflicting thoughts in their head at the same time and see no need to reconcile the two. Â Think about how many conflicting things you have in your mind right now. Â Emotion does strange things to people. Â Kerry for instance has a perfectly natural reaction that I understand a lot of veterans of that war share. Â They oppose the war and the reasons for it, yet they are proud of their service. Â Show me how he differs from the majority of Vietnam vets before you cast aspersions on his frame of mind. Â It is not strange at all for an angry and disillusioned young man to throw away (his ribbons, not medals by the way) his symbols of service and then years later as a middle-aged man, be proud of that service and proud to display those symbols. Â The fact that the Bush administration is using this in an exploitative manner is disgusting and cheap. Â His medals aren't replacements, they are the medals he recieved. Â He threw away his ribbons, and who really cares? Â Again, they were his to do whatever he pleased with. Â Are you telling me a man does not have the right to change his mind? Â That shifting emotions and feelings over decades is unnatural or something to be maligned? Â How many of your ex-girlfriends do you still love? Â How do you feel about your high school experiences now compared to how you felt about them then? Â This whole argument is ridiculuous and petty and it only goes to show how desperate and to what lengths the Bush Administration will go to to score points against their opponent. Â The Republicans have enough problems selling their candidate. Â Perhaps they should come up with some sort of platform to present to the American public instead of trying to win an election by tearing the other guy down. Â Anyone with any sense at all, who can look at things with anything other than a narrow-mided ignorant worldview can see the desperation and the deciept behind the Bush election team's efforts to use this issue to smear Kerry. Â It's simply retarded and machiavellian and it has done nothing but convince me these people need to go, not just to lose, but TO GO. Â That is, away from the seats of power and influence forever.

While I would agree with you about the seemingly obvious double standard when it comes to these subjects, I have to ppint this out to you. You criticized Kerry for protesting against the Vietnam war, even going to the point of calling that behavior unpatriotic. I disagree. While most veterans have gotten over Vietnam. Kerry was doing what he was doing while the war was still raging. Can you not see that trying to stop an unjust war and prevent more of your fellow servicemen from needlessly dying is not a supreme act of patriotism? Think of the anger Kerry's actions generated, and yet out of principle, he did it anyway. Can you not see the bravery in that? To stop needless killing and death and to point out the shortcomings of a government that is supposedly of the people, by the people and for the people is the right, and the American thing to do. Our government works for us. They are our employees and they are supposed to look out for our best interests. When they do not, it is our duty under the Constitution and the social contract to speak out in protest, and if necessary, to replace the government, by non-violent means first through the democratic process, or if that fails by revolution. If the government fails to uphold its end of the bargain between it and the people, it loses its legitimacy. This government came very close to doing that in the Vietnam era and some believe it is very close to doing that now.

I read that even if teleportation of large objects becomes possible, living beings could never be teleported. Â Why? Â Because disassembling and reassembling a living creature atomically would kill them. Â You would arrive at your destination, but you would pop out a corpse. Â Whoops! Â Kinda ruins that whole trip to Tahiti thing doesn't it! Â

Kind of reminds me of that 'medal ceremony' where John Kerry threw his medals out into the crowd at that one protest in the 70's! Barely any coverage of this unpatriotism on the news! Blackdog, as a veteran I take umbrage with your characterization of this as an unpatriotic act. Â First, Kerry earned those medals. Â They are his. Â If he wants to wear them pinned to his ass, he's earned that right and no one who hasn't served, especially in combat has anything to say about it. Next, protest is a wholly American and patriotic thing to do. Â Our nation was founded by unhappy protesters who disagreed with the policies of their current government. Â That is why soldiers serve, to preserve your right to disagree and to say so. Â Kerry had just served in an immoral war. Â he knew other young men were being asked to serve and he spoke out about it to prevent these men from having to go over and risk their lives for no goddamned good reason. Â I lost an uncle in Vietnam. Â My father served two tours. Â All the rest of my uncles served as well. Â Not one of them today believes the war was justified or worth it. Â Speaking out against the government when it is behaving wrongly is not only a patriotic right, it is the duty of free people. Â I'd suggest you have a gander at the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and while your at it, John Lockes treatise on the social contract. Â You know, keeping silent when the government is wrong is among the most cowardly and terrible things a person can do. Â There were a lot of good German burghers who kept their mouths shut in the Third Reich and let the government have free reign. Â Do you consider them patriots? While I don't often side with protesters, I do believe in the First Amendment and think it is an obligation of free people to speak out when they feel the government is behaving badly. Â Whether I think protesters have the right or wrong opinion, I do appreciate their compassion and their dedication to their cause and I wholeheartedly support their exercising of their hard won rights. Â Freedom has a price, we may not always like the other guy's point of view, but we should damn well respect his right to express it without tearing him down for doing so. One thing that deeply angers me about the current administration is its willingness, even eagerness to paint anyone who feels it is out of line or heading in the wrong direction with an anti-American brush. Â That is simply despicable and I cannot condone it. Â Protest is a wholly American thing to do, considering this nation was founded by a group of unhappy miscreants who protested and objected to the actions and policies of their current government. Think what kind of world we would live in today if people did not have the courage to speak out about their convictions. Â I don't see Kerry's having protested against a war he fought in as aiding or abetting the enemy in any way and I think leveling charges like that really stinks. Â Its like calling James Madison a pussy or labeling Jefferson un-American. Â Free people have a right to disagree, and many people have given their lives to earn and sustain that right. Kerry served, he did what was asked of him even though he had the means to dodge his duty. Â He became disillusioned by a War that most of the vets I know also felt was unnecessary and he did something to try and stop it. Â I can't fault him for that. Â Speaking out against what he percieved as immorality or injustice is not an unpatriotic or dangerous thing to do, rather speaking out on behalf of fellow veterans and those who may have to go over and fight for no articulable reason despite the criticism he faced for doing so, to me, seems much more like the ultimate act of patriotism and is far more admirable than simply doing your duty, keeping you mouth shut and then forgetting about the next guy who has to go over to take your place. Â Passionate men with strong feelings and concern for the others around them have made this country great. Â Men like that died by the thousands on the beaches of Normandy and in the forests of Belgium and France and even in the hellholes of Vietnam. Â They die every day in Iraq. Â If they do their duty and disagree with the war, I am the last person to malign them for that, I'm sure their perspective is far sharper than mine and they've certainly earned the right to speak up. Â I think we dishonor their service and dedication to this country, when out of some misguided sense of patriotism or fear of criticism we allow our voices of concern for their welfare or well-being to be silenced. Â We do them no favors by forgetting the sacrifices they have to make and refusing to question whether or not they should be being asked or continue having to make them. Â I know if my butt was in Iraq right now, I would appreciate all the concerned citizens I swore to protect and defend who were keeping the government honest and looking out for my welfare, and I damned well wouldn't be putting them down.

It's probably a drone

I read somewhere that the U.S, Air Force was working on an aircraft skin that used electromagnetic energy to warp the path of light emissions. The effect is that anyone staring at the aircraft from any angle sees blue sky from refracted light around the actual aircraft and the light bouncing off the skin of the craft bends away from any would-be observers. I don't know how well it works, but I don't suppose we'd be told if it does.

I'll send you some metal textures and texture aging stuff and maybe you can fool around with those. Come to think of it, if you want, I can send you a whole mess of textures from out texture library. They aren't all labled and organized yet, but there are literaly thousands of them.

Benu, missions made on DE 2 shouldn't be too much affected by DE 3. There will be new buildings, but all the original towns and building locations will be retained. New models will be used instead of retextured BIS models. You may have to change some of the smaller details of the mission, but overall, things should be transferrable. DE 3 like I said is just a showcase, not really intended to be a complete product, but just a taste of what's to come. The new island will probably have to wait for Flashpoint 2, since not too many people will be making OFP1 missions by the time it gets finished. When there are only a handful of people making all new models and environments, it tends to take a little while to get things done.

One of the buildings for the map which is near completion is featured in the 3WX thread along with it's source photo. Here are some of the other source photos being used:

Tell us more. What's going to be changed? Sample pics, perdy please? Any thoughts on upgtading Desert Malden? What's wrong with Desert Everon 2? Oh let's see, it uses retextured OFP buildings and has about a thousand lag producing empty p3d objects on it for things that couldn't be retextured. Â Don't get me wrong, the textures are excellent and they will be retained, but they can certainly be improved upon. Â Zwadar made the map at a time when the tools for really making new models and maps weren't available. Â Now that they are, Zwadar's map can recieve the treatment it deserves. @Avon Lady: DE3 will have all new models of Middle Eastern buildings. Â Zwadar's sand textures will be retained, but sand/greenery textures will be added. Â Palm trees of several species including Washingtonia Filfera, Washingtonia Robusta, Phoenix Dactylifera. Phoenix Canariensis etc.. will be added. Â Cactus and other middle east plants will be added. Â Agent Smith's industrial objects will be added, and a few surprises will also be included. Edit: The reason Desert Everon is being redone is simply as a showcase for upcoming 3WX/MIA Middle Eastern products. It's a teaser desgined to generate interest and show off some preliminary work. A new desert island will follow that release. Objects will be retained in place. Town locations etc.. will not change, just the buildings and objects in them. Additional objects will be added and the map cleaned up for efficiency's sake. If anyone is interested in contributing to this project to see the results sooner, contact me.

Depends on what you want to see changed  Two things: 1. The Desert Everon and Desert Malden islands should have no dependencies on the original island versions. That would resolve the conflict between the desert and New World versions. 2. The Desert islands should also be improved with hi-res textures. Desert Everon 3 is in the making.

I have a William Orbit techno version of this song that frankly, kicks ass.

I have almost all the Hans Zimmer soundtracks including a rare version of the song Llauma mentioned. It is sung by the native tribes on Guadalcanal in pidgin english and sounds excellent. I think that translates to: "God, my life belongs to you to take."

Make sure the texture is in increments of 128X128 or they won't load. Save your .tga files in either 128X128, 256X256, or 512X512 and then convert them to .pac or .paa. If you don't, they won't show up.

Holy crap I'm going to have to agree with Denoir here! Tex, the U.S. military was on the ropes in 1980 and on the verge of if not totally decayed morale-wise. Reagan changed that and made us equal to if not better than the Soviets. The psychological climate of the time was very intense and depressing. Everyone expected a war with Soviet Russia and possibly nuclear devastation. The tensions between the U.S. and the Soviets were actually increasing again. Look at the olympic boycotts and all the brushfire wars going on back then. Reagan helped beat the Soviets through an aggressive stance by escalating the arms race. He knew the Soviets could not match the U.S. economically in the SDI race and that it would break the bank. SDI was largely a front, it never really was intended to bring a complete weapons system on-line, it was just used to convince the Soviets to spend more in an attempt to keep up and it hastened their collapse. Now I agree with Toadlife, economically, Reagan screwed us over, but maybe that was the price of ending the Cold War? History will tell us eventually.

Tex, Reagan was largely responsible for the strategy that broke the back of the Soviet Union. You are probably too young to remember, but the early 80's were a time of deep fear and paranoia as we were on the verge of a nuclear showdown with the Soviets. Tensions were very high and everyone expected war. Reagan did a lot to ease those tensions, restore America's military and fix our broken spirit after Vietnam and eventually end the Cold War. It happened in 1991, but the seeds for change were sown in the 80's under Reagan. Now don't get me started on trickle down economics, but as a statesman, Reagan was a good man, and this is comiong from someone who despises the Repuiblican party and almost all of it's platforms. I don't see why Reagan shouldn't have his picture on a bill, he was certainly a much better President than Andrew Jackson, why not put him on the $20? Besides, the irony and subtle humor of doing it would be priceless.

I never agreed with his fiscal policies, but I supported him tremendously for his foreign policy. A true peacemaker and a great statesman and President. May God bless him and his family.

I believe it's an M60E3 because of the longer barrel. Â I don't think the Navy has any M240's, and it is definitely not an M240 anyway, the buttstock is a dead giveaway. The foregrip is there so the weapon can be detached and fired and the thing hanging down is probably a feed port cover to prevent salt spray from entering the chamber and seriously dicking up the weapon. Note: the forward gun mount is empty, there probably should be two weapons on this craft.

I agree Leone, but I think the future of OFP modding lies in immersion products. Now I could be a bit biased being a part of an immersion mod! But like Drow said, atmosphere is where the most potential for enhancing the game experience rests. Many mods that have done vehicles, weapons, aircraft and troops to death, are now starting to focus on buildings, plants, trees, objects and islands to make the game better. Do we really need another M4? Some mod has already made that and then someone else made theirs. Why not make some new trees, bushes, grass? How about all new buildings with super high levels of detail instead of buildings that were made as an afterthought? Civilians are needed. All new animations. How about making the civilians do what civilians do, instead of just standing around like zombies? I'd like to see merchants that wave or proffer their wares. Beggars holding out their cup. How about fishermen or musicians, or people simply eating and drinking? After all the guns and planes and bombs have been made, what is left to make this game better? Immersion products, that's what.

Hellfish, I've actually been thinking of getting one of the scripting gurus to help me find out a way to dynamically detect a hit location on the building and then via a script, either replace the model for a damaged one, or replace the texture at the point of impact to reflect the level of damage done. With some finesse it could be made variable for bullet impacts and shell impacts etc.., even maybe according to caliber. I want to mess with having a script that makes little chips and particles fly off an object at impact point, maybe a puff of dust too. I don't know if this is possible though.

Strong? I'm not sure of that. But America definitly needs a new one... Akira, you really should go to hear him speak. I had some doubts and attended a speech. That cleared everything up. The media with its sound bites and slants has painted the portrait of Kerry that they want you to see. In person, he is a much different/better man. Don't buy what the media tells you about either candidate. Kerry has a lot of good ideas and stands strong on a lot of issues, and the media refuses to show it because a tighter race insures better ratings and advertising revenue. It's really a shame how badly we are manipulated by our corporate controlled information sources.

I wasn't referring to singling out a "segment" of the population unless that segment is irresponsible voters. Voting as a right is as powerful as gun ownership is, we don't just let anyone buy a gun do we? Why should we let just anyone pick the guy with his finger on the world's biggest gun? I mean come on, the majority of Bush voters say they would vote for him because he would be more fun to have over at a backyard barbecue. This is the mentality of the Republican voter? If that's all it takes, color me Republican and sign me up for the Senate.

The Constitution should have dropped the property owning requirement for the right to vote in favor of a minimum education or competency requirement. Trust me, my greatest fear is of the ignorant masses.

Question, do you guys have Walmart? If so, then its already started. Line up for the nascar bedsheets and canned beer.

I think we should export joe and jane sixpack to Europe. You Euros don't have enough hicks, rednecks or hillbillies. We've given you everything else that represents the worst our culture has to offer, why not send over gene pool pollution and ignorance too?