Editing loadouts / hardpoints

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Snake Man
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Editing loadouts / hardpoints

Post by Snake Man » 2009-04-17 12:17:31

At 2002 ccc posted in this topic about editing loadouts and hardpoints. For ease, here is the quote:
>>Edit new loadouts(use EA6B)
===================================
1.fire up f4browse
2.click "vehcile > aircraft" on left column
3.click "EA6B" icon on right window
4.note the lower window titled " Hardpoints/Weapons", click on item name under "type", then you can use buttons like "view, edit, delete," on right hand.
5.OK, first i delete all item except "Weapon-ALO131", its built-in.
6.you need add hardpoits to hold weapons, so click : Add HP"
from the new window you can choose HP(pylon type/shape) and its number.
my A6 Hardpoints like this:
==========
weapon alq-131 0 no no
hardpoint a-10(2,10) 1 yes yes (check "edit" to enable visible and require rack)
hardpoint a-10(3,9) 2 yes yes
hardpoint f/a-18C/D(5) 3 yes yes
harp-- a-10(3,9) 4 yes yes
harp-- a-10(2,10) 5, yes yes
=========
7.ok, now click on one of these harpoint,
harpoint data here, you can "add" adaptable weapon onto this Hp. Note: their number means the max number of weapon here. say, 6 rounds of mk82.
8. Update to save. Loadout done.(of course you can press"add weapon" to "Hp/wpns" window, but i think it could be internal wpns, or default load)

Now you got to supply these wpn to its squadron store, or you'll find store "out" in weapon loading screen.

>>Edit weapon store(for EA6B as A6)
========================================
1.fire up TacEdit
2.from "file" load your campaign or TE, say, save1.cam.
3.click "unit" at left column
4.click one of EA6B sqadron, "ECM(EA6B)". note: its "type" should be "squadron", not "pack flight".you have to edit them all.
5. click "squadron page", clikc "store" on lower side.
6.Ok, click your favorite weapon under "store", then adjust their quantities, max no. 225? or 999?
7.Save and done. OK, now EA6B(as A6) got supply and pylon to work!!

PS: no idea about fiddling the offests of pylon position. it seems pylons should be moved a bit forward.
Is this still valid in current F4Browse?

Can we clean and clear this up so I can add it to our wiki?
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Re: Editing loadouts / hardpoints

Post by derStef » 2009-04-17 13:03:10

yes that still works for FF4/AF/OF but FF5 DB is locked currently.
but when it's unlocked, it will be possible again

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Re: Editing loadouts / hardpoints

Post by ccc » 2009-04-17 13:21:29

oh no.. that's stone-age info :oops:

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Re: Editing loadouts / hardpoints

Post by Snake Man » 2009-04-17 15:04:01

Okay so please can you tell me the updated info?
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Re: Editing loadouts / hardpoints

Post by ccc » 2009-04-17 15:13:40

Snake Man wrote:Okay so please can you tell me the updated info?
Errr... i think dedicated database editors can tell more.. :mrgreen:

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Re: Editing loadouts / hardpoints

Post by Sherlock » 2009-04-18 19:41:18

The following is for Allied Force using the AF version of F4Browse (aka AF_F4Browse):

These object (database) files are edited using a program called F4Browse aka AF_F4Browse. AF_F4Browse can be downloaded here: http://www.pmctactical.org/f4/downloads ... e_v2.5.rar

DO NOT USE F4BROWSE/LPBROWSE TO EDIT ANY THEATER WITHOUT FIRST MAKING A BACKUP!!!!! YOU"VE BEEN WARNED!!

By now you should have downloaded and unzipped the AF_F4Browse package identified in my first post. Unzip this into a clearly marked folder you can locate. I usually create a folder on my desktop for all my modding utilities such as AF_F4Browse. That way I can always find them all together. BTW, there is no installation required for AF_F4Browse. Just unzip to your selected folder and you are ready to double-click it and go.

Once you have double-clicked it to start, it will open a dialog box and ask for the "FED" file. Direct it to the \Lead Pursuit\Battlefield Operations\korea69\terrdata\objects folder. The "objects" folder is the location for all the database files you will be editing with AF_F4Browse. Once F4Browse opens you will see a screen like this:

Image

(Note: You will have to redirect AF_F4Browse back to this folder everytime you re-open it to edit the database. It defaults to the standard \Battlefield Operations\terrdata\objects folder when it is opened).

You can change the view presented by F4Browse by right clicking on the main (right hand) pane and choosing "detail". I prefer to work in this mode (spreadsheet appearance) so those are the views I will be showing in this post. Changing the view makes it look like this:

Image

Move the separating vertical bar between the two panes out to the right so all the items in the left hand pane can be viewed. Then, in the left hand pane, click on the "+" next to "Units" to expand that selection. You should now see the following items listed below "Units":
Aircraft
Land
Ship
Submarine

Click on "Aircraft" in the left hand pane. The view in the right hand pane should change to look like this:

Image

Now widen both the "Unit" and "Type" columns in the right hand pane so you can clearly see the name of the aircraft (under "Unit") and whether it is a Flight or a Squadron (under "Type"). You will ONLY be changing things associated with "Squadrons" since this is the way the campaign engine tasks flights and packages in campaign (or that is what I believe to be the case; testing will proof/disprove this working theory of mine).

Now for a little Vietnam era trivia---
We know that the USAF 390th Tactical Fighter Squadron flew the F-4D Phantom II aircraft during the Vietnam war. They were based at Da Nang airbase in South Vietnam. So we're going to operate on that aircraft in the database and make sure it is "Vietnam Era" only as far as weapons loadout capability.

Let's go back into AF and see what we get when we put a F-4D squadron into a tactical engagement (TE) in AF. We are especially interested in what the default weapons selection looks like in the munitions screen. Here are the default weapons selections from the munitions screen:

Image
Image
Image

From the munitions screen we see that the default loadout for the F-4D shows that the GBU-15 can be loaded on the F-4D. However, from research we know that the GBU-15 was not developed until 1975; 2 years after the US pulled out of Vietnam. Therefore, we are going to remove this weapon as a selection for the F-4D aircraft.

Now go back to your AF_F4Browse window. Find the "Fighter-F4D*" entry in the "Unit" column (it's number 528) ; make sure you have clicked on the one for "Squadron" type. Then double click it to open it up. This is what you should get:

Image

Change to detail view (in the lower window pane) by clicking the radio button (to the lower right) for "detail" in the "View" area. Your Unit View screen should now look like this:

Image

Now double click on the first line in the lower pane (where it has "F4D*" in the first column) and you should get another screen that looks like this:

Image

This is the Vehicle Data Details screen and it is where you will edit the hardpoints for the aircraft (in the lower pane which is labeled "Hardpoints/Weapons"). In the column entitled "Name" you will notice there are references to "USAF" and other references to "NAM". The "NAM" means these hardpoints are used by squadrons which are identified in the database as US Navy or US Marine squadrons. The "USAF" tag obviously means that hardpoint is used by USAF squadron aircraft. We are concerned right now with just USAF squadron aircraft so the first hardpoint we want to look at is hardpoint #1. So doubleclick on hardpoint #1. You should get a screen called "Hardpoint Data" and it looks like this:

Image

Looking over the Hardpoint #1 data we see there is no GBU-15 entry. So we don't need to edit this hardpoint. Cancel the Hardpoint #1 data screen and return to the Vehicle Data Details screen. Doubleclick on the next entry for the USAF (Hardpoint #2) and it should open. Scroll down through the list of entries looking for a GBU-15 entry. There is one and the screen should now look like this:

Image

Click on the "GBU-15" entry in the list, then click the "Delete" button to the right. A warning screen will pop up asking if you really want to delete hp16. It looks like this:

Image

Click "Yes" in answer to the warning screen. Then click the "Update" button in the upper right hand corner. The number 2 hardpoint for all USAF F-4D squadron aircraft has now been edited to not allow a GBU-15 to be loaded on the aircraft. The Vehicle Data Details screen will now look like this:

Image

Continue through the rest of the hardpoints on the aircraft and delete any other entries you find for the "GBU-15". When you have completed the editing of all the USAF hardpoints then click on the "UPDATE" button in the upper right corner of the Vehicle Data Details screen. That will take you back to the Unit screen. Click on the "UPDATE" button in the upper right hand corner of this screen and it will return you to the main AF_F4Browse screen. The hardpoints for all aircraft in the squadron of F-4Ds has now been completed.

Let's go back into AF and relook at the TE we created for the F4D and see what the munitions screen shows now:

Image

The GBU-15 is no longer there!

And that is how you delete a weapon from a hardpoint using AF_F4Browse.
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Re: Editing loadouts / hardpoints

Post by Sherlock » 2009-04-18 19:45:23

Hello again gang. We're back for Part II of the AF_F4Browse editing process. I hope everyone has, by now, walked through part I and given it a try.

Here in Part II we are going to add a munition to a hardpoint. In this case, we are going back to our venerable F-4D Phantom II and taking a look at what it can currently mount for Fox2 capable missiles. Doing this we can choose to either fire up AF again and take a look at a F-4D package in a TE (like we did in Part I) or we can just check AF_F4Browse directly. Since I am a lazy bastard I'm going to do it in AF_F4Browse.

Hardpoints on aircraft are numbered from left to right, but to make things easy for you I'll provide a picture:

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/5969/f4chart1.jpg

The numbered hardpoints on the picture above correlate to the "No" [number of the hardpoint] column in the Vehicle Data Details screen.

Taking a look at Hardpoint #2 (2nd pylon in from the left wingtip) this is what we have:

Image
Image
Image

(Needed multiple views to see it all)

So we have the AIM-9B, AIM-9E and AIM-9J already available for loading. But since we are doing a Vietnam-era scenario there were other models of the AIM-9 during that time period and which are also available in the database.

The other models of the AIM-9 in the database are AIM-9D, AIM-9G, AIM-9H, AIM-9M, AIM-9P and AIM-9X. (I figured this out by clicking on the "Add" button in the Hardpoint Data screen and going down the list!) For Vietnam-era purposes, we will add the AIM-9D to our F-4D squadron.

Click on the "Add" button. The "Add weapon to F-4D USAF (2,9) HP" screen will come up. It has two fields. The first one is for the weapon. The second is important also. The second field is for the number (quantity) of weapons that will be mounted on that hardpoint. In our case, with the AIM-9D we want to have two on the 2&8 hardpoints so we select first the weapon, AIM-9D, then we select "2" for the Number of weapons on the hardpoint. When you are done it should look like this:

Image

Go ahead and click on "OK" to accept your changes. The AIM-9D should now be in the list of weapons that can be loaded on Hardpoint #2.

Image

Then click on the UPDATE button for the Hardpoint Data screen.

Then click on the Update Button for the Vehicle Data Details screen. Then click on the UPDATE button for the Unit View screen. You should now be back at the main AF_F4Browse screen. Finally, close out of AF_F4Browse.

Firing up AF we go take a peek at our F-4D TE and, lo and behold! Looky here:

Image

And that, boys and girls, is how we add a new weapon to a hardpoint!


===========================================================================
Good information on BLU designated bombs:

http://www.designation-systems.net/usmi ... .html#_BLU
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Re: Editing loadouts / hardpoints

Post by Sherlock » 2009-04-18 19:47:03

Hello again, boys and girls. :D

As you are probably aware, we recently ran into a problem in that the AIM-7 Sparrow missile was not selectable on the MFD although it could be loaded on the pylon of an F-16 in the munitions screen. Well, here is how we solve this little problem.

The background on this fix is that the AIM-7 missiles "Specific" value in the database is no longer a usable value (reason unknown at this time). So we will be substituting a known working missiles "Specific" value (in this example I've chosen the AIM-120C-4 since we won't be using that missile in our 1970's era campaign but we do know that it works fine in the MFD of an F-16) to get the AIM-7 missile working correctly.

First, go to AF_F4Browse as before:

Image

Next, click on the "Weapons" in the left hand pane:

Image

Change to detail view and find the AIM-120C-4 missile entry:

Image

Doubleclick on the AIM-120C-4 and open the Weapon Data screen:

Image

Next, click on the "CT Index" button and open the "CT Entry for AIM-120C-4" properties screen.

Image

Look in the top of the screen where the "Type info" values are contained, specifically the "Specific" field. The "Specific" value for the AIM-120C-4 missile is seen here to be "48". Write that value down and exit from the AIM-120C-4 screens back to the main AF_F4Browse weapons view screen.

Now find the AIM-7M entry in the AF_F4Browse weapons view screen. It's 13 entries below the AIM-120C-4 when the name field is selected for alphabetical sorting:

Image

Open the AIM-7M Weapons data screen by double clicking on the AIM-7M entry and then click on the AIM-7M "CT Index" button to open CT Entry screen for the AIM-7M:

Go to the "Specific" field and replace the value in it with the Specific value obtained in the CT Entry field for the AIM-120C-4 missile. This value was "48". Type this in the AIM-7M "Specific" field.

Image

Then press the UPDATE button to exit this screen. Next press the UPDATE button in the Weapon Data screen to exit it.

Next go to the F-16A-15 aircraft and add the AIM-7M missile to hardpoints 2,8 and 3,7 per the instructions given earlier in this thread. Exit from accomplishing this to the main AF_F4Browse screen. Then exit AF_F4Browse.

Next we go into F4:AF to see the fruits of our labor.

Setting up a TE with the F-16A-15 going against a Su-17 we have the following:

All AIM-7Ms installed and looking good!
Image

Getting the AIM-7M in the MFD
Image

AIM-7M away!
Image

Tracking
Image

Hit!
Image

Heading for the big hurt!
Image
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Re: Editing loadouts / hardpoints

Post by Snake Man » 2009-04-18 20:10:19

Sherlock, obviously you prepared that post, so could you please rar up those texts + images and sent them to me so I can put them into our wiki?
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Re: Editing loadouts / hardpoints

Post by Sherlock » 2009-04-18 21:27:29

Snake Man wrote:Sherlock, obviously you prepared that post, so could you please rar up those texts + images and sent them to me so I can put them into our wiki?
Sorry SM, don't have time to do that. Feel free to link them from my area at imageshack. Check properties on each picture.
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Re: Editing loadouts / hardpoints

Post by Snake Man » 2009-04-18 22:37:13

OK will do (grab the images into our server), thank you for posting that.
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