[asheshouse]

Battle of France - 1940



On the 10th of May 1940 German forces launched the long awaited attack on the allied armies of Britain and France and in doing so also directly attacked the forces of Holland and Belgium and invaded the territory of the Duchy of Luxembourg.

The so called period of phoney war had ended and full scale conflict once more consumed Western Europe. In reality the phoney war never really existed. As early as the 2nd of September 1939 British Forces, including the Advanced Air Striking Force (AASF), and the Air Component of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), had begun leaving Britain to take up positions alongside the French forces in northern France.

From September onwards the allied air forces were carrying out deep reconnaissance missions into Germany and these continued right up to the launch of the offensive.

The Battle of France Map - Part 1 covers the early stages of the battles on the southern part of the front, including the advance through the Ardennes, the crossings of the River Meuse and the breakout of the Panzer forces, generally up to the positions held on 16th May.

Download the map files here: http://www.mediafire.com/?lydtdexb91m (includes amended ash_load.ini)

Updated files are listed below. Copy these into the ash_BoF folder
Improved map_F, for "excellent" mode users http://www.mediafire.com/?wpziercfod4 - edit ash_load.ini entry to use this file

Part 2 will expand the map to include the northern part of the front including the invasion of Belgium and southern Holland, including the sites of Eben Emael and the Albert Canal bridges which were the scenes of desperate attacks by both the British and Belgian air forces.

Part 3 will cover the Channel Ports and the southeast corner of England and the scene of events up to 4th June, including the major air battles over the Dunkirk perimeter.

The extent of the Part 1 map covers the entire area of the three parts however only the southeast quarter is populated. Limited scenery, including outlines of the main ports, is included but will be further developed in later editions. Similarly, only the airfields in the southeast quarter are complete. Other airfields shown are incomplete and may not function correctly.

This map is released as a Beta in respect of the Part 1 area, as indicated on the game map. Comments and bug reports are welcomed for the Part 1 area but would be premature for the remaining area. A known visual bug is that some village textures have been inadvertently replaced by field textures. Most of these have been corrected but there are probably a significant number still to be found. If posting comments please include a grid reference to the nearest km. You can read these from the game map.

Installation instructions are included in the "readme" file which is included in the zip. Please do read this before installing. The map files include a date reference to assist in identifying future updates. File updates will be posted here as they become available.

The map requires the standard 4.09 objects.

It is recommended, but not obligatory, to use FabianFreds airfield plate textures, available here http://www.4shared.com/dir/4397598/27d3d...aring.html in the folder texturesskins.

Mission Files:
Sedan Bridges, by Fabianfred (needs R1 Hanger Pack) http://www.4shared.com/dir/4397598/27d3 ... aring.html

Other useful links:

Potez 631 (Pe3bis skin) http://www.france-simulation.com/article.php?sid=1870
French Navy Vought 156 (B5N2 skin) http://www.france-simulation.com/article.php?sid=1035
French Army Vought 156 (B5N2 skin) http://www.france-simulation.com/article.php?sid=1072
Bloch MB 155 (skin) http://www.france-simulation.com/article.php?sid=1093
Bloch MB 152 (skins) http://mission4today.com/index.php?name ... ls&id=2348
Belgian Gladiator (skin) http://www.france-simulation.com/article.php?sid=709
vpmedia skins http://mission4today.com/index.php?name ... s&get=3322
(includes D520, Fokker DXXI and others from BoF campaign pack)
Curtiss H75 A3 http://www.simulation-france-magazine.c ... n&did=1272

Thanks to Lowfighter and Dup for their invaluable help in checking and commenting on the map.

[fabianfred]

all I get is "No servers available with the requested data" warning...never seen that before


how about an alternate?

you can upload to my site....not just for me to send uploads to it...

[fabianfred]

Think you must have a faulty upload there.....

[asheshouse]

I've put a copy on zshare, which seems to work ok.
Don't know whats wrong with mediafire.
It worked ok with my test file.
Maybe it doesn't like zips?

[skarden]

Downloading now cheers asheshouse,I'v been waiting for this one for a while,cant wait for my first flight.and i was just heading to bed too,I'm gunna be tired for work tomoz and i like it hock: 8)

~S~

[fly_zo]

zshare works perfectly ( for me that is ...)

d/l- ing now .... will be back with feedback shortly


many thanks for your work m8

cheers
Z

[modman]

Thanks a lot for this map! It looks great (already! ) :wink: 8)

[Nocturnum]

So glad i checked the forums tonight. I've been waiting for this one a long time. The first announced 1:1 scale map.
They said it couldn't be done!
Waiting for it to download and then I'll install it and give some feedback.

[Bimmer]

Just given it a quick once-over - looks great. In perfect, the larger cities cause my computer to lag quite a bit, but other than that it seems smooth. One concern, which I'm sure will be addressed in development, is that the map lacks any place names, making navigation and mission-building a bit tricky at this point.

Nonetheless, wonderful effort. Can't wait to see the whole thing complete.

[asheshouse]

One concern, which I'm sure will be addressed in development, is that the map lacks any place names, making navigation and mission-building a bit tricky at this point.

The first bug report :lol:

The last job I did was to prefix all the map files with "ash_"
Forgot to change the texts.txt reference in ash_load.ini though

Should be edited to read:

[text]
ash_texts.txt

------ or rename the ash_texts.txt file to texts.txt

--- sorry folks.

PS Bimmer --- What are your computer specs?

[Bee]

Well done! I am really going to enjoy this. I just can't decide what aircraft to go touring in first.... 8)

[Bimmer]

OK, labeling problem is solved - thanks.

My specs are pretty pathetic by current standards: Athlon64 3200+, 2GB PC2700 RAM, 7600GS 256MB, running in perfect (water=2) at 1680x1050. It really isn't bad in the test mission I made up, an attack on Sedan with 4 Blenheims, about 60 vehicles, and maybe 25 flak guns of mixed calibers. It seems worse in the FMB.

[jetplane]

Nicely done - I've just flown over my house, although the woods across the middle of Manston airfield was a bit of surprise.

The Ardennes/Meuse area is terrific, can't wait for the full map to be completed

Thanks

Pete

[Murph]

I'm more used to installing maps that use a self installer (yes, I realize this is a beta) and I'm not clear on where the load.ini file should be put?
Otherwise the readme is quite understandable.
Thanks for all the time and hard work involved in making this!

[Nocturnum]

Looks great so far ashes. Loaded up in about 5 seconds. I was able to view it, create missions and save them without doing anything fancy.
The towns actually look like towns - you know, aligned along roads, thinning out as they spread out. The rivers are actually navigable - not just some random wobbly line but actually different shapes and not constantly intersecting. I like the size of the forests in the southeast - really sprawling.

I tried a couple of small missions, one with 3 Hurri's over a major town. As posted above, i experienced some slowdown, just like on the Slovakia map. However, if you don't focus on the town and don't keep adjusting your POV it'll be fine.

Second mission had me starting at altitude going against 3 111's over that lovely meandering river you've put in there. No frame rate probs, it seemed. Again though, still very small numbers of planes in play.

I run it on a Dual core something or other, nVidia fx8600. Settings are all maximum except clouds on medium. Resolution is 1280x960 or something like that. On Perfect there are no glitches visible.

I did try it on Excellent once, just to see what would happen. The following pics show problems with transitions between heights I THINK. Also notice the arfield seems to be floating int he background. The arrow on the map is about where the pictures were taken.