Jane's USAF
- My Tweaking Tools
Notepad (Windows 98)
Simple text editor for small files.
MED - Programmer's Text Editor (Utopia Planitia Software Engineering)
An advanced text editor full of features, for big files and complex projects.
MED is a Shareware, but with full functionality and no nag-messages.
http://www.utopia-planitia.de/indexus.html
Photoshop (Adobe)
Professional graphics editor for all conceivable purposes.
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/main.html
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/pswin.htm
Windiff (Windows 98 Resource Kit)
Compares between contents of files/directories.
Useful for detecting changes between versions, or for probing custom add-ons and using them as references.
This program is just one of the hidden goodies in the Windows 98 CD (like TweakUI). The Windows 98 Resource Kit
Sampler tools and utilities are located in the \TOOLS\RESKIT directory of the Windows 98 operating system CD. This
directory contains a Master Setup Program (SETUP.EXE) for the Windows 98 Resource Kit Sampler that is separate from
the Windows 98 operating system installation.
DME (UME - Jane's USAF)
Chris ''Orzel'' from Sosenka's Combat Simulations revealed to the public a hidden functionality within the UME
(User Mission Editor) which is supplied with Jane's USAF: if you run the UME with the flag ''/DME'' in the command
line then you activate the DME, which is essentially a GUI (Graphical User Interface) that controls the core of the
game - the simulation's data files - and as such serves as a valuable tweaking program. The correct syntax for a
shortcut that directly runs the DME is therefor:
''C:\Program Files\Jane's Combat Simulations\USAF\Resource\Missions\UME.exe'' /DME
The DME was created by Pixel Multimedia as a development tool for internal use by the designers of Jane's IAF, and
given the fact that Jane's IAF served as a base platform for the design of Jane's USAF the usage of the DME continued.
The DME was never a user-friendly program since it was never intended for ordinary users, but in spite of that it was
integrated into the UME (User Mission Editor) which was released along with Jane's USAF to the public.
The DME (not the UME) is an extremely powerful tool, and I serisouly doubt if many people master its full range of
functionality because the contents of (mainly) the admin.ini file are very complex, even though the file's skeleton
structure is in fact very easy to understand. However, personally I don't like using it because of its non-WYSIWYG
nature (What You See Is What You Get). What I mean is that the DME has the ability alter many ''dangerous'' files that
you might not necessarily want to control at all. Yes, it's great for Pixel Multimedia's staff of programmers - it
eliminates a lot of hard nagging work on updating different data file versions - but correct work with the DME
absolutely requires carefully studying its manual, and unfortunately the manual is safe-guarded from non-Pixel
personnel in Tel-Aviv, Israel.
