PapaRomeo's EAW SIGHTPACK Mark III
Pete "PapaRomeo" Rafle
Prafle@yahoo.com
http://paparomeo.freeyellow.com
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March 15, 2001

Thanks for downloading PapaRomeo's EAW SightPac! 
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INSTALLATION:

-- Select the *.spt file you wish to use. (.BMP files with identical names provide a preview of each sight.)
-- Copy the *.spt to your main EAW directory (usually c:\program files\MicroProse Software\European Air War)
-- Rename the file GUNSIGHT.SPT (All the filenames end in "_GUNSIGHT.SPT" to make this easier)
-- Run EAW, and smoke some bandits!
-- To restore the default EAW gunsight, delete or rename the "gunsight.spt" file that you find in your main EAW directory.

TO USE WITH VIPERs GUNSIGHT MANAGER (highly recommended):
-- Simply unzip this file to your Gunsight Manager folder.  The subfolders should help you find the sights you need easily.  Every sight has a .bmp preview file and all file names are compatible with the Gunsight Manager. 

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"SightPack Mark III" adds the following new sights:

-- USAAF Mark VIII (VPR_USAAF_MK8_GUNSIGHT.SPT):  
The US Army Air Force variant of the Mark 8 sight was identical to the US Navy Mark 8, except the USAAF version used a different reticle altogether.  My sight is based on diagrams in the manual for the sight, provided graciously by Cliff "WarbrdFan" Carlino. The Mark 8 was standard on the P-47D and P-47D prior to the general adoption of the K-14 series.

-- USAAF Mark VIII Rocket Reticle (VPR_USAAF_MK8_ROCKET_GUNSIGHT.SPT):
The manual for the Mark VIII includes diagrams of this interchangeable reticle for "rocketry."

-- USAAF K-14B Ground Attack Reticle (VPR_USK-14B_GROUND_GUNSIGHT.SPT):
The B model of the K-14 gyro compensated sight included an alternate reticle for ground attack. 

-- USAAF Mark 2 Torpedo Sight (VPR_USAAF_TORPEDO_GUNSIGHT.SPT):
I know little about this sight, apart from photographs of an example recently offered at auction on e-bay.  The sight was apparently installed on medium bombers including the B-26.

Other changes in this package include:

-- Added a new folder just for the Ground Pounder sights.
-- Corrected the Japanese Type 98 to match the example displayed in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. I have left the old version for those who prefer it.  
-- By request, included a whole bunch of conversions of the historic sights in high visibility colors.  They are in a separate folder now, along with a number of sights done on commission for No105_Odgens that are quasi historical and apparently quite effective Thanks, Ogdens, for letting me share them.
-- Included a new version of my  Post and Ring Sight that looks a little nicer than the old one.  (Its in the "New and Revised Sights" folder)

PapaRomeo's EAW SightPacs are "PostcardWare":  If you like them, please send me a postcard from your hometown and tell me what you think of my work. (You'll find my mailing address at the end of this document.)

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Here are the historical gunsights I have included.  The aircraft for which they are appropriate are in parentheses.  Of course, you can use any of them with any aircraft you choose.  (Note:  Since EAW only allows one gunsight at a time, the active gunsight.spt file will appear in all aircraft.)

USA:
-- US Navy Mark 8 (vPR_USMK8_GUNSIGHT.SPT)
(F4U-1c and -1d Corsair, as well as most other US Naval fighters; may also have appeared on some USAAF aircraft, including P-51D and late-model P-47D.)

-- USAAF N-3 Sight (vPR_US-N3_GUNSIGHT.SPT)
(P-51B, P-51C, P-47C and early P-47D, P-38F-1 through P-38J-5.  This sight reticle is identical to the N-2 sight, which was installed on many other USAAF fighters, including P-40 Warhawk and P-39 Airacobra.  It is suitable for use in any US-built fighter, including those supplied to the USSR and Britain through Lend-Lease.  NOTE:  This sight consists of a simple circle with a center dot.  It differs from my "RAFMark2" sights only in size (the Mark2 is slightly smaller).)

-- USAAF N-9 Sight (vPR_US-N9_GUNSIGHT.SPT)
(P-51D, P-51K.  The N-9 was the standard fighter sight by around 1943, until it was replaced by the K-14 gyro sights.  It is suitable for use in any US-built fighter, including those supplied to the USSR and Britain through Lend-Lease.)

-- USAAF K-14 (vPR_USMK8_GUNSIGHT.SPT)
A copy of the British GGS series, the first sights to use gyroscope-fitted reflectors to allow the reflected reticle move to compensate for the accelleration of the aircraft, this computing the lead necessary to hit the enemy aircraft.
(P-51D, P-47D; also as the GGS sight, in late war Spitfires and other RAF fighters, and as the US Navy Mark 18, in late war Corsairs and perhaps some Hellcats.) 

-- USAAF Mark VIII (VPR_USAAF_MK8_GUNSIGHT.SPT):  
The US Army Air Force variant of the Mark 8 sight was identical to the US Navy Mark 8, except the USAAF version used a different reticle altogether.  My sight is based on diagrams in the manual for the sight, provided graciously by Cliff "WarbrdFan" Carlino. The Mark 8 was standard on the P-47D and P-47D prior to the general adoption of the K-14 series.

-- USAAF Mark VIII Rocket Reticle (VPR_USAAF_MK8_ROCKET_GUNSIGHT.SPT):
The manual for the Mark VIII includes diagrams of this interchangeable reticle for "rocketry."

-- USAAF K-14B Ground Attack Reticle (VPR_USK-14B_GROUND_GUNSIGHT.SPT):
The B model of the K-14 gyro compensated sight included an alternate reticle for ground attack. 

-- USAAF Mark 2 Torpedo Sight (VPR_USAAF_TORPEDO_GUNSIGHT.SPT):
I know little about this sight, apart from photographs of an example recently offered at auction on e-bay.  The sight was apparently installed on medium bombers including the B-26.

Britain:

-- RAF GM2MkII/MkIII (VPR_RAFGM2MKIII_GUNSIGHT.SPT) 
(Spitfire MkI, Hurricane)  NOTE:  This is also a good "General Purpose" RAF sight.  For more on the history of this sight, see the separate ReadMe in this pack.

-- RAF MkII* (vPR_RAFMK2_GUNSIGHT.SPT) 
(Spitfire Mk.IX, Spitfire Mk.V, Typhoon, Tempest)

Germany:
-- Revi Model 3-D (vPR_LWRevi3D_GUNSIGHT.SPT)
(early model Messerschmidt Bf 109s, including the 109A through 109E.  It's the perfect sight for the Battle of Britain era Emil, and also appropriate for those of you re-enacting the Spanish Civil War.)

-- Revi 16B  (vPR_LWREVI16B_GUNSIGHT.SPT)
(BF109G-10, FW190A-8)

-- Revi C/12D  (vPR_LWREVIC-12D_GUNSIGHT.SPT)
(BF109G-10, BF109G-6, BF109G-2, BF109F-4)

Japan:
-- Type 98 (vPR_IJNTYPE98_GUNSIGHT.SPT)
(A6M Zero series, N1K2-Ja) 

-- Type 3  (vPR_IJNTYPE3_GUNSIGHT.SPT)
(Ki-100 Siki-sen, Ki-84 Hayate, Ki-61 Hien)

USSR:
-- Model PBP-1. (vPR_SovPBP-1_GUNSIGHT.SPT) 
(This sight was standard on Russian fighters and fighter-bombers from 1941 onwards.  Aircraft carrying this sight included IL-2, Pe-2, Tu-2, Yak-1, Yak-3, Yak-7, Yak-9U, La-7, LaGG-3, MiG-3, La-5.)

NOTE:  The aircraft information above is drawn my own admittedly incomplete research.  I am always looking for more information to make this more accurate, so please contact me with any data you can share.

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NOTES:
Reflector gunsights in WWII fighters projected an illuminated reticule on a glass panel in front of the pilot to aid in aiming.  My objective was to create gunsights that appeared to be "lit up" like the real sights.

A few sights have been "edited" to make them more useful in EAW.  At 800x600 resolution, fine lines are subject to a distracting shimmering due to aliasing, so in most cases the lighted lines have been "fattened" to reduce shimmering.  Also, the US Mk8 and German Revi sights have been "cropped" so that the aiming circle appears larger and more useful.  Because the Revi sights are characterized by very fine lines, I have also included a finer line version in the "Alternates" folder. Try them all, and stick with the ones that work best for you.

It has been brought to my attention that in the default 640x480 resolution, fixed-cockpit mode, EAW displays my sights "upside down" although they display correctly in "virtual cockpit" mode.  This is only detectable with the following sights:  USN Mark8, LW Revi 16B, LW Revi 3D, USAAF Mark 8 (A2A and Rocket versions), K-14B Ground attack sight, and US N-9 (all the other sights are longitudinally symmetrical and look the same right side up or upside down).  The obvious solution (and my strong recommendation) is to run EAW is a higher resolution, since this eliminates the "fixed views" and obviates the problem; believe me, once you try EAW at 1280x1024, you'll never go back!  However, if you are wedded to the fixed 640x480 cockpits, you'll have to avoid the sights listed above.

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COMPATIBILITY:

All of these sights are 3DFX compatible ( I use a Voodoo5 5500 AGP, myself) , and should work with any installation of EAW with the 1.2 patch installed.  Please report any problems or anomalies to me at prafle@yahoo.com, or post a message on the EAW board at CombatSim.com.

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VIPER'S GUNSIGHT MANAGER
If you will be switching gunsights often, I strongly recommend using Viper's "Gunsight Manager" utility, available at http://www.fortunecity.de/kunterbunt/schweizer/117/vpeawgun.html.

To use my sights with GSM, just copy the *.spt and *.bmp files from your PapaRomeo zip folder into the folder where GSM is located.

Viper's readme file is in German, so I have included an English version in this zip pack to help you set up the program. (thanks to Cord Hartmann for the translation).  Things to note:

-- Every sight's filename must conform to the format v*.spt (that's why all my sights start with a "V for Victory")

-- In order to view a preview in the Gunsight Manager, a .bmp image with the same name as the gunsight file must also be in the folder.  I have included bitmaps for each of the sights in this package for this purpose.

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OTHER UTILITIES
Although I have not tested it, these files can be used with Matttm's EAW Stab terrain and skin switching utility.  Copy the *.spt file you wish to use into the "Common" file for that terrain, then add "Gunsight.spt" to the "Advanced Properties" field for the Common folder.

I am not familiar with No609_Relent's "Skins-n-More" utility, but something similar should be easy enough to set up for SnM.

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Included are 18 authentic replacement gunsights for MicroProse's European Air War.  All of these sights were based on photographs of the illuminated reticules of the WWII aerial gunsights.  The only exceptions is the Japanese Type 3 gunsight, which was based on a version created by Takuya Watanabe for Aces High.  

As a "bonus" I've also thrown in a number of "Alternate" sights.  Most of these are early drafts of my final editions, and include color changes as well as minor design variations.  You'll also find four color variations of my first sight-making attempt; a "diamond" sight that I thought looked like a K-14 - until I saw a picture of an actual K-14!!  People seemed to like it anyway, so I've included it, although it doesn't really resemble any historical sight, as far as I know.  I've also included a "ring and bead" gunsight for those of you flying P-40s and other early-war fighters.

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Many thanks to:

-- Thomas AV8R Spann, for info on the RAF and LW sights, and for letting me use his pictures on my site.

-- Bostjan Skrlec, for sharing scans of pages from his copy of RAF Armaments and Gunsights, 1916 to Present, a rare and authoritative book on the subject.  He has done a number of his own sights which I hope to add top my site soon.

-- Oleg Maddox, for information on Russian Gunsights, and for the images on my site.

-- Takuya Watanabe, whose sights for Aces High inspired my SightPac project. His work was used with his kind permission.  Without his research, I could not have completed this project.  (http://www.ceres.dti.ne.jp/~nabezo/AH)

-- Paolo Morais, for explaining the process for creating gunsights for EAW, and for his marvelous contributions to the EAW community.

-- Christian "Mosi" Mosimann for his wonderful skins and for his help and encouragement in testing and refining these sights.

-- Cliff "Warbrdfan" Carlino for his information on the MkVIII and N3B sights.

-- Viper for his groundbreaking gunsights and Gunsight Manager, and for pointing me to Watanabe's website.

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USAGE RIGHTS:

PapaRomeo's EAW SightPac is "PostcardWare":  Please send me a postcard from your hometown and tell me whether you liked my sights!  I'm also more than willing to take requests for new or altered sights, especially if you have good images of the sights in operation that I can work from.

In the spirit of the EAW community, this pack is offered free to my fellow EAW-maniacs.  Feel free to distribute this zip pack, as long as you include this ReadMe and do not rename the archive or any of its contents.

Send me your comments, suggestions, or requests by e-mail, or on the CombatSim.com EAW forum.  I am seeking good images of illuminated gunsights from World War II.  If you have a picture, please send it to me!

Peter "PapaRomeo" Rafle
5531 Miles Court
Springfield, VA 22151-1715
USA

Prafle@yahoo.com
http://paparomeo.freeyellow.com
