Modders PLEASE Help

[jrdani 0]

I initially posted this in the General Discussion portion of this forum, but maybe I should have posted it here instead, so here goes:

 

Is there anything different that must be done in order to install older add-on aircraft in WOV, Patch 4a (5/25/06)? I've added the respective aircraft's folders of the E-2C, F-14A, FA-18A and F-16 to the ..........\Objects\Aircraft directory and modified the Options.ini file in the main Wings Over Vietnam folder to show an EndYear=2010 as suggested by USAFMTL.

 

I've tested each one in the Single Mission scenario and the E-2C and F-16 work fine. However, I have one small problem with the FA-18A (not the latest one with the corrupted file) and the F-14A. If I simply load them and don't fly, I can hit the escape key to terminate the mission and they exit to the De-briefing Screen as they should. However, if I load them, fly around and then land, hitting the escape key won't exit to the De-briefing Screen. The screen stays black and I initially had to do a "hard" shutdown of the computer and then re-boot. I've waited as long as a hour to see if eventually the black screen would disappear. The computer is not "hung-up" because each time I can see and move my mouse pointer. I've recently found that if I hit the escape key a second time, it will return to the desktop but not to the Debriefing Screen where its supposed to be.

 

The reason I'm asking if anything has to be different for WOV Patch 4a (5/25/06) is because I've copied the exact folders (FA-18a and F-14A) from WOV Patch 4a's Aircraft folder to WOV Patch 3's (7/5/05) Aircraft folder, tested them several times in Patch 3 and after flying and landing, hitting the escape key exits properly to the De-Brief Screen every time.

 

As mentioned above, I have this problem only with the F-14A and the original FA-18A (not Blackbird's with the corrupted file) and only in WOV Patch 4a (5/25/06). Works fine in Patch 3. I've tried everything I can think of to fix it with no success. I've removed and re-installed both the F-14A and the FA-18A several times. I've defragged the hard drive. I've compared all of the ini's between the F-16 that works with the F-14A that doesn't, and nothing different jumps out at me. I've even copied the entire WOV Patch 4a folder to a 160 gig backup hard drive and tested it there with the exact same results. I've searched the forums of CombatAce, SimHQ and Column5, and if the answer's there, I must have missed it, but I've sure searched hard.

 

Just today downloaded, installed and tested the F-15A Eagle in WOV Patch 4a. It exits to the Debriefing Screen just as it should. BTW, the F-15 is beautiful.........kudos to the Mirage Factory.

 

I hope some of you modders out there have some ideas? Any help would be much appreciated.

[Lexx_Luthor 57]

Hello. I poasted some ideas at the ThirdWire thread...I'm not a ground-up aircraft modder though.

 

~~> http://bbs.thirdwire.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=2636

[Guest capun]

If the screen stays black, I am going to take a guess of what the problem is

 

- Have you done the Flightengine.ini mods to allow for bigger textures and mesh poly counts?

 

- SP4 uses DirectX 9.0c, I am assuming that you have the latests Directx 9.0c runtime. Remember that Microsoft in their infinite wisdom upgrade the runtime periodically but they do not bother to bump up the rev number, so there are several versions of the DirectX 9.0c runtimes

 

- What kind of graphics card do you have, also what drivers do you have? sometimes the newer driver may not be the best, specially for older cards. For example NVidia has a universal driver for the GeForce family, but the newer drivers cause problems with the older GeForce4 family.

 

- Any specific file called in the data ini may be missing. Files like the sound files, effects files,

 

Examples

 

Sound files

 

[sound]

WindSoundName=USNwind

StallSoundName=USNstall

EngineSoundName=JetEngine

AfterburnerSoundName=Xle2

DamagedEngineSound=USNovsp

FlapsSoundName=USNflaps

AirbrakesSoundName=Airbrakes

GearsSound=Gear

 

Effect files

 

VortexEmitterName=F18FuselageVortexEmitter

 

VortexEmitterName=WingtipVortexEmitter

 

AfterburnerEmitterName=F18AfterburnerEmitter

[jrdani 0]

Thanks for your replies, Lexx and Capun.

 

Lexx, I did get your comments and ideas at Thirdwire and I appreciate them. I'm trying some of your ideas at present. Thanks again for posting them.

 

Capun, I did mod the [GraphicsSettings] in the FlightEngine.ini some time before having this problem. Also, I've checked and I do have the very latest DirectX 9.0c. I have an ATI 7500 All-In-Wonder graphics card. I'll try rolling back to the previous driver as you suggested to see if maybe that will solve it. I'll also check the Sound, Effects, etc. files as well.

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply, guys. These things will give me several ways to try and resolve the issue.