Another aircraft add-on issue

[HawgEngineMech 0]

Got an issue with the A-10 ver 3.0 and F-14D add-ons. After unzipping and installing both airframes in WOV, I found them just fine in my inventory however the load screen for both aircraft gets to 80% and then I get a black screen and an error message. I've deleted and reinstalled the A-10 a couple times to no avail. I've rooted around the knowledge base but can't seem to find any similar topic. Any advice you seasoned modders can give would be greatly appreciated.

 

Propmech

[Wrench 9,846]

What's the error message?

 

Have you added the needed weapons for the Turkey, and any needed for the Hawg??

 

Also, you'll need to change the 'operational years' the game uses -DO NOT TOUCH THE YEARS IN THE AIRCRAFT'S DATA INI-

 

There's a whole post in the KB on that; don't forget to grab the cat extractor tool, as you'll be needing it to pull the SingleMission.ini from the one of the cats in /Flight folder.

That, and the options ini, in the main game folder (where the exe is) needs a few small changes.

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[HawgEngineMech 0]

What's the error message?

 

Have you added the needed weapons for the Turkey, and any needed for the Hawg??

 

Also, you'll need to change the 'operational years' the game uses -DO NOT TOUCH THE YEARS IN THE AIRCRAFT'S DATA INI-

 

There's a whole post in the KB on that; don't forget to grab the cat extractor tool, as you'll be needing it to pull the SingleMission.ini from the one of the cats in /Flight folder.

That, and the options ini, in the main game folder (where the exe is) needs a few small changes.

 

Wrench

kevin stein

 

The error message reads that an error has occured and if I want to send an error report or not. I haven't touched the op years and I have no idea if I need any weapons packs or not. All I've d/l are the aircraft. As for the extractor tool I'm new to this so I'm not quite sure what you're talking about. Afraid I still need someone to hold my hand to fix this. Mind taking me through what I need to do step by step? I mean come on, I work on an aircraft built 30 some years before I was born not the raptor. I need help troubleshooting these fancy computation machines.

 

PropMech

[Wrench 9,846]

Not a problem...

 

When you get the error again, and the little pop-up pops up, there should be a little link thingy in the lower left corner; it may say something like "to see what this error is, click this"

 

That'll open up another window, with a bunch of stuff at the bottom, but at the top it should say "the error has something to do with some dll or another" (I'm paraphrasing this badly, hope you get the idea!)

 

It may say "missileobject.dll'' or "graphicengine.dll" or somekind of dll -one of the main operational game file thingys. It dosen't mean the dll is bad, but something the aircraft needs is NOT being found.

 

That's the error we need to know; if it's missing a weapons, it'll be a 'missileobject.dll' fault. Usually mean it's looking for something and not finding it. In the F-14's case, it may not be finding the Phoenix missiles, which need to be added to the weaponsdata ini (if you not using an add-on weapons pak)

There are butt-loads of other ones, but we'll need to know which one...

 

As to the Cat extractor, it's herein the "Utilities and Tools" downloads section. Basically what it is, is a program and 'unpacks' files from the ***.cat (or catalouge) file. Like a Windows cab file; they store all the little bits that make the game run. Like aircraft data inis, decals for markings; for the terrain cats (ie: VietnamSEA.cat) it has all the buildings and tiles that give the terrain's their looks

 

In this case, you'll need to get the extractor, and install it; my reccomendation is into a "Extractor" folder inside the game. Just create a new folder, and move it ther after unzipping it. You'll then have to right-click on the exe, and set the "Properties". You'll use Win95 compatibility mode. Click 'apply' and you're off.

 

(in as aside, I personally belive THIS is the single most important tool ever created for this series. Without it, nothing can be modded)

 

Here's a link to my tut on adjusting the years:

 

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=27492

 

Here's how to use the weapons editor:

 

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=9323

 

NOTE: this is an old version. Fully patched up games CAN use a seperate /Weapons folder to place the WeaponsData.in and WeaponsData.dat into. This is HIGHLY reccomended, even for those NOT using a weapons pak.

 

Unfortunately, there as yet ISN'T one on how to use the extractor. I guess I'll have to write one up. Odd, that there isn't one.

 

Quickley, you double click on the "sfp1e.exe" to start it.

It'll ask where you want to go, meaning which game, then which folder for whatever cat you're going to pull stuff from. Navigate to the correct folder;

I'm assuming WoV, so go to the /Flight folder.

You'll see all the different cats listed; the one you'll want to open is the "MissionData.cat"

Scroll down until you see the "SingleMission.ini".

Double click, and you'll get a little noise, and a pop-up saying "Extraced File Done!", inside the box tells you the destination folder; in this case it stays IN the /Flight folder.

Don't worry about trying to put it back in the cat - you can't- it just stays were it goes. The game engine knows to look inside folders first, before using goodies from the cats.

Close the extractor.

 

You then can edit the ini with your text editor of choice; Notepad, wordpad, Word, whatever you want. (btw: notepad works the best, IMHO)

 

And that's pretty much it.

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[HawgEngineMech 0]

Ok, after feeling like WOV has become a total mess on my computer I decided to reinstall it. So, what I have now is the game plus patches 1,2, & 3. Let's see if I can get this whole thing figured out step by step. From adding the extractor to adding all the aircraft regardless of era. I d/l'd the extractor as you suggested but ran into problems. It is now reinstalled and I think ready to go. At this point what would you suggest I do?

 

PropMech

[Wrench 9,846]

Don't add anything; Don't change anything.

 

Play some singlemissions, play a campaign; make sure everything STOCK works correctly FIRST before modding.

 

SUGGESTED: if you have room on your HD, make a 2nd install (just copy the whole thing to a new folder. Name the Folder "WoV_Modded".) Create a new shortcut to it as well. That way you always have the stock, un-messed-with version to copy broken bits from to the modded install

 

THEN you can start adding stuff to the modded install ONLY, one at a time, and see what works and what don't.

 

BTW, what OS are you running? Windoze XP or Vista? Vista has a whole 'nuther set of issues...

 

Wrench

kevin stein

[HawgEngineMech 0]

I never thought about having another copy on my desktop, I'll be sure to do that. The op system I'm using is windows XP. With all the horrible things I've heard about Vista there's no way I'm using that thing. I'll jump on it and see what's working and then go from there.

 

PropMech

[+malibu43 142]

Ok, after feeling like WOV has become a total mess on my computer I decided to reinstall it. So, what I have now is the game plus patches 1,2, & 3. Let's see if I can get this whole thing figured out step by step. From adding the extractor to adding all the aircraft regardless of era. I d/l'd the extractor as you suggested but ran into problems. It is now reinstalled and I think ready to go. At this point what would you suggest I do?

 

PropMech

 

FWIW, there should only be 2 patches. The first one is a service pack: http://www.thirdwire.net/files/dl/WOV_sp051506a.exe

 

And the second one is a patch: http://www.thirdwire.net/files/dl/WOV_p083006.exe

 

Make sure these are the only patch-type things you're installing.

 

Also, just since Wrench didn't mention it, I'll also suggest you take a careful look through the readme files for both of those aircraft and ensure that you didn't forget an installation step in there somewhere...

 

Edited July 14, 2008 by malibu43

[HawgEngineMech 0]

FWIW, there should only be 2 patches. The first one is a service pack: http://www.thirdwire.net/files/dl/WOV_sp051506a.exe

 

And the second one is a patch: http://www.thirdwire.net/files/dl/WOV_p083006.exe

 

Make sure these are the only patch-type things you're installing.

 

Also, just since Wrench didn't mention it, I'll also suggest you take a careful look through the readme files for both of those aircraft and ensure that you didn't forget an installation step in there somewhere...

 

 

I didn't realize there are only two patches so thats probably where at least some of my problems are coming from. So I uninstalled the game and reinstalled it and I'm having problems still. When I read the error message it tells me that theres a problem with missileobject.dll and singlemission.dll. So I'm now down to deleteing everything I have for the game from my D drive and then reinstall the game again....Man have I screwed this sim up somethin' feirce! But I will prevail!!!!

Thanks for the advice Malibu43. Some really nice guys on this site.

 

PropMech

[HawgEngineMech 0]

Now nothing works and error messages abound. I get missileobject.dll, singlemission.dll, and campaign.dll errors. Uninstalling and reinstalling does nothing. Whatever was there causing problems in the first place is appearantly not within the game anymore. I don't really know where to turn at this point. It's starting to seem like a total loss. Looks like I need to read those readme's a little closer next time. I have the extractor and I've extracted everything I can possibly think of.

 

PropMech

[MigBuster 2,884]

Is direct X okay? Go to start->run and type "dxdiag" -

and note the version and see if there are any issues

 

May be worth trying a reinstall of direct X - there is a link on the Thirdwire patch page

 

If thats okay then you shouldnt be getting any problems with a clean install!

 

1. Uninistall the game

2. Manually remove anything left in the actual games folder (ie C:\program files\WOV\).

<restart PC>

3. reinstall the game

4. test it

<restart PC>

5. add patch 150506 then test etc

[Shaolin 0]

Just one little thing:

Don't just uninstall it!

You should delete the whole directory after uninstalling the game - if there are errors caused by the wrong patch (or anything else) it might be the uninstall routine doesn't delete it...

Edited July 15, 2008 by Shaolin

[+Julhelm 266]

If you bought it from the online Third Wire store it's already patched and applying the patches with screw up your install.

[HawgEngineMech 0]

Ok, well after feeling really dumb for not realizing I had to delete the entire directory I cleaned out everything, reinstalled WOV and sure enough it worked. Show of hands, who saw that coming? Anyway, I read a reply by Malibu43 saying that there are only two patches I need. I followed the links provided in the reply, thanks I appreciate that BTW, and installed them. I also took Wrench's advice and made two separate folders, one modded, one not. Now I bought the game a couple of years ago so I have no idea if it's been patched or not, I don't think it has. After installing the service pack I get an error saying that d3dx9_30.dll could not be located. It looks to me like it's refering to Direct X. I followed the link on AC to the lastest download of Direct X and installed but I'm still getting the error. I have the .cat extractor and thought it might be something that needs to be extracted but couldn't find anything to do with that d3d9_30.dll. I'm going off memory for that error BTW but I'm pretty sure thats what it looks like. I also looked in the mods and patches page and found a few patches and updates for WOV. What of those if any do I need? I'm sure you guys are getting tired of reading questions from me but I'm new and treying to learn. All I can say is thanks for all the advice and help.

 

PropMech

[MigBuster 2,884]

You can see the version you have on the main menu screen.

 

see entire article about these things here:

 

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=25880

 

You need to install the correct patches in the correct order and only if you dont already them included in the version

[HawgEngineMech 0]

You can see the version you have on the main menu screen.

 

see entire article about these things here:

 

http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=25880

 

You need to install the correct patches in the correct order and only if you dont already them included in the version

 

Thanks, that article was a huge help. I'll check out what version I have and then go from there. I'll also have to get direct x 9 again appearantly.

 

Thanks again

 

PropMech

[HawgEngineMech 0]

After reading all your posts and doing some research on my own I finally installed everything in the correct order and I've adjusted the operations years. First let me say thank you to all of you who have posted and given me a hand. You guys are awesome. The game is working great and all the aircraft I'm installing are showing up and working pretty much as advertised. Something weird though when I use the SU-27 and F-15. While I'm still sitting on the runway I get a call from red crown saying mission complete RTB. Anyone every ran into to this?

 

PropMech

Edited July 17, 2008 by PropMech