Some newbie questions

[vonOben 55]

Hi

I have recently started a "Armchair Aces Redux" campaign in FE2 and have some newbie questions.

1. I have some graphical terrain problems were the terrain tile isn't rendered. It always happens in the edge of my screen.
My video card is a Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 5770, 1GB GDDR4, PCI-E 2.0 and I've tried different drivers without any luck.
I'm using Jan Tumas terrain with modded town and water tiles by Bandy, but it also happens with default terrain and without any mods.

 

2. I also have some flickering objects in the terrain like houses and trees and such things. My Anisotropic setting in Catalyst Control Setting is "Use application settings", if that is of any importance. Is there some way to fix that?

3. My frame rate is normaly 30+, but during dogfights with AA explosions it can drop to about 20. Which setting/settings is the best to reduce to improve frame rate in this situation.?
My current settings are:

 

4. Is the in-flight map always full screen or could that be changed to only have a smaller map like in IL-2?

5. I've edited Viewlist.ini changing the FOV setting, but what does the FOVRate control?

6. I've tested Guitarclassic55_Menu_Screens_with_MOVIE.zip and it was a nice improvement to the default screens, but the Campaign screen gave CTD. When I removed the Campaignscreen.ini no CTD, but when trying to delete an old campaign it also gave a CTD.
Any ideas how to fix this?

7. Sometimes mapped keys doesn't work, Esc didn't work, key for "Normal Time" didn't work. Any ideas why this happens and what to do about it?

8. In one mission when I had a gun jam the unjam key didn't had any effect. Are not all jams possible to unjam? Perhaps it's related to previous question?

9. Does FE2 use all cores or should it be tweaked to use a specific core on a dual core system with Windows XP?

10. The AI seems to use to much elevator movements so they fly bumpy. Is there any fix for that?

11. The AI fires their guns at long distances and have lousy hit accuracy around 5%. Is this normal?

Thanks in advance!

Cheers

vonOben
 

[+VonS 1,424]

Is this the same great vonOben who hosts the vonOben mods site that still includes a nice section for Red Baron 3D? Welcome to FE2 by the way.

 

I'm unable to answer all of your questions but I can try helping out with a few of them. One thing to keep in mind, in order to reduce flickering of tiles, towns, objects, and other things in FE2 - is never to set anything to "unlimited." I see two settings are set to unlimited in your choices - those should be reduced to "high." That might also help with frame rates. Turning off lens flare and in more extreme cases reducing the resolution to 1600 x 900 might do the trick with better frame rates too.

 

Since I run the game in WineSkin on a Mac, I am frequently aware of mapped keys getting stuck or not working - the only solution to that is to go into your user game folder for FE2 (not the game itself but the user game folder) - and search for a folder called "Controls" - inside that folder is a Default.INI file that can be opened in any text editor. Go in there and modify key mappings manually and re-save the file. That should solve the problem with stubborn or stuck key mappings.

 

FE2 uses multiple cores - FE1 and FEgold used a single processor core I think.

 

"Bouncy elevators," also known as porpoising - can be reduced by lowering the "ElevatorDeltaPitch" value in the data ini file for the aircraft that is displaying the problem. (Values should be set to between about 1.0 and 1.5. Often they are as high as 3.0 and this causes nasty bouncing when the AI is chasing you.) Same thing with gun unjams. The gun unjam setting can be toggled either to true or false (allow or don't allow for gun jams) - this is in the data ini file too. Those files reside in the aircraft folder that you've installed and can also be opened in a text editor and modified. Planes that came stock with the game probably don't have the data ini present (for those you have to extract their data inis from one of the game's files known as CAT files). A much simpler solution is to download my FM tweaks for the game and install either all the data ini tweaks or choose the ones you want, since I've extracted and modified the data inis for the stock planes too, and I've tried to get rid of elevator "porpoising" whenever possible too. There's a detailed Read Me file included with my FM tweaks - if you are familiar with the Greybeard tweaks for RB3D - mine are similar in the sense of trying to be historical.

 

My FM tweaks are located at:

 

http://combatace.com/files/file/15857-tweaked-flight-models-for-fe2/

 

To improve accuracy rates for guns fired by AI, try tweaking the following three settings located under the AIData section of the data ini file for the plane that's displaying the lousy marksmanship:

 

GunnerFireChance=

GunnerFireTime=

GunnerAimOffset=

 

The above three settings are still a mystery to me as well and I haven't yet bothered tweaking them.

 

Also, if you want more easily to try improving AI accuracy (of opponents) - set the enemy skill level under game settings from normal to hard and see if this improves things, before tinkering with the data ini settings.

 

Happy flying,

Von S

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

Like VonS said - Welcome to First Eagles.

 

FOV means "field of view" and determines how much of the terrain you see on the screen. A wide field of view causes the image to stretch around the edges (a "fish eye" look) which I can see in the screen shot you posted. Most cameras are around 50, try setting to 50 and see how you like it. You won't be able to see as much, but the screen should look more "normal." This may also help with the missing tiles around the edges.

[Nicholas Bell 117]

11. The AI fires their guns at long distances and have lousy hit accuracy around 5%. Is this normal?

In either the AIRCRAFTAIDATA.INI file or in the individual aircraft [AIDATA] section lower the CannonFireAngle drastically to improve the AI aim.

 

In the same section you can edit the MaxCannonRange to stop the crazy long range firing.  I cut mine in half for starters.

[vonOben 55]

Hi guys!

Thanks for the friendly welcome and all suggestions!
Much appreciated!

 

VonS;
Yes, I have some old RB3D stuff on my site.

2. Ok, I'll test changing to "high" in the graphics settings instead of "unlimited".

7. I've done all key mapping from within FE2, and everything worked then. Is it better to edit the Default.ini from Notepad when keys don't work? Should i change to different keys test in game and then change back to the keys I want again?

8/10. I've always liked Greybeards RB3D FM's. Can your FM's be used together with Peter01 FM if you haven't a complete set, without affecting the historical balance between different aircrafts?
Does your files allow for unjamming or is it perhaps depending on the plane type and if it was historically doable?
 

Stephen1918;
I know what FOV means, but in Viewlist.ini there are both FOV= and FOVRate=, so I wonder what is the the difference between FOW= and FOVRate=?

And I would like to thank you for all aircraft and other models you have done for FE!
I've downloaded quite a lot of them for "Armchair Aces Redux"!
It's because all nice mods by you and all other modders that I finally decided to buy FE2!
 

Nicholas Bell;
Thanks for the tips!
I found this interesting topic about the AI gunnery:
http://combatace.com/topic/20350-ai-wingmen/

 

Cheers
vonOben

 

 

[+mue 715]

1. I have some graphical terrain problems were the terrain tile isn't rendered. It always happens in the edge of my screen.

I had the same problem. It happens with large FOV. I use a FOV of 90 degrees.

Setting the Horizon Distance to Very Far fixed it for me.

 

2. I also have some flickering objects in the terrain like houses and trees and such things. My Anisotropic setting in Catalyst Control Setting is "Use application settings", if that is of any importance. Is there some way to fix that?

I assume the flickering objects you mean are caused by z-buffer-fighting.

I wrote a post how to get rid of this flickering: http://combatace.com/topic/85970-shimmering-tods-and-target-objects/

Short summary: try to increase ExternalClipDistMin= in <aircraft>_cockpit.ini as much as possible (however it can't be increased very much without cockpit clipping issues) and use the modified terrain shaders from the above mentioned post.

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

...

 

Stephen1918;

I know what FOV means, but in Viewlist.ini there are both FOV= and FOVRate=, so I wonder what is the the difference between FOW= and FOVRate=?

...

I understand. Zooming in is actually making the field of view narrower. Perhaps the rate controls how fast it zooms? I don't really know for sure, this calls for some experimentation.

[+VonS 1,424]

Hi vonOben,

 

Yes, it's best to edit the Default.ini from within Notepad for stubborn key mappings, retest in the game, then modify again in the Default.ini file if necessary and re-save in Notepad.

 

All of my FM tweaks allow for unjamming. I think such was the case historically, with the rare exception of a Lewis gun on the top wing of a Nieuport or SE5a in a nasty slipstream or in the heat of a dogfight - you would then have to get above the dogfight, stop fighting, and reload the guns - clumsy but probably workable if you were fast enough. Although I'm assuming that pilots would just continue using the Vickers, or get away from a fight if they had a serious gun jam and no extra gun available.

 

Most of my FM tweaks are tweaks of the Peter01/Ojcar FMs. In cases where this was not possible, I tweaked the older Laton/Texmurphy FMs available for some of the models here. My tweaks cover about 70% of the aircraft available in the game and on the site here, for the rest of the stuff I recommend the Peter01 mods - I will try to get around to doing another 10 or so planes in my next version 8.0 update of the FM tweaks but I think I have covered most of the important (popular) types so far.

 

Only in three or four cases did I choose the Laton FMs to tweak over the Peter01 ones - for the Morane Bullet (N type), to differentiate it slightly from the Morane Bullet (I type) for which I used the Peter01 mod of the type N. Also for the Pfalz E.I and E.II I stuck with tweaking the Laton FM and used the Ojcar one for the Pfalz. E.IV, again to give a sense of differentiation but tweaking for similarity, to give a historical sense of the same line of aircraft, with different capabilities of course. Also for the Nieu. 11 and 24 I had to tweak the Texmurphy FM since I think that is all that's available for those types - but eventually this worked out well, though those FMs were tough to tame.

 

The only other FMs available for some of the types are the old Bortdafarm ones, but those are difficult to tweak - I was lucky to be able to fix up the Fokker B.II (single-bay Fokker version of the D.II) since there is an Ojcar/Peter01 FM available for the D.II that I already tweaked - this required some combination of data from the D.II with the B.II file but eventually resulted in a flyable Fokker B.II in FE2, a rare plane but fun (and dangerous) to fly.

 

Happy flying,

Von S

[vonOben 55]

Hi

1&3. Changing Horizon Distance to Very Far fixed the terrain problem! But it lowers my framerate. I've lowered "Ground objects" settings, but my framerate is still slightly low. I've tested lowering several settings without any frame rate increase. What is the "best" setting to lower to increase framerate and still get decent look in game?

2. I've tested the fe2_zbufferoffset_shaders.zip. The instruction says "Put the shader files (*.fx) into the Terrains\<terrain> directory."
I assume this means I'll put it it the Terrains\Flanders for example? I couldn't se any noticeable improvement, but I haven't tweaked the ExternalClipDistMin= value yet.
Also are the river tiles rendered more detailed with the ground objects visible in longer distances compared to the surrounding tiles?
It looks like that in my install anyway:

 

4. How do I remove the text on the in-flight map? I saw a screen shot by 33LIMA that looked much better.
Mine looks like this:

 

The one posted by 33LIMA:

 

9. Here' how my Core usage looks after a FE2 mission:

 

The first core is fully used but my second is only used about 30% during the mission. Does that seem to be ok for FE2?
My CPU is a AMD Phenom II x2 550BE 3.1 GHz.

10/11. I've added the "Tweaked Flight Models" by VonS, but I'll post about that in the "Tweaked Flight Models" thread instead.
http://combatace.com/topic/87403-tweaked-flight-models-for-fe2/page-2

Cheers

vonOben

[+VonS 1,424]

Hi vonOben,

 

The main settings I've found that help increase frame rates are ground detail, also the terrain effects and objects on the ground - those when set to "medium" have helped me with reasonable frame rates. Also, I usually keep the water detail at "medium." Haven't experimented too much with the other settings to see how much they help.

 

Here are my graphics settings from the Options.ini file:

 

[GraphicsOptions]

DisplayDeviceID=0

DisplayWidth=1600

DisplayHeight=900

DisplayDepth=32

AspectRatio=1.777778

AntiAliasing=4

UseAdvancedShaders=0

ForceDX9=FALSE

ForceVSyncOff=FALSE

LensFlare=2

DetailLevel=4

ObjectDetail=1

ObjectTexture=1

CockpitTexture=1

CockpitMirrors=0

CockpitReflection=0

EffectsDetail=1

TerrainDetail=1

TerrainTexture=1

HorizonDistance=0

GroundObjectDensity=1

WaterDetail=1

CloudsDetail=2

Shadow=0

 

They give me good frame rates but you might have to tinker with them further for your particular graphics card (I have the HD 4000, the integrated one from Intel, in a quad-core i7 Mac Mini).

 

Alternate in-flight maps are probably what you are thinking of (if you don't like the stock ones with text). Here are a couple of variations on in-flight maps (I haven't tried the alternate ones out so I don't know how well they work):

 

http://combatace.com/files/file/11899-new-fe2-in-flight-map/

 

http://combatace.com/files/file/14555-planing-maps/

 

Your installation of the terrain z-buffer shader alteration is correct (it goes into the relevant terrain folder under the "terrains" folder).

 

I would assume that 30% utilization of the second processor core is acceptable variation. It's possible that FE2 is programmed to use one core and then "some" of the other core for an extra multi-processing boost. It's way beyond my technical knowledge whether programs can be coded to take advantage of only part or a fraction of a core, rather than the whole core - I see no reason why this wouldn't be possible (to offset some tasks from the game, but not all of them, to a second core). Those with degrees in software design might want to pitch in with some of their thoughts here.

 

Thank you for the post regarding the FM tweaks (have responded over there to those).

 

Happy flying,

Von S

Edited May 19, 2016 by VonS

[33LIMA 972]

IIRC, to get rid of the 'AWACS effect' of the map view displaying icons for friendly and enemy aircraft, which I think is the single most important map mod because it is not merely cosmetic, I commented out the lines in the [Map] section of the file [user-name]/Saved Games/ThirdWire/FirstEagles2/Flight/MISSIONCONTROL.INI, shown in bold below, by adding two forward slashes to the start of each line after opening the file in Wordpad:

 

[Map]
UseRelativeAlignment=FALSE
RotateRunwayHeading=FALSE
MapIconSize=32
//FriendlyIcon=MapFriendlyIcon.tga
//EnemyIcon=MapEnemyIcon.tga
FriendlyRunwayIcon=MapFriendlyRunwayIcon.tga
EnemyRunwayIcon=MapEnemyRunwayIcon.tga
RadarIcon=MapRadarIcon.tga
WaypointIconSize=16
WaypointIcon=MapWaypointIcon.tga
IPIcon=MapIPIcon.tga
TargetIcon=MapTargetIcon.tga
WaypointLineColor=0.914,0.777,0.230
GridLineColor=0.0,0.0,0.0
GridTextColor=0.0,0.0,0.0
MinorGridLineColor=0.0,0.0,0.0,0.8
MinorGridTextColor=0.0,0.0,0.0,0.4
TextFontName=Arial
TextSize=12
 

I don't know about the text labels, but I THINK they may not appear in my FE2 maps because instead of using Ctrl+D (or whatever it is, that turns off labels and target info in the 3d world) I edited another .ini file somewhere, in a similar fashion, so that they and the target cone/marker box are permanently disabled - these are leftovers from the jet-age base game that I also consider should be completely absent in a WW1 sim. I'll post again here when I work out what that was.

[Heck 496]

This might help with your map. Although it might do more than you want. Feel free to tinker with it.

http://combatace.com/files/file/11899-new-fe2-in-flight-map/

[+Stephen1918 1,474]

...

4. How do I remove the text on the in-flight map? I saw a screen shot by 33LIMA that looked much better.

Mine looks like this:

...

 

In the Flight folder, in the HUDDATA.INi, in the section for [Map], set MapDisplayLabels to FALSE.

[vonOben 55]

Hi

 

Thanks for your help guys!

 

I'll try MapDisplayLabels to FALSE!

 

Here are my remaining problems:

 

6. I've tested Guitarclassic55_Menu_Screens_with_MOVIE.zip and it was a nice improvement to the default screens, but the Campaign screen gave CTD. When I removed the Campaignscreen.ini no CTD, but when trying to delete an old campaign it also gave a CTD.
Any ideas how to fix this?

 

12. I can't get "Map Icons for First Eagles" to work. I followed the instructions but the icons doesn't change.
I've also tried "National counters for First eagles" and since I'm using "WWI Alternative Medals Pack for FE" I also installed Nations.ini nations17.ini.
With those nation ini's installed I get a CTD in Campaign when selecting the planning map.
Perhaps I can't change the map icons when I have already a campaign started?

 

Best regards

 

vonOben

[vonOben 55]

Hi

 

Regarding the in-flight map:

I've earlier changed to these settings to get rid of the aircraft icons:

 

MISSIONCONTROL.INI
[Map]
FriendlyIcon=
EnemyIcon=

 

In HUDDATA.INI was already MapDisplayLabels=FALSE
But it was easy to figure out what to change to get rid of the annoying text.
So I changed to the below settings and that worked well.

 

[MapLabels]
EnableLabels=FALSE
LabelFriendlyAir=FALSE
LabelFriendlyGround=FALSE
LabelEnemyAir=FALSE
LabelEnemyGround=FALSE

 

Any ideas of the remaining issues?

 

Best regards

 

vonOben

[vonOben 55]

Hi

 

Any ideas about my remaining problems, please? 

 

And a new one...

 

13. I can't get "deselect target" to work, I've tried different keys but none works.... 

 

 

Here are my remaining problems:

 

6. I've tested Guitarclassic55_Menu_Screens_with_MOVIE.zip and it was a nice improvement to the default screens, but the Campaign screen gave CTD. When I removed the Campaignscreen.ini no CTD, but when trying to delete an old campaign it also gave a CTD.
Any ideas how to fix this?

 

12. I can't get "Map Icons for First Eagles" to work. I followed the instructions but the icons doesn't change.
I've also tried "National counters for First eagles" and since I'm using "WWI Alternative Medals Pack for FE" I also installed Nations.ini nations17.ini.
With those nation ini's installed I get a CTD in Campaign when selecting the planning map.
Perhaps I can't change the map icons when I have already a campaign started?

 

Best regards

 

vonOben

[+VonS 1,424]

Hi VonOben, hopefully someone will notice your questions who has more experience with that side of FE2, but I want to thank you for posting over on the old INI Tweaks and Changes thread earlier today. For some reason I missed that series of posts but it came in very handy, so handy that I will post a more elegant hud view that I'm now tweaking, with my 8.0 FM updates, for the "Flight" folder. Thank you! (For "deselect target," open the Default.ini file in the "Controls" folder manually and then assign a key to the DESELECT_TARGET entry, I went in there now and noticed that nothing is assigned there by default.)

 

Happy flying,

Von S

 

 

Edited May 30, 2016 by VonS

[vonOben 55]

Hi vonS

Thanks for replying!   


13. I've edited Default.ini file in notepad and from the game and assigned different keys to DESELECT_TARGET.
But it still doesn't work.

14. There is no pilot in the Fokker E.I, is that as it should be?

 

S!

 

vonOben

[+VonS 1,424]

Hi vonS

 

Thanks for replying!   

 

 

13. I've edited Default.ini file in notepad and from the game and assigned different keys to DESELECT_TARGET.

But it still doesn't work.

 

14. There is no pilot in the Fokker E.I, is that as it should be?

 

S!

 

vonOben

 

Hi vonOben, I've tested the deselect_target settings further and it makes no difference unfortunately. The only way to deselect is to select another target it seems. I've set up the Default.ini file so that one key selects enemy planes and my "g" key cycles through ground targets and observation balloons. This is the best compromise I've been able to attain but at least it functions well.

 

There should be a pilot in all of the plane cockpits. Some have custom pilots that come with the airplane pack. I think the Ansaldo has a custom Italian pilot that should be installed into the "Pilots" folder, there is also a custom pilot contained in the Hansa-Brandenburg D.I aircraft file available here on the site.

 

I've reset many of the pilots to the newer ones that Stephen1918 made available several months ago for FE2.

 

Those pilot skins are available at:

 

http://combatace.com/files/file/15832-pilots-with-helmets-for-first-eagles/

 

Simply download, open the file, install into your "Pilots" folder, and the pilots should then show up (the Fokk E.Ia pilot should have a black helmet in my current tweak for the data ini...the E.IIa pilot should have a standard leather helmet, not the thicker one of the Fokk E.Ia pilot....).

 

Pilots can be toggled using the PilotModelName entry in the data ini files.

 

The standard ones that correspond to the pilots pack by Stephen1918 are:

 

PilotModelName=wwiPilotNew1

PilotModelName=wwiPilotNew2

PilotModelName=wwiPilotNew3

PilotModelName=wwiPilotNew4

PilotModelName=FrHelmetPilot

PilotModelName=FrScarfPilot

PilotModelName=GerHelmetPilot

PilotModelName=GerScarfPilot

 

The folders that have spaces in their names such as "British Summer Pilot" are not completed yet from what I've been able to see, and can't be called up using the PilotModelName entry, only the ones I've listed above.

 

For the Brandenburg D.I, the entry should read as:

 

PilotModelName=narrowplt

 

For the Ansaldo, use:

 

PilotModelName=WW1pilot01

 

For the Caudrons and some other special planes like the Caproni bomber, the old pilots can be changed to:

 

PilotModelName=CaudronPilot

 

This looks much better than the old entries that are by default:

 

PilotModelName=WWIpilot

 

The old entry gives a rougher looking head, I've left it in place in a few of the models for variety, but it can easily be replaced with the newer skins.

 

Here's a pic below of what files should be in your Pilots folder, so that the correct pilot heads install with my data inis.

 

Happy flying,

Von S

 

[+Geezer 3,569]

 

The folders that have spaces in their names such as "British Summer Pilot" are not completed yet from what I've been able to see, and can't be called up using the PilotModelName entry, only the ones I've listed above.

 

 

You have a disconnect somewhere, as the pilots with spaces in their names have been working OK for years.  Normally, FE2 will only run pilot figures named wwiPilotNew1 through 4.  Perhaps Steven1918 found a workaround for his pilots with crash helmets?  Sample shot below of Desert Pilot.

 

 

[+Geezer 3,569]

I don't claim to know all of the many details about FE2 files. 

 

The following is what I've found to work when making new pilots for FE2.  FE2 defaults to four different pilot figures: wwiPilotNew1, wwiPilotNew2, wwiPilotNew3, and wwiPilotNew4.  If you wish to run substitute pilots, you must create a Pilots folder in the objects folder - this is the ONLY location where FE2 substitute pilots will display ingame. 

 

Inside the Pilots folder should look like the image below.

- A complete set of files for a substitute pilot must display, or FE2 will run the default pilot.

- A set of files consists of wwiPilotNewX.LOD and wwiPilotNewX.OUT, plus the associated art files for that substitute pilot

- Other pilots can be temprarily stored in the Pilots folder, but they must be located inside another folder

- FE2 does not look for files inside any folders located inside the Pilots folder - FE2 only runs those pilot files that are displayed when you first open the Pilots folder

 

Hope this helps.

 

[+VonS 1,424]

Thank you for posting your Pilots folder pic Geezer, I will compare with mine and see what I can do to call up the pilot heads that I can't get visible in game. It's possible that Stephen has made some workaround for the cork helmet pilots since I can call those folders up directly within the Pilots folder, but the ones with spaces in names I can't call up...very interesting. I will try to bring all of the files directly into the main Pilots folder as you've done and will see if this makes any changes.

 

Happy flying,

Von S

[+Geezer 3,569]

Again, what I've described above DOES work - it may not be the only way to get where you want to go.  Example below of an Ooops! moment shows the substitute pilot method does work.

[+VonS 1,424]

Thank you for the constructive comments. Have now experimented further and success! Nested folders do work within the Pilots folder, providing there are no spaces in the names of the folder and that the names correspond with the ini, out, and lod names of the files located inside...pic below demonstrates what I've now done with the Desert Pilot skin, also changed was the first lod number called up through the ini file, to correspond with the no. 7 now assigned to the lod file, as follows:

 

[LOD001]

Filename=wwiPilotNew7.lod

Distance=

MinObjectDistance=0.1

MaxObjectDistance=300.0

 

[LOD002]

Filename=wwiPilotNew_LOD2.lod

Distance=500

 

(The LOD002 stuff should be left as is since changing ruins the nested folder procedure.)

 

 

This process also works with the British Summer and Winter Pilots, now renamed and repackaged in folders wwiPilotNew5 and wwiPilotNew6, same thing for the German Winter Pilot - his files and bmps can be thrown into a folder named wwiPilotNew2. The solution is now quite tidy since I can call up folder names from within the pilot toggle entry of the data inis and everything is nice and packaged...

 

 

Will see if this also works with Italian Euro Pilot and also the Caudron pilot stuff that's missing an out and ini file.

 

Happy flying,

Von S

 

[+Geezer 3,569]

I think the Italian Euro Pilot is 1930s/early WW2 - the guy with the blue scarf.