Operation Desert Storm: 30th Anniversary Edition

[+yakarov79]

It is free. 

[+Menrva]

2 hours ago, ARG16 said:

Wonderful job, dear. I'm going to hope that one day it will be free like the other mods, for personal reasons. Will it ever be free? Best regards.

It is free. We currently are restricting downloads to recognized modders and subscribers of the site; CombatACE does have important costs for hosting files and all of the forums, and it's a "home" for us modders to discuss and work together. If it's not supported, eventually the site as we know it would disappear. We modders would like to keep this site alive.

At some point it should be available for download to anyone, but it depends if you're willing to wait an as of yet indeterminate amount of time. A 1 month subscription to the site should be reasonable and grants you unrestricted number of downloads for all kinds of mods.

Just to make things clear, we modders don't get any revenue from what we do and release here (and rightly so, we produce mods in our free time just for the passion and love of creating things and letting end-users enjoy them). All the money from subscriptions goes exclusively to cover the site's costs.

The ODS 30AE total conversion is pretty much an extra for subscribers, you're paying for the subscription service, not for the mod and its contents; it currently is one of the most comprehensive and high quality freeware packages available for SF2. It is still being developed and improved, the current release is just v0.9 after all.

Edited April 26, 2021 by Menrva

[ARG16]

4 hours ago, Menrva said:

It is free. We currently are restricting downloads to recognized modders and subscribers of the site; CombatACE does have important costs for hosting files and all of the forums, and it's a "home" for us modders to discuss and work together. If it's not supported, eventually the site as we know it would disappear. We modders would like to keep this site alive.

At some point it should be available for download to anyone, but it depends if you're willing to wait an as of yet indeterminate amount of time. A 1 month subscription to the site should be reasonable and grants you unrestricted number of downloads for all kinds of mods.

Just to make things clear, we modders don't get any revenue from what we do and release here (and rightly so, we produce mods in our free time just for the passion and love of creating things and letting end-users enjoy them). All the money from subscriptions goes exclusively to cover the site's costs.

The ODS 30AE total conversion is pretty much an extra for subscribers, you're paying for the subscription service, not for the mod and its contents; it currently is one of the most comprehensive and high quality freeware packages available for SF2. It is still being developed and improved, the current release is just v0.9 after all.

Hello Menrva. Don't worry, I really understand you. I have been a modder in another era and I know how difficult it is to maintain a site that supports these people with great enthusiasm. So I really appreciate the effort and how happy they make many people. I will consider it. Best regards,

[gentlemanraptor]

Hi all, I downloaded this a little bit earlier, and it ran perfectly fine for a few missions, but now it is crashing every time it loads into an actual mission, whether it's a scramble, campaign, or loaded mission (not in any menus). The base game experiences no such crashes. I am running Win10 x64, have all DLC/expansions, and I have attached a DxDiag file on the off chance it helps.

DxDiag.txt

[+Menrva]

41 minutes ago, gentlemanraptor said:

Hi all, I downloaded this a little bit earlier, and it ran perfectly fine for a few missions, but now it is crashing every time it loads into an actual mission, whether it's a scramble, campaign, or loaded mission (not in any menus). The base game experiences no such crashes. I am running Win10 x64, have all DLC/expansions, and I have attached a DxDiag file on the off chance it helps.

One of our guys had the same issue. In his case, it was due to Nvidia drivers. If you have a Nvidia card, make sure to install the latest drivers. Also, in the game's options, make sure that you use the Nvidia GPU and not Intel's integrated GPU which is not supported.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Menrva

[gentlemanraptor]

That resolved the playability issue, but now occasionally (doesn't seem to be any particular rhyme or reason to it) textures on aircraft will fail to load and just be flat black - both inside the cockpit and on the exterior.

[+Menrva]

6 hours ago, gentlemanraptor said:

That resolved the playability issue, but now occasionally (doesn't seem to be any particular rhyme or reason to it) textures on aircraft will fail to load and just be flat black - both inside the cockpit and on the exterior.

The mod features mostly 2K textures. You need a mid to high-end video card to play the mod with the highest settings, otherwise your card will run out of memory and more textures cannot be loaded. Just lower graphics options if your system cannot handle it.

Edited May 21, 2021 by Menrva

[gentlemanraptor]

I've a 3080, doubt it's my card...hm. Have to check my NVIDIA settings.

[+Menrva]

To anyone who downloaded the mod recently, do know that we're working on a majorly improved version of the whole package, with numerous bug fixes and exclusive additions. We tried our best in order to release the mod in time for the anniversary of Desert Storm, it was all but perfect. The new release is planned sometime during Summer. If you already downloaded it in the past, we will make sure you get the latest version with no additional subscription needed, of course.

Edited May 28, 2021 by Menrva

[NotRelevant]

Seems great! If I manage to get it to launch.

[+Menrva]

The most comprehensive Gulf War package has been updated to version 0.9.5! Be sure to read the official announcement here: Operation Desert Storm: 30th Anniversary Edition - v0.9.5 Announcement

NOTE: If you have the previous 0.9.0 version installed, please use the uninstaller to remove it completely. Clean installation is mandatory for version 0.9.5. You might want to make a backup of the Controls folder, so that you can easily restore your controller settings afterwards.

Edited August 2, 2021 by Menrva

[+Viggen]

Can't wait to get the update installed. Adjusted mission rate will be nice!

[davenunez]

I am enjoying 0.9.5. One issue is that the F/A-18C reliably causes a CTS on load around 80%. Most other aircraft work ok.

[+strahi]

I noticed that on a mission 910129 OP-4 Defense, F-15E, aims at a friendly target, Staging Base November, which is currently under attack by Iraqi forces. 

[+Menrva]

4 minutes ago, strahi said:

I noticed that on a mission 910129 OP-4 Defense, F-15E, aims at a friendly target, Staging Base November, which is currently under attack by Iraqi forces. 

The F-15E is tasked with defensive CAS over that staging base, so they aim at the Iraqi forces. If they hit a friendly target, nothing we can do. In the bigger picture, I think there are more important things to worry about.

[Stick]

On 05/08/2021 at 7:05 PM, strahi said:

I noticed that on a mission 910129 OP-4 Defense, F-15E, aims at a friendly target, Staging Base November, which is currently under attack by Iraqi forces. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Khafji#Beginning_of_Iraqi_offensive:_29_January

As mentioned by Menrva, it is a defensive CAS mission. Historically also, there were a number of fratricides and Al-Khafji was an indicator of casualty trends in ODS.

However, I have never seen AI friendly fire incidents except for for errant wingmen trying to ram me when forming up or a stray IR missile - this is new!

[WitchyWoman]

I am getting an 80% crash on both OV10 squadrons in launching a campaign mission. Im running an i7, 16 gb, win 10 on a nvidia 2070 card so its not my system.  Any other modded version of SF2 doesn't have this issue,

 

Update, set to high it works. Is there any NVG mod in this? Would help on some night missions.

Edited August 9, 2021 by WitchyWoman

[WitchyWoman]

Crashing at 80% again on hawk and skyhawk, kuwait campaigns

 

log

 

Faulting application name: OperationDesertStorm.exe, version: 13.7.0.35, time stamp: 0x51d22110
Faulting module name: nvwgf2um.dll, version: 30.0.14.7141, time stamp: 0x60ebe0c6
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x002b89b3
Faulting process id: 0x30a4
Faulting application start time: 0x01d78cd0553a1123
Faulting application path: D:\Strike Fightrs\OperationDesertStorm.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nvaci.inf_amd64_18c5552cded2a330\nvwgf2um.dll
Report Id: 474e9fb0-ccf8-4ccd-9677-f2e993420ee2
Faulting package full name:

Edited August 9, 2021 by WitchyWoman

[+guuruu]

In the most cases it is probably overloading of GPU memory. ODS30 is really big package and SF2 engine isn't perfect and probably trying to load all needed skins.

I'm afraid only 1 solution is lowering graphic settings. It's not even question of your GPU, but old game engine. Leavy only 1 UNLIMITED for cockpit.

I've really poor platform (old i5, and HD6670) and with correct settings, have no problem with 80% stuck, however it was present with higher graphic settings.

You must just experiment and find correct values. We're not magicians and can't do nothing with old engine ;-) Good luck..

[+yakarov79]

1 hour ago, guuruu said:

We're not magicians and can't do nothing with old engine ;-) 

Well nickname WitchyWoman give us some indications that some might have some connections...

[+Menrva]

4 hours ago, WitchyWoman said:

Crashing at 80% again on hawk and skyhawk, kuwait campaigns

Faulting module name: nvwgf2um.dll

Nothing to do with our mod, nor with Strike Fighters 2. The faulting module is part of the Nvidia drivers, so it's most likely an issue with Nvidia video drivers. Reinstall and/or update Nvidia drivers to the latest version.

My system is an incredibly old Pentium Dual-Core 2.7 GHz, with a low-end Nvidia GeForce 710. No crashes ever experienced on my end, just very long loading times on Unlimited settings. The mod itself is incredibly stable; it was tested rather extensively, we do our best not to release anything broken. Any crashes are mostly dependant on the system of the end-user. Use third-party softwares such as Driver Booster to keep hardware drivers updated.

Edited August 9, 2021 by Menrva

[+strahi]

3 hours ago, guuruu said:

In the most cases it is probably overloading of GPU memory. ODS30 is really big package and SF2 engine isn't perfect and probably trying to load all needed skins.

I'm afraid only 1 solution is lowering graphic settings. It's not even question of your GPU, but old game engine. Leavy only 1 UNLIMITED for cockpit.

I've really poor platform (old i5, and HD6670) and with correct settings, have no problem with 80% stuck, however it was present with higher graphic settings.

You must just experiment and find correct values. We're not magicians and can't do nothing with old engine ;-) Good luck..

I'll send you some files in your 📥

[WitchyWoman]

Its working fine now.

[ClearedHotFilms]

On 1/31/2021 at 12:03 PM, Veltro2k said:

i know its something simple, but when I click the DS icon it brings up a regular SF2 screen

This is my issue. I have everything installed right as far as I can gather, but hitting the shortcut or .exe Desert Storm simply brings up vanilla SF2. I have an all-five merged up to date install.

[+Menrva]

5 hours ago, ClearedHotFilms said:

This is my issue. I have everything installed right as far as I can gather, but hitting the shortcut or .exe Desert Storm simply brings up vanilla SF2. I have an all-five merged up to date install.

The installer automatically installs the mod folder in the Saved Games folder of your Windows OS. It works just like usual SF2 mod folders. If it brings up vanilla SF2, it means it's looking at the wrong path/disk letter, and creates an empty OperationDesertStorm mod folder where it's meant to be. Find the real mod folder (it should be 15GB or so in size), open the Options.ini file and check the path it references.

The guy you quoted actually solved it, this is his message:

On 31/1/2021 at 9:24 PM, Veltro2k said:

strange,  for some reason it created another saved games folder 

On 31/1/2021 at 9:38 PM, Veltro2k said:

Ok i moved the folder to the correct saved games folder, and it works now

Hopefully this is your case, and it's just a matter of moving the mod folder in its entirety where it should be.

 

I have no clue as to why this happens and I cannot debug such occurrences since I cannot replicate them on my end where it all works fine. I believe this is more an issue with Windows itself, because the installer should point to the real Saved Games folder. If another one is created, it could be due to issues gently offered by MS.

Edited August 15, 2021 by Menrva