Operation Desert Storm: 30th Anniversary Edition

[+Menrva]

3 hours ago, WitchyWoman said:

Is there a torrent somewhere to download this all at once?

No. Maybe one day it'll be available at ModDB, but at the moment it has to remain at CombatACE.com since it contains the works of many other modders from this site. I do not have the permissions to host it somewhere else. I cannot provide a torrent either, it means I'd have to seed it 24/7 for it to work and it'd become a cost on my end in terms of energy consumption, can't keep my PC on for just that.

3 hours ago, WitchyWoman said:

I was one of the people who paid for it before it was free.

The mod has always been free, you actually paid for CombatACE's subscription to the site which also granted access to a work in progress version of the mod as a plus. I understand you feel like you paid for it, but we developers have not made any money out of it; we simply cannot monetize upon it for our own gains, out of respect of the works of previous modders of this site. I also bought a subscription last year, I'm trying to do my part in helping to cover the website's hosting costs. This is a place for us modders and players to gather, help each other and keep the old game alive with new creations.

1 hour ago, WitchyWoman said:

so I tried the recommendations to use DXVK. I installed vulcan runtime. THe game runs fine stock but does show the built in crap intel card. When  use DXVK it does show my Nvidia 2070RTX but when running ODS it crashed to desktop as soon as I start a mission. Any ideas?

I wish I could help but I am not involved with DXVK in any way. If it crashes with the Nvidia RTX 2070 even with the stock game (you can change which GPU to use in the options screen), then I suggest you open an issue on the GitHub page of DXVK; there the DXVK developers can help you with troubleshooting. Besides, I suggest to use DXVK if you only have the weak Intel UHD integrated graphics card, because otherwise you couldn't play the mod. If you have an Nvidia RTX, you don't need it at all, the mod should run just as fine without it.

Edited February 19, 2024 by Menrva

[WitchyWoman]

The game runs fine without DXVK but you had written a suggestion about using it so I tried it out. The game obviously does not like it so I went back to playing without it.

 

I have zero problems running DCS or other high end games on max settings so its certainly not my PC causing the crash. At any rate I have gone back to playing without it so no problems. Whats weird is before the last few driver updates by nvidia, it used to show the 2070 in Strike fighters, but something has changed since and it shows the built in crap intel card instead....just weird. Regardless I did select the 2070 in graphics profile an the game runs fine.

 

Thanks for suggestions. As far as paying for access, it was late last nigh when I wrote this and that was quite a long time ago that CA offered it for download with a membership,  just did not remember the details.

[WitchyWoman]

Just a note, Nvidia had an error and did not install the new 552 driver correctly. I was able to reinstall the new nvidia update and now DXVK runs fine with SF2. If you get this problem you might encounter a BSOD so just use DDU to clean out Nvidia drivers and reinstall and all should be well.

[Antares81]

Hello MenvrA, 

I am Antares , thank You for this extaordinary mod wich I m already Flying. thank You so much really.

I' m trying to download the last updates but I don't have access, What' should I do please ? thank You in Advance.

Antares

[Mr_Tayto]

Hi, just installed the mod and looking forward to flying, I just had a hopefully easy question:

 

Is the control scheme different for this game compared to others in the SF2 family? Can I use my SF2:V controls.ini to overwrite the created one in the mod folder?

 

Thanks!

[+Nightshade/PR]

Yes

[Mr_Tayto]

Thanks, mate!

[DOC5234]

ok i dont have any idea how im gonna install it in a new installer where can i find those instructions ?

[+Menrva]

41 minutes ago, DOC5234 said:

ok i dont have any idea how im gonna install it in a new installer where can i find those instructions ?

It's all described in the download page of the mod.

[DOC5234]

thanks for come back sir the issue is when i was try to extract the İSO file it dosnt lets me as i understand i have to put them same directory with ZIP files am i right ? also the other issue was (not mod related but will be so greatful if you help) sf 2 dosnt spots my 2nd graphic card i need to that card for playing it since the first one was i5 

 

[+1Patriot-of-many]

It won't install. I have all the Strike fighters2 legit. I installed them on my raid1 (e drive) because my C: drive is only 1TB. Do I have to move everything to my C: because all the strike fighter mods probably wont fit! Please advise, I had an older version of your mod installed and suddenly it started CTD, probably because of win 10 updates.  EDIT:  Finally got it to install by moving the installation files to my C: drive but crashes or locks up at 80% with my settings on high.  I have a HP Z620  Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2670 0 @ 2.60GHz   2.60 GHz  (2 processors)     96.0 GB Ram   Nvidia  GTX1070  

Edition    Windows 10 Pro
Version    22H2
Installed on    ‎6/‎25/‎2023
OS build    19045.4529
Experience    Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19058.1000.0

This game used to work on the previous version you guys put out, but then all of a sudden it locked up or CTD at 80% so I uninstalled the previous version and get the same issue now.  BTW why are there 4 downloads to do on this mod? I didn't do anything with the other 3.    Hope to hear from you, cause I loved this mod when it worked.

 

Edited July 5, 2024 by 1Patriot-of-many

[+daddyairplanes]

2 hours ago, 1Patriot-of-many said:

 but crashes or locks up at 80% with my settings on high.

check your sound settings, particularly that you have 32 channels

it is a listed issue/fix in the mod readme.....

[+1Patriot-of-many]

1 hour ago, daddyairplanes said:

check your sound settings, particularly that you have 32 channels

it is a listed issue/fix in the mod readme.....

I've tried in 16 same thing. Missions works, campaigns it's either locks up at 80% or crashes to desktop 99 times out of a 100.   I can't even find a readme in the download files. I've tried changing settings for 3-4 hours now. I'm about to toss in the towel. I've never had so much problems with 95% of the mods here..

[+Erik]

Lower your settings to the lowest setting possible, even if your machine should be able to handle it. Play the mod at the lowest settings and see if it CTD. If it does not, then the engine is overloaded at the higher settings. This can be from things like selecting the wrong video card in the settings or selecting auto for some of the settings. There are very few issues with the mod, 95% end up being user error. Since this is an ISO file I don't know if there's a readme in the folder, I haven't looked, knowing @Menrva it's there. All the things that would be in the readme are in the mod description including the potential fixes for some issues. I suggest you start there and read it thoroughly, this is just a snippet of the text.

After all these years I still have no idea why these support topics are posted in the file announcement or in the comment section of the file. We have a perfectly good place to keep all the support tickets if we could get everyone to use it. Go to the file on the right big green button it says, "Get Support" which is a slight bit under the "Download File" button. 

E

Quote

Suggestions on common issues

• Make sure that you are using your dedicated GPU. By default, Strike Fighters 2 usually selects the integrated GPU you may have on your CPU, which is much weaker in terms of VRAM.
• In case you have frequent crashes or black/missing textures, I highly suggest you download and install the DXVK graphics wrapper (x86 DLLs) into your Strike Fighters 2 game folder: https://github.com/doitsujin/dxvk. You need a Vulkan-compatible GPU. The wrapper can greatly improve the experience with the mod. With DXVK I can play the mod on a mere Intel UHD 710, whereas without it the mod would always crash to desktop.
• Go to Sound and set Sound Channels to 32. We got reports that 16 is not enough and will cause crashes on some systems, due to the higher quality sounds included within the mod.
• The mod is pretty heavy for the game engine despite huge optimizations. Strike Fighters 2's engine is 32bit only and apparently does not manage VRAM properly; consecutive campaign missions might show black/missing textures on objects or cause crashes to desktop because the game does not release the occupied VRAM from the previous mission you played, thus the more missions are loaded consecutively, the more easily you may run out of memory. Set Ground Objects to Medium or Low, Horizon Distance to Near, and Shadows to Medium or Low. These are the most troubling settings. Avoid Unlimited settings as much as possible.
• If the mod used to work and suddenly crashes to desktop, updating or reinstalling video drivers should help. Make sure that DirectX June 2010 Redistributables are also installed, they are included inside the ISO disk image of the mod.
• Inside the mod folder, you'll find some extra text files. "(Coalition Order of Battle)" should be of your interest; the mod's terrain covers the entirety of Iraq, at the cost of not having all of Saudi Arabia; this means that a number of important units are based on airbases that are beyond the in-game playable area. With those units you always spawn near the target area, you'll never get to start from a runway nor to land on the assigned runway beyond the invisible wall. You have an entire list of the affected units in the aforementioned text file. By pressing ALT+N, the plane returns to base automatically.
• The mod is fully compatible with the Campaign Customizer and Mission Editor DLCs by ThirdWire. The Campaign Customizer might be an alternative way to experience those off map units I mentioned previously, since it assigns you to a random airbase of the in-game flyable area.
• Escort missions are often broken, this is not an issue of the mod, but a bug of the stock game; sometimes the AI flight you escort does not engage its target and keeps flying in a straight line instead of following waypoints, thus the trigger for mission success will never happen. Abandon the mission or retry it if the issue happens, sometimes it works.
• Pray for ThirdWire AKA Tsuyoshi Kawahito to work on a 64bit version of Strike Fighters 2, maybe even with support for DirectX 12. With that done, any out of memory issues should become an old memory.

 

[+1Patriot-of-many]

Yeah I read that all and I tried all the lowest settings since about 3pm.  But I think I might have found the problem. Even though I paid for all the strike fighter series, I may have just copied strike fighters2 from another of my computers on my lan. So I uninstalled ODS again. I found this in the ODS user folder

[Version]
BuildDate=Jul 2013
StrikeFighters2=FALSE
StrikeFighters2 Vietnam=TRUE
StrikeFighters2 Europe=TRUE
StrikeFighters2 Israel=TRUE
StrikeFighters2 Exp1=TRUE
StrikeFighters2 Exp2=TRUE
StrikeFighters2 NorthAtlantic=TRUE
StrikeFighters2 Exp3=FALSE

[OnlineNews]
LastUpdateVersion=Jul 2013
LastDLCCount=29

[DLC]
DLCData011=TRUE
DLCData012=TRUE
DLCData015=TRUE
DLCData017=TRUE
DLCData028=TRUE
DLCData029=TRUE

 

So rebought the whole series again becuase I can't find the email to re download it! Will be installing it shortly then I'll try reinstalling ODS. I could use some help though, there's four ISO's, how do they interact with each other? I don't quite understand, do I unzip all of them one at a time into the same place and overright each other?

[+1Patriot-of-many]

UPDATE:    THAT WAS IT.   I must have just copied Strike Fighter 2 from an old computer! It installed, I'm running everything at high except shadows and it looks amazing!  Tried two campaigns, persian gulf with an ardvark, and kuwait with a skyhawk.

I don't know how I got it to install in the first place with the missing key.

 

If anyone else is experiencing the 80% crash check your  C:\Users\"your computer name" \Saved Games\ThirdWire\OperationDesertStorm\ version for missing strikefighters2=TRUE   as well as Israel and North Atlantic

Edited July 6, 2024 by 1Patriot-of-many

[+Erik]

I'll try to walk you through this.

1. Download all four parts of the file. I put them on my desktop so it's easy for you to see, but you could put these files anywhere you want as long as they are in the same folder (directory) on a drive.

2. Make sure you have the latest version of 7zip installed. Go to https://www.7zip.com/ and download what you need. Install or update as necessary.

3. Make sure you have all the required Thirdwire Strikefighters 2 games installed and patched correctly.

4. Go to the directory where you put the downloads. For this instruction set they are on my desktop, I can move the install files after I've installed the mod. Right click the main file ODS_30AE.zip and choose to Extract to "ODS_30AE\"

** NOTE ** My right click menus look like Win7 on a Win11 machine because I hated the new right click menus in Win11. Your Windows will not look the same as mine but should function the same.

5. You should now get a new folder called "ODS_30AE" in your directory or desktop like my example.

6. Double left click that folder to open it. You will get a view of the contents in the file explorer window. 

7. Right click the ODS_30AE.ISO file. From the menu that appears you can you do two things. Mount the ISO which we will do in this example or Burn the ISO to a CD like we used to do in the old days.

8. Select "Mount" and you will see that your computer mounts the ISO just like it's a new drive on your computer. For me it appears as new DVD Drive (F:) Operation Desert Storm

9. Double left click the "installer.exe" and follow the onscreen instructions.

10. When you're done installing you will need to unmount the file. Open the file explorer window where you double clicked the installer.exe file. On the left right click "DVD Drive (F): Operation Desert Storm" and chose "Eject"

11. Now you can move the files anywhere you want for safekeeping. **Note we did nothing with the files ODS_30AE.z01, ODS_30AE.z02, ODS_30AE.z03. The installer needs those files but you don't need to do anything with them other than have them in the directory where the main download file is.

I'm sure someone will do this differently than I do and if I need to update my instructions I can, just let me know. Be nice I'm not much of a computer guy. And just as I finish this tutorial you got it to work. Glad you were part of the 95% and the installer is fine, which I suspected.

E

 

Edited July 6, 2024 by Erik
Just as I finish he gets it to install.

[+1Patriot-of-many]

Thanks very much for the help guys and Erik for the detailed post, that must have taken a while! I had already gotten it installed and running, see my last post before yours Erik.  Thanks again guys.It runs and looks beautiful.

Edited July 6, 2024 by 1Patriot-of-many

[Mr_Tayto]

Hi Folks,

 

I have a couple of issues with controls on ODS. The first and most major issue is that my throttle (X-56) never "saves" as the controller for this axis. It is detected by the game but when I start campaign, it always reverts to keyboard. The Stick, also an X-56, works perfectly, however. There are also a few commands I'm used to with the base game which are not in ODS (such as "select ground" for primary target, which, having played one mission already, seems crucial as one target in Baghdad looks the same as any other and there is no range to waypoint display in the Jaguar cockpit).

 

I had a brainwave since I started this post, that the file might be read only, and it was. Could this be the reason? Is there anything to stop me copying and pasting my SF2V controls ini to my ODS folder, as my HOTAS is configured correctly for this already?

[+Erik]

It's safe to try if you make backup of the original ODS file, then put the other in place, and start the game to check. If you need to you can revert the file to its original.

Additionally you could compare the files to see what's different between the two and then make a file by transferring in the hotas required parts only. There are comparison editors out there to download and use.

[Mr_Tayto]

Thanks @Erik

 

Just trying it with file unlocked solved my problem, just had to change flap activation!

 

Almost forgot to mention; RWR doesn't seem to work on my F14? I was getting audible spikes fine, but no symbology on the actual visual set. It did work when I flew the jaguar earlier.

Edited July 22, 2024 by Mr_Tayto

[JumperKamper]

Hi,

This is normal when flying F/A-18C and use AGM-123 (right screen goes to TV mode?) my fps drops about 50-70%?

[+warthog64]

I was wondering if it is possible to add the entire battlefleet to the carrier groups in the campaign? Is it ok to edit the data.ini file without affecting the game?

Thanks 

[+Menrva]

8 hours ago, warthog64 said:

I was wondering if it is possible to add the entire battlefleet to the carrier groups in the campaign? Is it ok to edit the data.ini file without affecting the game?

You can't, it's not a naval campaign like SF2 North Atlantic. By turning it into a naval campaign, night missions are always disabled (blame TK for this design decision).

The only reasonable workaround would be to add static ships to the terrain around the area of the carriers. It's something I might do one day.

[+Menrva]

18 hours ago, JumperKamper said:

This is normal when flying F/A-18C and use AGM-123 (right screen goes to TV mode?) my fps drops about 50-70%?

Yes, it's normal, it's an issue of the game engine, not of the mod. It doesn't always happen, it's random. When multiple effects are rendered, it is more likely that FPS drops in TV mode. Given the mod also features higher fidelity assets than the stock game, it is more likely to happen. But I also have the issue with the stock games.