Operation Desert Storm: 30th Anniversary Edition

[alecsandru1990]

menrva i gave it a 3 star review because of all the mods i have installed for this game this was the only one that didnt work , maybe it was something with the filles because i took the same mod from another source and it worked great

[+yakarov79]

What another source?  Just curious,

[+Menrva]

2 hours ago, alecsandru1990 said:

i took the same mod from another source and it worked great

There's no other source I know of. Please tell me where you got it from.

[Icarus999]

1 hour ago, Menrva said:

There's no other source I know of. Please tell me where you got it from.

Probably the original desert storm mod.

[Icarus999]

3 hours ago, alecsandru1990 said:

menrva i gave it a 3 star review because of all the mods i have installed for this game this was the only one that didnt work , maybe it was something with the filles because i took the same mod from another source and it worked great

Each one of the required TW titles had a .cat file that you need for the mod to work .... If you do not have required .cat files the problem is on your end. 

[Icarus999]

Menrva,

Thank you for the hard work on this, and thank you for the Christmas gift of the mod. Very much appreciated. 

[+Menrva]

@Icarus999 Thanks to you! Not everyone bothers to say a simple thank you.

I also want to stress out that this was all possible to teamwork and to all the support I got from awesome and talented modders. I found myself in some sort of lead role during the project, but without them the mod would have been a mere shadow of what it is now. My thanks go to @yakarov79, @guuruu, @GKABS, @Viper63a, @paulopanz, @daddyairplanes, @1977Frenchie, @dtmdragon, @Crusader, @baffmeister, @Jimbib, @ravenclaw_007, @Nyghtfall, @Veltro2k, @Dels, @RustyKurnass, @Stick. Other previous modders are also credited in the Thanks screen of the mod; many of them did contribute indirectly with their amazing past creations, still used to this day.

[alecsandru1990]

i honnestly have no clue i went in a lot of websites , but what i can tell you is that the instalation was different in the mod that did not work there was an install exe , in the one i got there were 3 parts , had to extract them from the archive and put a lot of files in (saved games) then delete 2 more filles because i couldnt see enemy planes on map and after it worked

[alecsandru1990]

however i doubt that the version that worked for me was made by someone else rather than this team so yeah amazing job , i would just like to say that if anyone encounters my error i had to try and find it with another means of instalation such as extracting from rchive 

[+Menrva]

8 minutes ago, alecsandru1990 said:

however i doubt that the version that worked for me was made by someone else rather than this team

No, that mod is totally unrelated to ours, it was made by other authors and it's entirely different.

8 minutes ago, alecsandru1990 said:

i would just like to say that if anyone encounters my error i had to try and find it with another means of instalation such as extracting from rchive 

There are no other means. In the download page there is a description of how to use the installer. The path for installation needs to be your Strike Fighters 2 game directory, where you have the required SF2 games installed. The mod will be installed automatically in a proper mod folder in the correct path on your system disk. We cannot provide more help than this. I just explained it and more details for installation are in the download page. If you do not know how to use the installer, nothing we can do.

Edited December 29, 2021 by Menrva

[alecsandru1990]

ok menrva first off i know how to use an installer , its just it didnt work in my case . cheers and have a nice day

[+Menrva]

A hotfix has just been uploaded, it is available at the end of the mod's description page. Manual installation knowledge is required.

[+whiteknight06604]

thank you for the continued support. I personally had no issues getting the mod to work but it's great to see the dedication you have to helping people get this awesome mod working for as many people as possible.

[+Menrva]

19 hours ago, whiteknight06604 said:

thank you for the continued support. I personally had no issues getting the mod to work but it's great to see the dedication you have to helping people get this awesome mod working for as many people as possible.

My thanks to you for the kind words. It's nice to see our dedication being recognized. Some might take it for granted but should remember that many payware products don't get the same amount of bugfixing and end-user support. We are doing it for free, all for passion and fun of creating new virtual experiences.

The mod also got its own page on ModDB, but just for spreading news about it. It's only available here. Got a pointless comment by a Guest user claiming that the mod is a scam, requiring users to buy it on the other site where it is hosted. We modders got no single dime from it, even though I'd need some for a new crate; ironically I can barely run the mod on my decade old PC due to excessive loading times. Maybe I should pride myself in seeing some amount of false and/or hateful statements. If we attract both flak and praise, it means we've done something special, I guess.

 

In other news, I just added Suggestions for CTD issues at the end of the mod's description page, above the Hotfix. Those suggested settings should help end-users experiencing crashes to desktop.

Edited January 3, 2022 by Menrva

[+Menrva]

@EBW For troubleshooting and support, you might want to post in this topic instead of the review section. Thanks for the positive comment, though! 

No idea why the mod does not work on your end, but if you have an old low-end system, you might try to set all graphics settings to Low. This is not stock Strike Fighters 2, the mod is much heavier on resources than stock ThirdWire games, hence you might not be able to use the same settings between the two. Also, you must have a dedicated GPU. Intel's integrated GPU is not supported and never will be, it simply cannot handle a big number of polygons and high resolution textures on this old game engine.

Let me reiterate to anyone; Minimum Requirements about video card and CPU are what they are, minimum requirements. If you're just above them, don't expect to be able to run this mod with settings on High or Unlimited. Strike Fighters 2 is one thing, this mod is another. If you can run Strike Fighters 2 on High and Unlimited, the same cannot be directly applied to the mod. It all depends on your system.

EDIT: Mod page appears as updated, but I simply added some more info in the Suggestions for CTD issues section. Mod package is the same of December, please do NOT re-download.

Edited January 8, 2022 by Menrva

[EBW]

Thanks I'll try that. Kinda new around here.

[+Menrva]

A clarification for the few ones that experienced a not working installer (without giving clues nor proof they could have given). The installer is a highly compressed package (15GB compressed to 3GB); this was possible thanks to a 64bit compression algorithm. This means that the installer may not work on 32bit systems; I am surprised people still use x86 systems in 2022 as my low-end PC already featured x64 architecture back in 2013. In the future I may plan to recompile the installer (it takes half a day if not more just to compress all files). I do not guarantee it will happen, definitely not soon. Thank you for your understanding.

Edited January 19, 2022 by Menrva

[+Viggen]

Been a hot minute since I've been able to play SF2 at all since I changed shifts at work, but last weekend I finally upgraded to the current version of the mod. Still an awesome job done by all. Really enjoy it. Game suddenly decided it won't work anymore on my computer, but that's either on SF2 or my hardware. Due for an upgrade anyway!

[+Menrva]

The entire mod has been re-uploaded and now awaiting approval. This is the same v0.9.6 version released in December but with the January Hotfix integrated into it. The only big difference is about the installer now using x86 compression, hence now it should run on a 32bit Windows OS. If you have already downloaded the mod and the installer works for you, there is little reason to download it again. Take care.

[+Menrva]

@elo82 You should post in this support topic for help, not in the comments section.

I wish I could help, but the issue you are having has to do with your system, the mod works for pretty much everyone else. You must point the installer's path to your Strike Fighters 2 game directory (you need all three SF2 games installed: SF2, SF2 Israel and SF2 North Atlantic), patched to the latest July 2013 patch. After installation of the mod, you should find something like this in your Strike Fighters 2 directory (not the mod folder):

If you do not have all three SF2 games I mentioned and do not use the latest July 2013 patch, the mod simply won't work. I cannot help more than this, I'm not on your system and I simply cannot have a clear picture of what's happening on it.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Menrva

[elo82]

The game doesnt work for me.When I start the game only the black screen stay a seconds and then comes out.Somebody can help me?

Edited January 24, 2022 by elo82

[+Menrva]

6 hours ago, elo82 said:

The game doesnt work for me.When I start the game only the black screen stay a seconds and then comes out.Somebody can help me?

First of all, this is not a standalone game, but a mod requiring you to own and have installed three Strike Fighters 2 games from ThirdWire. Second, you can't expect help when you keep ignoring my posts where I tell you what to check. Third, without any details, it's just childish to ask help like you do. You already did not one, but three times already. We cannot help you since you're on deaf ears and you still give zero clues of what you did on your end.

This is the post you have ignored, just above yours, and I had pinged you.

On 20/1/2022 at 11:43 AM, Menrva said:

I wish I could help, but the issue you are having has to do with your system, the mod works for pretty much everyone else. You must point the installer's path to your Strike Fighters 2 game directory (you need all three SF2 games installed: SF2, SF2 Israel and SF2 North Atlantic), patched to the latest July 2013 patch. After installation of the mod, you should find something like this in your Strike Fighters 2 directory (not the mod folder):

If you do not have all three SF2 games I mentioned and do not use the latest July 2013 patch, the mod simply won't work. I cannot help more than this, I'm not on your system and I simply cannot have a clear picture of what's happening on it.

I always try to help. In this case, I cannot go further than this.

Edited January 24, 2022 by Menrva

[Steve112]

Have installed the updated version, yet I am still getting CTD's despite following recommended settings etc. I've tried disabling my AV, tried the game with no controllers installed, minimum graphics settings, you name it. I have included my Direct X info if anyone would like a look and see if anything is wrong. 

DxDiag.txt

[+Menrva]

48 minutes ago, Steve112 said:

I have included my Direct X info if anyone would like a look and see if anything is wrong. 

Thank you, Steve. That was useful indeed. The DXDiag shows two problem signatures: nvwgf2um.dll (which should be NVIDIA D3D10 Driver) and GraphicsEngineDX10.dll (which is Strike Fighters 2's DX10 library for the graphics engine). This has nothing to do with the mod, sadly. Nvidia driver updates randomly cause game-breaking issues on old games like SF2 where the DirectX 10 implementation was done rather poorly.

I strongly suggest the following: reinstall DirectX runtime libraries from June 2010 (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109) and reinstall/update the Nvidia drivers on your end. Also avoid setting the Effects to Unlimited in the game's options. Hopefully this will sort the issue out.

Edited January 25, 2022 by Menrva

[+Erik]

Could this be due to a corrupt installation of the Thirdwire games, or a missing game since they need all of them? Would it be possible for the installer to verify the existence of all the correct paths and excutables before it installs and maybe report back if something is missing or out of place? Thinking out loud not trying to disrupt your support thread.

E