Mr_Tayto

Hi all, as the title suggests I'm experiencing low frame rates when the game is busy, e.g. over Hanoi. I assume this is due to the number of assets being rendered. The thing is, I shouldn't have any problems, my PC runs MSFS at 100fps, and current AAA games no problem, so I guess this is an issue with how the game allocates memory. It has always happened to me but notably in tonight's session where I restarted the machine (due to the game not recognising my keyboard), and had no other programs running, and especially not Chrome. Is there some kind of "fix" for this, if it's a known problem?

When I started playing this game I wasn't prepared for the sheer joy of dials switches it has since given me. I grew up on Microprose sims on Atari ST; F-19, F-16 Fighting Falcon, Gunship etc. Almost universally they had glass cockpits, I guess because with the resolutions of the time it was hard to render needles and dials. Same with early radars; games back then either had "modern" radars with TWS as standard, or were WW2 sims with no radars. That the developer focused on 60s-80s aircraft in SF2 is its greatest strength. Not only do we have some iconic thoroughbred jets to play with, but he was able to make a sim where airmanship really mattered. Learning your gauges is as important when flying a new aircraft as is knowing its flight envelope. As an aside, I love that he modelled missiles accurately as well, if it was possible to have a guaranteed hit every time, in the absence of chaff and flares, the game would be way too easy, especially the Vietnam theatre. With all this in mind, the aircraft it's taken me longest to start flying is the F-4. Unaerodynamic, heavy, even ugly, it's a plane that frightened me a little. I decided a month or so back I might as well try it... and I LOVE it. I can't even explain why, really. It might be the climb rate, it might be the speed (she's fast with engine on minimal settings), but she's hard to trap on deck, turns like a tanker and with tanks and ordnance may as well be a 747. All this in mind I love her anyway, and feel powerful flying her in a way I don't in the A-4 or even the F-105 (otherwise a strong contender for favourite). The F-4 isn't invulnerable by any stretch of the imagination, but it's the plane I most feel like I can get out of a sticky situation. So what's your favourite (and why?)

One of the first campaign mods I installed was the Falklands mod, and I agree the Sea Harrier is great to fly. If only I could figure out how to land the thing...

It's always done it over Hanoi when there's a lot of AA and SAMs firing. I don't get frame drops on anything else, including ray traced AAA games

Awesome @Gepard, thanks for the info. I imagine it wasn't advanced enough (in terms of technology) for the US to be too worried about the Soviets getting a hold of them. Neat little plane though.

I need to do a campaign in the A-7, I've liked the plane ever since watching them on TV in Desert Storm. This is another one I'd like to try, such a cool looking aircraft and felt omnipresent on TV shows and films in the 80s and 90s, from Top Gun and Apocalypse Now onwards. The one I quoted, is it in (presumably post-reunification) VPAF colours? I read about VPAF pilots stealing A-37s from liberated airbases and using them in the fall of Saigon, I didn't know the SVAF had them too?

Sorry to ask in a screenshot thread, but all of these modded in planes, like the B1 and the late model B52s; do they have campaigns? Or even missions? If not how are you playing with them? I especially wonder about the transports, because there's no mission type in the game that covers (fly A > B). Anyway, I'm not flying these, but here's a BUFF I snapped months ago at the start of Rolling Thunder, plastering a target in Vinh.

My only previous experience in game development was over 20 years ago, and it was in historical research and direction; I worked on the very first iteration of the Red Orchestra mod. I have no skills in actual modding beyond installing mods into this game (which is difficult enough for me!

Survived long enough to get a paintjob...

Count me in. Vietnam feels to me like the last generation of aircraft that were really seat-of-the-pants; they had the performance but had analogue dials everywhere, simple radar, rubbish missiles, dumb bombs, dive bombing, SAMs being new and AAA still ruling the battlespace up to 30000ft... The last generation before FBW, glass cockpits and BVR engagements. I love reading and learning about all aspects of the Vietnam war anyway, but the air war is particularly interesting to me. You couldn't have a story like Leo Thorsness', or Robin Olds Gunfighters nowadays.

I guess this is why the MiG-17 was always tucked up in bed at sundown! Second mission as a carrierborne F-4 pilot and boy, are those AIM-9Ds an upgrade! Forgot to say... I trapped her first time, in the dark too Those boats really need landing lights

Early war Phantoms, pre- and post-repaint. My first mission (shot 1) was an escort of BUFFs striking a target in Pack 2. Nothing happened except me getting a few nice close-up shots of them.

Love me Thuds

Right enough, thanks. I have finally downloaded it tonight; can it be used in the campaigns? Do I have to select from the list at Campaign start?

Thanks, but I realise this - I cannot find it, however.

Hi all, I came across this post in the Knowledge Base which I think might come in useful for me. I'm looking to increase the gunsight depression for rockets on the F-105, and this seems to be the answer (short of a clickable cockpit). I can see from the F-105D.ini, that it points to a file called F-105D_cockpit.ini, but I can't find that file anywhere. Being relatively new to the game, I'm looking for some advice. I HAVE had a look in the KB, but it's fair to say I don't know what I'm looking for exactly. I also find the search function of this forum simply doesn't work for me - again, probably because I don't know how to use it properly. TIA

Thanks for this (and you @OlWilly). The extractor readme talks about finding the install directory path; I assume this is not the Mod Folder? Or is it?

I'll have a dig around, thanks.

I downloaded ODS during the week, I've been so excited to play it with Desert Storm being the first "TV war" I lived through while I was at school. I've been desperate to fly a Buccaneer in a sim my whole life, too. Firstly, what a step-up from SF2:V; not in terms of the aircraft necessarily (after all the Bucc is a contemporary of my favoured Thud), but in terms of the battlespace and enemy defences. While I got used to the cockpit of the Bucc fairly quickly, the lack of a radar display was strange - is this important and if so, how can I view it? Also, while I wasn't expecting a CCIP, am I to assume that (dumb) bombing is conducted the same way? I've had zero experience of LGBs in this game so far. My first mission in the Bucc was to bomb a barracks with a mix of laser-guided and dumb bombs - in pitch black. I didn't have a clue about the LGB employment and missed. How should I be setting up a run for LGBs? I had the objective targeted as normal, so I could order the wingman, but it didn't seem to matter. Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks, mate!

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!

Turns out I'm still rubbish In anything that's not a 105 doing Hi-lo-lo-hi profiles like my F-4C (1 mission with mk82s) and A-4C (2 with mk82s), I'm really struggling. I need to hit the range in those aircraft I think.

In two years of playing this game, on and off, I've focused totally on mud moving, all within the Vietnam War campaigns. I'm not very good (as my constant requests for help in other threads prove!) but it's fair to say I've watched Devin Horner play more full missions than I've played myself. I generally change aircraft, to learn a new one, upon a campaign ending; up to now this has always been due to KIA/POW, and always shot down attacking well defended targets. At the start of this week I decided I'd play my first ever F-4 campaign, Rolling Thunder, 43rd TFS. My first mission was a very long overflight of Thailand and Laos to rendezvous with some B-52s plastering a target in RP1. Red Crown called out contacts but they were, as to be expected, far to the north and didn't bother us. A nice milk run which allowed me to learn flight parameters and cockpit dials for myself. Mission 2 was going to be a strike mission in RP6A, but upon loading in, my HOTAS wasn't recognised. A further attempt (and a restart) and still it didn't work. Luckily I had recently backed up my mod folder so copied over my previous controls.ini and tried again. Briefing this time was for another escort, this time a flight of Thuds from a western Thai base. Shame, I thought, I'm a mud mover at heart, and I was looking forward to bombing a bridge. Anyway, I suited up and headed for the flight line, and this time everything worked. The mission was to RP2, and my flight of 4 F-4 in standard A2A configuration made the rendezvous bang on time after a very long flight from the southern coast. At the IP we started to extend on the bombers (as a Thud driver at heart I was disappointed they were so high and slow), but while I was deciding whether or not to circle back to them the scope started to get busy; a flight of Scooters from Yankee was inbound to the target area, but there was a definite separation with a gaggle left of the nose at 30 miles. With switchology complete for a Sparrow shot, I waited until the IN RANGE light came on and bagged my first Fresco (it worked off the rail!) As our flights merged I realised we were facing two flights, seven bogeys left. My flight was instructed to engage and we got into it. The furball was glorious, and boy, did I put into practice what I'd learned from watching Devin. I chose a Fresco, and went in close, following him as best I could with this pig of a "dogfighter". These bad guys were good, and after two pretty perfect trail shots - and lots of high yo-yos and throttle control - with heaters were defeated with high G turns, I realised I'd have to try something else. My wingman was instructed to pin him and I extended about 5 miles, before setting up another Sparrow for kill number two. Red Crown reported mission complete as my wingman bagged his second shortly after, and I gathered the boys for the long trip home. I called Red Crown one final time for a picture of the battle space, expecting to hear that the remaining MiGs were heading north with their tails between their legs, only to hear that at least one was close. I looked at the maps and saw one turning with a straggler A4, and broke off to engage him, while telling the flight to mop up. I picked kill number three out of the clutter, and sent him home by truck. The A-4 departed back to Yankee and one of my guys got our 6th of the morning. These are my first air-to-air kills in the game, and I was (and am) totally buzzing with the adrenaline. The F-4 is not an easy plane to fly at 6kft, 325 knots, in a turn with a MiG-17 while AA explodes all around, but I managed to come out on top. Wish I had a gun - at one point I could read one of their tail numbers!

Thanks both, really good advice for mission execution. I wonder if there's a way to edit the mission success/failure parameters so that SEAD works the same way as "Escort", where success is defined by how many strike aircraft survive to attack the target and egress? This way, just the presence of the Iron Hand flight would be helping to achieve missions success, and it wouldn't be purely based on destruction of enemy units, which is unclear. In every example I've seen on video, there has never been a "Mission Accomplished", even where the strike flight has destroyed its target and the IH flight has egressed safely. You would of course have to have mid-late war Wild Weasel with completely different goals, as those flights were about destroying suspected SAM sites regardless of friendly air activity in the vicinity.