streakeagle

Of course the F-35 can dogfight, but so can the F-4. Their performance characteristics are very similar. But against Su-27 and MiG-29 in a WVR situation, they will lose against even average pilots unless. The F-35 wasn't built to dogfight, but to rely on stealth to deliver bombs without facing air-to-air threats head on. If modern radars or other sensors render the F-35's stealth worthless, you end up with an F-4. Which will still get the job done, but with unacceptable losses by modern standards. Now suppose you simply continue to use the much superior WVR dogfighter F-16 instead of buying the F-35. In low intensity conflicts, the F-16 works great, and if one goes down to AAA/golden BB, it costs a whole lot less to lose on. In an all-out WW3 scenario, if the F-35's stealth works as well as the brochure claims, it will fly a whole lot more sorties before being shot down than any F-16... but it needs too since there will be a lot less of them due to cost. But if stealth fails to work as advertised, you will have high losses and not enough aircraft available to replace them and no money left to buy more. Stealth has always seemed more costly than its benefits to me. If modern sensors can see them at 40 miles, the money and performance lost to making a fighter or bomber stealthy is wasted.

ok, Sixgun reports that he got DX9.0x installed and WoV is running fine on his Win10 PC, however DirectPlay functionality is not verified yet. He was unable to join the server and I wasn't around to troubleshoot. I also saw a new login on the server when I got home today, "legend". This could mean two more actively flying, with a few more still possibly in the wings. 8 would be a good number with either 8 co-op or 4 vs 4 teams. My dream is 16 for 8 vs 8 teams. I think the most I ever saw on my server was 12. I have lost the screenshot of that event.

Looking for something else, I found this topic and thought I might of completely missed this post. I was nowhere near the first page, but I didn't miss it. However, I missed one more detail: Thank you for funding Third Wire's First Eagles. It remains my preferred sim for WW1 flying. The Third Wire engine and bi-plane combat were a perfect fit :)

How things have changed so much since this story/post :(

Some more pics with Creature, Yubba, and myself:

It has to be extracted from the terrain cat file, which requires the old SFP1E Cat extractor tool... a utility that is available here for download. But discussing the problem with other win 10 users and doing some internet searches, it seems the real issue is that Win 10 doesn't come with DX9, but at some point received a patch that included a d3d9 dll to provide backwards support. But the new dll somehow doesn't work very well and causes low fps or isn't even recognized as being DX9 by some games. So, I saw two paths for getting Win 10 to support DX9 properly: 1. Find a way to trick Win 10 into allowing the installation of DX9 given that the DX9 installer refuses to run since it recognizes a newer version. 2. Download the required dll files and past them into any old games that need DX9. I don't have a machine to try either path, otherwise I would develop a sure-fire solution and make it available here.

I am running on Windows 7 64-bit and have all the old games running as well or better at they did on XP. However, I am hearing from multiple sources that Windows 10 runs the old games at horribly low frame rates after a certain patch level. Everyone I have spoken with is running an nVidia card, so it may also be a gpu driver issue. I have no ability to replicate and troubleshoot the issue because I don't have a single Win 10 machine or an nVidia gpu. The games may run fine prior to the 083006 patch. The problem is definitely there in the final Oct2008b patch. The 083006 patch level was the gold standard for mods, if it won't run well at that level, that would be very bad. The 083006 patch level requires an edit to the terrain data ini files to turn off the shaders taht cause a CTD or black screen when quitting a mission. [NormalTextureMaterial] UseEffectShader=FALSE [WaterTextureMaterial] UseEffectShader=FALSE

You should absolutely test this. Install from the CD, patch it up to Oct2008b (last patch available from Third Wire), then try to join the unattended 24/7 server. If you can get into that, then it is just a matter of finding a schedule where the guys who are flying are online at the same time. On weekdays, I may be monitoring the server as early as 6 PM EDT, but typically more around 8 or 9 PM up to about midnight. But if I get distracted, I may not see you in hyperlobby or in the server... this weekend, Creature's first join of the server was missed by me, because I took a nap. But if we get enough guys flying, people living in the different time zones will have different overlapping schedules. Hopefully, we can find an hour or two when everyone can show up at the same time. It is really fun if the internet and networking issues don't get in the way.

A couple of shots of my first online with Wings Over Vietnam in over 9 years!

That is good news :) If we have Crusader/Supacharga, Creature, Yubba, and myself all participating at the same time, we have enough for some fun flying.

Anyone who ever played the SF/WoX series online has to recall how horrible the DirectPlay networking interface worked over routers. The networking protocol was designed for LANs and worked okay when each PC had its own unique public internet address, but just a few years later, everyone was using routers to share high speed internet among multiple PCs and support wireless. Network Address Translation (NAT) is the protocol used by routers to allow local PCs with locally assigned network addresses to share a single public address. Firewall software (and hardware settings on routers) was designed to block unwanted incoming internet traffic as well. These technologies wreaked havoc with the simple server/client communication requiring open two-way communication, with the client needing to be able to scan for hosts, and the host needing to accept requests to join from new clients. The solution SFP1/WoV/WoE/WoI players relied on for overcoming this problem was a free Virtual Private Network (VPN) server system called Hamachi. Hamachi allowed all of the computers that wanted to play to be assigned addresses that made it seem like they were all physically connected to the same switch -- which is exactly what DirectPlay prefers to have a good chance of working correctly. However, Hamachi's business model didn't appear to work so well since most people got what they needed using the free version. Years later, the company that bought them still exists, LogMeIn or something like that, but the simple, free VPN software known as Hamachi is long gone. Now, here I am nearly 10 years later trying to stir up Third Wire SF series multiplayer. I have succeeded in hosting via Hyperlobby and configuring my router to overcome NAT/Firewall problems, but it would be much better if Hamachi was still around to help those less capable of configuring their modern hardware and operating systems to run 13 year old games. I found the answer and it worked pretty well last night: https://www.evolvehq.com/ Evolve is a mix between the old GameSpy/Hyperlobby style chat rooms, Hamachi VPN rooms, and Teamspeak voice chat. People who played SF series online typically ran all three types of programs. Evolve provides a single application that easily gets the job done without needing any expertise in configuring routers and software. One successful night isn't much of a track record, but it was a great start :)

I am sorry I couldn't join the server while you were in... the game just wouldn't cooperate. When I fly, I need to kill the server and host with my pc to minimize routing conflicts. Sometimes it works ok, other times it doesn't. If you can register with evolve and install the client, you can join the lan party linked above to get in rather than hyperlobby... and it includes voice chat with everyone in the evolved lan party.

Second person has joined the server: Yubba. But I couldn't get my primary PC to join while Yubba was in. I was able to do this last night, but not tonight. That is just how finicky the DirectPlay interface is when faced with a server behind a router trying to deal with internet clients and local clients at the same time. At a minimum, two outsiders have been able to join my Hyperlobby server without my supervision, and that is a good thing! This means that the unattended server will work for most people with minimal trouble even if I can't join it at the same time.

Testing invitation link to Evolve party: https://www.evolvehq.com/recruit/party?token=player:ULvSJemNEKk-ZoGe,party:1u9FwEEoX68sSEmN This is slick: people who already have an evolve account and the vpn client installed can join my vlan "party" by simply clicking on a link like the above. I don't have to be present for people to join my vlan. Before, I used to have to hang out on Hyperlobby, then teach the new players about Hamachi, coach them through the install then guide them into receiving and accepting an invite to my vlan, or having them search for and request permission to join. Either way, they couldn't play unless I actively approved. Now I can just post an invite to whatever "party" I am currently hosting and anyone else can join at will. Sweet!

Yubba, did you try to log in to my server on hyperlobby? I saw a yubba on the chat log. If it was you, did you get in successfully?

Sony Tuckson is trying to get series one games running on Win 10 and gets horrible frame rates using a GTX1060 gpu. I suspect it is the operating system or drivers. Sony is going to use another hard drive and swap it in so his PC can be a Win 7 machine as needed... but it sure would be nice if someone with Win 10 and SF series 1 game experience had already encountered and overcome this problem so he wouldn't have to run two different images and swap hard drives to switch between them.

So the first vote is in: don't play on Win 10 :) Win 7 remains my OS at home and at work. I have no experience with Win 8 or Win 10. So I can't really help people with newer PCs until I decide to build a new gaming rig with Win 10. I want to match a 60-inch 4k display to a single gpu for a decent price, so I am waiting for tech to improve/prices to come down.

Some screenshots from my first SF series online multiplayer time with another person since around 2007!

OK, apparently while I was taking a short nap today, creature joined my WoV server. I woke up to find the server crashed and Crusader/Moonjumper/Supercharger was hanging out by himself waiting for me to pop in. Based on our Hyperlobby conversation, I am going to change my host to Wings Over Vietnam Oct2008b patch to match his saved install. If the three of us can get together (possibly with a few others from the past eventually showing up), maybe we can come up with some modded installs to be shared by everyone that wants to fly SFP1/WoX online. I would favor a merged WoE/WoV install with all the best cockpit mods for the stock AI-only planes at a minimum.

Evolve (with the last e backwards) looks like the best option for gamers. It looks like they want the to be the modern go-to place like gamespy once was. https://www.evolvehq.com/welcome a vlan room is a "party" :)

The rain has continued to be very light, still getting lots of strong wind gusts. I don't see any damage around my house. I would rather have everyone prepare for the worst and have everything turn out okay than the other way around like Katrina. There's still a lot of people that lost power and I am sure the surge on the coastline is going to do some damage, but our power never even blinked. Very mild for a hurricane that was once category 4.

So far things are going smooth. The rain/lightning of the normal Florida weather had already been causing a lot of problems the past few weeks. I saw one radio go down and somehow my co-worker got it back up despite the weather. I know he didn't climb the tower, so he must have been able to reset the radio and restore its configuration. Two lift stations (that pump the waste water out of neighborhoods) are at a steady high alarm, but one is keeping up, the other has one bad pump and may end up spilling. Out of 400 lift stations, that is pretty good considering how much rain has been coming down (the rain seeps into the lift station wells and overloads the system). But the weather has been pretty mild up to now. Some wind gusts and some rain bands, but nothing extraordinary considering our usual daily schedule of thunderstorms. I hope it just grazes us and I can go back to work without having to fix much if anything.

I am a Florida native and currently reside in Orlando. I only lived outside of Florida for the 8 years I was in the Navy (mostly in California). I have seen a few storms come and go. The worst one in my lifetime, Andrew, occurred while I was in the Navy. Up to now, none of the storms have ever badly hit my location, which was mostly the Tampa Bay area. This will be my first serious one while living in Orlando. It would be nice to get out of the way, but I work for Toho Water Authority for the City of Kissimmee and my wife works for the City of Orlando. We both have to ride out the storm at home and then come in when possible to assess and repair damage to the affected water and waste water control and monitoring systems. I was sent home early today and will wait for orders tomorrow. If the storm hits with as much strength or more than Charlie did, I will be pulling long shifts for a week or more straight until everyone has water and can flush their toilet. With both of us in the same career field, we will have trouble getting our own house in order until we get county-wide systems back in order. Hopefully, the storm misses, weakens, or just happens to do minimal damage so we won't suffer at work or at home.

The install needs to be a clean install patched to the 083006 level and have the VietnamSEAData.INI file attached in a post above installed in the VietnamSEA terrain folder. The SFP1/WoX multiplayer support is very limited. The only way I can leave an unattended server is to host the dogfight mode. The co-op/team-vs-team mode requires and active host to set up the mission, start the mission, and start another mission after the everyone is finished/dead. There is no way to start on the ground, re-arm, refuel, or repair. The only way to manage a campaign would be to take screenshots of the co-op/team mission results and tabulate them into a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet could ostensibly be programmed to use that data to generate future mission parameters, which would then have to be fed into the host's mission generator screen by hand. While co-op/team missions are generally the most interesting and fun, experience has taught me that dogfight mode is the best way to go. People can come and go from a dogfight server as needed. To start a co-op/team mission, everybody needs to be joined before starting the mission as you cannot join in the middle of a mission. When someone dies, they cannot respawn and must wait for everyone else to finish/die before they can try to join the next mission. A mission might last 15 to 30 minutes or more depending on the proficiency of the players. If someone dies in the first minutes, it is a long boring wait. Dogfight servers allow nearly immediate respawning after dying. You can choose another aircraft. With fuel set to easy (unlimited?) and gun ammo set to easy (unlimited?), the inability to re-arm and refuel is partially bypassed. If you have more than two people, you can agree to split up into teams and play just llike co-op/team mission... with the l limitation that the mission must be air-to-air. Besides air-to-air combat, as long as you don't run out of fuel, you can land, take-off, do formation flying, etc. Limitations aside, I had many great nights playing online with SFP1 and WoV/WoE/WoI. But the limitations have always ensured that there was never too large a crowd looking to play, and that those who played frequently tended to eventually get bored and move on to a flight sim that supports squads and mutliplayer much better.

The setup at home is essentially the same, except easier. Most of the problems with DirectPlay connectivity are caused by routing over the internet: camouflaged ip addresses hiding behind routers and network latency/drop outs. On a home LAN, all of the computers should be able to easily see each other (notwithstanding the problem I had last night due to a router setting that somehow broke my home LAN). Of course, with a router set up properly, you can do it the way I do: all of my home PCs can join locally while simultaneously being available to Hyperlobby and/or other means to allow clients to join via the internet.