Mike Dora

Absolutely true Olham. The RAF has always known its priorities (I remember Buccaneer external tanks being steam-cleaned in the 70's so that they could bring bulk wine back from detachments to Cyprus). Mike

Thanks for the advice guys. I reinstalled the FE2 weapons editor, ran it again and now my ac have properly working bombs when required. But I'm not quite there yet.. when I try to go into the "Loadout" screen the program stiil hangs & crashes. Any suggestions there please? Mike

Thanks for the quick response MB. I see my first problem, the FE2 weapons editor isn't "finding" anything, it returns an empty box. Hmm Mike

I just came back to FE1 after three years away, I was overseas without access to my desktop. One of the things I did on return, was to replace the old GTX 640 with a GTX 950. Trouble is, now I'm getting very choppy frame rates in FE1 which makes it much less playable than it used to be. For example the SE5a gives me in-cockpit rates of 13-14 down to below 10. (yes I know the SE traditionally had the worst frame rates, but it was fully playable for me before). For the record, I'm running Win7, and my FE1 graphics settings are now (been experimenting, with no joy so far) as follows: [GraphicsOptions] DisplayDeviceID=0 DisplayWidth=1024 DisplayHeight=768 DisplayDepth=32 AspectRatio=1.600000 LensFlare=2 DetailLevel=4 ObjectDetail=2 ObjectTexture=2 CockpitTexture=2 CockpitMirrors=1 CockpitReflection=1 EffectsDetail=2 TerrainDetail=2 TerrainTexture=2 HorizonDistance=2 GroundObjectDensity=2 WaterDetail=2 CloudsDetail=0 Shadow=2 rem AntiAliasing=0 AntiAliasing=3 UseAdvancedShaders=1 Any ideas anyone? Thanks Mike

Problem solved! Following Wrench's advice I went browsing in the SF fora and rediscovered the ENB graphics fix. Not only has it more than doubled my frame rates, the game actually looks nicer, especially the clouds! Now I have my sim back. Thanks Everybody Mike

Thanks everybody, I've tried all the suggestions, but to little avail. Oddly enough, running SFP1 with the same Graphics Options gives me frame rates in the region of 20+. Isn't this essentially the same engine? I'm confused now. Mike

Thanks for the tips 33L, I'll try those tomorrow. The resolution mismatch thing sounds promising, I have some other old sims that have also gone all choppy on me since installing the new graphics card. Also I realize FE2 may be smoother, but I had invested so much time and effort customizing different versions of FE1 for different Fronts, and tweaking all the ac models to my liking, that I just couldn't face the effort of porting everything over to FE2. I guess it's called Transactional Cost! Thanks Mike

Really? You'll be suggesting next that Ypres should be pronounced the Belgian way as "ee-preh", and not as the (correct :) Tommy way as _Wipers_?

Priceless! Recalls Roly Falk's 1955 Farnborough display when he rolled a prototype Vulcan right after take-off. We always knew the old Tin Triangle could outmanouevre any other bomber, and many contemporary fighters. Many years ago (Waddington '74) I saw a series of gun camera stills from an Aussie Mirage trying and failing to line up behind a Vulcan at high altitude. The last pic showed the Mirage from behind, framed perfectly in the middle of the bomber's windscreen.. Anyway what can the authorities do, ground it? It's grounded already! XH588 just finished its last-ever display season and will fly no more.

Hello everybody, I'm just getting into WOFF for the first time - been overseas for a couple of years - and am also interested in tweaking my graphics card (GTX950) using Nvidia Inspector. Where can I find suitable WOFF profiles for this please? Mike

I'm just back from two years with the UN mission in the Congo as Chief Loggie. My ac fleet actually included 4 Ukrainian Hinds and 3 South African Rooivalk AH. We used them well. Very well. Would have loved to have had some Frogfoots (Frogfeet?) though! Mike

I know that Steel's Mod M8 for Gunship! is a few years old now, but I have recently "rediscovered" Gunship! (for some reason I found it unplayable when it first came out, but second time around.. ) and I'm trying to use his amazing-looking Mod M8 package. The trouble is, whenever I try to use Mod M8 to activate any mod file, whether terrain or aircraft, I get this message: "This file is set to be launched by this PDF file. This is currently disallowed by your system administrator." Can anyone tell me how to overcome this snag, how do I convince my machine that I am its system administrator? For the record, I am running Adobe 9 under Windows XP. Thanks Mike

I wonder if anyone can help me with a wee brainteaser I've been struggling with. I have a "Soviets in Afghanistan" version of SF1 (Oct 08 patch), with the Soviets set as "friendly" so that I can go Taliban-bashing in the 80's. It occured to me that it might add a little spice to this if I could introduce Pakistani F-16A's as a "very rare" enemy. This would give the Soviet MiG-29's something to do, and has a root in reality - during the Soviet War in Afghanistan, Pak AF ac shot down up to 8 Soviet ac in the ill-defined border region, including an early Su-25 flown by Alexander Rutskoy, later VP of Russia (and a key player in the failed coup of Aug 91). Adding an F-16A to the Aircraft folder, with nationality set to "Pakistan", was quite straightforward. My problem is that if I have Pakistan set to "enemy" in the Flight folder's "nations" file and in the Afghanistan terrain's "Afghanistan_nations" file (copies of both attached, together with the F-16A data file), then when I select the F-16A in the Create Mission screen and press Accept, I get a CTD. BTW the same happens whatever "enemy" nationality I give the F16A, and also when I give an "enemy" nationality to a Soviet ac. The only way I can get the F-16A to work is if Pakistan is listed as "friendly", ie on the same side as the Soviets. Which kind of defeats the object. So, how can I set things up so the Pak F-16A can actually show up as an "enemy" to the "friendly" Soviets? What (probably obvious) thing am I missing? Thanks Mike NATIONS.txt Afghanistan_NATIONS.txt F-16A_Data.txt

Thanks Wrench, In fact I've found that my PAF Peshawar works as the F-16 base if I delete all the ground objects except the runway. So my lazy way ahead now is to clone a runway into the *_Types.ini file as suggested above, giving it a zero point value to make sure that it doesn't inadvertendly get targetted by the Soviets. Would hate to be the cause of that kind of cross-border incident.. Thanks Mike

Well I solved the problem of getting Pak ac to fly as the enemy, by as suggested creating a new "enemy" airbase. I cheated by copying the Jalalabad setup (in the *_Targets.ini file), moving it about 100km east and 20km south, and labelling the new location as Peshawar - it's in about the right place. I also reduced the F-16 range, initially to just 200 but I may go down further, so that the Pak F-16's should only show up close to "Peshawar", ie in the border region as in real life. Might also limit them to intercept missions only, again as in real life. The remaining issue is that just raised by Gepard, that by creating a new enemy airfield I may have given the Soviet side the opportunity for OCA strikes against that location. Not good. So next I'm going to experiment by leaving the "Peshawar" location in the *_Targets.ini file, but deleting all the specific target objects (runway, hangars, buildings) from the rest of the "Peshawar" entry. Theoretically that'll leave nothing for the system to specify as a strike target. Will see how it goes.. Mike

No actually, do you think maybe that's the issue? Mike

Thanks Wrench, I've tried that (but isn't it an SF2 switch? I'm working in SF1 with this one) but it still doesn't work, I still get the CTD when I try to select the Pak F-16A. There may be something else I'm missing..? Mike

Afternoon All, Knowing that WOFF is only two weeks away (right?), I have to ask the honourable devs whether they've been able to deal with the white triangles that appear in OFF at the edge of the screen when turning one's head quickly with TrackIR? While I have fiddled & fettled around with the graphics settings and with the TrackIR settings in an attempt (multiple attempts actually) to minimise this, I have never actually managed to make it go away altogether (except in simulated filthy weather, which suggests that limiting the visibility distance somehow helps). It therefore remains for me the only real immersion-killer in what is otherwise probably the most immersive sim I have ever immersed myself in. If the great & good devs are able to make this issue go away in WOFF (without the user having to buy a 2012+ top of the range (performance and price) machine), that would be absolutely terrific. What about it, chaps? Thanks Mike

I wondered if that was where to find the in-game AA change, Olham, because for some reason I can't get that "Graphics Config" option to work. I always get the error message "CFS3 could not detect any DirectX8-capable video cards. CFS3 requires a DirectX8-capable video card" (yet my card is clearly compatible). I wonder if that is part of my problem, and how to fix it? (short of a complete reinstall..) On the other point, my monitor resolution is 1280x800, and current OFF FOV is 28 x 16. I just noticed that it says default FOV is "23x16", but is that for a 4:3 screen not widescreen? Thanks Mike

Thanks All, I've tried variations of all those tweaks, and now seem to have a bit of a reduction of the white triangles. They're still appearing, but not to the same extent and not for as long. I do have one further question though, for BirdDog. You say to try "setting AA to 2X or 4X within the game". How do I do that, I can't seem to see that option anywhere? Whatever, I'm starting to think that the ultimate solution will be to throw dollars at it and upgrade my graphics card.. need to be ready for WOFF after all :-) Thanks Mike

Well the Fleet Air Arm still has at least one fixed-wing ac left, you'll probably see it at the Diamond Jubilee Flypast, see attached pic. Speaking of the Flypast, in 1990 the RAF mustered 168 ac from all operational commands for the Battle of Britain 50th Anniversary Flypast. That despite the fact that deployments to the Gulf were already gathering pace following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Count how many RAF ac show up for the Diamond Jubilee Flypast. That will illustrate most graphically how the Service has been decimated in recent years. Mike

Thanks Olham, I'll try those tonight. BTW, what is the difference between "Terrain" and "Scenery"? The two words tend to mean much the same thing in non-technical use. Mike

OK Olham, It's a Dell XPS 630i, with Intel Core2 Duo CPU E8500, 3.16GHz, 3.35Gb RAM. Graphics card is an NVidia GeForce 9800 GTX+, 512Mb Ram, Driver version 296.10. My CFS3/OFF config settings are 4-4-4-3-4-4. These give me a very nice graphical visualisation (apart from the white triangles), so I'd be very reluctant to have to lower these settings to get rid of the triangles. Now I see under "Parameter Editor for Texture Info" a setting for "Fog Start". I was guessing that this would define the distance to the visible horizon (based on the observation that there is no white triangle problem in heavy cloud/fog, when the visible distance is correspondingly reduced), so tried reducing its value. It regularly shows a value of 100000.00, I tried setting this to a lower value, such as 70000.0 or 80000.0, but it doesn't hold - when I close OFF Config and then reopen, it's back to 100000.0. So, any suggestions for measures that can kill the triangles while maintaining the quality of graphics? Thanks Mike

Och well, no bother. I guess I mostly use the 2-seaters as targets or escort subjects anyway, rarely actually "flying" them. What you have done is great though (and Stephen1918 what you have done with the basic DH models is GREAT), so many thanks again. Mike

Hi WK, Am home now, have installed mod and yes it works great for all external views. The only snag is that the second Vickers still shows in the cockpit view, is there any way of getting rid of that too please? Oddly enough, I only see one Lewis on the observer's Scarff ring when I look back from the cockpit.. Thanks again Mike