almccoyjr

Finally got it working: changed bmp to jpg.

And since I'm in for penny, I dug out one of my old backup hhds and installed SF2 original updated to 12/09.

I now have proper prop animations.

Ok...checked the size of the RS mainscreen.bmp and it's 1024x768 @ 2.25mb without any editing.

I've put menu back to original config including ini. Is there anything else I can try?

Thanks for the replies.

I have tried both screen files but it never dawned on me to change the resolution.

      I've resurrected my Rising Sun install files to use in SF2.

I've gone through the archives looking for any reference to YAP, Rising Sun, etc, in SF2 for assistance and troubleshooting, but try as I may, I'm unable to get the Rising Sun MAINSCREEN to load as the default screen.

It loads for 2-3 seconds and defaults to SF2; very difficult to choose missions. 

    I hope I'm not beating a dead horse, but would someone chime in on how to.... It would be much appreciated.

ps, Hope evryone has a happy and safe 4th of July.

I come by every so often to see what's going on, but rarely post anywhere anymore. 'Haven't fired a shot in anger for sometime; been flying bush in RTMM and just loving it. I should have been a helicopter jockey. Does a three blade rotor qualify as a tri-wing?

plug_nickel

ps...I still use the the crease in my Avalanche's hood to target those who dangerously pullout or cut in front of me.

Well, from one "lurker" to another.....HEY Parky!!!

Very glad to hear that you're doing good and that life is stable.

Al,

aka plug_nickel

When CFS3 Disk1 starts, you'll have the option to Uninstall activated now showing up under Setup.

Typically, except when the moon is blue, and it seems to be always blue when dealing with "Micky"soft, you should use the game disk to uninstall CFS2/3, FSX. Uninstalling through Control Panel doesn't always work properly and usually results in a badly "borked" application.

At this point, I'd be surprised if running the Uninstall process will do any good, but it won't hurt to try. You'll probably have to do a really good culling in the registry for CFS3.exe and Combat Flight Simulator 3 entries. 

plug_nickel

Sorry to see you're having troubles with CFS3. I went back to take a look at your "Event log" and you've got a couple of "things" going on: 0xc****5 , "appliction error" and 0x80****. Your hdd isn't the problem. There's nothing indicated at the machine level.

This is pointing  file corruption in CFS3.exe install location and Combat Flight Simulator 3 / CFS3.exe registry entries. This is usually the result of not using the CFS3 disk 1 to uninstall. How exactly did you uninstall CFS3?

The "long way" to get CFS3 installed correctly is to completely strip CFS3.exe and Combat Flight Simulator 3 entries from both system files AND registry.

I haven't been frequenting the forums like I used to; however, I'll check back to see what, if anything is going on.

plug_nickel

Strange, I don't see it listed in Axis aircraft files, but you obviously met your first Siemens-Schuckert D.IV.

plug_nickel

"I Leave For Five Minutes And...."

Is that measured in Eastern, Central, Mountain, Pacific or OFF Standard Time?

Good to "see" you.

plug_nickel

 Maybe if there's a mod for IL-2 1946 that lets me fly F-86s during the korean war, that might be fun,

 

 

Monty @ SAS is working on a full Korean Air War mod that will work in his "Full Monty" install package and is something I've been waiting for.

BTY: "The Full Monty" is a composite of many of the most popular mods out for IL-2. The start up sequence of the Spitfire, alternating puffs of black smoke and exhaust flame, finally culminating in light blue, raspy exhaust flames is worth it just by itself.

> Back on Topic

I've "flown" many of the WW1 mods for IL-2. I don't compare their graphics or lack of dynamic campaigns to OFF, but rather just enjoy the diversity of other modders who enjoy WWI. The "der Adler von Triest - the eagle of Trieste" is completely different and many of Monty's WW1 works are quite good.

Their replay is quite limited, but that's not why I've flown and fly them.

plug_nickel

Is there a particular file or folder that AI resides in ?

plug_nickel

> EDIT <

              Never mind; found the answer in a post dated 2010.

Yup...Submerged my first and only time some 12yrs ago; my AMD Thunderbird Slot 1 with a Goldfinger on it to boot! Benching mostly. My second and last will be more main stream and chilled.

Because of Prepar3D, I'm back looking at "ramdrive" vs. slice/dice (resecting) files that have the most impact on a sim and relocating them to either a dedicated track(s) on a separate drive or "dumping" them into a virtual system drive. I have some scenery installs of 130/150gb. A VRD or RD just doesn't make any sense when trying to dump the whole application, but the read speeds are absolutely intoxicating.

I say Virtual System Ramdisc (VRD) as opposed to RAMdrive. A VRD is not persistant, where as a RAMdrive is a dedicated drive with a dedicated portion of system memory. Both types of drives require a program to load an image. That program can load an image directly into the RAMdrive or it can allocate a portion of system ram as a drive and load. When finished, you can unload and all system memory is available. One of the keys is the type of drive program to run a VRD. I use PRIMO RamDisc. It also allows dynamic in app saves when dismounting. With W7 x64 ULT, vc ram 2gb and "misc" using 4gb, I can run a 4gb VRD.

The problem is just how much of a VRD is actually needed. This is where all applications fail. They're designed and coded to run from a single source. It's left up to us to explore different levels of efficiency. You have to dig out all the files and processes that impact the sim. That makes it difficult, tedious and time consuming. But what the hey....

Many have 12gb of ram and could run a VRD very easily. Mudwasp68 has 64gb and could dump OFF completely into a VRD. I'm surprised he hasn't done that.

Separating and hard linking files has their downside as well: patches, updates and add ons don't play well with sub-linked files/folders.

I'm also exploring file placement; putting texures/scenery, etc on drive (1) with the core sim on drive (2). It seems feeding in during a call would be better than trying to feed out after the initial call. Just a thought.

In the end,  I believe a small SSD for OS and core files, a Revodrive for dedicated scenery/texture, aircraft, AI, and say two WD Raptor 10K 1tb in raid for the sim's core engines would be a good "hardware ramdrive" or an HRD.

To tinker on.

plugging along_nickel

Wow....Thanks for the in depth,  academic & technical responses. I'm still digesting both replies. This will obviously be a work in process and I'll be responding to all points, insights.!

Install 1 is to be a base line. No tweaks, mods, ConfigEditor changes or use of nvidia Inspector. Just hardware performance and file placement. I will be using UltimateDefrag to place files specifically on tracks. The reason to use Fraps is to record where and when micro/stuttering or slowdown should they occur during the runs. I'm not interested in fps, but rather in "fprs" or frames per rendered scene. FPS is the basest, most coarse and ultimately, most meaningless measurement you can use.  Fraps does have a negative impact, but the loss can be extrapolated and averaged in. I'd be open to some other method of recording if it would make it easier.

I've been away from CFS3 file structure for awhile and am, once again, reacquainting what's what. When I've worked up all the files, my final base line run will have scenery, terrain, flyable & AI aircraft all hard linked on a separate drive. That's my final goal for Install 1. It seems to me that having the core flight engine on one drive,the variables that impact the sim on other, while taking into account where those files are located on both drives seems to be the most efficient way of setting up any simulator, especially a flight sim.

SSD's are getting more affordable and thus popular; however, hdd's still outnumber ssd's and many systems have mutiple hdds. So I thought that a test might be of some benefit for those with multiple hdds. It might help the sim to run a little "better" without having to invest in anything else, save for a good defrag program.

PCI-e drives, RevoDrive as an example. are much faster than a ssd, but are extremely expensive when you start getting into the range of 480gb or larger. For the price of a RevoDrive  with 960gb storage capacity, I could have an E5-1620 v2 with 128/256gb DDR3-1866 (24gb for OS, V.C.. etc, with remaining being a ram drive) system memory and still have some serious money left over. That's serious 'bang-for-the-buck". It's also not a good balance.

The idea behind this exercise is for me to put into prospective, file/hardware efficiency without necessarily "throwing" more hardware at it. A ram drive, even though read speeds can sustain 5k to 7k, is ALL consuming as pointed out in Tamper's #5 point. Plus, there is no caching when running an app in ram drive; you disable cache when doing so.

A ram drive system IS, hands down, the absolute fastest configuration It's the "cleanest" in terms of what is actually running, but not in terms of what is needed to get there or to get it started. It is, however, not the best or most efficient method of running an application in whole. That's why I'm enamored with it. And yes, I know what the performance gains are using a ram drive, having been using virtual system drives for several years.

As for my last system build, I do know two things:

 1) It will be submerged;

 2) The cpu will also be chilled.

plug_nickel

ps...I absolutely love to tinker. Tinkering is much more cost effective and is the "best-bang-for-the-buck"

I know that performance is in the eye of the beholder, but I'd like to conduct some experiments with different installed configurations of BHaH/HitR. They'll be no mods installed at this time.

The reason for doing this is singular: my CFO has given me permission to build my new, and most likely, last  system...WOOHOO!!! So I'm doing some experimenting with OFF and Prepar3D to see what performances gains there are in helping me to decide how just high I'm going to jump. I have the scenario for P3D covered. It's OFF I'm trying to setup.

I'm going to have 2 install configs:

   1) OBDSofware\CFsWW1 Over Flanders Fields located on WD Raptor 1tb hdd F:\

    1.a) WW1Scenery located on WD Raptor 600gb hdd G:\ hardlinked to F:\

  2) #1) above

   2.a) WW1Scenery will be located in system memory using a ram drive.

The ConfigEditor for all configs will have all sliders at 5 and screen resolution set at 1920 x1200 @32 with anti @ 8 samples. I'm leaving everythin else as is. The Workshop settings will be set for normal/realism and will have to be flown from Quick Combat in order to fly same scenario.

All I need now is very stable scenario that I can fly for about ten minutes. It will need plenty of aircraft, scenery, terrain and weather. I would like to be able to fly a short pattern with at least 2 turns. I'll use Fraps to record each flight. I plan on flying five flights for each config in order to generate a decent average.

I'm open for suggestions. Is there a particular area, date, time or (?) in the sim that can be setup to meet these requirements?

I'll be circling.

plug_nickel

ps...I thought this might also be helpful to those you have more than one hdd or have at least 8-16gb of ram

I think tamper is on the right track about an errant driver trying to load. The W7 install cd is having a problem getting by the hidden MBR on the primary partion which is probably C:\ .

If you're trying to get the hdd to run in order to reinstall W7 and not concerned with any files left on it, I'd use Hiren's BootCD. You need to completely "nuke" the hdd, then using the BootCD, run an integrity check. Once that's done and the hdd comes back as ok, you should be able to cleanly boot and install using the W7 install disc. IF your disc is actually a recovery disc and not an install disc, you're in trouble. PC's that use recovery discs rely on the MBR and some driver(s) to reinitiate the install/repair sequence. A recovery disc is not an install disc.  A recovery disc is a cheap way for an OEM to save money by not having to issue a Windows cd.

When you reintall W7, format using the install disc or with Hiren's CD and don't create a dedicated MBR partion. You're just asking for trouble down the road if you have a dedicated MBR partion.

plug_nickel

A covection oven uses a fan to circulate the heat. It does cook faster and uses a lower temp than recipe calls for. You can also set the temp in 5 degree increments.

I've never had a pan of cornbread that turned out like this one and there's a prop inside to watch to boot! I can yell "Contact....Clear" when hitting the rocker switch when engaging the convection function....woohoo!

(inflated) plug_nickel

cornbread is all gone.

Wife and I now have a new gas stove with a convection oven. Just finished making a pan of cracklin' cornbread.

OMLG!!! To hell with calories; golden crispy brown and absolutely delicious.

plug_nickel (soon to be half dollar!)

Hey Tamper,

I use SuperFetch whenever I'm on the PC except for gaming; Alacrity shuts it and about 48 other services down. I don't use a SSD, but several WD Raptors in different size configurations and I don't experience micro/stutters or slow downs.

I honestly don't see any benefit what so ever in a service that tries to "predict" what cache to preload when running a campaign. That being said, SuperFetch does come in handy when running strict or prescripted training scenarios.

So, regarding the test. Why not use Quick Combat and setup a couple of different flights or use some of the existing missions for the test? Incorporate ProcMon to log everything that's being accessed and you should be able, over a short period of time, to log simming, services and memory useage to go along with a subjective view.

Just some thoughts.

plug_nickel

Not sure what you mean about memory leaks. The amount of Free memory is supposed to decrease slowly over time as more stuff is cached in RAM in the background. Notice the amount of Cached memory goes up accordingly, filling with all the pre-fetched data ready to be read instantly or freed for other uncached applications if necessary, while the amount of Available RAM stays about the same.

 

This is a feature, not a memory leak! But this is what freaked everyone out and had supposedly tech-savy people disabling their SuperFetch. Totally "Free" memory is wasted, and using it to cache likely-needed data is a major OS innovation. 64-bit Win7 (and Win8 presumably) absolutely soars with gobs of RAM, because it's actually using it.

 

And what's Alacrity?

From Windows 95 SP2 thru W7, Microsoft has steadily decreased the amount of ram that services cache for potential use. When the OS kernal is ready, "free" ram is allocated to any and all services whether it's required or not.

And yes memory is supposed to go down "over time" as more "stuff" is cached; however, if you trace that useage, you'll find that many background services don't relinquish all the ram that's allocted to them when they're not in use.

The cache/allocation alogorithm MS uses in W7 is the most efficient to date but it's still flawed, hence the term "memory leaks" continues to exist. It's most apparent when the pc is booted and just left to run for a period of time. I've seen as many as 68 services caching "free" ram after inital boot and as little as 45 when disabling SuperFetch under the same startup scenario. And to note, the ram being reported to be free and consistenly shown to be available are, politely, very misleading. MS has has noted this in many publications, as have many noted ITT and "geek" forums.

Disabling SuperFetch, depending on the software being run and the background services being employed will actually increase performance; however, your mileage will most definitely vary going down this road.

Alacrity is probably the most comprehensive appliction used to control what services continue to run, when they run and when to automatically start them back up. On this forum, one of the members, Homeboy, wrote an excellent how-to tutorial on Alacrity. Combine this with Black Viper's website and you can have a very lean pc when needed, BUT take care on what services to control or........oops!

Just for fun, see how SuperFetch in W7 works using Task Manager.

Run two tests that last one hour each. One test with SuperFetch enabled and the other with SuperFetch disabled. Don't do anything; just let the pc run. Reboot between tests.

Make note of the allocated ram and the services running in Task Manager for each test. I think you'll be surprised . Here's a hint: despite W7's "efficiency" it still leaks and depending on the services, leaks badly.

plug_nickel

ps..I always use Alacrity on extreme lean when simming and only enable Superfetch sometimes depending on the program.

Oh, man, this is fun...I'm almost giddy here...*whew*  I gotta go get a beverage

Better make it coffee; big cup, black and extra strong.

That's funny 'cause the Amiga had no problem (re)booting the entire OS from a recoverable (non-volatile) RAM disk, while supporting gobs more RAM and being much cheaper than the Macs and PCs of the day.

 

Ah, the good old days...

 

 

Ah yes, the good old days. There are some substantial reasons why pc architecture went with ram and not rom. At one time. Amiga even did some "experiments" with eeproms to no avail. Amiga's "RAM disk" was a variation of a eeprom.

plug_nickel

One day, we may have machine with RAM drives that can actually load everything into memory (which is faster still than solid-state NAND),  The problem is it's volatile, so you'll wind up waiting at boot time (or at least run-time) for that initial loading of everything.

 

 

I don't think we'll ever see a pc that loads everything at startup....not only time consuming but the software/hardware combo that would be needed to eliminate the volatile state of ram memory would be GOD awfull expensive.

Load at startup with conventional SSD and then load images from a Revo3 480gb pcie bus SSD into, say 64/96/128gb ram drive depending on size(s) of image(s). Win-Win setup imho.

On your sidenote, I've just been "burned out" on military sims. I haven't flown one in some time. I'm just tooling around with "Return to Misty Moorings" using Prepar3d. Good to Type at you!

plug_nickel

Once again, a very enjoyable exchange from thoroughly knowledgeable people.

Kudos Tamper for you eliquently "trashing" the notion that higher fps leads to higher performance.

Lothar of the Hill People, wether you realize it or not, your OFFice mod is actually functioning, in a minimal way, as a ram drive.

And you both have laid out the importance of drive speed, density, placement, maintenace of drive sytems, and how the OS affects this operation.

On a side note, I personally would not have more than 12-16gb's of system ram in any pc unless you're going to run a ram drive.

plug_nickel