Brainless

Oh dear my beautiful F/18 won't fly anymore! I have just come across this problem with the F-18. (see picture) This seems to have occurred after recently upgrading to a ATI Sapphire video card. I don’t know if this is the problem or if there is another reason. All the other aircraft seem to be O.K so it’s a bit of a puzzle. I’m using it in WOE but I wouldn’t have thought that in itself would have been the issue as it worked fine before the upgrade. Anyone have any ideas as to why this should be ( BTW as well as the corrupted image the a/c won’t fly due to horrible stuttering)?

Yes it is DS terrain (can't hardly wait for the new stuff) plus a lot of addons from YAP and others to numerous to detail.

Just some pics for Blackhawk fans. I know you'll love 'em. With acknowledgements and thanks to YAP and all the modders who make this type of mission not only possible but IMHO even more thrilling than any fixed wing a/c encounter with ground forces. Enjoy No I haven't gone over to the other side just yet but I'm tettering on the edge.

Quote 15. There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing. Unfortunately no one knows what they are. O.K. I know the answer to this one. Soft tyre pressure with soft suspension and on the tarmac. That's right isn't guys?

Well for what it's worth here's what I thought.. My post on the SIMHQ site. Just ignore the last few lines. WOW..completely gobsmacked...!!!I got the EECH2 sim last week- well actually I was given it as a late birthday present. Having found it entertaining? investigated and found the original sim EECH and bought it for next to nothing and have just downloaded and installed the latest addons.I couldn't believe that the stuff you guys have produced is IMHO better than the newer release!!I am absolutely amazed at the quality and fluid flight dynamics.I have no idea how you guys do this magic but I for one have to say a VERY BIG THANK you to all concerned.I'f only I had looked at this earlier I probably wouldn't have bothered with EECH2. I guess I'll keep it though in case you guys start improving that one too!!!Thanks again to all contributors.Golly if this continues I may well become converted from fixed wing to rotorhead but don't tell the people at CombateACE. Top

See my post in the 'Lead Pursuit - No answer except Automated' about the sound problem. I might help!!

Well guys I've just discovered that I am as stated ......er... Brainless. I was browsing the Simhq forum and came across a tutorial in the Sticky section noted 'ramp start up'. I downloaded this and way and behold up came the part about ATC communications. The reason why I wasn't getting a response from that lovely lady who gives taxi permission was because I hadn't turned the comms switches on. ERRR.. unbelieveable and I've been trying to discover why the ATC wasn't working for months..nay...years. So simple and in a way so stupid of me not to have sussed this out sooner myself. With apologises to all at Falcon 4.0 Allied Force for my careless stupidity. P.S. It would have been nice if someone from that organisation had bothered to reply to my e-mails about this which would have saved a lot of aggravation!!

It can be done my friend. It just takes practice!! Fly it carefully with small control inputs and don't try to hover as zero knots don't work.. you'll just tip up and crash. Try 25-30 knots as a starting slowest speed... you can land at 15-20 knots. YAP (Yankee Air Pirate) have some good models which are as close to a flight model as you can get with the Thirdwire game engine but you have to pay for the priviledge. Actually I don't find that much difference between the YAP flight models and the ones you can download here for free but that's just my view. Once you've got the hang of it they are good fun and an extension of the great Thirdwire sim series but you do need patience and don't give up if you crash the first few times. You need to set the flight options to normal (I wouldn't use the easy or hard mode) and go gently. Have fun and after a while you'll be landing on carriers with no problem!! Best of luck.

I've spent about four hours trying to land the Huey on the LST without success in the Seawolves Long Xuyen mission. I've modified the file to make the LST come to a stationery position at 0knots in the centre of the river (IMHO opinion a general improvement on the ship sailing over land) but I still can't land the 'copter on the deck without exploding. I've reduced the fuel load (25%) dropped the stores (doesn't seem to work as stores stay on) deployed the flaps, speedbrake and hook( is the hook necessary anyway?) and useed the VTOL keys but the best I can do is 33kts at 20% throttle (edge of stall) but as soon as I hit the deck, I either go below the structure or explode. I've even tried with collisions off but all this does is stops the 'copter exploding and I just sail over the deck. Has anyone done this and if so can they explain what I'm doing wrong?

Remember Dave's advice a little while ago about backing up your files? Well I bought a FreeCom moblie drive to backup all my files. I ran the programme with no problem and got the 'files successfully backed up' notice. I thought good now I've backed up my entire system so nothing to worry about eh! I put the drive away safely and got it back out again thursday to run the 'incremental' backup. I'd divided all the drives into their own drive number so I just went to the saved drive and ran the incremental programme. No problem it said all backups sucessfully completed. Then after reading here you could run programmes directlly form the moblie drive tried to open WOE this way and guess what... It didn't work. I got CTD. So I started to investigate and when comparing the properties of the original found the so called sucessfully backed up files were in some cases only 99.9% completed and not all files had in fact been copied. I spent the best part of my weekend reformattting and manually copying my entire system onto the Freecom mobile drive. This is now foolproof ( I think ) and I can run Thirdwire and all other sims from the external drive plus I have my entire system backed up. Moral of this tale is don't trust automated computer messages the're not always right! I expect you computer buffs know this already but if you've recently backed up your files you might want to check that they have actually been backed up. Don't you just looooove these machines!!

Thanks for the info. This is something which I had already considered but my 754 chip can't be upgraded further so far as I know.

Well thanks for that. As far as I can make out from the Iiyama manual I'm running in the native image. It says 1280 x 1024 which is what I'm using. As for the other settings they are in default at present. Perhaps you can advise better settings?

Err..... now you've lost me What is interpolated and how would I know and what settings do you mean? I think there is now some very slight improvement in the image definition. I think the system has sort of tuned itself a bit. Would this be right?

CPU? See my first post in the 'New System' series of posts. It's an AMD Athalon 64 3700+ (2.4 Ghz)I believe.

I'll send a joystick directly!! Well done mate.

Hi guys Well I thought I'd just tell those of you who had been following my 'New System' posts and those who had kindly replied, especially Buff who has been so helpful, that I installed a new Sapphire 1950 Pro graphics card today with updated drivers and its very disappointing. Considering that the new card is ( I think 2.5 times) faster than my old one there seems to be little if any improvement in frame rates and image. Unless you guys know something I don't ( I expect you do) I wonder why I spent the bucks upgrading. I know that I am only waiting on the new stuff to come out so I can build a new better rig but unless I have not done something right - yes I did connect both power supply cords to the PSU and yes it all seems to run O.K. and yes the PSU is within the specified 450w rating- mine's 480, it all seems such a waste of time and effort. All day tinkering and evaluting for no gain. Don't you just love thiese machines!!

More trees in the terrain

Well yes, that's what I've just worked out after much further research. I've discovered I need a 4X/8X PCI card and that fits the bill I believe. Thanks for the advice. I won't be too worried about the cost as it seems it will be well into next year before I go for the new rig based on your current info. Perhaps if you remember you could let me know when the DDR3 & 45NM components are available so we can go tho' this again if you can stand it

Having spent all afternoon researching this question on the web realise this is frought with all sorts of difficulties trying to work out what will fit my GA-K8N Pro mobo. Why don't the manufacturers and suppliers give a simple list of what fits their products it would make life so much easier for computer illiterates like me or do we all have to be computer geniuses. Sheer frustration!!! BTW my existing tower size is H410mm x D430mm x W200mm

Can't wait. When will it be available and Tazkiller's hit the nail with useage

Thanks for the direct link which I looked at and which seems a great price and really good but my socket size is 754 so it won't fit my mobo. I really need to know the best AGP card to fit my current Gigabyte K8N Pro mobo. I've looked at sites offering GFX but I really don't know what's best and I'm waiting for advice on this before I splash my cash. I know you guys will tell me.

Thanks for the info but I think buying a new fan for my existing system probably wouldn't be worthwhile unless the existing AMD fan packs up. I will note this for the new system though. All advice gratefully received!

Hmmmm.....It seems to me that my best option would be to wait until the New Year/Spring and then get the latest mother board supporting the 45Nm processors with DDR3 RAM etc. I will revise my saved component list based on your latest advices for future referrence. No doubt this will change again when the latest components come onstream but at least it will give me a starting point. Meanwhile have you any suggestions for a better AGP graphics card that will fit my existing rig which might improve things until I get round to building a new system? My existing one, a Radeon X800 Pro seems a little worn and outdated now with the flickering tiles etc. This shouldn't break the bank and as I intend to retain the system won't abe a total waste of money!! Thanks for your invaluable advice with all this.

Hi Buff Further to your last advices I have revised the component list as hereunder:- (This may be subject to further amendment following your ongoing advices) Case Thermaltake Armor – ref VA8003SWA Power Supply Unit Corsair HX620 (your suggestion) Motherboard Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6 ( is this the latest & best?) Can I upgrade later to say a faster CPU and DDR3 RAM What are the 45NM processors and when might they be available. Do I need one? Heatsink fan Please advise best one CPU Intel Q6850 2.4GHz (overclocked to 3.0GHz) RAM Corsair 800hz 4GB DDR2 6400 (your suggestion) HDD Seagate Barracuda – 320 GB ref STY 3320620AS ODD Samsung –SH-S183A Black DVD +/- R/RW RAM DL SATA OEM (SH-S183A/BEBN) is this the right one? FLOPPY Teac Floppy drive FD-CRZ VIDEO CARD GeForce 8800GTX ( is this the latest and best?) (your suggestion) Is Intel better than AMD? OS Windows Vista KVM switch NLKVM P-2PC ( is this the one I need ?) BROADBAND MODEM Assumed this will fit straight onto Mobo NETWORKING SWITCH What does ‘’confirm your old PC is only 10/100’’ mean COMPATIBILTY I assume that all the components I have listed are compatible and will they all fit into the case I have chosen? If not please advise. COMPONENTS Is there anything you wouldn’t have for a particular reason? COMMENTS Again please feel free to re-recommend/advise on anything All thoughts on any aspect would be appreciated ADVICE Thanks again for sparing your time to research the parts and for all your invaluable help without which I would be at a complete loss with this!