Sal_

To make a multiplayer mission, you need to set the skill level of each player flyable plane to 'Client'. Also, you can only have one plane per set of waypoints so if you want 4 player flyable planes, you make each one in its own group and give each one a set of waypoints. Don't forget to enter the task for each plane and use the payload button to arm it. You need to make as many planes as you intend to have players. You can add AI planes with airstart waypoints or you can set them to take off from an airfield but if they are set to takeoff from an airfield, you have to stagger the takeoff times or only one group will take off from that base. This also applies if you want friendly AI planes taking off from the same base as the players. To set mission objectives, you need an attack waypoint. With the attack waypoint selected, you can click the targeting button and set a series of mission objective targets. After you have your targeting set for all planes, click the crosshair looking button on the left side of the editor screen and add the targeting list to the mission objective list. That is a real basic explanation of the MP coop, I can go into more detail on a particular subject if you need.

Thanks for the tip, I got my order in with an hour to spare. I had been looking all over town for a copy of Lock On for the past 3 days with no success and I was already resigned to ordering it online, so you just saved me $4 or so (the shipping was $5.99).

I have a Saitek Cyborg Gold USB and I would highly recommend this stick if you can find one as they are being replaced by the EVO. The only problem I have heard with the EVO is the location of the throttle slider is a bit awkward with it being in the rear of the stick. It seems that it is easy to bump with your arm or even worse get caught in long sleeves. but other than that, Saitek makes some decent quality sticks at very affordable prices. I like the fact that the Cyborg and the EVO can work equally well for right or left handers. I'm right-handed, but I have removed the palm rest so I can switch hands whenever I need to which makes the stick very versitile.

Yes, you are allowed to make a backup copy of your software as long as you don't give it to anyone else and you destroy it if you ever decide to sell your official copy of the CD to someone else. This is called your fair use rights in regards to copyright law. But, even though you have the right to copy your disk for your own personal use, the copy may not work because of the copy protection software. This is why some people use modified copies of the executable or "no-cd" hacks. The legality of the modified executable is questionable, so to be truly safe, it is best to just treat the CD carefully and don't download the no-cd hack.

In some of the beta versions, the sound files were ogg but it was actually causing more problems so the devs switched back to wav. It seems that whenever a sound has to load, you are going to get a performance hit it just turned out that the larger wav files worked better than the processing required to decode oggs. Let's face it, sound processing is going to require more system resources, there is no way to avoid it other than shutting off sound effects. When I started testing Lock On, I was using the onboard sound chip and I turned off hardware acceleration which helped overall performance. I ended up buying a Hercules Fortissimo sound card recently and now Lock On runs better than ever with no pauses when radio calls play and I can turn acceleration back up. Modern games are going to require that you have your PC running at its best and that takes a bit of work and sometimes a little experimentation. Forums like this have plenty of helpful members that can give tips and point you in the right direction toward optimizing your system for gaming.

You need to use the Weapons Editor that TK released a few weeks ago. I'm sure you can find it on this site or on Skunkworks. It takes the weaponsdata.ini file and compiles it into a weaponsdata.dat binary file. The game uses the .dat file.

The code is: IRM for Infra-Red Missile Some others are: ARM for anti-radiation GP for gunpod FT for fuel tank BOMB obvious RP for rocket pod SAHM semi-active homing missile RCKT for the bigger unguided rockets TER triple ejector rack MER multiple ejector rack The F4-E_DATA.ini has a ton of codes, but I think many of them are not currently in the game but rather are reserved for future expansion.

Super plane Dave! Your models are really very high class. The Thud sure is fun to fly on bombing missions. :D

Oh, ok. I couldn't remember is the Marcfighers green cockpit came with a cocpit.ini file. Use the CAT extractor on the ObjectData.cat file and extract the F-104G_cockpit.ini and move it into the MiG-17F directory. Make sure that your MiG-17F.ini file has the F-104 cockpit listed. If you want to use the F-100 instead, since it doesn't have a radar, the node names are mirror and mirror_frame.

You will need the cockpit.ini file, so I am assuming you have that. All the edits below are found in the cockpit.ini Here's what you need to do: Add these two lines to the list of instruments. Make sure that the numbers are continuous and that these are next in the sequence. Instrument[049]=Mirror1_frame Instrument[050]=Mirror2_frame This will allow us to assign a movement type to the mirror frames as well as the mirror faces. (which are already in the intrument list) Next, locate the [Mirror1] and [Mirror2] sections further down in the file. Change them like this: [Mirror1] Type=RADAR_MODE_SELECTOR NodeName=mirror_right MovementType=LIGHT ItemNumber=9 [Mirror2] Type=RADAR_MODE_SELECTOR NodeName=mirror_left MovementType=LIGHT ItemNumber=9 What this does is assign the LIGHT movement type to the node. This is a on/off type of movement. You can also look at it as visible/invisible. Since the RADAR_MODE_SELECTOR does not have a selection as number 9, this will make the node invisible all the time. Next, We need to do the same thing for the mirror frames: [Mirror1_frame] Type=RADAR_MODE_SELECTOR NodeName=mirror_frame_right MovementType=LIGHT ItemNumber=9 [Mirror2_frame] Type=RADAR_MODE_SELECTOR NodeName=mirror_frame_left MovementType=LIGHT ItemNumber=9 How do I know what the node names for the mirror frames are? All I did was open the cockpit.lod file in notepad and searched the file for the word "mirror" the node names are in plain text in the lod file. You can also use a hex editor to do this. You can take this a step further and remove other instruments too, all you need to know is the node name.

Not sure why there are so many numbers in the VortexG parameter, all you need is -4.0 and any G value above that will trigger the smoke on.

The size is set for various points in the life of the particle. The time parameter is between 0 and 1 with 0 being the size when born and the 1 is the size of the particle when it dies. Points in between 0-1 set the size at that percentage of its life. For example: ParticleSize[01].Time=0.000000 ParticleSize[01].Value=0.800000 ParticleSize[02].Time=0.01000 ParticleSize[02].Value=0.800000 The partcile starts at size .8 and stays that way through 1% of its life ParticleSize[03].Time=0.500000 ParticleSize[03].Value=50.000000 It then grows to size 50 by the halfway point in its life ParticleSize[04].Time=1.000000 ParticleSize[04].Value=100.000000 And finally in the last half, it grows to size 100. At this point the particle is also becoming more transparent.

Great Job! I figured that someone could take my basic work and make it happen. But I don't see why you can't add the emitter to the end of the list that way. The number I had originally 094, was for the pre-patch particlesystem.ini file. The color works like this: Red,Green,Blue,Opacity and the values are between 0-100% with 1.0 being 100%

Some interesting ideas there. Flaps: I tried adding more than two positions for the flaps, but they still only have landing and take-off positions. No luck there. Folding wings: This is definitely possible. Amourdave has a Su-17 model in the works where he has working swing wings. It's done by animating the wing movement in 3DSMax and then assigning the animation to the 'H' key (arrestor hook). A similar thing could be done with a folding wing animation, but you would have to have the 3DSMax model, so this would be for add-on planes only. In-flight refuling: Interesting idea, but I can't think of a way to make this happen without an update to the source code. Modeling a tanker is defintely do-able and modeling a refuling boom is do-able, but adding fuel while airborne is beyond what we can do without help from TK. Arrested landings: Another intersting topic. You could possibly simulate this with extremely sticky tires, but then you would have to start in the air because there would be now way to take-off. Keep thinking of stuff like this, that's the kind of things that will push this sim farther along.

The matching drop tanks are a nice touch. Very well done.

This is similar to what you are looking for. I made this for Blue Angels/Thunderbirds singgle smoke generator type stuff, but it could be modified to work as wingtip smoke as well. http://skunkworks.free.fr/forum/phpBB2/vie...topic.php?t=628 In the aircraft data.ini file you will find these lines in the outer wings VortexEmitterName=WingtipVortexEmitter VortexPosition=-4.57,-7.13,0.47 //(don't use this line, use the one from the plane you want to add smoke to) VortexG=2.5 If you edit it a little, you can get full time wingtip smoke: VortexEmitterName=AirshowSmokeEmitter VortexPosition=-4.57,-7.13,0.47 VortexG=1.0 I'm curious to see how it turns out, post some screenshots if you can :D

The minimum range for the 7-D and 7-E Sparrows is more like 5 miles although you can still hit the target closer than that if it's a straight shot and the missle doesn't have to turn much. Here is a picture showing the min and max range ticks. If the blip is between the ticks, you're good to go.

I might take a shot at it after the Su-17 is wrapped up. Dave and I were working together today to get many of the gauges in the Su-17 cockpit operational and much of that work can transfer over to the other Russian cockpits. Thanks to TK, there is a new instrument type that was added in the patch that allows us to model the Russian style ADI accurately now. I already have some good detail photos of various Russian cockpits, so if someone wants to start modeling the basic shape, I will be more than happy to contribute the textures I have.

I have noticed that post-patch, some of the Soviet single missions place you 'out-of-bounds' and for some mission types, CTD immediately upon loading. I mention this because there may be some connection between problems people say they have been having with the Euro tileset. In other words, it may not be a problem with the Euro terrain, but rather a problem with mission waypoints post-patch. If I find out more, I will pass it on.

Here is a version for offline use. This will allow you to make changes to the desert_targets.ini file and then see them in the Mission Planner Utility. http://24.126.25.86/~webserver/downloads/m...ner_offline.zip And for Deuces, or anyone else who want's to play with the source files: http://24.126.25.86/~webserver/downloads/m...r1.4_source.zip Have fun.

It is possible to import your own targets.ini file, so if you want to change the names of the cities, it will be reflected on the mapdisplay. As it stands right now, the file has to be parsed and reformatted so that the program can recognize the variables. I will post links to the parser and to a version of the program you can download and run off your own hard drives. You must have Flash 6 plugin for your browser. Keep in mind that this is an experimental program and I'm not promising that everything will work flawlessly. I made it as a tool to help me build missions, whether or not anyone else can get some use from is simply a side benefit.

The link Deuces posted is sort of a test version of a graphical mission planner utility I have been working on. It's useful, but still requires some manual editing to make a mission file with the data. Anyone is welcome to use it as a tool to build missions. If you click the 'Targets' button first, it will plot the locations of all the cities and airfield in the desert_targets.ini file. You can then zoom in for a closer look. I do have plans for adding some additional functionality to it. I have been experimenting with importing mission files. I can parse a .msn file and I'm close to being able to display the units and waypoints from the file. The main problem is that while you're in the game, the only map you have access to does not show this information and I really don't see a way to program it into the game other than as additional waypoints. So, what you could do is build a mission where the main set of waypoints leads you to the target and back to your primary airbase. You could then add additional waypoints to secondary airfields to use in an emergency. While in-flight, you use the 'W' key to advance the waypoints until the waypoint you want to go to is showing. Not perfect, but this might work.[/i]