mmaDave

Are you sure you wouldn't be better served with a dedicated 8 track recorder and then using the balance of the money to buy better microphones, a mixing board, effects boxes and upgrades to your current computer? You would still mix down the tracks into the computer and could run what ever effects you needed to and tweak the final balance before burning to CD or uploading. While a laptop is certainly portable, the audio playback quality will be less than a desktop with a good sound card in an expansion slot. Plus, breakout box after breakout box to get multiple instruments to feed into your laptop. I'm also a big believer in having dedicated equipment for certain roles (as I once lived in fear of the perfect take being suddenly ruined by a CTD or having to redo something after an antivirus scan caused stuttering) I guess I'm going to caution going down just the portable route. I mean by the time you show up to a site, you're going to have several microphones, 100 ish feet of XLR cable, breakout boxes, musical instruments. You can get away with DI'ing guitars and such, but then you lose so much of the sound quality IMO. I don't think there is a way to go wrong what ever you choose, but buying a dedicated recorder gets you more milage for the buck.

Firstly, good luck with the home recording setup. It's probably the most rewarding activity I've ever come across and nothing compares to the ability to record and master an idea to exactly how you imagined it in your head. I do have a couple of questions - keep in mind it been five years since I've dealt with digital recording and ten since I've done any recording in any sort of semi-professional capacity. Why are you dead set on a laptop? Is it a portability issue? Would you consider an independant digital multitrack recorder in addition to a new computer? Also, what is your budget for the project? I know you mentioned $12,000 but then quantified that as "pretty small."

Oolite (Here) is a freeware updating of Elite. Its not an MMORPG, but its open source nature has enabled a bunch of expansions and mods - called OXPs (Listing / Info) - to be released. Check it out, even if you wind up choosing to go the Eve Online route.

If you're not comfortable with editing .ini files, setting "Water Detail" under Options -> Graphics to medium or better may resolve it. It did in my case and doesn't lead to a significant performance hit.

If you installed the F-5 in the SF2 Europe folder, then you will NOT have the F-5 when you launch the main SF2 (or SF2: Vietnam or SF2: Isreal). You will get the NATO mod and the F-5 ONLY if you use SF2 Europe. However, you can launch all of the campaigns and missions from within SF2 Europe. So, in your case, if you wanted to fly an interception mission using an F-5 over Vietnam, you would still use the SF2 Europe launcher. Each individual .exe file contains all of the stock campaigns, planes and missions. There isn't one main folder that applies to every launcher. Each launcher has its own folder. You can put all of your mods and custom controls into just the SF2 Europe folder and as long as you use the SF2 Europe launcher, then you will be able to use all of your mods in all of the stock terrains. In my case (using Vista), I put all of my modded airplanes in (user)\Saved Games\ThirdWire\StrikeFighters2\Objects. If I want to fly an F-18 over Europe, I still use the Strike Fighters2.exe. Even f I want to fly A-4s for Isreal, I use the StrikeFighters2.exe. If I use anything but the SF2 launcher, I do not have access to any mods. For you, just put all of your mods into the \StrikeFighters2 Europe\ appropriate folders and then launch the game using the Strike Fighters 2 Europe launcher regardless of the terrain or campaign you wish to run. The other .exe files - and the related folders - are there for you to run different mods in different folders without having them conflicting with each other. If you wanted to use the Air/Ground Gold Expansion for Vietnam but didn't want any conflicts with your current NATO Fighters Mod, then you would have to use a different folder (e.g. SF2: Vietnam's folder). Then when running NATO fighters, you would use SF2: Europe. When you wanted to run A/G Gold you would run SF2: Vietnam. You would not have access to both mods simultaneously.

1. The games are automatically merged upon installation. 2. Each individual .exe (e.g. SF2, SF2: Europe, SF2: Vietnam, SF2: Isreal) is capable of launching any campaign or mission from ANY of the games. So, for me, I use only the SF2.exe to play all of my campaigns or missions. This means you only have to put your mods into one of the folders (in my case the SF2 mod folder under user\saved games). The custom controls are then likewise stored under that SF2.exe I believe (but may be wrong on) the upside then is you could apply different mods to different .exe files and have them separated. So you could play the stock Vietnam campaign by launching the main SF2.exe. Then if you apply the Air/Ground expansion pack to the SF2:Vietnam folder, you can launch the mod using the SF2Vietnam.exe (keeping the stock campaign around without being touched).

You might want to look into the ENBseries mod stickied in this forum. While it could possibly get you a few extra fps out of Strike Fighters, it also takes screenshots out of the flight portion of the game.

eburger noticed a similar issue in the Gen 2 sims: http://bbs.thirdwire.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7209&start=0&hilit=ai+behavior AI wingmen go nuts and break formation to attack the offending radar. TK mentioned he would look into it.

Hey everybody. I'm going to declare my pilot for DiD, but will not begin flying until at least Jan 4th - when my joystick arrives - and when I get familiar with the program. Pilot: Dave "Monster" Williams Campaign: Burning Sands, Strike Fighters 2 Aircraft: A-4B Skyhawk Squadron: USN VA-36 Roadrunners I'm going to be using the minimum agreed on settings and will not be adjusting my loadouts until promoted.