zzzspace

G'day DayGlow, please to hear you are liking the packs. :D The Sound.cfg file allows you to alter internal sound levels with the volume parameter (do not exceed Volume = 2.7; if you use those parameters for your tweaking, you may get lock ups from it). I've stopped using those internal volume controls though because I noticed they were causing odd things to occur. I now only edit sound levels in the file itself (using my .ogg originals, not the derived .wav files from the pack itself). Most of the reason why there is a big difference between standard sounds and my pack is because the standard sounds are quite muffled, quiet and unclear, so taking some top end off the sounds might do it for you to (?). I've not even played Strike Fighters yet. :( Just haven't had the time, maybe I 'll get it soon and look into it. I've tweaked F4 BMS 2.0 externals a bit though, but not seriously yet. I hope this new pack works well for you DayGlow, give it a go in Stereo with DirectX hardware acceleration enabled—it cooks! ;) Have fun!

Update after 24 hrs… still a work in progress. I’ve completed combining all of the sounds from the current version 4.1 of the sound pack with the new avionics sounds from the 1.02 patch. There are a total of 14 avionics sounds in all within this pack (5 new ones from 1.02) and they all have to be checked for proper balance and to be clearly audible in use (but not annoyingly so on long missions). It’s all working and sounds great, but I haven’t had time to test it thoroughly to make sure all the 130 sounds are functioning properly. I would not normally need to test it all in detail, but the 1.02 patch made significant changes to the Lock On sound engine’s behaviour. I found that when I combined my Sound.cfg from version 4.1 (with the necessary new avionics added of course) I found that the sound engine is now operating a bit differently to previous. It’s not quite so simple to just combine them, so I’ve had to change a few settings in the Sound.cfg to get it all working sweet again, which means I have to now test it all (and adjust … and test again, etc.), in a number of missions before release. The good news is that the Lock On sound engine stereo imaging now works—it’s not Dolby 5.1 Surround by any means, but it does add a whole new level of sound image to Lock On—though there are still some pops and crackles present, particularly when missiles hit aircraft (but some pops and crackles are also present in other recent f/sims and shooters). So I want to make sure this pack’s sounds are ideal for use with this stereo imaging, which I’m sure many people will use once they hear it working with this sound pack. I’ve observed no loss of frames per second using it, even within the most complex missions I’ve constructed for testing purposes. I’ve noted the request from DayGlow in UBI forum about a non-chatter version of the pack. The chatter will still be retained with this version, but I’ll also include an alternative file that has no radio chatter within it and instructions in the LOMAN readme information window on how to remove the chatter file and use this alternative instead. I hope to have it all done and ready for download here from BioHaz by the end of Friday (unless circumstances prevent this occurring by that time). zzzspace -- P.S. You need to enable DirectX hardware acceleration for the stereo effect to be heard—remember, each PC setup is different, so mileage may vary.

I just wanted to let you know that there will be a new sound effect pack released in a day or two that will be 100% compatible with Lock On version 1.02. I have had a quick look at it and it's a simple adjustment to make the current v4.1 pack fully compatible with Lock On 1.02. I just need a day or two to test it and make sure all is right with it etc., then will post it up here in BioHaz for download. Can you please do the honours again GhostDog? Cheers mate! Could someone also please inform peeps at UBI forum; there was a question posted about it a little while ago: http://ubbxforums.ubi.com/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=...606&m=396100074

zzzspace LOMAC Sound Effects version 4.1 GhostDog, could you please upload, or replace the version now online within the BioHaz’s LOMAC file downloads—I love you guys. :D [ EDIT by GhostDog ] Description: This version 4.1 update to the pack contains new high quality missile launch sounds from actual missile firings, incremental refinement to engines, as well as to many ground-war battle sounds and genuine tank and artillery gun firing sounds. The in-flight background radio chatter has been edited and also reduced a little in volume so as to be less distracting during missions. Helicopter sound now has the appropriate turbine engine sound included. Other mirror sites are welcome to host this pack as well--enjoy. zzz -- P.S. Regarding sound levels; I have noted the occasional complaints voiced about cockpit volume levels. I’m a little tired of repeating this to the people who pay no attention; you can aim for one of three possible options when building a sound pack for Lock On: 1. Internal cockpit sound that is very similar to the real thing. 2. External sounds that are very similar to the real thing 3. A high quality compromise between those two irreconcilable and conflicting ideals. This sound pack is designed along the lines of option 3. If you believe that your in-cockpit sound is too loud, then I ask you; ‘loud’ … WITH RESPECT TO WHAT EXACTLY??? I can only see two practical and reasonable issues that would make any sense to this nebulous complaining of cockpit sounds seeming “too loud”; 1. You might feel the avionics warnings are a bit hard to hear easily because other sounds are swamping them a little … in which case, turn up the ‘Warnings’ slider within Lock On’s audio options (indeed, that’s precisely why I designed this pack with the “Warnings” volume slider pegged at 50%!) 2. Or else, you might have some difficulty hearing voice comms clearly in multiplay … which any experienced m/p flier knows can be caused by a number of completely unrelated factors, such as the quality of the microphones being used, speaker quality, equalisation, transmitting environment, the compression codec being used, or even the particular voice program being utilised. But those factors have absolutely nothing to do with the cockpit sound volume levels of the sound pack itself—do they? But let’s say for argument sake that none of these are the cause of the difficulty one is experiencing in hearing voice comms clearly; in which case, the available solutions are EXTREMELY SIMPLE. You can either turn up your volume slider within your VOICE COMMS program, or else, you can turn down the LOCK ON MASTER VOLUME SLIDER, which is found at the top of LOMAC’s AUDIO OPTIONS screen—this is in fact why Lock On has a master volume slider … ok? You, and you alone have total control over the cockpit sound levels which you experience—it has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the sound pack. So please, no more tedious pointless complaining about your personal cockpit volume levels, USE YOUR BRAIN, and spend half an hour or so to set up and test out sound levels, then note them down, and you will have no further problems with your cockpit sound level settings. Too easy! ;) :D The following settings are volume settings which I STRONGLY RECOMMEND for use with this sound pack. I suggest you FIRST try altering other volume sliders, as described above, BEFORE moving away from the recommended settings. If you still aren’t a happy little chappy after this, … then tough luck Snoopy! :D MASTER VOLUME = 100% (or whatever setting works best to balance with your voice comms) MUSIC = 25% RADIO = 35% ENGINES = 100% MECHANICALS = 100% EFFECTS = 100% WIND = 100% WARNING = 50% COCKPIT = 85% Cheers peeps!

Final version of zzzspace’s Lock On sound effects replacement pack - version 4.0. Germ111, could you please upload this to the BioHaz file archive—thank you. 19 meg LOMAN 2.0 zip file http://ado.qgl.org/zzzspace_V4_Lock_On_Sou...eplacements.zip This version contains new engine sounds, new afterburner, new explosions and other assorted combat sounds. It also features a detailed combined ACM, CAP and CAS 15 minute cockpit audio loop of in-flight background radio chatter—thanks to ‘EagleDeer’ for his prompting, resources, idea and inspiration for that one. Have fun! zzz -- P.S. Other Lock On mirror sites are welcome to host as well.

Sounds intriguing Snacky; forcing myself to suppress unbridled expectations. We all hope it will get a direct hit the ‘sweet spot’ with 1.02. Lock On and ED deserve to get there.

Little correction; *HAS* "... so much going for it. ..."

Yeah, a lot of merit in those points Bard, the one thing F-117A and Tornado 1 and 2 and TFX-EF2000 series had, was fantastic game play. You could play them for a month and love every moment. It goes without saying, I love Lock On’s good points, but the A.I. behaviour when it comes to actually planning and executing a mission plan, DESTROYS my enjoyment of Lock On game play ... game play? ... what game play? There seems to be a pronounced and generally unacknowledged lack of it. The missions and 'campaigns' seem to inevitably degenerate in to a mish-mash of ad-hoc chaos, and that is very disappointing to someone who has played many fine sims where not only did things work, and detailed game planning was possible, but it also operated beautifully in practice. If it were not for that major snafu I'd be rapt with Lock On (because I know the other serious bugs and issues are being fixed, so I don't mind waiting as I can see its going to get there, in those areas), but as it stands, I border on disappointment and disillusionment with Lock On in almost every planned mission I attempt to fly to plan. Makes you feel like pulling your hair out to see the state of the A.I.’s behaviours, and no one seems to want to bite the bullet and say it will be remedied either, even partially. So this is a stand out example of what not to do. We have a very good mission planner and editor, which allows you great precision construction of very detailed missions in time and space, plus full tactical development ( and potentially stragegic development in a campaign); it's all IN THERE, just waiting to work properly--they got that part right--but I don't know what they were envisioning in constructing the A.I. logics to actually NOT fly the missions planned! … Unbelievable. :( That is what I hope no following sim developer ever considers repeating. So what's the most important thing in planner and editor? ... THE ACTUAL PLANNED GAMEPLAY ITSELF. -- Disclaimer: Bard, please don't take this to mean I agree with other various views, nor tenacity of continually expressing them--I'm sure you realise I generally don't concur.

Well, it is in some ways much easier to get the average new game to work today, its not like ten years ago when in order to use some of the best sims around, you had to really mess about and learn esoteric op sys config stuff just to get them to run, plus load up the peripheral drivers it required … in the right order … and also not exceed tight available memory ... and that was all part of the bleeding-edge simming experience, getting the darn thing to even work ... what a relief it was after a month of trying, to finally get it to run first time! Those were the days when detailed installation instructions and readme.txt contents had to be taken very seriously. Much easier now though. :)

All that's occurring overtime is a pervasive, ever increasing expectation that developers should increasingly provide unachievable 'reality'. Remember Jet Fighter II, or Microprose F-117A? ... great 'sim' games from 15 years ago (they seemed 'realistic' to my ignorance at the time), I'm sure many do remember them, I played those to death and had lots of fun for very few dollars. No one TOLD me they were poorly coded, poorly modelled or the fight model stank, or the graphics sucked and the sound was pathetic ... I just enjoyed what I bought and there were many 'sims' I bought which really were terrible rubbish (and I forgot most of them), and I didn't need anyone to TELL me that either. Didn't need an expert to give me it broken down into what's 'wrong', or should be done 'better' and patched up. Likewise, I don't need anyone to preach to me the pros and cons of a sim I play now--nobody needs that so please don't bother, I'm not interested. If I keep playing a sim it has to be pretty good to hold my interest, regardless of whatever warts it has, and in 15 years I'll still remember them fondly for what it did, not what was 'wrong'. Unfortunately today, simply enjoying a sim and making the most of what you bought (emphasis on simply), and not just resorting to being a 'smart-guy' critic, is much less popular ... the sim seems to become secondary to expressing dissent and contention. LOL … pretty wierd, whatever!

Is it just me, or are others under the impression that Ramstein is the author of the "copy & pasted post" ;) :P Surely not, that would mean they were just doing the rounds of LOMAC forums and needlessly stirring ... why would someone bother to do that?

And we wait for it to be unleashed. :D

No, all of the cloud mods he did are like that, he couldn't figure out why the upper cloud layer never seemed to optimise properly.

LoMAn 2.0 compatible Lock On sound effects replacement suite is now down-loadable! http://ado.qgl.org/zzz_lockon_sound_effects_ogg.zip (Thanks Ado – “Malletta” for hosting!) NOTE: These are .ogg files so don’t forget to also manually remove the .wav files from the effects folder (as per readme.txt); C:\Program files\Ubisoft\Eagle Dynamics\Lock On\Sounds\Effects - zzzspace

Hmm ... well, I just submitted a 6.2meg, LoMan 2.0 compatible zip of sounds ... and they really kick butt to!... -- README - lockon sound effects replacement_ogg.txt -- Lock On Sound Effects - A complete replacement collection. ========================================================== Compiled and edited by zzzspace of No.1. Sqd. VAAF "BUSHRANGERS". I have compiled a set of complete replacement sound effect files, to be placed in the below folder in place of the standard Lock On effect files. I recommend you back up the originals before installing these replacements: C:\Program files\Ubisoft\Eagle Dynamics\Lock On\Sounds\Effects There are two configuration files as well which must be placed in the following folder; the files "Plane.cfg" and "Sound.cfg" go into this folder: C:\Program files\Ubisoft\Eagle Dynamics\Lock On\Sounds -- All files files (with the exception of the .txt one you are currently reading) in the “zzz_lockon_sound_effects_ogg.zip” file, MUST be installed as indicated, or the .ogg files will not work in Lock On. Do NOT leave the standard .wave files in the effects folder because as a default Lock On will preferentially use the .wav files if available, and thereby ignore the new .oggs, so make sure that you have removed and backed up all of the .wav files from the effects folder. These replacement sound files were carefully selected and edited to produce the most complete and highest quality sound effects compilation presently available for Lock On. Every file has been massaged to produce the most bold and authentic set of modern jet combat sounds yet produced. Lock On uses either .wav or .ogg files; or even both types mixed together. I have made these sound effects replacements in .ogg format, because they are both smaller, and contain more higher frequency detail and clarity than the standard installed .wav files of even larger size. These replacement files were not specifically designed as a 'go fast' sound mod 'optimisation' (although they may indeed be faster at execution, they are certainly smaller). They were edited for maximum sonic impact on a high performance PC with a top quality sound system. A lot of effort and testing was put into editing and carefully balancing related sounds in order to achieve maximum sonic authenticity and also the maximum playablility. after all, what's the point of having a sound effect for the airbrake, or jettison, or gear, or flaps, if you can't clearly hear them when you need to? -- These are the Lock On sound options settings I use: MASTER VOLUME = 100% MUSIC = 25% RADIO = 75% ENGINES = 100% MECHANICALS = 100% EFFECTS = 100% WIND = 100% WARNING = 35% COCKPIT = 90% -- NOTE: USUAL DISCLAIMER - Use these files at your own risk. The zip file containing these files, and the files themselves have been checked with the latest update of PC-cillan, and have passed 100% clear of known computer viruses. -- Enjoy! zzzspace No.1. Sqd VAAF BUSHRANGERS. 23/Feb/2004

Highground, of No.4 Sqd. VAAF CAVALIERS, has produced a remarkably detailed and panoramic re-enactment of the intense opening scenes of the classic late 1980's fighter movie, "TOPGUN". This is probably the best sim 'movie' video yet created within a commercial combat flight simulator to date. Awesome work there mate! For his day job Highground serves in the Royal Australian Air Force. Download the movie from the news article links at: www.vaaf.com

Thanks anyway Ghostdog.

Would some one like to (Bio) hazard a guestimate when "Operation Southern Cross" may be good to go? (i.e. nominate an approximate release date +/- a week)

LOL Red: yeah, what does it all mean? ... it keeps me up at night ... Blue: ... huh? ... WTF are you talking about? Red: ... err, ... nothing. Blue: ... ? ... do you want to talk about it? Red: Nope.

Very impressive guys. Loved the muzik too. :D

Actually, STT is a direct and continuous LOCKED track feed, and can update the AMRAAM's datalink continuously until it goes active; where as TWS is only a partial and intermittent 'track' while scanning, which merely PREDICTS where the radar beam should look next time it wants to update where the tracked target now is. i.e. TWS can have large positional errors against a fast manoeuvring opponent and has to scan again to re-acquire the target that was not near to where it was predicted to be. This means that the direct continuous STT radio datalink feed to the AMRAAM will be of much higher quality, very precise, more reliable and current, than compared to the intermittent data feed from a predictive TWS radar track "lock". TWS is really a system which guesses where the opponent is and then checks to see if it was right, and thereby periodically updates the opponent’s location to the missile. So an STT locked mode AMRAAM launch will be more reliable and precise in BVR combat than a TWS ‘locked’ mode AMRAAM launch.

If your TrackIR tracking rate it too fast or overly sensitive to your head movement, then set the “MOTION” tab to these settings and save them. These settings are close to a normal rate of head turn and view change, yet stable when looking at the instruments, but fast enough for snap views and panning out to the sides and above. TrackIR 3.01 “MOTION” tab screen MOTION TYPE = TrackIR Enhanced (Absolute) MOTION PRESET DROP DOWN MENU = Custom CUSTOM MOTION PROFILE RESPONSE CURVE SETTING ---------------- Speed = 3 Edit Point = 0 Speed = 3 Edit Point = 2 Speed = 3 Edit Point = 5 Speed = 7 Edit Point = 10 Speed = 11 Edit Point = 20 Speed = 11 Edit Point = 30 Speed = 11 Edit Point = 40 Speed = 11 Edit Point = 50 ----------------- SMOOTHING = 120 -- A copy of this TrackIR profile is downloadable here: www.geocities.com/zinfinityspace/TrackIR.txt Once down-loaded, change the TrackIR.txt extension to TrackIR.tir then place this file in this folder: C:\Program Files\Naturalpoint\TrackIR Then open this file within TrackIR, and you are ready to fly—enjoy.

Yep, same here.

For me it's like: Hey, I'm better off. I can actually run the game without any major problems. Personally I think, that flaming in the official boards is OK. At least there's a chance, that the developers actually see the problems. And there are many. The main problem is, that the distributors publish minimum requirements, which are a laughing stock. This way, they want to attract more buyers, but in the long run, they're pissing those people off, who actually believed in those requirements. Yeah, many people have said the same. It is the publisher doing this, not Eagle Dynamics. Just before the game was released Carl Norman himself said that he thought the recommended minimum specs were unrealistically low, and furthermore recommended that people use a much more capable video card than the stated minimum specs.

That is not sufficiently accurate. If you keep calling the tower "inbound", the tower will give you updated headings until you are lined up, then ILS will automatically kick in, and "Approach " will talk you down. Yep, it is lame, but if you do that and follow directions closely you will successfully land even in IFR soup, at night.