Desert Storm SP3 v0.3 BETA reports

PMC Youtube channel · Post by **Snake Man** » 2002-06-25 19:17:00

coming soon...

PMC TFW
Snake Man

T_Rex · Post by **T_Rex** » 2002-06-25 19:20:00

BAH!

You scoundrel! Posting a topic like that with a message like that!!

Widowmaker · Post by **Widowmaker** » 2002-06-25 19:22:00

quote:Originally posted by T_Rex:
BAH!

You scoundrel! Posting a topic like that with a message like that!!

I can tell ya that it is looking great
just flew an OCA te..

Widmak

RobC_F4 · Post by **RobC_F4** » 2002-06-25 19:36:00

Heard that of all things Snake can't get the INSTALLER to work now, want's Win98SE or Linux ... Not Win2K

[Refresh Thread Rate Set To 1/.25Hour now]

PMC Youtube channel · Post by **Snake Man** » 2002-06-25 20:25:00

Operation Desert Storm v0.3 beta is now available.

It is internal beta for people who are willing to test and report back of what they see. All we ask is comments of anything wrong OR right in the theater. Here is some details:

http://www.pmctactical.org/f4/odsbeta.php

If you like to be ODS tester, email us at nospam and request the installer.

Thank you very much.

PMC TFW
Snake Man

RobC_F4 · Post by **RobC_F4** » 2002-06-25 21:02:00

No, it should be THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
Well done, all!

Best regards, e-mail on it's way - Rob

carlbr · Post by **carlbr** » 2002-06-25 23:46:00

Hi,

Well I installed it and switched to the theater no problem, but I tried to join a flight in progress in the Campaign Operation Desert Storm (the first one). The game CTD before getting to the pie screen. Will do more tests and see if it was me or the theater.

By the way, great work guys, it looks great so far and I can't wait for the full version.

Ender Wiggin · Post by **Ender Wiggin** » 2002-06-26 02:04:00

well install was very fast in the textures, is this right? also havent had time to check yet though.

Snowfalcon · Post by **Snowfalcon** » 2002-06-26 03:04:00

Had to uninstall Korea winter and Dogfight to make room for this theatre. After that installed fine and seems stable. How many MB does ODS need on HD when installed. Some of us have smaller falcon specific partitions. Mines 2.93GB and with Hawaii Europe K2K5 and ODS there is just 315MB left. Seems we might need to rethink patrition sizes to accomodate new theatres. when Balkans hits gonna have to use the old partition magic

Snake00 · Post by **Snake00** » 2002-06-26 03:22:00

Having problems with the installer. I'm running Windows Me with Falcon installed on a secondary partition. Primary partion is C: and Falcon SP is d:\MicroProse\Falcon4.
I downloaded the installer into a folder on my desktop. When I try to install, it goes to the setup window (air refuel picture) and says: Desert Storm Theater not installed in the default F4 location. Select the location of the Falcon4 SP installation. Do you want to select another folder.

If I select no, it dumps back to desktop. If I select yes, it says: Select the Falcon4 SP folder to uninstall the Desert Storm Theater from. (It shows a destination Folder of d:\MicroProse\Falcon4).

When I select "next", it goes back to the original question about the theater not being installed in the default location.

Is it possible that I got a bad download? I have a slow modem and resumed it a couple of times.

I have Korea 2005 installed and have been using that theater - it worked fine.

Snake00

Shad · Post by **Shad** » 2002-06-26 04:51:00

Have flown same mission twice as F-16, from island in gulf (not sure of name), CTD both times. Was flying a 4-ship sweep mission ahead of a "gorrila" package. My wingies had missiles in the air, I was preparing to fire both times. I had ordered the element and my wingie to attack separate targets. I made it past first set of bogies second time, downing them all, but second wave of SU-24's same thing happened.

I've had a couple TE's CTD on me since SP3, but this is the first time in campaign. I have the crashlogs if it helps.

Very immersive mission tho.. I felt like I was flying at the spearhead of a whole bunch of trouble

RobC_F4 · Post by **RobC_F4** » 2002-06-26 05:34:00

ODS MySitrep #1

Installed OK on my *work (official)* Laptop. For SnowFalcon: I used about 845Mb Disk Space under Win 2K. Sadly no "stick" here @ work so I just had to be content with a quick Instant Action on AP. No probs, no CTD's, decent (about 20) FPS on this *not so highend* (and VERY abused) machine. Hey, how can I wait it out till 5PM to go home and load this sweet theater on the Dell with Cougar?

Nice work on the Theater Switch & UI Screens guys, Terrain and all else looking GO GO GO, better SitRep latter tonight

Thanks again - Rob

PS: Snake, do you want us to post system specs of our main flight / test rigs somewhere - mine is in my Sig at Frugals, can always try fit it in my profile here. Perhaps separate thread for "Members System Specs"? - Just a thought!

ccc · Post by **ccc** » 2002-06-26 06:17:00

i got CTDs. too

fly f14 based in Persian gulf, my flight takes out first Su24 flight, then move NW, encounter Su7, before getting close enough.. CTD.

theater switching is flawless. nice terrain visual. some carriers are not fully loaded with listed F14, F18, A6 and EA6B.

i'll test more with A10.

ccc · Post by **ccc** » 2002-06-26 06:54:00

no A10 flight scheduled after i adjusting priorites sliders.

fly F15c to NW, very smooth and exciting, smash two flights of incoming low-flying mi8, intercept one Tu22 flight (i dont know Iraqi are that aggressive!), return to base, no CTD.

PS:
1. looking forward to Shawn's new F15 model,
2. SQ store should be adjusted.. no more Aim120 in stock.
3. may need one more 600gal fuel tank model/texture, just wont fit C camo.
4. i dunno if Su24 or Tu22 are deployed at front airbases but, they better be set at inland bases..anyway i like those sucidial flights, just no escorts!

ccc · Post by **ccc** » 2002-06-26 07:43:00

fly F15E missions, no CTD. take out two mig23, 13 armors with CBU97( better tweak store to use CBU58?, and aim7). armor troops are easily spotted..easy targets!

btw i found:
1. some ground forces use Russian units, they got SA-19/Tunguska, IIRC iragi got no such toy in stock.
2. F4G base wont schedule any flight.
3. no F111/EF111 unit deployed?
4. better move su25 Sq to base at SE or South vector.

and Thanx to Quake, a low-poly mirage F1 will soon be available..on my ODS install

PMC Youtube channel · Post by **Snake Man** » 2002-06-26 08:20:00

quote:I tried to join a flight in progress in the Campaign Operation Desert Storm (the first one). The game CTD before getting to the pie screen.

Its strange, the Desert Storm campaign works here good, the Black Phoenix is the one what gives some CTD's on accelerated time. Well I never had the patience to wait in real time.

Did you get crashlogs, could you post them here please?

quote:well install was very fast in the textures, is this right?

Yes, only 232 textures are used. I created totally new texture.bin for this "new ODS" so we eliminated about 26mb of unused tiles, which in my book is quite efficient for download considerations

I guess thats why its so fast on Tinstall run.

quote:How many MB does ODS need on HD when installed.

Approx 850mb at least.

quote:Is it possible that I got a bad download?

You got the installer just right. Can you list some additional system specs?

quote:Have flown same mission twice as F-16, from island in gulf (not sure of name), CTD both times.
I have the crashlogs if it helps.

Yeah please post it in here and we try to sort it out.

quote:some carriers are not fully loaded with listed F14, F18, A6 and EA6B.

Which campaign was this? I noticed that the fictional campaign did not include all carrier squadrons as flyable.

quote:i dunno if Su24 or Tu22 are deployed at front airbases but, they better be set at inland bases..

TU-22 squadron is at KIRKUK airbase, somewhere between Baghdad and Mosul, very inland. SU-24M is on Qalat Salih which is north west from Al Basrah, indeed neared to the FLOT but still quite far inland in my opinion.

PMC TFW
Snake Man

Ender Wiggin · Post by **Ender Wiggin** » 2002-06-26 12:53:00

i noticed 20 fps or so in IA, which i forund odd, because i usually get about 50-60fps, also is it a bug to lose comms when swaping theatres? ive noticed this yesterday in Korea, Korea 2005m and ODS, they come back after swaping enough times.

Shad · Post by **Shad** » 2002-06-26 13:12:00

Here are the crash logs... I plan to fly it some more tonight, will keep you posted

[admin cleaned out crashlog, its saved for debugging. Thank you for posting!]

ccc · Post by **ccc** » 2002-06-26 13:16:00

quote:some carriers are not fully loaded with listed F14, F18, A6 and EA6B.
Which campaign was this? I noticed that the fictional campaign did not include all carrier squadrons as flyable.

ODS. carriers at persion gulf.
i think USS ranger is loaded correctly. but USS midway got 8 EA6B. at least there should be 3 hornet Sq.

BTW i think most CTD could be due to Su-7BMK. i do more f14 flights, engage Tu22 and Su24, no problem. once i approaching su7 around 40nm, it CTD( 3d enter bubble?).

maybe remove su7 sq in this build. and add some F111/F117/EF111(if Airbase supported).

and more, i think using DPRK units for Iraqis enough. dont use T80 unit, thats russian elite.

Snowfalcon · Post by **Snowfalcon** » 2002-06-26 13:39:00

Snake00,

I saw this back when testing SP-3 and ODS. I had the same problem it turned out that there was another install of ODS from a RP5/110 install still in the registry.I wnet crazy till i found this version. If you have the previous version run the installer and see if you get the uninstall dialoge. If you do uninstall and then try installing the SP-3 version.

Snake00 · Post by **Snake00** » 2002-06-26 13:46:00

System specs as follows: 1 GHz AMD T-Bird cpu oc'd to 1.43 GHz, KT7A-RAID mobo, 384 MB PC133 CAS2 Corsair RAM oc'd to 143, Hercules Game Theater XP sound, Voodoo 55500 AGP vid card, Windows Me OS, Saitek X36 HOTAS.

SP3 has been running fine ever since it was released; Korea 2005 installed and runs great. The only additional patch that I have loaded is the new loadout one for Korea and I expanded F4 Patch.

The only other theater that I have had problems installing was the Vietnam one for RP5.

Snake00

ccc · Post by **ccc** » 2002-06-26 13:52:00

check if this thread help:
http://www.pmctactical.org/f4/cgi-bin/u ... 3&t=000089

Snake00 · Post by **Snake00** » 2002-06-26 15:37:00

Thanks Snowfalcon; that did the trick. Some of the old RP5/ODS 0.1 wasn't completely uninstalled. The installer worked fine, but I have another problem: ODS does not show up in the campaign switcher. I checked in the theater definitions folder; everything is there. It just doesn't show up on the campaigns screen.

Snake00

PMC Youtube channel · Post by **Snake Man** » 2002-06-26 15:44:00

quote:Originally posted by ccc:
BTW i think most CTD could be due to Su-7BMK. su7 around 40nm, it CTD( 3d enter bubble?).

Hmm could be but its strange because SU-7BMK does not have the * marked in its database entry so it should work ok.

Can you please send me crashlog of it or maybe even campaign savegame on the flight briefing which get re produceable CTD. Thanks.

Btw kind of irony, you're the one who guided me to add this plane hehe

quote:maybe remove su7 sq in this build.

I'll definitely keep this report in mind and if we find to reproduce this CTD and find out its our SU7 friend, its gone.

quote:and add some F111/F117/EF111(if Airbase supported).

Indeed in the Red Dog's airbase squadron list there was no F-111's marked for deployment. Maybe RD can shade some light on this?

Snake00: As Snowfalcon pointed out, did you have any earlier ODS beta installed, if so then its normal behaviour not to install over the old version.

PMC TFW
Snake Man

PMC Youtube channel · Post by **Snake Man** » 2002-06-26 15:46:00

quote:Originally posted by Snake00:
ODS does not show up in the campaign switcher.

Ah you beat me to it with the earlier post

Yeah this is easy solution, which btw can be found in the FAQ page too. You must insert the line
terrdata\theaterdefinition\desstorm.tdf
into the theaters.lst file found on Falcon directory.

Please let us know how it starts to run.

PMC TFW
Snake Man

ccc · Post by **ccc** » 2002-06-26 15:54:00

quote:Can you please send me crashlog of it or maybe even campaign savegame on the flight briefing which get re produceable CTD. Thanks.

Btw kind of irony, you're the one who guided me to add this plane hehe

Will do... im RE-install f4.. :p
and for Su7, Iraq do have this toy in stock.

quote:Indeed in the Red Dog's airbase squadron list there was no F-111's marked for deployment. Maybe RD can shade some light on this?

Actually you posted the list here:
http://www.pmctactical.org/f4/cgi-bin/u ... 3&t=000073
----------------------------------
KHAMIS MUSHAIT AB
USAF F-117A 37TFW 415th & 416th TFS

TAIF
USAF F-111F 48th TFW 492nd, 493rd & 494th TFS
USAF EF-111A 366th TFW 390th ECS
-----------------------------------

dunno if both AFBs are available in theater.

T_Rex · Post by **T_Rex** » 2002-06-26 17:14:00

I checked with a friend about the Su-7. He'd added it to Saint's campaign and hasn't had any problems with it. So it looks like it isn't the 3d model itself. Could it be taking some "slot" or something with something else which leads to a conflict?

Shad · Post by **Shad** » 2002-06-26 17:37:00

I just flew my sweep again, CTD when SU-7's were about 20 miles out, tho they had been deaggregated for a few min. My first CTD was when I went against SU-24's, so I'm not sure is a type of plane prob...

T_Rex · Post by **T_Rex** » 2002-06-26 17:41:00

Here's an idea - was it at the same "campaign time"? In that, could it be a unit popping into existence somewhere at a certain specific time in the campaign?

RobC_F4 · Post by **RobC_F4** » 2002-06-26 20:49:00

#2

Loaded up on the Dell no problem. Flew mainly IA and couple DogFights (Furball). All OK. No CTD's or "Dr Watsons" even when totally abusing the Viper.(Nearly 3 Hours! Sorry, can't say the same for SP3's default Korea Theater) Never got as far as Camps., having too much fun in IA.

SnakeMan, the "Desert Texture" is great, but we will need to refine the tiles for "low altitude" flying (below 1000 feet "squares" become obvious and spoil the speed "immersion", unless it's because I am running at 1600x1200x32??) Quite possible, did not try at 1024x768. FPS is great: 25 > 30 in 2d cockpit, up to 50 in Orb Cam views.
More later, unfortunately I am out of "town" for next couple days, only be active again Saturday

Good day for "Historic Campaign".

Later - Rob

carlbr · Post by **carlbr** » 2002-06-26 21:04:00

Hi,

I don't know if you guys are doing graphical errors, but I couldn't help but notive a few bridges out of place. The coordinates are below, most are next to the rivers they are supposed to be over.

Coordinates:
x y
1014.6 862.71
1014.24 864.26
1014.86 869.09
1034.11 1235.61
1015.60 1304.97

The Coordinates were taken from the Ctrl+Alt+c l key combination, so I don't know if the axis are inverted or not.

Over all, looks good. Haven't had a chance to fly Campaign missions yet, just a long Te to do a little sight-seeing. Thanks for the great work.
null

Ryan · Post by **Ryan** » 2002-06-26 23:15:00

Hi,
well, i had about the same ctd's as everybody, but it looks very good.
Good job!

Ryan
87th VFW

Snake00 · Post by **Snake00** » 2002-06-26 23:27:00

Wish that I could let you know how it runs, but so far - no joy. I get it to come up on the campaign switching screen but it won't apply correctly. When I go to "campaign", I get a map of Korea with ODS airbases out in the ocean someplace. If I select a squadron, it crashes to desk top. Did the installsheild thing and reinstalled - nothing. Completely reinstalled Falcon, 108, and SP3 thinking that some of the patches that I had applied for Korea 2005 might be scewing things up - still no joy.
I'm open for suggestions; anybody have some? Sorry being such a pain in the a**.

Snake00

PMC Youtube channel · Post by **Snake Man** » 2002-06-26 23:46:00

quote:Originally posted by Snake00:
campaign switching screen but it won't apply correctly.

What does theater.lst file say in your Falcon directory?

Anyways make sure it has these lines:
# lsit of all know theaters
terrdata/theaterdefinition/korea.tdf
terrdata\theaterdefinition\DesStorm.tdf

Then your theaters (ODS + Korea) will change just OK.

quote:When I go to "campaign", I get a map of Korea with ODS airbases

This will be fixed when you use Theater Switcher correctly (read my above answer).

quote:Korea 2005 might be scewing things up

When you install Korea 2005 it will nuke ODS theater.lst line, so you must insert it back there manually.

Also if your terrdata\DesStorm\terrain\ is anything smaller than 600mb, you must run SPTinstall.exe to rebuild the terrain. You'll find instructions for this in the http://www.pmctactical.org/f4/faq.php

Good luck

PMC TFW
Snake Man

Snake00 · Post by **Snake00** » 2002-06-27 00:03:00

Theater.1st file reads exactly as you typed it. However, desstorm terrain file is only 31.4 MB. Going to work on that problem.

Snake00

Snake00 · Post by **Snake00** » 2002-06-27 00:32:00

Tally-ho!!! The SPtinstall thing fixed the problem. Switches to ODS perfectly. Going to reinstall Korea 2005 and see if I can switch back and forth. Thanks for the help.

Snake00

Mack · Post by **Mack** » 2002-06-27 00:40:00

Snake heres a report from the latest beata build MP between two people.. First hour of campaign got to steerpoint 2 and back to desktop.. Both on Cable hookups.. Im 356up and 1590 dwn.. hes the same crashlogs attached..

T_Rex · Post by **T_Rex** » 2002-06-27 14:38:00

OK, here's my rundown of the install. Actually, the end result was I got it installed, but wasn't able to fly in the fictional campaign.

First, I think we need to warn people the install is 800mb or more (at least mine was). I ended up having to repartition and go from 1.9 to 2.2 gig. The only other "theater" I had was Saint's campaign.

Second, for some reason, when I opened up the theater.lst, there was only the desstorm line. Like I said, I had installed Saint's 2005 campaign. I went ahead and inserted a line to the Korea_2005.tdf and that seemed to work. Interestingly, I forgot to add one for the generic Korea, so I still need to do that.

Along these same lines, Snake, you mentioned the syntax as:
terrdata/theaterdefinition/korea.tdf
terrdata\theaterdefinition\DesStorm.tdf
I just want to make sure which "/" is appropriate. I think its "" isn't it?

Anyway, when I switched to ODS, it seemed to work fine - I like the UI and graphics. (Good job there, Wid!). I wanted to try the new campaign, so I selected it, picked an inland F/A-18 squad, waited in planning for 20 game minutes, then got a barcap. I adjusted the loadout, went to the countdown screen, picked takeoff and watched it tick down. When it went to the black screen to load the 3d world, I got a CTD.

I didn't have a chance to try an F-16 squad or really test anything else, but I hope to tonight.

In related news, a friend of mine has been looking at the a/c data in F4Browse. Looks like there's some strange things going on with some of the data being linked to airplanes and stuff. He specifically mentioned the Mi-8. So, maybe some of these data discrepencies are a problem with ODS?

ccc · Post by **ccc** » 2002-06-27 14:56:00

fly F14, F15C, and F15E. all flights hardly encounter CTD. Almost no flights generated from A10, F16, EA6B, etc.
Edit: if you keep default priority settings at campaign start, A10/F16/EA6B flights are generated. PS: fly EA6B approaching kuwait, CTD

TD box jumping when trying to lock on Mi8, this has been discussed on Frugal board.

tu22 textues disrupted, DB issue.

edit store records to remove aim120, missions become very interesting/challenging. fly several CAP with F15C, down many su24/tu22/mig23, no CTD.

rodm81 · Post by **rodm81** » 2002-06-27 15:49:00

Loaded up on my gateway PIII 1.2 under XP home version just fine. Didn't go for a flight no Hotas. Got home, loaded it up on my AMD 950mhz/256PC133/nVIDIA m64 32meg video card and didn't have the same luck. It won't begin the terrain loading portion. Will keep trying different things. Did a complete reinstall, no such luck. Fingers are crossed.

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