Theaters Not Recognized by AF

[3DDDave]

Hello, All. Have a prob with my F4AF installation, hope someone can help me resolve this problem.

Just installed F4AF for the first time. The installer for Allied Force showed the default install location at C:\Program Files\Lead Pursuit\Battlefield Operations. I assumed that is the default location so I left that location in the install location window of the install program and proceeded to install there.

After the main install I rebooted and updated to patch 1.0.13, then rebooted, ran checkdisk and defragged, then I installed three of the PMC add on theaters (reboot after each install): Afghanistan v0.3, Iran v0.3, and ODSv0.7. At the beginning of each theater install a version to install to box appeared. I clicked on AF as the version and then shortly thereafter I received the message: AF not detected, is it installed? (then an OK click on box). Each time I clicked OK. I had to click several times in quick succession to get the box to go away. I had to do this for each theater install, then the respective theater installers apparently found the location of AF in the program files, or at any rate, the install proceeded and the theaters are installed in the theaters folder in Falcon 4 Allied Force.

The problem is that these theaters are not appearing in the Allied Force User Interface.

I know in the old SP versions of the original Falcon it was not recommended to install to program files as this creates a space in the file path, should I have installed directly onto the C drive? Do the theater installers look for AF on C instead of in program files? Not up to date on this since I'm returning to Falcon after an extended absence, the last version I had running was SP4.

At this point is there a way to get the main program to recognize the installed theaters? They are indeed installed inside the F4AF Battlefield Operations folder, in the Theaters folder. Checked to be sure they were there.

Looking around inside the Battlefield Operations folder I noticed the Utilities folder with Htti.exe, Istupdate.exe, LxNormalFix.exe, and SeasonSwithcer.exe. Could any of these help? Don't know how to use these programs.

Do I need to uninstall and re-install to C:\Lead Pursuit\Battlefield Operations like the old MicroProse default location to get the UI to recognize the add on theaters?

Thanks for your help!

[Snake Man]

Hello, All.

Welcome to the forum

not recommended to install to program files as this creates a space in the file path

That is absolutely correct, never ever in any conditions install games to "C:\Program Files\" directory as it contains the space in the dir name.

should I have installed directly onto the C drive?

Any drive will do fine, just don't put spaces in directory names.

Do the theater installers look for AF on C instead of in program files?

It looks the drive and path from windows registry.

is there a way to get the main program to recognize the installed theaters?

I think so, check out the <FALCON_ROOT>\theater.lst file, it looks like this on my installation:

Code: Select all

terrdata\theaterdefinition\Korea.tdf
terrdata\theaterdefinition\Korea2005.tdf
terrdata\theaterdefinition\Korea2010.tdf
terrdata\theaterdefinition\Balkans.tdf
terrdata\theaterdefinition\Balkans2005.tdf
terrdata\theaterdefinition\Balkans2010.tdf
Theaters\Libya\Libya.tdf
Theaters\PMCKorea\PMCKorea.tdf
Theaters\HeavyTest\HeavyTest.tdf

Looking around inside the Battlefield Operations folder I noticed the Utilities folder with Htti.exe, Istupdate.exe, LxNormalFix.exe, and SeasonSwithcer.exe. Could any of these help?

Well, no.

Do I need to uninstall and re-install to C:\Lead Pursuit\Battlefield Operations like the old MicroProse default location to get the UI to recognize the add on theaters?

Well, no, but it would help in the long run if you reinstall it to for example:

Code: Select all

C:\Lead_Pursuit\Battlefield_Operations\

or any other directory that does NOT contain spaces in the dir name.

However for now, just use notepad or other good text editor to open the theater.lst file and add the TDF file names there, unfortunately I don't have the theaters installed now and the sources are not in my hdd so I don't remember what the specific TDF names were. Look into the Theaters\ directory, then in the actual PMC theater sub dirs and the TDF files. List all of them into the theaters.lst file, for example it COULD look like this:

Code: Select all

theaters\afghanistan\afghanistan.tdf
theaters\iran\iran.tdf
theaters\desertstorm\desertstorm1.tdf
theaters\desertstorm\desertstorm2.tdf
theaters\desertstorm\desertstorm3.tdf
theaters\desertstorm\desertstorm4.tdf

But I cannot remember what the actual TDF names were.

Maybe some of our forum users have these theaters installed and they can copy paste the theater.lst contents here.

[3DDDave]

Thanks for your help, Snake Man!

Did as you said, just copied and pasted the file path to the respective theaters tdf files into the theater.lst file and that solved the problem. Thanks very much for the quick fix.

I'm having one other major problem: I can't get the cursor to move in the radar MFD. I'm hoping it's not a hardware or software problem. Is there a setting in the jet to be able to move the cursor? I've checked the keystrokes file and the arrow keystrokes move to that entry in the file when I press them, so the command is being recognized in setup but they aren't having any effect on the cursor in the Radar MFD. The cursor just floats around the MFD on it's own. I've run several searches through the .pdf manual but the only thing I've run across is the command, SHIFT/N. I guess that's has to with with HOTAS? All I've got is a logitech wingman stick, I guess it's not capable of this setup.

Since I've just installed and it's been years since I've done a complete ramp start, I've just been starting in take off position just to test graphics settings, so perhaps there's a switch I haven't thrown.

AF looks a lot better than SP4, especially the overcast.

Thanks again.