So close but no cigar...

I am a newbie here at SimHQ & I have been trying to resurrect my all time fav flight sim, but I have been running into problems. I am installing using Longbow Anthology from ISO's I made of the 4 original discs that I still own. Installs fine, dgvoodoo installed fine, with Win XP Compat mode, Heap_Percent=0 added to Ca.ini, running off Virtual CloneDrive mounted ISO's, with newly purchased Saitek CyborgX ... was about to jump for joy ...

BUT...

No matter what I do the 2D Cockpit is messed up. There are large missing pieces of the cockpit, and when looking out the 2D left or right views, the 2D cockpit is missing all together (looks as if you have the 'no cockpit' view when looking left or right in 2D).


(pic: Pilot 2D view)


(pic: Gunner 2D view)


When I switch dgvoodoo to run using Direct3D9 the cockpit returns to normal, but I get the game-ruining debreif crash, plus the hellfire smoke trails are glitchy in D3D9. While troubleshooting in D3D7 I thought it was a resolution bug, so I tried every res combination, and every setting in dgvoodoo on/off, but still no dice. Crappy software mode works fine, and the cockpit is normal, but who would really want to play the game that way? I also tried running both +G's WAC-LB2, and Phoenix's LB2 database fixes independently.

Honestly using dgvoodoo 1.50beta2 with Direct3D7, the games runs beautifully, except for this bug.

Is there a setting in Ca.ini or somewhere else that I can tweak to get the 2D cockpit to look normal? Of course I mean as normal as can be expected -- I can ignore the 'regular' cockpit lines glitch that everyone has.

Here's my rig specs:
note: Single Core, using 'Mobil Intel 4 Series Express Chipset' (...I know, Intel chips are garbage)

(pic: Sys info)



Thanks in advance for any help you might give,
~Victor1-9er

PS, you guys rock! Never thought I would be playing LB2 ever again!!!

Have you tried other glide wrappers, or other versions of dgVoodoo? I run dgVoodoo 1.40 now, and I clearly remember having some issues with later versions of it, including corrupt 2D graphics, so the problem might be with the wrapper.

Hey, thanks slutzinc for the quick reply. Yeah I tried dgvoodoo 1.50beta (vs 1.50beta2) and still have the same problem.

Whats interesting is that dgvoodoo 1.40+ gives me a normal looking cockpit, but something is wrong with the smoke trails of the Missles. It's like they are smokeless until they get some distance away.

(pic: 1.40+ smoke trails glitch)


You can see that the other missles I fired have smoke trails, but only after they get away from the heli. And of course there is the 'jumping clouds' bug that everyone had with 1.40+. If I can fix the smoke trails in 1.40+ I could live with the jumping clouds.

So damn close...grrrrr
lol

Thanks again,
~Victor1_9er

I remember someone else having a problem like this with Longbow Gold in 3DFX mode, I believe. I'd put it down to you using a widescreen resolution, have you tried a higher than default (640x480) res but still using 4:3 aspect ratio, say like 1024x768?

Also, make sure that you have 3DFX mode selected in the Display Driver (lb2cfg.exe), as those smokeless issues can sometimes be a side-effect of using Direct3D. It may be that you have installed dgVoodoo but forgot to switch to 3DFX in the lb2cfg.exe

I know the TADS MFD page isn't functional, but you could always try playing the game in virtual cockpit view (the F4 key), there should be no glitches there and it is more realistic.

Thanks for the reply Flyboy!

Yeah I have tried the other resolutions in dgvoodoo, and even setting my laptop screen res to the same resolution just to make sure it was not some incompatibilty with dgvoodoo trying to fit widescreen. Of course this makes my screen 'letterboxed' on the sides, but if it cleared up these problems, I could live with it.

So I tried what you said, kept everything to 1024x768 or other 4:3 aspect ratios, and still in 1.50beta2 and 1.40+ I still have corrupted 2D cockpit, and glitchy smoke trails respectively.

Yup, checked lb2cfg.exe and was fairly certain I had set it to 3dfx not D3D mode, and indeed it is set to 3dfx.


SO...

I am starting to think that I may have to live without DVO, FLIR & DTV showing on the MFD since virtual cockpit is the only way to go.

I set my Saitek CyborgX hat switch, to keep me in virtual cockpit(F4,*), with padlock target(F4 x2), switch seat(0) & MFD view(* X2), etc & I can play the game just fine without going to 2D cockpit. It is a bit more challenging, but way more realistic.

Of course, if anyone has any other ideas I will try those too.

Thanks
~Victor1_9er

Have you tried just leaving the game at its default resolution of 640x480? In the dgVoodoo screen res list leave it on 'Set by the application'. I would have thought the default res should be OK. If not, then I've never seen this problem before.

Just a thought, when in 2D cockpit view, try repressing the F1 key to 'redraw' the screen. Try pressing the key a few times. Might work, might not - it has worked for some though.

EDIT: I just looked at the FAQ page on my site, and found this (so much info even I forget what I got)...

Q: When I first enter a mission, the screen flickers and the cockpit flashes. How do I stop this?
A: This is an occasional side-effect that seems to be related to the 1.50 version of the dgVoodoo glide wrapper. The 2D 'default' cockpit view is known to flicker sometimes. Simply resolve this by pressing F1 a couple of times - this will re-render the view, effectively refreshing the screen.

These dgVoodoo settings are the suggested ones for LB2:
http://digitality.comyr.com/flyboy/lb2/dgsetup.jpg
http://digitality.comyr.com/flyboy/lb2/dgsetup2.jpg

You may also find this page interesting:
http://digitality.comyr.com/flyboy/lb2/display.html

Oh and by the way, welcome to the fold!

Thanks again for your help.

Yeah, I tried leaving default res, and leaving 'Set by App' in dgvoodoo (all 3 versions), while I was troubleshooting. Turns out I got obsessed with trying to solve this glitch...I'm sure you fellas know how that can happen.

I also read through all of your site, and many of the posts here, and saw about the sceen flicker/redraw isssue with 1.50. Unfortunately no amount of F1 fixed my particular glitch with the 2D cockpit. And indeed I have had the 2D cockpit flicker occasionally at game start, as mentioned in the FAQ, and it always corrected itself when I hit F1.

Those are the settings I currently have in dgvoodoo 1.50beta2, looks wonderful except for the 2D issue, which I am coming to realize I may have to live with.

Thanks for the cozy welcome. I think I DL'd ever little progie you had over @ your site, like weaponeer, MissioneerPlus. Was pleasantly surprised to see all the hard work ppl have put into extending the game!

Thanks also for keeping all those little gems available!!!

~Victor1-9er

PS I have a blade stall issue, but I will address it in another thread.

I actually re-installed LB2 yesterday and now I have the 2D cockpit bug too, never had it before on Win7. One thing I know is that I have updated my graphics card drivers since last time I played. I've tried all the things I suggested to you (getting a taste of my own medicine) but nothing worked for me either. I resorted to using the F4 view. I think we'll have to live with that.

OH NO!!! The glitch spreads! It must have something to do with new drivers/newer machines and versions of dgvoodoo that are becoming out of date with this newer batch of software/hardware. Well it looks like it is forcing us to play LB2 more realistically.

For your information, I always used to play LB2 realistically!