What's the Strike Fighters Gold 1 2008 patch accomplish? As soon as I installed it, my Rising Sun couldn't find the d3dx9_31.dll file and the sim wouldn't load. Reverted back to without the patch and RS loads again.

It probably overwrote and got itself confused.

Install:

1. SFG
2. Oct 08 patch
3. Rising SunXP ( I assume you are using that)
4. Optional, remove all the modern planes and objects.

Altho the RS application error was "could not find d3dx9_31.dll", which was already in System32, the fix was a complete update of DXRuntime. Everything runs now with the SFGold 2008 patch installed. The Readme would be better served if available to read outside of the RS installation.

Glad your up and running, and thanks for the tip.