Congratulations on your upcoming graduation, Joe!

Note that the URL for the Website at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-030.asp in the above posts has been changed and is now http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms03-030.mspx .

OK, finish my Iran campaign and 'upgraded' to win XP. Naturally, the sim won't run, or even make an effort to start. So I guess I'll be bumping this thread, and studying it thoroughly this weekend.

Ripcord

Ripcord,

I'd reinstall the video drivers (if you haven't already), backup your janes folder and reinstall the game with the patch and TSH add-ons. I had to do this when I upgraded my mobo and even when I tried the last vid card.

I just purchased a Radeon 9700 so I'll be going through this process again I'm sure...

Hey Creeper,

While all of you on the East coast are piling out to the parking lot on a Friday evening after work, getting ready for the long weekend, I'm here on a rainy Saturday am in the Far East doing guess what -- downloading NVIDIA drivers.

Yep. Did the search of the forum, and came to the conclusion that this had to be the problem. I went with the NTFS install of Win XP the other day, so the drivers I had wouldn't work. Downloading new ones now.

Will let you know when I'm back in the stack, getting ready to commence.

Ripcord

Ah man, this forum has once again saved my bacon.

One thing that might be important to note for some who need things spelled out (like me): when you run that patch, there appears a little folder next to your regular F-18 folder. This contains a brand new F-18.exe file that must be copied over to your regular F-18 folder. I've had to do that in the past, out of frustration, thinking I'd screwed the installation process, but it appears this is correct procedure -- somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Anyway, just 5 minutes ago I was getting that error message saying that my system was closing this program, sorry for the inconvienence. Problem solved.

I am back.

Ripcord.

Allright, I'm back. Testing will commence over the weekend with a Ti 4200 and a Radeon 9800 Pro, using various drivers, setting, etc., just to confirm everything.

FAQ updated.

I spent the weekend running through various scenarios. A few things of note:

- The new nVidia Forceware, version 56.72, allows the use of FSAA yet does not cause gridlines.
- ATI catalyst version 4.1 seems to have the same effect as 3.6; gridlines disappear with FSAA enabled.
- I could not duplicate the reported beneficial effects of Radlinker. I acheived identical results using Radlinker and simply using "normal" methods of setting graphics options. Information on Radlinker has been removed from the first post until someone can demonstrate what I may have done wrong.
- A-A slowdown is not as bad with nVidia cards as it is with ATI cards. Unfortunately, only the 50.xx drivers seem to cause the slowdown, preventing their use to eliminate the gridlines.

So, it appears the best choice (i.e. playing with the highest image quality possible) for JF-18 under Windows XP with DX9 would require an nVidia card with 30.xx drivers. This allows Sparkling Water / Low Level Noise to be on, all levels of FSAA, and no A-A slowdown. Alternatively you can use DX8.1 and use 50.xx Forceware.

The simplest choice for an ATI user is to use cat 3.6 or 4.1 and to disable Sparkling Water / Low Level Noise and enable FSAA. The slowdown is present under both DX8.1 and DX9 with ATI hardware.

comments welcome

can u force antialiasing and antiostropic filtering in the game without getting stuttering in air to air mode?

ATI is most definately not crap, by the way.

OK, enough of the ATI/NVIDIA stoush, blokes. Never got anyone anywhere...

Another tentative FA18 update for GeForce users. The 6X.XX series of beta drivers seem to have no noticeable slowdown in AA radar mode on my old GeForce4 Ti4200. And run OK with AAx2 without gridlines.

Note that there are no official WHQL 6X.XX drivers yet. But heaps of beta or unofficial ones at Guru of 3D etc. I personally recommend 60.72, from my experience, but as you know 'mileage may vary' (kilometreage?)

The 6X.XX drivers are designed for the 6XXX series of cards. I find they work fine on the 4200, and others have reported similar findings (on other games) with other 4XXX series cards. For reasons I don't understand, the FX series don't seem to like the new drivers so much. Or so they say.

Hope this helps.