With the assistance from a man in Tennessee, I was able to circumnativate my installer problems with Falcon BMS 4.32 that had been impeded by a folder remnant from a previous BMS setup in the Registry Files. It works well.

However, now Falcon Allied Force refuses to turn over. I get a response from the executable. The screen turns black and shortly the WWII air raid sirens blare followed by contemporary flight dialog. But the program refuses to show graphics. I have rebooted. Updated my video drivers, repaired the existing install, deleted the existing install in favor of a "clean" new one. No matter what action I take the launch refuses to turn over. There is no parachutist cursor that leads to a contemporary F16 launch, only a black screen with program sounds in the background. What is causing this new phenomenon? Ideas are most welcome. The system is:

XP S/P3
Intel Core Duo 2.6Ghz
4G DRAM
Nvidia GTS 450 (1Gb VRAM, previously a Geforce7800) Here it did work.

It might help to know the details of what the man in Tennessee did to get BMS to work, since it sounds like that may have been what hosed F4:AF up.

This sounds like the old (and still current) ffdshow bug from Allied Force.

The FAQ at the lead Pursuit website has a section this issue: http://www.lead-pursuit.com/FAQ_01.htm#Graphics

Specifically:



I've had this issue myself in the past and this worked for me.

I thank you for your late evening suggestive response. As this thread recommended, I did create a new shortcut and added -nomovie at the end of the executable statement. This merely repeated the error. The screen turns black and the menu sounds of sirens and radio communication continue. There is no bypassing this fault by left-click or Esc key. The only exit is Crtl-Alt-Del. Then the task bar shows the program non-responsive.

The advice given at the Benchmarksims forum was helpful. I was directed to the regedit command and the elimination of a conflicting registry file for benchmarksims. This did the trick and BMS 4.32 appears to work well.

Allied Force is not so fortunate. I have started the program from a zero base, only adding the inhouse updates from 1.01.5 to 1.06. From a superficial viewpoint, the program will correctly launch but not engage the video drivers. Could this be a Nvidia curse of backward compatibility. My previous install lived under GeForce7800 and optimistically migrated to a GTA 450. A nice move that placed a good install and great program obsolete? I hope not.

Recommendations for a cure still welcome. The FFA deactivation on the graphic card also appeared suggestive. But where is this command to activate and deactivate on the Nvidia control menu?

Sorry it didn't help. Incidentally, the only patch you should apply to Allied Force is 1.0.13, found here: http://lead-pursuit.com/downloads.htm. There is no need for progressive updates, 1.0.13 is the last and definitive update for Allied Force and you should apply it to a clean, out-the-box installation of Falcon 4 - Allied Force.

Maybe that, combined with the -nomovie parameter might help.

I haven't used nVidia in many years, so unfortunately I cannot help you with your question about the nVidia control panel.

Anything in this thread? - some of its covered above


http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2345555/I_hear_the_Intro_video_music_b.html#Post2345555

Have you installed any additional theaters or put any non-LP folders inside your AF install folder? If so, try dragging them out to another location and try starting.

Also and probably more important, the most recent patch is 1.0.13. (D'OH! just saw Zeppelin's post)

I am back. I am still trying to return to a functional Falcon Allied Force. Free Falcon 5.5 and Falcon BMS 4.32 continue to work well. But the black screen remains a crippling problem with AF. Since my last attempt, I have uninstalled and reinstalled three times, patching to 1.1.0.3. I have also changed to a "more accomodating" graphics, moving from the GTS 450 to the GTX 285.

1) I have requested help from Graphsim and LeadPursuit directly. Neither has responded.

2) I have re-read the threads concerning this not too apparently unknown problem. However,

1) I have not a clue where the FSAA adjustments can be made on the Nvidia control panel.
2) My Dx and Video drivers are all current for a Win XP setup.
3) The "nomovie" sounds viable, but this has brought no change when added to the exe. in the FalconAF short cut. Maybe I have
misplaced or misapplied command statement. I do not know, but would request on this matter. I did follow the instructions to apply the override
but this killed the preliminary black launch screen all togather, crashing the program to desktop immediately.

3) Even after uninstall and reinstall of AF, I am receiving the following "Falcon warning":

"Parameter baseDir="E:\Lead Pursuit\Battlefield Operations\specified in "LEADPU~1\Battle~1\global.cfg." does not point to
:E:\LEADPU~1\BATTLE~1" directory. Do you want to continue?"

This may be the source of the FFU. I do not know and would ask advice


At this point I am flying in tighter and tighter circles. I want very much to retrieve the Falcon AF to my computer. However, the path I am following will only take me into tighter circles where I will end up like the infamous British "Gooley Bird"

Help Needed

Open your Options.cfg file located \Lead Pursuit\Battlefield Operations\config with notepad.

On the second line if it says something other than gs_movieMode=Hurry please replace with gs_movieMode=Hurry and try launching the game again.

Thank you 'Panther' for your response to my request for assistance. As you wrote, I was off on a different path to achieve a functional return of Falcon AF to my computer systems.

By tenacity and luck, I successfully created an executable shortcut with a -nomovie suffix at the end of executable statement. I then went backwards and uninstalled and reinstalled the program via the setup menu. The shortcut executable remained. THE PROGRAM LAUNCHED AT FIRST TRY FROM THE DIRECTORY AND THEN DESKTOP ICON. The introductory 'movie' of takeoff, flight and landing were bypassed. At the same time "Amy" from Graphsim responded to my call for assistance writing:

QUOTE

This could be caused by many things.

First, remove and reinstall your video card driver. If this doesn’t help, try downgrading to a previous version of the video card driver.

If that doesn’t help, You might have installed a 3rd party video codec packages. For example, the K-Lite video codec package is known to cause problems with Falcon 4.0 Allied Force. If you have this installed, do the following:
Open Klite Codec pack > Configuration > Fddshow > Video decoder configuration and change the MP42 format entry to disabled by clicking on libavcodec.
As a result the standard MS codec will play the AVI movies and FDDshow is not used for this type. Falcon will run fine with movies then.

Also, one of the addons may be corrupt or may not be supported by your new video card. Try running without the addons to see if this resolves the problem.

Please let me know if all of this fails.

End Quote
Having up to date drivers for both my GTX 285 and GTX 560, I discounted her first recommendations. Having not toyed with 'codecs' other than those from Intel required by some installations, I proceeded to the third potential problem, addons.

I promptly found that the installed 1.05 version would crash is upgraded to 1.0.1.3 or the latest all inclusive upgrade offered by Graphsim.

Thus while the simulator remains at CD installed base,which I again believe is 1.05, I was able to install nearly all the PMC theaters, the AEYES cockpit, the ZerksCDcockpit and Skunkworks mods and still retain consistent functionality on both systems. HiTiles did become prohibitive on the higher performance GTX 560, but presented no problem with the GTX 285 install.

I might be missing something with 'Patch 13', and I would like to understand what that might be, but at this stage the program now launches reliably with all Theaters accessible. If there be a non-killer trick to install later patches, I would like to know. But at this point, the cockpits, theaters and Skunkwork squawk are appreciated in their functional state.

The CD is version 1, so you're missing 14 patches and unless you only run SP, you'll never be able to connect with others in MP.

If the flurry of patch work is solely for multiplayer application, then I do not care if this ultimate patches are missing. I fly solo. Are not the patches performance enhancements relative to simulator accuracy or bug elimination? Only multiplayer enchancements?
I am curious to understand.

Look here and scroll down http://www.lead-pursuit.com/news.htm


Despite ED209 making guest appearances on BMS forums I'm pretty sure you wont here anything from Lead Pursuit for the moment - but that site is still there and has a lot of useful info!