I had an e-mail the other day from a guy wanting to tell me about his recent success with getting LB2 to run 'flawlessly' on his ultra-modern PC with Windows 8.1 Pro X64.

Here is his e-mail...



Follow-up e-mail after I replied and asked for some clarification...



As I'm not updating my website anymore I thought this was the best place to put up the info.

Thanks for the info Flyboy! Nice to know!

My old trusty computer finally died (RIP), so I got a new one with Win8.1. I installed LB2, then copied a backup I kept from my previous computer. Everything is working fine so far except for a small shuttering. Is not that bad except when you accelerate time. Between life and work haven't got much time to dig around for a possible reason yet.


Edit 12/19/2014:
Following the great example provided by Flyboy, I looked into the Realtek Audio Manager. My speakers were set to Stereo. I fixed the configuration to 5.1 and the shuttering has almost gone!

Hi, Punisher, good to see you still hanging around.

Glad that the e-mails I posted up helped. The guy who sent me them isn't a member here so I thought it would be good for me to share them on his behalf.

It's strange what things are affecting these old sims... who'd have thought it was anything to do with audio configurations!?

Hey Flyboy,

Thanks a lot! I always come and check the forums and always look forward to your postings as they always help in one way or another (but barely post due to SimHQ always logging me out).

This Saturday I had a chance to play a few missions and so far haven't got any crashes so far (and this time I don't have the Windows CTK as Win8.1 x64 doesn't seems to like it).


My only problem was related to Win8.1 and my old Sidewinder FFB where it keeps loosing the FFB functionality (and the green light goes off) and becomes "too loose". I could fix it temporarily by disabling the Joystick in Device manager and enabling it again but the problem would come (sometimes immediately, sometimes took some time).

After long hours searching I found better a solution by running a small app called simFFB (found in one of the MANY forums I visited while trying to find a solution). I don't even have to do anything with it (no config changes or anything), just launch it and the Joystick works fine as long as it is loaded.



Happy Holidays!!!

Well it's good to hear that an old retro guy like yourself ended up migrating to Windows 8.1 and are still able to play LB2. Good find with the joystick fix. I really wish I could find the time/energy/motivation to update my website with all these new findings...

Happy Holidays to you, too!

I am running it well...so far..... except the base screen is always odd washed out colors as well as ending mission area. Screen blink every 3-4 seconds on base screen as well

I can't run this tutorial gets stuck in a loop and freezes comp

Possibly the CA.INI fix will fix this. If you don't have it already...

Open the 'CA.INI' file found in your game folder, in Notepad.

Add the lines...

[Backdoors]
HEAP_PERCENT=0

... to the top of the file and re-save.

I downloaded and installed your GUI sound fix file. Seems to be working ok except for color washout still.

Are you running the gui sound fix file on the pure longbow 2 version with no win7 fix patch installed?

I did notice the options setting has a bug in it where when you went load the default keyboard key commands and tried to save it it wouldn't hold the save, and you would have to just save it from main screen.

I don't think the manual ever mentioned what the lines in the ca.ini mean.

Can the CA.ini graphics sectioned be changed?

[GRAPHICS]
XResVideoMode=640
YResVideoMode=480
GammaCorrection=1
FarClip=7890
MeshDetail=2
TerrainLighting=1
Shadows=1
ObjectDetail=2
DetailedHelicopters=1
ObjectLighting=1
CockpitRotorFx=1
LensFlareFx=1
TextureMap=8
Perspective=1
DrawSky=1
Dither=1
SmokeDensity=1
SmokeEffectFx=1
MaxBitmaps=100
Trees=1
TreeDetail=9
TreeSamples=80000

The GUI/sound fix, as with all Phoenix's fixes, can be installed on a fresh LB2 install or on top of the Windows Vista/7 fix. All the Windows Vista/7 fix is, is the game in an installed and patched state... with one or two minor tweaks. It wasn't so much put together because people couldn't get the game to run... but because some couldn't even install it.

Of course the manual wouldn't mention the lines in the CA.INI file... they're not meant to be messed with!

Believe me, we have experimented and experimented with that graphics section... to little or no avail. Some of those lines are defunct and weren't even implemented into the final game code. The 'Tree' entries are believed to be the options for the beta LB2 which either had... or was going to have... trees in it!

In-game, any tweaks to level of detail or draw distance are not visible with the naked eye. The only way to 'improve' graphics is by using hardware-accelerated mode (Direct3D or 3DFX), and in 3DFX's case involving a glide wrapper which can force such things as higher screen resolutions, triple buffering, etc.

Your fix is working good

The CA.INI fix?

I spoke too soon. Game continues to freeze up during a mission. Lucky if I can get past 1 without a freeze.

I installed LB2

Installed the LB2 Patch 2.09E (Reads 2.09F in game)

Installed LB2-WinVista-7-Fix.zip

Installed LB2_Crash_GUI_Sound_fix.zip
-Fixed the horizontal blinking lines at base screen
-Still got washout and sound freezes

Selected run as administrator and XPSP3 compatibility mode.

= Same problems

Hi John

Check if this helps you...

_http://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3461776/Re:_Getting_it_to_work#Post3461776

So, this thread is inspiring me.

I have the game installed in my C:\janes\longbow2 folder

However, I wanted to do a complete re-install.

The problem is that Windows doesn't see it as a program to be un-installed. Do I just delete the folders before re-installing?

Thanks

Made a 100% fix to the color washout experience by LB2 base screen, debriefing screen and all other areas. It is a .bat file to be placed in your LB2 directory.
http://www.filedropper.com/lb2colorfix

Weaves - From the FAQ on my site...



john84 - Nice. Will add it to my website at some point.

Flyboy,

Thanks. It seems to be running fine now with the Nglide (I always had problems with DGvoodoo).

1) What's the max resolution I can run it at?

2) Can't I create an ISO of the discs to store their images on my pc to run without the cd? I can't find those instructions anywhere.


Thanks

p.s. It took me some time to find that nglide settings are stored in C:\Windows\SysWow64\nglide_config
I hope that can help someone else out.

I'm replying from my phone right now so I don't have access to my stuff, but...

1) You should be able to run the game at whatever nGlide allows... or whatever your monitor supports... whichever comes first.

2) Yes. Here is the ISO method on my website:
http://digitality.comyr.com/flyboy/lb2/inst_lb2_image.html
Note that this guide is a bit outdated now, mainly for Daemon Tools which now loads as a program rather than being just a taskbar icon... and I don't think it creates virtual drives anymore (or only when program is running).

If you encounter any problems post back and I'll try to help.

Flyboy,

Thanks. I saw the resolutions in nglide and now have 1900x1200 for the outside views.

Here are my final problems:

1) I keep getting timed out when trying to go to your site.
2) The cockpit view is definitely not 1900x1200. Seems more like 640x480.
3) Do I need the dd patch from your website?
4) The lb2 config file isn't in my folder. bad install?

Thanks

Edited:
I found my old file of your win7 fix file and extracted those over my janes\longbow folder.

The cockpit view is my last question, until I whip out my joystick (sorry, had to say it)