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#4134357 - 06/15/15 01:35 PM Jane's F-15 FAC question  
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alexlau Offline
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Hi guys,

While not sure if anyone is still playing this game, but I hope someone has some recollections on how the FAC (Forward Air Controller) actually works because only brief descriptions are given in the manual.

I was flying on a CAP mission and then got instructed to change course to bomb a target, the location of which AWACS said ‘has downloaded to your system’, but I looked around the MPDs/UFC and can’t say I’ve found the data.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks.

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#4134501 - 06/15/15 05:50 PM Re: Jane's F-15 FAC question [Re: alexlau]  
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I will have to take a look, but my recollection for F/A-18 (and F-15) was that when you got the message about the course change, your CURRENT waypoint would change to reflect the new tasking.

I remember that when you would program it into the Mission Builder, you would generate a new set of waypoints to be activated on the Trigger for the new tasking.


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#4134691 - 06/16/15 06:27 AM Re: Jane's F-15 FAC question [Re: alexlau]  
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Ahh.....the CURRENT waypoint, perhaps I've missed that. The mission builder is more complicated than what the manual describes but curiously not that many discussions found on the web.

Thanks Recluse for your reply and also the voiceover training missions for JF-18.

#4134872 - 06/16/15 02:55 PM Re: Jane's F-15 FAC question [Re: alexlau]  
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You are welcome! Nice to be remembered! smile

I didn't get a chance to look at it last night, but my recollection again is that there were issues with the ALT PATH function working based on later OS's. This was PROBABLY in F/A-18 rather than F-15 but they worked similarly.

If you search through the archives for "ALT PATH" you might find something.


I found this, but it is F/A-18 related and refers to a bad CTD frown

http://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/2825601/Searchpage/2/Main/295615/Words/ALT+Path/Search/true/Re:_Alternate_Path_in_MIssion_#Post2825601



Last edited by Recluse; 06/16/15 03:03 PM.

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#4135195 - 06/17/15 07:42 AM Re: Jane's F-15 FAC question [Re: alexlau]  
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alexlau Offline
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Thanks for the pointer. Will do a search.
BTW, the link mentioned instructions from you MD website, is the site still up??

#4135454 - 06/17/15 03:45 PM Re: Jane's F-15 FAC question [Re: alexlau]  
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Wow! The MB forum is still existing...you will have to wade through a lot of SPAM to get to the old stuff.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/51657

Here is the mirror of the old TACOPS site:

http://tacops.virtualfightersquadrons.com/

Here is the ALT PATH article:

http://tacops.virtualfightersquadrons.com/FAQ.htm

It is for Janes F/A-18, but the MB is similar in both sims.

Last night I tried creating a quick ALT PATH trigger mission in F-15. From reading the manual, I believe it is correct that the waypoints should immediately shift to alternate Waypoints on the trigger. Unfortunately, when I wrote a mission to enable the trigger, NOTHING HAPPENED. This was on my XP SP3 machine. Most of my F-15 flying was done on a Win98 machine, so MAYBE something in the modern OS compatibility messed up the Alt Path code.

HAH!! I had to re-read my instructions and add an AWACS!! Indeed it worked!! After the AWACS responded with the PRIORITY tasking, the waypoints immediately changed.

Just follow the new waypoints and you will be routed to the tasking area. Of course, with ALT PATH you have to generate a new set of waypoints, but typically the FIRST new Waypoint will be the target area.




Last edited by Recluse; 06/17/15 04:00 PM.

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#4135846 - 06/18/15 05:39 AM Re: Jane's F-15 FAC question [Re: alexlau]  
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My oh my, your instructions on FAC is still available on TACOPS site but strangely the link to the sample missions no longer works.

If it is not too much trouble, could you upload the FAC sample missions (if you still have them) and the ALT PATH file that you’ve tested yesterday? It’s better to have some samples for reference.

Thanks.

#4135920 - 06/18/15 11:57 AM Re: Jane's F-15 FAC question [Re: alexlau]  
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Sure. I think I have them around somewhere. They are for Janes F/A-18, though, not F-15, but I can also provide the little test mission I made for F-15 for you.

Will post a link when I get them uploaded.

I tested them on my XP machine, but since I moved my Cougar to the WIN7 machine, I couldn't fly, but sat on the runway until the trigger. This led me to try and install F-15 on my Win 7 64 machine, but with no success despite following several guides frown

Just mentioning it in case there are some issues with the various functions like ALT PATH/FAC due to OS concerns.

EDIT; Got JF-15 running on Win7!! Bad news is that the ALT PATH didn't work. Got the message from AWACS fine, got the voice message about updating waypoints, but the new waypoints never showed up.

Might be an OS thing...will try and check the same mission on XP and report back.


EDIT: OK! Everything working. I don't understand it, but my very first simple test worked. I re-created all the parameters and couldn't get it to work with either OS. Then I just edited the working test mission and managed to put it all together.


Will send you a link to download once I put together a little README file for it. Also still looking for the old F/A-18 FACTUTORIAL. One more place to look for that. I will try to put together a similar mission for F-15 using a FAC. I did a quick test and it worked OK.




Last edited by Recluse; 06/18/15 06:18 PM.

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PowerSpec G436
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Flight Gear:

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#4136267 - 06/18/15 10:17 PM Re: Jane's F-15 FAC question [Re: Recluse]  
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Recluse, can you please elaborate on how you got JF-15 working in Windows 7? Sorry for this off topic post, but that's a big deal if it works.

Last edited by brownba; 06/18/15 11:21 PM.
#4136283 - 06/18/15 11:15 PM Re: Jane's F-15 FAC question [Re: alexlau]  
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Yes of course,

I followed EXACTLY the instructions HERE

Originally, I neglected to delete the MOVIES folder and it wouldn't work. Also I missed the part about not using a shortcut but going straight to the executable. When I did both of them along with the rest it worked!! Occasionally the Mission Builder won't exit cleanly and I have to kill F-15 in Task Manager, but the main menus/options and flight seems to work perfectly.

I am not even sure you need NGLIDE as the patch lets you use D3D acceleration, but when I failed many times without it, I installed it, but until doing the steps above, I couldn't access the menus to activate either GLIDE or D3D. The link above says it MUST run in GLIDE mode with NGLIDE and I haven't tried switching to D3d to see what happens since it works fine this way.

Good luck and good hunting!!

Last edited by Recluse; 06/19/15 01:41 AM.

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#4136308 - 06/19/15 01:22 AM Re: Jane's F-15 FAC question [Re: alexlau]  
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@AlexLau:

Here is the download link for my little altpath test mission for Janes F-15

ALTPATH2.zip

Here is the download of the old F/A-18 FACTUTORIAL.ZIP

I will try to put together a FAC mission for F-15 if you are interested. I forget exactly HOW the FAC works in F-15, but I think the FAC is more powerful and better at marking targets in F/A-18.


Long system spec sig follows:






PowerSpec G436
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Nvidia RTX3070

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Flight Gear:

Cougar Hotas S/N 26453
Thrustmaster RCS Rudder Pedals

#4136350 - 06/19/15 06:27 AM Re: Jane's F-15 FAC question [Re: alexlau]  
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Files downloaded and thanks Recluse for going thro all the troubles!
Managed to create a very simple FAC mission that works, but love to have yours if it's not taking you up too much time.

PS: a bit OT, I've TSH4 installed on the my laptop/Win 7 (32bits), the game runs under Win 98 compatibility but when I go to Control and click on the keyboard icon to do some Keymapping, the game stops responding, just wondered if you've encountered this under Win 7?

#4136445 - 06/19/15 12:51 PM Re: Jane's F-15 FAC question [Re: alexlau]  
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I haven't done any keymapping yet on my Win7 install, but otherwise F/A-18/TSHV4 is running well on Win7 64. Didn't take nearly the effort that F-15 needed!!

I will check.

BTW, I have been having some issues with the FAC on F-15/Win7. Large bursts of 'static' and sometimes sound loops. Also I cannot seem to get the FAC to designate any targets. For simple ground targets, they just keep yelling about being over-run, and for vehicles, even when they hit a stop waypoint, the FAC says they are running away. I honestly do not recall if the F-15 FAC used smoke/laser or even gave a 9 line brief like the FAC in F/A-18. Will keep plugging away at it!!


Long system spec sig follows:






PowerSpec G436
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32 GB RAM DDR4 1600
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Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit

Flight Gear:

Cougar Hotas S/N 26453
Thrustmaster RCS Rudder Pedals

#4136843 - 06/20/15 05:08 AM Re: Jane's F-15 FAC question [Re: alexlau]  
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alexlau Offline
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Same thing here. I’ve tested a simple FAC mission with stationery targets using XP/SP3 machine, but they just reported being under attack and later said the enemies were going away. Maybe this feature was not properly implemented in JF15. But I do remember some third party missions in the old days did make use of FAC, however, not sure if I’ve kept them somewhere.

BTW, finished the ALT PATH mission and now I got an idea of how it works. Merci!

#4137383 - 06/21/15 07:32 PM Re: Jane's F-15 FAC question [Re: alexlau]  
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Originally Posted By: alexlau
Files downloaded and thanks Recluse for going thro all the troubles!
Managed to create a very simple FAC mission that works, but love to have yours if it's not taking you up too much time.

PS: a bit OT, I've TSH4 installed on the my laptop/Win 7 (32bits), the game runs under Win 98 compatibility but when I go to Control and click on the keyboard icon to do some Keymapping, the game stops responding, just wondered if you've encountered this under Win 7?


I am running F/A-18 TSH 4.02 on Win7/64 with NO compatibility modes turned on. Keymapping works fine.


Long system spec sig follows:






PowerSpec G436
Lian Li ATX 205
MSI Z490 Plus Motherboard
Intel Core i7 10700K 3.8 GHz
32 GB RAM DDR4 1600
Nvidia RTX3070

Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit

Flight Gear:

Cougar Hotas S/N 26453
Thrustmaster RCS Rudder Pedals

#4137576 - 06/22/15 06:35 AM Re: Jane's F-15 FAC question [Re: alexlau]  
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alexlau Offline
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Roger and thanks! I'll see what's wrong with my install.

#4150807 - 07/27/15 02:19 AM Re: Jane's F-15 FAC question [Re: alexlau]  
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Wow! What a blast from the past...

I have just recently fired up my old favorite Jane's F15 and had a similar question. I must say I was pleasantly surprised when one of the search results brought me to one of my favorite late-night hangouts of 1999-2001- SimHQ!

Boy those were some good times, staying up until 2 a.m. trying different tactics or graphics card settings, posting info on here and having online conversations via my 500 MHz, Voodoo3 computer and 56k dial-up connection!

Anyway, I recently picked up a nice 2006 Dell PC and put a low-spec (by today's standards) graphics card in her just to run some old favorites.

Good to see I'm not the only one. thumbsup

Good flying and be well.


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