Selected an IL-2 in a bombing mission with all slots occupied and got this message repeatedly from my ground controller as above me a fierce fight was happening. So I send in my squadron in separate waves to assist and each group reported 'are you sure? I don't see any!' and we got slaughtered because apparently no one was trained to fight. Went on autopilot and watched the carnage for a while. I also had set 16 planes but only got 12, the enemy had various numbers ranging from 16 to 24, could have been normal as no extra squads were set. Just some feedback of a slightly altered rig then the one I tested with about a decade ago and reported very low FPS when landing and when enemy heavy bombers arrived on screen. I'll see what happens when I select such a mission later. BTW this machine has an older card now, can't get anything decent nowadays. Both were gForce 2 but the first one was GTS and this is a TNT200/400

VonBeerhofen

I reflew this mission to make sure people don't call me a lunatic again and learned that the controller responded that there was no coverage in that area which is not abnormal but then I told my squadron to attack in waves and this is the response I got while the enemy is almost taking a peek into my pit.

It wasn't easy to get the shot since the enemy appeared very sudden out of nowhere and I had to pause the game, type the command and take the screenie. Maybe I'm not acquainted enough with the user interface and the commands list but it did startle me a bit. My excuse if I'm missing something here. Also I got the impression that someone else gave commands as I was on autopilot. Is the enemy perhaps too far away for some of my squadron who fly with me in formation? Red Three is my wingman and he was right next to me.

BTW Nice 2D shadows underneath those planes, not a bad sky either, we have that in UHR

VonBeerhofen

I would like to know more in order to replicate the problem. Which exe were you using, which theatre and which plane-set? A screenie of your single mission parameters would be useful too.

One possibility is an ini setting.

============================
[EAW]
GameName=PLAYER'S GAME
PlayerPilotName=PLAYER
PlayerRank=0
PlayIntro=1
PlayerPlane=5
PlayerNation=2
LastCampaign=3
ColourMain=2
ColourAxis=3
ColourAllied=3
BirdSeed=5
QuickVersion=0
KeyboardLanguage=0
FlakAccuracy=2
FlakRof=2
HudFontSize=0
GunSightSize=1024
OldStyle=0
GroundBattle=1
ComputedGunsight=300
ExtraSquads=0
Month=6
Day=1
EnemyEncounter=1
FriendlyEncounter=0
AutoCombat=1
StaticCockpit=0
FadeTime=500
============================

One of the additions that is in 1.28E is the spawning of additional planes when your planes fly over an enemy airfield. It is a probability setting with a max of 255, and it also depends on the airfield being listed in a squad file.
At one point working on a suggestion from RIBob I modified the mission pararameters setting in a version of UAW160 so that the value could be set on screen. Flying a sweep you could try to spawn enemy aircraft and strafe them on take-off

The version reads RC-01, if you like I can give you the flown LastMission.MSN but I don't think I made any changes to the selection, it is what came in the .ZIP. I see now that the AI are just a tad late to follow the commands, I did get the proper response when we were in the middle of the enemy. I'm used to stock EAW responses and have sufficient time to prepare my head on tactics. The Plane set was 4 and I selected the IL-2.

VonBeerhofen

Thanks



Which ZIP-file are you referring to? I will see if I still have it.

It reads EAW_128E_Full and came from the pam_biddell account, I got it in 2010 when I reported the FPS problems with the bombers. No changes were made to the .EAW.INI except resolution setting to 1280 x 768, something I didn't have back then, I was using 1600 x 1200 at the time..

VBH

As you have a very old version of 1.28e I am posting a link to something later.

UAW1.28e_1.29 folder

It is a 530 megabyte download.

It still uses the ETO planesets



Briefly:
1.28c was the first exe which had the "Dir.set" system, and 1.28e was 1.28c with 1024 x 768 screens.

Will Gee's code which allowed millions of terrain tiles to be possible (instead of 64) was added to 1.28e to make 1.28f.
The "eaw32.tm" file with 4 bytes per tile was introduced to replace the "eaw.tm" file.

1.29 is the extension of 1.28f which allows for different size tile maps. It always comes in two versions.
The old map version is locked into 640x320 and the Europe1 map screen.
The new map version defaults to 640x320 unless there is a "TileSet.mpf" file present which it reads to get the width and height. It uses the "TargMap.pic" file

Thx but it surpasses the goal of why I had it reinstalled, which was to find an answer on a 10 year old FPS issue and CaptSopwith's problem with the exploding planes. Both seemed to be related.

VBH

I am curious too as to whether or not frame-rate values have changed, and if planes are still exploding

I couldn't help CaptSopwith with his exploding planes in career mode. It's very strange that it doesn't affect single or quick missions, never heard similar before. Maybe others with 4K resolutions will report back some day. This isn't the version I used which had issues, but so far there were no further anomalies with this version. It's too time consuming for me to test it all extensively but I'm sure plenty already have but there's not many around nowadays. I may explore it a bit further when more time is available.

VonBeerhofen

Hi VBH and Jel!

I wanted to let you know that it looks like the exploding plane issue was an error on my part. I copied over several careers from a different version of EAW in order to continue them and that started the problem. Creating a fresh career sorted it out! CTD's seem far less common now that I've dropped ExtraSquads down to 2, I had been running at 3 or higher. Hope this helps sort out some of the mystery (really, it was just me!).

Cheers guys!

Not sure if this is related with Gog's 1.28 inability to set up a TCP/IP game but this version also doesn't allow me to create a game room. It looks all fine till I try to create the room and then I'm thrown back to desktop. Perhaps this bug is also in their version. Functionality was fine with my other installs on that same computer. I know there are other versions available which may not have this issue but I wonder what version Gog has used, as there have been quite a few different releases, including Col. Gibbon's and not all were given a new version number by which it can be distinguished.

VonBeerhofen

A test of my set-up:




It reads 1.2 but it should be the GoG 1.28


Single mission test confirms that it is the GoG 1.28 exe:


Multiplayer selected:


IPX activated:


Mission parameters set:


Briefing screen:


In the air:


No problems

As I suspected, you don't have all multiplayer options!

This is what I have:



Looks like the devellopers removed a lot of fun stuff. IPX play only allows playing through dedicated commercial servers, i.e. you can't play when the server is down, whereas TCP/IP don't need anyone in between, hence greater independency and an extra player's choice. The 2 other choices shown here allow direct cable connections without the need of internet and are probably the most lag free of all choices in a home network. Great for playing against your family, In that respect TCP/IP can also be used and seems to be working pretty good in any network but there is always a delay. I wonder what motive the developers had to remove these options, which wouldn't have harmed anyone if they had remained. It's like cutting off a healthy limb and a limiting factor for some players. Me for instance, as I was never able to install Gameranger on my WinME computer, still can't.

VonBeerhofen

I just remembered that these network protocols don't automatically come with Windows but are optional, at least that's how it used to be. So you may not have those extras installed and perhaps that goes for some of the Gog pilots too. Still doesn't explain why I can't create a room though, as you can see I have it all activated. How many different versions of v1.28 are there and are they all compatible with one another?

VBH

There is the code-group version and the one released by GoG. Both are in the OAW patch I made to add more theatres to the GoG install.

That suggests that Gog used the code group's version, but my archive shows versions 1.28 A to E which have all been released and I have one without an alphabetical extension and one from Col. Gibbon. I have several notes which talk about a web version and two versions which seem to be one for offline and one for online use. There's also a 7-zip installer with the E-RC designation. Russ Watson also can't create a TCP/IP room with his version but he's flown with the Launchpad many times, so he does have that capability. Was the TCP/IP protocol purposely disabled?

VonBeerhofen

GoG definitely hacked the original 1.28 version and when we contacted them they apologised and replaced it with their hack of the original 1.2.
The original 1.28 had tcp/ip and I have no idea as to why they disabled it.

I've tried a few more times after rebooting. My version does have the TCP/IP protocol shown and I'm following standard procedure for setting up a new online game. When I hit NEW a garbled Session Parameter screen flashes by and I'm back to desktop. Russ seems to use the Gog version, which explains why he only has IPX.

VonBeerhofen

Done a few more tests with this and came across this beauty:

Dornier 17Z


Serious R/S issues, missing dorsal panels, gears above the wings and visible through gear wells, free floating radio wire attached to nothing, and some weird line artefact extending down from the bottom fuselage and disappearing polygons at other viewing angles..

Upon further investigation I found such anomalies in most of the none stock planes. I hope there are better versions. It flew pretty good though.

VonBeerhofen