Lomac in Vista

Anybody running Lomac in Vista 64 bit?

Thanks

I'd almost bet starforce won't work on vista.

Already answered.

http://www.simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2130793&page=1#Post2130793

I haven't installed LOMAC/FC yet. Just did my Vista 64 bit install last night. I am liking it so far and will install LOMAC/FC on Saturday morning.

Edit: I am more worried about modman working.

I have LockON:FC installed on Vista Ultimate and running better than it ever did on XP pro. I get more FPS on the same exact system. To confirm this to others, I have this installed on a Sager Gaming Laptop in a dual boot configuration. 1st OS is still XP Pro with LockOn:FC and 2nd OS is Vista Ultimate. Going back and forth, I can say 100% that on this particular system, LockOn runs better on Vista than on XP. It may be the new ATI drivers for the ATI Mobility 9700 Pro (256Mb) video card just make it run faster, but I get better fps with higher settings in Vista than XP.

Not saying for everyone to go out and test Vista, but it works for me incredibly. RealVNC works faster as well on Vista.

FYI: for those about to try it, remember to right click the exe before install and run in compatibility mode for XP SP2, and as administrator. Then run the install for each cd in sequence doing this for the exe's. Then you have to download the starforce update tool when it asks you to the first time you try to start FC. Dont forget to install updated video drivers for your cards. Some beta nVidia drivers are having issues ( thus the word 'beta'), the ATI ones seem to work real well.

When you run the starforce update tool, does it ask or do I need to go to the starforce website to download it prior to this?

When you first try to run it in Vista, a warning dialog box will pop up with a link in it that takes you to their site for a file named sfdrvup.zip

Thanks all for the support.

This is important stuff. I'm making this thread a sticky.

For those that may have problems running it, once installed. On another yet weaker system, I found that turning off the sidebar in Vista allowed normal gameplay.
The Sager Gaming Laptop still plays it very nicely. I installed Loman and Modman using the same compatibility techniques with some mods. No fps mods, just added some skins.
As a reference, this 2 yr old laptop is a 17" wide, P4 3Ghz (full desktop cpu) w HT, 2Gb of ram, ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 w 256Mb of ram, and dual 60Gb hard drives in Raid-0.

I have no doubt that LOMAC or most games hardware-hungry-games run very fast on Vista. That is not due to better management, though, but by overall signal degradation. The display output is will be reduced by more than 50%, then blown up again, to lower signal-rates.

Very nice read about vistas structure:

http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.html

That link is just about Content restricted High Definition Video, ie HD-DVD/Blu-Ray type movies. Not for gaming purposes.

Sorry, posted the wrong link then - same is true for all input-output-systems. I'll try to look up the other link.

I'm waiting, because I seriously doubt that's true.

Well I ran Vista for a couple of weeks and played LOMAC/FC on it no probs at all - I also posted some instructions on installing and running it on LockonFiles - but I'm now back on XP - due entirely to the fact that there is no SST software for the X52 or any other Saitek controllers for Vista.

According to UK Support it should be out within a couple of weeks at the latest - I'll then be immediately reinstalling Vista.

I am having issues with Flaming Cliff (the CD version).

The ordinary Lock on installs and run (with nice performance boost to me surprise). But with Flaming cliff i got a c++ error and the programs hangs as soon as you hear audio coming to live.

Running Nvidia 7800gtx. (latest drivers .65 whql)
Vista 32 bit.
Audigy xFi Fata1ty (latest drivers)
AMD 4400+ / 2 GB ram
Starforce update installed.

Someone recognizes my ordeal?

Tried the solution as above with installing them as admin (given the files admin, and also compatibility).

Frustrating - me bought a Saitek Rudder Pro system today and thought that i for once should master the S25T...

Any ideas at all will be appreciated.

Did you apply the starforce update after installing?

out

Yes i did.

Forgot to mention that. Thanks for the idea though!

I only had to install Lockon 1.0 then FC CD then FC1.12a CD patch. then the Starforce update. I am using the same sound card as you too.

Are you absolutely positive you have the right patch version for your installation?

Out

I had the right patch for LockOn. Used the same files for my XP installation. (Yes i reverted back to XP just to make sure it wasn't any trouble with my CDs and files).

I don't know if is something to do with AMD X2? Something made it impossible to run FC on this computer and VISTA.

The biggest thing vista gives us gamers is how hardware interrupts are handled. Under XP those hardware interrupts had a chance of actually halting or delaying significantly other processing. In Vista this is fixed.

FC works much better under vista32 with the latest Nvidia drivers. Alot of the anomilies with transparent graphics etc are now gone. The sound card drivers are still in need of a great deal of work but things are coming along nicely indeed.

Out

Thomas

I'm having the same problem as yourself. Did you manage to sort it out and get LO:FC running in Vista?
I'm thinking of going back to XP already and I've only had the system less than 24hrs

Cheers

Lou

OK Guys you need to install flaming cliffs then the starforce update then the 1.12a patch. If you get transparent cockpit issues set visib Rnge to low in graphics options in sim. Also with X-fi card you need to get creative alchemy software to make the audio work right in FC.

I will try to help get you sorted out as I have FC working on 3 systems under Vista32.

Out

I was noodling around in Vista when I think I have discovered how to get LockOn to look great in it.

Installation:

Prior to installing, right click the setup.exe, go to properties, compatibility tab, and check the boxes for both the Run as Administrator and Run in Compatibility Mode for XP-SP2. Then install by clicking the same setup.exe. (Do this for all other programs for LockOn as well such as Loman, Modman, etc...)

Once it has installed and all of your mods are installed, go the LockOn folder on your hard drive (normally in the C:/Program Files/ Ubisoft/Eagle Dynamics/Lock On/) and find the LockOn.exe file. Right click the LockOn.exe file, go to properties, compatibility tab, and again for this, check the boxes for Run as Administrator, Run in Compatibility for XP-SP2 and also check the box next to "Disable Desktop Composition". This last setting changes the Vista Aero scheme to the Vista Basic mode in effect disabling Aero from Vista. Once you are done flying, Vista will revert back to normal, and then the next time you go to play LockOn, it will change back automatically for you. This has fixed the disappearing cockpit and other graphic problems I had on the nVidia card system with nVidia chipset I have.

I've got it running in 64 bit Vista with TrackIR. Using run in compatabilty mode mentioned above but don't use the 'Disable Desktop Compostion' setting (though gonna try that). Didn't have to update my starforce stuff either (very old and early copy of LOMAC).

I have it patched through 1.02 but trying .03 patch makes it crash.

Now if I could get 1946 to run I'd be happy.

Good stuff Steve, I was mainly speaking about for the latest version which is LockOn: Flaming Cliffs with the 1.12a Patch. For this you will need to update the Starforce Driver as well to a Vista one they have on the Starforce site as well to install.
The Disable Desktop Composition mainly disables the Aero scheme so that Flaming Cliffs plays nicely with Vista. No more cockpit disappearing now.

That's because LOMAC (v1.00 through 1.02) doesn't use StarForce.

1.03 patch? There's no such thing.

I have Windows Vista Home Premium and after installing the original LOMAC CD, it wouldn't work. So I came on here looking for answers but still unsure what to do to get it working. Any help would be appreciated.

I had a problem until I installed the patch. I would try that first.

Nightmare. No FC.

I've installed Lomac, no problem - works fine.

My Starforce drivers are up to date, so the sf update file reports

I have installed FC using Admin on the install, and running as Admin too, and even trying XP compatability.

I run Lockon.exe and after a short time I get sound, as per the menu screen, but an error message that a C++ runtime has caused a problem - "the application has requested the runtime to terminate it in an unusual way".

I've tried the 1.12B patch - which says it's trying to install the 1.12A patch - and despite downloading it twice, I get "Error 2" and the patch won't install.

I appear not to be the only person with an Error 2 error-msg - but searching everywhere I see no-one replying to those other reporters of error 2 issues.

I imagine the problem is that I'm not patching, so Vista compatibility is no good. But I can't for the life of me work out why the patch program won't play ball.

Any help, pretty please? I had the FC demo working fine, hence this purchase. Nasty that it won't run, on the day I receive it. Ho hum. Any suggestions much appreciated.

maxhome, I get the same problem :-( did you manage to resolve this ??

cheers

Michael

I too have the same problem as michaelk and maxhome when installing Lockon gold. Anyone ever sort this out?

got thois working by reinstalling then patching with the gold cd 1.12a from lomacfiles seems to work with vista ?? couldn't get 1.12a to 1.12b

Crap. I had the Lockon Gold specific 1.12a patch from the start but the game still crashes. AAAAAARRRRGGGGH!

So is just finally getting the right patch all you did different? Nothing clever you've had to do regarding running with admin permissions or compatibility modes?

Just a quick note to add that my problems were sorted eventually. Turns out I had one of the duff FC disks that shipped with Lock On Gold. An email was sent and a free replacement was sent to me (very quickly I might add) and that worked fine once I got it installed. The 1.12b patch also worked correctly with the new disk.

Fixed... at last!

Thanks to the Devs, who responded to my pestering emails.

Turns out there are TWO patches for 1.12b Vista compatibility. One for USA, one for UK, Germany etc.

I had the USA one. One download fixed the problem. Only available, as far as I can see, from Lockon.co.uk (I should tell Lockon files about this.)

Also had to disable UAC in Vista, but frankly that does my head in anyway, so am happy without it.

Hi!
I´m still confused
I have Lock on, without FC.
I can´t run it on Vista. What to do? Can I use 1.12b? Or what?
Thanks

No, you cannot use 1.12b on a LOMAC install. AFAIK there is no Vista-specific patch for LOMAC.

Agramerus, Lomac works just fine under Vista. Just right-click on Lockon.exe and set "run in Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode".

I run Lockon 1.02 without any problem. You do not need a Vista patch. In 1.1/1.12a you need the patch, not for Lockon itself, but for the Starforce drivers. In Lockon 1.01/1.02 there is no Starforce.

This might sound goofy, but if you have changed your fonts try changing them back to system fonts. This finally did for me after alot of trying everything mentioned in this thread.

To install FlamingCliffs on Vista Home Premium, I too had troubles. But overcame them.
Vista even disabled Starforce after installing Lomac and running starforce.

Then after loading FC and the v112b patch, Vista wouldnt liet me install the libraries Starforce needed when it installs itself. Be sure to be ADMIN when you install Lomac/FC and Starforce. If you can, install under a different partition or drive than Vista. Also, Turning off the User Access Control (UAC) allowed Starforce libraries to get installed (probably under the C: drive where UAC is king). Make sure you re-enable UAC after successfulling installing SF and FC.

What is the link to the Vista SF driver? All I could find was SFUpdate.exe and it did not say it was Vista specific. Still doesn't recognize my disk in Vista32, although worked fine in XP. Tried all of the above troubleshooting.

Windows Vista support
http://www.star-force.com/support/users/group3.php

Updater
http://www.star-force.com/support/drivers/

Hi Guys:

Q: I'm planning on buying LOMAC Gold, does this also apply to it (since it's my understand that the SF version is different)?

Best Regards.....

When you buy LOMAC Gold, the LOMAC (1.00, 1.01, 1.02) portion uses SafeDisc. When you install Flaming Cliffs (1.1, 1.11, 1.12, 1.12a/b), StarForce will be installed.

Hello everyone,
i am also experiencing problems with Lock On FC under Vista. I bought myself a new PC:
Intel Core2Quad Q9300
Sapphire ATi Radeon HD 4850 512MB PCIe
4096 MB RAM (2x 2048 MB) Corsair XMS2 PC2-800
Seagate 250 GB HDD...
OS: Windows Vista x64 SP1

The problems with Lock On FC also the following: I am always getting CTDs, sometimes along with an error message, sometimes without. Most of the time, this happens in dogfights or generally when there's a lot of action in the game. That's not really funny...

On my old PC (Athlon 64 3400+, Radeon 9800 XT, Vista x86 --> 32 bit), i did not experience these kind of problems. The game ran of course slower, but stable.

The other problem are graphical glitches:



There are white lines on the marginal sides of the wings and fuselage. These are flickering. That does not really look good. I tried different drivers with my Radeon HD 4850: Catalyst 8.6, 8.7, 8.7 DNA, no change.

Anyone any idea? Do these graphical errors also occur with nVidia cards?

BTW: EECH 1.10.2 also makes problems, just like others described it here: http://www.simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2525979&fpart=3

All other games run fine! I played Call of Duty 4 (great game!) without any problems; Armed Assault works fine, Crysis too.

Hi Joe:

Thanks for the information!!!. Now I'm feeling better about getting it. I was waiting until somebody answered the question....

Falcon99:

I also get the same white lines. If someone have any idea I will appreciate it.....

Regards;
KC

Okay, so I'm not the only one. Do you fly with ATi or nVidia? My graphics card is a Sapphire ATi Radeon HD 4850 with Catalyst 8.7.

I put up a new installation with Vista x86, and now Lock On FC seems to run fine. At least it did not crash yet.

Need help!

I have:
- Intel Core2duo E8400 3.0ghz
- 4gig DDR2 800mhz
- Radeon 4850 with 8.7 catalyst drivers
- VISTA 64Bit ultimate
- Track ir 4 pro
- Saitek X52pro


I get Bsod sometimes in flight, sometimes in menu ect..

I try re-install and run as system admin and so on.. NO help

After bsod and reboot Vista says that problem is caused by ati drivers. so i back to 8.6 cat but bsod again after 1 mission.

All other games run fine: ARMA, Bioshock , Crysis ....

-esa

@ EsaHietala: I had the same problem with Vista x64: BSOD or it just kicked me back to desktop. Switched back to Vista x32 and all the problems with Lock On were gone. Like you, i also played ArmA, Crysis, Colin McRae DiRT without any problems in x64.

I too have those lines. My specs are in my sig. I'm running the Catalyst 8.9 drivers. I didn't have these lines before with my Nvidia 8800GT. Must be an ATI thing.

I have those same lines on Nvidia 880GTS on XP

I get those odd lines on mine too, though I'm also having problems installing the 1.12b patch (it keeps trying to put the patch into a different folder, missing some letters from the "e:\Lock On" so it ends up like "e:\Lock O", but there doesn't seem to eb a pattern to it, as I've tried installing LOMAC to lots of different folders over the last few weeks and it seems to miss some letters randomly...)

When I do install it into the strange folder, the game starts, DRM is fine, and I get to the menu screen and Flaming Cliffs looks like it's installed as I have the two SU-25s available. However, when I try to start a quick game from one of the planes icons, it sometimes freezes on the loading page, usually about 1/4 of the way through the loading bar. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And it does this when I try any of the planes (again, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't).

I'm on a QX9650, DFI UT X48-T3RS, GTX260 (192 core), Auzentech XFi Prelude, Windows Vista Ultimate 64, and all the drivers (sound, mobo, graphics, even firmware for the hard drives etc whenever possible) have been updated. If I can free up some space for a partition I might set up an XP Pro dual boot, and see if things are any different. I've reinstalled *so* many times it's silly.

Sadface =(

e: 18/02/09

I finally installed XP last night, and it seems to have solved at least the freezing on loading problem. I then had the graphical issues with clouds having no transparency on the textures, which was fixed by setting texture settings to "High Quality" in the nvidia control panel. However, I still have the white lines on the edges of the aircraft, like the posts above show. I'll have a look tonight to see what the earliest drivers are that support my GTX 260, and see if there are any that will make a difference.

e ii: Those white flickering lines along the edges appear to be caused by the "Full Shadows" setting. Shadows on "Full Planar" or lower sorts this. Although there's a little less "depth" to the models, I think it's a fair trade off for not having those horrible lines. I don't know if earlier drivers could help for some people; the earliest I can use is 177-178 because any earlier drivers won't support the GTX2xx series of cards.

Everything now seems to work, but I get an exception error on exiting. Nothing too bad, as it doesn't affect gameplay.

Anyone got any ideas about Runtime errors in 1.12b? I have vista 64 Home Premium SP2 Beta. I was getting them same error before on Vista SP1. Done the install as recommended in previous posts on this thread, to get past StarFarce, but I get this for my trouble: -

Runtime Error!

Program: C:\Eacgle Dynamics\Lock On - Flaming Cliffs\LockOn.exe

This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an
unusual way.
Please contact the application's support team for more information.

Just wondered if anyone has a fix before I attempt to contact them?

Cheers

Andy

Yeah, me too, what Dr. Strop said.

I got this working now. I found the answer on DCS forum.

– If LockOn: Flaming Cliffs returns an error after the StarForce check then disable User Account Control in the Windows Vista.

> Start
> Control Panel
> User Accounts
> Turn User Account Control on or off
> clear the checkbox “Turn User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer”
> reboot
> Run the lockon.bat once (it is in the root of the installation)

Forgot to mention. I didn't have the flaming cliffs disk in to run it either.

This is just the known shadow bug. Just turn down shadows from "full" in game settings down one level (to all planar e.g.) and those lines will disappear. The case is that full shadows do not work with modern drivers and old drivers don't work with modern cards:)

Is there any bulletproof method of getting FC to install onto Windows 7? I've got the Gold edition and even with the 1.12b patch and the Starforce patch that used to work on Vista then it just gets stuck in the Starforce activation/reboot loop. I hear some people have got it to work and i'm just curious how exactly. I know the FC 2 patch is on the horizon but i'm slightly loathed to pay for an upgrade of a game I only play occasionally anyway.

And to be honest now FC is pretty much a budget title I don't see why they can't just patch to get rid of or tone down the DRM on it anyway.

Same here, tried Starforce in compatibility mode and had my total OP system crash and rebooted

LOMAC errors back to desktop constantly when many units are on screen it seems ..

-windows 7 64bit

There needs to be a patch fix for it on windows 7 and 8, if you shot them an email maybe they would consider a patch or at least fixing the problem? So at least one of the game designers would know about it.

It seems ED does only fixes in new releases and once they are out doesn't do much to patch them just continues on with FC versions 2-3 etc.