F4AF patch 1.06 out

[Skybird]

Falcon 4 is approaching it's first birthday, and Leadpursuit has just released the fifth patch for it, 38 MB in size, version 1.06.

Patchlog here: http://www.lead-pursuit.com/news.htm

Download in their download section.

I'll try again with this one, so far F4AF in single player mode has been a non-starter for me, and made me return to SP4OCI. I consider 1.06 to be the last chance to turn AF into something useful for single players (while the online experience is said to be good and very stable, but I do not play online).

[CCIP]

I hadn't bought F4AF due to lack of resources last year, and to be honest your comments (among others) have been making me slightly suspicious of it after that since I'm a stricty-single player on it.

I'd like to play around with F4 again sometime though. What do you say - wait for AF to get fixed up and order it, or try the original patched with the latest SP or FF again?

[TteFAboB]

Rolling wheels!!! Wheeee!

Ok, now what?

[Skybird]

I hadn't bought F4AF due to lack of resources last year, and to be honest your comments (among others) have been making me slightly suspicious of it after that since I'm a stricty-single player on it.

I'd like to play around with F4 again sometime though. What do you say - wait for AF to get fixed up and order it, or try the original patched with the latest SP or FF again?

If you play single player only, then it definetly is not worth it, I have returned to SB4.2 one-click-installer, and concerning the summary of details concerning functionality, and stabililty, and reliability of the included features it is far superior to AF. It is not flawless, nore compelte, nor perfect, but far better than AF, nothing more and nothing less. Certain graphical details may look a bit better in AF, but it is not enough to compensate for the many setbacks. I personally stopped seriously testing AF with 1.03. 1.05 was so dissapointing that I abandoned it very soon. I play tanks most of the time now, but when flying Flacon, it is SP4.2 withouit further mods and addons (no FF or BMS or whatever). I do not remember when I had my last CTD. Tankers work. Comms work, weapons work, AI most of the time does well, wingmen are there and do as I order them. All this is broken with AF at least in 1.05.

If you play online a lot, then you still have to accept broken details, but the stability of online games is said to be far better with AF. I do not know, online is not my interest.

Waiting for AF being patched: rumours are that 1.07 will be the last patch they will offer, and I am sure it still will not be completely adress all the many issues, nor will it be modded. It is even possible that 1.06 now is the last patch. Having surfed Frugal's and simHQ I got the impression that 1.06 again is far from being a product beyond doubt, many peopole complain about growing instability and ctd's, and still broken functions, and not just a few. I found the general feedback after one day so discouraging that I'm even not interested too seriously try it again, although I have installed it this morning. and then I found myself flying another SP4.2 mission, before going to SBP :cool:

So, for single players I definetly recommend the SP4.2-OCI, very easy installation (one-click), and you're done. No further stuff, no FF, no BMS, no nothing. To me this purist's setup is the best, most reliable and most complex Falcon I ever had. FF has given me troubles last time I tried it (frames and ctd's).

[CCIP]

Thanks for the advice.

I think I'll give the old bird a spin in the next little bit :yep:

(until SHIII came out, Falcon 4.0 was my religion - I played it for 6 years, all the way from 1.0 to SP4.2 and I still think I'm far from "through" with it. It is, without a doubt, the finest modern flight sim that has ever been put out, with features that other games never even touched :up: )

[Skybird]

(until SHIII came out, Falcon 4.0 was my religion - I played it for 6 years, all the way from 1.0 to SP4.2 and I still think I'm far from "through" with it. It

I'll beat you on that: I'm with Falcon since the very first Falcon for the Amiga and Atari ST came out. That was, I think, 1987 or 1988 :D .

[CCIP]

(until SHIII came out, Falcon 4.0 was my religion - I played it for 6 years, all the way from 1.0 to SP4.2 and I still think I'm far from "through" with it. It

I'll beat you on that: I'm with Falcon since the very first Falcon for the Amiga and Atari ST came out. That was, I think, 1987 or 1988 :D .

I'm not competing, I'm not old enough to. :lol:

Falcon came at a crucial age for me (come on, there's not that many 14-year-olds that grit their teeth on F4 at full realism! :88) ), and at the right point - just when I was fresh out of F-22: Total Air war which gave me a good taste of single-player dynamic flightsim campaigning without being too complicated, especially on avionics (I'd gone back to that game several times afterward too - definitely my 2nd favorite modern jet sim).

It was also good that I started with F4 and had to learn it from basics, because I probably would've given up on it if I could jump right into full-scale campaigns and discover the massive bugs in initial versions. But by the time I finally learned the ropes, the game was already patched to a playable state and the first Realism Patch was already out. :)

Geez, I'm really tempted now :doh:

[kiwi_2005]

I'd like to play around with F4 again sometime though. What do you say - wait for AF to get fixed up and order it, or try the original patched with the latest SP or FF again?


Have you tried LOMAC (Lock On) not as realistic as F4 but very close. Also got up to 8 aircraft you can fly. A10 Tank killer, Russian Su-33 and the German Mig-29A to name a few.

I got F4 but am to scared to play it again, totally too realistic for me that when ever i went in the air it was garranteed i would get shot down. :D

[CCIP]

I liked LOMAC on some points, and spent some time learning it, but something was missing - even the clickable cockpit I missed. I may give it another shot, but I'd already given up on it twice. The lack of dynamic campaign is a big miss-out, I think.

-----

The biggest skill (at least for me in F4) to have - and the longest to develop - is getting situational awareness quickly from limited clues. I absolutely love it as a game of SA. If you know how to be careful - you won't get shot down too often.

On the downside, I still hear RWR tones in my sleep :rotfl:

[kiwi_2005]

Whats the lastest Patch for Falcon 4 and any good mods?

I might install and give it another try. Last time i was playing F4 she was running on win98se. Does it have to be patched to run on winxp pro?

[Skybird]

Whats the lastest Patch for Falcon 4 and any good mods?

I might install and give it another try. Last time i was playing F4 she was running on win98se. Does it have to be patched to run on winxp pro?

SP4.2 OCI (one click installer). No more dance.

1. Falcon from CD,
2. (if you use German version: copy over the English talk-files),
3. and one-click installation of SP4.2.
4. Done.

I do not use more mods. BMS and FF are not stable for me. the old version of high-tiles are included in SP42oci (the new is AF-only). BMS I do not use, gives me jerky frames, some ctds, sound and radar and RWR issues. For comparable reasons I also do not use FF (which is more graphical enhancement than function-wise enhancement anyway.

Patching for XP is not required.

[kiwi_2005]

Thanks for the info.

[CCIP]

I never had much issue with BMS over top of SP4, so you might want to consider giving it a try. It does add some nice graphics engine improvements.

I'll try it out in a couple of weeks, myself. If BMS causes any trouble, I've no qualms in going back to plain 4.2 either.

[PeriscopeDepth]

I'll have to dig out my falcon disk and try it on my new system, my old one could barely run the campaign. So many great sims so little time....

Could you possibly elaborate on the radar/RWR issues that occur with BMS Skybird or anyone else? I remember reading something about it when I regularly checked the F4 forums. Thanks.

PD

[Skybird]

I'll have to dig out my falcon disk and try it on my new system, my old one could barely run the campaign. So many great sims so little time....

Could you possibly elaborate on the radar/RWR issues that occur with BMS Skybird or anyone else? I remember reading something about it when I regularly checked the F4 forums. Thanks.

PD

It's long ago, so my memories are... hazy. Radar did not work reliable, and RWR often was completely broken, or malfunctioning. frames were stuittering, sometimes more, sometimes less. System freezes, ctd's. That was with BMS 2.0. BMS 1.03 send me crashing on two systems. both BMS, if I remember correctly, overwrote functionality of the original SP installation again, reducing it that way - but it is long ago that I tried it. BMS is known to need patches, but they stopped active support for it due to some löicense issues, or becasue they started to work on professional (commercial) stuff for Falcon. Maybe it even found it's way into AF, I do not know. SP4.2OCI with hightiles and partially volumetric clouds looks good enough anyway to please my needs, and is a breeze to install. I don't need more.

[kiwi_2005]

Is Falcon 4 Allied Force an updated version with all the bugs cleared out etc., Would it better to buy AF or install F4 with SP4, which is the better of the two gameplay wise.
Just read this guys review of AF
http://www.simhq.com/_air5/air_165a.html

[PeriscopeDepth]

Is Falcon 4 Allied Force an updated version with all the bugs cleared out etc., Would it better to buy AF or install F4 with SP4, which is the better of the two gameplay wise.
Just read this guys review of AF
http://www.simhq.com/_air5/air_165a.html

From what I understand, if MP is what you want AF is the way. Otherwise, SP 4 or FF will suit you just fine.

PD

[Skybird]

Is Falcon 4 Allied Force an updated version with all the bugs cleared out etc., Would it better to buy AF or install F4 with SP4, which is the better of the two gameplay wise.


AF is not the summary of all previous enhancements, quite the opposite. Not only intriduces it issues again that had already been dealt with years ago, it even adds new ones. That's why I labelled it a clear setback when it appeared.

As I said, and Periscope also says, for MP the stability F4AF offers seem to be superior to any of the free mods, but it has the same bugs on display like the SP version, of course. If you are more in SP, there is no reason why not sticking to the free mods, SP4.2OCI in my case (functionality), others prefer FF (graphics, models, cockpits).

[kiwi_2005]

Yup just for SP.

Think i''l stick with F4 and SP4 and hopefully i'll teach myself to hit a target!

[SUBMAN1]

I hadn't bought F4AF due to lack of resources last year, and to be honest your comments (among others) have been making me slightly suspicious of it after that since I'm a stricty-single player on it.

I'd like to play around with F4 again sometime though. What do you say - wait for AF to get fixed up and order it, or try the original patched with the latest SP or FF again?

If you play single player only, then it definetly is not worth it, I have returned to SB4.2 one-click-installer, and concerning the summary of details concerning functionality, and stabililty, and reliability of the included features it is far superior to AF. It is not flawless, nore compelte, nor perfect, but far better than AF, nothing more and nothing less. Certain graphical details may look a bit better in AF, but it is not enough to compensate for the many setbacks. I personally stopped seriously testing AF with 1.03. 1.05 was so dissapointing that I abandoned it very soon. I play tanks most of the time now, but when flying Flacon, it is SP4.2 withouit further mods and addons (no FF or BMS or whatever). I do not remember when I had my last CTD. Tankers work. Comms work, weapons work, AI most of the time does well, wingmen are there and do as I order them. All this is broken with AF at least in 1.05.

If you play online a lot, then you still have to accept broken details, but the stability of online games is said to be far better with AF. I do not know, online is not my interest.

Waiting for AF being patched: rumours are that 1.07 will be the last patch they will offer, and I am sure it still will not be completely adress all the many issues, nor will it be modded. It is even possible that 1.06 now is the last patch. Having surfed Frugal's and simHQ I got the impression that 1.06 again is far from being a product beyond doubt, many peopole complain about growing instability and ctd's, and still broken functions, and not just a few. I found the general feedback after one day so discouraging that I'm even not interested too seriously try it again, although I have installed it this morning. and then I found myself flying another SP4.2 mission, before going to SBP :cool:

So, for single players I definetly recommend the SP4.2-OCI, very easy installation (one-click), and you're done. No further stuff, no FF, no BMS, no nothing. To me this purist's setup is the best, most reliable and most complex Falcon I ever had. FF has given me troubles last time I tried it (frames and ctd's).

I've done the SP's + BMS and even dabbled with FreeFalcon, yet F4AF is by far a better product. I have not had the issues you describe here and I have many hours on F4AF. BMS 2.0 still has some things in it that AF should have, but I assume they will get there in due time. BMS also has slightly better graphics I think. Overall, the wingman controls in F4AF are way better and functional when they do not work right in SP4.2. Too many bugs in SP4.2 alone that don't exist in F4AF.

As a single player game, I prefer F4AF over the SP4.2 any day of the week and I have 100's of hours between the two.

Did I mention that dual core CPU's will work in F4AF too and one CPU runs the ground war and the other runs the flight sim?

Give me a time and I can write book on what is better in F4AF.

By the way, you can still mod F4AF and adjust things if you know how. You have to manually add some files that existed on SP4.2 and edit them by hand. They will then work like they used to, but on F4AF instead.

-S

[kiwi_2005]

Well im just getting errors SP42_OCI. I install Falcon, restart then apply the patch, it states the patch can take 5-25 minutes when it reaches 25%, yet when i apply the patch it takes about 40sec to install, then a error will state something about Korea. file is redundant Error 21F You need to run the patch again to complete the install .which i do but comes up with error again.

Uninstall reinstall falcon4 again apply patch get error again.

Error Message.
SP4.2 OCI has not been totally installed because of the following reason: terrdata\Objects\KoreaObj.TEX: This file contains invalid data. (error 21FC). You will have to run this utility again to completely install SP4.2

[Skybird]

KoreaObj.TEX - I vaguel remember that some people have had issues with that sionce several of the last mod evolution phases, since years. I do not remember the details, but you may want to head over to Frugal's F4 forum and ask there. I think it even is dealt with in one of their stickied installation guides. For F4, Frugal's place is the place to go.

Is it a US-disc you are using? I had problems with this file during older mod incranations, because I used the German version. Had to repalce the file with a US, and that helped. Although noone knew why - the file content should be the same for all national versions of F4.

Ask at Frugals. chances are, that your issue could be solved, I think.

[kiwi_2005]

Yes i have the US version. I also found SP3 i must of DL ages ago. Is there much difference in SP3 to SP4.2, I'lll check out Frugals forums and see if i can find a solution to sp4 problem otherwise i'll tryed SP3.

[SUBMAN1]

I'm dying to try this out on my new dual core and x1900 XTX! I bet there will be no slowdowns near the FLOT!

-S

[Skybird]

I'm dying to try this out on my new dual core and x1900 XTX! I bet there will be no slowdowns near the FLOT!

-S

You are not the first hoping for that - and you probably will not be the first being "dissapointed". Let'S face it: FLOT near Seoul on first day of campaign is a hellride for the CPU.

[kiwi_2005]

Sadly i went back to LOMAC, I couldn't get the SP4 for falcon to work?.
Still LOMAC is a good flightsim as well I DL some sound mods now when my Mig 29A breaks the sound barrier its brings out this terrific boom sound as it flys pass in external view :D

[SUBMAN1]

I'm dying to try this out on my new dual core and x1900 XTX! I bet there will be no slowdowns near the FLOT!

-S

You are not the first hoping for that - and you probably will not be the first being "dissapointed". Let'S face it: FLOT near Seoul on first day of campaign is a hellride for the CPU.

In F4AF with a single XP3200+ and 1 GB RAM + 9800 AIW I was complaining about drops to 20 FPS over the FLOT so I am not sure why I will be disappointed? The dual core CPU will fix that problem however since one CPU runs the ground war and one CPU the flight sim. I bet I won't have any slowdown at all.

-S

[CCIP]

I've put in 4.2 OCI on my new computer (3GHz, 2GB dual-channel RAM) - and while I must say it doesn't seem to run any better than it did on my old 2GHz, 1GB RAM machine, or even that 1.5GHz machine, it still runs very well. To be honest, I suspect that there is a certain ceiling for performance in this game.

Ah... I've never felt so at home with a game :smug:

LOMAC, I'm afraid, only beats it on graphics (though by a lot). Nothing will match this game until it offers a comparable dynamic campaign and comparable avionics. I honestly think LOMAC has made a huge mistake by having a non-clickable cockpit; I'll take the expanded 2D cockpit of F4SP any day.

We're in Year 8 of Falcon 4 by now, I believe, and it still delivers :rock:

[Skybird]

I'm dying to try this out on my new dual core and x1900 XTX! I bet there will be no slowdowns near the FLOT!

-S

You are not the first hoping for that - and you probably will not be the first being "dissapointed". Let'S face it: FLOT near Seoul on first day of campaign is a hellride for the CPU.

In F4AF with a single XP3200+ and 1 GB RAM + 9800 AIW I was complaining about drops to 20 FPS over the FLOT so I am not sure why I will be disappointed? The dual core CPU will fix that problem however since one CPU runs the ground war and one CPU the flight sim. I bet I won't have any slowdown at all.

-S
If so, the better for you :up: I have red posts in the past, guys with killer systems that nevertheless were dissapointed over the FLOT concerning their frames. that they fell to the range of one-digit numbers despite there hardware investements was something that they took as a personal offending :lol:

[CCIP]

I haven't had anything drastic. A few small stutters here and there, but I flew over Seoul on Day 1 using Korea 2005 (where you have even more planes), and it was definitely still playable. I even had a dogfight against some MiG-23's right over FLOT, and the performance didn't interfere.

[SUBMAN1]

I'm dying to try this out on my new dual core and x1900 XTX! I bet there will be no slowdowns near the FLOT!

-S

You are not the first hoping for that - and you probably will not be the first being "dissapointed". Let'S face it: FLOT near Seoul on first day of campaign is a hellride for the CPU.

In F4AF with a single XP3200+ and 1 GB RAM + 9800 AIW I was complaining about drops to 20 FPS over the FLOT so I am not sure why I will be disappointed? The dual core CPU will fix that problem however since one CPU runs the ground war and one CPU the flight sim. I bet I won't have any slowdown at all.

-S
If so, the better for you :up: I have red posts in the past, guys with killer systems that nevertheless were dissapointed over the FLOT concerning their frames. that they fell to the range of one-digit numbers despite there hardware investements was something that they took as a personal offending :lol:

I've never had any slowdowns like single digits with Falcon 4 Allied Force. I know T&L affects SP4.2 badly, so maybe that is the issue with SP4.2??? T&L doesn't really give you any noticeable better gfx either that I can see.

ANyway, this is all hearsay until I actually test. I'll start a brand new ugly fully loaded vehicle wise campaign (I'll move all the sliders to the right and play a balanced campaign) when I get this thing rolling, turn on the FPS counter and fly over the FLOT and take some screenshots. I'll post them by the weekend and then we can see if the dual core helps and works as advertised. Hopefully I don't get shot down while trying to take pictures! :)

Are there any other games out there that make use of dual CPU's other than Falcon 4 Allied Force? This is the only game I know of that will use dual CPU's that I am aware of, but if anyone has heard of anything else, let me know. I need to do some testing!

-S