xylem

OK. Thanks Viper.....

Hi guys, I am running LOMAC and Flaming Cliffs, both from retail disc, and have the starforce patch applied. I don't think I ever had or used an activation Key. But, periodically, when trying to launch I get the 'Activation Key Has Expired' msg and I need to search for and re-insert the FC disc before the sim will lauch. Just wondering...Is this normal? Thanks.........

Thanks Alfa for straightening me out; I had overlooked this note in 'snapviewsdefault': "Index 13 defines default cockpit view." I now understand the mechanics of changing these views. However, I am also grateful to Shamandgg for his very succinct advice. I have D/L'd Slon's GUI Congiurator and have made the changes I need successfully. But, I would not have understood what I was doing if it were not for this discussion and all the help you guys gave me. Thanks a million. This is a great community..... -Tom

My dear Brewber, You needn't be sorry - I think you've hit the nail on the head. I see that you are editing LO, but my case is made more complicated (at least for my tired brain) by the fact that I'm trying to edit FC112. There exists, not one, but two snapview.lua files in my directory. One is called snapviewsdefault. I haven't figured out yet which one I need to alter; maybe both. Each has the same entry for what I think is the plane I want to change, the SU-27. (Am I correct that the head position has to be changed for every plane?): Snap[1][5] = {} Snap[1][5]["viewAngle"] = 87.468338012695 Snap[1][5]["vAngle"] = 14.54797744751 Snap[1][5]["hAngle"] = 129.01266479492 So, 1 would be the SU-27 and 5 is the center head position, correct? So I just change the values and see where my head ends up? Do you know what direction to go with these values? And, do you know what hAnble refers to? Anyway, I'm very grateful that you came up with what promises to be a solution. And my apologies to your tired fingers :) Too tired to do anything now, but will keep you posted on what happens... thanks again.

Well, I tried altering the 'camera view limits' in the lua file; got no change. I tried changing the 'cockpit view angle default' in the view.cfg file and also got no change. The default view opens right up near the HUD. I did this without having TIR on so it would not interfere. Don't know what else to try, but thanks guys for your input.

Sorry Spidey, I was referring to your post, but I thought you had referenced the 'view.cfg' file which didn't have the values you posted. However, the 'view.lua' file does: -- Camera view angle limits {view angle min, view angle max}. CameraViewAngleLimits = {} CameraViewAngleLimits[PlaneIndex.iSu_27] = {20.0, 120.0} CameraViewAngleLimits[PlaneIndex.iSu_33] = {20.0, 120.0} CameraViewAngleLimits[PlaneIndex.iSu_25] = {20.0, 120.0} CameraViewAngleLimits[PlaneIndex.iSu_39] = {20.0, 120.0} CameraViewAngleLimits[PlaneIndex.iMiG_29] = {20.0, 120.0} CameraViewAngleLimits[PlaneIndex.iMiG_29K] = {20.0, 120.0} CameraViewAngleLimits[PlaneIndex.iA_10] = {20.0, 120.0} CameraViewAngleLimits[PlaneIndex.iF_15] = {20.0, 120.0} So, as I understand it, I have to alter one or both of the numbers (20 & 120) for each aircraft I have a problem with to move my default view (head position?). Since these are min & max values can I assume my 'head' is halfway between? So what do I do to move it back, away from the instument panel? Also in the lua file, although I don't know if it applies to this change, is the following advisory: "Don't change existing values, they are requested from Ñ++!" I have never used N++ (and I assume that refers to Notepad++); can i just change values as in Notepad? Sorry for my naivete, and thanks.........

I tend to agree. However the config file you show is from Blackshark and I don't have any problem there. My problem is with Flaming Cliffs v112. Do you have any advice about this? I have no expertise in editing configs so I would need to be led by the hand. Appreciate your help.

Hmmm. I had tried that earlier and it didn't work; unit just went crazy. But tried it again after your suggestion and it worked fine. Power of suggestion :) Thanks Blaze.....

If I may join this discussion; I think I have the same problem, but I would like to be clear about the proposed solution. Having returned to the sim after a couple of years, I installed FC112b and TIR3 w/Vector. TIR has confiscated the zoom keys for hte z axis so I can't use them to adjust my positon in the cockpit. So the view starts out in the default position which is quite close to the windshield, making viewing the gauges a nausea inducing experience. In order to get a wider (further away) view I have to move my chair back and then can't reach the joystick, lol. I assume this can be corrected by just adjusting the default view backwards; am I right? And this change of the 'aspect' will do this? Further, I think I read somewhere (can't remember where) that using Notepad to make changes causes some serious problem with the game or the OS, especially in Win 7. Does anyone know anything about this? Would appreciate your input, Thanks...........

Route, you are a genius. I have flaming Cliffs up and running !!!!!!!!! Just in case someone else may need help I've listed what I did, with your help: Flaming Cliffs install on Win7 (with UAC off) 1. Install LOMAC & reboot. 2. Patch to V102 & reboot. 3. Run game. 4. Install Flaming Cliffs 1.1 & reboot. ('protect.dll' product version at this point is 3.04 and there is no GUI file). 5. Patch to v 112b. (product v is now 3.07 and "Protection System GUI app" file appears in directory). 6. Try to run game. Instead one gets an 'Activation/Protection System' window "need to install libraries..." [pic 01]. Click 'yes'; it installs, and requires reboot. [pic 02]. 7. After reboot one gets the "driver incompatible" message [pic 03]. Disregard and 8. Install Starforce UpDate. 9. Reboot 10. Launch Flaming Cliffs. I am very gratefull to 104th_Route who offered one more word of advice after I was ready to give up. Thanks Route. And thanks to everybody who helped in this thread; I appreciate it. Hope to see you in the virtual skies....

I was ready to give up, but thanks for hahging in there Route. Somehow I don't think that's it, but I will try reinstalling. Are you saying, then, that I should try to run the game right after installing the 112b patch? Also, on my machine, the version of the "protect.dll" is 3.07. Is that what you have ( in the game directory)? Starforce says that only versions great than 5.0x will handle Win7, but if I understand correctly the update cannot exceed that which the game creators put in. Anyway, what do you have? Cleaning and reinstalling now. Thanks......

No. And I'm sorry I made that offhand comment that distracted from the purpose of the thread. Further reading resolved it. However; I have used the method outlined for installing, patching, updating and rebooting. I still cannot get LOMAC to work. At one point I got a msg: "protection system- to launch app you need additional libraries. Install?" Clicked 'yes.' Got "installed correctly. reboot?" Clicked yes. Upon reboot I get Windows msg" "Driver blocked due to incompatiblity." And I get another Starforce window:"Need to reboot." No matter what I do I continue to get these messages. I've turned off UAC, firewalls, AV, etc. I've tried WinXP compatability, I've tried launching from the desktop icon, and from the directory icon, as admin, etc. I continue to get those two windows. Clearly the disc version of Flaming Cliffs (for which I paid $50 at TrackIR) is useless. It is not reasssuring to me that the d/l version works. I've followed LoMac and ED since the inception and bought every product they made, but I am sorely disapponited now. There seems clearly no reason to buy further products. Thank you to those who tried to help.

Thanks to all for pitching in here. A little update: Viper: You are correct, of course. Somehow I missed that little link at the bottom. Clicking the program icon at the top left took me to porn sites (an interesting interlude) so I was a little leary of other things on the page. Sorry. Tez: Yes, Starforce said, in an email to me, that the link was bad, but that they would fix it. They must have done so right after I talked to them. I can get the file from there now, too. Thanks for checking. Route: I am able to extract this and other compressed files with the win extractor with no prob. I had used winzip also with same result; so the extractor tool was not the prob. Thanks for the suggestion. Also, Tez, thanks for the links. They give me some hope. Some people suggest 'turning off' UAC, but I would point out that in Win7 it cannot be disabled; only the 'notification' can be suspended, even in the registry as far as I can tell. OK, so now I have had some sleep, and have uninstalled LOMAC/FlamingCliffs and have run the Starforce driver cleaner from their site. Surprisingly (to me anyway) is that Blackshark continues to run fine. I will now scan my system and clean the registry. Then, using the guidelines you have all supplied, I will try reinstalling and see if I can get this thing running. Many thanks to all of you. Wish me luck. -Tom

Your link led to a page with no live download link. And a careless click landed me in porn heaven. However, your advice about cleaning and re-installing is sound, and I will try it after I get some sleep. Thanks Viper.

And the reply from Starforce is that it's the responsibility of EDS to provide a patch or other solution. Their email response, in part follows: "Most probably this application is protected with too old protection system version and, generally speaking, won't run on Windows 7 in its original state. You can read about it here: http://www.star-force.com/support/users/windows7/ If the driver updating doesn't help, then you should contact your product customer support service and ask them to make a patch, which will either update protection system version or remove protection at all. Unfortunately, we can't build such a patch on our side since we neither have legal authority to produce any patches nor original game files required for that. Sorry for the inconveniences. " So now what do I do?

Well, I installed the driver they sent, rebooted, and got the notification that it was incompatible with win7. Can anybody help? Thanks........

Starforce responded by saying that they had problems on thier site, which they are fixing, and they sent me the file. Thanks all. And thanks for the info Ethereal.

Thanks 104. However, that's the file I've been trying to download. Even using your link I get a 35kb zip folder which is empty. The windows message is "...cannot open.....compressed folder....is invalid." I wonder if you would be kind enough to try downloading it to confirm that it's valid? thanks...

Thanks 104. However, that's the file I've been trying to download. Even using your link I get a 35kb zip folder which is empty. The windows message is "...cannot open.....compressed folder....is invalid." I wonder if you would be kind enough to try downloading it to confirm that it's valid? thanks...

Hi, I have BlackShark running fine on my Win7 OS, but I cannot get FlamingCliffs, which I just installed, to run. Windows says 'it is protecting my system from damage by outdated drivers.' I tried to d/l the driver update from Starforce but for 2 days all I get are empty zip files. Does anyone know what the problem with starforce is, and why a newer program will run but not an older one? Or where I can get the required drivers? Thanks...........

I guess you're right. The briefing only says "light" (not one of the choices, incidentally) no matter what I set it at. Thanks for the insight. Do you know if ED ever intends to make it workable?

I've tried making some missions with the 'Mission Builder' but no matter what setting I set for "cloud cover" (base. thickness, density), I get just a few puffy clouds. The various setting seem to make no difference at all. Is it something I'm failing to do, or is this function just dead? Thanks....

Yep, that's exactly how it looks. :) I guess I should have made my "Edit" more pronounced, but I'll repeat here that after going back to the game everything worked as it should. I have no idea why it was porked before !!?? I think LOMAC didn't load properly or something. btw, 'lights' was set to 'all' before and now. But I am very grateful for the attention all of you guys paid to my problem. Thanks a million. :) -Xylem

Well first, thanks for setting me straight on the nomenclature Brit-radar-dude. Now; I made a mission in mission editor to test this out, and they may be modelled realistically,Sub17, but I don't know if my machine is rendering them realistically. I turned advance haze on and that didn't seem to matter. In my mission they did the same thing: they create a flare in the air, and descend as if on chutes, and if fact they light my aircraft up a little. But, they don't seem to light the ground at all, or very little. And the most prominent thing is that the targets ( I just threw in some Mistas) are lit up like LEDS; as if from the inside, glowing brightly in the dark. It seems very odd; is this the 'realism' you guys are getting? Or is there possibly something wrong at my end? I have put in a new BFG 7800 GT OC video card. I have AA and AS on (by necessity). Is there perhaps something I haven't adjusted correctly? EDIT; Well I went back to the mission to take some screenshots of the problem, and of course everything worked perfectly. Lockon must not have initialized properly the first time. So- sorry to have troubled you guys, and thanks for all the info.

Thanks for the quick comeback guys. The links were just what I needed, and yes, I did have advanced Haze turned off. I'll switch it back in. Cheers...