-Skipper-

Pah, I'm too slow. :mad: :D Isn't an ejection from a BS also visible in the movie "Mein Herz"?

Yeah, I think that was the one. Hi-Res-Version here: http://www.virtual-jabog32.de/index.php?section=downloads&subcat=28&file=553 (Thanks to JaBoG32!)

:megalol:

IIRC there already was a video showing a pilot ejecting from the KA-50.

That's true. I don't think I will use it much when being shot down, but if it will be possible to inspect your helo before starting or after your mission, this would be a very cool feature, especially for servers or difficulty-settings with external views disabled. It's this "OMG how did I manage to get this wreck back home feeling." that I find very immersive on all sims I play. :D

That's a simple and cool idea, nemises. I guess it would be very easy to implement this feature with this idea.

Is it possible that you mix up THX and EAX? You don't need a 5.1 or even 2.1 system to benefit from EAX-features. EAX just adds effects like echo, distortion, environmental and other effects to make sounds, especially in games more realistic. And besides that, it's actually one of the strongest point of the X-FI series, that it can simulate "surround"-sound on a 2.0 Headset. You do have somewhat EAX-effects with the latest drivers and VistaSP1 - it's just rather a workaround and you don't have full support of all features. That's all. It surely doesn't mean you can't run an X-FI with Vista, as you posted before. I guess OpenAL will win the race after all, if Windows7 won't support DirectSound and DirectSound3D either and Creative keeps blocking the working drivers.... Anyway, I think you shouldn't take this all that personal. If you have some point, I'll gladly discuss it with you, even change my mind, if you show me I'm wrong. It should just be a little more substantial than posting what you read.

Not at all a fanboy. It's exactly what I said. You don't have driver issues with Macs and you don't need to care about anything related to hardware- and software-issues. But that's not because MacOS is safer or better, but because the OS is optimized for the little range of hardware used. And no need to defend the programs either. There are a lot of professional programs available for the Mac, no doubt about that. Honestly, if I had to make up my own office with a lot of different people with unknown hardware and software knowledge, I'd use Macs for them, too. But especially in the music business, I know first hand from a close friend, who even made music for soundtracks and games. And he said that it took him several month to get the right software-bundle together. But it costs about 35% the price of the Mac-Package. I don't know what hard and software he uses, but he has all sort of equipment and equalizers plugged into his PC. :music_walkman:

Yes, interesting. Most games with large textures and files run faster on my Vista64 bit or at least less choppier. crazysundog, you can have installed both parallel, XP and Vista. It's recommended to put them on 2 partitions, not neccessarily 2 HDDs and you have to install XP previous to your Vista-Installation, IIRC. There was a project to make DX10 run on XP, but it's not really working very good right now. But DX10 is not really a big argument for Vista, as the differences are pretty minor in most areas.

Thanks, that's interesting as most developer sources I read so far state the opposite. On the other hand, for a 'low'-memory-system (<2Gig), I have no doubt about that, as Vista really needs some space and reserves even more. :smilewink:

Are you refering to Vista 32 or 64 bit?

It's more than that. Consider Microsoft would allow users only to install Windows on PCs, that they sell in Microsoft-Shops, with a very limited range of hardware available and selling this in a fency case for at least double the normal hardware-price. If they'd then claim their windows runs great on the little hardware-range they sell, people would laugh at their faces and it would be flooded with class-action lawsuits and stuff. Just consider how official lawsuits were opened, because M$ offered their own media-player included into windows, so you CAN have everything out of one hand. When it was recently made possible to install MacOS on any PC by a little dongle for a few bucks, Macintosh started a lawsuit against the developer and even was confirmed, that it is not legal to use that trick. For some odd reason people accept all that with Apple gratefully and praise the monopoly as a fortune to be able to get everything out of one hand - and they're even proud of that touch of rebellion against the M$-monopoly.... :huh: Well, everybody has to make his own decision and as it was said, I think we're all grown up and we agree that we can disagree. But for me Apple is the way to go if you don't know enough about hardware to get a PC and too much to be satisfied with a console. :P

Heh, spitting on M$ but praising Macs. It would deserve an extra thread to name all the irony contained in this. Well, anyway: Some features of Creatives EAX don't work with Vista. That doesn't mean you can't use them or benefit of the other features. Infact in the meanwhile, the drivers are as good as for XP and you won't notice the few effects, because these are only audible in a few Direct-X applications. So, between a "400 - 700 dollars ... sound card with EAX capibility" you "...can't use..." and the actual situation it's a looooong way.

Well, Crysis is not the best example for an optimized game. I hope that the upcoming sequel will be better optimized to utilize DX10 features, but it didn't surprise me, as on Crysis release, there were only a few systems running with Vista and the patches for Crysis have been as seldom as raindrops in the Sahara and they accomplished a similar improvement. What problems did you have with Falcon, Acedy? I run both, Falcon4 and AF with Vista64, but didn't experience any major problem so far. The only thing I noticed were the transluscent objects with HighEnd gfx-cards, but that problem was fixed with the latest patch. :thumbup:

That is a lot of propaganda, but little to no facts and a lot of second hand experience. 1. It takes just one option and Vista looks the same as XP. You don't need the fency look, but you CAN have it. 2. That eyecandy has an effect on office-programs, but not on games, as the desktop is disabled while playing. 3. Driversupport for Vista is AT LEAST as good as for XP for standard hardware. If you got older devices, that are no longer supported, that is a problem, of course, but that's not M$ fault, but that of the company you bought that device from! 4. My X-FI-drivers work quite fine. Not all features are supported with vista, but that is also not entirely M$ fault, because it took Creative a long time to release working drivers and they've still not released a hardware that can fully benefit from the new features. Additionally, Creative started a lawsuit on a programmer, who released drivers that fully support the X-FI under Vista and closed down his site and prohibited sharing of those drivers. You don't want to blame M$ for that, either? After all it might interest you, that XP had a prognosted life-cycle of 4-5 years. When XP was released, there were especially the gamers who kept claiming that Win98 was the best software for running games, with ongoing support, excellent driver basis and support for their hardware, while XP had only a lot of eyecandy, even a new format (NTFS), which was a reincarnation from hell, according to many players and only suitable for running servers and professional applications. So, I'm not really surprised that so many people fall for that end of the world scenario again. Let's face it: Negative news is always a lot more profitable than positive and the media never said what is true, but what people wanted to hear. And who would by a magazine or visit a professional hardware-forum / Homepage, that would support a person like Bill Gates? You can of course believe what you want and stay with XP as long as you want / can. But you and I know that the nay-sayers won't change with Windows7. In fact, the opposite will happen. People start posting negative news about that windows-version, too, and then the witch-hunt just starts all over again. It's frightening, how many people just repeat other peoples opinion, without making up their own by first hand experience. :no_sad: @ Hitman: I run pretty old games on my Vista (a DX5 strategy game!) - no problem with that. The problem comes with newer hardware, though, as my graphics card (ATI/AMD 4870) no longer supports these features. But as LockOners, we all know that problem from the no longer working active shadowing in LockOn, which is due to the same problem.

Well, "effective" probably means, that if you fire enough rounds, you got a chance to kill at least a single soldier. :D

That is one point and the other one is probably, that the airframe must be shaped differently for tandem-configuration, removing the useless tail by additional storage-room. I can also imagine, that the balancing of a tandem-configuration is much better. Compared to an airplane, it's like having 2 wings not staggered like a biplane, but on the front and aft of the airframe. So I guess it not only improves overall lift, but also the possibilities of how and what is transported.

I always thought that the Tunguska was completely uber. Carrying missiles and those scary guns is really overkill. :D @Viper: Thanks for the video! I don't think that is a groundunit being engaged by that missile, though. It seems to be a stationary drone that probably acts as a test for low-flying helos. Another hint is the firing of the missiles. You can see that they are lifted to an angle of around 45° for firing. The guns on the other hand can be lowered a bit, so I guess the maximum range of 6000m relates to the guns engaging ground-targets. That's also comparable to the German Gepard FlaK-Tank, which has an effective range of somewhat above 5000m against ground-targets.

+1 I recently upgraded my rig, too, and installed my XPSP2 for a few testruns. It crashed 2 times during installation and without any fency gadgets installed, it crashed 3 times during driver installation. I installed Vista64SP1 and didn't have a single crash on the same rig for several weeks now. It's not only very stable, but also has some very nice features, that improved my workflow a lot. If you spend a few minutes to lean about the new features, you can safe a lot of time with Vista, compared to previous versions. I've had PCs since the early DOS-days and there have always been a large number of people who didn't want to upgrade to a new thing, because it was like inviting the plain evil. I know a lot of people, who still work on Windows 3.11, because they are convinced every release thereafter was a reincarnation from hell and Bill Gates is a sort of digital Satan. All nonsense. Every piece of software has it's pro's and con's. It's just that the more complex our world get's, the more people are starting to hate new things. Best example is Vistas activation-process. Pretty similar to XP, but it's still a common complain, that Vista is the next step in spying out your PC, because you have to call MS or activate it on the net. The same thing, but suddenly XP is the good thing and Vista is pure evil.

Good question. I always thought they were more efficient, because they don't have 2 seperate rotors, one for lift, the other one primarily to counteract the torque. In a coax-system, both rotors produce lift and more than that, the negative effect from overspeeding is slightly reduced and in theory maneuverability at speeds should be better with a coax-system. But that's rather my personal conclusions. :music_whistling:

I guess it depends on a lot of things. heavier Payload => more blades => more drag => stronger engines => heavier weight => more fuel consumption... Besides that at least AFAIK the 2-bladed rotors have a problem at higher speeds. They have to turn faster anyway, so the difference when flying at higher speeds increases on the blade moving forward and backwards. That's the big problem with maximum speed on helos anyway. So it would mean with a 3-blade-system you have better aerodynamics at speed and you can maneuver better. For lifters like the Kaman Huskie, for example, the main goal is not maneuverability or speed, but stability in flight combined with a minimum of weight and a maximum of payload. These systems are also easier to maintain than the coax-rotor of the Ka-50, I guess.

I'd like to point out 2 things: 1st: If you really fear an upgrade, don't do it. Wait until the game was released, test it on your PC and then start thinking about what to upgrade and how much to invest. An SLI-Setting, for example, helps you a lot less with LockOn, than a fast CPU, Mainboard and RAM. 2nd: A new PC capable of playing a modern game does not need to cost 5.000$. Best example: Crysis. The developers have proven, that the game runs on a 600EUR PC with all maxed out settings. It just depends on what you buy and how well you can set up your system. Example: You can buy a Motherboard from Asus for 400EUR, with remote control, integrated Creative X-FI-card, passive cooling, fluorescent cables and a lot of blinking lights. But you get the same chipset, even the same hardware + bulk X-FI, for less than 100 EUR, just without the fency gadgets, you're never going to use anyway. Same is for CPU and many other parts. I have recently upgraded from my old rig and got a decent MoBo, C2D 6600, 4Gig 1066 and ATI/AMD 4780 for less than 400 Euros. That cheap MoBo is capable of running my C2D at 4GHz (aircooled at 57°C max). Just don't fall for rumours or hardware advertising!

My Ministick are axis 4 and 5. :smilewink: But I didn't mark the "Apply enable Windows axes states" Thanks for the heads up :thumbup:

To be honest, I don't understand that. :( 1. The limit of 8 axis means 8 axis per device, IIRC. 2. My Cougar has only 7 Axis, 3 are disabled (Rudder and both toebrakes) in the control-panel. So if I have no rudder connected, it has only 7 axis connected overall, but no matter what I set the ministick to, if I don't map it as a mouse, it doesn't work in any game I have. That also corresponds to the axis-overview, where the ministick is not available as an axis either. :huh:

That is a Cougar-Problem, not that of LockOn. The Cougar's Ministick AFAIK is designed to simulate a mouse. To activate it, you can go into the Foxy-Composer and click the statement to use it as a mouse. If you then start LockOn, under options and input you can choose "mouse" as device and assign x- and y-mouse-axis to whatever you want and use the ministick as a "minijoystick". At least AFAIK that is the only way to activate the stick in general, because it is not recognized as axis-input-device in any game I tested. It's the same with the X52, btw but if there is a trick, maybe somebody can enlighten me/us? :huh: There were some rumors in the past weeks, that Thrustmaster is woken up from hibernation and is going to release a revised version of the Cougar and reworked drivers for 64bit-systems. Maybe they will also release a new firmware, which will make this stick more useful. The Ministick on the CH Throttle IMHO is the best example how to implement a ministick, though it's not really ergonomic and hard to use the button without moving the stick - nobody is perfect. :D