Andrew_McP

I really disliked the music, and that always casts a shadow over things. However my taste in music isn't your problem. :-) The movie could have been "tighter" with fewer long or repetetive scenes, but it did have one scene which I *really* liked... the one where there's lots of smoke blowing across the battlefield. Very nicely observed and captured. I also have a soft spot for people using basic tools. Movie Maker2 isn't the best editor in the world, but it's great value for money, and there are no fancy special effects to hide behind! :-) Good effort, well done. Next time though, try to look for a few more unusual camera angles. They can really help spice up a movie. Andrew McP

Git! You owe me 20 minutes of my life. Next time use a smiley or something... I can't hear irony from this side of the planet! :-) Andrew McP

Fun is not a dirty word. I have always said that sims should have realistic hardware modelling, realistic flight models, and then the *flexibility* to allow us to do whatever we want with those aircraft. Hardcore 100% realistic missions? Sure, if that's what lights your candle. But hardcore realism can be both challenging and dull as dishwater. Warfare is mostly boredom, repetetive training, planning, rather a lot of fear, and maybe a little excitement if you're lucky (or stupid). I've never wanted to fight in a real war, so I'm not after that "mostly boredom" in my virtual warfare either. I appreciate ED's work, and the work of many other studios over the years. But constistently, time after time, hardcore realism has been pursued, forgetting the gameplay. So we end up with sims like Flanker/LOMAC which have *so* much potential, and yet fail to capture the imagination that lures us towards these amazing aircraft in the first place. Missions become problem-solving exercises, rather than involving "must try that again one more time to see what happens next" experiences. Well, they do for me anyway. :-) Maybe I'm just shallow. I like a plot, I like a *reason* to learn how to use weapon X or aircraft Y. I like to feel my involvement is important, that this mission matters and to care whether I or my wingmen survive ready for the next mission... rather than wishing they'd hurry up and die so they stop doing annoying things. Gamers (and we are gamers whether we prefer the word "sim" or not) are always hard to please, and it's a thankless task being a developer. But this genre has failed to fulfill its potential and struggles for publisher and public support for good reason IMO. It's about time we realised that our hardcore demands are part of the problem, not the solution, and until gameplay becomes the focus rather than adding aircraft or higher res models, or whatever else is in vogue this week, nothing will change. Now, about that AFM for the Flanker... ;-) Andrew McP PS I want to emphasise the fact that I appreciate what ED do for us. But although I've had my imagination captivated by many games in many genres over the years, it's been a long, long time since a flight sim sucked me in and had me rushing home from work to squeeze in a bit of flying... to push the campaign along a little, or to experiment with tactics. Perhaps I'm just jaded, I'm prepared to accept that. But a *major* upgrade to LOMAC's mission editor and AI would go a long way towards giving us a tool to create interesting and involving combat scenarios, even without making the leap towards a dynamic campaign. I believe there is hope that will happen, eventually, which is why I stick around and get what pleasure I can from a sim which frustrates me as much as it entertains.

My god! Heaven forbid we should ever have *fun* in a sim! ;-) Andrew McP

I noticed the IL2 guys talking about this utility for smoothing out mouse panning. It's not the most user-friendly util I've ever used, but it does seem to work! This is the only place I found the latest version, other links usually lead to the 374 version. http://neteru.tombraiderforums.com/files/jtk379en.zip and this page... http://www.tombraiderforums.com/showthread.php?t=50243 ...will save me trying to explain roughly what you need to do. The mouse tab is the one you're interested in, obviously. You can set an axis on a spare controller (joystick or analogue gamepad) to be the mouse +/- x, and another to be the mouse +/- y, and tweak the sensitivity. You can even alt tab out of LOMAC, change the sensitivity, then alt tab back to see the change. This probably doesn't make a lot of sense, and it took me a while to experiment and understand this util (especially as I have 4 usb devices attached, which confused me for a while. :-) but it's worth persevering with. Ultimately a mouse is the most intuitive way of moving the mouse around, especially when trying to follow the action (and especially after so much time using it!) But the smoothness you can get with joy2key makes it worth trying to get used to. Andrew McP

I've just watched it again in case I'd changed my mind (it happens sometimes :-). But I haven't. There are many things I love about it, but the final credits scene, in particular, is a work of creative genius. The music, the mood, the moon, the subtle but impressive titling... amazing work! Andrew McP PS http://forums.ubi.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/65710358/m/8161048914 is the Ubi forum thread if anyone feels like contributing.

Those who prefer the MTV style of fast paced, high adrenalin movie may disagree. But the "Ambush" movie on the following page, by Maximum Bob, is a work of art. http://www.netwings.org/library/Forgotten%5FBattles%5Fand%5FPacific%5FFighters/Videos/index-9.html Andrew McP

LOL! :-) Andrew McP

FWIW I'm getting no popups since the popups which happen during the initial download process. I suspect you have to be careful to close those windows down without clicking anywhere inside them, as well as using the usual "software condoms" necessary for any browsing session these days. Andrew McP PS I use Google Toolbar's popup blocker. Perhaps that's what's protecting me? A quick check with Ad-aware shows nothing other than the usual rash of infective stuff you can pick up just about everywhere. I usually just run that once a week to make sure I'm not dragging around more than my fair share of internet garbage.

Once you've waded through the various download pages, download speed (for me anyway) was very fast. So maybe not so cr@ppy after all. :-) I enjoyed the movie. You've got some great scenes in there, and some very nice ideas/views. Well done. Andrew McP

Tracks sometimes play back differently on different computers (or even on the same computer if you're not careful). You also have to be particularly careful not to fast forward at any point in playback if there are any really tightly timed events or particularly tricky manoeuvres. Andrew McP

In the Options/Input section you can remap functions to any key or joystick button you like. Andrew McP

You have to log in using the same details (user name & password) you used when buying FC in the first place. Then you can head for the download section and grab the files again. You'll also see a reminder of your serial number on the download page. Andrew McP

If someone else is paying, the rules are different. :-) However if I was a parent I'd be impressed if my son was able to present a rational case for how the same money could be better spent. Of course I might also think... "Mmmm... maybe we'll just get him the cheap laptop, the last thing he needs when studying is to be wasting time playing games!" ;-) Andrew McP

I think you have to draw a distinction between a laptop for college work, and a laptop for "serious" gaming. An older, or simply cheaper laptop will do everything you need for your studies, I'm sure (unless it's a game-designing course ;-). I also dislike expensive laptops for another reason... you have all your eggs in one very fragile and very steal-able basket. Andrew McP

Unless you *really* need a laptop I suggest changing to a desktop solution. I bought an expensive laptop a while back (9600Pro generation graphics) and I regret it. Partly because the screen isn't as good as a desktop LCD, but mainly because the heat generated by gaming (and even when not gaming) makes it a very noisy machine. I could have bought a much cheaper laptop for when I really needed to be mobile, and a very nice desktop setup with the same money. I hope you enjoy whatever you buy, but I just thought I'd mention my experience. Laptops are lovely bits of kit (so much technology in such a small space), but they're not without their problems... especially the fact that you can't repair or upgrade them anywhere near as easily or cheaply as a desktop box. Andrew McP

Rich deserves a medal for many years of great service to the community. There aren't many others who can match his contributions over the last decade or so. Andrew McP PS You've only had LOMAC a week and you've already completed a campaign? Sheesh, I've had it years and still haven't managed that! :-)

As you say, it's the internal stuff which makes life doubly complicated. Finding a one-off solution for yourself was a nice little project. Trying to duplicate that in a more organised way sounds like *seriously* hard work. As the Cougar-mod makers would no doubt confirm... this way lies madness. :-) Andrew McP

LOL! :-) Yes, the "real pilots have to do it, so so do you" thing is pretty frustrating. In the real world lefties have a disadvantage (I'll bet there are a disproportionately high percentage of right handed pilots out there purely because flying -- especially military -- is tough enough already without adding another complexioty for the brain to deal with), and we do in the virtual world too. I've spent about ten years trying to get used to flying right handed with a variety of right handed setups. But even though I can do it now, I still fly better (more precisely, more instinctively) with my left on the rare occasions I allow myself to try it. In fact I've often thought about sawing the thumb-hat off my Fighterstick and flying left handed. However throttles need a lot more messing about to convert, and it would be easy to end up with a bodged and limited setup which was no better than the uncomfortable right handed setup. At the end of the day simming is a minority interest and lefties are a minority of a minority, so I think we'll always struggle. However if CH made a left handed setup I'd gladly pay twice as much as for the right handed kit. However I suspect that puts me in a minority of a minority of a minority, and that has commercial suicide written all over it. :-) Andrew McP

I remain convinced that online play is a virtually insignificant factor in LOMAC's success or failure. This isn't Quake and will never have mass online appeal (or offline for that matter). Yes, I know many people love online play, and I've done a bit in the past (though not since Flanker1.5 and Adamski's ladder), but the vast majority of purchasers probably never fly online. I still think it's important to have good network code, because it makes great icing on the cake, but it's how this sim performs offline which should lead development, otherwise the tail's wagging the dog. Andrew McP

After a few weeks of use I have yet to be really impressed by my x2 3800 (running at 2.4GHz). The only times I see it being used fully are when I'm editing/rendering movies, or when burning DVDs. That's ok, because it was movie work which persuaded me to try a dual core. But in general use I find no noticeable benefits from having a spare core sitting there waiting for something to do. If I was buying again today I'd almost certainly spend the same money on a faster single core CPU (or at least one with a higher multiplier that would overclock more easily). MHz is what matters. If I did more editing I might stick with dual core though, it really does seem to help there, with both cores regularly peaking at 100%. Andrew McP

> (waiting to get banned for expressing my opinion....) You won't get banned for that, but you might get a clip round the ear for not realising people say the same thing almost every week. ;-) They're still wrong though. More aircraft does not make a better sim. Never has, never will. Andrew McP

You have to remember many people here speak English as a second language, so your language quirks (and you have many! :-) can be confusing, as they're not taught in any classroom. If you say "Nvidias suck", that reads as "Nvidia cards in general suck". If, in that sentence, you'd said "Nvidia's sucks" then that would, indeed, have implied Nvidia's anti-aliasing sucks. Sorry if this sounds like I'm having a go at you, it's just that in international forums you have to be careful. We take our language for granted and tend to abuse it. Many folk had to work hard to get to the same standard, and we owe it to them to at least try and type properly. Otherwise it's easy to generate misunderstandings and even friction. I know how hard I find it to read Check-Six's forums. I can read classroom French fairly well. But French as it's typed on forums is like listening to people chatting in a bar... a totally different ballgame! Andrew McP

No, it's just that this is the kind of question that pops up regularly and there's plenty of discussion on it already if you search around. :-) To test whether the weakness is in your vid card or CPU/RAM/motherboard, change to 800x600 and see if performance increases when you see bad FPS (eg your smoke situation). If it does then chances are your vid card is struggling more than your CPU. If it's still bad, then it's more likely to be a CPU/motherboard issue. 1Gb is plenty of RAM for LOMAC. I see no evidence of pagefiling or RAM shortages during LOMAC sessions. However RAM is cheap, so it's easy to buy more and remove that from the equation. I saw a fairly big jump moving from 32-bit AMD architecture to 64-bit. LOMAC still chokes on busy scenes, but then that's the nature of this sim. However smoke is no longer much of a problem.... though IIRC I did see a fairly significant improvement in smoke-related FPS drop when I shifted from a 9700Pro to an X800Pro. Whether that's because the newer card has twice the onboard RAM or simply because it's a lot faster, I've no idea. I still get nasty FPS dips when LOMAC decides to go hunting for new data on the HD though. Being able to cache that in an extra 1Gb of RAM would be nice, but it's not an option. Good luck solving your problem. Andrew McP PS. http://img67.imageshack.us/my.php?image=mcpbench22ko.jpg

I can't understand why people still get bothered about these things. Most weapons in LOMAC are fictional and always will be. Nobody really knows how the hardware would perform in reality, so dissimilar combat is meaningless and tells you nothing about your skill levels. If folk want a real test of their skills they fly against each other using the same aircraft and the same weapons. Then the only variable is the pilot, no more "Wah! It's the missile's fault!" or "Wah! The turning circle's wrong!" No more hiding behind the hardware, just raw, uncomfortable truth about your talent as a virtual pilot. IMO obviously. ;-) Andrew McP