VMFA-Blaze

Just a little update here regarding the SLI setup... Besides really increasing the visual experience with Lock On, the DVD player has reaped some benefit as well.. Since this system is also used as my Home Theatre PC, I've found a web sight that offers movie downloads ... So I've begun to watch a lot and have actually found that these 8800 in SLI have increased the quality of the DVD's playback... I've Also purchased PureVideo from Invida and have found the options for enabling HD playback as well as Blue Ray... The thing is I'm not really sure if PureVideo has really increased the visual or was it SLI or maybe it was both?? Anyway its working and I think that's really what matters... :thumbup: Blaze

The thing about Windows Live Care One that was really causing me some concern was the constant reminder to back up my system... And I was getting this orange balloon with backup warnings... At first I tried to back up the system with CD's but I found that I would need a large amount of CD's to complete this task.. I then had a great idea "for a change " to use an external HD as I had 2 Maxtor 80 GIG HD's sitting around from an old build.. So I went to the MWave site (which by the way is one of my favorite suppliers) and purchase a 3.5 SATA compliant external HD enclosure for $25.00 USD... The thing that's so "cool" about this is you can use a SATA or USB connection to your PC.. So rather then fool around with the SATA RAID 0, I decided to connect up via USB... But since the drive was used before (and had data on it), I couldn't get get the system to see it ... So then I started to google this issues, and after a lot of reading, I finally realized that I would have to treat this drive the same way that I would in installing the complete operating system.. Mainly and simply put, I would have to reformat the disk.. So I finally found the right window to carry out the reformat, after several hours of trial and error and a lot of help from the Microsoft web sight ... I then successfully did the reformat and was able to assign a letter to the drive... After this accomplishment I then went back to Live One Care and selected the drive to use as the backup, and then did the back up... So now One Care is showing a green balloon and my system is running very stable and the Sata Raid setup has stopped thrashing about.... ~S~ Blaze

Yes but its free for three months, and that should just about bring me up to a renewal date.. So if everything goes well with Windows Live, I'm most likely going to replace Stop Sign... They both cost about the same... ~S~ Blaze

I've been using Windows Live Care and Windows Defender since I installed Vista and I'm finding it to be very impressive... And the reality of these products is that Microsoft doesn't need to create any Virus's to promote them ... I'm in complete agreement that anti virus company's do create a lot of these threats to sell their product.. I mean this scheme is so transparent even a "Cave Man Can See It"....:lol: But as far as Vista 64 (which I have on one of my systems) there's no Virus protection from MS that is compatible with 64 as of yet.. I have Stop Sign installed there but it's not recognised by MS.. I had called stop sign regarding this and was told that it's actually working, its just that MS hasn't signed off on the drivers yet...:music_whistling: But I've paid $45.00 this service and still have about 6 months left, so I'm leaving it in for now... I read somewhere that between Vista business and the 64 bit architecture that the virus risks for this system are partially non existent but its still a good idea to run something anyway, just to be on the safe side... So when Stop Sign expires I'm planning on just using Windows Defender for my 64 BIT system... ~S~ Blaze

Ok... I solved the problem. Just as I suspected, I installed everything with the administrator disabled and this time eveything installed flawlessly... And I've got the zoom feature back for TIR4... So you learn from your mistakes ... :thumbup: Thanks guys for trying to help... ~S~ Blaze

I actually had been thinking about trying out crossfire and had a Commando motherboard.. but I wasn't really sold completely on the idea ... I was waiting for some news concerning ATI's DX10 card.. And I've heard some rather uninspired comments concerning ATI so I've had a change of plans... I sold my Commando on e-bay and got an 680i MB for the sole purpose of running SLI and then added a second 8800 GTS.. And actually I'm glad that I did.. As I've stated above Lock On looks fantastic in SLI... There was a post last month that had several graphs showing performance of various GPU configurations and the 8800 gts in SLI came out at the top of the most of the lists.. I'm not a fanboi of anything so if I see something that's going to give me better performance I'm going to buy it, and so far ATI hasn't come up to the same standards the Nvidia has.. I've built this system to take me to the next level of flight simulation.. So my gut feeling is that Black Shark and ED's new engine will be awesome with SLI... I've been reading alot about ATI having some issues with Microsoft. And since the 8800 was released first most of the developers were useing the 8 seris to develop their latest games.. Its sort of the way things stacked up back in the day when ATI ruled and Nvidia was trying to compete with their 5 series... As far as my CPU is concerned I was always been an AMD man, But I'm now running a intel e6600 dual core, but I'm toying with the idea of running with a quad... Its easy to just take out the CPU and put in a new one... Blaze

Yes I've tried everything including right clicking the TIR icon and and running the application in XP SP1 compatibility mode but still no joy.. I think I'm going to have to install everything all over again.. I almost sure that one of the patches is missing... First because of the missing z axis, this was added at a latter date and wasn't included in the original release, and secondly when I press F4 I'm looking at the back of the aircraft rather then looking down at the tail section from the cockpit.. This padlock view was the way Lock On shipped originaly.. It was changed on the second or was it the third patch... I'm almost 100% sure the reason behind this missing patch is because I didn't disable the administrator account from the very beginning of thr present instal and one of the patches didn't install.... I'm going to uninstall everything, disable the administrator account.. and start over with a fresh installation ... Vista is no joke.... :lol: ~S~ Blaze

I'm actually going to retract my comment about seeing hardly any improvement since this installation .. On the contrary there seems to be an increase of about 6 to 8 FPS.. the detail and is much sharper and the shadders and lighting effects have also improved... Colors are a lot more brilliant, hues are much deeper... All in all Flaming Cliffs is a much better experience... It's running much more efficiently as it seems the CPU has very little need to address any graphical tasks ... ~S~ Blaze

I went on the Natural Point forum regarding the problem that I'm having, and its just as I thought, they don't seem to have an answer for Z axis problem that I'm having ... I don't think that they're really to concerned about dealing with this anyway.. I guess they're just like everyone else regarding Flaming Cliff issues.. "Why bother, lets wait for Black Shark to be released".... Anyway I can deal with it for now, I just figured out how to enable Teka Teka's camera adjustment mod.. You just turn user account control off to adjust the settings in config/view/server.lua, and save the changes before exiting.. then you turn the control back on... This gives you a very realistic effect when using it in conjunction with TIR4... ~S~ Blaze

I certainly agree... I think that this really can't hurt the genera... If anything it should help support our hobby.. After the initial impact of aerial combat people that will be looking for more realism .. Its sort of like preschool.... :lol: Blaze

I've got two cards running in SLI... I was a little nervous at first, but found that it wasn't really that hard to do after all... I mean the hardest part was physically installing the two cards into the case.... These bad boys are big and take up 4 slots.... And connecting the SLI power cables and having to bundle all of the wires properly, making sure that I didn't dislodge the SATA connections from the HD's or fans was frustrating... As far as setting up SLI that was a piece of cake... I've got a Asus P5N32-E with the Nvidia 680i chipset.. So I went into the BIOS first and enabled SLI, then I set up a mild OC of 1%.... These seems to have taken very well after one or two hard boots... But its just as I suspected, there wasn't much of a PFS increase here in FC.. But FSX is really rocking now along with a few other simulators.. This was very cool to try for the first time, and its awesome to just look at those big cards nestled in the bright red Asus gaming case... :thumbup: Blaze

Awesome thanks HPO... Rep inbound.. ~S~ Blaze

Yeah Ven that's right... The Z axis works fine in FSX.. And what really sucks is that I was able to zoom in and out before I installed Vista... Of course I have the latest drivers installed, I'm going to try and reinstall the drivers again .. I'm almost tempted to go into the TIR forum... And I might just do that and fore go all of the land mines there, just to get this issue resolved... :lol: Blaze

I'm having problems getting the Z axis to operate .. So there's no zoom function yet.... I looked at the profile and noticed that the Z axis was greyed out, which of course means that the Z axis is not accessible ... There has to be away around this.. I'll keep you posted, I'm going to get this axis to work..... ~S~ Blaze

I've been using these for over a year without any problems http://www.thetechlounge.com/article/162/Altec+Lansing+AHP712+Headphones+w+Active+Noise+Reduction/And there also setup for surround sound and sound great with my X-fi sound sound card.. And if I'm not using voice I plug them right into my Sony 7.1 receiver and they pick up every sound on the track.. ~S~ Blaze

I don't really want to reveal my sources, nor do I think that I need to or should... But anyway the next level of simulation, and that's not just Ed's product will be a dual core fired engine. So that is the wave of the future... Whether you accept it or not, it doesn't matter... But you really have to think positive here young man... Ed will not leave us hanging forever and I'm sure that we'll see Black Shark in the near future... Thats all I have to say on this... So take off your helmet for a minute kick back and relax :lol:

No man... I'm betting that their really very close to getting a candidate for release... I think it was one of the last posts from Wags that sort of hinted that things were in the final stretch and that the forum was about to explode... Whatever the case maybe I certainly don't think that we'll have to wait another year to get our hands on this.. And once Black Shark is out I'm also betting that the new dual core engine will be close to finalization and well begin to see new products just begin to roll out more frequently.. ~S~ Blaze

Yes it will work.. I started out with a 440 and upped it to a 5200, so that I could use DirectX 9... Then I had a 5900 and went to 6600 for one or two months .. Then I got a 6800 ultra, which I kept for a while and still have installed in my other system.... I tried a 7900 when I built my new system 2 months ago, and but RMA'd it... which has brought me up to today with an 8800 gts..:megalol: And by Thursday I should be running the 8800 in SLI.. But the card really isn't the answer here in Lock On.. Its your CPU, that's what really takes the hit on your FPS'... :weight_lift_2: ~S~ Blaze

Don't feel alone... the same thing happened to me last year... I got in touch with the Sight Administrator and had them returned ... I don't think that it means that you did something wrong.. It was most likely a mistake ... ~S~ Blaze

Hi Kuky.. Sorry that I didn't get back to you sooner, but I had a real task getting things to work correctly with Vista.. My original Lock On disc just wore out.. So I had a real problem getting a replacement. I was up and down the Internet until I finally got a copy from Amazon... This is actually a copy by some guy who sells hard to get software.. But anyway who cares for $4.00 USD, this is a nice fresh copy and it works flawlessly.. And since I was at it, I bought the CD version of FC as well... I had to wait a week before Lock On came in the mail, and it was a little complicated to get it installed but it was worth the the wait... I checked out the FPS and they've doubled... I just ordered another BFG 8800 gts OC640.. which should be here soon and then I'm going to install SLI... I really doubt if this will add much to FC, but it should give FSX a nice boost... So if your thinking about installing Vista, its not that easy to get everything up to speed but it does give a fps increase, and makes gaming a lot smoother ~S~ Blaze

Try to join the english forum, there's plenty of help there as well..

It's looking better and better... It's a lot more refined.. ~S~ Blaze

I think that the boxes that you're referring to are the result of a video card driver issue.... I have white boxes showing up but its just momentarilly and its with explosions mainly.. I'm almost certain that this is caused by the old code as hitman suggested... But you're issue I'm almost sure comes from your card overheating .... You might try uninstalling the drivers and reinstalling with the latest drivers from the manufacture.. ~S~ Blaze

I seem to have a problem just about everytime I reformat.. I've stuck with the floppy drive method.. I usually get it to install after a lot of effort... I think that after all of that you should have gone ahead with Vista, at least you would be one jump ahead of things... Well I did figured out how to install the latest nvidia drivers and since I'm using the 680i chip set I installed the latest nforce as well... Vista in some respects is very different then XP.... So there are things here that I'm having to learn all over again... Anyway getting back to the Forceware drivers, I was poking around in the different screens and actually discovered that the latest drivers are DX10 and since I have a 8800 the card has DX10 installed... I'm still not sure if FSX is DX10 at the present time but there really is a big jump in performance, since I installed Vista ... I mean the detail of buildings, and the shaders, Lighting effects, ground and sky textures have increased dramatically.. And there are thousands of realtime buildings... And the roads and traffic are just like real life... As far as the Cougar and Foxy, this is perfect now... When I first Got FSX back in Oct... I thought that it wasn't that much better then FS004.. But now this really is on the same level as Lock On, and in some cases it even surpasses LO.... ~S~ Blaze

I still see these some times myself guy... Its not actually the video card that's causeing it... This simulator is CPU intensive, I think that a lot of us still have this issue after all of these years. And even with the latest patches installed... ~S~ Blaze