To: falcon3 (Falcon3 Mailing list) Reply-To: falcon3 (Falcon3 Mailing list) Errors-To: postmaster@onion.rain.com Precedence: bulk Bcc: falcon3-outgoing Subject: Falcon3 Digest V4 : I8 Falcon3 Digest Volume 4 : Issue 8 Thu Aug 5 20:07:54 PDT 1993 Compilation copyright (C) 1993 Jeff Beadles Send submissions to "falcon3@onion.rain.com" Send add/drop requests to "majordomo@onion.rain.com" Archives are available via ftp from onion.rain.com [147.28.0.161] and mirrored on cactus.org in /pub/falcon3 Today's Topics: Re: Performance testing (was Joysti knutson@mcc.com (Jim Knutson) Re: Patches knutson@mcc.com (Jim Knutson) Re: Falcon3 on a Packard-Bell knutson@mcc.com (Jim Knutson) Re: Falcalc, Falcnr, and cheating.. knutson@mcc.com (Jim Knutson) Jpoystick and control REVISITED MORGAN@WVUGEO.WVNET.EDU Gas Mileage in your F-16 "Pete Williams" BTW, before I patch up to 3.02, I'm'a'gonna do some test flying, just > to see if the plane does handle differently. Since the plane handles > differently at different speeds and altitudes, you have to be real > scientifical about it, like them young fellows out on the coast. Chuck > spent some time as a test pilot and said it was a lot of work. Like, > have you ever tried to see just how fast the f-16 can go? Think it's > just a matter of pointing it to the ground and turning the wick all > the way up? NOT! Gotta get me a stopwatch. Well, you're a little behind the game here. We've been collecting and setting performance records for some time now. You can find a copy of the records that have been set by looking in the archives under the records directory. It may not be exactly what you want though as these are records of the best performance, not how performance changes with altitude/speed/etc. Jim Knutson | | knutson@mcc.com --=oOo=-- cs.utexas.edu!milano!knutson + Wk: (512) 338-3362 Check Six! ------------------------------- From: knutson@mcc.com (Jim Knutson) Subject: Re: Patches > I am currently running version 3.0D of Falcon (the one I got > when I bought the game). My question is, to upgrade to 3.02, would I > first have to upgrade to 3.01 or would it patch version 3.0D? The 3.02 patch will patch any version of Falcon 3. However, if you have OFT, you must apply the OFT upgrade before applying the 3.02 patch. > Also, what does this OFT stand for?? Operation Fighting Tiger > Since I may not be able to get hold of it via > FTP, is there a way of getting it via email (how large is it)? Anyway, > thanks in advance. Don't know if you mean OFT or 3.02. OFT is NOT available for ftp. the 3.02 patches can be obtained from the archives via email by using one of the ftp mail servers. Unfortunately, I don't remember the names of them. Perhaps someone else can chime in on this. Jim Knutson | | knutson@mcc.com --=oOo=-- cs.utexas.edu!milano!knutson + Wk: (512) 338-3362 Check Six! ------------------------------- From: knutson@mcc.com (Jim Knutson) Subject: Re: Falcon3 on a Packard-Bell > I recall hearing that there are certain well documented problems with F3 on > a PB machine. Am I just experiencing the same troubles that every other PB > owner (victim) does, or is it just my abysmally slow (for F3) processor? The first thing you should do is get the 3.02 patches. Falcon 3.01 (OFT) had some specific fixes for Packard Bell computers. The second thing you should do is use the falcon3 wais library to search for "packard bell" and see what you come up with. I just took a quick look and found some stuff on video ram conflicts. You might also want to try to search on "soundblaster". Jim Knutson | | knutson@mcc.com --=oOo=-- cs.utexas.edu!milano!knutson + Wk: (512) 338-3362 Check Six! ------------------------------- From: knutson@mcc.com (Jim Knutson) Subject: Re: Falcalc, Falcnr, and cheating... > A good fix for Falcon 4 would be to allow for the quality of the > intelligence to vary. Nobody ever has *perfect* intelligence. ;^) Actually, falccalc doesn't have perfect intelligence either. At least not for flight plans. There are a set of known flights for missions which have certain probabilities associated with them. However, there are also randomly generated flights that faclcalc cannot determine from the data files. These random flights keep things interesting. Now for a plug. I have an article coming out in the next Game Bytes that describes the first day of a campaign I had in Falcon. I used falccalc during the mission planning and yet interesting and unknown things still happened. Check it out when the next issue comes out. Jim Knutson | | knutson@mcc.com --=oOo=-- cs.utexas.edu!milano!knutson + Wk: (512) 338-3362 Check Six! ------------------------------- From: MORGAN@WVUGEO.WVNET.EDU Subject: Jpoystick and control REVISITED Hi all, I beleive it was John Price that asked about the two computers I used to make the Joystick/Keyboard control comparison. The joysticks were a Tmaster FCS and a kraft cheapo. This was on a 486/25 w/ 8 mb ram hooked into a CH Auto III game card (more later). The other machine with the keyboard was a 486/50 w/ 8 mb ram. A person wrote (sorry, I forget your name :-( that he was having excellent control of the mig and loved it. I can say that with the keyboard I think the same thing! I really like the feel of the plane and it's control. Much better than the f16 IMO. Now if I could just get my joysticks to cooperate. I have a CH Auto III game card. This card allows (via software) for you to program its responsiveness and the like. Running the VALUE.exe program that came with it using the cards default settings I was getting 150 for both X and Y while centered. 100 is optimum. I chose to manually set the card to 12 (CHJOY3 12 ). This brought my values back down to 100. I flew Mig 29 again. Now I could move the stick (FCS) without getting super sensistive response from the plane. Flying was *much* easier though I could still throw it into tight axial rolls with maximum stick deflection. I still have a bad Y pot in the FCS so I am not finished fully investigating this. erata: It is being posted that the joystick port on sound cards is providing for some to be tha answer. Maybe others should try it.I would like to try it but have no interest in opening my computer to reset that stupid jumper! It will be a last resort though. Tmaster wrote and told me a new model of POTentiometer is being acquired and should be available in 3 to 4 weeks. I am getting the standard pots but was told to ask again in three weeks for the new ones to be sent The program to reconfigure FCS buttons is called the Pilots Edge. It does not work in F3.02 (so I hear, I have not tried it) A shareware version is (was) available on C$erve. The WCS Mark II was released. YOu can plug your FCS into it and program every button on the FCS and WCS. 99.00 from Tmaster (?) See y' all Scott in WV Morgan@wvugeo.wvnet.edu ------------------------------- From: "Pete Williams" Subject: Gas Mileage in your F-16 On Thu, 5 Aug 1993 11:20:02 -0500 (EDT, John Asa Price wrote: >FalcCalc says I don't have enough fuel (with 2 wing tanks) to take >this route. I expect that after I drop my bombs, I will be >light and thin enough to make it back, provided there are no >bandits to deal with. > >Any hints? > You can get better gas mileage than FALCCALC says in two ways: 1. Do you normally finish your mission with more fuel than you expected (you'll probably want to check this on your next few sorties)? If so, you can change the 'fuel economy factor' in FALCALC - I think the default is '5', and you can go from 0 to 10. Each number is a couple of percent. If you consistently do better with fuel than projected, this will give you a better forecast. ... but more importantly....... 2. Fly at altitude. In any mission involving a hop of over 100 miles each way, try to fly the bulk of the mission at 15,000 or better. You will get a huge increase (don't have my manual here, but I think it's at least double) over what you get at 5,000. You do make yourself more visible to radar, so plan your path accordingly. However, I have been able to make it to that nuke and back (I think it's a 450mi round trip) with a belly tank. Obviously the way you fly will also affect your mileage, and avoid dogfights like the plague. I took an escort flight about 80% of the way to the target, and then had them turn back. I let them worry about the enemy while I worried about the fuel. It's also worked for those long over-water flights in Panama - do it with internal fuel and take extra HARM's for that island you have to fly by...... Pete Williams ------------------------------- From: cooper@grebyn.com (Gary Cooper) Subject: MiG Flyin' > Question: How you fly this thing? Nothing tricky mind you, just straight and > level. What's the deal here? Is this a joystick bug or what? I can't even > get this things to fly straight and level for 5 seconds!!! It's all a question (like all flying is) of practice, practice, practice. My first time up in the MiG and JUST after taking off the pitch oscillation got just a tad nasty and I nosed in. She's a real cantankerous beast, and takes some time to get to know. The manual doesn't give too much help, so it's the kind of beast you have to learn on your own (TFM meantions the things you NEED to do, but don't much tell you HOW to do it - "ok, I'll adjust trim, but relative to WHAT?") there are *3* important thingies that have to be in perfect harmony if you'se wants to fly straight and level; Airspeed, Pitch and Trim. Even a single notch extra/less airspeed on the indicator can screw you nice trim job all to hell - but once you have pitch and trim set, this is the only beast you have to watch. I've NEVER been able to get a straight and level attitude with 0 degrees of pitch, I'm usually flyin' along with my nose pointed down a few degrees. Trim - now THIS enters somewhat into the realm of the metaphysical. Practice with this variable is EEEEsential! Once you've got some nice recovery altitude; get a constant airspeed (very important) and experiment with the trim tabs; but (and this is vital!) HIT IT ONLY ONCE - then wait and see what happens. When the pitch stops goin' up (remember that constant airspeed), hit it again - until your nose is around-about -3 or so degrees and your alt. stops droppin'. With a bit of practice, you'll be flyin' right along with those TU-22's you're escorting and won't even have to touch the stick - Hell, I was even able to get up and change CD's last night, was away from the keyboard for at least a minute or two; no problems. remember; practice practice practice! coop ------------------------------- From: Michael Walker Subject: Mig-29 S.O.S. I'd like to hear some feedback from anyone who's managed to figure out how to control the Mig-29. I've gotten to the point where I can not plummet into the ground immediately, but that's about it. And its only by being conservative and using CONSTANT trim controls. I'm only set to "difficult" not the "realistic" or HI-FI mode, as I only have a 386/40. Also I'm using a CH III flight stick. This combo is good enough to run F3 very well. Thanks, Mike ------------------------------- From: tenbrins%ccmail@TACOM-EMH1.Army.Mil Subject: OFT and version 3.02 I thought I had this straight, but now I'm confused again. If one has installed patch D and OFT, does the new patch E add anything? Can this even be added. I know my version now is 3.01.1 or something. But not 3.02? Whats the scoop? Also I DL'ed some vcr tapes from onion.rain.com and I couldn't play them. I got a message that said I needed a math co-processor. Is that because the tapes were made using HI-FI? Shucks! Steve in Michigan steven10B@aol.com ------------------------------- [[ End of digest Volume 4 : Issue 8 ]]