CFS2 Perma-stickied help / problem / tweaking thread - Page 11
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Thread: CFS2 Perma-stickied help / problem / tweaking thread

  1. #251
    No, I’m not that advanced. This really is just the stock CFS2 plus the Justflight Harrier addon.

  2. #252
    Forgot - it’s a crash to desktop. I have to restart the sim.

  3. #253
    Redding Army Airfield Allen's Avatar
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    Try editing the panel.cfg of one of aircraft that is cause a crash and remove all render_3d_window=1 found in the panel.cfg for that aircraft and re-test.
    "Let Being Helpful Be More Important Than Being Right!" Some SOH Founder.

  4. #254
    off the wall shelf here , not W-10 -- but a gifted W-7 box -- CTD caused by All Fs style GA_Switches = 1 to 6
    pulled em all out of panel entrée,s and isolated the gauges from directory ,,

  5. #255
    Redding Army Airfield Allen's Avatar
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    Yeah some FS98 era gauges are a problem with Win7 and above.
    "Let Being Helpful Be More Important Than Being Right!" Some SOH Founder.

  6. #256
    Many thanks - the render 3D window thing worked.

    Now to find out how to import 3D terrain for the Falklands, as it's a bit flat.

  7. #257
    Not sure if this is the best thread for this question.

    I know that there is an AIRCRAFTt, and SHIPS numbers limit for CFS2, but does anyone know if there are limits on numbers of things in other folders, such as OBJECTS_DP, etc?

  8. #258
    Senior Administrator Rami's Avatar
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    Icon22 Reply...

    Good morning,

    Bump...de...bump...bump...

    A lot of new stuff in this thread...check the older information for a lot of new or essential items.
    "Rami"

    "Me? I'm just a Sea of Tranquility in an Ocean of Storms, babe."

    My campaign site: http://www.box.net/shared/0k1e1rz29h
    My missions site: http://www.box.net/shared/ueh4kazk3v
    My scenery site: http://www.box.net/shared/knb1l0ztobhs2esb14rb

  9. #259

    The Tinker Toy

    My nephew run,s an electronic,s shop , bring,s over a dated box , with wind 7 in it ,
    no external vidio card --Hp machine -- since I was the thinkin some day I might have
    to up grade to the next generation platform , It would give me something to tinker with ,

    HP twin Processer 2.8,s -- nuthin but problem,s , you,d think even a single 2.8 would suffice
    to run cfs-2 with a bit of respect for it,s age , Hunmn dual purpose 64 bit too , but people are using
    it with out a lot of fuss about it , It would work for about 15 minutes , and then start ,
    messin wth the graphic,s Big houses for land texture , missing airplane textures , lock up,s ,
    Islands where there not , Kind of like it had a great big cork somewhere in the lower intestine,s,
    Actually I thought about beating the crap out it it , Perhaps a 12 gauge ,

    I swear it was worse than window,s 98 with a wee 0.450 Pentium II , and an A open vidio card ,
    that would run for day,s with out even a hick up , on 74,600 Kb Ram ,

    This one,s got 4 gig,s to play with , Yah I know no vidio card , The load time was Slow ,
    like 3 minutes , on 25 aircraft are you kidding me , half of those are Cfs-1 planes ,

    External load up , not in programs , remote directories , sound panel , and models , ship models , ,
    It should of been finger snap time , This one must have come from Gomer Pyle , Running back and forth
    to pick up what it forgot on the last three passes , Nuthing stable about the platform ,
    the hotter it got the faster the graphic,s changed air craft responces ,, not slow down ,
    but too fast now , The responces were quickening , almost like a cash problem , but shortly
    after , the main textures began to misread , and that starts lock- up,s , forget about Q-Combat ,
    Re-boot clear the ram and start over , The game cash was already maxed out ,
    Sander,s read 4 gig,s of ram installed -- Read look for answers --
    Try addional cash , not sure where to put that , But one tip was worth a shot , Cfs-2 only run,s on
    one processer , So I added it to the root Cfg ----

    [JOBSCHEDULER]
    affinitymask=1 The idea was to move it off the Wind 7 main processer --- Fail --
    same thing no difference -- Lock ups studder and crash ---
    That figures the Fs guy,s get away with it , Try the cash angle ,same place


    [JOBSCHEDULER]
    affinitymask=1
    Cache_Size= 1256512 ---- now that was noticable , smoother responces , and no over writes
    so far , gona play with that some more , and see what works better ,
    still the vidio corruption , but clears on reboot ,
    Four sticks of ram , may be one got loose , Try swapping them ,
    Mistake -- use a light next time idiot -- one bar was black with 3
    white one,s , It now wouldn,t boot up -- Ahh Sh%t , don,t panic , you
    did them in pairs , The Ram from the black bar has to have been flashed ,
    put it back and hope the boot try didn,t erase the flash ,
    You got lucky -- it booted -- but the fan speed went hyper fast ,, shut down ,,
    see if it,s in the bio,s -- Yep and adjustable too -- Well crank it to high , save and exit ,
    The ram swap didn,t prove a thing , same result,s -- and it tests ok any way --

    I was thinking 12 gauge once more , Out of the blue , change the affinity mask ,
    Try the base processer , Shells are a buck a piece , ahh what the hell ,
    can,t be worse than now anyway , affinitymask = 0,
    Whosa that did load up in a snap , High speed cammera footage too ,
    You tripped over something , Q-Combat 2 p-39,s verses a single 109e ,
    still testing the Pai , over water only , the lock up,s -- The Eai rolled and went down ,
    I was still fiddleling with controls set up and climbing , and I got hammered from below ,
    2 pages of record,s , I bailed -- end of test -- Wait a minute that sucker dropped below me ,
    Came around faster than ever , climbed and shot me to pieces ?
    Test 2 , Try again, this time I broke opposite direction , when he moved , came around in a wide circut ,
    I watched him circle , 1500 meter,s , still setting up my trim , Crash bang thud , a 3 page damage report ,
    my plane , on an angled frontal pass , the speed of a 262 Jet , he flashed by , I was late hauling
    on the stick , nosed over in flames , and no responce , I bailed , thinking I was probably too late
    even for that , The air sucked me out , in a violent shute opening , But I got to see the p-39 , with no wing,s ,
    burning as a lawn dart , on the way down , Toast , twice back to back ,
    something,s definatly changed here ,
    Humbeled I went back to free flight , My roll over was no longer 5.5 seconds but half now ,
    2.45 secs -- So the time factor altered considerably , and the incredible damage on the forward pass ,
    means the processer speed had switched dramatically ,,

    How come --- The hard drive has a second partion -- the 64 bit area ?-- looks empty --
    nothing show,s up but , It must be processing via 64 bit -- on mask = O ---
    think about that -- twice as fast -- Now that,s for Bear cat and his Jets ,,
    Man you gotta try that out --- I wish you good luck though !
    Mean while though I,m gona play with the cash flow , about 12 million , to see if I can back
    to WWII , and prop aircraft , ---

  10. #260

    Virtual Cockpit Non-smooth Panning

    A few years back Rich Nagel asked if their was a way to do this. Allen posted that one could change the entry in the CFS2.cfg file from POV_MOVE_EVENT_00=PAN_VIEW to POV_MOVE_EVENT_00=SNAP_VIEW and this would change it.
    I decided I wanted to try this.
    All my installs are built from a STOCK install that I keep on a removeable hard drive. My stock CFS2.cfg file does not contain any entry for POV_MOVE_EVENT.
    I needed to find out why. This is what I discovered.
    I started the sim install in question and selected SETINGS, CONTROLER ASSIGEMENTS, scrolled down to Snap to fixed views and assigned the hat switch and saved it. It Then worked.
    Upon opening the config. file I found that CFS2 had added a section for my joystick that included POV_MOVE_EVENT_00=SNAP_VIEW.
    If your config file does not contain an entry for POV_MOVE_EVENT this is how to create one.

    Regards,
    B24Guy

  11. #261

    Tinker Toy update

    2.80 gig processer dual x 2 but 64 bit system ---- window 7

    intell graphic -- on board

    4 gigs of ram --- should be ample

    direct x 10



    Ok Frustrated , I started hunting ,

    Top header Cfs-2 Cfg---root directory --add on

    [JOBSCHEDULER]
    affinitymask=3 ---------- Usage Dual core 2.8 , Yes major help , uses 2 cores I,m told ,
    cache_size=1024000M ---------- smoother seems to apply
    stack_overflow=256K,512K ------unknown
    tripple_buffer=1 ----- if it works, distance ,,
    clean_on_exit=1 ----- Ram I would guess
    pre_cache_gauges=C:/battle_of_britain/gauges ----- Gauges are a drain on resources ?? didn,t work !
    read_ahead_cashe=20480M ----- Unknown
    page_flip=1 ------ Unknown
    read_write=1 ---- Unknown

    My average gun chart was 18 to 25 hit percentage -- before --

    Smoother sim now , and that means tracking is greatly improved ,
    To see a gun chart produce -- 530/968 = 55 % on Q-C taking out 5 x Bf110 ,
    and the Wing man got the 6th , Was rather cool , when you consider the mouse .
    was the controller ! and the sim running 100-% ,

    Testing 2 Bf110,s for Eai compatibility , Asa Bf110 , and Alen,s Bf110 Destroyer ,
    Each a little different , in responces , Asa would climb faster , piviot angle quicker ,
    But maintain 8 aircraft , Alen,s would loose 1 / 2 of 8 , to pilot error , and crash out ,
    undamaged , like the computor was just excluding them , and ocassionly 1 of 6 , would crash ?
    could just be the lack of good Vidio card , Still looking for the reason ,

  12. #262

    “ai_playr.dll”, Not What We Hoped?

    I keep saying to myself I will write this one up proper but I never do. It came when I was in a deep dive into CFS2 (I like the challenge of doing what hasn't been done) and I worked so hard at it. Many complaints of the AI in CFS2 – the possibility of rewriting it (via dll wrapping?) – a holy grail.


    Below is evidence that leads me to think “ai_playr.dll” does not do what many, including myself, hoped it does.


    Point 1:


    There's a thing in programming called calling convention. As programming progressed in the early days it moved towards a main engine calling into subroutines (functions in c). This was a natural progression and the first inklings of reusable code. For c google “c name mangling”. For c++, which reveals more of the actual names and arguements called, “ai_playr.dll”, it it is largely c++ calls. Given that in those days c++ wasn't very fast (am i correct?), and that I see a lot of menu/utillity calls here in c++ format, this dll is not part of the real time CFS2 engine?


    Point 2:


    There is a more simple checkwhich anyone can do. Rename “ai_playr.dll” to anything else and fire up CFS2. What breaks? I only did this once, but free flight and the Mission builder failed. I have no idea why free flight failed (it has always been an oddball), but that the mission builder failed supports that this is not a real time dll.


    Indicative but not proof – wanted to share.

    Mike
    Well I was thinking of Ali MacGraw -- Why? . . . you're joking right?

  13. #263

    Thanks and very interesting AC. It is, of course, one of the the 'holy grails' of the sim. Unfortunately, until the whole sim can be unlocked/read, then one part really creates more questions than answers....

    As we all know M$ will NEVER let us have the source code, but more power to your programming investigation...I can but hope..

    Cheers

    Shessi

  14. #264
    Hi,

    Mike, as you probably know if you've taken a look inside the ai_playr.dll is that it's mostly tied into the mission builder. There's a few dialog boxes which are hidden and don't get displayed in game like the ai guidance panel for starters.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Freeflight is based on situation files found in the SITUATIO folder. defair.flt is when you start in the air and defgnd.flt is if you start on the runway. You can adjust a few settings in those files to set the default zoom or change it to load the VC as the default view.

    Most of the other AI controllers and behaviors are found in the PID section of the .air file.

    Cheers
    Aussie

  15. #265
    Shessi,


    The kind words are appreciated. This effort only lead to the "DumpGauges.exe". I did figure out how to read the tokenvars as requested by Klein but it needs some reorganizing. Perhaps I'll get back to that.


    Aussie,


    Actually, I didn't know any of that. Thanks for the contributing even more evidence. The level of knowledge in this basement is striking.


    Additionally, I've long noticed that some dll's of Cfs2 have two exports which are odd. For the non-coder, dll exports are exposed for use by the parent executable code. The two odd exported names are "ImportTable" and "Linkage". One normally thinks of a dll compiled to a dll extension as a library of exposed functions (subroutines in other languages) that are called dynamically (when the exe is running). The gauges file "gauges.h" reveals quite a lot about these two exposed names. They are not functions at all but structures (in c/c++, a grouping of data under one variable name). I can post my proof but it is a bit involved.


    Dll's are found in three places and have the follow pattern ...


    1. Main Cfs2 directory - none have "ImportTable" and "Linkage"
    2. Modules sub-directory – all have "ImportTable" and "Linkage" but some also have c/c++ functions
    3. Gauges sub-directory – only "ImportTable" and "Linkage"


    This is the tricky part because it's only a hunch but digging into them all makes me think "ImportTable" and "Linkage" are for real time access. Let me emphasize this is only an informed guess. They could have been used just to thwart “white hat hacking” (I mean here legal modifications of the game). And it could be that this approach was chosen for both: “white hat hacking” and speed. Note that I do not know if such a method, just exposing data, is faster, but I suspect it could be.




    Aka Mike


    AC
    Well I was thinking of Ali MacGraw -- Why? . . . you're joking right?

  16. #266
    Hi Mike, think of dll’s as being able to export variables, functions and resources which are imported by cfs.exe. To my understanding the linkage table refers to information being used by the linker from the header .h files during compilation of the dll. Now the problem is without having a cfs specific SDK knowing the various names is impossible to workout with a white hat on.

    Take into consideration that much of what’s under the surface of cfs is from fs and doesn’t function properly, like dynamic scenery, atc and logbook just to name a few. There’s even reference to an F-18 in cfs 😂

    I’ve been programming some gauges lately and had to customise the fs gauges.h so it creates proper cfs2 gauges

    Cheers
    Aussie aka Ossie 😝

  17. #267
    Hi All,

    Sarg Willy makes an interesting point regarding adding affinitymask in the cfs2.CFG.

    [JOBSCHEDULER]
    affinitymask=n


    There's a calculator you can use to get the right numbers for your cpu and if it utilizes hyper threading or not. Find the link below.

    Gatwick Flight Simulation Group (gfsg.co.uk)

    As you mention Sarg you will see temperature increases due to the fact the cpu is working harder which is to be expected and also establishes proof of concept.


    Cheers
    Aussie

  18. #268
    Redding Army Airfield Allen's Avatar
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    Ali Cat

    You seem to be able to poke around the CFS2 .dlls any chance you could look at them or the CFS2.exe and find the one that "Enable hardware acceleration" and make it always check-able or make it have "Enable hardware acceleration" always on?
    "Let Being Helpful Be More Important Than Being Right!" Some SOH Founder.

  19. #269

    Icon4

    Well aussie,

    You could put on a different color hat....



    Cheers mav

  20. #270
    Quote Originally Posted by mav View Post
    Well aussie,

    You could put on a different color hat....

    Cheers mav
    Hi Mav, I only have one hat and unfortunately it's a white one.


    Allen,


    If your GPU supports manually enabling hardware acceleration you can enable it via the advanced display settings in WinX How to Enable Hardware Acceleration | Easy Steps to Enable - TechDim To be honest I think you'd get better performance using the affinitymask mode.

    Cheers
    Aussie

  21. #271
    Redding Army Airfield Allen's Avatar
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    That won't help. CFS2 is a DirectX 7 game that doses't play nice with modern cards. Simply put CFS2 doesn't see modern cards as hardware acceleration capable and grays the option out. Editing the CFS2.cfg works but the editing has to be done just about any time you change any other setting too. Annoying AF to do over and over.
    "Let Being Helpful Be More Important Than Being Right!" Some SOH Founder.

  22. #272
    Allen,


    I afraid I do not know of a way to accomplish your request. This investigation I have done into the cfs2 dll's, while I don't regret it, has largely been a bust. From these binary's I can see very little – so many questions left unanswered. In that you sparked my curiosity, I did some searches of the DirectX 7 SDK. There is a sample program that shows how detect if hardware acceleration is supported. It is almost 2 pages long. It could be that there is some 32 bit value in the cfs2 binaries that does what you wish (which I could not find anyway), but I really doubt it is that simple. My somewhat educated guess is that it is buried in code, in binary, which would make it pretty much impossible to decipher.


    Aussie,


    I know exactly what the “Linkage” export does -- for a gauge file at least. DumpGauges.exe would not be doable if I did not. It is a variable length array of the PGAUGEHDR structure. This structure contains all the data that cfs2 needs to display the gauge. And you went on explaining to me what a dll is? I have written code for 40 years. A request – stay off my threads.


    AC but call me Mike
    Well I was thinking of Ali MacGraw -- Why? . . . you're joking right?

  23. #273
    Mike,
    My apologies but I haven't read your resume. I will most certainly refrain in future from trying to assist you.

    Aussie

  24. #274
    Aussie,

    Grace, i beleive counts. Scratch what i said. Your response is appreciated.

    Mike
    Well I was thinking of Ali MacGraw -- Why? . . . you're joking right?

  25. #275
    Quote Originally Posted by Ali Cat View Post
    Aussie,

    Grace, i beleive counts. Scratch what i said. Your response is appreciated.

    Mike
    Thanks Mike, I really appreciate it. Spoken like a true Southern gentleman.

    Cheers
    Aussie

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