Some help with the Falcon

[sYn]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.flight-sim,microsoft.public.windows (More info?)

Hey everyone,

I wasn't going to ask this here because I assumed Falcon 4.0 (from
1999) was too old a game for anyone to remember. I just picked it up
recently secondhand to play on my old system (my new computer is
broken). However, I discovered that there really are a lot of people
still playing this brilliant game so hopefully someone can help.

It's crashing almost randomly. My system is old but it's far more than
the minimum requirements. I've a feeling the problem is with the swap
file.

I can play a mission but after about 8 minutes of play I'm dumped back
out to windows. The swap file size is usually close to 1gig at this
point. If I play again the whole program freezes in a mission after a
few minutes. I have to reboot to get it to work again (and the swap
file is wiped or whatever windows does)

This behaviour is pretty much predictable in that it always dumps to
windows the first time and if I go straight back in it always freezes
mid-game the second time.

I've played with all the swap file settings. I've let windows managed
it, I've put in my own settings yet always the same behaviour. I have
more than 16gig on my drive free so there's no way it could be running
out of space.

Please help, it's a brilliant game, but there's no way I can play the
campaigns if I keep crashing!


The specs on this ancient machine are 64mb RAM, 350MHZ, 20 gig HD,
Savage 3D. But like I said earlier, it's more than what's needed to
play the game which runs beautifully when it works.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.flight-sim,microsoft.public.windows (More info?)

"syn" <synn@postmaster.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1123357189.156363.11490@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hey everyone,
>

>
> The specs on this ancient machine are 64mb RAM, 350MHZ, 20 gig HD,
> Savage 3D. But like I said earlier, it's more than what's needed to
> play the game which runs beautifully when it works.
>

When F4 debuted about the fastest machine you could buy was a 450MHz
processor and even that wasn't beefy enough to run a campaign adequately.
I wouldn't even bother trying to play 1.08 on an old machine unless you're
on a nostalgia trip but even then the honeymoon will quickly wear off.

Basically get your machine fixed and buy Falcon 4 AF.

 

[sYn]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.flight-sim (More info?)

Nats wrote:
> Your older computer probably isnt fast enough to run the game adequately
> even without the crashes. For an uptodate Falcon 4 you need to try patch
> 1.08 followed by either Superpatch 4 or Freefalcon 3 but they are massive
> downloads and require a pretty decent system to play reasonably well (2Gz
> +). But even SP4 and FF3 have crashes at regular intervals. If you want to
> play the game and avoid crashes entirely try getting the newly released
> Falcon 4:Allied Force which is much more stable. You can order it online at
> www.simw.com for around £25.

Okay... but it does actually play it very well. Beautiful graphics,
good gameplay in the missions and the campaigns that I've played, plus
from researching the net I've found many people have ran the game just
fine (after the 1.08 patch) on similar setups. So it's something
else...

I did a little more experimentation last night and I've found that I
can get 14 minutes of total gameplay Max before getting crashed out to
the desktop. That can be divided between 2*7 minutes or any other
combination, but always 14 minutes Max. When I check the swap file
afterwards it's always at about 840MB even though I've got 16GB free on
that drive so it couldnt' be running out of space.

I've played with all the swap file settings, between manual and letting
windows manage it with all kinds of min\max size settings and still I
get the same problem. If I set the max swap file to less than 840MB I
get less than 14 minutes of gameplay.

The problem is actually fairly predictable, though ANNOYING. I'm unable
to get a new machine for a few months so I'm stuck with my old PC. But
for reasons I've explained above I'm pretty confident it's not the age
of the machine that's the problem. As I've said when the game runs it
runs beautifully with excellent gameplay. I'm guessing it's something
to do with how either windows or falcon is handling the swap file.

Could it be something to do with that old ~800MB problem with older
versions of windows? The drive is FAT 32 and win98 recognises it but
maybe the swap code is thinking something else???

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.flight-sim (More info?)

Your older computer probably isnt fast enough to run the game adequately
even without the crashes. For an uptodate Falcon 4 you need to try patch
1.08 followed by either Superpatch 4 or Freefalcon 3 but they are massive
downloads and require a pretty decent system to play reasonably well (2Gz
+). But even SP4 and FF3 have crashes at regular intervals. If you want to
play the game and avoid crashes entirely try getting the newly released
Falcon 4:Allied Force which is much more stable. You can order it online at
www.simw.com for around £25.
Nats

"syn" <synn@postmaster.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1123357189.156363.11490@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hey everyone,
>
> I wasn't going to ask this here because I assumed Falcon 4.0 (from
> 1999) was too old a game for anyone to remember. I just picked it up
> recently secondhand to play on my old system (my new computer is
> broken). However, I discovered that there really are a lot of people
> still playing this brilliant game so hopefully someone can help.
>
> It's crashing almost randomly. My system is old but it's far more than
> the minimum requirements. I've a feeling the problem is with the swap
> file.
>
> I can play a mission but after about 8 minutes of play I'm dumped back
> out to windows. The swap file size is usually close to 1gig at this
> point. If I play again the whole program freezes in a mission after a
> few minutes. I have to reboot to get it to work again (and the swap
> file is wiped or whatever windows does)
>
> This behaviour is pretty much predictable in that it always dumps to
> windows the first time and if I go straight back in it always freezes
> mid-game the second time.
>
> I've played with all the swap file settings. I've let windows managed
> it, I've put in my own settings yet always the same behaviour. I have
> more than 16gig on my drive free so there's no way it could be running
> out of space.
>
> Please help, it's a brilliant game, but there's no way I can play the
> campaigns if I keep crashing!
>
>
> The specs on this ancient machine are 64mb RAM, 350MHZ, 20 gig HD,
> Savage 3D. But like I said earlier, it's more than what's needed to
> play the game which runs beautifully when it works.
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.flight-sim (More info?)

"syn" <synn@postmaster.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1123440530.598927.58000@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Okay... but it does actually play it very well. Beautiful graphics,
> good gameplay in the missions and the campaigns that I've played, plus
> from researching the net I've found many people have ran the game just
> fine (after the 1.08 patch) on similar setups. So it's something
> else...

1.08 never ran *really* properly. Only after the BMS and FreeFalcon patches
did it begin to get stable for the vast majority of people. (Even with FF3
I used to get crashes approximately every fourth or fifth mission.) There
were still many memory leaks that remained unfixed at that time, and a lot
of DirectX issues that caused crashes swapping between the interface and 3D
game engines.

I got F4:AF recently and it's vastly better than the original Falcon+1.08.
I've played about 15 campaign missions and I've had one system crash, which
isn't bad and may well be nothing to do with Falcon itself.

Yes, it is worth it. But, your 350Mhz PC isn't going to cope. For a start
the minimum supportable res is 1024x768 now. I get about a minimum of 25
fps in dense campaign combat on a 3GHz P4 with 1Gb dual DDR and an (ageing
now) ATI 9600 Pro gfx card.

Si

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.flight-sim (More info?)

www.lead-pursuit.com

Buy Falcon 4 Allied Force that was just released recently.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.flight-sim (More info?)

350 MHz... Ouch.

Look at finding the next patch in the old series 1.08i2 , Sorry, I
don't know where to find it anymore.

One thing I would do if were you, is find a program called "PCI Latency
Tool" version 2.3 or so, and adjust your video bandwidth (latency) to
32 and your audio to 16. Good Luck

_________________________________________________________^M
Posted via the -Web to Usenet- forums at http://forums.yourdomain.com^M
Visit www.yourdomain.com and try our New products and services today!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.flight-sim (More info?)

I regularly crashed out to desktop when playing FF3. I did have some crashes
as well with the original release of F4 AF but now since the new patch I
havent had one for more than a week of playing every night.
Nats

"syn" <synn@postmaster.co.uk> wrote in message
news:1123440530.598927.58000@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

Nats wrote:
> Your older computer probably isnt fast enough to run the game adequately
> even without the crashes. For an uptodate Falcon 4 you need to try patch
> 1.08 followed by either Superpatch 4 or Freefalcon 3 but they are massive
> downloads and require a pretty decent system to play reasonably well (2Gz
> +). But even SP4 and FF3 have crashes at regular intervals. If you want to
> play the game and avoid crashes entirely try getting the newly released
> Falcon 4:Allied Force which is much more stable. You can order it online
> at
> www.simw.com for around £25.

Okay... but it does actually play it very well. Beautiful graphics,
good gameplay in the missions and the campaigns that I've played, plus
from researching the net I've found many people have ran the game just
fine (after the 1.08 patch) on similar setups. So it's something
else...

I did a little more experimentation last night and I've found that I
can get 14 minutes of total gameplay Max before getting crashed out to
the desktop. That can be divided between 2*7 minutes or any other
combination, but always 14 minutes Max. When I check the swap file
afterwards it's always at about 840MB even though I've got 16GB free on
that drive so it couldnt' be running out of space.

I've played with all the swap file settings, between manual and letting
windows manage it with all kinds of min\max size settings and still I
get the same problem. If I set the max swap file to less than 840MB I
get less than 14 minutes of gameplay.

The problem is actually fairly predictable, though ANNOYING. I'm unable
to get a new machine for a few months so I'm stuck with my old PC. But
for reasons I've explained above I'm pretty confident it's not the age
of the machine that's the problem. As I've said when the game runs it
runs beautifully with excellent gameplay. I'm guessing it's something
to do with how either windows or falcon is handling the swap file.

Could it be something to do with that old ~800MB problem with older
versions of windows? The drive is FAT 32 and win98 recognises it but
maybe the swap code is thinking something else???