Written and Edited by: MarkEAW
Other Text and Information from: Forum posts, Jel, Knegel, Max188, Nvidia, Huntress, Skylark, VonBeerhofen, Sydbod
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CONTENTS

INTRO
Volunteer Programmer Needed

-------------KNOWN BUGS-------------

CONTROLS
Default Rudder Keys Are Reversed | Independent Engine Management Gone

SOUND
Positional sound for two or more engine planes is in-correct
Positional sound for other sounds are in-correct | A.I. Throttle Setting RPM Sound | Wrong Radio Chatter

THE "7217" ERROR
The Issue Described | How It Effected The EAW Users | The Cards Effected | What Happened With WinXP
Modern Windows | Method's Researched | The Workarounds | Sound and 7217

WEIRD COLORED MENU SCREENS
What Happened | Solutions

GARBLED MAP SELECTION SCREENS (SCREEN TEARING)
Faulty Screen Update Rates | Registry Fix (Win9x and XP) | No Registry Fix (WinVista and 7)
Wrapper Program Solution

MISSING HORIZON FOG
Video Mode and Card | Shaders and DirectX | Glide Solution

SHIMMERING TERRAIN
Shimmering and Screen Resolution | Old Solution

VIDEO CARD CONTROL PANEL = Little Effect
Nvidias Default Card Settings | Settings That Make A Difference

GARBLED COCKPIT
Workarounds | Effective Workarounds | A Quick Solution

MOUSE POINTER ON SCREEN

CAMPAIGN MOVIES (CTD) / (SmakerVideos)

GLIDE NOTES
Broken Display Text | Glide Resolution Limits | Plane Rendering | Skin Colors Glide API v2.43

WINDOWS 10 COMPATIBILITY
DirectDraw | Windows 10 Nearly Full Compatibility | Windows 7 In Comparison
ACT System Database Compatibility Fixes | Wrapper Testing | Fast CPU/MotherBoard/Memory
Lower Resolution | April 2018 Update | Test Results

MISCELLANEOUS
Gunsight Flips with Resolution Setting | Instrument Gauges fuzzy or blurry (un readable)
Memory Allocation Causing Slow Downs and CTD | MSNxy.DAT Files and Multiplayer

A COMPREHENSIVE BUG LIST

-------------FEATURE IDEAS-------------

CONTROLS
Make Pilot Map KEY a Toggle | Pilot Map Zoom

SOUND
New Sounds and Slots (Pilot Radio) | 32 Voices | New Sounds and Slots (Plane Functions)

DIFFICULTY
Full Realism Settings - Limit the use of those Arcade Features

FLIGHT MODEL
Separate Stalls and Spins

RETRO LOOK
Bring back the Retro MPS Mission Fuel Gauge Loading Screen | Bring Back Standard Cockpit Displays

VIDEO
FIELD OF VIEW (FOV) - Widen it for Widescreens

MISCELLANEOUS
EAWs Frontend – Enhance the built-in EAW frontend
Multiplayer Radio - Allow leader to assign orders to human players

A COMPREHENSIVE FEATURE LIST

Many of the listed bugs here are from the MPS Official released v1.0, 1.1, and v1.2. Bugs where tested and verified a few times each. The bugs listed here are problems connected with the original code of EAW. Not all Bugs are listed so if you find any, in any version of the game, please contact me so I can add to this list.
 

Volunteer Programmer Needed:
Need Volunteers to code for the Windows 9x game, EAW, to improve the Hardware compatibility and DirectX code!:

These are major things that need to be improved to keep current EAW enthuses and to attract newbie's to stay. This way no need to run under compatibility layers anymore on WinVista (and the newer Windows 10). The new code would make the game free from the need for an external wrapper program or registry fix.

-Update the in-game 8-bit front-end of EAW to 32-bit. Right now it uses the old DirectDraw to display. Its faulty; the menu, map and briefing screens do not have perfect color,and at times are garbled (tearing), sometimes corrupt.

-DirectX version needs to go from DX5/6 to at least 9.0c/9_1 so modern drivers and hardware can be taken advantage of by the game and the video control panel settings will work. No Horizon Fog in D3D, lower D3D performance in flight.

-Memory management intended for Win95/98 (and ultimately WinME) seems CPU intensive rather than GPU.

Not many of the current EAW source code users have looked for new programmers. Col. Gibbon and possibly a few others have tried to find someone in the past , but no luck in the end. So I thought I'd re-mention it here.

I would only recommend letting a volunteer to code with the 1.2x source code (the last official version), the compile-able code and see if they can update the things that need to be.

I'd personally, would like to see this before some of us pass on, either by them leaving the EAW community or by the older EAW users dyeing off.

I wasn't put up to this, I just decided to see if there is really anyone willing and capable of doing these updates. Please contact if seriously interested at CombatACE or SimHQ forums.

The source code is in a mixture of "C", "C++" and assembler. You can use Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 (In WinXP) to work on and compile the code. A custom DX6 SDK (although the DX7 SDK should also work) is being used.

Their particular code is closed, open only to those EAW community programmers. The hardware issues are present in the stock v1.2 source code as well. There is no one available to update the DirectX code or issue repairs to the Hardware aspect of the game at this time.

-------------KNOWN BUGS-------------

RUDDER RIGHT=COMMA
RUDDER LEFT=SLASH

RUDDER FULL RIGHT=SHIFT COMMA
RUDDER FULL LEFT=SHIFT SLASH

But they Should Read like this:
----------------------------
RUDDER RIGHT=SLASH
RUDDER LEFT=COMMA

RUDDER FULL RIGHT=SHIFT SLASH
RUDDER FULL LEFT=SHIFT COMMA

Not really a big concern as these can be manually changed by editing the eaw.ini or changing them in game, but a bug none the less.

Independent Engine Management Gone: (Started at least as low as v1.1)

The game was originally designed to have two engines max and for an example a pilot of a P-38 could control each engines power independent of each other with

THROTTLE ENGINE 1 UP=LBRACKET
THROTTLE ENGINE 1 DOWN=SEMICOLON

THROTTLE ENGINE 2 UP=RBRACKET
THROTTLE ENGINE 2 DOWN=APOSTROPHE

The Throttle for Engine 1 Down = ; Seems to work correctly, But Engine 2 Down doesn't work when tested on a P-38 and that's lacking in engine management area.

Positional sound for two or more engine planes is in-correct: (Started at least as low as v1.2 maybe even v1.0)

In the P-38 for an example, when the pilot turns his head left, you will hear the left engine in your right speaker, just like if you had One Engine center body mounted. You should hear the engine in BOTH speakers since the pilots head is turned toward the engine.

When the pilots head is forward, the game switches to the sound of a non-existent center nose engine. If one engine is off and the other engine is running, sound is heard from the nose...this is wrong. The only time there's indication from the left or right engine when the pilots view is forward is when the engines are starting or stopping, when they sputter there heard in the appropriate speaker.

Positional sound for other sounds are in-correct: (Started at least as low as v1.2 maybe even v1.0)

Buffeting sound, just before a stall it seems to come from the nose of the planes as well rather than from the mid section of the plane. Wind rushing in is wrong when you turn your head.

Also Gun sounds from within the cockpit come from the wrong direction with head turned.

A.I. Throttle Setting RPM Sound: (Started at least as low as v1.2 maybe even v1.0)

There is a difference in throttle sound between the AI aircraft and the pilot's aircraft. For an example; You are leading a squad in formation and cruising along at slow speed so some of the others can catch up.....your rpm's are low and your engine 'sounds' slow, like it's suppose too, but your Wingman right next to you, although he is going as slow as you, 'sounds' like he is at full throttle. The only time his engine sounds like he's working the throttle is when he's RTB and he is in a landing pattern.

To further notice this bug, If you jump (ALT-J) from your lead plane to your Wingman's aircraft while in slow flight, the Wingman's engine immediately slows down to match the throttle on your original.

Wrong Radio Chatter: (Started perhaps with v1.0, thought to be fixed in v1.1 and v1.2, but its not)
British radio chatter coming from American bombers. Seems every three bomber escorts you fly you get a British voice from the big bear flight. "This is WIZARD flight!" coming from B17's in a good ol' English accent.

This section is to explain the Video Card Hardware / Driver Check in EAW.

The Issue Described:
In short answer the 7217 error is caused by video drivers which no longer support 8 bit graphics displayed at low resolution.

When EAW was originally being written, hard drive space was at a premium (mid 1990's). So MicroProse EAW Team came up with ways to save space, one of which included using selection screens such as "Main2.pic" (it used their own form of compressed 8-bit PCX files). Routines in the game exe decompress and display them. Knowing that the game requires 8-bit 256 colored 640x480 selection screen support to run properly, the EAW Team at MicroProse added a routine that checks if the user's graphics card and driver can handle 8-bit graphics in 2D DirectDraw. If it cannot the exe exits with the self generated "Error 7217" message. This is because the game can not properly display the Menu Screens with-out color palette issues or tearing in most cases. To truly fix this, the games front end needs to be re-coded in at least 32 bit.

How It Effected The EAW Users:
This became a real problem for EAW users back in the year 1999-2000. The original users in the past, the users that have been playing the game already left mostly because of this incompatibility issue, because when they updated their systems and found that many of the newer video cards/and new drivers only supported 16-bit graphics and Windows itself didn't support 8-bit either at the time, they where stuck without a real solution (or a long lasting workaround).

These problems have turned away many would be EAW users. There are a number of people who are still having a hard time (in the year 2009 and above) to run this 1998 game on WindowsXP (even Win98SE) with their Nvidia video cards because of lack of 8-bit support in the drivers. Early ATI cards have the same problem, however that company re-introduced proper 8-bit support and possibly support for EAW directly, Therefore ATI has the support for EAW that NVIDIA users don't have.

The Cards Effected:
The series Nvidia 6 and 7 cards support for 8 bit SVGA 640x480 disappeared after the 66.93 (6.14.10.6693) driver, and one solution for EAW gamers was to roll back to this one driver version if the card was able to. (series 8 and later cards cannot use the old drivers, so the 66.93 option was no longer available). Earlier ATI cards have had the same problem, and Intel 810/815/830/845 or 82810 on-board video controllers unfortunately are incompatible with European Air War, due to a lack of any type of support for 8-bit rendering in the year 2001. Even years after, Intel had not added 8-bit support for those older chips, not even in newer Intel onboard 82845G/GL or Intel 965. Nvidia on board chips, 6100/6150 have similar problems as the Intel counter parts do.

What Happened With WinXP:
In WinXP the windows vga.sys file took over most if not all the 8-bit resolutions and support, but it handles them poorly. So when the Video card makers dropped SVGA support from their drivers this resulted in this error. On top of that; The video cards also started to lack proper SVGA support in their VBios(VBE) which the Windows vga.sys file requires, but sometimes overlooks. Later on some card makers actually transferred some of the VBE directly into their drivers to maintain some support, but that didn't last long. So a poorly supported VGA.SYS file and poorly made VBios/VBE drivers, makes for a dual hit trying to run the EAW flight sim since it starts with VGA 8-bit (256 color) 640x480 fixed screens. Once the game got passed the menu screens and into flying where the game uses a 16-bit graphics engine, all was fine.

Modern Windows:
Its not know if older cards and on-board chips have newer drivers for them when using more modern Windows versions such as Vista/7/8/8.1, sometimes Microsoft will support them. If they do, I would hope that the OS generates a automated Compatibility fix for them. Windows 7 has a built-in fix for Video Cards that have at least a driver available. Win10 also has provided an improved built in workaround for the lack of 8 bit support in video card drivers by way of an OS to Game Compatibility Fix.

Note: The game does not require a special video card connection type; a PCI or AGP or PCIe or Intergraded or Onboard video etc....it will work given they or there drivers support 8 bit screens. See below for workarounds.

Method's Researched:
The EAW community of coders, tried several methods of trying to improve the 8-bit menu interface, to not only prevent the 7217 error, but to also prevent the color and garbled (tearing) screens.

What has been researched so far: (by Sydbod posted 5-09-2008)

1) A study was made to totally separate into different executable files the flight part of EAW, from the front end part of EAW. This has lead to the "JIM" project. Most people by now know about this line of research. (This is a workaround external frontend and special menu screens made by MrJelly in the year 2007. This workaround was only for single play and didn't always seem to work for all computers.)

2) Another study was made to keep the menu part of the code as it currently is, but to intercept the screen writing routine and make it translate the 8Bit screen data into 32Bit screen data, as each pixel is being written to the screen.
This has also had some limited success, but has lead to a massive slowdown in the menu operation area for some people with slower machines. It has also shown up some deficiencies in the way EAW was writhing material to the screen by highlighting a screen tearing problem with some later drivers (this is a separate problem to the 7217 error).
Some of you have also tried the odd test version of the game with this modification in it.

3)A third study was made to integrate one of the many different graphics libraries into the EAW game, and use the capabilities of these libraries to relatively quickly rewrite the front end menu code in the game to 32 Bit mode.
This came to a very quick halt, because most members realized that they were now faced with not only having to learn the "C" language that the game is written in, ......but also to learn a new code library and how to integrate it into the code. This was felt to be too much, too soon, for the skill level of most of the code members, so it also came to a very quick halt.

4) The latest study is to rewrite the menu front end but use nothing other than the "C" language, and whatever the current EAW game environment allows us to use. This has lead to a few tests being made to actually use the Windows API functions..... these can be created directly within the game and have produced some working results.
The big problem with this approach is that it is a complex way of doing things and requires members to learn new skills that are not well documented on the internet. A person can easily spend days researching some small insignificant problem to sort it out. (remember ... we are all novices in programming, and the Windows API is a real bastard to work with).

For those that may be interested, ...what has been achieved with this 4th approach to date (was impressive). Yes it was integrated into the game, and the game ran using this menu to start a Quick mission...And another retro attempt at a different looking type of screen that may be more in style with the era of EAW.

As should be now evident, a lot of work has gone into the 7217 error research. We are a very small group of people that are trying to tackle a huge problem that is almost beyond our resources in skill level and manpower level.
Some of us are getting a bit burnt out, as we have all had to start with no knowledge of programming, no knowledge of game structures, no knowledge of the tools required to debug problems, .....etc. Trying to get the 1.28 update for EAW debugged and ready has almost killed many of us, without even looking at the 7217 problem.

Should there be others out there with some programming knowledge who would like to get involved in this nightmare, then please let one of the members of the Code Group know about yourself.

The Workarounds:
-To get around the 7217 error on older Windows you want to use a program called a Wrapper, for an example; the D3DWindower v1.88 Wrapper program. It allows the game to be run in a window without this error.

-It was discovered that even the stock EAW now runs without the 7217 problem when using WinVista, Win7 and 8 for most users.
Windows10 also supports this older DirectDraw/Direct3D combo game much better through a self set compatibility Mode Layer.
Win7 may require a 3rd party color fix workaround, but Win10 has the game running properly without a wrapper program. See my Manually Install Help Document for more information on Compatibility fixes and other Wrapper type programs.

Sound and 7217:
There is one instance that a 7217 error can also be generated when some DirectX sound routines mess up...??

This section discusses one of the issues when getting passed the above Video Card Error check.

In Windows7 (in the year 2015) the menu screens run properly without tearing without using any wrapper programs (they wouldn't run on Win7 in previous years, before Microsoft Updates...), however the palette is all weird, resulting in the wrong colors being present on the majority of the menu screens, making it hard to view and read.
In Windows 10 this problem doesn't occur anymore. Windows10 supports this older DirectDraw/Direct3D combo game through a self set compatibility fix. See my Manually Install Help Document for more information on this 'fix'.

What Happened:
What is happening is color palette corruption in old games, this occurs when some other program modifies the global Windows color palette while the game is running. Most often this program is Explorer.exe. Some people use to end the task of the Windows program Explorer.exe during the launching of there games. But that's not nearly the safest or best way to get the color fix. In Windows7 there is also a incompatibility between graphical interface Windows Aero and games intended to work with DirectX 7 2D DirectDraw or an older DirectX version (EAW uses DX6). The menu screens/animated menu screens all use 2D DirectDraw. However the game itself once in flight runs without the corrupt color because it uses hardware accelerated Direct3D.

Solutions:
One solution is to use a DirectDraw wrapper to color fix those screens, such as the DDWrapper program. Even if the game doesn't need a wrapper in your Windows version, it can correct the colors.

For Win7, I recommend you forgo the wrapper program and just use one of the two available Compatibility Registry Fixes which is a lighter option (less CPU power required). The registry programs worth mentioning are the "DirectDraw Compatibility Tool" by Galogen and "w7ddpatcher" by Mudlord. These create automated registry entries to correct EAWs Menu Screen colors, it's a fix without requiring a Wrapper program and is a faster game performance solution; Its considered a 'light' alternative, and works well with minimal overall overhead. See my Manually Install Help Document for more information...

How it Works:
The EAW game suffers from a "rainbow color glitch", when some other program modifies the global Windows color palette while the game is running, causing some screens to be rendered with the wrong colors, most often this program is Windows Explorer.exe. Windows 7 (and Vista) has a registry setting for enabling backward compatible DirectDraw behavior for a given application which fixes this glitch. So these programs read your eaw.exe that you select, then the program runs the game, gathers info, like the process ID information, closes the game, and saves the information.

Next it writes to your registry directly (Galogen's program creates a reg file you must install separately if you choose that option). This new Registry Fix entry will only effect the specific eaw.exe you apply it too; you should not move that particular game folder or exe as they are determined by the exact eaw.exe used, location included. It won't affect other parts of your registry or other programs. For instance, a EAW v1.0 exe and a EAW v1.2 exe are determined by the programs to be different specifically by various attributes of the exe, and Windows reads those differences when launching the EAW Game.)

These programs do not patch the eaw.exe directly, no modification is made to it. Once the new Registry entries are made, Windows Vista and Win7 (32 or 64 bit) will use them to run the DirectDraw 8-bit 256 color EAW Menu Screens under a compatibility profile without effecting the actual Direct3D 16-bit in-flight action game screens.

Note: This could be an issue with single game folders having swappable eaw.exe's like the CodeGroup's versions...

Important; Do NOT double up on the DirectDraw color menus problem workarounds. Meaning don't set one of these Registry fixes and then run a Wrapper program with DirectDraw(DD) 'color correction' setting as well, this will cause problems. You only need one or the other.

If you made a mistake and need to delete these entries in the registry file, here are there locations written by each Reg Fix program, pick which ever one you used (The first entry in each set is for 64bit Windows):

The win7ddpatcher Tool writes here:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DirectDraw\Compatibility\European Air War
or
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectDraw\Compatibility\European Air War

This map tearing was a troublesome for ATI/AMD Video Card Users with WinXP. (Nvidia GeForce video cards where effected as well, as far back as Win98, but later a registry fix was discovered). Back somewhere in Dec 2007 to the beginning of the year 2008 the then newly released ATI/AMD Catalyst 7.12 driver fixed the Menu tearing problems on WinXP. However this tearing is now effecting Windows Vista and Win7 for ATI Video Card users. (Note: the 2D DirectDraw function in DirectX has been replaced under Win Vista and 7, and above). (When using Windows 8/10 , EAW does not have this problem, even when the game is run with no wrappers or registry fixes and at normal full screen because of the built in Compatibility fix layer).

Faulty Screen Update Rates:
The problem with EAW seems to be that the screen scan rates and video card memory map area are not solidly set when the game switches from one menu screen to the next. The tearing seems to be a 2D image sync problem within the video driver and game. The EAW code is deficient in this area, when the game was written. Basically the menu screens are updated at such a high non standard rate but they should preferably only update when there is actually a change to be applied to the menu display (eg: mouse moves etc), the same way its implemented in all other normal Windows applications, but it's not. If you have a CRT display that shows the horizontal and vertical scan frequencies while you are switching between screens in the game simply by making a selection, you'll notice when the problem map screen comes up, there is also a change in the video mode and frequencies.

If you happen to get the mouse over a menu hotspot on a tearing screen and click the mouse button, then the menu screen suddenly displays perfectly (it will be clearly visible) for that screen until the next menu screen loads (about 0.1 seconds). Basically that screen stops being updated while the computer is preprocessing the next menu screen and the tearing stops because the screen stops being updated at the non standard rate.

Interestingly, when in-flight pressing [Alt m] does reveal the pilot map correctly.

Registry Fix (Win98 and XP):
The "NoAdjustedPitch" registry fixes for Win95/98/ME and WinXP are for Nvidia GeForce Video Cards (there is no ATI Radeon WinXP fix) which corrects the garbled map selection screen problem on those windows versions by making sure that the video mode does not change unless there is a proper command sent to the video card to do so. This fix is apparently safe for all other games. This fix is by Ogdens_105 and Max188.

If you use the Win 9x line OS, there is a downloadable file which will make the correction to the registry automatically for you when you run it. However, if you run either Win 2K or Win XP, you must edit the registry manually yourself by way of text instructions. This is due to the fact that all Win 9x registries show the relevant Nvidia keys the same way, but under the NT kernel, the relevant keys have different hashes for each system so no automated batch .reg file could be written for this kernel.

So, if you run Win2k or Win XP, download the text instructions for your OS and save the text file so you can copy and paste the relevant data once you locate the exact spot in your registry where you will be placing your new DWORD value. Insure you follow the instructions exactly; the placement, spelling, punctuation and spacing must be exact for this value or it will not work. It's reasonably easy to possibly placing it in the wrong place, so compare your location with the location in the downloaded document to be certain that you are placing it in the correct location. If it is in the wrong place, it won't work--it won't hurt anything, but it just won't work. You should, create a Restore Point prior to performing the regedit, in case an error is made. This is good to do when you are fooling with the registry at any time. While this particular edit is a safe one, something could go wrong, so protect yourself.

No Registry Fix (WinVista and Win7):
The old "NoAdjustedPitch" registry fixes which corrected the garbled map selection screen problem on those windows versions does not share the same registry settings on Vista and Win7, they are somewhat similar in XP and Vista, but the subtle differences mean an equivalent solution for Vista or Win7 has not been found. You'll want to use a wrapper program to correct the tearing, read below.

Wrapper Program Solution:
The solution currently is to use a Wrapper program that runs the game in a Window (not full screen) such as with nGlide or D3DWindower 1.88, the tearing will not occur. This seems to be the only fix for Windows Vista/Win7 and ATI/AMD Video Card users.

Theory: A possible solution for full screen use which has not been verified, is to force fake vsync in DirectDraw using a pass through wrapper such as the "DDwrapper". A Compatibility Registry Fix may also correct this problem to some degree. Either a custom fix or a MS Windows OS designed fix. No solution has been found at this time. (March 2016)

EAW uses what is called 'pixel fog' or also called 'Table Fog' in D3D. The old video cards; RIVA 128, RIVA128ZX and the RIVA TNT all emulate table fog using vertex based fog. The GeForce 256 supports table fog in hardware. (EAW can use either hardware detection or emulation) Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 do NOT support 'fog tables' under DirectX 9c,10/11, directly.

Video Mode and Card:
The lack of fog occurs in D3D with the NVIDIA cards using Windows Vista and above. (ATI had the same issue back in the year 2005 - 2006 or so, but then AMD/ATI video cards add back into there video drivers support for such fog. This was back somewhere in Dec 2007 to 2008 (ATI driver 10-07) / (Catalyst 7.12 driver)). The updated drivers not only worked for the modern cards, but works on old ATI XPRESS 200 , Radeon x1300 and Radeon x1600 pro video cards as well. NVIDIA never have added back support for the old fog effect that is in EAW, It was and has been request by gamers back then in 2005. Nvidia did have an "enable fog-table emulation" option in there video control panel to help for awhile, but that ability was later dropped from support in there drivers and since has not returned. the next paragraph is what was in their control panel:

"Enable Fog Table Emulation: This option is used to turn fog table emulation on or off. Direct3D specifies that a display adapter capable of Direct3D hardware acceleration should be able to implement either vertex fog or table fog. Note: Some games do not correctly query the Direct3D hardware capabilities and expect table fog support. Enabling this option ensures that such games run properly with your NVIDIA graphics processor." -(Quote from a Nvidia very old Manual and no longer in Nvidia drivers.)

Shaders and DirectX:
'Table (pixel) fog' could be emulated through Pixel Shaders in DirectX 10. However this appears to require that the EAW FOG code be updated to utilize these newer specific calls. For the quick fix; backwards legacy/emulation at the display driver level should be done first with NVIDIA devices, such as ATI has accomplished back in 2007.

Another option is, D3D to support the Fog again directly, or even a Windows OS Compatibility Fix. None of the special DirectX wrapper programs seem to help either (they don't produce Fog).

Glide Solution:
One solution is to use a glide wrapper such as nGlide or dgVoodoo and run EAW in Glide Mode which will produce the Horizon Fog regardless of your video hardware or Windows / DirectX version. See the section in this help doc named GLIDE NOTES for details about Glide and EAW.

EAW uses two picture sizes for everything but sometimes only one is used depending on your settings in game and your video card. As one picture size has 4 times more detailed then the other it can lead to shimmering effects, especially in the distance when the high res textures are used.

Shimmering and Screen Resolution:
Shimmering also depends on the selected screen resolution for the game as well as the video driver used, EAW supports resolutions up to 1600*1200 and sometimes even higher. You must upgrade to at least the 1.1 version for these resolutions to become available, (you can set them in your EAW.INI with notepad).
Installing one of the available custom terrain sets may improve things even further. (There was attempt to do a partial terrain shimmering fix via graphically in the EAW v1.28a update, but that partial fix has no apparent results on today's hardware)...

Old Solution:
The solution for older Windows and older Video Cards was to turn on Anisotropic filtering, (either via a tweaking tool such for the very old Nvidia drivers, 40.72 or below; RivaTuner, GeForce Tweak Utility or NVMax.) or if your video driver control panel supports it directly, you can enable it there, perhaps setting it to 8x. This would reduce or eliminate the terrain shimmering back in the late 1990's and early 2000's. This was also a problem for ATI video card users as well and the same setting needed to be applied, if possible.

On Win7/8/10 this feature is present in the Nvidia control panel, however it has no effect on the shimmer what so ever, same is true for ATI cards....Read the next section named VIDEO CARD CONTROL PANEL for more information.

Nvidia's Default EAW 3D Settings(4-19-2016):
Ambient Occlusion - Not supported
Anisotropic Filtering - Global (App Controlled)
Antialiasing FXAA - Global (off)
Antialiasing Gamma Correction - Global (On)
Antialiasing Mode - Global  (App Controlled)
Antialiasing Setting - Global (App Controlled)
Antialiasing Transparency - Global (Off)
CUDA GPUs - Global (All)
Max Pre-Rendered Frames - Global (Use 3D App Setting)
Multi-Display/Mixed GPU Acceleration - Global (Multiple Performance)
Power Management Mode - Global (Adaptive)
Shader Cache - Global (On)
Texture Filtering Anisotropic Sample Optimization - Global (Off)
Texture Filtering Negative LOD bias - Global (Allow)
Texture Filtering Trilinear Optimization - Global (On)
Thread Optimization - Global (Auto)
Triple Buffering - Global (Off)
Vertical Sync - Global (Use 3D App Setting)
Virtual Reality Pre-Frames - Global (1)

(Changes - Tested 10-4-2016  Driver: 372.90):
Power Management Mode - Global (Optimal)
Texture Quality - Global (Quality)

Settings That Make A Difference:

• (2015)
  -Anti-aliasing. x2 in Override Mode is all you need to get rid of the step edges on the planes. (I didn't notice any difference above that, tested on Win7 and Win10)
   
• (June of 2017)
  -Anti-aliasing FXAA. After a Win10 and Video Card driver update, I was able to use this setting, it smoothes the DirectDraw and in game flight screens, not just the edges but the full screen.

Note Wrappers:
Some Wrapper programs may have graphical improvements built in. If at all possible set them in your Video control Panel first, then if that don't work set them in the Wrapper program. This includes Edge AA, Full Screen AA and even Anisotropic Filtering. You may have to do these in an "Override Mode".

The garbled cockpits are merely caused by too many objects and drawings in the game. Its a problem that can happen on some video card / computer combinations when there are a lot of custom textures for Terrains and/or Ground Objects that use a large amount of PC memory and possibly caused by too many loaded files...which doesn't leave enough memory for the game itself to run properly. This can happen with large sound files as well; When for instance texture memory only leaves a small space for playing sound files, then even a large sound file can cause problems.

...Some believe nobody should have problems of "garbled cockpits" or "rocket freezing" if running in Glide mode with texture memory limited to 2 or 4 MB: EAW was born when graphic cards had no more than 4 MB memory, as a consequence its code simply can't manage more...

It can cause palette information to be overwritten and with certain cards cause the so called rocket freeze. Some graphic corruptions noticed where the external plane skin could get 'mapped' all over the cockpit models interiors of the aircraft or other disasters. Note: Some of the garbled cockpits aren't caused by a memory issue or file count but merely by using a wrong image or 3D model. The problem can be cured by adding the proper cockpit to the plane (Note: you can not always use a cockpit from another plane).

Workarounds:
...There where three known garbled cockpit workaround options by hex editing the eaw.exe, one for the Glide cards, one for the D3D cards, and one for the early TNT cards. The fixes for each where not the same, and one fix would work against the other fix, so it was not possible to include a universal garbled cockpit workaround...

Effective Workarounds:
One of the effective implementations from idea's from VBH's texture and memory handling findings and Col. Gibbon had in November and  December of the year 2003 would require hex editing the exe to prevent the low resolution terrain tiles and "***s.TPC" files from loading (replaced it with '.tpc' without the s). Forcing the game not to load LR textures could possibly save 75% memory...So you can use more high resolution objects before the garbled cockpits reappear...the game can still Crash to desktop if the workaround doesn't apply to a given video card that doesn't handle textures the same way as the fix was designed for...from what I understand Andy placed this fix in his hex modified eaw12c4 exe (and the 1.1 equivalent)...Its for most but not all machines...works with Glide and TNT cards more often then it does for early Geforce cards(FX5000 series seems to work with it)....

A Quick Solution:
One quick solution is to go into the games Configuration screen and change either the "Terrain Detail" or "Ground Object Detail" to the 'Medium' setting, maybe even to 'Low", maybe even both. This should correct the scrambled cockpit effect on computer systems with low video and system memory. It also depends on how many custom add-ons you are using if these settings will noticeably work.

The desktop mouse pointer will sometimes appear in the center of the screen, frozen. The game will work fine and you can still use the in-game mouse to move around.

Usually a game restart will fix this problem temporarily. If not try turning off in Windows; 3D Pointer or Animated Pointers or Shadow Pointer. You can also try to use the Windows default pointers as a last resort.

The in game movies force a Crash To Desktop. This is most annoying when flying the stock campaigns - the London blitz video cannot play, and neither can the D-day video. It's known that EAW has a bug in a career in the D-Day era...Many had try to find solutions...but not a solid fix emerged so far. This is the notorious career bug which seems to afflict some who run EAW under Win XP. Most often, someone playing a German career somewhere in 1944 range will notice a problem just as a movie is supposed to launch.

The video clips within the game are all in Smacker format. This particular code in the exe is for 8-bit playback only. It was developed for older systems and not indented to run on NT systems like WinXP or beyond. Rad, the makes of Smacker have made the BINK format for NT systems. However there is a free substitute for the 8-bit Smacker Playback called libsmacker - Its C library for Win32 that decodes Smacker videos. It should cure this problem if the code is replaced and updated in the eaw.exe, its untested as of 3-12-2016 as there are no Hardware programmers in the EAW community.

For now to solve this problem there are replacement MOVIE.CDF files. There is a small movies CDF or a no movie CDF file. Copy one of the replacement files, the small or no movies CDF file into your EAW directory to replace the 284MB existing file. The resulting effect will be that the movies will not be shown. This will help in the event that your getting a CTD or other problems.

An other option is to turn off smacker videos in the eaw.ini file (this file is in your game folder and opens with Notepad). Set  PlayIntro=0  and  Video Playback=0.

Broken Display Text:
This occurs when using 3Dfx GLIDE Mode in EAW at higher resolutions. Testing resulted in the stock v1.2 game defaulting down to 640x480 with a res higher than 1280x1024 but less than 1600x1200.

Glide Resolution Limits:
Remember that some higher resolutions may only be available in Direct3D. Also remember that some of the high resolutions will be limited by the amount of video memory and the capability of your monitor. For 3Dfx Glide users the maximum resolution seems to be 1600x1200. If you have a resolution in the stock v1.2 game set above 1280x1024 but under 1600x1200, it will force your pilots seat to be pushed all the way to the cockpit dash and have an actual res defaulted down to 640x480.

Plane Rendering:
It appears that Glide is more sensitive to Plane Model errors, specifically the Rendering Sequence errors that a modeler might run into. The default stock planes will display okay, but quite a few of the communities add-on planes have visual problems such as corrupted skins, holes, vanishing plane pieces and upside down or backward elements (Ex: The top of the wing displays on the underside and vice versa) caused by Glide that are not there for the exact same add-on when flown in D3D. So if the model looks good in Glide, it will look good in D3D.

Skin colors (with Glide API v2.43):
When in glide mode (using the old Glide API v2.43 found in EAWv1.2), the game gets all it's colors from a single 8bit fixed single palette of 256 colors rather than from the palettes associated with each image like found in D3D Mode. This mode can display many more (24bit) colors. That is why in Glide Mode you can get funky colors on some Plane Skins. A Rule of thumb is that If colors show up correctly in Glide, they should work normally in D3D, but not always the other way around.

Note the HUD Colored text:
is taken from the first 12 colors and appear to be the same regardless of video API, because they are the same in all standard palettes...

BMP in old Glide API:
It cannot use the 512x512 24 bit BMP graphics files found in source modified versions of EAW used in many multi-skin plane sets. These display only properly during gameplay.

Note View Objects Display:
Sometimes an add-on skin will not look right in the pre-game "View Objects" screen but will appear perfectly normal when you actually fly the sim. This is due to the fact that EAW loads all of its color palettes for gameplay, but apparently only one specific palette for the View Objects screen. If your skin uses a color or colors not contained in the View Objects palette, then the airplane in the View Objects screen display will not likely appear properly. So don't worry if the plane doesn't look right in View Objects; it's the gameplay that counts!

Note Glide API 3.0:
See the section GLIDE NOTES in my CodeGroup Know Bugs and Features Ideas Help Document for information regarding Glide 3.0 introduced in source modifications by Zeus, and transplanted by MrJelly into older versions.

This section describes some of the benefits of how EAW really runs on Win8/10 (and some info about WinVista/7).

DirectDraw:
In Windows 8/8.1 Microsoft deprecated DirectDraw even more so. It's been superseded with something called Direct2D, and this doesn't provide the full boosted performance to old DirectDraw games like the original accelerated DD DirectX did.
This directly effects the Frames Per Second in EAW's Flight Screen, as they have dropped dramatically from Windows 7 EAW performance, Nearly in half. From around 60 to down to around 30FPS, sometimes slower in heavy trafficked game moments (and on low spec machines). There has been many post made to Microsoft about this issue, so far no update has addressed it (June 2018).

Windows 10 Nearly Full Compatibility:
I found out that Windows 10 applies an automatically detected 8/16 bit color and Compatibility Fix to display the in game DirectDraw Menu Screens perfectly (unlike Win7). This may be partly also why EAW runs slower in the flight screen in Win8.1/10 than on Windows 7. (I believe DirectDraw is used for the HUD text "overlay" during the flight screen in EAW).

Windows 7 In Comparison:
Windows (perhaps Vista as well) 7 applied a Compatibility Fix of some sort, but lacked the 8 bit color fix for the menu screens (that are displayed with DirectDraw). To correct the colors you have to apply a 3rd party (but really a Microsoft Setting) Registry color fix for the Accelerated DirectDraw screens to work correctly. Even though this Registry setting was applied, EAW ran at full speed on those Windows OS versions.

ACT System Database Compatibility Fixes:
To speed things up in the emulation layer of Win10 I've tried many , many fixes that I could come up with, none worked (early 2018) However Since then, with deeper testing (later in 2018) using the ACT toolkit for Win10, I've found some tweaks to increase speed and performance corrections, however testing is incomplete and limited currently (June 2018)...

Wrapper Testing:
Also while doing some later tests I found that there are a few existing D3D/DirectX wrapper programs that don't work at all on Win10, however some do actually provide performance improvements (higher FPS), I had success with the latest version of DXWND Wrapper Program. As an option you can use a wrapper program called nGlide or dgVoodoo to provide the 3Dfx Glide support that dramatically increase FPS (also NVIDIA missing Horizon Fog is restored).

Fast CPU/MotherBoard/Memory:
Since a High End Video Card is not going to (at this point) improve FPS on EAW (EX: I updated GTX560SC 1 gig ram to a GTX960 2gig ram and there was no noticable improvment). If you system is a bit older (2010 or older) or low spec,
you can increase FPS with a high end CPU combined with a high performance Motherboard and Memory that takes full advantage of the CPU. Notice that Over Clocking only the CPU will provide a few frames more, but OCing the MB and Memory as well shows much more of an improvement (Bus Speed etc.).

Lower Resolution:
Also a lower resolution will greatly out perform the extreme resolutions unofficially supported in EAW.

April 2018 Update:
The Windows10 update; version 1803 (April 2018) slows down the screen switching of EAW around 7 to 10 secs. (from a 1 to 2 sec normal delay). This applies to first loading the game, and going from the main menu to the Loading Fuel Gauge, and exiting Flight Screen back to Mission Results Screen. Its unclear what Microsoft did to cause this...I figure its the speed at witch its loading the textures and graphics, including the models.

Test Results:
There is no FPS counter in v1.2, (you can use FRAPS or a better program) Anything near 15fps or below will drastically effect how the game performs, especially the A.I.'s aggressiveness. 

I checked the stock EAW v1.2 for smoothness. It rates Good.

I also tested the FXEXE Modification by VBH and its comparable to v1.2 as far as smoothness, (FXEXE has been optimized to support it's own new features). (Keep in mind, with the FXEXE all objects remain visible for their maximum view distance, even above the clouds. That and an extra cloudlayer and 3D clouds add significant amount of textures + polygons, all added to your views and WILL slow down the game. How much just depends on the power of the PC used.)
 

Gunsight Flips with Resolution Setting: (Started with v1.2)

Resolution setting Flips the gunsight drawing upside down when lower or above the 1024 x 768 pixels resolution. Then the gunsight will be even more off centre in the other direction when a custom g.s. offset drawing is used.
PapaRomeo custom gunsights has two versions, One corrects the flipped G.S. However with two files one can be wrong in one resolution and the other one might not be right in another resolution. It's just a workaround of the problem. When people don't know which files is in effect or what resolution should be set to get it right then it can only become problematic for users. This needs to be corrected in the source code.

Instrument Gauges fuzzy or blurry, un-readable: (Started at least as low as v1.0)

Graphically I find the gauges unreadable, I tend to use the compass, rpm's and temperature the most, but I'm sure I'd use some others if I could read them. I even tried zooming in and zooming out on the gauges and they where all fuzzy both ways and normal view. Now this is not true with all planes but most of them. Some have very clean looking words, markers and numbers. There are the "Sharpened" instruments which where done by some of the EAW community back in the early 2000's, they are an improvement but not enough of one.

I'm uncertain what the maximum DPI the game can load and use? But It uses a very small 256x256 pcx image resolution to place all the working AND non-working dials onto. The way the past community members "sharpened" the dials where they used larger dials on the same location of the old dial, and kept the center of the new larger dial in the same place. This would give the artist a more pixels to work with and they relatively came out clearer. The markings on the dials stayed in focus for the most part. They also use Fonts to draw/add to the dials themselves. They even went as far as placing unneeded gauges on other pcx files and just remapped them to give more space on the default pcx image. An option they used to start with clean and clear dials is to borrow from another WWII flight sim and use their gauges, either by ripping them or by getting screenshots and doing some scaling and re-sampling then some cut and pasting.

To truly get the gauges upto a worth wild image quality is to use a 512x512 pcx table image to work with. At that resolution the dials stay fully intact cause there typically double in size. Remember your only using a portion of the pcx image for each dial, but they will be clear.

RESULT:
Here's what it comes down to: It's a fault in EAW that's been there from the beginning...

The gauges right out of the box were never very good. (Some where readable at 640x480). Most guys only needed the digital display in the lower corners to fly and fight successfully. About the only gauges that were important were the fuel and attitude gauges. Both of which are good enough as is.

Sure a few aficionados watched their temp gauges but I'd hazard a guess that the average offline player turned off engine overheating in the difficulty settings. Seems like a good compromise as all you could do was throttle back to reduce temps. EAW doesn't have a full engine management set of controls so there aren't any cowl flaps to fiddle with. (Not sure but I think the online players do have to watch engine management a bit more.)

At this point, 14 years later there isn't anyone around to upgrade a couple of hundred different cockpits. (There is no central bank of gauges/dials that the game can load from, each plane has its own dials even if they are the same on another plane.)

Resolutions higher than 640x480 automatically force you to use the less detailed virtual cockpit structure. However the gauges that come from the static cockpits remain the same poor quality, possibly even looking worse at such un-heard of resolutions for this game.

Memory Allocation Slow Downs and Crashes to Desktop: (Started since v1.0)

...The amount of RAM in your machine is of no help here really as EAW uses fixed allocation addresses and between the arrays there isn't much free space for any additions and the allowed sizes aren't really known, it's touch and go there, the only use would be a bigger swap file which should result in a smoother operation of the game...The file allocation problem is inherent to the game, it hampers additional textures, terrain, objects, sky tiles and planes. Add-ons which cross the +/- 50MB boundary (minus the default files replaced) will often result in problems, usually leading to weird colored textures, messed up terrain, objects appearing in space and Lord knows what else...It's not your system, there's just a limit to what this game can do...

MSNxy.DAT Files and Multiplayer: (Started since v1.0?)

The MSNxy.dat files (found in DATA.CDF) contain probabilities of certain AI planes appearing. They caused a problem in multiplayer work because they often generated different AIs on different players' PCs.EX: One player could be shooting down an AI plane seen as a P47C and on another computer it would be a P38H. Also another example is if the mission is an Intercept of allied planes one axis pilot might see B17s escorted by P47Cs and another might see B24s escorted by P38Hs.

The probability needs to be transferred / passed from Host to all players, rather than each computer generating there own.

Mod tool authors back when a frontend known as OAW unified was designed, made is so the files were edited by the OAW selector and gave certain aircraft a 100% chance of appearing which guaranteed that all players saw the same AIs.

That method became redundant in the CodeGroups EAWv1.28 when in that version they where able to set the friendly and enemy primary and secondary aircraft and bases from within the games newly expanded Host Parameter Screen.

A BUG LIST (for v1.2)

• 7217 Video error needs fixing (update the games frontend to 32bit) (a workaround was coded into v1.28)
• AI´s rarely use cannons while intercepts.
• Online the host doesn't hear most of the impacts (hostbug).
• Online the host doesn't have any noisy alarm before the motor broke cause of overheat
• The rocketfreeze (there is a workable solution).
• The AI´s behave horrible while escorting; They fly straight most of the time and only start to act if they are very close to the bombers. (while quickmissions the AI´s behave much better).
• While a interdict the escorting AI´s return to base if the player don't enable Autopilot right after gamestart.
• Every bullet shows a tracer, so we cant use realistic rate of fire (or it look horrible ugly).
• The time to overheat isn't modifiable for each plane.
• While a groundstart the engine temperature should be the same like after 'alt N'. Currently the planes can fly more than a half hour with full power, until they overheat. Therefore it don't make sense to model WEP. On the other hand without WEP the planes should not overheat as fast.
• The 'Blast Damage' effect of the bombs doesn't work on all groundtargets. Therefore it must need a direct hit to destroy targets.
• We don't have a editable undercarriage damage model.
• The AI´s much to often reduce power while maneuvering.
• The sun doesn't disturb (blind) enough.
• Damaged leading Bomber doesn't leave the formation early enough (it 'drags' the whole formation down (lose altitude) and slow in speed. and Unfortunately the leader is the primary target of the AI´s attack).
• Respawn while groundstarted onlinemissions don't work (Players should respawn into a new plane on the runway, not one of the AI´s. Somewhat a groundstarted mayhem).
• EAW players miss the possibility to join a onlinegame after it gets started (at least in mayhem join in progress should be possible)
• EAW is missing a rearview graphic (I would like a rearview graphic, instead of a completely disabled rearview).
• The ATI missing horizon fog problem. (This was fixed by AMD with updated ATI video drivers)
• The NVIDIA missing horizon fog problem with D3D.
• The ATI corrupt briefing map problem.
• The minimum ALT of viewposition is to high, therefore wingi-planes on the ground look strangely small. The problem when looking out your cockpit while lined up on the runway, and you are way higher than the rest of the Aircraft? You feel HUGE next to the other planes. But once in the air, the scaling seems perfect. I don't understand why there is so much difference?
• Only once in awhile can I get wingman/flight to hit ground targets. Usually, they all dive down and drop everything way before, or way after the target.
• Also, the AI and the original flight plan, always drops on target from the side, instead of from the length. For instance, a train is attacked from the side, instead of it's length.
  Same with ships. (PAW always attacked ships lengthwise.) This is not a problem if I am the lead, as I can just change the approach.
• we are limited to the amount of animation for landing gear? Seems like right now, you only get a little bit of animation, before the next frame shows them completely closed or open.
• when you make a flyable bomber, that the flight cannot use the AI bomber routine, where they can bomb from altitude, instead of just a fighter/slot routine. (B-17's diving to bomb is funny, at best. Even if I'm lead, they all dive except for my wingman.)
• We need a reliable garble cockpit fix.
• Night does not affect the ability of the enemy to see you or other planes.
• My biggest complaint when I was flying was the aircraft would spin instead of just stalling. (you always where able to disable the Spin in the EAW difficulty configure! But EAW includes a stall before a spin, if your stick setup and skill is ok, a spin rarely happened, while stalls are normal).

-------------FEATURE IDEAS-------------
 

Make Pilot Map KEY a Toggle: (Started since v1.0)
For obvious reasons I'd like the Pilot Map Key (Default [ALT M]) to be a toggle rather than just ON. As a note, many people re-assign the key to just [M]. I always expected that key to bring me back to the last view I was on before entering the map. If that's not possible, the best choice is to get me back looking forward in the cockpit.

Pilot Map Zoom: (Needed Since much higher resolutions are used now, since v1.1)
Clearly the pilots map needs to be able to zoom in and out to see the orientation of the planes and positions, etc.. prefer to use holding down LMB and and move mouse forward and backward to zoom in and out, same as the free camera controls. Perhaps only three levels of zoom required.

As far as I can tell by research, no one has been able to code this into the game...

New Sounds and Slots, Pilot Radio: (Started with v1.0)
We need at least three random pilot's radio sounds. Such as Crackling, Squawking or feedback sounds to be played randomly during a "transmission" of the standard radio voice. The random bit would also have to have a random length of time the sound will loop for, Sometimes Short, Medium or Long. To give the effect of poor radio reception or mic activation or other radio woes. To do this manually this would require loading each sound up in a Sound Editor and applying the overlaid sound you would want to add. Not ideal given how many of RADIO voice messages there are, best to program in three random sound slots.

32 Voices: (Started with v1.0)
We have 16 bit sounds with 16 Voices, how about 32 voices played at one time. It should fix the sound drop outs and lowering of the volume of more distance ones when the 16 limit is frequently hit.

New Sounds and Slots, Plane Functions: (Started with v1.0)
We need a few extra slots, or use existing slots that have no sound assigned to them, for other "functions" of the plane, such as flaps moving, control surfaces/structure creaking during high speed maneuvers, etc...just to make things a bit more thrilling and action paced. Assign them to plane performance situations, such as so much g-force = this sound played for so long. The old game AIR WARRIOR III Millennium version, had such sounds. The plane would moan as its structure was pushed in different directions.

Full Realism Settings - Limit the use of those Arcade Features:

1:No padlocking
2:No cockpit off
3:No external views
4:No targeting
5:No HUD display readouts
6:Equal terrain heights
7:Only allow one Step zoom for cockpit.
8:Only allow one Zoom factor for pilots map.
9:CRC32 check for all current game data files in multiplay.

Separate Stalls and Spins: (Started since v1.0)
Stalls/Spins for the most part in other Sims don't happen at the same time, but in EAW they happen every time you stall out from lack of speed and in sharp turns with lack of lift. Separating the effects when realistically they would be. This would yield better control of the plane.

Bring back the Retro MPS Mission Fuel Gauge Loading Screen: (Started at least as low as v1.1)
The original game had a very nice looking retro looking MPS "fuel" gauge that showed Mission Progress loading, it gave flavor and function to the game. In the stock game it's available in 640x480. However the other resolutions do not have the gauge, there is just a blank black screen while the mission is loading.

Bring Back Standard Cockpit Displays: (started at v1.1)
We loose working standard cockpits with resolutions higher than 640x480. The game switches to the Virtual Cockpit when screen resolutions are set higher than the stock default. But it's still low in graphical detail and appears bland in comparison to to the standard cockpits that we once enjoyed. Plus we no longer get Bullet Holes or Oil on the screen.

No one has found away to use the more detailed 2D 'static' cockpit displays again at higher resolutions...They still load with the game however, your just not seeing them...

FIELD OF VIEW (FOV) - Widen it for Widescreens: (Started with v1.1)
So what's the problem with FOV? At custom Widescreen resolutions one would expect to get a better FOV like 60 degrees in the Virtual Cockpit forward view rather than the existing 45 degrees. The whole idea is basically to get a proper wider forward cockpit view of at least 60 degrees with the Widescreen resolutions without having the cockpit dashboard too far away from the virtual pilots eye. There's no solution that I know of other than programming in true WideScreen Support, which has not completely happened in any modification of EAW.

The current programming MicroProse introduced in EAWv1.1 when raising the resolution has the "viewing area" only slightly increase or widen, while at the same time its actually moving the pilot seat back a bit to gain more viewable area on each side of the cockpits frame; The higher the FOV, the smaller the HUD printing, targeting sight and plane models become. This is a problem that shouldn't be with true widen FOV and has caused issues for people with poor eye sight when they set there smaller monitors to higher resolutions in game. On a plus side, the higher resolutions in game have a denser pixel count, thereby making even distant planes look like planes instead of a jumble of pixels, the down side is they will be small. Obviously, the larger the monitor screen, the easier it will be to see the smaller print or objects.

Larger Font:
If you find an FOV that you like, but feel the print is too small to read, you can try King Rat's "Large HUD Font" EAW. This is available from a number of sites The first one is 1.2b; that is for the 1.2a patch. The second one is 1.21; that is for the "normal" EAW 1.2. Both of these are hex edited to be used as a No-CD fix for EAW...See my HexEdited Patches Help Document for more information, you also may want to read the my Community Addons and Files Help Document on information regarding HUD fonts in the cockpit.

The Virtual Cockpit:
When running at a higher resolution, pressing the F1 key simply gives you the "F8" view, the F1 views are no longer available. These are the "fixed" or "2D" cockpit displays. Unfortunately, know one has been able to make these appear in anything but the low 640 x 480 default resolution where those cockpits look nice, but the graphics out of the flight window are ugly. Instead, you will only have the F8 view, the 3D Virtual Cockpit display, where that cockpit looks terrible, but the graphics out of the flight window are detailed, its an unfortunate compromise. The actual VC display is graphically made at 800x600 (In EAWv1.28 the VC display was up-scaled and re-inserted into the game at 1024x768 to try and improve its quality a tad bit, less jagged edges).

FOV vs Resolution:
We know the standard forward 2D static cockpit view resolution is 640x480(default) and its FOV is at 45 degrees. The 3D Virtual Cockpit of 800x600 seems to have the widest setting, its wider than the very narrow 1024x768 setting which is far less than defaults (your pilot seat is actually pushed forward up against the dash). 1152x864 is wider than 1024x768. A resolution of 1280x960 is the same to the default 640x480 FOV. 1280x1024 is wider than the default but not as wide as 800x600. 1600x1200 appears to give the same FOV as the widest 800x600. If you increase the video mode from 1600x1200 to larger values then the field of view increases only slightly, it just depends upon how good a display device and video card you have. 2048x1536 will display a very good field of view.

It's best to pick a resolution your happy with where the MPS pilot seat adjustments are not too far, but far enough from the cockpit dash and you have a tad more viewing area on the left and right side of your screen. Any Resolution that is of a 4:3 aspect ratio will have a very close 45 degree FOV, this is the way the game was first designed. A square aspect screen will keep the targeting sight in the cockpit round in shape rather than oval. If the sight is oval in shape, then you are stretching the screen.

These are 4:3 aspect ratio resolutions:
640x480
800x600
1024x768
1152x864
1280x960
1400x1050
1600x1200
2048x1536

5:4 aspect ratio resolutions:
1280x1024
1600x1280

16:9 aspect ratio resolutions:
1280x720
1360x768
1366x768
1600x900
1920x1080

16:10 aspect ratio resolutions:
1440x900
1680x1050
1920x1200

Just to inform you that the stock EAWv1.2 static 2D cockpit views done by MicroProse where designed to provide overlapping so you don't miss anything. You can actually follow a target around the canopy and not loose sight of it as you switch views. However, as it is, the overlap is small and The REAR UP View is narrow, even with padlock.

 

Note: In the stock EAW v1.2 your face is right up to the dash at the 1024x768 setting.
(Note: In VBH's FXEXE he has the option to move the pilot seat back a step or two with keypad MINUS to widen the FOV, a new feature that wasn't in the stock game.)

True and full 60 degree FOV should be incorporated only when 16:9 or 16:10 Widescreen Resolutions are really used, with the added function/ability to adjust ones pilot seat position manually. This would allow all resolutions to be able to increase there point of view differently.

EAWs Frontend – Enhance the built-in EAW frontend: (started with win32 bit systems/winXP)
As helpful as the many existing external front-ends are, Improving the built-in frontend so we can configure the flight from with-in the game itself as well as move the more appropriate eaw.ini settings to the in-game frontend would be helpful. Perhaps we can have drop down menus to choose from if the 8bit in game frontend was updated to 32bit.

Multiplayer Radio - Allow leader to assign orders to human players:
Add it so the human players receive the basic Radio orders or commands, and allow them to reply with there own radio menu.

This would allow faster orders to be given to all pilots, not just AI. Just the basic commands need to be programmed, with voice and text on the receiving end would be helpfully.

A FEATURE LIST

• Add a gunconvergence option. (added to v1.28+)
• would like to see coastline flak units meet the intruders en-route to and from the mission objective...(this is a targets.dat issue and is easily done)
• would like to see attacks on bomber formations to be more random as far as location and also number of intercepting aircraft are concerned...
• would really like see a solution to gun convergence...(Ralf has an idea for setting a work around for gun convergence ... so that is under investigation)
• would like to see the A/I pilots bailout of their aircraft after it runs out of fuel or before it gets below 800ft...
• would like to see the lead bomber leave the formation after sustaining battle damage instead of dragging the whole formation down to ground level...
• would like to see variable weather conditions en-route and over the target...
• would like to see battle smoke rising from the moving battle line...
• smoke columns last longer and rise higher (this is now fixed.... along with much better contrails too...)
• would like to see a bomber's smoking engine either be feathered and the smoke stops or the smoke develops into a fire which increases and finally causes the bomber to leave the formation and go down...
• would like to see the captured pilot escape and return to his unit after a few weeks or months...
• would like to see Liberators and Fortress formations fly together...
• would like to see fighters with variable markings...
• would like to see numbers of bombers and escorts increase as game advances...
• would like to see the skill level of Luftwaffe match historic reports as game advances...
• would like to see ship conveys move (with wakes) as do their land counterparts...(such convoys always have existed in eaw they are controlled by 14 bytes in the exe setting their start and end positions on the map, and appear if you set up an interdict on a site with a shipyard... adding the wakes isn't too difficult, we can use the shadow file for that...both VB and I have done that for the basic ships...)
• would like to see personalized A/C for player both online and offline...
• would like to see the enlarged shadow of crashing, landing A/C reduced to proper scale...
• would like to actually see and catch the Luftwaffe on the ground or just taking off as the mission briefing dialogue suggests...
• would like to see actual 3d clouds...available in OLDER games made before EAW.
• would like to see escort fighters actually attack the intercepting fighters with a little more enthusiasm...
• would like to see supply barges on the rivers...
• would like to see Railroad Marshalling Yards with multiple track systems and freight car targets on track sidings...(these are either ttd or target objects and now exist in the newer campaigns we have rail yards with separate targetable wagons in both SAW and Iraq.. (and possibly FAW though I haven't asked VonOben)... and in SAW we have pretty busy ports/ river sides with shipping and dock installations to hit.)
• would like to have bridges included as mission targets...(is under active examination at the moment and is an issue with both the mission files and the tmod table in the exe.... hang in there I am determined to get this one going !!!)
• would like to see ground armor situated along the moving battle lines...( hmmm.. in SAW we have static armor and trench lines along the frontline... and of course there are moving convoys randomly placed down there too.... but not purposeful moving armor such as in strike fighters...)
• would like to see more troop ships located at all the landing beaches during D-Day...(easy to do and troops on the beaches, and armour and supply dumps etc... just needs a new tardata.dat making..with the new tools that is easy...(see moggy's dunkirk)...)
• would like to see the railway network across Europe increased to match more realistic patterns...(with the newest tardata editor we can make new railways easily... so the technology now exists for this one to be as complex as you want)
• would like to have V-2 sites developed and placed on the missions list...including V-2's and their launch platforms(and new tanks, new terrains, new trucks, a new US Jeep, LSTs, LCTs, and many, many more TMODs, etc, etc, etc)...
• surprise effect ! (The enemy squadron always sees you coming.) How about diving on a fighter squadron who does not suspect you are there ?
• Searchlights, they would look soo nice!
• More planes for formation ( Yes I need more of it ;\) )
• Better Escorting fighters behavior
• Not need a direct hit to destroy a tank
• Airfields attacks, with planes sitting in the ground not only destroying buildings
• And the best of the best: Random traffic on the roads, we are almost alone in Europe now (If I'm not wrong only 8 trucks move along countryside )
• how about randomizing the position of intercepting ai so they don't always meet us '5 minutes out'... apparently this was more randomized in the original 1.0 game and this was lost in the 1.2 update.
• Enemies encountered are ALWAYS 12 (apart big bombers) and ALWAYS at "ten minutes to target".
• the original BOB campaign shows us that the game is capable of generating squads on separate missions to the players mission.... so how about a little more random air activity too ??...
• How about bridges as bombing targets... they were important targets in ww2 I seem to remember...available in OLDER games made before EAW.
• Aircrafts of same type wear all same livery. No squadron/personnel insignia's...available in OLDER games made before EAW. (done in v1.28)
• I miss that german late war fighters with "Reichsvertedingund" colored fuselage bands.
• Mission type is almost fixed depending on air force you fly for.
• AI should play absolutely same flight model of player.
• Would like to see a wider field of view in cockpit i.e being able to zoom view out farther.
• Wheels and control surfaces moving
• More defensive artillery at ground target locations. Radar sites and convoy strikes are very "sterile" as there is little defense to keep you on your toes.
• Shipping that pounds the air with machine gun and flak fire.
• Bridge targets with defensive artillery and multiple convoys/vehicles.
• Improved AI logic when attacking ground targets, not the usual "carpet" style attacks of drop and run but more strategic selection of specific and individual targets.
• More randomness of enemy intercept fighters on ground attack missions. Groups of 2-3 or more but at random to suggest they were called in by ground forces under attack.

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