Written and Edited by: MarkEAW
[ GOTO THE MAIN EAWHS PAGE ]

CONTENTS
INTRO
-------------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
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
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
The bugs listed here are from the MPS Official released
v1.0, 1.1, and v1.2, they are connected with the original
code of EAW. Most of the problematic issues where tested and verified a few times
each. Not all are listed, so if you find any, in any
version of the game, please contact me so I can add to this list.
-------------KNOWN BUGS-------------
Default Rudder Keys Are Reversed: (Started at least as low as
v1.2)
For some reason the MPS programmers changed or accidently modified
the default Rudder key assignments. They are currently assigned like
this:
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
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
Troubleshoot 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 Troubleshoot 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 WindowsOS, the other is used for 32bit WindowsOS): The DirectDraw Compatibility Tool writes
here:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DirectDraw\Compatibility\eaw
and
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectDraw\Compatibility\eaw
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
EAW has a problem where the map display screens are severely garbled
as viewed during pre-briefing sessions (in campaign games) or when
setting home base/target parameters (in single missions). The
tearing is almost half the screen.
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)
This is a Vista/Win7/Win8/Win10 problem that occurs in D3D mode,
there is no Horizon Fog in the flight screen. (there will be a sharp
boundary between sky and ground. You will see the corners of the
square EAW world) which ruins the visual quality. (Even with the
HorizonDistance setting in game set to the maximum view distance
(minimum fog), the Fog is still suppose to be present.) It would be
displayed from ground to sky.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.
The terrain shimmering is highly noticeable about the last one or
two quarters of the way looking out your cockpit window, heading
towards the horizon, it's even more noticeable if you don't have
Horizon Fog covering the real distant terrain.
EAW uses two "picture" sizes (lores and hires) for
everything but sometimes only one is used depending on your detail settings
in game and your video card/driver capabilitys. 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.
This makes it
difficult anytime there are aircraft below the horizon as you can't
see them due to the fuzzyness. Other objects on the ground are known
to shimmer as well, like Trees, Buildings and Fences. This problem
existed way back when the game was first released on Win9x/ME, and
later (year 2000), on other Window systems.
It's said that EAW has almost always had a problem with
displaying the distant terrain and objects. It could be an old D3D
issue that doesn't translate well with modern cards, or video cards
made sometime after the game was released, as early as the year
2000.
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 manually).
Installing one of the available custom terrain sets may improve
things even further, but its a hit and miss type of chance. (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, (An increased MipMap setting was also used to eliminate shimmering
back in the day). This was 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 wasn't just a Nvidia problem as a issue
for ATI video card
users as well, and the same setting needed to be applied, if possible.
On Win7/8/10 this Anisotropic filtering setting is present in the Nvidia control panel, however it has
no effect on the shimmer what so ever, same is true for modern ATI cards....Read the
next section named VIDEO CARD CONTROL PANEL for more information.
As a result of later Hardware, video drivers and DirectX compatibility
(fixes/layers) on Win7/8/8.1/10 the more advanced video settings in Nvidia's
control panel have little to no influence on the game. (See my Video
Help Document for more information on the Video Control Panel).
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. (See my Troubleshoot Help Document for more information on this with
workarounds).
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.
If you use 3DFX, realize that DirectDraw from DirectX is still being
used to display the Menu Screens. The game on modern computers
require a Glide Wrapper (such as nGlide) to be used to support the
Glide mode in the game. This will render the flight screen in Glide
and transfer it to D3D for final output, its done practically
seamlessly. Most users get better performance when using Glide, more
Frames per Second and Horizon fog on Nvidia cards. (Which is missing
in D3D Mode on NVIDIA Cards).
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.
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: Add
these settings to the in game configuration settings and to the
multiplayer menu settings.
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
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 gun sight is oval in
shape, then the screen is stretched.
These are 4:3 aspect ratio resolutions (proper ratio):
640x480
800x600
1024x768
1152x864
1280x960
1400x1050
1600x1200
2048x1536
5:3 aspect ratio resolutions:
800x480
1280x768
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
NOTES:
Overlapped Views:
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.
FXEXE Widescreen / View:
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 Widescreen FOV:
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.
[END]
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