posted 03-05- 01:50 AM            

Testers:

Spin
Reaper
Mirthain
Zoycite
Stark

We all found that there was no noticeable drop in FPS and in some cases a marginal increase. There was no desktopping during transmittal of missions. There was less choppiness in other planes online. The damage bug was less evident (P51's succesfully killed BF109's with less than 150 rounds).

So, we (the above testers) would like to put forth to the community that the standard for online flight be changed to include the use of Beta5 Build 65.

We found no negative repurcussion to doing so and some definant positives, like no CTD on mission sends and smoother gameplay.

What does everybody else think?

posted 03-05- 02:00 AM               

Yup, it was good. No problems what so ever.
I see no reason not to switch over. Asided from what Stark mentioned, it cant be any worse than the current state of the online portion of SDOE.

I'm all for the switch

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Zoycite 33rd~GS

visit The War Paint Factory

posted 03-05- 02:22 AM               

Running in 1024X768 and higher in Glide without the HUD being off-center

The option to not show enemy aircraft on map.
Combined with turning off the HUD and clouds on, this could make for some more realistic air battles.

-=TheReaper=-

posted 03-05- 02:34 AM            

follow the download link.

posted 03-05- 03:25 AM               

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Zoycite 33rd~GS

visit The War Paint Factory

posted 03-05- 04:06 AM               

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posted 03-05- 07:36 AM            

The Flyby (it is soooo cool).

We need more people in the missions to test fps more aggressively. 5 people always usually does pretty well in 1.5. So if you've got the build dust it off and join us for some tire kickin'. Also more testers will help confirm removal of the desktop bug.

Lag isn't perfect and when fps drops (which it still does but in a similar/lesser extent than 1.5) guys with slower machines still slow down and they start stopping and starting in front of you (no different from 1.5). I believe I have an idea that will reduce this significantly (but I need some help testing variables and effects more thoroughly before it goes further). If your fps drops below 20 regularly in tight furballs and want to know more, let me know.

The biggest challenge we will face in using this is online mismatches (specifically airfoils). But, it's important to know that these mismatches exist in the current game and the airfoil test was added to eliminate "unfair" airfoils being slipped into the game. We fixed the problem last night by renaming the airfoils folder or removing any files in the airfoil directory. This will be important for developers as they may have custom airfoils in the directory that may be unrelated to online planes but will cause mismatches. I have a suggestion here - put your development projects in par files and store them in the OpenPlane folder - then you can enable them (for testing) and disable them(for online compatibility) whenever you want. This would be a great way to release beta planes by the way - and there isn't a limit to the number of par files (they just go in their own folder in OpenPlane).

posted 03-05- 10:49 AM               

* B-17 Attack (over dover,no PP) - bombsite flicker, clouds had the occasional lighter grey box around them
* The mission just before the above mission (over dover, no PP) - same results as above, NOTE: The bug I remember disallowed 2 games in a row for Glide users.
* Calone (over Africa, no PP) - same as above
* B109G6 - (over rhineland, PP5.3, no patch) - no noticeable bugs, aside that the D9 flew like a hog - I couldn't loop it, and it shook like it was always going to stall, even at 270mph (not patch related ).
* B19OD9 - didn't last long enough to find any bugs - the hog died when I blew away it's engine.

posted 03-05- 01:33 PM            

Your right the overcast layer isn't the same, it's more like a fog bank. There is no ceiling to it either. It's just grey sky all the way up.

But on the other hand we get different sky colours (time of day changes). And night dover is possible can have dark sky.

posted 03-05- 01:47 PM               

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Zoycite 33rd~GS

visit The War Paint Factory

posted 03-05- 04:14 PM               

I have been using beta5 since MH put it out
back in October. I do not see debug code on my screen. Is this different from what you see? Again, all I see on the main screen is the acknowledgement that it is build 65. During a mission all I see in the lower left corner is my frame rate only. Just wondering.
Condor out

posted 03-05- 05:42 PM               

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posted 03-06- 12:58 AM               

Spyder, the only noticable drop due to the debug, might only affect the host. Still not sure about this though, just seemd that way.

But like I said if the Damage bug is fixed and can bd confirmed though a few more test, then we should make the switch.

Again a complete patch with tnt fixes would be extra nice... hint hint

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Zoycite 33rd~GS

visit The War Paint Factory

posted 03-06- 02:32 AM               

I suggest us europeans try the beta5 next sunday evening at UK1. The topic was mentioned last night and most people seemed to support it. This way the beta would get the needed multiplay testing!

Camo

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Camouflage
XO, Lentolaivue 34
www.muodos.fi/LLv34

posted 03-06- 07:52 AM               

Have I missed something? Are you saying this is possible now?

posted 03-06- 08:52 AM            

My system:
PII 400mHz, Viper 550 (TnT), 128ram, and well enough place on my HD.

If I run the game without the path (I had to deinstall SDOE and reinstall everythig), I can play well in 1028x768 and everything's great.

posted 03-06- 11:00 AM            

Yeah, that was definantly running in OpenGL, which was something sorta tagged on to see if it would work.

I did find one bug in the UI though, at least I think its a bug - could just be me. When I change resoltuions or display modes they arent always refelcted correctly in the Options/Display screen... however, they are correct in the sim, just not reported correctly in the setup screen.

So Janstar, it's possible your setup screen says your in D3D and your actually in OpenGL (mine did). Just set it to D3d and start the sim again, should be fine.

Also, you dont need to reinstall to go from Beta5 to 1.5 - the beta puts an entirely new executable in to run the sim - app.exe. To switch between the two just run the old .exe (cant remember the name). It is in fact possble to have both running at once - at least in the online lobbies, but I dont recommend it!

-Stark_33rd~GS

[This message has been edited by Stark (edited 03-06-2000).]

posted 03-06- 11:32 AM            

Is it safe to reinstall the patch and retry it by making sure I will never get in OpenGL mode??

posted 03-06- 11:45 AM            

Well, if HD space is not an issue - what I did for testing purposes and woul recommend is that you install another copy of FS to a different directory and install the patch there. This way if it kills your setup (it is a beta after all - anything is possible) you still have a working copy immediatly available.

I've installed the beta on 6 different machines though and had virtually no problems (except for the incorrect video mode being reported) so I'm inclined to think it was an unlucky accident that caused your problems the first time. I feel it's definantly worth trying again, the online play is excellent and offline is as well.

posted 03-06- 12:22 PM               

Good idea! I'll notify everyone who attends regularly soon.

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Jagdverband 44

posted 03-07- 02:29 PM               

20% increase in FPS ( running in 600 X 800 glide)V2 12 mb,celi 450
Decreased visual appearance of Terrain tiles is Notable (extremely obvious,but acceptable)
Decreased visual range(distant mtns)
(I double-checked all settings,nothing changed)
Gunsight flicker is there.Not that bad.
Clouds have box frames that appear on them from time to time.
Clouds in -cloudy weather- set-ups generally look less appealing...... scaled back abit.
Personally, I like the overcast better,especially in Rhineland Winter.

The better FPS are I'm guessing related to some of the visual penalties decribed above.

All in all,the increase in FPS should enable less warping,and the ONLINE tests done should confirm the better Damage Model and elimination of CDT.

I still however Completely Hard LOCK requiring a Reboot on occasions when exiting missions, as I do currently with the standard patch 150.exe (could be caused by overclocking/poor RAM?)

I'd say lets make the switch and test her out good.

posted 03-07- 05:17 PM            

Good point there! I think this could also be related to the seemingly decreased damage bug. Throwing out mor lead per simulation frame, so when a packet reporting damage gets through there is more being reported.

Not sure that was clear so I'll try again. Higher gun rate = more damage per sim frame. So if the packet for that frame gets through to the other machine then there is more damage applied.

In other words the damage bug may still be in full force, just less evident...which is still a plus.