posted 06-22- 01:02 AM            

01. I've got a Voodoo Banshee (by APOLLO, or whoever they are, somewhere in Nationalist China), using the WindowsUpdate driver. It's a long story, but as far as I know, that's the only one I can get working with this card. Just take it at face value. OK, so: Why is my aircraft shaking like a large Jello sculpture on the ground?

If this is normal, go ahead and say so. I installed SDOE on another computer, and it did that as well. So now I'm thinking it may be normal---but it's hard to get used to. How'd you folks do it?

02. I've got a very see-saw single-engine airplane, no matter what I fly. They kind of like to snap back and forth in maneuvers. Is this a trimming problem, a joystick problem, or what? I've got the same problem in MiG Alley, so I'm wondering if it's not in calibration somewhere.

OK, thanks in advance for the help---sure seems like the SDOE group is still alive and well; I just hope I can get in on the action. Problem is, I generally get frustrated and go back to Falcon or Flanker. This is, of course, bad, but I always get irritated with the game.

posted 06-22- 07:53 AM               

1- be sure you turned off "head shake" as an option. Its supposed to simulate the bobbing of your head in the aircraft, but instead it's just annoying.

2- SDOE can be very touchy on a lot of joysticks. Lower the sensitivity all the way down in options, and you may want to play with the deadzone too. What stick are you using?

When you say the aircraft is shaking like jello, is it the whole picture, just the aircraft, or is it the aircraft seems to be "bouncing" on the runway? Some of the SDOE planes handle badly on the gound, and suffer a lot of bouncing.

posted 06-22- 01:32 PM            

02. I'm using a Suncom Talon. The sensitivity is pegged on the left. The dead zone's been scaled to about 40%.

The aircraft I've noticed this the most on is the default 190. While sitting on the runway, the canopy framing shakes and shudders as if someone's gotten ahold of it, and is violently tossing the aircraft. In the exterior, everything's fine, though.

I took it up against a pair of B-17Gs and a P-38J in "Scramble", and although I was able to kill all three, I had a lot of trouble keeping the aircraft steady. I was basically pulling the trigger and hoping, instead of being able to aim like in MiG Alley or (heaven forbid!) EAW, and certainly not like in Flanker or Falcon.

This may be, of course, my differing expectations. Graphics-wise, I've set it to D3D Renderer, playing in 640x480. Texture detail is full, object detail is 50%.

Thanks again for your help.

posted 06-22- 04:01 PM               

OK, other things that might help in flight.. you're deadzone sounds much to large to me, I don't know if you understand what it's for, so I'll try to explain: When the joystick is held, you naturaly move slightly even when you don't want to actuly turn or whatever, the deadzone is there so that any movement picked up below the level you set the deadzone to is ignored, this stops your hand from moving slightly and the aircraft reacting to it. OK, thats good, but if you set it to large you can very strange reactions from the aircraft, you'll move the stick but nothing happens till you've moved it quiet alot, in your case almost half of your sticks full axis movement, then it suddenly snaps into actio and flips your aircraft in that direction... not good.

Personly, I have my deadzone set to 0 and that sensativity marker is below the T in the word, I suggest you try setting your deadzone down to around the A in Dead and see if that helps, I know it'll make a difference, still, if thats not much better, take it down some more. Large deadzones are not a good thing in general, and they way you have deadzopne and sensativity set may be adding to your flight problems.

posted 06-22- 11:32 PM            

I tinkered with the sensitivities and so forth, and voila! Positive results gotten.

My test mission of choice is "Straggler", and I use the planes straight from CD, 'cause I haven't downloaded PP6/6.1 yet. Using the P-51D, I was able to collect both the Ju 88 and the Fw 190, but lost the score in a CTD.

The aircraft were much more "controllable" this time around, and things generally seem to go better in SDOE-land.

Goth & Nat, thank you very much for your advice! To make this story even better, I found such good results from adjusting those things in SDOE, that I decided to give MiG Alley's settings a tweak. I did, and it turned the previously useless F-51D into a solid strafing machine. Got nine kills on a road reconnaisance patrol, with rockets and guns.