mganik

Oh, I really like the "search the forum ... this has already been discussed" responses (and then a topic lock). Â I wonder if "he" has ever tried to search the forums ... you get 10,000 topics, each with hundreds of posts. Â If "he" knows so much, why doesn't "he" just post the f'n answer and help out a little.

Gee, I surprised that placebo hasn't locked this thread and provided his standard response, "search the forum, this has been discussed before".... Â

After a lot of trouble-shooting, I discovered that my CPU was overheating when running OFP ... and this was causing my computer to crash. Â It appears that my CPU is overclocked, and runs hot after about an hour of OFP. Â My solutions are: 1. Â Get a better cooling fan and better ventilation for the CPU/computer box. 2. Â Optionally lower the CPU speed. Â I thought I'd pass this on since it appears that others have crashing problems, and this could be another item to check. Â I discovered this problem when running a "PC Doctor" application to check voltages, another good thing to check. Hope this helps! Â mganik

@kerosene "is that a smoke dispenser or something on the front of the bull bars?" "Smoke Grenade Dischargers" "Theres a big red button on the dash that fires them." ... according to posts at www.irishmilitaryonline.com

hmmmm, didn't even know VBS was public. Â Didn't believe it at first, but then I checked it out. Â Kinda pricey at US$150 for the core and US/AU$50-$180 for some selected addons: http://www.vbsresources.com/ http://www.virtualbattlespace.com/index.htm http://www.virtualbattlefieldsystem.com/index.htm I'll stay with OFP for now, thank you!

@IceDude - I noticed that your new machine is really nice (and powerful), I'd guess that you just recently purchased this new machine. Also, judging the date that you signed up as a member here (Nov 2003?), I'd guess that you've been playing OFP for a long time. So, would it be safe to assume that you have another older computer that has been running 1.46 without problem? When I used to be a computer technician (many, many years ago), we would sometimes use an "Easter Egg" technique. If we couldn't find the problem through normal diagnostics, we'd swap a known good card with a similar card in the failing computer. If the symtoms changed, or were fixed, we knew we had located the part that was contributing to the problem. It may not be easy, but this is the only thing I can think of at this point ... if you really want to get that new machine on-line with 1.46. Also, it might be helpful if you gave us as much detail as possible on the crash. For example, did the screen turn into a mess of horizontal lines and the computer fails to respond? Or, do you get a blue screen with some words on it? Any additional detail could be helpful.

After reading some of the troubleshooting problems listed here, I'm now leaning toward purchasing an ATI video card instead of another GeForce. If I were you, I'd see if I could borrow an ATI video card from a friend for testing. Â Swapping the video card would help to determine if the problem is related to the video card or not. If it is the video card, then I'd invest in a new ATI video card. But, did you say that you can run in 1.46 mode without crashes as long as you stay away from multiplayer? Â That is, as long as you're in singleplayer mode? Â Hmmm, if so, then that is strange. Alternatively, can you use 1.96 for multiplayer? Edit: Another thing someone mentioned ... is your power supply large enough, perhaps 350 or 400 Watts? Â The thought is that an under-powered PC may have voltage problems when your video card is sucking full power. Â Seems unlikely, but probably worth checking. Edit #2: Found these additional suggestions: 1) If AGP, try lowering the AGP from 4x to 2x, to 1x if problems continue. 2) Check BIOS motherboard settings. If you have the option of either "High System Performance" or "Optimized Defaults", try running with the optimized or safe defaults. If the processor or video card are overclocked, adjust the settings back to normal.

IRQs look okay to me ...

For checking your IRQs, you should be able to do something like the following: 1. Run "Microsoft System Information" and you'll see an expandable list on the left side of the screen. Â (If this program isn't installed, you might want to add it from your Windows OS installation CD. Check in your System Tools folder under Accessories.) 2. Click on "Hardware Resources" and the list will expand. 3. Click on "IRQs" and you'll see a list of your IRQs along with the associated resource. OR ... you could ... 1. Â Go to "System Properties" (access via System on the Control Panel, or right click My Computer and select Properties). 2. Â Select "Device Manager" 3. Â Select your NIC card (or modem) and then select "Properties" 4. Â Click on "Resources" and see the value for the "Interrupt Request" 5. Â Repeat steps 3-4 for your video card or any other devices that may be competing for interrupt servicing.

I wonder ... is your network (nic) IRQ set to the same as the video card or sound card? I'm thinking that the problem may be timing related, especially if you only see it when attempting a multiplayer game. Can you use 1.46 in single player mode with no problems? If so, this would seem to indicate a problem related to your nic in some way. If not, then maybe the problem may be due to a video driver issue. Some other threads mention that the latest NVIDIA drivers may be causing problems. (I recently reverted back to old drivers after running into problems with 1.96, ... that solved my problems.)

I was thinking, it might be hard for some folks to revert back to an older driver. Â The problem has to do with the installation program. Â Some of the installation programs will not allow an older version of a file to be installed, they don't even give you a choice; others give you a choice and will ask you if you want to replace a newer file with an older version. So, my point is, it might not be possible to revert back to an older driver version for all people ... unless they do a clean install. Â Even uninstalling might not fully remove all dlls that have been added with a newer video driver. Â I really don't like dlls, but that's another rant.... That's why I started with a completely blank hard disk, and did a limited Windows installation only loading the older video and sound card drivers. At one point I thought the problem may have been contributed to by some of the Windows recent updates. Â But, I have updated to all of the latest Windows updates (edit: except for DirectX ... I'm using the old 8.0 version that came on the Resistance CD). Â The problems ended once I used just the old video/sound drivers and fixed my memory speed/wait-state problem.

I recently had a similar problem. I had totally reloaded windows from scratch on a blank disk (to ensure a clean install), and used only the drivers and files that were available when 1.96 came out. I wanted to ensure that OFP could run, since it had been running great before. But, maybe because I had upgraded memory, or had upgraded my motherboard drivers, I was getting a crash after anywhere from 2 to 20 minutes of play. I didn't go back to my old memory and I didn't try to revert back to the old motherboard drivers. I finally solved the problem ... after many frustrating days. It turned out to be my motherboard settings (for things like CPU and memory speed, and wait states). I had them on the high performance settings. The game ran fine when I put the settings on "safe" mode. To get the most performance, I ended up putting the settings to auto-detect, and it appears that my new memory needed to be set slightly slower. My problem was solved! Finally, I have set up a separate boot hard drive just for OFP. That way, no other drivers or junk can interfere with OFP. Kinda reminds me of the old days when we'd create a boot floppy disk for games. (Just a suggestion or idea that may help.)

I recently had a similar problem. I had totally reloaded windows from scratch on a blank disk (to ensure a clean install), and used only the drivers and files that were available when 1.96 came out. I wanted to ensure that OFP could run, since it had been running great before. But, maybe because I had upgraded memory, or had upgraded my motherboard drivers, I was getting a crash after anywhere from 2 to 20 minutes of play. I didn't go back to my old memory and I didn't try to revert back to the old motherboard drivers. I finally solved the problem ... after many frustrating days. It turned out to be my motherboard settings (for things like CPU and memory speed, and wait states). I had them on the high performance settings. The game ran fine when I put the settings on "safe" mode. To get the most performance, I ended up putting the settings to auto-detect, and it appears that my new memory needed to be set slightly slower. My problem was solved! Finally, I have set up a separate boot hard drive just for OFP. That way, no other drivers or junk can interfere with OFP. Kinda reminds me of the old days when we'd create a boot floppy disk for games. (Just a suggestion or idea that may help.)

First impressions: I thought I'd give you a try, but I've run into a few problems so far. Your readme files for AOOKS Nogovan Airport Situation.Noe and AOOKS BlackHawk Down.sandy_rocks say, "This multiplayer mission..." Â I'd recommend that you please indicate on your web site if a mission is SP or MP. Â I was looking for SP missions only this time, but didn't find out that these are MP until I downloaded them. This usually wouldn't be so bad, but the download of AOOKS BlackHawk Down.sandy_rocks takes about 1 hour at 1 kBps (the apparent speed of your current hosting site). Your readme files don't mention what AddOns are needed. Â I'd recommend including a list, along with some URL's to sources for those who don't have them (a link like you did for Sandy Rocks Island would be great). Â I probably have most of these files, but not in the current configuration (I run all new missions in a clean environment to avoid any potential addon conflicts). Â Therefore, I only ran with the files that were listed for each of your missions. Â Unfortunately, here's the "errors" I got when first attempting to load these two missions: AOOKS BlackHawk Down.sandy_rocks missing ... BAS_MAH60 bas_soarpilots jam_magazines rad_hornet_amraamb bas_wep LoBo_Zelda bas_dera3 BAS_RUSOPFOR bas_mh47185 AOOKS Nogovan Airport Situation.Noe missing ... runwaymarkerwhite bas_soar185 LargeRunwayMarkerWhite SmallRunwayMarkerGreen lampwhite LargeRunwayMarkerYellow bas_weap bas_soarpilots jam_magazines bas_kawa bas_mh47185 mig29 f14 KEGnoecain.snow bas_deraJ bas_derad This is as far as I've gotten today ... Best regards, mganik

When I first read this topic, "The humble mission maker's ego, give 'em a boost" I thought, yeah, mission makers could use more positive feedback, and when needed, more constructive feedback on how to improve their missions. The topic has covered a bit more ground, including how AddOns seem to get a lot more attention in the "news". Â I've noticed that too. Â It seems to me that most AddOns get more attention because they're easier to review and are usually eye candy, and usually fun to immediately play with. Â They're something you can usually immediately see and share screen shots with others. Â To me, this is like producing a new hardware product for consumer sales. Missions, on the other hand, are a lot like developing software. Â Software doesn't usually give good product visuals, but takes a lot of work and effort to produce something that is new and exciting. Â And, bug testing and maintenance usually is a big factor. Â It can be a major job to create a new and original mission, one with the right amount of fun gameplay, camera and voice additions, and new or creative scripts. Â I would imagine that many of the folks that work on the best missions have a Software Engineering or Computer Science background, or have self-learned over the years. My point is that a GOOD mission requires a lot of time, skill and effort. Â Over the past 3 years, I've seen a lot of missions ... and every now and then there's a really good one. Â Many of these missions start out with "this is my first mission" and I think a lot of folks stop producing missions after that. I've read that some folks in another thread are trying to come up with some ideas to encourage more missions. Â I've seen a few recommendations on what some people consider to be elements of a good mission. In the theme of providing more positive feedback, I think it would be good to list suggestions, opinions, and general rules of good mission construction. Â These could then be shared with mission makers as guidelines that may help them to create even better missions. Here's a quote from TJ to start this off: ref: Mission Competition Ideas Thread What are your thoughts or ideas on GOOD missions? Â Do you have any opinions, suggestions, or rules to share? Best regards, mganik