what do you do with cfs3 ??

[bobc1]

It's even fun simming it with an F-16 Falcon. The missiles aren't guided but that's what LO:MAC is for. They still blow stuff up. And speaking of that, the cluster bombs are really a hoot.

You're a very negative sounding person aminx but I'm sure your mother has already told you that. Remember in grade school when you got those "Doesn't work well with others" comments on your report card and those special trips to the school nurse and "guidance counselor"? We understand.

And the F-16 even comes in tiger stripes.

[4_Series_Scania]

I fly it intill it crashes. Then I reboot and play it some more.....

Woody, when I'm flying, and my pc crashes, I usually go off on a tangent and try to fix the problem, the best fix for the CFS3 constantly crashing issue is not to play....
Apparently, spending a further silly sum of wonga (800fsb p4 2.8 etc etc) cures this problem, opps! there goes cfs3 again, bringing an uber pc to its knee's!

[chomp_rock]

Where did you get that F-16??

[bobc1]

Hi 4_Series_Scania,

I've never had CFS3 crash or BSOD on me. I have the 3.1 update and the No_CD patch installed and it runs perfectly. I've never had CFS2 give me any trouble either.

It seems as though a lot of people are also having problems with LO:MAC as it relates to crashing/BSOD/error messages etc. It runs perfectly on my system and it's almost 3 years old. But upgraded a bit over the years. In some cases it's their video card not being supported (DirectX 8.1 or higher) or an nForce motherboard but usually it's just that they have an old corrupted OS with a gazillion Peer to Peer programs running, every free trial version of every game on the Internet installed and/or perhaps improperly uninstalled and probably a few trojans and a couple viruses laughing in the background. Nothing like a format and clean installation of the OS followed by a good firewall, AV program and SpyBot for added cleansing power to fix most problems.

And of course a fairly powerful computer.

I run CFS3 and LO:MAC at 1280 X 1024 X 32, Detail Levels at 4/LO:MAC at Medium with AA and AF set at 4X sampling and my framerates are fine. If a scene gets real busy graphics-wise or there's a lot of AI flying around I'll set my video card to "Application Preference" for added performance but other than that both sims run fine.

There's no doubt that the newer "prettier" sims are more taxing on your system than CFS2 is but that's the price you pay for the eye candy and added realism.

It seems to me that aminx is blaming everyone/everything because for whatever reason he can't get CFS3 to run properly on his system. Hey, it's not a perfect sim but it's not as bad as he claims. I think as soon as he learns how to take care of his OS and perhaps upgrades some of his hardware (CPU/RAM/Video card) he'll be able to spend more time simming and less time being the dejected bellyacher.

Try this aminx:

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Then "Scan Now"

Just my $.02.

Check your PM CHOMP_ROCK.

Alienware Intel D850GB 400MHz FSB with a PowerLeaped P4_2.6GHz
512MBs PC-800 RDRAM
Radeon 9700 Pro 337/348
Seagate 120GB-8MB Cache HD
Audigy 2 Platinum
Klipsch Pro-Media 4.1
Sony 21" E540/B Monitor
HOTAS Cougar
WinXP_Pro w/SP-1
DirectX_9.0(b)
3DMark2003=5,198
3DMark2001 SE=14,233

[SabreHawk]

Well said Bob.

[bobc1]

Thank you SabreHawk. Ya just kinda get tired of people bellyaching ad nauseam and blaming other people for their own shortcomings.

"Any jackass can kick down a barn but it takes a carpenter to build one."

Have a good sorte.

[1danny]

paul if you dislike cfs3 so much how did you become a resident here?By the way i'd much rather read an intelligent letter by you thatn a smart alec trying to take the rise out of me for something i like.Yes the campain is STOOOOPid, but all the ad on have made it for me
windows xp
504mb ram
geforce fx5200
2.4ghz pent 4
17' flat screen
aircraft-5
scenery-3
terrain-3
effects-5
clouds-0 some times  i'll set to one

my first computer i've added the new vid card and 256 ram
gonna boost it to 1024mb this week endsale on ddr this week end at circuit city

[4_Series_Scania]

paul if you dislike cfs3 so much how did you become a resident here?

I became a resident (not to mention a moderator at one time....) here @ SimV after re-discovering FS after quite a long break (I used to fly on old 8bit computers in the early 80's ), I was firmly into the PS1 etc back then, Once I'd finally taken the plunge and equipped myself with a p200, with Voodoo2 I was literally up , up & away.
Hence my general dislike of CFS3,and I'm not bemoaning the gameplay of it this time, I have fond memories of creating good (IMHO) screenies on a system well below the minimum specs for CFS2 (266mhz cpu I recall) un deterred I slowly added planes, scenery etc and even played it on-line all on a p200!

CFS3 comes along, by which time I've got a pIII 667, Geforce4 MX plenty 'o RAM and it (CFS3) ran like a dog.  

Upgrading to a 1.7ghz Celeron had little effect,but all this while, I was happily screaming around the skies with the likes of IL-2/ CFS1,2 European Air War , B-17 , FS98, 2000 & 2002.
Ultimately, having got my GeForce FX and replaced the feeble Celeron (which was more than upto FS2002....) With a P4 1.8! I was pretty sure CFS3 would run well..... Well, it didn't. I'mj really enjoying the eye candy on my other sims though.......

Ok, I've got hardly the best PC in the world, sure I'm the first to accept that. But, we must remember I'm not trying to run CFS3 with everything set to 3 never mind 4 or 5, or at high res or with anti alaising, so I really don't think I'm asking too much for a smooth stutter free flying experience. Sadly, resolution has little or no effect, it stutters away as much in 800x600 as in 1600x1200 - not dropping too many fps either which certainly surprised me!

In my spare time, I build PC systems for friends and the odd business here 'n there. I'm not saying CFS3 will not run well on high end systems it will, but, out of the 30 or so machines of both AMD and Intel variants that I've built, it ran well on 9, would'nt run at all on any machines with integrated graphics (2AMD, 5Intel) All the other machines, some had low end (GF2ti / Ati 7500 etc) some had Ati 9800Pro's, ran CFS3 and some with damn impressive framerates but all with that bloody stutter.  :(

I can't express enough how much I love Combat Flight Simulators, I'm an enthusiast in this anorackish little world we reside in, I'm really into the scenery/effects/aircraft add ons.... Above all else, I love to dogfight.

I can't dogfight with stutters or for that matter CTD's (bobc1 I envy you sir!)

I could easily accept CFS3's flaws gameplay wise if I could at least get some quality flying in with it, the question at the top of this thread is

what do you do with cfs3 ??

Sadly for me and many others who can't afford the best in PC hardware but more importantly, some who can afford it and do own it! - we can't get CFS3 to perform to an acceptable standard.

I could'nt wait to get hold of CFS3,I was prepared to accept in the early days, my system was'nt good enough. Wildly varied results with other , better PC's has'nt imspired confidence.
The more machines I try CFS3 with, the more angry and above else, dissapointed I get!

Obviously, CD-Patch & updates were applied!

And before I get a good kicking, let me underline this point, so were all clear.....

I'd far rather be flying CFS3 than moaning about it ! ,really, I would.  :'(

Paul.

[bobc1]

Hi 4_Series_Scania,

I'm serious when I say that CFS2, CFS3, FS2000, FS2002 Pro and now LO:MAC have never CTD or BSOD. I can't remember when any program has done that to me. I could say that I've just been lucky but maybe my computer (especially my motherboard) is just very stable. But if I had to really nail it down to just one thing I'd have to say that it's because I keep my OS very clean and uncluttered. Over the past 3 years as long as I've had this old Alienware I must have formatted and clean installed WinME, Win98SE and starting in October of 2001 when XP Pro was first released over a dozen times. And every time I do it I learn a little about what makes it run better. And what programs are cool and which ones are dogs!

The order in which I install everything (recommended by Intel) is important.

Installation & Configuration Order
 
1 Fresh Operating System Installation.
2 Latest Service Pack or Patch.
3 Motherboard drivers.
4 All other device drivers starting with the video card.
5 Intel

[1danny]

Paul!
I was not making fun of you. I hope you know that.
I am a computer moron. and think i may just be lucky that this game runs accepatbly.
All that I've kearned has come from guys like you Tweaking this game out has made my cfs2 run fantasticly.
Guess i should answer"what do you  do with cfs?"
I constaly fiddle with it trying to make it better, and more exciting(gawd the campaign blows)just like you would an old harley or classic car you love.
compaq9000
windowsxp
504mb ram
geforce fx5200 128mb
2.4ghz

[4_Series_Scania]

Thanks for the comments guys!

I'm seriously thinking of a partition with XP for just CFS 2 & 3, having said that I have problems with CFS3 even after a "clean install"


1danny, No problem, people taking the mick & having a general well humoured  dig at each other is the life blood of forums like these!!!  ;D - And owning an admitedly cheap Jetway mobo, I deserve all the flak I get!  ::)

:sigh:, I guess I just have to keep on smashing my piggy bank.... Sadly though, with my finances, my PC takes a very low priority after the Mrs & kids (Not to mention the x-wife and my daughters' maintenance payments....) etc etc have all taken their cut.

I'm more than sure, with unlimited funds, I could have a CFS3 experience bar none! -  Alas, Spending peanuts on PC flight simming is a very frustrating experience!


Paul.

[1danny]

boom pay day t"day just relaced a256 mb stick witha 512 yahoo onsale stapels 89 bucks 50 dollar rebate yahoo.
700 plus ram a lam a ding dong now .

hot cha cha i'm cooking with gas!

[Professor Brensec]

I'm currently (but very slowly) building a new system. The one I have Compaq P3 766 Mhz 384 Mb SDram, Integrated Intel, is absolutely useless for CFS3.

In fact, I can still only use CFS2 for a couple of hours, before it slows right down to a crawl. CFS1 and FS2002 will go at 35 fps all day long.

I've given up trying to figure out what's wrong with CFS2, but back to the subject.........Even with the spec's that my new rig will be (see below), I'm not expecting to be able to get anything other than a reasonable look at CFS3 (which I've only been able to do on a PC at work, that had a Graphics card that passed the initial "Sorry pal - your card's not good enough for our wonderful, ground breaking new Sim" test.  ;D )
And I realise that what I list below is far from the 'state of the art' in available PC's today.

Which ever way you look at it, Microsoft advertised, displayed and sold a Sim with published 'System Requirements' which ended up being out an out rubbish. consequently thousands of people ended up buying something that they couldn't use without updating or, at least, doing some serious upgrading on their existing systems (which incidentally, were more than adequate for their current Simming needs i.e. FS2002, CFS2 etc). Many people can't do that, not for a $50 - $100 sim!.
That's the main reason, I think, there's still alot of resentment among simmers with regard to CFS3. I would even go so far as to say, that there would probably less people using the Sim regularly with satisfaction than there are those who have either shelved it (pending their next $2,000 investment), or have given up all together.

I think microsoft will have to wait a long time to recover from the consumer distrust and anger generated by CFS3 debacle. And rightly so!  ;D

(Personally, I would like to see CFS4 be a return to an improved version of the CFS2 format (afterall, I don't think the graphics quality in CFS3, even on a GREAT PC are all that different to CFS2 - and also the flight models are nothing to crow about either!), in a European Theatre setting (the continuation that CFS3 was supposed to be), without the boring repetitive, mundane mousing that you have in the CFS3 mission setup. Possibly even incorporating some Atlantic sub warfare in the Mission Scenarios.
That would be a popular Sim.  ;D

[HawkerTempest5]

CFS3 arrived on my doorstep on the first day of release last year. Two weeks ago I got it to run. The only upgrade I made was to add 128 mb GeForce 4. With the no CD patch and M$ update it runs better than I expected but prolonged play causes the stutters to come back. I'm sure I could tweek this a bit, but I just feel that it's an awful lot of work for a game. I'm not having a pop, just giving my thoughts on the product.
FS2K2 runs maxed out without problems now so that's a result and I spend far more time just cruising these days anyway, so I'm happy with that. Sadly CFS2 has begun to crash and before my upgrade if ran faultlessly. This is a real shame because CFS2 is a far better sim than CFS3.
Maybe CFS4 will give us the sim we expected to get with CFS3.

[bobc1]

I have both CFS3 and LO:MAC installed and they are equally tough on my hardware. They both run fine but over all I probably have the graphic settings on both at around medium. People with brand new top of the line P4_3.06, Radeon 9800XT 256mb and a gig of DDR RAM can't max out LO:MAC and I assume CFS3 either.

The newer combat flight simulators with eye popping graphics and lots of AI are just resource hogs. No doubt about it.

If you want to you can check out everyone bellyaching about it over at the LO:MAC General Discussion forum.

http://www.lo-mac.com/

And while you're there download the 125MB LO:MAC demo and check it out.

If CFS2 or CFS3 starts to get choppy of stuttery after extended play I imagine it's because something isn't releasing your memory so that it can be used again. If it's CFS2 or CFS3 then I guess all you can do is restart the sim or better yet restart your computer. It's possible that another program or process running in the background is using up your memory and not releasing it. You may want to close down those unnecessary programs using EndItAll2. It's simple to use. After you install it just go up on the menu bar under "Action" and choose "Close All". That's it. Everything that gets closed will go back to normal when you restart your computer. At the default setting EndItAll2 closes 14 of the 16 processes/programs that I have running in the background.

I guess a badly fragmented OS can cause this too.

http://www2.whidbey.com/djdenham/enditall2.htm

Good luck.

PS. I just found this Gamespot review of LO:MAC and I'll paste the portion of it that relates to it's performance. So CFS3 isn't alone.

"Admittedly, all of the graphics in Lock On, from the aircraft to the ground units to the cities and landscapes, are excellent and are sure to please even the pickiest sim fans. But here is where the first problem rears its head. In addition to odd graphics glitches that pop up here and there, if you turn all of the graphics details on high, such as heat blur, high quality water, reflections, and so on, your computer will not be able to run Lock On smoothly through all of the various environments in which you will fly.

The A-10 can take an enormous amount of damage and will still come home.
It doesn't matter if you have a P4 3.2 GHz machine with one gig of RAM and a Radeon 9800 XT; it will bog down at quite a few points in the game (bog down: defined as frame rates dropping into the single digits). The good news is that the game is designed to allow you to toggle a wide variety of graphics options down or off. The bad news is that even with most of these turned down, high performance systems will still occasionally experience poor frame rates. For example, flying just above a cloud base will result in unacceptable stuttering on even the heftiest system. If you have a "moderate" setup, say an AMD Athlon 2200+ or a P4 2.4 GHz, with a midrange GeForce or Radeon video card, you'll find it difficult to find any settings that will allow you to play the game with consistently smooth frame rates under all conditions (such as when flying low and encountering a high density of ground units and terrain). Until you either get a higher-end system or patches are distributed that improve the graphics performance, midrange computer pilots would be well advised to stick to missions with fewer ground objects and clear skies, and even users of bleeding-edge systems will have to be willing to put up with occasional periods of molasses-slow frame rates."

To read the full review go to:

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/sim/lockonmo ... eview.html