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Answers
to your Frequently Asked Questions
Question: When I am at the Barbers Point airport,
I can see green intersecting objects. If I shoot at them, they
don't explode. What are these?
Answer: They should be trees.
The first several hundred production
CDs were pressed without one of the required textures. To fix
this problem, download the following file from our ftp site and
copy it to your CFS \scenery\pearlhbr\texture folder. The trees
will magically appear. Of course, you still won't be able to
blow them up since they are of the "static" variety.
Download missing tree texture
asdtree2.r8
- (size 65K)
You may have to press and
hold the shift key as you click on the link.
After you download the texture,
copy it to your CFS \scenery\pearlhbr\texture folder
The next time you fly the trees
will be there!
Question: Why do most imported aircraft appear
to be larger than the "stock" CFS planes?
Answer: According to Pacific Theatre Product
Manager Jim Rhoads, stock CFS planes uses what Microsoft calls
a LOD (Level of Detail) scale factor. Imported aircraft do not
use this scaling factor. This is why imported aircraft appear
somewhat larger. This is also why you see the opposite effect
in AI aircraft - they appear smaller and more difficult to shoot.
The imported aircraft can be corrected by rescaling the aircraft
in Aircraft Factory.
Laemming Wheeler suggested
this "untested" solution to enlarge the AI aircraft
and make them more vulnerable to shooting damage. Laemming suggests
that the AI aircraft be rescaled in Aircraft Factory, be given
a new name and then referenced by the new name within the mission.
When we have tried this technique, we'll report the results.
Thanks to Microsoft for this
clarification.
UPDATE: After testing Laemming
Wheeler's suggestion, Terry Hill and Jim Rhoads have created
a new set of AI aircraft and a new set of aircraft performance
files. The result are AI aircraft that are "normal-size"
AI and "normal performance". You can download them
as part of the Pacific Theatre Enhancement package below.
Question: The CFS frame rate drops while flying
over the Pearl Harbor area. Is there anyway to improve this?
Answer: Yes, there are two things that you
can do to improve the frame rate. One you can do immediately
and the other will have to wait until mid-May.
- In general, panels use a lot
of your computer's video resources. If you can do without the
panel, you may be able to increase your frame rate considerably.
We were able to boost frame rate considerably just by turning
off the panels. This may not be acceptable to everyone so please
see the next item.
- Thanks to several early users
who called to discuss this with Product Manager Jim Rhoads and
our technical support staff, scenery designer Tim Dickens is
now working on an an optimized set of Pearl Harbor scenery. Tests
using preliminary versions of the new scenery show significant
frame rate improvements. This scenery is now available for free
download by all Pacific Theatre users. Please see below.
Thanks for your patience.
Question: During installation while running Pacific
Theatre Scenery Setup, I see the following message "Problem
backing up world.vis file. Unable to continue". What can
I do to complete the installation?
Answer: We are still trying to determine the
cause for this message as most PT users have had no problem during
installation.
There is, however, a way to
manually complete the installation. Please follow these instructions
which are an alternative way of running the Pacific Theatre Scenery
setup.
- Start CFS and choose the Free
Flight option (using any plane and or airstrip) and then
click FLY NOW.
- If the CFS menu does not appear,
press the ALT-key. From the menu, choose World
| Scenery Library and then click OK in response
the the CFS warning regarding the use of the Scenery Library.
- Next click the Files button.
- If there is already an entry
on the screen that reads Pacific Theatre Scenery, click it and then press Delete. You'll
have to click OK to confirm the deletion.
- Click the Add button
(do this whether or not there already was an entry for Pacific
Theatre Scenery).
- In the box labeled Scenery
area path carefully type: scenery\pearlhbr\scenery\*.bgl
- Do not click OK nor press Enter
yet. In the box labeled Scenery area title, carefully
type: Pacific
Theatre
- Set Scenery area type
to: Local
and check Scenery area active.
- Finally click
OK 3 times to return to CFS. CFS will build a new Scenery Datebase
and you'll be on your way!
If you are unable to click
in the Scenery area title box, try typing the complete
path to CFS which is normally:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Combat Flight Simulator\Scenery\pearlhbr\Scenery\*.bgl
If you still are unable to
click in the Scenery area title box, click Cancel
and use the Search option.
You will still have to fill
in all the features - title, type and active, but you now only
have to select the drive to search and click the Next Path line.
Question: Where can I download the Pacific Theatre Enhancement?
Answer: HERE!
We're happy to be able to provide
this significant Enhancement to Pacific Theatre.
If you're a registered owner
of Pacific
Theatre, you can download
the Enhancement Package now from this site.
If you don't yet have Pacific Theatre, you won't be able to use this Enhancement
Package unless you purchase Pacific Theatre
from one of our thousands of software retailers worldwide or
direct from our Order Page.
The Enhancement Package includes
the following:
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- An improved
set of damage profiles for all Pacific Theatre aircraft
- Replacement
Pearl Harbor scenery with coastlines and beaches optimized for
higher frame frates over a wide variety of 3D video cards
- A new set
of AI aircraft that appear as "normal size" and have
"normal performance" characteristics
- A replacement
set of missions optimized for even higher frame rates
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| The PT Enhancement
is 5.6MB. |
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ptenhance.exe from our site to a
temporary folder. |
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After downloading, RUN ptenhance.exe and choose your main CFS folder
as the target for the installation. If you do not choose the
main CFS folder, the enhancement package will not be installed
properly.
These techniques used in the
Pacific Theatre Enhancement will also be incorporated into our
next complete CFS add-on Battle
For Midway scheduled for July release.
If you're a registered user
of Pacific
Theatre and are
unable to download ptenhance.exe, you can order a replacement
CD-ROM for a $5.00 shipping and handling charge via email. Please
include your name, shipping address and credit card information.
Click
to order CD-ROM. The CD will be available to ship about June
11th. All orders are subject to verification of registration.
We'd like to thank Chris Steele
for the enhanced missions.
Question: Are there any additional "goodies"
that I can use with Pacific Theatre?
Answer: Yes, Chris Steele has written a new
"what-if" campaign that's both challenging and fun.
You can download it by clicking here.
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