The SU34 has a new terrain following and navigation/attack radar combinded with a modern MFD cockpit. Undercarriage is larger than normal with twinned wheels for all terrain use.
Endurance is 1 hr and 40 minutes, or with external tanks 4 hours.
4.0 Norwegian TOW Operations and Intelligence
The section provides information specifically useful in the current campaign.
4.1 Threat Level
- Intelligence predicts three levels of potential threat capability in the Norwegian theater. In the "Rookie" scenario few enemy aircraft will be scrambled to oppose your forces. Few anti-air assets will be active or responsive.
- In the "Pro"scenario many aircraft and anti-air assets will be active although their accuracy and efficiency will be sub-par.
- In the "Top Gun" scenario it is projected that air and anti-air assets will be exploited fully against the allies and numerous reserve forces will be ready to replace losses.
- ("Shift-d" will toggle through the scenario levels during campaign play).
4.2 Support Services
- Tankers are visible on the briefing map under "Support Aircraft". However, they are not initially exactly where the symbols are. Remember that tankers travel long distances in a straight line for the purpose of ease of connection, therefore their position is not stable.
- For tanker waypoints, refueling may occur anywhere within 100 miles of that point. Switch to refueling HUD before you arrive at the refuelling waypoint.
- Switch to the following waypoint (refuelling +1) after all ships in your element are refuelled and back in formation.
4.3 CAP Missions
- CAP missions are slated to last about 4 hours.
- (Shift-s will increment you by 30 minutes with each press. Re-evaluate the situation between time advances).
- The navigation system will automatically set the waypoint to your home base at the end of your mission. You may need to refuel several times during your mission. You may need to abort early if you run out of weapons.
- Manually advance your waypoint to home base to land ahead of schedule.
- DO NOT deviate from your flight plan unless necesssary. Your position could become strategic without warning and your instant availability could become critical.
Ground Crew Maintenance Addendum
This section deals with system configuration issues, use of smartdrive and memory managers, etc.
A. System Configuration
Hardware: CPUs
Recommended Hardware is P90 or better. P133 or better is preferred, and anything less than a P90 will require low res mode. 8 meg of ram is the minimum, and 24 meg is optimum. Smartdrive is not recommended with less than 24 meg and may actually contribute to system lockup.
Clark Janes runs EF2 on an AMD 133 overdrive and reports that it is great. I have heard of someone running the sim on a Cyrix P133+ and they reported it was fine also. I suspect that since the FPU in Cyrix is slower than Intel, that the Cyrix is a second choice to Intel, though because of the higher bus speed on the P200+ this may not be true on this machine.
Steven Sjchmura is now running EF2 on a Pentium Pro 200, and reports that the frame rate is much better than a P166...! This is because of branch prediction, a larger L1 cache and a stronger FPU ....
Config file
Use buffers =25,1 and files=40. Load your mouse driver prior to your sound driver. Don't need the CD driver so don't load it!
Memory Managers and Smartdrive
Use of smartdrive requires use of himem.sys, which appears to cause lock-ups on some systems. Note that if you boot a DOS session under WIN95 you will likely be loading ifshlp.sys, which also appears to cause lock ups.
EF2 requires no memory manager and you will experience lock ups if you use one. Other disk cache programs that do not require himem.sys may be helpful. If you are running with 16 meg a disk cache may get rid of pauses when loading sound files, but you may experience lock ups. Using a cache with 8 meg is counterproductive.
Some users have run under QEMM 8.0 without difficulty.
System Optimization
It is sometimes necessary to defrag your hard drive prior to installation. This has eliminated lock ups for some. Similarly, when patching defrag your hard drive prior to reinstallation. Note that EF2 creates a large swap file and will not run unless you have around 25 meg of free disk space after installation.
Gamma Levels
On many systems the screen will appear too dark. The palette chosen for EF2 takes into consideration the dull skies and subdued lighting of Europe. You can adjust gamma using the ALT F7 and ALT F8 key combinations.
Joysticks and Soundcards
A variety of joysticks will perform well with EF2, including the MS Sidewinder, CH products, Suncom and TM products. The TM products offer the greatest flexibility, but can be challenging to program. TM is about to release a new Windows interface which should address this. CH and Suncom are the next choices, and the F15 Eagle looks to be an excellent product.
If you do acquire the TM gear, you may find yourself spending HOURS setting up a good config file. Many of us have already sweated this through, so dont' be shy about sending mail to other pilots to get a copy of a well developed command file.
There are almost a dozen different sound boards that will work fine with EF2. Soundblaster cards are cheap and are the nearest to plug and play. These cards perform adequately and also use less CPU time than the TB and some other sound cards. TB products may have a problem with EF2.
Graphics Cards
ARK 2000 chipsets, and the Matrox Millenium seem to be exceptionally fast. However, the new leader is the ET 6000 chipset, which is faster in raw pixel processing, though actual framerate seems not much higher. The Hercules Dynamite 128 uses this chip and sells for about $159 US through NECX. The Lightspeed 128 is about the same price but some have had difficulty running EF2. The Matrox Mystique, which like the Millenium and the Dyn 128 will also be Vesa 2 in hardware, will probably perform very well in DOS and should be comparable to the Verite chipset for 3d acceleration.
This issue gets complicated since 3d accelerator cards are just becoming available. The ET6000 does NOT do 3d acceleration, but chipsets such as the VOODOO GRAPHICS (3dfx) will attach to your 2D board and occupy another PCI slot. The best performance will come from a dual card setup where you run a high performance 2d accelerator alongside a high performance 3d solution, though your cost will be a bit higher. I just ordered the Orchid Righteous 3d for $265 from First Source International.
For further information on 3d hardware see the links on my main page. F22 will support Direct3d. Its a good bet that most of the flight sims released this fall and ALL in the new year WILL support Direct3d.
B. Block Revisions
This section outlines the major improvements added by each contractor block upgrade to the aircraft systems.
Block 2.0
- Added "shift-m" to place a JTIDS scope on the HMD.
- Lead stores (not wingmen stores) can now be changed in the campaign.
- Added HUD indication for external stores.
- Flight model altered, with improved modelling for inertia and drag.
- Overall difficulty greatly increased.
- AI for Russian pilots improved.
- HIt bubble for missiles and cannon increased.
- SAMs and AAA now active for both sides.
- Ability to alter radar range and mode w/o reference to MFD.
- Damage model and secondary damage model fixed.
- Graphics added for cannon damage.
Block 2.01
- Added "shift-d" to alter difficulty level in the campaign (3 levels).
- Added "running in" command to wild weasel, anti-ship, and strike missions to specifically order wingmen to strike mission objectives. Note: this command will probably not work for targets-of-opportunity.
- Wingmen are more aggressive in atg operations.
- Added "alt-#" equivalents for all grey keys so WCSM2 users can now program these functions.
- Increased drop tank fuel capacity in accordance with manual, greatly extending aircraft range.
- Ability to alter DASS range w/o reference to MFD.
- DASS remains on when AP displayed in MFD.
- Shift-m activates a JTIDS repeater display on your HMD.
- alt 1-- Chaff.
- alt 2-- Flares.
- alt 3-- radar scan range up.
- alt 4-- radar scan range down.
- alt 5-- radar azimuth change.
- alt 6-- change radar mode.
- alt 7-- DASS range up.
- alt 8-- DASS range down.
- X -- lock nearest threat
Block 2.02
- The major changes to this block are JTIDS, Escort and Wing performance, and WARGEN.
- JTIDS now receives additional information from AWACS and JSTARS, and this information is displayed via colored dots in the center of each air target, denoting the function of the target. As a result of this addition, new strategic possibilities are generated by improved SA.
- Escort flights are now commonly four ship units when available. This increases survivability greatly.
- Escorts are now slaved to the current waypoint set by the LEAD pilot. Ability to direct escort is now possible through manipulation of the waypoint.
- Escort is now generally more aggressive.
- WIngmen performance improved in both A2A and A2G.
- JTIDS bug crunched.
Block 2.04
No major changes to this block since it was only designed to increase stability of the onboard computer.
C. Campaign Mode Notes
The campaign is generated with reference to two factors: difficulty level, and campaign progress. Difficulty levels of one to ten are generated in conjunction with three campaign scenarios. The first time one selects a campaign NATO has the upper hand; the second selection will place the balance of power more evenly; the third selection of a campaign will place NATO in serious trouble. If you enter a campaign and don't like the look of it, simply exit and generate another campaign: you will see the difference on the map immediately. These three different scenarios are generated progressively.
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Last Updated: March 30, 2000
