COMBATSIM.COM: Playing with Fire: Patching the 'New' Falcon 4.0----Part III: eFalcon 1.10

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Playing with Fire: Patching the 'New' Falcon 4.0
Part III: eFalcon 1.10

by Jennifer & Robert Mitchell

Article Type: How-To
Article Date: August 24, 2001

Product Info

Product Name: Falcon 4
Category: Jet Simulation
Developer: MicroProse
Publisher: Infogrames
Release Date: December 15, 1998
Req'd. Spec: PII 266MHz (PIII 450 Rec'd.), 64 MB RAM (128 MB Rec'd.), 3D Video Accel., 400 MB HDisk Space
Articles / Links / Files: Click Here

Back To Part II

eFalcon

The eFalcon logo

From the foreword of the eFalcon 1.10 User’s Manual:

And while many people thought that eFalcon was just graphics improvements, this wasn’t true at all. Efalcon has developed into a project to transform the original Falcon 4.0 into the most realistic simulation it can be. In doing so, eFalcon v1.10 aims high. The quest continues. Enjoy the rest of this document and enjoy eFalcon.

——mirv

Installing eFalcon 1.10

Since you installed Falcon 4 and the 1.08 patch to your computer as we outlined in Part I, what you’ll need to get now is the eFalcon110RP5_Installer.zip, and F4Patch_Standard_41RP5.zip. While you’re at it I’d also suggest getting eFalcon_Extras.zip. All of which are available at the eTeam website or on one of their mirror sites.

Extract eFalcon110RP5_Installer.exe to your …\Falcon4 folder and click on it to begin patching. You’ll be prompted to Apply Patch or Exit. Click on Apply Patch.

Click on Apply Patch

It will now begin patching. Be patient because it takes time to install the new 3D models, but they are worth the time spent. After the patching process is finished a pop-up window will show you what was installed.

Default installed patches

Click OK to close this window. You’ll now find an eFalcon.exe file in your …\Falcon4 folder. This is the .exe that you’ll use to fly Falcon from now on. There’s also an eFalcon110 configuration editor.exe in your folder. Both these files were placed there by the eFalcon110_RP5_Installer patch. But more on the configuration editor in a little bit.

Next you’ll want to extract F4Patch_Standard_41RP5.exe to your …\Falcon4 folder and click it to open. You’ll be asked to Select Filter. Select the eFalcon Patches filter and click “OK”.

Select the eFalcon Patches filter

As we described in Part II, you’ll need to expand the F4Patch package to take advantage of any F4Patch addons such as F4Patch Cockpits, F4Patch Skins, etc. To do this go to File and select the Expand Package option. Click Yes when asked if you’d like to continue.

Click Yes to expand the package

When you’re asked if you want to replace the existing directory click Yes. As we said in Part II, Click Yes this time only! When installing an F4Patch addon to an existing directory you’ll select No.

Click Yes to overwrite the existing directory

After the new directory is created you’ll be told that the new shortcut is F4Patch.exe and asked if you’d like to install a shortcut on your desktop.

Now that we’ve installed eFalcon 1.10 and RP5 to your Falcon 4 installation you’ve got some choices to make. First, you can install what are called "eFalcon extras". This has the 1.10 2d-cockpit, a 3D cockpit based on the 1.10 cockpit, “realistic” hud tints, and some user interface screens you can choose from.

eFalcon extras

If you decide that you’d like to use the F4Patch cockpits add-on, I’d recommend installing eFalcon extras after installing F4Patch Cockpits, because it has the 1.10 2D cockpit in it, which you’ll lose if you install the current (version 4.0) F4Patch Cockpits package after eFalcon extras. If you decide later that you’d like to add the Cockpits package remember to reinstall eFalcon extras afterwards to retain the option of the 1.10 cockpit. Basically you just need to bear in mind that you need to install eFalcon extras after adding the cockpits package if you want to keep the 1.10 2D cockpit.

To install eFalcon extras, click on the .exe and let it open the user interface. Then go to File, and down to Expand package. When asked if you want to overwrite, click NO. This will simply add the files from this package to your \F4Patch directory rather than overwriting the existing files. Now you can click on F4Patch.exe and you’ll find the “eFalcon extras” in with the RP5.0 and eFalcon patches.

If you do accidentally hit yes, all is not lost. Simply run F4Patch_Standard_41RP5.exe again, go through the expand package routine again, click Yes when prompted to overwrite. You’ll get the message about using F4Patch.exe again, then run eFalcon extras.exe again, go to File, click on Expand package and make sure you click on No.

eFalcon 1.10 Configuration Editor

Upon opening the eFalcon configuration editor, you’ll immediately be reminded of F4Patch; that’s because the configuration editor is F4Patch based. This tool isn’t a whole lot different than what you’ll see under the eFalcon box in F4Patch. It’s purpose, really, is to have a means of changing eFalcon options if you DON’T have F4Patch. So, you don’t really need to use it. But…don’t delete the .exe in your directory either.

eFalcon options

There are some very different patching options available to you with eFalcon. Looking at them in F4Patch will show you some very unusual things if you’re only familiar with an iFalcon setup. What are they? Which ones are best? Well, as we said in Part II concerning Realism Patch 5.0 (and that applies for this install too because you have many RP5 patches in your setup!) your best bet for informative answers is to read the eFalcon 1.10 manual. It’s installed in your Falcon4 directory when you install 1.10. But this is what you’ll see when expanding the eFalcon check box in F4Patch.

Basic eFalcon patches

Quite a few differences there huh? Again, as we said in Part II, you can highlight a patch and get a brief description of it in the description box on the right side. Some of the more important and/or interesting patches that differ from iFalcon are:

Carrier Landing TEs and Campaign:

This installs 2 TEs (Tactical Engagements-Falcon-ese for single missions) and a campaign with carrier missions in it. Yes, you can now perform carrier ops.

Advanced eFalcon patches

Color MFD’s:

This replaces the monochrome MFD’s with color ones. It’s a nice feature and reflects changes made in an upgrade made to F-16s in USAF use.

Disable Aircraft Jittering:

This patch will eliminate the infamous “Funky Chicken” dance that your F-16 does if you’re unfortunate enough to suffer battle damage. You’ll still suffer damage but you won’t seemingly wander across the Korean skyscape.

Power Grid:

Enabling this will cause the enemy, and you also for that matter, to lose fuel and supply generation from your industries. This is not an all or nothing either. For instance if an electrical station suffers damage and operates at only 80%, the industries in its grid area will only be able to operate at 80% capacity due to the shortage of power. Rumor has it that the rolling blackouts in California inspired this patch. (Just kidding!)

Realistic Avionics:

Without going into a lot of detail, this patch will allow things like the ASEC cue for AMRAAMS, Terrain Following Radar, etc. If you’re into realistic and detailed avionics this one is for you.

eFalcon general settings

Airbase Relocation:

Unlike iFalcon, this will NOT put an interactive “switch” in the Simulation tab of your setup interface. It’s turned on and off by applying or unapplying this patch. Otherwise it’s pretty much the same. The iFalcon version is more detailed though.

Dynamic Head Positioning:

Makes your virtual head move with the motion of the aircraft. It works in the 3D cockpit only, so don’t look for this feature in the 2D cockpit.

Enable winds aloft:

At altitude the wind will affect your bombing accuracy with dumb bombs. This has no effect on laser guided bombs, provided of course, your target is lased properly.

Smart Combat AP (autopilot):

This patch enables the Combat AP (selected in the Simulation tab of the Setup interface) to fire Air-to-Air missles.

Combat Auto Pilot Selection

Smart Scaling:

This gradually scales distant objects up to 2X their normal size for better viewing. You have to have this patch applied and “Vehicle Auto Scaling” toggled on the Simulation screen of the Setup user interface.

Vehicle Auto-Scaling switch

Weather extensions:

This is a much awaited feature of 1.10. You can now have varying weather. Rain, snow, lightning and the like.

eFalcon settings hardware and network

Jetnet Settings:

This will allow you to access Jetnet from your Comms menu in the game. It’s very convenient for finding a game online.

Hardware and Stuttering

Under the Hardware patches area I would really suggest that you don’t change any of the defaults unless you experience stuttering. I have heard of problems with the 3D sound patch being enabled causing stuttering. I personally experienced this as well and I turned it off. I’ve also heard of people suffering from stuttering and cured it by turning OFF the Stutter Prevention patch. I’ve tried them all together and in different combinations and all off and I’ve not had any problems. But if you have a stuttering problem try disabling the Stutter Prevention patch first as that seems to have helped others.

If you’re using a Voodoo2 or 3 it’s recommended that you enable the Software Interface patch, as the hardware accelerated interface has been known to cause problems with Voodoo cards. I got used to the software interface and I still prefer it but the choice is yours.

The Voodoo1 and 2 compatability disables the cockpit kneemap that’s been shown to cause CTD’s. If you’ve got a Voodoo1 or 2 you should definitely enable this one.

Keystrokes

As with the RP5 install we discussed last time, eFalcon 1.10 places a new keystrokes file in the config folder of your \Falcon4 directory. Go to the Controllers tab of the setup screen, click on Load to bring up the keystrokes files you can choose from.

Controllers Tab in the setup UI

You’ll see rp_keystrokes again. You DON’T want that file this time. Just highlite keystrokes and click Load again. Click on Apply on the controllers tab, and you're done.