Frequently Asked Questions

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• How do I see my Frame Rates? - To view your frame rates push Ctrl and Z keys simultaneoulsy and then the R key. A frame rate counter will appear in the upper left corner of your screen.

• How do I minimize Falcon to get back to the Desktop without quitting? - Press the "alt" and "esc" keys simultaneously.

• I still can't pull more than 6 g's after applying the Cat III fix Patch and dropping all my bombs. - Dropping all your Air to Ground Ordinance is not enough. You must jettison your pylons as well. Then make sure your cat switch is set to I and not III.

• I get a CTD and devCreateSurface error after completing and backing out of a mission. What causes this? -If you are using Direct 3D mode you will experience this problem after using GBU's during your mission. Just apply the devCreateSurface/CTD fix Patch if you are using the REalism Patch and it should be fixed. (This issue occurs in all non-Superpak installs only as it is fixed in SP3. )

• After installing the 108us Patch I can't read my HUD Fonts. - This is a known issue with several Video Cards. Right click on your desktop and select Properties. Then Settings and Advanced. Go to your Video Card Tab and then Additional Properties. Next click on Direct 3D Settings and then on More Direct 3D. Here you will find a texel alignment slider. Experiment with this by moving it all the way to the left or right to fix the problem.

• How do I fly other planes in Falcon? - Install the Fly/task any plane in TE and Campaign Patch. Then you will be able to select any airfield and join all the squadrons in Korea. You will then be able to select missions for any aircraft in both TE and Campaigns.

• Can I fly the other Fighters in Dogfight? - Yes as a mater of fact but only in Match Play or Team Furball. Click on Add Flight button. Select the Aircraft of you choice and then click OK. Right click on the new plane and select join. Click on the + sign next to the plane to show all the pilots in the flight. Right click on the other pilots (eg. recruit) and delete them.

• I need to re-install Falcon. How can I save my current logbook, saved campaigns, TE's and Phonebook? - Before you Uninstall Falcon go to C:\MicroProse\Falcon4 folder and backup the config folder to save you current logbook, the campaign folder to save your saved campaigns and TE's and the phonebk.dat file to save your phonebook. After re-installing Falcon just copy these into the Falcon4 directory, overwriting the originals.

• I can't complete a BDA mission successfully even though I snap a thousand pictures. - This is a known bug. You need to be in Hud Only View by pressing the "1" key while you are snapping the pictures.

• Sometimes half a plane disappears or on occasion the whole plane becomes invisible. - Another known bug. This happens when you enable clouds. To get the textures of the aircraft back disable clouds in the Graphics menu.

• I get big black triangles across the screen when using SuperPAK. - A work around for this is to go into the Advanced Graphics Settings in the User Interface and disable the "allow 3DNOW, ISSE".

• My padlock stops working and I can't pan around my views in 3d cockpit. - hit the numpad "3" key to do a rear glance view. this will restore padlock and panning functions.

• In Multi-Player my friends can't see my landing gear. - Toggle your exterior light switches on and off.

• I can't connect to anyone in Multi-Player or see anyone in the chat lobby. - First make sure you have any firewalls disabled. If you don't want to disable the firewall, make sure you configure it so that ports 2934 and 2935 are open. Secondly, if you are using a client machine on a network using Sygate software you must configure the software correctly. See my Sygate guides Sygate 3 guide and Sygate 4 guide. Third, If you have a network card installed open MS-DOS prompt and type "cd C:\MicroProse\Falcon4" then hit enter. Next type"netchk.exe" and hit enter. You will see an entry ..ComIPHostIDGet 0: [Computer Name] X.X.X.X. The x's representing your ip address. There will be one of these entries for each Network Card installed. The second one will say ..ComIPHostIDGet 1: instead of 0. and so on. Determine which is your external ip address and then right click on your exe Shortcut and select Properties. (You can find your external ip by going to the Start menu then clicking on run. Next type winipcfg and hit OK. In the drop down menu select the device that is connected to your active internet connection.) Select the Shortcut tab. You will see in the Target line "C:\MicroProse\Falcon4\FalconSP.exe" Add " -hostidx 0" if the netchk.exe entry was ..ComIPHostIDGet 0 for your external ip or add " -hostidx 1" if it was ..ComIPHostIDGet 1 for your external ip address. Your target line should now read "C:\MicroProse\Falcon4\FalconSP.exe -hostidx 0" or -hostidx 1. Press apply. The -hostidx command switch is used because Falcon sometime cannot determine which network card or modem to use if you have several installed. Fourth, you can add the -ip xxx.xxx.xxx command line switch where "x" is your outside ip address if you have a static or semi-static ip ie. broadband or if you have a hardware router.

• I am having all sorts of lag and general connection problems when flying Multi-Player. - (For SuperPAK only) Make sure the host sets the command line switch -bandwidth "xxx" where x represents 80% of his true upload speed. make sure you test your line speed at dslreports or other speed test site first to determine true upload speed. Also, Make sure all clients connect at 33.6. Then the host should set up the actual mission and commit first. Since the first person to the second pie after comitting controls all ground objects it is imperative that the host reach second pie first. If the host is shot down during the mission he SHOULD NOT back out of the 3d world. This will cause all sorts of problems. Also if you are playing campaign I have found that only the first campaign, Tiger Spirit can be played reliably online. The others have way too much activity and objects don't update so there is tremendous lag.

• I am experiencing sudden CTD's during Multi-Player Sessions especially as a client. - I have found that if you make changes to your mission and then fly that same mission without saving it first, many anomalies occur and data is not in sync which results in a ctd especially for the client after several minutes of play. This occurs most often in Campaign. My advice is to go into the mission you would like to fly, make all the changes you want and then save the game. Back out and then have everyone join without making any changes at all.

• Sometimes after I take off i lose stick input especially in multi-player. - toggle your auto pilot off and on to regain stick input.

• In 3d cockpit my cockpit flashes and disappears and has very strange graphical issues when I move the jet. - (For SuperPAK Only) disable the dynamic head positioning patch.

• Using the MP5-1 exe the client sometimes hangs permanently before entering the pie. - Have the host back out of the jet back to the mission page. this will unfreeze the client. The host can then re-commit.