Author Topic: Dissapearing planes- repost (Read 936 times)

Urchin · « **on:** August 29, 2001, 12:29:00 PM »

This has been happening to me regularly for a couple months now (I believe it started when the last version came out). I literally lose low flying planes in the ground. If someone dips below ~500 feet or so and I am above them, they disappear. If I drop down below 500 feet as well, they become visible again, starting with the icon and working down to the plane as long as I keep descending. This seems to be ~500 AGL, because I've lost people that flew very close to hills until I came up next to the hill to. I can still see their shadow on the ground, so I can keep track of where they are and sort of what they are doing, but it gets hard to dogfight sometimes when the enemy plane literally dissapears for a few seconds.

I've also seen it when any enemy plane was behind me and I was shooting out of the tailgunner position. Happened twice- once in a Lanc and once in a B26- a guy was coming up at about 1000 yards and just dissapeared- I could still see the tracers coming towards me so I knew where to shoot, and he "popped" back into existance a few seconds later though.

I'm a lot more worried about the invisible planes below 500 feet, as this can play a rather significant role in a dogfight

. My computer is a 900 mhz Athlon, with 256 Mb ram, and a 32 Mb Geforce 2 MX card with the driver file version of 4.13.01.1241. I've tried 2 or 3 other drivers with it, and the same thing still happens.

Could it have something to do with the way my video card is set up in Windows? Or possibly my video options in Aces High? Does anyone else have this problem and know how to fix it?

Am0n · « **Reply #1 on:** August 30, 2001, 12:30:00 PM »

Is the plane actualy disapearing or are they falling off or your rader? i say that because last night i was playing and noticed that if you are at a medium/high altitude and a enemy flies that low they are not on radar any longer, this may not be a bug but a bit of realism. If you notcie you cannot see ground units at 3k high, but they show up when you dive down to a much lower altitude. Planes up high my radar picks up at 6k and ground units at 1.5k.

Just some ideas, i could be wrong all together.

zippy0 · « **Reply #2 on:** August 30, 2001, 12:35:00 PM »

I've seen planes dissappear as I was watching them. It's like they go through an invisible doorway. First their nose dissappears, then a line moves across the airplane from front to back in the direction they are travelling. then poof, no more plane. eventually it will reappear somewhere up ahead. This usually happens when I'm looking down on a plane. It's happened since I started playing AH ( a few months). I just thought it was a feature.

zippy

mrfish · « **Reply #3 on:** August 30, 2001, 01:39:00 PM »

"i believe" that when the last version was released the icon range below 500 ft was set to 3.8 or maybe 4.0? and the icon range above 500ft remains at 6.0.

this would account for invisible planes if you were above 500 and they were below.(so long as you were over 3.8 away) their icon wouldn't be apparant to anyone over 3.8 away. it would also appear inconsistent because inmost engagements below 500 you will never let the breathing room get that big and in special cases you would so it would probably seem inconsistent as hell.

check the news posts back a few months - i believe your answer may lie there.

Urchin · « **Reply #4 on:** August 30, 2001, 03:29:00 PM »

No, I mean that I'm right on top of them (like 300-400 yards away- but above them). I'f they go below a certain height (I don't even know what it is, but it is low) they actually dissapear. It is exactly like what Zippy said- it is like they are crossing an "invisible line" until you start dropping below that line, then they cross a "visible line" and begin to reappear the lower you go. I don't seem to have that problem when running the new beta (DX8.0)- but when I run that I get some crazy amounts of stuttering, especially when flying near clouds or smoke- that doesn't happen in the normal version.

Apparently I'm NOT the only person it happens to, which is a big relief (thanks Skippy!). Now I just have to figure out how to fix it.

humble · « **Reply #5 on:** August 30, 2001, 04:26:00 PM »

I had a similiar scenario last night...I was involved in a couple of great vertical cat and mouse fights with VFJackel. As I topped out on the ropes i'd lose him below me against the ground. The cloud cover was hvy at 12k or so and we sandwiched the fight in the band between top cover and ground (3k or so).

Anyway, I grumbled to myself at time it was bad view management....but it seemed like he just "blinked out" and then reappeared. It wasn't a warp he reappeared where I expected him to be based on course and speed each time.

AH twilight zone

Urchin · « **Reply #6 on:** August 30, 2001, 10:25:00 PM »

I also lose ground vehicles when I get within 2k or so, so I sort of have to shoot at where I last saw them. The fleet dissapears when I fly near it, and sometimes it stays gone, sometimes it sort of flickers in and out of existance. I can still see the wake of the ships, and sometimes the hull, but not the decks.

It happens to buildings on bases to- if I want to strafe something I have to get it in my sights before I get within 1k or so, or it will dissapear. Buildings reappear when I fly up and I'm exactly over them, if I move away from straight over one it dissapears. Hangers, ack, everything- it all dissapears. I can BOMB ok, it never dissapears when I'm in a buff and pretty high above the base.

As I said before, this doesn't happen in the new version (DX8 beta 12)- only in the "normal" AH. However, the game runs a lot smoother in the normal mode, it gets kinda jaggy in the beta version.

flakbait · « **Reply #7 on:** September 02, 2001, 08:51:00 AM »

Actually guys, the aircraft in question is flying behind the ground tile. One minute he's normal, the next he seems to fly right through the "earth" and pop out seconds later. I've seen it too.

-----------------------
Flakbait [Delta6]
Delta Six's Flight School
Put the P-61B in Aces High
"During the Battle of Britain the question 'fighter or fighter-bomber?'
had been decided once and for all: The fighter can only be used as a bomb carrier
with lasting effect when sufficient air superiority has been won." Adolph Galland

RaTFinK · « **Reply #8 on:** September 02, 2001, 02:21:00 PM »

Same thing happens to me! I thought it was because of my card buy seeing the nice systems you guys have and thinking back on it it did start with one of the updates. It wasn't allways like this. Planes and vehicles dissappear and ground objects like flack and hangers do the same thing when I try to strafe. Try to fly through a hangar after it dissapears! I tried a Geforce2mx400 last week and it still happened.

Booky · « **Reply #9 on:** September 02, 2001, 11:00:00 PM »

Urchin,
Sounds like a hardware or setting issue. If all objects disappear then it has to be something in the settings. Have you tried changing resolution, checking or unchecking the video option? It doesn't sound like your video card. Do you use the BETA? Also have you tried a reinstall of AH? I think if you haven't tried a reinstall, that is prolly your best bet, just download latest program and install it, see if it still happens. It almost sounds as if some sort of object file got corrupted.

Urchin · « **Reply #10 on:** September 02, 2001, 11:13:00 PM »

No, I haven't tried a reinstall. I guess it could be a file corruption, since I distinctly remember it started happening after one of the updates a couple months ago. It does NOT happen with the new beta version I am playing on now, so maybe it is a corrupted file- I don't think it is a hardware or software setting since it doesn't happen in the new beta.

Urchin · « **Reply #11 on:** September 03, 2001, 12:44:00 AM »

No, reinstalling did not fix the problem. Installed the beta version again, it runs flawlessly- I just take a HUGE frame rate hit when there is any kind of smoke on the screen (i.e. fuel leaks and oil leaks kill FPS just like smoke from destroyed hangers). On the whole though, the new beta runs quite smoothly now, after the reinstall.

RaTFinK · « **Reply #12 on:** September 03, 2001, 01:15:00 PM »

I enabled the memory hole in my bios and it just fixed the problem for me. I no longer get dissapearing planes or ground objects and the smoke off buildings is no longer squares. Heard about this on an overclocker site with regards to some other video problems. Been living with this for a long time didn't think it would ever get fixed. Hope it works for you.

Urchin · « **Reply #13 on:** September 03, 2001, 04:40:00 PM »

How do you enable the "memory hole".. WHAT is the memory hole? Never even heard of that lol. I'd be happy to give it a shot though.

RaTFinK · « **Reply #14 on:** September 03, 2001, 05:40:00 PM »

when your computer is booting press delete key, that will get you into the bios. Then go through the menues until you find something that says memory hole and enable it. save bios and reboot.