lookin around outside?

[chancevought]

ok..so im in a dogfight, bogey pulls hard i follow....use my mouse to pan view up...he breaks left, hes outta my view..i pan left hes goin right...of course now the view i had is now blue sky...i have to return to forward view to get my bearings then start scannin...   anyone can guess whats next...all this time screwin with the view has lost me the fight......i dont turn my head with my left hand, so y do it here???  is there any way to lock veiw on target??  in real life you would have your head on swivel on the bogey, never lookin in the cockpit...so y do it here??  i have a laptop so i dont have the extra keypad....theres already too many different buttons in different areas of the keyboard, so pluggin in another keyboard would only compound the problem.......is this something that will be fixed when its realized theres a better way??  and when will the rudders return to neutral....they do in real life u know...they dont stay in position unless they're stuck.....

[DamnedRen]

Originally posted by chancevought
ok..so im in a dogfight, bogey pulls hard i follow....use my mouse to pan view up...he breaks left, hes outta my view..i pan left hes goin right...of course now the view i had is now blue sky...i have to return to forward view to get my bearings then start scannin...   anyone can guess whats next...all this time screwin with the view has lost me the fight......i dont turn my head with my left hand, so y do it here???  is there any way to lock veiw on target??  in real life you would have your head on swivel on the bogey, never lookin in the cockpit...so y do it here??  i have a laptop so i dont have the extra keypad....theres already too many different buttons in different areas of the keyboard, so pluggin in another keyboard would only compound the problem.......is this something that will be fixed when its realized theres a better way??  and when will the rudders return to neutral....they do in real life u know...they dont stay in position unless they're stuck.....

You are very correct. A laptop can be made to work for the game but the keyboard has many functions that can become a burden in a dogfight. The fights are so intense and can be over so quickly that the game definately favors a joystick. So, if you're using a mouse to view I gather you have a joystick? If so what kind? Most of the new joysticks on the market have a "coolie hat" on top. In real life (RL) that coolie hat is used to trim out the older style jets. In our game it's used for your views.  If you don't have a joystick then I'd suggest you get one. If you're looking for a stick I'd suggest the following type within minimum requires for the game (and therre are a lot of brands out there to choose from):

It must have an 8-way hat. This gives you the corner views along with left, right, back.
It must have a throttle lever (normally found on the base that holds the joystick)
It's prefered you have a twisty stick joystick. This gives you rudders.
Lastly, the more buttons you can get on the joystick and base the better off you are.

Sticks which these minimum requirements can run anywhere from $25-300 and you should be able to find something on sale in the $30 neighborhood just about anywhere. The higher end gears has HOTAS which is hands off the keyboard completely in dogfights using seperate joystick, throttle and rudder pedals.
Heck, a $5-10 garage sale joystick is 98% better than using a mouse but you may have some limited views with a 4-way hat.  

All of the buttons and views can be programmed from within the game.

And yes you can recenter the rudders by hitting your S key. Any twist stick joystick will auto center your rudders. Pedals auto center also.

You can still use your laptop for the game.

Hope this helps.

[hubsonfire]

And Yes, there is a view padlock, allowing you to select and track a particular plane. I believe F11 is the padlock key, and tab are used. I've remapped mine, so you should double check the key assignments in setup.

[SKJohn]

Originally posted by chancevought
......i dont turn my head with my left hand, so y do it here???  is there any way to lock veiw on target??  in real life you would have your head on swivel on the bogey, never lookin in the cockpit...so y do it here??  .....

There is also a thing called "Track IR" that lets you control your head movements with your head.  A tiny 1 x 1 & 1/2 inch screen goes ontop of your computer, you wear your favorite hat with a sensor thing clipped to the bill and VOILA! where you turn your head - the view goes - even all the way around to the back.
I got one a couple of weeks ago and am still getting used to it - can't stop my thumb from yanking around on the view hat.  But if you got one before you got accustomed to using the view hats, the transistion would probably be alot smoother.

Take alook at them here:

http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/

[chancevought]

thank you all for your advice!! i just bought a logitech stick...$25 to get started...it has no hat...but i will now sell it and look up all your suggestions!!!  thank you all...now i just have to stop the screen from freezing in dogfights and i might actually win a few!!!

[DamnedRen]

Originally posted by chancevought
thank you all for your advice!! i just bought a logitech stick...$25 to get started...it has no hat...but i will now sell it and look up all your suggestions!!!  thank you all...now i just have to stop the screen from freezing in dogfights and i might actually win a few!!!

Screen freeze? Full lockup or just for a second? You know there is a little bug with DirectX that can cause freezes and lockup ups. There is an easy fix for it too.

On your deskstop hit program/run. When the new window appears type in dxdiag and hit enter.
The directX window will appear. Hit the "sound" tab along the top tabs and look towards the bottom of the new tabbed sound window. Make sure the sound acceleration is set to 3/4 iso of full.

With any luck that should fix your freezes.

The normal way to bring up a padlock view, which you can use to practice your aim, is you hit control tab then hit the tab key alone to cycle through your targets.

[heatedpitot]

Please check your Email & PM's!  I would like to setup my "hat views" as you have described to ChanceVoight (sp).

Hope you feeling better today.

SS10

[chancevought]

Originally posted by DamnedRen
Screen freeze? Full lockup or just for a second? You know there is a little bug with DirectX that can cause freezes and lockup ups. There is an easy fix for it too.

On your deskstop hit program/run. When the new window appears type in dxdiag and hit enter.
The directX window will appear. Hit the "sound" tab along the top tabs and look towards the bottom of the new tabbed sound window. Make sure the sound acceleration is set to 3/4 iso of full.

With any luck that should fix your freezes.

The normal way to bring up a padlock view, which you can use to practice your aim, is you hit control tab then hit the tab key alone to cycle through your targets.

tried that thank you....disabled everything skuzzy listed in control panel...even turned off my firewall...downloaded 6.14 driver for ati video card...even stopped playin for a few weeks to calm down..... i jus wanna fly, but it aint workin...anybody ever played secret weapons over normandy?? i love my playstation...i've never had to download, disable or spend hundreds of dollars in extra stuff in order jus to play!!  are there any online games that just work...if not...how do poor people without computer programming degrees play games....oh i know..they own playstations..lol

[DamnedRen]

I dunno. The only thing I ever disabled was the moving the slider bar in dx to the 3/4 position. I DID have trouble with a video card which has since been replaced. All is back to normal.

Also, A buddy of mine tried and built his own computer from scratch. He's not computer literate at all but read a book and asked me a few questions. He loaded AH2 and it works perfectly with no modifications other than I suggest he move the slider to the 3/4 position in dx.

It might not be the game but some issue that has cropped up on your computer. But, don't make me a liar. I have never seen your system nor its symptoms so most of what I discuss is merely conjecture.

Hope this helps.

[chancevought]

thanks ren!!  i'm sure its not the game too...u all wouldnt be here either..lol... i think your right about the video card...its a lil old (3 years) but should be capable....i had to update the driver...but i dont know computers well...that got it workin, but i cant get this freezin out!  it seems it may be a losing battle.... ...do laptops make good frisbees??  thank you again for your time!!

[DamnedRen]

IMHO laptops are perfectly fine for checking your email and reading the boards from your recliner.

Just a lil more about obsolesence. I also have a SB Live card in my computer. Well, when I installed it into my new MB xp pro said it wasn't compatible and I hard a heck of a time finding drivers for it. Finally it started working. The sound card is only 2-3 years old. It doesn't take long for something to get old in the computer industry. In fact, this apple I typing on is actually obsolete since they came out with the intel chip for apple. It's days are numbered and apple doesnt support much for anything old (2-3 years?) for long.

Ren

[The Fugitive]

Originally posted by chancevought
thanks ren!!  i'm sure its not the game too...u all wouldnt be here either..lol... i think your right about the video card...its a lil old (3 years) but should be capable....i had to update the driver...but i dont know computers well...that got it workin, but i cant get this freezin out!  it seems it may be a losing battle.... ...do laptops make good frisbees??  thank you again for your time!!

chances are that if your laptop is 3 years old your not going to be anywhere near what you need to play this game smooth. The freeze ups are your computer waiting while it loads the next screen.

run a DXdiag ( hit start,run and then type in dxdiag) copy the first third or so and paste in here on the boards. The "Guru's" here will be able to help you a lot more with that.

[Birddogg]

If you on a laptop and lack numeric keypad, this will help..

[DamnedRen]

Originally posted by The Fugitive
chances are that if your laptop is 3 years old your not going to be anywhere near what you need to play this game smooth. The freeze ups are your computer waiting while it loads the next screen.

run a DXdiag ( hit start,run and then type in dxdiag) copy the first third or so and paste in here on the boards. The "Guru's" here will be able to help you a lot more with that.

Actually, you want to post it to the technical support section so Skuzzy can take a look at it. He's kinda sharp at this stuff, yanno.

[TDeacon]

Not sure anyone mentioned this, but just in case:

There is another way to look around the virtual sky, without using an 8-way hatswitch.  Maybe you can keep your current joystick.  This other way requires a numeric keypad which is capable of sending at least 2 of the keys at the same time (to your PC).  

You map the views to the keypad such that straight ahead is 8, combined  right-ahead is 9, right is 6, combined right-back is 3, straight back is 2, combined left-back is 1, left is 4, and combined left-ahead is 7.  Straight up is mapped to 5.  You control the numeric keypad for your views using your left hand, while you fly with your stick using your right hand.  To look around in the spacial plane of the wings, you use the single keys 8, 9, 6, 3, 2, 1, 4, and 7.  To look straight up you use 5.  To look in between the plane of the wings and straight up you hold down 5 at the same time as 8, or 9, or 6, or etc.  This is the traditional method introduced by the on-line game Air Warrior, back in the late 80s.  

The advantage of this method, if you have a numeric keypad, is that your hat switch and buttons on the joystick can be used for other things.  In my case, I map the "move" view keys to the hat switch, so I can look around canopy frames, etc.