Digital Integration's
It was discovered by users of the v1.2 patch that in many cases, completing a mission would cause a crash which returned the game to Windows95 without upding the pilot's log.
After studying this problem, we found that simply compiling the 1.2 patch with a new version of our compiler had resulted in this peculiar crash. Needless, to say, this was easy to fix and is now being closely examined!
The Cloud layer routines were optimised in patch v1.2 as part of the general speed increase. The changes left behind a small bug which appeared in missions with overcast cloud layers. The clouds would appear to 'bleed' into the ground textures when the terrain rolled.
This bug has been removed with no detriment to the speed of the code. The projected framerate improvement (reproduced below) remains the same.
A problem occurred in v1.2 whereby the joystick calibration display would fluctuate wildly. While this did not appear to affect in-game operation, it makes it impossible to test if the joystick is calibrated correctly. This bug has been fixed up, and joystick calibration is back to normal.
CH Products' Win95 coolie-hat bug eliminated
This is a bug which has dogged us for a long time, and has finally been laid to rest. Up until now, Anyone playing our games in Windows95 and using a CH Products joystick has found that the up-direction of the joystick's coolie-hat does not seem to function, and has had to use a workaround to correct this.
From this patch onwards, the joystick will function normally. If you currently use the workaround, then throw the alternative configuration away - you don't need it anymore!
Laser designation system overhaul
Various aspects of the LANTIRN and laser designation code have been tightened up. A small number of players reported problems when flying missions involving laser designation by ground troops, and also when trying to aquire targets without using the radar or LANTIRN pod. Both of these problems have been recognised and this version corrects them.
The Messaging System (accessed with Shift-M in-cockpit) has been extended to function for Two-Player games, instead of just in Network Games as it did pre-1.3. All functionality of the system remains the same, with the addition of the "/language" command, described below.
In an attempt to move away from problems associated with compiling different versions of patch releases for different destination countries, and to accommodate players who sometimes prefer the original to their localized version, we have incorporated a new system to allow players to specify the language used in the game.
There are currently four localized versions of F-16 in production - American, French, German and Italian. The CD's from each of these localizations carry their own version and the original English version, and players can now swap between these two versions at will.
Language can be set using either the "/version" command in the in-cockpit Message and Command System, or by using the "-l" parameter from the command line. Full instructions are outlined below.
The program code of F-16 has undergone a collective belt-tightening in an attempt to augment the general performance of the game across the board.
Several key routines have been re-written in assembly language, with resulting optimisation better than that obtained from a compiler. Advantage has also been taken of the pipelining and instruction caching available to Pentium-class processors. While this gives incrementally better performance on these processors, it unfortunately means that machines based on the 486 family of processors will see little improvement. Finally, the cloud system has been updated and now leaves a smaller impact upon frame rate than it did previously.
We have stated that the overall increase is around 15% to 20% "across the board". By this we mean that the frame rate increase differs according to processor type and visual detail settings, however, that percentage always remains accurate. For example, a Pentium 100 running F-16 with maximum visual detail may have clocked up 4 or 5 frames per second with the release version of the game. With v1.2's increase this figure should increase by approximately 1 frame. However, a higher spec machine which previously produced a frame rate of, say, 18fps should now see an increase of 3 or 4 frames per second.
To re-iterate, the benefit you see will depend on the framerate your machine could previously achieve. Whatever happens, though, you will definitely receive that 15-20% increase.
"Check six" functions by allowing pilots to look 180 degrees to the rear over either their left or right shoulder. From this viewpoint, pilots will see the dorsal surface of their aircraft and be able to view, with some obstruction from the ejection seat and tailfin, their entire rear aspect.
In addition to the left and right view, "check six" works in two modes - Quick and Sticky. Quick view shows the rear aspect only for the length of time which you depress the view key. Sticky mode locks the rear aspect view until you switch back to a front view.
Controls for the check-six view are as follows:
These two keys alone activate check-six in Quick mode.
c:\i-magic\if16\f1695 -lamerican
This need only be done once. Load the game as normal the next time and any other time you play.
Method 2 - The Command System Method
/language american
This need only be done once. The language has now been set and will take effect the next time you load the game.
The latest patches for F-16 Fighting Falcon, and our other games, are always
available at our website.
The main URL is: