FS One
 

I think I am at the end of the line with buying simulators. It seems that their is always some problem occuring that every one thinks ! can be fixed via a patch. Well if FS One representitives are on RCU please help me get all of the patches I need to keep the program from closing when loading aircraft, after making changes and pushing OK, etc. Sometimes I have to load an aircraft three times to ge the thing to work. I am leaving a copy of my OS and computer specs so you will not have any doubt I don't have the proper set up to run the program.

Dell Dimension DXPO61
Intell(R)
Pentium(R) D CPU 2.80GHz
2.79GHz, 1.00 GB of RAM

C drive 71.3 GB total
58.9 GB FREE

RE: FS One
 

I recommend calling Hangar9 customer service. Real-time two-way voice communication is best for solving this sort of problem.

You should download the 1.0.4 patch from the FS One website: [link=http://www.fsone.com/Downloads/Default.aspx]http://www.fsone.com/Downloads/Default.aspx[/link]

After installing the patch, be sure to recalibrate your controller.

Also, which type of graphics card and sound card are you using?

RE: FS One
 

NVIDIA GeFORCE 7300 LE is the grapics card. I bought this computer just so I can run this soft ware so I know it is meeting the requirements. I down loaded the 1.04 patch and recalibrated the controller . It seem s as if problems only occur with the heli's

Do you recommend using DVI or VGA for the monitor connection?

RE: FS One
 

DVI will give you a better image.

For the problem you're having, can you try resetting the options, and let me know if that fixes it? Here's the approach:

http://www.inertiasoft.com/fsonefaq/#Q1048-FS1

Michael

RE: FS One
 

For the problem you're having, can you try resetting the options, and let me know if that fixes it? Here's the approach:

I set the messafges according to what you sugested and this is the error message I receive when trying to fly the voyager 50 w/training gear.

The instruction at Ox004a07e6 referenced memory at '0x000000000' The memory could not be read.

I deleted and reloaded the program twice already .

RE: FS One
 

Humm ... I think the best approach is then to call Horizon Product Support @ (877) 504-0233. They can help you out.

Michael

RE: FS One
 

A few more questions (to try to help):

1) Can you run the sim with fixed-wing aircraft or do you encounter similar problems?

2) What controller are you using? The TacCon or your own transmitter?

RE: FS One
 

No the airplanes seem to load with out any problems , and the controller I am using is the TacCon V1.0

RE: FS One
 

Ok, you mentioned that the Voyager 50 w/training gear does not work. Can you run any other helis successfully, or do all helis not work for you?

Also, which OS are you running? XP or Vista?

RE: FS One
 

the blade cx and cx w/training just worked but when I tried the Bladecp cp w/ training and then the voyarger the error message occured and or the screen closed.

RE: FS One
 

It sounds like the Voyager w/training data files may be corrupted. Since fixed-wing aircraft work and other helis work, this seems the likely problem.

Also, it would probably be worthwhile to call Hangar9 tomorrow (Monday) and get two-way feedback to do other tests and get this corrected.

Which operating system are you using? XP or Vista?

RE: FS One
 

I am using XP home edition. If it's the files then whats keeping it from loading properly ? or better yet why is this problem bouncing around as I try different things with this Simulator. I will try to get home early enough to contact them. Thanks for all of your input.

RE: FS One
 

The data could be corrupt on the source. The files could have been installed corrupt. Reinstalling may simply repeatedly install bad files. The corrupt souce problem may or may not be caught by the installer. Or the corruption might be caused by the install itself.

The bouncing misses the bad files sometimes. What happens with one chopper happens because it's got a bad file. What happens with another works because that one doesn't need the bad file or has files that are good. The choppers that do encounter problems might be actually seeing different types of corruption, or the same type corruption that happened to different types of files.

It's also possible that the install process has a problem with some location on the source media that contains data for a number of choppers but you've not tried them all, or there is only a small problem that affects just a few.

RE: FS One
 

I've run into this particular error before in another sim... Uninstall and re-install your video card drivers... maybe even re-seat your video card. At least it worked for me... what was happening was that different models called on different parts of the GPU to render... in my case it was the shadow cast on a wing when I raised flaps in G3... Any model with flaps would crash the program when it tried to load the collision mesh and render the flaps (and what was under them).

If you're using an ATI video card, be sure to download their driver un-installer and use it... I assume nVidia has a similar tool?

-Case

RE: FS One
 

OK OK OK :D just an update after talking to an inertiasoft representitive yesterday. I updated my drivers for NVIDIA GFORCE 7300 and now can load, fly , switch aircraft , without any error messages. I really don't understand why this helped but I am glad I tried.

One problem I am experiencing now is the last heli, by JR with the turbines on it, will not reset after a crash. Does anyone know why ?

Thanks.

RE: FS One
 

Try the "start engine" key when it doesn't reset. I've had that happen occassionally where it acutually does reset back to the uncrashed location, but it won't power up. I did the start engine and it worked fine.

Good luck,
Skarn

RE: FS One
 

Skarn thanks a million ! You are exactly right . The J button starts the engine and off I went. :)

RE: FS One
 

I tried installing FS One the other night. I took about 4 hours! After it said it was done, I tried opening the program. I see a black screen for a second and then it quickly disappears. I've rebooted many times and tried it over and over. Same thing every time. I just bought a new laptop, which came with Vista. Will this thing run with Vista at all, or do I need to just get my money back?

RE: FS One
 

hello TCCLONG , if you have the time please tell me what your Laptop specifications are . IE : processor speed; memory; disk drive space; video card.

It sounds as if you need to upgrade FS ONE and your video card even though your computer is new.

RE: FS One
 

My Laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1501. I have a AMD Turion X2 Dual Processor with 1G ram and an ATI Radeon X1150 integrated video with 256MB hypermemory. I have about 60 GB free hard drive space. The program installs "successfully". There is some message in the black screen, but it's hard to read because it disappears so quickly. I think it said something about the program already running.

RE: FS One
 

I had the SAME proplem . First upgrade your video card drivers then let me know if that helps . If you want to go further than that before emailing me back upgrade the FS ONE . They had a few patches early on . The simulator is outstanding once you get it to run properly.

RE: FS One
 

I uninstalled FS One and re-installed the program again. I then updated the ATI video drivers to all the latest ones. That didn't help. I downloaded the latest FS One patch - that didn't help. I also downloaded Direct X and installed that. That didn't help either. Not sure what else to do. I still get 2 black screens that pop up for a second and then disappear. What is the problem with this thing?

RE: FS One
 

Assuming you know nothing about computers or loading software I have to ask,

1 before loading software did you turn of your antivirus program ? You said it took 4 hours to load , this represents your virus scan is on while loading the the four disc.

2 your said you downloaded latest drivers , this sounds like you went to your hardware file and hit update amd the computer told you , all latest drivers are installed on the computer. It will not search the internet for if you did it this way.

3 other than that you said you have 60 GB of hard disk space , how much do you have free?

I read somthing last night QandA for another simulator and it was mentioned running 3d software on Laptops normally causes problems. Tyr contacting inertiasoft and give them as much information as possible.

4 too high screen resolution also causes black screens . try lowering the resolution and see what happens.

RE: FS One
 

Thanks RC Captain for all your help on this. I do appreciate it!

I work with computers all the time, so I am pretty familar with them. I haven't done too much with high end games, however. My hard drive is 80 GB - I have about 60 GB free. I did go to the ATI website and got the latest set of drivers for my video card. It's all up to date. I also downloaded the latest version of Direct X from the microsoft website. I have a friend who ran G3 on a couple different laptops with no problems. I did disable the antivirus software before installing FS One. I have also tried different resolutions and changed about every video setting I can find. Nothing helps. The screen starts to come up and then just disappears - no error messages, no nothing.

I called Horizon Hobbies technical support today. No help there either. They had me run through a bunch of checks, but everything was fine. They supposedly elevated it to a Tier 2 ticket, and are supposed to call me back sometime.

Does anybody have any ideas?

RE: FS One
 

Ok , I will continue until we solve this matter . I am not a technician , but I have solved the same problem and a few more by hounding it out. Now ...........You have upgraded the drivers , video card and etc but did you try to reload the discs one more time ? It should not take 4 hours to load with your laptops specifications. So I would start there . Load the discs with out anything else running if you didn't before if you did great. Did you register the software ? I think some how this counts but I don't know why. You never mentioned the name of your Operating System . Also check your color quality setting mine is set for 34 bit. If you are getting annoyed I will stop , but I don't mind trying to help you .

RE: FS One
 

tcclong -- Since you are using Vista, I think the problem is likely related to permissions and/or UAC.

Vista's UAC (User Access Control) often causes problems when running programs and/or installing programs. In Control Panel->Users, near the bottom is an option to change UAC settings. Go into that and turn off UAC.

After turning off UAC, try reinstalling, and when you reinstall and run, you may want to try installing and running with administrator permissions. Vista is much more picky about "security" than XP and they seem to go a bit overboard at times.

Let us know if that works.

Brian

RE: FS One
 

BTW -- I've received reports that install times with Vista are way too long (as tcclong reports) -- up to 4 hours. However, this is often due due to UAC and/or permissions, so Vista users may want to consider turning off UAC. After doing this, install times are normal for a 4 CDROM, 4 GB installation -- less than an hour.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if Microsoft changes how Vista deals with UAC when they release the first Service Pack for Vista. We'll see...

RE: FS One
 

RC Captain and Brian,

Thanks a lot for the help. I did completely uninstall and re-install the software again last night. I am running Vista on a brand new laptop. I did turn off the UAC and the software did seem to install faster, but the end result was exactly the same. I run the software as an administrator. I also tried running it in XP Compatability mode. I still get a couple black screens that quickly appear and disappear. My color is set to 32 bit. If I set it to less than 32 bit, FS One does come up with an error message saying that the color must be 32 bit. When I set it back to 32 bit, the error goes away and I am back to the disappearing screen. I called Horizon for help, but they didn’t know what the problem was, and turned me over to someone else who was supposed to call me back. It looks like the end of the line for me. It’s about time for me to return this thing and get something else. I was really looking forward to playing it. Oh well

RE: FS One
 

Must be the Vista. This post may save many a lot of agravation.

RE: FS One
 

Actually, FS One does work with Vista. However, no one anywhere has much experience yet with troubleshooting Vista problems yet -- that's always the concern with using a brand new operating system.

tcclong -- Did you patch to version 1.0.4? Do you have the USB cable plugged in and a TacCon or transmitter plugged into the USB box? What video resolution are you running at?

Since you are familiar with computers, bring up a Command Prompt console and then "cd" to the folder where you installed FS One. Once at that location, type: FS_One.exe and hit Enter/Return to launch the program within the console. This should let you see error messages that may appear. Does this give you any clues?

RE: FS One
 

Brian,

I did have the 1.04 patch installed. I also did try it with the Tacon plugged in. That didn't seem to help. I am running at 1280 X 800. I tried starting FS One at every different resolution that I have. Nothing made a difference. I tried starting the program in DOS mode and it didn't show me any error messages. I did however find the following error message in a DAT file in the FS One directory:

cUUE_NexusWin32::InitNexus OpenGL ARB initialization failed.

That's what is making this so difficult - no indication of what the problem is. It just doesn't run.

On a side note, I did install G3.5 on this laptop and it worked perfectly. It only took about 20 minutes to install (much more normal, it seems to me). The graphics were very slow at first (very herky jerky), but then I installed the latest drivers from the Dell website. Somehow the Dell video drivers are different than the ones from the ATI website (even though everything looked exactly the same). Once I installed the Dell drivers, the game played perfectly. Unbelievable graphics. So, my point is, I know this computer is capable. I tried running FS One after the new drivers were installed - no difference. Something else is wrong with it. It must have something to do with Vista - but who knows what?

RE: FS One
 

You can not compare FS ONE to G3.5. G3.5 doesn't have half the stuff FS ONE has . I was at a LHS today and the owner said the only problem FS ONE has is the requirements to run it. There is something missing from your LAPTOP you me and everyone can't see , which is keeping the program from running. Be glad it stops because it may destroy your computer if it continues to run despite errors. Did you register the disk ?

RE: FS One
 

Thanks for posting your console messages. Actually, the error message tells us exactly what the problem is -- it's your graphics driver. FS One uses OpenGL for graphics and it uses various "OpenGL extensions" to provide advanced capabilities, which is typical for OpenGL-based programs. Your driver lacks an ARB, and as a result, the graphics cannot function until you use a graphics driver than includes all of the required ARBs. Typically, NVIDIA and ATI drivers include the necessary ARBS (they always do for XP). The Dell driver may not include the ARB. There have been reports that Dell changes graphics drivers for their PCs and these alleged changes sometimes limit graphics capabilities.

Graphics drivers are always especially questionable with laptops, due to their special displays. There are also reports that Dell has allegedly made changes to prevent users from changing their graphics drivers to use ATI drivers, for example, rather than the Dell drivers. Several years ago, this was the case with some NVIDIA cards, and advanced users had to make changes in the registry to allow updates away from the poor perfoming Dell drivers in order to use the NVIDIA drivers.

It is quite possible that you may be experiencing a similar problem. When you do you graphics updates, be sure to check the driver version information. You may be surprised to find that your graphics driver was not actually updated.

In any case, if you could post the contents of your ogl_extensions.dat file (located in the installation folder for FS One), we may be able to further determine what your driver is missing.

---

Now, regarding G3 or G3.5 as compared with FS One requirements and runtime speed... We have received many reports that FS One runs faster than G3.5 (or G3) on the same computer. We have also confirmed this with our own testing. Most times, when someone says FS One is running slower than G3, it is due to graphics drivers. Once they change them, FS One runs faster, and they are happy. I'm sure there may be a case somewhere in the world where the opposite is true, but this is what we've found from extensive testing as well as from user reports.

Installation times between G3 and FS One are clearly different. No question there. However, keep in mind that G3 has 2 CDROMs while FS One has 4 CDROMs (with high compression). The larger amount of data (aerodynamics, graphics, pano sites, etc) is the primary reason it takes longer to install. There is just no way around that -- it's just a lot more data to transfer off of the CDROM, uncompress, and store to your hard drive.

RE: FS One
 

Believe me, I would like to play FS One if it would work on my computer. I have a Funtana, so it would be great to play FS One.

Here is what is in the ogl extensions file:

OpenGL Extensions:
GL_WIN_swap_hint
GL_EXT_bgra
GL_EXT_paletted_textur


I did download the driver directly from the ATI website - at least it was the Catalyst Control Center, which I think has the latest driver. The Driver from the Dell website was very simliar, but not exactly the same. The verson # was a little different.

RE: FS One
 

Wow, that's amazing. Your driver supports only three extensions. I've never seen such a minimal list, I'm sorry to say. Most ATI and NVIDIA drivers support well over 100 entries. It's clear that something strange is going on with your driver's OpenGL support. Many other people are running FS One with Vista, so this isn't Vista's fault, per se, other than the fact that your Vista-capable graphics driver doesn't provide the support it should. Basically, your driver/graphics card combination is essentially incomplete. It looks like it was rushed out before having being fully ready.

To fix this, you'll need to get a driver installed with proper OpenGL support. I'm still wondering if there is some problem with registry settings that may be preventing the new driver from being fully used.

What model laptop are you using and what type of graphics card does it use?

RE: FS One
 

I have an ATI Radeon X1150, which is listed under "integrated/motherboard" on the ATI website. There are some check boxes under the OpenGL Settings box in the ATI driver. The two boxes are "triple buffering" and "Force 24 bit Z-buffer depth". I have tried it with these boxes checked and unchecked. It doesn't work either way. I have installed the latest version of the 'Catalyst Control Center' for my video card - downloaded from the ATI website and from the Dell website. I have tried them both. Neither works. I've noticed that with G3.5, sometimes the video works really well (80-90 frames per sec., and then other times not very good 20-30 fps). I haven't figured out why it changes from time to time.

RE: FS One
 

You may want to ask ATI why their drivers have such a minimal listing of OpenGL ARBs. The fact that you see graphics speed problems and inconsistencies with other applications as well is cause for concern.

RE: FS One
 

Well, guess what? I tried calling ATI the other day to figure out what's going on with the video driver. Their support line said they had just released a new driver which would resolve many problems. They just posted a new driver on Feb. 21. As it turns out, their latest driver improved the OpenGL support for my video card. So, with the latest driver - it worked! That fixed the problem. One other thing I discovered. I noticed that the graphics were really jerky whenever I was running off the battery. As soon as I plugged it in, the graphics were nice and smooth. So, it appears that this Dell has a feature where it slows down the graphics to save battery power whenever you're not plugged in. The Dell also dims the screen when you're not plugged in, but you can turn it back up. So, FS One works great on this thing now. Pretty fun to play! I like flying my Funtana.

Well, thank you guys for all your help. I appreciate it.

RE: FS One
 

I am glad to hear you stuck it out and got it working. Unecessary to mention, but now someone with the same problem doesn't have to pull their hair trying to get fs one to run on their LAP TOP. :D

The Funtana is an awesome plane to fly on the sim. I may look into getting the real thing.



CAP.

RE: FS One
 

tcclong -- I'm really glad to hear that you got this to work. Many thanks to RC-Captain for his help, too.

BTW -- The speed issue when using AC power versus battery is actually fairly common with laptops. You may be able to adjust power setting to give you fast speed while on batteries, but it will really run down your battery quickly. Screen dimming is also a power setting.

Enjoy your FS One! :-)