Lock on: Modern Air Combat

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Member for

19 years 11 months

Posts: 1,303

I heard recently that this sim has a lot of bugs. Has anyone played it, and if so, what was it like? When I eventually get my new computer I do, for now, intend to buy it.

Original post

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 243

Nice to see a flight sim forum here at last!!

Lock-On was initially riddled with bugs, not helped with the rushed Chrimbo release on UBI's part.

However there have been two patches so far which have dealt with most of these issues. Lock-On is a good game and was unfairly dogged by its entry into the retail market by the, in my opinion too early release.

The patches are available from www.lo-mac.com

IMHO Lock-On is the best modern sim around at the moment overall, one thing I would say though is that you'll need a ninja PC to get the most out of it. I had to buy a new graphics card to get some decent frame rates.

I'll post some screen shots over the weekend if I get time.

Member for

19 years 9 months

Posts: 374

there was a lot of comments about the US version,
Can't say i have noticed any bugs really, though i always keep upto date with patches if possible. the game itself is up among the best i have played and there are numerous aircraft downloads available, the only gripe i would have about it realy is the slightly unrealistic take off and landing characteristics, nothing jet powered should fly that slow !!

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 243

I've always found sims to be poor in relating the speed of aircraft on take-off. Perhaps its a limitation of the simulation experience with just one monitor in front of you. I should try hooking up more than one monitor at some point.

Member for

19 years 9 months

Posts: 374

the speed on take off is ok but the manouvers achievable immediatly afterwards are not. just checked to make sure and the landing speed of the phantom can go as low as 100knots ! surely not !

i am also toying with the idea of multi monitor setup, restricted to having pc in lounge at the mo, and i know someone who would'nt agree !

better post this quick before she peers over my shoulder again to see what i'm doing..........

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 243

Thats really my issue as well, space, although the lack of 2 extra monitors doesn't help :D

Imagine a 3 TFT display!!!!! One down, only 2 to go, at least I have a spare machine to run the other two views.

Member for

19 years 9 months

Posts: 374

can't they be run from same machine then ? cant you add another graphics card ?must admit l like the idea but not really looked into it that much, got the idea from some of the cockpit layouts shown in pc pilot magazine

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 243

They can be run from the same machine, esp if you have a card with dual vga outputs, not sure about two cards in one machine, I guess you could do that if you ran one AGP one PCI. But that said there aren't many PCI cards around now.

You don't need a beast of a machine to run periphal views though because you don't have to have the detail level as high, so an average machine can run both side views at lower res etc. Some really hard core simmers then use another machine and monitor to run the instrument panel!

Would be nice but my study is big enough to even contemplate it.

Member for

20 years 7 months

Posts: 1,515

Its a cracking sim and I really do like it, unfortunately since FB introduced Spitfires I have neglected it. My last muck about was when the latest patch came out last week but I'd forgotten everything and fired up FB again instead. I will go back to it but only when I've a little more time to play with.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 1,261

Are specifac sims designed to allow the game to simutaneously display 2 or more views? That would seem very taxing on the game engine like LOMAC that works hard enough to show one view. And if you were to run it on two seperate machines, I would think you would need some kind of network connection to sinchronize the screen action. I want to mention I can play LOMAC no problem with my Athlon 1.6 ghz and ATI 9000 128 mb with only a little frame stutter at really busy moments, so I dont think you go out and get an Athlon 64 with a x800 XT just to run this game.
adwwebber- Where do you download plane ad-ons for LOMAC?

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 243

FS2004 has code to run multiple views I'm sure, however I don't know about LOMAC. My problem was I saw LOMAC running on a friends machine, thought it looked fantastic and rushed out to buy it. Got it home and realised the true difference between my GeForce4800 and his ATI 9800 PRO :(

Anyway I've got myself a Hercules 9800 PRO now, which is overclocked to almost XT speeds! :) So now I can run it with all the effects switched on at 1280x960 (my monitor won't go higher :( ) I always expect more from my PC than it can actually manage.

Member for

19 years 9 months

Posts: 442

i have just completed downloading the LO-MAC demo from www.lo-mac.com ...
after installing the demo... it simply just wont run... it took me awful lot of time to download the demo and now it wont work....

Suggestions anyone....??

Member for

19 years 8 months

Posts: 20

What's your CPU, RAM, Hard Disk capabilities, etc...?

Member for

19 years 9 months

Posts: 442

Well... 733Mhz Celeron, 128MB RAM, 20GB HDD... windows 98 and 2000 installed on my comp...
the config isn't that spectacular.... but i can run 'Janes USAF' and novalogics 'F-22 lightening 3' without any hassels...

Member for

19 years 9 months

Posts: 139

IIRC the min specs is 1.4Ghz P4 or Athlon, 64mb 3D card and 256Mb RAM so your machine might chucking a Hernia :(

Member for

19 years 8 months

Posts: 20

LOL ok, I see... :p

For example, I have a XP Barthon 2500+ (2.3 Ghz), 512 Mb RAM, GC ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 256 Mb DDR and 120 GB for HD. And this is a minimum for LO:MAC. So, I'm not surprised if this sim doesn't work on your computer. You should upgrade your system, Lock-On requires a very hight system.

Member for

19 years 9 months

Posts: 442

:( oki... so all the download effort in vain !

ne ways thnx for replying guys... i guess i am better off with JANES USAF :o

Member for

19 years 11 months

Posts: 1,303

Well... 733Mhz Celeron, 128MB RAM, 20GB HDD... windows 98 and 2000 installed on my comp...
the config isn't that spectacular.... but i can run 'Janes USAF' and novalogics 'F-22 lightening 3' without any hassels...

As the guys have said, you will need an upgrade. The site you got the demo from should have had a section on system requirements. Pays to check for this. Anything from Janes is now old, as they have gone as a Sim developer. I believe A-10 Warthog was their last project they were working on that died when their work did. And I think F-22 Lightening 3 is also pretty old, I recall playing the demo of that at least 2-3 years ago. Is that the one where you have the nuke? I used to love dropping that!
;)

Member for

19 years 9 months

Posts: 442

As the guys have said, you will need an upgrade. The site you got the demo from should have had a section on system requirements. Pays to check for this. Anything from Janes is now old, as they have gone as a Sim developer. I believe A-10 Warthog was their last project they were working on that died when their work did. And I think F-22 Lightening 3 is also pretty old, I recall playing the demo of that at least 2-3 years ago. Is that the one where you have the nuke? I used to love dropping that!
;)

GDL,
i have just started playing these flight sim games recently.... anyways... the JANES game although "old" runs pretty well on my comp and that too without a graphics card ! buying the latest games is not of much use for me as i will not be able to play it on my comp and aslo i dont have a complete system upgradation on cards... maybe i will play LO-MAC after 2-3 yrs :rolleyes:

and yes... the F-22 lightening 3 demo has a usable thermo-nuke(B-61)...
i enjoy dropping it on my own base... :D

neways end of LO-MAC chapter for me...
BTW does the il-2 STURMOVIK also have similar sys requirements as that of LO-MAC ?

Member for

19 years 11 months

Posts: 1,303

GDL,
i have just started playing these flight sim games recently.... anyways... the JANES game although "old" runs pretty well on my comp and that too without a graphics card ! buying the latest games is not of much use for me as i will not be able to play it on my comp and aslo i dont have a complete system upgradation on cards... maybe i will play LO-MAC after 2-3 yrs :rolleyes:

and yes... the F-22 lightening 3 demo has a usable thermo-nuke(B-61)...
i enjoy dropping it on my own base... :D

neways end of LO-MAC chapter for me...
BTW does the il-2 STURMOVIK also have similar sys requirements as that of LO-MAC ?

nirav,

You have still got a good system for older games, so no surprise they run well. Have fun!

And on IL-2 Sturmovik:

Minimum system requirements:
PII 400, 128 MB RAM, 3D Accelerator with 16 MB RAM (voodoo3 at least or equal)

Recommended system:
PIII 600 or better, 256 MB RAM, 32-bit 3D accelerator with 32 MB RAM or better.

Best configurations for full graphics options:
Processor 800 MHz -1,0 GHz or better, 256 MB RAM, GeForce 2 3D accelerator or better.

A taste..
http://www.il2sturmovik.com/ss/il2mfw2.jpg

You will definitely need a good 3D card. :)

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 1,261

You can pretty much ignore minimum requirements, these are system specs that are technically feasable, but in reality youll get a slideshow framerate. Recommended still means very low settings, and youll probably have to run at 800 x 600 to run well (800 x 600 is yucky!). Best configuration is what you REALLY need to be able to play the game at normal settings.