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Red Baron II FAQ last revised on July 10, 1998 This FAQ is for Sierra's World War I flight sim Red Baron 2. I do
not work for or represent Sierra On-line, so please don't blame them
for any information that I have put here. This FAQ is an updated
version based on the shipping retail version of Red Baron II. Mostly
it contains answers to problems that people have had with the game.
Look for the Make sure you also visit Icky's Red Baron II How To Page. Last patch was released on April 22, 1998.V. 1.05 You can get to it via the Files download page at this site.
Q: What kind of a system do I have to have in order to run Red Baron 2? A: Red Baron II will run on a Pentium 90 with 16MB of RAM and 80 MB of free space on the drive used by Windows 95 for Virtual Memory. You will need to turn most details down with such a system. Quite adequate frame rates have been achieved on a Pentium 166 with most of the details on. At least 32 MB of RAM is also highly recommended. There is not a frame rate indicator built in to the game as far as I've been able to tell. It's quite possible that Sierra did not want discussions about Red Baron II's frame rate being bandied about while there isn't a 3D accelerated version. Or more innocently it could be that there was not time to put a simple frame per second counter in before the program shipped. Q: Turn details down? What does that mean? A: In the Preferences screen you can select how much graphic detail that you want to see. Obviously, the higher the detail, the faster the system you will need in order to run RB 2 at a frame rate that is acceptable to you. What is an "acceptable" frame rate varies quite a bit from person to person. Red Baron II's frame rate is quite acceptable to me on a Dell Pentium II 266. It may still exhibit slow downs when there are a lot of objects on the screen that may be unacceptable to others. Without a FPS counter there is no way to objectively measure it's performance. Q: 80 MB free of Virtual Memory? A: Yes, you need to have 80 MB free of Hard Drive space that Windows 95 uses for Virtual Memory. Virtual Memory is space used on your HD when Windows 95 runs out of main memory or RAM. Almost all games and applications run better when you have at least 80 to 100 MB of HD space reserved for use as VM by Windows 95. You can check to see how what your VM settings are by clicking on the Start button on the Windows 95 taskbar. Click on Settings, and then Control Panel. Next click on the System icon. From there select the Performance tab, and then the Virtual Memory tab. There you will see which HD is set up for VM, and how much space is free.
Q: Why do the graphics turn into polygons and blocky shapes when I fire my guns? A: That's because you have Combat Details checked on. This feature turns of textures so that your frame rate doesn't drop when there is a lot happening on the screen. To keep this from happening go into the Red Baron 2 Preferences screen and uncheck Combat Detail. Q: Will Red Baron 2 get Direct3D or native 3Dfx support? I can't stand the way the graphics look now. A: Here is what Dynamix/Sierra has to say:
Q: How do you save screen shots in Red Baron 2? A: If you don't use a screen capture utility like Hijaak Pro, you can copy screen to the Windows 95 clipboard by pressing Alt+PrtScr. You won't get any indication that a file has been created when you do this. Next you need to exit the Red Baron 2 program. Open up some kind of paint program like Corel Photo Paint, Ulead PhotoImpact, or even the Microsoft Paint program that comes with Windows 95. Select Edit, then paste. The image will be copied from memory to your paint program. From there you can edit it however you like. A: That's probably related to using a later version of Red Baron II such as version 1.05. There are several ways to get around this problem.
"Hiya Rubberhead! Its Kodiak, ye Old FT of FC Tac Specialist here. As far as the problem you are having its probably the extensions. Double check to make sure you don't have a double extension hidden on the end. Now for the really cool stuff, The custom gunsight in RB2 is exactly like the custom gunsight in Warbirds. I discovered that the 640x480 WB sights work perfectly in RB2 by simply renaming the file. Soooooo..... An entire gallery of awesome custom gunsights is at Cuda's Gallery. All the help files and instruction you need are on another of Cuda's pages. If you dont like the ones shown there are a couple great custom gunsight editors that allow you to actually see the gunsight as you draw it. One is the Gunnsight Editor and another is the Revi editor. (I prefer Gunnsite) Both should be linked somewhere on Cuda's WB Resource page or Krods pages. If the Gunnsight or Revi links aren't there drop me a line. I have them somewhere on my machine at home. BTW, in Warbirds and now RB2 I use Yoss' sight. Nice, clean and simple. No clutter to hide the target and no silly deflection hashes to muddy the waters. Just a clean unobtrusive "ring and bead" bull's-eye to guide me. Takes some getting used to, finding something that minimal, but its great. Another BTW - everyone should check out the links on Krod's page for ACM/tactics hints. Great stuff. Cya. RH Kodiak (Over_G)"
A: Bill Krick from Dynamix pointed me towards an Easter Egg for Red Baron II quite some time ago. I'd never been able to see what it did, until he gave me a hint the other day. Here's what you need to do:
Q:My game crashed!!! My pilot is gone, or I can't fly missions anymore without the game crashing on me. What do I do??? A: RB:2 makes backup copies of your current missions. It doesn't hurt to create your own backups as well if you really value your pilot campaign/career. Here's how to restore pilot campaign files. Thanks to Salt for posting this.
Q: Why do all the planes in my flight keep on circling the aerodrome? A: The planes are all trying to get into formation. The AI flight leaders are pretty picky about where you need to be in formation in order for the flight to continue on it's mission. The easiest and best solution to this problem is to engage Combat Autopilot. Press and hold the Ctrl key while pressing the "a" key. Once you get the message that Combat Autopilot is engaged, press the ] key in order to speed up time. In a few seconds your flight will be in formation, and will continue on towards the next waypoint. This also works well after you finish engaging enemy planes on the way to a target. Activate Combat Autopilot, and your formation will join up again and navigate towards the next waypoint. Q: The ground fire is deadly! Is there a way to change how accurate and lethal it is? A: Yes, you can edit the file groundf.ini to the following: Note there needs to be a blank line before [Baron].
With the rb2beta.exe patch from January 2, 1998 the groundf.ini file is no longer read. Instead you need to create a new file called rb2sim.ini with Notepad or some other program and put in the above. Or better yet you can download files/rb2sim.ini from here and then copy it into your main Sierra/Red Baron II directory. The following is from Icky's How Do I....Page How do I tone down ground fire? Ground fire can be adjusted for accuracy by editing a file in the RedBaronII folder called rb2sim.ini. Here's the contents:
There should be a blank line above [Baron]. bulletMassFactor=180 is a new field that allows you to adjust the strength of your bullets fired at other planes. The larger the number, the more powerful the shot is. Note that this number may have to be pumped up into the 1000s before you see any difference. (This is intended to help those who find dogfighting the enemy is too hard. Note that if you drag the "Enemy AI" slider (in the Realism Preferences menu of the game) to the left, you'll also increase the stopping power of your bullets - hits will actually have enough force to spin the enemy around! This only affects YOUR bullets - NOT your opponent's - as this is intended to help the new pilot...) groundGunnerBase=800 determines how far off the initial aim is of the ground gunners. The larger the number, the farther off the initial shot. groundGunnerNoise=180 puts in a little inaccuracy DURING the stream of fire. Increasing the number puts in more inaccuracy. groundGunnerConvergence=160 is how fast the ground gunner will bring the stream of bullets to bear on his target. Increasing this number will increase the speed at which he will correct his shot, so LOWER it to make it easier for you. Put simply, to make ground fire less effective, increase the first two "groundGunner" numbers and decrease the third. Note that these variables could previously be found in groundf.ini. If rb2sim.ini is present, it will take priority over groundf.ini. Q: Ok, the frequency of the missions is driving me crazy. It doesn't seem to be historically accurate, and I am wracking up way to many kills. What can I do? A: The frequency of the missions can be adjusted by creating a file called campaign.ini and placing it in the Red Baron 2 file folder. It should look like this:
Make sure there is a blank line between [campaign] and missions=1. Setting it to 1 should give you a mission once every 6 to 7 days. The Following is from Icky's How Do I .... Page How do I adjust the number of missions in my career? The average career will start off with 250 missions. Weather (especially during Winter), injury, and capture will reduce this number. Red Baron II will evenly spread out the number of missions over the remaining number of days in the war. So, if you start a career with 250 days left in the war, you'll be scheduled for one mission per day (barring injury, capture, and weather). The maximum number of missions is two per day, and the minimum is once per week. You can adjust the number by editing campaign.ini:
Remember to leave the first line blank! Increase the number if you'd like more missions, decrease it if you'd like fewer.
Q: The view keys on my programmable joystick don't seem to work properly! What am I doing wrong? A: Just make sure that you have your NumLock key on. The static view keys won't work correctly unless you do. Q: I can't get my rudder pedals to work. Is there some kind of setting I have to change in order for them to work? A: Nope, you don't need to enter any information about your controller in Red Baron II. All of that is handled by the Windows 95 joystick/game device controller routine. Remember, you must have DirectX5 installed in order for everything to work correctly. Here are a few tips from folks that have had similar problems.
Q:I installed the latest multiplayer update, and I no longer see all the multiplayer options. What's happening? A: The Internet and other multiplay options may be grayed out if you fail to install the RB:2 stand alone beta patch and WON patches in the correct order. Here's what you need to do.
You also will not see multiplayer options for TCP/IP and LAN if those options are not properly configured on your computer for Windows 95. You can check to see what network options are installed on your computer by clicking on the Network icon in your Windows 95 Control Panel folder. Left click on Start/Settings/Control Panel. Left click on the Network icon. Under the Configuration tab should be a list of all the protocols that are installed on your computer. The most common ones are TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, and the Dial-Up Adapter. Q: I get all sorts of errors when I exit a game on Sierra's World Opponent Network. What's going on? A: Here's a tip that was passed on to me, and that I've noticed as well. "Thought you might want to mention in the Website that it seems necessary to logoff and reenter WON after each flight to avoid a host of glitches on the attempted 2nd flight. Glitches such as simply having the screen go black or Windows system errors or Baronmp errors all of which are "fatal." The dogfight continues without you though, unless you are the host and you get the black screen on startup and you can't find the "play game" button." - Cthulu And here is further confirmation from Dynamix -
Q:How do I get Red Baron 2 to run in full screen on WON? A: You need to set your Windows 95 desktop resolution to 640x480 for full screen in multiplayer mode. Here's the story from Mark Wilden, who did some of the work on Red Baron multiplayer:
Q:I'm having trouble painting the planes in Red Baron 2. Is there any documentation on how to do this? A: Icky from Dynamix had this to say: "I just checked out some of the paint plane questions posted. Most of the questions are covered on the paint plane text document that's supposed to be in your \Paint directory where baron is installed. However, when I looked at my own installed version, I saw that these files weren't copied down! Eeeek! To rectify this, look in the \Paint folder on your CD and copy down the files to your local \paint folder. Paintme.txt should help out a lot! Sorry about that!
Q: How do I import custom pilot pictures to Red Baron II? A: Icky (from Dynamix) recently put up his own web page. Icky's Web Page has directions on how to create and import pilot pictures here. You will need the files palmap.exe and photo.zip Unzipping photo.zip will give you the file photo.pal. Make sure these files are in the same directory as the pilot image files you want to import. Here's how it works:
Q:Red Baron II keeps on dropping me to the desktop when I try to play. A: First of all you MUST have the Red Baron 2 CD in your CD-ROM drive in order to play. The game will dump you back to the Windows 95 desktop if fail to do so. Here's another possible fix from SeaWulfe:"
If you have a graphics card like the Matrox Mystique, you should try turning down the graphics hardware acceleration. This is done by right clicking anywhere on the Windows 95 desktop. Select Properties/Settings/Advanced Properties/Performance. Move the hardware graphics accleration slider to the left. You may have to move it all the way to the left to get things to work. There is also the possibility that you may have a corrupt pilot file. This can happen when you go to edit a pilot file, rendering the whole file useless. Make sure you make backups of your pilot files from time to time in case this happens. To see if this is the problem , create a new pilot with all the information filled out, and then try to fly a few missions. If it works, that might have been your problem. Then there is the possibility that your video driver does not work well with DirectX5 or Red Baron 2. It sometimes helps to set your Windows 95 desktop resolution to 640x480 while you run Red Baron 2 through a few of the options. You should not need to do this normally, and this has worked for only a few people. You could have a dirty CD-ROM drive or Red Baron 2 disk. If Red Baron 2 cannot read a file, or reads it incorrectly it can dump you back to the Windows 95 desktop. Try cleaning your CD-ROM drive. Also consider returning your Red Baron 2 CD for a new one if all else fails. Some CD-ROM drives can be quite picky. I know that I had numerous game errors with a previous Sierra Game which went away once I replaced the disk. It may take more then one effort at replacing, especially if the disks are from the same lot number. Another possible fix was suggested by Scott Valline. Here's what he had to say:
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in front of questions added since the last update. If you have
additional input, see an error, or think of something you want added
please email me so I can update the FAQ. Thanks, and enjoy!