FAQ

This section will contain answers to questions and assorted tips useful in EAW.**
 * EAW FAQ

What is the EAW.ini file that I hear so much about? An .ini file tells your computer various parameters about how to set up and interact with a particular piece of software. The EAW.ini file is very extensive, and has many items that can be adjusted. Usually the parameters are in relation to how various hardware components are used, such as keyboard and joystick layout. An easy way to find your EAW.ini file is to go to your "Find" listing on the Start menu. ( Click on Start > Find ) Type in eaw.ini, and click "find now". The EAW.ini file should be listed in the lower part of the Find window. Right click on the file, and then click on "create short cut". Windows 95 will tell you that it "cannot create a short cut here, would you like it placed on your desktop instead". Click "yes", and a shortcut will appear on your desktop. You can access the EAW.ini file very easily from then on.

How do I take screen shots? Go to your EAW.ini file, and scroll down towards the bottom section titled "remappable keys". Near the bottom of that section is a line: ScreenCapture= ? Type in the name of a key that you want to use to take screen shots. Note how the names of keyboard keys are in upper case letters, while the names of joystick buttons are in both upper and lower case. I use the insert key, because it is out of the way on the keyboard, easy to find for this unskilled typist, and is not used by any other .ini listing. This is what my screenshot line looks like : "ScreenCapture=INSERT" The next step is the fun part; play EAW and try taking some screenshots. If you take a short series of screenshots, you may notice a slight loss of framerate, or "hesitation" in the game. This is just the screenshot being placed in the EAW directory. The last step is to find your screenshot. You can do this in a few ways. One way is to "browse". Go to Windows Explorer. ( Programs > Windows Explorer ) On the left side of the window, you will see a listing of several items. Look for C ( or Hd1, depending on what version of windows you use ). If there is a + next to C , left click it to expand the listing, or if there is a - then look under C for a folder labelled "Program Files". Expand "Program Files" by left clicking once, then scroll down for a folder labelled "Microprose Software". Expand it, and there should be a folder called "European Air War". Left click the Folder to highlight it, and on the right side of the screen, the contents of "European Air War" will be displayed. Scroll down the right side, and look for any item called "scrn.bmp", where the are replaced by four digits. Double click any scrn.bmp file to open it in your default graphics program. The second way to find screenshots is to "browse" within a graphics program. The process is nearly the same as with Windows Explorer. Open your preferred graphics program, and click on File > open >. At this point, your search for Folders is the same as with Windows Explorer. Look for C ( Or Hd1 )( C is listed under "My Computer" just in case you don't see it ), then Program Files, then Microprose Software, then European Air War, then any scrn.bmp file. Some graphics programs provide a preview of the selected file. Double click the screenshot you want, and it will open in your graphics program. One other point about browsing; if you see a folder icon with a bent arrow pointing up, clicking that icon will raise you one level in your folder hierarchy.

How can I win Medals in EAW? In EAW, the reward for a job well done is a Medal. To earn a medal, you must reach certain goals. For the Allies, you must achieve the mission goal, and accumulate sufficient points for a particular medal. For the Germans, medals are based on kill total. Each side has certain basic parameters which must be met. They are 1: you must fly with "unlimited ammo" off. 2: you must fly with "invulnerable" off. You change these items in EAW by clicking on the "Configure Game" tab in the opening screen of EAW. From there, click on "Difficulty", and check the various parameters listed. Click on "Combat", and set the various parameters. You will earn more points for a given mission if you fly with the various settings turned on their hardest values. Try flying with all the values in the flight section at "realistic" or "on". Next, you must accomplish the mission goal without excessive squadron losses. If you are on a bomber escort mission, most of the bombers must make it to their target. Your personal kills are secondary to the bombers success in this case. On a fighter sweep, the juicy ground targets will have to wait until the enemy breaks off and heads for home.

How can I get the most from EAW? First, I would recommend that you do some historical reading on the air campaign in WW2. This will give you perspective on EAW. Next, I would get the EAW 1.2 patch from Microprose. This can also be found at CombatSim.com. The EAW1.2 update has many interesting features which add greatly to the game. My favorite item is the "extra squads" line that you can add to the EAW.ini file. This can put hundreds of aircraft in the air. Then, if you need more, check out the various aircraft skins available at many websites. Start your search for skins in my Paint Shop. There are some truly magnificent works out there. Also, get the home grown add-on "Enemy Coast Ahead", and its companion, ECA Control Panel, available at the official Enemy Coast Ahead Online website, hosted by Hakan Langebro and Charles Gunst. These give you the option to use so many variant aircraft; no other flight sim comes close to EAW in the variety of aircraft. You can also download a variety of add-ons from "CombatSim.com" and "EAW Downloads".

How can I easily use and keep track of all the different aircraft skins I have downloaded? To answer this, I will start just as you are; looking at a new aircraft skin. You click on the the approriate link, and start the download. You are then prompted to save the file. Save the file in the default desktop location. Most of the aircraft files are placed in "Zip" files. A Zip file is really a compressed container for other files. You will need a Zip program to get the files out of the Zip folder. ( I use ZipMagic 2000. It is available retail at Bestbuy and CompUSA, or get it at Mijenix.com) ( If you find a skin that is not in a Zip file, then you obviously don't need to unzip it. ) To unzip the file to your EAW directory, double click the downloaded file to open it in your Zip program, click "extract" and browse to your EAW folder. You will see a utility that wants you to designate a destination for the files in the Zip folder. Browse, as noted above, to your EAW folder: C:\Program Files\ Microprose Software\European Air War. Highlight each folder for extraction by left clicking on it, and hold down "control" to select multiple files, click extract, or whatever similar button, and the files will be sent to the designated folder. If you find an unzipped aircraft skin, download it, open Windows Explorer, go to your EAW folder, and drag the new skin into the EAW folder. You can also drag directly from ZipMagic 2000 onto your desktop or into your EAW folder. Removing Skins: If for some reason you want to remove a skin, just browse to your EAW folder in Windows Explorer, highlight the EAW folder, and check the right side of the window to find your skin. The aircraft skin will look like this "Pp47dtex.tpc", or something similar with the planes model number and ending in ".tpc". Right click on that skin file and then delete it, or you can just click and drag it into the Recycle Bin, or to your desktop. Managing Skins: To manage the skins, try this: Open Windows Explorer and highlight your EAW folder ( you should be good at this by now....) Click on File

New > Folder from the top tool bar. This will create a new folder in your EAW

folder. Rename this folder to "New Skins" or whatever you prefer. Expand your EAW folder by clicking the + next to it. You should see your new folder under the EAW folder. Click on the new skins folder, and repeat the new folder routine. Rename this folder with a descriptive name for any skin you wish to place in it. You can do this as many times as needed so as to have a place to store each new skin set. Place any new skins into new folders in this "New Skins" folder. To move skins in or out, simply set up Windows Explorer, so that you can see your skin files on the right side, and have the EAW folder visible on the left. When you drag skin files out of their folders, hold down the Control button on the keyboard. This will make a copy of the file, so that you don't have to unzip or download the same file over and over again as you change skins. ( ZipMagic 2000 also allows you to make new folders as the destination. ) Another really neat way to manage your skin sets, is to download a program called "Skins-N-More", by RELENT. This program allows mouse click ease to move all your skins around, and even allows a preview of each skin as you move it into the EAW directory. A note about file names in EAW: While there are many different skins for any given aircraft, there is only one file name that EAW will recognize for that plane. If you move a skin file into the EAW folder that already has a file with that name, a prompt will appear asking if you wish to overwrite the existing file. If you click yes, then the old file will be overwritten, and you will lose that copy of the old file, unless you have saved it elsewhere, like the New Skin folder. If you click no, nothing happens, giving you a chance to move the old file first. A comment about Zip files: Many Zip programs are available, both via the internet, and many computer magazines come with CD's that have various utility programs. Many Zip programs are shareware; try them free, but you should buy a registered copy if you like it. A few Zip programs are freeware; these usually come with a string attached: they have pop up advertising based on your internet surfing habits. They watch where you go, and give you "targeted" advertisments. No Thank You!!!! Why are all the skin files zipped? EAW demands file names in a designated format. Each skin for the same plane can only use one name. If a person makes multiple skin variants, then they will encounter a problem with identically named files on their website. You cannot have different files with the same name in one folder. You can, however, name the zip file anything you want. Also, many of the skins have multiple files for that skin; high and low resolution files, transparency file, virtual cockpit file. Clicking on one Zip file link is easier than downloading multiple individual files. Plus, the Zip program can help you install the file into the correct directory.

With my Voodoo video card, some skins that I use look normal, some have neon or pastel colors: The range of colors used to make the EAW aircraft skins are in a defined set called an Indexed Pallette. EAW can be played under two different API's, or Application Programming Interface; one is D3D from Microsoft, and the other is Glide from 3DFX. Under D3D, you can add colors to the stock color pallette, and D3D will display them properly. Under GLIDE if you add colors to the stock pallette, they will not display correctly. You will end up with very oddly colored aircraft. Remedy: If you have a Voodoo video card, then you must use skins designed to work within the Glide parameters, ie: they cannot have an altered color pallette. If you want to use altered color pallettes, then use a TNT or other video card. See my Paint Shop page for more information.

I would like to see more planes in the air at one time: If fifty to seventy planes in the air is not enough for you, you can easily add more. First, you must have EAW 1.2 installed ( see above ). Then go to your EAW.ini file, scroll down to the section titled " [EAW] " Place your cursor at the end of the last line in that section and hit "enter". This will create a space for a new line. Type in < ExtraSquads=N >, where N is a number from one to five. The higher the value, the more planes that will be in the air. This can unbalance a dynamic campaign on higher value settings. Then click on File > Save, then exit the EAW.ini file. If you want to experience some real desperation, set the value to 5, then start a single mission in the Battle of Britain and fly a Spitfire on a bomber intercept, complete with fighter escort.

How do I change screen resolution?: To do this, go into your EAW.ini file, and, at the bottom of the [Graphics] section, are two lines, width and height, followed by a number. Enter your desired vertical and horizontal resolution numbers, for instance, for 800 x 600 resolution, you would enter width=800 and height=600. The stock setting is width=640 and height=480. A single 12MB Voodoo2 card will handle 800 x 600, Voodoo3 cards or Voodoo2 in SLI mode can handle much higher resolutions. TNT and TNT2 video cards can also handle very high resolutions; make sure you get the latest Detonator drivers from N-Vidia for your TNT cards. You may be limited by your monitor's ability to display a very high resolution. Check with your video cards documentation as to what resolutions your card can handle. While you may be able to run extremely high resolutions, you may not like the way they appear on your monitor, and your CPU may have a hard keeping up with the demand of high resolutions. After you have made your changes to width and height, save the changes to the EAW.ini file, close it and start the game. When the game loads, you will no longer see the "FuelGauge" start up screen. Also, the fixed cockpit will no longer be available; you will be flying in virtual cockpit mode. This is the price for high resolution. I currently run EAW with a Voodoo3-2000 AGP card, at 1280 x 1024 resolution. Be aware that screenshot size increases dramatically with higher resolutions; 1280 x 1024 yields a 3.8MB bitmap screenshot! 800 x 600 seems to yeild the "widest" field of view.

What are all the skin files?: What is each one for?: Each aircraft file begins with the aircraft type; ie: Pp51dtex.tpc is the main exterior file for the P51D. The extension for all skin files is .tpc. This is simply a specific type of file the EAW uses. Each skin file has a specific task. The primary aircraft skin files are the tex.tpc and tes.tpc. These files display the exterior view of all aircraft. The tra.tpc file is a transparency overlay, which allows things like glass, moving propellors, and aircraft markings to be displayed on an aircraft. For the B17 and B24, the **n.tpc is the file which contains the nose art. The** ***v.tpc file contains the virtual cockpit view, and gives you the wing view of the plane in which you are flying. The** ***vtr.tpc file is the virtual cockpit transparency file. The** ***x.tpc file are the gauges for a virtual cockpit. A couple of aircraft have additional virtual cockpit files; the Me262 and P38 have** y.tpc and **ytr.tpc files. These are used because of the complexity displaying multi-engine models. You should use all files included in a given set of skins.

The aircraft in EAW suddenly handle strangely. Is my joystick broken? Most likely, the fault lies in a line in the EAW.INI file. In the [Controls] section, there is a line; Windows Joystick=N. If you have the number zero ( 0 ) there, change it to one ( 1 ). It should handle much better. Most joystick problems in EAW are because of a zero on this line. Save the change to the EAW.INI file and exit. Give it a try. If the problem persists, try uninstalling and re-installing your joystick, according to the manufacturers directions. If you still have problems, contact the manufacturer of your joystick, or try posting a question on the Combatsim.com forum. Help is always available on the EAW forum there.

How can I determine the video frame rate I am getting from my system? You can get an overlay frame rate counter from Fraps.com. Currently, this counter only works in D3D mode, but at least you will be able to get some idea of your systems performance. Follow the instructions on the site regarding the use of the Fraps counter. Frame rate will naturally decrease when you are viewing a complex scene, like a sky full of damaged bombers with smoking engines.

I accidentaly bumped a key on the keyboard and now EAW is locked up tighter than Fort Knox!? You probably hit the Windows key on the keyboard. You will have to hit ctrl-alt-del in order to get out of this one. You can do something about it, however. You can be more careful or, you can use this cool little program from Brad Jackson, his WinKeyKiller 1.6. Download it here, but be sure to visit Brad's site for a huge listing of Windows utility applications.

I am having trouble configuring my Microsoft ForceFeedback joystick. I would like to know how you have your keyborad mapped. Ok, you can download my EAW.INI file here.

I want to play EAW against other people. Where do I go to do this? The first place to go is to the Microsoft Gaming Zone. Look for the "Getting Started" link on the side of the page. You will need to register with a user name and password. Many people from the Combatsim EAW Forum use their same online names. Another place to look, is Kali.net. The Zone is free, while Kali charges a $20 one time registration fee. GameSpy Arcade also has EAW listed as a supported game, but I have not tried EAW there. Another option is to try a direct TCP/IP connection. To do this, you will need to know your current IP address. To do this, log onto your internet provider, go to your Start Menu, then Run, then type in WINIPCFG and click OK. This will open a small dialog box which will display various parameters about your current internet connection, including your IP address. The game host must provide his address to all other players. This can be done via email, or using an instant message utility like ICQ. Then, go into EAW, then Multiplayer, then chooe the second of the four options, Internet TCP/IP connection for DirectPlay. A new dialog box will appear; enter the IP address obtained from WINIPCFG. Click OK, and the game will display a list of available games, and players present. It is important to note that all players must be using the same aircraft flight model and performance data, otherwise EAW will detect the difference, and will not launch the multiplayer session. When flying at the Zone, when the host launches the game, it will start the most recently used installed version of EAW, if you have more than one occurence of EAW installed on your computer. I have three installes of EAW; a Pacific set up, a Europe set up, and a Mediterranean version. On a related note, you should be concerned in general with Internet security issues with your computer. For staters, go to Steve Gibson's website, grc.com. You will find a lot of interesting things there, including a very effective utility called OPTOUT. This utility scans your system for known spyware programs. Another interesting item to use is the Shields Up! - Port Probe, also at GRC. This will run a scan and search for various security holes that may exist on your system. Many of these issues were discussed in-depth at the Combatsim EAW forum in April of 2000; PcMagazine finally published a security article in their July 2000 issue. Microsoft also has a tech article concerning a piece of spyware and a program called PKZip.

If you have a topic that you would like addressed, email me.

( If you arrived here from somewhere other than Major Lee's Aerodrome)