Windows 11 - CFS2 installed but only runs with low graphics

**Crich4251** · October 1st, 2023, 04:52

Purchased a new PC for my 84 yo father-in-law. OS is Windows 11 Pro. He has been playing CFS2 on his older computer (with Windows 7 Home Premium) for years. I loaded the two discs for him onto the new computer, used the no CD file, adjusted the Compatibility settings per posts on this and other forums and the game opened up. However, when attempting to play "Quick Combat", for instance, the cockpit view comes up for about 2 seconds and the game quits (back to the desktop) This is when the Graphic bar is set at 6. However, if I set it to 1, the game plays, albeit crummy graphics. And it will only successfully play when set at 1. If I move it up to 2,3, etc, at some point the game quits.

I have a laptop with Windows 10. I set everything up on my laptop EXACTLY like I did on the Windows 11 computer and the game plays on my laptop on level 6. And this is without editing the .cfg file (however, I have since edited the file to get rid of the opening video, etc per the tutorial that is posted on this forum)

Is anyone successfully running CFS2 on Windows 11? If so, what settings are you using (or any advice/assistance)

The video card on the new computer is Intel UHD Graphics 730
Intel Core i5
16GB ram
Monitor is old Staples model with 1440 x 900 resolution

Thank you.
Crich4251

***UncleTgt*** · October 1st, 2023, 08:02

It looks like your hardware is so "new" CFS 2 doesn't recognise it.

Use notepad to edit your [Display] settings to get the Sim to use better graphics.

I'd try

Device=Intel UHD Graphics 730
Mode=1440x900x32
Dither=0
Filter=1
Trilinear=1
Mipmap=1
Antialias=1
HWTnL=1
Disable=0

See Allen's WIN 10 install guide & maybe scroll back through the posts in the WIN 10 help thread, there may be some hints as to what display settings work with this sort of video card...

**Crich4251** · October 1st, 2023, 12:04

Originally Posted by UncleTgt

It looks like your hardware is so "new" CFS 2 doesn't recognise it.

Use notepad to edit your [Display] settings to get the Sim to use better graphics.

I'd try

Device=Intel UHD Graphics 730
Mode=1440x900x32
Dither=0
Filter=1
Trilinear=1
Mipmap=1
Antialias=1
HWTnL=1
Disable=0

See Allen's WIN 10 install guide & maybe scroll back through the posts in the WIN 10 help thread, there may be some hints as to what display settings work with this sort of video card...

Will do. I’ll try to get to his house tomorrow and let you know how it goes. Thank you!

**Allen** · October 1st, 2023, 14:42

CFS2 Win10 Install Tutorial. Also covers Win 7, 8 and far as we know Win 11.
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...9&linkid=29394

Windows 10 snafu / content thread;
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...content-thread

CFS2 Perma-stickied help / problem / tweaking thread:
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforum...weaking-thread

TLDR.

1. Do not install CFS2 to the defualt path. C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games\Combat Flight Simulator 2. User Account Control (UAC) dosen't like you making changes. Install CFS2 to someplace outside of Program Files (x86). Ex: C:\Old Games\Combat Flight Simulator 2

2.Thou shalt not mention patch .exe is a must. Windows removed SafeDisc support from Win 7 and 8 PCs with a patch. Win 10 and 11 didn't ship with SafeDisc support. o7 SafeDisc you shalt not be missed.

3. CFS2 stuck in low graphics/can't Enable Hardware Acceleration in Settings. Something about CFS2 and new hardware don't talk right so CFS2 dosen't know that the graphics card can use Hardware Acceleration. You can manually edit the CFS2.cfg or use add-on DDrawCompat or DxWrapper to enable the Enable Hardware Acceleration in Settings. All three had some downsides.

4. Aircraft not shown in the selection window. The normal fix it to fly in Windowed Mode but if that fails try Full Screen. This may be fixed with DDrawCompat or DxWrapper.

5. Add-on aircraft causes lockup and/or crash-to-desktop soon as the flight starts. This can the "Win 7 panel crash" and be fixed the opening the panel.cfg and removing all "render_3d_window=1" listed in the panel for that aircraft.

**Crich4251** · October 2nd, 2023, 08:23

First off, just want to thank you for the help.
I am now able to play the game at graphics level 6.
I followed all of the the advice above and still was only able to successfully play at level 1.
So here is how I fixed it:

I unistalled/reinstalled (I just let all of the default loading processes happen. Didn't customize (didn't change the default folder and didn't load the full game option, etc ), loaded the patch exe file and tried opening the game without editing cfg file. Still had the issues I was having. However, I went into the Settings and moved the Overall image quality bar to level 6 and went into the Advanced settings and un-checked the Enable hardware acceleration box. And voila!

So, it is running as it was under Windows 7 and I have not edited the cfg file.

I have closed the game and re-opened and these settings remain in place and i can play the game at level 6

Very happy.

Again, thanks for the suggestions. I am glad I found this forum.

**Allen** · October 2nd, 2023, 16:06

1st you shouldn't have installed to the default location and you should have done a full install as with the patch .exe you will need everything from the CD.

Without "Enable hardware acceleration" On CFS2 looks vary blocky and fog is missing.

Maybe try DDrawCompat and see it will let you keep "Enable hardware acceleration" On with out CTDs.
https://github.com/narzoul/DDrawComp...pat-v0.4.0.zip

The current downside to DDrawCompat is that some add-ons used Microsoft's imagetool to save the textures and they are not being displayed right with DDRawCompat but can be fixed by opening the texture with DXTbmp.exe and saving it.

**Crich4251** · October 3rd, 2023, 03:21

Originally Posted by Allen

1st you shouldn't have installed to the default location and you should have done a full install as with the patch .exe you will need everything from the CD.Without "Enable hardware acceleration" On CFS2 looks vary blocky and fog is missing.

Maybe try DDrawCompat and see it will let you keep "Enable hardware acceleration" On with out CTDs.https://github.com/narzoul/DDrawComp...pat-v0.4.0.zipThe current downside to DDrawCompat is that some add-ons used Microsoft's imagetool to save the textures and they are not being displayed right with DDRawCompat but can be fixed by opening the texture with DXTbmp.exe and saving it.

Hi I have the game loaded on three separate computers - my father-in-law’s (Window 7) which I currently have in my house, one of my laptops (Windows 10), and my father-in-law’s new computer (Windows 11)As I mentioned, I know that I didn’t do a full install on the Windows 11 computer. Knowing my father-in-law, more than likely he did not do a full install on his Windows 7 computer. And I don’t recall whether I did a full install on my Windows 10 laptop or not. Is there a line item on the cfs2.cfg file that appears on the file when you do a full install vs when you don’t do a full install? I want to do some comparisons on the three computers.