SAC History
SAC originally came about through an idea by Fidd (Kraits) to incorporate the skins by Spyhawk and himself into an easily useable database for the exchange of the bitmaps in the Air Warrior support directory.
Fidd set about making a large number of the skins, and also encouraged others to send in theirs. Contributions were made by other Kraits, and from many other squads and individuals (see Sac help on the interface for credits).
G42(Kraits) offered to design an interface for the database for easy management, viewing and loading of both skins and terrains, and subsequently after beta testing and various updates Sac was born, and offered as a download version to all Air Warriors.
Subsequently a CD version was envisaged and a beta version was produced, which is included in the CD from Kesmai for new users.
Q: Does Sac work with 2d in AW?
A: No, SAC is a utility for 3D only. You will not see the skin and terrain changes in 2d if you have selected the software renderer as your Video option in game preferences in setup. You must select your 3d card from the drop down box for it to work.
Q:When I launch Sac for the first time I either get the error "Unable to read registry or .ini file value." or it won't change skins in the AWMV version though it appears to work otherwise.
A:Sac is not set to the correct version of Air Warrior. By default Sac opens in AW3d "mode". If you haven't got the old version AW3d installed it won't find the airwar3d.ini file it is looking for. If only EA's AWMV is installed change the selection on "version" in the task bar menu to AWMV, close Sac, then reopen it again and it should function correctly.
If it still doesn't work, check that you have downloaded and have installed the files 3dplanes.exe and 3dshapes.exe for the game from EA either in-game or from the download link on the EA AW launch page plus the artwork for aircraft.
Note: If plane skins are still not loaded when playing but no error message was received using Sac and it appeared to work, check that the C:\windows\airwar3.ini file (open it with notepad) is pointing to the EA support directory. For those who previously used Gamestorm for MV beta and installed the EA version after, the directory path for Support may be pointing to your old Gamestorm version. You can amend the ini file manually to correct the path entries with notepad to the EA version.
Q: After I installed the Sac update file to my existing Sac I get an error message maqlnfr.ocx is not registered, missing, or invalid.
A: You have upgraded from an earlier version of Sac before v1.1 so you need to download the sacv11full.exe and install over your existing Sac, and upgrade it with the update again.
Q: When I open Sac and try to change plane skins I get an error message referring to a Path problem and no planes are loaded or changed.
A:If you have copied your plane art from a CdRom or jazz/zip disk backup, make sure that the attributes on aircraft zips in your Sac directory are not set to "read only". Change the attribute in the file properties to archive only so that Sac can unzip and process the aircraft sets as required.
Q: When I try to run Sac I get an error message referring to a "Runtime" error and it refuses to run at all.
A:First check that the attributes for the Sac files are not set to read only in their properties. If they show in properties as read only, change them to blank or archive only. Try again. If you still get the Runtime error then this is a Windows registry problem, where Sac has not been correctly un-installed from a previous version or incorrectly installed. The only way round this is to un-install Sac using the add remove facility in Control Panel, reboot, delete your Sac directory (remembering to save all your installation files if you have them in the same directory) and open regedit.exe by using the run command box and typing "regedit" there and enter it. Use Edit/ Find to the entries for "G42" or "Sac" in the registry in HKEY_ CURRENT_USER software section and delete them. Reboot. Then re-install Sac or the G42 Sound Manager from the beginning again. Use great care in amending the registry, it is advisable to do a backup first by exporting and saving the registry to a suitable file name that you can find easily and replace it if necessary in case of problems.
Q: How much Disk space do I need?
A: If you install ALL the plane sets and terrains and have backup artwork for both AW versions up to 90MBs. Make sure you have plenty of free disk space or reduce the number of terrains or plane sets installed.
Q: The Events Clock doesn't work, says I'm using large fonts?
A:The events clock has been simplified and gives conversion times only when small fonts are set in your display adaptor properties. See also next Question.
Q: The buttons on the Sac Interface are not correctly placed, it is too large to fit the screen or there is some overlaps, or a couple of buttons are out of line, or I only see a simplified version of the Sac Interface.
A: SAC works with small fonts set in your display "properties," although it works with most video cards with large fonts set. Change your fonts in display properties to small fonts either by using control panel, or right clicking a blank area on your screen and selecting properties.You will also not see the cursor in the "chat" box in AW MV with large fonts selected, so it's best to always use small fonts when using MV.
Q:I installed the plane skins but I don't see them in the game?
A:Have you downloaded the 3dplanes and 3dshapes files from within the game for 3d support and selected your 3d accelerator video card in setup? These must be downloaded from EA for Sac to work.
Q:I installed the Terrains but I don't see them in the Sac menu though I see the aircraft ones?
A:You have installed them into the main Sac directory and not to the Terrains folder within Sac as you should have done. Move each terrain zip and it's matching gif with the same name to the Terrains folder and then it should work correctly.
Q:When I change terrains I get a mixture of backgrounds of different terrains
A:Some terrains are for ETO only, some for Pac only, and some work for both. If you have used a single type, revert your terrain to default kesmai art before changing.
Q:When I revert planes, terrains and dib files to default I don't get the Kesmai default artwork back, they remain changed by Sac and they are the wrong ones! -help me!
A:You installed planes orTerrains into Sac, and changed them before backing up the default artwork and/or did not use the correct version selector in the Sac Task Bar.You will need to download some, or all of the following files into the MAIN Sac directory depending whether the problem is planes, terrains (or dib screens).
For MV:
Download MVAircaft.zip Place this file "as is" into the main Sac directory, overwriting the incorrect one if present, and then you can use the Revert Aircraft button to get back the Kesmai MV defaults with AW3MV selected in Version on the Sac Task Bar.
Download MVTerrain.zip Place this file "as is" into the main Sac directory, overwriting the incorrect one if present, and then you use the Revert Terrains button to get back the Kesmai MV defaults with AWMV selected in Version on the Sac task bar. This Terrains backup goes into the Main Sac root-not into the Terrains folder.
Download MVdib.zip Place this file "as is" into the Main Sac directory, overwriting the incorrect one, and by using the "terrains" revert button get back the MV defaults with MV version selected in the Sac task bar.
Note: DO NOT Open the zip files, place them exactly as they are into the Sac root directory
For the old AW3d Version:
Download AW3Aircraft.zip Place this file "as is" into the main Sac directory, overwriting the incorrect one if present, and then you can use the Revert Aircraft button to get back the defaults with AW3.1 selected in the Sac Version task bar
Download AW3Terrain.zip Place this file "as is" into the main Sac directory, overwriting the incorrect one if present, and then you use the Revert Terrains button to get back the defaults with AW3.1 selected in Version on the Sac task bar. This Terrains backup goes into the Main Sac root-not into the Terrains folder.
Note: DO NOT Open the zip files, place them exactly as they are into the Sac root directory
Q:When I look at my main Sac Directory I notice many zip archived files containing bitmaps, and also folders with the same name as the zips, also containing zip archives. Why are there both separate zips and folders and do I unzip them?
A:The zip files are the main aircraft sets for that year and should remain zipped as Sac unzips them itself when loading aircraft skins, the folders contain alternate aircraft for that period and campaign that are selected from the alternate button (this only becomes active when a matching aircraft set is selected). If you unzip them they won't work.
Q: How do I uninstall Sac?
A: The SAC Interface should be uninstalled from the registry using the standard Add/Remove option in control panel. Do this first before deleting the Sac directory which is not automatically deleted as the plane and terrain sets will remain
Q:I want to make more than one collection of plane skins that I can use and select but I can only store one set in the Favourites folder.
A:Making Custom Files
Custom Favourites can now be added to the main Aircraft list.
To do this you must first create a zip with your custom aircraft (You can use the built in "Add To Favourites") then from windows explorer rename the zip file using the SAC naming convention begining with a "C " and a date ie. "C 98 My Squad Skins.zip" then place it in your SAC directory along with the other main aircraft zips. The menu next time you run Sac will show Custom 1998 My Squad Skins and can be selected as usual. It doesn't matter if you rename Favourites.zip because SAC will create a new one the next time you use "Add To Favourites"
Sac has been updated to support Y2K names so C 00 MySquad.zip will show in the menu correctly as year 2000.
Q:How do I make my own plane skins and use them?
A:Plane skins are found in the AW Support directory as bitmaps (.bmp). To make a custom skin copy the the file you want to modify from support to a another directory and use Windows Paint or for best results a good paint program like Paint Shop Pro or Adobe to modify your copy. You can increase the color palette choice by increasing the number of colors and also enlarge it 2x when editing to make it easier.
Once finished editing your skin make sure that the graphic size and number of dithered colors are then reduced back to the original, and that you haven't extended the area of the plane outline outside of it's original shape. They should be 256x256 pixels by 256 colors.
You can place your modified skin now into the Support directory making sure you backup the original elsewhere or rename it before doing so. You could also place your skin with other edited skins into a custom zip file in Sac. You will need to use a zip utility such as Winzip to make the archives that Sac uses following the standard Sac naming convention.
