AirStrike 2: Gulf Thunder

Key points

Game requires workarounds to function properly on modern versions of Windows.

AirStrike 2: Gulf Thunder

Developers
	DivoGames
Release dates
Windows	February 2005
Taxonomy
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Genres	Shooter
Vehicles	Helicopter
Art styles	Realistic
Series	AirStrike

AirStrike
AirStrike 3D: Operation W.A.T	2002
AirStrike 2	2004
AirStrike 2: Gulf Thunder	2005

AirStrike 2: Gulf Thunder is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view shooter game in the AirStrike series.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\config.ini

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows

Essential improvements

Opening video setup tool.
The video setup allows toggling vertical sync, forcing system cursor, texture filtering and showing FPS count. Append -setup to the executable's command line arguments or shortcut's target.

Skip logo/intro.
Open config.ini. with text editor. Look for ShowLogo parameters in [System] section. Change it to 0. Or add ShowLogo=0 in the section if not exists. Save the file.

Video

Graphics setting from external settings utility

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Setting EnableNonStdModes to 1 in config.ini allows for widescreen resolution to be selected, however this causes mouse cursor not able to reach the lower half of the screen, making menu navigation and selections impossible.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Options for different camera perspective which does not affect FOV.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Disabled by default. Either enable via external video settings utility, Or in config.ini. Set WaitVSync to 1
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Uncapped as-is. Wrappers may override the frame rate cap.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)

Input

The input settings of the game, the controls can be remapped

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Certain functions such can't be remapped in-game. Tutorial still refers to default bindings.
Mouse acceleration		Mouse acceleration follows Windows settings.
Mouse sensitivity		Use for controlling player's helicopter like the first game, follows Windows settings.
Mouse input in menus		Cursor speed follows Windows' mouse acceleration settings.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		Supported via DirectInput.
Full controller support		Cannot pause game with a button on controller. Menu navigation are unresponsive due to left/right behaves erratically, and certain menu still requires a mouse to operate.
Controller remapping		Only joystick's axis can be mapped to movement.
Controller sensitivity		Fixed speed with no acceleration present.
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers		Playable with default configuration.
Xbox button prompts		Game still refers keyboard buttons in information screen and tutorials.
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers
Button prompts		Game still refers keyboard buttons in information screen and tutorials.

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music and Sound Effects
Surround sound		3D Sound is broken as mentioned below
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Polish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		2	Co-op Supports a combination of mouse/keyboard and a controller, or two controllers.

Issues unresolved

Missing sound effects with 3D Sound turned on.

Audio wrappers such as DSOAL does not solve the issue, due to sound panning errors present in this game.

With IndirectSound the audio will play almost all sound effects in the right channel.

Issues fixed

Use QindieGL.
OpenGL 1.1 to DirectX 9 wrapper. Vendor independent which works across modern hardware. Shouldn't cause any missing graphical effects.

Set flags via Nvidia Profile Inspector

For Nvidia graphics only. Add AirStrike3D II - Gulf.exe to Nvidia Control Panel's profile. Open Nvidia Profile Inspector. Select AirStrike3D II - Gulf.exe from User modified profiles menu. Look for Extension Limit and set to 0x1 Click Apply Changes. Notes. You may optionally set OpenGL - Version Override to OpenGL Version 1.1 if the issues persists. Setting extension limit to the value above shouldn't cause any major graphical issue. If any occurs, try setting Extension Limit back to 0x00004844.

(Linux) Set Mesa and/or Nvidia's OpenGL extension limit through environment variables.

For Linux system with game running under Wine. Check your Mesa/GL driver vendor, can be done by running glxinfo and look for OpenGL renderer string For proprietary Nvidia driver, use the environment variables __GL_ExtensionStringVersion=17700 For Mesa-based driver, such as intel, AMDGPU or radeon. Use the environment variables MESA_EXTENSION_MAX_YEAR=2003 The output in desktop entry, shell script files or command line arguments should look similar to this: env MESA_EXTENSION_MAX_YEAR=2003 wine "AirStrike3D II - Gulf.exe"

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
OpenGL	1.1

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	BASS

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95, 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)	Pentium or Athlon 400 MHz	Pentium or Athlon 600 MHz
System memory (RAM)	128 MB	256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	50 MB
Video card (GPU)	16 MB TNT2-class or other OpenGL 1.1+ compliant video card	16 MB NVIDIA GeForce / ATI Radeon