Basic Install
If you do not own EE - Apache Havoc you can skip the first two steps

• Install EE - Apache Havoc from the CD and run once to unpack the graphics files.
• Patch EEAH up to patch 1.1e (english) , run once.
• Install EE - Comanche Hokum from the CD.
• NEW One single all mod mega download just get everything upto version 1.9.0 and install it in one go, this is a 547 MByte download and it will unpack to 1.5 Gbyte on your disk!: download here (this is being tested at the moment so likely to changeover the next weks)

or:

• Download and install Patch 141C from the Razorworks site: documentation is here (if you have the US version you must install this even if you run the latest modded versions, this is a classic mess-up).
• By far the easiest thing to do at this point is download and install the updater tool eechupdater1.3.exe . It is pretty much self exlanatory. There are >25 downloads, including the latest exe, sounds, a keychart, texture packs, warzones.
• If you dont use the updater:
• the latest exe (1.9) is here
• If you want to download everything manually go to EechCentral files

IMPORTANT: The files eech.ini and game.cfg determine all kinds of options and are automatically created when you run the game and they don't exist yet (see below: trouble shooting). Some new exe's may reset the options (because the extensive modifications need a new game.cfg)! You may have to delete the file game.cfg or reset the ingame options menu.
If there are new eech.ini options the old eech.ini will still be read and the new options added when you leave the game. Start the game once and leave it to see which options are added. In principle all options are set to defaults which means that most mods are not active.
IMPORTANT: when you have just installed eech by default the "avionics" setting in the options menu is set at "novice". This means that you cannot operate the targetting systems, it is done for you in the game by the "copilot". Set this option to advaced when in the game for full operation of the targeting systems. When you delete the game.cfg and it is recreated by the game, the option is reset at novice!

Addons
For a complete list see Gotcha's addon list
The easiest way to install them is by using the updater tool eechupdater1.3.exe. You can choose from 3 servers where the list of updates is maintained, so there is always a backup should one server be down. If you want to download manually go to EechCentral .
There are basically two types of addons: texture packs (for camo, water, industry etc) and complete warzones with texture packs. Note that the Apache Havoc warzones are also available for free.

Trouble shooting
If your game doesn't run properly, there is not so much that can be done!

• If you have some weird behaviour, go to the directory razorworks\cohokum and delete the files game.cfg which contains all the settings of the in-game user interface, and eech.ini which contains additional and settings for mods, in the cohokum directory. These files are regenerated automatically. NOTE: when you delete game.cfg the avionics in the options screen is reset to "novice" and the targeting systems do not work, you have to set it to "advanced" to make it work again.
• A fresh install has been known to help in many cases (but its a pain).
• Set the screen refresh to "always on" for Radeon cards
• many people reported a problem with NVIDIA drivers 71.xx, version 81.xx seems to work.
• Please try to repeat the error and report about it on the SimHQ - EECH forum. There is a file error.log in your cohokum directory when the game crashes but it is a memory stack dump and pretty useless, no need to report that.
• You can ask for a debug version at the SimHQ forum that may help tou understand what is going on because it gives much more output.
• If you get an error saying that /common/data/brief_en.dat is not found, go to the install disk and copy by hand the files brief_xx.dat to the razorworks/common/data directory on your harddisk.

Training missions

By BeachAV8R

• training mission 1
• training mission 2
• training mission 3
• training mission 4

Article - EECH revisited

Wow, looks great! But, can you please verify if I run with the latest .exe and the new texture set, will this cause the other maps not to render properly? Does each map need its own texture set? I thought I remember reading that somewhere....Thanks for your hard work.

The new textures look good in flight. I guess I answered my own question and I set up a free flight in Kuwait...the ground textures were white. So, I guess I can only run certain maps with the new texutre settings. Also, I'm assuming the High LOD switch is no longer working? No matter if it is turned on or off in the .ini file, it still renders everything at a high LOD. It is too bad that can't be improved because even on my machine, it drops FPS into the mid teens at times.

You probably already know this Gotcha but...

YOU DA MAN!!!

Speed

aka

i wish i was da man *moping*

he's right..no one here can hold a candle to gotcha for their tireless efforts in the development of this game. You have brought this game to new heights. Thank you for the added enjoyment you have giv'n to all of us.

looks good on ya gotcha,

full honors!

Cannot agree with you more.
He really pushes the envelope here. Just so it happens that there most of the stuff He is doing has to do with the SC which I am finding totally cryptic. Since IMHO the texturing system in EECH is quite limited and inflexible and I cannot cope with the latter, I decided to move to new grounds to try to see and learn more. But that does not mean I am completely off (not that this matters to anyone)just only requesting temporary LOA.

It is kind of regretfull though that the helo community is so fragmented and little and somehow "fenced in". I suggest and wish that from time to time everybody tries to diversify one's allegiances and tries to push the envelope on all fronts together.

United we stand, divided we ..... that really holds true.

To Gotcha

thanks guys! I just enjoy the texturing a lot, almost more then playing the game.

Griff: About the high LOD, hmmmm, didn't look at that. I'd have to check that. I don't have a drop in framerate and I have a mid range system. FLIR makes the framerate drop a lot but I gues you know that. Can you check if the framerate drop is expecilly above forests?

Each campaign needs its own texture set with this mod. Rocky showed some good pics of Cuba and Polak of mountains in Yemen I think so we are getting there. I don't know how it handles the fan made campaigns, they have one or two texutes only anyway.

So if you want to play anything else then the texture_colour switch has to be set to 0 again. *however*, the textures are not destroyed (a bug) so if you first load georgia or lebanon and after play a different warzone they will show up. Probably with some weird effects...

@gotcha: Thanks so much for your work and if you love to texture then we won't stop you.

@rocky: Love your textures. Don't mope.

@polak: I hope your research will lead to new ideas that the whole helo community can profit from.

Since installing all this, EECH is now really stuttery on my machine.

I feel like I've gone back in time to when EECH was first released and I was running it on a 400Mhz machine.

hengist, that is bad news! if you set the option texture_colour=0 all this stuff is ignored and you should be back to "normal". I tried myself with fraps and found no real differences in fps... maybe over the cities.
what you could do is take a graphics program and look for the largest textures which are 512x512 and resample them to 256x256 and see if that makes a difference. How much memory does your video card have? If it makes a big difference I could release a medium resolution texture pack!

I have every option turned up full and every enhancement turned on (except down wash because it crashes the sim) and get no stutters even over big cities.

High LOD hack, 3d cockpits, track ir, tsd options, texture color, high rez mfds are all on.

So don't give up hope, it is possible.

Speed

aka

Hi Gotcha,

I'm running it on a

P4 2.66Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 7200rpm HD (DMA@5), Radeon 9800pro 128Mb (FSAA@4x and AF@2x) & SB Live!

I'll uncheck the option.

the FSAA=4 is a killer, and the textures are much bigger than the usual ones. Maybe this effects anisotropic filtering? I have it of always.

Quite happy to turn AF off but I've just gotta have FSAA in all my games. Considering the age of EEAH/CH is, it should be able to handle 4x?
I normally run the game with FSAA@6x with no problems, and I've actually turned it down since installing the new textures... 6x 4x 2x and no FSAA doesn't make any difference it seems, it just stutters period?

I'm not sure why FSAA should have an effect on texture sizes though and from my own tests it doesn't (perhaps it's something else?), frame rates are still the same it just stutters. However, I can see how AF could effect it.

Anyway if it's a choice between FSAA and the new textures, then FSAA wins.

Thanks for the reply.

Have you tried a defrag since installing the new textures?

Speed

aka

Lol, yes a defrag before and after anything that gets installed on my PC.

So do I.
I even have downwash on and have never had the sim crash on me once with DW on. I wonder why it crashes it on your machine?

Yup they to are all on (except Track IR and 3d pits). Never had any problems there neither.

I don't intend to give up. I've been playing this game for far too long
As I said, it's only since installing the textures it's gone stuttery. Frame rates are the same.
It could also be the 'one man's stutter is another mans smooth gameplay scenario'?

so if you trun the new option of: texture_colour=0
are you then back to normal?

No, it's no different with it set to Zero.

One thing that I've noticed, is that due to the detail in the textures, the stutter is definetly more visible when the textures are turned on.

The stutter isn't a showstopper, it's just that where there was no stutter before, there now is stutter. Also, as I said previously, it reminds me of when I first ran EEAH on a P400Mhz, again not a showstopper back then, but a mere annoyance.

Perhaps it's something to do with Track IR or something, as textures on or off doesn't seem to make a difference (apart from it 'seems' more visible)?

I'll reinstall EEAH/CH and put the old, last Dev exe that worked for me, back on.

The textures do look really nice though, I must admit. Nice work.

After flying FS9 for so long maybe I'm a little forgiving of frame rates

Speed

aka