The Option screens allow you to customize Lock On: Modern Air Combat to suit your system and game play preferences. In the top right of the screen is the Options navigator dial. By clicking around the dial, you can adjust your settings in the various areas: Input, Audio, Difficulty, Graphics, and Cockpit.
Exiting
To Exit the Options screen, click on the yellow X at the top right corner of the screen. This will return you to the Main Menu. You can also press the Cancel button at the bottom of the screen.
Saving settings
Once you have made your changes, you must click the OK button at the bottom of the screen. Until you click OK, your changes will not be saved.
IMPORTANT: When changing Difficulty and graphical Scenes settings, you must press the Save button to retain your changes.
INPUT
If the default settings for Lock On do not match your particular input devices, go to the Options section and set the dial to INPUT.
BUTTONS / AXIS Switch
In the upper left hand corner there is a two way switch BUTTONS and the top and AXIS at the bottom. If you wish to view and customize your keyboard and joystick buttons, ensure that the switch is set to BUTTONS. If you wish to view and customize the axis response of your joystick, throttle and rudder, place the switch in the AXIS position.
DEVICE
To the left of the BUTTONS / AXIS switch is a drop menu entitled DEVICE. Select the device you wish to view or edit from the list. Note that all devices are active when playing; selecting a device here only allows you to edit and customize it.
For example: if you wish to customize certain key functions on your keyboard, you set DEVICE to Keyboard and the BUTTONS / AXIS switch to BUTTONS. If you want to alter the response curve of your joystick, you would set the DEVICE your Joystick and the BUTTONS / AXIS switch to AXIS. Finally, if you wanted to reassign the function of a button on your joystick, you would set the DEVICE to your joystick and the BUTTONS / AXIS switch to BUTTONS.
FLIGHT MODE
The FLIGHT MODE drop down menu allows you to assign keys to a particular mode. These modes include:
For example, if in Navigation mode (1 key), the G may cycle the landing gear. When in BVR mode, you could assign the G key to a radar control function. Assigning a single key to multiple functions depending on the mode allows you great flexibility.
To view all modes, set the ALL MODES / FLIGHT MODE switch to FLIGHT MODE
To set key commands that apply to all flight modes, set the switch to ALL MODES.
KEY COMMANDS
To the right of the BUTTONS / AXIS switch are four grouped buttons. These are the Key Command groups. Lock On groups the large array of possible key commands into four groups
BUTTON EDITING
With the BUTTON / AXIS switch set to BUTTON and the DEVICE set input controller you wish customize, select the key command group that contains the desired key function. Select the key function with the mouse and press the CHANGE button below the KEY COMMANDS grouping. You will then be prompted to press the key or button you wish to map the function to.
If you wish to remove a key function from an input controller, select the DEVICE from the list, set the BUTTONS / AXIS switch to BUTTONS, select the key function from the KEY COMMANDS groupings, and press the CLEAR button.
To revert a key function back to its original input, follow the same procedure but press the DEFAULT button.
AXIS EDITING
To edit a joystick, throttle or rudder response axis, you will first need to select the appropriate input device from the DECICE drop down. Next you need to toggle the BUTTONS / AXIS switch to AXIS.
In the list of axis, you will see the axis function list on the left and the assigned axis on the right. To clear or change a function, such as pitch, roll, or thrust, select it. The selected function axis displays a response curve on the right portion of the screen if the ENABLE RESPONSES button is on. This box consists of:
Below is the response curve visualizer that graphically displays the axis curve of the selected function and three sliders.
To assign an axis function to a different axis, select the function, press the CHANGE button and move the axis of the controller that you wish to map the function to.
To delete an axis function, select the axis function from and press the CLEAR button.
To revert an axis function back to its original axis, select the axis function and press the DEFAULT button.
In the bottom right of the screen is the AXIS / SLIDER toggle switch.
Trim and Control
Several of the aircraft, the MiG-29 in particular MUST be constantly trimmed or your control inputs will not be as effective. Consult the appropriate Tutorial Mission to learn how to trim the aircraft. ALT-T will neutralize your trim settings. NOTE: Airspeed changes affect trim settings. Be sure to adjust trim after coming out of Autopilot.
GRAPHICS
The Graphics pane allows adjusting of display detail. Note that higher resolutions, color depth and detail settings look better but require more CPU power and video RAM. Lower resolutions and color depth settings may not appear as sharp, but will provide smoother frame rates and more economical use of video RAM on slower machines.
Note: We only suggest setting Visibility Range (VIBIG RNG) to High WATER to very high unless you have a greater computer with 3 GHz process and a graphics card with 256 MB or greater RAM.
Below the list of graphic selections is the Full Screen toggle button. This button toggles the screen between full screen and a windowed view.
If you are unsure about adjusting each of these graphic options separately, Low, Medium, and High default settings have been provided at the bottom of this pane. If you have a computer that is at or near the minimum hardware specification, we suggest you select Low.
AUDIO
As with the graphics settings, the volume of the various sounds in Lock On is an individual taste. You need to experiment with the settings to obtain the sound levels you desire.The audio options allow you to customize the sound levels of the various audio elements of Lock On: Modern Air Combat. Often the audio environment in the cockpit of a modern jet fighter is rather quiet and far different than some players may expect. Lock On allows you to tailor this audio environment and allow you to make it as real or as fantasy as you desire. Nine level sliders are available to adjust the following sound levels:
Below the sliders are a set of four toggle buttons that allow you to turn the following audio features on and off:
If you are having choppy or distorted sound, turn Hardware Acceleration OFF in your DirectX Sound Settings. To do this, run the DirectX Diagnostics Tool (C:\WINDOWS\system32\dxdiag.exe), select the SOUND tab, and turn off Hardware Acceleration with the slider.
If you want more ambient sounds in the cockpit you will need to adjust your audio volume settings in the Options Sound screen. Adjust the sliders for the various sound effects to the levels you prefer. If you like to hear the engines and gun fire from the cockpit then you should increase the ENGINES and COCKPIT sliders to higher. 100% for COCKPIT will give you both engines and gun sounds. Note that when your aircraft is supersonic, the sounds in the cockpit will be very quite.
DIFFICULTY
The Difficulty options allow you to tailor your experience to your game play liking. This is a powerful tool and provides the novice player several assists to make Lock On easier to master and enjoy. However, the advanced player can make Lock On a very complex, highly-realistic simulation. Using the options provided, you can play in one of these two modes or anywhere in between.
The Difficulty screen is divided into four boxes.
In the top right of the screen, ten difficulty options are provided that pertain to the players aircraft. The more options you enable, the more assistance is provided.
Below the player aircraft difficult setting is a box that contains the Missile Effectiveness slider. This slider determines the lethality of enemy missiles by adjusting their range, susceptibility to countermeasures, and maximum G and maximum angle of attack.
All other aspects of AI difficulty can be adjusted on a mission basis in the mission editor.
The bottom left box on the screen contains all the view options. These allow you to adjust how much of the world you can see outside of your cockpit and what you can see. These choices consist of seven toggles that allow the following:
Map View Filters. This set of view options filter the amount of information displayed on the Map View.
The smaller box along the upper right portion of the screen allows you to display either Imperial or Metric units when using the Mission Editor. This setting does not apply to in-game action.
Default difficulty settings can be selecting along the right side of the screen. Rather than have to set each individual difficulty option, four default settings are available in this pane. By selecting a level, Lock On will automatically configure the difficulty to match your level. If you then modify and of your selections, the custom setting will automatically be set.
To the right of the default settings is the SAVE button. In order for custom difficult settings to take affect, you must press this button before pressing OK. If changes are made to the Scenes graphical section, this button must also be pressed.
When a mission is created, the mission designers difficult and scenes setting are saved with the mission.
At the bottom of this box is the SET GLOBAL button. By selecting this button, your settings will be applied to any mission you fly. If set to off, the mission will default to those set when the mission was created.
COCKPIT
The Cockpit options allow you the ability to customize how you interact with the cockpits of the various aircraft in Lock On: Modern Air Combat. These choices are designed to give you varying levels of difficulty and allow adjusting to meet the requirement for system resources. To enable a function, click on the button until it turns green.
