I have been playing lomac on and off since the first demo (love at first sight) but the game now crashes to desktop every time i play a mission with any degree of complexity and sometimes randomly.

This was a problem in windows xp but now vista is even worse (not saying that has anything to do with it just stating the facts) with it frequently crashing EVERYTIME i play the game now. I love Lomac and will support ED for producing such a top notch game, but this is really pissing me off now and spoiling any enjoyment i used to get from the game.

This is a sample error log created in the temp folder of the game:

DXDefTexture: failed to load f15_damage2.bmp, D3DXERR_INVALIDDATA.
DXDefTexture: failed to load common.psd, D3DXERR_INVALIDDATA.
DXDefTexture: failed to load samara-red.bmp, D3DXERR_INVALIDDATA.
DXDefTexture: failed to load samara-blue.bmp, D3DXERR_INVALIDDATA.
DXDefTexture: failed to load samara-cherry.bmp, D3DXERR_INVALIDDATA.
DXDefTexture: failed to load TRAVA-2.TGA, D3DXERR_INVALIDDATA.
View::GetCameraViewAngleLimits: ./Config/View/View.lua:70: attempt to index global `CameraViewAngleLimits' (a nil value)
FlareTrailMaterial: failed to create either pixel or vertex shader, E_FAIL.
FlareTrailMaterial: failed to create either pixel or vertex shader, E_FAIL.
FlareTrailMaterial: failed to create either pixel or vertex shader, E_FAIL.
FlareTrailMaterial: failed to create either pixel or vertex shader, E_FAIL.
FlareTrailMaterial: failed to create either pixel or vertex shader, E_FAIL.
FlareTrailMaterial: failed to create either pixel or vertex shader, E_FAIL.
This repeats over and over and over!

The D3DXERR_INVALIDDATA and E_FAIL are in almost every error report after crashing to desktop.

My System Specs are:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+
2 GIG PC2 Kingston 5300 CL5 RAM
XFX GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB XT
Jeantech 700W PowerSupply
ASUS M2NPV-VM Motherboard
Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar
Track IR 4

Windows Vista 32 Ultimate
NVIDIA vista 32 158.28 driver version

Considering I have built this system to play lomac I would really love to be able to play it without it crashing to the frickin desktop every mission!!!

ANY help from you guys is appreciated

Update on the situation:

Installed new video drivers saw some fps increases so good BUT still the frickin crashes.

**SO**

1) Unistalled all versions of lomac from my computer. Restarted

2) Installed Lomac (from cd 1 of the UK lock on gold box), did not try running it.

3) Installed FC (from cd 2 of the UK lock on gold box),

4) Tried to load the game up get error dialog box unable to locate component. It says the AFMBASE.DLL was not found.

5) Tried to ignore this problem (thought it may be to do with the vista operating system) and tried to install the patch LO_Flaming_Cliffs_Patch_1.12b_EngCD found at lockonfiles.com.

The following error message is displayed:

Error occurred during installation. Error code is 2. Setup is not completed.

And thats the end of that! So not even a crashing to desktop version of Lomac on my computer anymore!!!

Any thoughts??? As my computer really is more stable than these messages are leading you to believe.

Looking back i just worked around this somehow when i installed last time on vista which may have hidden the later crash to desktop problems. All in all very pissed at how this games seems to work great for all you guys and not for me!