GAME TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS

  Problem: Radeon 8500: The buildings, trees and ships all disappear and reappear frequently. The main scenery remains like the ground or water, but the secondary scenery disappears and flickers frequently. If I change the camera view I can sometimes get the ship or building to stay for a short while.

  Solution: Radeon users with this problem down load Rage 3D Tweak V3.6 from rage3d.com, and install it. After install open the program to "Profiles" and Tic "Default Ati Optimized" and click apply. Now using the retail .exe I no longer have flashing textures, and it runs fine. This has something to do with the Radeon and TCL. 

GENERAL TIPS

I found using the "hover" command to work my way over the landing areas worked pretty well. The trick is kicking it out of hover and catching the machine before it drops too quickly to the deck, and not allowing it to wallow out of position by hovering too long.

Be sure to pull up the "command console" by hitting the [TAB] key. It is very useful and will tell you when certain options are "greyed out" and not available.

DOWNLOAD THE OFFICIAL KEYBOARD SHEET
First things first. No manual doesn't always mean piracy; so for all those lending or buying second-hand titles, here's a link to the download section of InterActiveVision's website where you can get the keyboard reference sheet for VME, SAR4 and Operation Air Assault.

PRESS TAB FOR CONTROLS
If you can't find what's the right key for this or that, just press Tab (the long key just left to Q, for those wondering :p) during flight, it will display a menu that you can navigate using the numeric keys.

*Example: your hoist door is open and you want to order your gunner to fire at will.
Press Tab to bring the command menu, then 7 (Machinegun controls) then 1 (Autofire).

MAKE SURE YOU FULLY STARTED YOUR ENGINE(S)
Sadly, VME's Huey seems to have two engines... which means you must press E and T twice each to fully start your engines.
Just press E and T together, wait for the "engines running" message, then press E and T again and you're ready to go.

*Check your cockpit view (F1): there are two red levers on the ceiling (if you can't see them, use the NumPad arrows to move the view), both should be pushed forward before liftoff. (To pull those levers and stop the engines, simply press Shift + E or T.) (The middle lever is the rotor brake, controlled with R / Shift + R; it is released by default so you can just ignore it).

VME'S MEDIC: NO HEALER!
When you see victims lying on the ground and you have enough room to land (i.e you won't have to use hoist devices), don't bother sending your medic! He's a waste of time in that case, since you must wait for him to be back on board before deploying a stretcher team. In order to act rapidly, simply deploy your stretcher team; they'll inform you of the victim's state and condition (like the medic would do) while carrying him back to the chopper.

SWIMMER AND DOWNWASH
Don't get too close to "swimming" victims or the whirl caused by your rotor will hurt them. Keep the victim in view, in front or on the side of the chopper and press H to engage hover mode but pull your collective up - this way you'll hover at 65 feet rather than 25 (35-40 ft is high enough to avoid causing downwash damage). Next send your swimmer; if you make him dive (you can also hoist him down but that's far less fun :p) make sure he won't jump on the victim! His point of impact in water must not be closer than 15 feet of the victim. Using the hoist door view (F3) you should see the door and the victim at opposite sides of your screen.

CAMPAIGN MISSION TIPS

You will frequently be tasked with landing on the hospital barge. To deliver your victims you should be able to land on the raised section, open the door (don't forget this step ) and hit Shift F12 to deploy all victims to the hospital. 

In one mission you are tasked with landing on the hospital barge to pick up a couple of officers.  I landed on the raised area, as normal, and those lazy rascals wouldn't get in! I had to lift off and land on the lower, cluttered area, next to the hospital tent to get them to come aboard. Damn officers!  

In anther mission you are instructed to lower a medic over a ship and bring in a victim. This is the toughest mission I've encountered. Get close to the ship, use the hover mode with your throttle set at max. This will allow you to hover at max altitude. Then creep up to the ship, between the masts, door open. Once your helo crosses the rail (outside edge of the ship), you will get a definite and sudden increase in altitude --kinda scary, so be ready for it. Gingerly position your helo between the masts, don't let the rotor or tail hit anything. Here's the trick--you have to use the F3 key to look out the door so you can position your helo where your medic will drop straight down onto the victim. Several times I deployed the medic and he would let go of the sling and run brainlessly around the ship, never to cooperate again! This is a shortcoming with the sim, the medic should behave like a real person. Once you are between the masts, positioned over the victim, and still alive, deploy the sling, get the medic in the sling, and lower him directly down onto the victim. If you get close, the victim will grab the medic and you can reel them in. Get them pretty close or in your open door before you move the helo or you will dunk them in the sea or wrap them around a mast. Be sure to get him to the hospital and return to base very carefully--if you crash you have to rescue him all over again!