Jane's IAF: Instructions Avoiding Failure

Jane's Combat Simulations: IAF - Israeli Air Force another in the line of Jane's survey sims, whilst not as in-depth or detailed as Jane's F-15 or F-18, single aircraft 'study' sims, it provides less detail but a wider variety of aircraft types to fly with. Jane's IAF can be thought of as a spiritual successor to the highly regarded Jane's Fighters Anthology, although the latter, and more popular, Jane's USAF is often considered the successor.

Released in September 1998 by Electronic Arts, Jane's IAF features the Dassault Mirage III (Mirage III in game), IAI Kfir (Kfir), McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II (F-4E Phantom), McDonnell Douglas F-4E Kurnass 2000 (F-4 2000), McDonnell Douglas F-15I Ra'am (F-15), General Dynamics F-16I Sufa (F-16D) and IAI Lavi (Lavi).

Of the Jane's aircraft sims, Jane's IAF is often the least well known and least popular, having slipped under the radar of many sim fans.

Strategy

The strategy for Jane's IAF is straightforward. The game is installed and then patched with the official patch. Then then the game is patched with the most appropriate unofficial Tcklbrry patch. Finally older Windows dll libraries in the IAF installation folder are disabled.

Version and patch history

There have been a number of editions however they all seem to use the same version of the game. The standard edition used in the guide has a 32-bit installer making it compatible with Win10.

The initial retail release occurred in September 1998, there seem to have been two editions, a standard retail edition featuring the game on a single CR-ROM and an Israeli Air Force 50th Anniversary edition including a multimedia application covering the history, aircraft and structure of the IAF on an addition CD-ROM.

The game would be re-released in 2000 as part of the EA Classics product line and may include a copy of IAF Patch - Version 1.1.

Israeli Air Force 50th Anniversary multimedia app

The IAF 50th Anniversary multimedia app is supplied on a separate CD-ROM with it's own setup utility. Although the setup utility is compatible with Win10, due to the legacy nature of the app, supporting apps (movie player) and codecs, it is recommended to create a Win98/98SE virtual machine (VM) with PCem or 86Box to install and run this multimedia app.

Creating this VM is not covered in this guide, however this YouTube tutorial video by PhilsComputerLab, PCem Windows 98 Setup is recommended.

IAF Patch - Version 1.1

There is a single official patch updating the game to v1.1. The patch is available in English, German and Hebrew languages. This is an executable patch, distributed as a zip archive. The patch executable is compatible with Win10. The patch comprises of the following bug fixes and enhancements (taken from the patch readme):

• Expert AI has been improved, and now presents a real challenge.

• Wingman command 'Engage' A.I. has been improved.

• The AI can now fire missiles after switching over to guns.

• SA radar no longer appears on RWR after being destroyed.

• Eject bug is fixed - the canopy and the ejected pilot no longer spins with the plane.

• In multiplayer mode, players rejoin the session in their previous location (and not at the end of the world).

• The player now gets to select a plane before each training mission, when playing them consecutively.

• The planes Horizon line is now projected more accurately on the HUD.

• LCOS behavior is improved.

• Gun bullets flight track is raised by 1 degree. They now fly to the boresite correctly.

• Range is increased for gun bullets (1.5 miles instead of 1 mile).

• Missile hit percentage increased (when not in easy aiming mode).

• When not in easy aiming mode, hitting targets with the gun requires more accurate and realistic aiming.

• The Lavi's engine power is decreased at high altitude and has more drag.

• While taxiing with brakes on, the aircraft can move when the throttle is on full AB.

• Rudder response is increased.

• Roll and spin are improved.

• Airbrakes are more effective.

• In multiplayer, players now get the kill for shooting down a plane even if the pilot ejects.

• In multiplayer, each players callsign is now displayed above their plane. You can now tell at a glance who you're shooting at.

• The two highest settings of terrain detail are tuned for higher detail and less shimmering.

• The terrain detail updates quicker when switching cameras.

This is a recommended patch for all platforms. This patch is available from:

• Jane's IAF patch collection on the Internet Archive (all languages).

• Gamefront (all languages).

• ModDB (all languages).

• PCGamingWiki (English language only).

Unofficial patches

All credit and huge thanks goes to Tcklbrry, the creator of these unofficial patches.

Note: some patches are distributed as a 7zip (.7z) archive. It's unknown if the unofficial patches work with German or Hebrew versions of the game.

Jane's Fighters Anthology, Jane's IAF & Jane's USAF Tcklbrry patches (June 2015)

These patches enable the games to run on Windows XP/Vista/7/8, fix unresponsive menus and remove the disk checks. They are distributed as a single 7zip archive. After extracting the contents, (some of which are 7zip archives) the Jane's IAF Tcklbrry Patch (JITP.7z) is the patch of interest.

This is a file replacement patch. The contents of JITP.7z should be extracted and the contents copied into the Jane's IAF installation folder, replacing any files as required. This patch runs the game in a single processor affinity mode with an included batch (.bat) file.

This is a recommended patch for earlier Windows XP/Vista/7/8 platforms. It can be used on a Windows 10 platform but is not recommended, having been superseded by a later patch.

This patch is available from:

• Jane's IAF patch collection on the Internet Archive (original distributed patch and JITP.7z as a separate download for convenience).

• ModDB.

Jane's IAF Tcklbrry patch for Windows 10 (July 2025)

This patch provides similar fixes to the Jane's IAF Tcklbrry patch (June 2015) but provides greater compatibility with Windows 10. It includes:

• Fixes to allow the game to run.

• Fixes unresponsive menus.

• Includes missing DirectX libraries required by the game.

• Includes DDrawCompat v0.6.0 and an optimised config file.

• Does not require single processor core affinity.

This is a file replacement patch. The contents should be extracted and copied into the Jane's IAF installation folder, replacing any files as required.

This is a recommended patch for Win10. Although untested on Win11, this patch probably provides the best compatibility on a Win11 platform. It is available from:

• Jane's IAF patch collection on the Internet Archive.

Retail media

This guide assumes any physical cds will be ripped to an image file, to reduce wear and tear on media and drives. The retail version of Jane's IAF does not contain cd audio and can be ripped to a data only .iso format.

The IAF 50th Anniversary cd can also be ripped to an iso format.

At present there is no release of the game on digital platforms.

Game management

As a windows game running natively, the installation folder will be created by the IAF installer. However some limited game management is still useful for files used in the IAF setup.

The installation folder and setup files for Jane's IAF and other Windows games can be found in the same folder (my own, as an example):

D:\Games\Win\<Game folders>
D:\Games\Win\Janes IAF Setup

The following setup folders can be used:

• cd - to store any cd images.

• conf - to store any HOTAS profile configuration files.

• docs - to store any useful documents, manuals, etc.

• patch - to store a copy of recommended patches.

• libs - to store disablerd dll libraries.

Installation

The setup installer is a 32-bit app compatible with Win10 and should run without issue.

• During the installation process, the app will be unable to identify the version of DirectX installed and will recommend installing DirectX 5.

  
  

• Do NOT install DirectX 5. Instead continue with the installation process without installing.

  
  

• Immediately afterwards the setup app will recommend installing the Indeo codec.

  
  

• Do NOT install the Indeo codec. Instead continue with the installation process without installing the codec.

Patching

Patching requires the IAF Patch - Version 1.1 and then the Jane's IAF Tcklbrry patch for Windows 10 (July 2025) to be installed.

IAF Patch - Version 1.1

The IAF Patch - Version 1.1 should be downloaded as a zip file. It is recommended to store this patch in the game management patch folder for any future use.

The patcher utility should be extracted from the zip archive as an executable (.exe) file. This is a 32-bit executable compatible with Win10 which should then be run.

• The first step of the patching process extracts patch files to a temporary folder. The suggested temporary folder is fine to use.

  
  

• The next step opens the patcher file selection dialog to find the IAFJets.exe file.

  
  

• Unfortunately the patcher opens the dialog in the temporary patch file folder which contains an IAFJets.exe file. Do not open this file.

  
  

• Instead navigate to the Jane's IAF installation folder and open the IAFJets.exe file in the installation folder.

Patching will begin and complete very shortly.

Jane's IAF Tcklbrry patch for Windows 10 (July 2025)

The Jane's IAF Tcklbrry patch for Windows 10 should be downloaded as a zip file. It is recommended to store this patch in the game management patch folder for any future use.

• The contents of the zip file should be extracted and copied into the Jane's IAF installation folder, replacing any files as required.

This completes the patching process.

DDrawCompat

Jane's IAF Tcklbrry patch for Windows 10 includes DDrawCompat v0.6.0 and not the latest v0.7.0 version. It is recommended not to update to v0.7.0 as this introduces graphics artifacts into some of the sky textures.

Disabling libraries

Part of this strategy is the disabling (or removal) of older less compatible libraries in the Jane's IAF installation folder with the (hopefully more compatible) Windows platform system libraries.

These libraries will be found within the Jane's IAF installation folder. There are a few methods that can be used to disable them:

• Delete the library (not recommended).

• Rename the library, as this allows the lib to be restored, e.g. adding .bak to the filename, msvcrt.dll becomes msvcrt.dll.bak (preferred).

• Alternatively move (not copy) the libraries to the game management libs folder (preferred).

The following libraries should be disabled:

MSVCIRT.DLL
MSVCRT.DLL

Program compatibility settings

There are number of compatibility settings that should be applied to the IAFJets.exe Properties. In the Compatibility tab:

• Check Disable fullscreen optimization.

Make the following changes to Change high DPI settings:

• In High DPI scaling override, check Override high DPI scaling behaviour.

• Scaling performed by: System.

Settings shown in the screenshots below:

IAFJets Compatibility settings

IAFJets high DPI settings

HOTAS config

Joystick, throttle and rudder pedals are supported. Configuring axes may not be required if your HOTAS has 4 axes or less. When using devices totaling more than 4 axes, a virtual controller can be used, limited to 4 axes, as Jane's IAF will automatically try to detect the HOTAS controller.

For those using controllers from multiple vendors, the vJoy/Joystick Gremlin combination may be required instead of vendor specific HOTAS profile software. You may also have to use HidHide as a device firewall, to hide your real controllers, so only the vJoy virtual controllers are detected by Jane's IAF.

The physical axes to Windows axes were configured as follows:

Physical axis	Windows axis
Joystick x-axis	DX_X_AXIS
Joystick y-axis	DX_Y_AXIS
Throttle	DX_Z_AXIS
Rudder	DX_ZROT_AXIS

Note: This config is identical to one used for Jane's F-15 and F-18 but is repeated here for convenience.

Running

A Win10 platform using the Jane's IAF Tcklbrry patch for Windows 10 (July 2025) can just run the game executable without having to worry about single core affinity:

IAFJets.exe

Earlier Windows XP/Vista/7/8 platforms using the Jane's Fighters Anthology, Jane's IAF & Jane's USAF Tcklbrry patches / JITP patch (June 2015) should use the included batch file to run the game with single core affinity enabled:

IAFJets One Core.bat

Configuration

The in-game settings should be straightforward to config.

• Graphics settings can maxed and all graphics options can be enabled on modern hardware.

  
  

• Sound and Gameplay options are left to personal preference.

• Devices should be configured to match your HOTAS physical or virtual hardware (shown below).

• Keyboard settings may requiring changing as this option also allocates joystick buttons to functions (shown below).

Devices settings

Keyboard settings (including joystick buttons)

Example video

Jane's IAF with the latest Tcklbrry patch

Finally...

Credit and thanks without which this guide would not have been possible go to:

• Phil of PhilsComputerLab for his YouTube tutorial.

• The Internet Archive for allowing me to create another patch collection and host patches.

• GameFront, ModDB and PCGamingWiki for hosting patches.

And special thanks to Tcklbrry for creating the unofficial patches that allow us to run this sim on later/modern platforms.

Good Hunting!