CaptSopwith 19 Posted March 10, 2011 OFF has got to be one of the prettiest sims I've ever played. There is something about the lighting, the ground detail, the sheer volume of paint schemes that one encounters during a mission... it all blends together to create some gorgeous screen shots. I posted the German pilot's mission over in the Combat Reports section. Gerhard Roth, the latest addition to the stable, has had quite an eventful day. The following snaps were taking after he already dispatched three Nieuport 17s! Not only does OFF run smooth as silk on my system, it also looks this good! Cheers guys and I hope you enjoy! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 10, 2011 OFF has got to be one of the prettiest sims I've ever played. There is something about the lighting, the ground detail, the sheer volume of paint schemes that one encounters during a mission... it all blends together to create some gorgeous screen shots. Oh, really? But seriously now: your graphics quality looks very good. You may have all sliders on 5? What card do you use? It is always nice to see, when someone finds the perfect settings and enjoys the sim like that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CaptSopwith 19 Posted March 10, 2011 Oh, really? But seriously now: your graphics quality looks very good. You may have all sliders on 5? What card do you use? It is always nice to see, when someone finds the perfect settings and enjoys the sim like that. Actually Olham, you should know my settings quite well - they're yours. I've set all of the internal checkboxes in CFSConfig to match the settings you posted a while back. I'm also using your FOV settings in the Workshop which makes the cockpit views much better on my 1680x1050 monitor. I've also turned on Anti-aliasing in my nVidia card settings and some aniostropic filtering as well. As for my sepcs? They're solid, but not mind blowing by any means. I have an Intel Core 2 Quad processor at 2.3Ghz per core. A new nVidia 9800GT video card that replaced the dead 8800GT overclocked that came with the system, 3 GB of RAM, and Windows 7 - which made all of the difference in the world. The computer ran well but not great under Windows Vista. 7 made it a whole new machine. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 10, 2011 I see, thanks for that, CaptSopwith - I will go for Win7 too then. I thought I detected a difference between your and my graphics - you have NVidea, and I have ATI. NVidea seems to look even better (the smoke for example). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 11, 2011 (edited) Situations you never wanted - and will never forget! My Jasta 5 pilot, Vizefeldwebel Harms, had a balloon defense mission southeast of Douai. Arriving, he sighted a flight of 8 F2b Bristol Fighters. He would have preferred to avoid them, as they were heading away from the balloon anyway. But flightleader Heinrich Bussing had different plans and came down on them with his Kette. What could I do but join in and help them - it was sheer madness. The "Dancing Pigs" were all over the place like yoyos, and soon we were in a dangerous furball, each at his own. Although - my wingman Heinz Staack stayed with me and kept my six clear. I had a wild fight with one Brisfit crew, and you can see, we really made it a helter skelter! My bird collected some rounds, but the engine did not fail me, before I had my opponent down in the dirt. Jeeze, what a breathtaking fight! Edited March 11, 2011 by Olham Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 13, 2011 Jasta 5: Vizefeldwebel Harms has meanwhile received the EK I and the confirmation of 9 victories. Being an ace now, he was "invited" by Josef Mai, Fritz Rumey and Otto Könnecke, to paint the tail plane of his Albatros green, with a red outline; and so he told his Werkmeister to do so. The morning sortie of 7 May 1917 was a balloon defense mission, which turned out to be impossible to accomplish. 12 of our Albatros were over the spotter, when we got under attack from 9 RNAS Tripes. We fended them all off, and at least 4 of them went down. Harms could down 2 of them, but then he found himself alone and tried to return home. But another RNAS flight of Tripes appeared - there were at least 8 of them. He tried to run home, but two craft came after him, catching up slowly but surely. Harms flew to the balloon base - now it should be their turn to help him. He circled around the balloon as tight as possible, and so did the Triplanes. While they played roundabout, more of the Tripes arrived at the balloon. With the help of the ground fire, Harms shot down 3 more of them - then he was alone again. The enemy had retreated! Unfortunately, the balloon ground crew had shot up their sausage with their heavy Flak fire. Harms finally landed at Douai, cause his way home was blocked by S.E.5a and SPAD VII. Bad luck for the player: the OFF Manager did not come up with a claims report after all this! Damn! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
+elephant 36 Posted March 13, 2011 Some really great pics there and stories as well! BTW, do you have an Albatros PSD template to share? I find your skins much more crisp than the default ones I use as a starting point for my own ones. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 13, 2011 I can send you two or three basic ones with different wood tones. I can send you BMP-files in their original size - a PSD with layers would be far too big to mail. You can open them in Photoshop, and add your layers then. PM me your E-mail address, cause they would still be quite large. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TaillyHo 2 Posted March 14, 2011 Nice shots from your Jasta 5 mission, Olham. I like the one from the Tripe showing you and the ex-balloon - nicely framed. Pardon my ignorance, but what is the "EK 1" you refer to? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 14, 2011 (edited) Thank you, TaillyHo! It was a tough morning. I was asthonished to get home alive - and with not a single bullet hole! I got it wrong - it would be the "EK II" - Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse (Iron Cross 2nd class). Edited March 14, 2011 by Olham Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TaillyHo 2 Posted March 14, 2011 Thank you, TaillyHo! It was a tough morning. I was asthonished to get home alive - and with not a single bullet hole! I got it wrong - it would be the "EK II" - Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse (Iron Cross 2nd class). Ah, an understandable mistake to make in the excitement of receiving one's first medal. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 14, 2011 (edited) 7 May 1917 - Another busy sortie with Jasta 5 this afternoon. Top left: Vzfw. Josef Mai and his flight are going down onto three Strutter Top right: good, that we remained high - a flight of RNAS Triplanes appeared to attack us. We fought from 9.000 feet altitude, all the way down to the deck. With my 7 Albatros, I fought 6 of them, and we did very well - 4 Tripes went down. I have damaged one hard, and shot down another. Bottom left: after the fight, I circled over Lille with my Kette, to search for Mai's flight. We found him, still fighting the Strutters. I joined in, and shot one down over Lille. Bottom right: the Strutter's rear gunner had demolished a valve on my engine. Hot oil was spurting out and forced me to land at Houplin aerodrome. (The oil was added with Photoshop by me afterwards.) Edited March 14, 2011 by Olham Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 15, 2011 (edited) Today I did something, that must have been quite common in WW1 air combat, but happens rather rarely in OFF due to the overall awareness of the AI: I "caught someone the cold way", as we say in Germany - I killed a pilot, who hadn't even noticed me at all. It was - and felt like - an icecold kill. His flight had gone lower to attack a ground target south of Douai. For some reason, this guy seperated from the others. I had no intention first to attack the flight of Nieuport 24, as we had a balloon attack mission to do. But when I saw him splitting off, and even coming our direction much lower, I could not resist: I went into a steep dive. When I almost overshot him, I rolled the Albatros on it's back and fired into his engine and cockpit headover. His craft exploded immediately and went down burning. I saw the pilot jump. I know it was a common thing to happen, but I find it very hard to feel proud of it - it was an icecold kill. Edited March 15, 2011 by Olham Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ReDDoT 0 Posted March 18, 2011 OMG... Holy OFF Dear Pilot friends, I am new to the forum and I have read around 45 pages on this thread.... The screenshots are awsome! The clouds, the ground, the buildings, the effects, the planes... everything are really pretty in OFF. Skies are really life-like. I never saw a flightsim like this before... I have discovered OFF last week on Youtube while watching one of Hellshade`s videos. Where have I been the last years? GRRR... I am going to check my postbox again... Safe Landings Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
carrick58 23 Posted March 19, 2011 Lovely shot , Olham Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Macklroy 2 Posted March 19, 2011 ReDDot, I know exactly the feeling. When I stumbled upon OFF I could not believe what an amazing sim it truely was, and what was even more unbelieveable was that it had somehow avoided my radar for so long. The community and the amazing Dev team are just icing on the cake! (once you learn uncleal's quirks hehe) Welcome, welcome. And since this IS the ss thread. here is my latest Jasta 5 pilot. Just confirmed his 8 kill and decided on a more subtle paint scheme. Here he is now after downing 3 camels was out of ammo and simply became an onlooker. Jasta 5 pilots made short work of the remaining camels as shown here. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ReDDoT 0 Posted March 19, 2011 Macklroy, Time stood still here I am not going into my PC room anymore. Spend most of my time with my children, playing with them. My wife said today: This is my husband that I miss I studied UncleaI`s famous "copied & pasted" welcome message too. Now I am ready for take-off Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 21, 2011 (edited) Be with your family as much as you ca - when OFF arrives, they won't see you much anymore! Today, I made my first campaign flight in the Fokker D VII. It is good that I had the Creaghorn/Elephant tracers, otherwise I might have mowed SPAD XIII. So I got two: one caught fire; the other lost it's wings. The latter was the French ace Armand Jean Berthelot from Esc. 15. If the D.VII was only a little prettier... D.VII: "Mirror, mirror on the wall - who's the most beautiful of them all?" Mirror: "Not you, my Lady in Lozenge; but - you're a Killeeeeeeeeeeeeer-Queen; dynamite on a laser beam!" Edited March 21, 2011 by Olham Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 26, 2011 (edited) Today I installed the "Bloom & HDR" enhancer from "Creaghorn's Homebrew." I made a test flight with it, and it was a "scramble". We shot down at least 4 Nieuport 17 over or near our field, while the enemy craft could only do minor damage to ours. A funny detail in the lower picture: I waited for the wingmen landing, and when they came in, they were still too high to touch down on the field. So they turned very low over our tents and aircraft, to make a new run. So I got this picture, which is a constellation you won't see normally. I find the enhancer makes dark grey and nasty weather even darker. I'll try it with my Jasta 5 pilot in summer 1917 next. I am pretty curious, if it will help detecting enemy planes through it's different contrast, as Creaghorn said it would. I'll show pics of that sortie tomorrow. Edited March 26, 2011 by Olham Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 28, 2011 Inspired by Widowmaker's idea to meet the Red Baron in his Dreidecker, I startet a Campaign with 24 Sqdn RFC on 11 March, 1918. Today, we met only Pfalz D.III and one Albatros, which was piloted by Freidrich Altemeier from Jasta 24. I got him shot down despite hampered ailerons. We had fought two flights of Pfalz D.IIIa before, and I shot one down; but then we got under attack from another group of Pfalz, which came as a total surprise, out of the sun. Those guys peppered my kite quite a bit. All these German pilots performed very well, but the Pfalz and the Albatros are inferiour to our S.E.5a - in climb, and in top speed. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Javito1986 14 Posted March 28, 2011 Olham I think you do some of the best screenshots I've seen around here. Polovski should see them, they'd make great promotional shots. Just look at that lovely shot of the Pfalz seen from your SE5 cockpit. And I also like the ones you posted a few days ago, particularly the composition of the parked planes at the aerodome during a storm. The aeroplane is so lovely and the light is shining on it, creating a beautiful contrast with the dark, menacing clouds overhead. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 28, 2011 (edited) Thank you very much, Javito. This and the previous tableaus are compiled from pics, which were taken testing the Bloom & HD Enhancer Creaghorn uses. More contrast. Edited March 28, 2011 by Olham Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Javito1986 14 Posted March 28, 2011 I think I'll try that Enhancer myself! Off to look for it I go Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 28, 2011 I think it was in "Creaghorn's HomeBrew". Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted March 30, 2011 Not much spare time at Jasta 5 in May 1917. Vizefeldwebel Harms' crew is two men short by now. His wingman Heinz Staack is a very good and reliable pilot; also No. 2, Theodor Aumann. But his No. 3, Albert Brandenburg is missing in action since two days, and No. 4 Reinhold Ludwig did not return to base after this last sortie. They were still climbing for altitude above their field, when they saw Flak puffs in the west. When they proceeded to defend Premont airfield against any enemy attacks, Vzfw. Harms sighted 5 Albatros from Jasta 18 higher ahead. He had last seen those Nieuports in that direction. And really: out of the haze, the Albatros got attacked by the silver French craft! Harms hurried to get to help them, but it took painfully long, and he had to witness one Albatros going down with a trail of dark smoke behind him. But the Albatrosses tried to dive away from the attack, and so the French, following them, got in reach for Harms' flight. And his flight did attack them hard - after two minutes, two Nieuport went down! Harms had shot the whole top wing off his victim's craft, and Aumann had the other. Now Jasta 18 also fought back, and within less than 10 minutes, all other Nieuports had either run for home or were shot down. Flying above Premont, Harms' flight noticed a flight of Sopwith scouts approaching the field. But out of the blue, they were under attack by the red-tailed Albatrosses of Jasta 11! After less than 5 minutes the Pups were all destroyed! A little later, another flight of N 24 appeared and came down on Harms' flight. They must have shot down or driven off Reinhold Ludwig, who is still missing. But three more Nieuports now fell under the guns of Jasta 5; Harms shot down his second. The French craft crashed at 11:17 h, 6 Kilometer west of Premont aerodrome. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
