RoF First Impressions

[Mr. Lucky 0]

Cameljockey - is there a setting for "scenery detail" ? And if so, how high is your's set?

Cause: the SPAD looks good, but the landscape is cold and without "a grain of grass and daisies".

 

I have just returned from a flight around Phalempin in August (in BHaH that is), and after fighting,

the land underneath my wings looked so inviting, I would have liked to get me a picknick from our

canteen, and fly somewhere near a forrest or a lake.

BHaH "lives" - when I fly in there, I LIVE in there - haven't got that feeling much on other sims.

It is an art (and maybe some luck?) to get it made like that.

A comparison would be movies - every director wants to create a movie, that "lives", that draughts

you inside, and makes it a "felt story" - but even really good directors can't predict, if their next

work will be like that. And sometimes they just don't work. (A German's description - hope it gets

understood?)

 

I believe they call it the 'suspension of dis-belief'. It might be what we are calling ;immersion' here. But you're right, the colors and shading making it look more real. What I've seen of RoF, and I've said it from the beginning, the graphics are excellent, but don't quite look real. It doesn't make me 'feel' like I'm there. It looks like CGI to me whereas OFF looks like film.

[OvS 8]

Dreams supply the "engine" with energy.

But remember, OvS - with those huge floats, dogfighting gets most impossible (Lol!)

 

;)

 

What's funny is my wife knows it's coming. She can see it in me when I am around the small planes. I learned a lot working on the Jumbos, and now restoring an old car. I learned that I am a mechanic, not a button pusher, or pencil whipper. There is a huge difference. With that in mind, and my A&P in hand, my hope is that I can score an old 150 someday, when I move out of Long Island, fix it up and start lessons, take care of the 150... maybe own enough land to clear a grass runway, make my own little Private setup ... then move up to the 172 Float plane and look to put in on a lake nearby... like live in Kentucky, or Tennesse... something like that. That's my idea of retirement... back to the roots of aviation when it was fun. I used to wash Pipers and Cessnas at Republic Airport when I was a kid.... back then (in the late 70's and early 80's) there was this really small airfield called Zahn's Airport very close to my house. I loved that place, but they shut it down as they did many of the small grass fields in Long Island.... you know.. because we need more houses here... as if.

 

The finer aspect of aviation is the grass field and the small plane. The bigger the plane, the bigger the runway, the further you get from aviation and what it's really all about. Ask ANY Commercial pilot, believe me, I've had many a conversation about it. They all say the same thing... I miss my Cessna.

 

OvS

[Mr. Lucky 0]

OVS....you're spot on. But if you want the real romance of aviation, I'd say get away from those spam cans and get yourself a nice tube and fabric tail dragger. I flew my Taylorcraft out of a real nice grass field in Ohio where I got my tailwheel endorsement and never had more fun. I kept it at an airport in Cincinnati where I also worked part time as a line handler and all the commercial guys would see my BC-12D and say it sure must be great fun to fly like that. And it is. Of course, with floats, the tailwheel is moot and, you know, for travel, they're not too practical (ragwings I mean) but if you want to get as close to flying these WWI planes as you can without building one (there's another goal for you) you can't go wrong with a nice Cub, or Chief or Tcraft. I moved to Georgia and brought my Tcraft with me. I now live surrounded by two farm fields, one with a long flat approach over a pond dead into the prevailing wind. You can't beat it.

 

It took me 18 years to get my license with three stops and restarts, then shortly thereafter a heart attack and bypass but I got my physical back and my tailwheel endorsement. If you've got a supportive spouse, even better. DO IT!

[Olham 164]

OvS, I envy you for having such a dream, that may even be possible to come true.

If I was a real pilot, I would want to be a "mechanic & pilot" - not a "I'm rich I can do what I want-pilot".

Cause then, I could hear and feel, how my crate feels.

The web is a great place for searching and finding: here's ZAHN'S airport. And a Cessna you could buy

in Ontario, here:

 

http://www.automobilebestbuys.com/aircraft

 

Sorry, if I made it worse - only firing up your dream I thought. Lol!

 

PS: they are re-creating ZAHN's airport for a flight sim now (forgot which one - X-wing something?)

[Dimus 0]

Airnav.com ?

 

Yeah, some day, I hope to get mine, and a Seaplane rating. I always wanted a 206 or 172 of floats, on a lake. Dreams....

 

 

We share very similar dreams OvS. I'd prefer an amphibian myself, goes everywhere. It's just that bureaucracy and costs in this country can kill such dreams very easily. First stop the PPL, then we'll see. I can't wait to take my girls up for a ride over our house and the nearby islands of the Saronic gulf.

[OvS 8]

We share very similar dreams OvS. I'd prefer an amphibian myself, goes everywhere. It's just that bureaucracy and costs in this country can kill such dreams very easily. First stop the PPL, then we'll see. I can't wait to take my girls up for a ride over our house and the nearby islands of the Saronic gulf.

 

I flew in one on a trip to Alaska. It was based out of Anchorage and took us on a Glacier tour, then dropped down in a Lake near a nice island where we hand lunch.... back when my wife and I were DINKs (dual income - no kids)... and I LOVED it! I looked like a Lab in an old car... window open, tongue hanging out. The landing and take-offs were fantastic! He asked if I wanted to fly in the Beaver, or the 206... the Beaver was really cool, and maybe I should have opted for it.. but I love Cessna Seaplanes... so the 206 it was. Ever since then, I always wanted one. :)

 

As for the tube and fabric, I like 'em, but not sure I want to fly them. ;) I like the 150's and 152's for the little stuff. I think it's the strength of the tricycle gear that I like. I also like the simple Piper Warriors and Cherokees as well.

 

I have a buddy of mine, Scot Gerber who owns and regularly flies in shows, an Extra 300 based out of Brookhaven, LI. It's an awesome airplane that if I could fly I would... but never as a passenger.

 

Anyhow... someday....

 

OvS

 

PS... Olham... Yes... that's the place! Good old Zahn's! You know... Long Island was pretty much the birthplace of Aviation in the United States, from there it panned out all over the US. We had Sperry, Fairchild, Republic, Grumman, and fledgling Northrup at the time... as well as Lindburgh's flight, a ton of small dromes... testing grounds out at Calverton... tons and tons of aviation and NASA stuff! All gone. It's sad really.

[+Polovski 414]

I find the nature of OFF's terrain is such that I'm easily able to supply the finer detail from my own imagination. I've never been able to do that with any other sim. I'm not sure what it is exactly, the combination of colours allied with certain types of feature perhaps. I'm also not sure if it's just a happy accident or the result of somebody with a rare talent, but whatever, it works incredibly well.

 

Having said that, the front lines are rather sucky, the only part of the terrain that's a let-down. There are too few trenches, and those that are there are not continuous or even going in the right direction in most cases. Buy I understand why (I think)...a limitation of geo-morphous tiling.

 

That will be by design on both counts. Winder is very talented in the terrain lark. The look a feel is very intentional.

The front lines are very realistic in OFF, Winder spent a considerable time researching photographs are reports. Various areas they were not continuous across the whole front and often broken up and patchy as the front moved in parts. One reason MvR would have been confused on his last flight, that he may have believed he was nearer home than actually over enemy lines. It will change if you see other areas and other dates but that is basically what it was like in places. P1 and 2 were more brown and continuous as commonly depicted.

[Cameljockey 3]

Cameljockey - is there a setting for "scenery detail" ? And if so, how high is your's set?

Cause: the SPAD looks good, but the landscape is cold and without "a grain of grass and daisies".

 

In answer to your question Olham, I have scenery set on "Medium". I had it on "High" but didn't see much of a difference. I've taken some screen shots of a SPAD flying over the home aerodrome in both games for comparison. Since I had no idea where the aerodrom in RoF was, I just used one in OFF in the general vicinity.

To me, the scenery in RoF looks like a never ending golf course.

 

CJ

[Dej 17]

That will be by design on both counts. Winder is very talented in the terrain lark. The look a feel is very intentional.

The front lines are very realistic in OFF, Winder spent a considerable time researching photographs are reports. Various areas they were not continuous across the whole front and often broken up and patchy as the front moved in parts. One reason MvR would have been confused on his last flight, that he may have believed he was nearer home than actually over enemy lines. It will change if you see other areas and other dates but that is basically what it was like in places. P1 and 2 were more brown and continuous as commonly depicted.

 

I've just finished reading The Soldier's War: The Great War Through Veterans' Eyes (recommended - a humbling read) and one of the things that surprised me was how often 'gaps' in the trenches are mentioned... even later in the War. So, kudos to Winder.

[OvS 8]

What I really like the most about the scenery Winder did it the feel that it grabs my imagination. I can buzz a French farmers house, I can fly between the trees that break into an open meadow, pulling up just before I hit the treeline of a forrest. When my plane is shot-up... I can LOOK for a place to ditch...and select one that fits my need. Not just settle on something that is barren without regard to hitting anything else.

 

I feel like I have to really judge the size of the field... will I make it? It is sloped? Are there any stray trees?

 

I don't care if the rivers do not reflect, or if the ocean is not moving... the rest of it over-rides the small negatives.

 

I used to get the same feeling from Rabu's scenery in RB3D... most important... It doesn't look a tad bit repetitive at all! I've never seen that in any other Flight Sim.... even M$'s efforts... you usually can pick out the repetition in the scenery tiles. Not OFF.

 

Great job Winder!

 

OvS

[Olham 164]

What could I add to OvS' words?

Absolutely right - and the pics of Cameljockey show it very well.

So it was Winder's work - very great job, Winder! As a graphic designer, I think I know, how tricky

it can be to get a good overall colour combination. And this had to look different but still good from

higher up! And it does so beautifully, that I mostly don't warp no more, although I don't always find

enough time. That is meant to be a compliment.

[Hellshade 110]

Something else very interesting to note about the pictures showing RoF and OFF side by side. The Rise of Flight pics show 1/2 the total number of player flyable aircraft. The Over Flanders Fields pics show just 1/39th of player flyable planes, not including the add on plane pak coming up. Even if RoF could match OFF P3 on the ground, it gets crushed in variety the moment you look skyward. In a war based flight simulator, that's not really a good sign.

 

Hellshade

[OvS 8]

What could I add to OvS' words?

Absolutely right - and the pics of Cameljockey show it very well.

So it was Winder's work - very great job, Winder! As a graphic designer, I think I know, how tricky

it can be to get a good overall colour combination. And this had to look different but still good from

higher up! And it does so beautifully, that I mostly don't warp no more, although I don't always find

enough time. That is meant to be a compliment.

 

 

Another aspect I learned about how good a job he did was that when I started skinning the Fokker D.VIIF in lozenge, I never really saw my skins in RB3D blend into the surrounding colors. I looked at the scenery, and thought, well, the Lozenge is a bit loud, how the hell is this supposed to camoflage anything. Once I took my finsihed skin for a flight, I chose Autum, which the default D.VIIF is Lozenge colored for... and the damn plane disappeard over the trees! I'd never seen that happen in any RB3D mod. They always stood out against the terrian. But Winders colors were dead on!

 

When I started playing with Makai's spring/summer wings over the OFF seasons, I got the same effect. It was fantastic! So I knew we nailed it. It's the right blend of scenery verses aircraft color.

 

Even the Albatros mauve blends really well over his scenery.

 

OvS

[Cameljockey 3]

Two things I did notice in RoF. Remember the airflow/air particle video on YouTube showing how the air moved and how it was so accurate and realistic? I looked and can't seem to find it now. They went into detail about the airflow etc. This is small, but considering how they made a big deal out of it maybe it isn't. I was looking at the plane sitting on the field and I could see the grass blowing in the wind. Well, when I started the engine, the grass behind the plane kept blowing in the breeze. It should have been laid over flat by the propwash. One other thing. The planes are vampires. Everything that finds itself over the water, trees, sky, clouds, etc, have a reflection in the water, except the planes (see screenshot). I know some may say these are nitpick issues, but I'm just calling them on their claims.