Hat in the Ring looks great but....

[appraiserfl 0]

I wish they would develop OFF on its own brand new engine that took advantage of DX11 with all of those bells and whistles! I just pains me to play a game like Dirt2 that looks drop dead photo realistic gorgeous and then come back to OFF which is aged DX8 & DX9 at best.

 

It kills me that all of the kiddie games get all of the big development budgets and the games of any realistic substance don't. Don't get me wrong, Dirt 2 is not a bad game, but can you imagine OFF with Crysis quality graphics! IL2 is getting the new graphics treatment with Storm of War, which is due out in about two weeks

 

I just wish, wish, wish, OFF would too! Maybe they can get an agreement to MOD IL2s new engine like they did with Combat FLight Simulator 3! I dunno, OFF does not look or play bad as it is, but the engine is limited, very limited.

 

And yes, please throw in some Eyefinity, Crossfire, and SLI support while your at it Santa!

[Olham 164]

Not sure, what exactly DirectX 11 does. But since my "new" rig has an ATI 4870,

it can not do that. I am playing "STALKER - Call of Pripjat" on it, and will finally put

"Over Flanders Fields" on it too this weekend.

As for STALKER - it looks great! Whatever DirectX11 does - I don't miss it.

And I don't think I will miss anything on OFF, except perhaps reflecting water

surfaces. In OFF, the whole "picture" (aircraft and landscapes) is an artistic creation

rather than a photo-realistic image. So, whilst the latter may benefit from visual

effects there, OFF possibly wouldn't so much.

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

I agree with Olham.

 

In fact, even with New Game Engines..I see nothing on the Horizon re:-Flightsims that look in any way new or Different.(DX 11 or not)

 

I have to admit, that the eye candy on games such as Grid and say COD4 are very good...fantastic in fact,,,but the bottom line is...In Aerial combat, there is a Cockpit...lots of Ground..lots of Sky...and thats about it! (all of which look absolutely spot on in BHaH)

 

Eye candy is one thing, but it doesnt make a good game on it's own.

 

Far Cry 2 looked nice...but the bottom line is...it was a total waste of money (imho of course)

[appraiserfl 0]

Ok let me put it another way before everyone gets carried away with the DirectX11 comment.

 

I have an ati 5970 and 5870, which is a hell of a lot of GPU power. And I am running a 4800x1200 eefinity display, however, due to the limitations of OFFs engine, I cannot use half of my 5970s gpu power and I cannot crossfire in my 5870. So I am stuck playing with settings at threes and fours with fluctuating frame rates from 20fps to 60fps.

 

I would love to be able to have all three of my GPUS working in Crossfire to be able to peg OFF at 60fps with all settings set to five, however its OLD engine will not let me. This is one of those games that will not let you throw ungodly amounts of cash at it to get what you want and that kind of sucks

 

So if Santa will not bring OFF a new game engine, will he at least let me use Crossfire, because that is what I REALLY REALLY WANT!

[Morris 2]

Dear appraiserfl

 

Maybe the issue with the low frame rates in OFF is not the ATI card although I have read under questions and answers that ATI cards aren’t as good as Nvidia playing OFF.

 

 

But

 

 

Running Windows 7 - DX11 (for now until SP and better driver support from ATI & Nvidia are released).

 

 

I have changed my OS from Win7 64bit (Nvidia 280 – with stutter problems) to XP 32bit (with no issues).

 

But during the week I have ordered an ATI 5970 and two new 24’ screens. Now after I have read ur comments about ATI I’m s**tting myself.

 

 

Dear Olham

 

Do u have any problems with ur ATI card and OFF?

 

 

m

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hasse Wind 46]

It can't be denied that the CFS3 engine is old and clunky - but the devs have done absolute miracles with what they got and turned that mediocre sim into the best WW1 flight sim ever made. That's no small achievement. One can only wonder what they could achieve with a completely new engine.

 

That being said, when I put OFF into the highest settings that my rig can possibly run, the game looks gorgeous. There's more than enough 'eye-candy' there to satisfy my needs. The most important thing for me anyway is that the sim runs with a decent framerate. Nothing worse than getting less than 10 fps in the midst of a fierce dogfight! (I also enjoy playing extremely old DOS games with ugly graphics, so maybe I'm just a grumpy old dinosaur who doesn't care that much about pretty graphics anyway.)

 

But new engines cost money. Considering how few people actually play flight sims and how very limited the market is, I imagine OFF has to sell ridiculously well to make it possible for OBD to get something completely new for the next phase(s).

 

Then again, who knows what's going on behind the scenes. The best thing we can do is to support the add-on packs with all we've got.

[Siggi 10]

Ok let me put it another way before everyone gets carried away with the DirectX11 comment.

 

I have an ati 5970 and 5870, which is a hell of a lot of GPU power. And I am running a 4800x1200 eefinity display, however, due to the limitations of OFFs engine, I cannot use half of my 5970s gpu power and I cannot crossfire in my 5870. So I am stuck playing with settings at threes and fours with fluctuating frame rates from 20fps to 60fps.

 

I would love to be able to have all three of my GPUS working in Crossfire to be able to peg OFF at 60fps with all settings set to five, however its OLD engine will not let me. This is one of those games that will not let you throw ungodly amounts of cash at it to get what you want and that kind of sucks

 

So if Santa will not bring OFF a new game engine, will he at least let me use Crossfire, because that is what I REALLY REALLY WANT!

 

Well, hang on a minute. I threw nearly £300 at this PC, a GTX285 to replace a GTX8800, and from that I've upped my sliders to 554455 and average a good 45+ fps. Almost never below 30fps and a lot of the time at 55-60fps (maxed out with vsync on and a refresh-rate of 60hz).

 

I have a couple of issues with the game, namely low-level AI, crudish DMs and some other very nit-picky minor details, but taken in the round this sim is the finest available of any genre, past, present or forseeable future. I'll take depth of gameplay over any other component, within reason, and OFF has it in JCB-loads.

 

A very good example of latest-gen simulation fare is RoF. Looks to die for, dumb as a brick. Sure, in an ideal world we'd see RoF married to OFF, the best of each melded into an unholy union. But as we can't and have to choose...do you want a one-night stand with a gorgeous blonde, or a long-term relationship with a very attractive and intelligent brunette?

[carrick58 23]

I have been hearing about Storm of War for a long time but it just never seems to get done. Off is here and is playable. The eye candy looks good on this old machine and I have a lot of fun and new friends. In conclusion, I agree with Unclear about if ifs and buts were candy and nuts we would have a fine Xmas. I like what I have (OFF)

[UK_Widowmaker 571]

Just a quick question for Siggi?

 

Does monitor Refresh make any difference to games?...Just asking out of ignorance.. I know XP defaults at 60...but I have mine on 75mhz....just wondered if this affects anything gamewise?

 

Thanks m8

[appraiserfl 0]

Dear appraiserfl

 

Maybe the issue with the low frame rates in OFF is not the ATI card although I have read under questions and answers that ATI cards aren’t as good as Nvidia playing OFF.

 

 

But

 

 

Running Windows 7 - DX11 (for now until SP and better driver support from ATI & Nvidia are released).

 

 

I have changed my OS from Win7 64bit (Nvidia 280 – with stutter problems) to XP 32bit (with no issues).

 

But during the week I have ordered an ATI 5970 and two new 24’ screens. Now after I have read ur comments about ATI I’m s**tting myself.

 

 

Dear Olham

 

Do u have any problems with ur ATI card and OFF?

 

 

Morris this is nothing wrong with the ati drivers or vista 64. And the game is very very playable with a 5970 in eyefinity at 4800x1200 resolution. My gripe is there is not Crossfire support. If there was crossfire support I would be able to have solid 60fps all the time. It just annoys me when it dips down to 20fps and then shoots back up to 60fps. My gripe is for crossfire support, you will be very happy with your 5970 and extra monitors trust me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Morris

Edited December 11, 2009 by appraiserfl

[appraiserfl 0]

Well, hang on a minute. I threw nearly £300 at this PC, a GTX285 to replace a GTX8800, and from that I've upped my sliders to 554455 and average a good 45+ fps. Almost never below 30fps and a lot of the time at 55-60fps (maxed out with vsync on and a refresh-rate of 60hz).

 

I have a couple of issues with the game, namely low-level AI, crudish DMs and some other very nit-picky minor details, but taken in the round this sim is the finest available of any genre, past, present or forseeable future. I'll take depth of gameplay over any other component, within reason, and OFF has it in JCB-loads.

 

A very good example of latest-gen simulation fare is RoF. Looks to die for, dumb as a brick. Sure, in an ideal world we'd see RoF married to OFF, the best of each melded into an unholy union. But as we can't and have to choose...do you want a one-night stand with a gorgeous blonde, or a long-term relationship with a very attractive and intelligent brunette?

 

Siggi, I am running at a resolution of 4800x1200, which is nearly 6 megal pixels. My 5970 maxes my 30" monitor out on all 5s at 2560x1600 resolution. What resolution are you running your Gtx285 at?

[Siggi 10]

WM, typically if you have vsync enabled your max framerate will be capped at the same value of your monitor's refreshrate. I have also read that it prevents lower FPS other than certain fractions of the max, but I have found that to be untrue in my case (which is good).

 

Appraiser, I'm running at 2560 x 1600 on a 30".

[+Polovski 460]

and the creaky old engine... P4 looks even better already mwhahaha :)

[Olham 164]

Morris, I am flying OFF yet on my old rig with an E6650 Dual Core CPU

and an ATI RADEON X1900.

Sliders on 5,2,3,3,1

I will install OFF on the new rig this weekend. There I use an overclocked

E8300 Dual Core CPU, an ATI RADEON 4870 with 2 GB memory, and 4 GB RAM.

I will report how it works. If VISTA should make problems, I'll go back to

Win XP without hesitation, Mr. Gates.

 

And how much do we all understand about engines? Winder recently said,

there was still a lot in there to show. I think the man knows his job.

 

Siggi, I have always preferred the attractive brunettes!

[appraiserfl 0]

snip

 

 

 

Morris, the ati divers are fine and VIsta 64 works perfect. Its not that I get bad FPS with my 5970, I dont, I am just bitching because I get swings from 60fps to 20fps and I would not have that problem if the game engine supported crossfire. You will love your setup, trust me. I am just running an ungodly hi resolution of 4800x1200 so that is why I am wishing for crossfire support.

[almccoyjr 7]

"do you want a one-night stand with a gorgeous blonde, or a long-term relationship with a very attractive and intelligent brunette?

A very attractive and intelligent brunette that also cooks!

 

plug_nickel (Al)

[ConradB 0]

...do you want a one-night stand with a gorgeous blonde, or a long-term relationship with a very attractive and intelligent brunette?

 

I'll take fiery redhead Oh, no wait,,,,, That's what the exMrs is!!!!

[almccoyjr 7]

Just a quick question for Siggi?

 

Does monitor Refresh make any difference to games?...Just asking out of ignorance.. I know XP defaults at 60...but I have mine on 75mhz....just wondered if this affects anything gamewise?

 

Thanks m8

It's more of a temperature issue. I run a GDM-FW900 @ 1920 x 1200 70hz. The mfg said that was the "sweet" spot balancing resolution, frequency and heat. The higher the frequency, the hotter your monitor will get. I don't know if this applies to lcd's, but it's a definite consideration for glass.

 

The "hz" in particular affects the refresh rate. All glass I've seen do not rate their product below 60hz. And believe it or not, many people will get sick or nauseous when viewing a monitor at 60hz over a period of time.

 

See if the mfg of your rig has a recommendation.

 

plug_nickel (Al)

[JimAttrill 24]

Off is here and is playable. The eye candy looks good on this old machine and I have a lot of fun and new friends. In conclusion, I agree with Unclear about if ifs and buts were candy and nuts we would have a fine Xmas. I like what I have (OFF)

 

This forum and the people on it make OFF great!