A picture's worth a whole bunch of words. Now you can have both!

[+Lothar of the Hill People]

They said it could never be done. Well, I said it could never be done. Being wrong can be a good thing:

 

 

Yes, that's right. Not only can you now see your pilot in OFFbase, thanks to a custom vector-based bilinear-sampling image renderer, but you can also change your pilot's photo when you rank up. No fiddling with image files, renaming dossiers or logs, changing XML data--the OFFice incomplete campaign editor takes care of all that crap for you.

 

This fellow will make a great Adjutant someday:

 

And you can also edit your background info, with much more room including paragraphs, to keep track of his exploits and injuries. So show off your pilot.

 

But it's not just you! Yes that's right, you'll see who you encounter, and watch your fellows encounter each other in glorious low-definition 2D black and white!

 

 

So go get the latest OFFbase. If you haven't played it before, and even if you have, you're about to get a lot closer to your squadmates. And there are more surprises in store as well...

[UK_Widowmaker]

wow!...Amazing work!? this the first time ive seen this...is it in downloads????

(ah yes...sorry didnt see the link at first)

Edited July 7, 2012 by UK_Widowmaker

[+Lothar of the Hill People]

Any luck with it, Widowmaker? All this stuff is so much more fun with photos:

 

 

Too bad their facial expressions never change:

 

[Bletchley]

Thanks Lothar - I have installed it, and it appears to be working perfectly :)

 

Bletchley

[Olham]

Lothar, I must say: Hats off to you, Sir!

Although I love and prefer to make up my own personalia and stories, this must be a

great addition for all flyers, who don't find it easy to "fill the OFF background with life".

 

Now, if you could even manage to sort out the photos, it would be brilliant.

What I mean is, that "Feldwebel Horst Graeber" in the bottom right pic is wearing

a German Marine (Navy) uniform.

Do you think you could make it possible, that Marine uniforms only appear for Marine flyers

(Seefrosta, MFJ 1 - MFJ 4)? Or also, that RNAS flyers on the British side get only RNAS

dressed gentlemen?

Maybe impossible or too much though - I don't know what can be programmed.

Anyway - great stuff!

Edited July 12, 2012 by Olham

[+elephant]

I provided the photos to Lothar and originally had placed the Marine pilots in a separate folder...

I thought he couldn't manage to make them work on their own...

It would be great if this could have been possible though...Lothar?

[+Lothar of the Hill People]

My "Horst Graeber" is one of OFF's original photos, but elephant gave me higher-quality versions of this Gunther Plüschow fellow nicely sorted into a marine pilots folder, which will replace the low-res photo in a future photo mod.

 

As for making photos match service branches,ranks, medals, personality traits, etc.--there's a rough system in place for this already but requires writing rules to characterize all the photos. I've gotten a little start, mostly with the German campaign, so at least your Mess Chief is less likely to be seen with a chest full of medals and Chain Smokers more likely to be photoed with a cigarette. Lots of German pilot photos with dogs (only 1 in the stock OFF set but elephant has a bunch more), so I'm adding a Dog Fancier trait that will ultimately give you access to special encounters with the squadron mascot. I'm sure photos will inspire even more traits.

 

But to really do what Olham hopes will require scores of thousands of rules just for the stock photos, even before adding more. Big project that will require community help. At some point I'll probably slap a little program together from bits of OFFbase that'll let people vote on how well photos match random pilots.

 

And it's not just about helping people tell stories, but also improving the in-flight experience. Just wait for gunnery mod OlPaint and Von Paulus are working on.

[cptroyce]

Lothar-

 

I really enjoy this program! When one puts a face and character interaction to the names of those in your mission flight, it really adds immersion IMHO.

 

I wonder if it would be at all possible to add the pilot photos from the individual encounters at the airfield, to the duty roster board describing the mood traits etc. I think it would enhance the MOD a great deal.

 

 

Regards,

Royce

[Olham]

Lothar, I didn't mean to criticise.

What you have done already, is beyond anything I could have imagined.

Great job, Sir!

[+Lothar of the Hill People]

Hey cptroyce, I'll think about adding more looks at your fellow pilots elsewhere. Cramming them all into the duty roster might be a mess, and I don't want to slow down the program too much (my hackish image renderer is a big bottleneck if you haven't noticed), but stay tuned. Should be able to see the Adjutant in his office at least.

 

And thanks Olham. Just wondering what I gotta do to get you to use it.

[cptroyce]

LHP - I think your MOD is terrific (as I know you know) and has further potential to add to OFF's already very immersive sim...depending on your RL time and limits of the program.

Whatever you can add is great..I'm having a great time with it!!

 

 

Regards,

Royce