A Nieuport 28 campaign - sim by sim

[33LIMA]

My flight-mates, using some reserve of power my kite didn't have, pulled past me and got stuck into the right-hand Hun two-seater.

 

 

They managed to split him off from the others, but their attack then seemed to fade and the Hun leveled out and edged back into formation with the other two. I was having none of this; I cut across and slipped in behind him. Perhaps because of damage, this time I managed to close in and get a long burst into him, more or less ignoring any return fire which, if there was any, was ineffective.

 

 

Suddenly, it was all over. Bits flew off the Hun, then he burst into flames and fell away into an ever-steepening descending turn to the left. both crew members jumped to escape the fire.

 

 

I gave the recall signal and we hared off after the other two German machines, which had drawn well away from us. Soon we came under a fierce bombardment from Archie, so vicious that I felt sure that we were going to have casualties if we continued. So I broke off the pursuit had headed back to the Lines. I thought I had lost a flight-mate as my tail-end charlie fell away sharply after a near-miss, but he recovered and climbed back up after us, doubtless now needing a change of underwear. It was interesting to see that aircraft actually reeled under the impact of a near miss, visible as a wobble then a recovery. Neat! Anyway, the AA fire died away as we reached the Lines and I called up the in-flight map, and set a course for our airfield, ignoring the message which displayed across the top of the screen telling me the ground control tower was clearing somebody to land (I had muted the radio comms but evidently also needed to reduce the number of text lines used to display radio calls on screen, to zero, which I think is a configuration file text edit).

 

 

At this point, I ran into bigger trouble than the Huns. As I approached our airfield, my FPS crashed, followed by my aeroplane, as I tried to land amidst the stutter-fest.

 

 

On a subsequent flight, I discovered that my FPS crashed every time an airfield came into view, at anything other than long range. I think the problem is an excessive density of ground objects on airfields, an impression re-inforced by DBW-1916 airfield screenshots (even the canvas hangars seem to have multiple-polygon tent pegs at the end of their guy wires!). I've no reason to believe other airfields are any different.

 

This makes the mod essentially unplayable for me. IL2 airfields are busy enough to my liking. I want a combat simulator rather than an airfield simulator, especially if serious and prolonged stutter is the price paid to display stacks of ammo boxes or 'fantasy' WW1 planes like the repainted 4-motor biplane bombers in the screenie below.

 

 

It may be possible to use the 'unlocked Full Mission Builder' tweak to edit the 'offending' maps and de-clutter the over-endowed airfields (there's a lot of them to work through, even if that is possible). Or to do so by locating and deleting some of the 'offending' ground objects so they can't be loaded, like the 'fantasy' planes. Perhaps those with sufficiently muscular systems can power their way through all this stuff, or perhaps there's a system setting unknown to me which helps. But for me, 'airfield-induced stutter' is a killer for DBW 1916. It may be nice to find Moritz, or Whiskey and Soda, waiting for you on your airfield (I haven't seen them but suspect they're there somewhere). But I'd prefer not to have the stutter even if it means re-homing the furry friends and clearing away some other stuff. Pity, because despite rather a lot of 'fantasy' planes and WW2 leftovers like the wingman commands , it's a very professional and promising WW1 mod.

Edited July 6, 2013 by 33LIMA

[MudWasp48]

This mod is new to me too.

[33LIMA]

Update on the 'airfield induced stutter' in the latest DBW-1916. I managed a juddering flypast or two at the offending airfield - near Montdidier on the Somme map - and there don't seem to be that many ground objects, just some canvas hangers, some AA guns, and nearly twenty static planes (apart from some Camels - out of place in this area anyway - nearly all 'fantasy' planes, repainted Soviet Po-2 two-seaters and four big 4-engined bombers that look like biplane modifications of the stock IL2 DB3 monoplane bomber).

 

 

So the main culprits seem to be the static planes, mostly fantasy ones at that. I have tried to clear them off the map several ways, so far with no success. May post over on the DBW forums at SAS, as I don't see a solution there, having had no luck trying to edit them off the map with the 'unlocked Full Mission Builder' method described over there.

 

There are other airfields that have just a few hangars and no stutter, but I could really use a fix for the many others.

Edited July 8, 2013 by 33LIMA

[Panama Red]

33LIMA:

Fantastic write-up, I too have downloaded the DBW 1916 mod, but have not installed yet since I am busy flying FE2 mostly. 

 

Thanks for the great pictures and write-up's, really gives you a good feel for all four sims.

[33LIMA]

Thanks for the positive feedback, Panama! We are not doing to obadly, to have such a good range of WW1 sims to fly. I was going to add a mission report for RB3d - WFP2 but I still need to find some screen capture s/w that works with it and my Glide wrapper. FS-WW1 also, but it would have to be an earlier Nieuport as it doesn't have a 28. I would have reported on Flying Corps Gold also, as it does have an Nieuport 28, but alas, tho I got it installed, it doesn't seem to work in Vista :(

[ArgonV]

A FS-WWI write-up would be cool, but I do not think it would be able to compete! Especially with the likes of FE2, OFF and RoF.

[33LIMA]

I think I've found the solution to the 'airfield stutter' in DBW 1916 - or to be accurate, Panama Red has found it for me!

 

Apparently there's a setting in the latest Nvidia drivers (320 series) which does the trick - setting Vsynch to 'Adaptive (half refresh rate)'.

 

First try this made no difference but oddly, when I noticed my landscape quality setting in IL2 was 'Excellent' instead of 'Perfect' and increased it to the latter, the airfield stutter was gone!

 

The pass below would have been a total stutter fest before, but now it's smooth as silk. The buildings and other objects are fine, it was when the stationary planes came into view, that it all went Pete Tong. I need to experiment with a few other airfields but so far, so 'perfect'!

 

My grateful thanks to Panama Red for this tip.  Radeon users apparently don't have this setting but can use a payware proggie called DXstory, until such a time as Radeon drivers add a comparable feature.

 

[Hansa]

Hey Lima33, i'm really interested in the IL2 WW1 Mod, some weeks ago i was looking at the SAS site and the WW1 mod does have very nice cockpits for some of the planes (DR.1, Camel, N28 and more). I've gone to the SAS site but i found i have to download a very big mod (10 GB) that is not related to WW1 before i can install the WW1 mod. Also, instructions to install it were not clear (at least to me).
Please can you provide clear instructions to install this mod? I really need to download the big mod to install the ww1 mod?
For example, i would like to know if i need to install something before i can add the ww1 mod over IL2 1946 out of the box.
Thanks in advance.

Edited July 20, 2013 by Hansa

[33LIMA]

Hi Hansa

 

this is the method I suggest.

 

First, install IL2 '46 (you may be able to use an earlier version but '46 is best). This will probably give you version 4.07m of IL2. If you have Vista or later, don't install it to Program files or Program Files (x86) - just somewhere else on your C drive.

 

Take a complete copy of this - just cut and paste it to a different folder. This means if anything goes wrong you have a clean install.

 

Next, download the torrent file for Dark Blue World (DBW) 'Super Pack one-Stop Download', here :

 

http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,21514.msg239532.html#msg239532

 

Use the link to birdman's torrent file. This is a very big download but I found it faster and easier than the alternative - downloading the 19 part zip files. I'd recommend Bittorrent to handle this: http://www.bittorrent.com/. If you can't download DBW 1.71 as a torrent then you will have to download the 19 separate parts.

 

There is no way to get the WW1 mod, without DBW (WW2 mainly but it also supports the Korean War and early Vietnam War, plus the Spanish Civil War).

 

You will also need a programme to handle zip files, I'd recommend 7zip: http://www.7-zip.org/

 

Whatever way you do it, you will end up with the 19 parts (the torrent file includes them all) as compressed, .rar files. You double click on the first file in the set (it's called '4.07m_to_DBW_1.17_Update.part01.rar') and set it to unzip to your IL2 root folder. When the first file had finished, it will automatically kick off the second one and keep on going till all 19 files are unzipped.

 

You now have the latest version of DBW, which includes the original version of the WW1 mod, DBW1916. You now start IL2 using a program called 'IL2 selector' which enables you to start either DBW and DBW 1916.

 

All you need to do now is get the updates for DBW-1916. The links for these are in vpmedia's post, here:

 

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3641261/9

 

If I recall right, these are just more compressed files you need to unzip into the same IL2 install, that you unzipped DBW into.

 

If this seems complicated, it's a lot better than it used to be. You used to have to patch IL2 4.07m to 4.101m (two separate patches IIRC); then d/l and install Ultrapack 3, and patch that up to date as well; and then d/d and install DBW. The one-stop superpack has everything you need to bring IL2 4.07m up to the latest DBW version, so that all you have to do is update DBW-1916. These are really essential, as the basic version of DBW-1916 - the one that comes with DBW - is very basic, with 'Frankenplanes' like repainted or re-worked Po-2 biplanes. These are still there, but the latest version of DBW-1916 has a good selection of realistic WW1 planes.

 

Edited July 20, 2013 by 33LIMA

[Hansa]

Thanks for the info LIMA33, very clear.
I was asking for the info because some years ago i patched/modded IL2 with the ultrapatch and all those small things that made the 101 version moddable and i remember it was a pain to do it (many files that should be installed in order)
Now i see that it's very easy to mod IL2, the only bad thing is the 10 GB download, but i will do it. I also found that some planes were remade and now they have very realistic models (the Nieuport 11 for example, my favourite plane). I think some of those high quality planes have not been included in the WW1 mod DBW 1916 (because they are new) and you have to download them separately (Maybe you have not noticed that). Also there are some ww1 campaings too.
I will install it this week (Now i need to delete some things in my HD for the space i need for the 10 GB download + 4'5 GB of IL2)

Edited July 20, 2013 by Hansa

[Hansa]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIj-QH9qRqw

[33LIMA]

Nice! I did not enjoy flying the Albatros DIII tho. I could not keep up with the others in my flight and raising my nose more than a few degrees caused the engine's power, such as it was, to drop right back. Weird that you have to use the magneto settings to get a working throttle (a good idea with rotaries maybe but on an INLINE engine???) but even at the highest setting the power is pants, climb rate next to nothing. Complex Engine Management 'on' and using mixture controls makes no difference I can see. Maybe I'll get the hang of it.

[Hansa]

Hey 33Lima! I installed the IL-2 mod, some of the planes are really well done (N28, Dr.1, Fokker E.III) but others are really bad (DH2). I think the FM should be tweaked (DR.1 was faster than N28). The mod is looking really good, i hope they keep working on it!

[OneoftheLost]

Can I just say this is an AWESOME topic? It got me to re-install OFF alongside my beloved FE2. ;)

 

Great job! Beautiful eye-candy, and thrilling descriptions, thanks for putting all of this together! Had a blast reading. 

[33LIMA]

Can I just say this is an AWESOME topic? It got me to re-install OFF alongside my beloved FE2. ;)

 

Great job! Beautiful eye-candy, and thrilling descriptions, thanks for putting all of this together! Had a blast reading. 

Thanks mate; I did a shed load of these comparative missions over at SimHQ and have started a short series specifically on DBW 1916 here at CA, in the Mission Reports section:

 

http://combatace.com/forum/307-mission-reports/

[gambit168]

THX 33LIMA
It was you that put me onto this little gem
I remembered it as i15s  with ww1 paint jobs 
but now it is a different beast altogether
finding its feet as a proper ww1 flight sim contender   



Im getting into DBW1916 
I DL'd it the other day & i must say i love it
 & found some of the planes missing from the plane slots ,although they had all there  folders in the #DBW1916 root folder 
I totally forgot that you need to add them in the Air .ini  & planes .ini & weapons .ini for them to show in game

not having fired up IL2 since an install of an ultrapack  buggered it up  a looooooooooooong time ago!!!!!!!!!!!


I skinned the Se5a after a frustrating 5 reinstalls of the all in one pack!!!!
from  stock IL2 1946 408.m  to  DBW1916 because it & other planes didn't show up in game  
so i looked in the se5a folder & seeing the readme  It said 

 

Put the folders -Se5A_Se5- in the "DBW1916" folders and add the entries in Air.ini/

plane_ru.properties/

weapons_ru.properties.

but didn't say where they were , i assumed that as it was a full pack , these entries would have been in those .ini's already  !!! 

 

 
 IL-2 Sturmovik 1946\#DBW_1916\STD\com\maddox\il2\objects\AIR.ini
 

Air.ini:

SE5            air.SE5               NOINFO  gb01 SUMMER

SE5A         air.SE5A               NOINFO  gb01 SUMMER

 IL-2 Sturmovik 1946\#DBW_1916\STD\i18n\PLANE_ru.proprties
 

plane_ru.properties

 

SE5 RAF S.E.5, 1917

SE5A RAF S.E.5A, 1918

 

 

IL-2 Sturmovik 1946\#DBW_1916\STD\i18n\weapons_ru.properties

 

weapons_ru.properties

 

####################################################################

# SE5

#####################################################################

SE5.default                            Default

SE5.4x20lbsBombs               4x20lbs Cooper Bombs

SE5.none                               Empty

 

####################################################################

# SE5A

#####################################################################

SE5A.default                            Default

SE5A.4x20lbsBombs               4x20lbs Cooper Bombs

SE5A.none                               Empty

& did the same for the other planes  that had not shown up in the game but had folders I.e.  the N17, N23


I skinned the se5a  & saved it as an indexed 8bit bmp , & in looked like roadkill!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So i looked around on the SAS SITE & found there is a NEW HD mod
TRUE COLOR TEXTURES FOR DBW1916  that allows the skins to be saved as 24 bit bmps at 2048 
i fired the se5 up as a 2048   24bit   bmp  and it looks great ;-) 
no frame rate hits , on my 2007 laptop !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the dogfights are great i put a  camel v a  drI  on ace  setting & watched them fight it out
 it was just like waldo pepper both pulling loops off the top the dr1 with its massive wing area gaining more height  each loop 
camel slower in a  left hand turn  & slightly climbing  , & faster & slightly  diving  to the right 

i can see a bright future for this IL2 ww1 mod 
it sorely needs Stephen & his great 3d models onboard , i hope everone from the FE2 forums gives DBW1916 a whirl 
I think its got great potential 


 

[vonOben]

33LIMA wrote:

 

"In FE it is eminently possible to fly and fight with all visual aids turned off, so you will see no target boxes, information panels or waypoint cones on my screen. A good touch is that AA fire is nicely reproduced, with Entente bursts greyish-white and German, black, as was generally the case in real life. Unlike OFF, the groups of AA bursts, tho not massively dangerous, are much less scattered and they therefore make it much easier not only to spot enemies, but to estimate their altitude, distance and heading. Planes themselves can be seen and even recognised at a decent range, too. In OFF I find myself staring into widely-scattered groups of flak bursts, unable to see planes I know are there, and having to get so close to do so, that it's hard to position my flight decently for at attack."

 

It would be interesting if you could compare all four games regarding how they render planes at distance and how easy it is to spot distant flights.

 

Regarding RoF: Is it not sufficient to be connected to the Internet when installing, do you have to be connected to Internet all the time when playing?

[33LIMA]

Hi von Oben

i've not attempted any 'scientific' analysis of aircraft visibility. But whatever the numbers are, I have always been struck by the difference between OFF and FE, manifested as the former giving me significantly less time - flying with minimal visual aids - from detecting a threat to being able to see enough about its composition, bearing, height and course, to decide on a suitable response. RoF is similarly not as satisfactory as FE, tho for some reasons that are different (eg sparser flak coverage, tho recent PWCGs are doing something about this). WOFF's IL-2-like 'dot mode' for longer range aircraft may help improve the situation here, as it was presumably intended to do.

 

It's not just about aircraft level of detail models or rendering range. How flak is portrayed makes a big difference; maybe the biggest. In FE, flak is relatively closely grouped around the point of aim (unlike OFF); is visible at quite long range and produces nice clusters of bursts (unlike RoF); and doesn't disappear and re-start if you pan away (unlike OFF). RoF's flak coverage seems significantly more sparse than either FE or OFF so enemies that should often (IMHO) attact AA fire too often (IMHO) don't and thus escape observation.

 

I haven't played DBW 1916 often enough to form a view of where it falls on this scale; possibly towards the 'better' end.

 

Re RoF, when doing single player, there are some things you need to be online, to be able to do. Career beta is one of them, I believe. I'm not sure about Pat Wilson's Campaign Generator which is the main alternative and what I've been using, mostly; I think a connection is only needed to download it, not play. I log in online routinely anyway so haven't noticed. The post by Trooper117 here is right I think:

 

http://riseofflight.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30702

[vonOben]

Hi 33LIMA

 

Sorry if I gave the impression that I wanted a 'scientific' analysis of aircraft visibility. That was not what I meant.
I was only curious to know about your experience to how easy or difficult it was to spot and identify aircraft disregarding AA fire in the mentioned games.

It's is an important aspect in flight simulators to be able to fly without visual aids and in OFF I have difficulty to detect flights and also to identify them.

Thanks for your information and for the link.  

 

I've searched a bit about RoF in offline mode and it seems as only Career and Multiplayer modes cannot function in offline mode.
Quick Missions, other single missions and "campaigns" can be played in offline mode and that includes PWCG missions.

 

Cheers

 

vonOben

[Tirta]

Hi 33lima,

 

Thanks to you, I found out about dbw1916.

After dowmloading it for several days, finally I get everyhing installed.

The terrain, the city and the clouds are all very beautiful.

I must say this is a very good looking game.

For a mod, it is fantastic!  :D

 

I have installed the latest version: dbw1916 v2.1 here:

http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php?topic=26088.0

 

However, on the screen before the main menu, it is writen dbw bld 1.6.

Did I install something wrong?

 

And is there a manual for this mod?

I tried it flying fokker e3 on this mission:

1915_Eagle_of_Lille      ----* V2.0 Fokker EIII

http://www.mediafire.com/?aonflikx79z5p00

and after a few minutes, I always get msg: engine overheat, even after I set the throttle at 70%

Whis is that? Is this accurate? so what throttle setting should I fly this e3?

And what to do after I get msg: engine overheat?

[33LIMA]

Hi tirta

 

I think the screen with 1.6 maybe just didn't get updated when they made the newer version.

 

In the difficulty settings for IL2, I always turn off engine overheating and don't use 'Complex Engine Management' as I just find it all a distraction; maybe try that, or just tuen off 'engine overheats'.

 

I have similar problems flying the Albatros DIII. For some reason I can't understand, the usual throttle control does not seem to work. Instead, you have to use keys to turn magneto switches on or off to get some throttle control. I can barely take off and cannot keep up with my flight! I think that engines like the Mercedes DIII had a normal throttle control, even if they also had magneto switches. Strange.

 

In one of my SE5 missions, my plane and the others exploded on the ground immediately; I read something about a bug when loaded with bombs that causes this.

 

So there may still be some 'rough edges' to this mod, but it can be a lot of fun and looks good!

[33LIMA]

Just for completeness, with Wings Over Flanders Fields having supplanted OFF, I've posted a mission report with the Nieu.28 in WOFF in the CombatAce mission Reports forum, over here.