CaptSopwith

I just had to say, late on this Monday night, that OFF is one of those classic flight simulations that never, ever wears off (pardon the pun!). I've been up since 5:45 this morning. Today I sat through an 8am lecture as a TA, held office hours, attended a three hour seminar class this evening, and held a study session for my students for two hours until 9PM tonight. I've been home for a few hours and I'm utterly knackered. All I want right now is sleep. And yet... OFF is still so incredibly enjoyable that I cannot help but feel that excitement in my stomach at the prospect of firing it up for just... one... mission. I took up Wilhelm Roth (Gerhard's older brother) in his Fokker EIII for another patrol. It was a beautiful, sunny morning and while we didn't encounter anything, I enjoyed every second of it. From starting OFF and hearing the distinctive music, to clicking through the menu system, to hearing Pol shout "Contact!... Clear!" and then jumping into the sim. I just feel happy playing this wonderful game from the moment I start the program until I exit out of it with a twinge of sadness. Most games are a distraction. They are meant to pull our attention away from reality for a few hours and they usually do it with over the top sights and sounds. OFF just makes me very happy to play each and every time. I always finish an OFF mission (even the bad ones) feeling like I've done something meaningful with my time. And speaking of time, it's almost 1AM now. I need to be up in 6 hours but I still couldn't pass up the chance to say, yet again, what a great game we have. And how lucky are we that we get to enjoy this sim and talk about our adventures together here? I think we're a pretty blessed lot. Cheers my friends! Goodnight.

...

I think you read my mind Vidken! I wrote this on a post a while back... a year ago actually. It comes from a passage I found in my old Falcon 4.0 manual about flight simulation design. Here's what I had to say: And it comes from a jet sim - the mother of all jet sims actually - Falcon 4.0 I was reading through my Falcon 4.0 manual this morning and came across this passage. It was written by Gilman "Chopstick" Louie, the creator of the Falcon series and also a key member of the late, great studio, Microprose. His thoughts on flight sims were fascinating to read. This entire passage is tucked away in an appendix in the massive Falcon 4.0 manual. And while he's describing a jet simulator - something almost totally alien to what we usually fly - his ideas I think explain why OFF is a great sim. "Ask programmers and designers who work on combat flight simulations what features are critical, and most will define a great sim by how accurate the flight model and avionics are. Create a set of pre-scripted missions along with a few videos and voila... you have a simulation. "Unfortunately, to create a great simulation, a flight model, avionics, enemy AI, and good graphics are only the start. The purpose of the Falcon series is not just to simulate the aircraft but the entire fight pilot experience. Our goal has been not just to replicate the flight dynamics, avionics and visuals of flight, but to include the elements that make up the combat environment." "Falcon 4.0 is comprised of two completely separate simulations: the campaign and the air combat simulation (ACS). While most games focus only on the ACS, Falcon 4.0 spotlights the campaign..." He later elaborates on the compromise between total realism and the idea of immersion. "For experienced combat pilots, flying the real F16 is 99% boredom and 1% adrenaline. If Falcon 4.0 had the same ratio, nobody would buy the game. Falcon 4.0 like most games, increases activity levels to keep your interest engaged. The action you see in one Falcon 4.0 mission is equivalent to two to five real combat missions. The number of missions you fly in a day has also been exaggerated. On the other hand, Falcon 4.0 does not feature a super plane with unrealistic performance and weapons. Once in an engagement, the simulation realistically depicts what real F16 pilots can do." I could be completely wrong, as I can't read Winder's mind or anyone else on the teem, but these ideas strike me as close to what the OFF designers were aiming for; accurately simulating a combat environment as well as the aircraft that flew over it. While you may run into more flights than you would in reality, it is the simulation of an active and ongoing air war over the Western Front that is of paramount importance. Without that, you're left with pretty graphics and an accurate flight model, and little else. Every great flight sim I've ever played has featured a dynamic campaign system. All of the classics I've been dusting off this week feature that. And it's worth noting that even other current WWI flight sims are working to create such a system. Just thought I'd share. It seemed like some interesting reading. Cheers!

Good evening gents! I wrote a little piece over on my blog about some classic gaming. The example I wound up using was Red Baron 3D so I thought you might like to read the reasons I gave for why we still, even occasionally, fire up "the old gal."

That certainly is kind of you, good sir. To be honest, I'm not sure I'd want to give up my old hat switch - I've gotten to be quite a beast with the thing over the years. I can follow aircraft in OFF without padlocking with it and never lose them...

Hi Lou! If anyone wants to donate a lightly used TrackIR system to a poor PhD student, just let me know!

Taken together, these two comments create a terrible realization. Red Baron 2 has held that crown longer than your son has been alive. I'm just saying... I shuddered lol!

Say what you will about target audiences and the like... but I think we have the perfect marriage of the right target audience and the right developers. We risk becoming spoiled, I think. We politely mention a little immersion detail like having the time to walk around the plane, so to speak, before take off and before we even try to build an argument for its inclusion, we find out from Winder that it's already in the next phase. Does it get much better than this? Somebody, buy these people a state of the art graphics engine - we have an all-time classic on our hands!

These are phenomenal! Great find guys!

Yikes... sounds like my Christmas. Lots of family strife, and very unpleasant.

Hi Olham! I am coming out of my Christmas Coma. It wasn't the best holiday season I ever had but... I spent a glorious New Years Eve with my beautiful girlfriend, drinking champagne and dancing the night away in a beautiful ball room. I too am starting the new year with some physical activity. I'm visiting the gym here at my apartment complex every day (I'm taking today off lol), for about half an hour to an hour. It's made a huge difference in my outlook on my work and just life in general. You probably missed it because you were off on holiday but I had a terrible experience with customer service regarding my Laptop which has been broken since September. It looks like the story might have a happy ending. After blogging angrily about it, I got the attention of someone at Lenovo and it looks like they are going to get it back to working order (for the first time!), free of charge. We'll see how that turns out. How's things on your end my friend? I have to admit, the flight sim bug has bitten me harder than ever. I'm flying lots of patrols and even venturing into the civilian side of things with FS2004. My girlfriend is talking about buying me some flying lessons for my upcoming 30th birthday next month! (How cool is it to date a gorgeous woman who comes with her own flight suit? I kid you not!). I hope all is well in Germany. Good to see you back around the boards!

While my worries are not nearly as severe as Tranquillo's...

I wouldn't normally double post this (I also put this over in my normal, OFF Forum), but I need to get the word out on avoiding this company. I've been having a miserable time with my "work" laptop computer...

Hi guys, I've dived back into some great OFF flying in the last few days and boy, did I pick the perfect time to come back! I see HPW has a new DM - which I'll post my thoughts on over in his thread. I wanted to post this questions seperately so as not to derail the other thread. I'm wondering, Herr Prop-Wasche, if it's possible to run your new DM with the FM mods you released earlier this year, as well as 33LIMA's great Empty Weight Mod (which makes combat much more even handed and finally removes that always-frustrating feeling that I cannot keep up with my flight) and his Gunner Arc Mod. I just flew a few missions against some British FE2b's and they seemed utterly defenseless - so I thought perhaps the new Gun Arc Mod would help. A lot of little mods I know, but I am having so much fun flying that I can't help but see if I can make it even better! Any thoughts on this? BTW: The new DM is fantastic!

So Charles Lindbergh stayed awake for 33.5 hours flying to France... I don't suppose tonight will be quite that bad. That said, this is my second one in four days. I'm frantically trying to complete papers that are overdue - in fact, one of them involves World War I aviation. This is just a funny way of checking in and keeping myself awake. Feel free to comment back if you feel like it. I'll check in each hour until this thing ends!

Happy Birthday Widow! I share Mike's sentiments - you're actually less than twice my age (I hit 30 in February ). Hope it's a great night mate! Have one for me and here's to another 50 of good health and good memories with you and yours!

Lou! Good to see you my friend! I take it, from the expression on your face, that you watched the Phase 4 video? Yeah, it's pretty good...

Likewise Mike, should be great. I'm officially addicted to this video - I think I've watched it a few dozen times today. Just looks fantastic!

No one has mentioned this yet - but I'm totally digging the new OBD Software animation - the phonograph and the dog are fantastic! I love it!

Even sprinkled in a little OFF magic for fun (no one else will know lol): Here's the title: Between Heaven and Hell: Life and Death Above the Trenches of World War I.

Wrapping up my paper - a long night is drawing to an end!

Two hour cat nap. Bugger! I'm still working away - will be out like a light this afternoon once it's all over!

It does indeed!

Still up working btw: 17 pages and counting. Bloody Hell these all nighters hurt a lot worse than they used to.

And I have to add - the movement of the aircraft looks fantastic - it looks so fluid and dynamic - like they're really cutting through the air and working with the actual laws of physics. I don't know... it's the old adage of if it looks right, it is right. Well done guys! Bloody well done!