CaptSopwith

Hey Siggi, I finally got around to some more involved flying with OFF this evening and I'm noticing the same random hic-up jerkiness and stutters you mentioned. I'm using the GT8800 card with this W7 rig and while the frame rate is nearly as high as it was under Vista, the random stutter is irritating. What set of drivers are you using? I rolled back to the pre 191.xx drivers after the latest set fubared some older games I had in the collection.

Full-time grad student at the moment, working on an MA so I can get a PhD and become a professor of History. I specialize in the World Wars, Modern Germany, and yes, surprisingly enough, German aviation. :)

I'll chime in since I'm running Windows 7 Professional. So far my copy of OFF has run fine. I noticed some minor FPS drop, but I think that's more to do with the very buggy 191 series of nvidia drivers more than any OS problem. I quoted you Bullethead because I remember having this very same argument when XP came out. All of the die hard Red Baron II pilots - myself included - opted to stick with Windows 98 for years after XP came out simply because RBII would not run in XP. Everyone said "oh well, the game crashes... the graphics drivers are crap... if you can get it to run it doesn't play well... etc." At the time I was playing RB on my parent's computer (after all I was 16), and we had the option to upgrade our aging Dell PC to a newer model with XP. I turned the offer down, simply because I didn't want to lose RB. In the end, I was stuck with a dinosaur of a PC (which I used right up until I got my new gateway last year) and guess what? About six months after I declined a brand new PC, the RB folks figured out how to get it working in XP. Aside from that little tangent. Win7 has been a pretty easy upgrade process. I've had some niggling issues with drivers in regards to my games (but again, this can mostly be attributed to 191.xx being a pretty terrible set of drivers) but otherwise, everything that worked in Vista works in 7. The other nice improvement, besides the interface, is that Win7 eats up less RAM (my system measurements show only a quarter of my 3Gb of ram being used now compared to nearly half under Vista) and this tends to give me a bit better performance in my games. So far so good I say. The old adage is that every other Microsoft OS is a good one. I think it still holds true with seven. Just my 2cents. Your mileage may vary. Also, I'm an SP flier only in OFF, so I have no idea how MP works in 7. BTW: I'm still here lurking on the forums - but I'm up to my eyeballs in research here in grad school. I hope all is well with my fellow pilots here on the boards.

I've downloaded the drivers and had nothing but grief. While OFF ran fine, I had issues with a host of other games, including the original Call of Duty and Grand Prix 3. I checked around on the forums and noticed that this particular release seems to have some issues with older games. So take that with a grain of salt.

Gromit! Man has it been a long time! I don't know if you remember me at all, but I remember you from the old boards. Welcome back. You're really going to love this sim - I feel like I'm 15 or 16 and playing RBII all over again. S!

Good Lord! Reading an account like that, especially the second, makes you wonder if even a VC is enough! Salute to these incredibly gallant and brave men!

If you want an interesting read on a flight in a BE2C, Cecil Lewis' account in Sagittarius Rising is hair raising! Both he and his gunner were shot at by an attacking EIII and left diving for earth, hoping to escape. Of all the planes I'd want to be in during WWI (and that's a small list when you really start to think about it) the Quirk is definitely not on it.

Cue the obituary post for Cedric Nelson in 3...2...1... ;) Seriously though, that's an impressive tally. Well done mate! :)

After checking the OFF website, that's actually a huge list of fixes for a mini-patch. Thanks for all of the hard work guys, fantastic product support as always.

Funny, Olham. I had a very similar experience on the other side of the pond just yesterday. My first semester of grad school has left me precious little free time. At last I decided to take a few hours out and play some OFF. Sadly, Reinhart died months ago, but his wingman - Max-Wilhelm Lammertz, became my new pilot - starting him back a year in 1916 flying an Eindecker. He had had success - nearly 8 hours of seat time and 4 victories. A good start. Alas, I was tired and out of practice on the EIII and wound up writing off poor Lammertz when, while engaging a flight of quirks, he was attacked by three Bristol scouts and was shot up pretty badly. He survived, and knocked two of the scouts down, even with damage to his control wires, resulting in an even slower rate of turn than normal. But alas, as he was rolling his plane with all of the speed of the Titanic trying to avoid an iceberg - one of his wingman turned right into his flight path and killed him instantly in a head on collision. My second, third, and fourth string pilots were all written off in the next hour. Flak killed one, ground collision killed another, and a flock of angry Albatros DV's overwhelmed my namesake in an SE5. I have no more pilots and mountains of reading waiting for me as a result of my "relaxation" time. Cheers mate. I feel your pain!

Hey Royce! Thank you for the kind words. Yeah that was me - back in... 2004 I think? I'm glad you liked it. I've gone back and re-read it and I cringe at the style. I've since put my historical leanings to good use. I'm a grad student now working on my MA history degree and specializing in Early 20th Century Europe, Modern Germany, and German Aviation. For anyone who's curious as to what Royce is referring to, head over to OVS's archived Hell's Angels site where he graciously stored my history of the sim and the community. http://www.hellsange...com/history.htm

I think a lot of us have great RB memories. I picked up RB in 1998 when my parents bought a new computer. I upgraded the video card to a Voodoo and spent years on the boards trying out new mods (HASP, WFP, Beery 2.0, Wingstrut 2.2, FCJ, etc...) and making friends along the way. I loved the SP campaign and even hopped on, with a dial up modem, to play MMP. That said, I'm running a brand new Vista rig and RB3D only sort of works (actually it stutters and runs too fast, depending on the situation) and OFF feels very much like the natural successor to RB in terms of feel and immersion. If I had my old rig with me here at grad school, I'd probably fire up RB (and European Air War, the definitive WWII sim of the era) more often. C'est la vie. RB gave me nearly 10 years of amazing missions - I hope OFF P3 lasts me as long. Pssst: Don't tell anyone this. But I actually took out the old menu music from RB3D (not the mods, the original music that shipped with RBII) and spliced it into the OFF menu music. Please don't be offended. I love the score to OFF, but found that after a few missions I felt incredibly depressed (adagio for strings will wrench your heart) and needed something a bit more uplifting sounding, even for WWI. So I really feel like I'm playing a brand new RB that is worlds better than the original.

Wow, I've been away a bit - the new place looks fantastic! Well done!

I completely agree. I just started a Jasta 4 pilot (after my previous German pilot died in March 1917), in late 1915. The Fokker is a decent aircraft - but sluggish, low powered, and not terribly quick to turn. Height and Caution are indeed your best bets. Only engage when you know you can overhwelm and destory your enemy. This is all well and good until you start getting jumped by superior numbers at higher altitude - at which point it really comes down to some luck as well as skill. And to be honest, my Eindecker pilot has seen more combat than my March 1917 pilot ever did! My first mission had me attack a flight of Bristol Scouts, followed by an engagement of Be2c's, and then another pack of Bristol Scouts, all in the same mission! The last engagement was particularly hair raising as they dived on us while I was attempting to land. I would have turned and attacked but I was well and truly low on ammo by this point. I never rushed to get a plane down so quickly in my life! The second and third missions were just as busy - flights of Be2c's and a ton of Bristol Scouts (I'm not sure they even made as many as I've seen in OFF so far! lol). So for a quiet campaign, an EIII pilot in what will be Jasta 4 was apparently not the way to go. That said, I'm really enjoying it! Now if I can just keep him alive long enough to get into a Halberstadt!

lol! There was an old joke back in the RB3D days that said if you wanted full immersion you needed something like a wicker seat, a large brick to bash your head into upon crash landing, a huge fan with a block of ice in front of it, and a bucket of gasoline to set your self alight if you were hit in the fuel tank!

And then they'll post screenshots of how much green is in their field lol. At the end of the day, some sim pilots feel the need to compare specs. No matter what the criteria is, or how you frame it, the systemic issue remains. That said, I play at full realism because I'm a history junkie and I want it as close to a digital representation as I can get.

And then in the world of the macho PC sim flyer, Pour Le Merite is the new 130% Pilot 1: "I'm really enjoying P4, what a great sim." Pilot 2: "What medal do you fly?" Pilot 1: "Iron Cross, 2nd class..." Pilot 2: *Scoffs* "Sissy..."

I also voted no. Flight sims have realism settings, it's the nature of the genre and the type of game that we play. It is a reflection of how "realistic" in terms of difficulty, the simulation is set for. Even a simple shooter like Call of Duty has an Easy, Hardened, and Veteran setting. I wouldn't give much credence to those gripping about a number. If you remove the number, then players will boast and compare based on which check boxes are ticked. I wouldn't worry about trying to please everyone out there, you'll never get there. However, I would love to see efforts directed towards P4 and some plane packs - I think that's the most positive direction for the sim to go, now that we have the majority of the issues ironed out. Just my two cents, your mileage may vary.

I think that was the squadron that took me out! They were light sand color and several had a large number 1 on the upper wing. Very talented squadron.

Ugh, I can relate to this one a little too well... My German Jasta 4 Pilot, Wilhelm Reinhart, who had nearly 10 hours, 5 confirmed kills and five more pending, and an Iron Cross, met his bitter end last night, all during another Scramble missions. We were jumped by a flight of DH2's - nasty little buggers I should add. Sadly though, while I was being chased and harrassed by two of the British scouts, it was the ground that ultimatley claimed Wilhelm's life. While circling, I dipped my left wing a little too low, clipped the ground, and just like that, my career was over. I actually yelled "NO!" at my desk. To say I was more than a little invested in my German pilot would be an understatement. So for me, my pilot mortality rate is now 100% as opposed to the slightly better 99.99% when young Wilhelm was still alive. PS: Oh yes, and hi guys, I'm back and safely moved into my new apartment. PSS: Don't fly drowsy. I killed Wilhelm while flying a late night mission half-asleep. A poor decision...

Just a quick note for everyone here on the forum. I will be in the process of moving to a new apartment for the next week in preparation of starting grad school! Unfortunately, I'll likely be offline for several days. No biggie, but just in case someone here asked where I was, now you know. Now to pack up my gaming PC, and most importantly, my antique Microsoft Sidewinder Precision 2 flight stick!

Thanks guys. Moving day is Saturday, so I'll be in touch for a while longer. After that, it might be a bit, what with trying to get electric and internet (not enough money for TV...) hooked up and paid for. Ah the life of a grad student with loans and a shoestring budget...

So it looks like my Summer Campaign is going well. A while back I asked the members here on the board to suggest some campaigns to fly before I start graduate studies this fall and lose all of my free time. Out of their suggestions, one pilot has survived over 8 hours! The others have all bitten the dust, but Wilhelm Reinhart (a name I usually have a lot of luck flying under) has survived in Jasta 4 for nearly the entire month of March 1917. Bloody April is just around the corner, and the Albatros DII fighter has been a very enjoyable experience - not to mention productive. Reinhart has downed 5 enemy aircraft (unconfirmed means unconfirmed!) and has been in some very exciting dogfights. I've neglected to post about it for a few reasons. First, I was having too much damn fun to write! Second, I started to think I would jinx myself if I talked about an OFF pilot actually living past his first mission! Here's Reinhart's log as of this evening's mission.

Sounds fantastic Winder, you and your team really have spoiled us with the excellent service and constant updates! Thanks again!

So what are you studying Revthought? I'll be working on an MA History degree for the next few years.