CaptSopwith

Well, as for me, the semester that won't die is slowly grinding to a halt. I feel like I've won the month of November - you know, in much the same way the French "won" at Verdun. But, I'm getting there. I'm sure I'll be posting again with some regularity once all of the paper writing comes to an end in the next week. Looking forward to a few weeks off and spending some of it alone in peace and quiet patrolling the lines. Would do me a lot of good right now!

It's hard to fathom, but a decade ago, the Red Baron community (so many of whom became the OFF community) lost someone who really represented the heart and soul of what our group has always been about. Karel Dooms, also known as Charles de Thielt on the old SWWISA boards, died unexpectedly on November 12, 2002. I meant to post about this on the anniversary of his death, but I'm afraid time got away from me. I knew Charles pretty well. He utterly revolutionized Red Baron's plane models - taking us from the flat three-dimensional polygons of Red Baron II and turning them into the stunning works of art they bacame in the game's later years. Charles was the epiotme of a good guy - he was always civil, incredibly cordial, and always willing to help. Even when I - at 19 and still learning about computers - had a hard time installing his models, he took the time to walk me through it step by step. His loss was devestating to the community. SWWISA created a memorial stone to Charles and placed it in the game map. There was also a memorial fly over. Things were never the same after we lost Karel. For those of you who didn't know him, this is what I wrote about him almost a decade ago, when I compiled a history of the Red Baron 3D community: Not too long after the release of 1918 Air War from WingStrut, a major revolution in Red Baron technology emerged. Karel Dooms (also known as Charles de Thielt), a modder within the community began to release incredibly detailed and frame rate friendly aircraft models. These models are still the standard in all patches and nothing like them have been seen before or since. The realism presented in each model is apparent, and it is obvious that Karel created each model with love and care. He is often credited with training many of the SWWISA members in how to make new aircraft models using the program anim8tor. Yet a CdT model remains unmistakable, no matter how good another model looks. Karel simply had a mastery of the art form. And in reality, his works can be considered art. They are completely realistic, incorporate form and function, and are truly beautiful to look at. Sadly, Karel passed away suddenly in November of 2002, and a true giant within the community was lost forever. His passing stunned the community and his loss is still felt deeply today. Most patches released credit CdT in one form or another, either for helping them along the way or simply being a great artist. A memorial stone was crafted and laid in the virtual town of Thielt in Red Baron for any offline user to fly by and admire. A virtual relationship touched real lives, and anyone in SWWISA will acknowledge that when they lost Karel, they lost a friend. His page on SWWISA is still there - untouched over the last decade, a frozen example of a life taken far too early. A reminder more of what could have been than a memorial to what was... http://www.swwisa.net/cdt/ For people like me, Shred, and OvS, we all still miss you - and I'm sure many more do as well... S! CdT!

Hear Hear! Well said gents! I'm doing worlds better already! Heading home for turkey day today, should be a good time with the family - minus the cold I've picked up... Hope you all have a lovely weekend and for those of us who are Stateside, a very Happy Thanksgiving with you and yours.

Hi Guys, I honestly don't know what to say! I'm overwhelmed by the kindness and support you guys have shown me - it really means a lot! Things are already looking up on my end; friends (the good, genuine variety) have rallied around me and I'm already getting to know a certain new person that I've only recently met. Life moves on and life gets better... I hold out hope for that. You are all a great group of guys - words truly fail me at times like this. I'll be gone for Thanksgiving holiday (back to see family and without internet) but I'll return soon. Thank you again!

You would have fit right in during the old Red Baron days, Olham, and you're definitely a foundational member of our OFF community - not sure what we'd do without you! You're always a voice of reason and support - something that is often few and far between these days.

Hi guys, Just thought I'd file a quick trouble report while I'm on a break from working. I'm flying a 24RFC pilot in February of 1916. We're at a pretty large collection of air fields - I'm guessing 24 was stationed at a massive RFC installation which makes sense. That said, our flights frequently take off from different ends of the fields. I'm seeing a lot of AI - about half a flight sometimes - crashing into the trees and buildings at the ends of the fields. This is happening on a regular basis. Not sure how often this is happening elsewhere in the game world but I'd thought I'd pass it along...

Excellent HPW! Glad to hear that your work is progressing. It's been oddly quiet around here lately - perhaps folks are on holiday or just incredibly busy at the moment. I'm looking forward to trying out the new addition. Lothar: Do you think you could incorporate HPW's new updates into your fantastic OFFBase program? It's the only way I fly OFF!

Good evening my fellow OFF'ers! I am happy to report that I am finally back. You've probably seen me lurking for the last week or so but, as RL frequently does, I had no time to post. I have returned from Germany where I had a truly life-changing experience. I can't wait to get back and visit again. And, best of all, I finally saw my first World War I aircraft up close and in person... it literally brought tears to my eyes. I hope everyone is doing well. It seems like forever since I've posted. I apologize for not being around more often. As Lothar will be able to relate, no doubt, life in grad school completely monopolizes your time. I love what I'm doing, but alas, it doesn't give you a lot of free hours. That said, whenever I'm in need of a refreshing break from my studies, I take up one of my pilots in OFF. And, thanks to Lothar's fantastic OFFBase, I remember my pilots and their trails and tribulations so much better now! Anyway, glad to be back. More posts to come, no doubt, even as we push towards mid-terms here. Cheers!

Keeping you and your wife in my thoughts Tony.

Good Morning Gents! Sorry I haven't posted in a bit. The fall semester is off and running and so am I. I had to share, however, that I am finally going out of the US for the first time! I can't tell you how exciting this is. I'm the first member of my family since my grandfather to go overseas - and he went for rather different reasons (WWII). I'll have to share pictures when I get back. Can't wait! Cheers guys! Hope everyone is doing well and BH: I was following your hurricane updates, glad things weren't worse than they were!

I thought about Olham immediately... but I'm 99% sure he's in Berlin which puts me at least a few hours away from him at best.

Hi All! Just thought I'd share some recent screen shots that I've been playing with in Picasa. These come from a recent career with Wilhelm Roth (The older brother of our beloved Gerhard who flys an Albatros marked up by Olham). Enjoy!

Hi Olham. Just saw that you mentioned starting school. My new semester starts tomorrow morning. Just wanted to wish you the best of luck! PS: I might be making it Germany next month... fingers crossed!

Great article! I enjoyed the write up and it really looks like we're close now... two weeks! Nearly spit out my tea reading it this morning, though, when I saw "CaptSopwith said..." in the article. First time I've been quoted!

I very much echo Sid's sentiments. A website going down for a few days - or however long it was - is pretty small potatoes compared to what you've had to deal with. While I'm glad you've taken the steps to put an action plan in place for something that - I pray - you'll never need to put into motion - I really don't think an apology is necessary. I only hope the OBD guys like Pol and Winder read this at some point soon... From my standpoint, I'm just thankful you're alive. At 30, I've had two rather nasty and close calls in my times - both behind the wheel - and the only thing that matters is your health. Your sentiment is more than appreciated but, please, above all else, get well and take care of yourself. You've got my best wishes, my thoughts, and my prayers. Get well soon.

Yikes! Hope everyone is okay! We're having some rather unpleasant weather here, but of a much different variety. No rain, and temperatures in the range of 108 degrees. Misery...

Fellow OFF'ers. It gives me great pleasure to give you some of my initial experiences flying the newly combined mods of OFFice, HPW's flight and empty weight mods, and OlPaint01's Damage modifications - as well as a whole slew of other mods that he included in his Ultimate Bundle. So, simply stated first: So far, very good! OFFice appears to do a fine job of managing the various mods and the potential conflicts that they create. After dropping all of my desired mods into the appropriate JSGME folder, OFFice took care of the rest. To fully test this set of mods, and to start some full DiD campaigns, I created two pilots. My namesake is flying for 24 RFC in February of 1916 and my German namesake is starting in Jasta 4 at its earliest start date. OFFice introduces some nice RPG style enhancements to OFF and integrates well with the OFF Manager. Start OFFice first, run through your pilot and his interactions with his other squad mates - all pulled from OFF's data to seamlessly integrate it with the in-game campaign, and then you can head to the airfield and start your mission. OFFice previously served as a nice RPG handler - it now serves in more of a capacity that those of us who played Red Baron 3D will remember - Campaign Manager 1.1. OFFice loads all of the appropriate mods based on the year your pilot serves, the level of activity at his part of the front, and the relative quality of his squad mates. From there, you fly as always. As for the flight and damage modeling. I have to say, my DH2 feels nicer than any other version I've ever flown. The controls feel nice - the plane still exhibits its usual spin and stall quirks, but the lead weight feeling of the plane from its stock OFF configuration is now a thing of the past. This plane feels light - which, given that it's made out of canvas and wood, seems like it would be accurate. The plane also turns well, climbs with less of a struggle, and fights pretty well - based on the QC's I've staged with it and other period aircraft. The damage model is interesting. I loaded the HPW Ultimate Damage model option (OFFice, btw, gives you a choice here during setup which is quite handy). It's too early to tell, but in my QC's with some Halberstadt DII's I noticed some odd behavior. The Halberstadt's only seemed to go down once you set them on fire - which I did to every one of them - 5 in total. Various hits here and there damaged control surfaces, but only fire finally took them out. Also, the hovering flamer bug from older OFF incarnations seems to be present - at least with my combination of mods as installed by OFFice. Each Halberstadt more or less flew in circles at near level altitude while on fire. The pilots never left their planes and the aircraft never crashed. As a comparison, I'll have to try the alternate damage model next and see how it compares. Over all, between HPW's massive work on the FM, along with the damage model, sound files, realism files, and the litany of other small tweaks - my DiD campaigns should be fantastic to experience! I highly recommend this package to anyone looking to stretch some more life or add some more variety to OFF before the inevitable release of its successor. This is good stuff. I'll offer more reports as time allows.

Thanks for all of the hard work Lothar. I'll see if I can give it a download and try it out over the next few days. Something happened with my OFF install and I wound up going back to a vanilla setup after the issues with the AI crashing on take off. If this has been corrected, I'd be happy to jump in and try it again.

I haven't seen the landing issues - I usually exit out after I land and I'm usually on the ground, switches off, long before my wingmen circle around. The bug I'm seeing occurs on take off when we have a large number of planes on the ground taking off towards any sort of object or structure - IE: trees and hangers. I'll lose a handful of pilots when they hit the trees at the end of the field. When I roll OFF back to a vanilla, stock, setting, the bug never happens.

I just thought of this... and I'm not sure if it's been asked before. If it has, pardon my redundancy. How did each of you come to find OFF? Unlike so many other sims in the past, this one wasn't sitting on a store shelf staring at us when we walked by. So I'm curious to hear how each of us found OBD and their work and where in OFF's timeline we each showed up. It seems like all of us have been here forever. For me, it came while I was still in college, over on the old Hell's Angel's Superpatch boards at OvS' site (before they were hijacked multiple times by Turkish hackers). By then I knew Otto by his real name and I remember getting a message from him about this new project for MS CFS3 called Over Flanders Fields. He included some links to a few screenshots and told me that he was now concentrating his efforts there. Mind you, I was a diehard Red Baron fanatic. I had every patch from Beery 2.0 to 1918 Air War to the latest versions of Western Front Patch, Hell's Angels, and Full Canvas Jacket. He told me that, by this point, RB's days of being pushed any further had pretty much run its course. I remember being surprised - after all, I was devoted to the Old Gal and here was a core member of the community saying that the game had run its course. I think, ultimately, he was right. RB saw a few new addons here and there and some pretty cool utilities. But we've never seen another WingStrut 2.2 patch or a HASP since I got that message. So I kept tabs on P1. I remember downloading it once after I bought a friend's computer - a slight upgrade from a Pentium II to a relatively fast (for the time) Pentium 4. I think P1 could run at 600x800. It was pixely and sluggish on my machine, but it looked promising. I started visiting the various forums, saying hello and, much to my surprise, being recognized and welcomed by a lot of the members. I've been here ever since. My old computer ran P2 - though to be honest it ran so badly I couldn't really fly it. Now I have P3 BHAH with HiTR on my "new" gaming computer from 2008 and I love every anti-aliased, eye-popping second of it. How about you guys? Pull up a stool and tell us your tale.

Took the words right out of my mouth! I was just about to ask the same questions. Didn't realize you were Propwash from Delphi... I probably should have. Delphi... now that is going back a way. Do you ever drop by for a look these days? It's painfully quiet - kind of sad to see actually.

Great find Olham! I'm going to start a new bookmark folder just for the historical gems you keep sharing with us. Thanks for posting this!

Hi Guys! I've never really been able to create much from scratch for the community - but here's a little something to add to the anticipation while we all await the release of WOFF. Here is my own OFF Windows 7 desktop theme. The theme comes complete with over 120 desktop backgrounds taken from screenshots of OFF posted here at Combat Ace and from my own personal flights. Also in this pack is a full collection of sound effects. Flak bursts, tearing canvas, sputtering rotary engines - all greet you as you use your computer. Lastly, this theme includes some classic Windows 98 icons for "Computer," "Network," and "Recycle Bin" to give your desktop that early 20th century look. Hope you enjoy! Note: desktop wallpapers are widescreen 16:10 ratio but should scale pretty reasonably. Let me know what you think and I hope this serves as a small way of giving back to a community that has given me so much. Cheers! Here's the link: http://combatace.com/files/file/13054-off-desktop-theme-for-windows-7/

Thanks guys! Glad you're enjoying it so far! If anyone would like me to make a zipped version with all of the parts - I can do that as well - that would be handy for anyone using Vista, as I'm pretty sure Windows 7 themes aren't backwards compatible with Vista. Weirdly enough - the old Windows 98 themes work... that's right - Microsoft seems to have dug up the architecture to make Windows 7 theme files function the way they used to with the old Microsoft Plus! packages. Odd... Like I said - I can include a kit of parts - it would require assembly on the users end - but would be handy way to "build your own" if anyone's interested in that sort of thing. Cheers!

View File OFF Desktop Theme for Windows 7 This is a Windows 7 desktop theme designed to bring the immersion of OFF to your every day computer use! This pack includes over 120 desktop backgrounds taken from screenshots of OFF posted here at Combat Ace and from my own personal flights. Also in this pack is a full collection of sound effects. Flak bursts, tearing canvas, sputtering rotary engines - all greet you as you use your computer. Lastly, this theme includes some classic Windows 98 icons for "Computer," "Network," and "Recycle Bin" to give your desktop that early 20th century look. Hope you enjoy! Note: desktop wallpapers are widescreen 16:10 ratio. Submitter CaptSopwith Submitted 06/10/2012 Category Modding Tools and Add-on Software