CaptSopwith

Awesome Lou! I'm amazed you were able to smuggle out the footage, well done! That's an adorable snipe! Well played sir! Well played!

Wow, thanks guys! I appreciate the welcome back - I didn't think I was missed! Hopefully I can post a bit more often, at least until life becomes utter insanity this fall! Cheers and drinks all around!

I checked the forum and didn't see any previous post about this. Forgive me if I missed it. For OFF pilots in the US who have not seen the film The Red Baron, it has been released (finally) on DVD. Amazon has it available for ordering. http://www.amazon.com/Red-Baron-Matthias-Schweighofer/dp/B0039USJBA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1275535102&sr=8-1 I've never seen it, but it looked promising.

Hi Gentlemen, Not sure if you still remember me, I've been incredibly busy with RL work now for the past year. Thankfully, the load has slackened somewhat and the summer has given me some much needed flight time. I'll admit it, I've also been sidetracked during the past year with Xbox Live. Yes... I was a Modern Warfare player and then moved to Battlefield. But lately I've had more then ten minutes of downtime each evening and I've wandered back to my flight sims. I felt the need to post this after the events of the last few days, and once again thank the community and the band of developers who make OFF. This is an OFF post, so I'll keep the topic on track, but suffice it to say, I looked into some other WWI sim options in the last week or so. After reading every review I could, and haunting various forms, I downloaded it and tried it out. While I was floored with certain features, I was left feeling... well, empty. Yeah, this sim had some impressive aspects to it and even some wow moments, but they weren't enough to completely win me over, or mask a lot of aspects I had issues with. And then tonight, after my dabbling ended, I returned to my copy of OFF HiTR. I had a few hiccups with it when I first snagged HiTR (I've been playing OFF since P1) and then RL caught up with me and I never had the time to really delve into what this addon had in store for me. Well I finally just exited out of OFF a few minutes ago and felt compelled to post. You guys have done a truly marvelous thing. I know a few members of the OFF team from my days of uploading inane, rambling, and often overenthusiastic posts (like this one) on Delphi back in the Red Baron days some eleven years ago. Tonight I sat and watched Pol's intro video for the first time in a while and I have to say Pol, I was really wowed all over again. After spending a few days navigating a pretty sterile interface with no real mood to speak of, the several minutes of opening footage reminded me that yeah, this is a game, but it represents something much bigger than that. Your film reminded me, and I think reminds all of us, that there were real flesh and blood people doing these things 90+ years ago. It sets the atmosphere for everything that comes next and it does it beautifully. And it's the details that the OFF team nails time and again. The menu music, the claim forms, the daily newspapers, the duty board, the pre-flight weather report. These all set the mood and immerse you in ways that graphical special effects can only accomplish for a few fleeting seconds. OFF had me in its grip tonight for hours, and it felt fantastic. The feeling of flight, the sound effects (I must admit I snagged Creaghorns mod and WOW), the graphics, all serve to suspend reality for however long you sit at the controls and do an incredible job of sending you back in time. The OFF team, simply put, just gets it. While my other experience left me feeling like some anthropologist digging up fossilized remains of a long forgotten past, OFF, as always, made me feel more like a young recruit sent up to the lines with 8 hours of training - scared to death. For the sake of balance, I'll take a moment and play devil's advocate. Could the graphic's engine be newer? Sure. Could improvements be made here and there? Absolutely - that's why there is going to be a P4 (and I can't tell you how happy I am to hear that!). But, as with every great flight sim I've ever loved, the end result is so much greater than the sum of its parts. What other sims accomplished that for me? Well, Red Baron 3D and European Air War. Neither were the prettiest of their time (Flying Corps Gold touted graphical prettiness with only 7 planes), but both of them received hundreds of hours of flight time from me because I simply couldn't get enough of them. And in my opinion, I thought they looked fantastic - beauty really is in the eye of the beholder. OFF, after a year (maybe more? This grad school gig has completely ruined my sense of time) of on and off flying for me, has not only rekindled my love of flight sims, it has made me more excited to get the day done, get home, and get in some flight time for the first time since I was 16 and dying to get home from high school so I could fly another mission in RBII. Yeah, the others might look pretty, but it was the two hours of flying I did tonight in OFF that left me smiling at the end of the day. As a final note, I'm working to become a professional historian. I want to teach at the university level and I specialize in World War I and, believe it or not, Germany. And while I shouldn't say this professionally, a few missions in OFF reignites my passion for the subject and my desire to research it, write about it, and teach it for the rest of my life. It's a fantastic shot of energy when you're tired and still have a mountain of reading to accomplish. Pardon the length of the post, but I had to share. You guys are brilliant and I am so glad that this team is together working on this product. Please, keep going. PS: Thanks to OvS for nagging me to wander from the Delphi forums about five years ago and take a look at what he was "tinkering with" at the time. I owe you one. If you're ever in need of any further historical input, feel free to drop me a line. S!

Creaghorn, Thought I would chime in. It's been a busy couple of months but I wanted to say that I love your sound mod! The improvement in the immersion of the game is, as you say, 100%. I did notice the silent Nieuports while playing HITR, however. I'm flying for 60 squadron RFC in August 1916 and sure enough, I often have silent wingmen. I know there's not much you can do to change it based on your files, but I did want to report that Hasse Wind wasn't the only pilot to witness it. That very minor glitch aside, I love the mod and I've been happily flying whenever I get the free time to do so. Cheers!

Hmm, I went back and checked and my craft skin settings are set to Normal, where they've always been.

Hey guys, I've been doing some flying in HITR and noticed my frame rate wasn't nearly what it was before. I've been using Homeboy's settings from back in the summer, which have worked great. I went back into CFS3config to make sure they hadn't been reset and noticed that in the texture limit menu the Max Texture Dimension slider, which is set to 1024 by default, was not set to 0 where I put it. I changed it back several times but after running OFF and launching a mission, it keeps getting reset back to 1024. I tried running CFS3config as an admin and had no better luck. Every other setting is sticking except this one, which I'm sure is having an impact on my fps - which had been in the thirties but is now in the mid teens. Any ideas on how to get the setting to stick? I can't seem to make it work. Thanks in advance for the help guys!

Hey guys, After a few days of frustration with my system and a lot of help from the fellow pilots here on the board, I finally got HitR up and running! I have to say I'm very impressed. The textures in the cockpits of planes like the N28 look great. My frame rate seems consistent even though it looks like there's a lot more being rendered on the ground now. I finally started a campaign last night with an American pilot in the fighting 94th. Watching my fellow American pilots taking off around me really felt inspiring; especially seeing Rickenbacker taking off at the end of the airfield, talk about chills. Now I know what my German, French, and British counterparts have felt all along. The campaign missions are excellent - my flight stays in a nice loose formation and with the addition of wind buffeting they really "look" like they're flying - as if the forces of nature are acting on them as they struggle to remain airborne. We encountered heavy enemy air activity - several flights of beautifully skinned Albatros fighters. The first flight let us go, thankfully, as it looked like a full Jasta worth of them. We weren't as lucky coming back across the lines after patrolling the German skies. Two flights of Albatros fighters attacked - and quite intelligently as well. One pack of Albatroses went for A Flight, which had been flying top cover. The other group of Germans dived through that fight and came after us before we could help A flight out, it was eerie how well they intercepted us. The AI fought pretty hard too - a little more laid back than BHAH but not nearly as bad as my first impression gave me in QC. The campaign AI seems more fully developed. After a hard fight, and downing two of the Germans we returned home. So all in all I'm very impressed so far. You guys have done it again. If you're wondering why I'm posting at such a horrible hour (5am here in the States at the moment), I've been horribly sick all night and writing this post is taking my mind off how terrible my stomach has felt since 2am. I'm just glad to be at the point where I can sit and write for more than a few minutes at a time. Figures... the semester ends and the first day I have off I'm sick... ugh. And while I'm confessing sins - I tried out the demo version of RoF while frustrated with HitR (perhaps that's why I'm sick? j/k). I was impressed with the graphics and the physics model but there really isn't much else going on in that sim. I think Widowmaker put it right on here a few days ago - do you want one wild and crazy night with someone filled with all beauty and no brains or do you want a long term relationship? I'm putting my money on the long run and sticking with OFF. Ugh... time to crawl back into bed and pray for death...

Hey guys, Thanks for all of the advice. I've finally got a few days off and I've been working on the problem. I think I've got it sorted. If I boot the PC into safe mode I can easily unzip and install the file, no worries. It looks like safe mode in Win 7 has MSE turned off, so at this point, I'm ready to say that that's the cause of the problems. James, ironically enough, I went with MSE because it's such a lightweight, small anti-virus/anti-malware program. I had used AVAST until about two months ago when I upgraded to 7. I figured if Microsoft might be able to best protect their own operating system (that was probably not the smartest conclusion ever...). MSE so far has been great - light on resources (using a whole 4mb of ram) doesn't interfer with my games, etc. That is until I tried to unpack HitR. I've had no issues with zip files on this system so far, and I've been doing a lot of patching on some of my older racing sims lately so I've been unpacking plenty of files. When I reinstall a system, I go for light and efficient. Nothing runs in the background that doesn't need to. It has to be MSE, I have no other logical conclusion for the issue. I've ruled out just about everything else - including doing a fresh reformat and install on the HD just to rule out everything else. Whew... now I can actually do some flying. I'm looking forward to a patch for the AI, they seem a bit... laid back. But for now, I'm just glad the game is running at all.

Pol, I just did a fresh download on a fresh install of Windows 7. The file decompresses just fine until there is about 5 seconds remaining, and then the entire system locks up again. In the event it actually unzips the file, the exe locks up the system before I can even open it. Simply right-clicking on it to run it as an administrator is enough to crash my entire system. I've been able to get the install to start once - at which point my security software (Microsoft Security Essentials) turned off and Windows crashed yet again. I've done nothing to this system that would cause such an issue. I've run every diagnostic utility I can and I've even blanked the hard drive out and started all over, just to make absolutely sure there was nothing else on my end. Is it possible that MSE is causing this headache? If not, then I'm out of ideas. My only problem is that I can't seem to shut MSE off unless I boot in safe mode. I can only conclude that something about Microsoft Security Essentials does not like this file for whatever reason. I could get it to install in safe mode - but I wasn't sure if the install was complete. Is anyone else running MSE? If I install BitR in Safe Mode, will all of the files install correctly? Thanks for any help guys, I appreciate it.

Alright guys... I've run checkdisk on the hard drive, I've redownloaded the file in IE8, I've installed a new version of Winzip and I even tested the file in WinRAR. Everything came back clean. That said, I still cannot open the file and whenever I attempt to, the process gets to about 98%, the disk goes berserk, and I have to hard reboot. I'm fast running out of patience. I've also tried running the file from within the archive with the same results, no good. I've worked with plenty of zip files on this machine, so I know they work, but for some reason, this add on does not play nice with my computer. Any ideas?

Good idea Siggi, I'll give that a go as well. Fingers crossed!

Agreed Olham. It has to be incredibly difficult to adjust AI code on a sim you didn't program. Working with someone elses code, originally built for WWII planes, and then trying to get it to cope with a completely different breed of animal and get them to fight intelligently, that's quite a task. I think Siggi's right, in this instance 2+2 probably equals a bushel of potatoes. If any group can hammer it out, I know the OBD guys can.

I think you're right James. It looked like something went a bit wonky with the file as it decompressed. Every time it got to about 98% and the hard drive went berserk. I've used up 2 downloads out of my alotted 3 so far, so I'll give it one last go using a different browser (maybe it's Firefox doing something odd so I'll use the straight vanilla IE8). If it still goes wrong I'll shoot you an email with a copy of my sale and we'll go from there. Fingers crossed it won't come to that. You know me James, I don't normally complain about computer files, I spent many hours growing up fidgeting with various RB patches and zip files, half of which were never compatible with the others. It has to be something unusually frustrating before I start venting. I have a class to TA later this morning, but this evening I'll see if I can give the download another try.

Not me Unc, I like the carnage far too much.

I meant to ask at the end of the previous post - has anyone else had any similar experiences with the download? I can't seem to figure out what caused this install to go so pear shaped. I'm also having issues with the AI at this point as well. I've tried adjusting my sliders, but no matter what I do, I can't seem to get them to dogfight each other anymore. They circle each other rather calmly and never fire. Sorry guys, I'm just frustrated. I had a beautiful OFF install running and having a blast. I snagged the add on as an early x-mas present and I just can't seem to get good results...

Well after a nightmare installation process, I'm experiencing the same issues. In repeated tests in campaign and QC I'm seeing aircraft that no longer fight. 6 on 6 dogfight with N28s vs what should be the top line Fokker D7's and they couldn't seem less interested in engaging each other. The N28's waggle their wings and fire a few shots as they pass through, but then the AI just aimlessly circles gently around each other. I flew for that QC mission for another 15 minutes and none of the aircraft ever fought each other. I tried adjusting my terrain sliders both up and down. Down yielded AI which appeared to be in a coma. Up actually got them fighting, but then the frame rate was unplayable. Note: My sliders had been set at 5-3-3-5-1, so I've been enjoying great performance and beautiful graphics - at least until I installed HitR. They do know there's a war on, right? Very frustrated with this add on so far...

I think I've finally got them sorted but... After purchasing and downloading the HITR add on, I ran into some serious installation issues. I'm certainly no newbie to installing software so I was surprised when I encountered the following issues while trying to install a simple game add on: Endless hard disk grinding which locked up my entire system and crashed. Windows 7 rebooting and then announcing that it was not a genuine version of Windows (even though I purchased it directly from Microsoft) Rebooting in Safe mood just to delete the unzipped add on exe as any attempt to even click on it in normal mode locked the the system and repeated the first two problems. Attempting to download the file again only to encounter the same issues. Rebooting in safe mode to install the add on, I had no luck doing so in normal mode. Every lock up required a hard reboot as well, something I haven't had to do since my Windows 98 days. I think I've got everything sorted out now but damn, I need a drink. I have no idea why this caused so many problems, I've never had any issues with OBD software in the past but really guys, I wanted to ask for my money back for several hours this afternoon. I believe it had something to do with the file being zipped. It doesn't seem to save much space compressing the file and uncompressing it - be it in WinRAR or WinZip or just Windows 7, locked up the computer every single time. Good add on so far, but next time, do you mind not scaring me to death the night before I have a graduate research paper due?

Great post Siggi. Is he any relation to Sir Frank Williams of F1 fame?

Such beautiful planes. I visit their website often. It's a shame their all the way over in NZ - a bit of along plane flight from the US. If you haven't seen it, here's their site. I've always been impressed with their work - and even their site shows it. http://thevintageaviator.co.nz/node

Awesome! I can't wait to try the new addon out! Great work as always guys - you never cease to impress!

Good Lord! Those are beautiful! :clapping:

Lately my pilots all die on their second mission. They seem to get through their first hop over the lines without a problem and then comes the second trip, quickly followed by death - usually by midair collision with a suicidal Nieuport pilot! My latest pilot was a throw-away; I knew he was likely going to buy it on his second trip and I wanted to try and "cleanse the palette" of these repeated failures. I figured I'd make a sacrificial German pilot, send him up, perform the most suicidal attacks I know, like diving into superior numbers, attacking when it's not wise to do so, flying through formations of Allied two seaters all with their guns trained on me, etc. I figured if I managed to get all of my stupid mistakes out of the way with one pilot, I'd be good to go with another DiD candidate. What happened? Well, see for yourself. Robert Ritter von Roth, who wasn't supposed to last his first two sorties, has completed damn near two full hours of flight time (my last few pilots averaged about 30-45 minutes before death) and has TEN, count them, TEN claims to his name! I've flown him into whole formations of BE2's with their guns firing at me and knocked every single one of them out of the sky. I've done the same with the FE2's we run into. I even went into the workshop and cranked up the AI gun accuracy to hard - up from normal because they weren't hitting him! Why can't this sim, who has fitted every namesake pilot of mine for a dirt shirt, kill this guy!? The closest he came was a crash landing after some BE2's put a hole in his engine. And yet, he survived his crash landing, near a river and a forest, no where near cleared level ground. He literally planted his Albatros on a berm, and managed not to flip the plane over. Remarkable... That said, he hasn't seen any fighters yet - so Roth is getting an easy pass preying on wounded antelopes so far. I predict his first tangle with a French fighter plane will end with a Le-Rhone rotary engine embedded in his brain. And look at his pilot photo! He's a creep! I don't even like this guy and he's out there racking them up! No matter how stupid I get, I can't seem to get this guy killed! Sometimes Pacman, you just never know!

Hear Hear Steve, couldn't have said it better myself. Salute!

Hear Hear! I have to admit Widow, when I clicked this thread I really thought you were going to say "It doesn't have a Snipe!"