Tailspin

Yep. Turn it off.

You'll get "scramble" type missions in First Eagles when flying Defensive Patrols where the enemy is attacking your airfield. They don't always take off after you do. As for the entire Thirdwire series, well if you listen to its "critics" you will be given all kinds of reasons not to like Thirdwire sims. Most are just plain wrong. Uninformed comments made by folks who never spent the time to really explore the sims. Often by the "button pushers" who never got past the fact that Thirdwire sims are not "button pusher" sims. You know who I mean. Those types that would rather spend all their time on the ground getting ready to fly instead of actually flying combat missions. Then there's the "Dynamic campaign" nay-sayers... Seems some folks need any excuse they can find to NOT try Thirdwire and discover whats really in there. Thirdwire sims might be more fun and challenging (or even "immersive"...there's another one) than they would like to admit.

You also have to figure out which component of the effect want to change. But thats the way I do most things with FE too. Trial and Error. I found out in a hurry that I don't need to be messing too much with particlesystems and such.

I think the numbers for particle colors correspond to Red Green Blue and the last is density or opacity or something like that. Values of 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 makes it white. Values near zero makes it black. Different values for the different colors of course change the color of the particles. How this all interacts with everything esle? I haven't a clue.

When you mentioned the fast prop is when I noticed it wasn't working with the separate DH-4 USAS plane folder I created. I saw where the stock skin had the props showing. Looked around and found the fast and slow prop tgas in that folder. Moving them to the main plane folder fixed the prop problem with the USAS skin. If you think its the data.ini then then I suggest a side by side/line for line comparison with the original data.ini.

Quack. I think I found the proplem with the props. Are you using your skins? If so they don't have the slow and fast prop tga.s included in the skin folder. edit... Ah...nevermind. The fast and slow prop tga.s are nestled in the default RAF skin folder I think they belong in the plane folder not in the skin folders. Boy, this package is kind of a mess.......

The DH-4 cockpit folder is the DH-2 cockpit. With the ShowFromCockpit=TRUE line in the data.ini (see my last post on page 3) you get remnants of the original windscreen and upper cockpit showing up with the DH-2 cockpit too...don't know where that comes from. Part of the fuselage .lod, I guess. They must have changed the cockpit when they released the upgrade. I don't see any original DH-4 cockpit files in the download. I dunno about the fast prop problem. Make sure you have the rpm set in the engine section? Wild guess.....

Quack, the DH 2 cockpit came with the DH 4 upgrade. Is your's different?

To line up the gunsights open the Dh-4_COCKPIT.ini and in the CockpitSeat001 section change Position= to (save the original coords. in case you want to go back to them) Position=-0.0115,0.200,0.8900 This moves the pilot viewpoint up enough that you cannot see all the instruments with the standard SnapView Down. You can still view them all with the mouse though.

If you want the DH 2 cockpit go to the DH 4 data.ini and in the Fuselage section change ShowFromCockpit= to FALSE. Looks to me like the pilot is sitting too low.

Well B Bandy, you are part of the "club" whether you want to be or not. Everyone is. If it looks that way sometimes its likely due to the few numbers of folks who are active on the forum. Like you say no one is fishing for compliments here. For the vast majority of modders I think an honest evaluation evey now and then would be nice for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

Jan, I like the fort without the water.

Bucky, I'm get a few more frames by reducing the skin files to 1024x1024. I also tried the old flightengine.ini fix. Its in the Thirdwire Knowledge Base. Not sure if that helped or not. I'm beginning to think its the 3d model...as in a high poly count. Panama Red. Thanks for the new data.inis.

No problem Ol Paint. I know what you meant. I just wanted to make sure everyone knows I'm just tossing ideas out there. The beauty of this sim is you can make choices to fit your personal preferences.

High speed slashing attacks from above, extend, climb and repeat. Don't forget the under side. Come around from underneath, slash and shoot, extend, repeat. Try and keep in mind the gunner's field of fire. Don't fly through the middle of a formation. Don't fly in a straight line for very long. Keep your speed up. Good deflection shooting is a must. Watch your six because if the pilot gets a chance he's going to shoot you too.

Did you install all the files that come with the FMs? This will tone down the gunners enough that effective strategies against armed bombers will at least give you a chance. That doesn't mean you can "park" behind a formation and plink em one at a time with reckless abandon.

Awww...I wouldn't call it complaining. I'm just trying to point out some of the things you can run into with the limitations of the terrain tiling system (things I've seen in the past) and what I personally think about what some people believe to be "accurate" compared to the "real thing". They are just my opinions. Not worth any more or less than anyone else's. I'd actually like to see more folks get involved in making constructive comments about what they like and why. PeterO1 released a campaign not long ago that has all kinds of goodies in it that enhance single mission play as well. He got exactly ONE comment. I find that....well, I'm not quite sure what to think. Without input from the community how does a modder know what he's doing is good or bad? How can a modder improve upon what he does if all he gets is silence or the standard "thank you" without any other input? Everyone seems apprehensive about disagreeing or making other suggestions. Given the past history of this forum, is some of that my fault? Could be. Thats one reason I quit moderating. I don't want my comments to carry any more weight than anyone else. I'm just another guy with a healthy interest in WWI air combat and I see the potential this sim offers. Thats all. :yes: I'm going to download Jan's terrain with the same anticipation and appreciation as anyone. I may also make a comment or two regarding what I like or don't like about it. I don't consider that complaining. To be honest I can't tell too much about the overall look and "feel" yet from the couple of screen shots provided and I won't know for sure until I see it in the game.

Gepard is still around. You can find him posting on the Thirdwire WOx boards. Jan Tuma's terrain is looking very good. Its different enough from the MFS/CFS style terrains to interest me anyway. Although the MFS type terrain is still popular I guess I'm just tired of flying over that particular style if you know what I mean. Not that it doesn't look good its just not "different" to me anymore. I think some of the RB3D guys went to OFF. Panama Red is here helping out though. The community would welcome anyone I think. Its not like there is a rivalry or competition...at least I don't see it that way.

Cool. Can't believe I just now made the connection. I wasn't a regular RB3D guy but I did spend some time downloading most of the mods and trying them out. I do recall some of your work FM/DM work. Good stuff. Glad you're interested in First Eagles. I enjoy FE about as much as any flightsim I've tried...including RB3D and EAW back in the day.

Amen to that. BTW...wasn't there a Panama Red involved with Red Baron? That wouldn't be you, would it? Anyway, I've been fiddling with the elevator response. It seems that if your speed is higher the elevator works like it should. To me it acts like a very quick stall. Pull back hard at slower speeds you slow down and lose lift very quickly and the aircraft stops responding to elevator input. Do you suppose this could be related to the high drag factor thats affecting top speed?

Hey Mike. I don't have my view slewing quite as far back as 180 so I can't see the gunner either. In the "check six" view I can see the gun, the gunners hands and parts of his arms. The rest is clipped. Not sure if there is a fix for this?

I figured you knew that but didn't want to take if for granted.

Don't forget to set the max speed @ SL in the data to the desired number. IIRC that also affects player aircraft. I, and everyone else I'm sure, appreciate you taking this on, BTW.

Another problem with the limited number of tiles and adding a lot of detail to them is, IMHO, it tends to "highlight" the repetition of those tiles throughout the landscape. BLAH means your eye isn't attracted to the ground. That tends to take your attention away from the repestition. However, that doesn't mean of good artist (don't look at me ) couldn't make some real improvements to the stock terrain. Max 188 does a good job of enhancing the stock terrain. Since roads and rivers are basically the only things that break up that repetition we need more roads and perhaps more details along the edges of roads, rivers, and transitional areas between fields, woods, and open grasslands. It would also be nice to have some "real" trees...at least around airfields. Of course not having a clue when it comes to terrain mapping and building I don't know how much is possible to accomplish. It is possible to enhance ground "activity" with object placement and thats something that needs doing. If I could find one of those "round tuits"....

Found some production numbers for the RR Eagles. Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_Eagle Eagle I (Rolls-Royce 250 hp Mk I) (1915), 225 hp, 104 engines produced in both left and right hand tractor versions. Eagle II (Rolls-Royce 250 hp Mk II) (1916), 250 hp, 36 built at Derby. Eagle III (Rolls-Royce 250 hp Mk III) (1917-1927), 250 hp, increased compression ratio (4.9:1), strengthened pistons. 110 built at Derby. Eagle IV (Rolls-Royce 250 hp Mk IV) (1916-17), 270/286 hp, 36 built at Derby. Eagle V (Rolls-Royce 275 hp Mk I) (1916-17), 275 hp, high-lift camshaft, 100 built at Derby. Eagle VI (Rolls-Royce 275 hp Mk II) (1917), 275 hp, first use of twin spark plugs, 300 built at Derby. Eagle VII (Rolls-Royce 275 hp Mk III) (1917-18), 275 hp, 200 built at Derby. Eagle VIII (1917-1922), 300 hp, extensive modifications, 3,302 built at Derby. According to these figures the 275hp versions (Eagle V-VII) were more common (600 vs. 182). Also worth noting since RR refused to contract out its engine production these numbers account for only around half of the DH 4s delivered and all these engines were not used in the DH 4 exclusively. FWIW, I think once Panama Red gets one FM up to speed it will be easy enough for anyone to change a couple of numbers and get the intended performance. With that in mind I would build the fastest first to get the drag numbers worked out. Then it would be a simple matter of reducing the max speed at SL number in the data.ini and changing HP in the engine section. No?