Mike Dora

Thanks guys I appreciate that this is looking like a long shot. BTW the frlake.tga tile is there, in all main terrain "front" folder (Fla/Cam/Ver/Vos) and all the seasonal folders (though I notice that the "water" area appears darker than in the other "coastal" *tga files). Do you think it might be possible to fix this "different shade" issue by fiddling with the "color" lines in the relevant Texture0** sections of the *_data.ini file? I ask because I notice that these color parameters for the frlake.tga tiles, especially the first number, seem very different from the colour parameters for the "lakeside" tiles in several of the terrains. The following extracts from the ww1verdun_data.ini file show what I mean (recall that the screenshot shows that the middle water area of the Verdun lake appears darker than the lakeside water areas) : [Texture087] Filename=FrLake.TGA HasWater=2 Color=0.059937,0.159937,0.173565 [Texture090] Filename=FrLake2Farm25.TGA HasWater=1 HeightMap=FrLake2Farm25_hm.BMP HeightMapScale=10.000000 Color=0.148263,0.229823,0.199033 [Texture091] Filename=FrLake2Farm50.TGA HasWater=1 HeightMap=FrLake2Farm50_hm.BMP HeightMapScale=10.000000 Color=0.227466,0.293988,0.221188 [Texture092] Filename=FrLake2Farm75.TGA HasWater=1 HeightMap=FrLake2Farm75_hm.BMP HeightMapScale=10.000000 Color=0.289184,0.345524,0.237826 BTW, while I'm at it, does anyone know what the different "HasWater" parameters do? Sorry to keep chipping away, but as I've admitted in other threads, all the improvements in FE seem to have made me a bit greedy to "have it all"!! Thanks again Mike

This is one of those "I was always embarrassed to ask" questions, but.. I can't get the forum "Search" facility to work. When I try it these days, it always gives me "nil results", even when I try something obvious and common like "Sukhoi" or "MiG". Could never get it to work right in the past, either - instead of "nil results" it would give me a gazillion results, across all fora. I get the same problems whether I go simple or advanced. Help anybody - what am I missing? Mike

Bingo! It works, thanks Erik

Stary You did it again - what I needed was this text in the [solidObjectTextureMaterial] part of the Flanders_data.ini file: [solidObjectTextureMaterial] DepthBufferCheck=TRUE DepthBufferWrite=TRUE RenderedInOrder=TRUE //FALSE AlphaTestEnabled=TRUE //FALSE CullMode=NO_CULL //CLOCKWISE LightEnabled=TRUE SpecularEnabled=FALSE EmissiveEnabled=FALSE FogEnabled=TRUE AmbientColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000 DiffuseColor=1.000000,1.000000,1.000000,1.000000 ZBufferOffset=0.000000 BlendOp=BLEND_DST_ALPHA //ONE NumTextureStages=1 TextureStage[01].TextureName= TextureStage[01].MipMap=TRUE TextureStage[01].FilterEnabled=TRUE TextureStage[01].StageColorOp=TEXTURE_MODULATE_DIFFUSE TextureStage[01].StageAlphaOp=TEXTURE //NO_OP And now it works! Thanks again Mike

Many thanks again Stary, now I've got Vosges working right, and Flanders almost right. Still having a bit of a snag with cities in the latter though, as shown below. Some of the buildings look OK, but some are flashing. What bit am I missing out, or is it maybe just "finger trouble" on my part? BTW for the record I'va also attached my current Flanders.ini file. Thanks! Mike

Stary, I know this is sounding greedy, after all the excellent work you'v done on Cambrai and Verdun, but I'vs also been trying to use your new seasons, tiles and trees for Edward's Flanders terrain and Gepard's Vosges terrain. Been fairly successful, with one snag, can't get the cities to look right. I keep getting the mess shown below. I'm pretty sure that it must be something simple (isn't it always?), but all my experiments have failed. Can you maybe help again please sir? Thanks Mike

I think that this may be getting into some tiddly fine-tuning, but does anyone know of a way to prevent a smoke trail being generated when an aicraft suffers a major break-up like a wing falling off? I've noticed a couple of times lately that when over-stressing a Nieuport or Albatros V-strutter and losing a lower wing as a result (I've set the G-limits of V-strutters' lower wings to about 1G lower than the overall G-limit for the aicraft), the aircraft goes down with a trail of smoke as if the engine's been hit. I'd prefer it if a breaking-up aicraft could go down smoke-free, that would further enhance the visuals and the immersion. Any ideas anyone? Mike

Thanks Stary This time it works!I've no idea what I did wrong last time. Now though the broken V-strutters do go down smoke free. You are an artist sir - now we have a whole range of visible damage effects instead of just the traditional thick black smoke: engine-on out-of-control (ie pilot shot), engine-off trailing smoke, discreet but ominous fuel leak, blazing fuel fire (shedding bits on the way down), broken airframe out-of-control, all of this adds greatly to the immersion factor. Thanks to the dedication of people like you, this sim just keeps going from strength to strength. Mike

Thanks Stary, But even using this I am still getting some smoke when a wing breaks off (and no other damage occurs), as in the attachment. Am I doing something wrong, how do I kill the smoke completely? Thanks Mike

Thanks Quack74, No I haven't installed armed balloons, because I don't think that's very realistic. The balloonatics didn't hang around to take pot-shots with a Lee-Enfield or a Mauser or whatever, they jumped! It's a shame that the FE engine doesn't seem to include the ability to show parachutes. I'm thinking of doing instead what you suggest above, placing a few more guns around the base of each balloon. What I'm looking for is a sky full of tracers as well as archie bursts when a balloon is attacked. So, one last question - to place an MG or a 37mm near a balloon, what title should I use instead of "AAA"? (I'm assuming that placing an "AAA" gives a 13pdr or a 77mm FlaK gun) Thanks Mike

Q74, You must be telepathic. I was about to post a thread asking how to place multiple machine gunners around balloons, to make them riskier to attack (BTW Stary's new balloon-busting effects are excellent, far far better than the original). Be good to place some 37mm ack-ack there too, maybe that would give the famous "Flaming Onions" effect? Mike

Thanks to continued mods like PanamaRed's recent Realistic Sky package, FE just keeps getting better and better. However I am experiencing one minor frustration which does impact on the old immersion factor. When flying at medium altitudes in less-than-perfect weather, the ground-haze horizon effect as seen from the cockpit has a hard, often jagged edge. The edge looks sort of consistent with the terrain tiling. Oddly enough, this effect doesn't seem to appear in the external view - here the haze seems natural and continuous. Is there some setting I can play with to correct this anomaly? Thanks Mike

You're a good man, Stary. Here are my FlightEngine settings, I'm running the UnlimitedDetailOption. I'll try that rendermesh doubling trick tonight: [Debug] SkipFlight=FALSE [FlightEngine] HUDDLL=HUD.dll HUDDataFilename=HUDData.ini CommDLL=wwiComm.dll CommDataFilename=CommData.ini ObjectList=ObjectList.ini SoundList=SoundList.ini ViewList=ViewList.ini ParticleSystem=ParticleSystem.ini EnvironmentSystem=EnvironmentSystem.ini MessageSystem=MessageSystem.ini SpeechSystem=SpeechSystem.ini ForceFeedback=FlightEffect.ifr ForceFeedbackControl=PITCH_CONTROL DeltaT=0.016667 MaxDeltaT=0.200 RefreshTime=0.016667 ChangeTimeAmount=15 MaxTimeCompression=8.0 StartTimeCompression=1 StartPaused=FALSE ShowCockpit=TRUE TextFilename=FlightText.str EjectView=EjectView [LoadingScreen] BackgroundImage=LoadingScreen1.bmp BackgroundImageSize=1024,768 TextFontName=Arial TextSize=12 TextFontColor=250,250,250 TextFile=LoadingText.str LoadingTextStringID=TXT_FLT_LOADING PercentTextStringID=TXT_FLT_LOADING_PERCENT ProgressBarRange=100 ProgressBarRect=204,733,820,753 StreamAudio=loading.wav FadeTime=0.2 [GraphicsSettings] ZBufferDepth=24 MaxVertexCount=16384 MaxIndexCount=32768 MaxTextureCount=8192 MaxModelType=2048 MaxMeshPerScene=4096 MaxModelPerScene=4096 MaxLightPerScene=256 AspectRatio=1.333333 MinPixelSize=1.0 [FarSceneClip] FarClipDistance=36000.0 NearClipDistance=1000.0 [NormalSceneClip] FarClipDistance=15000.0 NearClipDistance=149.9 [NearSceneClip] FarClipDistance=150.0 NearClipDistance=0.4 [LowDetailOption] HorizonDistance=6000.0 DetailMeshSize=4 DetailLevel=0 WaterEffect=0 NoiseTexture=0 MaxTextureRes=128 [MedDetailOption] HorizonDistance=7000.0 DetailMeshSize=6 DetailLevel=0 WaterEffect=1 NoiseTexture=0 MaxTextureRes=256 [HighDetailOption] HorizonDistance=7500.0 DetailMeshSize=8 DetailLevel=0 WaterEffect=2 NoiseTexture=1 MaxTextureRes=-1 [unlimitedDetailOption] HorizonDistance=16000.0 DetailMeshSize=10 //DetailMeshSize=16 DetailLevel=1 WaterEffect=2 NoiseTexture=1 MaxTextureRes=-1 [soundSettings] SampleFrequency=11025 BitsPerSample=16 DopplerFactor=1.0 [WorldSettings] SectorWidth=20 SectorHeight=20 SectorMaxObject=256 Border=25000.0 MinHeight=0.5 MaxHeight=25000.0 [MapSettings] MapMaxSize=200000 MapMinSize=5000 MapInitSize=10000 MapScaleRate=5.0 ZoomControl=CAMERA_ZOOM_CONTROL [screenShot] FilenameFormat=img%05d.bmp MaxScreenShot=99999 SoundEffect=shutter.wav [TextStrings] GamePaused=TXT_FLT_GAME_PAUSED GameUnpaused=TXT_FLT_GAME_UNPAUSED TimeCompress=TXT_FLT_TIME_COMPRESS NormalTime=TXT_FLT_NORMAL_TIME TimeSet=TXT_FLT_TIME_SET StartFlight=TXT_FLT_START_FLIGHT WaitJoin=TXT_FLT_WAIT_JOIN [skipToNext] Timer=3.0 FadeTimer=1.0 SkipToNextView=FlybyView AutoPilotCommand=AUTO_PILOT [startView] StartView000=ShoulderView StartView001=CockpitFront [inFlightChat] TargetText=ChatTarget.str RepeatDelay=0.5 RepeatRate=0.1 CursorFlashTime=0.4 CursorString= Thanks again. Mike

This may sound like a "duh" question, but how does one add new ac to OFF? I've downloaded the Br XIV model from the Combatace download area, and have copied the files to the "obvious", natural locations, but OFF still can't "see" it. Advice please anyone? Mike

Hi Olham In fact, as with many other things, the air services in WW1 were a lot more sophisticated than they are often given credit for nowadays. Artillery Observation, or "Art Obs", is a case in point. I recommend <http://www.firstworldwar.com/airwar/observation.htm> for an excellent summary of aerial recce development and practice during the Great War. The following discussion of Art Obs (mainly about RFC practice) is from this site: Artillery observation also required a crew of two. It was a complex business. The wireless equipment was too bulky and heavy for planes to carry both a transmitter and a receiver, so the aircraft flew with a transmitter only. A plane would service a particular artillery battery, and before takeoff the battery's target was confirmed. Once in the air the observer had to identify his battery and the target. He would then transmit a message ordering it to fire. He could usually differentiate shells that belonged to his battery by measuring the time from when they had fired till the explosion in the vicinity of the target. From 1915 onwards the corrections, transmitted in Morse, were in the "clock code": a letter was used to indicate the distance from the target (the letters Y, Z, A, B, C, D, E and F representing distances of 10, 25, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 yards respectively) and a number in the range 1-12 representing the direction from the target (with 12 indicating due north of the target, and 6 representing due south of the target). The RFC pioneered successful artillery spotting at the Battle of the Aisne. A feature of this battle, which was quite typical of the entire Western Front, was that the Germans occupied higher ground. After the first two days the German gun positions were never visible to the British, being hidden behind the Chemin des Dames ridge. The daily reconnaissance and observation flights were an absolute necessity for the British gun batteries. As in reconnaissance flights, artillery observation required the planes to fly steady, predictable routes. In addition to anti-aircraft fire and enemy fighters, observation aircraft suffered a third danger, and this was from the artillery shells themselves. They typically flew at an altitude similar to the apex of the artillery shell's flight, and they flew along a line between the guns and their targets. It was not unusual for the pilot or observer to actually see the shell as it stopped at the top of its climb before plummeting downward. It was not unknown for the planes to be hit by those shells. Artillery observation became so important that part of Falkenhayn's strategy at Verdun was to blind the French artillery by knocking out their observation planes and balloons. At the time the Germans had control of the air, and the losses suffered by the observation aircraft were appalling. Nevertheless they continued flying and the French artillery was not blinded. The bravery of the airmen in fulfilling this dangerous and unglamorous work is seldom remarked. What this doesn't tell, is that typical British practice was for the pilot to make the observations, and tap out corrections to the battery using his Morse key. The gunner kept watch on the sky, not the ground, on the lookout for hostile ac. The spotting ac flew a figure-of-eight pattern between the target and the battery (which could be 10 miles apart for heavy field artillery, or even more for the big railway guns), with the latter signalling to the crew using a system of cloth panels laid out on the ground. The ac radio set used a long trailing aerial wound down beneath the ac, with a heavy weight at the end to keep it in position. It could be rather embarrassing if the gunner forgot to wind this in before landing! Finally, although I have no details to hand, I believe that in late 1918 the RAF was experimenting with ac-to-ac voice radio communication (using Bristol Fighters I think). As I said, things were a lot more sophisticated than people often believe now - for example check out this reference to a WW1 German wire-guided air-launched missile! <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_torpedo_glider> Mike

Tried posting this before, but I don't think it registered. I have a couple more questions about this clipping thing, what is it and how does it work? What is the relationship between [FarSceneClip], [NormalSceneClip] and [NearSceneClip], and how do these relate to the [***DetailOption] sections? BTW, for PanamaRed, I'm afraid your last line above confused me a wee bit. If you set NearClipDistance>3000.0, what do you do with FarClipDistance? Lastly, when you say values like 35000 or 40000, do you mean 3500.0 or 4000.0? Sorry for so many questions, but this excellent sim is so laden with options, it takes ages to comprehend them all. What I'm trying to do now, is optimise the horizon fade so that I can make best use of PanamaRed's new sky and Stary's new terrains.. these make it like a whole new sim! Mike

Still experimenting with ways of getting rid of the hard-edged haze, now looking at the flightengine.cfg file. What do the following settings do? I'm wondering if adjusting one or both of them may move the hard edge out to or beyond the limit of vision? [FarSceneClip] FarClipDistance=15000.0 NearClipDistance=149.9 [unlimitedDetailOption] HorizonDistance=7000.0 DetailMeshSize=6 DetailLevel=0 WaterEffect=1 NoiseTexture=0 MaxTextureRes=256 Thanks Mike

Been having a bit of bother in OFF with momentary "whited-out" tiles when I look around fast with my TrackIR. They only show for a fraction of a second, but it's enough to destroy the immersion factor. Tried various tweaks to try to fix this, and in the process have found that I can't get the cfs3config utility to hold any Antialiasing setting other than "None". If I set it to "2 samples" or "4 samples" or "8 samples" then close it, when I reopen it's back to "None". Has anyone else experienced this, how does one fix it? Thanks Mike

Well I've been trying, with Antialiasing at 4x and 8x, and Anisotropic at 8x and 16x, but no joy, please see attachments (at least I've hacked the screen capture thing). Thought - should I change the Antialiasing line in the FE Options file from "=0", and if so, to what? Ta Mike

Thanks for your response, PanamaRed, And let me say right away that your sky mod has _not_ been the cause of this problem, it was a pre-existing condition. If anything, your mod seems to have actually reduced the problem, but it's still there. I realised that I owed you data on my video card settings, here they are: Anisotropic filtering: Application-controlled Antialiasing - Gamma correction: On Antialiasing - Mode: Application-controlled Antialiasing - Setting: Application-controlled Antialiasing - Transparency: Off Comfornant texture clamp: Use hardware Error reporting: Off Extension limit: Off Force mipmaps: None Maximum pre-rendered frames: 3 Multi-display/mixed GPU acceleration: Multiple display performance mode SLI performance mode: NVIDIA recommended Texture filtering - Anisotropic sample opti..: Off Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias: Allow Texture filtering - Quality: Quality Texture filtering - Trilinear optimisation: On Threaded optimisation: Auto Triple buffering: Off Vertical sync: Use the 3D application setting I also owe you descriptions of the games graphics settings. These are: Object Detail=High Object Texture=Unlimited Cockpit Texture=Unlimited Effects Detail=High Shadows=High Terrain Detail=Medium Terrain Texture=High HorizonDistance=Very Far Ground Objects=High WaterDetail=High The problem I am getting is similar to Quack74's screen capture (how do I do _that_?), except that the more distant tiles are light and "hazy", not dark as in his picture. Mike

Okeydokey PR: 1. Broken wx 2. Flanders 3. [GraphicsOptions] DisplayDeviceID=0 DisplayWidth=1024 DisplayHeight=768 DisplayDepth=32 AspectRatio=1.333333 LensFlare=2 DetailLevel=4 ObjectDetail=2 ObjectTexture=3 CockpitTexture=3 CockpitMirrors=1 CockpitReflection=1 EffectsDetail=2 TerrainDetail=1 TerrainTexture=2 HorizonDistance=3 GroundObjectDensity=2 WaterDetail=2 CloudsDetail=0 Shadow=3 AntiAliasing=0 4. Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT (but not sure what you mean by settings, which ones, there are lots but I am just using the installed defaults) I'd also post a screen capture if I could, but don't know how. Thanks Mike

Hmm Don't want to be a curmudgeonly curmudgeon or anything like that, but is this really realistic? After all, engines in the aircraft of this period were probably the most securely attached item in the whole airframe. After almost 50 years of reading all kinds of WW1 aviation literature, I have never yet read a single reference to anyone's engine falling out. Guns, seat cushions, bars of chocolate, observers, whole wings, yes, and some ac (eg DH2) did have a distressing habit of shedding the occasional cylinder, but never a whole _engine_. For me this therefore seems a disturbingly arcadish diversion to what is otherwise the most realistic WW1 sim ever. Is there any way this "option" can be switched off? Mike

Fixed it. In the [Fuselage] section of the DH4_DATA file, I just changed ShowFromCockpit= from "FALSE" to "TRUE". Gunner now shows up. Mike

I mean the *cockpit.ini file of course!

First of all, many many thanks to all who participated in this excellent new aicraft model (looking forward to the DH9 now - wonder if the FE flight model is smart enough to factor in frequent random engine failures?) Just one teensy observation though. When I fly the DH4 and look "behind" me - the gunner's cockpit is empty. Is there a simple fix for this? (BTW I have adjusted the left & right pilot view yaw limits in the *data.ini file to 190 degrees either way - I always like to see what's on my tail). Mike