Siggi

I think you're thinking about ressurecting a dead pilot, which is not my problem. But thanks anyway mate.

Well, it looks like my graphics config and key config were retained. Problem is I now have blue triangles up the kazoo when I pan fast. The NVidia CP settings apply to the CFS3.exe I believe, so I can't understand what's changed in the graphics dept to bring the blue triangles back. The sim no longer dumps one back to a black screen when the plane is shot to shinola, that's very cool. I just rode my flaming Camel all the way to the deck with no bottom wings. Screen went black when I hit the ground though, probably because my pilot was slightly killed. Not madly impressed by the wind noise, it sounds more like I'm standing on a desolate Siberian steppe in the middle of a blizzard than sitting in the cockpit of a biplane. I keep expecting to see wolves come charging into view. Not too impressed by the buffeting either, the effect is more like a damaged game-controller. I'll turn that off in the workshop. I don't recall seeing an option for it however...? If there isn't one, can one be provided? If there is, my apologies. Can't be dealing with it though, it just feels wrong. I'm pretty pissed off about losing my pilot, that's three and a half hours wasted (on top of over thirty hours with Sidney, who succumbed to corrupted files. MS and Win7 have a lot to answer for). I'll try copying the pilot files over and pray it works this time.

I reinstalled OFF, the 1.32 superpatch and the 1.32g minipatch (hotfix) over the existing install and the expansion went on ok. I did it that way in the vague hope it would retain my existing career, but everything has gone. So, the question is, can I copy over the campaign folder from my old install without porking the whole lot again? Did the expansion change anything in the original campaign files? Also my key configuration, can I copy that over from the old install to the new (and if so, where might it be?)? Thanks for all the help chaps.

I already tried copying it to C and running the install again, it made no difference. Just downloaded the expansion again, still no joy. I guess the only thing left to do is uninstall OFF and reinstall it. Strike one against Win7, it's inability to maintain a coherent pagefile has to be what's caused this, the pagefile going down must have corrupted an OFF file or something. Thanks once again MS.

I've done a search in the entire registry for OBD, every entry (and there are quite a few) come up as being in D. I'm going to download the expansion again, maybe it became corrupted.

The registry entry shows it as being on D.

In the third line you've provided, OFF is there and shown as being on the D drive. I'm stumped. Nope, everything is a default install to D. What should the directory be called, just in case it got changed on my rig somehow?

Bollocks, it doesn't see it on C either. Something is badly porked in my world of OFF. Thanks VP, I'll go have a shufti in the registry, maybe I can manually add any missing entries.

Nope, no joy. Last option before doing a total reinstall of the game (and losing my current career, control configuration and ARGH!) is to copy OFF to C etc.

Yeah Pol, I've had my E drive being lost by Win7 quite regularly, and my pagefile is on E. I think that when the pagefile becomes full Win7 doesn't clear it or something and 'loses' the entire drive. I had to reboot to find it again. I've now set Win7 to automatically handle the pagefile, instead of having a fixed lower and upper value. Not sure why any of that would pork the install of the expansion though, the registry is held in the OS on C drive surely.

Did a reboot, still no joy.

What the hell then? I was going to conclude this must be a Win7 issue, but you're running Win7 too. The OFF update and hotfix found the install ok.

No, I didn't manually copy OFF to D, it was properly installed there. I have a cunning plan...I shall put the expansion onto the D drive and try running it from there. Nope, that didn't work (further confirming that Baldric is indeed a cretin).

Hokay. >chewing fingernails<

My OFF is on my D drive. Clearly the installer is looking on the C drive. I don't see any opportunity to redirect the install. Any way to get around this? If I copy my OFF to the C drive, install the expansion, then copy OFF back to the D drive, will that work or will I trip over some registry issues?

Yay, downloading now.

WM, typically if you have vsync enabled your max framerate will be capped at the same value of your monitor's refreshrate. I have also read that it prevents lower FPS other than certain fractions of the max, but I have found that to be untrue in my case (which is good). Appraiser, I'm running at 2560 x 1600 on a 30".

Well, hang on a minute. I threw nearly £300 at this PC, a GTX285 to replace a GTX8800, and from that I've upped my sliders to 554455 and average a good 45+ fps. Almost never below 30fps and a lot of the time at 55-60fps (maxed out with vsync on and a refresh-rate of 60hz). I have a couple of issues with the game, namely low-level AI, crudish DMs and some other very nit-picky minor details, but taken in the round this sim is the finest available of any genre, past, present or forseeable future. I'll take depth of gameplay over any other component, within reason, and OFF has it in JCB-loads. A very good example of latest-gen simulation fare is RoF. Looks to die for, dumb as a brick. Sure, in an ideal world we'd see RoF married to OFF, the best of each melded into an unholy union. But as we can't and have to choose...do you want a one-night stand with a gorgeous blonde, or a long-term relationship with a very attractive and intelligent brunette?

No, I've named him after my uncle (who was actually named Valdimar, but hated that so he changed it to Frank). That side of the family (my mother's) are Icelandic. Thanks chaps. Hopefully I'll get a good run out of this one.

Furnes, France. Belgium. 11th Dec 1916. I meant to be on top of this diary from day one, but what with one thing and another this has been my first chance to make an entry. What ho. I arrived here on the 6th (dec 1916). The weather was atrocious and there was no flying until yesterday, which gave me a good chance to get settled into my quarters and meet all the chaps. I was also introduced to my machine, a rather worn, much patched and generally decrepit looking thing (Nieuport 17 scout). Yesterday morning was my first operational flight and I was rather left behind as the chaps in my flight climbed higher and faster than I was able. So for the second flight they put me in front, where they could keep an eye on me, and that will be the procedure from now on. This morning I bagged a hun, much to the suprise of everyone. We were given the job of patrolling over the lines, just a few miles from our field. We spotted various hun planes going about their business, and the chaps engaged a group of two-seaters strafing and bombing our boys in the trenches. I was under orders to stay high and out of it and learn what I could from observation. Shortly after that I spotted a hun scout, also engaged in the sport of strafing our chaps in the trenches. I felt obliged to disobey my orders and go after the blighter, as the others were still engaged with the two-seaters a good couple of miles further along the lines. I dived carefully towards him, and I don't mind admitting I was in a bit of a state, heart thumping and all that stuff. I got behind him and I don't think he can have noticed me, as he made another pass towards our trenches and began firing again. I closed the gap and as he levelled out, not much higher than a hundred feet or so, I gave him a good squirt. He noticed me then! He pulled to the left and went into a shallow climb, which made it easier than it could have been to stay on his tail. I continued firing into him until his engine set alight. Then he went down, pouring flames and smoke, and landed on a grassy patch just in front of our trenches. He was still burning as he rolled to a stop and I've been informed he remained in his cockpit and burned to a crisp. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It's not long to Christmas, and I'm sure he had a family somewhere who loved him and will now miss him dreadfully, and all the more so at this time of year. But then he was giving it to our boys in the trenches, and they have families too. I'm not sure how it will be over the Christmas period. I don't think I should like to be fighting on our Lord's birthday, it wouldn't seem right somehow. Maybe there will be a truce, one can but hope. Other notes...it's very cold and there are extensive patches of snow around and about. We are billeted in large tents, very damp and they don't hold the heat we make in the stoves very well. But we have it far better than the poor boys in the trenches. The flying itself is ok, the plane I have handles very well, though I'm told it can lose it's lower wings if given too much stress. That is a bit of a worry in fact, if it should come to having a hun on one's tail and needing to throw things around to get him off. I suppose that's a bridge I shall have to cross when I meet it. The CO and one of the other officer's have triplanes, and they are very nice. Hopefully we will get some ourselves.

More than likely, but that's what bucket email accounts are for.

That looks a bit more like it. I have SH3, gave SH4 a miss. One of my biggest complaints was how they didn't model all the compartments. And I hated the cut-down death scene. It's a very time-consuming game though, even using warp (which I didn't to begin with...eek! ).

You can make a personalised video-message from Santa to your kid, it's pretty cool. It's the same format for all messages, so if you did it for more than one child they'd probably rumble it's not Santa. http://portablenorthpole.tv/home

I have it, it's pretty good.

Happy birthday WM, hope the gals at the 'establishment' give you a good time.