Bandy

Ummmm, sorry guys, :blush2: but is there any consensus on getting Camelish behaviour out of the FM yet???

I agree, it does to some extent, but not consistently at all. I've found that the AAA smoke has a very random pattern, and can be more confusing. NOW, I've been flying mostly in the early part of the 1916 and 17, so maybe the archies/AAA is not as intense???

The 'style' of gameplay flying without TAC and labels would really benefit if the archie smoke let you know where distant aircraft are. Without beating a dead, or at least tired horse see my thesis post number 23 I think HERE Mr. Lucky, you say: Have you thought about simply using the in game map (keystroke M) to navigate? Then you don't need the TAC line to know the direction to head. If you are leading the flight, then ignore the double and triple circling, it is a PITA anyways... Just my 2 cents...

Returning to the OP topic, spotting aircraft... I've been really trying to fly without a TAC (or equivalent) display in BHaH because I've flown this way in other WWI sims and it is really more immersive and just a lot more rewarding/fun to simply look around with TIR, but am having a hard time in BHaH. My following comments here are not whinging, but trying to be truly constructive. The AC bogie 'white labels' only appear at distances not very realistic, and in short order if bogies are hostile then they are on top of you in an advantageous position. I think all would agree with this observation from experience. I'm going to get some flak (sadly, pun intended...) for bringing this up again, but if the AAA/archie was more active and concentrated (as it was historically) then you could indirectly locate (but not see) AC at realistic distances by the smoke puffs, white smoke was British/French, black smoke was German. Thus not only could you locate bogies, but indirectly determine if friend or foe! This IS how pilots historically used archie smoke; if you don't believe me, then please read some period memoirs. If many people do not want historically accurate AAA/archie for whatever personal/game reason, and I sincerely accept that (as judged by the earlier poll thread), could AAA have it's own slider separate from ground machine gun fire and aircraft mg's??? Developers, please consider this, and the potential game benefits. After all, one of the true strengths of OFF is the ability to set it the way you'd like to play it, not necessarily the way the vocal majority want it. Thank you for reading, best regards.

I subscribe to the camp, more is better, and too much is just right. I've never thought about that 'hit' sound much, thanks for bringing it to my attention, but now I'm thinking I'll find and lift that 'Hollywood Western' 30-30 ricochet sound when I fly SPADs for the U.S. Happy 4th!!!

Was doing some QC with the same mission in order to see effects of tweaking settings, and was flying DVII vs. SPAD XIII. My wingies (veteran setting) were virtually sharks in the air, all over the SPADs (ace setting), and I barely got a shot in edgewise. I witnessed one SPAD pilot jumping from his spinning and damaged machine. I didn't believe what I saw and froze the game to look, and sure enough, there was the pilot skydiving! I ran the QC mission again immediately without exiting QC, and witnessed the skydiving pilot phenomena again! I have NEVER seen this before, has anyone else in a different machine? ALSO, the flight model for the DVII seems very different between QC and campaign, but can't figure out how that would be.

Oh yah, seen/heard that pilot scream several times. Not sure how I feel about that, very strange effect. Also, I've never seen an aircraft literally explode before my eyes, I must have hit that SPAD in the upper wing gas tank, it just fell to pieces... Wow, what a rush!

I DO hear you, BUT I have to say that I'm disappointed thus far given the power of this 4870 card is supposed to have. I have an (older) well-engineered and excellently cooled workstation: 4 x 2.66 GHz (not that multi cores make any difference in OFF), 11 GB 667 RAM, and OFF played just as well on my nVidia Quadro 4500 512 MB. I will work on settings, but SOMETHING has to improve or else I just wasted money... Does your Asus already have an aftermarket cooler? The one Asus site I just looked at showed the same stock cooler as i saw on the 4870 I bought. Where are you playing OFF, in a meat locker? Before I put the Accelero cooler on it, my idle temps were at least 40 C, and under load 80 to 90 C. This is typical temps experienced by ALL others posting on NUMEROUS forums. You sure you aren't confusing your idle temps??? Better double check.

Resurrecting this post. Just got an XFX 4870 1 GB GPU at greatly reduced price of $150, and used the savings to get a 1920 x 1080 HDMI monitor. Now I've got to get everything working well together. Will try these extra settings/advice, but I have to say that so far there has NOT been anywhere near the improvement in FPS from my old(er) nVidia card with all settings the same (and those included the tweaks outlined in OFF recommendations). So I will cross my fingers... BTW: if you are running an ATI 4870, and the temperature and noise is getting you down, install an Accelero Twin Turbo aftermarket cooler. For just over $40 US (and an easy install to boot) it has dropped my idle temp 20 C, and at load over 30 C. No bull$hit, this cooler really works!

First off, I'm not sure how to vote here, since the choices are ambiguous: overbalanced/underbalanced in what direction and relative to whom??? Better clarify this soon so the poll reflects true intentions, ie: no hanging chads... I believe I have AI accuracy settings on hard, though I do not remember a specific AAA setting in the workshop... I remember reading that it would affect ground MG's as well. They should be separate. As I mentioned in the other P4 post, currently the Anti-aircraft artillery or AAA, (as opposed to ground fire machine guns is entirely separate) in campaign is not realistic at all since the flak bursts are going off miles away from their targets. Sometimes the bursts are closer to me than the targets --and I can barely see the enemy I'm sneaking up on! Remember, white puffs are Allied, black are German. This resulted from frustrated early P3 complaints about being killed and game balance. I agreed at that point, after loosing many early pilots, but the pendulum swung too far to the other side. If you've read any WWI accounts, the pilots really didn't worry about AAA but had to dodge the bursts none-the-less; if they flew without dodging only then would they get nailed. The bursts also helped them identify distant aircraft that they couldn't see, and that would significantly help the game/graphics/monitor limitation of pixels and viewing distance that is in EVERY flight sim. So I argue (in the good sense of argue) that the AAA bursts need to be more concentrated around the target than they are currently. They shouldn't have the same deadliness that WWII AAA would have, since it is WWI after all, and they didn't have proximity fuses, but had to hand set the range of the shells.

Actually, there are at least two VERY good windloop sounds in game, but the engine loop volume just needs to be balanced with it. They are so good I tried to import these windloops in my other WWI sims, but then they drown out the engine loop I'm not much of an audio guy... Having the AAA gunners transferred to "service" the Women's Balloon Corp is on yer "Orgasm list"??? Kinky

Forum inactive!?! You kidding??? 1) When making a claim the number of aircraft you've shot down is requested as part of the claim of course. Many times (because of the furball intensity) I'm not sure if the AI I nailed ended up crashing or just splitarsed out of the fight as they often do on you (I tend to not follow them down to maintain altitude/energy). However, after filling the claim form the game basically tells you if your claim is incorrect based on the number claimed! I think it would be more realistic if we filled out claims WITHOUT the game telling us it was incorrect and then the game can quietly reject them on that basis (thus it is your fault, but based on the confusion of the fight!). Your claims that DO match the true number you shot down can have a better %chance to be accepted to balance it out. 2) I REALLY hope the ambience can be returned for the AA artillery/archie/ack-ack. While it certainly was too accurate before, resulting in poor game balance, it is basically emasculated now to the point where the bursts are going off literally miles away from their target. 3) I doubt it'll happen based on limits of TIR4 support in CFS3, but when leaning into the screen only the cockpit zooms in, distant objects (such as aircraft or terrain) do not get bigger. This would have a profound effect on the ability to see objects at realistic distances. Currently the distance to see aircraft on screen is too short. However, this could be offset by having active archie puffs around distant aircraft showing us aircraft otherwise too small to see --white puffs allied, black puffs German, which is historically accurate IYDK. 4) Can the in-game map "pop-up window" at least resemble the terrain a bit more so we can navigate by some terrain features, such as rivers, cities, roads, etc.? Currently the popup map is kinda abstract, except for providing the basic orientation and location. Otherwise loving the game ferociously!!!

You know, I swear all you do is automatically take up a contrary position to everything I post. Perhaps you need to read my posts a bit better before you jump to conclusions. I said that an unjam key will give you a percent CHANCE to unjam your gun. It ain't going to happen on the first try all the time. It would be like pulling the cocking levers on the MGs, or hitting them with a hammer rather than sitting on your pasty a$$ simply waiting for them to unjam. Where is the reality? Where is the immersion??? Think about it

PanamaR. I sent a PM, but here is the same text. I think I know the TGA problem you are talking about with the river tiles, and perhaps coast tiles as well. Correct me if wrong, but Edward's Flanders terrain does not have complete TGA files for the coast, so you get patchy water animation... I do not have the perfect answer, but I managed to modify winter Cambrai and Vogesen tiles that provided the correct water animation as well as the mask for the surrounding "ground" painting (so the water animation does not show through there). What I did (and you will have to play with this a bit to get it to work for you...) is to: 1) take the stock 3rd Wire Cambrai river tile you want to modify and open it in an image adjustment program that supports layers and alpha channels (Photoshop I use, Gimp (is a free download), but don't know if the program you mentioned supports these features). 2) add your "painted" ground tile as a layer over the top of the existing tile. It can be any regular ground tile you choose, but try to choose one that accommodates where the river will be. Image size and resolution must match original and the tile you choose to overlay. 3) Change the opacity of your tile layer so you can see the edge of the river. Then simply erase your paint where you want the river to show through. Make sure the edge is feathered a bit so that there is a good transition. 4) Make your layer 100% opacity again, and copy and paste some "tree texture" from other tiles so there are some trees along the river (which also hides any mistakes of lining up river tiles). I've also found that adding a drop shadow along the river shore can give some nice 3D effect from the air. ALL this erasing, painting, drop shadow etc. happens on your layer, LEAVE THE STOCK TILE LAYER ALONE. 5) Save it as a TGA file and try it out in game. River tiles are a real *pain* to get the shorelines lined up just right. I had to go through the procedure several times (!) to make sure no seams showed up. Take screen shots in game of mistakes to correct in your image program. Trial and error. It takes longer than you expect!!! But I was a terrain tile noob when I started. 6) if it doesn't work the first time, try it again with a different TGA file, or fiddle with the basic procedure above, such as merging layers first and then saving as TGA. I never did figure out exactly what to do, but managed to work around by manipulating a stock tile with my painted layer over top of it, then saving. If you haven't already, download my Cambrai and Vogesen winter tiles from CombatAce, open them up in your image program and have a good look at what I did to get some ideas. Good luck! PS: if you continue to have problems PM me again, and we'll arrange something so I can help a bit more.

I have never experienced a jam in BHAH so apparently I'm doing something right, but I should have based on historical accounts of it happening not only from heat, but bad rounds, firing during high-G maneuvers, etc. There really should be an unjam key though, and it shouldn't automatically unjam them at a single hit, but give you a % chance to unjam. If possible, a more random jam and a keystroke to provide a CHANCE to unjam would be nice for immersion...

Well, that's not particularly helpful now to him is it? Rooster, From what you describe (I cannot see it in the pic you post) AND this is just a guess, but it sounds like the graphics interface all flight sims must have between close/detailed terrain (resource intensive) and the less detailed far-out-to-the-horizon terrain. That makes sense because you describe it as a box around your aircraft. If you have a strong (!) graphics card you may be able to ameliorate this artifact by increasing the terrain settings at the cost of FPS. If you have an old card, there's the rub... OR, you could turn up the radio I suppose, if you want to have an attitude.

I haven't been online since I posted on pg 1. This thread is a very mature perspective on the issue, hat's off to you gentlemen. Somebody asked about what I thought was good about FE, and that isn't as important as the overall discussion here, besides Thumper41 did a good job... But in a nutshell, FE is as good as you want to make it by spending time modding it which is very rewarding for some, but not necessarily everybody's cup of tea. The code is as open as TK could make it (TK is 3rd Wire), and while some may find this modding a PITA (and it is on occasion...), there is a beautiful freedom there, as well as a sense in sharing beyond only playing the game for the community it has created. I have poked around in some of the OFF-BHAH files, but it ain't obvious what does what yet to me... I feel somewhat trapped in somebody else's view of a WWI sim (and history is as subjective as it gets, trust me!). I would prefer to have a more active AAA-Archie presence, but that has been taken out by the patches... That said, once I realized that the BHAH missions aren't scripted --that you could fly nearly anywhere and get action and be surprised -- that made a huge difference for me! THAT IS UNIQUE AND AMAZING!!! I could list a number of issues where the sims could share traits and be vastly improved. Most of the drawbacks with BHAH are due to the limits of CFS3 (sorry it's true), such as in TIR4 when you lean into the screen only the cockpit features get zoomed in, not the features in the distance like aircraft. You should be able to zoom in on distant objects to see better at a distance, but it is not supported. These aircraft should be seen at a greater distance, but that is a weakness of all sims and hardware. However I do want to be able to fly with ONLY the in-game BHAH map, but the map's rivers, roads, cities and what I see from the cockpit do not match up. If the in-game map can be improved THAT would be GREAT. FE does not have as good a damage model as BHAH which has a great one, but FE's flight model is better. Spin an aircraft in FE sometime --it truly feels out of control and you struggle to correct-- where as in BHAH all I have to is automatically apply opposite rudder and I'm out of it without a problem for the most part unless I flew into a cloud, then all bets are OFF. Then on the other hand, I cannot feel as though since the FE game engine is basically a child of jet sims that it doesn't entirely reflect stick and canvas kites. I don't know where 'reality' is here... Again, as I mentioned when BHAH first came out here LINK that the best WWI sim would combine features of both. I still mean that... BOTH have great community members and developers that truly love and care about the sims they've created. I do not care to choose one over the other. I love WWI flight sims, and would buy and play them all, but the marketing strategy with the online connection of RoF has turned me completely off.

You know, since you started this thread re: another WWI flight sim, I don't feel too badly about mentioning this. THERE IS ANOTHER EXCELLENT FLIGHT SIM CALLED FIRST EAGLES (FE) from ThirdWire released towards the end of 2006, and man it has come a long way with a strong 3rd party community of modders. (have a look under the WWI forum and downloads list here at Combat Ace). Some of you guys act like OFF-BHAH is the only "outstanding" WWI flight sim available. While BHAH has some truly great aspects to it, FE also has excellent aspects, and excels on some points where BHAH just cannot. In fact, the perfect WWI sim would involve the best of each. I play both ALL the time and browse/post on both forums; I'm just getting tired of the ignorance portrayed by some here, whether intentional or just not aware of the options. Maybe this ain't a popular opinion or place say it, but there it is... START THE ARCHIE

Thank you once again Peter01; just when you think you've got some time and are caught up with the mods, you release another update! :cray: Oh sweet misery....

Yeah, I remember some pretty funny early intercept missions with a gaggle of zeppelins running into each other all over the sky and crashing etc... On the other hand, and not that I ever got into helo's but if helo's can be made to work in SFP-1, why not a zep? Hinchinbrook's zep was a fine target (in a very defenseless sort of way) and more for ambiance than anything else, but as long as the new one can float, fire back, do a basic turn, and the AI really REALLY toned down to stone-age intelligence, why not? It really doesn't need to be necessarily player flyable. I can only imagine some modder wishing it was perfect, but after all his time working on it, just release it AS IS maybe.

Bump, just to keep these wonderful projects within memory.

Thanks Laton, Yet another one of those funky mysteries, why some and not others?

Yep, main Aircraft folder, not individual aircraft folders (that's right, right?). I just haven't had time to trouble shoot like I should be doing.

OK, sorry to be so long getting back, it's just REAL LIFE stuff... I've flown 'Instant Action' in the 3rd wire A/C without modded data ini's and the SPAD and DVII are missing pilots. I went to my solid FE backup and restored the pilot files from there, and STILL no go, no pilots. This is very weird, and glad I'm not the only one, otherwise I'd feel that the gods of flight sims were truly against me. Swapping out a video card and my TIR4 drivers are as buggered as I've ever seen them, and I cannot get the camera to initialize on my OFF partition, though it runs fine on the FE partition... Go figure. I've found the TIR4 drivers to be flakier than the ATI drivers...

One convert, so many more to go... Not that it is absolutely necessary, but try to find Vol 1 to read first (I'll even mail you my copy if I have to :yes:). Many of the books are currently out of print, but there have been SO many additions over the years (originally written in the 1960's to 70's) that you can score a used copy almost anywhere for pennies. I also forgot to mention that they have won several humour awards...