Bandy

20 to 30" in less than 24 hours; means lots of sim time!!! My copilot says "Cherrio!"

OvS, that is a beautiful picture. Always great to be in the right place at the right time, AND with a camera! Ok, I'm an expat Canadian and lived there into my early 30's (both Northern Ontario and S. Ontario) and I never experienced the concentrated winter weather like we just had in the D.C. area. The U.S. Federal Gov'm has been shut down ALL week, at a loss of 100 million dollars a day. That ain't pocket change... I live in a small townhouse community, and there just isn't any more room to put the white stuff. The snowbank along my parking spots is 8+ feet high, mostly from human effort (yours truly, I'm downing ibuprophen like candy for my shoulder issues!) but other people are shoveling it into the street, basically adding insult to injury, and passing the problem onto their neighbours when the plow comes by, whenever that will be.... The side streets are basically impassible. Now that things are melting we have icicles of Gothic proportions! That one you see below (to the left of the second story window with black shutters) is at least 8 feet long, the camera angle doesn't do it justice...

Well, instant action is also meant for those who are modding or tweaking graphics settings to get best sim performance/graphics quality out of their rig while flying FE. In that context you do NOT want to change any mission settings or aicraft other than the tweaks you made, then look at FPS while in instant action to see the results of the tweak. So like the fellow with the unintelligible forum handle says, you have to go into the instant action file to make the change if you desire. Hopes this makes some sense now.

Thanks quack74, aye there's the rub (or bump!). While seasonal terrain textures may not be included, it should be a simple matter of editing the terrain.ini file in each terrain folder (my copy from Cambrai folder below NB: I have changed the weather settings so revert to stock values in each season...), and then make sure you have the season folders (and tiles!) in the terrain folder, and that the folder names match the seasons you inserted into the ini code. Grab the seasonal tiles from FE (if you like monochrome), or use 3rd party tiles here at CA. If this works, let us know, I'll buy a copy then [Terrain] TerrainFullName=Cambrai, France DataFile=wwiCambrai_data.INI TargetFile=wwiCambrai_targets.INI TargetTypeFile=wwiCambrai_types.INI MovementFile=wwiCambrai_movement.INI NationsFile=wwiCambrai_nations.INI BriefingText=wwiCambrai_briefing.INI DogfightFile=wwiCambrai_dogfight.INI DogfightOnly=FALSE Longitude=5.221 Latitude=49.176 [Map] FilenameFormat=wwiCambrai_Map%d.bmp Width=250000.0 Height=250000.0 NumZoomLevels=3 [WeatherChance] ScatteredChance=25 BrokenChance=25 OvercastChance=17 InclementChance=8 [season001] Directory=Deep Snow StartDate=1/1 EndDate=2/26 ScatteredChance=30 BrokenChance=25 OvercastChance=5 InclementChance=1 [season002] Directory=Spring StartDate=02/27 EndDate=05/31 ScatteredChance=40 BrokenChance=25 OvercastChance=5 InclementChance=1 [season003] Directory=Summer StartDate=06/01 EndDate=08/31 ScatteredChance=25 BrokenChance=25 OvercastChance=5 InclementChance=1 [season004] Directory=Fall StartDate=09/01 EndDate=10/31 ScatteredChance=25 BrokenChance=40 OvercastChance=5 InclementChance=1 [season005] Directory=Snow StartDate=11/01 EndDate=12/31 ScatteredChance=25 BrokenChance=35 OvercastChance=10 InclementChance=1

Gee Peter, bet that aspect of FE2 has you on edge like the rest of us. Please let us know what you find, and I sincerely hope for your peace-of-mind that your current FM work is recoverable, and 3rd party AC can be inserted over at least the short term. That would be a deal breaker for me in the interim. As far as stalls go, perhaps my experience with flight sims isn't particularly broad (and I'm not a RL pilot, so don't know!), but as far as that goes, I find FE stalls and spins to be the best of what I've simmed thus far. Not saying that there isn't room for improvement, there always is, and I'm sure stalls in RoF give you that sinking pit-of-the-stomach feeling but I choose not to support that effort. Not that there is anything wrong with those who choose to do so...

I agree with you Gr.V there is some bump mapping on certain portions of skins, as seen better on this image I lifted off 3rdWire website below. The machine gun barrels have good bump (maybe best seen on the image full size HERE), but look at the shadow across the underside of the upper wing along the ribs; no bump mapping there. Proof of concept perhaps. The first screen shot posted in the OP of the Camel taking off shows bump on the airfield, but the ability to implement this for terrain textures was already in FE1. After looking around on 3rdWire website I'm not seeing any definitive statements on what is different from FE1, and there should be no illusions or mystery, though hype sells I suppose. Sorry to sound negative, that is not my intent, I just wish to be an informed consumer b/c things are tough lately. BTW, why hasn't anyone posted screenies of the wreckage? I'd love to see that...

Sorry Gr.V I'm not seeing serious bump mapping in that pic at all. Maybe just the tiniest bit across the black of the cross on the upper wing, that's it. Not saying it ain't there, but waiting for better proof. Could someone take pics from the cockpit? That's where it would really matter. And BTW, I suspect one has to have shadows enabled for bump mapping to be worth while, which means a performance hit. Has shadow rendering been improved? I'll be the first (well, one of the first) to support TK, but I'm not seeing enough to justify the full purchase price. But hey, just my pragmatic Scottish side coming out!

Many thanks Peter, as always you are too good to us.

Peter, To go back to your massive opus FM pack release last summer, one thing I have noticed are problems with the N17 FM, and posted a thread to it a while back, link HERE. I won't reiterate the whole thread, but the AI flying N17's just are not flying combat effectively, if flying at all. They are like pilots in training, deathly afraid to turn or even climb. The early Nieuports are some of my favourite crates to fly and hope this can be resolved, because as Bucky mentioned, what you do is all black magic voodoo to most of us... @ Bucky, not sure why you want to get rid of the Aldis, it is an excellent gunsight once you get used to it. Have you lowered the magnification for the Aldis? It had columnating lenses, and so was not a telescopic sight as TK has it in the stock ini file (or has he changed it?). Do you have TIR? If not, then I could also see your issue with it, it wouldn't be as effective as a ring site.

Get the freaking engine started ASAP, get the chocks out, and everyman for himself! Have fun, I look forward to them, kind of a nice wake up call to break the mission monotony.

I can appreciate and admire your dedication to long standing members of the community, however I'm not a newbie, and I respectfully disagree with your statistics after more than a year here and before at SOH. While we all feel like writing "RTFM" every once in a while, the OP was not approaching that situation with his question. It is sad when online faceless bully-tactics on new members is perceived as "charming". But hey, just my faceless opinion.

The OFF damage model continues to amaze me, if it wasn't for the fact that I seem to always be on the receiving end of it Saw torn and flapping canvas the other day. Maybe I'm just blind, or near sighted (I have to fly afterall!) but the AI don't seem to experience the same effects. Likely a limit to allow the game to proceed at some reasonable pace.

A leash comes to mind for diplomats of that ilk, and from what I've read this ain't the first time... That kind of response should never be allowed, especially to a new community member. Moderators where are you? It simply tarnishes this otherwise friendly community.

There is a Cadillac under there somewhere... Hope the government decides to shut down, because I can't move. Had 3 or 4 serious brown outs yesterday, but I think the danger of power outages is past.

Also in airfield.ini, I changed the Touchdown value from 200 to 100 (or did I lower it to 200? you'll see if you open it), and managed to get the AI to land in the middle of the field when coming home, and then they run out to the edge of the field instead of off it into the trees... Try it out. [Runway001] Heading=0 Offset=0,0 Length=480 Width=280 LaunchAll=TRUE TouchDown=0,200 <<<<<<0,100 here

That's a really good introductory list to CAM. And more interesting because while the basics are the basics, so much must have changed from airplane to airplane as technology got better (engines and aeronautics). That's a flick roll, there was a big thread on this a few months back. Sorry, off topic...

It is an interesting question because AFAIK in various CFS3 mods (ETO, MAW, etc...) their devs have included AI only versions of aircraft that are easier to render for the system, lower polys, less bloated textures. This could help those experiencing performance problems.

Sounds like an interesting mod. Rotary pilots blipping was constant to maintain formation, etc. Should be included in an official patch IMHO, or at least an option to activate the blip, i.e. Blip Switch active/inactive, though only rotaries had blip switches. You could also map the Blip switch to a joystick button, and I know with my Logitec at least I can program repeats, so one hit of the js button means two. The 3 second blipped engine leading to engine-kill is a limitation though, and this time should be increased to maybe 10 secs for it to be realistic, but I'm sure somebody has more accurate knowledge here. Blipping the engine AFAIK didn't kill it, at least not within 3 secs.

Thanks Peter! Still struggling through your winter campaigns. Now that there is lots of snow on the ground outside, it just seems right!

You can retro-fit any old campaign for more recently available 3rd party download aircraft by editing the two ini files in any particular campaign folder. ie: WWI/Campaigns/WinterWar1916/winterwar.ini and winterwarDATA.ini So say you want a certain squadron to have DVa's instead of PfalzIII, or to be more historically accurate and remove Dr1's from most of the squadrons in the early fall of 1917 when they were only prototypes released to a few aces like Voss. Choose the squadron number in one campaign.ini file and change its available aircraft to the exact name of the folder of the aircraft. But first make sure the aircraft is available for the dates the campaign is in motion! Otherwise I'm pretty sure they will never show up, and that's boring. Go to the other ini in the campaign folder and edit the a/c to match that squadron number. IMPORTANT: make sure both files sync for squadron's available aircraft! It is easiest to have both files open side by side, and to scroll to each squadron entry. Winterwar1916_DATA.ini: ... //----------------------------------------------------------------------------- // Player Units, RAF [AirUnit001] AircraftType=Fe8 <<<<<<<<edit Squadron=1AFC ForceID=1 Nation=RAF ... WinterWar1916.ini: ... [RAFUnit001] UnitName=No. 1 Squadron, AFC ForceID=1 UnitID=1 StartDate=11/22/1916 AircraftType=Fe8 <<<<<<<<<<<<<match here DescFile=No1AFCSquadron.txt StartText=WinterWar1916StartAllied.txt StartScreen=wwiStartBritish.bmp CampaignBaseScreen=wwiBaseSE5a.bmp [RAFUnit002] ... I've gone into several old camapigns and mixed available aircraft up some for variety (sometimes totally non-historical assignments for a squadron, oh well...), it makes for a far more interesting campaign mission when you can't predict what the NME will throw at you, rather than knowing it'll always be SPAD's to the south, Camels to the north, or... You get the idea...

12 OC, Just for the heck of it, and only if interested, download the trial version of Process Lasso HERE and see if it helps. It has a 'game mode' which is performance related (duh!) and will override any hidden "green" settings, as well as let you push all background processes to core 2 (cpu 3 & 4), letting you run sim.exe on cpu 1 and TIR on cpu2 if you have it. You decide where things run. The alternative is to have to set these affinities manually on each reboot AFAIK. When the trial ends your settings are still good and you use it indefinately, but there is a brief nag screen.

Morris, If anything, but only in my humble opinion, OFF improved in FPS when I installed Win7 x64 after running OFF in XP x32 on my 3 year old workstation. The extra RAM has to help all others things being relatively equal system wise. I do NOT run OFF in XP compatibility mode under win7, just as admin, though many say they seem to need to run it under XP SP2 compatibility. Who knows!?! Make sure you try various compatibility modes first using the very same quick combat mission. Hardware related? Who the h_ll knows... If you have multicore look at a process affinity utility. Put all system/background processes on core 2, run the sim and TIR on core 1. Split it up more if more cores, leaving just OFF on one cpu... Although I must agree with you, I expected much better performance of this sim than I'm getting (though I'm sure people are sick of hearing that) . I can run CFS3-ETO nearly maxed out, and it is just as system intensive. Out of sheer necessity I fly only in 1916 to 1917 because any later campaign is pure painful in FPS and stutter, my alternatively being I turn it all down and it looks like the bloody dog and cat's breakfast on the farm. It gives me a sheer headache. HitR is terrible performance wise, I uninstalled it... 4 x 2.66 GHz 11 GB RAM 667 (like I said, a 3 year old system) XFX 4870 1 GB etc...

Yah, those cars aren't going anywhere soon... You know something, funny you mentioned it. My wife was so sweet, she stopped by and picked me up two 6-packs of Flying Dog IPA and Double IPA, local beer for me while I was stuck at work yesterday.

From John W. Stuart Gilchrist (1966) "An Aerial Observer in World War I" privately published. In his discussion as an observer in a Salmson for 99th Squadron: A neat bit of history should you wish to mod convergence of observer dual guns as well as your tracer loadings, at least in the Salmsons flying for Yank squads. Who knows what the other nations did, but I imagine not too much differently. While he may be technically inaccurate, in that his "tracer" is not the true incendiary ordinance used on balloons, you have to admit it makes you think about holed petrol tanks that didn't catch fire in WWI. Perhaps in those instances the petrol tank wasn't hit by the odd tracer (which does contain phosphorous that burns, thus leaving the smoke behind...). Also, I'll admit an equally plausible scenario, gasoline fumes are much more flammable so tanks could have been hit below the fill line.

Never heard of this problem with any 3rd party a/c and joysticks. I used Saitek AV8R before going to Logitec FFB, and have not had issues like this. I wouldn't think it is hardware related, but you never know. What does it do in other sims? Shut down the joystick management software and just try it plug-in-play. Try new drivers? Try uninstalling drivers/reinstall. How does it act when you calibrate it?