RAF_Louvert

. I actually enjoy the challenge of the DH2 and had a campaign pilot crack the 100 hour mark with 24 RFC throughout Bloody April and beyond. But he ultimately ended up digging turnips for the duration somewhere in the hinterlands of the German Empire. I'm with BH, "real" men do indeed fly the DH2 or Fee at this time of the altercation. .

. That is good news Andy and Wodin! Glad to know the download and my instructions worked for you Gents. Wodin, yes, you will have to go in and make the needed changes manually as I did not attempt to try and rewrite the coding of the sim, (even if I knew how). And to the DFC, it was not even instituted as an award by the King until 3 June 1918, so in reality if you are flying before that date you should be presented with the Military Cross, (or the British Distinguished Service Cross if you're flying for the RNAS). Also, if you were flying as a Sergeant you can now switch that DFC for the Military Medal, and further if you are flying in the Flanders region or serving with Belgian troops you can also use the Belgian Croix de Guerre as well. Options man, you now have options. Cheers! Lou .

. Many thanks Olham, Dej, Wodin, gordohk, elephant, and plug_nickel. Andy, yes I did disable the old link while I wrapped up the final changes. And those changes are completed. I've decided I'm as done as I'm going to be with these. I have just uploaded the RAR file to the OFF downloads section, so it should be available soon. Here is what you will be getting in the finished set: Many thanks again for all the input and kudos on this project, and I hope you folks enjoy the new eye candy for you Pilot's Pages. More bling is always better. Cheers! Lou .

. Thank you Olham and Hasse Wind, I hope these will be an enhancement you'll enjoy. I am making another tweak to all the images I've been working on, based on feedback received from Dej and on the velvet image Olham sent me, both of which started me on a scrutiny of the rather flat-looking backgrounds I was originally using. After some experimenting with different textures I've settled on a crushed velvet which looks very much like that used on the inside of actual medal presentation cases. Here are examples of those I've swapped over to the new background: I believe this one minor change really makes the medals pop. Thanks to Dej and Olham for serving as a fine pair of muses. And any additional feedback on this project will be much appreciated as I've been working on it long enough now that it's getting a bit tricky to see with a fresh eye. Cheers! Lou .

. Good Morning All, Gaw, many thanks Sir. My pleasure to help with the little improvements that are within my abilities. Olham, there is no need at all for your apologetic tone my friend. I completely understand about wanting to create your own set of medals for your pilot. I am simply putting together this set for those who do not wish to delve into such a project. And thanks for the velvet background. Wodin, I worked last night on the addition of the bar to some of the awards, (as made mention earlier by Dej), and I have it sorted out. I've slightly resized the medals without sacrificing visual quality and now have room for the attachments. I will be doing two versions of the medals that historically would have been fitted with a bar to designate an additional award of the same honour. Here is a screenshot showing the MC with Bar and the DSC with Bar: I've also just completed the Military Merit Order of Bavaria and am moving on to the British Military Medal next. Once I have this latest group of tweaks and additions done I will post an updated download so that you folks can simply overwrite the whole lot at once. Cheers! Lou .

. Wayfarer, the BE2c could reach it's service ceiling of 10,000 feet in 45 minutes, while the E.III could climb to 11,800 feet in around 30 minutes. However, the Eindecker could barely maneuver in such thin air, being underpowered coupled with relatively small wing surface. This meant that the E.III pilot had to make his attack count as it took considerable time to get back around for another pass without giving up vast amounts of altitude. Of course, the Quirk could really only hold it's course and hope for the best, as any fancy maneuvering on it's part at 10,000 feet meant it would quickly be dropping down into the heavier air and giving even more advantage to the E.III. No pleasant choices at all really for the BE2 flyers when they were being hunted. Lewie, I don't know on your auto-pilot question, but perhaps one of the devs will drop in and enlighten us. Cheers! Lou .

. Thanks Wodin, enjoy the new bling Sir. Thanks again as well Dej, and yes I am kicking around the idea of having bars available. The issue is that there isn't much room on most of the ribbons for a bar, given the size of the medals themselves. And if I go much smaller on those we are back to the rather poor visual quality. Olham, I messed around quite a long while with the file size on these, and here is what I've finally landed on: I build the original image at 250 x 350 with a resolution of 300. Once I have it looking correct in terms of placement, size, quality, etc, I save it as a BMP and then reduce the width of that image to 213 while keeping the height at 350, which gives me the "stretch", (though really it is a "squash"). I then sharpen the image one or two clicks and save it once more as a BMP and I am done. What you see in the pictures I've posted today is what you should see on your monitor, (BTW, I took the screenshots off my monitor which is set at 1920 x 1080, 32 -bit color). Hope this is helpful. If all else fails I could drop the blue velvet background you have into my Paint.NET files and create a set with that feature. Cheers! Lou .

. Very, very nifty WM! I look forward to flying it against the bloody Hun some night in the moonlit skies above Blighty. .

. Many thanks BB, Dej, Tracers, and Duke. I hope these will make your OFF'ing just that much more enjoyable. Tracers, all you need do is click on the download link in my post #11 above and follow the instructions. Dej, I have the British Distinguished Service Cross on my list as well and will start work on that next. BTW, the Turkish War Medal 1915, (or the Gallipoli Star as it may be better known), is all set to go into the P3 Medals Expansion Pack I will be making available once I have a few more add-ons completed. Here is an example of how it could be displayed, (keep in mind it is the Turkish equivalent of the Iron Cross 1c). Cheers! Lou .

. Thanks Olham and Elephant, glad you like them. Olham, if you send me the original EK1c image you are wanting to use I can give a go at fitting it for you. Also, I am currently working on the Turkish War Medal 1915, the Bavarian Military Merit Order, 4th Class with Swords, and the Britsh Military Medal, (for those who might be flying as Sergeants for King George V and earn an award for their heroic deeds). Cheers! Lou .

. BTW, here is the full-sized 1918 National Geographic Western Front map I built from 120 screen clips and assembled into a very high quality JPEG copy. I also cleaned up a couple of spots on the original map scan: NGS 1918 Western Front Map This is a VERY large image, (about 7000 x 6000), so just be aware of that when you are downloading it and unpacking it. This is the map I use when flying in OFF, (unless I am in the Alsace/Vosges region, and then I use Waldemar Kurtz's maps available in the OFF downloads). I believe Olham is also using this one for navigating over the virtual front as well. Cheers! Lou

. Tch, women. Can't live with 'em.... "Yes my love, I'll be right there to move the piano upstairs for you. I'm just...ummm... ordering you a, ummm...pair of emerald earrings I found on eBay...yeah, that's it, that's the ticket." .

. Oh, we have tried Elephant. Believe me, we have tried. Just another CFS3 limitation Sir. ....psssssst...paper maps.... .

. Good Morning All, As promised, here is the download of the new medals for our beloved sim. Instructions are included in the RAR file, so just download and unzip to a convenient location in your computer, than read and follow directions. New OFF P3 Medals Download Link And here are actual screenshots of some examples showing the new images as they should appear on your Pilot's Page: If you have any questions just post them here and I'll do my best to answer them. Also, if there is a particular medal or award you would like to see added to our P3 CoC cabinet, just let me know and I will build them for you folks. Cheers! Lou .

. Duke, CFS3 is a very old engine and has some significant limitations, which the OFF devs have done a great job of working around. As to tweaks, there have been a few in terms of damage models, but otherwise its all been pretty much image additions such as skins, maps, etc. I honestly think that for most of us here we are just so involved in the campaigns and surviving the air war that we really don't want to invest a lot of time and energies into trying to better a sim we already love. Not to say that there isn't room for improvement: there always is. But I know for me, I would rather spend my time flying in the virtual skies than trying to sort out the code that would allow me to pick custom skins and limited fuel, assuming that can even be done with the CFS3 engine. Would a newer engine be better? No doubt. However, that could involve another two years or more of work on the part of the devs to switch it all over, and I don't believe they have the time nor the inclination to do anything like that at this time. P4 may well prove to be the ultimate that can be done with CFS3, at which point the next OFF generation will go to a new engine, but I imagine that must be a long way away. Cheers! Lou .

. Wodin, in no way are you cheating Sir, and I was certainly nor implying such in any way. That is one of the great things about this sim, you can fly it however you wish given the choices available to you. My only point was that if you wish to try and get closer to the RL experience, turning off all the aids helps a lot. Also, while there are some limitations in what we can "see" from our virtual cockpit, with TrackIR and a bit of practice it gets very close to actually being there, and the extra aidds are really not needed. Also, you can use dice rolls to factor in other experiences such as engine trouble, and here is the system I use for that. Use four standard dice. After take-off and as you begin your circle of the field to form up you roll the dice, and are then bound by these results: 9 = Second dice roll before crossing the mud. 15 = Second dice role after crossing mud. 11 = Second dice roll upon reaching assigned target. 24 = Engine drops to 50% power, (hit #5 key immediately). 21 = Engine drops to 10% power, (hit #1 key immediately). 5 = Fuel mixture will not function. This means you can either continue the mission and fly at lower altitudes, or turn back and land. 13 = Catastrophic engine failure, you must immediately shut off engine and pray you have somewhere to land. If you must roll the dice a second time I recommend you do it either well before engaging EA, or after a dogfight if you took no damage during the engagement, (and I make that stipulation because if you did take damage you will already have your hands full trying to get home anyway). Feel free to use this idea as you wish. It does add yet another realism layer to an already deeply immersive combat experience. Also, folks like Creaghorn use dice rolls to adjust their pilot's health and stays in the hospital upon being injured in a dog fight. There really is a lot you can do to zero in even more on the RL experiences of our WWI counterparts. Cheers! Lou .

. Rich, those are some crazy high kills for so few hours of combat flying. If you haven't done so, try shutting off all the on-screen aids that allow you to keep track of the enemy; i.e. targeting cone, labels, TAC screen, etc. And you don't need to shut down the TAC entirely if you want to keep it for following your route, just cycle off all the other blips on it. Flying with Eyeball 20-20 as your only enemy detection device will definitely get you more into the spirit of WWI aerial warfare, and likely give you more realistic kill numbers. All that being said, well done Rich on racking up so many victories and medals in such a short time, even though both of your aces ended up out of the fight. Cheers! Lou .

. Well, that last bit should definitely make a difference as those are two entirely different folders; the latter for your 32-bit items, and the former for everything else that is 64-bit compatible. Also, I have found over the years that CFS3 does not like sitting idle for months at a time, and will often require a complete delete and reinstall to get it up and running again. Hope you get it sorted out soon Luther. Lou .

. Wodin wrote: No worries, I at least heard you the first time Sir. Don't take it personally Wodin, this place can get a bit out of hand when the rowdys start trying to giving each other a wind up. .

. Yes, I was aware of that Lewie, but thanks for pointing it out. Always better to err on the side of caution, I say. Olham, it is bit more complicated than you might first have imagined, but nothing a little extra fiddling won't fix. .

. It's Istanbul, not Constantinople It's nobody's business but the Turks. .

. Oh, but you can still download it Tranquillo. You need only but to ask, Sir: MAW Download And Install Thread at SOH .

. I have it WM, but I've only ever installed it in XP Pro 64. Maybe a posting over at Sim Outhouse or another site with a large pool of CFS3 experts would give you the answer. .

. Many thanks Cappy, Morris, Olham, Elephant, and Wodin for the kudos on these, and I will gladly make them all available when I have them completed. Now to the resolution: the size for these new BMP images is already 213 x 350 with a resolution of 300, which makes them giants when compared to the stock pictures. Here are two JPEG examples of the new files: The reason you are seeing a less than ideal representation in your pilot's page is because the sim resizes them to fit in the allotted space; and yes Elephant, there is distortion when this happens. The images on the announcement screen are shown in their true aspect. What I've done in an attempt to work around this is to stretch the images from top to bottom so that when the sim jambs them into the odd-sized slot they look relatively correct. However, because what you are shown is so small I don't think there is any way around the lower visual quality. I've tried numerous combinations already and what I have shown in my current pilot's page is about the best I've gotten so far. However, any one who wishes, please have a go at finding a better size and stretch to produce a nicer look, and if you come up with the magic combination let me know and I will readjust what I have before posting all of them. Thanks Olham for the correction on the flag. I did know that, and this is another reason why one should always get enough sleep. I have fixed my mistake and posted the updated snapshot. Cheers! Lou .

. Yes Elephant, I do understand what you are getting at. You wish to get into the actual coding of the sim and tweak it, and that I cannot help you with. However, what I am saying you can do is simply add the new images you wish to use: EK2c, EK1c, etc. Then, once you are awarded medals by the sim you can go in and simply change the text on the appropriate lines of your pilots dossier file and, "Voilà !", you will see the new medal images along with their proper names. Like this, for example: .