RAF_Louvert

. It's not our fault WM, blame our parents and those damnable Christmas gifts they gave us when we were too young to know any better: .

. Hmmmm...while the Airco DH4 would be very nice to have in the OFF skies, I hesitate to sign anything I haven't been allowed to read fully. The last time I did that I ended up in the military for six years. "No, no, trust me kid, that's just the standard boiler plate, don't waste your time reading through all that. You just need to sign here, and initial here, and here, and I'll give you this nifty US Air Force key chain, coffee mug, AND bumper sticker." .

. There you go Olham, and you are more than welcome Sir. Also, even though I am greatly looking forward to P4, there is still so much to P3 I've yet to discover that the wait really isn't terribly tedious. .

. I just KNEW you'd have one filled out and ready to go Olham. I'm afraid we may be hopeless at this point. Now to that medal: Yes, you will need to go into your dossier and change the first award line to read 'Iron Cross 2nd Class' and the second one to read 'Iron Cross 1st Class'. Do that Sir and you will see the proper images for your first two awards. .

. Ulti, I tried something very similar with an old Logitech Wingman, before I invested in my Saitek Pro Flight pedals. Didn't work too badly either. And yes, you can go into your JS profiler and invert the functions. Good luck, and enjoy your new rudder control, it totally changes how you fly these old kites as they love their rudder input. Cheers! Lou .

. Oh that is very nice Olham, although you should switch your first award to the EK 2c since you have that available to you in the new medals. Now then, don't forget your Pilot Certificate: Cheers! Lou .

. Looks like a Fee to me. .

. Greetings All, While flying another couple of missions this AM with 54 RFC and recalling Widowmaker's recent topic about giving your flight mates names that mean something to you personally, I realized that its been a while since anyone has mentioned another tweak you can make, so I thought I would share it again for those newcomers with us. To furthur increase your attachment to your virtual selves in the OFF skies it is a fairly simply matter to not only create a custom pilot's photo in your Pilot Log but also a custom squadron emblem. If you pop into your 'PilotPhotos' folder, (the path to which looking something like this: C:\OBDSoftware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\campaigns\CampaignData\PilotPhotos), you can get into the different nation folders and find all the various stock photos of the pilots. Any of these can be swapped around by simply changing the number of the photo, keeping in mind that the sim assigns the photos to your pilots in numerical order and not necessarily using say 'Pilot4' for your actual fourth pilot. The simplest way to find which photo the sim has assigned is to open up the nation folder you are flying for and locate the photo you see in your current Pilot Log. You can then look through the other photos in the folder and locate one you might prefer. Once you have, rename your current pilot photo to something like 'Pilot4.orig' ,(using the previous example), then copy and paste the pilot photo you wish to use instead and rename it 'Pilot4' and that photo will now appear in your Pilot Log. You can also find pilot photos on the web and use those as well, which is what I have done more often than not. I recommend doubling the dimensions of the stock OFF pilot photo when working with custom pilot photos as it allows you more detail and a crisper look, and the sim will simply reduce it to the space on your Pilot Log anyway. You can do the same thing with your squadron ID swatch by going into the 'Scratchpad' folder, (the path to which looking something like this: C:\OBDSoftware\CFSWW1 Over Flanders Fields\campaigns\CampaignData\Scratchpad), and grabbing the appropriate image to customize. Again, doubling the dimensions of the image allows you more room to work. To illustrate the end results, here is my current Pilot Log for Jeffrey Alberts: You will notice that I also went into my 'PilotXDossier' file, (with X representing the pilot number), and refined the biography to more accurately reflect the Major's RFC assignments. You will also notice the new OFF medal images which are available in the downloads section via this link: All New Medals For OFF . It's all about the insanity...errr umm...I mean immersion. Cheers! Lou .

. LIMA, HitR is a fantastic patch! And as quite rightly noted by Burning Beard, we get so used to having it that we really do forget what BHaH was like before it. Nice to have someone like you who comes to it new and reminds us all. Enjoy! .

. Tranquillo, you lucky bugger you, what a fine vacation you must have had! I would dearly love a few weeks to kick around such beauty spots. And thanks for the postcard. Cheers! Lou .

. Hasse Wind, I don't believe you would want to go into the kind of establishment VP is referring to and ask for a little off the top. .

. Olham wrote: Oh, but I have been lured into the cockpit of an Albatros, mein freund: Or rather Paul Blum has. .

Well that, and a fully interactive Officer's Mess and local drinking establishment our virtual pilots can toddle off to after a hard day of fighting the aerial hordes. .

. Mais oui, mon ami! Also, I too am very fond of your weathering techniques. I've done similar on a few of my kites, but more often than not end up leaving them much closer to showroom new. Like Olham, I prefer to fly my bus when it's all shined up for the parade. Vanity, thy name is OFF Custom Skinning. .

. Nice cover there Ulti old chap. And a contest, sponsered by the devs, for new packaging? What a spiffing idea! Haven't had a dev-run show around here since the skinning party two years ago. Of course, they have been a tad bit busy with some project or other. What was it called again? Ah yes... now I remember...P4. .

. Very nice indeed Widowmaker! But then, I am partial to dragons on WWI aeroplanes. .

. Yuppers, that's how I do it. I just posted the following up in the 'Screenshots' thread, which shows a Pup I've worked on and saved as a BMP in my Paint.NET program at least 20 different times, with no degrading of the details. I simply pull the base skin up with DXTBmp, save it as a BMP, then open it in my Paint.NET and immediately save it in that format for working on, then resave it as a BMP each time I am done with the changes and tweaks. Open the 'new' BMP with DXTBmp and save it back as a DDS file in my OFF 'skins' folder, and Bob's your Uncle! Cheers! Lou .

. Thanks TaillyHo for the kudos on the paint. The Pup is a treat to fly and fight in, in particular after a stint in the DH2. And actually, Major Alberts had flown about 70 missions and earned several medals with 24 RFC before his transfer to 54, so not really a new pilot in terms of OFF. Also, good idea about the drinks Sir. Another round for everyone, on Kooksy of course! .

. Greetings All, Thought I'd share a screenshot of Major Jeffrey "Kooksy" Alberts fighting off Hun nasties who tried to jump his flight this December 1916 morning. After a protracted stay at hospital following a particularly bad scrape in which he had downed three enemy planes, he was promoted to Major and given operational control of the squadron. Eight weeks later he was transferred from RFC 24 to RFC 54, which was moving from Home Defense work at Castle Bromwich to Flanders and front line combat. The Major was put in charge of bringing the lads of 54 up to snuff in the ways of escort and scout duties, as he had accrued no small amount of expertise in these roles flying the DH2 since March with the likes of Lanoe Hawker. Along with his experience the Major also brought with him his favoured black cat emblem and, as he was now in charge, promplty claimed number 13 for his new Sopwith Pup, noting that both would be bringing bad luck to the Boche rather than himself, (pilots are a superstitious lot). As an aside, the nick “Kooksy” was acquired following a crash behind enemy lines during an escort mission along the coast. After three weeks gone he was presumed dead, only to return home the following day in a "gifted" Halberstadt that the Huns unknowingly bestowed upon him by leaving it idling and unattended at a Marine Feldflieger Abteilung near Oostende. This caused the Major’s wingman, Lt. Robert Brooks, to comment in the Officer’s Mess that evening that the whole affair smacked of the myth of Halcyon and Ceyx, with Alberts cast in the role of Halcyon’s departed husband, raised back up from the dead in the form of a glorious sea bird. As both drink and the lads’ spirits were in excess, this led to an animated discussion about the proper pronunciation of ‘Ceyx’ with Brooks claiming it to be ‘Sakes’, while the Major maintained it was ‘Kooks’ in the original Greek. By evening’s end Major Alberts was officially, and forever to be, “Kooksy”. Cheers! Lou .

. I have run out of unused adjectives for commenting on P4 at this point. Honestly...I have. .

. Why yes you can. I've been doing that since shortly after taking to the OFF skies. .

. "There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area we call the Twilight Zone." It's really rather an unnerving image, WM. Well done! .

. Yuppers WM, OFF will do that to you, and from my experience generally when you least expect it. I suggest a double, Sir. .

. I have played around with the AA and hi rez settings as well and will say that, with my nVidia card, I also find a much bigger difference is seen by adjusting the AA settings than I have ever been able to achieve with the hi rez settings. But I imagine there are a lot of system variables at play here so there is likely not a one-size-fits-all configuration that will yield best results. .

. A nice lot of photos there Duke. Thanks for sharing the link. And it looks to me like you have the spelling of Die Deutschen Luftstreitkräfte sorted out just fine already. .