Flyby PC

Not disagreeing with anything said regarding upgrading your hardware, but there a few things you can do to optimise your framerate whatever age or ability your hardware is. Sounds silly, but zoom in a couple of clicks on your main view. Your lateral view is restricted a bit, but there's less 'on screen' information for your graphics card to handle. You can also switch off your gauges (f5), and/or switch off your cockpit (f3). Doing this might give you a couple more frames per second, which doesn't sound much, but if you're down in the 4 or 5's, it makes the difference between a flyable mission, and slide show. It does compromise your game play, but it's easier going for your pc. When I started out flying online with CFS3, I flew with the MOG guys for a little while using a machine which just wasn't up to the job. Spent lots of time and money trying to upgrade what I had, but as you say, the log jam was my crumby Celeron CPU. All the same, the MOG guys had loads of ideas how to keep your FPS playable on very marginal performance.

Doing some reading, I stumbled across my reference by accident.... (Phew,...I knew I wasn't making it up).- "Field commander Henderson was recalled to GREAT BRITAIN as head of the air staff in August 1915, and the aggressive TRENCHARD took his place. Insisting on offensive patrols over enemy lines at all times, but unable to call on new designs to counter German combat superiority, he relied on numbers, throwing aircrew into action after minimal training and pressing for increased production of existing types which had been modified but were essentially obsolete. As a result, the RFC was saddled with hundreds of unsuitable machines long after competitive FIGHTERS like the AIRCO DH-2 and NIEUPORT 11 became available in 1916, and many remained in service well into 1917. Growing resentment of apparently useless sacrifice among field officers was heightened by strong public and political criticism in Britain, where the 'Fokker Scourge' was regarded as a national disgrace Attempts to stem losses by deploying aircraft in larger formations simply increased the number of obsolete targets without providing effective protection......". [The Macmillan Dictionary of the First World War. p389 - (RFC Royal Flying Corps).]

This maybe crosses into the P 4 wishlist thread, but I wonder whether what P4 really needs is a major sponsor backing it. I don't mean for the development side of things, thats all in very good hands, but commercial marketing. No disrespect to anyone involved, but it's disappointing that you gents are not seeing the type of return that Bhah deserves. It seems to me that OFF is well thought of in the flight sim community, but that's just a slice of what you could call a captive market, and a world away from seeing OFF appearing in shops everywhere with blanket appeal to new customers. There also seems to be this unwritten expectation that OFF /BHaH is about to be overtaken by something bigger and better, but I'm not so sure overtaken is the right word. I actually think most regular simmers with an interest in WW1 will have both OFF and ROF, and both will be able to stand healthy comparison for some time to come. I have both, and fly both, and find my private analysis of what works and what doesn't is a big part of my enjoyment. It's interesting to see how people tackle similar problems from different directions. OFF BHaH has tremendous potential to deliver enjoyment for years to come and is a long way from being superseded. It strikes me however the poison for OFF BHaH is the same old multiplayer issue which so badly afflicts CFS3. To my knowledge, that one issue alone is the main reason serious simmers walk away from CFS3. You spend as much time resolving missmatch conflicts as you do flying. I wonder if it is possible to dissable that part of the game, and overlay something much less rigourous. - Something which wouldn't stop a player entering a multiplayer game, but still observe some anti cheat protocols. Perhaps missmatching planes are barred, but replaced with an appropriate stock plane so at least the mission can always play. Part of me thinks this could be done. Spawns in mission building can be written to choose generic fighters, or bombers. The spawn is not always aircraft specific, but aircraft type specific. Evidently there is an existing mechanism of choice built in, but whether or not this could be bastardised into something more functional is a lot more complicated. Even if the anti cheat protocol became part of the mission, you'd still need to kill off the main CFS3 protocol. Do-able? I suspect not, but while I am aware of much intricate examination of what works and what doesn't within the existing CFS3 confines,- space marks in the XML's, naming conventions etc, I am unaware whether the anti cheat protocols themselves have been so intricately examined. I suspect it's hard coded and off limit due to copyright issues etc, but all the same, fixing the missmatch bane would be the biggest single step forward which any CFS3 derivative could deliver. Is this a criticism of OFF? Absolutely not. BHaH has got layer upon layer of things 'right' and is a benchmark achievement you should all be very proud of.

You're talking about blended whisky. Grouse, Bells, etc. It's very famous, but horrible to drink, especially neat. I've done it myself, been in a club or somewhere and somebody's bought you a whisky. You knock it back without thinking. (If you ask for whisky, that's what you're usually given). Your pride forces you to smile through the body shock. Going back a few years, the only blend I ever thought was OK was Johnny Walker Red Label. Hard to get in the UK because it was only for export. (I heard). If you stick to single Malts, you'll be much safer. There's quite a variety to the flavours, some are pretty throaty, and some are pretty smooth, and it's a matter of personal taste. Irish Whiskeys are pretty smooth, you Bushmills, Jamiesons etc. Smoothest Scotch I know is probably Macallans, although I do have a bottle which came from a special barrel made for the recently deceased Duke of Buccleuch. It's something else. That man knew his whisky. It's great stuff, but I'm scared to drink it. Once it's gone it's gone. Oh the dilema!!! Oh, and if there isn't a cork in the bottle, be afraid, be very afraid...

I'd like to see a new 'facility', but suspect it's a real FPS killer for it to be big enough to be worth the trouble. I'd like (though like hardly seems the right word) to see a full on 'over the top' attack, with rolling artillery barrage and troops exiting their trenches and making their way through the wire and shell holes, and off course, the murderous machine guns. I mean the hundreds of troops all on the move. I imagine seeing that for real would etch itself into your memory. Dreadful, but at the same time a massive and breathtaking spectacle. Fully working men and vehicles which interact fully etc would surely deliver FPS in the low 1's on a good day, but I wonder whether simplified units and smoke etc might deliver a convincing general effect. It might look terrible at 300ft, but if you stay above 2000ft, you begin to get a taste of what a 'big push' might have looked like. You wouldn't even need machine guns, just points to attach effects to. You could put the lack of detail down to camouflage, but the battlefield ambience would be awesome. If it works, there might be other 'mid-range' effects which are designed to look awesome from a distance, specially designed for background ambience that doesn't kill your gameplay. My second wish, is small but difficult. When you fire tracer for real, every now and then you get a riccochet that pings off in a weird direction. When you see it, you realise just how fast and hard the tracer is travelling. - your pretty 'hose' of colour is actually knocking seven bells out of whatever it's hitting. Let me see now...you could maybe call it the 'Gimpy' effect.

Err, wait a minute, country preservation European style??? We're scared to plough some bits, never mind build on it. Even trees can be worthless as lumber if they're laced with shrapnel.

I could be very wrong here, but I think the Germain air superiority in 1917 which peaked in Bloody April wasn't numerical supremacy in the air, but more like numerical supremacy in kills. The German pilots and especially aircraft were better, with most allied aircraft being obsolete. Sopwith Camels, Se5a's, Spads and Brisfits won the advantage back in late 1917, but I think the allies were always superior in numbers. Happy to be corrected in this. I'm not that well read on WW1. I've read it somewhere, but couldn't tell you where... Even in the dark days of German superiority, I seem to recall reading somewhere the losses never prevented the allied air forces from fulfilling their overall objectives -successful up to date reconnaissance, bombing raids etc. Indeed, the first official 'close air support' sorties flown by the RFC were flown in May 1917 during the Arrass offensive. The German Jastas were typically deployed in defensive rolls, and while successful in that roll for periods, they could never sieze the offensive initiative and take the war to the allies. In brutal arithmetic, the allies could sustain their losses, whereas a blockaded Germany couldn't afford them to anything like the same extent.

In the yada yada yada bit, after you flew the CFS3 P47, did you exist properly through the menus? Remember, it's the exit process which writes the config files for the next time you play. It sounds like there something in your uisel which your new install cannot find, except that you describe a vanilla install on a virgin hard drive. Everything should be default. Very confusing. Scraping the barrel for ideas, but my CFS3 updates to version 3.1a, not just 3.1. Other than that, it might be something in your pc which CFS3 needs, but you've missed out the driver. With a new hard drive, you'll need to update all your drivers and check for conflicts. Seems unlikely that CFS3 would be using hardware which other sims wouldn't. Clutching at straws I guess, but maybe investigate your graphics card driver. Maybe your card is under performing with the wrong driver but it's only a graphics hungry beast like CFS3 which exposes the problem. And BTW, even if your old hard drive packed in, don't ditch it. Even with a fault which gives you the install boot disk etc.. Once you've got a primary hard drive, you can sometimes install your damaged hard drive as a parallel drive, and recover loads of data by copying it across to your new drive. I'd steer clear of applications because the registry won't tally and the application won't run, but you can grab all sorts of data files and backups. You can even be clever, run scandisk on the damaged drive, and sometimes 'fix' your bad hard drive. Sometimes... I wouldn't reformat any hard drive unless I'd tried EVERYTHING else - twice. Stuff's not just gone, it's really gone. Update.... You're already fixed? Good stuff. Forget everything I said....

If you ever get the chance, watch Jeremy Clarksons TV documentary 'For Valour'. It's a programme about the Victoria Cross, and in particular, the exploits of one Major Robert Hendy Cain, who earned himself the VC at Arnhem, amongst other things, taking out Tiger tanks with the crumby British PIAT. All the more remarkable perhaps, because his own daughter didn't know he had earned the VC until after his death in 1974. He'd never thought to mention it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Henry_Cain Programs like that do a lot more for me that ANY war film. I don't need to see bits of bodies flying across the screen to know it happened. I've watched The Longest Day any number of times because it's such a massive event. For all its attention to authentic realism, I've only watched SPR once. BoB (that is Band of Brothers, not Battle of Britain) is very watchable, largely because it's the real veterans who dictated their own true story. Real life stories of brave men, no extraneous plot required.

There used to be a great 'TAC' tutorial attached to Frosty's??? (I forget) H2S radar for CFS3 nightfighters. It explained how to alter TAC colours, sizes etc, but it was lost with the melt down. Say the word and I'll dig through my archives to see if I can find it. I estimate it's 2 computers ago, but it's in the pile somewhere....

Barkhorn's correct thewoo1, but if you're suffering with low framerates, there are lots of other things you can try to improve the performance. Post some more details of your difficulties and we'll see if we can suggest some improvements.

Yes Jim, but you might miss out on your mission goal because you haven't visited all the waypoints. (Even though you actually have). You can also miss targets which are 'scripted' to appear while you're loitering about. A spawn of enemy aircraft might appear prompted by the time passing, or maybe a ship is steaming on a course which coincides with your own flight path provided you're in the right place at the right time.

First off, I absolutely do not condone piracy, but can I make a small but important distinction in 'torrenting'? Torrenting is just a method of file sharing big files to a large number of people, very fast. Torrenting is not the act of piracy, - piracy is the 'cracking' of software, and its illegal, as is the subsequent distribution of pirate software. If you wrote and encrypted legit software, and users had to pay for the appropriate decryption key, (small key - minimal bandwidth for your server) you could distribute a legitimate software product to a large number of people, very efficiently. Torrenting would distibute the mass volume of your 'inert' product, but you'd retain control of your software through the encrypted activation code unique to each licensed copy. To distribute pirate software, you first need to have a cracked version of the software, and that's where the problem starts - with the people hacking the software. Torrenting itself is not a bad thing, but I'm as uncomfortable as the rest of you to see it's wholesale abuse for the distribution of illegal pirate software. But try to remember, the evil is the piracy, not the torrent method. I know it's cold comfort, but unlike bootleg CD's, at least you know the pirate isn't making any money out of torrenting either. It's not just you, but everybody loses control of your product the moment the security is hacked. The subsequent method of distribution is largely academic. If we're ever going to beat piracy, we need to focus on the right problem. For better or worse, ROF's security seems to recognise that getting hold of a hacked version of the game is a pointless exercise. Be interesting to see how they handle the payware add-ons. (Am I allowed to mention this now???).... I don't know.

Isn't there another type of waypoint where you're supposed to linger for a time as in a Combat Air Patrol? Would need to see the mission file perhaps...

I know you mention you don't like dry historical accounts, but Anthony Beevor's 'Stalingrad' is pure history cover to cover, but I found it absolutely gripping. I must have read it four or five times now - and I'm not really a great reader. I might read a lot for a few months, then don't pick up a book for a whole year or two. Beevor has also written about the fall of Berlin, Crete, and most recently D-Day, -all pretty good, but I think Stalingrad is the best read by far. (Sorry Mr Beevor if you ever read this). Follow it up with Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer, and your ideas of the Eastern Front in WW2 will never be the same again. 'Tail End Charlies' by John Nichol and Tony Rennell is another WW2 read, and was recommended as a pretty accurate summary of his own experiences by a genuine veteran Lancaster tail gunner at the Sim Outhouse. (Grandguy). It's a good read too, especially with such an authentic endorsement. I'm not very well read on WW1 at all, but Sagittarius Rising was a good read. (Mentioned before too I see). WW1 is more difficult to recommend I find. I find the futility of it all just so utterly depressing. I don't even feel the compassion I rightfully should, because I get so angry about the stupidity and stalemate. A possible exception might be 'Forgotten Voices' - put together by Max Arthur. Its a snap shot collection of stories written by the soldiers themselves. A few words of common sense in the midst of all that insanity.

Persevere Stapme. CFS3 can be a real headache at times, and the problem can be difficult to locate. You can bet there will be a simple fix, but the tough job is finding the problem. Unfortunately, you're at the beginning of a trial and error process to locate the problem, because what you've described ticks more than one box, and sadly there isn't a catch-all fix. I'd take a guess the vast majority of people here have been stuck pulling their hair out trying to iron out CFS3 issues, so we mostly understand the frustration. Flying for well for 40 minutes or so suggests a heat issue perhaps, or, perhaps a facility, aircraft or ordinance not working properly and only kicks out your game when it 'appears' in the mission. It might be a paging file error, perhaps your isn't ditching all your flight data and crashing when your RAM fills up. It's not usually a dysfuntional facility with OFF, because it all hangs together pretty well, but there are more possibilities too... I'm now remembering a fairly extensive thread which addressed similar issues a little while ago, if I can find it I'll post a link. Ok- ... http://forum.combatace.com/index.php?showtopic=37669&hl=

I think the arguments here are perhaps a little narrow in their horizons. I fully expect we will get somebody to Mars someday, might be 10 years, 100 years, 1000 years, and it probably will be a waste of time with no 'pay-off' other than the kudos of 'doing it first'. But...It seems inconceivable that we might find ourselves talking seriously about going to Mars, if somebody hadn't been to the moon first. The big pay-off of going to the Moon was getting there. We've done it, and now we can move on. Remember the good old chinese proverb - 'Even the longest journey starts off with a single step'. Neil Armstrong's single step on the Moon was every bit the 'giant leap' for mankind because it took us across a momentous threshold from which there's no going back. History will forever record that mankind first set foot on another 'planet' in 1969. (I know the Moon isn't technically a planet...but you know what I mean). It seems inevitable that sooner or later, mankind will take another great leap, and set foot on a second planet, and there seems a certain logic to that planet being Mars. We may all fret about the costs, trials and politics of doing it, but history won't. The big pay off for humanity will be getting there, even if it is only to set another yardstick of our advancement.

Just to add, you need to re-adjust your mixture as your altitude changes. - Just repeat the process when you adopt a new altitude.

Even if you're flying with Auto mixture on, you can still get a little more power if you lean out your mix. Yes, - that's not an error - you still lean out your mix (ctrl -) with auto mixture on. You won't notice any difference flying by yourself, but it works. I remember in the old multiplayer days, you could eek out a little bit more power, climb higher and faster than others flying on normal automix in the same aircraft I was flying. For all those who flew with me back then and wondered how the 'f' they couldn't quite keep up, well now you know.... Don't get too excited, it's not like a turbo or anything, but you can steadily 'creep' ahead. It's a tiny little bit more speed, best used on your way to target, - just focus on keeping up with the pack, - but climb too. You'll arrive together at the target, but you'll find yourself with much greater altitude. I could often catch the old 'Zepp's climbing out of trouble when nobody else could get high enough. It's not difficult, press ctrl - until your engine begins to falter, then click a couple of ctrl + until your revs pick up, and that's you flying on a lean mix. If it works for you, (it will), then it's all thanks to the MOG guys who educated me.

Funny Zoom Zoom, that's exactly what occurred to me. Never seen a Groundhog, but that just doesn't look right.... Don't know about cows eating planes, but anybody read Anthony Beevor's Stalingrad? He reports that during Barbarossa, mice invaded the German tanks and started to munch the wiring. Germans called the Russian mice 'little partisans', but it wasn't so funny once the heavy action started....

Here's my daytime cockpit. Like the 'Custom' interior by Pippen? Wasn't overly impressed myself.

Just a friendly suggestion RNAS, but you could try being a little less aggressive in your attacks. Control of your aircraft depends on the flow of air over your wings and elevators etc, so if you lose too much speed in tight turns, - suddenly you've no lift and you lose control. If you do have to make a sharp turn, give your aircraft a chance to recover some speed before starting a second turn. Don't string tight turns together, or your airspeed disappears and you're suddenly a sitting duck. Keep your manouvres smooth and try not to lose more momentum than absolutely necessary. Even with a bandit on your tail, speed is your best friend. Even with a tiny bit of practice, I reckon you'll live longer, and have a lot more dominance over your target.

Flyby started out as being a 'lightweight' contributer to forums, back when I was a novice and didn't know much. I'd fly in, help if I could, then disappear again before anybody could ask any questions. If I hung around, people might sus out how shallow my knowledge actually was... The PC comes from my multiplayer tag because Flyby was taken, 'Pedigree Chum'. - (Dead meat in a tin can).

I'm sorry for starting the thread which kicked this all off. It really was just a totally neutral 'heads up', never intended to provoke anybody or kick off a ruck. Thought I had a scoop, that's all. I'd no idea such strong views were held regarding discussion of alternative sims. - I simply don't browse here often enough to know where the boundaries are. Threads seem to fall down the order list pretty quickly, blink and you can miss something. I also don't investigate the various layers there are to the forum. The thought never occurred to me. I follow a link in my favourites list to a place where guys I share a common interest with (OFF) talk about WW1 flight simulation. If you don't believe me, you may recall i posted a question about a certain aircraft appearing in FSX, - only to learn it was old news you'd all known about it for weeks. I don't mean OVS now, but in general, I don't believe Moderators are omnipotent, they can get things wrong, or be a bit abrupt, but when I see the tone of this thread, I can understand why discussion of certain wider issues should be...., how can I put it, 'discouraged'. The bottom line is, those are the rules, and if you don't like them, well, there's the door. I've no problem with that. Been there, done that with the SOH. Didn't like it, moved out. Dare I suggest however, that since a more appropriate forum does exist here at the CombatACE, it might have been a bit more friendly just to discreetly move my post to the appropriate location without all this fuss.

Sorry OVS. Did realise I was doing anything wrong. Thought it might be of interest for some, that's all.