Jimko

Looking forward to the 'enhancements'! What a devoted team of developers! When it comes to quality customer service, you guys are exceptional! And, I'll take this oppourtunity to wish, again, for the day when we can have 'turning prop blur' in the VC view so that I don't feel like I'm flying a Sabre jet... ...please.

I'm not any kind of pc knowledgable user...I have a rather limited understanding of many pc functiions since I learned what little I know on my own, and as we know, "a little learning can be a dangerous thing!" But, I am comfortable enough to get by with them. For what it's worth, I have my Maxfps=0. However, I use my Vertical Sync = On and Triple Buffering = On in order to cap my fps, and in my case they cap at about 60 fps. There is an interesting relationship between the Refresh rate of a monitor (in my case Samsung 24") and the VSync and Triple Buffering, and how they all affect the frame rates. The total effect on MY system is that I dont have the wild fluctations in frame rates which previously went from the 20s to over 100 fps and the sim runs smoother in some ways and is more consistent under different conditions. The frame rates will drop to the 40s under particularly heavy graphic activity, but that's about the worst case scenario that I've seen. I've also eliminated almost all tearing effects, particularly when using TrackIR. I have used this guide successfully: http://www.tweakguides.com/Graphics_1.html It is a very interesting document written for the layman like me. Page 5 (page box at the bottom of each page) and the following pages give a good explanation of the relationship I referred to above. The whole thing is a good read for anyone who wants to 'tune' their system. The OFF website documents have many good tips and suggested settings. This tweakguides document explains some interesting facts about tuning your system. Keep in mind, all systems are very different. This works for my system which is: MSI P45 neo3 motherboard Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0 Ghz 1065 Ballistix 3X1Gb (3 Gb of RAM) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260-216 SC Zahlman cooler on mb, Intel Heat pipe 10cm fan, all in a server size case, lots of fans, blah, blah. Samsung Syncmaster 2443BW 24 in. LCD I'm running this system with the E8400 comfortably over clocked at 3.6 Ghz. My sliders are set at 5-4-4-5-3

Homeboy...this thread is a gold 'find' for me. I used FSAutostart a few years ago with a highly modified CFS2, but I stopped flight simming for a couple of years until I got hooked a few months ago on OFF. So I googled FSAutostart to find out what it has become, and the trail led me here to your post about Alacrity. I won't be able to try it for a few weeks as I'm waaaay too busy to play with it, but I certainly will once I have some time to study and apply it. Originally, I was coached through the FS Autostart install as that's how I heard about it, but your Alacrity tutorial appears to be very well presented and comprehensive. An additional bonus is the link to your TrackIR tutorial. Although I have a 'decent' system, I think, and my TrackIR seems to run quite well, it's definitely a bit smoother after changing the TrackIR priority to "Above Normal" in the Task Manager assignment. Thanks for presenting both of these great enhancements in this forum!

I know that this has been explained before, but I've forgotten the reasons why the spinning prop blur is generally missing in the virtual cockpit views..? It sometimes appears briefly in some ac at some angles and I know there was a reason for that too...?? More importantly, will we ever be able to have the spinning prop blur in VC, in any shape or form? I remember in CFS2, we could alter the appearance so that we could have it appear in many forms. Perhaps, even just a trace of the spinning prop tips would be possible which I remember gave a pretty good 'immersion' effect. Wondering...

It's not the most major issue, and I'm sure you've got many other more urgent things to work on. But, if you ever get it solved, it would be quite a nice big piece of eye candy, I believe! Good Luck with it, and maybe, someday...

Thanks guys...I remember those comments now. Yes, you're both right, the distance from the eyepoint to the prop was the issue. I guess that's the reason it won't change soon, if ever with the CFS3 engine. Re the eye exam...yes, my eyes were checked recently...old but still working ok. Mind you, they were not checked for prop blur recognition, but to see if I could identify tall buildings! Or was that the mental ability test...damn, I'm confused... :umnik2:

I'm really surprised that no one has yet commented on the home-built cockpits featured in the pics of Raven-1 and Homeboy's pics of his friend "Skypig". While like most, I prefer to have my cockpit as the virtual cockpit of whatever plane I'm flying on my monitor, I have to admire the time, work, and $$ involved in creating these personalized 'flying machines'. Wow! The Skypig cockpit is particularly impressive from what I can see, and I can only guess that he chose not to wear his complete authentic flying gear including helmet and goggles for this picture. As for Homeboy and his 'Frankenstein' lab...very impressive! A man of many talents! I've built many things, but nothing quite like those items. Very interesting stories.

I admit I'm not a 'frequent' flyer so perhaps I'm just missing something or having a 'senior' moment, but I can't get into the observer/gunner position. I've tried using the "F" (ing) keys, (F6, F7, F8) as they are apparently the ones that change the positions of the pilot/gunners but nothing works. The keys appear to be mapped in Controls to the correct functions. What is wrong? Ideas, please and thanks!

Thanks to all for the help! The one command I hadn't tried was Shift + F8...of course! All my controls are mapped to my Cyborg Command Unit (gamepad) so I usually make them a single key anyway just to keep it simple, but I had to figure out why the assigned keys didn't work in the first place. But now I understand the reason for the problem and the solutions. Many thanks, flyers!

Thanks, Olham! Yes, I'm really into this 'total immersion' thing! Now I guess I'll have to take a picture of my real home cockpit, once I get my digital camera back...it's travelling with my wife and her mother. (Yes, I chose not to go...not because of the travel companions, though.)

Well, I didn't want to be a show-off, but I guess I better toss my picture into the ring. This is my cockpit. Notice the realistic joystick and the seatbelt tied to it. The seatbelts keep me from falling out of my chair, errr, I mean seat, if I nod off. Notice also the CD storage device cleverly disguised as an ammo drum. The walls are a nicely varnished wood to give the ambience of an early aircraft. Sorry that you can't see the pedals or chair, but believe me they are very authentic. And the monitor is also above and out of sight in this picture. Last of all, full surround sound and amazing motion realism! For a small payment I will send you the plans so that you can build your own very realistic WW1 scout cockpit. Don't wait another moment…operators are standing by to take your orders.

Good question from your nearby airfield, 77Scout! I've noticed the same thing, although I haven't been flying much at all lately and I didn't much care about the flying time accumulated. However, I will care when I get more time to apply to OFF. Flying several missions of well over a couple of hours and it tabs my accumulated flying time as half an hour or so, for example...??

Well, I had the honour of the first vote in for the Canucks! Nanaimo, BC on Vancouver Island...home town of that guy who flew the famous black Sopwith Tripe! I still stick with the Camel, though... my favourite.

Pips, I must get that book! Interesting comments about flying the Camel, and more so when I look back at the following which I posted in the old SOH OFF 3 forum. Once again, I quote myself: Quote: Victor Yeates, the author of "Winged Victory" gave some good impressions of what flying the Camel was like. It is generally accepted that although his book is fiction, not only did he choose to write a fictionalized account of WW1 flying experience rather than a biography but he also drew heavily upon his personal experiences as a Camel pilot. So I take what he has said about flying it to be a valid, honest description. Many of us have read his book, but I'll quote a few of his comments here about flying the Camel: Re training: "Camels were wonderful fliers when you had got used to them, which took about three months of hard flying. At the end of that time you were either dead, a nervous wreck, or the hell of a pilot and a terror to Huns…" Re turns: "And in the more legitimate matter of vertical turns, nothing in the skies could follow in so tight a circle..." Re the half-roll (Split S): "The same with the half-roll. Nothing would half-roll like a Camel. A twitch of the stick and flick of the rudder and you were on your back. The nose dropped at once and you pulled out having made a complete reversal of direction in the least possible time. Thomson, the squadron stunt expert told him that it (half-roll) was just the first half of a roll followed by the second half of a loop; the only stunt useful in fighting. If you were going the wrong way, it was the quickest known method of returning in your slipstream." Re the loop (he didn't like looping a Camel): "But a Camel had to be flown carefully round with exactly the right amount of left rudder, or else it would rear and buck and hang upside down and flop and spin." Re general flight: "…a Camel had to be held in flying position all the time, and was out of it in a flash. It was nose light, having a rotary engine weighing next to nothing per horse power, and was rigged tail heavy so that you had to be holding her down all the time. Take your hand off the stick and it would rear right up with a terrific jerk and stand on its tail." Re ground strafing (which he hated due to ground anti-ac machine gun fire): "Unfortunately, they were good machines for ground-strafing. They could dive straight down on anything, and when a few feet off the ground, go straight up again." Re speed:"…a Camel was a wonderful machine in a scrap. If only it had been fifty per cent faster! There was the rub. A Camel could neither catch anything except by surprise, nor hurry away from an awkward situation, and seldom had the option of accepting or declining combat…You couldn't have everything." In his book he has a few observations about German planes such as the DR1 being able to suddenly climb like a "lift". Unquote. All in all, I think that the Camels's flight model is very well done in OFF 3! Perhaps it could use a slightly faster roll rate based on the above. Still my favourite 'bird'!

Appologies to Winder...I have pirated this topic with the pictures. Oops, sorry Winder! Any more pictures will go into a new post. Looking forward to your new package. Bad, bad, Jimko!

I would if I could, Olham, but my attachment file is full as described in my previous post. I have to subscribe, which I haven't done yet, in order to get more room for attachment files. When I do, I will post a picture or two of the Brisfit and a few other shots that I think are interesting. Glad that you like them so far. Incredible array of early fliers in the Shuttleworth Collection. The history of it all just hits you when you see them! Of course, the WW1 planes are still my favourites, but I don't know of anywhere that has such a magnificent collection of early 'aeroplanes'.

Thanks Cameljockey, I didn't even realize that the subscription option was available, and I had some trouble finding info on it...duhhh...too bad I didn't find out before I pulled my screenshots as I would rather have left them in! Oh well...I can subscribe now, once I review the subscription options.

Thanks Badgerboy, I have only one pic of the Brisfit, and not a very good one. There always was a lot of activity around it when I was there. I was going to post it for you, but I seem to have an issue with my attachment file. I had to delete a lot of earlier screenshot attachments to get these latest ones in and now the attachment file is full again. Problem is, if the uploaded pics are small, I can save more in the attachment file, but if they are too small, they don't open in a very large format for viewing. If they are larger, I can't save many in the attachment file. I must be missing something...since I see that others have many old pics still in their posts while now my earlier screenshots are gone...??

We have another winner! Yes, Old Warden Airfield and the Shuttleworth Collection, May 3, 2009. The Pup didn't fly that day, but the SE5A and the Bristol F2B did. What a great collection of early "aeroplanes" as well as some historic WW1 fighters!

We have a winner as to the "what"! (I had to delete my old attachments...no file room left!)

Timed out on me! I'll try this again!

Sorry Shredward, Good guess, but I took this picture a long way from this island. Let's see if Pol can guess where and what this is... Or anyone else for that matter

Gentlemen, thanks for the update! Life, parent passed away, other parents with health issues...what can I say? Life goes on, but I haven't posted in a looong time! I still fly a couple of times a week at best, lately, but I do check the forum pretty regularly. I'm always delighted to hear that you are still tuning your "labour of love" (?) Looking forward to your coming patches and particularly your add-on package of goodies! Pol, guess where I took this picture in May, this year? Of course, you can identify the cockpit....??

Just going over the various threads and getting caught up on some of the latest news and views and I started to wonder… Are there any stats on how many actively participating members there are in the OFF forums? With that, I suppose, would be some indication of the size of the OFF community in general if we assume that most OFF players are also OFF forum members. I guess I wonder how much of a 'silent participants' group is part of the picture here. Some of us don't post very much or very often, yet we may visit the forums almost daily and I'm one of those. Others post frequently, so it's hard to get an idea from 'posts and views' statistics just what kind of a membership we have particularly when the figures represent all viewers including those who are just curious 'lookers' and multiple view occurrences by the same user, etc. Has a poll or survey ever been conducted to find out…eg Active members and numbers of posts or post categories? Just wondering…

Very nice road activity pic, Test Pilot! I always meant to get one of those with my 1917 "L" type camera...