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Olham: Thanks, I really enjoyed doing all the Noops. Because of size restrictions we haven't been able to include the weathering changes, I was just showing this example of what is possible. I think only the first one is in the game.

The problem with making a new plane to bright and shinny in the game is that it doesn't look real if the colors are too bright. If we had the resources and space we would have liked to add progressive weathering to all the skins in OFF so that as you played you would get some new fairly clean planes, then later notice they have gotten a lot more beat up and dirty. Here's an example of Escadrille 38 ace Felix Madon's N17 in 1916: And later in 1917 after a wing repair. The green has faded from sun exposure and there is a lot more mud, grime and wear overall.

Lissete.. was that her name? Yes, I remember the firing squad, that really was a well written game.

Thank you, thank you! Watching the Wings of Glory brought back such good memories of that game. The music, the voices of the squad members.. it all came back to me. Do you remember Celeste? (I think that was here name) she was the one that was actually a spy. Isn't it amazing how pixilated those look now and how our brains would fill in the lack of details? Just amazing stuff, thanks!

It takes a few minutes to dl this site, (they used bmp images instead of JPG!) but well worth the wait. About 4/5 of the way down are air oriented photos, etc. I wish my French was better http://bleuhorizon.canalblog.com/

Thanks for all the great references, guys.

Olham: Not only did it apparently keep him warm, it probably scared the bejebbers out of any one he encountered, giving him the upper hand! Steve: Thanks for that fascinating bit of history, really interesting stuff, please add more! HW: I'll bet at the time a pilot wearing that coat was really considered spectacular to the women. Ya, wish my French as better too.. or even comprehensible.

Can you imagine having to wear this in cold weather? or this? No one has modeled this in any WWI sims I've seen so far..

McCudden's, I would like to read. Lewis still just amazes me with his writing skills. I think the research and historical "theorizing" is just as important as isolated accounts of men in the war who can't see the big picture.. each has it's advantages and a good over all picture is gained by reading both and both convey different information, the fliers accounts being more emotional, the historians being more objective.

Thanks, will see if I can find that one, I wasn't familiar with it.

My wife brought me Ghosts of the Great War several years ago and I still enjoy getting it out for a look/read. I also enjoy these other "coffee table" books (lots of good photos, illustrations, maps and facts) You can find most of these heavily discounted at book sales and on line: WWI by HP Willmott [2003 One of my favorites for over all coverage with lots of historical photos, maps, explanations, broken down into different phases of the war Epic of Flight Knights of the Air Ezra Bowen and Editors of Time-Life books 2004. Excellent! The West Point Atlas of War - World War I 1959 and republished in 1995 Detailed maps with accompanying text for almost every battle from 1914 to the 1918 Meuse-Argonne Offensive. Any of the Osprey series of planes of WWI and any of the Windsock Data File books on plane types. Expensive, but well worth it: The Imperial Russian Air Service (The 1995 first edition is a collectors item) a heavy, 550 page 9.5"x12" book loaded with information, photos, fold out scale plane drawings, and great art work by James Dietz and others To read: Sagittarius Rising by Cecil Lewis.. a flier who survived the war and wrote about it in one of the most moving and poetic manners imaginable. This book deserves to be bought in the beautiful boxed edition. The Blue Max by Jack Hunter: Much better and very different then the movie The Red Baron, by Manfred von Richthofen 1969, translated then edited by Stanley M. Ulanoff

Darn!

Uhh.. actually, that isn't quite true. I have brought up BHH in comments about ROF on their SimHQ forum when it seemed relevant to compare things that OFF excels at over ROF and that I think ROF needs to include, or improve upon. I don't just post videos and screen shots with announcements about OFF out of the blue on other forums.. haven't done any thing like that for over a year, as far as I can remember. And I really haven't seen you make any positive comments about OFF on their forums. The video you posted here is gone, so not sure what one it was, but if it's the latest I saw on their forum by MaskedGamer, I have to say that yes, it's remarkable looking except that they still haven't fixed the very strange twisting rivers with little dead ends and odd lakes. And the AI in those three videos and earlier ones being shot at just don't seem to take any evasive action. I brought this up about a month ago when some other videos were posted there and was told that the player had the AI planes set up for target practice. I just think it's strange that again, they seem very docile and just keep flying relitavely straight, or in the same weak evasive manuvers. Not much else to say until I get the game in my own hands as all is specualtion so far, but yes, most of it is gorgeous... however, I sure wouldn't uninstall OFF for ROF any time soon. Also, not sure what your comment means, KIA (killed in action)? We always enjoy most of your posts and you always seem to find fascinating historial information, along with your personal flying experience, so I hope you stick around OFF as well as ROF. Cheers,

Let's keep this thread, "Screen Shots," on screen shots with comments on them and not stray off on other topics. I look forward every morning to seeing what players come up with and the situations that developed when the shots were taken, and some of these are really amazing. Would also love to see more videos by some of you movie experts! Launchbury: Welcome to the forum, but please keep your comments on track and relevent to the thread, or start a thread if you want to stray onto questions like whether the sim is hard enough.. you can even start your own poll and that would be interesting to see what the feedback on it would be.. good idea? Thanks. Here's on of my favorite skins, Esc N77's Maurice Boyau. "Pursuit pilot of audacious bravery. Three times cited in orders, and has to his credit an aircraft and a balloon. On 5 June [1917] he destroyed another balloon. Forced to land in enemy territory, he repaired his plane and flew back over the lines at 200 meters altitude, under fire of enemy machine guns." Médaille Militaire citation "Pilot of remarkable bravery whose marvelous physical qualities are put to use by his most arduous spirit and fights at great heights. Magnificent officer with an admirable spirit of self-sacrifice, facing each day with the same smiling desire for new exploits, surpassing then succeeding. He excels in all branches of aviation; reconnaissance, photography in single-seaters, bombardments at low altitudes, attacks on ground troops, and is classed among the best pursuit pilots. He has reported twenty-seven victories, the last twelve in less than one month. Has downed sixteen balloons and eleven planes. Has the Médaille Militaire and Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur for feats of war. Eleven citations." Légion d'Honneur citation Boyau ended up with 35 victories, 14 planes and 21 balloons before he was killed in action in 1918 at age 30 while flying a Spad 13. Defending German, Georg von Hantelmann received credit. Does any one know the signifance of the serpent on Boyau's scout? And the OFF version of the Nieuport 17

What I meant was that I have found new versions of break out and had thought that maybe they have changed it from the game I described above because I can't find any old video games that seem to come close to matching it.

I'm sorry, didn't know you were spending time converting it, thanks! I don't think that's the game though and I may be totally wrong about the name of it. I drew a picture of vaguely what I remember it looking like: The task was to contain the balls in walled in areas that you would build. The balls would enter the field and I think they would enter more often as time went by, making it harder to contain them. What I can't remember was what the balls target was.. another ball? ..the cursor you were building the walls with.. just can't remember. I think that part of the goal would have been to contain as many balls as possible by trapping them with as few walls as possible? This ought to be interesting to see if one of you can figure out what this game might have been. Thanks,

Thanks, Otto, but that isn't it.. the game I remember you had these bouncing balls and you built walls to try to contain them.. that's all I remember, but it was fascinating and a lot of fun. If I remember right, it was black and white, no images or any thing fancy, just the balls and the white walls you could build. It was like you were looking down like a floor plan view. Maybe I'm completely wrong and it isn't actually "break out?"

I believe that is the work of "film director" Pol, very nice, work.

Mark: It's huge, what is the approximate size of the map.. just curious.. approximate miles x miles or Km x km ? Thanks

If my memory is still working, I think I was playing it on an IBM XT computer back in the 1990's? May have been an old Windows 98 machine though.. really not sure.

It's pure arcade, but lots of fun. When it first came out I think most of us were so desperate for a replacement for RedBaron that we jumped in trying to improve it. Winding Man re worked the overly bright terrain and added other details, I did the same and added some improved skins. Others tried to get into the code to get rid of the arcade qualities, with very limited success. We finally all ralized that it was hopeless, then, along came OFF and there was no turning back. I still like to fly WOW ocassionally, you can still find the mods that will improve it immensly, but it can't touch OFF for any serious sim qualities. Visit Polovski's site for patches and mods still available Here's a Camel skin I did in the game.

No problem at all, that's why I said, Hoho.. :yes:

Chris: Contact Bletchley, he has a pretty good collection and he was the one who supplied me with the originals I scanned and used. Also, you might ask Shredward, he may have some leads or maps, or both. All the best,

"Competition?" delayed again? Hoho.. not sure if it's that exactly, but a lot of die hard followers of ROF are acting like it is going to be the WWI sim to end all WWI sims and is going to be perfect. I have a feeling that once it comes out there are going to be a lot of disappointed players. Not saying that it isn't possible for it to eventually be the "top" WWI flight sim, but the more I learn about it the more it sounds like they have really targeted the MP market and don't have a very robust SP with AI built in. It also looks like for SP they are counting on players to come up with a continual supply of home built, scripted missions, rather then a much more complex dynamic, historically accurate, campaign like OFF has. I think all the processor power may be going into the emulation of the complex fm along with the complex lighting effects, reflections, etc., and that maybe they are counting on real human players to handle what would normally be AI processing. This is all speculation, of course, so please take this as a guess, not fact. And I'm encouraging people to buy it, not the opposite, we all need to support this market, they've done a lot of work on this and it can only lead to better sims for all of us.. The OFF team can probably use some of what is learned about ROF for future projects, and maybe, eventually with a more modern game engine of their own. IF they do, I think it will out class ROF by a long shot. Once ROF comes out there is going to be a lot of discussions going on, I imagine.

Gotta find the original Break Out first.. can some one pm me or post it on line here for dl, or supply a link for it? I've looked and looked and not been able to find the original. Thanks,