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I decided to copy this from another thread, as I didn't want to keep hijacking that one. I am looking for ways to improve my dated computers performance, or determine whether I just need to wait and buy a new one. Specs are: Dell Dimentia E520 windows xp 2002 service pack 3 Pentium D Cpu 2.80 Ghz 2.79 ghz, 3.00 GB ram The graphics card is as follows: Nvidia GE Force 7300 LE I'm thinking perhaps a new Graphics card would show a significant enough boost in performance to prevent me from having to scrape up enough for a new rig. What do you guys think? And if so, do you have any recommendations? TIA! ZZ.

Geeesh CJ...did you land on it? And survive? ZZ.

Go to the light Carrick!! Hop in an Albatros and kick some "A"! In heaven everyone owns one. ZZ.

Wow.....good one Olham. Very well thought out! Can I change mine to the first, unsuccessful wooden torpedo? ZZ. Think you nailed it though Olham. I couldn't figure out what the little handle and slider on the top were for, and now that you mention it, there are coils in wireless sets that allow you to adjust the frquency....think that may be it.

Well, on the first take it kinda looks like the old Wright Brothers style early wind tunnel. Bu this thing has the fan blades on the outside....so no go. So, to take a stab at WHAT it is, I'll say its an early wind speed indicator, or anemometer. Maker......geeesh. I'll guess Fokker just to guess.....have no way of knowing from the picture that I can see. This is a nasty one!! ZZ.

Well, very well done. I think we need to be giving YOU a medal for all of this hard work. ZZ. Thanks for makin the place even more fun than it already was.

ZZ.

Hey! I'm on the scoreboard. Bear with me, I'm just learning the rules as of yet. RAF what the heck....are you some secret WWI photo-analyst? Where DO you get all of these? ZZ.

Woops....just read the directions on page one. So, I think I need to elaborate on my choice......right? Ok. Its obviously an Albatros build by the tail section and albatros logo on it, not to mention the shape. At first I saw the one strut and thought it a DII until I looked closer and saw the other half of the V-Strut laying flat on the ground. So....this means Albatros DIII-DV-or DVa. The shape of the fuse.....whats left of it, appears ( I could be wrong) to be more flat sided, so we have the DIII hit again. The markings are before the Square eiszerns cruz spl? came into play, so its early, most likely a DIII. But what gave it away ( I think)was the shape of the rudder with its squared end as in a DIII, not rounded like a Dv or DVa. Thats the best I've got. ZZ.

Ok I'll bite. It can't possibly be this simple, but I'll say the smashed bird is an Albatros DIII. Can't really make out all the bits from the wreckage. Or even if its a single or double place. If its double its one of the albatros C series. But I'll answer the DIII. ZZ.

Great find! Fascinating and very insightfull. And best of all, First Hand. ZZ.

Der Flak est Vunderbar! ZZ. Its good. Wouldn't change it.

What I posted, was not written by myself, I got it from a historical write up on the topic. It seems they were simply 37mm flares fired from a Gatlin type gun with the intent of catching the plane afire as HPW mentioned. I don't think they were very effective as he also mentioned, and would have more of a psychological effect than anything else, barring a lucky shot as was the case with Luke. My best understanding of how they would look would be that old night time news reel of Bagdad during desert storm, in night vision, with the tracers streaming up into the sky in "strings". This seems to be more the effect that this weapon really had. ZZ.

I currently have it set at "25". I haven't tested it higher than this yet but may "push that envelope" to see how it goes. You mentioned to keep "upping" the number until you notice a slow down. Well, since this fixed my initial "Slow Performance" jaggies, what kind of slow down should I be looking for at the other end of this spectrum? That is to know I've reached the limit? Thanks again though....this was invaluable info! ZZ.

Its a pity you can't alter the pre-existing machine guns to be the effective tool to create this weapon. Perhaps you can't pick and choose and it would alter them all, which would be bad. But if you could alter only a few, say those around balloon emplacements, and adjust them to fire five round bursts and enlarge the projectile size to the appropriate "flaming onion" size and color, and then it may be closer to whats historically described. I'm thinking you've already thought of this and the "inherent constraints" have prevented it. Just thinking outloud. ZZ.

No question. And good work. My personal recommendation then would be to make it optional, since there are those who may like it and like to utilize it, and others, (like myself) who unless it is very accurate to history, would rather then do without. Just my 2 bits. But very creative tweaking after all....well done within the confines you are restrained to. ZZ.

Ok, I looked at the video you guys posted. Great work so far, but it doesn't seem to match this description: The flaming onion was a 37 mm revolving-barrel anti-aircraft gun used by the German army during World War I, the name referring to both the gun, and especially the flares it fired. The American 'balloon-buster' ace, Frank Luke, was a prominent victim of this device, and it was mentioned in Eddie Rickenbacker's book Fighting the Flying Circus [1] and in many "Biggles" stories. The term could also be applied to any sort of anti-aircraft fire that used a visible tracer, appearing in reports of combat from the Battle of Taranto, for instance. [2] The actual weapon was a Gatling type, smooth bore, short barreled automatic revolver called a 'lichtspucker' (light spitter) that was designed to fire flares at low velocity in rapid sequence across a battle area. This gun had five barrels and could launch a 37 mm artillery shell about five thousand feet (1500 m). To maximize the chance of a strike, all five rounds were discharged as rapidly as possible, giving the 'string of flaming onions' effect. Because most other rounds were fired slowly due to the nature of anti-aircraft artillery at the time, this gun's rapid rate of fire left many fliers thinking that the rounds were attached to a string and they feared being shredded by it. [3] Because all launchers were located well behind the lines, none were captured until the last days of the war on the Western Front. Because the weapon was not designed for anti-aircraft use, it did not have purpose-designed ammunition, but the flares would have been dangerous to fabric-covered aircraft. It appears that the design of specialist ammunition took place in tandem with design of higher velocity automatic anti-aircraft weapons; which may explain why the standard heavy automatic AA gun used by the Germans in World War II was of 37 mm caliber. The name "flaming onion" was also used for a number of unrelated military topics. One of these was the mythical German device that exploded in such a way that it resembled a bomber being hit, [4] although these also went by a variety of other names, including "scarecrows". It also included a napalm rocket used by the RAF during the Korean War, [5] It is also the nick-name of a military insigne that depicts an old-fashioned grenade with a lit fuse. The device is in various armies; examples include The Canadian Grenadier Guards, The Princess Louise Fusiliers, the British Royal Engineers and Royal Artillery (displayed on their "collar dogs"), and the U.S. Army's ordnance departments. [6 This leads me to believe that instead of erupting out of an AA shell. These should be streaking upward in a straight line, like large tracers on fire, and in multiple round bursts. Anyone else have any historical evidence to share to assist? ZZ.

The Utmost Thanks to all of you kind gentlemen for your help and advice. I am now back in the OFF sky, and ( as you are all likely far more aware of than I) the immersion and new features included with the new updates are nothing short of amazing. I'm still getting used to it all in a glitch free environment. To make a long story short, the advice to alter the CFS3/default file made a world of difference. Parky, you are absolutley right though, my video/graphics card is my weakest link, and I will most definately upgrade to the one you recommended once I have the funds. If its running adequately now without it, well it can only get better with the new card. But I'm back in the fray till then. I owe you all one!! ZZ. PS. Some of the more complex computer linking discussions here are fascinating. Perhaps this could be a way for some folks with a few lesser powerful (outdated) machines to combine them into something usefull? Could be worthy of its own thread?

Ok, its an Rc Albatros, but its interesting to watch and see how much like OFF it really is. http://www.glue.umd.edu/~markt/Albatros_Onboard.wmv ZZ.

And a little more eye-candy for Olham. This time from the outside. http://www.glue.umd.edu/~markt/Albatros_DIII-2.wmv We have similar tastes. ZZ.

Thanks Guys! As usual, you are all the best. I've got lots of good info and a few tricks to try now, so we will see what I can do. Herr-Prop Wasche, excellent info on tweaking that file, I will try it today. In the meantime Parky, thanks for the card recommendation, I will be looking into that as well, seems a great choice if I need to go that route, and I might. Olham, my sliders are all very low, much lower than yours, but maybe some of this tweaking will help with that. I do have the purple patch on the field someone here mentioned, but I can live with it if tweaking the CFS3 config file will get me into some smooth running furballs as you mention. Dutch, I call it a "Dimentia" to insult my computer....its my personal derisive reference for this machine....unfortunately I don't think it really cares or is listening! And finally, as I go through this improvement proceedure, do any of you think a fresh install of OFF might assist in this process? Or would this be superfluous? ZZ.

Wow...I'll check into that Unlcleal, thats pretty cheap. I think I'll call Tiger Direct to to be sure its a good fit PSU, and slot wise. They are pretty good about that. That sounds like a good good setting Olham, thats what I'm shooting for. Don't care if all my sliders are on 2!!...as long as I can get in a scrap like that without my target jerking out of my sights unnaturally due to FPS jaggies. ZZ.

Thats interesting Olham. Hmmmmmm. Now I'm stumped. Cash is tight at the moment and will be for a while for me. If I can upgrade the graphics card as you suggest Olham....we're lookin at around $80 bucks I'd say,and this can get me back in the game for the time being.... say the next year or so...instead of sitting on the side lines and not being able to play at all (which is where I am right now), that might be advisable. Olham, are you able to play with "heavy enemy activity" whatever the workshop setting is that has higher numbers of planes in a scrap, and still have no halting in the flow of movement in game? Your machine seems better but somewhat comparable to mine. Just curious. ZZ.

Thanks guys....you are giving me good stuff to think about. You almost word for word voiced my concern SD. Don't spend a bunch upgrading the card when the Cpu is gonna cripple it anyway. Save for a decent machine. Thats the direction I'm leaning. ZZ. PS..Thanks for the card info Olham...very helpfull. I'm reviewing that as well.

Well, I upgraded the service pack to Version 3...still no great improvement. Now I'm left with the conundrum. Do I need a new rig? Or will a simple upgrade in graphics card do the trick? You guys know my rig config...the Dimentia specs I posted earlier. If you-all have any reccomendations they will be eagerly recieved. I'm stumped though. If a new card will fix this to decent playable standards, well that seems the most economical route. If it's not gonna make much difference with this rig though....why bother with an upgraded card. You know the drill. TIA for any and all advice, and for all of the help so far as well! You guys are the best. And major props to the OFF team for such amazing upgrades/updates. You guys are killing me!! This game has become so realistic,versatlie and immersive, standing on the sidelines with a crippled PC is like being a kid at a candy store window with empty pockets!!! Great work though!! ZZ.