Hellshade

I thought that was just the Germans mowing the lawn in nice, neat, orderly rows. They can be fanatics about perfection, you know. Hellshade

I agree 777 Studios will have a challenge in front of them trying to convert their MP centered sim to handle an in depth SP campaign. I believe OFF:BH&H will still be the deeper experience in terms of SP dynamic campaign for a lot of reasons and Phase 4 will only likely extend that lead. That said, once my money has already been spent on a product I'm always happy to see a developer put more time and effort into improving it. Recently, after almost a full year of neglect, the developer of Wings of Prey started releasing patches for it again. Will it bring in hordes of new players? Highly unlikely. But if the updates make me enjoy the product more, I see no reason not to give it a try and hope for the best...with tempered expectations. Jason from 777 studios is doing his best to lower expectations of the single player campaign experience that some of the more enthusiastic players have been pumping up to more than what was intended and to me that's the sign of a mature developer. I can't be against honesty in a developer and I'm not going to hold a developer responsible for some of the more, shall we say 'elaborate', expectations that are being thrown about by it's hardcore fanbase. RoF does what it was designed to do very well and obviously doesn't do what it wasn't designed to do hardly at all. Attempting to branch out in other directions in order to capture a larger audience is both a challenging and risky move for 777 studios, requiring both time and money from out of their own pockets with no guarantee it will attract a larger audience, especially in the face of stiff competition that has a serious lock on the lead of SP campaigns. I applaud their motivation to try and improve their product for their customers AND their willingness to admit up front that it isn't going to be a dynamic, fully featured single player campaign. They are doing what they can within the limits of the product they created. One cannot reasonable expect or ask for more from anyone. Ironically, I currently see almost no real competition between OFF and RoF besides the fact that they are both WWI flight sims. One is a champion of dynamic single player campaign richness and the other is the clear leader in on-line multiplayer dogfighting. Regardless of what 777 Studios comes up with, and for that matter regardless of what OBD software comes up with in Phase 4, I doubt there will be any significant changes to the lead either one has in their respective areas. Time will tell, of course. Metaphorically speaking, they are a fork and a knife at the same table. Both excellent for what they were designed for but not really able to replicate the function of the other very well. Hellshade

This isn't a tutorial on how to become an Ace. It's about how to hopefully see dinner if you decide to try going up on a scramble mission in an in-line engine a/c against rotary equiped opponents. Before you check out the videos, please understand the following: I'm not suggesting anyone should fly scramble missions for any reason. They are hard and not very historically accurate. Nor am I making any guarantees of success, just how to improve your odds - I feel - significantly. Lastly, I'm not suggesting that every in-line can beat any rotary matchup. I picked two a/c that were around at the same time and tried them. (Alb DIIs vs N16s and N17s) I successfully tested the strategies I chose in two other scramble missions before I filmed these two. {Editors note} For some reason I got the word "radial" stuck in my head instead of "rotary" and repeated misspoke it throughout the tutorial. What can I say? I brain farted. Please think "rotary" when yours truly says "radial" like a dumbass. Also, I forgot to put the .com in the www.OverFlandersFields text at the end of the video and didn't realize it until I had fully converted it to 1080HD format. Lastly, my mic recorded a little low so at some points I'm not as clear and loud and I should have been. What can I say but I'm having an off night. sorry for that but hopefully you find the information useful. Scramble Mission Strategies (12:04) 1080HD Fully Voiced Tutorial I then ran the mission again with Alb DIIs against newer Nieuport 17s. You can see the results here. {Editors note} I misspelled "Scramble" in the title text and didn't notice it until after the 1080 conversion again. When it rains, it pours. /sigh Scramble Strategies II (8:50) 1080HD - No Voice Over. What I failed to mention by tried to demonstrate was one last very important strategy. Fly Defensively. Make sure your tail is clear before you even think about engaging a target. You die most often when you think you are the hunter but really you are someones prey. Hope this helps anyone wishing to try and survive these types of dangerous missions. The strategies themselves are quite simple. The hard part is applying them without exception, without getting target fixated or climbing too long so you stall out on a target of opportunity. You have to follow them as if your life depends upon each one of them because - essentially - it does. The moment you get too attached to your target, climb too high or forget to fly defensively, your life is all but forfeit. Hellshade

I use FRAPS. Depending on your gear and the scenery / terrain you are flying over you'll lose between 0 and 15 FPS in OFF. The files are NOT converted to any compressed format on the fly, so so expect 3.9GB video files for every minute or so of video. You'll have to use something else to convert it to 1080HD format, like AVS Video Editor. It takes a lot of tweaking but the results can be pretty good. Hellshade

Zig zagging as unpredictably as possible while still heading in the general direction of your nearest friendly base is the safest way home for me. I fly looking backwards alot when retreating home that way and if I see my pursuer is about to make a dive on me I often turn into him to throw off his aim and reduce the time his guns can line up on me. As soon as he passes or climbs again I complete the turn all the way back to my original direction of retreat and resume zig zagging. But it's true, a short burst can be all it takes to take you out if they have twin guns and are an Ace. It's war. There are never any guarantees. Hellshade

Great question Lewie. It's hard to hear me in the video because my mic was being recorded too low, but right after I said that it's harder for the enemy to see you against the terrain, I paused and said "In theory". I'm sure the reality is that the AI sees you just the same no matter where you are (unless you are behind or within a cloud AND you have Cloud quality set to 5 on the sliders). The real advantage is that the AI tries not to run itself into the ground, so if they have to point earthward to shoot at you and they are already low, they can only get a short burst off before they have to pull up again. Anything that helps reduce the amount of time that you might be in their sights is definately going to be an advantage for you. Also, if you are that low, you don't have to worry about any enemy aircraft sneaking up on you from underneath you where they can be hard to detect until it's too late. Basically, you eliminate a huge blind spot from where they might attack you from. It makes it that much easier for you to be sure that you aren't being actively hunted by someone before you set your sights on an opponent and attack. Hellshade

Outstanding artistry sir. It's like stepping back in time. You certainly have a gift. Hellshade

Not sure if anyone posted this yet, but naturalpoint has begun offering TrackIR 5.1 Final version. I updated mine today and everything seems to be working just fine. I haven't looked at the notes yet to see what improvements or changes were made. Hellshade

If anyone else has the problem of clouds just "popping" in and out, try the following and see if it helps at all. In the Workshop is of course the CFS3 Config utility. Open that up and pull down the menu. You get 5 choices which are (from top to bottom) Image Quality, Overrides, Texture Info, Texture Limits and last on the list is Z-Bias. Select Z-bias. The default Z Bias Resolution is 15 bits. For now, leave that setting there. Then every other setting below that one, including Z-Bias Clouds, set to 0. Save it, exit out and try flying and looking around at the clouds. Once I did that, I noticed 99% of cloud popping simply went away. Hopefully it will be true for others if they give it a try. Let me know if it does or does not work for you please. It seems to work for tree popping also. Also, I then bumped Z Bias Resolution (the top slider in the Z-Bias window) down to 13. That allowed me to put my Terrain slider up to 3 (AC =4, Terrain=3, Scenery=4, Effects=5 and Clouds=5) but not lose hardly any frame rates. If I lowered it below 13 I noticed the cloud popping issue started back up again and if I raised it much higher (like around 22) I noticed I started getting some laggy frame rates. Again, I don't know how it will impact each individual setup but if you have cloud and scenery popping issues, give that a try. Hellshade

New version 267.24 Beta drivers available. I haven't installed them because nothing I see in the notes appears to be much of a performance improvement but posting here for those who feel lucky or adventurous. http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-winvista-64bit-267.24-beta-driver.html Hellshade

I take it back. It vaguely says "Added support for GTX 580 and GTX 570 GPUs". So for the hell of it I installed them but since my Pro Clip for TrackIR died last night I really can't test any flight sims. I have a new clip on order and hopefully will have it before the weekend. I'll let you know what I find then. Hellshade

You are probably quite right. The big at the end means you aren't ment to take a lucky mission too seriously though. Damn it to hell if my TrackIR didn't just die on me tonight though or I'd have to try getting my arse handed to me in an in-line engine just for the fun of it. I hope I can fix it tomorrow. Don't really have $120 spare to replace it with another 4 Pro + clip. Man that's going to suck if it's given up the ghost on me. Hellshade

I respectfully disagree gentleman. Scrambles are an excellent opportunity to add to your score without having to waste any of your precious fuel flying around trying to find the little bastards. I like to think of scrambles as like having breakfast in bed. It's always nice when someone brings the meal right to you. Campaign Video part 1 of 2 (10:28) 1080HD - Scramble mission with an entire squadron of huns coming down on us from up high Campaign Video part 2 of 2 (10:10) 1080HD - after clearing the skies around the base I go hunt down some more huns. With the last hun, I only had 7 rounds left... Hellshade

For any of you WWII Wings of Prey fans, the dev team there is finally(!) making an off-line mission editor. Ahh the things we take for granted with our beloved OFF. At any rate, here's the post. I knew there was a sequel in the works but I thought that ment that WoP itself was basically abandoned. Guess not. http://forum.yuplay.com/index.php?showtopic=3434 Hellshade

Mr. Buckles died, and with him, so did our last chance to show any American who saw the horrors of WWI that we appreciated the sacrifices they made by providing a national monument. I love my country, but I call that a failure on the part of every Administration since The Great War ended. I'm sorry we let you down Mr. Buckles. You and the rest of the Doughboys deserved better. May you rest in peace with your brothers in arms good sir. Hellshade

I'm one of the aliens. I can often manage 60% accuracy and it's not because I'm a good shot. I have a system I use about when to shoot and how to fly & use the throttle for the maximum time guns are on target. You can see my air to air tactic tips below. It starts with a tutorial about how to keep more agile EA in your sights and then turns to shooting rules. Air to Air Tactics (9:15) 1080HD Fully Voice Shooting Tutorial for OFF:BH&H Hope it helps. Hellshade

Ok for anyone here who is also into swords and sorcery type video games....nevermind. Just watch it in it's entirety and prepare to be amazed. It's truly jaw dropping. http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/02/24/skyrim-gameplay-trailer?objectid=93395 11.11.2011. I cannot wait. Hellshade

Oscuros Oblivion Overhaul mod creates level enemy lists that do not level up with you. So it's quite possible to walk into a dungeon and get thumped by something significantly higher level than you. It also adds a ton of other content and changes. Might be worth a try. Hellshade

It looks to me like they incorporated at least some of the mod ideas put into Oblivion into this. Notice the blood on the player when he gets wounded? I'm betting they include a great many other things that were mods for Oblivion as standard for this. And since it will be as openly modded as Oblivion was, it'll get even better as time goes by. It definately ranks high on my Must Buy for 2011 list. Hellshade

It says he fired at closest range. 10 meters. Is that slightly less than 30 feet? Wow, I never realized they would dare get that close in real life, but I guess a lot depends on closing speed to the target too. The faster you are catching up to them the more dangerous it gets in that you might not have enough time to turn away. Hellshade

Everyone says unfair things out of frustration once in awhile. Rare is the person who publicly apologizes. Consider it water under the bridge sir and don't give it a second thought. Very glad to have you here. Hellshade

The GTX 500 series is indeed jaw droppingly fast. For a single card solution, at the moment it cannot be beat. Hellshade

Don't start shooting until you can see the color of their socks and accuracy is rarely a problem. Mid-air collisions, yes. Gun accuracy. Not so much. Hellshade

As a kid I just loved the look of the WWI planes. Open cock pits, guns right in front of you. It just seemed all very exciting to me. Then my parents got me the old WWI game "Dogfight", which I played obessively with anyone who would play with me. Then there was the old comic "Enemy Ace" of which I only got to read a few stories but from that moment I was hooked. I played Wings on my Commodore Amiga from the moment it came out. I tried a few others and naturally was hooked with Dynamix Red Baron II and Red Baron 3D. I even purchased a new, faster 266Mhz cpu in order to play it better too. That held me for awhile but then the market dried up and I moved on to mostly Fantasy RPG games. Over Flanders Fields Phase 3 rekindled the passion and it burns brightly again, thanks to OBD. Hellshade

I would be a lot more interested in seeing the pilots limbs if they had the kind of detail that made you feel like you were really looking at arms and legs. But when you can see it's really low resolution up so close, to me seeing that kills the immersion for me. Better to just let my imagination handle it. If the pilots body looked closer to Call of Duty than it did Star Wars: Legos, I'd agree with having it. Hellshade