Hellshade

I can live with that no problem. I got BHaH when it first came out...9 months ago is it? It was fantastic when it came out. It has improved to "beyond amazing" (or as someone else said "classic flight sim territory") and it is still the only game I load up to play regularly besides Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion. It will certainly keep "as is", with the exception of whatever plane packs you put out, until Phase 4 is released. Thank you for all of your hard work. Hellshade

A fair point, Flyby. I mis-spoke. I shouldn't have said "bounced" since that means having the true element of suprise. I met it would be nice to have an altitude advantage so you get to choose a little more often if you want to engage or not. And if it were to wait until Phase 4, that would be just fine by me. Hellshade

Not that I want to add anything to the Devs plate, but that is a good suggestion. It would also add a little more combat scenerio variety to the game by allowing us to bounce the enemy from up above a little more often instead of almost always being the one getting jumped. Hellshade

RR stations look awesome! Here I thought you were all hard at work on Phase 4 or getting to know your families again...but instead you're still making the best even better. Might I say that it seems OFF BHaH has a few things in common with a great TV show from the 1970s and early 80s called M*A*S*H. Both were great entertainment. Both kept just getting better all the time. Both lasted longer than the war they portrayed. Both were instant classics Both started with a small following that continually grew as time went on. Thanks Makai. A very fine and worthwhile addition to a classic simulator. Hellshade

Sometimes you'd almost swear those bloody hun bastards were out to win the war. Quite rude if I may say so, what with all the archie, ground fire and enemy aircraft and such they throw at you. I guess you'll just have to have another go at teaching them a lesson on manners. My condolances on your loss. A fine lad, no doubt. Nothing for it now though except to saddle up and give it right back to them. War is hell you know. Hellshade

So I've been messing with my system trying to get the most out of it in OFF BHaH (who hasn't?). I read an article that said for most modern games, anything over 2.2 Ghz on the CPU speed starts to have diminishing returns. It said after that, the bottleneck in modern 3D games is usually in the GPU. The three parts that matter are the interface (PCI express (x16, x8, x1), AGP or PCI) the GPU Core speed and the GPUs Memory speed. Whatever interface you are using is what you're stuck with unless you change out your motherboard. But the GPU Core speed and GPU Memory speed are easily increased. On Nvidia cards, just download the NTune software from Nvidia http://www.nvidia.com/object/ntune_5.05.54.00.html and start slowly raising the GPU Core and GPU Memory speeds. Bump them up a bit then play some intense 3D games for 20 - 30 minutes and go back and check the GPU temp. If the game runs stable and the temp stays within your cards safe temp range, bump them up again until you are getting the perfomance you want within the temp range specs. I raised my GTX280 from Core = 602Mhz, Memory = 1107 Mhz to Core = 665 Mhz and Memory = 1305 Mhz. It's been running stable with temps at full load of 72 C degrees or less. Hovers at 60 C idle. According to Nvidia documentation, GTX 280s are designed to run safely at up to 105 C before it auto backs down the speed to cool the core if the fans can't automatically do it. The difference in the game? I'm now running 1920 x 1200 16Qx AA with Maximum Ground scenery with all sliders on 4 except for Effects which is on 5 and I don't get a stutter or slow down no matter how many planes are on the screen or how many trees or other ground scenery! It's just so super smooth it's unbelievable! (new drivers helped a bit too). Before I changed the settings I was getting some stutter at 1680 x 1050, 8Qx, AA with medium scenery amount if too many planes were on the screen. So...if you want to give it a try and have an NVidia card (I'm sure ATI has their own Core and Memory adjustment software tools), you might just be able to upgrade your already awesome experience in OFF BHaH without spending a dime. /salute Hellshade 3.2 Ghz Duo Core 2, 3GB DDR2 800 RAM, GTX280 1 GB, Vista 32 bit, 28" monitor.

I can't recheck my old settings because I have done a system overhaul since I tried bumping up my GPU clock speeds. I now have a 2.66Ghz Intel i7 Quad Core - OC'd to 4Ghz, 6GB RAM, PT6 Motherboard, 1TB 7200 RPM hard drive with 32MB cache and still using my GTX280 card in a PCIe 16x slot and running Vista 64 bit edition. Additionally, as noted by many others, since installing the 1.32 Superpatch, OFF BHaH runs smooth as glass at all times now. Hopefully this system will last me for the next 2 - 3 years, although I will probably get Windows 7 -64 bit edition when it comes out. Hellshade

Yes, and I hear that after he invented the time machine, he went back in time and re-invented the time machine in less time because he did it while NOT making any of the mistakes that he made the "first" time he made it, since he now knew exactly what did and didn't work. Hellshade

It's a lot like what Scotty said to "Bones" in Star Trek the Voyage Home movie when they gave the engineer the formula for transparent alluminum after they time traveled back to 1985 (or whatever year it was). Bones said "You realize that if we give this to him, we are changing history." Scotty said "Why? How do we know he wasn't the one who invented the thing?" With no real historical evidence one way or the other as to exact deployment dates, who is to say what you Devs decide to implement for service dates aren't the exact ones? Cheers for making the right call. Can't wait to see her in action above the front. Hellshade

They updated the latest Nvidia drivers from 190.38 to 190.62, citing some bug fixes, a few optimizations and a new version of the PhysX software. I just installed them. I'll let you know if I encounter an my random screen resolution resets or other issues. Hellshade

The screenshots look amazing. When did they actually first get deployed into the war and in what kind of numbers were they flown? What is the performance of them like? Are they better than the DVIIs? Hellshade

Is it possible that the Lewis machine gun was set to fire above the prop in order to maximize rate of fire? I would think the interrupter gear would slow down the rate of fire at least a little bit and perhaps they wanted to be able to hit the huns a little harder and faster. Just a pet theory, I didn't read that anywhere. Hellshade

I'm starting a single thread that I just post any videos I make in. I'm certainly not the best pilot playing Over Flanders Fields but I hope you enjoy some of the amazing action and white knuckle flying made possible by the wizards at OBD. Squadron of Albatross DIIIs vs me in a Sopwith Tripe on a lone wolf patrol Pair of single gun Sopwith Tripes vs 3 Alb DIIIs from Jasta 27

As one OFF enthusiast to another I will try to answer for the Devs by saying "When it's Done". :) They shipped Between Heaven and Hell with 39 flyable aircraft, however it's not just the aircraft. It's all the proper skins for both squadrons and Aces by date as well as the historically accurate mission flight data. That is a LOT of information to research and add above and beyond just trying to get the modeling and flight dynamics right. I would love see the Gotha's and HP 400s flying in the sky as well, but these things take time. As eager as I am to have a go at the heavys, OBD has always made it more than worth the wait. Plus, they are also working on Phase 4 too. Hellshade

Thanks for the compliments guys. I am working on creating more combat videos, but I am trying to find ways to improve the quality of the movies first. As good as the action is, I don't feel the videos do justice to the game because so many of the smaller details are lost when I convert the raw fraps footage into a wmv file. You don't get to see the finer details of the aircraft, some of the damage modeling effects or the beautiful scenery. I'm not able to convert them in Windows Movie Maker using 720 HD format, probably because I only have Vista Home Basic 64 bit Edition. Does anyone know if there is a way to add in better codecs so I can covert the fraps raw footage into 720 HD format? Hellshade

Yes, it was a Quick Combat demo. I should have picked a squadron skin for the enemy flight. Hellshade

I am running Vista 64 and don't have any such errors. I'd suggest a reboot first and when that probably doesn't fix it, 1. uninstall OFF 2. Defragment your hard drive. 3. Reboot again and re-install. You probably got a corrupted file. Hellshade

Not to hijack the thread - but precisely the reason I would love to see the Realism % just go away. Hellshade

Now that the Superpatch has really smoothed out the game, it is much easier to make good quality videos of the combat action. Any chance we could have a stickie topic for "OFF : Air Combat Videos", just like we have for screenshots and stories from the front? I think it would make for a great place to link a ton of user made videos to other locations so folks could see for themselves what all the excitement is about. Just a thought. Ok, back to the action! Hellshade

That's exactly my point. Videos (especially raw footage that shows what the player will experience) are probably the best selling tool we have. If you can get folks to watch a few uncut videos, I bet it would get rid of any CFS3 worries about the quality of the game. Having them all in one place that we could just link to in e-mails, forums or whatever would allow folks to see how much OFF has to offer. Whatever you can do is appreciated. I plan to make quite a few more "Hellshade Combat Action" videos showing all the fun in various different aircraft. Not that I am the greatest pilot, but at least people could see some of the possibilities. Hellshade

Minor addition to a major addiction. Can't say you guys don't give the best support of any game, ever. Thanks! Hellshade

Did the Superpatch change some of the Medals we can earn from air combat? I don't seem to recall seeing anything other than Iron Crosses and Blue Max's before. Now I'm starting to see some other kinds showing up. Is this part of the P4 "preview" as well? Hellshade

Welcome to another edition of "Hellshades Air Combat Videos". This is part one of an epic furball dogfight between myself and 11 squadronmates in our trusty Dr 1s against a dozen Sopwith Camels hell bent on shredding us from the skies. If you watch closely, you will see a couple of times where the Camel AI pilots tear the wings from my squadron mates before I can get there to save them. It was fast and furious, white knuckle combat at its best!!! Enjoy. All fighting was done on DiD settings. Realistic flight models, normal AI gun range, limited ammo and fuel, etc. Hellshade

Player weapons are set to 'normal'. I fly DiD settings for videos. It makes the action more intense I think. Hellshade

One last 40 man video. Fokker Dr 1 vs Camels!!! Damn the skies are crowded with fast, furious white knuckle action in these missions. I'm not a very good Fokker Dr 1 pilot. The plane is fantastic, but so twitchy it is hard to make small corrections to line up a good shot. Anyways, I did my best to take down some Allied boys, but as you shall see they are quite capable of taking care of their friends too. Hellshade