Olham

I have never seen this film, or even heard of it. But I found some bits at YouTube - here is a longer part: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUzpEcjpx-I&feature=related

Call me a nostalgic, but I did like "The Battle of Britain" - despite those terribly wrong looking Hispano-Suiza 109s and the poor trick technics of those days. It was a film well able to put me into a British point of view, to fever with the RAF boys to fend of Görings Luftwaffe. All the human error and stress, all the hard struggling, the courage, Dowding's own doubts and his intelligent ways, the failures and their victories - I bought me an AIRFIX Spitfire after I had seen the film. And when the vain fat man (later known as Herr Meier) in his phantasy uniform finally got his bottom kicked, I almost shouted a loud "Hurra!" in the cinema. What a close match that was; what a hard fought for and well deserved victory. Other favourites: Band of Brothers, Catch 22, Apocalypse Now, Hell's Angels

This photo does put me so well on the airfield, that once again I feel subtle desire to fly in a Nieuport squadron. I have sworn myself, that, when OFF II is out, I will fly British, French and American campaigns - already their airfields seem to be looking so wonderful in the preview video.

Gaw, you press "Pause" ingame and then "Esc" to get to the "Controls". There select "View commands" and go to the command "Toggle scroll/snap view". I had assigned a joystick (thumb) button to this command. So I could easily change between the view with the fixed angles, which I used for fights; and the float view, which is nicer for the flying around. To change a command, you MUST select "Add new assignment", and add your new key/button first. Only AFTER that, you can delete the previous command key/button. .

A fine craft you're flying there, Lou! But where are the "Ochsenaugen"? I'm used to using them as targets! Mmuahahahahahahaaaaa!!!!! Serious now - I didn't know that the Escadrille Lafayette was flying without the cockardes. "Ochsenauge" means "ox eye" by the way. The Germans called the French roundels so.

Hmmm, Nieuports... all very nice, but don't you have one about Albatros? Seriously now - I love everything that gives us skinners more to design after. Thanks, Pips!

Only just recently, I have upgraded my system. Our good soul Morris gave me a very good graphic card, and I overclocked my CPU slightly. Now I do not only experience much smoother and more detailed graphics - I also got the impression, that the two-seaters are fighting better. I only had three clashes so far with 2seaters - 2x R.E.8 and 1x Sopwith Strutter. But at least the latter did not fight back so well before, me thinks. The leader even turned round to give his gunner a good field of fire, when I was chasing his wingmen. Is this only funny coincidence, or does OFF perform more and even better AI intelligence, if it can use a faster system?

I guess one should ignore, what CFS3 was, when it came out. It was less a sim, but rather a game. Some engine things are still being used from that game, and that's it. And what do we know - the fact that CFS3 was such a failure, must not mean that the underlying basic engine and stuff were bad. It was only made into a rather bad arcadish game. Winder said some time ago, that the CFS3 engine still offered more than enough abilities to fullfill what they wanted to achieve. And the man has never disappointed me yet.

They are aware of this, and I'm sure they are working on it - or have it solved already.

A cute little team you have created there, Lou! Yes, two weeks - we know from the release of P3, how long two weeks can feel - must be mental distortion?

Same for the rest of us, Eric, absolutely the same for the rest of us!

That is exactly what I meant, golden eagle. They usually do that, and even with the faster system, most of them do. But their way of fighting back is better. They fire crosswise to protect each other. And in both cases I have experienced now, the leader craft turned round let his gunner shoot at me. I had never seen that before.

Please don't call it "blasphemous" of me to use the shape of one of the best known peace songs in the world, to sing this ode about our forthcoming WW1 air combat sim - I think, if we can enjoy PLAYING a war only, instead of fighting it, we are a big step further, aren't we? .

If you use the "Pause" button, you can dulge in the new Manager in detail.

I remember that some wanted to keep P2 on their rigs, when P3 came out. The reason this is now asked again maybe a certain fear, that the new OFF II might be too performance-hungry for some rigs, and that the players want to keep a "backdoor opened". I do not believe, that OFF II will be much more performance hungry. From what I have read by the devs, it seems that most improvements they made won't cost more "muscle". Graphics-wise, we won't switch to some totally different thing with special layers and lighting effects. The AI-improvement should also be within the same performance level. (Here I see the most demand for fast CPU though - already in P3. I guess more CPU power would be the first thing to think of, if anything). It doesn't look like anything will be dropped for OFF II; so there should be no good reason to keep P3 on your system, except for nostalgia. I recommend to make good backups from your "HitR", and store it with the OFF BH&H DVD at a safe place. But I bet, you'll never go back again, once you have seen OFF II. .

My pleasure, Sid!

gaw, do yourself a favour and watch this video - and you'll catch glimpses of the new Campaign Manager, QuickCombat Manager and so much more. (See post No. 1 for the video).

Exactly, Lou - it will come out with the great new OFF II - in two weeks! gaw, should you be one of the few, who have NOT seen the OFF II Preview video??? In that case, you have also never seen the new aerodromes, landscapes, Gothas, "Zeppelins" etc. etc. ! Have a look now here: http://combatace.com...post__p__539914 .

Abbay, I have overclocked the CPU only slightly in "safe mode" in my motherboard's EFI (BIOS). It runs at 3.43 GHz now. Then I have also received a powerful graphic card - thanks again, Morris! - with 2 GPU in it. With this combination, I have set "Ground object density" on high, and most graphic setting sliders on "%". That's about it. If your system cannot perform that, you will notice by low framerates and stutters, and can go back. I recommend to try out these graphics slider settings first: Aircraft: 5 Terrain Detail: 3 Scenery Detail: 4 Effects Quality: 5 Clouds: 5 Try that with "Ground objects density" on "medium"; and if that still works fine, on "high". It should still work in Alsace (many trees) - if not, step back a bit.

Well, if you want to know: "Unc" even managed to return under a different name. We exchanged some PMs, and he seemed fine. But very soon, Creaghorn wrote a PM to me, asking if that could be the flyer formerly known as UncleAl. Now, Creaghorn wasn't the only one to notice - they spotted him and moved him to the door. He had forgotten to put lots of camouflage on his language.

Afraid of an AI fighting TOO well, rjw? Or why would you switch back?

Yes, indeed! Makes the waiting for OFF II easier, now that I have a "new" sim through this improvement.

Sweet video, Widow - maybe they think they are men, when they live with us? And why not - if they could speak, I bet they would be able to talk like a 4 year old child? Maybe even more?

Damn, then it would be a huge improvement not only graphic-wise - much more dangerous two-seaters now! Great stuff - feels like a new OFF !