saburo

Hi, Apologies if this has been addressed - if it has, I couldn't find it. I am in the process of designing a mission for SP and MP and it's looking pretty good but I want to tweak some of the altitudes some of the aircraft fly as they work from waypoint to waypoint. There is indeed a window to designate altitude, sure, but when you change it and click to something else, and later click back, the altitude was never changed. Clearly I am either missing something crucial on this and any pointers, hints, or suggestions will be most welcome. Thanks! -sab

In no certain order: A mystery DH2 on fire which kept respawning. A Camel in the woods burning nicely. Triple smoke trail anomaly. Real close shot of an Alby. Joker and Alpha crashed into the same spot by the fuel train. Above an Alby. * * * Off MP is major fun! Dogfighting, co-op missions, and even some bombing practice with Sitting Duck waiting for more pilots to show. Great experience! -sab

Good flying fun for everyone! Took a few shots. In no certain order are Bala's Camel after he showed that you can taxi a biplane into a hangar. Not to be outdone, I soon followed with my Bristol. THe other two were from a recon photo mission, of what was never made quite clear, so I snapped a couple at a destroyer we bombed - High Command had better be pleased! For myself, the most fun was the first mission, the enormous furrball which Ax modified with great results - it was awesome - I was so involved I didn't have time to shoot any pics. The only suggestion I would make with that the next time, for what it's worth, is before the flight we all decide who are wingmen are and try that. And Ax, playing that mission in single has shown me the enemy AI isn't all that hot - is there any programming magic that would make the enemy AI more unpredictable? Not a complaint but with Camels against Albatrosses, I think they need the help. Just ideas and great fun, as always - thanks for hosting! -sab

I'll try to be there at around 9ish your time - hope I'm not too late and thanks for hosting! -sab

I'll say it again - Great Fun!

Thanks for the perspective and the suggestions, duck. I've tried a few different tweaks, both in the workshop and with the Nvidia settings and what I have going on is the best I've seen - but I admit, I haven't tried every single different tweak out there. My settings were 553351 but I just dropped ground stuff and density to 2 so I'll see how that works. I'm plotting to update the GPU as well as upgrading other areas. Primarily: GPU - old question but what would you or any other OFF player/gamer recommend GPU-wise? The conventional wisdon seems to be the Nvidia GTX280. Comments? Secondarily: RAM - running at 2gigs. I can upgrade I believe to around 3 or so given the OS is 32bit - do you believe that would be money well spent? And also: MB - would rather wait on this unless it's really the best way to go - the idea of re-building the system, while not un-doable, is daunting. That said, anyone wanna recommend a MB? I'm very happy with the Gigabyte except in terms of it being 5 years old now and possibly not quite up to what I would like it to be for uses which require a ton of processing speed - I also do a fair amount of video with this system and some aspects such as a better or cleaner preview of a video while editing and later quicker rendering to files would be nice. Thanks! -sab

I am definitely looking for ways to increase my FPS. Presently it's certainly flyable - mid 20's to mid 30's most of the time, but really slow starting at an airfield and sometimes dropping as air activity picks up. So, here's my stats if some professional (which I am definitely not) would care to review and offer tweaking advice. Thanks! -sab Also flying with settings on 5 except for clouds (1) and ground stuff (3) Computer: Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional OS Service Pack Service Pack 3 DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c) Motherboard: CPU Type DualCore Intel Pentium D 820, 2800 MHz (14 x 200) Motherboard Name Gigabyte GA-8N-SLI Pro (2 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 2 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394) Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce4 SLI Intel Edition System Memory 2048 MB (DDR2-667 DDR2 SDRAM) BIOS Type Award Modular (08/15/05) Communication Port Communications Port (COM1) Communication Port Communications Port (COM2) Communication Port Printer Port (LPT1) Display: Video Adapter NVIDIA (not sure why two 7800GT's is listed below- there's only one GPU - there are two slots but again, only one GPU...sab) GeForce 7800 GT (256 MB) Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT (256 MB) 3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT Monitor Plug and Play Monitor [NoDB] (S17F100235) Monitor Sony CPD-300SFT [20" CRT] (7147121461) Multimedia: Audio Adapter nVIDIA MCP04 - Audio Codec Interface Storage: IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce4 Intel® Edition Parallel ATA Controller IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce4 Intel® Edition Serial ATA Controller IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce4 Intel® Edition Serial ATA Controller SCSI/RAID Controller NVIDIA nForce RAID Class Controller SCSI/RAID Controller SCSI/RAID Host Controller SCSI/RAID Controller ST3300620AS SCSI/RAID Controller ST3300622AS SCSI/RAID Controller ST3300622AS SCSI/RAID Controller ST3300622AS Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive Disk Drive NVIDIA RAID5 838.38G (838 GB) Disk Drive Maxtor 7Y250P0 (250 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/133) Disk Drive Generic USB SD Reader USB Device Disk Drive Generic USB CF Reader USB Device (2000 MB, USB) Disk Drive Generic USB SM Reader USB Device Disk Drive Generic USB MS Reader USB Device Optical Drive MA1455S KEE465N SCSI CdRom Device Optical Drive SONY DVD RW DRU-810A SMART Hard Disks Status OK Partitions: X: (NTFS) 858489 MB (400289 MB free) X: (NTFS) 239366 MB (59962 MB free) Total Size 1072.1 GB (449.5 GB free)

I will give a salute S!, at the very least. Great Job! Although I, with much patience and help from Duck and Stump, managed to get everything working right remarkably quickly without benefit of Mmatt's brilliant piece of MP compatability made easy, it was still helpfull in getting search-lights (not vital but very cool to have) working and now, no matter if I have to reinstall the game at some point, tricking it out for MP is a breeze! For that matter, salutes S!'s to Duck and Stump for going those extra miles and talking newbs like myself through the process. This is, without a doubt, the most involving and excellent WWI flight sim I've ever flown and as fun as SP is, MP just kicks major league butt! See you guys in the air! S! -sab

Just a quick shot from the evening's MP game - heavily brightness and contrast corrected - it was much darker on the flight - looks like a bright moon's out now. Tons o' fun and thanks to Matt for his hosting and patience - those searchlights are COOL! -sab

Another great time in MP - decided to fly gunner. Nicked a Nieuport a few times but too immersed to take any pics of the action. After things settled down, pulled out the camera and took some shots. Big thanks to the hosters (you know who you are) and everyone for joining up on the flight! -sab

Poor chap was falling wheels down from a great height with much fire and smoke. Great fun in MP - I recommend it! -sab

Another thought would be a mini-series on Jasta 2 (Boelcke's) done in the vein of "Band of Brothers." Ongoing from before the Somme thru to the end of the war - start to finish, characters come and go (some very colorful), the fortunes of war rise and fall. The good, bad, and ugly. The dicey part (aside from funding such an ambitious project) would be the dramatizing to keep it accessable. Short of that, if Ken Burns were to tackle the Airwar in the Great War, that could potentially be remarkable from a documentary standpoint. -sab

Actually, a long time ago a friend told me a story about an event in Udet's career which didn't show up in his autobiography so I guess it's one of those legend things - but it would make a very nice short film. The way the story goes "Udet" (or some pilot) after a scrap with other aircraft finds himself alone when he spots an enemy aircraft (French in the story) and diving down begins to close distance and set up on its tail. The French pilot is flying for his lines and also hammering on the the Lewis' cylinder as it has become stuck. It is really stuck so the French pilot now stands up in the seat, one foot more or less on the yoke, but the cylinder isn't budging. Then, for whatever reason the airplane lurches, the French pilot's foot slips off the stick, and the airplane neatly inverts, so now the French pilot is dangling from the top wing and the Lewis, staring back at "Udet". "Udet," following closely but not shooting, is watching this in justifiable amazement. The French pilot manages to kick his legs back into the cock-pit and kinda shimmy himself up into it enough to kick the stick forward and the inverted plane rears up and begins to stall, almost into "Udet's" crate who has to scramble to avoid collision. The French pilot manages to regain control out of his stall and is still heading for the lines when "Udet" pulls in next to him, gets his attention, and basically signals, "Not this time," before diving away to the East. Later, "Udet" supposedly commented, "I just didn't have the heart to shoot him down." A supposedly "true" story but I've never found any confirmation or 2nd source so it's really just a good story - and it would make a lovely little short film. -sab

Screenie from a MP game - loads o' fun! -sab

I will make an attempt to go get the headset/mic - hopefully any bugs can be worked out - looking forwards to flying! -sab

Salute! Question about TrackIR - a minor inconvience if anyone has a trick for it. It seems after I've looked around, following enemy planes, whatever, when I look back my "center," I.E. looking down the gunsight has shifted - it might be close but usually off - so when I am tracking an enemy and maneuver for the shot, when I shoot I miss. Of course, F12 is a quick center, but a lot of times the other hand is busy on the throttle so sometimes it's clumsy to step outside the immersion to press a key to make sure my eye and the gunsight are lined up. And there's also the F-key which is a zoomed in view looking directly down the gunsight (not in Camels) but there's no Tracking in this view and I'd rather be able to sweep my head around as need be, rather than F-key back to the tracking view. There was an online flightsim sim I tried which had it so when your view got close to the center, gunsight area it would just kinda shift to where it needed to be - and just a little bit more head movement to clear out of it while looking around - seemed to work fine. No such thing, near as I can tell in OFF. So, does anyone have any tricks or suggestions for TrackIR or OFF which would allow the immersed player to quickly and efficiently get his "view" looking straight ahead, down the length of the guns, rather than as it is presently, sweeping the view center and hoping you're lined up and not going to waste valuable ammo while shifting the view to down along the sight? Thanks - any insight would be greatly appreciated! -sab

Thanks for the tips, everyone - I'll give 'em a try. Salute! -sab

I'll probably be able to join after work by around 8edt - hope to make it in and have fun! -sab

Salute! It goes without saying (but, I'll say it anyway), one can't have a real grasp of what went on in the Second World War without having a grasp of how the Great War went - the two are joined at the hip on many, many levels, from combatants, technology, politics, and even strategies - there's just so many echos in the Second from the First. If you don't already have it, I heartily recommend "The First World War" by John Keegan. It is excellent. Mind you, the air war is only loosly addressed in it but still, it's the best account I've read. -sab

On teamspeak - nice and painless - great! Will be back in front of computer at 9edt - thanks! -sab

Thanks for the response - won't get the headset/mic for this evening so I'll muddle through this evening best I can. Thanks! sab

Could you or someone please please please point me in the direction of perhaps a step by step to try MP out what's being hosted this evening? I tried a month or two ago and either due to the game being down or my own fiddling back and forth, I never was able to connect up - but I'd really like to try it out. And, yes, my version is updated to the latest. Thanks a whole lot and I hope to be winging with you all tonight. -sab

Running XP sp3. Tried starting both through OFF and through CSF3MP.exe - same check internet connection window dead end. Since I am running XP sp3, would not all of those exe files be defaulted to run in XP compatibility? I looked at CFS3MP.exe and my change options did ~not~ include a change to XP compatibility - guessing changing to XP compatibility is an ability with Vista. Thanks for your help! I'm sure we'll figure it out... -sab

I'm sorry - the first one - not connected to the internet. I was - definitely - was troubleshooting (reading the faq) while trying to hammer through it -sab

Thought I'd try to join on a lark - kept on getting a window saying it wasn't connected to the internet - it was. Checked the firewall, no problem, turned it off, still saying I wasn't connected - check connection, ect. Sorry if this is an old line of problems - I looked over at the OFF faq and seemed to be doing everything right. Ideas anyone? Thanks! -sab