Maxiku

Just a few ideas.... Do you get the same issues with CFS3 (patched to version 3.1 or 3.1a) as well as with OFF. (ie: If you uninstall OFF and CFS3, then do a clean install of CFS3 without installing OFF - Do you get the same issues? If so - it might be useful to search some other CF3 forums to see if anyone else has encountered this issue and found a fix) Have you tried disabling your anti-virus software for a few minutes to test whether there is any clash. (I had issues running CFS3 under the 2008 version of Kaspersky Anti-virus but later versions were fine for me) I'm not familiar with the AMD multi-cores but are you able to force CFS3 & OFF to all run under a single core? Have you tried unplugging any USB peripherals (apart from your keyboard, mouse and joystick)? Have you tried running at an ultra low screen resolution (640 x480) just to see if it makes any difference to frame rates?

I'd agree with that. The OFF devs seem to be the most comittted in the Industry. So far, they're results have been fantastic!!

I've been running OFF and (more recently) Hat In The Ring on Win7 64 bit for months. Never had a crash - I'm really happy with OFF on Win 7.

Hi Jim - That "joystick only rolls to the left" problem is pretty weird. What kind of joystick do you have?

(going all dewy eyed) - I still remember Knights Of the Sky on my Amiga 500. Fantastic game (for the time), absolutely brilliant music and I played it continously for about 5 years. I loved the "you have been challenged by the Red Baron" type missions and the sheer desperation I felt when trying to coax back my shot up machine to our side of the lines. In the end it was the release of Flying Corp Gold (along with the ability to use analogue joysticks) that swung me across to the PC. Much better graphics but I don't think the gameplay was anywhere near as good. Just for the hell of it - I played Knights Of The Sky again a few weeks ago on the WINuae Amiga emulator...It hasn't aged well but that music still sounds as good as it ever did. I also had a bash at Flying Corp Gold again last week....and that seems to have aged even more than Knights Of The Sky. I wonder how I'll feel about OFF3 in ten years time..(by which time I hope to be playing OFF10 in my fully 3D immersive cockpit)

Win7-64 bit - Works brilliantly for me and it's ability to deal with huge amounts of RAM means that I can use my 4870x2 Graphics card (2 gig of graphics memory) plus still use my full 4gig system ram for my other apps. I have all OFF/HITR graphics settings maxed out and it's still damn smooth even on my middle of the range CPU (Q6600@2.4Ghz). Gotta say - Microsoft finally got it right here. Win7 ain't perfect (After 5 months of use I have started to spot some weaknesses) but a hell of a lot better than the Win Vista I used before. I was never happy with Vista (and kept a separate XP machine as my secondary game rig) but Win7 has really impressed me and I haven't looked back to XP. To be honest though - if I stuck my graphics card into an XP machine..I'm sure the performance would be equally good...the only downside being that I couldn't use all my ram for other apps. I also have to admit that Win7 is the first time I tried a 64bit OS. Slightly off topic but - On a pure OS point of view I rate Win7 tops, XP second and Vista last. Happy flying, Max

Hi Capt - Great to hear that you resolved it. Also very useful to know that MSE has an issue with HiTR. You're probably the first to experience it but I doubt you'll be the last - so at least the community are aware. Happy flying, Maxik.

Hi CaptSopwith. Can you tell us about your rig (CPU, OS, Ram, Spare drive space, Anti Virus program etc)? From your description it either sounds like you got a corrupt download (though I know WinRAR says it's clean) or possibly a full/damaged hard drive. Schnitzel Von Krumms comment about trying to extract to a USB drive seems good to me. I'd definitely echo his advice. I'd also recommend you try another download (perhaps direct to a USB drive or to another folder so that you can compare whether your two downloads are identical) Failing that : The other thing I'd recommend is trying to disable your virus guard when trying to unzip the file. Lots of us have scanned the file and it's clean but it could be your anti-virus software kicking it and mistakenly thinking the program is a virus. (For example: I use Kapersky anti-virus 8.0 and that software refuses to let me install/run Overlord 2 despite other Anti-Virus software saying that Overlord 2 is clean) Keep with it - The expansion is definitely worth the time/money.

Hi CaptSopwith. I have Win7 (64 bit) on my desktop and Win7 (32 bit) on my laptop. The desktop is my gaming machine and HiTR installed perfectly...though I ran it as an administrator just to avoid any issues. Same applied when I (just to see if I could replicate your issue) installed it on my laptop...Worked just fine (though the integrated graphics cards can't run it as more than a pretty slideshow). I'd say Win7 is not the issue. Good luck in getting it resolved. Maxik.

I'm running Win7 64bit (Ultimate edition) on my desktop and Win7 32bit (Ultimate) on my laptop. OFF runs absolutely fine on both of them, and Force Feedback (as least using my Microsoft Force Feedback 2 joystick) works absolutely fine in all games I have tested it with. I agree with the comments on Vista. Many things on Vista were better than on XP but it had so many annoying issues that I went back to XP until the Win7 beta was released. Since then I've stuck with Win7 and never missed XP. I've also found it easier to get some old (Win 98/ME etc) games to run on Win7 than Vista. I've seen a few comments about people waiting for the "Win 7 Service Pack" - but Microsoft have already stated that Win7 will run live updates so that there will not be any need for service packs. They might change their mind (it wouldn't be the first time for Microsoft) but for now they are stating that Service Packs are a thing of the past.

Hiya Red-Dog, Thanks for letting us know that the BBC have finally released Wings. I've been waiting years for them to do it and had given up hope! At last - Something decent to watch on the TV over Christmas !!!

I have a similar rig to the above (Q6600 quad-core running at 2.4Ghz, 4 Gig generic ram, Win7 64bit) but invested in a ATI 4870x2 card. That card makes a massive difference to the performance and I can run OFF nicely at 1920x1200 resolution (32 bit/No Anti Aliasing) with all sliders set to 5! It's very rare that I see any slowdown. The only slowdowns I remember seeing where on the massive 20 vs 20 dogfights and to clear that I just knocked my resolution down to 1920x1080. Obviously the power of the graphics card is very useful but I have a feeling that it's the 2Gb of Graphics memory that is equally important. As for the graphics issue mentioned at the start of the thread (Large Black squares on the landscape) - I think that's a graphics driver issue with the ATI cards. I used to get it very badly in OFF3 but updating my graphics driver cleared it for 90% of my missions. I do still get the issue from time to time, but I get exactly the same problem in Rise Of Flight. Tally-Ho Maxiku

Hi Pappy. I was lucky enough to have an aerobatic flight (Barrel rolls, Loops etc) in a bright yellow 1935 Tiger Moth about 4 years ago. The company was called "Tigerfly" and flew out of Booker airfield in High Wycombe. The pilot was also the Chief Pilot of the Booker flying school were I was taking my Private Pilots License lessons - so should be easy to track him down if you're looking for another flight. Saying that - The best flight I ever took was an Aerobatic stunt flight in a Pitts Special (Bi-plane) in Australia a few years ago. It wasn't open cockpit but I was lucky that the Pilot was an ex-Australian champ who decided to use the flight as a practise routine for his next display...Hammerheads, Hi-G Stall turns, inverted dives...It was mind-blowing and bloody hard on the body too...But wow - That was a unique experience. ...Now if that could be truly experienced on a WW1 flight sim (Maybe OFF phase 5?) , then Real-Life would be over for me.....I'd be permanently hooked into the Virtual world of OFF!

Hi Pappy, Like a lot of users, I swear by my Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2 joystick. The Force Feedback really tells you when you're about to enter a stall, so you can fly to the limits a lot easier - plus it doesn't feel loose at all. The bad news is they stopped making them a few years ago and they still fetch high prices on Ebay. Good luck in your search!