JimAttrill

In WWI it should be black, white and red

A point of Windoze history here: Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and ME were gui's on top of Dos. (nb: no services) 2000 was the first user-friendly version of NT (and remember that NT basically came from DEC, not M$) XP was a rehashed version of 2000 Vista was a rewrite of the whole thing, supposed to take over from the NT platform. 7 is back to NT, basically the front-end of Vista grafted onto XP. Look inside 7 and you will find files with names like 'NTOSKRNL.EXE' which give the game away. So it is no wonder that 7 is as fast as XP, because underneath it is XP.

I went from XP pro 32-bit to 7 Ultimate 64-bit. Apart from some hassles getting TrackIr to work - both TrackIr and OFF manager have to be run in administrator mode otherwise they can't see each other - I am happy with 7 so far. This is on a AMD 5200+ cpu. This is my only OFF machine. I didn't want to use either XP or Vista 64-bit as a lot of people have issues with either. Butttttt I also run an old IBM T20 800 mhz laptop with max 512Mb memory which just runs XP pro, and a Fujitsu-Siemens Centrino laptop with XP pro, and as of last week an ASUS Intel 3000 dual-core which seems happy on Vista Home Basic (except it won't talk to my Lexmark Z705 printer even though I have downloaded the the 'vista' drivers). And at work I have an old crappy P4 with XP pro, though I am about due for an upgrade to something decent.

If you are running Windows 7, make sure that both TrackIr and OFF .exe files are set to run as administrator. Else the blue light don't come on. BTDT.

As I have a TrackIr 3 with vector expansion, I cannot use the version 5 software - I am on the 4 Final B as above. But I found the problem in that both programs have to be running as administrator. This obviously means something to Bill and his merry men, but nothing much to me. As I was signed on as my single user and had to be an administrator this seems to be a stupid thing to have to do. But Windoze never has made much sense. But maybe we should update the TrackIR installation notes to take this into account with Windows 7. It certainly ruined my day, having to uninstall and reinstall both TrackIr and OFF and then finding no change.

I now have basically a new machine running Windows 7 Ultimate with newly installed versions of Trackir version 4 beta software, CFS3 and OFF. When I run CFS3, I get the blue leds on but in OFF I don't get the blue leds and TrackIr doesn't work. What is going on here?

Maybe it was made for someone who liked riding horses wearing breeches and the older style jacket?

It is best to set yourself to be the leader otherwise you have no control over what happens. And those you fly with are assigned to you, which is realistic, at least. You can choose how close the others get to you in the flight - it helps to keep your own people away otherwise they may crash into you in a dogfight. If you run with the 'dead is dead' options you will be lucky to survive for long which is also realistic. You can even fly up the Thames and through Tower Bridge if you are with a 'home' squadron. I also strafed the Houses of Parliament

Sounds like Vista .....

and Mick Mannock ....

MvR instead of Göring? An interesting thought. The NSDAP did spend a lot of time trying to get the the aristocracy on their side, with disappointing results in the early days. After all, the S stands for 'Socialiste' and the A stands for 'Arbeiters', and MvR was neither. OTOH neither was Göring. I don't think the end result would have been much different. The real mistakes of the Luftwaffe were that although it was a superb army tactical support force, they had no strategic thinkers. Their cargo (ie JU52) force was too small and they never developed a working 4-engine bomber whereas the Brits produced three (of varying value) and the Americans two in the European theatre. If the Me109e had had greater range the BoB might have had a different outcome altogether. What the Luftwaffe needed was a Mustang and they never had one.

The problem I had was with CFS3 while I was waiting for OFF in the post. Funnily enough it flew ok, but the starting scene with the pilot was stuttering badly to the extent that I thought he was Michael Jackson in disguise. I never had a problem with OFF and CFS3 improved a lot but not 100%. No matter, I have since uninstalled CFS3 anyway. I have downloaded the new driver and will try it, though I'm not sure I really need it and should leave well alone.

I had to stop using my gameport via my old soundblaster card years ago as the card itself didn't fit the new motherboards.

I solved all my problems by downloading and running AMD_Processor_Driver_1320053 which is 14Mb. (I have a 5200+ Athlon overclocked 10%)

If the squadron you assigned your pilot to flies the aircraft you want, you can go forwards or backwards in time until you get the kite. But otherwise the normal thing to do is add another pilot. You can have as many as you want, but only one is 'active' at any time. Unless you are flying 'invincible' you will find that your computer gradually fills up with dead pilots anyway

Cheers Morris, that now makes three of us in SA Winder, me and you. Where do you live? Send Olham a message about where you are and he will add you to the Map of Africa.

All I can get is a CDM and bar

I wonder what Flt Sgt Beck did to get reduced in rank to Corporal? I suppose we shall never know. That sort of demotion was pretty rare as it could take you many years to get to that rank in the first place. As a coincidence, my father retired from the RAF as a Flt. Sgt. and I left as a Corporal ....

The SE5a in the Imperial War Museum is also an ex-signwriter but has been re-converted back to original spec. All the extant SE5a's in the UK were used as signwriters and that is why they are still around. The war museum here in Joburg has an original SE5a part of the gift from the UK after the war. If you are at all interested in any aspect of WWI the Imperial War museum is a place where you can spend whole days without seeing everything.

I especially love the 139 squadron Brisfit and the Fee. What are those words on the nacelle of the Fee?

It's a bit OT, but on Sunday I went to a performance of Haydn's "Nelson Mass". I had never heard of it, and was expecting gunfire as in the 1812 overture. Apparently Nelson met Haydn in Vienna and gave him the watch he wore at the Battle of the Nile. I wonder where that is now?

Playing at night has fixed the problem. I have now also programmed the 'centre' command as joystick button no 2 and that helps when I get a bit confused about whether I am diving (using the joystick) or looking down (using TrackIr). At the moment I am still crashing quite regularly but shall get used to it with time of course.

I'm looking forward to the DH5 for two reasons: first that I can fly through the war in 24 Sqn, and it may be a better aircraft in OFF than it was in reality as it has good upward vision with the backstaggered top wing. I also hate Christmas, partly because it's my birthday

That's what I thought and then wondered why I had no ammo for it. I put the picture in because it shows how brave these gunners must have been to sit out of the cockpit on one gun and fire another. And to have another fixed gun aimed at your kneecaps at the same time One spec I read said that the FE2b could have up to FOUR guns fitted. Maybe we could get a mod to the Fee to add in the fixed forward gun. I don't think the devs really expect there to be much demand for Fee stuff. Maybe we should start a 'Fighting Fee' thread rather like the Did thread. But first I need a lot more practice.