HumanDrone

Olham, I know the feeling. Maybe I’m just old and soft, and maybe I’m getting cynical about gov’ts and war. When I first bought Flight Simulator, it was the civilian version. But my son wanted to try combat, so he bought me CFS2. Shortly after that, my brother-in-law (who has an odd fascination with the Nazis) bought me CFS3. I still remember the feeling as I struggled against Zeros for the first time in my F4U Corsair. No TrackIR or anything like that - and all of a sudden a Zero pulls in front of me, very close- a short burst caught his wing and fuselage in the cockpit area and he was burning, out of control. He didn’t get out before the plane exploded. And of course it’s not real, and thank God. But it actually jarred me. Just like that, it’s over. Just like that, one wrong move or an aircraft failure or a lucky shot, and your machine has become a falling death trap, and it’s not like you can just pull over, get out, and duck into the woods. When does terror turn into the realization, even the resignation, that you are going to die momentarily? The poor bugger probably just wanted to survive and get home to live in peace just like I would have. Problem was, he HAD to fight to get that opportunity, just like our side. He probably even volunteered, just as many of our “greatest generation” felt compelled to do. And then it “got real”, as they say. And we saw heroism and nobility - and some of the worst inhumanity to man that the world has ever seen. Are we any better for it? Sometimes I wonder. I don’t think many of this generation appreciate what these great men went through. So I appreciate your viewpoint, and with you I appreciate the fact that the developers and our fellow members here have assembled this vast array or resources that can allow us to develop at least a shadow of the feelings these men must have experienced, and not become completely desensitized to what killing someone actually means. One of those resources was the books uploaded by RAF_Louvert. I was reading a little on Oswald Boelcke, how he was chivalrous to those enemies who survived being downed by him. I’m sure you are familiar with it - he downs a man, then takes him out for coffee and a tour of his air base! And how, when he was killed, the Allied prisoners sent flowers and condolences, and the English RFS dropped a wreath onto the airfield with a kind inscription. In the raw inhumanity of war, that must have been a blessed relief. Best, Tom

This sure seems worth a try, but what are ENB series drivers? And they must be removed? Any tips here? Thanks, Tom ETA: My, you sure did punch some holes in those airplanes! I gotta get some serious stick time, here!

It's not. I believe they are Mk II aircraft, and are reportedly very carefully preserved. The plan is to hopefully get a flying squadron out of the lot of them, plus some museum pieces! Very cool!

Thank you, Dej. Tom

Quite an interesting picture! I find them moving, as well, for much the same reasons. The ground details are interesting, too. It looks like some sort of racetrack top center, and are all those white spots signs of shelling (YOW!) or what? Thanks, nice pic! It must have been a very difficult one to take back in the day! Tom

Er, minor thing perhaps, but I saw the pilot's hands in that video! I don't think that happens for me. Is there an add-on? Thanks, nice videos! Tom

Just to throw another reply onto the heap, I installed OFF BH&H, then my HiTR download, patched'em up and flew off into the susnset without an ounce of trouble. I'm at 5 on all my sliders, too. W7 64 Bit pro, and just a general user, i.e not a developer, etc. I'm busting a gut waiting for P4; I'm actually thinking about getting my Force feedback joystick back from my son so I can feel the stalls, etc, better. So welcome to OFF! It's so nice that you can "free flight" this one just for the "flight-seeing"! Best, Tom

That is most mighty pretty! I don't know how you guys do it!

The reason I commented on the skies in particular is the 2nd, 3rd and 4th screenshot. Particularly in the 2nd and 3rd, I've seen that effect when flying - at 10,000 ft or thereabouts, the air gets a lot clearer and you have that layer of foggier stuff below. Glory! The air must be getting mighty thin for some of these guys! Sooo looking forward to P4!

My, oh my! The sky! How in the world... That is the most realistic sky I've ever seen! + what everyone else said, the damage & all that... I'm with Bullethead - ready to order! Best, Tom

To wait for the next release is to waste valuable flying time! OFF HiTR is beautiful and challenging right now. If you bought CFS3 just to get OFF, then by all means jump in with both feet and get OFF! I've been free-flying trying to get used to these idiosyncratic birds, managing my mixture, etc, and the "Flightseeing" is remarkable. Wish I was at home, I could post some screenies, but there are plenty of those around here. Best, Tom

So we have HPW's fine damage mod, and I see there is an AI aircraft weight mod, and then various FM mods around. And that's where I run int trouble, modding up and keeping track of what I've installed - maybe a little notebook would help! But anyway, as we wait with baited breath for the release of P4, will any of these improvements be included in P4? I mean life is complicated enough! I don't know how you guys do it, making all these wonderful things, I can't even keep track of installing them! Thanks, Tom

I really didn't know where to put this, so feel free to move it if necessary. On another forum, someone noted that they were going to build a new computer and wanted to run CFS3 "maxed out" but stay with Windows XP, SP3. Supposedly this and an NVIDIA graphics card allows one to use specular reflection; though NVIDIA still supports this feature in their drivers, Windows 7 does not. So I took to the skies on a reasonably clear day, plenty of sunshine, in a nice, shiny P-38. Sure enough, no bright flashes from the polished aluminum fuselage. And I'm thinking, "Blast it!" My old computer could hardly run CFS3 at all, so I had everything dialed back; now my new one runs CFS3 ETO and OFF HiTR flat-out no problems at 60 FPS, and apparently there is a consensus that it would look even better if I was running Windows XP! Now for OFF aircraft, I can imagine that specular reflection isn't such a big deal, with fabric not being real shiny. But they say it makes the scenery look better, too! And I was already enthralled with how nice the OFF scenery was! So what the heck? Did I jump right over the best graphics combo that I could have had? Should I think about dual boot? I sure don''t want to use a 32 bit operating system that will soon be unsupported on a 64 bit machine like this! So if the answer is "Go dual boot", then what about XP 64 bit versions? any problems there? And further, is this real? Did you guys find a way around this? I googled and found entries for implementing specular reflection in DX10 on MSDN, so what happened? I've written quite a bit of code, but I don't know much about what's under the hood on CFS3, but it has something to do with files of the *_s.dds type. Best to all, & thanks, Tom

Glad to hear it, Jim! & yessir, that opening music/video is quite magnificent. Like you, I have this love/hate thing with Micro$oft Windoze, but for me it's the only game in town, so I try not to fiddle with it much. So you're saying that it appears that had you installed Bill's media player in the first place, you may have avoided all this? Tough lesson! Happy flying & Happy Easter! Tom

One reason I pretend to fly combat is to try to get a better perspective on my world, on the suffering and sacrifice of real people who cried in real agony as their craft dissolved in flames around them, as they were perhaps wounded and unable to do anything but writhe and wait for death. If we taught this more, perhaps we'd have war less. I'm no starry-eyed idealist; it is a crazy world run by crazy people and sometimes you have to fight or be killed; but as you said, and the beautiful pictures illustrate, you might hear voices here. If you do, pray and listen. Thanks, those are beautiful pictures.

Well, that's just it. I know how to fly in the basic sense, but detailed knowledge of the planes and tactics still escape me! But I sure do love my new setup, and as I said, TrackIR is worth it just for the "flight-seeing", I consider it indispensable for combat! The SPAD sights being eccentric like that, how best to align the sights without something like TrackIR? Best, Tom

Fantastic find. I must admit (perhaps I'm too selfish) that I might give a copy to be displayed, but I think I'd keep the original in the family treasury! Good on you! But reversing my scenario, you could make a good copy for the family before passing it on... Best, Tom eta: And note the penmanship! Some US schools aren't even teaching cursive handwriting anymore!

Another vote here for TrackIR or something similar! It's unquestionably the best improvement to my flight simming ever. Example: Try flying the SPAD XIII. The gun sight consists of a ball on a rod (nearer you) and a crosshairs out on your cowl. But they are offset to the right! No joystick hat switch will ever make that easy, though I suppose there is some "defined view" way around it... but it makes no difference to me, as I just move my head to the right as I would IRL, and while I'm lining up my shot I get shot down! err.. I mean, I make a clean kill! (Actually, it's the first scenario... there is a reason for my screen neame...) But yes, yes, yes, go get yourself some head tracking. Happy "flying", and welcome to OFF, Tom

Thank you sir! Sometimes I just let that opening video of yours play through, it beats anything I've ever seen in this genre. Wouldn't mind a full HD version now that I have my new rig! But I am wondering why our friends here are having issues with Win64 compatibility. Would, say, different controls software (i.e old joystick) cause this? As I said, I have no issue with either OFF or CFG3 ETO, or even stock CFS3. Install and go, no problems, no "Run as administrator" or "Run in XP_ compatibility mode", and certainly not in the XP virtual machine - I had to use that for some old stuff at work for a while... what a pain! So for me it's a matter of learning how to manage my mixture and keep my carb full and somehow still manage to watch my enemy, my six, and did I mention how nice it is with TrackIR in the SPAD XIII to just lean your head to one side to line up the site...? The more i get into it, the more I appreciate what an achievement this is, and hat the real avaitors had to deal with. I'm surprised the planes could leave the ground carrying their massive brass...oh, wait, this is a family site... Anyway, I'm really looking forward to this new phase everyone is talking about. Best, Tom

Hi all! (waves) I've recently re-installed OFF and HiTR thru Minipatch 1.47b or whatever it is, and I do not have to run in XP mode, administrator mode, or an other funny settings. I just installed and it ran, in stunning beauty I might add. Same with CFS3 ETO. Fortunately with the horsepower of this ring (see my siggie), I just max the sliders and go, but I don't think that has anything to do with running in compatibility modes, admin mode, etc. However, my user account is an admin account, so YMMV... It seems to me that running in XP mode, or worse, an XP virtual machine, would just be more frame rate-stealing overhead, so I hope no one has to go that route. As well, I don't fly on-line (yet, as the other guy pointed out, no use being a sitting duck, or a human drone!) I'm wondering why the varied experiences? I feel kinda lucky! Best, & more props to the developers, Tom err. I thought I had a siggie with specs. Anyway it's this: Box: Win7 Pro 64 bit / I72600K @4.2 GHz / EVGA GTX580 OC'd / 16GB RAM / Corsair 240 GB SSD / WD 600 GB Velociraptor FS Stuff: Saitek X52 Pro Stick/Throttle & Combat Rudder Pedals, TrackIR 5 Sims: FSX Gold, REX 2.0 OD, UTX-NA, FSGenesis 10m mesh/ CFS3 ETO 1.40/ CFS3 OFF HiTR

I just reinstalled OFF1 P3 and was stunned at the scenery and modeling, and now this... gotta learn to fly, gotta learn to fly! Great work, simply great!

Yessir, I just did the big upgrade last winter. Really makes a difference, eh?! But I've been terribly busy, and so I did not get around to re-installing OFF until this week. So today, after some flying last night, I was going to start a separate thread about how stunningly beautiful the scenery is with all the sliders maxed. I have CF3's ETO expansion, and it's very nice, but this tops even that! I'm tickled to have the new machine, but even more tickled to have OFF - It is some magnificent "Flight-seeing" Now if I can just learn how to fly well....! So welcome, & congrats on your new box. Happy flying! Tom

Here's another vote for HiTR and a word of encouragement for the developers! It must be tough, and I know things have been quiet, but hang in there and keep up the good work. You have my money when OFF2 comes out! Best, Tom

I just wanted to stop by and say Merry Christmas to everyone, and a special thanks to all those who make this possible. May you be blessed in your hearts and homes this Christmas, may the blood-bought peace and freedom we enjoy be all that more precious to us. Thank you all for all you do, & best wishes for the New Year! Tom

Thanks, I tried again this afternoon, still only one instance. I just don't get it. I uninstalled, plugged them back in one at a time, the whole nine yards. Do I also have to install SMART one at a time? Maybe that's where I'm going wrong. But it seems like the D/L's at Saitek point you to the same program. It's working fine in FSX anyway, even with only one icon on the task bar. I dunno, I can write code in 3 languages, I've built a couple of computers, but either I'm losing my edge or, well, like I said, if it's this touchy, why doesn't Saitek have an explicit procedure for installing the two? Surely I'm not the only one that's had this trouble? I'm going to call them Monday night. Thanks, and Merry Christmas! Tom