Burning Beard

You can put the OBDSoftware file anywhere you want on the computer, I have it placed in one called Games on my D drive. As long as it is has the exe file to boot the game it will work. If you move it, and use a desk top icon to boot the game, make sure the path to find the exe is entered properly under properties in the link folder. The x86 file is easy identification of old 32 bit programs. Beard

Von Bauer posted the following for dimming labels....... I like to be able to ID the aces as well as my flight mates (I count noses on the way home to know who, if anyone, I lost). About 1/3 of the way down the ViewUI file (XP users, BOOTDRIVE:\Documents and Settings\your user folder\Application Data[a hidden folder]\Microsoft\CFSWWI Over Flanders Fields) you'll find the color settings for the labels. I use 0x2FCCCCCC for the Friend, Enemy, Bogie and Goal colors. That renders all AI labels the same from any distance. The two numbers after the 0X are the level of transparency, 00 being invisible and FF being 100% opaque. 2F makes them clear enough to be read without having to pause the game but at the same time they're not overwhelming in a dogfight (i.e. you'll usually see the plane before the label...and if you're looking for the labels I hope you've filled out your will before taking off). I find this a good compromise between the full DiD standard and a playable game. It's also a good middle ground for those wishing to work their way up to full DiD without having to go off labels cold turkey. Of course, you may want to modify the specifics to suit you, should you even choose to try this at all. Another side of this is that it makes the information lines ("you hit enemy aircraft", "structure damage",etc.) the same as the labels, so they're not gone but they're not in your face. The waypoint advisory lines are still a solid red. I think that pretty well explains it, Von Bauer came up with this last year when we were flying multiplayer. You can fool around a little with the color codes if you want or just make them more transparent. Hope this is the post you were looking for. Beard

I've tried that Winder, and unfortunately it doesn't work on this machine. Like I said it was a problem I first ran into on XP. Beard

My game choked on the new drivers, also on the drivers issued before this last set. I'm running a 260 GTS 512. This is not a new issue, I had the same problem with XP before I upgraded to Win 7 64. It chokes on the Configoverrides.xml file for some reason, wants me to reinstall the game, which doesn't really work. I have gotten around it on XP by copying the mentioned file to another folder then putting it back in after the new driver fails to find it (even after updating the file in workshops). This system hasn't worked in Win 7, but the drivers I was using before the upgrade were perfectly fine. As I explained above I just rolled back the drivers, replaced the Configoverrides file and it works again. Beard

You didn't try roll back driver? I have trouble updating Nvidea drivers myself (for some reason OFF doesn't like the new ones). You can roll back the video drivers by going to Control Panel - System Folder - Advanced System Setting - Hardware Tab - Device Manager - Display Adapters then hit the roll back button. Saves doing the system restore bit. It doesn't even have to reboot the machine. Beard

Sorry for the noise on my mic this afternoon on teamspeak. For some reason I can't get push to talk to work and when my friend came over (to ask for a favor, lol) I unplugged the headset side before I remembered the mic side. This was made worse by my game jamming making me have to Ctrl, Alt, Del before I could get to teamspeak to disconnect. Beard

On some schemes the anomalies don't show up. I found problems when trying to match a fish scale pattern that wraps around the fuselage of the regular N17, there is also an issue with cowling on that bird which takes considerable tweaking to make a pattern wrap around it. The N17bis and N24 the top of the fuselage is a little hinky, what you paint for the outside doesn't show up the same from inside the plane. That is also the one with the strange wing hiatus. The Fokker DVIII was straight forward except it had a lot of stuff that isn't used that you have to identify. Each one is different and I tend to make a whole new skinning template when I start a bird, that is where the problems show up. If you are just altering an existing skin it not so much of a problem. I haven't attempted a strutter, but I did fool around with a Tripe and found there is an alignment problem on horizontal stabilizer. This is one I was just doing quickly and was not making a template for. That N17 of Nels Larsson is a beauty. Beard

Yes Olham you are right about the Spad XIII. It is pretty straight forward with only a few spots that need special attention to fix. For a real challenge, try the Nieuport 17 or 17bis etal. On the bis there are sections of the wings that are not there... or more specifically there is a section of one of the wings that is a mirror of the other side. When you get into skinning these things you often find things you don't expect. But then again, that's what makes it fun Beard

Saturdays at 11:00 local Mac, and we are using Sopwith Triplanes this time. Beard

I have a Trac IR 4 but still use padlock. When something comes up on the tac screen I will padlock it and see if can see it (I do not use labels). If not I ignore the target until it gets into visual range. Even with Trac IR and my display set to 1680 x 1050 I cant see a target until it gets with 2 miles if it is down in the weeds somewhere or in the clouds. If you could get the visual acuity you have with natural eyesight on a screen I probably wouldn't use the padlock. However, with only the tunnel vision you get with a monitor you will never equal natural eyesight. It is funny how often when I turn off the padlock I will find that I am still focused on the target using the Trac IR. Beard

I use it all the time, works fine for me. It is the Accent key (just left of the 1 key), I have it mapped to my joy stick. I wasn't aware of it not working in Phase 1 or Phase 2, I thought I had been using it all along. Beard

That one is a lot different than the Barber Pole Spad XIII I did. That one has two continuous stripes that starts at the front and run to rear of the plane. That is where Corel Draw and grids come in handy. This Alb is a pretty bird, that oval fuselage really lends itself to the Barber Pole motif. Beard

Go into the Config.exe and change you graphics settings to what you think you should use. Mine are 553455 or pretty high. I found that if you leave the default settings in the game will really stumble, you may have it set too low for your graphics card. Beard

An easy way to post a picture is to put them in a Photobucket or other file sharing location on line. You can then use the url address for the picture and post it here. That way you do not fill up your space here with graphics and you can use the same url to post to other sites you may visit. On the Spad XIII, I have some skins posted of the post war Spads flown by the US 94 (Hat in the Ring Squadron). If you download the skins you will get an accurate view of all the surfaces. This of course holds true for all the skins that are in your skin folder. As an added plus you will also get the name of the pilot and squadron. A good viewer for the skins is Irfanview (just google it), it will open the dds files and you can save them as jpg's if you want. Beard

On that note I read a Gallup poll today that says less the half the people (I am supposing US) believe the media anymore. Apparently the higher the education the less the individual trusts the media. Beard

With the Sopwith Triplane the float is so bad you have fly over the field once to get your mechanics attention then on the second pass he'll throw you a rope and reel you in. Beard

Just so happens I went through a similar problem just last week. I too am running Windows 7 64 and was getting stopped when trying to enter a Multiplayer game. I would get booted back to the opening screen every time and when I tried to fly after that I got the old Error 53. I never really tried to fly a mission after rebooting the game so I can't speak the your last problem, I was just trying to get into Multiplayer. Anyhoo, Sitting Duck posted the following to me to help fix the problem Burning Beard this is a fix for w7 and multiplayer. this is from the over flanders fields faq section Q5M. Windows 7 comes up with errors in Multiplayer. A5M. Microsoft posted a fix for a similar issue in article KB555608. Also check out this thread on Sim-Outhouse. Basically simply rename oleacc.dll to oleaccold.dll in the "CFS3WW1 OverFlandersFields" folder. This file is very old and causes a problem loading MP. Renaming it makes Windows use it's own newer version of that dll held elsewhere. You may need to make CFS3MP.exe and CFS3.exe set to "run as administrator" or XP SP3 compatibility mode (or both - experiment). Right click on each of those programs and go to properties to reach the Compatibiity settings. I of course had not checked the faq section to find this problem (my bad) but then again I have been flying this since day 1 of phase 1 so I stupidly thought I had run up against or read about any problem that had come up. Try the above and see if that helps, my problem was fixed by changing the dll. You must realize of course there are no games on a server somewhere that are always up. You will need to check with one of the guys that fly online to get a time and an IP to load to join a game. Most guys that fly online will probably be willing to help you set up your game. Check under Vasco's Volunteers to find the address for the Black Haze room of teamspeak 3 (you can download that by googling teamspeak) and you will probably find Winston hanging out there, he is always a great help and has run up against a lot of the problems and knows the bells and whistles. By the way you will of course need a working microphone to use teamspeak, though there is a text box (one of the two tabs on the bottom of screen opens it) where you can type if you are having microphone problems or if someone needs to send you a URL for a file. If you post a time you can get on teamspeak it will make it easier to catch up with you for one on one instruction. After you fix that dll you can check to see if it works by hosting a game (with yourself). You don't need to open an account just hit the host game and follow the tips there. You can do a dogfight (nobody will be flying against you) and the game will load, Just pick a plane and hit start after you get through the set up screens and if you end up in a plane everything is working properly. Hope this helps, Beard

I of course lost the reflections when I went to Windows 7, but it is not that big a deal. I was concerned about the mirrors being a flat gray disk but they aren't they just look like an old GI tin shaving mirror that isn't pointed at anything. Besides, the reflection really wasn't of anything in particular and you couldn't see anything behind you, also it didn't necessarily give a reflection of what was really happening back there, ie, you would see nice green ground on a snowy day. Beard

What OS are you running? The old game gets a little quirky with different versions of Windows, but I am sure it can be resolved. Beard

Vasco, I'll see you in the skies later this morning Beard

Yepper, they are mighty fine pretty Beard

Who said Curley was a man? ;) Beard

Thanks Duck, renaming the file was the ticket. Curley at the bar has a box of stogies and some 12 year old scotch for you ;) I'll see youse guys Saturday, Beard

I am usually working 8 to 5 PST and don't have a Microphone set up on this computer. Beard

I did a fresh install last night before I posted the above. I followed all the above steps, but stopped after the MP essential files (figuring I would add the others after I got it working). So far no joy. Beard