Burning Beard

I upgraded an older computer to Win 7/64, it ported over all the old XP 32 programs without any trouble. I really like it. Loads quicker, runs smoother, and the graphics are crisper. Beard

Use the padlock key. You can see your enemy on the HUD out to 4 miles, padlock one enemy as they pop up (they will be white initially and turn red as they get closer). When they get closer you can cycle your HUD down to 1 mile. If you are locked on a specific enemy, your screen will orientetoward him, you can then cycle through the enemy contacts (by pushing the padlock key) and get a idea where they are because the screen will orient toward each one as you cycle. Don't worry about it staying there, the padlock can be cycled on and off. You need the padlock up to target enemies for your wingmen. The enemy can be hard to find even with TracIR, and you don't have the advantage of a radio or wingmen that will point where an enemy is, that is what the padlock is for. I have bound keys on the joystick for padlock and cycle, I also have zoom in and zoom out keys mapped so I can use it like a pair of binoculars. When just beginning, you should use labels to give you an idea how the game works and how far you will be able to see. Use instruments when first learning, until you get a feel for the airplane. I always have the compass up and have drug it under the HUD (there are actually planes in the game with no compass) and it is hard to navigate using the in game map. The HUD also shows a line to the next waypoint. Find a level of realism (using aids) that you are comfortable with and fly that way. Beard

Actually I think I was the quickest... I wrote the first review on it coming in. I think I got it the day after they started shipping, but I'm just up state from them. Beard

That N28 was a beauty. Beard

I had some trouble with it, which was caused by using a "no cd crack" for CFS3. If you used such a creature make sure you get it out. It will screw up all sorts for things randomly on install, including the maps. The problem I had was it was still in CFS3, so if you have other installs make sure it is eliminated from those also. When reinstalling make sure you have taken out the old user files, they are not in the same place as they were in XP so you will have to search for them (make sure you have show hidden files). Anyhoo, that is what caused the problem for me, I had not used the "no cd crack" until just before upgrading to Win7, and only did it then on a whim. Go figure huh? By the way it will also screw up the ability to upgrade your vid drivers. Beard

I have a detailed three view of the 24 that shows Vickers Gun slightly offset to the right, like it would line up to the eye on a right eye dominate pilot. This is a 24 with the flying rudder. Beard

Olham, your english is so good that sometimes we forget that we may use a term, you may not have run across that is fairly common here. The "W" word was explained, but in case you haven't run across surveyor, a surveyor measures land and then draws maps of what he has measured. I have drawn lots of maps so I am naturally interested in them. Beard

Olham, Did I ever tell you that in an earlier life I was a surveyor.... don't you want me to get any work done? Beard

That doesn't really work Al, the lozenge camo was a fabric, they have samples of it at the Smithsonian. So if you were to change it from Summer to Winter you would have to recover the surfaces, of course that would probably been faster than trying to paint them by hand. Beard

I used to like Christmas Carols until the local radio stations started playing them non-stop beginning the week before Thanksgiving. Beard

Great Site! Beard

Open GL is not the same as Open Glide.....Glide was used by the old 3DFX (Voodoo) cards and I believe Open Glide was an emulator to allow you to run Glide applications on other cards. In case you wonder why I know this, it is because Glide cards or Open Glide was necessary to run Red Baron 3D. Beard

There is a utility called FRAPS that you can use to take screen shots (you can google it) it is free. FRAPS allows you to take screen shots, short movies, has a frames per second counter, and I believe simple benchmarking. I have used it for years starting in the old Red Baron 2/3d days. Beard

Who said Hollywood hasn't come up with any original ideas? LOL Beard

Actually it is a N 11 from the Lafeyette Esquadrille, I took a moon off the side. Beard

I did one similar, Beard

I think templates are a little difficult to approach in this sim in that the models are produced by a number of people and their approach to aircraft vary. There seem to be anomalies in some planes that you don't find in others, and digging your way through them can be difficult. A lot of these anomalies occur in alignment of the faces. On some planes the tops and bottoms are a different size than the sides of the fuselage. These can be overcome, but even after you do it, it would be difficult to explain to anyone else what you actually did. If you are working with a generic paint scheme, a lot of these things will never show up, but if you are trying to align something like stripes from one face to another, or even from the horizontal stabilizer to the elevator you may be in trouble. I have fooled around with a few skins and have made layer templates (I use Corel Draw for vector work and Corel Photo Paint for weathering and such). However, I haven't been comfortable enough with the results to release them, and yes, you can save them to psd format. I am a sign painter by profession and I tend to be pretty fussy about my graphic output. Beard

You also may want to try Facetrack, it is one of the subjects here. It is reported to be similar to TrackIR, all it needs is a camera and is free. Here is the link http://combatace.com/topic/60032-ot-facetracknoir/ Beard

Viewing those rules, I will be willing to help also. Beard

When you open the workshop screen it will give you the version number in the lower right corner. It should say Phase 3 version 1.47 (I think) Beard

Unfortunately I have to work today, have a Rendezvous (Black Powder Shoot/28th Annual) next weekend, and will be out Thanksgiving weekend (27th) with a family commitment. Beard

All right Olham, you are now responsible for my lost two hours at the shop this afternoon.... I thought I'd just take another quick glance at that font sight.....I should have know better Beard

Here is another site for a ton of free fonts. http://www.dafont.com/ I'm got yours bookmarked now too Olham. Beard

Hate to tell you this but you have the "A" on the vertical stabilizer backwards.....if you don't believe me as Olham Beard

It sure sounds like heat. The game generates a lot of heat when it is running (excepting the menus of course). Adding a fan or two to you box may help a lot. There is a freeware program on the net called SpeedFan, that will tell you exactly what temps you are running and also allows you to turn up the speed of some of the fans. It has all sorts of options and you can use the charts option to see how much hotter the CPU and GPU get when running the game. Beard