Ratatat

It was 1918 so I had the settings on Normal. I guess I had it coming really. The irony of it all was as follows: I was racing towards a fight in front and above me. Before I could get there the last enemy plane was hit and lost part of his lower wing. He was mercilessly hit again and his plane caught fire. I saw the pilot of the burning plane jump out at about 10,000 feet. While I had seen this event occur before, the horror of it suddenly struck me as I watched the pilot uncurl from a ball and spread his arms and legs helplessly against the sky. "Good God!" I thought as I grimly contemplated his long, long fall to earth. "The poor basta.." That's when I was suddenly blown to smithereens. I had been flying in a straight line while transfixed by the fate of the enemy airman. At least my end was quicker than his!

Update: Well, I finally have to admit defeat. I've spent many, many evenings trying to get this to work. But no joy. Some info: The fps I mentioned above refered to my in game fps. Not as it applied to FaceTrackNoIR. My mistake. My computer is in a small room. All the walls and ceiling are white. I filled the room with lights until it was as bright ( and almost as hot ) as the sun and read just 20 fps in the FaceTrackNoIR program. It would start higher ( 28 fps ) but would stabilize at 20 fps. The performance of the program did not change. Adjusting settings made no impact. It still appeared as a slide show in game. Actually things became worse. The program now crashes and randomly loses the face tracking altogether. Even if the program functioned well it would be impractical for me. Although perhaps I might sweat off a few pounds. Ah, well...it was not meant to be chéri.

I've found it to be as you describe and must admit I hardly use it. That said, I did find it useful just recently. My newest ace was flying a mission at an altitude of 8,000 feet when his Fokker suddenly exploded. I was stunned. Apparently my pilot had received a direct hit by AA fire at this height! Watching the replay confirmed that my craft and pilot were instantly rendered "unusable". At least he felt no pain. Ratatat

I'm reading the first book of the first set on the Sony e-reader. Some things I've discovered with scanned books that I felt I should mention. I'm back to reading it without rotating the e-reader so I can get a whole page up at once. The other way was slower as I only got a half-page. Between each page of text is a blank page with the heading "digitized by Google". Sort of annoying ,but hey, it's a free book! Also the pictures do not show up. I'm not sure why, as all the scanned text shows up just fine. Anyway, those are some minor caveats I thought you should be aware of. Your mileage may vary with other e-readers of course. In any case I'm enjoying the reading! Cheers! Ratatat

These are really impressive! Thanks for sharing! Not having any experience with RC planes I have a question: How do you land them without turning them in to a pile of match sticks? I think ideally you would have an on-board camera linked to a video monitor so you see what your pilot can see! Thanks again for the pics and videos. It looks like a lot of fun! Ratatat

I'm sure the German pilots applauded you before they opened fire!

Dear Santa... That's really neat. Complete with pilot too! Nice landing too! I wish I landed that well in OFF.

Welcome to the" Great War" dokken1212! See you in the officer's pub. Ratatat

Thanks Hellshade! The more I think about this idea, the more I like it. I wonder if it is possible? Imagine a folder with pictures of every possible angle and detail level of Albatros for our good friend Olham, randomly appearing before the start of each mission. What do you think Olham? Sound like paradise? Ratatat

Faster load times. Or what do you all think of this idea: Have a folder within the OFF folder that contains some of the excellent screen captures on display in this forum. A screen shot is randomly picked as your loading screen for you to enjoy viewing while you wait for the campaign to load. Additional screen captures can be added by the user by dropping them in to the folder. No disrespect to Polovski intended. His artwork is grand. But after seeing it for the 100th time I think it would be very exciting to see something unexpected and different while I sip my coffee.

Someone give this man a medal! Thanks for all your effort Lou! I just downloaded them all. TaillyHo: "Do the purpose designed tablets allow an easier 'eye-friendly' reading experience?" Yes they do! The screen is not back-lit like your computer monitor is. Which sounds crazy I know! I'm not sure how its accomplished exactly , but it reads just like a paper page. You can take it out in bright sunlight and read it just like a regular book. Try that with a lap-top. Forget about it! If you take it in to a dark room, guess what, you can't read it - just like a regular book. I was suspicious of it at first, but it really is cool tech. My wife just agreed to putting these books on her Sony e-reader. Due to the fact these are scanned in books ( instead of text ) we were worried it might not work so well. But it does! The copy looked pretty darn small at first, but she showed me a trick where you can rotate the reader perpendicular and the copy will be enlarged to an acceptable degree ( text based books automatically have 3 levels of zoom which is not available to scanned in books ). Sweet bippity! I now have one book that contains all of these works provided by Lou! Thanks again Lou! Ratatat

"...and sometimes I dive into a cloud for cover and scare the Hell out of myself." Been there, done that! Hee, hee, hee!!!

Yes, my wingmen seem to unleash an unending bullet hose on enemy aircraft. What happened to the quick, short bursts that you hear about in training? I remembered something from my RB3D days that I miss in OFF. I wouldn't say it's my #1 feature wish...but I liked seeing the types of enemy aircraft I shot down listed in my log book by date. Perhaps it is because I don't fill out reports, but I don't see this in my log book in OFF. It just says "Kill confirmed" on this date ( I totally respect the authenticity of reports in OFF, but I'm not really interested in the busy work of it, so I wuss out ). If filling out reports lets you see the aircraft type shot down in your pilots log book then just ignore my rambling. I liked this feature in RB3D because I could see my "kill career" listed in order...on this day I knocked down such and such a plane...on this day a different type, and so on. It allowed me to recall the battles that took place and think to myself "Oh, yes, I remember that fight, it was a doozie. He was an admirable foe!" - and that sort of thing. Cheers! Ratatat

I have yet to have a single pilot reach that magical 17 minutes mark.

Words fail me. Through studious lurking on this forum I have acquired some very well recommended books ( most likely recommended by you it seems )...but your collection...is awe inspiring.

Actually, I really like small, sporty cars. Owned two of them. But as the family grows, so does the size of the bus! So instead of a small, coupe I now drive a 4-door sedan. But it's a sporty 4-door sedan, darnnit! ZOOM, ZOOM! Ratatat

I'm in the same boat as you Tranquillo! OFF is so good I haven't been in a hurry to get HiTR. But the more I hang around the forum looking at the pictures the more I feel the need to upgrade! However in my case HiTR for Christmas is...um...my idea.

I know Olham. I just couldn't resist having a bit of fun! I've been looking for an excuse to use that emoticon with the gatling gun for some time now! Let's face it. We are all sentimental sorts here on this forum. After all, we are in love with old, rickety crates made of canvas, wood and wire - sporting bicycle wheels! I bet even Uncleal is secretly a big softie! Between you and me, like most good writers, I believe our friend Lou is slowing things down a bit so that he can shock us with some intense action and drama in the next chapter. The calm before the storm! Prost! Olham - and to all who love a good story! Ratatat

Hear, Hear! Well said Lou! A toast to all my brother pilots south of the border! Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Cheers! Ratatat

You sure have wee, little cars over there. They look fun to play with! VROOM, VROOM! Ratatat

Great find Elephant! Thank you for sharing. 74 Albatros pictures Olham! :good:Let the drooling begin! Cheers! Ratatat

For Olham: Ratatat:laugh:

Shredward No snow here yet in the deep south of Canada.

Hee, hee Slartibartfast! Is there such a thing as the Nupe Nuisance?

Thanks for the tip Hellshade! I ran a little experiment tonight using your suggestion. I used Quick Combat as a constant with 5 vs 5 aircraft. I showed an average of 40 fps over the airfield, 50 fps up to 60 fps during combat - all viewed inside the cockpit. Outside views averaged from 30 - 40 fps. The flyby view caused the biggest hit. Frame rates would drop to mid 20s at times but rebound to mid 30s. Still, all looked very smooth. I can't conclude that the Z-Bias resolution change made any effect though. I seemed to get about the same results with it at 13 or 15. I'm going to leave it at 13 for now to see if there is any noticeable difference in campaign play when you can get some bigger furballs happening in the air. I figure the fact that I didn't see any difference means I've got a pretty good set-up from the get go! Carrick58's comment about HiTR crawling and stuttering gives me a bit of a chill. I think I'd be alright though. Ratatat