theultimat

Ok, so I started a new Bristol Fighter campaign this morning, and the first mission was a Balloon Busting mission. I checked the map, and was surprised to see the balloon was on our side of the lines! I guessed it was just a mistake with the brief, so I launched the mission, but checking the in-game map I saw the balloon was defiantly a few miles behind our lines.

I arrived at the balloon all the same, and it sure did look German, came us as red on the TAC screen, and gave the correct conformation message, but for some reason the Label given to it was in blue as if it was a friendly unit!

Any ideas as to what's going on? Thanks in advance.

(Also, on a side note, sorry about the picture quality, but I had to upload the offsite as for some reason my album refuses to let me upload to it. I thought it was just a problem with the album, so I made a new one, uploaded on image, all was fine. But then when I went to make another upload, it too didn't let me, and by that I mean when I go to upload, and click on 'Select Album', on the left it says I have none. So, any ideas about this either?)

I run it on a Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 at 2.2GHz. So yeah. On a clear day I have hit 50 fps, but in a dogfight it's normally about 25-30.

Yup - I can now see how immersive OFF really is. I tried flying without any of the aids earlier today and that even better. I think I'll fly like that in the future, and just turn on labels to check if any aces are about, as apparently they don't show up when using HPW's Ultimate DM. I'll see to posting that report in the other topic right now.

Up until now, I have been flying OFF as I would any other serious flight sim, but had yet to witness the absolute "immersion" that I hear you guys talking about. I didn't think it was possible for a sim, but I have been proven wrong.

It all started when my flight of D.Vas was tasked with strafing the front lines, so I took off with five wingmen and headed for the target area. I arrived at the lines without issue, and that was when I saw a flight of six Nieuport 24 scouts flying at our height. I signaled my wingmen to attack, but forgot to tell them what to attack, so as it was a ground attack missoin they all dived towards the trenches, leaving me alone up high. Four of the Nieups followed them, leaving me with two - which turned out to be Del Antonie Gaston Vial and Charles Boishardy (spelling?) of Esc. 315. They had also dived, but not followed my wingmen, so I circled above them, unsure what to do. Then, for some reason I can't explain, I just threw my kite into a dive and shot into the middle of them, guns blazing. I zoomed passed them, and we were soon in a crazy tail-chasing circle. I managed to out turn Vial, and fired a few shots into his engine, but then one of their wingmen came back, so I was forced to break of the attack. I instead shot up the newcomer, who fell in flames shortly afterwards. Then I resumed my position in the circle, and proceeded to damage Vial enough to make him climb out of the fight, that was now at treetop level. That left me with even odds, I thought, so you can imagine my surprise when I turned around and found Boishardy on my tail, along with four wingmen. Needless to say, I fled, zigzagging my way back to the lines and safety. I got a fair way over, so three of the Nieups left me, and because of this I thought I may as well try my luck against the two remaining Nieups. We were chasing each other again in a circle, and I got onto Boishardy's tail, firing a long burst into his engine, which sparked a few times. I was forced to break off the attack, as his wingman was pumping lead through my wings and fuselage. I tried to evade his fire, and succeeded in doing so, but too late - my Albatros was as maneuverable as an R.E.8 with a full load of bombs. I was forced to flee, and this was when I got truly immersed in the game. This one Nieuport chased me for 20 miles all the way back to my aerodrome, during which I had to stunt as much as my damaged Albatros would allow. I eventually got back to the aerodrome, and made a safe landing, missing a wingtip and with wings and fuselage riddled with bullets. When my kite ran to a stop, I realized I was actually sweating, and breathing heavily. This probably doesn't sound as amazing as it felt to fly it, but hey, I'm not great at describing stuff that I've done in the past.

So, sorry if I had doubted OFF's immersion - now I'm a full believer. I'll put a report up in the "Reports from the Front" topic in a while - I need to recover first.

It's just that I wonder if kids, who have never seen real war, and watch the old films,

might come to the conclusion, war was a great kind of holiday camp with adventures?

I recon I still qualify as a kid, and I can tell you from talking to the people that go to my school, that many people around my age do, for some reason unknown to me, think war is great fun. The worrying part of it is, a lot of them said this after watching the beach assault scenes at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan in a history lesson a few years back. It really does make you wonder, but I think some people just say it to try and seem like they "have no fear", so to speak, and wouldn't actually join the army if given the choice. I think the main problem is, they see real life war as just another video game, but, as I'm sure all here are well aware of, it most definitely isn't.

Great video Hellshade. Also, thank you elephant and jayo! And Olham - I noticed you said it ended with a forced landing - just wondering, but does that give you a claims form?

Below are two photos from two campaign reports that never happened - both because I died in the mission. The first is from my Bristol campaign (which started in the Reports from the Front topic), but the other is from a Camel campaign which never made it to the thread.

That must be a terrible loss for you, RAF_Louvert. Nearly got to a whopping 200 flying hours! Sir, I raise my glass to you and Major Alberts.

Lovely picture TaillyHo. The Albatros really does stand out, as everything else appears to be almost in greyscale.

I felt like doing some editing to pass the time today, so I fired up OFF and decided to shoot up an Albatros D.III, then had some fun with the picture I took. I think it turned out ok, but it wasn't a great picture to start with.

Actually, looking at it now, I think I put in too much motion blur, but nevermind...

Thanks guys. And it's not that I'm broke, it's just that I prefer to make things myself rather than have to go out and buy one. Sure, it may not look great, but it works well enough for me.

Ah, I wondered when a trailer would be released. I live very close to where they filmed the scenes in the countryside. A friend of mine went up there when they were filming and have took some photographs of the set, which I can see if I can find, if anyone's interested?

Hello there, everyone.

As some of you may know, I have been flying on 'Auto-Rudder' up until now, as I have had no pedals or twist function on my joystick. I decided to fix this, as I have gotten fed up with having no power over my rudder. Therefore, I made this. It's made up of spare pieces of wood and chipboard I found around the house, and an old joystick I bought of £4 in a charity shop where I live. I think it works pretty well - the only issue I have is that I need to invert the axis to make it turn the correct way. I know I could solve this by turning the actual joystick around by 180 degrees, but I was wondering if I could do it on the computer in OFF. Here's a picture of it:

You have used the right techniques, theu - now you need to carefully compose and build a

real good poster type of cover. This is too much of a merge - the colours of planes and landscape

are too indifferent. A DVD cover is not very big, so it needs a clear composition, which is easy

and immediately to recognise in 1 second.

Sorry, didn't want to make it down; I'm a graphic designer, and you cannot imagine, how often

I had to realise, that something could be done even better; and then you start again.

So, if you like doing such stuff - why not have another go?

Wow, Olham, you seem to have managed to reply to my post while I was editing the cover out of it. What are the chances, eh? But many thanks for the comments! I always appreciate ideas on how to improve - especially from someone who is actually a professional in the subject. Perhaps I will have another go some time. We'll see.

Many thanks on the comments everyone! And if a competition was to take place, I would be sure to make an entry.

Ok, so today I felt like trying some editing that was a little different, so I present to you an alternative front cover for the OFF: BH&H disk case!

I like how this turned out, and I'm quite proud of it. It is in fact made up of three separate screen shots, the PC DVD-ROM tag, and the title at the bottom.

If you saw that in a shop, would you buy it?

Good one, theu! Did you use Paintshop or another program?

I normally use Paint Shop Pro 6 for simple jobs (like that screenshot), but for more complicated jobs I use GIMP, as it has a lot of the filters Photoshop does.

And that was a fine job sir, well done! I have yet to force an enemy to land alive.

It really is a beautiful sim... Especially after you force 16xQ anti aliasing.

But I have to had it to the dev's - you really did a fantastic job of transforming the CFS3 engine.

Just had to try some editing too...

The FOV is the Field of View, and I presumed that it depends on your computer monitor's aspect ratio. I might be incorrect, but I thought it was how far you could see around you, not away from you, like 180 degrees, for example. But this is just what I think it is, so I would wait for someone to confirm or reject this. There's a Wikipedia page on it here: Click me!

Thank you for the nice compliment.

Regarding Battlefront 2...hmmm......thats got me thinking!....although I havent played the game online myself (I used to play COD and MOHAA using the UK_Widowmaker handle)...My Son often plays BF2...and uses my handle....though he's only 13...but a damn good shot!...I shall ask him if he's been on.

 

How long ago are we talking about m8?

You're welcome! And I'm talking about three years ago, back when I used to play it online - in fact, three years ago I would have been the same age as your son. I didn't really play the game, but I made maps for it instead. And if you're not sure if it was you (or your son) then I guess it couldn't have been you, as I remember watching a video by him some time ago. So, unless you have forgotten making a video, I must have been mistaken.

Sir, that is a very nice Camel you have yourself there. I really love the effect that you have on the wings, the way they're almost mottled and look worn - very effective, to say the least. And just something I've been wondering, (which is off topic) but UK_Widowmaker, are you the same guy that used to play Star Wars Battlefront 2 - the legendary sniper that was praised by literally everyone? Sorry for how strange that question is, but I've been wanting to ask that ever since I saw your username.

@ Lima33

 

According to TracknoIR you need version 1.4 and TIRviews .dll.

I tried it with version 1.5 (and the TIRviews.dll), and it seemed to work, but my frame rate dropped to 5, so I guess I'll have to stick to the Num-Pad view controls.

Hello everyone.

I'm new to the forums. Well, I say new, but I have been lurking here for about three months.

Anyway, OFF arrived today, so I've started a campaign for my new pilot, Henry Jones, flying with RFC-54 near the end of 1916. Just thought I would post a quick picture of his kite as a way to introduce myself.