33LIMA

Apparently the IL2 cloud mod doesn't work in FE2 because of a different particle system or somesuch. Tried it myself with exactly the same result you got. The best I could get was installing a horizon cloud mod which worked fine, then a different fluffier cloud mod - can't recall which one, I think it just had a different cloud.tga file; it worked except in inclement weather when I got an odd side-effect, with some of the clouds appearing on the deck like clouds of evaporating water, they had hard lower edges and it difn't look right. So at the moment in FE2 I'm back with stock clouds and the horizon cloud mod, so it looks like this:

It's one of these, and the guy behind the gun is Président Nicolas Sarkozy, demonstrating what's likely to be the French Air Force's replacement for the Mirage 2000, as a result of the Eurozone crisis.

'This idiot in an Albatros just pulled out right in front of me!'

Might be worth trying this, if you haven't already: http://www.overflandersfields.com/FAQ.htm#Vista_Specific

My pleasure, glad you're sorted, and welcome to First Eagles and the forums here at CombatAce!

Did you install them into your 'mods' folder, rather than your FE2 main game's folder, and into the correct subfolder? Sorry if you know all this already but I have Vosgen terrain working ok in FE2 (as well as FEG) and can't think of any other reason. In FE2 all addons go into [Your user name]/Saved Games/FirstEagles2/ followed by the appropriate subfolder - and in FE2, for Vosgen, this is 'Terrains' (ie, plural) not FE1's 'Terrain' - so if you've installed in the mods folder I'd check the spelling of that subfolder, too.

Good luck with that. I really think the effects slider setting is important. I've an early Quad Core 2.33, 6Gb RAM and recently replaced a budget 256Mb 9300GS with a significantly better 512Mb 8800GT, which got me past the slowdowns I had in grey and cloudy weather. But I still needed to turn the effects down from 5, then to 4, then to 3, to get consistently above 20 FPS near the lines with any shooting going on. Another thing maybe worth checking out if you use anti-aliasing, is to see whether you get better results using the card's driver to set them, or using CFS3config. I had been using 4x AA set in the card's driver, but found this still left the rigging wires a bit jagged or indistinct. I found that if I set the AA in CFS3config, I could go to 8x, with no drop in FPS, giving better-looking rigging wires (I fly pre- and post-combat in external view). I had to up the AF setting a bit to reduce ground texture shimmer. Point is, that I seemed to get a better performance-quality tradeoff, setting my AA in-game (CFS3config retains the AA setting even tho it looks as it it's reset to 0, apparently). Mileage may vary of course.

You could try disabling Vsync (think it would have to be in the ATI drivers) if you don't mind the 'tearing' effect you may notice when panning rapidly. Vsync is usually on by default and that levels your FPS down to the next lowest multiple of your monitor's refresh rate eg if refresh rate = 60 Hz you'll get 60, 30, 15, 12, 10 etc (different figures seen with the Z key or FRAPS being due to being in between stepping up or down, as it were). Will enable your FPS to operate at max without the 'refresh rate cap'. Personally I prefer the limit to the tearing. Suggest you drop your 'effects' - at 4, is it? In my experience, being near the Lines, especially low, when there's a bombardment going on, which is often, is an FPS killer, worse than airfields at low level which is another big hitter. Another poss I have not tried is to use CFS3config/Custom settings/Texture limits to reduce the number of particles (top slider IIRC, scale is such that it's not easy to use). Even if you're not near the lines or low near airfields there's all that exhaust smoke to be rendered. In workshop, set Ground Object Density to 'Low', less trees etc but I dislike the visible object draw-in and that is less visible at 'Low', plus FPS is better. I would try planes at 5, even use hi-res skins (Workshop) and concentrate on other things like effects and ground objects. Some things seem to have a pretty dramatic effect, others can be ramped up without much of a problem. You already have the big hitters turned down (scenery and terrain textures) so I'd lower ground object density and effects, but stick with or even bump up clouds and aircraft.

File Name: AI Empty Weight Mod for Over Flanders Fields Phase 3 File Submitter: 33LIMA File Submitted: 30 October 2011 File Category: Modding Tools and Add-on Software If you have found it frustrating that many enemy planes, even inferior ones, seem to be faster and are able to stay above and/or ahead of you in combat, you may want to try this mod. It prevents computer-flown ('AI') enemy planes in Campaign missions from enjoying the performance advantage they get from flying at the plane's empty weight, while player-flown aircraft, more realistically, take account of pilot, ammo and fuel/oil loads. Not compatible with other Flight Model mods; likely to be OK with Damage Model mods. See Readme for full details. Click here to download this file

...and thank you for the positive feedback!

3. Rumpler CIV 4. Morane L Parasol 5. BE12 6. AI no longer fly at empty weight 7. Retextured planes & cockpits (maybe new 3d models also) 8. HP0/400 9. New scenery textures/structures/object 10. Realistic weapons for BE2c

Or just make up your own patrol route and fly that, visually, with reference to landmarks (you DO take the trouble to look out for the local reference points, to orient yourself in your operational area, as you get used to it, right?). OFF has a habit of giving you missions far to one side or other; if I can't get an 'alternative target' or 'optional mission' that's more sensible, I just ignore the waypoints, and only use the latter if they are for a sensible patrol route (about 3/4 of the time) or if I have to do an escort. As OFF doesn't use spawns this should not reduce your chances of a contact.

I had a feeling you would not be able to resist putting that big gun on your Voisin, Stephen! Nice one!

Sounds good. Have been flying with the combimed mods the last few days and all is well. I dunno if it's the new DM, but have noticed several times planes i hit going on fire (great!) then the fire going out quickly (not so great!) and so having to come in for another crack at an enemy I thought was finished. But maybe it was always like that. Have definitely noticed simce enabling your latest DM that when I get engine damage, it doesn't conk out or lose power so quickly, and forced landings seem much easier to make without a wreck, which I think may be due to the reduced chances of serious control (cable?) damage. Anyways, looking forward to the new FM mod!

Update - the source of the bug seems to be the squadron history, and it may affect some other squadrons. 70 Squadron is definitely in the list of fighter squadrons, and it starts out in the fighter role in England in 1916 with Strutters. But on moving to France soon after, still with Stutters, its role becomes bomber. When it gets Camels in june 1917 it stays as a bomber squadron till August 1917 and only becomes a fighter squadron again in August. So the bug seems to be that 70 squadron does not change roles from bomber to fighter, when it changes from Strutters to Camels, at least not for a couple of months anyway. I wonder if this affects other squadrons which change role (if there are any - 46 Sqdn for example, although OFF does not include the Nieuport 12 'bombers' it flew before converting to Pups in May 1917). Anyway, whatever's triggering the aircraft type change is not picking up on the role change, at the same time, with the result a fighter squadron is getting completely inappropriate mission types. Must do a bit more digging to see if this can be fixed.

Be happy to take the DrI for a spin, HPW, but as I have next-to-no experience of flying it in OFF (or the other sims either!), I probably wouldn't be able to distinguish a better Dr1 FM from Falcon 4's proverbial 'smokin' hole in the ground'. Happy to wait for the results of all the good work! I don't suppose you have come across anything that makes (or points to a possible way of making) aircraft visibly judder when they approach the stall? FE does this very well and combined with an audible buffet sound, it's a great indication of when you're flying to the limit, and that pushing harder will bring on a stall. At present with OFF it's like stumbling into an invisible brick wall you know is close in front but can't see or hear until...whack! and away you go. I'm working on an improved stall sound (there is one in CFS3/OFF but it's more like 'Whispering Grass' than buffet and I'm working on a more audible and more realistic 'shake, rattle and roll' buffet sound, possibly based on the stock wheel rumble sound). But it would be better still, if the planes visibly shuddered as well, at the same point the 'Warning - near stall' message was displayed, so you could see and hear a stall coming, without having to rely on counter-immersive text pop-ups, or even instruments. Doubt there is any way of making planes judder at the right moment, but I figure if anyone's found it, something that might help, it's you!.

One of the many things I like about First Eagles is that you get a visible AND an audible buffet, so you can tell when you're flying on the edge and it's not that much of a shock if you 'depart' (which you can, on the 'Hard' FM). In OFF, the first I know - usually it happens in a turn, but also sometimes in a dead-stick landing - is often my plane just departs without such warning, sometimes violently, sometimes recoverably and sometimes not (I don't use instrument views). I don't have an FF joystick and was considering getting one to help with this, but I see from some posts on the recent joystick thread, some say it makes little difference. So I looked for the OFF stall sound and it's the stock CFS3 one, and fairly mild (not a warning horn or 'Bitching Betty', just a sort of wind rush sound). But I never recall having heard it, in game (maybe because I have the engine volume turned up, which I find best). So I tried copying across the First Eagles stallsound (which is a bit louder and a more urgent, buffeting sort of sound, in game it's very effective), after amplifying it. I thought that if I can't get the visible buffet effect, at least I can get an 'audible' effect that's actually...well, audible. But not a buffet is to be heard. I don't think that it's swamped by the loud engine. I think it just was not playing. I tried some more stall-testing of some different planes, and found it a bit strange. I basically did the old Lesson 10b thing - lesson 13 was as far as I got with my flying lessons - 'Z' key on, so I could see the numbers, external view. I flew straight and level, closed the throttle (so less engine sound too!), and kept the wings level, pulling back on the stick to hold altitude and watching and listening for the stall to develop. But it didn't seem to happen. Instead as the speed decayed to about 45-50mph, the plane just gradually started to sink, nose up and tail down. This happened with the Fokker EV, Pfalz, and Albatros DV. What I was expecting was as in real life (albeit in a Cessna, but I'm not sure it should differ) was there to be some sort of warning i could hear - greater wind sound (which is what the CFS3/OFF stall sound is like) or a stronger wind sound (like the First Eagles one) and then the visible nose dropping as the plane actually lost flying speed and stalled. Perhaps an incipient spin if the wings weren't quite level or whatever. CFS3 and OFF have just such a sound so I should be able to hear it, especially as I'm using a louder version, right? Wrong! Nothing heard, out. Now I know some WW1 planes are reported to fly tail-heavy. But I was still expecting the nose to drop, in a stall. The nearest I got was that if I wasn't careful, one wing would drop and the plane would THEN nose down out of its tail-sink, in an incipient but (in the 3 planes I mentioned) mild and easily-corrected spin. but with care I could hold the planes in this 'tail-sink with no stall', some more easily than others. So, thus far, I'm left with the rather strange impression that I'm not hearing the stall sound, not because it won't play, or does but is drowned out, but because the planes aren't actually stalling - from level flight anyway. I'm going to do some more testing, perhaps with sim warnings/messages turned on - I'm guessing there is a stall warning text message amongst these and I want to find out if the stall sound does indeed play at the same time as the text warning - if there is one - displays. If it does plays, I'm then going to make a stall 'wind buffet' sound that's definitely audible above the engine sound, so I can know when I'm approaching a stall, whether in level flight, taking off or landing, or turning. that's the aim - to get a reliable and audible warning that you're on the edge of a stall. If the stall sound isn't playing, and if that's because the plane's (the ones I tested, anyway) aren't hitting whatever trigger it is that sets it off, that's gonna be a tricky one, maybe needing FM modifications. Is anyone else hearing the stall sound, in any planes? It's definitely there, in the 'Sound' folder.

I've found the problem and have got the stall sound playing again. I must have edited the sound attached above, before I attached it, and the final edit 'nerfed' it, somehow. CFS3/OFF seems fussy about what .wav files it will play. The new stall sound attached below works - it is basically one of the OFF wheel rumble sounds, with a few modifications (using Goldwave now). I had to amplify it a LOT to get it audible above a full-throttle engine sound (using Workshop sound settings for Engine, Effects and cockpit at the same level - 100% in my case). It wasn't possible to amplify it enough without 'clipping' the sound wave so it has ended up a very harsh wind roar sort of sound, better in-game than played on its own but still not what I want. But at least it proves the concept. Rather than working with a stock sound, I think I will have to make a new one, probably with a bit of the background rattle that got lost during amplification, to make its presence more audible above the different (but loud!) roar of the engine. Now, where did I put my mike? Don't think I have used it since I made a British Voice Pack for Panzer Elite, and that was a loooong time ago.

I need to do a bit more testing - second try, with a Camel this time - I didn't hear it play either! IIRC when I heard it with the Fokker EV, I had been running at 100% engine, 100% effects, 100%, UI lower (50% but doesn't matter?). Was mystified that I didn't hear it with the Camel, which was clearly stalling. Will report back. I THINK it's 'effects' that affects the volume at which the stall sound plays, and Engine the setting most likely to drown it out. I started testing by doing bog-standard flying lesson stalls, throttle back (so little engine noise!), keeop noise up to maintain alt and let the speed bleed off till she stalls. Definitely heard it then. Ideally we want to hear it in a tight turn at full throttle, too. I think keeping 'effects' high is the key, then reduce engine volume enough. alternatively, as i like my engine loud, I may just amplify the stall sound. A component is one of the OFF wheel rumble sounds and you can hear that over the engine sound, may just need to amplify stallsound a bit. Maybe you could try increading 'Effects' till it's equal to or higher than 'Engine'.

OK I think I've got the start of something usable. It turns out that the CFS3/OFF sound 'Stall.wav' DOES play when the stall warning text displays. For some reason, the 'amplified' replacement version I was using, was not audible, at all. It played ok in WMP and in the sound editing proggie i was using ('Audacity') but it seems not to work, in the CFS3/OFF sound engine, despite being the right format. I have now mixed a new Stall.wav sound, combined from a background wind noise and a wheel ground rattle, with a little bit of fading in and out at either end. I think this conveys the right sort of effect, of pre-stall buffet and vibration. It starts when the yellow 'near stall' warning text appears, and ends when there is no stall (or near stall) warning, which I think is fine. The only real issue is the volume - it works within a range of the OFF Workshop settings for Engine, Cockpit and Effects, but can be drowned out, outside the workable range. It obviously counts as an 'Effect' because if I have 'Engine' at 100% and 'Effects' at 50%, it is barely audible. I think it's still a lot better than the stock stall sound (which wasn't a 'stall horn', just a sort of uneven but gentle wind sound), since (a) the former doesn't really convey buffeting, and (b) I think the element of 'rattle' means it is less likely to be drowned out by other sounds and therefore audible over a greater range of Workshop sound settings. Some may think it's a bit too conspicuous but for this purpose, too much is better than too little (I never heard the stock sound, at all) and it's better again than an on-screen text warning (which I just confirmed, does indeed display all sorts of other warnings as well as a stall). I might tone down the rattle a little but maybe not. I'll experiment with this for a while in my current campaigns and if I think it's any good I'll upload it. Thanks for the input guys! For info, I've attached the original and replacement sounds.

Yes having left 'simulation warnings' on for the testing, I agree with you, it's not too obtrusive and it is quite useful. I would want to see a yellow line 'near stall' warning in a tight turn fight as that tells me I'm at the limit. But I worry that it would warn me of other things too, which i don't want - if not that my cup of tea in the Mess was getting cold, then that my right elevator had been hit, repeated five times etc, all the sort of thing I remember from the first time I installed CFS3 (CFS1 and CFS2 as well, IIRC) and turned off as quickly as I could! Even if the warnings just display stall warnings, I do think it would be better still if there was a 'buffet sound' to warn of a stall rather than a text message. This is what the stall sound in FE does (and does well, in conjunction with a visible 'jarring' of your plane). I was pleased to find a stall sound in OFF, thinking it would do much the same if I fine-tuned the sound settings to make it audible; but disappointed to find it not working, or not working very well, or maybe it's just me unable to get it to work! Will keep trying...

Well I've done a little testing in an EV and a Pfalz with the sim warnings turned on. The CFS3/OFF stall sound (Stall.wav) did NOT play, in any stalls from level flight, even when the sim warning text reported 'near stall' in yellow, nor when it went red and tells you you're stalling now. There is no change in sound, as you near or enter these conditions, and the game has clearly detected and reported that they are present. Drat!!! That's in level flight. I'll do some more to see if I can get it playing for stalls in turns - harder to make out as I have the engine at high revs. Can't understand why the stall sound might play for stalls in conditions other than level flight, only. What I want is a stall sound - something CONVEYING buffeting or vibration, that sort of thing - that you get regardless of aircraft attitude and can hear over the sound of the motor, even at high revs. With the engine noise turned down a bit and the effects/cockpit sounds turned up a bit, I can hear a 'rushing wind' sound from the cockpit which increases/decreases in pitch/volume with speed, which is good. However, while it goes quieter at slower speeds, it doesn't get any quieter/different as you approach the stall - so this effect is no use as a stall warning, even if you set it so that you could hear it above engine noise The wing dropping happens exactly as the red stall warning is displayed. So in OFF terms, THAT'S your stall. The fact this only happens (at least, with all the planes iIve tried) some time after your plane has been sinking tail first, and you have lost a lot of altitude in that condition, is to my mind strange. I would expect you to have been able to maintain your altitude pretty well, by increasing the angle of attack and sacrificing speed for lift, till the stall happened and your nose droppped (with or without wing drop). Still, whether the stall behaviour I've seen is realistic or not, it would definitely be helpful, and I think probably realistic, to have an audible stall warning sound of some sort, to convey the presence of pre-stall buffeting. I will have to experiment a bit to see what might be possible.

Yup, that's why an FF joystick was my first plan - before I read some say it doesn't make much difference (tho it might be enough, for stalls). All I want is SOME kind of stall warning, without having to switch on those text sim warnings; like you I much prefer to 'fly' without this sort of thing. FE does this well, with aubible and visible buffeting (whether or not they are exaggerated, i find they are effective and convincing feedback, in the absence of FF). Since CFS3/OFF already has a stall sound, I figured that would do nicely, thanks - or would do nicely, if I can get to hear it! I'll turn on the sim warnings and experiment a bit; thanks for confirming there's one for stalls.

I've got most of the TW sims starting with SFP1, tho only FE2 and SF2(E) from the second series so far. Love the 60s jets and much prefer the TW appraoch to playing 'airborne radar mode switcher' in F4 etc (no offence to those who like that, F4 is still a mean sim). Play First Eagles Gold & First Eagles 2 a lot, SF/SF2 when I want a change of pace. RoF when the fancy takes me too. Haven't tried any of the many SF/SF2 home-made prop planes as I want to fly campaigns not just planes. Tried to persuade TK to do WW2 when he polled re a next project but no dice. Pity, we badly need an 'EAW2' and with a proper logbook and some creaking bedsprings thrown in, SF2 would be a great engine, just as it was for WW1 with FE/FE2. Never really warmed to the BoB/BoB2 'wargame' approach, CFS3 with expansions is just about good enough at mud-moving but there's a real gap now for a better WW2 ETO-based sim, especially as CloD seems to be a bit of a disaster in many respects and may never have a respectable SP career/campaign, even if all else is fixed...but I digress...