33LIMA

Not that it matters terribly, but the rifle in the BE pics IS a 1941-vintage No.4 - its exposed section of barrel just ahead of the front sight is a give-away, as is the rear sight, which on the WW1-era SMLEs was a long eye relief leaf sight mounted forward of the chamber. In the second pic with the rifle, you can see the No.4's rear-mounted 'battle sight', a simple fixed aperture which you could use by flipping forward the more elaborate adjustable aperture sight. Only every fired the No.8 (.22 training version) which had the same rear sight IIRC but the one in the pic is a No.4 WW2 rifle WW1-era issue rifles like the Mark III, looked like this: ..and this is the no.4:

Fair comment, by mid-1917 MvR seemed to have regarded the DV - 'that accursed Albatros' I think he called it, even if he may have been over-stating it a bit to help push for better kit - as entirely outclassed and for my sins it's the DV I especially like to fly. If I want to have fun in an Albatros I suppose I should instead fly DIIs or DIIIs against their natural prey, FEs, BEs and DH2s. That's the best thing about OFF, the range of flyables...and the landscapes, that's the TWO best things about OFF, the planes and the landscapes...and the weather, that's the THREE best things about OFF...Cardinal Biggles, the soft cushions!

Hi Olham LOD = Level Of Detail, whereby a sim substitutes different, more detailed 3-D models of things - planes in this case - as you get closer. In EAW for example I think it went from a dot, to a 2-D cross, to a basic 3-D plane, to the full 3-D plane which you see when it is close. There was a utility for EAW which let you push the LOD settings out. In RD3d too IIRC, tho the transitions from one LOD to the other could sometimes be sudden and a bit too visible. In OFF, I can see what looks the switch from second closest LOD, to closest LOD, in the Alb DIII and DV. With labels on, at a range of about 240 (yards/metres? - had to tell with the CFS3 'fisheye lens' view) looking at my wingmen as they close up behind me, I can see their undercarriage quite suddenly appear, like they suddenly lowered it! Before that, they had none; I can see fuselage, tail and wings fairly clearly, but no undercart. I don't think it's there but just not clear, or that it's a resolution issue; I'm playing at my monitor's native 1600x900, with now 4xAA. Flying Rolands, I can see the undercarriage on them further away - even tho it is not very clear, it is there. On the DIII and DV, it is invisible till they are close, and suddenly pops into view. Usually this is an LOD issue. In CFS3 config/Custom Settings/Texture info I see there is a slider for 'Max Model LOD' which may affect this - mine is at the default 100. I will try varying this - may I ask, what is yours set at? At the other extreme - longer range - maybe it's the sim, maybe it's my settings - I dislike the fact that planes seem invisible over about a mile, sometimes closer - after takeoff as I swing around on my first circuit just a couple of hundred feet up and just outside the airfield boundary, I often have a very hard time seeing my own wingmen while they are still on or starting their takeoff run. In First Eagles/FE2, on spotting the puffs of 'Archie', I would cautiously approach, gaining height if necessary and swinging around so as to come in behind and above the enemy, or maybe to cut them off. I could rely on picking out the individual planes quite a way off, and at least establish numbers, formation, height and heading. If I liked what I saw and got a bit closer, I could see whether they were scouts or 2 seaters. All this, while still maintaining enough separation to give me the option of engaging or not. In OFF I'm finding that I have to get a lot closer to get the same picture, and in doing so I am closing down on my options, more than once having to engage under unfavourable terms which I could have avoided, had I got the picture sooner. I like to be able to play the calculating McCudden/Mannock/MvR/Boelcke way, not Ball/Guymemer, and pick my fights not charge in, I'm not good enough for that! I do not like using either the 'radar'/TAC (which I set at 1 mile), or labels, or padlock, to 'see' things that are invisible on the screen. It's quite frustrating, getting quite close to a skyfull of AA fire, and still be unabIe to 'eyeball' the targets, unless they are against sky or clouds, and even then they seem to have to be quite close. I think LOD models visible at longer range would help. I tried your FOV guide to see if a more 'zoomed in' screen helped to make distant planes clearer but that didn't seem to help. Maybe with different settings I could avoid disappearing Albatros undercarriage and see planes further away, but I haven't found the magic formula yet.

Normally in OFF my FPS are 25-50 and gameplay is smooth, but when the skies are grey and full of clouds it's a different matter. Then, FPS go down the proverbial tubes (to about 8), but only whenever I can see only [my plane and] clouds (eg looking straight up). This makes combat impossible and has just cost me a promising pilot (that's my excuse anyway). I have found a couple of references here to others having exactly the same problem but have been unable to solve it. I have a marginal graphics card (Nvidia 9300GS, 256Mb DDR2 with the latest (275.33) drivers. Vista 64, Quad Core Q8200 @ 2.33 GHz. This does cope with (eg) First Eagles 2 on quite high settings and higher AA and AF, as well as stock CFS3 with sliders maxed out and again higher AA & AF. I run at native res (1600x900), 4xAF, 2xAA. Have tried killing the AF, no difference. Have also tried various other CFS3config settings (normally use the set suggested by Olham, tho with sliders (starting at planes) at 5-3-3-3-1) eg changing the Clouds slider, reducing other sliders, disabling in Cockpit cloud effect, various texture limit settings for Cloud Scale in CFS3config, and the likes, to no avail. Turning clouds off completely in CFS3config does the trick but then I just get a uniform grey haze in bad weather, and I'm not going to kill the clouds universally just for the bad days nor turn them on and off as needed. At the moment it's either do something about this or park OFF for a few months till I can get a new card. I generally fly campaigns so flying only fair weather QC, or a bit of bad weather stopping campaign play, are not options.Was contemplating getting HiTR but that's on hold now too. I suspect the culprit may be the altocumullus, if only because there are lots of clouds and murk around when I have a c.50:50 land/cloud view (scenery, other planes and all) and the FPS dips a bit, but look straight up and it's instant slide show. I daresay that's not it. So what I want to know is, what do I need to do, to replace the heavy overcast-type clouds, or the whole weather associated with them, with, say, the next best weather type? I've looked at various files and tried renaming a few, without effect. Presumably it's not simple as there are various factors at work but in the end the display of this particular set of clouds is gonna be implemented according to the content of a few xml files and what can be changed to produce them, can be changed again to replace them with something else, that doesn't kill my FPS. Naturally if anyone can suggest anything else which works I'd be interested in that too but at the mo, it seems only some better weather will do the trick.

Well, that was short-lived, the FPS hit is back. There is definitely a particular kind of cloud (or fog) effect that is causing the problem, as not all bad weather does it. Not rain. Chief suspect is the altocumulus layers (or whatever cloud type it is) that forms a widespread, sort of 'corrugated' or rippled layer high up. So far I can't isolate and remove or substitute the .xml or .dds file that's responsible. Am concentrating on eliminating the altocumulus and seeing if that helps.

Can't wait to try the HPW FM for tha Albatros, I know the RFC (Lewis) reported a captured example heavy on the controls but the stock OFF FM seems to me just too unresponsive. BTW Olham as a frequent Alb driver, do you find the Albatros LODs (DV and DIII ant least) have the undercarriage disappearing at about 240 yards/metres? Mine do and I find it a bit distracting, they are clearly visible as Albatros but very visibly have no wheels, until they snap into view at close range. Was wondering if it's just me. The Walfisch is definitely better. either the higher LOD 3-d model is in view for a longer range or it has a better mid-range LOD model.

Well, von Oben's suggestion seems to have worked! Thank you Sir! I had rolled back my driver to 175.19 (2008!) but that seemed to produce little or no improvement in FPS in good weather, anyway. So I 'restored' the OFF bad weather files, set my CFS3config/Custom settings/ Texture info/Cloud Scale slider to 6 (had tried 10 and 1) but kept my main Custom settings/Clouds slider at 5. Flew a campaign mission in the Roland CII, weather awful, had left 'rain' on in over-rides too, yet the serious FPS drop, when looking at clouds only, has completely disappeared, lowest FPS was an entirely playable 20-25 FPS and that's with planes 5, scenery & terrain 3, effects & clouds 5, 1600x900, 2xAA, 2xAF, shadows at stock setting but not disabled. As DukeIronHand said, there's a lot of settings out there to play with, and sure enough one of them seems to have done the trick. I'm off to fly another mission now, to prove it wasn't a fluke! Hesitate to say it's good to have the bad weather back but it is. OFF's good weather cloudscapes are truly beautiful to behold but those ominous grey skies are hugely atmospheric and add a lot to the sim, too. Thanks for the help chaps!

Looking at the way the pilot's feet look stuck in the mud, and imagining that Michael Palin could be lurking in that Camel's cockpit, my caption tor this one, would be: 'Right, I'm gonna have to shoot you now, Archie' [pun intended] What am I talking about? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MLYRVvzp_8&feature=related

Thanks - will give that a whirl. Just finished about 5 hours painting walls so I'm in the mood to shoot down something! I had played about with that slider a little but will try the settings recommended above.

I'll keep on trying - good to know there is may well be a solution out there; it's definitely rather odd that my budget card can cope pretty well with everything except those darn grey clouds (bit like me). I'll keep two sets of weather folders, one with my 'silver lining' mod , one stock, and see what I can do to get the stock one working. I had briefly rolled back the driver to 196.xx to see if that helped but bl**dy Windows Update rolled it forward again and has now been made to stand in a corner on its own and only to update what and when it's told. I'm off now to set up the folders and hunt down a 3-year-old driver....no wait it's heading for midnight, enough settings-related fun for one day, I'm off to get my head down, 'After all, tomorrow is another day!'

Well, I dunno whether it was changing the Workshop weather settings, or whether it was backing up then replacing all the 'bad-weather-sounding' OFF weather files with what sounded like the nearest equivalent 'not-so-bad-weather-sounding' OFF weather file (mostly I used a clone of 'OFFHeavyCumulus.xml'), but the grey skies have gone, replaced with sometimes quite cloudy but more blue skies. Or maybe the OFF weather has improved of its own accord, in which case I'm due an unwelcome let-down, if the grey skies return, after all; but a variety of campaign missions from a variety of months produces the same, very pleasing result; so far, so good. I can now have planes and clouds on 5 (and wonderful both look) with the rest on 3, 1600x900 and a little AA and AF, and OFF now looks and runs great. Don't really miss the crap weather, I see enough of that in real life. [turns around and skips off in his best Morecambe and Wise impression, singing inanely 'Bring me sunshine...']

The irritating thing is, the system copes perfectly well with OFF, except when those grey skies arrive. Yes they are very impressive and atmospheric but for now, I need to find a way to 'turn the dark clouds inside out', if not 'till the boys come home' , then at least until I can afford a new card. I'll fiddle about with the .xml files and see what I can do.

Thanks guys. Well I'll give Olham's suggestion as try first. Have just backed out a driver update which seemed to make it worse. Failing that it'll have to wait for a new card, the 9800GTX is a fair bit more expensive in the UK but will bear that one in mind.

Yes it seems to be working quite well now, have adjusted the curves to get a better view to the rear. From a very short test it seems that FacetrackNoir also works with my other WW1 air combat sim, First Eagles 2, using the OFF profile I think. Great stuff!

You're quite right, the Lee Enfield No.4 did not see the light of active service until well into World War 2, the Mark III aka the No.1 is right for WW1 tho I would have thought some sort of carbine would have been taken aloft rather than a full-size rifle the German aircrew commonly used a Mauser KAR98b IIRC - but I'm not complaining, as long as the BE gets that flexible Lewis, that'll do me, why go 'Bang!' when you can go "Taka-taka-taka!'.

Prosit!

Well, applying the EWMA fix to version 1.50, and/or using the off .ini file you recommended seems to have done the trick! Have only tried once so far but FacetrackNoir worked very well. Only real issue is that looking up tracked down and vice-versa so I have reversed that axis in the program's settings and I hope all will be well on my next 'flight'. Lesser problem is that looking fully (180 degrees) to the rear sometimes works (usually when turning head right) and sometimes does not (turning head left often seems to hit a 'stop' at about 120 degrees left). Otherwise FacetrackNoir is working rather well now, without having to use start/stop/centre hotkeys. Will fiddle with settings and gain some more experience to see if it's working consistently and whether I can improve the 'check my six o'clock' performance. even as it is, it is already good enough for use in gameplay. No FPS loss that I can see (I have an early quad core CPU, don't know if that makes any difference, with Windows Vista 64) Will report back on how I get on. Thanks for the support! Have to say it's early days yet, but from what I have seen so far, I would highly recommend that OFF fliers not already using TrackIR try out FacetrackNoir, following the instructions above. I have now got Freetrack working too, entirely thanks to Lewie's advice, but have not yet managed to obtain 'curve' settings which give me a good field of view and are not too sensitive, plus it needs 1 or more LEDs, a cap, & batteries which FacetrackNoir does not, all you need to add is the TIRviews.dll that's part of the current TrackIR software and the OverFlandersFields.ini file. Hope this keeps on working at least as well as it does so far.

It's the German side for me, so far, always had a soft spot for the Albatros scout, especially the DV/DVa, for me it's the supremely elegant WW1 warplane, plus it has the exotic association with the Jastas in their hey-day and an unrivalled assortment of varied and interesting colour schemes. Like First Eagles, OFF gives me plenty of opportunity to indulge my passion for admiring 'my' Albatros as I fly to the Lines. Always liked the BE as well but was put off flying a campaign on finding OFF's otherwise excellent model has an odd, fixed forward-firing Lewis (thru the prop disc, most unusual for a Lewis) and no gun for the observer. I mean I know the field of fire from the front cockpit was restricted, but at least give me a Lewis for the observer! Also running a 56 Sqn SE5 campaign, always admired Jimmy McCudden since reading how he rose from the ranks at a time that meant a lot more than it does these days, and his accounts of stalking 2-seaters and his moving tribute to Voss, all the more poignant as it starts "As long as I live...' and he hadn't that long. Always liked the SE, ever since I built the Aurora 1/48 kit a long, long time ago. Being a Biggles fan I suppose I should favour Camels but no. Anyway like others it's a case of flying the planes I like most, generally, but the fact OFF has so many, compared to about everything else but Red Baron, means I have plenty of scope, as there aren't too many WW1 planes I don't like, and plenty I do. Will take a 'survey sim' over a 'study sim' 9 times out of 10, for that reason I suppose. Variety is the spice of life and it's one of OFF's strongest points so 'play the [Flanders] field', says I.

No, I saw the ref to that .ini but could not find it. I have 1.30 and the 1.50 update but had not applied the 'Fix tor EWMA-filter', grabbing that now. Will also try assigning stop and start hotkeys - thanks!!!

I have an older quad (Q8200) and a lesser GPU (9300GS) and I got a modest increase between FE and FE2. To compare the two, I suppose, the grahics settings need to be the same in both, IIRC you can push them higher in FE2 like horizon distance. If my FPS were worse in FE2 the first thing I would make sure is that my shadows were still set on 'Medium', 'High' hits the FPS hard even in FE2 and 'Unlimited gets those nice moving in-cockpit shadows but stutters badly at times (when the ground shadow is also visible, per TK).

Thanks for the feedback V4. Just tried again using the sequence of steps you describe. Didn't work the first time but this time I noticed the Facetrack 'eye' oblongs were tracking not my eyes, but the upper rim of my reading glasses. Stopped Facetrack, took off my glasess, restarted. 'Eye' oblongs now tracking my eyes. Started OFF and Facetrack is now partly working, even if I put my glasses back on or keep them off. I can pan from side to side approx 90 degrees left and 90 degrees right but that is all. Not up or down at all. The metrics that appear when Facetrack starts (with my head centred) look a bit strange. X=0, rotX=3, Y=5, rotY=30, Z=34, rotZ=1, or thereabouts. I am using the 'default' game .ini. Seem to lose some fPS but looks playable, if only I could get more movement to the rear either side, and some panning movement up and down.

Roger, camera working ok in Freetrack, had got the .dll for Facretracknoir, all I need now is the LED keyring thingy and I'm set, as you suggest will start with the 1-point setup and see how that goes, if I can get 2DOF working that will do to begin with, anything more is icing on the big soft edible thing with icing on it.Thanks for the advice.

Back again, have grabbed Freetrack and will get key a keychain LED in town tomorrow, have a peaked cap lined up...can you confirm if you needed TIRAttack (1.6?) to get Freetrack working in OFF? Their website says it's needed for CFS3, but the link to TIR_Attack on geocities is down (hopefully temporarily) and I can't locate TIRAttack anywhere else.

Having finally got OFF P3 I'm still finding my way around and enjoying the many major improvements over P2, and have a couple of questions I haven't been able to find the answers for. Aircraft LODs - I'm finding the close range (c.220 yards?) that the planes switch from highest to next lower LOD a bit distracting, especially the lack of undercarriage, and its sudden appearance as you get closer. It it doesn't cripple my FPS I'd like to move out the high detail LOD a bit further, say to 500 yards, or as far as I can. Can this be done? BE2c armament - having flown and atatcked a few so far, I was a bit surprised to see this fitted with a fixed, forward-firing Lewis - mounted on the LH side of the fuselage and evidently synchronised to fire thru the prop disc- and seemingly no flexible mount for the observer. The only forward-firing Lewis I never heard of on a BE was on a BE12 not a BE2 and it was on the centre section to fire over the prop. While other BE12s had a synchronised gun, it was a Vickers not a Lewis and it was on a BE12 not a BE2. I'd have thought a sychronised Lewis on a BE2 is either wrong or not a normal service fitting, while the absence of a flexible Lewis means the plane doesn't have the armament it did routinely carry in service (except when the observer was left to save weight for bombs). Are all the OFF BE2cs armed in this weird way? Deathless pilots - my CAMPAIGN pilot - two of them anyway - seems to be indestructible, sometimes. Last one collided with an FE that broke up in front of him, at several thousand feet, wrecking his Albatros DIII. Mission ended automatically. but the campaign carried on regardless, as if he wasn't even hurt. Reitred him in disgust :) Second time this has happened. They had been ticked not to die in QC but I thought that didn't apply in Campaigns. One thing I can think of is I had a no-CD exe in CFS3 when I installed OFF, which I saw is credited with causing smlilar oddness. I had the original 3.1a CFS3.exe and I copied that back into my CFS3 install, and into my OFF install (which had copied across the no-CD .exe, i could tell from the size.date). But the sim seems fine otherwise (apart from BE2s with no flexible Lewis :) ) Maybe I should start over & reinstall, or is there another reason my pilots won't die? I'm playing 'die roll death' not DID but on at least a couple of occasions, the crash should not have been survivable. Does it sometimes happen, that the 'die roll' can sometimes save you from what really should be certain death, like the Zeppelin crewman who fell/jumped from the burning airship, fell thru a convent roof, and landed in a bed just vacated by a nun??? I certainly didn't noticed any convenient convents as I fell out of the sky either time, but maybe I passed out and, there they were, waiting to save me...???

Cheers that sounds good, will see what I can do1