33LIMA

I think I've found the solution to the 'airfield stutter' in DBW 1916 - or to be accurate, Panama Red has found it for me! Apparently there's a setting in the latest Nvidia drivers (320 series) which does the trick - setting Vsynch to 'Adaptive (half refresh rate)'. First try this made no difference but oddly, when I noticed my landscape quality setting in IL2 was 'Excellent' instead of 'Perfect' and increased it to the latter, the airfield stutter was gone! The pass below would have been a total stutter fest before, but now it's smooth as silk. The buildings and other objects are fine, it was when the stationary planes came into view, that it all went Pete Tong. I need to experiment with a few other airfields but so far, so 'perfect'! My grateful thanks to Panama Red for this tip. Radeon users apparently don't have this setting but can use a payware proggie called DXstory, until such a time as Radeon drivers add a comparable feature.

While you're waiting, if you haven't already, you might want to download the many excellent WW1 planes only available at the A Team Skunkworks; http://cplengineeringllc.com/SFP1/ Just be careful to follow the team's distinctive registration requirements (the real, active download page is not accessible until you have your password) and be VERY careful to observe the download limits, as a breach will likely result in a ban.

Hi Phantom! I have most or all of the A team WW1 planes (except I have substituted Stephen 1918's Fokker DII and Albatros DII for the older A Team equivalents) and most or all of those at CombatAce also. And I've never seen this behaviour. I do rarely get a hard lockup when trying to access the map screen, and my loadout sceen does that every time (I noticed I had a bunch of MiG23 weapons in my mod folder, of all things, which may have been the problem there!). But I've never had a CTD with an addon plane, as far as I can recall. Can you post examples of the planes which this affects, assuming it's always the same ones?

Thanks for the positive feedback, Panama! We are not doing to obadly, to have such a good range of WW1 sims to fly. I was going to add a mission report for RB3d - WFP2 but I still need to find some screen capture s/w that works with it and my Glide wrapper. FS-WW1 also, but it would have to be an earlier Nieuport as it doesn't have a 28. I would have reported on Flying Corps Gold also, as it does have an Nieuport 28, but alas, tho I got it installed, it doesn't seem to work in Vista :(

Update on the 'airfield induced stutter' in the latest DBW-1916. I managed a juddering flypast or two at the offending airfield - near Montdidier on the Somme map - and there don't seem to be that many ground objects, just some canvas hangers, some AA guns, and nearly twenty static planes (apart from some Camels - out of place in this area anyway - nearly all 'fantasy' planes, repainted Soviet Po-2 two-seaters and four big 4-engined bombers that look like biplane modifications of the stock IL2 DB3 monoplane bomber). So the main culprits seem to be the static planes, mostly fantasy ones at that. I have tried to clear them off the map several ways, so far with no success. May post over on the DBW forums at SAS, as I don't see a solution there, having had no luck trying to edit them off the map with the 'unlocked Full Mission Builder' method described over there. There are other airfields that have just a few hangars and no stutter, but I could really use a fix for the many others.

Hi and welcome to First Eagles! Yes I believe 2010 is the last patch; tho if you downloaded FE2 from the TW store recently you should already have this. methinks. Much of what's in 'Getting started' still looks relevant. However, since the introduction of Ojcar's 'Armchair Aces' month-by-month campaign (available here at CA in the FE downloads section) a good place to start is to download that campaign, AND all the recommended items listed in the campaign's readme. This is a long list, notably, most of the extra planes available here at CA and at the A Team Skunkworks (being VERY careful to observe download limits - otherwise you could get locked out) and some extra stuff like medals and ground objects. It's an awful lot of downloading and installing and patience is a must but once you've done that you'll be able to fly in almost any of the WW1 planes available for FE and in any period from 1915 to the end. You can supplement that with any other mods that take your fancy- like a sky/cloudmod, or a terrain mod. Peter01's FM mod set is also a must-have. But I'd suggest starting with an extra campaign, plus all the extras needed to fly it (planes mainly). A campaign with its list of necessary/recommended downloads is a good way to expand FE. For a faster start you could try downloading the Bloody April campaign (here at CA) and the much smaller set of planes you need to fly that. Unfortunately all-inclusive mod packs aren't available, unlike the ones available for different periods at the A Team Skunkworks; for FE, you have to download and install things separately. Edit - I see Redwolf beat me to it with essentially the same advice!

My flight-mates, using some reserve of power my kite didn't have, pulled past me and got stuck into the right-hand Hun two-seater. They managed to split him off from the others, but their attack then seemed to fade and the Hun leveled out and edged back into formation with the other two. I was having none of this; I cut across and slipped in behind him. Perhaps because of damage, this time I managed to close in and get a long burst into him, more or less ignoring any return fire which, if there was any, was ineffective. Suddenly, it was all over. Bits flew off the Hun, then he burst into flames and fell away into an ever-steepening descending turn to the left. both crew members jumped to escape the fire. I gave the recall signal and we hared off after the other two German machines, which had drawn well away from us. Soon we came under a fierce bombardment from Archie, so vicious that I felt sure that we were going to have casualties if we continued. So I broke off the pursuit had headed back to the Lines. I thought I had lost a flight-mate as my tail-end charlie fell away sharply after a near-miss, but he recovered and climbed back up after us, doubtless now needing a change of underwear. It was interesting to see that aircraft actually reeled under the impact of a near miss, visible as a wobble then a recovery. Neat! Anyway, the AA fire died away as we reached the Lines and I called up the in-flight map, and set a course for our airfield, ignoring the message which displayed across the top of the screen telling me the ground control tower was clearing somebody to land (I had muted the radio comms but evidently also needed to reduce the number of text lines used to display radio calls on screen, to zero, which I think is a configuration file text edit). At this point, I ran into bigger trouble than the Huns. As I approached our airfield, my FPS crashed, followed by my aeroplane, as I tried to land amidst the stutter-fest. On a subsequent flight, I discovered that my FPS crashed every time an airfield came into view, at anything other than long range. I think the problem is an excessive density of ground objects on airfields, an impression re-inforced by DBW-1916 airfield screenshots (even the canvas hangars seem to have multiple-polygon tent pegs at the end of their guy wires!). I've no reason to believe other airfields are any different. This makes the mod essentially unplayable for me. IL2 airfields are busy enough to my liking. I want a combat simulator rather than an airfield simulator, especially if serious and prolonged stutter is the price paid to display stacks of ammo boxes or 'fantasy' WW1 planes like the repainted 4-motor biplane bombers in the screenie below. It may be possible to use the 'unlocked Full Mission Builder' tweak to edit the 'offending' maps and de-clutter the over-endowed airfields (there's a lot of them to work through, even if that is possible). Or to do so by locating and deleting some of the 'offending' ground objects so they can't be loaded, like the 'fantasy' planes. Perhaps those with sufficiently muscular systems can power their way through all this stuff, or perhaps there's a system setting unknown to me which helps. But for me, 'airfield-induced stutter' is a killer for DBW 1916. It may be nice to find Moritz, or Whiskey and Soda, waiting for you on your airfield (I haven't seen them but suspect they're there somewhere). But I'd prefer not to have the stutter even if it means re-homing the furry friends and clearing away some other stuff. Pity, because despite rather a lot of 'fantasy' planes and WW2 leftovers like the wingman commands , it's a very professional and promising WW1 mod.

Our four sleek Nieuports crept after the Huns. I say 'crept', more in the sense of it being a slow process to close the range, rather than any hint of stealth being involved. The AEG JI - for that is what they were - being a slow, part-armoured ground strafer, I'd have expected us to do better. Anyhow after a bit I gave the order to attack. My flight-mates responded promptly, pushing out to the side and then closing in on the hindmost Hun. they seemed to be flying machines with better motors than mine as they closed the range fairly smartly. DBW-1916 preserves the IL2 wingman command set which is rather too sophisticated for a pre-radio era, leaving the player to decide whether to ignore anything he reckons is not appropriate. By the way, don't forget to mute the radio transmissions volume before you fly, or to map the key to mute them, in flight! Otherwise you will hear the full gamut of IL2 radio chatter, over your non-existent wireless set (the SE5 was fitted with a wireless locker - you can see the hatch behind the cockpit - but it was never carried and nothing beyond experiments were ever made in WW1, apart from Art Obs machines which carried a morse transmitter, with no receiver). At this point, Archie decided to join in the fun, and a vicious barrage erupted, seemingly targetted at the Huns, tho it was not too far in front of us. It was noisy and spectacular, with by far the best visual and sound effects of any WW1 flak in any sim I've played. Better even than First Eagles, except that if this was indeed friendly AA fire, the bursts would have been better rendered with whitish or greyish smoke, rather than black, as the latter generally and by common convention signified German AA fire. ...to be continued!

Prompted by JediMaster, I thought I might post some comparisons of Nieuport 28 missions in other sims, beyond the current commercial 'Big Three' of FE, RoF and OFF. Thought I might start with one I've only just tried out - Dark Blue World 1916. (aka DBW-1916). This is a WW1 mod of IL2, which needs the original (WW2) DBW plus the most recent DBW-1916 updates, available here: http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,21514.msg239532.html#msg239532 http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,26088.0.html DBW 1916 seems to have started small, with planes like re-painted soviet Po-2 biplanes and some 'look-alike' models. It still has some of these, but they've now been joined by an increasing range of more realistic replicas. These include the Nieuport 28. As I don't think a proper DBW campaign/mission set has yet been released for this machine, I just flew a mission I'd thrown together in the IL2 'Quick Mission Builder', pitting my flight of four, plus another flight of two, against two sets of German two-seaters (AEG JI, and Rumpler CIII, the latter being one of the look-alikes, to me looking like a Po-2 with the radial engine swapped for an inline one). I started the mission in the air, over one of the several WW1 Western front maps included (there are maps for other theatres, including Palestine). I'm not sure I made the best choice as the mission (especially the landing!) was hampered by what I think was bouts of stuttering as lots of ground objects were loaded. Anyway, here we are, headed for the Front. The DBW '16 Nieu.28 is a good-looking replica. It doesn't have dynamic shadows or bump-mapped textures and if it has any pilot animation, i didn't notice it. As we approached the front lines, looking for Huns, there were several bouts of stuttering, co-inciding I think with hard drive activity. Not fatal, but not good either. Anyhow as we flew on, the Lines became visible. These are rendered in a distinctive way, with patches of relatively untouched ground mingling with shelled areas or splotches of muddy trenchwork. There was a little shelling going on, and some fires were burning below. Not having flown over the front in WW1 myself, and colour aerial photography being what it was in those days, I think each sim has something to be said for the way it represents the Lines. As we got a bit closer I could make out several distant groups of specks, in the sky ahead of us. As I watched, a pair of them dived to attack a group of three flying together, and a dogfight developed. I could not make out the types or nationalities of the aircraft involved, but having created the mission I knew it was the second flight of two Nieuports, attacking a trio of German two-seaters, either the AEGs or the Rumpler look-alikes. Ignoring this scrap, I made a bee-line for the second group of three specks, knowing these would be the other Germans. Another fight would soon begin! ...to be continued!

Hi Mudwasp and thanks for the positive feedback! As you may have seen, First Eagles 2 is available 'download only' from the ThirdWire store but it has absolutely no DRM or online requirement, just burn the D/L to CD/DVD as a backup and you're good. The only issue is the need to D/L a lot of stuff from CombatAce and the A Team Skunkworks to get the user-made planes and other stuff needed to make the extra campaigns work (and to get the campaigns themselves of course). Given the need to observe D/L limits - at A Team especially, it may be easy to go over, inadvertently, and maybe get locked out - this can be slow but it's very well worthwhile, even if you have to move in with your broadband-equipped buddy for a week! Personally I got quite a bit of mileage out of playing the stock FE campaigns which are battle-based (Cambrai 1917, Op Michael 1918, St Mihiel 1918 and Meuse-Argonne 1918). But I favour the 1917 period so the add-ons were a must, for me. Ojcar's 'Armchair Aces' campaign set is the ultimate campaign but if getting started with fewer D/L's is desired, I'd also recommend Bloody April, covering the classic mid-1917 air war. And it's not difficult to add user-made planes to stock campaigns eg in the Cambrai campaign I replaced Jasta 10's Albatros DV with the A Team Pfalz DII, just by editing a campaign data file in wordpad. Most people recommend FE2 over the original, tho the latter is also available from Third Wire as First Eagles Gold (=FE1 + expansion pack) and which, despite the warning on the TW website, is Vista-compatible when patched. I have seen CD versions of FE on eBay but these were the original release and while it can be patched, this doesn't include some of the extra planes that came with the expansion pack (which are included in FE Gold and in FE2). As for navigation, the FE planning map is much better than the OFF version tho not as good as the RoF map. When in flight in FE, you get a different map, which is actually a zoomed-out version of the 3d world. While this lacks the planning map's labels and roads or villages (FE lacks railways) don't stand out as well as they would if drawn on a 'proper' map, it is thus exactly what you see, when flying. Re updating RoF, it might be worthwhile keeping an eye out for PC Pilot mag; they may do RoF updates on the mag's free CD, as or when they are released. If so I expect they may work with your ICE version. You didn't miss the RoF cockpit shot; I thought I'd taken one but only realised not after the flight - will rectify that now CA is back up! Edit - added a couple of pics of the RoF Nieu.28 cockpit to the first post on the RoF mission, on page 1 of this thread.

I pulled up sharply, swung around, and dipped my nose again at the Hun balloon. I held down the triggers, and waited for the Hun sausage to explode under my fire. Nothing. A stoppage - neither gun firing! I struggled to clear the jams, but by the time I had done so, I had swept well past my target. My third pass finally did the trick. The gasbag exploded in a bright orange fireball, right at the last minute, and I flew right through it. It burned away quickly, though, and I emerged unscathed, while my flight-mates watched from above. Thinking that honour was by now satisfied, I set course for the Lines and home, recalling my flight as I gained height. Reaching the Lines, I flew down them a short way, till we were at a point closest to our airfield, then, after a last look down at the trenches, set a course for home, feeling rather pleased with myself - and my flight. Back at base, I was credited with a Rumpler and the balloon; Berkley, with the second Rumpler; and Wood, with the Albatros. It wasn't the busiest or most intense of missions, by First Eagles standards, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying recreation of flying, fighting and patrol-leading in the skies of World War One, giving me the same sort of feeling I get reading the accounts of those who did it for real. Decent DMs and FMs, plus many little touches like the audible and visible buffet effect, which helps you know when you're on the edge of a stall, along with better-than-most AI (which behaves in a variable and human way, and can't see through clouds) and a great range of freeware addons and mods, all adds up to quite a package. Each to their own and I like 'em all, but for the SP campaign experience, I rate First Eagles top of the heap.

The Hun leader didn't last much longer. A pair of Salmsons, each defended by twin Lewis Guns, is not to be attacked lightly by a single scout and the foolhardly Albatros was soon falling earthwards, trailing a plume of dark smoke. The skies around us were clear once more and as I usually do after a combat, I spiral-climbed, then slightly throttled back, calling my flight together. Despite the damage to my machine's fabric, it still handled normally and the engine was pulling well. I had plenty of ammunition left. So I led us back to the Lines and turned to fly along them, looking for trouble. The Hun Archie began to annoy us, but of enemy aeroplanes, there seemed to be no sign. The sky was not entirely devoid of targets, however, and irritated by the enemy anti-aircraft fire, I decided to have a crack at the Hun observation balloon which I could see hanging insolently in the sky, to my right front, not too far into Hunland. Ignoring the AA fire, as I came up to him I rolled over and dived right onto him, firing as I came. I pulled out at the last moment but it was clear he would need a second pass, for he seemed quite un-moved by my first one. ...to be continued!

My Hun lost height, bringing my machine into the observer's field of fire. I was committed: it was to late to do anything, but press home my attack. I hit the triggers, held them down as he seemed to fall backwards out of the sky towards me, and saw my tracers seemingly go right into his fuselage. I knew I'd hit him hard, but as I overshot I winced as his observer's return fire smacked into my machine at close range. Looking behind, I was gratified to see the Hun spiral steeply into the ground, but mortified to see the damage he'd wrought to my own machine. Meanwhile, two of my flight-mates were having a crack at the second Rumpler, which soon fell to the guns of one of them - Berkley, as I found out later. Around us, it was now quiet. There was a battle going on, way across the lines, a sharp little scrap between some French SPADs and Huns in Pfalzes. My attention was quickly drawn elsewhere. A short trail of friendly AA bursts was tracking across the sky to our right, heading from the Lines into our territory. A Hun incursion! I swung towards this, impatiently calling my flight to rejoin me. Before too long I could see what was happening: a pair of Hun scouts, at the apex of the group of AA bursts, was in hot pursuit of a couple of our own two-seaters, Salmsons by the look of it. One of the Huns - Albatrosses, they looked to be - was well ahead of the other, and was closing rapidly on the Salmsons. I moved to slide in behind the Hun leader, but his number two spotted me and swerved suddenly to cut me off. The Hun swung in behind me but he didn't last long. One of my flight - Wood, as it turned out - chased him off me, then got behind him, and after a short pursuit, sent him into the ground. ...to be continued!

Right back in business I think. Where was I? Ah yes, those Huns... As I began my dive, I noticed that there were two of them, and then that their wingspan was significantly greater than their bodies. Two-seaters, by the look of it! It turned out, it was a pair of old Rumplers, pretty low down and going flat out for the Lines, where lay safety. After a good look around us to make sure the skies were otherwise clear of enemies, down I went, with my flight hot on my heels. I gave the command for my flight to attack, and while they swooped onto the Huns from above, I went lower, coming up behind and below the left-hand Rumpler. With the speed I had picked up in my short dive, I closed rapidly on my chosen target. ...to be continued!

As I watched the AA fire bursting around the as-yet-invisible Huns, I saw that the fire was tracking towards me, and would soon cross just ahead of me, on its present course. So I quickly made my plan. I would keep my height and course, let the Huns cross below me and see what I was dealing with. Finally, if I still liked what I saw, I would lead my flight down upon them from above and behind. And that is exactly what I did. ...to be continued ...I hope! Just got a message that I'd exceeded my allotted disk space for attachments, so It looks like I'll have to do a bit of a clear-out somewhere, before I can post any more pics here at CA.

Right next along is FE, modded First Eagles 2 to be precise. This series of comparisons was inspired by the release of Quack's new set of 1st Pursuit Group skins for the Nieuport 28. The FE Nieu.28 is from the A Team Skunkworks and I'm flying a Verdun Front mission from the Armchair Aces month-by-month mini-campaign set, in May 1918. The campaign based us at Epiez, which was somewhat south of the 1st Pursuit Group's traditional base area around Toul, nearer the front. Apparently Epiez was used by the Group's 147th Aero prior to beginning ops and ironically, tho I opted to fly with the 95th, FE assigned my flight 147th Aero skins, not 95th! It looks like I need to hand-edit something to get the squadrons using their correct skins. Quack's set provides markings for all four - 27th, 94th, 95th and 147th. The FE Nieuport is a nice model, like the OFF one a little angular in places and with a slight 'inverted gull' shape to the lower wings. Quack's great new skinpacks really bring her to life. One of the neat features of Quack's skinpack is that not only does it provide the correct squadron emblems - in this case, the 147th's 'Who said rats?' Scottish Terrier - but the correct rudder flashes. The story here I believe is that the French initially assumed the different sequence of colours on the US roundels should extend to the tail flashes (which in typical Nieuport style, were applied to the fixed fin, as well as the rudder). Thus the 94th Aero and 95th Aero, the first to be equipped, got planes with the tail stripes in white, blue and red, with white leading. But the US Army Air Service (or the Signal Corps Air Service as it first was, I believe) had actually decided on red, white and blue tail flashes (red leading) which had the advantage of keeping the white in the middle like the British and French, but also making the US markings distinctive, with red leading instead of blue. Later deliveries of Nieuports had the correct official red-white-blue tail markings; these went to the 27th and 147th Aero Squadrons, and as you can see Quack's skins reproduce this nicely, complete with factory stencils. As usual, FE allocates individual aircraft numbers. Our assigned mission was a defensive patrol up to a village just on our side of the Lines, where a large wood in an inverted 'L' shape provided a good nearby landmark. As I usually do in a First Eagles campaign, I had chosen the bottom 4 pilots in the squadron roster, instead of accepting the (random?) selection of flight-mates offered. I will try to get these three companions through the campaign alive, and preferably with some kills, in the best Mick Mannock style. This approach adds a lot to the SP campaign experience, for me. I may get less kills but I would rather see my companions survive and get some of their own, than just rack up my score. Sensibly, though FE mission de-briefs do record mission success or failure this means little and can be totally ignored. To save time, I used the 'next encounter' key to 'warp' to within striking distance of my target area. In FE, if there isn't some action before then, this will usually bring you out of warp at what FE (using the terminology of its parent sim, Strike Fighters) calls your 'initial point'. I usually drag this some way back from my target area while in the pre-mission planning map, so that I have plenty of time to orient myself and see what may be brewing ahead of or around me, when I 'come out of warp'. Formation-keeping in FE is pretty good. Your flight-mates may weave around at times but they stay close and often in a nice steady echelon. In FE2, weather in a single campaign is set at the outset and this time, I had drawn nearly cloudless skies. You can see that the nicely-animated FE pilot is keeping a close eye on the camera, in the screenie below. Some people prefer one of the user-made terrains available for FE to the stock 'green blanket' but I like the stock terrain. I'm not sure if the field patterns are appropriate for north-eastern France in 1918 but though lacking in granular detail, it actually conveys very well the look of rolling countryside that I can see from my own windows, and I like it just fine. Anyway, while we were still some way off the Lines, I happened to notice some whitish AA bursts, below and to my left. In FE it is eminently possible to fly and fight with all visual aids turned off, so you will see no target boxes, information panels or waypoint cones on my screen. A good touch is that AA fire is nicely reproduced, with Entente bursts greyish-white and German, black, as was generally the case in real life. Unlike OFF, the groups of AA bursts, tho not massively dangerous, are much less scattered and they therefore make it much easier not only to spot enemies, but to estimate their altitude, distance and heading. Planes themselves can be seen and even recognised at a decent range, too. In OFF I find myself staring into widely-scattered groups of flak bursts, unable to see planes I know are there, and having to get so close to do so, that it's hard to position my flight decently for at attack. In FE, when the flak is on your side, there is more of an opportunity to see what you're dealing with and manoeuvre your flight into a good attacking (or defensive!) position. I find this adds greatly to the immersion and the feeling that I am a patrol leader having to make realistic tactical decisions. So, having seen our Archies at work, I now knew there were Huns down there. But who were they, and what were they doing? The answers to these questions would determine my next move. ...to be continued!

Thanks for the kind comments, MW. As for the other sims, JM, I'm tempted to try a Nieu 28 campaign mission in RB3d just to see how the old girl compares, and in FS-WW1 if I can find a suitable mission-set (lack of a real campaign in SDOE was a big minus for me).

Before too long, another one of the Huns presented himself as a target, and I took full advantage. Despite my machine feeling distinctly under-powered, I got off some good bursts but he appeared to be little damaged. So I was quite surprised when he dived for the deck, pulling out just above the tree-tops and giving me another crack at him as he zoomed briefly. After the zoom, he seemed to fall away. I'd overshot and for a moment I thought he was setting me up for a shot. But I suddenly realised with a start that it looked distinctly like he was not going to recover. And so it came to pass. Looking behind, I saw him smack into the ground! My elation was short-lived. My trusty motor had just about kept me in the fight, but it could do no more. I felt the last of its power drain quickly away, and saw my prop spin to a stop. Narrowly avoiding some trees, keeping my nose down to avoid a stall and keeping my turns gentle, I headed down for the nearest suitable field. The ground was pretty uneven and I ended up landing across a slope, but despite a short ground loop at the end, my trusty Nieuport stayed the right way up. Meanwhile, the fight went on. I didn't mind; I'd got my Hun and come out in one piece. Perfect spot for a picnic, too. I claimed the crashed Albatros as a kill in my PWCG combat report, and it was confirmed in the debrief! So, a pretty exciting and enjoyable mission. And a good advert for Rise of Flight, Pat Wilson's Campaign Generator, and the star of the show, the Nieuport 28, another worthy addition to to your RoF planeset, if you haven't already got it.

Now, where was I? Ah yes...we turned and flew South-East on our first patrol 'leg', down the Lines, my flight maintaining formation neatly despite the turn. One moment, the skies were peaceful, clear and blue. I looked behind again, and suddenly it was a different picture. The formerly empty blue was now speckled with black puffs of AA fire and the silhouettes of planes, whirling around. The war had arrived. Having not seen any AA fire since recently starting flying with PWCG, I was pleased to see that Archie had decided to come out to play. The planes above and behind me were some way off and I might not have seen them in a hasty scan, but for the AA fire. Doing something about it was a different matter. Rather than 'extending', gaining height at a safe distance and then turning back in, I turned the flight towards the air fight. I was concerned to avoid enemies diving onto out tails but to be honest I was more interested in not missing the fight, even if that meant luring some enemies down to attack us. I found that I could not gain enough height to get up to their level, so we sort of hung about, waiting for somebody to come down to our level, instead. Preferably without noticing we were there, but if to take the bait and attack us, so be it. Meanwhile, I gave the command for a flight attack, thinking I might as well let my flight-mates see if they could do better, rather than play the role of bait, with me. I didn't have too long to wait, and swung in behind a red and black-tailed Albatros DV that was in a loose descending spiral with another Nieuport. I had a good crack at this Hun but at about the same time, my fall-back strategy unfortunately also cut in, and one of his friends took the bait - me. First I knew about it was a crashing sound and oil spattered my goggles. I managed to get out of the line of fire without further obvious damage but from then on my engine didn't seem to be developing full power. I continued to hang around gamely, watching the fight and hoping for another chance. I confess that by this point I had abandoned any remaining pretense of looking out for my fight. I was no longer fully effective and I justified my neglect by telling myself that they were better off without their crippled leader trying to tell them what to do. Reduced for the present to the role of spectator, I took the opportunity to pause the action and use the excellent RoF view system to cycle through some of the action and admire the Huns. From their identical tail markings, they seemed to be a mixed flight of Albatri and at least one Pfalz, from the same Jasta. ...to be continued!

Thanks for the positive feedback, JM. Re the 4th sim, you got me there...FS-WW1? Or do you mean RB3d...I have an install with the latest WFP UOP with 'FCJ2' and was thinking about doing a comparative mission in that, too, complete with visible bullets, ripping fabric sounds and blood-curdling screams from 'jumpers'.

Great stuff - thanks Ojcar, looking forward to having a crack at this!!!

FE Gold is FE plus the subsequent Expansion Pack, which added more flyables mainly. Both I believe can be patched to 'FE2 standard' as developer TK has said...although there are still differences eg patched FE/FEG doesn't have FE2's persistent plane wrecks, for one thing. This is FE Gold, and despite the statement that it does not run on Vista, my FEG/FE+Expansion Pack is working fine on Vista 64, after patching (mine is not the D/L version below). https://store.thirdwire.com/project_wwi_combo.htm

Another benefit of FE2 is that plane wrecks produce...well, a wrecked plane that burns on the ground, rather than the FE-stye explosion then nothing. There's definitely a difference in FE2's AI, don't recall now what exactly but I remember that I thought it improved/more capable, compared to FE I only got a modest FPS jump from FE2. I copied my seasonal terrains across from FE into FE2 (I like the stock 'green blanket' terrain, it looks much like what I see out the window). I liked the extra terrain draw distances from FE2 but found I had to hand-edit a number ('Meshdetailsize' or something like that) in Options.ini to push out the distance at which buildings in towns were drawn, so I didn't see jagged edges where they stopped. You don't need to get FE2 to be Vista or Win 7 compatible; the FE patch does that, despite the fact the TW store describes FE as not Vista compatible. FE plays fine in Vista 64 for me. But overall I found FE2 worth the investment. The only mods made for FE that won't work in FE2 are effects or clouds that rely on FE's different particle system. About everything else - and I have a lot - works just fine, provided you adapt the install instructions to suit the FE2 'second generation' mod folder structure.

Next up, it's a similar mission but flown in Rise of Flight. I have less stick time in RoF than in OFF or FE, coming to the former rather later, as I needed to replace my budget graphics card; now, my lowly 512Mb 8800GT plays RoF just fine at medium settings. I have only just started using Pat Wilson's Campaign Generator (PWCG) to fly RoF SP campaign missions, on the recommendation of Barkhorn over at SimHQ and in preference to the stock 'Beta Career' and linear 'mission set' campaigns. I'm glad I did. One big gain for me is the ability to choose my pilot's starting rank such that I get to lead nearly all patrols. I find formation-flying a chore, and want to enjoy the extra tactical element of patrol-leading. PWCG gives me that. Another benefit I only found out about recently is that PWCG AI flights are not spawned (or de-spawned) according to distance from your flight-leader. As this usually isn't you, in the stock SP campaign, this can result in odd happenings, if you stray too far from the boss eg seeing planes de-spawn. No such troubles with PWCG, I understand and from what I've seen. PWCG works by letting you create campaign pilots and generating for them one mission at a time. It does this using a pretty good interface that lets you re-generate missions till you get one you like, plus you can select flight-mates and vary waypoints. You then pick up the mission from the RoF menu and fly it normally. This is less clunky than it sounds, especially as there's now an official mod that launches PWCG from RoF's main screen. Neat. After a mission, you can submit simple claims using a drop-down menu, get a mission summary, see an RB3d-style map replay, and if you want, write your own narrative combat report, free-form. You can also tinker with many, many campaign settings. The only other RoF mod I'm using is the 'ambient flak eliminator'. RoF, stock, incorporates weird 'environmental' flak bursts. These appear, often singly, and more or less at random. So, far from 'Archie' as in real life providing a warning of other planes in the air, if you go hunting RoF's ambient flak you will be chasing planes that don't exist. I was very glad to find this mod as this nonsense would have been something of a deal-breaker for me, nice-looking planes notwithstanding. Anyway my PWCG 95th Aero campaign based the 'Kickin' Mules' at Malzeville, which looks to be a sort of advanced airfield part-way between the US First Pursuit Group's 'traditional' base at Toul, and the front. I'd selected three other pilots to accompany me and accepted the Line Patrol that PWCG offered us - a dog-leg up to the Lines to the North-East, short but enough to gain height, then more or less South-East, along the Lines just over the Hun reserve trenches. Before going to the flight line I'd selected one of the several 95th Aero skins available in RoF's 'Hangar' loadout screen. On arrival at the flight-line in front of the sheds, I could see that two of my flight-mates were allocated generic, un-numbered 95th Aero skins, the other one getting a numbered machine with a blue and white cowl flight marking, like my own. I could describe the RoF Nieuport 28 as 'gorgeous' or 'magnificent' but that doesn't begin to do it justice. In RoF, leader's streamers are attached to trailing edges rather than to interplane struts or rudders - to avoid them interfering with the 3d model I believe - but no matter. She's just a beautiful reproduction of one of the war's most elegant machines, with a cockpit to match. They don't come any better. As we climbed away from Malzeville, I noticed that another flight was also climbing North, like my own. I could just about make out that they were a second flight of Nieuports, perhaps out of Toul, behind us. Before taking off, I had set the screen not to display any icons or other aids, but so I could call up the 'mini-map' which appears bottom right of the screen, as needed This displays my own plane on a smaller version of RoF's planning map, which is much the best of the current WW1 sims. I fly without 'complex engine management' as I've no interest in fiddling with radiator settings or fuel mixtures. In real life, mechanics often warned up engines pre-flight so the need to warm-up your engine, sitting in your virtual cockpit for X minutes, is one thing I'm glad I can turn off. The RoF Nieu.28, like many RoF planes, is a twitchy beast, compared to the OFF or FE equivalents. Tail-heavy and needing constant attention to keep in straight and level flight. As we approached the front, I could see that my flight-mates were keeping formation nicely. In RoF they can do this erratically at times but on balance AI formation keeping is better than in OFF and about as good as FE, despite some lapses. RoF wingman commands are much better than OFF's CFS3-based set and more extensive than FE's, and include the ability to order different formations. Your well-animated RoF virtual pilot, tho he doesn't scan the skies as well as in FE, gives an appropriate and (or Very light) signal for each command. OFF by comparison has no pilot animation, apart from some planes where the head turns almost un-noticeably, left or right, as you bank. Of late, my missions in RoF have seemed entirely devoid of Archie. I was beginning to think a bug or conflict was at work. With icons and map aids turned off, and nothing but the Mark 1 eyeball to rely upon, on my last mission, with 56 Squadron in May 1917, this was the result, when we got jumped by some Albatri that had crept up behind us, out of a clear blue sky. Would history repeat itself, a year later with the 'Kickin' Mules'? I was about to find out... ...to be continued!

Can't beat 'the Aerodrome' for somewhere you can find plenty of experts on just about anything to do with WW1 in the air. Also book reviews and articles, short bios of aces, lots. really. Free, too. http://www.theaerodrome.com/index.php