Shiloh

Those are fantastic. It's too bad when someone spends countless hours building a model then they photograph them on their picnic table. We can start an OFF convention once a year, pack our rigs up and play OFF for a week straight. The first convention will be in my town in Massachusetts and it starts tomorrow.

I just picked up They Fought For the Sky by Quentin Reynolds from the local library. It seems like a decent enough book and easy reading so I should bang through it in the next few weeks. I figured I needed to learn a few things about WWI flying as my knowledge is lacking in comparison to other wars in history.

Here's a link to it on Amazon.

This Is really a judgement call, but next time your just flying along, and as you pass over No Man's Land ,and there's a huge bombardment going on down below. So much for the mission . . Fly down to treetop level for a looksee up close, and the instant you get there, hit ( F3) and you'll be there

I'll have to check that out.

First pilot I ever lost was ripped to bits inside a storm cloud. Lesson learned well.

Duly noted.

Good tip, UncleAl. I never use "cheated views" normaly, but in this case an exception could be made for screenshots.

I would sure see the ground troops far better.

This has me curious.

The turbulences are really simulated there, Shiloh, and they can destroy your kite.

When I was having flying issues with the Sopwith Pup last week it was raining and there were low-lying heavy clouds. I wonder whether I was facing some real heavy turbulence? Probably so as I flew her last night and she was highly-responsive.

That's good news Olham! I know what it's like to have a downed rig so welcome back to the skies. I'm going to attempt to OC my CPU as well but first I may have to upgrade the heatsink as the stock one that came with my CPU is kinda' weak. It seems like a really easy system you have there for OCing...must be nice. Good luck with your new rig and enjoy.

Shiloh, thick clouds can be a death trap to the unwary - lots of turbulence. If you must fly through them you need to keep a sharp eye on your speed, height, and compass.

 

As far as TrackIr goes, it won't be long before you find yourself turning your head to check your six when watching Hellshade's videos :yes:.

That's another good point tranquillo...hadn't really though about the turbulence. I guess I've watched too many movies where they use the clouds to hide a maneuver then come in behind their enemy. I really need to read some books...maybe Lou can loan me some of his 1st editions. You would have thought they might have had some kind of basic liquid leveling device that could alert them when they were dipping their wings too much.

Hellshade makes it look so easy but it's really not. I think I have a few hundred hours of flight-time ahead of me before I'm flying at that level. As you know there are so many things to learn but I want to have patience and never forget the progression will take some time.

Shiloh, they didn't fly into the big cumulus clouds - far too dangerous.

You can run through a not so thick cloud, if you must escape.

But on a patrol, you should go around the big ones.

Good to know Olham. It's very disorienting and with lack of gauges, it's twice as bad. This is what I look like when I come out of a cloud and realize I'm heading straight into the ground.

when you get low down to scenery...the game becomes unplayable!

Do you ever wonder how something so significant and important to enjoyable gameplay can slip through the cracks and get released that way? It's mind boggling.

I can't wait to fly again. I work from home so I have to try and be disciplined but its really tempting to put stuff aside and just fly around and take in the scenery. I'll just have to make it my nighttime reward for a hard days work.

Sitting in the cockpit makes all the difference as I felt disconnected when doing the 3rd person view. I tried peering over the side a few times and generally had a difficult time locating the enemy but the TrackIR was a bit disorienting to start. I did feel good about keeping her pretty level overall despite losing the horizon. How you guys navigate through a lot of clouds without finding the horizon I don't know but I suppose you just get a feel for it after a while. It's probably like driving on the ice - don't turn the wheel unless you have to and keep her steady. Good flying and be safe up there.

I finally got my rig back today with new CPU, fired up my TrackIR for the first time and did my first flight in over a week and all I can say is wow! That was an absolutely exhilarating experience.

My neck hurts as my TrackIR wasn't calibrated just right and I had to compensate (although I had it pretty close) and I'm slightly dizzy but other than that it was a fantastic first flight. Had a quick combat 4 on 4 and more than a few times I got the enemy in my sites. It was really difficult to stay on their tails too long as I found it hard to coordinate my right hand controlling the joystick and my head movement with the TrackIR but soon enough I'll get them in sync.

I was determined to stay in cockpit view as I believe that's how I'll achieve the most immersive experience, and a few times I went into spins because I'm not used to that view and lost the horizon but all-in-all I think it was a good first flight. I was flying the Sopwith Pup and we ran into some Albatross and they were able to take out my wingmates pretty quickly. Then it was me against 3 and I held my own for about 10 minutes until one of their shots killed my pilot and the rest was history.

I know you guys have all experienced what I'm feeling right now so I won't ramble on any longer but this one flight has me hooked. I've experienced what makes OFF special and to celebrate let me buy everybody a round.

There in the downloads section Shiloh. Just DL to your hearts content, add them to the rest in-game and select them as your livery.

Viewing them now nbryant...thank you.

Shiloh, even if there won't be a way to preview them on the 3D model; there is a way to preview

 

them even now: download the freeware IRFANVIEW. With that fine program you will be able to

 

browse through all the OFF skins (more than 3.400 !). You'll find them here:

 

 

(your sim folder) > campaigns > CampaignData > skins

 

 

Good to know...thanks Olham. I've seen some great custom skins made by OFF fliers. Are these currently available in the game or would I need to upload (provided it was OK with the original artists off course).

Is there going to be a way to preview skins in P4?

Wow...that's some collection Lou...and some 1st editions too. Your interest seems real focused on WWI. I have a good amount of history books but they're all over the place as far as time periods/wars, etc. You could probably sell your books and put a down payment on a plane.

Fantastic work Sandbagger...keep it up!

I don't know how many of you are Terry Pratchett's Discworld fans, I'm a big one, in addition to Neil Gaiman's books.

 

It's the latest video-ization of his numerous Discworld series. These movies are pretty darn good, I'd even suggest that they're close to the the Harry Potter movies in quality and production standards. I have to say that Vetinari as a blonde had me thrown a bit, but his part is down well by actor Charles Dance. And the woman who plays Angua, :wolfhowl: she's pretty hot. I also love the choice of actress for Adora, she is exactly as I imagined her in the novel.

 

Enjoy, they're in 15 minute segments, and there's 13 of them.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vEyI3heHXY

I only watched 5 minutes but so far, so good. The production quality looks good and I'll have to give it a watch later tonight...thanks for this Lewie.

I'm very new to this sim so I can't really compare with what has been done but these images look absolutely amazing! The look of the new buildings are fantastic and the details in the cockpit make me want to jump right in. I thank you for your commitment and look forward to going back in time to when flight and fight were new and the men who fought were fearless beyond my comprehension. Keep up the good work.

Shiloh, thanks for your reply. Yes, I think it will be great once I have a bit more know-how. Maybe starting up a campaign and simply 'learning-by-doing', as you suggest, is the best way to go.

Sure thing TaillyHo. I would definitely use the fast-forward feature when leaving your base and when trying to get into enemy waters. You can imagine how long it takes a sub to go a long-distance in real-time. Happy hunting.

Well after a bit of research and a few favourable mentions on this forum from time to time (including this thread), I've installed Silent Hunter 4 (came with the 1.5 patched U-Boat add-on) and like the look of the Operation Monsun mega mod.

But Man, this is one complex sim! I've found my way onto the 'subsim' forums in the hope that they might in some way replicate the friendly and helpful character of this forum.

If anyone here has any other suggestions for a wannabe sub commander struggling to get to grips with SH4, I'd be most grateful!

I have a version of Silent Hunter 3 on my rig which I've played a few missions with. There is an excellent mod for this game at www.thegreywolves.com but I think they disbanded before they completed the mod for SH4. This sim was overwhelming when I first played but once you start cruising the world's oceans you start to pick up on things. I wish I could help more but I started playing right before I sold my house, then was uprooted for a while then never got back into it.

It can be really hard and when the enemy locates you, it can lead to some heart-pounding minutes as they pass right over you in sometimes only 20 feet of water and miss your sub by inches - it's a true cat and mouse game.

Just found this...fantastic Homeboy.

When attempting to land that crate, you'll have the direction of the Wind Sock at the airfield or the smoke from houses fireplaces. However when you're in flight, you'll only know when you get hit by it, as it is 1917

 

I'd suggest when you wish to learn how to fly. Try Quick Combat FREE FLIGHT as you'll be alone in the sky. Or you can just do what works

 

 

 

Ahhh...good ole WWI...wind socks and chimney smoke to determine wind direction. I'm pretty sure I was facing some rough wind as I can't think of anything else that would have made that Pup jump around like that.

You can totally remove the effects of wind in workshop, useful when you're learning. You can always restore at a later date

 

 

 

That's good to know but I would rather keep it real which leads to my next question. How do I tell the wind speed/direction, etc?

Also my TrackIR arrived today but my rig is still in the shop. :mega_shok: They were supposed to do my BIOS update yesterday but the business next door was using an air compressor and it was making the lights flicker and they didn't want to risk it.

Ok seriously we need to put up an OFF Pilot Hall of Fame around here and put Creaghorn's pilot at the top. Incredible achievement and quite a realistic campaign. 41 kills in 3 years and 450 missions is fantastic.

I'll feel pretty sad when my own Casey Joyce punches his ticket. Still chugging along in the middle of Passchendaele, if he makes it to the 100th mission I'll make a little commemorative post on the Reports thread.

That's an excellent idea!