VonS

Preview of things coming up for the ver. 9.7 FM update pack...the Roland D.6a FM has now been overhauled, will also do one for a D.6b (Benz-powered). Siemens-Schuckert D.III also now overhauled, and what an interceptor it is. Will also do an OAW and/or mid-cycle variant of the Fokk. D.VII (since we don't have one and it was the most prevalent of the Fokk. D.VII types, with the 180hp Mercedes au engine...should be around 195-6 kph top speed on that one)...and also will go over the Aviatik (first-generation) and Italian variant that Stephen posted recently, and the Anatra C.1. Ver. 9.7 will also include a newer FM for the Caproni bomber, plus a Halb. D.III variant (FM) of Geezer's Halb. D.V, and other modifications such as of the Longhorn and Shorthorn to reflect more realistic climb rates on those. The Sikorsky S-16 (version 3) and Pomilio FMs I'll leave for a later, ver. 10.0 of the update packs, including some two-seaters that I never got to so far. Happy flying gents, Von S

I'm very excited that FE2 will get a Bleriot. I will most likely do two data ini mods for it - one to fit with the later, two-seater model (of about 80hp), and also one for earlier-war Bleriots that can also be flown as single-seaters with the observer removed from the plane (power range anywhere from about 50 to 70hp approx.). Should be entertaining trying to keep these models aloft. Von S

Accidentally made this shot while testing pilot cigarette smoke. I particularly like the morning and evening atmospherics in FE2. Von S

Great pics Geezer! Attached below is an experimental particlesys file with even smaller MG smoke effects than in the particlesys file included with my ver. 9.5 FM update pack - these double-up nicely as cigarette smoke for pilots, but tweak the emitter coordinates in your data inis for realism. For the MS type H and G variants, use something like: ExhaustEmitterName=MGSmokeEmitter ExhaustPosition=0.0,0.0,0.65 To put out the pilot's cigarette, turn engine off. Representative pics. below. Von S

I think such effects in FE2 only happen if some damage is done to inline engines, and I've also seen it happen if the blip switch is held too long on rotaries while the aircraft are still at the aerodrome (particularly with the Sopwith Pups and Tripes in their latest FM modified form). I've tried to tweak the chance of engine overheating post-damage in all of the modified data inis, although there are other random factors that FE2 throws into the mix probably. The relevant entries in the data inis, if available, are (located under the [Engine] section): DamageTempDelta=30 OverheatDamageRate=0.4 Values above I use for single-row rotaries, double row-rotaries are at 20/0.3 respectively, early inlines at 60/0.7, and later inlines at 50/0.5 - rotaries, in general, were more robust than inlines. Possible exceptions are the Spad A.2 and Morane Bullet with casserole spinner...values of about 50/0.5 are usually good for those...to mimic greater chance of over-heating, also for the "Anzani-powered" MS type G variants. Von S

The relevant entry to toggle in the data ini is: ExhaustEmitterName=MGSmokeEmitter (for the MS type G 25 and 45 hp variants) Possibly an emitter with the same name is missing in FE/FEgold? I will create a separate emitter for the cigarette smoke since the MGSmokeEmitter needs to be toned down further for it. Von S

Lovely pic Crawford...yes, the two-seater variant may have a wingspan in the 8.5 to 10.5 meter range approximately, likely a longer fuselage too, at least in the 8-9 meter range. There are so many size variations for the Bleriots but the two-seater variant should be larger than the one-seater type no matter the variations. I'm sure that some of the two-seater types were frequently flown as one-seater arrangements too, although I've also read that, without a passenger, the two-seater type becomes extremely unstable longitudinally (from tail to nose)...see the Harriet Quimby crash for more info. on this. Perhaps Mikael Carlson is flying the one-seater type later variant, with Gnome rotary...have viewed the Carlson clips and overall his has better handling/control than the Anzani type, although it still tends to float in turns. Happy flying, Von S

The "engine overheating" effect that I have for the Anzani-powered MS type G from the ver. 9.1 FM update pack could be modified further for this...I will look into it when tweaking the FM...light, occasional smoke is desirable but not too much ... will see how realistic it looks. Von S

Excellent progress on the Bleriot Geezer! Here's a link for anyone interested in flying characteristics of an Anzani-powered type (y-configuration engine in this case)...seems like an authentic replica. The one that Mikael Carlson flies is rotary-powered, also available on YouTube and interesting to compare with this Anzani variant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGgj6jVUNm8 Von S EDIT: Apparently not an Anzani but some similar-hp engine being used on the replica in the clip.

And one more screenie for this thread...couldn't resist posting this oddity. Von S

Some representative pics. below of ROF (united edition) on a Mac (Win10 in Bootcamp). Skin in the pics below is by "actionjoe" by the way, a Russ. MS type G or H (that loads into the Fokk. E.III skins folder in ROF)...mods available over on the official ROF site, also on the "checksix" website that's in French. Happy flying, Von S

Stimulating series of posts gents' - always enjoy reading this technical stuff...currently tweaking my FE2/WOFF/ROF installs on the Windows 10 side of things on the Mac but I will come back to tweaking more FMs for a ver. 9.7. update pack in a couple of weeks....and I very much look forward to tweaking the FM for the Bleriot XI (will use either the 45hp Anzani or 60hp Anzani MS type G mod, from the ver. 9.1 update, as the basis for the Bleriot mod...the Bleriot should have slightly better lift than the MS type G but more drag). Speaking of varieties of Bleriot XI as outlined by Crawford, here's a pic below of various stats. on the type that I posted previously in one of the private threads. Von S

Hi Mike, Also check over the following two links that overlap with the good info. Geezer has posted above (should get rid of the shimmering oddities that way): https://combatace.com/forums/topic/91359-airfield-figures-help-wanted/?tab=comments#comment-738584 https://combatace.com/forums/topic/91359-airfield-figures-help-wanted/?tab=comments#comment-738564 Happy flying, Von S

Time for some fresh screenies from our favourite, niche WWI flight sim - FE2. Been doing a bit of WOFFing and a lot of ROFing lately on the BootCamp side of the Mac Pro (in Win10), and I'm pleasantly surprised how well FE2 holds up when compared to those sims. It seems that we have FMs now that are close to those in ROF (from what I've been able to compare in ROF), but AI that is closer (more varied) to the one used in WOFF - best of both worlds I think. Thank you modders for your continued work on FE/FE2. Early morning offensive patrol in the pics below, using Stephen's new Galicia terrain (pics. below are on medium settings in WineSkin, by the way, on the Mac side of things). Von S P.S. If you've put in enough "flight time" with the modded FMs in FE/FE2...you shouldn't have any special difficulty flying the FMs in ROF that have often been described as very difficult on full realism settings.

Love those old postcards with imitations of the Bleriot XI, Crawford - happy new year to you as well! Von S

Well this is a nice surprise! Welcome back Geezer. I think the Breguet XIV needs more work...that model is incomplete, and the Junkers J.I probably requires further tweaking of the 3-d model....other than that I think most of the aircraft you've been working on are as good as they come - there are about five or six uploads in total under this "new aircraft" thread where your nearly complete Nieups., Pfalzes, Halb., etc. have been posted. Happy new year to all, Von S

Good news on the WineSkin side of things too - dropping the dx9 driver into the FE2 game folder, within the WineSkin wrapper, improves the fps on the Mac side as well. Recommended is to set dx9 to "true" in the options.ini file, and enhanced shaders to off (0), as specified in the post above for BootCamp. Smooth fps can be attained then, and it's fine to increase the resolution to 1920 x 1080. The in-game (graphics) settings in FE2 running in WineSkin should be set to "medium" - otherwise there is slight stuttering at high settings. (The MacOS side doesn't crossover/link the two video cards on the Mac pro...while in BootCamp high/unlimited settings are fine in FE2.) It's possible that dropping the dx9 driver into the FE2 game folder even on Macs running Intel integrated vid. cards, such as the Mac Mini, might lead to fps boosts. Some representative pics below of FE2 in WineSkin with the dx9 driver in the game folder (pics. in the post above are from BootCamp...at unlimited/high settings.) GTerl's Caporetto terrain also works great in WineSkin, by the way. Happy flying, Von S NOTE: recommended, with the dx9 tweak, is the higher mesh size flightengine.ini file, for your Flight folder, even if you have FE2 installed in WineSkin - in BootCamp I have the higher mesh size flightengine.ini file running and it works fine, even with high/ultimate graphics settings in game. Pics. below are with the higher mesh size and medium graphics settings, in WineSkin. For integrated vid. cards, best is to use the simpler/default flightengine file (both are included with the ver. 9.5 FM update pack).

Representative pics with dx9 enabled (subtler clouds, better peripheral fog, classic rain drops visible together with the tga file raindrops, more realistic/subtle smoke and fire effects). Resolution at 1920 x 1080 in BootCamp, by the way. Von S

Hello fellow FE/FE2 flyers, here are the latest Mac-related updates. WineSkin is still the simplest choice up to ver. 10.14 of MacOS to run FE2 on your Mac side...ave. fps are between 50 and 80 at medium graphics settings and a resolution of 1600 x 900 on my rig (Mac Pro 2013). Also good is that FE2 now runs fine in Win10 on the BootCamp side of the Mac....the trick, as posted in another thread earlier by gTerl and others, is to include the dx9 driver directly in your FE2 game (not user directory) folder. I'm getting good results with the generic dx9 driver included with the enb-series v. 0.076 package, located at the following link: http://enbdev.com/mod_generic_v0076.htm The only thing you need from that file is the dx9 driver. Ave. fps range from about 60 to 150 on the Win10 side of the Mac Pro with that driver in the FE2 folder...my previous tests with the dx10 and dx11 drivers installed, and advanced shaders set to "1" (on) and dx9 set to "false," in the options.ini file, have been filed away...yes fps gets into the 200 to 300 range but the sky and clouds look less subtle, peripheral/horizon fog flickers on occasion, and the classic, thin line water droplets disappear from the inclement effects. Also nicer I think are the landscapes with the older driver - more atmospheric. Aircraft and pilot shadows may of course be set to on if you are running a discrete graphics card or two (not recommended on Intel integrated vid. cards). Occasional crashes were also experienced with the dx10 and 11 driver installed - no such problems with dx9. Recommended in the options.ini file is to set advanced shaders to off (0), to set dx9 to "true," and vsync off to "true." Also recommended are the following settings in the AMD control panel in BootCamp, basically the same ones that work well for WOFFue: - anti-aliasing mode (override application settings) - anti-aliasing level (4xEQ) - anti-aliasing filter (Edge Detect) - anti-aliasing method (Adaptive multisampling) - morphological filtering (off) - anisotropic filtering mode (override application settings) - anisotropic filtering level (8x) - texture filtering quality (high) - surface format optimization (off) - wait for vertical refresh (off, unless application specifies) - opengl triple buffering (off) - shader cache (on) - tessellation mode (override application settings) - maximum tessellation level (16x) - AMD crossfire mode (optimize 1x1) - frame pacing (on) The great thing about Win10 in BootCamp is that all of the in-game settings can be run at high/ultimate with no problems...the only recommendation, if you like shadows enabled, is to set them no higher than "medium," to avoid any possible shadow flickering (although with dx9 instead of dx10 enabled, there shouldn't be any flickering visible...). Happy flying, Von S

Finally successful with tweaks to get FE2 running in BootCamp on the Mac with no stuttering...will post relevant directions later under the relevant Mac thread once I tinker some more with this...all settings at high/unlimited, and the d3d10_43 dll dropped into the FE2 main (not user) folder...with advanced shaders on in the options.ini file....currently I'm incorporating shader (fx) calls into the relevant effects, particle, and environsys files, also have to turn shadows on in all the relevant inis...lots of work. FPS are between 200 and 300. Von S

Most addons for FE1/FEgold work fine in FE2, with minor tweaks to decals files, etc. Getting FE2 addons to work in FE1/FEgold may require a bit more work. Crawford has found a way to run several FE2 aircraft in FE1...I believe the relevant post is located under the "new aircraft" thread but I'm sure someone will pitch in with more detailed info. if necessary. Happy holidays, Von S

Attrition rates are wonderfully modeled in FE2 - noticed this when flying in 1918 for the Germans in the Ottoman theater...it became more and more difficult to survive, let alone to get hits. FE2 is full of surprises that I still discover on occasion. Obligatory screenie below from an early-war scenario. Happy holidays all, Von S

I've heard good thoughts about the Intel NUC SkullCanyon series...the top end ones with discrete graphics (probably would have gone with one of those if I wasn't a Mac person and decided on the MacPro instead). Top end NUCs are around 1500 USD, give or take a couple of hundred $ depending on configuration. The SkullCanyon series comes with no OS and RAM/HD I think...but you can build to taste on Amazon or shop around for different components for it. Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G3GKYMB/ Happy holidays, Von S P.S. For Win10, go with Pro instead of Home edition and you can meter/control OS updates more effectively - less updates, less hassle.

Further update to this Mac-related thread: FE2 and RB3D work fine in WineSkin on MacOS Mojave (10.14) - for FE2, the same recommended install procedure posted under the relevant WineSkin thread (under the stickies section) works fine, using the Wine8 ver. 1.5.1 engine, the best engine to use for FE2 since decent frame rates can be attained on it. Have also tested FE2 in Win10 under BootCamp on my MacPro and it bogs down at around 10 fps with the AMD FirePro D700 cards - but runs beautifully in WineSkin on the MacOS side. I included the higher quality mesh-size flightengine.ini file and frame rates still run around 50-60 fps, about 80-120 fps with the lower quality flightengine.ini file. If running FE2 on integrated Intel video cards - the lower quality flightengine.ini file is recommended. Have kept most settings in the FE2 game menu at medium since there wasn't much difference between medium and high, while fps suffer at high settings. Will do some further testing with FE2 on the BootCamp side to see if frame rates improve by running it in Win7 compatibility mode - otherwise WineSkin is still recommended for running FE2 on a Mac, in OS versions ranging from Snow Leopard (10.6) to Mojave (10.14). System 10.12 (Sierra) and above require however that you disable "system integrity protection" in the terminal window, or games in WineSkin won't load. Happy flying and happy holidays, Von S