VonS

Brief, further update to the thread - tweaks going well for a ver. 10.0 of the FM/realism pack for FE2. Have finished with an overhaul for a 110 hp Lewis Nieup. 21 (for Stephen's model); also now completed the Spad 17 300 hp and early Benz-powered Alb. D.I - now onto the Sopwith Snipe FM. Then some further streamlining of folders for the big ver. 10.0 pack. Will also think about looking at Stephen's Pomilio and the Halb. CL.II - or perhaps will leave those for a separate addon sometime later. Representative pics. (and comments) of the latest tests are located under this post. For a representative testing vid., click on the pic. immediately below. [Edit: vid. removed.] Will update again when the full FM package is released. Cheers all & happy flying, Von S MORE INFO.: stumbled onto this website that has interesting technical info. for several aircraft - might be of interest to others too who enjoy visiting the FE2 forums. Check over especially the links there called "early birds," "WWI aircraft," "zeppelins," and "aero engines."

Hello fellow FE2-ers, Uploading some latest screenies here of FM testing currently happening for an upcoming ver. 10.0 of the FM/realism pack for FE2 - always a pleasure to return to FE2, the tweak-friendly sim that keeps on giving. NOTE: improved ReShade shaders for FE2 (see relevant link for those) loaded in all representative pics. below. Cheers all, Von S 110 hp LeRhone upgraded Nieup. 21 (Lewis) does splendidly against mid-war types and dismantles wonderfully too I sometimes like to land and watch a dogfight in progress, for further evaluation of how a tweaked FM handles against the enemy Julio Junqueira's US pilot with the light blue scarf sits well in the 110 hp Nieup. 21 Close-up of an (en)tangled tangle, where I "got the wind up" and the Nieup. 21 was also dismantled while in air (sorry no pics. of that excitement) Proceeding to the SPAD XVII 300 hp: it works well in slash n' dash attacks at low altitude too, and may be used to get away quickly from a problem (suggested skin is the FrenchTan1 available for the stock, 220 hp SPAD XIII that has no hp-rating in its folder names; extract relevant skin folder using Mue's excellent CAT Extractor) The SPAD XVII however is much more suited for attacks above about 2000 m alt. or so, as with the example of this poor Pfalz If you lose an aileron or two on the SPAD XVII, or the rudder (even with ailerons still intact), might I suggest then avoiding tight maneuvers (here we have a flight mate falling into an irrecoverable spin after attempting a tight turn with an aileron missing, during a dogfight) A very close shave with a couple of Flying Razors Geezer's pilot no. 8 fits well with the SPAD XVII Working on the FM for the early, Benz-powered (150 hp) Albatros D.I that carried only one M.G., to save weight (Benz skin will not be supplied with the ver. 10.0 FM pack; it's a simple Paint3D re-coloring of Stephen's skin for the regular Alb. D.I and that can be found in that folder - I've used a shade of brown, opacity of about 40%); Geezer's pilot no. 6, by the way (green scarf fellow that I frequently like to use as a pilot), in the Benz Alby; recommended is one of the available Daimler sounds for the type, makes for nice, soothing flying Benz Albies in action against Geezer's Lewis Nieup. 21 with the 90 hp FM, and Stephen's Nieup. 12 The long flight home, just passing onto our side of the lines

Been a while since I saw fresh wish lists on the FE2 forums, so I thank you for opening the thread Wilches - and here is my list below: 1. Fokker D.V 2. Fokker D.VI 3. Fokker D.I (with the inline engine and the vertical, fish-like fin in front of the all-flying rudder) 4. experimental Aviatik-Berg Dr.1 (yes only two of them made, I think, but they look nice) 5. experimental Fokker V.7/III variant (with the Goebel Goe engine and four-bladed prop, slightly longer fuselage than the Dr.1, and the small wing from the landing-gear setup removed) 6. a fresh Pfalz Dr.1 (the one from A-Team is showing its age) 7. a completion of the Bleriot XI Anzani 6-cylinder project (if Swambast manages to retrieve the necessary files after a HDD crash of late 2021) Happy flying all, Von S

That's some fine and fast service Wilches - I thank you for the file. No wonder I was not getting results (I was using Fixed_Gun as the type, instead of Inactive). Now to do some more tweaking of the FM, then it's onto the Snipe, and other tweaking for a Spad 17 300 hp FM, which I am already tinkering with but have set aside for the moment. Stephen's Nieup. 21 has already been overhauled into a 110 hp LeRhone upgrade - more info. and pics. to follow soon under this thread. I've also done a few minor tweaks to some previous data inis and will probably release all as a big ver. 10.0 FM package that will be more streamlined than the current ver. 9.9 package. With the current package, there is both a 9.9 and 9.7-era set of files in it (too cumbersome) - as well as a bunch of individual FM packages under the support thread for the big FM pack. All will be rolled into the same file, for convenience. Will post some pics. later today or over the next few days, from testing. Cheers all, Von S

In good Geezer fashion, I've decided to use this thread occasionally to bump it up with notes regarding the latest FM tweaks - since, technically, they will correspond with "new aircraft" sub-variants to be released with a ver. 10.0 FM/realism package. Quick question for all: while I am tinkering with the FM for an early, Benz-powered Alb. D.I (using Stephen's excellent D.I model for the tweak) -- I have run into a wee bit of a problem. Using either the component delete trick, or the weapon-station delete trick (both tricks work fine) -- I am able to remove the right M.G. from external views, but I'm still stuck with the right M.G. in internal views (have tried the "move instrument trick" already, in the cockpit.ini file, to get rid of the right M.G. -- but it doesn't work and it's technically not an instrument anyway, so I'm not surprised that I'm not getting results that way). Any thoughts will be welcome. Representative pics. below (external view - gun removed; internal view - gun visible). The Benz-powered D.I only had one M.G., to save weight, so thus the trick I am attempting. Cheers all, Von S External view - right M.G. successfully removed Internal view - right M.G., while no longer animating, is still visible

Welcome to the WoFF series, There is a way to increase TAC display but I can't find the link to the post now - I'm sure someone will find the relevant info. and let you know as soon as possible. In terms of your other two questions -- check/select the option that says "pilot never dies," in the in-sim menu, and then you don't have to recreate a new pilot every time you crash while training, etc. There are three levels of difficulty in the claims system - the easiest level always awards claims and you never file a flight report; the medium level awards claims about 80-85% of the time, or so, and requires that a flight report be filed; the highest (historical) level awards claims about 50-60% of the time (approximately), and also requires always that a flight report be filed. Personally I prefer the medium claims level but I switch to the easiest level if flying lone wolf (otherwise, usually, a claim is not rewarded even if you file a detailed report, since there were no witnesses available). Hopefully, in the future, OBD will implement the possibility that balloon crew, AAA batteries, etc., act as witnesses - then you should be fine with the medium difficulty claims system even if flying lone wolf. For max. historical frustration and difficulty, use the hardest-level claims system all the time. EDIT: For a very cheap track-IR solution, perhaps look into FaceTrackNoir. FaceTrackNoir supports the WoFF series with the necessary drivers that are freely available in the official (NaturalPoint) TrackIR software package - once you install the relevant TrackIR drivers, you may then remove/uninstall the other NaturalPoint addons that are included in the installation process (but leave FaceTrackNoir installed, of course). Some WoFF-friendly pre-saved settings files for FaceTrackNoir are conveniently available under this post. Also, for an older thread on WoFF and FactTrackNoir, recommended is to check over this link. Cheers & happy WoFFing, Von S

Brief update to this thread and general musings. Hope all FE2-ers are doing well. In terms of the Bleriot project, the modeler working on the aircraft had a hard drive crash several months back and informed me that he will contact me in the future if he manages to retrieve most of the vital files. So far I have not heard from him since late last year, or thereabouts, so I am assuming at this point in time that the Bleriot project is no longer active. If the modder ever does contact me regarding the project, I will be happy to complete the FM (data ini) for the aircraft. In other news, I have now "officially" retired from WoFF and RoF modding - nothing really further to do for those sims from my end - so with the little free time that I have, providing that there is still interest and active fliers in FE2 -- I will (eventually) comb over a few aircraft that I never got to, such as the Snipe, one or two models by Stephen for the Italian front, and perhaps also his somewhat recently released Nieup. 21 - but I can't promise any specific dates in terms of when I will comb over those FMs. Depends really on how much interest there still is in FE2. (It is still my go-to sim for quick combat - since it is very easy to set up quick flights and the AI is challenging - although for campaigns I always go to the WoFF series.) Cheers all, Von S

And one more, probably final update to this thread - please find at the following link an AI-tuner mod. that attempts to bring in and/or combine some of the AI routines and maneuvers of the WoFF UE/PE generation with the BH&H2 series. On another note: it's finally time to hang up the modding hat and to do other things - I will of course continue flying the excellent WoFF series by OBD, but I think there are now plenty of GPU Tuner mods., AI-routine mods., and of course FM mods. too, available for the WoFF series, and to keep everyone entertained in the (un)friendly skies in our favorite sim. EDIT: see top post of this thread for relevant download link(s), etc. Cheers all and happy flying, Von S

@OP, AMD CPUs should be fine. If on the other hand running the WoFF series on an AMD GPU (instead of nVidia), recommended is to check over this support thread, especially if interested in rolling back to an older generation of AMD GPU drivers (DLLs). Cheers, Von S

And a few more pics from a recent, early 1916 campaign flight in the Fokk. E. II (in patch 1.22 of BH&H2). Was testing air activity density on medium settings and holds up well in BH&H2 for the early war; I might however drop it to light activity settings in 1917 and 1918, to maintain consistent FPS. Nice and smooth so far. Terrains are a custom JSGME-load of 4L0M terrains, also WOFF-PE era terrains - Jan/Feb 1916 in this case. My fault for choosing to fly in poor weather - which I've left as per user discretion in the in-sim menu (weather mod and clouds mod are vers. 2.02 and 4.0, by Buckeye Bob) Also stumbled onto some Nieup. 10s on one of the flights Last two pics are from some testing in mid-1917, of AI and FPS (I found the terrains especially picturesque in these two so decided to post them; what a visually pleasing series of sims this is - still can't decide whether I prefer the SweetFX of my PE/UE 4.18 install or the ReShade applied to the BH2 1.22 install - guess I'll just have to fly both installs more to find out - those who appreciate sfumato effects of oil paintings will probably enjoy the pics that follow) Cheers all and pleasing aesthetics to you in the skies of WoFF, Von S

That's an interesting pic Socrate - I'm guessing either a custom-terrains mod. or perhaps the Alsace region in a pre-WoFF-UE era install? Thank you for sharing the pic, always nice to see the history of WoFFing. Cheers all, Von S

Probably good also to post under the FE2 thread over here - for quicker replies regarding the FE series. Hopefully someone will pitch in with more info. I am unfortunately not a load-out and/or terrain specialist so can't offer any info. other than to speculate that maybe there is something in the terrain data ini file for that particular map and that is limiting load-out options, etc. Cheers, Von S

Yes, relevant entries related to "gunner," under the [AIData] section of a data ini, also the various [Dogfight] skill entries, if they are available (specifically gunner-related info. in the dogfight entries) - are worth checking out. Possibly most important to look over are the various values under the gunner section of a data ini (for example, for the Nieup. 12, relevant info. follows below): [Gunner] SystemType=GUNNER_STATION SeatID=2 GunnerID=2 PilotModelName= GunnerBodyNodeName=Gunner SetCockpitPosition=FALSE Position=0.0,-1.02,0.95 MinExtentPosition=0.25,-1.1,-0.29 MaxExtentPosition=-0.25,-0.6,1.08 PitchModelNodeName=GunTiltMount YawModelNodeName=Gunner GunRange=400 PitchAngleRate=12 MaxPitch=25 MinPitch=-10 DefaultPitchAngle=5 YawLimited=TRUE YawAngleRate=12 MaxYaw=260 MinYaw=100 DefaultYawAngle=180 Entries in bold are the ones to tweak, for increased/decreased movement and speed of the AI gunners in two-seaters. Cheers (and happy tweaking), Von S

While FE1/FEgold-era aircraft may be used in FE2, I have never tested data ini files from FE2 in older vers. of FE (I only have FE2). Might be worth a try, though. The inis are found in the individual aircraft folders of the various FM packs - they do not need to be extracted from anywhere. If a data ini is missing from a stock aircraft folder, simply copy over the one available in the FM packs - and that corresponds with that aircraft folder. For extraction of data inis and other files in FE/FE2 that are not initially viewable, see this post. Recommended is to see that entire thread, "New in FE2," if new to the FE series of sims. (Much of the info. might be helpful for older vers. of FE too.) Cheers, Von S

@OP, I've been a bit out of the loop with FE2 for awhile (too busy with work currently), but as far as I remember, stock gunner AI in FE2 is laser-perfect and will often make for difficult attacks on two-seaters. Best is to dive on them, pull up, and leave as quickly as possible - do a wide turn, rinse and repeat, etc. If you feel that the gunner AI on two-seaters is a bit too perfect - load either the old Peter01 FM mods available for FE2, or the various FM mods available in my (newer) FM/realism packs for FE2 - see the main FM realism pack download page, but also the "support pages" for that thread because there are a lot of separate FM packs available under the support thread too. The various FM mods (of the data ini files for various two-seater aircraft) tone down gunner AI accuracy somewhat, especially in cases where my FM tweaks were based on older Peter01 tweaks that had already toned down the AI gunners. When toned down, the gunners are sometimes accurate, but oftentimes they miss or cause only minor damage to attacking fighters (more realistic that way, overall). On an unrelated note, if you also fly WoFF (Wings Over Flanders Fields), there is a similar problem with laser-perfect gunners in two-seater aircraft. Best is to adjust AI gunner accuracy values in WoFF too, but via a little Java applet called "MultiMod" (see the various support threads on SimHQ, also CombatAce, for WoFF-related mods). Come to think of it, RoF (Rise of Flight) has the same precision-gunner problem in stock mode too - and benefits from various gunner mods that tone down AI-gunner accuracy. Happy flying, Von S

Try also running WoFF/BH&H2 (also WOTR) in "Windows 7 Compatibility Mode" if they are installed in Windows 10 (or 11). I run them in Win7 compatibility mode (in my Win10 install on a Mac) and they are very stable. Cheers, Von S

+1 For what it's worth, I have both mods. running in my 1.22 install of BH&H2 - no incompatibilities spotted. The only "mod." that I am so far aware of that is not compatible with BH&H2 patch 1.21 or later is not even a JSGME-loading mod., but a standalone Java applet - JJJ's MultiMod (simply doesn't open with BH&H2 1.21 or later). I'm sure that JJJ will eventually update the excellent MultiMod. Cheers all, Von S

And a big hurray for JJJ's Mission Editor and Multi Mod. too - great additions to the WoFF series. Thank you JJJ for your WoFF-friendly Java applets. Good WoFFing to you gents', Von S

Latest update to this thread - a small FM Addon Package (Ver. 1.3) has been included for BH&H2 under this post. The package contains a Fokker-built D.VII with the Mercedes D.III(au) engine of estimated 200 HP, and which replaces the stock D.VII in WOFF/BH&H2. Load either the 200 HP variant or the early 180 HP variant - not both at once. The tweak is also available for WOFF UE/PE - see the relevant link under the BH&H2 FM post to get to the other post in the same thread for WOFF UE/PE FM downloads. EDIT: see top post of this thread for relevant download link(s), etc. Cheers all, Von S

@Becker, as far as I know the "WOFF PE Historical Victory Information" mod. is not needed with BH&H2 -- since those changes were already implemented under-the-hood in the BH&H2 series. Same rule applies for the older "News mod." (which you don't have but a public service announcement doesn't hurt since I'm already posting) - that one was also implemented sometime earlier, during the WOFF PE era, if I'm not mistaken, while the historical victory info. mod. made its way into BH&H2. INTERESTING INFO.: if running BB's "Historical Weather Mod 1.45" (the older version) in BH&H2 (also in WOFF UE/PE) -- you will get more days in which you still have to fly in poor weather, while the ver. 2.02 mod. will give you less days of flying in poor weather - with the weather manager more frequently grounding flights during poor weather. The grounding "threshold," so to speak, is lower in ver. 2.02 - while 1.45 is the favorite for us gluttons for punishment. Cheers all, Von S

Exciting news indeed. WoFF is that rare software that I actually upgrade regularly, and even have an older version (or two) archived for museum goodness. Other things usually have a "best version" beyond which I don't upgrade unless I want to break things or slow down the computer. Looking forward to future updates OBD. Carry on gents', Von S

Usually it's just simpler to paste a link to the original post, but I am nonetheless flattered to see you ventriloquating on my behalf Crawford. Cheers all and happy posting in various voices, Von S

Been a while since I posted under this thread so here are a few screenies from a "refreshed" and transplanted campaign that originally began under the casual campaigns thread for WOFF on SimHQ (during the WOFF-PE era). Yes, it's the Ritt. Kiener and company episodes (still in Dec. of 1915) -- a bashful looking flight mate Bonk in the last pic. by the way (he was on leave for a few days; Hutzenlaub was unfortunately listed as missing in action a few episodes back so now Bonk accompanies Kiener sometimes). M.G. wasn't working on the Eindecker this time so I parked Kiener's 'crate and went sightseeing using the "K" key disembodied view and left-mouse click to cycle through -- was pleased to see several flights doing their thing in the early morning. Pics. are with my ReShade profile for BH&H2 loaded, also UE/PE-era terrains mixed in via JSGME. Also loaded is the "lite" tweak of Xjouve's water mod. ver. 1.1, etc. BH&H2 patch level is 1.20. Cheers all and happy BH&Hing, Von S

Recommended is to check this thread for mouse view fluidity tips/suggestions. Cheers all, Von S

@Seb, the best loading order for the various FrankenBHAH addons is as follows: 1. the main FrankenBHAH package (Ver. 1.1) 2. the hardcore addon (Ver. 1.15) 3. the mini tuner improvement (Ver. 1.2) Also recommended is to offload/remove "GPUtuner ver. 1.1.1" because it is technically not compatible with the various FrankenBHAH packages and addons. For example, the main FrankenBHAH package replaces many of the files in the older GPU Tuners and makes them redundant anyway; also, the hardcore addon and mini tuner improvement were only tested with the main FrankenBHAH package, not with the older GPU Tuners, so no guarantees as to how they will behave with the GPU Tuners. Those using only the older GPU Tuners for PE/BH&H2 WOFF are recommended not to load the FrankenBHAH packages, and vice versa. Personally, I prefer the FrankenBHAH package and addons since they are more "refined" upgrades over the older GPU Tuners. @lederhosen, my older GPU Tuners and the various FrankenBHAH packages/addons were tested/tweaked on AMD video cards only but may work well on nVidia too -- BB's packages were specifically tested on nVidia and may indeed work better on many nVidia setups. Best is to pick a tuner that works best for your rig -- the good thing is that both my tuners/enhancement packages and BB's packages eliminate terrain tearing and blue triangles, so you don't have to worry about those no matter what package you install. Cheers all, Von S