DukeIronHand

Yes it does exactly. I have spent many a moment goofing with graphics settings trying to make them go away when they appear. I will have to pay more attention when I do get them (i.e., the circumstances at the moment) because sometimes they are there and sometimes not.

"...I will start to see those telltale lines in the trees down at ground level," RAF_Louvert - what is meant by the above? Edit: Geesh...spelling...I gotta get glasses

I did a search on "Track Air" and found nothing so like Olham I will assume you mean TrackIR. I will echo his comments - to me its as important to flight simming as a joystick. Once you try it you will wonder WTH you've been doing all this time without it! Size wise the camera (that you place on your monitor) is about 1/4 the size of a cell phone - its nothing. Then the thing you stick on your head - nothing again. Run, don't walk, and get one.

Another thought on layers. 1) If I am doing a skin job (sounds kind of pornographic!) and end up with, lets say 10 layers, can these be "deleted" individually latter? Even after I save it? 2) If I d/l one of your skins for example (lets say it has 50 layers) can I go through and see these layers individually on whatever paint program I am using? If, perchance, one of your layers really bothers me (just for this example) could I delete layers off a skin made by you in a presumably different paint program? EDIT: Just found Gous's outstanding skinning tutorial - layers are the key to skinning it looks like!

Well, goofed around again and found (and successfully figured out!) the "Color Picker" tool so I guess that takes care of Question #2. EDIT: Thanks BH - we were posting at the same time! 50-60 layers?!? Guess that's why you stuff look so good. The above info has been very valuble.

I know this has been discussed here but a search for "mission flying time" has been less then helpful. On my fancy new X52 Pro there is a stopwatch feature on the throttle - thought it be cool to use to track flight time, fuel usage, victory claims, etc. Anyway returned from flight with an actual (per stopwatch) of approx. 54 minutes of flight time which OFF recorded as approx. 36 minutes. I do remember this was a known issue and, further IIRC, this was a OFF/CFS3 quirk and there was no fix?

Good god. Feel free to ignore my posts in the future please. Or if there is an "Ignore" feature on this forum please use it. The curmudgeon act (or is it the "off-my meds" act?) wore quite thin a year ago.

Just had a additional thought. Is it just the number, or totaling, of flight minutes that is messed up? Is the in-game clock correct as the mission advances? Because if I really want to get geeky I can also use the fancy throttle as a clock and set it to "OFF time."

After the Personal skin vs. ammo/fuel load issue was hashed out here to my satisfaction I now, upon obtaining 10 victories, award my pilot a "personal skin" when flying for the Germans. Have a pilot flying with Jasta 11 in March 1917 I find myself nearing the 10 kill mark thanks to the fine work of the Royal Aircraft Factory. Having no skill at skinning, and since Olham isn't my brother-in-law, I peruse the OBD skins to find one I like. None of the Jasta 11 skins got me excited so I looked at most of the Alb DIII early skins and found a beauty! "Why have I never seen this skin before?" "Oh it's very nice and even has a white tail that Olham recently got me liking." "There is no red on it but I guess I can live with it as its sweet." Load it up in IrfanView for a closer look and yikes!! - of all people its Herman Goering's paint job!!! Not being a Goering fan in the least (not just for WW2 but for his time as commander of JG1) I decided it's time to learn skinning - at least enough to modify existing skins with a change of color here or a paint stripe there. With that being said what free (ideally) paint program will allow me to make minor and, maybe latter, major changes to stock skins? Thanks!

Like almost all here I have both BH&Hand the expansion HitR. For the amount of enjoyment I get and time spent with it I feel like I should send the Dev team 3 more payment checks. You will get plenty of enjoyment from OFF for the very modest outlay of funds. I have a feeling (pulled from my arse) that P4 is about a year away. And that's fine. From some of the screenshots and hints given by the Deva it will be worth the wait. As an added bonus, when you are up and flying with P3, you can come here and talk smack about your latest pilots and adventures!

x2

Ack...of course. Have the holiday off and was all hot to do some flying with my new skin and to try my hand at Paint.net and yesterdays latest storm knocked out my power. Got a generator going but am a little hinky about running my expensive (to me) OFF dedicated desktop on generator power. Posting and surfing here on the wife's laptop. And I thought I led a clean life!

Wow...kind of spooky Olham as that is almost exactly what I had in mind. Some new fiendish secret weapon? It's a real beauty! Thank you. And thank you RAF_Louvert for the program tip and offer, I am downloading the program now.

Doing some reading (in fact reference the modeling thread here) and again I see mention of wingstruts being covered in cloth on some WW1 aircraft - specially in this case a SE/5. Why cover struts in cloth in "real life" ? The only thing I could think of is protection from the elements but I wonder at the utility of that versus paint or varnish.

Well I don't know about you but if I am gadding about at 12,000 feet or diving on the odd Jerry at 175 I do not wish a sick and snotty strut holding me up!! I just can't figure where the chicken soup tank is in my SE/5?

That went over my head especially based on previous discussions here. You are correct sir! Just saw the reported photo yesterday actually.

Ah...that makes sense. Guess I need to pay better attention to what I am reading! Edit: Re-read the two articles and you are exactly right RAF_Louvert...of course!...cabane struts only.

Okay then...errr...what size shoes did he wear? On a serious note sounds like you have a good source for info. Edit: Spelling...more coffee needed.

I have come to the conclusion that I am going to need about 3 lifetimes to engage in all the WW1 hobbies I would like to get into! OFF, reading, research, scale models, RC flying...maybe build my own damn plane! Guess in one of those 3 lives I had better stay single...

Again I have to ask, and to kind of echo Typhoons comments - if "Bishop the blowhard" is the apparent consensus here why did the R.F.C. lavish him with promotions and medals? All on just his word alone? Have to believe if that was the case there would be alot more VC's around. Something just does not add up all around.

Well you clearly know more about the mechanics of the N17 than I. Whats moving around in the OFF cockpit - just the aileron pushrods and bellcrank?

Never having done it before is really all that complicated? HPW's OFF back-up program just copies the Pilot folder and reportedly that is all you need to keep your pilots unless, of course, I am completely misunderstanding one of the main points of the program. The other copied files do not appear to be pilot related.

Sounds pretty damning alright and Caldwell, as far as I know, has always been credible. What I did not know was that a actual aerodrome (Estourmel) and Jasta (5) had been firmly identified. Part of the claim problem had been, I thought, was that the airfield and Jasta were not a positive I.D., i.e., Bishop was not sure where he was at. Jasta 5 was a famous enough unit, with lots of Kannones, that the raid should have been recorded or at least remembered I reckon! Too bad.

Just the Vickers version and not the Lewis one? I love the N17 performance-wise I just wish I could take a hacksaw to the cockpit. Too bad I'm bald or I could just say I like the feel of the wind in my hair!

If you are joystick shopping I just purchased a Saitek X52 Pro. I have only had it a week but I like it very much. The programming part is a no brainer as the software is good. I am using about 1/3 of the total available buttons (1 mode out of 3) and I almost have every single OFF command programmed into the stick. Since I have a TrackIR the three(!) hat switches can be programed into a 8 or 4 button switch. Built in mouse, clock, timer on the throttle portion. The stick itself is adjustable for hand size. All very nice so far. If I could only figure out how to program the Precision Slider into the OFF zoom buttons I would be all set. Again - only been a week but so far a thumbs up!