homepage Forums Read Only Forums Read Only Forums Red Baron (Read Only) i can't see why...

anyone would play this rather than download some ww1 types for cfs2...

i bought this game last week after seeing the rave on here and the following, downloaded and applied all the greatest patches n stuff...and , still...crap..

am i missing something here?

i then went and d/l some ww1 planes for cfs2 and i tell ya, they are worlds apart...

my copy of rb3d is shelved until someone explains that i have been really dumb and ive done something completely wrong...

please help me if you can...

Best dynamic campaign around - truly excellent. Great flight models, tonnes of atmosphere, pretty decent graphics (while not IL-2 standards, they're not too shabby either!). One of the best, if not, the best community of helpful and dedicated fans.

...Are you sure you have the upgrades/patches working right?

>>...crap..<<

Could you be more specific?

She sure is pretty,but can she cook?
If graphics is your thing,stick with CFS2. You might want to try Open Plane WWI(a spinoff of FS SDOE)
However,nothing comes close to the accuracy of the modded FM's for RB. It's like really flying one of the old birds. Yank n' bankers beware!
As mentioned,the campaign engine is excellent.
Options are excellent.
The historical information available in the game is extensive.
The key mapping and viewing system is good.
Its expandability is unlimited.
In Glide,or with a Glide emulator it's almost photorealistic - you must be running in Direct Draw which does have graphic limitations.
Whether you like it or not is a matter of personal preference.
I originally also felt that it sucked but gave it another chance and I'm glad I did - all these others are a different flight sim modded to WWI,RB is a dedicated WWI flight sim. In CFS2/WWI for example,where was Jasta 10 on Feb 18,1917,what planes were being used and what was the pilot roster?
RB is not for everyone of course,but it would be a shame to shelve for the wrong reasons.

Yup, he probably isn't using Glide.

Did you get the openglide dll so you can actually run it in Glide 3D?

Did you go to graphics options and change the plane models to use "custom" textures?

If not you really are missing something

What-the S!
CFS2 is gathering dust. I have been almost exclusively IL-2 until recently when i read all the hype and gave RB3d a go.
I can't leave it alone now and I haven't played IL-2 for a week ( heresy:))
Load RB3d:
Download the Glidos patch and put them in the RB3d directory where the RB3d exe is. Then go into the "OpenGlid" ini file and amend the "TextureMemorySize=4" from 16 to 4, as here:
Load Promised Land superpatch - the one you can download:
Load Hell Angels patch, version 5 .
Then in the game preferences click Glide box and also Custom textures and
Off you go!!
You will like it I'm sure.

Yes...you are missing something...

Yes...some of the graphics look like crap, especially the cockpits which have always been ugly due to the limited resolution of the bitmaps. There have been cockpit enhancements made, but they have to be changed manually. I understand that the upcoming "Full Canvas Jacket" will have new cockpit artwork for the planes. You can always use "transparent cockpit" (Alt+T) if the jaggies are just too crappy for you to look at. I find that I am so focussed on what I am doing during a dogfight, that I really don't notice the interior cockpit artwork and it's jaggy wires.

Red Baron is the only sim that makes me involuntarily grin like Jack Nicolson in The Shining while I am flying. It's just so damn special...it's all about the flying and the fear and the exaltation and the blowing up and the smoking and the fire and the wounding and the maiming and the victory and the defeats...you can't even come close to this level of immersion in CFS2...ever.

If you can't access Transparent Cockpit, then you aren't running the sim in Glide and of course Red Baron looks crappy. You need either a Voodoo card or to use the Glidos Wrapper to run in Glide. In Direct Draw mode, although there are new DD terrains that look pretty good, Red Baron looks much better in "Windowed mode".

The Glide graphics look better with the Glidos Wrapper because you can use anti-aliasing and other types of filtering tweaks. Unless you are using Voodoo 4 or 5 anti-aliasing, you can't sweeten the jaggies with a Voodoo3 or Voodoo2 except by running in 1024 X 768 and even then it still looks better with the Glidos Wrapper. I run a couple of Voodoo2 cards linked together and I sacrifice a bit of visual quality (not much) so that I can keep my framerates in the upper 40's to lower 60's with full effects and prop animations. With Glidos, I average around 18 to 35 FPS without prop animations and I would need to use the smaller fire and smoke files rather the huge ones that were made for Voodoo Cards.

The simplest way to get a feel for how much fun you can have with Red Baron is to use "Fly Now", set your enemy planes to "elite or ace skill level", be fortunate to get on the tail of a Gotha without getting killed, while having a random enemy plane spawn every minute. Use limited ammo, one of the special AI-flyable authentic Flight Models (the stock ones don't cut it) and see how it goes.

There are endless possiblities even in Fly Now due to the dynamic engine of the sim. Nothing is exactly the same twice, even after years and years of generating situations. There is an Existential element to Red Baron gameplay that becomes more and more apparent with increased experience within the simulation.

>>Red Baron is the only sim that makes me involuntarily grin like Jack Nicolson in The Shining while I am flying. It's just so damn special...it's all about the flying and the fear and the exaltation and the blowing up and the smoking and the fire and the wounding and the maiming and the victory and the defeats...<<

Well spoken, sir! I know exactly what you mean!

I'm sure those other games on the floor next to my desk are wonderful. They all got the best reviews. But... well... they aren't Red Baron 3D.

The problem with opening lines like yours is that the smell rather trollish. Are you really interested or are you just expressing an opinion?

The previous posts all give good suggestions. More help can be had witha bit more info. If you are really interested then can you provide more information:
What patches are you using?
Are you running in Glide?
Which planes are you flying?

Given your initial post it seems that graphics are your biggest disappontment. I fly IL2 FB and IMHO the current state of the art graphics in RB, used in Glide, are not that bad, especially considering that we work with 256x256 bitmaps and usually less than 256 colors. As stated earlier, if you are flying in Direct Draw it will look nothing short of awful.

Hans,

I am running a v2 for glide use ( i have recently ditched a combination of 2 voodoo cards with dissimilar glide drivers in sli because there was a definite degrading of display. probably due to the "dissimilar" bit).

my question is this: i have noticed a slight "shimmering" in the textures of some landscape features, particualrly the towns at mid range and at acute angles (flying low). I am assuming that this is because the v2 can do no texture filtering for glide, do any of the extra settings (mipmap, triple buffering etc) help with this?

are the new texture less or more (or even the same) prone to this would u say?

cheers
Steve

Yes, unless you are running a Voodoo4 or 5, anti-aliasing is not available in Glide. The Glidos wrapper allows you to use any OpenGL graphic tweak that you can edit...all the bells and whistles...at a cost of framerates. A little anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing cleaned up the jaggies and the shimmers very nicely for me.

With the Voodoo2's, I don't really notice the shimmering except at very low altitude and even then, looking through my prop animation, the shimmer is very minimal. At medium to high altitude I have virtually no shimmering at all, it's amazingly smooth. With one v2 it's not as nice looking, the dual V2 setup really does make a huge difference. My V2's are faster and better looking than my V3.

I had trouble with my SLI setup for a while because I had disabled V-sync. SLI absolutely requires that V-sync is enabled so the cards are syncronized together. If you had two mis-matched cards, I can imagine what you were looking at...it's a miracle you even got them to work together at all.

I have noticed a bit more shimmer with the new terrains, but the stock ones for Glide are so weird and alien looking, I really haven't used them for 5 years.

YupYup, he probably isn't using Glide.

"am i missing something here?"
Yes, and it's your loss.....

>>rather trollish<<

Looks like you were right, Pat. I doubt he actually ever successfully added all the mods, as almost anyone will have a question or two along the way.

vK

"what the" --

Give it a real try before you decide. Try coming up with a decent player name while you are at it. It takes a while to learn the game (especially on-line) but it's definitely worth it.

I had a great time at PJ's server last night. I escorted Tiger on bombing sorties up north. The first time I intercepted Inco Ming who was defending. I got him as he was trying to kill Tiger in mid bomb run. After he respawned he got me, but Tiger got away. The result of the mission was one dead Hun, one dead escort and two dead targets claimed by Tiger, who even made it home in one piece.

On second sortie, we were intercepted by three Dr1s high over a target airdrome. I managed to distract them long enough for Tiger to slip away safely and go after a dump farther east. Playing cat and mouse for what seemed a very long time, I finally got into a great dogfight with four Huns. A very high D7 arrived eventually and kicked off the real confrontation. Fortunately a friendly blue and white Nieuport flown by one of the Mojos who was up last night arrived just as the pucker factor set in. I had to cut and run with a holed oilpan and never did learn the fate of the Arctic Angel pilot or how Tiger fared out East. I do know that I thoroughly enjoyed the entire evening, which is right up there with my fondest RB memories.

That swirling dogfight at 8,000 feet was like something out of the movie Hell's Angels, a reminder of why I never tire of this game.

All of the 3rd party add-ons that add WWI planes to non-WWI sims always lack a decent campaign, IMO.

Also, look at this thread and look at Kessler's screen shots of the upcoming "Full Canvas Jacket" add-on and tell me that it looks like crap.

If you were using the original terrain and plane graphics, or if you were playing in D3D without the Open Glide .dll, then it probably did look like crap.

ok thanks guys, im using the hells angels patch, and running on my voodoo 5 5500 in glide. im going to go home tonight and try some of the suggestions that have been made here..thankyou so much.

that is why i bought it...cause i read these posts and it sounded great- far from what it appears to me after i install and patch it that's for sure...

BTW all those rude enough to tell me to go and find a new player name and slurr me with incompetence, go and read my profile and ask yourself if ive been arounjd long enough to at least deserve some level of decency, and also benefit of doubt. ive made hundreds of posts here at simhq, and 400 posts prior to changing my name in the board format that occurred late last year...that puts me at near 1000 posts since 2001. so dont patronise me, i was merely asking for a heads up. a big ras[pberry to those who dont have the ettiquette and a great deal of respect for those who actually tried to help.

Heheh... it is a strange handle you must admit, welcome to RB what_the? just ask away with the questions, always an RB'er willing to help.


heres a sop tripe peace offering fer ya :^D