Well I am back in the game! Stock single player RB3D except for dgvoodoo the Promise land Control Panel and Garps flame out patch which I can't live without. I know it's working because the very first trial run in Fly Now I got a flame out kill!

I am not sure if I am using the latest or best Glide wrapper. It's dgvoodoo 1.50 and the author says it is still in beta. Seems to be working fairly well but I notice some tearing especially when I pan the camera in cockpit view, there will be tearing in the sky and airplane wings.

Thanks to Skid and the sticky install guide, it got me up and running in a snap.

Okay I used the FCJ Control Panel and bumped up the resolution to 1080x1024. That cleared everything right up, no more tearing and the game looks great.

I joined the British 46 Squadron flying Sopwith Camels in 1918. That is the Squadron Yeates was part of and that his novel Winged Victory is about. Our first mission is attacking an aerodrome and I have yet to complete it alive. I was home free this last time but I got greedy and went after a German balloon. The ground fire that erupted as I drew in for the kill took me out and I crashed into the balloon. I busted my prop, cracked my struts, and fell to the ground in one piece. I saw the balloon go down in flames too.

What a great combat flight sim! There is nothing else remotely like it. My patrol and I got in a tussle with some German 2 seaters after the attack and I took one of them out. But I lost a lot of altitude chasing him down for the confirmed kill and I was never able to regroup with my squad so I had to head home alone. I saw that balloon off in the distance as I was crossing No Man's Land and thought that's German, so I went after it. But just like Yeate's novel says, Hun land is full of machineguns and they did me in.

I too have just reinstalled with ROTJ. This game sucks me in like no other

Talk about historically accurate, I finished reading Winged Victory a novel based on the authors experience flying with the 46 Squadron so I thought I would join it. The game not only has the Squadron but the actual Camels they flew! That shows Dynamix did some research for this game, no?

Now go track down Goshawk Squadron by Derek Robinson

Yea Amazon has some good reviews about Goshawk I have been meaning to check that one out. I also read a couple of technical books about WW1 air combat by Leon Bennett, Three Wings for the Red Baron and Gunning for the Red Baron.

Another MUST have book is No Parachute by Arther Gould Lee. He was also with 46 Squadron. http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/england/lee.php

Also check out this thread http://www.simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2241962&fpart=1

Remaining stock, I would suggest to install Hell's Angels Gold II to improve game graphics and sound:

http://www.hellsangels.firstflare.com/patch/hag.rar

From same site download and install the OTE/PL combo to improve terrain and ground objects:

http://www.hellsangels.firstflare.com/scenery/3dpatchOTE.zip

then you can update flight and damage model by:

http://vonoben.free.fr/download.php?file=144

At this point you must only take care to avoid Stendhal syndrome...

Have fun!
GB

I have HA on a disk same with FCJ. I have always had serious frame rate issues by playing modded RB3D. Even the simple early mods that improved the planes and terrain would cost me in frame rates. I dunno what it is because many seem to do fine with them.

So I generally play the stock game in Glide. I can get anywhere from over 100 flying in f1 view looking at a blank sky to the low 30's if there are a handful of planes on screen, but very rarely will they drop into the teens and never single digits. I have to have smooth action flying this sim and the only way I seem to get that in a consistent fashion is playing stock.

I have probably upgraded my PC 6 times or more since I first flew this sim and each time I thought, this card will run the game no problem, or this extra ram will make all the difference. But every time my computer has struggled when there is a lot of action on screen.

Finally now with a dual core 4200 processor 2 gigs of ram and an ATI 1900XT I can run the game like I dreamed it should, but only if I play stock. Even now if I mod RB3D the game will chug when things get hot and heavy. Even the stock game slows down, but it is bearable.

Holy Cow! I tried another install of RB3D using a different Glide wrapper and the game runs twice as fast. It's the one on Von Helton's ROTJ webe site, Gabi's Glide 256. This wrapper is so efficient it makes the stock game run too fast, the planes move like they are equipped with powerful high compression 12 cylinder powerplants or jet engines! Also all the colors display deeper and richer looking than dgvoodoo, which is nice. I will have to mod this version of the game to slow things down. Fraps is showing over 200 FPS in places.