Hi guys, there is a new movie and screenshots posted on our website of OFF2
and a special "reveal" in there

Hope you enjoy.

[Edit] Now embedded;




BTW if any of you are trying to get to our CA forums they appear to be down at the moment...

Oh quick edit.. Link to our site is below in my signature as usual, or in case you have those disabled on here
http://www.overflandersfields.com

See the news section on the main page.

There seems to be a glitch for me viewing the 1080HD version - it doesn't seem to change unless I first select 720HD then selct 100 after that. Just a heads up..

WOW!! AWESOME!
Can't wait to play it and it's great to see that probably the "biggest drawback" of OFF which is damage models will be address in this latest variant! The combats shown on the video where EPIC!

There is only one thing that I'm not sure I like it which is the new name: Currently there's lots of "Wings over/of..." and these sort of names are becoming a bit repetitive. Personally I prefer the "OFF2" name but in the end this is only my personal preference...

I do have one question: Is multiplayer being improved? Please tell me yes, there are so FEW IMMERSIVE sims that can be played in Co-op multiplayer (for me currently the only immersive co-op playable combat flight sim is Falcon 4) and it would be EPIC to play this jewel which will be OFF2/WOFF in multiplayer (specially in co-op but not only).

Very nice! I am looking forward to this release.

The name is okay with me. I'm just thankful they didn't use "Knights" or "Canvas" or "Chivalrous" anywhere in the title!

Thanks guys, we like it a lot and it made the most sense the name basically combined with our main name. Also it had to be short and combined with our Over Flanders Fields it encompasses WW1 over the mud and the huge struggle to survive and develop these new "wings".


MP we won't be doing much more for this time ricnunes, we are such tiny numbers in a dev team that it's impossible to do everything all at once but who knows for later. Heck we have taken long enough doing this !

Ok, thanks for the reply.

Petty about the MP but I hope that at least it still works on it's current form.

Looks superb, can't wait to give her a whirl

Looks and sounds fantastic!

Wow! Looks mighty impressive!

So many things to talk about from that video.

Am I mistaken or does it appear that external views have been improved? That has always been one pet peeve of mine in OFF (probably really CFS3) actually. While you can rotate an external view of your own plane, your external views of other objects were always limited in that the object you wanted to view was in the foreground with your plane in the background. You could not rotate or even tilt the camera around the object of view (At least I believe it so, I never figured out a way to do it if you can!). Perhaps this was all very precise editing for the video and its unchanged, but it sure looked like there might be a true *floating* external view now.

I LOVE how the planes no longer immediately disappear when they impact into the ground. That is a great addition.

I detected several improved sound effects, not least of all a great new staccato mg sound at around the 5:08 mark. I did all the sounds effects and foley work for 4 different Combat Mission games (and many other games as well). Trust me, I know what a pain in the <bleep> getting the weapon sounds just right can be!

Speaking of sounds, my kudos to Matt on his impressive new music. That's another thing that is usually overlooked in games and once more Mr. Milne really delivers. Very Hans Zimmerman in tone and texture, but it stands on it's own merits. Haunting and not easily forgotten. A perfect set piece of music!

Anyway, brilliant job gentlemen. I can't wait for the day this mighty work of art is unleashed on us unworthy lot!

Take care all!

Madmatt

The new damage models and wreckages are a great addition to the sim!

There are also new screenshots? Damn, missed that - must have a look.

As for the name - you could have let "Over Flanders Fields" remain
as a standalone brand name - it is already a famous brand.
SONY wouldn't call themselves HIFI-SONY suddenly?
"Over Flanders Fields II" or such would have been enough IMHO.

But whatever you do to the name - I'll buy it anyway.
(Rushes OFF to see the new screenshots...)

One word... Superb.
About the name, I too prefer just Over Flanders Fields. But that's a detail.

Fantastic. Hope it arrives in time for Christmas! Loved the new fire effect, really looked like wood and canvas was burning!

Christmas?
I was hoping a little earlier...
Fantastic work on the damage modelling!

Hey Elephant, what happen to the combat ace forum ? Thanks

I don't really know!
I've lost them for two days, now...

Looks like another hackattack to me.
Had it been maintenance, they would have announced it.

My sincerest congrats to Polovski and crew. THE MUSIC! YOU DID IT! The music is fantastically inspirational. It is critical - to me - for immersion. The first preview had such flat and uninspiring music. I was so disappointed, because the music in Phase 3 is so awesome. I didn't think you could hit such a high baragain. But by jove, you did it! What superb music! Can't believe no one else noticed the outstanding music.

Thanks for the nice preview, seems that the crash landing instant death has been adressed , but what about the everlasting flamers ?

Off to work so I'll post my comments about the new preview video when I get back.

I must say that for the name I was pushing for something like:

"Canvased Winged Knights Rise for the Glory of Dawn Patroll".

You know, something that hadn't been already overused.

The DM modelling and code has been completely overhauled and replaced, flying flamers, although reduced in P3, were a problem in the native CFS3 damage code.

Now in WOFF the craft will burn and then slowly disintegrate over time as the flames spread to critical components.
The fire essentially spreads and causes critical failures in components such as wing spars etc - hence the break up.

We hope to show a lot more of the new DM in action in the coming weeks.

The CFS3 instant death was also a hard code issue and yes also overhauled.
You can now stay in sim after crashing and watch events around you.

HTH

WM

Brilliant vid,

Even better than the first.

As for the name - what's in
a name...

I'm a refugee from CA, cheers
SimHQ, this looks like a great
place.

PS. Polovski, have ordered the
ivibe kit, keep you posted.

Plainsman, you are absolutely right about the music.
It was again composed by Matt Milne, who also did the score for "Between Heaven and Hell".
The music definitely IS a very strong point in OFF.
The music for the first preview movie seemed to be kind of interludes; little parts,
which would play inbetween the menues, I guess. Now we heard some of the main music,
and I must also say: Matt, you haven't lost it!
I was very anxious, if the new music would be able to keep up with the previously set high
standard, but now I hear: yes, it can!

My favorite part of the movie, among many others...
at 3.24: the Parasol flying over that ruined town-village,
with Matt's ringing bells part.
Powerful moment!
Great work by everyone involved in the development of WOOF!

PS I saw the new Albatros skins with a dubious dark violet rib taping on the lozenge wings???
I have seen the lavender rib tapes that were discovered in the Australian War Museum Albatros, restoration project.
The usual colour used by the Johannisthal Werke for rib tapes was salmon pink... never heard of dark violet!

Also, if any of the D.V-D.Va skinners is listening, the tape trimming on the control surfaces of the Albatros is wrong!

Sorry, but the Albatos D family, is my passion!

Hello,

Yes, the music is good, certainly--although I admit I turn it off in sims. I'm a musician, too. But, for me, airplane engines are music; I don't want to hear songs when flying or about to. Although, I'm glad that for everybody who enjoys music with their sims (which seems to be everyone but me!) this music goes over well with them. Just another excellent selling point.

Now, to really important stuff, future DLC:



You're getting sleepy, Devs...





Veeeerrrry sleeepppyyyy...





Anyway, sorry for the hijack. Preview movie was great, so were the screens. Thanks for both!

You are such a teaser Jim!

elephant, the rib tape might be salmon, in the light of dawn or dusk?

But if there were ribtapes on the ailerons, they are definitely wrong there,
as can be seen very well on the "Vintage Aviator" Albatros here:

http://thevintageaviator.co.nz/node/4854

But now I hop over again and continue my drooling with another review!

JFM, those are brilliant Albatros D.I photos you posted there - thanks a lot!

But I wonder, what you mean by "listening to music during flying"???
No one here is doing that???
There is a main theme when you start OFF, and there are Menue Musics, while
you are in the menues, but once you "go to field", the music stops.

Music during flying - tch! ...

Hey, Olham,

I mean in all sims. I've had some sims with music that come on during flight. In all of them I immediately disable music and/or turn the volume off, even in menu topics, etc. If I'm able to, of course. Otherwise, I just deal with it (although that makes it sound as if it's a chore; it isn't). I guess I'm odd. Music is recreational to me, a chance to be unencumbered and carefree, although I recognize the dichotomy that sims are recreational and that I've had many carefree moments while flying real planes. Still, I never wanted to bring too much recreation into the cockpit. I know guys who installed CD players in their planes; I could never do that, probably because music is way too powerfully distracting for me. Still, I never wear shorts when flying, either; shorts to me are too recreational. Likely a psychological thing with me, but I've always obeyed.

I wrote this track specifically for the trailers. It's got a pulsing rhythm and bass that's better suited to videos. Trailer tracks are a great opportunity to write something fun.

It's a perfect haunting theme for a trailer.
IMO, at the level of a Hanz Zimmer's pieces.
OBD is very luck to have Matt as the music composer.

Music does not play during flight anyway.
All Matt's great music is for manager menus and movies etc

JIM, I know better what you mean, than you may think.
Music is the direct connection with my emotional me - with no filters inbetween.
I can get totally "lost" in some pieces, without ever feeling lost.
And I sure would not listen to music in a cockpit of a plane -
here I would want my concentration on my vision - on all I can catch with my eyes.

In films, the music can often bring the emotions to even higher peaks than the pictures
alone ever could. In "Over Flanders Fields", Matt Milne's opening title, and his
"menue music" both brought me back in time about 90 years, when I didn't even know
anything much about the air war over Flanders.
And the music transported a respectful encounter with all those fallen men, and those
who lived to tell the stories - without taking sides, but very serious and honouring.
I guess my English is not good enough to find even better words.

For above reasons, the musical score of "Over Flanders Fields" belongs to the sim.
It puts me in a flying suit; it wipes the arrogance off my goggled face, and
it makes me feel respect and pity for those I send down. No less.
Talk about power of music...

That is some incredible news WM. The idea that the planes will slowly disintegrate due to the spreading of the flames and then critical components give way is far beyond what I thought could ever be done with OFF. Watching planes fall from the sky like this will just be one more thing that keeps it all so immersive. I love the way they crash land now too. A dirt pile gets scattered about and the damaged plane itself remains. Truly fabulous!

I must also say that the more I watch the FM in action, the more impressed I become with it. Someone has done some incredible work getting the "feel" of flight down perfect. Just watching them bank and turn looks more realistic than ever.

The ground war is obviously heating up nicely as well. Not only are there more things down there, they all appear to have tons of "little touches" that just add that much more to the immersion. It looked to me like the trenches themselves had been redone too. Great job!

I know people are always joking about "two weeks" and how long they have waited. But when I watch the video and see all that you have put into it, and knowing that there is so much more that we haven't seen yet, to me it's hard to believe that such a small team could have gotten so much accomplished already working in their spare time. It is clear that what you guys lack in numbers you make up for with a passion to detail.

Thanks for all of your hard work and taking the time to post another preview movie for us. I hope to have my hard earned cash in your wallets soon.

Hellshade

Damn, I had overlooked all this so far, and what can I say - I can only ditto all that Hellshade said!

Every time I watch the Preview #1 and Preview #2 of WOOF I really get excited. This thread is fantastic because each of us catches something different. I have to go back and investigate again and again what has been observed and reported for myself. Marvelous job, Devs!!!

I don't believe I have gotten this stirred up since I installed OvS's Hell's Angels Mod for RB3D back in the day...


Must I try to control my emotions for another two weeks?


Not to change the subject...But...What has happened to my beloved CombatACE OFF forum? Or for that matter, where has the entire domain gone?
I can PING the IP address of the domain but the Tracert times-out from my location after 9 hops at a RoadRunner backbone router. Has anyone tried to contact Alex Aguila, the domain admin? Could this be one of those dreaded DDoS hacker attacks?

You know "Seven days with out our OFF Forum makes one Weak!"

OlPaint

Looking forward to all of it! And let me be clear, my stated music preference was in no way meant to diminish the quality of the piece. Don't think it was taken that way, but better to be 100% sure. I think it's very well done and miles ahead of what I've heard in most sims.

You are a better human than I, Olham! My goal is to find planes--preferably damaged stragglers--sneak up on them or pounce on them and then hammer them into a flaming descent before they have a chance to even attempt to maneuver away. The only pity I feel is for me when I can't see them impact the earth. Which I'll want to see even more now, thanks to the new crash wreckage!

JFM, your post should have ended with a sinister "Mmuahahahahahaaaaa!!!!"

We are working on a solution - hang in there...

WM

I had to create a SimHQ account just so I could chime in on this. Fantastic work gentlemen!

The music by Matt Milne is haunting and epic - the perfect flavor for this sim. I really like the disintegrating fuselage effect on a burning plane. The damage models are looking very realistic and the fact that you can view a plane after it has crashed is a great new feature. There is much more but I would be here all day listing all the things I liked.

I just want to thank the whole OFF team for all your hard work and I really look forward to the release exactly 2 weeks from now.

Shiloh

Yes, thanks for that addition, Olham! Although, too frequently it is my wreckage that is gazed upon by someone else!

"Mmuahahahahahahaaaaaa!!!!!"

Those new wreckages are a really important addition to the immersion, definitely.
And I guess they won't disappear after short time, like in they do in some sims ?

I sit and listen to the music for Between Heaven and Hell for HOURS! It gets me very inspired! This new music will also get me pumped up and immersed in the world of WWI. Matt, you are a genius!!!

Ramblingsid -thanks for the comments. Let me know re the ivibe

Olham - yes the damaged craft stay there.

Nice to see familiar faces.

I can honestly say that I
didn't really notice the music
(sorry Matt), I was too engrossed
in the movie. WOFF is going to be
so damn good.

Hey, now I have an excuse to watch
it again.

Oh btw I also posted a link to the movie in the "Screenshot & Video Gallery" forum:
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3575213/
You guys can post screenshots there too and cross post back to here or vice versa too if you like.

The "Screenshot & Video Gallery" forum is: http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/forums/1/1/Screenshot_Video_Gallery.html

There is also an area for "After Action Reports" for any sim http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/category/1/SimHQ_Community.html
Again you can post links in here to there or whatever if you post.

Did anyone else notice that in the new DM, the parts of the wings and such that have had the canvas torn away are not mere decals but rather you can actually see right through the holes into the scenery below, etc? I forgot to mention that in my previous post. A very nice step forward indeed for the DM and for immersion in general!

As for the name, I must admit that it's nice but believe it or not, I prefer "Over Flanders Fields 2" also. If for no other reason than you could name the first expansion "Weaponized Aerial Recon". Then we'd have "OFF 2 WAR".

Hellshade

great, that's what's supposed to happen. It's there to explain what's going on, if you understand what you're seeing, it's done its job. music is a bit like lighting, it affects what you're seeing, but you don't notice it unless you specifically look for it.

Hi Mat,

yes, it's very nice work.

I used to have the music off in P3.
But I turned it back on again because
I found it made a difference.

Cheers

Fantastic.

Pol, Winder, and crew:

This honestly looks stunning! I don't know how on earth you've managed to extract so much detail, texture quality, and fidelity from this aging graphics engine but you have. The atmosphere, the quality of the aircraft both inside and out, and the look and feel of the new sim are just staggering. Planes no longer seem to be moving through the air - rather they seem to be floating on it as they do in real life. The movement of the planes when dogfighting just look right - like something out of an airshow or some rare WWI footage. And Matt's score is just staggering! I haven't heard such an evocative soundtrack in a long time - really great stuff.

I just hope my 4 year old gaming rig will be able to run it! Cheers guys and keep the previews coming.

Well I think that the CFS3 engine (and all other flight simulator engines from ACES/Microsoft) are extremely underated since IMO these engines are between best flight engines ever made because they have a combo of capabilities such as "total moddability", excelent physics, good flight models, excelent graphics, very large maps, multiplayer and as far as I remember there's NO other flight sim engine that has all these capabilities together in a "single package".
Unfortunally Microsoft sims "stock" content usually comes in a very "uncompleted" state (Modded stuff is usually much better than Stock ones) and this is IMO the reason why people trend to think that the Microsoft sim engines such as the CFS3 engines are "limited". It's just like ACES/Microsoft spent 95% of the time developing the engine and only 5% developing the rest of the content, this seems specially to be the case regarding CFS3.

For example I noticed that in the case of RoF, their devs are going to change/update in the next patch/update so that the RoF engine will be capable to handle seaplanes, a capability that CFS3 always had since "day one"! For example and I remeber that OFF Phase 1 and 2 already had a seaplane.

Here, here!!! Well said, Olham! I could not agree more. This is something missing from the Russian build sims (DCS, IL2, etc.). Technically excellent but lacking immersion. Lacking...a soul. OFF has it, and now WOFF.

.



Holy Schnikee!

Love the vid Pol.

Got me thinking about the vewpoints you managed, which is deceptively difficult with CFS3. People who haven't tried don't know how hard it is to capture footage in CFS3 land. You have to do everything manually, there's only ever one take and there's no such thing as a multiple viewpoint. For every Mb you see in a movie, you can be sure there's a Gb left on the cutting room floor. - And I mean Gigs of it!

I love Matt's music too. To me, it's as good and as appropriate to the mood of OFF as any music score I've ever heard to a movie. Yet again, I used to make a few CFS3 movies for youtube, but not many OFF movies because the sound just wasn't 'doing it' for me. I don't mean the OFF sound, but trying to find 'fitting' music. One of the reasons I like that Boys of 60 movie is the pipes playing in the background which wasn't added soundtrack but one of Stumpjumpers addons.

It was one of the challenges in scoring woff. Too cheesy, corny and cliched and it becomes downright disrespectful very quickly, too atmospheric or percussive and it sucks the life out of it leaving the player unsupported.
The custom track partially solved those problems for the trailers, and helps the editing a bit.

New video looks sharp and I like the new name WOFF. Short, simple, and keeps the original OFF in the title. Besides, it sounds just like the noise my dog makes when he barks (he barks with a lisp mind you).

Thanks for the comment guys, btw I updated the first movie (preview 1#) there's a couple of extra clips in there now - it's below this one on our news page.

Quite right Flyby I film all the time, so have hard drives full of vid but we update things all the time so I have to ignore a lot of it as it's now "old" even the 2 week old stuff

Hi Matt. As a classically-trained but amateur composer, I'm curious if any historical music of the time period had any influence on your scoring. We're used to anachronistic music in movies and such, but audiences from say 1914 would probably freak out at your trailer tune.

Interesting thing is you can almost hear WW1 in some of the music just prior, as if some composers could see it coming. Arnold Schoenberg's Three Piano Pieces (op 11) from 1909 and their emancipation of dissonance is a perfect example.

i'm hoping to create a separate thread on the score and how it was put together post-release.
but in short, I wrote the whole thing from one screenshot. As a rule of thumb, you should always score what's in front of you from what's in front of you.

Art reflects the period in which she's created. The world was changing fast politically, economically, morally, technologically and scientifically. It's the end of Romanticism, the beginning of a new era.
Everything seemed to plot in favor of a apocalyptic event like WWI, that I'm sure a lot of artists sensed that. It's also true, that it's in these periods that usually the artistic "grammars" are rewritten.

I very much look forward to that thread, Matt.

Idea for the new intro video for WOFF:

When the cat meouws from the grammophone, the dog could turn it's head
and make: "WOFF!"

Thats a good one!

or.....

JUST RELEASE THE GAME!

Well-put, VP. And I'm really looking forward to that music postmortem.

Hello,

About the Albatros Dv´s. The Rib tape colors i have seen different version. The tapes color ofcoursce depends from the light. The dusk in the movie the tape looks quite dark.

The ailerons and elevator are not taped.

Cheers

Arto

Thanks for the answer and clarification, Paarma.
Could you please share your info on the rib tape colours?

As I said in my original post, I know (speaking for Johannisthal variants) about salmon pink and I have seen lavender,
discovered at the Australian War Museum Restoration research.
Also the rudders didn't have taping.
Here is an OAW example, but tapeless anyway...

Since the "rib tape" had to be applied on the Lozenge fabric, I guess they would have used
one colour from the Lozenge pattern. Why else should anyone make pink rib tapes?

So I bet, you'd find the salmon, the blue and the lavander were all colours from Lozenge.

those model kit sheets are invaluable. my hobby is designing and making computer games, and I find these sheets really helpful when it comes to texturing. Most companies will have scale drawings too which helps with building the models.
Of course different companies have a different take on each one, and it's impossible to find accurate information, even from war records. If you go to two museums and look at the same plane with the same paint scheme, they'll look different.

Well, I think this Halberstadt is still original Lozenge (although I don't say I'm sure).
Note: the ribtape is made of Lozenge fabric here.

Not the case for Albatros though Olham...

The lozenge and rib tapes are based on the replica dva of Josef Mai. Also i compared different profiles. Here is also good resource for colors: http://www.wwi-models.org/misc/Colors/index.html. I also need the worn-out a bit the colors and tweak the colors fit to enviroment in sim. Cant use the exact colors in the simulator because those looks useally too bright.

I dont remember where i got the idea of rib tape the edges of rudder. Need to look it again.

Cheers

Arto

I know this site, Paarma, but thanks anyway.
Check this out:

http://www.awm.gov.au/blog/2008/04/11/albatros-fabric-research/

IMHO, TVAL's representation of Mai's plane is dubious...
They used light blue tape (and only on the upper surfaces...why?),
obviously because in the b/w photo of the original plane the taping looks bright,
as light blue appears in orthochromatic film. (but light blue ribbons were used by OAW).
Mai's machine was Johannisthal made. (Johannisthal used salmon that photographs dark in orthochromatic).

1. We don't know for sure, the kind of film that was used in that vintage photo shoot. (panchromatic or orthochromatic).
2. As the the fabric research of the Australian War Museum discovered,
lavender coloured tapes could have well be used by Johhanisthal Werke along with the standard salmon pink.
(lavender=light purple, also photographs light in orthohromatic film).




Just my thoughts...

elephant, I KNOW that it is not the case for Albatros.
You should know that I know it, from many previous posts between us.
I posted the Halberstadt, because Matt doubted the colour chart I had sent before.
The Halberstadt MIGHT show the right Lozenge colours.

I only made an additional note for the Lozenge ribtape,
because I had never seen it this way anywhere before.

Apologies, I just couldn't see the relevance...
The colours of the lozenge fabric are more or less known from fragments.
The real mystery is the green-mauve combination...
I'm still dizzy from our last conversation on that matter...

OK best take this conversation out of the movie preview thread I think thanks guys.

Just seen this latest movie.. brilliant!
I know I'm going to be a convert to this

OK, so it's the best preview of a sim I've ever seen, and well, OK, the action looks spectacular. I quite liked the music, having just been subjected to my daughter's latest ....stuff. And, well, now that POL, WINDING MAN, and the rest of the DEV'S have cobbled this together, what on earth will they do for an encore?

Do these poor guys have anything left...?

I certainly feel privileged to be a part of this, and you know, my new NVIDIA 560 OEM overclocked video card might come in handy

Cheers,

Britisheh

Saw it again today - it works well in full screen (with the highest YouTube resolution).
I only noticed it was a video, when my stick wouldn't react on any of the craft.

- Matt Milne seems to have written more parts for WOFF, as this movie reveals.
The man has the right heart and hands for writing the perfect emotional tunes for the most immersive air combat sim.

- No man's land: the burning truck, the advancing tanks (did they ever do that before?). The ground battle scene is looking very realistic.

- In the Camel cockpit even an energy-fighter like me would feel fine now - only thing missing is a coffee machine - stunning, brilliant art work!

- Through the added detail, the Camel as well as the Dr.1 don't appear like midgets no more - they now look like dangerous combat craft.

- The FE2b now also looks bigger - like a real two-seat fighter and bomber - very impressive.
It pays to stop the movie, when you come to the struts and rigging of the Fee - great job!

- The new AI is fabulous. The split attack of the Albs. Really outstanding: one pilot of a flight circling to check the lower six - finding enemies -
this is sooooo lovely! (I know "lovely" doesn't seem to fit here, but it IS lovely to see this!)

Olham did you mean to put this on the preview #3 thread ? There are some vids showing the cockpit of the Albatros fighters - or at least showing parts of it including the whole forward section being new in view, windshield, gun, sights, ammo, radiator etc. For sure it's updated too.

Pol, I have watched the previous "Preview Movies" again, and there were better impressions
of the new Albatros. It doesn't appear so well in the latest video, but I saw what you mean.
I deleted the line, cause it wasn't appropriate - sorry.