A full scale St. Omer for WOFF UE - Finished version now available

.

Greetings All,

For those of you who thought my Farnborough project was madness, well, allow me to quote Bachman-Turner Overdrive: "You ain't seen nothing yet!"

Home between road trips and armed with a plethora of information and photos provided by Shredward, (many thanks Sir), I burnt the midnight oil and have put together the bones of the place. In order to create the "Spiritual Home of the RFC" in WOFF UE it will require seven separate facilities, (Farnborough only took three for those of you keeping score). I have to say that the stars aligned for me in terms of how the whole affair fit into the landscape. I was able to connect up with existing roads with nearly zero adjustments from how things were in the RL St. Omer complex. Here is a screenie showing the skeleton I have thus far, and as a point of reference those are seven Harry Tates lined up in the middle of the racetrack:

(right-click on image and open in new window to view it full size)



And here is one of the contemporary photos I am using as a primary source for this project:



To say there is a lot of work left on this would be the "Understatement Supreme" but I am pleased with how the thing lays out. I will have to let it sit though for the next few days as I am travelling again to another conference. But I will be back at it on Sunday.

Cheers All!

Lou

.

Charge on "DUDE"! Looking forward to the next Dayton WW1 event with you and all of the "gang".

The "Old Geezer"

Your airfield mods are brilliant Lou. They add an extra immersion level into this great sim.
Thank you for this

Lou;

You are a serious glutton for punishment, what with this new drome and the airfield relocation project, not to mention family time and RL issues. How you find time to even read your books is a miracle.

Best Regards

.

Don't forget about Havrincourt Wood Robert, I still have that one to wrap up too.

Thanks all for the kudos and encouragement, they are much appreciated.

.

Wow, Lou. You're like a Tolkien, only instead of inventing a Middle Earth, you're working on 1916 France! Hats off to you, sir.

You never cease to amaze me with your dedication to this sim Lou.

.

Tolkien? High praise there Raine, hope I can live up to it.

ArisFuser, nice to know I can still amaze.

Thanks again Gents.

.

my mouse died trying to keep up with the volumes off mods coming out these last few months

Geez Lederhosen, find it a mate and you will be up to your ying yang in mice, as you know they are very very prolific!

Much appreciation, Lou. I can't wait to crash land there!

Great project Lou. The RFC's spiritual home indeed.

I have this in my collection labelled 'St. Omer Oblique 1918. You may already have it, it may have been mis-labelled but if it's accurate, it may be useful...

You are still able to amaze Lou I do not know how you do it. Thanks for all your hard work.

Are you a human been, Lou? Sorry, but I have little doubts .
Thx for your endless work, Sir.

.

Thanks for the continued support and encouragement folks, much appreciated. And thank you Dej for the photo, while I did already have a copy of that one please keep sending anything you have on St. Omer as you never know what I might be missing.

I got home yesterday and had a few hours to get some of the nuts and bolts of the place sorted out. Here are several shots showing St. Omer as of this morning:

(right-click on an image and open it in a new window to view it full size)

A bird's eye view towards the southeast.



The various squadron hangars.



Looking down the field towards the Aircraft Depot.


I'll be getting back to this on Saturday after this week's work trip, much as I wish it could be sooner.

Later all.

.

Lou;

you have come a long way in such a short time! You must have a team of gremlins prepping things for you!

.

Greetings All,

I was able to work on St. Omer for about eight hours this morning. Here's a teaser showing the progress as of lunchtime:

(right-click on image and open in new window to view it full size)


The place is monstrously big.

.

Wow looks great Lou,its a fair size field aint it,best of luck on your continued work

Wow, Lou! This is looking amazing!

I am continually astonished at the passion and ability of the community here. St. Omer looks so real at this point you could use WOFF as an educational tool about WWI in the air!

Cheers!

I approve of this kind of madness. Keep it up, Lou!

.

Many thanks Hasse, CaptSopwith, and Adger, glad you like it so far. I've spent this AM working on the Aircraft Depot getting it populated a bit, also tweaking the landscape textures for it and fitting things into the surrounding terrain. Here's a shot showing a late-morning flight of eleven Harry Tates coming in over the Depot to land:

(right-click on image and open in new window to view it full size)


Now I'm off for a walk as the weather here in Minnesota is beautiful for February, sunny and nearly 40F.

Later all.

.

Lou;

That's looking very nice! So much done with so little time!

A wonderful new target for marauding Gothas
Cheers
Shredward

Looking fantastic.

Wow Lou, this is amazing!! Great job. I'm always looking forward to your screenshots of the present and upcoming projects!

Glad I've finally learned JGSME! What a piece of work!

+1

Thx Lou, great work, as usually!

.

Hi Folks,

Last week was another one spent on the road for me but I did have some free time this weekend while I was home to chip away at this project. I worked on the area on the northerly side of the place, planting many trees, setting buildings, and filling in the landscape textures. Here are a few attached images showing how it all looks right now.

(right-click on an image and open it in a new window to view it full size)


A flight of eleven Harry Tates lifting off from St. Omer.


A view of the area I worked on this weekend, looking towards the west.


A view of the same area, looking towards the east.


Dropping in over the depot to land.


Looking towards the north, again at the area I was working on.


Back on the field safe and sound.

I am travelling again all week but hope to have time Saturday to get back to things on St. Omer.

Later!

Lou

.

It's looking rather Grandiose Lou!

That looks GREAT Lou.

Beard

.

Thanks Gents, glad it's looking good to you.

As several folks so far have asked me why I've taken on this project, seeing as how we already have St. Omer in the sim, I am providing a comparison to better illustrate my reasons. While Winding Man caught the flavor of the RL St. Omer the scale is simply wrong due to the fact that he attempted to contain it in two facility files. Because this aerodrome is so iconic and mentioned in countless contemporary writings I felt we should have one in WOFF UE that is more historically accurate and properly sized so that flights can actually take off and land inside the old town racetrack, (as they did back in the day).



Hope this helps better explain to those wondering just why I took this one on.

Cheers!

Lou

.

Very nice and very historic Lou. This will be a great addition to the fabulous world of WOFF UE. you skills on eye for detail is most remarkable. I am glad you choose to mod the best flight sim out there. You sir are only adding to your already substantial Laurels.

Looks great !......even more stuff for me to accidentally fly into......

wow, super work

.

Greetings All and thanks for the ongoing kudos and support on this project, much appreciated. Work continues and I will soon be at the point where I will need some beta testers to try out this mod on their systems. Those interested should send me a PM and I will get you the needed files as soon as they are ready. Attached is a screenie showing the latest progress.



Thanks again folks, and let me know if you're interested in testing out St. Omer.

Cheers!

Lou

.

Lou

I would love to test this out as an integration into my combined airfields mod to see if there are any negative impacts. No rush though.
PM me when you think you have your final version.

Cheers mate.

RAF:
Who is going to "populate" it ???

.

I was rather hoping you would PR while folks are giving it a beta test and while I am building the winter textures for it.

.

Just send it to me and I will gladly "populate" it for you.

.

Thanks PR, when I have the beta ready I will send it to you and Robert both.

.

Lou and PR

I will wait for PR to finish the population before I test the impact. Thanks Guys!

Looking very good, Lou. If you are looking for someone with a low-end video card to test it out, I'm your man!

.

Thanks BuckeyeBob, I will be sure and provide you the files when they are ready and you can give it a go.

I have just sent along the beta download to Panama Red and once he has worked his magic I will offer up a fully populated beta version so that folks can see how it works on their systems. So far on mine it runs quite smoothly, even in the summer of 1918, provided you allow everything a few moments to initially load when you are first on the field. As most do here I pop out of the cockpit and pan around a few times and that seems to do the trick for the reminder of the sortie.

.

.

As I get closer to having the beta version of this mod ready for folks to try out I thought a brief description of how you could make use of it in your various RFC/RNAS/RAF campaigns might be helpful. While there are a good many squadrons that will be posted to fly from St. Omer during the war, you can still enjoy the place even if you are not currently assigned to operate from it, and here's how. When you are allocated a new aircraft during the course of one of your British careers in WOFF you could choose, either via JJJ65's outstanding Mission Editor or by Quick Combat, to nurse one of your squadron's old clapped-out planes to St. Omer and pick up your spiffing new one to fly back home with. If you choose to do this and upon your approach to the Aircraft Depot you will want to be sure to land, and later take off, from the proper end of the complex or you will, in all likelihood, receive a severe dressing down from the Operations Officer or any number of brass hats who might be milling about and witness your rhubarb. The attached diagram should aid in providing you a better understanding of the facility's layout and thus minimize the possibility of you looking like a half-witted fledgling when you arrive.

(right-click on image and open in new window to view it full size)


Hope to have the beta version, sans winter textures, available to you all by sometime this weekend, Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise.

Cheers!

Lou

.

Thanks Lou for the operational protocol. I suspect we should include such knowledge with the mod Readme file.

Oh, and with respect to the "rising creek", that is likely less of a problem than facing heavy snowfalls of immense height, given the location of your home.

WoW Lou!!
St. Omer looks amazing so far! That is incredible looking.
And with the wife out of town, i'm tripping over myself to dawn my cap and goggles.
Can't wait to try it out!
Word of your talent is spreading across the land!

Lou,

I'm back at my WOFF desk tomorrow night and can't wait to see this and Mossy Face in the game. Thank you for your amazing work!

.

Raine, Jenks, Robert, and All,

My St. Omer mod is now available in beta form for you to try out. While you can use it during any period of the war it currently does not have the winter textures so you will need to avoid the snowy days of the year for now. Here is the download link for the JSGME-ready version:

St. Omer Mod Beta download

Additional aerodrome figures and buildings were generously provided by Geezer, many thanks Sir for these. Further, Panama Red populated the facility using the aforementioned figures and many thanks to you as well Sir for your efforts. And of course a big thank you to the devs for creating this marvelous sim in the first place.

Please let me know how this mod performs for you during different times of the war and in various weather conditions, air activity levels, and the like. Thanks folks and enjoy!

EDIT: Forgot to mention that you will need Version 6 of the additional aerodrome figures and items that Panama Red has put together. Also, be sure and disable all other aerodrome mods before trying out this one. Hopefully Robert will add it to his all-inclusive aerodrome mod soon and that will make things quicker and easier.

Lou

.

.

By the way, if everything has loaded for you as it should, this is what you will now see in the sim when flying about St. Omer:



.

Lou and Panama;

I just finished a half hour stint in QC taking off, landing (both auto pilot and manual) and generally exploring the field. Gentlemen you have outdone yourselves on this one! It is going to be a hard act to follow, for sure!

What an amazing piece of work by both of you. The exceptional planning of detailed layout for buildings and infrastructure and not to forget model figure placement is bar none, the finest I have seen to date in WOFF. Add to this, the improvements of textures rendered by 4L0M's Effects mod makes flying at this site a must.
There is one small glitch with a texture file for one of the building types used in the St Omer mod which causes the hanger type to pop and give the impression of missing sides and roof at times. I'm sure 4L0M will have this fixed soon but if it bothers you too much just disable the effects mod until the fix is released.

Cudos to both of you!

Best Regards;

.

Glad you like the mod Robert, this particular one has been a personal labor of love for me. I have nearly 100 hours into it so far and will likely invest another 30 or more creating the winter textures and making final tweaks and such. Panama Red did a super job placing the figures about the place and breathing even more life into it all.

I hope to receive some more feedback on this one from folks with a variety of systems in terms of how it affects overall performance in the sim. If it happens that we can have a facility of this size and scope operating with no ill effects on play-ability it opens up the door to a lot of others that could be added as time goes on.

Happy flights and cheers all!

.

.

Morning All,

It's been two weeks and I am wondering how this mod is working out for folks. Apart from Robert's initial comments I've gotten no other feedback and I would very much like to know if people are seeing a performance hit when running the mod and if so to what extent. Thanks.

Lou

Lou, I've been using it since you released it...used mission editor to have some missions dropping off old rigs and bringing the new one back. I haven't noticed any issues, FPS seems to be about the same as everywhere else. At this point, I'm just ready for all season textures.

Love it and it's a must have.

Lou,

I've been able to get a few short circuits in QC and have not noticed any serious degradations in performance. This is with patch 4.14 with air activity and airfield density at medium. There may be a few drops in fps, but honestly, I thought it ran a little smoother, although it could just be my imagination.

My system is relatively modest, with a weak GPU:
i-2500K 3.3 GHz O/C to 4.4 GHz
250 MB SSD drive
NVidia 460 GTX v.2 (1Gb video ram)
8 Gb Ram
Win 7

I look forward to seeing the final product!

I've had a chance to do a little more testing, and I'm afraid I made a mistake. Instead of using Panama Reds Airfield version 6.0, I was using his version 5.0. When I started using the updated version, i noticed a slight drop in my fps. Overall, I estimate a loss of somewhere around 10 fps when using the mod on my system. Still, I thought it quite playable, and as I said before, it seems somewhat smoother.

Plugging in the mod, you really get a feeling for the sheer size of the airfield at St. Omer. Unmodded, you can fly over the airfield from end to end in less than 20 seconds. With Lou's mod, it takes roughly a minute and a half to fly over the whole thing -- maybe more! Lou, PR, and Geezer have really done a bang up job recreating a sense of what the real flyers in WWI might have experienced when flying over this facility. Kudos!

A fantastic airfield,the sheer scale of St Omer with your mod is staggering Lou.

I'm really looking forward to the final release with the winter textures and will it one day be incorporated into Roberts consolidated airfield mod?

It runs fine for me only a small drop in FPS,but still smooth (i7 4790k, GTX 1070)

Adger

Lou's Omer is already in the consolidated mod and I plan to keep it updated as changes become available.

Cheers Mate

Thanks Robert that,ll teach me to read the necessary posts more

Much appreciated mate

.



Is that St. Omer all snowy and bleak? I think it is.

The winter textures are at long last done for my labour of love. The completed mod should be available soon on Sandbagger's WOFF UE mod page and very likely in Robert's Consolidated Mod as well.

Cheers, and a safe and peaceful Memorial Day to all my friends here in the States.

Lou

Looks absolutely fantastic (and cold), Lou!

Thank you for all of the hard work and taking time out of your holiday weekend to get it done. I can't wait to start a winter career there now!

Now uploaded to the User Mods Page:

http://www.thatoneplease.co/indexWOFF.html

Wow! Can;t wait to see this. Thank you, Lou!

Robert, will this be in an updated consolidate mod soon?

Most definitely.

It is currently being uploaded and when I geg home Sandbagger will have it

Looking forward to checking this out!

Consolidated Mod up shortly on the Users Mods Page:

http://www.thatoneplease.co/indexWOFF.html