anyone else getting this?

Yes, I get a black screen, hourglass, and taskbar.

Some people get this not sure why. Some have fixed it by updating video drivers to latest, some did a cleanout (see FAQ) of all OFF folders and CFS3 reinstalled as per FAQ and working fine now. These poss fixes don't work for everyone though.

my install was just for OFF, did not have cfs3 installed prior. so mine was very clean. i updated graphics drivers and that did not help - at first. i then had to delete my current and only pilot as it became acrrupted apparently due to the "officers mess" hang (shell.exe). upon creating and using a new pilot it worked! maybe that will help you all debug.

Thanks Steel

Turning off AA and AF fixed the problem but I really don't want to do without antialiasing.
I did a complete uninstall and cleanout of OFF and CFS3 and reinstalled but with the same results. Updating to the latest ATI drivers made no difference either.
The best solution I found for me is to change my desktop resolution to 1024 X 768 (normally set at 1280 X 960) before starting the sim.

Another solution for me is to play the sim at 1024 X 768 instead of the 1280 X 960 that I was using. It seems my ol 9800 Pro has a problem with switching back to the 1024 X 768 resolution of the "Officers Mess".
Anyway, I want to add that this problem is only a minor annoyance compared to how happy I am to have this free add-on.

Cheers for the info mbeaver, maybe that's the key the res switching causes the crash. Maybe I'll add that to the faq.

This issue happened to me when flying at 1152. Switching to 1024x768 - same as desktop - cleared it up.

Barkhorn.

I am running both the sim and desktop at 1024x768x32 and have this problem. So I don't think that resolution switching is the entire problem.

Just to report changing sim to 1024x768x16, same as desktop, worked for me. Thanks for the info.

Had this puppy up and running beautiful, sim, and desktop set 1024x768x32. I tweaked the config in OFF, and started getting hangs on the Officers Mess exit. I found that my CFS3 config, and OFF config did`nt match, set them both the same, then flew a mission in CFS3 quit, then started OFF, I was able to exit fine, and have been playing for the last two days without a hang problem. Hope this may help someone. Puts

O.K. - it is back. I have been tweaking the settings per other posts...

i added FSAAx4 along with some of the other texture tweaks folks ahve been trying.

this time i found a cmd.exe running in task manager. when i killed that the officers mess came back up. i also noted no new entry in my pilot log. is there a batch file to add your results to the pilot log? is maybe that what is hanging and keeping you from going back into the officer's mess?

well, nevermind that. i turned off FSAA and got back into the officers mess just fine. turned it back on and got back into the officer's mess just fine. note though that both of these tests were done with only 30-60 seconds in flight. it might make a difference how long you are in missions. not sure. also, it seems the result file from the mission above (where it did not show in my pilot's log) was still there and got entered into my pilot's log.

yes

Confirm Steel's findings. Ending cmd.com got me back to the officers mess but my mission results were not there.

Another work-around for this bug is to start CFS3 first, then exit the game, then start OFF. You don't have to fly a mission or anything, just start CFS3 up and shut it down. You only have to do it once, unless you reboot your computer.

Thumper

Yeah I read about the starting CFS3 first elsewhere but haven't had a chance to try although it seems to fix it for others.