Lee

I believe we have a squadron member who flies occasionally with a game pad. This might be of interest to him.
 

I’m running Odyssey in VR, but it requires a powerful system for good VR performance.  My system is an  i7-12700k/RTX3080, which I’m very happy with.
Still doing my trading and mining, plus the new Exobiology.  Main theme of the new update is the Thargoid war.  Not sure yet how that will impact my play style since I don’t do combat.  Hoping Frontier keeps with the big sandbox model where you can pick what you want to participle in and ignore the rest. 

I’m running Odyssey in VR, but it requires a powerful system for good VR performance.  My system is an  i7-12700k/RTX3080, which I’m very happy with.
Still doing my trading and mining, plus the new Exobiology.  Main theme of the new update is the Thargoid war.  Not sure yet how that will impact my play style since I don’t do combat.  Hoping Frontier keeps with the big sandbox model where you can pick what you want to participle in and ignore the rest. 

I’m running Odyssey in VR, but it requires a powerful system for good VR performance.  My system is an  i7-12700k/RTX3080, which I’m very happy with.
Still doing my trading and mining, plus the new Exobiology.  Main theme of the new update is the Thargoid war.  Not sure yet how that will impact my play style since I don’t do combat.  Hoping Frontier keeps with the big sandbox model where you can pick what you want to participle in and ignore the rest. 

I’m running Odyssey in VR, but it requires a powerful system for good VR performance.  My system is an  i7-12700k/RTX3080, which I’m very happy with.
Still doing my trading and mining, plus the new Exobiology.  Main theme of the new update is the Thargoid war.  Not sure yet how that will impact my play style since I don’t do combat.  Hoping Frontier keeps with the big sandbox model where you can pick what you want to participle in and ignore the rest. 

My vision is good enough for using a VR headset, but I do have VR Wave blue light filters on both my Reverbs. 

Just got my lens https://www.vr-wave.store/ today...
Why did I wait so long to ditch the glasses?? 🤪

S! All,

The following JG-I pilots are being recognized for their actions during the recent VWA / JG-1 event (flown on 12 November 2022).
 
Congratulations!

. . .
Distinguished Service Medal of the National People's Army in Bronze

Obstlt. Georg Klaiber, 1.Jagdstaffel, (12 November 2022), for outstanding merit and personal readiness in support of the increase of combat capability and combat readiness of JG-1 [esprit de corps] Maj. Gerhard (Britchot) Heiberger, 1.Jagdstaffel, (12 November 2022), for outstanding merit and personal readiness in support of the increase of combat capability and combat readiness of JG-1 [esprit de corps] Lt. Karl (Trev) Spackler, 1.Jagdstaffel, (12 November 2022), for outstanding merit and personal readiness in support of the increase of combat capability and combat readiness of JG-1 [esprit de corps] Lt. Gordon (Snaggle) Herziger, 1.Jagdstaffel, (12 November 2022), for outstanding merit and personal readiness in support of the increase of combat capability and combat readiness of JG-1 [esprit de corps] Lt. Richard (Vonrd) Ausweichen, 1.Jagdstaffel, (12 November 2022), for outstanding merit and personal readiness in support of the increase of combat capability and combat readiness of JG-1 [esprit de corps] Offz.-S., 2 Kasper (Mouce) von Weber, 1.Jagdstaffel, (12 November 2022), for outstanding merit and personal readiness in support of the increase of combat capability and combat readiness of JG-1 [esprit de corps] Ult. Heinz (Moxy) Schulte, 1.Jagdstaffel, (12 November 2022), for outstanding merit and personal readiness in support of the increase of combat capability and combat readiness of JG-1 [esprit de corps] Ult. Matthäus Erhardt, 2.Jagdstaffel, (12 November 2022), for outstanding merit and personal readiness in support of the increase of combat capability and combat readiness of JG-1 [esprit de corps] Lt. Lothar Loopy, 2.Jagdstaffel, (12 November 2022), for outstanding merit and personal readiness in support of the increase of combat capability and combat readiness of JG-1 [esprit de corps] Oblt. Peter (Sipi) Pfeil, 3.Jagdstaffel, (12 November 2022), for outstanding merit and personal readiness in support of the increase of combat capability and combat readiness of JG-1 [esprit de corps]  
 
Radiolocation Career Badge

Lt. Gordon (Snaggle) Herziger, 1.Jagdstaffel, (12 November 2022), for acting as ground-controlled interception (GCI) within an operational mission.

So I woke up this morning and tried resetting the CMOS battery/bios again and this time it would actually flash to bios for me. 
 
Notably, unplugging my USB hub may have also helper somhow? That is the only other change I made today
Ill have to see what I can do from here. New bios update flash and default settings May help.
 
 
Update 1: Bios flash seemed to at least get me to the point the computer will now actually boot in fully. Now to see if I can get to recognize a GPU is the next step. But worst case scenario I at least have a functioning PC again
 
thanks for all the help everybody!!!

PSU is about 300 watts over power demand and I dmm tested the pins for several of the components m with no bad grounds and specified voltage being delivered. Granted; with the failure it probably won't be loaded very hard but it doesn't appear to be PSU related

Interesting.
Now that I have IL2 running in openXR, I followed the per-game installation instructions from Campbell Suter (ZNix) / OpenComposite · GitLab and replaced my existing Elite Dangerous 64-bit openvr_api.dll file.
Started the game, changed the games 3D graphics setting to "HMD (headphones)" and there I was, running Elite on my reverb in VR!

7.92 GB downloading at 1.75 MB/s on my 280Mb/s internet connection. Update early if you’re flying Black September this Saturday. 

7.92 GB downloading at 1.75 MB/s on my 280Mb/s internet connection. Update early if you’re flying Black September this Saturday. 

Update 5.001  
Dear Friends,
 
Today is a big day. IL-2 Sturmovik team is glad to report that after almost three years of development Battle of Normandy is out of Early Access and is officially released - 5.001 update is out!
 
«You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.» Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
 

 
The official release also means that in addition to Battle of Normandy Premium Edition in our webstore there’s now Standard Edition without two Collector Planes - German jet bomber Arado Ar 234 and British fighter Spitfire Mk.XIV (they can be bought individually). On Steam the new module and its accompanying Collector Planes will appear in the coming weeks - please stay tuned while we work out the details. As usual, Battle of Normandy owners who have linked IL-2 and Steam accounts can access all the new content in the Steam version already.
 
 
These years weren’t easy, but they were very interesting. During the development we have created many new technologies and approaches, did a lot of historical research, implemented new solutions. The last aircraft for Battle of Normandy were released in Early Access in August and today we add the last pieces - the map of the Northern France and Southern England, Pilot Career mode, Quick Mission Builder and Advanced Quick Mission Generator support for the new map.
 



 
We have told about the Career mode and the new map in our recent Dev Blogs, but must point out again that they set the new record in terms of the work involved. New mission types, new airfield types, new airfields appearing on the map after D-Day - bringing their total amount to 100 airfields with historically accurate layouts! New objects created specially for the module - ships, ground vehicles, buildings, coastal defenses, V-1 buzzbombs and their launch positions, dozens of new aircraft paint schemes, etc.
 


 
Battle of Normandy contains 10 player controllable aircraft (8 in the Standard Edition):
- Hawker Typhoon Mk.Ib – British fighter/bomber,
- North American P-51B-5 Mustang – American long range fighter,
- Republic P-47D-22 Thunderbolt – American fighter/bomber,
- Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 Late – late version of the German fighter,
- Focke-Wulf Fw 190 A-6 Würger - German fighter,
- De Havilland Mosquito F.B. Mk.VI ser.2 – British twin engine fighter-bomber,
- Messerschmitt Me 410 A-1 Hornisse – German twin engine fighter-bomber,
- Junkers Ju 88 C-6 – German twin engine heavy fighter,
- Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XIV – British fighter (Collector Plane included in the Premium Edition),
- Arado Ar 234 B-2 Blitz – German twin engine jet bomber and recon aircraft (Collector Plane included in the Premium Edition).
 








 


 
Each aircraft includes a slew of historically correct modifications - unlike other games where each modification would be counted as a separate aircraft model, in Great Battles you can freely select and combine them. For instance, Me-410 A-1 mentioned above has modifications that, when selected, make it a whole model lineup:
1. Me-410 A-1/U2,
2. Me-410 A-1/U4,
3. Me-410 B,
4. Me-410 B-2,
5. Me-410 B-2/U1,
6. Me-410 B-2/U2,
7. Me-410 B-2/U4,
8. Me-410 B-2/U4 field mod with four MG 151 guns.
 

 
In addition to the all above, update 5.001 contains the results of the big work on the damage model improvements which are of course are applicable to all the modules as usual - as you can see in the long list below, it required many changes in various parts of the sim. The testing and tuning of these changes by beta-testers from the community took a lot of time. We think this is the big step forward for Great Battles series and hope you’ll enjoy it. 
 
There are many other fixes and improvements - for instance, the mission loading time has been reduced dramatically, several times less on some PC configurations! The pilot and tank crew AI got better, etc.:
 
Main Features
1. All Battle of Normandy owners have access to Northern France and Southern England map in two variations (before and after the D-Day). As usual, in multiplayer mode the map can be accessed by all Great Battles players.
2. All Battle of Normandy owners have access to the mid-1944 Career mode (3 countries, 5 phases, 17 frontline states, 225 historical squadrons, 103 of them joinable by the player, many new mission types).
3. All Battle of Normandy owners have access to QMB and AQMG game modes on the new map for a quick action, also with many new mission types.
4. Numerous new aircraft paint schemes added, including different invasion stripes for various time periods of 1944.
5. PzKpfw IV Ausf.H. tank added (AI controlled).
6. Flakpanzer IV «Möbelwagen» SPAA added (AI controlled).
7. Gleaves-class destroyer added (AI controlled).
8. The loading speed of all missions on all Great Battles maps has been improved significantly.
 
Damage Model Improvements
9. Aircraft DM: RHA equivalent of the aircraft skin has been reduced nearly three times to the previous (wrong) values.
10. Aircraft DM: an issue that made aircraft skin damage too severe for larger bombers and some fighters has been fixed.
11. Aircraft DM: like the previously released change for larger caliber ammo, now all projectiles in the game loose integrity and stability after penetrating a significant armor thickness which affects their remaining ability to penetrate armor.
12. Aircraft DM: the relative speed of the target is correctly accounted for projectile penetrations calculations.
13. Aircraft DM: AP bullets and shells make slightly bigger holes in the airframe and aircraft skin.
14. Aircraft DM: powerful HE rounds explosions cause more damage to the airframe, aircraft skin and components.
15. Aircraft DM: small HE bullets cause less damage to aircraft skin.
16. Aircraft DM: it is now possible to damage radiators and fuel tanks when firing 7.62-7.92 rounds from more than 350 m distance.
17. Aircraft DM: bullets are less likely to ricochet from aircraft skin at low angles.
18. Aircraft DM: Bf 109 radiator collision model has been improved (previously its wrong shape could cause most smaller caliber bullets to ricochet when fired directly from behind).
19. Aircraft DM: the loss of the bullets energy hitting Bf 109 F-4 engine has been corrected.
20. Aircraft DM: an issue that caused bullets hitting Spitfire Mk.XIV MGs and guns to not lose energy has been fixed.
21. Aircraft DM: engine fire probability from bullet hits has been somewhat increased for WWI-era piston engines and jet engines.
22. Aircraft DM: engine fire probability from bullet hits has been reduced for WWII-era piston engines.
23. Aircraft DM: fuel tank fire probability from bullet hits has been reduced.
24. Aircraft DM: fuel tank fire and explosion probability from HE ammo hits has been reduced, now it depends on the HE power more.
25. Aircraft DM: it’s now harder to put out the fires by side-slip movement.
26. Aircraft DM: the several years old ‘crew health cheat’ (they required four point-blank 7.62 bullets in the torso or two in the head to be killed) has been removed. Now their ability to sustain damage is much more close to reality.
27. Crew DM: a random error that could cause a death from mild G-loads has been found and fixed, thus improving survivability rate during emergency landings.
28. Ballistics: ricochet tendency has been reduced somewhat.
29. Right wing MGs on P-51B can be correctly damaged.
30. P-51B and D fighters wings (middle-upper parts) can be correctly damaged.
 
Me 410 Improvements
31. Me 410A-1: weapon panel placards corrected for WB 151 and MG 131 modifications.
32. Me 410A-1: missing rods from bomb doors to the forward window added.
33. Me 410 A-1: speed and timer gauges in the pilot’s cockpit corrected.
34. Me 410 A-1: altitude and speed gauges in the gunner’s cockpit corrected.
35. Me 410 A-1: bomb holders for 250 kg bombs and for SB 1000/410 look corrected.
36. Me 410 A-1: radiator fenders indicators light up when the cockpit light is turned on.
37. Me 410 A-1: the rear landing gear state affects air drag.
38. Me 410 A-1: technochat message warning about the gun overheating restored for the gunner.
39. Me 410 A-1: now the gunner can use the entire horizontal range of the guns for aiming.
40. Me-410 A-1: radiators can be correctly damaged by AP projectiles, resulting in coolant leaks.
41. Me 410A-1 intercept missions added to AQMG game mode.
 
Tank Crew Improvements
42. M4A2, KV-1s, Pz.IV.G, Pz.V.D, Pz.VI.H1 hatches close when the turret blocks them.
43. The damage of the gun barrels base on Pz.III, Pz.IV and Pz.VI is calculated correctly when it is hit by fragments.
44. In multiplayer a guest gunner (who connected to someone else tank) won’t constantly hear the turret turning mechanism noise.
45. In multiplayer a tank owner won’t hear the gun or MG reloading sound when another player connected to his tank to the gunner or MG gunner station.
46. In multiplayer turning aircraft or tank turrets controlled by another player emit correct turning  sounds.
 
AI Improvements
47. AI controlled bombers keep formation a bit better during climb.
48. AI pilots will attempt to return to base in the event of an oil or coolant leak.
49. Me 410 pilots will correctly drop bombs in a deep dive.
50. Mosquito, Ju 88 C6 and Me 410 pilots will correctly drop underwing bombs.
51. Twin and 4x guns in AI controlled vehicles won’t judder during aiming.
 
Other Improvements
52. Dropping an 1650 pounds bomb from Handley Page O/400 bomber won’t display an error.
53. A visual artifact in front of the right engine of Handley Page O/400 bomber has been removed.
54. An issue that caused guns and MGs to ‘float’ above certain breastwork has been fixed.
55. ‘No jamming’ difficulty option works correctly for aircraft turrets.
56. Me 410 is correctly counted in stats.
57. Visual bomb explosion effects has been corrected for cases when a bomb ricochets and goes off above the ground.
58. Proximity and CheckZone triggers in missions won’t erroneously count non-spawned and inactive objects.
59. External camera works correctly after flying beyond the map borders.
60. An issue that could lower the muzzle speed of an overheated MG before causing additional scattering of the fired bullets has been fixed.
61. Both P-47 have their idle engine RPM corrected (it was a bit too high potentially causing moving with brakes applied.

I should be able to make it this Saturday. Responded to the Il2 forum poll for central. Is that all I need to do for now?

I'm coming late to the party, but just ordered a Reverb G2 V2 from HP at $399 during their Labor Day sale.
Giving the Rift to my grandson and purging all traces of Oculus from my computers.
The G2 should be here by Friday, so I may be back looking for setup help.
 
 

Go here for
OpenXR, very satisfied with this and saw very good frame rate increases verse steamvr...

I'm coming late to the party, but just ordered a Reverb G2 V2 from HP at $399 during their Labor Day sale.
Giving the Rift to my grandson and purging all traces of Oculus from my computers.
The G2 should be here by Friday, so I may be back looking for setup help.
 
 

I'm coming late to the party, but just ordered a Reverb G2 V2 from HP at $399 during their Labor Day sale.
Giving the Rift to my grandson and purging all traces of Oculus from my computers.
The G2 should be here by Friday, so I may be back looking for setup help.
 
 

I'm coming late to the party, but just ordered a Reverb G2 V2 from HP at $399 during their Labor Day sale.
Giving the Rift to my grandson and purging all traces of Oculus from my computers.
The G2 should be here by Friday, so I may be back looking for setup help.
 
 

I visited the site in 2018. Very sophisticated culture and technology. Amazing considering it’s over 3000 years old.
Interestling, they haven’t found bodies in the ash like they did in Pompeii from the Vesuvius eruption.  It suggests that there was earlier warnings or activity that caused the population to abandon the city prior to the big eruption. 

Kameraden,
Was lucky enough to spend better part of a day exploring a stunning dig.
This site:
Akrotiri (Greek: Ακρωτήρι, pronounced Greek: [akroˈtiri]) was a Cycladic Bronze Age settlement on the volcanic Greek island of Santorini (Thera).
The settlement was destroyed in the Theran eruption sometime in the 16th century BC and buried in volcanic ash, which preserved the remains of fine frescoes and many objects and artworks. The settlement has been suggested as a possible inspiration for Plato's story of Atlantis. Akrotiri has been excavated since 1967.
History
The earliest evidence for human habitation of Akrotiri can be traced back as early as the fifth millennium BC, when it was a small fishing and farming village. By the end of the third millennium, this community developed and expanded significantly. One factor for Akrotiri's growth may be the trade relations it established with other cultures in the Aegean, as evidenced in fragments of foreign pottery at the site. Akrotiri's strategic position on the primary sailing route between Cyprus and Minoan Crete also made it an important point for the copper trade, thus allowing it to become an important centre for processing copper, as proven by the discovery of moulds and crucibles there. Akrotiri's prosperity continued for about another 500 years; paved streets, an extensive drainage system, the production of high quality pottery and further craft specialization all point to the level of sophistication achieved by the settlement.
This all came to an end, however, in the 16th century BC with the volcanic eruption of Thera. There is a variety of dating evidence for the eruption, but its exact year is not known. Radiocarbon dating places it most probably between 1620 and 1530 BC, which is also in accord with the date range of 1570 to 1500 BC suggested by similarities of the material culture with other sites in the Aegean. Unusual growth patterns observed in tree rings in 1597, 1560, 1546 and 1544 BC are consistent with a major volcanic event in any of those years. The latter three dates might be the best candidates as they are also considered possible for Egyptian New Kingdom records that are thought to refer to the eruption.
This is a model of what has been excavated so far, they guess they've unearthed less than 10% of the site.













S!

Added Gotha and HP  to FiF practice. Did traditional air start but moved it higher to 3500 m.  Gotha is ok and can climb a little. HP will hold at that height but takes some active stick work.   Also added both as ground take off. These are not the RoF planes. At ground level they can take off and actually climb.

31 Year Ago Really brought memories, as I was AV8 Launch Officer and Search and Rescue for Amphibious Task Force.