Campaign For Pat's BoB

RAF BoB Era Bomber Campaign

When I get back to the CFS3 computer I'll upload the latest screenshots from the testing regime.

I've written a campaign to fly as an RAF bomber pilot in 1940. The campaign relies on the generic Pat's global_layer, giving access to all RAF airbases. The campaign is flown as a British pilot, as opposed to 10 Group, 11 Group etc (although they can be chosen).

Lima33's experience with bombers in ETO BoB has meant this bomber campaign has a variety of MissionTypes, strike factories, strike railyards, anti_shipping. When or if you ever get the upper hand, it is possible to fly offensive missions against ammo depots, dug-in formations, the usual gamut.

Also tested is a more "ambitious" spawn set for fighter intercept missions. I threw in unit sizes of 12 rather than the 8 I've been testing for a while. The latest intercept mission saw 12 + 8 Do 17s, and a set of fighters as top cover.

But this time I had help from a flight of Hurricanes, another of Spitfires, as well as my Spitfire flight. It was a very satisfying flight - busy skies, better realism factor and the main goal is simply survival. Screenshots to follow.
 
Flying an intercept mission off the coast from Warmwell. Big group of bombers passes below my flight.



But first, the escort of 109s needs to be dealt with.



Now flying an anti_shipping mission over the channel. Had a spot of bother with incoming bombers as we left our airbase.



Back at base after a successful mission - the ruddy Jerries have bombed the hangars!

 
Looking good!

PS where did you get the mid-1940 Blenheim If skin? I was looking for one of those!
 
33lima said:
Looking good!

PS where did you get the mid-1940 Blenheim If skin? I was looking for one of those!
Click to expand...

CANCEL - found it at Reg's Hangar:

Shot07-14-20-21-33-06.jpg
 
Blenheim IF "Bomber"

LOL, 33Lima, I have to confess knowing your weakness for the 1F, I tweaked the loadouts so it could be used in a "bomber" campaign. After bombing shipping or other ground targets, it strafes them very effectively :rocket:. But not one for the purists!
 
Great to see all the effort that is being put into this, and much appreciated :applause:

Really looking forward to the campaign as Pat's BoB add on is a real favourite of mine. Always loved the BoB since a youngster and my Dad took me to see the film. Somehow this add on "feels" right.
 
Hi Oliver, Clive got it right first time with this one, IMHO. He wanted to simplify things and avoid the complication of other addons. Yet at the same time, there are deliciously detailed airbases, which even WOTR has not been able to match thus far.

The campaign package is fully functional now, work is centered on refinement of the spawn sets, which take ages. I would ask for testers, but the trouble is there are other people working on an update, so I want to work with the latest files, to ensure compatibility.
 
It is always best to take it slow and steady.

Saves a great deal of time and effort in the long run.
 
I've been practising in anticipation of release and am curious to know if there's an easy way to change the cockpit viewpoint in the 17 Sqn Hurricane? It is lower than the similar A/C in ETO and seems designed to give a better view of the panel. But the gunsight reticle's line of sight seems badly misaligned with the line of fire. I've tried using the keys to raise the viewpoint but the issue is still there.

I do still sometimes manage to hit something, but not as hard and only after prodigious expenditure of ammunition!

cfs3-2020-07-18-21-46-46-17.jpg
 
Using any of these Dynamic Reticles with Pitch="90.25" fixes the aim point issue with the static one:

<Effect Type="Track" EffectName="UK_RAF_ETO-_gunsight" PosX="0.000" PosZ="-0.575" PosY="0.700" Pitch="90.25" MinVel="-999999" MaxVel="999999"/>

<Effect Type="Track" EffectName="UK_RAF_Hurricane-_gunsight" PosX="0.000" PosZ="-0.575" PosY="0.700" Pitch="90.25" MinVel="-999999" MaxVel="999999"/>

<Effect Type="Track" EffectName="UK_RAF_Bob1-_gunsight" PosX="0.000" PosZ="-0.575" PosY="0.700" Pitch="90.25" MinVel="-999999" MaxVel="999999"/>
 
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33lima said:
I've been practising in anticipation of release and am curious to know if there's an easy way to change the cockpit viewpoint in the 17 Sqn Hurricane? It is lower than the similar A/C in ETO and seems designed to give a better view of the panel. But the gunsight reticle's line of sight seems badly misaligned with the line of fire. I've tried using the keys to raise the viewpoint but the issue is still there.

I do still sometimes manage to hit something, but not as hard and only after prodigious expenditure of ammunition!
Click to expand...

If you use a file comparison software like Winmerge or similar, you can compare the pilot seat view settings for the ETO hurri and the BoB hurri. You should be able to quickly switch the BoB Hurri's xdp over to the ETO viewpoint.

But I don't have the same problem for the BoB hurris - reticle seems well aligned??
 
I found the discussion about the gunsight interesting.

Whether or not the sight is correctly aligned has had little impact (No pun intended) for me, probably as I am a spray and pray merchant!:rocket:
 
Not there yet; hopefully these pics, both taken in level flight with no modification to viewpoint, illustrate the issue I'm trying to resolve.

Hurricane IIa 17 Sqn in the ETO mod. Reticle is the one that comes with the aircraft. This is what I'm used to and how I want it to look. The sight glass brackets are for the later square glass, but the important points are (i) the reticle is centred on it and (ii) the tracers are lined up with the centre dot of the reticle, at about the range the guns are harmonised.

Shot07-20-20-11-46-14.jpg



Same aircraft in the BoB mod, but this time with the dynamic reticle (which seems to work like a gyroscopic gunsight, so I'm not sure I'll retain it - but the issue was the same).


Shot07-20-20-11-40-26.jpg


Issues I want to fix:

1. I can see less of the sky - I'd like to be able to see where the mirror would be, atop the windscreen. Possibly this just needs the pilot eye view zoomed out to the same setting as the ETO version, in the BoB A/C's .xdp file.
2. Despite not pulling any Gs, the reticle is way too low on the (correct, rounded mount) glass. Pulling Gs following a turning adversary is all it takes for the reticle to be pulled way off the bottom of the glass. completely out of sight. I need the reticle to start centred on the glass, to mitigate this effect.
3. While the tracers line up with the centre of the reticle, when I fix 2, I don't want the tracers to be going low. I want them to stay aligned with the centre of the reticle when I move it up.
 
Interesting that's a different pit than I have for 17 sqd in BOB.

One thing I occasionally do is to trick TrackIR by scrunching down in my seat, and hitting F12 to recenter the view. I then sit back up in my seat and it's as if I'm sitting higher in the cockpit.

p.s.
These are not really like gyroscopic gunsights in that they don't do any lead computing. It's actually just taking advantage of optical physics with nothing more required than a collimating lens and a semi-transparent mirror. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflector_sight

They are simply focused at infinity in line with the gun convergence point. No matter how the pilot might move around in the cockpit he will always see the image form at that point in the distance. This was a significant improvement over fixed iron or telescopic sights that were only useful in one specific head position (impossible to maintain when maneuvering).
 
The problem is that the dynamic reticle is behaving somewhat like a gyro sight, not a reflector sight. In this steeply-banked climbing turn, I'm trying to lead a 109 which is under my nose. I'd expect the reticle to be centred on the glass, but it's like the G-forces are dragging it down.

cfs3-2020-07-19-20-00-56-75.jpg


In this pic, in a steeply-banked descending turn, the reticle had been dragged downwards off the glass altogether.

cfs3-2020-07-19-19-55-29-83.jpg


If I'm recollecting this right, the trajectory of the tracers is also 'dragged down' under my nose, even the rounds which were just fired - if I was firing in the above pic, my rounds would have been going well below the 109 and possibly not even in sight. It's like there's some weird misalignment. Substituting the ETO Hurri II's pilot seat settings didn't seem to make any visible difference. I have head bobbing turned on, but I'm not getting this problem with the ETO Hurris, just the ETO ones, with the dynamic reticle adding the disappearing trick to the issue - the static reticle at least stays on the glass.

As in Cliffs of Dover Blitz - the reticle slides left or right, IF the pilot's head is dragged away far enough from behind the sight (but almost no up-down movement, only left or right) - note well off-centre view of the canopy framing...

20200720165024-1.jpg


...but as soon as the viewpoint 'bobs' back, the reticle is centred again, even in a high-G turn, and the tracers aren't invisible under the nose....

20200720161411-1.jpg
 
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That's built into AnKors shaders to simulate the g-forces physically moving the pilot's heads as you maneuver. So, strictly speaking it's the not the sight that's moving, your pilot is.

This can be turned on/off in d3d8.ini

; Enables or disables (if set to 0) head movement due to G-forces in cockpit view (offset and rotation)
HeadShake=1
; Controls the magnitude of head movement. Default value is 100. Rotation is unaffected by this setting.
OffsetScale=100
; Controls XYZ offset speed. Low values have high inertia so the response will lag more. Typically 4 to 100 with higher restoring the head position faster. Default 12
OffsetSpring=9
; Controls rotation speed. Low values have high inertia so the response will lag more. Default 24
RotationSpring=9
; Offset Damping with low values being more damped, Default 6
OffsetResponse=9
 
Thanks but I don't want to turn off or reduce the head-bobbing, as it's not that which is excessive and needs dampened, it's the up-down movement of the dynamic reticle. CloD gets it about right - there is a fair bit of left-right movement because that's physically possible, but much less up-down, because that's less so (unless your virtual straps are very loose!). And as well as less up-down movement, the dynamic reticle needs to be centred in the reflector sight glass to begin with; now, it's significantly too low.
 
Personally, I like the head movement too as it makes the flying experience more realistic.

If the movements seem too big, reduce the offset scale to what you prefer. Even just 10 points below 100 will make a very noticeable difference.

As I mentioned before, I routinely adjust the centered eyepoint by hitting F12 to recenter TrackIR relative to how I'm sitting and then move up or down a little to get the view I'm after. If I want to sit higher in the cockpit I hit F12 when I'm sunk down in my chair, and then I sit up straight and my view rises with me. The TrackIR motion control speed setting has a lot to do with how much response you get to small positional changes like that.

Having said that, the ONLY thing that makes the reticle APPEAR TO MOVE is your head movement (simulated g-force and/or actual with TrackIR) relative to the fixed convergence point and the mirror.

It's all about your frame of reference. There is NOTHING in the dynamic reticle that is actually moving.

If you were to move your head enough to exactly reverse the simulated g-force effects the sight would remain stationary.

This is essentially what happens with iron ring and post or telescopic sights when the g-force head movements are turned on. Your view down the sights will get way out of alignment unless you're able to maneuver your head enough to counter the effect.
 
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