Full Canvas Jacket Mini-Review, Part I

The Promised Land “Full Canvas Jacket” Mini-Review
by Barkhorn.

Just received the new Full Canvas Jacket Red Baron II/3D upgrade produced by Kess at the Promised Land (site address = http://www.plgrafix.com/). I cannot overstate how impressed I am w/ this effort. It builds on a series of earlier efforts by other folks - including Kess - but takes it all a step farther by bringing it all together in one grand patch that features a very useful Control Panel to manage it all. I really wanted to thank Kess for his efforts and I figured the best way to do this was via a mini-review. So let’s take a look at each component of this effort in some detail.

Install:
The install went off w/o a hitch. There are 2 main parts to the install, “Install FCJ” and “FCJ Windscreens” for those who fly in Glide. There are also a bunch of options to lower terrain and effects levels that can result in an FPS savings for those w/ low end machines (fortunately I didn’t have to worry about that ).

Aircraft Models:
ALL a/c models are redone from the stock release and feature authentic shapes, struts, wire bracing and rotating radial engines. Kess makes use of models originally conceived by the SWWISA (site =http://www.swwisa.net/ ) group for their massive Western Front Patch. The stuff that these guys have accomplished is amazing - especially compared to the stock models - as the screenshot link below will attest. Paint schemes were also redone and the one’s I’ve seen so far (there are a TON!) are mighty fine - check out the “petal” pattern engine cowling on a 94th Aero Nieuport 28 - very nice.

Cockpits:
ALL flyable a/c now have unique cockpits w/ gauges in the right places and, when panning around, the wings/fuselage area colors now match the schemes on the a/c. These pits are a quantum leap from the past (w/ their “cookie cutter” cockpits - all pits were pretty much the same for a given nationality). Now, when you fly - say a Sopwith Camel - it has the unique look and feel of a Sopwith Camel.

Terrain:
What can I say -it’s the second go round for Promised Land terrain and it looks better than ever - even down low where the patterns tend to “wash out” a bit. The compensation here however is all the objects that have been added - trees, cows, people, barbered wire and shell holes in NML. The only criticism I have here is that the winter terrain looks a bit too yellow as the snow does not cover the fields completely. Oh well, I can live w/ that.

Flight Model (FM):
Again, I’m no expert (who really can claim to be on WWI a/c?!), but this new FM seems “right” to me. The Camel and Dr.I’s are tricky to fly, the SE5 and Albatros family are very forgiving - this is what one would expect. And, if you do dumb things like yank the stick around you will quickly bleed speed. Finally, violent maneuvering in a Nieuport will lead to structural failure - as it should. One final note here, Capt. Darwin (the Promised Land FM guy) is already working on a revised FM.

Part II next

Part II:

Damage Model:
Very nice stuff here! There are really only 2 vulnerable spots on WWI a/c - the engine and the pilot. If you are not aiming for these areas you are going to waste a bucket of ammo. The FCJ DM reflects this quite nicely - test it yourself and you will find that hitting the engine will give you some nice flames after a few bursts. And a nice lucky “melon shot” means game over for your opponent (and for you at times ). For FX effects you get bullet holes and fabric tears and broken wires and flames and all sorts of nasty stuff. Kess really stretched the RBII envelope in this area.

Sound & Music:
Kess is a sound engineer (or so I’m told) and his knowledge really shows, as all sounds have been redone for a more authentic atmosphere. You’ve got radial engines, in-line engines, different types of MG’s, ripping fabric, etc. - all come together in an impressive package. Kess composed original, and very atmospheric, pieces for the menu and briefing screens. The music is quite nice and adds another layer of immersion.

Multi-Play:
I don’t play on-line so I am really not qualified to comment here.

Odds & Ends:
Damage messages - instead of the old specific “You have an oil leak” type of message, now you get a “Something is wrong” message, and it is up to you to figure out what that means. I like this approach as it adds a level of uncertainty to the sim as the effects of the problem may not become apparent until sometime later in the flight.
Flak and MG ground fire - there is a whole bunch of it and it can be deadly. I remember flying straight, level and on through in the old days. That is suicide now as you WILL get hit. This change makes those easy balloon kills a thing of the past too!
FPS - using FRAPS I am getting between 40-70 FPS pretty consistently in Fly Now at 1280x1024 (yea, you read that right ) and everything maxed except “sun glare”. The counter occasionally dipped to 20 but the important thing is I didn’t even notice because things are so smooooth. My system specs are below for those who are interested.

FCJ Control Panel:
An icon for this handy application is left on your desktop when FCJ finishes its install processing. You can set ALL gameplay, graphics, Fly Now and sound settings right from this application. It includes 2 key extras that those of us w/ high end machines and G4 cards really appreciate - a 1280x1024 resolution option and an XP/USB Sound bug fix - nice! Finally, you can launch RBII/3D right from the control panel, and it then unloads itself so it won’t hog any systems resources.

Summary:
The best part about FCJ is that it pulls all of the above pieces together in a single unified whole that is rock solid and a joy to play. The effort that went into this patch is evident by the result, a finished product that is truly greater than the sum of its parts and gives the player that illusive feeling of immersion that all simmers crave. FCJ brings RBII back to life and into the modern age.

Thank you Kess!

SCREENSHOTS = a small gallery of before and after shots at this site = http://community.webshots.com/user/barkhorn_real

!!!IMPORTANT!!! Tip for those who need the Sierra ‘Super Patch’ to patch from RBII to RB3D;
The Super Patch puts updated a/c files and .BMP files in the Data/Simpatch folder. These files will overwrite FCJ files as anything in the Simpatch folder is applied LAST. The solution is to delete all files in the simpatch folder that end in .BMP, .DML and .DTS.

SYSTEM SPECS;
AMD Athlon XP2100+ CPU
768MB PC2100 DDR RAM
Biostar Socket “A” motherboard (M7VIB-A)
Via KT-266A chipset
80GB ATA/100 7200rpm hard drive
16x DVD
24x speed CD-RW drive
Leadtek G4 Ti4600 AGP card w/ 31.40 Det drivers
Wavetable onboard sound card
Windows XP Home Version OS

[PeterL]

SYSTEM SPECS;
AMD Athlon XP2100+ CPU
768MB PC2100 DDR RAM
Biostar Socket “A” motherboard (M7VIB-A)
Via KT-266A chipset
80GB ATA/100 7200rpm hard drive
16x DVD
24x speed CD-RW drive
Leadtek G4 Ti4600 AGP card w/ 31.40 Det drivers
Wavetable onboard sound card
Windows XP Home Version OS

I've only recently upgraded (in the last twelve months) and this is already waaaaay over my head. Maybe next time :'(

Peter;

You can play FCJ on a machine much less robust than mine. Heck, the developer has a PIII 800MGHZ.

Go to the site for more details.

Regards,
Barkhorn.

[MilesC]

Hi Barkhorn1x,

Do you have an impression of how the missions stack up compared to the original game, and compared to what MissionGen generates? If I can do without MissionGen then so much the better. I have found that the fewer patches and mods running at once the better.


Was it stable on your XP system? I have a persistent problem with CTDs with XP Pro (maybe it's my wife's programs she has loaded, as she's a programmer)?

Hi Barkhorn1x,

Do you have an impression of how the missions stack up compared to the original game, and compared to what MissionGen generates? If I can do without MissionGen then so much the better. I have found that the fewer patches and mods running at once the better.

To me the missions seem about the same as stock and I am not now using the Mission Generator - so I can't tell you what the differences are - sorry.

Was it stable on your XP system? I have a persistent problem with CTDs with XP Pro (maybe it's my wife's programs she has loaded, as she's a programmer)?

Yes, very stable - in fact more stable than the other patches I've tried - WFP and HA.

See ya,
Barkhorn.

[MilesC]

Well, I've been playing RB3d with Full Canvas Jacket, so far I'm fairly impressed, but not totally.

It is fairly stable on XP Pro, although I've lost a few missions due to running out of system resources. XP is a real hog, of the 512 Megs on my system, after a reboot I get at most 255 Megs free. So many things are running I have no idea which I could turn off. I am running on a home network, with ADSL and Symantec Internet Suite and virus scanner running.

I found that it was more stable with the low res tiles, although honestly it looked better with low res than high in 1024-768 resolution.

My main concern is the damage model. I've jacked the bullet mass up to the max (250?) and I still have a huge problem killing anything. I mean, even a German two-seater will have major damage with 100 rounds put into it. Two of us in Nie 17s hammered a Roland CII for minutes, and all we did was force it down. No kill. I know Kess mentioned that his damage model was very specific to the engine area and pilot, but it seems to be highly restrictive. The wings on these aircraft were quite fragile and wouldn't take much damage before they failed.

I'm considering using another DM to see if I like it more. The one I used with WFP was quite good, and I liked it.

The terrain and aircraft are stunning, very nicely done. The missions so far, in Sept 1916 are not overwhelming with aircraft. Usually we are the only ones up until a German patrol comes along. I loved MissionGen in WFP, although it did cause it's own problems with highly complex missions. There has to be an even ground somewhere.