B-17 The Mighty 8th - Getting Started Tutorial Video Series - Now Available!!!

[ikrananka]

I have just published on YouTube the first video in my Getting Started Tutorial series of videos covering the B-17 The Mighty 8th game.



Please check it out and let me know what you think. If you appreciate the video then please "Like" it and subscribe to my channel to receive updates as I add new videos to the series over the coming weeks.

All feedback is welcome.

Thanks and Enjoy

[Dowly]

Hey ikrananka,

Very good video and sure to help a bunch of people (myself included)!

I used to play it way back when and been meaning to try it again, but have never bothered to look for all the patches and mods.

Liked and subbed!

[ikrananka]

Originally Posted by Dowly

Very good video and sure to help a bunch of people (myself included)!

Liked and subbed!

Thanks - really appreciate that

Originally Posted by Dowly

I used to play it way back when and been meaning to try it again, but have never bothered to look for all the patches and mods.

If you buy the game from GOG or Steam it comes fully patched which is nice. I'm just uploading the second video now, which covers adjusting Joystick Sensitivity. The third video will cover where to currently find mods, which are my recommended ones, and also how to install them.

[ikrananka]

The second video in this series is now live on YouTube. This video covers how to setup and adjust joystick sensitivity.



Enjoy

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by ikrananka

If you buy the game from GOG or Steam it comes fully patched which is nice. I'm just uploading the second video now, which covers adjusting Joystick Sensitivity. The third video will cover where to currently find mods, which are my recommended ones, and also how to install them.

Aye, I got the GoG version, just never tried how it runs.

B-II is a good example of a game mechanic that worked in earlier game (B-17 Flying Fortress) that has been improved.

I played B-17 I on my 486 way back, but B-17 II, I love them both, but II adds more of the human elemenent to the game, visually wounded crew etc.

[ikrananka]

Originally Posted by Dowly

Aye, I got the GoG version, just never tried how it runs.

B-II is a good example of a game mechanic that worked in earlier game (B-17 Flying Fortress) that has been improved.

I played B-17 I on my 486 way back, but B-17 II, I love them both, but II adds more of the human elemenent to the game, visually wounded crew etc.

I too played B-17 I back in the day but was useless at it. I just never found the time to learn it and clearly remember only getting as far as crashing my plane repeatedly during the taxi at the start of a mission. So, when I recently discovered B-17 II on GOG I was determined to learn the game well and now love it.

[Red October1984]

I've got TME on GoG but need to get a new joystick before I play any more of it. Looking forward to getting back into it!

I was going thru some old and forgotten game software and found this game. And I remembered how good it was and decided to get it up and running again. Then I wondered if anyone was still playing. And I stumbled on your tutorials. You have giving me the desire to get going again with this great game.
I got fairly decent at it way back when. Your guides will be very helpful in becoming proficient.
Your explanations are spot on, clear and precise!
Thanks again.

[ikrananka]

Originally Posted by emmetthi

... I stumbled on your tutorials. You have giving me the desire to get going again with this great game.
I got fairly decent at it way back when. Your guides will be very helpful in becoming proficient.
Your explanations are spot on, clear and precise!
Thanks again.

Thank You

Good luck with getting back up to speed with the game. Let me know how you get on.

[Sean C]

Great ... now I'm addicted to this game. I'm even losing sleep playing it.

I've even started making my own custom nose art.

Thanks, I guess.

(At least I got it on sale for like, a buck seventy-five. )

[ikrananka]

Originally Posted by Nathaniel B.

Great ... now I'm addicted to this game. I'm even losing sleep playing it.

I've even started making my own custom nose art.

Thanks, I guess.

(At least I got it on sale for like, a buck seventy-five. )

LOL - you're welcome

Just curious, with the nose art, have you figured out the masking procedure? I managed to do it a while ago with Photoshop Elements 10 but have forgotten how.

It's funny, I'm losing sleep due to the current game I'm playing. Weird how games can do that to us.

[Sean C]

Originally Posted by ikrananka

Just curious, with the nose art, have you figured out the masking procedure? I managed to do it a while ago with Photoshop Elements 10 but have forgotten how.

Yes. It's the same as with all other game graphics I've dealt with. I use Photoshop CS3, so there might be some UI differences.

I start by creating a background of one solid color (grey in this case - just like the original files). I then use the "Lasso" tool to select and copy just the portion of the graphic I want to use from another image and paste that onto a new layer on top of the grey background.

Once I have the graphic in the orientation/placement I want, I use the "Magic Wand" tool on that layer to select everything except the graphic and then invert the selection. This results in a selection in the shape of the graphic and is easier than using the wand tool to try and select the graphic directly because of the way the tolerance works.

Next, I click on the "Channels" tab in the "Layer" window and select the alpha channel. With the selection still active, I use the "Paint Bucket Tool" to make only the selected area white. The result is a white shape on the alpha layer in the same position and in the same shape as the graphic. This means that only the graphic will be rendered. The grey background (which is black in the alpha channel) will be transparent. As always, you can paint with various shades of grey on the alpha channel to create areas of varying transparency.

Finally, I flatten the layers and save the image. Of course, in this case, there is the additional step of adding that image back to the omf file by overwriting the original. (For that, I am using Taff in Exile's omf editor.)

The colors in this forum make it kind of hard to see links, so in case you didn't notice: the words "custom nose art" in my previous post are a link to an example I made. I think it turned out quite nice.

Anyway, I hope that helps and if anything wasn't clear or you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

Cheers!

[Eichhörnchen]

Originally Posted by emmetthi

I was going thru some old and forgotten game software and found this game. And I remembered how good it was and decided to get it up and running again. Then I wondered if anyone was still playing. And I stumbled on your tutorials. You have giving me the desire to get going again with this great game.
I got fairly decent at it way back when. Your guides will be very helpful in becoming proficient.
Your explanations are spot on, clear and precise!
Thanks again.

An oft-overlooked treasure this and, as someone observed earlier in this thread, it's a pity more was not done to make it even better. I also have stumbled upon this thread and must take the time to go through these tutorials carefully... accompanied by Aktung's big pot of coffee.

I recently looked into the bowels of this sim intending to disable the dreadfully intrusive turret-drive sound, which I find sooo distracting when sweating it in the upper gunner's position... but I find that there are no WAV or Config. files for the sounds here, such as you find in other sims like CFS3 or Microsoft Flight Simulator. Is there any way to get rid of this noise, ikrananka... there's nothing can be turned off in the "options" menu as I recall...?

[Aktungbby]

emmetthi!

accompanied by Aktung's big pot of coffee.

HOW BIG IS BIG!?? FROM MY LONG HAUL TRUCKING DAYS: SAPP BROS TRUCKSTOP; OMAHA, NEBRASKA... The coffee pot is always on at Sapp Brothers truck stops:

[HW3]

Wow! Just stumbled on this thread. It brought me back to the days of the v8th OPS group I was in many many years ago. I still have my disk, and many of the mods we used back then, might be time to reinstall.