FAQ & Troubleshooting

Playing

Do I have to unlock missions? Is there a save game?

No. Every mission is available from the start, and you can fly them in any order. Missions are single sorties, so there's nothing to save. The only thing the game remembers between sessions is your joystick setup.

I ran out of ammunition almost straight away.

That's historically accurate. The Spitfire and Hurricane have about fifteen seconds of fire in total. Fire bursts of one or two seconds, and only from inside about 250 m, where the eight guns' streams meet. See Gunnery.

I keep getting shot down by bombers.

Their gunners open fire at about 550 m. Dead astern and level, you're in the arcs of two gunners at once. Attack from the front quarter or high on the beam, make one fast pass, and keep going. See Attacking bombers.

I shot a bomber to pieces and it didn't count as a kill.

Badly damaged aircraft break off and head for home. If one gets home, it counts as escaped, not destroyed. A bomber that strays from its formation also dives for cloud or low level to escape. Finish them off if you can.

The mission ended as soon as I reached the zone, and it says I failed.

In missions that end at a zone (the U-boat hunt, Hit the Airfield and London Burning), flying into it ends the mission immediately. If any other objective isn't finished yet, the mission counts as failed. Check the Objectives panel before you head home. See Objectives & winning.

My depth charges did nothing.

Either you were above 120 m, where they break up on the water (the HUD warns you), or they weren't close enough. They burst eight metres down and only a close one is lethal. Wait for the IMPACT circle to turn green. See Hunting U-boats.

How do I use the bomber's guns?

Press 1–5 to man a gun position and 0 to go back to the controls. The autopilot flies while you're at a gun. Fly Gunnery Practice to learn it. See Manning a gun.

How do I get the bombsight?

In the He 111 or Do 17, press C until the view looks down through the nose and the HUD shows BOMBSIGHT.

I can't find the enemy, or my wingman.

Press V. Markers point to your nearest target and to your wingman, with the range in metres. When they're off-screen, an arrow at the edge of the screen shows which way to turn. You can also press O to point the blue bearing marker at an objective.

W makes the nose go up. Isn't that backwards?

It's the usual arcade layout: W climbs and S dives. On a joystick you can switch to "push forward to dive" by inverting the pitch axis. Press F2, select Pitch and press I.

Can I fly the Bf 110?

Only in London Tour, which lets you fly any aircraft. In the other missions it appears as an enemy.

Is there a way to practise a mission without being shot down?

Yes. Press F9 for invulnerable mode. You take no damage and can't crash, and everything else fights normally. It's a good way to learn when and where each raid arrives.

Files & settings

Where are my screenshots?

Press F10 to save one. Screenshots are saved in the game's install folder as debug_shot_1.png, debug_shot_2.png and so on. The numbering starts again at 1 every time you launch the game, so move or rename the ones you want to keep before your next session.

The default per-user install is in C:\Users\your name\AppData\Local\Programs\Battle of Britain. To open it, type %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Battle of Britain into File Explorer's address bar. If you chose an install for all users, it's in C:\Program Files\Battle of Britain.

Where are my joystick settings saved? How do I reset them?

In joystick_bindings.json, in the same install folder. To go back to the default bindings, quit the game and delete that file.

Screenshots or joystick settings aren't being saved.

If you installed the game for all users in C:\Program Files, Windows may not let the game write files into its own folder. Uninstall, then reinstall using the default per-user option.

How do I uninstall?

Use Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Battle of Britain → Uninstall, or the Uninstall Battle of Britain entry in the Start menu. Before you uninstall, copy out any screenshots you want to keep.

Is there a manual in the game folder?

Yes. MANUAL.md in the install folder is the pilot's manual in plain text. You can open it with Notepad.

Who made the aircraft models?

The 3D models were made by various artists and are used under Creative Commons licences. On the Select Aircraft screen, click License / credit above the preview to see the author and licence for each aircraft. The Spitfire model is licensed for non-commercial use only.

Troubleshooting

The game won't start, shows a black window, or closes immediately.

1. Update your graphics driver from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel. The game needs OpenGL 3.3.
2. Try the Battle of Britain (Safe Mode) shortcut. It draws the game on the CPU and works without a working graphics driver, including in virtual machines and remote desktops. If you didn't install it, run the installer again and tick Install "Safe Mode".

The game is slow or stutters.

• If you're using the Safe Mode shortcut, switch to the normal one. Safe Mode is much slower.
• Run in a window rather than full screen (F11 switches between them). A smaller window means less drawing.
• On laptops with two graphics chips, make sure Windows runs BB.exe on the dedicated GPU: Settings → System → Display → Graphics.
• Flying low over London or the towns of Kent is the heaviest scene in the game. It's smoother higher up or over the sea.

My joystick isn't doing anything.

• Press F1. If the stick is detected, its name appears with a live readout of its axes and buttons. Move the stick and check that the numbers change.
• If it isn't listed, unplug it and plug it back in. The game picks up sticks as they're connected.
• If it's detected but the aircraft doesn't respond, open F2 and bind Roll, Pitch, Yaw and Throttle yourself. See Setting up a joystick.
• If a control works the wrong way round, press I on that axis row in F2.

There's no sound.

Press K, because the game may be muted (MUTED appears in the bottom-right corner). Also check the Windows volume mixer and that the correct output device is selected.

The cursor disappeared.

Mouse-fly is on. Press M to turn it off and get the cursor back.