Its Thursday again and the guys at Lo-mac.com have released another video/screenshot combo! This time the F-15 is featured, and once again the graphics are outstanding.
HardOCP have a review of of AMD's latest flagship processor - the Barton - heres a snippet.
From all feedback we can muster at this time, it seems as though the Barton will truly be one of the most Socket A compatible chips we have even seen. We have not had issues with dropping it in any mainboards with the most recent BIOS updates. We have tried it on several KT333, KT400 and nForce2 boards. I would suggest checking with your board maker for a BIOS update though, and to never assume a new CPU will run on an older board unless it is specified in the BIOS notes.
I have posted BBall's latest log book article entitled "BBall, Buddy Holly and the Bonanza". Here's a snippet;
As we descended into the undercast, I "fessed up" to ATC and told them we were having a slight engine problem and would need vectors to the nearest airport (I flashed back to the FAA Academy audio tape...and TRIED not to let my voice gain any octaves). The girls were coming out of the fog and asking what was happening...."uh, well, we're going to be landing soon to check something out...nothing to worry about." The Fort Worth Center guy told me that there was an airport directly below me in this area of northwest Arkansas, and to "state the nature of your problem". I didn't want to declare an emergency (dumb move, but common for someone with limited experiece), so I told him that the engine was running "a bit rough" and that we'd be landing to have it looked at.
Aeyes has released a 3D Falcon 4 Pit that matches his 1600 x 1200 Superpit. Here's what he had to say about it.
"In the many years that the Falcon 4.0 sim exists, the 3D cockpit has always been a part that did not get the attention it deserves. This 3D cockpit improvement is a cooperation between Tomas Hamarcak providing a new F-16 3D cockpit LOD, Aeyes providing the high resolution textures for the 3D cockpit, matching the 1600 x 1200 Superpit, and PiGaSoS for testing and compiling the F4patch installer. There are 2 types of cockpit textures, depending on the power of your system you can select 512 x 512 or 1024 x 1024 resolution textures."
Note, I have not posted direct links because these webspaces deserve a good read of their content besides just a download address. Special thanks to Ninja, Terrapin and Merlin for hosting the material
Installation instructions are inside the zipfile
Here are a few screenshots, these are taken with 1024 x 1024 res textures:
Retro has released 2 exe's for EECH that enable TrackIR Support. Here's what he has to say about them.
Fist the bad news... I again deactivated keyboard/POV panning in those executables (was too lazy to implement yet another keypress )
Readme
EECH TrackIR test exe (v4)
This executable adds mouse panning and TrackIR panning via the remote interface to the EECH executable. It also has user-selectable Field of View implemented.
Installation: ============== Install EECH, patch it up, and copy this exe into the /cohokum folder.
Panning: ========= Mouse users: Mouse panning works only in virtual cockpit mode, using the keys CTRL-V and CTRL-N the user can increase or decrease input-sensitivity, which (should) be independant of any Windows-mouse-speed-settings. The key CTRL-B will restore a default pan-rate.
TrackIR users: Start the NaturalPoint software, set it to enhanced mode (f8 usually), center it (f12), minimize it (optional), start eech, enter the cockpit. You can recenter the view everytime by pressing F12. YOU HAVE TO SET THE NP SOFTWARE INTO ENHANCED MODE FOR IT TO WORK !
Keyboard/POV hat user: Sorry, you are out of luck with this version. Panning while in virtual cockpit mode by keyboard/POV is not supported. (The sole point of this .exe is to show off TrackIR/mouse panning..)
Note: The view restrictions of the original exe still apply, so if the player turns his head more than is needed for (say) -90 degrees pan, the view will not move anymore.
Changes to Field of View (FoV) ============================== Three new keys have been added '7' gives 80 degrees FOV '8' gives the normal FOV '9' gives 40 degrees FOV
Please note that higher FoVs also bring lower-poly 3d-models with them, reason unknown..
Acknowledgements ================ XHit and Andrew and the other guys from the biohazcentral fora for getting me the MSVC6 workspace. Gotcha (et al.) for hashing out the OpenWatcom compile-procedure. Osram for babysitting this C-n00b and most of the TIR-files The TIR guys for sending me the kit =) Razorworks!
The next one is a 'patch' for the (80MB) EECH Demo, just enter 'enemy engaged demo download' into google and you should come up with a few download links.. just extract this exe into the /cohokum folder of your demo-installation..
There is no source code for these changes available (I´m still not sure about the 'legalese' of the TIR-code, and the mouse-code isn´t that 'nice' anyway ), but I´ll gladly commit them once (some sort of) CVS server is set up.. if you´re in dire need of it, you can mail me however (adress is in the readme)
Don Quijotte has updated his Donkeyshots column with some new pictures. If you haven't visited Don's column before be ready for some very funny pictures :)
Company Strengthens Commitment to Combat Simulation Category
San Francisco - February 20, 2003 - Ubi Soft Entertainment, one of the top 10 video game publishers in the world, today announced the relaunch of the company's line of combat simulation games under the Strategic Simulations brand. The category will include three highly anticipated upcoming games, IL-2 Sturmovik : Forgotten Battles, Larry Bond's Harpoon 4, and Lock On : Modern Air Combat, as well as three unannounced combat simulations targeted for 2004 and 2005.
Games in the Strategic Simulations line will span the greatest eras of historical and modern warfare, and will have a consistent look in packaging. The new line look will roll out with IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles.
"Ubi Soft has had tremendous success in the combat simulation category," said Tony Kee, vice president of Marketing for Ubi Soft Entertainment. "With the already proven strength and longevity of the Strategic Simulations brand on our side, we're solidly committed to the genre, and we have some great titles coming out over the next several months that we're really excited about."
Ubi Soft also announced the expected ship dates for the first three titles in the Strategic Simulations line. IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles, sequel to the extremely popular IL-2: Sturmovik, will ship to retailers in March. Larry Bond's Harpoon 4, the latest modern naval warfare simulation in the highly successful franchise established by Larry Bond, will launch in early May, and Lock On: Modern Air Combat, the premier modern combat flight simulation, will be released in July.
About IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles IL-2: Forgotten Battles is the full-featured sequel to the hugely popular, multi-award winning IL-2: Sturmovik World War II combat flight simulation. Created by 1C Maddox Games, IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles adds new maps and missions for both single and multiplayer play, as well as dozens of new World War II aircraft, including the American P-47 "Thunderbolt" and German Ju-87 "Stuka," a new dynamic campaign system, and several other features for almost limitless replayability. For more information, visit www.IL2sturmovik.com.
About Larry Bond's Harpoon 4 The newest title in the popular franchise, Larry Bond's Harpoon 4 is the ultimate simulation of modern naval warfare. The real-time game features over 1,000 ships, subs, aircraft, and ground formations, a highly detailed and customizable map of Northern Europe, and a variety of single and multiplayer missions, including a special campaign written by best-selling techno-thriller author Larry Bond. For more information about Larry Bond's Harpoon 4, visit www.harpoon4.com.
About Lock On: Modern Air Combat Stunningly realistic yet accessible for all players, Lock On: Modern Air Combat presents the ultimate in modern combat flight simulation. The game features eight flyable combat jets, including the American A10A Warthog and Russian and German MiG-29 aircraft, breathtaking 3D terrain with incredible detail and dynamic lighting, at least 36 individual missions, and scalable realism and detail for both the beginner and expert pilot. More information about the game can be found at www.lo-mac.com.
San Francisco - February 19, 2003 - Ubi Soft Entertainment, one of the top ten video game publishers in the world, today announced that the highly anticipated World War II combat flight simulation IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles has gone gold. The game, part of Ubi Soft's Strategic Simulations line, will ship to U.S. retail stores March 4, 2003.
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles is the full-featured sequel to the hugely popular, multi-award winning IL-2: Sturmovik World War II combat flight simulation. Created by 1C Maddox Games, IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles adds new maps and missions for both single and multiplayer play, as well as dozens of new World War II aircraft, including the American P-47 "Thunderbolt" and German Ju-87 "Stuka," a new dynamic campaign system, and several other features for almost limitless replayability. For more information, including a complete list of all new aircraft, maps and features, visit www.IL2sturmovik.com.
"Fans of the original IL-2: Sturmovik, as well as newcomers, should be thrilled with the sheer amount of new content in this sequel," said Matt Wagner, producer for Ubi Soft Entertainment. "From the new Dynamic Campaign, to the new maps dedicated to multiplayer, and dozens of added features, there's a lot for sim fans to enjoy."
I have posted an interview with Keith Rosenkranz - author of the book Vipers in the Storm. Here's a snippet:
[Keith] It’s hard to look back at the combat missions I flew and find anything humorous. We were always so serious when we flew. I do recall a mission I flew with Carlos “Jackal” Nejaime. Carlos and I flew a large number of missions together and we were a great team. One night we were dropping on an Iraqi Republican Guard AAA site in either southern Iraq or northern Kuwait. I came off target after dropping my bombs without being fired upon. Less than a minute later, Carlos called off target and said AAA was being fired at him. My reply, which was kind of stupid, was “Copy, move the jet.” Though I obviously didn’t need to, I was simply trying to remind him to jink in an effort to make it harder for the gunners. Carlos calmly replied, “Thanks!” When we were back at Al Minhad going over the film in the debrief, all of us laughed at the exchange.
NaturalPoint announces THE RELEASE OF trackir PROFILER 2 ON FEBUARY 18TH, and the launch of the trackIR enhanced program.
NaturalPoint is proud to announce the latest release of the trackIR Profiler and driver software for Microsoft Windows versions 98 through XP. The new version, known as trackIR Profiler 2, adds a number of highly requested features, including user definable speed settings, dead zones, auto-panning, and new precision mode. According to Jim Richardson, NaturalPoint’s President, “The new trackIR Profiler 2 will bring a new level of customizability and control to trackIR users. It adds so many new features that it brings the trackIR to a whole new level.”
trackIR Profiler 2 also introduces the trackIR Enhanced initiative, designed to bring trackIR capabilities in supported game titles to a new level. Birch Zimmer, NaturalPoint’s Director of Software Development says that the trackIR Enhanced mode “…offers game developers and their users a way to add a level of immersion and control to titles that just isn’t available with any other game controller.” Derek Davis of Computer Pilot offers: “the trackIR is the first real revolution in control in 15 years. It’s completely changed the way that I play.”
Look for more information on major software support for the trackIR Enhanced interface in the coming weeks, including titles from Ubisoft, Microsoft, Strategy First, and Buka Entertainment in the coming weeks.
trackIR Profiler 2.0 will be made available free of charge at www.trackir.com/support/downloads.html after 1:00 pm on Tuesday, February 18th.
For more information on the NaturalPoint trackIR, go
HERE
Futuremark (formely Mad-Onion) have released the latest in their line-up of 3dMark benchtesting software - heres a quote from their news release.
3DMark03 sets the new standard for easily and objectively measuring and comparing modern PCs’ 3D graphics performance. It supports the latest Microsoft® DirectX®9.0 and contains four new mind blowing real-time 3D game tests as well as advanced DirectX®9.0 feature tests. An integrated online comparison service provides the user with an unprecedented insight into her PC’s performance and bottlenecks by enabling detailed test result comparisons with a community of hundreds of thousands of users.
Be warned though - its a 181mb download - it is reccomended that only those with newer DX8 and DX9 graphics cards download it - older cards are not well supported.
ATI have released another update to their Catalyst drivers, with th much anticpated support for 16bit FSAA! This is great news for players of older games. Performance improvements have also been reported for many games.
"Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight" Commemorates 100 Years of Aviation History
REDMOND, Wash. - Feb. 11, 2003 - As the world prepares to celebrate the 100th anniversary of powered flight, Microsoft Corp. today announced that "MicrosoftR Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight" is in development and cleared for takeoff this July.
With "Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight," the next milestone in the award-winning "Flight Simulator" franchise, Microsoft celebrates 20 years of developing and perfecting computer flight simulation. "A Century of Flight" allows aviation enthusiasts to experience history at the controls of historic aircraft, such as Charles Lindbergh's Ryan NYP "Spirit of St. Louis," the Douglas DC-3 and the world's first successful powered aircraft, the Wright Flyer.
New engaging features such as interactive multimedia provide a wealth of historical information on the planes that shaped aviation history and the pilots who flew them. Informed and insightful articles explain all there is to know about Microsoft's "Flight Simulator" and the 24 aircraft included in the software. "Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight" also introduces an updated, dynamic weather system, enhanced automatically generated scenery (AutoGen) and detailed visual effects, improved Air Traffic Control functions, and 3-D interactive cockpits, as well as 15 modern aircraft, including the Boeing 777, the Beechcraft Baron and the Robinson R22 helicopter.
"Launching 'A Century of Flight' in conjunction with a historical milestone as monumental as the invention of powered flight is an exhilarating, once-in-a-lifetime experience for all of us on the 'Flight Simulator' team," said Bruce Williams, product planner at Microsoft Aces Studios. "There are a lot of organizations celebrating the centennial of flight, but 'Century of Flight' empowers people to get into the cockpit of legendary aircraft such as the Wright Flyer and the 'Spirit of St. Louis' to feel what it was like to actually fly those planes."
When "Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight" launches this July, Microsoft will mark flight's 100th anniversary by participating with the Experimental Aviation Association (EAA) in a yearlong celebration, Countdown to Kitty Hawk. A touring pavilion honoring aviation heroes and innovations will land in cities across the country, beginning this April at Sun 'N Fun in Lakeland, Fla. The pavilion will house a virtual 1903 Wright Flyer with which guests can experience the new "Flight Simulator" software, stepping back in time and recapturing the feeling of the first flight of Wilbur and Orville Wright on the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk, N.C. Would-be pilots operate the "aircraft" from a horizontal hip cradle, using hand levers and a shifting hip mechanism to control virtual takeoffs and landings in front ofa giant panoramic projection screen.
Availability
"Microsoft Flight Simulator: A Century of Flight" will be available on PC at leading retailers nationwide including Best Buy, Electronics Boutique and Circuit City Stores Inc. in July 2003 for an estimated retail price of $54.95 (U.S.)* and is rated "Teen."
Today, Monday the 10th of February 2003, the Dutch-based company TRC Development b.v. launches SimKits. This is a unique product line of kits with simulator parts, that allows cockpit self-builders to build gauges for twelve different airplane cockpits. The new website http://www.simkits.com with the SimKits shop features the complete line of kits.
Now flight enthusiasts and flight simmers can build their own true-to-life cockpit with SimKits gauges. They can build almost any gauge they want for a home-built cockpit and use it with Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 to experience nearly real flight. The SimKits are constructed in such a way that they can be used for twelve different types of aircrafts. The different types of aircrafts are the Cessna 172 Skyhawk, the Cessna 182 Skylane, the Beechcraft Baron 58, the Beechcraft King Air 350, the Bell 206B Jet Ranger, the Cessna Caravan Amphibian, the Cessna Grand Caravan, the Extra 300S, the Mooney Bravo, the Schweizer 232 Sailplane, the Sopwith Camel and the Vaught Corsair.
The General Gauge Kit for example contains nineteen different faceplates, allowing you to build an Airspeed Indicator, a Vertical Speed Indicator or a Tachometer for multiple airplanes. The customer only needs to buy a servomotor (also offered at the SimKits webshop) that propels the needle of the gauge.
The gauge is equipped with lighting that is regulated by the Central Control Unit. The gauges need to be connected to a Central Control Unit through a flatcable included with the product. The Central Control Unit connects to the PC- run flight simulator software via USB. Prices of the Kits start at US$ 29.50. The shop can be found
HERE
The BDG (Battle of Britain / Mig Alley Development Group) have announced the release of version 0.95 of their improved BoB version. It is to their knowledge the second available combatsim with native TrackIR support and the first that natively supports the new interface of TrackIR software 1.40 and 2.0.
Other features include drastically reduced / fixed stutter, high resolution landscapes, flak enhancements, and fixes the "Stuka grunt", "Pampa" and video playback on WinXP
The forums are currently down while I look for a new server to host them on. I don't know how long they will be down as my funds are very limited. I will try to put up a temporary forum soon to tide us over.
Those nice guys over at Lo-mac.com have posted their Thursday update which includes another video - this time of the Su-33, this video shows off the very nice water and city graphics.
All the staff at Frugal's World would like to offer our sincere condolences to the families and friends of the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia. These words seem most appropriate.
Oh! I have slipped the surley bonds of Earth
And danced the skies of laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth of sun split clouds, and done a hundred things you have not dreamed of
Wheeled and soared and swung high in the sunlight silence
Hovering there, I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung my eager craft through footless halls of air...
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind swept heights with easy grace
