I have posted a review of Just Flight's Dambusters addon for FS2002/CFS2. Here's a snippet
I have mixed feelings about the way the missions follow their real life counterparts so closely. On the one hand it adds an extra element of challenge and also helps you to appreciate the original pilots that flew these missions, but on the other hand it is quite linear and does not allow you the opporyunity to alter the course of history. If 617 failed a mission you too must fail that mission. That said there are a wide variety of targets, the Dambusters didn't just bust dams. The missions include raids on factories, Rail yards, E Boat pens, ships and more.
The CombatStick USB is a simple design at first glance, lacking a high tech look so common with recent offerings from companies like Logitech and Microsoft, but that simplicity belies the true strengths of the CombatStick, so don't be fooled. An 8-way HAT, 4-way HAT style switch, and six programmable buttons stud the sturdy military-like stick. The heavy base is surrounded by hardware trim controls and a simple rotary throttle, while a long and sturdy USB cable sprouts out the back.
The stick itself is built of high quality materials and feels solid in your hand, with smooth motion and positive re-centering. The unit itself is heavy enough to stay planted where you put it, especially thanks to the four rubber feet on the bottom of the base. As with most joysticks today, the CombatStick USB is not for left handed gamers.
Considering a high-end video card? Spodesabode have compared the two heavyweights in a simple review with comparative benchmarks. Here's an extract:
"The first thing that struck me as different from their predecessors is the exclusion of RAM sinks. This is due to moving over to the tinyBGA format. These give off a lot less heat that the old variety and of course let us achieve a faster speed. One of the other reasons for excluding ramsinks is in the design of the heatsinks. In theory they both move air across the RAM, in nVidia's case more so due to the shrouding over the sink. The problem with this design is assumes that there is adequate case cooling for the rear ram chips - this is not always the case."
The Wargamer have posted their thoughts on Sim. Here's a snippet:
"The weather effects are very nice and are probably some of the best seen in a flight sim. The clouds actually look like they are real. Lightning, thunder and rain add to the sensation of flying in bad weather. Flying through a thunderstorm is nothing less than a thing of beauty. Aircraft models look good but still seem a little rough when compared to Combat Flight Simulator 2 or IL-2. Aircraft show damage and display fuel and oil leaks if certain parts are damaged. Ground targets are very detailed and plentiful. The sinking of large ships is a visual treat. Not only do the ships explode and catch fire, but also sink in different ways, complete with oil slick. For example, sometimes they just roll over and go to the bottom, while other times they go down by the bow, raising the stern high in the air. Explosions in general are good but are occasionally overdone. A kubelwagon shouldn't explode like a truck filled with aviation fuel but it sometimes does in Combat Flight Simulator 3. Flak appears menacing and is also well done."
Interesting article over at flightsim.com. Elden Slick discusses "big screen" options; fresnel lenses, rear projection TV's etc. Elden's research is primarily for use with MS Train Simulator (wha?) but obviously the idea translates well to flight sims. Comprehensive stuff and potentially useful. Here's an extract:
"Several flight simulation fans enjoy the hobby of building recreations of aircraft cockpits to provide themselves with an additional amount of immersion and realism with flight simulation. The efforts range from simple, arcade-like booths to full-blown simulators built upon the actual remains of retired aircraft.
To date, I am surprised to find little activity of this nature in the train simulation arena. I am convinced there are several efforts under way, and it's mostly a case of the builders not advertising their accomplishments over the net - just yet.
If all this sounds very new to you, then allow me to share my experiences building a "general purpose cockpit" - an environment capable of supporting a variety of drivable craft, with recent emphasis on locomotive support. The general purpose design results in a cockpit which is not specific to any particular craft, so its resemblance to an actual locomotive interior is severely limited. The situation is made more complicated by the vast variation in the design of locomotive cabs, as their form increasingly follows their function. Nonetheless, its 2-seat side-by-side layout is of approximate width of modern diesel cabs."
Aman Kumar has taken a look at a couple of Flanker and Super Flanker models available for MSFS users over at flightsim.com. Here's a snippet:
"While the real-world Sukhoi airframe can handle G-loads well beyond my mother's average meatloaf (9+ Gs), FS will break it up like tissue paper at 6 Gs, so it's recommended that you turn off "aircraft stress causes damage" and "G-effects". With these settings (at the risk of sounding like Richard Simmons), aerobatics are fun-fun-fun! What I did notice, however, is that even a minute twitch of the rudder will have you careening about all over the place. Also, I was not quite able to attain the published 900 ft/sec rate of climb, even with minimal fuel. That apart, the plane stays true to the published maximum speeds, stall speeds, roll rates (~240 deg/sec!), etc."
Possibly something of interest for IL-2 fans, Richard "Swoose" Goldblatt has review this book for SimHQ. Richard also includes a useful IL-2 specific bibliography. Here's a excerpt from the review:
"The Pe-2 also had a reputation as a ‘widow-maker’. Many young pilots had difficulty mastering the Pe-2. One reason was the shortened pilot training courses at the outset of the war. Additionally, no trainer version of the Pe-2 was available at the time. A further reason was the Pe-2’s fighter-type wing profile, which featured tapered wingtips. This wing did not tolerate stalling on landing and the aircraft tended to ‘bounce’ upon landing, which often resulted in collapsed undercarriages. Crews also had to deal with poor fuselage sealing fit and the frequent danger of fire."
Bubba "MasterFung" Wolford has posted his thought on the latest intel processor, testing it in conjunction with PC-1066 RDRAM over at SimHQ. Here's part of the intro:
"Just a few weeks ago we were introducing you to the Pentium 4 2.80GHz. AMD quickly countered with the Athlon XP 2700+ and 2800+ CPUs but those were mainly a paper launch as availability on them is just now making it through the channels and will be available in North America soon. It seems like just the other day we were at the 2GHz launch event at IDF. It was, in fact, August of 2001 but my how time flies! What is clearly flying is the time between GHz milestones now. How many years did it take us to reach 1GHz? Then we went on Mach 3 to reach 2GHz and now I think we must be passing Warp 9 on the way to 4GHz."
How to Live and Die in the Virtual Sky” by Dan “CRASH” Crenshaw has been available at FLIGHT SIM CENTRAL for quite some time. Unfortunately the shipping costs from the US to our EU friends has made this book an expensive proposition, with a cost of almost 3 times the price of the book just for shipping. Now EU customers can order “How to Live and Die in the Virtual Sky” for $20 USD delivered anywhere in the UK or EU continent. For more information on how to order, e-mail CRASH at crash@simhq.com.
Also, for those who are planning to attend the European Flight Sim Convention at The National Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham, UK on Saturday November 23rd, 2002 from 10AM to 5PM, you can pick up your pre-ordered copy of “How to Live and Die in the Virtual Sky” for $18 USD at the show. Contact CRASH at crash@simhq.com to order and make arrangements to get your copy.
CFS Insider have posted Tuckers Top 10 Tips for optimising performance in CFS 3. Here's a snip:
When you first run CFS3, the configuration utility profiles your computer and picks graphics settings for you based primarily on your computer's processor speed, how much RAM your system has, what sort of video card you have, how much RAM the video card has, and what video drivers you're using. This sets the various sliders you see in the graphics options settings in the game, as well as the more complex settings in the CFS3Config utility.
Since there are so many possible combinations of hardware and drivers, we group all of the configurations into a few "buckets" into which we can sort machines based on specific criteria. If you change the bucket your machine is in by buying more system RAM or getting a new video card, the settings change accordingly. However, since there aren't nearly as many buckets as there are hardware configurations, tweaking individual slider settings may help you make the game fit your system or your personal preferences much better.
Here are 10 quick tips that we have found help performance on our machines. Try any or all of these out, but remember that "your mileage may vary," depending on what sort of hardware you have.
Clyde Durham, a former member of the 28th Bomb Squadron and Korean War veteran, has posted his account of his visit to the modern 28th over at flightsim.com. The article also includes Clyde's experiences in a B1 simulator. Here's a snippet:
"When the new program came up we were sitting on the end of the runway, engines running and ready for take off. Tim hit the throttles and I had the stick. Feet on the rudder pedals making minor adjustments to keep us reasonably straight on the runway and the aircraft literally flew itself off the ground and started climbing. Tim kept the throttles at almost full power and said to me, "Pull back the stick until we are virtually climbing straight up and let's see how fast this baby will climb." He instructed me to pull the wings back to the swept position and it felt like we were in a rocket heading almost straight up. Nothing but clouds as we looked thru the windscreen. I glanced at the altimeter and it was moving at a rapid pace, almost like a TV tape in fast forward. Tim said for me to level off at about 25,000 and we'd try some maneuvers. I started trying to level off when we passed 22,000 but we were at something over 27,000 before I could level it out. This thing was like a rocket. I can only imagine what some of today's fighters must be like."
AVSim have posted their review of the sim. In three parts, this comprehensive review covers all the bases. The all important flight dynamics are discussed:
"But all that detail is fine and dandy. What about the flight dynamics? Well, some of the aircraft behave like you would expect them to. For instance, the heavier bombers like the Ju-88 and the B-25 behave like heavy aircraft and have that heavy feel to them. You can't jump in a fully laden one and expect to do dogfights with it. And then there are aircraft like the Lockheed P-80A Shooting Star and the Vampire F1 that I enjoyed flying because they are agile, fast and perfect for dog fighting.
Then there are aircraft like the Focke Wulf Fw190A that make you wonder "what happened." In this case, the aircraft is so soft on the controls that even a slight movement of the joystick sent it into a frenzy. Trying to line up a fighter in a dogfight was extremely challenging. If you start swinging your joystick violently from side to side trying to line up, it'll only get worse."
Jump to the start of the first part of the review
HERE
The IL2 Center have posted a review of the Sim. Here's the intro:
"CFS3 puzzles me. It is the strangest combination of the good, the bad and the ugly I've ever had on my hard drive. I completely fail to understand how a game could ever be shipped with features in such mixed shape. It was finished in time for the holidays, but there should be no illusions about it being rushed. Fall of 2002 was announced as the release date in the first preview of CFS3 I've seen, many months ago. Were the developers simply overoptimistic when coming up with design specs and creating project schedules? I just don't understand it. CFS3 is a big step up from previous offerings in the combat flight series, especially on paper. While some of the features don't work as advertised, Microsoft should be admired for attempting to improve on their sim so much. I'm sure they've looked at their previous products and the existing marketplace, and then thought long and hard on what they needed to do to improve on their product. They introduced many new things, from complex features like dynamic campaign and cooperative multiplayer to the little things like having an in-game screenshot key. But unfortunately, most of the features in the Combat Flight Simulator 3 - Battle for Europe are not as exciting as they seemed from reading all of the glowing previews."
Rob Yurystowski at Sim-News has reviewed the latest 1600x1200 F16c cockpit from Aeyes. Here's the intro:
"Welcome to a new era in Falcon cockpits. In more ways than one...
Aeyes' cockpits have been a huge part of the Falcon Community for years now. The A-10, F-4, F/A-18 and others in Aeyes' stable have been of the highest quality work. Now get ready to strap into the next generation of high quality cockpit panels!
With the release of the new 1600x1200 F-16C cockpit, the virtual fighter jock has the best cockpit art available to a viper driver anywhere--period. The art quality is unsurpassed. Indeed this is a package one expects to get out of the box.
Aeyes' work truly shows his skill as an artist. All views work together flawlessly, blending from one frame to the next. Shadowing and palette use is extremely well done and cockpit authenticity remains faithful to the Block 50/52 F-16C. The functionality is on par with the official Falcon 4.0 Unified Team cockpit releases, so ramp start can be accomplished in full SuperPAK fashion."
