Check out the third part of Thrustmaster's gaze into the plexiglass ball as they comment on the future of flight sims. Here's a snippet:
"Flying a BF109 G-2, I chased an La5 into the clouds yesterday, with my wingman tucked in behind me. I came out of the clouds above the bandit, but my wingman was nowhere to be seen. Then I saw him spinning to earth below me. He had lost orientation in the clouds; perhaps climbing too steeply, and then went into a spin."
Dogfighter have reviewed Saitek's programmable command pad. Here's a snippet:
"The surface of the P8000 itself is fairly smooth with slight rises in each of its thirty-five pad positions that, when pressed, actuate a function. The primary benefit of this design is that custom made paper overlays can be placed over the pad, hiding the original key symbols, and act as a map for user created routines. Complicated multi-faceted keyboard commands – including those with timing features and different actions on press and release – can be programmed to a keypad position."
Thrustmaster have published the second part of their look at what the future holds for sims. Specifically, the article concentrates on Flight Models and Realism; Views and Situation Awareness and Damage Modeling. Here's an extract:
"Some of the behaviors that are most interesting to see in the AI are panic, spins, and loss of sight. With AI pilots subject to the same limits and forces as the human pilots, the games become much more interesting. It has often been difficult to measure this factor of realism, but I’ve never had a more difficult time making a kill than in IL-2, and I am happy to report that the AI is having an equally hard time in scoring!"
Check out this link posted at SimHQ. It's an interview with a German Mig-29 pilot at Lock-on.de. Here's a snippet:
"A combination of a fast moving coolie hat driven pilot view like the one in Flanker 2 in combination with a padlock view once a target is found is a very realistic option. So far all pilot views would be in relation to the aircraft. This makes a systematic search very difficult if you start banking and manoeuvring. A better solution could be to slew the view in relation to the horizon like pilots do in the real world. Padlockviews on the other hand would give you situation awareness on everything in your vicinity which is not true either. Only for fighters like Eurofighter or the F-22 with sensor fusion and helmet display this might be correct., but for MiG-29, Flanker or F-16 this is not realistic. TAW and EF2000 made good use of the padlock view. In Falcon you get unrealistic high situation awareness with it."
SimHQ report that GamesDomain have published an article looking at the state of play in the sim market. Very pro GA, the article makes some good points. Here's a snippet:
"Of course I've owned civilian sims before and I actually very much enjoyed the Flight Unlimited series, but I always regarded this as relaxation between my Falcon sessions. Soaring in a light prop while enjoying the view can be really nice but I never really understood what it was all about. I didn't even make the choice to try, reality dragged me, kicking and screaming, into the world of simulated civilian aviation and when I got a broadband connection, my last shred of resistance was broken."
Check out this Thrustmaster article Here's a snippet:
"As you roll and dive back into the clouds to lose the 109 you close your throttle so as not to overspeed. You can’t see the 109 anymore but a second later you hear the sound of an engine above and to your left. You have probably lost him, but you have another problem. The throttle is stuck at 75 percent and soon you are nearing 500 mph, trying hard to pull your ship out of the dive. The force feedback stick is telling you that your control surfaces are barely responding, and suddenly your flaps tear off, then part of your rudder, and it’s time to get out."
Flightsim.com have posted a nice article with some good ideas...here's a snippet:
"Flightsimmers have a unique problem. How to have the cockpit of the future which belongs, at once, to the high speed fighter of 2010, the sedate modern airliner up to the superjumbo A380, and the pernickety 'wheee..fut..fut..fut' chopper as well...it must be built over a weekend preferably...by us...and doesn't cost a million in any currency, any denomination! Tall order? Not at all! Sure, you won't end up with a 6-axis, full motion, totally enclosed cockpit, but for what we are going to invest we are going to get what we really need most...ergonomic controllability and comfort! Whatever we do we are never going to remove all the ghosts, but if we at least eliminate those within our control and reduce the effect of others, life becomes that much less tense! This is what the "Multi-Aircraft 'Cockpit'", or 'MAC' is all about!"
Thrustmaster have posted an in-depth look at some ME109 variants with screenshots from IL-2. Here's a snippet from the piece:
"Consider for a moment that a single 20mm cannon with a rate of fire of 650 rounds per minute and a bullet weight of 5 ounces is capable of placing 44 pounds of lead in the air in 15 seconds. The 30mm Mk 108 used a heavier explosive shell weighing 11 ounces, capable of placing 65 pounds of lead in the air in ten seconds. With the addition of the two wing-mounted Mk 108s the G-6 models could fill the air with 200 pounds of lead in ten seconds. The muzzle velocity of the Mk 108 was roughly 1600 fps."
I have posted BBall's review of Alpha Simulations Harrier Jump Jet add on for FS2000/CFS/CFS2. Here's a snippet:
"It was a bit touchy at first for this simmer, but with some practice, I got the hang of it. Imagine if you will, trying to balance on a beach ball with about three shots of tequila in you…that's what flying this thing around with the nozzles pointed straight down is like until you get used to it. I brought up the gear, and (in stages) brought up the flaps (bringing the nozzles toward the forward flight positions), and zoomed around the English countryside like a kid high on sugar! What a gas! O.K. enough of the sightseeing trip, let's make this thing do what it's designed for…come to a hover and plop it down on a predetermined spot."
AVSim have posted a link to the official site for the upcoming sim-racer. To quote the Xtreame Air Racing site:
"Fifty Feet Above Hostile Terrain, Moving At Nearly 500 MPH In An Airplane Older Than Most People You Have Ever Known. Surrounded By Seven Other Airplanes, With But One Thing As Their Goal... Winning! — Is This A Dream?"
At Dogfighter, Puma details in his virtual log book as Serpent Flight takes to the skies over Serbia. Here's a snippet:
"At that moment it seemed like every Fulcrum on the planet had been vectored in on us and we were in some serious trouble. I chucked my remaining air to ground munitions and searched frantically for Serpent22 to find him twisting and turning on the deck with three Fulcrums crawling up his tail. “Well maybe the idea of loading up two planes for air-to-air wouldn't have been so bad after all”, I think as I roll in on the last Fulcrum in the line of Fulcrums chasing my wingman. I switch to ACM mode but my air-to-air missile is having a hard time picking out a bandit amidst the ground clutter. I finally decide to uncage the weapon and the diamond lock indicator fixes over the trailing MiG while the tone in my head grows ever louder."
AVSim have posted a review of this CFS2 add-on. Here's a snippet:
"When engaging several enemy aircraft, ensure you use your wingmen to attack other aircraft with you. Again the inter-cockpit chatter is helpful for maintaining the overall air picture. If it gets too wild and you have no hope of getting back to home base, you always have the option of bailing out and using the nylon letdown system."
SimHQ have noted that Sim-Arena have posted a preview and video. Here's the intro:
"If you are a simulation fan and you haven't been eagerly anticipating this title, one word of advice: start. This simulation has the potential to re-define the genre, if it doesn't bloody-well shred it. Ok, it's too early for superlatives in regards to a simulation that is just now creeping towards Beta-testing, but I must say that I have never seen a more promising product than Oleg Maddox's most ambitious creation. Where to begin…"
I have posted Chunx' latest logbook article entitled "Making The Recovery". Here's a snippet:
"About 5 miles from our first shot and from the corner of my consciousness I noticed a little yellow light blinking at me from the instrument panel. It was the Master Caution light. With no other caution or warning lights provided in the back seat of the Tomcat, I asked Kemo why I was seeing a Master Caution. Kemo came up on the ICS, his voice a little higher than its usual pitch. "Oh, shit…." These are the words no RIO ever wants to hear from his pilot's mouth. Yet here they were, yanking me away from thoughts of kicking some "ego-driver" boo-tocks and back to the reality of flying high performance jets."
Seen the movie "Pushing Tin"? Do ATC always get the girls? Microwings have posted a review of this sim. Here's the intro:
"So, You want to try controlling everything at once? The heavies, the turbojets, the single seaters? Well, then you have found the product for you. ATC simulator will put you in the controller’s seat of any of the 48 US TRACONS found in the program. More are available for a cost and cover more of the world such as England. Just like any program, this game does have its flaws. But if you want to control planes, this may very well be what you have been searching for."
Thrustmaster have posted part one of an interview with one of the prople working on this freeware sim, Richard Gall. Here's a snippet:
"Meanwhile, the ground beneath you is amass of flames, you see aircraft falling from the sky as though it was raining fire. That is only the beginning. Imagine that in a multiplayer environment, where people fly the night fighters, your bomber crew is made up of human friends, the flak and search lights are also being controlled by people. All the while the night fighters are being guided via voice by human radar controllers calling out vectors."
"To begin the campaign, you must select the Wartime gamplay mode and then select your six pilots; it all works the same as the training did except for the missions you fly. After being tasked my first mission, to destroy a few patrol boats, I briefed and went to the cockpit. After taking off, I noticed that the mission was very short; probably only about two minutes flight time to the target. After gaining a visual on the ships, I hit a key which locked the first ship, fired, selected the next, fired, and did so until all of the ships had been destroyed; this took two passes."
"O.K., now I’m really jacked! I’m truly hot this time! This is ALMOST enough to get a guy to give up on flight sims altogether and take up basket weaving! This makes me want to bite the heads off of bunnies, and kick old ladies canes out from under them in the crosswalk! I know, I know, I need to watch my blood pressure, I’ll take a few Bud Light pills, chant my mantra while doing my Yoga breathing exercises, think of cute little puppies and be alright again in just a few minutes. What, you must say, is BBall so all fired up about? We haven’t seen him this upset since they cancelled “The A-Team” on TV! Well, just give me a minute and I’ll explain to you why I’m seeing red."
Apologies. Apologies about the lack of news updates over the last few days. Both myself and my machine have been under the weather (not entirely unrelated, I think we're both overheating in this unusually seasonal British summer).
I've posted a whole bunch of recent items below and normal service is being resumed. Expect the Balkan 'Powderkeg' Theater to be available for download today.
Dan CRASH Crenshaw of SimHQ has reviewed Microsoft's new sim. Here's a snippet:
"Graphically this game is just stunning, much on par with Microsoft’s Combat Flight Sim 2. Sightseeing is half the fun of this experience. I have found myself setting up dusk or dawn runs with the head lights going just panning around the outside of my trains looking at the attention to detail, the moon, the deer running across the tracks, cars – headlights on- driving along side or over the tracks. There IS a glaring lack of people. Even in the passenger trains where you stop at stations, there is an invisible population … even you, the driver, is invisible from an outside view."
Still with SimHQ, they've posted a link to Well Rounded Entertainment where there is an interview with the team behind the upcoming Flight Simulator 2002. Here's a snippet:
We've learned a lot since FS2000 was released a couple of years ago. We applied those lessons to Combat Flight Simulator 2, and we've further refined the graphics and simulation engines for FS2002. I can't go into all the details here, but suffice it to say that everyone has been focused on performance. We've fine-tuned scenery, instrument panels, the simulation engine - every aspect of the product - to deliver better performance.
AVSim have posted their review of this new GA Sim. Here's a snippet:
"Since the first version of Fly!, its scenery has been the source of much praise and at the same time much discord. The 3D elevation mesh seen in all of the Fly! editions has been remarkable and Fly! 2 does nothing but improve on what previous editions provided. A short trip to the Rocky Mountains, the Swiss Alps or the rugged landscape of Nepal demonstrate just how good the terrain mesh has become."
F4Community have posted an article by T-Bone about the Middle East Theatre. Here's a snippet:
"Why the Middle East? Well the theater is not exactly set in all of the Middle East... not in the Holy Land of the Near East but more concentrated in the Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabian corner. The main focus of our Middle East theater would be the Persian Gulf region. Our inspiration for this theater was Janes F-15's Iran campaign. We decided to pay homage to F-15 by setting our theater's conflict in the mountains of Iran, filled with numerous canyons and valleys to fly in."
"Falcon 4? It would be great if this column could end with the triumphant announcement of eFalcon 1.10, Realism Patch 5, Balkans Theater v1.0 and F4Patch being released (you do know that they'll all be released at the same time, right?). But, still nada. You know, this is getting suspicious... it's almost a month since that deadline, but still nothing. You don't suppose the plug has been pulled?..."
Read the latest (and last) "News From The Front" column at FurballMag by clicking
HERE
This time courtesy of Armchairempire. SimHQ posted the link for this review. Here's the intro:
"Another soldier and I walk along the road exiting Flavion, hoping to find a tank or a troop transport to hitch a ride to the next town. With the sun setting on the quiet town, we became lax in out travels. Bantering back and forth it took a few minutes to notice the three tanks on the horizon."
If you voted for "Processor" in our current Frugalsworld survey, you might want to check out this review at SimHQ. The review pays particular regard to the fps achieved in current flightsims. Here's a snippet:
"I mentioned earlier that Internet Content Creation was the strong suite of Pentium 4. Intel has invested quite a bit of money convincing consumers that Pentium 4 should be the processor of choice for not just Internet options but also office apps and games. While it is a great choice for gamers, it is clear that AMD is winning the office application war. Many argue that running Office 2000 microseconds faster amounts to little gain. It is, however, a benchmark that some companies could use to justify going with AMD over Intel."
SimHQ have posted a link to spydershanger.de where there's a nice little video clip of an F4. A film of this is also available to buy on CD......shame about the music though, or am I just getting old :=)
