I have posted a review of the CH Products HOTAS. Here's a snippet:
Sounds pretty good but how does it translate when the stick is in hand? Well funny enough after a lot of time with the stick I can say that the "blurb on the box" is actually quite conservative. Perhaps I'm a little biased because of my love of the F16 but I liked this stick the moment I grabbed hold of it. It feels very solid and well made. The buttons and hats are all very well placed and even well shaped and it feels very comfortable in the hand. Sure the USAF or General Dynamics/Lockheed Martin deserve a lot of the credit for the original design, but credit also has to go to CH Products for the quality of their USB version for the PC. All the hats and buttons are within easy reach and each has a very positive feel. The addition of a throttle rotary is great if you can't afford to get the stick and throttle in one puchase.
FF2 has been released for Falcon 4. Here is the feature list.
1. Upgraded flight models of many aircraft. 2. Additional aircraft, ships, ground units and weapons. 3. Multiple improved 3D models and textures for many aircraft, ships, ground units and objects. 4. Improved air tasking and weapons load-outs for campaigns. 5. Improved “hit boxes” for aircraft and objects. 6. Improved damage values for objectives as well as improved damage effects of certain weapons. 7. Spawning (parking) of aircraft at airfields prior to taking off and after landing. 8. Improved naval units, including more realistic task forces, ship damage modeling and the ability of ships to engage aircraft from long range. 9. Improved SAM activity, including several new air defense units and shipboard SAM systems. 10. Improved ground units selection list for TEs. 11. Improved missile and engine smoke trails. 12. Additional new aircraft added to the dogfight section.
SimHQ have posted a review of AMD's new 64 bit CPU. Here's a snippet:
The number “64” comes from the fact that AMD is first to introduce a 64-bit processor. Why is 64-bit important? The easiest analogy might be to visualize a sports stadium. Imagine 75,000 people enjoying a sporting event when suddenly the game ends and all are looking to exit the stadium. Now imagine the congestion difference between 75,000 people exiting through 32 doors compared to those exiting between 64 doors. In effect, 64-bit doubles the bandwidth of the computer and allows a great deal more freedom in memory configurations and speed. The catch is that the hardware (CPU), OS (Operating System) and software applications (games, other apps) must all be designed for 64-bit for the system to take full advantage of 64-bit computing.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - September 30, 2003 - Ubisoft, one of the world's largest videogame publishers, announced the release of the highly-anticipated Lock On: Modern Air Combat demo. This single player demo features two exciting missions from the game and a full set of options that allow players to scale gameplay and graphical settings. Lock On will land on store shelves for the PC this winter. Lock On is rated "E" for Everyone.
Lock On features eight flyable modern jets, and in the demo, players can take the controls of the American-made A-10 "Warthog" and the Russian MiG - 29A "Fulcrum" in the most graphically rich, audio-intense game environment ever created for a combat flight simulation. In the Warthog mission, players fly the "tank killer" as they engage a group of enemy ground units with rockets, cluster bombs and the 30mm cannon. The Fulcrum mission features an intense dogfight scenario against an enemy-Mirage 2000. Players must utilize top piloting skill to maneuver the MiG-29A and defeat the enemy.
Lock On is the only modern day flight simulation game to combine high fidelity with a broad choice of aircraft. The demo gives players just a taste of the high-powered aircraft and various fighting styles featured in the game. Lock On is filled with action-packed missions, realistic flight modeling and flexible game options that provide unlimited game play action to both beginner and veteran flight simulation fans.
Lock On: Modern Air Combat Features:
* Eight flyable modern jets, including 3 from NATO (A-10A Thunderbolt II, F-15C Eagle, and German MiG-29 Fulcrum A) and 5 Russian jets (Su-27 Flanker B, Su-25, Su-33 Flanker D, MiG-29 Fulcrum C, and MiG-29 Fulcrum A).
* 20 single missions, four campaigns and 10 multiplayer missions, each with its own background and story.
* Options for action-oriented gameplay, such as the Fast Battle Planner, simplified radar, and scalable AI.
* Accurate flight dynamics, high-fidelity weapon systems, and realistic radio communications.
* Stunning 3D terrain and spectacular lighting effects.
* Realism and difficulty levels for both the beginner and expert pilot.
* 10 multiplayer missions for head-to-head or cooperative multiplayer action.
* Engaging campaigns and powerful mission builder.
* Single or multiplayer with 1-8 players and up to 32 on LAN.
Circle Software and Getmapping plc are proud to announce the forthcoming England & Wales VFR Photographic Scenery for X-Plane 6.70 and X-Plane 7.10 and above. Following the highly acclaimed England & Wales VFR Photographic Scenery for FS2002/2004 created by Visual Flight, we have used the detailed Millennium MapT and the NEXTMap Britain elevation data from Getmapping plc to produce a unique scenery product for X-Plane.
Some highlights of the X-Plane England & Wales VFR Scenery include :-
1. Over 150,000 square km of terrain - full coverage of England and Wales in three volumes
3. Photographic Terrain Resolution upto 4m per pixel
4. Accurate Digital Elevation Model created using radar technology based upon the just released NEXTMap Britain elevation data
5. Runways and Airstrips accurately aligned with the aerial photographs
6. Generic Night Lighting accurately placed based upon Urban Area Classification from the Global Land Cover Characterization Database Version 2
The X-Plane England & Wales VFR Scenery uses true aerial photography to cover every square kilometer of terrain. Each of the three volumes covers approximately 50,000 square km - never before has a scenery product of this quality and geographic accuracy been made available for X-Plane.
For more information on the Millennium MapT and the technology used to create it, visit http://www.getmapping.com
Look out for more news, announcements and beta screenshots
HERE
I know I posted this a week ago but as the show approaches I thought a reminder of the new venue would be in order.
IMPORTANT CHANGE OF VENUE FOR EUROPEAN COMPUTER FLIGHT SIMULATION'2003 EXHIBITION ON 5th OCTOBER 2003 DUE TO FIRE AT NATIONAL MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM LAST WEEK.
The venue of the show had to be changed with only two weeks to go following a major fire that devastated the National Motorcycle Museum last week. We began the search in earnest, with the possibility of even having to cancel the show, but luckily managed to find that the Hilton Metropole Hotel in the NEC Complex had two conference suites that we are able to use on the day. The show will be the same date (Sunday 5th October 2003) & times (10am-5pm), but will be in the alternative Hilton Metropole. Car parking will cost £6. If you arrive by train or to the airport, you can call the Hilton Metropole on 0121 7804242 and they will collect you by shuttle bus. Go onto our website at www.fs-show.com for maps and further information.
If you have already purchased a ticket, we will be contacting you directly to make sure you know of the change, but rest assured you existing ticket(s) will remain valid.
In the tragic and unforseen circumstances, we have done the very best we could do to keep the show up and running. We hope that our customers will help us spread the word about the venue change by passing the details on to other flight sim websites and their friends & associates.
I have posted BBall's preview of LO:MAC. Here's a snip:
"Good morning gentlemen, please be seated. The hour is near...soon we will be at war. Last night, the Americans established a presence at the Sukhumi Airbase not 60km from where you are sitting. Intelligence has confirmed several aircraft on the ramp, including fighters and transports. Unfortunately, those transports delivered several AAA and short range SAM batteries. We are not sure if they are operational at this time, but we must assume that they are. Your mission will be to destroy those threats. Your secondary targets are the aircraft on the ramp and any hardened targets on the airfield itself. A flight of Mig27s will be inbound ten minutes behind you to destroy the runway, so your timing will be critical. You will have Su27s on CAP station overhead, with support from AWACS orbiting north.... Kapitan Siminov will lead the mission, with Leytenants Avdeyev, Sorokin and Kharitonov making up the remainder of the flight. You take off in 1 hour. Intelligence and Metro will now answer your questions. Good luck gentlemen."
Snake Man of the PMC TFW has retired from Falcon 4 development. Snake Man has been the driving force behind Theatre development for Falcon 4. The PMC site and its forums have been an invaluable resource for all of the Theatre developers. His contribution to the Falcon community is immeasurable and he will be missed.
Snake Man, all at Frugal's World offer you our heartfelt thanks for all you have done for Falcon. We wish you all the very best in any thing you do in the future.
SimHQ have posted a review of EA's F1 Challenge '99-'02. Here's a snippet:
When driving F1C and any other racing sim, I use the cockpit view, preferring it because it's the closest to the actual view out of car from the driving position. As far as the driving aids go, I'll use 1) traction control (high) with manual shifting or 2) traction control (low) with auto shifting or 3) all driving aids off. I don't like the driving aids, and usually run with them off. I understand they're to assist in making the drive easier for occassional or new players, but they encourage a certain synthetic feel to the driving. So I guess if you plan to devote any significant time to F1C in an attempt to drive better, lose the driving aids. If it's just an occasional romp, then leave them on. But the driving aids provide for an even more synthetic drive akin to riding the Disney World monorail. "Buy" the course for test session (the solo "Test Day" mode) and learn the tracks.
I have posted Dan "CRASH" Crenhaw's review of F/A18 Operation Iraqi Freedom by Graphsim. Here's a snippet:
The combat missions are ranked from 1 to 5 (easiest to hardest) so you can gradually get your feet wet and learn as you go. Each combat mission has a briefing screen, notes and a map of your target area, waypoints and threat circles. Pretty well detailed and helpful to read. Next screen in the combat mission arena is the "Choose Ordinance" screen. You can use one of 15 preset load outs or build your own. Very flexible, very easy to use and very well done. Graphsim has paid a lot of attention to detail and taken a lot of effort to make the UI easily navigable and easy to use. After that, you begin the mission, more on that later.
In an effort to improve Falcon 4.0, Benchmarksims.com has retained an agreement with G2Interactive Inc., to modify the Falcon 4.0 source code and to provide a free of charge, free to download executable to the community.
Major contributors to Falcon include the RP Group, Eteam, the Unified Team, and Free Falcon. We are VERY sensitive to the work done by these groups, and as such, have gone through great pains to maintain the integrity of that work. We would also like to thank the various community members that helped with the initial testing.
That said, we submit to you, the community, a modified SP3 executable, that we humbly feel incorporates some of the graphical enhancements and fixes that we have all been hoping for. However, please note that this is a beta release, and as such, there may very well be bugs, including incompatabilities with some graphics cards. Therefore, PLEASE!! report all bugs and send your crashlogs to f4@benchmarksims.com.
We will be working these issues out, and adding new features and fixes on a daily basis, and you can therefore expect regular releases from us.
SimHQ have posted a very indepth review of Destroyer Command. Here's a snippet:
This game is something like a flight simulator for a multi-crew aircraft. The player can assume the role of Commanding Officer (CO) or a subordinate crew member. This is a very good architecture as it allows the player to experience surface ship operations from the standpoint of various crew members. Some of the subordinate roles are a little unfocussed as to just which level of responsibility the sim is taking the players. However, in a confused night action in the Solomons, the players will soon learn why we do not have one man ships. To fight, survive and win, the player must take on the CO’s role and let the (virtual) crew do their jobs. In order to take full advantage of the subordinate stations available, the game needs to allow team play on the same ship — I don’t think the game can do this.
A new demo version of Battle of Britain has been released based on the BDG 0.97 version. This is a lot better than the original (naff) demo. If you don't already have BoB and want to know what this sim is all about then this demo is for you.
Owing to the fire which destroyed most of the National Motorcycle Museum Carol and Bob are pleased to announce that the 10th European Flight Sim Show will now be held in the Westminster suite at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel which is located within the grounds of the National Exhibition Centre, the date of Sunday 5th October stays the same.
The Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel is easily accessible by car, rail and air. Birmingham International Airport and Railway Station are only 10 minutes away using the hotels courtesy coach and there is free car parking for 700 cars and overspill parking at the nearby NEC car parks for only £6 per day.
As before we have a full compliment of exhibitors and presenters at the conference hall which is the Pavillion suite.
A full posting will appear on our website next week including a map.
I have posted my review of RealSimulators MFD's. Here is a snippet:
Each key can also have a massive number of shifted functions, far more than you will ever need. To give you an idea of the functionality though, imagine you Fly Janes F/A-18 and can only afford a single MFD, that may seem restrictive with the F/A-18 having 3 MFD's. Not a problem, after some deft programming the MFD is controlling the left MFD and the left LED is on, a quick push of the CON UP button and now we are controlling the right MFD and now only the right LED is lit to indicate this. Another push of the CON UP button and now we are controlling the centre MFD and now both LED's are lit to indicate this. Pretty cool eh? And this is only a simple indication of the flexibility of these units.
In Tribute to the Few on Battle of Britain Day: BDG v097 update now available!
The BDG (Battle of Britain / Mig Alley Development Group) is proud to announce that the Battle of Britain v097 update is now available for download!
To ease installation, we have, for the first time, combined all updated components into a single 30MB download. It is a self installing process. The only thing to be careful about during installation is the path you install to, in other words, the BoB path. The installer suggests
C:\Program Files\Battle of Britain
while for most people this should in fact be:
C:\Program Files\Rowan Software\Battle of Britain
It is recommended to run the new Settings Advisor program, located in the "BDGAdvisor" directory, (immediately) after installation, which will allow you to quickly configure BoB to prevent system stutter and to configure various settings. It is also highly recommended that a framerate of no higher than 25fps be selected. Whilst this may sound low it is has been deliberately chosen to maintain constant framerate under all circumstances, and has no impact on how textures are displayed.
Like all previous BDG versions, 0.97 is a beta release. While past versions were probably stable enough to qualify as "final" releases, this time around we are a few rungs lower on the beta ladder. Reported problems include CTDs (Crashes to Desktop) and occasional graphical artifacts when running several Quickshots in a row.
One of the major reasons why we did not yet manage to resolve these problems, is that they manifest themselves on none of the computers of the four main developers. So, chances that this version will run well for you are quite good. Moreover, many old bugs have been squashed, especially in the campaign, so it may very well run with less issues than previous versions for you.
So, while we do advise most people to take the plunge, it will ultimately depend on your decision, and you may wish to simply wait a few weeks to see what happens.
Finally, an updated demo is in the works to be published shortly, so that people who are still undecided on whether to purchase the game or not will be able to get a taste of it.
Puma has updated his log with a great combat story. Here's a snippet:
Level at 17000, I switch my number two radio to guard to monitor the war. We have about 30 minutes of flying before we are at the IP. We fly in silence, but I have my Ipaq wired in so I listen to mp3s under the traffic on guard. I listen as a flight of enemy hind helicopters is under attack by a pair of Hornets. I look over the right side of my canopy and watch as the fight takes place below. I can see a rotor fluttering through the air, strange as it was not attached to a helicopter. The other three choppers fair no better, sidewinders from the Hornets make short work of them. As we approach the IP we drop down to 12000 feet and start searching. I give Mongo 12 the weapons free command as we pass through the IP. I turn on my Maverick and use the seeker head in the end of the missile slew through the target area looking for something to shoot. We are still almost 15 miles away from the site were the 62nd was reported to be operating but through my missile seeker, I can see dust trails kicking up from a road in the distance.
The Birmingham motorcycle museum which was to be the venu of next months European Computer Flight Simulation show has burnt down. This is a real tragedy for motorcycle enthusiasts as some of the exhibits at the museum were irreplaceable. It also puts the flight sim show in jeopardy. Hopefully a new venu can be found in time.
UbiSoft have released the Raven Shield v1.41 patch.
The following is an extract from the news page detailing the new improvements and fixes.
PunkBuster Starting with this patch, Raven Shield supports the PunkBuster anti-cheat software from Even Balance, Inc. The use and installation of PunkBuster is optional; PunkBuster will be available as a separate install. Please note that PunkBuster is only available in English, but don't worry, it is compatible with Raven Shield 1.4.1 and up in any language.
GameSpy Arcade This should have been mentioned in the release notes for patch 1.4. Raven Shield was already compatible with The All-Seeing Eye game service and is now also compatible with the GameSpy Arcade gaming service.
Translation Fixes The previous Italian, German, Spanish, and French patches inadvertently introduced some minor translation errors where some texts were displayed in English instead of the game's language. They have been fixed.
Immediate Firing Animation Toggle In response to the massive feedback, positive and negative, received from the players concerning the trigger lag, a toggle was added to make it optional. The new toggle, called "Immediate Firing Animation", lets the player select when the firing animation will be played: Immediately when the mouse button is pressed, or when the server confirms that a bullet has been fired. Please note that this animation is only cosmetic.
Custom Mission Maps Patch 1.4 introduced a bug, making it impossible to play previously unlocked maps in Custom Game mode. This has been fixed.
Memory Leak Patch 1.4 introduced a small memory leak each time a new map is started. When this small leak accumulates for many hours on dedicated servers, it can grow large enough to cause system slow-downs or crashes. The leak has been fixed.
I have updated my column with a piece remembering my feelings on September 11th 2001. Here's a snippet;
This was already the worst thing that had ever happened in my lifetime, the act itself was so dispicable that it was almost impossible to comprehend. I couldn't help but imagine the terror felt by the passengers, and the people in the buildings, and the people of New York. And yet there was still worse to come. News then came in that another plane had hit the Pentagon. I was already numb from the World trade center, and already my emotions were starting to overload.
BBall has updated his column with a repost of an article he penned in 2001. Here's a snippet:
But Dad, something terrible has happened. Something so incredibly bad that I can hardly understand it even now, many days later. I know you don’t get the news where you are, but you’d better sit down, this is truly a sad story. It’s almost impossible for me to understand this, but unspeakable evil has seeped into our daily lives. Evil that almost none of us can comprehend. The mongers of this curse, just a few days ago, unleashed death on such an unspeakable scale that it tears my soul just to think about it….and Dad, they used our beautiful, peaceful flying machines to do it.
On this second aniversary of September 11 2001 I have posted an article by Tom Perkins entitled A Week Without Clouds. Here's a snippet:
That sky stood in contrast with the sky I saw that week, the same sky from 1956, devoid of any sign that jets even existed. America the strong, but shaken. America the great, but hated. America the potential target. America the hope, but object of resentment. We are still a superpower, but no "super" power can protect us. The world is indeed smaller, now with the information technology that we have today, anyone can reach anyone anywhere anytime. And we do not know our enemies, our possible enemies, and sometimes, we don’t even know our friends.
C3PO has interviewed Chris "Washout" Carter on the progress of SP4. Here's a snippet:
The object density has also been given a massive boost for SP4 with towns and cities containing more than a dozen buildings. An explosion in tree population should be more apparent everywhere. This should enhance the environment for those who like to fly low level and aids with distance and altitude perception. To give an idea of the amount of work that has taken place here, the original objectives in 1.08 contained about 5,000 feature entries. The count for SP4 is now over 28,000 and the majority of these have been hand placed by myself and a tireless team of developers who don't seem to know the meaning of the word tedium.
ATI have released the latest version of their Catalyst drivers. Now at the 3.7 release, ATI have continued to improve performance across their Radeon product line. Importantly for us flight simmers is this snippet from the bug fixes area. The Windows XP system not responding when attempting to launch IL2 Sturmovik Forgotten Battles if the display resolution is set to 1024x768 32bpp is now resolved.
