I have posted an updated version of Leonard “Viking1” Hjalmarson's CFS 3 Review. His review was originally written after about 30 hours with the release version of CFS 3.This updated review was written after more than 70 hours with the sim. Here's the obligatory snippet:
"Colin and Stanley call that they have engaged the first Ju88. The flak guns have opened up, but they have to be careful since there are friendlies in the air. I'm almost on the first German, and.. NOW. I let him have it with all four of my 20mm cannon and I see the strikes on his wing and fuselage. YES!! He is pulling up and turning off his attack course. Now I am past him and I am taking some hits.. thank God for the toughness of the Typhoon. She is a lady I am greatly fond of. If I were in the famous Spitfire I would probably be hitting the silk right now."
November 23rd represents a milestone in Flight Simulation. Assembled at the National Motorcycle Museum near Birmingham in the UK is a cavalcade of Flight Simulation talent from many parts of Europe and even representatives of Flight Simulation excellence from the USA.
Devotees of all things Flight Simulation can expect to visit three halls this year. Obviously Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator 3 will be a highlight, it launches only a few days before the show and for many visitors, will be its first sighting. The military minded will get to see a preview of L.O.M.A.C. (Lock On Modern Air Combat) and will also see the official add-on for IL2, Forgotten Battles. Oleg Maddox of Maddox Software will be in attendance answering questions on IL2 and Nick Grey from developer Eagle Dynamics, the force behind L.O.M.A.C. will be fielding questions with help from Matt Wagner of Ubisoft.
Get Mapping Ltd who have photographed the United Kingdom have teamed up with Visual Flight and Just Flight Ltd to produce the most radical photo mesh scenery yet. Get Mapping will talk about how they acquired the data, which was photographed from a Light Aircraft at 5000 feet. At the show expect to meet Gary Summons, the maker of exquisitely detailed UK airports. He is launching UK2000 Part 5 (the Midlands) for FS2002. Abacus software headed by Robert Stallibrass of Contact Sales will be presenting their latest and greatest releases as well as a UK version of Lago's Scenery Enhancement Editor. Winfried Diekmann from Aerosoft in Germany will be showing Canary Islands, Eurowings and the ACP Compact. All the way from USA, Marty Arrant from Vmax, will be presenting his 747-200 and the latest Go-Flight range including the new M.C.P. and Rack. The effervescent Kath Hills will represent CH Products. James Hallows, the talented writer of the THRUSTMASTER HOTAS Cougar software will be explaining the technicalities of these premium controls. Saitek, which is based near Bristol, will have their latest range of controllers. Bill Trezise of Copy Cat Controls will demonstrate both custom helicopter controls and the all new TY330 yoke controls which have arguably the best "feel" in the world thanks to gas dampers and geared trim. As usual the Flight Simulation User Group and P.C. Pilots Club of Ireland will be greeting both old and prospective members.
VATSIM will be demonstrating and explaining why you need never fly alone and a group of F16 flying types from Frugal's World and F4UT will be bringing a number of F16 Falcon Cockpits and shooting virtual missiles at each other.
Mike Clark from TecPilot will also be welcoming old members and signing up new to his on-line club.
Several Virtual Airlines including Knight Air and BA will be recruiting.
Visitors interested in new and exotic PC's and accessories will be well catered for by Alpine Systems who build PC's for simulation. Matrox will wow spectators with their triple head Parhelia card. If you are considering a projector then Merlin Audiovisual will show a range of units to suit all pockets. It is expected that the Real Cockpit instruments will be on show . Visitors will be able to experience Track IR head tracking and 3D Glasses by Edimensional.
Finally Ken from Air Supply will carry a wide range of charts and Pilot goods.
UK firm RC Simulations runs the European Computer Flight Simulation 2002. The show runs from 10am to 5pm and the tickets are £7 on the door.
Only three weeks to go now for all UK and (wandering) european simmers, the show will now spill over to a third hall at The National Motorcycle Museum, Birmingham.
SimHQ have posted a Q&A interview with Major Ed Rasimus (USAF, Ret.), an F-105 and F-4 Phantom pilot. Here, Ed discusses the F-105:
"The 105 held the distinction of being the fastest airplane in the world below 10k feet at that time. The only way a MiG could beat us is through an unseen intercept or if we were foolish enough to try to dog-fight with them. If they didn’t kill on the first contact, we could simply run away. If they blundered out in front of us, we shot them. Unfortunately, we didn’t have good air-to-air training in those days and we didn’t know much about mutual supporting tactics. It was only by the end of Linebacker that we were really beginning to teach the concepts of good BFM and fluid attack. There were always good fighter pilots, but we lost a lot of guys because of lack of training for the rest. The “welded” fighting wing thinking of WW II and Korea cost a lot of guys their freedom for five or six years."
Leonard “Viking1” Hjalmarson provides a comprehensive and objective review of the sim with some nice screenshots at CFS Pilots. Here's a snippet:
"Beware of reviews that claim “unquestionably the most accurate [FM] ever created. A combination of science and art, the design team started with mathematical aerodynamic flight models created by the team's full-time aeronautical engineer.” Every flight simulation created in the modern world has an engineer, and most of them are very good. Some teams (IL-2 Sturmovik) have three or four qualified engineers.
No PC based flight model will be perfect. Programmers have remarked that a fully detailed flight model for one aircraft alone would bring a 2 GHz processor to its knees. Therefore, any PC based FM is a combination of art and science, with a good dose of compromise.
Microsoft uses table based models instead of full physics models. Table based models are generally more forgiving than full physics models. The novice flying IL-2 on full realism is going to have a very difficult time, whereas the novice flying CFS3 on “hard” settings will do better."
With reports of the sim hitting stores in the US, Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator Insider have produced a guide for people experiencing various graphics related issues.
Over at ThrustWorld Coda has posted a Gamers Eye Review of the Shuttle Spacewalker SS51G Aluminum Barebones System - Intel P4 (FS-004-SH). Here's a snippet:
People often disregard the on-board features as inferiour to standalone cards. It is understandable, they used to be at the really low end budget market. Things appear to have moved on somewhat since that time. I am happy to say that this soundcard outperforms both my SoundBlaster Live Gold and my VideoLogic Sonic Fury (neither of which will make it inside my NEW system). Of course, I could be delusional here. Even if I wanted to use an external card, not much of a choice as the Shuttle has 1 AGP and 1 PCI slots. That's it, no more room for expansion...
I have posted a review of the Pentium 4 Northwood 2.53GHz and the D850EMV2 board. Here's a snippet:
Here though is where the Pentium 4 really starts to stretch its legs, offering double the performance of an Athlon XP 2000 with DDR. The PC1066 RDRAM with its theoretical 4.2GHz of bandwidth really starts to make a difference. PC800 never really demonstrated any performance advantage over DDR but the dual pipelined PC 1066 RDRAM at 533MHz (1066MHz effective) really does start to shine. In the memory bandwidth tests the memory only managed around 3.2 GHz but I suspect that is because the D850EMV2 does not officially support PC1066 ram, mind you 3.2GHz is more than enough bandwidth for even the 2.8GHz and the impending 3GHz CPUs...
Cougar World have posted an article and a number of links regarding the Cougar HOTAS. Here's the intro:
"It must seem odd to some people, that a section of the flight sim community would purchase a $300 controller, and then throw more money at it modifying its components. You'd think that wouldn't make sense, and you'd be right, if you didn't own a Cougar. Because you need to be a Cougar owner to experience and appreciate the Cougar and its community. Most Cougar owners are well aware that for $300, they've landed a bargain. A metal replica F-16 joystick and throttle offering unparallelled features and power, that heightens their simming experience, at a price considerably below break even that just doesn't make sense! Most will also be aware either from their own personal experiences, or from reading the forums, that the Cougar isn't perfect and aspects of it could be better. Enter the Cougar World community and some of its talented individuals! There are now mods discussed in Cougar World's Hardware forum to:
Remove the centre play. Replace the pots with hall sensors. Correct the speedbrake misalignment. Remove the "double click" detent feel. Reduce the spring tension. Rotating the joystick hats for increased realism. Alternatives to the rubber boot. Rotation of the microstick. Complete gimbal redesigns."
Mad Max Merlin has posted his enthusiastic review of the sim at flightsim.com. Here's a snippet:
"Rob, Mike, Darryl and the rest of the CFS3 design team have done an absolutely magnificent job of creating true situational awareness of being in the cockpit of a warbird during 1943. The sounds, sights out the canopy, plus the new smooth scrolling 3D cockpit view puts you smack in the middle of the action with convincing realism. Their attention to the smallest details completes the rich symphony of sights and sounds. Turn off the printed messages, crank up the realism to 100% and you'll have a tough time distinguishing the sim from the real thing.
The new cockpit views give you smooth panning in 360-degrees. Stick and rudder pedals are fully animated and all the gauges and switches work, too. The sound models are a feast for your ears. Microsoft went above and beyond to record actual aircraft sounds wherever they could find living warbirds. The ME-262 is a special treat.
The sim fighters creaked and groaned as I overstressed them to the inside edge of a stall, the same way the SNJ creaked and groaned through the loops.
Another exciting new feature that adds extra realism is the ability to adjust G-tolerance for your pilot character. Gone are the days of the instant black screen blackout from CFS1 and 2. Now, you gray-out and your vision constricts as you push the G-envelope just like the real thing."
The franchise rolls on. Thomas "WKLINK" Cofield has published a thorough review, with screenshots, of a late beta over at SimHQ. Here, Thomas dicusses the flight models, an aspect of the earlier sims that attracted a good deal of criticism:
"Ok, so how does she fly? To be honest, I am having something of a hard time figuring out the flight models. I am not sure that the versions I am flying have completed models, something I find somewhat strange. While some aspects, like torque effect seem to be modeled quite well others, like stalls and spins seem way easy. I had to really work to get some of these aircraft to spin and while some aircraft, like the Bf 109, have very good low speed handling characteristics, others like the FW 190a series were notorious for their nasty spin characteristics.
In CFS III I really had to work at getting the 190 to spin. Once I got her into a spin all it took was centering the controls to get the spin to break. No rudder input, no nose down stuff, just right out of it. Other aircraft behaved the same way. I know the XP-55 (one of the aircraft in the game) was noted to be particularly bad when you got out of your flight window. She seemed pretty docile in this game so far."
Tony Vallillo has posted an article discussing methods and techniques. Here's a snippet:
"Now all of a sudden, things have gotten a lot harder, since we have just transitioned from two dimensions into three! We not only have fore and aft, and right and left to worry about, but now there is up and down! But nothing has changed, really. The intent is to match your airplane's attitude to lead's. Fore and aft movement is still largely controlled by thrust. Closer and farther is more or less controlled by roll, and up or down by pitch. Often, though, several axes come into play at once, calling for combinations of pitch and power adjustments."
Rafael 'Cuervo' García has posted a detailed article regarding bombing techniques and the flexibility afforded in SP3. Here's the intro:
"The latest Falcon versions have brought us new possibilities to configure our weapons. For instance, before SP3, we were limited to a maximum of 175ft of bomb spacing per salvo. However, the new much more realistic avionics allow us to set this parameter to any value up to 999ft. Let's see how we can take advantage of this in order to improve our strikes."
"Mad" Max Merlin has but together some dogfighting tips at flightsim.com. Written from the perspective of a Corsair pilot flying a CFS2 standard F4U-1a Corsair against Japanese A6M5 or A6M2 Zekes, it's a good read. Here's a snippet:
"Corsairs are armored like Sherman tanks so it takes a tremendous number of hits to splash them - unless you take wing hits. Avoid target fixation and yet take advantage of it in your enemy. You can nose over and dive to the deck if the Zeke is close on your six and pull up at the last moment. A fixated Zero will miss the turn and crash. Zekes need to stay on you and pump a lot of lead into your Corsair before you get killed. Frequently they will fixate and that's the perfect set-up for your wingman to jump the Zeke and send him off to meet his honorable ancestors. Stay on your target just long enough to score fatal hits but break away before his wingman comes in to rescue him. Remember, with all your armor, you can stay in the fight longer and take much more damage and, if you're highly skilled, still break off, dive away and turn on the Zeke from a distance to kill him with an oblique attack and deflection shot."
The following press release has been communicated:
"Microsoft Game Studios today announced that Combat Flight Simulator 3: Battle for Europe has gone gold and is scheduled to ship to stores in North America on October 24. Combat pilots will soon have the opportunity to fly in the historical framework of the tactical air war in northwest Europe starting in mid-1943, but with a significant difference: The skill and perseverance that pilots and their squadron or Staffel bring to each battle can alter the tactical situation and the timeline of the campaign. This open-ended dynamic campaign engine allows pilots to influence events and the front line. If they can persevere in the war, squadrons can even add new technology to their arsenal.
Combat Flight Simulator 3: Battle for Europe delivers a brand new, ground-breaking graphics engine designed specifically to show-off highly detailed and enhanced 3-D models and textures while flying in fast, low altitude action. Combat Flight Simulator 3 also updates the franchise with more than 34 realistically rendered World War II aircraft with stunning 3-D cockpits. Combat missions are created dynamically with tactical objectives changing each time the enemy is engaged. Cooperative multiplayer missions and free-for-all dogfights via the Internet and LAN also bring a heightened sense of excitement and challenge to Combat Flight Simulator 3. For more information visit the official Combat Flight Simulator 3 site or the CFS Insider site. "
Matt Wagner posted the following on the boards at lo-mac.com
Hi folks,
Today I have some good news! Many of you have been wondering what the status of the Lock On campaign has been. After the loss of some key engineers, the campaign system (DBG) took a severe setback that would normally have set the release date back several months. However, I can now announce that Ross MacGregor will be bringing major elements of his Flanker “WarRoom” dynamic campaign system to Lock On. Now called the Ares campaign system, this element of the game will be directly integrated into the GUI (unlike WarRoom) and will offer unlimited replay-ability and resource management. We are very excited about this system and believe it will have long legs due to its open-mod design.
As Ross maintains a regular presence of this forum, I will leave it to him to address your specific questions. However, please bear in mind that Ross is very busy and Ares is still very much a work in progress.
-Matt
Matt "Wags" Wagner Producer / Ubi Soft Entertainment
Andy Bush at SimHQ has posted this lengthy and informative article primarily concerned with The "trim" process. Here's a snippet:
"And so our pilot, who knows a good idea when he hears one, begins to manipulate the pitch trim control of his plane. He does this in a series of incremental inputs, and with each input, he can feel the stick force slowly diminishing. Wow! He likes that, and so he keeps adding a nose down trim input until he reaches the point where he no longer has to push on the stick to hold the nose of the plane where he wants it. Somehow, the trim function has relieved him of having to do all the work himself. Now, the trim is doing the work."
