Falcon 4 Designers Notes - By Microprose - Page 2 of 2
Designer's Notes Series #4
GRAPHICS
I suppose the first question anyone has to ask is "How's it going to look?" The answer, of course, is great. Falcon 4.0 has a lot to live up to, and we all know it. What we've got in store for you is nothing short of spectacular. We've posted some screen shots, and they're nice. The thing to remember, though, is that the real game's terrain will be flowing smoothly by as you fly one of the most realistic flight models available anywhere, and the scenes won't be JPEG compressed into oblivion.
When I started on this project, Flight Unlimited was just hitting the shelves. We were all impressed by its ground-breaking realism, but knew we had to do better. We needed to build a world 2,500 times larger with much greater visual variety and still retain the same level of realism and fit on one CD-ROM. A year and a half later, we've accomplished that and much more.
All of Falcon 4.0 will run in "high color" mode (that is, 65,000 simultaneous colors). In addition, both the setup screens and the flight simulation have been optimized for high-resolution display modes (800x600 and 640x480 respectively). This will allow us to provide unprecedented image quality and, just as importantly, variety. In the past, games have been limited to 256 colors for entire scenes. The result is often "cartoonish" looking environments. With thousands of colors to work with, our artists have been free to accomplish wonders.
TERRIAN
We started out with satellite photographs and elevation data covering all of Korea. This gave us good-looking terrain, but we wanted more. The satellite images just weren't crisp enough. We went out and found hundreds of aerial photographs from all over the country. These we cut up, processed and rearranged to supplement the satellite data throughout the map. The result is a startlingly realistic pilot's-eye view of the world with excellent detail no matter where you fly on the map. Those of you who've flown NovaLogic's F-22 Lightning II game may worry that Falcon 4.0, with only one theater, won't have enough variety in our scenery. Not to fear. Unlike F-22, Falcon 4.0 will have a full-sized realistic map so that you can fly from one end of Korea to the other and see all the variety of terrain you would expect as you pass over rivers, lakes, cities, forests, farmland and mountains. The scenery is good enough that it's fun to simply fly around and look.
We've put a great deal of effort into ensuring that you do get to see the terrain; and lots of it. Few things are more frustrating to me than flight simulations that seem to think the entire world is shrouded in dense fog all the time. We've certainly got haze and fog in Falcon 4.0, but on good days, you should be able to see major terrain features 50km or more into the distance. Of course, nobody can see a airplane or a tank that far away, but you can certainly see the ground! We simply won't tolerate mountains "popping" up in front of you at the last minute. We've developed a "level of detail" system which reduces terrain detail in the distance smoothly so that important terrain features are preserved, while subtle details fade out to maintain performance. Oh, and by the way, targets don't "pop" up either. If you can get a strong enough radar return, you can see targets out to the 80-mile limit of the F-16's radar scope. Since we've got a real campaign, we know what every vehicle in the game is doing all the time. If you decide to take an alternate route to your target or ignore your target entirely, that's fine. There will still be an interesting world with a war on out there.
As was mentioned previously, Falcon 4.0 has been designed from the beginning to be a multiplayer game with a real-time campaign running all the time. One consequence of this is that war goes on 24 hours a day (in game time, of course). We've put a lot of effort into making sure that the night-fighting experience is just as intense as the daylight missions. A lot of little things go into making this happen. When the sun goes down, it stains the western sky crimson. The city lights begin to come on, and as night sets in, the stars emerge. If you're lucky, it isn't a moonless night, and you'll get some additional lighting in the target area when the moon rises. You'll have to keep an eye out for AAA and SAMs, but at night that job is a little easier thanks to the muzzle flash and rocket exhaust.
3D OBJECTS
I've talked a lot about the terrain now, but what about the 3-D objects in the world? We've gone all out in this department as well. We've got several hundred air, sea and land objects from the U.S., South Korean, North Korean, Russian and Chinese inventories in the game. Each object has had its own textures individually drawn to capture specific details. The objects are dynamically lit by the sun and are Gouraud-shaded for a smooth appearance. We've built in hundreds of special behaviors like retractable landing gear, traversing and elevating turrets, rotating antennae and moving control surfaces to give each object a life of its own. We want to give you that deep-down feeling in your guts when you look out the window and see all the AAA guns tracking you.
HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
I'm afraid I have some good news and some bad news about system requirements. The bad news is your old 486 just won't cut it. By the time you get Windows 95 and all its drivers running, there just isn't enough performance left for a serious simulation. We've looked long and hard at the huge range of computer performance in the marketplace and decided that to meet people's expectations for Falcon 4.0 we had to take advantage of the state of the art. The good news is that we do take advantage of the state of the art. We've made every effort to build a scaleable engine, but to get things looking the way I want them too, you'll probably need a 90MHz Pentium with a strong 3-D hardware accelerator or a 166MHz Pentium with a good conventional video card. Part of this requirement comes from the graphics, but we've also got the most complete campaign and simulation engines in the business, and they both take time to run as well. We think you'll find it's worth it!
3D VIDEO CARDS
Both the terrain and objects for Falcon 4.0 are all new. We've designed cutting-edge performance into the engine from the start. Both software-only and hardware-accelerated graphics are supported by the game. The one surprise might be that, although we're running under Windows 95, we aren't using Direct3D. We simply couldn't get the performance and quality we need out of the current version. Instead we've built on previous work by Intel and come up with our own graphics engine which produces excellent image quality and performance. We're planning to ship with support for 3-D cards including those with chips built by 3Dfx, Rendition, Cirrus Logic, ATI and S3. As more hardware is coming out all the time and discussions are ongoing, this list is likely to evolve and grow. We watch the online news groups, so let us know which boards you're interested in seeing support for.
This project has been a long time in coming, but it's all the little details that make Falcon 4.0 much more than just another F-16 game. So until you see our handiwork on the shelves, know that we'll be slaving away here to get the finishing touches on the flight experience we've all been waiting for.
Scott Randolph
Senior Graphics Engineer
Falcon 4.0 Team
Spectrum HoloByte/MicroProse
Designer's Notes Series #5
1997 E3 REPORT
For the fifth edition of the Falcon 4.0 designer notes, it's been decided to let Software Quality Assurance have its say. Since we work closely with everyone, we are usually the first to see how well everything is coming together. We also had the fun (and hard work) of demoing the game at this year's E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo).
One of the best parts of demoing Falcon 4.0 in Atlanta was seeing the enthusiasm of the onlookers. Many people asked if they could take the controls, and those who did were impressed with the look and feel. Even those just watching enjoyed the explosions and the secondary explosions as parts fell and left individual trails. Customers also liked the sense of speed as you bob and weave through hills and valleys. Some Air Force personnel compared Falcon 4.0 to their training sims.
We mostly flew around in Instant Action to show off the flight model and terrain. Everyone was impressed with the moving flight surfaces and air brakes, but the oohs and aahs came when the landing gear went down and the landing lights came on. The landing lights go well with the air bases which have fully lit landing strips with VASI (Vertical Approach Slope Indicator), making night landings safer.
The planes have vapor condensation over the wings in a high-g turn (as in Top Gun), but we are still working on contrails. When you fire a missile, you see a nice smoke trail that ends when the engine burns out and the missile starts coasting to the target. A missile strike creates a spectacular explosion as bits and pieces are scattered throughout the sky. As pieces reach the ground, they explode with a beautiful concussion ring. The bombs also have concussion rings and will leave craters and building rubble. In the campaign, the rubble will remain until the building is rebuilt. Destroying the enemy's bridges won't stop the AI from rebuilding or maybe even putting a pontoon bridge next to it. So don't be surprised if you are assigned to destroy the same bridge more than once.
DOG FIGHT MODE
We only flew a little head-to-head in Dogfight mode, but people liked the different ways you could set up a fight. For example, if you want to restrict people from joining a friendly game, you can lock out as many slots as you want, thus limiting who can fly. You can even save this configuration for next time. Otherwise, players can enter and leave as long as someone has a game open.
Four teams (Viper, Shark, Tiger and Crimson) of four planes each compete in Dogfight. Each team has its own distinct coloration and pattern. If you want to practice, you can fly against any aircraft or combination at any difficulty level, but what most people wanted to know about was head-to-head. The host has a choice of two mode: furball and match play. Furball allows you to reenter immediately after being shot out of the sky, whereas Match Play only allows you to come back in after one team wins. Furball is a test of individual skills, while Match Play tests team skills. Who gets the bragging rights is determined by how long you want to play. The host sets the number of kills or matches from 1 to 100 (or even infinite), and you compete until that number is reached. To make it more interesting, every time you are killed or your team is eliminated, you lose a point.
CAMPAIGN MODE
To me, Dogfight is just as much fun as jumping into a free-for-all in Quake, but I enjoy a full campaign much more. Unlike Dogfight, the Campaign is not limited to 16 players. You will be able to fly as many people as there are slots in missions. If you dedicate a machine to a Campaign, no one ever needs to enter the campaign for it to come to a conclusion. Once you start a campaign, a real-time clock starts that stops only when you save or the war ends. How well you and your teammates do in the air affects the ebb and flow of the ground battle. You can join any mission that has not reached its target and started home. If the person who starts a campaign leaves with someone still flying, that person inherits everything and now becomes the controller. Each person who quits can save a campaign and come back to that time. Everyone originally in the campaign will be replaced by the AI, or you can all agree to meet later and jump back into your original aircraft.
You will receive updates continuously on how the war is going in the Intel section, which will help you make intelligent choices in the campaign. Every type of mission that an F-16 can perform will be in the Campaign. You will even be asked to loiter over a downed pilot until he is rescued. If the campaign decides you have enough time to destroy a bridge before a group of tanks can get across, then you will likely be assigned to that mission. You may even have to launch early to avoid an attack on your air base or defend the base while loaded with a strike package. I have been given orders to proceed to an alternate air base because mine was under attack.
I have switched to an outside view just to watch dogfights going on 10 to 15 miles away. I have been slammed by SAMs and holed by AAA more than I want to admit. We are also checking out all 4,000 static objects in the Campaign. This number does not include aircraft or the mobile ground forces. Once we let the campaign run by itself until it reached a conclusion, and it took 13 days of campaign time. This was without any human interference which means a campaign could easily last from 10 days to whenever.
I came here at the start of MiG-29 and have worked on all of the flight sims produced in Alameda. I have also looked at most of the other flight sims produced in that time. There may be a chance (just a little?) that I'm prejudiced, but what I see here flies high above what's on the market now.
Larry S. Webber
Senior Quality Assurance Technician
Lead for Falcon 4.0
Designer's Notes Series #6
CAMPAIGN
The Campaign is literally the heart of Falcon 4.0. It was the first code to be written for the project, and every aspect of Falcon 4.0 deals with the Campaign in some way. However, when people talk about Falcon 4.0's Campaign, they're generally referring to the "Dynamic Campaign" in which the player joins a squadron and engages in a virtual war.
Over the last few years, "Dynamic Campaign" has become such a buzzword in the flight sim community that the term has lost most of its meaning. Since Falcon 4.0's "Dynamic Campaign" surpasses the current flight sims, our in-house title, "Virtual Universe," is more appropriate. In Falcon 4.0, there are tens of thousands of tanks, APCs, aircraft, ships and military personnel attempting to carry out orders from all levels within the military's organizational system including their battalion, flight lead or task force commander, brigade or package lead, division or squadron commander, and commander-in-chief. All of this action is happening in real time, and you can jump into it at any time without experiencing abstracted troop movements and limited objects.
When designing the Campaign, my goal was to create a fully populated world that reacted not only to actions made by the player, but also reacted to chance occurrences made by the computer-operated pilots. I wanted a game that would run in real time like a real war and had the capacity to support dozens if not hundreds of players.
My first step was to determine a way to run artificial intelligence on tens of thousands of entities simultaneously on an average PC, while still allowing enough processor time to run the graphics at a reasonable frame rate. The obvious solution was to lower the amount of entities that required thinking. We decided to use aggregated units and installations.
An aggregated unit consists of a collection of vehicles or squads (between one and a few dozen) that operate together. Generally, Army units consist of battalions, Air Force units consist of flights and Navy units consist of task forces. These "units" receive orders as a whole, and they move and fight as a unit as long as no one is around to view them. When a player approaches an aggregated unit, the component vehicles are added to the sim and move and fight in view of the player. When a player moves away from these vehicles, the remaining pieces are placed back into the aggregated unit.
Similarly, installations (or "objectives" as I call them) refer to a collection of buildings that have a similar purpose (i.e., an air base has a runway, some hangers, fuel tanks, etc.). These buildings are placed when a player nears them and are placed back into their parent objective when the player moves away.
Since these objectives respond directly to a player's actions, a "player bubble" forms around any player in the Campaign as the aggregated units temporarily de-aggregate and interact with the player. At the same time, any and all damage inflicted by the player is recorded on the aggregated unit or objective; therefore, damage is permanent (or relatively permanent since the enemy can make repairs). So, if you decide to drop a 1,000-pound bomb on Seoul's Olympic Stadium, you'll get to view your handiwork whenever you fly by the bomb site in the future.
More importantly, the vehicles are all performing tasks given to them by a commander and are, therefore, part of a larger plan rather than randomly scattered encounters. For example, if you shot down several enemy SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defense) aircraft, the SAM (Surface to Air Missile) sites they were tasked to suppress would still be operational. Therefore, the enemy bombers that were tasked to fly over those SAMs may have to abort or take additional losses. Additionally, the enemy commander would probably end up having to task additional SEAD aircraft to do the task the first wave failed to do, creating a whole chain of effects.
Of course, your commander is working under similar constraints--attempting to prioritize targets, analyze threats and determine timing to build the best possible ATO (Air Tasking Order). Your commander assigns aircraft to strike packages, adds SEAD or escort aircraft if deemed necessary and even may add BDA (Battle Damage Assessment) aircraft to verify the target's status. Meanwhile, DCA (Defensive Counter Air) aircraft are assigned to keep the enemy out of the player's airspace; AWACS, JSTAR and tanker aircraft are assigned to support positions; FAC (Forward Air Control) and CAS (Combat Air Support) aircraft are assigned to the frontline's hot spots, and so on. As an F-16 pilot, you can view the entire ATO as well as your squadron's role within it and choose to fly any mission your squadron is tasked to fly.
Despite this ability, however, a game isn't quite a game if you are just "one" of hundreds of pilots and "one" of thousands of military personnel fighting in a virtual war. Sure, you can choose all the important missions and fly several more missions than a real pilot could, but even a successful player isn't going to have much effect on tens of thousands of enemy tanks. So, we decided to give your side a little "bonus" when you do well and a "penalty" when you do poorly. Basically, computer-controlled responses get a little better or worse depending on your performance. For example, if you successfully shoot up an armored column, additional strikes versus that column will be more effective, while the soldiers on the ground who fight that column will do better. This systemic response makes it possible for a player to turn around a potentially bad situation.
Since the Campaign is operating in real time and the timing of the player squadron's flights is critical to the outcome of the war, we ran into a problem deciding what to do with the downtime between flights. In a single-player game, it's easy enough to compress time, essentially advance time until the player's takeoff time. However, Falcon 4.0's Campaign was designed as a multiplayer Campaign, and it's just not possible to have one player advance time while another is lining up for a bombing run. To solve this problem, we've allowed you to jump into any aircraft in your squadron (that is, assuming another player isn't already controlling it). You have the option of waiting until a particular flight's takeoff time and, therefore, you are able to make changes to the flight's flight plan and weapon loadout. Or, you can jump into an airplane currently in flight and join the action immediately.
The multiplayer aspect of the Campaign is what truly fascinates me and is something MicroProse is dedicated to expand. Since the Campaign was not written around a single aircraft or vehicle, a player's ability to fly another aircraft, operate a tank or SAM battery is simply a matter of additional flight models, avionics and artwork. So, at first, you may only be able to fly F-16s cooperatively against a determined computer enemy, but you won't have to wait too long before there are player-controlled MiG-29s, Su-27s, F/A-18s and even more out there as well.
Ultimately, we hope to run an Internet server so that thousands of players from all over the world can jump into the cockpits of a wide variety of different vehicles and play in a single game, and maybe someday even have a "real" human plan one side's air strikes as well as ground offensives. If we are able to globalize Falcon 4.0, then suddenly this "Virtual Universe" will become a lot more real!
Kevin Klemmick
Campaign and Multiplayer Engineer
Falcon 4.0 Team
MicroProse
Previous page
