"It takes forever +/- 2 weeks for the A-10 to get anywhere significant..." Ice
"Ha! If it gets him on the deck its a start!" MigBuster
"What people like and what critics praise are rarely the same thing. 'Critic' is just another one of those unnecessary, overpaid, parasitic jobs that the human race has churned out so that clever slackers won't have to actually get a real job and possibly soil their hands." Sauron
Two of those beauties flew low over my place of work yesterday, awesome sight!
That Farrow bloke you executed today, are you sure he's dead? Well I chopped his head off, that usually does the trick. Yes, don't get clever with me Baldrick. I just thought you might have lopped off a leg or something by mistake. No, the thing I chopped off had a nose.
"It takes forever +/- 2 weeks for the A-10 to get anywhere significant..." Ice
"Ha! If it gets him on the deck its a start!" MigBuster
"What people like and what critics praise are rarely the same thing. 'Critic' is just another one of those unnecessary, overpaid, parasitic jobs that the human race has churned out so that clever slackers won't have to actually get a real job and possibly soil their hands." Sauron
After not seeing an in-game screenshot for a while, that blog post was like crack to an addict after being stuck in rehab against his will...on a serious note though, it was a very nice surprise to see after work.
That nose art is very clever. Very original and would definitely give CH it's own flavor.
Afterburners are for wussies...hang around the battlefield and dodge tracers like a man.
"It takes forever +/- 2 weeks for the A-10 to get anywhere significant..." Ice
"Ha! If it gets him on the deck its a start!" MigBuster
"What people like and what critics praise are rarely the same thing. 'Critic' is just another one of those unnecessary, overpaid, parasitic jobs that the human race has churned out so that clever slackers won't have to actually get a real job and possibly soil their hands." Sauron
Sorry about the lack of updates chaps, development pretty much stopped for a while (again bills, family, job interviews). Dave is not happy with me either and understandably so, I'll try and make it up.
Made a quick video of last nights work, I'm updating the HTR flight model today as it's long overdue.
Great to see things rolling again! Where do you get all this info, is AH-64D so declassified already?
Well, the last I heard Flexman had to run at least 2 or 3 times away from strange looking "Black Helicopters"! LOL
Now seriously, we live in the "information era" which means that all sorts of information are just "floating around" (namely and mainly on the internet but not only!) and inside that "floating information" is certainly all sorts of "sensitive" information regarding the AH-64D Longbow Apache Helicopter. You just need to find that information but that of course that requires WORK, LOT OF WORK which sometimes can be comparable as coding a game itself (but that I think only Flexman can really confirm it).
That's why I don't "buy" excuses the from DCS when they say that they won't model a -D model of the Apache because its information is "classified"!! It would be much more honest from the DCS guys to say: "We only have a complete information about the -A model of the Apache and we don't want to commit ANY resources in order to research and find information regarding the -D model." But of course this is just my humble oppinion...
And BTW, this isn't the first sim (Combat-Helo) that a detailed -D model Apache (Apache Longbow) is modeled in detail in a combat helicopter sim, just remember Janes Longbow 2 (IMO, still up to this date the "king" of all combat helicopter sims)!
I guess ED simply can't use illegally leaked documents from the Internet as source for their next sim if they want to get military contracts in future.
We had a standard rule that we used back during the Jane's Combat Sims days and I think we've mentioned before. We wouldn't use information for which we couldn't find two public resources for. Some of our guys had knowledge not available to everyone and so it was a good check for them to make sure they weren't crossing any lines.
As for the DCS guys not modeling stuff because the information is classified, from my experience and knowing Matt personally I have no problems believing it.
I have a similar rule despite the odd individual attempting to be a good Samaritan, standing orders are to refuse. Everything we do is open to scrutiny. When setting up the firing ranges we were told we had to be careful and generic since attack profiles are considered sensitive. We were not given specifics and for game purposes that's ideal as players have a broad ability you need to set comfortable margins. Sometimes you get amazing data from Boeing, I have on my desk right now as it happens a full colour glossy sales brochure (circa 96? I found it with some old newsletters dated then) for the Longbow with a nice insert of the weapons page (in mono).
Guidance on the FCR was a bit thin as you can imagine but it got better, partly thanks to the blog and the feedback loop it creates. You only have to post a picture of the wrong gun here at SIMHQ and you get a ton of helpful people telling you how wrong you are it's pretty fantastic.
Janes was a great reference since they included a sales video of the desktop simulator showing the FCR in use, the bi-directional sweep etc. I copied that behaviour (I'm told it's still not quite right but it matches how it mostly worked in LB2). For Apache-Havoc I offering some guidance here and there, some of it was wrong; the hover position box for example. If you didn't know I was responsible for some of the technical writing and history in the Enemy Engaged manuals, that paid for a laptop as I recall plus I got to keep and store about 20lbs of research material collected from brochures and publications. Being a perfectionist I strive to make it look authentic as opposed to realistic, only those who really know can tell the difference and they are not saying much except "pretty close". YouTube offers a wealth of data, often they scrub out naughty bits but subtle things like the LED matrix in a video of the KBU being used to send an "I love you" message gave us a font and colour. Can't remember if there was a cursor but I added one anyway. More animation looks cool.
Some of my own photos of the aircraft are used in game, I recall Matt Wagner sending my some renders of their A model with missing parts identified asking if I could help but they were pretty obscure areas (which I've since got good data on but it was a long time ago). Now we're collecting CH-47 material like crazy (had one enquiry from a movie set as Daves renders were spot on).
Oh, as a funny aside one military contractor (I won't name names) asked for advice on fonts for their own simulator gauges. What was funny is that I had to explain that in Combat-Helo ALL of the vector graphics and characters were HAND CRAFTED by me on pages torn out from my lads school math books and therefore difficult to export. All vector co-ordinates, no bitmaps. So yes, we do old school development Still have those sheets.
Perhaps the best single most important reference was the cockpit layout thanks to the British MoD who put 360 quicktime cameras in both seats on their website. So if our cockpit looks a little different to US ones it's partly that. Also we have the EECH style UFD and MFD bezels and button arrangements. This is party a style choice, a functionality choice and also a nod to the work that a certain old friend who helped build a render-horse cockpit back in 2002 (the same one used in the Outerra demo). But that's another story.
There's a LOT of love and work in our aircraft, teasing it out of nothing has been pretty much the bulk of it. Stories behind a lot of it.
You need to remember that DCS is a series that strives to make accurate simulations, we're in it to make a game, three guys making old school combat sims with a bit of depth (you'll see me repeating the words authentic instead of realistic). I do have an educational motive however and if you ever get me drunk enough I'll tell you what it is (I don't drink much so it wouldn't be too hard).
On reflection I think it would have been more fun making casual iPhone games. I quite enjoyed that. Not that I don't enjoy this, but it's certainly gone on a bit.
And just to add, I agree with ric, I think Janes Longbow still represent the peak of PC combat-sims as you got the whole bag of marbles (keeping in mind I'm biased towards rotors). You got a re-playable campaign (two, one mini sized), co-op, co-seat, AI. Wasn't perfect but the sum of the whole and atmosphere was different from anything else.
Going to go and hide again now. Remasking.
Last edited by Flexman; 03/10/1210:20 AM. Reason: too much waffle
it's pretty fantastic.
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