Frogisis

Whoa, whoa, whoa, what? I googled around a little looking for info on this but couldn't find anything - Is someone really working on a new Apache study sim? Granted I'm not too clued in to any scene, but I thought DCS, IL-2, and Falcon were pretty much the only "serious" combat flight sims currently being worked on. The heyday of Jane's was when I was about 12, so seeing a big package of full-on sims coming down the pipeline now that I'm patient enough to appreciate them is quite a treat. I'd also be very happy with the Mi-35; the Hind has always been a favorite. As long as it's big and mean and bristling with weapons I'll be satisfied - I don't wanna just fly something, I wanna fight in it and be the hero, but, like, by seeing and appreciating the true nature of how these things go, instead of the easy thrills of the "Cliffs Notes" version.

That is a mighty fine airstrike animation. And whoa, Falcon 4.0, lookit you! You've done quite well for yourself, I see. I will have to call up my dad and see if he can mail me my old discs, because daaaaaang. I may have said some unkind things about your appearance back when we were all in high school but you have blossomed into a swan, my dear. I finished a massive work project and just want to hole up for a little bit under blankets and sip tea, so I've been going on a sim binge the last few days or so, and did...something that somehow caused all the old mods for IL-2 Sturmovik that I'd given up on to activate and turn it into something entirely new, with effects that are much more believable and exciting - Just switching the fire sprite from "drawing of fire" to "canary-yellow blob" ironically makes it far more lifelike and pleasing to look at. I bring this up because just a change in the designer's eye and a rethinking from scratch of the elements they've already got can turn simple sprites into so many different things. Like how if you ever play the original Mario around someone clued into this kind of thing, they can't resist pointing out how the bushes and the clouds are the same sprite, just color swapped, and it looks as good as anything. Or like if you go to the impressionist wing of an art gallery and step up to a painting that from far away seems filled with tiny people, up close they'll often just be two or three jagged brush strokes that from far away nevertheless give the impression (!) of a head and torso and legs. My point is that surely we're clever enough in the mean time to do something with these stock explosions, if clearly so many of us want more bang from them, in every sense of the word. I only have the vaguest notion of how 3D graphics are rendered on the nuts-and-bolts level, but surely there's some .lua or something in the bowels of "bin" or "Bazar" that can be modified and some assets that can be swapped in to paint a more satisfying image of destruction with the brushes the sim has at its disposal. I've seen mods for the smoke, and for the framerate of the explosions, but nothing for the explosions themselves. Are they completely inaccessible, compiled inside some .dll somewhere, or do they have aspects open to tinkering?

I agree, the pyrotechnics is the only area that's wanting. Especially when so much time is spent peering at grainy black & white camera feeds, it'd be nice to see some more dynamism in the kinds of things that happen on there - Even in the old Gulf War LGB clips you get all sorts of burn-in and "ripped from the headlines"-feeling streaks and other artifacts. A few years ago there was a Red Dawn-inspired strategy game called "World in Conflict" that had a look that was a nicely done blend of realism and showmanship. The explosions were colossal fountains of dirt and didn't feel too "Hollywood", but were still made with an artists' eye and actually reminded me of the more photogenic examples you might see in a military documentary, and despite their shimmering 3D shockwaves and arcing tendrils of debris, they seemed to go very easy on system resources. I have no idea how they were implemented, but I'm sure someone here would be able to tell at a glance. Since so much of air combat takes place at ranges where there isn't a lot to see, and simulations are a primarily visual medium, I don't think emphasizing the action you actually can see is out of the question, especially if - like a backstory between missions - it helps you feel just a little bit less like you're actually safe at home, staring at a glowing rectangle. I can understand why it's been put on the backburner since it is more "game"-y than things like the environment, let alone the aircraft itself, but what better reinforcement for successfully learning the sim than being able to make a big, crunchy explosion you can almost feel the heat from just by looking at it?

Great job, Constantin, this music is kickin' rad, and there's still a lot of subtlety to it in the background. Definitely gets me fired up.

Oh, sorry - That isn't actually a screen shot from my own PC, but for convenience's sake lifted from a thread where we were talking about this before. I just took a look and mine does not say "beta", and my saved game files in "Users" are all gone. I didn't check to make sure the directory structure was word-for-word the same in the image I posted since I figured the underlying issue wasn't related to that so much and the solution would be the same. Good eyes, though - Thanks. I did, in fact, install the DirectX when prompted by the A-10 installer, but in a previous thread someone was talking about putting each DirectX file in the proper directory manually, and how that solved their issue, which didn't work for me, but I don't think English was their main language so I might have misunderstood what they were describing. Does anyone know what I'm talking about/Has anyone had luck with that method? Edit: I see there's now a subforum specifically for problems. I'll just ask around in there, but thanks for the quick replies.

Thanks so much, ED - This is great! Can't wait till my work is done so I can blow up some tanks. Unfortunately, I'm still getting this message when I try to start up the x64 version, on a completely clean install of the final version in Win7 64: Did we have a solution to that, or is that still up in the air? Anyway, thanks again, ED!

OK, I figured... I used to use a music player to run a playlist of selected tunes in Black Shark, but the FPS hit was just too great for my tastes. I'll probably just go without until they either reinstate radio stations, or I save up enough to buy a new video card.

This is really neat, thanks for sharing. I'm always for anything that creates immersion and builds an emotional attachment to what I'm doing in the sim (I'll even take music, for what it's worth.) How exactly would I listen to something like this in the sim? Like, download it, turn it into a .ogg, attach it to a radio station, then tune the radio to the appropriate frequency? Or do you just have YouTube running in the background?

I just discovered DCS a few months ago and feel about 80% percent proficient with the Black Shark, and about 2% proficient with the A-10C (I can fly it and am pretty good at just eyeballing cannon attacks, and that's about it). I'll definitely be flying online, though, once I'm good enough to not embarrass myself or let down a team.

OK, I downloaded DirectX June 2010 and took the .dlls out of the .cab files. I put the x64 ones in system32 and the x86 ones in sysWOW64, then reinstalled DirectX, but still no luck. Then I tried switching the directories and putting the 64s in 64 and the 86s in 32 and then reinstalling, but still no dice. I'm going to put this on the backburner, though, until the final version comes out. The x86 version works great even with high graphics settings, it just seems like a waste to not get as much as I can out of it.

It seems to be relatively common. Someone earlier in the thread mentioned that it didn't happen on their machine with betas 1 and 2, so we know it's possible for it not to happen, and hopefully it'll be hashed out by the final release. The x86 version will hold me until then. Apparently there's a "network driver" update that solved the problem for one person who had it, but I can't find any specifics either on here or with google. I have all the latest drivers that I can think of, and am running it as an administrator, but I still can't start up the 64 bit version, either.

That's, uh...That's alright XD. Thanks, though. Just hit me up with a private message or an email (frogisis at hotmail dot com) with payment info and I'll send my address. Thanks again!

Awesome, I won't bother to bid on this one I found again, then. Thanks for making it available first to the sim community at such a great price.

Thanks for replying so quickly. As long as you mentioned eBay, I searched and decided to try my luck on an auction there for a day and some hours, as well. It's $26 right now, and if (more likely when) it starts to become appreciably more than $50 plus shipping, I'll be right back here. You know, bargain hunting and all those other chores. Thanks for making it available - I've been looking to upgrade from this basic Logitech unit. I needs me a throttle that isn't just a little tab on the base of the thing.

Does this include the throttle? (When I hear X52 I'm envisioning this: http://www.mypilotstore.com/MyPilotStore/sep/5485 ) If so, I'm interested, and only located in Chicago, so shipping shouldn't be a problem.

Well, it's been working fine - I just wanted to know if after like the 30th mission my computer is going to turn back into a pumpkin or something. Saying not to install 4 over 3 is probably just a consistency measure for bug reporting purposes, so I'll just chill until the final version is released and do a clean install then. Besides, I only just discovered DCS a couple months ago and am still only ankles deep in Black Shark - I can wait. I tried installing all the new legit drivers for Windows 7 I could find, though, and the x64 version of A-10 still won't start. Do you remember specifically what the driver was called? Both searches on the forums and on google haven't been especially productive.

For the record, I get this exact same message, with similar systems specs (Win7 Home x64, GeForce 9500GT). But the x86 version works like a charm! That trainer fellow needs to pay closer attention, though; I finally executed a perfectly level turn after tweaking the joystick properties to make the controls less squirrely, and he didn't even notice. Too busy admiring that gorgeous landscape, I suppose. Also, I found this topic and the patch AFTER doing a full install of Beta 4 over Beta 3. Am I boned?