dodger42

I think that is an artists impression of the fabled 'aurora'. I guess the artist figured its a drone or that given the speed and altitude at which it operates, visual flight is not unimportant. Who knows, but it looks v.cool. Kind of looks like two hatches on top. Though given the project is not even known to be true, this drawing could be very far from realistic.

Don't blame me, I didn't come up with the title: http://www.popsci.com/popsci/aviationspace/95e16f096bd8d010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html :)

Here is a demo video of touch-buddy in use. Its a fairly old profile, but it gets the point across pretty clearly :) Video was created by Zorlac.

How so Cali? I mean its a natural progression ultimately for sims to encompass more human controlled elements. Although the likes of BF2 are ultra arcade, imagine ultimately having a sim where the majority or all of units are human controlled. Far greater immersion. No AI can ever (at least in our years) accurately replicate a human. Personally I'd like to sit a few rounds out of flying and try to take out a few ACs from my SAM unit :) I'd imagine working a SAM battery would be similar playing style to sub simulators. Lots more hands off, but more analysis. Just my 2 cents tho.

I use Norton with no problems at all.

True, but one step at a time. Think how much nicer we can make those ground units around airfields look. Shouldn't be a big fps hit, but should make it look much nicer.

Nice F5 model though it's a shame the wheels appear unanimated.

Hey at least ED provided some tools. Thats kind of a new thing and they deserve praise for it. What other tools could we use? I think part of the resistance to use mods is in part due to the lack of really good mods. The lack of really good mods is at least in part due to the lack of tools from ED. So first things first.

Man whats with ED pouring out all the community tools? :) Would be great to see something similar for mission file creation (an API would be a dream come true). My dynamic campaign engine would be so much better.

Here is a sweet Eurofighter model with 8 weapons. http://www.3d02-ao.com/html_3d_Model/3d_model_main_3M09855.asp

Makes sense. What are approximate poly counts for current lockon models?

Wow those are nice. They look an awful lot like the ones going up on FighterOps site. Why? This hummer has only 250,000 polys :) But more interesting is this Abraham Lincoln:

I just found an awesome tutorial on 3dsMax. Though its for version 6, it still teaches you all you really need to know. Its from lynda.com: http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=112

No sweat mate. Seeing TB fly is all the thanks I need! :)

What a legend!! At least he died doing what he loved.

That's cool Brit. 300ft is pretty much bare minimum even in military applications (static line), though from what I've read some poor Rangers were dropped from lower than that in Grenada (Operation Urgent Fury) rendering a lot of them combat ineffective.

Thanks for the headsup Polecat.

Hey bflagg, this is being considered. We are also working with Doug on his excellent LUA hookups.

Whilst I agree that the BTR looks great, it almost looks too good for the rest of the world. Check image 3. In comparison the tower behind looks like something from the commodor 64. One step at a time obviously, but all these things will be much more visible in a low and slow flying chopper than in the fixed wings. Fingers crossed they all get done.

42SF-Stat server is online with the beta campaign. 51 ground units kills are required by BLUE or RED to win each mission.

No probs Doug. That LOPSP is sweet too!!

Wow nice response. Alex I dont suppose you can say whether there will be other changes to LUA in BS? Fingers crossed! :)

Just had a brief chat to Swingkid talking about enhancements ED could add that would make apps like LODC much more immersive. Below is pretty much my response to SwingKid. If anybody else has ideas on what could be added, please post here. ------ Hey SwingKid, Yeah essentially today a campaign is a set of static mission files. The campaign.ini file contains the list of missions and their victory conditions. I don't run any LUA, just process mplog to determine when ground kills are made (which is the limit of victory conditions right now). That could be increased to ship kills and a2a kills easily, but first things first. One thing I would suggest to ED is making mission objectives log to mp_log.txt or lua local exports as soon as they are achieved rather than at mission end. Additionally the ability to use user assigned objects as objectives. Currently only static objects like bridges or buildings are correctly recognised as being destroyed, and you only get an mp_log.txt entry once the mission is finished. For a system like LODC that is not very useful. If however it logs that the objective is complete before mission completion, then we have a very interesting new set of possibilities. Like having objectives to perform CAP while ground pounders take out some bunkers etc. Ultimately I'd like to work with the dynamics more so the results of the last mission have a more direct and noticeable impact on the next mission. I've played with the mission files briefly and found I can modify them programmatically, but only when they are sub 64k or so (not much use for online). The OLE compound header is the obstacle, but it could be cracked with a little time. Whether or not they would frown upon that I don't know. It's all in the spirit of increasing game play of Lockon. Good for us, good for them? In order to enhance the online portion, it would be excellent if ED allowed the server to send team messages to red or blue. Currently LODC sends messages every ten minutes like: Progress: Red(10/20) Blue(13/40). I'd like to create wing command messages from the server. So I can send messages to the single team as if the commander of that combined air force. Gives it more effect. But probably one of the biggest things I would ask for is the complete the ability for the server to export world data locally without enabling it as export to clients. That would enable all sorts of enhancements. :) What do you think? ------

Ouch...

Quick update. Added the score updates, by default every 10 minutes. Not yet. I want to complete a bunch of tests and clean up the pre-release bugs. Once thats complete it will be available for download. :thumbup: