MACADEMIC

Not sure if this was mentioned, but the number of 2000 can't possibly include all the Russian flight simulation fans, which are many. I can only guess why they have't been addressed more in the KS campaign. MAC

Thanks Nate. Is it part of ED, or third party? MAC

I'm wondering about this Minsk studio - is this an ED studio, and is it the same studio that is developing EDGE? Somehow I remember that the initial attempts to have this work outsourced (in Minsk?) were not successful and had to be started over by another team. Sorry if my memory serves me wrong here, any ED/DCS historians who could clarify? MAC

I find it a bit odd that there should be not even a short generic flyover demo available in a graphics engine in 4th generation. How would they ever market their capabilities to commercial/military customers (- sorry, trust us it will look great, but we can't show you)? Still, thanks for the update, nice to see Luthier roaming the planet in the pursuit of making this project happen. MAC

It's always easy to have 20/20 hindsight, but perhaps it would have been a good idea to assemble a team of capable volunteers (professionals in their fields, video artists, graphic designers, CGI specialists, marketers, etc.) from the community beforehand to create the Kickstarter campaign? Heck, or even to make a Kickstarter or other fundraiser for the sole purpose of getting funds together to create a Kickstarter that rocks? Don't get me wrong, it seems perfectly okay to throw in the reputation of some big names and make such a personal presentation. There is really no doubt about that big heart beating in Luthier's chest and I commend him for showing it. The very core of the community is already here and supporting his drive. But to inspire a wider audience, people who are presently playing WT or other games only, the people you need to come in numbers to give you broad and deep funding, you just need to show a lot more material, even if it's only CGI for a start. Sometimes the quickest way to a destination is by taking a detour. MAC

Found this in the Kickstarter FAQs: Can a project be edited after launching? Yes, you can edit the following content after launching: — Project description — Video and image — Rewards (add new ones or edit those not yet backed) — Your profile — Project FAQs The only things that cannot be edited after launch are: — The funding goal — The project deadline — Your Kickstarter name — Rewards that have already been selected by a backer MAC

Congratulations, great announcement! Excited and awaiting Sept 5! MAC

Sorry but your comment is uncalled for. Wags added his comment about stopping weekly updates later, it wasn't included initially. MAC

I don't know the background of Wag's/ED's decision to drop the weekly updates, but it seems to me to be a step in the wrong direction. Those here applauding should not forget that a positive community interaction attracts new customers -> more revenues -> more development. Unless of course ED doesn't need to sell its products. And to those complaining about the anticipatory updates discussion threads, I always wondered why Wags/ED didn't just make an official update discussion thread together with each update once it's out. Keeps things neat and works very well on other forums. Simply a matter of good community management. MAC

Oh, missed that piece of information. Entirely disagree with you that the updates weren't needed (consequently should not be missed in the future). Active community interaction is the living heartbeat of game development. Seems like a step backwards to me. :( MAC

Just wondering why the update discussions has been merged together and placed in the 'Chit-Chat' area (= 'what relates but does not belong')? Somehow gives the impression that community reactions to news updates are rather unimportant and perhaps unwanted. Honestly don't think this is the intention or the best way of doing it. Suggestion: make an 'Official Updates Discussions' Subforum in the News section, right between the 'Offical Updates' and 'Community News' sections. Restrict topic creation to mods there. In addition to his Friday Updates, Wags could start a discussions thread there, quoting the News Update and linking to it. Same way Wags could include a link to the discussion thread at the end of the news update. It's successfully done in a very similar way on other forums. Just my 2c! MAC

Sorry, that link didn't take me to one of your youtube videos. Could you please provide a direct link, or your youtube alias? What framerates are you able to achieve with your setup? Thanks! MAC

Leap in DCS, first trials So guys, GameWave is out and available on the Leap Airspace store for $3.99. Good news first, I managed to emulate a mouse to control desktop applications, managing all with one hand doing gestures. So, moving left, right, up down; left click, right click, scroll up, scroll down; and cursor pause for repositioning. Took a little practice and fiddling with the settings but got there, mouse control was quite stable. So before I went to try this in DCS, went to browse some websites and play some online chess. All this worked all right and it was interesting controlling the desktop with my right hand. A bit strenuous over time and not nearly as easy and precise as a mouse. But interesting, okay. With DCS, my first attempt was very laggy, the mouse was a few seconds behind my movements! However luckily this turned out to be a one off affair, and after reboot speeds were not noticably behind mouse speeds. I managed to start the engine on the Mustang with left and right hands (both identical control settings) going through the cockpit, using no mouse for controlling any knobs or switches. This was very interesting, but quite hard to keep the cursor exactly where you want it to be while forming new gestures with the same hand for left click. Basically, instead of using my hands what god made them for, I used them as if they were sticks, in a robotic way, trying to keep steady while doing the gestures. It felt an awkward combination of great to use your hands to get something done yet completely unnatural. Leap is definitely not there yet to provide a fluent and more immersive tool for flight sims, and frankly I have doubts in its present iteration it could ever be. Beyond experimenting with it and keeping up to date, I can't see myself using this much in flight sims or otherwise. But, it gave me a good idea how fantastic it would be to reach and grab those handles and knobs with natural movements in a virtual environment, one day. To this day, I look forward! MAC

Anybody noticed the graphical quality of these weapons? They look very...real. Created with new image generator/EDGE? MAC

Well at the moment I'm waiting for GameWave (see video above) to be released. What it will do is emulate what you're doing with your mouse and/or keyboard in the cockpit at the moment, but it will be limited to the set of gestures that come with the Leap. Judging from the video, accuracy will be good enough. Spacing I don't know, remains to be seen, but with Track IR shouldn't be a problem I think. Pinching, grabbing, moving, rotating handles etc. are not possible at the moment. So I think Leap is a step in the right direction, but doesn't go far enough yet. Will keep reporting. MAC

I wrote 'And this is just the beginning.' Playing around with it a bit more, I might as well just say: 'And this is as far as it'll ever get'. Leap's own visualisation app shows that leap is doing a very poor job at tracking fingers except when spread out wide. A full hand is okay, some waving, tilting as well, some finger up/down movement, yes. But I meanwhile don't see this device working well enough to give us the natural hand movements you'd use in a real cockpit. This doesn't mean it won't work all right with GameWave, I hope it will. But not quite as well as I hoped. Seems like the underlying technology (infrared sensors) won't allow it. Well, as someone else said on another forum...the bleeding edge is - well, the bleeding edge. Will keep reporting how it's going when GameWave is out. MAC

Early demo of GameWave. Notice how smooth mouse control is. Gives me good reason to believe this will work well in the clickable cockpit. And this is just the beginning. MAC

Got mine just a few hours ago, so far only experimented with the free apps on the Mac platform. I really like it, it's a great new technology and this will become really useful in many areas in the future. However, as with most new things, there are definitely teething problems which I believe will be sorted. Some of the apps show the potential, such as the 'Molecules' app, where you can move complex 3D molecule structures freely around with your hands. Feels amazing, natural and immersive. Others I'm not so convinced of, the ones that use finger/handmotions to steer an object on the screen. This can be done better on a touchscreen, with a mouse or game controller in a desktop environment. The idea seems more promising for console gaming and that's not the environment Leap is designed for. But for us here in a flight simulation environment, I think it will be amazing. Once GameWave is out in a couple of weeks, it will allow to emulate all we do now in the clickable cockpit with a mouse with the Leap and hand gestures. Initially these will not be customisable, but I believe it won't take long and they will be. So when you want to turn a knob, you'll direct your cursor to the knob with your hand and then make a movement as if you would turn a knob - knob turns! And so on. I'm excited about this. :thumbup: MAC

Expecting my Leap to arrive today, but from what I've read so far it won't do out of the box what I'd like it to do. The answer may be GameWave, should come to the Leap 'Airspace Store' soon: https://forums.leapmotion.com/showthread.php?2676-Customizing-leapmotion-gestures-for-gaming/page13 Not sure though how Leap would fare with a multi monitor setup, depends on its range I guess. MAC

Guys, it's not called Leap for nothing. Have a bit of Faith ;) For me, the vision is still intact, even if it may take a while to get there. Never assumed it would replace the mouse or keyboard as a OS control unit. Looking forward to explore apps that are made for this, then the potential should become clearer. Standing firm with my order. MAC

Oh well, mine only after the 29th, when it starts shipping from the UK. But it must have been more than 1.5 years since I first heard of Leap, so a few days more won't make much of a difference to me ;) MAC

It's going to be very interesting what is possible out of the box in DCS with the new Leap Motion. Counting on some kind of mouse emulation for a start, but could imagine deeper and better intergration such as animation of one's computerized hands in real-time (wearing flight gloves) in the future! Hopefully this device is going to get the devs' attention! :thumbup: MAC

Well it depends on the application. I also don't see this as a complete keyboard/mouse replacement to control everything on the PC. But it's certainly not too much to ask to raise your left arm slightly to move the gear lever up when you need to, or your right arm to rotate the canopy handle in order to close it (on the Mustang). Same as in cockpit... How's the hovering going (I see what you did there :) )? MAC

Would be amazing if there was that kind of integration sometime in the future. I'd imagine it pretty ideal if you could just see 'your' computerized hands, as in the video at the very end, flying around the cockpit, grabing a lever, moving it, turning a knob, etc., matching your every move in real time! But looking forward to mouse emulation as well, for a start :) MAC

Oh, just noticed the other discussion there too. Not sure if you'd agree, but to me this thing seems bigger than just another new input device being discussed in the subforum, I leave it to the mods to decide the fate of this thread... By the way, just ordered one from amazon.co.uk, delivery after the 29th! :holiday: MAC