Cobra847

Can you e-mail us? THanks!

The e-mail saying "Viggen" instead of Tomcat is a mistake and has been corrected. You have actually received a Tomcat key; its just the email that is awry.

Dear All, In order to redeem the key you purchased on Heatblur.com: Visit: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.c...ensing/coupon/ and enter your coupon code. This will bind an F-14 to your account. If you do not have a DCS Account, please create one. Thank you, HB

Dear All, In order to redeem your F-14 key purchased on the Heatblur store (which you should have received from our SendOwl to your E-Mail) -- please enter your key into the coupon box at: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/personal/licensing/coupon/ This will bind an F-14 to your digital combat simulator account, and you'll be ready for launch day! If you do not have a digital combat simulator account, please register for one. Thank you all for your support! Team Heatblur

Sorry - we'll update the description! Yes, everything is clickable :)

Sorry, just an addendum to this: Mjolnir & Phoenix. So the latter antagonist :)

We're leaving it ambiguous so as to not wade into a gigantic mountain of crap if something bad happens. The target is this year. I prefer to not crunch over christmas (again).

We used the -A cockpit for filming unfortunately as our two branches are not in sync art wise. Most of our references are -A's, hence it's the lead and the drop-in B elements have not been merged yet. Other issues to note: lack of RWR antennas on fuselage, incorrect doubled up US markings on wings, etc.

The F-14 Tomcat is now available for pre-purchase on the ED E-Store and Heatblur store! Grab yourself a copy and enjoy the apex of combat flight simulation this winter. https://store.heatblur.com https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/shop/modules/tomcat/ The Grumman F-14 Tomcat was a two-crew, variable geometry, maritime air superiority fighter that served with the US Navy for 32 years and continues to serve with the IRIAF in Iran. The F-14 was the US Navy's frontline fighter from the 1970s until the mid 2000s. Over the course of its long service life it also became the US Navy’s premier precision ground-attack platform and lone airborne reconnaissance asset. Outstanding features of the aircraft are the swing-wing configuration, crew of two, and the powerful AN/AWG-9 Weapons Control System (WCS) and radar. The AWG-9 allows employment of the powerful AIM-54 Phoenix air to air missile while the LANTIRN pod allows the ability to carry out precision ground strikes using laser guided bombs. The F-14 Tomcat was present during many pivotal historic moments such as the two Gulf of Sidra incidents, Operation Desert storm in Iraq, the conflict in Yugoslavia, Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was also immortalized in the iconic motion picture, Top Gun, and starred in several other feature films including The Final Countdown, Executive Decision, and others. In addition, the Tomcat was also a vital player in the Iran-Iraq war during the 80s, flying for the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force which had acquired the F-14A from the US prior the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The Heatblur Simulations F-14A/B Tomcat aims to simulate this iconic aircraft as a high-fidelity module for DCS, being the culmination of several years of research, coding and modelling. Special points of consideration amongst the many features are the external and internal graphic model created using laser scanning and photogrammetry from real Tomcats at various museums, the detailed External Flight Model (EFM) developed over the past several years and verified by real F-14 pilots, the detailed modelling of the AN/AWG-9 and the ability to fly as a two-crew aircraft in multiplayer. Key features of the Heatblur Simulations DCS F-14A/B Tomcat include: The simulation of both the A* and B model Tomcat, the A model following the B later during the Early Access period. Highly detailed external model, built using laser scanning and photogrammetry taken of real, museum F-14 Tomcats. New models for some of the F-14 Tomcat payloads, such as the AIM-54 Phoenix and the LANTIRN pod. Highly detailed and accurate 6-DOF (Degrees of Freedom) cockpit also built using photogrammetry from the F-14 Tomcats preserved at museums. Highly accurate, F-14 pilot verified, External Flight Model (EFM) based on real performance data. Accurate aircraft systems simulation featuring: The Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS). The variable wing geometry, wing-sweep, system. Detailed electrical, hydraulic and fuel system. Fully functional multiplayer two seat functionality allowing a pilot to carry another player functioning as the Radar Intercept Officer, RIO. JESTER AI: A new, lifelike AI that fills the role of RIO when flying single-player or multiplayer without a human RIO. A limited functionality Iceman AI piloting the aircraft in single-player when switching to the rear cockpit. Both AIs feature an interactive interface with a comprehensive library of voice acted phrases. Simulation of the AN/AWG-9 Weapons Control System (WCS) featuring: A custom model of the AN/AWG-9 radar featuring Pulse Search, Pulse Doppler Search, Range-While-Scan and Track-While-Scan modes as well as both pulse and pulse doppler Single Target Track (STT) modes. The ability to prepare and launch the AIM-54 Phoenix, both at single targets and at up to six targets simultaneously using the TWS mode. The Television Camera Set (TCS) allowing visual identification of targets in Beyond Visual Range (BVR) situations. The Link-4 datalink allowing reception of tracks from an E-2 AWACS or a surface unit. The complete F-14A and B Tomcat payload, including AIM-7, AIM-9 and AIM-54 air to air missiles, various dumb and guided air to ground munitions as well as the M61 Vulcan 20mm cannon. A functional simulation of the LANTIRN designator pod, allowing the RIO to guide laser guided munitions dropped by the pilot or other aircraft (buddy-lasing). The Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance Pod System (TARPS), allowing the player to fulfil the aerial photographic reconnaissance mission. * Fully functional carrier interoperability featuring systems such as the Instrument Carrier Landing System (ICLS) and the Automatic Carrier Landing System (ACLS). Comprehensive digital manual, both as a PDF and as a continually updated online manual. A complete set of interactive and voiced tutorials. Comprehensive campaigns for both the F-14A and F-14B Tomcat, one set in the Caucasus theatre and the other for the Persian Gulf theatre. * The F-14A and the TARPS pod will follow later during the Early Access period and the tutorials and campaigns will be implemented and expanded during this early access as well.

These are slated for the next patch. Today's was the BK90 one :)

Yes :)

Yep!

I unstickied some posts lately; the forum is poorly set up for this (half of the front page ends up being stickies) :(

Multicrew is a core feature of the Heatblur F-14 and will be available on launch.

Does the Viggen do this? ;)

Edited for clarity. :)

F-14 Development Update! Stick with it. Dear All, 4 years, 5000+ commits and tens of thousands of manhours later we’re finally there, on to the final leg of the final stretch of what will hopefully be a new foundation for all things Heatblur. As many hours as we’ve put in, you’ve probably spent quite a few yourself mired in frustration about not climbing into your own GRU-7 just yet. We understand this and sincerely hope that the quality of the finished Tomcat will weigh heavily in our favour and put us in your good graces. That said; we have plenty to talk about for now! Lets jump right in: Heatblur Simulations is proud to announce the addition of the AI A-6E & KA-6 to DCS World as Free AI units! Furthering our commitment to providing full and rich experiences to the community, and in line with our module development priorities, we’ve decided to introduce the A-6E and KA-6 as free AI units into DCS World shortly following the release of the F-14 Tomcat! The Intruder is an aircraft that has been under active development at Heatblur Simulations for some time, and subject to a license agreement, we hope to eventually introduce it into DCS world as a full, playable module - and we are developing it with this intent in mind. In the meantime, the AI Intruders will serve a critical role in the F-14 campaigns and provide an additional level of authenticity to the game and simulation battlespace environment. The A-6’s are built to our extremely exacting standards, with laser scanning forming the basis of our core workflow and ensuring complete accuracy in shape and dimensions. In-game, the KA-6 will provide the player with texaco services while the A-6E will serve as a venerable strike partner with an unmatched payload - good friends to have in the cockpit of an F-14. The A-6’s will also play a crucial part in one of the two free included campaigns with the F-14; as the particular cruise being depicted is the famous all Grumman cruise. Dirty, greasy Tomcats and Intruders playing with each other on deck? Sign us up. To summarize, current planned free content for the F-14 includes: Forrestal class carriers (compatible with all carrier aircraft) A-6E KA-6 1x F-14B Caucasus Campaign 1x Persian Gulf F-14A Campaign --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ****************************************************************** The F-14 Ongoing work on the aircraft itself has been distributed across a broad range of development areas. Primarily, and non-exhaustively, these include: Flight Model We’re now getting close to completing the final pre-release tweaks of the flight model. The aircraft (still) flies closely to our available performance data and parameters; but we’ve been continuing our heavy back and forth with SMEs, again, repeating ad nauseum: to truly capture the spirit and behaviour of the Tomcat. Some highlights of areas that have been touched upon lately include: Roll behaviour/performance & wing position: We’ve been correcting various inconsistencies between our simulation and the real jet in roll handling, inertia and lateral responsiveness, especially with the wings swept aft. Elevon drag in ground effect: We’ve been looking at and tweaking behaviour and the influence of the elevons on the aircraft in ground roll or ground effect situations. This has been important in order to more accurately simulate the immense drag and utility that the elevons presented during landing or other ground operations. Differential stabilizer inputs will now turn the aircraft in the direction of stick movement, and the elevons are now more effective at acting like massive airbrakes during your ground rollout. Turn performance: We’ve been spending considerable time fine-nudging and tuning turn performance and related parameters. This is delicate work and has required a steady balance between changing too much and causing cascading effects. Like most of the FM in this stage of development, these changes are truly minute and will continue until launch day (and beyond!). wut? Engine Our engine model is now reaching advanced maturity and we’re reaching the stage where we’re adding features not deemed integral to the operation or simulation in the Early Access stage. However, because a deep and robust engine simulation is even more important for the F-14A; we want to make sure to have a head start on this area of development. Some of the changes and items added to the engine modeling lately include: Connected various missing interconnectivity between integral aircraft systems, e.g. correct data flows between CADC and AICS/AFTC. Added several new failures; including supersonic inlet buzz and pop stalls due to lost CADC Mach signals. Engine compartment failures due to sustained extreme temperatures, either from engine malfunctions causing extreme EGT or battle damage. We’ve done our best estimate guesswork on how quickly the structural compartments would fail based on the temperatures we’re simulating inside the engine compartment. Multitudes of tweaks and corrections; changes to thrust penalties from AICS errors, turbine overtemp time/severity before turbine begins to degrade and much more. As our engine simulation becomes more deep, we will begin to spend more time fine tuning inconsistencies across the entire simulation gamut. Overhauled compressor stall chance and variability - and began to account for more variables impacting the correct operation of the engine: e.g. spin direction in a flat spin. Once we consider the F110 to be fully complete; we will turn all of our attention on the P&W TF-30. Our new and improved LANTIRN visual shader Other areas of the simulation that are being worked on become more broad. In no particular order or priority: Jester AI: This is a massive topic and we’ve been focusing a lot of our attention on this area. In particular, we’ve been working on: Re-recording all older, or non-fitting voice lines (especially those that were recorded prior to us having a solid understanding of how the system would look). This has resulted in re-recording a few thousand lines in the past month and a half. Adding code support for making JESTER appear more lifelike. Mistakes, uh’s and ah’s, conjoining multiple separate statements into one where possible. I think we’re all familiar with ArmA-ness in speech and it’s difficult to avoid this entirely, but we’ve been trying to alleviate this as much as possible. Complete redesign of the User Interface from a visual standpoint. While we’ve been pleased with the usability of the JESTER Rose UI; it was in dire need of a visual overhaul. We focused on a few key areas during this process, namely: Quick readability at a glance, strong identifiable category colours and iconography, pleasing and responsive interaction animation (opening, closing, item selection) and enhancement of text space. We’re currently implementing this new redesign fully and it may not be entirely complete at launch, but we consider it a high priority. Teaching Jester a lot of tasks pertaining to navigation, radios, radar and fleshing out his capability as much as we can prior to release. Make no mistake; Jester will be at its most rudimentary form on launch, but our ultimate goal is to provide ourselves with a solid foundation to build upon. JESTER UI mockup. Categories are purposefully generic in this mockup. In-Game appearance may differ. Click to enlarge Art! ART! The big elephant in the room. This has been the cause of a lot of hurt and pain (financially, life-wise, PR, etc.) It really is the cause for the biggest chunk of our delay and the additional cost overhead has been massive. Quality has to always take precedence, no matter how frustrating for everyone involved (and that includes you guys :( ) Again, in no particular order, priorities for the art team have been: Full completion of exterior textures. This has been an immense task. We’ve hand laid thousands of screws and rivets (yes, manually, each one. ) according to laser and photogrammetric scans. There have been no shortcuts, and no cut corners. This is probably the first and only time we go into this much detail on such an “inconsequential” thing whether screws are in such extremely precise locations. Completion of the Pilot’s cockpit textures and functionality. This area is now for the most part complete and will wrap up in the coming days. We can’t wait to fully unveil the novel and unique features that will elevate our artwork to the next level. That’s coming on the 7th! Completion of the RIOs cockpit textures and functionality. This area is scheduled for completion in the coming weeks of September and will be one of the final major items left for us to conclude. Other major items that we’ve been improving, changing or implementing include, in shorthand: Full completion of the ALR-67 RWR LAU-138 CMs Main fuselage CMs Connecting various subsystems missing their various dependencies. Improvements to the kneeboard. Addition of many avionics failures in various different systems and subsystems. Overhaul of weapons stations numbering and connections to fit new exterior model. Several additions to datalink, carrier-aircraft, aircraft-aircraft and behaviour between navigation and datalink type systems. Improvement of LANTIRN Pod: Improved visual shaders, more accurate fonts, masking lines and other symbology. Continued work on the Forrestal class and associated assets; including deck cranes and other vehicles. We’ve begun with the very basics; by trying to perfect the look of our carrier deck. See screenshot below! ...and much much more. That just about sums up most of what we’ve been working on over the past 1,5 month(s). Obviously we’ve somewhat slipped from the 90 day estimate we made 4 months ago; but not dramatically so, and while we easily expect to be ground down mentally over the next period of time, it’s just about time for us to get our ducks (turkeys) in a row and close what will essentially be a long chapter in each of our lives. We hope it will have been worth it. Tune in at heatblur.com on October 7th for our special unveiling. We won’t let you down! Sincerely, The Heatblur F-14 Team

Yes.

Sorry you feel that way. Please get in touch for a refund if you'd like. We used times new roman (or a font very similar) for it's gold standard in readability and use. Thanks

Dear All, Over the past few months we've been fairly silent due to the ongoing pre-release crunch on the F-14. During this time however, the Viggen team has continued to improve the aircraft as we head towards release status and total feature completion. We still expect this to happen this year, and do not foresee any changes in this schedule. Over the next several patches we will be introducing some of the final "major" items remaining: e.g.: the Ram Air Turbine, in-cockpit pilot, PBR overhaul of both cockpit and exterior, new custom soundset, new missions and campaigns, performance improvements, and plenty more. Once the F-14 launches, we'll also be working on backporting several new, exciting features that we've built for the F-14. We're excited to reveal these together with the F-14 - and we feel that they will bring the Viggen to another level. For now, however, the next beta branch patch will launch a number of new, work in progress features and bugfixes: Changes for next patch Fixes to generated data cartridge, including: only planning for non-infantry units and fixes to broken SKU-planning. New! Flight planner now also uses terrain to plan for least exposed approach to target while still allowing for pop-up maneuvers. New WiP Feature! generated data cartridges after ELINT has been collected. Is selectable in kneeboard and will generate a flight plan with a search pattern for the radar transmitter. You can select a stand-off range or to overfly the area. Sidewinder fix: T1 to Radar-lock instead of TV, and the missile is now not re-caged when setting safety armed. Fix to the HUD presenting wind compensation incorrectly when in a bank. New! Callsigns (including your own) are now displayed in the kneeboard. RPM in outside view adjusted to say 100% when at max RPM instead of 97%. Corrected AI Afterburner sounds. Fixed flight-envelope values for AI. Introduced a weight on wheels workaround to fix thrust reverser issues. Corrected ability to re-fix MÅL-points. Changes for patch after next For the subsequent major patch, we will be introducing a significant number of art changes! Chief among them: New: New and Improved Afterburner Effects We've done a stop-gap pass (until F-14 developments are backported) on our afterburner effects for the Viggen! These now look far more realistic, are appropriately scaled and bright. The afterburner will now also cast light inside the exhaust as well as on surrounding objects and terrain. Click to enlarge New: RAT (Ram Air Turbine) This little spinny boi can help keep you alive in a pinch! This has actually been active in our simulation since launch, but we've been lagging behind on implementing the visuals. Cute, isn't it? Click to enlarge New: Original, 32bpp uncompressed normalmaps! We felt that VRAM was at a great premium on the launch of our Viggen. Lately, however, we've reevaluated VRAM usage of the Viggen and the impact on performance. This has allowed us to now ship uncompressed, high quality normalmaps for the exterior. This change has also been necessary due to the discontinuing of support for swizzled XY BC5 normalmaps in the core engine. Enjoy those sculpted rivets in all of their glory! Click to enlarge Other Changes The current, non-exhaustive (this will grow) list of changes due for that patch is as follows; Exterior mirrors now reflect the environment Fixed various clipping and shine-through issues in exterior (esp. Cockpit) Sculpted new normalmap for exhaust nozzle and area Sculpted new normalmap for exterior exhaust shell Added RoughMet textures for the exhaust shell Added turbine texture for better deep engine detail Metal elements on wings now have appropriate material definitions Animated engine exhaust fan New! Significantly improved visual fidelity of afterburner Afterburner now cast lights inside engine exhaust pipe Afterburner now cast lights on surrounding objects and terrain Corrected afterburner z-fighting Afterburner planes do not render at high viewing angles. Corrected afterburner self-illumination Fixed glass in LoD (distant) models turning opaque and bright. New! Added significantly better quality uncompressed normal maps for entire exterior Light domes are now appropriately shiny Fixed wheel/tire animation values so they spin at correct speeds. Latest Changes And in case you missed it; the latest patchnotes for the Viggen were as follows: SPA-mode: Fix of adding more than 9 MALs should reset count + manually entered MALs shouldn’t be overwritten. SPA-mode: Info about fix (target heading and speed) wasnt displayed after a SKU-fix was taken and then it was also immediately overwritten in AKTPOS. Other various fixes to SPA-mode Bombing: Added bomb-rate "catch-up" on first bomb impulses: improves bombing accuracy Bombing: DYK/dive bombing mode changed so release is begun at later time making the sight more centered in view and easier to use Custom cartridges: Automatically generated mission plans improved with additional info in kneeboard Custom cartridges: ability to automatically generate mission for MÅL and SKU targets by landing and setting master mode BER. Custom cartridges: for dynamically generated cartridges the time-on-target can be changed with key command. Other custom cartridge fixes Added Quick Missions for Persian Gulf Map. Changes to AI RB-04E definitions. AI now fire RB-04 and break away. Updated RB04 / RB15 Warhead Tweaked RB04E motor burntime. As always, thanks for your support. We'll be working very hard and diligently to meet our goals for the Viggen and it's full completion by the end of 2018. Sincerely, The Heatblur Viggen team

Fixed internally - but for now through a sort of hackfix (that works). It'll be in the next patch and hopefully we can restore the original code later.

If you guys get any crashlogs; please upload as many as possible in here. Thank you!

Weird, I could have sworn I replied. I must have forgotten to press the button. We are aware of this and have involved ED in finding a fix. It may be engine related. Stby for more info.

Coming with the RAT in the patch after next.

Hey guys; the art update that was listed in today's changelog was a misnomer because we only pushed code updates for this update. The art fixes will be in the next point patch. Sorry for the confusion. For reference; Exterior mirrors now reflect the environment Fixed various clipping and shine-through issues in exterior (esp. Cockpit) Sculpted new normal map for exhaust nozzle and area Sculpted new normal map for exterior exhaust shell Added RoughMet textures for the exhaust shell Added static turbine texture for better deep engine detail