Andrew_McP

It's hard to be sure what you see is *exactly* what happened, because of packet loss etc and the way LOMAC re-creates replays. But it seems to me that the mp lag (between me and their server anyway) mostly shows up in obvious situations where you can see all 4 aircraft twitch slightly off-track together. Individual aircraft seem far more stable relative to each other, no obvious twitching in position, only in control surface movement. A.P.'s aircraft *seems* to be the most twitchy in terms of its control surfaces, and while that might reflect a slightly poorer connection between him and the server compared to the rest, I'm sure it also reflects the fact that (a) it's no fun at the back of a diamond :-) and (b) the fact he needs his ACS disabled in order to perform his excellent single aircraft display towards the end. Overall though I was very impressed by the stability of the connection and lack of MP problems. Before the start though (in another trk I cut short when I quit to change my MP name) when one of the aircraft landed & taxied to a stop I did get a phantom "whizz across the landscape and crash into a building". And in the display trk A.P.'s landing at the end was *impossibly* heavy, causing the plane to skate about a bit on the runway... which is why I cut away from that in the movie just at the moment of impact. Not very elegant :-) But apart from that there wasn't a lot to show it was being beamed across the internet. Speaking of which, there are still moments in life when I'm totally amazed by what the internet allows us to do. This airshow was one of them... people from all over the planet able to connect and share an experience. If I wasn't such a pessimistic cynic I'd say there was hope for the future of humanity after all :-) Andrew McP

Great pictures. I can't have the Su-27 on my desktop though, I'd never get any work done :-) Andrew McP

It's a great shame 1.1 ran into distribution trouble. I suspect next time the VFTC fly live there will be one or two more folk in the crowd. It'll be interesting to see if their server setup can cope with a big audience without causing problems for the pilots. As a concept though, live airshows, gunso competitions, or even races (there are some nice big editable pylons now :-) are very exciting... for me anyway. Andrew McP

I'm glad to hear it, thanks. BTW, I suppose your Irish voice must have been the one I could hear on Teamspeak while I was tidying up and checking the trk after the show. I knew when I heard that conversation that I wasn't the only one to have been very impressed. So you contributed to my decision to turn the show into slightly more than a quick & dirty movie. I know my movies aren't awful (my self-editing skills aren't *that* bad :-) it's just that I always judge my work by the worst of its elements rather than the best. The limitations of using Fraps to record often jerky and low-res clips, the shakey mouse-cam sequences I struggle to improve, the trouble finding decent compression methods, the "golden handcuffs" effect that trying to work to a soundtrack imposes on movie structure, and... Well, you get the idea :-) And I never quite get over worrying about using music illegally. It sort of devalues the end result knowing it's built on dodgy foundations. Still, that doesn't seem to stop me. I must be either stupid of addicted :-) Maybe if ED stopped updating their code and pilots like the VFTC team stop flying, I'll be cured. But with any luck neither of those things will happen! Andrew McP

http://www.andrew.mcp.dsl.pipex.com/lomac.htm Movies are like buses. Wait ages getting cold & wet, then two come along at once. Still, LOC and I are in different categories, so we're not competing for the same Oscar ;-) Anyway, after watching the amazing live VFTC internet airshow last weekend I couldn't help but try to show my appreciation. The result is far from perfect (I really must learn to edit my own work more objectively, and not get hung up on musical hooks) but it does go some way towards showing everyone how inspired I was by their flying. Remember they performed live. No re-starting if someone made a mistake. And the result was close enough to flawless that I couldn't see any problems! Anyway, enjoy the movie, but all your appreciation should go to An.Petrovich, Const, Enot, and Han. Andrew McP

<looks innocent> Video? ;-) Actually I'm supposed to be working on it right now. Just popped back to the thread because I realised An.Petrovich must have flown the whole display with his ACS disabled (unless there's a toggle I've forgotten). <pause... watching new Airbus A380 taxiing in background on TV> Where was I? Yes, A.P. flies at the back of the diamond, and the track seems to show him doing a lot more "twitching" of control surfaces to hold position. Watching his solo display again at the end I realised that 's because he had the ACS off, which means staying with the diamond through that section of the display must have been *really* hard work. Amazing flying. Anyway, back to trying to squeeze 12 mins of flight into about 6 mins of video. Andrew McP

Yes, it's the fact that happened right before our eyes, with no (obvious :-) mistakes that made it special. We see so many great tracks & movies of excellent flying, but how often are they the result of a single flight with no chance of a repeat? Stunning flying. Andrew McP

Thanks for the instructions. I have now managed to post to the forum. Lol! I'm glad you can understand what I say, nobody else can... not even me sometimes ;-) Thanks again for the help. Andrew McP

I suspect that many of us -- myself included! -- are blissfully ignorant of real world constraints on deployment. Just because the mission editor allows us to create certain scenarios doesn't mean they'd be likely to happen in the real world; whether that's because of equipment scarcity or something as simple as trying to drive AI vehicles down hillsides they wouldn't attempt in real life ;-) Perhaps LOMAC should have an extra "tactical education" button which gives people a clear introduction to real world deployments and the chances of aircraft X surviving an encounter with defence Y. Because it's a sim we all attempt scenarios which no real world pilot would try in a million years! But then that's part of the fun isn't it. Most of us probably don't use flight sims in full, hardcore realism mode all the time... and probably never did if truth be known. This may well be why flight sims have struggled to survive in an era of quick-fix gaming thrills, and why there can be so much tension in this small community... a hardcore sim with softcore pilots is always going to have problems pleasing everyone. Personally I think a lot of entertainment (a dirty word maybe ;-) could be added to LOMAC simply by changing that missile effectiveness slider into a "missile damage percentage" slider. That way missiles would always behave as ED intended (simplifying testing perhaps), but would do amounts of damage proportional to the pilot's mood and skill. With accumulative damage on the airframe this ought to provide a solution to softcore pilot woes. I'd certainly enjoy taking multiple hits some days just as much as I enjoy the thrill of taking on a SAM site knowing I only have one chance on other days. Andrew "mushycore" McP

I tried to register, but the buttons are all in Russian, so I didn't get very far :-) Andrew McP

Was tempted to select the 25T as well as the 27. I love A2G, and the AFM is stunning. But there's only ever one proper answer to the favourite aircraft question :-) Andrew McP

Just in case people haven't a clue what I'm talking about, it was this... http://forum.virtualflight.ru/index.php?showtopic=1388 I apologise for sounding a little over-excited before. Let the Brit stiff upper lip slip a little there. ;-) But watching a live airshow from the comfort of my living room was a new and amazing experience. I always was more interested in the peaceful uses for these amazing aircraft though, so this was right up my street, and these guys were *very* good. The commentary really added something to the airshow experience as well... made it all the more realistic. I did nearly eat through a knuckle though ever time the formations came close to the ground. One tiny warp and... But it never happened. Andrew McP

I'm pretty sure it wasn't Waddington, but my memory's hazy. The Airstrip was higher than the viewing area I seem to remember. At least it was from where I was stood. And I'm pretty sure the number was 37... thirty something anyway. Again, could be my memory. Was feeling really tired that day and didn't take any photos. But the landing, turn, take-off trick was the same. very noisy and very impressive! I do remember alarms going off as well though. Nice calling card :-) Almost as impressive though was it's incredible silhouette in the sky as it turned tightly around the airfield. The huge fluorescent numbers on the wing do strange things to your sense of scale, it was a particularly memorable experience. Your clip brought it all back to me, thanks. Oh. If it helps I seem to remember the only reason I went to that show was that the American F-16 display team was flying. I hadn't seen them before. All I remember of that was their formations didn't seem as tight as the Red Arrows and that they seemed rather keen on the Stars & Stripes for some reason :-D Andrew McP... who doesn't go to airshows these days in protest at the lack of Su-27's gracing our skies these days. It's a crime! (Actually last I heard it was because Sukhoi were afraid their aircraft would get "repossessed" by the agents of people they owe money to in the West. My information may be out of date these days :-) Andrew McP

http://www.andrew.mcp.dsl.pipex.com/VFTCairshow.zip ought to get you the zipped trk file. It will only work in 1.1 remember. I haven't had time to edit the playback, so take control and put yourself somewhere comfortable with a cool beer and a sense of awe. I overheard someone on Teamspeak say the display team plan to release the trk themselves. Hopefully I'm not jumping the gun for them, just trying to do my bit to publicise their talent. Right, I said something about getting some sleep didn't I. Andrew McP PS You need to fast forward to about 12:17, when the action starts

PPS. These guys deserve the AFM for the Su-27 and they deserve it *now*. If we have a whip round in the crowd maybe we could buy Igor some more programming time? :-)

It was an honour to watch that airshow. I mean that. I'd say more but I stayed up to watch that and have to be at work in five hours. Time for bed. But what I really want to do is watch the trk again... and again! Real people flying such an excellent display. Stunning work. Sorry if this sounds silly, I feel like a kid :-) On the few occasions I've seen real Flankers display I've had a grin on my face for hours afterwards. I've been smiling for about half an hour now and my face is getting tired. Wonderful experience watching real people fly incredibly well in real time. Thankyou. Again :-) Andrew "stupid grin" McP PS I'm never going to get to sleep now. My boss will kill me :-D

Basically in this mode everything still works, but nothing moves (aircraft, missiles, etc). So you can change weapons, hud modes etc, lock on to a target, change your mind, check the manual, realise you chose the wrong weapon, try another, turn the manual the right way up, try it all again... you get the idea ;-) It's not realistic, obviously. But there's more to a sim than 100% realism, and as a learning tool for complex weaponry and avionics, this would be invaluable. I seem to remember Janes' F/A-18 had the same thing. It's been a while since I flew it though, so I may be wrong. Of course the Mother of All training aids were the tutorials in Longbow 1 & 2. I can still hear that bloke's voice in my head. Scary. "To engage eye-hadz mode, press the <pause> eye key". Yes sir! Sorry I didn't press it sooner. The manual fell off my lap and I lost the right page and... "Climb to 100 feet and hover. Notice..." But I haven't done the IHADS things yet. What key was it again? And notice what? "Climb to 100 feet!" All right, already! Give me a break. I didn't sign up for this. They said I'd see the world. All I've seen so far is a dusty bit of Nevada (is there any other kind?), and the only excercise I've had for two weeks is carrying the manual to the bathroom for extensive study. Where's the foreign travel, the exotic women, the Hershey bars available 24/7 in any US base across the planet? And what happened to... "Climb to 100 feet!" Do I get the Hershey bar then? Andrew "easily distracted" McP

Well, the tests I did were with no other aircraft in the mission. But thanks for an interesting reply. I'll have a play again tomorrow if I get time. Andrew McP

Great shots aren't they. I saw a Viggen display at an airshow a few years ago and was very impressed, particularly by the "reverse down the runway" trick they do. Useful for 3-point turns I guess :-) Shame they're disappearing from active duty, but the Gripen's quite an interesting aircraft. Nowhere near as "solid" looking though, and it's that strang ecombination of elegance and brutality which gives the Viggen its charm. Andrew McP

After some more experimenting I'm not much wiser. All AI aircraft want to climb as quickly as physically possible at takeoff (rather than trying to chase the next waypoint as I'd prefer) so this may be an interaction with some general "how to behave over airbases" code. That leads to rather unrealistically steep takeoffs, but I guess it helps overcome any tendency the AI might have to crash soon after takeoff without this behaviour. I should stick to A2A combat over deep water. Life is so much simpler out there. The scenery's not much to look at though. :-) Andrew McP

All aircraft behave unpredictably if you place them too too low over the ground (something to do with collision detection, though what triggers evasive action is hard to see or predict). However if you place a combat AI pilot flying level at 60m over a runway, it flies along quite happily. Change that plane for something like a C-130 or AN-26B, and after a second or two over the runway it heads for the sky, peaking at about 185m before coming down again to look for the next waypoint. Pushing altitude up to 80m doesn't help, so it's not something to do with these aircraft occupying more space in the Y-plane. I'm wondering if anyone out there has any hints to overcome this. (FWIW the reason this is "important" to me is that I'm trying to simulate aircraft taking off from an airbase. I can't have them actually take off because if you add AI aircraft to take off from the runway, the player only spawns after they've lifted off. Given that the whole point is to give the player something to look at while taxiing, it's a bit of a puzzle. At the moment all you get to watch is a plane heading like a startled sheep for the sky, which kind of ruins the moment... though I suppose it *would* be useful for an "emergency-takeoff in a threatened airbase" mission). Andrew McP

Actually I'm not we can add much to what's already known about mission editing. If we haven't worked out how to get around the AI limitations by now, then I guess we never will. But given that it'll be a few years before ED have the opportunity to radically improve AI behaviour, I have to cling to the hope that we can use what we've got to our advantage *somehow*. Now, you'll have to excuse me. I have to go work out why my trucks won't overtake the burned out wreckage of the armoured car that was protecting their convoy as it makes a dash to take over a town. Maybe they're too scared to go on? ;-) Andrew McP

Why a mailing list? 1) Because I tend to get very frustrated while editing missions. It would be nice to be able to vent this sometimes without worrying about breaking forum rules or appearing to be unduly negative :-) 2) Good mission design (IMO) involves some smoke & mirrors tricks. Discussing this kind of thing in public can spoil the fun. 3) I still prefer email lists & newsgroups to forums because you can download all new messages in one go rather than clicking all over the place. I'm probably in a minority these days, so I don't expect it being a big or particularly active group. What would we discuss? a) Making the AI do as they're told! b) Working out why the AI don't do as they're told! :-) c) Trying to breathe life and atmosphere into missions. d) Cheap therapy ;-) Anyway, if anyone's interested in pooling our (lack of) understanding, email me at andrew.mcp@DELETETHISdsl.pipex.com (removing the obvious). Please put LOMAC in the subject to help me filter you out of the spam, and let me know if you want adding to the group with a different email address to the one you email me from. The group has been created as a private group (invite only, for now) on googlegroups. I don't know of any particular problems with this setup (spam etc), but if you know different, let me know. Andrew McP

Thank you! Great idea. Andrew McP

http://www.dappa.nl/lulea.htm Andrew McP