britgliderpilot

A proper Harrier sim is pretty tricky to do in any detail - these guys are hard at work on a Falklands sim featuring the Sea Harrier and Harrier GR1, though: http://www.thunder-works.com/ There've been some simple attempts over the years, including addons for just about every moddable flight sim. I hear Strike Fighters now have a half-decent Harrier model :)

One of the TBS vids shows GA wrestling a Ka50 onto a warships helipad. As a rule . . . if the AI can land there, so can you. But then a helicopter can land pretty much anywhere :)

Dude, you'd have a Tomcat for every job they need an aircraft to do, wouldn't you? ;) Where'd the fuel burn figure come from?

Given that Black Shark isn't finished yet, commenting on the performance of the Betas is pretty much irrelevant . . . . . If the 5600+ is pretty much equivalent to the Core 2 Duos, then you've got a pretty strong rig there. I wouldn't be too worried. Remains to be seen whether the Nvidia drivers for the 8800 get sorted - there have been mutterings about new beta drivers fixing the shadow bug, which would be fantastic, but I haven't tried it myself yet.

You have to look hard. I keep seeing a dusty Commander's Edition on the bottom shelf of a game store in town, second hand . . . I just don't think I have a computer slow enough to run it anymore. Ouch.

I never, err, what . . . ah. Phew. My secret's safe ;) :D

Suspect it's a military marking that's been left on the civilian colour scheme - the legalities of having a functioning chain gun fitted to a civil aircraft don't bear thinking about ;) Still . . . . your neighbours leaving the house for work in the morning to be faced with this view aren't likely to hang around and find out :D

. . . those lines are from the server.lua file, not the view.lua file. Which is the reason for the CameraViewAngle/CameraAngle difference, at least.

Mmmn. Follow this link: http://www.provenancefightersales.com/cobra_N2734D.htm . . . . know any banks that haven't been robbed lately? ;)

Huh. I have two patches - one dedicated exclusively to Voodoo cards, one for everything else. So a dedicated non-Voodoo patch is available . . . if you can't find one and the Voodoo version doesn't work, let me know and I'll try and get it to you.

Sounds good! Downloading for testing . . .

Install GUI, or game GUI? Because there was a glitch with the game interface whereby you couldn't see text in Flanker 2.5 with FSAA on. Turn if off and the text reappears.

Ahhhh . . . . that makes more sense. Oh, 3dfx, how we miss thee . . . So the Voodoo installation will render in Glide, and the others in DirectX? So really you want the other one if you can get it working. What's stopping you installing the "other cards" patch, btw?

Once upon a time, a long time ago, I knew the answer to that question. There were two Flanker 2.5 updates . . . one for the Voodoos 1, 2, and 3, and one for every other card. There was one Flanker 2.51 patch. I have a faint memory of the Voodoo-specific update being something to do with a peculiarity in the way the Voodoo cards handled textures. Anyone remember the real answer? I'd guess the "other cards" option would make the most sense for a Radeon . . .

Only applicable if it was FRAPSed. Most movies tend to be produced from tracks with everything cranked up - i.e. taking longer than real-time.

Yeah. Showoff vids don't often include bugs or yet-to-be-added features ;) There's a lot there that's done very well. It'll blow your mind. But it's not ready yet. 'Tis a great video, though - well done SV! The Apache flying almost seems too good to be AI. Now I've not spent much time observing helicopter AI in Black Shark, so I don't know for sure . . . . but I'd say it's a model swap. Just seems too smooth and too aggressive for the AI.

Probably because low speed aircraft don't get so much in the way of heat blur IRL. There is method to the madness . . . . Slow aircraft generally have high-bypass-ratio turbofans. This means lots of cold air from the bypass fan, and only a little hot air from the core. Fast aircraft have lower bypass ratios (to get the high exhaust gas velocities needed for high-speed flight), which means a little cold air from the bypass fan and lots of hot air from the core.

Mmmn. That all looks really good! Makes me want to join in . . . . when's the next session going on? Better try and remember how fixed-wing aircraft fly, I guess.

. . . . sounds like you're doing everything you can, I don't have any more suggestions. Once you're lost, it's either follow the tadpole to a known waypoint, or start VFR navigation. Try Googling up tips on RL VFR navigation - it's effectively what you're having to do in the A-10. The latitude/longitude display would be useful if it worked, but the A-10 isn't modelled to that level of detail. Maybe in future sims - ED have just finished a much more detailed A-10C desktop sim for the USAF, so shouldn't be short of data - but not quite yet.

Yeah. The Ka50 has so much more power and agility than the FSX choppers it's just unreal. . . . this does make it difficult to fly, you can't avoid that. It's like going from a 747 to an Extra. General handling may be straightforward, but hovering and precise control is still a bit of a nightmare to learn. I strongly recommend learning to fly helicopters in other sims (FSX with add-ons will do, HoverControl has a nice 412) before Black Shark if you haven't touched them before ;) I still don't believe pedals are completely necessary - they'd be nice to have, by all means, but a twist-stick or an X45 will suffice. You most definitely need an accurate method of yaw control, though.

No. The cone cloud should be visible any time the shockwave is present (I'm not certain whether a full supersonic shockwave should trigger it . . . only seem to get these shots very briefly) and atmospheric conditions permit it. It's not an infrequent occurrence for carrier-based aircraft or those flying very low and fast over the water . . . . but it's completely out of place for aircraft flying at high altitude over land, so in order to do it properly such an effect would very rapidly get very complicated. If ED were to model any form of condensation, LERX vortices would be the obvious one . . . . has an obvious use in a sim in that it shows you how hard your opponent is trying. Doubt it'll happen in any form, though. Allowing a moment of fantasy, though, seeing the tip vortices from a hovering Ka50 in damp air would just be spectacular ;)

Mmmn. I, uh . . . . sat in a Jetranger cockpit once :P Nah, I figure I've flown a fair assortment of aircraft for my years - had a joyride in a Twin Squirrel for the helicopter front, have the RAF to thank for a couple of Bulldog rides (just missed the Grob Tutor entering service) . . . no fast jets yet. From what I've seen they're pretty close. Not flown a DG800 - fly the Schempp-Hirth Discus on a fairly regular basis and fly the DG505 when they let me get my hands on it. Got a flight lined up in a racing Beechcraft for the summer - hope to get a lot more DG time in with a mate of mine, too.

Mmmn. On a semi-related note - I remember a gunzo fight in Flanker 2.5 where I had one engine shot out and a tailfin removed. Managed to recover and return to stable flight - but as it became obvious that I wouldn't make it to the airfield I had to apply power . . . . Full power and one tailfin sent it into a flat spin from which there was no recovery, even on zero power. Despite crashing, I did rather enjoy that moment ;) Changes to the flight model will almost certainly depend on the information available to the development team at the time. It's not just done for fun. For Su27 Flanker, my understanding is that a limited amount of technical data was available - but on the other hand, IIRC one of the test pilots gave some input. Since then, flight manuals have been released to the general public, giving a much better idea of the performance of the aircraft.

That's a question I can't answer. However, from the following quote: . . . and with knowledge of the details of the Su25Ts systems and response to battle damage, and with the knowledge that ED are pushing things forward with the Ka50, you may infer that systems are modelled in higher detail in Black Shark than "move lever, dial moves". . . . and those helicopter controls look fantastic. Hugely expensive, though . . . I think I've seen a photo of a replica Ka50 stick, but can't for the life of me remember where. Have definitely seen a replica Ka50 HUD, but I think that's going above and beyond . . .

My first attempt did take me some time . . . . after a week or two of practice I managed to get it down to 1:15, and reckon there's still a couple of seconds in it somewhere . . . . :D As a warmup, try flying the last helicopter tutorial in the Extra ;) Have tried flying the DG, but only on the tutorials so far. I still haven't had an hour free to sit down and try the big racing missions. Seems pretty good - if I have a criticism it's that the big Nevada thermals in the tutorial are almost too easy to climb in . . . . but hey, that's probably realistic compared to the English Midlands. Sigh . . . . I have to be honest, though - I've bought the last three MSFS versions, played several more, and FSX is the first one I've enjoyed enough to fly it regularly. And I really, really like it. The graphics are finally good enough for VFR flight, the FMs are finally good enough, the missions are fun, and they've done away with the flying wardrobe that is the Schweizer . . . . ;)