Starlight

It's a quite old idea. There was in the 50s the concept of the aircraft carrier, in the sense of a large aircraft carrying many fighters, which would have acted as "mother ship" (like in "star wars"). I don't see the "in flight arming" very feasible, since even on the ground arming is done by men and usually takes quite some time. If technology has been left out of the arming area in the airfields, there should be some reason. Getting it done in the air by some automated system would mean a really huge tech leap compared to what is being used today.

you're quite right! ;) anyway I was trying to say that some early ED movies were with little if any retouch, yet they did look great (and made me buy this sim, not before watching the back of the cover ;) ) GA's video is awesome, but has highly retouched graphics, custom sounds and custom contents (BS cockpit used to simulate SH-60 landing....)

It things continue to go adrift in the Middle-East, the only paint they'll get it'd probably be from a laser marker, just seconds before something heavy is dropped into the so-called "basket" Anyway, Iran already has some SU-25, they're likely to paint the T's like the vanilla Frogfoots:

If one watches this video and then buys lomac, is a bit disappointed... the graphics are a bit over-photoshopped for product marketing... Instead, if watched as a "fan movie", I'll surely rate it top notch, definitely ;) You're quite a movie-pro, man!

Oh, I thought they were already releasing screens with dx10.... anyway, the graphics displayed in current FSX screens is good, but it's good mostly because of detail (and because probably they run the demo on super systems), not because there are never-seen-before special effects. As far as the effects and eye-candy I still prefer Lomac and Il2 on some stuff (just IMHO). FSX is great because has greatly detailed scenarios. Maybe when featuring all dx10 stuff its effects level will overcome that of other sims. anyway thx for the info ;)

directX offers a high-level interface for graphic routines and commands. it is really HEAVY, if you think that many similar effects were already implemented with good results on DOS games but ran on 486 cpu. OpenGL is a similar interface for graphic commands. The biggest problem is that there are some commands that are hardware-implemented in the GPUs and chipmakers today are heading more towards directx than opengl. That is, graphic cards natively support some library commands on hardware and therefore they go faster with that library. (put very simply)

current issues with BS and Vista (beta) AFAIK are just Starforce drivers, but I read somewhere that they got it fixed (sh*t, we lost a chance to get rid of that!) anyway, there are rumors of MS not releasing Vista for the expected date. That is, it could be released some time later, which in turn means that you could wait 2008 to begin thinking about switching to Vista... anyway, most DX apps are backwards compatible, ie DX10 should be able to run DX8 games. so, like Bobby McFerrin used to sing: "don't worry, be happy" ;)

It's clearly a fake, no doubt about it. I don't think it could even be a display of DirectX10 capabilities, because, AFAIK, FSX already uses DirectX10 and the screenshot above pictures that situation. Ok, Directx10 will support "volumetric clouds" and other nice features, but the second screen is just a fake ps. BTW do you really like those painted backgrounds like in some older PSOne - PS2 games?

...and those clouds suck! I wouldn't ever want a sim with such clouds, looks like to fly with a painting in front of me!

http://www.fencecheck.com/forums/index.php/topic,5324.0.html

I also agree that LockOn is very CPU limited, but I'd say that many games are also CPU limited. On my older PC (Athlon XP-3200) I played Lomac with many different video cards (9800Pro, X800Pro, X800XT, X850XT) and I can say that the graphic cards made the difference mostly when adding effects and graphic features like AA and AF. I couldn't see a HUGE fps jump when switching from 9800Pro to X800XT (more than in fps, the gain was in image quality, that was a huge leap). Instead when I switched to my new platform (Venice 3000@2900 Mhz, DDR600 and X850XT PCI-E) performance improved greatly.

AFAIK, all Hornets can land in fully automatic procedure. The system is known as ACLS (automatic carrier landing system). The latest Tomcats also could, the earlier ones just had an autothrottle system to keep the correct AOA throughout the final approach ust using throttles. ACLS can be engaged on the final leg of the approach, about one mile from the carrier, and I think is used quite often (and mostly at night or in bad weather) by pilots, at least to get more indications about the landing an interesting read: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FKE/is_7_46/ai_78333957

http://www.carrierbuilders.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=623&st=0 A 1:32 scale Bug! Not my favourite aircraft, but this model rocks...

Some Iranian gems some fighters (F-1, F-5E...) Former Iraqi Su-25? Shahab 3 SSM launch pads Su-24 Fencer Iranian F-7 (chinese) F-4 et dulcis in fundo, last but not least..... an F-14 Tomcat

some good effects on runway lights and also note the 3d effect of the snow on the runway very good trees are these volumetric clouds?

at this address you can find the full length video but @ low res ftp://ftp.ubi.com/emea/rainbowsixvegas/videos/R6V_Walktrough_E3.zip at this address you can find the same video but @ higher res, unfortunately it's only the first part. http://www.hwupgrade.it/software_dl2.php?id=2775&url=1 If anyone here finds the full E3 video @ high res please post the url. thx and enjoy

Roguespear was a milestone in its genre. Yet RavenShield is a much more realistic game. This one looks even much better. Lockdown was an "arcaded" version, like "Sum of all fears" was an arcade version of RogueSpear (it came out in the same timeframe of BlackThorn)

I've just seen a clip from E3 walkthrough.... still have to recover... it's just wonderful, it adds a lot of new incredible features. The intro movie is just breathtaking, just a marvel of 3D demo! And the snake camera to look underneath doors.... OMG OMG!!! I also read somewhere that this game will support "Face Mapping" so you can add your own face to the characters... it would be an interesting addon for every game out there, even Lockon ;) (ok, it'd be useless, but it'd be definitely cool ;) )

maybe for "special employments" like Task Force Normandy in 1991. In the case you have to blow up a bunker, a mav has better chances than a Hellfire (just guessing)

Maybe it's not a standard weapon, but I saw pictures of a test-firing of a Maverick from an AH-1W

ok, understood, but why reject Strikemax's Su-27, the Prowler, the Mirage F1, the F-14D, the Harrier.... all user-made models... MTLB is a troop carrier, it doesn't make much sense having so much detail and no troops coming off.... just my 2c

Do you think a helo flies close to its intended targets? If tactics work you should detect, ID, launch and "forget" in a few seconds. You're not gonna overfly tanks and drop bomblets while hovering atop. I think there are a lot of things which need revision, even in the 3D compartment, before adding detailed APCs The 3D model of the Flanker is good, but could be improved since there are a lot of better models out there (just think of Strikemax's model) The same goes for the F-14, the Mig-31, and many other aircraft, which fly with a poor 3D model or with a poor texture (some are straight copy&paste from "Flanker" which is about 10 years old!) Or they could add some non-flyables with simple flight model just tweaking some existing aircraft (think a new F-111, a new Tornado F3, a Strike Eagle, all aircraft which already have a 3D model and a simple FM in Lomac) Or they could add a western style airbase. These are just proposals, to not allow "modellers sit idle"...

The FPS maybe won't be much affected, since the LOD concept should come to help (or at least I hope so). But still we will have better MTLB than Flanker, better LAV than Tomcat.... it doesn't make much sense. When flying you can spot things from very far, but as many pilots say, ID'ing them is still very very hard (unless you have TV/EO/IR optics on board) Aircraft are much larger and you can fly formations with them, so detail is more needed there...

the AFM for the helo was a huge investment by ED, but I said since the beginning that better AI and overall gameplay would have been more appreciated. And, another critique: why make such detailed 3D models for APCs when the F-14 and many other aircraft use old-generation 3D models? AFAIK it's still a _flight_ simulator, even if copters can go way down to the weeds...