Greatest news by far!

Edited on 5/6/10

The announcement language has been slightly edited again for further clarification. We should note again that it is not yet any kind of final documentation. For now, it is a tentative statement of general intent. It is likely to change, both in general and specific terms. One of the reasons we decided to publicize it in this fashion was to gather some opinions from the community and use them in actually hammering out the details of any legal agreements these tools would necessitate. Any such agreements would be included in the plug-in software and can only then be considered final. Another reason to publicize the information now was to prepare any interested modders for the possibilities laying ahead, especially those modders interested in terrain creation, which – unlike all of the other tools, is open for development now.

To reiterate the information in the current announcement:

The PCIP cockpit plug-in will be made available after the release of Black Shark and is not intended for product modification and development. As such, it will be available to the general public.

All of the other plug-ins are intended for product modification and development by third-party developers. These tools will not be available to the general public, but will be distributed at the discretion of ED to those developers able to demonstrate their ability to utilize the tools effectively. ED feels this approach will be optimal, because it will help retain a high standard of quality for all third-party content and (equally important) it will allow ED to provide much better support to third-party developers by focusing on a smaller developer base.

It’s also worth remembering that DCS will allow considerable modification options to any user without any use of plug-ins, similarly (but to a greater degree) to Flaming Cliffs. The plug-ins in question are intended to allow third-party developers to grow and expand the DCS environment in much greater depth in cooperation with ED.

Once available, all non-terrain modification tools would be released to third-party developers based on individual agreements.

Sounds good. Now I want to learn how to make models. *goes to look for software and tutorials*

Maybe in 10 years I'll have something to show. :noexpression:

I have never made any mods but would programming skills be useful in such a project? Because that I can do.

Thanks on clarification EB-1,

I just want to make sure I won't meet any 3rd party UFO planes in the future of DCS with unreallistic flight model, RCS and weapon support!

So what's the correct procedure of receiving a thumbs up integration from ED team? Public data of particular vehicle such as Wikipedia entry or more detailed and hard to get partly classified documents!

I ask because we're all kinda biased in our own way and we all have our favorites! Take me for example. I'm in love with Fulcrum but I know it's not the best plane ever made. I just like to think it is!

I worked in SOKO Z.I. on MiG-21bis addon for FS2004 published by Lago:

http://flyawaysimulation.com/article1093.html

SOKO Z.I. was the developer and we had lots of aerodynamics and mechanical data gathered directly from Croatian Airforce personel and RL Fishbed pilots but we also had a pretty high threshold on deciding what's accurate and what's a myth!

I must admit it wasn't easy and it took a lot of time, so I fully understand all the time needed for BS beta testing and all delays in final release date!

SOKO Z.I. developed only a flyable MiG-21bis since FS2004 doesn't allow any radar and weapons usage but developing a flight model and behavior of Fishbed was one helluva job!

So I hope for nothing but high standard and complete accuracy of 3rd party DCS modules based on proven facts in the future rather than a 15G ready Super Sabre shooting 20 AMRAAMS in salvo!

I don't wanna turn DCS into Unreal tournament!

3rd Party Development and AI

Obviously not every single vehicle, aircraft, or ship currently being used by any given military will be in black shark. Some will be missing. Some modders will be interested in breaking new ground while others might be adding more countries or missing weapons to the inventory. What capabilities are planned for non-player usable items?

Is it simply a matter of selecting an AI that best fits the role of the new item or would it be something we would have to create ourselves?

I understand its probably "To be Determined" at this stage of the development, yet I think its important to let the community have an idea of what is truly possible. Also it doesn't hurt for you guys to get ideas what the 3rd party development community is interested in.

While new flyable content is obviously the most interesting side of a mod, the F-14 mod showed that there is in fact some interest in having a new model specifically for AI usage. Fact remains for non-usable intent content (tanks, ships, some helicopters) the full purpose of such objects is to add to the game world for new and different game play experiences.

Thx EvilBivol-1 for the clarification.

well it is fantastic news, but guys please remember one thing, all that might come takes alot of time and most of the times a huge team like simmod is.

we allready try our best but when these tools might be handed to us we have to decide many things like what we want to do etc. so i assume that the community will call things the modders should do, but like allways all should keep in mind, that we are doing it in our free time or over nightshifts, so i think we should be free to decide what we do, but for now. BS is not released and then the next things might come.

i only hope that ED supports us with all our upcoming projects :-)