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F-14A/B DEVELOPMENT UPDATE #1 – 21/03/2015


Cobra847

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Dear All,

 

First off, thank you all for your kind words of support and positive attitude to our announcement.

It is a great motivator to put in those long hours when you know you've got such a great community behind you.

Sincere gratitude from the entire team. Also a big thank you to those of you who have gone above and beyond to spread the news of our announcement.

While it's still relatively early in the development process, it's good to get some awareness out there right off the bat.

 

We've been kind of quiet lately, but not to worry; it is simply an effect of the large workload placed on each and every member of the team.

Ambitious plans require hard work and much of our focus lies on attaining planned development sprints.

 

Unfortunately, a byproduct of this is that many of your questions about the F-14 have gone unanswered. I've been gathering many of these and they will be answered in the FAQ section of our new F-14 site section coming next week.

Therein you will also find a lot of information on various features of the aircraft and our design goals for e.g. JESTER AI.

 

We're due for a monthly update, which will have some information about other developments and the MiG-21.

Thus, I'll be keeping this F-14 specific update fairly short.

 

Art Development

 

We're now essentially feature complete on both exterior and interior models for the F-14, including the majority of integration work and animations.

Thus, preparatory work for diffuse, specular and normal map texture creation has begun.

 

With the F-14, we're pioneering several new techniques based on the tried-and-tested industry standard sculpting and baking workflow.

We've already put this to good use for our other unreleased, in development aircraft, but we're hoping to take it that one step further for the F-14.

We hope we can further enhance the realism of both our exterior and interior textures and the initial results are very promising.

 

It's very exciting for us as artists to have the opportunity to apply years of accumulated knowledge to a project such as the F-14. We hope to capture every minutiae detail, down to the touched up lumps of paint.

 

Something many of you have concerns about is performance. We're taking a very pro-active stance on ensuring that performance is optimal at release this time around.

We very much wish to ensure that the F-14 will perfectly on the vast majority of systems, and approaching things more carefully from the beginning will make it easier for us to make adjustments in the future.

 

Attached below you can see some Work in Progress renders of the cockpit.

Do note that these images have flaws, so take them with a few pinches of salt.

 

 

Codebase Development

 

Not counting the Radar and HUD (two big systems in themselves), the Tomcat contains, by our count, roughly 67 Major systems, of which 37 are related to Flight and Flight Controls.

In addition to this, one must take into account the size and difficulty of both the JESTER AI system and the External Flight Model. Noting that the F-14 is a massively difficult undertaking is putting it mildly.

 

Currently, heavy focus lies on creation of the AICS (Inlet Control System), Hydraulic System and Electrical System.

These systems, together with the Engine and grouped control systems lay the basis for the construction of the swing-wing EFM that will capture the spirit and real performance of the F-14.

 

There is yet a long road ahead, and many difficult tasks to complete, but we have absolutely no reservations about our capabilities nor our choice of aircraft.

 

 

We look forward to sharing more progress with you soon.

Thank you for your support,

 

 

Sincerely,

Leatherneck Simulations

 

 

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CockpitRender5.thumb.png.a39c32c87d1a19ffd3f287face172801.png

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CockpitRender4.thumb.png.4584875f6ef69cee54d0b9644cd5b540.png

CockpitRender7.thumb.png.3d4ec6ea50acfc32e3a411819b1ebe12.png

CockpitRender8.thumb.png.f2064ed219a6b334602b3e764f5a4ae5.png

CockpitRender9.thumb.png.fa7df503860a9bde16233e7e2c4bf730.png

CockpitRender11.thumb.png.ee02a3380484a2db6d080429189fa9fd.png

CockpitRender2.thumb.png.80b26dcb67b638dd1b1dc0a6b9e3deb7.png

CockpitRender6.thumb.png.4c857abde77acbc65e1111118da57d31.png

CockpitRender12.thumb.png.858534b8b8738846dd145c1dad02a3d6.png


Edited by Cobra847
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Nicholas Dackard

 

Founder & Lead Artist

Heatblur Simulations

 

https://www.facebook.com/heatblur/

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It's beautiful, those renders are fantastic. Great to see the pride you guys are taking in this project. Mig-21bis was a beautiful study in detail, I can imagine this will be gifted just as much, if not more love.

 

Top shelf work so far guys!

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Exciting stuff and the model's looking great!

 

Thanks for the comprehensive update, Cobra. :thumbsup:

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Awesome thanks for the update! Can't wait!

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Guessin' this is A/early B as there is no HUD Glass (projected onto Windscreen)?

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bravo!!!!

another great update!

 

mig-21 model has brought us a 3rd-party standard which has been further enhanced by this f-14 wip pit


Edited by uboats

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Guessin' this is A/early B as there is no HUD Glass (projected onto Windscreen)?

 

The F-14B got the Sparrowhawk HUD starting around 2001 (seemed like most squadrons had it by 2002-2003).

 

I'm thinking the LNS F-14A+/B will be closer to a true A+ - the 1990s version. That is till the F-14B Upgrade add-on module...

 

Just a thought, I think it would sell. But I'm really looking forward to this 1980s-1990s version - my favorite timeframe for Tomcats!

 

-Nick

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U show two cockpits which one is A and B?

I dont know them.

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U show two cockpits which one is A and B?

I dont know them.

 

I don't think you're seeing two cockpits - just the front seat and the back seat of the same variant.

 

What I'm less sure about is whether or not the cockpit avionics changed significantly between the A and the B. I was under the impression that the main difference was the output of the engines, but I could be wrong on that.

 

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-dewline/2013/04/f-14a-versus-the-f-14b/

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_F-14_Tomcat#F-14A


Edited by Pizzicato

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Great update.

 

Very excited about this module.

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You right its pilot cockpit and navigator cockpit.

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no works can express the excitement to see your work as an official module for sale on DCS.

much commendation for even partaking in the development of this iconic aircraft..

 

i always wanted to by this plane when it was a toy for hasbro's G.I. joe.

but to have a full featured PC based sim, with the prospect of flying this in virtual reality with the upcoming VR head mounted displays..

 

A DREAM COME TRUE.

THANK YOU LEATHERNECK SIMS

<3

(heart)

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