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2016 - A Year in Review


Ells228

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Hey Guys,

I hope you have all had great Christmas celebrations and are enjoying the time off work if you are just having holidays and don't celebrate.

I can't believe we are at the end of another year already and this one in particular for me has seem to have gone so quickly.

That said, the last several months have certainly been very interesting on our military side of the business which is propelling us into a busy development year for 2017, which is awesome!!

What this also means is that investment from that side of the business is making our consumer products stronger and better.

 

On the DCS front we have had some big ups and downs over the past year with some great wins like Hawk rear seat implementation and, on the other side of that coin, delays with P-40 of which Pete will mention in his text below.

 

We have lost some of our development team and have gained new members of the VEAO family. For those that have gone, we wish you all the best in your en-devours and to those that have started this year or due to start in 2017; what are you doing reading this, get back to work!!! hehe

 

On that note the VEAO office is closed for the holiday break with some members of our development family returning early January, some a little later in January.

 

So, what's in store for 2017....

Well for me it will be a busy time developing our military projects, securing more military work for the year and those beyond, demonstrating our capabilities within DCS and of course showcasing DCS itself which is second-to-none when it comes to military simulators and the capabilities of the simulator that we all love flying or even driving in.

DCS itself has come on leaps and bounds with the latest installments and we can't wait to develop systems and functionality for what is yet to come <no spoilers>.

 

You will see vast improvements in technology for DCS; VR being a classic example of this and we are excited to announce some partnerships early in the New Year, so keep an eye out for announcements!!

 

I'll leave the consumer side of things to Pete in his text below and just want to assure you that we are working as diligently and as fast as possible to get new DCS products out to you whilst keeping the DCS quality mantra high.

You will see some vast improvements to Hawk (2.0 we are calling it internally) and you will already see these achievements in P-40 and our future products for next year and beyond.

 

The whole VEAO family wish you a Happy New Year and look forward to the future of DCS and our products.

 

Many thanks for all of you support thus far and into the future,

Chris.

 

And here'a note or two from Pete....

 

Hi Guys,

 

Well what a year 2016 has been, full of ups and downs and all kinds of madness! So I am guessing that you all want to know where we are with the consumer products, specifically P-40F, Spitfire XIV and the other warbirds.

 

With P-40F we have been doing a lot of fly to the numbers testing, comparing climb rates, glide rates, roll rates and all kinds of rates. A lot of time over the past couple of months has been spent by the team working on getting these key performance indicators correct. It a core objective of this module that it is the most accurate representation of a P-40F that has ever been released to the flight sim community, DCS or otherwise.

 

We have pretty much finalised a lot of the ASM systems including electronics, Hydraulics and flight control systems, weaponry is in full working (and tested!) order. The textures have been finalised bar a few small tweaks for both the external and internal. Engine management is currently the focus of our programmers, myself included, to ensure that the start-up and management of the engine is not so predictable, it needs to feel alive and that is certainly how she is feeling at the moment.

 

We firmly believe that when you fly a warbird it is far more than simply a collection of metal, they are all individual machines with their own little quirks and nuisances.

 

The P-40 has been provisionally combat tested with the other warbirds and although it is fair to say that while she is not the top dog, she is capable of pulling out the odd surprise! Besides there is something to be said for evading while hiding behind fighter cover isn’t there. Make those Spitfires work for their medals!

 

We are still working through damage modelling with ED, this is a long standing issue that all 3rd parties are suffering to one degree or another and ED are working hard and diligently to improve the interface so that we can bring more depth to the functionality we have already. More news on this as it develops.

 

So what’s left and why the delay? Well first let me apologise as there is no one who wants the P-40 to be out of our stable more than Chris and I however sometimes things crop up and it is left to me to make the decision as to if it is acceptable to go ahead without a fix or if it needs attention.

Coming from the community myself I understand hardheartedly how important is to release a quality product and at the same time being dedicated to continually improve that product throughout its entire cycle. So yes, some of the delay falls at my door as I will not let something go out when I am not happy with it, hopefully this means that when the product is downloadable for you guys, you have something that will knock your socks off the first time you fly it!

 

So what’s left; well once the engine management has been completed we want to go over the departure from controlled flight parameters again and refine those behaviors and once that is done, and bugs pending, we will do another round of internal testing with some of our guys to check for glaring issues but after that it is looking rosy for the P-40. A lot of smaller bugs are continually being squished as well, the list is getting shorter, I promise you that.

 

One thing I can tell you is that quite a few people at various public events and some people privately have flown the P-40F and have contributed to the development of the module and the overall feedback is amazing, They have all commented on how alive the aircraft feels and that you have to fly the aeroplane and not ride along like simulators of years gone by, this was extremely pleasing for the entire team to hear as that is a key objective of ours, to make it real.

 

We have also spent quite a lot of time optimising the P-40F for the 3D environment with a number of our team testing the P-40 on Rift and Vive and again the feedback has been very positive, so those of you lucky enough to have one of these devices I am sure will appreciate the level of work put in by Gibbage and Rock.

 

Spitfire has been rattling along at a pace behind the scenes as well, Rock I notice has been sneaking more screenies onto the Spitfire threads so if you haven’t seen them then please go along and hunt them down! Well worth a look. Producing a Spitfire XIV has given us some new, but not insurmountable, challenges, especially that engine, I believe it will really be a case of the cat among the Pigeon when this finally leaves the stable. Through work with one of our partners we remain in close contact with an airworthy example of the type as well as having some of the most experience Warbird pilots on call for feedback and testing purposes. It is fair to say that Spit has been held back while we work on issues with the P-40, no denying that, however I firmly believe that Spit will be the better for it. I know Rock is constantly on about it to me, so rest assured I am getting it in the neck on your behalf!

 

No one likes delays, no one likes having to say to you guys that we are not ready yet. Rest assured we are working our asses off to get the P-40 and the other aircraft to you as soon as viable. We are very proud of the shape that she is taking and I can’t wait to see some of you flying her online with some of us!

 

Lastly, I want to publicly thank the entire VEAO Family for their hard and diligent work this year, Many hundreds if not thousands of hours have been spent away from their families staring at Max, Photoshop or Studio when they could be off enjoying time with their loved ones. I want to offer my personal Thanks to each and every one of the 35+ staff that we have on roster, your work is deeply appreciated.

 

We have a very exciting 2017 to look forward to and from me and the rest of the Consumer products workforce here at VEAO I want to wish all of you a Very Merry Christmas and all the very Best of Wishes for 2017.

 

Pete

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Thanks Pete and Chris and the entire VEAO Team! Happy New Year to you all. Im sure 2017 will be your best year so far with the P-40 coming! Cheers!

''Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.''

Erich Fromm

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Thanks to the VEAO team for all the hard work and going through lots of hardship.

I can see you get there! You have well earned a big thank you from us.

Great news on all fronts!

 

I for one cannot wait to see what 2017 has in store for us.

 

You guys rock!

Shagrat

 

- Flying Sims since 1984 -:pilotfly:

Win 10 | i5 10600K@4.1GHz | 64GB | GeForce RTX 3090 - Asus VG34VQL1B  | TrackIR5 | Simshaker & Jetseat | VIRPIL CM 50 Stick & Throttle | VPC Rotor TCS Plus/Apache64 Grip | MFG Crosswind Rudder Pedals | WW Top Gun MIP | a hand made AHCP | 2x Elgato StreamDeck (Buttons galore)

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Merry Christmas guys and good luck on progress next year. I've already mentioned to Peter, but the P-40 is by far my favorite WW2 plane and I can't wait to fly it!

"Witness mere F-14s taking off from adjacent flight decks, gracefully canting left and right, afterburners flaming, and there’s something that sweeps you away—or at least it does me. And no amount of knowledge of the potential abuses of carrier task forces can affect the depth of that feeling. It simply speaks to another part of me. It doesn’t want recriminations or politics. It just wants to fly.”

― Carl Sagan

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Merry Christmas and thanks for the update.

 

Phanteks Enthoo Evolv Tempered Glass, Asus ROG Maximus IX Hero, Intel i7 7700K @ 4.8, Corsair HX 1000i, Nzxt Kraken 62, 32gb DDR4 3000Mhz Corsair Dominator Platinum, Nvme SSD Samsung 960 Evo 1Tb, Asus Strix OC 1080ti, Philips 43" 4K Monitor + 2 x Dell 24" U2414H, Warthog HOTAS, Track IR 5, Obutto R3volution, Buttkicker Gamer 2, MFG Crosswind pedals, Occulus Rift CV1, Windows 10 Pro.

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Looking forward to the P-40 the sounds on that were nice, Also will it be a beta or a near on release im thinking a fully released module.

 

We will release in Early Access but yes it will pretty much be feature complete and Beta only for last minute bugs.

 

New Typhoon models (internal and external) will be ready by Q2 and work will start on the textures when it fits in the current dev schedule. Other work on Typhoon systems is ongoing.

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Nice update post.

 

Are we going to hear anything of the other announced modules during the next year? (Bearcat, Meteor and Vamp)

 

As and when yes. Although we generally now focus on modules out, or near being out, after the criticism we have received in the past for showing stuff way down the line and early in development.

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We will release in Early Access but yes it will pretty much be feature complete and Beta only for last minute bugs.

 

New Typhoon models (internal and external) will be ready by Q2 and work will start on the textures when it fits in the current dev schedule. Other work on Typhoon systems is ongoing.

 

Great news, As for the Typhoon it will be a long difficult process lots of systems and so on so not expecting to much on that to be honest, But we know that P-40 is not far off. :thumbup:

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Thank you for the updates, I look forward to seeing what you guys offer this year. I'm happy playing with my Hawk rear seat option for now :thumbup: Very much excited for future improvements on that also, I like it already so anything else will be gravy.

[sIGPIC]sigpic67951_1.gif[/sIGPIC]

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