Some thoughts about the three most frequently asked questions

[Spectre11]

Hi folks,

 

everyone is excited these days by the announcement that the Eurofighter Typhoon is brought to DCS World by TrueGrit and is asking the three really most frequently asked questions.

 

The questions are:

When is it going to be released?

Which version/variant of the Typhoon we will get?

How realistic will it be?

 

You can be ensure I share your enthusiam and am just as excited as you are, however, you do yourself a favor to lean back, relax and take yourself some time to logically think about these questions.

 

In theory you can, at least partially answer the questions yourself! First and foremost there is a FAQ available which responds to these questions.

 

Ofcourse the FAQ is not exhaustive yet and doesn't fully still your hunger for information, but it effectively tells you that no definitive answer can be provided at this point in time and that you will be informed as soon as practicable.

 

When will it be released?

The TrueGrit team itself is a young setup, and I'm not talking about the age of the individuals involved. They have just started to work and have no previous experience with developing aircraft modules for DCS World. So give them some allowance to catch up in terms of skill and experience with the very specific DCS environment. Developing a complex aircraft module over night isn't going to happen and you can apply the development times of other complex modules, like the F-14B or F/A-18C as a yardstick. Add some allowance for a new team to fight into the realm of DCS and you can maybe expect a module in the 18 - 24 months timeframe (optimistic guess). If you add the aforementioned allowance this may well extend to 36 months, dependent on whether or not an Early Access release is on the table or not. This once again has yet to be decided. Ofcourse an EA would be desirable, because as with real modern combat aircraft, none is entering service feature complete and bugfree!

 

Which version will we get?

Once again the team announced they will aim for the latest version feasible, which could mean anything in theory. However, you can again create an analogy using the F/A-18C or F-16CM as an example. These are not the latest operational versions either and approximately fit into the 2006/2007 timeframe! That doesn't mean that the Typhoon will necessarily be bound to this timeframe, but it is a rather unrealistic assumption to think, let alone ask about a version from the 2015+ timeframe. An FOC jet would be great to have and it's in my opinion very much in the realms of what is feasible. P1E would be the "newest" that I could imagine, considering that the module is still some time away from being released.

I have posted an overview what that means in terms of capabilities and features, just to give you an indication what you can reasonably expect and what is really just wishful thinking.

 

How realistic will it be?

Many question the feasibility of an authentic representation of the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, but there is no reason to do so. No PC based flight simulator for the public consumer market is going to simulate a modern military, or even civil, aircraft with 100% accuracy. That's not going to happen because it is impossible for many reasons, including the constraints imposed by a purely virtual PC environment or the limitations of the DCS engine, even if it is the benchmark in this genre as of today.

There is stuff you cannot reasonably simulate anyway, or it doesn't even make sense! Or what is the purpose for simulating the generation and recording of maintenance messages, or structural data for example? Are you going to dig through them in your post virtual flight to uncover which LRI has just failed? Certainly not! You are also not going to analyse and record data for your simulated life consumption, because you are not managing a fleet of aircraft and will probably crash your virtual machines much more frequently then in real life. Again that makes no sense.

The real Typhoon is probably the most comprehensively covered modern combat aircraft in the public domain. You can find a wealth of data on the aircraft and its systems and capabilities, ofcourse not everything is necessarily correct, but you have a time driving the project that has the relevant backgrounds and knowledge to sort through it.

At the end of the day ED wouldn't contract/licence a 3rd party developer if it hasn't the confidence that the team is capable of adhering to DCS standards.

You can surely expect a simulation of all relevant systems to a reasonable degree of fidelity. That the one or other particular function might be omitted it is natural in this field and similarly applicable to ANY operational modern aircraft simulated in DCS World. Or do you really believe that the F/A-18C or F-16CM are 100% authentic?

 

Just my 2ct for managing expectations at these exciting and also difficult times.

 

Stay healthy.

[Avimimus]

Thanks for these posts

[TrueGrit2]

You can surely expect a simulation of all relevant systems to a reasonable degree of fidelity. That the one or other particular function might be omitted it is natural in this field and similarly applicable to ANY operational modern aircraft simulated in DCS World.

 

Thanks - that was quite well said :thumbup:

[Miasma]

Another very well structured and thought out post. Thanks for this very inciteful.

[Robert31178]

I'm in no hurry. If I recall the Tomcat's first sneaker pics were back in 2015, maybe 2016? I don't quite remember, but I do recall I saw the for the firs time right after I got the Sabre and the Huey so I wanna say summer of '15. I waited and watched and the module was stunning right out of the box. Shoot, if their product matches HB's as far as minimal bugs / maximum fun and accuracy then give them 4 years like we gave the Tomcat!

[hi41000]

for when it will be released it is very interesting.

but a comparison with the f-14 and to an extent the f-18 isn't exactly accurate, the f-14 is a two seater whilst the euro is one seater, there is the fact the euro is a glass cockpit and the f14 is analogue, plus the f14 is a variable swept wing and they had to model the animation and code for it and have it change its aerodynamic model when it does sweep. not to mention the euro fighter is a FBW plane whilst the f-14 is not

a more accurate comparison would be say the jf-17, since after all the jf-17 is a single seater multi role aircraft with a glass cockpit. it also is a partial FBW system. The jf-17 was 31 months to release

there is also the critical aspect of team size relative to release date, i don't think heatblur had double digits for team size when working on the f-14

i would say 24-32 months for a full fidelity mostly complete eurofighter

for a system like the hornet where it comes out partially complete maybe 14-22 months

 

 

for how realistic it is clear it will never be 100 percent accurate but i do want as close as possible, there is no game balance in dcs and if there is it is by heavy coding from multiplayer servers or they just don't allow the overpowered stuff

but i expect most weapons from all the eurofighters to be released, unless one of the eurofighter nations say you cant even have it, they likely wont have the same range or as powerful seeker-head or as big as warhead