Teapot Posted December 4, 2008 Posted December 4, 2008 (edited) ...Open projects aren't necessarily a good idea as in my experience people can exploit such code and cheat. Good point, (there's always an "however" :D) ... if it were truly open sourced & GPLed we could institute an international panel of observers who'se task is to inspect the code and compile the executables pre-match. Top Gun/Force on Force ladders/servers/organisations of any significance would need to go through this vetting process ... at the moment this responsibility has defaulted to the game producing company's by default because their code is closed. Sheeeite! There's a whole multi-national industry there just sitting in the wings; no pun intended. I do like your suggestion re: product life extendability through outsourcing for quality addon's. I hope too that DCS and XSi consider these possibilities! As far as 7G is concerned ... is it really open source? It certainly seems interesting and the guys are talented, but I was under the impression that the source code was only shared within their specific group? If such is the case, I think XSi have a better shot at product completion ... at least here's crossing eyes, toes & fingers that they do (complete their respective projects to their satisfaction). Cheers! Edited December 4, 2008 by Teapot "A true 'sandbox flight sim' requires hi-fidelity flyable non-combat utility/support aircraft." Wishlist Terrains - Bigger maps Wishlist Modules - A variety of utility aircraft to better reflect the support role. E.g. Flying the Hornet ... big yawn ... flying a Caribou on a beer run to Singapore? Count me in. Extracting a Recon Patrol from a hastily prepared landing strip at a random 6 figure grid reference? Now yer talking!
Begemot Posted December 4, 2008 Author Posted December 4, 2008 Well i guess my question has been answered, sort of - there will most likely be an F-16c module for DCS in the distant future but not for Lock On (from ED i mean). This has at least helped me decide on my next gaming purchase - i was gonna buy Flaming Cliffs (already have vanilla Lock On obviously) but i think i'll be buying Falcon 4.0: Allied Force instead (yes i'm aware it's a 'hardcore' sim). I will almost certainly be buying DCS in the future but i'll be waiting for some good fixed-wing modules (i.e Viper/Hornet) before i do...:music_whistling:
Beaker_VBA Posted December 4, 2008 Posted December 4, 2008 Yes, I was merely clarifying. The answer is that the F-16C will be a DCS module, not a Lock-On add-on. I'd like to clear up something above though - Beaker, DCS is not the continuation of Lock-On. While DCS leverages software/technology from Lock-On, I think we can agree that the level of fidelity in aircraft flight and systems as well as weapons modeling puts it on an entirely different level. I realize that some might consider it to be a 'natural extension to Lock-On' or 'what should have been done with Lock-On in the first place' etc etc. This is simply not true, and not the case. Very large parts of the software have been re-designed and rewritten from scratch, starting with the Flight Model (a taste of which was indeed provided in Lock On), the cockpit, the avionics, the aircraft electrical, hydraulic, fuel, radio, etc etc systems, as well as the actual weapons and weapon system modeling and of course, the Mission Editor and the Input manager. There is an actual radio model under the hood managing frequencies and even some things that might be used in the future, but I don't really know about that. AI FM's have been updated, and a number of other things have been done. It's just not Lock-On :D Thanks! :beer: I have a tendency to think of it as a continuation because I don't know what's going on under the hood. If you asked Webster, he'd call it a continuation. If you asked a coder, they'd tell you it's a whole new animal. :thumbup: "A pilot lives in a world of perfection, or not at all." -Richard S. Drury http://www.virtualblueangels.net
Teapot Posted December 5, 2008 Posted December 5, 2008 (edited) Buy them both ... This has at least helped me decide on my next gaming purchase - i was gonna buy Flaming Cliffs (already have vanilla Lock On obviously) but i think i'll be buying Falcon 4.0: Allied Force instead (yes i'm aware it's a 'hardcore' sim). Maate! Get them both! F4:AF is dirt cheap these days; I got mine for AU$9 in an EB bargain bin. Although imo Open Falcon is the way to go for the most immersive taste for the Falcon series (you'll need the original F4 install disk), but to each their own. Fwiw, I've got OF 4.5 with Tom's payware HiTiles and the Aegean Theatre and am as happy as a pig in shhhh :D, and I fly Lock On FC as well. I'm certainly not an authority, but I understand that the FC addition brought significant changes & updates to the vanilla Lock On, in that one could view it as a giant patch. So I'd get it for the sake of completeness anyway. Cheers! Edited December 5, 2008 by Teapot "A true 'sandbox flight sim' requires hi-fidelity flyable non-combat utility/support aircraft." Wishlist Terrains - Bigger maps Wishlist Modules - A variety of utility aircraft to better reflect the support role. E.g. Flying the Hornet ... big yawn ... flying a Caribou on a beer run to Singapore? Count me in. Extracting a Recon Patrol from a hastily prepared landing strip at a random 6 figure grid reference? Now yer talking!
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