Heatblur 2023 Kickoff and Greetings!

[Cobra847]

 

 

 

 

Dear All,

The Heatblur Simulations team and our wonderful partners at TrueGrit would like to wish you a successful and joyful 2023! Have a great new year, full of joy, great times and awesome sim experiences. 2023 is a big year for Heatblur, and we’re grateful that you’re along for the ride. It’s going to be a great one!

We’ve just wrapped up a very tough 2022. From a personal standpoint for many of our team, with personal tragedies and the invasion of Ukraine taking its toll on us and our timelines. Despite this, we look back at 2022 with pride. We’ve seen tremendous growth in capability and size, forged new partnerships and shipped features and improvements throughout the year. While still playing catch-up; we’re right back on track on finishing the first of our next generation of high fidelity simulation experiences, starting with the F-4E Phantom II and leading towards the Eurofighter Typhoon.

 

 

While we missed our mark on the F-4E Phantom for a 2022 release; we’re now very close to full completion of all major elements: flight model, radar, weapons systems, and other key major systems- and even ancillary content as another full length Meteor album! You’ve seen a sneak-peek in the 2023 and beyond video, and we can’t wait to fully unveil the aircraft that we’ve built over the past two years. For the Phantom- and all of our new products- we’ve invested heavily into building our next generation platform and framework. This enables faster future development, intrinsic multithreading, more dependable multicrew synchronization, far less of a maintenance burden, and new standardized features such as wear & tear, aircraft persistence, mass dynamics, and far more.

In addition to this; we’ve also had our sights on JESTER v2, a complete rewrite of the JESTER AI system which will enable faster AI development and developer ease of use for integration in future aircraft such as the A-6.

On the Eurofighter front, we continue to lay the foundations of this module through application of our next generation framework. Soon, the majority of the work will remain in high level parts: radar, weapons systems, displays and flight control systems- all leaning and benefitting from the completed next generation core. As an incredibly complex aircraft and project, the Eurofighter will be a litmus test for our team to ensure quality and accuracy while avoiding excessive technical debt.

These considerations are key for a project of this scope and size, as we strive to minimize maintenance burden and excessive sustainment resources. You should expect to see much more Eurofighter development progress in 2023 as we begin to approach an early access release and feature completion level.

 

 

 

We also look towards 2023 with continued love for the Viggen and Tomcat. We capped off the year with another major Viggen patch, and now set our sights on another round of additions to both products. We’re working hard to get on target on the early F-14A, which remains the largest piece of the F-14 yet undelivered, among of course other outstanding and promised features, such as TARPS or FORGE. Further Viggen improvements are slated for the early part of this year as we continue product sustainment. It’s time to get rid of those Early Access tags and square these aircraft away.

Quality, consistency and pushing boundaries are our top priorities, and we’re as excited as ever for all that we’ve been cooking.
Stay tuned for the full Phantom unveiling and for other exciting announcements with new partners and beyond. 

Thank you all once again for your dedicated support and passion.
That’s what drives and motivates us, and we’ll make sure your faith is well placed with each upcoming release.

 

Sincerely,
Team Heatblur

 

 

Edited January 12, 2023 by Cobra847

[Tom Kazansky]

Seems like 2023 will be a great year for us all. That update is very much appreciated and everything looks awesome!

Good luck for you, your team and partners!

[ThorBrasil]

I really believe that Typhoon will only be released towards the end of 2024.

[VR Flight Guy in PJ Pants]

Too much gear porn! I love it!

[Silver_Dragon]

Great work... but the AI Units has been delayed

[Rinz1er]

Will the F14 and Viggen be updated to use this new code framework?

[_BringTheReign_]

Love it!

[Tonker]

1 hour ago, Cobra847 said:

...exciting announcements with new partners...

...like AviaStorm...

 

 

Cheers for all HB, have a cracking '23 you too!

 

 

[pricklyHH72]

Good luck with the progress team, we're all very excited for the Phantom, ongoing improvements to existing modules, and without doubt you have some of the most anticipated modules in the business. Hoping 2023 is a bumper year for you!

[sandboxcode]

Excellent update I appreciate it

[Leatherneck2382]

4 hours ago, Cobra847 said:

In addition to this; we’ve also had our sights on JESTER v2, a complete rewrite of the JESTER AI system which will enable faster AI development and developer ease of use for integration in future aircraft such as the A-6.

A-6 Intruder has been a dream plane for years. That can't come soon enough, but the F-4 might be enough to tide me over until then.

[JOYFUL_CLOVR]

Thank you so much for the update! Looks amazing so far!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[THEBULLSHARK]

Awesome work as always!

The typhoon is going to be something special!

[Iron Sights]

Thanks Heatblur for the update. I have the Tomcat and the Viggen, so I for one appreciate the amount of work that goes into producing such high quality modules. I am looking forward to your future projects. It’s good news to hear that F-4 is moving along nicely. Thanks for all you do!

[Biggus]

I'm very excited for the Phantoms (every one of them you make - even the recon birds if they fit into your plans) and the Intruder!

I hope that you guys have a peaceful and less stressful year in 2023!

[tomcat_driver]

Jester v2, great news. It's pretty good already, by far better than George and will be further improved. 

Wish Jester API could be mutualized and integrated in other modules, ED and 3rd parties.

[colin5392]

When you state, "and the invasion of Ukraine taking its toll on us and our timelines", does this mean that many of your programmers are actually Ukrainian, in Ukraine?

[draconus]

17 hours ago, Cobra847 said:

...future aircraft such as the A-6.

Any word on the state of A-6 AI progress?

[Lurker]

Quote

On the Eurofighter front, we continue to lay the foundations of this module through application of our next generation framework. Soon, the majority of the work will remain in high level parts: radar, weapons systems, displays and flight control systems- all leaning and benefitting from the completed next generation core. As an incredibly complex aircraft and project, the Eurofighter will be a litmus test for our team to ensure quality and accuracy while avoiding excessive technical debt.

 

It's a little bit marketng speak, a little bit legalese, but from this little blurb it seems that most of the work on the Eurofighter is actually going into the general framework which will be used to build all other modules after the F4, at least as far as the radar, weapons system, displays and flight controls systems are concerned. This is actually pretty good news, as that should mean that most of the other stuff is finished or close to finished. 

[Gunslinger22]

16 hours ago, Leatherneck2382 said:

A-6 Intruder has been a dream plane for years. 

It’s also a dream of mine! But sadly I’ll assume it’s a minimum of 4-5 years away. Look how long it’s taken them to simply create the AI, or even the 95GR, if they’re going to create a naval phantom before the intruder that’ll take them years with how long it’s been for them to make the 95GR. 

[Cobra847]

Thanks everyone!

Quote

Eh, this is probably some marketing jargon as it's still a DCS module, following DCS framework. Potentially just a more streamlined dev. process. Older modules would have to be rewritten from scratch if this was anything more substantial.

A good way to put it is that it's part of a standardization process and a long term investment. Even if we grew by 2x we'd have difficulty executing our roadmap (of which only a part is announced). A holistic approach to being able to juggle the amount of (future) balls is key to maintaining HB quality. It's a bit vague and we'll go into more detail later.
 

Quote

On a different note, will we have an online manual for the F-4E like we did with the Tomcat? 

Yep! We're expecting it to end up very similar to the F-14 manual.

Edited January 14, 2023 by Cobra847

[Spatz]

The glas from the Eurofighter HUD looks so good and thick  -   Great Work !!!

Edited January 16, 2023 by Spatz

[Elf1606688794]

On 1/14/2023 at 2:11 PM, Бойовий Сокіл said:

Do you realize what you just started? 

[Lime_Acid]

В 12.01.2023 в 19:52, Cobra847 сказал:

 

 

 

 

Dear All,

The Heatblur Simulations team and our wonderful partners at TrueGrit would like to wish you a successful and joyful 2023! Have a great new year, full of joy, great times and awesome sim experiences. 2023 is a big year for Heatblur, and we’re grateful that you’re along for the ride. It’s going to be a great one!

We’ve just wrapped up a very tough 2022. From a personal standpoint for many of our team, with personal tragedies and the invasion of Ukraine taking its toll on us and our timelines. Despite this, we look back at 2022 with pride. We’ve seen tremendous growth in capability and size, forged new partnerships and shipped features and improvements throughout the year. While still playing catch-up; we’re right back on track on finishing the first of our next generation of high fidelity simulation experiences, starting with the F-4E Phantom II and leading towards the Eurofighter Typhoon.

 

 

While we missed our mark on the F-4E Phantom for a 2022 release; we’re now very close to full completion of all major elements: flight model, radar, weapons systems, and other key major systems- and even ancillary content as another full length Meteor album! You’ve seen a sneak-peek in the 2023 and beyond video, and we can’t wait to fully unveil the aircraft that we’ve built over the past two years. For the Phantom- and all of our new products- we’ve invested heavily into building our next generation platform and framework. This enables faster future development, intrinsic multithreading, more dependable multicrew synchronization, far less of a maintenance burden, and new standardized features such as wear & tear, aircraft persistence, mass dynamics, and far more.

In addition to this; we’ve also had our sights on JESTER v2, a complete rewrite of the JESTER AI system which will enable faster AI development and developer ease of use for integration in future aircraft such as the A-6.

On the Eurofighter front, we continue to lay the foundations of this module through application of our next generation framework. Soon, the majority of the work will remain in high level parts: radar, weapons systems, displays and flight control systems- all leaning and benefitting from the completed next generation core. As an incredibly complex aircraft and project, the Eurofighter will be a litmus test for our team to ensure quality and accuracy while avoiding excessive technical debt.

These considerations are key for a project of this scope and size, as we strive to minimize maintenance burden and excessive sustainment resources. You should expect to see much more Eurofighter development progress in 2023 as we begin to approach an early access release and feature completion level.

 

 

 

We also look towards 2023 with continued love for the Viggen and Tomcat. We capped off the year with another major Viggen patch, and now set our sights on another round of additions to both products. We’re working hard to get on target on the early F-14A, which remains the largest piece of the F-14 yet undelivered, among of course other outstanding and promised features, such as TARPS or FORGE. Further Viggen improvements are slated for the early part of this year as we continue product sustainment. It’s time to get rid of those Early Access tags and square these aircraft away.

Quality, consistency and pushing boundaries are our top priorities, and we’re as excited as ever for all that we’ve been cooking.
Stay tuned for the full Phantom unveiling and for other exciting announcements with new partners and beyond. 

Thank you all once again for your dedicated support and passion.
That’s what drives and motivates us, and we’ll make sure your faith is well placed with each upcoming release.

 

Sincerely,
Team Heatblur

 

 

 

Thank you for your hard work. You allow many to touch the dream.

Edited January 18, 2023 by Lime_Acid

[81banana]

In Heatblur we thrust!