Realistic discussion of Jester spotting abilities, current and planned.

[markturner1960]

Hi, I wonder if the HB guys could give us a frank discussion about Jester's spotting capabilities and what he will and wont ever be able to do......I ask, because obviously, "Jester 2" was eagerly anticipated, and while I have read the other thread and comments about jester 2, much was not said. 

I was today flying one of the BFM missions against the AI and this is where you could really benefit from a second pair of eyes. In the F14, he seems to give many more directional comments, such as "2 o'clock high" etc....however, as we all know, these are mostly useless as by the time he shouts them, the bandit is somewhere else....I was told this is mostly because of priority queuing. In the F4, you seem to get noticeably LESS of these calls, but they are stil no use really......And, rather too many "He's on our six!!" ( although that may be my fault!!) Has there been any work done in this area and is there scope for improvement? 

I am no coder, but logic says to me that the AI you are fighting sees what you are doing and can respond in time enough to manouvre and think ahead.....so why cant Jester "tap" into that to be more predictive, so that by the time the callout gets processed and played, it is relevant? In effect, he needs to be telling us where the bandit will be, because of the delay, ( which the bandit AI knows...) not where it was... Or is this something that simply cant be improved..? If not, I would be interested in knowing why not...

And in the middle of a dogfight, he is still calling out stuff he sees miles away.....

How good could he ever be or are we as good as it gets ? 

 

Thanks

Edited June 3, 2024 by markturner1960

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

At least part of the reason you get fewer calls is simply the visibility (or lack thereof) in the rear seat, vs the bubble-canopy in the F-14. Jester uses a proper line-of-sight algorithm and believable head movement, if the post that HB made on the topic a few years back is still accurate.

[Zabuzard]

Correct, this time Jester must acquire vision with his eyes first and also not fiddle around with the knobs in the pit at that moment in order to spot something. He will change priorities based on situations. In a Dogfight he will mostly be looking out the window, unless you give him some radar tasks to execute.

Unlike in the Tomcat, his callouts are executed within nanoseconds after processing the information - the data is not outdated anymore.

In the Tomcat, Jester could only ever execute one task at a time, meaning that clicking a knob would block/delay any voice phrase that has been enqueued.
This is not the case anymore with Jester 2.0, where he is able to talk and move his hands simultaneously. Only if there is another higher priority voice line currently playing, you might spot other phrases being delayed.
But these phrases are, this time, evaluated and determined the moment they would start playing. So they are always up2date.

[=475FG= Dawger]

8 minutes ago, Zabuzard said:

Correct, this time Jester must acquire vision with his eyes first and also not fiddle around with the knobs in the pit at that moment in order to spot something. He will change priorities based on situations. In a Dogfight he will mostly be looking out the window, unless you give him some radar tasks to execute.

Unlike in the Tomcat, his callouts are executed within nanoseconds after processing the information - the data is not outdated anymore.

In the Tomcat, Jester could only ever execute one task at a time, meaning that clicking a knob would block/delay any voice phrase that has been enqueued.
This is not the case anymore with Jester 2.0, where he is able to talk and move his hands simultaneously. Only if there is another higher priority voice line currently playing, you might spot other phrases being delayed.
But these phrases are, this time, evaluated and determined the moment they would start playing. So they are always up2date.
 

I find Jester useless in WVR. He constantly tells me about the bandit in front of me and doesn’t bother updating me on bandit number 2. I need a tally/no joy response so he will stop looking at the bandit I am offensive on and get his eyes out for other bandits. 

[Zabuzard]

I find Jester useless in WVR. He constantly tells me about the bandit in front of me and doesn’t bother updating me on bandit number 2. I need a tally/no joy response so he will stop looking at the bandit I am offensive on and get his eyes out for other bandits. 

Thank you for your feedback. We will of course keep improving him.

[r4y30n]

Maybe a context short press right after a 12 o'clock or similar call to acknowledge?  Or add a crew contract option to not do callouts on forward quarter bandits?

[Dragon1-1]

I think the best idea would be a "tally switch", perhaps with the context button, which, in WWR, would essentially tell Jester "I see that guy, stop looking at him". That would shift him to monitoring airspeed and watching out for other bandits, particularly ones who might be setting up to sneak up on you. Another press would be the "where is he?" function, where he'd try to find the guy you were just tracking.

[=475FG= Dawger]

2 hours ago, Dragon1-1 said:

I think the best idea would be a "tally switch", perhaps with the context button, which, in WWR, would essentially tell Jester "I see that guy, stop looking at him". That would shift him to monitoring airspeed and watching out for other bandits, particularly ones who might be setting up to sneak up on you. Another press would be the "where is he?" function, where he'd try to find the guy you were just tracking.

Thats what I want, the ability to respond to Jester with Tally or No Joy when he calls a bandit plus a third option to say “Tally, now find his wingman, ya dope”

[markturner1960]

Ok, thanks, I will do some more flying and try and assess…..it could be that it’s just me failing to spot the bandit…….

in terms of suggestions, if you made him a little more predictive, it would help, to reduce the effect of the natural delay in processing the information, moving your head and acquiring a tally.

Also, Dragons suggestion for tally and where is he is a really great one…….