What's up with the Tomcat?

I guess it is time for a brief Tomcat update, since so many are asking. Well, basically an Alpha version is ready...and has been ready for some weeks now. There are just few bits missing here and there, specifically:

- The outer model is done, but there is chance to add some more eye candy...

- The RIO cockpiy is practically done, but mostly INOP. And need some minor details.

- The code for some systems and gauges is buggy and incomplete.

So it is flyable (and fun!), but I'd prefer to make some progress before releasing a public Beta. I cannot say how long it will take...it is mainly depending on the time I will have. I believe it will require no less than 10 hours to bring it where I'd like it to be for the Beta...so maybe it will be ready in a couple of weeks or so.

Here are some pictures:

Happy New Year - and a small suprise!

Happy New Year! I hope you had a great 2011 as I did, and I wish you all the best for 2012.
The new year will most likely bring the new version of Microsoft Flight Simulator...which will make its ist public appearance in few weeks - I am anxious to see and know more of it, but what I saw so far, although not revolutionary, is quite good.

In the meantime, as I had some spare time during the holidays, I did some work on the F-35 - mainly due to the fact that new, low poly, 3d data for the F-35C was available and my project of the new high-fidelity F-35A was really nice to look at but way too low on performance.

So here is the F-35C....VERY preliminary shots. The ambitious project I'd like to pursue would be to have a new payware package including this F-35C and a new F-35A (designed to the same standard)....and, why not, and F-35B too. BUT it may be too much for me to handle... so I have not decided yet. Let's see.

Aside, my long term projects, the T-45C will be converted (provided that the conversion is doable) to Flight and remain freeware. While the new F-14D...I do not know. It is in a good shape...but I don't know when it will be ready. It may go straight to Flight... Let's see.

Sorry for lack of updates!

One of the latest images from Microsoft Flight team - it seems that the Beta will be held in February

All, my apologies for the lack of updates and communications in the past few months. I have been quite busy with my job and I had not much time to spend on my hobbies - nor the will, honestly, to spend even more time in front of a computer screen than the one I have to spend at work.

Hopefully I will have more time to work on Flight (Simulator) designs in the following months but I am not sure. Also I am still waiting for some informations on Flight and its development tools, in order to see how the development process will be different from FSX (not too much I hope) and what will be the possibilities of the new simulator. It looks good - much better than FSX in some areas - and I cannot wait to try it. By the way, Microsoft it seems that Microsoft is planning a Beta stage for February - which means probably a release in summer or early autumn.

Here is a brief update of the projects in my folders... although I did very little in the past few months.

T-45C Goshawk - NO UPDATES. I am quite happy with the latest release... I am just curious to see how easy it will be to import that into Flight. If it will be possible to convert it to Flight, it will be freeware.

New F-14D Super Tomcat - External model is almost ready and I am really happy for its quality (, while for the internal I am a bit undecided between making only the pilot cockpit (by reusing most of the geometry from the previous model) or do also the RIO one (which means many more hours of design). In both cases the plan would be to have completely new hi-res textures. Although I paid a significant amount of money for professional 3d data for this project, these have been covered by donations and revenue from the payware F-35 so I still plan to release it as freeware. But I have no idea on when.

F-35 Lightning II - As you may be aware of, I am working on a new high-res model based on quite expensive high resolution meshes. It is not far from being complete - but there are some bad news. It is a frame rate hog. It looks beautiful, but the vast majority of the users will not be able to run it at decent frame rates. I have tried several solutions, but they do not seem to work for several reasons. I am undecided what to to with it. Maybe Flight can handle it in a much more efficient way? I do not know - and again I do not know how easy it will be to import it in Flight. It probably requires 12-15 hours of work before release.

So, again, my apologies for the lack of updates. Also, my apologies for the lack of personal contact information - I am not using the old email anymore. I have a new one for "personal" (i.e. non FSX) uses and I may need to set up a new one for FSX... for the moment, this blog is the only way to contact me - although I cannot guarantee a reply or any level of support. Sorry for that.

Last my apologies for having having rejected all the friedship requests I have received on facebook. Yes, I am on facebook. But I have decided to use it as a communication tool for "real life" friends only - so I am rejecting all requests from all people I have not met in person. No offense intended, I just prefer to stick to that decision.

Now that the Goshawk has been released...

Well, now that the Goshawk is done...I'm still working on the Goshawk. By my standards the T-45C has been an outstanding success so far as has been downloaded several thousand times in less than 3 days... still, a couple of observations set the spotlight on a couple of defects of which I was aware of... and I considered minor issues.

So, I'm still trying to fix some of the issues that still plague the v2.01 release... namely, so far I've already:

- fixed the sound bug while opening the canopy (by making the opening faster...trivial fix!)

- fixed the weird red reflection that happened sometimes (in the "glass" the separates the two cockpits)

- (almost) fixed the "stance" which was way too high. This is not as trivial as it may seem as involves quite a lot of trials and tweaks to make sure that the gear dynamics work properly in every condition, while landing on a carrier. At the moment it is not perfect, but the aircraft sits more or less in the way it is supposed to. Still...more tweaking to be done on this. Here is where we are right now:

I know that the most wanted improvement would be the addition of the instructor VC... but at the moment I cannot promise I will do it.
I will gather all the modifications and improvements I can implement before my summer vacations (that will start on August 1st) and release an update before leaving.

Also, as you might be aware of, I am working on two "remake" projects: the Grumman F-14D Super Tomcat and the F-35A Lightning II.

At the moment, it is really hard for me to tell what, when and even if they will be available... I am working on them, but I am also sitting on the fence for Micorsoft Flight. I think (and hope) that there will be a way to convert .X files into whatever format Flight will support (I guess it would be another iteration of the .mdl format...). Anyway here is the situation.

F-14D Super Tomcat: the external model, based on professional meshe, is 80% done and works quite well. The virtual cockpit will be a (almost) complete remake of the current one. I know that a working RIO station would be great...but that is far beyond the scope of the project. If I had the time, I would do it...but I don't.

At the moment, this project is likely to be freeware. I had to face some significant expenses for the 3D mesh, but that was covered by the donations and the income from the payware F-35. So, unless I incur in some unexpected events, it will be free. It may well take 5-6 months before a test release is ready.

F-35A Linghtning II - This, too, has been created starting from professional (and quite expensive) 3d meshes. I cannot say I do not like my current F-35...but it does not capture some of the details of the F-35 design. The problem, with this model, is that the original mesh is using way to many polygons...so the optimization work is long and tedious. What I have on the screen is quite amazing...but a lot of work is needed to make it run at an acceptable speed.

The current plan for this project is create a "production" model (albeit the picture shows the AF-1), improve the virtual cockpit (but most of it would be reused from the current one) and use the current flight model. So this project is mostly a visual improvement. Most likely this project will be payware - but as for the previous F-35, the price will be low.
As it is not a complete remake, I expect this to be flyable in late September.

Of course, every sentence above is subject to change... mostly depending on the Flight release date, characteristics and (mostly) the possibility to import/use my models in the new Simulator (which looks amazing IMHO)...

Now, that is a T-45C simulator...

That is a wide screen!

This is (or should be) an actual screenshot... Javier's carrier looks definitely much better :-)

I've recently spotted on the internet few pics of the "real thing", that is the real T-45C simulator... So here they are. The simulator is static and sports a pretty wide screen (although we "simmers" know that it is not the best of the best out there) which seems very effective. In terms of graphics, well, Javier's carrier looks much better IMHO :-) but again, these simulators are not made to impress with graphic realism (or have fun), their job is to help you learning the instruments and the procedures... Then, given the high standards of many "hardcore simmers" (i.e. "I bet I could land a real Tomcat even if I've never touched a real plane" armchair pilot) , I'd bet that there is someone that may consider this simulator "too arcade" :-) Talking about arcade games...for those who missed them, there are some new Microsoft Flight screens on the official website (here). The pattern seems to be a monthly update (alternating screenshots and videos). I think it looks pretty good. Although many will think it is very similar to FSX, on closer inspection, there are some interesting tweaks that make it look much better (for example a MUCH better shadow algorithm - which include autogen now). On the graphic side, I'd say so far so good. I just hope the performance will be good. Also, I think that, at this point it seems clear that, in spite of the name change, this seems to be a new version of Flight Simulator. It will probably have some more missions (which I like) and a "casual mode" (which to allow your 5 years old son fly a 747, but I'm sure it will be optional). I'd be surprised if the maximum level of realism will be lower than the one of FSX - and I honestly can't wait to see more of this new release. I just hope that there will be an efficient way to convert FSX native add-ons to Flight...

New Flight screenshots from Microsoft

Microsoft has just published some new screenshots of Flight, along with a much awaited clarification about the Windows Live tag of the new simulator (which generated some speculation that Flight could only be used online).

The new screenshots can be viewed here .
The general opinion is that Flight looks much like FSX - and I think it is true to some extent. Yes, it looks similar... but if you watch closely the screenshots and the video shown so far, you'll notice some significant improvements - like a much better scenery "creation" and better shadows.
I mean the "syntesized" scenery -textures, rivers, coastline, roads and autogen- look definitely better (e.g. coastlines look more realistic) and less prone to some mistakes in the current FSX system (for example the roads and rivers merge much better with the base textures).
As for the shadows, it seems that the algorythm is much more realistic and shadows are much less "abrupt".

I just hope there will be a way to import some of the work done by many designers in FSX. I think it is OK to drop FS9 code compatibility, but I hope the native .mdls can be imported -or at least Microsoft could provide an .X files converter. Should not be much of a problem, as the .X file should be a "DirectX friendly" file format...and then I see the FSX Orion Maule in the screenshots...

Anyway, what we have seen so far looks like a refined FSX. Which is a good thing IMHO. But we all know what we need most: a modern, efficient code that can benefit from current hardware.

Shoul I write a wish list... well, yes, it would be quite long...but if I could just have an improved FSX that runs at full detail at 60fps with some of the most complex add-ons, then I would be happy.

In the meantime, I am still working on the Goshawk... but no significant progress to report so far - mainly due to lack of time.