Recent air combat sim recommendations?

Never mind, Brian already answered my CFS3 question.

Sigh, yeah, it’s a shame they can’t sell CFS3 along with it, or as part of a unified package. It’s around $15 on Amazon for a copy, which does add to the cost, but I personally feel it’s worth it. ;) I’m a bit biased though.

I bought a copy of CFS3 years ago in anticipation of buying WOFF, and then never got around to buying WOFF.

Well, as they say, now’s the time. ;) It’s probably a massive file you’d have to download. The base installer alone is a few gigs even before add-ons and expansions.

Every time this thread pops up the vain hope flares up that some bright eyed startup has decided to take up the Janes’ mantle and remake ATF. Alas.

Fighters Anthology 2017 plz.

POTENTIAL EXCITEMENT ALERT.

Word on The RPS Flare Path today that Slitherine is supporting work on World War I tactical air combat game “Bloody April 1917”

“Bloody April, 1917 is a standalone game that covers the unique aspects of air combat during World War 1. The game covers the pivotal air combat over the Arras sector, France from March until the end of May 1917. Players take on the roles of Royal Flying Corps commander or German Imperial Air Service commander for their respective sides and will have a multitude of taskings available to accomplish and complete their objectives. Bloody April will include both single mission scenarios and multi-mission/multi-day campaigns to allow players to play out large scale battles in a manageable timeframe.”

Yes, please!

Is Slitherine involved, or just Lordz? Great to see them converting a GMT title. Next up maybe they can take Downtown, Elusive Victory, or Burning Blue. And get Lee to work on that Central Europe air war title.

I don’t know if they’re getting their hands dirty in the code, but RPS refers to Lordz as a “Slitherine-owned studio” so I guess they’re involved with money and publishing, if not directly in development.

I think I keep confusing Lordz with the Wasteland Interactive guys.

Hi Scharmers

Actually the Assembly language x86 source code is always a few clicks away from being made public, which is what I desire to do. My heart says release it for the world to mod, but my head says that I can’t yet for two reasons. One, the ex-Digital Integration programmer gave me a full copy of the assembly language on the condition that it would be used within Interplay’s jurisdiction. Two, technically, Interplay owns the rights to the Tornado source code (when Titus Interactive went bust years ago) and has not given me permission to make it open source or creative commons. I know. I asked. Nicely. Interplay only allowed me to handle the code as part of a hire-for-work agreement for a project to enhance Tornado. I can’t assume that because Interplay hasn’t touched the source code for decades that they will turn a blind eye to anyone who releases the code without their consent. So legally I am bound by the constraints of Interplay’s ownership of the code. I can only share the code with those who are interested to be part of the team that will enhance the game in time for a release of Tornado rebooted sometime in 2018 which will be the 25th anniversary of the game. We need programmers and testers. Are you interested to be part of the development team of Tornado rebooted?

Regards
Frankie “TornadoMan” Kam
http://www.moodurian.com/tornado
http://www.tornado2.com

I went to reinstall WOFF yesterday and hit a minor snag when I couldn’t find my version of CFS3 anywhere. I found a bunch of games I forgot I owned and even my Madden 04 discs that came across the Atlantic with me when I moved continents, but CFS3 is nowhere to be found.

Hopefully the local Target still have copies of this sitting on a dusty shelf somewhere.

Well, there you go. No arguments here. I’m just comparing and contrasting this to the EAW folks, who may be operating under the same limitations with whoever Atari is these days. The underqualified EAW modder(s) pretty much have spent all of their time trying to turn EAW into IL-2:1946 instead of fixing the underlying tech of the sim. This is a different, undesirable situation than from the blossoming of Falcon 4.0, whose source code was openly (and, signficantly, illegally) released.

In any event, I hope you can attract good x86 ASM programmers and DirectX gods. Every time sim code is released I curse that my “modern” programming knowledge only extends to VB6 and PowerShell :(

Have you put the word out anywhere else than just the usual Sim enthusiast/modder sites? Like Reddit et.al.? I barely stumbled across your site myself.

Hi Schamers
Thanks for your reply. Yes it is amazing what can happen when source code is released and in the right hands. Falcon BMS, which needs a licensed F4 to run, is beyond words … it runs even on my underpowered laptop that has no dedicated graphic card and is visually … gorgeous.

I tried to spread the word on some gaming forums only to have my posts removed for violating the forum rules.

I have tried to spread the word to some programming forums including Google Groups assembly language group. I did get a response from two assembly language programmers - one who prefers to write in 32-bit code and another who strongly suggests that the 16-bit code be converted to C or C++ for the his sanity and for the sanity of future modders. No pro bono work here.

I have even considered crowd funding to fund the coding work which is not cheap. However at any time, Interplay can pull the plug on any initiative which doesn’t have its consent. It’s been seven months(!) since my last word from Interplay. Despite numerous replies and chat bumps from me.

I have tried to interest the original programmers to make some minor modifications but they have moved on in real life and are at different stations in their lives now. Too bad I flunked Assembly Language 101 in college. So here I am…all dressed and stuck with a 23-year old 16-bit code written by Digital Integration programmers and with nowhere to go. I am like a pig with pearls.

I am new to the Reddit labyrinth. Greener than grass. Where would be a good place to spread the word?

Source code is here:
http://www.moodurian.com/tornado/tor/sourcecode.html

Now there’s some hard-core, to-the-metal code that makes hair sprout from your chest.

Speaking of source code, Team Fusion—the guys who did so much to turn IL-2: CloD from something of a clod into a reasonably playable game—reached an arrangement with 1C/777 to get source code access and the right to sell addons to CLOD commercially. News here.

That’s awesome! I might have to pick it up, though I already have and love Battle of Britain II.

Upcoming releases in DCS World world:

  1. The AJS-37 Viggen, the 1990s modification of the 1970s strike fighter. It was the first aircraft to use a central digital computer, the first canard-delta wing aircraft to enter service, one of the first production aircraft to have a HUD, and finally, it mounted the first turbofan engine on a fighter aircraft. Given that it is the early 1970s, the computer is primitive, to say the least; the HUD symbology reminds me of the X-Wing targeting computer, and the six-digit input/output display is pretty cute.

  2. The WW2 Normandy map, which is looking pretty spectacular. They also say that they’re getting close to version 2.5, which will finally integrate the Caucasus map and the Nevada map into one executable. As I understand, they’ve gone and done a bunch of work bringing the Caucasus map up to snuff, fixing lighting things, increasing the resolution of the terrain mesh, and adding more 3D objects, so I understand why it’s taking a while. At the same time, this is Eagle Dynamics we’re talking about, where nothing is on schedule and everything breaks, so I won’t be holding my breath for the unified executable. >.>