(Edit: Is there a patch for Comanche Gold?)

Comanche Gold in XVGA! Also stereoscopic! What else is hidden in this?

I would love to take some pics, but they don't come out right. Suffice it to say, the PNVS at night looks VERY interesting. Spooky believable. Could you imagine if a Platinum version was put out with 1600x1200 & higher support, with multicore capability? Or Comanche 5 Voxel? There was really something to this graphics system. It never really died, but has continued on in science, engineering, and medical imaging technology where processing was not a problem historically. It's just that the home computers of the era weren't up to it at higher res. Voxel running on highly multiple cores in a modern system would cause this technology to make a comeback, especially considering how graphic cards are just getting hotter and more SLIed. Voxel is particularly suited for sterescopics, smoothing out and visually antialiasing itself, if you're interested in that sort of thing. I’m checking with Carl Kenner if he has any advise on VFX1 emulation.

I’m surprised this hasn’t been mentioned before:

http://www.stereo3d.com/comanche.htm

This turns out to be correct, but I think you need to do this with the Resource.pff and Cgold.pff files in Gold for it to work. You want to change the >Bar# < bracketing system to include the features/options you want in the respective drop down menu (the #). Use either a text editor in replace-text mode (that useless insert key on the keyboard, remember?) or a hex editor in normal text-view mode. Try searching/finding for “VFX1” in the editor or WordPad (slooow). That will go to the correct area. Any subtraction or adding of additional characters to the file will make it unrecognized by the sim, so save backups of the originals before you do this. Nonetheless, this is essentially what you end up with:

>BAR0
|0|w Game ~BAR1
|g Control ~BAR3
|g Options ~BAR4
|g Detail ~BAR2
|g Video ~BAR6
|X:0<|g Edit ~BAR5
<
>BAR1
|<|0|gExit Menu~_ESC
|d|Y.2g|Y.3dRestart Mission~RMIS
|d|Y.2g|Y.3dMission Playback~REVP
|d|Y.2g|Y.3d|Y:7dTakeover Playback~TAKE
|gAbout Comanche Gold~ABOU
|d|Y.2rEnd Mission~ABRT
|Y:2!|Y:3!|rDisconnect~DISC
|Y.3!|rExit Game~EXIT
|g |P.3€ Allow Screen Shots ~|P.3
<
>BAR6
|0|g|Y.0€|w Full Screen ~|Y.0
|0|g|A:2d|Y.1€|w|A:2d 640x480 Menus ~|Y.1
|b|L!9€|L>0€|g|L>1€|y|L>2€|L>3€|L>4€|L>5€ |wGamma (+/-) ~|L+6
|-|g
|0|A:0! |Z=0 320x240 ~|Z=0
|A:1! |Z=1 400x300 ~|Z=1
|A:2! |Z=2 512x384 ~|Z=2
|A:3! |Z=3 640x480 ~|Z=3
|A:4! |Z=4 800x600 ~|Z=4
|A:7! |Z=7 Stereo 320x400~|Z=7
|AA:0! |Z=8 Stereo 320x480~|Z=8
|A:5! |Z=5 1024x768 ~|Z=5
|A:6! |Z=6 1280x1024 ~|Z=6
|Z=9 VFX1 stereo ~|Z=9
|Z=4 3D-Max/LCD-Bios~|Z=4
|0|g |Z=7 320x200 VGA ~|Z=7
<
>BAR2
|0 |b|C!9€|g|C>0€|g|C>1€ |wClouds ~|C+2
|b|O!9€|g|O>0€|g|O>1€ |wObject Quality ~|O+2
|b|D!9€|D>0€|g|D>1€ |wTerrain Detail ~|D+2
|b|E!9€|g|E>0€|E>1€ |wTerrain Resolution ~|E+2
|0|g|Y.4€|w See Blades from Inside ~|Y.4
|-
|g|G>0€|G>1€|g|G>2€|G>3€|G>4€|y|G>5€|G>6€ |wSound Volume (+/-) ~|G+7
|g|GA>0€|GA>1€|g|GA>2€|GA>3€|GA>4€|y|GA>5€|GA>6€ |wMenu Music (+/-) ~|GA+7
|g|M>0€|M>1€|g|M>2€|M>3€|M>4€|y|M>5€|M>6€ |wIn-Game Music (+/-) ~|M+7
|g|N!9€|y|N>0€ |wForeground Detail ~|N
<

Allow Screenshots, the graphics modes after Stereo 320x480, and Foreground Detail now become part of the menu options. I have yet to get screenshots to work, foreground detail doesn't appear to do anything that I can tell so far (audio or visual?), and a few of the graphics modes do not appear active. 1024x768 and some of the stereoscopics are active, though. Higher res will cut the framerates by at least half what they were at 800x600, so beware. My computer is barely up to it with all the detail options on, reaching on average 15-20fps. But I'm on a 3.4ghz Northwood system. If you have a top of the line CPU, bus, and memory, it should run as smooth as silk in 1024x768 as 800x600 does on my computer. XVGA runs pretty well in PNVS or with some of the detail turned down for me. The voxelspace 3d pixels are software based accelerated, so your graphics card is moot.

And oh what a lovely technology it is. There's something organic, real, and very easy on the eyes, in spite of it not being entirely pretty when paused. It's the rendition of motion, gritty physical terrain, and NOE that voxels seem to excel at. The rendition of motion and "stuff" placement for helo flight is very special. Explosions at high fps seem like, I don't know, real explosions of pixels made of light, rather than expanding orbs or flashes. At lower fps, the terrain may adversely pulsate slightly, so that's a sign you're dropping below about 20fps.

The hud symbology is great in this sim. The only thing it’s missing is probably a flight path marker. Aside from not being able to turn the autopiloting wings leveling off, it flies very smoothly and is perfect for NOE. Reminds me of Total Air War in how well behaved and pleasant it is...another quality attempt at FBW in a sim, I might add. Altitude hold is present, and hover hold is a fair depiction of the dynamic system the Comanche had. It's too bad you don't have the full flight envelope available. They have cyclic limiting available, but it's limiting the limiting even further. That should have been what ADDED autopilot-WL. Did the tester who had a go in the real Comanche simulator not know wings-leveling was only an autopilot option for lowspeed flight and landings to prevent critical roll-over angle? Anyway, the flight model is highly functional. The terrain and FBW FM are good matches for each other. Check out the manual. Well written, informative, with an enthusiasm for the subject matter.

Anyway, it's definitely worth checking out and there's no reason not to include it in the same league as the other quality combat helo sims out there. I still stand by my claim that none of them have been “hardcore” to date. They each seem to have their strengths. O.k. I'm getting some sleep now and I'll work on a profile and the eMagin Z800 implementation tomorrow. I highly recommend coders/modders interested in helo sims check out Comanche Gold. There might be other modding potential or hidden features in it.

Last edited by Reticuli; 05/31/08 09:35 PM.

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