Chris, what can I say - Brilliant!!

I really enjoyed your Su25T series of articles and I love your in depth step - by - step approach. This article (and video no less!) is just what we need to get as much info about the Ka 50 handling before it's released. Give yourself a big pat on the back mate. I hope that your future previews will be as exceptional as this one was. BTW don't worry about being long winded, I love details, the more the better.

Yep..a P4 3.4, 2GB RAM, NVidia 6800 PCIe (256MB).. Not exactly a smoking machine anymore I guess..but it still holds up. I don't have any specific numbers..didn't really want to get that specific, but I was flying with most of the graphics settings at MEDIUM and a few on HIGH. As noted, there wasn't much AI activity going on..so you would probably expect a FPS hit with more action going on. The flying is very smooth with that rig under those conditions though..very fluid. And that was at 1280 x 1024 and capturing video with FRAPS..which drags my FPS down significantly. When I toggled FRAPS on and off to record segments I could tell the difference..but it was still smooth even when writing to the disk.

Which brings up a question I had about FRAPS..is there any practical use to writing to a drive that isn't the one you are playing off of (reading off of). For instance, if you are playing Black Shark off the C drive, will you get better performance by writing the FRAPS video to the D drive? Or does it not matter? (I'll give it a whirl next time I record..)


I'm sure guod is happy I've pared back my article lengths a bit. That poor guy had to format them and insert the screenshots...a thankless job which he always excels at!



BeachAV8R

Excelent article, like usual. I can't wait to read the next ones, specially those about blowing up stuff

Irresistible!

Simply gorgeous! Looking forward to the next installment.

One question: Will Black Shark include only Russian-made aircraft?

Chunx,
Sort answer, no, they're looking at including the A-10A and the AH-64A Apache down the road. Last I heard.

But for now and the near future, this is a study sim with the Ka-50.

Wow, does this sim looks GREAT! The format of this Preview and your writing skills are excellant, you ought to do this for a living!

As usual, I gotta have this sim yesterday!! I wonder if Beach has ever done any of the infomercials you see on TV for ginsu knives or mops cause he sure has cost me some serious coin with his articles .

Thanks!

I will wait for that then. I was never comfortable with a sim that modeled a jet that used a foreign language.

I will also wait for reports on copy protection and US weapon system performance.

Copy protection is, of course, the big one.

I might be able to deal with a poorly chosen CP option if I got a sim that did not make me deal with poor code like this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0488djMDBU

I hate buying a new sim from a company that has abandoned their last product like they did.

Hmm..I got plenty of enjoyment out of Flaming Cliffs. Was it perfect? No.. But it was darn good.

Black Shark likely won't be perfect either though..

BeachAV8R

I did not buy flaming cliffs. I did not see the value as it seemed that all it really upgraded was the SU-25, utilized a copy protection product that I heard lots of complaints about and it was like I was paying for a product upgrade when the bugs from the core product were never worked out.

Dude..you missed out. The Su-25T AFM, avionics, and damage models were worth a stand-alone purchase. If I measure the value of software against the time I've spent with it, Flaming Cliffs was a gold-mine. COD4 lasted me about 15 hours...the -T..hell..it took me 15 hours just to learn how to fly the darn thing..

You really should take a crack at it..it is probably cheap(er) now..and the copy protection never bothered me..I always uninstalled SF after each time I played it just to make sure it didn't mess with my DVD burner. And I'm not trying to sell you on anything..but once you taxi around in the -T and feel the fluid AFM in the air..well, it is the closest thing to real flying I've ever experienced in a computer flight simulator.

BeachAV8R

I appreciate and value your advice but, like I said above, I have never been a fan of sims that modeled aircraft that use a foreign language in its instrumentation.

I will however definitely consider Black Shark if I hear good things about the US AC if/when they are released.

And I will of course be looking forward, as usual, to your training reports to bring me up to speed

There is a rumor going about that Teka Teka is going to publish an English cockpit conversion for the Ka-50..so call it an "export" model. I've been a big proponent of that concept for just the reasons you mentioned. I haven't heard how it is going..but I'll be sure to get back to you if it ends up happening. I think it would be a big draw for the Western crowd...

BeachAV8R

Thanks for the ride...

Im looking forward to it regardless the cryllics, and await to hear about its online capabilities.
My particular favorite from LB2 is support of two players/ship and data sharing between ships.
Gotta feeling that if/when the Apache is also modelled, ill finally retire the ole LB2 to the
sim boneyard-hangar.

S!

My understanding is that there is extensive data sharing/links available in Black Shark using the ABRIS and other sensors. Since I haven't reached that point in my "development"..I might be telling you wrong..but I thought I saw something about it in the Black Shark (beta) Manual.. I'll get back to you on it. I think the cooperative gameplay in helicopter sims is particularly appealing. The hunter/killer teamwork concept is really well suited to helicopter ops..

Some of my favorite online moments were flying LB2 in Co-op mode..

Edit: Yeah..just looked in the manual:

• Reception and processing of information from the other avionics systems such as the “Rubicon” targeting-navigation system and data link equipment.

• Indicating the position of wingmen using data link as well as targeting line of sight vector from “Shkval” targeting system

• Annotate moving map with text and symbols

Sounds like it is going to be fun! (And busy!)

BeachAV8R

I bought FC and never had an issue with copy protection.

A real simulator costs thousands of dollars, yet this will be a mere pittance compared, and the flight model looks great, so...

Me wanty!

Thanks for this preview, Beach, Nice work.

Jim Macanochie said back in the Flanker 1.5 days that ED wouldn't be happy untill they created the perfect flight sim... looks like they are still headed there. Can't wait!!