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#4553148 - 01/22/21 11:32 AM The History of DID’s Total Air War  
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Krycztij Offline
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I’ve been writing an article about Total Air War’s modding community for quite some time. It’s getting longer and longer … I decided I should release what I got right now or it would never see the light of day smile

http://krishty.com/taw/history

It covers the old days of TAW’s release (when DID’s team would hang out on SimHQ regularly), the breakthroughs in understanding game data, source code, and (of course) the big purge here at SimHQ.

I was only a kid back then, but many of you experienced it firsthand. I’d love to hear what you have to say! Also if there’s something blatantly wrong, or if someone feels misrepresented, write me here (or PM if private).

Wishing you 15 minutes of sweet nostalgia!

Inline advert (2nd and 3rd post)

#4553227 - 01/22/21 04:26 PM Re: The History of DID’s Total Air War [Re: Krycztij]  

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Great reading smile the most traumatic sentence was already at the beginning "DID’s most popular title, EF2000, debuted in 1995" Omg .... when did it go frown Thanks to all the people who influenced the modded versions.after this article you can see how much work it was.
btw why haven't you added your awesome smoke trails for so many years?

Last edited by BANITA; 01/22/21 05:24 PM.
#4553249 - 01/22/21 05:39 PM Re: The History of DID’s Total Air War [Re: ]  
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Krycztij Offline
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Glad to hear! smile
Originally Posted by BANITA
btw why haven't you added your awesome smoke trails for so many years?
You mean those and those? TFXplorer is an entire new game, coded new from the ground up. We cannot port its features back to TAW. I’ll shed some light on that in the upcoming write-ups smile

Last edited by Krycztij; 01/22/21 05:41 PM.
#4553254 - 01/22/21 06:03 PM Re: The History of DID’s Total Air War [Re: Krycztij]  

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I haven't seen the other one, both still look fantastic smile I do not believe that the second one did not kill fps with such speed;)

Last edited by BANITA; 01/22/21 06:06 PM.
#4553450 - 01/24/21 09:34 AM Re: The History of DID’s Total Air War [Re: Krycztij]  
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thumbsup

There's stuff there that I'd totally forgotten.

#4553454 - 01/24/21 10:46 AM Re: The History of DID’s Total Air War [Re: Krycztij]  
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Polak Offline
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Quote
Wishing you 15 minutes of sweet nostalgia!

Hello, Friends. cheers
Indeed that was a very good time we all had with TAW. dancinfools
Looking forward to reading the completed TAW story. pilot

#4553598 - 01/25/21 08:34 PM Re: The History of DID’s Total Air War [Re: Krycztij]  
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Krycztij Offline
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All of this would have been impossible without your great work. Thank you! smile

Last edited by Krycztij; 01/25/21 08:34 PM.
#4553609 - 01/25/21 09:35 PM Re: The History of DID’s Total Air War [Re: Krycztij]  
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Polak Offline
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I made a rather small contribution to graphics and then left to other things. Still from the perspective of time and many more years of experience in combat simulations, I consider TAW to be truly one of the finest as far as great gameplay is concerned. Not perhaps the graphic or 3D side, I admit, and not being able to add further to improve them I wandered about elsewhere. Gameplay of TAW is the key asset though let it be said again and again.

#4553881 - 01/27/21 11:40 PM Re: The History of DID’s Total Air War [Re: Krycztij]  
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Thanks for documenting that, Krycztij. cheers

EDIT: I have about one 1 min. of multiplayer experience in my entire lifetime, testing something in TAW with Polak. This was when I lived in Florida and had cable internet.

Last edited by MarkG; 01/27/21 11:44 PM.


The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in
Gives way and suddenly it’s day again
The sun is in the east
Even though the day is done
Two suns in the sunset, hmph
Could be the human race is run
#4555530 - 02/10/21 01:29 PM Re: The History of DID’s Total Air War [Re: Krycztij]  
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Polak! MarkG! This is like a 2007 reunion. smile
I understand why you'd want to move on, but I've stuck with TAW and its predecessors EF2000 and TFX for my reverse engineering pleasure...

#4555564 - 02/10/21 05:48 PM Re: The History of DID’s Total Air War [Re: Krycztij]  
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Polak Offline
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Hi MikeW

It does look like a small reunion. Time flies fast! Great to hear from you.

Anyways, TAW holds always a special place in my memory, but there is just so little time and one has to make some choices along that road of learning about or just getting to know all those gems of simulation and gaming in general. Truly wonderful pieces of great skill in making good sims and games all they were, considering how limited the computing resources there were at the time they were created.

I myself, have moved eventually to Falcon BMS and had a good opportunity and chance to contribute something there. This adventure with TAW and Falcon and other great pieces of games gave me some new perspective on how much can be accomplished if only, besides some mind, a piece of one's soul and heart is given to the game in the process of its creation.

I consider myself truly privileged to be able to ponder on all that and to see it fulfilled.

Last edited by Polak; 02/10/21 05:50 PM.
#4555590 - 02/10/21 08:36 PM Re: The History of DID’s Total Air War [Re: Krycztij]  
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^ Very well said, Polak. cheers

Occasionally you see posters selling off or giving away their old stuff because they know they're forever done with it. This will never happen with me and DID sims because I know one day I'll be back. EF2000 and TAW have such an entertaining everyone-dukeing-it-out-all-over-the-map style that no other simplistic (by hardcore standards) sim can provide (not to mention their full-of-life maps are gigantic)! I'll always want DID campaign gameplay as a secondary option.



The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in
Gives way and suddenly it’s day again
The sun is in the east
Even though the day is done
Two suns in the sunset, hmph
Could be the human race is run
#4555959 - 02/13/21 04:19 PM Re: The History of DID’s Total Air War [Re: Krycztij]  
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mikew Offline
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MarkG, I was on a bit of a nostalgia trip today and was reading a PM from 2010 where you'd mapped out the TAW road and rail system in Autocad. Do you still have that data?

Yes, Falcon BMS is an amazing piece of work. Learning curve a bit too much for me though. frown

#4556261 - 02/15/21 11:05 PM Re: The History of DID’s Total Air War [Re: Krycztij]  
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MarkG Offline
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mikew, I'm sure it's buried in my archives somewhere, I'll look. I never had luck with free file sharing services, but soon I'll have a new website and will once again be able to provide fast direct-link downloads.



The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in
Gives way and suddenly it’s day again
The sun is in the east
Even though the day is done
Two suns in the sunset, hmph
Could be the human race is run
#4580533 - 09/19/21 09:37 AM Re: The History of DID’s Total Air War [Re: Krycztij]  
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mikew Offline
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Thanks!....but no hurry as I've found a copy of the thread with those Autocad pictures.

#4580555 - 09/19/21 06:43 PM Re: The History of DID’s Total Air War [Re: Krycztij]  
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MarkG Offline
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mikew, I came to this conclusion only recently (during my latest absence from the board...returning for a weekend break)...

- I really can make an F-19 redo. My project is currently a disjointed prototyping mess of code using 3D primitive placeholders (I don't even have external models or textures yet), but the concepts and physics are mostly working now (i.e. radar collisions, missile tracking/pursuit, simplified AI states/functions) and I know that with enough time I can make my game. But time has obviously become a real problem. I'm tired of not playing anything besides the occasional F-14FD and 1942PAW mission under DOSBox (although I still find those sims a real hoot, just not my ultimate simming experience per next item).

- I'll never replicate the goodness of TAW's modern stealth gameplay in a DC (auto-generated missions in a massive persistent world). I have a whole new appreciation for *many* aspects of TAW that I never had ~15 years ago when I was really into it. And now when I play it I'm constantly wondering, "How in the hell did they do that?!" The scale of everything is MASSIVE in this game! And the AI, when fighting one-on-one to four-on-four is, all things considered (mainly age), a software engineering marvel. Despite the well-known flaws of TAW, these guys really knew what they were doing.

So where does this leave me? With no real flight simming enjoyment until I get back into TAW. duh



The rusty wire that holds the cork that keeps the anger in
Gives way and suddenly it’s day again
The sun is in the east
Even though the day is done
Two suns in the sunset, hmph
Could be the human race is run
#4581068 - 09/25/21 01:11 PM Re: The History of DID’s Total Air War [Re: Krycztij]  
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Polak Offline
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Inspired by this thread and after reading with great interest and some dose of nostalgia History of TAW article I have dusted off TAW 2.30 mod. I must admit that despite the age that old Girl is holding amazingly proud and strong. So far it was working straight out of the box, which is considering 64bit win 10 and all kinds of new device drivers now is a great feat and amazing accomplishment all by itself.

My return is not so much to enjoy the simulation again, or relive familiar places there but rather to familiarize myself with the overall game design and pick up anything interesting related to campaign AI, UI interface, and "feel and handling" of TAW which I so fondly remember.

Right from the get-go, I can see that despite many great efforts of others and including even my personal contribution the terrain and visuals have not changed much and by today's standards this is sticking rather very visibly and obviously out.

It is not that I would personally expect anything drastically different, to contrary, I enjoy those old rudimentary graphics, but realize that the younger crowd could be perhaps not attracted here. And so naturally there may not be continuity in modding and interest in it so much anymore.

I am writing this and wondering if the port to other (perhaps more modern and up to date) simulation platform while preserving those TAW's elements of goodness might be working, or it may be better just to let Her go.

Last edited by Polak; 09/28/21 01:32 PM.

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