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#679159 - 06/11/04 09:05 AM A small rant...  
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Hi, guys! It's been a while since I've posted (or even played PSF), although I check the group almost daily for activity. Just thought I'd say hello as I'm about to dust off the joystick and hopefully get back to my PSF winter landscaping project.

Anyway, I introduced PSF to my out-of-state brother-in-law some time back and recently found out that he's actually been playing it. Well, he mostly just flies around using passenger planes for target practice but hey, it's a start. This guy has a really crappy e-machine with a generic 16 MB video card, I think. I gave him my old two button $15.00 joystick and he seems to be happy with it.

Now my out-of-state brother is interested in playing after watching me play. He currently has an 800 MHz / 256 MB RAM Compaq with integrated graphics (which uses some of his RAM, I think), running Windows 98. At least he already has a better joystick, but I wonder if PSF will run smoothly on his rig with full graphics. LOL! Probably.

Someone else I know is interested in playing who uses an older laptop which is probably not much more powerful than these rigs. It amazes me that people are still using incredibly old and slow computers, but it's not like they use them for much more than doing research (bro-in-law just graduated Tulane Law School) and surfing the web, besides a little word processing.

I think F/A-18 PSF is just about perfect for these guys, if not a little overwhelming at first. I'll help them all I can, of course. I've personally given up on Falcon (although I'll never COMPLETELY give up trying to learn this awesome game) and I know my rig can't handle Lock On with even minimal graphics settings (and like Flanker 2.51, it may be overwhelming to me anyway), so I still plan to stick with PSF. I thought that MAYBE Graphsim would have released another OIF patch by now and we would get back some of the missing PSF features but that hasn't happened. OIF is supposed to be released for the Mac I think (or maybe it already has), but from reading the Mac boards, no one seems to care.

Regarding F/A-18, I think the flight sim community in general moved on about 10 years ago, but it's nice to know that a combat jet flight sim is still available in computer stores (i.e. CompUSA) that a non-hardcore flight simmer with a less than stellar machine can purchase and play. Even as more time goes by, I still believe that there's a market niche for this game as I've tried to point out in this post.

What else is there, JetFighter V? Actually, JetFighter IV with a few tweaks could have been interesting. JetFighter V is a 3-lives and you're dead 50 cent video arcade game, and this coming from a fan of the JetFighter series (I-IV). But even JF4 can't be taken seriously after playing PSF, and the replay feature and mission editor put PSF way above the JetFighter series.

To summarize what I've been saying for some time now, I think PSF is still a fantastic game and I just don't understand why Graphsim doesn't do something with it. Hell, even if it's just making more of it accessible for customization for the few people out there who still love and play this game, and who want to improve it. I'm not saying it could ever match Falcon's incredible user improvements but ANYTHING would be a start!

So once again, a big .
--


Mark



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
Inline advert (2nd and 3rd post)

#679160 - 06/11/04 11:19 AM Re: A small rant...  
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I have yet to move beyond Hornet Korea, the direct predecesor of PSF. My rig is a Pentium III-550E, 128 MB RAM, Voodoo3-2000 video card (16 MB video RAM) and a SoundBlaste 16. I do have the CH Products F-16 Combat Stick and ProPedals. Hornet Korea is very playable on this machine, full graphics, it gets a solid 20 frames per second, which is the maximum frames per second the game can produce.

These older sims are great for older machines. Sure, the graphics are outdated, but they are not all that bad either. I have wondered why Graphsim has not continued development of their F/A-18 sims, but I guess they cannot make enough money off of flight sims.


When you know as much as I do, you become a danger to yourself. - Stans, 2006
#679161 - 06/11/04 02:37 PM Re: A small rant...  
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Man, you STILL using that old piece of crap?! LOL! \:D You know I'm just kidding, and you've helped reinforce my belief that there's still a place for a combat jet sim with sub-par graphics.

I'm sure you already know that PSF adds a few graphical touches to Korea, but it gets even better with a decent video card. Well, some of you might not consider an ATI 9600 SE a decent card (especially the "SE" part, although I had no choice), but maxing out all of the Catalyst settings (i.e. AA to 6X, AF to 16X) makes PSF even prettier! My Hornet has never looked so good and sooo smooth (no jagged lines)! \:\) The better card also helps in areas of really dense smoke, especially since Pretzel's beautiful fluffy clouds also changes the smoke effects, and definitely for the better.

I really thought my new video card would be wasted on PSF (bought it for Falcon), but I was wrong. I now think that sometimes I was not quite hitting that 20 FPS cap with my old 32 MB ATI 128 Ultra card, especially when allot of smoke was visible. Having only a 1.7 GHz processor and 512 MB RAM, I won't be running any cutting-edge games, but PSF with Catalyst settings maxed out is not too shabby IMO, and always super smooth, even in dense clouds and smoke.

Of the older flight sims I've seen, I think PSF is among the best looking, but was never the most detailed. I wouldn't mind seeing a little more detail added with the option of turning it down of course, so that people with really lame machines can still play it. Some areas (i.e. carrier) REALLY need a facelift, IMO.

Which brings me to my next thought...

If Graphsim cannot make enough money making flight sims, then why not somehow provide a way for us users to REALLY update this game? Look at what it did for Falcon (minus the fractions and politics)!

Someone here once referred to this game as "Trey's baby". Firstly, I hope this Trey fellow appreciates that some of us still think his game is worth playing and talking about years later (what it amounts to). Secondly, it sounds to me like a single person has the know-how and ability to make improvements if they wanted to. How much effort would it take to give us at least a few of those wish-list items?

I know that a moving carrier would screw up the scripting of the game. The dumb AI try to land on the carrier even after you sink it, crashing into the water. Imagine how confused they'd get if the carrier actually moved? LOL!

And air-to-air refueling, well that just SOUNDS complicated. This game will never be Janes.

But how about a couple of new planes and models, denser cities (even if using the same simple-rendered buildings), and other stuff that I wouldn't think would be too terribly hard to do? This guy could probably do some of this stuff over a weekend.

My biggest fear however, is that PSF will never get updated because OIF is the newer game. I won't go there again as I already have so many posts stating my reasons why I think OIF sucks compared to PSF (not being able to create custom landscapes in OIF is one I don't think I ever mentioned, though).

It's frustrating, especially as I'm getting people interested in this game, to know that the game will most likely never be improved. I'd LOVE a finished and polished 3D 'pit in PSF! That's my #1 wish item! This should have been priority #1, not some stinking dessert! The dessert Pretzel was working on looked good enough to me, and the graphics still matched the rest of the game. All the man-hours Graphsim spent on a stupid freggin' dessert terrain COULD have been spent making PSF a better game! PRIORITIES!

Anyway, still a really cool game and I haven't even dug into all of the mission generator options yet, which I think is a VERY cool feature.

P.S. stans, it's nice to see old regulars still lurking around. \:\)
--


Mark



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
#679162 - 06/11/04 02:44 PM Re: A small rant...  
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Last I heard GSC intends to rededicate themselves to the gnere. We shall see.

Quote:
Originally posted by stans:
.... I have wondered why Graphsim has not continued development of their F/A-18 sims, but I guess they cannot make enough money off of flight sims.

#679163 - 06/11/04 03:08 PM Re: A small rant...  
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Bill Hewett...Bill Hewett...where have I seen that name before? In the ROLLING CREDITS of PSF! OMG! Are you THAT Bill Hewett? If so, I'm honored to converse with someone who actually helped with making this game (that is, if you respond back to me \:\) ).

And if you don't, great game and the best $10.00 I have ever spent.
--


Mark



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
#679164 - 06/11/04 03:39 PM Re: A small rant...  
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Eh, never mind Bill. PSF credits show a "Bill Hewitt", not "Hewett". Guess you're not the same person, sorry. Didn't mean to sound like a head case. But hey, I do try and pay attention.
--


Mark



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
#679165 - 06/12/04 12:25 PM Re: A small rant...  
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Quote:
Last I heard GSC intends to rededicate themselves to the gnere. We shall see.
WOOHOO!!!!!!!!!
I would really love to see a new F/A 18 sim! I hope it is not so complicated that only a real F/A-18 pilot can use it, but don't make it an arcade game either! I think Hornet Korea pretty well struck the middle ground.

As for Falcon, I think a lot of third party development was a result of leaked or stolen code. That has also been cited as one reason that there will be no more official development of Falcon. Most game companies keep the code top secret, just in case they want to use it for other games or build upon it for future releases and updates.


When you know as much as I do, you become a danger to yourself. - Stans, 2006
#679166 - 06/12/04 04:17 PM Re: A small rant...  
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stans,

I heard this same thing some time back and mentioned it on a post here about three months ago...
http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/boards/bbs/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=59;t=000310

"Interesting comment: "I hear they [Graphsim] are going back to their roots of only making Flight Sims =)".

I don't know how this would affect me, though. I'm not really interested in a new Hornet game (a flyable Hornet in Lock On might satisfy those who are). To be honest, the F/A-18 is not my favorite combat jet aircraft (the F-15 and F-16 are) but as it's turned out, F/A-18 PSF is by far my favorite combat jet sim / game. It's like you said about "middle ground" and especially the fact that it runs on just about anyone's computer. That is REALLY a strong point for me right now!

Graphsim doesn't need to focus on fight sims to give my what *I* want (improvements to PSF), but that's just *me* looking out for me. \:\) I would never want the F/A-18 source code leaked, just for Graphsim to somehow allow a higher degree a customization than editing textures or hacking a DAT file. I'm certainly not complaining about Pretzel's excellent work, but imagine what a guy like himself could do if that level of customization were made available. Of course, this would require some serious work on Graphsim's part to give us those abilities.
--


Mark



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
#679167 - 06/12/04 07:06 PM Re: A small rant...  
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Hello Bill,
Looks like Mark may be right in his statement. A search of the EXE shows a "Bill Hewett" with the call sign "Wildfire" as signed here in previous posts.

Would you like to share your involvement with GSC ? If not I understand.

Pretzel~


Pretzelworks - We dont make the sim, we make it better.
Soon to open > FA18Hornet.net and FA18SuperHornet.net
#679168 - 06/13/04 04:14 PM Re: A small rant...  
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Actually it is me. Everyone, including GSC this time, misspells my name (Anglo-Saxon vs. Norman). btw: put Bill Hewett in as your pilot name and you'll see my "Wildfire" callsign. It's long leftover code from v1.3 days. ;\)

Whoops, see you already found it Pretzel. I worked with GSC from the early Mac-only days. Principally as a technical advisor, tester, mission creater and in-sim walkthru training. I got a nice note from some of the ol' GSC gang not too long ago and they implied they're going to revamp the title, to which they now again hold sole rights.

btw: Speedbrake also here has been/is a stellar mission creater for this and JF/A-18 sim's.

Quote:
Originally posted by MGonzales:
Eh, never mind Bill. PSF credits show a "Bill Hewitt", not "Hewett". Guess you're not the same person, sorry. Didn't mean to sound like a head case. But hey, I do try and pay attention.
--


Mark

#679169 - 06/13/04 09:34 PM Re: A small rant...  
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When I first purchased PSF, I did some research on both the game and GSC which led me to many of Gabe Mare's Usenet discussions. I distinctly remember a bad-ass Marine in many of those conversations who didn't take crap off of nobody (i.e. trolls and belligerent imbeciles)! \:D Yesterday, I put two-and-two together. Hey, it really wasn't cool for some to act like jerk-offs while someone from GSC was participating and answering questions.

Anyway, I did try the name thing in PSF but used the wrong spelling without thinking of trying the other. I see it now, but your picture isn't included. \:\(

Eh, I'm confused on what "revamp the title" might mean though. The game is technically still going as a "new" release (for MAC) is on the horizon. The only version I thought GSC might not hold the sole rights to is PSF as it is published by Xicat. But I figure if you could elaborate, you would have already so I won't ask.

+++ +++

What saddens me is that IMHO, PSF is the pentacle of the Hornet series and was probably passed on by many due to the whole Xicat pricing debacle. The only two real advantages I see to OIF over PSF are the terrain (which also has some disadvantages) and single 3D cockpit (which IMO is too poorly implemented to be useful). I don't know if you read my repetitive rants but I have several posts discussing the advantages of PSF over OIF and I think they're legitimate issues.

If your statement refers to GSC possibly revamping PSF, then I'm all ready to pre-order! \:D

Well, whatever it means and whatever Graphsim decides, I just hope that the scalability of PSF is re-introduced and if possible, some of the other nice features like the training videos. Also, the attention to detail (i.e. compare PSF's main view HUD housing to OIF's). And I hope they always keep in mind that we don't all own stellar machines nor are real pilots.

What I would love to see is just how far Graphsim could take the existing graphics of PSF. Could it efficiently handle some improvements without bumping up the hardware requirements much? I think PSF still looks pretty today and I'm VERY glad right now that it can run smoothly on ancient and el-cheapo machines. But look at the improvements Pretzel made by simply modifying a few textures! I mean no disrespect to Pretzel by saying "simply" as I know *I* could never have done it. It's just that Graphsim could have included these improvements in the box, and I can only assume SOOO much more! But what I wonder is just how far they can take it without starting over from scratch?

And PLEASE Graphsim finish the cockpit, especially if you're going to use a single 3D pit as in OIF. The non-photorealistic graphics of PSF's pit are fine (if this helps keep the requirements down) and the HUD and MFDs are very legible. Just finish the thing (i.e. sides and floor). How hard can that be?

To move on to terrain, is OIF's really nice looking desert (I keep saying "dessert") worth the extra power and hard drive requirements and the fact that you can't reasonably modify it? I don't think so, especially considering how sparse OIF's ground objects are compared with PSF. But PSF's multi-player desert does look a bit dated and may not be acceptable to many. Could there be an in-between solution (closer to PSF), perhaps using less repeaters than PSF and at a little higher resolution?

+++ +++

Man, I can't wait to find out what you meant by those comments if anything transpires! I've got my fingers crossed. \:\)
--


Mark



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
#679170 - 06/14/04 03:19 AM Re: A small rant...  
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Hey all,

For those of you that don't know me, my name is Jon Blum, and I was the artist for all of the GSC titles up to and including F/A-18 Korea (prior to OIF). There was no new artist for QIF, so with the exception of the terrain, everything was "borrowed" from Korea.

Although I no longer work for GSC, I can say that I have not heard anything about any new titles in Hornet series. I wish:)

For those of you looking for a similar look, and into heavy avionics, I am producing an add-on aircraft for MS Flight Sim 9 which focuses primarily on the F/A-18E support systems. Since FS9 is clearly not a military simulation my project will have many of the same limitations of any military aircraft designed for FS - namely no true weapons support.

This will howerver, be the most realistic simulation of F/A-18E avionics to date. I was not involved with any of the coding for the Hornet series, so features/realism were essentially out of my hands. Not so with the F/A-18E project. I am doing all the coding and graphics myself.

There are some screenshots posted in this thread for those who are interested:

Varmint\'s Hornet

The project is still some ways off, but I expect to release it in Q1 '05.

--Jon
P.S. Bill, great to see you again! Please email me at Varmint007@hotmail.com if you think you might like to get involved at some point.


Jon "Varmint" Blum
Vertical Reality Simulations
http://www.vrsimulations.com
#679171 - 06/14/04 05:32 AM Re: A small rant...  
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Jon, I thought this abbreviated version of how you got involved with Hornet was pretty interesting...
http://www.insidemacgames.com/features/view.php?ID=212

I was doing some research on the Hornet series some time back and a search brought me to that interview. If you want, I'll remove that link from this post.

Can you tell how much I love PSF? \:D I'm not normally a gamer and I'll go for weeks at a time with PSF being the only game on my computer. But how I do love to play this game!

From what I'm reading in your post, I guess I'm kinda glad that you had no input in the actual Hornet code, though. PSF is about as "realistic" a simulator as I’d ever want it to be! I'm more of a JetFighter pilot who plays PSF because it's allot more realistic (to the point of being difficult sometimes), not a Jane's F/A-18 SH pilot who might play PSF to take a break from the ultra-realism. I'm neither savvy, knowledgeable, nor motivated enough right now to learn any of the really complex sims but I DO want more than a single radar mode arcade game. As it turns out, PSF was just the game I was looking for, despite its' deficiencies and shortcomings.

It does KILL me though to crank up Falcon in the middle of a wonderful BMS 1.03 thunderstorm, to see my reflection in the glass of Panther's pit (can't run the resolution for Aeyes), and to communicate with a coherent ATC. That's about as far as I've gotten in Falcon, though - I can take off and land (sometimes). Man, I really wish PSF had at least some of these features but PSF does have the one thing that keeps me playing it, the fact that I CAN. LOL! And I’m appreciating the ultra low hardware requirements right now.

The graphics you created for Hornet must have been really something in the day and have aged gracefully, IMHO. Good luck on your Super Hornet project. I do see the resemblance in some areas of your pit and PSF. As I said in my recent "Wish List" thread, PSF has a very nice looking cockpit, and I assume that was your creation.

If I might ask you one question, I noticed your pit has a similar front view as PSF. Would it be possible to zoom out a little and still read the HUD and MFDs clearly? Graphsim shows a really nice pic of the F/A-18 pit in the cover of the OIF box but being that zoomed out, the pit is not really legible.

If you don't want to talk about anything Graphsim or OIF, I understand. After looking at the pics of the progress of your SH pit, I think YOU would have been the answer to my "Wish List" thread. I hope someday you make your way back there. \:\)
--


Mark



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
#679172 - 06/14/04 12:06 PM Re: A small rant...  
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Hi Mark,

Thanks much for your comments. I must say I'm pleasently surprised to see people like you still supporting the F/A-18 Hornet series, and I'm glad that you've found something that your system can support, and with a comfortable mix of gameplay vrs realism for you.

It's probablly true that what I'm working on now may not be your cup of tea. Since there's no real way to implement combat, many people will also feel the same way, if for different reasons. This is absolutely a niche project. In the absence of a true combat system in MSFS, my only real avenue is to try to appeal to the "button-pushers" amoung us by making the support systems (navigation, autopilot, fuel management, systems fucntion monitoring, ground handling, etc) as realistic as possible.

Weapons systems and sensors will be simulated, but of course they won't actually be able to shoot anything down. Basically this will be a systems and flight modeling simulation, not a flight combat simulation.
Quote:

If I might ask you one question, I noticed your pit has a similar front view as PSF. Would it be possible to zoom out a little and still read the HUD and MFDs clearly? Graphsim shows a really nice pic of the F/A-18 pit in the cover of the OIF box but being that zoomed out, the pit is not really legible.
My cockpit will be both 2D and 3D(VC) (I still personally prefer 2D pits). The problem with zooming out further in the 2D view is that the displays will not be readable as they are designed. There's just too much information on them, which requires a specific fonsize to resolution ratio in order to fit.

One solution to this, which MS was wise enough to implement is the ability to put gauges in separate windows. I'll support that by giving you the ability to "detach" a display in the VC mode, so it remains full size in it's own window while you zoom/pan the VC.

Quote:
From what I'm reading in your post, I guess I'm kinda glad that you had no input in the actual Hornet code, though. PSF is about as "realistic" a simulator as I’d ever want it to be!
I guess I probably should have phrased that differently. I didn't mean we had no input. Trey was always very accomodating in that regard, and relied on many people, including myself and people like Bill and Dave Putze for input. But the problem always came down to the evil balance of gameplay/realism/time/money, and he was the programmer, so when he said stop, we moved on.


Jon "Varmint" Blum
Vertical Reality Simulations
http://www.vrsimulations.com
#679173 - 06/14/04 09:34 PM Re: A small rant...  
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Great to see you too Jon. For those unaware (whom could that be?) Mr. Blum is the exceptional artistic talent behind the GSC F/A-18 sim line.

Jon, I am interested and will drop a note. I'm at williamhewett at comcast dot net
btw: It was Trey Smith who 'indicated' to me that a renewed dedication to the ol' flagship sim might be in planning, but as always I had to read heavily between his [cryptic] lines. ;\)

MGonzales: let me digest a bit but at a glance I concur and may have some insight.

Quote:
Originally posted by Varmint:

P.S. Bill, great to see you again! Please email me at Varmint007@hotmail.com if you think you might like to get involved at some point.

#679174 - 06/14/04 09:53 PM Re: A small rant...  
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Jon,

As I told Bill, it's a real honor for me to converse with someone who had a part in this excellent series and I've always known your name to be among the most important contributors in the list of credits. Maybe I have a little too much time on my hands, but I enjoy occasionally resetting this board with a "Show all topics" and re-reading all of the discussions that I wish I could have been a part of. I've done this several times over and it has to be obvious by now that I enjoy discussing and reading about this game. I'm just a few years too late it seems. Plus, I've never owned a Mac so I'm getting a late start.

Thanks for explaining the 2/3D pit issues with zooming out. I now appreciate PSF's virtual pit a little more, as it keeps the size of the HUD and MFD screens constant by being disconnected to the pit. It's also nice to always have the HUD information visible as I look around (i.e. Flanker's mini-HUD). The OIF method of keeping the info connected to the pit looks allot more realistic to me though, it just becomes unreadable after a certain zoom factor.

One thing about OIF is that you can zoom out somewhat and everything is still legible, if not as sharp. But I'm glad that you CAN zoom out, because the default front view in OIF seems too zoomed in to me. Unfortunately, the zoom factor reverts back to default after looking around, and then going back to main view. I wish they would fix this.

I also wish that Graphsim would massage the pit in such a way as to give you as much daylight (outside vision) as possible. It seems that they made somewhat of an effort to maximize outside visibility in the front view of PSF's 2D pit and everything fits real nicely, but it doesn't fit as well in OIF as the front view was created by simply zooming in on the existing virtual pit.

Anyway, I guess you and most everyone else have long moved on from Korea and I can understand why. I'm "stuck" with it because I have nothing to move on to, as you put it best about my being comfortable with the mix of gameplay vs. realism, and even PSF pushes that to the limit sometimes. My PC can probably handle allot more game but not those of some others whom I'm introducing it to.

Jon, thanks for responding. Anytime you're in the mood to talk about your Graphsim Korea days, you've got at least an audience of one. I won't bug you with questions now, but just to let you know that someone is still interested in this game (present and history).

P.S. Looking back waaay after the fact, I don't have a problem with Crash's PSF review. It's his OIF review that I have trouble with (a little too generous). Sorry man for even bringing that up. \:\(
--


Mark



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
#679175 - 06/15/04 04:52 AM Re: A small rant...  
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 789
Pretzel Offline
Member
Pretzel  Offline
Member

Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 789
Texas
Bill,
I was one of the beta testers for Korea/Gold. Then when GSC sold it to Xicat all the beta testing stopped. Trey promised that the "next" ver I would be included in the beta team. Which later was OIF. It took them a very long time to port the OIF game to Mac, Do you think this is the renewed dedication to the Mac ver of OIF that he speaks of ?

Pretzel~


Pretzelworks - We dont make the sim, we make it better.
Soon to open > FA18Hornet.net and FA18SuperHornet.net
#679176 - 06/15/04 09:30 AM Re: A small rant...  
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 12,488
MarkG Offline
Veteran
MarkG  Offline
Veteran

Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 12,488
The Bayou
Maybe what it means is that we're going to see a substantial patch for OIF that'll knock our socks off! That would be freggin' fantastic! I would MUCH rather rant about how much LOVE OIF and enjoy playing it vs. dissing it the way I do. The cockpit zoom factor not being saved needs to be at the very top of the list!

Bill, any "insight" you might want to share is a good thing! \:\)

Pretzel, I wouldn't want anyone to break their NDA, but as soon as OIF for Mac is released, are you going to give us the complete scoop? Even if you're not beta testing the Mac version, I figure you know someone who is.

I'm guessing (like others) that OIF will be the last of the Hornet series, unless they do an OIF II. I imagine that Iraqi desert represents a huge investment and they'd want to get at least one more release out of it, wouldn't you think? Considering how long it took to create, can you see them doing an entirely new theater in the same way?

And I don't see them going back to using repeating terrain tiles either, although I wouldn't mind it at all if it meant more time would be spent on the game itself (i.e. fixing bugs, finishing existing stuff, creating new stuff to do like chucking Harpoons at ships). And maybe Baghdad will actually have buildings?

I don't know why the game wasn't improved BEFORE a new satellite terrain was added (which also broke stuff) and this is why I dislike OIF so much. I keep thinking what the successor to PSF coulda / shoulda been with different priorities. The desert does look good though (especially at higher altitudes), and I can only assume that we'll see it again if the Hornet series continues. I sure hope it does and that it eventually surpasses PSF in every way.

If there is going to be another PC version, I hope I get to beta test it. \:D
--


Mark



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
#679177 - 06/15/04 10:07 AM Re: A small rant...  
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 12,488
MarkG Offline
Veteran
MarkG  Offline
Veteran

Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 12,488
The Bayou
stans,

I found out yesterday that my brother actually has a computer similar to your specs (500 MHz / 128 MB RAM) but with integrated graphics! I'm going to visit him at the end of the week and see how PSF plays on his machine. I'm bringing my network hud and hopefully we'll be able to play some head-to-head. I never thought PSF's graphics scalability options would ever be needed but I'm not so sure on this one. He'll probably be fine running Windows 98.

Both my throttle and twist have bit the dust on my 9 month old (?) P.O.S. Logitech Wingman Extreme. They're both spiking through the roof, so I'm now using the "Programmable Joystick" option in PSF to shut them off. The rudder is unusable in Hornet anyway (IMO) and using the keyboard for throttle isn't as bad as I thought it would be. At least now I have control of afterburner levels and I think OIF gives you separate left / right throttle controls.

I'm just going to have to invest in a PC flight control system.
--


Mark



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
#679178 - 06/16/04 04:56 AM Re: A small rant...  
Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 789
Pretzel Offline
Member
Pretzel  Offline
Member

Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 789
Texas
Hello Mark,
When I experimented with AI in network I used a serial cable between 2 computers for Direct Connection Play. It was way to easy to set-up and it ran flawlessly.

Keep that in mind.

Pretzel~


Pretzelworks - We dont make the sim, we make it better.
Soon to open > FA18Hornet.net and FA18SuperHornet.net
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