Hello.
I took some loose screenshots yesterday.
I was kind of bored. So I launched the Takeoff training mission and hijacked it a bit.
Ground Control this is UFO16... low orbit achieved and stabilizing...
Ever been on the Concorde? That trap would cruise at angels 60, altitude at which -if you looked
out of the tiny window- you'd begin to perceive THE curvature. But AF is not realistic.
At angels 70 I am, and no curvature is to be seen. I'm gonna file an official complaint and sue
LP for a refund
Anyway there's no point to climb up there. It's even unhealthy as there can be spikes of abnormal
radiation levels piercing in from outer space, or also bouncing on you from radio sources on the
other side of the world. Surely the F16 is not shielded appropriately for the pilot to afford a
prolonged stay without an antiradiation suit. Then again, there's jets better suited for that
kind of performance.
The next pics are from today. Two hours ago or so. It was all going well when I got a wee bit too
much comfortable. And that was my downfall. A Mig21 appeared outta nowhere at 3 o'clock, high
and close. I'd swear there was nothing around me for miles in all directions only a minute earlier.
Maybe I'm wrong. I felt his scanner on me, then he fired a missile. I maneuvered quick, but my
situation was too compromised already. I was leveling after a climb, with an AOA of ~10°, below
300 kts and with the 370 Gal tanks appended... definitely in "Kick My Ass" mode.
There was no evading the missiles. Two of 'em homed in, leaving me no time to eject, blast it.
That's what you get for flying too relaxed. Be on your guard, and always climb overspeed!
These pics I got are from before the disaster.
Here I was, killing time, watching this guy as he was about to land at my airfield.
See the airbrakes? He kept opening and closing them. Almost felt like he was waving at me.
Funny, he has no rails under the left wing. I don't recall seeing more of these oddities. And
I've flown quite a bit with this sim. In fact I recall seeing always empty rails in cases such
as this. I wonder what happened. Probably a glitch.
Here he's on final and gliding for runway 30, when I notice that nice haze in the distance.
Minutes later the above pic, here we are, Me and Two, going on about our business (the Sweep
that ended badly for me). Three and Four are further back, way off-screen. I wasn't looking for
any shot to take at this moment, I just activated the Orbit Camera. But then,
Carpe Diem!, and
here is this extremely nice screenshot. I'm going to make it my new wallpaper.
Ya know-
I wonder what's the deal with the clouding in AF...
We have a 3rd party HiTiles addon...and I see posting putting down AF cloud formations.
So, why hasn't someone assembled a cloud addon?
The same person who made the HiTilesAF addon was working on a WeatherAF app to let us modify the
weather informations stored into Campaign savegames, TE and Training missions. The program was
never finished (as far as I know), and the last beta of it that I've seen has bugs (it sets the
wrong wind direction, and it ends up writing 0 Kts for the wind speed - meaning: no wind).
I understand he was waiting for LP to decide if they wanted to support such an app. No idea what
response he was given, if he ever received one.
Honestly there's a lot to complain about the clouds in AF.
With the exception of the Cumulus type (those in my pics), all the cloud formations available
in AF are the same from the original F4. They're just ugly. Too ugly.
Not only we'd need better textures, but also someone that knows where to go mod the cloud models
being used in AF. And then there's the problem that modding AF is officially forbidden. You do
that and you break the eula. Then they might 'bite'.
And finally, AF has a problem with its clouds. The weather is dynamic, yes, but the clouds do not
get regenerated. Once the wind pushes them 'out of the world', no new clouds are 'pushed in' from
the opposing end. If you fly the sim long enough, even in Campaign mode, you will see all clouds
disappear for good. To get the clouds back you have to periodically alter the weather section
inside the campaign savegame (I do
). If you don't, at some point you are going to fly with the sky
perpetually clear.
The 'g_bEnableWindsAloft' BFops.cfg setting might help in this regard. I'm still testing with it,
though, and have no conclusion yet to support either "it helps / it doesn't help" claim.
Have you had any luck editing the BFconfig file?
I'm still testing...my favorite is to remove the padlock box altogether...
But here's two, the first works just fine...I'm testing the latter-
[...]
Here's my BFops.cfg:
- set g_bCATIIIDefault 1
- set g_bEnableWindsAloft 1
- set g_bForceSoftwareGUI 1
- set g_bIDMDatalink 1
- set g_bUse3dSound 1
- set g_bUseMouse3forSOI 1
- set g_fCursorSpeed 1.8
- set g_fRadarScale 0.8
- set g_nMaxSimTimeAcceleration 16
I'm happy with it. But I change this or that from time to time.
Currently I don't know what the 'g_bIDMDatalink' is for. If it's making any difference, I'm not
seeing it. But I see that BFopslog.txt doesn't even acknowledge it. Then it's probably ignored.
As for 'g_fCursorSpeed' I'm still searching for my optimal value. The current value of 1.8 is a
wee bit too fast. I'll try with it some more, then raise it to 1.85 and see if I get a better
feel.
I don't use the 3D cockpit, padlocking and panning around aren't for me. If this was BMS I'd
definitely do. Why spit on a feature that has such good support? Nonsense. But in AF I find
myself more comfortable with the 2D cockpit. I just love it) I even dogfight in it
.
The 'g_nMaxSimTimeAcceleration' is one I recommend. Time acceleration past 16x can mess the
Campaign simulation. It can go nuts, with Happenings not happening, and Nonsenses happening outta
the blue. In the cockpit instead there's no safe max Time accel. for everyone. It varies with the
FPS you're having.
File [atc.ini] - This might interest you:
Have a look into the subfolders under the \Campaign folder. In each you can find an 'atc.ini' file.
Each campaign has got its own copy (\Balkans, \Balkans2005, \Balkans2010, etc...)
If you open them files, you find a 'PlayerBumpTime = 10' setting at the beginning. The comment
tells you what it's for.
Many times I've found myself in heavy land-traffic situations with the ATC unable to solve the mess
within the 10 minutes limits past which *my* mission would be canceled. Those 10 minutes start
counting from your scheduled TakeOff time. Over multiple edits I raised the 'PlayerBumpTime' to 30
minutes. Haven't had another mission canceled ever since, even if the airfield is a mess of people
taxing to park and people taxing to takeoff.
I'll go have a coffee. Bye.