JediMaster

It looks cool, although I think any engine designer would tsk tsk the placement of the engine inlets. At any sort of AoA you're going to get dirty airflow into the engines that will result in a stall. Another Q--with wings and twin tails like that, are the stabs necessary? You could probably cant them out a little further and V-tail it ala F-23 I would guess.

Congrats! Celebrating 10 yrs in a couple of months myself, and while it hasn't all been smooth sailing it's been mostly smooth sailing because we dated for 3 years first and got all the surprises out of the way in year 1.

You need a couple of things. First, you have to set terrain to "perfect", that's a must. Second, you need an nvidia chip-powered video card. Anything else won't do it because Oleg's team only got the support they needed from nvidia. Therefore, the coding only takes advantage of their cards. Third, you need to go into the conf.ini file and find the line water=x. I think water=4 is the best water you can get.

I don't know about either coming out this year, although I'd believe ArmA 2 before OFP2 only because ArmA 2 is building upon ArmA while OFP2 is all-new. Anyway, an AMD 64 3800 is definitely falling behind the times, although ArmA is also needing of a good GPU. The difference is in the past even those with fast machines would have trouble due to coding inefficeincies. Those have been largely eliminated now, so if you have a machine with power you can crank up the detail and get good performance. If you don't, you'll still have to drop details.

This is that asymptotic curve that people always talk about with simulation. You can get 50% there dirt cheap. You can get 75% there for reasonable cost. You can get 90% there for high cost, and to get the last 10% will cost you an astronomical amount. If this is the 90%, I'll stick with my rfactor at 75%.

It's a Ryan Firebee.

Wait, I thought that B-2 was brought up to service status after the test program ended? Or is that not the one I'm thinking of?

I've heard rumors of a Blake's 7 remake/sequel. Not sure how reliable they are.

I'm still shocked, never saw it coming.

Heh, looks just like it looks in Il-2 Pac Fighters.

Yup, a famous scene. Great flick, even if it doesn't conform to modern ideas of what an SF film should be (namely SF now = SF action, very few SF only like Day the Earth Stood Still or 2001 made now). I think Gattaca was the last great "pure SF" film I remember. AI tried to go there, but I just didn't get the same feeling from it. Oh, Bicentennial Man, too.

What you need is called "nose wheel steering" and by default it is turned off. There's a light right to the left of the HUD, I think, that says "NWS". If it's dark, only your rudder moves with the pedals which mean taxiing under 100kts or so it's useless. I don't remember what the default key for it is since I have it mapped to my HOTAS, but look in the control assignment screen and you should see it there. The thing to remember is you want NWS off during take off itself because at 150kts tapping the rudders could cause some unwanted consequences. It's meant for taxi speeds only.

Judgment Day cannot be avoided, only postponed!

What kind of mpg does it get?

Solid rocket motors smoke when ignited, it's just that generally they burn out long before impact. Should you be close enough that the motor hasn't burned out (which with an IRM is probably impossible, I think they only burn a couple of seconds), the missile will still be trailing when it hits you. So you might see smoke from a Sidewinder or Archer or such because you're in WVR when they fire at you, but you'll not see it from the BVR ones unless the guy is firing right at minimum range at you. Did I mention I hate the Sparrow's minimum engagement range? I wish it was shorter! All too often I'm out of AIM-9s but still have 7s left. It's like "too close for my missiles, still too far for guns...ARGH!!!"

Do you believe in users?

Most of the old stuff was destroyed between 1991 and 2003 I think.

I just read the preview of iRacing's "big racing sim" on SimHQ. Sorry, not for me, and my guess is not for most people. Everything is money, money for very little return. Ok, so maybe it's the most accurate representation of such-and-such track ever, and maybe it's the most accurate handling representation of such-and-such car ever. No AI at all? No control over what track is being raced online? Pay for monthly online access (with no AI, there's nothing to do if you don't!) Pay for every extra track (like $30?) Pay for every extra car (like $20?) Graphics not quite as good as any of the modern racing sims, let alone better? They claim it's designed for professional racers to use as practice for real races. Um, ok, fine, just how many professional racers are there out there? Eliminate drag racers and motorcycle racers. How many of them want to practice racing on a PC instead of their own car? Did they notice that drivers like Dale Jr were using NR 2003 for extra practice help and get delusions of grandeur, thinking there was a big market for this? They did this with a flight sim once, called Back to Baghdad. Best F-16 sim ever, if all you care about is the plane's systems and handling. Gameplay was poor, graphics for terrain was poor, cost $100 (over 10 years ago). Totally tanked. Games like Aces High and Warbirds and such did well enough with the subscription model, but they didn't nickel and dime you for every plane or terrain map you flew. Alternatively, for $40 you can get rfactor, with AI, free MP, and literally hundreds of cars and tracks to race. Not to the same level of fidelity, but pretty good nonetheless. I could think of half a dozen different ways for them to price this, all of which would have lower revenue per customer but would guarantee more customers. You almost get the impression they think people will line up for this no matter the cost because it's so accurate. Maybe they didn't notice the current economic situation...

Heh, I was the first to get 2000 posts at SimHQ, years ago. Of course, I'm now a distant 2nd place there. I think the #1 guy has like 6000 more posts than me!

I think it needs to be looked at from the other direction--how many nice, cool people are corrupt? None! How can they be? Maybe they act like they're nice, cool people, but they obviously aren't. The corrupt are a subset of the jerks. All corrupt people are jerks, but not all the jerks are corrupt. There are plenty of honest, hardworking jerks that have made this country as great as it is today, you just don't want to know them.

Here in "hot" Florida it's only just over 90. It's also been unseasonably dry with humidity under 30 percent most of the time, so you don't even notice it. Wonder how many hurricanes we'll see this year. My guess--none.

I've got the movie and the game. I clearly remember seeing it when I was 9 in the theaters. I remember kids going around calling each other "programs" for weeks afterwards. Everyone loved Bit, too. "No no no no no no no!!!" While it was nice they got the 2 main stars other than Jeff Bridges to do the voices for the game, it wasn't the same without David Warner as the bad guy. The main thing is Tron was the first of its kind. We've had things like the Matrix and the 13th floor and Lawnmower Man and Virtuosity and stuff come later, but Tron was the one that introduced the idea of people living inside computers. It also had that unique visual style and the soundtrack was fresh for the time. By the end of the 80s, we were all sick of that kind of synthesized "music", but again it was new for Tron. That said, I also liked E.T. and The Last Starfighter quite a bit. Always thought Robert Preston should've sang in that movie, too. However, even when I was young I saw Battle Beyond the Stars for what it was--a cheap way to try and cash in on the Star Wars craze. Only Sybil Danning's outfit made it worth watching.

They showed them using that tactic on that last episode of Dogfights on the history channel...doing a cobra to break lock. The problem is that does NOTHING to defeat an IR missile. If you're close enough that a cobra will get the other guy off your six and in front of you, a radar lock isn't what you need to break. If they're still BVR, you can only sit there for a few seconds before you resume moving and then you have no energy, a closer enemy, and maybe now they're close enough to engage WVR. Doesn't compute. Define "no reaction." No planes sent to intercept does not equal no reaction. Just because it's not the reaction you were expecting doesn't mean there wasn't any. The commander could have made a conscious decision NOT to do anything like that.

An Su-33 wouldn't compete with an F-22 or F-15, it would compete with the F-35C and F/A-18E/F. If you want an F-15/22 competitor, you go with a 30/35/37/47/53/64/96/974x10^57 or whatever Sukhoi is going to call it today. ("Sukhoi, we don't believe in letters, we believe in numbers!") Anyway, I said no for the first question because a total redesign like that to make it work for the USN would cost so much more than just making more Super Bugs. As for the 2nd question, well, the answer is yes, because it WOULD improve relations. However, it is a bad idea in almost every other respect, so it won't ever happen. Here's a question that's never been answered--the F-22 and F-35 are supposed to be so stealthy as to be almost impossible to detect by other airplanes. They also have AESA radars that are supposed to be very good at detecting stealthy cruise missiles. So, can an F-22 see another F-22 on its radar before any other plane could?

There's some pics around here from Ascension Island that look like that, from the NOTU shots taken off the cost here.