Dante-JT

Steve, btw, that's an argie or brit tectrahedron ?? :) Now for a more visually pleasing update, the Sea King model is being painted, Royal Navy test skin: We're working also in the HMS Hermes carrier model. And the programming team is still implementing load-on-demand of high res terrain mesh data of the region. The terrain system is being reworked btw, and yesterday was a great day because a particularly annoying problem with the .hgt (SRTM accurate terrain files) was finally sorted out. So, so we'll have screenshots of the Sea Harrier over the Falklands. :)

Like this one? :) Cool photo isn't?

I've seen that FS2004 F-16 add-on, very good indeed! It should be the standard to follow in JT, not a"must have feature" but would be nice to have.

Yes, good questions for the FAQ, btw :) We're more worried at the moment in researching about GCI and its usage by the british side in directing the Sea Harrier CAP to their targets - the onboard radar of the Sea Harrier was not that great and so it depended heavily of warship based radar guidance, so we have to model correct specs and ranges of the radar system of various types of warships and realistically, I plan to make the player/pilot able to call a specified warship for vectoring/radar assistence by tunning in the warship's radio frequency - the same if you play for the argies and want to have GCI from a radar based at Stanley airfield, for example)

We already have tought of the 'historical' servers and the "anything goes" servers - more or less the case I see in IL-2 FB, there was sometimes the "jet servers" in HL with people flying Me-262 vs. Berezniak-Isaev BI-1 Soviet rocket planes - I can't think in something more "anything goes" than that! :) The checksum idea applies and is good, my example: the guy has in his HD a modded Kfir plane he did based in JT's Mirage (let's suppose he modded the 3d model for the canards and other details, and altered the FM for more engine thrust and better turn performance of the Kfir and even altered radar/fire-control system specs) . He wants to test it against the Sea Harriers online - of course he will not be allowed in most servers, his uber-israeli-mirage will be blocked by the checksum system, but he can join an "anything goes" server and voilá, we have an IAI Kfir over the Falklands ready to kick Harrier butt. Is that feasible? Only scary_pigeon can answer, as he is at this moment coding the bare-bones of the multiplayer system. At the moment, in current system, it is convoluted and discouraging to mod JT with new planes and all - for example, the 3d engine works with the plane models in two separated files - one for the mesh, the other for the uv-mapping information - it's terrible because it doesn't reads smoothing groups information and material attributes correctly - this is all hardcoded at the moment, or in hated manually generated .txt files. Animation of external parts is crude also - a simple pivot system that is hardcoded also by the programmer individually for each moving part - very unpractical - that's the reason you always see our A-4 with slats in deployed position in the screenies - they doesn't move at the moment, because with current system it will be impossible to reproduce the correct motion of the A-4 slats! lol. But don't be scared by all this! :D The new OSG system in the works is being tested and a plugin that reads .MAX planes is already working and proved successful, reading correctly the smoothing groups and material information of the Sea Harrier model - the next step will be to read keyframed moving parts information - but this will be done too and this way, we'll have a very powerfull and easy to use way to import complete aircrafts or any other objects into the sim without any hassle - perfect for modders. A thing that came to mind suddenly now is the Yak-38 :D Well, this is the only Harrier-like thing I can think at the moment, somebody else has other suggestions? F-35 JSF? ermm... too avionics-heavy that one to be worth a mod, isn't? Both planes I mentionated use vectored thrust like the Harrier but (the Yak) has jets pointing down just behind the cockpit, and the F-35 has that ducted fan system pointing down together with the vectored nozzle in the tail...not so easy to do... Yes this will be great! P.1127, Kestrel, AV-8 and all. But I would like really to see the uber-Harrier itself, the hyphotetical P.1154!!!!!

Excellent post, ShadowCat! I want you guys in the Beta for Jet Thunder. :) I agree, I should have named the "tech demo" or proof of concept, in my first post, as a "test", not a demo, as suggested by ShadowCat. My idea of releasing this 'test' was to break some of the scepticism I see sometimes regarding our project (like "this is all vapor" or "it's something based on a modded engine of the XYZ flightsim"), this way, people will run the test (I liked the word :)) and they will see for themselves the Harrier hovering, the engine at work, the volumetric clouds and all other promised features. But we're still far away from this test, at the moment we have several 'converging' works in the programming department. It's all very fragmented. One executable does the A-4 Skyhawk + its cockpit/instruments, the other executable is external view camera, the other is a test for VTOL dynamics, the other shows bits of the networking code in tests, the 'big one' comprises a whole new terrain solution with accurate SRTM terrain data being loaded on the fly... but we need to integrate it all in one modular package, add a GUI, make it run stable in several configs.... and will take this whole year to do this properly - but at the end, it'll be worth and it may be the test.

Olá! Vou bem, obrigado! :) Yes, for the argentinean A-4 Skyhawks to reach the british fleet departing from the continent, they did aerial refuelling with KC-130 Hercules. There was Victor / Vulcan massive aerial refuellings for the Black Buck missions - this is a sensitive issue - as JT is first concentrating in the single seat fighters / tactical aircraft, this long-range bombing missions will probably be A.I. based in the first release - but as Gustavo is implementing a load-by-demand system for SRTM terrain files, maybe we can extend an 'infinite' Atlantic Ocean up to 3000 miles north and them just load Ascension Island as needed - no promises, if this works, may it be a later Vulcan add-on/expansion pack. ;) It was usual for the argentine planes to have guns jammed due to the cold weather in where they're based - specially the 20mm guns of the A-4, there's reports of an Argentine pilot who was in the 6 o'clock of an Sea Harrier and his guns failed - it was commented in this forum. We'll study these Janes flight sims, as they're usually regarded to have powerful mission editors. I only have Janes F-15 (played a lot in the Iraq campaign, nice sim).

Cazador is going to visit Argentina's Navy in May to recover data and photos of the plane. I was also advised to contact Indian Navy about the Sea Harrier (they're still using the original Sea Harrier's radar, the Ferranti Blue Fox, while UK already upgraded their fleet to Blue Vixen standards, but they have also Sea Harriers with Agave radars(!) same as the Super Etendard, so they may help also in the Agave subject)

Well, I hope that this year we'll be able to release a small techdemo (not really a game demo) to at least show the unique features of our flight sim, like the full V/STOL capability and the pitching carrier decks - as soon as we have this features working, to be more exact, to have Sea Harrier FRS.1 operating onboard HMS Hermes and maybe one or two missions to go (against Mirages or bombing Stanley airfield) we'll have it as a small 'proof of concept' tech demo of the flightsim's engine. The full demo is planned when we reach Beta - I plan for the full demo to have at least 3 flyables - Harrier, Pucará and Skyhawk, and a bit of multiplayer capability. Consider it as Multiplayer Demo, as opposite to the single player of the engine's demonstration/proof of concept. :)

Yes we have water textures, although I am not happy with them yet, sea is very important and we're aiming for a ondulating sea mesh so ships will pitch up and down the waves - and indeed shaders / bump-surface effects. What we have now is this (think of it as an option, like the water in Lomac at Low Settings or the water in IL-2 FB without the Perfect Settings enabled): Of course it will all improve a lot over the coming months - notice that we don't have coastlines yet - that's why we avoid flying over these locations for screenshots. :)

Some new here! :) Well people requested by email some high res close-up shots of the Sea Harrier and Super Etendard, so here they are (notice the windshield wiper in the Sea Harrier, I hope to make it work for those VTOL carrier landings at stormy weather):

Very good suggestions, SneakyPete! May I ask to you what was the flight sim, over these years, with the best mission editor capabilities? The one in IL-2 IMO is pretty good, people do fine missions with it. Another decent one I remember was from Janes F-15, well I remember downloading user-made missions for it. I think Janes F-18 followed in these footsteps. Well spotted, possibly this is indeed the reason. This is a seriously interesting suggestion. Afaik all online flight sims I've played, when a player drops, his plane just despawn after a bit of warps here and there. It'll be indeed great to fit an AI there if somehow the program detects the player's connection as definetely dropped. But, wouldn't this lead to some form of cheat - layers dropping on purpose and returning after the AI did the dirty job or something like that? People in Argentina demand that we go further: to have a layer of designation names for locations in the map for their names according to the British and also another layer that can be swapped, with location names according to spanish / argentina (for example, West Falkland is 'Gran Malvina' there, they know and want to read it in that way, Peeble Island is Isla de Bórbon and so on.) How this should work? Is there another flight sim out there with this feature in the mission editor? IIR Flight Of The Intruder (an ancient A-6 Vietnam sim) had similar feature, of course just low res pics could be included (CGA times) :) But the trak file playback to mission briefing is clever! Yep this is on the cards, the JT's campaign is based in a single huge map covering the islands and a big part of south argentina. Like, generated in a log ready for printing in a separated .doc or something like that?

Although JT will have a set of pre-defined historical missions to give a historical perspective to players who aren't quite aware of the real events of 1982, the real campaign engine will be a non-linear, dynamic air-sea battle, heavily dependent of naval assets (like the real conflict was). For example, play as british and your home base will be HMS Hermes or Invincible, an ever moving 'base', with its escort ships capable of engaging enemies. Loose some escort ships due to unsucceeded CAP missions, and for the rest of the campaign your home carrier will be more vulnerable to air attacks. The same applies to your Rapier missile site - leave it there, it'll annoy any of your flights passing through that area in range of the missile system. Depending on how smart will be the campaign's commanding officer AI that generates missions in Steve's system ;) it'll issue a new mission to try to clear that missile site if it decides that further flights passing through that area will be too dangerous/not worth the risk (just an example). As we're in the early planning stages of the campaign, IMO I think there should be an "override" mode where you disable campaign's commanding officer AI and so, yourself assign the targets if you see the ones they're assigning for your flights are worthless for the campaign's progress. Well, it'll depend on how logical is the virtual Commanding Officer of Steve's (scary_pigeon) campaign engine. If your campaign is only generating worthless missions like "bomb a few abandoned depots in West Falkland" over and over again while the argie frontline is advancing and you're loosing naval units or even a beachhead, you guys know who in the Thunderworks team is to blame :D (just kidding, Steve B) )

Indeed! I said that supposed it had a english original because I see the credits "Aerospace Publishing" and "Pilot Press" in the backcover, but now after you said, I think these credits mean the source of the color profiles and cut-away drawings displayed - but the content actually is Editora Nova Cultural, Ltda., São Paulo, Brasil, 1985. It's a bit of a rarity - I have almost the entire collection. I owned 6 volumes bound in hard cover - it has an history behind :) I bought and collected it through the 80's when it was released in Brasil. I was a kid and it was a big inspiration for my current aviation addiction. In the mid-90's, I borrowed 3 of the hardcover bound volumes to a friend, he managed to lost 'em.. grrr :( big mistake. With 3 volumes left (2, 4 and 5 - each 15 fascicles joined forms a hardcover volume), I did a sort of "quest" to find someone selling the missing volumes or fascicles. Didn't found anything. The few I found who own this collection, seems to not been interested in selling it. Then a long time friend, who has about the same age as me and also collected these fascicles as a kid, agreed in donating his entire collection to me for the sake of the JT project! :) Lucky, now I got all the Falklands/Malvinas material acessible. Not yet bound on hardcover but the 'quest' for the missing fascicles have a happy ending. :D

Yeah I have this one B) I must dust off the old cd, I hope it still works - it's thrown in a drawer, dusty, together with many other original sims of that same era (1996-1997 ?) How are the training missions? I don't remember very well. But, there was one in the Graphsim's Hornet series were you trained in a Hawaii airbase.

Yes, Ariel "Firefly" Cancio from Thunderworks team is working in these models right now: (Work In Progress, but progressing very well).

Yes, indeed. That's why people don't see much of the current water in the game - as most of the action will happen over ocean, it must look very good, so bump-mapped water surface with arb dot3 or pixel shader is on the cards - think IL2 FB in Perfect Settings. Luckly, by the time JT will be ready, videocards capable of great performance in these settings will be the defacto standard.

Yep, it's in the JT feature's list. Not implemented yep, but it's technically feasible - the sea will be a 'mesh' just like terrain, and ships will climb up and down the waves like vehicles climb up and down hills. There's a wargame in development that already shows this kind of effect. Indeed this will affect carrier ops.

Indeed it'll be the main goal for flyers in the argentine side. Believe me, it won't be easy to take down both carriers. But some said that hitting just one carrier with an Exocet to the point of putting it out of action would be enough for the withdrawn of the task force from the area, hindering the landings in the isles. I don't think so, if Hermes was severely damaged and had to be retired from the area, I think Invincible could hold on pretty well - don't think the brits would retreat with the loss of one carrier - but loosing both carriers, then I think Cmdr "Sharky" is right... In the meanwhile I reccomend to try a 1999 title called Jane's Fleet Commander, more specifically loading one of the single missions called "Nuestras Malvinas", it is highly hypotethical / ficticious with argie jets taking off from an extended runway in the isles, and Sea Harriers of the later type, armed with AIM-120. But despite the shortcomings it gives a good insight on a realtime naval engagement in that operations theater regarding surface vessel capabilities, and approx. blockade tactics. It's worth the bargain bin value for this scenario alone. :)

Great! So do you know this collection too! What's the original Publisher of the english editions? I'm trying to get hold of an English version, you know, the portuguese translation may have some inaccuracies. Indeed, there is no mention of the Sea Harrier hit by the Dagger. But there is mention of the Scout helicopter downed by the Pucará. I have a local magazine called "Revista Força Aérea" with a full and comprehensive article about Mirage/Dagger in the war, it describes the combat clearly, although it doesn't claim that a Sea Harrier was shootdown - but it describes how the Sea Harrier was in the sights of the Dagger and two DEFA cannon bursts issued against him. This attacking Dagger was hit from behind by a AIM-9L in the meanwhile, the pilot (Donadille) ejected and he's the one telling the story. I think many here experienced this in online flights: being 100% focused in your target, and forgetting the target's wingman, who is approaching from behind with a nasty surprise. B) heh, lucky Harrier driver. A Sea King helicopter and a Lynx also were attacked by cannon fire from argie jets, but managed to avoid and survive.

I don't have right now the accurate details, but I'm in the proccess of getting them - also a bit of trouble as it seems our argie friends refuse to talk about this subject - wonder why B) But what I know, is that indeed the extremely low altitudes they're deployed, hindered fuse arming, resulting in bombs penetrating the ship's hull without exploding (Broadsword) or exploding while specialized crew tried to disarm it (Antelope). Then some journalist, the type who appears on TV invited by the tv network to comment on specialized topics such as deployed hardware and tactics, seeing the footage of the attacks said something like "it's clear that deploying bombs so low doesn't give time for the bomb's fuse to arm" - the argies, who watch television too, got the hint and adjusted the fuse accordingly - the result: Coventry sunk by bombs released at extremely low alt, and the Sir Galahad destruction. The bombs: all of the Snakeye variety.

Fantastic. :) Looking very good for a freebie. I also like space war games and I have as a daily job a 3d modelling job in a game company that is doing a space sim game too - but more in the Microsoft Freelancer or X2 The Threat style. Much easier to model these 'free-minded' futuristic craft than the modelling accuracy required for my 'puppy' project (JT). B)

Yep, the engine already supports high res satellite terrain texture, although the hire texture we're using is generic - we're waiting for the help of the argentinian geographic mapping institutes to provide these material, in the same way their air force kindly is providing all the technical references on Mirage and A-4s etc. The way we implemented it in the engine, means that at high alt we see a hires satellite photo (like Janes USAF), but it gradually and smoothly does a transition to a tile-based texture system (like IL2) for low altitude flying, or else we'd see a blurred satellite texture as these aren't suitable for low alt / high speed flight. But of course the tiles must match the features of the satellite photo for a smooth transition, a thing that doesn't happens at the moment because the satellite photo is just a temporary placeholder. The water at the moment already shows a simple reflection effect, and transparency - in fact it looks slightly like the water in IL2 (in excellent settings, not in Perfect settings), but one of the goals is to implement shaders - for this, we have a programmer dedicated (Gustavo) who will implement bump-mapped sea surface as arb dot3 or pixel shader.

Yep, mainly because of some structural issues - campaign, a major and important part of the sim, is still in early planning stages, with zero coding working right now. The same for the avionics and fire control suits such as the Blue Fox and Cyrano, we're still in the proccess of (slowing) gathering the needed technical references - although on Cyrano we have practically everything in hands (as opposite to Blue Fox...) Also, Network coding will be started today, this Monday, hopefully ;) (scary_pigeon ;) )

at http://www.thunder-works.com/news.htm quite short, focused in showing the clouds at work - quite low overcast and foggy, but gives an idea :) requires DivX codec. it's rather shaky and turbulent, a pity there is no crash sequence yet - so many things to do - lol :D Merry Christmas all!