Dante-JT

Yes, we can leave also the pilot character textures open for adjust too. Probably planes too. But check last answer I´ll describe this in more detail. The campaign is our biggest long term worry. It should be heavily AI based so it generates believable frontline movements and engagements. Falklands/Malvinas is an ideal testbed to try such type of campaign, as there´s a fixed and obvious territorial goal, a defensive and an offensive army. Yes, with a solid campaign mode in place, we will have also COOP modes as well. Dogfight and Team Dogfight are simple head-to-head multiplayer modes. Yup, but probably a data extraction will be needed as the data will be packed in a single datapack as its industry standard to do so. np, buddy! :)

Indeed. That's why its taking so long. But this gonna change this year, we'll be setting us up in a studio and so the developers can quit their daily jobs and work full time in this game. My current goal is to raise development money so it becomes a reality.

Yup, I agree Skorpion! It needs the shadow map layer as well, which will add more realism too. It's unfinished anyway. :)

Thanks! The magazine didn't appeared in brazilian shops yet, anybody care to scan the page? :) I'll buy the magazine as soon as I see this February issue around. Btw, we're still working hard in assets here. Here is the very unusual but cool Victor V-Bomber-turned Tanker and used in BlackBuck Raids: And the Leander Class frigate getting textured: Programming is working in interface stuff, which is way behind schedule, but will be sorted out hopefully.

Yes this 'throttled back' tactic is an important feature. It's also worth to read "Hostile Skies" by David Morgan, it's the 800 sqd version of the war and rivals that of Ward - he described also how he tried to get a Sidewinder lock in a Pucara (prop plane) and had trouble. He also critises Wards decision to enter in that turning fight with that Pucara described in 'Sea Harrier Over the Falklands' - he says the Pucara managed to get some kills on the Shar in mock fights later, with the captured units the british had. The only thing breaking the looks of the Lynx is that tail bent slightly downwards :)

Greetings! "Damage display": each simulated plane realistically has a different set of warning lights in the cockpit. Fire, Hydraulics Failure, Oil Pressure etc. Flight Manual procedures are taken according to the light and what it warns. Yes, this is important - some planes in this campaign have only TACAN, while a few are equipped with the VLF Omega nav system, but the Sea Harrier has the quite advanced NAVHARS, while for example, in ground mapping radar mode, you can mark and designate a place in the radar picture and the system will generate the visual navigation cue in the HUD - manually-inserted waypoints on the fly, to sum up.

Calendar kindly made by our Ace 3D modeler Ariel Cancio from Argentina, it uses our new high-detail Super Etendard model that will be used as closest LOD mesh in the sim: All the best for 2007! Greetings from Thunderworks

Hi Chris, Replied to you by PM ! :) Cheers!

Watch video here: Why the focus so much in the Sea Harrier? Because it's by far the most complex aircraft featured, the avionics and systems handbook is really thick, hopefully we will have most important stuff (attack symbology, main radar modes) in the simulation this year. The Super Etendard seems a second place in complexity. The other planes are simpler jobs. Some combat-related pics of recent trials:

Yup. :) And with a couple of shrapnel holes as well. Although holes in the wing tanks must leak fuel that may turn to flames and so on (not implemented yet, but will be soon! Very important in a combat sim.)

These are the lowest poly possible, just a trapezoid rock :) we must sort the LOD too, we had it in the past but somehow it is not used anymore. I think what IL2 does with the FW190 canopy and others, is to have a white tinted canopy. Due to the nature of the alpha-channelling, some tinting must be used or else the reflection details and scratches would be completely invisible. But the tinting could be white, not only dark. Will try it later. But don't worry, I'll leave open the canopy.tga in the cockpits folder and it will be just a matter of opening it in some art package and increase or decrease the opacity in the alpha-channel to suit's personal preferences, instructions included. ;)

Yes! Strong possibility, and I've received hundreds of emails asking this. If not for the first release but for the following add-on disc! Will balance the plane types for british and argentineas - british have so far only 2 planes (Harrier types) and the argentines have SuE, Pucara, Mirage, Skyhawk...

heheh! They're too low-poly rocks looking really like tents :) I've been too conservative with polycounts compared to other well-known flight sims, but these rocks are counted in the hundreds of thousands spread over the Tundra-bald surface of the isles.

The planned release date is around Q3 2007, to coincide with the Falklands War 25th Aniversary. Not sure if we can meet this release date, software development is always full of surprises, I don't know one single game project that was released on time and on budget, they always slip, no matter how big or experienced is the team. This is specially true regarding flight simulators, the most complex entertainment software products so far.

A little video to show progress - I think never properly shown before - of a gun kill test in JT, with some degree of damage modelling. An odd friendly-fire incident between two Sea Harriers nearly Port Stanley: The other Sea Harrier is AI controlled and follows a pre-set route, he was just reaching a waypoint and turning to next waypoint as he levels on a 130 heading. Aden 30mm gun reticle/piper in HUD (A-A gun mode) isn't ready yet but should be no problem.

THANKS! :) Specially useful for damage modeling reference (cut in half, showing the engine)

Working in conventional carrier operations in 25 de Mayo carrier: Landing, hook down, AoA and approach speed A-4Q are right (~120knots) touchdown, got first deck cable: stopping taxying for CAT SHOT cat shot cat shot almost ending in disaster due to lack of carrier speed resulting in this dangerous close call with plane heavy: Still a lot to do (calibrating cables/arresting system, catapult power, wheel brakes effectivity, etc etc) but soon I will provide a video of carrier operations in 25 de Mayo carrier. And, as replied in other topic, yes, we plan to pack the deck with animated activity, deck officers working around and other parked a/c, although at the moment we're testing carrier ops with a clean deck.

Hi SkorpioN, The structural damage of the models is just recently starting to work as planned - previously it was plagued by annoying glitches, like ripped off parts of the structure that never fall back to ground, this is fixed now - but the system still needs a few important touches like fuel leaks, hydraulical leaks, and strong effects of airframe damage in the flight model. A new pylon / weapons system is being integrated now as well. Previously, a fired weapon (missile or bomb) was made to 'spawn' in front of the plane and proceed with its flight - of course, this was terrible and the reason we have mostly 'free flight' videos until now. Now a pylon system script is integrated so we can take off with different loadouts and the weapon release is from pylon as it should be. As a matter of testing, the ejector seats could be added in this system as a vertically launched object starting at cockpit position. They will eject upwards with smoke trail and all, with an animation showing pilot separation and parachute opening later.

Yes, it will.

We have a publisher proposal that covers whole world as distribuition territory, so, it'll be available in most countries where you can buy a pc game in the store. Even without such publishing coverage, we can somehow use digital delivery methods(self publishing, website download delivery).

Hi rhugouvi, At the moment, I'd recommend a GeForce 6600 card (or the equivalent ATI), in a a 2Ghz or better computer. JT's engine isn't much tied to CPU right now, it's more graphic card related. An important factor for JT (and probably any other current flight sim) is to have 1GB RAM. With 512MB RAM it runs, but as at the moment we don't have definitive optimizations regarting memory charge/discharge, so 1GB is recommended to run smoothly the current test version. So, what matters is how much RAM, graphic cards capacity, and processor GHz, in that order of importance.

Si, ya tenemos el portaaviones a balancear en la simulación! (yes, we already have the pitching/rolling deck according to sea state)

Simops (www.simops.com) the webhosting company hosting JT website, a couple of days ago placed a message at their website frontpage saying they're going out of business in a few days unfortunately. So, probably JT website will be offline for this weekend. But kindly they (simops) offered a emergency hosting at HostGator.com which we'll be contacting and dealing with the files move. Good weekend to all and hopefully Monday September 4, 2006 we'll be back online and hopefully also with a much needed news update summing up what I've been posting here in the last couple of weeks.

I agree, it's just programmer's stubborness. Programmer thinks art people are "abusive" with "oversized" textures (1024x1024) and then he sets OpenGL texture quality reduction right into the executable - making them look like 512x512 or even less. Problem is, as we all notice in the screenshots, the huge carrier is too big to be covered by tiny or downsized textures, we must use brute force (2048x2048) or otherwise it's physically impossible to make it look good. One good workaround at least for the deck, is the clever use of detail textures, like I did here with the runway tarmac: And speaking in more polygons, maybe a good workaround for sharpness of the deck markings will be to actually model them all as polygons instead of subject of texture limitation/blurrying.

More screenshots of the A-4Q external view, while I'm still working hard in integrating the cockpit to the simulator. Notice the brighter sea in some pics (following advice from ECV56 forum members), this is actually a setting that will vary a lot depending on weather/time of day.