Area 51 for FS9 and FSX

[deadkennedy]

Carl, just one last question, then I'm gonna shut up so you can continue  your work.  ;D

Wouldn't it be nice if when flying the area, and you get close to the base, your co-pilot would say something like "Watch it, we're entering restricted airspace, we might get into trouble".
Nothing fancy, just a simple warning of some kind.

Just like in Fspassengers, when the co-pilot calls out when you reach 10.000ft.

Don't know if this is possible.

Ok, I'll shut up now.  :D

Frank.

[Ninja_Mouse]

Have no fear....keep them coming.....I can't garuntee we'll get them all in, but it's all giving me ideas.....

Then it's up to the programmer working on this to see how much if it we can do......an he is a clever bloke.....

As for the modeling work, I'm flying.....so don't worry about slowing me down......ain't gonna happen.

[Lazerbeak]

I'm having a bit of trouble finding that cockpit shot. Still, I'm sure I definitely saw one somewhere. I'd really like to see the first flyable Tacit Blue for FS be as complete as it can, so I'll keep digging.

In the meantime, have you considered adding Have Blue to your list of AI craft? It was the precursor to the F-117, and made many flights over Dreamland. Here's a photo.

It's almost identical to the F-117, just smaller and pointier.

[Hai Perso Coyone?]

It's looking awesome!! The AI Tacit Blue looks amazing too

[kick_Z]

Awesome!!!!

[Ninja_Mouse]

I'll tell you what I'll do, with the Tacit Blue.......(but not in ryme)....lol.

If you've seen the aircraft I've been invloved with, bar the F-117, they are all built with Splines...this means super accurate curves, with lots of polygons......however, these take a long time to do, and is why an aircraft can take 3 Months to put together.....so I won't use that for Tacit Blue...

However.....

I'll take it as far as I can with "normal" polygon crunching, this is amuch quicker way of building, that should allow for a pretty good result, better than the renders you've seen so far, and with a VC included........

So it won't be a full-on Aircraft release to my usual standards, but to the un-trained eye, it may just look like one....and I can do this without affecting the release schedual of Area 51....we'll consider the Tacit Blue as an Observation tool "freebie" for viewing the scenery......

Deal?...

.BTW...My version of "Low Poly" is probably a bit different to most designers, so please don't feel I'm letting you down...the Tacit Blue should look preety good even being modeled in this more simple way........as I say, what you see so far is all "low-poly" modeling....so I'm saying I'll take the current Tacit Blue model, push the detail out a bit further, get a VC in there, and away we go.....?

Gotta find me that cockpit shot though....or I'll have to make a geuss, and at this stage it would be a WILD stab in the dark.........lol.

Carl

[SkyNoz]

I like how you Advertise your Frames/sec = 40 in all shot's, Great marketing..

[Ninja_Mouse]

Hi SkyNoz

The reference to the FPS was due to some debate about the scenery over at AlphaSim......there had been rumblings that scenery looking like this would be a "Slide Show"......

And so I took these to proove the point that it was not....it just so happens that these were the first "In Game" shots, and so the ones I posted here for the first time.....

It can go either way though. As mentioned previously, this is with Ground Scenery Casts Shadows "On", no AI, Simple Clouds, and no optimisation.......

So if you added Detailed Clouds, and lots of AI, then maybe it slows down to 25-30fps......or indeed, if you get rid of the Shadows, and put the opitmisation in, then maybe it goes to 50-60 fps.......but slide show, it aint.....

I made it an early rule that FPS must be a maximum, simply because some of the aircraft invloved can travel pretty quick.....so the scenery needs to be able to load fast....or you would get a nasty "chug" as you flew over the base at speed.....and that would'nt be good at all......

Carl

[JBaymore]

Wouldn't it be slick if you could set up a perimeter around the Area51 airspace ....... so that in incursion beyond that point would trigger a scramble of some fighters on an "intercept"?  

Wonder if FSX would allow that to work?

best,

................john

[Ninja_Mouse]

Hi John

Indeed......  :)

We're already toying with the ideas made available to us with FSX, and proximity or time base scripted "events" is just one of them....

As in, as you approach the "crashed saucer", the inhabitants come out to say hi as you get within a certain distance....maybe, at this time, the TV news crews get on the move too...and it's up to you to load up the bodies and saucer bits, and get back to Area 51 before it gets on the News.....lol....

Proximity based scenes will allow us to do some pretty cool things for sure.....and we're looking forward to giving you all a few "surprises" along the way..... you know, wondering around the base at night all alone.....then you see "that door" that just looks like you gotta explore whats inside....

Muahahahaha......  ;D

[USMC_BEANS]

Carl, that is some amazing work!  I will be buying this for sure.  I am really glad that you will allow us to upgrade to FSX for free.  Thank you very much!

[Ninja_Mouse]

"I am really glad that you will allow us to upgrade to FSX for free."

No probs....

It's the same deal for the soon to be released Visual Flight Farnborough Airshow scenery.......people who hang on to FS9, then upgrade to FSX say next year, ...they can just come back to us and get the FSX version download......

It's going to take us a few weeks to sort out the FSX version anyway, so those using FS9 will be able to post better screenshots than users of FSX....for a few weeks anyway.

Cheers

Carl

[Lazerbeak]

I'll tell you what I'll do, with the Tacit Blue.......(but not in ryme)....lol.

If you've seen the aircraft I've been invloved with, bar the F-117, they are all built with Splines...this means super accurate curves, with lots of polygons......however, these take a long time to do, and is why an aircraft can take 3 Months to put together.....so I won't use that for Tacit Blue...

However.....

I'll take it as far as I can with "normal" polygon crunching, this is amuch quicker way of building, that should allow for a pretty good result, better than the renders you've seen so far, and with a VC included........

So it won't be a full-on Aircraft release to my usual standards, but to the un-trained eye, it may just look like one....and I can do this without affecting the release schedual of Area 51....we'll consider the Tacit Blue as an Observation tool "freebie" for viewing the scenery......

Deal?...

This sounds absolutely perfect to me. Tacit Blue gets something of an unfair reputation for being ugly, and as a result, nobody wants to make one. The sheer fact that you're willing to make one of any quality, and with a VC, makes me feel very happy.

Gotta find me that cockpit shot though....or I'll have to make a geuss, and at this stage it would be a WILD stab in the dark.........lol.

I'll definitely be pulling out all the stops in trying to scrounge up that pic. If worse comes to worse, I can take what I've learned from TB (and other experimental craft of the time) and help you to make a decent enough facsimile of what it might've looked like, but if anything, that'd be a last resort.

EDIT: Good news, I found it.



It's a little small, but I think it should work fine for getting a good idea of the cockpit layout. I'll see if I can find a bigger version, but at least now you can have something to work from.

[an-225]

woah!  :o nice work on finding the cockpit Lazerbeak!  :o

[Ninja_Mouse]

Yup...great piece of detective work......

I'm on the Asphalt plant at the moment, or quary, or whatever it is they are doing there........then a few more days on the 3D Buildings side of things......

Then next week I do the "groud polys", which is what gives it that "photo-reali-ish" look.......(which will get better)

Then I'll be getting into the Aircraft and Events side of things.......so expect to see a pretty cool looking Tacit Blue VC in 1-2 weeks.....

Cheers ....

Carl