by Dark Moment » Sun Apr 06, 2003 7:42 am
Hi all,
The Red Arrows formation (and the Midnight Hawks formation) are constructed from a single aircraft model, so it's not possible to just, say, stick four F-16s together to produce the same result unless you're as clever as Mikko and Kari are at pushing the limits of what's possible in FS. The three variants of the Hawk formation (four and nine non-animated, and now the GMAX animated four) are all based on Mikko Maliniemi's initial aircraft, and then instead of using animation for the usual things, that ability within GMAX is used for moving the separate parts (i.e. aircraft) about.
Thus, some sacrifices have to be made to achieve this, although the latest GMAX stuff ain't missin' much.
We posted an upgrade this week for those who might have missed it; this improves the panel a little, adds more voice commands for the display changes and offers a much neater main fuselage bitmap which now makes them look really sharp.
To the chap above who's bored with them (LOL) please note that the panel is fully functional and as realistic as we could get it to be at this point. In other words, you can fly the aircraft reasonably accurately. I get mails from a bunch of ex-RAF pilots who fly the single Hawk in multiplayer 'formations' on a fairly 'serious' basis and do the whole thing by the numbers. It seems to work for them, anyway.
Hope you enjoy the aircraft and the recent mods, in any case. Try them with smoke on, in tower view/active camera, with the right soundset and the volume way up .... awesome.
If I can find a way to put together the Thunderbirds, you'll be the first to know! Meanwhile, look out for the 'Saudi Hawks' next weekend.
Mark
Mark
Hva fun. Tony ( terbert)
