More Pics of the F-16 to wet your Appetite 'Large Post'

[Guest Dag]

Will there be some high quality textures such as McPhatStudios just showed the world? I am reffering to theese HERE at avsim.

Thanks

We could easily have put 2048x2048 textures (bump, spec and diffuse) on it and have indeed experimented with them but since each model have someting like 38 textures, incl spec and bump, loaded on it, we opted not to. This for the sake of texture load performance and general performance. We follow the formats recommended by ACES on this. 1024x1024 pixels, DXT-5 format, dds. I have one tail that gets crappy lettering if I save in DXT5 so instead I have saved as 32-bit and just that gave the texture folder 3 MB more of data.

The higer resolution is what gives the shown MD-80 so much better bump maps. And they are indeed damn good

I bet the AA corrosion control department would have some employees less if the company management saw that MD-80 ... lol

An airline would never have let the fleet look anything remotely similar to that MD-80.

So no, we don't have high quality textures

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

We could easily have put 2048x2048 textures (bump, spec and diffuse) on it and have indeed experimented with them but since each model have someting like 38 textures, incl spec and bump, loaded on it, we opted not to. This for the sake of texture load performance and general performance. We follow the formats recommended by ACES on this. 1024x1024 pixels, DXT-5 format, dds. I have one tail that gets crappy lettering if I save in DXT5 so instead I have saved as 32-bit and just that gave the texture folder 3 MB more of data.

The higer resolution is what gives the shown MD-80 so much better bump maps. And they are indeed damn good

I bet the AA corrosion control department would have some employees less if the company management saw that MD-80 ... lol

An airline would never have let the fleet look anything remotely similar to that MD-80.

So no, we don't have high quality textures

Indeed, we now run about 90 Mb of texture per model, making 2048 textures would something like quadruple that. Doesn't leave a lot for scenery, lol. Nice for screenshots though

Besides, just using more bitmaps of 1024 (so covering a smaller area per bitmap) gets the same results with far less problems (for example that Vista has serious performance issues with 2048 bitmaps in FSX). They'll soon understand that.

[VinFlyer 8]

So no, we don't have high quality textures

Indeed, we only have crappy quality textures

[Kiwikat 2]

Indeed, we only have crappy quality textures

lol...

Crappy or not I want the paint kit... neeeeeed paaaaaint kittttt... paaaaaaiiiintttt kiitttt... neeeeddd

[Guest Dag]

Indeed, we only have crappy quality textures

I can go on all day on our crap Vin

[Rick06 0]

Hello,

If you look on the englisch site of aerosoft you see that the F-16 FIhgting falcon is going to be released in september

but if you look on the german site you see that it is going to be released in Oktober

What is the right release month?

(I hope it wil be september)

[warbird861 0]

I can go on all day on our crap Vin

I see your avatar has changed, he's one lucky guy in that picture, is it you?

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

Hello,

If you look on the englisch site of aerosoft you see that the F-16 FIhgting falcon is going to be released in september

but if you look on the german site you see that it is going to be released in Oktober

What is the right release month?

(I hope it wil be september)

We are currently debugging and are finding some things that need to be done so it is not totally clear to say. I would say we need another week on debugging and then will do a final test. So it's getting close. At the last moment we also decided to redo some of the modeling, for example the ICP and HUD were not brilliant and because they are right in your face the whole time we worked on those as well. I'll attach an untextured rendering of it. Texturing will be completed over the weekend.

[M2769 2]

Like the rest of the guys in this topic, I have been drooling over the F-16 pics. It looks gorgeous!

I have one question though: will it include a functional radar, like the one in the FSX Acceleration F/A-18 Hornet (by CaptainSim)? For anyone not familiar with it, it actually lets you scan and lock up targets in multiplayer up to 80nm away, which is a first for any FS aircraft that I have seen. Having that function in this F-16 would definitely be the icing on the cake .

[Berk 1]

Wow. The panel and HUD looks pretty good. I can't wait until this bird comes out and i hope to see some functional tools in cockpit too.

ohh and by the way Mathijs, are you able to post some screenshots of the Turkish Texture on this bird if not i can wait until it comes out.

Berk

[Guest Dag]

I see your avatar has changed, he's one lucky guy in that picture, is it you?

Yes it's me. Fwd seat of 78-0304. 1/2 hr later I was targeting cars from the HAS using Sniper with cooling etc attached and canopy down. GSM mobile phone worked so I took the chance, I was on bird control that day....we do that to in addition to fire related duties.

[JamesChams 108]

Yes it's me. Fwd seat of 78-0304. 1/2 hr later I was targeting cars from the HAS using Sniper with cooling etc attached and canopy down. GSM mobile phone worked so I took the chance, I was on bird control that day....we do that to in addition to fire related duties.

Dag,

I would agree with your wife; about the new look! (Smarter looking Avatar)

===================================================

Staff,

Now, what's the bug with the F-16 HUD/ICP thats holding up things?

[Guest Dag]

Dag,

I would agree with your wife; about the new look! (Smarter looking Avatar)

===================================================

Staff,

Now, what's the bug with the F-16 HUD/ICP thats holding up things?

LOL... what's wrong with bright green dry-suit and headset/mic, goggles???? I looked like a colour blind SEAL....LOL

I could tell you 'bout the HUD/ICP but I'll leave that to the boss!

[Aprilia 4 Ever 35]

oh...yes please tell us something about the HUD and maybe you have done some pics too?!

[Rick06 0]

Hello aerosoft,

Any chance of pictures of the afterburner of this beautiful bird

Thx

[JorisVdB 0]

Eh, Mathijs...tiny question. I thought you said it'd be a very complex aircraft, which would require a serious system to run it well:

Something along these lines:

Microsoft Flight Simulator X (Service Pack 2)

Windows XP (SP2), Windows Vista (XP recommended for best performance)

Dual Core Processor (Quad Core recommended)

2 GB RAM

Graphic card with 256 MB RAM (512 recommended)

And I just checked the pre-order page, and it says this "Excellent performance in FSX". I guess this is rather about the flying capabilities of the Falcon and the related FDE instead of the performance within FSX (regarding FPS etc...) ?

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

Eh, Mathijs...tiny question. I thought you said it'd be a very complex aircraft, which would require a serious system to run it well:

And I just checked the pre-order page, and it says this "Excellent performance in FSX". I guess this is rather about the flying capabilities of the Falcon and the related FDE instead of the performance within FSX (regarding FPS etc...) ?

No it means we got excellent speed in regards to the amount of vertices/polygons that are used. Of course any additional object makes the sim slower, but great care is taken to optimize the graphics. In FSX a lot can be done. For example in one of the last optimization cycles the VC mdl went from 16 Mb to 11 Mb. Compared to the Acceleration FA-18 you will loose about 20% fps. Now if you know the FA-18 has a VC of 2 Mb you will understand what has gone into this optimizing.

So it needs serious hardware, but it does have excellent performance!To give you some example I attach two images, one showing the external, one the VC (few textures still missing), both at 20 fps under rather stressful conditions. These images were done on a duo2Core machine at 2.13 GHz, hardly a killer machine.

[vapor 0]

Hey guys,

I've got three questions...

1. did you add a Refulling Aircraft like the KC-135 ?

2. What kind of missions can we expact?

3. Did you make a airport, where we can do our first flight or which scenery do you always use?

I think it would be the best Addon ever made, if you react to the proposals....

Thank you Max

[JorisVdB 0]

Thanks for the quick answer. I'm running a 3.40 gHz Pentium D (6.10 gHz processing power), 2 gig of RAM, and a nVidia 7600GS with 512 mb dedicated memory...

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

Hey guys,

I've got three questions...

1. did you add a Refulling Aircraft like the KC-135 ?

2. What kind of missions can we expact?

3. Did you make a airport, where we can do our first flight or which scenery do you always use?

I think it would be the best Addon ever made, if you react to the proposals....

Thank you Max

1. No refueling included, we looked at it and to do it as we liked to was just way too expensive. There are also some technical issues that made it really hard.

2. There will be two missions included, not going to spoil them, but it will be exciting. An additional mission pack with 10 more missions will be available soon after release.

3. Nope. Would be nice but aimed at what customer? We got models from Belgium, Chile, Denmark, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Italian, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, USA and Venezuela. Doing a scenery of a Belgium base would make all other customers except Belgium question our sanity.

Really, this is about the flying the F-16, little more then that. Not fighting just flying that amazing aircraft. Of course we could have added a lot but we really wanted this to be reasonable in price, even low compared to other products.

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

Thanks for the quick answer. I'm running a 3.40 gHz Pentium D (6.10 gHz processing power), 2 gig of RAM, and a nVidia 7600GS with 512 mb dedicated memory...

Well that probably is a bit below specs because we really think a Duo2Core or a quad core cpu is needed. But if your rig runs FSX fine now, this should not be a major problem.

[Aerosoft Team [Inactive Account] 51558]

Last one of the day, texturing of the ICP and glareshield has been completed today. Tomorrow will be spend on tweaking the environmental maps of the external and the indexer lights. Getting closer...

[vapor 0]

1. No refueling included, we looked at it and to do it as we liked to was just way too expensive. There are also some technical issues that made it really hard.

2. There will be two missions included, not going to spoil them, but it will be exciting. An additional mission pack with 10 more missions will be available soon after release.

3. Nope. Would be nice but aimed at what customer? We got models from Belgium, Chile, Denmark, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Italian, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, USA and Venezuela. Doing a scenery of a Belgium base would make all other customers except Belgium question our sanity.

Really, this is about the flying the F-16, little more then that. Not fighting just flying that amazing aircraft. Of course we could have added a lot but we really wanted this to be reasonable in price, even low compared to other products.

Okay you're right... its really difficult to make airports of so many countires and to sell it for a reasonable price.

Thank you Cheers Max

[warbird861 0]

...

2. There will be two missions included, not going to spoil them, but it will be exciting. An additional mission pack with 10 more missions will be available soon after release.

...

Yay, thank you

btw I think aerosoft should make even more missions, you make so good ones

[Aprilia 4 Ever 35]

it doesn't fit to this thread but could you imagine that aerosoft will release a package like gap but only with military fields...maybe like spangdahlem and so on? the most known airbases?

best regards