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F-14 Status Update


jcagle

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Hello All,

My apologies for the delay. The long pause in communication falls on me; I'm a 4th year PhD candidate (while also working a lab manager in a prosthetic research group) and have been spread particularly thin over the last six months between work and school. With that said, progress on the second service pack is beginning to kick into higher gear. Two major items of note are that a third F-14 driver contacted us in March, and he has been quite helpful in pointing out some subtleties in the cockpit that we can improve and make more accurate. Bad news is that our primary visual systems programmer (JR), has left the team because of personal issues. This means our capacity to improve items such as radar function are going to be limited. Mathijs has been particularly helpful in trying to find someone to fill in the gap.

On the timescale for release. Given the two items above, we're talking about splitting the second service pack into two parts where the first pack addresses some of the more quick and fundamental issues (i.e. bugs) and the latter part addresses parts that will take a little longer to implement. As we reorganize, we'll start to get more detailed about what will be included in which pack. Please feel free to ask questions, and I'll answer to the best of my ability.

Thank you all for your patience

Best,

John

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Hi John,

Glad to hear that development is still happening and that the project is not dead. Is there any news on what is happening with the people working on the new soundset? They have removed almost all videos from their youtube page and taken down their facebook page.

Good luck with your PhD.

Thanks for the update

-Wingmate

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Wingmate, I'm not sure. They were doing very nice work, but have been hard to reach lately. Will keep you updated as we hear back.

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Great update "jcagle" and outstanding to hear of another real world source for model refinement/bug fixes. One can read all the NATOPS chapters, but it really takes asking former Tomcat aircrews to clarify some of the wordage.

My USN based virtual airline has had to sadly park the Tomcats due to some of the bugs in the MP environment. I do wish I had some basic coder knowledge to contribute.

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Yar, those are going to be really difficult to solve. Payloads and many of the special effects triggers rely on the transmission of custom variables (L:vars) that FSX was never designed to transmit over multiplayer. The gents working on the Airbus series have some clever tricks up their sleeves, but we won't report anything until it's actually work in the F-14.

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Hi John. I understand that there's some trouble in fixing F-14's bugs. Of course sorry for that; I submit a trouble that affects a friend of mine and me in the same way.
The AP doesn't work properly both in my friend's FSX and mine P3D 2.5 - in the same way -.

Since I switched to P3D the AP functions doesn't work anymore. Just a doubt; maybe that my troubles are due to the fact that I haven't yet installed VRS's TacPack, while I had it in FSX? The above friend of mine is facing my very same weird Tomcat behavior. As soon aswe angage the AP, Altitude and Navigation (Engage, Shift+G), it steers to the left and pitching straight to earth. Even this guy didn't install anymore the TacPack.

Thanks for any help; It's a pity not to enjoy fully this beautiful bird.
Best regards, Fulvio

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  • 2 weeks later...

Kasatka, both the Post-86 (block 100 and 110) and B model F-14 should only use the AIM-54C, while the Pre-86 (block 90) should only use AIM-54A. The division of the models into pre and post 1986 corresponds to the standardization of the C model Phoenix.

Hope that helps?

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Yes, it's fine, thank you very much. I was only asking it because all of the three F-14 (pre- and post-86 and the B model's tacpack.ini files shows they are all using the A variant of the Phoenix (right now (with V1.10) and I don't want to make an unofficial change), but what you wrote is way more realistic IMHO.
May I ask you to check the "List of Fixes" topic and tell us what you think about the suggestions, please? Thanks in advance for your time and your support.

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Hmm, I didn't see that in the TacPack.ini's. Those should all be C models, that will certainly be added to the bug list.

On the 'List of Fixes' topic. I've already read it, and cataloged every request made. I don't really want to touch the topic itself, because the sum total of implemented features is way above and beyond anything we can handle. To add a little perspective; I had to go into physical rehab after working 14-16 hours a day for nearly 6 months to get the F-14 out the door. One of our other developers almost lost his marriage. Both of us are still in long term recovery mode, my kneecap (which is prone to permanent dislocation and has already gone through 2nd stage surgical correction) is throbbing as I type.

Many single items of the 30+ features requested take tens (plural) of hours to implement. I'm committed to polishing the F-14 and the existing feature set and maybe adding a few high impact additions; but having lost one of two primary coders, there simply aren't the resources to for a major feature expansion (LANTIRN, Bombcat, Radar upgrades, etc). The biggest new feature that we'll try to implement is Shared Cockpit, but it's tricky with all the custom variables, and we won't confirm it as a features until it's actually working.

Bugs, on the other hand; Contrails, Landing/Taxi light, etc will be fixed.

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Wow, I found a bug, I can't believe it: it's never happened before with me. ;):)

jcagle,

it will be a bit personal, I think, but it's really very important, I'm sure: I unlimitedly love your Tomcat, what you guys made for us and I really want to see hotfixes and updates as soon as possible, but that's one thing. What is really count is that I really don't want to be a (or one of a) reason why someone looses his health, life, wife/husband/family or job (etc). So your (and all the other developer's) well-being is much more important as my (or others) patience or any money, and I'm very honest with it: only you guys can make the fixes and the updates. So it's selfish, but the cruel fact is that we need you much more than the fixes/updates: they won't be released without you. So get well, relax and take your time, we (or at least I) will wait, this Tomcat is worth for it.

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More support from here as well and I really do wish I knew the basics of coding. I can actually do almost everything with the Tomcat in it's current state in SP with FSX-Accel, and have fun flying my favorite fighter. I can start on the USS Kitty Hawk, fly an intercept against AI, tank from the KA-6, and then hopefully not bolter on the night recovery, just like Maverick!

I realize the bugs will be prioritized based on demand.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Hello!

I've been following this awesome F-14 on and off since March. I held off from purchasing to wait for the update that addresses some of the issues mentioned in this forum (especially pertaining to p3dv2 + tacpack).

That being said, can we get another "status update" on how things are looking regarding the patch? If you can't provide another status report yet, is it safe to assume that we are still a long ways from release? Just trying to gauge where the F-14 stands right now.

Thanks.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Apologies for the delay, will make another update toward the end of the week. I wouldn't say that we're a 'long' way off, but will try to take stock of things and give a more quantifiable timeline.

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Okay, so here' is a brief look at where things stand. This is a coarse overview:

- F-14 visual model. General revisions are complete, we're now looking at trying to implement P3D specific features (Yes, TacPack!). The general revision to the visual model were far and out the most time consuming part of the patch and consumed both primary developers on the team. There will still be a lead time associated with

- Systems updates are fairly far along, and include fixes to the radar, tacan, warning lights, manual chaff/flare release, and a few others.

- Bigger items to be started include addressing the Kitty Hawk (FLOLS lights) and Shared Cockpit.

Realistically, we're probably 2-3 months from a service pack release. Maybe it will be sooner, but for something that's gone on as long as this has, I'd much rather over estimate than under.

Best,

John

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

V1.1 has not been thoroughly tested in P3D v3 so it's hard to say. You can manually point the v2.X installer into v3 and then manually add the Kitty Hawk files in the [P3D Main/Aerosoft/F-14A/CV_63] directory. Doing that I was able to load the Hawaii flight and launch from the catapult without issue....or at least no new issues (screens below). Don't be fooled by the wake in the second screenshot though, it's still choppy in sim.

We do have SDK's setup for both P3D v2.5 and v3.0 for the next build.

 

P3Dv3%2002.jpg

 

P3Dv3%2001.jpg

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