Viper1970

Okay, that was the guy behind the project. An old bag, but with a lot of imagination and some ideas. I hope you have more success than I did and maybe when I get back on my feet I'll start all over again. Cheers Viper (Sven)

The best version of this song, I think

Ok guys, the end of the project is really here, unfortunately. I'm separating from my partner and in the course of this I have to turn everything I can into money. This is the second time now, first my 16 year marriage broke up and now this 11 year partnership. If I manage to get back on my feet, I might start again with such a project. Until then, there may be all the DCS modules that I have always wanted and maybe they are then already out of Early Access. Thanks to all who accompanied my project and I wish you success with your own stuff. Viper1970 alias Sven

So, the last lot of the RC stuff (my two drones) is also sold and thus again some money for the pit was left. I decided to buy a 34'' UWQHD (3.440 x 1.440) curved monitor for the 2D-display and a 22'' FullHD monitor (1920 x 1080) for the mainpanel MFD's, gauges and the rest of the instruments. The latter disappears behind the panel and only the cutouts in the panel then show the instruments that are swapped out on this TFT. I didn't want to go too high with the resolution so that the performance is at least reasonably good in pancake mode. Unfortunately, even with an RTX3090, the whole thing is no longer really smooth under VR, or you have to reduce the graphics so much that it's no longer fun. For this reason, I wanted to have a proper backup next to VR, where playing is still fun and that's why I wanted to continue to have the possibility to play properly on the monitor with the use of the TrackIR. I hope for performance improvements through multicore and/or Vulkan, but I don't really believe in it. I think there will be again other, not absolutely necessary graphical gimmicks implemented, which will cancel out the advantage of those new features again and you will end up back where we are now. An RTX4090 is too expensive for me at the moment, and I don't see the point of burning money again. Until last year, the 3090 was the non plus ultra for VR and now nothing really works with it anymore, or you have to tweak like stupid and also have to waive a lot of the graphical details to make it work smoothly. The old 19'' TFT's, which I had previously arranged at the cockpit as triple view, are stored as spare parts for my "command unit". Since I also play retro simulations at this command unit, a curved monitor makes little sense there and if I play modern fleet or tank simulations there, I can also connect the three 19'' monitors to a triple view, if it makes sense for the game.

This is also one of those simulations that I played a lot back then. Especially the Osprey was a rarity in the hangar of simulations those days. I don't think they were in any other sim for a long time after that which had an Osprey. Then later in MS Flightsimulator 98 you could fly it again.

I'll be 53 next month, and I've spent two-thirds of my life with flight sims (or other types of simulators). And I'm still as excited about it as the first day!

Ah, dann bin ich da wohl nicht der einzige bei dem die Katzen solche Sachen machen! Meine läuft auch ab und an mal kurz über die Tastatur und gibt "geheime" Befehle ans Katzen-Headquarter weiter, wenn sie nicht genügend Aufmerksamkeit bekommt.

It's hard to believe, but I spent countless hours in front of those pixelated CGA graphics back then and was completely spellbound by them. My father always said that he couldn't understand why I was so fascinated by it? You can't really see anything! What is that supposed to be, another plane and a hangar?

His site is very informative and super designed. You can also find cockpit plans for the E-model. https://www.f15sim.com/?page_id=129

This was my first "combat flight simulator". I still have all those old simulations and from time to time I still play them on my retro systems. But only some of them, because I'm sure I've collected well over 1000 simulation games over the last 39 years. They are all on floppy disks or packed in slimline CD-cases in DJ cases. The manuals are stored in cabinets. Unfortunately I got rid of almost all cover boxes, because there was no more room for all the boxes.

The israeli OH-6 Defender would be a beast. And I still hope we will get an AH-1F Tow Cobra some day. It's really a must, cause it was the workhorse of the US Army for so many years, before the Apache arrived.

I use the one that are simple to get, do not cost that much and work I don't have a very big budget, although that may sometimes seem different. Just the hardware I bought in the last two years was a huge expense for me (I haven't put that much into the hobby in the last 25 years) and was only possible because I sold a lot of stuff from my old hobby (RC cars, planes and helos) for it. The rest that I have, the large collection of old HOTAS (TM FLCS and TQS or Suncom F-15 sticks and throttles) I bought over the years for very little money at flea markets or Ebay. That's why money always plays a big role for me and that's why I also try to implement things as cheaply as possible, as long as they then still work satisfactorily. The tight budget was also the driving force behind the HOTAS systems I created. I really wanted to have the different inputs for some aircraft, but I don't have the money to just buy them from companies which make such things like eg. Komodo Simulations (AH-64/OH-58). Sometimes you even couldn't get the "right" controls anywhere (eg. AH-1F Tow Cobra, Zulu Cobra and Venom or the Osprey), so I was looking for a solution to somehow do it myself. For me it is not so important if the pressure point of a switch is exactly like in the original, but I would like to hold the "right" controls in my hands for the airplane that I'm flying at the moment. I already sent you a PM at SimHQ

Also ich würde dringend zu Pedalen raten! Ist einfach ein ganz anderes fliegen. Bei Helis ist es ohne sowieso kaum vernünftig möglich die Dinger sauber unter Kontrolle zu bekommen. Auch wenn es nicht die tollsten Padale sind, so wie z.B. die TM TFRP, ist das immer noch besser als ein Stick mit Z-Achse. Und so Pedale kann man bei Nichtverwendung ja einfach abstöpseln und irgendwo auf den Schrank schmeißen oder in ein "verstecktes" Eck verschwinden lassen.

The project is still going on, although there is not much to report at the moment. Right now, I'm printing countless of my self-developed POV mechanics for these China 5 directional switches I bought. They work quite well for my needs, although they are really not top notch. But using more advanced Alps or even OTTO POVs is too expensive for me. The pressure point or behavior of the POV's during operation is roughly comparable to that of the old Thrustmaster F-16 FLCS coolies, except that I can implement a much smaller design of the POV's here and don't need as much space inside the case. It is also possible to set the function between 5 and 4 way POV by using different stamps. At the moment I'm also doing the AH-64D/E POV's for the cyclic. I mostly use hats that can be found on Thingiverse and adapt them to my needs, respectively if none could be found I do them by myself. The right side ones are for the Apache, the ones on the left were for the Viper/Venom.

Yes, that was a really funny movie, it's a pity that it's hardly ever shown on TV anymore. Gert Fröbe portrayed the typical German soldier so beautifully. Everything strictly by the book!

Yes, the rotation problem of the switches! The real problem is that almost no electronics shop indicates whether the switches are fixed by a pin (hinge pin through the ball and thread) and thus can not rotate or not. Even with toggle switches of the same brand, there are often different designs, although the switches belong to the same series. I have noticed that, strangely enough, the switches that are momentary ("spring-loaded") at least in one direction have often such a fixing pin that prevents rotation. Normal switches with fixed positions often do not have this, but only such a simple freely rotating "ball joint". Why and for what purpose this is often different with the toggle switches, I have not yet been able to fathom.

This will be a first pre-order-hour buy!

Na hopp, heimlich mitlesende (und grinsende) Mädels, outed euch! Ne echt, Flugsimulation scheint wirklich eine Männer-Domäne zu sein! Wahrscheinlich gibt es mehr richtige Pilotinen, als Simulations-Pilotinen. Frauen machen wohl keine halben Sachen!

Würde mich mal interessieren wieviele weibliche Fans der Flugsimulation es eigentlich in unserem Hobby gibt? Also meine Lebensgefährtin ist nicht so überzeugt von meinem Hobby, auch wenn sie es toleriert, aber Begeisterung ist da keine Vorhanden.

So, the AH-1Z Viper / UH-1Y Venom Cyclic is a little further along. I have integrated all POV's and buttons, but the triggers are still missing. Also the lettering is still missing and the POV's still need to be painted. I still only used FDM, even for the hats. As long as the result looks like this, I don't have to go to the trouble of completely cleaning my Anycubic Photon again every time, just because of the print of a few POV hats. Everything will be painted over anyway. The handle here is also not yet fully screwed (only two screws, one at the top and one at the bottom), so there is still a gap visible between the handle buckles. After all these things are done, the whole Cyclic will be painted satin clear to seal the lettering (water stickers) and give the whole handle an even nicer satin look. I will do this work for all HOTAS/HOCAS together as soon as the weather is still good enough to work on the balcony. The cyclic is not 100% like the original, as I only made everything from photo templates, but I'm happy with it so far. In the links are pictures of the original cockpits of the AH-1Z Viper and the UH-1Y Venom for comparison.

Für alle die schon sehnsüchtig auf die F4U warten gibt's einen Film auf Netflix zum richtig heiß machen! DEVOTION

The POVs are working perfectly. I am currently making my AH-1Z Viper grip. When it is finished, I will post photos of it.

I just ordered another 32GB Ram (64GB in total) for my new laptop. Especially when reworking and smoothing the raw shapes of the 3D models of the HOTAS, this is really advantageous and speeds up the process immensely, since there are then incredibly many polygons. With 8GB on the old laptop it was horrible, with 16GB on the new one I could still go for a coffee until the process was complete, with 32GB it has become bearable and with 64GB I hope you can sit and wait for it.

One of the first prototypes Still FDM, cause I'm too lazy to fill my resin printer for these prototypes.