** DCS: F-14 Development Update - September!! **

Really delighted at the A-6 news, will be buying F-14 on day one, it such a good looking aircraft.

Outstanding work! A dream from my childhood is coming true!!!

I will buy the F-14 on day one but to be absolutely honest i'm more excited about the A-6, even if it's only AI for now.

@Cobra, you don't have by coincidence a nice 3440x1440 "Screenshot/Wallpaper" of this beauty? :D

Still no release date? Hopefully 07 OCT we finally get a date ehhh?

This will raise the standards of a module on so many levels. Good job Heatblur! You definitely have my money.

Same, day one purchase for me! This is outstanding work. :thumbup:

Seriously the work you have all done on this is nothing short of incredible. Absolutely amazing to read through the updates and progress. This is going to be absolutely huge and my wallet is already waiting to be emptied haha!

The words release date and Oct 7th were never mentioned together, doubtful Oct. 7th the F-14 will be released, hope I'm wrong.

The words release date and Oct 7th were never mentioned together, doubtful Oct. 7th the F-14 will be released, hope I'm wrong.

You're not wrong. A "reveal" is promised for Oct 7th. Nothing else. Though why developers and publishers ever hold announcements for announcements I will never understand. It's just needless hype, and leads to confusions of this type.

If I had to hazzard a guess I think it will probably be a video of our favorite bird losing it's chromecat skin, and placeholder textures.

My most optimistic hope is that on that date they announce an early-access launch date, and maybe even open up pre-orders on ED's DCS page. (Or the other way around, with the precedent set by the Hornet of allowing pre-orders with no set release date.)

You're not wrong. A "reveal" is promised for Oct 7th. Nothing else. Though why developers and publishers ever hold announcements for announcements I will never understand. It's just needless hype, and leads to confusions of this type.

What do you expect them to do? Just have the stream and nobody is going to know about it?

It seems probable it's to show us something close to the final product and open up pre-purchase.

Still no release date? Hopefully 07 OCT we finally get a date ehhh?

I hope that on October 7th we will get more than just a date :D :joystick:

It seems probable it's to show us something close to the final product and open up pre-purchase.

Sounds more realistic tbh

The cockpit textures look amazing, but some external ones would be great also! :D

The words release date and Oct 7th were never mentioned together, doubtful Oct. 7th the F-14 will be released, hope I'm wrong.

It won't be released on Oct 7th.. watch it will be pre-order, I'm assuming they still have some work to do.

Very much looking forward to seeing Heatblur's Tomcat fully skinned in all it's weathered glory.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

How much to get it released next week? Just say the word.

In case of the Viggen it was quite similar. Announced the announcement and two weeks later the EA was available. So 14 days after the 7th of October is 21st of October - might be the EA release day.

It really looks like an amazing module, congratulations.

Is my graphics card going to be able to handle this plane?).

I wonder the same (read my signature and you’ll understand why). Is it goong to need higher requirements than the other modules?

What do you expect them to do? Just have the stream and nobody is going to know about it?

This is exactly what Im talking about. Who said anything about there being a stream?

This is exactly what Im talking about. Who said anything about there being a stream?

We got the word "Live", a date and a time. It doesn't seem very ambigious to me.

Not going to lie, a small tear did run down my cheek. This is not just a iconic plane for me, it's a memory of a happy time, i can not wait to fly it with my departed father watching me looking down with a big smile on his face.

No he/i have never served in the military in any role, it represents a special time in my life when i was a young kid that is personal to myself and my father and to be able to complete that dream (Even a pretend one in a digital world) means a lot to me.

Thank you Heatblur for creating this possibility.

Kind regards from a young (old) kid with his head in the clouds.

In case of the Viggen it was quite similar. Announced the announcement and two weeks later the EA was available. So 14 days after the 7th of October is 21st of October - might be the EA release day.

I like the way you think! Hopefully that is the standard release schedule for Heatblur and will be how the Tomcat goes as well!

I wonder the same (read my signature and you’ll understand why). Is it goong to need higher requirements than the other modules?

What we have seen of the Tomcat so far does look incredibly detailed but why would it's system requirements be any more than what the Hornet requires?

Not going to lie, a small tear did run down my cheek. This is not just a iconic plane for me, it's a memory of a happy time, i can not wait to fly it with my departed father watching me looking down with a big smile on his face.

 

No he/i have never served in the military in any role, it represents a special time in my life when i was a young kid that is personal to myself and my father and to be able to complete that dream (Even a pretend one in a digital world) means a lot to me.

 

Thank you Heatblur for creating this possibility.

 

Kind regards from a young (old) kid with his head in the clouds.

Man I wish your dad were around to see this. I'm sure we all understand the feeling he had to some extent.

Looks great! Will it be PFM?

Looks great! Will it be PFM?

Short answer is: yes, but not called a PFM.

Long answer is: the model is an EFM meaning the flight model was developed outside of ED and in fact is a program that runs outside of DCS. It receives atmospheric and physical parameters (speed, AOA, etc) from DCS which is then fed into the Heatblur FM program. The program then crunches all the info and feeds forces to the rigid physics model inside of DCS.

I think a lot of people figure that FM development is a lot like a "mad libs" word game where you take some aircraft specifics and plug it into a framework that exists in DCS - that is true for SFMs. But PFMs/EFMs are clean sheet mathematical descriptions of the aerodynamic and physical forces that effect the airplane. So instead of a mad libs we are talking about a blank sheet of paper.....pretty intimidating.

In the case of the F-14, the FM was developed from NASA wind tunnel testing, NASA aerodynamic evaluation data, USN real world performance data (covering all aspects), USN documentation for handling/testing, USN docs for the AFCS system, flight control systems, USN weight and balance documentation (which proved to be quite important for replicating behavior), detailed engine documentation/dynamics modeling, etc, etc, etc.....a lot of stuff!

All of this information is then digested and converted to equations, coefficients, look-up tables, and all that stuff by the FM developer. The F-14 FM actually has 2 FM engineers/coders/developers. The lead is a joint PhD in engineering and computer science (Mechatronics) while the other's day job is as an FM developer for Level D simulators (private and light commercial jets).

Add to that, the FM has over a hundred hours of real F-14 pilot evaluation time resulting in many adjustments. We thought the FM was in pretty good shape a year ago when the pilots first stated giving feedback. Well a year later we have adjusted a lot of stuff! Things are actually quite different than they were back then (even without changing the core aero data from wind tunnels and other sources). FM development means a lot of very fine tuning that can have big effects. Without all the pilot input, things would actually feel pretty different - even though everything would still match the data. Aircraft feel is surprisingly dependent on small details. :)

I am happy to say that our pilot SMEs are quite happy with it, even as we adjust a few more details (like how much roll rate changes with wing sweep, as Cobra mentioned). One of our best SMEs (very detail oriented and he uses DCS habitually - he has made a huge contribution to the module!) recently described the FM as a "game changer" - so we are very happy with the depth and accuracy.

So like I said....long answer. :)

In summary: it's really good! :D

-Nick (Heatblur Tomcat tester)

Didn't read through ALL the posts but how is the shared cockpit for multi player coming along?

 

In summary: it's really good! :D

 

-Nick (Heatblur Tomcat tester)

Cool, thanks! :thumbup: