1.1.2 ETA

[Guest ThomasDWeiss]

I am asking because I am working on a pack of tracks and the patch will probably make the un-playable.

 

I am not asking for a date, just if it will be ready soon or more like March next year.

[Pilotasso]

Perhaps your question would be better put if you say, "will it be unplayable?" instead of asking for the obviosly unpredictable ETA.

[Guest ThomasDWeiss]

It will be - I read that amongst the changes being implemented are those related to decoying missiles.

 

Maybe it isn't so hard to predict, being a incremental patch, now if they don't know, it means more like March rather than soon.

[LawnDart]

O'boy, let me see if I'm following this correctly. 1.12 tracks will not be compatible with 1.11 or 1.1...

 

Phew, that makes for some very time consuming video frapping when you have to keep three different installations of Lock-On. Is this a confirmed fact for 1.12? If so then we'll hold off on acquiring more tracks until the new patch is released...

[Jason76]

I am not a programmer or game designer nor will i pretend to be.. but the current track system is just too cumbersome and faulty the way it is. Wouldn't it be a lot easier if the tracks were recorded and played like movies using a video format? That way, they could still be played no matter what changes to the game are made. Anyways, I think this should be an issue to be adressed with v. 1.2 Black Shark (which will inevitably have some bugs to be fixed in a hotfix), or we will constantly have training tracks that don't work.

[Guest ThomasDWeiss]

Every patch renders all tracks un-playable, which makes tracks almost a waste of time.

 

I making ten tracks - would take me ten-fifteen days and once the patch is out you would need to make a separate 1-1-1 install to play them.

[Whisper]

The only poor solution would be to keep a .AVI version to at least have a viewable version of your track.

Apart from that, well... bash ED ;)

[Guest ThomasDWeiss]

A 30 minute track would be anything from 150k to 200k, an AVI would be 150MB.

 

Tracks are a beauty, it is a pity that ED still did not find a way to make them playable.

[Whisper]

I said "poor" solution ;) It's the only fix I can give, however usable it can be. Tracks AVI are uncompressed?

[Caretaker]

As has been pointed out already, the way the current tracksystem has been implemented means that whenever a variable in the sim engine changes that influences what is happening in a flight (be it flight, weapons or avionics modeling), the tracks will be incompatible. No way around that.

 

Now before you conclude that therefore this is a bad system, keep in mind that Maddox used the same principle initially with Il2, and had the exact same issues (version incompatibility and occasional bugs where the track's content departed from what really happened from time to time). Both sims were designed in a time when sending around megabyte-sized emails was still a problem, and this kind of track system keeps the datasize much lower.

 

An alternative track system that would be independent of the core engine could simply record the position and state of every single object at a certain rate and interpolate during playback; but it wouldn't provide the same flexibility and at the same time greatly increase the track size. Which is probably less and less of an issue these days, but still something you shouldn't underestimate. Especially as the tracks get much bigger the more objects are in a mission.

 

And of course such a system would have to be developed first, just like any other new feature. Which has actually been done by Maddox for Forgotten Battles; that alternative track system is independent of the version, but doesn't have the same precision and doesn't record all object attributes (some control surface positions missing I think, and probably some other things).

 

I agree that the incompatibility issues are annoying, especially with the training tracks, but there's no easy and obvious way around them currently.

 

And as for the actual question at hand, sorry I can't give you a reliable timeframe either - but if you're really considering to produce 30 minute tracks (quite some work), I would rather wait for the next version before taking that risk. For sure some things would have to go really wrong if it still takes until March :)

[Guest ThomasDWeiss]

I'll wait then.

 

I am not a software expert or anything of the sort - but I noticed that a backup folder is created, would it not be possible when applying the patch to create a fully functional 1.1.1 just to run tracks?

[Weta43]

The tracks don't work after each update 'cause the physics of the game change, if you make it so that the tracks run and have the same end results, won't you in many cases have demos of techniques that USED to work as shown, but may not anymore... (how far would I get learning how to use the radar in an SU27 in 1.11, watching a track from 1.02 etc)