EAA Oskosh Report

[Guest 727Fan]

Spent the day in Oshkosh and had the chance to speak with MS development team members for CFS3. As I suspected, the booth was crawling with teens eager to "splash" enemy aircraft and so I had little actual viewing of the pre-Beta program. And I had on a pair of prescription sunglasses (meaning I was blind if I took them off) so viewing was difficult on flat screen monitors in sunlight.However, I did get to see the "clouds." Unlike FS2K2, the combat sim is less friendly to folks who really custom set their weather. You can add clouds and weather to missions, but the options are less than in FS2K2. But they do look better.Speaking with members of the development team (one of whom was "pilot voice 7") in FS2K2, the clouds now have a more volumetric appearance. As "pilot voice 7" said, they are no longer "sprits" that revolve around you. I mentioned the "swinging bar room doors" analogy originating here on the AVSIM board and the guy told me one can fly around the fringe of the clouds and they won't revolve around you.Clouds also have a more layered look, and they did appear to have a summer type of billowing texture effect. Looked nice. But as I suspected, he told me that the sim is designed around the mid-range computer. They have to consider many different end-user power rangesso as to sell as many copies as they can. But we knew that!Most at the booth were flying without the VC, with only the 4 basic guages in the bottom of the screen. One of the developers said " I hate that. The VC is the only way to experience the full 3D effect of aerial combat. Oh well. CFS3 is due out mid November. Developers said the ground textures are the most in need of work. For example, when flying in winter, snow is visible directly below the aircraft, but turns into summer textures as you move out from the center of the aircraft.For those warbird who like to import warbirds into FS2K2, he said the CFS3 aircraft share little compatability with FS2K2 other than their common GMAX design. But he said he's sure some 3rd party developer will come up with a "wrapper." I don't know what that means, but I sure am hoping I can fly a Spitfire from CFS3 in 2K2.And when I mentioned AVSIM, he assured me that the team DOES read the BBs here. Lots of their feedback comes from here.He wanted to apologize for the Southwest Airlines atc wav files missing. It was in the plan, but was omitted somehow by mistake. That's all for now. I'll post more as I remember more of the conversation.Rick

[Guest]

Maybe Flight1 will read this,The people at the Flight1 booth in Oshkosh were very rude, and seemed to give off a feeling of arogance and didn't really seem friendly.To the CFS3 team, You guys were great, the display was great, good work!--------------Paul Meyerwww.KryptonAir.comwww.laartcc.org

[Guest Paul_W]

Thanks for the report Rick. Too bad about all those teens taking over, eh? They're just so enthusiastic! Here's another CFS3 report I came across from Oshkosh (his problem involved pre-teens!):http://www.sim-outhouse.com/forums/showthr...d=7708#post7708

[Guest 727Fan]

You're right, Paul. The MS development team was very cordial and seemed eager to converse with folks. I remember they used the term "community" often. Which to me meant they are very keen about the importance of aviation simmers and how they perceive a product.A few other tidbits:The computers in use for the demo were P4 2.0G with a GeForce 3 Ti200.The program did seem prone to lock-ups and I noticed one crashed to desktop. But then again, the tech I was talking to reminded me the program is still pre-Beta, saying those with a "decent computer" would have no problems running the program."When I inquired about the impact CFS3 would have on FS2K4, they simply said "that's a long way off, but clearly all our flight sims are evolutionary and cross boundries with each other"With regard to the VCmouse click functionality in CFS3, techs said it's exclusive to CFS3 for now. They said the elimination of the 2D instrument panel in the MSFS series wouldn't happen. They realized their customers would still use a combination of VC and 2D for flying in that series. But from the few glimpses of the VC in a FW-190, I'd have to say the VC in CFS3 is an improvement over the ones used in FS2K2. But the kids mobbing the monitors either had the cockpit removed as they flew, or were so tight up against the windscreen that it made any accurate VC assesment by me impossible.Seems nobody knew how to move the seat back or raise it. It was simply blast away at enemy aircraft from 1000 yards! Must've been set for unlimited ammo.Flyable aircraft selection, as I remember was:German. Several versions of the FW-190A series, Me-109G, several versions of Ju-88, Me-262, and the "Gotha" bat wing experimental as imagined in the 1st Indiana Jones movie.RAF. Spitfire, Tempest, Typhoon, Mosquito, and a few versions of the B-25.USAAF. Several P-38 versions, P-51, P-47, several B-26 versions, and the P-80 jet. This inclusion of the jet is supposed to be around the concept that the War could run longer than it really did. And if it did, you could tangle with the Me-262 on even terms. If anybody else wants to know about the show, aircraft present, grounds improvement, etc. Just ask! Rick

[Guest 727Fan]

Oh yeah, 1 more thing. I mentioned to the development team a nusance I'v recently noticed in FS2K2. Has anybody had airlines mixed-up by ATC? I'm using both "Cathay" and "Chautauqua" as well as "Eagle Flight" in my AI fleet. Chautauqua becomes Cathay, Eagle Flight becomes Eastern. And to make things stranger, it's either the AI pilot or ATC that makes the mistake, never both at the same time.According to MS, it's a bug in how the program scans down the list alphabetically. No remedy.HHmmmmm.Maybe I'll defrag.Rick