Has anyone seen History Channels, Dog Fight series. I was curiuos as to what type of system that might be run on. The graphics are sharp, smooth and extremely fluid. While not a lot of complex scenery is rendered. The lighting and detail and fluidity of the a/c is impressive. Would anyone want to venture to guess the system used for this and how far we might be from getting the same results? With a 3.4g/rig 2g/ram, ati x1900xt at 1600 doesn't even come close to that. Just wonderingSticks

Best I can tell from their web site is that it is recorded using DVD-R technology. This type of DVD can only be used to record on once, it can not be written over or edited once recorded. This makes for higher quality visual and audio effects than regular DVD.The simulations in "Dog Fights" look somewhat similar to what the defense contractor Raytheon uses in their military flight sims, but I'm not sure if they are involved with the simulations for the show.Remember though, that "Dog Fights" is a 'recorded' show....so they can take all the time they need to get it right. Unlike our flight sim which has to be right all the time, first time.....John M

Flight Sim: realtime renderingDog Fight: pre-rendered, using GI rendering techniques to acheive the photo-real effect. They use mostly Lightwave for their productions. Read more here:http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/profiles/Dogfight/index.phpit's a great show btw...just wish they had more episodes...i've seen each now at least 3-4 times. :) -feng

Interesting info......thanks. What I meant to say above was that "Dog Fights" is a recorded non-interactive production. Where as our flight sims are interactive game productions. I'm sure that someday, (probably sooner than later) we'll have the quality we see from "Dog Fights" in our flight sims.John M

Thanks for the info gang. Now if only we could get that into a flight sim. I wonder if Lightwave 3D can be used efficiently in a flight sim environment with todays desktop rigs. The realism is absolutely fantastic.Sticks

I've seen the series and it is excellent. As pointed out those productions come from labs with 100s of thousands of dollars or millions in Graphics hardware and software. We have a retail PC and a $40 piece of software so we can't do the same thing nor are they saddled with the whole world or interactiveity.If you think that video is good have a look at the PBS Warplane four part series in High Definiton. As much as I don't have an HD TV, I and most all of us do have HD computers and those Warplane videos are like nothing I have ever seen.