Heatblur Simulations F-14 A/B

[Nyxx 6,993]

46 minutes ago, pedrotrindade said:

Chuck's Guide for the Tomcat is out, get it here:

https://www.mudspike.com/chucks-guides-dcs-f-14b-tomcat/

 

Thank you for the Heads up.

[Phantom88 3,287]

7 hours ago, pedrotrindade said:

Chuck's Guide for the Tomcat is out, get it here:

https://www.mudspike.com/chucks-guides-dcs-f-14b-tomcat/

 

What an Awesome surprise!! Thank You!!

[Phantom88 3,287]

 

Heatblur Development Update - The Road to Full Release


Dear All,

Half a year has now passed since the release of the F-14! It’s time to give you an update on our current development status, priorities and what the future holds in store for the F-14.

First of all, thank you so much for the incredible support! The feedback we got from you was nothing short of overwhelming, from the many praiseful words you’ve bestowed on us to the incredibly committed and detailed feedback and criticism: thank you so much. Being part of this community has been the experience of a lifetime, and all of the hardships of development have been worth it. Let’s go over some of our current priorities and development changes. Recent shipped changes are of course included in the patch log as always, but just to recap, here are the changelogs from the past three patches:


Overview

Generally, we are currently still prioritizing major bug fixes. This is now slowly changing and we’ve started shifting focus back on the new additions to the module, as well as the introduction of the remaining features and content.

Making sure that we’ve corrected most of the major issues and given ourselves a good starting point for the addition of new features has been an integral part of our F-14 post-launch sustainment plan. One critical part to this is to make sure that we never try and keep a game-breaking or immersion breaking bug in the aircraft for too long. Your experience matters to us- and prioritizing this over new features will keep the road forward smooth. Hopefully, we’ve now reached a point where we can begin to introduce new features with confidence and with minimal introduction of new issues, so that the F-14 continues to feel like a stable product.

Jester LANTIRN

This feature is rapidly nearing completion, and we are now in the final phase of its development. We will make a separate update on this feature before release. This has been a very challenging task, but we believe we’ve found a good way to make JESTER operate the LANTIRN both quite independently, but also at the pilot’s command and disposal. Weaving this functionality together in an immersive and realistic way has been integral to our efforts.

One core component to this effort has been to make a new human emulation system for the way JESTER will actually utilize the LANTIRN controls. This includes simulating the way a human would search an area and avoiding any sort of robotic jankiness. This has proven to be a challenging endeavour. Search patterns that make sense and feel authentic have been developed as part of this effort.

Certainly, communication with JESTER is key to achieve your goals. The player will be able to tell JESTER to look at either a Waypoint, coordinates or a map marker, and command the area and size of the area to search in. You will be able to instruct JESTER to e.g. prioritize SAMs or armor or ships - and much more. All in all, we hope we’ve found an appropriately immersive and functional way to integrate JESTER Lantirn, and we hope you’ll enjoy this feature once it launches. Currently, the last remaining items are to record the remaining voice lines required for this and run the feature through a few final cycles of testing.

TWS Auto

This feature has undergone significant refactoring internally. As some may recall, it was disabled just prior to release as it was not very reliable and there were specific mathematical issues we had difficulty solving. We decided to completely rewrite this feature as part of a partial refactoring of various radar code.

Some more work and a lot of testing is still required, however, if all goes well this should be available in open beta by early November. This will add TWS attack steering (steering tee on HUD/VDI/DDD/TID) to the centroid of the targets, as well as aim the TWS radar search pattern in the correct direction to maximise target coverage. Re-developing this feature has been a major development effort and we’ll be pleased to finally get it in your hands.

JESTER

JESTER has already received a couple updates, like the recently introduced new elevation function. Further updates are in progress, including improved IFF and close combat SA.

We’re also working on new energy calls as well as suggestions for the player when to switch to the Pilot Acquisition Modes. This will make him sound less “unable”, and hopefully also teach the player better about the limits of the AWG-9, as these suggestions will come in situations when it is hard for the RIO to keep up with the radar, which is frequently the case at close range.

We’re continuing to work closely with the multiplayer PvP and SP community to find new and useful ways to increase Jester’s usability and utility. It goes without mention that many smaller tweaks to functionality, logic and other elements are still ahead of us.

AIM-54

We’re pleased to note that we’re finally able to use the new missile API to control the AIM-54 active mode from the F-14!

These changes are currently live in our experimental build branches, and we are currently testing to ensure that everything works as it should. Here is a brief summary of what these changes include. We’ll delve into more depth once this feature is ready to ship:
 

• TWS with range >10NM: LTE 3s, loft, SARH/DL, missile goes active at 16 seconds time-to-impact
• PDSTT with range >10NM: LTE 3s, loft, SARH/DL, missile does not go active (SARH/DL all the way to target)
• TWS or PDSTT with range <10NM, or PH ACT selected: LTE 3s, no loft, active directly after launch
• PSTT or BRSIT or (ACM cover up with no track or PSTT or PDSTT): LTE 1s (unless STT and angle >15deg then 3s), no loft, active immediately

This also means the in-flight missiles with TWS will no longer go active if tracking is lost, the F-14 is destroyed, the radar is disabled (..etc), before 16s TTI. However, the WCS can keep a track file stored for up to 2 minutes (for targets under missile attack) and send an active signal to the Phoenix pointing it into the target’s likely position, if the track has not updated for a certain time.

We’ll continue testing the Phoenix and ensuring that it behaves as accurately to the real thing as possible.

Art

The art team has been prioritizing the completion of some of the bigger workstreams that currently remain for this part of the product. These include the completion of the Forrestal class carriers (yes- still shipping for free for all!), the F-14A engine nacelles, nozzles and other adjustments, the A-6 (and future KA-6), and much more.

Some of the critical elements still outstanding that are due to ship very soon include the digital EGIT, various minor corrections and fixes, correcting the custom cockpit option, new afterburners, and several other high priority items. The Forrestal class carriers will launch later this year. Get ready to land on a real postage stamp!

Some of the features that will launch in Q4 include;

• Corrected Custom cockpit options
• Digital EGIT (-B)
• Forrestal Class Carrier
• Various tweaks, adjustments & fixes (holes, smoothing errors, etc.)
• The dreaded HGU-33 visor knob.

Flight Modeling

The F-14B flight model is also nearing its completion. We’ve created an entirely new testing system that supersedes our previous automated testing. This will allow us to more effectively tune and tweak the remaining elements of the model. Our new testing framework has quicker turnaround times and delivers more detailed metrics.. We will release an overview on the flight model tuning once we are done, so everyone can follow the changes that we made and to better understand them.

Not only during development, but also over the past half year our SMEs have been extremely active in giving us feedback almost on a daily basis, which at this point requires a massive thank you from us, to them. It is not so common that a person would devote so much free time and passion to a project like ours, and we feel extremely blessed. We believe that getting so much devoted and dedicated pilot feedback is absolutely critical to our development process, and we cannot stress enough how lucky we are to have such incredible SMEs.

Multicrew, RIO Inputs & more

We are close to completing a major refactoring of the way inputs are handled between the front and rear cockpits. This is a significant change to our codebase, and will solve a few key issues, as well as allow for a cleaner delineation between pilot and RIO inputs.

This refactoring will solve the key and critical issue of Jester not re-activating after a player disconnects. Further, it will disallow any RIO keyboard inputs from the Pilot’s cockpit. For this reason, we’re keeping this feature entirely in our experimental branch until JESTER LANTIRN is fully implemented; so as to not remove the utility of the current SP LANTIRN modification, which will stop working.

While we understand that some of you have become reliant on this modification; we are sticking to our design principles of handling all RIO functionality through JESTER or through multicrew.

Campaign

Work on the -B campaign is underway and it is slated for completion by the end of Q4. It is set in the late 80s, around the fall of the Berlin Wall and tries to recapture a realistic scenario of what could have happened.

Though fictional, it will be kept close to missions that were realistic to be flown by Tomcat pilots at the time and is meant to portray the various tasks a real Tomcat pilot and RIO would have found themselves in. The campaign will revolve more heavily around air to air, but if you want to get a feel for what it will be like (approximately), you can try the quickstart mission “Watching the Devildog”.

This first campaign will release for the Caucasus theatre, and will eventually include a Co-Op version.

F-14A

Development on the F-14A is progressing in parallel to the finishing work on the F-14B’s flight model. Current focus is on building a new engine model for the P&W TF-30 engines; which have a number of unique characteristics and piloting considerations. We are closely conferring with our SME’s, who flew -As for many years on getting an appropriate grasp of these engines and the impact they had on the aircraft.

Overall, the work on the -A is progressing at an appropriate pace and focused on several key areas, namely:

• New P&W TF-30 engine model
• Refactoring to split the F-14 into two aircraft
• Bullet Fairing for TCS
• New, F-14A specific liveries
• ALR-45 RWR, sounds and graphics
• Nozzles, Nacelles, antenna changes
• Minor Flight Model Adjustments

Viggen

We’ll keep the update short and sweet on the Viggen as there’s been way too much talk, and not enough walk. It will launch out of EA by the end of Q4. The Campaign is now finished, and is undergoing testing. Other features that will be included in the final (1.0RC) version of the Viggen include;

• New Sounds
• In-cockpit Pilot body
• New, overhauled PBR exterior textures
• Various minor fixes, adjustments and tweaks.

Beyond RC1 for the Viggen; we will be focused on backporting features developed for the F-14. These include new afterburners, effects, and other elements currently in development for the F-14.

The Viggen is not a second rate citizen for us. Our priorities are now aligned so as to launch these remaining items without question later this year. Our sincere apologies for it taking longer than expected!
 

There is more that we’ve not touched on in this update (e.g. J-35 AI) - but we’ll be sounding off through updates and through another development update throughout Q4. Stay tuned.

As always, thank you for all of your support. Your patience, passion, persistence and commitment is what makes us tick. Thank you for letting us be a part of this community and letting us develop your favourite aircraft.

Sincerely,
Heatblur Simulations

__________________
Nicholas Dackard

Founder & Lead Artist
Heatblur Simulations

[Phantom88 3,287]

***NEW F[14 GRIP ANNOUNCEMENT FROM VKB/HEATBLUR***  

 

We’ve teased it before, but the time has finally come for our great friends over at VKB to start production of their F14 Tomcat replica grip. If you already purchased our DCS F14 then you are eligible for a 10% discount on the VKB Tomcat grip. Haven’t had a chance to check our module out? Don’t worry, we won’t leave you hanging. Purchase the VKB Tomcat grip and receive a $10 discount on the DCS F14… This is not a stick designed to look somewhat like the Tomcat stick, it’s based on our 3d scans of the real deal and intended to mimic it as closely as possible. Please see the press release from VKB below:

Quote:

THIS is the state of the art F-14 Tomcat grip that is now officially announced as it is entering production stage.") Please put on your helmets, fasten your belts, and get ready for the take off.
F-14 Tomcat grip turned to be one of our most interesting products (joint project with  Heatblur , supported by  Eagle Dynamics ).The grip is a veritable replica, exact to a fraction of a millimeter. Prototypes were checked and approved by the real veteran F-14 pilots of Heatblur team.

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Making a replica grip wasn’t easy, as we couldn’t alter the shape or size of the device, nor the controls’ layout. However our engineers set their creativity free when it came to internal design of the grip. We didn’t want to make a lookalike device, somewhat resembling the original. Instead we wanted to deliver the spirit and feeling of this legendary warbird with her feline nickname.
The very touch of this grip is supposed to wake up the memories – or, bring up the images – of the glorious service Tomcat did to the world.

• Rubber inserts for a no slip firm and handy grip
• Metal ammo switch, hat, and emergency autopilot disable trigger
• Long travel soft click buttons
• Modular hat design (fully dismantleable, all buttons user replaceable)
• Ammo switch design based on contactless sensor
• DLC maneuver wheel design based on contactless sensor
• Two-step trigger design based on cam mechanism – similar to that used in real life war planes
• Lockable contactless sensor twist mechanism
• 32-bit APM controller as the brain of the grip

Now, where are we, and how it translates into simple words?
We have finished the molds. Here they are, the real beauties. Perfection in every curve!

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Our engineers need a few weeks to finalize the surfaces adding texture and making tiny invisible tweaks here and there.
We’re planning the first copies roll out in early-mid November. There will be pre-order open in November; RRP is marked at 189 USD (base not included).
Those who already purchased F-14 module from Heatblur will enjoy 10% off this price; those who consider buying that module will have 10 USD off the price of the module with the purchase of the VKB F-14 grip.
New VKB F-14 grip is breaking into the gaming devices market. We know: we did it right, and we’re proud of our new creation. Hope, you can join us and share our pride and happiness!
P.S.
An attentive pilot has probably noticed something interesting in the picture of the grip… What could that be? - Great question. Please stay tuned for more news: a new announcement is coming soon.

[Phantom88 3,287]

 

[Phantom88 3,287]

 

[Phantom88 3,287]

Doesn’t look like it will leave dry dock this yr

 reddit

r/hoggit - To Cobra/HB: Are we still going to get the new carrier this year

32 votes and 22 comments so far on Reddit

 

 

“Working through the holidays to get an update out on the Forrestal before eoy (don’t worry, I’m off in the beginning of jan!  ); but the gist of it is no; we’ll launch it in one of the january patches. Macro texture detailing has been the biggest unexpected timesink.”

[Phantom88 3,287]

Heatblur F-14 - Q1 Mini-Update
https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=261472

Dear All,

Greetings to you all in 2020. We’ve had an amazing year in 2019 at Heatblur, which saw the launch of the F-14! We still can’t believe it - and all of it has been thanks to all of you, who have supported us throughout development and beyond. Thank you for a wonderful year!

2019 was no doubt a hectic year for the team. Not only with the launch of the F-14 itself, but with the post-launch roadmap, and trying to squeeze in as many improvements over the course of the year as possible. While we’re proud of what we’ve achieved and the state that the F-14 launched in, we had a number of unfortunate and significant misses towards the tail end of the year. These include:

• The launch of the Forrestal
• The launch of AIM-54 improvements and TWS-A
• The launch of crew-position overhauls
• Launch of JESTER LANTIRN
• …a few other more minor bits and bobs

While there are numerous causes for these features being delayed, the primary reason has been the interwoven and difficult nature of some of these additions.

Both AIM-54 additions and TWS-A were developed together, in one leading edge development branch that was very close to launch last year.
Unfortunately, we suffered a large setback with the new missile API in DCS not working as intended in Multiplayer.
Decoupling all of the features that were to launch combined together proved an insurmountable task, and we hectically backtracked and pushed stripped down builds of the F-14 in the last patches of 2019.

These kinds of issues are frustrating to deal with. We’re now working to decouple the features that are working properly from each other and begin to get the rollout of the above features back on track.
We’ve also involved our partners at Eagle Dynamics with regards to the missile API, but we unfortunately cannot offer any ETA on the AIM-54 changes and associated system issues.

Our current major efforts are focused almost exclusively on the above, and we intend to begin shipping features throughout Q1.

We’ll soon be coming up on the 1 year anniversary of the launch of the F-14; and we intend it to be a year of product improvements that we can stand behind and are proud of.
Beyond that; we do not want to see a second Tomcat anniversary without a completed product.

As an addendum, for the first time in a long time, we decided to take some quality time off from development over the holidays.
We haven’t properly done so in many years; and approaching 2020 in a recharged state will allow us to more effectively deliver on our roadmap.

Stay tuned for more information soon. We’ll also be starting to discuss the F-14A much more thoroughly as we steam through Q1.

Sincerely,
Heatblur F-14 Team

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[Phantom88 3,287]

 

[Phantom88 3,287]

Some News via Reddit

 reddit

r/hoggit - Forrestal?

4 votes and 22 comments so far on Reddit

 

 

 

“We’re still aiming to have an Alpha of the Forrestal out this month. Things are changing re carriers with the Supercarrier, so there is some uncertainty in the air whether we can launch the coming week. Will keep you updated ASAP.

[Phantom88 3,287]

 

[Phantom88 3,287]

 

Dear All,

Another quarter has passed with blazing speed. To say that it has been an interesting three months is quite the understatement. We hope that you are all keeping safe, healthy, and doing your part in flattening the curve(s). While we’re a remote team and impact on our development has been minimal due to quarantine measures, it’s difficult to avoid any and all impact - especially with family and friends involved, and with one team member already having been ill. Hopefully the Heatblur team will see absolutely minimal disruption to our continued development over the next few months, and we’ll keep you updated if anything should change.

This quarter we’ve been working diligently on getting some big ticket items ready, with the intention to ship them this quarter as well. We’ve ended up somewhat short of our ambitious goals shipping wise, as we’ve fallen slightly behind and tally only a few new features shipped in February and March, together with the usual slew of fixes and changes. For those of you who have not been following along each set of patch notes; here’s the full list of changes from Q1 2020:

• Added Cage the Bear campaign COOP version, thank you Kaba!
• Fixed Bone Strike mission for SP and COOP
• Updated most SP missions to have mission goals enabled
• Fix for datalink showing missiles
• Fixed various initialization issues
• Fix to nozzle logic during engine starts and shutdowns
• Tweaked damage resistance for engines and wing tanks - direct missile hits will cause more damage
• Aerodynamic damage improvements - direct missile hits will cause more damage
• Fix for doubling of trim rate when using a FFB stick (also ignore vJoy as a FFB device)
• Significantly improved drawcall efficiency of VDI and HUD - may boost FPS on drawcall/CPU constrained systems
• Added default pilot bindings for the new VKB F-14 stick
• Reduced audible range of exterior sounds
• Added new compressor stall sounds.
• Fixed sound files paths for RWR, KY-28 and Walkman (2.5.6 compatibility)
• Added lubber line to Whiskey Compass
• Fixed gaps in weapons selector on pilot’s stick
• Added RIO white floodlights
• Added CAP category knob CW/CCW keybindings
• Multiple low speed and ground effect handling qualities improvements in pitch axis
• Slightly Increased Stab Power (also in ground effect)
• Additional MIL and AB thrust tweaks for performance following stores drag improvements
• Tweaked drag while maneuvering above mach 1.2
• Reduced landing gear pitch moment
• Removed glass from collision model
• Fixed custom cockpit livery not registering (Thanks uboats!)
  18-02-2020
• Use INS for radar stabilization instead of real-time DCS values
• Fixed regression in angle limits of radar stabilization that caused contact/track loss in RWS/TWS at large pitch angles.
• Fixed the transponder panel code ranges: M1 00-73 (5 bit octal), M3 0000-7777 (12bit octal)
• Fixed regressions caused by SDK mismatch:
• Fixed trim not working
• Fixed debriefing window not appearing
• Fixed AIM-9 SEAM/Lock
• Mission starting in F10 view
  17-03-2020
• NEW! Added TID AVIA page (displaying AoA, Vertical velocity, ILS and ACLS), enabling the RIO to closely monitor landing procedures and assist the pilot with pattern work
• Fix for radar ground stabilization at high roll angles
• Fix for radar range scale reverting to 200NM during P-SEARCH HCU acquisition in multicrew
• Fix for RWS contacts on TID timing out too soon in a 1-bar scan
• Added COMM1_FREQ and COMM2_FREQ params exported to lua scripts for ARC-159 and ARC-182 radios (for example to be used with “cockpit param” in mission editor)
• Fix for AB lighting at too high of a throttle position
• Improvements to pilot stick travel animation
• Added afterburner markers on controls indicator
• Removed debug carrier glideslope on controls indicator
• Added FFB trim checkbox option for more realistic trim operation feel while using a FFB joystick (works if ANY non-vJoy FFB device is detected!)
• More realistic FFB travel with trim actuator movement
• Adjusted compressor stall spool dynamics
• Fine tuning of pitch axis handling qualities
  More importantly, however, is of course what is to come and will be shipping in the near future.

The team is focused on launching two major features in the short term; The Forrestal class carriers and TWS-Auto functionality for the AWG-9.

Forrestal Class Carriers

I have egg on my face. I felt pretty safe in my statement here on hoggit that we’d launch the Forrestal in March; and our plans have revolved around doing a standalone, alpha/beta release here on the forums. This would allow us to gauge feedback and actively develop the carriers before merging them into our live branch and distributing the content through one of the next patches.

Unfortunately, we’ve had to take a few steps backwards with regards to all of our plans. Not only has our schedule slipped somewhat on completing the Forrestal itself; but the recent carrier launch issues and the work needing to be done to support the new Super Carrier module has kept things in flux. This is a frustrating scheduling miss for us as we were hoping to already have this content out late last year; but we’d rather keep things in the oven a little longer and provide a more enjoyable small-carrier experience. It is coming- you paid for it- we’ll deliver.

Another element to this has been the launch of the Super Carrier. We have great respect for our partners at Eagle, and while we don’t believe our Forrestals will cause any issues for the SC (especially since the Forrestal is not designed to have feature parity anyways!) - we still want to respectfully give the SC breathing room in the spotlight; as it is undoubtedly a great investment of time and effort by the ED team and an exciting product.

In the meantime; we’ll focus on getting out a Forrestal focused update to you all in the next week, and we’ll show off our work through some pleasing eye-candy and hopefully launch shortly thereafter (either through a download, or through a patch if the timing works out). In the meantime; our apologies for the missed timeline. This feature is a top priority for us.
TWS-Auto

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We’re now very close to launching TWS-A! 

Due to the size, complexity and importance of this feature, we will be doing a separate dedicated article on it in the coming few days.

Stay tuned!
F-14A
F-14A work continues as one of our top priorities, outside of the Forrestal, Jester LANTIRN, -B engine gauges, and other big ticket items. Features still in development include;

• Artwork changes (engine nozzles, engine nacelles, sensors, differing cockpit panels, etc.)
• P&W TF30 Engines
• New soundset (and sound overhaul for F-14B!)
• ALR-45
• Liveries
  It’s very likely that we will launch the F-14A without all of its features implemented. This is to avoid a longer wait before everything is perfectly in place. We’ll try to keep the number of frankensteined elements to a minimum, however.

 

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WiP TF-30 Nozzle

 

One of the biggest items on the agenda for the F-14A are the P&W TF30 engines. We’ve been busy adapting our engine models to simulate the TF-30. We’re pleased to announce that the TF30 equipped F-14A is ready for internal testing! Lets dive in depth on what this means;
F-14A TF30 Engine Development Update
In an attempt to keep things fairly short, the focus will mainly be on major differences between the TF30 and F110, as well as unique TF30 systems and characteristics. If you’d like to read more about turbofan engine components and their modeling, go here and here.

The F-14A is powered by two Pratt & Whitney TF30-P414A low-bypass turbofan engines with afterburner for thrust augmentation. The TF30 was originally developed by Pratt & Whitney in the early 60s for the cancelled F6D Missileer. An afterburner section was then added for its use on the product of the TFX program; the F-111. The Navy wasn’t satisfied with their version, the F-111B, and decided to go with a new design from Grumman Aerospace. To save cost and time, it was decided to re-use the engine from the TFX program and then upgrade the fleet with improved, higher-thrust engines later. This new design resulted in the F-14A, which entered service in 1974. The US Navy received 478 F-14A airframes and Iran received 79. It was 1986 by the time the higher thrust, F110-powered F-14B showed up, and in much smaller numbers than the F-14A.

Let’s get into the details of major features that differentiate the TF30’s operation from the F110:

• Afterburner
  The operation of the afterburner on the TF30 is similar to the F110 with the exception of the fuel control, which is divided into five “zones”. You can think of zones as a discrete state of the afterburner fuel control. Each zone lights progressively, increasing thrust as AB fuel flow increases with each zone. Because of this, it may take 8-10 seconds to go from idle all the way to Zone 5 afterburner. Check out a couple videos of the AB stages lighting here and here. If an AB blowout occurs, the AB fuel controller must be reset before attempting an AB re-light by taking the throttles out of AB range. The nozzle generally opens more at higher AB stages, but it may fluctuate to control turbine pressure ratio.
• Fuel Control System
  The fuel control is a hydromechanical unit with limited engine protection functionality. There is no digital engine control like a FADEC or AFTC to fully protect the engine from damage. A TIT limiter assists in preventing temperature excursions and has an authority equivalent to 2% RPM.
• Mach Lever
  The Mach Lever is similar to the idle lockup protection feature on the F110. It limits engine RPM based on mach number to reduce supersonic inlet buzz (which can lead to compressor stalls) and control engine airflow. It also increases engine idle speed in high AOA flight to increase compressor stability margins.
• Mid Compression Bypass
  In order to reduce pressure distortions at the compressor face, a bypass system ports air from the low pressure compressor into the fan bypass duct. This increases the quality of the air downstream and greatly reduces the chance of a compressor stall. However, it comes at a cost of about 3000 lbf (13344 N) of thrust per engine when active. It is activated in several scenarios where you likely need thrust the most; Zone 5 AB while the gear handle is down (takeoffs, wave-offs, and bolters), High AOA flight, and when large rudder commands are being applied. It also activates during gun firing and aerial refueling operations to reduce the chance of stall from ingesting gun gas or jet wash.

 

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It’s easy to see that the TF30 has many subsystems that attempt to reduce the possibility of compressor stalls. That’s because the TF30s developed a reputation for issues, primarily compressor stalls at inopportune moments. However with some throttle and aviating discipline, they can be avoided. For what it’s worth, our primary pilot SME only had one stall in his entire Tomcat career, and he admits that it was caused by an erroneous throttle movement while at zero airspeed.

And with that, here’s a glimpse into the Tomcat dev world. This is a WIP version of a TF30 engine start with some of our debug tools running. The second is a takeoff to show the AB staging and spool-up times. Anything seen in these videos is subject to change and may not represent the final product.

F-14A TF30 Startup

F-14A TF30 Zone 5 Take-Off
Looking ahead, the TF30 subsystems will be wrapped up soon, along with engine performance tuning and testing.
We expect this to happen in the near future along with completion of the TF30 nozzle.

We don’t want to give a hard date on the F-14A but we hope (barring any major setbacks) to have an EA version out within the next couple DCS open beta cycles.
A more basic compressor stall model will ship with the EA release and it will be enhanced in subsequent updates.

There will likely be another mini update regarding compressor stalls once they are complete.
Future of the DCS: F-14

It’s important for us to note that we remain committed to a long and rich level of support for the F-14, as well as the inclusion of many new features and improvements yet to come. Just to get some perspective on our roadmap; here’s a non exhaustive list of what we’re planning to tackle in the near and medium term future:

• TWS Auto
• Jester LANTIRN (Voice + Functionality + Including input overhauls)
• A-6E & KA-6 AI
• TARPS (Limited Feature)
• Two Campaigns
• Forrestal Class Carriers
• Significant sound improvements
• New pilot models for cockpit
• Keybinding improvements
• Jester additions and improvements
• F-14B Digital EIG
• Various corrections -B vis a vis -A
• Improved Trap Model / Dynamics
• New Afterburner VFX
• AIM-54 Phoenix issues
• Yaw String
• New compressor stall effects and animations
• Completion of fire suppression systems
• Add progressive fire damage
• Jamming additions
• LAU-7 Art corrections
• LAU-138
• MAK-79 bombclamp corrections
• cockpit panels:
• Various cockpit artwork corrections
• Addition of IFF interrogator panel
• Wheel Chocks
• Missing Oxygen gauge
• F-14A , including:

P&W TF30 engine model
MACH LEV position on Pilot’s master test panel
Aerodynamic fairing (bullet) cover for TCS
New liveries
ALR-45 RWR
Art Changes: Nozzles, panels, etc.
New P&W TF30 Soundset

• …and more.

Stick with us and believe in us - we’re not going anywhere, and we will deliver on what we set out to do 4 years ago.

That’s it for this update; stay tuned for the article on the TWS-A in the next few days and another development update on the Forrestal class next week.

 

[Phantom88 3,287]

 

[Phantom88 3,287]

Track While Scan - Auto

As most know, we had a TWS-Auto implementation for the F-14 at launch, but it was quite unreliable and ended up causing more trouble than it was worth, so it was disabled. After launch of course we were kept quite busy, and it was some time before we managed to revisit and eventually rewrite the TWS-Auto system. We’re finally ready to re-release it now, and this post will summarize the functionality.

As you may remember, both TWS modes require the scan frame to be 2 seconds, and only support 2-bar ±40° or 4-bar ±20° scan volume modes (the radar gimbal moves at 80°/s, so you can see where the 2 second frame comes from in these two scan volume options). Very simply put, TWS-Auto attempts to keep the TWS pattern pointing where it is most useful in azimuth and elevation, while also controlling the optimum scan volume. TWS (and all the PD radar modes in F-14) uses ground stabilized (a.k.a. Earth fixed) patterns, so the azimuth and elevation angles are relative to a tangential plane on the surface of the earth at your present position, with azimuth further being relative to the F-14 longitudinal axis too (i.e. 0° is directly ahead on the imaginary plane, -20° is to the left, etc.).

Function of centroid

The azimuth and elevation angles are determined by a weighted centroid of targets in the scan volume. What this means is that some targets contribute more to the centroid than others, depending on a few factors outlined below. Essentially the position of each target is multiplied by its weight factor divided by the total weight of all targets, and these weighted positions are added together to give a centroid. Only sensor targets (i.e. own radar) are considered, not datalink targets.

Two separate (but somewhat related) centroids are calculated as part of the TWS-Auto update procedure: a steering centroid, and an illumination centroid. The former facilitates steering cues (on HUD, VDI, TID, DDD) to help the pilot maintain optimum target coverage, and also displays a small X on the TID indicating the steering centroid position. The illumination centroid controls the azimuth and elevation of the scan pattern center by using the angles from the aircraft to the computed illumination centroid (in TWS-Manual, these are directly controlled by the radar azimuth and elevation knobs on the RIO sensor control panel). The velocities (change in position over time) of both centroids are also calculated, used to calculate steering, and dead reckoning for a short period when all targets are lost (in an attempt to re-acquire them at their expected positions).

Weighting targets

As mentioned, a few factors influence target weighting. These differ slightly between the calculations for the steering centroid and the illumination centroid, but largely consist of the presence of a launch zone (targets marked as friendly by RIO will never get a launch zone), whether a missile is already underway to a target, and some RIO selections on targets such as DO NOT ATTK (disregards from weights completely, shows a small vertical bar over a target) and MAND ATTK (forces evaluation and raises importance, only one target may be selected for this, and mutually exclusive with DO NOT ATTK. Shows a small horizontal bar over a target).

Targets that are not displayed on the TID screen in the currently selected TID mode and range are also disregarded completely. In addition, targets which are deemed to be leaving the scannable volume are also raised in importance, if they are already deemed important by the previous criteria. For the steering centroid, the radar gimbal limits (maximum extents, basically ±65° in both azimuth and elevation) are considered, while for the illumination centroid, the current scan volume limits are considered (i.e. either 2-bar ±40° or 4-bar ±20°). This causes the illumination centroid to adjust towards important targets leaving the current pattern, and allows the steering centroid to shift towards targets that are leaving the maximum radar gimbal limits (i.e. pilot would need to steer towards that to keep them illuminated).

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Engaging TWS-Auto

When TWS-Auto is first engaged, there is a period of 8 seconds where the manual controls for azimuth, elevation and the scan volume pattern are still in effect and can still be controlled by the RIO. After this period, the computer takes over. The scan volume pattern (2-bar vs 4-bar) is re-evaluated every 4 seconds, while the centroids are re-evaluated multiple times per second. The weights are updated at the end of each 2 second scan frame. The scan volume algorithm considers the future positions of all targets, and selects between which of the two options would give a greater total illumination weight. If they are equal, 4-bar ±20° is selected.

Firing an AIM-54 Phoenix while in TWS-Manual will result in automatic selection of TWS-Auto. Furthermore, when any AIM-54 missiles are deemed to still be in flight (up to 16s beyond their expected time to impact), TWS-Manual cannot be entered (the button press is ignored). Target tracks that have a missile launched at them will also behave as if Track Hold (the button to the left of the TID fishbowl) has been selected, i.e. they will continue to be extrapolated for up to 2 minutes if their radar contact is lost.

Symbology

The steering cues on HUD, VDI, TID and DDD will direct the pilot horizontally only, based on the steering centroid. By default, lead collision steering is employed. If the RIO uses the CLSN button next to the TID fishbowl, pure collision steering is instead calculated. Since both the pilot and RIO can see steering cues on their respective displays, coordination of required maneuvering is made easier. The steering cue on HUD and VDI is an upside-down T (hence called a steering tee), while on the TID and DDD the steering cue is a small square. These four displays have different steering sensitivities: TID is 40°/inch, DDD is 128.5°/inch, VDI is 25°/inch and HUD is 26.5°/inch.

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In conclusion

TWS-Auto can be a handy tool for maintaining illumination on targets under attack, even while maneuvering about 60° away from the direct path to the targets. However, as pointed out by one of our RIO SMEs, good RIOs did not make exclusive use of TWS-Auto while hunting for new contacts, as it limits your overall situational awareness. RWS is still useful for scanning huge volumes, and TWS-M is still useful while maintaining the ability to control the scan volume angles. The Track Hold function (button to the left of the TID fishbowl) is also quite important, to maintain tracking (by extrapolation) on targets that would otherwise be lost in the PD filters.

Attached Thumbnails

[Phantom88 3,287]

***TWS AUTO***