Polychop OH-58D Kiowa Warrior

[Silver_Dragon 411]

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=197704

Valued Customers and Polychop Simulations fans, 

Christmas is about to happen, and we decided to talk a bit about the past year 2017 and the future year 2018. 

First of all, we want to thank all our customers for the support, which is important for any company to exist. 
We’re still here and making great products for simulators so you guys must like something we’re doing and that 
makes our team very happy; thank you from the Polychop family to yours.

Briefly, I’ll dive into some issues Polychop faced in 2017. As all of you have witnessed, we have gone through 
internal issues, that already developed in 2016. As many companies face the same issues in the beginning, 
there are possible routes to take and not every member agrees on the same course. As was the case for us. 
We wanted to keep Polychop as a cohesive team, that way we could devote every ounce of our energy into building 
great products rather than internal strife. 
Therefore, with best wishes, we wished our former CEO Oliver Michel goodbye and agreed on giving him the BO105 project, 
which is now run under Miltech-5. We still wished to release more products because we are confident, 
as a team that we can provide some of the best simulation software available so in 2016, 
we started a new project in secret to avoid the pressure of rushing out an un-prepared product and could 
focus energy on improving the Gazelle. Although many things that were stated during the past 9 month are not correct 
and painted a wrong picture I never felt the need to make a direct statement to any interviews, trailers, 
or anything that showed codework of Polychop Simulation nor had Patrick any intent to brag about it. 
This is still the case and so I can only state that for the remaining Polychop Simulation Staff, 
we are glad this split was finalized before the end of 2018 and that we do not have to deal with the 
BO105 and the development anymore. Sadly, due to contractual disagreements, we were not able to accept 
the conditions discussed between Polychop and Miltech-5 to continue work on the BO-105 jointly. 

We utilized most of 2017 to really hone the Gazelle and our other projects. The Gazelle itself really 
saw a lot of attention and re-coding to help mature several key improvements. Flight model, textures, 
and much proprietary framework was poured over until we reached a point where not only the simulation pilots felt happy, 
but also a beta team comprised of actual helicopter pilots said they were satisfied with the product. 
There are a few details that are still being evaluated and we are still collecting data in these areas. Some is easier, 
some is not. For example, we did look into the cyclic behavior again, but currently there is no data available regarding 
how many degrees the cyclic is pushed forward proportionall to forward airspeed. Many factors collate into this problem 
including control rigging and wind. Given how our testing staff has very limited time to devote to 
testing (dare I say, actual Gazelle pilots?) we determined that some of these issues were not worth the 
effort put into fixing them. Not because it wasn’t important to us, but because it wasn’t cost effective or 
prudent to do so. We also planned to have a new device implemented into the SA342M Viviane Gazelle. 
The new device was a periscope that is available in the real machine, but do to framerate break-downs using the 
periscope and the tv, which would both be active at the same time, we decided to not implement this feature. 
Framerate management is as important to a developer as smooth textures or appealing visuals. 
If we can’t implement some feature due to framerates, it hinders the experience for the end-user. 
I can only provide an example: On an average system, the simulation see’s 30 FPS with an activated TV. 
With the TV and periscope activated, the best we could benchmark was 15 FPS. Because of this, 
we couldn’t agree to implementing it. We didn’t want to throw a new feature in that was not usable and 
improve the customers experience. A picture of the periscope was shown on our facebook page earlier. 
To clear the air about it: no, it is not a periscope of a EC665 Tigre HAD. 
Sadly, we finally also decided to scratch the sniper version for now and probably for good, 
because in DCS there is no real use of a sniper and would only be able to hit soft targets at a max range of 300m. 
Instead, we decided to change the sniper version to a minigun version that, if it works out well, 
would be accessible as multicrew. This is what we plan as an update for the Gazelle in 2018, 
but we have no timeframe yet when this will exactly happen, because it also depends on the core coding. 
This and multi-crew both require more information from Eagle Dynamics before we can really improve those features. 
We will continue to work closely with Eagle Dynamics to help make the Gazelle a smooth and effective product. 

Looking to the future and into 2018, as already mentioned, we gave away the BO105 project so we can’t guarantee a release for 2018. 
The split ate a lot of resources and time unfortunately, but for 2018 we already have a strong game plan. 
replace all of that with this: We are a small team, but many of our core testers are actual pilots, 
some with military obligations and can only provide energy and time as available. 
Thankfully, our testers and core employees who have some insight into the exciting projects in the future 
and want to see these projects to completion as badly as many of you. 
We want to extend a grateful and humbled thanks to all the talented people who applied for the programmer’s slots. 
Our first actions for 2018 will be interviews with the individuals that applied. 
We really want to grow our programmer department to produce faster code to devote more time and resources for the detail tuning. 
About the programming, I had to learn that the fine-tuning is about 30% of the coding, which Patrick already knew.
We’re working with Eagle Dynamics and, in 2018, an aircraft manufacture to fine-tune our code process and produce a product 
with a higher degree of fidelity. 
The team at Polychop loves anything that flies and particularly, anything that spins. 
Therefore, we want to branch into the interesting realm of civilian aviation and hopefully see some of our loyal customers 
on other platforms. We just haven’t decided which yet and want to make a smart choice. Our team is so small that 
any time we devote into a project is going to be about quality, not quantity and the choice of a non-military simulator 
must provide the company with the resources to continue improving with technology. 
About fixed wing products, we cannot say much because our team is still too small to work on fixed wing in addition. 
This might change through the course of 2018. 
And finally, we hope to open a Polychop discord channel so you, our loyal customers, 
are able to interface and receive direct input with the developers, testers and people who desire you’re raw input. 
So maybe now and then we will have a friendly chat. 

At the end I also want to send out a personal note of acknowledgment to the people that supported 
the current development in the background. 
Without these friends, this would have not gotten as far as it already has and the community of this bird is amazing. 
My girlfriend might have to buy me a Stetson one day when we visit friends overseas. 
That said, I put up a rendering of the 3d model in a state that it has been earlier this year without textures. 
Currently, we are not sure yet into which simulation this 3d model will be implemented in the end, but it will happen. 

So, thank you for reading and your continued support. 
In the end, our goal here at Polychop is to provide you with the most realistic and immersive product that we can. 
We wish all of you and your families a delightful Christmas season 2017 and a good jump into the year 2018!

Your Polychop Simulation Team

Kiowa 3D renders

[Phantom88 3,287]

I hate to see people getting their hopes up that this will become available for DCS World when the developers clearly states......

"Currently, we are not sure yet into which simulation this 3d model will be implemented"

[jcomm 5,929]

They got me once - not again... That Gazelle was a total disappointment :-/

[Phantom88 3,287]

Dear DCS Community,  
 
First of all, with the end of the year fast approaching, we want to wish you and your close ones a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Our thoughts are with the people worldwide who are away from their families keeping us safe or fighting for our freedom and won’t be spending Christmas with their loved ones. 

Looking back  
 
Christmas and the end of the year is often a time of reflection and looking back on what has happened in the past year. For Polychop Simulations, ever since the second half of 2020 a lot has changed when it comes to productivity in the coding department slowing down considerably for a good while. The reason for this has been a serious medical condition affecting one of our team members. With Polychop Simulations being a very small team (2 people work on the OH-58D), this has had a severe effect on the production cycle of the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior module for DCS World. 
 
While production never stopped on the art and assets department, the coding side of things has only started to catch up during the past six months and has not yet reached the momentum it had prior to to the last half of 2020. This has to do with a lengthy recovery process.  
 
That said, development of the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior module is making great progress with the affected team member working as hard as his current situation allows him to. During the past year we’ve decided to dial down the amount of footage, screenshots, streams and general communication to essentially stop the hype train that was befitting our initial release schedule but not the uncertain situation we found ourselves in at some point. Another reason for this has been to minimize the amount of comments that were, although understandable to some degree, hurtful towards the development team as we could not disclose the reasons behind the delay out of courtesy to the affected member and his family. We will resume updating the community with progress reports when we think the time is right for it, which is hopefully very soon.  
 
Not all bad news though, 2021 has brought us a brand new coder who has been working on improvements the DCS SA-342 Gazelle module direly needs, essentially making sure the Gazelle’s systems are functioning as they should and fixing bugs so that when the time comes for implementing the new flight model, the Gazelle will be up to the expected standards. 

 

The future  
 
Coding for the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior has resumed and we’re still working hard to perfect the flight model in cooperation with our very dedicated SME’s. Not only to have all values match the documentation but also to capture the actual feeling of flying the Kiowa Warrior as close as we can. In the meantime, a number of new features have been added due to popular request. These features are currently in a testing phase and are expected to but not guaranteed to make it in to the release. They include the option to add and remove the doors, Mast Mounted Sight and the Rapid Deployment Gear essentially completing the package that is the OH-58D in its most common variants. 
 
Besides the gradual updates on many of its systems the Gazelle will also receive a number of cosmetic upgrades such as the ability to remove the doors on the SA-342L and adding the iconic dipole antennas used by the UK armed forces. We’re also looking in to an AI gunner for the minigun version of the Gazelle. An option to remove the hardpoints on the Gazelle is already in testing. 
 
As has been said before, the flight model overhaul for the Gazelle will come after the release of the Kiowa Warrior module and sadly suffers from its delay. All in all, we hope and expect 2022 to be a much more productive year with the release of the Kiowa and the long awaited updates to the Gazelle.  

 

 
Kiowa release date 
 
 Now the million dollar question; when will the Kiowa be released? Simply put, when it’s done. The Kiowa will be released as system complete, no early access. All systems needed for completing its intended tasks and mission will be functioning as they should. Some quality of life updates and non-essential features might be added later on after release. Things the community has requested certainly spark our interest but should not delay the release date. With the recent past showing us that many factors can influence the development cycle, we won’t be predicting any release windows any more. 
 
Thanks 

Closing off, we’d like to express our gratitude to the people at Eagle Dynamics, for the patience, help and support over the years as well as Bell for providing us with the opportunity and all the support we could ever wish for. We’d also like to thank our OH-58D KW SME’s like Barundus, Roughneck 19, Josh A. and all the others who have stuck with us from day one, selflessly dedicating their time to help us create the most accurate representation of the iconic OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopter we possibly can. Last but not least we’d like to thank the community not only for sticking with us, the countless interesting discussions on our Discord but also for providing feedback that will lead to much needed improvements. 

 

 

[Phantom88 3,287]