| Don Burnette 2005-06-21, 12:32 am |
| I have really been enjoying the above sim for some time now, in fact, it was
one of the primary reasons for upgrading my 3 year old Cougar Hotas with the
Uber2 NXT gimball mod with Hall sensors., and getting a Track IR3 Pro.
Some initial thoughts on the new update to this fantastic sim. I think you
would have to call it an update more so than a patch, for what you get. A
new flight model, that is being introduced in this update, which is really
introducing a beta of the flight model that Oleg's next sim -Bob - will be
using.
Pretty awesome. The flight model is definitely different, you have more
torque effects, and can spin out easier.
First, I will mention that I had upgraded to the leaked 4.0 version, then
installed the official 4.01m over the 4.0 leaked version.
Flying the SBD from carrier in an early campaign, I noticed the plane would
lurch left hard momentarily, after releasing the chocks at full throttle. I
also noticed it was hard to spin the plane out in a high speed hard turn. I
noticed some talk on the Pacific Fighters forum, that installing the
official 4.01 over the 3.04, rather than over the leaked 4.0, produced, in
some people's minds, different results.
So, for anyone that did install the leaked 4.0 when it was available, I
would recommend to do a reinstall, and install the official 4.01 over the
previous 3.04 patched version.
So this weekend, I uninstalled the sim, deleted the folders, defragged, and
did a whole new clean install. I then patched the clean install to 3.03m,
then to 3.04m, then to 4.01m. Very different results, the flight model is
definitley more difficult, at least in the SBD. The plane no longer had the
lurch to the left, but , I had to use the rudder much more to keep it
tracking straight down the deck for take off, to offset the engine torque. I
also found myself spinning uncontrollably, pulling some hard turns, that
previously did not cause me any trouble.
I was in a great dogfight tonight, and we both ended up low over the water.
Jinxing left and right, I was on his butt, and finally nailed him. But,
another one had gotten on my XXX, and I yanked hard right on the stick to
try and shake him. Plane went out of control into a spin, and with no
altitude to speak of, I was a goner!
The ai is improved as well, as it uses the same flight model. They can put
up a pretty good fight trying to evade you, but sometimes the dumbasses will
fly right into the pacific LOL. Once your on their XXX hard, they will
start a spiraling downward dive to try and shake you. I even followed one
right into the drink one time chasing his XXX.
Damage model is different some as well, you can do some serious damage
hitting the wing right with your bulletts, can send the ai into an
uncontrollable spin just by nailing their wing good. Much better than
hammering on a wing, seeing bits and pieces continue to fly off, and them
able to continue on as if untouched.
Landing seems better. Landing on the carriers, the plane seems to settle
down nicely, no more floating forever with just a little up elevator, the
sink rate is better, and you can really grease it in on the deck...
The new clouds look great. They are on by default with the 4.01 patch. I do
not see a serious performance hit, but I have a pretty hot system. I run
with all graphics cranked up to highest settings, with perfect water set to
1. I average around 50fps overall in a complete mission. Usually around 38
fps sitting on deck , then in the 60's to 70's once airborne. In heavy
fighting, I have not seen my fps drop below 30. I also run with 4X AA, but
not AS, in 1024x768 resolution.
They did include a way to turn the new clouds off, you simply add a line to
your config.ini file, TypeClouds=, and add a 0 or 1 afterwards, 0 for the
old clouds, 1 for the new. However, they are on by default without this line
added...
I have probably only spent around 4-6 hours of flight time with the sim
since udpating, and the above are my initial impressions. I really like it,
takes a little getting used to the new flight model initially, but offers a
new challenge and is a blast to fly. There are some really good user made
campaigns out there as well, at least for the European theatre, that I look
foward to getting back into with the new update.
For a good WWII sim, the depth this series offers with a merged install, is
incredible. Any my hat's off to Oleg and his crew, for providing this huge
update to an already great sim series. If you already have IL2FB/AEP/PF,
then definitely get the update and give it a try.
--
Don Burnette
"When you decide something is impossible to do, try to stay out of the way
of the man that's doing it."
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