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Combat-Helo Dev Blog

Entries in this blog

Don't Panic

Yes Panic.   When you're rushing to get a reasonable build ready for hammering out problems I'm finding I'm making all new problems. Going over the HMD code I realise how badly it needs rebuilding, there are existing elements that need updating, a few new ones that require adding. There's no way to rebuild the HUD in time.   Another problem. LUA in the Apache entity. Works in the first instance, but fails in subsequent entity spawns resulting in the inability to mount the aircraft. It's an i

Flexman

Flexman

Amazing what you can find on the internet today.

Not a Combat-Helo post. I'm engaged in a spot of design and research but was looking for some old material online and found I had left a digital trail pre-dating commercial internet use.   28 Years ago I drew this. I was in high school. Shocking really. I used Z80 machine code to generate the 'impressive' sound and visual effects in this game. *wince*   A lifetime of programming and tinkering, stacks of hard drives of unpublished projects ranging from Spanish school time-tab

Flexman

Flexman

Minigame...I mean gun

AD has started some great work on the armaments of the CH47 that will form the first major DLC pack for the full release of Combat-Helo. Each door position will offer a fun interactive activity, usually in the form of throwing out obscene amounts of virtual lead.   For more pictures please see: ADs SimHQ CH-47 blog update thread Mini-gun, I don't get the mini part though.   Source

Flexman

Flexman

NTS Next To Shoot aka TAB targeting

[NTS] Left Upper button. Next To Shoot is the ubiquitous video game cycle through targets. Or TAB target if you play MMOs.   I've touched upon how radar works in this blog entry from August - Radar - A Discussion   The Apache can automatically selecting priority targets based on some sort of criteria. This short blog post touches on how I've elected to do this. Again if you're familiar with the 1996 classic, Janes Longbow 2 there's nothing unfamiliar here.   The TSD (tactical situation di

Flexman

Flexman

Random Pics of the Day

Starting to feel the pressure now. Both the financial and stress factors are weighing in. Doesn't stop me working but it's hard to switch off. On the business side there's a ton of things on the to-do list, it all eats time taken from production.   Spooky, ok so the lip light isn't actually on his mic. If it was you wouldn't see this. Boeing sent me a poster back in 2002, this is a homage to that. This time with the rear seat. Taking out bad guys without damaging the good guys is a challen

Flexman

Flexman

GROME 3.1 is out

Quadtree software has released the 3.1 update to Grome.   Grome is a fantastic terrain editor I've been playing with for future enhancements and rolling out a larger terrain systems in the future. If you play flying games and RPGs on consoles chances are you've probably already seen a Grome edited terrain. It's used by nearly every major player in the simulation industry. Incorporating a plug-in system, OpenSceneGraph and now new improved Unity integration.   What's new in 3.1      

Flexman

Flexman

Did I mention the FCR offset?

Remember the spinny radar thingy in Longbow 2? Scan sectors sizes and off-axis settings for the Longbow FCR (Fire Control Radar)? No?   If you look at the heading tape of the screen-shot you'll see in the heading tape the "butt-cheeks" (two Ds back to back) on a heading of 225, off axis by 45 degrees. This indicates the direction the radar is pointing, as the FCR display is 'always up' in GTM mode. This can be a little disorientating and the radar footprint is mirrored on the TSD, this paints

Flexman

Flexman

Apache Maintainers

On the topic of fuel systems, someone shared this video recorded at an FOB. One of the more difficult jobs.     Source

Flexman

Flexman

Fuel XFER

Dull day, so lets post about something most normal people find dull. Fuel flow controls. In the Apache D model this is administered on the FUEL MPD page.   Not much to say about it, I'm bored already. It does what it does. Our Apache has two internal ballistically shielded self-sealing fuel tanks. Fuel can be drawn or transferred from one or the other to adjust weight distribution. Activating fuel boost engages the rear tank cross-feed valves as seen here. Fuel transfer between tanks should no

Flexman

Flexman

Shaders the old fashioned way

Yes were still using Notepad to edit them. Well that's not quite accurate, I'm using Notepad++   What's nice about Leadwerks is being able to create a shader to add new effects or change how the engine renders something without anything getting in your way. So when Dave asks for a version of the cubemap that will blend in some particular way it was no problem to quickly put it together. He's doing terrible things to make filthy looking windshields, chrome toggle switches and this rather neat l

Flexman

Flexman

AD posts more Chinook updates at SimHQ

AD posted more Chinook goodies at SimHQ Link here >>> SimHQ - AD Chinook Update         What am I looking at?   It's a little creepy, crew heads now reflect the pilot helmet sight (PHS) and gunner helmet sight (GHS) Vec2 offsets, so using trackIR, mouselook etc will operate the appropriate crewman head position (with suitable organic tweening). These positions are stored in the aircraft state so will work across all aircraft (AI and player) as well as multi-player.

Flexman

Flexman

Combat-Helo Prologue wip Video in HD

Now available.   *edit* A few additional notes...   The controller setup page shown in this video has a number of devices listed. These are just the ones I had plugged in at the time of recording. All DirectInput controllers should be available, some will have ready to fly config files (most Saitek sticks, Logitech).       I forgot to turn on the post processing effects since I work without them (generates more heat). There is a LOT of changes going on to various sensors and the IHADSS w

Flexman

Flexman

Two years old

Yippe..the 18 month project is now 24 months old. Horray. Short post but I felt I couldn't let it slip by unnoticed. Especially with all the Tipex (White-Out) all over my Project Planner.   Source

Flexman

Flexman

KBU, FCR mode logic

First screen-shot of a quickly put together KBU (keyboard unit). This is a flat 2D image you click on, taken from the texture used in the cockpit. I wanted to see how good/bad it looked since we don't have time to develop a 3D one.       Clicking on Air Surv will abort current FCR operation and switch to an active air scan (air surv mode) The keyboard command list is looking horrible if you want full control over this. The shot cut keys work fine however. I made some tweaks to the h

Flexman

Flexman

Mobiles, mobs and states

While waiting on fixes for the flight-model and control inputs, putting some game into the game we talked about ranges and how performance measuring was going to work. In addition we wanted to add a little variety which required working mob AI.     So nothing fancy but I managed to rustle up a simple finite state machine FSM to get some tanks and cars running around. Our design uses a group formation system (a group is a number of individual units that share common logic, e.g a tank platoon)

Flexman

Flexman

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