In flight players will hear their wingmen via the radio, and you will also hear German accented voices on your radio =) Your wing will let you know when he's been hit or hurt, and he will also let you know if someone gets on your six (if he has sight!) Unfortunately, there is no wing control modelled via radio, a big disappointment but the team felt there was not time to include this feature. Perhaps with enough user requests we will see this in a later add-on.

MS Combat Flight Simulator. Click for 800x600.

The graphics engine of CFS will handle anything you throw at it under DX6. At E3 I moved the resolution to 800x600, maxed out the terrain detail and added clouds. Clouds were very early and didn't look very good, but I expect we will see the state of the art by the time the sim is complete. Resolution is dependent on your hardware, so you can go to 1024x768 under Voodoo2 SLI and beyond that if you have an 8 meg Riva board or get yourself the latest hotrod in the form of the Matrox G200 or Riva TNT later this summer.

In fact I've been running the Falcon 4 alpha up to 1600x1200! I imagine that Combat Flight Sim would look very, very good at that resolution. I've recently received new information, not that surprising, that the sim will fully support DX6 which means that it is 3D NOW ready, good news for those investing in the new AMD hardware!

Even more interesting, there will be full support for multiple monitors under WIN98. This means that you could set up your forward view on a large screen and use other monitors for left and right views.

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As for padlock, that all important feature for serious duelers, the only active padlock was the basic virtual cockpit lock. The feature is still under revision, and I spoke with Kris about some options. I really dislike the red and green labels (these appear on screen by default and identify the various aircraft along with their current distance), which can be deselected, but the idea of a distance label for a current target could be seen as a useful cheat to compensate for the liability of a simulation limited to the modern computer monitor.

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Click to continue

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CFS will be set in Europe and expandability is a primary goal so new aircraft will continue to be added after the initial release. There are two campaigns: the Battle of Britain where you can fly for the Germans or the Brisith, and the European war where you can fly for the Americans or Germans. Each campaign features three phases, further divided into eight missions.

Single missions and a quick action mode are also available, and you can customize a combat situation to your preference and then jump in and fly. You'll also be able to share these missions easily with others, since a simple text file defines mission data.

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In fact as I was speaking with the Program Manger, Kris Shankar, he indicated to me that Microsoft will release the tools needed for complete customizability of the missions. In short, you can edit these files in text mode or from an Excel spreadsheet. He pulled up a mission configuration file and showed me how a parameter like "winds=0" can be edited to "winds=5" to give the maximum wind force in a mission.

Initially it was hoped that a voice module would be integral to the first release, but due to time constraints this hasn't been included. Since this would add incredible depth to gameplay and a LOT more fun when adding other human pilots to the mix, its high on the list for a later release.

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CFS is aimed at a broad audience and should do very well for Microsoft. But don't be fooled: the designers are serious about realism, and flying at maximum settings should hold plenty of challenge. With an open interface and plans to continue to add new aircraft, CFS should have an extended life. Watch for a hands on beta report soon. Click HERE to download a Combat Flight Sim AVI.

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