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iBeta's Realism Patch 3, Merlin's B-1B Cockpit.
By Bob "Groucho" Marks
Merlin’s B-1B Cockpit
The appeal of the Bone (nobody calls it a Lancer) to people is a bit of a mystery. I work in the Aerospace industry, and the B-1B (which, contrary to insider information, does NOT stand for “Bring One Billion”, as in dollars) is often pointed to as an example of what NOT to do to a military aircraft program.
The shift from high-altitude supersonic bomber to low-level penetrator has left it crammed full of pesky electronic gizmos that rarely work right all the time. The joke, albeit in questionable taste, goes like this:
Q: What’s the last transmission usually heard from a doomed B-1 crew?
A: “Have the electrician meet us on the ramp.”
Thing is, the B-1 is just so damned cool. Those beautiful curves, those monster engines, that bladder-emptying noise---it’s a tangible expression of military aviation. And with the Flyanyplane patch, it’s one of the most devastating machines you can use in the F4 world.Cockpit-maestro Merlin has released a beta version of the Bone front office, and what a beauty it is. This beta version is still incomplete: not all views are implemented yet, and some instruments such as the engine tapes and radar altimeter are not functional. I drove the B-1B around on a quick TE and was impressed as to the absence of a frame rate hit and the detail that Merlin has put into his new ‘pit.
As of now, however, there is no reliable way to operate the Bone in a campaign. I say “reliable” because there is a patch out there that allows B-1s to operate in a campaign by replacing B-52s with the Bone. Reports from out in the field note some serious stability problems (problems admitted to by the developer), however, so I haven’t been able to gather the courage to try it.
One uninstall/defrag/reinstall every two weeks is enough for this guy, thank you very much. Snag the Bone cockpit from Merlin’s site at http://440th.fly.to. I have seen screenshots of other non-Viper cockpits from artists other than Merlin, such as a very nice F/A-18 panel very reminiscent of the ‘pit in the old GSI Hornet series.
Switching between the various cockpits has also gotten much easier through an F4Patch compatible file called, originally enough, F4Patchcockpits. Dropping this into your F4Patch folder eliminates the need to change file names in the Art directory. This file---and most others mentioned in the F4 Plus series---can be found at http://www.falcon40.com/.