by Tim "Flyboy" Henderson

  And that begs the question: where is the action for the single player crowd? COMMS and control are somewhat limited. If you recall DI's F16, this again seems like an enhanced version. You do have more control than the earlier game offered, and you even get four or five AWACS commands. For the more casual sim pilot, this may prove entirely adequate.

In fact, the casual pilot is going to be lost with the incredible range of control and interaction offered in JF18. It is phenomenal.

As to interface, DI has placed all their COMMS on the UFCD (Up Front Control Display) under a menu labelled HCOM. This is an interesting variant of the old menu system. The problem is that you will have to mouse in all your command choices. Then again, there aren't nearly the range of commands compared to JF18, so maybe it's not such a big deal after all. One more thing though.. you won't be able to use Game Commander.

Jane's Mission Planner

Interface, Mission Planner

As noted earlier, DISH lacks a mission builder, but there is a mission planner. The interface, however, is spartan and complicated compared to JF18. In all fairness, Jane's has had a bit more practice in this area, and their interface has evolved into an extremely powerful component. (For more detail see the various preview coverage on both products. Note that a full featured mission planning component will arrive sometime in spring, 2000 with the GOLD version of DI's Super Hornet.)

Mission structure in DISH is almost absent. You can fly the missions in any order, and there is no sense of immersion and no meaningful flow between missions. Where to next? DISH lacks IFR, JF18 has it. What about FM, weapons modeling and avionics?

FM, Weapons and Systems

Both simulations model the required components, but the model in DISH is weak. The rate of acceleration is substantially higher in DI's sim and flying off the deck with a clean airplane DISH can make 400 knots in 12.5 seconds compared to 22 seconds in JF18. A fully loaded Hornet (4 Harpoons plus 1000 pound bomb on centerline) in DISH will make 400 knots in 14 seconds off the carrier, compared to 48 seconds in JF18 (the aircraft will barely make this speed at 8 degrees AOA).

The differences also make themselves felt in damage modeling. The Hornet in DISH is considerably more resilient than the Hornet in JF18 beta. I was blown out of the sky with a single SAM hit more than once in JF18, but never in DISH. It may happen, of course, but it usually took two or more to bring an explosion or death in DISH. Landings are very forgiving in DISH.

As for weapons and systems, both sims are very detailed. Weapon reliability is much higher in DISH (missiles almost always hit something.) Individual systems are more carefully modeled in JF18, but there are occasional shortcuts taken. For an example let's compare the naverick camera ad AT FLIR in both simulations.

Click to continue

DI's FLIR

JANE'S FLIR

You have to admit that the MFD from DIs sim looks extremely good. In fact, it is practically a photograph from an actual FA 18E cockpit. Functionally there are only small differences in these two, but some are going to prefer the photo realism of DIs cockpit to Jane's virtual cockpit.

One of the functional differences is that ALL the knobs that would work in the real Hornet work on DI's MFDs. For example, the brightness and contrast knobs at each corner are actually functional and you could vary the brightness on each MFD if you chose.

DI Radar. Brightness Knob lower left.

There are a few more differences in the modeling of the AT FLIR, however. Let's compare screens from both sims and take a look.

Go to Part IV