Falcon 4.0 represents the current state of the art in military flight simulations for the PC. New, more authentic levels of realism were achieved in almost every area of modeling: flight, weapons, ground war, radar and detection systems, communications and campaign dynamics.

Inevitably, ground-breaking simulations of this caliber present even the most experienced of virtual pilots with never-before-seen, often mystifying, events. Usually, these types of events are expected and even welcomed in new sims; however, weird, frustrating, mission-killing events are instantly branded as bugs and the programmers burned in effigy. For example, many simmers were ready to revolt over the annoying frequency of the "Mission Aborted" call: bug or accurately modeled feature?

At first, many thought it was a bug. Upon closer observation, however, we all learned that Falcon 4.0's campaign engine simply models the annoying frequency of aborted missions with painful authenticity. In Falcon 4.0 every event impacts subsequent events: A SEAD mission preceding your flight fails---"Mission Aborted" comes the call; AWACS redirects you to a higher priority threat---"Mission Aborted". Annoying to be sure, but not a bug; rather, the correct decision by the game's AI given all the events leading up to the "Mission Aborted" call. So just how far does this sort of realistic, interdependent, cause-and-effect modeling go in Falcon 4.0? We spoke to Leon Rosenshein, Lead Engineer for Falcon 4.0, about the intelligence behind, and factors that impact, this sim's weapon guidance and detection systems.

COMBATSIM: In Robert Shaw's classic Fighter Combat, he discusses the various methods employed to guide missiles from the launching aircraft (the shooter) to the target. From that discussion we learned that proportional navigation is the cause of that characteristic 'wiggle' one sees as a Sidewinder streaks toward its target. Is this form of guidance modeled in Falcon 4?

L.R.: The first missile I modeled was the Sidewinder. As in real life, the Sidewinder's control surfaces steer either right or left, with no in-between. As a result, it does adjust its course proportionally and you will see this "wiggle."

COMBATSIM: What other factors impact missile targeting?

L.R.: Missile modeling is broken into four components: flight model, seeker, guidance, and warhead. The flight model for the missiles, like the aircraft, has a full 6 degrees of freedom, and its flight path is affected by the same forces that act on the aircraft. Seeker sensitivity and fuel load also play a role as to whether a missile will reach its target. In some circumstances, a missile may fail to achieve a kill because its battery life is exhausted. The AIM9 has only about 30 seconds of battery life, but the AMRAAM has about two minutes of battery life. These realities were taken into account when we modeled Falcon 4.0's missiles.

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L.R.: Other than these considerations of fuel and battery power, a multiband infrared seeker is influenced by the strength of the IR signature it detects. So the target's speed, aspect and current throttle setting are all considered by the missile's detection algorithim. A missile launched nose-on will have a lower PK [Ed. Probability of Kill]. If the target aircraft has its afterburners lit, the PK is much higher.

We also took pains to model aerodynamic heating and atmospheric issues. For instance, if your aircraft is travelling at Mach 1.5 on a clear, cloudless day, you will present an enemy's missile seeker with a very large, and very easy to track IR cross section. If you are above clouds and the IR seeker modeled inside the missle that wants to kill you is below the clouds, we've programmed it so the clouds mask your heat signature. In the same way, we've modeled it so that anti-aircraft systems that use optical guidance won't be much use against you either if you are shielded by clouds.

COMBATSIM: Some players believe the Archer missiles travel too fast in Falcon 4. Is there any merit to this allegation?

L.R.: I'm looking at this at the moment and so far I haven't found any strange behaviors in any of my tests. The general complaint as I understand it is that a player hears the call, "Archer inbound" and then there is the explosion. The only explanation I can offer at this time, is that the bandits are probably taking very close-range shots. If the shooter is a mile or so distant, you'll have very little reaction time. We're going to keep looking into it though.

L.R.: Two other types are modeled: Beam Riders like the AIM 7 guide on a radar reflection. We also model Command Guided systems like the AMRAAM. During the early stages of its flight, the AMRAAM is guided by the shooter or launching aircraft; near the end of its flight, when the missle gets close to the target, it switches to active guidance using its own onboard radar. This whole process of initial remote guidance then onboard guidance is precisely modeled in Falcon.

COMBATSIM: What AI factors influence a missile's PK?

L.R.: The amount of damage any missile can do depends on how close it can get to the target before it detonates. In Falcon, when the missile's AI determines it's as close to the target as its gonna get, the warhead detonates. If the explosion happens at the rear of the target aircraft, there is a good chance of engine damage. If at the front, there is a high probability of radar damage. Of course, there's always the chance that the closest point calculated by the missle AI for detonation ends up being just too far away to do any real damage at all.

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