Janes F15

Lining the bookshelves on the walls was an incredible array of books and folders. Many of them were information on various combat aircraft. Others were actual operating manuals for the F-15. Others were detailed photo scrapbooks taken of various parts of the actual aircraft by team members. Also present were the large DATCOM volumes, with information on many aspects of military flight simulation. Even the desk was decorated with detailed wooden models of the two major F-15 variants. Bringing all these resources to the show speaks volumes about just how much effect Jane's influence has brought.

Janes F-15 is still very early on in the development phase. What was on display was a pre-alpha technology demonstration to show off the graphical detail and flight model.

As far as the graphics goes, the game is not only impressive, but pulling a few new tricks. Janes F-15 will support a variety of effects that would normally only be available on 3d cards. Alpha blending, filtering, dithering, Gourad shading, perspective-correct texture mapping all can be done even without a 3d card. Considering that the demonstration was done on a non-accelerated P166, the effect was extremely well done and moved at a very reasonable frame rate. Jane's F-15 will most likely support 3dfx and possibly PowerVR cards, where the detail on the in-game artwork will really shine.

Our guide started the game with the F-15 on the strip, and panned around from the external view to show off the model. Indeed, the F-15 model in the game sports a considerable amount of detail, and the accelerated version is supposed to have even more polygons to improve the precision of the shape. "Faceting" is definitely at a minimum.

Spooling up the engines, the jet rolled down the runway and approached takeoff speed. Excellent detail of the moving control surfaces was evident on rotation. Pushing the throttle to the stops, the afterburners lit after some engine lag, first igniting on one engine and then the other. It may only be a small detail, but it looked and felt very true-to-life. Exactly this kind of attention is what shows the attitude of the F-15 team.

The terrain in the game has excellent detail both from a shape perspective and in the details of the textures themselves. This might not normally be a big deal, but again you have to remember that the demonstration computer was merely a P166 and trying to get that kind of performance with that much detail on Longbow 1 on a P166 was just not happening.

Speaking of Longbow, one of the press inquired about cross-compatibility with Longbow or Longbow 2. Unfortunately, the nature of the terrain makes it virtually impossible to make the two work together. In general, helicopter games use highly detailed terrain but only cover a small theatre of operations, while jet combat games can skimp on the terrain detail a little bit but they need to cover vast areas to fly in. Thus whatever cross-compatibility might potentially happen in these games is going to be limited to aircraft of similar types.

The game will model both the standard F-15 fighter as well as the flexible Strike Eagle variant. The weaponry list - both for A/A and A/G - is extremely impressive. It looks like the Skunkworks intends to model every type of ordinance these craft can carry. Considering the flexibility of the jet, that is a remarkable goal. Expect to spend considerable time designing your favorite weapons packages!

You may already have heard that Janes F-15 will be using a flight model so sophisticated that the company even had to include programming for the fly-by-wire computer. While we weren't able to give the flight model a shakedown, just watching the game in action shows that control surface lag, inertia, and angle of attack all look very good so far.

A couple final notes. The MFD displays will be extraordinarily authentic, providing nearly every screen and menu that the actual MFD's have (minus a few unnecessary ones). Additionally the radar imaging will be modeled as accurately as possible - even better than the impressive simulation done by F-15SE III. We'll have to wait before more details will be available, but the initial indications show that Jane's F-15 will go a long way towards making the simulations of 1998 rock.

E3

E3 was an incredible adventure in many respects. Out of all the previous trade shows, E3 1997 is likely to be remembered as the official turning point for the combat simulation genre.

Here we saw how all the various elements that go into a combat simulation finally all came together. Graphical quality and frame rate are now no longer exclusive. Even the most simplified physics models were much more sophisticated than those of only three years ago. Dynamic campaigns now have several companies carrying the torch - indeed it seems that starting now, we're going to hear a lot more about dynamic campaigns from a large number of manufacturers. VR helmets were conspicuously absent for the first time in years (although we expect to see a comeback eventually). Finally, multiplayer support is virtually a standard feature now.

One of the great things is that each company had something they wanted to do differently to make their product stand out. In this way, all of the new simulations at the show had something new and exciting to offer. Whether it was the use of actual military technology in Spearhead, the live voice communications of Warbirds 2.0, the "morale checks" of European Air War, or the design-your-own-fighter aspects of X-Fighters, just name a sim and there was something unique about it.

When we started this series on the simulations of E3, we said "Start saving your money now." It was not a statement made lightly.The quality and selection of simulations this year are so incredible that any simulation fan worth his HOTAS controls is going to want to enjoy nearly all of them.

E3 1997 also marks the true entry of the 3d-accelerated simulation. Almost every simulation at the show was designed for 3d accelerator support from the ground up. Many of the games simply will not work effectively without the backing of a solid 3d card to handle rendering chores. This designed-in method extends to the details of the texture mapping and the finery of the 3d models and special effects. We're going much further now than mere aftermarket patches have taken us so far.

"The year of the combat sim" is a turning point in another way as well. This year the competition for the gaming budgets of simulation fans will be hotter than ever before. It is both in the competition and in the desire to offer something unique that these products have evolved into what we have seen at E3. Now the question becomes, "Are you willing to support this kind of competition?" Simulation fans have a history of buying nearly every sim on the market, which has provided the financial resources and corporate interest to enter the market, but if we want them to stay, we'll need to offer a little incentive ourselves.

If you, the player, want to be able to look forward to hearing about such an awesome selection of simulations over the next couple of years, it's going to take a little shopping. Demand greatness from the game developers, but never hesitate to purchase when they deliver a good product. Keeping corporations interested in maintaining such a high degree of effort in our hobby is going to require seeing some results, so being finicky in your simulation purchases might hurt the competition and some of its diversity. These companies don't operate on goodwill alone.

So get your 3d accelerators, break open the piggybank, and stay tuned to Combat Simulations, where we'll present the pros and cons of each of the E3 sims as they are released, give just the right excuse to run out and buy the latest simulation, and hopefully give you some insight into today's simulations that you won't find anywhere else.