During the International LAN-meet (Big Bear '98), which took place in the Netherlands last week, Flanker 2 was introduced to us by Marek Paul (external beta-team coordinator). Lots of rumours are going around regarding Flanker's features. In fact, yours truly is also guilty of feeding the rumour-machine. This briefing was prepared with 'crap-control' in mind. Mr. Paul did a fine job shoveling all that shit floating around in cyberspace .

Prior to actually flying the latest alpha-version, he explained to us what Flanker 2 was all about. The developers obviously listened to many of the requests made by the members of the mailing-list. Flanker 2 is going to be a sim that *we* always wanted to have. One proviso... if the developers weren't entirely happy with a certain feature, didn't fully understand the subject matter or simply couldn't include it within the remaining development time, they chose to leave it out for the *initial* release.

Graphics

The primary graphics API will be Direct3D. Glide and OpenGL are also supported but were not selectable in this alpha. Mip-mapping wasn't funtional so terrain became a bit blurry below 1000 metres (better get used to the metric system ). The developers have a few additional tricks up their sleeve that will enhance the graphics experience even further. One thing is clear... graphics are extremely configurable.

First of all they will allow the option to choose between a 2000, 4000 and a whopping 8000 polygon Su-27 Flanker. We got to see the 4000 polygon model only. This model is also present on the recent screenshots available at [url]http://www.flanker2.com.[/url] Obviously the 8000 poly will require serious hardware whereas the 2000 poly will keep the "Pentium-classic" users happy. All the 3D models are fully articulated. AI pilots move their heads from side to side, scanning for hostiles. These models are the best in the business, period.

Framerates with the sim running at 1024*768, fully texture mapped, were in the mid twenties/ low thirties on a PII/400 with an AGP TNT based graphics card. Sometimes it would get as low as 1 fps but this was due to the complete lack of optimization and all the debugging going on in the background. PII's are hard to come by in Russia so they kept the option of running this sim without any texturing at all (Flanker 1.x style graphics).

The terrain is based on stereographic satellite imagery. It covers the entire Crimea and parts of the Western Caucasus and Northern Turkey. The Crimea itself is highly detailed but the remaining parts are supposedly less detailed. The terrain is simply stunning! From the mountains in the south to the vast plains in the north... Our jaws dropped when we saw this terrain slip by so smoothly. No "melting mountains" or "repeating textures"... this is the real thing!

Sure, there were a few clipping errors in certain spots but I'm sure they'll be dealt with in time. The cities and towns you saw in the screenshots stand out from the terrain but mip-mapping and filtering will correct this in the final release. For good measure I brought along my TPC nav-chart of the region. I could use this to navigate across the terrain. Every town, road and airport was there where it should be! Eagle Dynamics actually superimposed the polygons, that make up an airport *on* the satelite imagery so each and every one is different and accurate in layout. Some of these airbases are huge!

Sound

All the sounds we heard were recorded by carefully placed microphones inside the cockpit. Apparently you can hardly distinguish engine sounds in the real aircraft but ED decided to include these in the sim for playabillity sake (remember the flak F15 got for its engine-sounds, or lack thereof?). The really cool thing about sounds in this sim is that its 3D.

And what's more, you don't need a super-duper soundcard to hear all the 3D effects! Your ancient ISA SB16 will suffice thanks to the 3D sound-engine created by ED themselves. When you turn your virtual-head to the left, engine-sound volume increases in the left headphone/speaker! Just recently Neil Soane (producer) posted this to the mailing list regarding questions about MIDI and DirectSound.

"You'll find that you'll get all the nice doppler sound, stereo shifting etc with the standard cards but with the higher end cards (such as SB Live!) you'll be able to use SoundFont via the midi interface (this means large banks of multiple voices that can use the midi board for samples)."

"Nagging Nadia" (similar to "Bitchin' Betty) leaves the option for both russian as well as english_with_a_russian_accent voice warnings. Sexy voice by the way... I can imagine single males sitting in front of their PC's, listening to "gear down" and "maximum angle of attack" warnings all night long, wondering what could have been... alas, she's already spoken for... .

Gameplay

Flanker 2 will feature several approaches to enjoy this sim. Options include "Arcade", "Training", "Campaign", "Multiplayer" and "Missions". Multi-player allows for LAN/WAN and Internet play... yes.. Coop too! "Campaign" deserves an explanation.

It has now been confirmed that the initial release will feature a semi-dynamic campaign engine. The developers felt that a fully-dynamic campaign was difficult to do well regarding the current state of technology. To run a fully dynamic campaign, the way ED envisioned, would take away too much CPU cycles so desperately needed for flight-model calculations and all that "other stuff" running in the background.

They've dubbed this semi-dynamic campaign engine: "Multi Stage Combat". "MSC" is the first approximation of the "Automatic Campaign Simulator". This "ACS" is your.. ... basic... fully-dynamic-campaign-engine and will be part of the "Digital Battle Field" (are you still following me?!).

Basically MSC is similar to the engine featured in the classic "Tornado" flight-simulator. After you've flown the mission, the engine will determine how good/bad you, and your allies, did. It will then update territory distribution and resource management. So... no fully-dynamic campaign in *this* release. The MSC will evolve into a fully dynamic campaign in future add-ons/versions. Unfortunately we were not able to see "MSC" in action...

 Click for 640x480 shot of Kuznetsov.

The alpha we saw was only able to edit/play standalone missions. If you are familiar with Flanker 1.x you'll feel right at home in the new mission editor. Improvements have been made to the user-interface. No more multiple windows cluttering valuable desktop space.
Mission Builder. Click for 1024x768.

Now, if you want to create a flightplan, a single panel will open with roll-up menus so you can change various parameters. Very convenient... brilliant stuff! *Many* features have been added such as the possibility to place SAMs randomly within user-defined boundaries. Lots of new views have been added as well (some really clever ones).

Actually flying the damn thing!

Upon selecting "Start Current Mission" from the top-menu it'll take a couple of seconds before you find yourself sitting inside the cockpit of either the Su-27 or Su-33. The Su-27 is strictly A/A. If you plan an A/G mission, choose the Su-33. Of course we were mainly interested in the new Su-33 model and the Kuznetsov aircraft carrier.

In this alpha-version your aircraft was sitting on the runway although it is my understanding that, in the final release, you start from a particular point on the "ramp". You can select "headmouse" and control your virtual head with a mouse or trackball (F-15 style). I used the keyboard since I felt more comfortable with it. Cockpit is *not* clickable, you'll have to remember keyboard commands. Labels for various switches will remain in Cyrillic.

Most keyboard commands from Flanker 1.x have the same functionality in version 2. Once you shove that powerlever forward the plane quickly accelerates. The steering during taxiing feels very natural... think "smooth". The nose bobs a bit as you brake. During the take-off run that bobbing persists until you raise the nose-wheel. Personally I found this a bit overdone. I would like to have seen it dampen out as speed increases. Then again.. it is an alpha-version and maybe this taxi-modeling was not completely done yet.

Once airborne we started looking for the carrier. Flying the Flanker is such a nice experience. IMO there is not a single sim that captures the feeling like Flankers'. The improvements in the flightmodel are immediately evident. Again... think "smooooth"...

Flanker 1.x starts to feel a little arcadish since I flew Flanker 2 . Lots more inertia.. more drag as well. Too little time to do in-depth testing, we wanted to trap this sucker aboard the Kuznetsov!.. There!... I can see a dot in the distance... could it be... sure looks like a carrier... Holy Sh*t, look at that!... . Am I supposed to land on that!

You are well advised to establish yourself very early on in the approach. Visual approaches are a definite no-no during your first few attempts. I selected ILS and posititioned myself approximately 7 kms away from the carrier. The Kuznetsov doesn't have a visual approach slope indicator like the American carriers (the "meatball"). Your only reference are the deviation needles on the HUD and/or the ADI/HSI in the cockpit.

In fact, once you're established on-speed and on-slope, the deck will almost completely dissapear from view (obscured by the aircraft's nose). This is where things get really tense. Go easy on the controls... make small adjustments to the throttle... 4 kms to go... your palms get sweaty... your fist clenches the joystick... 2 kms... white knuckles.. power, power!

Look at your speed idiot!... 1 km... mommy please.. stop this torment.... Whooosh!... things come to a complete stop in a fraction of a second... needles are still winding down... and you sit there behind your PC thinking "what da hell...l?! ". Whoaaaa!.. this is sooo cool! People cheering behind me as they witnessed the whole thing... amazing.. what a feeling!

After practicing several traps, comrade Mark "Stinger" Shepheard (who flew all the way from Canada to participate in this 4 day event) decided to try a heads-down approach. No HUD, just your analogue airspeed indicator, altimeter, ADI and HSI. No peeking allowed until he managed to bring it to a complete stop.

Incredibly he caught the 3-wire on that first attempt!! That says a lot about Marks instrument flying skills but is also a testament to the brilliant modeling of Flanker's instrumentation! Of course not to be outdone by his accomplishment I tried the same thing.. and failed miserably . Practice, practice, practice...

Conclusion

I'll sign off by quoting Mark "Stinger" Shepheard's post to the Flanker mailing list.

"But honestly, there was nothing I saw that made me go...."gee that sucks" Whatever was in was done exceptionally well as you can expect from ED/Mindscape but a lot is unfinished and incomplete.....when we see the sim in stores...then all the real critiquing will begin as it does with all the other sims."

I couldn't have said it any better!

A big "THANK YOU" to Mindscape for letting us experience Flanker 2 first-hand. Thanks to Marek for taking the time to answer countless questions. Thanks to Jim and Neil for their continued presence on the mailing list. To those that were unable to attend the meet... "rest assured, Flanker 2 is on the way and will seriously kick ass".