From: rdd@cactus.org (Robert Dorsett)
Subject: Re: Falcon MC Demo (at last)
Organization: Capital Area Central Texas UNIX Society, Austin, Tx
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 08:45:54 GMT

In article <1ekmcgINNh8d@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> ch166@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Louis Moreau) writes:
>
>   I've downloaded Falcon MC demo from umich a few hours ago. Here
>are my first impressions.
> 
>- It runs in 4bit mode; maybe 256 colors would be too slow...

Works for Hellcats.


>- The window is smaller than 640x480; to accomodate the 12"
>Apple monitor, I guess.

Maybe it's just a demo.  What's 3.0/PC run at?


>- Even tough it's in color and the ground view is much more
>complex, on my IIsi it seems to run as fast as the B&W 2.2.

I've not run Falcon since '89 or so on my old Plus; one try on a IIcx, and
its ridiculous timing problems, discouraged me from trying again.  I was
pleasantly surprised by how crisp this one is (but now, if they can just make
it *controllable*).


>- The major default of Falcon 2.2, I think, was the poor ground
>details. In the MC version this have been fixed. Now flying at
>a few meters above the ground is impressive. You can set the
>amount of details like: "gradient" horizon (in 16 colors you
>cannot really speak of gradient...), far terrain, complex river etc.

But there are also significant perspective problems: a ground target looks
the same at 50K feet as at 5K feet.  Also the same old "boundary" per-
spective problems (fly toward one of the perpendicular intersecting runways
then fly away: watch them WARP...).  I hope these are fixed by the time 
the real version is released.


>- The planes (the bandits and yours) are now vectorised i.e. no
>more jerky plane animation.

But still, scale problems, and based on my recent Hellcats experience, 
I don't understand why simple deflection shots don't work.  Same principles
at work.  The only thing which makes sense is that it's showing targets
much larger than they actually should be.  Oh, well, it's a demo.

 
>   The demo play in the unrealistic 1st Lieutnant mode i.e. unlimited
>ammo for all weapons, super engin, no drag, no SAM etc. But you CAN
>crash and be shoot down and the fuel is (VERY) limited (about 2000
>pounds). 

Doesn't seem to make any difference, though, apart from the warnings.

Of more concern is the timing/synchronization problems in the demo: anyone
who's tried to connect two Falcon 2.2's knows what I'm talking about.  Fly,
and fly, and fly, and don't get anywhere.  On the Mac side, at least, this
has long been a weak point of Falcon: the apparent difficulty the programmers
have in doing *real-time* simulation, consistent across platforms.

 
>   Falcon is the best flight simulator I've seen and this new version
>keeps it up to date. For thoses of you who have never played Falcon,
>believe me this demo doesn't give it full credit. And for thoses
>who have played Falcon, you know what I'm talking about.

Falcon's by far one of the worst flight simulators I've ever seen, but
it's a pretty imprssive combat systems simulator.  If you want to do ACM, buy
Hellcats.  It's simpler, purer, more responsive, has better feedback, and
is more fun. :-) 


On the bright side, this is a remarkably "enabled" demo.  And, surprise,
it didn't crash once! :-)



---
Robert Dorsett
rdd@cactus.org
...cs.utexas.edu!cactus.org!rdd