From: ggiles@cie.uoregon.edu (Gregg Giles)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games
Subject: Re: Flight Sims Inferior on Amiga?
Date: 22 Aug 92 14:35:13 GMT
Organization: University of Oregon Campus Information Exchange

In article <Berry_Shin.043i@lppl.mi.org> Berry_Shin@lppl.mi.org (Berry Shin) writes:
>Hello All!  I was just wondering:  As a flight simulator fan, I have seen
>and played most of the popular flight simulators on the Amiga (F-18
>Interceptor, F-29 Retaliator, Birds of Prey, etc).  IMHO, they are not as
>good as those found in the MS-Dos world (such as Aces of the Pacific,
>Falcon 3.0, Red Baron).  Why is this?  Is the Amiga somehow "incapable" of
>producing the same quality graphics?  In addition, the scrolling seems
>superior on the MS-Dos flight simulators.  Finally, how will the rumored AA
>chips affect this situation?

   Since ACES OF THE PACIFIC and FALCON 3.0 are not available on the Amiga, it
would be hard to compare an MS-DOS version of the games to an Amiga version of
the games. <Grin> But that's a nitpicking point.
   First of all, be sure that you are using "equivalent" machines. Flight sims
absolutely should not be played on 68000-based Amigas in their current form.
Most current flight sims (on any machine) are quite involved, and require a
CPU of at least 25 MHz (be it a 68030 or 80386). I've played Red Baron on an
A3000/25 and a 486/25, and the speed is favorably comparable. (The full 32-bit
bus makes a lot of difference on the A3000). There is very little choppiness,
and the graphics are quite smooth and fluid on both machines.
   Regarding graphics: the problem on the Amiga side is the reliance on the
chip set. It's not that the chips are bad, but they have fallen behind in
technology. All sims coming out today are of at least VGA quality. Red Baron
and Aces are both done in VGA. Since the games are in low-resolution, then
the MS-DOS version has 256 colors to play with. Now, enter Amiga with the
essentially unchanged chip set: in low-resolution, the most colors which
it can display is 4096 (HAM). Most companies, unfortunately, went no further
than 32 colors in low resolution on Amiga ports of flight sims. <Frown>
(A10 1.5 Enhanced has a 64 color EHB mode, but I doubt you'll see a sim 
support HAM. It would be nice, but I honestly don't see anyone doing it.)
Many programmers are also finding the blitter to be too slow for what they
want to do.    
   The combination of not enough colors and a "slow" blitter often makes
sims which were ported to the Amiga look rather mediocre. (Complaints about
sloppy MS-DOS code running on Amigas are also valid - believe me.) Until we
see an improved chip set standard on Amigas, the sheer graphic quality of
Amiga flight sims will lag their counterparts on MS-DOS. Sad, but true. <Frown>
   BTW, I've worked on Red Baron, A10 1.5 Enhanced, and have played Aces of
the Pacific. (Please don't flame me - I'm not made of steel.)



-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gregg Giles (Dynamix, Inc.)                 BIX: ggiles 
All opinions expressed are my own.          Internet: ggiles@cie.uoregon.edu
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.games