Best Flight Sim

Erm.. actually I think you’ll find that the three issues you describe have not changed at all. They have been there all along. Do enable ‘COMPLEX AI’ btw. No game is perfect and one area we do still need to look at is some of the animations. Rowan actually ran out of time when they released BoB (their last release of a long line of sims) which is why our list of bugs fixed is very long now.. and we’re still going, though the major ones are now gone.

But like I said, the issues you mention have been there all along. Honest! 🙂

On the subject of water, one of the many new features is that you can actually ditch successfully now. Have a look at the manuals for the new features. There are a lot.

Bader- I just tried the patch, and I have to say Im a little disappointed. The air wing that follows me moved in exact sinchronization with my plane, every little wing movement. That was a disappointment because the planes AI in the original is really natural looking where it looks like each plane is being steered individually in responce to your movements. The damage my plane looked didnt look good, wings were cut in straight lines on the same place on each wing. My Crash into water was worse than the original, my plane turned into two planes and bounced on the water. Somehow youve seemed to have lost alot of the good stuff of the original.

That is the sheer genius of Rowan Software, which is why they are so sorely missed.. It runs on any system with a 1G processor and Geforce3/Radeon 8500 level hardware. Lower is possible.

There are lots of technical reasons as to how they do it, but essentially it’s about intelligent LODs (Level of Detail Models), clever use of ‘distance’ (you don’t need aircraft a long way out of view to behave as the one in your sights), and a design approach, from the outset, that asked “how would we have 50+ fighters attack 100+ bombers”.
It’s very clever, and 1C Maddox/Microsoft are yet to find the same formula to large scale combat.

BoB was at the end of a long line of sims for Rowan. They had a lot of experience. Just a bloody shame they couldn’t make any money at it. Rather British, really, they spent all their time modelling every single airfield building in Britain in detail, but neglecting to market or promote the game adequately…

Wow, the FS engine can support seamless a2a combat with some 100 bombers and 50 fighters in the air at once!? What kind of a gaming rig do you need for that?!

🙂

We are a well kept secret 😉

If you think IL2 looks good, then try the latest BoB. We have some very clever chaps on the team. Over 80% of the artwork has been altered, and the coders have made hundreds of updates.

Just be prepared for a largish (55M) download. We are also going to be shipping the v098 patch on the August issue CD with PC Pilot magazine.

In essence, though, the reason that a team of volunteers have worked -for free- for three years on this game is that it is simply amazing. It’s a time machine. There is no other way to describe it.

OMG! I heard about your group, but I thought it was just a bunch of BoB enthusiasts trying to update the game to XP compliance. You must have totally redone the engine to get that level of graphic detail. I cant believe this is a free patch, this looks like it could go right back on the retail market. Beautiful job!

By far the best for me is Rowans Battle of Britain. Its billed as a strategy game but its really not, its a sim. You can allocate fighters to different squadrons, but once the planes are in the air you no longer have any conrol, its just you in one plane. What makes this so great is that you are really dealing with hundreds of planes coming across in realtime, in real distances. And there is an exact number of planes on each side so kills are counted against the overall number of each sides. So you really are fighting the Battle of Britain, its not like fighters are just spawning out of nowhere in endless scripted missions. If you set your plane with unlimited fuel and ammo, you can really follow the german bombers back to thier base and continue to strafe them as they land and park. This sim is 3 years old now so the graphics arent at current standard, but they are still plenty good. Watching the german bombers drop their sticks of bombs over London is nightmarishly real. If the graphics were updated on this sim to IL-2 level, this game would be unbeatable. Its interesting to note that the IL-2 design teams next project after Pacifac Fighters is to do a Battle of Britain Sim.

Mixtec, you may be rather pleasantly surprised to hear what has happened to Rowan’s BoB in the last three years. The small British flight sim developer, Rowan, is sadly no more. This is a great shame since they made sims with simply the best Artificial Intelligence in the business, IL2 included. As a parting gesture to the community they gave the source code to a group of us and we live here: www.bob-ma.org

We are now onto our fifth free update patch for BoB. The very latest is v098:

The visuals have been completely overhauled and the long list of bugs has been squashed. We have also introduced dozens of new features.

If you like Rowan’s BoB, you will not be disappointed. It is the most accurate portrayal of the greatest air battle in history and renders melees of up to 400 aircraft in a single clash. What’s even more amazing is that these battles play out very credibly indeed, breaking up into dozens of individual swirling fights as aircraft wheel and turn to gain advantage over their fighter or bomber adversary.

Some threads with plenty of pics that will show you just how it looks today. 🙂

http://www.bob-ma.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=632

http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/boards/bbs/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=40;t=007635

And a couple of samples:
An unsuspecting Hawkinge: (SE Kent, home today of the truly wonderful Battle of Britain museum).

Trouble brewing:

145 Squadron to the rescue! (well ok, just green section ;))

Hi,

Il-2 Forgotten Battles for me – especially when flying online. There are quite a few real pilots who use it and they say it’s about the best of the combat bunch + the developer is known for their dedication to the sim.

Cheers,
BF_Xenomorph

www.battle-fields.com

Looks like Pacific fighters is a half way house for the Sturmovik team, before they really start working on BoB. So far it looks amazing and I for one will be purchasing it on release.

BoB is penned in for a 2005 release and was announced some time ago, Pacific Fighters was then announced after.

IL2 Sturmovik for me, when I first played it I was quite literally stunned 😮

I have to admit I haven’t given LOMAC the chance it deserves and will do so at some point.

Ohter sims that stick in my mind are, comanche vs hokum, the dynamic campaign was great, Harrier for the same reason. And of course FS2004, because its nothing short of beautiful in places.

Look forward to Pacific Fighters. 🙂

By far the best for me is Rowans Battle of Britain. Its billed as a strategy game but its really not, its a sim. You can allocate fighters to different squadrons, but once the planes are in the air you no longer have any conrol, its just you in one plane. What makes this so great is that you are really dealing with hundreds of planes coming across in realtime, in real distances. And there is an exact number of planes on each side so kills are counted against the overall number of each sides. So you really are fighting the Battle of Britain, its not like fighters are just spawning out of nowhere in endless scripted missions. If you set your plane with unlimited fuel and ammo, you can really follow the german bombers back to thier base and continue to strafe them as they land and park. This sim is 3 years old now so the graphics arent at current standard, but they are still plenty good. Watching the german bombers drop their sticks of bombs over London is nightmarishly real. If the graphics were updated on this sim to IL-2 level, this game would be unbeatable. Its interesting to note that the IL-2 design teams next project after Pacifac Fighters is to do a Battle of Britain Sim.

LOL novalogic makes just about the most arcadish flight sims out there. but that dosent mean they aint fun.
they are qite enjoyable to play. especially online. but if you are looking for realistic simulators you might want to give this one a skip.

I agree, having played the demos of a couple of them. But I do like their DELTA FORCE series. In my opinion, the stand-outs over time for combat flight sims are DID’s F-22 ADF; F/A-18 from Janes; WWII Fighters from Janes; Falcon 4 from Microprose; Combat Flight Simulator (CFS) from MS, for the scenery at least. And more recently, Flanker 2+; Il-2; B-17. They’re all subjective depending on what the user wants but I think they’re all pretty good in their own way.

Anyone have any news about the upcoming Pacific Fighters?

LOL novalogic makes just about the most arcadish flight sims out there. but that dosent mean they aint fun.
they are qite enjoyable to play. especially online. but if you are looking for realistic simulators you might want to give this one a skip.

what about some of trhe novalogic stuff

F/A-18 was realistic by maybe a ling shot. and it was no were near the F4.

are you talking about the baseline F4? if so then yeah maybe. but F4 SP3+ (and ever other exp pack) make every other flight sim look like garbage as far as realism goes.

Janes F15 was a much better comparison to F4 rather than F/A18

Lomac 😉
But I have not tried Falcon 4.

Falcon 4 with superPak4 if you want realism. the Graphics are not too bad either.
if you want even better graphics you can get BMS and Free falcon mods.

LO:MAC is kind of arcadish. and th fact that there is no clickable cockpit realy sucks. F4 displays a far better understanding of missile and aircraft behaviour.

which flight sim do u guys think is the best…considering no one is really reality but which one is the best specially fighter

LO:MAC
Flanker 2.5
IL-2 Shturmovik.
Falcon 4 with the SuperPack.
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