Blackbird Sims / Milviz Forum Archive

A little late I know, but is better late than never! Pieced together a bunch of footage showing off the various liveries, features, and up close details of the aircraft. Also is a sneak peak at the upcoming airbases package (although this footage was taken before the AI aircraft were added, so do not panic). Hope everyone enjoys, and feel free to comment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHdMsFP6TsM

Mr. Steve Jordon,
Nice product showcase...

1). I did not know that you'll (were planning on) develop(ing/ed) USAFB's for this and the other AF aircraft in the works.... Glad someone (payware) is doing them. While these previews hardly showed more than just the FSX default bases, I look forward to seeing them made to the level of Aerosoft, FTX/Orbx, FlyTampa or FSDT, just to name a few hardcore scenery designers. Am I correct in my assumption(s) or are you'll "outsourcing" that to some other FREEWARE/PAYWARE dev.?

2). And, wasn't quite clear about where the F-15C/E would be sold from this video; here or somewhere else? FSD-international/Iris/etc.????

3). Also, I certainly hope that your F-22 isn't being held back in development because of a conflict of interest with another dev.'s current product showcase??? You know the one thats "4" $5.00 (currently listed $45) Just kidding, I don't care much for payware that uses FSX Acceleration - F/A-18 or default (stock) gauges and are above $15.00 USD.

Anyway, thanks for a very informative video and a lovely T-38; I'm looking forward to "flying" my newly purchased T-38A in the sim as soon as my RMA'ed MB & drives return fixed/replaced & my FSX Sim is up and going again.

James, all we are doing is adding the ground support equipment, and AI T-38 traffic at these bases. They are not drastic modifications per say. Although Ken did add some missing taxi ways, and such to a couple of them. The F-22 I do not know much about, and what I do I will not speak on the open forums out of respect for the mans family. The F-15C/E will be sold in our normal manner, from our newly launched http://www.milviz.com/fs/news.php . While the wrapper, or delivery method may change, we will be selling all future products from our very own website, and other select retail outlets. The scenery is going to be freeware. We thought long and hard about this, and decided to let people see the T-38 who may be a little gun shy to buy the bird. Granted it is the AI model (we tonned it down a bit to help FPS), but it still looks really good. Plus it brings a lot of these dead military bases in FS to life.

Mr. Steve Jordan,
I hope you don't mind, but I have plenty to share here...

Roadburner440 wrote:James, all we are doing is adding the ground support equipment, and AI T-38 traffic at these bases. They are not drastic modifications per say. Although Ken did add some missing taxi ways, and such to a couple of them.

Well, its hard to get developers to commit to do pure Military bases in their entirety, only Aerosoft and FSDT have ever done partially combined (Civilian/Military) ones to my knowledge (besides those that did Nellis for FS9/FSX); Ken's a good man to do these welcomed features. I would, however, suggest consultings with Mr. Jim D. (over at SimOutHouse) who specializes in FREEWARE Mil.-bases and has one or two that are quite good by many freeware and some payware standards.

The F-22 I do not know much about, and what I do I will not speak on the open forums out of respect for the mans family.

I agree; no need to "kick a guy when he's down" ... Moreover, I have no intention of talking either openly or behind his/anyone's back about people, my interest lies purely in the product line and its *quality* with respect to reality. So, lets just pray for him and his family situation and hopefully he can recover from whatever burdens he may have now. But, I would be interested in knowing how/why your F-22 development(s) are halted. Email me, if you can, about it or make me sign an NDA, if you need to ensure I keep it on the QT; which I will of course anyway.

The F-15C/E will be sold in our normal manner, from our newly launched http://www.milviz.com/fs/news.php . While the wrapper, or delivery method may change, we will be selling all future products from our very own website, and other select retail outlets.

Awesome; now can I convince you guys to make 2D versions of the MFD gauges? I have (x4) TM Cougar MFD's and I plan to purchase something like these (Lilliput Um-70 7" USB Monitor) to place behind them for *FULL* functionality and immersion. I believe that VRS is planning on doing the same for the next update to their product line by the end of this year as well. Could MilViz could do this for its F-15's as well? Thank you!

The scenery is going to be freeware. We thought long and hard about this, and decided to let people see the T-38 who may be a little gun shy to buy the bird. Granted it is the AI model (we tonned it down a bit to help FPS), but it still looks really good. Plus it brings a lot of these dead military bases in FS to life.

Just give it a few weeks on the market, then do (or have others do) more videos/advertising and things will pick up. I spent the first day or two after the purchase reading the manual and it is quite extensive for someone whose firmiliar with these kinds of things, let alone a 14/15 year old who's reading it for the first time, despite the pretty pictures. So, perhaps many here will need some time.

Also, when I'm able, I may (with your blessing) add AICarriers launch/recovery to it (just for fun) and that might definitely encourage more sales. But in all seriousness, the model is outstanding, having an AI version with it makes for more enjoyment/emmersion and all the other features (truck, ladders, etc.) adds for many hours of learning, discovering, and playing which is what seperates the *toys* for $5.00 from the ones for $40+. You'll have done outstanding work and time will demonstrate it.

IMHO, however, I highly suggest you get someone like Mr. Cody B. or Mr. Roberto "Mhimhi" C. with the right video editing tools to do promotional videos for your products. Please don't get me wrong, what your doing is very good with it. These guys, however, have highend systems with video-editing tools and are experts at using them - thus, they can sell "Ice to an eskimo," as some of your Canadian staff here might say. Believe it or not, that's 50-70% of the battle with sales. (e.g. MilViz S-64 Skycrane)
I'm on your side here, I want guys with your talents to make more outstanding products; which I fully intend to buy/use.
And, I really liked the way you showcased all your products in one video... do more videos like that, showing off features that each of these models are capable of doing is what got me and many others "baited" and "hocked." And, now I'm a very happy customer.

Thanks for taking the time to read all of this....

Keep up the good work!

I can agree about the video. That actually was filmed on my system before I installed all the new stuff. Now with the OC'd CPU to 4.2ghz, and the GTX 580 superclocked FSX really screams! I just have to figure out how to get FRAPS to run on a core that FSX is NOT running on, and I think that will solve the problem. Cody and them are very talented people with the right tools as you say. Unfortunately those services require money, and we pumped everything we had into the T-38's development. We try to focus re-investing the money into the aircraft, sounds, coding, textures, and things like that. Although there will be a more professional video coming out at some point in the future. That was something that I spliced together.

A lot of the freeware military bases are simply awesome. I have Jim D's Naval Station Mayport (which is where I work), and it is absolutely stunning. Unfortunately we as a group are in our infancy of messing around with scenery, so this area is something we will be slowly building upon over time.

As far as the F-22 goes you will have to take that up with Colin. About the only thing I will put here is that the person who did the modeling suffered through some very traumatic medical issues, and no longer could continue. It is more or less out of respect that we have not continued the model, as our people are extremely important to us. We have talked about it in private, but right now it is not in the lineup in the immediate future (ala T-38C, F-15C, F-15E, and the secret project).

I am going to guess by the MFD's you mean being able to undock the displays similar to what PMDG does for it's aircraft? We strictly intend on doing everything in the 3D VC with no 2D panels, but it is most certaintly something that we can look into. I am very familiar with the VRS Superbug as I am a customer of theirs, but have not heard about the MFD docking displays in an upcoming update (has been a long time since I have visited their forums).

If adding a tail hook, and nose gear entry to the .cfg files will make your day James please feel free to do so. I must say though that WE will not do that. We are already catching slag from some for including the GPS panel (even though we figured that was a nice gesture, because I know I hate pausing when I am just buzzing around to go to the map in menu to see where I am). Ah well though.

Is all good about taking time to read it all. Is why I am here, and we are always open to new ideas/suggestions. We strive to do the best we can with the resources available. I will bring up the docking MFD's though at the next F-15 pow wow. I say the chances of that though are less than 50% getting added this late in the game. Maybe later similar to what VRS is doing. Our biggest concerns in testing at the moment are making sure all the avionics, and weapons are working correctly.

Don't wish to hijack the video purpose of this thread, but just briefly let me mention that I created Reese AFB from the ground up and in essence replaced that very inaccurate "Reese Airpark" that Aces tried to use to mimic what was done to the airbase after it closed. My rebuild was done in order to make it look like it did back in 1996 before it was closed down.

I also added series of parking spots to the other military airbases since for whatever reason Aces Studios decided to leave them all out. And yes, I spent a fairly significant amount of time correcting taxi routes and signs so that the AI aircraft had a plan to get to the runways, and then made other modifications to ensure that no AI T-38 tried to takeoff or land on a woefully too short runway.

Ken

One of our guys did do something for TM MFDs however I dont own them so i dont know much about how they work.

As far as the F-22 though, may I add that for most of our aircraft we have the TOs for reference and in some (old aircraft) cases we even have the -34 non nuclear weapon delivery manuals. However if you consider the fact that even the engine start sequence of the F-22 is supposed to be "classified" and that NO civilian has TO 1F-22A-1 it makes it a lot tougher to make a good model. Not to mention that as one of the programmers working on the 15E/C I find it kinda tough to pull s*&t outta my butt and im WAAAAY to much of a perfectionist to make a funky garmin display.

Mr. Jonathan Bleeker,

JonathanBleeker wrote:One of our guys did do something for TM MFDs however I dont own them so i dont know much about how they work.

... Not to mention that as one of the programmers working on the 15E/C I find it kinda tough to pull s*&t outta my butt and im WAAAAY to much of a perfectionist to make a funky garmin display.

Now, I read on FB that you'll are *programming glass* on the F-15's and the T-38C models??? If you do 2D pop-up windows that work in Fullscreen mode, that should do the trick; the MFD require a script which should easily be programmed by users in a software package called T.A.R.G.E.T. The only other requested need for that, is for the KEY PRESS events on the models VC's MFD buttons (to see them press/release), which should have either a keyboard shortcut associated with it or an ASCII character to drive the functions (at least the gauge itself should have this). I'm sure if you are passing keyboard key press as well (instead of only requiring mouse click events), that should suffice.

Thus, if you can, please do this... (also posted here: http://forums.vrsimulations.com/forums/ ... 486#p48620 )
As, I have (x4) TM Cougar MFD's and I plan to purchase something like these (Lilliput Um-70 7" USB Monitor) to place behind them for *FULL* functionality and immersion. Can you make them compatible with such devices?
e.g. I'd like to be able to do this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PEbIDlJ0Hs&NR=1 just like this ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H3S1GTro0E&NR=1

FYI: I plan on purchasing the Touch screen version of these screens; so, if you want to, you can make the 2D pop-up MFD displays clickable as well; which might also offer users an added solution.

Thanks for considering my request!

And, Thank you Mr. Steve Jordon, for passing along my request!

I think any programming that allows for cockpit hardware to function along with the VC mouse clicks will be a good benefit that can set Milviz apart from developers who only provide within FSX inputs. So long as the standard FSX offsets are used, most external programs, such as FSUIPC can read them and make use of the offset. Special functions will be more time consuming and extra work.

I know that the use of macros in the T-38A has allowed me to preform from within my cockpit all of the aircraft's functions with one exception, the Course dial. For some reason this will not accept external inputs. I guess it is not programmed to the normal FSX offset function?

John

jmig wrote:I know that the use of macros in the T-38A has allowed me to preform from within my cockpit all of the aircraft's functions with one exception, the Course dial. For some reason this will not accept external inputs. I guess it is not programmed to the normal FSX offset function?

That's strange, since it does in fact use standard FS key events. The only condition as to which key events (NAV1 or NAV2) is the position of the mode selector: TACAN versus Loc/ILS.

VOR1_OBI_DEC
VOR1_OBI_INC

VOR2_OBI_DEC
VOR2_OBI_INC

N4GIX wrote:

jmig wrote:I know that the use of macros in the T-38A has allowed me to preform from within my cockpit all of the aircraft's functions with one exception, the Course dial. For some reason this will not accept external inputs. I guess it is not programmed to the normal FSX offset function?

That's strange, since it does in fact use standard FS key events. The only condition as to which key events (NAV1 or NAV2) is the position of the mode selector: TACAN versus Loc/ILS.

VOR1_OBI_DEC
VOR1_OBI_INC

VOR2_OBI_DEC
VOR2_OBI_INC

Hummmm, interesting, another one of those WTF FSX moments. I am currently using a Go-Flight autopilot to set course and heading. I will look into some encoders I used to use for the same functions and see if I can figure it out.

John

Hi all

I just wanted to clarify a few things about the F-22A manuals. Just like with many other USAF platforms, there are classified and unclassified manuals. The Flight Manual TO 1F-22A-1 is unclassified, as is the Nonnuclear Weapons Delivery Manual TO 1F-22A-34-1-1. The TO 1F-22A-34-1-1-1 Weapons manual is classified.

Cheers

Get me the F-22 manuals. Please.

I have made many attempts to get my hands on that manual. If someone has it and can pass it on we will do THE BEST F-22 ever.

I wish I had the F-22 manuals but I don't...............................................yet