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[Inanimate]

This looks absolutely gorgeous, and it reminds me of how I used to play my big brother' flight simulator all the time. Looking forward to this!

[shrimp]

Great to see how this is coming along! It's wonderful how the style is so coherent throughout the map, missions, briefing, etc.

[Pishtaco]

Great to see how this is coming along! It's wonderful how the style is so coherent throughout the map, missions, briefing, etc.

That's an excuse to post one of the things I have been looking at for inspiration, the Pathe historical archive:

Meteor briefing and flight - http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=64290
Farnborough 1951 - http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=78557
Akron flying aircraft carrier - http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=52275

[Pishtaco]

Demo! - Alpha demo

You will need to edit settings.txt to play it fullscreen. It's the tutorials and one mission.

[fraxcell]

Awesome! It took me a while to get used to the controls, but I really like the feeling of the weapons and flying around. One thing I would like to see is a button to center the third person camera directly behind the ship.

[jmp]

Sadly, the demo doesn't seem to run on my computer.  (Windows XP, Intel 82945G Express Chipset.)  Could be because my integrated video card doesn't support shaders or some weird extensions.  Anyway, in case any you're interested:

OpenGL extension ARB_Point_Sprite is not available.
WARNING: OpenGL shading language extensions are not all available.
Aliased point size range: 1 - 256
Smooth point size range: 0.5 - 10
Aliased line width range: 1 - 256
Smooth line width range: 0.5 - 7.5
Available OpenAL sound devices: DirectSound Software, Generic Hardware, Generic Software,
Using sound device: DirectSound Software
Messengers reset
Loading image new_terrain.bmp ... object.Exception: Access Violation - Read at address 0x0

[george]

I got the same error, I'm pretty sure it's shaders.

[VomitOnLino]

I got the same error, I'm pretty sure it's shaders.

Actually the Intel-card, has shaders (Version 2.0), unless it's the totally crap GMA900 one. I think Open GL is complaining about the lack of POINT_SPRITES, which is basically a 2D dot in space you can apply textures to, most often used for particles - and used for that since the days of GL Quake AFAIK. What a weird error.

Works fine here, and it is awesome! I almost expected the controls to be a bit more arcade-y, but I got the hang of it after a while. I still like the graphical style, but that may just be nostalgia talking.

[deathtotheweird]

Hhaha Oh wow. That was incredibly fun. The controls and movement of the planes feels so great. I was expecting a mega-huge learning curve, but I went through the tutorial twice and spent about 15 minutes practicing and felt pretty confident.

I think my best moment (of which I had a HAHA OH SHIT look on my face when I completed it) was when I was being chased by 2 sukhoi fighters and I climbed a bit too high trying to lose them so I stalled and they flew under me so I just picked em off when I was coming down. Had a huge grin on my face, felt so satisfying.

I wish I had fraps running because that was some cool stuff.

The only real complaint is that I wish space would toggle between cockpit view, since I spent most of my time in it. So holding space was kinda annoying.

[Pishtaco]

Sadly, the demo doesn't seem to run on my computer.  (Windows XP, Intel 82945G Express Chipset.)  Could be because my integrated video card doesn't support shaders or some weird extensions.  Anyway, in case any you're interested:

OpenGL extension ARB_Point_Sprite is not available.
WARNING: OpenGL shading language extensions are not all available.
Aliased point size range: 1 - 256
Smooth point size range: 0.5 - 10
Aliased line width range: 1 - 256
Smooth line width range: 0.5 - 7.5
Available OpenAL sound devices: DirectSound Software, Generic Hardware, Generic Software,
Using sound device: DirectSound Software
Messengers reset
Loading image new_terrain.bmp ... object.Exception: Access Violation - Read at address 0x0

[Also george]

Thanks very much for trying it and reporting back. It seems to me that the problem isn't shaders, since at the point it chokes I haven't tried to compile or use any shaders yet. It might be point sprites, but in theory not supporting them shouldn't cause a crash here, just weird graphical effects (or failure to compile shaders). I'm not sure where the error is happening - I should have been more thorough in reporting things to the log.

Do you have reasonably up-to-date graphics drivers, and can you normally run OpenGL stuff okay?

[Pishtaco]

@allen - Thanks, it's great to hear that.

I thought the space bar might be controversial. I experimented with having it as a toggle, but what happened is that I kept forgetting which view mode I was in. I like the way that having to hold space down makes you know physically what you are doing; it's like concentrating and leaning forward. Maybe I'll put in an option for it.

[george]

Do you have reasonably up-to-date graphics drivers, and can you normally run OpenGL stuff okay?

OpenGL 1 stuff is normally OK, but I do have the GMA 900 actually  . I have the latest driver (2007 ), but I don't expect any newish stuff to work really. On the up side this did inspire me to buy Red Baron from GOG.

[droqen]

This is great even though I suck at it!

~ I used both views and I like having space bar as hold; I almost forget I'm holding it sometimes and it takes me a second to realize maybe I'd be able to do something better if I got out of first person.

[Hangedman]

It is very cool. Turning seems a little over sensitive. Trying to do tight sweeping turns that are necessary in dogfights seem to cause a fair bit of spinning about.

Still wish there was a fixed chase cam option. I don't mind having to find my targets myself if it means I don't have to keep rotating the view.

[PleasingFungus]

This is great even though I suck at it!

(this)

[Pishtaco]

@george & jmp: The problem could be happening where I try to set up the framebuffer, for the postprocessing effects.

It is very cool. Turning seems a little over sensitive. Trying to do tight sweeping turns that are necessary in dogfights seem to cause a fair bit of spinning about.

Still wish there was a fixed chase cam option. I don't mind having to find my targets myself if it means I don't have to keep rotating the view.

I think you're running into the fact that the meteor just can't turn very tightly. It doesn't matter that much against these Sukhois, because I've deliberately gimped their turning circle. But the other soviet fighter in the game, the Yak, is very maneuverable so you shouldn't try to get into a turning fight with it in a meteor; you have to boom and zoom.

The way I use the third person camera is to keep it pointed in the direction I want to turn towards, and to use the artificial horizon if I want to keep my turn nice and level. Somehow it reminds me of driving the warthog in Halo.

[Danrul]

Creme'd le jeans.

[deathtotheweird]

I've been playing it some more, and I can definitely see the advantages to not having the spacebar as a toggle. I uploaded a video of me playing it here(with modified patrol.txt to have 7 enemies):

(quality is poo because I had fraps set to record at half size, ill change that next video I make-in where I don't suck as bad)
----
edit:


here's another video but with the default patrol.txt restored, I do a lot better at tracking the enemies this time (except for losing control at about 2:55)
darn enemy robs me of my victory by just crashing..oh well.
-----
I've pretty much gotten used to the controls by now. I still make some mistakes every now and then but that's not my main problem. The main problem I am having trouble with is keeping track of enemies. It's very hard to determine the angle they are coming from.

Also, when running it fullscreen, I sometimes get an (object.Exception: Access Violation - Read at address 0x3e57088) in the console immediately after (Mesh exhaust loaded), and it will crash. I just keep on clicking the exe until it decides to work, have no idea what's causing it, never happens if it's running windowed.

I think I've been enjoying this way too much. When I stop playing I can still hear the sound of the wind rushing by. 

[Pishtaco]

If you want to mess around with the script files, you can bring down the console and type h and you'll get a list of all the commands.

I've pretty much gotten used to the controls by now. I still make some mistakes every now and then but that's not my main problem. The main problem I am having trouble with is keeping track of enemies. It's very hard to determine the angle they are coming from.

Also, when running it fullscreen, I sometimes get an (object.Exception: Access Violation - Read at address 0x3e57088) in the console immediately after (Mesh exhaust loaded), and it will crash. I just keep on clicking the exe until it decides to work, have no idea what's causing it, never happens if it's running windowed.

I think I've been enjoying this way too much. When I stop playing I can still hear the sound of the wind rushing by.  

Thanks very much for making the videos, they're a great way to see the game from someone else's eyes. It looks like you never use the tracking camera. You press shift to turn this on, and it tries to keep your enemy always on the screen.

Edit: For the crashing, can you tell me what kind of system you're running it on?

[deathtotheweird]

Since the shift is a toggle, I always forgot I had it on (and always forgot to turn it off) so I just haven't gotten used to using it effectively yet.

I'm running it on windows 7 (32 bit) with an ati 3500 video card