ViperOne: An hyper realistic F-16 combat flight simulator (a

Hello guys,

Here a little bit more info about the upcoming ViperOne flight simulator for Palm and Treo devices.

ViperOne is a F-16 flight combat simulator. The game is still in alpha but I will shortly be able to release it as a beta for people to check out.

Here a quick description of the game:

ViperOne simulate a F-16 in a night combat situation. The goal of the game are:

1- Train to flight the jet fighter. Learn to take-off, land and even land without an engine (could happen during combat missions!)

2- Train in Air to Ground strikes. First without having to worry about enemy defenses. Once you are good at hitting targets then you will learn to confront enemy surface to air Missiles! (SAM)

3- The final goal is to actually do combat missions against a range of enemy targets like bridge, factory and even nuclear sites. Of course the more important the target is the more SAM sites you will need to evade!

The game also keep tack of your bombing results and flight hours over time. This allows to get you promoted during your flight career. You start a the bottom (2nd Lt) and then progress up to **** General. You will even be reward medals for good missions!

The game has many difficulties added (of course you can disable them) like cross wind and F-16 sub-systems failures. Current failures include, fuel leak, dead engine, instruments display malfunction and so on.

Here a quick video to see what it looks like to flight this thing. Please note that this is an old version but it gives you the flavor of the game (be gentle about my voice-over ability!!). I am working on better videos:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmWV1fhNSmY&feature=player_embedded

For some of you who are familiar with my past simulators like Lunar Lander, you can of course expect ViperOne to be an hyper realistic flight simulator. For instance ViperOne has:

*A realistic 6 degrees of freedom (6-DOF) flight simulation from a NASA flight model of the actual F-16 (hundreds of data parameters..)

* Alpha angle of attack and Beta sideslip calculation (a alpha is displayed on the HUD display)

* Black out effect when flying over + 9 G or -3 G (vision loss!)

* Actual PID controller (flight computer) to help you flight the thing (without this FCS and like the real thing, your jet is not flyable)

* Realistic HUD (head Up Display)

* Multi-function display (system info, radar, threat warning system)

* Realistic bombing mode (CCRP for those in the know)

* Multiple system failures possible during mission

* Currently 6 missions to choose from. More to come later

* Full Air-Force career management including medals!

* Realistic sounds effects like gear up/down, open/close air brakes and so on

Once again I finishing up the beta version. When I am done I will call on some of you (if you want to) to help test this thing!

I am still working on the Air Force career part (where you get promoted depending on your flight hours and missions accomplishments) as well the medals awarding part. I have also started to write the flight manual. Finally I am hoping to record some training videos using the most recent game version.

A lot of work as you can see but it is also a lot of fun! I cannot wait to release this game for your guys to enjoy.

Stay tune.

Mo.

Hello guys,

Here a second video about ViperOne. This time, it shows how to land the F-16 using the ILS or Instrument Landing System. It is meant as a video tutorial for the upcoming ViperOne flight combat simulator. Please note that this is an older version of the game. I am hoping to re-do these videos when I get a chance (using the new cockpit)

You can check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yb6PgHzTN0

In term of the progress, I am currently working on the score and ranking/promotion system. As I see it, my plans are as follow in term of the promotion scheme:

1- Up to Captain (2nd Lt, 1st Lt and then Captain):
all your flight hours (training and combat) , target destroyed.. are counted toward your promotion as is. Of course you get extra points for game level or if you enable cross-wind or sub-systems failures (fuel leak, engine failure, radar...)

2- Captain to Colonel (Major, Lt Col,Colonel):
All flight hours and targets destroyed count but training flights are heavily discounted. For instance 10 hours of training flight maybe will be valued as 1-2 hours. You can still train (to get better at landing for instance) but combat hours will count much more toward your promotion to the rank of Colonel.

3- Colonel to 4 stars General (Brigadier Gen, Major Gen, Lt Gen, **** General):
a) training flights/target destroyed in training would not count anymore toward a higher promotion.
b- You will need to flight combat missions with all difficulties set to high (game level= hard, wind=yes, failures=yes..)
c) It also take much more hours to change rank at this level.

At least that's my thinking at this time. I just want to make it easier at the beginning to get promoted but as the game evolve it is harder and harder to get to the top (hey, not everybody has what it takes to be a **** General )

You also be able to get different medals (Airman,Bronze Star, Silver Star and the Air Force Cross) but I have to admit I did not start working on that yet and that feature probably won't make it to the beta version. I am focus and releasing a beta version as soon as I can.

That's it for now. Enjoy the video and please do not hesitated to comment on the promotion scheme I am proposing. I am always on the lookout for ideas/comments.

Cheers.

Mo

Mo, that's a remarkable achievement on a PDA. The videos are really cool and show the potential of the sim.

Maybe when I buy a Palm Pre....

Hello GM.

Thanks for the kind remarks. Yes I was myself impress that my 755p (TC and T3) were able to handle so much work. The physics (the math to calculate the status of the jet) is called 1000's time a second in addition to run the game itselft (display, game management as well as the SAM and bombs behaviors) it is indeed amazing that the Palm is running at all!

I am finishing up the ranking/promotion part of the game. Once that is done, I may have one more set of alpha testing and then I will be able to release a beta version.

Stay tune!

Mo.