SAMLaunch.com » Eagle Dynamics

DCS: Blackshark now available on Steam

Webmaster Ross — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 20:07:50 +0000

DCS: Blackshark is now available on Steam!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/61000/
(unfortunately not available in the UK)

ED forums announcement

ED Development Update – January 15, 2010

Webmaster Ross — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 18:32:26 +0000

An update from Eagle Dynamics about current plans and progress (posted by EvilBivol on ED forum):

“Dear all,

We would like to provide you with some development updates.

Our immediate priority at this time is the finalizing of the Flaming Cliffs 2.0 upgrade for Lock On. The project is currently undergoing final testing, however this does not mean it is immediately close to release. Besides testing and fixing bugs, other important tasks still underway include mission/campaign content generation, training course development, and recording new radio messages. Furthermore, translations from Russian to English and vice-versa are still ongoing and all of these items have to be localized into French, German and Spanish. As you can see, there is still significant development to be done and we are not ready to provide a specific release date beyond the previously mentioned early-2010. Please bear in mind that release dates are always tricky and our goal is not to release as soon as possible, but release as soon as possible with confidence in the quality of the product – maximally bug-free and feature-full.

We are also hard at work on our second DCS module, the A-10C Warthog. There are many new features in development for this project. Expect more details to begin coming out after the FC2 release.

Given the very high workload on both the entertainment and military side of development, we’ve had to re-prioritize our previously announced third-party support tools. As you know, we’ve already released terrain development plug-ins and a number of third-party maps are now under development. Among these, very good progress is being made on the Nevada terrain, which we hope to officially include in DCS: A-10C as a training map. We are now working on a new set of terrain tools, which will support some new terrain technologies planned for DCS: A-10C. Our goal is to make terrain creation and rendering easier and more effective. On the other hand, we’ve had to hold the development of other third-party tools as the team resources are simply being used elsewhere at this point. We realize there is a lot of interest about this and we’ll keep you posted if anything changes.

We would also like to share some feature updates for FC2. FC2 will feature the much requested Mission Planner interface. This is an item we’ve been planning for quite a long time and we are happy to be able to include it in FC2. The Mission Planner will be available from the Briefing menu in the single-player GUI. It will be a simplified version of the Mission Editor, showing only those units not hidden by the mission designer and allowing the player to edit the flight route (excluding take-off and landing points) and payloads/fuel/skins. The Mission Planner will not be available in the multi-player menu. Also, FC2 will feature video-based training. The training course will be based on the FC training module, but re-recorded in FC2 to account for changes and updates, including text subtitles and voice-overs for all aircraft now.

Thank you.
__________________
EB”

ED Forums – View Single Post – Development Update – January 15, 2010

DCS: BlackShark English Manual now available

Webmaster Ross — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 02:58:53 +0000

The English PDF manuals for the DCS:Blackshark combat chopper simulator is now available HERE. (It requires a free registration)

The flight manual is 385 pages of text, diagrams and color photos, and teaches you all the detail about the KA-50 systems, including avionics, comms and the ABRIS Moving Map/GPS system. It contains checklists for practicing those cold ramp starts, and some basic operating procedures.

The User Interface (GUI) manual is 162 pages, and teaches you about the mission editor and the new pilot logbook.

What are you waiting for?

DCS forum highlights – Aug, 2008

Webmaster Ross — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:23:16 +0000

Here’s a look at some recent postings in the DCS forums:

08-23-2008, 12:08 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by hitman_214th
1) Will CG [Center of Gravity] be static or dynamic in BS? Obviously with weaps release the CG will change, but what about fuel bladders? Hydraulic fluid? Also pertains to question 2.

Yes, the CG is dynamic and will change as the stores/fluids/airframe structure are affected in real time. Whether the change will be enough to you to appreciate it, however, is another question. (Opps, see Alpha’s response below).

2) Is fluid dynamics figured into the simulator? Fuel leaks into separate compartments, hydraulic fluids being dumped overboard, ballast, liquid sloshing in half-filled reservoirs?

The available pressures and flows of the fluids are modeled dynamically and mainly within their respective systems (e.g. the fuel system <-> engine <-> APU, etc.), including pressure dependencies, pumps functionality, etc. The fluids themselves are not modeled according to fluid dynamics.

3) Kind of a dumb question, but would there be a way to load the aircraft in such a manner to make it unstable in certain flight characteristics? (flying forward with tail heavy tendency makes it harder to lower the nose and accellerate, a means to adjust tail heavy a/c to nose heavy)

I don’t think you can configure the aircraft for instability. However, damaging the airframe can be fun.
__________________
EvilBivol-1
Online Community Manager
source

08-24-2008, 08:22 PM
Free fall bombs are wAFMed [weapon Advanced Flight Modelled]. I’m not sure if the same is true for the individual bomblets of the KMGU dispenser or cluster bombs, but I do not believe so. Will test and get back to you.

UPDATE: I ran a test, but couldn’t reach a 100% conclusion. However, it looks like each bomblet may be wAFMed afterall, because your helicopter’s trajectory during release definitely affects their dispersion pattern. In most cases, the difference isn’t large, because you will typically release from a relatively low altitude, but it is there. Again though, without a definitive answer from Yo-Yo, I’m not sure.

All bombs simply explode on impact.
__________________
EvilBivol-1
Online Community Manager
source

08-30-2008, 02:16 AM
In regards to trees – next engine, as mentioned previously. Making trees solid is just too impractical in the current engine.
__________________
EvilBivol-1
Online Community Manager
source

08-22-2008, 06:40 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by thamuff
Has the decision been made about any digital distribution, Steam etc?

While we have been talking with Valve/Steam, no final decision has been made.
__________________
Matt Wagner
Producer, TFC/Eagle Dynamics
source

08-22-2008, 06:41 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Poko24
So good to hear. How is the english manual?

Pretty much done, just little edits here and there. Once the game goes into duplication, we will probably release it for free.
__________________
Matt Wagner
Producer, TFC/Eagle Dynamics
source

08-22-2008, 07:57 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by patricio_z
Can anyone point me to the thread where the specs of this [Producer's notes] system are mentioned??

Thanks for the update!

E6850 @ 3.0 GHz
2 GB RAM
8800 GTX
XP SP2

Nothing overclocked

Video recorded at default HIGH settings with FRAPS.
__________________
Matt Wagner
Producer, TFC/Eagle Dynamics
source

08-22-2008, 04:53 PM
Today we will be downloading Build 50 which is code frozen for the Russian version except for any critical issues or crashes found in final testing. The primary issue that remains for the western version is to complete the German, French and Spanish localizations (these will all reside on a single DVD). It has been a long haul but we are getting close.
__________________
Matt Wagner
Producer, TFC/Eagle Dynamics
source

Eagle Dynamics/DCS forums down (UPDATED)

Webmaster Ross — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:29:56 +0000

It seems that the Eagle Dynamics/DCS forums have been down for a couple of days.

I hope everything is ok.

I know that the sim-mod team website has had some virus problems recently.

I’ll try and update this post when they are back online.

UPDATE Aug 17: looks like they are back up and running, and as far as I can tell the data is still there. Good show.

Future DCS modules announced

Webmaster Ross — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:16:29 +0000

As you may know, DCS is a simulation engine in development by Eagle Dynamics and The Fighter Collection. Over time they will be releasing new aircraft which will integrate with this engine (They estimate one aircraft every 9 months after release of BlackShark). This is the planned order of aircraft which will be released:

A-10A Suite 2 (latest version of A-10A in active use)
A-10C Suite 3 (entertainment version of the simulation ED developed for the USAF)
AH-64A Apache Blk. 49A
Su-27 Flanker
F-15C Eagle
Mi-24V Hind
F-16C Falcon
MiG-29A Fulcrum

source: http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=27694