The last couple of weeks had Ace Combat fans all over the world were anticipating news and info about the new entry to the flight shooter genre, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. As soon as the doors opened at Gamescom 2018 in Cologne, Germany, a new trailer with a definitive release date was released to the public. Please accompany us as we take an in depth look at every remarkable frame inside the trailer, explaining it and pointing out things that viewers may have missed. ​This analysis will be divided into two sections: Audio and Video. Each finding will contain timestamps inside the video to allow for side by side viewing. These timestamps are made using the PlayStation Europe Release Date Trailer and are only compatible with this trailer. Video Analysis 0:22 We start the video with some beautiful shots of the F-104C cockpit rendered with extreme detail, artificial horizons, altimeter and even the exhaust temperature indicator were functional, which is impressive. 0:26-0:40 After some shots that we have seen previously and a couple of Ulysses asteroid craters, we cut to a night refueling of an F-15C, which could mean the return of night time missions to the series. 0:44 What follows is quite interesting. We see an F-35C being moved to the deck of a Nimitz class carrier, but this carrier in particular has something rather unique. This carrier seems to be equipped with an anti-aircraft system that is not CIWS. In their place there are what look like large metal balls. As of now we do not know what these are but one can speculate for them to be some kind of laser weaponry or a shield similar to the one equipped on the Arsenal Bird. 0:54 More familiar but slightly altered shots show a scene that was previously thought to be a cut scene. This scene implied the demise of Spare 8´s Super Hornet at the hands of Mihaily in a past trailer. The difference this time is the plane being piloted. Instead of the Super Hornet we are presented with a returning veteran of the franchise, the MiG-29 Fulcrum-A. 1:19 After that we see another incoming aircraft. This time its a JAS-39 Gripen-E being piloted by Trigger as he fights Mihaly. 1:32/1:33 ​A couple of establishing shots of several characters pass. We see a close up of a hanging clock followed by a gunshot; the gun being fired has the markings “XD.50” indicating the supposed model and caliber of the weapon. An instant later we see an object that for the sake of simplicity will be called a “hard drive”. It gets shot by what appears to be the same pistol fired earlier. The hard drive has the inscription: “TESTER: [MIHAILY] VERSION: 13” on the bottom. Meaning that his flight data is being recorded and saved on these memory devices. 1:34 We see the face of the young woman that has been accompanying Mihaly and Rosa in the other trailers, but this time the focus of the shot is entirely on her. It suggests that she will play a more important role than what we thought before. Her dress is royal-like which suggests that she might be a member of the royal family, but she might also be a caretaker for Mihaly. We will see her face again a couple of times in the trailer. 1:35 A screen opens and we see a holographic representation of the satellite network. In the same frame objects named ASAT-01 and 02 hit orbiting satellites. One can deduce from this frame that the trajectory of these ASATs (Anti-Satellite weapons) show that they come from the southeastern part of the Usean continent. 1:37/1:39 Princess Rosa appears crying beneath a dark sky, the same sky that we will see the prisoners of the 444th walk over. This implies that they are at the same location and the same time. Afterwards we see a conversation between Rosa and Dr. Schröder. In this conversation something of great importance appears for the first time: "Harling´s Mirror" with the presence of one of the Erusean royal family sitting on the floor beside it. 1:40 "Harling´s Mirror" seems to refer to the painting that depicts an elven dance, peace symbolism and the use of the International Space Elevator as a symbol of peace. With 5 of these ISEVs being present in the painting along with the Strangereal world seen from space in the background. We will see its role once the game finally releases in January 2019. 1:42/1:45 After that we see a flight of four F-14s with Osean markings (most likely belonging to Gargoyle Squadron) shooting down a V-22 that was protected by MQ-101 drones. This seems to be an event of great importance, as the radio chatter suggests that the V-22 is not Osean and show not be fired upon. 1:47/1:48 A shot of a computer that probably belongs to Dr. Schröder monitoring the satellite network as it is being destroyed. This scene is reinforced by a shot of Schröder looking up at a what seems to be a meteor shower but is most likely satellite debris. The hard drive is seen yet again in the background and later in the hands of the Doctor. 1:49 A flight of four F/A-18s, but these do not seem to be conventional Super Hornets due to the unusual red light bar that appears beneath their cockpits. It's reminiscent of some sort of laser. 1:50 through 1:52 ​After some shots that we have previously seen of the Avril Mead, we see a very fast succession of shots. The first of them shows a hand with white nail paint looking at a map of Usea. The next transition reveals the darkened sky scene now over the Prisoners from the 444th. We can somewhat identify the location thanks to the background. A Mass Driver, rocket launch pads and cranes, along with a shot of a Space Shuttle that is being investigated by the 444th. There is only one place in Usea that is known to have these facilities - Riass Space Center located on the Comona Islands. The assertion of Riass being included can only be considered speculation based on the terrain. 2:00/2:02/2:07 A transition to more action shots, showing what appears to be Stonehenge being activated. A gigantic base or airport suspended above the ocean, located in a snowy area with a C-17 a top of one of the platforms. A visual that is familiar to Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies players is the shock wave and shot effect of a Stonehenge cannon. This is undeniable proof of this once defunct railgun being reactivated. 2:12 We see a soon to be destroyed Admiral Kuznetsov class aircraft carrier being approached by an Su-33 Flanker piloted by Trigger and a familiar shot of the Su-30SM of the Erusean Sol Squadron, but what follows is what grabs attention. 2:21/2:22/2:24 ​We see a line of trucks opening their cargo compartments upwards, showing that they are in fact drone launchers equipped with MQ-99. As they launch we see that this is inside a city. Possibly the opening strike of the drone attacks mentioned during the mission briefing for Mission 03. One thing I noticed about these MQ-99 is that they do not appear to posses landing gear. Only weapons bays and optical sensors are seen possibly meaning they are disposable UAVs. This is followed by the image of what appears to be the drone´s targeting cam and the Doctor´s face while he looks at the destruction of the satellite network. 2:24 ​We see a drone that is completely new flyby a looks like a C-17 Globemaster. This aircraft seems to have similar design features to the other fictional we get to see later on the trailer. ​ 2:29 A taste of the real power of the Arsenal Bird is shown as it deploys its shield. The shield survives an impact of 15 missiles without any wavering on the shield´s part. 2:36 After more combat the return of the Machine Gun Pod (MGP) special weapon is confirmed with it being deployed on the MiG-21BIS; which is also a new confirmed aircraft. 2:39 Another new aircraft confirmed, the Su-47 Berkut. 2:45 ​We see yet again the girl of the royal family during a night shot. This is followed by a shot of a Su-57 equipped with 'laser gun pods' attacking at night. We only knew of this weapon equipped on the F-15C before this, so it is good to know that it will be available to more planes. 2:56 We again see the unknown drone, now in better detail. Its shape is reminiscent of the ADF Falken design. The design is most prominent in the nose of this drone. 3:02 We see our first glance at what might be one of the new fictional aircraft available to the player. It also appears to be based on the ADF-01 Falken design made by Gründer Industries. It lacks vertical stabilizers and the front canards are heavily modified. This aircraft seems to feature a Connection For Flight Interface (COFFIN) system rather than a standard cockpit. This aircraft will prove important to the main plot. Audio Analysis ​0:17-0:32 We start the trailer with the continuation of the dialogue we first heard way back on the Gamescom 2017 trailer. The dialogue is spoken by Avril Mead (female penal squadron pilot). In her tone of voice and her choice of words you can sense that she is very passionate about flying.  0:34-040 Just after that we hear the static of a radio being turned on/adjusted into a new frequency and the newscaster from previous trailers starts her announcement. This time the only difference seems to be that she is repeating the message after that with a tone that strikes the importance of the message to the listeners. 0:50-0:52 Then we get a new dialogue line from Mission 6 never spoken in any previous trailer, in this line Spare 6 “Full Band” squadron makes reference to a character that goes for the name of “Jailer”. Looking into previous trailers and into what we previously know about the penal squadron, the most probable conclusion is that this character is the base commander of the 444th Osean Air Force Base. 0:53-1:02 Just after that, we hear Spare 11 state how he thinks High Command sees the Penal units, just them as “pawns”. After that we hear the reaction of the Spare Squadron pilots (including a female pilot) and the AWACS to their sighting of Mihaily´s SU-30, and the terror that that aircraft truly is in their eyes. 1:04-1:19 We then transition to a conversation between two of the characters, Avril Mead and Spare 11 “Tabloid”. We hear a less detailed and more confusing version of this same conversation on previous iterations of the trailers. This time we do get a more complete version of their dialogue, and now we know that Spare 11 is most likely is referring to Trigger when he is talking about following his flight lead into an enemy squadron formation. Because of that they both jokingly call him a “fool”. 1:20-1:24 Erusean control then contacts Mihaily as his callsign, Sol 1 (Sun 1), and the voice that is on the radio sounds like a young man checking in on the status of Sol 1. Mihaily then responds in a joking manner. 1:25-1:30 We then hear a now familiar line about the Three Strikes as Trigger battles Mihaily. Remarks of the disdain and anger from who appear to be Osean pilots towards Trigger follow the battle, stating that “as long as you´re here, this country will never know peace.” 1:31-1:40 Mihaily states his now famous line "what is a nation?" An important dialogue between Princess Rosa and Dr. Schröder includes the dialogue “I wonder which path you would choose… when looking at Harling's mirror?" 1:41-1:48 Gargoyle Squadron, an Osean unit that was never previously mentioned, talks to an entity by the callsign “Babel”. This is a reference to the Tower of Babel story from the Bible, but in what way we can only speculate. One could assume it is related to the ISEV in some way. The radio chatter during this scene suggests an attack against a foreign countries’ asset by Osean forces. A voice on the radio refers to them as Osean fighters, so it has to be a non-Osean radio operator calling off the attack. Just after that we hear a pilot questioning his assignments.  1:49-2:04 After a couple of known lines from Avril Mead, we transition to more combat oriented dialogue we would hear during a mission. One line stands out: “friend or foe, so be it”. This could mean several things but any conclusion would be just speculation at this moment. 2:05-2:07 We hear who we can only assume are the operators of the only Stonehenge cannon talking over the radio. 2:11-2:14 A radio news broadcaster states a very interesting fact about the penal units. Rumors about these units turning on their allies. Speculation leads one to believe that this means that at one point a penal unit started destroying Osean assets, but that is not confirmed as of now. 2:15-2:23 Dr. Schröder states that the Strangereal society had been functioning thanks to the flow of information, but at the start of the war, maybe because of the destruction of the satellite networks, this is no longer a reality. 2:24-2:44 More combat oriented dialogue, but after that comes what could be one of the most important bits of dialogue in the trailer. Princess Rosa states in surprise “this is the aircraft my grandfather told me about." It is not known which aircraft she is referring to, but as she states that her grandfather was the one that mentioned it to her, it might be the F-104C that we have seen throughout the trailers. 2:45-2:50 Mihaily states that he has knowledge of incredibly skilled pilots of each generation, but that he has succeeded in shooting all of them down. This revelation stoked high levels of speculation into his origins and how he was capable of doing this due to the Strangereal timeline. 2:51-3:05 As the trailer closes what we hear are all of the known characters calling out to Trigger with the only exceptions being an AWACS and the Princess Rosa. The Princess speaks in a concerned tone about an aircraft that “needs to be taken care of." This implies destruction rather than protection. About the Author Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

Today we have a special interview with BG, our Chief German Translator and representative during Gamescom 2018 in Cologne, Germany. Those following our Gamescom 2018 coverage would know that BG was able to get his hands on the showroom demo of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. He managed to play the demo many times to get a general feel for the game through the limited version of Mission 6: Long Day. A video of his game play is available on our YouTube channel. The interviewer for this being Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos (CB). How do the flying physics compare to the ones present in previous games? (i.e. AC4, AC5 and ACZ) ​It is hard to compare the physics to the other games of the series. The way the planes flew was something completely different from anything I experienced. I would say, the game which I would compare it to is Ace Combat X. It felt so real, even though I never flew a real plane myself. When activating afterburner did the plane accelerate in a controlled fashion or was it too sudden? With afterburner active the plane accelerated smoothly. I really felt how the plane accelerated, starting slow and accelerating smoothly every second. It gave me that incredible feeling I missed in the other games. ​​ Did you notice any graphical glitch or stutter (FPS drop) while you played? The graphics were way better than anything I saw in previous games. I would dare to say, they are like a mixture of Ace Combat 6 and Ace Combat Infinity graphics, but with massive improvements in the details. The only thing I can say something negative about is that when you look closely at the explosions they do not seem completely smooth and perfect, but I think I am nitpicking at this point. ​ How did the physics react during landing? Were they closer to Ace Combat 04 or to Ace Combat Zero? The landing itself was also really smooth. It felt like you had a bit more freedom than in AC4/ACZ. It also felt like you have to be more cautious with landing than usual, but that could just be me. It was a great experience either way. Was the lock-on system reactive?  Did target acquisition feel intuitive or did the game target unwanted objectives? The lock-on system was really quick no matter what the target was. The game itself sometimes locked onto a target that I didn't want to attack while I switched targets. This resulted in having to take another run onto my intended target, but it wasn't a problem to me. How did the 8AAM work when compared to the previous iterations of the same weapon? What other Special Weapons were you able to test? The 8AAM worked a bit similar to the ADMM system of the CFA-44 Nosferatu or the targeting systems from similar special weapons of Ace Combat: Assault Horizon. You could let the 8AAM lock multiple missiles onto the same target to deal massive damage. When targeting, let's say 4 targets, each target would be locked with 2 missiles. I don't know if there is an option to avoid that in the game settings. The same also went for the 8AGM ground missile. Again, one target can be locked onto 8 times ending with massive attack done to that target. It is also a nice touch to get the some small dots in the HUD UI when a target gets locked onto more than once. ​ Are High-G maneuvers available to the player? How do you activate them and were you able to use the Post Stall maneuver system? It seems like you get the High-G turns back, you just don't have it visualized the same way like in Ace Combat 6. To make a High-G turn, you have to hold brake and throttle at the same time while pulling the flight stick back to turn. Of course, at lower the speeds, the quicker you turn but the faster you stall. I can't say anything about the Post Stall Maneuvers. I either didn't figure it out, or it wasn't available in the demo. ​ How did the gun behave in comparison to previous games and how effective was the ammo? Did it feel satisfying to use it in both an air-to-air and in air-to-ground roles? I would say the gun has also changed completely from the previous Ace Combat games. You need to be more precise with it and from what I saw it also seems like you aren't able to deal a lot of damage with it. That could be because of my bad aim with a gun that you need to be very precise with. Maybe with some more time and practice, this version of the gun could be really deadly. ​ Can you introduce us to your assistant, Hazawa? Hazawa got in contact with me around two weeks before Gamescom began. He asked about the stream, when it would happen and things like that. Later on while we chatted, I realized that I may need help so I asked him if he could lend me a hand. To my luck, he did. Without him, I think the livestream and the YouTube video upload would be impossible. Hazawa himself is also a big Ace Combat fan. He started with AC4 and then worked through the series. Again Hazawa, I would like to thank you for helping me the way you did. Much of this content would not be here without you. We would also like to formally thank Hazawa for their assistance. How was the Ace Combat 7 area constructed? To be absolutely honest, I was a bit disappointed after I saw how small the Ace Combat stand was compared to the other games from Bandai Namco. Sure, they had a big poster over the stand and some small title screen based wallpapers over the demo screens, but that was it. ​ How many people were in the line to play the demo? Did you have to wait long to get your hands on the demo? ​ The average number of people who waited there was around 20 people. But we never had to wait for long, at least no more than than 20 min. ​ How long were the game sessions? A game session was not longer than 10 minutes. Well, I am not sure when the hidden demo timer started to count. After looking at the footage I recorded, I spent around 2 minutes 30 seconds in briefing and inside the hangar, and around 7 minutes in-flight. But the recording is missing a bit of footage at the beginning, which could mean that overall it’s 10 minutes. ​ How many times were you and Hazawa able to play the demo? ​Each of us had 4 runs, 8 in total. At the stand we switched after the first person was done. While switching to take pictures and video on the 7th run the staff started to make sure we weren't just standing there restarting the demo over and over. Their tone seemed serious, so I think they were getting annoyed with us. I think it's safe to say you had plenty of time with the demo. After playing the game, did they give you something to remember the occasion? Yes, we got a nice bag with a poster in it. The bag and poster are double sided. One side related to AC7, showing us an F-22 Raptor in the clouds with the "Unknown Astronaut" on the Lighthouse ISEV. The other side belonged to Soul Calibur IV. Image Gallery About the Interviewer Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

First released in 2006 by Russian developer 1C: Maddox Games, IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 is a compilation of all the expansions and updates released for IL-2 Sturmovik (2001). This game has proven that even while being limited in graphics and technologically, it can still offer incredible flexibility in terms of gameplay options. Modders of this game have created amazing things with the limited resources they have at hand. Today we will take a look at some of their creations. ​To start let’s talk a little about IL-2 1946 and what it originally was. It was released as a World War 2 flight game with simulator like characteristics. Though limited to the Eastern front in the original IL-2 Sturmovik, the game received several expansions that took the action to the Pacific, the Western Front and into forgotten battlefields. After these expansions, 1C: Maddox Games released Il-2 1946; an expansion that included prototypes and “paper planes” that were not available before. It contained over 220 aircraft. Not all were playable until some modders decided to delve into the game files and made them available. The 1946 expansion is now the only way to obtain IL-2 Sturmovik through Steam, as it is a compilation of the base game and the previous expansions. Before we get to the main topic, I would like to introduce the modding community responsible for all the creations that we will see in this article: Special Air Service 1946 or SAS 1946 for short. This forum based community has been active since 2009 making mods for IL-2 which change the very foundation of the game in the process. Their changes to the game stretch from graphics and audio improvements, fixing broken mechanics on the ‘vanilla’ (standard) version of the game, improving the flight model of several aircraft and more. The creation of new playable models of aircraft such as the F/A-18C/D, F-16A/B/C, A-10, B-52, and other aircraft beyond the World War 2 time frame. These user made aircraft models don't only include functional cockpits, but also functioning systems like radar, RWR, in-flight refueling and countermeasures. They also include multiple weapons loadouts that are completely recreated from their real world counterparts. The recreation includes functionality. i.e: when you want to drop a GBU-12 from the F/A-18D, you first have to lock onto your target with a laser designator located in the TGP.      Most of the mods are simpler, implementing reused assets from either the vanilla release or previous mods using new 3D models, flight physics and weaponry. The most reused assets in fighter jets belong to the famous “Jet-Era” mod. Jet-Era is one of the biggest modding efforts done within the community, launched by SAS~Anto and his collaborators. This mod contains a variety of Korean War-era planes, such as  the F-86 Saber in a selection of variants and the MiG-15 and MiG-17 with their own variants available for use. The damage model on a great majority of modded aircraft is pretty good. At least as good as the original aircraft damage model provided by the developers. In some cases the modded damage models can be even more accurate to the real life counterpart. You can have plenty of fun shooting down any aircraft in several ways. From wing damage to engine destruction or killing the pilot inside the cockpit with a very accurate gun pass. Large aircraft like the TU-95 “Bear” and the B-52 “Stratofortress” are available as flyable aircraft with their cockpits and crew positions mannable. These, alongside other modded aircraft like the F-4 and MiG-21, are pretty entertaining to use. Other features that make IL-2 1946 so enjoyable - even in 2018 - are the mission creator and the implementation of custom missions and campaigns through mods. The mission creator can be somewhat hard to learn at the beginning. When you get the hang of it, it can prove to be one of the most enjoyable features of the game by allowing the creation of combat scenarios of varying difficulties with modded planes and modded maps What amazes me about the IL-2 1946 modding community in general is the dedication and passion that they put into their creations. How they have worked within the limitations of a now 12 year old game, taking it far beyond what it once was; from 220~aircraft on the standard release to now over 310 playable models. All created through dedication by the community.      There is one thing you should consider if you want to mod this game for yourself: it is not very easy. Many things have to be done by hand, there’s not an automatic installation program available to assist. Usually mods come with their instructions but the majority rely on someone already having knowledge about the modding process. Because of this getting into adding mods to the base game can prove troublesome. Do not be frustrated if you fail an installation, the people over on the SAS 1946 forum can help you. Believe me, it is worth the effort.   The community that surrounds IL-2 1946 is a demonstration of what a dedicated fanbase can provide to a game in terms of support, creativity and talent. Crossing barriers that even the developers over at 1C:Maddox Games couldn't imagine. Image Gallery About the Author Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

Ace Combat Fan (ACF) has completed a full day of hands-on experience with the demo for Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown at PAX West 2018. On August 27th, 2018, Bandai-Namco America announced that it would have a booth at PAX West 2018 featuring demos of four games. One of these games being Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. Shortly after buying his ticket Ace Combat Fan agreed to attend the event as a public relations correspondent. With his gameplay checklist complete and new video footage being prepared for his YouTube channel, he took some time shortly after returning from his road trip to PAX to answer some questions about his experience. How did the flight physics react when you were hit by the wind? Did the plane react differently depending on the angle in which the wind was gusting? i.e: Crosswind, Tailwind... You can definitely feel the impact of the crosswind on your aircraft since it will drift to the side. The 3rd person camera helps you identify this drift because the aircraft will go to one side of the screen unlike in no-wind conditions, where it remains in the centre. On one occasion I remember being in a narrow ravine and I had to pull out because the wind was pushing me to one side. Of course the player should be able to apply the rudder to correct for this situation but since I still wasn’t used to the aircraft response in AC7, I took the safest option of climbing out of the narrow passage. I believe I also felt some headwind/tailwind but that is much easier to deal with since you can control it with your power setting/throttle. During the landing sequence, how did the physics react? Can you compare them to any previous game or do they feel completely different? I’ve only done one landing and was mostly focused on recording the airbase and the aircraft parked there, thus my approach was horrible. Still I noticed that when you get closer to the ground your aircraft gets a slight nose up tendency unlike previous games. So you can perform a smoother landing. The takeoff transition is also smoother since your aircraft doesn’t just “jump” straight into the air like past games. During Mission 7, how did the weather feel whenever you were flying? Did you think that it was realistic or that it was a little too harsh on the player? As someone with some flying experience in real life, I’ve really enjoyed the turbulence because it feels authentic. You get a considerable feel of your aircraft shaking but at the same time it is not overwhelming to the point you would panic. As for visibility, some areas where quite good and others quite poor so there’s some diversity on the environment. Overall, Yinshi Valley is a challenging map due to the combination of both the weather and the terrain. I’ve seen many nuggets* playing the demo and many crashed because of a wrong turn, clouds in front of the rocks and wind shear/crosswind. Even more experienced players had some difficulty in that map and I had my own share of close calls! *Nuggets: aviator slang for pilot trainees / new pilots. ​ During the landing sequence, did you got the chance to see if there were any other parked aircraft in the base? If there were, what were they? When I was landing I was able to see three black transport aircraft. I believe all of them are Osean C-17 Globemasters (so a new confirmed aircraft!). ​ Were you hit by lightning strikes when you were playing on Yinshi Valley? What were the severity of the effects on gameplay? ACF: I was never struck by lightning but I talked to another player who was. He mentioned that most of your HUD (armament, damage indicator, speed, altitude, timer) is effected but comes back to normal quickly. The mini-map/radar on the other hand takes a while to come back to normal. ​ CB: Clouds look amazing on Mission 7 but in terms of gameplay, did they become a frustrating mechanic? Yinshi Valley had few enemies that used the clouds as cover, so I wasn't bothered by the clouds which were relatively thin and more like a mist. The major problem in the valley was the low visibility. Taking the wrong turn into a cloud to later find a wall of rocks waiting was the leading cause of deaths among the nuggets playing the demo. I can only try to imagine their frustration! With that being said, even making a turn will require some consideration, especially when clouds are present. Was there any plot related radio chatter in mission 7? There were no major spoilers in neither mission 6 or 7. Thanks to the demo's countdown, the mission ends before the mission update happens. Even experienced players at the event were unable to reach these mission updates. ​ Was the wind in Yinshi Valley easier to deal with at lower or higher speeds? I think this depends on the skill of the player, since I was still getting used to AC7's controls I preferred to keep a slow speed while flying through the valley. The downside of this is that you spend more time under the effect of crosswind. On the other hand, I think a experienced player could speed up and deal with the crosswind with the rudder/yawing, though I was not very confident and was afraid crashing due to under or over application of the inputs. I never flew slow enough to be close to the stall speed but I think it would be interesting to see if your plane could stall due to a change from headwind to tailwind. ​ What can you say about the High-G maneuver game mechanic? There's no visual indicator of the High-G maneuvers unlike Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation. When performing them I felt that in AC7 the maneuver is a bit slower, less aggressive. The same can be said about regular acceleration and deceleration. ​ Were all of the game consoles available PlayStation 4 only or were there some Xbox Ones available as well? There were only PS4s at the location. ​ We saw the primary AC7 demo area in your Twitter video. How was the rest of the area? That was the only area with four set ups. The remainder of the Bandai booth was dedicated to other games. ​ Did you meet any other hardcore Ace Combat fans? Have any interesting discussions? ​ Yes, actually I met quite a few of them and I wasn't the only one with a flight suit! We had some really good discussion about AC7's gameplay and story. We all agreed that according to the demo AC7 has the right stuff to succeed as the sequel we've been waiting over 10 years for. Of course we discussed some theories about the story, how some previous games could connect to AC7 but that would be a very long response if I was to mention everything said! In addition to some hardcore fans I’ve talked to a mechanic from the US Marines who works on the F/A-18 and he said he’s excited for the game! Was Bandai-Namco working the booth this year? Yes, the crew there was from Bandai and thanks to that I was able to get some information about the game. For example, they said they’re considering a bundle consisting of the game and the special edition flight stick. They also told me they’re planning to bring the VR demo to New York Comic Con in October - so if you are in New York or the surrounding area this could be your chance! ​ Did you score any merchandise for attending the event and trying out the Ace Combat 7 demo? I got a lanyard from Bandai’s Jump Force but that was it. There was no Ace Combat merch, though I wasn’t expecting any due to how niche the genre is. You were giving out some business cards and other stuff on your own while at the convention. Did you have anyone say "Belka Did Nothing Wrong" to get a keychain from you? Yes! As a matter of fact those were the first words I heard when I was met by other fans who knew the channel! Guess that Belkan propaganda is working nicely. Haha! What are your current feelings on AC7? Did anything surprise you or exceed your expectations? ​​Playing the demo is the final piece to the puzzle after getting samples of the story, graphics and music via the trailers. While I will admit that my hype has fallen due delays in the game, I am very pleased with what I have seen, heard and played in the demo. The gameplay is similar to what we have played in the golden days of Ace Combat but with innovations that merely compliment but do not disrupt the core of the gameplay. I believe the end result will please the fans who have been waiting for so long yet still be challenging enough to entertain them while attracting new blood to the series. About the Interviewer Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

Today's interview is with a very special guest. He is a video content creator on YouTube and has been active for quite a while now. He goes by the nickname Tomcat 171. This interview is very extensive with links to his YouTube videos and an exclusive picture or two from himself. The subjects range from how he got started with the Ace Combat franchise, his experience at EGX 2018 and several other things. We thank Tomcat 171 for his participation. Be sure to check his video channel and social media after reading the interview. First, let’s start by briefly introducing yourself. ​Well, my name is Jon, but I suppose I’m better recognised by my callsign, ‘Tomcat171’. I’ve been a big fan of the Ace Combat series since 1998, and have operated an Ace Combat-related YouTube channel since 2008. When did your start playing Ace Combat? Do you remember your first experience with the franchise? My journey with Ace Combat began in 1998 when I was given Air Combat for the PlayStation as a birthday present; for an impressionable 8-year-old whom already had an interest in aircraft, it was the perfect gift. I doubt I’ll ever forget the wonder of witnessing the opening cinematic, with the Phoenix Squadron in formation, the YF-22 downing an enemy and, of course, all over an action-packed techno-rock backing track. It was the first time I’d played a game like it, so I was using the novice controls to get used to it, but even while using it I felt like a young Ace. ​ Could you share a fond memory that you have with the franchise? ​One of my best ever memories with the series is the awe and joy I felt when I first unlocked the X-02 Wyvern in Ace Combat 04. For context, I owned and had completely played through AC04 before I ever owned 2 and 3. Because of this, I had only ever believed Ace Combat games to use real aircraft in their rosters (outside of the Aerial Fortress at the end of AC1, of course). I found myself confused as to why I hadn’t yet unlocked one final plane in AC04’s line-up, and after a slowly-traveled internet search (we’re talking 56k, still!) discovered the unlock criteria for a mysterious aircraft designated ‘X-02’. After hours of going through Normal difficulty and achieving an S-Rank on all the missions (since I was still pretty inexperienced by that point), I found it waiting in the hangar ready for purchase. It was the first time I’d ever laid eyes on a fictional AC aircraft, the sharp angles and sleek design reminded me to a degree of an X-Wing (my favourite Star Wars fighter), and when I used it to play Sitting Duck for the first time and saw the wings fold in, I knew I’d found a new favourite AC aircraft. And knowing I’d unlocked it through my own grinding was the pinnacle of achievement for a 12-year-old me. Unless Ace Combat 7 is hiding something truly special, I doubt anything else will dwarf that sensation. ​ How did you decide to start doing YouTube as a hobby? Was there any external influence for your decision or was it something personal? ​The earliest influence that comes to memory is when I frequented the Ace Combat Skies fan forum, in fact it may have even been before it adopted that name. A user had posted a video on how to complete Ace Combat 5’s ‘8492’ (Mission 18+) on Ace difficulty by destroying all the enemies therein. During the time I myself had been playing the game, I’d only ever done the safe thing and flown to the end of the map to complete the mission. The video featured commentary and annotations, and my passion for the Ace Combat series was such that I felt compelled to ask how they captured their footage. I’d already had my YouTube channel since mid-2007, but I had very random content on it and wanted to start fleshing it out. About a year later I had some money saved, and a little more financial independence, and remembering back to that video I took the opportunity to acquire a capture card for myself, a little Dazzle DVC170, and some RCA splitters. By that time Ace Combat 6 had already been out around half a year and I’d already unlocked everything that could have been. YouTube was still in relative infancy and I hadn’t noticed any other proper AC6 material, so I felt I had the chance to be one of the first. That’s when I made my first AC-related video, a rundown of all possible medals and how they were unlocked. As mentioned before, I had a very strong passion for the series by this time, and I had a compulsion to share that passion with the web and possibly help other struggling future aces with tips and tricks I’d learned. ​ Is there any video that you feel is the sole representative of your channel, one that you value above the others? ​Honestly, there have been so many different kinds of Ace Combat videos I’ve made that I couldn’t say any one in particular speaks out above others. But if I were to highlight one as the epitome of what my content is about, gun to my head, I’d choose Part 22 of my Ace Combat 6 100% series. ​ ​I’m tempted to believe that my temper when playing games is one of the things that is remembered most fondly (somehow) amongst my subscribers, more-so than the actual flying! This part has that in droves as I rage at Pasternak and his countless salvos of ADMM fire, inhuman manoeuvres, and swarms of annoying drones...and it wasn’t even on the hardest difficulty! It’s testament to how tricky Liberation of Gracemeria can be to S-rank. And, of course, there’s some of the typical Tomcat banter all the way along, too, as well as some rather colourful language, to boot. ​ We’ve heard that you have quite the collection of Ace Combat goodies, could you tell us how you got started on this and talk about some of your most rare items? ​It was only around 2012-2013 that I decided that the physical Ace Combat material in my possession - which equated to all of the numbered games plus Zero, X, JA and Assault Horizon for both Xbox 360 and PS3 - was inversely proportional to my actual passion for the series and for whatever reason - perhaps a matter of vain pride - I wanted to expand it even further. I then remembered that the Japanese version of AC3 had more content, so I effectively treated it as an entirely new game, and sought to somehow get a copy sent to me from Japan. It worked, and I then knew that it wasn’t as difficult to break the import barrier as I’d led myself to believe. Once I’d recalled how users in the ACS forum posted photos of earlier Ace Combat-related Hasegawa models, I knew I wanted to get in on it. In having a steady and well-paying job, I went out of my way over the space of around 8 or 9 months acquiring the models that had already been released through various sources, and after that I was able to lay down pre-orders for newly announced releases. The rest, as they say, is history. There are 2 rare items I managed to get my hands on that I cherish above the rest: a 1:100 scale ADF-01 Falken from 2006, and an official AC04 Hori Flightstick boxset, which I only acquired just under two months ago as of writing this. For the former, I knew the model had already been discontinued long before I caught the collecting bug, but by the time I was taking it seriously I wasn’t about to give up searching. I found an eBay user in Japan selling one unopened and as good as new and they were willing to ship internationally. I pounced at the opportunity, but it certainly hurt my wallet, I won’t deny! ​ As for the AC04 stick, I had already managed to purchase both AC6’s Ace Edge bundle and the AC5 stick bundle a few years prior, and that in itself wasn’t easy because neither were ever released in the UK! However, the AC04 stick was almost something of legend, a pot-of-gold-at-the-end-of-the-rainbow kind of affair that had only seen a Japanese release. I’d been looking for one on and off for about 3 years without any luck. By some freak coincidence, I decided to scour the web again in wake of the news that Ace Combat 7 was going to see a flight stick release. What do I find but an eBay user selling one in my own country? It was a no-brainer, I snapped it up immediately! The rarity of these two items in particular is only half the reason why I hold them in high regard, the other half is the sentimental value in remembering the joy I had at managing to finally purchase items for which I’d been searching avidly. What has been your experience with the Ace Combat Community throughout the years? ​The Ace Combat fan community as a whole has always been one of the most transparent and open that I’ve known. We have always been open to helping out those new to the series and welcoming back players whom for instance may have played a PS1 title but had their interest reinvigorated by a newer title such as 6 or Assault Horizon. At one point Ace Combat Skies was the place to be, and through that I met a great group of people in the form of a clan called the Belkan Air Force. We were all AC fans at heart, but a lot of our fun together online stemmed from a combination of playing other games online - such as Forza 4 and Mass Effect 3 - and just generally bantering at one another. I still keep in touch with some of them, but we have slowly drifted away as time has passed. Having said all that, over the past 6 or 7 years many had realised that attitudes had soured due to the relatively lacklustre titles that were released after Ace Combat 6. The fans’ attitude was slowly sullied, and alas so was their view on new ‘nuggets’ trying to get into the series. With Ace Combat 7 on the horizon, I would like to believe that a breath of fresh air will reignite everybody’s excitement once more. ​ How are you feeling about Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown? Any of the editions has caught your eye in particular? ​Personally, I’m pretty excited! When the first teaser was unveiled in 2015 I was skeptical, mostly due to Ace Combat’s shady history in the few years before what with Joint Assault, Assault Horizon, Assault Horizon Legacy, and Infinity. Having since played some demos at EGX, my confidence in the game has vastly improved. As of writing, the Strangereal Edition has only just been announced, but I’ve wasted no time in ordering my own copy. The Arsenal Bird model looks awesome, and it will look intimidating as it provides overwatch and guards my collection! There is a unique Japanese Collector’s Edition as well... and I’ve managed to pre-order that, too! ​ From your experience with AC7 during EGX, how do you compare the game to any of the previous entries of the franchise gameplaywise? Is there anything remarkable that can make this entry stand out from any previous on the franchise or is it too early for that? ​Playing Ace Combat 7 at EGX finally gave me the chance to give the new flight model a good shakedown, and what I managed to play definitely gave me confidence that the series is heading back in the right direction, both in how it plays and looks. After using 5 different aircraft across the demos available (F-14, Rafale, Typhoon, F-35 & F-2), I'd say by feel alone that the flight model feels like a peculiar hybridisation between the roll of AC6, the strong pitch speed of 5 and Zero, and a throttle similar to 04. The standard missiles have the same exaggerated manoeuvrability as they did in 5 and Zero as well, making the destruction of targets much simpler, especially for any new players. Having the weather mess with your radar systems and flight path was an intriguing mechanic that gave a slightly more sim-like feel, and I definitely felt like I was more on edge when playing the Yinshi Valley mission, trying not to smash into the rocky outcrops while fighting against a rogue crosswind. As for the clouds, I'll have to be honest and say I didn't notice its effects all that much, but that could be down to a multitude of factors regarding the demo I played such as the difficulty, and whether some other mechanics had yet to be enabled to their fullest extents. From my perception so far, all I could say is that Ace Combat 7 feels like a proper throwback to the Holy Trinity with some added twists. Having said that, I believe we still haven't had a full introduction to the concept of the Post-Stall Manoeuvres; I certainly wasn't able to perform them in the EGX demo, so only time will tell as to whether they will be a helping hand or a damp squib. Lately you have been experimenting with playing the older AC titles with flight sticks, what do you think is advantage of a stick over a controller? What would you recommend more? ​Honestly, there is only one predominant advantage that playing the Ace Combat titles with a stick actually presents: Immersion. When using a stick in combination with either of the first-person cameras, there is a greater sense of feeling like the pilot sat in that cockpit. There’s also a tingly feeling of achievement when downing difficult enemies or performing tight manoeuvres and swift gun kills. Having said that, there is no real benefit from a practicality standpoint, and I would still advise that playing with a standard controller is the more efficient way in terms of speed and ease of play. ​ And finally, is there anything else you want to add? ​​Only that I hope to continue sharing my passion with like-minded fans and those new to the series alike, and that we can continue to get Ace Combat the recognition it deserves in modern gaming audiences. We would like to thank Tomcat 171 for his time and detail in this in depth interview. About the Interviewer Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

Designated as Quick Maneuver Air to Air Missiles (QAAM) thanks to their incredible ability to turn on a dime. These highly advanced missiles possess superb tracking thanks to their advanced seeker head that features off-boresight capabilities. In this article we will be looking into the story of this weapon throughout the Ace Combat franchise while also looking into the history of the real world missiles that are labelled as QAAMs inside of Ace Combat. ​ Ace Combat Overview These missiles tend to have double the damage than a standard missiles, but their actual damage varies from game to game. For example, you need still need to get two shots with the QAAMs to down aces on Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War but they inflict way more damage to regular enemies. ​First appearing in Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies (2004), these missiles were infamous for their almost surreal maneuverability and their capability to provide an almost guaranteed hit. If they failed their target they would go around for another pass keeping this attitude until the motor ran out of fuel. They were the ultimate close quarter weapon, bordering the overpowered spectrum. ​On all subsequent entries the QAAMs were tweaked towards a more balanced state or at least they tried to. Starting with the two other PS2 titles, Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War and Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War. The weapon behaved very similar if not identical on both games, feeling a bit more balanced and fair while still being a very powerful weapon. Their ability to pursue enemies through multiple turns was noticeably diminished. The missiles behaved almost in the same way on Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception as they did on Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies; this is due to the similarities between the two in a technical level as they shared the same engine.  In Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation the QAAMs were a very good weapon capable of shooting down enemies upwards of 80° off boresight. This is one of the more wide reaching versions of the the QAAM seen throughout the Ace Combat series, but also representative of their maximum capability.  The QAAMs were one of the top tier weapons available on Ace Combat: Assault Horizon due to its usability inside of Dogfight Mode. On the other side, the weapon performance inside of Ace Combat Infinity was pretty good, but it depended on the parts you had equipped, the level of your plane and the level of the weapon. Its performance in Ace Combat 7 is to be determined, but now that we have knowledge that the Aircraft Tuning system will be similar to the one used on Ace Combat Infinity, you can expect them to be a formidable weapon choice for air-to-air engagements and multiplayer. Hardware AAM-5 ​Manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, this missile is the successor of the AAM-3 missile. Being a very new platform, having entering service on 2004. This missile is cosmetically similar to the IRIS-T, but internally they are completely different weapons. This missile is only operated by the Japanese Air Self Defense Force on the F-15J and the F-2A. AIM-9X Sidewinder Created as a Joint Effort between the US Airforce and the US Navy, the AIM-9X is the most advanced variant of the long running series of AIM-9 missiles, a line of infrared guided missiles that dates back to 1953. This advanced variant of the AIM-9 uses the same motor and explosive charge from the AIM-9M variant, while changing the seeker head and adding thrust vectoring nozzles for improved maneuverability. IRIS-T ​Created as the result of an international collaboration between Germany, Italy, Sweden, Greece, Canada and norway, the IRIS-T is an advanced IR guided missile that is at the same level of the AIM-9X and the R-73. Manufactured by Diehl BGT Defence, this missile is more than capable of giving their operators good fighting capabilities. R-73 (AA-11 Archer) Created by the Vympel NPO Bureau, this missile development line is the Russian produced equivalent of the AIM-9 and other IR counterparts. Dating back to 1984, the R-73 is one of the most advanced IR missiles currently deployed with Russian aircraft. Featuring thrust vectoring nozzles and an advanced seeker head, it offers great combat capabilities. While there are more advanced variants of the R-73 family (K-74) the ones portrayed inside of the Ace Combat franchise are limited to the R-73 - they are primarily found onboard Russian designed aircraft. Real World In the real world the missiles are just known as highly advanced IR (Infrared) guided missiles, the QAAM designation for them is an in-house description of the missiles inside of Ace Combat. While they work on a similar manner as other IR guided weaponry there are some big differences between an older missile (i.e. AIM-9C) and a more advanced missile (i.e. AIM-9X). Stuff like the software that it carries, the motor system and more importantly, the guiding optics. Early missiles (i.e. AIM-9B) had a very poor Field of View (FOV), being limited to only being capable to follow targets that went at ~11°/sec of it and could only guide itself into the target if it had direct line of sight to the exhaust of the enemy’s engine (Rear Aspect); meanwhile modern IR missiles have a very high FOV thanks to their advanced seeker heads that possess off-boresight capabilities allowing the missiles to shoot at targets with head mounted displays (i.e. JHMCS.) These missiles also are equipped with thrust vectoring nozzles that allow the missile to pursue targets going upwards of 125°/sec. These missiles are also All Aspect, meaning that they can target a plane from any angle, not being limited to the exhaust. Deployment Notes Minimize Lock-On Time The off bore sight range that makes the QAAM a lethal close range dogfight missile can also work against it. Letting the missile attempt to lock onto targets on their own take longer than turning nose towards the target, as is needed with Standard Missiles. Continuing to maneuver to get nose onto the target will greatly reduce QAAM locking time.  Manual Multi-Targeting Though designed to engage one target at a time, the QAAM can be utilized as a type of 'crowd control' weapon in local and online multiplayer game modes. While engaged in close range combat, rapidly switching targets while firing one QAAM at each target is a noteworthy tactic. By not pursuing a single target for a long period of time, the QAAM carrying aircraft can instead maintain pressure on multiple aircraft, providing distraction for other allied players to execute their own strategies with somewhat distracted enemies opposing them.  Defensive Fighting Utilizing the wide lock on ability of the QAAM when being pursued by the enemy is a unique part of deploying this weapon. Performing sudden sharp turns in an attempt to both force the enemy to overshoot but bring them into the firing envelope of the QAAM can allow the defensive aircraft to fire back at their pursuer. Occasional missile fire like this can force the attacker to focus on evading, letting the defending aircraft successfully break their pursuers attack. About the Author Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

Today’s interview is with BillyTheKid, a DCS skin modder and Twitch streamer that has created amazing Ace Combat related liveries for almost every module available on DCS. These skins have quite a lot of work put behind them so be sure to click the download links provided at the bottom of the interview to view more of Billy’s work. To start, please tell us a bit about yourself. ​Hi there. My name's Billy but ever since I was a kid I've always gone by the nickname Billy The Kid. I've always been a fan of spaghetti westerns so the nickname seemed appropriate. I've been a big Ace Combat fan since Ace Combat 04 and been glued to series since. ​ You seem to like military flight games a lot. What was the first sim-like game you flew in? Any good memories with that game? Yes indeed, flight sim games are my go to games to play. My first experience with a flight sim was probably Rowan's Battle of Britain on the PC which came out back in 2000. I remember playing it with a Logitech controller (I didn't have access to a joystick at the time) and was able to shoot down a Stuka dive bomber and land my Spitfire without crashing. Good times. Shortly afterward, Ace Combat 04 came out on a demo disk and I was hooked on the series. ​ ​ How did you get started on DCS and how long have you been playing? Any reason behind it or was it just for fun? ​Started playing DCS back in 2012 and have close to 1000 hours in the game total. For me, I've always like WW2 flight sims like IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 but have always wanted to play a flight sim with modern combat aircraft in it and so DCS World was the answer. I played it's spiritual predecessor Lock On: Modern Air Combat so it's great to see more aircraft being added to DCS like the AV-8B Harrier II, F/A-18C Hornet and the soon to be released F-14A/B Tomcat. Really looking forward to that aircraft as it's a popular one in Ace Combat too. ​ ​ One thing that I always wondered about DCS skin modding are the creation of skins on the highly complicated textures. Could you guide us through the process you use when creating a skin? What programs do you use for their creation and how long does it take to make a skin?​ ​Firstly, I choose the aircraft for which I will create a skin of. There is quite a large selection of aircraft in DCS but thankfully there have been many skin templates created to help livery makers out in the skin making process. Once I have selected the aircraft, I open the files in Photoshop and then I open an military aircraft color chart and pick two or three colors and start painting. I will then preview the skin in game and check how it looks. If i'm not happy with it, I'll pick a few different colors and try again with different schemes. Once I'm happy with what I have, then I decide which Strangereal nation would best suit the livery. Then I go ahead and create a squadron badge/emblem for the aircraft to increase the Strangereal Ace Combat feel. The whole process of painting, editing, previewing and editing again usually takes 7-8 hours, as some aircraft are more difficult to create skins for than others. For most of the skins I will make a Flight Leader and wingman skins with the Flight Leader version standing out with small additions made such as painted wingtips/tails and extra decals. ​​ From your collection I have picked three skins that really caught my attention. Could you give us a little insight of what the creation process behind them was? Where did you get the inspiration from? ​ Excellent choices! For the OADF Mirage 2000C, I've always been a fan of military aircraft with a digital camo scheme. The aircraft that inspired me here was a gorgeous Slovak Air Force MiG-29 Fulcrum in a digital livery. So I got some digital camo pattern on Google and started painting both the Mirage and digital pattern itself. Was a tricky process but enjoyed the challenge. ​ Next is the Leasath Air Force MiG-29 Fulcrum and here I inspired by the Korean People's Air Force MiG-29 old solid green camo. They have since updated their Fulcrums to a new modern two tone grey. Many would look at the solid green color of this North Korean Fulcrum and go "That looks disgusting!" but for me I thought "That looks interesting.". So I began painting tried a two tone green scheme of solid green with a darker green on top. I may do an edit in the future and update the colors slightly. It's on the To Do list. Lastly we got the Federal Erusean Navy F/A-18C Hornet. I remembered the mission "Invincible Fleet" in AC04 and thought "What would a FEN Hornet look like?" Granted we already have the FEAF scheme in the game but I thought of something different. So I looked at multiple F/A-18 liveries from various nations on Google to try and drum up a suitable scheme. I also downloaded some model aircraft decals to assist in the process. I noticed I had made a few errors post upload of the livery so I had them corrected. Last but not least, I would like to thank you for giving us the chance to interview you. Anything you want to add before we close?​ ​Only that it's been a pleasure and I wish to say a big thank you to the Project:Lighthouse community for liking my work and for sharing it with other DCS fans who also love Ace Combat. You can expect to see more Ace Combat theme liveries for DCS from me in the future, especially after the release of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. Many thanks again and see you in the skies, fellow Aces! Links to official Billy The Kid media: Twitter Twitch Downloads About the interviewer Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

Do you remember when you were a child and the world seemed to be larger than it was?​ That feeling of excitement every time you went on a road trip with your parents and stared in awe out the window, looking for anything that might catch your eye? That's the same feeling that I got the first time I opened Elite Dangerous. ​At first it was a little too much to comprehend the immensity that this game presents to you when it drops you on your first Sidewinder in the middle of a station. I went through the menus and opened up the Galaxy Map. Taking in the fact that, indeed, there's more than 400 billion star systems out there and you are free to visit them if you want. So I set my first goal. This goal was to get one of the three largest ships in the game, the Anaconda, and tune it for long range travel; and with this goal in mind I took off with my Sidewinder now named "Jokey Runner", a line of names that would become tradition, into what would be my first bounty hunting run. After a while I got enough credits to buy me a medium sized ship, a Cobra Mk.III which I named "Jokey Runner II". This ship would prove to be one of the most important ones on my fleet as it allowed me to go do another activity that Elite offers: mining. With the addition of deep core mining, I prepared myself to go and hunt the mother lodes full of Void Opals, the most lucrative material to grind for if you want to accumulate money quickly. A month passed and I had accumulated a little fortune, one that allowed me to buy "Jokey Runner III", a Krait Mk.II which I fit for mining as well. This Krait served me well and it is my favorite ship so far, allowing me to mine an absurd amount of Void Opals that quickly allowed me to reach the first part of my goal. And so "Jokey Runner IV" joined the fleet, my very first Anaconda. This big bucket of bolts is truly impressive, the sheer size of it makes you feel powerful just by being on it, but this wasn't it, I am still missing the jump range tune for it, this massive ship is still incomplete. I grabbed "Jokey Runner III" and headed towards a Guardian site, one that allowed me to easily unlock the Guardian FSD booster, a device that adds 10 light years to my jump range at no significant cost. With this FSD Booster I went to Felicity Farseer, the engineer that would help me get my Anaconda into the jump range that I desired. All was set to go now for the journey that I wanted to do ever since I couldn't participate in Distant Worlds 2 due to time constraints I had in my life. I departed from my home station, Readdy Gateway on Wolf 424, with my route set towards Sagittarius A. At first the journey felt slow but once the rhythm was established, it felt almost natural. Once I was about halfway through the journey, I noticed that the stars were starting to get more and more visible, and their concentration increased with every light year. There was one time that the concentration of stars got so high that I just stopped and stood there with my engines off, orbiting a gas giant. I was awestruck at the beauty of the scene that was unfolding right before my eyes. Much of my time was spent looking for the one needle in the galactic-sized haystack, those nuggets of gold deserving to be captured for posterity. I did this by exploring almost every system I jumped into through the scope of my FSS (Full Spectrum System) scanner, a tool that allowed me to quickly detect all objects orbiting a star and discern what type of object they were, ranging from asteroid clusters to gas giants and everything in between. It took me around 400+ jumps and some time, but it was all worth it the moment I came out of the Witch Space and saw that distortion, the same distortion that a black hole produces when it bends light due to its immense gravitational pull. The destination was worth it, but what was even better was the journey and the things I saw along the way. I discovered many things during my journey: Earth-like planets that could be of use in the future of our species, gas giants that dwarfed Jupiter in size, ringed worlds that caught my eye for minutes on end, I even got to see a couple of ringed stars; this list could go on for a couple of paragraphs, but I prefer to let the pictures I took do the talking for me.​ My journey came to an end the moment I landed and finally repaired my ship on the newly constructed "Explorer's Anchorage", a station right at the center of the galaxy that was built thanks to the effort that many players put into it during the Distant Worlds 2 expedition. If there is one conclusion that I can take from the journey that I took is that Elite Dangerous made me feel like that child again. That innocent child that looked upon the stars with wonder, that same child that couldn't take his eyes out the window during those late night rides. It made me feel that joy of discovery once again. About the Author Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

Made by the folks over at the Frecce Tricolori Virtuali team, the MB-339 is a free module based on the famous trainer made by Aermacchi during the late seventies that now serves with the Italian Air Force and many others as a trainer/light-attack aircraft. The type has seen combat over the skies of the Eritrean–Ethiopian War and the Falklands-War where it saw successful combat deployment. In this review of their latest release (v.2.01) we will be taking a look into several different parts of the module and evaluating if this pretty but capable bird is a fit for your style of flying. These points will be divided in several sections: Of note: This is a free module made by a dedicated community, therefore, it shall not be judged to the standards of a paid module. External and internal 3D models Visual and sound effects Flight modelling Mission capability Armament Ease of use and learning curve Unique module features Is this aircraft for you? EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL 3D MODELS The external model is of very high quality even when compared to professionally made modules available for purchase. From the animations of the landing gear, the deployment of the taxi and landing lights to the fantastically recreated gunpods and weapon models. It has that feel of quality that a passion project such as this can bring to life. One thing that does need to be pointed out as it is of importance. The external model lacks a visual damage state for when you receive damage, enter a collision, etc. This is a minor thing to point out but it is noteworthy nonetheless. A lot of mods in DCS utilize cockpits from the Flaming Cliffs 3 module such as the F-15 or the Su-33. While useful to avoid coding, modelling and configuring a cockpit from zero this practice can prove immersion-breaking to some users. But the Frecce Tricolori Virtuali team went far and beyond with their project. The pilot and instructor cockpits don't not fall behind the external model's quality. With the exception of some systems which are not modeled and all the critical systems are working and all flight critical instruments are working accordingly, such as a fully functional gun sight that looks wonderful in both day and night. The developers have said that many of the systems that are non-functional are being worked on so keep your hopes up for those. VISUAL AND SOUND EFFECTS In this area the module does the job but does not shine like it it does in other aspects. All the bells and whistles are there and in-cockpit lights do serve their job, but they do feel a bit off like they were a bit too unnatural. External lights and effects are good, having configurable navigation lights as well as a beacon and formation lights that have a very nice look to them. When it comes to sounds, particularly in-cockpit sound, things are both excellent and serviceable. Switches sound nice when you click them giving you that feedback that is needed so that they feel believable and tangible. The engine does sound a bit too quiet for my liking but it does have a very clear RPM curve that allows you to know in what throttle position you are without having to look at at the gauge at all. Here are two examples, both on-ground and in-flight: Engine sound while on the ground: ( Idle-->Full Power-->Idle ): Engine sound while in-flight: ( Idle-->Full Power-->Idle ): FLIGHT MODELLING This bird's EFM (External Flight Model) was modeled with the help of retired MB-339 pilots and even a couple of Aermacchi engineers which allowed the developers a step-up their ability to give the Macchi some life. The work put into making the feel of flight has not gone unnoticed as it does feel natural and I can say with confidence that this is the most accurate modded flight model in the game. The Macchi feels like it wants to be flown thanks to its easy and forgiving flight characteristics which is to be expected from an aircraft that was designed to be a trainer. Do not let this "trainer" talk make you think that it is not able to do some incredible maneuvering and very high-g turns for all your acrobatic needs. MISSION CAPABILITY As expected, this aircraft excels in its training role thanks to the way it was built. The cockpit is shared by both a trainee and an instructor that sits in the back. The instructor has mirrored instruments that allow them to guide the trainee in a plethora of scenarios. When not functioning as a training aircraft the Macchi is also capable of being a relatively effective light-attack aircraft. In this role, it performs surprisingly well giving its size and payload. It lacks dedicated air-to-air armament, relying on the use of gunpods to engage other aircraft. You will have to put your trust upon top-cover when you attack ground targets and hope that there are no MiGs hunting you. The MB-339 also lacks any kind of countermeasures which is not rare for training aircraft and is not inherently a negative point but it needs to be noted as it restricts the situation in which this platform can be used effectively during combat. The best scenarios for this machine are low-threat targets such as anti-insurgent CAS (Close-Air-Support) missions in which air-superiority is secured. ARMAMENT GUN PODS: Cost-effective and reliable, these will be your preferred weapons in almost every scenario as they allow for more staying time over the battlefield. They are capable of dealing with both infantry and lightly armored targets. They come in two flavors: Two AN/M3 12.7mm Gun Pods ( 350 rounds each pod ). Two DEFA 30mm gun pods ( 125 rounds in each pod ). ROCKETS: These are devastating when dealing with convoys and APC vehicles. You can carry a ton of ordinance with these pods and it can last quite a while if you do not salvo each pod like a lunatic. Three pods are at your disposal: LAU-10 ( 4 ZUNI rockets each and a maximum of two pods) LR-25 ( 25 rockets each and a maximum of six pods) MATRA TYPE 155 ( 18 rockets each and a maximum of six pods) You can always mix pods to get a wider variety of pods in your loadout. BOMBS: It is always fun to obliterate your enemy with devine wrath from the heavens, right? That is what bombs do so having them available is always a great thing. You sadly only have one type available to you but it does not mean that this type of bomb is not famous for being a reliable and efficient all-rounder: Mk.82 (500lb~ low drag bomb. Six maximum) There is also the BRD-4-250 Dispenser that comes with four Mk.76 and two ARF-8M3TP. EASE OF USE AND LEARNING CURVE As said before, this aircraft is easy to learn and fly with thanks to the way it was designed. Employing weapons comes with a certain difficult due to its lack of a dedicated HUD or any kind of aiming-aid system outside of its gunsight. Said gunsight operates in a way similar to most old aircraft seeing as you have to manually set your sight for every type of weapon by introducing a gunsight elevation value in mils adequate to the scenario. High-altitude bombing is out of the question as well. But once you learn how to use the sight, which is not hard, you will find yourself flying at tree-top level and bombing everything on sight like it was second nature to you. UNIQUE MODULE FEATURES There are a couple of noteworthy features that come packaged with this module which are multi-crew, voice-acted training missions and an in-depth smoke system. Other trainers such as the L-39 or the C-101 include multi-crew so that they can be used as actual in-game training aircraft. The MB-339 is not the exception to this rule since it also features a multi-crew capable cockpit although not to the levels of detail that the modules previously mentioned include but that is to be expected of a free module. The sole fact that they managed to get this module working with multi-crew is exceptional and remarkable. Speaking of remarkable, the training missions that come with this mission are a treat. They are voice acted and masterfully done with scripts and triggers that give them an air of life that even paid modules lack. Done by Stefano Moretti, these missions are a key piece that makes the MB-339 module even better. The smoke system that is equipped to the MB-339 thanks to its PAN modification is something that most players will overlook very rapidly. This system has a lot of behing-the-curtain work that makes it stand out from the typical smokewinders. It is an addition that is really welcomed by acrobatic pilots and myself included. IS THIS AIRCRAFT FOR YOU? This is a plane that because of its features becomes a must-download for all DCS:World players. The team of Frecce Tricolori Virtuali gave the community what is a free module that doesn't feel like one and that is admirable. My thanks go to the team for letting the community enjoy this special machine that we would not otherwise be able to experience in our lifetime. Get it here! Rewritten as of the 9th of April, 2020 to improve quality. Original post date: 24th of March, 2020. About the Writer Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

The Frecce Tricolori Virtuali (FTV) are a group of passionate individuals that have dedicated themselves to both portray a virtual representation of the wonderful Italian Air Force team by the same name and to develop mods for a variety of games throughout the years like IL-2 1946, Lock-on and DCS. After our review of the DCS MB-339 module, we reached out to the team of Frecce Tricolori Virtuali to conduct a series of interviews with them. One about their experiences as an acrobatics team and their history. Another about their projects, both released and upcoming such as the Fiat G.91, their know-how on module development within DCS and more! FTV-Duke, Frecce's EFM developer, was our main point of contact during these interviews, so I want to extend my gratitude towards him for his great disposition while coordinating the interview. What motivated the development of the MB-339 and how long was the process? Was it always planned to be released to the public or was it initially meant to be for private use by the FTV? The development process for the MB-339 began by taking into account the strong needs of the Frecce Tricolori Virtuali to get their routines as real as it gets to their real counterparts the Frecce Tricolori. First steps of the development were put in place in 2015, the same year the team transitioned from IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 to DCS World. The trial and error process started from taking already existent planes and features within the DCS World and adapting them to the needs of the team. Finally, the team came to the conclusion that the efforts needed to be focused on the development of a brand new DCS World aircraft for private use, also considering the good feedback from the previous IL2 & Lock-on MB-339 (that were distributed for free to the public). What went into creating the EFM for the mod? Did you guys have any official/unofficial documentation to help you in recreating the characteristics of the MB-339? Recreating the EFM Model for the aircraft has been quite a challenge! It all started from data gathering such as performance manuals, to geometry and flight handling characteristics. Luckily enough, the MB-339 has quite a heritage on its shoulders and much information can be easily retrieved. Second step would be the aerodynamics and stability of the aircraft as a whole. Once all the data has been collected, force and momentum equations have been written and coded into DCS for each of the flight conditions. Despite what some could think, letting the aircraft behave in a decent way once on the ground has been without a doubt the hardest challenge. In fact, almost 6 months in the making for studying, coding and fine-tuning each of the many suspension coefficients for reaching the current ground feeling and behavior. Given that this is a mod as non-third party developers, we could not access some of the information needed to speed up the development process and to lessen the frustration behind the inevitable trial and error phase. The third step is represented by testing the now usable jet in every possible condition by both real pilots and the entire Frecce Tricolori Virtuali Team. The multitude of important feedback through the months of testing helped in increasing the fidelity by furtherly fine-tuning the model to get to the current status that you could enjoy. What was the point that made you guys switch from an SFM to an EFM? Was the SFM interfering with the team’s ability to do proper formation flying? Going from the SFM to the EFM has been a critical and mandatory step for bringing the needed performance to the team. Being that the routine encompasses many extreme envelope maneuvers (especially considering the solo pilot) the SFM would only let the aircraft adhere to a believable behavior close to the nominal flying conditions (slow change aerodynamic conditions – possible only for the formation flying – and not always). The EFM allowed the aircraft to stretch its wing to the outer borders of the real envelope, having then an almost identical performance in the nominal state, but also being able to represent in an acceptable way some extreme envelope conditions. A well-coded engine model has also been crucial for a proper formation flying, engine spool up and overall response has been tuned to reflect the real MB-339. The acceleration time has been modeled as the real one by having a high responsive engine in the range 70-100 % which allows better formation flying characteristics. Was it hard getting the multi crew feature working on the mod? What went into implementing it? Adding the multicrew to the MB-339 has not been hard, few lines of code needed to be implemented in the configuration file. On the contrary, it will be much harder to visually synchronize the front and back seat instrumentations and aircraft systems which require a dedicated net code. Are there any features left to be implemented on the MB-339? The current version (2.0.1) of the MB-339 features simplified systems (LUA-coded) to have a flyable aircraft from the beginning. After the release of the 2.0.1 the team dedicated to the complete re-coding in C++ by starting over and modelling system by system and also subsystem to achieve the best possible realism. Starting from the next release, the electrical system will be an advanced one (different buses, loads), oxygen and pressurization system acting as the manual prescribes. In addition, a new fuel system is being developed (with fuel dumps, transfer etc…) a new navigation system and a new damage model plus minor features that will get the MB-339 on to a new level. The cockpit 3D model has been updated and the textures as well with a new restyling to augment the graphical impact. We have seen your screenshots from your most recent job, the Fiat G-91. How has the progress been with that aircraft? How many people are working on the project? The G-91 derives from a joint collaboration with Sim Skunk Works that shares passion and dedication for this bird. This has also been the time to test the import in DCS and its graphical rendering. The team eventually fell in love with the model and the aircraft that has also starred in an Italian Movie from 1972 named “Forza G” (literally “G-Force”) representing those mighty years at the Frecce Tricolori, with an exceptional soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. Currently the project encompasses the same developers that work on the MB-339 plus one 3D modeler from the Sim Skunk Works, creator of the original 3D model itself. Despite the aircraft being flyable in DCS as we speak (it closed the performance at the Virtual Burning Lake Airshow 2020), currently the aircraft is undergoing some work in the external and internal (cockpit) 3D model to get it to the DCS standard. How has the G.91 been in terms of difficulty of development? What weapon systems and avionics equipment will the team implement since there are different versions of the aircraft (R1, R3 and PAN in particular)? Currently the team has all the 3 variants’ model, as far as the cockpit is concerned, only the R1 version is ready. Speaking about the avionics and systems the aircraft is comparable to the MB-339, being developed for reconnaissance and ground attack missions, it has no radar and countermeasures. This will allow the team to use a large part of the work from the MB-339 and be tailored to the G-91. The aircraft now has guns, free fall bombs and rockets implemented, but we would like to expand its ground attack capabilities (e.g. to add air to surface missiles like the AS-20). In-development pictures of the Fiat G.91 module as of May 2020. Can we expect a public release for the G.91 or is it going to be a private mod for the Frecce Tricolori Virtuali? The idea of releasing the model to the public is very attractive. However, both the FTV and SSW need first to define some terms. We heard the news about some of the team’s involvement as “insiders” for Microsoft’s Flight Simulator and saw the possibility of having the MB-339 inside of that spectacular game as a possibility. Will this affect the development of the G.91 and other DCS projects in the long-term or is there nothing to worry about? FS2020 is absolutely spectacular in terms of scenery and graphics and has progressed a lot since the previous version. The team has internally started to discuss a future inclusion of the MB-339 in the new MS FS2020 and we really look forward to it and the possibility to start some tests. It is too soon to say something about possible delays on other long term projects but from the first impressions, we think we are capable of creating the MB-339 for the new FS. Apart from finishing your current mods do you have any other future aircraft you would like to work on such as the AMX? The team is absolutely eager to continue on developing other Italian Air Force aircraft such as the AMX, but given the effort for the current project we cannot take on new commitments. This is part one of two from our interview with the Frecce Tricolori Virtuali. The next part will be all about their organization, their history and their acrobatic routines. We would like to extend our thanks to the entire team of the FTV that treated me kindly and were really attentive and generous with this interview, specially FTV-Duke. About the Interviewer Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

Modding has always been something I have been amazed by. From small quality of life additions to full-on transformations, modders have always found a way to amaze me on so many levels. The first time I actively modded was FS2004. I still remember that little me was impressed by how someone on the internet had managed to introduce aircraft that looked even better than the official aircraft which the game came from. Many years later I started creating skin mods for the game that I was playing the most at that time, IL-2 1946. This new series, Mod Life Upgrade, is a play-on-words of the term "Mid-Life-Upgrade" used for life-extending modifications done to keep airframes up to date and competitive. This series will be centered on highlighting mods that I personally think are not only great but fantastic. Usually these will be mods that fill-in the gaps left by the original developers, others that exploit the potential that the title had from the beginning, ones that completely re-imagine and transform the experience that the player gets from the game, or ones that are just fun to explore! It will also be a series centered on flight games but it won't be limited to only them, other titles will be covered such as Arma3. Please support the official creators as this highlight article does provide credit and link to each mod's creator. They deserve at least a nice comment for all the work they have done to deliver content for the community, free of charge. DCS:WORLD SIMPLERADIO STANDALONE by Ciribob The amount of game changing mods in DCS can be pretty limited at times but there is a mod that has trascended being a novelty and has become part of the multiplayer environment due to it filling a void that Eagle Dynamics has yet to fill, an in-depth player usable radio communication system. While ED has not implemented an internal VoIP system as of the writing of this article, this mod will fill that gap by allowing you to communicate with other players using the in-game radios giving that extra sense of realism that was missing from the game. At this point most servers in DCS have SRS installed and have a plethora of radio frequencies that allows groups of flights to coordinate with each other be it for airfield operations, for GCI operations or simply to talk to each other. This mod can not be recommended enough, you can get it HERE. IMPROVING IRANIAN FLEET SKINS [IIF PROJECT] by sadjad_vosoul Sometimes all it takes to improve your experience are some really well done skins and the Iranian ones done by sadjad_vosoul are a perfect fit for missions over the Persian Gulf map. From the F-5 to the Mi-8, F-4E, F-86 and so many more; these include an impressive amount of detail and the work put into them is noticeable. Some of the skins are fictional due to not having the specific aircraft variants for some of the aircraft as it is the case for the F-14B and the Yak-52 skins, since they represent both the F-14AM and T-6 respectively. Highly recommended if you have the Persian Gulf map to give yourself accurately represented enemy (or allied) aircraft! The forum page with links to all current skins is HERE STRIKE FIGHTERS 2 OPERATION DARIUS BY THE COMBATACE COMMUNITY There are so many mods for Strike Fighters 2 that choosing a specific one to be highlighted would not give the community justice. Operation Darius, on the other hand, is the modpack that allowed me to get the experience I have always wanted from SF2. Helicopters, ground units, aircraft of all shapes and sizes from all over the world are included with this pack. Set in 2012, Operation Darius is a fictional campaign in which Western nations fight a 4 week-long campaign in order to remove Iran's nuclear facilities The number of mods and creators involved in the creation of this pack is one of the longest lists I have seen for any user created content out there in the internet. Expansive would be an understatement. These individuals got together and delivered what is an unofficial expansion to me, one that I still play to this very day. You can get this modpack with the following links: Part 1: HERE Part 2: HERE Part 3: HERE Part 4: HERE IL-2 1946 T.O.A.S (SOUTH ATLANTIC OPERATIONS THEATER) MOD by DREAM MAKERS AND SIMARG I have long been a user of a lot of mods that were created in the forums of SAS, one of the largest and most active IL-2 1946 modding communities out there. They have brought so many inconceivably complex mods to this old game that have in themselves have changed the sim-lite title into something completely different. This expansion, created by DREAM MAKERS AND SIMARG, encompases the Flanklands War operational theater from both the British and Argentine perspectives with the aid of the Falkland's Islands map and the aircraft utilized during the conflict. This mod depends on the biggest modpack available in IL-2 1946 known as B.A.T and the installation can be somewhat troublesome but it is worth it if you want a really nice experience to pass time by while most DCS users wait for the South Atlantic map that is being developed by RAZBAM. Forum post over on SAS is HERE About the Author Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos: Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer, translator and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

Being one of the planes flown in competitions such as the Red Bull Air Racing Series and boasting unworldly levels of maneuverability the Edge 540 is certainly a one-of-a-kind plane inside DCS, Christen Eagle II aside. After two years in development, the team at VARS and their collaborators have brought this outstanding aircraft into DCS for all of us to enjoy. It will be used in the Virtual Air Racing Series 2020 season, so if you want to see this aircraft being used to fulfill its intended purpose as a racing aircraft be sure to tune into their streams. This will be a quick review into the DCS Edge 540 mod by the VARS community and its collaborators as of its v1.0 release (Version release date: June 7th, 2020) Of note: This is a free in-development module, therefore, it shall not be judged to the standards of a paid module. In this article we will touch upon: External and internal 3D models Visual and sound effects Flight modelling Ease of use and learning curve Unique module features Is this aircraft for you? EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL 3D MODELS The external model of this aircraft has been excellently modeled. It has that sleek look that racing aircraft have with an incredible presentation. Animations and external lighting work correctly even with some more complex features such as pilot animations as you move the flight surfaces which is impressive coming from a free mod. A note-worthy point: There is no damage model implemented as of now but the developers have said that one will be coming at some point in the future. The cockpit is a pleasure to look at and I do not say that lightly. The design of it makes you feel like a Formula 1 driver since everything you will need is displayed in front of you in the form of an easy to read display and a peripheral vision indicator that can either display your G-loading or your speed. This display is crucial for racing as, at least on the velocity mode, it shows you how close you are to the speed limit to enter the gates on the course that is 200kt maximum in most instances. Textures are pretty solid. The carbon fiber looks realistic enough, the exposed frame surrounding you and the addition of weathering to show wear is the cherry on the cake that makes this interior an excellent one, even more when considering that this came out of a community project. As you move the controls you can see the push rods move around, t both the trim indicator and peripheral vision display have convincing-looking LEDs. Overall, this cockpit is one of the most unique-looking interiors we have gotten in DCS so far. VISUAL AND SOUND EFFECTS Internal lighting is serviceable and the addition of several colors of flood light is nice but this is one of the areas in which the Edge 540 does not shine the brightest. This does not mean that there is something wrong with the way that internal lighting is handled, not at all. It just means that other free modules, such as the MB-339, have done a better implementation of internal lighting. Now, an area in which I was highly impressed by quality was both the internal and external engine sounds. In this area this plane has one of the best external sounds I have ever heard from both a mods and paid modules alike. I am sure that these sound effects will show themselves at their best during the VARS 2020 season streams. The team outdid themselves here. There is one minor nit-pick I have and it is that if you are going relatively fast, normally over 170kts, as you reduce power the engine sound doesn't seem to change that drastically even when reducing the power to idle from full power; but as I said, this is a minor caveat in a very well implemented piece of software. You do not even have to believe me as I recorded internal and external and internal sounds, have a listen: EXAMPLES: In-cockpit engine sound: External engine sound: Fly-by engine sound: FLIGHT MODELLING The flight model (FM) made by Aero is really good. It is very apparent that this FM was made with racing in mind as it has sacrificed some of the realism for race optimization. Do not get me wrong, aerobatic-wise this aircraft begs to be flown to its limits due to its incredibly high roll-rate of 420°/sec and high-g capabilities. Engine response is almost instantaneous when accelerating and formation flying is a breeze. Fluttering and shaking can be felt as you put the aircraft in certain scenarios, which is excellent as it communicates to the pilot the state of the aircraft during high tension portions of the race such as when performing a High-Cuban or in long slalom sections. Ground handling and take-off behavior are this flight model's Achilles heels. It feels a bit too hard to taxi around and when going full power on the take-off roll, wheel screeching happens even if you trimmed the aircraft correctly and are not pulling up hard enough for something like that to happen. There are some other quirks like momentum from your previous flight carrying over to the newly spawned one but this is a known issue that the devs are working on. The development team is not gigantic and they are working on polishing the FM for which I have high hopes and wish them the best. LEARNING CURVE AND RACING This is a very unique plane when it comes to handling. While it is easy to fly and control in most scenario, it is when it comes to mastering this aircraft for racing that it shows you its true colors. Racing can be a very fun activity to do in DCS, even more when your performance is being evaluated by the VARS Pylon mod that comes included with the Edge 540. To be competitive in racing you will need to learn the FM very well in order to avoid those tiny mistakes that can separate you from victory. Minimizing the amount of drag your elevators induce while pulling too hard by being less aggressive on the controls will become second nature once you practice and dedicate a bit of time to this. As VARS themselves said on several of their livestreams and on their Discord server: Racing in DCS is about FUN. What matters is that you, as a virtual pilot, are having fun while racing and I think it is the best way to see competitions like these. Challenge your friends to a race or try to beat your own personal time on the lap! UNIQUE MODULE FEATURES This module comes packaged with several unique and nice features which are not present anywhere else. One of these is the VARS Pylon mod that comes packaged with the aircraft which is so detailed that might even deserve its own mini-review later down the line but I will do a summary for the time being. The VARS Pylon mod allows the user to create and or use racing pylons to organize a circuit. These pylons go beyond being aesthetic and are fully functional, counting your time between gates, measuring your altitude and speed while being capable of giving penalties to players that infringe the rules. They also have a championship functionality that places players in a leaderboard and many more features that give this mod, which can be downloaded independently, a place in the DCS community. The Edge 540 also includes two main features that are note-worthy in this category: The MP3 player and the in-game customization screen. The first of these two is a page on the Edge's "MFD" which allows you to play music from within the game, just like the Viggen and the Tomcat can. The second one is the capability to change both your winglets and pilot's head on the fly! IS THIS AIRCRAFT FOR YOU? This is an aircraft that is worth the download just for how unique it is. It is well put together and has a place inside the DCS arena that was only occupied by the Christen Eagle up until this point. What more can you ask when the asking prize for this plane is a grand total of ZERO dollars! Definitely a must-download for every DCS player out there that wants a fresh experience and a new toy to play around with. Get it HERE. About the author Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos is a longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

When it comes to the currently available mods that DCS:World has there are only a few that have become so feature-rich that at least to me they are at the same level of some of the paid modules out there. One of these is the A-4E-C Community mod which was a collaborative effort between community members from different communities that united to make the Scooter fly in the skies of DCS:World. One of these developers is Heclak, with which I had the pleasure to have today's interview talking about the Skyhawk's latest update, the difficulty of being a modder for DCS and the possible future of the project. Many thanks to Heclak for letting me have this chat with him! To start with, could you introduce yourself and the work you have done before entering the A-4E-C mod team. Hi. I’m Heclak and one of the current developers on the Community A-4E project. Working on the A-4E-C is my first time modding for DCS World. However, I do have prior experience in programming and 3D modelling which I had picked up in my personal time. For how long have you been a part of the A-4E-C team and how many members does the team have right now? I’ve been working on the Community A-4E project in an unofficial capacity since it first officially released in November 2018. I started by releasing an unofficial patch for the A-4E-C to add more accurate rocket capabilities and later improving the weapon systems capabilities of the A-4E as a contributor to the project. I was invited to be part of the official developer team at the end of March 2019 and have continued working on the A-4E-C every since. The A-4E-C currently consists of Plusnine and myself as the official developer team but we would not have been able to accomplish what we have done if not for the support from the community members. Especially the community testers on our discord channel who have been providing valuable feedback and testing before each public release. Modding in DCS has been a hot topic as of late due to many popular mods that have stopped working due to changes in DCS' way to handle anti-piracy measures. Has this affected the A-4E-C as a project in any way? Thankfully the A-4E-C had not been affected by the changes, this is due to the A-4E-C being a standalone module and does not require any modifications to the DCS core files nor does it require the use of any files from other modules. One of the key goals for the A-4E-C was to be a fully standalone module so that there are no prerequisites for using it. This would allow anyone to hop into the A-4E-C as the only requirement is DCS World which is free. Congratulations on the release of v1.4 of the Scooter! What do you consider to be the most relevant improvements made to the mod since its v1.3.1 release? I have been asked this question a lot and I have always struggled with answering this question as there are simply so many changes in the version 1.4 patch. The version 1.4 patch is a patch that includes a wide variety of improvements across all aspects of the aircraft. While a number of the changes are not immediately obvious, we feel that version 1.4 provides a layer of polish to the A-4E-C with the upgrades and bug fixes. The visual fixes and upgrades in both the cockpit and external models, especially with the improved lighting, provide a more immersive experience for the pilot. Various systems such as the electronic countermeasures (ECM) panel and navigation system were further developed. One of my favourite but least visible upgrade is how the underlying hydraulics and electrical system were revisited to better model the intricacies of the system so that we can simulate emergency procedures. You will need to know which subsystems can be powered by the ram air turbine and how to use the emergency systems to land safely on the ground. How hard has it been to maintain the Scooter flight-worthy in DCS? Were there any moments in which you have been frustrated by the constant fix-break cycle that happens when working in the Open Beta version of DCS? Maintaining and improving the A-4E-C certainly has its challenges as we have been doing it without official support from Eagle Dynamics. We do not get advance information about changes to the way DCS works, which require us to react after a new version of DCS has been publicly released. We are affected in a very different manner when compared to the official modules as we use different parts of the DCS system. The A-4E-C uses the Lua application programming interface (API) of DCS World which the official modules have been using much less of in recent years. A lot of these functions could be considered legacy by Eagle Dynamics and we have had challenges in getting support when a code function is not doing what it is supposed to be doing as it doesn’t affect any of the official modules. One example is the Standard Flight Model (SFM) system in the DCS World core. I believe the last official aircraft that used it was the C-101 and the Hawk before they had implemented their EFM. There has been an outstanding bug where the nose landing gear sinks into the ground when the aircraft is loaded from specific start scenarios. Since this issue does not affect any of the paid modules, we have been having trouble getting traction for getting it fixed. There have been several close calls were the A-4E-C would have seen an end-of-life situation due to DCS changes but they were thankfully mitigated. We hope to not encounter such situations in the future as it does give us a heart attack when it happens. Have the lighting changes in DCS affected the A-4E-C? Could you show us what improvements are being made to accommodate this new lighting system? There were several changes to the light rendering in the DCS 2.5.6.50726 Open Beta, one of these changes was a change in one of the shader which was often used for warning lights and annunciators. I have been told by some of the official 3rd-party developers via a reply on a Reddit post that the particular shader has mostly likely been deprecated. Fixing this has involved an updating of the model to use a different shader to render the lighting and it has been looking great again. Since the light rendering in DCS World 2.5.6 is a moving target, it has also required us to make constant brightness changes to the lighting effects to the cockpit lighting. Our biggest concern is having to release too many small patches which would trouble the users to make constant manual updates to their installation. I have taken the opportunity to give the lighting in the cockpit another upgrade with the new shader effects and adding more lighting-related features that are found in the real A-4E. In an upcoming patch, the dimming wheel on the Angle-of-Attack (AOA) indexer will allow the dimming of the AOA indexer for night flying and some of the annunciators will switch to a dim mode when the cockpit lights are set up for night flights. The lights in their dim state will be more difficult to observe just like the real aircraft. These will more accurately reflect the pilot experience in different lighting conditions. Do you think that ED's way to handle modding has been flawed? What do you think could be done to improve this situation? Wow. This is a tough question. I think this topic is far too difficult and complicated to be answered here. This is a multi-tiered situation which requires addressing numerous aspects and it would not be correct to trivialize in a simple reply. I wouldn’t describe Eagle Dynamic’s approach as flawed as I have always been under the impression that they do not really take a clear stand towards modding so it would not be fair to say if the current situation is flawed or not. I do wish that they would support the creation and use of mods in a more proactive fashion, particularly with a public release of the entire software development kit (SDK)that the official 3rd-parties have access to. That approach would be in line with the overall flight simulation community but I understand that they also have their business interests to protect. I hope that there can be a mutually beneficial approach in the near future. Last but not least. Will the A-4E-C continue to be supported in the future as long as you and the team are available to work on it? Are there any features you would personally like to add to the module later on? Our goal is to keep the project running for as long as we can and one of the things that we have done to work towards that goal is to put the files on a community repository like Github where everyone can see the development progress and contribute if they wish to. We have facilitated the creation of an active community on our discord channel where numerous A-4E users have contributed in many ways from research, testing, mission creation, community-help, and even fixes to the A-4E-C. We are working with some members of the community to create more liveries and missions for the A-4E-C. We would like to encourage more people to contribute to the project if they can, especially in the development of the module itself so that it can continue to be the community module that it started as. We believe that there are many talented members of the community who can help take the A-4E-C to greater heights and us as the development team can play the role of facilitators for that process. My most desired feature to add would be radios as that would allow for air-to-air refueling, intercoms and radio communications but that is simply not possible without the SDK, so I have put that goal aside at the moment. For now, I am just slowly making my way through the different systems as I learn more about the aircraft. There are many sub-systems that can still benefit from more research and improvements and I would like to keep working on them to create a really polished module for the community. About the interviewer Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

A complete guide on how to build a DIY head-tracking setup, from start to finish. In twelve years of playing flight simulation games, I have only experienced a couple of hardware upgrades that have truly reshaped the way I played. The first one was when I started using a joystick. The second one when I replaced my joystick with a HOTAS (Hands on Throttle and Stick) and the third is when I built my own head tracking equipment. These are changes so substantial that I could never find myself going back to my old ways ever again. I had known about head tracking ever since I saw a video from one of the YouTubers I followed, Ralfidude, in which he talked about his TrackIR setup and my mind was blown. I knew that motion tracking/capture existed but seeing it in action made me want to use one instantly. I went to see how much it cost, realized that it was way over my budget and told myself that I was never going to get one. The situation stayed the same until I started seeing some people building their own head-tracking systems. This reignited my interest in the topic, pushing me to start my research into what materials I needed. In this article I will share the results of that investigation and the process I had to follow to build the system I currently use with as much detail as possible so that you can build your own. STEP 1: UNDERSTANDING THE TECH AND YOUR NEEDS Before we get deeper into the building process we must first take a look into what this tech is really all about and the build alternatives you have at your disposal. In layman's terms this is basic motion tracking technology. The software has been designed to track a specific pattern of identifiable points to determine the position of your head in a 3D environment. It transmits said position to the game of your preference if it has head-tracking support. This is usually done with an Infrared (IR) sensitive camera and a tracker which emits an IR signal, be it self-powered (IR LEDs) or through the use of IR reflective surfaces. TYPES OF TRACKERS There are two types of trackers that have become the most popular options for gaming related applications. These are clips and caps. Clips are usually self-powered trackers that come in a vertical 3 point layout comprised of three IR LEDs. These are pretty popular for their self-powered nature and ease of use. Caps are usually powerless trackers that come in a variety of arrangements but usually they use two or more reflective surfaces which don't require power to work. The main aspect of the cap-type trackers is that they are always mounted on top a cap to allow for ease of use. WHICH TRACKER TYPE SHOULD YOU BUILD? Clips usually offer the most consistent and stable experience when compared to caps. By virtue of being self-powered it becomes a little harder to build as you have to design your clip layout and your circuit. There's always the option of 3D printing an opensource file to use as a base. You will always have to solder your own electronics so please keep that in mind. If you don't posses any experience dealing with electrical circuits, then a cap-type tracker would be your best alternative and one that would give you a similar if not indistinguishable experience. This guide will follow the process of building a clip, so if you are going to build a cap you can go directly to step five for software configuration. STEP 2: PREPARATION The entire set up will consist of a PlayStation 3 Eye camera (PS3 Eye Camera), which we will modify to turn it into an IR sensitive camera, and a simple clip-type tracker which will be a basic 3v circuit. DISCLAIMER: I am not an electrical engineer, so please take caution with the procedures that will be described in the following paragraphs. Safety first. Manage your tools correctly and take the necessary safety measures to ensure that. TOOLS You will need these tools to continue forward as they are crucial for everything we will do. Hot glue gun Solder iron Electrical solder and flux Xacto knife or equivalent Patience, a lot of patience MATERIALS For the clip we will be building a simple 3 volt parallel circuit with three IR LEDs connected to a CR2032 battery. Be careful with the ones you buy since this could cause the circuit to not work. You will need: One (1) CR2032 PCB Battery Holder. Three (3) IR LEDs rated at 3v. One (1) 6 pin push switch (Mini DPDT Push Switch). At least three (3) meters/nine (9) feet of UL2468 cable . Three (3) meters/nine (9) feet of 1mm steel wire. One (1) 2mm thick balsa wood plank. Electrical tape. You will also need a PS3 Camera which can be found for cheap and a floppy disk, but we will go more in-depth on that during step four. STEP 3 (1): BUILD THE FRAME Now it is time to build and for that we will be using the following printable template: In the first step we will cut away the two balsa wood sections and bend the wire frame using the template. Now apply glue to the bottom wooden section with your hot glue gun and adhere the bended wire frame to it. Make sure that the frame is straight as any excessive bends will affect the usability of it. Before it dries, apply glue to the top wooden section and adhere it in place. Let the glue dry a bit. The frame is done! The frame will also need a base to be held on your headphones but that one will be up to your design as each frame will have minor differences that have to be taken into account. STEP 3 (2): WIRE THE CIRCUIT To start, let's have a look at the electrical diagram of the clip that we will be building: A very simple parallel circuit with a switch and 3 LEDs, as you can see. Since we will be using 3 volt LEDs this circuit doesn't need any kind of resistor, making everything easier. The layout will be a little more like this: The process will be quite simple, but have patience: Cover the tips of the frame's legs with electrical tape before soldering to avoid any kind of undesirable contact later on. We will be soldering a bit so please do educate yourself on how to solder first. Measure using your wires the length you will need according to your frame's dimensions. Since each frame might have slightly different dimensions I won't give any measures whatsoever. You will need the following cables: (It is recommended that you cut them a bit longer what you will need since mistakes do happen and it is always better to have the excess than to) Two running from battery (notice the length difference on the negative cable due to it's role with the switch). One from switch to the negative junction. Two from the negative junction to the corresponding LEDs. Two from the positive junction to the corresponding LEDs. NOTE: Remember to remove the isolation from the tips of your cables and secure your connections with the hot glue once you are sure that no more changes are needed. Now onto the first electrical part, the battery. For our purposes we will be using only two of the three pins of the battery holder. Since we will be using a CR2032 PCB battery holder, we will need to run cables from it as you can see above. IMPORTANT: Please make notice that the POSITIVE side of the CR2032 is going to be facing UP, which is marked by the positive sign (+) on the battery holder. Paste the battery holder to the frame as indicated in DIAGRAM N°1 and follow the cabling routes. We will run the negative cable directly to the push switch, connecting it to the middle pin which would be pin N°2 as per DIAGRAM N°2 (bellow) which is a top side view. Securing the cables can be quite tricky at first, so have patience and continue until both the output and input cables are secured on their respective pins. For more information on this type of switch, this Hackster.io guide is highly recommended. The positive cable will stay disconnected for now, just solder it to the battery holder and secure it to avoid any possible damage. After you have tested the connectivity and the switch's functionality with one of the LEDs by using your phone's camera to see if it lights up, secure the switch to the frame with the hot glue gun. Make sure that they have no play/slack and are stable. Now we move on to the major part, which is the connection of the battery with the rest of the cables and the front LED. This part will require that you remove the isolation from the ends of the cables, both for the upper and lower frame legs. Follow this diagram to see how the connection is done. Note that the front LED lacks any cable connections and is soldered directly into the joint. Trim the LED legs accordingly and please make sure that the polarity of the LED is being soldered into the correct joint. The longer leg on the LED typically is the positive anode. We are almost done, now all that's left is soldering the other two LEDs. This step should be pretty simple since you have already made more difficult joints. Now that you are done, make sure that everything is working by checking the LED's functionality with your phone's camera as we did previously. Once that's cleared out, secure the cables and the LEDs to the frame with hot glue to avoid corrosion and any kind of damage. At the end, you should have something like this: STEP 4: MODIFY THE PS3 CAMERA For this step you will need the PS3 Camera and the diskette/negative film that I mentioned back in step two. There are TWO types of PS3 Eye cameras, one of which will be useless for this project. Thankfully, these two are very distinctive from one another when it comes to the lens. You DON'T want the one that has the flat lens. This one cannot be modified and would be a waste of time to even open it. Here is a reference so you can see the flat lens: Please note the flat lens cover and the ring. These are telltale sings of this model of camera. The one we want has the rounded lens, which is very evident once you see it: This is the one we want as it has a modifiable lens, specifically, it has an easily removable IR filter. This will allow our camera to become very IR sensitive. Since I modified mine off camera a long time ago, I cannot provide you with my own photos as examples. Instead, I will guide you to the video I followed when modifying mine. It was made by Vazina Robertson: STEP 5: SOFTWARE To get your computer to recognize the PS3 Camera, you will have to download drivers for it. The only one that's completely guaranteed to work is CL-Eye so look for that one. Make sure that it is working properly. For our tracking we will be using OpenTrack, which is an opensource head-tracking software that's very reliable and relatively easy to set up. When you first boot it up you will be greeted by this window: Although it might look a little crude and daunting at first, this software is very intuitive once you are done with the initial setup. Before you do anything else, please click on the hammer that's next to PointTracker 1.1 Make sure that your device is set to the PS3 Camera and that all the other parameters are good to go. Once you are done with that click on the Model tab. Click on the correspondent tab and adjust the measurements to your specific profile, be it a clip or a cap. Calibrate your model position too, that will help the software to make more precise calculations. We are now done with the model side of things! Now we need to set up our curvatures and game detection. To make OpenTrack function with most games, you will have to go to the Game Detection tab under Options: Click the + icon and add the executable name and a profile. It is that simple! To set up the curvatures we will need to click the Mapping function on the main menu which will open this window: These values are completely up to your discretion and will be completely dependent on your setup, distance to the camera and head position. This will take some effort and time to get right but you should be able to tweak this values down to your liking. STEP 6: ENJOY! I hope that this guide helped you build this game changing tool and I wish that you will enjoy it as much as I do. Please contact me if there are any mistakes on this guide or parts in which I could expand upon. About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

After a very long time in development, Team Fusion Simulations has finally released a new expansion for IL-2 Cliffs of Dover-BLITZ on August 6th, 2020. This comes in the form of IL-2 Desert Wings-TOBRUK, a very huge expansion that will mainly take you to the skies of Africa to participate on historical battles for, or against the Afrika Korps. As usual, with my reviews I will separate this into several categories so that you, the reader, can formulate your own judgement as to whether this expansion is for you: Introduction Scenery and Aircraft variety External and internal 3D models Visual and sound effects Flight and damage modelling Single player content Bugs, issues and the promising future Is this expansion for you? DISCLAIMER: I was given a review copy of this expansion by Team Fusion Simulations themselves, which was very kind of them. Even then, they gave us complete creative freedom over this review and the opinions that will be written are my own. INTRODUCTION If any game deserves to have its development story told, it's this one. It is a story of a game that was launched in a sorry state to later be fixed by a dedicated community of modders, who eventually became the sole keepers of its code and kept the project alive. The official developers moved on, allocating their full resources to their newest game, IL-2 Great Battles. Launching in a broken state in 2011, Cliffs of Dover was naturally met with mediocre reviews. The sim was absolutely riddled with bugs, many of which made the experience quite the hassle for customers. That's where Team Fusion comes into the scene. As a group of modders, they dedicated themselves to keeping CLoD alive while also maintaining a community of fans of the game entertained with fixes and patches. This all changed when 1C Game Studios announced that Team Fusion, now known as Team Fusion Simulations, would take over development of CLoD while 1C focused themselves on the development and maintenance of the IL-2 Great Battles series. This left two active series on the IL-2 franchise: IL-2 CLoD and IL-2 Great Battles, both are independent from each other and add-ons are not compatible between them as they both use different engines, CLoD's being the older one of the two. Please keep this in mind as it will be important later on. It is truly inspiring to see how a group of passionate individuals, against all expectations, became something much larger and I congratulate them for it. They now have managed to release Desert Wings after its development started in late 2016 with an initial release date of 2017 that got delayed little by little until it finally released a couple of weeks ago to very good reception. SCENERY AND AIRCRAFT VARIETY Set in the desert of North Africa, this expansion brings to life a somewhat overlooked side of WW2. From Tomahawks and Messerschmitts duking it out in the skies over Egypt to Heinkels intercepting allied convoys on the Mediterranean Sea, it truly lets you experience this side of the war in an unprecedented way. The map is pretty decently sized with 385 kilometers square of play area for you to fly over, which is divided somewhat 60/40 between ground and sea with most of the ground areas being filled with endless desert. Coastal regions are pretty attractive with cliffs and beaches and the few cities that there are have enough detail to make them pop when you see them. Although, that being said, do not expect this to have the graphical quality of its younger brother: IL-2 Great Battles. The color pallet seems to be a bit weird which makes the sand sometimes look a bit too bright but that is not the norm. It is noticeable that the devs are pushing this game engine to its limits, at least when it comes to graphical fidelity. But if there is one thing that this expansion does better than its successor is that it provides an impressive amount of aircraft to fly with several new flyable aircraft and a lot of new variants to the already available aircraft from CLoD. There are three of these that caught my attention: DEWOITINE D.520 This little bird won my heart the moment I set my eyes on her. From the way that it looks to the way she flies, this has got to be one of the most impressive ones included in Desert Wings. It is available in both standard configuration, and its tropical variant. While it does not boast the heaviest firepower around, it can still defend itself quite well while fighting early BF-109 variants. Additionally, just like the aircraft that I will highlight next, this is the only modern game to include this beautiful machine in a flyable state. GRUMMAN MARTLET MK.III Powerful, chunky and with a lot of charm. That's the best way to describe this version of the Wildcat under RAF colors. While it isn't the best dogfighter in the allied roster, it does have very good survivability when compared to some of the Nazi aircraft. Also, as far as I am aware of, this is the only modern simulator to include this bird in a flyable form which could not make me happier. VICKERS WELLINGTON If you want to go big, you have this. Amazing to fly and easy to operate, this heavy bomber will either be a pleasure to use or a pleasure to die on. Available in both conventional and torpedo capable versions, it brings a completely different type of aircraft to the game. There are a lot more aircraft than these three, including a couple that I wasn't expecting such as the Fiat CR.42 and the Gladiator, overlooked biplanes that served for the Italians and British respectively during this conflict. Recon/training aircraft, dedicated fighters, fighter bombers, medium and heavy bombers, this expansion has them all; making it of the most attractive parts of the product. I am sure you too will have a very enjoyable time flying them over both the deserts of Africa and the skies of Britain and France. EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL 3D MODELS Out of all the areas that I have evaluated for this review, I was the most impressed by this one. The developers have one quite a good job with the modeling and texturing of their assets, mainly with aircraft. Some of these do look a bit too glossy some times, but that is something that is not as bad as it sounds. External models are brimming with details, rivets and panels are discernible when the sun hits them, glass looks like glass although it might be a bit too reflective. Markings are modular giving you the chance to represent a large amount of squadrons regardless of allegiance and time period. In the customization menu you are able to do something that no other game can do, this being the capability to add or reduce texture weathering effects which has been a feature since CLoD released. In my honest opinion, the cockpits are significantly higher quality than the external models. They have very high quality textures, detailed models and semi-clickable functionality. Are they study-level? No, but that was never the point to begin with. They look realistic enough to immerse you into the game and that's what matters. Here are some of my favorites, but keep in mind that these screenshots do not do these cockpits justice as too much detail is lost on the larger zoom settings as it is natural: The way the light shines on the gauges and the way it is reflected from the different types of materials inside of the cockpit is truly wonderful, even more when you consider that this expansion is built on a 2011 game engine. I applaud the developers for their work on this department. VISUAL AND SOUND EFFECTS This area is a bit of a hit and miss. While the visual effects can be pretty good at times, even when considering the age of the game engine, the sound effects can be a little off. Don't get me wrong, it is not that the sounds are terrible, it is that there are times which sounds were the factor that took me out of the immersion of flying in this simulator. Engine sounds are better inside of the cockpit, mainly regarding the engine. The aircraft's engine will still communicate critical information to you constantly with its sound and it does it quite well. This is more notorious when you have already received damage either through combat or incorrect operation of the engine. Metal cracking sounds from high stress scenarios will communicate to you the limits of the airframe you are on. Gun sounds and external sounds are the part that suffers from most problems but it is also the one with more exceptions. While some external engine sounds are wonderful, such as when they are taking off, some of them are not. The one I would consider to be the most problematic would be the "fly-by" sound as it sounds like a time accelerated engine sound instead of a dynamic one. I sincerely hope that this could be addressed on a future patch as it would improve the experience significantly. Visual effects are of better quality than I was expecting, but one has to remember this is an expansion to a relatively old game. Even when taking that into consideration, I was pleasantly surprised by some of the things I saw. From oil leaks on the canopy once the engine had received some damage or the flames coming out of a downed bomber with pieces of fuselage coming out as it tumbled down into the coldness of the Mediterranean Sea. I do have one small gripe with the flight control surface animations. If you move them slowly there's no problem but if you move them rapidly they seem to act in a weird way, skipping some positions and moving in a janky manner. I had noticed this way back when I bought CLoD BLITZ but I hoped that this release would have addressed it. It is not a game-breaking issue but I do hope that it is addressed in the future if possible. FLIGHT AND DAMAGE MODELING More important than both sound and visual effects, this is the category that both makes and breaks a game. It can be difficult to get a flight model to feel right as there are so many factors that can interact with it. Fortunately, flight models of both CLoD and Desert Wings received some attention and has been noticeably improved! Torque effects seem to be more natural and trimming now feels smoother. Pulling tight turns is now a pleasure on fighter aircraft, making you feel completely in control with your aircraft. This is also noticeable on the less maneuverable aircraft like the Wellington or the He-111, which feel heavier and at the same time more powerful. They take time to react to your inputs, which is natural for a larger, heavier aircraft. Damage modeling is also pretty extensive with simulations of oil, water and fuel leaks, overheating, asymmetrical lift due to wing damage, etc. You can lose parts of your engine or even your entire engine or wing if you are that unlucky/unaware. I was honestly impressed by the flight models, they are fun to fly. I am glad that Team Fusion improved them over what they were on CLoD, and they were not bad there. SINGLE PLAYER CONTENT This expansion oozes with content of all shapes and forms. From quick missions, pre-arranged dogfighting scenarios, short missions and expansive campaigns across both Africa and the Channel. The highlight of this gigantic content pool comes in the form of the previously mentioned campaigns, which are, in no particular order: Gravity is my friend (Ju-87 Desert Campaign) Blue Wellingtons (Wellington Daylight Desert Bombing Campaign) Rising from the Ashes (Beaufighter Interceptor Channel Campaign) Desert Hawks (Tomahawk Desert Campaign) Eagles over Tobruk (BF-109 Desert Campaign) On ne passe pas! (Dewoitine Channel Campaign) Operta Aperta (Gladiator Desert Campaign) Tempesta sull'Africa (CR.42 Desert Campaign) Rats over Tobruk (Hurricane Desert Campaign) Nine different campaigns that cover several different aircraft and timeframes. That's quite a lot considering that some of these campaigns were made with realism in mind, following routines and combat mission records from the war to allow the player to experience something akin to what the real pilots went through. I, for one, quite enjoyed the addition of these campaigns as they allowed me to immerse myself in some of these combat missions. But realism comes at a cost and that is time. Some of these missions can be quite lengthy at times and, as it was routine back then and now, you will have little to do on the way to the area of operations. Whether that is a good or a bad thing is up to each person, but I personally don't dislike it. Time acceleration can help with these long stretches, minimizing the downtime and making more efficient use of your time. Additionally, you do have access to a full mission editor that allows you to create the missions that suit your taste. Do you want to fight a cloud of He-111 with a Gladiator while escorting a British armada? It is possible with the mission editor. It is a powerful but somewhat unintuitive tool so it is recommended that you read or watch some tutorials on how to properly utilize it. BUGS, ISSUES AND THE PROMISING FUTURE I have spent 20 hours in-game since I received the expansion and in that time I have encountered some bugs, but surprisingly, none of them were major or game-breaking. I have mentioned some of them throughout the review but there is one still that is noteworthy: Under certain scenarios, like engine damage, the propeller effect can be seen duplicated/out of sync which makes it seem like there are two counter-rotating propellers. This is not that bad but it does happen from time to time. The only other issue that I have with the game is not related to the expansion but to the game itself, and that's the UI. There are multiple issues with the UI that could be improved with a bit of design work and coding, but since I am not a coder I can't tell how easy it would be to reprogram this. The part where this is more apparent is the Quick Mission Builder, as here the amount of icons and text on screen can be a little confusing to the eye. It becomes usable once you start to work with it but that does not make it less cluttered or unintuitive. This is the biggest flaw that this game has had since it launched way back in 2011 but I hope that Team Fusion will allocate some effort into redesigning it. What brings me a bit of hope is the fact that Team Fusion has stated that they are now dedicated to continue bug fixing and to start feature development for the game. These improvements include but are not limited to VR support, new weather system, a dynamic campaign generator and improved ground rendering. All of these improvements will be released for both owners of CLoD and Desert Wings in the form of incremental updates free to all users. More information on this on their forum announcement. IS THIS EXPANSION FOR YOU? At a price of USD$69.99 this expansion can be a hard buy for many people. It is on the same price bracket as the expansions for its younger brother, IL-2 Great Battles. But comparing one to the other wouldn't be fair as they run on different engines and are developed by different development teams. But with the amount of content that it provides it is hard not to somewhat justify the pricing a bit as it includes nine different campaigns and single missions, over 40 aircraft including 8 rare warbirds all which sport very detailed and well made 3D models, an expansive map, new ground and sea assets with the possibility of controlling them in the future with an upcoming update. If what you want is: An immersive desert warfare experience. the possibility to fly some very rare warbirds. Experience an overlooked side of WW2. If you don't mind: Some of the bugs The current UI design. The somewhat dated sound design. The somewhat high price If some of all of the above is what you want, then IL-2 Desert Wings-TOBRUK is for you. Once again, we would like to thank Team Fusion Simulations for providing us a review copy of their expansion when we got in contact with them, so thanks to both Mike and Pete for trusting us. It is a gesture we appreciate a lot. About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034 Thanks to Aidan, Prov and Hueman for their proofreading of this article.

For years now, the Royal International Air Tatoo (RIAT) has been one of if not the largest airshow in the world. It has brought together aviation fans from all over the world to partake in a celebration of aviation and military aviation. Sadly, due to this year's situation, the physical event had to be cancelled, but that did not mean that there was not a RIAT in 2020. This year RIAT moved to the virtual space, livestreaming a two day show free for everyone to see. Instead of the numerous real life demonstration teams that usually attend, this was the first time that virtual demonstration teams took the main stage and showed the world that the virtual side of aviation also has something to present. There were seven acrobatic display teams of various sizes that participated. Virtual Patrouille Suisse, Virtual Patrouille Française, Virtual Swiss Hornet Solo Display, Virtual Belgian F-16 Solo, Virtual Rafale Solo Display by Jetesons, Virtual Red Arrows and our friends, the Frecce Tricolori Virtuali (FTV). Today in this short interview we had the chance to talk with the FTV about their time during Virtual RIAT 2020 and the experience they had during the event: Q: Getting invited to RIAT is not something that happens that often. How did you guys feel when first getting invited to perform there? A: Excited ! We actually could not believe [that during such difficult times] the world was [going] through, it turned out [to be] an incredible opportunity for us in the virtual world. It then took a couple of days to cool down and let us realize the correct methodology in order to correctly [structure] our training sessions. Q: To your knowledge, before RIAT 2020, has there ever been a real world airshow organization that has worked with virtual demonstration teams to create a program? A: Not on a macroscopic scale such as the Virtual RIAT in 2020. Many airshow organizers are considering involving a virtual counterpart not being the star of the show (unfortunately or luckily …it depends) but to let the everyday people have at least 1/100th of the feelings of what they are showcasing in the air. Q: Because RIAT was such a unique opportunity for FTV and virtual demonstration teams as a whole, was preparing for RIAT more stressful or complicated than your past shows? A: It was the natural step [forward] for us. No one [improves] by being stagnant and not stressed, at least a little bit more than before. So it was for us the mental preparation the 2 months before the show. Q: How long was the team given to prepare for the event? A: Not everything was ready [at the time that] the official communication that we would take part on the show [happened] (and that is normal business), so to some degree this question has [several] answers. In fact, our routine was slightly changed starting from 2 months before to accommodate for the different ways we would start and finish the show. The team continued to train and as the show approached, a few but significant additional features (the scenario, the length of the show, etc) were added and so our training sessions increased to accommodate those additional modifications. Q: Did RIAT ever give the team a time limit for the routine? Did you guys have to adapt your usual routine to fit this time slot by leaving some maneuvers away? A: We were given a certain amount of minutes that were aligned with our show and we did not cut away any maneuvers. Q: What maneuvers does the team feel were the highlight of the routine this time around? A: The correct positioning and harmony of flight of the two sections while in front of the crowds are always the most difficult and the most proudly accepted among our team and the viewers. Q: There were other virtual acrobatic teams participating during RIAT, like the Virtual Red Arrows. Did you guys watch their routines? What do you think about how they performed? A: The Virtual Reds have always expressed a high level of technical maturity and preparation. They displayed very well during the RIAT 2020. Those performances should constitute the “raised bar” every major team should want to reach. Q: You guys closed Day 2 of RIAT but your time slot seemed quite short and was not included in the official public schedule for that day. Was the team aware of this prior to the live show? A: Unfortunately, no one could [have been] aware of the technical difficulties that could arise. Q: How does the team feel in regards to the technical difficulty that cut several minutes from the routines you had recorded? How long was the routine originally? A: FTV were not very happy in the beginning, but the organizations explained the reasons, so] that we completely understood. The standard FTV display is about 23-25 minutes, shortened to 15 minutes by rules. Q: Do you feel like the RIAT organizers should have done something different? What would be your recommendations for them so that they can improve? A: It [was] a first and so it worked out pretty well I should say. There is always room to improve and the [organizers] should take [note] of what [is] necessary to introduce close to the show and [to try] to let everyone know more in advance. To conclude I would like to thank Duke, as he is our main contact point with the FTV as a whole. Grazie mille, amico mio! Their entire Virtual RIAT 2020 display is available to watch here, so be sure to give it a watch if you have not already: About the interviewer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

During the Autumn Steam Game Festival 2020, a couple of flight games released public demos for everyone to try. One of these was Red Wings: Aces of the Sky; an arcade flight game set in during World War I. Initially released for the Nintendo Switch earlier this year to mixed reviews, this game is now getting a release on Steam so I gave the demo a go. I will divide these short first impressions in categories so you can go to the ones that are more crucial to you as a reader, that way you can judge it on your own: Graphics and Art-style Gameplay and Aircraft Variety Mission Design PC Port Oddities GRAPHICS AND ART STYLE Instead of going for photo-realism, this game has a cel-shaded cartoon-ish art style which is very unique for a flight game. The menus and interfaces all look really sleek and well designed. This style also applies to the environments which most of the time do look like paintings done in oil. The opening cinematic has more of a comic-ish art style which is really well done for what it is supposed to accomplish. The UI and HUD elements also have this cartoon look to them, making each element pop when it is on screen. The animations of the UI elements are also very well done, no critiques to give there. Overall, this has got to be the strongest appeal of this title Here are a couple of screenshots of both the main menu, the in-game HUD and a frame of the opening cinematic: GAMEPLAY AND AIRCRAFT VARIETY Gameplay-wise it is a pretty straight-forward game as it is to be expected from an arcade flight game. Simple flight dynamics alongside simplified bullet mechanics make this game one that is pretty easy to play and even easier to master. You do not have to lead your targets as there does not seem to be any kind of bullet travel time, making distant shots more of a matter of effective weapon range rather than skill. The flight mechanics are even a bit too limited to the point where they feel restrictive. You lack full control of both the X and Y axis, and the Z axis is basically none existent. While this is partially solved by the use of your abilities, specifically the barrel roll and the U turn, the fact that these abilities have a cool-down makes them a bit harder to use in a pinch. One of these abilities recharges as you get kills, let's call this one a "take-down". It allows you to finish off an already badly damaged opponent with your handgun. While flashy-looking, this feature feels unnecessary as you already have the enemy in your sights when you use it. Very anime-esk, which I really like. To summarize: the best way I have to describe the feel of flight in the game is an even more limited "Novice" mode from Ace Combat. At least in that flight mode you get full pitch authority, unlike here. And it is not something that can just be just patched in as the game seems to have been built around this flight model due to the fact that you can used "canned" maneuvers just like in games such as Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces or Ace Combat: 3D Cross Rumble. I suspect this was a decision taken to make this game as accessible as possible. This game does have pilot skills which you can upgrade called "Ace Perks" which improve the issues mentioned previously. These go from minor upgrades to your abilities to major improvements but sadly, the latter were not possible to unlock in the demo. You upgrade these abilities with the stars you gain after completing a mission, gaining one upgrade point minimum and three maximum. It is uncertain as how impactful some of these upgrades will be in the long run due to the limitations that the demo has as you can only obtain a maximum of 12 stars in the demo during its 4 available missions. The demo allows you to fly three aircraft, all of which are real and relatively famous designs from the Triple Alliance's air corps/air forces during WW1. These are the following: The only aircraft that feels different is the Fokker, with it being a bit more maneuverable that the other two. Both the Albatros and the Taube feel almost the same, both having a bit more speed than the Fokker. There are five aircraft in total for the Austro-Hungarian side, but the other two are unavailable to fly on the demo version. MISSION DESIGN This is the part which gives me the most worries. The demo shows you two types of missions: Dogfight oriented missions (with three variations) and a race-like mission. The dogfight missions can have different focuses such as obtaining the maximum score to time trials in which you have to shoot every plane down in the shortest time possible. Missions are really short, with them only having a short "story" paragraph to justify the combat scenario. Story does not seem to be the focus of this game, rather, it seems to be an excuse to put the player in different scenarios. This works perfectly for a demo but, in a full game which promises to be 50 missions long, I sincerely fear that mission design will become rather repetitive. Remember, these are my first impressions, the full game might prove me wrong here but all I can say is that I hope that I am wrong about the feeling I got from the demo missions. PC PORT ODDITIES I will keep this section short and sweet. There are no performance issues what so ever, the game runs smooth as butter even in my three year old computer; but that does not mean that there are no problems with the game when it comes to the port. The graphical options are pretty limited, with only three presets available to set the graphical parameters (LOW, MEDIUM and HIGH). It lacks any kind of graphical customization aside from brightness and the other typical options such as window mode. The main issue I have with the port is that it is still designed around a controller, therefore, there is no mouse cursor to be found. Not even in the menus, there is no way of using the mouse in this game. This frustrated me a bit and I really hope that the devs add it, even if it only pops up to use the menus. CLOSING THOUGHTS Overall, this was a very solid demo that showed the good and the bad that the game has to offer. It gives you just enough to judge if the game is for your or not. If what you read sounds like this is something you could like, give the demo a go, although it might not be available as of the time of publication. Here is a link to the Steam page for the game so you can check it out for yourself. This is not an affiliate link, therefore, we stand to gain nothing from you clicking it. But we encourage you to at least give this game a go if you enjoy arcade flight games at all. About the author Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

War Thunder is a game well known for a lot of reasons. From its impressively extensive line-up of vehicles to the drama that happens from time to time in the community from unbalanced tiers or broken features that eventually get patched out, until the next patch where the cycle repeats. But inside of the War Thunder community there is a smaller group that strives to use the game in other ways, to modify it and use its engine for their own community creations. The modders of War Thunder always try to push the boundaries of what is possible in this free-to-play game by creating everything from their own custom missions to more complex mods like custom aircraft and vehicles and sharing them for everyone to enjoy. To date, the most complex mod of them all is Ace Thunder Zero. This mod is, in my opinion, the single most amazing piece of content that the War Thunder community has ever put out. Today we talk with its main developer and the person behind the vision that made this project possible, Avarik, to get a little more perspective as to how complex this mod really is and what it took to make it a reality. Q: What made you get into modding War Thunder or just modding in general? Did you have any help or someone that helped you learn the ropes? A: I've got into modding in War Thunder from my desire to create cinematics. I first started to learn the ropes of the Mission Editor back when Gaijin Entertainment opened up user missions to online custom battles, I joined the group of mission creators who were the first beta testers of that functionality, from then I played around a lot with the mission editor and learnt to utilize actions and conditions more efficiently, and I have lightly touched at modifying existing units in War Thunder for some of my earlier cinematics. But my first true experience with modding the game was when I was making Battle Thunder 1944, a recreation of Battlefield 1942's intro cinematic, it was my first attempt at exporting a model to War Thunder and my first true experience at modding the game, where I modified and created custom units so that I could create most of the scenes using both myself and the AI to make them as accurate as possible. It took me about 3 or so months to finish, but I learnt valuable information from it and from there I continued to develop my experience and knowledge of the War Thunder CDK and the Dagor engine in general. I did have help to learn the ropes from another guy who I was working on the mod with, RideR2, but also other fellow people in the CDK community, Gallonmate in particular who taught me how to export 3d models into War Thunder, and when I couldn't find some answers I turned to datamining and reverse engineering existing configurations, which helped me develop my own methods for more serious modding. Gaijin Entertainment themselves have also been fundamentally involved in helping me learn how to us their tools, when I didn't know how to do something that wasn't available on their wiki or I failed to datamine myself, I turned to them directly, their developers are amazing people who love to share their knowledge, I wouldn't have known half of what I know if not for them. Q: This has got to be the most complex mod out there for War Thunder as of now, congratulations on finally getting out there. But I have got to ask, with so many features, for how long were you working on this mod? Did you ever think about giving up at some time? A: It took me approximately 1.5 years on and off to create this mod, I work in the gaming industry myself and my job takes a considerable amount of my time so I spent most of my free time developing Ace Thunder Zero, it was a long ride but I feel it was worth the effort. I didn't really think about giving up, but my original pitch was actually to just continue to create cinematics, but when I saw the overwhelming amount of people who wanted to play with the exported models I figured I might as well try to make an actual proper mod for War Thunder with a higher production value than most mods, RideR2 joined me in this endeavour after showing interest in creating an arcade-like game mode for War Thunder, and Ace Combat was clearly the best choice for this game mode. It isn't a secret that I've invested both time and money into this, I didn't want to just create a visual mod or a simple one, I wanted to create a mod with a story-line and completely new game mechanics, that is what kept me forward from giving up. Q: Where there any features that were particularly hard to implement or ones in which you had to take a creative approach in order to make it work? A: The one thing that ended up being hard to make it work properly were the SAM, TLS and MPBM. Originally, ground and naval units in War Thunder could not fire rockets or missiles properly without some workarounds, and this is to an extent true to aircraft as well. Me and RideR2 discovered that, if we bind the weapon group of the missile to that of a standard weapon, and make the AI also fire a dummy gun, it will make them fire a missile too, that is how we were able to get SAM units to work. The TLS was mostly an easy implementation, but as more patches came out for War Thunder, the more broken it became, at some point the laser stopped doing damage and we were forced to add another invisible weapon to compensate for that, which worked out well in the end as we were able to more easily balance the damage the TLS did. It also currently only renders in cockpit view, yet it still functions normally in any other view and will damage enemies correctly. The MPBM was mostly an easy implementation, but we ran into some issues with the blast radius until we figured out we can override the game's normal parameters by removing the explosive type the weapon would use, making it purely dependent on blast radius and explosive mass. Q: As far as I understand there were other people involved in the making of this mod. Who are they and what did they do? A: Originally it was just me and RideR2, me being the 3D model/animation guy expert who created custom assets and also the one who used the CDK for asset utilization and the main mission creator, while RideR2 was the guy who did most of the configuration and template creations and made all units and weaponry behave the way they did, he also created The Gauntlet mission. I've also received major help from RythusOmega and Dantofu when it comes to handling models from Ace Combat 7, if not for them I wouldn't have started doing Ace Combat cinematics and later on the Ace Thunder mod. Besides me and RideR2, there were a lot of other people who contributed the following: Net-Zone: Broken Accord's OST GaMetal: The Gauntlet's OST Pandramodo: Trailer creation njmksr: ADFX-02 skins leroyonly: Dracul, MiG-21 & Potato skins reyhael: Normal mapping mobiusu14: Briefing Screen mothman47: Briefing Narrator Flipped StuG: AWWNB Pilot 1 Essi: Escudo 2 Ronan Yakowitz: AWACS Sick2Day: Savage 1 & AI skins The Iron Armenian aka G.I. Haigs: Savage 2 Michiganon: Osean Army Platoon Optical Ilyushin: Halo 1 Yimie Yu: Halo 4 and Grau Team emblem artwork Lt Rainbow Slash: Dracul 1 - Ac3ofNight: Grau 3 Flaschengeist: Grau 2 Dane Ewell / SwissChicken: Grau 1 Eclipse: Grau 4 Atsuk0: Tester lnVader: Tester Killerofal: Tester Vulpinaut: Tester MikeGoesBoom: Tester Roach: Tester Q: I was genuinely surprised to see the opening cutscene having as much detail as it did. It felt like a genuine homage to Ace Combat Zero’s style with a lot of attention to detail. For how long was this in the works and how hard was this to make? A: In short: Very hard. Before coming up with the idea of making a briefing cinematic for the mod, I wanted to make sure I get all the details correctly and not just make a simple briefing that shows what the player needs to do, there have been a lot of lore to cover to make sure no holes are made or mis-match with existing Ace Combat Zero canon, I wanted to stick to the original story but from a different point of view. I've commissioned Mobiusu14 to create a briefing cutscene after I have seen his previous artwork of an Ace Combat 7 briefing styled in Ace Combat Zero. Mobiusu14 created all the 2d assets and 3d animation, while I animated and organized all the 2d assets and script for the narrator, Mothman47, who did a spectacular job being the briefing guy. Mobiusu14 is also an excellent artist and I hope we all get to work together again if more missions are made.The briefing itself took us about 3 or so months to finish, implementing it in the game wasn't as hard but certainly not easy either. The cinematics rely on a feature that exists in War Thunder but has not been made open for custom assets and has only been utilized in tutorial missions, until Gaijin opened it up for us - It's basically a configuration file that tells the game to render video and image files located in the game's folders. Q: How are the “Destroyed” and the rest of UI elements handled? Are they static images over imposed over the screen? A: Correct, they are static images I created myself based on their Ace Combat Zero counterpart, they too use that configuration file I mentioned which renders external images and videos in the game. Q: Story-wise the mod does fit very well with what we know happened in ACZ, taking some liberties of course. Did you have any help with the writing of the dialogue and the setting? Ace Thunder Zero trailer by Pandramodo. A: For the most part the dialogue and settings was mostly my own research and knowledge of Ace Combat lore, but since I was working with other people who have played and know a lot about Ace Combat lore, they too have helped with that, especially Mobiusu14 while we were working on the briefing. I have thought a lot ahead for when and if I create more missions, so I have the full storyline already in check and ready to be utilized for future missions implementation, all fitting within existing canon, I have no intention to change the storyline or the outcome of the original Ace Combat Zero ending, but I'm not gonna spoil how I plan to wrap things up. Since I believe most people recognize the "Mercenary route" as the canon route in Ace Combat Zero, I am trying to follow A World With No Boundaries story and point of view with that in mind, and the lore actually goes much deeper with that - Try to decipher who each member of Grau Team is for example and then look how deep the rabbit holes goes. :) Q: The enemy AI is very aggressive and maneuvers really well, for War Thunder that is. Did you make any tweaks to it? A: Of course, the AI uses modified flight models and damage models, but other than that it uses standard AI behavior from existing configurations located in the game, we currently have no way to create true custom AI properties but perhaps this will be doable in the future, we do know how to customize them but the game has no way of reading custom properties at this time. The standard AI is also not able to fire missiles normally, like with the ground units. RideR2 and me have discovered that AI aircraft can in fact fire rockets and missiles if they are fired from a turret, so the solution was to add static invisible turrets to them and this way they can fire missiles at enemy aircraft. Q: It was a bit odd seeing heat seeker missiles track ground targets as I know that is not a possibility inside vanilla WT. How is this handled in-game? A: It wasn't a possibility back then which forced us to use a workaround - I created an invisible box model and designated it as an aircraft. By planting that aircraft under ground units, I was able to make heat seeking missiles track and attack them, but nowadays this is a simple toggle feature in the missile's configuration file, you can simply tell the missile what kind of unit it can track, so if you want to make a heat seeker that can track both air and ground targets, you can very easily do just that by changing a line of code. Q: Last but certainly not least, do you have any future plans in regards with War Thunder modding? A: Hopefully, yes. Besides advancing the Ace Thunder mod further, I do wish to share my knowledge and help expand the modding community in War Thunder so that more people will give it a try and perhaps come up with things even greater than what I have done - War Thunder is a game with limitless modding potential, but the knowledge and desire to actually mod the game is very scarce in the community, I hope that can be changed for the better. I would like to extend my thanks to Avarik for allowing me to have this interview with him, it was a pleasure to talk to him. Please, if you have not already, do yourself a favor and try Ace Thunder Zero. I assure you that you will have a blast playing with the Morgan against hordes of aircraft and even aces! About the interviewer Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy#9034

First hitting the skies of DCS in 2017, the AJS-37 Viggen has established itself as a standard of quality in the game. It was released under Leatherneck Simulations at first but after some internal struggles arose, the entire development team behind the Viggen parted ways with Leatherneck and Magnitude 3, becoming the studio now known as Heatblur Simulations. A ground-pounder by soul, this double delta provides a suite of possibilities like no other module out there. Unique weaponry and a very believable ground radar functionality, this aircraft makes itself shine through raw uniqueness alone. In this review I will dive deep into the Viggen and all its quirks and features to let you, the reader, judge if this Swedish monster is for you. This piece will be divided into several parts: External and internal 3D models Visual and sound effects Flight modelling Mission capability Armament Ease of use and learning curve Single player content Is this aircraft for you? EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL 3D MODELS If there is one thing that defines Heatblur it is quality and the Viggen shows it. This aircraft has been modeled to an extreme amount of detail. Nothing comes out as wonky or out of date, which is impressive considering that this module is now over three years old. A lot of love was put into making it a realistic depiction of the AJS-37, down to some things I wouldn't have thought important or crucial. EVEN THE SMALL THINGS The thing that impressed me the most is that this is one of if not the only aircraft with a modeled RAT turbine. This is something that most players will not even notice or care about as it is not a weapon or a system you will rely upon constantly, but it shows the degree of which this module has been modeled. If there is another set of features that I particularly liked, they are all the animations, particularly the thrust-reverser. A unique feature to the Viggen as of the time of writing. While I will not go in-depth in this section of the review on how awesome the reverser is. I will show you its cool animation just because I do not want to think I am the only one that likes things like this. Cockpit-wise, the Viggen continues to impress me with its quality. From the lighting to the texture work, this is one of the only cockpits that I turn in just to look at it. The way the lights react with the weathered textures and the glow of the radar scope give it a very in-era look, which I always welcome. The only "bad" part is that some of the textures are starting to age a bit, particularly on the text, but that is something that Heatblur can improve upon. Here are some day and night shots of it so you can see for yourself: VISUAL AND SOUND EFFECTS This is an area in which a lot of aircraft do good at and the Viggen is no different. While it does not have any fancy over wing vapor effects, wingtip vortexes can be seen on both the main wing and, in cases of high AoA, on the canards as well. In terms of other external effects that are noteworthy the only one that I can think of my mind is the afterburner effect: The effect is different from other aircraft as the "flame" does not extend too far away from the fuselage, but as far as I know that is by design and correct to the Volvo RM8A engine. The area where the Viggen shines the most is its sound. It is clear that the developers wanted this part of the module to be much more polished than the rest of the modules out there. From the distinct clanks of the switches to the clicks that the throttle makes as it moves over its detents, this gives life to the aircraft. Afterburners are no joke either, being clearly audible from inside and outside the cockpit, letting you know how your engine is behaving. There is one particular sound in this aircraft that you do not want to hear, but I will go over that in the next section of the review. Overall, the Viggen has one of the best designed sound environments in DCS and I am glad that Heatblur put a lot of effort into it. Here are some clips so you can hear what I just described to you, pay attention to the clicks of the throttle as I move it: EXAMPLES In-cockpit on the ground (idle-full afterburner-idle) In-cockpit in the air (idle-full afterburner-idle) External sound on the ground (idle-full afterburner-idle) Fly-by at 900Km/h (Volume warning) FLIGHT MODELING Ohboy, here is the best part of the module. This bird feels authentic not just because it is a joy to fly, but because it can also be a pain to fly. Let me explain myself. The brilliantly crazy people that made this module made sure that even the bad parts of the Viggen's characteristics were there, including the dreaded compressor stalls that one can suffer at high AoA. That is the only sound you do not want to hear in this aircraft; I will leave a sample at the end of this section. The Viggen likes being down-low, it was designed for it. It has outstanding acceleration on the deck and can out-accelerate most other aircraft but only at low altitude, so keep that in mind for those intercept missions out there. Maneuverability-wise this is not an aircraft you will want to do dogfights in. Even though it has an excellent instant turn-rate, that will stop the moment you run out of energy. Your engine starts starving, craving for air that it is not getting, so be careful with those. It is a relatively stable platform with the help of SPOK, your stability augmentation system. With it enabled, you will notice less oscillations as you get out of a bank or similar situations. It can also help you to land thanks to the AFK, your automatic throttle control. This system will maintain 550kph when the gear is up and an AoA of 12° or 15.5° if you so desire by pressing the 15.5° button. The entire computer suite does feel restrictive but it is good enough to make your life easier while flying. The thrust reverser is the cherry on top of the cake, allowing you to land almost everywhere you want provided that there is at least 500m of level terrain, preferably paved but gravel will do. If you get the Viggen, use this even if it is just to do donuts in reverse to make fun of other inferior aircraft that lack reverse capability. Overall, this is a wonderful little machine with quirks upon quirks that make her special. Here is the sample of the compressor stall, notice the warning that precedes it: MISSION CAPABILITY This is an area in which the Viggen both shines and is at its worst, at least to me. To understand the Viggen's role one must put itself in the shoes of 1970's Sweden. At this time a Soviet invasion was a real possibility, one that was taken so seriously that the entire Swedish Armed Forces were built around it. The Air Force, specifically, had as a requisite that all Swedish Air Force front-line fighters were to be able to operate from short/damaged airfields or even road-side bases in the case the Soviets destroyed all the runways. A PRODUCT OF ITS TIME For that reason, the Viggen we have in game (the AJS-37, not the JA-37) has a very specific role in mind: Anti-ship and low-level precision strikes. This leaves the Viggen highly dependent on pre-planned targets and pop-up attacks that require specific target information to be performed successfully, primarily the target's QFE (atmospheric pressure). To be clear, this does not necessarily mean anything is wrong with the module, it is just that the DCS multiplayer environment does not lend itself that well to highly planned missions outside of smaller, more coordinated group sessions where pre-planned objectives can be followed. The Viggen can be operated on a target of opportunity basis too mainly thanks to the amazingly done ground radar that the module has, but at that point you are missing some of what makes the Viggen such a capable aircraft despite its shortcomings. I love this aircraft but I find myself flying it less than what I would like for this very fact, but for some odd reason I still keep coming back and flying it more. ARMAMENT AKAN GUN PODS 150 rounds (per pod) of 30mm-sized death at 1300RPM. These are for when you want to kill something and you do not know much about it. They can be used for both air to air and air to ground roles. They are pretty accurate, if you aim right. RB-24 / RB-24J SIDEWINDER MISSILES As with the F-5E-3, these are the only dedicated air to air weapons you will have aside from the gun pods. You have access to two variants: the RB-24J (AIM-9P) and an RB-24 (AIM-9L). They are easily spoofed by flares so you better pack several of them. ARAK ROCKET PODS The most fun you will have with the Viggen, period. These are 135mm in diameter making them deadly even against well reinforced armor. These pods empty in only 0.6 seconds , spitting a figurative wall of death and destruction in the direction of the poor souls who dare stand in front of you. Oh, and they can be used for both pre-planned and unplanned targets. RB-75 MAVERICK One of the only precision guided munitions, and in fact, the only one that has its dedicated TV scope mounted to the side of the HUD (see second picture by clicking the arrow). These are your standard Maverick missiles, so nothing really out of the ordinary. A cool weapon nonetheless, though. M/71 GENERAL PURPOSE BOMBS Capable yet a bit lacking in firepower due to their 120Kg mass, these bombs rely on their numbers to carpet bomb an area into oblivion. There is also an illumination variant that will turn the darkest night into daytime in less time that I empty my ARAK pods. RB-05 RADIO CONTROLLED AIR TO SURFACE MISSILE Manually guided by you, the pilot, this missile will follow your directions to its last moment. Capable of air to ground and air to air thanks to its proximity fuse capability. They are quite a lot of fun once you get used to them. RB-04 ANTI-SHIP MISSILE Packing their own radar, these oddly shaped missiles are the older option for anti-shipping operations. Once launched, they will find their own target and give it a date with Poseidon. RB-15 ANTI-SHIP MISSILE A more modern alternative for the anti-shipping business, these missiles do not screw around. They can be pre-programmed with their own waypoints and search patterns, making them a lot more complicated than the RB-04, in theory. In practice, you can just designate a target with your radar and call it a day. BK-90 CLUSTER MUNITIONS A.K.A MJOLNIR The wrath of Thor will fall upon your enemies once you throw these out. The only thing that they are missing are lightning bolts coming out of them. They are truly bringers of destruction if employed correctly, which can be tricky. They have both an AP and HE variants. COUNTERMEASURES AND ELINT Lacking internal countermeasures aside from the radar warning receiver, the Viggen has to rely on external pods for self-defense countermeasures. One pod for chaff and flares (right) and one for ECM (left). This can be a bit frustrating as you have to give away two of your pylons just to have the ability to defend yourself against missiles. ELINT allows you to do recon-stuff, data gathering and most things of that nature. Some servers have it implemented as a core feature so it can be useful under some circumstances. EASE OF USE AND LEARNING CURVE This is the only part that makes me weary of recommending the Viggen to some of my friends. To put it bluntly, this aircraft is not for everyone. Not because of bugs or anything like that, but because of how different it is from every other aircraft out there. Everything from the cockpit layout to the weapon management system is just alien. Well, as alien as Sweden can be. It was an aircraft designed in-house for the needs of the Swedish nation with little to no external influence at all. This is not a bad thing, it is just something that someone has to get used to first prior to enjoying the Viggen for what it is. It does have its good parts. DESIGN DIFFERENCES For instance, the HUD design relies much more on symbology than, for example, American aircraft. It is absolutely brilliant in its application but for someone transitioning from an A-10C or a F-16C, the HUD might look bare and unintuitive; which it is not. It is in fact rather well designed and allows you to take all the information you might need at a simple glance. A sign of a good design. This is not a novice-friendly aircraft either, mainly due to the way one interacts with the data computer. The keypad, (top of the right console in the cockpit pictures of the first section), is the only way you can interact with it. It relies on a lot of codes to do certain things, like program RB-15 missiles. It is not the worst I have seen, so there is that as well. To summarize: I really don't recommend this aircraft for beginners as the learning process can be quite complicated. But, don't let me discourage you from taking up the challenge. If you feel like you can do it, then go for it! SINGLE PLAYER CONTENT This module comes with two campaigns that are linked narratively. These campaigns offer quite a lot of fun and showcase the pre-planned mission potential that the Viggen has in a way that many other campaigns fail to accomplish. I sincerely recommend trying these out even while you are learning the module. Even if it is just to hone your skills a bit more in something other than a simple training mission. IS THIS MODULE FOR YOU? If what you want in a module is: To break space-time on the deck. A very interesting avionics suite. An excellent flight model with a tons of room for fun. A Swedish masterpiece. If you don't mind: The design differences that come with indigenous aircraft. The somewhat limited dogfighting capabilities. The excessively steep learning curve for a novice. Having a lot of patience and time to learn how to use it. If all or some of the above is what you want, then Heatblur's AJS-37 Viggen is for you. About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

IL-2 Great Battles is a game filled with wonderful aircraft from two of the most important eras of aviation: World War 1 and World War 2. From the humble yet powerful Albatros D.Va to Germany's wunderwaffe, the Me-262. This game is filled with legends of wartime aviation like almost no other game out there, even without considering that a new expansion is coming. Today, we wanted to give one of these legends, the P-38J Lightning, the spotlight in the first article of our new Plane Spotlight series. We will take a look at the aircraft, some of its history and how the game represents it. Without further ado, let's jump in! INTRODUCTION Designed by Lockheed-Martin, the P-38 is one of those aircraft that is instantly recognizable for its unique silhouette and intimidating profile that inspires both admiration and awe. It strays from more conventional aircraft design philosophies of the era by utilizing a twin boom design with the pilot located between them, "suspended" on a nacelle which also held the guns and cannon. This configuration was also used similarly on an another similarly unique-looking aircraft such as the German Fw-189 and the P-61 Black Widow, another american aircraft. Due to this wing configuration it is also equipped with a tricycle landing gear, a feature only a few aircraft of the era had but one that would become the norm with the birth of the jet. The Lightning had many variants made throughout the war, but the one present in IL-2 Great Battles as a Collector aircraft is the late-war P-38J-25. This is, in my opinion, the pinnacle of this aircraft's design. It includes better engines with a better intercooler and, most importantly, dive recovery flaps that aided in solving the P-38's most important problem: loss of control due to compressibility. For those who do not know, the P-38 was designed before compressibility was a known physical effect. In fact, it was one of if not the first American aircraft that suffered from this. During testing, this aircraft demonstrated adverse effects when crossing a certain speed threshold (usually above or around Mach 0.65) which made it borderline unrecoverable during a dive. The J-25 models and some older ones (J-10 and J-20) were fitted/retro-fitted with a dive recovery system in the form of an airbrake/dive flap which eliminated much of this issue. The Lightning is an aircraft that in its time pushed engineering to its limits and one that many pilots trusted their lifes to, becoming the one that made some of them aces over the Pacific and Europe. THE BEAUTIFUL LINES OF THE LIGHTNING In IL-2 Great Battles, the P-38 has been beautifully represented. Every bolt, seam and panel has been modeled to a very high degree of detail. What impressed me the most were the visible marks of wear and tear that an aircraft would have, it does not look like a factory-new aircraft. The area around the intercooler has a lot of oil as it should, and notice one more thing; the oil splatters follow the direction of the airflow. Look at the propeller's spinner and see how the oil follows the rotational direction of the prop, amazing. This is simply-put, a beautiful depiction of a spectacular aircraft. The cockpit is equally well-made. All the gauges are there and mostly correspond with this model of P-38. My only gripe about this and all other aircraft in IL-2 Great Battles that I can not interact or click any of this gorgeous cockpit unlike how I would be able on IL-2 Cliffs of Dover/Desert Wings. I would love to click and move around all the levers and switches. The following images are a gallery, click the arrows to scroll around! FLYING AND FIGHTING IN THE LIGHTNING To be completely honest, I love the way it flies. I do not know what it is but it feels a bit better than some of the other aircraft in the game. It has more weight to it and it does not lack in engine power, which makes it feel a bit more like a flying battering ram. It lacks a bit of maneuverability but that is natural considering that it is heavier and larger than something like a Spitfire or a Mustang. Another part that I really like about the Lightning is how the superchargers spool up as speed increases. This is characteristically distinctive of the Allison V-1710 engines equipped on the aircraft, which aided it in high altitude performance and endurance. Here, have a listen: The best role that the P-38 can do is, in my opinion, that of a fighter-bomber. It can carry a lot of ordinance for a very long distance with the added bonus of being able to defend itself from enemy fighters with its four .50 caliber machine guns and its singular 20mm cannon. Do not get me wrong, this is an aircraft that can dogfight if the pilot manages its energy well, but there are better and more maneuverable fighters on the Allies' roster which are much more easier to dogfight on than the Lightning. Oh, by the way, sometimes all it takes is a single hit of your 20mm cannon to decimate the enemy aircraft. Really satisfying. CONCLUSIONS If I had to buy just one of the Collector aircraft for IL-2 Great Battles, it would be this one. It is versatile, unique and a lot of fun to fly. It has showed me that sometimes it does matter if you can dogfight on an aircraft but that you can also have fun doing boom-and-zoom attacks on enemy aircraft and ground-pounding airbases into oblivion. The Lightning will serve you well- About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

This article is dedicated to my dear friend Gabriel, who is the helicopter pilot that first opened my eyes to the wonders of the rotary wings so many years ago. Thank you so much. For a lot of years I have felt a sense of awe when looking at a helicopter, be them civilian or military. I have fond memories of spending hours upon hours on a mall's terrace as a child, looking at the only airport that my city has and the air traffic that came and went. Many of those hours were spent looking at helicopters, mainly at the Twin Hueys and Mi-2s that the national Air Force had based there. I always liked them but it never beat the feeling of a King Air 200 passing 100 feet above me on final approach. It was not until my country, for good or bad, decided to acquire some Mi-26 helicopters that I realized how amazing helicopters were, not only as aircraft but as marvels of human engineering. When I saw the Mi-26 fly, I was shocked at the sound and the sheer size of it. In fact, I was so impressed that between me and my friends we always called them the "Flying Whales". But my real life amazement for helicopters was not one that I shared in simulators. For years all I ever used were fixed wing aircraft, for reasons which I can not pin-point with accuracy. Maybe it was the speed of the fighters or the comforting sound of a turboprop, I really do not know why I was and am so drawn to fixed wing aircraft. I, willingly, never gave any helicopter a chance in any of the simulators I have had since the early 2000's. It wasn't until recently when I finally decided that I would give the rotary wings a go, both for my sake of trying something different and to allow myself to create more diverse content for the website. But I was not willing to take a full dive into helicopters just yet, hence why my first ever experience with rotary wings was the Kamov Ka-50. I had previously heard that the Ka-50 was a highly automated machine with tons of autopilot aid which should make the flying experience much more friendly to a novice. And in fact, what I heard was true. It was a bit tricky at first because I was not used to using my throttle as a collective, which led to some very embarrassing crashes. Once I got used to it, it became second nature to me so I started doing more interesting things with the Kamov, such as cargo lifting and scout operations in multiplayer servers. But it didn't take me long to realize that the Ka-50 does not offer the true helicopter experience I was searching for. I was not using my "anti-torque" pedals as much as I thought, nor was I correcting for many undesirable effects. Hovering it was a piece of cake, even without the auto-hover being enabled. In my eyes, it felt much more like a fighter aircraft than a helicopter. For a complete summary of my feelings on the Kamov, and why I like it despite everything, I suggest you check out my DCS: Ka-50 Black Shark 2 review. During the last DCS sale, I took the decision to buy the UH-1H for review purposes but-oh- how it surprised me. I went in thinking that this would be different experience when comparing it with the Kamov but I did not expect it to be a figurative night and day difference. The Huey is a very different beast, one that requires much more attention. I found myself not only enjoying myself but I also found myself having the same feeling of amazement that I had in real life. I will not lie, it took me a while to adjust from the Kamov to the Huey but now that I feel confident enough in my flying I can truly understand what I was missing with the Ka-50. I went from barely using my pedals in level flight to using them constantly. The way I use the cyclic and the pedals is much more different than how I used it on the Kamov, with the Huey requiring much more hand-foot coordination in order to counteract the torque. Torque was the main thing missing from the Kamov but that is to be expected due to its co-axial rotor system. This experience changed my mind when it comes to appreciating the work of a helicopter pilot and the precision one has to have in day-to-day operations. I also realized that a fixed wing aircraft is inherently stable by design, which makes them much more simple to fly in most scenarios. To put it bluntly, in a fighter aircraft I find fun by employing the weaponry that they have, in the Huey I find fun just by the sheer experience of flying it. Hence, the title of this article. The DCS Huey is the digital helicopter that convinced me to stop worrying about the complexity of learning a helicopter and taught me how to love them. I can not wait to see how the DCS: Mi-24P, the Mi-8 or any other helicopters differ from this one once I get my hands on them, consider me impressed. About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

After many years of anticipation and a long development cycle, Project Wingman finally took off on December 1st, 2020. This game, which takes heavy inspiration from other flight arcade titles but primarily from Project Aces' Ace Combat franchise, has a lot going for it but at the same time there are some things that do need to be addressed. As usual with my reviews I will separate this into several categories so that you, the reader, can formulate your own judgement as to whether this game is for you: Introduction and origins Environments, art style and UI design 3D assets and Textures Story Gameplay Conquest Mode Day-one bugs/problems and the future Is this game for you? Thanks to Prov, Hueman, Ribbon-Blue and BillytheKid for their contributions to this article. Also, thanks to Humble Games for the press copy of the game, much appreciated! DISCLAIMER: Humble Games gave us complete creative freedom over this review and the opinions that will be written are my own. WARNING: This review will contain spoilers for this game's story. These will be contained in the STORY section of the review or when explicitly disclaimed. INTRODUCTION AND ORIGINS Project Wingman (PW) as a game has its roots all the way back in 2016 with the first 0.1.0 Alpha versions of the game. These, as its natural for very early WIP builds, were very rough but showed a lot of promise from the very beginning. After two years of development and various very interesting public demo releases, the developers decided to start a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to fund the project in order to be able to develop a fully fledged-out game. The team was a small group of three individuals, the most crucial of them all being RBD2, the main developer/art designer/sound designer/almost everything game dev related behind the game. He served as the driving force behind the project, being the one that started it all. Alongside him were FlyAwayNow, the Producer Manager, and Jose Pavli, the song writer behind the game's soundtrack. A small thing with very big goals. Unsurprisingly, their goal of 35.000AUD was not only met but surpassed threefold with a total of around 115.000AUD having been raised by the end of the campaign. The demo version of the game which was tailored as a showcase for the Kickstarter campaign is still available. After two more years of final development and a couple of delays, the game finally dropped on December 1st, 2020 to very positive public reception. Now, let's go look at the game itself. ENVIRONMENTS, ART STYLE AND UI DESIGN Even at the very start, with the first alpha builds of the game, PW has had a rather unique art style and art direction while also letting itself be inspired by UI layouts from other flight games. The color pallet used seems to be more grounded, less flashy which lends itself really well to the somewhat prevalent bleakness of the environments.The game was built around Unreal Engine 4, which does lend itself to some absolutely stunning visuals if utilized correctly. Environments are varied as well. From mountainous regions to deserts, oil rigs, lava deposits, cities and tropical islands. I think it is better if I show you some examples so you can judge for yourself (POSSIBLE LOCATION SPOILERS). The UI is very stylish, opting for a sort of canted and angled look to its elements which blends well with the rest of the game while also allowing for a bit more viewing space for the player. I have some small critiques such as the use of post processing on the UI itself which can make it look fuzzy and unfocused. There is also the difficulty in reading some of the distant UI elements of the HUD such as the names on named Ace enemies. One fact that I do like about the UI is that it is rather customizable, allowing the player to change its color, scaling and even the subtitle position on the screen. A good UI is one that gives the players all the information they need without getting in the way and this one surely accomplishes that. It is also worth mentioning that the developers are still tweaking some aspects of the maps, which they have already done by giving a couple of maps a lighting re-work that fixed some of the complaints that the community had (patch 1.0.4C). This is something I will mention later in greater detail, but the fact that the devs are listening to the bug reports is very important. Another very important aspect of this game is its soundtrack. Composed by Jose Pavli, this OST has a lot of amazing songs that fit the game very well. One of the best examples I can give is Mission 11's song, Showdown. It is a song that reminded me of one of the most famous songs from Ace Combat 04, Comona. But it also does not let the inspiration take control and defines itself very well. Have a listen: The only factor that I will "critique" about the OST is that it sometimes gets a bit buried by the sounds of battle and the gameplay itself. The songs have delicate arrangements that end up lost by the factors I have already mentioned. But I sincerely love the OST and believe that its composer did a fantastic job, regardless of the shortcomings. 3D ASSETS, TEXTURES AND EFFECTS This area is a hit and miss, a constant that will become apparent on other areas of the game. And please, do not get me wrong, as we have to look at everything with context in mind. This is a game that was made by a small team, and the word small there seems kind of huge. There are also budget limitations and certain things take priority, things which I will expand upon later in the review. Aircraft external models and their textures are pretty spot on, they look sweet. The 3D models are very nicely rigged and animated, the control surfaces move with some weight to them and do not make exaggerated movements. The textures also look like they do belong on a post-apocalyptic mercenary group, having marks of extensive use and chipped/weathered sections that have not being touched up in a while. Overall, pretty neat. This also applies to the enemy aircraft, although appreciating them in the heat of battle is quite the challenge. To me, the best part of this game's world-building is shown through the modeling and detail that was put into this game's most iconic enemies, its airships: These behemoths fit into this world's aesthetic fantastically. The detail that was put into modeling these beasts should not be understated. But not everything can be sunshine and rainbows. Every playable aircraft has its own 3D cockpit model. These range from pretty alright to obvious asset reuse. Don't get me wrong, asset reuse is very justifiable under certain scenarios as it allows developer to have a bit more time and resources that would be rather be spent on more critical areas. But something like what I will show next is not: To the left is the F/C-16 and to the right is the cockpit of the Chimera, an original superplane prototype. To me this is nothing bad, more so when one can see that the Chimera was inspired by the F-16XL prototype. But it is undeniable that the Chimera's cockpit is nothing more than a F/C-16 cockpit that was tinted red and without the HUD frame. None of them look bad, to me this is just a missed opportunity that would have made the Chimera stand out a bit more. What is a bit worse is that some textures are clearly being reused over numerous aircraft, with some of them being quite evident as it is the case of what I will call "the green circle screen". This is one of many textures that are present on several of the cockpits, but mostly on those that have multi function displays (MFDs). The worst of these cases is the one present on the Sk.27's right screen. Take a look for yourself: It is clear that this texture was made for square screens. So grabbing it and enlarging it to cover the space of a rectangular screen just makes it look disproportionate. I have talked with several other people and most of them pointed out this to me as well, so I am not the only one that noticed it. I am sure that this is something rather easy to fix as it is a texture, so I do expect that the devs will fix it in the long run, at least when they have fixed some of the other bugs that deserve more attention. The cockpits are not the prettiest but they get the job done, I just wished that they were of the same quality and style as the external models. Yet another problem that I have is with the quality of the ground textures. Sure, you won't be flying close or slow enough to the ground to notice it most of the time. But when it shows, it shows: Coming back on a good note, let's talk about something more positive: the visual effects. Explosions are wonderfully made and emit just the right amount of glow, making them illuminate the smoke that they produce. Here is an example taken by BIllyTheKid, who kindly provided several screenshots for us to use. As you can see, particles effects are pretty well done and the explosions have this "oomph" to them that make them satisfying to watch. A fantastic job, if you ask me. STORY (SPOILER WARNING) From a point of view of complete honesty, I have my reservations with some parts of the story. But let me start from the beginning, as it is important that we are on the same level of knowledge. The following recap is very rough, so a lot of subtleties will be lost: You play as "Monarch", a mercenary working for the Sicario Mercenary Group, specifically for the Hitman Squadron. The game starts with you finishing the last part of a contract for a client (The Federation), which has you attacking another group of mercenaries. At the end of the mission, yet another group of mercenaries informs you that civil war has broken on the country of Cascadia as they seek independence from the Federation. So your boss, taking advantage of the situation, sends you Cascadia's way to join the Cascadian Independent Forces. The story moves from point to point, introducing certain aspects of the world and the story as missions pass. From your antagonist to certain aspects of your own squadron mates. You face against the antagonist (Crimson squadron) several times, each time you leave an impression on them as the only mercenary that can challenge them. The war continues and your momentum is impressive, annihilating Federation forces. It was not until very late in the war that the Federation decided to go a bit "nuclear". They cause a second calamity on the city of Prospero, leaving almost no survivors and causing a chain reaction that created a new uninhabitable zone on the continent. In the midst of the calamity, you fight another squadron of mercenaries that are trying to hunt you down, they know your real identities. The fact that they know who you and your squadmates are means that you will be hunted down by mercenaries and bounty hunters. The Cascadian government offers you a deal, a deal that will make sure that your identity's reveal does not mean anything after the war, total protection. You survive through the calamity by hunkering down on an improvised airfield (which in actuality is an incomplete highway) until the worst passes. After two months, your squadron starts attacking the remnants of the Federation's army that are still alive on Cascadian territory, including Crimson squadron who you shoot down in its entirety. You make the Federation retreat until the fight ends during the final attack to retake Cascadia's capital, Presidia. It was a long battle but little by little you take apart the Federation's forces until, at the last minute, a ceasefire is settled during a diplomatic meeting. Frustrated by the decision, you accept it reluctantly. It is at this time that the radar fills with more cordium missiles, the same ones that were used to destroy Prospero. Presidia falls and all of your allies are presumed dead (although some after you finish the game on Mercenary it's revealed that some survived). The only ones flying are you and the man behind the cordium attack, Crimson 1, who is flying a prototype aircraft. You proceed to have one final dogfight against him, besting him and shooting him down. Then, the credits roll, the deal was honored. Now, to my opinion. This story needed more time and room to breath. It's pace is fast and leaves you no time to reflect on the actions of the characters, their motivations or their personalities. The game's lack of cutscenes of any kind (apart from one that sincerely does not really count as it is a single static image for a 4 minute long dialogue) really impacts the story. The game overly relies on in-mission dialogue to develop the characters, which is not good as much of the game has very intense gameplay that necessitates the player focus, making it a bit difficult to pay attention to the subtitles or even the voices. Some of the game's characters come out as flat and shallow because of this, the best example being Crimson 1. Crimson needed more in-screen time to explain his motivations. His actions during the final mission have left many players, including myself, blaming him for ruining the pace and claiming that his actions blew the story out of proportion. If the game would have had some cutscenes, even static images à la Ace Combat 04, from Crimson's POV. That could have made the player understand his feelings on an out-of-mission setting, maybe even accomplishing on making the ending have a different impact on me and on many other's perspectives. The destruction of Prospero felt impactful, it felt like it showed the Federation's true evil side. They were so desperate as to blow up the commercial hub of Cascadia just to stop the advancing Cascadian forces without even caring about the civilians or the consequences. But the destruction of Presidia, on the other hand, felt completely unnecessary. Moments like that have to be used sparingly, because the feeling of despair is one that has to be earned. You had already seen the destruction that Cordium can cause, you saw your base in ruins. That was more than enough to prove that the Federation was evil. Presidia's fall felt undeserved, rushed or even questionable. Instead of feeling anger or despair from seeing it in that sorry state, I felt a deep sense of confusion and disappointment. I do believe that the game and its world have great promise, there is an evident amount of care that was put into the setting, but the execution behind the story hurt it. GAMEPLAY This is where Project Wingman shines. It's gameplay is one of the best - if not the best - I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing on an arcade flight game. The sense of flight is very well represented and planes feel like they have weight to them. Is it realistic? No, and that does not matter. An arcade flight game is meant to be fun and to give the player a nice sensation of flight, and Project Wingman does that in spades. Weapons feel fun to use, none of them being too gimmicky or difficult to use. My only complaint would be that the reticle for the unguided bombs is a bit hard to use as it does not really allow the player to judge depth. But besides that the most satisfying weapon to use by far is the gun, both internal and gun pods. The gun pipper is accurate and the time to kill is just right. Overall, I have no more to comment other than that they nailed it! Last but not least, I want to talk a bit about the way Project Wingman handles special weapons (SP) because it is noteworthy. Unlike with other flight arcade games this one uses a "Pylon" system, allowing the player much more loadout freedom than they would have had otherwise. Some aircraft have more freedom than others, but each one has their own unique way of handling certain SP weapons. Speaking of aircraft, the roster will have a lot of familiar faces. It is ample enough to make the game feel like it does not lack variety but not enough to say that all the holes have been filled in the roster. The devs are planning on adding more aircraft down the line so be on the lookout for them! The biggest gameplay feature that this game has is its ability to be played entirely with a VR headset, I will now quote another Skyward staff member, Ribbon-Blue, as he talks a bit about the VR impressions of the game (he will go in-depth with them on an upcoming article): One very positive thing that virtual reality in Project Wingman does have going for it (intentional or not) is that by being forced to use cockpit view, players really can take in the visual style this game is pushing. There is a lot of weather detail and lighting that is missed when flying in third person or HUD views. The canopies actually have scratches and scuffs, missions like Eminent Domain became way more intense because of the absolutely overwhelming amount of weather. Other missions that have low light or haze have more impact and do change the way you approach combat. I noticed myself actively avoiding weather in certain situations, looking for holes in the clouds to go through and really having to pay attention to my HUD when descending through the cloud deck to avoid colliding with terrain. VR being available in both Campaign and Conquest is a huge plus for this game. Even if it could be a slightly better experience in some aspects, I keep needing to remind myself this game was made by such a small team. CONQUEST MODE Do you want the thrill of the gameplay but none of the story? Then Conquest mode is for you. Conquest mode allows you to "transform" Project Wingman into a rogue-like game. It is one of the best aspects of this game, to be honest. You can conquer territory over the period of one run, gain points, arm your own personal airfleet full of fighters and airships. As you conquer the territories, your alert level will go up and with it, the difficulty. But, the moment you die or crash, it is game over. Your progress gets reset with only one exception: your unlocked aircraft and your "prestige points" which are nothing more than fancy credits. This game mode adds a lot of replay value to the game and makes the Project Wingman experience last a bit longer. DAY-ONE BUGS/PROBLEMS AND THE FUTURE It is important to mention that this game, at the day of its release, had an incredible amount of problems and complications. Some of them were not that severe but others were so bad that they made some people's games not even boot up correctly. I personally did not encounter any game-breaking bugs but some of my friends encountered issues with their drivers, others had Unreal Engine 4 issues, others were able to boot up for some time and after closing the game and opening it again, the game refused to boot and crashed instantly until they moved it to a secondary drive. Other issues that people encountered ranged from enemies spawning underground, boss fights having unfair strategies and unclear mechanics, clouds tiling up and looking like waffles from up top, etc. The only issue that I personally found, and ones that I still have, are severe UI scaling issues on 5:4 aspect ratio screens and severe slowdowns during certain scenarios. I have already reported this one to the devs. VR users are still having problems but some of the biggest issues have already been solved. Project Wingman seemed to have launched very rough around the edges, with a lot of unpolished features. We do not know why it launched this way or why they moved forward the release date to December 2020 when they had stated that the game was going to release in 2021. I, personally, would have gladly accepted a delay or the already announced 2021 release window if it meant a more polished game at launch. Yet, here we are. The devs have said that they are focused on bug fixing and that they are even working on adding more planes and features to the game. I sincerely appreciate this from them as it shows that they listen and that they do care about their game. Well done. IS THIS GAME FOR YOU? At an asking price of 24.99USD, Project Wingman has a lot to offer for a very low price. It is not a perfect game and some of its flaws are pretty apparent even to the most diehard of fans. I will just say this: Project Wingman showed that you do not need a big team or a big budget to make something great, all you need is the will to make it happen. If what you want in a game is: Awesome gameplay Thrilling dogfights A replayable gamemode with hours of entertainment A different experience than other flight games A fully VR compatible flight experience A game with modding potential If you don't mind: A story with room to improve Some bugs and performance dips That the game is not a simulator (not a flaw, but there are some people that only like sims) If you agree with all of the above, then RBD2's Project Wingman is for you. Again, thanks to everyone that helped me with this review and to Humble Games for the copy. About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

Digital Combat Simulator (DCS) is a game that has positioned itself as one of the only surviving modern combat flight simulators of this decade, with its only competition coming from games such as Falcon BMS, which is not technically its own game and more of a community overhaul of a 1999' game. Titles such as IL-2 Great Battles could also count as competition as they do have partial overlaps with regards of WW2 combat, but nothing more. To put it frankly, DCS is the only one doing proper modern combat simulation as of the writing of this article. A big part of what makes DCS, well, DCS; are its aircraft. From propeller-driven warbirds of old to modern marvels of technology, it has something for everyone. Most of these aircraft are simulated to a very high degree, which requires the player to learn them in a similar manner as they would on a real aircraft. This includes a lot of procedures and check-lists to operate the aircraft systems such as radars, targeting pods, guided and unguided weaponry, etc. Are they 100% true to their real-life counterparts? No, and probably for the better as many of the fighters in the sim are still in-service with nations that would very much like some of the things that these fighters have to be kept as secret. What matters is that they are modeled well enough to not cross that line and still give the player one hell of an experience. With this complexity comes a certain learning curve that can, in some cases, be pretty stiff and unforgiving. To get an aircraft from cold and dark to mission ready is a bit of a challenge the first time you pick up an module, no matter if you are a new or experienced player. You will have to do research, read or watch tutorials on how to do the most basic of stuff before you get to the more complex systems and their operations. But this is where I find most of my enjoyment and the main reason why I dedicate a big chunk of my free time to DCS. I have never had the same feeling of getting a laser bomb hit on a target after practicing for almost two days-worth of training to get it right on any other game. It is a feeling that only simulators can give you as they allow you to master your skills. It is that same feeling that drives me to learn more and more about the aircraft that I fly to know about their systems, the way they function and how to interact with them to use them to the maximum, be them combat aircraft or otherwise. But as I said previously, this does not make the learning curve less stiff or harsh. It is only natural that a combat aircraft will have complex systems that need to be managed in order to be combat effective. While I personally find enjoyment in learning to fly these aircraft, I have also heard the opposite from many others. It is an activity that is very time consuming and you already have to have an interest in these things to try them. It is not so much about difficulty as I do believe that everyone is capable of learning anything if they put their minds to it, but more about about time and dedication. In addition, while I cannot get the same feelings from them as I do from a sim, I also enjoy arcade flight games quite a lot (this website has quite a few examples of that). From the more recent Project Wingman to classic Ace Combat games and everything in between. One noteworthy example being Strike Fighters 2, as it brings some of that sim-like excitement without the learning curves of an in-depth sim. But there is just something that DCS has that makes it shine a bit more in my eyes, making it one of those games that I always come back to either to relax after a long day or to learn something new. It must be all the years I have spent playing flight sims, but I have really learnt how to find satisfaction in their complexity and I hope you have too. About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

This is going to be a more personal and less formal piece, as it is one that deserves a bit more emotion and openness due to the circumstances that this year brought to many of us. But this will be an article about how this year was very positive for us at Skyward and how you, our readers, have allowed us to do some pretty cool stuff with some very interesting people. Let's start, well, from the very beginning. We rebranded from Project Lighthouse to Skyward Flight Media back in March to search of more creative freedom and a broader set of topics we could tackle aside from Ace Combat. It was a bit scary but I am glad we did it. Since then we have covered many other franchises and expanded our horizons into a more diverse and healthy pool of titles and content types. This year we also did many interviews and collaborations, from shouting out content creators such as the Flight Sim Historian to interviewing groups such as the Frecce Tricolori Virtuali or developers like the wonderful Why485. It has been a very pleasant experience to interact with every single person or group we interviewed this year, thank you so much to everyone who accepted our proposals. We also created different content from what we were used to back in the Project Lighthouse days, such as the series of in-depth reviews of Digital Combat Simulator: World modules that we have available. These take a lot of time to write as they require a considerable amount of research to be able to publish them up to our own standards of quality. Oh, and since I am the one that writes them, I like to give them my own personal touch my making a personalized skin for each and every single aircraft I have reviewed, with the exception of the F-5E and the MB-339 (back when it was a mod and not an upcoming module). Here are the skins that I've created so far for review purposes; I am planning on making them available as soon as the next review is out in January 2021: This year was also the first in which we have received press copies of games and expansions, allowing us to cover games that we wouldn't have been able to. Such was the case with Desert Wings TOBRUK, Project Wingman and IndiaFoxtEcho's MB-339 for FS2020, the first two being some of the most extensive reviews that we have on this site. These opportunities have been crucial in our growth and we appreciate them a lot. Even though this year has been full of struggles and hardship, we were able to grow and expand in a way we were not expecting and for that, from all of the Skyward team, I want to thank everyone who read our articles and explored our website this year. It means the world to us and that is not an understatement. Now, onto more exciting things, let's take a peak into our preliminary plans moving forward into 2021! For 2021 we plan to expand our operations with more dedicated staff, and primarily a third dedicated writer. We also plan to expand our content creation to the video space around Q2 of 2021 with both casual and high production videos. These things are not set in stone but we will make sure to post updates with our plans as soon as they are set. That being said, we will be taking the first two weeks of January to plan out the year and make sure everything's being accounted for. We'll be back in force on the second week of January 2021 with more articles and interviews, so be prepared for those. We'll see you next year. Cheers! About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

If I were to ask you what makes DCS interesting and distinct, what would your answer be? I could guess that a varied range of answers could arise: from the people that love the action of close-in dogfight on both jets and props, to the folks that love dropping death from above with bombs; and those who prefer low level flying with helicopters or the few that enjoy tank combat! But, aside from a couple of helicopters, we have not seen a specific type of gameplay which could be beneficial in bringing combined arms and air corps close by bridging the gap: Cargo. I know that this opinion is not one that is shared by many, but I ask of you to at least read what I want to say here as I think I have a proposition for everyone who has any doubts. Last year, a modder known as Anubis released a mod which is not only unique but one that has no precedent in the game: a relatively high fidelity C-130J Super Hercules with a clickable cockpit and an EFM (external flight model). This mod allowed me to have my first taste of what could be possible with a heavy cargo aircraft inside of the simulator. And I was immediately taken by surprise. I always used to think that flying a cargo aircraft would be boring and tedious, but I was proven wrong. Cargo aircraft are not only for hauling cargo to and from airbases, but they can also deliver it directly to the troops/civilians in need straight to them by dropping it via parachute or LAPES in the case of the Hercules (Low Altitude Parachute-Extraction System). With these capabilities, not even taking into account the mountable cannons, allow for some interesting mission scenarios for multiplayer sessions. One of which being a very interesting combined arms scenario which includes almost every playable vehicule type: "A group of soldiers, accompanied by a small armored regiment and attack helicopters, is in need of reinforcements. A group of F-16CM will escort a pair of C-130 loaded a paratrooper regiment and vehicules. The mission is to get the C-130s to their drop point and back to base safely." To me, this is a multiplayer mission which I would love to be a part of as I wouldn't even have to choose which part to play because, surprisingly, all of the components in this mission are player controlled in one way or another. Even the dropped vehicules cold be player-controlled once they are on the ground. That being said, at the moment this scenario would only be possible thanks to the C-130 mod. Which leads us to the question on the title: Do cargo aircraft have a place inside DCS World? To me, yes, they do. The C-130J mod has showed me how surprisingly fun tactical cargo aircraft can be in DCS; and, by looking at the way that the community has responded to this mod, I am not the only one that thinks that way. If, at any point in time, Eagle Dynamics were to release a high fidelity module of a tactical cargo aircraft; you can count me as a day-one buyer. Here's hoping that that happens one of these days. This mod can be found on this discord server, where it was originally published. About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

The Hip is one of only two dedicated cargo helicopters capable of light combat in DCS World. It is the largest flyable helicopter in the simulator, with the capability of providing both close air support (CAS) and cargo lifting for the troops on the ground. These capabilities alone make it an outstanding module on its own, but with the upcoming Mi-24P; this helicopter will become a much more interesting piece of the DCS ecosystem. During the last free-to-play period, I dedicated myself to spending as much time as possible with the Hip to be able to write a short piece about it. So be warned, I am in no way an expert when it comes to this bird. Although, all I can say is that this experience made me want to buy it really hard. This is not a review, but an overview. There are things I will omit for the sake of brevity and to leave some points so that the inevitable review is a bit more complete and less redundant. With that being said, let's take a look at this beautifully ugly bird. A MISLEADING FRONT COVER, A TYPICAL SOVIET TOUCH My first impressions of the Hip came in the form of what I'd consider a, to put slightly, overwhelming sense of dread as I started at view from the pilot's seat. To put this into perspective, most of my time spent flying helos in DCS has been on the UH-1H Huey. I'd consider the Huey a relatively straight-forward helicopter when it comes to its learning curve as it has relatively few controls and a simple cockpit layout. The Mi-8, in the other hand... For a novice, this is a terrifying first impression. In fact, I had the same impression when I flew the Fishbed for the first time in DCS as well; but just like the Fishbed's, this cockpit layout is much more intuitive and simpler than at first glance. You will have to adapt to the very different design philosophy that the Soviet Union's design bureaus had, that's it. The moment that that clicks on your head, things start becoming easier to understand. I thought that I would have had to spend hours upon hours learning, but I was in the air only half an hour after learning how to start it up. Overall, it was easy enough. Compared to the Huey, it might be a handful to manage alone. Since you will have to switch around from one seat to the other to have easier access to certain panels, such as the armament panel that is on the co-pilot side or the top rows of instruments and circuit breakers that are easily accessible by the flight engineer/navigator. Sadly, it does NOT have multicrew as of the writing of this article, so you are stuck managing this bird on your own. A HEAVY ARMED BIRD THAT FLIES LIKE A FEATHER IN THE WIND (WITH EXCEPTIONS) I have got to say something: The Mi-8 flies much differently than I thought. Since it is a lot heavier than the Huey, I expected it to be sluggish and that it would require much more collective to get off the ground. Oh boy, how wrong I was. This thing has power, a LOT of power. It only takes a bit of collective to make it go and as long as you know how to manage your trim and activate the stability augmentation, it is also surprisingly easy to fly too! Despite everything I said until now, the Mi-8 does have some quirks which you will have to get used to. For instance, I found it much easier to fall into a ring vortex state than with the Huey. It could have been that my approaches were too steep, that I just lacked the experience with the type and my inexperienced self was flying it as if it just were a big Huey. It took me a bit to adjust to the small quirks and found myself enjoying flying it around both the Caucasus and the Persian Gulf with the same ease as with my other helos. It is, without a doubt a very interesting and fun bird to fly. There is just one thing left to address from the section header: armament. Sincerely, I was a bit underwhelmed by the armament but it is ok, this is supposed to be a cargo aircraft first, attack aircraft second. I still had enough variety to play around for a bit. There's something about these cargo aircraft showing their fangs that always brings a smile to my face, a smile that can only become larger by those waterfall-like casings falling out as my pods reign fire. Such a blast, quite literally! OVERVIEW CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE PLANS When it comes down to getting the job done, the Magnificent Eight will not disappoint. It is, as of now, the most capable cargo helicopter in the simulator in my humble opinion. But, just kike every module in this and all other simulators and games, the Hip does not exist on a vacuum. Against the venerable Huey, the Mi-8 is a great counterpart while also being unique and distinct from any other helicopter out there, both aesthetically and functionally. There is, however, a big "but" in this case; at least to me. Soon a certain, let's say, distant cousin of this craft that I am quite interesting in. The Hind is fast approaching and with it, a whole new world of possibilities arise. Joint missions where Hips and Hinds assault together, each complementing each other's flaws and shortcomings. Even with that said, if I could only choose between a Hind and a Hip, I would always pick the former. It has light troop carrying capabilities as well as a lot of power for sling loading cargo, oh, and do not forget that it carries a lot more of a punch when it comes to armament. The Mi-8, on the other hand, is more of a tactical cargo helo with an emphasis on troop transport and light combat. Nothing like its cousin, but close enough to form some parallels as to how these two will complement each other in the DCS ecosystem. At the moment, all we can do is wait for this Soviet duo to be reunited in DCS. Hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later. About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

If there's a single resource that has proven to be a very knowledgeable source for learning everything IL-2 Great Battles related, it would have to be Requiem's channel. In our second entry of our Creator Highlight series, we wanted to give the spotlight to Requiem's Air Combat Tutorial Library. He is an online creator and airline pilot IRL who has one of the largest and most interesting libraries of educational flight simulation videos out there. Be it the basics of aircraft operation such as taxiing, landing or engine management or much more complex topics such as energy management or combat maneuvering, Requiem has always had something to fill me in about a certain flight simulator subject. Some highlights I'd like to make are his videos on air combat maneuvering (ACM). It is one of his longest running series which has taken different types of focus to better tackle different scenarios. In my honest opinion, one that still holds up when it comes to quality and usability as most of the things you can learn here can be applied to any flight sim, regardless of its complexity. Here is one of my personal favorites from that playlist, simply due to the fact that he takes a disadvantaged aircraft and uses it to surpass his adversary while explaining everything for us to learn: He has been at this for a long while too, with his earliest videos dating back to almost 6 years ago. Additionally, while he has been primarily focused on creating content around the IL-2 Great Battles series, he has started tackling DCS World as of late with his F-5E series of videos. If his DCS videos are as detailed as any other content he has made, there is nothing but awesome videos coming our way. His production quality is also impressively high, with detailed graphic explanations of topics that need them coupled with very good utilization of tools such as Tacview to illustrate. But to me, what makes his channel unique is his approach towards newcomers. From what I have seen during my years of watching his content, he is always very open to feedback and helps people that post questions in the comment section of his videos. This is something that I do not see that often anymore. Nowhere is this more noticeable than with Learn to Fly series on specific aircraft of the IL-2 Great Battles series. They are short but highly detailed, including everything you need to get up to speed with each aircraft. I have personally used them several times to refresh my knowledge on Boddenplatte's aircraft. Here is an example of this series that I'd recommend: To conclude: I couldn't recommend Requiem's channel more. I strongly suggest you give him some love on his channel or his Patreon, if you feel like supporting his creative efforts. We need more creators like him in the flight simulator scene. About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

To say that the upcoming 2.7 update for DCS:World is one of the most anticipated ones that the simulator has ever received would be an understatement. I have not seen players this excited for a patch ever since the patch that brought in the new Eagle Dynamics Graphic Engine (EDGE) engine back in 2014. That is still one of the biggest leaps this program has received to date, alongside version 2.5 in 2018. But even after the EDGE update and all of the 2.X updates until now, there was still a very visual reminder (not going to mention all of the inner workings of the sim) that we were still flying under the same skies as we have always been: the clouds. Despite all of the improvements that they had received, you could always tell that under it all they were still those same old clouds from almost (if not more than) a decade ago. All of that is set to change with the new clouds that are going to be implemented in eleven days as of the writing of this article, with the drop of update 2.7 for the sim. With these new volumetric and much more realistic clouds, I expect that a general change to the weather system is also coming. Keep that in mind for the rest of this article as it will become important to comprehend some points. Also, keep in mind that I have not tried the clouds for myself and that I will have to assume some things for the sake of argumentation. Let's hope I am not proven wrong in two week's time. CAREFUL FLYING AHEAD Entering a storm should not be something that you do normally, yet, it is something I do constantly with the current DCS weather and clouds. If things change, this will no longer be an advisable thing to do if you value your aircraft or the time you have put into your flight. Avoiding dangerous clouds will become a normal thing to do, just like assessing the weather prior to and during your flight to see what will be needed to get from point A to point B in one piece. There is also something that substantiates my thoughts in regards to this. A week or so ago RAZBAM posted a couple of teaser pics like they tend to do, but one of the screenshots caught my eye more than the others: This is what, to my untrained eye, seems to be a weather radar display being implemented to the Mirage module. The fact that this feature is being added represents to me a bit of proof that weather conditions inside clouds will become more of a crucial aspect when it comes to flying in DCS: World. COMBAT INCONVENIENCES AND NEW PLAYSTYLES Another very important aspect that these new clouds will most likely change is combat strategies. Specifically, how players will both love and hate clouds in certain combat scenarios and mission types for a plethora of reasons. Weather over the mission area will affect the way that players engage targets. Let's say that you are on a precision strike mission with GBU-12 bombs (laser guided munition) and the area is unexpectedly covered with thick clouds, making it difficult or outright impossible to get a visual on your targets. You would, at that point, have to fly lower than the clouds or you could rely on a JTAC unit to lase for you as you drop your bombs blind. In the future, interactions like this could also be done with the upcoming Kiowa module playing as a FAC for the fighters! This would bring a completely different set of possible scenarios to the table, forcing the current playerbase to adapt and improve their combat strategies to fit the new aerial battleground. You will need to be more aware of your surroundings, cloud formations and how your enemies could use them against you. I do expect clouds to be used as visual cover while dogfighting, particularly in World War 2 scenarios. Hiding behind the clouds to ambush an enemy flight could be very fun or scary depending on which side are you on. Oh, and these kinds of scenarios would be most likely only be useful on multiplayer scenarios as the AI will most likely be all-seeing through the clouds, just like it is right now. That being said, yesterday I had a very small exchange with Jon Coughlin, one of our readers who interacts frequently with us on Twitter. He brought up an interesting point: most public multiplayer session run on clear weather conditions because of the playerbase. While he is right in that point, I sincerely expect that mission creators will utilize the new clouds to provide much richer environments, and while they might not all be full overcast conditions, it is always good to have some clouds than to have none. Additionally, I think that the low quality of the old clouds contributed to their rejection, which is something that the new ones do not have. IFR FLYING AND CONCLUSIONS The last thing I expect clouds to impact is primarily low visibility and night flying. IFR flying has the possibility to become much more important than ever before. This might force some people to learn how to use TACAN stations to navigate and use their ILS systems on landing to ensure that their precious aircraft does not end up as a very expensive firework show. From what I have always noticed in my years of flying sims, these systems are usually underutilized due to the fact that, as Jon said, most people prefer clear blue skies with no clouds, not even high altitude ones. I hope that with this update, more people will start using them to navigate through adverse weather and moon-less nights. To close this rather messy article, I wanted to share one last thing. A very dear friend of mine mentioned this quote from the great Antoine de Saint-Éxuperry which I think fits my feelings on the clouds both IRL and in-game perfectly: Navigating by the compass in a sea of clouds over Spain is all very well, it is very dashing... But you want to remember that below the sea of clouds lies eternity. Clouds might be beautiful things, floating with grace, but remember that they are treacherous and could hide your imminent death either behind or inside them. Stay safe, fly responsibly. About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

I have been playing flight simulators for almost half my life and there is a constant that I always notice, no matter the platform I am currently flying on: the high new player turn-around rate that flight sims have. Be it because of of their high level of entry of flight sims, unintuitive controls or just the nicheness of the genre, flight simulation is the genre of games where I have personally seen the largest amount of people try it once and then turn around, never to return. DCS:World is not an exception to this trend. I have seen many try it out and leave without even spending more than two hours on it. But unlike some other sims, I have noticed that DCS has some characteristics that make it easier to get a hold off like interactive tutorials, in-house instructional videos made by the developers and many other things. Yet, I still think that just a couple of things could bring even more player into the game, long-term players at that. I have been thinking about writing this article for a while but it has been difficult as this is a topic that needs to be tackled seriously. Spitballing ideas is not something ideal in this situation as it might bring more confusion to the table. Additionally, remarking problems without bringing solutions to light is just like throwing gas into a fire; I will try to illustrate each problem and after that, I will propose a solution for it. Please take this as a passionate open letter from a lifelong flight sim enthusiast to the fantastic developers at Eagle Dynamics. It is my opinion and everything here just reflects what I think as someone that has observed the environment that surrounds this genre, its people and what some of them think. Oh, and I am not a gamedev, so this is only my opinion as an experienced player. With that out of the way, we shall begin. FIRST IMPRESSIONS MATTER A LOT It might sound like a simple thing, but it is one of the things that I have been told by several people who have tried DCS and turned away: when they opened the main menu for the first time, it "scared" them. With "scared", most of them told me that they meant that it looked unintuitive and that it does not provide any kind of assistance as a first time user. Sure, everything is labeled right there but as a new player it is kind of confusing. For long-time users this might be a non-issue as most of them already know how to navigate and, in general, most of them already knew what they were getting into when starting the program in the first place. This is something that only affects players that come from other games where initial tutorials are common. Therefore, my proposal: A guided tour on first start. This guided tour, which is something that other simulators use, would guide you through the UI via pop-up elements. It would tell you what each part of the menu does, what you can access with them, etc. After that, it would send you to the training section so that you can start your first training session. In my opinion, this would allow new players to familiarize themselves with DCS' menus and it'd get them started on their journey. HOW A DIFFICULT AIRCRAFT SETS WRONG EXPECTATIONS The second most common complaint I have heard from the people that I got to talk to to make this article is this: The starter plane is too difficult or variation of that statement such as "why do I have to start with a difficult aircraft?". These comments were in reference to the Su-25T, one of two free aircraft that come with DCS:World, the other being the TF-51 which is a full fidelity "training" unarmed variant of the P-51 Mustang. The Su-25T is, in my opinion, a wonderful ground pounder. It is capable of doing almost every single ground strike task you can think of, mostly thanks to its sensor package and weapon variety. I do not have any issues or complaints from my experienced user standpoint, but, is this really the best aircraft to be someone's first jet or aircraft as a whole? DCS is, to some, their first flight simulator. They will need to learn all the basics of flight before they even start thinking about combat. In my opinion, the Su-25T does not give new players the best impression. It is slow and most importantly, it is a temperamental bird that might appear unfriendly to the newcomers. The TF-51 is a much better trainer and it would be perfect if it were not for one reason: its lack of multicrew. I have personally taught several of my friends how to fly in DCS with the help of multicrew. Specifically, the aircraft I taught them with was the MB-339 mod since it allowed me to teach them without them having to spend anything on the sim. That is a very important part of this argument because the fact that they did not have to spend money at the start to begin training with a friend marked the difference between turning around and staying. I love what the modding community has done to alleviate this problem. One only needs to look at the marvelous work of the A-4E-C team (which I am glad to be a minor part of) or the highly expected T-45C by VNAO. Aircraft like those solve this issue, allowing newcomers to have a taste of DCS before they take the plunge into buying a module. Therefore, my proposal: DCS would benefit from a third free aircraft, an official multi-crew capable module capable of training missions. I know how expensive and difficult module creation is, I have seen it first hand. My proposal is not without flaws, either. Modules such as the L-39, C-101, YAK-15 and the IFE official MB-339 module, which is in development, exist for a reason and serve the exact role I think would benefit DCS in the long term: but they are all paid. A lot of newcomers would prefer buying a fully-fledged fighter like the Hornet instead of buying a module just for training, or so I have been told by the people I spoke with to make this article. It is all about accessibility and zero monetary compromise Having mods such as VNAO's T-45C is great for the community as a whole as they fix that hole that exists in accessible initial pilot training. But there is no official support for mods like these, their maintenance after each patch falls to the mod developers. There is no guarantee that they will keep working after a major patch such as the upcoming 2.7. In fact, the T-45C developers have stated that they are waiting to test the mod on 2.7 before they release it because there is a chance that the update might break things. I truly believe that a free official trainer would increase sales of actual modules in the long run due to the fact that you have already had a chance to learn how to fly in the sim with a much more friendly aircraft than the Su-25T or the TF-51. But those are only my personal thoughts. CONCLUSIONS I love DCS:World and flight simulators as a whole but I have always wanted to share that experience with more people. It is one of the reasons why I write reviews that take me days to complete, to inform people that might be questioning what aircraft is the best for them. Modules are expensive, after all. It is always better to buy something after you have informed yourself about what you are buying. I wrote the article to throw a bit of light into these two issues that I have noticed ever since I started playing DCS. I hope that it can help in some way, make people discuss about these things. After all: the more people that talk about this, the more likely is something to change. Take care and fly safely. If you want to talk with me about this, feel free to contact me on my discord which is linked on my author bio below. About the author Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

After months of waiting, the much awaited 2.7 update for DCS: World finally dropped on April 14th following a couple of delays. The major addition that this update brought are the new cloud and weather systems alongside an almost uncountable amount of fixes and quality of life (QoL) improvements to the sim. We took a couple of days to let the changes sit in just so we could give a better perspective on what our thoughts are as there is a lot to go through. Clouds with a side of new propellers! As seen in the deluge of screenshots that have been taken within the first week, the clouds' visual impact is undeniable. But viewing wonderful pictures is different from experiencing them. From inside and outside the cockpit, they look stunning. With there being 24 presets total, using the Mission Editor is the easiest way to get hands-on. Their wonders and dangers are immediately apparent from flying high above scattered clouds or doing low-level canyon runs in near-zero visibility overcast. Even something as simple as cloud surfing, playfully dipping in and out of them, can cause icing on the aircraft. And this was in a peaceful, free flight setting, clear from the rigors of combat. The only minor problem we found while testing everything is what we called “puffing”. At distance, clouds seem to puff-up into cotton ball-like mass. Here, have a look: Another feature that was added with this patch was a new propeller rendering technology. I won’t go into the details of how it works, but all we need to know is that it accurately calculates the position of each blade to accurately render then in a way that looks natural to the human eye. Here’s how it looks on the TF-51, quite the change! Performance impact, or lack thereof Although very far from being scientific, as there are no built-in benchmarks, we asked several of our friends which had varying levels of hardware. Interestingly, against all of our predictions, performance seems to have had an overall improvement no matter the level. The lowest spec GPU we “tested” on was the GTX 1060 6GB and even that one showed either higher or the same average fps than it did when running DCS 2.5.6.61 at 1080p with mostly the same settings as it had prior to the update. The graphics cards we have at the moment are both a GTX 1660Ti and a RTX 2060, with the first one being Cubeboy’s and the latter Ribbon-Blue’s. Cube’s card showed the same average FPS over Dubai while flying the same route in 10 different runs (~75FPS), while the average FPS at altitude was reduced when compared to 2.5.6 (Ultra clouds, Overcast 3). High preset clouds showed similar results with a noticeable reduction of frames which might indicate that optimization efforts were directed at the Ultra preset for this initial release. Combat impact and thoughts Admittedly, the perception of just how much harder clouds make combat is somewhat skewed for now. With AI units being unaffected by clouds' presence or intensity, these non-player controlled units currently have an advantage against human players. This is a known issue that is already set to be fixed by Eagle Dynamics, but this is a factor for hosts of multiplayer servers that feature AI-controlled units. As mentioned in an earlier article, which mused about the possible impacts of clouds, this temporary unfair advantage may be yet another delay in the employment of clouds by server hosts on their multiplayer servers. After hours of server hopping to get a general feel for the number of servers that immediately enabled the cloud presets, it was a pleasant surprise to see that a majority of the servers our staff visited were using one of the presets. Improved rearming menu The changelog for DCS 2.7 Open Beta is long but distinguished. One of these updates is slightly more detailed information about the weapons and equipment that are loaded onto hardpoints. The refuel/rearm function in the ground crew radio communication menu has often been the cause of quick web searches to confirm a few specifics about them. Things like whether or not they're laser-guided, semi-active radar-guided, capable of bunker penetration, etc. For veterans of this simulator, this information is everyday knowledge. But for those learning new modules or still learning DCS as a whole, the addition of just a few more words in the text box has an impact. Simple tags like "GPS Guided Bomb", "IR ASM" and "Active Rdr AAM" will become a vital part of planning for players. This doesn't replace the need to learn how these weapons operate, but it does prevent accidental weapon-type mixups that could impact a sortie. Get those IFR skills in shape! For the first time in a long time, players might be finding themselves revisiting navigation system tutorials. With so much of DCS' flying being done in VFR-friendly conditions, there wasn't a pressing reason to become an IFR guru. But now depending on whether or not the mission creator decides to throw storm clouds your way, you will need to know how to navigate in the sea of white with your instruments alone. So get practicing! Also, for mission planning in online servers, paying attention to the topography along the ingress, egress, and in the objective area is a slightly higher priority. While information about the exact type of cloud coverage that will be encountered may not be available, knowing the maximum height of the terrain is helpful in avoiding ground collision even in cloud obscured areas. Setting custom warning altitudes in the Horizontal Situation Indicator (HSI) data sublevel could now be just as life-saving as it is in the real world. Conclusions Much like update 1.5 and 2.5, DCS World open beta update 2.7 has changed the simulator in such a way, it almost feels brand new again. Similar sentiments are being expressed by established content creators and players that have flown in DCS for over a decade. A secondary effect update 2.7 has had is a noticeable spike in interest by people that have never heard of DCS before or were on the fence about ever giving it a serious try. This sudden burst of interest coupled with the Sping Sale could result in a new wave of players to further expand the overall player base and eventually populate multiplayer servers even more. After a few more adjustments and minor updates that are bound to happen within the next few weeks, by the time this update reaches the stable build of DCS World, there’s little doubt that 2.7 will go down as one of the pivotal updates within this simulator’s history. About the co-author Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034 About the co-author Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza The Director of Operations for Skyward Flight Media. A lifelong aviation enthusiast with a special interest in flight simulators and games. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating aviation related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He continues to explore past and present flight games and sims with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. | Twitter | Discord: RibbonBlue#8870 |

After around two years of work, the mod team at Virtual Naval Air Operations (VNAO) have finally released an aircraft that a lot of us in the community were waiting in anticipation ever since it was announced: the T-45C Goshawk, a naval trainer aircraft that every naval aviator will fly at some point in their career. This is not a review but only a first impression look at this mod's initial release (IR) build. The developers are still working on it as I write this article, so it is only natural that things will be improved over time. This article is based on my impressions of v1.0. Additionally, I will treat this mod just by what it is: a mod. It shall not be judged or compared to paid modules. It is a community project made by a group of dedicated modders that made this aircraft with passion. That being said, there will be circumstances where I will need to reference paid modules to make an argument, but it shall not be directly compared to one. With that out of the way, let's take a look at this trainer! EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL 3D MODELS This is an area that caught me off-guard, both because of how well executed it is and by the fact that some details seem to have passed through the artists eyes without being seen. The external model is gorgeous from almost every angle. Rivets, panel lines and even smaller details such as exhaust fume burns from the Gas Turbine Starter (GTS) are there! The included liveries are absolutely great, with plenty of details and accurate markings that make these birds feel a bit more believable. Although it is when you start looking at it from certain angles that you can notice that some things are a bit off, particularly with the bump map textures for the wings, the exhaust pipe's model and texture. If it were not for these two details, this model would not have anything to envy from other aircraft in-game. Here are both examples: From my limited experience working with 2D art for 3D models, I would amend this issue by applying a more matte texture to the tail pipe, alongside a normal map that would act as the "substitute" for the detailed engine exhaust, since a new model would add even more tris to an already overly detailed model (~2.000.000 tris). That would make it harder to run on lower-end machines. The normalmap seems to be inverted and it is reflecting light from angles it should not, in addition to the panel lines being too thick. This should be fixable by re-inverting the texture and making the panel lines less thick. Since the developers have already done an excellent job with the external model, I think these solutions should not be outside of their capabilities. Now, one area that they absolutely nailed was the internal model for the cockpit. This is a beauty, no other way to say it. Both the student and instructor cockpits are extremely detailed and very well made. Analog instrument and the Multi-Function Displays (MFD) screens look the part. Lighting is sublime as well, giving you a very nice experience and immersion feel. I do have two very minor complaints, and when I say "minor", I mean it. The first of these is that, while under direct sunlight, the canopy glass' texture seems to be diffusing the sun's light in a very weird way. The second one is that some sunlight seems to go through the frame and illuminate the instruments in scenarios where they should be under full shadow. Here are some examples: This effect is a bit disorienting and I'd suggest that the canopy glass texture should receive an overhaul. I know that some of the textures were still WIP, so I hope this will be tackled in an upcoming update. This effect seems to also affect other aircraft in-game. As far as my knowledge goes, this is a 3D issue. Light is passing through the shell that goes around the 3D model of the cockpit, making it look like the sun is going through the fuselage and straight into the instruments. Again, this is not a deal breaker but something that could receive some attention later on once more important bugs are fixed. FLIGHT MODEL I'll keep this section short and sweet. As long as you fly it within the expected flight envelope you will not find any issues with the flight model. It is a smooth ride from taxi to landing. Stall characteristics are a bit weird sometimes, but it is not a deal breaker. It is an aircraft that requires a lot of trim but that's a good thing, as that is an essential ability that every pilot should know even if they will fly something equipped with a FCS. The behavior on the ground is solid as well, with lock-up mechanics on the nose wheel steering mechanism if it is operated wrongly. The aircraft does feel like it carries some weight to it, both on the ground and in the air. But, what happens when you get it out of its expected/tested flight envelope? I did several test flights the same way that I did when I was testing EFM builds for the A-4E Community mod when they grabbed some of the active testers from their public Discord server as dedicated EFM testers. What do I mean by that? Well, I just tried to fly it like I'd normally would just with the difference of paying really close attention to everything and, whenever I would find a potential flaw, I'd try and track it down. What I experienced was a bit unexpected: I got it to go to Mach 1.4 on level flight, I zoom climbed to 75.000ft and I almost reached Mach 2 on a dive. I know that this is the initial build and that bugs are to be expected, but I was not expecting to get to supersonic speeds or to pull 20G on a corner with no consequence whatsoever. The developers are aware of these issues, and they are working on solving them. I even notified them of the issue with excessive thrust at altitude despite it having been reported before. But this is a first impressions article and I have to be honest with my thoughts. What VNAO has is a great foundation, it reminds me to the first builds I tested of the EFM for the Skyhawk. The A-4E-C devs even had the same issues at first with excessive thrust at high altitudes, causing me to reach Mach 3.31 at some point! I know the devs at VNAO will solve these issues as they have shown they are passionate about this project. MISSION CAPABILITIES This is a pure trainer and that's it. Forget about doing combat missions with this aircraft, if that is what you want you can download other community mods such as the A-4E or the A-29B. The Goshawk's mission is to get rookie pilots to the level where they can feel confident flying more advanced aircraft, like the Hornet, as their time with the Goshawk provided them with all the basic skills they needed. You will be able to do all sorts of training sorties with this bird, though. From basic landing patterns to CASE I and CASE II recoveries on the carrier (due to the lack of ICLS, CASE III practices are not recommended) and basic air to ground and air to air weapon employment. I did some mock dogfights with Hueman, a close friend of mine. I was surprised at the fact that I even managed to get him on my sights a couple of times, calling out simulated kills. This is something I was not expecting. You will be surprised at how useful flying this bird is, even for experienced pilots. It is a much more raw experience than jumping straight into something with a flight computer. Also, this is the ONLY carrier-capable trainer in-game. You are able to be both the pilot and the instructor for a friend thanks to its multi-crew capabilities. This means that you will be able to train your friends or that a veteran friend of yours can be your instructor! Pretty cool and useful. TRAINING ARMAMENT BDU-33 SMOKE BOMBS Perfect for practicing your aim and perfecting your bombing techniques. They are a great companion for this aircraft. They even have their custom bomb rack! M274 SMOKE ROCKETS Useful for practicing different scenarios, marking things for others to see, etc. They are fun to use, like any rocket would be. Give them a try! THE FREE TRAINER THAT DCS NEEDED There is something that I discussed earlier this month, and that was that DCS' newcomer experience is something that needed improvement. The free aircraft that come with the game are not enough to hook some people, making them turn around and leave DCS never to return. I think that what VNAO has done is solve one big piece of that puzzle. This is not only a new free aircraft to DCS, but one that is capable of doing multi-crew training for FREE. As long as the mod is supported and is kept alive, new players will have a chance of getting a taste of a modern DCS aircraft and of getting to train with a friend or even a stranger on an organized training squadron! It might not be an official module nor might it be a perfectly polished mod in its current state, but it delivers in the area that matters the most: training new players. I am really happy that VNAO decided to release this mod publicly as it will help the entire community as a whole. Well done, VNAO! DOWNLOAD THE MOD FROM HERE: OFFICIAL MIRROR 1 (MEDIAFIRE) OFFICIAL MIRROR 2 (UFILE) About the Author Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

It was quite surprising to see, that almost out of nowhere, VTOL VR's developer BahamutoD released a new game: Jetborne Racing. This was a very unexpected release; not only because of its timing but because of what it is. This is, to my knowledge, one of the only modern flight games on the market that is solely focused on racing! Initially, I was a bit shocked at the premise. Not because it was strange or anything of the sort, but because it is such a logical game idea that I am in disbelief that no one had done it in recent years. Sure, there are some flight racing games from back in the day, but nothing like this, even less when you consider that it was made with VR in mind. AUDIOVISUAL DESIGN Visually, this game is very similar to VTOL VR if not identical to it. Very simple textures that do not have any kind of embellishments. This has a performance benefit for VR users as the game does not have to load 4K textures with roughness and bump maps, which would need to calculate light reflections on them. This should make sure that the game will run flawlessly on many systems out there. Despite having a minimalistic style, Jetborne has very interesting map designs. From the simple yet elegant wooden tunnels of Mountain pass to the craziness of Moon Base Alpha and the narrow tunnels of Underwater, this game has variety. Take a look at the small gallery bellow so you can see the examples I mentioned. Additionally, the cockpit design is minimalistic. No bells or whistles here, all the information you need is displayed right on the Heads-up Display (HUD) or right bellow it, such as your total and split times. I find this to be beneficial as it makes it easier for you to focus on your flying and what is happening outside of your canopy instead of looking around the cockpit. Audio-wise, the game does have some very good aspects to it. The sound you can hear as you pull Gs and the audio deafening effect as you black/red-out is good. But one area in which I feel there could be some improvement are structural sounds such as the wings swinging back and forth, a louder afterburning sound, etc. In a game that has you constantly pulling over 10Gs I would consider these to be crucially integral to judging your aircraft's attitude while on tight corners. GAMEPLAY Here is where Jetborne shines. It has the same level of polish as VTOL VR, which is one of the best VR experiences out there. It might not have the interactivity and system operations of the former but it does not need them, at all. The flight model is not realistic, but it feels grounded. Taking turns feels exciting and every single time in which I crashed, it was because of my own fault, some exceptions applied. It has been a blast to go through every single circuit, both in single and multiplayer. The best I have to describe it is that it feels like a more realistic Ace Combat-like flight model, don't mind being able to pull 14Gs without consequences. After all, you don't have blood in VR. The best way I have to show you what I mean is with this video I recorded of myself running one of my best personal times in East Bay Loop. I uploaded it to the Skyward Twitter account. Music in the video is courtesy of Cindego (Kubson#1138 in Discord). Very nice stuff all around! Maps feel like they are laid out in such a way that turns flow into one another, but of course there are some maps that are a bit better at this than others. Beginner-level maps are very easy to finish but hard to master. That run I have on the video was a 1:56:858, which is more than a second slower than the world record. It took me a solid day of solely playing this circuit to figure out all the best angles for my level of skill, including the "blind corner" that is the last turn, which leads me to my only complaint. To get the best times on tracks such as Moon Base Alpha or East Bay Loop, you will have to rely on taking corners while blacked out. This means that you will have to memorize the angle of the turn, your bank angle and the number of seconds you will have to keep turning until you can straighten out. While being able to do such a feat is impressive on its own, I can not call it a good game mechanic. Being able to control the aircraft after you black out should not be possible, there should be some kind of penalty for doing so. The rest of the game mechanics are fun. The spectators, which can move from platform to platform, have their own way to affect the race by shooting at the racers. This can be either hilarious or really annoying, at least it was prior to the damage reduction that the spectator guns received. Races with objects, á-la Mario Kart, are really fun as well. FIRST IMPRESSIONS CONCLUSION This is a really, really fun game. It is unique and brings things to the table that no other game has, at least in the last decade or so. It has that VTOL VR polish to it, making it run smoothly on almost any machine. But I do fear for its longevity. Sure, record hunting has been a blast during the release period and it has been exciting to get into a track just to try and get back into the top spots of the leader board. But for how long can that excitement last? How many times can I do a run over and over again on the same map until I get worried. The game has eight maps as of the time of writing, so this feeling only grows more each time I play them. I would recommend this game to any of those who want to race with their friends, VR or not. It is a great game as it is, but I hope that it will get expanded with more maps at some point. About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

Over the years I have noticed that there are not that many websites solely dedicated to covering flight games like us at Skyward, and even less that approach them on a journalistic way. One of these would be Stormbirds, a blog ran by ShamrockOneFive! A couple of weeks ago, Stormbirds was celebrating their fifth anniversary. We decided to approach Shamrock in order to talk a bit about how has it been running the blog on his own, his motivations for running it, the experiences he has had along the way, etc. I'd like to thank Shamrock for letting me have this interview with him on such short notice. He made the interview roll smoothly, I appreciate that a lot. Hello and thank you for accepting to have this interview. Can I ask you to introduce yourself? Sure! My name is Colin and I go by ‘ShamrockOneFive’ in most of the sims (and games) that I play. Before we get into talking about the Stormbirds blog, we’d like to learn some more about yourself. How did you end up becoming a flight simulator enthusiast? My interest starts with my lifelong interest in all things that fly. I’m told that I was only a couple of years old when I began pointing at the sky in excitement whenever an aircraft flew over. I went to my first airshow at the age of five and I’ve been fascinated by all aspects of aviation ever since. I have a large collection of books on aviation and history, I enjoy airshow photography, and I love flight simulations as an extension of that interest. In retrospect, not much has changed over the years as I still point excitedly at the sky whenever an aircraft flies over! I think my first flight sim was A-10 Tank Killer by Dynamix but the sim I first fell in love with was Aces of the Pacific by the same studio. I played that sim whenever I had time. From there I played a variety of different flight sims. Aces Over Europe, F-15E Strike Eagle II and III, Fleet Defender, various iterations of Microsoft Flight Simulator, a tiny bit of Lock On: Modern Air Combat and the IL-2 series before jumping into the modern titles. Are there any simulators or flight games in general that are especially important to you? Maybe something you’d suggest to people? Right now, there are four or five sims that I’m focused on writing about and personally enjoying as well. I tend to write about what I am interested in as a starting point, so these are sims that I recommend on a regular basis but also spend a great deal of time enjoying myself. On the civil aviation side, I really enjoy both Microsoft Flight Simulator and X-Plane. Both have their upsides and downsides but the two both offer some compelling experiences on the civil aviation side. Whatever you’re looking for, either one or both of these tiles will have it covered. On the combat flight simulation side of things, IL-2: Great Battles, IL-2: Cliffs of Dover and DCS World are what I’m focused on. The IL-2 series has a long legacy stretching over 20 years and the second and third generations that are still being actively developed are impressive in so many ways. I have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours with all three generations of the series. DCS World is also an extremely impressive and complex sim that is doing incredible things for WWII through to the modern jet age. It’s only in the last 4-5 years that I’ve really gotten into it but I’m glad I did because there’s so much to know. My simulator interest does extend into other genres too. I’ve also been a fan of various racing sims over the years and more recently I’ve developed a bit of a love for Train Sim World as well. Good fun when you’re looking for a very different sim experience. How and when did the concept for the Stormbirds blog come around? Around five years ago I was looking for a new creative outlet and at the same time I was looking for a way to practice my writing skills. In my professional life I am called on to occasionally write news stories for my organization. Sometimes these come up with a very tight timeline. I wanted to be faster at writing and I thought that practicing with something that I’m interested in would help. It did! I’ve also considered multiple times jumping into the video creation side of things rather than doing a blog, but I tend to be the kind of person who likes to run counter to some trends and do my own thing. So, in the age of the YouTube channel content creator, I decided to write a blog. I have, however, put some content together on Stormbirds.blog YouTube channel including starting my own podcast series which now has five episodes. Episode releases come out irregularly as my focus is still very much on the blog and everything tends to relate back to it which is very different than the usual YouTube channel approach. When the blog was created, was it meant to be primarily an IL-2 Sturmovik blog? My content mandate, the thing that drives me to write, is essentially centered around writing about what I want to write about. That sounds a little selfish perhaps, but I think that’s important to do as a content creator. You have to have a passion for whatever it is that you’re writing, otherwise I think the audience will feel the lack of interest. I do feel some responsibility to cover certain subjects that may not be at the top of my interest list, but I do try and stick to my simple mandate most of the time. I always intended to write about multiple sims when I started the blog. When I started it was mostly the IL-2: Great Battles series that I was flying on the regular but it didn’t take too long to expand my coverage to DCS World and on from there. For those that do not know, what is Sturmovikfest? Sturmovikfest is a weeklong celebration of everything IL-2 Sturmovik. It’s only run for two years so far but the festival has offered a variety of serious, competitive, and non-serious events including mass formation flypasts, air racing, and more! When did Sturmovikfest start? How has it changed since the beginning? I started the festival last year. The idea came to me not too long after the pandemic began as I looked to put my energy into something that could be done virtually. With everyone stuck inside, locked away and with so many real-world events cancelled, I thought that it’d be a good idea to try and raise spirits by hosting an event that people could engage with. It proved to be popular enough that we brought it back for this year. I think its future is bright! Have you received any help from IL-2’s developers when it comes to organizing the fest? The festival has certainly had some support from the developers. It has had shout-outs from the developers, the festival thread has been prominently placed on the official forums and I know that the developers have also taken part, quietly, in at least a few of the events. What are the highlights of Sturmovikfest thus far? Many! The community has generated so many ideas over the last two times that we’ve run the event that I can’t wait to see what happens next. From the traditional fly-in event on different servers each night of the festival to the more unique events such as Project R air racing, IL-2 tag, and the Mass Formation event organized by JimTM. That last one, the mass formation, is a unique experience getting pilots together in a non-combat formation pass that has involved a few dozen players at a time. We’ve even had experienced real world aerobatics pilots join us so that has been something special! How do fly-ins work in this event? The concept of the “fly-in” is to say to the community that we’re going to agree to try and fully populate a specific server tonight. Sometimes it’s been a popular server like Combat Box or Finnish Virtual Pilots Dynamic War server and sometimes we go somewhere new that hasn’t seen as many pilots (or tankers) but is just waiting to be experienced. Last year, Finnish Virtual Pilots – Dynamic War server was a relative unknown before the festival and has since become one of the top servers in the community. The fly-in helps provide some visibility for servers that may have not had any yet and at the same time it’s a highly accessible way to participate in the festival by just being there and doing what you’d normally do. During the time you’ve been running the blog, what do you think some of the most substantial releases, updates or news bulletins have been? There’s definitely some big highlights. The release of IL-2: Battle of Kuban was a huge point for the IL-2 series and I had a great time writing both the news in the run up to that launch as well as writing my review of it when it finally released. Another one that sticks firmly in my mind is Heatblur’s release of the DCS: F-14 Tomcat. While the F/A-18C early access release was big for me, the F-14 was just an order of magnitude bigger for the whole sim and my early access first impression review is still a piece that I’m really proud of having wrote. Finally, the reveal of Microsoft Flight Simulator back in June of 2019 was absolutely huge. I had just finished up two fantastic days at FSExpo 2019 in Orlando Florida and was sitting in my hotel room when the news came in. I tapped out an article as fast as I could after I had finished picking my jaw up off the floor. The launch was a big deal too but that initial announcement was momentous and it was when I realized that we were now in a new golden age of flight sims – having seen everything that FSExpo had to offer and learning that so much more was still to come. How do you think running Stormbirds has helped you grow as a writer? It has certainly helped me grow as a writer. It’s let me find my own niche as a writer, improved my “voice” as a writer and it’s broadly improved my overall ability to just sit down, write and get something written down “on paper” so to speak. I used to suffer from a lot of writer’s block, not being sure what to write and then struggling to piece things together. I’m sure it’s not quite as bad as I make it out to be but every essay in university was a painful process. It’s really quite different for me now as I’ve learned to just write and get it out there and then fix it later. I still need to continue to grow as a writer. Some of my regular readers and commenters are extremely helpful at point out when I make a mistake and I appreciate those helpful tips. As much as I pride myself on getting things right and perfect the first time, sometimes I don’t. I’ve gotten better at this in the last five years and I intend to get better over the next five as well. Does having to write articles in a short period of time affect your writing style? It most certainly does. I tried at the outset to keep my time spent on the blog limited to just 30-40 minutes a day at the most. That means writing quickly and sometimes that means abbreviating my style as much as possible. I’ve had many comments from readers that they appreciate the brevity of the articles so obviously that style is helping not just me in managing my time but also the reader. My goal with a lot of the news articles is to get to the point, get to the key facts and provide links to the sources. It’s the synthesis of the news around the flight sim community combined with the breadth of sims that I cover that I think seems to appeal most to my readers – or that’s what I tell myself anyways! I also think it’s important to commentate along the way. This is a blog and I unashamedly inject my own comments into the news as it comes along. It’s obvious that I’m a fan of flight sims. I think they are incredible pieces of software that transcend their programming and become memorable experiences and there’s something really special about that experience that is almost undefinable. I want to project my enthusiasm for that experience into everything that I write. If I wasn’t excited about it, I probably wouldn’t be writing the blog in the first place. How do you manage your releases? Are there any goals or deadlines that you set for yourself? It took me a long time to accept that I’m a goal and deadline driven type-A personality but I have accepted that and so I do aim to produce a fair bit of content according to my own internal goals and deadlines. Being a content creator does always bring with it the risk that you become a slave to your own deadlines and to the audience that you’re trying to appeal to. As much as I like and appreciate my audience, I also have to respect my own well-being and that sometimes means that I’ll do something later when I feel that I want to do it. Striking a balance between those two competing aspects is a challenge and one that I continue to refine. Thank you so much for accepting to have this interview with us. Would you have anything else to add before we conclude? My thanks to both of you for doing this Q&A with me. I’m usually the one doing the interviewing so it’s nice to be on the other side of that and talk about what I do. I’m looking forward to some future possibilities of collaborating between our sites too! Check Stormbirds out if you need a quick fix on the current happenings inside the flight sim world, to check out Shamrock's opinion on a particular matter or just to have a nice read. CHECK STORMBIRDS HERE About the Interviewer Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy#9034

If there is one developer that took me by surprise by what they are creating, it would be IndiaFoxtEcho (IFE). From their years of making add-on aircraft for civilian-centric simulators, I would have never expected them to venture into DCS World. I had the pleasure to talk, yet again, with my friend Giuseppe. Better known as Duke, he was responsible for coding the EFM for the MB-339PAN mod. Nowadays, he works as a coder for IFE helping to create plenty of amazing aircraft for a variety of simulators. We last spoke with Duke when we covered the Frecce Tricolori Virtuali and its endeavors; today we will have another talk with him about everything IFE is up to. From some personal questions, to the DCS MB-339A and some exclusive details on the recently announced DCS Fiat G.91! First of all, thank you so much for accepting to have an interview with us. Could you please start by introducing yourself? My name is Giuseppe, also known as Duke in the Flight Sim community. I’m an aerospace engineer, aviation enthusiast with a great passion for flight simulations. My adventure in DCS modelling started with the Frecce Tricolori Virtuali development team as an EFM coder for the popular free mod MB-339PAN. Today, the rest of FTV development team and I have joined the IndiaFoxtEcho team. For how long have you been a part of IndiaFoxtEcho? How has the experience been so far? Our team has always been in excellent relations with Dino Cattaneo of IndiaFoxtEcho, but only in the first half of 2020 we have increasingly begun to talk about a possible collaboration that has materialized during the summer of 2020. This has allowed us to have a contract with Eagle Dynamics and to become official 3rd party developers. How has the transition from being a modder to a full-time developer been? Any differences in the way you approach module development? Honestly, the only thing changed is having a direct communication channel with ED specialists allows us to get information sooner than reverse engineering from other modules. From the workload side, everything is like before. We all have a primary job and aircraft development started as a hobby and today becomes a second activity for us. Tackling both Microsoft Flight Simulator and DCS at the same time is no easy task. How big is the team at IFE and what does each member of the team do? IndiaFoxtEcho development team is composed of 10 people active mainly on DCS projects. Some of them are also involved in MSFS development which requires a less amount of time to develop a new aircraft thanks to a good SDK base and to the fact that the majority of systems and flight dynamics are precompiled and available to developers for customization. The team also includes several external contributors and internal testers which helps us to test new functionalities and support us making other features for our modules. The MB-339 mod for DCS, which is now unsupported, was one of the best community mods in the eyes of many including myself. Now that it is being remade and improved as an official module, which do you think are the key differences between the mod and the module? Gallery of the new 3D cockpit assets and textures made for the MB-339 (WIP build) The new MB-339 will be totally different from the free mod. First, the 3D models (internal and external) have been totally revised. Geometry has been improved thanks to several surveys on real aircraft, such as textures that now look real providing a more immersive simulation experience. Also systems have been redone: now the aircraft has an electric system with five separated bus bars including working circuit breakers, main and emergency hydraulic systems, full working pressurization and oxygen systems and more. Finally, the module includes also a complete navigation system composed by GPS, TACAN, VOR/ILS and Flight Director. All the on board systems are linked to the damage model which is also compliant with real aircraft limitations. Have you been working with any subject matter expert (SME) to get the MB-339’s flight model as close to reality as possible? The EFM of the free mod was developed with the support of real pilots and instructors of MB-339 which provided us precious feedback for creating a flight model as close to the real aircraft’s performance. For this reason, we focused our efforts to develop a more detailed aircraft in terms of systems and weapons. For future projects, we started a cooperation with DIMEAS – Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of Polytechnic University of Turin to create better flight dynamics with a specific focus on flight control systems simulation. DCS, at the moment, lacks a trainer aircraft with air to air refueling capabilities. Since some variants of the MB-339 do have refueling probes, will any of them be included at some point in the project? Yes, it would be nice to have a more advanced trainer with AAR capabilities but the DCS MB-339 will be a fidelity reproduction of the A variant used by the majority of Air Forces of the rest of the world. From what I have seen, the official MB-339 will carry more specialized weaponry than the mod did. Which of these weapons do you think will stand out as a unique inclusion to DCS? We have worked hard to develop new weapons such as the BAP-100, BAT-120 and Durandal bombs. These weapons have been passed to ED which kindly supported us for integrating them in DCS Core so they will be available also for other modules which are supposed to carry them. We also included several weapons for training but they are Italian Air Force exclusive like Aerea Dispenser BRD-4-250. How is the new DCS damage model being implemented in the MB-339? Any highlights? Currently, the new Damage Model is available only for WWII aircraft. For our MB-339 we used the classic one but we have been careful to model the damage by putting virtually every single piece of equipment in the real position on board the aircraft in order to recreate the related failure depending on where the plane is hit. (Here is a document that IFE made about the DCS MB-339 damage model) Have you encountered any setbacks while developing the MB-339 that may have delayed its release? How has the team handled such challenges? One of the main things was rewriting the code. Until the ED contract, we wrote the MB-339 code without SDK support so we had to write from scratch the entire DCS interface. This took some development time which delayed the release of the module. However, the delays weren't so bad and within a couple of months we picked up where we left off. Without getting into any specific dates, how close would you think the MB-339 is from release At this date, the MB-339 is at 90% of its development. We could release it at a “early access” state but we prefer to provide a full module considering that currently the free mod is still available (even with some issues due to DCS 2.7 release). We are confident to release it within the end of 2021. I saw a very interesting picture in your social media, the teaser picture for a Fiat G.91. Is there anything you can share with us about that project? (i.e aircraft variants, weaponry, etc.) The G.91 started as a toy project in cooperation with some Sim Skunk Works members when we were modders. Today, as part of IndiaFoxtEcho, we have discussed several projects to be developed in future for DCS World and the G.91 was an obvious choice thanks to the availability of official documentation (we have access to the historical archive of the old FIAT-Aeritalia) and the access to several aircraft in good state for surveys (for your information, next year in Italy for the 100th anniversary of Italian Air Force, a G.91R-1B will back in flight). Several versions of the aircraft are similar enough so we planned to develop the PAN (aerobatic version of Frecce Tricolori), R-1B (Italian Air Force version) and R-3 (Luftwaffe version). We are also considering making an R-4 but we will see in future… probably this version will come later as bonus aircraft but this is not confirmed yet. As for the weaponry, our goal is to add all G.91R weapons reported in the flight manual such as the AS-20 Nord missile and AIM-9B. Speaking of these two weapons, for the record, the AS-20 was not used by any air force equipped with G-91s due to its costs (only FIAT-Aeritalia performed some tests to shooting range for weapon qualification) whilst the AIM-9B integration was a total fail during tests of Portuguese Air Force (the IR sensor of the missile never locked the target so the integration was abandoned). Aside from the two confirmed modules for DCS, are there any plans to bring some other aircraft to the simulator? Particularly, are there any plans to bring the M-346 to DCS at some point after the two ongoing projects are complete? Unfortunately we cannot discuss further projects, but I can say that other news will come as soon as the MB-339 is released. Once again, thank you so much for accepting our interview request. Would you want to add anything else before we conclude our interview? Many thanks to you for your interest in our projects, we are glad to have had this interview and we hope to have the opportunity, in future, to discuss our next steps on DCS World in greater detail. We'd like to take the opportunity of this interview to thank all our followers and our supporters. We are a small team with a great enthusiasm and we hope not to disappoint your expectations. About the Interviewer Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy#9034

I have been playing Il-2 Great Battles for the last year or so and I have been loving this flight simulator to bits. It is engaging and offers a set of scenarios and a roster of aircraft that you just cannot find anywhere else. But I had yet to try one major aspect of this sim, that being its compatibility with VR headsets! VR flying is always awesome, no matter the platform. IL-2 is one such experience, but let's take a bit more of a detailed look at how it compares to flying with a head-tracker and at how the developers adapted this desktop-first simulator into VR! THE GOOD: AN EXCELLENT AND OPTIMIZED FLIGHT EXPERIENCE To be completely honest, I am not the biggest VR user out there. I mostly play games with a couple of close friends and fly around in DCS: World to relax after a long day. That being said, I have noticed a couple of things that have made my VR flying experience a bit unpleasant, the main one being the performance and optimization of VR titles. My specs are not the greatest, falling on the lower-mid tier for modern hardware but there is a reason why VR titles have the reputation of being performance hogs. So you can imagine how surprised I was when IL-2 ran smoothly without any major adjustments. I did not even have to run the textures and reflections to low or decrease my draw distance by that much! Cockpit models transfer excellently to VR, with proper scaling. It is hard to describe how something like this looks in VR without being in VR, but all I can say is that the models are stunning and I wish that some other games could look this good while also running as smoothly as this does. Seeing your enemies go down, the effects of G-LOC (G-Induced Loss of Consciousness), the breath of your pilot as they struggle to stay focused and awake while maneuvering. These are the aspects that make this experience worth it. To demonstrate a bit of how it would look, I recorded one of my first dogfights. There were some recording issues that caused hiccups here and there. But you should get an idea of how much freedom of movement VR has when following a target around. Take a look! My PC Specs: Ryzen 5 3600 Stock. 16GB DDR4 @3200MHz GTX 1660Ti w/6GB GDDR6 Overclocked @2055Mhz 1TB NVME SSD Oculus Rift S THE NOT SO GOOD BUT STILL ALRIGHT: USER INTERFACE AND MENU INTERACTIONS Everything good has to have some flaws and IL-2's VR implementation is no exception. Although these are mainly minor complaints, I sincerely think that they should be addressed at some point on one way or another. My main complaint would be that there is no way to interact with the menus from inside of VR by using VR controllers. The only way to interact with any kind of menu is by blindly reaching out to your mouse and clicking your problems away. Is this something you can get used to? Yes, in fact. I have already gotten used to it. Should this stay like this? I hope it does not. There is a reason why many games, including ones that do not have their focus on clickable elements, have the option to use your VR controllers to navigate. Aside from that, my only other complaint would be that you cannot have separate settings for VR and Desktop, forcing you to always reset your settings by hand each time you switch between modes. DCS World does have this feature, allowing you to save up to three user presets which you can switch to without much hassle. This is useful for those who switch between Desktop and VR, people like me. In conclusion: If I am complaining about petty features like this, you know that this is one hell of a solid VR experience. I love it. If you have this sim and a VR headset, give it a go. You won't regret it! About the Author Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and content manager ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy#9034

After some years of development and a couple of set backs, one of the most expected WW2 modules for DCS is finally here. The de Havilland Mosquito is one of most impressive aircraft that Britain built during the war, so having the possibility to enjoy it as a full fidelity module is fantastic. To say that I like this aircraft would be an understatement, seeing as I have a scale model of it right under my monitor as I write this, of the same variant too! Let us take a look at what this highly anticipated module has to offer at launch and how this Early Access launch stacks in relation to previous releases such as the P-47 Thunderbolt. EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL MODELS She has, without question, one of the most complex and intricately-made models currently in the game. The shapes for the external model might be simple but they are polished and to the average user it looks perfect (This is not considering some of the things I have noticed when looking at it as a "2D artist" such as the stretched UVs) . From the subtle curves of the main wooden fuselage that lack rivets to the impressively detailed bomb bay, this model is pretty. Click the pictures to enlarge them The cockpit is not slacker either. It has been beautifully recreated and excellently weathered. All the knobs and crevices look like they have been used but not like they have been beaten with a bat, a nice balance indeed. Both the pilot and navigator sides are gorgeous, even more when you the back side of the navigator side and its equipment. If the release delay was because of the remodeling process, then it is certain that it was worth the wait. Scroll through the pictures! FLIGHT AND SYSTEM MODELING I have the very respectable amount of zero flight hours on real life Mosquitos, so take my opinion here with a Texas-sized grain of salt. Without axis curves, this aircraft feels a bit overly sensitive. That is something I also experienced with all other WW2 aircraft that I tried, so I have gotten used to tweaking my desk-mounted short stick (T1.6000 and TWS Throttle w/pedals) to these modules. From what I have heard, these modules are modeled to reflect the longer control columns that these fighters had. To fix that "oversensitivity", lower your saturation and add a slight curve. That should do the trick. But when you have tuned her well, oh boy, she is a joy to fly. She is maneuverable but not as much as a Spitfire or even a P-47D. She is fast and, when using all of her advantages, she can annihilate almost every fighter. Remember that you are heavy but extremely fast for your size, so use that to your advantage. I can't really complaint about the systems since I have not had the time to use them to their fullest, so I will reserve my comment on this subject for a future full review once it is out of Early Access. Oh, one noteworthy thing about the engine modeling is that the developers modeled the infamous carburetor issues that can cause engine stalls during negative G maneuvers. Watch out for this, since you will most likely be in this situation (like I've been countless times). ARMAMENT At launch, this bird came only with a fraction of the weaponry it should have. But remember, this is an Early Access launch inside of the Open Beta branch. This means that features will be added as they are developed. .303 BROWNING MACHINE GUNS (4X) Kind of weak but their sheer volume of fire is enough to deal damage. You have 4 of these with plenty of ammo to spray and pray. HISPANO 20MM CANNONS (4X) Now these actually deal some significant damage. Not as much ammo as the MGs but plenty to last a while, watch that trigger time though! 250 and 500LB BOMBS The only externally mounted armament in the Early Access release. These are enough to do a single pass on a target and the scram towards allied airspace. CONCLUSION So, after talking about this bird, what are my thoughts on it? Simple, this bird feels right at home in DCS. It is a welcome addition to the WW2 roster and I can not wait to see how the developers will handle the Early Access period. This was a great module launch. About the author: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and the co-founder of Skyward ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

DCS, lately, has been an interesting simulator to enjoy. Between the multiple modules that are due to arrive sooner rather than later, the mod team that I am now a part of and the vast amounts of modules I have yet to explore; it has been a bit difficult for me to find the same type of enjoyment in DCS as I did when I first tried it out so many years ago. To be honest, it is not that I do not enjoy my time flying. Quite the opposite, I enjoy it now more than I have ever done. But, as time has passed, the types of activities I do to enjoy my time in this extremely vast game have changed a lot. At the start, I flew DCS like I flew all my other flight sims: like a hermit. I sat down and the only thing I ever did was do single player missions. Those, alongside campaigns, kept me mostly satisfied for a while. Until it got stale. That is when my luck came to the rescue. It was about that time that my best bud, "Ribbon-Blue", decided to also get into DCS. He also introduced me another one of his friends, now my friend, "Kosmos". Some others that got into DCS around the this time were "Prov", alongside "Hueman". We started flying more regularly, and some of my other friends (like "Raptor86") slowly starting drifting towards organizing flight nights where we do semi-organized combat sorties. I found more fun and excitement in those early multiplayer sessions than in all my single player sessions combined. Yet the reasons behind my enjoyment might not be clear. Anything is better with friends, of course, but there is more to it. The same stale missions that I used to play became more random with more players involved, which led to situations in which I have never would have been involved if I was flying by myself. Everything became more dynamic and two things became clear to me: First, DCS is currently best experienced by having a group of close friends to enjoy it with, hell, even flying with randoms can be extremely entertaining. Not only due to the fact that flying together is great but also due to the fact that you can discover and learn new airframes and ways to use those airframes together! That is an experience unique to DCS and some other flight sims but one that is rare on other sides of the gaming community. Second, DCS is dependent on multiplayer and community to be truly enjoyed, something that is a double edge sword. I'll explain why. With community comes great potential for future growth and additionally, potential for community-made creations that can elevate the experience even more. Just look at mods such as the A-4E, C-130J and MB-339. All of those are community-made creations made by passionate individuals that have changed the way I look at DCS, an impressive achievement! But what happens if the player plays the game like I did, as a single player title? Other sims such as Falcon BMS and IL-2 Great Battles have alternatives for them, while also having rich multiplayer communities. DCS, currently, is lacking on single player features. The main feature that is missing is the dynamic mission or campaign generator, instant mission aside. We know that Eagle Dynamics is working on it and I hope it will turn out to be a great tool for all of us to use, but its absence is more noticeable to me more now than ever before. To give some context: I have been extremely busy with several projects (and so have some of my friends), including being the sole (for now) texture artist for the DCS UH-60L Blackhawk project. My time for extremely long DCS sessions is no longer there and even when I have sessions with my buddies, which I always enjoy greatly, my lack of energy has made me prone to exhaustion. This is why I have delved into shorter single player flights to clear my head. In those flights is when I started to think to myself: "hey, I could be playing a 30 min flight on a dynamic campaign in Falcon" or "Man, I wish DCS had some other way to play on my own". I realized that I had become dependent on DCS' multiplayer to even enjoy DCS. I just hope that, as I manage my time, I start finding time to fly more with my buddies. But for the time being I think that, aside from the Blackhawk and the occasional session with my friends, my enjoyment of DCS World will not be the same as it was with multiplayer. That dynamic campaign generator can not arrive soon enough, I am counting on you ED! About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer, content manager and the co-founder of Skyward Flight Media ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

It has been a while since we last talked about Desert Wings, hasn't it? We really liked what we saw back when this expansion launched in August 2020. But that does not mean we have not revisited the title on the time since then. Quite the opposite, we have kept our eye on the developers and the game as it continues its journey. To say that the guys over at Team Fusion Simulations have been busy would be an understatement. They have kept updating the game at a constant pace, including many quality of life improvements to the core of the game. This is something that I wish more developers did and it shows how committed this team is to their project. Aside from these QoL improvements, the developers have been actively working on more content such as a number of campaigns but, additionally, they have worked on two aspects that could turn this game from a game I casually play to one of my primary flight simulators. These are still in development but these are the two main fields they have been working on: AN EXTREME VISUAL OVERHAUL I don't tend to use the word extreme very lightly, when I say extreme I mean extreme. They have been retexturing the external models of aircraft and upscaling their resolution all the way to 4K (4096 x 4096). That would put these textures on-par with contemporary simulators such as DCS:World or even CLoD's successor, IL-2 Great Battles. It is hard to put into perspective the effort that goes into retexturing but ever since I started working on the DCS: Blackhawk project, I have learned to understand how time consuming a process like this can be. But believe me when I say this is worth it. Here are a couple of my favorite picks from the images that TFS have been sharing of their retextured models, take a look: They have not only worked on textures, though. They have also been working on the implementation of TrueSky, a fact that surprised me since this is the same tech being used on games like Ace Combat 7 and Project Wingman, just to name a few. This means that the sky will get a lot prettier as this new tech allows for volumetric clouds and weather to go with them! You can see them in action on the above screenshot but here is one where the scale of this change is truly appreciable. I expect this game will get a lot more enticing for new players as these cosmetic changes to work like make up for this old title, taking it to the current generation of flight sims. But speaking of current flight sim tech, let's talk about the other feature that the developers have been working on. VIRTUAL REALITY INTEGRATION Yup. This old game is now getting VR compatibility, making good on the promise that the developers did when they launched Desert Wings. Not that much is known about the VR implementation aside from a couple of posts and a recent video by the developers but what has been shown looks very promising. As someone that is quite new to VR, I am excited to try it out and see everything for myself. What also helps VR to be much more appealing now rather than before are all of those cosmetic changes we discussed previously. Those will be the cherry on the cake for this title, finally putting it at the same level as all my other simulators. Check the official informational video that the devs made about their VR implementation: I sincerely applaud the developers for not only proceeding to develop all of these aspects into their simulator but also for the fact that this will be a free update for all owners of the game. From modders to proper developers, the folks at Team Fusion Simulations never cease to amaze me with their level of dedication and passion towards this lovely simulator. About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as the co-founder, content director and writer for Skyward Flight Media ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

There are only a couple of games that such an emphasis on combined arms like Arma does. And out of those, only Arma has such an extensive modding scene that allows this experience to be taken to the absolute extreme. Today, I wanted to talk about RHS' Apache mod and how it has allowed me to practice multicrew for the upcoming AH-64D module in DCS World. It might not be clickable nor very in-depth when it comes to managing its systems, as it is usual for most aircraft in Arma, but it has a balance of realism and arcade mechanics that lends itself well to the combat environment that it will fight in. With that being said, let's start! A GAME WHERE CLOSE AIR SUPPORT MATTERS Aside from being an infantry focused FPS, Arma has always had a focus on combined arms combat. To the point where it has become a staple of the franchise. The Apache is, for a lack of a better term, the ideal Close Air Support (CAS) support aircraft for a game such as this. Maps are smaller than one would think and they can be flown over by aircraft in a blink of an eye. While something like an A-10C would do wonderfully as CAS if the maps where smaller, the slower speeds and operational flexibility it offers make it better suited to the smaller map sizes of Arma. To understand this a bit more, put yourself in this situation: You have just been ambushed on a road by four APCs and a lot of infantry, you and your squad have called in CAS to support your advance. What would you rather have as support? 1. An A-10C which could take a minute or so in-between passes as it clears the area because, if it linger for too long, it might get shot down by an Igla. It's passes are deadly but it can only fire a Maverick and a short burst of 30mm with each pass. 2. An Apache that can stay closer to you and your squad while also being able to provide almost constant air cover for your guys. It stays behind a hill or at stand-of range, raining radar-guided Hellfires into the enemy vehicles, and once the armor is out of action it can fly close and obliterate the enemy infantry with non-stop 30mm cannon fire. I would, personally, like to have an Apache cover me in this specific situation. An A-10C would probably be able to provide great cover too, but I love having the aircraft covering me be closer to the action. This is exclusive to Arma, though, so please do remember that everything I talk here is only about how me and my group have operated the Apache over fixed wing aircraft as of late. THE KING OF CLOSE AIR SUPPORT For me and my group of friends, the Apache has been our primary CAS aircraft. Not only have we used it to defend our base from attack but we have also used it to attack enemy outposts and to provide support for allied armor assaults. It has been quite the workhorse! Even inside of Arma, this whirly bird has quite the arsenal (these are specifically talking about RHS' Apache): INTEGRATED HELMET AND DISPLAY SIGHTING SYSTEM The IHADSS is an extremely useful piece of kit. It offers navigational and targeting displays for both pilot and gunner, making it essential for combat even on a game like Arma. You are able to slew this puppy to the M230 cannon and to most of your sensor suite. Just aim and shoot! M230 CHAIN GUN Being able to choose your burst length is a godsend. It allows the gunner to put accurate fire exactly where it's needed and for no longer than it's necessary. You are able to use the gun both with the camera and with the Integrated Helmet and Display Sighting System (IHADSS). Just look at what you want dead and press the trigger, pretty neat! 70MM HYDRA ROCKETS ON M261 PODS Although they lack the moving pylons, these are still extremely effective for area denial. You have 19 Hydras on each pod. AGM-114 HELLFIRE MISSILES Tired of that pesky APC that is bothering your troops below? That is what these are for. You have two variants. A laser-guided one (AGM-114L) and a radar-guided one (AGM-114K). These are extremely deadly and accurate, and a lot of fun. But there is something deadlier than an Apache, an Apache with a coordinated crew. MULTICREW PRACTICE FOR DCS' APACHE For quite a while, I've flown with Kosmos. He is good friend of mine and someone with who I have always had good chemistry, primarily when it comes down to working together as a team on games and such. But I have always said that the place where we both fit perfectly with each other is as a helicopter crew, specifically, as an Apache crew in Arma. He's a pretty decent pilot in Arma and DCS, so he has no issues keeping the bird steady for me to work the gun and Hellfires from the front. We help each other, giving pointers and directions as to where targets are using our sensors. This usually has some awesome results, We usually use terrain masking and take advantage of the ability the JTACs have, which is to lase for us. There is something specially satisfying about using laser-guided Hellfires from behind a hill on Lock-on After Launch (LOAL) Hi mode. You just see this missile go upwards and then behind the hill where RibbonBlue, which is usually our JTAC, has his laser on an APC or any other piece of armor. Then you hear confirmation of a hit from Blue, that's always exciting. It is that kind of teamwork and multicrew performance that makes me really excited about putting all this practice I have into "the real deal" whenever DCS's Apache comes out, which should be sooner rather than later. And I really, really am looking forward to flying with Kosmos in DCS. I am sure we'll be as good of a team there as we are here. About the writer: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as the co-founder, content director and writer for Skyward Flight Media ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

This idea has been in my backburner for a while now. I started making liveries for DCS:World in 2019 when I finally got my hands on a PC that could run it, but I have been creating liveries for different flight simulators for the past decade or so. And as time passes, I have realized that I have not really seen many tutorials or detailed guides on this aspect of games and that most of what I know has come from teaching myself how to do things from experimenting. In this guide, I will try and teach you everything that you might need to get started with livery/skin creation for flight simulators but more specifically for DCS: World. I will provide you with tools, explain basic concepts and guide you through the creation of a complete livery for the Community A-29B Super Tucano mod. Let's get started! THIS IS VERSION 2 OF THIS GUIDE: -ADDED MODELVIEWER2 TUTORIAL AND SETUP SECTION. STEP 1: BASIC CONCEPTS AND NECESSARY SOFTWARE To start, I would like to explain what a "texture" is and how it interacts with the model of the plane we are going to texture, in our case, the Super Tucano. This also applies to any other 3D model you might encounter out there. A texture is nothing more than an image consisting of pixels (a bitmap) that carries color or some other information (such as reflectivity, bumpiness, etc.) in which a 3D model is unwrapped over. Usually, this unwrapping process is done by the 3D artist while creating the model. The best way to visualize this would be with an example most of us are familiar with: A candy/chocolate bar! To the left, the "textured model" To the right, the "unwrapped" texture for model. See how the 2D plastic wrapper (right) bends to form the complete wrap (left)? That is essentially what a texture is. The chocolate, in this case, would be the untextured 3D model; hence why textures are sometimes referred to as "skins" that envelop this model. Now that we all understand what a texture is, let's start creating one by downloading an image manipulation software of any kind. This will be our main tool to work with textures as well as with any other images we wish to edit for it. I will recommend two for our use case: GNU IMAGE MANIPULATION SOFTWARE (GIMP) Free and open source, this is the best alternative to Photoshop available at the moment. It has all the tools we might need for texture creation with one particular exception: It's lack of options for DDS compression. I will explain what DDS is in the next part of this article, but let's just say that it is important. Aside from that, GIMP is an excellent platform with a very friendly and intuitive UI that resembles that of some Photoshop versions. This is, in my honest opinion, the ideal tool for those who do not want to pay for Adobe software. This will be the software we will use throughout this tutorial with only one exception which you will see in the guide. PAINT.NET Utilizing the .NET framework, this image manipulation software is also sufficiently useful for what it offers. Despite having a less intuitive UI, it has almost complete feature parity with GIMP and surpasses it in some very specific aspects. We will use it for a single aspect of our creation but feel free to use it for all your livery creation needs. Just know that most examples throughout this guide will be depicted with GIMP. Now that we understand what a texture is and we have the software we will need, let's get started! STEP 2: KNOWING YOUR SOFTWARE, WORK ON THE BASE TEXTURE AND INITIAL TESTING STEP 2.1: For the purpose of this tutorial, you will need to download the following things before we start: Community A-29B Super Tucano Mod Template for the Community Super Tucano by Cubeboy Improved Textures for the Community Super Tucano by Cubeboy Install the module in: Users>user>Saved Games>DCS>Mods>aircraft. Example: Now, open a-29b-community and go to the Textures folder. You will find a single file named A-29B.zip. Delete this file and replace it with the one you downloaded from the Improved Textures link. IMPORTANT: Do not unzip the new file, just delete the old zip and replace it with the new one. The DCS side of things is done, so let's proceed to creating our first livery. Open GIMP and load the template you downloaded. You should be greeted by something like this: It might look a bit intimidating at first, but let me break it up a bit so you can understand what you are seeing a bit more: GREEN: These are your tools, most of them are self-explanatory so try them out to see what they do. BLUE: These are your tool options. This is how you configure the active tool (brush, paths...) RED: These are your layers. You will have several layer groups that can be opened by clicking the PLUS sign to the left of the name, the one next to the image preview window. Group and layer names change between templates, but usually you will find: WEATHERING: These layers will usually have wear and tear effects such as carbon residue from the engines, oil leaks, panel line accents, etc. MECHANICAL: These are usually parts are are left untouched. They include landing gears, wheels and other mechanical elements of the plane that are not as crucial for the look of the skin as they are not part of the fuselage. In general, you can also find parts that might be optional such as radio antennas, formation lights, etc. PD: You usually find these at the top of the template, seeing as they will need to be over all other layers to be visible PAINTABLE PARTS: These are self-explanatory. You paint in these. In the case of the template that I created for the Tucano you can also paint certain parts of the aircraft inside of the Mechanical folder, such as the propeller blades and propeller hub. Now, remember when I explained what a texture was and how 3D models are laid-out over them? There is a better way to see that now that we have the template open. On the layers tab (RED) find the "FULL UV LAYOUT" layer and make it visible by clicking the eye icon. You should see this: Do you see that web of lines? That is our 3D model! By looking at this, you get a much better idea of how the 3D model has been mapped over the texture map. Neat, huh? However, while this might help us in some ways, we are still lacking a small detail. Direction. While we might know it is mapped, this does not tell us if the mapping is inverted. This means that you might have to look at the text to find which parts are mirrored and which are "normal". Imagine the text in 3D space as if it was the wrapper of the Snickers bar. Notice how the top of the wrapper has its text upside down. Well, that is because when it is wrapped it moves to its proper orientation. The same concept applies here. In our case, the Tucano has no mirroring in its texture so you have it easy, for now. STEP 2.2: TIME TO PAINT! Now, as a singer I like used to say: Let's get creative! Open up the "PAINT HERE" layer group to find the place to paint. I have already made a mask for you (the one that can be seen to the right of the preview) so that you can paint like a madman and still make a convincing-looking aircraft! Additionally, I have also given you a couple of pre-made liveries so that you can check how I create them. There is a very important rule when it comes to layers: The ones at the top rise over the ones bellow, meaning that to make a multi-layered camouflage paint you will need to watch how your layers are placed in relation to each other. There is an example of that inside of the template as well! Don't forget to save often, you might lose hours of progress. In my template I have also included a set of decals for you for both PTBR and EN, to make livery creation easier. These are on the Decals layer group, the one above the main painting area. Play around with them and remember, not all template have these so you might have to create your own for other aircraft. Additionally, you might want to tune the weathering to your liking. Use the opacity bar at the top of the layer with the layer selected to make it more or less translucent. I will use the premade USAF livery for the rest of the examples! STEP 3: SAVING AND IMPLEMENTING YOUR LIVERY IN-GAME For this part, I might suggest downloading Notepad++ seeing as we will be editing some very simple code to make all work smoothly and nicely. Now that your livery is all nice and done, it is ready for testing! Let's start by making our livery into a single layer. Go to the LAYER tab to the right, select one of the top layers and right click to get a pop-up menu. Select "New from Visible" A new layer should have been created. Click over this newly created layer and go to File>Export as. This is on the top row of buttons. Export it to your Desktop as a .dds file. In our case, the file name should be a29b_01.dds Select to export it WITHOUT compression (for now) and WITH mipmaps. If you want to compress it with a modern compression standard such as BC7, use paint.NET and save it with that compression there. GIMP is limited to older compression models that ruin quality! You now have your first texture file, but how do you make it appear in your game? Well, this is where the coding aspect starts. I will explain to you how to create a livery folder from scratch and modify a description file that will allow you to see your livery in-game. Go to the Mods folder and open the one for the Super Tucano. Inside you will find the sub-folders, click the one that says Liveries and then the A-29B folder inside it. You will see something like this: These are the liveries that your Super Tucano install has and the ones you see in-game. For convenience purposes, we will duplicate one of these and modify it so that it will read our file! Grab the FAB folder, copy and paste it, and then rename it to something else. In my case, I will rename it to "EXAMPLE LIVERY". Let's open that one: This is what you should see. Now move your a29b_01.dds file here. After you have moved it, it should look like this: Now, let's open the description.lua file with Notepad++, you should see something like this: Appearances can be deceiving, so let's break it down into the segments that you need to know as they are the only ones you will be using constantly. YELLOW: This is the part that declares which part of the 3D model is being called-in. Do not change it as this name is usually set when the model is export it. RED: This is the part that defines which type of texture you are using. 0 in this case means that it is a DIFFUSE (color information or a normal image). ROUGHNESS_METALLIC carries reflectivity information as well as roughness and metallicness. NORMAL_MAP refers to a normalmap, a type of texture that carries height data to emulate depth with light reflections. DARK BLUE: This is the part that declares the name of the texture the game will look for, in our case, the name will be a29b_01 (the one that is there by default on line 3) MAGENTA: This one can be either TRUE or FALSE. If it is set to FALSE, then the game will look for the texture inside of this folder. If it is set to TRUE, it will look for it in the Texture folder for that module or elsewhere. CYAN: This one declares the name that will be displayed in-game. This name can differ from the folder name for the texture (in this case EXAMPLE LIVERY) LIME: This variable is the one that declares which countries will have the livery available for it. I usually leave this space empty as that makes it available for ALL countries, I recommend you do so as well! For our case, we will comment out (remove the two -- at the front of the line) LINE 3. This line already has everything set up for us as it is declaring the part we want (a29b_01.bmp) with a DIFFUSE (0), the texture name (a29b_01) is correct and it is telling the game top search for this file inside of this folder. Change the name to your liking, careful with the syntax as the quotation marks are necessary. Whenever you are more experienced you will find yourself creating your own roughmets and normalmaps, but we will leave those out for now as this guide is intended for newcommers. If you have any questions about. Your description.lua file should look like this now: STEP 4: USING MODELVIEWER2 Did you know that DCS comes with an app that allows you to visualize all in-game models without having to boot the game up? It is called modelviewer2.exe and it can be found in: Program Files/Eagle Dynamics/DCS World/bin You will have to search inside of the bin folder, but once you find it you can always create a shortcut to it on your desktop, which I recommend doing if you are going to use it for skinning your aircraft. Since most of us do not have access to the 3D models unless we are involved with the teams creating them, this program is our best alternative as it has a great number of features: It allows for as close as we will get to real-time editing of textures. It allows you to check the alignment between texture maps for difficult lines. It allows you to look at your textures in-engine, letting you adjust your colors to the ones you desire by looking at how they change once the game renders them. But before we open it up, we will have to edit the lua script that the modelviewer uses at start-up to search for textures on our Saved Games folder, since that is where our mods are. Modify this file at your own risk, but if you follow the guide you should not have any issues. Here is a pre-modified file with the modifications already pre-done, but you will need to edit lines 70 and 71 with the correct file path for your install. But before you do anything, please, back up your original autoexec.lua file. It can be found on: Program Files/Eagle Dynamics/DCS World/Config/ModelViewer As you can see, I have my old file backed up as _OLDautoexec.lua. Additionally, I have a copy uploaded to my GDrive, you can never be sure. After and only after you have backed up your autoexec, do the following: -Unzip the zip you downloaded above -Drag that file and replace your existing autoexec.lua with it -Open the new autoexec and edit lines 70 and 71 with your install path, use mine as an example (Highlighted inside the RED box). -Change the GREEN to your drive identifier letter -Change the MAGENTA to your user name When you are done, save the file. This file gets overwritten with each update so do back up the new file too! With all of this out of the way, let's actually open up modelviewer. the first time you open it you will be greeted with this. Do not get scared by the amount of options, let's break it down. At the top you will have your typical option layout. To load a model, go to the FILE option and click on Load Model. Search for a model, in this case our A-29B, which you can do by navigating the menu. Go to your Users/User/Saved Games/DCS/Mods/aircraft/a29b-community/Shapes. Inside of the Shapes, find a lot of files. Open a29b.lods or a29b.edm Your model is there, now. Fantastic. if it Here are the controls: Right-click and drag to move the camera on the current center. Left-click and drag to move the camera linearly towards or away the current set center. Middle-click and drag to move the focus center of the camera. You can snap views to certain angles by using the icons next to the webcam icon on the toolbar. To change the liveries on your model, open the tools tab at the top and look for the Liveries tool. A new window should pop-up. Look for the designation of your aircraft and on the left side you should be able to see the liveries that are available. In my case, I will chose the USAF AFSOC livery. These should be the results! Your livery loads up and you can inspect it by using the controls described above. If you have made any changes to the livery and updated the dds files, you can also use the reload texture button (The blue ball on the toolbar) to reload that specific livery! This should be enough for you to get started. Experiment and if you have any doubts, I am sure that the folks over at the DCS: Livery Art Group could help you a lot. There are a lot of aspects that I glossed over to keep it short and approachable, so they should provide the help you need if your doubt was not covered in this section. STEP 5: THE MOMENT OF TRUTH Now, go in-game and check your livery out! I hope that this guide was good enough to give you the crucial information that might be needed to start making your own liveries. Go ahead, create and fly! What I thought you here applies to ANY other aircraft, these are just basic concepts to get you going. You can find most official templates on the Download page of the official DCS website. If they are not there, then Google away! About the author: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and the co-founder of Skyward ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

It has been almost a decade and a half since Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception launched for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) back in 2006. Personally, it doesn't feel like it was that long ago but indeed, it has been 15 years since ACX released. And like other titles of the era, specifically ones for portable consoles, it is undeniable that the game has aged since then. When played on its original hardware and screen these problems are not as noticeable, but the moment you try to emulate it it is when you realize the severity of these issues. Particularly as you are pushing the game to resolutions it just was not designed to manage. The issue is that emulation has become one of the only ways to play this title. Access to the original hardware is rare and will only become rarer with time. To me, this has been the avenue that has allowed me to truly appreciate the true beauty of this entry in the Ace Combat universe. Let's delve into how PPSSPP and the work of some amazing modders have made ACX into one of my favorite titles in the franchise. Thanks to Ostrich for his help and collaboration while writing this article. ACX ON THE PSP: HOW A GAME CAN BE LIMITED BY ITS HARDWARE (GOOD AND BAD) Just like many others, I got excited when I saw that my favorite franchise at the time was going portable. I had just played Ace Combat 5 on my PS2 and the fact that I would be able to have an Ace Combat title with me at all times made young Cube one happy kid. I finally managed to get my hands on it a couple of years after its original release. Everything was well until, well, I actually started playing it. It was obvious from the get-go that this title was being seriously hurt by its controls. The PSP lacked several buttons and a second joystick, this meant that to yaw the aircraft you would need to take your finger away from the stick to use the d-pad. It is inconvenient and show that, if you wanted to play it like a regular console release, the PSP was not the best fit for the game. I finished it and played it, but it always felt awkward. Additionally, the flat joystick on the PSP did not lend itself well to this kind of game. Was it sufficient to play it? Yes. Was it ideal? Far from it. Story-wise I love this title, it is a proper Ace Combat game in every sense of the word. Despite being limited by its hardware, the developers used it to its limits and presented players with a proper narrative structure told in the best way possible within their limitations. PPSSPP: UNLEASHING THE TRUE POTENTIAL OF ACE COMBAT X Emulation with PPSSPP (a free open-source PSP emulator) is where we can take ACX and let it shine like it never did on console. Almost every single issue I mentioned in regards to the controls are fixed by the ability to use a Xbox controller, a DualShock 4 or any other type controller! This way you can map yaw to the lower bumper buttons, allowing you to finally play it with a very similar layout to all the other home console titles. With the control issues aside, there is only a single major problem that shows its ugly head only when emulating: Low resolution textures. The assets that this game were designed to be seen from the infamously low resolution screen that the PSP had. As a consequence, the moment that you try to push the game to higher resolutions thanks to the upscaling features native to PPSSPP it will look like a pixelated mess. This is where texture modding comes in. For years, AC Fans have been working on HD texture packs that drastically change how the game looks. Today, we'll be featuring Super Ostrich's HD texture pack since it is the most complete one out there. Not only limiting himself to redoing the texture for almost every allied and enemy unit but also re-doing a lot of the UI elements that the game uses. Here is a side to side example so you can see how much these textures change the look of the relatively low-poly models. To the left are the original textures and to the right are the ones included with Ostrich's package. Click to expand them! The UI also goes from barely readable/a pixelated nightmare to something that is incredibly sharp and unrecognizable when compared to the original textures. ACX is still very much a PSP game in function but these changes make it so much more bearable. You can find the latest version of this pack and installation instructions by clicking the button: Additionally, the full list of credits for this pack is on Ostrich's website! I was able to test some of the textures that will be included on version 2.0 of this pack, and I absolutely love them. A lot of attention went into making them, so here are some of the ones I personally found to be excellent. Mitsubishi F-2A with warning labels, BuNos, etc! Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet with its correct panel lines, markings and BuNo styles. Dassault Mirage 2000-D with detailed panel lines, markings and warnings Saab JAS-39C Gripen with impressive attention to detail, just look at that APU exhaust (left)! ONE LAST ISSUE TO BE SOLVED: 60 FPS The only issue with ACX in PPSSPP is that it is limited to 30FPS. Even when 60FPS is enabled via cheats, parts of the game start breaking. Both Ostrich and Alban (one of the main admins Acepedia) have opened a bounty of USD$475 for anyone that is able to solve this emulation issue. So if you have the technical know-how, go ahead and give it a chance! CONCLUSION I no longer own a PSP and I know that finding one in decent condition as well as a physical copy of ACX will not be easy. If it wasn't for PPSSPP and the amazing community that surrounds it, many of its titles would have been destined to be forgotten. ACX is important to me and the fact that I can enjoy it in a completely different way thanks to emulation is something truly noteworthy. To me, the definitive edition of ACX can only be enjoyed on PPSSPP. PS: Little known fact, but did you know that there is was a beta version of ACX that never saw the light of day? It was most likely a de-bug build used by the developers, but the build date is awfully close to the official for the game. This might be one of the last builds before the game went gold. It has been preserved and archived by the Hidden Place, in no small thanks to DRW, kabojnk and MysteriousCube. If you are curious, info on it can be found HERE. DISCLAIMER: We do not advocate piracy so, if you have the capability, you should dump your own ROMs for your own personal use, here is a short guide by the PPSSPP devs. But with that being said, we stand by data preservation and we understand the importance of not letting these games become lost media. In a world where many of these titles have become hard or outright impossible to acquire legally through official means (official stores or directly from the developers), it is inevitable that some of these games will be lost if we don't do something. Contribute to these conservation projects that are making that dream a reality. About the author: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and the co-founder of Skyward ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

VTOL VR is a game that, without looking photo-realistic, managed to immerse me like no other game had done in VR. Stable framerates on mid-range machines, immersive cockpit interactivity and unparalleled blend of realism and simplicity. I have always loved this game but, like many, I noticed the biggest flaw that it had: its lack of multiplayer. When we saw that BahamutoD, lead dev and creator of this title, announced that a public test of the multiplayer feature was available both Ribbon-Blue and I jumped right in to test it. I am not going to lie, I was pretty excited when I heard the news. Until then, players had to rely on a community-made third party mod to use multiplayer, so this was a long time coming. The first aspect we tested was the stability of the "netcode", or, how well could clients see each other and how the clients synced. I am extremely happy to report that our experience with this was extremely stable. There was never a case of client de-sync, enabling us to fly in close formation, dogfight and engage targets without any issue. Staggered carrier take-offs and naval ops were awesome to explore in multiplayer, but what really changed the way these scenarios changed was the ability to share information between aircraft to build even more situational awareness (SA) than before. We had more fun in PvE scenarios just because of this. Marking targets with IR lasers at night with night vision googles (NVG) on, planning your own objectives with your friends and using the aircraft to its absolute limits, that is what made this beta worth it to me. Aside from gameplay, I was highly impressed by how smooth the entire experience was. From choosing a lobby to getting airborne, every step of the way is as clean as it can be. Menus are simple and easy to read and before you sortie out, you enter a briefing room where you and your teammates can plan out everything, load your weapons and go. It is impressive, but I kind of expected this. After all, this same level of polish was first seen in BahamutoD's secondary title: Jetborne Racing. This racing spin-off served as testbed for networking within the developer's framework, allowing him to hone his skills to make VTOL VR's multiplayer transition even smoother than it could have been. VTOL VR's multiplayer is the last piece in the puzzle for me to consider this as a must own title for everyone with a VR headset. You have to try this out for yourself. It might be hard to adjust to not having physical feedback from a joystick, but believe me when I told you that this compromise is well worth it for the immersion that you will experience. About the author: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and the co-founder of Skyward ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

VTOL VR has a great variety of playstyles for you to choose from. From the heavy and only true VTOL aircraft, the AV-42C, to the agile, fast STOVL like the F-45A. But it was always missing a crucial type of aircraft that is the definition of vertical take-off and landing: a proper helicopter! That has now been addressed with VTOL VR's first DLC, the AH-94 Attack Helicopter. Launched on the 6th of January, 2022 alongside the multiplayer update, this aircraft is the first addition to the VTOL VR line-up in quite a while, aside from mods of course. Let's see how this rotary wing treated us in its first days of release. INITIAL IMPRESSIONS At a first glance, it is pretty evident that this design is a mix of several western attack helicopters, with heavy influence coming from the Comanche and Apache airframes. The cockpit design is pretty much straight out of US Army helicopters, specifically, the AH-64A/D. It has a large set of sensors and most of them are intuitive and easy to manage if you have any knowledge as to how any of the other aircraft work in VTOL VR. Some of its systems, such as the TADS and its augmented vision mode are exactly the same as they are in the F-45A. If you had any experience with that aircraft, you should not have any trouble transitioning over to the AH-94. But the same cannot be said about its flight dynamics. After all, last time I checked the only moment when a F-45's wings rotated was when I got hit by a SAM. FLIGHT DYNAMICS For not being a full-on simulator, it is pretty solid! You have to manage your systems and engines the same way as you would have to do on any helicopter. It flies mostly as you would expect it to, as a fast helicopter even when loaded to the brim with Hellfire missiles and a full belt of 30mm. It is extremely agile as well, letting you do plenty of wacky maneuvers. It is a sim-lite, after all, you have to have some fun. There is an aspect which was pretty weird to me, and that is the behavior when the helicopter entered an overtorque situation. It just spazzes out, pitching up and down. I tried applying all of the techniques I use in other flight sims where helicopter flight models demand that you do "proper procedure" per aircraft in order to recover from those scenarios, but to no avail. The only way to get it out of that state was to drop the collective all the way down and pitch nose down and right after that, pulling up. An example of this is in the video below: It felt weird and somewhat broken, in a gameplay kind of sense. I like that the developer took the time to implement something akin to the difficulties that are experienced in rotary wings, but the implementation is a bit quirky. Again, I could just be talking out of my previous experience and putting unrealistic expectations into something that does not need them. MULTICREW This is the first aircraft in VTOL that allows two players to fly in the same aircraft. To say that this is fun would be an understatement. This is, by far, some of the most fun I have had in a while. Coordinating attacks with another Skyward staff member, RibbonBlue, planning out strategies, delegating tasks and utilizing the aircraft to its very limits. That is what real teamwork is, and with a good friend by your side, you can not go wrong with the AH-94. It is an incredible experience, and one that would be flawless if it were not for the plethora of issues that we had while trying to use multicrew. I had several crashes to desktop and freezes, all of which were only while playing the AH-94 in multiplayer. But, at the same time, these crashes were extremely inconsistent and we had zero issues during our second session which lasted 2 hours. If you have VTOL VR, you need to try this experience out. It is fun, challenging and exciting at the same time. Bring your best pal along for the ride, you will not regret it. About the Author Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and the co-founder of Skyward ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

Those enamored by flight will pursue it wherever it can be found. It's the type of passion that drives people to look up when they hear an aircraft overhead during their everyday lives. This same passion is not restricted to aircraft, but to any kind of vehicle whose size and magnitude stuns one's mind at the mere sight of it. Submarines, tanks and war machines all do this. Our second interview for Creator Highlight Month 2022 (CHM) is with Wolfpack345, a video creator and streamer who mostly covers historically-focused games, be them flight games, submarine simulations and tanks battles from WW2 and beyond! We had the pleasure to have a delightful interview with him and are honored to have him as a guest in our first CHM! First off, we’d like to thank you for accepting our interview request. Could you start by introducing yourself and telling us a bit about what you do? I am happy to conduct an interview! Thank you for having me! I run a YouTube and Twitch channel by the name of Wolfpack345 and Wolfpack345Live respectively. I mainly focus on Air Land and Sea simulation content on the channel. I do try to do things a bit differently than just showcasing gameplay however. I try to make my videos cinematic, and I also like to inject RPG elements into these sims I play on the channel. Additionally like a lot of people interested in these types of games I do have a passion for history. I integrate that passion into my content as well. How did you get started with flight simulation? Do you have any early childhood memories about your early experiences with them? I first got into flight simulation with the first iteration of the IL-2 series. Around that time I also played some Combat Flight Simulator 2 and 3 but I do not remember them as fondly. I am a bit newer to the genre than a lot of other folks. That being said I played loads of the original IL-2 and some of those campaign missions in the 109 and IL-2 will stick with me forever. I still have the original disk! Along with Forgotten Battles, Pacific Fighters, etc. Your channel is mostly WW2-centric for almost every game you cover. How did you grow to like this era and what aspect do you consider to be the key one that caught your attention? The Second World War has certainly been an interest of mine for a while. Naval combat and more specifically submarine warfare is what I would consider to be the key area that catches my attention. That being said I am fascinated in the air war as well and my interest don’t only lay with WW2. I find the First World War extremely fascinating. Especially when it comes to the aircraft. I do feature a good amount of WW1 flying on the channel in Rise of Flight and Flying Circus. The reason WW2 is so prevalent on my YouTube channel isn’t really due to lack of interest in other time periods. It mainly has to do with what is available game wise. The Silent Hunter series covers the two most prevalent submarine campaigns of WW2. Other than that, there is not much in the way of modern subsims. Dangerous Waters is a modern submarine simulation released in 2005 however it has not aged as gracefully as Silent Hunter 3 & 4. That being said it seems things are changing. Of course there are more WW2 games coming out that I am interested in like Task Force Admiral however there are also more modern naval games on the horizon like Sea Power and Modern Naval Warfare. I am positive all of these titles will be main stays on the channel. Which other flight-related titles have you played that you personally enjoy but that you haven’t recorded yet to your channel? As far as titles go there is only one flight sim that I am interested in but have not played on the channel and that is Wings Over Flanders Fields. A WW1 flight sim that looks like it could be tons of fun! There are plenty of modules I would like to showcase in DCS that I have not shown on the channel. The MiG-21 for example is an aircraft I would love to make videos on and will be doing soon. Same with the P-47. One of the most popular franchises that you cover in your channel, and one that I particularly enjoy, is Silent Hunter. What would you say that is the factor that attracted you to the series? Is there anything in them that you would think is shared between it and your passion for flight sims? Silent Hunter 3 & 4 are two of my all time favorite games and Silent Hunter 3 probably takes the number one spot! I absolutely love the tension and thrill these submarine simulators provide. There is absolutely similarities between flight sims and subsims. Just like in aerial combat in naval combat positioning is more than half the battle. Both of these genres certainly reward patience as well. Taking your time to acquire more information before diving on a target or engaging a convoy can prove to be extremely beneficial. If you rush in you may just miss a destroyer nearby or a 2 more Bf-109s looking to bounce you. How long does it usually take you to make a complete video from start to finish? I suppose it varies a lot from series to series. Oh boy… The answer is… it depends. My Silent Hunter 4 videos are the ones that take the most time. Silent hunter is a rather slow game to play and a lot of the time you are just waiting around or chasing the enemy down. It also depends on what I am trying to do in the video. A lot of times I will spend lots of time working on a transition that maybe only a handful of people will notice but it is all about learning new things and implementing new editing techniques. I always try to improve; it is a never ending battle however it gives me a sense of satisfaction when I see a finished product. I am quite proud of my latest content, but I am sure in a year or so I am not happy with the quality. I feel this way about my older content now haha. When I first came across your channel it was due to your IL-2 Great Battles videos. What is it about IL-2 that made you make it one of the primary titles in your channel? I do play a lot of IL-2 on the channel! One of the main reasons for that is its career system. I love the ability to make a pilot and try to keep him alive as long as possible. The “dead is dead” style of gameplay really appeals to me (in flightsims and subsims) and allows me to tell a story over the duration of a Youtube series. I have a history of playing a lot of Role Playing games and I certainly transfer some of that into flight simming. The career mode in IL-2 (and Rise of Flight) makes it very easy. Additionally, I like the variety that IL-2 brings to the table. Lots of aircraft and fronts to take part in and learn about! Despite having a preference for WW2 aircraft, you do have some experience with Digital Combat Simulator (DCS) and its mostly modern set of aircraft. Is there any aircraft that you particularly enjoy over the others? I really enjoy the early Cold War jets a lot! I love the F-86 and would be ecstatic to see a proper Korean War scenario in DCS World. As of late I have been flying a lot of the MIG-21 and 19. Both are really fun jets with a lot of character. Although I prefer the older stuff, I do find my self in the Hornet a lot and it is probably the modern jet I am most proficient in. I have been dabbling with other modern aircraft though. Such as the F-16 and F-14. As I play more and more DCS my interest in these aircraft has increased. As for the more modern aircraft in DCS such as the Hornet, what has been your experience with them so far? Is there anything you have personally liked/disliked about them? The Hornet was my first full fidelity module in DCS and it has been one fun ride learning it. It has been a very rewarding experience learning that aircraft. I still remember the first time I did AAR. There is not much I dislike about these aircraft. I just like aircraft that try to kill you a lot. The Mi-24 Hind was way more fun than I expected. I have had a blast flying that helicopter. We’ve noticed that you cover IL-2 Great Battles a lot more frequently than DCS on your channel. Is there something about IL-2 that attracts you to more to it? Like I previously said the career mode for IL-2 is fantastic and I would love to see something similar in DCS world. You recently released an article about how DCS is multiplayer dependent, and I agree that it is. Although I love flying multiplayer it is a bit harder to craft stories around these multiplayer sorties. I try to make my content unique, and I have just not found a way to do that with the multiplayer missions. I do tend to stream DCS multiplayer, however. The other big turn off for making DCS content is the replay system. With how finicky it is it can really be a chore to make content with it. I do have plans for more DCS content. I did the Hunters over the Yalu campaign on the channel, and I loved it. A new series will be coming soon. Have you flown any of the World War II aircraft in Digital Combat Simulator? What are your opinions on them as someone that primarily flies in IL-2? I really enjoy the WW2 aircraft in DCS! I have primarily flown the P-47 and love the way it handles. I do want to do more with it for sure. My main issue with DCS WW2 is the plane set in conjunction with the maps. The BF-109 K4 and FW-190 D9 just don’t line up with the time frame of the maps. That is kind of a turn off admittedly. I think that is why I like IL-2 more for the WW2 stuff. Just the sheer amount of variety really makes me feel like there is a war going on. The world feels more alive to me. Of course, like everything there are tradeoffs, DCS for example has some strategic bombers which IL-2 lacks. Both are fun and do some things better than the other. The Korean War era “Hunters over Yalu” campaign is the only full DCS World campaign you’ve recorded. Do you have a favorable opinion of Korean War era aircraft in DCS? I do have a very favorable opinion of these aircraft! I think they are very unique and loads of fun. Unfortunately, DCS doesn’t have much in terms of content for these aircraft. The Hunters over the Yalu campaign was top notch and I would really recommend it but there is not much else for the F-86 besides that campaign. There is even less single player content for the MiG-15. I would love to see the Korean war properly done in a flight sim. I do believe it is a very interesting conflict and would be a blast if properly done. In addition to that I think the Cold War would be a great place for DCS World to expand in the future. So many fun platforms and unique gameplay opportunities are there. As a content creator, are there any features you would like to see added to DCS? The biggest thing that I would like to see in DCS is an overhaul of the track system. It would really help with making cinematic content and allow me, and others to show off DCS in all its glory! Regardless of this issue I do plan to make more DCS content and look forward to what the future has in store for the sim. That will be it, thank you a lot for answering our interview! Is there anything else you would like to add before we conclude? I really do not have anything else to add! I really appreciate you giving me the opportunity to come on here! It has been a pleasure. About the interviewer Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and the co-founder of Skyward ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

I believe the term "more than meets the eye" might be the best way to describe my experience with Frontiers Reach so far. There's more going on with this game than even its Steam page lets on. It has been in development for at least two years now by Blind Alien Productions. Following a massive project shake-up in December 2021, Frontiers Reach hit its second wind after multiple significant reworks to the project's gameplay, flight model, story, and overall scope. Following the game entering beta on October 29th, 2022, Skyward Flight Media got in contact with the game's development team to get more information on the project and help identify some gameplay bugs. There are so many functions, customizations, plot points, weapons, galactic travel options, and other topics to discuss; I need more time with Frontiers Reach before attempting to summarize them all. I've been taking my time playing this game from beginning to end, but it's too early to write anything like a review. Instead, I'd like to discuss a few things that have caught my attention so far. Responsive Development Team An odd point to start on, sure, but highly important for any game at this phase of its development. Since I started playing Frontiers Reach, I've been surprised at how responsive the development team is to bug reports. Quick fixes to specific bugs or more overarching reworks are published within hours to a day or two after they are reported. Rather than hold off on creating massive quality-of-life updates every few weeks, a steady stream of updates has maintained the team's presence even among its beta testers and quality control team. There is plenty more work to do before the game can be considered complete, but seeing fixes and updates applied within such a short amount of time is heartening for any game in early access. Unexpected Story, Expansive Campaigns The initial story setting for this game is prime for the classic tale of the heroic fighter pilot singlehandedly winning the war. As mentioned in the introduction, in the year 2230, two human factions that control vast areas of space are preparing for all-out war. Here I assumed the player would take the role of a brave pilot bringing peace by skillfully defeating one side while flying for the other. But in Frontiers Reach, the player is not diving into danger for glory. Instead, they are attempting to save the lives of people living on the fringes of the known galaxy by avoiding the coming war. Here, victory is survival at any cost - even if it means stealing fuel, facilitating prison breaks, raiding mercenaries, or ambushing government patrol fleets. The ultimate goal is to flee to uncharted space before the war inevitably ravages entire star systems. The overall feeling of the story is heavy. The vagrant nature of the crew with few loyalties to anything, coldhearted objectives that involve breaking laws to save lives, and the sometimes frenetic combat make the experience invoke memories of popular sci-fi series like Firefly and Battlestar Galactica. This was a refreshing change from the tried and true hero formula. Destroying a heavily defended fuel depot to cause chaos so you can slip into a factory to steal supplies later isn't a standard mission set you'll find in most flight games from the past or present. Surprisingly, this game has two single-player campaigns. The first campaign is linear and story-driven. It comprises 20 main missions with some side missions offered by allied characters between missions. This campaign introduces the setting and story while familiarizing the player with controls, game mechanics, managing resources, meeting the cast, and traveling across the galaxy. It is a complete campaign from start to finish, despite technically being the "introduction". By the end of the 20th mission, a second, more dynamic campaign begins, putting all decision-making power in a galaxy-wide conflict into the player's control. With 37 nodes (planets, locations in deep space, etc.) being contested by different factions, the second campaign is worth an article all on its own. You can be sure that I'll write thoroughly about it for my next article on this game. Advanced Controller Support The list of supported controllers is still expanding, with more settings for controllers being added by the developer. Today, custom keybinds for keyboard-mouse, gamepads, and flight sticks have been included. Including multi-USB controllers like hands-on throttle and stick controllers are something I plan on testing with a variety of sticks I have on hand. More on this later. Flight Model The current flight model has been completely overhauled from its earlier build. Even while flying the most maneuverable spacecraft available at this time, the smooth turning characteristics are notable. Epic turning battles with half a dozen fighters are commonplace. Most of the combat happens within blaster range (gun range). Even with the few guided missiles equipped, the fighting style is more like World War II or the Korean War. Expect to turn and burn for superiority in each mission. Depending on the throttle setting, a consistent turning radius can easily be maintained, letting players focus more on their maneuvers without getting too wrapped up in the finer points of flight you'd expect from a full-fidelity simulator. Turns can be enhanced by momentarily using the reaction control system to make course corrections or snap turns to catch adversaries off guard. With the reaction control system equally effective in the atmosphere and space, it's an ace in the hole for players under challenging situations. There is a considerable feeling of momentum and weight with each spacecraft. That's more apparent in some than others. Those factors help smoothen out gameplay from becoming so fast-paced and twitchy it is unwieldy. But in low-speed, low-altitude situations, it's one of the most significant hazards to players. Landing, searching for resources, and the admittedly difficult segments that require flying through buildings, space stations, and underground tunnels are much more dangerous than being fired upon. More than once did I find myself carefully flying slowly at 5+ degrees nose up in a system of caves to avoid early warning radars. Learning how to manage low throttle settings during low-altitude flight is a lesson learned through trial and error. Fortunately, the game allows players to respawn up to three times per mission without a checkpoint system that automatically saves progress. With Frontiers Reach still undergoing development in its open beta phase, I look forward to continuing the process of getting to know a game I should have checked out much earlier. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.

We have not only one, but two winners. Surprise! The results of our spur of the moment giveaway are here! Once again, the Google Random Number Generator was used to select the winners for this giveaway. The winner for this month's giveaway are: Blaireau tarnished (@palemoon_hunter) Tomtomb (Website Submission) Skyward Flight Media would like to thank everyone that participated and helped spread the word to others to participate! The winner will be contacted soon to begin discussing their prize. Here's to many more years!

In just a few days, Skyward Flight Media will be celebrating its third anniversary. Naturally there must be a giveaway! DIGITAL COMBAT SIMULATOR GIVEAWAY From March 20th, 2023 to March 23rd, 2023 we have a Digital Combat Simulator World giveaway. Taking advantage of the current sale, we are offering one (1) winner the prize of any map or module available in Digital Combat Simulator on the Steam or Standalone version of the simulator. The winner for the DCS giveaway will be contacted on March, 23rd, 2023. HOW TO ENTER This year, we have two ways to enter this giveaway. Follow SkywardFM on Twitter and like our pinned 3rd anniversary giveaway tweet. Retweeting is not required, but helping spread the word is appreciated. For those that do not have a Twitter account, they can fill out the Contact form on our website. Please include your Name and/or Screen Name, email address and that you are entering the giveaway, so we can contact you if you win. Skyward Flight Media will announce the winner publicly in a tweet and blog post on March 24th, 2023. Thanks for joining our giveaway and supporting our three-year celebration efforts, Skyward Flight Media Staff

The easiest way to describe what it provides is "task-focused gamification" without compromising simulation. While official Digital Combat Simulator World campaigns made by third-party developers are the gold standard, there are a lot of creative mission editors with names that may never be as well known as Reflected Simulations or Baltic Dragon. In July 2022, I was severely bitten by the DCS mission editor bug. With a demand for more dynamic multiplayer missions on Skyward Flight Media's DCS World server provided by Fox 3 Managed Solutions, I dove into the world of mission editing. While watching tutorials and meeting others with mission editor experience, the hot topic at the time was a mission known as Foothold by dzsekeb. I was downloading missions from the User Files section of the official DCS website to study them for inspiration, so I looked into the Foothold mission as well. A few months of multiplayer server management made me understand why large-scale dynamic multiplayer missions, like Through The Inferno, are so popular. When providing a large number of concurrent players with access to as many aircraft as possible and multiple sub-missions in a single mission file (.miz), it's obvious that only a massive scenario with just 1000+ units could fulfill that. These missions either continue forever with respawning objectives, or they're so enormous it may take up to a week to complete. The allure for players is the ease of flying with friends for a few quick sorties and little-to-no restrictions, but the nebulous mission structure doesn't have set terms for "a victory." Combat continues forever. Most of these missions are for fast jet fixed-wing aircraft with minor consolations for rotary-wing platforms in designated areas. In my opinion, the format of Foothold missions interests people because of a few key points that set it apart from the usual multi-faceted multiplayer missions. CAPTURING AND HOLDING TERRITORY From the start, the name "Foothold" denotes how the BLUFOR side starts with a single airfield to its name, while REDFOR controls multiple bases, airfields, oil fields, and other locations; they are referred to as "zones." In the F10 map, all friendly, hostile, and neutral zones are shown with a clear indication that the goal is to occupy all zones on the map. Players are the leading force against REDFOR, though a limited number of computer-controlled BLUFOR units assist with zone capture and defense. As other zones are captured, more allied computer units are launched, and in turn, hostile forces may launch counterattacks to reclaim lost zones. Territories can be captured and have their defenses upgraded by both sides. These areas are captured by removing all hostile units from them, then transporting supplies to them via ground forces or helicopters. After being captured by friendly troops, these zones can be upgraded through the same methods. Each upgrade adds more defenses to make them harder to be re-captured. Some of the captured zones have specific functions. There are forward deployed airfields for faster deployment into combat, Surface-to-Air Missile sites that can be upgraded with various types of missiles. Some facilities provide a passive kind of support that is a vital function of the Foothold mission style. POINT SYSTEM Players are incentivized to fight, survive and hold territory with a credit system. These credits can call in "off map supports" to counter against the overwhelming REDFOR advantage. The points of all BLUFOR pilots are added to a shared pool for all players to use at will with the radio menus. These supports include SEAD flights, fighter sweeps, cruise missile strikes, and time-limited AWACS. However, 100% of these credits can only be recovered when players successfully land at a friendly airfield or aircraft carrier. Even after the aircraft touches down, there is a ten-second timer before points are given to BLUFOR, leaving a small window for a botched landing to result in all credits the player just earned being lost. 25% of the credits gained during a sortie can be recovered if the pilot successfully ejects from their aircraft, but it is a fraction of the overall amount. Credits can be gained passively by capturing and holding zones like the oil fields and factories mentioned earlier. They provide the side that controls them with credits at a set rate of time, but their vital structures can be destroyed, which removes their ability to produce credits passively. Protecting or destroying them to deny their use is a part of a long-term strategy. HELICOPTER INCLUSIVE DESIGN Foothold missions give helicopters a place to shine. For logistics, BLUFOR relies on computer and player-controlled helicopters as the primary means to capture and upgrade zones. By either sling-loading supplies or "virtually" loading the supplies inside the helicopters, a handful of sorties can turn a basic defensive position into a well-defended forward arming and refueling point (FARP) for easier helicopter operations. Having a player that flies helicopters available can be a game changer since they can focus on rapidly capturing and upgrading zones faster than computer units can. In combat, they can remain near zones for extended periods using terrain to protect themselves, then fly to any nearby-friendly zone to resupply. As REDFOR sends their helicopters or land convoys to capture BLUFOR zones, helicopters can be the first defenders to respond because they can remain forward deployed. Pilots that have ejected from their aircraft can be recovered by player-controlled helicopters that choose to perform combat search and rescue missions (CSAR). By either landing near or hovering above the pilots, helicopters can pick them up and deliver them to nearby friendly zones. Recovering one pilot grants more credits than shooting down an enemy aircraft, making CSAR a worthwhile mission to fly. MODS SUPPORTED FOR LOGISTICS Adding aircraft mods to the mission is simple enough, but the mission has optional logistics functionality specifically for the UH-60L Black Hawk Mod and the DCS Super Hercules mod by Anubis. With one of the most capable transport helicopters and so far the only transport aircraft available for free, any player can get in on running logistics. The Super Hercules mod is particularly interesting because it can airdrop supplies into friendly or neutral zones, making capturing and upgrading zones farther from airfields a much faster process. REASONABLE ENEMY VARIATION While there are enemy combat air patrols, surface-to-air missiles and columns of armor to fight against, Foothold mission designs do not go overboard with modern weapons capable of shooting down aircraft 100 nautical miles away or intercepting allied launched missiles. There is a balanced mix of threats that still let less advanced aircraft be effective in combat. Even early Cold War aircraft or light attack aircraft like the DCS OV-10A Bronco by Dikennek/SPLIT AIR or the A-29B Super Tucano Community. can be used with success. AUTOMATIC SAVING As mentioned in the description of the User File page, Foothold missions automatically save progress locally, but servers for online multiplayer operations can be modified to save progress there as well. While this sounds minor, I can assure you that automatic save functions that retain players' progress on the server keep players eager to continue. DOCUMENTED CUSTOMIZATION Foothold missions are well documented for customization by mission editors with brief, understandable explanations on how to add new zones, name groups, and set up supply lines for computer units to upkeep. That's not to say that it's easy to modify an entire Foothold mission in just five minutes, but it's more accessible to begin the mission editing process. While Skyward Flight Media has mostly been playing the Caucasus version of Foothold, we have plans to start on the much larger Syria version soon. We recommend trying this mission with a close group of friends to experience its full potential. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. A lifelong aviation enthusiast with a special interest in flight simulators and games. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating aviation related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He continues to explore past and present flight games and sims with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. | Twitter | Discord: RibbonBlue#8870 |

Initially published 05/03/2022 // Minor Corrections: 3/11/2023 If you find yourself going to public servers in DCS World, you will find all sorts of people flying their favorite modules. Places like Hoggit's Persian Gulf at War, Growling Sidewinder's Open Conflict, Through the Inferno and the 4YA servers are the most popular ones as of the time of writing, with relatively high average player counts no matter the time of day. It is in places like these where one can take a glace at what the "average DCS player" flies, and it is only logical that some trends will start to show up. Evidently some of these trends will change overtime but for the past couple of years there have been two planes which have taken Digital Combat Simulator by storm. These two are the F-16CM "Viper" and the F/A-18C "Hornet". Go to the servers I mentioned previously and it will be evident that both of these modules surpass the others in terms of numbers. A lot of people seem to have taken a liking to these planes, myself included. But why? Today let's try to rationalize some of the possible reasons as to why these aircraft dominate DCS World. THE DEFINITIVE JACKS-OF-ALL-TRADES The multirole nature of these aircraft is, most likely, one of the main reasons behind their popularity. If you buy a Hornet or a Viper, your mission set is not set in stone. You can go against a swarm of enemy fighters, do close air support, reconnaissance, long range strikes and precision strikes. All of that with a single module? Sounds like a dream come true. Does this mean that these two are the best at every single role? Not by a long shot. If we were to talk about the king of beyond visual range (BVR) air to air (AA) engagements, then there is little that the F-14A/B has to envy from these modules. The same goes for more niche tasks like the dedicated low altitude air to ground role (AG) and anti-ship role which would be better served by module like the AJS-37 Viggen. But that is the point. You do not need all that specialty when you can do everything well enough. As the saying goes: "a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one" Both of these modules are more than capable of holding their own in almost every single scenario possible. There really is no compromise when it comes down to their armament. I have seen F-16s go on Suppression of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD) mission and then running a Close Air Patrol (CAP) right after they have struck their target. I have seen Hornets hit an entire airbase by themselves and later dealing with the interceptors that were sent to dispose of them. Hornets and Vipers engaging an enemy fleet together is not a rare occurrence. They are also capable of being some of the best air to air platforms in the sim. The Hornet is infamous for being able to carry 10 AIM-120s, which is one of the best missiles in-game. The Viper has an unparalleled thrust to weight ratio, too. This allows it to lob missiles at distances that are only rivaled by what the F-14B can do with its Phoenixes. This is not a measure of realism or accuracy, it is just about the capabilities that these modules have in-game. THE "BANG FOR BUCK" RATIO This is an aspect which is usually not taken into consideration by more avid flight sim aficionados. Our hobby is an expensive one and when someone new to this world, there is a very important decision that they need to take: "Which module do I buy?" or "What should I spend my money on?" This is a question that which has an infinite amount of answers. Each person will have their own priorities and needs that lead them to choose an aircraft. For someone who is confident that they will be playing DCS World or any other simulator for a prolonged period of time, it is easy to just choose what they like at the moment and then get something else later. But, what happens when the person in question does not even know if they will be playing this simulator in the next 30 days? It would make sense for this person to get something that can show them what DCS has to offer. Two modules fit this definition perfectly: F/A-18C and F-16CM. The Hornet, in particular, offers every single mission set and situation possible, including being able to land and take-off from carriers. The same is applicable to the Viper, excluding carrier operations. At this point it is a matter of buying something with more bang for your buck, and that is exactly what these modules offer: A full perspective of the depth and richness of modern air operations in DCS World. As stated previously, both the Hornet and the Viper offer some of the best that DCS has to offer in terms of system modeling and depth. They are very easy to get started with but they are relatively hard to master, demanding you to read and research about their systems. You can cooperate with other aircraft with your datalink and targeting pod. You can do everything. Does this mean that these are the perfect starter aircraft? Yes and no. But, would you prefer having the capability of being able to learn something with what you own or having to buy another module just to have the chance of doing it? I will leave that up to you to decide. GLOBAL MILITARY AVIATION LEGENDS This is an intangible and emotionally-driven aspect, but it is one that certainly affects how we perceive aircraft. This will require me to get a little more personal. When I was little, I always got to see my country's F-16As and Bs fly by my house every time that we had a national holiday. When I look at the sky I can always see those distinctive silhouettes flying above me, a formation of three F-16s in a delta formation with their engines roaring and shaking the windows. It is only natural that I have grown attached to these machines, is it not? I might not be a supporter of my current government but those "Dragones" are one of the only military assets that make me feel something for my country. Seeing as the F-16 is one of the most common 4th generation fighters in the western world, I am certain that many others around the world have that same attachment. A memory of happier times when we would watch these planes soar high above at breakneck speeds, shaking the very ground we stood upon. This does not only apply to younger people, but to older ones too. Which should be evident by the time these aircraft have been in service. Unsurprisingly, airshow teams could also be a part of the reason behind the fame that these two aircraft have. The Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels fly the Viper and the Hornet respectively, with only the Blue Angels having changed to Super Hornets recently. Thousands upon thousands of kids and adults around the world have seen these demo teams perform incredible maneuvers with unbelievable precision. The same can be said about the RCAF's Demo team, the Turkish Solo Viper Demo, BAF's Solo Display Team, RSAF's Black Knights and the HAF's Zeus Demo! All of which take these aircraft to their absolute limit. Additionally, we cannot overlook the role that media plays in these attachments. Movies and TV series almost always depict the "good guys" with F-16s or something that looks like them and, whenever there is a carrier usually a Hornet follows shortly after. Of course, the elephant in the room here would be Top Gun's star: the Tomcat. It is obvious that the Tomcat is not only an aviation legend, but also an icon of aviation media. The same principle applies, it is this fame and perception we have of the aircraft that makes buying a full simulation of them that much likely. Which is is why a lot of people have bought the cat, too. Aside from it being one of the most complete and polished modules currently in the sim. That being said, the Tomcat does not really fit into the "bang for buck" category. It is one of the most expensive modules in the game and its usual discounts during a sale are lower than both the Hornet and the Viper. Furthermore, while it is capable of performing both air to air and air to ground missions, it lacks that full multi-role functionality even while having the Jester AI companion helping you out on your missions. Its weapon and mission set is very limited too, in comparison to the Hornet and Viper. It is one of my personal favorites, but I can understand why both the Hornet and Viper are more popular with the average DCS player. This does not mean that it is a bad beginner aircraft, quite the opposite, it is excellent due to jester AI managing all the systems for you. These three aircraft are icons and legends, but both the Hornet and Viper have a much more visible trail in the minds of aircraft fanatics all over the world. A fact that is backed by the amount of countries that have bought these aircraft, keeping them in combat roles to this very day and for decades to come. It is this presence and visibility that have engrained these airframes into our minds, making it so that it is much more likely for us to gravitate towards them. THE REIGN OF A BUG AND A SNAKE: A DESERVED ONE When it comes down to it, we will all like what our preferences lead us to and to what our life experiences have made us believe is the right choice. This "reign" of the Viper and the Hornet is not going to be everlasting. DCS World is a very dynamic sim in which aircraft are added constantly, all of them fitting a certain niche. It just happens to be that both of these aircraft fit well into most niches, lending themselves to be must-buys for any player. I do sense that a challenger to this reign is fast approaching, one that has been preparing itself to become either the next ruler or a new member of this ruling council. An aircraft as capable as these two but with some inherently unique features that make it familiar but distinct enough to the point that it can be a justifiable purchase for owners of the current ruling modules. The Strike Eagle is screeching and hunting for prey. We will just have to wait how complete and in which state this new bird of prey will launch. About the author: Santiago "Cubeboy" Cuberos Longtime aviation fanatic with particular preference towards military aviation and its history. Said interests date back to the early 2000's leading into his livelong dive into civil and combat flight simulators. He has been involved in a few communities but only started being active around the mid 2010's. Joined as a Spanish to English translator in 2017, he has been active as a writer and the co-founder of Skyward ever since. Twitter | Discord: Cubeboy #9034

In a genre where speed is life, moments where you can sit back and take in the sights of the world as it passes by make you appreciate things. Floating on the ocean's surface just a few minutes after settling your aircraft on the water, the ambient activity of civilization and nature just seems enhanced. It has been about 11 months since The Brew Barons by Lifetap Studios completed its Kickstarter campaign, and I still return to its demo for a taste of the experience. The demo is certainly outdated by now. It has not received updates since March 2022, but it still represents the core of the gameplay experience and the overall concept. The developers have been heads down, working, albeit with seemingly few updates. While their social media accounts may not be posting a screenshot a day, they're hard at work. According to their Kickstarter updates and Discord conversations, the cast of flying brewers and bossy pirates has expanded with new skills, new characters, new side stories. Even a new ability for co-pilots to provide minor repairs while they are in the aircraft. Further visual upgrades to this already beautiful game have been paired with performance optimizations, resulting in a reduction of 2 to 3 GB of RAM usage. But between the VFX polish, new soundtrack and aircraft customizations, my mind remains focused on the ever expanding world. The Brew Barons' open world seaplane gameplay still has me swooning over possibilities. Even more so with a series of updates about how the open world is still expanding. A proper world map is under development to assist players with navigation, managing quests, brewing orders and deliveries. It shows the locations like ports, towns, bars, salvage wrecks and areas with known ingredients. Even the general locations of known brew pirate divisions. It's a vital tool in any open world game. The way the islands are generated in the playable portion of the open world. Using a random set of rules, all islands are generated only one time when a new game is started. Meaning each new game changes the locations of the islands and the locations of towns, ports, landmarks, salvage wrecks etc. This is an important step towards increased replayability. Also remember that some of these islands have the potential to have rather complex topography, an example of flying through caves was showcased quite some time ago. The single landmark in the public demo was a way to both encourage players to explore and expand the lore of the region. With more of them confirmed in development, it gives players a good reason to occasionally set aside their brewing jobs and explore every island they see. There is more life coming to the game as well. The already bustling towns with people traversing its walkways and boats sailing freely are being expanded with hot air balloons, ships at sea and even whales in the ocean. I'm especially interested in the floating markets that relocate themselves from time to time. After landing via sky hook, players can purchase uncommon goods and even have them shipped back to their base of operations. Even the amount of "less-than-friendly" life has increased. In the demo, a few brew pirate aircraft appear, but that's nothing compared to three new pirate divisions centered around armored warships, submarines, massive flying boats and an armored blimp - each of them with smaller escorts using similar types of vehicles. The wider variety of baddies to bash further adds to the life in the islands. On October 24th 2022 a delay moving the release date back into QI and Q2 of 2023, but with the additions made and further expansions to come, this delay for higher quality is hardly a concern. As stated in our previous content about this upcoming game, its greatest strength is letting its players indulge in a true aviation adventure. Crop buzzing, island hopping, soaking in the scenery, occasional bouts of combat and a bit of entrepreneurial spirit - it's the type of stuff adventures are made of. About the Writer Aaron "Ribbon-Blue" Mendoza Co-founder of Skyward Flight Media. After founding Electrosphere.info, the first English Ace Combat database, he has been involved in creating flight game-related websites, communities, and events since 2005. He explores past and present flight games and simulators with his extensive collection of game consoles and computers. Read Staff Profile.