# Anyone played this..?



## rustyintegrale (Oct 1, 2006)

Looks pretty amazing and I quite fancy a 'real' flight simulator... 8)






Is there anything else out there better for Mac?


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## Dash (Oct 5, 2008)

Played much older versions, was pretty good - but ultimately flight sims get boring after about 20 minutes.


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## jdn (Aug 26, 2002)

Undercarriage a bit odd..


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## Nilesong (Jan 19, 2009)

No.

Looks like great fun though!


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

The night graphics look excellent, though some of the daylight ones are a bit hit and miss. Flight sims seem to have dwindled in recent years, which is ironic as when there was loads of them computers didn't have the power for them to be very convincing. There's also a new IL-2 Sturmovic sim/game on the way for those who like a bit more action in their flying.


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## Dash (Oct 5, 2008)

Looks pretty good. IL2 was always lacking on the graphics I thought, which is important in a flight sim as you spend a lot of time staring into space...

This was my first introduction to flight-sims in the PC world:





This was probably my all time favourite:





Also played a fair few "Jane's" games, there was an Apache Longbow helicopter one that I really liked and just an all out combat flight sim - although I never got the hang of how to use the stealth aircraft, I was always spotted in my B2.

But these days, why limit yourself to one mode of transport:


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## rustyintegrale (Oct 1, 2006)

Is there a really realistic Spitfire flight sim? With all the right noises and great graphics? I doubt I'll ever get to fly in a real one so this would be the next best thing. 

Cheers

rich


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## Wallsendmag (Feb 12, 2004)

CFS is what you want Rich


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

Dash said:


> Combine BF3 - Air Combat


   Jesus H ****** ***** ****!!! Ok I see what you mean about Sturmovic graphics now. That is incredible!

I remember EF2000/Eurofighter - the first sim (I think) with a proper 3D cockpit, but damn hard. Apparently used in some form by the MoD too. I was quite chuffed at being able to get the thing back to base and land it with half a wing blown off. Mainly because that used to happen a lot once the AAA went up. :roll: DID later released "Typhoon" which upped the graphics but dumbed down the gameplay BUT made it absolutely impossible at the same time. Consequently it was utter, utter BALLS.

F22 Raptor and the successor Total Air War were the only decent thing that DID did after that. That had the great feel of EF2000, without being quite as complicated. It needed a hack to run at 1024x768 as I recall, but it looked excellent and had all the neat keypresses for the swooping flypasts and suchlike to keep you amused on long flights :lol:


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## rustyintegrale (Oct 1, 2006)

wallsendmag said:


> CFS is what you want Rich


Thanks Andy, but the graphics look a bit poor compared with some of the examples here and i really want it to be as realistic as possible.

The graphics on Battlefield 3 Air Combat look incredible and I love that sequence from the carrier...


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## Wallsendmag (Feb 12, 2004)

Try fsx and have a look at the add on planes on flightsim.com

Sent from my Nokia 5146
using Tapatalk


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## Dash (Oct 5, 2008)

rustyintegrale said:


> Is there a really realistic Spitfire flight sim? With all the right noises and great graphics? I doubt I'll ever get to fly in a real one so this would be the next best thing.


I think what Scooby posted is going to be the best thing for this.

The BF3 Frostbite 2 engine is absolutely stunning, I spent the first week of the multiplayer getting wiped out due to looking at the scenery too much. It's a shame the game-play doesn't bring the same level of "wow".

I loved all the DID games, it's a real shame they stopped making them, in their day the graphics were as ground-breaking as BF3 is today. Wargasm was a beautiful game.


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## rustyintegrale (Oct 1, 2006)

Dash said:


> rustyintegrale said:
> 
> 
> > Is there a really realistic Spitfire flight sim? With all the right noises and great graphics? I doubt I'll ever get to fly in a real one so this would be the next best thing.
> ...


I just bought the collectors edition of Cliffs of Dover for £18. Gotta be worth the punt plus it will try out the Windows installation on my iMac... 

Cheers

rich


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

Excellent! We expect a full review once you're settled in :wink: I recommend keeping an oily rag and some leather in the vicinity while you play to add the scent of authenticity


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## rustyintegrale (Oct 1, 2006)

ScoobyTT said:


> Excellent! We expect a full review once you're settled in :wink: I recommend keeping an oily rag and some leather in the vicinity while you play to add the scent of authenticity


The distributor has just sent me an email saying it won't work on a Mac using Windows with emulation software... :?

Do we believe him or shall I open the packet when it comes?

Cheers

Rich 

Any good recommendations for a joystick - apart from my own... :lol:


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## W7 PMC (May 6, 2002)

I've got X-Plane 9 on the iPad & it's very good given the graphical limitations of a tablet. An array of different vehicles to fly including the A380 & Copters.


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## Dash (Oct 5, 2008)

rustyintegrale said:


> The distributor has just sent me an email saying it won't work on a Mac using Windows with emulation software... :?


Depends on how you've got it setup. If you're dual-booting it'll be fine, as Mac's are no different from any other PC when it comes to hardware.

If you're running Windows through something like VMWare Fusion then it's unlikely to work due to the 3D acceleration requirement, which is only partially supported by VMWare.

Make sure you get a rudder control if you're playing flight sims. I always used a Microsoft Forcefeedback joystick, the novelty of feeling the rumble and all. I believe Saitek are supposed to do good ones.


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## rustyintegrale (Oct 1, 2006)

Dash said:


> rustyintegrale said:
> 
> 
> > The distributor has just sent me an email saying it won't work on a Mac using Windows with emulation software... :?
> ...


Well after a lot of faffing around installing Windows 7 via BootCamp I've finally got it all running. The main problem was getting Windows to see my twin screen set-up - I run a 20in Apple Cinema Display alongside my 27in iMac and trying to get the resolution correct on both was a right pain (2560 x 1440 on one and 1680 x 1050 on the other). I eventually downloaded some ATI drivers and something called Catalyst that finally sorted it.

Since then have installed Cliffs of Dover and that was fine but quickly realised I need a joystick as trying to play this with a mouse and keyboard is not easy! So I bought a Logitech Pro 3D stick from eBay for a tenner and have just installed the software for that. Now I'm about to configure the buttons and wondered if there was a place to download a suitable configuration. I'm new to all of this and just want to play the game! :lol:


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## Dash (Oct 5, 2008)

Ah yes, drivers - Windows being available for such a wide variety of hardware it only provides minimum support for fancy things. It's up to the manufacturer to provide drivers if you want to do anything funky (like multiple screens, apparently).

Probably a config you can download from somewhere; but with this sort of thing I tend to put my own in as otherwise I don't remember which button is which. If you define your own you have more of a chance of remembering what all the buttons do.

What's the game like itself?


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## rustyintegrale (Oct 1, 2006)

Dash said:


> What's the game like itself?


Not had a chance to play it properly yet but did have a go at training. The graphics look pretty good but I'm just playing with the settings to optimise the gameplay. Windows keeps coming up with 'suggestions' and that is really annoying... :lol:


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## Wallsendmag (Feb 12, 2004)

Maybe we should have a forum online fly in ?


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## rustyintegrale (Oct 1, 2006)

wallsendmag said:


> Maybe we should have a forum online fly in ?


Or a dogfight... :evil:


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

Rusty you've been mollycoddled in your walled garden for too long  If the game is offering you suggestions that's the game not Windows. Often when you run a game it tries to determine the best settings for your system and picks those as the defaults. Some completely underestimate what the machine can do. Perhaps IL-2 is more pro-active, but you should be able to tell it to bugger off


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## Wallsendmag (Feb 12, 2004)

rustyintegrale said:


> wallsendmag said:
> 
> 
> > Maybe we should have a forum online fly in ?
> ...


Exactly ,much more fun flying against real people


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## rustyintegrale (Oct 1, 2006)

wallsendmag said:


> rustyintegrale said:
> 
> 
> > wallsendmag said:
> ...


Have you got it then?


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## rustyintegrale (Oct 1, 2006)

ScoobyTT said:


> Rusty you've been mollycoddled in your walled garden for too long  If the game is offering you suggestions that's the game not Windows. Often when you run a game it tries to determine the best settings for your system and picks those as the defaults. Some completely underestimate what the machine can do. Perhaps IL-2 is more pro-active, but you should be able to tell it to bugger off


Nah mate. Apple stuff just works and the interaction with Windows drives me nuts. It's not the game. Windows quits it for me and offers me a 'solution'. Then you go through a whole heap of bollocks to get no helpful answer. It really is shite! :lol:


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## Wallsendmag (Feb 12, 2004)

Just having a look now I usually fly on FSX, used to fly with a few mates of CFS years ago


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## Dash (Oct 5, 2008)

Apple's generally come with fairly weak graphics cards by default, so it's probably best to turn off Window's Aero stuff as this uses up graphics memory which you want to keep for your game.

You can of course modify your shortcut to turn off desktop composition for the game. This way Windows will disable Aero when the game starts and restore it afterwards; and won't bug you any more. I do this for all my games whether I need the horse power or not.


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## rustyintegrale (Oct 1, 2006)

Well I've been giving this a go using the Logitech joystick. First impressions are it's complicated with far too many controls to learn. I simply don't have the will to put the hours in to get good at it.

I might have another go if I'm ill or stuck in bed, but to be honest I get a better thrill taking the TT out for a good cross-country hack... :lol:


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## ViperOneZero (Sep 4, 2008)

try this then

http://www.flashgames247.com/play/14529.html


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## Dash (Oct 5, 2008)

Flight sims tend to be complicated due to planes being complicated.

There used to be some good combat flight games that didn't have the complexity in them. Not sure about now.


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

Yeah F22 ADF and Total Air War had the balance just about right in my view. Flight sims in general are few and far between it seems these days. It's mostly a steady stream of same-old-same-old FPSs.

All is not lost however, I've just found this!!
http://community.combatsim.com/topic/20 ... -released/

It seems some folk who liked F22/TAW/Red Sea Ops sufficiently have kept it up to date to play on modern systems. You can even take the graphics back to 1998 if you're feeling nostalgic. If I'd noticed this at the start of the Christmas break I could have taken a decent look into this. I think I still might! 

Description:
F-22 Total Air War 2.0 (TAW 2.0) is a total conversion of F-22 Total Air War (TAW), which also includes the campaigns from F-22 Air Dominance Fighter (ADF) and the Red Sea Operations (RSO) expansion disc. The goal of TAW 2.0 is to provide a simulation experience on a modern PC and OS that equals or surpasses your fond memories with the original ADF and TAW.

Total Air War 2.0 Features:

New! Custom Weather available from the TAW 2.0 Launcher
Improved photorealistic terrain and new color palettes completely redefine the look of TAW
Mod Management, Configuration, References, and the Mission Editor (TAWBC) are all accessible from a single integrated menu
Configuration now allows you to choose your renderer, resolution, and Glide wrapper (if applicable) from the menu
Fullscreen and Widescreen versions now selectable
Increased integration with TAW Battle Commander (TAWBC) provides mission titles for your generated missions within the TAW mission menus
TAWBC Mission Enhancer (TME) Utility allows you to automatically enhance your TAWBC missions
Enhanced Avionics functionality
Ability to change between NVGs and natural light while zoomed into an MFD (Windows XP and later)
East/West palettes with Glide renderer allow for more natural light transitions during morning and twilight hours
Campaign Weapons Descriptions are now available
Added numerous selectable photorealistic F-22 skins, to include the YF-22 skin, the Nightstalker skin, and other Woodland, Urban, and Desert Camouflage patterns.
More USAF tail flashes and custom tail logos
Formation lighting for night F-22 skins
Custom playlists available for in-game playback
"Nostalgia Mod" brings the graphics, sounds, and HUD/Cockpit back to 1998 standards.






Unfortunately I'm not sure I'm convinced by the new landscape textures. It looks like flying over defocused quilt. I might be tempted to rever to the original desert stuff.


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## Dash (Oct 5, 2008)

ScoobyTT said:


> Configuration now allows you to choose your renderer, resolution, and Glide wrapper (if applicable) from the menu


Glide - blast from the past! Glide > OpenGL > Direct3D. How the world has changed.


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## ScoobyTT (Aug 24, 2009)

OpenGL's still going strong...

I've decided I'm not going to bother resurrecting Total Air War. I remembered that I don't have a joystick anymore :lol:


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## Dash (Oct 5, 2008)

Ah you should have said, I've just dumped a 16-bit joystick, would have gone nicely with that game


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