F-14 Development Update Part I
We've just come off the first hard and fast development sprint and crunch on this project-- which are (unfortunately for our sanity and health) to become more frequent as we move towards the end of the year and the (drum roll) inevitable release.
The main focus of the art team still lies with projects other than the F-14; thus comparatively little demonstrable progress is found visually.
However, all components of the aircraft simulation itself are beginning to come together and form a more cohesive package.
Primary focuses for the team currently remain with the flight model, associated systems (fuel, engines, controls and more) – but we've now also begun building some of the
visual systems for the aircraft. These include the Heads up Display (HUD), Vertical Display Indicator (VDI) and HSD (Horizontal Situation Display).
We're of course maintaining the same refresh rates and accuracy which the real devices possess. You may find it a bit jarring at first to use the basic F-14 HUD; which updates rather infrequently.
Of course, we'll be making sure all of these devices also look much closer to their counterparts, both in functionality, size as well as projection characteristics.
They're still very much work in progress, so don't mind any misaligned, mis-scaled or in other ways incorrect elements. We are very likely aware of it already.
Worth pointing out is that the cockpit on these images is nothing but a placeholder used to enable our programming staff to execute their work.
Once the cockpit is textured; we then do a full merge together with our codebase.
While these systems are still quite basic; they will begin to shape up in the next couple of months and be expanded to include all of their relevant modes (lots of inter connectivity here!)
We generally keep all of these types of visual systems, even gauges, and implement them at the very end.
The systems and flight modeling functionality that lies beneath it all, are far more complex and time consuming.
Flight Model
Since the last update, we have implemented all of the aerodynamics tables we had previously digitized. We currently use around 60 000 data points in a total of about 80 tables for e.g. aerodynamics and control schedules. This gives us a very dynamic feel to the flight model. The Flight Model is already able to accurately replicate well known characteristics of the F-14 such as wing rock, dutch roll, and flat spins.
Another focus lately has been the advanced implementation of flight control logic like trimming, spoiler control and the AFCS. We currently model the pitch, yaw, and roll SAS systems of the AFCS, with the automatic carrier landing system and other auto pilot modes coming later. The SAS system not only stabilizes the airplane, but also augments, for example, the roll rate, allowing for faster maneuvering.
Last but not least, we have continued the work on the guts behind the simulation; like for instance our dynamics simulation system. Put simply, we've basically implemented a simulator within the simulator (inception.wav) that allows us to simulate physics and control logic in real time (for you control theory interested people we use state space systems and transfer functions for a lot of the autopilot and control modes).
We're glossing over a lot of smaller things that we’ve been working on-- (did someone say wing flex? Hello mass-spring-damper systems!) but suffice to say we’re all really excited about now having a flyable, high fidelity flight model in the simulator.
The next major focus area will be further improving the engine model, and we’re currently developing the underlying modeling strategy and data (e.g. various engine maps and logic)
Model Iteration Pass
Our development process is built upon iteration upon iteration; as we consider this to be the best and easiest way to attain accurate and high quality results.
Earlier this year; we began the final revision pass on the F-14 interior and exterior models. Most of the focus ended up on the exterior; which was plagued with various inaccuracies and inconsistencies which needed to be solved.
Some of these still remain; but we're now much closer to a final model, that can be unwrapped and textured.
One of the biggest items on our list, was rebuilding the entire wing from the ground up; re-doing all of the linkages, hydraulics and control surfaces inside of the wing as well.
All of the animations have also been redone and appropriately linked with their assigned hydraulic systems.
In the future, we'll also use bones to appropriately bend the sealant panels on the top and undersides of the wing root, as well as dynamically inflate and deflate the wing sealant bag.
Most of the fuselage and various other parts have been adjusted, the biggest changes have happened in the front fuselage section, including the entire canopy and crew compartment, as well as the vertical stabilizers.
The aircraft is now far more accurate – but there are several issues that need to be cleaned up (you can see the skewed fuselage hatches, for example)
We've also begun rigging and animating our pilot models for the F-14.
Of course we try to maintain parity in our rigs to be able to quickly transpose animations between all the pilots we create, be it for the Viggen, F-14 or Pacific aircraft in development.
The images below show the low polygon pilot without applied normalmaps, thus the flat look.
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