DC's latest F14D

[Dev One]

Dinos F14D - Its at FlightSim, but it seems a very, very big download - 200 MB? Is that correct? It would take me at least 3.5 hours to d/l that on my bit of French wet string if I'm lucky!
Keith

[Angus Prune]

The latest version of the Dino F-14 v2.35 is 200MB, it was released last week. You can also get it from his site http://indiafoxtecho.blogspot.co.uk the downloads come via his GDrive.

[DaveB]

Yup.. his GDrive account is pretty reasonable speed-wise

It IS a hefty package.. unzipped its around 658mb and comes with 14 paints.. each of which is a whisker over 30mb

ATB
DaveB

[Dev One]

Thanxs - will give it a try. If 14 paints with each one about 30M then that can explain a lot of the size!
Keith

[DaveB]

Indeed mate.. the 14 textures plus the main texture folder come to something like 544mb (on disc) of the total size I wonder sometimes about the wisdom of including so many paints in a package.. especially if individually, they're big but it does mean you don't get bored with the one or two you may otherwise have got. Sadly.. like all DC's upgrades.. there is no 'upgrade' path as such.. each one is a full install. I guess it stops folk getting out of kilter though. That can be more annoying!

ATB
DaveB

[rohan]

I still think everyone would benefit if Dino was to split his packages into two - the main base with the aircraft and perhaps two textures, and a texture pack containing the rest ...

[TSR2]

TBH, I'm on a mere 2.5 Mb download here and 200MB takes about 5 minutes or so. Personally I hate it when packages are split up and you have to piece them together, but that's just my personal preference.

[DaveB]

I just did a quick test of my overhead copper wire using speedtest.net and got a reported ping of 15ms, 5.10Mbps download and 0.88Mbps upload. This is a pretty average figure for me (though the upload isn't bad at .88) Cost and bandwidth aside.. it's still not fast enough for me to D/L something like ES IoM though its not impossible. I was on 2mb BB at the pub and it took a shade over 5hrs to D/L ES Guernsey which is more than a tad smaller than the IoM. 3hrs for 200mb does seem prohibitively restrictive. I thought our Gallic neighbours could do better than that This said, my uncle is on Sky BB and when I've done a speedtest.net check on his system, it pulls less than 1.5mb. He's much closer to the exchange too

ATB
DaveB

[J0hn]

Lots happened here since my visit a few hours ago!

I said it was the default Hornet HUD because that's what it said on his website, so if it isn't, don't shoot the messenger!

I paid $5 for the recent FSX F-14A/B, but it has since received a bigger upgrade and hence the large current price. I think quite a few here bought it for $5 (AUS) in one of their famous Christmas sales.

I really like the Iris F-14D HUD - it struck me straight away as being unusual in FSX, in that it looked authentic and different (and very nice). I've got some screenshots around somewhere, so I'll dig them out.

My first flight in it will be one I won't forget in a hurry. It took a while to find everything in the VC to get it started - and to find the wing sweep control when I got it in the air. I kept blasting around, pulling high-G moves (as you do ) but I stalled the durned thing mid-turn.

By that, I don't mean I stalled it aerodynamically, I mean I stalled both engines! I got an infamous Maverick-style flameout. First time I have ever experienced that in FSX and it was a jaw-dropping moment.
I spent the next couple of minutes frantically trying to get the engines restarted, but with not knowing the cockpit layout well enough, it was never going to happen.

Amazingly, when the engines flameout, the wings automatically extend (wow!) and I was able to glide towards the next airport - Newquay iirc. Unfortunately, the sinkrate was too high and there were no appropriate roads and the end was predictable.

Crashed and burned, Mav!

So now you see why I like the Iris F-14 so much. My very first flight a pure delight, despite the smouldery ending.

[J0hn]

I'm struggling to find the pics from that flight - I have thousands of FSX screenshots on a USB stick and only a small proportion of them have been titled so far.

Anyway, here is one of the paints:



but my absolute fave was the Imperial Iranian Air Force one:



It's very pretty, and the story of how the next BIG bad boys (according to the Pentagon at the time) managed to get their hands on top US hardware of the time leaves me chuckling every time!

Here's an admittedly not very good shot of the VC and that HUD (which is repeated in the HDD or MFD - a great idea for when your head is down in the 'pit):






This was the DC model of the time, in FSX:





I didn't like the fact that it always took off as though from a catapult, regardless of the location. Landings were pretty short, too (as though on a wire...). I could also never get rid of the 'LSO' light strip - whatever they are called, regardless if viewing from inside or out. This was, as said, the old one and if it's been improved so much the better - I'm giving it a try soon (hopefully ).

PS - ah, I managed to find one from that flight. This was where the engines stalled - you get a red warning light either side of the HUD, so you know straight away what's up: