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Linux Air Combat: free, lightweight and open-source combat flight simulator

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Re: Linux Air Combat: free, lightweight and open-source combat flight simulator

#161

Post by FlightSimGuy »

Why485 wrote: post #160
FlightSimGuy wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I haven't played Tiny Combat Arena but their video promos look very much like ysflight, which I have played a lot. I mean Tiny Combat Arena really looks very very much like ysflight. I wonder if it's a fork of the ysflight code. I don't think ysflight ever published their source code and Tiny Combat Arena is a sold-for-profit app, so we'll probly never know. But I have played LAC and LAC looks better to me. Especiall…

The code has no relation to YSFlight, and predates YSFlight source being released either way, but I admire YSFlight's timeless art style.

I didn't know the source code for ysflight was ever published. That's great news!

Is the source code for Tiny Combat Arena released too?

Re: Linux Air Combat: free, lightweight and open-source combat flight simulator

#162

Post by Why485 »

FlightSimGuy wrote: post #161
Why485 wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The code has no relation to YSFlight, and predates YSFlight source being released either way, but I admire YSFlight's timeless art style.

I didn't know the source code for ysflight was ever published. That's great news! Is the source code for Tiny Combat Arena released too?

It's not, but I upload a lot of the more general purpose code I use to my github: https://github.com/brihernandez

Re: Linux Air Combat: free, lightweight and open-source combat flight simulator

#163

Post by paines »

dahjelle wrote: post #51

Has anyone ever tried to get this working on macOS?

Yes. I just compiled and ran it on an M1. You need to fetch SDL and SDL_mixer from homebrew and fiddle with the Makefile. Thats the easy part. The sucky part is the data is expected in in /usr/share which i do not want to pollute. The sources are (sorry guys) a disaster. If I find an elegant solution to easily set the datapath I will push it to github and rename it to OpenAirCombat....

Re: Linux Air Combat: free, lightweight and open-source combat flight simulator

#164

Post by FlightSimGuy »

FlightSimGuy wrote: post #154
anonymfus wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So did you play Linux Air Combat and what are your impressions?

Yes. I played it and I liked it. It reminded me very much of Aces High "classic" or its successor, Aces High 2.

They have a new version out for beta testing. It looks like they've had recent complaints about compatibility. Like people that didn't have a joystick. And some people that applied recent OS patches were having problems. The new beta test one purports to solve those problems. I didn't try it because the version I got a few days ago works great on all of my machines. But if you had trouble you might try the beta. It's at https://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxaircombat/files/Choose...

Re: Linux Air Combat: free, lightweight and open-source combat flight simulator

#165

Post by FlightSimGuy »

Why485 wrote: post #159
dharmab wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alright, compare to up and coming air combat game Tiny Combat Arena, which requires at least 1GB.

For the record, TCA is 243MB as of right now. I think the smallest it ever was, was ~120MB on launch, and ~90MB in early pre-release versions. The audio files alone are ~60MB. I was sad to see it hit >200MB, but it can't be helped.

TCA looks like a fine piece of software. I'm going to try it. But I prefer WW2 airplanes over modern ones. And I'm have a BLAST learning LAC. There is a lot of depth here. And LOTS of airplanes to try. I haven't spent much time in the online missions yet but I am almost ready to give that a try. I'll probably get murdered there by some bushwacker!

I will try TCA after I get tired of LAC. If I ever get tired of LAC.

Re: Linux Air Combat: free, lightweight and open-source combat flight simulator

#166

Post by FlightSimGuy »

FlightSimGuy wrote: post #165
Why485 wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the record, TCA is 243MB as of right now. I think the smallest it ever was, was ~120MB on launch, and ~90MB in early pre-release versions. The audio files alone are ~60MB. I was sad to see it hit >200MB, but it can't be helped.

TCA looks like a fine piece of software. I'm going to try it. But I prefer WW2 airplanes over modern ones. And I'm have a BLAST learning LAC. There is a lot of depth here. And LOTS of airplanes to try. I haven't spent much time in the online missions yet but I am almost ready to give that a try. I'll probably get murdered there by some bushwacker! I will try TCA after I get tired of LAC. If I ever get tired of LAC.

Still having a blast with LAC in the tutorial and offline missions. I fiddled around mapping my controls but after a lot of changes I just went back to the defaults. Had to get used to it but now its GREAT. Smooth flight rock solid 60FPS with 1080p graphics on most of my machines. Really smooth. I hadn't realized the little hickups Windows inserts into my other flight sims until I got into this LAC. It's noticably smoother. The feeling of flight is just THERE.

OTOH the enemy AI isn't very good. The bots in the training missions don't ever do anything fancy and after awhile its finally getting easy to mow them all down. But I mean that in a good way. In a fun way.

Ground handling is primitive too. Taxi on the runway and take off and landings seem playful and not very realistic once your wheels hit the pavement. But once in the air its magical. For FOSS this is surprisingly good.

Re: Linux Air Combat: free, lightweight and open-source combat flight simulator

#167

Post by a-user-you-like »

tonyarkles wrote: post #56
myth_drannon wrote: post #55

Anyone wanting to get into flight simulator programming, I found this little gem of a book "Flights of fantasy" https://archive.org/details/flightsoffantasy00lamp It's old but some concepts still apply

You have just solved an issue for me that has, apparently, bothered me for 30 years. When I was a kid, I saw that book at a bookstore and was so enthralled with it, but I had just started learning C and it was way too expensive for my parents to buy. I have occasionally over the years tried to figure out what book it was but didn’t have any success… until today! So thank you!!!

The author is on Twitter https://twitter.com/ChrisLampton

Re: Linux Air Combat: free, lightweight and open-source combat flight simulator

#168

Post by DillardTheDread »

anonymfus wrote: post #48
anthk wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Untill you play it. I said the same in ~2003 with the first Deus Ex. Dull graphics, not the best usage of the first Unreal engine, cliché conspiacies almost straight from the X-Files series and common urban legens. Yet the emergent gameplay and the semi free-roaming playability made it better than most FPS crapware being shold from 2002 to 2009 save for Half Life 2 and Crysis. This might not be the best game on the f…

So did you play Linux Air Combat and what are your impressions?

Yes. I've been playing it for about a week and it is surprisingly good once you get past the simple tutorials. The online missions are deep even if you're the only one. The flight is credible and feels really smooth on my xubuntu desktop with Intel core 2 duo and Nvidia Quadro graphics. Two or 3 times I have had other players show up but I am not ready to tangle with experts yet so when I see others I just switch to a different mission lol. I fly the spitfire mostly cuz I always loved that plane and it seems to fly very close to what I expected.

Re: Linux Air Combat: free, lightweight and open-source combat flight simulator

#169

Post by DillardTheDread »

Buttons840 wrote: post #63

I've wanted a more accessible combat flight simulator. Something like DCS or Falcon BMS with realistic flight physics, but more arcade controls (the aircraft should handle realistically, but I shouldn't have to spend 20 minutes starting the aircraft and pushing simulated buttons and switches in the cockpit, even though I have a great appreciation for that level of detail). I don't want my aircraft to have 99 missiles…

I have been enjoying Linux Air Combat for almost 2 weeks now and I have to say it's really good! It reminds me of the original Aces high from about 2005. Cockpit graphics are not at all realistic because it's all digital like a modern jet fighter. But the terrain graphics and clouds look as good or better than Aces High 2. Not as good as Aces High 3 by any measure but good enough to completely absorb my imagination.

The feeling of flight is what I really enjoy. It just feels right! And very smooth response to flight controls.

After several days studying online docs and practicing offline I finally tried the online missions yesterday. Wow. Very very fun and absorbing. When you're the only online player they automatically send in prerecorded enemies from earlier online battles so you get drawn into the war against them and you can shoot them down if your good enough. After a while another player joined in with me. At first he was on my side but later he switched to the enemy and we went after each other for a couple hours. I died a lot but I loved every minute of it and I learned a lot.

This is the most fun I ever had flight simming on Linux. They have text comms and voice comms in flight. So far I have only tried text but now I'm gonna activate the voice comms. It looks like Wednesday and Thursday are scheduled with regular online groups so will be there.

Re: Linux Air Combat: free, lightweight and open-source combat flight simulator

#170

Post by FlightSimGuy »

DillardTheDread wrote: post #169
Buttons840 wrote: post #63

I've wanted a more accessible combat flight simulator. Something like DCS or Falcon BMS with realistic flight physics, but more arcade controls (the aircraft should handle realistically, but I shouldn't have to spend 20 minutes starting the aircraft and pushing simulated buttons and switches in the cockpit, even though I have a great appreciation for that level of detail). I don't want my aircraft to have 99 missiles…

I have been enjoying Linux Air Combat for almost 2 weeks now and I have to say it's really good! It reminds me of the original Aces high from about 2005. Cockpit graphics are not at all realistic because it's all digital like a modern jet fighter. But the terrain graphics and clouds look as good or better than Aces High 2. Not as good as Aces High 3 by any measure but good enough to completely absorb my imagination.…

"The feeling of flight is what I really enjoy. It just feels right! And very smooth response to flight controls."

Yes. This.

I am planning to try joining the group this Thursday evening. It looks like the best time is from 6PM Central Time Zone for a couple of hours. I can't start that early but I'll try to join about 7PM. I will probably be flying a Ki84. That was 1 of my best planes in Aces High and when I tried it in LAC it felt pretty much the same. Great plane.

Graphics in LAC are OK to me. I only fly aircraft sims and I dont do it for the graphics. As long as theyre good enough to fire up my imagination what I am after is the realistic feeling of flight and LAC has it. My limited experience in their online missions have been really engaging with lots of activity involving replay pilots. Actually the quality of those replay engagements is amazing. It's been a couple days since I was on but as I write this I think I'll go back into the desert mission one right away. I got my first kill there and had a blast. Just a constant drumbeat of targets trying to destroy my air field and I was constantly trying to keep up with the threats.

One thing I learned that helped me a lot was to press v for vocalize in flight which when you do that you hear a radio message directing you toward your target even if radar is out or if the target is flying below radar. Once I learned that the desert mission became my favorite.

I also tried the Peabody mission but that one was too hard and way to complicated for me until I get a lot more practice.

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