Few questions....

[Shylock]

Have a few questions. First does anybody know of a way to get rid of the green information that scrolls across the top of your screen whenever you either open your canopy/door, tune Atis or when a new player enters the multiplayer session? I figured out how to eliminate the red type up in the top right hand corner that you get when you zoom your view.

The reason I ask this is because we are completing our winter training season and will be doing live demonstration pretty soon. For filming reasons we needed this extra on screen things off. In the 2008 season we had done a few live demonstrations, but did not anticipate the high traffic we ended up getting in the session which was a lag nightmare. Flying 4 planes within 18 inches is hard enough without the lag. So for the 2009 season we have come up with a way to broadcast the demonstrations live to the viewers. With this what you get is the entire airshow feel. From full Narration with the music to the views of the entire demo complete with our 10 minute Fat Albert demo and full 6 jet 40-45 minute full on demo.

We have a lot of things coming up in what has turned out to be a already busy show season for us. We even have created some pretty awesome looking objects to really kick off the demos, something nobody has ever done before. Please keep in mind we are not for profit group of flight simulator enthusiast and Blue Angel fans that just want to try and replicate what the Blues do in FSX. A Lot of people have said its impossible to fly formation in FSX but we keep chugging along. Just wanted you guys to know this post isn't done to create traffic on a website or get members.

Second question, sorry for the long post, how do you guys feel about a download for the IRIS F-4 phantom done in Blue Angels textures? Well we have something in the works right now with Texture Guru Bruce Fitzgerald and when its done both me and Bruce will get it out to everybody.

If you guys never heard of the team or just would like to see what we are about in person in FSX multi-player just let me know. Our last practice for the week is tonight before the team breaks for the weekend. Half the team is headed over to El Centro Cali this weekend for the Blue Angels first show of the season. We will pick right back up This up coming Tuesday at 10PM ET, 7PM PT so if you like we have made our practice sessions public now and let me know if you like for us to hold a spot for you to come on in. Our practices are normally Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays depending on anything that might be going on that week.

Also if you guys have anything you would like to promote or just get the forums here sim-outhouse.com name out there, drop a email here and we would love to help you out. Maybe a demonstration in the sites name or flyovers for a groups session. Thanks fellas.

Heres a few shots of what we have done. Three are from flyovers we had done at the begining of this year. The others were done during the many of practices we have done.

[Shylock]

Here's two pics that are hush hush but a sneak peak for you guys here at sim-outhouse. The hush hush part is the Narrator and com cart. We also have the number 8 NFO but he wasn't in the session that day during the Fat Albert practice. We wanted something the 3 members on the ground can use that wouldn't cause lag or give the 6 demo guys frame problems. We are the first to come up with this and gotta say its pretty awesome. Let me know what you guys think as your opinions mean a lot to me.

We are trying to work out the bugs with the developer at the moment for the 3 objects, who is from here but I only know his first name is Terry and I don't know what name he goes under here with.. Fat Albert is the Capsim C-130.

[Boomer]

Great shots!

Boy I wish I had the latency to be able to have a shot at flying with you guys. Alas my latency is way to high.

On to your question2. I am not at home at the moment so can not give you a specific answer but yes it is possible to disable the warning displays in FSX via an entry to the cfg.

Yes I would love to see the Iris F4 in BA colors! I am not a purist though, so long as it looks good I am happy :ernae:

Personally I would love to see some retro airshows flying the old iron from you guys & the Virtual Thunderbird's.

[stiz]

On to your question2. I am not at home at the moment so can not give you a specific answer but yes it is possible to disable the warning displays in FSX via an entry to the cfg.

I think that only does the red labels, as in the brakes, slew, sim paused etc

[Shylock]

Stiz I think your correct. But I do think there is a way somehow to eliminate the green information bar. At least im keeping my hopes up.

Boomer thanks for the compliments and kind words.

[Rezabrya]

I also have a question, You said you knew how to take off the text in the top right corner with zoom info and stuff. Could you possibly tell me how?

[Shylock]

This fix is for anybody who wants to get rid of the Red type you see in the upper right hand corner when scrolling through views.

This is for windows XP the following example. If you have vista just go where you have the applicationsdate folder thats hidden. Heres the directory to mine

C:\Documents and Settings\scott\Application Data

Once in there look for the microsoft folder and click that and then find the folder called FSX. Click that. Should be this path:

C:\Documents and Settings\scott\Application Data\Microsoft\FSX

Once in there look for FSX.cfg and open it. You should see this in the first part:

[SOUND]
AmbientUIMusicVolume=-6.000000
SOUND=1
SOUND_QUALITY=2
SOUND_LOD=0
UISound=1
AmbientUI=0
PrimaryDevice={DEF00000-9C6D-47ED-AAF1-4DDA8F2B5C03}
VoiceDevice={DEF00002-9C6D-47ED-AAF1-4DDA8F2B5C03}
SOUND_FADER1=0.500000
SOUND_FADER2=0.500000
SOUND_FADER3=0.500000
SOUND_FADER4=0.700000
AmbientUIMusic=FSX09
[Display]
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_SURFACE_SCALAR=1.0
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_VASI_SCALAR=0.8
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_APPROACH_SCALAR=0.9
RUNWAY_LIGHTS_STROBE_SCALAR=1.2
ChangeTime=0.000000
TransitionTime=4.000000
ActiveWindowTitleTextColor=255,255,255
ActiveWindowTitleBackGroundColor=0,28,140,64
NonActiveWindowTitleTextColor=255,255,255
NonActiveWindowTitleBackGroundColor=24,33,87,64
InfoUpperRightTextColor=255,0,0
InfoUpperRightBackGroundColor=0,0,0,0
InfoLowerLeftTextColor=255,255,255
InfoLowerLeftBackGroundColor=255,0,0,128
InfoLowerRightTextColor=255,255,255
InfoLowerRightBackGroundColor=255,0,0,128
InfoBrakesEnable=True
InfoParkingBrakesEnable=True
InfoPauseEnable=True
InfoSlewEnable=True
InfoStallEnable=True
InfoOverspeedEnable=True
BLOOM_EFFECTS=0
SKINNED_ANIMATIONS=1
TEXTURE_BANDWIDTH_MULT=40
UPPER_FRAMERATE_LIMIT=20
WideViewAspect=False

Look under [Display] ad look for the line that says "ChangeTime=4.000000" Well change that 4 (the first number there) to a zero (0) to look like this 0.000000 save it and your done.

If you would like to eliminate the red tpye for slew, parking break etc the look for the following text in the [display]
InfoBrakesEnable=True
InfoParkingBrakesEnable=True
InfoPauseEnable=True
InfoSlewEnable=True
InfoStallEnable=True
InfoOverspeedEnable=True

Just change the True to False

[yago9]

Great shots!!!! Do you have a videoclip to go with that ? That would show those Lock-On guys :wave:

[Shylock]

Great shots!!!! Do you have a videoclip to go with that ? That would show those Lock-On guys :wave:

There's a few videos of us out there on youtube. Only thing is if you search our name, about 500 videos will show up. There's one video somebody made of us without us knowing during our last practice of the 2008 season and we were having fun and letting our hair down I guess you can say. I think on youtube just search fsxblueangels all one word. Its not really show quality. Not the video but rather the flying. Edit: Here's the clip off youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQZy_5fyO9Q&feature=channel_page

Here's a link to the video section of the ones we put out. In 2 years we have only put out a few. We don't want to flood the net with a video every day like some teams do. If you watch from the first one you'll find how far those guys came since. http://www.fsxblueangels.com/videos.html

Thanks for the Lock-on joke. But those guys over at the Virtual Thunderbirds and Virtual Blue Angels have been very respectful and helpful to us. So there's a shared respect amongst each other. Not so much like a "Well my bike is better then yours" type of thing. Those guys are the pioneers for the flight simulator demonstration teams. Very great bunch of flight simmers.

The best thing I would say is try and catch them live in the public session if you can. You'll leave with no doubts about what they do. I say that only because there will always be somebody out there who will say videos and pictures can always be made to look good. But I can assure you they are real pics and videos.

You'll see in the videos how we went from having the stock pilots in the cockpit to pilots in the Blue Angels flight suite and Gold helmets we did along with all the jets showing up as number 1 to the right numbers. We also fixed the smoke so this way it shoots out and not just flow out and moved it over to come out of the left side engine. Also in a few videos there's no smoke. After talking with the developer of FS Recorder and paying a fee he redid it to record smoke.

We are hoping to work in the future with scenery guru Jim Dhaenens in creating a El Centro scenery. This weekend our guys that are going to NAS El Centro will be taking plenty of pics to get to him in hopes of making some killer scenery for there, just like how he did that amazing Pensacola.

[yago9]

Great job, it sure looks you guys have a lot of fun there...Lag can be a drag in fs, I dont know about that in Lock_On but their clips are a bit too perfect not to rise an eyebrow .They should be able to bring that perfection in FS wich I seriously doubt it,s possible. Why would someone choose that platform over the FS when F16 or F18 are not even flyable without tricks in Lomac ? Must be a reason..If the physics of flight is simulated the same way, it shouldnt make a difference..But if it,s not, ..wich one is closer to reality ? What do you think ?

[Shylock]

Well its like throwing out your old shoes before you get new ones. They have been using that sim for so long now and they have made so many strides and pretty pioneers in the flight sim community. I can assure what you see is in fact them and while flying formation in that sim might be easy when you get the hang of it, its still no easy feet to get the hang of it. From my understanding they have tried to use FSX, which many of them do fly from time to time, but there is a problem with the net coding from what I heard that makes it tough to fly with the high standards they have set.

If you notice when you fly formation in FSX when you get up to inches of the wing tip his wing vanishes and makes flying tight impossible. It took our team member months to figure how to fix that, when MS said it couldn't be done. Now we can get to where we need to fly the paint and sight picture with out the wing disappearing. Things like that take a long time to figure out. So it would be taking 100 steps back for them.

And for them to move over to FSX would be like starting all over again from scratch. For them to do that would be crazy in my mind with what all they have achieved. They have done a great job and in my mind and our teams mind they both have a set a high standard for others to follow.

No matter what you do in the simulator world you will always have doubters and people saying your cheating. But trust me you can do it with a lot of dedication and teamwork. Takes a long time to get where you want. It took the same group of guys on our team a year and half to just get to the point we are at now.

Check out their live demonstration they all did in the past VFAT. http://www.virtual-airshows.com/english/vfat2008/showtime-2008

I think the VTB's and VBA's classed the field once again this past 2008. The VBA's did a great tribute to the A-4F Shyhawks.

In the end I was never really a fan of LOCK-ON, just as LOCK-ON simmers aren't of FSX. But there's that mutual respect between us. From my understandning they only modifications they made was the visual model itself. It's my understanding the flight model is that of a F-15 but they can only change the visual model. But I hear also theres a update coming out for LOCK-ON .

[Navy Chief]

Shylock,

You and the rest of the Virtual Blue Angels do the real Blue Angels proud. I did not get a chance to see a lot of the 2008 VFAT, but I surely do look forward to the 2009 session!

GO NAVAIR!!!! Turn and burn............

NC

[yago9]

Fs came out way long before LockOn ,but Shylock I ment no disrespect for the Lock_ON guys.They are very good on that game platform, but it can be done at same level in FS ? I have to see it first. I doubt the net coding it,s the only reason.It sure doesnt stopping you guys. The flight physics simulation more likely. You still didnt say wich of the two environments you consider more realistic for formation flying .I,m just curious. Anyway I do hope to see more amazing stuff from you guys, I enjoy immensly this kind of aerobatics videos regardless of game platform .

[Shylock]

Well I prefer FSX no doubt about it. A Lot of people have said its impossible but we seem to do it with the acceleration Hornets with out any changes to its overall feel. What I mean is the changes or fixes we did was to the spoiler, speed break. We found with talking to Hornet pilots when they pop the board the on board computers do not allow the nose to pitch up as it does in the game. So we fixed that.

What I love and the team is that we can fly to each show sites. Where in lock-on it seems all the airfields look the same. FSX we can depart Pensacola lets say Monday night in formation and fly to what ever city the Blues are going to be in. Set up our check points, our show center truck and practice the demo. This year we are hoping is to do this at some of the cities the Blues really visit. When we finished up the 2008 season we really departed Pensacola and flew the route to El Centro Cali. We did it over the course of 3 nights of course. But what fun that was. Having all 7 jets and fat Albert going across country and landing in El Centro in preparation for our 2009 season.

We try to keep it as real as we can. Whats cool is when our MO does his calls to Boss for clearance during the demos, when he gives out the updated winds it really means something. When we did the demo for BVATC Tea Party we really had to contend with the changing weather. That was really cool. We were all glued on the real world weather reports for that weekend and even joked that we might be the first ever simulator demonstration to have to cancel a show due to weather lol. I think FSX has a greater in depth realism. Which is why its important to us when we do a demo, we do it live and be able to do it for more then 20 people.

With livestreaming it we can get the full Narration and music and full demo out to the masses. As where if you try and do it just in FSX multiplayer alone you are restricted big time as far as only being allowed limited people to cut down on lag issues that might come up. Also if they want to hear the narration and music they would need to download other programs to hear it. So by us broadcasting we can have lets say 5 VIPs in the live session to watch and be able to have all the members lets say from here go to a website and tune in. I know a lot of people on the Lock-on side are pulling for us to get it going. Maybe then they would consider the move.

With FSX also to have good scenery settings, graphics etc you need a really good PC. Something of which not many people have including members of the team. Everybody had asked what will become of MS FS since the closing of Aces, I feel with all of us MS simmers coming together we can improve on FSX. We were told about a lot of fixes that we looked for couldn't be done. Yet after some hard work we fixed them ourselves.

Our goal is to be able to do 2 live demonstrations a month. What would really be great is doing it in other servers and helping fellow flight simmers, developers and forums to promote their names. We can do it. Its just a matter of getting the right people together. We would really like to do for FSX what VFAT does for lock-on.

Sounds corny I know but we even like getting requests to kick of flight sim groups with fly overs. We have gotten a lot. But at this time we are really focusing on doing the live streaming broadcasting of a full demonstration. Telling you if you want to see it in person you let me know. I'll make sure you get a spot in one of our practice sessions in the coming weeks. Its really something to see them do it live.

[Shylock]

Does anybody here know of a contact with Captainsim? We are looking to pay out of our own pocket a fee to their developers on some addons and fixes to one of their products. If anybody knows of a developer from there can you please have them email me at <!-- e -->shylock@fsxblueangels.com (shylock@fsxblueangels.com) or our flight lead, Boss at <!-- e -->jimi@fsxblueangels.com (jimi@fsxblueangels.com) or just contact me via this thread.<!-- e -->

[Shylock]

We have a open practice session up right on multiplayer if anybody is interested come on in FSX Blue Angels practice is the name.