BOB is now available - first person mode for FSX!

***Bjoern*** · December 23rd, 2009, 13:09

Originally Posted by JayKae

It is a selectable aircraft

Ah, cool.

**koorby** · December 23rd, 2009, 19:29

Originally Posted by hews500d

Can we use Bob to walk around the different decks on the Nimitz carriers or do we still need to use EZWalk for that?

Darrell

Yes of course; since he's an aircraft you can move anywhere on the Nimitz where the surface is 'hardened' (i.e. where you can taxi an aircraft).

***TeaSea*** · December 25th, 2009, 09:56

My BOB drank too much and staggered onto I-4 near my home airport....

This could open up entirely new scenarios of destruction.

**TheOptimist** · December 25th, 2009, 15:18

Thanks for the freebie, I've just had a quick jaunt around some of my favourite airports, and there's a lot to like. One thing I am appreciative of is the excellent frame rates when using BOB! I can run max settings for my scenery and still get 30fps - a feat which is impossible if I were flying over it.

However, I have several reservations which I thought I would mention. Usually I refrain from posting anything negative but I almost see this product in its 'beta' stage, and since I will be very keen on purchasing the payware version I'd like to make my thoughts known.

- BOB is almost completely unusable on a keyboard, in my experience. Without a throttle you either spend ages getting him up to any speed or have to go 'full throttle' then reign it back when he gets up to speed (which is extremely difficult to do). He needs far far far more power in the low range, with the keyboard users in mind. You should just have to roll the mouse wheel slightly and he gets into a walking pace.

- The rudder control system doesn't work particularly well. He's prone to skidding! Also, you have no scope to turn around on the spot, you have to get him walking before he turns.

- There needs to be a speed limiter of some sorts - which confines him to running pace. I'm sure this should be possible? Even if this meant putting a big 'sail' in front of him to cause resistance and slow him down.

-The braking system needs to be sharper - he runs for ages if you're going at any speed, which on a keyboard is completely inevitable a lot of the time.

- The independant looking and turning system is ineffective in my opinion. If you don't have trackIR you're in trouble. Would it be possible to do a proper FPS type arrangement? Where the mouse controls where you look, and the arrow keys move forwards/backwards/strafe etc? I realise this is demanding and perhaps impossible given FSX's limitations, but there are camera programs where you can do exactly what I've mentioned, it would have to be integrated with terrain recognition.

I do like BOB and will use it, but I'm afraid I certainly wouldn't buy the payware unless there were drastic changes to the movement dynamics. I had visions of using this software to put 'humans' in my films. I had a great idea of doing a scramble - being able to run over to my plane with lifelike footsteps and movement, looking at the skies as I run etc etc. Obviously that section would be different from the plane starting bit - I realise it's impossible to get into planes/interact with things. Unfortunately at the minute this is how things go;

1. Look around
2. Start the scramble, try moving.
3. Go nowhere at first, scroll maniacly on the mouse wheel
4. Inevitably start going too quickly, scroll maniacly back on the wheel and hold the brakes button down.
5. Go in completely the wrong direction anyway, because where you're looking has no correspondance to where you go.
6. Vainly attempt to put the camera in the direction I'm moving, all the time trying to steer away from the building I'm about the penetrate.
7. Eventually line up with where I want to go.
8. Completely underestimate the time it takes for him to stop (7 miles) and hammer through the plane I was trying to stop at!

I hope you don't see this as a 'dig,' more as an illustration of some of the problems of the current release. I know you are improving it but I reckon feedback is a good thing, definately in the early stages of development.

One more thing, as for bikes/boats/3d models etc, I'd much rather have a completely solid movement model before any of that. If that isn't sorted then instead of slamming into my aircraft whilst running I'll be slamming into it on a bike/boat etc.

Thanks for the release, once again I hope you don't take this post as pointless harassment and negativity! I really want this to be great! (plus if it is great you get a lump of money from me

.

**CG_1976** · December 25th, 2009, 15:36

Here Bob gets a Arctic ramp walk but he dont slip on his

.
[YOUTUBE]

**JayKae** · December 25th, 2009, 16:39

@The Optimist, it will not become payware, this is a gift from us to the community

**GT182** · December 25th, 2009, 16:56

My thanks too Jay. Merry Christmas to all you guys down there.

**tracyq144** · December 25th, 2009, 17:03

Thanks, very nice addon. And very nice of you guys to give it away for free.

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

***Stan V.*** · December 25th, 2009, 19:48

Originally Posted by JayKae

@The Optimist, it will not become payware, this is a gift from us to the community

JaeKaye, I think TheOptimist was reacting to the paragraph in Bob's User Manual to wit that you are developing a payware "SuperBob" which will have many more capabilities. Of course, we all understand the realities of the development world where one is trying to expand the software envelope - it may simply not be possible to get there from here. Regardless, thanks for doing what you did.

**JayKae** · December 26th, 2009, 00:23

Ahhh ok I gotcha Stan

I misunderstood then.

**koorby** · December 26th, 2009, 19:10

What we may do, is host a public repository of BOB's .air and .cfg files so people can download different dynamic sets for him. I will ask Jay to create a section on the Orbx forums where new dynamics can be uploaded.

***robcap*** · December 28th, 2009, 10:55

Hi all,

I downloaded, and had a walk around Sitka as well, having a blast with BOB.
My son (10) thought it was very cool (so do I) My daughter thought I was a LOOSER, which I take as a compliment here

, and so should you

Cheers, R.

***X_eidos2*** · December 29th, 2009, 04:17

Has anyone been able to get Bob on a moving carrier?

I took Bob out to my model of the USS Monterey, which was working as an AI model following a track. In slew mode I tried to lift him up and bring him down onto the flight deck, but either I missed or he seemed to go right through the deck. I did find that if I slew Bob over to the carrier and elevated the eyepoint using keyboard keys, that I could come very close to matching the speed of the ship and got some very interesting views. Right now I'm toying with the idea of making a FSrecorder flight of a helicopter sitting on the flight deck and then modify the frc file to swap out the helicopter and put in Bob for playback.

A very nice add-on for movie makers. Thanks