Air-to-Air demonstration video - FSCAI

[Dutch Owen]

Captains,

Here is a short video showing two air-to-air engagements with the F-5 Freedom Fighter jet by Tim Conrad.

I know it's been quiet here for a couple of weeks but FSCAI ALPHA version 3 (0.9.1) is about ready to post - in the next few days.

I'll post this and some more videos to help you get ready as we wait.

Instructional Demonstration: FSCAI Air to Air Combat

More to come shortly, showing wingmen, air-to-ground. and user interface basics.

Dutch

[xpel]

Congrats Dutch ! It's for the first time I see something like this in FS, that certainly

delivers some sense & thrill of a dogfight finally in FS... Great addition to military

operations simulation with FS.

With less manouverable, high stall spreed jets, like F-4E, this can be very challenging...

As also, having different teams AIs fighting each other so efficiently, certainly motivates user

to engage dynamically against the opponent AIs to protect his own AIs.



Two questions :



1. AIs do not have to spawn via FSCAI to use their weapons against user/AIs, right ?

I mean, if they are controlled by a mission script of FS Mission system, they still can

engage with weapons the user or other AIs, if parameters are met, right ?



2. These weapons that user uses (the FSCAI AI weapons), can be used for dogfighting

player vs player ?...

[Dutch Owen]

Answers:

1. FSCAI will give weapons to and enable combat for any aircraft in the sky that is listed in its database with weapons attached. It doesn't have to be spawned from FSCAI it can be on a regular MSFS flight plan or spawned by anything else such as a mission script. When it detects an enemy (based on the team setup in FSCAI) it will attack. (I have to say I haven't tested this with FS mission scripts, so I can't say that for sure yet - but it should work.)

2. Yes, FSCAI weapons can be used in multiplayer by users or AI. They work the same either way.

[xpel]

Oh man... this is crazy !

I engaged an F-5A "Piglet's" AI opponent, just like your first video (with same plane I had crashes, but since
I was Tacpacked, didn't use AI weapons = no problems).

I evaded his missile shot by diving low, gaining speed and casting a flare. After the merge, I started pursuing him.
Man... AI pilot is better than "Viper" in Top Gun movie... I was eating his dust.

Dogfight took place from deck to over 25.000ft (x 2 times) and I managed to reach very close for guns
2 times also but I missed. We were manouvering like crazy... He was constantly "braking" my lead pursuit to get close
by using the vertical mainly. When I was closing and he was lacking of energy, he was barel rolling downwards (that's how we
went deck two times).  I shot 2 x AIM-9Bs also but I wasn't expecting anything with'em anyway.

This is so much more efficient and realistic than my "In Pursuit" missions script. Thumbs up.

[Dutch Owen]

Aug 31, 2019 2:04:52 GMT -5 xpel said:

Oh man... this is crazy !

I engaged an F-5A "Piglet's" AI opponent, just like your first video (with same plane I had crashes, but since
I was Tacpacked, didn't use AI weapons = no problems).

I evaded his missile shot by diving low, gaining speed and casting a flare. After the merge, I started pursuing him.
Man... AI pilot is better than "Viper" in Top Gun movie... I was eating his dust.

Dogfight took place from deck to over 25.000ft (x 2 times) and I managed to reach very close for guns
2 times also but I missed. We were manouvering like crazy... He was constantly "braking" my lead pursuit to get close
by using the vertical mainly. When I was closing and he was lacking of energy, he was barel rolling downwards (that's how we
went deck two times).  I shot 2 x AIM-9Bs also but I wasn't expecting anything with'em anyway.

This is so much more efficient and realistic than my "In Pursuit" missions script. Thumbs up.

Thanks for this report! I'm glad you're able to enjoy a good fight without problems. It is fun isn't it?

The AI pilot is pretty good at evading after the merge but he has problems getting in position for a shot at you.

I think I found a bug that inhibits a second missile shot after the first and have fixed that.

It looks like your problems stemmed from using AI weapons. I tried your latest Tacpacked F5 last night with them and didn't have any problems.

Please look into trying all the various AI weapons and see the conditions under which they cause problems.

Thanks
Dutch

[StuB]

ACM against human and AI is a game changer for FSX/P3D. Very exciting development.
I was just perusing Scribd.com and discovered that Fighter Combat: Tactics and Maneuvering by Robert L. Shaw - Naval Institute Press was available there for download. I got it in hard cover back in the late 90's, when I used to fly Air Warrior and Warbirds online a lot. It is very well worth reading. Written for fighter pilots, it's super detailed, but presents things in a way that mere mortals can grasp.

[xpel]

I use FSCAI in FSX Missions environment and I came up with a 2 vs 2 dogfight !...

I manipulated "Era" files to create my "HAF 1974" era of course, with HAF vs THK teams.

You can see that in starting screen of video.

It's actually my "July 22, 1974" FSX Mission but difference is that over the dogfight area,

FSCAI takes control of the AIs. I understand this can be done in Free Flight with "Assignments"

scripting of FSCAI, maybe try that later on...



Oh man, I like it ! Definitely not perfect yet but certainly immersive and challenging enough.

Gives so much potential in military aviation scenarios simulation !...

My vintage HAF project (1970-2000) can be completed now, over photoreal Greece, with

fighting capable AI units...






About this dogfight :



2 x F-5As (user & AI) engage 2 x F-102A AIs, over Agios Efstratios island, above 20.000ft.

Before the merge, AI F-5 shoots a missile against an F-102 and hits. Good start. I engage the

second AI, hopefully not much skilled AI pilot, while the other F-5 circling around us watching.

Finally, F-102 gets gunshots and goes down.



In the video, I combine FS scenes with Tacview scenes of this dogfight, to demonstrate the

capabilities of the AI pilots... Well done

And for the immersion... Cattaneo's Avatars (free download from his site), can also be used in FSX (statics only).
 ...RTB.

[Dutch Owen]

Xpel,

Very interesting! I'm glad to see FSCAI can take control inside an FSX mission.

I know you're going to modify FSCAI quite a bit and it's designed for that. If you want to share your updates with me I'll be glad to include them in the standard.

Thanks!
Dutch

[xpel]

Though I've said "no more WWII", I re-activated my AH Typhoon (Tacpacked) for some Normandy action.

Made a simple 4 on 4 mission, near an advanced landing, and I've been chasing for 20 mins 2 BFs and
managed to disable'em until I was out of ammo. Rest of AIs did no damage to each other, though shots
had been fired.

Very challenging, I had to use mixture lever and emergency supercharger to keep up with the
AIs I was chasing, since we kept climbing to max. operational height... Have to re-read the manual..

A good aiming crosshair definitely helps Tiffy at testing field :

[Dutch Owen]

I have seen the problem of AI's dogfighting and unable to damage one another. I tracked down most of those issues.

Were you using version 0.9.6? Previous versions had serious gun aiming issues and a failed calculation that made for too many close-in gun misses. However, now they are too deadly so today version 0.9.7 will be out that backs off on the potency for some guns so they don't disable you with one shot.

In short, we're still working on getting guns balanced. Probably some more work to do until it's accurate but we're getting closer every few days.

Dutch