VEAO news

[Minoslas]

VEAO December 2.015 Update

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=155800

Hey Guys,
I can't believe we are one week away from Christmas, where has this year gone??!!!

It's certainly been a challenging year to say the least with a lot of ups and downs, a lot of learning, a lot of disappointment but also a lot of joy.

I for one am so exited to be flying around in Nevada and in DCS 1.5 despite the amount of problems we have had converting the aircraft to the new engine.
The good thing is that there are a lot more features in both of these versions which allows us to develop more advanced features on our aircraft, stuff that wasn't there in 1.2.16
This has hampered certain things like the P-40 engine not sucking enough air in to keep running and the Hawk pilot on EFM greying out at 27000ft needing a rapid descent for oxygen.
Both features we have resolved along with others we are working on as new features.

I am very proud of the team we have (nearly 40 now) working on different projects and pulling together to help solve problems when they arise and with all of these lessons learnt you will see quite a few modules from us in 2016.

Finally, before I talk about the projects, I'd like to thank you, the community, for your continued support. Without your valuable feedback, assistance and patience we wouldn't enjoy what we do half as much as we do.
I will remind you though that DCS is also our hobby, which is why we get agitated sometimes with the same old questions having to be answered, it takes up our sim time.

So, on to the project updates...

Hawk
Hawk has come on leaps and bounds since the last update posted in November.
I've been enjoying flying it around in Nevada testing the EFM down low and dirty as well as mission designing. This map gives so much more possibility for mission designing and I for one am loving making them, which will be out in 2016.
The EFM is almost complete. We have had valuable feedback from the real life Hawk pilots and we have given them a couple more weeks in the New Year to really push Hawk to the limits.
As you can understand their day jobs do sometimes get in the way of "play time".
I have set a team deadline for work to start completing the refined EFM at the end of January.
I am very confident that the tweaks we need to do are minor but with any software development until we do them, who knows.
Therefore I will not commit to releasing a deadline but we are very close.

If you haven't seen the latest EFM promo videos Chuck has made, go watch them here and look our for some more in the New Year.

EFM flight in Nevada map:


EFM flight overview:


Even the boss has problems landing it:


With the current military tension we have been unable to get on to base to record the sounds, for obvious reasons. Therefore we will "simulate" the engine, GTS, cockpit, etc. sounds and when we can get on base next year to record them fully we will simply swap them out.
Work has already started on these which will be released with the EFM.

Cockpit textures are well underway and I think you guys will like what our amazing artist has done with them. I'm not going to post pictures but simply patch them in when they are completed and see what you think. Texturegate may finally be over soon!!!

Radios have been partially released in 1.5.2 and soon in the upcoming 2.0 patch. You can now use the comms menu to talk to the ground crew.
I received updated code only this morning which should allow me to talk to the ATC, wingmen and other aircraft by tuning the radio frequencies but I have yet to test it.
You can see a video I posted up testing the "easy comms" version of this:

As I've said before, as soon as features are fixed we will get them out to you, not wait for a final big push.

We are still bug hunting on a few things, namely missile lock tone amongst others that you and our testers have reported.
I'm afraid focus has been on getting the jet working properly in 1.5 and 2.0 so focus had to be on this. In the New Year we start again in earnest to get all bugs fixed.
Some things will naturally be fixed with the EFM that are associated with the SFM, like weapons not dropping when you lose a wing, Etc.

My aim is to have Hawk complete and out of Beta when the EFM is released to you.
There are a few features we will still work on after Beta, but these are added features to the original dev plan, more on those in the New Year.

Typhoon
The external 3D model is almost complete and work on the new cockpit model is ongoing. I'm excited to get the new models into the sim to integrate the other work we have been doing.
We have a new developer on the team who has vast experience is digital displays for military and commercial aircraft and he is making great strides on the advanced systems of Typhoon.

Here is an example of the work we have to do to make things interactive in the cockpit. Please note this is using our demo model until the new one is complete.

Adding click points and animations to each MHDD button, whilst having the ability to change the text that is displayed on the button depending on what screen you are on:


The Typhoon has very complex systems behind a very simple pilot user interface. We will replicate that functionality making it easy for you to fly whilst managing all the advanced systems. We will exactly replicate, where we are allowed to, those systems and will simulate others but for you as DCS pilots you won't notice any difference unless you're actually flying a Typhoon, which to be fair is unlikely.
Our main objective is to make it feel and fly like a Typhoon and I can guarantee it will.

Secret Project
Nothing to see here, move along...these aren't the droids you've been looking for....

I soooooo want to fly an X-wing in DCS!!!
Enjoy the film if you're going to see it. I have to wait until Christmas Eve and can't wait...

I will be having my children from tomorrow until Christmas Eve so will be taking a short break to relax and recharge ready for the challenges ahead.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a very prosperous New Year and some great things to come in 2016!!

(Oh and don't tell Pete, but I added in some screenshots straight from my pc below as a little treat...shhhhhh)

And as usual a few words from Pete on the spinny old things....


Hey Guys – Time for my update for December!

Well it’s been a bit more positive this month with the development progressing nicely on the P-40F; we have managed to squish a couple of the more critical bugs with our engine and EFM code and I am happy to confirm the our engine model is now running in DCS 1.5.2 and DCS 2.0!

So what does this leave us to do? Well still a reasonable amount unfortunately. With the release of 1.5+ and 2.0 it brought a lot of changes to the way we have structured our code, especially bug hunting with the engine model. It will be a surprise to no one that it has caused delays, yes I know, I hate typing it as much as you hate reading it!!

The cockpit texturing is nearing completion, the ASM is having a lot more of the advanced features implemented at a daily rate. The damage model is also progressing really nicely (see below).
All being well I’ll get you some screenshots in the first week of the new year over Nevada. A lot of our guys are taking a well-deserved break over the holidays.

Chuck is chomping at the bit to do you guys a P-40F video or two so I think I will unleash him early in the new year and let him produce a couple of videos showing off the Kittyhawk.

For now, here are some early development shots Chris took of the P-40 damage model testing whilst in air combat and testing against ground units.
Of course these are Work-in-Progress from a few months ago and raw from the sim (DCS 1.2.16) on Chris' PC on his default graphics settings (not prettied up)...

In air combat:


Taxiing back with bullet damage on the rear panels:


Ground testing the different levels or states of damage:


This last in-sim image is checking for all states of the damage model and if they are present down to final destruction, including fire position testing. As you will point out I'm sure, there are two pilots, something Chris forgot to disable, but you get the picture.



And finally an early render shot showing the different damage states being worked on although they have improved since this was taken:


In other projects; Wildcat is shaping up nicely and the mesh is now complete for both variants. Rock is now hard at work on the external textures on those while Gibbage is doing the internals.
I am hoping to be doing some cat landings with this pup around Easter.

Bearcat before you all ask is having heart surgery at the moment, this aircraft is proving to be a real challenge due to the differences in reference material available, both drawings (even from Grumman) vs photos vs other drawings. Nothing is ever simple lol.

Meteor and Vampire I hear you ask? Well more news on those next month…

Spitfire is also shaping up rather nicely with the external pretty much done and the cockpit well on it’s way, another piece of excellent work from Kevin Miller.
Chris twisted my arm to let you see a grey box render of our XIV below.
More news on this one in the New Year.



2016 is shaping up to be the year of props and I for one cannot wait!

No Pete, big grey noisy things all the way!!!! (Chris)

[Minoslas]

VEAO January update

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=159076

Hey Guys,
First update of the new year and wow what a ride 2015 has been!!

As you know 2015 saw a lot of challenges for VEAO; we said goodbye to some old friends within the team for various reasons and said hello to some new friends too.
Such is the life of software development, especially when people are generally doing this in their spare time. Life gets in the way sometimes.

I feel we have come out of it better as a team and we now have a really solid core of developers in each discipline of developing for DCS.

We have learnt a lot of lessons, especially with the big update with DCS 1.5 and 2.0 and the new functionality that has brought.
It gave us a whole set of fresh new challenges but we have overcome them, and found some new ones along the way. Again such is the life of development.

We had three main air shows along with our friends at TFC in Duxford last year and are looking forward to three more this year with them, with hopefully some sneak peaks, early access and the usual you expect from us at Duxford.

We currently have over 30 developers each working on their discipline for developing for DCS, these being:
ASM programmers
EFM programmers
Digital display programmers
3D model artists
Texture artists
Animation artists
Sound engineer
Tireless researcher
Project managers
And of course myself

Each person works on multiple projects; however throwing more people at one specific problem does not always speed up development. Yes many heads are better than one and all ideas are good ideas but each aircraft has it's own unique challenges to overcome and a lead person in their discipline has to have control, with overall project management keeping it all together.
That is good software development project management and DCS is no different.

So, what does it take to make a module for DCS, well let me enlighten you...
First we have a 3D model of the exterior and cockpit developed.
This is generally done by one person and is better to keep it to one rather than many.

Then the exterior has to be textured along with the cockpit. This is done normally by two different artists.
External model "painting" is vastly different to cockpit texturing and our team have learnt some great tricks over the past several months to get the best out of DCS 1.5/2.0 and it's new graphics engine, using tools like the Quixel suite and other applications.

During the texturing stage the animations team will work with the 3D artist to get all control surfaces on the exterior animated and then move onto the cockpit switches, dials, buttons and gauges.
This sometimes throws up a conflict that the 3D artist didn't pick up, like landing gear intersecting with the wing as an example. So these two teams along with the texture artist communicate almost hourly or daily so they are all working in unison.

Once the basic textures and animations are complete it gets handed off to the ASM and EFM team and the digital displays team if the aircraft has requirement for it.
They integrate all of the cockpit functionality and flight model functionality. Sounds easy but it's really not.

Now back in 2014 Pete and I discussed having "templates" for ASM and EFM and these have been coded during 2015 (with more due in 2016) ready to "drop-in" to each aircraft. This saves a lot of development time as most aircraft have the same functionality; altimeter, air-speed, lift, drag, acceleration, Etc.
This means that during 2016 and beyond we can build up a library of templates that can be used for all aircraft in our development schedule; single engine non-afterburning jets, Radial engine, Merlin engine, twin afterburning jets, Etc.
Each aircraft is then tweaked to be specific to it's performance curves and cockpit functionality and then handed over to real life pilots that fly them for feedback.

Our sound engineer, during the development process, will go out and record as many sounds for the specific aircraft as they can. This isn't always easy as you have to fit in around maintenance schedules, military access and a whole host of other challenges to record clicks, whistles and whooshes. Simply pointing a microphone at an overflying aircraft won't do.

Our tireless researcher Dom trawls the Internet, goes to museums and generally makes himself a pain-in-the-arse to collectors to gather as much information as possible on an aircraft.
This could also be talking to pilots, tech engineers and the owners themselves.
Yes we want our modules to be as realistic as possible and all of this will help us to do that.

We have three main project managers right now; Pete of course working on all spinney prop things and the older jets, me on Hawk and Typhoon and Mike on military projects.
There are sometimes cross overs on military and consumer projects like Hawk and Typhoon where both Mike and I will work on both and I leave Pete to handle the main consumer projects.
Of course Pete and I talk continuously throughout the day, more than to my girlfriend much to her dismay sometimes...

Touching on the military stuff, the business is split into two arms; consumer and military.
Consumer is you guys, the DCS community, and the "public" side of module development and military is, well what it says, military projects.
We work with defence and aviation companies, consultants and manufacturers on a vast array of projects, which some benefit you, like Hawk and Typhoon and of course I can't go into detail about what we do for them but during 2016 that will take up most of my time, along with completing Hawk and Typhoon development for you guys.

Typical development of a module is roughly 12 months from conception to first pass flying in-sim depending on the complexity of the aircraft and it's systems. Something like Typhoon obviously takes longer due to it's digital nature and getting access to tech manuals, aircraft themselves, Etc.

I think it's been said somewhere before but each aircraft costs roughly £100,000 to develop, more for the complex ones like Typhoon.
Now that's a lot of sales we need to make just to break even right.
So, we very carefully consider a number of things when deciding which aircraft to develop and our roadmap is very specific for a reason.
We also talk a lot with other 3rd party developers, TFC and ED about what we're doing and for the good of DCS itself which also has an impact on what gets developed.
Also we talk to manufacturers about we can do and can't do. This has a big impact on choosing aircraft.

Sometimes you may think "why are you doing that one..." or "why don't you do this one..." and hopefully this will give you a glimpse into why.

At the end of the day every person on our team has a passion for developing for DCS. We all love flying in DCS and we do value your opinion, our customers.

Ok, so for a general update...
I'm not going to do a specific plane update for each one but instead give you a summary of where we are at in general and my plans for the business in 2016.

We are currently in contract to develop the following aircraft:
Hawk
Typhoon
P-40F
Bearcat
Buchon
Spitfire Mk. XIV
Vampire FB5
Meteor F3

We are also quite far in development on two more, the Wildcat and SeaFury.
Due to the delays on Bearcat we are aiming to replace this with the Wildcat whilst it gets re-developed.

Most of these modules are slated for release during 2016 and 2017 and once we have a few of them out Pete and I will discuss what comes next and we'll talk to people and secure contracts.

What's changed since the December update, well not much I can post about. The teams are tirelessly working around the clock fixing bugs and developing but also took some time off over Christmas to rest and relax.
Everyone is back hard at it refreshed for this year.

P-40 is giving us a major headache. We got the engine working only to have very violent vibrations when sitting in the cockpit and the team are pulling their hair out to figure that one out.
I decided to take it off of pre-sale on our website due to the delay and I'd like to thank everyone that bought the pre-sale. We'll get it to you as soon as we possibly can. No one wants to get it out to you more than Pete and I.
When we're confident it's very close to release and stable in DCS 1.5/2.0 (like we were last year in 1.2.16) I'll put it back on pre-order.

My aim is to have Hawk EFM, cockpit re-texture, working radios, custom weapons and bug fixes all complete by the end of February taking it out of Beta and into release during March.
That's my aim at least and the Hawk team will do everything possible to make this happen.

I'll update you more in February on both of those projects.

All the rest are in various stages of development that I've talked about above, but the focus for the entire management team right now is Hawk and P-40, rest assured.

Thank you once again for you support, patience and most of all your belief in us as a 3rd party developer for DCS and we look forward to a great 2016 for DCS!!

Chris, Pete and the entire VEAO family.

[Minoslas]

Febriary VEAO update

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=161011

Hey Guys,
Welcome to the February 2016 update.

So far it's been a very productive month on all projects which are detailed below.

In case you missed the Hawk Feb update, here are some updated highlights since I posted it:

Feedback from the Hawk pilots is being updated on our current EFM flight model. It has been thoroughly tested and verified to be authentic and realistic to flying a Hawk.
With the change to EFM comes additional features like differential toe brakes, parking brake and much more. We hope you enjoy flying it as much as we have testing it over the past few months.
By the end of this month the EFM will be released to ED for testing and verification and we will discuss with ED when the next patch for 1.5 and 2.0 can be put out with the update.

I have also recently had demo's with BaE Systems, the RAF and Ascent for our military discussions and everyone that has flown the new EFM thinks its outstanding!!
I can't wait to get it into your hands.

The updated cockpit textures are now implemented in the internal build and final tweaks are underway with switches and dials.
Our texture artist has done an excellent job making the cockpit look more realistic and so far we've had very positive feedback from you on the screenshots released.

Our testers have reported some FPS loss on low end and mid-spec PC's so we will be implementing three texture packs; High, Medium and Low which you can select in the Options tab. High will be 4096 templates, medium 2048 and low 1024.
This should give you enough options depending on you PC capability.

The new textures will be included with the EFM release next month.

Here are the remaining list of fixes and issues being worked on during February, again scheduled for release next month:
Weapons selector not working since 1.5.2 update.
Air start option - start with weapons system live including sidewinder cooling down time.
Sidewinder tone added.
Radio UHF and AM coms working (ground crew currently works ok).
When part of an aircraft wing is destroyed, the weps and lights still show (this will be done as part of EFM/ASM integration).
Airbrake test switch not working.
Realistic sounds to be added to external and cockpit.
Kneeboard joystick assignments not working for mark map and next/prev pages.
Det cord showing inside of canopy when looking back.
Controls indicator (Ctrl+Enter) working.
Auto start/stop commands working.
Altimeters 10,000 number rolling over too soon indicating 1950ft when it's 950ft.
Custom weapons added - Aden gun pod to start.
Damage model showing on some AI / multiplayer aircraft when air-brake deployed.
Add AHRS to start-up training mission.
Add remaining navigation training missions.
Safety pins removed from the model.
Other bugs reported by testers and public.

We are still on track for having most, if not all, of these issues resolved by the end of the month and I'll give a more detailed bug fix list in early March prior to the patch.

One thing not mentioned is the sight control box, we are still working on the best solution for implementation within DCS (differs from real life) which I discussed with a few pilots during the military demo's. This may not make the March patch but we are looking into it for a release very shortly after.

My aim is to have 99% of Hawk complete in Beta stage released to you in March, with the remaining items closed off very shortly after the patch if they don't make it.

This would mean that Hawk will be officially out of Beta phase 12 months from release.

I understand some of you are not happy with the aircraft, it's systems, textures, etc. and I can only assure you that we have learnt a lot of lessons from our first DCS developed aircraft and a lot of the problems we encountered will not be present with future modules.
We do not want another "texturegate" on our hands!!

Our next release being P-40F and releases after that will have very short Beta phases of life and will be feature complete upon release.

I am also hoping to have within the patch two missions from our friends at Close Air Solutions (CAS) which will give you a taste of the close air support role within the Hawk, showing you how formidable is it for a combat role.
This will lead into a full Campaign available in the future, details to be released soon.

Typhoon is still being worked on by out team. The new 3D models are being worked on as are the digital systems.
We are still researching with our contacts at the RAF on which features we can implement for a public release and how affective they will be within DCS; things like MIDS and DASS.
When we have more final details I'll let you know.
At this moment in time I am still shooting for a 2016 release (subject to change).

Now I'll hand you over to Pete for his side of things....

Hi Guys,
So it’s that time of the month again! Well it’s been a month of updates and fixing things, which makes a nice change!

On P-40F we have resolved both the vibration issue and the engine cut out problems and a few of us have now been able to fly the P-40F in DCS 1.5.2 and 2.0.1
This is obviously a great step forwards with most of the ASM functionality complete with only implementation to be completed, the EFM has a few irks that we are working out of it.
Aside from those the artwork is having a few additional tweaks from Rob on the external, applying some of the techniques that we have learnt since the P-40F was initially textured.
The internal has been finished off since it was last shown and once we have implemented some more of the ASM we will get P-40F over to Chuck who is biting at my heels to do some video work on the her.

So where does this leave us with release I hear you ask?
Well it will be after the Hawk EFM has made it to you, it will take us a few weeks to finish implementing and final testing for the new ASM, whilst the EFM should be worked on the same time.
Once this has been finished (think end of March to mid-April) then it will be passed to our internal testers and to ED, what happens after that I can’t speculate on as it depends on the above.
There really isn’t more detail I can give you then that other than pasting lines of code into an update haha.

On other projects the Spitfire External continues to be worked on with the cockpit mesh being 99% complete and will be textured in the next couple of weeks.
Prelim work on the ASM and EFM has been done and will be picked up again after Wildcat.

Wildcat is coming along nicely with the externals nearing completion and the internals almost complete as well, This is the next focus after the P-40F.

Meteor is pretty much mesh complete now after having a major cockpit rework, Damage modelling again is almost finished and I look forward to showing you some things for this after P-40F is released.

We had a major breakthrough with Buchon; the manuals that we had for it were partial and incomplete ones that I had obtained from contacts in the warbird community, however Dom managed to obtain a complete Ha1112 manual (all in Spanish) which has helped answer a few little questions we still had.
We have a bit of an Easter egg in mind for this aircraft so keep your eyes peeled towards the back end of 2016.

Only other aircraft is the Bearcat; our modeller has been extensively reworking some aspects of this and work continues, ironic really as the ASM + EFM are reasonably well built, work on this will pick up after Spitfire comes across the summer.

Anyone attending any of the air shows at Duxford this year should hunt me down and come and have a look at the WIP projects I will have with me. I will as usual have my tablet with WIP screenies and videos for you all to look at.

Until next month people. Have Fun & Fly Safe

Pman

[Minoslas]

VEAO February second update.

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=161473

Hey Guys,
We're still on-track for delivering the updates to ED for testing by the end of this month and then patched to you shortly after.

I will post a complete bug list next week with what has gone over and what will be in the patch.

The three big items are EFM, updated cockpit textures (high/medium/low options) and fully working radios plus a lot of bug fixes.

I decided to give you the complete package all in one rather than spoon feeding them; some in the next patch, some after that, Etc.

I would rather everything was tested thoroughly and working all at once before it came to you, I hope you understand.

So, we are still on track, therefore don't worry when you see the next 2.0.1 patch this week and nothing seems to have changed.

Thanks,
Chris.

[Minoslas]

VEAO march update. ED test the hawk EFM, preliminary Changelog to hawk marck update, tentative release late april to P-40F, and other news about VEAO roadmap.

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=162570

Hi Guys,
I know you have been anxious for the March update but I wanted to have a few team meetings to clarify where we're at with development on all projects.

I'm going to post the pre-lim change log for Hawk (which is subject to last minute changes), a quick update on P-40 and other projects in summary.

Right now the coding team are 100% focused on Hawk and getting the big patch out to you.
This has allowed our internal development testers to really put the P-40 EFM through it's paces after the recent issues we've had with DCS 1.5 and 2.0 and so far so good.
The aim is by next week the coders can switch back to P-40 to get things finalised with the ASM/EFM interface and we are aiming to release end of April, all being well.

Hawk EFM is with the ED testers for feedback which we achieved at the end of Feb as I mentioned in last months update.

You've recently seen on our Facebook page that Rob posted up some skin shots of our Spitfire Mk. XIV. When we are closer to release on that I'll talk to ED about a co-ordinated release date as not to clash with their Mk. IX

Typhoon is still pushing forward on development as is Wildcat, Sea Fury, Buchon, Meteor and Vampire.
Bearcat is undergoing a make over of it's model by another artist and will join in the dev cycle when the model is complete.

So, let's focus now on Hawk.
As I said just now we achieved the goal of delivering the EFM and updates to ED testers by the end of Feb. With their feedback and that of our own internal testers, and that of the pilots, tweaks have been made and in my view the EFM is now complete.
The coding team, including myself, are busy making the final last minute ASM changes ready for the big update.

The preliminary changelog below is subject to last minute changes, additions and subtractions depending on any issues that arise in the next week during testing.
My aim is to have these updates in the next big patches for 1.5 and 2.0 from ED (I don't have dates for these yet before you ask).

Hawk Change List March 2016
EFM fully integrated.
Set wheel brake left and right in Axis options - Nose wheel steering has been taken away.
Toe brakes and rudder pedals animated.
Parking brake added.
Trim can be set using keyboard, joystick or using the switches in cockpit.
Oxygen hypoxia effect now around 33,000ft.
Anti-skid function added – default is off until entering runway.
Pitot heat function updated.
Standby (emergency) brake and flaps functions added.
Visual and audio buffeting added for stall and over-speed.
Low level high speed ground effect added.
EFM damage model implemented; when aircraft section destroyed, flight model is affected.
When wing section is destroyed weapons will fall and nav light will turn off.
Aircraft no longer hovers above ground when gears damaged.
Auto-start sequence (Left Win+Home) updated to remove rotation light.
Auto-stop sequence (Left Win+End) updated.
Updated cockpit textures High/Medium/Low. Set your preferred level in Options, Special, Hawk tab. 4096, 2048 and 1024 versions included.
UHF and AM radios now fully functional with other units and ATC.
New cockpit sounds.
New engine sounds.
Additional bugs no doubt introduced.
Controls indicator added.
Weapons selector (B/PB/RP) fixed.
Aden gun pod added, UPK removed.
F2 view; flaps and RPM indicator now working.
Airbrake test switch now working.
Air start option – Weapons now armed. If missiles are on the wing, missile panel will be hot and ready to fire.
Sidewinder tone for seek and lock now working.
Kneeboard joystick assignment for mark position and page changes fixed.
Det cord showing inside canopy now removed.
Training Start-up mission changed for EFM functions.
Training missions added (voice to come later) – taxi, take-off, circuit and navigation.
Safety pins removed by default.
Backlighting on main panel altered.
Aim-9M LAU-7 pylon added.

There are still other things being worked on right now which may make it into the change log or may not make it in time for the patch.
They will be worked on even after the patch so keep an eye out for patch notes and future monthly updates.

I have decided not to come out of Beta stage until you, the public, have flown and given feedback on anything we may have missed or isn't quite working right.

I'd like to thank you for your patience in waiting for these updates and hope you like flying the Hawk as much as we do with these changes.

Thanks,
Chris and the team.

[Minoslas]

VEAO may develop update

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?...72&postcount=1

Hey Guys,
Welcome to the May update.

Firstly please let me thank you all for the feedback you have given on the Hawk EFM Patch.
This was a significant patch that is now out in 1.5.3 OpenBeta, 1.5.3 OB Steam and 2.0.2 OpenAlpha.
We are listening to your feedback and reported bugs and are making a list of things to look at.
Right now we have a High, Medium and Low list and the bugs reported are categorised based on priority.

The biggest one we have been working on is the falling out of the sky issue. We have posted a potential fix today for 1.5.3 OB users and have uploaded the files to ED for 1.5.3 and 2.0.2 next patches.

This has obviously been the top priority to get the fix working and out to you.
The remainder of the items highlighted are being looked at in the coming days/weeks so keep an eye on the patch notes during the next updates from ED.

This was a significant patch from the old SFM version that's been out a while with a lot of updated working items. If you think stuff still isn't working quite right or you're not quite sure how/when something is working then please let us know in the Bugs forum section.
Any question is a good question, there are no dumb questions around here.

If you have the time and would like to become a VEAO tester to try things out before they are released then please drop me a line and we can get you on our dedicated testing team which helps to highlight bugs with updated DCS release before they go public.

Next week is a big week for our military side of the business with the ITEC show in London.
And I am proud to announce that we have set up a joint venture company called Porrima Simulations with our partner company Eventuality.
We have been working with the team at Eventuality for a lot of promotional events for Breitling, the RAF and many others.
The Porrima JV has been set up to facilitate this side of the business so if you see our logo around with Porrima you know it's us.

P-40F
With the release of the Hawk EFM patch this meant that some of the team could go back to P-40F which is our next priority to get out to you.
A lot of the features and bug fixes we encountered in Hawk has put us in good stead for the P-40 and future aircraft; things like radios, EFM issues, Etc.
I've read a lot of comments about wasting time on Hawk and to concentrate on P-40; however as I've just said these issues would have come up on P-40 as well so it's good we get them sorted before the module is released.
Right now the team are busy on getting the lower priority items ready like missions, encyclopedia, desktop graphics and the like.

Other Aircraft
Work is ploughing ahead on the Spitfire, Wildcat, Vampire, Meteor and of course Typhoon.
There are all in various stages of development and Pete has been posting some updated pics on our Facebook page so keep an eye out over there and subscribe.
https://www.facebook.com/VEAO-Simula...0582376992838/

Towards the end of the month when we're back from ITEC I'll post a more comprehensive update.

Keep an eye out for the patches from ED, post bugs and questions and again thank you from the team for reporting and querying issues.

Chris and the team.

[Minoslas]

August VEAO develop update

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php...94&postcount=1

Good Morning Guys,
I can't believe it's the end of August already, where has this year gone??

Being the holiday season mainly over here in Europe a few of our team are off enjoying the summer sunshine which means development slows down a little; however this does give me some more time to actually enjoy flying the aircraft whilst doing more lengthy testing sessions rather than just jumping in, testing a specific system and back out of DCS, multiple times, over and over.

As most of you know I'm more of a jet head but I have to say I'm thoroughly enjoying flying the P-40F with all of it's little quirks, especially in VR.
One thing that really struck me the other day was doing circuit bashing, trying to get my landings right (to save embarrassment later) and in the P-40F cockpit along both sides are two big canopy frame bars that run the entire length of the canopy.
You really feel how close these are in VR and when turning final you have to hunker down to see under the canopy bar to keep your bearings on the runway.
I remember speaking to the pilots at various Duxford air shows and they talked about this a lot.
Chatting to Stevo Hinton when we got a chance to sit in Princess Liz a couple of years back I remember this big bar running down the canopy and imagining how Stevo would have to hunker down to see out, which he was explaining; well you really get this feeling in the P-40F as well, especially in VR.

As I've said before the P-40F has really been designed with VR in mind from the model to the textures as these add massively to the whole VR experience, along with the sounds of course.
Which brings me nicely on to what I'm working on today in fact. Updated sounds from our sound engineer are being integrated into the module replacing our temporary place-holder sounds.
It really is amazing how sounds make a huge difference to the whole experience and I can't wait for you to hear the roar of the Merlin as you taxi out and do your power checks with the canopy open and then can still hear and feel that roar as you close the canopy and wind her up for take off.
As I've said I'm more of a jet head but man I'm loving this bird, more than any of the other WWII aircraft in DCS and I hope you will too.

Flight testing against the numbers has also started and many thanks to the tireless repetitiveness of testing from our core testing team to record the flights for analysis against the numbers.
This is essential for ensuring the EFM is as accurate as possible, along with the niggly quirks given to us by the pilots who fly her at TFC Duxford.
We obviously want our first WWII module to be special and the team have done an amazing job on this one.

Chuck is chomping at the bit to get his hands on P-40F for making a video for you guys and making one of his excellent guides so keep an eye out for both of those coming soon.

Next steps for us are to polish off the module and get it over to TFC and ED for verification and I'm very much looking forward to seeing the reaction from you guys during future live flight streams.

Now, let's talk about Hawk.
She is definitely a labour of my love and we've had a rocky history over the past several years.
Most of you know the problems we have had with coding, textures, DCS updates causing issues and all of those things.
I feel we have learnt a hell of a lot from our first module release and she still teaches us how to do things today given the advancement of the sim.
These are lessons learnt which has given us a better direction going forward with our upcoming modules.
But, I hear you say, what about Hawk and all of those lessons...
Well, Hawk will be getting a major overhaul from a complete re-write of the ASM code to an updated cockpit to a realistic weapons suite and many more features.
We are bringing on new talented staff and utilising the excellent skills of our current staff to give her an upgrade.
I'm not going to go into details just yet about what that upgrade will include as I want it to be more of a surprise to you when it gets patched in the future but I think you'll like what I have planned

For now, the team are still concentrating on fixing the bugs that still exist, patching up the holes if you will, which will help with the upgrade later.

Again, I can assure you that Hawk has not been forgotten about.

On to the other side of the business, the military aspect and events promotion; I've had some excellent tech demo's over the past few months and some exciting opportunities are coming up which we are working on. Some are early discussions and some are more advanced and in final negotiations. These will also benefit our consumer side of the business and details will be revealed later on as to what aircraft they entail.
We are also working hard with our events partners and you should be seeing more of Hawk out and about very soon with an exciting livery on her. I'll be posting some screens soon on what we're working on so keep an eye out for them.

As we've said before; the updates will focus on our current and upcoming release products and work is still going strong on all of our other modules in development.
When they're closer to release we'll be posting more details about them.
However; do keep an eye on our Facebook page and chats through these forums as sometimes sneak peak stuff is discussed or shown.

Many thanks for your continued support and we wish you a great summer.
Chris and the team.