Any good helicopter sims out there?

Hey guys,

I enjoy my helicopter sims, well, used too. Hit me the other day that I hadn't played one in ages. I love flying the choppers in games like BF2. I especially enjoyed flying them in BF: Vietnam.

Unfortunately there seems to be a glut at the moment... I found one, Whirlwind over Vietnam. Though the reviews all seemed fairly negative, plus I've never seen it in the stores... Can anyone recommend a decent sim? I'd like one with a fairly realistic flight model, and preferably multiplayer support!

Its unfortunate that the simulation gaming industry is pretty much gone now, anyone remember the good old days of complicated, realistic sims? Opening the box and pulling out massive manuals? Spending ages learning all the keys and functions? hehehe, awesome times!

Thoughts, suggestions?

Cheers guys,

 

http://www.x-plane.com/ and

http://www.hovercontrol.com/

 

Black Shark.

It's a Ka-50 study-sim.

The devs state they plan on adding flyable Apache and A-10 craft to it.

The digital download version is out, boxed version hits 2009.

A few pics from the mfr's site:

 

Bingo! Thats what im looking for, thanks Tony A!

Have you had the chance to play around with it yet? Im just looking for a demo now, not having much luck.

 

there is no demo

http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/index.php?end_pos=135&scr=products&lang=en

DCS: Ka-50 "Black Shark"
English version for downloading
Size: 2.18 GB
Price: $49.99

 

Thanks Deadsoul. I can't understand how you wouldn't put out a small demo of the game? Im eager to try, just not sure if I'll like it.

 

maybe cuz there trying to finish the game ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D68L0ff4II0&fmt=18

 

I'm still struggling with the idea of buying the digital version or not.

It has DRM (10 installs, 9 uninstalls.) and I'm waiting to find out if the boxed version will also be like that.

If I just go ahead and buy the DRM'd version anytime soon, I'll write a mini-review.

Here's a preview (release candidate 8) I found online:

http://www.simhq.com/_air12/air_390a.html

 

Black Shark seems to be the only thing in town.

Although, if you want the flying experience not necessarily linked to combat, the helicopters in Fligh Simulator X are quite a challenge.

How I miss the old days of Longbow and Longbow 2.... I even had a complete HOTAS system, with pedals, joystick and a collective-style throttle to use with it...

 

And then you get this video. The guy is using a TrackIR (if you don't know what it is, and you like simulators, you must learn ASAP) and a wii remote to have the whole cockpit clickable on the screen and the monitor is NOT touchscreen. Try to watch it without letting your jaw fall to the floor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLkfx6QxLfg

 

TrackIR looks awesome. And the video's of Black Chark look frigging sweet as well. Jeez, im looking forward to this. Tony A, I'd love to read that mini-review if you ever decide to get it.

 

Couldn't resist.

Bought it ~2 hours ago.

Some 1st impressions:

It's incredible, just like a 500 page sim of old, but with massively updated graphics.

(Actually the pilot's manual + GUI manual together, are over 500 pages for Black Shark)

I haven't spend nearly enough time to categorize it further, but it's in the Falcon 4.0; Janes F-15, F/A-18, Longbow; Flanker 2.5; etc class of study-sims.

The cockpit is 3D and every bit as detailed + involved as the one in Falcon 4.0 Allied Force.

The front-end interface is very similar to the Flanker series. It even starts off paused.

I was concerned that the pics on the MFR's site (that I linked to in the above post) might be target renders/pre-rendered. Nope, the game really does look like that in action.

I've been trying out the tutorial and can say I'm now an expert at crashing
Don't even bother with it unless you have a semi-decent HOTAS setup. Can't imagine playing this with only a keyboard.

Fully clickable cockpit, + multiple ways of configuring controls.

You can add "modifiers" to different keys + buttons so that you can use the same button for different commands with an additional keypress.

(like assign function "A" to joystick hat switch 1, and assign function "B" to joystick hat switch 1 if shift happens to be held down.)

Strangely, it does make use of multi-core/threaded processors but is setup by default to only use 1 core/thread. You have to alt-tab out and use the set-affinity option in task manager or use a program like PriFinitty to enable multi-core support.

I was worried as on my desktop PC (specs in sig) I was only getting like 20 FPS @ max settings till I found this out. After setting up multi-core support, the FPS jumped to my monitors refresh rate (60FPS) and stayed there.

Hopefully a patch will come out that enables multi-core support as a default, saving everyone the hassle of doing this trick every time you play.

That said, EVERY great sim has had some quirks when released, this one is no exception, but that shouldn't stop any fan of hardcore combat-sims from getting it.

 

curious, how you think it'll run on your laptop? Wondering if it'll run ok on mine... if so, I'll definately buy it, as I've been keeping an eye on it for a couple years, didn't know it was finally available.

Thanks!

 

I think it would run fine, but not maxed, probably medium, with a few high settings.

I'm not going to try it though as the download version has a limited amount of installs.

One thing I can say is make sure you do the "set-affinity" multi-core/thread trick.

When only using a single core, the game is severely CPU-bottlenecked.



Edit---Some more thoughts:

Make sure your joystick has physical trim adjustments (the 2 dials on the base, one for X one for Y axis.) When flying the Ka-50, I seem to be constantly adjusting cyclic/stick trim, more than in any other game I've played. Most use a "set it and forget it" kind of model.

With Black Shark, EVERYTHING seems to affect/change the darn thing's trim. (Altitude, speed, etc.)

I'm sure there's a way to assign some keyboard buttons/hatswitch to change trim, but having the physical dials on your stick sure works a lot faster.

 

Sounds great, so if the games finished, why isn't there a demo? Oh well. Might have to take the plunge and download it. Unfortunately my joystick is over in Perth at the mo, so might have to hold off till I fly back next week.

One question, does it have multiplayer support? Please say it does. One thing that put me off picking up Whirlwind over Vietnam (other than the bad reviews on it) was it did not support multiplayer. In this day and age, that annoyes me. Especially when you look at the potential of having an advanced simulator in which you can participate in missions with a friend, who actually knows what hes doing. Potential for awesome fun!

 

Yes it has multiplayer.

http://www.simhq.com/_air12/air_392b.html

I haven't tried it online, as I'm still learning how to fly this thing, let alone fight in it + complete a mission/campaign.

That said, remember the emphasis on an attack helicopter is air to ground, not air to air. So I'm guessing for most missions you attack "something" with several online players.

FYI, You can download the flight manuals from the MFRs website (might have to register 1st.) to get an idea.

 

why dont you just get flight simulator x?
it has helicopters and you can download others if you really want more realism

 

Because Eagle Dynamics makes combat simulators while Microsoft, unfortunately, does not.

Btw, I love that last picture of the Mi-24. Those things are scary as hell; imagine having one with the cannon pointed toward you! I'm more of an airplane guy but I've always loved the hind (and more recently the Ka-52 alligator) so if/when they add one of those to DCS I may buy it.

 

I was more aiming towards LAN multiplayer action, regardless thats excellent news to hear. Very happy. Looks like I'll be picking this one up ASAP.

Im a pilot by trade, Flight Sim X is nice but lacks the combat aspect, and gets boring very quickly. Plus for some reason I've always enjoyed helicopter sims more than fixed wing sims. Must be the sculking low around hard terrain, feel more interaction with the environment. Also much harder to fly a chopper on full realism than fixed wing!

Any of you guys use the TrackID setup?