Path: menudo.uh.edu!usenet From: sacke@ecn.purdue.edu (Jeff Hanna) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: Fighter Duel Professional Flight Recorder Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.graphics Date: 8 Apr 1993 02:22:17 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 198 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Distribution: world Message-ID: <1q028p$466@menudo.uh.edu> Reply-To: sacke@ecn.purdue.edu (Jeff Hanna) NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu Keywords: flight simulation, rendering, graphics, game, commercial PRODUCT NAME Fighter Duel Professional Flight Recorder (FDPro-FR) BRIEF DESCRIPTION A unique World War II flight simulator that records your flight path (and up to two enemies' flight paths). You can then convert this data into a demo, a Lightwave motion file, a Lightwave object, an Imagine staging file, an Imagine object, a Videoscape 3D object, or a Vista Pro camera file. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Jaeger Software Address: 7800 White Cliff Terrace Rockville, MD 20855 USA Telephone: (301) 948-6862 E-mail: Jaeger Software has a support category on GEnie. Page 555, Category 24. LIST PRICE US $59.95 I paid US $25.00 to upgrade from Fighter Duel Pro to Fighter Duel Pro Flight Recorder SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE No special hardware required. An analog adapter and analog joystick are highly recommended. Requires 3 MB of RAM. FDPro-FR does not require a hard drive. FDPro-FR works on all processors available for the Amiga. When using a VXL-30/VXL-RAM32, you need to have the 32-bit memory mapped to the High memory area. SOFTWARE FDPro works on all versions of the OS later than 1.3. To run it off of a hard drive on AGA machines you need to turn Mode Promotion off and use a Low Resolution pointer. COPY PROTECTION None! FDPro-FR installs on a hard drive. It uses Commodore's Installer program. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 500, VXL-30/40mHz, VXL-RAM32, DataFlyer IDE w/50MB HD 1 MB Chip RAM and 2 MB of 32-bit Fast RAM Kickstart 2.04 and Workbench 2.1 Imagine 2.0, DCTV, and Video Toaster/Lightwave REVIEW I am an airplane buff, and have tried numerous times (unsuccessfully) to make an animation of a dogfight. It is next to impossible to make a correct flight path for an airplane with today's rendering/modeling packages. But with FDPro-FR, you just fly the airplane, and the software takes care of the tedious job of making a flight path for you! Fighter Duel Pro Flight Recorder is an extension of Jaeger Software's World War II flight simulator, Fighter Duel Pro (FDPro). FDPro is the most accurate WWII flight simulator available (for any platform, IMHO). It contains 16 fighters, runs at 28 fps on an unaccelerated Amiga, and contains a highly detailed and accurate flight model. FDPro lets you fly against up to two computer controlled enemies. You can also connect with another person via modem or null modem link and duel them (this is where FDPro really shines). FDPro will run at 28fps on a 1200 bps connection. With FDPro you can connect two machines together with a special parallel adapter and use the second machine as a slave "rear view" machine. The second Amiga will show you the view out of the back of your airplane. FDPro-FR contains all that FDPro does and also lets you record your flights. The recording is invisible to the end user. You just fly FDPro-FR like you would fly any simulator: pick a plane, take off, find an enemy, and engage in a fight. When you are done, you can convert the flight data into any of the following formats: FDPro-FR Demo (requires FDPro-FR to playback) Lightwave Motion Path Lightwave Object Imagine Staging File Imagine Object VideoScape 3D Object Vista Pro camera file. FDPro-FR makes animating logos, spaceships, airplanes, cows, etc.. so simple that it is fun. I really cannot give a definitive list of what you can/cannot use the output from FDPro-FR for, because it is limited only by your imagination. DOCUMENTATION Printed documentation is included. This consists of two manuals, the Fighter Duel Pro documentation and the FDPro-FR supplement. The documentation is very detailed. The FDPro manual covers everything would need to know to run FDPro-FR. It also gives detailed information on the 16 planes included with the package, covering weight, length, armament, rate of fire, top speed, sustained turn rate, and more. The FDPro-FR supplement shows you how to convert your data into a usable format for the supported rendering packages. Tutorials are given for each rendering package. LIKES AND DISLIKES My only dislike about this program concerns its Imagine output. FDPro-FR cannot write out a path for Imagine that you can see and edit within Imagine. It will create only an entire Staging file for Imagine. When this is loaded into Imagine, you cannot see nor edit the path. According to the author, Jaeger Software did contact Impulse to see if they could get help in making Imagine paths. From what I gather, Impulse was very uncooperative. Jaeger Software only managed to add Imagine support by reverse-engineering an Imagine Staging file. I have been told that due to the overwhelming acclaim this program is getting in the video journals, Impulse would now like to help Jaeger Software include Imagine Path support in a future release. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS There isn't anything else like FDPro-FR for any platform. BUGS There are no known bugs with FDPro-FR. As I stated earlier, If you have a VXL-030 with VXL-RAM32 card, you must have the 32-bit Fast RAM mapped into the High memory area (accessible only in 68030 mode). If you have the memory mapped into the Low memory area (accessible in 68000 and 68030 mode) the program will crash. I do not know what causes this, but I would tend to believe that the VXL-RAM32 card is at fault. VENDOR SUPPORT Jaeger Software's customer support is excellent, especially when you consider the size of the company (they are extremely small). I first contacted them in December 1992, regarding a problem I had with the original Fighter Duel. Matt Shaw, one of the programmers, called me back (at his expense) and helped me out. He was informative, knowledgeable, and was not going to give up until my problem was solved. Matt was also very helpful in determining that I needed to change the VXL-RAM32 configuration in order for FDPro/FDPro-FR to work properly. Jaeger Software has a support category on GEnie, which Matt moderates. Whenever there is a question or a problem Matt posts an answer within 24 hours. WARRANTY 90 day warranty on the medium on which the program is recorded. CONCLUSIONS Fighter Duel Pro Flight Recorder is the most innovative 3D rendering tool I have ever seen. I would recommend it to anyone who is a hobbyist or professional 3D animator. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1993 by Jeff Hanna. All rights reserved. --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu