Aircraft Icons

[jhook]

Greatings pilots,
I have recently come accross an idea that involves "putting your squadron logo (avatar) on your aircraft. Also, being able to put your name and "call sign" on the side of the cotpit. I think it would be pretty cool to see your vurtual squadrons icon on the tail of the aircraft. Some feedback on this subject would be appreciated as I am in the final stages of finishing my icon (avatar) for my new vurtual squadron. I know other vurtual squadrons have icons and I think they would look pretty good on the tail of any aircraft! :thumbsup: What do you all think about that one? :wink:

[Buckshot]

Yes one of the design ideas for fighter ops will be the ability to have unique tail numbers, pilot name and logos for each aircraft. This will be weighed up against longer load times while it synchronises with other players when online, but I think especially if able to be turned off at the players discresion is certainly doable.

[jhook]

Thanks Buckshot, I was hopen to here something like that. I wounder what other pilots think about it. Anyway, I also wounder what the size and graphic limitations would be. I'm currently woring on an avatar that is almost 2 megs so far. Any little details would be goo here. 8) :thumbsup:

[Charlie_VFP]

If people plan on using paint schemes at 2MB, I will definitly turn it off. :)

Until now, most of this type thing has been done through actual aircraft skin changes. Meaning, if you wanted your callsign on your jet, it was time to whip out the photoshop and get to work.

This sucked because everyone would be using the same paint scheme, except for the lettering under the cockpit. This meant that each member had to download the skin while the mission was loading. Kills time, kills bandwidth.

The ability to add your name and such WITHOUT having to load an entire skin file would be awesome. It would lead to a much more customizable interface and add immersion to the sim as well (however little that may be).

The size and file type of the skin art will have to be kept small to avoid long transfer times on mission load.

I would keep the on/off switch for these two items seperate. Some people might like the call sign transfer, but others may not wish to have the skin art transfer......

One idea would be to have everyone select their aircraft and skin choice and such, and then that skin gets added to the 'pool'. Then each user on the server can click 'download' on the different art files listed to grab them if they want them. If not, then they will see the stock skin art. This is a bit more labor intense, but an idea none-the-less.

[jhook]

Thanks Terry,
That's what I wanted to know. The initial 2+ meg file in the works woun't be the final product. When rendering a pic, the program will use alot of resources. The final pic should be around 800k or so. I like the "pool" plan for squadron decals! :thumbsup: If we submit our decals to the FO team, we might see them on a aircraft paint sceme to choose from! 8)

[Charlie_VFP]

800k is still way to large in my opinion.

You will end up having to wait for the dev team to put out the required file type and file size for this sort of thing. It all depends on how they want to work it. But even at 200k, that will take quite a bit of time to transfer between all the clients, install, and then load. For those of us with ungodly cable modem access and pretty spiffy computers, no biggy. But those poor buggers on dial up or slower broadband.... yikes.

I say include them on the CD so no data transfer is needed. Distribute new ones with patches, ect.

[jhook]

Terry,
Not to worry bud :thumbsup: , I get DSL T-1 next week! :shock: :thumbsup: 3.5 meg per second download rate, upload at 348k per second! :shock: 8) 8) 8)

[Bladehawk]

HEY !

FANTASTIC idea jhook !!! :thumbsup:

Im getting a new and fastest internet connection at home !! get ready im coming hard !!!

:thumbsup: :drink: :drink:

[Charlie_VFP]

Thats all you will get from a T-1?

My cable averages 2800 down and 375 up. :)

Roadrunner is my hero. :)

[jhook]

Sorry Terry, That's a typo, the T-1 will be from 3.5 to 8 megs a second download and 384k to 1.5 megs per second upload. Still, uploads aren't used a hole lot, and anything past 1 meg per second is blindingly fast!!! :shock: 8) :thumbsup:

[Vlerkies]

Dang and i thought my ISDN is going to be fast enough :lol:

No worries it should be able to cope with it.

I like your idea jhook would be great to have that.

:drink: :drink: :drink:



:military:


~S~

[Antler]

Sheesh! 3.5 to 8 megs a second download is FAST!!!

If you don't mind, how much does that cost? In the UK, if I lived in a Telewest Blueyonder area, I could get a 2 mega bits/sec download ADSL for I think about £40 a month. Unfortunately I don't... :(

Hmm... I think I need to look into getting an E1 line (similar to T1 but a bit faster I think). Unfortunately I have a small problem - it's called being broke.

[Vlerkies]

That's a club we all have a free lifetime membership to sometime during each month :lol:

:drink: :drink: :drink: :drink:


:military:


~S~

[Charlie_VFP]

Sorry Terry, That's a typo, the T-1 will be from 3.5 to 8 megs a second download and 384k to 1.5 megs per second upload. Still, uploads aren't used a hole lot, and anything past 1 meg per second is blindingly fast!!! :shock: 8) :thumbsup:

Actually it is the limited upload speed that makes many servers lag very badly. Download speed is also importnat, but people normally have good down speed. The server spits data to the cleint with the upload, thereofre bottle necks when that is limited. So I would venture to say that upload is more important. I've seen a few servers run much better on 750/750 ADSL then a 2000/250 cable. The extra upload power makes a huge difference.

The next problem concerning these super high speed connections is the same thing that happens with me and my 2800/375 cable. You can only download as fast as the other guy can upload. Even with 2800 down, I download some things slow as heck just because the other guy cant feed me more than 70 on his upload.

Now you also have to take into effect internet traffic and packet loss.... sigh.

While I am sure the fast bandwidfth connection will make a huge differnce in many things, I know mine does, it doesnt always mean you can download faster than the next guy. :)

[jhook]

Thanks Terry,
My connection will be used mutiplayer simming anyway but that is intersting news. I will try to keep it in mind. :thumbsup: 8)