Avionics. With F-15C and A-10A pilots on the test team, we now have the final data we need to accurately recreate the avionics systems for these aircraft. Be it the APG-63 radar of the Eagle or the Maverick TVM display of the Hog, the avionics programmer is hard at work to complete these aircraft. Concurrently, he has also created new avionics systems for another new aircraft, the Su-25. In addition to a completely new HUD compared to the Flanker and Fulcrum, he has added new features such as electrical systems power up, manually adjusting barometric altimeter, and separate engine start up. Once these three aircraft are complete, we very much hope to revisit the Flanker and Fulcrum, if time allows. We realize that some consumers desire changes to the existing Russian avionics; however, given that these systems are already fully functional and the western systems are not, we must first focus on the US jets.

Graphics. The new graphics engine I spoke of earlier has been fully integrated and you can see the results in some of the recent screen shots and videos on this site. We’re very pleased with the end-result and I believe we’ve created a visual world that will totally immerse the player. What you see now is fairly representative of what you will see in the final project. We’re particularly proud of the weather effects, environmental lighting, the 3D cockpits, and the very details terrain system. One of the goals of this project was to have great low AND high altitude terrain graphics. I believe Eagle Dynamics accomplished this is spades. However, some new models have not been incorporated (F/A-18C for example); many, many new skins have yet to be created; many of the special effects such as smoke and fire are still place-holders; and there is much tweaking to do of course.

Audio. Like the graphics, the team is at the point of just fixing bugs and tweaking the features. Be it the sound effects or radio voices, Eagle has embedded the ability to alter sound levels in the options menu. If you want a very realistic experience in the cockpit, you can reduce the wind, engine, and mechanical systems volume. If how you want the audio feedback, you can crank it up. It’s up to the player.

AI. The AI programmer has made some substantial improvements to the AI. For those Flanker 2.0 fliers, you’ll be pleased to know that the AI is much more survivable now. The AI will take effective defensive actions and take advantage of the Doppler clutter notch, terrain masking, split flights, ECM, chaff, and flares.

Missions. Work is progressing on the single and training missions and some talented folks within the community are creating these missions. Based on their prior work, I believe you’ll be quite pleased with the quality. In order to ensure that Lock On ships on time and at the highest quality, we will use hand-crafted missions rather than the dynamic system we had first envisioned. These hand-crafted missions will enable the builders to maximize game-play balance, provide a storyline, and create realistic unit compositions. Additionally, the Lock On campaigns will have random elements and the world-state is saved between missions (if you destroy bridge X in the first mission, it will still be destroyed in the second). We plan to have separate campaigns for the F-15C, A-10A, Su-27, and Su-25.

Matt Wagner
Producer
Ubi Soft Entertainment

The mission starts at the crack of dawn and the sun is just peeking over the horizon through scattered clouds. As I settle into my jet, there's still a light layer of fog hugging the ground but visibility at altitude looks pretty good. My briefing gave me moderate winds at three altitude bands as well as forewarning me of moderate to severe turbulence at low and high altitude. Joy. After I bring the canopy down, I start up the jet and listen to the engines spool up to life. After confirming all systems are performing normally, I retard the throttles a bit and release the brakes shortly after tower gives me permission to taxi runway 21. My four ship of Enfield flight is assigned a fighter sweep over the FEBA. All three of my wingmen affirm their taxi as they call rolling, and I see the clamshell doors of their shelters slide apart as each Eagles rolls out. As the first of the flight to reach the runway threshold, tower gives me permission to take off on runway 21. I set the flaps to half-flap and stand on the brakes as I gradually increase the throttles to full military. I then release the brakes and advance the throttles to full afterburner. The sensation of speed down the runway is breathtaking, and before I know it, I've rotated and gently pitch up. After cleaning up the jet, tower informs me of nearby traffic as I steer towards my first INS steerpoint. As I climb, I hear my flight calling their takeoff rolls and gear up calls to tower. Everyone gets in the air safely.

Leveling off at 25k AGL, I activate my APG-63 radar and set it to a 60-degree azimuth sweep, at 4-bar scan, at 80 nm search range, with the elevation scan set to level. The rest of my flight has joined up at this point and I instructed my wingman (Enfield 1-2) into a line abreast spread and I set the second element (Enfield 1-3 and Enfield 1-4) in trail. I then have Enfield 1-2 also active his radar, but I keep -3 and -4 silent behind us. Checking in with Olympus (E-3A AWACS) for bogy dope, Olympus gives us bandit vectors bearing 95 for 150, medium, flanking. Meaning the bandit group is at a bearing of 95 degrees, are 150 miles away, are at medium altitude, and are a flying a perpendicular course to my own. I then swing the flight to 95 and increase altitude to 30k and bring us just below supersonic.

My first indication of the bandit group appears on my tactical electronic warfare system (TEWS) scope with a 27-search strobe at 12 o'clock. What was one then grows to two and they are both on a constant bearing-coming at us or directly away. Punching the throttles up, I put the jet through the sound barrier and give Enfield 1-2 weapons free orders. Enfield 1-2 calls a contact consistent to the Olympus calls and soon after he calls that that he's offensive. At this time I get the first hits on my radar at 75 nautical miles (nm) using range while search (RWS) mode and it appears to be a two ship on an intercept vector. Pushing to 40 nm (and still approximately 20 nm to go to reach RMAX for an AIM-120B shot) the 27 (Su-27 Flanker B) strobe transitions to a steady in-ring strobe and I get a tone alert that indicates a single-track target (STT) lock on. Not a moment later, the strobe begins to blink and the TEWS is calling a missile launch. Apparently the Flankers have AA-10C "Bigstick" long-burn Alamos which out-range our AMRAAMs. Like me, my wingmen is also forced defensive and we both notch out and force the Flankers into a lookdown Doppler notch. Lighting up the ECM and releasing pre-emptive chaff, I trash the Alamo and the Flanker's lock soon after the shot was taken. My wingman was equally successful. At this point we're down to 15k feet AGL.

As Enfield 1-2 and I cranked out defensive, I put -3 and -4 into the fight by taking their radars off standby and telling them to pince vertically. With the Flankers are looking for us to pop out of the notch down low, it's my hope that -3 and -4 will be well above the Flanker's search volume. I've still got the two 27 strobes on the TEWS, but they are now in the outer ring (search mode). I toggle the radar to track-while-scan (TWS) mode and cycle the active weapon to the AIM-120B AMRAAM. Cranking back into the threats hard, I reduce my scan volume now that I have a good idea of their bearing and I increase the elevation scan setting because I'm fairly sure I'm now in a look-up situation. I quickly get a radar tally on the targets, and two additional contacts in a deep-trail. Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) has no squawk and classifies them as hostile. Using the target designation cursor (TDC) I slew it on top of the left leading bandit at 22 nm. I designate this target and it's now my primary designated target (PDT). I then slew the TDC to the right leading bandit and designate it as my secondary designated target. At this point I have launch data and cues for my PDT including fly-out time, range, closure, angle off tail, speed, altitude, and bearing. Being as I'm not in STT, I still have no non-cooperative target recognition (NTCR) information. At 18 nm I fox my first AMRAAM and the system automatically gives me a steering dot and allowable steering error (ASE) circle for the SDT. When the SDT reaches 17 nm, I fox a second time. At this point I retard the throttles and check left in order to maximize my f-pole. With a missile inbound on the PDT, I have a time to active (TTA) readout on the heads up display (HUD) and vertical situation display (VSD). When the TTA reaches zero, I know that the AMRAAM has turned on its own radar and I no long need to support the missile with my own radar. The counter now changes to a time to impact (TTI), which will indicate the estimated time for the AMRAAM to destroy the bandit. Once both missiles have reached TTA, I crank away a second time and deploy addition chaff and flares.

At around the time of my PDT's TTA, Enfield 1-2 calls out a good kill. One down. Soon afterwards, Enfield 1-2 calls fox again and -3 and 4 announce they are engaging bandits. Slewing my view to the right, I notice two specs just above treetop level and heading towards -3 and -4. I crank the jet around to the right and set my scan volume down to zero feet. I quickly switch to radar bore sight and cycle to AIM-7M Sparrow. For a moment I get a brief lock on the lead bandit, but the lock is quickly trashed when they activate their jammers. At this point I've got to angle on jam (AOJ) strobes running the length of the VSD. Using the TDC, I designate the right strobe and command a home on jam (HOJ) Sparrow lock. I get a good HOJ lock and fire a single Sparrow. The missile flies true and blows the left wing off the lead Flanker.

During this engagement I rapidly close with the other low-flyer only to see him pitch up into a zoom climb directly below -3 and -4. Before I can intervene, the Flanker launches two AA-11 Archer missiles and they remove -3's tail assembly. -4 does a maximum break with flares but the Flanker follows, just outside his elbow. Now within visual range (WVR), I switch to AIM-9M Sidewinder and place the radar in vertical auto-acquisition mode. Climbing up to the fight, I see the Flanker win the angles fight and launch two Archers into -4's Eagle. -4 punches out a few moments later. Now rapidly merging with the Flanker, Olympus calls out merged and I get a good lock radar and heater lock with good tone. I uncage the 'winder seeker and I get a good track on the target. I let two 'winders go from near-RMIN range and remove this third Flanker from the fight.

During this part of the flight, Enfield 1-2 had been calling fox shots and tally calls, but I suppose I was a bit preoccupied. Calling Olympus, I get a good vector to the southeast and I wheel around. Only a half dozen miles from me are Enfield 1-2 and the remaining flanker is a circle fight, Not wanted to risk morting my own wingman I drop into the fight vertically and position myself in the Flanker's elbow. Even with an original energy advantage, I'm already losing angles on the Flanker. Bringing up my remaining 'winder, I place the reticule over the Flanker and get a solid town. After uncaging, the seeker is clued to the Flanker and I fox. Seeing the incoming heater, the Flanker pours out the flares and manages to trash the missile. With just a single Sparrow left, I switch to Flood mode for a Sparrow shot. Placing the bandit in the continuous wave (CW) Flood illumination footprint, I launch my last missile only to see it fall behind the target because it couldn't cut the corner with the available G.

Switching to guns, I over-perform the jet and get the nose around enough to get an auto-gun lock. While I'm able to get the lead computing optical sight (LCOS) on the Flanker for a fleeting snap shot, my rounds go wide and I find myself with no energy. Knowing the Flanker will make quick work on me in a slow-speed, high-alpha fight, I bury my nose and attempt to get some speed back on the jet. Rolling inverted and pulling down, the Flanker moves in for the kill when I hear fox from 2 from Enfield 1-2! Without room to run or time to react, the Flanker goes down in smoke and flames.

Forming back up with Enfield 1-2 and tucking him in close echelon formation, we exit the sweep area and head back towards home via Olympus's directions. About 30 miles from home we contact approach control, which gives us routing and then hands us off to tower. In turn, tower provides me permission to land and the required runway heading. Upon landing I open the canopy and taxi to the ramp as tower instructs. Once full stopped on the ramp, I shut the engines down and thank the heavens I made it back in one piece.

Matt Wagner
Producer
Ubi Soft Entertainment

As a result of our releasing some impressive Lock On screen shots, many folks have been bemoaning that they think it will take a super-computer to run Lock On. Not true. Given that I create most of the screen shots, I work with the latest builds regularly. I currently utilize a system that is 1.8 MHz (Intel), 256 RAM, with a GeForce 4 video card. Running under this configuration with FSAA at 4x, I get around 25+ fps (that's an estimate) with detail settings set to maximum. Note that this is with no optimization and large portions of the graphics engine have yet to be integrated. Meaning, the shipped product fps figures may (probably) differ wildly. We just don't know yet. However, if you want to run the game with all the bells and whistles, you'll have to have a fast machine, there's no way around that. We're not trying to hide anything, but until the entire game is together and we can gauge realistic performance, it would be premature and misleading to quote system specs at this time. Lock On will have several levels of detail providing users with less powerful systems to optimize performance.

One area of the game that has generated a lot of questions is the Dynamic Battle Generator. Unfortunately, the key programmer responsible for this feature has left the developer for other career opportunities. This makes it unreasonable to expect that we would be able to complete the DBG as originally planned in the time remaining. As such, we have been evaluating a new dynamic campaign system that, in many ways, would be more powerful and more expandable than the original DBG system. However, until we have fully evaluated this alternate campaign engine and have solidified the design details, I'm afraid I can't go into any more detail at this time. Suffice to say though that we remain determined to have an immersive, player-configurable, campaign with unlimited replay ability.

The next big phase of Lock On-currently underway--will be the integration of the new graphics engine. While the team has included a few graphical effects, independent of the new engine, (like specular lighting and water lighting), the bulk of the new effects have yet to be integrated. We've seen these new effects and we are convinced that this will likely lead to an even more impressive visuals and increased frame rates. As I mentioned above though, it is impossible for us to quote final product frame rates until the new engine and other components are integrated.

Although I often don't comment on threads in the Wish List forum, I do indeed read every thread there. Well, perhaps I skim over the "I demand XXXX aircraft!" threads (see my previous journal entries). Despite the design being locked months ago, there are some intriguing ideas there that may have application in possible future products.

The good news is that the progress on Lock On: Modern Air Combat continues to exceed our expectations in just about every way. The bad news is that because of setbacks such as the loss of some key personnel to career changes and illness, we have asked for more time on the development schedule. Our new planned completion date for the product will be at the end of January 2003. We have requested this additional development time to ensure we are able to provide both the dynamic campaign system and the quality and reliability of an outstanding product. We appreciate your understanding and support. I will be providing these journal entries on a more regular basis. With all of the new features being implemented in the next few months, there will be some great stuff to show via this website. Please keep checking for updated information.

Matt Wagner
Producer
Ubi Soft Entertainment

From 16 to 22 February, I spent my days and evenings with Lock On’s developer, Eagle Dynamics, in Moscow, Russia. Surprisingly, the weather was quite nice for Moscow in February and except for a short blizzard, the weather managed to say above freezing the entire time. Delightful! Compared to my last trip, back in December, it felt like Tahiti. Eagle Dynamics is composed of about 35 staff members that include programmers, artists, designers, IT techs, and administration. They have a very varied past but their average level of education is quite extraordinary. It is not uncommon to run into members with doctorates in physics, aeronautical engineering, mathematics, and computer science. One thing that they do all share in common is the dedication to the project and the joy of a challenging job.

My objectives for this trip were two fold. The first was to work with my executive producer (Carl Norman) and the Eagle Dynamics partnership of Nick Gray and Igor Tishin to discuss where to go after Lock On. Although I’m sure many of you are very curious about the content of these discussions, it’s far too premature to be announcing anything in public. Stay tuned.

The second goal of my stay was to evaluate the level of project progress and provide feedback on new technology and features. Most of this work involved viewing aspects of the new engine being developed for Lock On and being educated why it is so crucial for Lock On’s success. With every new simulation title, the buying public expects/demands more advanced graphics AND smooth gameplay. Although the Flanker 2.x engine was a powerful one, it was determined essential that it be heavily revamped to bring Lock On to its full potential. We do not want Lock On to look and play like a follow-on to Flanker; we want it to set new standards in its own right and be a graphical leap in technology--analogous to Su-27 Flanker to Flanker 2.0. Some of the more impressive features of the new engine include:

1- Parallel threading. This feature allows Lock On to rendering massive numbers of objects at great viewing distances without the associated frame rate hit, object pop-up, and load pauses. In the past, most flight simulation games have had to make the choice of rendering large numbers of ground objects but limiting rendering distance with either fogging or object pop-up; or, including fewer ground objects but moving the rendering distances out. Both methods being used to maintain acceptable frame rates. During a demonstration of the parallel threading code, it was possible to approach large cities and forests without any discernable pop-up, fogging, or frame rate hit. I was speechless. This same technology will allow missions to contain many, many more active objects than was possible in Flanker 2.x and not suffer frame rate loss. This parallel threading is just one of several optimization efforts being devised that will allow Lock On to run with great graphics while maintaining high frame rates.

2- Lighting effects. The new engine is coded around the advanced features of DirectX 8 and the new line of GPU graphic processors. Although we’ve already released some related effects such as object specular lighting and the light-sourced, environmentally bump mapped water; some new effects will be coming online in parallel with the engine. These include per-pixel shaders, dynamic shadow casting, point light sourcing, engine heat shimmer, and complete environmental lighting. We should have some screen shots in the coming months that will show these features.

3- Special effects. Although many of these have not been integrated into the engine, technology demonstrations, that will be virtually identical to the runtime, were shown and these will be a quantum leap from those in Lock On. Be it missile trails, explosions, rain, snow, lightning, or fires they all looked very good.

On this trip Vladimir showed me the new ultra-high resolution terrain textures that have been emplaced in the game for the first time. These textures range from 5 to 30 cm in resolution and make a tremendous difference to the look and feel of the game. For the fist time, the detail of the objects, the sea, and the ground all match in detail level and the effect is just what we hoped for. Now begins the long process of re-texturing the world. Once these textures have been combined with the graphic effects of the new engine, Lock On will begin to finally look like our design goal.

One of my favorite parts of visiting the team is seeing the new objects being worked on. The artists are still in the process of recreating the Flanker 2.x objects to meet the new detail level of Lock On. Rather than simply reskinning existing objects in new, high-resolution textures, the artists are actually recreating the full 3D models. New models for the F/A-18C, MiG-23, MiG-27, and Tu-22M are all looking good and I should be posting some screen shots of these in the next couple of months.

In addition to the advancements of the graphics engine, the Lock On sound system is coming along very nicely. Alexander and I spent the better part of an afternoon reviewing cockpit sound effects including 3D, spatial engine sounds that are coming along VERY nicely. The Flanker sounds just like a Flanker and an A-10 sounds just like an A-10. The sounds are much more visceral and dynamic than were present in Flanker 2.x. In addition to the engine sounds, other cockpit sounds such as speed variable wind, buffeting, and mechanics (flaps, gear, etc.) are sounding solid and only need level tweaking. From the external view, a sonic boom has been incorporated. The other aspect of the sound system that is making great progress is the radio communication system. Using a parsed-speech system, the Lock On radio chatter is many orders of magnitude more detailed than previous Flanker games. Although using a parsed-speech system, Alexander has created a very nice system that eliminates the unevenness heard in some titles. In conjunction with Slava’s new AI routines, radio interaction with friendly elements is on track and will add a much more immersive element to gameplay. I’ll be discussing the new radio menus and radio interaction in a future journal entry.

A subject near and dear to me are the avionics systems and Anton and I spent a few hours going over the F-15C’s HUD and radar modes (APG-63 baseline). At this point, the navigation modes are done except for debugging and the weapons modes of guns, RWS, TWS, auto-acquisition modes and STT are complete. With the exception of HOJ and AIM-7 flood sub-modes, the AIM-7 is just about done with only AIM-120 and AIM-9 employment to go. As I mentioned in my previous journal entry, avionics are perhaps one of the most easily overlooked aspects of the game in regards to difficulty and time. Once the radar and HUD systems are done for the F-15C, then it’s on to the RWR and PACS systems. After that, there’s a fair amount of clean up to do on the A-10. Now that the optimization has been completed for the avionics code, progress has been much more rapid and it looks like the F-15C and A-10 should be wrapped up in the next couple of months. Assuming we have time left after that, we’re already investigating what it would take to improve the level of fidelity for the Russian aircraft avionics systems.

All in all it was a very good trip and the team is making steady progress towards a summer or fall 2002 release of Lock On. Lock On is currently in the transition period of the old technology to new and you should expect to see some rather dramatic changes in the coming months.

For my first journal entry, I would like to comment on some common themes I’ve noticed on the official Lock On forums.

First, as is stated in the official Lock On FAQ, we will not be adding any additional flyable aircraft to Lock On. I fully realize that many people would love to fly a Tornado, F-16, Mirage, F-14, etc. in Lock On, but it’s simply not going to happen—in this first Lock On product. There appears to be many misperceptions about what adding a flyable aircraft entails and I’d like to clear some of this up.

One of Lock On’s primary goals is to create an authentic and realistic combat environment. Key to this is recreating the jets as accurately as we can. Lock On is not a survey simulation that will include many aircraft with a low fidelity of modeling. Rather, we want to concentrate on a select number or aircraft and model their distinct qualities as accurately as we can. As to why Lock On includes the flyable jets it does, please read the FAQ. Creating flyable aircraft is a massive undertaking and it takes a great deal of time and resources. Some of this includes creating the avionics, cockpit, systems, 3D model, the flight dynamics, the avionics, the articulations, the weapons set, damage models, and the avionics. As you may have guessed, doing correct avionics is a very difficult and time-consuming endeavor; much more so than I think most people realize. On top of all of this, there are related matters that complicate things. For example, if we were to include a Tornado or Mirage, we would have to include the full set of British or French radio communications, the correct promotion structure and medals, and the correct support units. Another example: if we were to include the F-14, most consumers would then demand front seat / back seat gameplay, full carrier communications system (as many as five different parts), deck crews, deck taxi, etc.

As you can see, there’s a great deal that goes into adding a new flyable aircraft. Would I like to add some more flyable aircraft? You bet! However, we have a finite time and budget and we’ll do the best product we can with those resources. Adding aircraft is not as simple as placing a new 3D model and cockpit it the game. If we are going to have an aircraft flyable in Lock On, we want to do it right. To add additional aircraft at this point would only hurt the product in regards to quality.

The second topic I would like to comment on is the expectation that some consumers have that Lock On must have every great feature from every flight simulation ever created. Given five plus years and a few million dollars, we might be able to do just that. However, back in reality we have to make hard decisions on feature content in order to make a great title and meet our ship date. There’s no way we’ll be able to include every desired feature; I sincerely wish we could though. To say Lock On will be unplayable without such things as dedicated stand off jammer aircraft or a clickable cockpit is false. While such features would enhance the title, they would in no way compromise the enjoyment players will have with the game.

Third and finally, given that we still have several months of development to go, and during that time features can change dramatically, there are many aspects of Lock On that I can’t comment on. Be it hardware requirements, the Dynamic Battle Generator, Multiplay, or specifics about the avionics, it’s simply too early to comment. When these and other areas are more fleshed out, details will be forthcoming.

Assuming Lock On does well in the retail place, we hope to continue the franchise line and include new flyable aircraft and new features at a later date. For now though, Lock On’s feature set is closed in order to create a great, unified product that encompasses our design vision.