[HN Gopher] Linux Air Combat: free, lightweight and open-source ... ___________________________________________________________________ Linux Air Combat: free, lightweight and open-source combat flight simulator Author : nateb2022 Score : 163 points Date : 2023-07-30 17:57 UTC (5 hours ago) (HTM) web link (askmisterwizard.com) (TXT) w3m dump (askmisterwizard.com) | anthk wrote: | Amazing changes to GL117 =) | | Now if they did the same to ACM... | | Call me odd, but these games were insta-fun. Run, load the levels | in seconds, instant fun. | | The same with Search and Rescue 2. Or the Marathon series. Simple | graphics, but engaging gameplay. | dargscisyhp wrote: | Folks here are harsh this looks like a lot of fun. | 29athrowaway wrote: | Looks as if OpenGL support was added to Temple OS. | slicktux wrote: | Must have been a pain porting it to machine code...lol | mcpackieh wrote: | Surely it would use Holy C. | samstave wrote: | To The CPU, The GPU and the Magic Smoke, we prey for n00bs. | declan_roberts wrote: | Amazing how low the bar is for FOSS games on Linux. | nativeit wrote: | It sounds like an excellent platform for artists who might | not have a lot of coding skills to contribute graphics | toward. Kind of the point, in my mind. | anonymfus wrote: | I believe it looks and feels like this because of | limitations of SDL 1.2, and not because of the lack of art | contributions. | anthk wrote: | SDL 1.2 could call GL just fine. And it does. No, the | game was done like that on purpose, on being light and | playable. | | Any serious libre gamer with a big graphics card to test | would just launch Flightgear at 4K with the ALS effects | on, real time weather and a crazy draw distance over 30 | kms with all the shading FX' on. And lots of tweaks that | made clouds looks like clouds and not fancy textures or | barely recreated shaders. | dmonitor wrote: | open source doesn't really mesh well with artists, so most | open source games just have terrible graphical assets | anthk wrote: | Yes, like Flare, sure. | | Saying that it's like saying every AAA game it's like an | unoptimized Ubisoft crap. | anthk wrote: | One of the most sold games ever has blocky graphics not much | better than a boosted SNES on 3D. | | Do you realize this graphics settings are done on retro | purposes? | | Go check Flightgear videos with ALS settings and graphics to | the max. It might not be MSFS, but for something that _also_ | runs under an HD3000 iGPU /UHD600, the graphics are | astounding for a community based project. | | Also, MSFS gets rendered assets and maps from Bing maps, | something Flightgear did with Google Maps with a custom | build... 10 years ago. | alpaca128 wrote: | Right now one of the most hyped Battlefield alternatives is | Battlebit which looks not very modern but apparently plays so | much better than whatever EA put out in recent years that | people happily play it. | | Amazing how low the bar is for AAA games in terms of gameplay | and fun. | jkim1258 wrote: | Great point & example, but I'm curious how well that | translates to simulation games, where immersion is a large | part of the selling point, as opposed to fun & tight game | mechanics full of balanced flow & fiero. | anthk wrote: | I watched my younger cousing playing the new Rainbow Six. | Compared to the fist one, they are completely | "arcadized". Just a narrow step down from Urban Terror on | "cinematic gameplay". "Realist", but not so much. | | Graphics, yes. But the actual gameplay... a joke compared | to the first Rainbow Six and tactical matches on SWAT3. | Nition wrote: | Battlebit and Minecraft (which was mentioned in another | reply here) won't ever actually be mistaken for a game from | the 1990s, there's way too much detail into the far | distance, the lighting is too good, and the UI looks | relatively modern (especially in Battlebit). | | Linux Air Combat on the other hand really does look the way | games looked 30 years ago, and the UI looks worse. | | It's fine, we don't need good graphics in everything. But | it _will_ hurt its popularity in a way that Battlebit is | not hurt, because people can tell the difference between | intentionally making a game with a retro look vs. just not | having the art resources for good graphics. | jacquesm wrote: | Interesting that they decided to stick with Sourceforge after the | malware debacle. | paulcarroty wrote: | Sourceforge has new owners AFAIR. | badsectoracula wrote: | And by "new" we mean since 2016 - the current owners own | Sourceforge for almost double the time the previous owners | that bundled malware did :-P | joecool1029 wrote: | SF has been through like 2 or 3 owners since then, ancient | history at this point. | samstave wrote: | Maybe, but after that - I havent used them in a very very | long time - so their credibility is lost to me, for good. | chucksmash wrote: | As is SF itself. | | Is there anything to recommend it now, aside from inertia of | already being on SF? | badsectoracula wrote: | It was only sold once after the debacle, the new owners just | changed names at some point. | iLoveOncall wrote: | Yeah, I don't think "lightweight" is very honest when the game | looks like this. | elmomle wrote: | Sure it is. Nothing in the word "lightweight" implies stellar | graphics. If anything, it implies that heavy and nonessential | things (like cutting-edge graphics) are totally out of scope. | CptTightpants wrote: | [dead] | dharmab wrote: | y copy of DCS World (a popular combat flight sim) is around is | 426GB. This is positively featherweight for the genre. | nocoiner wrote: | Oh come on, surely that's an overstate... | | > Size: 458 GB | | Damn. | iLoveOncall wrote: | You're comparing something that literally looks like a movie | to a game that nobody would even dare giving away for free in | cereal packs. | anthk wrote: | Untill you play it. I said the same in ~2003 with the first | Deus Ex. Dull graphics, not the best usage of the first | Unreal engine, cliche conspiacies almost straight from the | X-Files series and common urban legens. | | Yet the emergent gameplay and the semi free-roaming | playability made it better than most FPS crapware being | shold from 2002 to 2009 save for Half Life 2 and Crysis. | | This might not be the best game on the flying combat genre, | but don't forget that these games are built for fun and if | they work on multiplayer, for quick matches quickly | forgetting the rest. | | Heck, a lot of pro FPS players put the texture settings at | the core mininum and with a 1920x1080 resolution at best so | they can spot the rest of the players at a quick glance... | badsectoracula wrote: | For a 56MB AppImage binary it looks very good. | wiseowise wrote: | > New: LAC is now available in a special, precompiled, optimized | version for Valve Corporation's fabulous "Steam Deck" portable | gaming PC. All of the controls are configured by default for best | use, and it's easy to fly in LAC's online, multi-player, server- | based missions without ever needing a keyboard. Even voice comms | among players are supported! | | Perfect. | DrNosferatu wrote: | Is there anything like a source port of Chuck Yeager's Air | Combat? | | I suppose this is not it. | tmtvl wrote: | The first entry of the Ace Combat flight arcade (as opposed to | flight sim) series was released under the title of Air Combat, so | I hope Namco ain't gonna bop them for trademark infringement. | nateb2022 wrote: | According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namco), | Namco went defunct on 31 March 2006 | jkim1258 wrote: | I think it'd be safe to assume that Bandai Namco holds the IP | of the former Namco | wtallis wrote: | It _merged_ in 2006, with Bandai. The combined company is | anything but defunct, and their IP is not abandoned or up for | grabs. | sufficer wrote: | Aces High 3 is a really fun similar fighting ww2 based combat sim | almostnormal wrote: | It's probably the best of its kind (mmo), but the number of | players is constantly (slowly) decreasing. Mostly from players | getting too old or dieing. Alternatives: Warbirds has even | lower numbers. I'm not sure about the current state of the war | in the air in WW2-Online. | | Can an open source game of this kind find players? Probably not | many, but possibly dedicated ones. The problem with that target | group is that someone will reference the charts from the POH or | from published test flight data and complain that the | simulation does not match the numbers. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2023-07-30 23:00 UTC)