Come with me on a voyage to the Future of AH

[Obear1971]

Was just remebering my old days at Warbirds, playing on a pentium P90 wihtout a 3DFX card and a 14,400 modem, and it was good, it was fun.
No translucent smoke, but spikey star pixcels.

I remebr getting my first 3DFX card the VooDoo 1, not even a 2d card just 3D and you had to route it through your old Graphics card, but boy the change it had on Wairbirds  

and this was No more that 5-6 years ago..... How things change.

Now most epoepl have cable access, pentium 2 is conciderd a really low end machine and graphics cards that make real life look a little dull

Thinking of what AH will be like in say another 5-6 years?

Computers would have changed radicly, proberly useing light chips makign Everything light yeasr away from what we have today.

Graphics cards that can produce near life images at blistering speeds

No one will be useing modems and the lowest from, of online connecton will prberly be cable, fiber optics may well be up and running.

Bandwidth becomes cheaper enablerling AH to use more

So more stuff can and dose get pumped down the web.


I can see smoke that actually is affected by other bodys like aircraft (smoke warping around the aircraft as it flys though)

Downed aircraft and tanks STAY on the terrain untill reset.

Full motion aviators (in the aircraft and vehicles)with the ability to impose your image on its head. see a guy moving about inside his cockpit, looking across to you.

Deprise will take on a whole new meaning, bulding shrapnell flying and hitting your aircraft will do damage.

flames will have in a top notch particle engine, lookign like the real thing.

Dynamic sea, with waves crashing on the shore, CV's sway in the swells of the riseig and falling sea.

Not only will AH voice be near perfect sound quality but you also will ahve a live cam showing you the person though there web cam.

REal time weather, lightning storms, snow blizards seterling on the terrain, and then melting later.

Aircraft damage shows EVERY bullet hole  acuratly.

Alot more animation, see the guy slide back the canopy and climb out fo his cockpit, dirt and mud gettign thrown up in the air when ditchen on grass creating a large rut that will stay there.

Larger populated areas of the map with lareg towns, valleys with waterfalls.

See the tress and bush getiign blowne about in the wind.

I could go on and i problery have  

roll on the next 5 years

[Qnm]

Imagine the physics modeling.

[Revvin]

And in 5 years time someone will still squeak because their framerate is low on their PII 300 with 32MB of memory

[Obear1971]

lol rev

[skernsk]

I'm saving one room in my house for conversion to the "Holideck"

[Puck]

I'm still wating for HiTech to get off his lazy butt and port AH so I can run it on my ASCI White  

Frame rate listed in moles...  

[Taiaha]

Also one of my favorite past-times, imagining how it will all look in the near future!  I agree with most of your points; flight and damage modelling has come such a long way, that the next wave advances in online environments are going to be in the area of terrain and environmental interactivity (all of the stuff you mention such as moving pilots, visible detailed bullet damage, etc., is already available in stand alone sims now, so it's definitely otw for online ones).

Things I wouldn't like to see that are on your list: web cam images, and AH voice that is much better than it is now (I find that the slightly grainy quality and the even the problems actually add to my feeling of immersion).

Things I'm sceptical about: the whole broadband revolution.  I actually wouldn't be surprised if in five years time a substantial proportion of us (especially when you remember how many players are not in the US) are still going to be playing over dial-ups.  And this is because broadband is not a technical issue, as much as it is a regulatory one, and both government and broadband providers show no signs of getting their heads out of their collective tulips any time soon here in the US, and the situation is even worse in many places in Europe, NZ, Australia, etc. (can't count the number of horror stories from my former squad mates about just trying to get broadband (let alone good broadband) at various places round England).

I think one of the real advances, therefore, will not be in expanding the size of the pipe, but in improving netcode protocols to push more information through pipes that remain frustratingly small.  Online gaming will benefit from new server configurations that will reduce the amount of information that has to be transferred back and forth from players, and from emerging technology that will "over-drive" antiquated dialups.

[Tac]

I think the real question would be...

if the 38 is fixed by then?

[Octavius]

Ripsnort, old and gray, will still be asking for his P61.  

"...I've been asking for 10 years already.. patiently I wait.. they will listen eventually... line forms behind me!"  :D:D

[Thorns]

5 or 6 years from now........lol  

Complete virtual cockpit flight simulators will be the rage.  Throw on a pair of 360 degrees 3D motion goggles, connected to what looks like a sony walkman(super box), coupled with a wireless super hi-speed Internet connection, and of course don't forget a "virtual" babe(model of your choice) flying with you saying, "base under attack, let me make you feel better baby" as she is giving you a virtual " "...........  "Is it real or memorex?"

Thorns

[lord dolf vader]

YEA!! all of it  i just cant wait

[BNM]

<--- Sportin' wood!

[Wardog]

I know somewhere in my collection of floppies disk that i still have the AW-DOS CGA FE kicking around. To see progression in the Online Air Combat you need to have been around back when a 286 or 386 with 1/2 meg video and 2 meg of ram rocked.

Even when AW-DOS SVGA FE came out some guys still flew with the CGA FE cause the cons where big hugh black dots.

People were crying and whining that WBs was $2.00 an hour, before WBs we payed from $12.00 to $15.00 an hour. Was hourly for hour provider then hourly for Gene, Dephi, Concentric. These kids now a days dont know how lucky they are even if they payed a flat rate of $50.00 a month. Now at $15.00 a month for AH i feel guilty of ripping HT & Pyro off

We have come a long way...........

Dog out............

[Obear1971]

Roger that Wardog. i never payed AW but i remeber coughing up $2.00 an hour for warbirds and also per hour charge for my server provider, AND per hour charge for the phone call

Also back then server providers ddint just have one national number to call you called up the NEAREST number to your area, if you lived way out from any Area you were paying long distance.

I remeber my local number beeing offline or constantly buzy and dialing into london (next rnearest number) to geta connection.

LONG bellybutton buff runs were definatly a luxary and none of the AFK BRB, it was logging OFF BRB lol

An avarage WB bill per month if i used it a fair bit was $120, plus the ISP charge per month and my phone bill (not just WB's) anything around the $200 - $250

Th3 ammount of money it cost back then to be a dedicated Virtual Pilot was masive, i could have rented another house for the price

Ahh well that was back in the heady days of being single and no one to pay for but myself

Thats why it always makes me laugh when i se peopel moaning about 14 bucks for unlimited use, or in WWIIonline people crying when they realised they was going to be CHARGED money to use it LOL

[Gremlin]

WTG on the imaginative post Obear,  I do hope you are right.  I agree with Thorns that virtual 3D devices will be the hot thing.  Perhaps we will have 'Force Feedback' cockpit seats, which will give you a bumpy ride.  I can see the posts now.  'Played AH for 5 hours and heaved all over my keyboard'.  Airmess will change his CPID to 'Air-sick'.

I can also see pilot wounds and deaths being accurately modelled.

Rude will still have no shortages of nominees for 'Whine of the Week'.



Gremlin.