With a dynamic campaign, a fully integrated ground war, and sporting the latest technology in radar (APG 68) and avionics, F4 will simulate the newer Block 52 model F16.

In a nutshell, Falcon 4.0 is a Windows 95, multiplayer air-combat simulator set in the Korean peninsula, with a real-time war in progress in which you take the role of a single pilot in an F-16C Block 52. The recent release of the demo has us all hungry for more. Here is a lookdown cockpit shot..

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By the way, if you are running the F4 demo under Canopus Pure 3d, add the line "Pure3D=gr3dfx.mpr" without the quotes to the MPR97.ini file in the demo directory to get the Pure3d working properly....

A few weeks back we fielded an interview to Leon Rosenshein, Lead Producer for Falcon 4. This is one of the most extensive interviews we have ever done, so we owe a special thanks to Leon, Robin and the Microprose team for the time they invested answering our questions! Below is that interview, interspersed with shots you can click on to bring up larger images...

Csim: Thanks for your time Leon! What is your relationship to Microprose and the production of Falcon 4?

Leon: I am the Producer and Lead Engineer for the Falcon 4.0 project.

Csim: When was Falcon 3 released and what in your view has made it a classic?

Leon: Falcon 3.0, released in 1991, set a new standard in the flight sim industry. In my opinion what made F3 a classic was that it was the first sim to provide a significant amount of realism, along with a dynamic campaign, and multiplayer capabilities.

Csim: It seems weve been hearing of F4 forever! How long has it actually been in process? Why has it taken so long?

Leon: The team has been working on F4 for just under three years now. The biggest reason it has taken this long is that we've set the bar so high. We decided a long time ago that just doing an SVGA upgrade to F3 would not be enough. Every aspect of the game has been updated to reflect today's technology, both in the A/C as well as the computer running the game.

Csim: What are the design goals for F4?

Leon: In short, to make the most engaging, realistic simulation of the F-16 available today. Our goal is to be the best in every area of the game, including gameplay, graphics, flight modeling, avionics, campaign model and networking.

Csim: Can you put F4 in perspective for us, comparing it to other Viper sims like F16, Back to Baghdad, etc?

Leon: As I said above our goal is to excel in every area. While some games might have done one thing well (B2B's avionics for example), no one has done everything well.

Csim: Have there been actual military people involved in the production?

Leon: Yes, as with Falcon 3, Pete Bonanni, an F-16 pilot w/ the Viginia Air National Guard has been involved with us since the begining. Also, we have been communicating with several other military sources for our threat laydown and electronic order of battle.

Csim: In what areas will F4 break new ground?

Leon: F4 breaks new ground in 4 major areas.

The first and most obvious is the graphics. We have applied photo-textures to the entire theater of operations. While some games have used satellitte data for their textures, we have chosen to use aerial photography in order to get the requiered 4 meter resolution.

The second is the aircraft/avionics. We have modeled the F16C Block 50/52, with an accurate representation of the AN/APG 68 radar and the Fire Control Computer that goes with it. The radar has over 10 different modes, each modeled in detail with its own stengths and limitations.

The third is the dynamic campaign. When flying in campaign mode the war goes on continusly. There are no 8 hour planning blocks, and things could change while you are flying, and you could find youself re-tasked in the middle of a mission. Also, time spent in the outside the cockpit counts. You could be looking at the INTEL briefing for a mission, and suddenly be scrambled to protect the base against incoming aircraft.

The fourth major upgrade is the networking. F4 has been designed from the ground up as a networked, multiplayer sim. When you are flying there is no difference between local and remote entities. By building around a DIS like model we have been able to construct a networking model that is limited by network bandwith rather than number of players.

Csim: Tell us more about the F16 we will be flying. What is significant about the Block 52 variant?

Leon: As I said earlier, the game revolves around the F-16C block 50/52. The only difference between the two blocks is the engine, the Block 50 has the GE engine, and the 52 has the Pratt Whitney engine. The C model is the significant part. The C has the newer AN/APG-68 radar, Aim120 capability, and the Harm Targeting System which allows the F-16 to perform the Wild Weasel roll. In addition to that, it has dual MFDs, and a redesigned cockpit from the A model used in Falcon 3.

Csim: Design notes on F4 give us reason to expect top notch modellig in avionics and flight modelling. How far has this been pressed? Is it possible to induce a spin?

Leon: We've pressed the flight model as far as possible. Pete Bonanni and his squadron mates have been flying the game and passing the details back to us. It is possible to both spin and deep stall the flight model, but it is hard to do, just like in the real thing.

Csim: How much has real world physics been integrated into the modelling? Will we be able to land on the runway if one of our main gear is damaged and hold the aircraft until we lose sufficient lift on the wing to keep the ac level?

Leon: We've put as much physics in as the CPU would hold. You will be able to land on one wheel, and hold the other side up, or land gear up completely, but in that case you have to set it down much more gently, and the A/C will be in the maintainance shop for a few days.

Csim: I understand radar modelling has received great attention. How many modes will we have?

Leon: There are over 10 different radar modes. The most important IMHO are ACM (Air Combat Mode), RWS (Range While Search), GM (Ground map) and GMT (Ground Moving Target). Each of these modes, as well as their sub-modes and the other major modes has it's own stengths and weaknesses, so knowing which one to use can give you a big advantage.

Csim: How will you make this sophisticated simulation accessible to the novice? Are there training missions? If so, how are they laid out?

Robin: (Robin Heydon, Senior Software Engineer) There are a number of training missions that will introduce the aircraft, its flight characteristics and tactical awareness with the avionics. You will start with the introducion to the flight characteristics like turn rates at varying speeds, followed by landing and navigation. Then we show you all the weapons systems and radars, and finish with BFM (Basic Fighter Maneuvers). Oh and don't forget the Air-to-Air Refueling.

Also, as a way to ease people into the game we have also made sure to include three different levels of avionics, starting with the arcadish "see everyone within 80 NM in front and behind me", then a midlevel "see everything in front of me", and then the real radar. Targeting is similarly scaled, with easy modes auto-locking, and the harder modes requiring the player to do the work.

Csim: How much of the manual will be devoted to ACM?

Leon: We are writing a whole chapter on combat tactics. Pete Bonnani (Author of Art of the Kill) will be writing this.

Csim: Lets talk about the AI. Will AI pilots use the same flight model as the virtual player? Will they have realistic loadouts and weight restrictions? Will they have the same G force limits?

Leon: One thing we have done to enforce fairness is to use the exact same flight model for all aircraft (changing data as needed if course). Our AI thinks and acts like a pilot, using the stick, throttle, and rudder to fly the plane, and pushing the approriate switches to control the avionics.

Csim: Will AI pilots skill increase over time?

Leon: Yes.

Csim: Some simulations are now taking into account the decreasing capacity of the pilot to withstand high g forces. How have these forces and their effect on the pilot been modelled in F4?

Leon: Yes, G load over time is part of the equation used to calculate how "blacked out" a pilot is.

Refueling shots contributed by Pete Hawk.

Csim: Mid air refueling has come a long way this past year and looks to be taking another step in F22: ADF. Will F4 take this on?

Robin: We have air refueling, and its hard. In the Campaign, there will also be a tanker or two around for you to refuel at, if you have need. However, the campaign will not design a mission in which refueling is required. If you move your waypoints it may become so, but that's up to the player.

Csim: What kind of enemies will we see? Is the Microprose team aiming to include the latest Soviet aircraft like the Su 37? If not might we see some of these later?

Leon: The initial release will include aircraft and ground vehicles likely to be seen in a current day Korean conflict only. We are planning a Mig-29 add on, and the vehicle set has not been finalized yet.

Csim: Will we see ground troops in F4?

Robin: Ground Troops are modelled within F4.

Leon: Flight lead will have a large degree of control over his wingman, both in his formation, as well as his actions. The flight lead can designate targets, send off and recall the wingman and change or re-arrange the formation.

Csim: Tell us about the command structure for a flight? Will it be hot keyed or menu driven or both?

Leon: Both.

Csim: Will we be changing radio channels to communicate with ATC, FAC, AWACS etc?

Robin: There are multiple radio channels for various different elements in the game, like AWACS, your flight etc. You can reduce the amount of radio traffic by filtering these out, to the smallest set of channels you require at the moment.

Csim: How much interaction will the player have with the flights he escorts?

Leon: All missions in the F4 campaign world are built as a package. Packages can consist of escort, strike, SEAD and recon elements. All elements of a package need to work together to suceed.

Csim: iF22 broke some new ground in the area of ATC, and DiDs F22 looks set to do the same. How is this handled in F4?

Leon: F4 will include ATC for takeoff, landing, and ground maneuver.

Csim: Intelligence plays a major role in real strategic decisions. How will you give the player intel data in F4?

Robin: We have a whole Intel section within the campaign. This will show you various troop moral levels and strengths. We also have a continuous situation report as to what targets are being attacked and captured by each side. These are displayed as flashing dots on a small map, so you can instantly see what areas the enemy is concentrating on.

Csim: Tell us about object and weapons modelling in terms of physics and realism. Will we see moving turrets, rotating antennae, pilots heads turning....? Will it matter on which side a weapon impacts a tank?

Leon: As far as moving parts, we have turrets, guns, elevators, swing-wings, antennae, ailerons, flaperons, landing gear, speed brakes, etc. For A/C it matters which side gets hit, since ordinance is carried on each side, but it won't really matter for tanks, at least in this version.

Csim: Damage modelling has been another big growth area as CPU power has increased. What kind of damage modelling will we see in F4? Will damage in one system affect another?

Leon: F4 models each component of the A/C separately, and each component takes individual damage. Obviously, if you damage the radar then you are going to have a problem with aim-120's, but if you're careful you can still use your aim-9's. Damage to the fuel system affects the engine, which in turn affects the flying qualities, and so on.

Csim: In Activisions coming sim damage to the aircraft is based on actual trajectory of the weapon and each part of the aircraft is modelled separately rather than a probability model. What will F4 model in this regard?

Leon: We use a monte carlo simulation to decide what damage is done. The simulation does take into account the weapons trajectory, but there is no gaurantee that the first bullet will always damage the same thing. When the Air Force does their damage tests with live fire the results are probablilties, not absolutes.

Csim: Will we see secondary damage effects? For example, if I destroy a building and a soft target is nearby will there be blast effects?

Robin: There are secondary damage effects, and the blast radius is taken into account. You can even see the blast wave expand after you have blown up the original target.

Csim: What is your target in terms of maximum challenge to the hardcore pilot?

Leon: We expect Falcon 4.0 to appeal to a wide variety of consumers, especially the most hardcore pilots. Things like mid-air refueling and the fully dynamic and real-time campaign will appeal to the hardcore crowd. We also have simplified radars and flight models to address the needs of the novice flight sim players.

Csim: The screens look great. What can we expect in terms of resolution options and detail options?

Robin: We can run anywhere up to 1600x1200 at the moment, although the video card and monitor to do that is very expensive, and frame rate is lower, we have that ability. We have multiple visual sliders that alter the ammount of visual texturing, alpha blending, terrain detail, object detail etc...

Csim: Will we see light source shading?

Leon: Yes.

Csim: Will we see a wind model in the sim? What about weather?

Robin: We have a full weather model in the sim, with weather moving accross the map as time progresses. Wind is modelled as part of the weather model.

Csim: Frame rate is often a snag for the newest simulations, but with Voodoo 2 and other new 3d technologies in the offing F4 is touching down at a good time. What can we expect to see in real nos. with all detail options on running on a P166 with 3dfx? What will be the recommended system?

Robin: We are currently running about 12-15fps on that type of system, and we haven't finished optimising yet...

Csim: Support for D3d is a given. Will there be proprietary support as well?

Robin: We have support for all cards that are supported by D3D. Also a number of video card manufactures are helping us develop custom drivers for proprietary support. This will allow us to use more features than a D3D driver would. Currently that list includes 3Dfx and the Permedia II chipset.

Csim: Will WIN95/98 take a lot of overhead that DOS game don't have? Will we be able to easily ALT TAB to win95 to continue Win95's multitasking or will F4 take all necessary resources to run?

Robin: We are a huge application, and Windows 95 takes up a lot of space. The biggest problem is memory. Windows virtualizes all memory, so getting to that memory sometimes takes a lot of time. Once we are in memory however, things run smoothly. We do not recommend running any other software while running F4, since they would take up our valuable memory. And since we don't recommend running other software, please don't ALT TAB away. Obviously the game is so good, you probably want to have us startup automatically when you reboot you Falcon 4 PC.

Csim: How will new technologies like AGP impact F4?

Robin: We like texture memory. Texture memory is good. However its all a compromise. If we use more texture memory, we have less system memory with AGP, which means we swap more, and swapping is bad. The best improvement will be to add more system memory to the machine.

Csim: Other than suspension of disbelief the area that keeps virtual pilots coming back for more is identifying with the pilots they fly. How will F4 seek to involve the player personally? Will there be detailed pilot records?

Leon: Yes, records of each players stats, in Instant Action, Dogfight, Tactical Engagement, and the Campaign are kept. This info is automatically shared and you can check the stats on other people before you play with them. Also, scores and the "Ace Factor" are adjusted for the dificulty settings the player used, with more points awarded to those that use the more realistic settings.

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Csim: F4 offers dynamic campaigns, a critical factor for raw fun and replayability. Can you tell us about the structure and setting of the campaigns? Will the mountains of Korea LOOK and feel like mountains?

Robin: Yes we have a fully dynamic campaign. The campaign works continuously in the background while the UI as well as the Sim is in control. The campaign generates packages which contain a number of flights, that include a number of aircraft, for each side continuously. As soon as you destroy any target in the sim or its destroyed for you in the UI, the campaign will evaluate and replan in the background. The campaign will start from a fixed point in time, and have a number of objectives. The mountains will look and feel like mountains, and are modelled as accurately as possible from digital elevation data, with real textures used.

Csim: Will we be able to ADD campaigns like we did with the F3 family?

Robin: There will be a number of extra campaign packs.

Csim: We all like to feel like we can make a difference, but at the same time thats not always the case in war. How is this addressed in F4?

Robin: You will make a difference. The scale of the war in the campaigns is much smaller than a full blown world war, so your actions can help out alot. Also, since you can jump into any aircraft at any time from the campaign, you can fly the bombing missions for 20 flights one after each other, and let the computer takeoff and land.

Csim: How does the player get into a particular mission? At each juncture will we choose between a number of mission options?

Robin: The ATO (Air Tasking Order) list will display the current list of flights that are scheduled to take off, currently on route to the objective, or in egress. You can select any of those flights. Or you could select a flight, and just do what you what with those aircraft. This mission would be a failure, but its real outcome will probably make a big difference.

Csim: Can you tell us about AWACS involvement in the sim? How much information will we be able to access via AWACS? Will we be able to access an AWACS view while flying, or planning a mission?

Leon: AWACS will be able to warn you about incoming threats, find help for you, redirect you to help somebody else, and help you find your way home or to a tanker. There is no AWACS view while flying, but while planing you can look at whatever the current plans are, and any INTEL or recon data available.

Csim: How does a virtual pilot progress to command, or can we simply step into the role?

Leon: For the initial release you can only command the mission you are in. Of course, you could plan a mission, let it take off, then hand it over to the AI, and go plan the next one.

Csim: If we can command a flight, will we also be able to plan the mission structure? How much will the player have input into tasking, mission planning in single player mode?

Robin: You can change the mission structure to any mission, at any time. All flights have pre-generated steerpoints, which will guide you around the air defenses, but you may see something that the planner didn't, so just change it when you want.

Csim: Will resource management be a consideration in the campaign?

Robin: You will have limited aircraft and pilots, and resupplies are small are infrequent. Resource Management will be a big issue.

Csim: What will we see for debriefs in the campaign? Will we have records of who hit what with what weapon, weapon kill stats?

Robin: We have a full debrief in all missions. We also have an ACMI recorder, so you can replay the mission in full color, if you want to.

Csim: Integration of the ground war with the air war adds a lot of depth to the newer simulations. What approach have you taken in this area?

Robin: We have a full ground war modelled, including various tactical formations, hiding of tanks, suprise attacks etc...

Csim: Is the LANTIRN system modelled in F4? Or is this related to the Harm Targetting System? How much detail will we see in this subsystem? How significant is this in gameplay?

Leon: The block 50/52 does not carry the LANTIRN pod. It carries either the HTS or a laser designator.

Csim: Can you tell us how padlock and views will be handled? Will we see a virtual cockput as well as fixed views?

Robin: We have a fully virtual cockpit, which you can slew around with your hat. This has working MFD's and some instruments. We also have a 2D cockpit, that can also be scrolled around, which is fully clickable, including all the MFD's, switches, dials, ejection handle etc...

Csim: In some sims bandits and objects are either too small or too large for the simulated environment, which can make close in targetting tough. How is this handled in F4?

Robin: Just like in real life, targets are hard to see. Hence we have concentrated on the radar and avionics to make aquasition of those targets as easy as possible. The Maverick with its TV display is the pinnacle of this. (We also put text labels on anything just to tell you what they are).

Csim: Will we see dual monitor support under WIN98?

Robin: We are looking into this. Playing F18 on three monitors on a Mac was really good fun. We have to wait for Microsoft to deliver a version to us first, so expect it to be a feature to be added later on.

Csim: I understand that players will be able to take the Russian side in a MiG 29 less than a year after the release of F4. Can you tell us more about the goals for this add on?

Leon: The MiG-29 product will be a completely stand-alone MiG-29 flight sim set in the Korean theater. It will be fully network compatible with Falcon 4.0, so that players may play campaigns and 1-on-1 dogfights against each other. This product will not require the purchase of Falcon 4.0.

Csim: Janes and iMagic have begun shipping their sims with spiral bound manuals, a BIG improvement in my mind. Will we see this trend with Microprose also?

Robin: Yes we have a HUGE manual, and it will be spiral bound. We expect to continue this trend in our other high end simulation products, as well.

Csim: What do you feel is the coolest feature of F4?

Robin: Everything. We have a real problem trying to program it, cos we play it too much !!! If I could have a short list it would be Gameplay, AI, Graphics, Cockpit, Avionics, Flight Model, Campaign, Weapons ... Yeap, Everything.

Csim: I know NT is supposed to support more than one CPU under NT because it's threaded...will F4 running under NT use Glide/VooDoo as well??

Robin: Its just a matter of drivers and software. We have a dual CPU box that used to run F4. Unfortunately Microsoft decided not to put DirectX 5 onto NT, so we have a gap. DirectX 6 should ship with NT5, so at that point will be continue to develop an NT runable version. (Oh, it was real quick BTW).

Csim: For the really sick and twisted among us, how about mono support with the above, will that work too?? Picture it: a 4 by 233MHz Pentium Pro multiprocessor server for LAN play at squadon meets, Voodoo support on the NT console and a herc card driving a little10" on the side...

Robin: You are sick... Mono cards are real slow, and would reduce the frame rate too much on todays highly optimised machines. By then, surely just plug in a few video cards, and have multiple monitors. (BTW, you can't just write to the mono card memory under NT, you need a VXD to do that. We have a solution if it really becomes an issue.)