Forum > Tornado
Modding Tornado
Frankie:
19. FLIR view is ALSO now in full-screen
Mod: Fullscreen FLIR view
By Frankie
Description: FLIR stands for Forward Looking InfraRed. Tornado now has Dual HUDs. The first HUD is the normal/standard in-game HUD as seen from the Pilot's Cockpit view (Home key). See below.
This is the normal HUD. Note that the outside world fits inside a mere 96 pixels of height.
I have now added a second (new) full-screen HUD that is working 80%. This new HUD is full-screen and it is activated by hitting the "D" key, in the Pilot Cockpit's view, until the MFD switches to the FLIR Forward-Looking Infra Red view. This view has been set to full-screen with a new HUD that updates its data in real-time!
This is the full-screen HUD. The outside world now fits inside a window with a height of 192 pixels.
I have also re-adjusted the positioning of the TV-TABs and MFD so that it is more intuitive and easier to setup the specific arrngements. For example, TIALD view as the full-screen, left TV-TAB as the waypoints display and the right TV-TAB as the ground radar.
The new HUD in full-screen mode has yet to be fully-tested against all weapon delivery modes. What I do know is that the target marker of a Target-Opportunity waypoint (T) is too high up from where it should be. For example in the screenshot below, the target marker (circled in bright green) should be very near to the centre of the HUD.
The new full-screen HUD isn't perfect yet! No countdown clock and the targeting marker is in the wrong position.
The problem with the target marker is that it did not shift down 48 pixels south. The rest of the HUD already shifted down 48 pixels as compared to the normal Pilot Cockpit's HUD. The target marker however, still clings on to its old position as if the oldside world were still at the old 96-pixel depth. So by right, the target marker in the full-screen mode should be 48 pixels lower. That would solve everything!
The full-screen HUD also comes with overlays to aid locating and destroying targets.
Think strafing runs.
Over this weekend, I hope to solve the missing countdown clock bug in the new FLIGHT.EXE. In the meantime, enjoy the remainder screenshots of this post. One a night-time mission and the other of me buzzing the airfield with my CCIP bomb line marker primed and ready for release.
A night time mission comes alive when the FLIR turns on its the infrared night vision.
Note the eScope display at the bottom left-corner. It comes in handy when hugging the terrain!
A Tornado bombing run in all its full-screen glory.
This version of the FLIGHT.EXE is a major breakthrough. After so many months and years, I finally have what I always wanted - two real-time HUDs in two different views. The Pilot Cockpit view has the normal HUD, and the full-screen TV-TAb or full-screen MFD shows the FLIR in full-screen WITH a 90% working HUD.
Cheers and enjoy the FLIGHT.EXE modded so thus far.
FRANKIE KAM
For more information on Tornado, go to
http://www.tornado2.com
and http://www.tornado2.com/tornado
Frankie:
20. Minor Hack - Repositioning of Air Radar
Mod: Air Radar display in the full-screen FLIR and TIALD modes.
By Frankie
Description: Tornado is not only about mud-moving. The gamer has to also deal with air-to-air threats like Migs. I was testing the Air Radar (Alt-R key) and discovered that it needed tweaking. So now FLIGHT.EXE gets better. Previously when in full-screen mode and if I hit Alt-R to activate the Air Radar, this is what I got ...
The blitter thingy is still stuck in the centre - using the original coordinates as per the navigator's panel
..the blitter (whatever that green alien-head shaped thing is called) is still stuck to the centre as though I were still in the Navigator's Cockpit panel. Here's the code to solve the problem in VGAPANEL.ASM.
Vola! Problem solved.
The Air-To-Air Radar is now properly positioned when in full-screen FLIR or TIALD mode.
Enjoy racking up those kills with your Skyflash!
Frankie:
21. Radar-Warning-Receiver added to fullscreen views
Mod: Radar-Warning-Receiver in Fullscreen FLIR and TIALD views
By Frankie
Description: The pilot's cockpit has the RWR display to alert him to threats and type of threats. See image below.
RWR in action. Note the AAA tracer arching up from the left towards the aircraft
and the corresponding symbols on the RWR display (highlighted in yellow).
I added the RWR symbols to the full-screen FLIR views - minus 360 degree dial lines. This gives the player more situational awareness of the AAA and SAMM threats around him. The RWR symbols are located to the right of the screen and are updated in real-time.
Notice the RWR symbols? You can't see the clock directional dials, but at least the symbols are there.
Here's the code that does this.
-and-
Here are the RWR symbols in the combo view set of the Navigator's TV-Tab displays (top-right corner and full-screen) and the MFD (top-left corner). The Tornado is being fired upon by AAA. Note also the Picture-Inside-A-Picture of the top-left TV-Tab which is also a FLIR mini-view!
Yes, the Tornado project is progressing along fine. The hacks/mods 1 to 21 are not a graphics upgrade of this venerable flight simulator. However these mods are proof that given creativity, passion and time (lots of it!), the original game can still be improved to a point where one can say, "anything is possible with the source code"! My goal for the number of hacks to write was 20, in time for the new year. I have now surpassed that goal for 2017. My new goal is to now ensure that the HUD avionics and symbols in the full-screen FLIR and TIALD views are made to show for all ordinances. For example, this weekend I am going to try to get the full-screen FLIR view's countdown clock to work properly. At the moment ony the Cannon is working fine. The other weapons' HUD graphics is not working right (e.g., loft bombing HUD symbols, etc.).
It would be great if others could join in the coding work, but it takes time and I guess that I'm the only gamer crazy enough to dedicate time and effort to this project. Anyone up to the challenge? Just give me a buzz and I will share with you the resources and tools that I used to make twenty-one hacks in four months. In closing, I leave you with my latest FLIGHT.EXE file. See attached file. Enjoy.
Zurger6:
Hey Frankie!
Wow, you're still at it! Marvellous! Hope you are okay and sorry I've replied on the wrong forum. You've learned so much since the early days, I can see. Is that your coding? And you've got mods you're proud of, man that's great.
Is there a page where I can go to download updates? I'm in a university program now so not much hope of consistent active participation, but I am between semesters now so maybe I can catch up a little? I have to restart school in early January so this will be a fly-by but maybe I can help with something over the next month.
Best wishes Frankie, as always.
Phil aka Zurger6
Frankie:
Hi Phil aka Zurger6
Nice to hear from you again, Phil! Yes, I'm still chewing on the Tornado bone. Ever since August 2017, when I compiled my first FLIGHT.EXE, I've managed to switch gears and I got a slew of code hacks done in time for 2018. But really, the term "mod" is highly over-rated. Some of my "mods" are nothing more than a value changed from 1 to 0, or a few lines of code inserted here and there. Granted, the most complex "mod" was the full-screen FLIR and TIALD views which took months of "going down the wrong rabbit hole" to do. Still, every modification was done because the ex-DI programmer, Kevin J Bezant did a great job documenting the Tornado 3D engine code. In some places he had written macros which I could use. Even the full-screen view which needed specific aspect-ratio calculations and values was written by him. I just stumbled upon his code and tweaked them here and there. The two most useful tools I use are Notepad++ (text editor for coding) and Agent Ransack (file searcher to search for text inside multiple files). Using logic, sleuthing and my own programming experience (I have minimal assembly language knowledge, mind you), and lotsa time staring at code, I managed to cobble something, that hopefully others can enjoy. I am trying my best to produce a more 'perfect and complete' modded version of Tornado in time for its 25th Anniversary in 2018.
Lou Gehrig once said "Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth." Well I consider myself the 'luckiest' flight simmer on the face of this earth because I get to make immediate changes to the source code of my favorite flight simulation. Then I get to enjoy the fruits of my labour by taking Tornado for a spin with DosBox. The feeling I got when seeing the flyby view in Tornado, even though it lasts a few seconds, is like awesome, man. And that first time when I saw the TIALD view working in full-screen, it was like "far out man!". My evolution of my Tornado experience went from being a gamer in 2002 to a Tornado tribute website designer 2004-2016 (on and off), to a Tornado coder in 2017. It's been quite a journey so far.
If you want to follow the Tornado project in more detail, I have sent you a PM with an invite link to the Tornado Discord server. I'm the main mad scientist there and it would be nice if more ex-Tornado gamers like you could join. Nice to hear that you've gone back to school and you are now on break. If I were to go back to college or Uni, I would want to study assembly language programming and to do a final project on Tornado. Maybe you can take a look at what's been done so far and give some suggestions or add to the Tornado wishlist here. If you have time, you can read the stuff on the Tornado Discord server for updates.
Cheers
Frankie Kam
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