Modding Tornado

[Hiuuz]

It's awesome how strong your calling to Tornado 
You inspired me to start looking into the tornado CODE to play with it. I'm more of a "realism" guy so wondering about a few things. One of them is how could I turn the TIALD more forward to search targets from longer range.

[Frankie]

Hi Hiuuz

Thank you for your kind words. Tornado code was originally written with realism and accuracy at its core. Having a wider arc for the TIALD may exceed the actual specifications/ability of the TIALD in the then 1990s Tornado GR1 planes. I don't have the max angle reach of the TIALD, but maybe some reader of this forum can contribute a link. But it's an interesting question from you nevertheless, and may actually be possible to implement.

BTW, the original Tornado 1993 game code is here: https://github.com/tornadorebooted/tornado-dos-flightsim.

Regards
Frankie Kam

P.S., I've had a look at the TIALDDisp procedure in TAB.ASM but am seeing stars. I'll send a quick email to Kevin Bezant to see if his memory is still sharp to spot which part of the code is responsible for fixing the upper and lower bounds of the TIALD mouse scan movements.

Email sent.

I think it may have something to do with the AdjustXYOffsets procedure. SInce that the code that controls the mouse sweep movements.

;* AdjustXYOffsets - adjust x and y offsets (using mouse input)
;*
;* pass: nothing
;* ret : TDXOffset
;*       TDYOffset
;* kill: assume all

AdjustXYOffsets   PROC   NEAR

           mov   bp,TDScanSize
...

Or even the CalcScanSize procedure...

;----------------------------------------------------------------------------
;* CalcScanSize
;*
;* pass: M_VIEW
;* ret : TDScanSize
;* kill: ax, flags

CalcScanSize   PROC   NEAR

;* scan size = ubound(alt, 1, 23170)

      mov   ax,23170   ;assume alt > 65,535ft

      cmp   WORD PTR M_VIEW.VP_ZFT_HI,0
      ja   @F

      mov   ax,WORD PTR M_VIEW.VP_ZFT_LO

      UBOUND   ax,1,23170

@@:      mov   TDScanSize,ax

      ret

CalcScanSize   ENDP


Etc. Like I said. Stars.

[Hiuuz]

Looks like it was able to see full forward an had two zoom level:

[Hiuuz]

Further examining the question I found that in tornado the TIALD picture is a TOP view of the map, not a perspective picture from the plane to target. Because of that it's obvious the limited view distance but from 30000ft its around only 4miles what you can look ahead. I think making a real camera perspective from plane to target would be much harder to coding than simply push further the limit of the current view point.

[Frankie]

In cockpit mode (Pilot Panel default mode), if you hit Shift+D in modded Tornado, you will get the cockpit-less (full) view, looking forward. Click the attachment below to see if in good clear res.

I've always wanted to see if that view could be slewed left-right and zoomed in and out. That would make for a great mod. Tried in the past, was defeated. Worth looking again on one fine lazy Sunday afternoon.

[Hiuuz]

Or there is the forward looking camera what you can see among the MFD/TV pages.

[Frankie]

I can angle the TIALD view to look forward. However when I press Ctrl and move the mouse the zoom will zoom downwards rather than zoom forwards. Sounds as easy a switching vertical to horizontal arises, but the code is brutal...for now I can't find which code to modify to zoom forwards  and to unzoom backwards....

[Hiuuz]

If you mean the camera position moves down, than I would play with an other value. Is there a value for Field of View? If you can change the FOV than that could be a way.

[Frankie]

This is the best I can do for now. Lost the gradient horizon though.

Give it a try.

Go to Navigator's Panel with PgUp.
Then toggle the TV-Tab to show up the TIALD view.
Then hit "3" to go to full-screen TIALD - you will see the TIALD is now forward-looking.
Move the mouse forwards and backwards. Then side to side. There is some displacement in the view - I wish it would slew more up/down or left/right, but for now I am unable to find the code.
Press Ctrl and move the mouse forwards and backwards, the altitude (height) will change dramatically.

That's it for now.

[Frankie]

206. A new TIALD view with tilt and pan

Shoutout to Hiuuz for suggesting this mod. Thanks to his sharing of this video:

Here's my latest modded take on the 30-year old Digital Integration's TIALD view in Tornado:

How to activate this view:
1. Hit PgUp Go to the Navigator's Panel
2. Hit ] to cycle the TAB-TV view to the standard TAB-TV-sized TIAD view
3. Hit 3 to go to FULLSCREEN TIALD view (you will look looking directly downwards to the ground)
4. Hit 1 to tilt the view down
5. Hit 0 to tilt the view up
6. Hit Ctrl+Z to  to skew the view left
7. Hit Ctrl+X to  to skew the view right
8. Hit Ctrl+1 to  to reset the FULLSCREEN TIALD view to the same viewing perspective (looking downwards) as in Step#3

Not:
9.   while in this view, you may move the mouse away and towards you for a limited zoom forwards and zoom backwards
10. while in this view, you may press Ctrl and move the mouse away and towards you to reduce/increase view altitude

I also solved the earlier missing horizon gradient. Well, wonders never cease with the 30-year old assembly source code by Kevin Bezant. I guess you could say that it stands the test of time. Have FUN!

Regards
Frankie Kam

P.S., this mod only affects the user's view perspective. It doesn't influence the targeting systems of the laser-guided bombs (LGBs).

P.S2., For further enhancement. I'll see if I can't implement the TIALD view in B&W (grayscale). Here's a mock-up of what could be:

Cheers!

[Frankie]

206b. A new TIALD view with tilt and pan (EVEN for the standard TV-TABs-sized TIALD view!

This is not a new mod per se. It's a natural progression from Mod#206. I've extended the panning and pitching features to the standard TV-TABs-sized TIALD view in the Navigator's Panel.

So now you can use the keys 1 (pitch upwards), 0 (pitch downwards), Ctrl+Z (pan left), Ctrl+X (pan right) and Ctrl+1 (reset to vertical-looking-downward view) in the standard small-sized TV-TAB TIALD view.

Plus you can press the "3" key to toggle between the full-screen TIALD view and normal-small-sized TIALD view. The pitched or slewed angle with be retained between these two modes.

Hope this helps with the immersion factor.

Regards
Frankie Kam

P.S., my next mini-project is to see how to get a gray-scale (B&W) image for the TIALD view. Like what you see in the Panavia Tornado documentaries.

[Frankie]

207. Change the Panel Lighting within the NumLock Kneepad screen

Which panel lighting in Tornado do you prefer? Red or Green? Colors play a huge role in Tornado. Matt Smith of Digital Integration spent hours perfecting the color of the Tornado 2D cockpits and the 3D pixel-world. Tornado allows two different panel lighting - Red (amber) and Green. In vanilla Tornado, you can only change the panel lighting within the VGA GUI. Like so:

What I've done in this mod is to allow you change the panel lighting WITHIN A MISSION ITSELF! I've added a toggle option (Key 7) in the Kneeboard screen. To use it is very simple. Simply invoke the Kneedboard screen by hitting the NumLock key. Then toggle back and forth between the colors Amber and Green. When you do a toggle, the Kneedboard screen itself will not initially change colour. However if you were to switch to the Pilot's (i.e., hit Home) of the Navigator's (i.e., hit PgUp) cockpit, the panel lighting color change takes effect and is immediately apparent.

Hit the "7" key to change the pilot and navigator panels from teh default Red (Amber)....

... to green!

Tired with the green panel lighting? No worries! Just hit NumLock, then key "7" and toggle the panel lighting back to the default red.

Why did I add this feature? Well, I thought it would relieve the monotony of looking at the same red panel lighting to change its colour to green. And vice-versa. Plus I have provided a convenient way of doing so within the mission itself. So now you no longer have to finish or quit a mission before changing the lighting panel from the VGA GUI itself.

I don't know if the real Panavia GR1 Tornado of the 1990s allowed its pilot to switch the Panel Lighting color from red to green, but I hope this custom featire adds to the immersion of Tornado. See attached latest FLIGHT.EXE as of 13th August 2023, 12:30am, Kuala Lumpur time.

Regards
Frankie Kam

[Frankie]

207b. Improving the NumLock Kneeboard screen (Now it is colour coded!)

Previously the text of the Kneeboard screens would be very difficult to read. Case in point is the screenshot above.

Here's what the kneeboard screens looks like now, depending on whether you selected the Red or Green panel lighting:-

The text is now easier to read.

Here's the mod in action!

Hopefully this helps.

Regards
Frankie Kam
Malaysia

[Asid]

Great stuff Frankie 

[Rinix]

I agree, great job.