what's new in version 0.46 of 'carrier.exe' ?


- destination 37°2' N ; 122°1' W has to be reached in "sea mission"
- ship's speed (>0 in "sea mission") is displayed on radar view and info line
- 4 arrows are displayed left to the radar screen to change speed and course via mouse
- skyscraper display now with partly lighted windows
- display of larger aircrafts in "Homeland" mission
- new system menu item "assign 'miniboss' operation ..." for easier/faster aircraft starts
- 2 missions to select via system menu
- "Homeland" mission with display of San Francisco bay map and civil aircraft traffic
Several misguided civil aircrafts appear after about 1 minute of simulation time ; these planes (label displayed in red on radar screen)
have to be intercepted by starting/having started at least one fighter aircraft from the carrier with clearance to use deadly force
(granted via the section, now with an additional option to request new personnel from HQ).
- simple "Sea" mission without civil air-traffic
- background landscape is visible in outside view of 'Homeland' mission
- reduced flicker for radar display
- hour/minute display of simulation time
- text concatenation in takeoff(-error) messagebox
- alternating display of cruise direction, ship's course and wind-strength
(changed via mouseclick at corresponding "[...]" text)

position-data transfer via clipboard
- position-data transfer can be switched off via character 'n' in startup command-line , e.g.
- the (x/y/z) position of one aircraft is transferred to and read in from an external program (like the flight-simulator
flight.exe ; the read in position is displayed as "(E)" symbol on radar)
notes:
- the approaching aircraft controlled within flight.exe is initially visible in "long-range" radar mode
of "carrier.exe" only ; see AWACS/'Hawkeye' remark below for activation steps
- the necessary packages flight.zip and fb.zip with the flight-simulator can be downloaded from
http://uuhome.de/penski/flight.htm or http://penski.tripod.com/flight.htm
- the menu-item 'options -> send flight data to...clipboard' has to be activated first in "flight.exe"

- multiple coordinate transfer if program is started with command line parameter "m" (e.g. entering "carrier.exe m"
in the Windows "execute" dialog box)

- horizontal mouse-drag support for changing 3D display perspective
- 2 new graphical up/down arrows for changing displayed deck
- 3 added system menu commands

- destroyer images added (1 is visible in 'view'-mode + 6 are visible in radar-mode)
("hidden lines") mode for the 2 personnel decks (#3 and #4)

- key F2 for switching wireframe/3D display of the 2 personnel decks
- key F3 for changing the actually displayed deck (#1 to #4)
- keys POS1("Home") and END for changing 3D perspective factor (decks #3 and #4)

- shortcut-key '3' added (see 'hint' below)

- the Prawler (aircraft type 5) must have been started and have reached the northern region (of long-range radar view)
in order to destroy enemy radar sites before other started aircrafts are moved into that area by their pilots

- aircraft names added ; radar-list bug removed

features:

- animation of water-waves due to changing wind-direction and strength
- changeable cruise direction of carrier and fleet via the 2 cursor keys right and left
- possible takeoff warning due to strength of wind and relative wind-direction

- increased landing priority for aircrafts with low fuel
- crash-landing for aircrafts that have run out of fuel
- editable deck layout file 'carrier.dck' for the 2 lowest decks (personnel decks)
- enhanced aircraft deck display (decks #1 and #2) and 3D grayscale display
- velocity + altitude simulation and display on radar
- stacked max./final altitude values for the different plane-types
- 7 types of aircraft

  • realism :
    - 3 teams operate on the flight deck / runway
    - rescue helicopter operation

    - switching to long range radar requires at least support by a Nato AWACS plane
    or one previously started local AWACS plane,
    with aircraft selector and steam catapult set to type 6 ('Hawkeye')
    before start by pressing the button

    - a landing only is possible when at least 1 aircraft is in range of the carrier
    (in this case a '*' symbol appears left to the carrier on the radar image)
    - the simulation's timer (minutes & seconds counter) is influenced by real time passing by and the user's commands
    that reflect an operation of noticeable time (e.g. "start aircraft")

  • visual :
    - extended status display

    - 2 viewmodes are available (you can toggle viewmode with the "view"/"radar" checkbox) :
    a) outside view (visual representation of the carrier and all airborne aircrafts or
    the rotateable flight-deck magnification)
    b) radar with moving aircrafts (2 radar zoom levels have been implemented : 50% and 100% zoom)

    - display of 4 different decks :
    - flight deck (#1) , aircraft storage deck (#2) and 2 personnel decks (#3 + #4) with summarizing info
    ( personnel counter including display of the number of injured persons )
    - cursor-controlled movement + rotation within the 2 personnel decks

    - fuel-status computation for started aircrafts:
    - moving mouse over a plane's radar position shows the aircraft type, internal list-number and fuel-status of it
    - after start of at least 1 aircraft of 'type 7' ('Viking') this stays near the carrier (the word "Viking" can be read
    on the radar-screen) and every aircraft with less than 20% of fuel is refilled in the air when reaching the vicinity
    of the Viking (vicinity is indicated by '*' radar symbol ; see below)

    - flight deck elevator integrated ; using the flight deck elevator repairs/replaces damaged aircrafts on
    the flight deck (these aircrafts graphically are marked by 2 missing back-wings in zoomed 'view'-mode)

    - the type of next starting aircraft can be selected via the "<" and ">" buttons ;
    the next landing/incoming aircraft is determined by the actual radar situation (plane within carrier's vicinity)

  • internals:
    - simplified shape file 'FA18HORN.SHA' : in comparison to the flight simulator "flight.exe"
    only 1 predefined main aircraft wing is defined in the editable flight-simulator shapefile 'FA18HORN.SHA'
    that is rotated internally by the program in order to create 2 'foldable' wings for screen-display of
    the 2 upper decks
    note: the file "FA18HORN.SHA" has been derived from the original file by removing the second polygone object

    hint:

    - activate application window by clicking into it at any checkbox or button control (this step is necessary before any
    keyboard control is accepted) and use the keys '3' or '5' for a "fast" start of 3 or 5 successive
    aircrafts of the same type ; 5/8 (0.625) minutes are added per aircraft to the simulation timer ;
    starting this way the helicopter security currently is ignored by the program's "security supervisor")

    limitations:

    - the aircraft image used within the outside view is that of a F-16 "Fighting Falcon" - not that of
    a F/A 18 "(Super)Hornet" that is used on an U.S. aircraft carrier


    (text and program have been updated on February-07-2006)