getting in the air quickly

[museum install]

Hi everyone,

I'm new here and I really need your help.

We're using the Pacific Fighters game in a kiosk in a WW2 museum. The kiosk has three game stations. Station 1 is a stand alone in single player mode. Station 2 and 3 is set up for 2 player, so the two people can fight against each other. We would like to set up the game so it starts and you are ready to go, either in the air or ready to take off. Does anyone know how to do this?

thanks

[SlipBall]

With the game running at all time's, the museum vistor would select the "refly" he would then be in the air, or on the ground ready for take off, depending on the mission that is currently loaded. When he/she is finished he would press the "Esc" button on the keyboard. Then he or she would select "quit mission". The next visitor would have to again select the "refly" to start his turn. For the station 1 & 2 competition playing, I'm not sure how to set up a server, maybe someone else here will advise you. Great idea you guy's...good luck!


edit: also I was wondering if you have old aircraft on exhibit

[vanderstok]

I would suggest loading a (multiplay) dogfight game. This way you can always start over again very quickly without reloading the game since the player can respawn.

So for the two PC networked setup I would suggest one of the two starts a dogfight multiplayer mission and the other connects to this machine (type in it's LAN Ip address). If you select a map with airstarts anybody can just hit "refly" (after crashing or bailing out) and off you go. You could do this the whole day long.

Same goes for the single PC setup, but remember there will only be one aircraft in the game then.

If you want a specific mission made for this, just PM me and I can make you one...

[museum install]

Thanks for the quick replies!
I should have mentioned we're not going to have a keyboard set up in the kiosk. If we need to we'll have a track pad for mouse functions. What we're really trying to do is set up a macro or something to do the set up steps automatically in order to get the game going quickly without much input from the player.

I'll try to put up a photo of some of the stuff we're doing for the museum.

BTW, the museum is the actual USS Lexington. She's been retired to Corpus Christi, Texas where she is a museum.

http://www.usslexington.com/

[KG26_Alpha]

I know some one in the area that could come and set that up for you.

:grin:

[SlipBall]

Wow the Lexington!...IL-2 on the Blue Ghost:o

[vanderstok]

You might want to use something like this. I have a similiar device and it's enough to (re)start IL2 Pacific Fighters with:

http://content.centralpoint.nl/objects/low_pic/216135.jpg

When running the dogfight multiplayer game as described above the user would only have to use the "esc" key to enter the menu and then use the trackball to select "refly" and off you go.

When buying such a numeric keypad, make sure it has the "esc" key, not all of those devices have them...

If you don't want a keypad at all.... I'm not sure how to get out of the game/restart? Would have to investgate further...

[Thunderbolt56]

This is going to sound blasphemous to most (hell, it does to me to a degree as well), but in a public area like that that will recieve the entire gamut of patron from simple museum viewer to true miltary/aviation enthusiast and every age possible, it may be wiser to wait and see if there will be a possibility of using some iteration of Warbirds of Prey for console...

I know, I know, but still. If I think about my own setup at home, I get agitated if one of my family members even sits at my pc. I'm fortunate that they all have their own pc's so I can justify the obsessive compulsive possession, but just getting everything setup, running smoothly and keeping it so, while second nature to me, could be a daunting task if I'm following behind a few dozen different users each day with differing levels of respect for pc components, controllers etc,.

I admire your desire and would love to see something like that at the different museums I frequent annually too. Either way, good luck with it.


TB

[vanderstok]

What if you used a dogfight server that rapidly changes missions, ie every few minutes? There would be no need to hit "escape". If someone crashes he/she will have to wait for the server to restart the game. The mouse wil be needed to select an aircraft and hit "fly", but ppl would not be able to go to the main menu and change things (or exit the game completely).

How about start in the air next to an aircraft carrier and see if one can land? (difficulty settings set to easy). You do need some control so a joystick with a number of buttons and integrated throttle would be necessary. Bolt it to a desk, together with a legenda for the buttons (gear down/up, aresting hook up/down etc.).

[museum install]

What if you used a dogfight server that rapidly changes missions, ie every few minutes? There would be no need to hit "escape". If someone crashes he/she will have to wait for the server to restart the game. The mouse wil be needed to select an aircraft and hit "fly", but ppl would not be able to go to the main menu and change things (or exit the game completely).

How about start in the air next to an aircraft carrier and see if one can land? (difficulty settings set to easy). You do need some control so a joystick with a number of buttons and integrated throttle would be necessary. Bolt it to a desk, together with a legenda for the buttons (gear down/up, aresting hook up/down etc.).


We can program buttons on the joystick or include an extra button on the console that is set for "escape", that's actually pretty easy. Our biggest challenge is getting the player to a scenario without going through all the set up, choosing a mission and base, choosing planes, etc.

We have another kiosk that is dedicated to carrier landing. We call it "Landing". We are using MS Flight Sim to land an F/18. MS Flight Sim has a "kiosk mode" that allows a good amount of customization. The game starts with you in the cockpit on approach to a carrier. We've customized the joystick buttons for gear, brakes and tail hook. It works really well. Too bad MS must not believe in guns because there is no shooting in their sims.

[vanderstok]

Okay, so the controls are not the problem.

What kind of scenario do you want to offer the visitors?

Let's assume a dogfight over Midway Islands. If you use a simple dogfight server with only two types of aircraft: zero and the Wildcat, the users would only have to do this:

1. In the Briefing screen, pick an airfield. There wil be two airfields (actually spawn points in the air) very close together, right over the Midway islands. One PC must always be blue, the other red (this has to be explained in an instruction, or mark the stations clearly as blue and red).
2. Pick an aircraft, either the Zero or the Wildcat, form that airbase
3. Hit "fly" to start in the air. Both players will start in the air, some distance away from each other...have fun!
4. Hit escape and then "refly" after you have been destroyed (or have landed) or if there is a dedicated server: wait until the game reloads automatically...

[SlipBall]

The game starts with you in the cockpit on approach to a carrier. We've customized the joystick buttons for gear, brakes and tail hook.


This can be done easily in Pacific Fighters as well. With the full mission builder, the mission would be made, and you could have a incoming aircraft perfectly lined up with the flight deck, (you could have the USS Lexington CV2) distance out, altitude, speed all configured. I think that landing a nice old prop aircraft would give your visitor's a real treat...and she has guns!:grin:




(quote)
Our biggest challenge is getting the player to a scenario without going through all the set up, choosing a mission and base, choosing planes, etc


The player would start the game in the air, in the cockpit, and at the controls as you have done with MS...could also be done for your station's 1&2 as well. Where the 2 player's are only seconds away from eye contact, after they first begin to play.

[museum install]

These are all really useful ideas. I'm going to have my electrician/computer guy start trying some of them out.

Thanks!

[vanderstok]

Here is a simple sample mission for that dogfight example. There are a few tricks involved (using air starts), so you might want to try it out. Just unzip this in the \missions\net\dogfight\Pacific Fighters folder.

The only "problem" is that if the user hits "exit" instead of "refly" after pressing esc, then the multiplay game will have to be loaded again. Just play around with it to see if it works out...


Good luck!

[museum install]

Hi guys,
Thanks for all your help with this. The 2 player mission you posted for us works great!
However, I still haven't had any luck getting the game to automatically begin a mission upon startup. I have even tried to use several mouse/keyboard macro recorders to automatically mimic the manual selections. But, the game seems to have something in it that prevents the use of these types of programs. Does any one know of a way around this? Or, does anyone know how to create a hotkey in the game that I can assign a series of actions too?
If anyone has any other ideas, I am interested in trying anything at this point.

Thanks.

[vanderstok]

I'm thinking of Hyperlobby, which is an external utility. From the lobby you can choose a multiplay game and this utility will then automatically start your IL2 game and connect to the proper server. So my guess is that it is possible to start IL2 in some kind of automated way, but I don't know how it's done..

Anybody out there that knows this?

[Novotny]

Could someone get someone from 1C to talk with this guy? Surely they would do a little mod for this; I can't see it being too hard. Oleg is v interested (I think) in these sort of applications. It can only help, surely? Might get a bunch of sales.

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

Could someone get someone from 1C to talk with this guy? Surely they would do a little mod for this; I can't see it being too hard. Oleg is v interested (I think) in these sort of applications. It can only help, surely? Might get a bunch of sales.

I agree, this is a really big deal, having Pacific Fighters running on the Lexington! Someone needs to alert Oleg ASAP and see if he can have someone take a little time to work with these guys!

[K_Freddie]

Somewhere down here we have AFAIK, 2 fully functional CPits - One me109 and and a Hurricane. I'm hoping to reestablish contact so that I can link the two when BoB comes out.
It'll be something like a travelling museum at airshows
:)

[Tully]

Does your kiosk have room for another box? If so, set up a dedicated server with IL2SC or FBDaemon doing mission rotation. Then there is no issue for picking missions or selecting difficulty settings, only picking aircraft and flying.

A dedicated server machine doesn't have to be nearly as capable as a client machine. For a start, it doesn't need a 3D graphics card...

[museum install]

We already have 4 machines in the Kiosk. 3 of them will be dedicated to this game (1 is for a USS Lexington related trivia game). We were planning on have two of them networked and used as a 2 player game and the last of them used as a single player game. Any ideas on how to do this using our current machines?

[vanderstok]

Yeah, the best solution would be a dedicated server for the online play. That would mean you would use the third machine for the server or -if that PC has a dual core- you could combine the IL2 server and Il2 game on one machine since I don't think the dedicated server will need much processing time with only two players.

How?

See here for the dedicated server: http://pacific-fighters.com/en/updates.php

I think instructions are included, if not, look here: http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/23110283/m/692106434/p/1

You will need to install it seperately and apply the latest patch. With a script you can have the server run all day, automatically restarting the game. You could also rotate a few missions all the time for variety. The two networked PC's will only need to connect once -at the start of the day- and then do not need attendance, provided that no-one exits the game (prevent using the esc key? :) ).

[SlipBall]

Yeah, the best solution would be a dedicated server for the online play. That would mean you would use the third machine for the server or -if that PC has a dual core- you could combine the IL2 server and Il2 game on one machine since I don't think the dedicated server will need much processing time with only two players.

How?

See here for the dedicated server: http://pacific-fighters.com/en/updates.php

I think instructions are included, if not, look here: http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/23110283/m/692106434/p/1

You will need to install it seperately and apply the latest patch. With a script you can have the server run all day, automatically restarting the game. You could also rotate a few missions all the time for variety. The two networked PC's will only need to connect once -at the start of the day- and then do not need attendance, provided that no-one exits the game (prevent using the esc key? :) ).




Now that's some meat and potatoe's! good post, its starting to make headway. I'm afraid that eventually the entire flight deck will need to be converted to the kiosk. This sim is very addictive, prepare for many visitors who refuse to leave the game:grin:

[museum install]

Yeah, the best solution would be a dedicated server for the online play. That would mean you would use the third machine for the server or -if that PC has a dual core- you could combine the IL2 server and Il2 game on one machine since I don't think the dedicated server will need much processing time with only two players.

How?

See here for the dedicated server: http://pacific-fighters.com/en/updates.php

I think instructions are included, if not, look here: http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/23110283/m/692106434/p/1

You will need to install it seperately and apply the latest patch. With a script you can have the server run all day, automatically restarting the game. You could also rotate a few missions all the time for variety. The two networked PC's will only need to connect once -at the start of the day- and then do not need attendance, provided that no-one exits the game (prevent using the esc key? :) ).
Hey Guys,
Things are progressing OK on this project. Another quick question though- You said "With a script you can have the server run all day." Where do I put this script? And has anybody already written a script that does this? If so, would you be willing to share it with us?

Thanks!

[vanderstok]

I'm afraid I'm not the expert about online servers, but this link should get you going I think:

http://www.com-central.net/fbd/contents.htm

[DD_crash]

Good to hear that things are progressing. You might like to look at the Midway template (lots of details added to the stock map) :)http://mission4today.com/index.php?name=Downloads&file=details&id=1361 here are some screen shots