First of all, let me get talking about my life like this is some sort of journal or somesuch...
FREEDOM!!
I finally have my own car and a drivers license. Finally.
It's a Honda Fit, of wierd commercial fame, and I like it:
It's pretty fun, but after about 40mph (50kph), the acceleration kinda falls off a bit, so unless a street race is very short or includes some ridonkulous turns, I'm afraid I can't win easily :/ -but it's easy to park, and has airbags all ova da place.
">YouTube video review I found, sounds pretty accurate.
Those crazy airman!
So my dad is in the civil service and works out on our nearby Air Force Base, and one of the many things they have out there is the Holloman High Speed Test Track. It's basically a heavy-gauge specialized rail track 10 miles long that they shoot rocket sleds down to test various things, and my dad and I went out there to watch one the other day, but it was delayed due to wind. It did eventually go off, go Mach 6(pretty fast for the track, max is Mach 9 right now) and collide with a target at the end of the track with spectacular results. I've seen other tests, They are awesome.
To burn time, we wandered around the boneyard, where they keep all the old sleds in case they need them again.
They have a couple airplanes out there leftover from RCS(Radar Cross Section) testing that are awaiting conversion to a sled if need be.
As evidence that not everybody who joins the military is evil and deviod of humanity, I submit the following photographs:
This is a F-4G Phantom in structural styrofoam supports sitting in the desert:
This is some of the parts that were removed, including ailerons, pylons, and a FLIR(Forward Looking Infra-Red) pod:
Now, what makes this remarkable was what was stenciled in front of the intake:
HUD Modifications
I've decided to work on the HUD some more, after thinking about how nice it would be to have a speed bar. This of, course entailed adding on to the existing texture another bar, which got me working on the HUD for the Partisan Mk. III.
Here is what the HUD looks like in-game right now (Hey, that village looked at me funny, ok?):
Now, here is the new airspeed bar attached to the somewhat redundant Healthbar:
I was thinking about how the throttle has always been kind of vague-feeling in the game; it tended to be difficult to gauge how fast you were going.
My solution is to revert back to Sir Sapo's original idea of the up-and-down arrows working like a real throttle, where you could move it up and down and it'd stay in that position as opposed to right now, where you have to hold Up to go fast and would go back down as soon as you let go.
The green will represent where you can set the throttle normally, and the red and blue the speeds you can go through double-tapping up or down. Double-tapping Up will engage your afterburner and make you go really, really fast, but will eventually overheat your engine(s), damaging the plane and forcing it back to the green for a while.
Double-tapping Down will do the opposite: engage your airbrake, slowing you down in a jiffy, if you slow down too much, though, you'll lose control and start dropping like a rock.
The negative effects will probably take place after staying at the extreme blue or red for a few seconds.
In addition to adding a speed bar, I decided to finish the Partisan Mk. III HUD. The Mk. III is almost an entirely new airplane, so I thought it might as well have a new cockpit-look, too. The actual functionality is the same, but the look is differentesque.
Here is the original HUD texture:
And here is the new, awesome-ized Partisan Mk. III texture:
Hopefully it'll be really noticable in-game when you get the Mk. III.
I also made a HUD healthbar with different colors so it'll be more functional and we can take out the procedural one used right now:
StoryCasting
Well, I'm going to New Mexico State University in the fall, and I've been gearing up a little bit for that, getting scholarships and whatnot.
My aunt the other day sent me information regarding a summer program somewhat similar to the one I attended last summer, only smaller and shorter. It's something they called "Storycasting," and it's about the film industry, with hands-on stuff. It's part of the new initiative to encourage the entertainment industry to work here courtesy of our Governor, Bill Richardson.
They seemed pretty desperate, as they had to extend the deadline twice to get more people in, so I have a good chance, even if my application was a bit rushed, ie. bullshitted.
I had to do a short description of a script, a 'treatment,' a 10-panel storyboard, and an essay saying why I wanted so dearly to be in the program. Oh, and the story had to be about or take place in New Mexico, our fair state, of course.
My aunt, who had to submit my application for me and is a film/english teacher, liked it.
I might as well link to all the crap I had to do (It's amazing how scared people are of getting stuff as an URL and not in an email still):
Treatment(story)
Storyboard 1
Storyboard 2
I doubt it's worth the time, but hey, maybe you'll learn about Nuevo Mexico!
Or not.
Random Accompishments
First random accomplishment is drawing the Partisan Mk III and F-45A from the side in my arbitrary "128" scale, for mission briefing/promotional purposes. Here they are pictured next to the vertical versions:
This is kind of a tribute to my Brother, who is an EWO(Electronic Warfare Officer) on a B-52 up in North Dakota. This is a fictional version, the EB-52I:
It's his birthday before too long, hmm...
This is just a texture full of the various ordnance for the Partisan. Before, we were basically using a rocket or bomb texture for every in-game weapon.
This is A texture showing some of the Allied fighters that will be in-game, the Eurofighter Typhoon, the F-22 Raptor, and the F-45A. The F-45 is still in progress, but the Eurofighter and F-22 are done:
Sir Sapo and I also worked on stuff for the final mission, which we might as well keep from you as you know everything else. I've been trying to make Sir Sapo put up a journal entry on other new stuff, but he's being a pansy. PM him for me, please.
In conclusion, Saturn V rockets are Huge:
-Goodnight!
