Linux Air Combat: free, lightweight and open-source combat flight simulator
askmisterwizard.com
askmisterwizard.com
I don't want my aircraft to have 99 missiles, and 9999 machine gun rounds. I want to have 2 bombs and 4 air-to-air missiles, and I want to fly a tense 15 minute mission into and out of enemy territory. Battle Royal games have shown players are willing to go 5 or 10 minutes between combat if the tension and possibility of surprise combat is there, and have perma-death, give me that in an air combat game.
Do you remember the flightsims of yore, like F-117? This is it, only with better graphics and flight.
Incidentally, why is it that so many flight simulators are low-poly? I've seen FPS with amazing graphics, why not make flight simulators with amazing graphics as well?
Yes, did you see the contrail effects? Pretty cool. And I own the game -- it's even cooler in action. And the explosions of cluster bombs raining on tanks... very satisfying!
> Incidentally, why is it that so many flight simulators are low-poly? I've seen FPS with amazing graphics, why not make flight simulators with amazing graphics as well?
For commercial games, I'm sure you know DCS and its amazing photorealistic graphics. I assume you mean indie games, and I think the answer is multiple:
- The authors want to recreate the experience from the flightsims of their childhood, which were all wireframe or flat polygons.
- Flat polygons can look pretty cool if well animated. They give a cartoon/retro vibe that many of us like.
- It's way faster to prototype and have something running on low-poly than having to deal with textures, shaders and whatnot, especially if that's not what the developer is interested in toying with.
- "Good graphics" in a flightsim can be very taxing! Developers probably just want to toy with their favorite planes, add some cool features, and have it running on a midrange computer. I can play Tiny Combat Arena at very high res with all effects maxed on a mid-range laptop from 2016! I think I probably wouldn't even be able to start DCS with this, let alone having it maxed.
Looks like someone who used to work for Bohemia bought the name.
The feeling of flight is what I really enjoy. It just feels right! And very smooth response to flight controls.
After several days studying online docs and practicing offline I finally tried the online missions yesterday. Wow. Very very fun and absorbing. When you're the only online player they automatically send in prerecorded enemies from earlier online battles so you get drawn into the war against them and you can shoot them down if your good enough. After a while another player joined in with me. At first he was on my side but later he switched to the enemy and we went after each other for a couple hours. I died a lot but I loved every minute of it and I learned a lot.
This is the most fun I ever had flight simming on Linux. They have text comms and voice comms in flight. So far I have only tried text but now I'm gonna activate the voice comms. It looks like Wednesday and Thursday are scheduled with regular online groups so will be there.
I couldn't agree more with your description, @DillardTheDread ! And I know what I'm talking about : I started playing Linux Air Combat more than one year ago .
The only disadvantage that I have, is the fact that I live in Europe, so my time zone is CET (= UTC + 2) . This means that I have to play very late in the evening or at night to be able to fly when other, American users play .
But I can assure you, the man who developed the biggest part of it is very helpful and very polite : He has helped me through installing the game & the 'Mumble' voice comm client . And he explained step by step to configure this Mumble (there are some function keys setups : F1 = chatting with the members of your team, red or blue, F2 = chatting with all members playing the same mission , red AND blue, F3 & F4 for putting the voice comm volume up or down)
Now I am ready to do that myself, so when playing LAC for the first time WITH Mumble voice comm running, don't be afraid if I start talking to you with a foreign accent, okay ? (my Mumble name is "B-FORCE", which appears in one of the mission teams too when I am playing) I can help you out with the most stuff to do when playing Linux Air Combat .
Hankbonk.
Yes. This.
I am planning to try joining the group this Thursday evening. It looks like the best time is from 6PM Central Time Zone for a couple of hours. I can't start that early but I'll try to join about 7PM. I will probably be flying a Ki84. That was 1 of my best planes in Aces High and when I tried it in LAC it felt pretty much the same. Great plane.
Graphics in LAC are OK to me. I only fly aircraft sims and I dont do it for the graphics. As long as theyre good enough to fire up my imagination what I am after is the realistic feeling of flight and LAC has it. My limited experience in their online missions have been really engaging with lots of activity involving replay pilots. Actually the quality of those replay engagements is amazing. It's been a couple days since I was on but as I write this I think I'll go back into the desert mission one right away. I got my first kill there and had a blast. Just a constant drumbeat of targets trying to destroy my air field and I was constantly trying to keep up with the threats.
One thing I learned that helped me a lot was to press v for vocalize in flight which when you do that you hear a radio message directing you toward your target even if radar is out or if the target is flying below radar. Once I learned that the desert mission became my favorite.
I also tried the Peabody mission but that one was too hard and way to complicated for me until I get a lot more practice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9pDUdTOYhw
As you can see in that video, the LAC crowd makes good use of voice comms through the free, well-known, open-source "Mumble" VOIP application, which is deeply interfaced into LAC's cockpit for seamless use as the official voice radio. I highly encourage you to configure mumble and to get comfortable with its use, since it is also the "social hub" of LAC, where we meet up and arrange network flights.
We hope to see you with us for tomorrow's "Thursday Evening" gathering. We are a small group, but the best time to catch us in an organized activity is Thursday evenings Central USA timezone. Things tend to start up around 6PM CST and people will hang around, on and off, for at least 2 or 3 hours. Sometimes nobody shows up, but you can usually find at least 1 or 2 others. If you don't have mumble yet, just start flying in Network Mission 2 or in Network Mission 3 and somebody will probably find you there. Better yet, if you do have mumble, tune to the "root" channel at "LinuxAirCombat.com" and just start talking. We'll hear you and negotiate more fun than you ever thought was possible in a LINUX flight sim!
I tried the Peabody mission again and again. Wow. Is it even POSSIBLE to win that one? I keep trying to defend against waves of bombers coming in high but I can't even get up to their altitude before they are blasting my base to bits. Then right after that waves of low alt strafers and raiders come in with rockets and they all have tail gunners that whack my plane to bits. Should I switch to something more rugged like a P47 to last longer when theyre shootin at me?
It is POSSIBLE to prevail while flying solo for the BlueTeam. I've done it myself, but only after weeks of practice and my victorious session required more than two hours of white-nuckle, sweaty-palmed intensity. I was flying a P38 at the time (my favorite).
If you switch to one of the other Realms you won't run into Replay Blokes. In that case it's easier to prevail in the Peabody mission, but you'll still need to keep the pressure on in order to damage/destroy both enemy airbases faster than their ground crews can repair them.
A couple of months ago we had a goodly group flying one Thursday evening and we all decided to join Peabody's BlueTeam to battle the Realm 01 RedBlokes as a team. We were able to win in about 45 minutes. I think there's a video showing that session. Just a minute and I'll try to find it....
https://youtu.be/BRNZ09eyTPg?si=PfMhaKIRoe20SZQ1
I couldn't find the exact clip I wanted, but that one shows what it's like to fly Peabody's mission with a wingman. We inflicted a lot of damage that time!
BTW there is now a new web page showing who is online. It gets updated about every 60 seconds. It's a little tricky to interpret, so the page first shows instructions and a commented sample. You have to click a link at the top of the page to see the current report. Here's the link:
https://askmisterwizard.com/2019/LinuxAirCombat/LacCurrentOn...
Do you have mumble set up for the voice comms yet
sudo apt install mumble .
Config : Do mind that mumble starts up and puts you in the appropriate channel of the LAC free server channel the moment you choose a mission to play (that's the start page of the chosen mission, you don't need to start the mission yet) On that mission page you can change the team you want to play with ; red or blue, the realm you play it in (best for now to leave it on 1 because it's the realm that has all the missions fully working) To change the team, click on the "Blue" (or Red) team button, mentioned in the upper left part of the start page . DO NOT forget to click on "Update" to make the changes in the game and in mumble .
Once mumble is running in the LAC server and you are in the chosen mission and team, you need to configure the Mumble connection : click on Configure, then choose settings and click on shortcuts .
On that screen one has to add 4 function keys, being F1 talk to your team (Blue or Red), F2 to talk to all players in that mission (Red AND Blue), F3 for mumble volume down 10 % and F4 mumble volume up 10% .
Follow these steps : Click the ADD button, then click on the "unassigned" field under Title "Function" and choose Push to talk, then click under "Shortcut" and press the F1 key . Click the ADD button, then click on the "unassigned" field under Title "Function" and choose Whisper/Shout, then click under "Shortcut" and press the F2 key . under the Data column , then click on the 3 dots on the right of "Empty" and change in the Whisper Target screen like this : on top, click on Shout to Channel, and at the bottom click on shout to subchannels . For F3 : click on Add, choose "Volume down 10%" in stead of unassigned on click under Shortcut and press the F3 key . For F4 : click on Add, choose "Volume up 10%" in stead of unassigned on click under Shortcut and press the F4 key .
And that's it for mumble, but if your connection is bad or not working at all, click on configure and then on "Audio Wizard..." and follow through all steps .
Here is a brief YouTube video clip illustrating the process as you described it:
Further background on this subject can be found in this thread from LAC's "Mumble and LAC" forum:
https://sourceforge.net/p/linuxaircombat/discussion/mumblean...
I used to need a throttle with a toggle, a hat switch, some buttons, a joystick with a couple of hat switches, trigger, a few thumb buttons and I still needed the keyboard for a few functions because I didn't shell out for a HOTAS setup. Now all games can be played on a console controller with less than half the buttons.
Do you recall "Onslaught Mode" in Unreal?
Perfect.
Man, this just made me really sad :-(
Hardware-wise I feel like there's a lot more very affordable kit that kids like me could use to get their feet wet, but software- and learning-material-wise, I'm not sure if there's anything quite as good as some of that old stuff. These books, for instance, were abundant at the public library and really got me going: https://usborne.com/ca_en/books/computer-and-coding-books
I hope this version has combat.
Is there anything to recommend it now, aside from inertia of already being on SF?
Of course it all depends on each project to use them and IMO the SourceForge UX is far from ideal (also the pages load slowly), but at least the functionality is there.
> We're your online technology videomagazine, and we're different from other online magazines because we create all of our own content, and because most of that content is published in sequentially organized YouTube Playlists arranged for easy learning. We offer hundreds of hours of free, high-quality, technology-focused content, with subject matter ranging from how the Internet works through setting up and securing your own home-office network to writing high-performance online game/simulation software!
Way to go, there are actually a lot of interesting playlists in there. Even one on running Jane's flight sims which were a favorite back in the day.
I suppose this is not it.
Now if they did the same to ACM...
Call me odd, but these games were insta-fun. Run, load the levels in seconds, instant fun.
The same with Search and Rescue 2. Or the Marathon series. Simple graphics, but engaging gameplay.
https://askmisterwizard.com/2019/LinuxAirCombat/LacOnlineDoc...
Pretty much everything about LAC is easy to find thru the links there.
Weapons systems are similarly difficult-but-not-complex. Have had tons of fun in multiplayer with my kids dogfighting, doing missions, and even full-on wargames with randos online.
Can an open source game of this kind find players? Probably not many, but possibly dedicated ones. The problem with that target group is that someone will reference the charts from the POH or from published test flight data and complain that the simulation does not match the numbers.
LAC, BTW runs very very nicely on cheap laptops and even does pretty well on Raspberry Pi 4b.
Though visually it's bit behind what we've been used to, I found some of the fun I had when much younger in F22 Retaliator. And at least, in GL117 (and LAC, I guess) we have a bit of height variation in terrain ;)
Amazing how low the bar is for AAA games in terms of gameplay and fun.
Linux Air Combat on the other hand really does look the way games looked 30 years ago, and the UI looks worse.
It's fine, we don't need good graphics in everything. But it will hurt its popularity in a way that Battlebit is not hurt, because people can tell the difference between intentionally making a game with a retro look vs. just not having the art resources for good graphics.
It looks like Roblox Battlefield.
The only real complaints on an otherwise ridiculously overwhelmingly positive Steam page seem to centre around the anti-cheat.
The MinSysReq also suggests it'll run on a potato, so it sounds worth a shot!
That's far harder to do right than graphics and it's going to have a bigger impact on how immersive the game is. You can always improve graphics down the line but getting the mechanics and handling right is a lot more important and will be a lot harder to change later on.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianapolis_500:_The_Simulati...
Graphics, yes. But the actual gameplay... a joke compared to the first Rainbow Six and tactical matches on SWAT3.
Any serious libre gamer with a big graphics card to test would just launch Flightgear at 4K with the ALS effects on, real time weather and a crazy draw distance over 30 kms with all the shading FX' on. And lots of tweaks that made clouds looks like clouds and not fancy textures or barely recreated shaders.
Do you realize this graphics settings are done on retro purposes?
Go check Flightgear videos with ALS settings and graphics to the max. It might not be MSFS, but for something that also runs under an HD3000 iGPU/UHD600, the graphics are astounding for a community based project.
Also, MSFS gets rendered assets and maps from Bing maps, something Flightgear did with Google Maps with a custom build... 10 years ago.
Games require a lot of consistent output and theming in their assets to make it work, not exactly suitable for piecemeal contribution built with different asset pipelines and quality.
What is interesting to see is how a lot of fan remaster projects have this problem to a much lesser degree. Having the touchstone of a shared love for the original makes it much easier to organize and get people to stick around and agree to someone's vision.
Well that makes sense: in a remaster, the "vision" is really just "let's modernize this old game". So everyone knows what it's supposed to look like, basically, because they can just look at the old game itself.
Saying that it's like saying every AAA game it's like an unoptimized Ubisoft crap.
> Size: 458 GB
Damn.
People who are into gaming for the visuals and the comparing of the sizes of their 3D cards wont understand this.
One more thing. When your selecting an airplane in LAC it always has an extra menu button for every plane that will play a YouTube documentary vid clip about that plane. Some of those clips are really good. It's like spending the day in a warbirds museum where you can learn about the planes, select your favorite, and then hop in and fly it.
I think some of the people that can't stand LAC graphics are just upset that it looks as good for people with a $50 graphics card as it looks for people with a $500 graphics card. Get over it people! You didn't waste $450. You get even better graphics on other games. Just not on LAC, where everybody gets the same pretty good graphics that will never be spectacular graphics.
My 2 cents.
Yet the emergent gameplay and the semi free-roaming playability made it better than most FPS crapware being shold from 2002 to 2009 save for Half Life 2 and Crysis.
This might not be the best game on the flying combat genre, but don't forget that these games are built for fun and if they work on multiplayer, for quick matches quickly forgetting the rest.
Heck, a lot of pro FPS players put the texture settings at the core mininum and with a 1920x1080 resolution at best so they can spot the rest of the players at a quick glance...
Xonotic and Red Eclipse 2 began as quick, improved Q3A FPS clones and now they are pretty well known in lots of places with their mechanics being utterly ripped to set fakely placed as novelties and "revolutionary gameplays" into propietary AAA games.
As I said, the game is to GL-117 as Supertuxkart over Tuxkart, or Speed Dreams over Torcs.
But I have played LAC and LAC looks better to me. Especially the terrain graphics and clouds.
Is the source code for Tiny Combat Arena released too?
I will try TCA after I get tired of LAC. If I ever get tired of LAC.
OTOH the enemy AI isn't very good. The bots in the training missions don't ever do anything fancy and after awhile its finally getting easy to mow them all down. But I mean that in a good way. In a fun way.
Ground handling is primitive too. Taxi on the runway and take off and landings seem playful and not very realistic once your wheels hit the pavement. But once in the air its magical. For FOSS this is surprisingly good.
Look at Roblox and say that.
Yes, let's compare it to Minecraft. It looks like crap compared to Minecraft.
It's not like it's claiming to work on a 8MB 486 or similar.