CFS3 Turns Twenty!

[gecko]

According to Wikipedia, Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 3 was released in North America twenty years ago today. The European release came a few weeks later on Novermber 15th. It's strange the to even think about a game having regional release dates anymore, but most of us were still on dail-up back then and the game was so huge it needed not one, but TWO whole compact disks to store all those files! A download would be simply unthinkable. And here's how it looked the first time I saw it on my enourmous 15in 800x600 CRT monitor, with the poor Compaq desktop using every bit of its 256MB of RAM to try to maintain 20 FPS.

Those were the days!



Twenty years have changed a few things, don't you think?

So here's to a great twenty years of our favorite sim and hobby, and to everyone here who has spent countless hours over those two decades to make it what it is today. And I daresay, it's still getting better!

 

[Pat Pattle]

Wow! Is it really 20 years??
Yes it has come a very long way, It's been a very enjoyable (and sometimes frustrating!) hobby for most of those years. I couldn't afford it when it came out so stuck with cfs2, so probably 15 or 16 years for me.

A massive thank you to all of those talented modellers past and present. Too many to name in person except maybe one, Ankor, who dragged the old girls looks kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

 

[sixstrings5859]

Got it a few months later after the release. Been at it ever since.Loved CFS and CFS2 and it had to be my next step. My pc could barely keep up then. All the wonderful work that has been done ,and still being done, keeps it entertaining and fun after all these years. A big thank you to ALL who have contributed so much for our enjoyment. Hopefully for more years to come. My all time favorite WW II air combat simulator ! Thanks to all the wonderful people that makes it all possible. Regards,Scott

 

[mongoose]

Why did I think it was even earlier? I remember at my Dad's death in mid 3003, I was already thinking of TOW because of his time in the RAF. Time flies and makes one's memory of long past events not that accurate! Where it is now owes a lot to many who are now not active, and the few who still are. Thinking of:-
Winding Man and Johnno for scenery
The whole MAW and especially the ETO crew
Clive and BoB
The ACC crew
Daniel and totally new aircraft realistic performances, not to mention earlier work on scenery and for me, Flares and target indicators.
Ankor and Andy for Shaders30
Ted, John, Rob for aircraft models and textures. Ted also for Himmelbett stuff.
Daiwilletti for campaign work
Fouteman for many BoF, BoB generation model improvements (textures)
I am sure that I have forgotten a whole host of people, such as Loic (missions), Nigel (textures), and many more. I'm sure people will remind me!

 

[Daiwilletti]

those early views of CFS3 were painful. Every driver update for my NVidia 5200 card was eagerly awaited.

The GMax modellers I am in awe of. We owe a huge bunch of thanks to them and the skin masters.

A few slightly left of field contributions are airfighter55's vehicles, the new UI animations (33Lima??) and brieftxt edits make a subtle but significant difference.

Looking forward we need to kidnap Xavier Jouve and make him finish minor refinements to his terrain mesh, and a low poly extension to his water mods.

I just encourage people to remember to play the sim, enjoy what it has become!

 

[MajorMagee]

I've recently installed stock FSX again, and I was shocked by how far behind the latest rendition of CFS3 it was.

Many thanks to all of you who've put in the endless hours of OT (own time) to make the orphan into a fair lady.

I was truly blessed to be a small part of achieving what we have over the years.

 

[gecko]

Not to forget guys like Ed Wilson and Bob Park who pioneered building new theaters. And the aircraft modelers like Steve, Ted, Matthias, Luca and Greg. We'd have very little to work with without them!

 

[hairyspin]

I remember longing for a machine which could run CFS3 instead of CFS2 and finally getting one; although dial-up was the rule, I happily downloaded as much as I could find from the various sites, especially AVHistory. There was a lot of buzz then - happy memories!

 

[joe_daddy59]

Hello and what a change two decades makes!

Hello everyone -- my name is Joel and was active in the CFS3 community back around 2004-2008 (Joe Daddy). Have just reloaded CFS3. ETO v 1.5, and the shader package. You guys have been busy and doing great work. I am looking forwarding to rediscovering the fun of this community and sim again. Have gone looking through files and recovering some of my unfinished projects. Will probably be asking you guys for help in remembering all the tricks I forgot. Once again good job!

 

[sixstrings5859]

Glad you are back Joel ! What fun awaits ! Things have really changed for the better with CFS3, and more to come. Welcome ! Regards,Scott

 

[BEAR - AvHistory]

Happy Birthday

Nice to see the sim is still alive. Was 60 when it came out. Some of the new screenshots y'all have done were unimaginable back then.

Was really disappointed MS pulled the plug on CFS4 when they decided no more shooting planes down. We were testing & leaked a few screenshots here, got our wrists slapped.

Wonder if anyone has copies? Pair of Thunderbolts flying up a summer season valley in Europe. Was a nice graphics upgrade that pushed the machines we were using at the time to maintain frame rates.

Regards,

Kevin

 

[NachtPiloten]

It has been a blast these past twenty years. When I ran CFS3 for the first time what a letdown, CFS2 was much more capable and did not kill my machine. But the community moved forward and made many improvements, and we all had a bunch of fun. Bear - who would have a copy? That would be amazing wouldn't it!

 

[BEAR - AvHistory]

It has been a blast these past twenty years. When I ran CFS3 for the first time what a letdown, CFS2 was much more capable and did not kill my machine. But the community moved forward and made many improvements, and we all had a bunch of fun. Bear - who would have a copy? That would be amazing wouldn't it!

As far as I know only Greg & I had the originals. Mine are lost in the mists of time as many computers have come & gone. Flighsims forced me to learn how to build computers as the sims were quickly outpacing the computers in development. Was just too expensive to buy off the shelf machines.

Though someone might have copied the pictures off SOH. We were starting to develop some CFS4 planes at the time. Over the years lost contact with Greg as we both got into other things. I worked on Falcon 4.0 as part of the Wildbunch VMF 257th (Grim Reaper tail logo) which had its roots in an earlier EA flight sim series, Janes Combat Simulations. where we beta tested online combat & modeled our first planes. We had two ringers in the group, USAF F-16 pilots, flying from the Mideast.

That was pretty much my last flight sim. Went back to my teen years build & racing cars which at my tender age am still involved in. Only fly Warbirds a few times a year now, inner ear issues mean I can't pass the FAA physical & have to go up with an IP. Retired from martial arts a few years back as knees & shoulders started to give me grief. Also do a lot of off-shore fishing with my sons in law & grandsons. Slowly turning into an old fart.

 

[hairyspin]

Good to hear from you BEAR, lots of us remember those days fondly even if there's been a lot of water under the bridge since. I also remember your flight in a T-6 (?) that avatar photo came from, you lucky bear. All the best!

 

[mongoose]

........................

........................I worked on Falcon 4.0 as part of the Wildbunch VMF 257th (Grim Reaper tail logo) which had its roots in an earlier EA flight sim series, Janes Combat Simulations. where we beta tested online combat & modeled our first planes. We had two ringers in the group, USAF F-16 pilots, flying from the Mideast.
.....................

I have Falcon BMS 4.33 U1 on my machine but for now too high a learning curve timewise, what with doing TOW stuff. A great improvement on the original Falcon4 . Sad that I don't even actually fly CFS3 other than testing misssions, etc., never mind other sims.That's the trouble for anyone working on improvements; ask NachtPiloten, gecko, bravo4, Pat Pattle, and others! I'm sure that you know the same.

BTW 80 is still young!

 

[sixstrings5859]

Since i'm disabled and home-bound ,have a lot of time on my hands. Have a neuromuscular disorder, this and guitar are my main therapy. Just started playing the Strike Fighters 2 series and like that it is moddable too like CFS3.Jets are a nice break every now and then. Sometimes spend more time adding things and tweaking things than actual combat. That is what makes simulators like these fun. New sims are mostly closed with little to mod, and a lot of money for little content and offer only more eye candy for a high end gaming rig. I'll stick with CFS3 till my humble hardware quits and can't get parts ! Very few good WW I and WW II air combat sims to choose from ,so CFS3 will continue to be my go to for just the "feels just right feeling" reason alone. Nothing compares ,for the average person,to CFS3 ! One note though, There is a learning curve to get going in CFS3, but there is always great people and knowledge base to learn from. If it were as easy to install,update and add expansions a such as IL-2 1946 we would be more popular,but it is well worth the extra effort. If we could just point it out to others. Regards,Scott

 

[BEAR - AvHistory]

Good to hear from you BEAR, lots of us remember those days fondly even if there's been a lot of water under the bridge since. I also remember your flight in a T-6 (?) that avatar photo came from, you lucky bear. All the best!

Yes an AT-6 Texan built in 1943 painted as a D-Day P47. Flew a number of flights with these guys in a PT-17 bi-plane also a ride along in their B25 & P51. The AT-6 is a favorite as its the first combat plane I had the chance for stick time in. Guy in back was retired USAF fighter pilot & my IP. Have 9 hours in them. It not see much combat in WWII AFAIK with 3 squadrons in the Philippians 1941 the year I was born. The planes were ordered by Thailand but redirected to Luzon before they could be delivered. They did fly a lot of missions as a Slo-FAC in Korea & early Viet Nam. The armed version A-27 carried 2 BMG .30 in the cowl, 4 small 100lbs bombs & target marking rockets.

This shot is a is not of great quality, have the original on my wall. The IP was showing me the general ACM's, he would demonstrate & I would follow through on the controls, then I would get a shot to run the maneuver. We were preparing to enter a loop & I asked if I could do an imitation of an F-15C promotional photo of it going straight up. "Sure have at it". Thing is the Texan will go straight up for a short time but runs out of steam pretty quickly & slides back down tail first. Wing camera caught the event.

Scott looking at some of the CFS3 files the installation looks pretty complex. Was surprised they were able to get it to run on current hardware.

Mongoose On the Falcon side I have a series of very thick simulated USAF F-16 manuals. General pilots flight manual the dash. Then are specific ones electronics, weapons systems, navigation, radar etc. Really was a steep curve but having a pair of actual Viper pilots was a major help in getting to the fun part. Don't know how much of the manuals filtered down as we never had the retail version.

Don't know who might still be involved with F4 but a guy screen name SleepDoc vetted us to be in the test group and was the liaison between us and the developers.

 

[sixstrings5859]

Great to hear from you, Bear ! Falcon 4.0 BMS is fantastic. Played it very much for years. Have always been interested in WW I and WW II aircraft, even though i worked on F-14's in the US Navy. That's what got me hooked since CFS series first came out.CFS3 and IL-2 1946 BAT has everything i could want. There are some new ones such as WOTR and BHaH II that get my attention and will be the next step up. Love CFS3 so much i created a facebook group for it called "Combat Flight Simulator 3 Fans" ,and it's been growing steadily . Made a few good friends in the process.and have learned much from them, and here at SOH. It's been a fun journey learning and improving this wonderful sim. Hopefully for many more years. Thanks to all who helped so much along the way. Regards,Scott

 

[NachtPiloten]

Cfs4

Bear do you mean Greg Pierson? If so I chatted with him a month or so ago. Hmmm just might send some zero's and ones his way.......

 

[BEAR - AvHistory]

Bear do you mean Greg Pierson? If so I chatted with him a month or so ago. Hmmm just might send some zero's and ones his way.......

Yeah, have not heard from him in years be interested is what he is up to now. Flew the F-14 & F-18 sims for a while. Never got into IL-2. After Falcon got involved in a number of other things. About 15 yeas in Martial Arts Taekwondo 4TH Dahn & Hap Ki Do 1st Dahn. Competed in the Men's Senior Excusive (Old Farts) Division.

Retired when knees stated acting up.
At the same time Moved into RC aircraft, Modded RC helicopter gyro's for fixed wing aircraft, never satisficed to let thing be. Seems like a lot of the RC plane companies are using Gyros in their planes now.

Stayed pretty much in the WWII era with a few WWI & between the years Civilian aircraft. Was fortunate to get the guys I flew full scale with to make passes over the Charity Fly For Tots event the club ran when the schedules over lapped one year. The Franklin County Airport that hosts the planes is just 7 miles from the RC field.

Then back to my very first love building cars & driving in performance events.

Still keep my hand in with the cars with light AutoX, some drag racing & charity track days.

Finished car in 13 months from start. Car its street legal race car by NCDMV exception.