DCS World has several high profile projects on the go right now but its likely Heatblur’s DCS: F-4E Phantom II project that has captured the greatest amount of attention. This latest update gives us a sense of where the team are at with the DCS: F-4E and how much longer the wait might be for this project. Oh and we have a bunch of new screenshots including some beautiful shots of the cockpit.
Status update, cockpit info
Two years in the making, Heatblur have been diligently working away on the F-4E Phantom II for DCS World not only as the next release in the developers portfolio but also as a technology platform supporting both their prior projects as well as laying foundation for their next products.
According to the update. Heatblur are currently working on Jester 2.0 – the AI assistant that will help pilots manage this two seat airplane. Here’s an excerpt of what they had to say about the development of Jester 2.0.
Not only do we have to make sure that new features developed are great, polished and fun on day one; but since we’ll be re-using a lot of our new technology in both past and future aircraft, we’re treading thoughtfully. We’ve always tried to look for new ways to further DCS and our own products, and the Phantom will be no different. Elements like better in game learning or RPG-lite mechanics in JESTER are just some examples of where we’ve gone this time around.
That last little bit, about the RPG-lite mechanics, sound particularly interesting and it should be really interesting to see where the interactivity between ourselves as the virtual pilot and Jester 2.0 can take us. The first iteration came to us on F-14 and similar techniques have since been employed on other modules including George AI for DCS: AH-64D and Petrovich AI for the DCS: Mi-24P Hind.
As with prior releases, Heatblur intend to offer a feature rich experience from day one with as close to feature complete as possible.
Coming down the pipeline
No release dates have been given yet on this project and given the challenge of making an estimate date it seems unlikely that we’ll get one until shortly before it releases to us. Heatblur indicate that they are working hard on bringing us the F-4E but indicate that there will also be updates for the F-14, AJS-37 Viggen, the MSFS F-14 project (together with IndiaFoxtEcho), and “other Heatblur elements shipping this year.” Whatever that means!
Heatblur report that they will be relatively quiet as they work towards their goals. Release of the F-4E will almost certainly be a momentous occasion!
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