Chronocidal

Actually, that's not ENTIRELY true. Even leaving out "Someday in the Rain," they added some extra/different material into a couple stories, especially Lone Island, and a bit in Live a Live. To be honest, I like the episode version of Lone Island a lot better, at least as far as the ending goes. The scenes of partying/drinking got cut, but the ending of the book was rather... lame. The mystery kinda just sputtered out, whimpered, and died. The ending in the show was much better, since they trapped them in their own game, and gave us a Phoenix Wright homage to boot. Certain bits of that ending were very visual, and wouldn't have worked in the book. The scene about the shadow person also got added in, and what I wonder is if that will be tied in later somehow. Live a Live was changed quite a bit too, mainly with regards to the concert scene. I dunno if you'd call it adding to the story, since they had to cut the concert short, but they added to what they pulled off. The band in the book had only 3 members, and Haruhi and Yuki split the job of the lead singer/guitarist, with Haruhi only singing. They also played a full band set, not just the two songs in the anime. Frankly, I don't think the novel holds a candle to this episode, since you just can't do a concert justice in a book. Even condensing it to two songs, I think the effect of the entire scene was much better, and dare I say a bit more believable with only two songs, while still making Haruhi look like she was doing the impossible (even more so, since now she was winging it with lyrics AND guitar). I've been holding off watching Endless Eight so far, and I might try to wait out the entire season, as long as it might be. I kind of want to just marathon the entire thing, rather than wait for the next episode.

OMG. That song just made my day in more ways than I can even list. A more purely epic win has rarely shown its face on the internet. Btw, this is one track of an entire album, all done with the Tokyo Philharmonic. *runs to find the entire album* Most are with vocals, unlike the Mikuru theme, and some of the orchestral versions don't mesh well with the vocal, but I think I like the Bouken Desho Desho arrangement even better than the original. Edit: Hare Hare Yukai appears to be instrumental too, and is incredibly awesome.

Lol.. sorry, probably didn't ever actually say that I was working on how you'd do it in real life, not how the anime shows it. I know what you mean btw, I do love to overcomplicate things. What I'm trying to figure out is more something you could make work with a computer sim, or if we ever built these things in real life, not so much how the anime shows it. I'm fairly certain that no multi-engined aircraft has a single lever for both throttles, so that's one complication right there, and there's a whole other list. What you've got listed sounds just about right for the anime. I'm pretty sure there's a lot of anime magic going on though, since there just aren't enough controls in the cockpit for everything you see the VF-1 do. The cockpit obviously doesn't show a sliding axis for the right stick, so that idea doesn't quite work, and the amount of arm control you see in various scenes wouldn't be possible to control directly, unless there are a LOT of controls for functions we're not even seeing. Now, they could rely heavily on preprogrammed motions, or they might have contextual controls that perform different functions in different situations. Only way to really know would be to ask Kawamori. Being an engineering type himself, I'd bet he probably has it all worked out.

Well, to be fair, Macross Plus was written before we really knew anything about the F-22, so they couldn't really copy it. Linking those vector controls to the feet does make sense in geralk and battroid, so maybe the pedals just function as a manual override in fighter mode, specifically to pull off maneuvers like that. But they have to be linked to the normal flight controls as well, since otherwise pulling back on the stick wouldn't do jack, because several of these planes have no traditional elevators. The YF-19, VF-11, and VF-4 are exceptions, since they have canards, and the YF-21 could probably do without since it's got the same control surface arrangement as the YF-23. And come to think of it, even the later VF-19 variants had more of a delta wing arrangement than anything else. But planes like the VF-1, VF-0, and VF-25 just don't have any control surface to function as an elevator, so they have to rely on vectored thrust.

The big issue I see with the arm scheme you have is that even with wrist control, a 2 axis stick is not nearly enough to control an entire arm. At the very minimum you need 3 axes, to control the hand's position in 3 dimensions. Up/down and left/right is fine, but what if you need to punch something? You need another axis to control how far out you extend the arm. You need one axis for every direction of motion you intend to be possible with the arm/hand. Assuming we go with the stick controlling the position of the hand in 3D space, that means 3 axes just for that. Now, maybe the hand itself could be controlled with a hat switch, since hand motions would be relatively precise, and not need to be too fast (unless you plan on communicating with sign language). It'd be simple enough to make a pressure sensitive thumbstick to control the hand and thumb, I think, since 2 axes would be plenty to control wrist rotation in two dimensions. So, for the complete axis count, you'd have for each arm.. 5 finger axes (limiting them to simple gripping), 2 wrist axes, and 3 hand position axes, so 10 for each arm, 20 total. Throw in throttle (two, actually), and things might get a bit messy. Course.. this is assuming this is all for real life. A game would be much simpler, I'm sure. And oooh.. on the real life side of things, just had an idea... all those finger buttons? Yep, they're axes, but are they spring loaded? That could make holding things (like the gunpod) get tiring. You'd need a finger version of cruise control. Or, another option.. I know we didn't see this in the anime, but what if each of the fingers had a ring on it, and were actually not spring loaded at all, but simply allowed the pilot's hand to push and pull the fingers open as if they were his own? *shrugs* Again, I need to get a life.

Interesting thought about the arm/hand operation... anyone ever see one of those incredibly fancy/expensive CAD controllers? Think like a trackball, except you can hold the ball, twist it, turn it, tilt it, push in 4 directions like a joystick, and even lift or press on it. It's basically... wow, yeah, I think it is a full 6 axis control. Now, imagine if the joysticks worked like that for arm control. Given the fingers are pressure sensitive buttons on the stick, the hand itself could be controlled by the traditional joystick motion (as far as orientation of the hand and wrist), while the 3 axes left could act as a simple directional control for the hand. Essentially, it'd be what computer animators call inverse kinematics. It's used in rigging computer animation models, and greatly simplifies motion animations. For things like walking, you would only keyframe animate the position of the foot. From that, the computer interpolates where the rest of the leg should be, given it's limits of motion. If you had 3 axes to control the spatial position of the hand, and 3 more to control how it behaves, that'd probably work nicely. Now the only problem with that is that you have lots of axes with very similar motions.. it would take a VERY careful design to make sure you could activate the axes you wanted to for the hand, without accidentally moving the entire arm.

I would love my X52 more if they hadn't ditched several of the better features of the X45 when making it.. the extra features of the new version just don't make up for the lack of engineering quality. It just feels flimsy, where the X45 felt extremely sturdy and beefy.. especially for the throttle knobs.. the ones on the X45 were nice, smooth, metal bearings.. by sticking the extra button in the middle of the ones on the X52, they killed the feel of those knobs entirely, and now they're plastic-on-plastic components that tend to fall off a lot. But anyway, enough about my control stick rants The problem with setting up a set of canon DYRL controls wouldn't be just the flip-up throttle.. what you'd really need would be two extremely fancy sticks, with interlocks that kept certain motions from working depending on the mode. The way I see it, each of those sticks needs to have 4-5 axes of control each, not the usual 2-3 (the third being a twist function). Five separate axes might be a bit much, but four would be doable. What you'd need is for each side stick to have the standard twist stick setup, and then put each stick on a sliding track that could move forward and back for the fourth axis. What you'd have then are automatic lockouts that would prevent the sticks from moving in certain ways during certain modes. In aircraft mode, the left stick would freeze all axes but the slide function for throttle, and the right stick would remain stationary, and probably lock the twist function. Moving into Gerwalk/Battroid would free up all those axes, and the throttle would flip up into a full function stick. That would all seem to work really great, except for one thing... you now have sticks that can move forward and back on two separate axes simultaneously. You can tilt each stick forward or back, and still slide them either forward or back. Managing that much freedom of motion could be very tricky indeed; probably not impossible though, depending on how the controls were weighted. But just imagine trying to slide your joystick across a desk without tilting the handle, and you'll see the problem. Granted, your joystick is designed to produce friction with the desk, and a control would be much easier to move.. but it's still an awkward combination of controls. Imagine throttle control was integrated into an aircraft's stick that way.. you could very easily cut your engine while trying to pull out of a dive, since the motions would be so similar. Now just to throw a King Kong sized monkey wrench in the works here... I dare anyone to explain how Basara controlled his Valk.

Officially, I dunno if the controls have ever been worked out. We see bits and pieces throughout the different series, such as the buttons that control hand motion, and how the foot pedals control thrust and leg movement.. but Gerwalk? If you delegate the hand controls entirely to arm motion (which you pretty much have to), you're left with the foot pedals to control ALL movement.. which could get messy. The foot pedals in Valks are nothing like regular rudder pedals, since they pivot, control yaw like traditional pedals, AND can be pushed at the same time. To be honest, that's one thing that has always seemed flat out wrong to me about Mac+. The shot they show of Isamu's aerobatics shows him using the foot pedals to control how the feet vector the thrust.. well, in Gerwalk or Battroid that's fine, but shouldn't that control be integrated into the stick for roll control in fighter mode? I seem to remember the foot pedals actually being used to walk in some scenes, which to me sounds overly complicated, but when you consider the sticks have to control the arms, that's all you're left with. The same is true for Gerwalk mode. Now, given enough control flexibility in the foot pedals (they seem to be attached to the pilot's feet, rather than just something he steps on), you can get a large range of motion control from them. In Gerwalk and Battroid, they'd need to control the engine thrust (seen in I think Mac0 to be controlled by pushing the pedals down, kind of like a jumping motion), walking motion (which, if the pedals are actually attached to the pilots feet in some way, could actually mimic real walking), as well as thrust vectoring with the feet while airborne. If we assume that the pedals in Valks have MUCH more motion in them than just a simple set of rudder pedals, it's likely they could act more like the leg controls seen in Noriko's Buster Machine in Gunbuster, where the pedals move in multiple directions, and the pilot can move them in any direction he can move his legs. This would be really imporant for thrust vector control, since you'd need to be able to tilt your feet side-to-side and front-to-back. Walking on the ground could be more automated, but if the pedals have a built in feedback system, they might actually exert a slight pressure upwards on the pilot's feet based on the current terrain. That way, the pilot would know when the Valk's feet were firmly on the ground, and he could actually get some sense of the motion of walking, rather than just automated motion controlled entirely by computer. Considering some of the fancy footwork some Valks have been seen to be capable of, either they have a tremendous system for executing pre-programmed close combat maneuvers, or the pilot really IS in full control of the motion (I'm thinking of the tuck and roll Hikaru's VF-1J performs in the opening credits of SDFM, but I'm sure there are other examples as well). And now that I think of it, yeah, the pilot DOES have to be in full control of the motions.. otherwise, how would Alto have pulled off his custom victory pose? In this case, the arm controls confuse me much more than the legs... I mean, they're control sticks.. granted I think they slide, but there has to be some tremendous precision freedom of movement to manage an over the shoulder pose for the rifle. Btw, yes, in case you're wondering, I've spent FAR too much time thinking about this. Figuring out control interfaces for fancy stuff like this is just fun for me.. I've flown so many flight sims, I've had a lot of experience with what types of control schemes work, and what types don't (I'm looking at you Hawx ). I just love figuring out ways to make supposedly impossible stuff work. It'd be even better if I got to apply this knowledge to an actual Macross game at some point (or better yet, given my career field with aeronautics, an ACTUAL Valk someday ).

Ok, just to clarify.. when I say control scheme, it's coming from a full-on flight-sim junkie, and if I were to ever work on a Valk sim, I would design in an option to fully control as much as you actually wanted. I figure, there's a reason Hikaru crashed on his first time out, so piloting the thing should not be that simple (if you actually want the hardcore sim experience anyway, there'd have to be simpler options of course ). Ok, so the controls.. From the start, I'm working on the assumption that this'll be controlled by a full blown HOTAS system with pedals. It's not what everyone has, but if you try and build a control scheme backwards (starting from basic to realistic) you're going to run into problems when you get to the realistic end of things, and have to redesign everything to make it possible. Also, just for the sake of absolute crazyness, let's throw in a head tracking system as well. You'll see why it's useful later on. So, how does a Valk fly? Aircraft mode is simple, you just use a stick, throttle and pedals as you would in any other sim. Given a head tracking system (or someone very good with a hat switch/target padlock view), you could even link the targeting and head turret to it, but most of the weapons would be forward firing. Gerwalk mode is essentially a cross between an AT-ST and a helicopter, and I can see a helicopter control scheme would have great merits here. In this case, the stick would act more like your classic WASD setup, and you'd need to control yaw with the rudder pedals (or you could always swap yaw and drift functions between the stick and pedals, since many people would probably like that option). That leaves the throttle for downward thrust, working like a helicopter collective control. Once you happen to actually touch down on the ground, you could still use the stick to walk, just at a reduced speed compared with hovering. Now the fun part.. you have arms now. This is where things could get tricky, but if enough functions are automated, it'll be simple enough to do. The right arm traditionally holds the gunpod, so it's functionality as an arm is actually very limited. I'd say for that, you could probably just use a selector to slave the arm to either boresight aiming (directly forward) or have it auto-aim toward your current target. Head-tracking would be IDEAL here, since you'd be essentially flying the Macross equivalent of an Apache attack chopper, complete with the head-tracking main gun. Slave the gun to your head-tracking cursor, and you can just place the aiming reticle where you want to. You could also try doing this with a hat switch (the round ones with ridges are generally called that actually, while the ones with tabs sticking up around the edges are called castle switches), but those rarely have the ability to track targets well. You'd probably have to almost entirely automate functions for the left arm, things such as "pick up," "grip," "punch," etc could be controlled by a combination of the aiming reticle, and action keys. Battroid, in most respects would work pretty much like Gerwalk mode, but you'd have more hand-to-hand combat options. Here's where the head-tracking almost becomes a must, because you're essentially playing a first-person shooter, but with a joystick and throttle. Joystick should still control forward/back and side-to-side motion, WASD style, and throttle could control thrust/jumping. What becomes an interesting option here is the possibility of using the rudder pedals, especially if they have integrated toe brakes. I don't quite know how you'd use them, but it would be interesting to be able to individually control each foot in space combat. Now, note, this is a setup that aims for realism (if that word can even be applied to transforming fighter planes). In actuality, it would be much easier to just go to a keyboard and mouse combo (or gamepad) when moving to Battroid or Gerwalk, but then you deal with the issue of thruster control. Granted you could hold the jump button down, but setting a level of thrust to keep you hovering could get complicated. You'd need individual functions that would increase, hold, and decrease altitude. Aside from that, fps controls would probably work fine. You're just going to probably have to deal with a lot of automated functions based around mouse inputs, but it wouldn't be all bad. You could hover over an item, press a button, and drag with the mouse to move it, or pick it up, etc. But then, you wouldn't have an excuse to get THIS: I do find it a bit ironic that with the flight sim market nearly dead, Logitech decides to release this beast now... but that won't stop me from buying it. It basically combines the best features from every HOTAS system that's ever been produced... dual throttle design like the Suncom F-15 one.. lots of extra trim knobs like the Saitek X45/X52.. military styled stick like the CH Products version.. they even added force feedback, which I've never seen in a serious sim setup before. It's gonna be a little pricey at $300, but most of the other comparable systems cost more, or roughly the same.. they just don't come in one box. Combine this sucker with head tracking, and I'll be dying for a serious Macross sim. Heck, I'd settle for a re-release of Tie Fighter.

No, 0g physics (TRUE 0g physics) just means that all the craft move according to Newtons laws of motion. Since you don't have any atmosphere for drag in space, you don't need the engine running non-stop. It's the way the space shuttle works. Firing a thruster gives you acceleration, not velocity, so you keep moving once the thruster is turned off. Even in a 0g environment though, you will accelerate from manevuers, so you can still blackout or redout. Say you were floating freely inside a large box equipped with thrusters. If a thruster on one side of the box fired with 1g worth of force, you would accelerate toward that wall at the same rate you fall on earth. If the thruster continued to fire non-stop, you'd be able to walk around on that surface the same as you would the ground on earth. Once the thruster stops firing though, you both maintain constant velocity, and you'll float off the wall. If the thruster fired with enough force, you could accelerate fast enough to black out, or red out, depending on your body's orientation. Target padlock view is actually just a term used to describe your head following a target in combat. Most games I've had that use it let you choose how to follow your target. Either you have a target indicator that tells you which way to steer toward it (such as a HUD indicator), or they let you lock your viewpoint on the target, and your head pivots to follow it. Most games have a limit to how far you can turn your head to follow, but some will let you look around behind you. The trick to a padlock view is you have to be careful about situational awareness. Since you're focused on a target, you're not actually looking where your nose is pointing, which can be bad. Traditionally you look through your gun reticle, and steer so that your target enters it. Padlock view is kind of the reverse, in that you look straight at the target, and steer the reticle to line up with it. It's a bit tricky to get used to, but keeping your eyes on your target lets you see exactly what its doing at all times, letting you respond to its maneuvers very quickly. As for a control scheme, I've been trying to figure out a good one for years I'll post my thoughts on that later, just beware the description will not be short.

Actually, the original FS2 was pretty close to Star Wars space physics (ie, ship flies like a plane in space). BTRL tried to change that as much as they could, but lets face it, no one makes a computer control system that would be adequate for 6 degree-of-freedom flight. When you can thrust and rotate on any axis, controls get very hard to manage. The only set of controls I ever saw that might work for that actually CAME from Star Wars Those twin handled controls you see in some ships (maybe with a set of pedals as well) could probably produce every directional control you'd need, sort of like the dual joysticks in Virtual On could produce so many motion directions for the mechs.

Sheesh.. I'm glad to see someone actually try and compile all the modding info in one place. The ubisoft boards for Hawx are an utter mess.. you'd need a dedicated modding community board before anything useful would be easily accessible. Browsing through a single gigantic topic to find info was useless, so I gave up looking, and went back to other games. Freespace 2 became the basic standard for home-brewn games when it went open source, so it's sad to see someone claimed it again. Although, for $6 I can hardly complain, it's WELL worth that price. And actually, having someone take an economic interest in the game after all these years might not be all bad.. it proves that someone out there realizes there's still money to be made on good space/flight combat games. The biggest problem I have with the FS2 engine is that is just lacks so many more modern standards for flight combat games.. After years of playing newer sims, I don't know how I ever played without a 3d cockpit and a target padlock feature (pseudo 3d games like Wing Commander 1 and 2 were fun, but I always hated the restrictive cockpits). FS2's interface is not bad, but it could really use some more modern features. Hopefully the modding community has fixed a few of these things, since it's been a while since I looked around, but the BTRL demo I played still used the standard cockpit interface.

Yeah, there's a lot of moving parts. I made an F-14 for MS Flight Sim, and animating the main landing gear was a nightmare.

What markings are on that F-18? I had thought about getting one of those a while back, but held out hoping for an F-14.

He should've put in a wall-sized tv with a direct video phone line to Mel Brooks' bathroom wall.

Well, the problem with what they're saying is that the plane shown is NOT a VF-84 Jolly Roger, or at least none that I've ever seen. While they may have gotten a few upgrades before switching to VF-103, I thought those modded countermeasure sidewinder rails were a relatively new thing? And I can't help thinking they doubled up on the sensor pods.. I remember reading that the ones that were placed inside the upper intake lips were partially to replace the external ones in front of the main gear, and they only had room since they removed the glove vanes. This plane looks very much like it has both sets.

Wooot... well, that's at least a couple worries I had shot down.. appears ALL the weapons are removable (I love a clean plane sometimes ) and the gear look nicely detailed. Loving those nozzles too, although to be honest, I'd love it more if they included opened and closed versions. This is definitely a late model A though, it's got all the sensor bumps that the last ones in service had (under the wing glove, left front gear door, etc) as well as the later NACA style intakes on the gun. Wait a second.. anyone else think it looks like they added the internal sensors as well as the external ones on the gloves? The upper lip looks like it has a definite bump to it. I thought those were only on the D models, and it replaced the external ones? Either they're mixed up, or this plane is a mashup of production pieces from different versions.

Lol.. well, as confusing as the novels sometimes are, please read them quickly... we need more people in the know the discuss the details with, and maybe come up with some kind of explanation for all the shenanigans. Btw..

True enough, although I dunno if it counts Oy, as much as I've been avoiding it, I really need to just read through the whole series again. The little things I can't remember for sure are driving me nuts

Oh dear lord, I think you just broke the series. And maybe the internets as well. Ok, double spoiler over. Actually, to be honest, that could actually fit in some ways... and it definitely puts a WHOLE other spin on why big Asahina said "don't get too close to me." Of course, it also opens the possibility for a bit of "No, I am your father" humor.

Okay, now that really makes my brain hurt. Would be a hilarious twist though. I'm still trying to decide if protecting Kyon is actually part of what Nagato is supposed to do, or something she just wants to do.

I have to admit, the Uber-Kyon theory would be interesting, but considering how often he panics over the crazy stuff that happens, you'd think his thoughts would have stopped some of it. I dunno the exact philosophy, or what it's referred to, but this anime is basically a complete manifestation of the idea that thinking something causes it to be that way. I've known some people who think that way at times, that if they believe something, or think about something happening, then the very act of thinking that way can sometimes have enough of an effect to actually cause it to happen. Haruhi is like a direct embodiment of that, even though she doesn't realize it. What I really would like to see? What was Kyon originally doing on Tanabata? He was basically in two places at once at that point (or maybe three? need to re-read more), but what was the younger version of him doing? If it was significant in some way.. that might lend credence to the idea that he's responsible for it all. Anyway, theres' obviously a lot more going on than we realize.. especially considering the interest that Kyon gets from everyone in the club. Nagato continues to look to him for guidance. Asahina (big) obviously knows a lot of what happens, and keeps giving him warnings to protect him. Koizumi is a little more discreet, but he obviously does what he can to protect Kyon. They all have an interest in Haruhi, and observe her... But Kyon? All three of them seem to know something that he doesn't, and are working to make sure that he does what he needs to do. And.. oh crap. Just had a thought. Gah, my brain hurts and my fingers are tired. I think wayyy too much about this series... Anyway, maybe Kyon has more to do with everything than he thinks. I mean, the entire series is ten tons of irony... the guy who wishes to be a side character in these types of stories is the narrator, and obviously the main focus. I'd be very surprised if he is responsible for it all, but I wouldn't say it's impossible at all.

I didn't know any of them had been officially translated yet, but there's a site I found dedicated to a lot of fan-translated novels, and they've done all the published Haruhi books, as well as some shorter bits that don't fit in with them. Think the site's called Baka-Tsuki.

Just finished re-reading Disappearance and Day of Sagittarius... funny, didn't realize how close those were together in the time line. I have to agree, the more in-depth pwnage of the computer society was much more epic in the novel than in the anime, but it would've taken far too long to describe I think. Disappearance has me thinking a couple things though... either they're going to finish the season at the end of that story, and wait for season 3 to resolve the cliffhanger (of sorts), or they're going to try and work it in. What's funny... if they do go the latter route, and work it in, I almost think they might do that part out of order entirely, showing the resolution before the problem. I kind of hope not, but it might add an interesting twist to see that aspect of the story in reverse. They did that a lot with the first season after all, having Kyon talk about the conclusion of the season vaguely throughout the season. It might not work so well here though, because it'll be a lot harder to be that vague when so much of the story will be wound together in that short solution bit. Another thing occurred to me though, and it's maybe a bit troubling.. I hope that they do find some way to resolve the Disappearance story within this season.. otherwise, they might write themselves into a corner. If they do extend into a third season, that season will probably wind up dipping into the unresolved material in the last novel... now, while it might force the author to continue the story, it could also wind up being an unfinished series, which would suck royally. I hope they find a way to resolve everything within another season or two. The plot could go on much longer, but I dunno if they'd do it.

Ok, I'm rather amazed... I think that's the first good guy Alto I've yet seen.