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Combat Flight Simulator 2 - Part II
By Jim Tittle

In our second interview with the CFS 2 team, Jim "Twitch" Tittle talks with Tucker Hatfield, Program Manager for Microsoft's Simulations Product Unit and lead on CFS. As Tucker explains, the focus on Combat Flight Simulator 2 is on detail, and bringing the game to the pilot.

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CSIM: Please tell us what the genuine system requirements are, not just minimums or even suggested? We find minimum barely runs at all and suggested still has notchy, stilted action in some situations. Include not only RAM and CPU speed, but graphics card criteria as well.

Tucker: First, it's worth noting that not only is everyone keeping performance as a major concern, but we also have a developer and a tester devoted to nothing but performance improvements.

We will be continuing to work on performance right up to the time we ship, so any numbers I give you for "ideal" performance will probably change as time goes by. The problem with giving specific numbers is that different users define acceptable performance differently, and users also have differing opinions about what is the best balance of detail versus performance.

That said, the two things that seem to influence frame rate the most are RAM and video card. If you have 64 Mb of RAM or more, and a good 16 Mb video card or better you should be able to get good frame rates. If you're the sort who absolutely has to have all of the detail turned to max, processor speed becomes an issue, but more RAM and an even beefier video card will probably get you there…

CSIM: What is the geographic and setting for Combat Flight Sim II? Is it all over water and islands?

Tucker: We model the area from Midway west to Papua New Guinea, and from the Solomons north to just south of the Japanese home islands. It's pretty much islands and water, although New Guinea has a pretty sizeable chunk of landmass.

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