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Sound
There is more to realistic combat simulations than pretty graphics. We need sound, lots of immersive sound. Guillemot and Voyetra/Turtle Beach were showing off their latest and greatest gaming sound cards.
Guillemot's Fortissimo is a full four-channel surround sound PCI card. This card supports DirectSound acceleration in hardware and about every positional audio driver known to man. The price is less than US$50.
Turtle Beach was displaying their Santa Cruz PCI sound card. This card has an onboard DSP engine and handles up to six speakers. The Santa Cruz card includes a 10 band graphic equalizer. It has more inputs and outputs than any gamer could want. Santa Cruz also supports a pile of different positional audio codecs including several of Turtle Beach's own design. The Santa Cruz is designed for future expansion. This is not an entry level card.
COMBATSIM will have an audio card comparison in the near future. These two cards, positioned very differently in the market, will certainly be included.
Action
Finally, we need action and for that we need controllers. In walking around E3 I saw every style of controller known to man (or woman). Many were in bright clear plastic covers with cute little creatures painted on the outside and clearly designed for the kiddie set. I saw controllers that one stood on, sat on, and twisted to actuate. Many were designed for first person shooters and sports simulations (see my comments on this trend later in this article). However, there was a ray of hope from several manufacturers that the market for high quality, high performance control equipment is not dead yet.
First, the reports of Thrustmaster's demise were greatly exaggerated. I had the opportunity to meet with Peter Kreft, Project Manager for the HOTAS 2000 project. He had a functional mock-ups (work just like the finished product mechanically but internals may not be identical to finished product) of the F-22 2000 and the TQS-2000.
The feel of these new controllers is frighteningly realistic. Thrustmaster has decided to go with a polymer covered metal. I do not know what type of coating is applied but it has two characteristics that I found just wonderful: 1) The coating has some sort of non-slip effect but it is thin enough so the controls feel cool to the touch. One of the things that always makes metal feel different than plastic to me is its 'cool to the touch' feel. Somehow that 'metal' feel is still present but without the corrosion problems of exposed metal. 2) The control feels rock solid and easy to use. Peter, however, is an incredible perfectionist. He has several more tweaks up his sleeve to make this the most realistic F-16C HOTAS ever brought to market.
Saitek has been leading the controller market in converting their full line to support USB and game port connections. They were displaying a broad array of new products that sported USB and game port connections just like their highly successful X36 Flight Control System and Cyborg Digital II infinitely adjustable HOTAS. I just about fainted when Ali Farmer pulled me off to the side to show off the brand new PC Dash 2! I have been using the original PC Dash for years. I found it an important part of my virtual cockpit for most simulations.
Like all the new Saitek USB devices this works in conjunction with the Saitek Gaming Extensions (SGE v1.3 is the current release). This means full programmability with the potential for latched shift keys, command toggles, complex cycles of key presses assigned to any key, etc. Literally anything you can program a switch, button, or hat to do via the SGE system, can be done with the new PC Dash 2. There is even a mini joystick that could be programmed as a mouse. Best of all is the USB connection so that it can be part of your cockpit when you need it and out of the way when you don't.
