posted 01-27- 07:29 AM               

La5 - 5Min 30 secs, climbing at around 230mph (don't forget speed changes with altitude)

109k4 - 4 mins 3secs, climbing strangly at the lower speed of about 225mph.

So, what seemd such a big problem because I thought that the climbspeed should be much lower, like around 200mph, is completely wrong when I compair to atleast 1 other top of the line aircraft, as such, my testing on climb and speed has now finished.... thank god for that lol

~Nat~

posted 01-27- 06:08 PM               

They don't necessarily attain the best climb rate.

TS

posted 01-27- 06:09 PM               

Maybe this would save me some time.

posted 01-29- 02:47 AM               

Won't it just pick a climb angle that will get it at your set height in the set distance?

TS

posted 01-29- 03:27 AM               

What I maybe didn't mention above was to set the speeds higher than the aircraft can achieve, forcing it to climb as fast as it can.

What the AI appears to be doing is basicaly this: It calculates from it's lift, power, drag ratios etc what the optimum "sustained" rate of climb will be, i.e, it's angle of attack to get to the altitude the fastest while maintaing a steady speed. For instance, I can get the La5 to climb very steeply and reach 15,000ft is a short distance, climbing at around 15/18 degrees, or, with a few little changes to the drag foil, it will climb at a higher speed, but not as quickly, at around 10 degrees, I've seen the same results while working on other FM projects. So it seems the AI picks the best angle to climb at to be able to sustain the climb and not lose speed, which from what I know is how a test for rate of climb should be carried out. I mean, OK, we could probably climb faster if we flew, we'd climb sharply then level out to regain speed, then climb again, the AI on th other hand looks to hold to best climb over the change in altitude, in this case from 500 ft to 15,000ft, and timing this gives you an accurate fate of climb, and climb time to a specific altitude. An aircraft with low lift will climb at a high speed, but a low rate. This all actualy makes FMs harder to do I think, atleast to get them accurate.

Final test on the La5 with this gives me a climb time of 5mins 40 seconds, only 20 seconds to slow, at the same time, the climb angle is about 10/12 degrees at a rough overall speed of 235mph. This may sound fast, but compaird to the 109K4 which is greatly outclassed by the La5 it's not, it's hitting around 2,500ft/min, which is also about right.

If you want I can give you the mission I use for this test, but I've no doubt you can create it yourself. But, the key word in all this is "sustained" we can climb faster, but can't sustain that climb whereas the AI does.

~Nat~
Oh, forgot to answer your point on the AI just climbing to the waypoint. Thats not what it does, see I set waypoint 1 very close to the runway to force the AI to climb straight away, but I set it at 15,000ft, waypoint 2 can be any distance away then aslong as it's not to close, or waypoint 3 is also set to 15,000ft and in a straight line with the others, the AI is then straight from take off trying to get to the altitude and ignores the waypoints other than for direction changes, so it might get to 15k midway between 1 and 2, or closer to 1 or 2 etc or even beyond 2 It's just trying hard to get up there.

posted 01-29- 03:39 AM               

High speed, low AoA = low climb rate
low speed, high AoA = high climb rate

posted 01-29- 09:58 AM               

test the AI take-off
test the fr's in controlled conditions (alone / squadron / dogfight )state PC spec too!
test the planes top speed under AI control
test the climb to altitude under AI control

posted 01-29- 10:56 AM               

Climb to 15,000ft from take off (timed from when AI hits full throttle on the runway {full fuel load )
20,000, 15,000, 5,000 and 1,000ft max speed tests (full fuel)
Air Combat 4v4 (use a comparative enemy and watch general AI handling)
Strike mission (max loadout, full fuel)
Takeoff with hill at end of runway (thought this needed to be tested lol)

Each mission is pure AI from the start, on the climb and strike mission you should at the same time pay attention to how the AI's ground handling is, and it's takeoff ability. On the 15,000ft climb you should let the mission run and check the landing ability, but only if you're happy with the climb time ofcourse.