Helicopter Gunship DEX News

A couple of fixes for the last patch....

1. Viper now no longer flies into the ground or soars into the sky every so often! This actually effected all the helicopters but only the Viper seemed to be noticeable.

2. Intro screen now has a black background again. No idea why that happens sometimes.

3. Hopefully fixes issues with radio sound effects not playing.

This update adds the following...

1. "HERO" exterior for AH-1Z Viper & AH-1Z Viper CRS. The texture mapping has changed and now uses 3 different maps for the exterior texturing. You can find these maps in #GameDirectory#/Helicopter Gunship DEX_Data/StreamingAssets/Helicopter Skins/

The UV mapping has been totally redone so old custom textures will not work.

The mesh for the Viper has also been split into several sections ready for when I start looking at damage & destruction. This will allow bits of your helicopter to fall off etc.

2. AGM-122 homing behaviour has been updated so that it will home in on Radar sources that have locked on to you. This allows you to "bait" air defences into locking on to you so you can return fire with the Sidearm before retreating to cover.

In addition, when you launch the missile it will query your TSD for any Radar pings received within the last second and will home in on that source if it is within the missile engagement envelope. This allows you to fire a missile immediately after getting pinged and be pretty sure the missile will home in on that source.

3. When using the mouse to control the cyclic holding the "Hold for Cyclic Look" button now works correctly allowing you to look around with the mouse.

4. Removed the Su-25 support option for the moment.

This should be the final update before the SU-25 launch and I will probably swap the beta to a "Fixed Wing" beta or something similar.

This update will the be pushed out to the public branch as it contains some important updates and fixes.

Some screenshots of the new HERO Viper exterior in game and the upcoming MRLS. The Viper will be included in tomorrows update and will be fully compatible with skin mods.

A couple of screenshots showing the "Pixel" light system lighting up a runway with hundreds of lights. This is a modification of the "Sprite Light" system I had employed on Stealth Fighter DEX which was an asset from the Unity Store.

Instead, this system utilises "point" meshes which, I think, is a little easier to manage seeing as you can have a light mesh for each object and turn them on/off as necessary. Basically there is zero impact even if you have thousands of these little lights in view.

This update adds the following....

1. Fixed landing gear for Harrier. It now retracts correctly!

2. Fixed a few bugs in the new detector system

3. Added new AGM-65D missile for the Harrier. This is an IRTV guided missile which means you need to lock the target with your Targeting Pod. However, once fired the missile is self guiding allowing you to designate another target after launch.

The AGM-65D is a big heavy missile so has trouble homing in on very close targets as it doesn't have time to turn. Minimum range is probably 2-3km but it works much better at long range (10km+)

The Harrier can carry 4 of these missiles on the 4 inner pylons (1 missile per pylon) which is less than optimal. However, the missiles pack a big punch and will be very important for another aircraft coming very soon.... ːsteamhappyː