TMS: The Musketeers Squadron

Aces High II v. 2.14 Beta just released; see the screenshots!

HitechCreations has released an eagerly anticipated beta version of Aces High II’s latest game patch.  This upcoming patch makes significant changes to the game’s lighting, terrain, and water features.

The new terrain alone is much more realistic and attractive, as is the new water/ocean texturing, which is now reflective.  For me, the most important aspect, however, is the dynamic lighting that’s been introduced.  This new lighting system imparts such vibrancy to the game world, that the new terrains and water can sometimes appear totally realistic.  The aircraft and vehicles in the game, when combined with high-resolution textures and dynamic lighting, literally shine and sparkle, depending on their orientation to the “sun.”

The beta still has many bugs to iron out, as well as needing optimizations to increase players’ overall frame rates, so it’s not yet complete, but I was pleased to see that my current computer system was able to run it.  The “jury is still out” on whether or not it will run well when combined with my SoftTH triplehead software, which enables me to run the game across three monitors.  Still, on one monitor, it looks great and runs fine!

[UPDATE, July'09] I’m happy to say that SoftTH v. 1.08 works with the new beta game just fine. I’ve added some wide-format screenshots to show how the beta looks across three monitors.  Magnificent, and no greater hit on my overall frame rates than I had in the previous game version.[/UPDATE]

Here are some screen shots I’ve taken after downloading and experimenting with the beta version in offline mode.  I chose a colorful Japanese Ki-61 fighter for my earliest screenshots from the beta so I that could show off the vibrancy of the colors and lighting.  The more recent screenshots are in wide-angle because I was able to get SoftTH to work properly with the beta game.  I wanted to show how visually stunning the game can be, especially when seen across three side-by-side monitors.   Even so, the screenshots don’t do justice to just how good this looks onscreen in the live game.  For me, this seems like a new game, as far as its looks are concerned.   Click on the small images to open larger versions of the screenshots:

So give it a look if you’ve thinking about playing it.  Test the beta, see if it works well with your computer, and get ready to enjoy the new game version.  Here is the link to the Beta Test forum on the Aces High II website.

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Tags: Aces High II, AHII, air combat, beta test, dogfighting, Ki-61, Muskies, new game patch, screenshots, TMS, version 2.14

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Aces High II Glossary and Guide in English and Spanish… (en ingles y espanol)

He creado dos documentos para ayudar a nuevos jugadores hispanos, de la simulación de combate aéreo en-linea Aces High II (AHII): 1) una referencia o guia traducida al español, a los controles del juego, y 2) un glosario, del inglés al español, de la terminología aeronáutica y el argot usado en Aces High II.

Translation?: I’ve created two documents to help new, Spanish-speaking players of the online air combat game Aces High II: 1) an English-to-Spanish translation of a reference to the game’s controls, and 2) an English-to-Spanish glossary of aeronautical terminology and the argot used in Aces High II.

Earlier this month I created the controls reference sheet, about which I posted an entry, and I’ve just finished the glossary document, which is about five pages long.  I had some of it already done as a result of the work that I did for the reference sheet, so it was just logical to simply flesh out the rest of the terms and create a useful glossary that should be a huge help to players whose primary language is Spanish.  There is a very large community of flight and air combat simulation players who might find this useful, since not all games publish regionalized versions and it is difficult to find translations of the technical terminology of aeronautics, and also the slang or argot of a complex game like AHII.  The glossary can be downloaded from our site here (glosario situado aqui), and the controls reference is available here (la guia a los controles esta situado aqui).

Saludamos a los pilotos virtuales hispano!

May they serve you well.

Wraith

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Tags: Aces High II, Aeronautical Terminology, AHII, argot, combate aereo simulado, Controls, Espanol, Glosario, Glossary, Guia, Reference Guide, terminologia aeronautica

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