VFAT 2007

Post by **Lawndart** » Wed Aug 08, 2007 5:01 pm

I think if we get word from Frazer (White Ravens) and Chrissi (JaBoG), we could really nail down that weekend. It would be nice! Sooner is more difficult for many of us and after November it gets crazy again leading up to Xmas. I'm all for the 3rd weekend in November!

Frazer · Post by **Frazer** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 5:56 am

I think we will keep the same weekend as last year for the VFAT. The wishes go for this weekend and I see no reason to change this date.
Still need to have final confirmation with the Virtual JaBoG's but I think we can nail down this date.

Rehearsal - November 09/10, 2007
The Show - November 16/17, 2007

Somewhere in the following 2 weeks the VFAT 2007 Preliminary Registration Thread will be posted at lockon.ru.

To visit last year VFAT threads check these links:

http://forum.lockon.ru/showthread.php?t=16834

http://forum.lockon.ru/showthread.php?t=19408

Tailhook · Post by **Tailhook** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 8:09 am

Frazer wrote:Somewhere in the following 2 weeks the VFAT 2007 Preliminary Registration Thread will be posted at lockon.ru.

yeah, and some of us cant register for it because of one a-hole in particular banned a group of people.

Post by **Lawndart** » Thu Aug 09, 2007 12:00 pm

Frazer wrote:Still need to have final confirmation with the Virtual JaBoG's but I think we can nail down these dates.

Rehearsal - November 09/10, 2007
The Show - November 16/17, 2007

That works. Just like last year the Virtual Thunderbirds will not participate in the practice show due to other commitments, and just like the VBAs I'd assume, we plan on using our own dedicated server - so, it shouldn't be a problem from our end if we can't make practice. If there are other teams wanting to use our server (location, lag reasons etc) for the event, we can certainly leave it up with a VFAT07 mission loaded over this weekend to let them rehearse their performance on the server even if we're not around.

Let's get JaBoG (Chrissi, Woodstock...) on topic now, so we can lock the dates!

Also, I know some of the demo teams are using different missions (marker locations, scenery objects) and to me it doesn't matter if we have multiple VFAT missions to load, but we need to decide on a few constants such as what season, weather and airfield (Razdolnoye!) to use - so the event appears to take place at the same place and time, regardless of which mission/team is loaded/flying.

JaBoG32_Laud · Post by **JaBoG32_Laud** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 11:38 am

Hi guys!

Sorry for beeing so late but I had to wait for weeks to get my new created forum account activated here.

Date sounds good for us. We can fix that.

Me, I'll work with high pressure on the streaming issue. Maybe those big e-sport communities know some more about that streaming stuff. Maybe they even got the needed hardware available for us.
As the virtual JaBoG32 is already sponsored by Saitek we could ask those guys when it comes to topics like "we need to pay for the streaming".

I'll let you know asaps about any news on this.

Dividing the event sounds good as we had nearly too much participants already last year. Combined with the streaming the audience wouldn't even notice it. Depending on the timezones we could make it a 4-6 hour aerobatic marathon starting here in europe late in the evenings and continue in the US in the early hours (or vice versa) just an idea...

Post by **Lawndart** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 1:27 pm

Laud, Welcome to the forums. Your account was activated within 24 hours of creating it - sorry you had to wait.

Dates: Nov 16, 17 (and 18?)
Airbase: Razdolnoye
Season: Summer

We'll need to get a registration thread started again @ http://forum.lockon.ru that includes some additional info compared to last year (if we're going to divide the event by regions and/or timezones): Team name (& website), number of aircraft, demo length, mods, preferred settings, contact person, region (country), own dedicated server, participating day(s) and preferred time to fly... etc. Frazer, you up for this?

Streaming would be great, although being able to download the recorded tracks almost immediately after each performance, like last year, was a great way that we definitely should continue as well. This way you're not limited to the "camera man" working the stream (as some of us know from real world experience can easily be disastrous if they don't know the show), plus it allows many more people not able to join the server to see each team fly almost in real-time.

JaBoG32_Laud · Post by **JaBoG32_Laud** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 1:50 pm

Lawndart wrote:Laud, Welcome to the forums. Your account was activated within 24 hours of creating it - sorry you had to wait.

I waited for the announced mail... maybe I should have tried... however, finally I'm here.

I think we can keep a lot of stuff from the last event what smallers the workload this time.
Streaming is currently the no.1 on my to-do-list for this years event. Can't believe those shooter kids get it running and we're not!

If Frazer has no spare time I can post the registration thread on lockon.ru also.

Tailhook · Post by **Tailhook** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 2:42 pm

Lawndart wrote:We'll need to get a registration thread started again @ http://forum.lockon.ru that includes some additional info compared to last year (if we're going to divide the event by regions and/or timezones): Team name (& website), number of aircraft, demo length, mods, preferred settings, contact person, region (country), own dedicated server, participating day(s) and preferred time to fly... etc. Frazer, you up for this?

Well, I dont think we have the ability to participate because uh, a group of forum police run the stupid thing and ban any account relating to "my squadron". And hmm, even if we can participate...I am going to need to speak with somebody in charge of the Jabog server.

STRIKER · Post by **STRIKER** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 3:35 pm

Good to see the 3rd annual VFAT topic is up and running again. Streaming is definitely priority here. Imagine the shear number of folks that can now participate and of course the ease with the all the different teams to use their own skins/servers to ensure everyone can participate and show off their stuff they way we've always wanted. Some things we need soon regardless of the streaming option is a list of all the participants and dates and times we can hold them to being there.

JaBoG32_Laud · Post by **JaBoG32_Laud** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 5:58 pm

@Viper: Wouldn't it be better (looking at pings and stuff) to join one of the US-servers?

Rhino · Post by **Rhino** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 10:03 am

I would like to piggyback again what STRIKER said, in that it would open this up to so many people. I can tell you that if this is able to be done (streaming), the publicity we can put together for this will be great.

Laud, was your idea to stream just from the JaBoG server, or to stream from all of the used servers?

If this is the case, we would ask that your "photographer" come to one of our private practice shows so we can show him what is going on.

Frazer · Post by **Frazer** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 11:00 am

Hi @ all,
Just came back from my holidays in Russia, Moscow. Had an unforgettable time!!! First of all I have met all the White Ravens pilots and we visited the MAKS airshow which was STUNNING

Next to that we did successful displays at the ED stand. And thanks to ED and WR=220=Timoha I also had the exclusive opportunity to fly in the real Yak130 simulator.....and that with the General of Constuctions!!!

At the Russian VFAT I've met the Virtual Swifts pilots and the Russian RTR television crew interviewed me there also. I was on the Russian national TV!!!

Next to all this I've been talking with some of the pilots of the Russian Knights and the Strizhi shortly after their STUNNING show

Like you can see i'm still excited

Allright, now it's back to business. Good to see some activity again in this threat. As soon as I got time I will post the "Preliminary Registration Thread" which can be expected later this week.
Laud, It may be good to meet in TS before the actual posting.

Allright, its good to hear that the priority of this VFAT is the live streaming. I think the biggest online airshow on the world deserves that!!

JaBoG32_Laud · Post by **JaBoG32_Laud** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 11:17 am

@Rhino: First of all I want it to work. If then it'S possible to get it work on all featured servers that would be fantastic. The cam-men-team should be one of the smallest problems around that topic. I'll do my best!

@Frazer: Sure, suggest date and time and we can talk a bit! Or just have a look into our public TS sometimes. We can talk if we meet eachother.

Post by **Lawndart** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 12:56 pm

Rhino wrote:...we would ask that your "photographer" come to one of our private practice shows so we can show him what is going on.

@Rhino, where's my invite

I think where Rhino is coming from is the fact that a poor camera man in LOMAC could easily destroy the show for many teams. There was a Thunderbird show earlier this year IRL that was streamed over the internet and the camera operator missed almost half, if not more of the maneuvers the team flew since he was pointing the camera in the wrong direction and had NO IDEA of where to expect the next maneuver from. I know it sounds easy, but since both the Blue Angel and Thunderbird shows are built on interval passes with one act performing and then leaving, a new pilot entering and the other act returning on a very tight timing schedule instead of keeping the main act (formation) in view the entire time, one would have to know where to turn your head to as soon as the smoke is turned off. This means a "photographer" would at minimum need to have a schedule in front of him and know which direction and when to point the camera this way. It sounds easy, but the camera man working the streaming feed IRL earlier this year certainly prooved that it is far easier to do a really bad job of it if you're not read up! The interval between most of the Thunderbird passes are only a few seconds apart and if you don't know where to look for the next pass whenever the smoke comes off, you've already missed half, if not more of the next maneuver. Narration would help a great deal to point everyone's attention in the right direction, but whomever operates a streaming LOMAC view, needs to have the show sequences (list of maneuvers and from where to expect them) written down for each VFAT team, otherwise we'll have a repeat of that horrible streaming done at one of the Thunderbird shows earlier this year IRL.

Now, some teams fly only one formation or a show built to keep the act in view of the crowd the entire time. Streaming this would be far easier. Both the Blues and the Thunderbirds are centered around show center (centerpoint), with passes for the crowd, timing between acts and a tighly scripted choreography so that the following pass starts 5-10 seconds after the previous formation has cleared out. This happens about 40 times in each show.

IF (and after) we get the streaming setup for VFAT this year, the LOMAC camera man would need to get in touch with all the teams flying and be handed a show schedule that will show him where and when to point the camera, as if he was standing in the crowd, knowing where to look for the next pass!

So, on that note - let's worry about making the streaming work first!

@Frazer, sounds like you had an awesome time! Makes a world of difference when you bond with the people you spend so much time practicing with online and get to share something unique together, meeting real pilots and watching aerobatics. What was your interview about and one more question; is there a "Russian (only) VFAT"?

...other than VFAT-VFAT

Ells · Post by **Ells** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 9:39 am

Dates are good for the VRA too.

The good thing about the mission file that we all use is the markers, so the camera man should be able to find us all on the given display schedule.

E.g. 2mins 34 marker 10 to loop over SC out to marker 8

As long as we all agree the terminology to use, it should be ok.