Quarter of a million hits and a facelift for Flight Sim Machinima

For 3 years now we have been selecting the best flight sim movies in one collection as a showcase of the great films that can be created from game engines. Many of these films were hosted on different sites for downloading which have since become unavailable, and also there were very few high quality streaming sites available back then.

So, after 250,000 hits on the website, we decided to give the site a brand new and modern style and also to create a channel on Youtube for easy viewing of all the videos in HD where available.

http://www.flightsimmachinima.com/

Please take some time to look through the fantastic, moving and entertaining films that have been made from IL2 and other simulators since the very first days when amateur moviemakers realized just what they could achieve all on their own and inexpensively with a game engine, a computer and some good ideas.

This process is now widely recognized as the art of machinima, and we sincerely hope that many of you will begin or continue making great flight sim movies.

Thanks to all on the team for keeping the flag flying - Russell (Joe90) Boyd, Chris (Bbloke) Hunton, Steve (Monty-Dan) Worsley, Bruce (Wiley/Doolittle81) Wallace, Sjon (GL2) Stevens, Michael (310thFalcon) Lockhart and Tinus (biltongbru) le Roux.

Migrating old memories and web pages and contemplations on what is real

About bloody time!

http://russellboyd90.blogspot.com/

I finally got around to moving my old static and non-interactive ntlworld website to blogger. I forgot just how much change has happened over the last 6 years, while moving across some old pages.

We all started somewhere with online life - I'm sure a lot of you are of the same generation that can remember the days when there was no Internet. Yep, can you believe that!? Can you remember how the hell we got by 20 years ago without having Google ready to answer any questions, and the people we met were the people living in the same town?

When did you become hooked online?

I exclude the early years when I tried to play Duke Nukem 3d with my neighbours by modem to modem direct link. For me I discovered online gaming with the Munky Clan, an America's Army squad. It all came clear how fantastic and fun it can be to immerse yourself in a virtual reality, as it was not just the gaming but also the building of a clan and new friends. The naivety of these first days also led to major bust ups and emotional stress.

Then to be more serious about online friendships and gaming by joining a Virtual RAF Squadron to reenact WW2 air battles. You would think a bunch of guys could get on OK, but even then there are some problem individuals, though much easier to deal with in a virtual democratic militaristic group. 10 years and still going strong, EAF.

In the vast virtual worlds of today like Second Life, we ask ourselves is this real or not. If real means emotional involvement, then Second Life is real, as real as America’s Army clans were 6 years ago.

Lights Out - a short horror film directed by Chris Boyd

This made by my kid, Chris, along with his Media Studies class in their final year at Dunoon Grammar School, 2009.

I don't ever remember school being this much fun!

IL2 Sturmovik – new life for an 8 year old engine

This short machinima piece shows how the latest mod Ultrapack version 1.7 has breathed new life yet again into an 8 year old combat flight simulator, IL2 Sturmovik, making it a viable engine for making films.

This is a demo of a track, recorded first with the mods, then for comparison, without.

No post processing was carried out. What you see and hear, is what you get in game.

Salute! EAF602 Joe90 Virtual European Air Force

Another Youtube takedown! And a putbackupagain.

Youtube dropped another bomb on me. They must be getting good at dropping bombs with pinpoint accuracy, ahem.

Yes, I know, I used copyrighted music for an old training video I made on how to use the Norden bombsight in IL2. It was way before there was any real concern that Youtube would eventually have a strop with Warners Music Group and decide to pull all their content off the site.

My Bad.

Also very irked as it had been one of my more popular videos, and was still getting hits and comments even though the tutorial was over 2 years old. I still get messages asking for more information on how to drop bombs (sorry all if I don't reply to them all, it's just lack of time, but thanks for the interest. Best place to get help is in the forums then everyone can share and learn).

Well, I guess I should put it up again without WMG music. It means losing some of the sound effects, but hopefully this will still be useful to enthusiastic bombardiers. And hey, at least it means I can do it in HD this time. Back in the old days there was no such thing :)

Hitting 50 - I would celebrate but...

Nope, not the number of years on this planet, but 50 Youtube subscribers to http://www.youtube.com/user/J0E90

I would celebrate as it does feel like an important number of subscribers, but then again my kid got the same number a whole lot quicker making domino videos, and now has 230. Me jealous of my kid? Hah, course not. The little brat, more popular than his old man http://www.youtube.com/user/camjam2k7 but I'll forgive him as he made me a cute little logo from dominoes :p



Thanks to all who have subscribed - it's actually very encouraging to know that you want to see more.

For those who subscribed to see more flight sim movies and have been asking for more, well, maybe one day I'll come back to that genre when there is a good way to get better human animations into the game. For sure there are still many great stories to tell.

As for now, most of my films are being made with Pooky Amsterdam in Second Life, over at http://www.youtube.com/user/pookymedia

Chuffed with OMFF results

Winners of Online Machinima Film Festival 2009

Very pleased to not only get a runner up award for best film at this year’s Online Machinima Film Festival, but chuffed to see other Flight Sim movies get a mention.

My own Shoulder to Shoulder was third for best film, using IL2, Sims 2 and my first tinkering with CGI.







Wolf’s Desert Dogfighter was third for best drama, and this is one of the best dramatic stories told using a flight sim engine, integrated with ArmA and a few others.







TLR was third for best first film. Tinus is now developing great integration films; see more of his work at Youtube







Also, pleased to see Pooky getting third place in the series category with the brilliant 2nd QuestioN! live machinima show.




Congrats to all the winners, and a big thanks to Michelle for organising this. Shame there won't be an event for us all to get together again in Second Life.