Let’s Appreciate Flight Sim Graphics For A Minute

Digital Combat Simulator is more widely famous for a takeoff video, but jokes about how complicated it is can get in the way of just how good these planes can look.

Here’s the latest entry, due out this “Winter”. It focuses on the F-14 Tomcat — a subject very close to my heart — and has loads of cool touches, like the ability for two players to team up and fly the two-seat fighter cooperatively (one as Maverick, one as Goose) and a cockpit “built using photogrammetry from the F-14 Tomcats preserved at museums.”

But it’s the visuals in this trailer that get me. I know flight sims have it easy in some respects, since there aren’t many objects to move around and the ground is usually thousands of feet away, but still. From the fighters themselves to the lighting to the water, this looks incredible.

F-14A/B is a module for DCS made by Heatblur, and flight nerds can see more of its features here.