Warbirds III

By Mad Max Merlin, Combat Flight Simulation Editor (14 July 2003)

Feel the heat and get into the action of Warbirds III

"Tuck it in tight, boys. We're over Indian Country now."
"Left Waist to pilot. We got bogeys coming in fast at 11 o'clock. Three ME-109s!"
"Tail gunner, here. Little Friends in sight. He got him! Hooyah! Scratch another one. "
"Takin' hits. Ohmygawd, we're going down."
"Hold formation! It's a long way to Berlin."
"Here comes the flak. Man, it's so thick you could walk on it!"
"OK, bombardier, you have the airplane."
"Bombs away, Skipper. Let's get the hell outta Dodge."

It’s white-knuckle time in the virtual skies of Warbirds III

That’s just a taste of the action I experienced when I flew a B-17 mission with the new, and vastly improved, Warbirds III massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) from iEntertainment Network. This is the most serious test of intense combat flightsimming I have ever experienced.

I have to admit, I could easily get hooked on Warbirds III. While I’m a long-time fan of Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 1, 2 and now 3 - Warbirds III is an entirely new and distinctly different combat flightsim experience for me. I still love CFS3 for the quick and simple missions, both online and offline. Plus, being able to fly co-op missions for the first time in the CFS series is a welcome touch. But, Warbirds III brings the experience of cooperative missions to a higher level.

In this massively multiplayer simulation, you fly with dozens, up to hundreds of other combat sim pilots. And, this isn’t just some runnin-n-gunnin’ furball. Warbirds III realistically reproduces the action of historic missions over Europe and the Pacific during World War II. The majesty of a full effort daylight bombing raid with hundreds of B-17s and dozens of P-51D fighter escorts flying in formation is indescribable. Especially when you realize that there is a real flightsimmer in each cockpit, not just AI. And the chatter you hear on your headset is coming from scores of other real combat flightsimmers around the globe who are flying with you at the same time. Frankly, the limitations of just 8-16 players we experience in the CFS series pales by comparison with MMOG. Warbirds III is definitely the sim for serious virtual combat pilots.

There is so much to cover here that I’ve divided it into a series of articles on MMOG flightsimming. Future articles will cover various aspects of Warbirds III plus the new World War I combat sim Dawn of Aces III.

I think the best way to describe what it’s like to fly this MMOG is to just show you. So, I brought you a theater full of movies. Click on the marquee below so you can see and hear for yourself. These movies are fantastic!

World War II realistic action

Warbirds III has a steep learning curve. It places heavy emphasis on realistic missions and historic recreations. It goes far beyond any other combat simulation and has a wonderful cinematic feel to the experience right down to the 3D effects of flying debris and airborne gore that typifies intense air battles. Flying these missions feels a lot like riding alongside Gregory Peck in Twelve O’clock High or tucking it in tight with John Wayne in The Flying Leathernecks. There is an EZ mode for both online and offline missions that lets you get into action fast. But the ultimate challenge is a mission with full combat realism.

A huge air armada

You can fly American, British, German, Russian, Italian and Japanese aircraft. There are nearly 100 different aircraft/livery combinations across all nations of the conflict. Missions cover the European, African and Pacific Theatres of Operations.

Beautiful aircraft with working gauges and bombsights

All the aircraft and panels in Warbirds III look great. The 3D cockpits have working gauges and pleasant eye-candy details. The textures are not as highly detailed as you’ll see in CFS3 nor do they have CFS3’s working yoke and rudder pedals. The cockpits also lack CFS2’s ability to have a full array of working switches, radios and other flight controls. But then again, that’s a compromise we already experienced with CFS3.

One thing that is very cool is the famous Norden bombsight. The bombsight works great on aircraft like the B-17 that were equipped with the Norden. The bombsights on the other aircraft work as they were originally designed to do, as well. This lends important realism to the action of putting ordinance on target. On the other hand, I sure would have appreciated having full working cockpit instrumentation on those long bomber flights. On balance, there is a good trade-off between eye-candy, instrumentation and performance on low-powered PCs and dial-up Internet connections.

A full hangar for every country

You can choose to fly fighters or bombers from all the countries that participated in the war including US, German, Japanese, Russian and Italian aircraft. The heavy bombers are a special treat with multiple gun platforms and working bombsights. 

You can switch to the gunnery position at any time and defend your bomber against the attacking swarms of fighters. There is even a system in place that allows teammates to be in the same aircraft at once: one flying the plane, the other controlling the different guns.

Additional graphics such as nose-art are available at the Warbirds III website. All the aircraft and vehicles are rendered in 3D and this gives you decent situational awareness during flight. You can remove the cockpit view and fly with readings on the HUD, if preferred..  

Navigation is simplified with an interactive pop-up flight chart that tracks your position and shows complete ground locations.  

Unlike CFS3 with its vast array of flight and ordinance controls, Warbirds III relies on simple controls. This detracts a bit from the realism of flying the aircraft but enables you to more easily concentrate on your flying and focus on the mission. I found it an acceptable trade-off since I was more intrigued by the historically accurate mission experience than fiddling with my fuel mixture or cowl flaps.

Warbirds III uses real satellite data to map the terrains. Despite this advanced technology feature, the terrain scenery may be the weakest feature of the entire experience. Terrain looks highly realistic at high altitude but it tends to be very sparse when you get down on the deck. While there are plenty of topographical features including hills and canyons - cities and foliage are a bit skimpy especially when compared to CFS3.

Platoons of armor on the ground 

In addition to its numerous flyable aircraft, you can also crawl into a variety of tanks and other ground vehicles to assault bases and conquer territory on the ground. Now, you can get down and dirty to bring the battle to the enemy in the mud.  There are seven tracked vehicles ranging from German Panzer tanks, to American Sherman tanks and transports. Just like in the aircraft, you can control the action from different viewpoints in the vehicles and take up the driver, commander, or gunner positions. Combatants controlling transports can play a vital role in capturing airfields and towns. Launch a ground assault and unleash transports loaded with paratroopers eager to rush to a capture point.

Accurate flight models

OK, the debate continues about how real is real. The Warbirds III aircraft handled very well and as expected for realistic flight models. You can choose from three levels of realism that vary from total realism (as hard to fly as in the real world) to “relaxed” realism right down to full-on arcade fantasy.  

The planes in Warbirds III don't just look different, they each have unique characteristics that can make them easy or extremely challenging to fly. A thorough physics and flight model accompanies the game engine, taking numerous control surfaces and outside factors into account. Planes tend to roll left due to gyroscopic torque effects, and under the full-realism setting, are quite apt to stall during tight turns, leading to nasty spins. You need all your flying skills to survive these missions.

If you fly with a force feedback joystick, you’ll notice your controller begin to gradually shake as you approach the stall threshold. Without force feedback, you’ll hear the stall warning horn get louder as you start to stall.

For me, all the planes were relatively easy to fly in full realism mode once I got qualified on them. My favorites were the F4U-4 Corsair, P-51D Mustang, P-38J Lightning and B-17 Flying Fortress. Some realistic features took time to get accustomed to. Just as in the real world, the tail-draggers were tricky to taxi and take off while the tricycle gear aircraft were easier to handle on the ground. I thought the tail-draggers were a little too quick to tip over while taxiing at what appeared to me to be a fast walk speed. It was also very easy to have the tail-draggers nose over and crash on take-off when the tail lifted off.

The Warbirds team takes realism very seriously. iEntertainment Networks CEO, “Wild” Bill Stealey is a former United States Air Force flight instructor and aeronautical engineer who graduated from the Air Force Academy. Wild Bill stays current in his T-28B, Miss Magic. During our interview he said, “I am a warbird pilot in the real world and I can tell you that no simulator is like the real airplanes. While we strive to come as close as possible by matching the airspeeds, cornering, turn rates etc. - nothing compares to having G's on your ass while trying to pitch back and watch another aircraft whose pilot is hell-bent on blowing you out of the sky!”

Warbirds developers have spent many hours in the cockpits of the actual aircraft they model. They are constantly testing and improving the flight models. The software has a handy auto-update feature that makes it simple to always have the most current flight models. An example of the detailed flight characteristics can be seen in this flight model update.  

The developers included a defense company that worked on the basic modeling plus some very good programmers, PhD physicists, mathematicians and a very active Warbirds community. The Warbirds flight models, from the game's first iterations through the current Warbirds III are generally recognized as the industry standard for realism. It's been Warbird's calling card and "claim to fame" during it's long standing tenure.

According to Warbirds Community Manager, Tim Metcalfe, “Perceptions of flight models can be subjective especially when you consider that testing is scientific and the performance of different types of aircraft vary at different altitudes, fuel loads,  loadouts and among variants. Add to that the player's choice of joystick calibrations and you may be able to have planes that seem to behave differently when actually they have exactly the same flight model. From our perspective we believe the proof is in the numbers and performance in game under controlled testing conditions and not what a non-pilot flight simmer might expect.”

Warbirds aircraft modelers relentlessly pursue the most accurate, detailed and technically inclined data available. “This process is currently spearheaded by our in-house designer and a player led flight model testing group comprised of long time flight simmers, real pilots both military and civilian, prop tuners, engineers and military historians,” Metcalf added. “Only verifiable and universally recognized source data is approved for inclusion in this process. We seldom rely on anecdotal evidence.”

Kick the tires and light the fires

You can fly online with hundreds of combat simmers in a variety of different arenas. There is something for every combat simmer here. You fighter jockeys can go head-to-head with enemy aces or fly escort mission and protect the bombers. Climb into a P-47 Thunderbolt and attack ground targets in hair-raising close air support missions or climb into the cockpit of a heavy B-17 Flying Fortress bomber and pound Berlin to rubble. Want to try your hand on the Axis side? No problem. I flew missions in JU-88s and Me-109s to get a taste of what the Luftwaffe faced in the skies over Europe .

Want to battle over warmer climates? You can also fly missions over the Pacific in authentic US, British and Japanese aircraft.

What sets Warbirds III apart is the emphasis on team-based tactical warfare. In this mode, squadron mates work together to deploy paratroopers in order to capture towns and airbases with the ultimate goal of conquering parts of Europe and Africa .

Lots of squadrons and plenty of online special events

There are even weekly scenarios and events meticulously coordinated by combat simmers that recreate famous air, sea, and land battles. Warbirds III has extensive support for online squadrons and a public ranking system that shows individual player and squadron results on iEntertainment's website. Currently there are more than 400 Warbirds squadrons.

Full control of all flight and mission parameters

There are two major modes of game play in Warbirds III: offline practice and online play. The offline mode is essential to newer pilots. I strongly advise that you practice flying offline, or work with the online flight instructors, before trying your hand on the online arenas. There is a steep learning curve here and you actually need some decent flying and navigation skills.  The more you fly Warbirds, the better you get. Just like in the real world.

There are several varieties of offline missions that include free flight without enemies, air attacks against computer enemies, practice runs on non-hostile target drones, bomber ambush missions, ground attacks and carrier protection. All missions are fully customizable. You can alter the AI difficulty, the number of enemies and wingmen, the altitude, and time of day. Other levels of customization, such as choosing the enemy plane type, can be changed through a series of console commands explained in the online PDF manual.

I’ll cover more about the missions and online simulation in future articles.

Easy to get started for free

Warbirds III is available for a nominal monthly subscription to fly missions online or free to fly them offline. To get started, just download the program for free using the link at the end of this article. There is a version for both Windows PC and Macintosh. It is a large, 132MB download plus there are lots of extra goodies in the form of free add-ons. This is where broadband connections really pay off. I downloaded the whole shebang in just a few minutes.

You can also get Warbirds III on CD for just $9.95 with both the main program plus all the add-ons. A boxed, retail version is also available that  includes two months of free online gaming.

Affordable, low cost subscriptions for online MMOG

Once you install the program, you need to set up an account to play online. Subscriptions start as low as $9.95 per month for 5 hours of online action. You can upgrade at any time to 15 hours per month for $19.95. On the limited access plans, you get charged $1.99 for every hour past your limit. iEntertainment Network also provided Unlimited access accounts for just $24.95 per month that give you unrestricted gaming access to:

• World War II arena

• Historical arena

• Access to weekly special events (including Target for Tonight and the Squad Select Series)

• Scenario Lites

• Warbirds III: Fighter Pilot Academy

• Warbirds III Fighter Ops Air Combat

• Dawn of Ace III arenas

• Battle of the Bulge

• All Armored Assault arenas

• Warbirds III training arenas

Personal one-on-one training

Your paid subscription also entitles you to use the outstanding training system. There is a very friendly group of Warbirds III volunteer instructors who will gladly give you one-on-one instruction. This is an amazing feature and comes in very handy. Since realism is essential, it helps to have an instructor walk you through tricky operations such as bomber formations, close air support and carrier traps.

Perfect for combat flightsimmers with low or high-powered PCs

One of the nice features of Warbirds III, right off the tarmac, is the fact that you don’t need a high-powered PC just to fly it. Unlike CFS3, for example, you can have a lot of fun flying Warbirds III using a low-powered Pentium 3 PC and a dial-up Internet connection.

The test set-ups

 I tested Warbirds III on both low and high-powered PC systems.  

The low-power PC platform

Compared to today’s Pentium 4 systems, this trusty old reliable Dell is a virtual dinosaur. I had to dial down all of the Warbirds III graphics settings but I was able to have a decent flight experience using this system.

• Dell Dimension XPS-700r, Pentium 3, 700 MHz

• 19” Viewsonic analog CRT monitor set to 1024x768 resolution and 32-bit color depth

• eVGA, GeForce4 Ti4600 128MB AGP 8X video card used in a 2X AGP socket

• Sound Blaster Live! Value sound card

• 768MB SDRAM

• 30GB Quantum hard drive

• Windows 98SE

For the very best Warbirds III simulation experience,
Mad Max recommends the new Dell Dimension XPS

More power, mo’ betta’. By the same reasoning that you would not take on a shwarm of ME-109s in an AT-6 Texan, the MMOG experience is much better on a more powerful, state-of-the-art PC. The flights for this article were made on a new Dell Dimension XPS with all the graphics and sound settings pegged to the max.

This system has proven to be an awesome flightsimmer’s dream machine. It has all the power and performance features we have always wanted for realistic flight simulation without compromising anything. The Dell Dimension XPS desktop computer is designed from the chassis up for the serious flightsimmer who demands high system performance with the latest available technology. Dell engineers started with the rugged, well-cooled and easy-to-access chassis from their Precision Workstation. They built a multimedia machine that answers nearly every item on a flightsimmer’s wish list with:

• Extreme performance using an ultra-fast 3GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor with Hyper-Threading Technology, 800MHz front side bus and the Intel® 875P chipset.

• Blazing fast 8X AGP port (with full 8X bandwidth) and DirectX 9 graphics support.

• 1024MB of dual channel DDR 400MHz SDRAM memory for extreme performance with memory-intensive applications such as Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002, 2004: A Century of Flight and Combat Flight Simulator 3.

• The awesome 128MB ATI Radeon 9800 Pro video card.

• The Sound Blaster Audigy 2 card for premium sound and extreme high-definition audio performance that rivals high-end home stereo and home theater systems.

• Built-in 10/100 Ethernet port for instant network connections and broadband peripherals.

• Massive cooling system to keep this powerful beast running whisper quiet at peak speeds without overheating.

• 18” Dell UltraSharp Flat Panel Display set to 1280x1024 resolution and 32-bit color depth with all the graphics and effects sliders in FS2002 and FS2004: A Century of Flight set to their maximum positions.

Dial-up versus broadband

In both cases, I was connected to the Internet through our 100 mbps Ethernet local area network and our high speed DSL broadband Internet connection rated at 1500 kbps download and 378 kbps upload speed. Having a broadband connection is important for online flight simulation regardless of whether you’re flying Warbirds III, CFS2, CFS3 or FS2002 and FS2004. While you can fly any of these combat flight sims using a 56K dial-up modem, your online experience will be tremendously enhanced using broadband DSL or cable modem connections to the Internet. Either one works fine. The grim reality today is that online simulation and gaming applications have voracious performance demands that exceed the capabilities of 56K dial-up bandwidth.

Try Warbirds III for free

Download Warbirds III for free. Fly the offline missions at absolutely no cost or obligation. Then try your hand in online missions absolutely free for two weeks. Just click on one of these banners: