Software archaeology / Digital Image Design / 1993
Tracing TFX.
Three aircraft, five theatres, and a surprising amount going on behind those polygons. We took the DOS files apart to find out how it all worked.
Scenery reconstructed from the original data.
The investigation
It started with a CD image.
Before rebuilding TFX, we needed to understand what was on the disc. Different releases, compressed archives and tiny model programs led us from a runway assembled at the wrong scale to a playable demo whose instructions described the wrong campaign.
This is a guided look at the most interesting parts. The full formats, code references and test results live in the research archive.
Inside the engine
All articles ↗How TFX draws a world
Model programs, integer transforms, painter order, textures and VGA, with a comparison to Inferno.
Read article ↗Flight physicsHow TFX flies
Lift, drag, engines, control laws and landing gear, with the original equations to explore.
Read article ↗WeaponsHow TFX’s weapons work
Launch, guidance, countermeasures and damage, including some unexpected differences from the handbook.
Read article ↗CampaignsHow TFX runs a pilot’s career
Mission results, promotions, court-martial and saved careers, including a partial-success award the interpreter skips.
Read article ↗Aircraft AIWhat the other pilots are doing
Routes, formations, target searches and short manoeuvre programs, with two aircraft groups assigned a ship’s profile.
Read article ↗Recording and replayInside the flight recorder
How TFX saves a submitted scene, compresses its fields and draws it again for the post-flight news.
Read article ↗Music and audioHow TFX makes sound
Scores, sequencer timing, changing flight cues, speech and sound-card drivers, with four intro auditions.
Read article ↗Reverse-engineering methodsCalling the original executable
Using the original machine code to check decisions, file bytes, aircraft state, audio events and every indexed pixel.
Read article ↗Take a closer look
Recovered from TFX 2.05
Map explorerFrom terrain tiles to theatres
Visit the five regions, follow mission routes and switch on those beautiful amber city lights.
Model galleryMore than a mesh
Lower the gear, open a weapons bay, raise a Scud or let the little ejecting pilot unfold his parachute.
The investigationNames, surprises and wrong turns
A magazine demo, an unexpected cockpit and the fatal diagnostic that sounded like an easter egg.
Inside the aircraft
The instruments have a story too.
The virtual cockpit’s MFDs really are static pictures. The live displays follow another path entirely. Compare the cockpit layers, then hear the intro on four different synth setups.
Our faithful reconstruction is TFX C++. Deliberate enhancements belong to TFX Redux. The original data remains the starting point for both.