The Lost Engines investigation
The engine, in detail.
Follow the flight controls, drawing routines, mission decisions and sound drivers through TFX 2.05. Each article draws on the recovered data and comparisons with the original code.
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 ↗