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Flight Performance Analysis [0.31.1]

By SHARKBAIT and 1 collaborators

A shallow dive into the statistical performance of all fixed-wing aircraft in the game and an analysis of the produced data.

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SHARKBAIT
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IHaveACannon
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Category: Co-op, Game Modes, Gameplay Basics, Modding or Configuration, Multiplayer

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

14 Jul @ 10:00am

13 Oct @ 3:25am

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Guide Index

Overview

Introduction

Methodology

Raw Data

Limitations of the Data and Methods

Data Highlights

Analysis

Future Works and End Notes

Comments

Introduction

Update 0.31

Guide has been overhauled for Update 0.31 with new testing methods and data for all aircraft.

Why make this guide?

We were looking around for actual data on the flight performance of aircraft and couldn't find anything concrete, so we felt like we could contribute a little by setting some benchmarks.

What is the aim of all this

To hopefully improve the awareness of everyone around the capabilities of each aircraft using quantified measures of performance that can be related and easily read by everyone.

Why is this formatted like this?

While the guide is formatted similarly to that of an academic paper to allow for people in the future to easily verify any data or methods used in the making of this, we are also painfully aware of how utterly ♥♥♥♥ difficult it is to read those types of articles. This is a guide, not a paper, so this is made to be as easy to read as possible.

I want to find [Insert Data Here], where do I go

Methodology and Raw Data contains all the details for people wanting to replicate, verify or otherwise inspect the raw plotted outputs from these tests.
Limitations discussed our known issues with our testing methods and how that affects the resulting end plots.
Data Highlights [Important!] is where pilots go to see the capabilities of each aircraft: Max Rates, Optimal Speeds and Turn Radius.
Analysis [Important!] is where we discuss things we noted during our testing that you might find interesting or important.
Future Works and End Notes is where we draw the line on what you can expect from this in the future and what will not be tested by us.

Methodology

How was the data measured?

There are 3 measurements taken at each velocity and altitude for each aircraft, with them being: Sustained Turn Rate, Instantaneous Turn Rate and the Turn Radius. The method for each will be discussed in detail separately.

Sustained Turn Rate

Likely the most sought-after piece of data and the easiest to measure, this is measured by flying an aircraft using mouse control with zero centring force at the desired altitude.
- A 7.2G turn is set and maintained, and the throttle is varied to maintain the desired test speed.
- A timer is set, and the time taken for the aircraft to perform a full 360-degree turn is recorded before being later converted via 360/time to produce the final Degrees/Second turn rate.
- At speeds where a 7.2G turn is not possible, such as areas under the transition speed, the throttle is maxed to maintain the hardest turn possible without losing speed.

Instantaneous Turn Rate

The instantaneous turn rate represents the maximum possible turn rate of the aircraft, regardless of energy loss.
- This is measured by reaching a set speed and then performing a hard clockwise turn, with the final bearing measured after 3 seconds.
- In previous tests, we found that stability assist being disabled results in either identical or better turn rates; therefore, this time we only tested aircraft without stability assist to represent the maximum performance.
  
  (0.30.95 Data)
- Tests at the higher turn rates (~> 30 deg/sec) are repeated, whilst the rest are sufficiently consistent, we are happy to keep to single tests to save time.

Turn Radius

In previous updates, this has been obtained through manual measurement; however, as of 0.31, we have changed this to a calculated value, as comparisons have shown relatively similar results between measured and calculated values.
- The new results are calculated using the Sustained turn rate (ωrate), our most repeatable and reliable data, and air speed [Vs] in the equation: Vs/20π(ωrate)

Data Logging and Processing

All data was recorded into a spreadsheet with the velocity, altitude, fuel load, and weapons load noted
- Weapon loads were tested using the Default loadout as of [0.31.1], with the sole exception being Medusa, which was also tested with a full external jammer, Radome and internal ARAD loadout.
Upon completion of testing, the data was downloaded and imported into Python using Panda and plotted using Matplotlib to produce the graphs shown further down.

Raw Data

Highlight Guide

Purple = Flight Computer Transition Zone
Red = Stall Zone. Important to note, this is after 3 seconds of turning in the instantaneous tests

Cricket Data

Compass Data

Revoker Data

Vortex Data

Ifrit Data

Medusa Data

Darkreach Data

Limitations of the Data and Methods

What are the limitations?

Since diagnostic tools are not directly provided, the resolution of the data is limited by what we can reasonably measure consistently and repeatedly. These are the error margins for the data gathered.
- Sustained Turn Rates are measured using a timer, and during repeated tests, the margins are within +-1 second (worst case). This comes out to a +-5% error margin, around +-1 Degree/Second
- Instanaeous Turn Rates are also measured using a timer; however, due to reaction time and the small time period, the percentage difference between runs is much more significant. The data here is also at half resolution compared to the other results, with tests only at every 100km/h and results interpolated in between data points. This makes it the least reliable result on a micro scale, but since it forms part of a larger pattern and testing was consistent, on a macro level, this is still usable.
- Turn radius is dependent on the reliability of the Sustained turn rate data. As this has an uncertainty of +-1 Degree/Second in a worst case scenario, the resulting uncertainty of the turn radius is around +-10m on average. We don't think this should be much of a problem.

What does the Instantaneous turn rate show?

Since there is no way to log data directly, it's hard to measure the true maximum turn rate. This is why we chose to measure it at 3 seconds, since that is the shortest time period we can consistently measure.
The measurement of the turn rate at 3 seconds, we believe, is more relevant than the actual maximum turn rate, as it represents the "burst" turn rate of an aircraft during high stress, such as for missile evasion. This also represents the "snappiness" of an airframe, making it a useful measure regardless.

Are the testing conditions consistent?

While we try our best to keep conditions consistent, time limitations and the lack of tools for this make that extremely difficult, particularly with how fuel-hungry aircraft like Revoker can be. To not go quite insane, we opted to set acceptable ranges for the variables tested.
- Test Speeds are limited to +-10km/h outside of which a test is void
- Test Altitude is limited to +-200m
- Fuel levels are limited to +-10% of the testing levels, so tests start at 60% and end when 40% is reached.
While we acknowledge this is not ideal, sadly, we are limited by our mortal bodies and minds, and these are the compromises made to allow this project to be finished.

For any questions, you can find me lurking in the Nuclear Option Discord as @thesharkdrowner. If I have the time, I will try to answer any questions.

Data Highlights

Data Tables

Aircraft

Cricket

Compass

Revoker

Vortex

Ifrit

Medusa

Darkreach

Optimal Rate Speed [km/h]

250

400

600

550

400

Optimal Rate Speed [kn]

135

216

324

297

216

Max Sustained Rate [Deg/Sec]

23.17

23.47

25.81

26.34

24.18

18.21

Turn Radius at Rate Speed [m]

172

271

403

339

332

263

350

Highlight Guide

Purple = Flight Computer Transition Zone
Red/Pink = Stall Zone. Important to note, this is after 3 seconds of turning in the instantaneous tests

Key Cricket Data

Key Compass Data

Key Revoker Data

Key Vortex Data

Key Ifrit Data

Key Medusa Data

Key Darkreach Data

Analysis

Comparison Plots

And extra charts we plotted out of interest, because we saw them somewhere before.

Key takeaways from the data

What changed this update?
- Cricket
  - 12.4% decrease in sustained turn rate
  - 15.4% decrease in instantaneous turn rate
- Compass
  - 10% decrease in sustained turn rate
  - 6% decrease in instantaneous turn rate
- Revoker
  - 5.4% decrease in sustained turn rate
  - 7.4% decrease in instantaneous turn rate
- Vortex
  - 27.6% increase in sustained turn rate
  - 46.6% decrease in instantaneous turn rate
- Ifrit
  - 4.1% decrease in sustained turn rate
  - 14.7% increase in instantaneous turn rate
- Medusa
  - 4% increase in sustained rate
  - 7.4% increase in instantaneous turn rate
- Darkreach
  - 43.1% increase in sustained turn rate
  - 3.7% decrease in instantaneous rate
- Note: The decrease in instantaneous turn rate is so dramatic that I want to verify this further, so take this with a grain of salt for now.

How much does payload influence performance?
- Compared to 0.30, engine power has been increased, so the difference between loaded vs clean is now much smaller.
- Basically, the airframe generally matters more than payload now.

What's with the convergence at high speeds?
- 0.31 saw an increase in the pilot G limit as well as a power boost to engines. This means that at the higher speeds, the limit for sustained turns is the pilot, which is limited to ~7.2Gs.

Which airframe is best?
- Ifrit for sustained turns remains king*, but it's so close that it's basically a margin of error. Vortex now has similar performance in this sector, but with a lower instantaneous rate
  
  Calculated using: (Ifrit Turn Rate - Aircraft Turn rate) / 360
- Revoker is in its own league in terms of instantaneous rate, with over 60 Degrees/Second. There is nothing else like it right now.

Future Works and End Notes

Here are the things we will not be testing*:

More custom loadouts.
- This is just the line we are drawing to prevent mission creep; the custom loadout for Medusa was an exception since the profile of the aircraft changes drastically with its addition.
Rotary Winged Aircraft
- Oh hell no, I don't even know where to begin with this witchcraft

Here are the things we want to test someday:

Higher altitudes (Currently being tested)
- While not currently relevant in the meta (for dogfights), we think this might become useful at some point, so higher altitude results seem useful to have.
100% and 20% Fuel Tests
- Lower resolution testing to see how much fuel mass affects flight performance is likely our next goal.

End notes:

Thank you, Shockfront Studio, for creating this game. We look forward to seeing and testing the creations coming out of future updates.

9 Comments

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Mongoose 12 Oct @ 3:46pm

Incredible update, you guys are nuts

SHARKBAIT [author] 13 Sep @ 6:46am

Thank you for reading! I had not previously but I will make sure to do that when we re run these values in the new update

IngenieroFeliz 12 Sep @ 2:56pm

Excellent work, especially for detailing your methodology. As a sanity check, did you try comparing the calculated turn rate given radius and velocity (or viceversa) with the measured value? I think it can help discern between outliers and measurement errors.

Anyways, I appreciate the effort put into this.

BeBop876 26 Aug @ 6:52pm

Thanks for these graphs, these are gonna help a ton in my fights

Anikeev 28 Jul @ 4:13am

You shouldnt hate ifrit. Because if fully turn off flight assist(my friend created mod) he controls insane cool, G limit controller and angle speed controller not making him as unstable shit

Hotel Trivago 27 Jul @ 8:38pm

I hate Ifrits so much it's unreal

SHARKBAIT [author] 19 Jul @ 12:09am

Thank you for reading!
We will look into attempting testing without pitch limiters for the instantaneous turn rate tests in the future.
As for sustained, we noticed that outside of extreme low speed tests for select aircraft the control input from the pilot is very limited and especially for Revoker in a sustained turn it's turn rate is limited by it's energy retention rather than control system limits on pilot input.

You can see this in a sustained turn at it's optimal speed, the control input required to reach it's peak turn rate is very small.

Blackspectre 18 Jul @ 10:34am

Feedback:
I feel like this could need some work as the use of a pitch limiter vastly limits the mobility of aircraft.
The aircrafts limits are far higher and the turn rate of Revoker most certainly is impacted by it.

I appreciate the work however.

Mongoose 15 Jul @ 8:49am

Wow! This guide is INCREDIBLE

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