" HIND " – the milestone in helicopter simulations.

Digital Integration and Interactive Magic created a sim (Apache Longbow) with clean yet detailed polygon graphics, difficulties ranging from arcade to realistic, and plenty of missions and mission types. It was a terrific piece of work, and now it has been followed up by an entirely new kind of simulation built on the same core technology. Hind recreates Russia's front-line warhorse, the Mi-24, codenamed "Hind" by NATO. For desktop jocks accustomed to the fly-by-wire, computer-driven finesse of American fighter planes and choppers, the Hind will be a rude awakening. 

GameSpot 

 

“While the Apache is a fine Swiss watch with its fly-by-wire controls and multifunction displays, the Hind is a flying tank with analogue instruments, a threat warning indicator and flight controls that remind you constantly that you are flying a helicopter, not a fighter plane. …In short Hind will give you a real workout. It's a challenge to fly and fight. But once you get use to it you'll wonder how you ever took up arms against Mother Russia and flew with those Yankee Imperialist Air Pirates! ” 

By Kenneth Hunt 

Classicism

What makes the game and a flight simulator in particular a classic? Popularity? To some extent - yes, but popularity more leads to a cult following of fans and at best is just an indicator of merits for the simulator, rather then defines what is a classic. As could have been recently observed in RTS community in "wars" between TA and SC fans, tastes and definitions of the best features and dynamics in that genre differ. In simulator, by default of a different and specific genre, many things are defined by reality of what have been simulated. Thus, some judge by how close simulator resembles the real thing. However, again, how, most of us without the real experience in flying could do so?  The answer, which coming up more often nowadays, is that it should "feel right". So the more impressive the illusion and immersion is delivered to the player, the more it feels right. 

Now, there are a lot of factors that are encompassed in such a definition. Regarding helicopter simulation there are certainly it's own specifics , let say, in comparison to jet simulator. Those are pretty often and much defined by now in various articles reviews and , no doubt, on the list of developers as well. However, recent releases, of what seen by many as the last spree of helicopter simulators for a long time, are raising the question of what is to be a true classic.

The more one looks at this question, the more apparent is that the answer lies in the area of striking "golden" balance with completeness of interior, exterior and "behavior"  of simulated object (cockpits, looks, functionalism, flight model), completeness of applicable functionality of it (armaments, deployment, etc), environmental believable-ness and immerse-ness (other object and their reaction/interaction) on one side and playability (tuning options, interface, net gaming, good plot and line of game to pursue and so on).

Implementation technologies available at the time aside, there was (and still is) the helicopter simulator with unique "golden balance" set for at least FSU (Former Soviet Union) community of fans - DI's Mi-24 "HIND". Although some real life Mi-24 pilots, who tried this sim, claim that in some areas of flight it was made even more difficult then it should be, the flying in this sim, agreed by all, - just feels very right. Was it also that cockpits (both!) model quite accurately, or that you could fly troops, or bombs and dispensers, or that you can fly with buddy in one chopper or against Apache..., but in any case it's a recognized king of the hill.

Unfortunately, it wasn't as popular with rotorheads community in the West, as sales figures shown even in comparison to previous DI's Apache. However the core of dedicated players in flight sim community long as recognized and cherishes this gem. Understandably lowtech chopper of 60s-70s design might not be as appealing for the western virtual pilots as Apache and Comanche. To give you a feel though, for the FSU community HIND is pretty much what Jane's Longbow 2 has become to the West.

So let us take another look at HIND, as any  classic deserves.

Feel of a gunship

What is interesting HIND managed actually successfully implement both extremes of the flight model, by  which it's became popular to judge sims. Flight dynamics are ranged between three settings “Novice/Stable/Realistic”. Novice setting is an “Arcade” mode full stop. In the same time it could be used to introduce a newbie to helicopter in rather safe environment. The game itself even features instant action flight on of which called exactly that – “Arcade” If you a type of a person who are quick to judge things by the first look, with HIND you had to look again, because although it could be played by children who like to blast away all that’s around it’s nothing like that as soon as you change the flight model setting and fly real missions and campaigns! “Stable” setting is not that far from realistic one rather then in the middle. Man, starting from that setting you are given straight away the feel of a heavy chopper, with all the dynamics of sinking in the air if dived and transitional lift. Rudder acts according to speed impact – much less present at higher speeds. Every torque input results in reactive rotation moment of the fuselage. This has to be corrected manually with appropriate moment applied with anti-torque rotor on the tail. All the major effects were there:

• Retreating blade stall (instabilities when performing sharp turns at high speeds) 
• Vortex ring (loss of control when descending fast through own downwash) 
• Ground effect (very smoothly implemented air-cushion effect from being close to the surface) 
• Wind effect ( it will blow you and sometimes quite hard) 
• Damage affects various systems and components 
• Autorotation dynamics of engine rotors and flight
• Engines overtorque limitation before engines start giving up
• Torque effect (you will be constantly compensating changes of the collective with anti-torque rotor)
• Vibration when approaching critical flight speed
• Weight simulation of cargo and ordnance

If you heard how difficult it is to bring a real chopper to a hover from speed, especially for non-experienced pilots, then HIND would demonstrate it to you in full, convincingly without the real thing.

Not to repeat what already has been said I’d rather you read a good flying model description in HIND by Tom Chick along with some useful tips on how to deal with it.

In short, the very believable FM in this sim is responsible to the great extent for the classicism of HIND. Telling fact is that one of the pilots of =RAF= virtual squadron (formerly himself a VVS military helicopter pilot with about 10 000 hours of flight time logged) considers even now only HIND worthy of creating the simulation training program based on reality one.

Instruments flying

The sim is thoroughly done in the instruments department. In fact no other sim so far taught me to fly by the gauges on the dashboards as HIND did. As you can see from images of pilot's cockpit and gunner-WSO (Weapon Systems Operator) which are here side by side with photographs from the real life, they simulated close enough. No autopilot meant that you had to rely only on your skills and judgment, so it is constantly "on the stick" type of flying. Oh the pleasure of tiredness in the hand gripping the joystick for hour or even more through a single mission - made you to appreciate the workload of chopper pilot. Following the masking altitude, which meant keeping as low as possible or at least below 30 meters radar altitude, was a constant fight with transitional lift and angle of attack of cyclic. Put nose down even a couple of degrees more then needed for a few seconds and your vertical negative speed would get too much and if you are not checking it the heavy chopper (especially when loaded with troops and heavy weapons like 500kg bombs - the feel of weight was excellently modeled as well) might not be able to recover in time and you'd crush miserably! That really developed in me the habit of constantly scanning the needle on the vertical speed indicator. It's also the most important gauge, apart from speed indicator, to keep an eye on when you landing. The closer to 0 the needle the softer landing you'd get and, man, that was a tricky one with wind blowing you away sometimes and giving a lateral speed which if not checked will snap the gear and tilt you over promptly crushing - what a frustration to otherwise completed and successful mission. On the other hand - soft landing would get you "good flying" in debriefing - a small touch, but made you proud

How many times on realistic setting and taken damage I'd have to fly without the HUD! This is somewhat unthinkable to a new generation of simmers and inexperienced players, who might regard the dials as part of decoration in the cockpits. However, such a challenge was interesting in HIND and there a stand by compass, altitude and speed indicators Doppler driven scrolling map and, if you are lucky, still functioning navigation gauge all come to your aid and with learning at first would bring you back to base on a skill and a prayer (or rather a "swear").

The bottom line - if you heard how in real life pilots have the scanning pattern going through the indicators ever so often, the HIND made you to develop one of your own and actually learn their meaning and use not for the sake of curiosity, but as essential part of the gameplay.

The landing gear

I believe the HIND was the first to model this. Hey, and what an excellent way to do it. Many novices in it couldn't figure out why their maximum speed was limited. Ha, raise the gear, man. It drugged you like a good air brake. Mind you it came handy when you wanted to slow down on approach to land. It played tricks with you as you'd at first be puzzled by an odd crush while doing so - oh no the wheel brakes were on! Soon you'd developed a good habit of raising the gear and releasing the brake after take-off and checking the lamps on the board as you were landing to make sure it's down and not braked again.

Taxing and running take-off/landing

In soviet practice, even when there weren't any fuel shortages, standard was to take-off and land helicopter on the runway using the help of transitional lift. I observed it every time when being part of airfield team, servicing the regular flight exercises. One other reason for that is that if damaged to the point of inability to achieve hover and landing from it the pilots would need to use such skill to land even on the road or flat strip.

In the sim this is modeled exceptionally good. You'd taxi around the field on (rulezhki) towards the runway taking care not to clash with traffic - and there was a busy one: service trucks, jets and heavy transports landing and taking off, even an occasional soldier going across on some business.

Here the panning around in the cockpit looking for hazards and brakes used often sometimes the only thing which missed is the squeaking sound as you suddenly have to brake (mind the chopper though would promptly nod as inertia absorbed from wheels to the rotor). You can taxi around and even see how the main rotor disk changing its axis as you drive HIND on the airfield.

Then, as you aligned yourself on the runway, put the cyclic forward and gaining the speed wait till the transitional lift comes into force on your HIND wings, but one had to watch out for the very moment when wheels lift off the runway as you need quickly adjust the cyclic to not to tilt over and have you nose plough the strip crushing the machine.

With this feature autorotation landing was even more exciting. The good thing - you can always train on that one in training missions. In fact, there aren't specific autorotation training missions per say, but the player always can lift off put engines into over-torque and in minute or two one after another engines will give up and you "have" to practice the autorotation landing in which you stand better chance if not dropping like a flake (which in case of heavy HIND quickly becomes a rock), but use the transitional speed to bring you down the runway using aerodynamic surfaces of the craft to the full extent.

It's quite nerve braking to hear how the rotor blades slow down and in the end some grinding sound makes you feel as powerful machine moans to a halt on the runway (good sound job).

3DFX2 patch

With this patch, HIND was the whole new looking game on Voodoo2 cards. The proper rendered 3D models of chopper itself and the other units in the game including infantry now are impressive and were even more so at the time it came out. The new textures are decorating the scenery and landscape nicely.

One other thing was introduced I uniquely seen only in HIND - when flying in Afghanistan mountains, especially in a daytime, you can see the running clouds' shadows ever so vague on the ground texture. 

What an excellent surprise was to discover that "dipolnye otrazhateli"(bipolar reflectors)-chaff were spectacularly sparking and volumeized as I suddenly made 180 degree turn and flew through just dispensed by me trail of them as they were almost suspended in the air. 

Yes, there are not that many "cultural" objects to liven up the landscape and flat spaces, but there are bushes and groups of trees by the lakes and rivers and what is more important you could hit one with deadly consequences if not careful in masking altitude.

There are nice objects and mountains showing up sharper and crisper from the distance mist as you fly closer to them.

Unfortunately, this 3Dfx patchalso wasn't without the bugs - weapon range indicator on the HUD stopped working, and radio chatter from other pilots ("Comrade, let's get outahere") disappeared.

Since we start talking about visuals in HIND, I have to mention that whether effects were done nicely. You don't get rain and snow, but the light, fog and skies were done beautifully.

What's more, not many know that you can "switch off" the clouds (alt+8) and enjoy a perfect sunny day or a full moon night with stars scattered around.

In 3Dfx patch the sun and moon actually played another role also, as all objects were modeled with lightening according to the location of source of light. The side of the model in the shadow would appear darkened, almost black from a distance, but, if zoomed in onto, you can see the difference.

Units and objects

I'd say the structures in HIND were of good variety and quality as well. In that, the Afghani village would look dramatically different from villages in Kazakhstan and Korea as it should.

The cities although of a rather small size were convincing enough. From skyscrapers in Seoul to mosques in Jelalabad, the cities and towns have their unique features. 

What's more you will have missions to fight almost on the streets of cities, especially in Akmola (Kazakhstan), where infantry and armored units a dispersed and moving along the streets on patrol.

Ground units have their own routes of movement apart from stationary positions. Some appear to stick to the roads only, while heavy armored battle groups could be seen advancing in loose formations over countryside to certain positions.

You have even trains to deal with (Kazakhstan and Korea).

Even stationary artillery placements are not idle and would open a barrage of fire on enemy ground units in range. Among those you will see rarely portrayed mortar emplacements, especially numerous in Afghanistan.

In Korean theatre you will have a chance to deal with warships of various sizes including TARAWA class carrier, designating with your target acquisition systems the big ones for air strike by Mig-27s and Su-25s.

Overall, quite a variety of the portrayed period a/c and ground units are modeled in HIND. You can see most of them in the game's own interactive recognition guide screen, although the latter would also show some German made units. This is a token of inheritance from APACHE or may be designs not implemented for yet another theatre of military operations, where undoubtedly it would be very interesting to see HIND, since it was initially designed for it - Europe.

THE Infantry

So far HIND features THE most fully simulated infantry in helicopter sim. The guys are not only proper moving 3D models armed with different weapons from assault rifles to RPGs and heavy machineguns. The way they move, react and fire makes me remove the hat before programmers and artists. Exceptional details in behavior and AI of the infantry made in this unique sim the whole dimension of anti guerrilla warfare from the chopper point of view possible and quite accurately portrayed. In fact without it the whole campaign in Afghanistan, where you faced almost entirely by "dushman"s (bandits)- mudjaheddin soldiers could not be imagined.

The guys are running for cover when they see you are on them and take the position and fire at you as soon as you turn away. They are not easy to put down as well! You can waist a good share of ammo of your machinegun even with aid of what DI christened "WSO - weapon silicon operator", who seems to be sometimes not wasting a single shot switching between targets with sniper accuracy. The soldier targeted will run like hell (as he should in real life) and you will grind your teeth watching your rounds going into the ground trailing the bugger and not scoring a single hit! So after a while you'll learn to align your chopper along the direction of runner and close the distance with him to have a better chance.

However, it's not a happy hunting affair even in Afghanistan campaign at all. For the first time in chopper sim the group of "dushman"s would present a real danger to your exceptionally armored chopper (to such an extent that it's called a flying tank) raising hail of bullets from small arms (another rarity portrayed), heavy machinegun rounds, RPGs and even SAMs. You'll run for cover or you dead. You'll learn to "obrabtyvat"(process) the areas of concentrations from some distance or move as fast as possible through them taking down as many a s you can and may be repeating this fast passes until you've cleared them up enough. 

Yet Mi-24 is not a nimble aircraft either It's no wonder the Afghans call it "The Devil's Chariot".

In real life Mi-24 is a unique multi-role chopper - it's not only gunship with formidable array of weaponry and Armour, but also "desantnyi" -capable of troop transporting. This is beautifully modeled and exploited in HIND to the fullest extent.

You deploy troops as vanguard or behind enemy lines, extract troops ("spetsnaz"), and even evacuate casualties from the front, I kid you not - the wounded on the stretcher carried by two other guys would board your chopper when you land close enough to them and open the doors.

Missions also include search and rescue. In these you have to be sometimes quick or the enemy find downed pilots first.

In the original version you had to mind to close the doors before take off or otherwise the poor guys would fall off as you do some violent banking trying to dodge enemy fire on the way. Unfortunately DI decided to "install some seat belts" in consequent patches, which is a pity I'd say.

On the other hand of fun the infantry is doing in the game they out in some idle movements, such as looking far ahead, resting one arm on a belt and even "sorting out" something in the groin!

Any weapon you can think of...

Short of nuclear tactical, you have practically all the weapons at your disposal in HIND. Again thorough approach to every weapon the real Mi-24 would carry at the time portrayed in the sim was at best. This unique sim models not only the usual cannon pods, NAR (neupravliaemye aviacionnye raketi - unguided aviation rockets )-rockets, AG/AA missiles, but also mine dispensers and various bombs.  As I already mentioned the weight of weapon load really felt when flying the chopper short of feedback jerk when launching some of them. What more you really will have an opportunity to deploy such a variety of weapons - bombs will be indispensable against hardened targets on which you might have wasted all your other munitions and still sometimes not be successful. 

You get to actually mine the areas quite often not only in training, but also as part of many missions. What a painstaking job it is! This one like no other would force you to study the target area on the mission planning screens using everything from zooming the map to employing the 3D fly by and satellite views provided. It's not made easy by assigning a good landmark such as a crossroad as an area to be mined. I appreciated the challenge even more when I seemed to figure out where to dispense the mines and then hearing WSO "Mines laid off target". Damn, I even come up with my own system dividing the target road in approximate fractions and counting them visually when over the target area, waiting the confirmation "Good mine-laying" with dread to hear otherwise.  The other feature rarely seen in the chopper sim is lazing the target for some fast mover such as Mig or Sukhoi. There is even special training mission to learn how to do that. This makes the HIND be appreciated by any serious rotor-head.

One other nice feature is simulation of projectiles trajectories and dynamics. These are clearly observed especially at night when you can see different colored tracers. They really looked and flew like real once which added a lot to immersion in war atmosphere.

Campaigns and missions

The sim exploited to the fullest it's unique infantry and both American and Soviet made modeled objects by swapping them in three campaigns - Soviet against infantry in Afghanistan, Soviet against Soviet in Kazakhstan and American against Soviet in Korea. Each campaign accompanied with about a dozen of single missions, which are strongly recommended to be completed in full before going into the campaign not only for impressive pilot's log and decorations (which are made true to the real ones of Soviet and earned hard). There is a practical gameplay reason for that as well. All of the missions staged around the same terrain and locations where corresponding campaign takes place. Thus you get valuable training and preview of what is to come. Besides, even if unsuccessful the option to retry or log or not to log the result is provided unlike in the campaigns. Campaigns, although scripted, do turn up kind of dynamic as they built as one big operation. Depending on your success or failure in every mission the whole operation progresses or turns into disaster. I remember when I first (brave as a fool) went into the campaign and completed couple of missions - our "brave and courageous" troops were advancing, but it was enough to crush couple of times and suddenly I was back at square one defending my airbase from assault of recovered enemy went on the offensive. This way you could promptly end up in Siberia camp for incompetence and losing the campaign. This achieved by not giving you the option to retry the same mission straight away, but instead forcing you to repeat the previous one successfully to redeem yourself. While annoying at times this feature make you go through laborious path of military operation and the missions you forced to go again through sometimes different. I have to say it adds to the immersion feeling and forces you to dear the chopper and the opportunity. Even if you managed to land a damaged chopper without a lethal crush you can end up MIA (missing in action - is it happen behind enemy lines) and guess what - your pilot log becomes inactive for 48 hours (!) so that you can't fly the campaign as the same pilot. You will have to wait till tomorrow if you end up injured literally, as HIND simulates recovery time! Of course, you can create a new pilot, but all those hard earned hours and successful missions are needed to be put in again - a small price to pay, though, as you are safe and sound when in reality you'd be lucky to be alive. In single missions, on a contrary, you are given the option to retry or log any result and you can train yourself and adjust to the particular theatre to perfection. Nice touches for a great playability!

Extensive route planning, weapon selection, weather information, per waypoint details with 3D fly-by, satellite, rotating and map views can be appreciated by any serious rotorhead. These facilities are quite highly evaluated by former pilots as well. 

Two players in one chopper

The feature rarely seen in helicopter sims although all of them portraying the systems with most of the times two humans. In HIND, practically for the first time, two players

 can be in one chopper assuming the roles of pilot and a gunner in front cockpit. Man, that was fun to explore co-operative flying and real life like miscommunication. Flying certain missions together you'd really fill the difference as pilot concentrating on flying and leaving the other guy targets to worry about and in the same time keeping in mind that you have to give him the field of fire by aligning the chopper right. As gunner you could though check the basic indicators as well and point out to pilot in time if they were critical - that actually brought the instructor-student mode in the flying also.

Sometimes it was not funny though as I remember a friend of mine, flying as a gunner with another guy, was left in the cockpit for a good part of an hour as the "pilot" talked to his girlfriend on the phone. Chopper didn't crush and was just slowly gaining altitude until it reached the "ceiling" somewhere above the clouds. 

The first head-to-head (American-Soviet) multiplayer

DI also managed to foresee the future of gaming making the HIND fully compatible and connectable with previously released it's own APACHE. The first American-Soviet chopper head to head mode dawned on rotor-head community even though possible only through IPX on LAN and modem/cable connection. I've played it a lot with my friend, flying HIND. There were strength and weaknesses for each chopper in different conditions. On a clear day HIND seems to have an upper hand over Apache. However in fog or conditions of less visibility Apache avionics served better to give it an edge. Still the matches provoked extensive use of chopper tactics, which proves quality of simulation. Ambushes anticipation, low profile, NOE (Nap Of the Earth) flying, use of countermeasures and right ordnance at the right time were all important. I didn't find the way to exclude "cheating" though as one can switch to view of another player chopper during MP and see what and where he was up to.

I also know some virtual pilots in FSU, who flew through entire campaigns with partner connecting over the modem. In MP there are certaing special macros of text messages one can assign and edit to aid the communication between players. This obviousely very important for gunner-pilot combination. Apparently it was a poor substitute for voice communications which are common place nowadays on sim MP scene. There is still a search for enabling it for this sim in MP.

There was also opportunity developed to play over the Internet using Kali of Kahn and recently MS Zone offered for IPX games the IPXLAN rooms to gather and play. Unfortunately, it all came too late for the sim as APACHE players moved on to Jane's LB/LB2 (with great multiplayer over the Internet) and other sims, so the HIND players did not have an opportunity to meet their counterparts on a squad like scale in earnest.
Besides as Kevin Bezant (who worked in DI on HIND and now a member of Razorworks team produced Apache-Havoc and Comanche-Hokum) shared with me the sales of HIND were only 1/4 of the APACHE to DI's disappointment. I must say, with all the uniqueness and thoroughness of this sim I was surprised as well to hear that.

To be continued… 

The more time passes by and more chopper sims released I actually caught myself more and more measuring them by the standards set by HIND many of which are still unsurpassed. In my mind I have no doubts, however, that this one will be recognized (and already is) a true classic sim of true classic/unique chopper by time and any decent rotor-head.

With complex FM on realistic setting and still unsurpassed variety of weapons and types of missions in a chopper it will take you a VERY-VERY considerable time to complete all the missions and even more on campaigns. I am considering completion of all mission and campaigns on realistic settings one of the most greatest achievements in my life! It took persistence, a lot of work, a lot of time, all range of emotions and is (as I still not through the last campaign) the experience on it's own. Yet if you look for excellent gameplay and unique experience of flying a helicopter on your own HIND is THE sim for you.

That may be why a small (1:144 scale) plastic model of Mi-24D is sitting on top of my monitor and the TWI-SPO "Berioza" cut out with legend is sticked to the side of it as I from time to time look at them, put the Hind CD in the drive and wait to hear "Comrade, the success of operation depends on you".

Artur “CEP}I{AHT” Valitov Served with SU army ORATO (Otdelnaia Rota Aerodromno-Tekhnicheskogo Obsluzhivania – independent airfield service company) attached to independent mixed helicopter squadron of KDVO (Krasnoznamennyi Dalnevostochnyi Voennyi Okrug – red-bannered Far East military district) in 1985-87.

Players quotes:

"It's the FLIGHT MODEL - it's challenging while not having superperfulous difficulty thrown in passing as realism (i.e. spins modeled in EAW and Mig Alley on hardest settings - own both sims and enjoy them -but still...) , Also, you can pick up and deliver men, and though it is a DOS game - you get a lot of entertainment for under 100 Mgs and it has an original subject matter. Oh yeah the silicon WSO he sounds intelligent - if you played APACHE/HAVOC you know what I mean.

HIND is a lot of sim that's smaller then most demos you download. They could package this same sucker with the latest graphics - only include a mission/map editor and I would be one of the first ones making a reservation for my copy at EB.com - and I normally don't do that since I'm a tight-fisted SOB."

by SPOT

" When flying through clouds the visibility deteriorates until it is almost zero with the outside world only a dark gray (comparable to low visibility flying in Apache). Then the gray gets lighter and suddenly becomes a brilliant white. A few seconds later the HIND emerges from the clouds into blue sky and sunlight. This effect has to be seen to be believed.

What do you do when you have already developed and had published one of the most realistic helicopter simulators currently available? If you are Digital Integration, you think it's a good start. However, DI did not rest following the release of Apache Longbow. They listened to their fans and created a sequel that is actually better than its predecessor: HIND."

by Christian Franz