you guys should take the arguments to PM or go to the zoo to duke it out :)

This is the new zoo, unfortunately.

First of all, terrific set of animations in this update. Thanks Oleg and team.


It's not that far fetched, since stars are so far away they deviate from their paths only by a few fractions of a degree per year. It's been already done in Silent Hunter 3 back in the day and the night sky changes as the time passes.

It's not entirely essential, but it's a nice backup in case your compass gets damaged on a night raid, you would be able to navigate back to friendly airspace by using the stars. In real life there were sextants used to take accurate measurements and some hardcore SH3 fans used to navigate by stars, but the combination of radio navigation aids and smaller maps in a flight sim might make this redundant.

In any case, you don't need the entire universe because it's not visible from our night sky. The simplest way to have an accurate rendition would be to have a moving set of the major constellations, maybe add the most visible nebulas too, and superimpose them on a static backdrop/wallpaper of night sky. This way, the amount of objects is reduced sufficiently while still allowing for recognition of constellations and navigation by stars. Movement is also very simple, it all rotates around the north (or south, depending on your hemisphere) opposite to the earth's rotation as the hours pass, it's nothing fancy really.

Well, if it was something big and totally unnecessary i might agree, but it's just an extra keymap with a trigger. Not much time to save for FM and DM, since coding the "parachute open" command is about as much work as coding the "landing gear down" command.

It's just a separate keypress and it will enable people online to fall below the action before pulling the chord, with all the added benefits it brings: less chance of getting shot while hanging from your chute, less chance of having to fly through others' chutes or get lagged by them as well.




I think i'm going to go ahead and agree with this ;)

Cool post - though for God's sake! Stop trying to increase the bloody workload!

I think the navigation thoughts are really sweet, though it seems pretty 'mod' or 'add-on' to me.

Also, press to bail (ctrl&e) but then a further key to deploy parachute - excellent idea.

Isn't it nice to hear realistic suggestions?

Considering that Oleg had one guy working on just air currents and such inside clouds for two years, I'd find it hard to believe that the stars would not be accurate enough to navigate by already.

It's amazing to what extremes opinion on various aspects of the game go to. It makes me appreciate Oleg's level headed approach to development all the more.

I could be wrong BadAim, however I think it's likely that if he had a programmer working on air currents and clouds for two years, it wasn't exclusively. If that made sense, then he'd have many individuals similarly employed in all others aspects of similar import: in short, there'd be dozens and dozens of specialists working on many aspects - all being well paid!

As ever: resources, resources resources.

I'm sure the area was looked at for the time mentioned - Oleg wouldn't fib. I just doubt that he meant that dedicated programmer(s) were on it for 24 months full-time, to the exclusion of all else.

You mean he hasn't had someone dedicated to researching London bus timetables for 1940, to ensure an authentic model? Cheapskate...

I hope so.
I still dont understand why they make 32bit programs:confused::-x

I'm just recalling what Oleg said, I believe it was in Mystic Puma's interview (I'm usually pretty good with that stuff). The fact of the matter (accuracy of my statement aside) is that the lions share of resources are going to make SOW the baddest flight sim in the land, bar none. I for one have no doubt that any side roads the project might take will have little or no effect on that goal.

The rest is all details.

That was my point. :)

Edit: actually, that was my second point, my first point was that Oleg is putting maximum resources into the sim environment, and that should include both the day and night sky. It's relative effort I'm speculating about, not specifics.

I need more coffee.

Because not everybody has a 64bit OS? :confused: