Friday 2010-07-02 Dev. update and Discussion Thread

[Freycinet]

Real volumetric smoke, it looks fabulous!

- ...But almost looks wrong after I have been getting used to the lovely "cheat" in Il-2, with rotating disks standing in for smoke. Together with the multiple texture layers of dense forests, that was one of the best programming tricks in Il-2, to create a believable world with the few computing resources we had available in 2001.

I wonder which programming tricks there will be in SoW:BoB to create a believable world. There will be many and they'll be very clever I think!

[choctaw111]

Thank you for this wonderful update.
There are so many great screenshots to look over.
I am very anxious to see what the in game movies will look like in the future

[Oleg Maddox]

Originally Posted by Freycinet

Real volumetric smoke, it looks fabulous!

- ...But almost looks wrong after I have been getting used to the lovely "cheat" in Il-2, with rotating disks standing in for smoke. Together with the multiple texture layers of dense forests, that was one of the best programming tricks in Il-2, to create a believable world with the few computing resources we had available in 2001.

I wonder which programming tricks there will be in SoW:BoB to create a believable world. There will be many and they'll be very clever I think!

Probably you are right.
However in BoB we use some amount of third party source code... because the product is too complex in many items that to make it at all in a small team.

[Ekar]

Originally Posted by Freycinet

Real volumetric smoke, it looks fabulous!

I'm not sure I can see any evidence in these screens that the smoke is volumetric- looks more like your standard textured smoke (which looks fine in most games, and looks fine here too). I imagine a genuine volumetric approach would really grind processors down and would probably not be worth the expense...


"I wonder which programming tricks there will be in SoW:BoB to create a believable world. There will be many and they'll be very clever I think!"


...that is, unless Oleg and the team have figured out or can figure out a way to render true volumetric smoke/clouds, etc.. at low cost. That would be a very neat trick. I'm sure they could do it if they really wanted to. Perhaps it's already done.

Hi Oleg,

thanks for the great pics.

Will there be people walking around, cars driving around etc on the airports?

Because I hate to start or land on ghost airports.

[philip.ed]

Sorry Oleg, I was getting oil mixed up with fuel...

but have a look here; some excellent footage. As can bee seen in a number of cases here, like in the picture you posted, the fire is quite large and violent, but there is little smoke.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Champion...30/y6qyG4kTebE


This one is much more interesting:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Champion...27/Go6jwR5-nho

In many cases, the fire is as violent and explosive, but also in some cases the thick black smoke can be seen. However, this is quite rare to last for a long time, and in most cases the smoke is not too thick and large.

[Oleg Maddox]

Originally Posted by philip.ed

Sorry Oleg, I was getting oil mixed up with fuel...

but have a look here; some excellent footage. As can bee seen in a number of cases here, like in the picture you posted, the fire is quite large and violent, but there is little smoke.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Champion...30/y6qyG4kTebE


This one is much more interesting:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Champion...27/Go6jwR5-nho

In many cases, the fire is as violent and explosive, but also in some cases the thick black smoke can be seen. However, this is quite rare to last for a long time, and in most cases the smoke is not too thick and large.

No one sample of low octan fuel that was common for German planes of that time.

We have diferent dencity of smoke for different situations. You will see it in future.

[philip.ed]

Originally Posted by Oleg Maddox

No one sample of low octan fuel that was common for German planes of that time.

We have diferent dencity of smoke for different situations. You will see it in future.

OK, thanks But at least, is there evidence of smoke looking like what you have shown for a continued period of time? Perhaps, i think, it is best to go by what is available in video form until some more evidence appears to show that there are other circumstances where different things can happen

[KOM.Nausicaa]

Philip.Ed:

I am almost sure most of the shots are done in tele objective. (maybe Oleg can comment on this)
Using tele objective (or other extreme lenses) distorts your 3D world to a a point like you wouldn't believe. In the movies I worked on, some sets build in 3D were one day approved, the other day rejected -- the exact same sets! Just because they were filmed one day with this lens, one day with the other. The client thought we had build something new or so--but not at all in reality. This is very hard to understand for someone that has no experience in virtual building -- and filming it for the public.
The smoke is about right in my opinion. It's heavy, but ok. It looks massive in some shots because of image composition and lens. You should wait to judge it until you see it in game.

repeatable patterns: except a solution for this when the first quantum computer comes out

[Oleg Maddox]

Originally Posted by KOM.Nausicaa

Philip.Ed:

I am almost sure most of the shots are done in tele objective. (maybe Oleg can comment on this)
Using tele objective (or other extreme lenses) distorts your 3D world to a a point like you wouldn't believe. In the movies I worked on, some sets build in 3D were one day approved, the other day rejected -- the exact same sets! Just because they were filmed one day with this lens, one day with the other. The client thought we had build something new or so--but not at all in reality. This is very hard to understand for someone that has no experience in virtual building -- and filming it for the public.
The smoke is about right in my opinion. It's heavy, but ok. It looks massive in some shots because of image composition and lens. You should wait to judge it until you see it in game.

repeatable patterns: except a solution for this when the first quantum computer comes out

Or haven't simply knowledge of photograpy and different focus leight of lenses.

In our sim the tele position is more close to 50 mm focus leght (normal) like it is for human eye.

the wider angle means wide angle lenses with all their ditortions... (less then in real lenses, but anyway presented due to perspective distortions)

Sample of wide anle is here. I don't post such shots that to do not recall some voices that the plane is incorrect in proportions. Howere we need to have wider than in a life angles due to limits of monitors view.

Sample of wide angle view in a sim.