Friday 2009-10-23 Screenshots Update discussion thread

[F16_Petter]

Thank you Oleg & Co for the nice updates.
Here are a couple of questions.

Q1. Could you please tell us something about light rendering in SoW regarding "after sunset" that means nighttime. As of now, I have not seen any PC simluator that simulates pitch black night conditions.
(only real "industrial" full flight simulators at the academy).

Take IL2 versus reality for example, there is no way that you could navigate in the air @ 23:35 on a Octobre night in Europe region without instruments. You would not see the horizon, or anything at all.. unless perhaps three conditions applied:
A) Lots of groundlights giving away the contour of terrain and horizon.
B) Altitude was 65.000 feet and above and you might get a glimpse of dawn or sunset far far away.
C) There is moonligt or bright stars and you are flying over the artics..

In IL2 I cannot recreate any night time condition where it is difficult to see the ground or navigate... regardless of time, season or location.
The only time I get problem navigating is when I am above overcast or when flying inside a cloud. (ofcourse)

So to get back to the question, please tell us something about differances with IL2 and SoW regarding night conditions.

I know that there are many "experts" out there that would like to wave off this question by just saying..
"well, during world war 2 they never flew at night, or they did very seldom because it was so difficult.. so why even bother making this realistic.. its just a waste of developer time... its not worth it, its not interesting bla bla bla."

All I wish for is a combat flightsim where it IS difficult or nearly impossible to fly during nighttime.



Q2. Regarding CEM. etc... Will it be possible to select feeding from different fuel tanks in the planes that have this ability? (tank selector valve)

Thank you very much for the efforts you are putting into this simulator.
Best wishes from a cold and very dark Scandinavia.

[jocko417]

Hi Oleg,

Lovely shots, very excited. I have a question about your Spitfire model, it has chord-wise stiffeners installed above the main wheel wells, I had thought these weren't installed until later in the war, predominately on Spitfires involved in dive bombing, due to stresses involved during high g pull outs. Photo evidence would have it that the average Mk I/II Spits did not have them during the Battle of Britain, although they could have been retro-fitted after the battle as the airframes aged. The Spit Mk I at the IWM in London has them, but also carries late war roundels which suggests the stiffeners were added later.

[Romanator21]

Originally Posted by F16_Petter

All I wish for is a combat flightsim where it IS difficult or nearly impossible to fly during nighttime.

I think the biggest problem is for computers at home: It's nearly impossible to see anything in night conditions in the game if the room the monitor is in is sunlit, or otherwise bright. This is also a concern with the glossy monitor screens that seem to be more common these days. Making a pitch black environment would just turn the screen into a mirror for some folks unless they had the luxury of playing in a darkroom. It's not always possible if you have a family or roommates that need the light

[wannabetheace]

Originally Posted by Nike-it

Then I can do that

Thanks a lot

[Snuff_Pidgeon]

I was wondering if rain and snow was going to be added and how would they be modelled? I would luv to see rain landing on my canopy and wings.

[Oleg Maddox]

Originally Posted by jocko417

Hi Oleg,

Lovely shots, very excited. I have a question about your Spitfire model, it has chord-wise stiffeners installed above the main wheel wells, I had thought these weren't installed until later in the war, predominately on Spitfires involved in dive bombing, due to stresses involved during high g pull outs. Photo evidence would have it that the average Mk I/II Spits did not have them during the Battle of Britain, although they could have been retro-fitted after the battle as the airframes aged. The Spit Mk I at the IWM in London has them, but also carries late war roundels which suggests the stiffeners were added later.

Maybe some part didn't have it, however in manufacture design description it is present for MKI and up. It is probably the same thing like in SU with aviation - by manufacture design description all aircraft had radio station, however in reality many of then hadn't in 1941 due to lack of details or due to fact that some pilots removed it especially (both things were present)
We can't make so many small diffences for each period of war or life of the plane in one squadron. Say in case of radio call we would need to make way more complex system of radio chatter code... But we need universal system for the whole period of war... Such contradictions some time very hard to solve. Just for example.

For the spitfires as I recall we did two types of proppeller and pitch regulation. This is possible and must be, becasue type of prop changes the behavior of aircraft at climb, acceleration and as a result - in dogfight.
Such things are very important for the flight and as a result for the gameplay. We try to go by this way at first learning experience of Il-2 gameplay.

[Oleg Maddox]

Originally Posted by Snuff_Pidgeon

I was wondering if rain and snow was going to be added and how would they be modelled? I would luv to see rain landing on my canopy and wings.

Snow is absent in BoB and in engine at the moment. Snow will be only when we will model real winter.
It isn't so hard to program feature, but not neccesary now

[Oleg Maddox]

Originally Posted by F16_Petter

Thank you Oleg & Co for the nice updates.
Here are a couple of questions.

Q1. Could you please tell us something about light rendering in SoW regarding "after sunset" that means nighttime. As of now, I have not seen any PC simluator that simulates pitch black night conditions.
(only real "industrial" full flight simulators at the academy).

Take IL2 versus reality for example, there is no way that you could navigate in the air @ 23:35 on a Octobre night in Europe region without instruments. You would not see the horizon, or anything at all.. unless perhaps three conditions applied:
A) Lots of groundlights giving away the contour of terrain and horizon.
B) Altitude was 65.000 feet and above and you might get a glimpse of dawn or sunset far far away.
C) There is moonligt or bright stars and you are flying over the artics..

In IL2 I cannot recreate any night time condition where it is difficult to see the ground or navigate... regardless of time, season or location.
The only time I get problem navigating is when I am above overcast or when flying inside a cloud. (ofcourse)

So to get back to the question, please tell us something about differances with IL2 and SoW regarding night conditions.

I know that there are many "experts" out there that would like to wave off this question by just saying..
"well, during world war 2 they never flew at night, or they did very seldom because it was so difficult.. so why even bother making this realistic.. its just a waste of developer time... its not worth it, its not interesting bla bla bla."

All I wish for is a combat flightsim where it IS difficult or nearly impossible to fly during nighttime.



Q2. Regarding CEM. etc... Will it be possible to select feeding from different fuel tanks in the planes that have this ability? (tank selector valve)

Thank you very much for the efforts you are putting into this simulator.
Best wishes from a cold and very dark Scandinavia.

1. Can't say you all details at the moment. the night should be tuned as all these things with the wathe conditions, movement of clouds, type of clouds, etc. Technology existed, but need fine tunings its what the part of my guys doing. I only can say that all these things are far of representation such things in Il-2, however I don't remember other WWII sims that was making better than in Il-2...

2. Possible. Even to start separate gasoline engine of air compessor for the brakes with exhaust of gazes under the pilot seat in Italian bomber posssible... However when I saw that it was done already by programmer, I said for what? Do you think somebody will use it or even know about such a feature of Br.20? His answer was - its fan and crazy! Then I told and how we will model the bad feel of crew due to exhaust gazes in a cockpit?

[Oleg Maddox]

Originally Posted by philip.ed

Thanks luthier, that makes perfect sense. Can I ask, when designing your textures for britain/france, are you using historical photos when possible? For example, will you be attempting to perfectly replicate the actual fields and roads that exist? So for example, if I was flying around kent I could use the roads to find my way back to, say, west-malling...?

Thanks for being so helpful though. I know I have a lot of questions

We use historical photos, however we don't plan to make full copy of real things. It is almost impossible. Is possible to put modern sattelite map and forget about everything and don't even make different buildings ans special dedicaded areas... its what make most others now.
That to make so great non-pixelated ground and great detail from the air or on the ground we need to go for compomises - there will be tiled hand made textures, but in such amount that you probably will be unable to see the tile even from high altitude.
Also we have unique textures that by our technology (next generation of similar in Il-2 and that still nobody as I can see don't have) we can put in different places and you will not see any bad edges, trasitions, etc...
Some historical buildings/areas of course are some copy of real, but there are a lot of other buildings that are generic for some area and we use it to build cities/regions. This is common technology in all games, even when you heard that it is a total copy..
Roads: As you may see on screenshots they are not like in IL-2, but also not like in other games. about this you will know more later. I can't tell all secrets at the moment.

[Oleg Maddox]

Originally Posted by philip.ed

Oleg, thanks for being so helpful.

Is there a chance of seeing more in-game shots this friday?

Also, you mentioned that colours etc are not permanent in regards to the terrain. Are the textures we are seeing here actually going to be used on the map of britain?

Probably I will show some other things.