128 Planes.. Thoughts.. [contains vid]

[doghous3]

Well, this game has certainly attracted mixed opinions. Personally, despite initial disappointment (yeah, and some more), I'm finding myself enjoying CoD.

Tweaking aside, including the config change, and gfx card not ramping up clock/mem speed* fix, I've got it running pretty good as it stands.

I thought, considering its non-optimized manner, is it actually possible to have 128 planes in one area?

Thus I played around with the Mission Creator (first time ever).

So here's the vid for those interested, and I also wanted to try for a BoB scenario, which may I add, is not historical re-enactment at all.

250 planes figthing over the South-Coast of England.

Food for thought perhaps..

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=4lAmgu6f6P4&vq=hd720

You may think this has been a total waste of my time, and perhaps so.



* A friend told me to ensure Flash player does not have "hardware acceleration" enabled in the options. This was discovered to prevent ATI cards from maxing the clock/mem speeds as would normally occur when running 3D games.

Initially my card would run 400/900; unchecking the flash option put it back to 800/1100..

[Wolfar]

Well I found that totally interesting.

With the current advance of PC's and a patch or two in about a year you could boast a 250 plane game play!

I am a very dedicated mission builder for my squad in IL2. When you run play from the mission editor in that, the mission editor is still in the background. So it does load your PC up if it still works like that.

I will know soon enough.

Thanks for sharing!

Wolfar

[Koyan]

Hahaha, i couldn't believe my eyes. But in game 250 planes, low settings and better fps, 2 :) Over Jurassic it worked quite well. Nevertheless, tadadaaaa the future looks bright for COD. Five years from now, massive air battles.

[Ataros]

I thought, considering its non-optimized manner, is it actually possible to have 128 planes in one area?

If all 128 planes are occupied by human players it is not a problem as processor power is not used by AI in this case.

I played IL-2 on ADW server with about 90+ players back in 2006.

[Hellbender]

Nice Video, [RS]3-Pvt.Doghouse.

[gflinch]

Very very interesting. I like the 128 plane idea, all in all that is quite a number to deal with, just to stay focused on in battle. Its really amazing that the computer (amazing to me) can keep track of all those ai pilots.


Anyhow, great test, thanks for sharing.

BTW: off the top of my head, how many planes flew at once in the BOB? where they in groups or one huge mass (obviously divided in their squads, etc, but in the general area in mass?)

[Feathered_IV]

128 looks promising. Not quite Eagle Day, but hopefully in a few years.
Is the voice acting and scripting that bad throughout the game? It seems to be hard coded and not open to third party addon packs.

[ptisinge]

A mission with 128 coop players vs similar number of AI would be quite awesome, and it seems we're not so far from it (soon the limit won't be the engine but the ability to find 128 players connecting to the same servers I would guess).

[jimbop]

Is the voice acting and scripting that bad throughout the game? It seems to be hard coded and not open to third party addon packs.

The manual says that "sound options in Cliffs of Dover are refreshingly simple" but I sure wish they weren't!


Great thread; I'm considerably more optimistic about online play now.

[Robert]

I have to ask, because this is going around SIM HQ and I'd like to nip it in the bud.

Sorry to be direct but.......

Did you save a track file and convert it in CoD's AVI renderer? In other words; did you play this mission on the lowest settings possible, then save the track file which you then had CoD render into a HI DEFINITION video to play on You Tube?

[jimbop]

I have to ask, because this is going around SIM HQ and I'd like to nip it in the bud.

Sorry to be direct but.......

Did you save a track file and convert it in CoD's AVI renderer? In other words; did you play this mission on the lowest settings possible, then save the track file which you then had CoD render into a HI DEFINITION video to play on You Tube?

Yeah, things are somewhat negative over there! I hope this patch is a good one...

[andmcq]

Well it can hardly make the game worse... can it? ...

[dflion]

Thanks 'Doghouse3'. This vid certainly shows you the flight sim's potential. Everybody is saying that the Oleg/Ilya team will get it right in a few years time, I'm hoping it will be sooner, computer power prevailing.

As a 'campaign maker' it is just amazing to see that amount of aircraft in the sky at the same time, which is what really happened during the BOB. Seeing those images, you really can understand what the actual pilots were thinking at the time! From recent memory, I can remember some BOB pilot interviews during the last few years and those images were exactly what they were trying to describe? Sadly they (the BOB pilots) are all gradually leaving us, my father is now 88 and was a Liberator pilot during the war and this situation is very close to me.

DFLion

[sigur_ros]

European Air War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Air_War) did in 1998....

[doghous3]

I'm glad people are being more positive about the vid, I wasn't sure how it's reception would be taken.

The actual last WW2 sim I spent any time with was Euro War, I did play IL2S when it was released but at that stage sim's as a genre were seemingly dieing; so I in a way accepted the changes and forgot about such things - until by chance I noticed CoD a week or so ago!

@Robert: To nip in the bud, so to speak, the video is legitimate. I still have the seperate avi files recorded with fraps. The FPS counter can be seen in the top-right corner. I know people can be nefarious, but I'm certainly not one. There will always be people that will try to dis-credit or disbelieve. *shrugs*

I actually did the 250 battle first. Purely to experiment with the engine. As I went down the settings, and then played the mission from the game menu; the thought of 128 player MP came to mind. On lowest settings, FPS during the 128 example was nearing 100 at the start!

@Wolfar: I read somewhere the MB is the same as IL2, I wouldnt' know though. But it's very simple. Certainly hits the FPS running missions from with-in the MB as I eventually discovered.

@Ataros: Indeed, a server would not have to consider all planes as AI, and there are examples in other games of 100+ people in one server.

I think it proves CoD was right to boast 128man battles.

@Hellbender: .. lol, stalker. :p

@gflinch: Yep, seems impressive. I noticed (128 example) that when viewing a plane being damaged it slowed things down. That was interesting.

The sound seems limiting in some manner as well, as the 250 example sounds cut-out, or didn't even work at times.

@ptisinge: I'd say that if there was a server up now for 128 player's on that MP map, it would work just fine.

@jimbop: Indeed. It would be nice if people look at the video and come away optimistic. Btw.. are you that chap that was flying in the JU87 on the server?

@dflion: Yep, we've all seen the pictures, read the stories etc, even seen some footage. Creating the scenario was intriguing for me for many reasons. Despite it's performance, I wonder what your Father would say..

@sigur ros: I remember EAW very well, I got a free VHS recording with the game, heh.

We should expect a few mini-patches over the week which will address the performance issues with CoD, if they produce the positive affects as stated, then CoD will be vastly improved. Proof is in the pudding though, and I remain optimisitc.

[Feathered_IV]

European Air War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Air_War) did in 1998....

Thats what I was thinking for the last seven years.

[Robert]

I appreciate the response. I don't like to play games when dealing with rumours or innuendo, so I came here to the source. As many are upset, and some even rightly so, it amazes me hot hot under the collar some get. Even so much as to 'accuse' the community. I'm sure we can all think of a member who we may not get along with (and no I don't mean Tree or anyone in particular), but I would never suggest such nefarious actions would be committed by a forum member.

Well at least that's out of the way. I'll report back at the SimHQ.


I was thinking of an X Mas present I wanted one year. I was all excited to get some astronaut toy, and I got the generic version with the really bad molding and smelly rubber plastic face. What a disappointment for a 6 year old. "But THAT'S not Major Matt Mason. Santa can't read for beans." Kinda the same with CoD. We've been waiting long. Our patience has worn thin. When it was finally released we were looking forward to Major Matt Mason and got Billy Blast Off.

Know what? Despite my initial disappointment I really liked that smelly rubber faced astronaut boy.

[jimbop]

@jimbop: ... Btw.. are you that chap that was flying in the JU87 on the server?

Nope, not yet anyway. I spent a couple of hours last night just learning how to start the Hurricane and do some basic maneuvers without a dreaded perforated water radiator!;)