Geographical/Historical Accuracy

[thundermuffin]

I was having some fun with google maps today, looking at the area around dover to see how accurate they modeled it. What I found amazed me!

A) The coast line is near perfect
B) Where villages are (Dover, Ramsgate) are nearly perfect. For that matter, Ramsgate is nearly identical to the game given its position to the harbor. I don't know if these are primarily residential neighborhoods as the game portrays them, but still, thats awesome.
C) The Dover harbor is practically identical. The seawall to the ports to the cliffs just northeast of it are all there!
D) The coolest find was right by Ramsgate (the city you start over). If you google maps, scroll slightly northwest and you will find Kent Int'l Airport. What does that look like? Well, it looks a hell of a lot like the airfield you start over! It's traffic even flies in the same direction!! How cool is that?

To me, that is something to marvel. When we are flying over Britain, Berlin, Stalingrad etc, we will see these cities accurately displayed on what is probably an unparalleled level. Flying around Dover and seeing radar towers, or over the Ardennes Forest and seeing mansions overlooking the rivers, that just adds so much immersion! I love this game!!

[David603]

The maps were built using satellite pictures, so their accuracy is understandable.

[Swagger7]

That's the benefit of playing a sim flight game rather than an arcade one!

[PF_Lizard]

Yeah I live quite near Dover and was hoping to fly over where my house should be (it wouldn't have been there in the 40's).

[BadByte]

Apparently, some poor soul at Gaijin has spent the last two years locked in a room turning contemporary satellite imagery and digital elevation data into gorgeous in-game terrain. Every trace of modernity has been painstakingly removed, millions of separate trees and buildings added. The results impress even at the lowest altitudes.
Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/il-2-sturmovik-birds-of-prey-hands-on

It better be or the said poor bastard have been slaving for 2 years for nothing :rolleyes:

[IIJ0SePhXII]

I`ve been flying under the bridges around Canterbury. Ithought they would be a solid feature, but you can actually fly under them. On a map the size of Kent, that`s astounding.