I love the work so far.. I've adjusted the spitfire shots saturation (sorry!) just to show everyone how subtle the colouring is.. really nice!

http://i822.photobucket.com/albums/z...e/SoW/sow9.jpg

I'd like to see SoW used to reproduce historic battles for TV and I hope Oleg would get some decent royalties from that. I know the history channel has already done something on dogfights but the simulation was very poor compared to what Sow has to offer.

It's looking much more like summer than the early updates. A few trees will stay very green (e.g. Yew), but many more English species don't like the weather too hot.

dduff

Maybe in future. Right now it is doing only AI. This was in plan, but.... anyway it is still in plan for further developmetns

Amazing. I am going to be spending some time just flying low and slow to see "everything". I am hopeful that the gameplay measures up to the graphics. If it does, I may have to clear a month of my calendar lol.

THANK YOU, Oleg and team!

Splitter

Oleg, you are a small team, but are the best. Much
I encourage everyone and thanks for your work.

The capture is great, thanks mate!

Ok. I think we have good mix. We are not doing simulation of leaves and their changes during some months. Maybe in future we may do such things, but not now.

And I think you can't probably name me any other flight sim that has the same level of detail on the ground... And its only beginning of further developments in future... of course if this one first in a series will be successful.

PS. You can name some that are using satellite maps... But I don't think that with the close look they looks really nice in both ground and object details. At least any that are released.

looking Fantastic Oleg, from what we are being shown it will be well worth the wait, and you and the team will be well rewarded.
i have a quick question regarding the AI.
In Il-2 they always seemed very canned with the attack profiles they would use when commanded by the player, for example i am leading a flight of fighters on a bomber intercept mission, i would usually if possible meet the bombers head on or slightly oblique and make a firing pass. i could usually take out a bomber or at least severely damage one on this merge, but the rest of my flight no matter what command i gave them would never fire on the merge and then just make stern attacks and get shot down very easily. will player controlled flights have more advanced, and aggressive attack profiles in SOW?

thanks
Craig

Looking great Oleg. I just love Fridays :)

I believe you answered an important question for many of us today, even though it wasn't posted.

In the first screenshots I drilled down for image sizes and came up with

1680x 1050 and 1920 x 1080

Each rendered shot looked very good.

The best part is - 1080 divided by 1920 translates to .5625

1050 divided by 1680 translates to .625, which means alot to me. I recently purchased a 1920 x 1200 resolution monitor.

1200 divided by 1920 translates to .625

In other words monitors with .5625 or .625 should work well with SOW.

I really don't care if I have a black panel and top and bottom of the screen.

I've been watching wide screen movies for so many years... LOL

The saturation of colors depending of the human eye working in different lighting conditions. ... that we are trying to model.

No complaints here!

It looks more like some artphotographers like to make underexposured shots. I agree that sometime it is very nice. Doing myself such things sometime in photo.

Attention
 

Ok, I must going at home to visit my parets that was very bad for some time.... Now all is Ok.
Will be reading on Monday. Need some relax.

The rippling effect on the skin of the plane is what gets me. If it wasn't there, I probably would not notice it. But after having seen in, the effect certainly makes the planes look realistic.

Splitter

Will this be open to modification? I know I perceive the world with a greater colour contrast, but with less colour saturation than is typically rendered by computer games/monitors.

We tried to make it really looking realistic, but not overdone by some modern and by incorrect using effects.... ;) Aerodynamics should be right :):):):) Even looking right.

Have a good weekend Oleg, glad all is OK now.

Thanks for your time, Oleg!

You must be joking Mr Maddox, of course it will be successful:-P

Oleg, what do you think of the DCS A-10C business model? Pre-paying the sim has given everybody access to downloading the beta.

took my wallet out and holding credit card :cool:

History International
 

I first want to say to Mr. Oleg and his team keep up the excellent work. I might just buy four copies just to help with the future deveopments (add ons) . If anyone has seen any of the history channels seies about how a famous actor changed the world. I want to put my vote in for how Oleg Maddox changed the world. You have encouraged multitudes of hobbiest to go to the library and read a book. Dvd sales of all things about world war II have increased. I have not even touched upon the whole gaming industry, video cards, memory, and the list goes on. I am glad that the IL2 series reminds you of a encyclopedia. Hey thats another idea, Aviation history by 1C publishing. I'd put that on my shelf in a heart beat. With the development of the SOW seires, I want to thank you in advance for the quality of those third party additions. I have purchased about all of the third party add ons to IL2 that were in English. From Aces Campaigns to Wings Over Jungles. I have enjoyed them all. Some have been better than others, however, I am looking forward to the next new generation of add ons. Keep them all up to your standards of care. Il2 has become more than a video game. It has changed my view on history and thus changed my world!

Ditto Jag, nice to see some positive and well deserved comments to a superb team,

Thanks for these infos, I'm really looking to fly over the British countryside in your sim :-P

my word... i'm lonvign that shot of the spit, the pilots head position looks so natural, the bump mapped rivets, the AA the lighting... just wow. cracking update.

you can see the radar ...prongy thing... sticking out the front of the beaufighter as well. and the pilot appears to be leaning to one side. or pushed by flight manoeuvre to the side. *drools*

as for the ground details, at a wild guess, and based purely on the tech demo of the dx11 tessellation, those stones on the track may appear more 3d under dx11 rendering.

beautiful work foo.bar, quite beautiful. and for a flight sim!

and the targets... one for using with the flak guns perhaps?

the level of details is frankly astounding.

glad things are on the up oleg, sounds like you've had a lot on your plate recently. hope you have a good weekend with your folks.

That Beaufighter looks MEAN!! :grin:

Thanks for taking the time to post, given last week's fiasco. I don't know how it's possible, but the updates just keep getting better and better each time!

Hello Oleg. My words are ....nothing. But these pictures are all. Great work. And thanks to all the people who worked at this GREAT GAME. And a nice weekend

Are the targets in the fourth screen shot for syncronising a fighters guns?

RedToo

oak leaves are overmodelled...

:mrgreen:

Oleg, go visit your parents - We'll see you when you return.

could be... would need a bench or some kind of frame to lift the tail of the fighter. whilst cool, would it really add anything for such a feature, that is to say - would it be used more than a couple of times.

Thx for the update gents

Thanks for the update! Superb screen shots... I have to show my dad the train pictures. He'll love that :) He'll be asking for a train simulated based on Storm of War before long. Just you wait! :)

Beautiful! One of the best updates to date!
________
Buy Bubblers

I would have to say that is what those targets on the ground are for. Archers usually do not want to shoot their precious arrows into wood :). Bails of hay and the like are preferred.

Splitter

Amazing detail..even on the Spit's radiomast. Almost a shame to target it all :) ..I'm off to earn more money to buy myself a new rig when it's out ;)

TY, Keep it coming!

Yes, it looks very good! :)

Wonderful screens!

BUT! The icons are still the old type- numbers and text that will ruin the immersion! Dear Oleg, please see the thread with suggestion of using more inventive ways to help people spot targets! Text and numbers are are not good enough for icons in this game!

You got my emails?:confused:

I'm impressed by the locomotive, the tracks, the terrain surrounding it -- all to be viewed from a few hundred simulation-feet or more while traveling over 200 simulation-mph. Astonishing attention to detail in a flight sim.

And...the hero of the day is...Foo'bar...
 

Foo'bar deserves a "Medal of Honor", or "Pour Le Meritt" at least!
Oleg, great job...have no words...I do believe that these pictures form the "Update", are from some recent airshow...maybe Duxford...I dont know...
~Cheers!

What what what ?????
:grin:

That Spit looks great

It looks awesome.

What do you think about the runway in this picture?
Is that the way runways looked like?

For me the runway looks blurred and like a texture of an old game. Actually it looks the exact same like in IL-2.

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/attachm...4&d=1286542020

Thank you for your update and for your answers.

Give it a rest already. :rolleyes:

thanks for the news oleg.good work!!!
Always wand to ask you about that(heads of pilots are moving... not like in IL-2)but i speak no good englise.
can you tell us the head turn is the direction where i look or just turn?Anyway is very nice if this hapend!!!
tnx again.

I believe that the issue of no cockpit view was shown in an update maybe a year or two ago. If I remember correctly, we'll be able to have realistic-looking dials, we'll be able to move them around on the screen, resize them, choose which dials we want, and we'll be able to set their opaquity. So if this hasn't changed since then and I'm remembering correctly, then that's what you can expect.

Yeah, right. Almost "like drawn by child - in watercolors" right?
:rolleyes:

S-T-O-P I-T!

You don't know what is WIP and what not. Oleg has the right sense for polishing the details, he just proved that with todays screenshots.
However, it is possible, and in your case very likely, that you'll not be satisfied in whatever form this game hits the shelves.
But don't despair, there's help:
First: You don't have to buy it
and 2nd; a piece of Yoda's advise:
"shut the f*** up - you must, young padawan."

Cheers.

Well done Foo'bar!!!! Nice trains:-).

Conkers!
This looks like it might be a conker tree (correct name - horse chestnut)...they look like conkers, even if the leaves don't look exactly right.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...172134ed01.jpg

http://static-p3.fotolia.com/jpg/00/...OhqVoyGZsW.jpg

check this out:
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpos...&postcount=104

He's still looking for a way out of Siberia.

http://michaeljosephtherapy.com/blog...a-russia-2.jpg

Don't quote if you don't know where it belongs to.
Your post count was increased by 1 post. Congrats.

These parties always get rough near the end. Actually that might not be a runway Hecke. It could be a pathway to the beer locker. The pathway coming out is not so straight.

Notice the tire track/rut in the surface of the runway? While I have not taken the time to examine grass runways in IL-2, I don't recall seeing ruts. Maybe they are there, maybe they are not. Maybe in SoW tires leave tracks in grass, maybe not.

I just did a little research on how grass runways were maintained with very little luck. It appears that the grass was mowed somehow and kept shorter than the rest of the airfield. I would also suspect that the grass/dirt was "tamped" with some sort of roller to compact the soil (just a guess). It also appears that some chemicals were used to retard but not eliminate grass growth.

So how exactly would the short grass be portrayed in a computer program? If it was somehow mechanically "laid over" (like with a roller), how should that be portrayed? What about all the ruts from landing on wet ground?

And is it really that important? :).

(BTW, the grass runway maintenance thing is bothering me now....I must know how those runways were built and maintained lol.)

Splitter

Oleg: congratulations on completing 7 years of SoW development! I'm looking forward to the next 7! :D

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6076412.html

Who says it is a runway...?!

Oleg, what are the targets for?

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/attachm...4&d=1286542020


[EDIT] For archery? I found this:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...202/arch01.jpg

you'll find him on hyperlobby.

Go here:http://www.luftarchiv.de/index.htm?/...ate/waffen.htm and scroll down to the first colour picture...

Cheers,

Fafnir_6

That "RUNWAY" is the Peri track, i would'nt like to sit in a flight hut, gooseneck store or any hut that close to a runway no matter how good the pilots were.

Well done Oleg and crew- these pics keep getting better. It's good to see the progress you're making.
The picture of the Spitfire pilot is brilliant- i cant wait to see an animation of the pilot moving after seeing this one with the 'natural' tilt of his head.

Oleg, very nice update.

In the first set of shots, the RAF pilot looks like he's wearing his goggles down with no oxygen mask. By all means a pilot might have done this, but really they would have the mask and have the goggles up unless they enjoyed having their vision distorted.
I could go into more detail, but I don't want to bore the rest of the community :P Of course there are loads of combinations for the way a pilot could wear their headgear, but such a set as you have posted seems very unusual to me.

:D

I must add though that it's great to see that you've used the research I sent you for the helmet and goggles! The goggles you have moddled were only used by a few (no pun intended) RAF pilots in the battle, so although it's correct if you want to get really picky the Mark III(a) goggles would be better :D I'm sorry for sounding like such an anorak; it's only a cosmetic detail, and by all means just put this at the bottom of that ever-lengthening-list.

Video???
 

Oleg,

How about the video you promised???

Oh yeah...that was last week. :grin:

Looking really great.

:grin::grin::grin:

You tell 'em mate. Bloody know it alls.

This week has to be the most positive response to an update for months (so far). And I don't mean because people are feeling guilty.:rolleyes:

I recently bought 'Kursk 1943 - Theatre of War', a ground based tank/infantry strategy game published by 1c games.
The level of detail available in this game as published is vastly inferior to what we've seen in the screenshots shown by the team developing Storm of War.
In this, I mean that the level of detail in the ground objects shown by Mr Maddox is vastly superior to that shown in a dedicated ground warfare 'game' only recently published by the same company.
Yes, I also have Crysis Warhead. It's pants.
I have an intel i7 860 / 6 gig RAM / AtI 5770 set up, @ 1920x1080 which runs the Kursk game only 'ok' on full graphics settings.
I'm looking forward to spending some cash.
Bring it on.:grin:
(actually that contradicts something I said in another thread, but what the hell, I'm feeling good today).:grin:

Your post seem's a bit odd to me, the goggles look to be perfectly centered and square to the pilots face. Regarding the mask, unless at 10,000 feet and above, there is no need for it. And would therefore be an option for the pilot...I still hope for a pure positive reaction from you one of these weeks, I know that you mean well, but the goggles are not worn low in that shot.:confused:

Thank you for the up-date Oleg, hope that your parents are well...Foo, excellent work!:grin:

If anyone slags off these pics I am personally going to hunt them down.

This looks AMAZING, and I can't wait for the release!!!!

Hey, just to be clear, I wasn't criticizing at all! I was responding to someone saying the runway didn't look any better than IL-2. I was defending the way the runway looked....if it's a runway :).

You you are right, I doubt they would have targets and such sitting so close to a runway. But I think I am seeing a tire track in that shot....if tire tracks are present then the movement of ground units is going to be interesting.

My interest about grass runways is still piqued. I'm trying to dig up some info on them but still not having luck.

Splitter

Wow ... Oleg ... The details your putting into those environments is creating a realistic atmosphere of the 1940's. Something I always felt was missing with the IL-2 series, yes I understand that IL-2 had it limitations but the SoW models and textures are awesome.

Things are looking very good. I especially like the raised railroad beds which should flow nicely with lowered riverbanks making bridges with large banks unnecessary. This will also give the terrain a much needed depth perception.

I 'think' (and I have no way of knowing how SOW is actually coded) it has something to do with the angle at which we are seeing the scene.

Here are two picture from ROF (with my new 'Pup' by the way) one picture shows the scene from above showing good ground texture, the other from a shallow angle showing the blurred texture.

High View Angle
http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/...__23_52_19.jpg

Low View Angle
http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/...__23_52_27.jpg

If you see the grass in taken from the low angle, the 3d grass (under the Pups starboard wing) shows the different rendering style for the 3d image.

I 'think' that's what we're seeing in the SOW image. The grass and the track look like they are being rendered differently so at the low angle we see a contrast.

Of course I could be completely wrong! The two sims work completely differently to each other. But it is interesting to see that a 'Work In Progress' SOW compares favourably with a completely up to date and patched ROF!


Cheers!

In all 3D engines, whenever something is rendered at an extreme angle to the camera the textures tend to look blurry. Anistropic filtering at higher levels makes this go away almost completely by resampling the textures. Most of the screen shots we're seeing have basic filtering and no anti-aliasing so you'll see artifacts like this on the development screen shots. You might see them if you run low settings on your own systems but start tweaking the settings and these things go away.

Amazing update Oleg.

You have once again gotten the majority of the BlitzPigs talking about virtual flying again. For this alone I am grateful.

Your posts reveal your own excitement at the progress and level of you and your team's work on the new sim. These good feelings raise all our hopes for the success of Storm Of War.

I cannot wait to settle into the cockpit and fly out over the Channel.

If the BlitzPigs can be of any help, please feel free to let us know.

Thanks again.

Whats a Blitzpig ?

Good call IceFire!

Here is another screen shot of my scene taken with 16x Anistropic filtering (set in Nvidia control pannel). As you said it cleared up the ground textures quite a bit.

http://i1042.photobucket.com/albums/...9__0_46_22.jpg

Thank you!

I guess the following quote is quite relevant for all of the WIP screenshots taken by Oleg&Co!

It's encouraging to see that the programmers are getting a higher priority on the development resources over the boss of the company! It shows that things are full-steam-ahead at Maddox games!
Cheers!

The mortal enemy of Polish Sausages I'm sure.
________
Oregon Medical Marijuana Dispensary

Man, I hope the new track player has a time line slidda built in. It's beautiful, perfection on a big screen TV.

1940
 

Thanks Oleg,
With these excellent pics you are starting to feel the real atmosphere in 1940 England.
I am really looking forward to having an accurate map of the 1940 Battle of Britain landscape to work with. I can't wait to get my hands on BOB-SOW when it is released
Your small team is doing a magnificent job.
DFLion
PS Foobar, can you twist Olegs arm to show some pics of your LNER A4 Pacific steam engine racing along the English countryside?

Huh?
I quoted some bloke called 'scrope' or some such.
It's that young geezer Hecke that prompted my comment.
Wasn't referring to your comments, Splitter.
I thought your observation of of the tyre tracks was spot on.
I didn't see it!
Review please!!
Ta!:grin:

ROFL, my first comment was directed at Hecke too. I misunderstood who you were calling a know-it-all :).

And it's "tire" not "tyre"....when will you people get the language right :). Next you will make up your own name for "truck" ;).

I LOVE that there has been very little unfounded criticism in this thread. The screen shots were that good. Check out the markings on the plane in the first shot, tons of detail.

Splitter

Now let's all sing kumbaya

The word you're looking for is 'Lorry'.
And personally I prefer 'Row, row, row your boat'. Not.
Bloody yanks.

But yes, I noticed the stencils too.

That's attention to detail.

First of all, i have to say the updates keep getting better and better.

Second, the developer actually answers to the noise made. See what the guy said, "today i show you screenies with AA because so many people cry about them and i want to show them the engine is up to it".

Third, in the same quote (as someone else posted), the high end PCs are reserved for the coders to work on and compile faster, not for the lead developer to take pretty screenshots and show to us. Good to know the equipment is being put to proper use.
When coding is finished and promotion material is needed i'm sure we'll see the full detail of the sim but for now what matters is to make the best use of the team's budget for completing the simulator. Let's think about this next time we feel the urge to go all "how hard is it to see a few DX11 shots with filters." It's not hard, it's just that the dev team has their priorities set straight...finish the game first, sell it afterwards.

Fourth, i'm very excited and encouraged to see how crazy and excited they are about making this and how frank and open they are on their interactions with the community. This alone scores the biggest points for me.
Say whatever you want about how much you like the screenshots or not (it's a matter of personal taste after all), but one thing that must be said is that these guys might be inaccurate with release dates but they've never given us bullsh*t about the features that will make it into their titles. It might suck to know next to nothing about so many things that will or won't be in the sim, but up to now i've never seen them say "this is doable" and not see it come up at some point.

Finally, it's sometimes easy to forget that we are all people here, hiding under these nicknames. I hope you now understand how much pressure mr Maddox was under last week, with his relatives facing health issues, an office move under way and all of us here demanding an update and when that comes along, a few have to spit it back in the guy's face after he had to juggle his real life commitments to make it happen. True, we couldn't have known about the guy's other life problems, but i think it's better to give them some slack and avoid the uncomfortable discussions and guilt, than verbally beat them into a pulp and then go all "sorry, i didn't really know".

Personally, i'll just say thank you to the entire development team for creating something so immense for us to enjoy. Mr. Maddox enjoy your weekend, good health wishes to your family and if i ever met you in real life i'd buy you a few shots of Ruskiy Standard Vodka (it oh so very much rocks by the way, best vodka i've ever tasted in my life).


Honorable mention in this thread for Skoshi Tiger and his pilot's name in RoF, Lord FlashHeart. "Welcome to the 20 minuters....let's do-ooooh-it!" :-P

What's nice is that you can see how thin the tracer lines look. Of course it's all dependant on the camera used to take the photo and ambient light, but it still seems near identical with the tracers i saw when firing 20mm AA guns in the army a couple of years ago. It seems the tracers we're getting in SoW are closer to reality than many of us initially thought :grin:

HEE!!!

:grin:

The Stressed skin / embossing effect on the Aircraft skins is a fantastic touch, and is something that is nearly always missed by Sims (and modelers too!). It really adds something. Also, the trees are really starting to look great .

superb!

Like the liquor bit.

Any word on whether this beautiful map will be populated? Will there be people walking around? Or in the vehicles?

If I didn't know any better I'd swear you just got a hold of a long lost box of Koda-Chrome slides from 1940 and put up a picture of that Spitty.

Yes, it does really look like an old photo. Just imagine what will be possible with the built-in modding support, having for example the ability to apply filters on pictures or tracks from within the playback interface of the simulator.

I would guess it all hinges on frame rates. I don't know about people, but at some point they did say the engine is capable of having moving buses on a schedule or even cows in the fields. Will we see it in the first version? It's anyone guess and my personal guess is probably not, but i won't mind if having it enabled will bring an i7 based PC to its knees. Plenty of time to enable extra eye candy during the life of the series as we get faster PCs :grin:

Thanks for the update Oleg, some wonderful shots and the spitty looks almost real. One question though, would it be possible to have another look at the panal lines on the nose of the Hurricane (see link).

many thanks



http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthr...379#post175379

Only Oleg will decide what to show in fridays updates. I even don't know if the A4 will make it into initial release.

Find a pic in here Tree..

http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g2...anger/?start=0

I found a good pic.

I don't know why they made so many little panel lines but I'm sure it will be fixed

Thanks Richie, you can see in the link i put up some examples as well. :grin:

Oh...dah... I should have checked lol

Oleg, if I may add a couple of suggestions:

1. This was vaguely suggested already but a layout and ambience of the menus and UI to be as atmospheric and remeniscent of the 40s era as possible, to get player in the right modd from onset. Briefings as close to what real breifings were as is practical.

2 have information available to pilots similar to info a real pilot would have, eg. esential stats for the plane such as take off speed, stall speed, approach speed, best glide speed etc. Maybe have a cheat card for lower level of difficulty. IL2 lacked this a little...

Awesome progress, by the way. Hope your weekend was good and your parents are healthy.

Dogfights does not use simulated cuts....just animated scene there is little concern for realistic flight modelling. They're more concerned with illustrating what happened in a given situation.

You have completely misread my post mate ;)
Firstly, the goggles position is fine. But a pilot would be a bit of a dunce if he chose to wear his goggles down like this. By all means they might have liked to have done this, but it would distort vision and be a general nuisance.
Indeed, the pilot here has no mask connected to his helmet. It's possible it's hanginge from one of the lengths of the wiring loom, but it'd be a bitch to put on if he chose to go to a higher altitude.
Generally, I have only seen a couple of pictures of pilots wearing their goggles down like this. It's quite rare for the reasons I previously stated.
Even the lack of an oxygen mask is rare. Even if he had no need for oxygen, the mask contains the microphone. This pilot may be testing a larangyphone (sorry, I know I've spelt this wrong) but I doubt that.
He may be using gosport tubes, but again I doubt this too. So this pilot seems to be using no microphone, and there are no visible wires going into his b-type helmet to show that he has the c-type radio eaerphones installed ;)

This may all go over your head mate. This is hardly a neccessity for SoW, but for future patches I think this is quite important. I have supported my criticism with information, but I will add that posting pictures will be hard as there were so many mask/goggle/helmet combinations available (although for this period there were only 4 types of goggles, 1 mask, 1 helmet (I'm not including the 1930 pattern) and 2 mics in use)

;)