Now those are bullet hole's!!!!!!!!great Oleg :P

they are just so real looking!

Oleg The Greatest!

New images from the development workshop are AMMAZING!

Level of detail - unexpectedly high!

Oleg world glory is waiting for You - hurry up!!!


S!


BG-09

lookin fantastic, thanks for the update Oleg

Thx for the update, the graphics are fascinating. Just a very minor point: the bullet holes appear circular, as if they are shot from the side at a 90° angle ... I would expect more elliptical shapes instead ... sorry for the perfectionism ... great work indeed.

Regards,
Insuber

Yes nice pictures :roll: but only 4 pictures in a month? :roll:
I think he can do better than this!!!!
When we can see a video of BOB?????

Dear Oleg,
Well that Spitfire seems to be badly damaged and looks as though it has taken a full deflection burst probably from a 110 whilst turning hard.......or he was'nt looking and got plastered from above. Not from directly behind. Of course the holes could be the effect of flak but I don't think so. Nevertheless it looks remarkably real. I am going to enjoy this game!
Best regards,
Pike.

Thanks Oleg for news!

Nice pic's. I never saw how looks in combat damaged aircraft, but for me looks more like spit was flying under big drops of concentrated acid rain instead that got damages from bullets with huge kinetic energy. I don't know. Maybe damage from flak looks exactly like this. Anyway detail is wery high.

Great to see a few more screenshots.
The detail in these models is superb.
Are all aircraft, including AI types, being done to a similar level of detail?
Are all aircraft modelled with similar level of airframe detail to the Spitfire images?
When parts fly off can they hit following aircraft and cause damage?
Will the "damage" to aircrew be modelled as realistically as damage to the aircraft or will "gore" effects be toned down?
When bailing out from a bomber will the pilot be able to stay at the controls to give the crew more chance to escape before he bails out?

I have a question about the DM. Is the visual damage in the same place you hit? In IL2, you have a very general visual damage. It shows you hit the wing, but not where exactly on the wing, or how bad other then light and heavy. How will BoB's visual DM differ? Or will it use the same general IL2 DM system?

Of course this could be just a demonstration of combat damage in general.
regards,
SLP.

Thanks for an update Oleg, but seriously, those who choose to fly the Fiat Br.20 will find out very quickly from those who see it as superflous to BoB, why they are getting shot down so much.

But yes, welcome Br.20 pilots :twisted:

FIAT = Fix It Again Tony :wink:

Probably you'll never see such many big holes at once, like on these pics of Spitfire. And it isn't due to hits of bullets. It is due to flak and hits of shells.
From bullets we will "draw" actual(exact) places of hits. This you will see not so soon and already in the 3D engine together with other types of damage.
Main was to show missibg in flight aerodynamic panels of engine, etc.. It wasn't so rare in real aerial combat.


For us is a great task how to make a lot of details and at the same time to render a lot of aircraft in air simultaniosly.... So all things will be optimized for this...
Say it is possible to make even greater details of damage, aircraft itself , etc... but probably in case of hundreds aircraft in action around you you will need the PC that will be existed only say ten years after release :)
Hope you all understand what the tasks we have and what the technical problems are on our board...
The is no problem to make increadible amount of polygons in aircraft (or ground units), but then will follow problem of PC power, when in air isn't just one aircraft.... When the water is trasparent, when the clouds looks like real and moving, etc...
BoB will be again a "fight of compromises" in technologies and will offer the best compromises that wioll be usable for many years ahead, like it was with Il-2 :)

In General it is advanced mix of old and new technologies. See my answer above that to understand.
And in Il-2, when it was born - nobody in industry had such "very general" :) Attemps of others was... :)

gore effects will be toned down. It is marketing principle that to get 12+ rating. We have small niche of market and we need to listen what this market tell us...

For all other questions I would say yes on 98%.

...............
 

Thank you for stopping by, Oleg.

Pics look great. The detail on the Spit, and 88 is artwork!

I personally hate any hack that may damage fair online gameplay.

Hi Mr Oleg, when more videos can be showed to us?
News about release date?

Thx a lot

regards

Oleg, what about 4.09 ? any news or progress ? What will be included in 4.09 ?

Hi Oleg,
first of all, really great pics.
Is it possible that gears and their tyres get damaged so that landing will be dangerous?
Second question, when in gunnery positions in bombers, are shacking present while firing?

Enrico

Hi Oleg,

thank you for the new pictures, the detail on the aircraft looks excellent !

can you plz comment if we will have some civilian road / rail / aircraft activity in BoB, so that the world we fly in feels more "alive" ?

for ex a civilian car or bus driving on country road (instead of only military truck and tank convoys etc), and maybe some moving tractor in the fields ? or a passenger commuter train on the rail track traveling from one town to the next ? maybe even some unarmed military transport planes bringing new pilots to an airfield etc..

right now in il2 we can shoot at anything that moves and we always get points, in real life often pilots had to identify a target as military instead of just shooting/bombing anything that moves (except near the front lines)

this would mean we have to be much more careful about identifying our targets on ground attack !

Dear Oleg,
Yes, I get the point about PC power......that's why I am waiting to the very last minute before I upgrade after SOW BOB comes out. I'm going to have to invest in cooling systems as well I fear. I thought that those (big) holes in the wings could only be from cannon shells.
Only 92 days to go if the date does not change again...........92 days of hell (in the cooler!!)......I'd better get that little rubber ball out again!
Best regards,
Pike.

Mr Oleg, thank you for the new pictures of damage model...I have a question about the pictures.

Are the pictures composed to show some of the detail modeled into the airplanes?

Are they pictures of "random" damage (or possible damage) OR are the damage images "scripted"? (Like they are now...hole in wing always looks the same)

Will damage appear where "virtual bullets" hit the fighter? In other words, will the damage depicted "in game" reflect what was hit? (one bullet= one hole)

Thanks you for your time :)

Same question as proton; how dynamic will the damage model be?

Read Oleg's answer on page 28.

Thanks, I don't know how I missed that. :oops: I'm a little tired...

release date in 08 ? Thank you for stopping by at least I know someday I will be able to buy this game. Back to 46.....

Oleg,
Beautiful stuff the accuracy and depth of detail is truly amazing.

One question though_Does the entire damage engine need to be built now, if as you said it will take computers some ten years to be able to run it at full render? Or, am I missing the point of your answer on the previous page.

What Oleg meant is.. capability of the game engine allow to make more complex damage modeling, etc in the future, as hardware progresses...

WoW! Thanks for the update Oleg! I wonder how that will look in the new engine. I'm gonna need some upgrades.

Hey, Ivan! Nice to see you here.

Hello Oleg,

If you have a moment, there are two ideas that I thought I would pass on:

1.
Is there any thought about being able to get (or to turn on automatic) verbal instructions from other crew members?

For example:
- The navigator could estimate TAS from IAS for the bombardier
- The rear gunner could yell out the approach of an enemy fighter to the bomber pilot (or complain about being to closs to flak).
- A radar operator could give instructions to the pilot (most aircraft had separate radar operators)

This could all be done with a few pre-recorded audio samples from the AI or simply through text on the screen.

In real life very few aircraft prior to the late 1950s had the pilot operate the radar. For some of the aircraft in Galba and all of the aircraft in BoB the radar operator could be modeled simply as a set of verbal commands. I remember accounts of interactions between luftwaffe radar operators and pilots when chaff was first being deployed and it should be possible to even model weaknesses and countermeasures verbally.

Such as system could, at least in the text overlay, be extended to visual observation (with descriptions of the rough number of enemies or ground targets and their types) with varying degrees of vagueness depending on range/conditions.

2.
As for stories, I am sure that you already see the benefit of having a well written briefing and an atmospheric plot given the Il-2 expansion packs you developed. The briefing may only be text but they add a lot.

I agree with your statements that adding a cut-scene capability to the game is largely a waste of time but for static campaigns why not expand the text based system? My suggestion would be to add the ability to choose between different text options during the briefing. These options would add additional briefing text or activate scripts to make small changes in the upcoming mission.

This would allow campaign builders to give the player the ability to do things like:
- choose between questions to ask during a briefing
- suggest a wingmen needs to be grounded for some rest (effecting their AI level or number of aircraft in upcoming missions)

S!

P.S. Could the HUD log (text overlay) be made editable for the 3rd party (so that we can make it use less jarring text and a smaller font for instance)?

Yes... better to wait with upgrade of PC if the BoB is the main in your mind. I still don't know midlle and lowest hardware that to run BoB smooth. Will know finally in spring or even more close to summer.

I will take in mind about IAS to TAS in Bomber. It should be some small and not complex... Say recorded for the correct speed just one phrase... Becasue for different speeds, different planes, if to make complex speech - this will be thousand variations of wave files.... And it would be not possible in our case due to other big work over speeches and various of localisations...

Maybe the wave files could be created by 3rd party, so you only need to offer a interface to play a custom made wave file. (I'm only talking about pilot voice, not engine/weapon sound). The same way as the takeoff/landing/victory sound in Il-2 Classic.

Thanks, Oleg


You know, it is possible to have simple audio messages but have more complicated text overlays. For instance:

Audio:
"Ships are ahead"

Text log:
"One, maybe two destroyers, several transports, 3'Oclock"

Thank you for taking the time,

An idea for BOB Servers

http://bbs.dof.cn/uploads/monthly_11...1196455577.gif

It's many be useful for BOB live missions, or World internet tournament, and it can let Server master unite.

I'm very hope for this, because north of China pilots have very high ping more than 700.... too bad


Regards
Hope you are exuberance,jolliness
and hope for BOB..

Did I miss Oleg posting PC specs for BoB somewhere? Apologies in advance to Wiley ... :oops:

No James, I don't think you missed anything, see p.29:

Thank you for your time in replying to our questions. I have another about damage modeling.

Will damage effect your aircraft's structural integrity? As in if you get hit in your wings main spar, or part of your skin is blown off (For stressed skin body's) will the aircraft take less stress? Will your wing snap in a high-G turn if its damaged?

Also, will damaged wing surface produce less lift?

I know that even with todays very powerful dual and quad core CPU's there still must be limits on DM. IL2's DM system was a revolution for any game, and I hope BoB will be similar. Its only today that people are catching up too your water shaders!

I think, the questions were already answered

Hello Gibbage, Thanks for the aircraft (still some of my favorites). It is rather too bad about the CW-21 though (I believe you were behind it too?)

Anyway, I am 90% sure that the answer to your first question is yes.

As for the second question I believe that a rudimentary modeling of loss of lift already exists in Il-2 (try flying a Me-323 over a bunch of MG-42s).

Very nice, but when did Oleg and 1C agree to start putting servers around the globe?

If you 're getting 700 ping now, it might be your own connection that's contributing, not just the lack of a server. If they put one in Oceania region I'll be as happy as a duck in muck, but seriously it isn't their problem. Lobby your regional internet to provide one when BoB is released, that might be your best chance :D

Mr Oleg,

An idea to increase client's base and sell more copies of BOB 8)

- Weak point of combat flight sim games: learning curve = long time to get some fun. In particular the shooting is long and difficult to master

- Result: the less motivated quit the game and also the genre

- Remedy: improve the training section of BOB. Put in some training aids, for instance a predictive "virtual pipper", kinda of a coloured dot to show where to aim with the real collimator. This would help a lot to develop the deflection shooting, and be a fun in itself. Add also the hit% statistics as in CFS. It's great for training.

Regards,
Insuber

Marksmanship is probably the biggest barrier. Oleg could add autoaim for offline and non campaign play but there are probably better solutions.

Here is one idea:

SOW could have a gunnery training mode that starts the player in position to attack a target aircraft. The player then attacks. Immediately after the attack the mission reverts to its original state and the player appears in position to attack again.

This would allow a novice player to conduct repeated attacks in a short period of time and improve their marksmanship without having to learn the skills required to get in position for an attack (or spend the time to do this repeatedly).

The aircraft could be selectable and the position (direction, height and relative airspeed) could be selectable or even random.

A pilot training mode could alos be made where you have to follow an identical aircraft as it flies through an increasingly difficult series of maneuvers.

Finally! A date indication! summer 2008 then... (+2...)

Thanks for that Oleg! Keep up the good work!

/Mazex

More likely the end of 2008 (holiday season). After all, if you have a good beta then you can gauge system requirement and beta testing can go on for a long time.

end 2008 is the more likely release date

btw gogamer.com also have that as a release date listed (and have dropped hints they are "in the know", but cant give official answers on a release date in forums)

starting new speculation on a summer 2008 release just from what oleg just said is not warranted 8)

Dear Mr. Oleg Maddox
 

Dear Mr Maddox

i was wondering if and when the 4.09 patch will be out?
i have heard "two weeks" for about 2-3 months now and i thought i would ask you again.

also i have seen some screenshots of the new sovlakia map and so should it be comming out soon and would it be freeware or payware?

Regards

RAF_Leigh

Summer 08 is the release of H/W specifications, according to Mr Oleg, not of the game itself. Dec 08 for the game release made already the consensus of people with a usable brain.

Unless delays occur, of course.

Regards,
Insuber

Re: Dear Mr. Oleg Maddox
 

It will be free (based on past policy, and how it was made).

Two weeks,

S!

Correct automatically moveable point to show you right place ot hit that to get enemy aircraft in movement will be present. But ofcourse it will be swichable in difficulty settings and on the server.
Training also will be absolutely new. Including online training :)

Oleg,

does this mean multi crew aircraft online , with pilot and co-pilot in different country locations so we can use BoB/il2 for flying lessons and training purposes ?

that would be great ! (fsX does not allow for this, you cant crew and control the same aircraft with pilot/co-pilot on different pc's in different countries).

I asked Oleg this very question awhile back. He said it was still a close to the vest secret :P

Great! Thank you for the answer, we will support your work.

Regards,
Insuber

so much like the old days to see Oleg talking to the community...

lets hope lessons have been learned and old mistakes will not be repeated.

The training info is interesting to say the least - it was a gap in the original Il2 that was in need of filling. I look forward to seeing what BoB brings that is new.

I'm happy to ear you Oleg!!

Two suggestions for online.

- On-line coops, in select screens all pilots know number, type of planes and if is human or AI. I think one more difficulty switch for hide planes (disable "s" button") and killed messages add more inmersion.

- All bombers with bomb gunsight have autolevel for use bomber sit, it's ok, but autolevel also work if player sit in gunner positions.
In one mission Pe-2 bomb tanks and 110g2 too, human pilot of Pe2 sit in gunner with autolevel on and shoot to figthers "easy", 110g2 (dont have autolevel) pilot take joystick in one hand and mouse in other... and shoot figthers and fly at same time... not easy.
I think two possible solutions:
1 Autolevel only work in bombsight position.
2 Autolevel work for all planes with gunners (i bet here).

Thx and sorry for my uglish.

A question for Oleg...

First I would like to thank you for the interesting pictures you are sharing with us. Many of us are hungry for information about the "BoB SoW" game and seeing information about flak damage and aircraft modeling is very tasty indeed...thnks

My first question is about "active" (moving) ground objects...will we have animated livestock (sheep, cows, dogs) and will we have moving people running, walking, working and fighting in the virtual world below us...It would be wonderful to have soldiers react to diving Stuka...and it would feel quite satisfying to watch people run as you strafe an airfield (I know their is an issue with graphic gore, but maybe people could just fall down when they are killed, no blood or dismemberment). It would help with the feelings of being immersed in the world of the game...as disturbing as the notion may be it feels quite satisfying to see the effect of your actions on a "living" enemy...And lastly could we have flying birds as an obstacle/hazard of flight? (this was a big problem at many front line airfields)

My second question is about future development of the "Storm of War" series...Can I look forward to fighting and flying in the skys of the Pacific at some point in the future? As much as I love the European theater I also love the Pacific theater and I would very much like (and I'm not alone here) to have a "Pacific theater" game based on your wonderful new game engine...please,please,please :D :D :D

Could not have said it better. Nice to see ya Oleg and keep up the superb work!

S!

I can add to this something Ian boys wrote exactly a year ago, in SimHQ, about the Tiger Moth in BoB:

http://www.simhq.com/forum/ubbthread...022900&fpart=1

"Franky - the point is that the Tiger Moth won't just be another plane, it will be a REAL DUAL-CONTROL TRAINER trainer that we can use to get new pilots into the game. A couple of circuits with an old hand in the back seat then off for your first solo! "

that'd be cool as heck!

Flocks of migrating geese would be neat! It would allow you to tell what direction you were flying (except for the fact the geese flocks often go in non-migratory directions in the lead up to migration). It would be even neater if we could be the geese!

I believe Oleg once said that they had tested sharks in PF (but I think he was joking)?

Anyway, with regards to the pacific theater I believe Oleg indicated some time ago that it wouldn't happen until some other theaters had been visited (the Eastern Front for his Il-2 fans and probably expanding ETO/MTO). He also said that it might never happen if the U.S. didn't change its trademark laws (or a way wasn't found around them). I hope this helps.

I have a question about the weapons functionality of Bombs and Torpedos.
While the Bomb is falling or the torpedo is running in water and the Player get killed or crashed before they detonate, will they do anyhow a damage??
I can't remember read or heard anything about that.

Thx and best regards

Michi

I remember Oleg know this bug and say in Bob its ok.

A.p. 1590b
 

Dear Oleg,

many virtual pilots look forward to a improved and more realistic engine management. I understand that this is not a easy task. The implementation is one thing, but getting the refereces is another exhausting and expensive task. I want to help you with the later.

I've scanned and mailed you Operational Notes for Pilots on Merlin II and III a month ago. This is a 18 pages booklet about operational handling of Merlin II and III engine. You propably remember this:
http://www.41squadron.org/test/merlin1.jpg

You really liked it. And this motivated me to prepare a even better reference on this subject:

Air Publication 1590B Volume I, 2nd Edition October 1938
Merlin II and III Aero-Engines
Air Ministry
Reprinted October, 1939


http://www.41squadron.org/test/ap1590b.jpg

In this over 180 pages manual are also amendments included until November, 1940. It covers all possible variants: 87 octane/100 octane fuel, wooden fixed/Two-position variable/constant speed propeller.

You can download a small preview including the content and the introduction here:
http://www.41squadron.org/test/AP1590B_preview.pdf
Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 should be most interesting.

I tried to contact you about this several times by email in the last 2 weeks, but you didn't respond and didn't download it (at least my server didn't log the download). Of course I do understand that you are a busy man. Please tell me if you are interested in this manual or not. If you are interested I will give you the necessary information to download it.

Best Regards

Yes Oleg I am a advocate for better, complex engine managment, and a switch for full start up procedure if desired by the pilot ......I know that you believe people would grow tired of it, but having the switch is the answer to this problem.....I would love to have this feature....maybe? yes/no...a slight chance....oh please!

I'd really much rather see the greater detail implemented into the flight model and especially the damage model if I were forced to choose or even prioritize. Perhaps some additional CEM tidbits programmable for individual tastes, but with a much more complex engine start procedure, will we also have to warm up our engines on the flightline for 10 minutes? If not then will there be consequences if you run your engine too hard after not warming it up?

No, for me, I don't need to have as much realistic detail on the flightline as I do in the air.

I'm not advocating against it, but it'd be too bad if we get a 21 point engine start procedure and lose a damage model detail as a result. With the exception of coops, most people don't spend much time in pre-flight procedure...not even in the servers with runway obstacle courses like Spits-109's.

LOL, ya its hard enough to get people to take the few seconds to taxi correctly let alone spend the time to do a correct startup procedure. It would be cool but Oleg has made some very good points as to why it will not be included and I have to agree. Leave the startup procedures to the civilian sims as there are far more important things to address in a combat sim.

S!

Complex engine manamgent is not about starting the engine. It's about correct boost presure, correct rpm, correct limitations for both, correct throttle (for example a variable datum type boost control used on Merlin III vs. the more simple boost control in Merlin II), pitch handling and W.E.P. handling. Also overheating.

The flight model is not limited the stick control, your left hand on the throttle/pitch is also a important factor in the flight model.

Understood and agreed....the start up, would have been a bonus for some of us off liners

Let's not forget fuel management. Selectable fueltanks with consequences to the FM would be great.

And for the "complex" startup procedure just look at Skockwaves BoBII. You just need to press no more than 5 switches ( 2 x magnetos, fuel cutoff, primer pump and starter switch) which takes about 10 seconds, but it greatly enhances the immersion.

I do not think there is any question that things you are talking about will be implemented in SoW.

S!

Sure they will be modeled, the question is only to which degree they are authentic ;)

In Il-2:1946 there is no overboosting damage, no damage from flying to long at to high rpm and boost presure, no undercooling of the engine at high alt and so on.

And what about overcooling ???? This can happen in low power setting descent.....

Wo-Ho! You can freeze your engine at low RPM and high altitude. It is modeled since FB!
I wouldn't be surprised if there was some damage from flying at high RPM too long (but it might be minor enough that you wouldn't notice)

if you fly at high rpms too long your engine starts to overheat. three guesses as to what happens next.

thanks for the word...I was kind of wondering if Oleg had any other info on the issue...

and yes the geese would be cool :)

S! all

about SOW

could the damage on the planes be contiued on the next mission so you dont have new planes every single mission?

well its an idea

CRT=2 & Vista
 

Dear Oleg;

Sorry if I'm asking an already answered question, yet "checkRuntime=2" as we know conflicts when running different O.S.'s.....(Xp with Vista as an example)....

Can anything be done to resolve this issue, up to and possibly even getting help from Microsoft?..........This one point alone is keeping some from using checkRuntime=2, setting it to "1" instead.

K2

It depends from your settings. In complex engine settings you have overboost damage, overheating with motor death, freezing at high alts etc.

Regards,
Insuber

I would be curious... how is netlag being addressed?

A good call Wolfrider, and I'll raise you an anti-cheating measures question to Oleg...will we still have to rely a 3rd party program to ensure things are as they should be?

And to add, will support be added so ladders between clans are easier to arrange?

Come on ... more pics , more news , more pics , more news.....

tut-tut-tut...
 

Just for asking, no soup for you! :D
Flyby

A couple questions related to the night fighting thread:
1. Will there be more accurate modeling of night vision (eg. flashes from firing a gun etc.) It can take up to ten minutes for eyesight to recover after being exposed to a very bright light (like a searchlight). In Il-2 the blindness lasts less than 10 seconds!
2. Will we be able to set the phase of the moon (time of month, full moon, half moon, moonless etc.)
3. Will any of the British nightfighters being planned carry their own, airborne searchlights?
4. Will there be flocks of geese to hit at night ;)

S!

Wait til after Christmas guys.

1: for Oleg

2: we can set st uff like time of day (or maybe even night) in Il2 already

3: we're talking 1941 at least here. I don't see it happening, yet.

Hello Oleg

I've been flying the IL-2 series almost exclusively since the Beta test days. I've also flown Rowans and Shockwaves BOB WOV off and on since that series began. Recently I have been flying alot of BOB WOV since the stability of the 2.07 patch and because of the engine start procedures, and the ability to simulate refueling and rearming. These few things add alot of immersion for me.

I know you have some sort of rearming and refuelling simulation planned for SOW but I think I remember reading that you weren't too interested in simulating clickable cockpits. I'm not interested in clickable cockpits either, but enjoy having the option to map the fuel cocks, magneto's, fuel pump, and start switch to my Hotas. Do you have any plans to implement optional switches in the Controls section of SOW?

Question for Oleg

Had a thought of a feature that would be very welcome in BoB:SoW: the way the consumer has to tweak things to get the sim running optimally. What if there was a simple preference to set the graphics and gameplay to high, medium or low... but not only that- for the program to sense the local resources and tune the program accordingly, taking the trial and error out of optimization.

I understand that this feature may be considered outside the realm of game programming, but it'd be a great feature.

Not sure if this had been posted before but it'd be cool anyway.

Thanks

Triad

Oleg can we get an update of SOW before Christmas please!

Update before Xmas...?
 

And so say all of us....

Hi Oleg,

will Santa Claus bring us 4.09 for the 24th of December this year ?

merry Christmas to you and your family !

Have you all been nice little pilots for the last year? If so, I'd say there is a chance for a Christmas gift from Oleg :)

Just nasty
 

Cause I'm working over Christmas, which is the nineth time in a row I was really really hoping that something nice would happen. Please tell me you have some inside knowledge about this. That would make working over Christmas again sooooooooooooo much easier to handle.

Merry Christmas all. :grin:

I have no insider info other than the Rumor that Oleg may be working on an on-line fix. I'm sure he'd like nothing better than having it done and out the door before Christmas. Unfortunately its impossible to give a precise date when working with complicated code.

Thank's for your answers Oleg.....the question of moon phase seems not clear. Will there be total dark at night possible?

what about the trains

I opened the new thread for the answers to your questions posted by Oleg. It's called Oleg's Answers. But it's locked and you can post your questioins and suggestion here.

Oleg, give us status of 4.09 please!!!! What will be included and when will it be released??