Im not interested in minimum wages in the US. Im from India, here people arent as rich as you. And I dont know how do you know how much time it takes to model a cockpit.
But enough of this.

Gaunt.....He knows because he modelled many things that are already in Il-2 ;) ....

I am not from US either. But I don't see, why I, or anybody else should be paid hundreds of times less, then somebody in US for the same amount and quality of work. The reason, why I posted US minimum wages is because majority of entertainment software consumers are in the US, Japan and Western Europe.

From my personal first-hand experience. Building cockpits and other models for IL-2 game series since 2004.

Whatever.

Ahah, we should set a reference salary per country. Then consider movements of currencies and local inflation, plus incentive policies (both private and corporate) and we should be able to say 'how much for a plane in IL2'.
Any volunteers ?

Otherwise we can also listen to pro modelers experience, and employers policy, actually. :cool:

When you say it takes 160-200 man hours for a pit in a 177, what does that mean; Just the 3d model, or the textures as well? Is animation included?

SaQSoN is not a minor contributor to the IL-2 series BTW... the guy knows his stuff. If he says it'll take X amount of time to do then it most certainly is the case.

It's modeling, texturing and engine conversion. Animation in IL-2 game is done via Java programing by rotating/moving respective parts around/along preset axles (which were set by a modeler) in a game's 3D world. So, animation is is not modeler's work in this game, so it wasn't included.

Also, it should be noted, that this is not just a simple modeling and painting textures. Since in many cases the references are scarce, some parts are often missing, or damaged on a reference pictures, etc., modeler would have to conduct a lots of research work, while building a model of a historical object. Which requires at least some knowledge of technology and structural design of such RL object.

I don't think high-poly models are over-priced for the work that goes into them, but I do question their usefulness. And, just because they are pretty does not always mean they are well-researched. Still, I guess it doesn't hurt to test the waters.

In fact, all of the models in IL-2 are low-poly (comparibly). And that would be reasonable for the whole game industry.

He-111 H11 from aviaskins.ru:

http://forum.aviaskins.com/attachmen...0&d=1366441354
http://forum.aviaskins.com/attachmen...1&d=1366441354
http://forum.aviaskins.com/attachmen...2&d=1366441354
http://forum.aviaskins.com/attachmen...3&d=1366441354
http://forum.aviaskins.com/attachmen...4&d=1366441354
http://forum.aviaskins.com/attachmen...5&d=1366441374
http://forum.aviaskins.com/attachmen...6&d=1366441374
http://forum.aviaskins.com/attachmen...7&d=1366441374

Looks great both inside & outside, would be great to have it in official versions! :)