Friday 2009-10-23 Screenshots Update discussion thread
 

Please discuss here. On Monday I will read and maybe answer some questions about only posted shots.

.

computer specs?

Possible release date?

Yes, the one you are using now , even if not the final specs, only for satisfy our curiosity about what kind of machine we will need in the future.

What can I say? They look great. What kind of computer do you run the game with, and what are the minimum specs for a smooth gameplay?

The Alpha Screenshots look fine :-)

My ask:
The top of the steep coast, you can make more smoothly?

Hi Oleg, Thanks for the update, the spit cockpit is stunning. Some of the land detail shots appear to be in the Pacific theatre, is this for future releases or just a general overview of what the new game engine is capable off? The water/sun/clouds etc are amazing.

VERY nice shots. The detail especially on the planes is amazing especially in cockpit.

I also like the approach on the trees!

The cliffs look great as well, though this shot is not for the benefit. Ingame you won't notice it probably, but on the shot you can see the tiling of both, texture and structure. ;)

Cockpit and planes look nice. Little bit of anti-aliasing and they should look great.
Colors for the ground where quite bright.

Does the multisample anti-aliasing work in SOW for the water edges, cockpit gauges and other places where it didnt work in IL2 ? Supersampling works in IL2 but its rather heavy.

I'll answer for Oleg. He was horribly late for an appointment as he was posting the update, so he ran off as soon as he hit Submit.

The screenshots were taken on several computers, mostly on an Intel Core 2 2.66GHz with 2 Gigs of RAM and an NVidia 8800 GTX and a Athlon 64 3800+ 2.0 GHz with 2 Gigs of RAM and an NVidia 260.

We can't tell you yet about minimum specs for release, it's too early for that. Those are usually determined towards the end of a beta test.

Looks like Oblivion a bit. Always wanted to strafe those blighters in Cyrodiil...

Edit: Thanks Luthier. Good to know :)

Thanks for taking the time to answer us, luthier!

Considering it's still alpha, it looks extremely promising. And that's just scratching the surface. I'm looking forward to some more details on what's under the hood. ;)

It seems No AA was used and probably no (or too little) AF. It is likely that with higher AF, landscape textures will look way sharper. Now they are too blurry.

Question to Oleg:
Currently market of LCDs is getting flooded with wide gamut displays and they show too saturated colors in non color managed environment. If I recall correctly, OpenGL has extension which lets to use color management on textures. Maybe it is possible to make this extension available as optional, so that owners of wide gamut LCDs could play with exact colors this game was intended to be played?

And you can get a steady framerate with those graphics settings on a mid range gaming PC like one of the ones you mentioned?

Hello Oleg,

Given the increased quality of terrain: have you considered consulting ecologists?

It could be relatively easy to develop rules for vegetation at different altitudes. Using data from SoW's weather engine it might even be possible to take into account rainfall.

At smaller levels of spatial ecology could be shown in textures (although this is probably doable simply by having references and an artist with a good eye).

Glad to hear your feeling better.

-Avimimus

P.S. It would be good to leave some engine support for being able to look away from the gunsight while in a gunner position. The decision not to fully model gunner positions makes sense in most cases. However, for modelling the night war it could become important.
P.S.S. Does the SoW flight model still function at atmospheric pressures greater than 1 atmosphere?

Wonderful!

*shrug* Looks like the IL-2 engine with grass, some self-shading and bit more bump-mapping, to be honest. Doesn't look like there's anything different about the particle system, for example. It'll be more interesting when we get some more information about the inner workings of the sim, certainly.

The aircraft, though! Beeaauuuuuuuutifully detailed Spitfire and 110! :grin:

I just have one question about the water. Can't find that video from 1946 feats CD that was showing waves hitting the beach and that video was stunning. From the pics, it seems that water is not what was shown back then. Please, don't get this wrong. I know it's still alpha and It is indeed very nice. Still, can we have some pics in the next update of the beaches? I'm very interested in that, what can I say. Planes, specially cockpit that is show are spectacular.

There's no AA on those shots because they use HDR, and right now you can't do both.

SoW no longer uses OpenGL

The lighting in the cockpit looks amazingly realistic, the feeling of "being there".

Aircrafts are simply perfect.

As always, I could mention some minor criticism against the colors of the landscapes which don't look really "British", especially on the coastal area.
Maybe some tweeking in this sector could be useful.
Perhaps less "Velvia'ish" colors (they look too much vivid) and more "Kodachrome" ones ;-)

You mean you can't do both or in general with SoW? Because other games and graphics cards can AFAIK.

Interesting. Good decision, IMHO.

+1

Seriously, what is this? An update about a pre-alpha multiplayer map? I was waiting for Britain not for Jurassic Park.

http://files.games.1c.ru/il2pict/grab0101.jpg

Bird of Prey land looks so good.

looks great.

I am a little concerned about the VERY vivid colours though on these screens. I understand that you are tweaking this which is good in my opinion as the colours are very heavy, especially the Green grass... looks lika a whole other palette than that used on the planes/cockpits.

thanx for the update, looking forward to more, expecially specialeffects :)

Now THAT is interesting news

As I've often said it on many sim forums, the best solution would be to have gamma and colors settings available directly within the game setup, this way everybody could choose one's own prefered rendition.
Guys making some photography know probably for instance the Fred Miranda's photoshop actions which automatize Velvia, Kodachrome, Fujichrome finishes. Something like that availabe in the game setup would be so cool !

1.- The first screen with the spitfire's cockpit looks amazing. Incredible textures and lights all around.

2.- I concur on the above quoted criticism about the landscape, as Oleg said, those colors might not be definitive, so I'd advise to make changes in the landscape colors too. The green looks TOO green (it feels like some kind of cartoon or kid's game). Making the landscape look real should be VITAL for the overall look of the sim and of course the feeling of immersion in the action and eviroment. I trust Oleg will do a great job fixing this.

3.- The airplane models are great, even thought it looks like the could receive minor improvements (maybe textures) but overall they look very very good.

4.- I love the trees now, NO MORE IL2 INVISIBLE TREES!!... if any of you used to go very low on the deck during the action... you might have crashed with those lol... for those who don't know what i'm talking about: in IL2 the tree layer can be seen perfectly from above, BUT if you get to the same level you just get to see a 1px line, and if you're not aware... boom! :evil:

5.- I'd love to know how is going to work the damage system for airplanes. Some detailed (within the boundaries of possible) explaination about it would be great considenring the possible improvements/changes that might have been done to this point.

Conclusion:

Oleg, I'm glad to see progress in BoB after such a long time, and I'm eager to keep seeing improvements and progress and hopefully.... a final release date ;)

Hi Oleg, very very nice job
BF110 was fantastic, and cockpit spit too!!!!

buth, terrain... i dont know...
i expect some like birds of prey terrain
http://canalgame.com/images/Image/OL...ds+Of+Prey.jpg

buth very nice job on the planes!!! is amazing

Love the cockpit shot and the Bf-110.

As for the colors of landscape im sure thats not how its gonna look in the end, this "I'm a professional photographer as well, so perfect visual presentation is a very important goal for me" tells me Oleg knows what needs to be where and so on. Even if it will the user can make it look pretty much the way he likes anyways.

Color settings in game is a very nice idea btw.


P.S. Just understood that the map used in those screenshots is a map for online DF. Nice to know we wont have to use just one (channel map).

Cockpits and birds look amazing.
The landscape... well maybe that's England after half century of global warming. ;)

Thank's Oleg for the pictures. Your latest ones were 5 months ago. If now you keep posting them every week I will start to believe that BOB is for real. I take your word for that.

The picture numbered ........0116 looks very cartoonish in terms of color, contrast etc.
Some effort is needed for the cliffs to be more realistic. In general for landscape I agree with comments that have been already made. You should consider that everybody uses LCD screens and these have the tendency to have more saturated colours (as a visual impact) then plasma or CRT screens.

Airplanes seem perfect. Internal view of the cockpit of the spit is marvellously realistic. There is an immersive feel. On the external side they are beautifully detailed but too perfectly painted. The real ones were never perfectly painted, maybe only at delivery time. They had immediately, dents, scratches and chipped paint, oil and exhaust traces etc. This is true also for trucks, tanks, and in general for all military gear as it was made not to last too long anyway.
I think all objects should show some wear and tear. Hope this will not be neglected.

Last but not least please show us the picture of pilots and soldiers. How do you model humans. In IL2 it was an extremely crude polygonal model with boxed faces etc..
When we are on the ground in the airfields then they will contribute immensely to the immersion factor of a living world.

And if they are even animated (maybe with scripts that could be chosen in the FMB) then you reach for the absolute Flight sim title again.

Keep up the good work and posts.

Gold

Regarding the colors, read Oleg's post please. That's one of the primary areas we're working on right now.

In a next-gen sim like BoB, changing colors everywhere is not very easy. It's not just going into a texture and playing with hue - saturation. There's a complex lighting model in the engine that takes the environment and colors it with the sunlight passing through the atmosphere, which in turn is effected by the weather, time of day, altitude, etc. It's a complex system with lots of variables. To give you a rough example, if you just take the grass texture and make it greener, it may look good at noon from 1000 feet on a clear day, but it'll look horrible at dusk from 10,000 in a fog, etc.

So we're still fine-tuning the in-game lighting, but rest assured most of us own a good pair of eyes, and we're well aware of the direction this needs to go.

The cockpit and the planes are looking very good (that cockpit shot nearly made my jaw dislocate -can't wait to see the thing in motion). Concerning the environment I think it's safe to say "It's just an early Alpha." The first shots of Il-2 I ever saw had little in common with the later product so I guess the same applies here.

BTW Ilya - Did you get the rather lengthy document I wrote a few months back? Oleg asked me to do this ...

even though I wasn't really worried, that sounds very reassuring. thank you

Can't the developers have ANY fun?

No, Ilya. Developers are supposed to be solemn and serious and shouldn't even know what laughing is. ;)

Oleg and team: about the radars seens in those lovely screenshots, and regarding that DT is working on it for Il-2, will be functionals and operables in Bob?
That spit over the wood is wonderfull
thanx for the update!

These screenshots are fantastic! :shock:

Especially the Cockpit shots and the BF110 shot. :shock:

But the fresh, green grass, cries out for cows, so where are the cows? ;) :grin:

Thank's for the Update! *Big thumbs up*

I liked the text on the aircraft, but the overall paintwork looked too glossy to me, they ought to be somewhat matt. The matt paint on some plastic models probably overdoes the mattness, but the purpose is camouflage, shiny is usually wrong for camouflage.

I didn't like the way the cliffs ended just before sea level, when there is a beach below a cliff often the beach extends quite a long way out to sea at low tide, and the sea washes the cliff face at high tide. Tides around the UK vary from place to place between 1 or 2 metres up to 12 metres difference in water height between high and low tide, and even then, "spring" tides are much higher than neap tides (12 metres is a spring tide, with a neap tide at that place being around 7 metres high ( with the relative low being about 4 metres high (for a difference of about 3 metres))).

I look forward to the release of SoW, I suspect the decision to drop OpenGL is a good one.

Well, I liked the map, anyway...

As Ilya pointed out, developers must have some fun once in a while.

I won't comment on the textures, as it's an Alpha, anyway...

But, holy ****, the Spit and the 110 look AWESOME!

As our bad-humoured friend spoke about Jurassic Park, could you guys model some dinossaurs after the rest is done? :mrgreen:

Looking good. Ilya, how is the water transparency done? Would it be possible to see a blurry hull of a ship 1-2m below water line? Or a more practical example, would it be possible to spot a submarine in periscope depth?

We can't show you everything in one week! We gotta space it out a little bit. There's a lot of cool things to show, ships being one of them. And since a picture is worth a thousand words, let's just wait until Oleg is ready to show our gorgeous looking floating targets.

I would love to know this too.

The prospect of an update every week is very exciting. Engine looks great, although I suggest a trip into your nVidia cp to turn on some anti-aliasing. That shot of teh horizon was a jaggie party.

Very excite!

Despite the "critisism" i think i can speak for most when i say that ingame screenshots is a giant step forward uppdate wice.

Thank u very much and looking forward to seeing more.


Btw, Igu Kyu, at sertain angles camoflage paint where infact glossy. Thats just how light reflects. Irl matt finishes never stays completly matt, u only need to wipe it down once and it becomes more glossy. Not counting dirt and wheatehering of course.

Thanks a lot for the update Oleg !

Thanks for the screenshots!

I've only two questions for the devs (PS: and no!, devs can't have fun when we are suffering like junkies :D ).

1) Dots' system: the planes' camos were made to protect the plane from above enemies, but also from below (skyblue camo under the wings). Now in IL2 this is a great problem for the pilots who are searching for contacts below, since these can't be see clearly (try against hurricanes...) but instead you are a big black dot on the sky if they look at you.

Usually they could see planes above only by the reflection of the sun on their lucid surfaces (like on the 110's screenshot).

Have you resolved this problem?

2) Is doppler effect working now?
Is it possible to go close at 6 o'clock of an enemy without alerting him with your engine? He should lightly listen to our engine only when we pass in front of him or at his side (he has a working engine at 50cm in front of him..)

Thanks again.

I'm very sorry to here Open GL is out of the picture? To me Open GL was more 3D than Direct X$...More spacial awareness and more depth.. Love the water especially the white caps..http://files.games.1c.ru/il2pict/grab0117.jpg Cant wait to be apart of the multi international MP beta test team...With Win 7 out are you guys moving over in that direction yet? Also in the shading is that self shading?; are we going to see the shadows of the pilot in the cockpit, on the ground when parked, through the cockpit, is the pilot head going to move as well translate to the shadow? (i.e. Lock on FC)

Good stuff!

I imagine the shadows will move in real time with the sun? (I still remember the jaw dropping day when I first got IL2 and had a DF map up to practice take offs.. I set it up to the time of day ... in the afternoon.. I was called away and got back to my PC later that night.. and it was dark on the field.. I almost fell off my chair.. :))

What were the settings at for those shots? Were those lower or medium graphics settings, or were they maxed out?

Will there be reflections in objects? Like for instance say in a polished metal skin.. would we see reflections? The lighting looks superb...

Moving incockpit shadows have been shown in a short movie even with the old engine. Don't know if it's in the news-thread.

Yeah.. but I mean on the ground... I can just see the shadows getting longer as the day progresses into evening.. ;) I wonder if the sky will rotate as the night progresses.. (Not a far fetched notion considering the source of this sim..)

Thanks for the update, it already is very nice to look at! The cockpit is really looking great!

I also have a question regarding to sound, will the speed of sound be modeled or will it go everywhere in no time like it is in il-2?

Keep up the good work!

As you posted, they did in IL2 - why should they abandon that?

I didn't find the cockpit shadows-video in the news, but there are two videos that show dynamic daylight lighting in the editor.

I know it's a little detail, but will exhaust blurr modeled ingame?
And will tire flatened a bit when on ground. In Il2 and other sims, when the plane is onf ground, wheels always stay perfecly round, wich is quite unrealistic, considering the type of tires plane was equiped in that time.
But as said, it's just details :rolleyes:;)

*btw, amazing shots, worth the ait for me, keep up the good work :grin:

Ok, no openGL, I can live with that. Is SoW going to be DX10 or DX11? I'm hoping DX11, cause the DX11 tessellation is just incredible!

Let's hope that the quality of the engine sounds will correspond to the quality of the graphics ;) even with non-highend sound cards and speaker systems. Give your best Rudolf! :D

I don't know how to thank you Oleg. It looks absolutely unbelievably fantastic. The shadowing, it's glorious. And that Bf 110, and the water and the cliffs and the Spit and and......What can I say, I believe this sim will be huge hit for years and years. And to think it's only in the Alpha phase.

Good luck Oleg, and I am delighted to hear you and your son have recovered.

Bye.

Amazing! Thanks for the update!

The first shot of the Spit cockpit is so very close to being real. Will there be support for nVidia's 3d feature? If there is, I think we may have hit the jackpot.

Also, the lighting, the way the light looks under, and through the clouds, is very very good as well. It looks like you folks have got the light right. The reflection off the Spit and 110, where it varies according to the surface, excellent!

An observation: The Spit exterior is simply too smooth, too homogenous. The light reflecting off the surface ought to highlight the topography of the surface -whether it be rivet lines, wavy skin, or access panel edges. The 110 looked better, so maybe it's the angle of reflection or the model.

To me, the shot looking up at the sun has the sun flare too large. Your setting sun looks beautiful.

I like the clouds, you guys have nailed how clouds look close up- that wispy diaphonus edge. I am less satisfied with how the more distant clouds look. That soft edge should give way to, depending on the cloud type, a hard, more defined edge. In some cases, that hard edge would be correct at closer range as well, again depending on the cloud type. I absolutely love the shot with the low sun angle and how that highlights the 'shape' of the cloud- stunning!

Love the water in some shots, less so in others. You nailed how the sun reflecting off water looked from altitude in IL2, and it looks better here. Understanding we're looking at Alpha shots, but the shorelines aren't busy enough to me. There ought to be more detail at the water/land interface, when you're close enough to see it.

I was discussing ROF with a friend, and I told him that while ROF was fine, a very good looking game, it still looked like a game. I expected that SOW would be the first flight sim to look like the world, not a game. It looks like I was right.

Again, just amazing, can't wait to fly it!

Thankyou oleg and team , first impressions of the spitfire cockpitt are absolutly amazing truely worth goin on my desktop! LOL. Screen shots of the planes seem to be looking rather plastic in appearence. Is this due to the weathering model your introducing and that she is fresh from factory?
Also any news of whereabouts in the next decade this masterpiece will be released or expected to be released? Coz im dying to fly in that bloody spitfire and shoot me down some luftwhiners! :grin:

Thanks for update Oleg, cockpit, planes and shadows are surely a huge step forward compared to IL2.

Now the complaints, you can't make something better if you receive only positive feedback, can you? ;)

The rest doesn't seem to me like a big improvement, different maybe but not much more realistic... the ground looks nice from the cockpit (pic100) but then we switch to SuperMario64 with pic101 and pic116.
Trees look better but won't be possible to make them worse than IL2... and still they look a little "sticked on" the background, need to see how they look dynamically though, that's the important part.
And where did some little bump mapping go in pic105?

Ok, ready to be bashed by your devote followers! :grin:

To be clear: with us IL2-junkies on this forum it's going to be easy anyway, we'll buy whatever you come up with, me in the first row :)


One question: any plans to improve on planes visibility? I mean, on IL2 we're forced to play at low resolutions to spot other planes in a better way.
You probably shouldn't give the advantage to people having higher resolutions but shouldn't be the other way around either.

Hi Oleg, you are my hero. The screens are fantastic. I like the planes and amount of detail on the ground units. I wount talk about the colours because I know you are not blind and will correct them.

Absolutely fantastic, cant wait for full version.

I hope you will use directx 11 too.

+1

http://files.games.1c.ru/il2pict/grab0147.jpg

This screenshot of the smoke is most impressive. It seems we will have large areas of smoke instead of a few small columns.

Thanks for all the answers Ilya. It's really heart-warming to see the project still going ahead full steam :) Do you guys happen to have any estimates for a release date, BTW, or is it still too early for that?

Curious if the new engine will use Direct X now that DX11 is available. I know Oleg is partial to OpenGL.

See Luthiers post above... SOW will not be using OpenGL

http://files.games.1c.ru/il2pict/grab0100.jpg

With that screenshot, I can image a shadow of a 190 in the middle of that sunny area across my cockpit dashboard - then everything goes black.

Kudos to the first person to do a SOW movie with that sequence of events.

Oleg already said colors are not final but I will say....the grass is too green, give me more grass....hehe....thanks for the update...see you in in the sky in march 2010 Oleg......

I am so glad for this information., I have a Quad 9400 and i was thinking all the time on a change for a Quad more powerful and do a crossfire whit 4890.

I thing that in not bad the three design, buth in the screenshots don't have shade... i thing. And Will be fine that Oleg upload sreenchots of England, Whit Farms,little towns, towns, and demarques terrains and aisled little forest like is really Europe, not pics of "jurassic park" that something said. buth All of All is very nice, buth we want see Europe, scenario like Birds of Prey buth whit the machine of Storm Of War. I hope Oleg do a second upload one of this days whit England.
And more pics of aircraft and cockpits on game:rolleyes:
again, very nice work kameraden oleg:cool:
(sorry my english)

Sweet. Better than Viagra.

Hello Oleg

Glad to hear you and your son are feeling better, flu is such a time waster for those who are working hard. And we all know how hard you work! :)

Wonderful shots of the sim, it really gives you a sense of how detailed it will be.

Especially in the overhead shots looking down, you really get a sense of what is below you, no more squinting and going to max zoom to spot things. The difference between this Sim and IL-2 is that you are really going to feel like you are flying about a real ground, with real vehicles and terrain below.

The whole sim is going to be so much more immersive for that reason. It will be approach photo-realism in that sense.

As far as complaints about the cleaness of the planes, I think if you compare the 110 and the Spitfire in the overhead shots, you can tell one has the weathering in place, the other is obviously the clean 'new' model.

I would agree with the comments from some that the terrain colours are almost too bright, but I am sure you will be adjusting those values.

Thanks for these pictures, we are eagarly waiting for the next update.

Will there be dynamic shading on the ground surface and clouds? Everything is better than what I was dreaming about.
Thanks for your hard work Oleg. You are making so many people happy.

Oleg could you tell us what stage of completion the sim is currently at, we know it was 80% finished in June, do you think you will make the BOB anniversary in 2010 like you mentioned previously?

Great to see the new pictures, especially the Spit cockpit. I hope you can make the graphics so that nearby planes look brighter and sharper than the terrain far below. Some examples here:

http://www.taysideaviation.co.uk/wms...ght_90x125.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._in_Flight.jpg

This less bright ground rendering gives you good effect of altitude and makes it easier to spot planes.

Great!
 

Thanks for the update, Oleg, Ilya, CS, and others helping the dev team.

S! ~S~


This is awesome. I likey likey. Its good.



Anyone notice in 104 n 105, they got icons turned on? :) 103 / 106 has no cockpit (get all the ego runners upset LOL)

maybe this is closer than we think?



In regards to colors, I kinda like it. The shadowy gray influenced over realisitic graphics is over done for other games. Here for the screenshots, the shadows and shading is well done. I know lots of guys are looking for Pixar here, but this is a game and not everyone has 16x cores to run high end. It's good to know that Oleg & crew are still working on it.

I like how the 110 the edges of the guns catch the light but the nose itself doesn't.

Will planes have moving shadows as they turn / maneuver and light movement as it passes from cockpit surfaces?


Water detail is great as well as the volcanic representation of some of the pictures.

Trees are good.


Some questions.

I know there's going to be moving sun shadows related to the time of day.

Will there be object movements and detail?

Like I remember my dad's friend over jungles by the A-1 skyraiders sometimes they'd fly past and the bird's scared would fly up but get tossed back down by the prop wash.

Or will trees / flags move with the breeze or palms swaying in gale type winds? Or waves breaking.

Might tax some of the weaker systems.



Along the same lines, will there be damage representation and will it be permanent or temporary? (like in FPS's corpse disappear and bullet holes go away after a few minutes to keep frames down . . .)




Jurassic Park, LOL, don't give ideas. SOmeones going to make a mod where its Warbirds vs Jurassic.

I like the details. I just hope the sound matches, like others have said. Like hit up Duxford and get engine sounds, work with restored old machine gun fanatics. The graphics of IL-2 I could understand but with 24 bit sound and real restored planes / weapons at the airshows, IL-2's sound was lacking.




I was laughing at the ghostrider Spitfires. They didn't have a 109, like I wanted, but the cockpit detail on the Spitfire just blew me away. It's like looking into a real one! And I know all planes will get such attention, so its all grand!

Anyone notice the gunsight was subdued? I wonder if you have to turn on gunsights like WW2 pilots had to switch from cruise to combat readiness?


(Hopefully FW 190 front cockpit is modelled correctly when that theater / theatre is released :) j/k )

Wow! Maybe I won't need an upgrade at all for BofB!!!
My current rig:
Dual core E6700 Cpu 2.66 Ghz
4GB DDR2 800Mhz
BFG 8800GTX w/768MB Graphics card

Fair enough that you can't say exactly what the specs will be as we all know that things change. But, any chance posting the fps, especially the minimum at least with those two rigs?:D

BTW, OM, thanks for the awesome update, my jaw hit the floor when I saw the first one showing the spit pit. WOW!!!

Flyingbullseye

for me it's the best beautiful cockpit I have seen and it's look as a 3D view , simply fantastic !!

also I like on the screen 168 ( bf110) how lighting take a realistic aspect to the wing ( not perfectly plane ) and to the cockpit with the subtle shadow on the nose plane

about lighting , reflections between objets will be implanted or not ? for exemple the sea reflect on the plane .


as you say the colors are not final for grass , tree , water , sky , but what about look or texture for tree ? because even with other color I d' ont like the trees ( and I d' ont see how it's look near them )

for exemple in this screen we have more details for trees :

http://www.imagup.com/pics/1256408654.html

as you say I hope that the nature will be fine as the spitfire cockpit in the futur , perhaps it 's the most difficult to render ( as human texture )

Are the shots in DX10? Will this be able to run in DX9.0c and DX10? I'm assuming no OpenGL will be used.

I have an i7 920, with SLI, will quad cores and SLI/CrossFire enhancements be an option in setup?

Regards,

=Cobraj=

Cobraj@AirGroup51.com

look this pics old upload of storm of war battle of britain of c company of 2007 or 2006,. i cant remember
trees and europeans scenary
http://static.gamesradar.com/images/...screenshot.jpg
http://www.laneros.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1170782892
i want sreewnshot of that scenary buth whit the new planes. will be the best of the best. i cant wait.
sorry post 3 times on a day. this is very nice
(and is diferent and many tipes of trees that i can see)

Since when did 1940 Spitfires have "Windows Pointers" in the cockpits? :D

Thank-you Oleg. The update is appreciated. I am truly impressed with the level of detail, and I can't wait to see how the developement unfolds. I'm REALLY looking forward to continued updates..... just like the old days.

Our Rennaissance is here guys. Enjoy it. Soon we'll all be flying myriads of great flight sims. Thanks again Oleg.

Oleg,

In looking at the screenshots, it's hard to tell but have you changed the beach areas? In some previous WIP videos we saw some amazing wave action and beach renderings, will those be omitted in the final version?

Thanks, looks great.

Bravo! Thanks for the update; it's so refreshing to see what's going on! Any chances that we'll be able to see some movies from this work in progress?

Those black bars that appear to be shadows on the wing of a Spitfire are puzzling.

Perhaps the machines used for the screenshots weren't powerful enough to render the scenery at max and also do the aircraft?

Those are not shadows, the two bars were actually added to the wing surface in real life.

All very nice indeed...Standing by here, waiting for that beta tester draft notice

Curious to know more about the switch from OpenGL... I thought that was the better performing technology?

Great update, this really show good progress on the sim. I'm still shocked by the spitfire cockpit shot, its GREAT for an alpha. The rest looks very good als but with the expected tuning needed for an alpga software.

Like very much the forrest with difereng kind and hights of trees.

My questios would be:

1) All the trees will be collidable?

2) Seccond the question about seeing the hull of a ship below the waterline, or a submarin close to the surface?. It would be cool to be able to have partial sunken ships near the shores, with most of the ship below the waterline. :)

3) The drums. Are they individual drums put together or a single object all together?. Would they explode, burn when shot or bombed?
Or even thrown away if a bomb falls and explodes near by? Physics engine i'm asking here? Something like we see on todays FPS.

4) Great model of the engish fuel truck. Is there a similar model with the hose deployed to put them near an aircraft and make it look like its chargin fuel?. I know this is too much :D

5) Finally some serious smoke column on the 0147 pic :), not the classic thin cigarret smoke column we are all get used to on out beloved simulators :(

6) Something that seems nobody notice? We have CURVES ON ROADS
http://files.games.1c.ru/il2pict/grab0126.jpg

Is this mean no more of the old angular "elbows" on the roads like we have on il-2?
Also we will be able to have moving vehicles inside the forest?

7) A wish for an update comment. Will there be more complex damage model on bridges?. Not just one bomb near by and bye bye bridge?

Looking foward to the next update ;).

Thanks for update Oleg, and I'm very happy to finally see some ingame shots. The terrain definitely looks good enough for a flight sim, especially as there is no "fog after a few kilometers" like those console arcade flight games use to be able to crank up the ground detail...

The planes are beyond good enough - so stop working on them ;)

Now that we have finally seen the ground - lets talk new features in the game!

Good luck with the project! /Mazex

Pictures of People
 

Great to have some early shots of what the game will look like!
I'd be really pleased to see a picture with characters (such as pilots in their seats, drivers in the cars etc).
Are there plans to have 'high gore' type characters in the game?

Oleg, or Luthier
Why the decision not to go with OpenGL? Inquiring minds want to know (it might be educational).
Flyby out

In those pics, the aircraft props are not turning. Are the aircraft images overlayed on the landscape or are those some actual "in-game" shots?

will TrackIR be supported in BOB？ If so，I will buy one now.
PS：Any suggests for the peripherals, like HOTAS, TrackIR, etc....can't wait to pre-purchase some.

+1

Feedback on latest SOW jpegs
 

Thanks Oleg and Ilya for the update pics.
From my amateur photography perspective I have made the following observations of each jpeg.

Jpg0100 Spitfire cockpit – excellent cockpit reproduction, very clear ground detail from cockpit windows (high depth of field), all shadow effects are excellent.
Jpg0101 Extinct Volcano – Distant airfield, trees, fields, earth rocks, water reflections, clouds are reproduced in high detail with excellent visibility to the horizon (high depth of field) I noticed there were no cloud shadows over the land mass.
Jpg0102 Covered vehicle – Excellent detail, good shadow effect, long grass, distant trees and house look very effective and much more realistic than IL-2. High cloud effects very good.
Jpg0103 Red & White check control tower – Good detail and shadow effect relative to the sun’s position.
Jpg0104 Airfield wooden tower – good detail and shadow effects, very crisp and clear distance details of trees, airfield and aircraft line-up. I like the airfield ‘depth of field’ effect, it looks very realistic.
Jpeg0105 Petrol drums – good shadow effects, long grass looks good (though a bit too bright green). Again the distant airfield and trees are very crisp and clear with the ‘depth of field’ effect.
Jpeg0106 Radar Tower – Excellent detail and shadow effect from midday sun.
Jpeg0108 Large radar towers with water and cliffs – Water looks excellent (though no shoreline wave action). Cliff detail and shadow effects are very good.
Jpeg0110 Line of vehicles – Excellent tree shadow effect with patches of sunlight – again excellent ‘depth of field’ showing tree varieties and their shadows to very good effect.
Jpeg0111 Water, Cliffs, Clouds and Hills – Water looks much more realistic, cloud types look excellent in late afternoon sun with very effective shadow effects.
Jpeg0112 Fuel truck and different grass types – Excellent attention to detail with truck and contents. Grass types look very good, though colours are a bit vivid.
Jpeg0113 Fuel hose truck, airfield buildings and aircraft – excellent detail on truck, buildings look like typical WWII types. Distant aircraft line-up and trees very crisp and clear under noon sun.
Jpeg0116 Flying shot – Excellent cloud and shadow effects with excellent water and ‘white caps’ effects. Very good distance clarity of land and cloud shadow effects.
Jpeg0117 Spitfire top view (1) Excellent aircraft attention to detail (surface rivet detail) with excellent shadow and Perspex canopy sun effects. Water underneath more realistic with ‘white caps’.
Jpeg0126 Spitfire top view (2) Same aircraft description as above. Tree and ground detail very realistic with excellent shadow effects, a huge improvement on IL-2.
Jpeg0130 Volcano setting sun and clouds with water reflections. Spectacular sun, cloud types and reflective effects – very photo realistic.
Jpeg0131 Sun, cloud, land and water effects – A great grab showing very photo realistic effects.
Jpeg0147 Spitfire smoke and shadows – very realistic smoke effects with very good shadow/sunlight effects on Spitfire.
Jpeg0168 Me110 – Excellent shadow and canopy sunlight effects with very good sun and water reflections. Again a very photo-realistic grab.

Summary – Some colours are a bit bright which is obviously still a work in progress.
Overall, the attention to detail is excellent. Looking forward to the next release.

DFLion

Lancelot beat me to it...curved roads! Other terrain features Other things I noticed were vertical cliffs (ask the guys doing Mod maps of Dover how easy that was in the Il-2 engine), forests that look like forests (from any angle), self-shadowing cockpits, airplanes and ground objects, and grass. The smoke shot and clouds look like a huge step up from Il-2 as well. Looking at the Spit gunsight has me wondering if I'll be able to adjust range/wingspan settings in-game. I know most of this has been announced months earlier, but seeing it all rendered in-game is still great. Glad to hear you're feeling better Oleg, and thanks for the eye candy.

As far as the fresh appearance of the aircraft, Oleg has mentioned in the past that persistant weathering will be a feature of the sim. Unless that has changed, expect to see shots of it in-game in the future. As Ilya said, they can't show us everything at once, especially while they're still coding it all.

As a request for the next update, are there any rivers with bridges on the test map? I'm curious to see how riverbanks are done in the SoW engine. I'm also curious how indirect lighting will be handled in SoW. In Il-2 I'll frequently turn on the instrument lights during the day to see them, in part because there isn't much indirect light thrown on to them. The shots here look better, at least in noon daylight.

P.S. I'm glad to see the RSU (Runway Supervisory Unit, aka "the box", pic 103) is included, having spent more than my fair share of time in one myself. Will poor performing pilots in campaigns be relegated to the RSU to perform gear checks (with the binoculars included) until their performance improves?

Will SOW support the nVida 3D?

I don't have any questions, or sadly anything constructive to say. I am impressed I guess but not blown away. I hope I get blown away about SOW one day but so far I am not. I guess maybe I am expecting too much. (Hopefully this is not old man syndrome.)

Thank you Oleg for the uppdate!

I have no complains as I know that all is from WIP and it will look better in the end.

Happy to hear that you intend to restart the regular friday uppdates.
You will recive a lot of whining, complaints,demands, suggestions etc but please keep in mind that its beacuse we all love and care for Il-2 and the new baby SOW.


Regards

Viking

Considering the possibilities especially of DX10 and 11, this is the better choice to make full use of modern hardware. As I and some other people posted before, some things are also a lot easier to accomplish under DX. DX10 and 11 have native support of multiple CPUs and GPUs and can also render more efficiently to multiple-monitor-setups than the simple desktop spreading of XP. Of course you can do the same under OpenGL, but it's simply more work, which means precious time that can now be used for more important tasks.

HS....hehe I remember the early interview with Oleg about BOB SOW...he said how opengl is a much better choice for BOB SOW than DX....never mind

so it would be DX9?