Friday 2010-09-24 Dev. update and Discussion
 

Today we are moving in new office.
I don't know really how much time we'll be offline. Anyway, today some shots.

Second part.
 

Some additional shots.

Nice and early to.


Must be very close to finished now, right? :)


Feels like the 2 last updates have shown more of a complete game than before.

vry nice update Oleg!

Fire is getting very good (no more flame transparency!)...and landscape/objects are really getting there....
When I see the rendering quality of armor, I feel very confident we are in for a treat at every level!

JV

Great Game! Great Britain! Great Madox!

Hehe!
It's a public holiday down here in South Africa, so I'm on the forum during what would normally be working hours!
It's the first time that I've "caught" Oleg posting an update - in fact I had to "wait" for the second batch to be uploaded. Hehe!
And what an update!
The second batch (air gunner views and the night-time cockpit pic's) are truly awesome and the last pic of the first batch (the Spit flying through the He111's) is my new 'background'.
Thanks Oleg - keep going!!!

Very Nice thank you Oleg !!!

Feels like it is really close.

Please you must have now a more clear estimation about the release date to share with us.

We need to start saving money for new PC and new stick :grin:

OMG ... I just wet my pants with the night time cockpit interior shot. Absolutely incredible. Fantastic job!! The lighting makes it soooo atmospheric.

Thanks Oleg and good luck with the office move.

PPanPan

Sorry, I didn't answer you several times on your emails. Simply I had and have hard time at the moment at work and especially at home...
Be sure I gave all materials my guys. And great thank you for your superb help!

"shot_20100921_220209 copy.jpg" creates a stunning feeling of being inside the cockpit.

Awesome!

@ Baron:
Just combine statements from earlier this year with what you see on the screenshots. Maybe you get the idea ;)

Pzkpfw IV tank numbers seem far too small but I assume that is just because it is a WIP.

It is all looking amazing.

Good luck with moving offices.

Just amazing ;-)

Oleg, I also wanted to say that IMHO the variety of grass colours, textures and lengths is now looking really good. Nice one :).

Can I ask a quick question about last week's update? Some of the aircraft thumbnail images in the Quick Mission Builder GUI showed two little pilots in the bottom right corner. What does this mean?

Thanks, and I hope all is ok at home.

PPanPan

All ground models are in correct scale. Sure no one game for today may give it better done, even if there is way more polygons then in ours models.
Numbers and other indifications - multiple. Uniquie, realistic. This feature is for the future development of the sim series ;).

this means multiple seat places. But it is probably placeholder. I wrote that this menu will be reworked a bit, that to make ergonimics and logics way better. And that to make much less traslations...;)
Probably everything will be understandable from the first look for simmers and not only for simmers. This is my goal.

Wow - Oleg, this is looking amazing. Thank you for all the hard work, I really cannot wait to own a copy.

You mention things are tough at the moment, I hope it not anything too serious.

Best wishes!

I do ;)

Anyhow, im more the " it will get here when its good and redy" kind of guy and one of theese days THE QUESTION will be awnsered. :)

Thanks for the update Oleg!
Question...do you know when we might start to hear some SOW sounds?

олег, он наверно имел ввиду не то, что танки маленькие а бортовые номера на танках маленькие))

ps спасибо за вашу работу! скриншоты очень многообещающие))

Glad to see the fuzziness of A/C markings has been solved. All those shots are damn near perfect in every way.

AI
 

dear oleg,
thanks for the weekly update, GREAT WORK!!!
I take advantage you are online! Hoping for your comment to following word posted by me in previous thread....

I would like SOW will be implemented with such feature like the possibility of scare away the servants of flak or any other vehicle or smal ship or at least to reduce their effectiveness if generously sprayed with bullets.
I'd like also the possibility, in aerial combat, for AI to accept or not the engagement if in disadvantaged tactic position, or disengage when in difficulty.
During 'circus' missions the RAF conducted heavy sweeps to induce Luftwaffe to take off and sustain combat. LW soon understood this trick and often rejected to be involved in combat.
There is any possibility such feature is modeled in SOW
Ciao !!!

да я написал, что они могут быть разные и дофига вариантов. но все исторические на момент битвы за британию :)

Looking excellent! Thanks for the update.

Many thanks for this update, its now looking like the game we all hoped and wished for.

[QUOTE=Feuerfalke;184163]"shot_20100921_220209 copy.jpg" creates a stunning feeling of being inside the cockpit.

Awesome!

QUOTE]

I agree , tis not photo realistic but its not far off...

S!

Thank you for the update, nice things to discover there. Good luck with the move to the new office.

Thanks for the explanation Oleg. Your goal is a great one and I'm sure you'll get there! If you are looking for ideas for a graphical theme, have a look at http://1940.iwm.org.uk/. I think they cleverly use paper colours, fonts and red ink stamps from the era.

PPanPan

Thank you very much Oleg for this weeks update!

I really hope you can solve your private and business challenges! Its all about how you handle them. You can never avoid bad things happen! A good laugh with friends or family give much power and also sense to keep on living :)

The cockpit shots look very very detailed! I never saw this in a game before!

Thumbs up and good luck for you and your team!

Cheers

Anyone care to translate?! ;)

I would like to say very important things
 

Ok, today I would like to say some important.

If you all remember, Il-2 was a sim that was setings some new standards in industry. Not all understand it in the beginning... however all things that were loaded in the engine and even were not using in the beginning - most of them were later working. Some technologies were copied by other deelopers (even not simers), some - still are uniquie.

And what I would like to say... BoB with its first generation will have also many things that probably will be working later in time step by step. But anyway with the first release it will also set some new standards in sim industry for WWII flight sims. Be sure.
We are doning a series from the beginning for the long life o the market, looking back for our expereince in the past, learnig good and bad things of Il-2 series. So now we put a lot of things that wil come in add-ons and new separate titles (for wich we will give ability to instal in the first one... say like was with Pacific fighters... but with more features). Already now there is a process of development for one of the several new sims (with such a feature to merge them).
If everything will be Ok with BoB on the market, then you all will see more and more coming nice titles and add-ons (both free and payware).

Not all things that I personally designed in the past will go in the release of BoB. But you all probably even don't know what was planned and partially already developed... :)
I dislike to open even partially this info now... simply wait. Don't think you will be dissapointed :)


X-day... release. This now will depending of publisher... and our fast woks over the bugs.
Bugs are present. The product is probably the most serious in industry in programming of features, internals, etc...
So I can't tell exact date right now. But we are close, very close in our works of final release version... We need to polish all the coming in final release features. I personally wouldn't release the product that have serious bugs that was known. It is our principle in the past.. it is now...

All for today... I need to switch off PC for packing....

Sorry for the errors in message. No time to correct...

S!

Longevity in the SoW series as in IL-2. good to hear, Oleg. Thank you for the heads up.

holy shit... :) :) :) :)

Ill second that :)


We are very close now.


And Oleg, just let us know how many copies we need to buy so the future is secured for this sim, looking at IL2 history im sure we will do what needs to be done :)

Have a good move Oleg! And I hope you can manage to sort out the various problems you referred to.

I think Oleg's latest message is well worth considering. I have been following his work since installing the Il-2 demo from a magazine cd. I REALLY remember how Il-2 progressed through the various updates we got along the way, even before Il-2FB. We got new planes, ground objects, lots of tweaking of flight and dynamic models, damage modelling, etc, etc. I'm sure something similar will happen to SoW:BoB, especially now-a-days, where almost everybody with a gaming PC also have pretty high-speed internet.

Just look at how RoF has fleshed out over the last year. I'd say we can expect something similar from SoW:BoB. I already emailed back and forth with Oleg about expansion and add-on ideas, so I think that with healthy sales for BoB we can expect a whole new flourish of SoW-based sims. What worries me a bit is whether they manage to get SoW:BoB out before Christmas, and whether it will run well if they do. It is crunch time. I wouldn't have thought it would be the most propitious time for moving offices, but what do I know...

Anyway, the screens we have seen make it ABUNDANTLY clear that any constraints in the look of the sim will not be internal to the sim, but due to PC limitations. This sim will be able to tax even the strongest PC. And that is why it makes a lot of sense to release a sim with growth potential, where not all features are implemented just yet.

I was hope this translation is close to orginal :) -"Yes I have written that they can be different and various species. But all historical at the moment of fight for BoB"

As far as i'm concerned, the title is ready graphics-wise. When a DX9, no AA, medium detail screenshot looks nicer than my IL2 at full detail, that means the graphics are ready.

I also want to thank mr. Maddox for confirming what a lot of us have been guessing and dropping a hint about the time of release. Since they are negotiating with the publisher and ironing out the bugs, i expect we'll be given a definite date within a few weeks to a month with release not long after that.

Good luck with the office move/home issues :grin:

Rock 'n Roll :D

Looking great as usual :)

Hope the move goes well Oleg :)

Thanks for taking your time to share these great news!!!


Can you post some shots of your new office, when you're done? ;)

Mr. Oleg,

Thank you for the good news about the date of release.


PS: this clears all theories about dedicated website + 12 months etc (phew!).

Cheers,
Insuber

Thank you Oleg
Wow what a stunning update. So looking forward to this :)

Thanks for another great update and even more for the 'news' which is fantastic to hear.

Good luck with the move and best wishes to yourself and family.

Ecstatic!!

Thanks for the update oleg.
Would it be possible to share with us details of the sound engine in SoW? I'd love to know if your aiming for the same attention to detail in sounds as you have put into the graphics.
For example, will i be possible to have airflow sounds playing in exposed areas of the aircraft? like when in the top gunner postion for the He111? or for exposed damaged areas?

Oh my...what a treat. These are the best shots yet, simply stunning.:grin:

The interior detail is amazing - structural detail in the He111 with bullet holes in the ribs, the detail of the guns, the tubular construction of the glazed cockpit with shadows. Love the landscapes with the trees going way into the distance.

This is going to be an awe inspiring title. My only quibble this week is the double smoke caterpillars. Would be nice to see a variation since not all fires burn the same - some light smoke or even smokeless. Would love to see flames burst out then disappear like in the recently posted gun camera footage. Anyway, it's all been said before.

Thanks for the update Oleg, you've created a masterpiece. Good luck with the move and the other problems you mentioned.

This one really made my (fri)day!

Very well done!

Thanks Oleg,

Nice pictures of Batte of France!

This is the perfect online translator (you can even type in any language using different virtual keyboards, and also listen to a spoken version of what you have written!!!!):

http://webtranslation.paralink.com/


OK..it didn't translate too well, so I'll paraphrase...

---
"Originally Posted by stalkerkhv88 View Post
Oleg, I meant not that tanks are small, but that on-board numbers on tanks are small))
ps thanks for your work! Screenshots very promising))"

Oleg - "Yes I have written, that there can be different and other versions. But all are historical at the time of the Battle of Britain."

----



.

Thanks again Oleg for the update,i am delighted to hear that you,s are very close to release,maybe we might see it released before xmas with a bit of luck:)

Really Excellent Update! This is REALLY great news!!!

BTW, anybody noticed that the shadows are cast as well on the window glass but still keeping its transparency? incredible detail! :grin:

I imagine the feeling will be very close to real when the whole scene is animated!

Thank you very much Oleg and team and good luck to solve all your problems!!!

cheers
Schallmoser

.

If you use FireFox I'd recommend installing Globefish. Then just click the little fish in the right lower corner and mark the text you want to translate.

Any way, nice screen shots and very nice update!

Panzers looks fantastic! Land graphics reminds me from T34 vs Tiger tank sim:

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/attachm...6&d=1285314460


http://www.tanksim.com/images/t34vst23.jpg

Hi,I have only a question:

When you can show us videos in game?. The pictures are well, but I think a couple of video is better now


Well done

Great shoots! Thank you! :)

Thanks Oleg.

Just wondering - What are the red lights indicating in the last cockpit screenshot?

This looks amazing, you can see shadows on the dust/dirt that is on the windscreen (at the front by the sight, and on the left side especially)!!!

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/attachm...4&d=1285314577

Fantastic! The selfshading feature on the aircraft pays off really big time, so nice... and the nightlighting in that cockpit: amazing, Thx

as i noticed - here is same serial number on any MG inside Heinkel.
and the different numbers on tanks...
seems to me better be to swap such things, because we will often inside airplanes and rarely observe numbers on ground targets ;)

On the Left Fahrwerkskontrolle (under-carriage)
Mid above Waffenschaltkasten Fl.47292 (Weaponcontroll)

Great news Oleg, thank you!

Jagdgeschwader Albatross is ready for spending money (you have already sold at least 15 copies of SoW)... :-)

Best regards from Switzerland

Erm... That's a Hurricane, Mungee!!:grin:
These shots show things really coming together. The light and shadow in the game has impressed me from the word go, but the red glow from the cockpit lights and the detail of the gunner stations are the kind of thing that will really add to the immersive qualities of the Sim.
Excellent.

Are the surface details of the vehicles done with bump- or with normal mapping?

Thanks!

excellent update, the detail on the ground is really coming together

tanks and other ground vehicle detail look better then any i have seen before, even for current tank sim's or 1e person shooters

scenery looking good to, grass, shrubs, trees etc (but i presume current shots are of low detail settings on a mid range pc ? eg would have expected more grass and more med distance foliage for a high detail setting)

we'r getting close :)

This is fantastic news, and to some, not entirely a surprise. (Where are you, Tree?).:rolleyes:
If we look at the original IL2 and compare to v4.09, we see a profound difference.
If we then look at what we've seen of SoW and then try to imagine the future development.....................:grin:
The level of detail on the ground equipment, let alone the aircraft, together with the lighting and shading effects, tells me that this will be the most immersive 'war-sim' ever devised, and as someone who enjoys making little film clips, the possibilities are looking immense.
I am a bit worried about my career once it's released though.
Awesome.

I like very much the screens of the cockpit and the night cockpit , but i think the texture of the plane out of the cockpit is not suffisant ( screen 8 : rear of the plane ) and it's the same problem for all actual simulators ( Rof for exemple ) .

Nobody..
 

Nobody has noted that they have now soft shadows??

All looks great, but I see the hurricane is firing nicely synced death rays.

I don't recall seeing those death rays the last time I fired a 7.92mm machine gun (when I was in the Army) - is that a detail still to be ironed out?

hahah, Nice one Zap. You attacked from out the Sun. The Noob never even saw you coming.

This is great news today!

They're tracers, but the very first thing when I thought of when I looked at that screen shot was this. . . .

http://i52.tinypic.com/35kitzo.jpg

Hopefully they'll get that ironed out so that it isn't perfectly synched all the time. After a second of of firing the tracers would be closer to alternating than perfectly lined up on each side.

I do not believe this is really a "night" cockpit...this is just a lighting demonstration! I would not like to fly with 5 big blinding lights and no instrument lighting whatsoever!
As a matter of fact, if the instrument lighting was switched on you would not see these lights so bright, there would be dimmed to bring them more in range with the cockpit lighting, in order to avoid blinding...
This dimming feature is a well known IFR practical test trap: if for some reason you have your instrument lighting switched on in daylight, the dimming of the undercarriage lights will make them unnoticeable even if the U/C is up...the tester will not forget that one!

JV

That aaaaaall depends on the airplane-type

Nice screens Oleg.. just curious.. has the FFB issue been resolved in SoW? I am talking about the issue with the FFB where when you alt tab out of the sim for any reason you totally loose any FFB you had until you totally reboot the sim. Is the FFB support for SoW going to be different?

I hope Oleg has done a new engine for FFB
Nice screenshots Oleg, hope we could see soon a video

Yes, quite obviously...and???

It does?

I don't want videos! i don't want more screenshots! I just want the game!

Please no more pain! I want the game NOW!!! muhahahahahaha.

We love you Oleg.

As someone else noted, these last 2 updates show that we're really close to final release product.
Oleg, in other words, confirmed it and all we must do is hope that bugs get killed really soon :D

I really feel that I'll be playing BoB during Xmas holidays ;)

of course ,

but it's the second part of my post that is more important for me :

it's damage to make beautiful screen with not specific texture for the outside of the aircraf , but we had already seen more bad than this one .

I agree but I think Shane/C6 is right and this is part of the compromises of this situation, as it is in car sims for instance...

Yes

JVM, you wrote:"As a matter of fact, if the instrument lighting was switched on you would not see these lights so bright, there would be dimmed to bring them more in range with the cockpit lighting, in order to avoid blinding...
This dimming feature is a well known IFR practical test trap: if for some reason you have your instrument lighting switched on in daylight, the dimming of the undercarriage lights will make them unnoticeable even if the U/C is up...the tester will not forget that one!"

You make it sound as if ALL aircraft have the landing-gear lights dimmed whenever the instrument-lights are turned on. This is not a fact. You are wrong. If this is so obviously wrong as you say, why do you claim this to be a fact... ???

like what?
less than 6month? ;)

Pics are really cool though.

http://i412.photobucket.com/albums/p...s/mr_burns.gif

no, this dont remember me t34vspanzer. this remember me ArmA2.
http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/8884/37008710.png

a little smoke lines need to be see it, for be 8 machine guns firing together, maybe. and very very micro finnest lines orange of no trazers bullets, but but very very very VERY finnest ORANGE lines i say.

Bf 110 night shot rules! they dont have night luminance instruments yet?

Maybe its just before start engine on the ground, light open for the start up ? ?


I remember a game long time ago, if you passed near enemy airfield , they will send some aircraft to intercep you, its will be so must if for free flight in SOW , some air activity will be there in the airspace and on the ground. Its is planed ?

Sry for the english by the way, hope you could understand my ideas

P.S. Nice up date Oleg :)

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/daniel.clarke17/sync.jpg

I'm sorry, what's the problem again?

SOW is growing up nicely. I'm glad to hear that release is near, but sad that your under so much stress, Oleg. I hope and pray that you find resolution to all your troubles! If it helps I can vouch for another 50 or so in sales from my squad.

This has been explained before. Oleg and Luthier have said that the tracers in these recent shots look this way due entirely to SHUTTER SPEED of the "camera" for screenshots. I don't recall if they said directly or only hinted at it but I suspect you will be able to adjust shutter speed etc. for screenshots. In some earlier dev shots you see the tracers as single dots, when asked why the change from dots to streaks it was explained that the shots with the dots were taken while the game was paused vs. screenshot in motion. Oleg is a photographer, so I'm sure there will be many such features for screenshot artists and movie makers to work with.

Actually BC, I'm not convinced the FFB issue has anything to do with Il2, I've used a Saitek Evo Force and did experience the issue once or twice but the vast majority of the Alt+Tabs never caused this, and with my Logitech G940 (which is freakin excellent btw) I've NEVER experienced it, and since I use the Multi-Throttle app I always have to Alt+Tab out of Il2 since Il2 must be running before you start the app.

Personally, I'm keeping fingers crossed for Christmas.

But, don't want to see this turn into another "debate".

It's just good news and I'm really pleased that Oleg's given us the word.

Agreed on the pics though :)

Brilliant!!!

Absolutely, I cannot believe they overlooked such a glaring mistake. Let's delay this baby for 3 months while we get individual serial numbers for all machine guns. :)

Oleg, please tell us who the publisher is.
It's time now for an ingame video if you are really that close to release and want to make some serious money. Should be the publishers interest, too.

Ooooops! Yes, it's a Hurricane indeed - what was it called, "the Battle of Barking Creek"? I could be a prime candidate. Hehe!

I can't say to other people what is important and what isn't, everyone has their own preferences.

What i would like to see however is some balance in it all. Nitpicking members and rivet coutners are a valuable resource, believe it or not. They will spot the mistakes first and they will campaign to get them fixed. They should be allowed to say their piece. On the other hand, i don't expect small details to take precedence over bigger ones.

For example, i too saw the duplicated serial numbers on the guns, it's hard to miss since it's stamped on such a prominent part of the gun. However, this won't break the game for me. What would break the game then?

Well, if we only had 4 flyable aircraft and less than 10 in total, that would break the game because they would be insufficient to render the battle of Britain accurately, but luckily we'll be getting more than 10 flyables and who knows how much more AI.

If we didn't have ground units to populate the environment, that would break the game for me because the game's world would be lifeless. However, for months and years during past development updates all we saw was ground vehicles, flak batteries, sound spotting stations and ships. The game world seems to be bursting at the seams with "supporting actors". So, no harm done there either.

If we didn't have an evolution and a step-up from IL2 in FM, DM, aircraft systems modelling and support for the interfaces to control them, i would be seriously disappointed. But, we've been told we're getting all of that, so this is also covered.

What about the small details then? I won't lie, i'd like to see every little bit. It's just that it won't ruin the experience for me if the trim tabs are a bit bigger or the serial numbers on the guns are all the same. I still consider them very important details, just not game breaking. That doesn't mean i don't welcome it when people spot the small mistakes here and there.

I think the best course of action would be to separate our requests into categories. If the guns don't fire under the player's control then we have a top priority issue. If they work fine, are modelled correctly and they only need a few details to touch up, it's something that can be done in a patch. ;)

In any case, it seems like it won't be too long until this baby hits the shelves, so we're about to get hands-on experience at last.

Oh boy, that's when the real whining will commence:
"My plane handles so weird compared to IL2, i wanted more realism but now i can't fly, where does all this torque come from?"
"My engine keeps quitting, what did i do wrong?"
"My guns won't fire when i fly at high altitudes, what's wrong with them?"

Not to mention the FM debates...sometimes i feel sorry for the development team :-P

Really impressive update! Especially Oleg's update commentary!!

One question about the ground vehicles: will they leave tracks/ruts in fields when they drive through them? The vehicle shots look terrific, but they all look like they were placed their by the hand of God (i.e. Oleg :grin:).

This is a game breaker (NOT!! <pokes at Blackdog>). ;)

I'm really liking that last shot of the in cockpit at night. It really shows the capability of the new lighting system i think. Can't wait to see it all in action! I don't think I've been this anxious in my whole life... Feels like I'm 5 again looking forward for Christmas to come around haha :-P

Oleg,

We all want to support you and your team with as much cash as possible so we can enjoy the SOW series for many, many, years to come.

I hope your publisher can release a "Special Edition" that is a few more bucks and includes a few more flyable planes or something like that.

Great news and I can't wait to fly your new sim.

:grin: My thoughts exactly. I wonder how many people will complain about flying realistic distances and altitudes? And not being able to find the enemy?
Mr Maddox has always stressed the 'Sim' not the 'Game'.
Mind you, I'm sure we'll be able to set it to our own requirements. After all, the developers won't wish to put off potential buyers new to the flight sim world.
Frozen guns hadn't occured to me though. I wonder?:)

Arjisme, there is a screenshot that shows some tracks in the field. However I'm not sure if that option is still in the game.

take a look:
http://fooblog.mexxoft.com/wp-conten...ask_sunset.jpg

cheers
Schallmoser

PS: foobar, I'm doing it again - direct link to your site. Entschuldigung ;-)

Probably the best set of screens I have seen yet. Amazing work. They look good enough to eat!