Potentially serious FM/DM issue
 

Hi everyone,

I'm usually a pretty quiet member here but I would like to bring this issue into the spotlight. There a damage model bug that was present in IL-2, and seems to be carried over into CoD. The problem is that all aircraft retain their center of mass, even when missing entire wings. Here are two shots from IL-2 1946 showing the results:

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/8354/crash1.jpg

http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/6782/crash2e.jpg

As you can see, in these screenshots (in which the aircraft is at rest) the remaining wing is magically balanced up in the air. In both cases gravity should pull the remaining wing down. Think of what happens on a see-saw, when the weight on one end is removed.

I had hoped that CoD would start treating wings as having mass, but a few days ago this image surfaced:

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/167/crash3.jpg

It's pretty clear that the same issue is occurring here, and the intact wing simply does not have any mass. Other people have commented on the unnatural resting position of the plane, but I think it is necessary to properly diagnose the problem.

Now of course this is not only a damage model issue, but a flight model one as we all know wings are routinely 'sawn off' in flight! It would be interesting to see how the dynamics of a wingless plane would be affected if the offset center of mass were taken into account...

PS - I know that it is surely to late for a change to be implemented by Oleg's team in time for the release (assuming of course my 'diagnosis' is correct), but I would hope that a patch may eventually address the issue.

Please comment, regardless of whether you agree with me or not :)

+1 excellent point B25Mitch!

In my opinion this is a horrible sight when showing a simulator that has advanced damage and physics models. That plane, unless it's leaning on the tree, should be wings level because of the force of gravity pulling it down. Theoretically if the hurricane had an extremely heavy radio mounted behind the pilots headrest, which was equal in torque force derived from the wings length from center x force(weight of wing) it would rest in the displayed position if it ended up there perfectly after the crash...

just saying.

And don't math/physics flame me if you know what I'm trying to say but would say it differently because you are smug. ;) Ty in advance

Everything is alright with this pic, only the right landing gear is missing. :-D

Regarding the last pic it could easily come to a rest like that if it become stuck in the ground, they should spend time polishing over areas of the game.

Clearly you spend a lot of time starring at your crashed aircraft to care about it so much :), I'm sure it will be miles better than the original

I'm also curious how that Spit got in that position in the first place. maybe it had came from down right of the picture and spin near that tree... otherwise, that wing is really magic.

but... IMHO we will see the same "behavior" of crashed planes... I hope I'm wrong but...

Born Luftpilot I presume... ;)

The spit?

I hope you check your eyes before release mate.

;)

EDIT: Ah Strike you beat me to it.

Spit... :D when your out purchasing bob go to specsavers

EDIT: Lol were a prickly bunch

I don't think the physically correct flight model of a wingless plane has to be overly accurate. If simplifying the physics like that saves some CPU cycles and time for modeling/coding, then why not. It sure doesn't qualify as a bug for me. Anyway I think it's too early to conclude how it will work in CoD - all we've seen so far in that regard are two shots of probably the same scene. I'd assume the center of gravity will in fact move now (like when using up fuel) - even if it wasn't modeled in Il2.

Good point Mitch, that Spitfire's certainly got something wrong with it.