Will SW use magnetic north for compasses?

[Fearfactor]

As many people know, IL2 has always used true or 'geographical' north for the compass to point to. But of course it's unrealistic as compasses point to the magnetic north. This was due to making the game engine more simplified and therefore one less thing to process, not that it could not have been done for IL2 a long time ago. It is a lot more complicated to have the magnetic north modeled, no doubt. Since there is a good bit of variation that changes as one moves east to west. Anyone know if SOW will use magnetic or true north??

[Skoshi Tiger]

I don't know, but it would cause all sorts of problems.

First you would need to take into account the magnetic variation for each map and time period. Magnetic variation changes slightly over time, so to be meaningful you have to model that change over the period covered by the sim.

Charts should be marked with the amount of variation and how much change would occour each year.

If you were going to that detail you'ld probably want to magnetic deviation for individual aircraft and have compas correction cards displayed in the cockpit.

How useful this sort of information would be in the sim would be debatable.

If your flying as the RAF, I'm not sure how much map and compass work will be needed, Hopefully we'll be vectored onto our targets by radio then we'll just take fixes on the local pubs (landmarks) and follow the roads and railway lines back to base!

Cheers!

[AndyJWest]

I think that given what Oleg (or was it Luthier?) recently said about the way SoW models a spherical Earth, modelling the difference between magnetic and true north shouldn't be that difficult. Whether it is that significant on a relatively small map like the BoB one is arguable though - magnetic compasses are prone to larger errors than the minor differences you will see over the map, I'd have thought.

[proton45]

I've been hoping that the stars would be modeled correctly...I think it could add a level of realism, if you had to dead reckon by the night sky on long bomber missions.

[BadAim]

It's all speculation at this point but I'd sure think so, given the attention to detail of the rest of the project.

[WTE_Galway]

Originally Posted by proton45

I've been hoping that the stars would be modeled correctly...I think it could add a level of realism, if you had to dead reckon by the night sky on long bomber missions.

lol ... well many long range bombers from the period had sextants

but to be actually useful they would need to include an astronomical almanac/ephemeris with star positions for the entire war

i somehow doubt many people would bother learning astral navigation plus very few missions will be long enough to actually need it

[AndyJWest]

i somehow doubt many people would bother learning astral navigation

Allied navigators were certainly taught it:

From here: http://aafcollection.info/items/deta...1!title!up!100

[julian265]

Originally Posted by Fearfactor

As many people know, IL2 has always used true or 'geographical' north for the compass to point to. But of course it's unrealistic as compasses point to the magnetic north. This was due to making the game engine more simplified and therefore one less thing to process, not that it could not have been done for IL2 a long time ago. It is a lot more complicated to have the magnetic north modeled, no doubt. Since there is a good bit of variation that changes as one moves east to west. Anyone know if SOW will use magnetic or true north??

I'd love to see this feature also. X-plane has it, though without time variation IIRC. IMO it's good enough.

[BadAim]

One of my customers was a navigator on a B25 during and after WWII in the pacific. He speaks often of navigating by the stars when he could, mostly to verify his position that he had already figured out by other means. He was very glad to have this tool on long ferry trips with bomb bay tanks from Japan to Hawaii. "Midway is a very small target in a very big ocean when your tanks are running dry and there ain't no place else to go"