Friday 2010-10-15 Dev. update and Discussion

Oleg:

Will we have waving gras according to the prop wind?

[ChrisDNT]

For instance, look at the greens here...

http://fullterrain.com/product_aublue.html
http://fullterrain.com/product_ymav.html

... they just look right (even if a few of them are a little bit on the "Velvia" side, but nevertheless quite natural).

[whatnot]

Originally Posted by speculum jockey

Dear Xilon_x, if spaghetti not have the tomato is negative.
Tomatoes are important factor to Italian food.
EXAMPLE look of tomato.

I lolled at this, thank you for the chuckles mate!

[ATAG_Dutch]

Originally Posted by ChrisDNT

Of course, I know we can't ask for the same levels of details in a combat sim (with all the other parameters to compute outside the graphical aspects), but something heading this way, at least for the color palette and the natural implantation of the elements.

Well, that looks like what it is, a promo vid. Impressive one too.

Mr Maddox has made it quite clear, on more than one occasion, that we have never seen the final result of what SoW will look like.

I've posted a few comparisons myself, but this week he's been quite emphatic about the screenshots being old ones, they're building a new version, and we'll have to wait to see the real final result.

I really don't see any mileage in continuing to post comparisons, whether clouds or landscape.

Once we do see the final result, then we can post comparisons, if we can tear ourselves away from our joysticks.

[KOM.Nausicaa]

The whole "terrain colors bla bla" discussion is completely fruitless. Apart from the fact that Oleg said himself THE COLORS ARE WIP, it's obvious in the last screenshots that the terrain is not rendered as in the final product, meaning missing global illumination, lighting, HDR, haze and what not and that it has been rendered differently in almost every update. That is when people claim to notice "progress". Nonsense, it's nothing else than different machines and specs in the studio and different rendering and lighting stages with some tweaks here and there. Who knows, there may even be a second or third or fourth texture layer missing in the terrains. Early Oleg interviews indicate just that. The planes work that way -- why not the terrain? What do we know about it? Zip, that's how much.
Give it a rest already. You can't change zero with all your I-linked-to-a-photo-from-the-internet-screenshots and youtube videos. Oleg has thousands of photos of England taken by himself on his hardrives and he will do what he thinks looks correct.

[Flutter]

Hi Oleg,
I posted the comment below this weekend, and assume it got lost in the backlog. I do not need an answer, but would appreciate it if you considered doing something like it or better in a patch / future release (fear it may be too late for launch).
Others have commented, and I believe rightly, that fields of the era did not show wide tracks from tractors. Reducing or removing these would also reduce the "I plowed, and then there came a railroad" effect.

Aerodynamically: Will ground effect be modeled? I have not been able to detect it in IL2, and it definitely should be there. The effect was discovered in WW2 by shot up bomber crews who miraculously stopped sinking when reaching wave-top altitudes. Managing to get over the white cliffs could be difficult, but I believe few cared.

Finally: Will aircraft tow a wingtip vortex field and a prop-wash field? These could easily be modeled using time-dampening potential flow elements (adapted panel method), and would also add substantially to the immersion for aircraft flying close to one another.

Flutter

Originally Posted by Flutter

Hi Oleg, thank you for posting both updates and answers.

As far as I can see, the current ground texture system uses a network of borderlines that look organic but repeat fairly often over the terrain. The area within one set of borderlines is then filled with an appropriate texture (golf course / field a / field b / field c / farm / forest / village / city / industry ) and with the appropriate models (vegetation, buildings etc). Then the borders themselves are applied, these being hedges, paths, roads etc. For a quasi procedural texture system, I believe this is one of the best solutions available, and your results look overall very nice. However, the system does not look too good when such a field is cut by a railroad. Screenshot No. 3 illustrates my point. The REAL geometry (railroad lines, big highways) does fit badly into the texture when compared to the basic borderlines. The only solution I can imagine would be to treat such a road / railway line as yet another borderline, and apply different textures to the different segments that have been divided by this geometry. It would not be perfect, but it could be coded, and it would make these roads and railways fit better into the landskape, making them both blend better into it and be more visible in that they change the landscape around them.
The mockup picture below illustrates my point.
Flutter

[AndyJWest]

Will ground effect be modeled? I have not been able to detect it in IL2, and it definitely should be there.

Actually, it is modelled in IL-2, though it is subtle, and perhaps not modelled entirely accurately. There was a long discussion of this on the Ubi forums: http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/t...3121062458/p/1

[furbs]

Originally Posted by KOM.Nausicaa

The whole "terrain colors bla bla" discussion is completely fruitless. Apart from the fact that Oleg said himself THE COLORS ARE WIP, it's obvious in the last screenshots that the terrain is not rendered as in the final product, meaning missing global illumination, lighting, HDR, haze and what not and that it has been rendered differently in almost every update. That is when people claim to notice "progress". Nonsense, it's nothing else than different machines and specs in the studio and different rendering and lighting stages with some tweaks here and there. Who knows, there may even be a second or third or fourth texture layer missing in the terrains. Early Oleg interviews indicate just that. The planes work that way -- why not the terrain? What do we know about it? Zip, that's how much.
Give it a rest already. You can't change zero with all your I-linked-to-a-photo-from-the-internet-screenshots and youtube videos. Oleg has thousands of photos of England taken by himself on his hardrives and he will do what he thinks looks correct.

And who made YOU olegs spokesperson?...you havnt a clue what Oleg thinks or if he wants input on the updates. If Oleg says nothing we post here will make any differance to what he does with SOW, then thats fine with me, i will stop posting.

This is a discussion thread on this weeks update if you havnt noticed, im always polite in how i post and until told by Oleg or the mods here to not to, i will carry on.

[Flutter]

Originally Posted by AndyJWest

Actually, it is modelled in IL-2, though it is subtle, and perhaps not modelled entirely accurately. There was a long discussion of this on the Ubi forums: http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/t...3121062458/p/1

Thnx Andy, That's indeed a more subtle than I would expect it to be. I shal go and look for it myself (Tend to lose an engine or ten when I go flying).

[GT182]

As always, Oleg and crew are doing some great work with BOB:SOW. The wait will be worth it IMHO.

Besides, there's no sense in rushing things only to have the need for several patches made to fix things that weren't finished for the release. They are doing the right thing no matter how impatient some are.