Friday 2010-10-29 Dev. update and Discussion

[Redwan]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

Redwan, those FSX clouds are just photos. It's not the same as the 3D dynamic clouds necessary in a combat sim.

Uncorrect. These clouds are reald 3d clouds.
Have a looks at this videos and the related ones to convince yourself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4id7...eature=related

[BP_Tailspin]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

Redwan, those FSX clouds are just photos. It's not the same as the 3D dynamic clouds necessary in a combat sim.

Originally Posted by Redwan

Uncorrect. These clouds are reald 3d clouds. Have a looks at this videos and the related ones to convince yourself:

It looks like your just flying from one photo to the next ... it never looked as if you were interring or exiting a cloud. You never flew in the cloud, it looked like the cloud just flashed from one view to the next.

I'm not a 3d programmer, maybe Oleg can shed some light on this matter.

[peterwoods@supanet.com]

Further to the Moscow event referred to earlier.
I noticed that one of the Russian Web sites, after translation, referred to
"Total War - IL-2 - Battle of Britain" .

Maybe Ubi is giving Oleg problems with using "Storm of War"

What price "Total War" as opposed to "Storm of War"?

[Chivas]

FSX clouds are poorly done with little substance. FSX terrain ground textures are worse. FSX water textures are worse than the terrain. If SOW looks anything like FSX I will throw up on my keyboard.

[Richie]

Originally Posted by Chivas

FSX clouds are poorly done with little substance. FSX terrain ground textures are worse. FSX water textures are worse than the terrain. If SOW looks anything like FSX I will throw up on my keyboard.

Me too

[baronWastelan]

Originally Posted by Chivas

FSX clouds are poorly done with little substance. FSX terrain ground textures are worse. FSX water textures are worse than the terrain. If SOW looks anything like FSX I will throw up on my keyboard.

Clouds & terrain look good on my install. Water: so-so. Granted I do use some 3rd party add ons. Take's more work to get it looking like this than a normal user would subject himself too...

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpos...&postcount=146

[28_Condor]

Originally Posted by peterwoods@supanet.com

Further to the Moscow event referred to earlier.
I noticed that one of the Russian Web sites, after translation, referred to
"Total War - IL-2 - Battle of Britain" .

Maybe Ubi is giving Oleg problems with using "Storm of War"

What price "Total War" as opposed to "Storm of War"?

Yes,

This is the translation by Sokol1:

Company "1C-Softlab reports that the studio 1C: Maddox Games is developing a computer game" IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Britain ".

Continuation of the famous flight simulator "IL-2 Sturmovik" covers events in the largest air battles of World War II, will run from July 9 to October 30, 1940. During this period, the sky rose a thousand aircraft of the Royal Air Force and squadrons of the Third Reich and Fascist Italy. Now every fan of flight simulators will be able to become the hero of the Battle of Britain, and change the course of a great battle!

The game has been recreated in great detail the huge territory - from London to Normandy from Southampton to Dankerka. Online training allows beginners to quickly master the management of combat aircraft, and flexible settings - to optimize the gameplay depending on skill level user. In addition to the single-player campaign that includes a variety of tasks - from assaults and interception missions to rescue comrades, the game will include multiplayer modes - in one battle can take part up to 128 pilots.

From 3 to 6 November, visitors of the exhibition "IGROMIR - 2010" in Moscow will have a unique opportunity to become a pilot of the legendary aircraft and take part in the Battle of Britain. Everyone will be able to play the sequel of IL-2 on the stands of 1C-Softlab, but also learn more about the project. Presentations will take place on 4, 5 and 6th November at stands C1 and B4."

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.ph...f_Britain.html

Direct source:

http://www.sukhoi.ru/forum/showthread.php?t=65108

[Bearcat]

Oooo that must mean it is getting close..

[undercut]

Those clouds in FSX look really nice but they also looked a little sprite-ish and static to me. The clouds in SOW are fully 3d particles and are dynamic which means they will change shape and direction based on atmospheric conditions and produce turbulence. If you watch the video he posted again and watch the edges of the clouds closely you can actually see the clouds kinda spreading away and slowly changing direction. I think these clouds in the video Oleg posted here are the most convincing fully 3d dynamic cumulus clouds I have ever seen in a game.

[The Kraken]

Originally Posted by Redwan

Uncorrect. These clouds are reald 3d clouds.
Have a looks at this videos and the related ones to convince yourself

They sure look nice, but more so the less they move. The FSX cloud system still uses big 2D billboards which have depth sorting issues (resulting in lots of flickering), they look unnatural when the camera is turning rapidly, they are difficult to use for line of sight calculations and they cannot change their shape dynamically (you can fade the textures in and out but that's it).

There is no perfect system for rendering clouds yet (i.e. true volumetric rendering with acceptable impact on performance), so compromises have to be made. From what I can see Oleg has chosen to further develop the Il2 cloud system, with better shading, higher resolution and more variety. He's still using less contrast than for example Rise of Flight which helps to reduce flickering, and more generic shapes which work better from all angles. That's important in a combat sim where you are more likely to fly through clouds at any angle - unlike a civilian sim where you are flying level for the most part.

Also don't forget that the REX clouds used as a reference is a commercial addon that costs about as much as the full SoW.