Friday Update - December 9, 2011

[BlackSix]

Hello!

Today will be a small informational update. Within the last two weeks on the forums were going to your questions about the current status of the project and the future. Today I publish answers of Ilya Shevchenko. Let's go:


1. Will the radio commands work in the upcoming patch or in the future?

Yes.We're working on it.

2. Are you planning to allow the player to leave the aircraft on the ground?

It is planned but as a low priority. This is a purely cosmetic feature.

3. Any progress on the SDK and scripts and triggers documentation?

Yes, but very slow. People who can write the documentation are same people who improve the game. They are buried in other tasks and cannot yet put the game away and start writing prose.

4. Is Can you officially introduce your new employee to the forums, the one who will be tuning the flight model? Will he tune the current aircraft or has he already been switched to the new project?

The employee is learning the ropes.He is now studying the code using CloD aircraft as an example. He has enough reference to last him a lifetime. He does not require external help at the moment, and letting him speak to the community might perhaps cause him to lose sleep or run away and never look back.
We are going to streamline our work with the community altogether. Whenwe do need help, and that will happen soon enough, all the questions will come from and the answers will be gathered by none other than BlackSix,rather than the programmers directly.This isn’t just the FM,but alsowith othermattersof interest to us.

5. Will it be possible to run the game on 3 monitors?

Personally, I'm flying on three monitors. If it’s not working for you, we need a more specific description of the problem.

6. Will you ever make navigation lights, landing lights and the signal smokes, as the old "IL-2"?

See answer to question number 2.

7. You’ve stated earlier that the game will have a feature similar to Il-2_Compare. We understand it’s not a high priority. But will you ever include it in the game, or is this completely scrapped?

Yes, we already have this in the works, but only for the sequel.

8. Do you have an established partnership with Nvidia and AMD? Particularly interested in AMD, since 69xx series have a lot of glitches and artifacts.

We do have an established relations. We communicate constantly, even occasionally go to their offices. The graphicsare being completely redone now. The process very difficult and slow, and takes much more time than expected. All graphic problems will be corrected within this framework.
Most will not immediately appreciate this, but I hope that at least some of you will understand that this approach is much better in the long run. When you have old leaky pipes in the house, you can patch up each hole with an old sock and some duct tape in two minutes and then wait for it to burst again somewhere else. Or you can cut off the waterflow and completely replace the piping. Overkill for a single leak, yes, but much better in the long run.

9. Can we have a Spitfire with Hispano Suiza 20mm cannon?

We discussed this with some members of the community a while ago and decided that it makes no sense. If we make the guns realistically crappy and unreliable no one will fly it. And if we make the weapons unrealistically reliable it will completely shift the balance and give the Allies a huge advantage. We do not need to add another questionable feature to the project and give the fans another thing no one can agree upon, except to say that we suck.

10. Are you planning to update existing on-line maps or make new ones?

We will not update existing maps. We are making new ones, yes.

11. Are you planning water rescue for downed pilots?

See answer to question number 2.

12. Are you planning to enable collisions with the detached components of aircraft?

Yes.This is part of the work that we are currently doing on in-game physics.

13. Can you introduce a system of military ranks and awards?

Yes, for the sequel.

14. Will you do further work on weather effects (rain, thunderstorm and so forth)?

Yes, for the sequel.

15. Can you make it so that airstart aircraft start with the radiator fully open?

Can’t see why this should be a feature.

16. What specifically does the custom user skin file size affect in terms of performance?

The bandwidth mainly.

17. Are you planning to correct the flight model of the Bristol Blenheim MK.IV based on the reference you’ve received?

Yes.

18. When you are going to add Structural Limits to the FM's? (maximum allowable g acceleration on the aircraft structure. And the aircraft damage due to exceeding the Vne or maximum g acceleration).

Nothing causes more frustration on both sides than discussing structural limits. We do have a structural limit model already, and we will improve it. However it does not nor will it work like the model created by Team Daidalos. If this was question 1 or 2 I’d perhaps be more verbose. Most aircraft that exceeded their structural limit are written off on the ground, and the fact is established with a careful measurement with a fine ruler.

19. Will you make an SDK to create dynamic campaigns?

You don't need SDK to do it.

20. Are there plans for dedicated servers files?

Yes, at a later time.