Friday 2010-07-30 Dev. update and Discussions

[Necrobaron]

I learned long ago that the sim community, beyond most all others, has a knack for nitpicking about absolutely irrelevant details. I understand it's important to have as much accuracy as possible (it is a sim after all) and I want Oleg and Co. to put out the best product they possibly can, but most of the nitpicking concerns graphical limitations and things that don't make a bit of difference in the long run. I'm more concerned about FMs, DMs, and that sort of thing, you know...things that are actually important in a combat flight simulator. Unfortunately, those aspects can't really be conveyed in a screenshot, so I just enjoy the screenshots for what they are: Brief, momentary glimpses of a much larger picture.
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Website Design

[Bolelas]

I aggre with you mr necrobaron. About the question of moving control surfaces to be seen, question has been answered before in the forum, yes, we will see them mooving, but only close distance. in the today picture of the JU88 i think (not sure) is seen that elevator is not neutral.
Other aspect not refered yet is, if buttons can be programed to act not only as momentary but also as toggle switch, witch would be very usefull to cockpit builters etc.

[Mysticpuma]

Originally Posted by proton45

p.s. I'm sure the movie makers will enjoy this added detail of reality...

Once we know what cameras we have?

I'd love a camera on the gunsight, but looking back at the pilot. This would be fantastic to record the pilot animations as combat ensues. A movie-makers dream camera that would be.

Cheers, MP

[the Dutchman]

I learned long ago that the sim community, beyond most all others, has a knack for nitpicking about absolutely irrelevant details.

Ah,but who started it?
How many updates have we seen that aren't relevant to a flightsim,eh?
I personally don't care about the "physics of a swiveling antenna on the rotating turrent of an armoured car"..........

[RedToo]

Originally Posted by Mysticpuma

The 'skins' look very soft and lacking detail as do the surface textures of the aircraft.

They do sharpen up quite nicely in Photoshop:



RedToo.

[Splitter]

The baron speaks the truth.

I think the development team is doing the right thing in toning down the updates. All they lead to is people nitpicking and asking for silly "additions". Plus, I believe Olegg recently conveyed the reality that other entities steal ideas and such from them. So why publish graphical updates for the competition and the ungrateful?

What update do I want? What do most of us want? A report on how progress is coming concerning a release date. Just let me know if the sim is going to be ready for the Christmas gift season. Is that estimate still on track?

...and you can't call ME a FANBOY as I just purchased 1946 and haven't had the chance to play it yet .

Splitter

Originally Posted by Necrobaron

I learned long ago that the sim community, beyond most all others, has a knack for nitpicking about absolutely irrelevant details. I understand it's important to have as much accuracy as possible (it is a sim after all) and I want Oleg and Co. to put out the best product they possibly can, but most of the nitpicking concerns graphical limitations and things that don't make a bit of difference in the long run. I'm more concerned about FMs, DMs, and that sort of thing, you know...things that are actually important in a combat flight simulator. Unfortunately, those aspects can't really be conveyed in a screenshot, so I just enjoy the screenshots for what they are: Brief, momentary glimpses of a much larger picture.

[genbrien]

Originally Posted by Tree_UK

we are not going to see SOW this year.

would you please stop saying that in each thread, on multiple web sites... we kinda got the message

Thx

[Friendly_flyer]

Hallo Luthier and company! Very nice shots, and to my eyes the propellers look great!

The serial on the Hurricane is off though. British WWII military serials was not hyphenated, but simply a 1 letter 4 numbers, like this (photoshopped):



If the serials are added as an actual code in an appropriate font, I suppose this would be an easy thing to fix.

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by Bobb4

A simple question from me, will enemy/friendly/other player/ai plane's main operating surfaces move or will we be forced like in the current IL2 to look for othe visual cues that they are trying to sideslip, barrel-roll etc.
At the moment all planes do not seem to show elevator,alerion, rudder or other movements other than on the player controlled plane. I could be wrong but all the visuals i have seen seem to reinforce this. Please tell me I am wrong.
Other than that I have to say everything looks great.

Example
Look at the screenshots of the 109's in formation and the J88's banking and all the control surfaces look static?

Actually, it's clearly visible that the Ju88 closer to the camera has its elevators slightly deflected upwards, the one in front also has a slight upward elevator but it's harder to spot...maybe they've already used their ailerons to bank and they are now just pulling on the stick to make the turn.

Now, as for why they have the exact same control inputs, i think this is to save CPU power in AI calculations. Just like IL2, it seems that AI in formation tend to move in almost perfect unison (although AI planes still do wiggle back and forth a bit in formation, you can check this out if you engage autopilot and up the time compression a bit). It sure would be nice to have some variation to make it feel more "human", but it won't bother me much if it saves processing power for other equally important things.

[Friendly_flyer]

To Oleg and Luthier.

In all the screenshots so far, the RAF planes have had the 24 inches wide by 27 inches tall finflash. This was first introduced in August 1940, but was not universal throughout Fighter Command before December 1940 (the squadrons presumably having more pressing issues than repainting markings).

An order for tail-markings for RAF planes was issued in May. It specified tricolour markings in RAF paint colours, red forward, and stated that they should "cover as much of the fin area as possible". Thus, a number of versions appeared. These are all taken from photos of Hurricanes in 1940:

"Full" tails:


"Cropped" tails:


Finflash:


RAF flew with the various "full" and "cropped" tail markings all through the Channel clashes in summer 1940, by late September/early October perhaps half of the squadrons had changed, and some stragglers flew with them even into early 1941.

Do you plan to have a look at this rather amazing variety of tail markings? If so, I have started collecting data on what squadron had what tail markings, and when they changed over to the regulation flash.