Friday 2010-08-13 Dev. update and Discussions

[zapatista]

Originally Posted by Romanator21

The pilots here seem to be to scale.

the pilots seen in some of the most recent WiP screenshots from Oleg are NOT to the correct scale ! this is very obvious by looking for ex at the 109 where he seems to be about 25% to small, previous posts by other observers have already explained why

Originally Posted by Romanator21

As for collision bugs: Oleg stated that this was regarding crew animations. You cannot make the same animation for a Ju-87 pilot who uses a stick, and a Ju-88 pilot who has a yoke.

thats a very confusing way to look at it.

instead maybe perceive it as "whatever the crew/pilot figure is doing in the sim, is physically represented by an animated articulated skeletal figure"

afaik the main problem right now is that with full sized pilots in very small confined spaces (like a 109 pit), the pilot "normal" movements are causing his limbs to poke out through the aircraft structure, and there is no limitation in his movements caused by colliding with the modeled aircraft skin. one short term interim solution for this is to shrink the figure down and hence give him more room to move in

edit: one oddity in all this "crew size" debate is that when viewed from inside an aircraft, the front most crew member in the brittish bomber we saw last week (inside cockpit view) showed his head almost touching the ceiling. so that crew member was roughly the correct size. maybe the "collision bug" is only present on outside views ? (oleg already confirmed the temporary use of smaller crew figures doesnt affect the 1e person views)

[Richie]

I wonder if we'll be able to give a wave in the cockpit like here..4:30 on the time slide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wpcHlDWHNU

[Oleg Maddox]

Originally Posted by Bloblast

Well I must say that I personally prefer a pilot with correct size with less movement to prevent a collision bug.

We have perfectly correct size of crew. Everything in right scale.
Crew is 175 cm.

Originally Posted by Oleg Maddox

We have perfectly correct size of crew. Everything in right scale.
Crew is 175 cm.

Thx for clearing up.
We were just a bit confused about what Luthier told us about pilot size.

Two things I want to ask:

1. Will different cockpit sizes effect on the movement ability of the pilot, for exemple in bf 109 cockpit you can't move as much as in other planes?
2. (Watched some older screens and realised that the cockpit skins show outwarn textures.) Will there also be the planes with "out-of-the-factory" cockpit skins?

[No601_Swallow]

Originally Posted by zapatista

the point about including the potential for very high detailed scenery (and drivable ground vehicles, controllable ships, etc..) is that if this is built in from the start of SoW-BoB then it makes the sim engine scalable for the future as hardware increases, and then you end up with BOTH aspects (the best of both worlds so to speak)......



i have repeatedly asked questions to Oleg and Co allong those lines over the years, but i dont think the idea has received much traction, and i am not sure oleg entirely got my point either.

My own understanding was that after ACES studio was erased from the face of this planet, Oleg did indeed see the potential in making a play for the MSFS niche - the overarching flightsim framework that might support a multitude of 3rd party addons and sceneries. I think the quote was "a vibrant 3rd party eco-system" or some such.

I see no reason why not, given the sophistication of what Oleg is trying to do and the beautiful CURVED Earth that we saw in the WIP pictures a couple of weeks ago. I was a little surprised noone seemed to comment on them from that perspective then. Indeed, I'd be quite certain that Oleg is building in a SOW equivalent of FSUIPC or simconnect.

My own dream would be for MSFS developers (or similar) to step in very quickly to perhaps offer a payware (or even better freeware!) fully functioning Biggin, say, or (my Squadron's heart Tangmere, with ground vehicles, textures, triggers, surrounding structures,etc, even for the original (Vanilla) BOB map, in much the same way as FSDT or Flytampa or Aerosoft publish airports and expansions for FSX/98. This is apart from offering new aircraft, new areas of the world, new eras...

(Personally, I'd love a set of early airliners, the DH Comet, the Caravel, the Constellation... These might appear in a SOW-engine-equipped addon, perhaps even able to use the same maps, perhaps not... Possibilities, possibililities...)

[Stukadriver]

Beautiful screen shots. Very nice, indeed and I applaud your work. Genius.
Some time ago, a question of what could be suggested to make the simulation more realistic in terms of events. You clearly have the image quality in hand. I was wondering if having the mission scrubbed and called back due to weather changes would add to the realism. Engine issues could come up for the player and/or his wingman. Losing elements of a flight due to engine problems or your AI wingmen becoming too scared to fly could make missions more precarious if a player decided to carry on with the mission without all the flight's units.

[philip.ed]

Oleg, any input into the trees? I ask as the trees shown recently look excellent, but in England these trees look more like garden ones. The main types of trees are a lot rounder and denser foliage wise. excellent work

[Novotny]

^^ Either you are a master troll or incredibly stupid. Could be both, mind.

[Splitter]

Originally Posted by slm

This moving pilot's head has been possible in some other sims for quite a while - since TrackIR SW made it possible. I've tried it in MS Flight Simulator and it is quite useful during taxiing, landing etc. This feature also minimizes need for discussions about pilot position inside the cockpit, like in FW-190s. If you can't see well from one position, just move your head.

Although I must say that it would be quite useful if you could enable/disable this head movement. In other words, you could change head position to some place, then press a key to "lock" it and after that head would stay in place. You could still turn the head up/down and left/right. If you wanted to move head position, press a key to "unlock" it and you'd have 6DOF head movement again.

Sorry I was not clear. I have not flown X-Plane or MSFS with anything like TrackIR. What I was talking about was "in game" functionality where you could move your perspective around the cockipit using only the arrow keys. Heck, you can even move your perspective (head) outside the cockpit in this manner and leave it there lol. While the latter is not realistic, it is very useful to be able to change one's perspective inside the cockpit and "leave it there" for a while.

Even though I was unclear, your points are well taken. Some sort of head tracking software adds something to a sim.

I just recently downloaded Facetracknoir which uses face tracking software to achieve a similar effect to TrackIR (except it is free lol). I have only tried it with IL-2 and only in "free flight" training missions while working out the kinks. But WOW, what a difference in experience. While it does not (as far as I can tell) let you tilt your head or move along the X,Y,or Z axis for a change in perspective, it does track your face as a substitute for the HAT switch...you can look up, down, left or right "automatically".

Now I have to try it while shooting down enemies . I do know one key turns it on or off while flying so that probably helps for people that want to get stable for shooting.

I do hope Oleg and Crew look at some of the other functionality items listed recently in this thread. "Volunteering" for specialized missions such as recon, rescue, and such would add a lot to the game. I love me some marksmanship practice, but dodging 109's by ducking into clouds while on a recon mission has appeal.

I wish (there is that word again) that we could get functionality updates like we get graphics updates, but that information is probably too sensitive from the competitive perspective.

Splitter

[SimHq Tom Cofield]

Very nice looking indeed.