Friday 2011-02-04 Dev. update and Discussion

[zapatista]

Originally Posted by luthier

Whoa.

I did post this on a Russian-language forum a few days ago.

The dynamic weather is extremely complex and done in-depth, more so than in any other sim. However its complexity is its downfall. It runs so slow, you can't fly with it on our large map. The physics kill the CPU and the complex clouds kill the video card.

Since complex weather was down the task list for the team behind FM, AI, various plane systems, and DM, we started on optimizing it too late and so won't have it working at sufficient framerate in time for release.

However we actually are shipping the weather in its current state with the game, accessible to the player via the FMB as a "play with it at your own risk" undocumented feature. And we will definitely be updating and improving it in the future.

hiya luthier & oleg,

big thanks for making the effort to include the dynamic weather "as is" as an optional extra, many people on higher end machines will enjoy playing around with the dynamic weather to see how it works and its effect.

it is indeed a lower priority, and important to get the game out the door at the moment with the more important core elements working correctly.

question: is there any hope to have the dynamic campaign element added in as a similar "as is" state, and allow the community to develop it further with some tools ? (if this is low down the priority for your team). this is a BIG part of what some of us were looking forward to the scripted missions are fine for one initial part of the game but it is not what will keep people playing it over and over. it completely takes the sim to a new level of gameplay to be able to have an unfolding war scenario that evolves 24/7, with us being able to step in at various points and choose the missions types we prefer (fighter escort, interception, dogfight, pilot resque, naval torpedo attack, resupply mission to frontline troops, etc...), and have an evolving battle scenario unfolding around us

[lbuchele]

Many thanks for your hard work,Oleg, Ilya and team.
Contructive criticism maybe a good thing,that's true,but the fact is that doing computer software is an intelectual business.
You can`t DEMAND that people create something.That's right, this is a creative,artistic work like writing a book or paiting a canvas.
You need lots of inspiration and knowledge to do what they are doing.
I assume that I can't simply demand impressive weather,amazing clouds or stunning aircraft , but only expect that they could find a way inside their
minds to transform complex mathematical formulas in that marvelous graphical world that I want to immerse myself.
Or:they have a vision,have the courage to share with us and after that they need to build a road to do the liason between the present and that vision.
That road doesn't exists,need to be created from nothing,there are not even a model to look for inspiration because it wasn't build for anyone before...
I'm speaking for myself,naturally,and this only my opinion,but I really respect what they are doing here.
Because I don't even dream how they are capable of doing something so beautiful and believable.