3/21/08 update from Oleg

[Avimimus]

Originally Posted by Skarphol

Well, I have, and I was wearing my contacts when I wrote that post!!
Anyway, that was late last night. I've been looking at the pictures a few times today, and i realize that the polygons are very visible on the IL-2 picture, while they are not visible at all in the SOW:BOB-picture..
But these two pictures are supposed to be around 8 years of gaming development apart. And to me, that is not that obvious. Then again, I guess the great leaps of gaming development do not lay in the plane models themselves, but all the other stuff. And on that development, Oleg is keeping his cards close to his chest.

Skarphol

It will look better in the engine. Furthermore, most of the improvements will be in other areas than the aircraft 3d models.

If anything, this just shows that, if eight years of technical and technological development doesn`t produce obvious changes, we are nearing the pen-ultimate sim. Its too bad that deformations and bending of components isn`t going to be widely modelled, though.

[Woody01]

I'm perfectly happy not to see updates, I can think of more than a sim or 2 through history that neglected the real work of programming a sim to please a hungry target audience with videos, the sims never got completed by there original designer. IL2 is the bench mark for anyone I think.

I hope there is more planed for the awesome British isles maps that have to be created for the Battle of Britain, I feel confident that soon enough we will be embarking on missions into Europe in all manner of Aircraft, including the ones we cant fly now but desperately want too.

Oleg and team have delivered far more than they ever set out to deliver so far, cant we just get on with testing 4.09b?

[Feuerfalke]

I feel my point being somewhat supported by Skarphol's post.

Begging, demanding or "threatening" Oleg to post new pictures or videos does in no regard help the effort to advertise the game to the common user:

There are many people out there who have little insight in the programming and development depth of flightsim-programming or even little experience in the IL2-series, people who just look at the pictures and see an ugly-lit still of a 3D-modell with partially high fidelity textures, while other parts of the same plane are textured with extensive use of softners.

Honestly, from some pictures alone, there are a lot better detailed and more realistically skinned 3D-modells on the modding boards for LockOn and Falcon4 than this. Neither of them will have the high fidelity flight-dynamics, internal modelling and sophisticated simulation of damaged aircraft-parts or G-stress doing further damage and all the other things we will have in BoB, of course.

But exactly that background is needed to see the real magnitude of quality and experience in these updates and that is not guaranteed for everybody looking at this board.

I just think people should do a little more thinking before demanding something or feeling personally offended by the lack of news or something like that.

[Zoom2136]

Originally Posted by Skarphol

I think the pictures are nice.
But they are not really showing much progress.
If you compare the ingame Bf-110C-4 from IL-2, its fairly similar to the upcoming Bf-110..





I realize for sure that the numbers of polygons has raised considerably, especially on the enginecowlings.

Skarphol

What did you expect... the 110c turbo fan model ???? The new one is by far more detailed...

[LEXX]

Avimus::

If anything, this just shows that, if eight years of technical and technological development doesn`t produce obvious changes, we are nearing the pen-ultimate sim. Its too bad that deformations and bending of components isn`t going to be widely modelled, though.

In the working sim it may look better, but you are touching on something very interesting -- the possibility of seeing logarithmic return of higher and higher polygon numbers in aircraft modelling. In flight simmer words, that means we may reach a time when piling on more polygons fails to visibly increase gaming immersion. Once you reach so many polygons, a high polygon Bf-110 at 100 meters looks the same as an infinite or "ideal/perfect" polygon Bf-110 at 100 meters.

As for static screenshot competition between The Sims developers and their 3D artists, aircraft polygons and the development resources they devour can go to infinity and beyond.

[Roy]

Originally Posted by LEXX

Avimus::
In the working sim it may look better, but you are touching on something very interesting -- the possibility of seeing logarithmic return of higher and higher polygon numbers in aircraft modelling. In flight simmer words, that means we may reach a time when piling on more polygons fails to visibly increase gaming immersion. Once you reach so many polygons, a high polygon Bf-110 at 100 meters looks the same as an infinite or "ideal/perfect" polygon Bf-110 at 100 meters.

As for static screenshot competition between The Sims developers and their 3D artists, aircraft polygons and the development resources they devour can go to infinity and beyond.

This is true, and it will eventually reach that point (unless they hop from polygons to something else), although screen res will lessen that effect. I'm sure that IL2's bf110 and bob:sow's bf110 would look almost the same at 100m at 640x480, save the effects each game can add to them of course; at 1920x1200 that's a different story though.

[ElAurens]

Just as it's always been, the limiting factor is the PC, not the game engine.