Friday 2009-10-23 Screenshots Update discussion thread

[Thunderbolt56]

In those pics, the aircraft props are not turning. Are the aircraft images overlayed on the landscape or are those some actual "in-game" shots?

[metro163]

will TrackIR be supported in BOB？ If so，I will buy one now.
PS：Any suggests for the peripherals, like HOTAS, TrackIR, etc....can't wait to pre-purchase some.

[proton45]

Originally Posted by Spinnetti

Curious to know more about the switch from OpenGL... I thought that was the better performing technology?

+1

[dflion]

Thanks Oleg and Ilya for the update pics.
From my amateur photography perspective I have made the following observations of each jpeg.

Jpg0100 Spitfire cockpit – excellent cockpit reproduction, very clear ground detail from cockpit windows (high depth of field), all shadow effects are excellent.
Jpg0101 Extinct Volcano – Distant airfield, trees, fields, earth rocks, water reflections, clouds are reproduced in high detail with excellent visibility to the horizon (high depth of field) I noticed there were no cloud shadows over the land mass.
Jpg0102 Covered vehicle – Excellent detail, good shadow effect, long grass, distant trees and house look very effective and much more realistic than IL-2. High cloud effects very good.
Jpg0103 Red & White check control tower – Good detail and shadow effect relative to the sun’s position.
Jpg0104 Airfield wooden tower – good detail and shadow effects, very crisp and clear distance details of trees, airfield and aircraft line-up. I like the airfield ‘depth of field’ effect, it looks very realistic.
Jpeg0105 Petrol drums – good shadow effects, long grass looks good (though a bit too bright green). Again the distant airfield and trees are very crisp and clear with the ‘depth of field’ effect.
Jpeg0106 Radar Tower – Excellent detail and shadow effect from midday sun.
Jpeg0108 Large radar towers with water and cliffs – Water looks excellent (though no shoreline wave action). Cliff detail and shadow effects are very good.
Jpeg0110 Line of vehicles – Excellent tree shadow effect with patches of sunlight – again excellent ‘depth of field’ showing tree varieties and their shadows to very good effect.
Jpeg0111 Water, Cliffs, Clouds and Hills – Water looks much more realistic, cloud types look excellent in late afternoon sun with very effective shadow effects.
Jpeg0112 Fuel truck and different grass types – Excellent attention to detail with truck and contents. Grass types look very good, though colours are a bit vivid.
Jpeg0113 Fuel hose truck, airfield buildings and aircraft – excellent detail on truck, buildings look like typical WWII types. Distant aircraft line-up and trees very crisp and clear under noon sun.
Jpeg0116 Flying shot – Excellent cloud and shadow effects with excellent water and ‘white caps’ effects. Very good distance clarity of land and cloud shadow effects.
Jpeg0117 Spitfire top view (1) Excellent aircraft attention to detail (surface rivet detail) with excellent shadow and Perspex canopy sun effects. Water underneath more realistic with ‘white caps’.
Jpeg0126 Spitfire top view (2) Same aircraft description as above. Tree and ground detail very realistic with excellent shadow effects, a huge improvement on IL-2.
Jpeg0130 Volcano setting sun and clouds with water reflections. Spectacular sun, cloud types and reflective effects – very photo realistic.
Jpeg0131 Sun, cloud, land and water effects – A great grab showing very photo realistic effects.
Jpeg0147 Spitfire smoke and shadows – very realistic smoke effects with very good shadow/sunlight effects on Spitfire.
Jpeg0168 Me110 – Excellent shadow and canopy sunlight effects with very good sun and water reflections. Again a very photo-realistic grab.

Summary – Some colours are a bit bright which is obviously still a work in progress.
Overall, the attention to detail is excellent. Looking forward to the next release.

DFLion

[blottogg]

Lancelot beat me to it...curved roads! Other terrain features Other things I noticed were vertical cliffs (ask the guys doing Mod maps of Dover how easy that was in the Il-2 engine), forests that look like forests (from any angle), self-shadowing cockpits, airplanes and ground objects, and grass. The smoke shot and clouds look like a huge step up from Il-2 as well. Looking at the Spit gunsight has me wondering if I'll be able to adjust range/wingspan settings in-game. I know most of this has been announced months earlier, but seeing it all rendered in-game is still great. Glad to hear you're feeling better Oleg, and thanks for the eye candy.

As far as the fresh appearance of the aircraft, Oleg has mentioned in the past that persistant weathering will be a feature of the sim. Unless that has changed, expect to see shots of it in-game in the future. As Ilya said, they can't show us everything at once, especially while they're still coding it all.

As a request for the next update, are there any rivers with bridges on the test map? I'm curious to see how riverbanks are done in the SoW engine. I'm also curious how indirect lighting will be handled in SoW. In Il-2 I'll frequently turn on the instrument lights during the day to see them, in part because there isn't much indirect light thrown on to them. The shots here look better, at least in noon daylight.

P.S. I'm glad to see the RSU (Runway Supervisory Unit, aka "the box", pic 103) is included, having spent more than my fair share of time in one myself. Will poor performing pilots in campaigns be relegated to the RSU to perform gear checks (with the binoculars included) until their performance improves?

[nearmiss]

Will SOW support the nVida 3D?

[Waldo.Pepper]

I don't have any questions, or sadly anything constructive to say. I am impressed I guess but not blown away. I hope I get blown away about SOW one day but so far I am not. I guess maybe I am expecting too much. (Hopefully this is not old man syndrome.)

[Viking]

Thank you Oleg for the uppdate!

I have no complains as I know that all is from WIP and it will look better in the end.

Happy to hear that you intend to restart the regular friday uppdates.
You will recive a lot of whining, complaints,demands, suggestions etc but please keep in mind that its beacuse we all love and care for Il-2 and the new baby SOW.


Regards

Viking

[Feuerfalke]

Originally Posted by Flyby

Oleg, or Luthier
Why the decision not to go with OpenGL? Inquiring minds want to know (it might be educational).
Flyby out

Considering the possibilities especially of DX10 and 11, this is the better choice to make full use of modern hardware. As I and some other people posted before, some things are also a lot easier to accomplish under DX. DX10 and 11 have native support of multiple CPUs and GPUs and can also render more efficiently to multiple-monitor-setups than the simple desktop spreading of XP. Of course you can do the same under OpenGL, but it's simply more work, which means precious time that can now be used for more important tasks.

Originally Posted by luthier

There's no AA on those shots because they use HDR, and right now you can't do both.

SoW no longer uses OpenGL

HS....hehe I remember the early interview with Oleg about BOB SOW...he said how opengl is a much better choice for BOB SOW than DX....never mind

so it would be DX9?