Oleg Maddox's Room #2 QUESTIONS & REQUESTS TO OLEG ABOUT BOB SOW

[Forgottenfighter]

... A New Oleg Maddox's Room -

I think that it has become too time consuming to scroll through the 187 pages of Oleg Maddox's Room in search for answers. People keep posting the same questions because they haven't time to read the 1860 posts in Oleg Maddox's Room. So, I compiled a list of all the answered questions, along with the relevant answers. That way it will be easier for everyone to find answers, and easier for Oleg because people won't keep asking the same questions.

1) Can we expect some kind of list regarding add-ons and changes implemented in the final 4.09 patch ?

Only when it will be ready. But now I can say that changes thare will be minimal, becasue of absolutely no time.

2) I would like it if Oleg could address the issue of countering the recent spate of hacks for 4.08, and to tell us what plans he has (if any) to once again lock down the game and combat those who would seek to open up the code.

Probably there will be only very minimal changes. See answer above.

3) I remember Oleg saying way back that there would be AI available in Dogfight servers.
I wonder if the game had got onto testing Mutliplayer yet?

In BoB - Yes.

4) My question is if SOW gives you the possibility in offline mode to start your mission in Hangars or Parking possitions? And if so will there be the possibilty to give the aircraft rolling waypoints on the ground?

It will be possible in offline and in online. But for AI will be standard constant waypoints for parking (in hangar also)

5) Can you tell us about any new features in BOB that we don't know about?
So far, we know of dynamic weather and 6DOF...any surprises to come?
What does the future hold for IL2? If you stop further work on it, will the community be able to add content to it in the future?
What are your thoughts on the recently debated sound mod/hack?
I have a seperate post asking about the availability of any IL2 merchandise...is there any available?
If not, are there plans to do some merchandising?

There will be many surprises in time. Like with Il-2 we put in engine many things that will be open later later depending of middle PC power on the market.
With 4.09 we will stop any work with Il-2. Really we did it already... just waiting finalization of new maps.

6) I'm wondering if it will be possible to give pilots separate AI. That in a way a squadron is a good mix of rookie, experienced, veteran and ace pilots

.

It will be in BoB. Already is in current code of BoB.

7) Will there be an in-game multiplayer session browser and chat room?
Following in the same vein, has there ever been plans or an idea to have a centralized skins server?

I would tell right now how will be origanized menus, details of multiplayer, etc. We don't need centralized skins server due to used technology.

Will the mission data files (.mis) be simple text as now? Or XML...?

text

9) My question is: on what operatiing system SOW-BOB will run?
Will it be based on OpenGl as Il2 was or DirectX?
Will it be DirectX9 or 10? Or both?

OpenGl - still main.

10) When can we see some SoW updates with vids and sounds?
Will 4.09 have new sounds? Seems it might discourage hacking.

Sounds of BoB only when beta will be on the runway.
No new sounds in 4.09.

11) Will the offline campaigns and missions be fully developed? or will you rely more on third party community involvement than you did in the Il2 franchise?
Will there be more programmable camera views and options for the movie makers?

missions will be done fully inside company.
Camera views will be expanded

12) Will players be able to fly any heaavy bombers in SoW.
Will SOW have some sort of fuel rearm and repair option.
Will SoW have historic ground battles WITH infantary.

No heavy bomber in BoB. They wasn't there at the period of time which we model.
Fuel rearm - will be. Repair - some sort.
No battles with infantry. We are doing flight sim.

13) Do you have any plans to, or interest in including the Hampden in SoW BoB?

?

14) And to avoid useless work for theses fans, is the french planes welcome in BoB or future realease?

In future possible

15) Will there be ground crew and vehicles arming and fueling the planes?

Some kind.

16) AI: will the AI situational awareness of AI pilots and gunners (also ship and land gunners) be subjected to sunlight blinding?

Some kind You all would like to much and too early

17) Also any possibility of making also Linux version of BoB ?

No.

1 Has it been decided if you will release the 3D tools to 3rd party dev's?

It is our plan. But after release.

19) What is the purpose of the opening doors in the aircraft models?
What differences can we expect in the user interface?
What aspects of BoB will be customizable and what aspects will be closed?
Will SoW take advantage of the latest Sound Cards?
What will be the maximum number of pilots on a single server?

Too many questions. Will answer just one. Openable door we need for visuals and future updates of features .
Sound - we alwasy use the most advanced sound cards that to get binaural sound.

20) What are the minimum and recommended hardware specs?
What is a likely release date?

I can't answer right now exact things. Better to do not buy now new hardware... and wait release or final anounce with specs.

21) Is there any chance to give us a persistent multiplayer server in BoB? I mean an arena like server.
thanks in advance.

At the moment I can't say will we support dedicaded server ourselves or it will again distibuted fro free. And we will have new modes for multiplay

22) QOUTE{Regarding your answers on the sound patch, just so I can be sure I understand..

1. Your team is NOT GOING TO release an OFFICIAL SOUND PATCH in 4.09,... due to lack of time.

2. Your team will DO NOTHING TO STOP the New sound hacks use,... due to lack of time.

3. Your team will NOT PUT FORTH THE EFFORT to add a more realistic sound to Sow there for... NO GREAT IMPROVEMENT FOR SOUNDS IN SOW. <- Why not?. }QOUTE
- all work dedicated to BoB, no? all this sound stuff/wav files is no doubt time consuming to gather, integrate to a certain level of ingame fidelity et al, unless you're willing to rip off copyrighted soundfiles from somewhere? which of course cannot be done if you're a company as opposed to some hacker kiddy, no? pretty good reasons...

i dunno - the sound was never really that brilliant, granted. but it did the job of letting you know when your engine's about to conk out, or if you're running at too high rev's, you know - the important things. sounding *exactly* like a merlin thats flown so many hours is not something that registers as important... losing control surfaces in a 900kph dive, yeah thats important, rattling pistons comes waaaaay down the list

edit - 3. Your team will NOT PUT FORTH THE EFFORT to add a more realistic sound to Sow there for... NO GREAT IMPROVEMENT FOR SOUNDS IN SOW. um yeah he actually said "Sounds of BoB [will be heard]only when beta will be on the runway.
No new sounds in 4.09. nothing about sound quality in BoB[/i]

That to make it clear:

In BoB there is absolutley new sound engine. Maybe in Il-2 sound samples wasn't so good for the cheap speakers, but the 3D bunaural engine of sound there is still the best.

And I don't undesrant why to repeat me... Lack of time means that we are busy with new sim. Completely new. This means time, forces and funds. I don't see if there could be any additional questions why or so...

23) Oleg i understand that were are not heavy bomber in BOB, but i hope this time all Airplane implemented in this game will be pilotable.

Impossible to make them pilotable (on our slang - flyable).
1. Not for all is even possible to find sources that to make them looks like real. With the more great quality of modelling in new sim this point is going to be even more stronger than in IL-2.
2. now flyable aircraft, i.e developemtn of aircraft, cockpit of fighter take at least 4-6 months... I don't speak about bombers, which are more complex and have more internal seats to model with enviroument... So if you will make simple calculation and with take equal time for each aircraft you may get many-many years of developemtn only 30-40 aircraft in one small development studio.
3. We will release special tools for third party that will allow to include third party aircraft or new cocmpits... But it will be not like the chaos in MS... it will be by other way and no chaos in online. The new system. But tools - some time after the reelase of BoB itself... So the most advanced third party developers sure will make all flyable or will make completely new things... Simply this i shouldn't tell now in details. Some solutions are secret

24) About FM itself...I've heard about various effects of weather on the plane, but is(I'm pretty sure it is but I hope for some details ) FM itself further improved from present il2 state?
I've heard rumors that we will literary have to learn to fly from scratch...

Pilot: Ebven charachter of pilot will be modelled. Fatigue as well.

50 Lb is really for two hands as a midle force with which possible to pilot aircraft still in the frame that to do not chrash...

FM isn't the thing that you need to learn again. Some differences in complex situations... but in general fly the same or very close to what is. It will be different in details and more adjustable for different aircaraft types.

25) I was wondering if changing the view position using 6DOF will move the pilot's body as well? In real life pilots often tried to hide behind the airplanes engine when attacking bombers

Yes a bit. In a limit of the belts. But with options of complexity probably.

26) Regarding 4.09:

Can u assure us that there is a check on the il2fb.exe so people that havn't original version cant join online sessions?

First off all, that to make new check for that we need simply to rewrite too many things, icluding even file structure. It is simply impossible to make such a great job when we are totally busy with BoB...
I can't promise now... but my guys in research what is possible by minimal human/month busy schedule...
Say "Thanks" guys who did it... and who do not understand what they did for online community...

27) Will radio navigation be included and what maps will you have in game?

Yes. Map is one. And probably several small special online maps.

2 Will icing on the wings be considered?

Probably. It is in our plan, but not in major priority.

29) WHAT will change on the engine (and fuel) management side?

I can say that there _will_ be changes.

30) In BoB will we be able to identify and located planes, trucks, tanks from the correct distances when looking out of the cockpit of our aircraft ?

I do think it will depending of the power of your home computer. The system of LODs it totally new.

31) Will there be a Damage Model more precise (I remember some sayings about that), and which will be sensible to the time, or the G for exemple ? I mean, when my wing is hitted I cannot take too much G, and if I do, the damage spread and I can break my wing more easily.

Will be. But I wont say all things now.

32) What about shaders in game, how that would be used, and what about HDR lighting, will some sort of that will be used?

I don't discuss technology terms. Many things already is, many will be.
Shaders we use very much in Il-2

33) Just a quick question regarding the size of the map. I believe that you have stated, that the map will cower to the north of London, but how much of France or Belgium will be modeled? Will German bombers be able to takeoff from inland bases or do they simply spawn in the air?

No Germany. The map is too detailed that to make it even greater than we will have.

34) In IL2 almost all on-line pilots forced to fly at low resolutions (1024x768 usually) for best view (ground HQ at 8000m ), in Bob:SOW this problem continue?.

Fist time I read such... Really I know other picture...

35) In IL2 with some configurations you're capable ear sounds of others planes, explosions at ten milles... (whitout last shit cheats). Host in SOW has option of configurate sound for all players? (as one swith "real sound")

This means incorrect configurations of sound panning. And simple panning of some cheapest sound cards its own drivers... In Bob we are going by other eway and have own panning, instead of manufacture driver's panning.

36) I would like to ask if we can expect better Force Feedback support in SoW? It would be great to have better immersion of flying.

Really any real pilot would say you that what called FF on Joystick has nothing common with real situation.... Really they woukld say you that without that FF would be more correct comparing to real life...
I don't know what we will have with FF... But probably this item will be open in source code for third party development.

37) Awhile back there was some talk about a trainer aircraft for Bob.....my question is if this is true, would it also be possible to take the co-pilot seat in any of the games bomber's during on-line play......the co-pilot could do trim, or take over if the pilot is killed

True. What will be in online modes in terms of this question I will not tell till final. Its a big secret at the moment.

3 Any plans to include the Dewoitine D.520??? (It’s formidable little fighter with nose-mounted 20mm Hispano (+ 4 MGs) - comparable to bf109E for potency/performance (apart from direct fuel-injection)...

We - not. But third party will be able to do it in time themselves.

39) Can it be possible to have planes explode more realistically when ground pounded? Currently they turn black and simply lean to the left or right.

I do think that in Il-2 the most realistic explosions on the market of the sims.. In BoB will be better.

40) Will BOB have similar support for the 3 Views option currently used in Il-2 for multi-monitor support? This is the Use3Renders option.

Probably. Hwever it isn't in a list of first things to be developed.

41) Will wings visibly flex? (Or even just the effects?)

When we will have in future the planes where it is visible in reality – probably yes. But say on Ju-88 – it is invisible (at least in flight with high G for sure)

42) Will any tweaking be made to multiplayer support that may take over Hyperlobby, and support ladders?

Will be new multiplayer code.

43) Will there be a drop down window for coops so we can save server address ?

Probably. But by another way.

44) Are we able to choose exactly what type of ammunition we want for our ammunition belts? What I mean is can we choose the types of bullets that we want. If we want to load Gun 1 with all HE and Gun 2 with all Tracer, or no Tracer and Gun 3 with 4 AP and 1 Tracer, or 2 AP and 3 Tracer etc. If we could custom load each ammo belt, this would really open up a lot of possibilities for the virtual pilot.

It will depending of mission. And limits defined on server.

45) Oleg, will you improve how overheating is modeled in BOB

The complex model of engine work is more advanced.

46) Can we have more realistic vision effect for high G (loose peripheral vision)?

I do think we have the most realistic for the computer visualisation.

47) I would really like to know how the briefing / debriefing will look like and what info from mission will it contain (offline and online). If not secret maybe some pictures ?

Next year will show maybe.

4 Is the flyable plane set completely decided on, (including different marks of planes we already know), or not yet?

Completely decided. Don’t ask too much. Because maybe some of them could be removed and later coming in add-ons

49) Will SoW take advantage of multi-core setups, dual or even quads?

Will

50) Centrifical force- will this be modelled in BoB?

Example: a wing gets shot off: the resulting G-forces on the pilot may be such to keep them pinned (and disoriented) in the cockpit.The same as like if one has many coins in a sock that one spins around keeps them from coming out the open end.

Maybe. If you mean centrifugal force

51) I can see that doors of Br-20 aircraft are openable - does it means, that the pilot would be able to go through the doors, to get in to the aircraft, or to get out of the aircraft?

Maybe in future. Engine in principle allow it

52) I was wondering about a few aspects of mission building for BoB SoW...will we have options (or AI features) like: if Stuka raid fails to remove "radar" tower(s) RAF fighter intercept will find targets (German bombers) quicker? or If AI fighter runs out of ammo he must return to base to reload?

Radars will play right role. Reload planned at the moment for online gameplay.

53) Will cloud's provide inviability from the AI?

Yes.

54) Will AI fighters have a blind spot (below)?

Yes. But not a spot. Some area.

55) Will we be able to program "campaign's" with options concerning supply (if factory or truck convoys destroyed repairs can not be made)

Too early question

56) Will we be able to surprise AI defense with tricks like low altitude attack? (like a tree top approtch)

Yes. Some time in some places.

57) Will we be able to design missions in campaign mode where we have to make command decisions that will effect out come of future actions? (example: if we split our bombers into 2 groups and bomb and airfield and a sea-port at the same time, some RAF fighters will be called away to defend the first (closer) air-strike and the second German raid will meet smaller defense? But if all bombers attack one airfield they have a more difficult defense?)

Can’t answer it now.

5 Will we be able to kill AI gunners in bombers and/or will they run out of ammo?

It is in IL-2.

59) WILL WE be able to build maps?

Yes. But only small. Big maps we will keep for ourselves that to release new series of sims.

60) Will there be different versions of the Bf-109 E? E-1, E-3, E4 or E-7 /B?

E-1 – Sure no.

61) Will it be possible to fly in different formations? Like the Schwarm and Vic? And be able as a flightcommander to change formation and spacing between planes inflight?

Try in Il-2. In BoB it is improved.

62) Will it look more realistic when a pilot bails out of his plane? In Il-2 the pilot sometimes goes through the plane when he bails out in the air, on the ground he exits the cockpit by jumping 3 meters straight up in the air and in water he run instead of swimming. Will this be modeled more realistic in SOW:BOB?

Can’t answer it now. Maybe in time. It is complex animation of pilot at first…

63) Will your plane crash if you fly into a tree?

In Il-2 we have two types of trees - with collision model and without. These that are without are graphical feature and loads with maximum settings. It was don that to make equal gameplay of players with different power of their PC and its settings. In BoB we will have only type with collision model.

64) [Regarding damaged Spitfire screenshots] Nice pic's. I never saw how looks in combat damaged aircraft, but for me looks more like spit was flying under big drops of concentrated acid rain instead that got damages from bullets with huge kinetic energy. I don't know. Maybe damage from flak looks exactly like this. Anyway detail is wery high.

Probably you'll never see such many big holes at once, like on these pics of Spitfire. And it isn't due to hits of bullets. It is due to flak and hits of shells.
From bullets we will "draw" actual(exact) places of hits. This you will see not so soon and already in the 3D engine together with other types of damage.
Main was to show missibg in flight aerodynamic panels of engine, etc.. It wasn't so rare in real aerial combat.


For us is a great task how to make a lot of details and at the same time to render a lot of aircraft in air simultaniosly.... So all things will be optimized for this...
Say it is possible to make even greater details of damage, aircraft itself , etc... but probably in case of hundreds aircraft in action around you you will need the PC that will be existed only say ten years after release
Hope you all understand what the tasks we have and what the technical problems are on our board...
The is no problem to make increadible amount of polygons in aircraft (or ground units), but then will follow problem of PC power, when in air isn't just one aircraft.... When the water is trasparent, when the clouds looks like real and moving, etc...
BoB will be again a "fight of compromises" in technologies and will offer the best compromises that wioll be usable for many years ahead, like it was with Il-2

65) I have a question about the DM. Is the visual damage in the same place you hit? In IL2, you have a very general visual damage. It shows you hit the wing, but not where exactly on the wing, or how bad other then light and heavy. How will BoB's visual DM differ? Or will it use the same general IL2 DM system?

In General it is advanced mix of old and new technologies. See my answer above that to understand.
And in Il-2, when it was born - nobody in industry had such "very general" Attemps of others was...

66) Great to see a few more screenshots.
The detail in these models is superb.
Are all aircraft, including AI types, being done to a similar level of detail?
Are all aircraft modelled with similar level of airframe detail to the Spitfire images?
When parts fly off can they hit following aircraft and cause damage?
Will the "damage" to aircrew be modelled as realistically as damage to the aircraft or will "gore" effects be toned down?
When bailing out from a bomber will the pilot be able to stay at the controls to give the crew more chance to escape before he bails out?

gore effects will be toned down. It is marketing principle that to get 12+ rating. We have small niche of market and we need to listen what this market tell us...

For all other questions I would say yes on 98%.

67) Could you state your feeling on the hack mod issue. i and others would like to know your thought's on this and what it means for the future?

I personally hate any hack that may damage fair online gameplay.

6 Yes, I get the point about PC power......that's why I am waiting to the very last minute before I upgrade after SOW BOB comes out. I'm going to have to invest in cooling systems as well I fear. I thought that those (big) holes in the wings could only be from cannon shells.
Only 92 days to go if the date does not change again...........92 days of hell (in the cooler!!)......I'd better get that little rubber ball out again!
Best regards,
Pike.

Yes... better to wait with upgrade of PC if the BoB is the main in your mind. I still don't know midlle and lowest hardware that to run BoB smooth. Will know finally in spring or even more close to summer.

69) If you have a moment, there are two ideas that I thought I would pass on:

1.
Is there any thought about being able to get (or to turn on automatic) verbal instructions from other crew members?

For example:
- The navigator could estimate TAS from IAS for the bombardier
- The rear gunner could yell out the approach of an enemy fighter to the bomber pilot (or complain about being to closs to flak).
- A radar operator could give instructions to the pilot (most aircraft had separate radar operators)

This could all be done with a few pre-recorded audio samples from the AI or simply through text on the screen.

In real life very few aircraft prior to the late 1950s had the pilot operate the radar. For some of the aircraft in Galba and all of the aircraft in BoB the radar operator could be modeled simply as a set of verbal commands. I remember accounts of interactions between luftwaffe radar operators and pilots when chaff was first being deployed and it should be possible to even model weaknesses and countermeasures verbally.

Such as system could, at least in the text overlay, be extended to visual observation (with descriptions of the rough number of enemies or ground targets and their types) with varying degrees of vagueness depending on range/conditions.

2.
As for stories, I am sure that you already see the benefit of having a well written briefing and an atmospheric plot given the Il-2 expansion packs you developed. The briefing may only be text but they add a lot.

I agree with your statements that adding a cut-scene capability to the game is largely a waste of time but for static campaigns why not expand the text based system? My suggestion would be to add the ability to choose between different text options during the briefing. These options would add additional briefing text or activate scripts to make small changes in the upcoming mission.

This would allow campaign builders to give the player the ability to do things like:
- choose between questions to ask during a briefing
- suggest a wingmen needs to be grounded for some rest (effecting their AI level or number of aircraft in upcoming missions)

S!

P.S. Could the HUD log (text overlay) be made editable for the 3rd party (so that we can make it use less jarring text and a smaller font for instance)?

I will take in mind about IAS to TAS in Bomber. It should be some small and not complex... Say recorded for the correct speed just one phrase... Becasue for different speeds, different planes, if to make complex speech - this will be thousand variations of wave files.... And it would be not possible in our case due to other big work over speeches and various of localisations...

70) An idea to increase client's base and sell more copies of BOB

- Weak point of combat flight sim games: learning curve = long time to get some fun. In particular the shooting is long and difficult to master

- Result: the less motivated quit the game and also the genre

- Remedy: improve the training section of BOB. Put in some training aids, for instance a predictive "virtual pipper", kinda of a coloured dot to show where to aim with the real collimator. This would help a lot to develop the deflection shooting, and be a fun in itself. Add also the hit% statistics as in CFS. It's great for training.

Correct automatically moveable point to show you right place ot hit that to get enemy aircraft in movement will be present. But ofcourse it will be swichable in difficulty settings and on the server.
Training also will be absolutely new. Including online training

71) Oleg can we get an update of SOW before Christmas please!

It is. Posted right now.

72) Oleg,another question! Earlier this year you came to the UK with Ilya for the flight sim conference at Birmingham.Do you have any plans to appear in Europe again soon?

Can't say you now. Maybe.

73) That server admin be able to add additionnal skin (on the server side) that could be downloaded (and saved) on the player side for future use.

This wouls add to the number of skins available in a given server. These could be saved in a server specific folder (could be the server I.P.). This would means that eache server (and player) "default" skins would increase with time... and no loading screen freeze would happend (over time) as everybody will eventually have the new skins on their hard drive... Also having specific server folder would prevent having to different skins with the same file name from being copied over....

This feature is present in Il-2. Except that on dedicated server. Each new skin downloaded automaticall stored on user PC... and then never downloads again if the same player plays with you with the same skin on his side. There is system of check and identification that is way more complex and that works better than you ask.

74) Oleg, what is going on with 4.09 ?? what is the delay ?

When we will have window to complete 4.09. It may happen only when we will finish one of our milestones for BoB. Currently all are too busy.

75) Are you planning to implement some kind of option, feature (more elaborate that the arcade mode on IL2) to help with gunnery?

There will be an option of difficulty settings: Special marker will show you the point where you should shoot. This marker will show optimal forestall place(point) where you should put your bullets (before, over, etc ).

76) It was allready stated, that SoW:BoB will run with high details on a system that runs IL2-1946 at high details, too. Even more than with the IL2-Engine there are certain options, that will become finished and available as the product evolves and hardware meets the specifications needed.

IMHO this is the best way to please all sides of the market

.

No... My statement was that Bob _will_run_ on the system on which now Il-2 series run at highest detail... But it doesn't means that it will run on high detail on that system... This means that probably it will be lowest settings...

77) Effects=2 enables more 3-dimensional looking smoke and explosions. Very nice to look at, but a huge hit on your performance. As Oleg posted again and again: Wait until BoB is released, if you consider an upgrade for BoB. Who knows what hardware will be available then...

Correct in terms if you don't play any other games... or waiting for other games that will be released more early than BoB.
Anyway, I personally plan to upgrage my home PC only _after_ release of BoB.

7 Good to hear from you Oleg and good to hear the Alpha is under way. Could you comment a little bit on IL2: Birds of Prey? Could you give us some hints how it will compare with SOW?

We are not busy with Birds of Prey project. It is third party project under control of 1C. We just gave them full source code and did neccessary consultations.
It looks good, but not like BoB engine. BoB engine it is not modification of Il-2 engine.
Also I tested periodically BoP and would like to say that the contol of aircraft there and FM isn't like in all arcade sim-games, but control aircraft is more easy than in arcade sims... becasue the guys keeping some original physics from Il-2.

Hope I did right answers for all the buzz around it

79) I have just read your answer about the linking of SOW with the Korean project...
Very interesting. Also noticed you mentioned a WW1 sim, would this be KOTS or is it another project altogether and if so, how many years down the line would that be?

Lastly Theatre of war used the IL2 engine to great effect, are their plans for a theatre of war using the SOW engine (is it capable) and the big question.
WW2-Online was an attempt to make the perfect complete simulation for WW2. Would the SOW engine be able to do what WW2 Online failed at?

I told just about possible ways. I'm personall plan to expand the WWII and finally in that series also to model Russian front as well on new level.
The next after BoB we plan to make the area that never yet modelled And it should go on the market after BoB during a year or so.
But the first our target after BoB - to release the Enduser tools that allow them to incorporate new planes, ground vechicles, ships, etc into a sim as a system. We would like to create some industry around it, like it is around MS FS. It is stron point of MS FS on the market. However we understand the problems with such way and we are doinf it with the target of no cheating online. Some time more close to release later I will tell it in all details.
This will be someting new on the market.

In BoB intial release we will have controlable stationary AA guns. You may play for them in online or even in sigle play if you wish to create such a mission. This will a first step in realisation of our plans for online gameplay. In a touch with writen above you may imagine what can do with only this feature some crative third party developers.
Tools will alow to "program" by simple ways such objects (aircraft also). But again plase read with attention - this will not kill online. There will be some sort of protection.

We don't plan to copy WWIIOL. But if we will decide to go for only online gameplay, then we can use BoB engine.

80) Well, Guild Wars didn't really invent that, you know?

If I may remind you, it was another game that gave you the option to either buy addons and run them as standalone or to install them merged with your previous versions of the game. And that was years before GW was released. The name of the Game was IL2FB IIRC - As it was quite successful I see no reason to change that way of distribution. We'll buy them all anyway - LOL

IMHO you, Oleg, and your team did a really, really great job with IL2 and from the mere tidbits of informations released, I can imagine there's a great time coming for us simulations-fans once BoB is released. That's honestly the reason why I have no problem waiting - all good things are worth waiting for.

As more compex coding, more complex AI in terms of features, precise of models comparing to original real planes, we need more time to spend for development. And if we want the new jump of technoloiges, visuals, damage, FM, common physics, etc in one product united all in one with some compromises that will be acceptable for many years ahead, like we did years ago with the release of Il-2, we need more time. Real time of full development from intial to final code of Il-2 was 7+ years. And 5 years success on the market. To repeat it very hard... even more hard to jump over our own heads.
I'm the guy, who dislike to create one time good thing then wait when this good thing will be worse then new others... from others. I'm the guy who like to get always only good. So I would like top get in BoB many things that isn't in any sim in features, etc... or in any possible competitors in future (At least I hope )
Somebody told here that why we are doing the planes that didn't play role in the war... It is incorect opinion. Each plane played some role. And each plane that we model is important part of history and GAMEPLAY for single play. It is also important for users that like to make themselves some episodes of airwar that we or others never covered in a flightsim. Also this will make the sim unique comparing to all other BoBs before. If you'll look for years back, you may se that with original Il-2 was really the same situation ...
Or you don't like to try to fly military autogyro for recon or for the tunings of radar and trying to escape attacks of bf109s? I can give you a guarantie that it will be for many people very interesting and to feell the things that was never experinced before.... Just little sample... Only when you pay attention to such "outside of main picture" detail the product might be interesting for all.

In short:
We try to make the BoB that will be not like all BoBs before on a sim market...
we try to make not the single one time released game, but the series of expansions... that will work like Pacific Fighters in the past... stand alone or merged with previous release, begining from BoB.

81) Hello Oleg , as one Of my main interests in il2 is making movies I am wondering what kind of , if any , recording (placeable cameras) and play back facillities have you got planned for BOB , sorry if this question has already bin asked and answered

I can't tell you finally how many types of cameras, but will be more features than in Il-2 and more useful.
Recording will be possible in two formats one of them is similar to NTRK, another - ready video, but still under question in which format finally.
But only NTRK will be possible to use for full HD video conversion.

82) Oleg sir, are you still in any of those countries? Oleg sir, do you have a publisher for SOW? Oleg sir, is the BOB: SOW actually a dead project?

Everything still is fine. Simply summer and I took finally vacation... Usually they were too short in the past or wasn't in principle.

83) AFAIK planes will have both bump (normal) maps and specular maps as well. Somewhere I've read about it.

Right.

84) Oleg, could you please tell me if the Sunderland is a flyable aircraft or AI. Many thanks for the update!

AI, But we are making as well these AI model the same quality as flyable. And we will offer tools for advanced third party developer that to make any plane flyable without us...

So I expect that there will be many flyables later after the intial release... and BoB will be growing even more than Il-2 series

85) Hello Oleg , just wanted to say , the update of the flight models is about what I expected , what Has impressed me though is the new texture of the grass , if this is an indication of the new map to come , I cant wait , I know from what youve said theres a long way to go , but still ... I cant wait.

This temporary made texture is for tools. In the sim the grass is 3D and moving due the wind.

[Forgottenfighter]

86) Oleg, is the Flight Model finished for BoB, or still a work in progress "Beta" stage? Can you update us on the status of 4.09m final ? Thanks

In General finished. But we didn't tune for each aircraft well yet.

4.09 still don't know when. My guys really to busy that to switch back to Il-2 even for some time.

87) You are speaking about a "new engine".
What do you mean with this?
Starting all over again with all objects?

"the final release…. Which isn’t soon really…. "

So we have to wait for September 2009 ???

New engine means the absolutely new 3D engine, ground fhysics and flight coding, AI and even how it looks in general.... Simply everything....
There is only experinece of Il-2 development behind, but the 90+% of code is completely new. The other 10% also with changes.

8 Dear Oleg
In the past you have refered to multi-manned positions in at least the Tigermoth trainer and if I am not mistaken the bombers as well.
1. That I still hope holds true. My question is will your fellow crew members be modeled.
IE if I am the pilot of a J88 will I be able to see an animated rendering of my front gunner as in the current H111 or will I be flying an empty plane as is the current state of affairs.

2. As you seem to have entered the early Alpha stage I was wondering if you have any idea what sort of system will be needed to get the best out of SOW?

3. Without giving too much away, is there anything in the sim that will truly rock our socks-off. By this I mean, either something us simmers have never seen before or something that is of a standard so high other developers will spend years catching up
And by this I do not mean the graphics, as they are already out of this world I am refering to any snippet of news about the actual sim.

4. Your ground models seem almost online of war-ish capable and I am sure a ground war and air war could be seemlessly created, would this be possible?

5. Lastly will the player have the opportunity to strategically direct the air war in say an improved BOB2 type interface in single player or will their role be restricted to only flying within a dynamic environment?

1. It isn't finally decided. We have some part of code ready for animation of pilots and crew, but it will depends how much time we will have that to spend our resources for that. Can't say in 100% yes. If there will be no room for that work we will drop it for the next title release of SoW series.

2. Even at Beta isn't possible to define finally required sys. specs. For the best out of BoB probably there will be no such PC on the market at release... like it was with the first release of Il-2.... However eve without best out it will looks superb. Simply we should think about future becasue we plan for SoW series long life, not less than for Il-2 sries, if not more. We plan to make series that will cover agin Il-2 modelled battles as well as some never modelled in any game...

3. I hope everythng from the general graphics to the gameplay, from Ai to the FM, from the sky to the ground... as well as never seen before some of gameplay features, like it was offered with the first Il-2.... At the time of Il-2 release there were some many features that was release in a game for the first time in world in princile. Many others copied ideas from Il-2...

4. With the release of BoB there will be player controlable AA-guns. Even in sigle play if you like to create such a mission... This feature at first will show the features of our new game-sim engine... as well as it could be direction of parallel development or third party development... At lease I can say that the quality of ground modeling is with the idea in mind to use it for the future interesting features of the gameplay... so smart answer....

5. There will be possible two types of campaing.... One is dynamic with the possibility of managment in a squad and higher. But there will be no feature of High command that could change everything in a war.. Dynamic campaign will be more or less close to history.
The other campaing mode - it is a sequence of single missions, that possible to make very precise from historical point of view. I can't say right now will be such fully developed by us campaign inside the sim with the release, but at least it is possible. as well as there will be some amount of historical single missions right with the release. Anyway we again will offer more than any other developer of flight sims in that item...
Also the campaign systems will be open for thirs party modifications or even for inclusion of own ENGINE of campaign. This will be ture for both sinlge and online gameplay campaigns.

We simply learned all requests of users for some years of Il-2 life... The best that we can do - will be there.

Hope I gave some info for the brain here

89) In SOW, how will muzzle flash be represented? Will it be more realistic? It seems that how it is represented in game now is a bit exagerated (too much like a flame thrower). From period gun footage (or even modern high caliber gun fire footage) it would seem that yes, there is sometimes visible flames, but really they are much more subtle in real life, and in daylight are mostly just puffs of smoke.

Also will the tracer contrail be a bit more realistic (or the graphics more detailed) as well?

muzzle flash... Video and especially film camera can't register on their 24 (and in WWII often 10 to 16) frams per second many of light changes that happens when the gun fires... As well as the specific of sencitivity of film and its dynamic rage that can't registed fire as we can see in real life.
So in Il-2 it was done in the last versions more real than you think...
And I haven't seen yet in a sim more real tracers... If you mean color - they are all by a tracer specifications docs of WWII shells/bullets for each country that we modelled.

At night the fire/flash leight of 20 mm cannon could be even more than 2 meters...
At day it is the same but visible less and even more less on the film (in short words).
At flight it depending of speed... But anyway it is present. The differences of leight we plan to model in flight and on the ground, at day and at night.
The difference at the day/night time was done in Il-2 for the for the first time in the world in game industry.

90) Also will these be free addons or are small payments expected to be involved?

This is a question for some interview..... I will keep this info the the magazines

I only can say you right now... that yes we will have sometime free add-ons with new features, like it was with Il-2.
But other info - till the right time. Everything will be fine

91) A couple suggestions for OLEG for the SOW:

1) In the FMB I would like to see the Player flight NOT be assigned to waypoints. The player flight should be able to do things ON-THE-FLY and not be constrained to flying over specific waypoints precisely in order to advance to the next waypoint. The player should receive orders like an actual briefing and fly according to the briefing to target areas. This could be done with event areas where the player is given a heading, and can receive additional heading information from ADF, or other comms.

2) The AI would fly by waypoints as usual, but it would be nice to have the ability to have alternate waypoints for AI resulting from triggers.

3) It would be a great tool to have Translucent Canopy/cockpit frame rails to offset the fact we have no peripheral vision ability. I'm not talking about NO frame rails. I talking about the regular frame rails are visible, but the player can see through the rails. The floor side panels, instruments, back headrest all would be opague. THe player could not see through those things he could not normally see through, just canopy frame rails.

I say translucent, because even with 6 DOF when you move your head side to side it is not possible to get the same visual effect as a real person gets because of stereoscopic peripheral vision. I would certainly prefer this arrangement over the HUD, which is totally "StarWars".

This would not take way from the fliight experience, because flying the late model P-51, P-47 and several other planes with fulll clear canopies is available now and isn't a CHEAT.

IMO, the big frame rails that are constantly in your way visually don't add to immersion. If you just look at the screen with the big frame rails in front of you it is common to have less than 30% visual. One of my friends that plays other war games said, "That is so stupid looking at the screen and not being able to see what your doing". I agree with him.

So, maybe a switch to Translucent canopy frame rails, a switch to canopy frame rails... this shouldn't be any problem at the programming level to provide. I can make translucent frame rails in photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, etc. for MSFT CFS2 cockpits and it's hardly any work at all.

Thanks for all the work you've done.

1+2) Waypoints are neccessary. Another spech that they should be defined in briffing... and as well as dynamically changed waypoint due to command using radar data for exaple. Triggers will be.

3. No.... transparency of frae details will make visible other things... construction fuselase, engine, etc... Simply we model it by another way than others in arcade games or the games that say that they are simulators of ground battle but the models there ar far from what we say now is most realistic for the current period.
Also on the sceen you see by two eyes. So the comparison with steroscopic view in life and like you mean by one eye isn't right. We simply will have more complex movement of the neck-head-body of the pilot than in Il-2.

92) Oleg has made one statement that didn't turn out true for the Il-2 series (but which will eventually be realised in Bob). So, his statement about always delivering is almost 100% correct. On the other hand Luthier predict two or three features that didn't turn out, and thus, is about half as reliable as Oleg but still more reliable than 99% of us. Furthermore, Luthier never stated that he will always deliver on what he says.

Finally, to my knowledge, he never said he would give us lots of updates & really soon & that they would fulfil all our wildest fantasys & that these updates would include a flyable demo &... All that he said was that he would try to improve communications and keep in touch with the community.

My recommendation: Find something else to do. There are plenty of things out there including people & trees & books &...

Currently Luthier and his team is more busy with BoB (help for us in development of some parts) than with Korea. There are many things that we usually order on the other side... in this case we ordered some of the planes to be finished by them as well as 3D models of ships and some other.

Korea can't moves forward without us. Simply becasue it is based on SoW series engine.

93) Hi Oleg, you may have read here several discussions regarding Ubisoft, i have spoke to Ubisoft in the UK and they have very little knowledge of SOW and are adamant that they are not the publishers, its not that important on the scale of things but it does seem strange that they are proclaiming that they are not and will not be involved. Can you shed any light on this?

Many thanks

Ubisoft is a large company. As I know in Ubi Uk all guys new. And the old that even know me personally were moved in the main office or in another companies. Another one thing - I was in UK Ubisoft office almost 3 years ago... Yes we are working "too" long, but we all would like to get really good thing. And... date of release on different sites of BoB was many time anounced... But I knew it only when it was published there.... Officially BoB was never anounced when it will be released. Usually just hope when... and almost always - TBD.
What I can say really - we are working hard... and BoB will be done doesn't matter of anything in possible future

94) Oleg, in Il-2 Sturmokik 1946, the tracer for the .30 cals on the hurricanes and early spit models is very unrealistic IMHO. The colour is correct as you've mentioned, but if you watch gun-camera videos from the Battle of Britain, the spitfires and hurricanes have smoke on the tracer, like on the Bf-109 models in Il-2.

Any thoughts?

It depending of type of bullets. In Il-2 we don't model all of possible amounts. We select just one of possible for certain type of wepon on that or another aircraft.
So you may see in color films from different theatres even for one type of weapon very different type of tracers, also that was changed some time several times during the war.

95) Oleg, could you give us a little more detail here, if possible?. example - will a radar vector give you the ability to change a waypoint in-flight?

We model all structure of HQ that receive information from the Radar and give then commands to ground AA-artillery, to planes, etc. and if you recieve this information in Air then you should redirect your flight according given info. We try to model it with the precise of that time... so it will be not so precise like in modern time. You even may miss the target by altitude or so... like it was in reality, reading recalls of British pilots.

German radars will work by other way. They used it for another purpose.

96) I have three questions:

1) It was said a long time ago that AI would not be able to look "behind" means that their vision is limited by actual cockpit. Is this still planned?

2) It was said also long time ago that AI will not be able to look through clouds, or less good looking at night. Is this still planned?

I think both those things can revolutionize offline playing. For example, diving in clouds for escape, was, as you know, first thing to do for lonely bomber for example.

and

3) do you already know how much % of a city, like London f.ex will be "generic" buildings, and how much historic (real) buildings? Do you plan to match more or less actual street layout ?

1. Confirmed
2. Confirmed no "radars" across the clouds
3. We will have several very precise copies London building, but other things - most generic... But from above the streets, etc will looks close to the map of 1940 that we have.
To make a full copy of London would take large time... it is impossible... or possible if we will drop the main thing of simulator...

97) I'd like to ask if you are able to provide the ability to save the game in-flight.
It isn't really possible to get the most out of the games with the type of lifestyles most of us lead. Not without sacrificing work and family.

Being able to fly a six-hour bomber sortie for example, in real time but spread out over a couple of sessions would be a great thing for the single player experience. We wouldn't be slaves to the short-hop missions or the time-skip key. If players could share and exchange save points too... Well, you can imagine the possibilities.

I was asking about this feature our developers. It isn't promised, but maybe. Simly now we need to save even more data than in Il-2... and in Il-2 it was way more than in any shooter.

9 I already posted a few, but I of course got another one or two:

Will SoW have an ingame VoiceOverIP-included? It would be really cool to combine these functionalities with the simulation of the radio-system.

Also an ingame-server-browser or at least one, that is distributed with the game would be really helpful. Has this been considered, yet?

Voice telephone? However in Il-2 the user interface for this features wasn't good.
Yes we plan. Because it is really good for the recording of tracks

We plan to make some browser. But probably it will be separate program from which you will be able to star the sim with automatic connection to selected server.
We had such things in the past in our previous (before Il-2) games.

But this program will be not the program that will replace others, that works fine with Il-2.
It will be in additional, if user prefer.

99) Oleg I have seen that models of planes and vehicles have hinges that can be manipulated. Is this also a feature that the player will be allowed to use? Like opening hatches on a tankturret or opening the cockpit of a fighterplane?
And will this feature also be applied to human figures? So the player will be able to position the arms and such of the body?

From the beginning we are making all things openable... I dopn't know how many of these features will go in final reelase... but as with Il-2 this means we will modify the code that to use the BASE input at initial development. With the release we will have AA-guns controlbale by player... this is intersting for Online, but it will also works in a single missions, if you only like to create such.

And as I told... the code will be partially open in terms of modification with the use out of normal fixed parameters and code servers...

In time I think we may see even U-boat controlable The water is transparent in engine.

100) I have some questions regarding the multiplayer:

Will it be possible to change the inflight briefing during the game and will it be possible to paint the flightroute and mark objects on the map?
If so it would be helpfull to add an option to send that customized map to all other squad members during the game.
I also wonder if there is a chance to display own jpg's on the briefing screen (like air recon, notes or tactical maps).
Will the player be able to conquer airports and does that influence the support or reinforcements?

I do have some more questions regarding the mission editor:

Is there any chance of changing the ingame maps, to add markings or notes visible to other players?
I'd like to add a video to the briefing to present the map in the old fashioned "wochenschau" style will that be possible?
And last but not least, is there some sort of trigger so that a sound file (like a radio message) will be played when the player activates the trigger?

I can't say yes to all your questions. Recon maps we would like to make and it is in plan. However I don't know if it will be in release. The format of brief is HTML... so theoretically there is possible to use recon map and send to others across the map. But it will depending of many factors, so I can't tell you 100% yes.

As for the capture airfield.... we plan several online modes in additional to what we had in Il-2... Also can't say you final features


As for changes of map... don't know yet all features that will go in final. You know I never promise when I'm not sure, if you are NSU that I know...

Video in gif or flash player format probably will be possible in a brif. I don't know which type of HTML we will use in final. You know there is going the new version of HTML in future... Proabbly we will stay with the current for a long time. So if to make everything manually for single missions - then you probably may use all features of current HTML version . If automatic - then just limited amount of features... However the engine of campaign (doesn''t matter single or online) will be open for modifications. Or even someone may developm completely own. We will give access to that item of code for modifications that will not damage the fair online gameplay.

You will be able to put on the map trigger with sound message with the defined radius of action.

101) One question....Will the AI still be able to make those impossible maneuvers like they do now? I mean the instant flips, turns, etc... It gets very annoying. I hope they will behave more realistically, and be subject to stalls, blackouts, redouts, etc...

I can't say... Its relative thing of the player-pilot experience. My guys and me can shoot any AI fighter enemy...
Stall, black outs, redouts was a limit for AI even in Il-2. Simply they are robots and calculate it way faster than you.

102) I can't say... Its relative thing of the player-pilot experience. My guys and me can shoot any AI fighter enemy...
Stall, black outs, redouts was a limit for AI even in Il-2. Simply they are robots and calculate it way faster than you.

Probably the right name for AI would be predictable calculation with 100% precise.

In BoB we will have more complex AI behaviour that will be more "humanized".

However before Il-2 there was no one sim with "humanized" aircraft AI like in Il-2...

103) Can you give us a hint about the airborne radar? I remember a previous statement, where you stated this will be possible in SoW, but you were not sure wether this will be in the initial release. Looking at the antennas on the Beaufighter, has the decision been made in the meanwhile?

Airborne radars (onboard) will be only on AI aircraft with the release.
We don't plan to model with the first release night fighers. Too much work for the too small effect in gamplay. The first thing is important that will be economicallyy right in development.

However I do think in future if the BoB will be successful, then we may work over such things as well. As well as third party developers.

104) I can shoot them down too. What I mean is, the AI can execute maneuvers that would send my plane crashing down. The 180 degree instant turns...and I mean instant, is one example.

Never saw myself AI instant turns that I can't repeat myself going by their trajectory.

However it is explained as well above about their precise.

Some time AI with level of Novice also crashes in a stall in dogfight...

105) speaking from a bomber pilot's view, will AI gunners now take into account friendly bombers flying in formation? In IL2 when we do formation flying online, often there is a friendly kill from one of our bombers in the formation.

YES. in BoB such situation shouldn't be possible. As well as fo other AI objects with AI gunners (guns cannons, etc)

106) You mentioned that gunners will differ from one to another by their skill level, but will they also interact more with the pilot, something like 'bandit 5 o'clock, coming in'?

We plan some speech of gunners and thier notices for pilot

107) Also will it be possible to hop into someone elses bomber on DF servers to take copilot seat, or at least a gunner position? No matter if this option will be for coops only, it will help a lot in training pilots how to fly formation and not to mention different formation positions which in IL2 are impossible to fly since we can't use copilot's seat (I know Ju88, He111 and RAF bombers had a single pilot, but this may be a good reference for the future ).

The online protocol of BoB is completely new and different to Il-2, so I would say yes... that would eb absolutley sepearate seats.

10 1) will there be "terrain masking" in BoB ?
- "terrain masking" means that AI aircraft and enemy radar can not see through mountains and ground obstacles if they are blocking "line of sight" . so for ex if we fly a german aircraft very low over england (say 30 meters altitude) then the english radar will not see us, and similarly when i fly behind a mountain then the radar and AI aircraft on the other side of the mountain will not see me.
(you answered the question for clouds now blocking AI aircraft vision, but you have not answered it for mountains and hills blocking radar and AI visibility)

2) will there be civilian road and rail traffic in BoB ?
- right now in il2 when you see a truck or car on the road it is always military (even the bicycles), same with the trains they are always a military target. if we have some civilian road traffic (few buses and cars maybe doing a programmed "loop" journey) and trains in england (and they existed in ww2 period) then points could be deducted for destroying innocent civilian objects, and that means we need to correctly identify a target before engaging it, not just shoot at anything that moves !

3) will there be AI traffic and activity at the airfields we fly from ?
- microsoft flightsim X already has this, there is refueling trucks, baggage trolleys, other trucks and shunt vehicles driving around the airfield, giving it an "alive" impression
- you mentioned you will have ambulances and fire trucks maybe rushing to a crashed aircraft, but can we have some active vehicles like refueling trucks, ammo trucks, tea truck, jeeps with pilots, base commander in jeep on inspection tour, etc type activity ? (could be switched on/off in options for low end pc not wasting resources)
- can we have similar friendly AI activity in the sky ? in real life there was not just fighter planes and bombers flying in the sky, there was supply planes, transport planes, replacement aircraft etc. can we have some of that activity in the sky and at our airfields ? for ex AI flying in new replacement aircrafts for the squadron, and maybe supply aircraft bringing in parts and supplies, or new pilots etc.. that means other planes will be landing and taking of at our airfield, and flying in the skies near our airfields.
- adding that type of simple activity can make a big difference in bringing the BoB world alive, instead of flying in an empty world like we have in il2 right now.

4) will destroying objects/buildings at an airfield affect the availability of resources at that airfield ?
- for ex if all the fuel dumps at an airfield are bombed it should take X amount of time before fuel is again available at that airfield (new supply needs to be transported to the airfield), during that X time delay there should be no fuel (or ammo for ex) available at that airfield. same principle if all aircraft stationary on that airfield are destroyed by an enemy bombing raid, then we should not be able to magically spawn a brand new aircraft from that location (or hit refly and get a new aircraft) for X amount of time (new aircraft need to be flown in , or damaged aircraft need time to be repaired with spare parts). same if a runway is bombed, the bomb craters should remain taxi/landing/takeoff obstacles for X amount of time till the runway is repaired (you can still use the part of the runway that is not damaged)
- in practice this means that we can gradually shut down an enemy airfield, and force their aircraft to use a more rear located airfield (so it forces the enemy to waste more flying time to reach the frontline)

5) will you correct and improve the "distant object visibility" problem we currently have in il2 ? ie seeing distant LoD models correctly as you would see the the same object (plane/truck/tank) from the same distance with the naked eye in real life
- this is not a problem in il2 when you look at a distant aircraft against the open sky because it is a black (or dark grey) object that is seen against a uniform light blue sky background, but there is a MAJOR problem looking for a small LoD model against the textures of the terrain background, it blends in to much.
- for ex right now in il2 when you fly your aircraft at 1500 meters altitude and you look down to scan the ground for objects, you can not see/locate/track an enemy truck or tank that is standing in an open field or is located on an open road (as you can in real life see it, and historical ww2 pilot reports available), but instead in il2 you need to fly at 500 meters altitude to be able to see it (using the 30 FoV zoom function is not the solution, because it creates tunnel vision and you can only scan a very small narrow part of the ground at a time, and loosing all your peripheral vision it makes you very vulnerable to fly like that). this is because the il2 LoD model blends in to much with the terrain textures (with pc grafix it is a flat 2 dimensional LoD model blending in with the colors of the flat 2 dimensional terrain textures, but in real life it is a 3 dimensional solid object that stands out much more)
- will you compensate for this pc grafix problem in BoB and make distant LoD models stand out more so they are correctly visible ? you mentioned we will have more LoD models in BoB, instead of the 3 currently used in il2, but i am asking about making the LoD model stand out more so it is correctly visible and we can see those objects like tank/truck/planes from the exact same distance as we can see them in real life !

1. Yes. Will be another technology, but means the same. The polar pattern of radars we try to model as close to real things as it possible. Of course with some approximations, but anyway close.

2. It is possible. Probably we will minimize it in release, becasue of hit to resources, but in general Buses already now can travel by their own trajectory in a city and make stops as well cars will try to find place for parking in a end "waypoint". It is working already. Just would repeat the amount of such action probably we will need to minimize due to resource eater feature. But for Editor we will offere to use it for enduser to modify scenery, etc...

3. See above. Yes we plan some life on airfields. But the main goal of course still will be the air battles

4. Yes. Also we are currently working over "real" 3D craters of bomb hits on the ground.. that will destroy the usability of airfields for some time (real time for repair of runway or the time that defined in tunings of mission or on server)

5. The resolution of detials and LODs is way higher than in lL-2. How far we we will see the type of the object... I can't say right now. All will depends of the all final resource-eaters....
In Il-2 once we did halfransparent dot for the groun objects that to make some ability to see it from longer distance... howver users dislike this system and preffered to go back as it was.
It isn't definitiopn of the LOD only. It is definition of the screen resolution, and power of a system on which we will run BoB in fuuture in a middle settings.
Also due to online gamplay we will need to make it absolutely identical to medium system for the fair gameplay. Its a rule... Or the player with more power PC and greate resolution of the monitor you would be named as a cheater.... We already have great experience in that and many items of gameplay when we need to go for some middle level of details on middle to high power game machines...

109) Can players join coops after mission start?

Can if there is free place. One of selected in a special menu AI will be replaced by new player.

110) As you say ground AA guns will be playable, Will AA guns on naval/merchant ships be playable as well?

Sure with the release will be only ground AA-guns of some more or less similar by power types for both sides for the fair gameplay online. Later - we will see. The code will aloow much more than Il-2 code. And even more

111) 1. You've mentioned earlier that SOW series will be open for 3rd party add on makers and that they can implement a more detailed simulation of an aircrafts operating procedures than the default planes will feature. (realistic start up procedures etc.)
Can you say us what level of detail will be possible, what subsystems can actually be simulated?

2. Especially will it be possible to switch between different fuel tanks, which was very important in some aircraft like the P-51?

3. I've read in an old interview that AI crew members in BOB can panic and just fire around wildly. Is such an feature also planned for AI flak gunners? Something like crewmen abandoning their guns when under fire, so that you can use historic tactics to suppress the enemy AAA with strafing runs.

4. Will it be possible for the user to edit the available loadouts for each plane in any way or will there be a fixed predefined set like in Il-2?

1. Can't say at the moment. I only can say that in each cokpit we model we make all switches operable in 3D models. But not operable in the intial code. As I told it is for "masochists"

2. To switch different fuel tanks should be possible in intial release.

3. Not everything. Partially panic, but close to very historic types of attach - yes.

4. Probably. It will depending of the final GUI complexity. I can say that we now can change the load of the bullet/shell belts, but it will be anyway in a way of some amount of standard sets. And special effiency of each shell/bullet type will play more greater role than in Il-2.

112) 1 Damage of coolant lines; coolant leaks: will it be modeled? (yes/no, however detailed answer is welcome too).
2 Reversal of controls; wing twist;

1. Yes. More detailed when will be ready.

2. If you mean the problem on ailerons of Spitfire before and including initial series of MK V due to rodation of the wing relatively aileron - Yes we plan it. Wing twist - visually separate of each console - not.

113) 1. Will be possible to set in the planes random or pre-defined malfunctions?? For example, when in an online war the aicrafts get worn and as a result of this, the failure percent increases.

2. How complex is going to be the procedure of starting the engines? (you said earlier that it might be more complex)

3. Will it have more realistic effects on starvation of engine, and mixture control??
How will the engine handle the flaps? Will it follow the historical procedures of every model or will it have 2 or 3 levels of predefined angle flaps?

4. How will the monitor resolution and "points of aircraft" (contacts at distance) work?? Today lot of people don´t use high resolution because they "don't see the contacts"...

5. Can we get out of the planes and walk? (At least, in the start of the mission)


6. Will be more data written in eventlog.lst?? It´s very useful to create dynamic campaings.

1. It will be defined by a code. Player can't define it except the feature to swich it off in difficulty settings (as well as on a server).

2. Maybe a bit more complex, but maybe anyway by one button. It is still diputable in our team. But sure we wiill not copy rweal procedures for each aircraft. Fist becasue it is tioo much time eater in development. Second, becasue if to do, then to do it really correct, but not like others WWII sims developer declare that they have it realistic. Enough to compare with real manual the item "preparing for fligth(take off, or so)"...
The main thing is that most active people will play online our sim and opnly periodically - single play. In online gameplay the procedure for real starting engine will limit very much gameplay, so we MUST go there fro compromises with reality. The only real starting procedure will reduce interest for the gameplay very much... as well as some other real features (like real ACTUAL time of refueling and reloading) - then you will get German or Russian plane ready more quiker than British or US.... This will damage the online gameplay be sure...

3. Yes. A bit. Becasue we model more precise fuel consumption due to different input, than in Il-2.

4. This I already answered above in other answers.

5. No. But in a code it is possible alreay now. see my other answers.

6. We have completely new online protocol. More for sure.

114) May we NOT include these two things in SOW BOB

1. Elevator Trim on a slider facility or any quick trim change. Also flaps on a slider if not historically correct eg Spit ( by the way I mostly fly the spit)

2. Sonic radar. when plane you are attacking can hear you from a long way away and evade.

These two game "exploits" harm online play in my opinion

I know you are busy , but I think we are all very pleased you are able to spend some time here, thank you.

1. Initially in Il-2 it was possible, but then a lot players that haven't such sliders on their home controller begun to sign a song that they are cheaters... That to make fair gameplay we did protection in a code for this feature that to make for all the speed of changes equal.

2. In Il-2 the sound engine was designed for HiEnd sound cards. It was so different sounding on Hi End and on regular cards.... On simple motherboard cards of some producers the panning was so simple, that we was unable to control it or regulate the distance... and some people begun to use it... In BoB we will have completely new sound engine that will not depending of type of sound card. We simply did own panning code, etc...

Also how to limit the ability of player to make louder his speakers... still don't know This will be the only one limit I know in a new sim...

115) is it possible to visually show the angle of the propeller? I refer to the possibility of altering the propeller pitch and see it in real time like some MsFS aircrafts.

Yes it is. To see it well will be possible when the propeller isn't rotating. I rotation to see it hard, but possible, because we have fair "blur" disk of the propeller when rotating.

116) I'd like to ask if SoW will feature bailing out in first-person perspective?

The current style of Il-2 and previous sims is for the "camera" to jump to an external perspective - right at the moment of greatest immersion. It tends to destroy the atmosphere more than a bit. As I'm planning on getting shot down a lot, it's something very important to me!

technically in engine it is possible, but I don't think we will have work time for such "small" features before we will release the sim.

117) 1) Will features like 'F6' be server controlable now? Meaning that we can have servers with externals on but no external padlock?

2) Will gunners now feel the effect of G-forces? IMHO, in IL2 the most unrealistic thing related to how gunners work is their resistance to G-forces. And this goes specificaly for tail gunners which can accuratly aim at you even if their plane is pulling extreme G's.

3) How will gun positions and bomber stations work in SoW? If the bombardier is on the bomb run - will he also be able to man the nose gun or will nose gun remain silent if you attack a bomber who is close to releasing his bombs? Another example are waist gunners - in He-111 to my knowledge only one person operated both waist gunners. If bomber is being attacked from 3 and 9 o'clock will only one gun fire?

4) Will gunners scan the horizon for enemy planes or will guns and turrets be in their default position at all times when no enemies are nearby?

Edit:

I thought of one more.

5) Will control surface movements be visible on other planes than just player's in online DF servers and tracks?

Edit 2:

Just thought of three more questions about ship modeling:

6) How will ships behave when heavily damaged / sinking? Will it be different from IL2 when they sink in a matter of seconds after being destroyed or will they sink by flooding or heavy damage (especialy if in stormy weather)? What about small (example: landing crafts or RAF rescue speedboats...) - will strafing be accompanied by an explosion to tell us that they are destroyed or will it be possible to model them like I asked above (just strafe them and they sink slowly, so we don't allways get that explosion which tells us that they are destroyed)?

7) In relation to the above questions, will ships have weak points - for example if hit in ammo magazine to cause fatal damage and if hit in other not vital areas to make them withstand more damage/hits?

9) Any chance for lifeboats / survivors in the sea after large ships sink? (I know it's maybe a long shot but...)

1. Will ask my guys to do not forget it
2. Will
3. question is done too early (as many others from other guys)
4. These turrerts that has two positions for fire and the speedy flight will work as it should. It is done with actual time animations.
5. will but on close distances.
6. Way more complex than in Il-2. As for the rescue.. we plan special aircraft for that in missions. Boats - maybe, maybe not. To wait boat will be too hard so great time... Not too interesting for the gameplay.
7. Weak points will be. But not the ammo belts of MGs of ships
9. I think no. Becasue at first we are doing flight sim, then we are thinking what is most important to develope for ther other things that have their own sequence of importance.

11 Oleg. I was wondering if there could be anti submarine missions?

May be... in time. In principle possible.

119) Will it be possible to overlay scans of real maps so that these can be used as a guide when creating the terrain model, laying out roads, rail, towns, woods, waterways etc?

Will it be possible to import satellite height data (SRTM Data) to create the initial terrain model?

Will it be possible to automatically fill ground textures with buildings and objects, based on standard templates? If so can the standard templates be edited by the map maker?

Will there be any fixed limits on the size of map which can be created?

Will it be possible to copy and paste groups of objects in a map?

Will it be possible to copy and paste groups of objects from one map to another map.

Automatic aligning and spacing of objects?

Will it be possible for rivers/bridges to be above sea level. On IL-2 maps the water surfaces and bridges are all at zero level.

Will it be possible to create more complex rail systems including rail sidings, rail junctions, embankments, cuttings, more realistic looking bridges (without approach ramps), tunnels, rail over road bridges, road over rail bridges?

Will it be possible to make steps in a river, to create waterfalls, river weirs, lock systems, enclosed harbours etc.

Will the sea be tidal with more land exposed at low tide?

Will you be able to crop out part of a large map to easily create a small custom map for online use.

Will you be able to extend the boundaries of an existing map to cover a larger geographical area?

You would like to know to much and too early.
Right now I would say that most of requested by you features are used for internal tools.
For the end user some of them will be removed due to many commercial reasons.

100% answer can be done for the size of map. For the end users it will be limited in size. Because the great size map will will keep only for us, as a developrs of the next after BoB new sim or/nad map + objects addons on a payware basis.
So in general enduser will be able to make own maps say for online gameplay in proportions like it is done for Il-2.

120) Hi Oleg, I have a question for you, why the planes in Il2-sturmovik not represent the real velocity???? for example: one FW-190d9, in the war have a max velocity of 730 km/h at 11.000 meters, in the game this is not true, and the Ta 152c have to low performance on all altitudes, why???
Sorry for mi english, but i speak spanish, and my vocabulary suck. Salute

Sure that real D9 wasn't able to reach 730 km/h
Ta-152c - I hope you don't read indicator speed that to get image of real speed with which aircraft is flying. Compare indicator speed in cockpit and in the mode without cockpit. Without cockpit the speed is real. In cockpit - indicated. Please read in internet or books what is real speed(TAS) and indicated(IAS)

121) the editor map is good for create any situation of war.
but the texture for map not satellite photo but synt immage.
and another difficult problem for the map is creation of mesh terrain the mountain and the valley not real to reality.
Example i want create the island Sicily how many create the vulcan ETNA?
How do I create the equal reliefs of the ground to those of the reality?
i think this is EDITOR MAP for game tipe the SIM CITY or another GAME.
but this is WW2 simulator this is a serius game.
for the serius game takes the serius map editor.
i loock Oleg Maddox like create synt file.
Example in il-2 sturmovik the sound not real but synthetic.
this map editor is synthetic immage.

If you only want you can create the map with sattelite precise and with the limits that gives you the grid of tools.
But you can't load directly the dot matrix (raster) image into the tools. You will need to work with it to the standards of tools... to create layers of altitudes, etc...

Nothing comon here with the SIM CITY

Another way if you want to create new quick map that is siutable for the new scenery of online gameplay... then our tools will give you ability to make it very fast and easy and looking like real surface with only features that we offer in standard set... However even in this case you can make own textures and to add it in tools that to work with them and use in new map.

122) For most people even a generic panel is a huge investment, not to mention a complete cockpit mock up where every switch and lever sits on the right place.

And why should a clickable VC prevent anybody from mapping any function he desires to the keyboard or other externals? You can still play any flightsim just with the keyboard alone despite probably all simmers have at least a joystick.

Joystick is a _must be_ device for the flight sim. In all other cases with the other devices the FM must be simplified and it will be in BoB for the possibility to play with gamepad for example. Except special flight sim devices like bomber control column wheels, etc... But it is another story...

Notice: However if you are playing with gamepade or other similar device and then connect the online server where all other plays with the joystics (settings on the server) then you automatically will get the switch to normal FM... and possibly will be not able to play with others on the same level of aircraft control, like with at least Joystick.

my personal opinion as well as all pilots that I know and was asking specially for this item, all tell that clickable cockpit by the mouse is Ok for the the civil aircraft (say such funtctions like levers, wheels, etc), but anyway it isn't even comparable to the real life precise of hand movement... Say, pedals also clickable?
Mapping on the device or even keyboard is more close to real life than to make all things clickbale/moveable by the mouse. Especially in military aircraft....
Some reealtive sample: I would be glad to see how some will be control aircraft by the joyistick and then by the mouse simultaniosly clicking on the fire button on the control column in 3D cockpit. This sample I give only as realtive. But it is easy to understand in comparison...

[Feuerfalke]

Very nice!

I hope your collection of answers will replace the old thread, so people don't ask for the things already answered over and over again.

[Nike-it]

Ok, guys, really good idea, so this is new thread for Q & A. The old one is closed from this moment. Forgottenfighter thanks for the summarizing info.

[virre89]

Will oil from let's say an fuel leak pour onto the windsheild dynamiclly or like a splash texture like in the previous game. Just curious

[Forgottenfighter]

From this point onwards could everyone please try articulate their posts such that they actually contain a question for Oleg with regard to SOW BOB. The idea of this thread was not to hide the unanswered questions in the previous Oleg Maddox's Room, nor to simply rename it. If there is any chance that Oleg will answer our questions, we need a fresh thread to remove the same posts that some people are now bringing back here. Keep it clean, more questions less rambling about Oleg abandoning us. Thank you.

[SlipBall]

Hi Oleg, During the war gunner's were told to use short burst of their guns to avoid extream heat damage, and even melting. Will this possible type damage to the guns, be included in damage moddel of SOW?

[Flyby]

Will SoW_BoB make more efficient use of two cores (75% usage for both cores? 80%?) or wil it show better efficiency with a quad-core cpu? I wonder if it's better to have a sim where you can turn on all the goodies, and have (say...) 50% per core usage on a dual core? That might imply some headroom left by the sim. So I discount that, knowing the source of the sim. Is it predictable that Sow with all the goodies turned on will overpower a quad core running at 3.6ghz, and 90% efficiency? If so, good thing it's scalable!!
No chance this sim will be more GPU intensive than CPU intensive. Right?
Flyby out

[SlipBall]

Oleg(quote)
We are developing the simulation of ground AAA support in all areas, including radars, High Command, etc. It will work as a system: damage of one will have result in other.(quote)



Will this type damage logic apply to airfields that have had their fuel levels/ammo levels lessened do to an attack. Will it under these circumstances prevent the choice of a full load of fuel prior to take off. Possibly then have to go land at another airfield to re-fuel or even just to get ammo?...And then how to know other airfield have supplies...have to call to them by their location name, using the Radio?...and finally would it be possible to use a program such as teamspeak to communicate with the AI controll tower (or possibly a human because of ground position choice's, not that anyone would choose to be in a tower), instead of using text?

[SlipBall]

What I was thinking was a type of speech recognition software for some simple phrases in game, requiring the use of a mic...its everywhere now a days