August 6 2011 Development Update

[luthier]

Hi everyone.

Here’s what we’ve been doing, and what we’re planning for the nearest future.

The main areas of development are:

1. Graphics. Our graphics team is in the middle of a dramatic revision of our graphics engine. The new engine, still in alpha stage, is both faster and better looking. I won’t get into the technical details, but in a word it’s faster and more streamlined.
From the appearance point of view, the change is equally as dramatic but is easier seen. Colors are calculated differently, especially in terms of distance. I’m attaching some screenshots showing before and after. The colors are not yet tuned, and there are some other issues but we are much happier with the game’s visuals today than we’ve been for quite some time.

2. Sound. As I’ve mentioned earlier, we’re completely redoing our sound engine from scratch. The work is being done in three stages. Stage 1, alpha, where we test basic functionality with some bare-bones samples has been passed a while ago. Stage 2, beta, where we have all aircraft sounds complete, and have some bare-minimum sounds for other objects, is almost here. Stage 3, a complete sound engine with all object and ambient sounds, will follow.
What we have now is brand new DB601, Merlin, Mercury, and Jumo 211 engines in a new environment, infinitely more stable and supporting realistic sounds from dozens or hundreds of engines within hearing distance. Various secondary and tertiary sounds are also there – G loads, flutter, controls movement, etc. The aircraft feel alive, especially when you’re inside the cockpit.

3. Physics. We are doing a major rewrite of some portions of aircraft landing gear physics (i.e. landing, taxi, take-off) as well as major changes to our secondary physics (ships, vehicles, debris, etc).

4. Models. We have quite a few new aircraft variants in the oven, and our ground modeling team has finally finished a major task that perhaps too few people will appreciate. We’ve completed a huge library of historical German rail engines and cars.

Timeline wise, what we’re looking at is a beta sound patch in a minimum of 2 weeks, and at least a week of tests for that. The new graphics will also be included with it. The same upcoming patch will also include some new aircraft and most likely the German trains. Due to all new sounds, it’ll be one of the largest patches so far, but still way under a GB.

Thank you all for your support!

[JG52Krupi]

Sweet, nice work MG.

[FG28_Kodiak]

THANKS!


But dont forget the COOP interface, please!

[ATAG_Bliss]

Awesome

[pupo162]

i think i like the older shadows better :S

PLEASE FIX THE BUILDING POPPING!

[GF_Mastiff]

Can't wait Luthier

[Dano]

<sarcasm>What? You're still working on it?</sarcasm>

Looks and sounds good, the first two comparison shots look to have lost some contrast though, they look a little washed out now, assume that this is due to a lack of tuning?

Looks way better so far.

[2GFlea]

Luthier, thanks for your continued work on this.

I'm not sure if you've seen my Aircraft Checklists or not, but I would like to update them for any additional aircraft that you will be adding. I will sign any NDA you need, but if you could PM me a list of the new additions, I could get started updating the checklists for a release about the same time as the patch.

Thanks again for the work you guys are doing.

[Jumo211]

THX a lot , excellent update thus far