Where is the ground personnel?

[Bloblast]

Haven't seen any so far. Did I miss something?

No drivers no mechanics no gunners.

[Avimimus]

I hate to have to be the one to deliver the news: But the dev update where Oleg promised ground crews was actually a dream. I know - it happens to me to.

However, future versions of the sim might have such features...

[Flying Pencil]

Don't be so pessimistic!

In the Ilya Shevchenko interview he said they had to remove some features because of performance issues.
In the screen shots we see aircraft with and without crew and bail out's, so that suggests the game is capable of having human units.

Would love to spawn as a person in a barrack, run to my airplane, jump in, and take off.

[Heliocon]

Originally Posted by Flying Pencil

Don't be so pessimistic!

In the Ilya Shevchenko interview he said they had to remove some features because of performance issues.
In the screen shots we see aircraft with and without crew and bail out's, so that suggests the game is capable of having human units.

Would love to spawn as a person in a barrack, run to my airplane, jump in, and take off.

First make sure to use the toilet, I swear If I got to be your tailgunner again you get last nights nachos scared out of you...

[zauii]

Simply a matter of time also, and whats neccessary or not, this is just a fun gimmick.. it dosnt add to the gameplay or anything, and so many features are either unfinished or left out due to various reasons.. and they might be added later like Ilya said clearly in the interview.

[ChrisDNT]

Some people in the streets (very low polys sprites are enough), near the houses, are also necessary for not having the feeling of flying over ghost country.

I reply now to the two usual objections which will come almost mecanically from the fanboi permanence office :

1 : yes, I've flown at low altitudes, over cities or country town, at the speed of a WIII aircraft and yes, people in the street, near the houses, are quite visible (some animals in the country, cows, horses, would be quite interesting too).

2 : we are in 2011, standard personal computers in 2011 can stand a few more polys for basic people and animal sprites (after all, these sprites have to be realistic from some hundreds of meters far away, not be realistic like in a FPS game).

[ChrisDNT]

"...this is just a fun gimmick.. it dosnt add to the gameplay or anything..."


This is of course totally wrong, the immersion feeling, the feeling of "being there" comes when what is described in the game is described in the most possible realistic way (of course, in relation with the technological capacity of the current pc's).
That means "visible people", "accurate clouds" etc...

Don't be fooled, people saying "this is just a fun gimmick" (when someone is asking for a realistic feature) are the very same people who are just interested to fly with the "GPS" to the center of the map for another useless points counting furball. Of course, for these people, the "furballers", an empty map with just a big single uncolored polygon with also an empty sky (1) would be quite enough for their "gameplay".


(1) clouds are annoying for gameplay.

[addman]

Originally Posted by ChrisDNT

"...this is just a fun gimmick.. it dosnt add to the gameplay or anything..."


This is of course totally wrong, the immersion feeling, the feeling of "being there" comes when what is described in the game is described in the most possible realistic way (of course, in relation with the technological capacity of the current pc's).
That means "visible people", "accurate clouds" etc...

Don't be fooled, people saying "this is just a fun gimmick" (when someone is asking for a realistic feature) are the very same people who are just interested to fly with the "GPS" to the center of the map for another useless points counting furball. Of course, for these people, the "furballers", an empty map with just a big single uncolored polygon with also an empty sky (1) would be quite enough for their "gameplay".


(1) clouds are annoying for gameplay.

Agreed agreed agreed! Being an "offliner" that was a big issue for me in IL-2, everything was so static and lifeless. No people walking about doing their business, no birds (birds in the Silent Hunter series really added to the immersion when you got closer to land or leaving port). As said before, I'm not asking for some super detailed NPC models a la Crysis. Just something that doesn't consist of less then 10 blocks of polygon and has a face

[kendo65]

Originally Posted by ChrisDNT

Some people in the streets (very low polys sprites are enough), near the houses, are also necessary for not having the feeling of flying over ghost country.

I reply now to the two usual objections which will come almost mecanically from the fanboi permanence office :

1 : yes, I've flown at low altitudes, over cities or country town, at the speed of a WIII aircraft and yes, people in the street, near the houses, are quite visible (some animals in the country, cows, horses, would be quite interesting too).

2 : we are in 2011, standard personal computers in 2011 can stand a few more polys for basic people and animal sprites (after all, these sprites have to be realistic from some hundreds of meters far away, not be realistic like in a FPS game).

Traffic has been planned as a feature since way back - I remember Oleg saying that they had buses and traffic moving around in the streets along pre-programmed routes. Likely to be one of those features that may not make initial release though.

Adding people in the street I can see would have difficulties - potential for A LOT of individual objects. Also, I can foresee a lot of criticism if they don't have some level of AI ("I did a low pass in my 109 and they didn't even move or look up!"), and as for a 'basic' representation - you've read the forums - 'basic' doesn't cut it with the whingers.

[ChrisDNT]

"... potential for A LOT of individual objects. "

Not obligatory.

I remember when flying over some middle-sized villages over the Swiss middle plain that one could see some people here and here, but of course not massive crowds, like in a rock concert.


"...I did a low pass in my 109 and they didn't even move or look up..."

This is not an valid argument, at least not in 2011.
A low-poly sprite (and when I say "low-poly, it's low-poly, enough to be realistic at one hundred meters away) could have some basic scripted movements.

I remember how cool I found for instance the trees moving in the wind in Shadow Warrior and it was in 1998 on a Pentium 800



"basic' doesn't cut it with the whingers."

Again, this is not a valid argument.

If it's possible to model in the game a military truck exact to its most little pieces (1), it's also possible to model some people and animals at the necessary resolutions for being "natural", when seen at some hundred meters away.



(1) what it's quite useless by the way in an aviation sim, as these objects are not be seen from very near from an aircraft.