I hear what your saying guys, but what possible harm could it do to have just one High res screen shot with AA on in direct X 11?? It seems very strange that we have not seen one yet especially when the game supposed to be out next month (joke)

Oleg has stated hes holding some surprises back, maybe thats one of them. Still nothing to worry about, as it appears things are progressing. Maybe not to suit everyone or the developer, but its still progressing.

I'm really coming to the conclusion that SOW will look MUCH better (or be capable of this if hardware permits) than the current screenshots are suggesting. I think we all try to make allowances for the WIP quality of the screenshots - but I don't think we're making enough.

I'd draw a comparison with how il2 looks in original 4.07 compared to 4.09 - with much more functionality unlocked.

It's almost like a deliberate policy of expectation management by the developers. The screenshots we're seeing are almost completely low-res, DX9, little or no AA, settings turned down. I'm partly puzzled as to why they do it like this - I know that everything is labelled as WIP, but people inevitably make judgements of what the final game will look like based on what they see in the updates.

I can only conclude that they are intensely relaxed about the probable final release quality of the game and so are completely unconcerned to show us it in its low-res, low-setting, bollock-naked, rough and ready form. :)

A very strange marketing stratergy though, lets show the whole world how this product looks at its worst setting, its never been done before and i doubt again.

True - but that seems to be what they're doing - little or no AA, low settings. A lot (not all) of the screenshots are making me think of how il2 looks on low compared to high settings - ie the flatter lighting, lower detail, etc. I'd expect to see a bigger difference between SOW's lowest and highest settings than between il2's.

If they were really playing it safe we wouldn't see anything except a high-quality video a month or so before release. Putting out the stuff they are is like a band releasing bootleg rehearsal tapes of their new album. It's quite brave actually.

Remember the original 'Jurassic Island' pics from last year - they got crucified for that.

One of the things that made me think this is watching the videos of the interior aircraft models that were released on the bonus 1946 dvd (and are available online). The quality of those (presumably out of engine and in full detail) shows that there is much more there than is coming across in the pics. I'm putting the difference down to the 'rolled-off' settings that they're currently using. (may be barking up the wrong tree I know )

no pun intended by the way :)

These are development updates. Nothing to do with marketing.

True too, but in a way EVERYTHING they do concerning the game is marketing. (and all of it is being 'judged')

My thoughts concerning your replies is that OM is extremley relaxed in terms or relase date. He is well confident in selling capabilities of the product (a lot of people woud buy his product in any moment at any level of completeness), he turned on the enthusiasm in all of us.
No competitors exist in this area of interests (combat flight sims).
He weekly feeds an avid mass of people with some picture as Roman Emperoers drop breds to acclaiming people in Coliseum.
I don't think SOW is so ready. Maybe 4 or 5 months.
20000 copies of SOW are already sold (virtually).
Cheers

I doubt the developers are relaxed. They've been under tremendous pressure at-least since 2006 to get this done by Ubisoft and now but whatever publisher is paying the bills to get this done.

Yes - but I was referring to being relaxed about the final quality of the game - that is THEY KNOW how good it is going to be.

I'm sure financially, etc they are far from being relaxed.