Thanks for the time, Oleg. Much appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to answer questions, Oleg. You are appreciated here. (at least mostly) :)

I think it's very encouraging that the development team has taken heed of what the players would like to see. Since the game is already in development and you can't just add things midway without having an engine that supports certain game mechanics, it's safe to assume that they have been listening all this time and planning things in advance.

The new engine management and the modeling of early WW2 electronics that carries potential for a night bombing campaign down the road are the two most anticipated things for me. IL2 is still a very enjoyable sim, but the thing that mostly feels lacking in realism is the way engines and overheat are modeled. I'm certainly very glad it's included in their list of improvements.

I for one am very excited about all the new possibilities. Also, i don't mind waiting an extra month or two for 4.09 as long as BoB keeps going strong.
I'd much rather wait a little more for the new maps and have a video of a working BoB engine, or even things you can't show in screenshots/videos like completed flight models for BoB.

There is only one thing that worries me and that's how much money i will need to spend on a new PC to run this game when it gets released :grin:

My guess is that with it's phazed intoduction. The engine forever being improved, original specs will most likely be a top to medium range system now and slowly increasing.
Il2 worked fine on my old Geforce 2 card when I first got it and since then has kept most of my new cards running happily. I have a vore 2 duo and a 8800gt now and it happily shunts 1946 maxed out.
My guess is SOW BOB will let me run the game on medium to low settings without an upgrade.
But as we know most developers are given sneak peaks at hardware we have never seen or heard of before to make sure of compatability. But I serious doubt any current top range computer system will not be able to play the game. I guess 4.09 when it hits the the servers will give us our best idea of what SOW is going to need as a minimuim PC.

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.

you mean SoW:BoB will run at low details on a system that runs il2 at high details well..........

Whatever the system requirements might be, forcing people to have a Core 2 Duo/quad + 8800 series to run decent graphics wouldn't be smart in such a niche market.

Same with FSX, people just kept flying FS2004 because it looked better then FSX on their systems.

Still many months/year to go before release, an 8800gt by then will be old.
One has to assume the game is going to be Vista friendly and most likely optimised for Directx 10.
But like most game it will support Directx 9 and XP. But the pendilum will swing as Vista becomes faster and less bloated and XP like windows 98 will fade into the unsupported category :(

Well, if you want to run IL2-1946 4.09beta with all details set to maximum, you need a damn fine machine to keep FPS above 30. If you fly above cities and zoom in, you can be lucky to have above 10 FPS even with stuff like Effects=2 disabled.

But if you look at games like UT3 you can easily see what can be done with modern engines using modern hardware to the edge and not with workarounds on a 10 year old program. And UT3 works on pretty medicore systems in full details.

Oleg always posted that it is useless to upgrade prior to the release and that many people will be surprised how good the game will work. It was that way with IL2, too, as he also stated in another interview. You never needed a 1000$ PC to run the game on full details.

I don't know if this as been changed but Oleg stated that BoB will NOT be DX10.... he is sticking with Open GL....