Friday Update, February 24, 2012

[Osprey]

Originally Posted by phoenix1963

I think the really interesting question raised by this much vehicle detail is whether Luthier et al have managed to distribute the AI control of many vehicles across many computers.

If they have managed this difficult job - hard because the AI actions have to appear to be the same on every flyers computer - then there's the possibility of very large (mostly AI) tank engagements with us flying ground attack - like Kursk.

I always felt that was one of the big limitations of il2 '46, the numbers of vehicles that could be handled was always too low.

Now, I suspect they haven't solved this problem, because it would mean huge amounts of data to be communicated. But if they have, and the "spheres of influence" effects that we see affecting ship positions may be a way of limiting communication load to nearby vehicles, then that really would be a huge step forward for the series.

56RAF_phoenix

AI activity is computed by the server and the 3D point in space of each object distributed to each connected player for rendering, but only those within visual range. That's how I understand it anyway. Offline it is all on your machine.