Friday 2010-03-26 Screenshots and Discussion Thread

[Feuerfalke]

Very nice!

Again, it's especially the things behind the screenshots, that are most interesting. Looks great, even though it's WIP! VERY promising!

[Alien]

Thanks for update Oleg! Will there be chance to fly dornier on release day?

[major_setback]

The WiP trees are of very high quality, and the level of detail is amazing.

But what are they? Some sort of tropical tree that doesn't look right close up, and makes the landscape look foreign from a distance (to my English eyes it looks like it might be Australia).

I know this is WiP, which makes this the right time and place to say that trees of that quality will have to be good representations of English types. Otherwise the whole landscape will look wrong.
Most people would not recognise more than one or two species, but everyone will notice if the general look of them from afar is wrong.

I hope this area isn't overlooked because it is deemed less relevant in a flight sim...a little effort with getting the right look, and correct species of tress will make all the difference to the overall look of the game.

They are excellent tress though; excellent WiP trees that is and I am very impressed by them. The development updates are certainly something to look forward to these days!

[Sutts]

Thanks for the update Oleg. Love the trees.

I agree, it would be nice at this early stage if you tried to get them to look like oak, ash and beech.

[Igo kyu]

Thoughts about the images, particularly the first and the last.

In the first, the building on the left has a roof that to me is too steep, you might get a rare one that steep but they would be very rare in England I think.

In the last image there is a road visible out of the window, does that road have white lines on it? I'm pretty sure that lines on country roads used to be rare, and became more common as I've grown older, and the technology to make them has improved. I think in the old days of WW2 there would have been very few lines on country roads, possibly almost none. Maybe on a second look they are wear and tear markings, that would be very good.

The windows on the buildings look flat, painted on (which they obviously really are, but still), it would be better if they looked as if they were fittings that had been fitted into the walls of the buildings, as real windows are.

[Dano]

Originally Posted by Igo kyu

In the last image there is a road visible out of the window, does that road have white lines on it? I'm pretty sure that lines on country roads used to be rare, and became more common as I've grown older, and the technology to make them has improved. I think in the old days of WW2 there would have been very few lines on country roads, possibly almost none. Maybe on a second look they are wear and tear markings, that would be very good.

Tools/Viewer, right there slapped across the image...

[Richie]

I like the leaves up close. I think the movie makers are going to go bananas with this sim. If it sells well I hope we get to see many movies on all fronts.

[mark@1C]

The ground environment still need enhance, the impression of artificial work still comes to me immediately, again. It is so impressive that I begin to believe it may well be done in this way intentionally, considering the purpose of optimizing, and we do not spent most of our time on the ground in this game. The engine itself looks like using a cartoon rendering technology while the groundscape open out to me. But the cockpit samples are really fine. I don't know why the staff/or the engine can not carry this FINE into the groundscape.
The first three screenshots look like some place in the fairy-tale, an artificial landscape. It has been said before, looks like a real aeroplane flying over a LEGO city, a Disney theme park. It's hard to tell what's wrong, because they are nice as some people said, in a sense. But the feeling of something wrong does exist, it is not the correct atomsphere fit for the war, it's not a battlefiled, it's a place for afternoon tea...

[imaca]

Originally Posted by mark@1C

It's hard to tell what's wrong, because they are nice as some people said, in a sense. But the feeling of something wrong does exist, it is not the correct atomsphere fit for the war, it's not a battlefiled, it's a place for afternoon tea...

Im beginning to suspect this is the reason WOPs overly dark and grungy look is popular with some.
It seems many people can't get their head around the fact that "battlefields" and "afternoon tea" take place in the same time space continuum.

[KOM.Nausicaa]

The impression of "wrong" arises because you look in close up at chunks of generic created landscapes. This can hardly be avoided - after all it's a flight sim.

The problem with trees and other vegetation is, simply said, that they are very hard to be done right in 3D. It's an insane amount of work to do a good looking tree (from afar, but even more so from up close) in 3D, and it becomes very quickly polygon hell. Unacceptable polygon numbers for a game that has to render things in real time. Hence the popularity of optimized libraries like Speedtree or other tree generators. There are lots around for just that purpose. I am quite frankly rather impressed by those trees - they look really convincing for a tree that is obviously heavily simplified in polygon complexity. It should be no problem to put other species onto the map. The question is just how many Oleg is willing to buy for diversity purposes. (and maybe they are already there, you just don't see them on the selected screenshots).