Friday 2010-06-04 Dev. update and Discussion Thread

[philip.ed]

Originally Posted by fireflyerz

Well ive never been one to blow sunshine up anyones ass , but Oleg , that shot taken from the inside of the 109 cockpit did it for me I would buy the game just to mavel at the detail and lighting all day long.
If I could ask for anything at this point it would be to see a short video sequence of the parachute opening , this is a subject close to my hart and I get the impression from looking at the screenshot that somthing is missing.

Cheers Oleg
Jafa

There was a vid of the parachute m8....but it was only 3 seconds long

[Tbag]

I'm not sure why, but the shots of Oleg seem to be not as crisp as for example those:

http://www.a2asimulations.com/wingso...enshots/15.jpg

Is that simply due to the lack of AA in Olegs shots or are there other reasons?

[robtek]

I'd like to believe that in SoW the athmospheric disturbances are also simulated!

[Snuff_Pidgeon]

Take your time Oleg, deep down i think we all want the best possible sim for its time. Btw 109 pit is FANTASTIC! Thank you.

[genbrien]

Originally Posted by Tbag

I'm not sure why, but the shots of Oleg seem to be not as crisp as for example those:

http://www.a2asimulations.com/wingso...enshots/15.jpg

Is that simply due to the lack of AA in Olegs shots or are there other reasons?

there is just no AA in Oleg's shot.

[Tbag]

Originally Posted by genbrien

there is just no AA in Oleg's shot.

That's excactly why I'm asking

[major_setback]

Originally Posted by Tbag

I'm not sure why, but the shots of Oleg seem to be not as crisp as for example those:

http://www.a2asimulations.com/wingso...enshots/15.jpg

Is that simply due to the lack of AA in Olegs shots or are there other reasons?

I think it is a very much higher poly-count model. FSX doesn't need to calculate AI manoeuvres and tactics, have as many aircraft in the air, calculate bullet trajectories, etc. so it can accommodate better models and still keep a high frame rate.

I remember when this B25 came out for FS2004. http://www.maam.org/flightsim/PACKAGES/BT.htm It was so much better than anything that could have been flown in FB.

I am hoping that we will see very high poly count aircraft available for SoW from third parties...I would be willing to fly them non combat if that was what was necessary.

I suspect that it will only be a few years before we will see updates with very high poly-count default aircraft like the one you posted in the game. Hopefully there will be lots of modellers out there trying to improve on the default models. After all, they would only have to make the exterior, the rest is already done!!

[Tbag]

Thanks MS, that's what I thought but I don't understand enough to really jugde. And it's probably not only the number of polys, it seems to be also the texture and the bump-map size. I'm just not sure what is the most important piece in the puzzle and if the appearence of the SOW models will significantly improve with AA and other display settings.

But I don't think that all the physics calculations are the reason for the (relatively) low poly models since they are taken care of by the CPU.

[TheGrunch]

You've also got to consider texture size, ground object density, and the fact that FSX doesn't really NEED a consistent 30fps+ framerate to be playable in addition to the things major_setback mentioned, and you've got probably the whole list. Completely different specification for models needed. I agree that the screenies could really use some AA, though.

[Zorin]

@Mysticpuma and Tbag:

I do 3D modelling myself and there is no visual improvement between the SoW models that have been shown and that B-17, at all. At least from a polycount point of view. Every poly more than the SoW models have is a waste and pretty much inefficient.

As for the textures, take a look at this shot of the B-17:

http://www.a2asimulations.com/wingso...eenshots/4.jpg

Without the polished finished it actually looks rather dreary compared to the SoW models.

Besides, why would you want to absolve a combat simulator from its very purpose, simulating combat, just to look at a plane model, which you could do better in an environment like FSX? That doesn't makesense to me at all.