Friday 2010-10-15 Dev. update and Discussion

[airmalik]

Originally Posted by speculum jockey

Those people who are comparing it to WOP/BOP have to remember that both of those games use maps that are the size of postage stamps.

SoW may be making compromises because of it's much greater overall complexity but the fact remains that from a medium altitude, landscape visuals that we've so far haven't surpassed WoP. Ground level - no comparison, SoW wins hands down. But I think Oleg's dismissive remarks about WoP landscape in the past have raised expectations and we expect SoW's landscape to be better than SoW in all respects.

SoW landscape is still WIP and we've been told it's already been improved over what we've seen so I'm looking forward to these improvements.

BTW, my comparison of the two isn't based on filters in WoP which I'm not a fan of. WoP just seems to have better placement and density of trees and they integrate with the ground better.

[kendo65]

Originally Posted by airmalik

SoW landscape is still WIP and we've been told it's already been improved over what we've seen so I'm looking forward to these improvements.

BTW, my comparison of the two isn't based on filters in WoP which I'm not a fan of. WoP just seems to have better placement and density of trees and they integrate with the ground better.

Agree about the tree placement in WOP - it's one of the main elements in producing a realistic effect.

I had a look at some WOP screenshots again today - and while overall I think it does currently have the edge, I don't think the gap is that big - really, with some more incremental shifts I can see SOW getting there.

(that's without mentioning the filtering and other issues where SOW already is ahead)

This all does come down to the colour palette issue - I really do think that people will be surprised at just how much things will come together when they get that tweaked. Just take it as a given. They'll sort it.

Notice also that hedgerows are turned off in the current screens. Also haven't seen waves on the shoreline yet. It's Work in Progress - it'll be sorted.

[ChrisDNT]

"What you need is a scenery simulator."

You obviously missed my "fayboy post-scriptum".

I know my English is far from being perfect, but I think it's nevertheless easy to understand that I'm not asking for a perfect photorealistic rendering (which, I know, is still not possible with the current personal computers), but just for a correct color palette for the described area (here, England), what has nothing to do with the technical capacities of our pc's.

[kendo65]

Originally Posted by ChrisDNT

...
I know my English is far from being perfect, but I think it's nevertheless easy to understand that I'm not asking for a perfect photorealistic rendering (which, I know, is still not possible with the current personal computers), but just for a correct color palette for the described area (here, England), what has nothing to do with the technical capacities of our pc's.

I've used the term colour palette myself, but I remember Oleg mentioning a while back that the situation in SOW is much more complex than it was in il2.

(I'll paraphrase from memory here - perhaps someone else can track down the original quote? And with apologies to Oleg if I mangle this...)
Because of the more advanced lighting model, it is no longer a simple task of just choosing the correct colours for the various textures. The lighting model used by the engine modifies and varies the underlying colour in a manner modelled on real-life physics. So, they may arrange something so that it looks perfect at low-level in bright sunlight and then find that it is way off in mist, or from a higher altitude. The difficulty lies in tweaking the parameters of the lighting model rather than in simply producing a 'once and for all' accurate colour palette.

I think this may be why the ground-level shots (Spit in field, trains, etc) are generally viewed as being very good while the medium-level shots are still off.

Once again, the word is 'WIP'.

Originally Posted by ChrisDNT

"What you need is a scenery simulator."

You obviously missed my "fayboy post-scriptum".

I know my English is far from being perfect, but I think it's nevertheless easy to understand that I'm not asking for a perfect photorealistic rendering (which, I know, is still not possible with the current personal computers), but just for a correct color palette for the described area (here, England), what has nothing to do with the technical capacities of our pc's.

Well, I think that Oleg does in fact "ask" his team for photorealistic final product...That was his goal from the very beginning of SOW and that is probably why the whole project took so long to complete...And I also think that what we see at every friday's update is in fact work from months ago and Oleg keeps the big "revelation" for an ultimate official release trailer...

Salute !

[SlipBall]

Back in the day, we didn't need any stinking green

[Richie]

Originally Posted by SlipBall

Back in the day, we didn't need any stinking green

Hey that takes me back.....What fun days those were. Twelve hours straight flying till your butt hurt so bad it burned!!!

[zodiac]

wonderfull update... again

There is advertising in the streets! That is a very nice detail. As a graphic design student, I kind of love those old ads. Can't wait to take a closer look at them.

I suspect that during the lifetime of sow, these streets will really come to life. Soon we will have some missions like this:
objective 1: drive with your racing green sports car to the airbase exit.
objective 2: pick up your girlfriend at her home.
objective 3: find a way through London's traffic jams
objective 4: find a parking place near the cinema
objective 5: get her back home "safely"

Oh Oleg, I have one question:
Will there be churches in the towns? I don't remember seeing one in the updates. In Belgium (and I suppose in France and Britain to) there's a church in almost every village. sometimes even if the village only counts 10 houses. For regular Flemish towns, churches were the only tall buildings around. They really give image to a town.