Friday 2010-10-29 Dev. update and Discussion

[AndyJWest]

Regarding =69.GIAP=TOOZ's query about the map, and major_setback's reply, it's worth remembering that there are several different ways of projecting the surface of a sphere (like the Earth) onto a flat surface (a map), but none of them are 'correct' - they all distort in one way or another. Over the area shown on Oleg's screenshot, this isn't likely to be that noticeable though, so I'd be inclined to suggest the satellite image was distorted. To complicate things further, there may be three different 'norths' to align the map on - Magnetic North, which has the unfortunate habit of wandering around, and currently resides somewhere in Canada, True North, or the direction towards the northern end of Earth's rotational axis, which fortunately only moves slowly (over millennia), and 'Grid North' which is a convenience for cartographers - an arbitrary datum that may match True North at some point on the map, but diverges as you move away, to simplify dealing with the problems of projection. Since Oleg has said he is modelling the Earth as a sphere, he's presumably figured out which projection to use on maps, and to make comparisons, you need to find another map using the same projection, datum etc.

[=69.GIAP=TOOZ]

Originally Posted by AndyJWest

Regarding =69.GIAP=TOOZ's query about the map, and major_setback's reply, it's worth remembering that there are several different ways of projecting the surface of a sphere (like the Earth) onto a flat surface (a map), but none of them are 'correct' - they all distort in one way or another.

I kind of thought about this myself after I'd finished my rather quick and slapdash job, as based on my pic the further away from the centre of the picture the more elongated the river becomes which on a satelite image would happen because of the curvature of the earth. Then looking at setback's attempt it shows a far better alignment, and I'm assuming he used the map setting rather than the satelite setting? Anyway, I was just curious, but the map still looks great (cept for the errant appearance of that reservoir...!).

[Damixu]

Is there a chance in the future to influence the belting of aircraft guns ammunition? Like picking more mine rounds and tracers instead of armour piercing or ball ammo? Or having more incendiary ammunition?

Depending the mission the proper belting of guns is crucial to make or fail the mission.

Usually the pilots had their preference to the machine gun and cannon belting what ammunition to have in what series. This is same as guns convergence set by a individual pilots taste and way of dogfighting.

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by Necrobaron

Fantastic update!

Can you or someone else explain what I quoted above? There are laws that prevent some buildings from being depicted as damaged or destroyed?

On another tangent, I am continually amazed at people who still whine about graphics. While graphics can be an important immersive aspect, what goes on "behind the scenes*" in a sim is infinitesimally more important. True sims run much deeper that what the graphics, in a screenshot or otherwise, might show and people need to remember that. Even if SoW looked exactly the same as the IL-2 sim we fell in love with nearly 10 years ago (which it certainly does not, contrary to what some petulant buffoons might suggest or imply), I'd be willing to bet that it is what we can't see that will be far more complicated and detailed, by several orders of magnitude, than what IL-2 could achieve. Because of this, SoW will demonstrate that it is a sim of this decade and not of the last.

*Flight modelling, atmospheric/weather conditions, damage modelling, environmental effects, etc.

I wouldn't have worded it exactly like this, but to be honest i couldn't agree more with the underlying meaning the above post carries. It's what's under the hood, so to speak, that i'm itching the most to know about. Graphics and sounds can be patched whenever the developer wants, but core capabilities like weather simulation or layered AI interactions don't happen overnight and that's why they are the most important parts to get right from the start.