August 6 2011 Development Update

[BRIGGBOY]

thx luthier keep up the good work fella.

[NedLynch]

Well done Luthier, that's what the community needs, to be kept in the loop.

Not hearing from the dev team is the worst thing imho, just gives room to speculations and rumors, i.e. "the game is dead".

Better graphics engine, performance wise, sounds exellent to me.

I know you guys are working on things you see most pressing, but to make this into a "real" game I think some kind of DCG is sorely needed, even if it's a simple one in the beginning that can be updated and improved on later.

I am enjoying the game and I am happy that when I decided to buy it, mostly to support 1C, I made the right decision.

[ATAG_MajorBorris]

In 1940?

No, I was just trying to think of any fun ground content possibilities for the area, not so much the time.

[Buchon]

Originally Posted by luthier

Hi everyone.

Here’s what we’ve been doing, and what we’re planning for the nearest future.

The main areas of development are:

1. Graphics. Our graphics team is in the middle of a dramatic revision of our graphics engine. The new engine, still in alpha stage, is both faster and better looking. I won’t get into the technical details, but in a word it’s faster and more streamlined.
From the appearance point of view, the change is equally as dramatic but is easier seen. Colors are calculated differently, especially in terms of distance. I’m attaching some screenshots showing before and after. The colors are not yet tuned, and there are some other issues but we are much happier with the game’s visuals today than we’ve been for quite some time.

2. Sound. As I’ve mentioned earlier, we’re completely redoing our sound engine from scratch. The work is being done in three stages. Stage 1, alpha, where we test basic functionality with some bare-bones samples has been passed a while ago. Stage 2, beta, where we have all aircraft sounds complete, and have some bare-minimum sounds for other objects, is almost here. Stage 3, a complete sound engine with all object and ambient sounds, will follow.
What we have now is brand new DB601, Merlin, Mercury, and Jumo 211 engines in a new environment, infinitely more stable and supporting realistic sounds from dozens or hundreds of engines within hearing distance. Various secondary and tertiary sounds are also there – G loads, flutter, controls movement, etc. The aircraft feel alive, especially when you’re inside the cockpit.

3. Physics. We are doing a major rewrite of some portions of aircraft landing gear physics (i.e. landing, taxi, take-off) as well as major changes to our secondary physics (ships, vehicles, debris, etc).

4. Models. We have quite a few new aircraft variants in the oven, and our ground modeling team has finally finished a major task that perhaps too few people will appreciate. We’ve completed a huge library of historical German rail engines and cars.

Timeline wise, what we’re looking at is a beta sound patch in a minimum of 2 weeks, and at least a week of tests for that. The new graphics will also be included with it. The same upcoming patch will also include some new aircraft and most likely the German trains. Due to all new sounds, it’ll be one of the largest patches so far, but still way under a GB.

Thank you all for your support!

[AWL_Spinner]

Cheers for the update. Would be awesome if I could actually start the game when this patch arrives

[klem]

This is what many of us have wanted, real information. Many thanks.

PLEASE can you keep us up to date on this work on say a two week basis and add any 'next steps' as you pick them up?

I can't wait to get my hands on the sound beta and look forward to seeing the new graphics update that will come with it. No feedback on your screenshots because I'd rather comment on the real deal when it arrives.

For the 'fps have dropped' posters, please understand that the first fps number is an instantaneous figure that can vary dramatically second by second. The Average and Minimums are the ones that tell you how well it will run and a minimum of zero can easily show up under a number of circumstances, like if there has been a reload without resetting the FPS counter.

[catito14]

Thanks for the update, Luthier! The new landscape´s colours looks AMAZING and it looks like the UK and not like the Russian steppe anymore lol. I hope you also working to fix the gelded FM´s to use their full potential.

Keep up with the great work!!

I hope all the changes and improvements make it into the sequel and will make it a solid product from the first hour unless Clod.

Great to read a little update today \o/.

re landscape. I LIKE. i was trying to deal with the distance atmospherics in my mod thread but you did it. excellent. thanks big L.

[ParaB]

Thanks for the update, sounds very promising.