Channel Map Comparisons

[ElAurens]

It's not a port from CloD, but I do agree it looks every bit as bad as the rest of RoF looks to me.

An impressionist painter's view of the world, done in pastel water colors for a children's book.

The only thing that RoF gets right visually are the aircraft models.

[Freycinet]

I think a lot of you are being way to harsh on 777 Studios/RoF. They actually got a viable economic model going for flight sim development, which is huge, and the basis for EVERYTHING.

Also, to say that BoS will just be WWII on a RoF map does the team a big injustice. I am sure they have a lot of goodies up their sleeve with BoS. They have carried out amazing improvements to RoF over the years. The important thing to remember is that the improvements will NECESSARILY have to be rolled out INCREMENTALLY, for economic and time schedule reasons. As CoD showed no company can finance a 7 year development period in this small niche sector.

BoS will most probably be a rather bare-bones sim, with not so much content but with the architecture for future additions in place. The barren wastes of the Russian steppes - in winter no less - will be a perfect first place for a map that will be ONe and not four years in the making (As the RoF Channel map compared to the CoD Channel map).

The worst thing, the absolutely worst thing, the flight sim community can do is to heap criticism on BoS from the day of release. I witnessed the terrible spectacle of that with CoD and I really don't want to see it again. ...But it seems a lot of people don't learn and that it is starting again. - Please cherish the fact that some people are putting their life-blood into hi-fi sim development (instead of WoT, WoP, or whatever all the arcade games are called...).

I really really hope we are in for years of great development with the new franchise and I would be immensely sad it if it is stopped in the beginnig like we have seen before. People really have to redimension their expectations to the economic reality of flight sim development...

[addman]

Originally Posted by Freycinet

I think a lot of you are being way to harsh on 777 Studios/RoF. They actually got a viable economic model going for flight sim development, which is huge, and the basis for EVERYTHING.

Also, to say that BoS will just be WWII on a RoF map does the team a big injustice. I am sure they have a lot of goodies up their sleeve with BoS. They have carried out amazing improvements to RoF over the years. The important thing to remember is that the improvements will NECESSARILY have to be rolled out INCREMENTALLY, for economic and time schedule reasons. As CoD showed no company can finance a 7 year development period in this small niche sector.

BoS will most probably be a rather bare-bones sim, with not so much content but with the architecture for future additions in place. The barren wastes of the Russian steppes - in winter no less - will be a perfect first place for a map that will be ONe and not four years in the making (As the RoF Channel map compared to the CoD Channel map).

The worst thing, the absolutely worst thing, the flight sim community can do is to heap criticism on BoS from the day of release. I witnessed the terrible spectacle of that with CoD and I really don't want to see it again. ...But it seems a lot of people don't learn and that it is starting again. - Please cherish the fact that some people are putting their life-blood into hi-fi sim development (instead of WoT, WoP, or whatever all the arcade games are called...).

I really really hope we are in for years of great development with the new franchise and I would be immensely sad it if it is stopped in the beginnig like we have seen before. People really have to redimension their expectations to the economic reality of flight sim development...

Well said Freycinet. I don't think we'll see that again though, 777 might release a "bare-bones" sim but I bet at least they'll have the basics in place, like a.i radio commands, a working gui, more intuitive online modes and an actual functioning campaign etc. What I've learned with CloD is that functionality is much more important than ambition. Ambition can't grow and prosper unless the basic foundation is in place, CloD's foundation was unfortunately laid way too late. Who says that the RoF engine will be the first and last resort of the future of the IL-2 franchise? The success of BoS will determine if there is a future for the IL-2 franchise and to be honest, realistically, there might not be one. So yeah, let's ALL be a little more humble in our expectations.

[philip.ed]

Originally Posted by Freycinet

I think a lot of you are being way to harsh on 777 Studios/RoF. They actually got a viable economic model going for flight sim development, which is huge, and the basis for EVERYTHING.

Also, to say that BoS will just be WWII on a RoF map does the team a big injustice. I am sure they have a lot of goodies up their sleeve with BoS. They have carried out amazing improvements to RoF over the years. The important thing to remember is that the improvements will NECESSARILY have to be rolled out INCREMENTALLY, for economic and time schedule reasons. As CoD showed no company can finance a 7 year development period in this small niche sector.

BoS will most probably be a rather bare-bones sim, with not so much content but with the architecture for future additions in place. The barren wastes of the Russian steppes - in winter no less - will be a perfect first place for a map that will be ONe and not four years in the making (As the RoF Channel map compared to the CoD Channel map).

The worst thing, the absolutely worst thing, the flight sim community can do is to heap criticism on BoS from the day of release. I witnessed the terrible spectacle of that with CoD and I really don't want to see it again. ...But it seems a lot of people don't learn and that it is starting again. - Please cherish the fact that some people are putting their life-blood into hi-fi sim development (instead of WoT, WoP, or whatever all the arcade games are called...).

I really really hope we are in for years of great development with the new franchise and I would be immensely sad it if it is stopped in the beginnig like we have seen before. People really have to redimension their expectations to the economic reality of flight sim development...

Well said, but your last point is completely invalid.

The communities reaction to CloD did nothing to tarnish the product. The product tarnished itself, in the same way that awful regimes lay the grounds for their own downfall. It was a mess at release and evolved into something a lot better. It has/had so much potential.

If BoS is a success it will be well treated, and if it is awful the community will be honest. RoF itself shows that a sim can be poor at release and evolve into something pretty damn good.

[kendo65]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

...

An impressionist painter's view of the world, done in pastel water colors for a children's book.

....

Don't really want to go there, BUT, the above was almost exactly my description of how COD looked from anything above a few thousand feet. On the ground it looked great however! [This probably says a lot again about the plus and minus aspect of COD's advanced features - the advanced lighting model that meant terrain colours and appearances were affected by the parameters input to the lighting system. The minus being that apparently it was so complex that they were NEVER able to make it look satisfactory at all altitudes, so from ground it's really great but gets washed out and pastel-shaded as you go up. They tried tweaking it in various patches and were never able to get it fully sorted]

I personally prefer the ROF depiction of England to COD's, but as the COD map was one of my big bug-bears that's probably not surprising.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I suppose.

Good post Freycinet.

[furbs]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

It's not a port from CloD, but I do agree it looks every bit as bad as the rest of RoF looks to me.

An impressionist painter's view of the world, done in pastel water colors for a children's book.

The only thing that RoF gets right visually are the aircraft models.

I dont know where you live ElAurens, but ROF colour palette is much closer to life than CODs, though which you prefer is personal.

I dont know how BOS will turn out, but i will stay positive until i see anything that changes how i feel.
What do i expect from BOS at release?

A working sim that will play well.

[SlipBall]

It will be very hard for them to come close/equal/surpass 1946. Why with all 46 has, its assets for that theater, realistically impossible I guess to get done. Unless much can be imported from the new joint venture thats in place. I want them to do well I just can't see it for that theater, within the limited time frame.

[philip.ed]

Sorry, but what clear advancements does the RoF Channel Map show over the original one produced for Storm of War (which may have been updated for CloD)?

I think the colour palette in CloD is wrong, but if fixed would look 10X better than the washed out RoF rendition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GtsNqaE1yU

[kendo65]

Originally Posted by philip.ed

Sorry, but what clear advancements does the RoF Channel Map show over the original one produced for Storm of War (which may have been updated for CloD)?

I think the colour palette in CloD is wrong, but if fixed would look 10X better than the washed out RoF rendition.

Over the original one from the video - none whatsoever I'd say, but over the one we actually got I think it rectifies a few of the shortcomings, specifically trees and colour balance.

But, please note the colour balance in ROF can be varied quite a bit by choosing different options under the 'Post effects' settings. There is also a tweak for saturation buried in the Startup.cfg file in the Rise of Flight/Data folder (at standard default saturation of 0.75 it can look washed out. I have increased it to 0.815 which gives better results) just seen that some people are using saturation = 1.00. I may have to give that a go.

Then there is the new FlightFX/SweetFx that has brought improvements too.

With everything tweaked the criticisms about washed out colours don't really apply.

[Wolf_Rider]

Originally Posted by kendo65

Over the original one from the video - none whatsoever I'd say, but over the one we actually got I think it rectifies a few of the shortcomings, specifically trees and colour balance.

But, please note the colour balance in ROF can be varied quite a bit by choosing different options under the 'Post effects' settings. There is also a tweak for saturation buried in the Startup.cfg file in the Rise of Flight/Data folder (at standard default saturation of 0.75 it can look washed out. I have increased it to 0.815 which gives better results) just seen that some people are using saturation = 1.00. I may have to give that a go.

Then there is the new FlightFX/SweetFx that has brought improvements too.

With everything tweaked the criticisms about washed out colours don't really apply.

maybe you could post up some screenies of what you're saying there?