"Wings" Of Prey (PC). Watchout Oleg!

[sweln]

Yes, graphics are immersion, but also a simulation of reality. Getting blind because of light you can fake it with lightness, but it's ugly. HDR looks better and so on.

Professional sims don't have beautifull graphics, for sure. That's because they don't have to sell it to the global public!

Of course the main object for SoW is to become the most advanced sim of WW2 flights, and that is mostly physics and FM.
But without up to date top notch graphics, the game won't sell as good as it should, because the simmers community isn't big enough for Oleg and his team to eat everyday. Otherwise there would be even more sims out there.

So SoW has to please future simmers, and the best way to achieve it is by working on every aspect of the game, graphics included. That is why e are all excited (for good or not) about WoP, because we all want SoW to be better in every domain than WoP!

I would like to remind that when Il-2 came out, it was graphically oustanding. And that also made the game's reputation. It was a very good looking and was a deep sim. Everything was over the rest.

SoW has to beat that same challenge. No?

WoP is a good test, and a good first step for Oleg and team to have a good idea of what's "do-able" in terms of graphics (even with a limited terrain and ground objects). Now all the rest has to be as good as that .
I also wonder what are the links between the Il-2 Birds of Prey project and Il-2 / SoW / Oleg Maddox... isn't Birds of Prey published by 1C? And isn't Oleg Maddox a producer at 1C? I'm confused!

Can't Oleg just give his opinion? That would help!

EDIT
I also want to add this, about hollywoodish graphics :
haze and colors, blur and HDR, god rays and other "impressive" FX and cinematographic effects can all be graphical options.
So it is best for Oleg to implement them in SoW (WoP style) and leave the possibility for each of us to tweak the result he wants (Il-2 difficulty settings style)!

[Chromius]

I agree with the points you have made

Originally Posted by sweln

Yes, graphics are immersion, but also a simulation of reality. Getting blind because of light you can fake it with lightness, but it's ugly. HDR looks better and so on.

Professional sims don't have beautifull graphics, for sure. That's because they don't have to sell it to the global public!

So yes, focusing on a realistic simulation and not keeping the graphics up to par with current capabilities will most likely result in less sales and a smaller overall community, which everyone has to admit that for the multiplayer to be fun we need a decent pool of players to make it thrive. And for the single player, new campaigns and missions made by interested people. This is the balancing act.

Originally Posted by Flanker35M

As of detailed structures or such in landscape. Personally I do not give a damn if the tractor in the field has the Massey-Ferguson stenciled on it when I zoom over it at around 500km/h or if every door knob in a town is individually made..you get the pic. Sure for screenshots or movies fine, but otherwise you do not see it while playing. Immersion does not need all bells and whistles

It is just waste of resources if going too deep to the detail factory I am an online player and there all that matters is PING and PERFORMANCE. You do NOT want stutter from hyperdetailed objects or stuff like that, it kills gameplay. And online you are not there to admire if grass sweeps in wind or the water is exactly the right color..you die if you day dream For an online the dots, plane shapes and such matter more than if a small gimmick is right or wrong on the ground.

Do not get me wrong, I like nice graphics. But they have to serve the game, NOT distract away from the game, replace content or decrease overall performance. SoW will be VERY intensive on your machine because it will have a high fidelity DM/FM + new AI and more planes in the air. Also plane models have far more details/polygons which all take more horsepower.

Even Oleg's team for sure has good programmers, there is a limit what one can do. A constant balance between being playable and just a nice slide show. Oleg would not make a game that would run just OK on today's rig and wait for better hardware to appear. He will release a product that runs on a broad spectrum = SALES and INCOME! Sure with the option for the tech freaks to bring their machines to their knees by turning it all ON in options A plus is that if SoW is DirectX 11 then both ATI(already) and nVidia(soon) will run it fine without gimmicks..Both manufacturers make cards that eat games for lunch.

Yes the other big tricky balance, how much of it is going to work in Multiplayer for fps and Pings. #1 Immersion breaker in Multiplayer, how smooth it plays.