Friday 2010-07-30 Dev. update and Discussions

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by Bobb4

A simple question from me, will enemy/friendly/other player/ai plane's main operating surfaces move or will we be forced like in the current IL2 to look for othe visual cues that they are trying to sideslip, barrel-roll etc.
At the moment all planes do not seem to show elevator,alerion, rudder or other movements other than on the player controlled plane. I could be wrong but all the visuals i have seen seem to reinforce this. Please tell me I am wrong.
Other than that I have to say everything looks great.

Example
Look at the screenshots of the 109's in formation and the J88's banking and all the control surfaces look static?

Actually, it's clearly visible that the Ju88 closer to the camera has its elevators slightly deflected upwards, the one in front also has a slight upward elevator but it's harder to spot...maybe they've already used their ailerons to bank and they are now just pulling on the stick to make the turn.

Now, as for why they have the exact same control inputs, i think this is to save CPU power in AI calculations. Just like IL2, it seems that AI in formation tend to move in almost perfect unison (although AI planes still do wiggle back and forth a bit in formation, you can check this out if you engage autopilot and up the time compression a bit). It sure would be nice to have some variation to make it feel more "human", but it won't bother me much if it saves processing power for other equally important things.

[Friendly_flyer]

To Oleg and Luthier.

In all the screenshots so far, the RAF planes have had the 24 inches wide by 27 inches tall finflash. This was first introduced in August 1940, but was not universal throughout Fighter Command before December 1940 (the squadrons presumably having more pressing issues than repainting markings).

An order for tail-markings for RAF planes was issued in May. It specified tricolour markings in RAF paint colours, red forward, and stated that they should "cover as much of the fin area as possible". Thus, a number of versions appeared. These are all taken from photos of Hurricanes in 1940:

"Full" tails:


"Cropped" tails:


Finflash:


RAF flew with the various "full" and "cropped" tail markings all through the Channel clashes in summer 1940, by late September/early October perhaps half of the squadrons had changed, and some stragglers flew with them even into early 1941.

Do you plan to have a look at this rather amazing variety of tail markings? If so, I have started collecting data on what squadron had what tail markings, and when they changed over to the regulation flash.

[Bobb4]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

Actually, it's clearly visible that the Ju88 closer to the camera has its elevators slightly deflected upwards, the one in front also has a slight upward elevator but it's harder to spot...maybe they've already used their ailerons to bank and they are now just pulling on the stick to make the turn.

Now, as for why they have the exact same control inputs, i think this is to save CPU power in AI calculations. Just like IL2, it seems that AI in formation tend to move in almost perfect unison (although AI planes still do wiggle back and forth a bit in formation, you can check this out if you engage autopilot and up the time compression a bit). It sure would be nice to have some variation to make it feel more "human", but it won't bother me much if it saves processing power for other equally important things.

My bad, just looked at the pic from my home computer with a bigger monitor and you are right. The control surfaces are moving. Thanks for setting me straight

[AdMan]

safe to say that terrain was not ready to have been shown

doh!