Friday 2010-09-03 Dev. update and Discussions

[The Kraken]

Originally Posted by Foo'bar

Will buildings cast drop shadows inside? I was looking at picture two and was wondering why I can't see any drop shadows at the left inside walls/floor of the hangar building.

The Hurricane on that image seems to lack self-shadowing as well. Maybe still Luthier's low-end system at work as mentioned some months ago.

[major_setback]

Originally Posted by Foo'bar

Will buildings cast drop shadows inside? I was looking at picture two and was wondering why I can't see any drop shadows at the left inside walls/floor of the hangar building.

In picture 1 there's a train crossing a road. Given that the last coach is about 20 meters long then the road's width seem far to wide. Such road should be about 5 meters wide imho.

Thank you for your informed opinion, it is much appreciated. It's good to hear from someone who knows about such things.

[Osprey]

Although i'm very much looking forward to SOW I am in agreement with some of the other chaps here about the landscape, and I hope it'll get updated, i'm sure it's a long way from complete. Those screenshots from WOP look far more realistic to me. British country roads are mostly single lane with passing places and lined with hedgerows, or hedgerows and trees. Spots of bushes from time to time just don't look realistic at all.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the fire effects, at present they look poor (check the aircraft on fire @ 2:11 in the video) - but I think it's too early though and will get fixed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbUYaYjx2Xk

Check out the way trains explode - the power of .50cal rounds - fuel tanks going up on static and flying aircraft - the 'sparkle' as rounds hit the target - deflected tracer from the ground - the dust and smoke thrown up on the ground from the rounds that missed - the bits falling off the aircraft in flight as it is torn apart. All of this is done pretty well in IL2 now with the effects pack mod, but we want more .

[MD_Titus]

Originally Posted by Osprey

Although i'm very much looking forward to SOW I am in agreement with some of the other chaps here about the landscape, and I hope it'll get updated, i'm sure it's a long way from complete. Those screenshots from WOP look far more realistic to me. British country roads are mostly single lane with passing places and lined with hedgerows, or hedgerows and trees. Spots of bushes from time to time just don't look realistic at all.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the fire effects, at present they look poor (check the aircraft on fire @ 2:11 in the video) - but I think it's too early though and will get fixed.

Check out the way trains explode - the power of .50cal rounds - fuel tanks going up on static and flying aircraft - the 'sparkle' as rounds hit the target - deflected tracer from the ground - the dust and smoke thrown up on the ground from the rounds that missed - the bits falling off the aircraft in flight as it is torn apart. All of this is done pretty well in IL2 now with the effects pack mod, but we want more .

interesting aircraft in 4.02. not a clue what it is though.

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by Romanator21

Luthier, the problem is that you designed your pilots to look like this:









However, these are elite midget pilots. Their tiny size makes them more tenacious, and hardy.

You should model your figures on people with more normal skeletons.

Like this:

Hahaha, excellent

I think pilots are modelled with their seats lowered, in "combat mode" as Chivas said. A lot of modern and wartime photos show them sitting higher in the cockpit and that's probably accurate as well, but i think it has to do with personal preference of the pilot and what's happening during that time.

Remember, these planes are taildraggers with long cowlings. My guess goes like this:
Taxi, take off, landing, maybe even cruise to assist in situational awareness and formation flying--->seat adjusted to the high position for extra visibility
Combat, in order to align your head with the gunsight and put as much of the body inside the "hard" parts of the airframe--->seat adjusted to the low position.

That being said, the guy's head looks a bit small but Romanator's pics look no different. I mean, how come they never appear out of scale in bombers but they only look small in fighters? We know for a fact it's the same size model.

Aircrew animations in the He111 are just right and damage modelling seems superb, especially the dented and deformed metal plating. Planes look awesome as usual too.

The only issue i have is with the 1st picture. Lot's of people have commented on it and they said it better than me, as i couldn't initially pinpoint what it was that i found strange.
In short, the planes looks so damn perfect that the terrain seems somewhat out of place and that comes down to two things. First, maybe it just needs higher resolution textures, i don't know. Second, the trees also look like they are made to a higher spec than the rest of the terrain, so they somewhat "stick out" of it. If the trees were not so highly detailed or the rest of the terrain was upgraded a notch or two, they would probably blend in just fine. Maybe the tree detail level in the graphics options could be tied to the terrain texture detail level? Just an idea.

The funny thing is that i have seen screenshots in previous updates where the terrain textures seemed absolutely fine, so maybe it's just a case of tinkering with different settings and resolutions.

However, there's a silver lining in every cloud and in this case, the first screenshot shows its biggest redeeming quality. That draw distance is huuuuuuuge and the way the details fade into the distance is very gradual and well done

All in all, another promising and very appetizing update and yes, i stand by my assertion that as far as graphics are concerned i'd buy it this instant. They are good enough for me, if the rest of the title (FM/DM, campaign engine, sound, etc) is up to the job i can wait for the details (like pilot head size, road size, etc) to get fixed in the patches following the release.

P.S. The 1c guys may not answer much, but they sure are listening. All this talk about death animations and what did we get in this update? Animations of dead and injured crewmen. It's not even the first time it happened, a member with a good eye for details and knowledge of airframes talked about the size of trim tabs on the 110, guess what? They were corrected too.
The team sure do keep an eye on things and react to what gets discussed around here, just ask nicely about things and it might pop up in the next update

[Freycinet]

Originally Posted by MD_Titus

interesting aircraft in 4.02. not a clue what it is though.

Looks to me like a Siebel Si 204.

http://www.aviastar.org/air/germany/siebel-204a.php

[AC_Black]

~S~

Thankyou for the updates. pics look great and damage model improvements are fantastic

[sorak]

ahhhhh.. i cant wait.. i cant wait.. i cant wait

[Jumo211]

Hello Skoshi Tiger ,
the problem with this video is that those are very few aircrafts with more dramatic smokes that are in existence available on YouTube , zillion gun camera videos have these included , how many planes are going down like this with black thick smoke in available huge WWII archival footage ? maybe 10 , 20 ? plus you don't see the whole story , many of these black thick burst will run out in about 5 seconds which is not shown in the rest of the youtube footage and you won't find the whole footage on youtube to compare.
After few seconds black thick smoke is most of the time gone leaving very transparent grayish color and little smoke .
We're talking about hundreds of shut down planes you won't see on youtube , which shows 90% of the time little or no smoke regardless of planes which also caught fire .
Black thick smoke was not sustainable to continue for extended period of time with majority of planes shot down including Japanese aircrafts .
Available huge WWII air combat archive mostly U.S. and Italy's Luce is not always some poor grainy videos , it's almost like in HD quality and footage speaks for itself .

Back on topic , I believe that pilot head size must be correct , this is my picture I took just recently and it looks like I should be ready for Hurricane aircraft

[KOM.Nausicaa]

As for the Heinkel cockpit: he is sitting on a bench. (not a seat) -- here is the SoW BoB Heinkel from inside:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ny59blbRplA