3/21/08 update from Oleg

[Skarphol]

Originally Posted by *Buzzsaw*

Salute

For Skarphol:

You've got to be kidding... If you think the BoB preview of the 110 looks the same as the IL-2 version, then you probably should go get an eyeglass prescription.

Well, I have, and I was wearing my contacts when I wrote that post!!
Anyway, that was late last night. I've been looking at the pictures a few times today, and i realize that the polygons are very visible on the IL-2 picture, while they are not visible at all in the SOW:BOB-picture..
But these two pictures are supposed to be around 8 years of gaming development apart. And to me, that is not that obvious. Then again, I guess the great leaps of gaming development do not lay in the plane models themselves, but all the other stuff. And on that development, Oleg is keeping his cards close to his chest.

Skarphol

[Robert]

Don't forget the IL2 version has lighting effects. The BoB version doesn't. That makes a difference too.

[Friendly_flyer]

Well Skarphol, it's supposed to be the same aircraft, so if they look alike it should hardly come as a surprise. The differences is in the amount of detail. Note the flacking on the the latter (which is dynamic, mind you!), the lighting and reflexes and small details in the cockpit and spinner tips. Eye-candy it may be, but I don't mind eye-candy at all!

The shark-mouth marking is a neat detail. As far as I know, it is from a machine stationed at Herdla, Norway. I'm fairly sure this is a unit in-game marking, not the default for the 110's. Note that the marking is below the "panels and lines" layer. This is a radical new way of applying textures to the planes.

[csThor]

Err .. what do people expect when they see a SoW 110 as opposed an Il-2 110? A new aircraft? A major re-design?

As others said in this stage (WiP Shot from 3DS Max) the only noticeable things result from 3D Model differences. The SoW 110 shows clearly an evolution regarding details (e.g. holes in the fuselage for the MG 17 in the bow), but the "bells and whistles" of the GFX engine are just not there so a true comparison is not yet possible. BTW anyone realized that the RLM 70/71 110 from SoW carries an ETC underneath the fuselage? That would make it a C-4/b
I severely hope that Maddox Games enhances the 3D Models in that way, that the necessary attachments for droppable armament (bombs etc) are always there. There are more than a few examples of a missing bomb rack in Il-2.

[Fighterduck]

and then again, is WiP and they are only screenshots. Personally i think, ok you can see improvements from pics, but the real diference will only appear in "moving machines", So, ill wait for some updated ingame videos, when they will be done ^^ ...im patient and i trust Oleg team, never faild till now. So no worries for me.

[Avimimus]

Originally Posted by Skarphol

Well, I have, and I was wearing my contacts when I wrote that post!!
Anyway, that was late last night. I've been looking at the pictures a few times today, and i realize that the polygons are very visible on the IL-2 picture, while they are not visible at all in the SOW:BOB-picture..
But these two pictures are supposed to be around 8 years of gaming development apart. And to me, that is not that obvious. Then again, I guess the great leaps of gaming development do not lay in the plane models themselves, but all the other stuff. And on that development, Oleg is keeping his cards close to his chest.

Skarphol

It will look better in the engine. Furthermore, most of the improvements will be in other areas than the aircraft 3d models.

If anything, this just shows that, if eight years of technical and technological development doesn`t produce obvious changes, we are nearing the pen-ultimate sim. Its too bad that deformations and bending of components isn`t going to be widely modelled, though.

[Woody01]

I'm perfectly happy not to see updates, I can think of more than a sim or 2 through history that neglected the real work of programming a sim to please a hungry target audience with videos, the sims never got completed by there original designer. IL2 is the bench mark for anyone I think.

I hope there is more planed for the awesome British isles maps that have to be created for the Battle of Britain, I feel confident that soon enough we will be embarking on missions into Europe in all manner of Aircraft, including the ones we cant fly now but desperately want too.

Oleg and team have delivered far more than they ever set out to deliver so far, cant we just get on with testing 4.09b?

[Feuerfalke]

I feel my point being somewhat supported by Skarphol's post.

Begging, demanding or "threatening" Oleg to post new pictures or videos does in no regard help the effort to advertise the game to the common user:

There are many people out there who have little insight in the programming and development depth of flightsim-programming or even little experience in the IL2-series, people who just look at the pictures and see an ugly-lit still of a 3D-modell with partially high fidelity textures, while other parts of the same plane are textured with extensive use of softners.

Honestly, from some pictures alone, there are a lot better detailed and more realistically skinned 3D-modells on the modding boards for LockOn and Falcon4 than this. Neither of them will have the high fidelity flight-dynamics, internal modelling and sophisticated simulation of damaged aircraft-parts or G-stress doing further damage and all the other things we will have in BoB, of course.

But exactly that background is needed to see the real magnitude of quality and experience in these updates and that is not guaranteed for everybody looking at this board.

I just think people should do a little more thinking before demanding something or feeling personally offended by the lack of news or something like that.