4.13 development update discussion and feedback

[nic727]

Originally Posted by Treetop64

Wow, speedy response on the HUD info request!

...and no, the game engine does not support self-shadowing. It's just too old. The environment was written before self-showing was even a thing a games, so there you go...

Can we mod the engine?

[dFrog]

Originally Posted by nic727

Can we mod the engine?

You mean re-write the core of the game ? Well, then you can make whole new game, sell it and become damn rich...

[Iszak]

Well, but then there's this fella, Ankor, who activated selfshadowing and bumpmapping in CFS3/WOFF via D3D wrapper library...And the CFS3 engine is even more ancient than Il-2's.....

[nic727]

Originally Posted by Iszak

Well, but then there's this fella, Ankor, who activated selfshadowing and bumpmapping in CFS3/WOFF via D3D wrapper library...And the CFS3 engine is even more ancient than Il-2's.....

I found that : http://a2asimulations.com/forum/view...hp?f=2&t=39599

Look cool

And that : http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.ph...at#Post3881675
(We could have DirectX 11 in Il2 1946 by following the same steps lol)

[AnKor]

Originally Posted by Iszak

Well, but then there's this fella, Ankor, who activated selfshadowing and bumpmapping in CFS3/WOFF via D3D wrapper library...And the CFS3 engine is even more ancient than Il-2's.....

Hi! I'm that fella
Well, I was wondering why Il2 still don't have such features modded in, but I suppose it is just more difficult to get them working there.
You see, CFS3 graphics engine is very primitive - closer to DirectX 7 than 8, doesn't have any programmable shaders and thus uses very standardized and straightforward set of drawing functions. It was relatively easy to get (almost) all required information out of them without even looking at the engine code.
IL2 on the other hand is very likely to be optimized for its own custom shaders which may make extracting geometry and lighting data more complex. Though I don't really know any specifics, never looked into it.

[Iszak]

Originally Posted by AnKor

Hi! I'm that fella
Well, I was wondering why Il2 still don't have such features modded in, but I suppose it is just more difficult to get them working there.
You see, CFS3 graphics engine is very primitive - closer to DirectX 7 than 8, doesn't have any programmable shaders and thus uses very standardized and straightforward set of drawing functions. It was relatively easy to get (almost) all required information out of them without even looking at the engine code.
IL2 on the other hand is very likely to be optimized for its own custom shaders which may make extracting geometry and lighting data more complex. Though I don't really know any specifics, never looked into it.

Thank you sir, for explaining this stuff. If you ever manage to crack it and implement it, you'll bask in forever glory and be praised till kingdom come, with Il-2 community being much bigger than CFS3 and OFF and all.

[AnKor]

I understand about the size of community, but it is unlikely I will be doing anything for IL2 - I don't have much free time and as I know it is primarily played in OpenGL mode and I don't know a thing about OpenGL programming.

[Iszak]

Then maybe your example will inspire someone else to carry the torch! Kudos anyway!

[nic727]

Originally Posted by dFrog

You mean re-write the core of the game ? Well, then you can make whole new game, sell it and become damn rich...

Maybe Daidalos Team and us can start Il2 1946 on a new engine, but wich one? Home made engine, Unreal Engine, Cry Engine, etc???

lol

But maybe they can tweak the current engine, by changing some stuff from scratch (sorry I'm not a game developper, so I don't really understand how it work)?

[IceFire]

Originally Posted by nic727

Maybe Daidalos Team and us can start Il2 1946 on a new engine, but wich one? Home made engine, Unreal Engine, Cry Engine, etc???

lol

But maybe they can tweak the current engine, by changing some stuff from scratch (sorry I'm not a game developper, so I don't really understand how it work)?

It's fairly "easy" to add things like modified AI parameters or new bomb release settings. Changing the engine is a major undertaking. Consider that Activision has been using the same ID Tech engine technology for Call of Duty games dating back to at least CoD 4: Modern Warfare if not earlier. They only changed the core engine as of this year's November release. That's a half dozen or more years of large team that is highly funded, deciding that a new engine switch was far too big of a task.

Now take that down to a volunteer group of enthusiasts like Team Daidalos. It's just not going to happen.

For a new engine... check out IL-2 Battle of Stalingrad and their Digital Nature engine which they built over several years for Rise of Flight.