Ah Well.....

[Dutch]

After today's news over at 1c, I threw another soppy video together.

Whilst what we currently do is highly enjoyable, none of the aeroplanes included in the vid will be necessary for the 'Battle for Moscow', so who knows when they'll be flyable, if ever?

I dunno, maybe they should've named the game 'Adler Tag', or 'Kanalkampf', coz the Jerries sure have a lot more planes to fly.

Having said that, they've also said that no more ground objects will be forthcoming, so very little scope for attacks on the Royal Navy or new merchant shipping for the blue guys, or any potential for nailing Scharnhorst or Gneisenau, or sub hunting in a Sunderland, for the Reds.

Over at 1c, I said it was 'disappointing news'. What I meant was that I'm absolutely gutted that there doesn't seem to be any plan to expand what's already in the game to bring it closer to a 'Battle of Britain' sim.

Whatever. Enjoy the vid.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EeumL7CAcI

[ATAG_Snapper]

Watched it over at 1C -- a beautiful video. Very sad, though, mate!

I'm thinking the Battle of Moscow sequel will be a home run -- it's naturally close to the developers' hearts. I'm also thinking this will "retrofit" the CoD mishmash of broken/missing/dysfunctional parts -- to an extent. As already noted, Luthier/Ilya pulled off his objects team from CoD and redeployed them to BoM since "the fans" said "we don't need this crap!"

We can forget additional RAF flyables, RN destroyers, merchant ships, etc for CoD, but we will benefit with improved codec, weather (dynamic?), GUI's, etc.

I'd just like to know who these so-called "fans" are that Ilya refers to. Definitely NOT of Commonwealth stock, I guarantee!!!!

Nice video, all the same, Dutch! :)

[Dutch]

Thanks Snapper, it was supposed to be sad!

Don't get me wrong, I've been a fan of the series since the original IL2 (always flew red then, too!), but I do feel really let down with today's news after 6 years anticipation of 'Storm of War - The Battle of Britain'. Easy to see why they changed the title.

Unfortunately, some of the fans complained when the Minensuchboot and a large number of German trains were introduced in an early patch, from both sides of the red/blue fence. I think that was what Ilya may have been referring to. I can't believe that they dumped the development of objects for 'Cliffs' on this basis though.

Sure, we'll get an improved, properly functioning game with the release of BfM (allegedly), but we still won't have a Battle of Britain sim from 1C Maddox games.

[LG1.Farber]

I'd just like to know who these so-called "fans" are that Ilya refers to.

They are the same ones no one counters... Ive called for fix or patch for CTD before Battele for Moscow at least 5 times... Most of these so called fans are single player guys... They out number us 10:1 according to some sources....

If we dont complain, we dont have a voice Im afraid...


Nice video, did it remind anyone else of Fallout 3?

[ChiefRedCloud]

Friday Update, Q&A - December 23, 2011

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hi!

Today we have again a small update information. Within the last two weeks on the forums were going to your questions about current and future status of the project. Below I post a project manager answers - Ilya Shevchenko. Let's go:



1. Are you planning multiple simultaneous cockpit cameras for use on multiple monitor setups, such as U-shaped forward-left-right views, as they existed in the original Il-2?



At a later time, yes. Have to warn you right away though. Each camera is processed individually. Two simultaneous cameras roughly slice the FPS roughly in half. Three cameras divide by three. This was not a huge deal in the original Il-2 since there were lots of FPS to divide. With CoD – when we have enough FPS to cut in three, we will.


2. Will you reenable cockpit shake that existed in the earlier versions?



We actually removed it because the fans requested it.


3. Will the dynamic stall be implemented in the Flight Model?



Yes, it’s one of the things the new FM programmer will work on.


4. Are there any plans to add a new aircraft or modifications, equipment and other objects to Cliffs of Dover before the sequel?



Only new modifications of existing planes – of which there are very few left. Completely new aircraft or flyable versions of currently non-flyable planes are not planned for CoD.
New ground or other objects will not happen due to the fact that our previous attempts to add them were met with a universal “we don’t need this crap, why don’t you give us xyz instead” from the community. The ground modeling staff and myself have subsequently made the fully switch that department to the sequel.


5. Will there be a working siren on the Ju-87?



Yes.


6. Is there any news about the Su-26?



You’ll get to fly it.


7. Will the maximum altitude of the planes (ceiling) be raised to the historical values of ~10-11000 m? Today it is 7-8000 m for most planes, and much less for the Fiat G.50

[Quote]
Yes, it’s one of the things the new FM programmer will work on. [/quote


8. Will the performances of the poor G.50 be upgraded to be closer to the real historical values? The G.50 maximum speed today is ~350 kmh at sea level against 407 kmh found in books and online references. The G.50 ceiling in game is some 5000 m, against 10500 m found in various sources.



Yes, it’s one of the things the new FM programmer will work on.


9. Will the damage of a radiator by bullets produce a damage to the engine? Today you get the message "radiator leak" but the engine continues to run.



We’ll need to look into this.


10. Will the AI crews of bombers be programmed to do their jobs? Will navigators navigate? Will bomb aimers guide the aircraft into the bomb run? Will observers report air and surface contacts etc? Or are the current crew statues considered to be adequate?



We are planning major improvements to the crew members for the sequel.


11. Do you plan on adding bail animations and/or first person bailouts with the ability to look around when in a parachute?



We are doing a lot of animation improvements, including reverse kinematics, for the sequel. First-person bail out camera has been in the game for some time.


12. Can you guys give us access to the AI programming functions, to can over-ride/improve them in 3rd party code (dll's)?
This would be a great step forward, as we have many users around here with good programming and flight sim AI development experience in order to start things moving in this direction.



Not at the moment. Need to have stable, easy-to-read code for AI first, otherwise I can’t even imagine the things we and you will develop in parallel.


13. Will the UBI intro .wmv video issue be finally corrected? Today it clocks down the ATI cards to 2D-power saving mode, and gives really poor performances to the users that do not delete or rename it. That is most of ATI users I guess.
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=28054
Can we have a static pic of the Ubi-logo instead of the video? That would save us from clocked down ATI-cards and you from programming a workaround.



We’ll have to look into this.


14. Will the track recording be improved? Today the main issues are: need to exit from flight to start recording, need to manually type a track file name, need to exit again from flight to stop the video, frequent crashes in the procedure, frequent crashes when trying to record an avi from a track.



Low priority at the moment. Serious changes, especially changes to the overall procedure, are only possible in the sequel.


15. Will the ghost dots issue be corrected? It's a actual ghosts or the disappearing of real targets online? Today in online servers you see far contacts which disappear when you close in. This can be fixed by MeshShowLod=1 but performance suffers. Will this be fixed?



We didn’t get to this yet. The dots are drawn by the part of the graphics code that’s been completely rewritten. We didn’t get to look into this particular issue with the new code yet.


16. Will the GUI be optimized, to be less clumsy and more ergonomical (today you need several clicks to do simple things).



Yes, for the sequel. We’re currently moving to a new GUI platform that’s much easier to work in. We’re redoing everything.


17. Will we see the coop mission in CloD, as it was in the old "IL-2"?



Don’t understand the question. The way we see it, CoD already has Il-2-style co-op. We are certainly not planning any major changes to online modes, GUI, or anything like that.

18. Are you planning to assign precise control point of view (zoom) button or axis, as it was in the old "IL-2"?



We have tons of plans for improving cameras and views.


19. Are you planning to transfer the new graphic effects (eg, weather) from future sequels into Cliffs of Dover?



We’ll work along the model similar to the old Il-2. There’s a single progression line from version to version dotted by sequels.
For example, we never released a patch for Forgotten Battles that contained new code from Pacific Fighters. The way to get it was to buy PF and merge it into FB. That’s exactly how it will be with CoD.


20. Does Luthier understand how disappointed we will be if the sequels cannot be merged to give core improvements to earlier releases of the series?


Yes

[Dutch]

Yes Chief, it's the answer to question 4) that's the kick in the you know whats.

[ChiefRedCloud]

Yes Chief, it's the answer to question 4) that's the kick in the you know whats.

Indeed ..... and here I was (and most likely still will) promoting CloD even though everyone knows it is not finished. And here it would appear that the only way we may get ANY meaningful changes is by forking out $60 more dollars for the eXpansion. Ho, ho, ho ....... Baaa Humbug ...... :inq:

[ATAG_Knuckles]

Dutch: Great film: the music really set the mood, Normally I would never use music with lyrics, but that was perfect. So saying that, I was very much into making vid years ago in "Fighter Ace" and would love to get back in to it. I'm sure things have changed, may I ask what media you are using to first capture the frames and what you use to paste and finish.



Knuckles

[Dutch]

I'm sure things have changed, may I ask what media you are using to first capture the frames and what you use to paste and finish.

Hello Mate, I don't know if things have changed so much, I've only been making little vids myself for about 3 years.

Initially I didn't have a pc good enough to get decent frame rates with old IL2, so only started posting stuff around since I got a decent one.

I use fraps for avi capture at full speed with sound, then just drop the clips into windows movie-maker and edit, usually adding some period music from an album I downloaded called 'songs that won the war' from Classics Online.

I'm afraid I don't have the patience to do all the 'record at half speed, double up in virtual dub whilst adding filters and colour adjustment' stuff that the good guys do, which is why some of my clips still stutter a fair bit.

But I enjoy doing it, from setting up the scenarios in FMB on. :happy

[ATAG_Knuckles]

Thanks Dutch:

Actually back in 2001 I had Ailenware build a computer just for the purpose of putting together Flight Sim Videos. To the tune of $5,600.00, Was never really able to use it as I had to send it back for repair about every 3 months, until i got so behind the learning curve I lost interest.

Time to pick it up again i think: I'll dust off my copy of FRAPS and give it a go.



Knuckles

[ATAG_Snapper]

FRAPS has worked OK for me, although the .avi clips it generates are HUGE and can fill a hard drive quickly. More compressed video formats like mp4 would probably tie up the PC, which would no doubt cause stutters and freezes in CoD while recording.

My biggest concern with FRAPS, Debut, and Bandicam is that you can't assign a joystick button as a stop/start hotkey as you can Teamspeak. The whole point of having a HOTAS system is just that. It isn't always convenient to remove eyes from screen and hand from controls to punch a keyboard character. FRAPS did reply to my email query about this, but essentially said I was the first human being on this small blue planet to ever ask for this feature - but it would be referred to the FRAPS devs once they've figured out how they put the caramel in the Caramilk bars.

My Warthog HOTAS comes with its proprietary TARGET software which emulates keyboard inputs (and much more). So far, I've had excellent results in both CoD's, ROF's, and DCS-A10C's powerful key assignment GUI's to directly assign the joystick & throttle buttons/axes to the many controls -- I'm loathe to upset this fine applecart to accommodate FRAPS' 1980's hotkey architecture.

Voice Activated Commands works OK to start/stop video recording, but there is a slight lag in issuing the command (minor problem). Of greater concern is I can't yet figure out how to get VAC to go to sleep/wake up using a joystick button -- same hotkey assignment problem as FRAPS.

The search continues.........

[Dutch]

FRAPS has worked OK for me, although the .avi clips it generates are HUGE and can fill a hard drive quickly.

My biggest concern with FRAPS, Debut, and Bandicam is that you can't assign a joystick button as a stop/start hotkey

The problem with my version of fraps is that it simply doesn't function when online.

I made sure I got a terabyte hd for the reason you say, although this isn't ideal from other perspectives, but I still tend to delete avi files as soon as I've edited the clip, coz as you say, they're huge.

I have the video capture button assigned to the big 'plus' key on the number pad, which makes it easier to locate. I have a G940, so I'll have a look at whether assigning a capture key is possible with that. Or will it not work with any joystick? Interesting suggestion!

[ATAG_Snapper]

Your suggestion to use the big 'plus' key on the numpad is the best yet -- easy to find even with peripheral vision.

For most recording it's no big deal that the stop/start hotkey is on the keyboard -- it's just for the heavy action shots that come up suddenly when a joystick or throttle button would be handiest. I gotta say, it's great having the Teamspeak 'push-to-talk' button on the joystick for those times when there's a few of us caught up in a furball!

Let me know if any of your G940 buttons work with FRAPS when you get a chance, Dutch!