DCS: WW2 Europe 1944

[alius]

Que crack por dios...que bueno verle las caras a la gente de Ed.

[Silver_Dragon]

Update 7 en camino:

 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/508 ... 4/comments

Ilya Shevchenko about 12 hours ago

Hey folks,

Brace yourselves. The next video I release is going to be a much less hardcore look at the game, targeted towards more casual or new players. Still going to have a bunch of gameplay footage, maybe some EDGE, but generally nothing amazingly new.

Then I'll do a part two of the aircraft video talking about the modeling. There's a lot of intricacies there too. External models, cockpits, animations, damage, etc. Should be interesting, and I don't think a lot of developers usually talk about that.

Now, back to EDGE. Doing some color corrections. Maybe it'll look a lot prettier by tomorrow.

[Silver_Dragon]

Update 7 y entrevista de DCS: World WW2:

 

www.kickstarter.com/projects/508681281/ ... 1944/posts

Good morning !

 

Brace yourselves. The video we're releasing now is a much less hardcore look at the game. Yet, it tries to answer some of the most important questions we have as flight simmers.

 

Why are there so few of us?

 

Why are millions of people playing other hardcore games, games with perhaps more of a learning curve than DCS P-51? Why are they willing to brave through hours of frustration, deaths, restarts, toxic multiplayer, and all of that for a payoff that, to me, is much less satisfying than watching your enemy go down after a dogfight?

 

The video has my thoughts.

 

Next, we'll do a part two of the aircraft video focusing on the modeling. There's a lot of intricacies there too. External models, cockpits, animations, damage, etc. Should be interesting, and I don't think a lot of developers usually talk about that.

 

And a quick update on EDGE. We've been doing some color corrections this week. Beginning to look a lot more like what we want. We'll have a few screenshots soon; just don't want to muddle up this update.

 

Here's the video:

 

 

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/09 ... er-shotgun

Eight Days And Counting

 

 

 

Have you backed DCS WWII yet? While most of the stretch goals are looking distinctly pipedreamy at present, the $100,000 base hurdle has been cleared and the scent of hot Jumo turbojets is getting stronger with every passing day. Curious about the new Me 262 objective and a Kickstarter campaign that has jinked like a faulty Fritz X, I sent some searching questions Ilya Shevchenko’s way.

 

 

 

RPS: As the first major flight sim developer to use Kickstarter, do you have any advice for studios that decide to follow in your contrails?

 

Ilya: Launch a pre-kickstarter discussion with your fans about everything. We’ve done a couple of sharp turns during our kickstarter and changed our rewards and stretch goals, and we wish we could change even more.

 

You may think you know what your fans want, but they know it even better. We went the “vague hints and allusions followed by a major reveal†route, and that locked us in to some bad decisions. If you open up everything you have to the fans without being locked into anything by kickstarter, and dedicate a couple of weeks to a thorough discussion, you will be able to discover and correct a lot of completely unexpected shortcomings.

 

We had not done that and learned it the hard way. Our kickstarter campaign has definitely lost some money because we miscalculated on a lot of rewards. Our high-price rewards turned out to be too bland, while lower-tier rewards offered too many choices and ended up confusing people. Our stretch goals had to be revised twice. Even our overall marketing approach completely shifted about a week into the campaign. Had we identified and corrected this before launching, I’m sure we could have done even better.

 

 

 

RPS: Why was the Me 262 chosen as the focus for the new $150,000 stretch goal? Surely they saw relatively little action over Normandy?

 

Ilya: The project is not Normandy 1944, but rather Europe 1944. Normandy terrain is the first one we’re doing, but it’s not our primary or only focus. We want to have a generic plane set to recreate a variety of aerial battles that took place over Western Europe in that year, and the 262 is certainly a very good airplane for that.

 

With DCS, creating aircraft is a very expensive and time-consuming business. Even creating sub-variants of existing aircraft is extremely complicated. That is why we cannot make a plane set specifically tailored for any one historical battle. If we did that, moving on to Market Garden or Ardennes would require a huge effort. With a more generic set of planes, we can cover more ground.

 

However, the main reason for the Me.262 being the next immediate stretch goal is that we’re already doing half the work for it in the base tier. All aircraft in DCS contain three parts: the external model, the cockpit model, and the programming. A plane without a cockpit can still be flown by AI. That’s what the 262 will be in the initial release if we don’t hit any stretch goals: a troublesome enemy that makes defending bombers really challenging. Adding a cockpit to it and making it player controllable is not as big of a task as making an entire new plane from scratch. So, the Me.262 is the cheapest and the quickest new plane we can add to the base project, and therefore the most reachable stretch goal we can do.

 

 

 

RPS: The EDGE engine looks splendid. Do you think it’s going to make piloting easier… more naturalistic?

 

Ilya: Yes we do. There is something intangible about the feeling of flight you get from terrain. Objects of proper scale, various small details, grass, trees, all that background noise, proper colors, all create that subconscious feeling of being there. It also makes it possible to gauge your airspeed and altitude without glancing at your instrument cluster, another huge advantage.

 

 

 

It takes a tremendous effort to design and perfect, and it’s one of those things you never even notice when it works. It works on a subconscious level by adding various subtle clues that all add up to better immersion.

 

EDGE, to my knowledge, is the only flight sim terrain engine specifically designed for and tested by real pilots. Proper feeling of flight at all altitudes, realistic-looking airfields, all of that is designed precisely to feel as close to the real thing as possible.

 

 

 

RPS: If none of the stretch goals are reached will all Allied sorties start and finish in the air?

 

Ilya: No, of course not. Post D-Day the Allies built a huge number of temporary airfields all over the Normandy coast. That’s where the Allied players will be based.

 

 

 

RPS: Will hedge-hopping DCS WWII pilots need to worry about vegetation collisions?

 

Ilya: My long and painful experience with past projects forces me to add a warning here that all features are subject to change and so on and so forth. And, the answer is yes.

 

 

 

RPS: Do you foresee DCS WWII growing in a similar way to DCS: World? Might we, one day, see third-party aircraft from the likes of Belsimtek, and simple Combined Arms-style tank simming?

 

Ilya: We hope so. RRG is certainly not taking over the DCS WWII market. We fully understand the value of cooperation, and, as hard as that may be to believe, we care about fan experience more than about anything else. Happy fans equal series longevity. If we sit on DCS WWII by ourselves, we can only make a certain amount of content per year. We do not have the resources to expand the project into all theaters of WWII and cover even all the major aircraft, not to mention all the less important or obscure ones we really enjoyed having in our past projects.

 

A large 3rd party or even community-run effort to create aircraft, maps, ground objects, etc can and should turn DCS WWII into a comprehensive all-around flight sim that almost has more than any single fan would ever need. That’s our dream.

 

 

 

RPS: Creating single-player campaigns that are both involving and replayable seems to be something the flight sim industry isn’t especially good at these days. How are RRG and ED approaching the task?

 

Ilya: I’ve been doing flight sims for a very long time, and we’ve tried a whole bunch of things over the years. We’ve played with static campaigns; these allow for more immediate wow-factor, but virtually no replay value. We’ve played with dynamic campaigns. These offer nearly unlimited replay value in theory, but in reality begin to feel generic and empty rather quickly. Dynamic campaigns are also a lot more difficult and expensive to create. Bland cookie-cutter missions are perhaps a feature of a poor dynamic campaign engine, but we’ve never had the luxury to create a great big full-featured one. So we won’t try it in Europe 1944.

 

For now, our solution may not be perfect, but at least it’s novel.We plan to release regular content updates that include new missions and campaigns, some for free, and some for a small cost.

 

We also plan to work with our community. DCS ships with a powerful campaign and mission editor which allow anyone to create their own single- or multiplayer content. We’ve noticed with our past titles that the quality of some user-made content easily eclipses that of our own. We hope to engage the best of the community and actively promote their content through our official channels, making it available to a larger slice of our player base.

 

In short, we will have static campaigns. We’ll deal with replayability by consistently releasing new content.

 

 

 

RPS: Disappointed by the last major WW2 flight sim release, some potential backers seem to be hanging back. Do you have any words of reassurance for this group?

 

Ilya: If there’s one thing we learned from that is that we should not agree to make games cheaper and quicker than we feel we should.

 

The only reassurance I can add though is that we are making a free-to-play game. If the quality of the initial release is not stellar, we are all out of a job. No one wants that. The reason we’re doing this again, the reason I have my old colleagues back on board, is that we really do feel like we finally, perhaps for the first time in our flight sim development careers, have enough time and money to properly build and test a game.

 

Finally, we are working with Eagle Dynamics. We are putting their hallowed DCS name on our title. ED has industry-best reputation for quality. There is no reason for them at all to release an inferior product.

 

 

 

RPS: Viewed from the outside, creating high-fidelity light sims looks to be a pretty stressful and high-risk business. What aspects of the process do you find most enjoyable and satisfying?

 

Ilya: I like planes.

 

My enjoyment went through several distinct phases. If we’re going to get a bit sentimental here, well, why not.

 

The very first time I did something concrete was when we were alpha testing Oleg’s first flight sim way back in the year 2000. I remember sending a bunch of suggestions, then launching the next build and suddenly seeing my corrections right there in the game. Having tangible input on a project of that scale and quality just blew my mind.

 

I just surfed that rush for the next couple of years. My involvement with the project grew, and I ran a site that managed all 3rd party mods for the title, an effort that took more time than my full-time paying job. It completely devoured me, and I enjoyed every second of it. I just really enjoyed seeing the progression of an aircraft from a blueprint to a vague 3D shape to a beautiful textured model and finally to a roaring in-game war machine.

 

My role continued to expand and by around 2003 I was basically allowed to steer the ship. That gave me a new thrill. I realized that I was creating entire worlds. I could just point at some idea and say “let’s do thisâ€. Then all these people were suddenly working to implement my vision. A few months later, my vague fantasy suddenly became something tangible, something that existed on its own. It’s such a complex emotion I’m having a hard time putting it into words. I felt like I controlled this huge complex machine whose final end-product was my own videogame! The four-year-old in me enjoyed it on one level, while the more grown-up me, I guess, enjoyed the intricacies and ups and downs of being able to put such a complex plan into motion.

 

 

 

Another huge factor, and perhaps the most important one for me, is simply working with friends. We’re a bunch of people who love the same thing, are obsessed with the same idea. We’ve known each other for over a decade. We work well together. We like each other. We have fun. A group of life-long friends who have been through thick and thin, all working together and doing something they truly love, that’s just extremely powerful. And like I said, I just really happen to love WWII aviation. If I had been doing the exact same thing I’m doing except my games were about elves or post-apocalyptic battle mechs, it wouldn’t have been the same.

 

RPS: Thank you for your time.

[Silver_Dragon]

Update 6 KickStarter DCS: World WW2 1944

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1 ... ostcount=1

You've asked for it. We've discussed it. Now we're very happy to announce that we will be releasing the EDGE landscape engine SDK to Kickstarter backers.

 

The SDK can be used to create new landscapes for the DCS WWII project. It's an all-in-one tool that combines a 3D object library, texture manager, and a landscape editor. With a full 24-hour day cycle, options for multiple seasons and time periods on the same map, and industry-best level of detail, EDGE is designed for and tested by real pilots to ensure it meets the highest standards of realism.

 

Please note that the Normandy landscape shown in the video is an early mock-up using temporary stand-in objects,mock-up trees, and low-quality placeholder textures.

 

We're really hoping that the community can organize a concentrated effort to design and create one or more new landscapes for DCS WWII. With the amount of time we have before the initial release, it should be possible to have them completed for the day-one release of Europe 1944!

 

A more detailed look at the tools and the technical details of the design process will be released at a later time. The SDK itself should be available later this year. Please note that the SDK will be released to project backers only and / or will require a signed NDA to use.

 

[Silver_Dragon]

Q&A DCS: WW2 Terrain SDK

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1 ... stcount=43

Originally Posted by Cornbread View Post

OK, so, if the SDK is going to be released in about a month, does this mean the lid finally comes off with regard to the secrecy of EDGE technical features?

 

This is the landscape editor. All its features will indeed be revealed.

 

However the ability to compile the final map and to let tanks drive or planes fly over the new landscape will not be released out. So, many features that relate to the terrain's implementation within the game will not be a part of the SDK.

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1 ... stcount=48

Originally Posted by empeck View Post

Could you elaborate a bit? What else will be needed to make new, fully functional map for DCS World/WW2? If SDK isn't enough, then what's the point of releasing it?

 

The point of releasing the SDK is so that maps can be made faster by the community than RRG can make themselves, without giving all the tools to make it functional. This will let them put more attention to the aircraft. Enough will be provided to make the land, but the final conversion process of it to let it plug into DCS/DCS WWII will be done by ED or RRG. This would act as quality control, which is in my opinion a good thing.

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1 ... stcount=51

Originally Posted by White Owl View Post

Would it be possible to use this editor to expand the edges of an already existing map? I'm thinking of how much we want just a few airbases in Southern England. I'm thinking that maybe instead of creating a wholly new map, we could make the existing map larger.

 

A map in EDGE actually has real-world coordinated connected to a virtual globe. It has constraints.

 

You could create your own landscape project that borders an existing map.

 

Then you could just join the two projects together, and have them combined.

 

That's how, for example, you could join forces between multiple creators working on the same map. Just split it, then join it.

 

Theoretically you could do silly things like take Normandy, make Scotland, and make Ruhr, then join them together. You'd be able to take off from Scotland, climb, fly over barren nothing below, cross over pretty Normandy, fly over some more nothing, bomb a factory, and then go back home.

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1 ... stcount=78

Originally Posted by SilentEagle View Post

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this would make it impossible for developers to test their creations in the simulator. That seems pretty counterproductive. As a developer myself, I find this part hard to understand. If the concern is an oversaturation of mediocre or "half-baked" terrains, why release the tools to all backers in the first place. Why not just just to those with serious interest and capability, such as how 3rd party development of aircraft is currently operating?

 

If a user wanted to create a free terrain or even one that was only used by himself, would he really need to have ED/RRG convert it for him. What about every time he wanted to make a change?

 

Guys, we have an SDK for a game that's not out yet.

 

Even if we were to release the EDGE source code as freeware, you'd be in the exact same boat. Build, create, compile, and then what?

 

Until you have at least the DCS WWII alpha, you have no game in which you can fly over your terrain.

 

We cannot release an even earlier build than our alpha.

 

The SDK comes with its own landviewer, which is the app in which I did all the footage in the latest vid. That's where you'll test your landscape.

 

I'm sure we'll have the outstanding questions resolved well before DCS WWII hits alpha. Once we have an official stance on commercial use of EDGE by 3rd parties, everything else will follow naturally.

 

With non-commercial use, we're obviously interested in having a large amount of user-made content. We're also a very small team and we can't be the quality control or the publisher for everything our users make.

 

The only reason to release an SDK is to help your product grow. No one on this side has any desire to be the bottleneck in that process.

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1 ... stcount=84

Originally Posted by aaron886 View Post

Luthier, can you shed some more light on the purpose for restricting the SDK? Will this be specifically for DCS:WWII purposes, or will 3rd parties be able to create sceneries unbound by the WWII theme? I like what you're saying, I just want to see an improvement of the simulator as a whole.

Originally Posted by empeck View Post

SDK won't work with DCS: World? Lets say, wouldn't it be possible to make a tiny map for DCS: World? Like Corsica from the video or even smaller.

 

There's pretty much one game engine at this point.

 

What works in DCS WWII works in DCS World, at least on the developers' machines as of this very second.

 

You can theoretically create anything you want, but I really have nothing to do with DCS World as a product line.

 

The reason why we are talking about the SDK now, the reason why we're releasing it when we are, is DCS WWII specifically.

 

I personally am interested in garnering and supporting a large-scale community effort to create new WWII content. Here, my main goal is to make sure we have as many talented, dedicated people working on this as possible, and that they enjoy doing it and want to keep doing it long enough to finish the process.

 

If we just put hurdles in their path, prevent them from seeing their own work, or provide poor support, then this entire effort is wasted: me making that video, discussing this now, us making the effort to create the SDK for external consumption, future discussions with backers, writing tech specs, etc etc etc. There's no point in us doing any of that if we'll give you the kind of SDK that people play with for a while, shrug their shoulders, and go find something better to do with their time.

 

This I guess should be a more important point than any technical details. Not what we're doing, but why we're doing it.

[Luft]

Nuevo ladrillazo de luthier

 

Una duda este luthier, me suena, no es el que estaba de responsable del malogrado Cliff of Dover???

[Silver_Dragon]

el mismo, digamos que RRG Studios son todos los programadores (Luthier / Oleg / Illya, etc) que eran parte del equipo del Il-2 / CoD, ahora con un nuevo comienzo.

 

Ya esta disponible el sistema de PalPay para el KickStarter de DCS: World WW2 1944

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1 ... ostcount=1

Good morning!

 

It seems to work.

 

www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/produ ... paypal.php

 

If nothing explodes in a couple of hours, I'll do a wider more official post.

[Silver_Dragon]

Update 12 DCS: World WW2:

 

Perhaps a little sleep deprived, DCS WWII lead developer Ilya Shevchenko answers some of the most important questions of the campaign and talks about why he's confident he can deliver on the promises made.

 

Please watch this video for an in-depth discussion of the project's inception as a leaner, cleaner design the team is confident they can deliver, and why the tasks that make up DCS WWII: Europe 1944 are inherently more stable than many other tasks that often are involved in game design.

 

 

This video took a lot longer to make than I anticipated, but I think it was very important to have this out before the campaign ends.

 

A question that gets asked perhaps more than any other is, are you sure you can pull this off? Can you keep all the promises you're making?

 

The answer is yes.

 

First of all, it is a yes because the alternative is unthinkable. Not delivering a product after a kickstarter campaign would not only be fatal to the developer's careers, it would also make them contractually obligated to refund the entire amount raised on Kickstarter to the backers. The team understands the risk, and has chosen Kickstarter as opposed to many other alternatives precisely because we are confident in our ability to deliver.

 

The project was designed from the ground up to be simple and lean. It's largely made up of three types of tasks: aircraft creation, landscape design, and mission and campaign design. All of these tasks are inherently more predictable than many other tasks often involved in game design. The feature list for DCS WWII was specifically chosen to contain as few risks as possible.

 

This way, the project plan is a matter of simple math. We can accurately estimate the amount of time it will take us to make the 3D models of aircraft and cockpits because we're not breaking any new ground here. We can accurately estimate the amount of time it will take to create new aircraft because most DCS WWII tasks follow the tracks laid down by DCS P-51. Looking over the blueprints and technical descriptions of all featured aircraft, we see no major tasks that have a serious risk of falling through or taking too much time and jeopardizing the entire project.

 

The landscape design is also predictable. We know exactly what needs to be done. All tasks can be estimated accurately because they follow preexisting examples.

 

Content creation, missions, campaigns, is again predictable. We are using the powerful DCS Mission Editor, a stable, established program, that again allows us to accurately gauge the amount of time needed for all tasks.

 

All in all, we know exactly what needs to be done. We can estimate all tasks with a high degree of accuracy. Kickstarter budget gives us a comfortable cushion to play test everything and correct any unanticipated problems we may encounter.

 

We are really looking forward to working with our backers, providing constant updates on the development progress, and watching this project take shape.

 

Please watch the video for an even more detailed explanation from the project's sleep deprived lead developer Ilya Shevchenko.

[Silver_Dragon]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/508 ... sts/619741

We did it! Thank you backers! The Kickstarter Campaign is a success!

What a wonderful Saturday morning! We really pulled through in the last couple of days and we did absolutely awesome!

 

Current total:

 

Kickstarter: $158,897

 

PayPal: $5,436.39

 

GRAND TOTAL: $164,333.39

 

We'll be shutting down the paypal page in a few minutes to coincide with the end of the kickstarter campaign.

 

Please watch my celebratory video that talks about what happens next.

 

 

Quick summary:

 

1. Your rewards. I have to tally all Kickstarter and PayPal backers into a single database. Then we have to create a web interface for you to access backer-only content. Kickstarter by itself is no good since it leaves all PayPal backers out. There will also need to be an interface for your reward management.

 

It's a bit of a project, so we probably won't have it ready for a little while.

 

In the meantime, the only reward that can go out right away is the DCS World P-51.

 

If you have selected a reward tier that specifically lists the P-51, you'll be receiving your product keys via email next week.

 

Otherwise, the process will be completely manual for now. I'll do a backer-only update in a little while that describes this process in more detail.

 

2. We'll keep on working on the project as previously scheduled. We are adding the Me.262 cockpit to our task list. It'll be done by the same wonderful duo of German cockpit experts that built the FW.190D-9 and Bf.109K cockpits.

 

3. We will be posting regular backer-only, and slightly less regular open development updates. We'll keep you updated on our aircraft and landscape.

 

4. The landscape SDK! We can start a dialogue even before the SDK itself is available. Obviously, the most ideal situation that I see is that the community forms a core group of landscape designers that will, with developer support, create more landscapes for Europe 1944. Again, please stand by for a separate more detailed discussion on this.

 

5. The main priority for the team however is delivering a good game to backers with the features we've listed. We will work very hard to have our alpha available next year. Once that's out, we will most likely open another campaign either on kickstarter or on our own site for more additions to DCS WWII: Europe 1944. I know that a lot of people really want the flyable B-17. I think it's the most logical next step for this product, but of course we have plenty of time for discussions.

 

We will definitely discuss every single aspect of any future campaign with our backers before launching it.

[Silver_Dragon]

DCS: WW2

 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/508 ... sts/619858

Update #16 Oct 5, 2013

Landscape Development Update - October 5, 2013

29 comments Unlike 36 likes

Hello everyone,

 

Here's where we are with Normandy. We haven't made any drastic changes this week, it's just progressing along the same lines. We're playing a bit with the landscape mesh and adding lots of small details such as brooks, little bridges, and so on. Also playing a bit with colors, as you'll probably notice, and adding some detail to landscape textures.

 

We're also working on something really cool which, to my knowledge, has never been done before in a flight sim.

 

The terrain can have multiple, potentially limitless, number of states that define virtually everything. What does that mean? It means we can have the early 1944 Normandy with Pointe du Hoc still intact. We can have the D-Day Normandy with bomb craters all over the coast, floodgates open, and some of the landing areas flooded. We can have the post-invasion Normandy with flooding receded and lots of new Allied airfields.

 

That's what we're working on right now. And actually, here comes out first request. We know what was flooded by the Germans for the invasion. However, we can't find any references on how it was dealt with. Can anyone provide some more info? What would you see on June 7, June 8, June 9?

 

[Luft]

con que ordenadores trabajara esta gente? Porque de frames van un poco justos...

[Silver_Dragon]

A saber....

 

Nueva comentario de Illya a varias preguntas

 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/508 ... 4/comments

Hey everybody!

Sven: We're kind of on the fence about this. By the way, you guys are really sharp. You pick up on important questions just about as soon as we do, and sometimes even earlier.

This is the very strange nature of the modular structure of the project.

What is DCS WWII? Surely it's the sum of all its parts, and taking the parts away destroys the whole? If seen this way, it's natural to sit on the planes that are ready, only make them available to kickstarter backers in alpha-beta, and launch another pledge drive for the B-17 in the interim.

But on the other hand, why not just release one or more of the new DCS WWII planes into DCS World, and use those funds to make the flyable B-17 instead?

This is something that requires a much larger backer-wide discussion I guess. We'll have it in a little while. In any case, we're months away from having any planes ready for release.

MP: I see multiplayer as a huge, huge part of any product's success. However it's not just the net code. It's the interface, the game modes, mission design, a gazillion components. Those of you who go back to the beginning of my early series will probably agree that the MP in Oleg's first flight sim was the bomb. It was so because Oleg had just created two absolutely amazing MP modes for his award-winning FPS titles (virtually unknown in the West, idolized alongside the likes of Doom and Duke3D in Russia). He had a whole crew of experienced MP programmers and designers that spent almost two years ironing out all the kinks.

So, we definitely have a long list of things we want to improve with multiplayer, but if we were to consider doing them for day 1 release of DCS WWII, we'd probably need to double our budget.

Since we didn't, the only thing I can really promise is that we'll try.

Also, trueSky looks really cool, but we're far too commited to making our own clouds and weather system to switch horses mid-jump.

Hopefully the stuff you'll see there will compare favorably to that video.

And regarding the Flight Sim show, we really should be doing a lot more stuff like that. There's always something happening somewhere, and a booth and some product boxes is a great thing to have. Unfortunately we just have no resources to attend most of them, no people to arrange and set up and man a booth, literally no one. So for the time being we'll probably just do a few major airshows, especially those connected with TFC and Duxford.

[Silver_Dragon]

DCS: WW2

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1 ... ostcount=1

Hola a todos,

Yo pienso que vamos a hacer dos actualizaciones de desarrollo a la semana.

 

El Viernes serán nuestras actualizaciones 3D de desarrollo: aviones, cabinas, vehículos, etc.

 

Martes habrá nuestras actualizaciones de desarrollo del escenario en donde vamos a estar mirando en nuestra Normandía, ya que toma forma.

 

Tenemos un montón de cosas que no has visto todavía, especialmente en la categoría 3D, así que espero que estos no resultar aburrido o pasado un tiempo.

 

Hoy: primer vistazo a nuestro tanque Tiger I.

 

[Silver_Dragon]

WW2 update

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1 ... ostcount=1

Hello folks,

 

I’ve been absolutely swamped these past few days. Catching a plane to Moscow in a couple of hours, so I probably won’t respond to any questions or comments on this update for at least 24 hours.

 

Here’s where we are with Normandy today.

 

We started working on a 1:1 recreation of Utah beach. It’ll be one of the areas recreated down to each street, each object. It’s obviously in the very early stages.

 

We’re playing around with the representation of the areas with German defensive flooding, and trying to get it so you can still see the fields and villages underneath the floodwaters.

 

We’re also just generally laying out all the important areas, roads, bridges, villages, and so on.

 

Finally, we’re also working on different types of coastal cliffs.

 

[Silver_Dragon]

DCS: WW2 Update

 

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1 ... tcount=151

at the risk of my head . Picture from the flooded area. As usual WIP. We're working.

 

[Tom Raisen]

Qué preciosidad...

[Silver_Dragon]

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1 ... ostcount=1

Hey folks,

 

Sorry for a lapse in updates. I am almost comically plagued by internet issues on my trip; could make for a nice story all by itself. Almost considered doing a write-up, but perhaps in a couple of days when there’s no trace of bitterness. Catching a plane home tomorrow afternoon, where a nice PC with a nice Ethernet cable awaits. The things we take for granted.

 

Anyway, while I was incommunicado, the rest of the team has been hard at work.

 

We’re going to do a combined update on a bunch of fronts.

 

The 109 cockpit, shown earlier, is virtually completed. It’s scheduled to be done by the end of next week. Here’s a teaser shot.

 

 

We’ll do a full photoshoot once it’s finished and checked.

 

The 109 external is not nearly as far along. We actually ran into a bit of delay with it, and we’re working double time to catch up. The 109 is still scheduled to be the first new RRG plane to be completed, in time for the closed alpha.

 

The first step of making an external model for a DCS plane is to make its engine. Even though it’s not something you really see, this is what’s traditionally done first before the rest of the aircraft is built around it. We had an issue with blueprints and references that had us redo a portion of the model, and the engine is generally extremely detailed and elaborate, so we’re about a week behind schedule. The engine is generally modeled and mapped, so we’re ready to proceed with the rest of the aircraft.

 

 

I am walking a very fine line here between keeping the fans and the artists happy. This is something I’m sure most of you did not think of at all, but the 3D artists making these models feel very connected to them and have a sense of personal pride, so asking them to show clearly unfinished models is always met with some resistance. I’m not the kind of boss who says “just shut up and give me the model to screenshot.†So, in this case, just like with the 109 pit, we have a modeler who really hates the idea of showing unfinished, “crappy†(in his words) WIP. He really asked to delay showing the engine until it’s shiny and perfect, so this is our compromise.

 

Please consider this as a general showcase of our attention to detail.

 

The flight model and the weapons and all the physics stuff for it has been in the works since July, but it's using the P-51 as a stand-in for now. We're rather far along with our physics model of the Bf.109, but obviously that's not something that can be shown with screenshots. We'll probably do some detailed lengthy videos once the 3D model is put in place, in the run-up to the alpha.

 

Next, we have the current state of the P-47 cockpit. Again, slightly behind schedule there, but really working hard to catch up. No deadline jeopardized, just a bit of an extra crunch in the middle of the project. We expected to just reuse P-51 gauges for the Jug, but ended up having to redo most from scratch. We currently have the canopy framework, the dashboard, and the gunsight, all done from scratch for our brand new P-47D-30. All await the delivery of the last set of factory blueprints for a final accuracy check.

 

 

Lastly, here’s where we are with the landscape. Been doing a lot of technical engine-related tasks. Redrew all the roads and crossroads. Redid the canals. Redid the flooded areas once again. Played a whole lot with the trees. Generally the terrain is beginning to look more detailed, but still a long road ahead.

 

 

Now, the most important thing I’ve realized over the past two months is that if I was my own employee, I should fire myself as a community manager. I barely have any time to do it, and it creates a very poor impression. Now that we’ve finally received our kickstarter funds (by the way, yay) I really need to hire a more professional community manager. I’ll get busy once I’m back home this weekend. Of course, ideally it would be a member of this community. It would most likely be a salaried part-time position, and the qualifications would include a passion for flight sims, understanding of aviation, and good communication skills. I don’t know if it’s realistic to hope for someone who’s fluent in both Russian and English, but English fluency would definitely be a must, while Russian would be a huge plus.

 

If you think you might be a good fit based on this preliminary announcement, email me at luthier1@gmail.com

 

With that, I’m off to pack my suitcase. Hope you like the screenshots!

[Silver_Dragon]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/508 ... sts/659986

Hello folks,

 

A really quick one today.

 

The Bf.109 cockpit is finished and ready to go. The external model is behind, which is normal. The pit was started earlier and was made by two people, so this is exactly as planned.

 

 

The landscape is also moving along. Changing the trees a bit, working with forests. Beginning to play around with hedges, obviously a very early test. We know how important these are. Our goal is to have them everywhere. Also redoing lake and river banks and intersections points.

 

 

[Silver_Dragon]

ww2 Update

 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/508 ... 1944/posts

Friday Development Update - November 22, 2013

Comment Like 2 likes

Hello everyone,

Things are a little slow, or rather, the progress at this stage is not too apparent.

 

On the Normandy front, the landscape is moving along. We’ve increased the amount of details on the landscape and worked a bit more with the woods. The woods are now a separate single object which makes them both easier to place and a lot easier on performance.

 

 

We’re also creating a few more stand-in buildings. The design process has us place a lot of blue box stand-ins, simple shapes that denote where the buildings will be, which will later be replaced with detailed buildings of the same dimensions. Replacing blue boxes with these more detailed stand-ins is an intermediary step that allows us to better fine-tune the look of city blocks. The texture is obviously temporary. Once we place a bunch of these together we can experiment with damage modeling and the general aesthetics.

 

 

On the airplane front, we decided to hold off on screenshots today. When things are unfinished, they just don’t look that great, and while many of you will perhaps call us too pessimistic, we’re just not comfortable with showing these unfinished intermediary steps.

 

The P-47 cockpit is beginning to look rather good. We greatly improved the instrument panel. It’s virtually complete now, and it looks a lot more like the real thing. We had to redo a huge chunk of it compared to the previous screenshots, and the gauges now have the proper bezel as they should on the P-47D-30. We’ll be finishing it up next week and polishing it and inserting it into the game engine the week after that, so hopefully there’ll be something cool to show the Friday Dec 6th.

 

We’re also progressing on the biggest success story of this kickstarter, the Me.262 cockpit. Being what it is, we again want to hold off on showing the very early stage. The modeler making it is the most resistant to showing unfinished work out of everyone working on the project. We’ll see what it looks like next week. Definitely very eager to show you guys what we worked so hard to put into the project!

 

The 109K external is also almost ready to be shown. Again, we made a very hard choice to hold off on those screenshots because we’re going to have something a lot more impressive next week.

 

Anyway, this is where we are across the board so this is slightly painful to write. Hopefully this week is the least amount of screenshots we’ll ever show. Everything is moving along, and as things get closer to completion there’ll be a lot more stuff to show. Especially once we have the 109 visuals in the engine. That’ll begin a very exciting stage for the project.

 

Finally, on the web development front, I know a lot of you are very anxious. This is taking a lot longer than anticipated but the end result will also be a lot more comprehensive than we originally intended. We’re moving along with the backer web functionality and making sure it’s both clear and easy to use. The intended end result will allow all project backers, kickstarter or paypal, to log in to the project site and to see their own personalized management screen. It will show you the exact number of rewards you’re eligible for based on your pledge amount. It will show you the rewards you have currently selected along with their status (shipped, in progress, etc). For any unfulfilled rewards, it will allow you to swap them out or enter additional details. We’re working very hard to make sure it’ll be easy to use and to understand, while also being full-featured and problem free, allowing for example such a range of options and easily specifying user accounts for friends you wish to gift additional licenses to, or specify different shipping addresses for several copies of the same aircraft manual, etc.

 

We’re working extremely hard to have it working as soon as humanly possible, and hopefully we’ll have some screenshots as well as the ETA for the site ready very soon.

 

Thank you for your continued interest in the project!

[Silver_Dragon]

WW2 update russian forum

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1 ... tcount=886

Pre-alfa - Invierno-Primavera 2014 beta - sobre la primavera-verano de 2014 el lanzamiento en Octubre - 2014

[Silver_Dragon]

WW2 update #22

 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/508 ... sts/686163

Good morning everyone,

 

Let's look at a couple of cockpits today.

 

First, here's the much more complete P-47 cockpit. Not in-engine yet, but getting there.

 

 

And then, we're very proud to show a very early work-in-progress of the pinnacle of our kickstarter campaign, the cockpit for the flyable Me.262!

 

 

[Silver_Dragon]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/508 ... sts/694456

 

Friday Development Update - December 13, 2013 - One week of work

6 comments Liked 29 likes

Well, today's update is a little different in tone. As opposed to showing exciting new things, we're going to try for a much more intimate look at the day to day work that goes into the project.

 

Let's look at the Me.262 cockpit one more time, one week later.

 

If you just look at the screenshots below and compare them to last week’s, your first impression might be, what? Where’s the beef?

 

 

Well, you have to look closer.

 

Compared to last week’s, the cockpit is a lot more complete. Most importantly, we now have the fully articulated stick. We now have both complete pedals instead of a single placeholder. The entire cockpit tub is there. There are new large objects on both sides, and smaller objects all around.

 

Still, you might say, an entire week of worth for that? Are you guys putting in the hours?

 

Oh yes we are.

 

First of all, there’s the time needed to ensure the accuracy. We’re not just looking at a blurry photo and trying to kind of sort of make a gizmo that looks like that thingamajig by the pilot’s right knee. We’re going off of original manufacturer’s blueprints and measuring and cross-checking every element. That takes time and that takes skill.

 

For things that are animated, playing around with the range of motion is also time-consuming. For example, the stick can move around in many different ways, has other moving things attached to it, and so on. We need to play around with all of that too and make sure it’s right.

 

Finally, everything you see gets mapped during the modeling process. Not a DCS requirement, just this modeler’s individual preference. We have strict texture scale and size requirements. Everything is in 1:1 scale, which adds extra work to texture mapping. So, screenshotting, measuring, and arranging all the objects on the textures like a giant free-form jigsaw puzzle from hell, that’s a lot of additional effort that cannot be accurately shown on screenshots.

 

And so, this is the day-to-day of DCS WWII development. Slow, steady process that requires patience and dedication to make sure all the details remain as accurate as possible, and no corners are ever cut.

[Silver_Dragon]

DCS: World WW2 Update 24, P-47

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/508 ... sts/705623

 

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy New Year, Io Saturnalia, С Ðовым Годом и РождеÑтвом – whatever you’re celebrating, hope your new year brings you lots of joy and happy new experiences!

 

For us, 2014 is looking to be a momentous year. We’re working hard to make sure we release a solid new title next year, a title that will thrive in 2015, 2016, and beyond.

 

Most of our employees are based in Russia or in the former Soviet Union. The wonderful thing for employees, and a horrible thing for employers, is the fact that most of those countries are officially off from December 31st to January 10th. People in that part of the world love to celebrate the New Year, and they celebrate hard. Many businesses do not return to full working capacity for another week or two after the official holidays end, but we are of course different. Some of our employees are even planning to work from home over the holidays to ensure deadlines, but that’s purely their personal choice. I as a project manager obviously cannot ask anyone to do that unless it’s their own personal choice.

 

Having said that, we probably won’t have any significant work done on the project for the fateful 11-day period.

 

December was a difficult month for me personally with some unexpected events jumping out when least expected. One of our employees ended up in the hospital. Russian healthcare being what it is, waiting for the ambulance for two and a half ours almost led to a bigger tragedy. Not one but two of our married employees had their wives end up in the hospital.

 

Finally, another valuable team member slipped on the ice but thankfully his face broke the fall. He now looks like a B-movie monster, and has to continue modeling with one eye swollen shut. Finally, I know many of you are very concerned about the state of kickstarter rewards fulfillment system. The work has not been progressing nearly as fast as we needed. We’re still not there. Including paypal with kickstarter ended up adding a huge layer of complexity because we can no longer just use kickstarter’s features. Programming everything together, bringing the lists of kickstarter and paypal backers, and integrating it with DCS forums and other site features just turned out to be a nightmare. At this point, it almost seems like it would have been easier for me to manually do the reward surveys via email or something basic like that. At this point, looks like the roll-out is not going to happen until at least the end of January 2014. For this I sincerely apologize. I should have planned this out better. In hindsight, I should have stuck with kickstarter alone.

 

Anyway, I was really hoping to end 2013 with a bang: a couple of screenshots of the Bf.109 cockpit in-engine, flying around, and we still have a couple of days left in the year. If that does not happen, we’ll do a consolation update on the 31st.

 

For now, here’s the current state of the P-47 cockpit. Looking to be completed by late January.

 

We’re actually well ahead of schedule on cockpits with the project, which I guess is the best news I have to offer at the end of 2013.

 

[Silver_Dragon]

DCS: WW2 update

 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/508 ... sts/723040

Good evening gentlemen!

 

We are finally getting back to business after the long Russian holidays.

 

As I mentioned in my last update, most of the team members were off from December 31st to January 10th, and the calendar being what it is, most did not get back to work until January 13th.

 

I have used this time to take some much-needed rest myself, spending lots of time with my children, and finally getting lots of sleep. Normally, I work on Moscow time all the way from California with an 11-hour time difference, starting my workday at 10 PM, then converting to single dad mode by 7 am. That makes eight hours of sleep in a single block, well, something out a fairy tale for me.

 

Anyway, I thought it would be best to begin 2014 with our most important single task from 2013, the highlight of our kickstarter drive, the cockpit for the Me.262.

 

 

Unlike most other team members, the two-man crew working on this pit worked through the holidays. With that kind of a work ethic, coupled with doubling up on projects that are usually made single-handedly, these DCS heroes are doing an amazing job staying ahead of schedule and producing consistently stellar quality work. They make the rest of the tasks look bad in comparison, but of course, the overall number of working hours for their cockpits is about the same as for the others. It’s just they need half the calendar time to do the same amount of work.

 

That concludes this week’s update. Please stay tuned for more next Friday!

[Silver_Dragon]

Update #26 WW2

 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/508 ... sts/729345

Hello folks,

Wait, isn’t it still Friday somewhere?

The project is moving along. I have been putting insane hours into DCS the past couple of weeks, so much that it almost feels like a pre-release crunch.

 

On the development front, the Me.262 cockpit shown last week has had the last few kinks straightened out and is considered finished. Just waiting for the flight dynamics programmers, currently hard at work o the Bf.109K, to finish that plane and get on the 262.

 

The P-47 is also nearly there. The cockpit is virtually ready, while the external model is a bit farther along. The general pipeline for this project is a bit strange. Our cockpits are built a lot faster than our external models, and the programming time that comes after the 3D models are complete is even longer.

 

The order in which the planes will be completed is as follows. The FW.190D-9, in the development of which our team is also taking part, will be completed first (no ETA, not up to me too announce). The Bf.109K-4 will come next. Then the P-47. Then the Me.262. Then the Spitfire. The plan is still to release these piece-meal to all alpha-access backers as they are being done.

 

The landscape is also moving along. The most important part of the process is engine integration, that is, getting the DCS aircraft to fly over the new terrain, and all the other objects, vehicles, ships, and so on, to properly interact with it. This task is in late testing stages, and in the meantime creating the landscape itself has slowed down a bit. Once that task is complete, we’re going to dump an entire large team onto landscape creation, and will be looking at an alpha of a Normandy chunk in a matter of weeks.

 

As for myself, well, I have been doing a whole lot of writing and graphic design, and brushing up on my German as well. I’ll just show a single screenshot for now.

 

 

I am catching a flight to Moscow tomorrow afternoon. My main priority there is to finish the English version of the manual as well as its Russian translation, and to get started on the Bf.109 manual. I also want to get back to doing video updates, and hopefully give you guys a much better look at what’s happening with terrain and the 109K in video format.