DCS: WW2 Europe 1944

WW2 ya supere el 50% (51.354$).

Nuevo ladrillazo de luthier, en este hay dos cosas interesantes, la primera, que esta pensando mover hacia arriba el B-17 y crear un detallado mapa de las costa sur inglesa (en plan de realizar misiones de bombarderos), y que trae los diferentes nuevos videos que se iran poniendo a lo largo del KickStarter (reconoce que el video tres devería haberlo colocado antes del segundo), aun asi los videos 3 y 4 en mi opinión serán los mas esperados por la comunidad:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1 ... count=1131

I'm starting to think we might need to shuffle things about a little bit.

 

We'll try to change the immediate next stretch goal, and make it a flyable B-17 and British airfields. Move all other stretch goal aircraft one tier up.

 

We'll talk this over and have a decision for you within a day or two.

 

Also going to work on adding some more attractive backer rewards.

 

Oh trust me, I'm very familiar with southern England

 

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RRG does not currently have a dedicated AI programmer.

 

We could theoretically look into hiring one for this project, which would probably give us tons and tons of cool stuff over the course of the project, but I really don't know how to budget for that. We're already pretty far out there for a stretch goal. I'm kind of cautious about adding too many tiers or too many options. If I add, for example, and intermediate "improved AI" stretch goal, all as a part of all additional stretch goals, that might turn off some other people, and make it seem like the aircraft they really want are too far away.

 

ED has programmers too, of course. We however do not have a current plan for AI improvement.

 

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

 

No clue at this point. (a una pregunta si la IA podrá ver a travez de las nubes en EDGE)

 

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

 

This new video is basically introduction part 2. Nick Grey is a hugely important part of this project, but it felt like putting him in the initial video made everything way too long.

 

It's also not about passion but about our relationship with TFC. This has immediate, direct, and unique impact on the product. We have access to the actual aircraft and the actual pilot. That's not sentimentality or small talk at all. These are the precise reasons why DCS: P-51 is the best prop simulation available today.

 

I have another talk video all put together, which I foolishly planned to release as video 3, but I realized the error of my ways while uploading video 2 this morning. Video 3 will be a detailed look at EDGE. Video 4 will be a detailed overview of aircraft modeling in DCS. Video 5 will be a video QnA, and then video 6 will probably be the thing I planned for Video 3.

 

I also have to point out that it's all just me. I write the scripts, I direct, I shoot, I edit, I release, I discuss. I don't have a marketing staff, anything like that. I'm learning as I go. Hopefully I can do enough to reach at least one stretch goal in the next 30 days. Please don't let the fact that I'm not a marketing professional or a filmmaker influence your opinion of myself as a game developer!

Nuevos Tramos de la KickStarter DCS: World WW2 1944

Tercer video de RRG Studios, mostrando detalles de EDGE en WW2 1944

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

Hello everyone,

 

Many of you have been really waiting for it, so here it is!

 

We’re showing the new EDGE landscape engine today, and meeting the people working on it.

 

Please keep in mind that the Normandy terrain is in the very earliest stages of development. The terrain engine itself is very mature, but is missing some features needed for a proper WWII simulation. So that’s where we started our terrain design.

 

We are using the famous Pointe du Hoc location to test everything we need: bunkers, trenches, and bomb craters. We are doing that with a few simple placeholders and a few low-res textures.

 

Our Normandy still needs most of the French 1940s buildings, airfield structures, and proper French countryside textures. All of those, while time consuming, are no-brainers at this point. Making and placing objects, or texturing terrain, are the kind of tasks the team has done before while making landscapes for helicopter and pilot training simulators. Once we have our bunkers and craters done and tested, the rest of the project is rather routine.

 

Unfortunately, as the other landscapes done in EDGE were done as commercial projects, we are unable to show any part of that terrain. Normandy is the only thing we can show, and it is clearly nowhere near finished.

 

We are also not at the stage where planes can fly over Normandy. We really tried to have a Mustang in a Normandy field today, but ran into some issues, and decided not to delay the video for it. Once we have those tests done, we’ll definitely release those shots.

 

With that in mind, here’s the video:

Traducción del texto aparecido en el video 3 de DCS: World WW2 1994 sobre EDGE (disculpen los fallos de traducción)

Mi nombre es Alexey, Yo soy el director de arte aqui, y tambien soy un modelador 3D. Yo por lo general trato con todo lo que hay que hacer en el desarrollo de terreno.

 

- Asi que porfavor puedes hablarnos sobre el motor de terreno que vosotros estáis desarrollando.

 

Ok, Nosotros tenemos nuestro propio motor gráfico casero callado EDGE.

 

- ¿Y qué diferencias tiene este comparado con el antiguo?

 

Hay un montón de cambios en el nuevo motor. Nuevos sombreados, nuevos materiales, nueva tecnología. Nuestro nuevo motor esta basicamente escrito completamente desde cero.

 

Nosotros hemos considerado los errores del pasado, experiencias pasadas, horarios últimos. El nuevo motor es muy fácil de usar tanto por programadores y diseñadores, por testers, por todo el mundo.

 

Esto es una de las mejores cosas sobre el nuevo motor, su facilidad de uso. Adicionalmente, la calidad gráfica yo diría que es diez veces mejor que antes. Nosotros tenemos nuevas texturas, hierba, los objetos son dibujados a mayores distancias.

 

- De acuerdo. Y yo se que tu no solo estas usando EDGE para juegos de PC, pero tu tambien estas trabajando en simuladores de vuelo comerciales para pilotos reales.

 

Correcto. Nuestro motor es usado activamente en simuladores de entrenamiento, aviación civil, y entrenadores de helicópteros. Nosotros estamos creando tres terrenos para esto, por lo que desarrollamos nuestro motor tanto para los pilotos reales y para los requisitos de juegos.

 

Nosotros tenemos un montón de requerimientos de nuestros usuarios, especialmente la calidad de los aeropuertos y el nivel de detalle. No sola ha ser muy alta calidad, alto nivel de detalle de la imagen, del paisaje, de todos los objetos. los requisitos de distancia de la visión de nuestro terreno, requerimientos para los pequeños detalles, la altura de la hierba, el tamaño correcto de los bloques de hormigón en pista, que es realmente importante para los pilotos en los despegues y aterrizajes, o en tiempo malo. Ellos ponen atención en estas cosas.

 

- ¿Y cual es estado actual del motor?

 

Estado de Testeo. Nosotros estamos en este momento desarrollando tres terrenos con éxito, y estamos continuamente moviéndose hacia delantes. Cuando nosotros tomamos un nuevo proyecto y nosotros necesitamos alguna nueva tecnología para esto. nosotros la desarrollamos, la testeamos y la ponemos en el.

 

- Estupendo, ¿Y que puede decir de las dificultades?, ¿Cuales son las cosas nuevas que se están haciendo pare el terreno de normandía de 1944?

 

Normandía es muy excitante para nosotros. Nosotros estamos intentando dar el 100%. Nosotros estamos intentando capturar la atmósfera de tiempos de guerra de ese periodo. Ruinas, edificios, ciudades y villas destruidas, fuego y humo. Nosotros queremos sumergir al usuario en ese tiempo, para asegurarle que él se sumerja en el terreno y pase mucho tiempo con el. Vamos a tomar mucho tiempo en recrear áreas importantes, los bordes de los acantilados, chateaus, y campos de batalla importantes. Nosotros vamos a poner todo esto en áreas altamente detalladas. Nosotros estamos recreando la red de carreteras, también, nosotros estamos intentando recrear toda la vegetación de ese momento.

 

- Así, tiene el encanto de 1940 campo francés, junto con todos los horrores de la guerra.

 

si, correcto. La versión actual del motor permite hacer todo eso. hay que añadir una serie de características, pero en general creo que todo esto nos instalemos en el camino y nuestro equipo se encargará de ello a su debido tiempo.

 

- Magnifico, bien, muchas gracias a ti, un verdadero placer.

 

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

 

- Por favor, háblanos de lo que haces y que es lo que tu estas haciendo específicamente para el proyecto.

 

Yo diseño y desarrollo el terreno para el motor EDGE. Tengo que ver con todo lo que tiene qer ver con el terreno y con todos los otros componentes. Todo lo que se necesite para el terreno.

 

- Y tu tienes que cambiar este para Normandia 1944, tu debes ser el diseñador líder del este terreno y de cualquier otro terreno que nosotros podamos añadir después.

 

Correcto

 

- Por favor, háblanos algo sobre los detalles de desarrollar un terreno de la segunda guerra mundial.

 

Una cosa interesante para mi ahora es el desarrolle de una representación realista del terreno. Para mostrar la atmósfera, para ver el terreno tal como lo veríamos basado en algunas fotografías o películas.

 

Esto sería realmente fácil de ver tal como lo vemos ahora. Nosotros tenemos satélites, vistas de carreteras, pero si nosotros volvemos en el tiempo y creamos algo del pasado, para mi, es realmente excitante.

 

- Nosotros hemos hablado sobre hacer algo que hasta ahora no se ha hecho realmente en simulación antes. Nosotros vamos a intentar hacer un terreno no sólo realista, sino también excitante de volar sobre el.

 

Si, esto es correcto, Nosotros vamos a tener varias capacidades como calles lo suficiente anchas para que el avión pueda volar a través de ellas, interiores de túneles en los que podría intentar maniobrar, puentes de ferrocarril en que puedes volar a través de ellos, grandes arcos, básicamente , varios elementos del terrenos que te pueden ayudar a vosotros en la batalla.

 

- Correcto, Básicamente nosotros podremos intentar dar a los jugadores algo excitante que hacer mientras están a nivel de los árboles, algún tipo adicional de actividad. Muy bien, ahora por favor, hablamos sobre tu aproximación general, sobre el motor EDGE. Que involucra el desarrollo de un buen terreno realista?

 

Bien, si nosotros estamos hablando sobre EDGE, este esta siendo desarrollado desde hace tiempo. La idea general apareción hace mucho tiempo. Nosotros teníamos unas cuantas opciones, y el motor que tenemos está ya maduro después de muchos cambios. Nosotros estamos en la versión 4. así que la idea general es que el paisaje debe verse bien también ha cambiado desde el punto de vista de un piloto, desde el punto de vista de la aviación. sai, la versión que tenemos en este momento es mas realista, mas buena en este aspecto, ya que permite crear terrenos, edificios y ambientes detallados y bien diseñados.

 

- Por eso, el motor esta siendo usado para entrenamiento de pilotos. Este es usado in simuladores reales para pilotos reales, esto ya viene con el sentido perfectamente afinado de la altitud, la escala, la noción de los elementos del terreno como la hierba. La sensación de volar está diseñada para ser lo mas cercano a la realidad como sea posible.

 

Si exactamente, cuando nosotros hemos construido simuladores de entrenamiento, esto lo hacemos exactamente como se debe hacer, la sensación visual de escala, altitud, velocidad. La inmersión que tienen los pilotos reales. la sensación de volar. que fue el primariamente, el requerimiento principal.

 

- bien

 

Y nosotros estamos seguros que es este mismo requerimiento sea la piedra angular del juego tambien. esperamos que los gamers tambien sientan esto en realidad. Tan real como sea posible.

 

- Maravilloso. Entonces, ¿unas últimas palabras?

 

Si. Yo era muy escéptico cuando ohi sobre esta maravillosas idea. Tan pronto como y ohi sobre normandía, Yo salte dentro, ofreciendo ayudar a tus chicos, yo pienso que nosotros vamos a conseguir trabajar juntos y nosotros vamos a hacer un gran producto. Yo pienso que los fans estarán agradecidos.

 

Muy bien. Yo espero vernos trabajanado juntos durante mucho tiempo y nosotros podremos venros unos a otros en los cielos.

Pa cagarse vamos, pa cagarse!! como hagan la mitad de lo que dicen lo parten fijo... :plas: :plas: :plas: :plas:

Update 4 de la KickStarter DCS: World WW2 1944 de RRG Studios

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

Hello everyone,

The update pace has slowed down, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. We’re scrambling to shift gears; we've had a whole campaign written out and put together. As the kickstarter got started we realized it was all wrong, since we were doing something for people new to flight sims, expecting an influx of people who have never flown a plane in their life. Now that we've realized that this project can only succeed if we work with the dedicated flight sim fans, we're redoing and scrapping everything to give you guys what you need. We know the clock is ticking, so it's not a pleasant feeling.

 

We’re working on a large comprehensive video about aircraft. The part that is taking too long is the aircraft footage. We’re working to have some videos of the FW.190D-9 flying and fighting showing the cockpit, but some of the gauges are not yet working so that’s causing some delays. We really hate releasing stuff that does not look great. We also cannot afford to become a screenshot-taking and video-making project, so this makes juggling priorities rather difficult.

 

I’ve literally worked around the clock to have it ready today, but now that I’ve slept on it, it just does not look impressive enough. I think I’d rather spend a few more days adding more footage and changing a couple of other things rather than release the most important video of the project that I myself am not happy with it, and go out with a whimper.

 

In the meantime, here’s what we’ve done with the terrain over the last week.

 

We did a few more tests, and made a PSP runway and a pseudo-airfield with some parked P-51s. Have an annoying problem where static P-51s have issues with a transparent canopy.

 

We’re pretty much done with various terrain tests, and we’re ready to move on and start building it properly. General to-do is as follows:

 

1. High-res textures and terrain "noise"

 

2. Color correction

 

3. Go through the list of high-detail areas and recreate terrain from period sources.

 

4. Create and place proper 3D objects (buildings, hangars, fortifications, etc)

 

Tasks 3 and 4 will last well into 2014, especially 3D objects, which will keep being created and added all the way up to beta.

 

The first two tasks are quicker, but they will also not finish by the time the KS campaign does. Color correction is especially important. I find it difficult to release screenshots with it not done, but whatever time we spend doing it now will be wasted. There are a lot of components that need to be corrected and tested together. Terrain textures, tree textures, and vegetation, are all stored in different areas, and the colors are also affected by distance. Just making sure that trees look good at all distances and aren’t all the same shade of green while at the same time not looking like a circus is a long painstaking process.

 

We won’t do it now because we’re still working in the terrain editor. The terrain editor is simplified not to contain the atmospheric model. That really affects the in-game colors. Atmosphere, obviously, adds hues to everything. With a 24-hour day-night cycle, this makes color correction a huge chore. Think of it as trying to balance 20 spinning plates while riding a unicycle. You get the distant trees all nice and murky at dawn, and some trees become purple when viewed up close at noon. That kind of thing.

 

So, a few more points about the current terrain:

 

Textures are low-res placeholders

PSP runway is a quick test to see how a huge number of tiny holes interact with the underlying terrain and grass. Not final!

P-51s are the same P-51s that currently fly in DCS World, but they’re not flying here. They are just parked. You will be strafing these helpless static objects, nothing else.

As you can see, their canopies are opaque. That’s temporary, and only a feature of the terrain editor. Obviously, they will have beautiful transparent canopies in the final game, just as they do in the P-51 currently flying in DCS World.

Thanks everyone! Stay tuned for the killer aircraft video.

oye Silver, son cosas mías o esos tíos van A TODA LECHE con este proyecto?

Digamos que antes del projecto, ya estaban trabajando tanto en el teatro de normandia como en los tres aparatos (P-38 / Spitfire / Bf-109), los 100000$ eran para eso, ya despues, lo que le pongamos de mas. Me imagino que al igual que Kinney, si no se llega a lo demas, se irá haciendo mucho mas lento, pero es de suponer que tendremos todo lo que han planeado en unos cuantos años. Mientras, RRG da por conseguido el KickStarter de DCS: World WW2 1944 y cambia otra vez los tramos:

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

Hello everyone,

We're almost there! We've almost reached the goal. That is amazing.

 

I think the backing pace slowed down a bit because everyone feels that the base goal is pretty much there, but the very next stretch goal is so far it's virtually unreachable.

 

We need smaller stretch goals, and we need to make them good. I've asked about this in the comments yesterday and received overwhelming support.

 

The thing is, after the base 100K we are hitting the no-internal-funding zone. Features begin to cost what they really cost. We need to raise a lot more money for individual line items. 150K seems like a very reasonable stretch goal to add, but we can hardly do anything for the extra 50K. Definitely not a map and definitely not a whole new plane. The only thing we can try to squeeze in for the 50K is a cockpit for the 262, and that's only because we are already doing the AI version.

 

So, the new stretch goals will be as follows:

 

100K: Base

 

150K: Flyable Me.262A-1 jet fighter

 

275K: Normandy map extended North to include Southern England (up to but without London)

 

425K: Flyable B-17

 

Moving the 262 up allows us to create an attractive stretch goal at the lowest cost possible of all. This pushes back the flyable B-17 by the same 50K, but I think it's worth it.

 

Please help us get there! If you've already backed the project, please consider increasing your pledge. If we all put together, everyone who pledged $40 or higher gets the Me.262 for free in the initial release!

 

And if you have not yet backed, please consider doing so. Even backing at the $1 level helps. That still gets us a little closer to our goals, and most importantly shows the overall level of support. This project is not just about the dollar amount, but about community support. The number of backers shown next to the project is extremely important! We're currently at 1,378 backers and $97,293. If we can get to 2,000 backers by the project's end, even if that means only adding a single dollar from these new backers, that is still going to be an amazing showing.

 

Please remember that backing at even the $1 level allows you access to backer-only updates, polls, and discussions. We will be interacting with the community a lot in the months between the end of the KS campaign and the initial release. We are currently discussing our 3rd party content development options internally. A decision will be reached next week as to the exact extents, but some level of involvement is virtually guaranteed. We will almost certainly do a backer-only something, perhaps an SDK, perhaps some other tools. So backing at even the $1 level will allow you to either get directly involved in modding and expanding the game, or just to access the internal updates on the progress.

 

Thank you everyone for your support and for your enthusiasm. Let's keep pushing forward!

 

PS Some of you noticed that the P-51s in the previous update had no weight with the gear struts fully extended. Everyone responsible has been dealt with. Struts have been compressed. Apologies extended.

Update DCS WWII: Europe 1944: Kickstarter

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/508 ... sts/610190

DCS WWII: Europe 1944: Kickstarter Video #4: Plane Talk

 

Update #6 · Sep 25, 2013 · 15 comments

Good evening gentlemen!

 

We're down to the wire! Just a few days left before this kickstarter ends.

 

I really hope we can energize the community enough not to just hit the 150K Me.262 stretch goal, but to get as close as we can to the 275K Southern England stretch goal!

 

We can do this in one of several ways.

 

We can find a large new community that has never heard of this project and get them excited. That's certainly very possible. We're getting virtually no exposure outside flight sim forums. If you know of a gaming resource that could be interested in our project, please help us out!

 

Secondly, we can get some extra help from existing backers. If you've backed at a $40 level, it may seem like you're already getting everything you want. If enough others come in and pledge, you'll get the Me.262 at no extra cost. However what if they don't? No one gets anything. We're getting into a very interesting field of psychology here, but basically we're in a situation where inaction gets everybody nothing, while a seemingly altruistic action benefits everyone, including the actor. In other words, if you can, please bump up your $40 pledge. If enough people do that, all $40 backers get the Me.262. In yet other other words, while on paper the price of the game with the included Me.262 is $40, in reality it is probably a bit more. The way things stand today, a $40 pledge may not actually buy the 262.

 

Lastly, we hope that some people who were on the fence about the project will be finally converted by today's video. If you have not yet backed the project but were watching it, please get involved! Even a $1 pledge is absolutely great. It still gets us a bit closer to our stretch goal, and, even more importantly, it increases our total number of backers. That, at this point in time, is at least as important a number as the dollar amount below it.

 

So, without further ado, here's a long extended conversation with Dmitry "Yo-Yo" Moskalenko, the lead aircraft programmer in DCS. He'll talk about the long evolution of the Eagle Dynamics flight model, and puts forward a great case for it being the best flight model on the market today. Yo-Yo created the P-51, our flagship prop-driven fighter simulation, and we're very fortunate to announce that not only will Dmitry be involved with and supervise and quality control all aircraft built by RRG, he will also personally work on our Spitfire Mk.IX, a project of a great personal interest to him.

 

Here's the video:

 

Mola. Ese tío es una máquina. Vaya curro con los fluidos, y como mola la animación que te los representa

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

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.

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.

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.

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.