I hadn't played my offline sims in a while

[AKSeaWulfe]

My assumption on why online only games have different quality graphics is simply because of the networking power required. Not only do you send/recieve packets but your computer guesstimates, thanks to HT's great code, where your plane is supposed to go in a few seconds so there are fewer warps.

Now, that being said AH's graphics are EXTREMELY detailed. Tracers are amazing. Planes are really detailed, take a look at the P38 up close. If you really zoom in, you can see the actual cockpit you are looking at from your cockpit view and get a lil' closer.. you can see the dials moving! The lightsourcing in AH is also extremely advanced. The terrain doesn't look bad at all, it just doesn't have extremely small pixels in the bitmaps. All flight games' ground looks horrible, simply because bitmaps can only be done one way or the other. THey can either look nice at high alt, where you spend most of the time anyway. Or they can look nice down low and really fuzzy up high. Until texture memory(solved with GeForce, GeForce2 and V5 cards) is abundant, we are limited by how many bitmaps we can put on the screen. I had an idea a while back to program in two sets of bitmaps, one for fine detail at low alt when you set a certain hardcoded altitude that would transition with the fine detail for high altitude set. Or maybe even 3 sets. Look nice at all alts, wouldn't that be something?? ;-) Unfortunately I wouldn't know where to begin(I never presented this idea to HT because I wouldn't know how to do it) because I'm very new to programming. The polycount in AH's P38 is very high, get close to one and watch your fps go to crap. I think the cowlings and spinners are more angled because of details put in other places. You do know the gunsight alone is a 3d object doncha? Not to mention the other boxes and objects strewn about the cockpits.

All in all, it's really freaking amazing. A HUGE step forward from when I played WB(It was only 2D then, but in 3D they still don't have the 3D cockpits from external view like we do ;-)

Just my lowly opinion tho.
-SW

[Nath-BDP]

Funny no one has mentioned how big a file for an online game with graphics like WW2F would be.

[This message has been edited by Nath-BDP (edited 10-19-2000).]

[Zigrat]

I don't think poly count is the problem   Its the special effects. Areas I want to see improved are:

1) Bomb blasts, they are pretty crap right now iMHO, samr with rockets. See the p51 shooting the rockets at the convoy? Its not very advanced but its alot betetr than the nothing we have now for rocket attacks. In WW2F when you shoot off a rocket and it explodes at night it actually illuminates the area, very cool.

2) Look at the bombed out tank the p47 hit. See how it didn't diisappear but it sits there all burned out and smoking? That s awesome.. it only lasts for a minute or 2 but its enuf to make the sense of a bombed out battlefield.

3) Planes continuing to sprial/crassh/burn after eject. Would be nice.

More skins. See that p47/p51/109 jg54 skin? None of them came with ww2F. All were made by players for FREE. I think we are the biggest untapped resource HTC has, but they have in the past stated its impossible for user created skins.. why???? Look how beautiful that p47 56th FG is, or that JG54 109g6.

I KNOW 3d modeling hurts CPU power so thats why i dont think we the users should be mucking around with that. But i don't know why we shouldnt have user created skins just like we have user created terrains.

Also, the smoke, fire, and flak effects are pretty yuck. And the smoke at the airfields should be taller and thinner not like a big fat balloon sitting over the airfield  

While I am at it, in ww2F you see the muzzle flash when the 88MMs fire, and hear them, they are pretty damned loud if you are low. Plus you can see the puffs of smoke and muzzle flashes when the panzers fire. All cool stuff  

[This message has been edited by Zigrat (edited 10-19-2000).]

[Zigrat]

btw im not saying aces high is ugly, just saying HTC needs to improve the special effects (burning smoking explosions etcera) and give us users ability to make new skins  

Here is example of what end user can do for eaces high
 

[Hristo]

The immersion will be there when all 190 pilots will look at historical cockpit layout, with metric system implemented.

Moreover, dumping ammo counters or flap indicators on planes which did not have them would also help.

Next step is Komandogerat vs Manual engine management.

[RAM]

And a switch that makes able to fire external cannons only, internal cannons only or both linked in Fw190A.

It is being sorely missed.

[-lynx-]

Zig - keep in mind that in off-line things you don't need to process ~100 other planes global position, attitude, damage... What you see on the screen is pretty much all that is processed by your CPU leaving way more processing power to show all the pretty graphics at the same FPS. That smouldering tank would have to be processed too - regardless of the fact that it was shot 200 miles from the sector you're currently flying in...

Even so - I dare say that both WB and AH have absolutely incredible graphics standard compare to "big budget boxed sims". Way too much effort is spent on "theatrics": "...look how detailed and authentic lowering of undercarriage looks!..." - who gives a toss? You in the cockpit cant see it anyway .

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lynx
13 Sqn RAF

[Pongo]

I KNOW 3d modeling hurts CPU power so thats why i dont think we the users should be mucking around with that. But i don't know why we shouldnt have user created skins just like we have user created terrains.

But couldnt they then modify their skin to have better visiblity?

[Zigrat]

stuff like the smoking tank and better explosions wouldn't increatse lag at all, it would all be done on your FE. Right now, instead of just having the vehicle disappear, a little burned out wreckage could be placed there like pictures that would automatically disappear after like5 minutes. All the server would say is "this vehicle died" like it does now then the zFE would say "ok ill replace the current ostwind model with this burned out husk model" Same thing for explosions etcera, no further lag introduced.

For pongo's question, my plan would be to have skins similar to terrains. You can use any terrain you wany in H2H that you have created, but for use in the arena would have to be submitted to HTC for introduction to the arena (just like the med terrain was submitted, same thing with skins) and they could make rules as to only historical skins etcera.

[-lynx-]

What zig's got right on the money is that there are lots of very talented people out there who would love to spend time creating historical "skins"... We could then just select camo scheme same as we select ammo loads now. One extra digit in a packet would give something like 16 different variants? Wouldn't it be great?

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lynx
13 Sqn RAF

[AKSeaWulfe]

Unless you have a 32 or 64MB video card, you aren't going to be able to enjoy it anyway. AGP would still lead to tying up the bus as it transfers textures between system memory and video card onboard memory. Sure it'd be nice, but I imagine it would be a strain on the video card and a memory hog.
-SW

[Zigrat]

A 32 meg video card costs under $100 dollars these days. shouldnt be a consideration anymore.... i just saw a geforce 2 MX with transform and lighting and 32 megs ram for 94$.

[SR]

Zigrat , I am sure I have the first three sims but what game or games are the last two pics from please ?

Thanks SR

[Mathman]

SR,

The last two shots are from WW2F.  The terrain and skins are end-user modifications.

-math

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"Any American fighter near Orote Penninsula.  I have forty Jap planes surrounded and need a little help."
-Ens. W.B. "Spider" Webb during the Marians Turkey Shoot

[SR]

Thanks !