It’s been awhile since the last update and there’s been a lot going on. We had originally planned for 2.03 to be out already, but the terrain changes we were implementing took a heavier than expected hit on performance. We did not want to backburner these changes, so HT grudgingly had to make an extensive code rewrite. The terrain changes include a new set of terrain tiles and more detailed trees and forests. Forests will actually be comprised of individual trees so now you can better see the trees for the forest, so to speak. The object structure changes also means that any objects built in AC3D will have to be re-imported into the object editor and any tiles or airfields built with the object editor will have to have the build process run again. This will make prior work compatible with the new changes to the object structure.
The code rewrite of the terrain object system was not originally planned and that has delayed the switchover of all our programming resources to ToD. That switch will now take place after 2.03 is released and stable which is not far away. We're in the process of debugging the new terrain system and we'll release once that's ready to go. Whatever renovated planes we have ready for release will go into that version, but we won't hold up the release to get more planes done. We'll release those as needed.
We have a small group of volunteer skinners helping us with the plane renovations. Sudz has created a skinning utility that allows skinners to view their skins on the plane without having to go through the game. This makes it a lot easier to make changes and instantly see them without having to go through all the hassles of clearing cache files and waiting for the game to load. The volunteer skinners are currently using this tool and once the new version undergoes some more testing, we will make this utility available to everyone.
Sudz made a nice change to the ordnance system by adding a new subsystem to it. This allows us to change the configuration of your plane with bomb racks, rocket rails, different gun barrels, etc., according to the ordnance you are carrying. So if you load up a bomb, you get a bomb rack attached to your plane rather than just a bomb floating below your plane. If you don’t take the outer cannons on the 190, then the barrels don’t remain there. If you take the 30mm option, the barrels change to reflect that. Previously, we had to jump through some hoops to do something similar for the rocket rails on the Typhoon and Mosquito and we couldn’t do that for every plane. This system also affects performance with weight and drag changes. Planes will be updated to this new system as we renovate them.
Finally, PB1 rockets have been added to the Fw 190F-8.
