Flight Simulator and other chat
by minoslas » Wed Oct 02, 2013 10:06 am
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.
by minoslas » Thu Oct 03, 2013 6:18 am
Also today, our official product specifications are as follows:
Minimum system requirements: OS 64-bit Windows Vista, 7 or 8; CPU: Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz; RAM: 4 GB; Free hard disk space: 10 GB; Video: 512 MB RAM card, DirectX 9.0c - compatible; Sound: DirectX 9.0c - compatible; requires internet activation.
Recommended system requirements: OS 64-bit Windows Vista, 7 or 8; CPU: Core i5+; RAM: 8GB; Hard disk space: 10 GB; Video: Shader 3.0 or better; NVIDIA GeForce GTX560 DirectX 9.0c or better; Sound: DirectX 9.0c - compatible; DirectX: 9.0C; requires internet activation.
Of note, we no longer support 32 bit OS systems
by minoslas » Fri Oct 04, 2013 6:50 am
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.
by minoslas » Fri Oct 04, 2013 7:03 am
*Quick Update*
A lot of work has been going on lately, but I don't always find the time to update this thread with everything I would want to say.
Collision Model
The collision model was recreated from scratch with animation and visibility arguments and was tied to the damage list.
Each section you see here will affect the flight model should damage or loss occur to the piece. If the right wing is lost, a quick left roll will begin due to asymmetric lift. If the horizontal tail is lost, pitch control will be lost and the aircraft may pitch violently up or down. If the vertical tail lost, directional control is lost. Each piece, even individual gear or wingtip tanks, cause their own drag. Losing a canopy will affect flight control and cause massive drag increases.
Random Failures
Work has begun on simulating random failures. While I have an idea how I want these to work, I won't go into details, yet. However, I know that I would like you guys to have more control over which types of failures you are likely to see during your training or combat flights. Because the L-39 is a trainer aircraft, it seemed fitting to allow more control of these settings. While the instructor pilot in the rear seat will be able to fail instruments and electrical systems manually, some things like mechanical, hydraulic, and engine failures cannot be simulated.
Failures only occur when the Random System Failures option is set on in the MISC options menu. While each individual pilot sets these options for their own flights, they are also saved to tracks and missions and forced on clients to ensure fair play and robust tracks.
Sliders for failure rates will operate as follows:
0% = No chance of occurring
1% = (1/100)X of Normal Rate
50% = Normal Rate
100% = 100X Normal Rate
Here is a snapshot of the current options menu:
As you can see, you can choose whether to include a rear seat pilot or not. While this will show a physical model of the rear pilot, it will also add 80kg to your weight. This option may go away when multi-seat capability is possible in multiplayer.
New Wingtip Options and Other Visual Options
Let's face it! Not every L-39 is created equal. There are so many variations even within the C civilian model, with some owners modifying their aircraft to reduce their weight by that last ounce, or squeeze a little more top speed out of the jet by changing wingtip types.
We have new wingtip types that can be set by the skin creator in the description lua file through arguments. These changes are not only visual, but also affect the weight and drag of the aircraft, even improving roll rate in some cases.
Options the skin creator has available:
L-39 Variant (C or ZA) This option is included in the skin creation as our C and ZA model share the same model and certain features are activated by this argument
Civilian Variant (Civilian, Aerobatic, Racer) C model can choose performance with this argument
Wingtip Type: Tanks, Sculpted, Curved Winglet, Double Winglet (Changing to another wingtip type will improve speed by about 25 km/h and lowers weight on the tips of the wing by 32 kg)
Rear Seat (Turning off the rear seat will make it visually disappear, but it will also save 85kg of weight)
Currently, we are only showing the sculpted wingtips:
There is a lot more development not mentioned here, but I thought this would keep you guys up to date.
__________________
by minoslas » Fri Oct 04, 2013 7:52 am
In-mission control input manager is currently in testing.
by minoslas » Fri Oct 04, 2013 8:07 am
Update
Working on the T-2 for DCS, Ron and myself are focusing on the exterior model.
by minoslas » Fri Oct 04, 2013 8:23 am
Still VERY much Work in Progress!
by minoslas » Fri Oct 04, 2013 11:51 am
About RSBN and navigation (Landing) Unfortunately it's Russian.. http://www.scilib-avia.narod.ru/Landing/Landing.htm
by minoslas » Sun Oct 06, 2013 5:32 am
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.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFoBYmDegsE
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.
by minoslas » Sun Oct 06, 2013 5:52 am
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?
by minoslas » Sun Oct 06, 2013 7:43 am
MiG booths soon be changed.
Both?
Yes, there are three..
by minoslas » Mon Oct 07, 2013 2:48 pm
DCS MiG-21Bis NewsFlash - Issue No.8
External Model
Rudel still working on the exterior model UVW and texturing. Now he placing thousands of rivets for the full '21 experiance. More pics and info can be found here: http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?...59&postcount=1
Cockpit
Razbam-Cobra is finished the new cockpit, now he's working on to port/test it into the game and very soon he will create a video how it looks like in the game.
AFM
At coding side Dolphin and Roland working on the radio as the last system to be implemented. With this last system finishing our code migration so moving to c++ allowed us greater control over implementation, and as a result our already complex base received a general overhaul. After Radio is finalized we will start final bugfixing and test than we reach internal beta.
AFM + Coding
Not significant changes on the roadmap. Later on we should post the possible schedule of our project remaining actions.
Others
Diveplane working on the MiG-21 sound creation. Here it is an early wip progress video of the engine samples completed and mixed beautifully ingame, authentic Tumansky R-25-300: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STKeISATc28
Afternoon pilots! Big update today; for me at least.
Between Newsflash 7 and 8 a lot has changed on the model with regards to accuracy and how the damage model works within ED's engine.
The entire time spent creating the three 3D meshes for just bullet damage, has been scrapped. Although time wasted, the best part is knocking of nearly 80,000 polys to free up space for more detail in other areas.
As such, UV & texturing has begun. While I was laying down panel lines a lot of areas were not matching up. I took the opportunity to reshape the landing gear doors. A small glitch came about using the bomb-racks. They interfered with the gear doors. The team came up with a solution to use custom arguments to set slotted or non-slotted gear doors based on the payload you choose. Proper holes and framing were added as well.
The landing lights are now in the correct locations and resized. Detailed hinges were added along with a new light holder shape based on real photos.
The external model's HUD has also been cleaned up.
And now what most of you have probably waiting for! Do keep in mind, these are still very much WIP with no Normal or Spec mappings. The best part once it's finished, is that I just practically copy it to the right wing and change the weathering.
by minoslas » Mon Oct 07, 2013 4:35 pm
Update 07.10.2013
Small Update on the stick. Sorry again for the lack of update. Thanks for your patience
by minoslas » Mon Oct 07, 2013 4:58 pm
Ok guys, Ron Zambrano here, head of RAZBAM:
1st of all, all announcements regarding new projects, cancellations or things in the same nature, if you didn´t read it coming from me, it´s a rumor, or a missunderstood statement.
2nd, the A-7 is not on "ice", or on hold, it is on the development list. we can´t discuss development priorities without breaching our NDA agreement. There are some development issues that prevents projects like the A-7 to be properly created for DCS. But the aircraft will be developed period.
Harriers are on schedule, but be advised, that we changed from the Av-8B PLUS to the GR7/GR9 model as our initial Harrier release, we might squeeze in the AV-8B Night Attack version, BUT, we are getting our sea legs with trainers and doing incremental releases avionics wise.
So far, what we got on track and moving are the T-2 Buckeye (USN C version, and D & E export versions) with AFM, since there is no reason for a T-2 without realistic flight model since Every jet-qualified Naval Aviator and virtually every Naval Flight Officer from the late 1950s until 2004 received training in the T-2 Buckeye, a length of service spanning four decades, that means, Hornet pilots and it´s the perfect tool prior to DCS (ED´s) F/A-18 Hornet.
The next project will be the M2000C developed by Tim Taylor´s Metal2Mesh company and marketed and coded for DCS by RAZBAM, probably, by the same time, you´ll see the Texan II in both versions and then you´ll see a Harrier Package IF (big IF here) things change, we´ll post changes here, meaning that the F-15E could be moved forward, or the A-7 or any of our other DCS projects under the shades
Thanks for your time
Best regards
Prowler
by minoslas » Tue Oct 08, 2013 1:50 am
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