Developer Diary, Part 62

[=CHN=90125]

Thanks for the update.

[Nankeen]

Thanks for the information in the opening post. The new hanger looks cool. I like the silhouette of the welder

This new update appears to be running very smooth  

Love the camera, it has so many angles and features when playing it back from a recording.

 

 

Thank you

 

 

 

 

 

[Nankeen]

Suggestion:

In the QMB, it would be cool if we could select a individual (player) paint scheme and choose the decals for the players plane within the group of 4 planes.

 

Regards,

Boomerang

[Zak]

A few words about skins again. BTW thank you Rama, you fought bravely defending facts from misinterpretation.

So, I'll try to clarify all that again:

- you can have any skin (home made included) on unranked multiplayer servers and in quick missions

- you will have a set of default skins + 10 skins that can be unlocked in campaign

- there will be other options for adding your custom skins in the project officially. We'll speak of them later when we're ready to.

[von_Greiff]

Thank you, Zak! ....pheeew

[sturmkraehe]

There will really be no way to have customizable numbering? I mean it seems that the engine allows some additional graphical layers on top of the skin. For instance initially the holes through gunfire were just black dots painted on the skin when one received some hits with small ammo. So my guess is it is possible. 

[II/JG17_HerrMurf]

A few words about skins again. BTW thank you Rama, you fought bravely defending facts from misinterpretation.

So, I'll try to clarify all that again:

- you can have any skin (home made included) on unranked multiplayer servers and in quick missions

- you will have a set of default skins + 10 skins that can be unlocked in campaign

- there will be other options for adding your custom skins in the project officially. We'll speak of them later when we're ready to.

Phew!! Thank goodness this has been addressed!

[Feathered_IV]

Boomerang, thats a great avatar pic    

[Tektolnes]

In relation to any skins being available on unranked multiplayer servers can these unranked servers offer all planes fully unlocked to all players that join (once they own the plane)? Or do players have to unlock each plane's perks in single player? I'm presuming that for unranked where stats aren't tracked centrally it would be up to the server owner to have full control over everything? 

[334th_L0C0]

- you can have any skin (home made included) on unranked multiplayer servers and in quick missions

 

 

 

That's a far cry from "Neither campaign nor multiplayer will be playable with custom made skins."

 

...The reason for our concern.

 

Thanks for the clarification at least. 

 

It still seems to be travelling backwards compared to what we've been able to do in the past, but we take what we can get I suppose.  You would think that a "NEW IL2" would bring more, not less.

[Anw.StG2_Tyke]

A few words about skins again. BTW thank you Rama, you fought bravely defending facts from misinterpretation.

So, I'll try to clarify all that again:

- you can have any skin (home made included) on unranked multiplayer servers and in quick missions

- you will have a set of default skins + 10 skins that can be unlocked in campaign

- there will be other options for adding your custom skins in the project officially. We'll speak of them later when we're ready to.

Thanks Zak, thats a statement which atleast gave me back my hopes for the future!

 

1C and 777 do care about their customer, instead of other companys.... *cough*...

[rigbyDerekb1948]

The new version downloaded fine, as it always does, and everything apart from the AAA (Flak) and rear-gunners works as it should. Previously I would get shot down quite quickly, but the AI seems to not want to shoot at me anymore. I'm pretty sure that I have overlooked something, as no-one else has mentioned a similar anomaly. I am rather enjoying all the victories, but am starting to feel guilty.

Does anyone have a suggestion as to how I might reactivate the Flak/Rear-gunners?

DerekB

[Gaspote]

Someone can clarify the situation of DM. I mean, compare to ROF, IL2Clod or Il21946 the DM graphically is inferior to the previous one, does the devs mean the DM is allmost complete and we won't have the wing for example cut in 3 point ? I really don't like the fact that wing don't cut close to the fuselage, and that plane look like adamantium when you hit the ground.

[arjisme]

That's a far cry from "Neither campaign nor multiplayer will be playable with custom made skins."

 

...The reason for our concern.

 

Thanks for the clarification at least. 

It's consistent with:

 

"There will be user skins in custom battles and on unranked multiplayer servers. If there are any new plans about skin making - we'll tell you but it is what it is."

 

which was stated on page 2 of this thread.

[Rama]

Yes, to understand the dev communication, one should not focus on a single sentence and try to over-interpret it...

[DD_Arthur]

What are "unranked" multiplayer servers?

[Brano]

Situation/Exercise>

I join unranked server,where custom skins are available.To actually see the skins in action,my PC will have to download them all.Lets say there is ~60 players,each with his unique skin.In RoF 1 skin is ~5.5Mb.So equation goes like this 60*5.5=330Mb to download....   and what about other guys jumping in and out of server?  Will my PC download their unique skin everytime they join the game?

[Rama]

Situation/Exercise>

I join unranked server,where custom skins are available.To actually see the skins in action,my PC will have to download them all.Lets say there is ~60 players,each with his unique skin.In RoF 1 skin is ~5.5Mb.So equation goes like this 60*5.5=330Mb to download....   and what about other guys jumping in and out of server?  Will my PC download their unique skin everytime they join the game?

I doesn't work that way. As in RoF, to be able to see other user's custom skins, you need to have downloaded and installed them before.

[SYN_Mike77]

In RoF if you don't have the skin on your computer then the player with the unique skin shows up as the default skin.  Not a problem on my old rig.  But yeah, my RoF folder is freakin huge!

[Rama]

What are "unranked" multiplayer servers?

Servers where scores don't impact statistics (If I understood well).

[Brano]

So it means that skins must be somehow indexed for game to reckognize them.And it is only possible by having it in packs approved by devs.Correcto?

[Rama]

No. In RoF, it juste need for the skin to be in a plane skin directory with a given name. You can share skins with other users that way without having them approved in official packs.

[Brano]

Thanks for answers

[Tab]

could not care less about custom made skins, but personal numbers is a must for a ww2 air combat sim in 2014. Hope the devs will change their mind. I can see it coming 50% aircraft without any number and 50% with the same "35" or whatever will be huge immersion breaker on servers without icons.

[DD_Arthur]

Thanks Extreme_One and Rama.  Ranked servers - yeah, I forgot about this unlock business.  Skins; we'll just have to wait and see what the devs are proposing.

 

I don't mind the RoF system at all.  Its slow and a bit cumbersome but ensures a pretty high quality threshold and still allows you to make and share whatever personal skins you like.  I like the way skins are divided into historical and fictional packs for optional download too.

[arjisme]

Presumably ranked servers give you experience points that contribute towards your unlocks as part of your campaign progress ?

I would guess they are servers that contribute to the global leaderboard, which I assume we'll have - similar to RoF.

[II/JG17KaC_Wolfe]

Message for 39 dimdya flying a badly shot up Peshka on 20/4/14:

 

Brilliant flying buddy.  I was the 109 shooting you up only to forget to look behind.  I stayed online watching you try to land which you very nearly did - deserved to.  This game is epic and that peshka was practically a tank.

[FuriousMeow]

I've never seen the numbers on the side of the planes, or cared.

 

What if icons were enabled but within short distances - like less than 100 feet or something. Solves the problem of squadron IDing in formation which I also never see online. I know, immersion breaker. But so are inaccurate number placements, inaccurate font usage, inaccurate everything which Il-2's default number scheme was severely afflicted with.

Edited April 20, 2014 by FuriousMeow

[Tab]

I've never seen the numbers on the side of the planes, or cared.

 

What if icons were enabled but within short distances - like less than 100 feet or something. Solves the problem of squadron IDing in formation which I also never see online. I know, immersion breaker. But so are inaccurate number placements, inaccurate font usage, inaccurate everything which Il-2's default number scheme was severely afflicted with.

why would icons be a better idea than just giving us the personal numbers? And why are you assuming, that the developers would give us wrong fonts and inaccurate placements? What is the problem with making fonts proper and number positions accurate?

Never saw squads flying in formation? Then you probably never played vef, vow, etc. In that case you missed a lot.

You also need them in single player to find your pair/wing/group leader AI after a dogfight.

AI formations will look very odd without individual markings

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1987-1210-502,_Polen,_Stukas.jpg

http://waralbum.ru/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/da5a_524a16e9.jpeg

Edited April 20, 2014 by Tab

[arjisme]

I've never seen the numbers on the side of the planes, or cared.

 

In the case of RoF and games like it, if you haven't downloaded those squadron skins, you never would see their numbers, etc.

[Rivet]

Gonna be time for a new graphics card soon. 

 

I'm enjoying the new clouds. I haven't noticed the jaggies I had seen previously when looking at a plane that was silhouetted against the previous clouds in past weeks.

Me too with the graphics card. The vram on mine is maxing out now and that's on balanced settings. Having said that, the game is running very smoothly for relatively low frame rates.

 

Yeah the new clouds are fantastic aren't they? I thought last weeks were great but now they're so good you can almost feel the moisture. As for the jaggies, I do still get those together with a white outline on the plane.

[FuriousMeow]

why would icons be a better idea than just giving us the personal numbers? And why are you assuming, that the developers would give us wrong fonts and inaccurate placements? What is the problem with making fonts proper and number positions accurate?

Never saw squads flying in formation? Then you probably never played vef, vow, etc. In that case you missed a lot.

You also need them in single player to find your pair/wing/group leader AI after a dogfight.

AI formations will look very odd without individual markings

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-1987-1210-502,_Polen,_Stukas.jpg

http://waralbum.ru/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/da5a_524a16e9.jpeg

 

Icons would be way easier/way less research effort. I already made a post about the amount of work to get proper and accurate fonts/placements. il-2 never had them. Il-2 MAT was ~80 to ~ 90% accurate globally but more like 30% per squadron since the decals were not placed per squadron but instead just by side and required changing based on year of conflict so again it required manual intervention per session of play to ensure "accuracy."

 

I never saw squads in formation, I played wars. I also did formations in AH and WB, and the numbers didn't matter because all planes had the same skins.

 

How will you find your squad leader in SP based on side number? You won't unless you are going to external view and then cycling through external views. So, again - unrealistic. Just use autopilot in that case.

 

 

In the case of RoF and games like it, if you haven't downloaded those squadron skins, you never would see their numbers, etc.

 

I have RoF, I've downloaded all historical skin packs. I don't see the skins because I never get close enough to the enemy to see the side numbers, I prefer to shoot them that take note of their side numbers. I had Il-2 from it's original, again - never saw the side numbers because I never cared to get close enough to observe a friendly skin and never took note of the enemy skins since I was preoccupied with not being shot down and trying to shoo them down.

Edited April 20, 2014 by FuriousMeow

[Anw.StG2_Tyke]

Icons would be way easier/way less research effort. I already made a post about the amount of work to get proper and accurate fonts/placements. il-2 never had them. Il-2 MAT was ~80 to ~ 90% accurate globally but more like 30% per squadron since the decals were not placed per squadron but instead just by side and required changing based on year of conflict so again it required manual intervention per session of play to ensure "accuracy."

 

I never saw squads in formation, I played wars. I also did formations in AH and WB, and the numbers didn't matter because all planes had the same skins.

 

How will you find your squad leader in SP based on side number? You won't unless you are going to external view and then cycling through external views. So, again - unrealistic. Just use autopilot in that case.

 

 

 

I have RoF, I've downloaded all historical skin packs. I don't see the skins because I never get close enough to the enemy to see the side numbers, I prefer to shoot them that take note of their side numbers. I had Il-2 from it's original, again - never saw the side numbers because I never cared to get close enough to observe a friendly skin and never took note of the enemy skins since I was preoccupied with not being shot down and trying to shoo them down.

I can only disagree with you on this point.

Im flying a lot of IL2-CloD at the moment, even the Storm of War Community Campaign. And the Skins, and Numbers are a really big help to find our positions in our Schwarm and which Bombers we have to escort and so on. If you don't do those kind of Squadron Campaigns its your point, but a big amount of the community does it and needs it.

Ever tryed to find your Schwarmführer when 40 109's circling over Peuplingues?

 

And Icons would destry my atmosphere, and I bet most of the others too.

[FuriousMeow]

I can only disagree with you on this point.

Im flying a lot of IL2-CloD at the moment, even the Storm of War Community Campaign. And the Skins, and Numbers are a really big help to find our positions in our Schwarm and which Bombers we have to escort and so on. If you don't do those kind of Squadron Campaigns its your point, but a big amount of the community does it and needs it.

Ever tryed to find your Schwarmführer when 40 109's circling over Peuplingues?

 

And Icons would destry my atmosphere, and I bet most of the others too.

 

So how exactly do you find your <insert squadron member example> among <insert large number> circling over <anywhere>?

 

Truly answer me that. Unless you are going by each plane and IDing them from 50ft away, how do the numbers on the side of the plane help? I already know the answer, I'm simply asking a rhetorical question.

 

Icons at less than 100ft will destroy atmosphere how? How do inaccurate number placements not destroy atmosphere considering that was a very hot topic and the exact reason Il2MAT was created?

 

Truly, you all are grasping at straws to make a point of aircraft numbers when they serve no purpose beyond being very close to the airplane, sub 100ft, and icons would give you the name sub 100ft but wouldn't exist beyond that.

 

You will not ever find an airplane amongst a gaggle of them based on their squadron identifier. It didn't ever happen in WWII, it won't happen here. The only time a squadron mate stumbled across another was literally because they stumbled across them and could ID them based on nose art and ID long after the fight had ended and both were alone but flying the known flight path home.

Edited April 20, 2014 by FuriousMeow

[Almenas]

Don´t know why it is not possible to have something we had years ago. Even in RoF it would be a step forward to have in B-Campaign different skins in one squad. I would prefer something like this:

 

http://simhq.com/_air14/images/air_524a_001.jpg

[Tab]

Icons would be way easier/way less research effort. I already made a post about the amount of work to get proper and accurate fonts/placements. il-2 never had them. Il-2 MAT was ~80 to ~ 90% accurate globally but more like 30% per squadron since the decals were not placed per squadron but instead just by side and required changing based on year of conflict so again it required manual intervention per session of play to ensure "accuracy."

 

I never saw squads in formation, I played wars. I also did formations in AH and WB, and the numbers didn't matter because all planes had the same skins.

 

How will you find your squad leader in SP based on side number? You won't unless you are going to external view and then cycling through external views. So, again - unrealistic. Just use autopilot in that case.

we are talking about single 4 months campaign here with two handfuls of airplanes... 30% of original il2 airplane markings were correct? Fine, it's still makes 5 times more airplanes and 10 times longer time span than we have here in BOS.

I usually flew towards friendly contact and zoomed in. Numbers were clearly distinguishable under 500 meters from wide range of angles.

Your experience may be a bit different from some other virtual war players, me including, and we do need the numbers, because we used them and liked them.

[Anw.StG2_Tyke]

So how exactly do you find your <insert squadron member example> among <insert large number> circling over <anywhere>?

 

Truly answer me that. Unless you are going by each plane and IDing them from 50ft away, how do the numbers on the side of the plane help? I already know the answer, I'm simply asking a rhetorical question.

 

Icons at less than 100ft will destroy atmosphere how? How do inaccurate number placements not destroy atmosphere considering that was a very hot topic and the exact reason Il2MAT was created?

 

Truly, you all are grasping at straws to make a point of aircraft numbers when they serve no purpose beyond being very close to the airplane, sub 100ft, and icons would give you the name sub 100ft but wouldn't exist beyond that.

 

You will not ever find an airplane amongst a gaggle of them based on their squadron identifier. It didn't ever happen in WWII, it won't happen here. The only time a squadron mate stumbled across another was literally because they stumbled across them and could ID them based on nose art and ID long after the fight had ended and both were alone but flying the known flight path home.

Well,

I don't understand your point.

1. Yes we need a couple of min to find us. Which is pretty normal, because sometimes we cant take off in at the same time. But it works, we circle over the airfield and look for our Squadron-Markings and the Number on the plane. Don't understand why you can't understandt that this is a common thing every squadron uses. Where is your problem with this?

2. Not 100% correct markings are a bitter taste, but it would be much much much much much better than having a f**** neon-marking abouve other planes. THATS DISGUSTING! It shouldn't be there in Expert-Server, I don't want it and in my Squadron nobody wants that and I guess all Expert-Simmer here with their big Squadrons don't want it either.

3. I found a lot of airplanes even over England because of their Emblem and Number.

4. Our Numbers are our Callsigns in the Radio. So when you fly in formation you can talk to the Number you are next to or to Number 1 and you know with which person you talk.

Edited April 20, 2014 by Auva

[334th_L0C0]

"8) How will numbers and emblems be put on the planes: as entire skins (RoF) or like decals (1946; CloD)?
Like it’s in RoF."

 

Sorry.. What's it like in ROF? I'm from IL2.

[Tab]

"8) How will numbers and emblems be put on the planes: as entire skins (RoF) or like decals (1946; CloD)?

Like it’s in RoF."

 

Sorry.. What's it like in ROF? I'm from IL2.

It's not possible to put a number decal on top of a skin. The number has to be contained in the skin. So if you want to fly an online mission with 7 buddies and all should have different numbers, you will have to create 8 files with the very same skin but different numbers and provide your buddies with them (5.5 MB each).

Here is a poll with currently 87.5% players voted for the possibility to put an individual number on a skin in game.

http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/1265-add-side-number-or-not/

[334th_L0C0]

Oh gz...    This is sad (if I understand correctly).

We could develop skins for each member of our squad, that's not a problem (it's a bit of a pain to have to share it with each other manually, but it's do-able at least).  But it's my understanding that this would only work for unranked servers.

Thanks Tab.

 

But if we can't use skins in a ranked server (as per Zak), is it safe for me to assume that in a ranked server, everyone has to fly a generic skin?

 

Btw, did I mention that the clouds look astounding?

Edited April 21, 2014 by 9./JG54_EZ