TeamSpeak Question and Answer Event Sunday Nov. 19 at 15:00 GMT

[L3Pl4K]

 

 

Team is very tight on resources, especially for programming.

For the guys, without all collector planes/campaigns, just buy it.

[6./ZG26_Custard]

 

 

huh that doesnt sound great...  mostly an NO ... specialy for the important Rendering  Distance...

 

 

Listen to the whole Q&A first, many people were recording and I'm sure an upload will be forthcoming. 

[Jason_Williams]

I suggest you listen to my entire answer and not let Coconut take things out of context.

 

I gave a much more detailed answer on rendering distance and his comment on VR headsets is not entirely accurate. No one asked me about future headsets they only asked me what WE would do to increase VR performance. I gave a detailed answer and the choice is start removing features or make faster hardware of some "type" either faster video cards or some kind of better VR goggles. I'm at the limit of what we can do other than making a simpler product.

 

If these are going to just turn into bitch sessions I'll stop doing them.

 

Jason

[Ribbon]

Someone also asked about pe2 rear gunner accuracy.

A: AI is programmed to shot you down (with some misses tweaks reflecting RL) if you stay on his six and fly in one pattern not maneuvering and dodging bullets which explains everything!

109's and 190's dive in a almost straight line and shoot in pass while in yak's you dance around bomber and avoid being shot.

Fighter maneuverability has much impact on that.

I also did some tests in quick mission with;

-yak1 vs ju88, he111 and stuka

-109 and 190 vs pe2

 

What i must admit is that he111 and ju88 are easier to destroy than pe2, but ju87 stuka is same hard to destroy like pe2 and it's rear gunner is deadly as hell, even deadlier than on rest of the planes cos of better placement and with less obstacles.

 

I wanted to ask about AI improvements to be able to fight and fly among hills, there was thread about it some time ago, i can't find it anymore.

Does anyone have some info on that; ETA, will it be ready once career mode is released?

Thank you!

Edited November 19, 2017 by EAF_Ribbon

[Archie]

 

 

If these are going to just turn into bitch sessions I'll stop doing them.

 

Jason

Please don't. There's a lot more of us that are appreciative than negative.

[Torso]

 

If these are going to just turn into bitch sessions I'll stop doing them.

 

Jason

 

Please continue to be open and honest and realistic. There are more appreciative and understanding among us than what you read. Everything is a balancing act with many parts in play that all interrelate that you have to work within the boundaries of and there a LOT of us that recognize and understand that. The vast majority knows you guys are having to manage wants/hopes vs reality. Sorry if that can get a bit tiresome. I hope counter appreciate posts help tip the scale.

 

So thank you and thank you to all the players behind the scenes making this code magic. I haven't been more excited for the future of siming than I have been since I got my 1st flight in VR underway. This decade is gonna end on a huge high note for me where my sim interests and hopes lie. I mean..c'mon...RoF revisit in VR...nothing could be any better to my ears! You are making dreams come true man!

Edited November 19, 2017 by Torso

[II/JG11_ATLAN_VR]

For me it is like this.there are dreams of everyone.and there is reality and business and money and people who have to live from the money they are working for.

There are also limited resources.and there is a proven and constant improvement of box created by jason and his team.

you cant get everything you want.

i never expect to fly a me 262 in this sim since the last ts talk one year ago.but everything changed.

never give up hope i very much like how jason and the devs constantly handle the situation of ltd manpower and resources.they can be proud of their work.

there are other companies with milliones of bugs by kickstarter and 400 + devs and will never ever finish their product and their galaxy.

i think you know what i mean.

I appreciate yr work jason and devs.and i will support it like i did before. SALUTE

Edited November 20, 2017 by II/JG11ATLAN

[Habu]

Jason, i folowed the meeting and i thank you for the exercice.

 

About the lake of 3D modeler, i think it's link to the fact that they can't visualise their model in the game at that time, and that they are waiting the mod on/off which should solve that problem, and the sdk (we understand the problem of your dev, and health is the priority), because it seems that the process change since Rise of Flight. But i know one modeler which did many thinks on Rise of Flight (Genius modeled a zepelin, a static Caudron G4, forts of Verdun, the french carrier Bearn, ...), and i know that he would like to work on Il2. I asked him one years ago, and he begin to learn me some trick on Blender.

 

He did a crater for me, the goal is having an object which can be activated and deactivated, and which can close an airfield. But we can't use it because we are waiting the sdk and the mod on/off to test it in game.

 

Here are what he did on RoF :

https://riseofflight.com/forum/topic/49992-mod-genius-mods-recap/

 

If you contact Genius or Vander, i think they can give you some answer. Or if Genius or Vander come to this post, maybe they will give you their answer.

[II/JG17_HerrMurf]

If it is not too late, I had another question regarding the NWE map that I would like to pass on.

 

The actual look of the actual airfields and landscape in 1944-45 very much reflected the warfare that had taken place there. Typically however, flight sims have always shown even the most hard-fought areas in an almost peacetime condition. Will the Bodenplatte team model the landscape with the evidence of war, or will it choose to show the maps in a pre-war pristine fashion?

 

Ooh, I really like this.

[WIS-Redcoat]

I suggest you listen to my entire answer and not let Coconut take things out of context.

 

I gave a much more detailed answer on rendering distance and his comment on VR headsets is not entirely accurate. No one asked me about future headsets they only asked me what WE would do to increase VR performance. I gave a detailed answer and the choice is start removing features or make faster hardware of some "type" either faster video cards or some kind of better VR goggles. I'm at the limit of what we can do other than making a simpler product.

 

If these are going to just turn into bitch sessions I'll stop doing them.

 

Jason

 

I am one of the guys who tried to use a "new" higher resolution headsets for VR (Windows MR) but it appears that there is an IPD issue.  I made a trouble ticket and listed the issue in the VR section of the forum so hopefully something can be done.  Some people in that thread thought it would be "trivial to fix" but who knows.

 

Great TS session, I regret I had to leave after an hour.

Edited November 19, 2017 by WISredcoat22

[Jade_Monkey]

Here is the mp3 version.

 

I couldn't crop the beginning because my editor gives me an error, so just forward a few minutes till Jason gets online (+11 min).

 

If someone wants to put it on a Youtube video even better, otherwise if there are too many downloads Dropbox will shut down my link.

Edited November 19, 2017 by Jade_Monkey

[CanadaOne]

Here is the mp3 version.

 

I couldn't crop the beginning because my editor gives me an error, so just forward a few minutes till Jason gets online (+11 min).

 

If someone wants to put it on a Youtube video even better, otherwise if there are too many downloads Dropbox will shut down my link.

80MB download. Seems to work just fine.

 

Thank you!

[coconut]

Youtube link, currently processing

 

[Urra]

With regards to the Dserver questions, Coconut, maybe multithreaded was the wrong word to use? As there might be other ways to improve the existing report structure on the dserver.

 

The dserver crashes are one item of concern, but may fix themselves if the other problem is resolved. The basic concern I have comes down to 3 issues I have observed.

 

1. The first is that the data sent from zones which report locations of aircraft at any one time step over the feet of reports of actual aircraft locations and that of searching artillery. (They result with stutters long before 20ms delay is reached.) The zone mcu's could probably be forced to report only half the time of current settings (when turned on), and still provide the intended functionality on the dserver.

 

2. There is quite a large impact on cpu utilization for ground and sea units when they are searching for "enemy ground and air" objects versus "only air" objects. Guns can be made to run "very aggressive" and shoot at enemy parachutes, but the cpu utilization goes through the roof. These setting might be able to be dialed down further to allow for smoother reporting or just less frequent reporting to the d server along with zone mcu's described in point (1) Above.

 

3. Visibility of ammo tracers is quite high right now and can be seen off in the distance while the aircraft themselves cannot. It's not super realistic either. If draw distance for both ammo and aircraft matched up we might be able to save a few network reporting cycles.

 

 

Lastly, since Jason offered to accept emailed reports of dserver issues or crashes, maybe we can have a separate thread to gather these and organize and discuss them before sending them to Jason and the team.

[Uufflakke]

If it is not too late, I had another question regarding the NWE map that I would like to pass on.

 

The actual look of the actual airfields and landscape in 1944-45 very much reflected the warfare that had taken place there.  Typically however, flight sims have always shown even the most hard-fought areas in an almost peacetime condition.  Will the Bodenplatte team model the landscape with the evidence of war, or will it choose to show the maps in a pre-war pristine fashion?

 

 

Stalingrad in BOS does not look so pristine. On the contrary.

 

An idea would be to have to option for BoBP - like the 'Destructrion Brush' in IL2:1946 -  between a clean intact landscape and a battered historical version.

[SYN_Vander]

Jason, i folowed the meeting and i thank you for the exercice.

 

About the lake of 3D modeler, i think it's link to the fact that they can't visualise their model in the game at that time, and that they are waiting the mod on/off which should solve that problem, and the sdk (we understand the problem of your dev, and health is the priority), because it seems that the process change since Rise of Flight. But i know one modeler which did many thinks on Rise of Flight (Genius modeled a zepelin, a static Caudron G4, forts of Verdun, the french carrier Bearn, ...), and i know that he would like to work on Il2. I asked him one years ago, and he begin to learn me some trick on Blender.

 

He did a crater for me, the goal is having an object which can be activated and deactivated, and which can close an airfield. But we can't use it because we are waiting the sdk and the mod on/off to test it in game.

 

Here are what he did on RoF :

https://riseofflight.com/forum/topic/49992-mod-genius-mods-recap/

 

If you contact Genius or Vander, i think they can give you some answer. Or if Genius or Vander come to this post, maybe they will give you their answer.

Am definitely interested in doing some 3d work again. I did try to create something in the beginning for IL2, but for some reasons the sdk never worked as it did in RoF. But I'm sure we can find the issue. Also thinking about doing the initial modelling in Blender, it will be a learning experience for me though....

[ShamrockOneFive]

First, thanks to Jason for spending the time to listen to many in the community ask lots of different questions about the product. I know these are infrequent but they are really useful to get a good insight into what's being worked on, constraints to our wild and varied imaginations, and just generally get a sense of what's next.

 

I've listened to most of the recording now and made a lot of notes. They aren't perfect or fully complete but I have both a full recording of the session uploading to YouTube as we speak and the notes from the session available here: https://stormbirds.blog/2017/11/19/a-qa-with-jason-williams-on-il-2-battle-of-bodenplatte-and-so-much-more/

 

I hope the YouTube upload finishes soon but in the meantime you can read the notes. I highly encourage everyone to listen to the full Q&A if they have time. You'll learn a ton!

 

Edited November 20, 2017 by ShamrockOneFive

[Haza]

Ooh, I really like this.

 

HerMurf,

 

Please do not be fooled by Feathered with this picture!  I bet that this picture is used at home as his pin board!!!

Joking aside, I wouldn't have wanted to have been on that airfield that's for sure when that raid went over!

First, thanks to Jason for spending the time to listen to many in the community ask lots of different questions about the product. I know these are infrequent but they are really useful to get a good insight into what's being worked on, constraints to our wild and varied imaginations, and just generally get a sense of what's next.

 

I've listened to most of the recording now and made a lot of notes. They aren't perfect or fully complete but I have both a full recording of the session uploading to YouTube as we speak and the notes from the session available here: https://stormbirds.blog/2017/11/19/a-qa-with-jason-williams-on-il-2-battle-of-bodenplatte-and-so-much-more/

 

I hope the YouTube upload finishes soon but in the meantime you can read the notes. I highly encourage everyone to listen to the full Q&A if they have time. You'll learn a ton!

 

Cheers for this SOF15.

 

 

 

Jason,

 

Thank you for taking the time as ever to up-date us all.

 

RGDS

 

H

Edited November 20, 2017 by Haza

[=EXPEND=CG_Justin]

First off, thanks to Jason and Petrovitch for taking the time to answer questions and share their insight with the community. As I've always said, this team has some of the best transparency in the flight sim world. As a relative late comer to this sim, I am always impressed and delighted with what this team can do, and I enjoy the product immensely.

 

Second, thanks to Coconut for recording and uploading the Q&A session. Though I was in attendance for the first 40 minutes or so, I did have to leave to get rest for my night shift tonight. But thanks to Coconut I was able to listen to everything in it's entirety while at work this evening.

 

Kudos to all, the future is looking very bright for this sim platform, and hopefully I will be pre-ordering Bodenplatte after the first of the year, provided I have anything left over after buying Christmas for my four boys (who seem to get more expensive "hobbies" with every new year ).

 

p.s. I did pre-order the G-6 already though....it is a MUST have for me.

[HippyDruid]

Thanks for doing the QnA.

Also thanks for recording it lads! 

[coconut]

Sorry if I'm taking things out of context, but to my defense the context is 3 hours long. Anyway, I've posted my recording, so people can get the full story for themselves.

 

Regarding VR and performance: I don't think anybody ever suggested to compromise on quality for the benefit of higher framerates in VR. Jason, you said you wanted hardware providers to do more to help improve performance. The fact is they are doing that, but it requires support from game developers as well. See e.g. https://developer.nvidia.com/vrworks/graphics/singlepassstereo

 

I know it's vendor-specific, but that's often how bleeding edge looks like in the industry.

[Missionbug]

Thank you very much for recording the Q&A coconut and Jason and the team for hosting it as it was very interesting, really appreciated. 

 

 

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

Edited November 20, 2017 by Missionbug

[Feathered_IV]

I think I'll have to gift a free Collectors plane next time to bribe someone to pass on my question. 

[Ribbon]

I think I'll have to gift a free Collectors plane next time to bribe someone to pass on my question.

20$ question!

[LLv34_Temuri]

I'm looking forward to the feedback from co-op, as my prediction is that people will be wanting performance improvements to be able to enjoy the co-op fully.

In the meantime, we'll be finetuning mission logic so that we can still lighten the load on our server.

Edited November 20, 2017 by LLv34_Temuri

[Lensman]

Firslty, thank you for to coconut for making the recording available. I'm off work feeling unwell today and this has assisted me.

 

Secondly, I've never heard Jason speak before and having now done so I'm even more confident about the future of IL-2. I think the product is in good hands.

[Feathered_IV]

Was there any mention of what's in the campaign mode; specifically if the aircrew in a multicrew aircraft will be tracked by name?

 

No, the majority of questions concerned multiplayer bugs, Pe-2 gunners and requests for more planes.  I was quite surprised that there was maybe less than half a dozen questions put to Jason regarding the new titles, and nothing really concerning the new campaign. 

[=EXPEND=Tripwire]

No, the majority of questions concerned multiplayer bugs, Pe-2 gunners and requests for more planes.  I was quite surprised that there was maybe less than half a dozen questions put to Jason regarding the new titles, and nothing really concerning the new campaign. 

 

I think the issue with game bugs is that often there doesn't appear to be any clear recognition on the forums that the bug has had any visibility by the developers/producer unless one of them joins the conversation. People feel the need to use the TS producer chat to get some visibility for the issues they personally find a problem. They weren't just "multiplayer bugs", one was a graphics one with plane draw distances against a cloud background.

From reading google translate on the Russian forums, there *appears* to be more back and forth on game issues there - and you get a lot more insight into the developers addressing game concerns/bugs.

 

As far as "requests" for planes. I find them frustrating to listen to. I'm sure we all have a desire for <insert favorite plane here> to be in the sim. The team has a seemingly tight schedule regarding resources available for plane development, and having just committed to another 10 planes probably not great timing to be requesting another. Using up question time like that to try and push your plane just seems a bit pointless.

[216th_Jordan]

Im am seriouuuusly hoping Jason can hire another programmer soon! Don't drown Petrovich, we need him still! (besides he seems like a very nice guy)

As I see it, missing programming capacities are a major bottleneck for the development of the sim right now.

[Ribbon]

I'm looking forward to the feedback from co-op, as my prediction is that people will be wanting performance improvements to be able to enjoy the co-op fully.

 

In the meantime, we'll be finetuning mission logic so that we can still lighten the load on our server.

Hi Temuri, i've noticed lagging and crashes appear only when map is near end despite only few players on server.

When two airfields are left to capture and front line is moving.

Sorry this may not be the place to discuss it but i'll leave it here maybe someone have suggestion and i'll repost it in finnish dynamic war section.

However you guys did genious and complex MP campaign!

Edited November 20, 2017 by EAF_Ribbon

[LLv34_Temuri]

i've noticed lagging and crashes appear only when map is near end despite only few players on server.

It can happen also a couple of minutes into the new mission

[Tapi]

As far as "requests" for planes. I find them frustrating to listen to. I'm sure we all have a desire for <insert favorite plane here> to be in the sim. The team has a seemingly tight schedule regarding resources available for plane development, and having just committed to another 10 planes probably not great timing to be requesting another. Using up question time like that to try and push your plane just seems a bit pointless.

 

+1

[I./JG1_Deschain]

Can someone make highlights ? I dont have a time now to listen 3 hours of it, but im curious :D

 

Also, Is it correct that BoBp will come fall 2019 ? That means 2 years in development ? Just asking.

Edited November 20, 2017 by I./JG1_Deschain

[Danziger]

Listened to the whole thing. It made the morning drive much more enjoyable. The future is looking bright. I think instead of funding a B17F module when I win the lottery I'll just fund an expansion of personnel lol.

 

Thanks for the recording, Shamrock

[WIS-Redcoat]

No, the majority of questions concerned multiplayer bugs, Pe-2 gunners and requests for more planes.  I was quite surprised that there was maybe less than half a dozen questions put to Jason regarding the new titles, and nothing really concerning the new campaign. 

Agreed,

 

I had limited time and the people that cut in line and shouted questions tied us up with complaints about cooling system fidelity.

[Habu]

Am definitely interested in doing some 3d work again. I did try to create something in the beginning for IL2, but for some reasons the sdk never worked as it did in RoF. But I'm sure we can find the issue. Also thinking about doing the initial modelling in Blender, it will be a learning experience for me though....

I'm happy to read you and your answer.

 

I would love to see your soldiers in Il2 (even if it's the wrong uniform), and all the product you can build.

 

Genius work on Blender, and import the model in 3Dsmax only to export it with the right plugin to RoF. But he can tell you more about the process he use. It's been one year he learn me, but i can't practice as we can't import the object in game, and i forgot all he explain me. but i bought some book which would help me later (i hope).

[ShamrockOneFive]

Can someone make highlights ? I dont have a time now to listen 3 hours of it, but im curious :D

 

Also, Is it correct that BoBp will come fall 2019 ? That means 2 years in development ? Just asking.

 

This is why I made notes: https://stormbirds.blog/2017/11/19/a-qa-with-jason-williams-on-il-2-battle-of-bodenplatte-and-so-much-more/

 

Jason said dev time is approximately the same as Kuban which was 20 months. So yeah it will be finally launched in 2019 with early access starting in spring.

Edited November 20, 2017 by ShamrockOneFive

[=362nd_FS=Hiromachi]

No, the majority of questions concerned multiplayer bugs, Pe-2 gunners and requests for more planes.  I was quite surprised that there was maybe less than half a dozen questions put to Jason regarding the new titles, and nothing really concerning the new campaign. 

I have similar impressions. Furthermore I was concerned about lack of questions about technical aspects of the engine. Last year at least someone mentioned a possibility of use Vulkan as an API. Somone asked about netcode and if servers could rely on multithreaded software rather than what we have but apart from that all too many questions about aircraft.

As the plan is laid out for the next 3 years its only natural to think of further engine improvements in terms of graphics and performance, especially since competition is not sleeping.

[LLv34_Temuri]

I have similar impressions. Furthermore I was concerned about lack of questions about technical aspects of the engine. Last year at least someone mentioned a possibility of use Vulkan as an API. Somone asked about netcode and if servers could rely on multithreaded software rather than what we have but apart from that all too many questions about aircraft.

As the plan is laid out for the next 3 years its only natural to think of further engine improvements in terms of graphics and performance, especially since competition is not sleeping.

Exactly. Regarding the netcode and multithreading improvements: those are things you basically need to do only once. Without those improvements, I think the game will not fulfill the "Spirit of '46", as for example a SEOW type of implementation is nowhere near possible (we still fly in a SEOW campaign pretty much every Sunday).

 

However, like I said above, I'm predicting the improvements will come once the co-op feedback comes in

 

Btw, the basic thing about good netcode is that it cheats where it can

[Bando]

 

 

This is why I made notes: https://stormbirds.b...d-so-much-more/

 

Thank you Shamrock15 for doing this. Was interesting to read.

 

I hope Jason will not let his mood go down because of the occasional sour post. I firmly believe that most of the crowd here loves what he and the team are doing.

For me; everything this team builds, I will buy. I truly love this and I have a very confident feeling this genre is not dead or dying.