Stalingrad map

[MarcoRossolini]

Truly the best rendition of Stalingrad I've ever seen.

 

My impressions here: 

 

Edited January 18, 2014 by MarcoRossolini

[Jaws2002]

That's exactly what I was looking at.

 

screen shots

 

 

Dropped my 250kg bomb on the grain elevator. It was just too juicy target.

 

capture screen

[Jaws2002]

Do you guys know, are they going to model all the airfields they marked on the map? Or they just placed the locations and we have to make them ourselves if we want them in missions?

 

I went west to look for "Tusov" airfield, where the Romanian IAR-80s and 81s were based during Stalingrad campaign. I found the location it's marked on the map (90-100km west of Stalingrad), but there's nothing there.

Are they going to put a landing strip there or they'll let it this way with only the name marked on the in game map?

 

I don't know how ROF does this things.

 

 

BTW. I used the full map mission when I flew to Tusov.

[Fifi]

Landed in Stalingrad city close to Volga river, and noticed some buildings are floating in the air.

Took picture but impossible to find it back in game folders! Don't know why screens are not there, as before 

[Jaws2002]

Landed in Stalingrad city close to Volga river, and noticed some buildings are floating in the air.

Took picture but impossible to find it back in game folders! Don't know why screens are not there, as before 

And I thought I messed up something when I took few screenshots of Pavlov's house and tractor factory. I couldn't find them in the game.

Edited January 18, 2014 by Jaws2002

[Fifi]

And I thought I messed up something when I took few screenshots of Pavlov's house and tractor factory. I couldn't find them in the game.

 

So a new bug introduced?

 

I'm sure the screen was taken, cause i heard the little "bip" when taken as usual...

Edited January 18, 2014 by Fifi

[LLv34_Flanker]

S!

 

 The screenshots should be in main folder of the game, at least mine appeared there.

[II./JG27_Rich]

Is there a problem zooming out of the map then? I always use one of these once and a while. Before you start flying see what degrees you need to head to get where you want to go and stay on that heading Works every time.

 

[Georgio]

Sounds like a memory leak?

 

After playing a bit more I notice that the game crashes almost every time I am in a prolonged fight. Seems to happen when I get near an enemy plane. Just a basic crash to desktop.

[Meteor2]

For me the game runs ok but there are some issues...most noticable is the pop-up graphics of the fences surrounding the farms in the villages..

 

I'm running on ultra with full scenery...16 GB ram...but still the drawdistance for these fences are VERY short wich gives a disapointing pop-up effect...

Running on High settings, I was astonished about the more or less sudden pop-up of the city buildings.

Have not tried Ultra, but I think, my PC can handle it. These pop-ups are suboptimal.

[Streiff]

Anyone noticed the smoke over the city fading in and out? No particular pattern or anything, just fading in and out randomly.

 

P.S. Not all the smoke at once though.

Edited January 18, 2014 by Baron

[Quax]

SSAO NEEDS to be deactivate as option devs please. It's not looking good here, and don't have cristal clear picture anymore.

 

I made a poll. Perhaps a good vote helps.

[kendo]

Thanks. Have voted!

[Meteor2]

Running on High settings, I was astonished about the more or less sudden pop-up of the city buildings.

Have not tried Ultra, but I think, my PC can handle it. These pop-ups are suboptimal.

 

These pop-ups are removed (for me) when running on Ultra. Here it runs smooth.

[StG2_Manfred]

That's exactly what I was looking at.

 

screen shots

 

 

Dropped my 250kg bomb on the grain elevator. It was just too juicy target.

 

capture screen

Nice shots Jaws! I haven't found the monument with the dancing children yet. Could anybody gimme a hint where it was. Thanks

[III/JG11_Tiger]

Sorry. My post was directed to Benz, I just managed to miss what I was trying to say.   I meant, that since you have a 2560x1440 monitor, you are well aware of the computing power it needs.

 

English as second language and a mini keg of heineken.......  

Just finishing one of them myself, snuck one away from Christmas, very nice especially as it was 38c here today.

Edited January 18, 2014 by III/JG11_Tiger

[SYN_Vander]

The smoke columns are great and sorely needed to show that there has been an actual battle ( can we get these for RoF!? )

 

The city is great in that the geometry is all there, but I would really like to have another higher detail level for the buildings. When you get close it is painstakingly obvious that all walls are "2D" , they look like made from paper. Maybe not for all, but a number of damaged buildings -those with only two or three walls standing- should have some more polys to give them a solid appearance.

Edited January 18, 2014 by SYN_Vander

[I/JG27_Rollo]

Nice shots Jaws! I haven't found the monument with the dancing children yet. Could anybody gimme a hint where it was. Thanks

 

Look near the main railway station in the city center, it should be just a bit to the south.

Edited January 18, 2014 by I/JG27_Rollo

[No601_Swallow]

The city is great in that the geometry is all there, but I would really like to have another higher detail level for the buildings. When you get close it is painstakingly obvious that all walls are "2D" , they look like made from paper. Maybe not for all, but a number of damaged buildings -those with only two or three walls standing- should have some more polys to give them a solid appearance.

 

I suppose in an ideal world... But I'm reminded of Oleg's original solution to the "forest problem" - those 3 layers (if I remember correctly) of clever textures. They looked fine for pine forests from above - with the drawback that they turned sodding invisible from the side! But I remember thinking how ingenious it was, to show huge forests without crashing my decrepit 486 (or whatever it was!). With the 2D walls, I feel the same - what a good idea! One could quibble with the textures used, but having silky-smooth framerates while whizzing down ruined canyons of streets is worth the price of admission, I think. 

[Rama]

I agree, I think the 2d walls are a great solution, giving us a good look at minimal performance cost.

Agree

 

What is more missing IMO is some piles of debris at the rubles bottom.  I think it could add som realism at low cost (could probably be done with few polys and textures).

[LLv34_Flanker]

S!

 

 I also agree that the buildings are adequate for usability ina flight sim vs performance hit. Oleg's forest could be seen better if you put Forest=3 and you got non-collidable trees around. Added a LOT to the immersion without hitting your FPS.

[StG2_Manfred]

Look near the main railway station in the city center, it should be just a bit to the south.

Yes, found it finally. Thank you!

[AndyJWest]

One thing that only really becomes apparent in fly-by view (F3) is that you can hear explosions from shellfire as you overfly the city. Nice. 

[dburne]

One thing that only really becomes apparent in fly-by view (F3) is that you can hear explosions from shellfire as you overfly the city. Nice. 

 

Yes you can see them as well, very much like they are in ROF.

[FlatSpinMan]

In the 109 Stalingrad ground attack mission there seems to be a black, rof-style pall of smoke floating above the target area, in contrast to the smoke columns in the main part of the city. Mixing both is good. I'm pretty sure I heard or saw ground fire coming at me once in that mission, too.

 

I really like how it is looking already. Some ground clutter - debris, materiel, vehicles,would make it even better.

[JG4_Sputnik]

Unfortunately I'm still very underwhelmed by the city. I don't see the 13 years went by between the original Il2 Stalingrad map and this one. Its the first city I've seen done with that many 2D sprites in a game. I think the engine shows its age here clearly.

 

Yes the smoke and the landmarks are nice, but overall it just doesn't feel 2014 rather than somewhere around 2008. Bummer.

[IIrepsol]

I sure hope that the villages and other towns are not final in any way...I see no destruction at all in thoose places (kind of strange after heavy fighting) and i feel they are still way to 'boxy' with perfect strait, intact fences. They look more like a postcard from some skiresort then a place that has seen heavy fighting...

[Bussard_x]

Picture of Stalingrad August 1942. Luftwaffe pilot called it the black cross above the city. 

 

 

 

Edited January 18, 2014 by Benz

[Jaws2002]

Nice shots Jaws! I haven't found the monument with the dancing children yet. Could anybody gimme a hint where it was. Thanks

 

 

image hosting 10mb limit

[StG2_Manfred]

Thanks Jaws, for this nice sightseeing trip! :-)

[BeastyBaiter]

For me it's all working well. The unabridged map gives no performance loss compared to the older little map. Ironically the abridged version with no objects beyond 50km brought my system to its knees. However for that to happen I flew off 100km north to see where the buildings ended and then flew back. It was when I got back to Stalingrad that it turned to a slide show. Only did the test once, so may have just been a fluke.

 

As for SSAO, low and balanced do not have it. Low removes most of the lighting effects and all reflections I think. I can't tell a difference between balanced and high other than SSAO being switched off. So it actually looks a lot better on balanced imho. Surprisingly my Radeon 6850 can run ultra, albeit at 20-25 fps.

[DonJosh]

i like the scenery in BOS

Edited January 18, 2014 by DonJosh

[Freycinet]

I wonder a little bit why the developers chose that all buildings should have the same colour. I don't think Stalingrad was so monochromatic in reality. I remember the photos from the developers' visit to the city, many of the historical sites were brick buildings. A bit of sooty red wouldn't have been out of place.

[dburne]

I wonder a little bit why the developers chose that all buildings should have the same colour. I don't think Stalingrad was so monochromatic in reality. I remember the photos from the developers' visit to the city, many of the historical sites were brick buildings. A bit of sooty red wouldn't have been out of place.

 

Good point.

[Jaws2002]

I wonder a little bit why the developers chose that all buildings should have the same colour. I don't think Stalingrad was so monochromatic in reality. I remember the photos from the developers' visit to the city, many of the historical sites were brick buildings. A bit of sooty red wouldn't have been out of place.

 

+1.

 

It looks like the whole town was spray painted after it was bombed. The topography and building placement is really good, but cardboard buildings painted in the same color makes everything dull and lifeless.

[TheBlackPenguin]

Unfortunately I'm still very underwhelmed by the city. I don't see the 13 years went by between the original Il2 Stalingrad map and this one. Its the first city I've seen done with that many 2D sprites in a game. I think the engine shows its age here clearly.

 

Yes the smoke and the landmarks are nice, but overall it just doesn't feel 2014 rather than somewhere around 2008. Bummer.

 

Age of what engine?

[JG4_Sputnik]

Age of what engine?

The Digital Nature Engine, which was built for RoF (mid 2009) and which has now added the "new feature" called Bump mapping (which appeared in games 12 years ago....)

[Freycinet]

BTW, I always try to make a point of coming up with suggestions that shouldn't tax the engine more. Changing the colours on some of the textures shouldn't mean a higher load AFAIK.

 

To everybody wanting more rubble, 3d building structures, more telephone poles, more smoke, more everything, I can just say that it is vey easy to suggest extras when you don't have to care about frame rates as the developers have to.

[Rama]

BTW, I always try to make a point of coming up with suggestions that shouldn't tax the engine more. Changing the colours on some of the textures shouldn't mean a higher load AFAIK.

 

To everybody wanting more rubble, 3d building structures, more telephone poles, more smoke, more everything, I can just say that it is vey easy to suggest extras when you don't have to care about frame rates as the developers have to.

Do you  think that developpers are not smart enough to sort the suggestions and to get interested only by the doable ones (fps wise)?

Customers aren't developers, don't ask them to think like developers. Smart customers do suggestions and accept dev decisions about them.

[79_vRAF_Friendly_flyer]

Regarding rubble: It would be covered in snow (i.e. not visible), except rubble spread after the last snowfall.