My comments about the Media Event and Loft's Trip to America

[Jason_Williams]

Hello everyone,

 

So where to start? This past week leading up to the media event on the USS Hornet was crazy fun for me and Loft. Loft had never been to the U.S. before and we decided that this event would be the perfect opportunity to let him experience the west coast of America with me as his guide. This time would be a good time for us to talk about current development issues, possible future projects and strategies for overall success. Normally we do this through electronic means or me traveling to Moscow, but a week long trek through the coast, desert, farmland and mountains of CA and NV would be a welcome change. Both of us have taken little vacation time over the past few years so we were both looking forward to this time seeing the sights and discussing work. The main event of course was the event on the Hornet which was a lot of fun. So let me start there and then I’ll share some pics of Loft’s trip.

 

Before I begin, I want to give a big thanks to everyone from this community who were able to attend the event at my invitation and have provided MUCH information about the project here on the forums. I see lots of awesome videos and commentary. So super special thanks to attendees Hooves, AbortedMan, Mastiff, HerrMurphy and lovely wife, Requiem and Einstein from the SimHQ team. And also thanks to LukeFF who was able to spend some time with Loft while he passed through the neighborhood. Your time and assistance in spreading the word about your experiences with the BOS alpha is MUCH APPRECIATED!

 

USS Hornet Event

 

Loft and I eventually arrived in Oakland, CA for the media event on the 25^th. This is something put on by 1C every year or so where they want to showcase their latest games. The Sturmovik franchise is one of their properties and obviously it is now developed under the 1CGS label with 777 Studios as a partner and heading the development. When we arrived the PR team was already heavy into setting up the venue and the systems needed to run the event and they did a great job. Not a small task. The Hornet was a really cool place to have this event. Just something about an aircraft carrier that is insanely awesome. The event was a media focused event, but of course we wanted members from our community to attend and experience BOS in person. I was able to get the guys mentioned above to attend and we had a lot of fun with food, drinks, simming, booth babes and actual airplanes on the hangar deck as a backdrop. I apologize for not having a lot of pictures to share of the event, luckily others do,  but I was working and my camera phone did not like the lighting at all.

 

The gaming media that attended will hopefully be impressed enough to give it some attention in their publications and web portals, but I know the most likely of customers here in our community wanted to know more and I think mission accomplished. However, I see lots of questions in the forum and other comments I want to clarify so let me try.

 

1. The build that was shown is considered by us to be an early alpha. We have known for months that we had to have a build ready for this event and as usual the team met its deadline and produced a working alpha that does a good job of demonstrating what kind of quality you can expect from BOS.

 

2. Hardly any of the content and features presented was final. For instance, the terrain is missing even more detail we plan to add such as more vegetation and additional detail to villages and specific areas involved in the battle.

 

3. The particle effects, tracers, smoke and fire were all a straight port from ROF. What works for biplanes at 100mph does not necessarily work for monoplanes at 400mph, but it got the point across.

 

4. We only had two planes in the alpha. The Lagg-3 and the Bf-109 F4.

 

5. The damage models for both planes were only about 50% complete.

 

6. The GUI was straight from ROF and we are working on a new GUI for BOS that will hopefully be ready for retail launch. A lot of work and takes time.

 

7. Only some single custom missions were available. No QMB, no Career. MP functions, but is only basic implementation at this point.

 

8. The controllers used were from Thrustmaster and include the Warthog and the HOTAS X. No rudder pedals were used in either case so we enabled auto-rudder so the uninitiated could fly successfully.

 

The event itself started with a presentation with me giving a brief background as to who we were and that we also created ROF and then I introduced Loft who gave a more detailed presentation. As with tradeshows, these events are always a series of small conversations with media and other attendees where details are explained and questions answered. Add them all together you get a clear picture of the title, but taken individually there will always be details accidentally left out. I spoke to several media folks and all the guys from the community at one point or another. Loft and I spread out to cover as many folks as possible. Loft led a great session with the guys from the community as you have seen in the videos and explained many of the details you guys were waiting to hear about.

 

Overall this was a really great opportunity to show the media and the community what exactly we are doing for the genre. This is not an arcade product. This is a flight sim that will hopefully launch us into a long period of creation and innovation for this genre. We hope the pre-order will be successful of which the point is to demonstrate that this genre is not so dead after all and that we should make every attempt to begin work on additional content sooner rather than later. The main title will get made. That is not in doubt, what everyone wants to see is a follow-up with a new theatre and more planes. We agree, but we can’t do it without your support! We’re trying everything we can to hold up our end of the deal. As you have seen with ROF, we don’t give up easily and we do quality work. We’re going to produce a quality AAA flight-sim in less than 16 months. Help us make sure it’s not a one way trip.

 

Loft’s Excellent Adventure

 

Before the event Loft and I went on a little adventure to make the most of his time in America.

 

Loft arrived on Friday, July 19th at LAX and we headed straight for Santa Monica and then we visited Hollywood.

 

On Sunday we drove to Orange County where we visited a Fry’s Electronics where we spotted a copy of ROF on the shelf. Yes, boxed retail does still exist in some places! But the purpose of the trip to the OC was to see an Angels baseball game. The Angels totally sucked, but nothing is more American than a baseball game. Albert dug it.

 

Then we drove to my house where we went to a cool little craft brewery called Hangar 24 which is right across the street from the local airport. Albert liked the tasty Orange Wheat brew. Then we met up with LukeFF and took the alpha for a spin.

 

 

[Jason_Williams]

The next day it was off to the Planes of Fame Museum and Yank’s Air Museum in Chino, CA. Had a great time and spotted some sweet Lend-Lease birds. Then it was time to head to fabulous Las Vegas.

 

In Vegas we took a thrilling helicopter flight to the Grand Canyon. An amazing experience! A highly recommended trip. And no we didn’t gamble even though I mentioned such in a post. J

[Jason_Williams]

Then we drove to Oakland from Vegas through the Mohave Desert and then through the Central Valley of CA where the temps were scorching. This was a long drive. Not recommended. The highlight being a Burger King restaurant in Bakersfield. We eventually reached Oakland and finally enjoyed the cool breeze of the bay area.

 

Then it was time for the event on the Hornet. Check out the posts from Hooves and Mastiff, HerrMurph, Requiem and AbortedMan for more info. Einstein will eventually have an article on SimHQ.com about it soon.

I swear this pic was not staged. How cheesy can our poses and expressions be?

 

 

After the event well all made it to a bar (both the community guests and 1CGS team) in Oakland where we had a blast, consumed several drinks and closed the joint down. I absolutely loved hanging with everyone and getting to know everyone a bit more. Getting to hang out with guys who share the same passion of flight-simming and who are genuinely great guys is too much fun! I just don’t get to do this often enough! I hope someone has a pic of all of us hanging out. I really enjoyed everyone’s company.

 

So on Friday many of us had breakfast together, but then we had to start heading home. Loft and I took off on a trek through San Francisco and down the CA coast on highway 101 and PCH. Took forever, but Loft got to see Big Sur and other scenic coastline. Man that was like 100 miles of cliff side driving. Not the best idea when you are tired or hung-over!

We reached my house late in the night and in the morning it was time for Loft to head home. But not before he grabbed his Oculus Rift Development Kit I previously ordered for the team. Let’s see if the team can implement the Rift in the coming months. Bye-bye Loft. Hope the flight home was a good one. Gracie says come back soon!

 

That was it. A looong and very busy week with too many details to mention, but if anyone has more questions about the event of the alpha let me know and I will try to answer.

 

Thanks again to everyone who attended the event and showed Loft what U.S. based Sturmovik fans are all about.

 

Jason

[Freycinet]

Oculus Rift + BoS..... Wowsers!!!

[Freycinet]

...And thanks so much for your report. Great to live in a world where erstwhile enemies - Russians and Americans - can get together and cooperate on cool flightsims.

[leitmotiv]

the hard life of game developers

 

Good job , nice to see Oculus Rift hopefully with this game

[Jason_Williams]

the hard life of game developers

 

Good job , nice to see Oculus Rift hopefully with this game

After seeing the harsh weather and sweltering conditions the team has had to work in the past 4+ years they all deserve a week of road-tripping in CA. Loft has a new appreciation of some American flyers viewpoint as a result of his trip and that's important.

 

We'll also be traveling to Gamescom in Cologne to speak to more media.

 

Jason

[JG27_Chivas]

The implementation of the Oculus Rift would be a unprecedented  immersion boost for BOS.  Huge field of view, 1920x1080 res, built in low latency 6DOF, and 3D.   The OR developer is trying to provide the consumer version for around three hundred dollars, and eventually free when tied to gaming software.

[Bearcat]

This is all just excellent! The best update thus far!

[TheBlackPenguin]

Excellent update, Chino isn't too far from Murrieta and I like that museum too. They're hoping to get that B-17 airworthy someday, defiantly could do with more of them becoming airworthy. Oh and Big Sur, glad Loft got to see that, quite a contrast with Bakersfield though.

 

Thanks for update Jason, hopefully we'll see more of these events in the future.

 

OR news will go down real well with a lot of people, that's for sure .

 

Looking forward to SimHQ's write-up, thanks too for all those who have shared they're experiences with everyone.

[=BKHZ=Furbs]

Great stuff Jason, glad everyone had a blast!

 

Well done on a very good event, wish i could of been there.

[MineFewer]

Thanks for your observations about driving to Oakland from Vegas.  I would have never guessed it would be a long boring drive.

[Voidhunger]

Nice reading and beautiful dog!

[14/JG5_Adrifter]

Good stuff. Looks like a fun week.

 

You should have stopped by the musuem at Santa Monica airport as well, they have a Yak-3 there that's in pretty good shape.

[Broadside]

 This is a flight sim that will hopefully launch us into a long period of creation and innovation for this genre. We hope the pre-order will be successful of which the point is to demonstrate that this genre is not so dead after all and that we should make every attempt to begin work on additional content sooner rather than later. The main title will get made. That is not in doubt, what everyone wants to see is a follow-up with a new theatre and more planes. We agree, but we can’t do it without your support! We’re trying everything we can to hold up our end of the deal. As you have seen with ROF, we don’t give up easily and we do quality work. We’re going to produce a quality AAA flight-sim in less than 16 months. Help us make sure it’s not a one way trip.

 

 

 

I sure do appreciate this comment.  It's kind of a "call to arms", yet it also has the umph that comes from a quality team.

With Star Citizen obliterating everything that has come before, and BoS showing that it also has teeth, it's a good time for showing the purchasing power of pc gamers and flight simmers!

Edited July 29, 2013 by Broadside

[ACG_Kraut]

Awesome pictures!

 

I have a question about the Hornet actually. How was the experience there? Do they still do tours and whatnot?

 

I did an overnight trip aboard the Hornet years and years ago when I was in the Boy Scouts and don't remember it too much... I wish I had been older when I went, I would have appreciated it a lot more. 

 

Would love to get back there and tour it again, I really need to move back to California :/

Edited July 29, 2013 by [AKA]Kraut

[ram0506]

Thanks, Jason, for sharing!

Also great news on the Oculus Rift. Hopefully you can implement it until the consumer version of the Rift is out!

[FS_incapaz]

After seeing the harsh weather and sweltering conditions the team has had to work in the past 4+ years they all deserve a week of road-tripping in CA. Loft has a new appreciation of some American flyers viewpoint as a result of his trip and that's important.

 

We'll also be traveling to Gamescom in Cologne to speak to more media.

 

Jason

Hi,

 

Thank you for sharing the events before, during, and after the press event in Oakland CA with the flight sim community, it is much appreciated.

 

I am particularly interested in your planned participation at gamescom in Cologne/Köln. Could you please share more details, i.e., which day(s) you will be present and what you will be presenting.

 

~S~

[ITAF_Rani]

Thanks Jason for sharing all that !!

[VBF-12_Stick-95]

Three thumbs up for BoS supporting Oculus Rift!!

 

(sort of an Adams Family thing)

[6./ZG26_Emil]

Wow nice pics and it's great to see people from the team having a good time.

 

Although I'm from the UK I did my pilots license in the US in a place called Atwater. My last flight I flew down to Santa Monica to visit with my great Aunt before traveling home

[DD_bongodriver]

Oculus support gets a big thumbs up.

[flyingjulez]

pretty cool event. Oculus Support sounds awesome.

 

@ Jason: I got a question if you dont mind. Will bomb craters be 3D objects?

[LLv34_Flanker]

S!

 

 Nice write up. Seems CrossFire and Oculus Rift are making their way to Santa's wishlist

[DD_bongodriver]

Wow...must be destiny but my Oculus has just been delivered.....

[Corto]

Nice reading... Thx for sharing.

[JG4_Sputnik]

Thanks Jason for sharing!

Thats why I love you boys

Good to see you guys happy (happy workers are usualy more productive ;p)

 

And OMG the Occulus + BOS = the end of my RL social life :D

[PA-Sniv]

Jason,

 

As you mentionned it, 1CGS will be present at Gamescom, Cologne. Do you already know if you'll be able to show another build of BoS for that venue, or will it definitly be the same as shown at USS Hornet?

 

Thanks,

[=BKHZ=Furbs]

I wouldn't get too excited about OR for BOS just yet, i think Jason said they are going to look into it.

 

Lets not get ahead of ourselves.

[JG27_Chivas]

I wouldn't get too excited about OR for BOS just yet, i think Jason said they are going to look into it.

 

Lets not get ahead of ourselves.

I think its dam* good reason to get excited.  Jason bought the Oculus Rift and gave it to Loft to see if it can be implemented.   Now it depends on the cost of implementation versus the possible gain of future sales.   I've read only positive reviews from testers of the hardware, with some concerns with nausea from some, that seems to alleviate with time, with some similarities to the Track IR experience.  The only negatives I've read are from people in forums without the hardware, that are speculating on its negatives, that IMO are far outweighed by the positives.  Personally I think the OR/ VR hardware is a huge advance in gaming especially suited for games where you are sitting in a cockpit, that developers should take a very hard look at, or be left behind.

Edited July 29, 2013 by Chivas

[DD_bongodriver]

I hope loft wasn't the unlucky person that left a brand new oculus DK at LAX airport....

 

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=140&t=18345

[Jason_Williams]

Thank goodness. Not ours. Just confirmed with Loft. Weird coincidence though.

 

Jason

[71st_AH_Mastiff]

I hope loft wasn't the unlucky person that left a brand new oculus DK at LAX airport....

 

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=140&t=18345

Wow I sure hope it wasn't..

Thank goodness. Not ours. Just confirmed with Loft. Weird coincidence though.

 

Jason

 

Ha good news.

Edited July 29, 2013 by Mastiff

[=BKHZ=Furbs]

I think its dam* good reason to get excited.  Jason bought the Oculus Rift and gave it to Loft to see if it can be implemented.   Now it depends on the cost of implementation versus the possible gain of future sales.   I've read only positive reviews from testers of the hardware, with some concerns with nausea from some, that seems to alleviate with time, with some similarities to the Track IR experience.  The only negatives I've read are from people in forums without the hardware, that are speculating on its negatives, that IMO are far outweighed by the positives.  Personally I think the OR/ VR hardware is a huge advance in gaming especially suited for games where you are sitting in a cockpit, that developers should take a very hard look at, or be left behind.

 

Im excited by the hardware Chivas, just we wouldn't want people starting to get worked up BOS will have OR support at release, you know how these things get going in forums.

[71st_AH_Mastiff]

sorry I think the bar keep, didn't actually take the picture of all of us and the BoS team that showed up later Lofft and Nicholi, and the others.

 

Sorry Jason maybe one of the other guys has it..

But this is just us from U.S side.

[WklinkTomCofield]

Makes me wish I was closer, would have loved to see the game in action. I've been to San Fran several times but never made it on the Hornet. I've been on her sister Lexington in Corpus Christi a couple of times but I have some connection to her, my grandfather served on both Lexingtons (CV2 and CV16) during WW2.

[JG27_Chivas]

 

I think its dam* good reason to get excited.  Jason bought the Oculus Rift and gave it to Loft to see if it can be implemented.   Now it depends on the cost of implementation versus the possible gain of future sales.   I've read only positive reviews from testers of the hardware, with some concerns with nausea from some, that seems to alleviate with time, with some similarities to the Track IR experience.  The only negatives I've read are from people in forums without the hardware, that are speculating on its negatives, that IMO are far outweighed by the positives.  Personally I think the OR/ VR hardware is a huge advance in gaming especially suited for games where you are sitting in a cockpit, that developers should take a very hard look at, or be left behind.

 

Im excited by the hardware Chivas, just we wouldn't want people starting to get worked up BOS will have OR support at release, you know how these things get going in forums.

 

 

By that train of thought I guess we shouldn't get too excited about BOS either.     

[WklinkTomCofield]

I would be worried about headaches with the Oculus Rift myself. I would think that eye strain could be a major problem.

[71st_AH_Hooves]

I would be worried about headaches with the Oculus Rift myself. I would think that eye strain could be a major problem.

If done right and they take advantage of what Unity does (IPD adjustments) then ther is no headache, in fact there is less eye strain than in RL as they objects are focused at infinity.  If its put in by the team I can promise Loft will have made sure its right.  He wont do anything half assed.

[Heywooood]

After seeing the harsh weather and sweltering conditions the team has had to work in the past 4+ years they all deserve a week of road-tripping in CA. Loft has a new appreciation of some American flyers viewpoint as a result of his trip and that's important.

 

We'll also be traveling to Gamescom in Cologne to speak to more media.

 

Jason

that IS important

 

Thanks for taking time to post this detailed debrief - its right in keeping with the straight talking, no BS developer updates we've been getting. Looks like the US contingent held up their end of the bar too - nicely done boys 

 

Really wish I could have been there - the AWFS was....not as good

Edited July 30, 2013 by Heywooood