Korea. IL-2 Series Dev Blog #9: American Pilot

[LukeFF]

Dev blog #9 for Korea. IL-2 Series is now available for your reading: https://il2-korea.com/news/dd_9

[Jade_Monkey]

I understand the need to lower the detail for performance and bake some of it to the normal maps etc, especially when we spend so little time looking at them (maybe less so in Korea).  But there is something sad about such a beautiful model not being fully utilized in its purest form. 

[Mysticpuma]

Spoiler

Spoiler

https://youtu.be/JitCm8Lr_YY?si=AZxpTD0-XFYdnscE

 

Okay, I love the detail, but please can you make sure that the animation cycles are varied between pilots flying the same mission.

The video link in the Spoiler explains the issue perfectly. I have placed it behind a Spoiler as the aircraft has a Hakenreuz kill marking.

 

Edited August 31, 2024 by Mysticpuma

[Aapje]

1 hour ago, Jade_Monkey said:

I understand the need to lower the detail for performance and bake some of it to the normal maps etc, especially when we spend so little time looking at them (maybe less so in Korea).  But there is something sad about such a beautiful model not being fully utilized in its purest form. 

 

They explain in the DD that they actually utilize all the detail, to make the simplified form look better.

 

@LukeFF

 

You forgot to mention the strategically placed zipper and how it is used in flight

 

🍾

Edited August 30, 2024 by Aapje

[Avimimus]

18 minutes ago, Mysticpuma said:

Okay, I love the detail, but please can you make sure that the animation cycles are varied between pilots flying the same mission.

 

It'd be neat if they didn't just offset the timers for the animation cycles, but had some animations be more frequent for some pilots than others (e.g. the guy who compulsively tries to wipe his brow). I'm not sure how noticeable it'd be though (unless the animations were very frequent).

 

[[CPT]Crunch]

I'd like at least three gestures per type of aircraft like the current game has like the throat slash, a snappy hand salute, and an international one fingered salute perhaps, maybe some various other signals changed up a bit.  The resolution is there now when you get close enough.

[[CPT]Crunch]

Should be mentioned the exposure suit is meant for over cold water flight and ejections, hence the raft also.  The big slash going diagonal across the chest is where they'd crawl inside the suit, they aren't easy to put on.  The modern version is similar, many pilots choose not to bother, since it's extremely uncomfortable and only buys a few extra minutes of agony any way.  Most sim fans may not know it's special kit, and would be shed in warm weather and over land flights.

[Gambit21]

4 hours ago, Jade_Monkey said:

I understand the need to lower the detail for performance and bake some of it to the normal maps etc, especially when we spend so little time looking at them (maybe less so in Korea).  But there is something sad about such a beautiful model not being fully utilized in its purest form. 

 

Having done this type of work before, I can tell you that these models are sculpted at increasingly high resolution as the process develops...tens of thousands of triangles, then a medium or low res cage is used in the game engine with baked normal maps are used. This is just how it's done and the final effect is more or less same/same as using a high res model. There's some degradation (with displacement at high res it's true 1:1)  I modeled the cowl metal deformations of rivets on a Mustang model and used this process for the render, (except I used displacement maps because it was for an illustration) Normal map is standard for game engines.

Fun fact, I turned over this Mustang model to the team when Bodenplatte was announced.

 

Edited August 30, 2024 by Gambit21

[AEthelraedUnraed]

On 8/30/2024 at 11:53 PM, Gambit21 said:

tens of thousands of triangles

Only tens of thousands? Man, it isn't 1995 anymore. What were you modeling, a cube?

 

On 8/30/2024 at 7:01 PM, Jade_Monkey said:

I understand the need to lower the detail for performance and bake some of it to the normal maps etc, especially when we spend so little time looking at them (maybe less so in Korea).  But there is something sad about such a beautiful model not being fully utilized in its purest form. 

As Aapje and Gambit already said, the full model is in fact utilized The whole reason normal mapping even exists is so that we can do with a lower triangle count while still featuring the same detail as the high-poly model. In most situations, the result looks almost identical. A notable exception is very oblique angles; to a limited extent this can be solved by parallax mapping but some detail will still be lost... but this is only visible to the watchful eye

[Gambit21]

5 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Only tens of thousands? Man, it isn't 1995 anymore. What were you modeling, a cube?

 

 

😂

 

I really wish a different app (Mudbox maybe) had “won” the sculpting program crown. The Z-brush GUI…oof. I’ve learned it maybe 3 times after dropping it for years. It’s currently dropped and will likely stay that way now. It’s fine once it’s under you skin, just doesn’t stick with me like Modo does.

[BlitzPig_EL]

So, you going to model an Emily?  😁

[Gambit21]

3 hours ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

So, you going to model an Emily?  😁

That’s the dream…but sooooo much work for the interior, and spotty references. I did purchase the 2 books out there that I could find (from Japan) just in case.