Korea. IL-2 Series Dev Blog #10: Terrain and Ground Object Improvements

[LukeFF]

Dev blog #10 for Korea. IL-2 Series is now available for your reading: https://il2-korea.com/news/dd_10

 

 

[LF_Mark_Krieger]

Don't drink and drive!

 

[szelljr]

Nickelodeon " 

[Mysticpuma]

Annnddddd the men run from the vehicles!

So this is expected when they are being strafed, this is great to.see! Completely making the environment come to life.

 

I did wonder if the train would derail when the pole came down.

 

Quick question as the level of fidelity is increasing....can we get more detail when locomotives derail rather than a one frame animation turning the locomotive from pristine to a burned out wreck?

 

[Juri_JS]

I guess rails can be damaged by bombs, right?

[Rjel]

I’m hoping the locomotive has mass so that when it hits a truck, a car or even a tank, it will plow on through the obstruction as it would in real life. The detail on the train and its sound were amazing. Hoping too that the road traffic is much heavier and more wide spread in the new series to bring the beautiful landscape to life. 

Edited September 13, 2024 by Rjel
Wording

[LF_Mark_Krieger]

4 minutes ago, Juri_JS said:

I guess rails can be damaged by bombs, right?

They said they could. Railways, roads and runways.

 

[migmadmarine]

The towable trailers for trucks is a nice addition to see as well

[BlitzPig_EL]

The sound of the locomotive took me by surprise.  very well done.

[LukeFF]

4 minutes ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

The sound of the locomotive took me by surprise.  very well done.

 

Yes, we've finally put that Prussian G8 in a museum. 😄 

[tribal50]

Great to see, great to have it soon!

[Trooper117]

3 minutes ago, tribal50 said:

great to have it soon!

 

Do you know something we don't?... soon doesn't come close as it will be some time before you get to play this.

[II/JG17_HerrMurf]

5 hours ago, Rjel said:

I’m hoping the locomotive has mass so that when it hits a truck, a car or even a tank, it will plow on through the obstruction as it would in real life. The detail on the train and its sound were amazing. Hoping too that the road traffic is much heavier and more wide spread in the new series to bring the beautiful landscape to life. 

 

While the amount of mass dictates the train will continue some considerable distance, I doubt hitting a tank would not result in a derailment. I wish the tracks continued beyond the impact zone in the video, I think it's clearly catastrophic for the engine.

 

 

Edited September 13, 2024 by II/JG17_HerrMurf

[Rjel]

48 minutes ago, II/JG17_HerrMurf said:

 

While the amount of mass dictates the train will continue some considerable distance, I doubt hitting a tank would not result in a derailment. I wish the tracks continued beyond the impact zone in the video, I think it's clearly catastrophic for the engine.

 

 

I wouldn’t disagree. More to my point, I’m hoping the new sim will not have the same immediate stopping of the train no matter what it might run into as the current game does. 

[[CPT]Crunch]

I hope to see a broad battlefield with tracers and artillery strikes along a vast front even if they're empty and just placed for scenery.  My hope is the silly bait and easy kill trap days on attackers is over.  You really need to earn those kills, not be fed them on a silver platter. 

[Aapje]

Talking about ground objects. One of the disappointments I had with GB is that the parked planes seemed to be static objects and would not show realistic damage, like seen in the video below. Will this improve in Korea? @LukeFF

 

 

[LukeFF]

4 minutes ago, Aapje said:

Talking about ground objects. One of the disappointments I had with GB is that the parked planes seemed to be static objects and would not show realistic damage, like seen in the video below. Will this improve in Korea? @LukeFF

 

 

 

I don't want to speculate on what might change, so please just wait until some sort official communication is posted in a blog entry or video.

[352ndOscar]

Does the terrain height model show land use differences between swamp/marsh, raised and/or recessed road/railroad surfaces and tunnels, depressed riverbeds and river banks, and rice paddies?  Does the topographical resolution reflect surface height differences for these terrain features; unlike what was done in previous IL2 iterations - i.e., rivers that are always the same elevation as the surrounding terrain - flat?  Are rivers and streams bottomless or is this finally represented correctly?  Are we still meant to deal with unrealistic up-ramped, single height bridges - bridges being a major target in this theater? Towed vehicles, two-way road traffic, multiple road surfaces, etc. are great eye candy, but if the items I’ve mentioned are not resolved, then these features mean nothing more than the vehicles, roads and terrains that we have now - nothing.

[LF_Mark_Krieger]

The crew of the truck perhaps abandons it a bit too fast right at the moment of the impact? I think a bit of delay in abandoning it would be a better effect.

 

Edited September 14, 2024 by LF_Mark_Krieger

[Aapje]

Adrenaline is a powerful drug, so I think that it's fine that they get out quick.

 

Of course, in an ideal world we would have a few different animations, including one for an escape with a leg injury, or even soldiers helping each other.

[Avimimus]

16 hours ago, Juri_JS said:

I guess rails can be damaged by bombs, right?

 

16 hours ago, Rjel said:

I’m hoping the locomotive has mass so that when it hits a truck, a car or even a tank, it will plow on through the obstruction as it would in real life. The detail on the train and its sound were amazing. Hoping too that the road traffic is much heavier and more wide spread in the new series to bring the beautiful landscape to life. 

 

I suspect it should explode but also push the tank a considerable distance. They have strong frames, but late-war/post-war tanks should be stronger. Trucks on the other hand should crumple. Obviously, we can't expect that kind of damage detail, but we can still hope to see the physics be correct. It should be possible to light trains on fire without derailing them, derail them slightly, or have catastrophic derailing (one can look up photos - I'm not going to post any pictures of accidents out of respect to any potential loss of life).

 

One possible improvement:

Trains should also take much longer to come to a halt. I made a mod for Il-2 Great Battles which made it so trains take a long time to stop, but if they get damaged at all, the crew will bring the train to a halt to allow them to escape (which was apparently the most common practice once trains knew they were under attack). It worked fairly well, but the lack of derailments still made it look very unrealistic, because the complete destruction of a locomotive or railcar would cause everything behind it to instantly stop (without damage).

 

P.S. They also had a practice of trying to make as much steam as possible (open cocks etc.) while slowing down to try to generate the equivalent of a smokescreen. I can find the reports if interested.

[Lemmi]

20 hours ago, LukeFF said:

 

Yes, we've finally put that Prussian G8 in a museum. 😄 

Oh yeah. The "rattlesnake". A lot of them came to Europe after the second world war.

[Rjel]

5 hours ago, Avimimus said:

One possible improvement:

Trains should also take much longer to come to a halt. I made a mod for Il-2 Great Battles which made it so trains take a long time to stop, but if they get damaged at all, the crew will bring the train to a halt to allow them to escape (which was apparently the most common practice once trains knew they were under attack). It worked fairly well, but the lack of derailments still made it look very unrealistic, because the complete destruction of a locomotive or railcar would cause everything behind it to instantly stop (without damage).

 

I haven’t tried mods in a long time but this one sounds interesting. Does it still work with the current version of GB? 

[JFM]

The tire falling off just from hitting a pole at very low speed is a bit much, but overall the tracks and different road surfaces are nice. Also, agree the train sounds are good. 

[FeuerFliegen]

22 hours ago, Mysticpuma said:

Annnddddd the men run from the vehicles!

So this is expected when they are being strafed, this is great to.see! Completely making the environment come to life.

 

This happens now in GB.

[Avimimus]

2 hours ago, Rjel said:

I haven’t tried mods in a long time but this one sounds interesting. Does it still work with the current version of GB? 

 

I'll need to check. Probably though? I can't think of an update that introduced changes that would interfere with it. Let me know if it still works:

 

[LF_Mark_Krieger]

4 hours ago, Rjel said:

I haven’t tried mods in a long time but this one sounds interesting. Does it still work with the current version of GB? 

Yes. I always use it. The sinking boats mod, too.

[Gunfreak]

Love the details added.  Looks very good.

But please fix the grass, it looks more or less exactly the same as in GB and I can't stand it.

[Aapje]

Don't worry, they'll mow it before release.

[LukeFF]

4 hours ago, Gunfreak said:

But please fix the grass, it looks more or less exactly the same as in GB and I can't stand it.

 

That's because it's still WIP, as we have said.

[Juri_JS]

One thing I wonder is, if the look of roads and rails from higher altitudes can be improved. At the moment they look rather artificial and you can clearly see that they are overlayed on the ground textures.

[Mysticpuma]

On 9/13/2024 at 11:14 PM, Rjel said:

I wouldn’t disagree. More to my point, I’m hoping the new sim will not have the same immediate stopping of the train no matter what it might run into as the current game does. 

Absolutely agree. If I strafe a a loco ir destroy a rail track, I want to see the locomotive come to a realistic end.

[Mysticpuma]

 

 

 

 

These are the only three genuine clips I can find, the last from "The General" which was obviously staged, however the first two show momentum, and it would be impressive if the trains and locomotives could have weight, inertia and an bit more of a damage model.

The thing though is, we fly aircraft to damage other stuff with and locomotives have always been a weak link. While I agree the explosions in BoX when a train was hit look good, the irritation is, the locomotive becomes instantly 'dead', even having carriages roll through them

This video I shot in BoX, strafing trains, shows a perfect example just after 40 seconds. Locomotive explosion,  everything just stops dead.

So please devs consider more animations and adding weight and inertia to damaged trains and locomotives. 

Cheers, MP

 

 

[Avimimus]

3 minutes ago, Mysticpuma said:

These are the only three genuine clips I can find, the last from "The General" which was obviously staged, however the first two show momentum, and it would be impressive if the trains and locomotives could have weight, inertia and an bit more of a damage model.

 

All of them were staged (especially the first one - I think they built something of a ramp to divert the train smoothly over the side of the embankment)!

 

Your point about momentum stands though!

 

Speaking of a much smaller train from 50 years earlier: "The locomotive brakes alone were insufficient to stop the train, the momentum carried it into the buffers, and the locomotive crossed the almost 30-metre (98 ft) wide station concourse, crashing through a 60-centimetre (24 in) thick wall, before falling onto the Place de Rennes 10 metres (33 ft) below, where it stood on its nose."

 

 

if the frames don't fail and the couplers manage to hold even a low-speed derailment will tend to involve the cars just continuing to move forward (pushed by the weight of the cars before or ahead of them) and zig-zag until they hit something capable of resisting a few hundred tons of steel):

 

[Ghost666]

That Last derailment in Kansas City was not momentum. That was a backing move, made to fast with empty (center bulkhead flat cars) cars behind loaded cars. The cars stacked up like that due to, even with modern brakes trains take a bit to stop, the engines (IIRC 2 engines) pushed the cars.

 

I had to help clean that one up.

[Trooper117]

Bloody train mania... who would have thought it eh?

[Mysticpuma]

6 minutes ago, Trooper117 said:

Bloody train mania... who would have thought it eh?

I just want a satisfying reward for taking out a loco and railstock 😁

[[CPT]Crunch]

Red diamond placards on the tanker cars are also a decade early.  International fireman's organizations didn't come up with the idea and those designs until after 1960.

[Lusekofte]

Well I be damned. Videos like that make an old man less grumpy. 
It pleases me to see effort to make realism on ground. That is excellent. 

[LukeFF]

3 hours ago, [CPT]Crunch said:

Red diamond placards on the tanker cars are also a decade early.  International fireman's organizations didn't come up with the idea and those designs until after 1960.

 

Very good eye, thanks - will let the team know.