Down in Flames

[+kendo353]

Some balloon pics, also here:

http://www.greatwardifferent.com/Great_War...oon/Balloon.htm

Thanks for the pictures, Gabilaser. hadn't seen some of them before. much appreciated.

 

 

Anyone have any obscure info on the Austro-Hungarian air force?

I noticed in the RB3D Italian front pack, that their squadrons are called "FLIKs", but that (and the fact that they liked Red and White)

is about the sum total of my knowledge. The Italian squadriglias are proving easier to research, so i'm up to speed on them. Hoping

to have Naval floatplane bases (as well as dromes).

 

thanks to dagger, for posting the interview, and for the forum space.

 

s!

[GabiLaser]

can you PM your email addy? I think i can send you some info.

 

S!

[+kendo353]

I think i can send you some info.

cheers.... i've found a few sites in Russian and Hungarian that are interesting.

but any info you could pass on would be much appreciated.

[catch]

Kendo .... just noticed your SE5 is listed as a "Bristol SE5a". AFAIK the SE5 was manufactured by the RAF (Royal Aircraft Factory) unless Bristol started manufacturing them too ? Keep up the good work. People are watching with much interest .....

[+kendo353]

Kendo .... just noticed your SE5 is listed as a "Bristol SE5a".

cheers, Catch. it was an error. and i'm grateful to you for pointing it out to me.

i'll gladly change things when they're wrong. appreciated..

[Smosh]

This site has a bit of general info including the planes used and the aces.

 

http://www.swwisa.net/kuklft/

[GabiLaser]

This site has a bit of general info including the planes used and the aces.

 

http://www.swwisa.net/kuklft/

 

A "trans-forum" response also from SWWISA:

 

http://forums.delphiforums.com/SWWISA/messages?msg=4061.32

 

S!

[+kendo353]

that's great guys, thanks very much for the information.

appreciated.

[+kendo353]

Captain Lavendar of the Hussars, a balloon observer, unfortunately allowed the spike of his full-dress helmet to impinge against the envelope of his balloon. There was a violent explosion and the balloon carried out a series of fantastic and uncontrollable manoeuvres, whilst rapidly emptying itself of gas. The pilot was thrown clear and escaped injury as he was lucky enough to land on his helmet. Remarks: This pilot was flying in full-dress uniform because he was the Officer of the Day. In consequence it has been recommended that pilots will not fly during periods of duty as Officer of the Day. Captain Lavendar has subsequently requested an exchange posting to the Patroville Alps, a well known mule unit of the Basques.

Safety First!

 

[+Gr.Viper]

:rofl:

A B.E.2 stalled and crashed during an artillery exercise. The pilot had been struck on the head by the semaphore of his observer who was signalling to the gunners.

 

By the way, how is coding going? Flight model, weapons.. What about AI?

[GabiLaser]

Kendo, i hope you have checked your email!

 

S!

[+kendo353]

Hi Gr. Viper,

By the way, how is coding going?

flu++, but all in all, not bad. the GUI is pretty robust, and campaigns are taking shape.

the game calendar revolves around the julian date, which should make plumbing in historical data easy.

(it gets converted back to the 'real' date for players to read).

 

Flight model

confident of getting there because it already looks nice (if not realistic). the engine does a good

job of hiding scary quaternions and matrices, but there are still a lot of initially strange concepts

to take in. I've been visiting Nasa/Wiki sites a lot to fill in the gaps in my knowledge.

 

weapons

it has bombs, flak, spandaus, lewis, parabellum, chauchat (with historical velocity/ROF data and sounds).

targets blow up and explode nicely, but the guns aren't attached to the right place on the planes yet.

also still quite a way to go on the Damage Model (but the planes are made of 20+ pieces each, and

ready to be pulled apart when needed). spawning "gib" animations with nuts, bolts, and bits of fabric at

point of hit isn't a problem.. particle FX, smoke, oil, fires, etc.. too. no worries.

 

What about AI?

AI is rudimentary at present (based around a 4 man ground squad), but targets will shoot at you,

and your squadmates will shoot back. the engine developers have promised a 'more military AI'

which will support formations, and more realistic behaviours. but it's not here yet.

 

Kendo, i hope you have checked your email!

been holed up in bed for a couple of days.. but will do. thanks..

 

*waves and coughs*

[catch]

Get well Kendo get well ! You have too much to do than wallow about in bed Seriously hope you're feeling better Progress is looking good

[+kendo353]

cheers catch... bit of a nasty one, but i'm all good now.

not much to report on the eye candy front (pixel shaders coming at end of month),

but i've managed to sort out the camera views..

....and the game now has fully working weapons attached to the planes...

infinite terrain is also coming at the end of month, so i'm looking forward to

getting stuck in with some proper mapmaking. found a good history site with

detailed maps of all the fronts, so it's all systems go..

 

 

cheers,

ken

[HighAce]

It all looks very nice. I'm really looking forward to this mod. One quick question, though. Will I be able to meet famous aces when flying?

[+kendo353]

I'm really looking forward to this mod.

cheers HighAce, but it's not a mod, it's a full on game.

 

Will I be able to meet famous aces when flying?

if you're operating in the same sectors, hopefully, yes. if you're not,

their activities will come in as news reports, via the squadron briefing screens.

 

I wasn't going to put famous aces into the player squadrons, but it was always the

intention for players to be able to randomly bump into aces when out flying patrols.

the "you never know" factor is an important part of keeping a game interesting to play, i feel.

 

regards,

ken

[+Gr.Viper]

How many flights are there supposed to be on the map at a time? It was fun in RB3D to go on bomber escort and suddenly bump into enemy bombers going for your factory..

 

And suppose I or AI bomb(there will be bombs, huh?) a town or a bridge pretty well and destroy something... and the destroyed thing is in ruins(visually). What about an option to store that data so that in next flights these things will be blasted to pieces already? There was such feature in old Vangers car arcade - you could either discard all terrain damage or store it for next rides at a price of some disk space.

Only dreaming I think at the moment we're all waiting for just a basic alpha release..

 

:clapping:

[+kendo353]

Hi Gr.Viper,

 

How many flights are there supposed to be on the map at a time?

as many as can be squeezed in? there's LOD for the models, and tracking a few variables for planes outside of your visual distance isn't a problem.

started out with the view to having 32 simultaneous online players, so texture size has deliberately been kept down to allow for the maximum number

of planes and objects to be on screen at once. it's a matter of balancing what you want in the scene, with the frames per second you want to achieve.

(as im sure you're aware).

 

It was fun in RB3D to go on bomber escort and suddenly bump into enemy bombers going for your factory..

sure, agreed. i'm hoping that the maps will have a life of their own. other squadrons will be going about their business, trains will

run to stations, convoys will move to their waypoints, etc... much of that activity will be random, so that missions will, ostensibly,

never play the same way twice.

 

there will be bombs, huh?

naturally. :)

 

What about an option to store that data so that in next flights these things will be blasted to pieces already?

it's possible.. each ground object has a wrecked version, so it's just another variable to store when it blows up. i'd need to re-read that data

when the level is loaded again. it would take a bit of work, but i agree that if you fly over a bombed village once, you don't really want to see

it all restored and pristine again the next day. so, thanks for this suggestion.

 

I think at the moment we're all waiting for just a basic alpha release..

the flight model is "pants" at the moment, and i'd be embarrassed to release it in it's present form.

but i'm confident that the game *can* be completed with this engine, and will endeavour to get you

something viewable soonest.

 

regards.

[+kendo353]

hi folks..

 

descending on randomly placed enemy positions

enemy troops scatter

homeward bound

 

[+Gr.Viper]

Wow!!!

[catch]

Excellent Kendo Looking really good. Please send more pics

[+kendo353]

cheers guys... not too much to report on the eye candy front, been busy

with other areas of the game. should have some more nice stuff to show

you at the end of the month, but here's a couple of things i had knocking

about..

 

GUI has been tweaked a bit. here's the Italian 'new pilot' screen of the campaign section.

 

Brandenburg D1, with dummy/fake rear gunner. oh yes.

 

Camel flight @ Belgian drome (& toolset interface)

 

For any programmers in the house

The BV engine supports Angelscript scripting, and it's handling of matrices (interpolated, transformation, & rotation) is robust. there is a complete list of functions that BV supports here. RakNet networking library will be added "late spring". if you're interested, and could spare some time or knowledge for this non profit making project it would be much appreciated. I'm a musician by profession, not a coder. and maths isn't my forte. sadly, a large portion of my development time *is* getting sucked up with learning algebra and maths. (but yeah...i know... such is life at the sharp end).

 

no complaints.

 

 

edit--> spelling

Edited February 14, 2007 by kendo353

[Smosh]

This is looking amazing. I can't wait.

[catch]

Remarkable ! I hope there's some coders out there who can help out Kendo. It looks like a very worthwhile project to be involved in (well for all us WW1 nuts anyway !)

[+kendo353]

I hope there's some coders out there who can help out Kendo.

i've been reading on the other boards here, that people are suspicious of one person attempting to put out a game all on their own.

there is also the suggestion (made above), that people are staying away because they don't like the name of the game.

 

i have to balance this project with a career in music to pay my bills, but every spare moment of the day goes into improving gameplay,

modelling, or coding. it would be very nice to have some help, but if it's not forthcoming, i'm quite resigned to completing everything that

needs doing myself. people saying "it can't be done", is the spur and impetus.... to get it done.

 

Jay Balakrishnan (Sierra/Dynamix...the man who released RB3D) likes the look of the sim.

he said the lack of help is the universe testing my persistence, resolve, and strength of will.

most days, i am up til 5-6am working on some part of the game.

so nobody can say "he's not serious".

 

 

regards to all.