Entrevista com Oleg!
Posted: 21 Dec 2006 10:57
S!
Com direito até a uma pergunta de nosso conterrâneo BOA_Kamikaze.
Fonte: Computer And Videogames
50p asks: What do you think of simulation games that integrate a story, for instance TOCA 3? Any plans to adopt the style?
Oleg: We will have our own style, which will be adapted for an easily upgradeable system, in order to accommodate our upcoming instalments in the Storm of War series.
SlipBall asks: Oleg, could you talk a little about the sounds that we will have in Battle of Britain. This is the only area that I am concerned about, or should I say, want to know more about. I know that the other features will be top notch.
Oleg: We will have a very advanced system of sound. Like with IL-2 in the past, we will bring several absolutely new features and patents to the industry again
In short, in IL-2 there was the most advanced sound engine, that no one had in the game world. However, the IL-2 series sound quality was very dependant of the sound card quality, and only on the best Creative or professional cards was it possible to get superb life style sound and effects. Unfortunately, now the simple integrated motherboard sound chips are distributed way more often.
In BoB, we will get sounds almost independent of sound cards - of effects, engines, etc. For example, sounds of different engines will be more recognizable on simple cards instead of only high-end sound cards.
It will also be possible to place one of the speakers above the player and get moving sound not only in horizontal directions, but also in vertical as well. This feature of course will be an option for advanced multi-channel sound cards only. I should note that the last listed feature is already working in our new sound engine, so it isn't sci-fi.
moby_matt asks: Oleg, do you think your heavy involvement in flight simulator-based games has not only given you a position of great respect among your peers, but has also limited the scope of projects you could be involved with? If not, why?
Oleg: Theoretically, of course not. I believe my reputation is not limited to flight sims, and if I ever decided to go into a different genre, I don't see it as being a problem.
However, from a more practical standpoint, you may be right. I do not make games single-handedly, and my team is not big enough to support another project. Only if I ever have a larger team, part of which it would be possible to redirect, say for only online games, but still based on our new 3D engine.
_AH_BlueKestral asks: In the upcoming series, SOW Battle Of Britain... how will the selection of maps in the future add-ons be decided? Will it be designers choice? Based on historical significance or the complexity of the terrain? Will the consumer from Italy be as pleased as the consumer in Germany and America? For example: the mission area of Capodichino
Airbase Naples, Italy. Would Ramitelli on the Adriadic side be included?
Oleg: In SoW BoB there will be no Italian territory, except of several airfields in Belgium from where Italian bombers and fighters flew in the real history of Battle of Britain.
However, we will have partially open structure of the game engine and there will be special tools released some time after the release of the sim itself. So creative users will be able to make their own maps or redesign our maps. However, the size of such third party maps will be limited. The big or unlimited maps we will keep for ourselves that we'll use to make our next sim.
Feathered_IV asks: Have you considered giving the SOW BoB enemy/friendly high command or sector-control its own AI? And if the enemy HQ could respond to your presence in real-time, how do you think this would affect the single-player experience?
Oleg: I'm sure we will have more complex AI than you're asking about. (Smiles)
BOA_KAMIKAZEE asks: The ground war in BOB - will there be a greater level of management in the new game? If it is not already enhanced, could there be room for implementing these ground strategies?
Currently I and many others are involved in "virtual wars" via Hyperlobby, which are designed and carried out through the "Bellum" based system. Can we expect more versatility in this area? Will our virtual wars be something more than what we currently have access to manipulate?
Oleg:There is completely new physics and AI for ground units. So you can build way more interesting online scenarios. I'll add here that we will give new online modes, including, but not limited to, "capture airfield" mode.
MrMoody asks: With the radio chatter in IL-2 it's always hard to know who is talking to you, it could be your wingman or some bloke 200km away, or they may not be talking to you at all. I was wondering if your flight groups will be given their own call names, so we can distinguish where the chatter is coming from. Also, we will be able to find where that lost bomber group I was protecting has got to?
Oleg: There will be such and other changes in Radio Chatter. As well as that to do not be mistaken we will limit the distance and ratio quality/distance of radio work. [We THINK that what Oleg is saying here is DON'T make the mistake of thinking that they will limit the distance and ratio quality/distance of radio work. Any other takers? Ed.]
[OAC]Zoom asks: Will BoB be optimized to take full advantage of the latest available hardware. By this I mean will it make use of DX10, with it be "multithreaded" to take advantage of multicore processors and will it benefit from a physic card (or graphic card physics)? If so, will these new hardware remove some of the CPU bottleneck that we are now faced with and improve FPS, quality of A.I. and overall physics (due to a lesser CPU load)?
Oleg: I can't tell you right now how much it will be optimized and for what. I can tell you now only that it will be optimized as much as it possible.
[OAC]Zoom asks: And finally, about hardware requirement, when you design a game/simulation (i.e. BoB) what do you aim for... i.e. hardware that was (will be) mainstream 2 years back and 5 years in the future?
Oleg: When we are designing the engine we put in anything we want or can and we're not very much afraid that there is not currently a PC that will run it well. However, when we are close to release we "cut" some features to get the right working gameplay - to get it playable with good FPS. Those features that were "cut", we will release or open later, when the new hardware will be coming. In the same way we did for the IL-2 series and it's why our old engine is still looking modern.
Swelnet asks: 2007 will permit many graphic improvements to plane simulators, thanks to the late technologies and the upcoming DirectX 10. Will you be able to represent equally or better the water, with degrees of underwater deepness (transparency)? If so, will it be possible to detect visually an underwater submarine?
Oleg: Really yes. But I'm not sure how much of it we will give with the first release.
Swelnet asks: In many games and even in films there are not enough details of life surrounding a scene. I think it would be fair seeing birds in air, especially in migration time. Could that be implemented?
Oleg: Birds we were planning even for IL-2. So I hope to get it in BoB finally... and more.
Swelnet asks: I hope that real work will be done on explosions, and all effects about crashes and shooting. An explosion is the medal for destroying a target...
Oleg: They will be of maximum realistic quality (non-Hollywood style with cascade of electricity sparks). And the limit of quality, size , etc. will be determined only by the power of a PC and relative FPS.
Swelnet asks: I hope too that there will be more smoke, and that a smoking damaged plane will have the ability to be disturbing for behind planes...
Oleg: Yes. But also I will refer you back to my previous answer.
SP!
Com direito até a uma pergunta de nosso conterrâneo BOA_Kamikaze.
Fonte: Computer And Videogames
50p asks: What do you think of simulation games that integrate a story, for instance TOCA 3? Any plans to adopt the style?
Oleg: We will have our own style, which will be adapted for an easily upgradeable system, in order to accommodate our upcoming instalments in the Storm of War series.
SlipBall asks: Oleg, could you talk a little about the sounds that we will have in Battle of Britain. This is the only area that I am concerned about, or should I say, want to know more about. I know that the other features will be top notch.
Oleg: We will have a very advanced system of sound. Like with IL-2 in the past, we will bring several absolutely new features and patents to the industry again
In short, in IL-2 there was the most advanced sound engine, that no one had in the game world. However, the IL-2 series sound quality was very dependant of the sound card quality, and only on the best Creative or professional cards was it possible to get superb life style sound and effects. Unfortunately, now the simple integrated motherboard sound chips are distributed way more often.
In BoB, we will get sounds almost independent of sound cards - of effects, engines, etc. For example, sounds of different engines will be more recognizable on simple cards instead of only high-end sound cards.
It will also be possible to place one of the speakers above the player and get moving sound not only in horizontal directions, but also in vertical as well. This feature of course will be an option for advanced multi-channel sound cards only. I should note that the last listed feature is already working in our new sound engine, so it isn't sci-fi.
moby_matt asks: Oleg, do you think your heavy involvement in flight simulator-based games has not only given you a position of great respect among your peers, but has also limited the scope of projects you could be involved with? If not, why?
Oleg: Theoretically, of course not. I believe my reputation is not limited to flight sims, and if I ever decided to go into a different genre, I don't see it as being a problem.
However, from a more practical standpoint, you may be right. I do not make games single-handedly, and my team is not big enough to support another project. Only if I ever have a larger team, part of which it would be possible to redirect, say for only online games, but still based on our new 3D engine.
_AH_BlueKestral asks: In the upcoming series, SOW Battle Of Britain... how will the selection of maps in the future add-ons be decided? Will it be designers choice? Based on historical significance or the complexity of the terrain? Will the consumer from Italy be as pleased as the consumer in Germany and America? For example: the mission area of Capodichino
Airbase Naples, Italy. Would Ramitelli on the Adriadic side be included?
Oleg: In SoW BoB there will be no Italian territory, except of several airfields in Belgium from where Italian bombers and fighters flew in the real history of Battle of Britain.
However, we will have partially open structure of the game engine and there will be special tools released some time after the release of the sim itself. So creative users will be able to make their own maps or redesign our maps. However, the size of such third party maps will be limited. The big or unlimited maps we will keep for ourselves that we'll use to make our next sim.
Feathered_IV asks: Have you considered giving the SOW BoB enemy/friendly high command or sector-control its own AI? And if the enemy HQ could respond to your presence in real-time, how do you think this would affect the single-player experience?
Oleg: I'm sure we will have more complex AI than you're asking about. (Smiles)
BOA_KAMIKAZEE asks: The ground war in BOB - will there be a greater level of management in the new game? If it is not already enhanced, could there be room for implementing these ground strategies?
Currently I and many others are involved in "virtual wars" via Hyperlobby, which are designed and carried out through the "Bellum" based system. Can we expect more versatility in this area? Will our virtual wars be something more than what we currently have access to manipulate?
Oleg:There is completely new physics and AI for ground units. So you can build way more interesting online scenarios. I'll add here that we will give new online modes, including, but not limited to, "capture airfield" mode.
MrMoody asks: With the radio chatter in IL-2 it's always hard to know who is talking to you, it could be your wingman or some bloke 200km away, or they may not be talking to you at all. I was wondering if your flight groups will be given their own call names, so we can distinguish where the chatter is coming from. Also, we will be able to find where that lost bomber group I was protecting has got to?
Oleg: There will be such and other changes in Radio Chatter. As well as that to do not be mistaken we will limit the distance and ratio quality/distance of radio work. [We THINK that what Oleg is saying here is DON'T make the mistake of thinking that they will limit the distance and ratio quality/distance of radio work. Any other takers? Ed.]
[OAC]Zoom asks: Will BoB be optimized to take full advantage of the latest available hardware. By this I mean will it make use of DX10, with it be "multithreaded" to take advantage of multicore processors and will it benefit from a physic card (or graphic card physics)? If so, will these new hardware remove some of the CPU bottleneck that we are now faced with and improve FPS, quality of A.I. and overall physics (due to a lesser CPU load)?
Oleg: I can't tell you right now how much it will be optimized and for what. I can tell you now only that it will be optimized as much as it possible.
[OAC]Zoom asks: And finally, about hardware requirement, when you design a game/simulation (i.e. BoB) what do you aim for... i.e. hardware that was (will be) mainstream 2 years back and 5 years in the future?
Oleg: When we are designing the engine we put in anything we want or can and we're not very much afraid that there is not currently a PC that will run it well. However, when we are close to release we "cut" some features to get the right working gameplay - to get it playable with good FPS. Those features that were "cut", we will release or open later, when the new hardware will be coming. In the same way we did for the IL-2 series and it's why our old engine is still looking modern.
Swelnet asks: 2007 will permit many graphic improvements to plane simulators, thanks to the late technologies and the upcoming DirectX 10. Will you be able to represent equally or better the water, with degrees of underwater deepness (transparency)? If so, will it be possible to detect visually an underwater submarine?
Oleg: Really yes. But I'm not sure how much of it we will give with the first release.
Swelnet asks: In many games and even in films there are not enough details of life surrounding a scene. I think it would be fair seeing birds in air, especially in migration time. Could that be implemented?
Oleg: Birds we were planning even for IL-2. So I hope to get it in BoB finally... and more.
Swelnet asks: I hope that real work will be done on explosions, and all effects about crashes and shooting. An explosion is the medal for destroying a target...
Oleg: They will be of maximum realistic quality (non-Hollywood style with cascade of electricity sparks). And the limit of quality, size , etc. will be determined only by the power of a PC and relative FPS.
Swelnet asks: I hope too that there will be more smoke, and that a smoking damaged plane will have the ability to be disturbing for behind planes...
Oleg: Yes. But also I will refer you back to my previous answer.
SP!