by Obi Offiah

I would like to thank the Wayward team for all their help and hospitality at ECTS. They were extremely generous and put up with me and my questions for about two hours!

Graham Davis surprised me because he remembered my name from the list of names that were to be put into B-17 from Bombs-Away. That showed me that Wayward really were reading posts and listening to those interested in B-17, amazing in this day of big business!

On Tuesday I went straight to the B-17 II booth. I was really eager to find out as much as I could about the sim. I had introduced myself to Ken and Graham on Sunday. On Tuesday Ken was demoing the sim today as on Sunday.

The first thing that strikes you about B-17 (as you can all guess) are its fantastic graphics. You really can't compare it to anything you've seen before in terms of PC sim graphics in my opinion. It was like a next generation engine, or even a revolution in the way graphics are presented, superior to anything else in every way.

Ken was flying the P-51 Mustang when I arrived and the 3D cockpit was incredible. I described in an earlier post how I initially thought the in-cockpit graphics were pre-rendered and I really did think so, it was just too detailed and the rudder pedals!....., I wish everyone could have been there and seen them.

The whole cockpit gave a great sense of depth, as if you were almost in the cockpit yourself. You could almost put your hand through the monitor and grab the control stick or push the rudder pedals; and I'm not exaggerating.

It's difficult to compare to any previous cockpit, but even very good cockpits tend to give you a flat feeling, and you know you are staring at a computer monitor. But panning around the cockpit was silky smooth, and there is more detail in the 3D cockpit of the P-51 than in almost all the 2D cockpits I have seen, no question. Once you have panned around you get this sense of being in a 3d world and it changes the feeling from that flat monitor world most sims have.

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Ken described how 'every' switch in the cockpit worked (although at the time not everything was implemented.) I had asked him how bomb releases were controlled so he panned down to the armament panel. I was quite surprised with how much information and how many options were available to the pilot.

The panel was very detailed and had a 'worn' dark metal finish. It was very well presented. I am not used to flying WW2 sims, I've only ever had one and a half, that is the old B-17 sim on my Amiga and Dogfight, which wasn't a true WW2 sim as you could choose aircraft from different era (hence the 'half.')

I can't remember all the controls available in B17 II but I think there were options to select the pylons used, the release settings, i.e salvo, single, pairs and the master arm, and more. I was expecting just a simple arming and weapon select switch; I didn't realise how much control the pilots had over armament in a WW2 fighter.

I asked Ken about the B-17's armament control, so he switched aircraft from the P-51 to the B-17 and described how it worked. If I remember correctly, the armament panel was at the bombardiers station. In the B-17's bomb bay, bombs are arranged on the side walls and the middle of the bay. Ken explained that there were four sets of bombs, one set on each of the side walls and two sets in the middle of the bay. Bombs attached to the walls are said to be the 'external' bombs and the ones in the middle of the bay are the 'internal' bombs.

The player has the ability to select whether they want to drop the internal bombs, the external bombs or both internal and external. (I think there was also the ability to drop in pairs or salvo.) Ken continued to explain the dynamics of the Norden bombsight and how there were two modes avaliable, unfortunately I can't remember the difference between them.

Go to Part II: Dropping In