B17 II Update, September 10th by Leonard "Viking1" Hjalmarson
	Sound APIs This update includes some new exclusive screen shots as well as information that wasn't available for our last update in August. My primary interest as I began this update was in terrain graphics and sound and graphics APIs in B17 II. First, Andrew Walron responded to my question on sound APIs, and then I culled some detail from one of our forums. "A3d gives us access to the Aureal's Wavetracing technology via a standalone API that sits on top of either Aureal's Vortex chips or DirectSound. Wavetracing involves "rendering" geometry that affects the properties of individual sounds according to position. Oh My God. We haven't told you about the sound have we ? You will not *believe* how good those Wrights sound, starting, gunning up during takeoff, busting a cylinder. The sound guys at Microprose have done a wonderful job for us. We are using new techniques to model the sounds of the individual components: cyinder, tappet, prop etc. It sounds out of this world. Four Wrights slightly out of sync. Heaven. And the 50cals. I don't know what to say... Better upgrade your sound cards as well guys. Stick an MX300 on your list, and some BIG speakers... We have put so much effort into the rest of the game, there was no way we'd accept second best in the sound department." AMD and 3dNOW, DirectX "We expect to have optimizations for 3DNow and Athlon in critical parts of the engine. The full scope of these will be determined as we get further into the optimization and tuning process. "B17 II was originally designed for version 6.1a of the DirectX APIs. However, with the release date pushed back to January, 2000, we can now take advantage of the new features in DX7, including hardware accelerated transform and lighting!" Click to continue		Random Failures Andrew Walrond from Wayward posted that he has decided that B17 II will need an option in the front end for random failures. "What random failures, with probabilities, would you like to see? Assume 0.0=never, 1.0=always, then 0.5 will give a failure roughly ever other mission, 0.25 would give a failure roughly every 4th mission etc." A.C. posted a suggestion to further refine the frequency of failures, breaking it down by systems, thus... Power Engine 80% reliable(20% chance of failure) Turbo 95 % reliable Prop 97 % reliable Fuel 98 % reliable Autopilot 90% reliable Gear 95 % reliable Flaps 98 % reliable Bomb Doors 98 % reliable Bomb release system 98 % reliable Bomb Salvo(Mechanical) 99 % reliable Bombsight 100 % reliable (Complete failure if Electrical system failure) Electrical system 96 % reliable Hydraulic system 95 % reliable Control system 99% reliable Communications system Interphone 95 % reliable Radios 92 % rel;iable Oxygen system 97 % reliable Turrets 97% reliable Pitot static system 99% reliable (unless pitot heat neglected when appropriate) Wheels/Tires 99% reliable Go to Part II
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