B17 II: The Mighty Eighth is one of the most intriguing simulation designs of the decade. Just as Total Air War pushed the boundaries by combining a strategic game and a military flight simulation, so B17 II is pushing the boundaries of simulation gaming in a variety of areas.

Combining state-of-the-art graphics with role play and motion capture crewmen, an online multiplayer game where up to ten humans can crew one heavy bomber, and a strong tactical dimension, B17 II is one of the most exciting simulation projects I've seen and looks likely to actually meet the high expectations that abound.

Two weeks ago I fielded one of the most detailed interviews I have ever written to the Wayward team working on B17 II. Not only did they respond to my questions with great care, but they did so at a time when the team is working hard to achieve a development milestone. In spite of the pressure, they went the extra mile so that we could all enjoy reading about the work they are doing. A special thanks from COMBATSIM.COM staff and on behalf of all our readers. For our previous coverage, see the B17 II Interview dated April, '99 and the B17 II Preview dated May, '99.

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Q. This is a quote from our original interview: "there's the aspect of representing the environment as realistically as possible. That may sound as if it's a case of simply upping the resolution and texture usage, but in fact a large amount of what makes B-17 2 groundbreaking from a technical point of view is the technology sunk into the terrain, physics and effects. " Tell us more about the terrain engine, physics and effects.

The Terrain Engine

A. By their nature Flight Sims have always had to overcome the problem of modelling huge areas of terrain believably and beautifully. It is not difficult to model a large area convincingly if it is only to be viewed from very high up. In this case you can use satellite or aerial photography. The problem with this is that when you get low down it all quickly falls apart into a big blur that slowly passes beneath your plane and destroys all illusion of ground rush.

Another more subtle problem with photography is that it is already naturally pre-lit and shadowed, so any real time lighting and shadowing added to the game can at times be at odds with the shadows photographed into the textures.

It is also easy to model a small area to very high detail that will look great low down. The problem with this though is that when you get high up you need to fill a huge view area convincingly. So you either need Gigabytes of video RAM to store it all (which nobody has) or you need to have the same detailed texture squares tiled repeatedly, resulting in an unconvincing checkerboard landscape. And from the developers' point of view, even if we did have Gigabytes of video RAM, you would need an army of Artists and Level Designers to populate this enormous area with such detailed stuff.

So we have adopted a different approach to things here and we are delighted with the results. We think our terrain looks great from very high up, with non repeated blended varieties of natural, urban and suburban areas stretching out to the horizon, with long roads curving smoothly through the landscape, all lit real time and casting shadows. And when you do go down low it does not break up, it actually goes down to a resolution of 20cm (we can actually go to higher resolutions) so you get an incredible impression of ground rush.

In our terrain you can see the line down the middle of the road, the curbs and overhanging trees and hedgerows- all casting shadows. We recently calculated an interesting statistic from our systems performance - if we were to save out all the detailed non repeated textures that our game generates on the fly for Europe as a single flat texture map it would be in excess of 300,000,000 Terrabytes! or 300,000,000,000,000,000 Bytes!

Notice the variety of effects!

At 650Mb a pop this would neatly fit onto 461,538,461 CD's (+ 1 more if we include the game code) What a box set that would make!

(Ed. I can see it now. You order a new sim and it arrives on a SEMI.)

This is all coming together now and any screenshots to date have been work in progress, we will post some screen shots of the finished terrain, cities and all in a few weeks time and you can judge for yourselves whether we have succeeded.

Physics and Effects

As for the issue of how physics and effects contribute to immersion and realism of the game - well there are many ways. A beautiful environment is a great start, but it's just that - a start. To truly create an immersive and realistic experience the environment needs to interact properly with the player. Physics help that - the players aircraft will respond to the thinning air at altitude as he would expect it to. It will produce the wingtip streamers caused by high 'G' when he performs radical manoeuvres at high speeds. The suspension on landing gear will piston correctly as he taxis from the outside camera views or looks out the canopy at another aircraft taxiing.

We also consider special effects a very important reward for the player. To satisfy this we have a programmer dedicated to effects who has been concentrating mostly on B-17 2's special effects for many months now. So far you've really only seen his contrails, muzzle flashes, bullet to ground impacts and some graphics for damaged B-17 engines. There is much, much more to come. A lot of what he's been up to relates to how objects like bullets and bombs interact with the ground and water, thus increasing realism and immersion.

Fighter Dropping to Target

We have wheels that turn, independent brakes, tarmac, grass, bumpiness, suspension, prop wash, wind, gusts. You can put a P51 or Bf109 onto its wingtip if you turn too fast. Break the left undercarriage, and it will drag round in circles on the wingtip. Brake too hard in a P51 and you will put it on its nose, bending the prop and kicking up dirt. And that's before you get into the air!

We have engine torque, ground effect, wind, gusts, prop wash, turbulence. Control surface trimming, altitude/pressure/temperature effects. G effects on engines. Propeller/speed/efficiency models, ground effect, compressibility. Fly low over the airfield and dip the wing onto the grass - see what happens! We have belly landings and ditching on water. Lower the gear and feel the drag, feel the nose drop. Raise the flaps and feel the nose drop. Transfer fuel from left to right wingtanks and feel the pull to the right.

B17 II: The Strategic Game

Q. B17 II has a strong strategic dimension. In our interview you stated that "when all you experienced Veterans buy it you will be forced to plan missions that aren't advancing the course of the war while those green crews gain experience." Tell us more about this strategic dimension.

A. As the course of the War progressed the Allied High Command identified certain target types that were considered to be vital to the German war effort. Precision daylight bombing is all about setting off in broad daylight, heading into the centre of the enemies country, thumbing your nose at his airforce, and dropping your bomb load directly onto those targets.

Of course the enemy knows you're coming, and will do his best to drive you away, or make the whole process more costly to you than to him. If you lose your most experienced crews and get a load of rookies in then it would be foolish to make their first couple of missions an assault on the German heartland.

It'll be the Squadron Commanders job to find some targets that are a little less protected, but still valuable enough to warrant an attack. In the end he may have to hit targets that he wouldn't normally want to, so he can build his crews up to the point where the most dangerous targets are a possibility again.

Operations Room

Dynamic Campaign

Q. Wayward is using a dynamic campaign engine. Tell us more about this.

A. We felt that a strictly limited campaign of 25 planned missions to 25 planned targets would be far too restrictive from a gameplay perspective. Instead we're building a database of some 200+ targets that the mission building engine will use to plan missions. Of course the mission builder will take into account the actual strategic imperatives from the Second World War and, of course, the Squadron Commander will plan his own missions to these targets. The upshot is that you should be able to fly many Campaigns and get a different experience each time.

Q. You've seen the engines that are out there. Which are the best and why?

A. I thought that the I-Magic one in Carrier Strike Fighter was quite good, because it tried to do a "whole war" simulation.

Q. Compare Waywards dynamic engine to the best out there.

A. Many World War II flight sims use very linear campaigns. We decided to model the effects of the players actions more fully within his Squadron, rather than pretend that he can affect the progress of the War directly. What we've set up is a simulation of the wartime environment, and we change that environment according to the dictates of history.

As the front line moves then flak and fighters in the way of the player will get swept away, targets will be liberated and, therefore, no longer eligible for bombing. The player will never get a free ride, but when the Ground Troops push the Germans back, he'll be cheering for them!

Starting Out

Q. Do we enter the campaign as a raw recruit? What is the training procedure for pilot, navigator, gunner etc. and does this impact growth in skill for the AI?

Squadron Commander's Office

A. When you enter a B-17 campaign you get either a Crew or a Squadron of rookies. The player will never enter as a specific crewmember - we wanted the player always to have the ability to go and try out other positions, always moving to where the action is thickest. Crewmembers will improve as they fly combat missions, and those that the player interacts with personally during a mission will improve much faster than those he doesn't spend time with.

Training the player is kept separate from training the crew! There are a number of Training missions that cover aspects such as flying and managing the B-17's systems, using the bombsight, gunnery practice, navigation practice and also the important skills of using 10 individuals in such a way that they work as a team.

Next the player could try and master each of our extreme Quickstart situations, specially designed to present the character with a knotty problem and see how he sorts it out. Areas covered include dealing with a damaged B-17, driving off fighters from a B-17, practising in an Escort Fighter and also practising interception techniques as a Luftwaffe fighter pilot.

AI vs Manual Control

Q. A related question: tell us about the interaction of manual control and AUTO control for AI pilots and mission presets.

A. Basically the aircraft can fly and fight on their own and as part of a formation of others. The various positional and commanding AI's can perform the whole show, whilst you limit yourself to acting solely as a Tail Gunner or Navigator or any one of the other roles.

However, the AI's aren't going to do as good a job as the Player can. AI pilots will, for one thing, generally play it safe - not a path to military distinction. They will also be REALLY touchy about leaving formation on their own - they'll take risks with the engines to keep up with the rest of the gang. The player will need to make vital decisions relative to changes from the mission path - aborting to hit the secondary targets, giving first aid, repairing damage mid-mission etc.

In addition, when things really begin to go wrong, the player will need to make plans to deal with the situation himself - aborting, heading to the nearest friendly airbase etc.

Target Info

Q. Will B-17 2 feature a mission editor?

A. The Squadron leader mode of play allows you to choose relevant targets, plan the route, load fuel and bomb loads/type etc. Our full tool suite for mission editing would be beyond the scope of the initial release, but may be made available later.

Mission Planning

Q. Can the player modify waypoints, targets etc?

The AI's in B-17 are passing information to each other constantly, but one of the things that we've kept a close eye on within B-17 is making sure that the Player retains control of the situation. There are many circumstances where the route, as posted, might need to be altered or scrapped entirely due to the changing circumstances of a B-17 mission and we've included an interface within the B-17 to allow the player to make those decisions.

The player sends radio messages to the rest of his squadron which he can use to affect both his plane and the behaviour of the rest of the Squadron. I won't list all the decisions that the player can make here, because there are far too many of them, but I'll provide you with a few samples that involve changing the route.

Weather changes over target - Divert to the Secondary or Tertiary targets or find a Target of Opportunity.

B-17 hit too badly to continue - Abort the Mission and head home on your own. Flak a bit too accurate at present altitude - Order the formation higher for a margin more safety.

Fuel Status critical - Order the Navigator to plot a course to the nearest friendly strip.

Can't make it home or to that "last chance" strip - Ditch in the sea, head for neutral territory or try and glide it over friendly lines at least.

Note that the player has to make a decision to take the correct action dictated by the present circumstances. Just like in real life the player might make a good or a bad call - but he's the aircraft commander and those are his men that he's responsible for. The AI's will never dictate which of those actions is taken, but the player can change the goals of those AI's simply and quickly (4 keyboard presses or mouse clicks from anywhere in the aircraft). From that point he can leave the AI's to deal with it whilst he mans the tail gun, if he wishes.

None of which is saying that the crew won't be letting the player know about it if he's neglecting an important command decision - they'll let him know of injuries, mechanical problems, fires and if the aircraft is gliding more than flying. They'll let him know if they think he's ignoring the situation too!

Q. What about pre mission briefing?

A. Your crew chief will inform you of any problems before you leave on a mission. "Go easy on number 3, it's using a lot of oil." It's a good idea to take him seriously! Random failures are already a part of the games design. Engines, of course, are only one of the systems that could go on the fritz.

Q. Let's talk mission specifics so we can get a clear sense of what happens, who says what, who does what etc. We are two hundred miles from target just inside Germany. We get an order from home base to abort because of cloud cover over the target. Can I as Commander choose to proceed anyway and hope for a weather change? How will my crew react? Can I order half of the aircraft to return while I take some with me?

A. First of all the player will never receive an order mid-mission ordering him to do anything. Once the player gets off the ground he is the Commander on the scene, and nobody can countermand his intuitions regarding the capabilities of his Squadron or crew.

Using your example, the player might radio HQ for an update on the Weather, revealing an unfortunate increase of cloud depth over the primary target, but a clear Secondary. He might decide to continue to the primary and attempt to bomb through the cloud cover, or he might divert the formation to bomb the Secondary target.

Whenever the player changes the mission of the formation you might get individual planes dropping out, because they can't comply due to damage or fuel restrictions, but you won't be able to split the formation up for the hell of it - they never did that if they could help it as it was inviting Fighter attack.

As for who says what… We've got a large script of speech for the crew in B-17 and all of it will carry useful messages for the player. The Pilot and the Co-Pilot speech concerns the flight performance of the aircraft, in conjunction with the Engineer. The rest of the crewmembers cover areas that concern their special duties but everyone calls out fighters, injuries, damage (if they can see it!) and other such things.

Decisions, Decisions!

Q. If there is a need for a critical decision, how is it presented to me? What circumstances might call for this?

A. A classic example is a flaming engine. The B-17 is a very tough bird, but she absolutely cannot deal with fire. A neglected flaming engine eats away the upper Wing & Elevator Surfaces and burns its way through to the Wing Spar - if it doesn't hit the fuel tank first!

A burning engine trails smoke and fire right down the aircraft. Somebody is going to spot it fairly quickly, and that person will sound off to let the player know about it. If the player is busy and elects not to deal with the engine at that time then that crewmember will remind him… And if he doesn't get up to the cockpit and deal with it then he'll certainly know about it when the plane explodes!

B17 Nose

B17 Nose

Damage appears where you get hit. Sit in the top turret of one B17 and blow big holes in the tail of another (not recommended, but great fun!) See right through the holes! Try flying a B17 with half the tail missing! This is one of the major features of our game.

Overspeed your turbo for too long and *BANG*. Feather the prop by hitting the red knob in the cockpit and put out the engine fire by flicking the fuel shutoff and hitting the extinguisher. Use both charges if necessary.

Q. Say I've taken a bad hit and I'm over the water. Can I ditch in the sea? Will it be possible to ditch my aircraft intact if I'm lucky and skilled? If so, what happens next?

A. The B-17 is quite a good ditcher and, so long as you keep your wheels raised there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to ditch a B-17 in the North Sea provided that you've had a bit of practice (see Quickstart Scenarios). Oh… Don't forget to inform the RAF Sea Rescue service of your position before you go in, or it's likely to get pretty cold out there…. :-)

Q. Tell us about AI of ground objects, detection modelling and that sort of thing.

A. This is really back to Realism and Immersion. Anything you can fly your aircraft into you'll collide with. This might do damage, or it might destroy your aircraft. The physics system is quite capable of handling the dynamics of a situation where you catch the right wing of your B-17 on a hanger and end up pivoting around into it or snapping your wingtip off.

In addition anything you can hit with your guns can be shot up… And yes that includes the Eiffel Tower and the Red Lion pub (imagine the paperwork!). Real Fighter pilots can strafe the Brandenburg Gate or Reichstag… Mind that flak, gentlemen…

Bf109 among B17s

Pilot AI

Q. Tell us about pilot AI. Will we see panic and fatigue modelled for the enemy as well as our own pilots?

A. AI's for fighter pilots, as you can imagine, concentrate most fully on the physical abilities of their various aircraft, their experience level, their take on the situation and their assigned goal. Pilots pushed into extreme situations will react in extreme ways - including panicking, ramming, bugging out and target fixation.

Flight Modelling

Q. Tell us about the factors in your flight modelling.

A. We consider the flight models an absolute key issue and we believe we have modelled them to the highest level of detail yet. There are too many factors to list here, but here are a few… O pilots arrive at a "power" rating for their engine by manipulating not a "throttle" but the aircraft's Propeller Speed, Fuel Mixture, Manifold Pressure and Supercharger speeds. That means that the engine itself loses no power as altitude increases, but the supercharger will need to be cranked down because as the air gets thinner the relative pressure inside it will increase - effectively reducing the power output.

P51 Mustang

Then we have the fact that we don't simply slap on a fuel weight for the Mustang. We know where the tanks are, which you've been using and, therefore, whether your aircraft is developing a lean away from the standard centre of gravity.

Bf 109 on Target

The above are a sample of the detail we've gone into - just about everything has gone in there, and we've stuck to first principles where possible, rather than artificially fudging "effects" for events. Another good example is control surface damage. If you strip 32% of the skin from our Mustangs Port Aileron it's rate of roll will be properly affected…

More on AI

Q. Do enemy AI fly the same flight model? Can they black out, panic, or lose sight? Is there target fixation?

A. All of our Pilot AI's fly the actual flight model that the player uses. You will never fly through a formation of B-17's and marvel at their rock steady formation flying into a 230mph head wind with a 25mph crosswind. They will be feeling the same environmental effects you will be feeling.

Bf109 Formation

Q. Are you breaking any new ground in individual pilot AI?

A. As I mentioned above, I feel that making all our AI's actually FLY their aircraft is a nice touch that hasn't been done in a sim of this type before. It really takes a Bomber sim to drive home how nice an organically flying formation looks. In addition I think our Fighter Pilots might give people a nasty surprise on the higher skill levels…

COMMS and Radio

Q. Will we as pilot in the B17 be able to communicate with our escorts? What will the options be other than calling for help?

A. Radio traffic between Big and Little friends will be strictly business, which is how it was historically. If you get separated from the pack, however, you can certainly holler for help! And in multi player you will of course have voice comms, then you can chat away to your hearts content.

Q. Will we be able to listen to the chatter of our escort while they are engaged?

A. That's something that will have to be decided in playtesting. Certainly we've done Chatter for both Escorts and Interceptors, which those playing in those roles will be able to hear. Whether it'll be cool to hear that chatter if you're not actually in the fight or whether it will distract you from the very real concern of listening for your own crew reporting fighters and damage is something we'll have to make a decision on. Maybe we will just have it as a user option in the front end.

Q. How much tenacity will we see in our escort fighters, and will this vary by skill and experience? If these guys get target fixated, we will be in bad shape!

A. Skill and experience will obviously make a difference, as will the relative strengths. If the Escorts are getting creamed then you can expect little help from them, if strengths are equal then they should be less target fixated. If the Escorts outnumber the enemy, then they'll be more kill hungry individually, but you'll be in less danger.

Briefing Room

Q. In preparing this update interview I revisited our old one and was again left breathless by the image quality. Tell us more about your graphics engine. Do you use environmental bump mapping? What is the impact on the simulation of this feature?

A. Yes we use bump mapping and a whole lot more. We will spill the beans closer to launch. (Ed. See B17 II Notes.)

Q. Is the artwork being designed in 32 bit color?

A. Yes.

Those Missing Ground Objects

Q. Why have we not seen ground objects in the screen shots?

A. The terrain is nowhere near finished in those screen shots. So far our shots are very early and just show the work in progress.

B17s Over Target

In B17 II when you fly from town to town you will be flying along correct roads that smoothly wind through the country side, so detailed that you can see the line down the middle and the curb casts a shadow, as do the overhanging trees.

Damage Graphics

Q. Tell us about damage effects in the graphics engine. Will we see tears in wing fabric, bullet holes in the tail feathers?

A. The first, and most important aspect of the Damage system is that it is dynamic. Where you hit is where you'll see your damage, and it will vary with the weapon used. Weapons that can damage aircraft include the various machine guns and cannon but also more esoteric stuff like flak and even dropped bombs that collide with an aircraft.

When the stressed metal skin of an aircraft is shot or burned away it will reveal the structure beneath it. On wings and tails… Yes that damage will be seen through. Of course there will be smaller bits knocked off as you hit, and there will also be larger structural areas that can be blown clean off such as wings and parts of wings, control surfaces etc.

Go to The Atmosphere

Atmosphere and Artwork

Q. Tell us about damage modelling in terms of the B17.

A. When we sat down to design B-17 2 we knew that one of the areas we were going to have to excel in was the damage of the B-17. The B-17 is virtually synonymous with those pictures of Fortresses that made it home with huge holes in them, missing tails and missing noses. Just like our other planes the B-17 has fully dynamic skin damage, burn and oil leak texturing, charring and a skeletal damage texture. Unlike other aircraft the B-17 will stay aloft after suffering this sort of damage, feathering engines and leaving black oil and smoke trails across the sky along with its contrails.

Q. Tell us about atmospheric effects in terms of graphics: wind and weather, smoke and clouds. How many varieties of smoke, haze and clouds will we see?

A. Well, we keep adding things to the lists of what we're doing… For sure you can look forward to independent cloud layers that dynamically affect the terrain lighting and shadowing, distance haze, Fog, smoke from burning targets and aircraft, contrails, wing-tip streamers, burning engines, damaged engines throwing oil trails and smoking engines. The wind varies with altitude and there are gusts and turbulence...

Q. Tell us about artwork options for the player. And will you include an editor for nose art or will we be able to do this in Paint Shop Pro and the like?

A. Players can, of course, name their aircraft and nominate noseart to be displayed on the aircraft in game. In addition players will be able to create their own nose art, which I expect to be more risque than the stuff we're allowed to get away with! :-) A package like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro will be required, and we'll provide instructions for the correct formats to use and for how to get your art into the game. We aim to provide complete texture templates for all of the aircraft in the game via the internet after launch.

The Gunner's Perspective

Q. Let's talk about the game from the gunners perspective. What kind of turret will I operate in the ball gunner (upper) position?

A. Well, there was only one ball turret gunner in the B-17, and he hung from the belly of the aircraft in the Sperry Ventral Turret. For anyone who's not been in one the Team (who have) can tell you right now that these guys should have been given a large medal just for turning up for work in the morning. The Top Turret is a much more comfortable affair just aft of the Pilot and Co-Pilot which is operated by the Top Turret Gunner / Engineer. Both turrets were key to the defence of the B-17 and both sported twin .50 calibre guns.

Q. What kind of site does this position use?

A. Both turrets utilise a Reflector Gunsight, which is what they actually used in the conflict. This is more sophisticated that a simple Ring and Bead sight, but don't expect too much help (unless you ask for it as an option!).

Q. Do the guns ever jam? What happens if they do?

A. All the guns can jam after periods of intensive firing. The gunner cries out that his gun's stopped working. The player should then tell him to fix the gun and, if it's just a jam, he'll be back in business… Until then, however, the gun won't fire.

In the fighters if your starboard guns jam the kite slews to port when you pull the trigger! Damned hard to hit anything under these conditions!

Turret vs. Operator

Q. If this position takes a non fatal hit, can it still be operable? Is it possible for the turret itself to take damage without the gunner being hit?

A. The turrets can be damaged independently of the occupants. The player will have to instruct his crewmembers to repair any broken turrets to get them going again.

Q. How many rounds does the gunner have in the ball turret? Is there a reloading procedure to follow?

A. Each of the gun positions carry 1,000 rounds for each gun. That stockpile can be affected from within the options screen, should the player feel that he needs a little more ammo due to his particular playing style.

Q. What will the operator see when he is firing? Will we see the rounds arcing off? What does this look like at night?

A. Each of the gun muzzles has realistic looking muzzle flash… When you strafe a ground target (the best visualisation for this) you can see the impacts from the more numerous non-tracer rounds kicking up dust. The tracers shoot off, the phosphorous burning unevenly giving them a wavy line signature and you can see them bouncing off the solid ground. B-17's didn't fly at night in Europe, so you won't be seeing these effects at night!

Q. Can the turret operators view be heavily obscured by clouds or fog?

A. Yes… If the plane is in cloud or fog then the views from all affected stations will be obscured. The same goes for smoke trails due to damage, yours or someone elses.

Q. There is considerable difference in damage effects with different bombs. Will B-17 2 allow for incendiaries, General Purpose, High Explosive, Armor/reinforced structure penetrators, and fragmention weapons?

A. We use the following Ordnance:

• General Purpose
• Fragmentation
• Incendiary
• Semi-Armour Piercing
• Armour Piercing

Of course, most of these types of ordnance also come in different weight categories.

Q. Is there any mission recorder feature in B17 II?

A. We've not got any plans to implement a mission recorder in this version of the game.

Formation Size

Q. What will be the largest possible flight of player controlled bombers in one mission?

A. Well.. We're still working on what will be the exact breakdown of bombers in a given mission. Obviously we won't know for sure exactly what it's capable of until we get into testing, and get everything together towards the end of the Alpha period (begins August 2nd.)

It would be nice to have a group of B17's (18), an escort squadron (16) and a similar number of enemy fighters buzzing around at any one time, but this does depend a lot on machine specs etc. There are always relief escort squadrons and other enemy groups en route which we have to deal with also, which ups the numbers. We want to have every plane doing the whole thing; taxi, takeoff, intercept, return, land etc, from multi airbases in the UK and Europe.

Q. Along the same lines, how many bombers will we see in a single formation, lets say where only a single one is under human control but the same bomber is manned by a human crew.

A. As in my answer above, we just don't know yet. One thing I can tell you is that it makes little difference to the game whether the bombers are AI or Human controlled. They're all using a flight model just as complex.

Hitting the Silk

Q: What happens when the player bails out? What will be the procedure, what will we see, and what happens when we land?

A. Once you issue the order to bail out then you will lose control of the aircraft. What happens next will be finalised in the Alpha period, but the current plan is the animated crew bailing out of the Waist Compartment and then your chutes will start their way downwards. When you land, or before, you'll cut to the Airbase, where you'll be informed of the results of the bail out. If you're controlling the squadron, of course, you'll just switch to another aircraft, and be able to view the process from the exterior - the mission doesn't end because one bomber's gone down, you've got a Squadron to run you know…

Q: What happens if there is a fire on the aircraft? What about a fire in an engine?

A: There are two types of fire that can affect the B-17. One is internal to the compartments and the other is an engine fire that affects the exterior of the aircraft. The engine fire can be defeated by prompt action, shutting down the engine, stopping the fuel booster pump and starving the engine of fuel. Then you can fire the two shot extinguisher in each engine. Finally you can try diving the fire out.

Compartment fires can be fought by instructing a crewmember to use the Fire extinguisher that can be found in each compartment. A compartment fire spreads smoke through the B-17 and causes damage and injuries to the systems and crew in that compartment. If left unchecked fire will spread throughout the interior of the B-17. You really don't want it getting to the Bomb Bay…

The Non-Fatal Wound

Q: What happens if I as a player receive a non fatal wound?

A: The two important categories of injury are wounds that do or do not incapacitate a crewmember. Wounds affect Crewmembers, not players. If the crewmember you are "possessing" is incapacitated, then you'll cut to the third person view of the crewmember in the compartment, and then you'll see him collapse. If the crewmember is not incapacitated by the wound then he'll shout to let you know he's wounded, and then you have to decide whether you want to send someone to patch him up, or keep at it.

Wounds that go untreated for too long are bound to get worse, Even treated people are not guaranteed a full recovery, if the wound is really bad they will make a partial recovery, but will not perform 100% and their condition will deteriorate…

Hardware and Force Feedback

Q: The B17 has four engines, and I believe that you are intending to support SUNCOMs split throttle. The new USB version may allow use in parallel, which means that a player could purchase two of these throttles, a Masterpilot or two and a flight yoke and build a dedicated B17 cockpit, with individual throttle control for each engine. Will this be supported in the software?

A. We're looking into how best to use the various peripherals on the market at the moment - we've already got hardware from all of the big peripheral companies (thanks folks!) for configuration and compatibility tests. The idea of split throttles is pretty interesting, though and we're giving it some serious thought.

Q: Tell us about force feedback support for the player in the B17 or in a fighter. What forces will be modelled?

A: We will model control resistance as it varies with airspeed, buffeting near a stall, slackness during a stall, compressibility resistance and judder. The feedback will be tuned for each aircraft to closely match the reports from WWII test pilots.

View System

Q: Padlock Views. Have you decided what you are doing in this area yet?

A: Still debating. Padlock views will be supported for the fighters, all of which have full virtual cockpits. We are looking carefully at all the current sims, and have been listening to discussion on websites such as COMBATSIM.COM™ for some direction here, as different people seem to like different mechanisms. I hope we can produce something that works well for the majority of people. Some of the guys here prefer to use a simple look-around facility hooked up to a Point of View Hat, which is already supported.

System and Scalability

Q. Will you provide an option for high spec machines (PIII 500 and up) who want to create larger battles to do so, in spite of possible performance penalties?

A. We're looking at making B-17 2 as scalable as possible, although some areas are easier to scale than others. Changes in force makeup really affect the gameplay, and so we will want to look very carefully at how scalable this is and where we cap it at either end.

Our main area of developmental thrust, however, has not been to get as many Low-Poly, Low Detail aircraft with fake flight models as possible into the air, but to get as many detailed, accurate aircraft with flight model fidelity in the game whilst still maintaining the unique experience of World War 2 air combat. As for the terrain, because of the way we are doing it we fully expect the game to go on getting better and better looking as the hardware improves well into the future, all by itself, spooky that isn't it :).

Multiplayer Detail

Q. Tell us about multiplayer. Are all the crew positions available in multiplayer?

A. All the crew roles in the B17's and all the fighter pilots can be flown multi-player. We are aiming for 32+ players, with up to 10 players in any one B17. Eg - You can watch your friends gunnery from the waist compartment, shell cases flying in full motion captured glory! And I mean actually see the crew member gunning, walking, getting shot, receiving first aid, not just the gun-site view.

Q. For those who missed it in earlier articles, are campaign missions available in multiplayer?

A. The multi-player game is identical to the single player game in every respect. You can play any of the quick start, single mission, campaign and squadron leader games multi-player.

Q. Tell us about detailing in the cockpit.

A. We have modelled every switch, knob and control in the B17 in 3D and you can click/move every one. The engine start sequence is straight from the original flight instruction manual. Every switch does the right thing. The engines are modelled down to the level of turbo and supercharger performance, inlet/exhaust manifold pressures etc.

Q. Minimum spec machine?

A. The minimum spec. machine is a P200 and a voodoo 1 graphics card and will run at a playable frame rate on any machine of that spec or higher. However, the more processor power and 3D graphics ability you give it, the faster/better the game experience will be. In particular, a good AGP 3D graphics card such as the TNT will greatly enhance the visuals.

Q. What will we see for a manual?

We don't know the length yet since it's unfinished. The most exiting news about the manual is that it is being written by Alkis, the guy who wrote the original B17 Manual, considered a classic by many. And that's not all, Martin Bowman, author of many key books on B17's and 'The USAAF Handbook 1939-1945' is helping him.

I've been in touch with SUNCOM on the question of their coming USB split throttle, and they are checking with the tech people to find out what is possible with regard to mounting two throttles in series for a four axis engine control. I know that this system is do-able because SAITEK demoed eight axis control software at E3 in LA this year. More yet to come on this question for you bomber nuts!

I can envisage some great home cockpits rising from old bits of plywood in basesments across the land. With many of us having made the transition to voice command software, immersion keeps on increasing. And if you are online in a multiplayer game, B17 II will likely have built in chat so third party software shouldn't be necessary.

B17 II will not support Glide, instead going exclusively with Direct3d. With the 3dfx new technology in the offing it will be very exciting to run B17 II with spatial anti-aliasing this winter.

Another question worth asking regards the fact that only the LEAD and Deputy LEAD aircraft in a squadron carried the Norden bombsight. If both LEAD and Deputy lead go down, do we have the option of continuing to fly and drop our bombs based on visual orientation? (See our B17 Navigator's Diary piece for more information.)

I'm wondering what Wayward are considering with regard to follow on products. The natural way to go would be to add another bomber and/or another geography. Personally I'm hoping they allow us to fly the B24 Liberator along with a Spitfire. The Liberator could reach 310 mph at 25,000 feet and carry an internal bomb load double that of the B17 (9000 lbs in the bomb bay, and like the B17 was capable of carrying another 8000 lbs on wing racks.)

I'm also wondering what to choose for a good flight yoke. The CH yoke isn't force feedback, and SUNCOM's G-Force yoke is too low end. With B17 II and four new civil sims arriving between now and Christmas, it seems a natural place for someone to step in with a new product. I'd love to see SUNCOM or Thrustmaster take this on!

Finally, what non flyable aircraft will we see on our journeys? Forgot to ask that question. And will we be able to determine the loadout on the fighter we fly? Will there be variants of the main types of fighters, like the G or K versions of the Bf 109? Here's hoping!

For more on the B17 check out
Heavybombers.com

Other Links

The Mighty 8th Museum

The 303rd Bombardment Group

The USAAF Second Air Division Home page.

To download Windows wallpaper from B17 II, go HERE. The B17 II E3 update is HERE.

B17 "Doc" at Palm Springs

Jack Morgan, CAF: JUG Pilot Interview

B17 Navigator's Diary

B17 Starting Procedures

B17 Defensive Tactics

For more on the real thing go to the Palm Springs Air Museum tour.

For an aircraft briefing, see Heavy Metal: 7 Fighter Legends. For related articles see our History Index.

Notes:

There were a couple of questions that I neglected to ask in my second interview, and additional information has been released. I've culled a few questions from various forums as well as receiving more information via email. Here is an update on B17 II.

Sound APIs

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.

Turbo B17

Quote from the interview: "That means that the engine itself loses no power as altitude increases, but the supercharger will need to be cranked down because as the air gets thinner the relative pressure inside it will increase - effectively reducing the power output."

Response from Gunfighter III:

Sir, as a trained Airframe and Powerplant mechanic (Former job) I beg to differ with the above statement. The TurboSuperchargers installed on piston engines sole purpose in life was to increase the Manifold Absolute Pressure (MAP) to fool the engine into thinking it was at a lower altitude than it was. You are correct in saying that the air is thinner at alt, therefore the compressor section of the TSC "forced" more air (O2) into the cylinders for better fuel consumption and power.

In fact the TSC's on the Wright radials pushed the MAP or in this case Upper Deck Pressure over that of Standard day sea-level pressure of 29.92 in hg. The commonly ran at 40 in.hg Upper Deck pressure under maximum continous power ratings. The problem for pilots was if they left the wast gate closed, TSC "full on" as they descended into the more dense air of lower alt, the upper deck pressure would increase to the point of blowing the jugs right off the crankcase. Gunfighter III

Response from Andrew Walrond at Wayward:

You are of course correct. That answer was wrong, and I should have noticed it (been rather busy and somebody else wrote that answer.) I wrote the simulation code for the Wright-R-1820-97 used in the B17's.

Another problem you didn't mention was turbo overspeeding. The turbo is driven by the pressure difference between the exhaust manifold and the outside atmosphere. At high altitudes (From memory 27,000ft for the wright), the turbo controls must be reduced else the pressure difference will be too great, and the turbo will overspeed and disintegrate.

Setting the 'power' of an engine in the B17 actually involved juggling the mixture, throttle, turbo and prop pitch controls. There were tables of maximum permissable manifold pressures posted in the cockpit of the B17's (There is probably a screen shot showing this somewhere)

Sorry for the confusion. Rest assured I have got this right, in fact I have become something of an expert. Thanks for pulling us up on that one, Gunfighter.

Inertial Starters

"Are you going to model the Inertial starters? I hope so... "

Already done Gunfighter III. Make sure you get those starters good and wound up before you hit the mesh switch, else they cough, spit, splutter and die. In fact, the whole startup sequence is straight out of the B17 flight operations manual. Every switch, knob and control is modelled. Fuel boosters, cowl flaps, intercoolers, oil dilution, the lot. Andrew.

Ed. Note: The AAF manual for the B17 F/G has seven pages of text and diagrams devoted to starting procedures!

Bump Mapping

Another question regards the details of the graphics engine. On Friday morning the programmer in this area, Dominic Robinson, posted the following note on our forum.

The bump mapping on the terrain in B17 II is performed *entirely* in software, independantly of DirectX ( I wrote the code for it it ). This enables us to do things that current hardware doesn't support, and to run on a wider range of hardware.

In particular there is no hardware accelerator anywhere that will render the self shadowing bump maps that are used in B17 II.

The fact that a feature is implemented in hardware doesn't necessarily make its visual quality any higher. Indeed, most rendering techniques exist in software for a considerable time before being implemented in hardware. What hardware usually brings is a performance increase, but often to the detriment of flexibility.

The Matrox G400 does indeed implement one form of bump mapping Fireball ( and a number of other cards can produce similar effects ). However, B17 II uses bump maps in ways that are not currently supported on any hardware that I am aware of. In particular it renders bump maps that can cast shadows on themselves. All of this is done in software and will run on any recent card with basic texture mapping capabilities.

To help clarify what we've been talking about with regard to B17 II's use of bump mapping, the image above was taken from 1,000ft on a Permedia 2 equipped machine with no fancy multi-texturing or bump-mapping hardware - these are software only self-shadowed, anti-aliased bumpmaps. Notice in particular the subtlety of the shading and shadowing on the hilly grass covered area towards the lower left corner of the images. On the evidence of B17 II so far, I'd say that this shadowing is the single most important factor in rendering terrains that will convince the human visual system. B17 II would use hardware acceleration for this feature if it existed - but it doesn't yet :-( (Note: bump mapping is not used on the aircraft themselves.)

The textures are multi-layered, and are dynamically painted with bullet and flak holes, oil leaks spreading out behind the engine, fire buring away the skin... It is likely however that this feature will *not* be available unless you have a video card capable of rendering textures from AGP.

Everything about our engine is scalable. It'll run on our minimum spec, but the more horse and pixel-pushing power and memory you give it, the better it will look. As Dominic said elsewhere, it's spooky but the game will look better in future than it does now, automatically....

Fighter Sub-Variants

"Will there only be the R6 (additional 2x20mm cannons)subvariant for the Bf109? If that will be the case the german fighters will be easy prey for the escorts. The FW190's will need "clean" Bf109 as topcover. Can you give us the possibility to make a variant a simple loadout selection just as rockets or bombs? And will there be G and or K versions of the Bf 109 and A and D versions of the Fw190?"

Wisely, Wayward is not committing to sub-versions for the fighters at this stage. This is something they would like to do, but it may not make it into the initial release. Obviously, there is SO MUCH to this simulation and in order to release this fall the line must be drawn somewhere.

Given the importance of this point, however, I expect we will see sub-variants in the first add-on. Personally, I am hoping for a new theater of operations and an additional bomber to fly, perhaps the B24? In such an add on it would be a simple matter to add a couple of variants for the main fighter aircraft. Better still, for all you Spit lovers out there, we could even hope to see a flyable Spitfire!