B-17 Flying Fortress II: Interview with Wayward - Page 1/1
Created on 2005-02-08
Title: B-17 Flying Fortress II: Interview with Wayward By: Len 'Viking1' Hjalmarson Date: 1999-08-02 5581 Flashback:Orig. Multipage Version Hard Copy:Printer Friendly
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.
*********************
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.
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.
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?
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!
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
