Current progress of our Cross-Channel Maps

[PPanPan]

Hi Chaps,

I hope all is well. Can I press for a little update on progress please?

Thanks

PPanPan

[352ndDeacon]

Sure, all the airfields have been placed on the map.  I believe there are close to 80 of them.  We are working on some texture issues and cleaning them up.  We've found that in an attempt to make the map load as fast as possible, we are thinking of just placing the city or country textures where the towns and villages are located and not populating them.  In this way, if a mission builder needed a specific town or village populated with some objects to act as targets, he could place them there but the rest of the community which didn't need that village populated, wouldn't have to suffer the increased load time.
I'll try to post some screen shots of a few of the German bases in France but I'm busy on this day off, working on the map.

[PPanPan]

Thanks for the update Deacon. Sounds like a good idea to keep the towns unpopulated. Also, as you may know, the forthcoming IL-2 4.10 update will make it possible to copy and paste collections of objects in FMB. This way, once a a user has populated one city with objects, it might be possible (with a little tweaking) to move those quickly and easily to the next city for another mission. This fits in nicely with your decision not to populate the entire map. More info on 4.10 at http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=12568.

Cheers

PPanPan

[Chivas]

Oleg seems to be having problems doing the terrain for BOB SOW.  Maybe you could submit your map and it could be refined with Olegs new engine to be even better. 

[WTE Newy]

Any Updates?

[philip.ed]

Update: there are no updates :D

[352ndPersecutor]

Update: there are no updates :D

Sure there are ..... we're just keeping them to ourselves !!!   

Seriously, we found some minor elevation and placement issues with several of the airfields that had been missed on earlier checks.  Don't you just hate when that happen?!  We're applying final texturing to the continent areas.  There are minor roads and railway issues to resolve, and the final bridges have to be checked and then added to our map. 

There are some trees in some water areas where they should not be.

We found a few minor elevation issues in a corner of the map very few folks ever fly in;  that is being fixed now.

In other words, we are putting final, final, and ultra-final touches on the map as I am typing this.

Barring further edits .................   

Soon.

Deja vu.

[PPanPan]

Hi Folks,
As we are fast approaching the 70th anniversary of Dunkirk and the opening salvoes of the Battle of Britain, what do you think the chances are of releasing the map in time for this? Would be nice to fly some historically accurate missions at this time. Just thought I'd ask!
Cheers
PPanPan

[352ndPersecutor]

I suspect the chances are very good.  But no promises.  We are very close.

[philip.ed]

I really can't wait! I hope the install is painless :D

[PPanPan]

I suspect the chances are very good.  But no promises.  We are very close.

OK, thanks  .

Not sure if this has been asked before, but will the airfields (or some of them) have additional 'invisible' runways hard coded in and placed so that in coops, aircraft can start off runway. The Libya map available in UP 2.0 does this and it's a great feature to have.

Keep up the great work

PPanPan

[352ndOscar]

Many of the bases are open landing grounds with parking (spawn points) around the perimeter that are typical for the period, some are concrete - as they were in real life.  The landing ground type fields permit take off in just about any direction - depends on the particular field.  Some fields depict takeoff and landing direction markings, but, for the most part the entire field is smooth as a babies butt and you can land or takeoff anywhere within the landing field perimeter.  More permanent concrete bases have more structure to them, so, spawn points and taxi routes are more defined - as they should be. 

There are 80+ fields so its hard to be more specific.

[PPanPan]

Many thanks Oscar - all sounds great. I am not too familiar with playing in dogfight mode which I think you may be referring to with spawn points?

I generally make and fly coop missions. When setting an aircraft take-off waypoint, IL2 puts the aircraft at the runway threshold, wherever that might be defined on the map. It's pretty much impossible to have them start anywhere else. So, on your map, will it be possible for aircraft in coops to start along the edge of an open field (e.g. by the dispersal hut) and then taxi into position for a formation take-off? Or,for example at RAF Northolt, will it be possible to have coop aircraft to start somewhere along a taxiway or apron area?

This has been achieved in the Libya map by the map maker adding additional invisible runways to the map. These are not intended to be used for take-off/landing, they are placed so that their thresholds are actually off the main runway(s) so making it possible to start off-runway by setting a take-off waypoint to one of these invisible hard coded runways.

Thanks again

PPanPan

[352ndOscar]

I "believe" once you place the 'takeoff' waypoint, that you can drag them off the end of the runway to areas around the runway.  Something to check into.  Maybe the guys who've built the BoB Coops for this map can chime in and verify.

[PPanPan]

Sadly not - whilst FMB allows you to drag a take-off waypoint icon anywhere on the airfield, as soon as you enter the game, it snaps back to the threshold. I'll post a screenie of how the Libya map works as this might be a very simple and quick fix for half a dozen or so airfields.

Cheers

PPanPan