DCS Newsletter discussion 29th July 2022 - DCS: Kola | AH-64D Animations | Free WWII Asset Pack

[Dragon1-1]

2 hours ago, marcost said:

Great news! Anyone thinking I-16?

It's a modern version (we don't know the exact timeframe, but it's remote enough that it probably haven't change that much since late Cold War), but a WWII one would be great, as well. Winter War is not something that's really explored in any media. 

I have to say, I love the idea. It could use assets from MiG-19 to Eurofighter, depending on time period. I hope we'll get AI assets with it. Cold War galore!  

Edited July 29, 2022 by Dragon1-1

[Baco]

kola: At last a proper cold war map!!! very eagerly waiting! besides, beautifull landscapes and demanding terrain.

Love the chioce! reminisence of Janes F/A-18 and EF 2000: legendary sims...

Edited July 29, 2022 by Baco

[skywalker22]

Does ORBX have any Discord channel, to follow their progress?

ED: they deserve a new Thread here on the forum, under Maps, right?

[MAXsenna]

5 hours ago, IR Sky said:

I'm already thinking about the campaign - Battle of Joelupukki's(Santa Claus) Workshop

Yeah! We've gotta take care of that imposter. Everybody knows the real Santa lives on the North Pole!

[MAXsenna]

4 hours ago, DiCE81 said:

Summer and winter versions. frozen sea?

Depends.
Salt water, actually a bit from the North Pole, and on the Norwegian side we have free hot water from Mexico. So no, unless in fjords etc. with less salt where rivers flows into the ocean.
Russian side? I have no clue.

Cheers!

[IR.Clutch]

7 минут назад, MAXsenna сказал:

Yeah! We've gotta take care of that imposter

Indeed! 

[Gunfreak]

32 minutes ago, Dragon1-1 said:

It's a modern version (we don't know the exact timeframe, but it's remote enough that it probably haven't change that much since late Cold War), but a WWII one would be great, as well. Winter War is not something that's really explored in any media. 

I have to say, I love the idea. It could use assets from MiG-19 to Eurofighter, depending on time period. I hope we'll get AI assets with it. Cold War galore!  

 

The cities will be wrong, but I don't know how detailed they will be. The biggest cities on the map on the nordic side seems to be Rovaniemi in Finland, Tromsø in Norway and Luleå in Sweden, with around  70, 64 and 45 thousand people respectively. 

And Murmansk in Russia wiry 300k. These will probably look out of place vs ww2. But the nature will look more or less correct except for the high power lines that will crisscross forests and mountains. 

[Dragon1-1]

What I meant is that it'd be a good idea to pitch the concept of a WWII version of the map to Orbx. The map will be modern, what we don't know if it's post-2010 modern like PG, or circa 2000 modern. It's pretty remote and there probably isn't that much to date it in the 1980-2010 range, but they are probably targeting a specific date (if they're not just making it look like it does right now, which would be pretty meh if there's any landmark that would date it to 2020s).

[ThorBrasil]

I'm not even going to get excited because the South Atlantic Map was the biggest disappointment I had. I'll wait for the Kola map to come out to consider buying.

[Beirut]

Very cool to hear that ORBX is getting into DCS. Would love to see custom airports, like Groom lake. 

 

Bring it! 

[mkellytx]

Kola and the Northern Flank have long been areas of interest.  Always wanted them and it's amazing the amount of info that's out there open source.  Fiddled around a bit with the locations of the AD networks and airfields for the 1970's Cold War (Warsaw Pact).  NATO, Sweden and Finland are all late 80's early 90's.  It should make a really fun map.

nullnull

[Gierasimov]

7 hours ago, ThorBrasil said:

I'm not even going to get excited because the South Atlantic Map was the biggest disappointment I had. I'll wait for the Kola map to come out to consider buying.

It was for me as well. It's in early access, maybe in few years it will become a beauty. Remember that lots of people are apparently enjoying it and think it is the best map. 

Same will go for Kola, people who fly high and do A2A will not care about lack of detail down low. 

I am mostly interested in low level ground attack and also fly Hind or Apache from time to time, therefore for me low level details must much or supass those if Marianas or Syria. 

We will see. 

I will wait in anticipation and hope. 

[WinterH]

7 hours ago, ThorBrasil said:

I'm not even going to get excited because the South Atlantic Map was the biggest disappointment I had. I'll wait for the Kola map to come out to consider buying.

Looks like it will be the same satellite textures tech as it too is, which I personally despise in combat flight sims. While up high they look gorgeous, down low they're just no-no for me, and in DCS with helicopters and also jets trying to sneak under radars, down low is where we are 80% of the time. And still they take crazy drive space too.

I get it some people love it, and more power to them, but I really hope this isn't becoming the default way to go for next DCS maps. Kola Peninsula is very interesting for me, but not with those satellite imagery sort of textures. If that's the future of DCS maps, I'll happily stick with what I have and just get aircraft myself.

Of course the map is a while in the future yet, and I'll be more than happy to be proven wrong. But from what I've seen so far of this tech, I've never liked what I've seen at low altitudes, and unlike a civilian flight sim that's of primary importance here imo.

Edited July 30, 2022 by WinterH

[Lace]

Well, that was a surprise...  South Atlantic who?

[Gierasimov]

59 minutes ago, WinterH said:

Looks like it will be the same satellite textures tech as it too is, which I personally despise in combat flight sims. While up high they look gorgeous, down low they're just no-no for me, and in DCS with helicopters and also jets trying to sneak under radars, down low is where we are 80% of the time. And still they take crazy drive space too.

I get it some people love it, and more power to them, but I really hope this isn't becoming the default way to go for next DCS maps. Kola Peninsula is very interesting for me, but not with those satellite imagery sort of textures. If that's the future of DCS maps, I'll happily stick with what I have and just get aircraft myself.

Of course the map is a while in the future yet, and I'll be more than happy to be proven wrong. But from what I've seen so far of this tech, I've never liked what I've seen at low altitudes, and unlike a civilian flight sim that's of primary importance here imo.

 

Plus the work in progress screenshot shows exact problem that Razbam's map has, of many others -low fidelity / low resolution satelite textures in mountains. 

Let's see, but if it is the new standard then I will stick to Marianas and Syria maps. 

[Gunfreak]

Well the map is much smaller(about a 1/6 the size of SA) so maybe that means it will be more detailed. 

[Dragon1-1]

I think the land areas are much more comparable, remember that most of SA map is open water. That said, I'm hopeful, if only because they can't be unaware of the fact people will want to fly the Viggen down in the weeds on this map. It must look pretty down low, since that's where the only Swedish jet we have plies its trade.  

[schmiefel]

1 hour ago, WinterH said:

Looks like it will be the same satellite textures tech as it too is, which I personally despise in combat flight sims.

Maybe you should check the work ORBX has delivered for other flight simulators since many years. My first contact with them, was when they re-textured whole Australia for the previous Microsoft flightsim in 2008. The way they combined highres satellite images with handcrafted stuff was really gamechanging and they have come a long way since then. Most of their work are very detailed designed airports, but they have done some really great area works for today's flightsimulators with a high degree of details that work very well, when doing VFR flights.

As I am not sure if it's allowed to post some example videos from other flightsims with ORBX landscape here, one may just search for example for a clip on YT called 'Great Britain North - First Look Video - Amazing for Low & Slow Pilots!'

Sure that's made for a quite different sim technology, but with the experience of ORBX on several very different flightsims I have a lot of confidence that they could achieve a real high level of details and quality of work  in DCS, too. And as others already mentioned, maybe we can get some polished add-ons for certain cities, areas and most important airfields on other maps, too, if ED and other 3rd parties will allow this kind of DLCs for DCS that ORBX is most famous for in other flightsims.

The biggest challenge for them may be that they have to ad a certain level of destructible structures to map objects, what they never needed and have done to my knowledge in the other civil flightsims. In the example screens shown by ED you can see that they are aware of this feature and seem to include destructible object structures.

So I am really looking forward to their first product for DCS.

Edit: or maybe check out their brand new South America Mesh for the civil flightsim (on YT e.g. 'Stunning Scenery | South America Mesh | ORBX') that already has got a great photorealistic scenery inside, but with 'only' a resolution of 20 meters that ORBX mesh cranks up to 10 meters with its own mesh and textures.

Edited July 30, 2022 by schmiefel

[Knock-Knock]

15 hours ago, skywalker22 said:

Is there any approx. date of release? Will we have to wait 4 more years?

It took around 1½ year from when we first heard/saw screenshots of Syria, until its release. So Id use that as a reference which brings it for Christmas 2023.

[andrewd251]

I would love if the map was expanded if possible to include Iceland and Scotland. Good cold War and present day intercept mission availability. 

[Gunfreak]

24 minutes ago, andrewd251 said:

I would love if the map was expanded if possible to include Iceland and Scotland. Good cold War and present day intercept mission availability. 

If they did that. They really would have to make a ww2 version.

[corbu1]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb schmiefel:

…

Sure that's made for a quite different sim technology, but with the experience of ORBX on several very different flightsims I have a lot of confidence that they could achieve a real high level of details and quality of work  in DCS, too. And as others already mentioned, maybe we can get some polished add-ons for certain cities, areas and most important airfields on other maps, too, if ED and other 3rd parties will allow this kind of DLCs for DCS that ORBX is most famous for in other flightsims.

The biggest challenge for them may be that they have to ad a certain level of destructible structures to map objects, what they never needed and have done to my knowledge in the other civil flightsims. In the example screens shown by ED you can see that they are aware of this feature and seem to include destructible object structures.

So I am really looking forward to their first product for DCS.

….

 

Yes, that‘s exactly my opinion, too.

I have ORBX products for my civil sims for years. They really put them to new level with custom meshes, terrains and highly detailed airports.

Sure, there are significant differences to DCS as military simulation. As I‘m exclusivly flying helicopters in sims ,and as it’s their nature flying almost low, high detailed ground structures and terrain are so important.

if there‘s a company how can deal with DCS and it‘s challenges I‘m confident ORBX can deal with it.

[Mogster]

Are we going to get a forum area to discuss this map? Will Orbx be added to the 3rd party dev section?

[MAXsenna]

16 minutes ago, Mogster said:

Are we going to get a forum area to discuss this map? Will Orbx be added to the 3rd party dev section?

Yes, please! 

@BIGNEWY @NineLine

[Germane]

vor 2 Stunden schrieb schmiefel:

Maybe you should check the work ORBX has delivered for other flight simulators since many years. My first contact with them, was when they re-textured whole Australia for the previous Microsoft flightsim in 2008. The way they combined highres satellite images with handcrafted stuff was really gamechanging and they have come a long way since then. Most of their work are very detailed designed airports, but they have done some really great area works for today's flightsimulators with a high degree of details that work very well, when doing VFR flights.

As I am not sure if it's allowed to post some example videos from other flightsims with ORBX landscape here, one may just search for example for a clip on YT called 'Great Britain North - First Look Video - Amazing for Low & Slow Pilots!'

Sure that's made for a quite different sim technology, but with the experience of ORBX on several very different flightsims I have a lot of confidence that they could achieve a real high level of details and quality of work  in DCS, too. And as others already mentioned, maybe we can get some polished add-ons for certain cities, areas and most important airfields on other maps, too, if ED and other 3rd parties will allow this kind of DLCs for DCS that ORBX is most famous for in other flightsims.

The biggest challenge for them may be that they have to ad a certain level of destructible structures to map objects, what they never needed and have done to my knowledge in the other civil flightsims. In the example screens shown by ED you can see that they are aware of this feature and seem to include destructible object structures.

So I am really looking forward to their first product for DCS.

Edit: or maybe check out their brand new South America Mesh for the civil flightsim (on YT e.g. 'Stunning Scenery | South America Mesh | ORBX') that already has got a great photorealistic scenery inside, but with 'only' a resolution of 20 meters that ORBX mesh cranks up to 10 meters with its own mesh and textures.

 

I just hope the DCS engine doesn't make it too hard for them. I'm afraid the engines they have worked with so far have been much more modern and flexible. But nevertheless I am very happy about the announcement.