News on the upcoming patch

[EtherealN]

An entirely new engine is a massive project. Don't build up unreasonable hopes.

[sobek]

New engine within the next 12 Month, I hope

 

Dream on :cry:

 

If a new engine was due in one year, they would have reached a status were they would have shown some screens by now, as development of modern grafic engines takes about 3-5 years AFAIK. Following recent mod comments, it seems they are going the way of updating the current engine instead of writing a new one from scratch ATM, so it is very likely that a new engine is not being worked on right now. Also lately it appears (IMHO) that ED seem unsure about to what degree old modules will benefit from engine upgrades, which is a huge disappointment to me.

[Feuerfalke]

I hope the new engine will be here with the Apache module and who knows when that will be released.

 

It would be reasonable, though, as this module needs a reworked AI to make up for the empty seat and I doubt ED want's another helo flying in the desert.

 

For the A10, these trees are not that important, I fear.

 

 

I will give ED the chance to surprise me in terms of release-date and included changes. I don't need the patch, as the most critical flaws won't be fixed, so I'm not depending on it or counting days until the release.

[192nd_Erdem]

I'd add +2 years for that engine, considering "Eagly Dynamics time" :P

[Pilotasso]

Dream on :cry:

 

If a new engine was due in one year, they would have reached a status were they would have shown some screens by now, as development of modern grafic engines takes about 3-5 years AFAIK. Following recent mod comments, it seems they are going the way of updating the current engine instead of writing a new one from scratch ATM, so it is very likely that a new engine is not being worked on right now. Also lately it appears (IMHO) that ED seem unsure about to what degree old modules will benefit from engine upgrades, which is a huge disappointment to me.

 

Your mistakened. A new engine has been in the works for a considerable ammount of time. The devs commented here a few weeks ago that one of the limitations to be cured was that the current engine does not allow increase of map area using the current 32 bit engine. And that there are things to be donne to port the KA-50 module to that engine in another module.

 

Well see, dont assume scenarios.

[sobek]

I hope the new engine will be here with the Apache module and who knows when that will be released.

 

It would be reasonable, though, as this module needs a reworked AI to make up for the empty seat and I doubt ED want's another helo flying in the desert.

 

For the A10, these trees are not that important, I fear.

 

 

I will give ED the chance to surprise me in terms of release-date and included changes. I don't need the patch, as the most critical flaws won't be fixed, so I'm not depending on it or counting days until the release.

 

It appears to be unsure at this point, if there ever will be a completely new engine. However, that does not mean that there's no potential in cranking up the old one.

 

 

Edit:

Your mistakened.

 

God, i do hope so. :)

 

A new engine has been in the works for a considerable ammount of time.

Not that i heard of. I only heard of plans to develop a new one. Feel free to correct me.

 

The devs commented here a few weeks ago that one of the limitations to be cured was that the current engine does not allow increase of map area using the current 32 bit engine.

Thats why they are working on porting the old engine to 64bit for the A-10 module. No new engine though, just a upgrade on the old one. At least that's what was said in that statement, IIRC.

 

Well see, dont assume scenarios.

See we will, in good time. Recent statements have led me to a little pessimistic view though. Edited April 23, 2009 by sobek

[Feuerfalke]

Going to 64bit IS cranking up the engine by overcoming 32bit limitations. :D

 

As you posted correctly, 64bit does not mean "new engine". It's optimizing software to benefit from 64bit hardware and OS, e.g by using more memory. I doubt you need a new engine for this.

 

On the other hand, I doubt the new engine will be 64bit only, as you also have to keep in mind the many XP-fans.

[sobek]

Going to 64bit IS cranking up the engine by overcoming 32bit limitations. :D

 

As you posted correctly, 64bit does not mean "new engine". It's optimizing software to benefit from 64bit hardware and OS, e.g by using more memory. I doubt you need a new engine for this.

 

On the other hand, I doubt the new engine will be 64bit only, as you also have to keep in mind the many XP-fans.

 

To come back to the start, i think that moving to 64 bit will do next to nothing to overcome the resource problems that collidable trees impose under the current engine. The "only" thing it will do is allow greater maps with considerably more units on them (which is of course a great improvement by itself). This is where some major overhaul or a new engine would be needed. Tis all im saying. :)

[HansRoaming]

Shame for the delay.

 

As a customer I prefer the short time scale and small footprint release approach adopted by software companies such as Jive over the long time scale and large footprint release. Less to go wrong per patch and shorter times between fixes.

 

Of course this is just my viewpoint and would like to here from ED why they favour the long time between release and large foot print approach over and above a mod saying things like "I feel you have no clue as to what you're talking about." earlier in this thread.

[sobek]

Shame for the delay.

 

As a customer I prefer the short time scale and small footprint release approach adopted by software companies such as Jive over the long time scale and large footprint release. Less to go wrong per patch and shorter times between fixes.

 

Of course this is just my viewpoint and would like to here from ED why they favour the long time between release and large foot print approach over and above a mod saying things like "I feel you have no clue as to what you're talking about." earlier in this thread.

 

What delay? There has never been a release date :huh:

At first, there are no showstoppers so there's no real urgent need to get a patch out quickly.

 

Second, my guess is they want to move on from BS as quickly as possible to get their resources to the A-10 module. Providing all updates in 1 patch means they will not have to beta test every little release, instead just one longer testing phase for the big release, thus overall being able to move on faster to other projects. Just a guess though.

[GGTharos]

Because ED wants to spend more time fixing and adding things instead of having to spend multiple sessions in testing and packaging - in short, they have chosen the way that is more efficient for them.

[muamshai]

You can charge for the patch, and name it as "update package" :D

[sobek]

You can charge for the patch, and name it as "update package" :D

 

Oh the heresy, fire and brimstone be upon you, you shameless heathen :D

[GGTharos]

I'm certain that people who like to work for free for years on end would not do that :D

 

You can charge for the patch, and name it as "update package" :D

[nemises]

Shame for the delay.

 

As a customer I prefer the short time scale and small footprint release approach adopted by software companies such as Jive over the long time scale and large footprint release. Less to go wrong per patch and shorter times between fixes.

 

Of course this is just my viewpoint and would like to here from ED why they favour the long time between release and large foot print approach over and above a mod saying things like "I feel you have no clue as to what you're talking about." earlier in this thread.

 

yeah, we all want that, however, ED are a very small company ... I suspect the complexity of changes, and especially the amount of detail ED go into with their beta testing contribute to the length of time it takes to realse it.

Proof evident is in just how stable and aweome BS is at release.

 

I guess it is economy of scale... rather than getting dozens of people to test 1 or 2 things every couple of weeks, you might as well accumulate many things, and get the dozens of people to test all at once...more efficient that way, as you aren't constantly putting out releases into public domain.

 

2c

[DarthElvis]

Don't put it past them to pull another Flaming Cliffs on us, include the patch in a new module (looks like A-10 at this point) and charge you for it. No pay, No patch. Mind you, FC is a great addition- but the patch should have been available separate.

[Feuerfalke]

To come back to the start, i think that moving to 64 bit will do next to nothing to overcome the resource problems that collidable trees impose under the current engine. The "only" thing it will do is allow greater maps with considerably more units on them (which is of course a great improvement by itself). This is where some major overhaul or a new engine would be needed. Tis all im saying. :)

 

Sure thing.

 

Who said anything against it?

[LastRifleRound]

I don't know. There are some glaring holes in implementation that could use a patch that really "bug" me HA!!! :music_whistling:

 

Fixing ABRIS map scale is pretty important, as well as INU drift. Navigation management is non-existent in the current state of the sim.

 

The autopilot terrorizes me, though many still deny that it fights the pilot.

[EtherealN]

Don't put it past them to pull another Flaming Cliffs on us, include the patch in a new module (looks like A-10 at this point) and charge you for it. No pay, No patch. Mind you, FC is a great addition- but the patch should have been available separate.

 

As far as I know, LockOn actually belonged to Ubisoft, not ED. I suspect that Flaming Cliffs being a payware expansion is one of the reasons why ED even survived - I have heard some rumors about UbiSoft not being entirely clean in their dealings with ED around LockOn. (But don't know the details, if someone does and wants to share, please feel free to PM me or something like that.)

 

Whichever way that may be, I suspect that there's a reason why they decided to self-publish this time around... But obviously they may not be able to elaborate openly on it and derailing the thread might not be a good thing.

 

But do realize that it might not be ED that pulled a Flaming Cliffs on us. I wouldn't be surprised if it was Ubisoft who decided to drop the product, which then meant that ED wouldn't get paid for their work if they released their work as a regular patch. So, in order to survive, they then made it a payqare expansion.

 

DO REALIZE THAT I AM SPECULATING THERE.

I just wanted to highlight that there are usually quite a few sides to every story, and there's often a reason why developers do things that seem weird.

[EtherealN]

The autopilot terrorizes me, though many still deny that it fights the pilot.

 

Well, it fights the pilot if it ain't handled correctly. :P After learning the use of it I very very seldom have any problems with it - though that learning thing did take a good bit of time.

[LastRifleRound]

i don't know, that first 20% ROM is hard to manuever in w/out holding Trim, and that's not all that easy when you're trying to lock targets without TrackIR. Maybe ED could release free TrackIR?

[EtherealN]

Release free TrackIR? What do you mean by that?

 

Also, what do you mean by 20% ROM?

[GGTharos]

Why are you trying to lock up targets while maneuvering?

FLY the helicopter first. Once stable, attack.

 

i don't know, that first 20% ROM is hard to manuever in w/out holding Trim, and that's not all that easy when you're trying to lock targets without TrackIR. Maybe ED could release free TrackIR?

[GGTharos]

That is a false statement. Navigation management has a couple of snags, but it is very much a big part of this simulation.

 

Or did you mean something very specific, as opposed to that broad generalization?

 

Navigation management is non-existent in the current state of the sim.

[159th_Viper]

.....Maybe ED could release free TrackIR?

 

The Software is Free - Download it at your leisure!

 

Now the Hardware.........now that's a different story........now why would anybody even vaguely entertain the notion of giving away free merchandise.

 

In any event, for a fiver you can have Freetrack, TrackIr's Ugly Stepsister........Not much to look at, but does the job just as well, or so they say. Then again, might just be a case of the 'Beer-Goggles'.......