Hello everyone!
Today we want to tell you several news from IL-2 Sturmovik project.
First, we finished two-seat fighter Bf 110 E-2 flight model and start working on physics of another aircraft, Ju 88 A-4. Development of twin engine aircraft, all of which have sophisticated array of instruments, isn't easy, but we keep up as planned so far and think it will be ready on time. In parallel, its 3D model is being made, here are several WIP screenshots from 3D editor:
Second, while preparing playable tanks for the beta test, we made significant improvements to the ballistics and armor modeling, mainly improved interpolation of a damage inflicted between reference data values. Here we need to go in some detail [;)] Since there is no universal formula that lets you calculate how much damage a round would deal after piercing a certain armor sheet knowing its impact speed and angle, we use reference data (like it pierced 54 mm at 30 degrees) and sometimes additional reference points calculated using the empiric De Marre formula. Between these points you need to interpolate the results (like how much would it pierce at 34 degrees and at higher speed). Optimization is also needs to be taken into account, since one 12.7 bullet can impact dozens of various systems and parts after entering an aircraft. Problem was, armor penetration was right when close to reference points described above, but its interpolation between them was rather rough (usually resulting in higher armor penetration values). However we found a way to improve the 2D 'speed-armor-damage' interpolation without sacrificing performance, which greatly reduced these errors between the reference points. Here you can see 2D interpolation graph we used to monitor the effectiveness of this function (previously it looked like step pyramid of Djoser in Egypt):
Third, we observe the discussion 'how far can you reach from the cockpit in the flight' on the forums for a long time and obviously the current implementation is not satisfactory for the community. It is clearly a very subjective since it depends on whether a pilot tied his safety belts or not, how much can he endure the wind blasting at his head and body while keeping the ability to see anything, does he wear a mask and many other things, but we decided to make a more universal approach. Previously we calculated the air pressure force that forced pilot's head back into cockpit (it started to effect the pilot roughly at 300 km/h, reaching maximum effect at 500 km/h), but now we made it a bit more detailed:
0 - 30 km/h: you can stand up and lean your body outside (50 cm to the sides and 20 cm up, as it was before). This may be useful for taxiing.
30 - 50 km/h: you get back into cockpit, it's like you tighten your seat belts.
50 - 200 km/h: you can peek your eye a bit to look what's going on.
200 - 350 km/h: gradually you lose the ability to lean out completely.
Above 350 km/h you have the same head limits like in a closed cockpit.
For a bit of fun and first-hand demonstration, we made an experiment to learn how far you can lean to the side without moving the lower part of your body, the result you can see on the picture below. It depends on your height and general weight, but:
1) If cockpit sides are not too high (WWI era planes), you can easily lean up to 40 cm to the sides;
2) If a cockpit is narrow and its sides are on the level of your shoulders, it's difficult to lean more than 20 cm to the sides;
3) You need to watch your weight (compare the head size of our PM Han to head size of pilot model used in the game) [:)]
Dev blog #113, part 2