Evening all,

I know many people follow the blog so much of this is old news so apologies if you've seen it before.

















Various buildings have been include to give it a mid-western feel.

















Our yet to be named stagefield. Basic, but with everything an Apache needs to operate. Fuel, ammo and maintenance tents.







From inside the control tower.



There are 3 regular ranges of differing lengths and 2 slightly more natural firing ranges.










Targets range from rusty old pickups to rusty old T-72's.









There's also a mock-up of an Afghani compound with multiple enemy firing positions surrounding it. Unorthodox, but it provides some training for the future deployment to Herat, Afghanistan.





Hopefully we can include a season changer.







As always, follow the latest progress on:

Our development blog: http://combathelo.blogspot.com/

Our facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/CombatHelo

Cheers

Seriously, I'll be more than happy just with this. I love the street with red brick shops either side. I love everything. Fantastic work!

I'm with Flyboy. This is some fantastic work! I got my credit card ready anytime you guys want to open up pre-orders

Awesome!!

Agreed, this looks awesome and to me those details are more than enough - just release the "damm" thing

(I'm really desperate for this sim)

Hello,

in advance, i beg your pardon for my beautiful english ...

Impressive work as usual.

Two questions :

what is the size of your map ? 32/32 KM ?

How you manage the limit of the sides of the map ? Invisible walls ?

Best regards, have a good day.

Awesome. The blog was a great idea. Gives us game-civies(and even me, with a little programming xp) a glimpse into the world of game design.

looks really great, can't wait.

looks great! Amazing what a few dedicated, smart guys can do.

The firing range is smaller than that (I think), the Herat map is the same size as the flyable area in Longbow 2 which was 45km square per zone with a 5km walled-off edge so you couldn't see it wrap-around. The firing range is so pretty I don't want it to end. Alas that's not it's role but the range is prettier than my programmer art 'test map' which has a few bumps and trees on it.

Not decided how to handle out of area yet flight yet. I'll look at how other games handle it, AD knows this is something on my mind as I occasionally ask him technical art stuff. Map size is something we want to address in a sequel using new technology as future scenarios demand it. For now it's not too big, not too small and all we can do given our resources. So long as it fits my "Goldilocks Zone" I'm happy.

A quick question Flex if you don't mind. You mentioned that the limitations for the engine are somewhat small. Is there a hardcoded limit to the range of the map? I guess I'm wondering why you couldn't theorectically go on forever in one direction, even if there are no textures or anything. Or even once you hit the edge of on map, place another next to it, unless the engine loads the entire map all at once, instead of only what is visible.

No need to answer right away, just your previous answer made me curious.

One thing you could do is if you're approaching the edge of the map, have the "other crewmember" ask "Where the hell are you going, dummy?" or "Are you lost again?". If you don't turn around he'll "take the controls" and execute a turn back toward the geographical center of the map. That could be fun, two pilots fighting over which way to go, lol.

Textures are remarkable.

wow

The map is 20480M x 20480M which would be quite small for a general purpose map, but with the stagefield and the ranges being in the center of the map there's almost 0 transit time.

The size can actually be increased with a bit of mirroring to 40960Mx40960M, if for no other reason than to give a little bit more room and push the wall back a little further.



The really odd thing is that by increasing the map size to 40960, load times go down by about 50%

Cheers

Impressive work!
Is it planned to populate the service areas with some human models?



I somewhat like that idea.

I like that idea too, a simple conceit that is 'in character'.

Gas prices are accurate!

Looks awesome indeed.



Bullet

Just don't do what happens in Operation Flashpoint (the demo anyhow) when you leave the mission area and have it so you get shot and killed by an invisible sniper. *sigh*

Yeah that sounds like most of my FPS experience.

Changing the subject slightly. I'm tickled by the sign outside the gas station offering new and used bicycles. There are no bicycles. It's a complete mystery.

You're up late tonight!