hi, I go back to "across the Rhine" and I think everyone knows how that turned out ...
Anyway, "Steel Beasts Pro", for sale elsewhere on this site (actually EBAY), is the best modern tank sim.
How about the best WWII tank sim?

Another, sort of related question. What is that bulge about half way up almost all modern tanks' barrels? What is its purpose? Just curious.

Thanks!

Fume extractor. So your tankers don't get lung cancer. Tank guns are "semi automatic". Not firearm semi automatic. On firing the case or the shell base are automatically extracted to allow the loader or auto loader to load the next shell. In other words the breech is open. On an artillery piece the fume extractor is unneeded as the gas that the power burned will exit out the barrel AND the breach. In a tank buttoned up those fumes are vary unpleasant. Will also coat everything in yuck over time. Depending on quality of ammo.

Newest good ww2 sim is Kharkov 1942. Other wise you have to go way back in time to the late 90's Panzer elite. Probably a few others I am not thinking of.

If you do get SB
I would try the T-62 its as near a WW2 type tank as your going to get in SB
No thermals ballistic computers etc. The RL tankers call in steam gunnery
Hard as hell to hit a moving target but at the same time great fun to fight in.
A good match for it is the centurion not playable though, if you want a playable tank go for the leo_AS1
A better tank the T-62 but a reasonable fair match. I have been searching for a good WW2 tank sim for along time.

As for a good WW2 tanksim, you could try this:







(Steel Fury - Kharkov 1942, modded)

...or this...







(Panzer Elite, modded, dated visually but wider scope and better platoon control)

...or if your interpretation of 'good' is perhaps a little less exacting, this:





(Combat Tanks - T-34 vs Tiger - very good simulation of the featured tanks, very limited regarding AI and missions)

Mission reports featuring modded Steel Fury are here:

http://combatace.com/topic/81863-tiger-tiger-burning-bright-sf-42/

...and here:

http://combatace.com/topic/82034-hell-on-wheels-sf-42/

...and here:

http://combatace.com/topic/82559-steel-fury-king-tiger/

...and here:

http://combatace.com/topic/82833-panthers-at-prokhorovka/

T-34 -v- Tiger mission reports here:

http://combatace.com/topic/82666-t-34-versus-tiger/

Thanks for the very good and balanced assessment of the various sims 33lima. Your SF mission report was very thorough and very positive!Let's hope people give it a try!

+1
Enjoyed reading it.
But still live in hope that SB will introduce some playable WW2 armour in the form of an add on.
Some WW2 armour was used well after the war was over the T-34/85. Sherman. and the French used the panther for a While after The war.

German armour was used by the Romanians until 1947, by the Finns until the 60s, by Spain until the 50s, Syria used some Panzer IV Ausf G and H as late as 1967....

And you could try IronFront based on the Arma engine or even Inv 44 mod for it as well. Both excellent tank sims in their own right.

Also, "Switzerland" which up to the 80's, were using the "Hetzer" ordered directly from Czechoslovakia, right after WWII. You could have bought one or two or three..., as they were selling them to whoever was ready to pay for the armor FOB, in the 80's.

You could also find some T-34-85 in Yugoslavia in the 90's.

Finally Iron Front 44, is full of inaccuracies, not so great graphics.

A better graphics, better sim, yet poor AI, but the Best Tiger I driving simulator available on the market to this date, is: "T34 vs Tiger". Which is not really surprising as some developers of that game were also part of the development crew of Steel Fury - Kharkov 1942.

..and as it happens I've been working on a double mission report for TvT, which is now also up:

http://combatace.com/topic/82666-t-34-versus-tiger/





It's a pity that despite the editor, few if any missions were made or released, beyond ZeeWolf's efforts. More and better missions, on maps which didn't mostly channel you between the woods (or force you slowly to crunch through them) may have made a big difference; apart from the complete lack of platoon command and control, most of the basics were there.

Finally Iron Front 44, is full of inaccuracies, not so great graphics.


I agree.Although there's a project going on to improve that game:

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3884522/Iron_Front_Revival_Mod_Release#Post3884522

There's i44; a WW2 mod made for Arma 2 which is very good for sounds , modelling , tactical and maps but weask in the ballistics and realism department unfortunately.tThe all powerful , all-seeing Arma Ai makes it difficult to play and as I said realistic armour simulation is not Arma strong point.

Combining TvsT's tank driving simulation, the sounds and the size of the maps with Steel Fury's user-friendly mission editor, bug-free gameplay, solid ballistics and physics and ease of modding would make the ultimate WW2 sim!

I was thinking on it, how strange, nobody made a WW1 tank simulation. :-)

You can shoot them up though, in First Eagles:

Probably because the Germans didn't introduce their own tank until 1918,and then only 20 in number.By then it was just about over.

So, better for the Entente... :-)

At first maybe,but the German's put more effort into anti-tank guns

Check out Canvas Knights as well as FS-WWI for drivable WWI tanks. For FS-WWI it's a hack, but a fairly fun one.

there another great game

panzer front ausf. b

greatest ww2 tank simulatr my opinion


also steel fury kharkov but i not possess that game


world war 2: battle tanks the t-34 vs the tiger was a bad game

not historical interior, not historical effects, computer enemy is stupid, etc...

poor commander methodology aswel

recommend: panzer front ausf b

good luck friend

It's one opinion: I had the game for PS2 and while it was not half bad I would hardly call it the "greatest" nor " simulator"...It's a fine and fun game but a sim????The greatest???? Just to contradict you your vid shows the Flak36 reticle as a pointed arrow which in fact was what was used in Soviet tank optics never in Germans ones...The reticle featured in Panzerfront Ausf B is completely inaccurate....

TvsT was flawed no question about it but you are wrong; both Tiger and T34 had finely modelled interiors... Did you ever play the game???? The AI was horrid, the SP missions limited and scripted but as it was intended primarily to be an MP game which explains why they levelled both tanks in order to avoid everybody playing the Tiger as it was much stronger than the Sov tank in real life...

true words friend.. but in few and all many world war 2 tank simulator i cant find hardly anytihng 'beter' then panzer front... have you?


i will go chck tiger interior right now again for game... i remember it was inaccurate

t34 was deifintely inaccurate.. it look like a big box with generic view'ports' and iwndows everywhere..

Some driver interior views...

...real Tiger I:



...and simulation:


Pretty close, for all the time you'll spend there.

Open the driver's hatch and stick your head out, and the sim's view is fine:



Turret interior is quite good too, in the sim:



And the sim? Steel Fury (modder-made Tiger I illustrated).

How are the tank interiors and hatch views, in Panzer Front?

In fact, I see the SF Tiger I interior is very similar to the T-v-T version, perhaps not surprising given a degree of common ancestry between SF and T-vT? Anyway both the T-vT and SF Tiger I interiors look quite realistic to me (T-v-T commander's station for the Tiger I is shown below):



As for the 'inaccurate' T-34 interior in T-v-T, it looks pretty good to me; perhaps it was being confused with something from a different sim?

'T-34 vs Tiger' driver's station, T-34-85:



T-34 vs Tiger commander's station, T-34-85, looking ahead and down into the front compartment:

Exteriors both look good...

T-v-T:




SF:



Having played both, T-v-T is good at simulating driving, shooting from and commanding a single T-34 or Tiger. Steel Fury does all that as well or nearly as well and is a MUCH better simulator of operating a tank (and leading a tank platoon) in battle. modded, it also has dozens of missions and playable vehicles, some of which are illustrated here: STA mod site tho many don't have 3-d interiors.

Panzer Elite is better than Steel Fury at platoon handling and in simulating intercom and radio traffic. It also has much wider scope, with stock campaigns in N Africa, Italy and Normandy, expanded with mods to include many other theatres of war including the Eastern Front, from early in WW2 to near the end.

PS there are 88s in Steel Fury but you can't operate them:



They're dangerous...



...but not invincible, especially if not well sited...





So, I made it over the bridge, with some other tanks and SU's...



...but then these people arrived...



...and this happened...

For playability Panzer Front was great fun.Panzer Elite although old still gives best in variance in combat theatres and units.

I remember following Tiger v T34 pre release but then for some reason lost interest along the way. Did they do a demo? i recall being let down by a tank demo many years ago.

Had some good tank battles in RO1 multiplayer. The D-Day mod for one of the ArmA series would have been awesome too.

friend are you not see..


driver view sit point (interior) generic




round wheel lever for viewport is not accurate.. lots of pipes and wrong inhistorical thing (what in god's name is that box near you in driver sit)???????????????


wheel for driver is also inhistorical..



everything look generic



when am see this picture.. i become sad

















whole structure (architecture engineering) for game is inccurate.. this is good game if you like generic empty walls and roof... and boxes with windows inside them and wheels that use one hand to operate... make is human.. human is make


T-34 most likely worse... interior look very empty and most likely filled iwth generism and robot for retribute unknown

game steel fury i fear get buy (waste money) they are say very generic and also make-up gunsight poor and heavy glitch, like world war 2 battle tanks

what tank of carrier gunsight is this picture? t34 76mm?

Don't forget that the T-v-T Tiger is later production model. The interior photos online and in books are probably mostly from the Bovington Tiger, 131. A lot of detail changed over the Tiger I's production run, outside and inside. The loader's periscope was added to the turret roof, ahead of the loader's hatch (in March 1943, according to this list, which doesn't cover changes to interior fittings: http://www.alanhamby.com/changes.shtml). Are you sure the driver's steering wheel was never changed to a simpler version with fewer spokes?

Anyway as I said, 100% accurate interiors are nice to have, but not that important for me. I spend very little or no time there, in combat. There are more important things for developers to spend their time on, in trying to get every fitting just right, in a sim on tank combat. I think the T-v-T (and where available, SF '42) interiors are quite impressive, good enough for me.

The gunsight is the T-34-85.

This is the gunsight from the Steel Fury T-34-76:



Edit: I see that the 2-spoke steering wheel is apparently CORRECT for a later-production Tiger I:

http://tiger1.info/EN/Hachette-steering-wheel.html

great website there you made... it say , true for changes, but still feel interior is something generic, something small..

thank for make, i 'm sorry for mistake, aslo, sorry for poor quality grammer, my english has forgiven me for bad.........


have fun for game friend!

I don't think T-v-T had a demo, but I think SF did have one. I wasn't THAT impressed by the full SF sim, as released, never mid a demo. I mean, I like the Matilda infantry tank (used in the training missions) - but in France 1940 or Africa 1940-41, not on the Eastern Front in 1942. Playable 1941-2 model T-34s and Panzer IVs were not very exciting either. But SF now is a whole new ballgame. More campaigns would be nice and it's still mostly eastern Front with some Western Desert and a smattering of NW Europe (on maps suspiciously eastern European-looking).



But it's now a much, much better package. Still inferior to Panzer Elite in platoon control facilities, simulation of intercom and radio traffic and the scope of its campaigns, but better in many other respects, not least sound, animations and graphics.






T-v-T would have been more my scene but was let down from the start by inferior missions and AI and its small tank-set has now been massively overtaken by SF, which was already ahead in most other respects.

No worries, your English is better than my other languages! And thanks for the tip, I will try Panzer Front if I get a chance. I would definitely recommend you try Steel Fury or good old Panzer Elite, they are the WW2 tank sims I think are best, in the sense of the most realistic at simulating fighting as a WW2 tank commander, gunner, driver or platoon leader.

1) IMHO primary
2) IMHO secondary

P.S. Is there people playing Panzer Elite in multiplaying?

I agree, which is likely the main reason that I still have a very high opinion of Panzer Elite (modded). For me this isn't an 'either, or' situation and Steel Fury (also modded) is more than good enough and has more than enough content for me to enjoy, too, for the things that it does well.

Panzer Elite Multi-Player uses client to client protocols not server to client protocols. Ever since Vista, it has been a pain to setup your firewall and router. Myself, I can join a game but I can not host a game. Help with connecting to PE MP: Connecting with Vista and above.

LAN games are not an issue, but that does not help the average person. Kali.net still supports PE. That may the the easiest way to play it. Gameranger was not interested in adding PE.

The MP over at PEDG has been slow for the last couple of years. You might ask there if anyone is interested in a game. Slomo and I tested his PP2x quite a bit, and worked out several bugs where data was not properly sent to clients.