Looks a bit of...."Dr.Who'leg World".

http://forums.eagle.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=143201&stc=1&d=1467187435
http://forums.eagle.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=143247&d=1467271050

Pretty rough looking....Better than Las Vegas though.

Racoon also posted a pic of a very nice Königstiger:

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=2828070&postcount=273

call me an optimist if you want to - but I can see an early alpha release as soon as 1st quarter 2018, a beta ready by late 2018 and ta-ta-ta a Normandy Map no later than by late 2019 ! This is earlier than I expected, which was early 2020.

Although those screenshots aren't that impressive, it's nice to actually sense the map hasn't been totally forgotten about. Even if those screenshots, and I'm not saying they are, are from two years ago.

That's rough indeed. Even after reading your comments about it being not so impressive I wasn't quite expecting that. But I was wondering whether it was even actively looked after at all, so it's already something to see it acknowledged. It's just a pain to think about what the release date might be for that. 2020 is not really something I'd rule out yet at this point...

if it follows the Nevada map schedule my estimate of late 2019 is optimistic, the Nevada map to me, is nothing more that a demo with blurry terrain around some detailed areas. Lots of potential yes, but far from being realized.

by the way - the DCS WW2 kickstart is over 3 years old, started in May 2013.

I really like the arrangement of the Objects. Specially of the buildings. Looks realistic. But the textures, as usual, very whashed out.

what the heck happened??

Textures are going to be adjusted likely, forgetting source for all WWII Terrain Pix are in Black and White.

I'm pretty sure I've seen colour photographs and video from WW2.
What was shown on the kickstarter page looks far better than what's in that first screenshot.

I am sure if you fly over Normandy today, the terrain colors look very much the same as they did in 1945.

Take a peek/pick !

26 pages of awesomeness and beauty (talking about land, here, obviously )

Plenty to look at. Though buildings and cities have evolved, the whole area retains its original look from 1939-1945. Gorgeous place, if you ask me.

Photographies aériennes - Manche - Normandie

Greetings from France !

Fly Safe,

Andromedius.

Nate

Beautiful

thanks for sharing

Tease!

Has anyone seen an image of this proposed Normandy map?

If not, why the secrecy?

Because the Kickstarter was 3 years ago and it's still 112 years away from an alpha release, 118 years from beta and ~infinity from ever being finished and ED also need to ensure that everyone that contributed has completely forgotten that they're actually owed something in return.

but I think the average age that men live for in the USA is 73 yr's old...

This looks glorious!

Would have been great to have flown a Spitfire campaign that started in Cliff of Dover and ended with the DCS Normandy map. But, alas, I think we shall never see this. You may not even see that Spitfire for another five years.

I keep drooling...

Yep, this is going to be so good... I feel it in my bones!

I need this yesterday!!! not tomorrow


Cheers
Walt

I can't help noticing how much that looks like Cliffs of Dover when it first came out. Same graphics engine?

Cliffs of Dover was a heavily rewritten iteration of the old Il-2 engine from what I could tell. I'm uncertain just how much it was linked to it, but it was DX10 on release I believe.
DCS uses an iteration of the engine that has existed since it was in LOMAC, if not Flanker 2 before it, and only became DX11 recently.

However, it would not surprise me if some of the art team who worked on CloD found their way to work on the Normandy terrain after the dissolution of that team when 1CGS was created to make the new Il-2 using an iteration of the ROF engine.



The Jedi Master

That's most likely the case. Some of the dead 1C team, which worked with Luthier on CloD, moved to his RRG studio for the DCS Normandy project, and when that studio went tits up, some of them ended up continuing work, but this time for ED.
ED also has at least one ex-CloD-man working on revised damage model for all DCS warbirds nowadays. It's a small world, especially given the niche business, and all these programmers/artists living in Russia anyway.

LCM AI unit by Racoon to Normandia WW2

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3000544&postcount=28


Tomorrow, december, 30 can be WW2 news on the DCS: W Newsletter

Racoon (WW2 ED team) show WW2 Normandy map extension to South England, and new airbases.

https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3026496&postcount=2

Holy moly! Combined Arms is going to be blast in this map!



Nate

This Tiger is AI...

Cherbourg, Caen, and Pointe-du-Hoc.

Well that was a surprise, looks like it is starting to take shape nicely.

Those screenies are impressive

I look forward to doing CA with WWII units. I really liked playing WWII Online back in the day, but really just the armor, the infantry was clunky.

I played a lot of Red Orchestra's armor maps when it came out before it got stale. A good WWII armor experience, with the addition of planes overhead, will be great if it works as expected.



The Jedi Master

I'm not really digging the filter that they used, it looks more like a painting than actual Normandy.

Oh well, as long as other people enjoy it, I suppose

Look's CloD's visuals (minus the shimmering ) but with more detailed landscape, e.g. coastline.

Call me (or bash me) whatever you like but I never liked the way of how the Russians represent terrain colors, namely on Western Europe maps in their sims.
The colors are always odd but there's also something else that looks odd that I can't explain.

However what I can explain is that for example the green color used for grass doesn't look right. That green seems to be more like a "Lettuce green" than a "Grass green". I don't know if the grass in Russia looks like that but in Western Europe it certainly doesn't look like that! For example the green and other colors (like the "yellowish") are darker than they aren't "glossy" as well.
This is something that affect ALL Russian flight simulations, from IL2 to IL2 1946, to CloD and now to DCS.

The only screenshot that looks accurate (and best IMO) is exactly the last one (because of the reasons that I mentioned before) although I suspect that this is due to low lighting conditions (probably sunrise?).


IMO the best terrain that I've seen for far (specially for a western Europe map) is the one from WOFF and this is a sim which despite being based on a rather old engine, the terrain looks accurate (and the terrain is awesome).

It's true that things as simple as grass and trees are not universal in their coloration. Even the same plants in different locations can appear different due to soil and climate differences.

Personally, I've never let it bother me too much. If the coloration is more yellow than it should be or whatever, I just assume it's been some lousy weather lately and the plants aren't doing well.



The Jedi Master

An aerial photo of Pointe-du-Hoc

http://ncap.org.uk/frame/1-1-48-3-175?search=keywords/Pointe-du-Hoc&free-text=yes

Aerial photos of Caen

http://ncap.org.uk/search/keywords/Caen?...8&layers=BT

the only way to accurately gauge it is by flying over it, sometimes screenshots fail to convey the in-flight experience.

Usually it also doesn't bother me too much (I don't consider myself to be "too picky" with coloring) unless the terrain starts to feel completely "alien" and the terrains from the Russian sims that I mentioned above do fell "alien"!

Resuming I played lots of sims from 1990's until nowadays and the only ones where I have this complain is again the Russian sims that I mentioned above!

Regarding the part of "assume it's been some lousy weather lately and the plants aren't doing well", when 99% or more of the flying time during daylight looks this there's simply no way to pretend otherwise, at least to me.


Finally, I've even been to a tropical country with lots of vegetation and nothing that I've seen resembles what we have in the Russian sims that I mentioned above in terms of coloring. But again, perhaps Russia looks like this but certainly most of the rest of world doesn't - And again, western Europe for sure doesn't have that coloring!

Sure but having a considerable experience flying over the IL2 and IL2 1946 maps as well as watching screenshots from these sims including CloD I would say that I have at least an 80% confidence that the Normandy DCS map will look very similar to those other Russian sims, which means it will have a completely inaccurate/unrealistic coloring when representing for example a Western Europe map this unless something changes in the meanwhile during development of this Normandy map.

they have the input of Flying Legends - which may help them to find the correct balance, we also don't know what engine they are using now, could be that the screenshots were taken in 2.0 and the map was made for 2.5.

( I have the Normandy Map on order as part of the kickstarter )

Lighting also affects color appearance, and we know the lighting has been in flux, so screenshots may not be representative of what we get.



The Jedi Master

Sure and I actually mentioned that in my first post in this this thread.

However even with "brighter" lighting conditions during daylight in "normal" or clear weather we should never see the grass colored in that "typical Russian Lettuce Green"!
I simply can't imagine any lighting conditions where the grass colour in Normandy (or the rest of western Europe for that matter) to look like a "Lettuce Green".

And also like I previously said, the only screenshot from this Normandy DCS map where the colors seem right is the last one (posted by Sokol1). In this last screenshot the colours start to look about right and even with brighter lighting conditions the "predominant" green colour/tone of that last screenshot shouldn't change (or change much).

This Normandy map is used in Spit IXe trailer:

Good stuff!

Well, what if there was a massive volcano eruption in Iceland, and the soot drifts over W Europe at the same time a chemical factory explosion occurs in Eastern Europe that creates a toxic cloud that floats east, and the two combine over the west to make this acid cinder concoction that alters the sun's light...




The Jedi Master

We still would NOT have "lettuce green" grass.

AFTER the acid rains fell, though!



The Jedi Master

Not even then, I'm afraid

Thanks for sharing....looks absolutely fantastic in my opinion. Can't wait till it's released.

cant wait.

the grey water tower on stilts stands out to me in the 1st image. Never seen on of those in my 40 years. Looks North American to me

https://forums.eagle.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=156976&d=1486746564

still, cannot wait

Yep, I've never seen any of those water towers in France. A lot of the water towers in France were chunkier, with a round base, often using bricks, and often made to look a bit like medieval castle towers, particularly where I grew up (Alsace) and in the north east of France in general - not sure about Normandy though.

Send your questions for the next twitch about Normandy 1944: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?p=3053411#post3053411



https://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=3054183&postcount=70

That is one beautiful B-17! Too bad that's not a flyable model. I would love to re-create some old Microprose B-17 missions and feel....in a very updated graphic environment.

TBH, I flew the B-17 is sims so much in the 90s, to this day I still have little desire to fly them again. Ditto most of the WWII bombers like the He-111 and Ju-88 (although that one can be ok from time to time).

I would like escort/intercept missions with them, however.




The Jedi Master

Starting to look really good. But I'm forbidding myself to get excited - who knows when we will actually fly over that.

Damn, I can't wait to put 200 of those B-17's in the mission editor.

Amazing how far technology has come and that I actually live to see it

What would be great is the ability in this to play multiplayer, with a multiplayer crewed bomber, escorted by people such as yourself. I too played much of iL2 (or maybe it was EAW?) when it first released and their bombers, but never really liked them as much as the fighters or ground attack aircraft. It just seems that with tech being what it is now, with VR maturing and machines that support VR graphics, would be great to climb into a bomber again with more immersion than the past, same thing with the fighter cockpits as well.

This was possible in 1997/98's Air Warrior and Warbirds Online - and not limitet do <100 players per server of actual multiplayer.

B-17 II was supposed to offer that before they killed MP.

Even though Il-2 and CFS3 offered it, I don't think I ever got to fly that way. Either we were all in separate planes, or we all flew in one.




The Jedi Master

Yeah, but that was all strictly multiplayer and I shied away from them back then. Now, with much faster data speeds, better computers and more immersion, multiplayer certainly has my interest piqued. Plus there's the added benefit of now going into single player if I get tired of multiplayer and still operate the same game.

That B-17 Air Base would give me the impression that we're getting part of England, too. No B-17's were based in Normandy. Are we? Will we be able to fly across the Channel to France from England? If yes, THAT would be terrific.

Yes, a part of southern England will be included.
https://forums.eagle.ru/attachment.php?attachmentid=155679&stc=1&d=1485354621

Looking good, though I would have though the B17's would have come from Anglia not the South of England. Most of the bases in the South were dedicated to ground attack/glider tugging during D-Day i.e. Typhoons?

Yup 2TAF RAF and the US 9th AF.

1944 Panzer hunting, "Final Countdown" style.

You're missing the crucial element of Kirk Douglas there.



The Jedi Master

USS Nimitz confirmed?

Normandy 1944 trailer

Normandia Trailer on ED Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/eagle.dynamics/videos/10158413498320341/

Normandy info and WW2 Assets Pack (Free to WW2 Kickstarter Normandy map owners)

Normandy map trees don't have DM, but can cause (that not so good visual) DM in planes:

Normandy "what if" 1984.

Looking good at last. I'll buy in once they release some WWII missions or campaigns to go with the WWII kites and map! Until then it's just a pretty sandbox. But FFS it is taking forever to get to market...

Only if you check a calendar.

I'm sure if you looked at the amount of time they've spent on it, and when they've spent it, you'd see it was moving at a normal pace.

They just have spent vast amounts of time not working on this but on other things. Which you can say about pretty much any given module, really.



The Jedi Master

Jaghpanzer IV and Panzer VI video
https://youtu.be/VksaBUKT0GA

New Normandy WW2 Q&A on Eagle Dynamics FB
https://www.facebook.com/eagle.dynamics/videos/10158646542255341/

A question posted yesterday at 4:55 pm on the Facebook link
Just bought on pre order...looks amazing. When do you anticipate releasing to the public?
The answer is classic ED
We now only announce a release date once the product is available for pre-purchase.
Lol. Still they have no fricking idea how close it is until release. Looking at their past track record with maps it's probably not going to be released in 2017. What a sh|t show.

Last I heard it was being released end of next month, unless that's changed?

"everything is subject to change" It was supposed to be released last month the last I heard. I don't know, you don't know, ED don't know. The product is available for pre-purchase and still they can't announce a release date.
"everything is subject to change" translates to "We're making it up as we go along"

So ... the keys are now available but the alpha access for the map only for those who baked >140$. Good job in splitting the community even further and further and further ...

There is no alpha access for anyone. "those who baked >140$" have to wait along with everyone else

Su-27 over Normandy
https://youtu.be/M759HtC5RaU

Don't bet on that.

Is this confirmed? I could have sworn there was mention of Closed Alpha access for backers recently. Disappointing if not.

Nate

There was and I have a separate key for Alpha Access to the Normandy map.

hmmm its all news to me. I retract what I said, but only about alpha access. : )

So it is released to the 140$ bakers and the screens do look very very nice.

But it's an additional installation of the 2.0 alpha build? I just thought normandy would be integrated into the "normal" 2.0 alpha. Does anyone know why we now have an additional fourth DCS branch?

That is only for the Closed Alpha. It impacts only 146 people so the global 'we' does not have a fourth DCS branch.

Once it is released to the public it is planned to be an update to the current v2.x Open Alpha installation.

Ok just read the news letter. So it will be 2.1, hopefully at the end of may.

Available Friday 26th for those that pre purchased it.