Enough with the doom and gloom!
Dear God
WW1 sim forums without FlyXwire....thats like having a Tower of London with no Ravens! I prescribe 3 days of hard 'Photoshopping' painting lozenge camoflage till you see sense!
As far as other sims go, the SDOE WW1 mod is a pretty good example of what can be achieved...and what can't! The tools to mod SDOE are actually pretty good. Argon...most mods don't have tools that functional! The Openplane engine is pretty f;exible in the way it works, and operates uniquely ( i believe) on a proper physics level. No FM tables....It's amazingly done. To make things WW1 was possible. With the source code available ( buty not open to all ) it has been possible to add some of the things the basic game lacked, but there are still things that haven't been done. Engine torque, modelling of primitive ignition systems, inverted fuel cutoff from gravity tanks, that sort of thing. There is no dynamic campaign. The terrain is crude and limited. This last is made worse by the fact that the terrain mesh is a full 3D mesh loaded into the engine at startup. Each tile has only 1 level of detail since you can't easily swap them without 'seeing the joins' and any attempts at adding real detail bring the gameplay to a grinding halt. As I said...a classic example of what can be achieved...and the basic limitations of any mod - the original game!
I have looked at many options before, to see if there is a 'next generation' WW1 mod that can be done. Another game engine that will support all the things we need, and have reached LOTS of conclusions!
1) CFS3. Has the ability to make planes in the detail we want. A full toolkit is available plus a reasonable level of experience on modelling flight characteristics ( 1% ) Crucial that... anyone can build a WW1 plane, but it has to fly like one or we are all wasting our time!!!! But, there are several well known problems with CFS3. It is not well regulated in terms of multiplayer, has an awful reputation for 'immature' people flying online, and the terrain stinks to high heaven. It also needs a LOT of PC power to run
2) Strike Fighters P1. Interesting in terms of the level of detail the planes can have. Not sure about the FM side though. There have been a lot of 'concerns' aired with varying levels of bias around the WW2 planes that have been made for the sim. It's a sandbox sim ( and I don't JUST mean the stock terrain! ) but lacks damage modelling, and has a heavy focus on missiles over guns. I could not be confident that this would be much more than a visual dress up with some guessed FM's that won't hit the money for WW1 fans. Shame. Hope I am wrong.
EAW. Old...if someone wants to do it, great for them. But not really a step forward. Graphically, it isn't going to look much better than RB. It's a fun challenge for someone who wants to mod EAW.
IL2. Please Oleg make a WW1 sim. I promise to make loads of high detailed planes in Max and present them gift-wrapped at your door. Please don't ignore me.... Oh..you are committed to PF for this year, then BOB and the new flightsim engine for 2005 / 2006. Then some add-ons and expansions to that over 2007. Realistically, you have a better chance of finding the Holy Grail. This is just a 'grail shaped beacon' lit by naughty Zoot...bad Zoot
BOB. This one interests me. Not much for online play, but potential for offline. Legacy links to FCG may help, and the BDG team are working on some graphical enhancements. IF the team chose to work towards that goal, something could be done. There would be a mountain to climb though. And I don't mean a sunday afternoon hill waklking kind of mountain. We are talking ice-axes and cramp-ons here...
Now...I don't know if I have missed out any flightsim engines here .. P*** Off you at the back who just shouted 'Jane's Attack Squadron' ... you should be ashamed of yourself
What I am trying to say here in a rambling round about way is that there is alwys a lot of hard-work, heartache and grief making a mod. At the end of it, though, you have a curious beast 9 times out of ten. Something that doesn't appeal to people who don't have the game already, and that doesn't appeal to a the bulk of the people that DO buy the game...coz they bought it for the stock content! Hence Argon's shortage of manpower.
Solve that problem FIRST before even thinking about what sim engine to base a mod around!