FSExpo 2024 - Las Vegas June 21-23, 2024 *Updated 6/13/24*

[Mysticpuma]

The complete presentation by Jason and Carlos (11 mins) 

 

 

Edited June 22 by Mysticpuma

[Major Lee]

Well hot dog! The Solomons! VMF214 will (hopefully) fly again! This is looking really cool, excellent work! I am looking forward to this as it moves forward.

Edited June 22 by Major Lee
details

[Sea Serpent]

Very impressive presentation and prototype demo!

[Boo]

OMG - a clear communication strategy and people actually saying stuff that means something!

It'll never catch on.  

Interestng to hear about co-opting 3rd parties from the outset. That seems a sensible way to share the work streams. 

Im really excited that the project has reached the proof of life stage. Never one for Merch (I dont attend enough airshows to get the wear out if it) but if it means buying a pair of oversized cammo cargo shorts to complete the sandals and socks ensemble, its a price Im willing to pay to supprt this project (although patreon sound more like muh thang). 

 

[DD_Arthur]

Great stuff. Well done to Jason, the team and their partners on this.

Edited June 22 by DD_Arthur

[Bonkin]

On 6/19/2024 at 8:03 PM, Mysticpuma said:

While it may sound odd, the image that impresses me the most is the sunset. 

I have every faith the team will nail this, but while aircraft are obviously essential, the environment we virtual pilots fly in make a vast difference to the suspension of disbelief. 

I discussed similar on another forum regarding aviation artwork, pointing out that no matter how much action is portrayed, how a cure late the aircraft are, the clouds, sunrise, sunset, weather conditions, detail on the land, all of this to me is as important, because without it, you lose the feeling of 'being there'. 

Great work team, loving the Unreal Engine, I just hope it gives you the scale/map size you need 👍

Agree. Also important for the video makers (as well as having lots of options for camera placement) 😀 .

[Trooper117]

It's been great communication from the start, never kept in the dark, willing to listen to our wishes with an open mind... this is how you keep in touch with your player base.

Guadalcanal was always the logical choice for the next chapter... many assets from Midway will be used along with new content. I always thought it would go there next.

Very happy!

[MustangMike]

Great presentation!! Really think this new game is in good hands and is gonna go far.

I think my favorite part was right in the beginning, "No Baggage, No confusion, No Limits." Seen far too many people on this forum and others that think of CP as "just the new IL-2" and act like it should follow IL-2 in terms of business model, featureset, etc etc. Hell, theres not even a thread in the "other flight simulators" subforum for IL-2 GB, and I think thats telling of a lot of people's mindsets. Looking forward to seeing you push the genre forward and make waves Jason!

I'll certainly be first in line to try it out in early access (In VR of course 😉)

[wheelsup_cavu]

Holy crow,

that map will definitely set a new bar if it is a single map that encompasses that entire area. I do hope there is a 1 to 1 scale version, that is multiplayer capable, even if there are some that have a different scale sizes for multiplayer play. It would be the first map to my knowledge that will allow you to recreate Operation Vengeance from both sides of the engagement without having to resort to off map tricks or some other work around.

 

I can't quite tell but I think that map would even allow an Old 666 mission to be flown in its entirety when we get B-17's modeled.

 

Wheels

[Rodwonder]

5 minutes ago, wheelsup_cavu said:

Holy crow,

that map will definitely set a new bar if it is a single map that encompasses that entire area. I do hope there is a 1 to 1 scale version, that is multiplayer capable, even if there are some that have a different scale sizes for multiplayer play. It would be the first map to my knowledge that will allow you to recreate Operation Vengeance from both sides of the engagement without having to resort to off map tricks or some other work around.

 

I can't quite tell but I think that map would even allow an Old 666 mission to be flown in its entirety when we get B-17's modeled.

 

Wheels

That's a lot of area there... So many campaigns and airplanes can be simulated on that, it would keep me busy for years! 

[Hetstaine]

1 hour ago, Rodwonder said:

That's a lot of area there... So many campaigns and airplanes can be simulated on that, it would keep me busy for years! 

If we get a nice intuitive mission builder that is actually fun to create on, you will get years of user made content 🙂

[campbellbox]

Loving the direction this is heading in.  Midway will be an amazing start, and a great headline famous battle with good scope to hook people in, but that Solomons reveal really does it for me.  Is it too early to start asking for a diesel spraying mission type in the FMB so we can recreate RNZAF missions over Bougainville?

[Necrobaron]

Very exciting stuff! The Solomons is such a logical choice to go next and I look forward to it!

Even at this early stage I like the look of the models. I know in another big sim out there, planes often somehow looked wet or too clean/glossy in my humble opinion. Tangentially, I also hope we can eliminate or greatly reduce the visibility of exhaust flames in broad daylight. That always bothered me too.

[Boom]

Great video. Well layed out, shows systematic approach which should ensure success.

But for me the Key mention was Guadalcanal. Fantastic news.

[Skelthos]

I got a chance to fly around in the Zero this morning at the Expo. Very excited about where this is headed, things felt very good for only a year of development. 

[ZachariasX]

9 hours ago, wheelsup_cavu said:

that map will definitely set a new bar if it is a single map that encompasses that entire area.

Since Jason was mentioning the „geospacial engine“, I have subtle hopes that the „map“ is neither flat, nor does one fall off the edges. 

PNG has become one of my favorite locations for flying in MSFS. 14´000 ft. mountain ranges, *very* temperamental weather and it is almost impossible to fly IFR (even with GPS), as most airfields are mainly useful for mountaineering purposes. Short, sloped grass strips on mountain ridges or in steep and deep valleys. Flying from Port Moresby to Kodiak or Wau and actually getting there (and home!) is not trivial. Both mountains and weather almost never allow for direct courses, making dead reckoning a very difficult and imprecise affair. I have no idea what the Japanese intercept rate for these cargo flights were, but I would be surprised if it was such that it was a primary concern for the American pilots.

I sincerely hope that we get a simworld, where real world navigation applies as well. Given the size of the area, there will be much longer flying times than what players are used to. 

When I sketch the approximate size of the Rhineland map on the area, it gets obvious. In addition, the planes we have are usally on the slow side of what we are used to.

Also for me, the sunset picture was most the interesting. Rivets don‘t matter for gameplay. The simworld does.

The scale of the map makes it almost impossible for specific players in MP actually facing each other unless they are (as usual) basically spawned on top of each other. It would be great if there was always a certain background activity in flights, cargo runs and recon and CAP. It would be nice if the detection of intruding flights for interception was dependent on how easily they can be detected from ground observers. Here, of course Allies would have a monumental advantage (as they did have) when locals could report flights. The more discreet you proceed, the closer you get until the enemy gets alerted. It would make early bombing missions to Rabaul the gamble they actually were and good flying and navigating might make the difference in getting home or not. The later they see you, the better your chances. For this, in a mission editor one should be able to set up spotter locations (as ships are) and a probability to detect you, given you can be visually detected or within a minimum range to be heard. This on top of (Allied) radar. It goes without saying that ideally, clouds should shroud the player from detection.

And THANK YOU Jason for not using traditional LOD for aircraft depiction over distances. You can see really, really far in equatorial atmosphere if weather cleared up. In a playground as large as this, it would be a severe limitation only having myoptic pilots that must not bring their glasses.

[ZachariasX]

Finding places in PNG requires a lot of familiarization with the place that looks oddly unstructured.

For instance, a short hop from Guari (AYGF) to Tapini (AYTI), a mere 15.2 nm, can get intersting.

Taking off in rather pleasant weather, I just have to cross the mountain ridge behind me and fly down the valley. However. I am at 6'413 ft at Guari. I have to cross the pass at ~10'000 ft. Tapini is then down at 3'173 ft.

So it is always full power climbs followed by descents that you do as steep as you can while preventing overspeed and overcooling of the engine. Carb icing is your constant issue, despite some 18°C outside temp.

Taking off, clibing as fast as my overheating engine permits, I cross the mountain ridge. It is obvious where I have to go. It is where thise clouds were forming almost in the time it took me to climb for 6'500 ft. to 8'500 ft. Sitautions like this happen all the friggin time and are beyond stressful. Do I turn back? Often, looking back, you have the same view over where you just took off. Nah, pressing on, it won't be that bad. I mean, those clouds are hugging mountains. There *is* hard stuff in those clouds, should you IFR away into them.

Just minutes later. I need to go down in the valley under that blanket. Creeping near, looking for a slot to slip underneath.

That worked out. I am lucky, there is not another cloud layer beneath the top layer (there often is!) and I can see my destination in relatively fair conditions.

Landing up a maybe 10% grass slope, things don't look so bad if the vantage point is chosen sutably. But why is it so dark? It is because clouds are closing fast and I have no idea when it is possible to take off again. But sure I need to put the tie downs.

 

When I try to imagine such flights with enemy action, all you need to do is play Russian roulette and enter the clouds. You will be impossible to find and should the enemy follow you, you have a good chance for a "navigation kill". Well, should you make it yourself. Of course, on smaller islands, weather is slightly more benign in the sense of being predictable. Taking off from a beach, I am certain the difference between maintenance by the Seabees and slaves with shovels and oxcarts is rather pronounced.

I seriously hope that CP can grow becond the scope of a mere content store, as for instance WT or to some degree IL2 are. It is not just about maneuvering between aircraft, it is about what aircraft can reliably fly missions, given the conditions. No wonder, in the real world, there are often other planes favored than mere history buffs would choose. It is context that makes the reality. A plain content store doesn't really reflect that. It's "just the planes". And that is a fraction of what makes an air war. In this sense, I think Flying a DC-3 in MSFS is waaay closer to actual air war back then that WT can ever be, despite lacking the shooting at each other. The "haves" in MSFS are just way more numerous than WT, despite lacking the dakadaka.

Hence is why the sunset pic really gives me hope for a bright future of CP. It is neither about rivets or trees, but about the concept of the world that will be depiced.

[TheSNAFU]

The presentation and demo was very informative and impressive. The one part missing was anything on campaign and mission related content. I hope a major effort will be made to make an immersive and engaging dynamic campaign which is the center of the game. I think, and I would guess most will agree, If this is truly going to be a state of the art ground breaking game it needs to have a widely dynamic campaign. Please avoid the shallow, uninteresting dry static campaign that has handcuffed most or all recent combat flight sims. At a minimum it should be pwcg on steroids. Just one ole sim jockeys opinion. I will be watching closely to see how this aspect is built. Best of luck to the team! 

Edited June 23 by TheSNAFU

[Aapje]

12 hours ago, Necrobaron said:

Even at this early stage I like the look of the models. I know in another big sim out there, planes often somehow looked wet or too clean/glossy in my humble opinion. Tangentially, I also hope we can eliminate or greatly reduce the visibility of exhaust flames in broad daylight. That always bothered me too.

This is due to PBR textures. They can be layered, so they can layer grime and wear on the 'factory fresh' textures.

[ZachariasX]

I wonder how happy some people will be, if we ever get Iwojima depiced in this sim. I mean, in MSFS, it is struck out:

That is the best LOD you get, the airport clearly visible. But just zooming in one click and you get this:

Somebody doesn't like a scenery of one of the most prominent unsinkable carriers in the region.

Looking it up in LittleNavMap, they do have the DME:

If Jason suddenly gets a phone call from an angry Japanese, having implemeted Iwojima could by why.

[Sea Serpent]

My impression of Iwo Jima during WW2, just from pictures and paintings, is that it was essentially a moonscape then. 

[GrungyMonkey]

1 hour ago, ZachariasX said:

I wonder how happy some people will be, if we ever get Iwojima depiced in this sim. I mean, in MSFS, it is struck out:

That is the best LOD you get, the airport clearly visible. But just zooming in one click and you get this:

Somebody doesn't like a scenery of one of the most prominent unsinkable carriers in the region.

Looking it up in LittleNavMap, they do have the DME:

If Jason suddenly gets a phone call from an angry Japanese, having implemeted Iwojima could by why.

This is a little off topic, but speaking of Japanese getting angered about Iwo Jima: Iwo Jima (硫黄島) is officially called "Iōtō," pronounced like ee-oh-tow. Shima/Jima is the normal reading of the character for island, but here the Chinese pronunciation "Tō" is considered correct. English speakers, not knowing this, assumed it was read "Jima" and that stuck. During WW2, Japanese soldiers did the same thing and called it "Iwo Jima." Since then, that's the only name most mainland Japanese speakers recognize. Natives of the island, who still say "Iwo Tou," were not happy about this. They complained further when Clint Eastwood's film "Letters from Iwo Jima" reinforced the new reading. Around this time, the Japanese government officially declared "Iōtō" as the proper reading. 

Note: In modern Japanese, w becomes silent before o, the w in Iwo is a remnant from Middle Japanese. The w was officially removed as part of Japanese's 1946 spelling reforms.

Edited June 23 by GrungyMonkey

[Mysticpuma]

12 hours ago, ZachariasX said:

Since Jason was mentioning the „geospacial engine“, I have subtle hopes that the „map“ is neither flat, nor does one fall off the edges. 

PNG has become one of my favorite locations for flying in MSFS. 14´000 ft. mountain ranges, *very* temperamental weather and it is almost impossible to fly IFR (even with GPS), as most airfields are mainly useful for mountaineering purposes. Short, sloped grass strips on mountain ridges or in steep and deep valleys. Flying from Port Moresby to Kodiak or Wau and actually getting there (and home!) is not trivial. Both mountains and weather almost never allow for direct courses, making dead reckoning a very difficult and imprecise affair. I have no idea what the Japanese intercept rate for these cargo flights were, but I would be surprised if it was such that it was a primary concern for the American pilots.

I sincerely hope that we get a simworld, where real world navigation applies as well. Given the size of the area, there will be much longer flying times than what players are used to. 

When I sketch the approximate size of the Rhineland map on the area, it gets obvious. In addition, the planes we have are usally on the slow side of what we are used to.

Also for me, the sunset picture was most the interesting. Rivets don‘t matter for gameplay. The simworld does.

The scale of the map makes it almost impossible for specific players in MP actually facing each other unless they are (as usual) basically spawned on top of each other. It would be great if there was always a certain background activity in flights, cargo runs and recon and CAP. It would be nice if the detection of intruding flights for interception was dependent on how easily they can be detected from ground observers. Here, of course Allies would have a monumental advantage (as they did have) when locals could report flights. The more discreet you proceed, the closer you get until the enemy gets alerted. It would make early bombing missions to Rabaul the gamble they actually were and good flying and navigating might make the difference in getting home or not. The later they see you, the better your chances. For this, in a mission editor one should be able to set up spotter locations (as ships are) and a probability to detect you, given you can be visually detected or within a minimum range to be heard. This on top of (Allied) radar. It goes without saying that ideally, clouds should shroud the player from detection.

And THANK YOU Jason for not using traditional LOD for aircraft depiction over distances. You can see really, really far in equatorial atmosphere if weather cleared up. In a playground as large as this, it would be a severe limitation only having myoptic pilots that must not bring their glasses.

Mountains won't be a visual issue. 

Snowy mountain range

100km2 map

 

 

[javelina]

What a great time and what a great event the Expo was.  I got to fly the F4F!!!   Managed to buzz the Akagi and Midway island.

Thank you Jason and the CP team!  Also got to shake Jason's hand.  All the best to CP.  Hope the event really gave CP some good exposure.

Some pics of the team getting things squared away for the demo's....

 

Edited June 23 by javelina

[javelina]

and here's the man of the hour, (literally).  At the Media lounge for an interview.  😁