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[Pursuivant]

Thanks for digging those references out for me, I will dig through them and see what I can do

Glad to help.

While not quite central to the problem, if you choose to use them, the various calculations for "looming" and "towering" items on the horizon due to light diffraction will go a long way to make the terrain look more realistic.

[Stainless]

More help required.

Now that I have a way of generating maps for any location in the world, I want to get some mission planning working.

To do that I need two things, order of battle by date, and air force structure.

I have a data base for the RAF airfields which needs some work, I am thinking of making the data I have available in git and asking people to help refine it.

Would any of you be willing and able to do some data entry?

The second thing I need is an organisational diagram for each force.

This is where it gets confusing.

For the RAF , the official structure is

RAF Command -> Groups -> Wings -> Stations ->Squadrons

So you would have 11 group controlling some fighter wings based at some stations made up of some squadrons.

I have all the groups encoded, with locations.

I have all the stations and which squadrons were based there and when they were based there

I have the operational strength of all the squadrons at date time.

But I cannot find any mention of wings.

I have a list of wing commanders, but not which wings they controlled and not what stations they were based at.

Has anyone got any data that can help out with that?

Also has anyone got the equivalent for the Luftwaffe at the start of the battle of Britain.


Cheers guys

[Pursuivant]

I can help. Historical research/data entry are things I'm very good at and it's dead simple to get RAF and Luftwaffe Orders of Battle down to the squadron level. Entire books have been written on the subject.

IIRC, groups and squadrons were sometimes assigned to wings as needed. Other than that, units assigned to bases within a Wing Commander's command area were formally or informally under his control.

That said, for any WW1 or WW2 air campaign, the real trick is finding effective squadron strength, precise aircraft models (e.g., Spitfire Mk Ia vs. just "Spitfire"), and other operational readiness factors (e.g., fuel, ammo, and supplies availability, pilot quality, morale) for a given squadron on a given day.

[Stainless]

Thanks man,

I am drowning in work at the moment.

The plan is to have a database that can be used by anyone to get a list of active airbases at a given date, in a given region, to make it easier to create missions.

I will find a way of sharing the database and we can start extending what I have as we go along.

Will post more here when I come up with a good solution.

[Pursuivant]

The BoB has been a favorite of hex & chit wargame for decades and old-school wargamers are obsessive about their research. (For example, the Osprey books were originally published with them in mind.)

So, you might find this link useful. It touches on the sort of issues that modelers and flight simmers tend to overlook and the interviews are short reads.

http://www.airbattle.co.uk/b_designer_notes.html

[Pursuivant]

I assume that you've already got this page. It lists Fliegerkorps (AKA Wing - sort of) commanders for August 1940. I don't believe that any of the Fliegerkorps commanders were replaced during the BoB.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luftwaffe_order_of_battle_August_1940

[Stainless]

Added support for AC3D objects.

This means we can use all the objects from FlightGear as base objects for editing.

It was quite a suprise to see the range of quality of the meshes.

Some are quite nice, like this.



And some are bloody awful.



Compare that with the carriers available for download from this site and you really start to appreciate just how talented the people here are!

[Stainless]

Can someone sanity check this for me please?

Just looks wrong

Code: [Select]

namespace GuruEngine.Characters.Ranks.Luftwaffe
{
    /// <summary>
    /// subcodes
    ///   5 post 1944
    ///   1 subrank
    ///   2 cadet
    ///   10 Flyers
    ///   11 Paratroopers
    ///   12 Anti aircraft gunner
    ///   13 Communications
    ///   14 Air force
    /// </summary>
    public class LuftwaffeRankTable
    {
        public static Dictionary<int, String> Ranks = new Dictionary<int, string>();
        public static Dictionary<String, String> ShortForm = new Dictionary<string, string>();

        public LuftwaffeRankTable()
        {
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.QR1, 0, false), "Flieger");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.QR2, 0, false), "Gefreiter");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.QR3, 0, false), "Obergefreiter");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.QR4, 0, false), "Hauptgefreiter");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.QR4, 5, false), "Stabsgefreiter");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.QR5, 0, false), "Unteroffizier");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.QR5, 2, false), "Fahnenjunker");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.QR5, 1, false), "Unterfeldwebel");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.QR5, 3, false), "Fähnrich");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.QR6, 0, false), "Feldwebel");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.QR7, 0, false), "Oberfeldwebel");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.QR7, 1, false), "Oberfähnrich");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.QR8, 0, false), "Stabsfeldwebel");

            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.OF0, 0, false), "Leutnant");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.OF1, 0, false), "Oberleutnant");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.OF2, 0, false), "Hauptmann");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.OF3, 0, false), "Major");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.OF4, 0, false), "Oberstleutnant");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.OF5, 0, false), "Oberst");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.OF6, 0, false), "Generalmajor");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.OF7, 0, false), "Generalleutnant");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.OF8, 10, false), "General der Flieger");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.OF8, 11, false), "General der Fallschirmtruppe");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.OF8, 13, false), "General der Luftnachrichtentruppe");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.OF8, 12, false), "General der Flakartillerie");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.OF8, 14, false), "General der Luftwaffe");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.OF9, 0, false), "Generaloberst");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.OF10, 0, false), "Generalfeldmarschall");
            Ranks.Add(Rank.MakeCode(RankCodes.OF11, 0, false), "Reichsmarschall");

            ShortForm.Add("Flieger", "Flg");
            ShortForm.Add("Gefreiter", "Gefr");
            ShortForm.Add("Obergefreiter", "Ogfr");
            ShortForm.Add("Hauptgefreiter", "Hptgefr");
            ShortForm.Add("Stabsgefreiter", "Sbsgefr");
            ShortForm.Add("Unteroffizier", "Uffz");
            ShortForm.Add("Fahnenjunker", "Fhr");
            ShortForm.Add("Unterfeldwebel", "Ufw");
            ShortForm.Add("Fähnrich", "Fhr");
            ShortForm.Add("Feldwebel", "Fw");
            ShortForm.Add("Oberfeldwebel", "Obfw");
            ShortForm.Add("Oberfähnrich", " Obfhr");
            ShortForm.Add("Stabsfeldwebel", "Stabsfw");
            ShortForm.Add("Leutnant", "Lt");
            ShortForm.Add("Oberleutnant", "Olt");
            ShortForm.Add("Hauptmann", "Hptm");
            ShortForm.Add("Major", "Maj");
            ShortForm.Add("Oberstleutnant", "ObLt");
            ShortForm.Add("Oberst", "Ob");
            ShortForm.Add("Generalmajor", "GenMaj");
            ShortForm.Add("Generalleutnant", "GenLt");

            ShortForm.Add("General der Flieger", "GendFl");
            ShortForm.Add("General der Fallschirmtruppe", "GendFal");
            ShortForm.Add("General der Luftnachrichtentruppe", "GendLuft");
            ShortForm.Add("General der Flakartillerie", "GendFlak");
            ShortForm.Add("General der Luftwaffe", "GendL");

            ShortForm.Add("Generaloberst", "GenOb");
            ShortForm.Add("Generalfeldmarschall", "GenFeldm");
            ShortForm.Add("Reichsmarschall", "RM");
        }

    }
}

The first table has a list of all ranks, the parameters to MakeCode are (Nato rank equivalent, sub code, IsFemale) 

The second the short form of the rank

[Stainless]

I have added point lights to the deferred renderer when guns fire, the effect is very subtle, but interesting.

So the gunfire lights the aircraft.

I remember reading an after action report from a beaufighter pilot who claimed he was able to locate and shoot down two JU88's by tracking the light from the engines. He said that the engines sparked brightly enough for him to see the aircraft and get into a shooting position.

Does anyone else think this is correct? 

Do I need to add point lights for each engine?

[Dimlee]

The flames (up to 1 m long) from engines were considered a serious problem for the Soviet Pe-8 bomber. Flights were stopped in 1943 after 4 aircraft were shot down within 9 days. Flights were resumed only after the flame arresters were tested and installed.
Probably it was a common issue in all air forces? I remember stories about PVO (anti-air defense) of Moscow where some German bombers were intercepted due to engine exhaust flames.

[Pursuivant]

I have added point lights to the deferred renderer when guns fire, the effect is very subtle, but interesting

How subtle is subtle? The muzzle flash from a HMG or autocannon can be very impressive in darkness. To limit this effect, some night fighters had flash hiders attached to the ends of their gun barrels.

https://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=9651

I remember reading an after action report from a beaufighter pilot who claimed he was able to locate and shoot down two JU88's by tracking the light from the engines. He said that the engines sparked brightly enough for him to see the aircraft and get into a shooting position.

Does anyone else think this is correct?

Absolutely. That's why night fighters and night bombers of the era had "flame dampers" over the exhaust ports. They had to be added in order to conceal the flames both to avoid detection and to preserve the crew's night vision. Additionally, the exhaust stacks on some aircraft got hot enough that they glowed red hot, which also gave them away.

Examples:

https://ww2db.com/image.php?image_id=11362

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/2006/06/stuff_eng_profile_night_spitfires.htm

You will need to create potential light points for EVERY exhaust port on the engine, meaning 12+ for engines which didn't collect the exhaust gasses into just a few manifolds.

Since flames/glow effects could vary based on aircraft type, model, and modifications, it's probably one of those things where you should just create a suitable tool to allow modders to do the fiddly work.

[Stainless]

Okay so the best thing I can do is add another game component, say EngineFlashComponent.

That will require...

Hook	To give location
Particle system	This is the only way to do thousands of lights for the forward renderer, and an extra effect for the deferred renderer
Lighting parameters	Colour, intensity, size

The way you do point lights in the deferred renderer is you render a small mesh at the lights location into the light buffer. For every pixel inside the area of the mesh, you extract the position of the pixel in world coordinates and it's normal. Then run a lighting equation on the pixel and write it to the light buffer.

So for an engine exhaust I would need to add a new mesh shape for this. Instead of drawing a simple sphere, I should allow a box aligned with the exhaust.

Light shape

Hmmm

Yes I think that would work, the box shape will light the mesh and the particle system can be used to mark the individual exhaust pipes