Ready for takeoff.
Graphics
WOV looks very good on balance. The helicopters and especially the cockpits are wonders. You turn around in the pilot’s seat and look over your left shoulder at the door gunner, he’s sitting patiently, waiting for something to shoot. But hey, there’s a M134 mini gun sitting on the outboard! Spin it up and fire! Awesome. You see the barrels whirl and the flame and fire. Cool. Drop the aiming reticle down in front of you. Also cool.
Aiming reticule.
Firing guns.
Firing guns.
Firing rockets.
Here’s something: Hit the “Tab” key and while you’re looking at the instrument center console, you can right-click and select certain instrument settings. I don’t know, I don’t use it, but I do know it exists and for those clickable cockpit fans, it’s something to consider.
Clickable cockpit.
The rotar blur and other effects are nice as well. Explosions and dirt/water kick up from bullets are fine. Clouds and sky, OK, nothing great, and they don’t seem to change, so no weather modeling I’ve seen. Ground and trees are nice, from a distance, water as well. You IL-2 fans will recognize the similarities in an instant, since it’s basically the same engine. But to follow a point, the trees are not the same. WOV uses “SpeedTree” technology, and that’s something very different. It’s cool, and when you’re up close, it’s great. At distance, at least on my machine, it registers as a big hit on my video card. Constant re-drawing, even with minimal settings. I see now why the 512MB video card recommendation. Still, it is interesting. When you’re over an LZ and the place is getting blasted all to heck, the trees take it on the chin (uh, limb?). They disintegrate into splintered stumps and stay that way.
Your friendly forces will pop smoke to let you know where they are, and that works. The enemy meanwhile, is somewhere around those white puffs of gun smoke, don’t ask me where, because I cannot see them or hit them. I do hit a lot of SpeedTrees and send them to wood splinter heaven, for whatever that’s worth.
