I recently took a trip to Moscow to visit the 777 Studios team at our Moscow office where Rise of Flight is currently produced. As president and founder of 777 Studios I work with these guys every day utilizing all the technological tools available to me in the 21st century to remain in constant contact. We manage to have a very coordinated effort even with me being located in Southern California and they in Moscow. Technology has made such an effort possible and it’s great. My job is similar to other Western managers that have worked with Russian development teams remotely such as Matt Wagner of DCS and Ilya Shevchenko of IL-2 Sturmovik fame. Two people whom I have done business with or worked with for years and two dudes that I have great respect for.
The purpose of my in-person visit was to finally meet most of these guys face to face for the first time and discuss our future direction for ROF and as a company. Meeting some of the team for the first time is a wild idea since we have worked so hard together for over two years now on Rise of Flight with such great cooperation. Luckily, such a visit was not even necessary until now. I count that as a good thing. I have gotten to know my brothers in arms only through phone, text, email and video, but yet I felt as though I knew then like any other co-workers I have ever worked with. The ROF Team is a very talented group of professionals that have created one of the best flight sims ever for the PC. And I say that with complete confidence knowing what kind of dedicated, crazy smart young people are behind it. It’s a little difficult to grasp by reading the arguments on the forums of exactly how talented these guys are, but once you sit down with them and look at the code and listen to their technical explanations for things, it becomes clear that this team is something special. Call me biased, I don’t care.
Before I go on to talking about the team I want to say a few things about the city of Moscow and Russia itself. I have traveled a bit the past few years and I have spent considerable time in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico and Germany. I don’t consider myself a great traveler, I actually get homesick quite easily, but this trip was special to me. As millions of American families who lived through the Cold War can attest, the Soviet Union was viewed as a “godless evil empire” that aimed to wipe out America. Sure that’s the simple way to look at it, but my father (Vietnam Air Force veteran), grandfather (aerospace worker building bombers) and even I (4F) at one point was willing to devote all our energies to defeating international communism in the name of freedom. An imagined threat or not, the Cold War was for real and would have made a trip like mine impossible. Boy how things have changed in a single generation.
I found Moscow to be a collision of the old and the new. The city had a certain energy that was electrifying. Luxury cars and traffic jams were all too common and parking was simply impossible even by New York and San Francisco standards. With such a developed automobile culture it sometimes felt just like home. I saw old Soviet built apartments next to new luxury condos and huge shopping malls as big as anything we have in the U.S.. As much as we like to see the Russian and American governments squabble over international politics, our people now share the common ideas of freedom and capitalism. I don’t see Russia ever moving backwards economically or politically. The young people I met were cosmopolitan, diverse, friendly and patriotic looking to better their country. Nor did they give a rip if I was American. In the Internet age the world is a very small place.
Moscow and Russia in general appears to be missing a coordinated plan to build the necessary infrastructure to allow international commerce to bloom in full. Sure, the gigantic car companies have figured it out, but for the small or medium sized American company to come to Russia and do business it is virtually impossible. Moscow lacks the necessary roads, bridges, parking, signage, zoning and logistics to allow for truly expansive business growth or for tourism to really flourish. I don’t think I saw a single road sign in English. Maybe this was to confuse foreign armies invading Russia? That’s a joke! I don’t know exactly why the infrastructure situation is the way it is, but some of it is clearly due to politics and lingering corruption. And I think some of it is simply due to a lack of experience in these issues. Moscow is the end all be all hub of Russian commerce, political power and culture. And I feel it’s choking on itself. Imagine if Washington D.C., New York and Los Angeles were merged into a single mega-city housing all political, business and entertainment industries. Then you would have what Moscow feels like. However, Moscow residents are aware of this and I feel they will eventually figure it out and de-centralize their industries and make their market more accessible to outsiders. Improvements will come with time and when the later generations who did not know the Soviet Union truly take over, a new wave of thinking will wash over Russia and they can reach their full potential. Hopefully as successful friends of the USA with shared interests.
So when I arrived I hoped I would be picked up by a hot Russian supermodel, but, no, it was my 777 partners Max and Albert seen here on the Moscow underground.
Of course, I wanted to see the big, historical tourist spots such as the Kremlin and Red Square during my visit. And I did, which impressed me very much. The Kremlin is a huge structure built to last and the beauty of the Eastern Orthodox churches inside the walls was breath-taking. Red Square was impressive to me simply because of the reminders of the past that are located there. Lenin’s tomb and Stalin’s grave are there along with other important Soviet heroes such as Yuri Gagarin. And you can’t forget the beautiful Cathedral of St. Basil. I’m very happy that I got to see these places in person and not simply in pictures. For these reasons alone my trip to Moscow would have been worth it. When we were leaving Red Square I saw two guys dressed as Lenin and Stalin posing for pictures. It’s fun to see how Russians embrace the past and have a sense of humor about it. These two Soviet impersonators were yelling to the tourists, “We need money for the Revolution! We need money for the Revolution!” And I yelled back, “So do we!”
On a side note, an unexpected opportunity arose when I learned that my long-time friend Ilya Shevchenko from IL-2 was still in Moscow for another night and we could meet up for dinner. I had just arrived and he was on his way back to the States. We live fairly close to each other in California and to get together in Moscow was a surreal experience. It’s weird how life works that way sometimes. We met up and had an interesting conversation about our respective development activities and the evolution of each team. We talked about the weird rivalry between our two products on the forums, the genesis of it and the future of both teams. We respect each other and we believe in friendly competition. We both wish the community would see it the same way and be supportive of both products.
Okay, so now let me introduce you to the Rise of Flight team.
First off, here is ROF Producer Albert, aka “Loft”. During my trip Albert and I had many discussions about how we can improve ROF and our engine for the better. We discussed everything from our new Demo that will be available later this spring, to new modes of gameplay, to our upcoming “Field Mods” program. Luckily we share a common vision, but we both acknowledge the stress the community puts on us to perform and the constant battle to keep everyone informed. As Albert likes to say, “Our only enemy is time.” Albert is extremely knowledgeable about everything relating to the simulation market and the technologies each team is using. He is a Russian Army veteran and a leader in every sense of the word. It was his initial dream to create such a product and thus has been the driving force behind it in both good times and bad. He is a fighter and a good friend to his team and I respect that immensely. He’s managed to build what few others have accomplished in the past decade. I told him he should be very proud of their accomplishment. A funny thing happened during my visit, we got pulled over by the local cops while driving to lunch and Albert calmly told the policeman to “stuff it” and they let him go. Total badass move, I couldn’t believe it. And don’t let the tattoo on his face fool you, he is a very likeable fun guy as you can tell from the photo!
Next we have our Project Manager Daniel, aka “Han”. To use a military term Daniel is the NCO of the operation. He is the glue that holds everyone together and is the task manager that gets the job done! And what a fine job he does. He can break down any complicated ROF task into an actionable plan that the guys can accomplish. He is in charge of the Beta team and is a master of all of ROF’s systems and how they interact with each other. There is not an idea that the community has come up with that Daniel has not considered or mapped out how to create. His only enemy is time. With your support, you can buy Daniel more time. Daniel is a realist and whenever I come up with a hair brained “new” idea, Daniel can tell me how long it would be to make it because he has already studied the issue. Usually he tells me “no this is not possible Jason,” but one of these days I swear I will get him to say YES to something!
Ever wonder who comes up with things like moving cloud shadows and other new graphical effects for ROF? Well it’s our Lead Programmer Sergey who I snapped not looking at the camera. LOL. I stink at taking pictures. Sergey is responsible for how beautiful ROF looks and performs these days. Shortly before I arrived Sergey had implemented misty morning fog for ROF that evaporates as the sun rises and I got to see it for the first time on my visit. Impressive stuff! We discussed a wide range of issues including the possible adaptation of SLI and Crossfire, more comprehensive support for triple monitor setups, a new more realistic night sky, further object and aircraft drawing and all kinds of other technical stuff. Many things are possible, but it’s always a balance of performance, eye candy and time. He explained to me some of the coding challenges he faces and what is and is not a good idea for performance. Every major decision we have made to ROF affects Sergey’s work, but he always comes through for the ROF community. His love for simming is obvious in his work and his ability as a coder is unquestionable.
Here is our engineering genius who programs our flight and damage models. You know him as “Petrovich”. I know him as Andrey. He really knows his stuff and he showed me just a part of the code that makes up one component of the ROF flight and damage engine. It was 3500 lines of code! To say our flight and damage models are simplistic is absurd. This is why we cannot release planes at a more rapid clip. To do so would cause a reduction in the quality of our flight models and we don’t think anyone wants that. He showed me some of the dev tools, charts and resources he uses to test his creations and I watched him trouble shoot a bug with the DFW. He is an amazing engineer who does not get as much credit as he deserves.
Matter of fact, he has created a new flight and damage model that is 10x more accurate than the current model. The only problem is current computers cannot run it effectively in game yet and multiplayer would be crushed due to its complexity and accuracy. The demo I saw was eye-popping cool. To say we are hampered by today’s hardware and internet bandwidth is an understatement. Maybe someday it will be possible to be deployed. We discussed many issues that some in the community like to harp on and we came to some good conclusions about what is or is not possible.
And here is Michael who programs the Mission Editor. Michael is a soft spoken guy who has created one of the most comprehensive Mission Editors ever for a flight sim. It’s same Dev Tool we use and it can be harnessed to make your own Payware or Freeware Campaign if you wish. Yes, we know it is not as user friendly as some would like and we discussed this issue, but right now we are implementing even more features that can enhance the power of the ME for power-users such as Vander and Pat Wilson. In the future, we hope to enhance the QMB editor to include more features, but such a task will take a serious time commitment. Michael was able to fix an error with the Siren effect while I was there. It took him about five minutes once he was aware of it, but can’t be released until Version 19.
This handsome dude is Ilya and he’s our main programmer who is working on the new Career mode. His screen is full of code all the time. It looks like the Matrix. I can’t make heads or tails out of it, but he does all the hard work that we take for granted in ROF. The new Career mode has been quite the challenge and Ilya has been a huge part of its progress and eventual success. I discussed the new Career mode with Ilya and Albert and we explored the idea of removing the online requirement for the Career mode which currently is not possible and is unwise at present. This is because by having the Master Server connected to the Career mode we can correct errors in the Career logic without releasing a patch. Because it is so complex, we expect some issues with the new Career mode and we want the ability to fix them quickly behind the scenes. Only after the Career mode is dialed in and working properly we can entertain removing it from the Master Server requirement. This has never been just about DRM like some critics like to claim, but about flexibility. Such a move would take considerable time and effort, but hopefully we can do this in the future. Also, some cool ideas about a COOP Career mode that we have been kicking around is better managed with a centralized Master Server so the jury is still out on what will happen to this requirement. All is possible, but only with the continued support from the community.
Anton is our web services guy who manages the Master Server and the Leaderboards. I spoke at length with Anton about these two hotly debated issues and he helped me to clarify some of the public misconceptions about what Master Server does and how it operates. For instance, some like to say Master Server ruins Multiplayer because of the communication to it. That’s hogwash. In MP only the game server connects to the Master Server and the server only communicates to the Master every 30 seconds and sends about 15kb worth of data when the server is really full. Even less data if the server has a few people on it. The load Master Server puts on MP is miniscule and irresponsible comments otherwise are a crock. Anton and I discussed what a future Leaderboard could look like and how it would differ from the current system. We have some good ideas, but with anything it takes time and resources to affect change. Thanks to Anton our system is unique and if more forward looking than other simulations.
Ever wonder who made our beautiful GUI? Well, it’s my friend Vitaliy. He is the person responsible for the nice user interface ROF has and this can be some of the most difficult work in a simulation believe it or not. Usability and organization is not always something that is easily accomplished in a PC game. However, the ROF GUI has evolved into a very complex yet user friendly system that when you compare it to other sim products the quality is unmatched. I discussed some cool ideas brought up by the community with Vitaliy such as connecting custom Response Curves to different airplanes and Global Chat interface. All is possible of course, just need time and right now Vitaliy is hard at work on the new Career interface. A very beautiful piece of work this will be.
Here is our comrade Viktor or “Viks” as you know him. One of the best, if not the best pilot in the ROF sky. Sure it’s not fair that he works for us, but he has the killer instinct! Actually, he is a super nice guy that has many important responsibilities including customer support, research and mission design. Viktor is another versatile member of our small team that includes so many smart, versatile guys. Viks has his ear to not just the English speaking community, but also the Russian one was well. He helps bridge that communication gap and give us a true worldwide view of the ROF community and its concerns. Currently he is working on designing the mission templates that will be used in the new Career mode. Looking at these templates is exciting because they will help our Career mode generator really become interesting. We also discussed how in the future it may be possible to give users access to these templates to create their own mission templates for Career. We don’t have any kind of ETA on this, but it is an idea for the future assuming we have enough time and resources down the line.
And I cannot forget to introduce you to two guys that really make ROF shine — Michael and Alexey! Michael is our Lead Modeler (on the right) who makes our amazing aircraft and oversees the modeling team and Alexey (on the left) is our Lead Texture Artist. ROF would not be nearly as popular without these two guys creating plane after gorgeous plane. Our skin templates alone make skinning a snap and Alexey has shown such creative vision in how our cockpit textures appear. Michael’s team has created some really amazing models considering how little research material actually exists out there on some of these planes. Yet every time they come to life as a realistic model of an extinct or nearly extinct WWI warbird. All I really could tell Michael, Alexey and Gosha (who is not pictured and lives outside of Moscow) is to please continue the good work! But we did discuss the challenges of creating an SDK for different aspects of ROF like ground objects, vehicles and airplanes. We need to work on this and we will. Our technologies are always evolving and keeping an up to date document on such technologies is not always easy.
I discussed many issues with the team during my visit such as how our product differs from others and why some in the community misunderstand why ROF works differently than other simulations. Take multiplayer for instance. Some say we have bad MP code since we can’t have 100 players on a server. Well, this is because our MP code is synchronized in every way from elevator and rudder position to damaged parts falling through the sky. Something other sims do not do and such an omission (De-synchronization we call it) lowers the amount of data passed between computers which allows for more players at the expense of realism. We wanted to create a quality and realistic experience so we built support to track all conditions and not cheat on the data and animations. So our MP code is very good after all and we simply max out what the hardware is capable of. However, maybe this was not the best idea as most users were unaware of this issue. Sometimes striving to be the best or most real can backfire. Its things like this that give us room to change to better please the community. It’s always a tough call though and there are trade-offs and sometimes fidelity can be left behind to please the masses. This type of issue becomes crystal clear when you talk to the team in person like I did on my visit. There isn’t anything any other team is doing that we do not understand or cannot do ourselves. The technology is the same whether you are flying a Camel or a Spitfire and the ridiculous arguments on the forums melt away once you understand the tech and people behind ROF.
During my visit we also discussed and debated topics such as what kind of product we could build next and how to raise more money from outside sources to keep simming alive for the long-run. Not a simple solution. With less than a handful of sim developers left and with some long-time principal people leaving sim development all together, you must ask yourself what is necessary to keep the genre going. Is it simply a battle of last man standing? Maybe our next product won’t be a simulation at all? There are so many questions, so few options. Who knows, as the market continues to change and by market I don’t just mean the simulation market. The PC games market as a whole has changed in big ways recently from distribution models, to community expectations, to game design. The future is uncertain for many, not just some.
However, the future lies with the community as it always has. If you support teams like ours new products and new ideas will spring forth. If the community chooses to succumb to its worst habits the hobby will die and you’ll only have outdated products to play with. However, the ROF team is a truly special bunch that pushes the limits of innovation to try and keep the worst from happening and they deserve their day in the sun. I hope my highlighting of the ROF team and my visit to Moscow has helped to put a human face to one of your favorite PC simulations. If you like what they are doing please continue to support them by telling your friends about the virtues of ROF and purchasing our products. Remember, as my comrades Lenin and Stalin told me in Red Square, “We need money for the Revolution!”
