Update

[Cadman]

2.1.2006

Charlottesville, Virginia

For Immediate Release:

Storm Eagle Studios has just released updated screen shots of our upcoming debut title �Distant Guns: The Russo-Japanese War 1904-05, featuring our new 2nd generation Wave geometry graphics. We had slated the graphics upgrade for our second release, but a technology breakthrough by our Maestro, Norm Koger, has allowed us to accelerate its introduction with our first release!

Norm Koger, Maestro of Storm Eagle, said �Our first generation water geometry was designed primarily to interact with ship models at the waterline so that the ships would not appear to be resting on a flat surface. This worked fairly well as far as it went, but water lighting and wave appearance were all texture effects. It wasn't as convincing as we would have liked. After a bit of experimentation, we found that we had the available processing power to do real wave geometry. We now have a smooth 400 frame animated mesh that interacts with real world lighting to render a much more realistic water surface than what we had before. Along the way, we also discovered a few other optimizations that we hadn't found before, and our frame rates are actually higher with the rich wave geometry than they were before!�

In addition to the Wave graphics, we have also added the following new features and enhancements

� Streamlining of user interface featuring total camera movement and control via mouse

� Set Follow Ship Camera View and Set Fixed Camera View

� Streamlined Hot Key assignments and additions

� Streamlined Ship Formation Order entry

� Additional Targeting Functionality

� Reduced Runtime Memory Requirements

� Higher Frame Rate

These are but a few of the upgrades and streamlining that we have been performing on Distant Guns: The Russo-Japanese War 1904-05.

We would also like to announce that we have delayed release until Late Feb/Early March 2006 for release so that we may complete the random battle generator and the campaign game before release.

A new Press kit is available for download in addition to a new screen shot package featuring our new 2nd Generation Wave Geometry. In addition, we have available for download, new panel screen shots and art work, both side and top/bottom panels, available for immediate download at our press office.

Sincerely,

Jim Rose � Kapellmeister
Norm Koger � Maestro

[kennylibben]

cool, cant wait for it to come out!

[MichelB]

Indeed! Lemme at it!

[Bob Cicconi]

Me, too. I'll buy it.

[TTTTTTTTTT]

I'll be purchasing this one as well. Hopefully, they'll eventually have expansion packs for additional scenarios, Spanish-American War, etc.

[Bob Cicconi]

That's a good idea. I never even thought of that.

[Bill Clarke]

Any further updates ? it seems to have gone over the original estimate of Feb, Mar.

[Cadman]

7.21.2006



Greetings Storm Eagle Fans!



We are currently testing release candidate (2) of Distant Guns: The Russo-Japanese War 1904-05, having implementing a number of small changes suggested by our test group after a thorough review of candidate 1. This finally looks like the long awaited release build. It�s branded v1.0, so if final test goes smoothly this is the very same build you can expect to be evaluating on your computer before the month is out.



Again, we truly appreciate your patience. Thanks for bearing with our obsessive attention to fixing, improving and otherwise dealing with every issue raised or suggested by our testers.



Sincerely,



Norm Koger � Maestro Jim Rose � Kapellmeister

[MichelB]

Darn. This is really going to screw up my personal budget for the next quarter. It's either this or another big Kombrig spending spree, and I need both! Choices...
Don't I have a slush fund somewhere for these things?

[kennylibben]

any word on how soon it will be in stores?

[Timmy C]

By 'evaluating', does that mean free trial, or paid only?

[starshell]

any word on how soon it will be in stores?

It will only be sold online as far as I know so you won't be seeing it in stores.