"An instant marked the end of human innocence and swept away any expectation of a future life"
Welcome to Experience Historic Battles!
This Wiki strives to contains all you need to know about Experience Historic Battles.
The ambition with Experience Historic Battles (EHB.org) is to create a digital universe, that contains the major historic battles in the world. As it is a huge project, which will take a lot of manhours(!) to get done. We have chosen to release EHB.org on a early point in development, as we hope that many who have the interest in EHB.org will choose to join us and participate in the development of EHB.org. See more under Open Project, Open development and Open Access
As EHB.org is a Work-in-Progress, so will our Wiki-page be. On this page we explain the fundamentals about EHB.org, and will - in linie with the development of the EHB.org - make continuous updates.
So if you find that some information is missing or have any questions you are more than welcome to head over to our forums and join.
Our Forum (Registration is required).
Mission Statement
- ** First Person Interactive Experience**
You have different ways to enjoy our experiences. The first and foremost is to join in the experience itself as a first person player.
EHB.org will give the user the possibility to choose from a range of major histroic battles of the world. Futhermore it will be possible to choose any soldier in the scene of battle - eg. in the battles of WW2, one can choose to be english, american, german etc. Through experencing the battle, one gets a first hand record of how it was and how oneself would interact with the different battles throughout world history. Find out which battles are accessible at the moment at Status on EHB.org.
Besides the normal "gaming" experience as a first person player you also have options to watch the battlefield unfold all by itself. Here you can lean back and see the battle play itself out in front of you. In this mode you can switch between different camera positions or even use a free look camera and direct your own viewing experience.
In contrast to the "normal" gaming experience EHB.org provides a 1:1 scale experience. The 1:1 scale experience will give the users a different experience than playing fps games, but will provide them with a realistic experience of how it was to be a soldier in any historic battle.The aim is to create a vast digital universe, that enables everybody to interact with or observe the worlds major historic battles. </a>
- FREE - Non-profit
EHB.org is a non-profit project and is FREE for everybody to download.
We have decided to make EHB.org FREE and nonprofit, as we think that the general public should have FREE acces to the major historic battles of the world.
Our goal with EHB.org is to create an interactive experience, that is made as a real representation of how it really was. It will contain a realistic representation of the majot historic battles , and give the viewer the opportunity to experience or interact with the historic events in a whole new way.
We find that history is important, as it contributes to the knowlegde about the history of the unfoldning story of Man in which we all participate. We have researched and found that written history is seldom with out political agendas, and found that the phrase "The first casualty of War is Truth" is unfourtunately very true. In our strive to account for the historic battles we read as many historic accounts as possible, and compare the facts. In order not to get stuck in historical discussions we have created a working method called Approximation by Reasonable Assumption. This enables us to launce the project in a state of 'early acces' and allow users to become co-creators through participation. See more under Open Project
Teh EHB.org intend to give users the opputunity to become active in the proces of developing it. We think that the more the merrier
We work with be so objective and open in the developmant of EHB.org, so we strive for the most objective version of the history, and futhermore invite eveybody to particpate and join us in the proces.
Every body is very welcome to join our community, (see more here: Community based), create the vast digital univers with us through Open Development and lastly - but not least - donate to the project; Financed by your Donations. As it is important to remember that just because its free to use its not free to develop.
- Non-Political
We, the developers behind Experience Historic Battles, are non-political and therefore do not take side in any of the conflicts that our events are built up around.
As stated under FREE - Non-profit - we do find that history is important, and that it should be accesible for anyone. We futhermore find that finding the FACTS of past events - as they really were - is a challange, as all history books has been written with a certain perspective and goal - with or without a political agenda. We are interested in pass on the FACTS about the historic battles.
Our mission is to show how it really was. We are driven of a historic interest in what really happened, and consequently, we simply show the battlefield and its surrounding conditions as they were at the time.
This means that we, as developers, have no interest in why the different parts arrived in the conflict, but merely that they did.
We strongly encourage our user to adopt the same attitude towards EHB.org.
- 1:1 scale experience
Our goal is to create a 1:1 experience in both size and number, to get as close to the historic events, as they unfolded in real life.
This includes scale, movement speed and time.These three factors are tied very strongly together and is therefore important to understand. Let's take an example; a soldier has to run across a certain stretch to safety. The distance he has to run is the “scale” (of the landscape), so the “movement speed” at which he runs determines the “time” it takes him to get there.
All this will give the players a much different experience than playing normal fps games but will give them a much more realistic experience of how it was to be a soldier in any historic battle.
This is, whether you like it or not, a key component of our Historic Battle Experience. But we are certain that once you get used to these settings that you agree that they are an essential part of what we are doing here.To achieve this, we use a development approach we call; Approximation by Reasonable Assumption.
- Objective History
A very good question here is, if history ever can be objective. But we strive to make it so!
As it is our ambition with every historic battle added to the EHB.org to make them as true to as they really were, we strive to keep an open mind and include as many historical facts in the development of them as possible. The user will be able to choose battle and person, and experience how it was, and also how oneself would interact with the different battles throughout world history.
- Open Project
The term Open Project is an umbrella under which we apply the two following features; Open Development and Open Access
We have decided to make EHB.org an Open Project, as it solves the challenge of taking on such a huge project as EHB.org. We know that there is a huge interest in history and historic battles in particular, and therefore we would like to invite everybody with interest to participate in the community - and those with skills for computer-graphics etc to participate in the development of EHB.org.
- Open Development
Open Development invites those with interest in Experience Historic Battles to join
As developers of EHB.org we find the project is of common interest, and we are certain that there is many 'out there', who would like to join and participate in the development of EHB.org.
Because of this and because of the size of the project we have chosen to make the EHB.org a project, where anyone with interest (and skills) can join. Se more under Community based.
- Open Access
Open access means that as a user will have access to all builds along the entire development process.
The EHB.org is starting out with battles of the WW2 starting with the battles on D-Day. Se more under Status on EHB.org. We strive to make the experiences in such a way, that one can experience the grandeur of the battles. As a means of getting there, we have decided to release EHB.org in an extreme early state, so that users can get a taste of it and join the community in order to contribute to the development of EHB.org.
- Work-in-Progress
As EHB.org is released in a stage of early access - EHB.org is also a work-in-progress
Due to the fact, that we have decided to develop EHB.org as an *Open Project** the experience will be released in a very early state. See more under Open Development and Open Access. We work hard to make EHB.org worth your while, and would very much like you to join us. Se how under Community based. For our part, we will certainly keep you updated on the newest builds and their features.
- Approximation by Reasonable Assumption
The production will work with an approximation method, that works from low to higher level of detail.
This means that there will be constructed environments/sceneries, weapons, vehicles, soldiers and action starting of in a low level of detail, and bit by bit will be transformed to a higher level detail. By using this method of production, which can be described as the reversed use of LOD, we ensure a faster output of the project.
Dette er den omvendte brug af LOD (Level of Detail), hvor man almindeligvis starter med at lave alle detaljerne først.
In the process of constructing the 'game-play' for EHB.org we have also employed the method Approximation by Reasonable Assumption. Even though we aim at display the most OBJECTIVE version of the major historical battles, we also want to create EHB.org. So we are aware that we maybe haven't taken every account into consideration before creating, but enough to produce content via Approximation by Reasonable Assumption.
- UNITY
The experience will be developed in UNITY
We have chosen UNITY, because UNITY is the game development platform that meet our requirements the most. It has a fast workflow, open toolbox and is free for our users to download if they wish to contribute to the development of EHB.org.
It is not nessecary to install UNITY if you 'only' want to experience the historic battles.
- PBR
EHB.org will use PBR, because it is the future
Every 3D asset in EHB.org will be rendered with physically based rendering (PBR), so they interact as naturally with their enviroment and look as lifelike as possible. To this end we will use Substance Painter. See more about Substance Painter here: https://www.allegorithmic.com/products/substance-painter. And if you are interested in the physics behind PBR you can find more information here: https://academy.allegorithmic.com/courses/b6377358ad36c444f45e2deaa0626e65
- Community based
EHB.org is created together with the Community
EHB.org is released on an early point in development and is as such an invitation to our Community to engage and contribute. We have chosen this form of development, as we find there is a great interest for Historic Battles and many who have computerskils. by being an Open Projcect highly accessible for the users.
which includes Open Development and Open Access who choose to join our community. Through joining the community the users get access to the forums of EHB.org and have the possibility to create content for the EHB.org.
- Financed by your Donations
We hope you will be one of them!
We have decided to make EHB.org FREE and Non-profit, as we find that EHB.org is of general interest. Therefore we have made EHB.org accessible for anyone with interest in the subject.
We do sincerly hope, though, that people will support us, in any way they can. The project is facilitated by Karsten Viese, Game Director at Mechanical Fruits I/S. He and his co-workers will work continuously on making EHB.org worth visiting with updates and upgrades as often as possible.
Even though the project is made free of cost for the users, there are in fact production cost. The project will evolve faster if you choose to support us. We would love to have you in our community, where you can meet like-minded people and talk about EHB.org. You are welcome to contribute with your knowledge on the subjects of the battles. Eg. new discovery on a battle from WW2, weapon capability etc. We will also be very pleased if you would like to model artefacts for EHB.org. See under Open Development. And of course, we would be thrilled if you would like to become a patreon (here).
- Status on EHB.org
The first battlefield of EHB.org is the Colle Ville Draw
We have decided to start with D-day, as it is still - after 70 years - the largest amphibious operation, that involved more than 3 million soldiers, that crossed the English Canal from England to Normandie. The first battles of the EHB.org is only a 'slice' of D-days numerous battles. The slice runs from Omaba Beach - THE FOX GREEN SECTOR - through the Colle Ville Draw to the village Colleville Sur Mer.
Missions
FAQ
Frequently asked questions!
Make sure to read these!
Development
This section is about the development of our open projects and might not be of interest to the general public.
It's meant for team members working on the projects under the open development structure.
- More content on its way!