IL*2 Great Battles News

[FONT=&quot]News from Jason[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Bodenplatte Coming Along Nicely![/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]We continue to work on the BOBP map and its large list of airfields and urban areas which is something rather new for us. This map has been a challenge like never before and we have it functioning in Beta, but it has a little way to go still. However, our last three Allied planes are coming along nicely. Check out this beautiful formation of vintage American air power and a bonus shot of the Tempest in flight. The Tempest continues to be tweaked and improved after the first round of Beta testing and the P-38 is also in Beta with small tweaking necessary. The P-51D will also be coming to Beta soon. All three aircraft are quite complex. The different design philosophies of each nation have really become evident as we make more and more planes.

We must remind everyone that these planes are still a Work-In-Progress so some of these details in these images may change.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Today I’d like to tell you a story about how our Tempest Mk.V came to be. Every once in a while, I get to stop being a producer and just be a word not allowed and add something to the simulation to fulfill a dream. When I saw how well our Spitfire Mk.Vb turned out, I knew I wanted a Tempest added whenever possible. There is something very cool about these British birds. I knew a Tempest built by our team would be awesome. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I’ve always thought the Tempest was really an awesome warplane. It just looked tough and mean with that huge air scoop under the nose of that powerful Sabre engine. It appealed to me as the perfected sibling of the legendary, but initially troubled Typhoon. The Tempest represented the pinnacle of piston powered late-war aircraft. The type of Allied fighter that could beat the best the Luftwaffe had and put the final nail in the coffin. As an American kid, the British Tempest looked uniquely cool and somehow different, but I could only see pictures in books and read about them. I never got to see an actual Tempest in the air. Unlike Spitfires and Mustangs, so few examples survived their service and performed to airshows in California where I grew up. So, when the opportunity came much, much later in life, I decided I wanted to fly one built to our specs in our engine with our team. Now it’s finally time.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]From the first moment I decided we should make the Tempest, I knew building it would be a challenge. I recalled from the days of IL-2:1946 that there was a real lack of quality references to make the plane to a high degree of detail, both in its physical shape and the engine’s performance. That Tempest model is a great accomplishment as well and I remember the enthusiasm that accompanied it way back then. I knew it would be the same difficult road today for our Tempest without a real effort and help from other people. And luckily, that is exactly what happened. Thanks to total strangers and friends in the community, this mission has been a successful one. In the past, other such endeavors have failed, so I am very excited that this one did not.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]1CGS Office Las Vegas, NV U.S.A[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Last year I put out a call on the forum asking for help locating information and references for the Tempest. The community responded in force, and I was able to quickly get a grasp of what was out there. This got the ball rolling and I bought the team several books, drawings and sourced any operator manuals that were publicly available. I also learned what actual airframes existed and I started to try and make contact with their owners. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Fantasy of Flight in Lakeland, Florida U.S.A.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]My first bit of luck was successfully making contact with Fantasy of Flight outside Orlando, FL thanks to social media. Fantasy of Flight is home to the famous Kermit Weeks, who’s videos of him flying many different aircraft on YouTube is legendary. I took a trip to Orlando and drove out to FOF to see the two Tempest airframes they have there. They have a Mk.V and a Mk.II. I was informed that the Mk.V was a front line WWII bird, but it had crash landed in the Netherlands and was recovered, but then turned into a test airframe for refurbished Sabre engines at a repair depot. I was told the Mk. II airframe was one of the prototypes. Both are in various stages of restoration, but the project manager was retiring in a matter of days and the planes were going into a crate and locked away for who knows how long. Matter of fact, a lot of the plane was already in crates! I had to act fast. [/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]I made it to FOF just in time and met with Andy, the gentleman who was retiring the next week. I learned as much as I could from him about the Tempest airframes they had and took lots of pictures for our modelers. Here is a sampling of what I saw there, which was two airplanes in bits with the wings and an incomplete fuselage. I was stressing this would not be enough.[/FONT]
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Fantasy of Flight has a great collection of aircraft and I highly recommend visiting it if you are ever in the Orlando area. It’s not a far drive from Disneyworld. Lots of interesting and rare aircraft in great condition. The

RAF Hendon, London, England, UK

My second bit of luck was successfully making contact with the RAF Museum at Hendon. This took some real doing and I must thank community member EAF19_Marsh aka Ed for helping get me in touch with the right person. It looked grim and I was extremely frustrated with Hendon at one point, because I knew they had the missing piece of the puzzle, but they just were not responding to my requests. However, in the end it all worked out and Ed’s effort helped get things moving. I hopped on a plane to London and took the London Underground for the first time to Hendon. There I saw a real complete Tempest Mk.V in the flesh. Airframe NV778 was a former target tug, but other than the unique target tug equipment it was the exact airplane we needed. Here are some pics of it at Hendon. My worry was starting to subside, it looked like we could make the Tempest after all.



 
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[FONT=&quot]I also encourage anyone who visits London to go to the RAF Hendon museum. Their collection is awesome and includes some real gems. The Lancaster bomber there is extremely impressive! Makes the B-17 and B-24 look small. The crew at Hendon did us a real solid. Please show them your support and thanks for helping us out. A special thanks to Ian Thirsk, Brendan O’Gorman and especially to Tim Bracey for his assistance in accessing the Tempest.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]www.rafmuseum.com[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]While I was in London I met up with a few IL-2 community members and had some beer and some chat. Thanks to Custard, Herne, Elem and Royal Flight and a few other gents which I embarrassingly can’t remember their names of so many months later. My apologies. I had a great time with everyone even though I had caught a nasty cold. I felt awful and I apologize to everyone who came for not being my usual chatty self. Why is beer so warm in England? What’s up with that?[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Typhoon Legacy British Columbia, Canada[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]Getting pictures for the Tempest model was a huge step, but what about other things like flight data, engine data and operator manuals? Without some kind of understanding about the performance of the plane we’d just be guessing and users would not be happy. Well, shortly after my original call for help on the forum I was contacted by community member [IV./JG54]Croquemou aka Nicolas who works on the Typhoon Legacy project. They are restoring a Typhoon and they had lots of useful info and references for us about the Tempest and Napier Sabre engine. They were kind enough to share this information with me and I passed it onto the Sturmovik engineering team. We acquired official manuals, parts lists, drawings, engine test data, flight-data and other small bits of info that should help us make the Tempest fly in a realistic fashion. Special thanks to Nicolas and Ian Slater for their help in acquiring this important information. [/FONT]
 
CGS Office Moscow, Russian Federation

Armed with all the information and pictures I could gather our modeling team went to work building the Tempest. It took quite a while, but Phil really did an excellent job capturing its shape and he somehow untangled the complicated cockpit structure to create what I consider a masterpiece.

Here is Phil’s take on building the Tempest, “Each aircraft is unique, even within the same series, there will always be small differences. Working on a visual model of Tempest was not a challenge, but unlike many others, there were features that I could not foresee. The unique designs and decisions of British engineers were of great interest to me in the process of studying this aircraft, but, in turn, covered with the lack of references that were high enough for modeling, was affected by the great stress in the process of creating this war bird. Spatial frames, many open cabin panels, non-standard solutions of simple assemblies, many details, confusion of differences in series, all this at certain times became difficult, but no less interesting.

Starting with the external model of the fuselage, you feel like a sculptor, deriving smooth contours, wide and graceful wings, a streamlined body - all this contrasts with the cabin, reminiscent of some kind of chaos of scattered parts, wires, hoses. One got the impression that this was done not at the factory, but in the field, or in the form of a prototype. But this style is observed in many British warbirds - Hurricane, Spitfire, and others.

For me, the artistic process is inextricable with the study of not only visual references, but also the design of how it works and what it was intended for. Understanding the internal processes and historical decisions gives many details that affect the final result. You can also find interesting comparisons in the future. For example, I often find similar solutions in other planes of other countries. For example, in the Yak-9 - this is unbelievable, but there are many similarities with Tempest. Or at one time I found interesting comparisons in the models of Foke-Wolf Dora and Soviet Lavochkin LA-5.

Returning to Tempest, I would also like to note that once it was one of my favorite airplanes. As a child, I often riveted such airplanes with large “beard” air intakes, but then cooled down to this design. Work on Tempest revived this love in me, and I hope you all will like it, and you will also feel the power of this bird. Feel the smell of fuel and oil. And shooting down an enemy plane you will feel like those heroes defending your country!”

Any time we create an airplane model from scratch under our tight deadlines it’s a struggle to include all the necessary details without blowing up our polygon and texture budget. Lucky for everyone, Phil somehow got it done!

 
Dear Pilots,

Summer is drawing to a close once again and our offices in Moscow and Las Vegas are finally transitioning to cooler weather. The Fall season brings warm sweaters and more indoor time with the family and more time playing your favorite combat flight-simulation – IL-2 Sturmovik!! The team is very busy preparing the next update due later this month which will be a big one, but not quite the final one before Battle of Bodenplatte and Flying Circus are considered ready for release. We also continue our work on Tank Crew which has some new features and improvements coming as well.

In light of our crammed schedule we simply leave you with some new images of our P-38J-25 and P-51D-15 and a shot of our A.I. B-25 from Battle of Bodenplatte!

Enjoy!




 
[FONT=&quot]Hello everybody,[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]We’re in the second half of September and this means that the next update 3.201 isn’t far away. This one will be massive and will bring a lot of new content as well. Three player controllable aircraft, AI bomber, new AI ground vehicles and of course, the new map - Rheinland. This map tops the records once again: 130 000 square kilometers of reachable terrain (401 x 324 km), 176 000 square kilometers total size (461 x 384 km), 225 cities and towns - a record number of big cities, 70 airfields - 67 of them have historically correct layout recreated using archive documents. For increased detail and historical accuracy, for the first time, we have used 4 airfield types on the same map - with concrete, metal, and unpaved runways and airstrips without runways.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&quot]To populate the map with European buildings on such a large scale new ‘construction kit’ of European city blocks was created - this allowed to represent highly populated cities while keeping the general layout of the city where they belong. There are new models for big factories and many unique buildings and we also actively used the bridges ‘construction kit’ which has been developed previously.[/FONT]
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IL-2 Sturmovik Forum
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[h=3]Developer Diary 232 - Discussion[/h]2 minutes ago, Han said: 232 Hello everybody, The next update 3.201 will be released really soon. In the previous Dev Diaries, we told what it will bring for Bodenplatte, but it will also contain many improvements for other projects as well. Lets...


Hello everybody,
The next update 3.201 will be released really soon. In the previous Dev Diaries, we told what it will bring for Bodenplatte, but it will also contain many improvements for other projects as well. Let’s start with Tank Crew.
The first important feature (not only for tanks, but it is especially important for them) is the new occlusion system for object markers. Now ground and aerial object markers will be occluded by other moving objects, cockpit elements, hills, trees buildings, etc. It should really pump up the tension of battle even in the ‘markers on’ mode.
Second, we have changed the way a turret (or closed sights MGs like bow MG-34) is steered on all tanks, now it moves like on M4A2 before and there is a special overlay indicator showing the set turret direction.
In addition, all the Tank Crew player controllable tanks now have improved engine startup procedures, both visually and audibly. Pz. IV and M4 have autonomous turret traverse mode working with effects and animations. The tanks handling has been improved. Many of them have their interiors and some exterior details updated.
Two historical campaigns set near Prokhorovka designed by Alexander Timoshokov and Victor Sechnoy are finished and their beta testing should start next week along with the commander interface for controlling the crew and an entire platoon. To create correct mission scenarios, a lot of effort has been put into research - just their briefings have enough text to fill up 40 book pages. Ground AI improvements required a lot of time as well. We plan to release these campaigns to all Tank Crew owners in October.


 
Now onto Flying Circus. The coming update will include the Arras area map (1918). The cities, towns, and airfields recreate the atmosphere of the era believably. The designers paid special attention to smaller details in the airfield buildings. The towns have trade squares, suburban blocks and more detailed factory areas. There are barbed wire and dugouts on no-mans-land. Together with the latest technologies available in IL-2 engine, the new Arras map will give the aviators of the Great War the next level of immersive flight and dogfights above the Western Front positions.


 


Returning to Bodenplatte, we’re glad to report that we have found the means of increasing visual quality of Tempest Mk.V even more. Since the end of Summer, our artists worked on the texturing and materials and you can see the result on these screenshots.

The aircraft released in the previous TOWs also gets attention - Battle of Stalingrad owners will see IL-2 mod. 1942 and Bf 109 G-2 skins updated to 4K quality thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney and Francisco =BlackHellHound1= Bindraban. But not only visuals are being upgraded for our previous projects - we’re also working on some sound improvements. For instance, DB-601 and BD-605 engine sounds installed on Bf-109s and Bf-110s will become more realistic in 3.201.
 
Maybe a simple question here.

Is the battle of Bodenplatte a standalone module? Meaning that if I purchase it at the IL-2 site and install it, is that all I need in order to use it (no other prerequisites like DCS requiring a base product and then adding modules)?

Thanks,
Odie
 
New update today apparently.
https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/12826-game-updates/?do=findComment&comment=824612
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We advise you to browse through the 3.201 changelist below - in addition to big additions it contains smaller changes which were requested for some time:
New aircraft and other objects

  1. Tempest Mk.V Series 2 fighter is available to all Bodenplatte owners;
  2. P-51D-15 fighter is available to all Bodenplatte owners;
  3. Collectors Plane P-38J-25 is available to all Bodenplatte Premium Edition owners;
  4. The new map Rheinland Summer 1944 (including the Low Countries) is available to all Bodenplatte owners in QMB mode;
  5. The new map Arras Spring 1918 is available to all Flying Circus Vol.1 owners in QMB mode;
  6. B-25D bomber added (not player controllable);
  7. GMC CCKW truck added;
  8. Willys MB off-road vehicle added;
  9. M16 Half-track self-propelled AAA gun added;
  10. Sd Kfz 7 Flakvierling 38 self-propelled AAA gun added;
  11. Flakvierling 38 AAA gun added;
  12. М1A1 90 mm AAA gun added;
  13. US searchlights and landing lights added;
  14. M5 3-inch AT gun added;
  15. M1 155mm howitzer added;
  16. JagdPz IV L70 tank destroyer added;
  17. Infantry and AA .50 MG added;
  18. New types of road and railroad bridges added;
  19. New Western European town and village blocks added;
  20. New industry blocks added;
  21. Many new unique buildings for Rheinland and Arras added;
  22. New countries that participated in WWI and WWII added to the mission logic;
Visual improvements

  1. Aircraft and ships are visible much farther than before - theoretically, they can be spotted as far as 100 km away if there are fire, contrails or a ship wake;
  2. New ‘Distant buildings’ option added;
  3. Object markers can be blocked by landscape and objects, including own aircraft or vehicle;
  4. Static objects rendering has been optimized to increase performance;
  5. Sun glare from distant aircraft is visible better;
  6. Fire can be visible inside the cockpit on single and triple engine planes;
  7. It’s possible to display a customizable photo in all aircraft cockpits and tank cabins;
  8. Collimator sight reticle has been improved for all planes;
Aircraft improvements

  1. DB-601 and DB-605 engine sounds improved for all Bf-109 and Bf-110 planes;
  2. Realistic pilot’s physiology model is now active, which takes into account the duration of the G-load and rate the G-load was applied;
  3. After prolonged exposure to high-G load the load factor tolerance of the crew decreases and they require some time of steady flight to rest and recover;
  4. Oxygen deficit affects the human tolerance to high G-load more accurately;
  5. Visual and audible high-G effects made more realistic;
  6. The sound of the player breathing during a significant positive G load improved, that sound is no longer played during a negative G load;
  7. G-suits increase the load factor tolerance of the crew;
  8. The crew can become motion sick from alternating G loads;
  9. High-G loads, powerful impacts and pain shock can render the crew unconscious resulting in a loss of control;
  10. New ‘Simple physiology’ option added to the difficulty settings disables the load factor tolerance decrease, loss of consciousness and motion sickness;
  11. Damage inflicted to the crew from powerful impacts and falls have been corrected;
  12. The player can’t get painful shock anymore if the invulnerability difficulty option is checked;
  13. The ability of the crew to bail out is now limited by the G-load (including its direction), airspeed and crew health (wounds);
  14. Crew bails out differently depending on the G load direction - down if the load is positive and up if the load is negative;
  15. The movements of the visible model of the flight stick and pedals in the cockpit are no longer filtered so there is less delay between the movement of real flight stick and pedals and the virtual ones. However, the flight stick movement speed is still limited at high flight speeds or if the pilot is wounded;
  16. It is now possible to assign a trim axis if it was controlled by an axis on a real aircraft (control wheel or lever). The speed of the trim axis is still limited and depends on the aircraft, similar to the adjustable stabilizer. If you use joystick buttons or keyboard for controlling such trimmers, please assign these keys not only to electric trimmers but also to this trim axis;
  17. All Pe-2 and Hs-129 have their electric trimmers disabled if the power is turned off. Turning them on and off can be heard and the sound of trim has been replaced with an electric motor sound;
  18. The adjustable stabilizer axis is no longer inverted (its direction is changed according to DirectX standard);
  19. New commands for retraction and extension of the landing gear added;
  20. It’s possible to repair in aircraft when it is near an object with the service parameter set to On in the mission file. Repairs start automatically when the engines shutdown procedure is complete;
  21. It’s possible to refuel in aircraft when it is near an object with the service parameter set to On in the mission file. The refueling process can be started and stopped using the new commands and only possible if the engines are shut down;
  22. It’s possible to rearm in aircraft when it is near an object with the service parameter set to On in the mission file. The rearming process can be started and stopped using the new command and only possible if the engines are shut down;
  23. Spitfire stall behavior with released landing flaps has been corrected;
  24. British and American voiceovers added for Bodenplatte pilots;
  25. 150 Octane fuel is available for Spitfire IXe that enables +25 lbs. With it enabled, switching supercharger gears becomes manual;
  26. La-5FN skins should work on an MP server now, but this change requires reassigning its skins in the missions created earlier;
  27. Bodenplatte pilots got Summer uniform;
  28. Windmilling effect works on U-2VS;
  29. British gyro gunsight G.G.S. Mk.IId (Spitfire Mk.IXe) now accounts for gravitational bullet drop when calculating the deflection;
  30. Spitfire Mk.IXe electric fuel pump won’t continuously switch on and off at low throttle on the ground;
  31. Some instruments and switches sounds corrected on Spitfire Mk.IXe;
  32. Me 262 A behavior at beyond-stall angles of attack corrected;
  33. The physical behavior of I-16 fragments has been corrected;
  34. Smoke clouds after a plane crash in multiplayer disappear correctly;
AI improvements

  1. AI better aims at distant steadily flying targets;
  2. AI better distribute enemy targets among themselves;
  3. If an AI has a speed advantage over a target it is attacking, it tries to keep this advantage;
  4. Combat turns, spirals and banking maneuvers in a dogfight are performed more aggressively;
  5. AI won’t switch maneuvers too frequently, distorting its planned tactics;
  6. Criteria for choosing maneuvers in a dogfight were updated;
  7. AI keeps the formation better;
Tank improvements

  1. Offroad shaking has been made more natural;
  2. All the tanks now use the M4A2 aiming method;
  3. The engine startup sequence is now animated (master switch, excess pressure valve, manual fuel pump, wobble pump, caution signal);
  4. Inner visual effects are not affected by tank movements;
  5. Engine exhaust effect improved;
  6. Driver gauges, turret instruments, MG elements are now animated in multiplayer;
  7. Direction controllability improved;
  8. APHE rounds cause more damage to inner components after the armor penetration;
  9. The visual effect of the turret traverse motor exhaust added to Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. G and M4A2;
  10. KV-1s and Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf. M commanders can fire the signal rockets through a small hatch in the roof when the commander hatch is closed;
  11. The engine startup sound on KV-1s and Т-34-76 UVZ (1943) depends on the starter type used (main electric or reserve pneumatic one);
  12. KV-1s, Т-34-76 UVZ (1943) and M4A2 have functioning klaxon (LAlt+S);
  13. Inner details and texturing improved on KV-1s and Pz.Kpfw.VI Ausf.H1;
  14. Pz.Kpfw. III Ausf. M, Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. G and Pz.Kpfw. VI Ausf. H1 bow MGs use the M4A2 aiming method;
  15. There is an alternate DT MG gunner aiming mode on KV-1s - through the periscope (in addition to the regular one through the gunsight);
  16. KV-1s commander and radioman have an alternate aiming mode - through a visor;
  17. M4A2 turret traverse can be powered by the motor-generator;
  18. M4A2 first-person view height corrected for a driver and MG gunner in unbuttoned positions;
  19. Visible (from the driver seat) rotation of the steering drive shaft has been corrected on Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf. G;
  20. Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf. M fuel or oil fire effect has been corrected;
  21. A firing port in the panoramic gunsight armor added on KV-1s;
  22. Air inlets of the engine compartment added on KV-1s;
  23. Slits in the driver visor on KV-1s decreased in the visor open position;
Other improvements

  1. The sound subsystem uses newer FMOD API - sound loss after long play sessions should be fixed;
  2. Runway floodlights work now;
  3. Coalition sorting functionality added to QMB mode;
  4. An automatic chat message in the multiplayer reports if there is no UDP traffic coming from one of the players;
  5. A workaround added for VR HMDs without hardware IPD adjustment - LShift-NumPad+ and LShift-NumpadEnter directly move the images on the VR screen farther or closer.
  6. Radio chatter volume is affected if the player is concussed, lost consciousness or wounded.
 
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