New Game Launcher, New Set Up

Crash · November 7, 2019

Game now updated

IL-2: Great Battles Version 4.001 Launched – Battle of Bodenplatte and Flying Circus Officially Released! Tank Crew Campaigns - Released!

Dear Pilots!

Finally, we have reached a very important milestone for our latest IL-2 Sturmovik titles. Today, two projects moving from the Early Access phase to Official Release. The first of these is Battle of Bodenplatte, which acquired the last major content components that were missing - the seasonal textures for the Rhineland map and the Pilot's Career. However, this does not mean that work on this project is completely done, we plan to spend some time before we begin our next project on fine-tuning and polishing a number of its components and adding a couple yet to be completed pieces such as Air Marshal. However, we feel it contains enough content and features that we can begin to sell it in all our channels including Steam as we head into the Holiday Season. In addition, we plan to closely monitor your messages in order to improve the quality of the project as much as we can in the last part of 2019. Bodenplatte turned out to be a truly record-setting job for us, the volume of work done on the development of maps and aircraft of the late period of the war is unprecedented for us. The late period imposes serious additional requirements on the manufactured equipment; however, the result is extremely interesting. The included aircraft make an incredible impression, because this is already the "apogee" of piston powered planes and, at the same time, the "dawn" of jet aircraft. The Rhineland map impresses with its scale, size and richness of cities and the number and historically researched airfields. The career "Battle of the Rhine" takes place over a fairly long period of time that includes four seasons - from September 17th, 1944 to April 1st, 1945. The Career covers a very significant part of the war on the western front - more than half a year. Battle of Bodenplatte was a bold step for us and when coupled with our other two projects, it pushed us to our creative limits. We hope you will enjoy it! Also, a Standard Edition of BOBP will be coming soon with the P-38J and Fw-190 D-9 offered as Collector Planes to give users more buying options. BOBP will also be available on Steam in the coming weeks, there are still a few details we must work out there first.

Flying Circus - Volume 1 is now available in its fully planned state and all the remaining ground-based equipment of the First World War have been added in our new standard of visual quality. Observation balloons with observers who may leap from their post when under attack are also included now. A number of improvements were also made on the map, primarily to the front line. We hope that users who purchase this project will like the step forward in comparison with our previous title Rise of Flight, especially in the visual quality of aircraft and the environment that we, together with our partner Yugra Media, have created for you. Although the flight models generally correspond to the ones from Rise of Flight, many of the improvements that have been made over the past 7 years for Il-2 Sturmovik play a role in Flying Circus as well. Such improvements automatically benefit all projects within the framework of our one common game world and give a new, previously unavailable experience of virtual flight and combat in the First World War. All these new opportunities unfold in their fullest when playing with the use of virtual reality devices. FC includes so many new things - new landscape technology, new lighting and clouds, better sound, new AI and improved ballistics, new graphic effects and new materials for aircraft surfaces, new detailing of textures and models - all this and much more gives the virtual pilots of the First World War something that is not available anywhere else. We hope to make more Flying Circus volumes in the future and we thank those who have jumped into this new product so far!

Note: We have extended the $10 Off Early Access discount for days more, but it will go to full MSRP very soon. Make your purchase before the price goes up!

Tank Crew – Clash at Prokhorovka is still under development, as one more tank and three self-propelled guns are being built by our DigitalForms partners. However, from the point of view of the gameplay, this project has almost reached its planned goals - this is expressed in the release of the Breakpoint and Last Chance scenario campaigns in this version. These campaigns tell the story, in the maximum possible historical manner we can, about the complex and intricate events of one of the greatest tank battles on the Eastern Front - the battle of Prokhorovka.

This battle was not limited only to the events of July 12th, it took place over several tense days, from July 6th to July 16th, 1943. The events and outcomes of this battle are extremely complex and controversial. Although the Soviet troops and armored forces suffered heavy losses, the German command was never able to achieve their planned goals. At the end of the battle, the situation in this sector of the war front almost returned to what it was before it began. However, numbers or the “net book balance” does not always determine the magnitude of the event. The incredible tension, power, complexity and intensity of this military clash, which practically merged into one single and continuous epic multi-day battle, has few equals in world history. And the ambiguity of the outcome of the battle only enhances the intensity of the drama of these events, which do not require any embellishment - simply being retold "as is", without exaggeration is incredibly exciting. It should also be noted that the release of these tank campaigns is accompanied by the completion of the development of some of the most important features of Tank Crew – the radio and command interface. This will allow you to better control your own tank and your tank platoon. We also plan to continue the refinement of our tank project in the coming months as this project too readies for official release.

And finally, the Achtung Spitfire! Scripted Campaign is also now released and ready to be played! Developed by our friends The Syndicate, this historically inspired campaign contains 20 missions featuring a fictional storyline that is inspired by historical events. Your character is a young Russian pilot from Siberia serving on the North Caucasus Front in late May 1943. The campaign features missions inspired by the Soviet 37th and 56th Armies attack on the German 44th Army Corps west of the city of Krymskaya. You’ll fly a bird of a different feather in the lend-lease Spitfire Mk.Vb over the beautiful Kuban region of the Soviet Union. The campaign is great fun and full of action.

This campaign also has a new feature. We have added support for special assigned skins for the player’s plane and other planes I the mission. This is a first for us in a pay-ware campaign such as this. However, to see them, you must download the free skin pack from HERE and place the skins in the Spitfire Mk.Vb Skins folder. We have decided to offer the skin pack as an optional download to lighten our distribution costs and the size of your install if you don’t own this campaign. The skin pack is offered free of charge of course.

We thank you for your patience as we have readied this product for release and many of you have already pre-ordered it and we appreciate your support. Products like these add more diversity to our product line and help fund many new innovations and content for all of you.

And now we proudly present version 4.001 to you, our friends, partners and customers. And like most huge updates, there are likely to be some bugs or other unintended issues missed in testing. We of course, as always, will address them just as fast as we can. We appreciate your support as we have worked hard to build all of these new products. Here’s to you and to more great combat-sim goodness in the future!

The Sturmovik Team

Main features

1. "Battle of the Rhine" career timeframe consisting of five chapters added to Battle of Bodenplatte;
2. Rheinland Autumn 1944 map added to Battle of Bodenplatte;
3. Rheinland Winter 1944-45 map added to Battle of Bodenplatte;
4. Rheinland Spring 1945 map added to Battle of Bodenplatte;
5. Canon de 75 mle 1897 gun added to Flying Circus;
6. 7.7 cm FK 96 n.A. added to Flying Circus;
7. QF 4.5-inch howitzer added to Flying Circus;
8. 15 cm sFH 13 howitzer added to Flying Circus;
9. QF 13 pounder 6 cwt AAA gun added to Flying Circus;
10. 7.7 cm FlaK L/27 AAA gun added to Flying Circus;
11. Hotchkiss Mle 14 regular and AA machineguns added to Flying Circus;
12. Spandau MG 08 regular and AA machineguns added to Flying Circus;
13. Great War searchlights added to Flying Circus;
14. Thornycroft J-type self-propelled AA gun added to Flying Circus;
15. Daimler M1914 armored self-propelled AA gun added to Flying Circus;
16. Benz LKW 1912 truck added to Flying Circus;
17. Leyland 3 Ton RAF truck added to Flying Circus;
18. Crossley T5 command vehicle added to Flying Circus;
19. Mercedes Kettenwagen 22 command vehicle added to Flying Circus;
20. No-mans land visually improved on Arras map;
21. Amiens cathedral added on Arras map;
22. Balloons added on Arras map in quick mission builder (QMB);
23. Observers bail out from balloons on Arras map;
24. Soviet tank campaign Breaking point added to Tank Crew;
25. German tank campaign Last chance added to Tank Crew;
26. Tank radio chatter added to Tank Crew;
27. Tank commander interface added to Tank Crew. Attention: it is engaged from commander seat by ~ key (tilde). For the driver to follow your orders turn autopilot on from the driver seat first (otherwise you will be driving the tank manually as before);
28. Achtung Spitfire! Scripted Campaign is released;
29. Simplified AI-controlled Pz.Kpfw. VI Ausf.H1 added;
30. Simplified AI-controlled M4A2(75) added;
31. Simplified AI-controlled M4A3(75)W added;
32. New Extreme quality cloud setting added that makes the clouds sharper and less 'shifting'.
33. Three new P-51 (by ICDP and Bugsy) and one P-38 skin added (by ICDP);

General improvements

34. The color of aiming helpers for the guns, bombs and rockets has been changed;
35. Ground vehicles navigate large bridges on Rheinland map correctly;
36. Rheinland and Arras maps have cobblestone roads;
37. Missing grass added to yellow fields on Prokhorovka maps;
38. Mission designers can define the default GUI map view more accurately by using Normal type lines;
39. Mission designers can use custom (unofficial) skins in the campaigns;
40. Career bug that caused the planes left in the air to be lost has been fixed;
41. The visual image of rotating propellers in VR has been improved. New parameter "prop_blur_max_rpm_for_vr" can be added to startup.cfg, [KEY = graphics] section - it governs the maximum visible RPM of the propeller in case you don't like the current setting designed to minimize the visual artifacts caused by reprojection VR tech;

Aircraft improvements

42. Unlimited ammo difficulty option no longer creates bombs and rockets under a lost wing;
43. MiG-3 flaps have been corrected - any change of the flaps limiter position retracts them first and then extends to a new position;
44. A wrong shaking warning message has been removed from P-51D-15;
45. The automatic supercharger gear change altitude has been corrected on P-51D-15 when using 150 octane fuel;
46. Radio volume can be adjusted (LAlt+NumPad+ and LAlt+NumPad- by default);
47. Pitch response curve for non-FFB joysticks has been corrected for all Flying Circus planes, making them easier to fly level. SPAD 13 and Dr.1 were adversely affected due to this change and will be fixed I a Hotfix;
48. More aircraft controls are blocked when the pilot is unconscious;
49. After rearming in a service area the guns are ready to fire immediately without pressing reload key;
50. You can't see your own previous plane when starting again in multiplayer;
51. Wrong technochat messages about rudder and elevator surfaces were corrected (like reporting a right part hit instead of a left one);
52. Fw 190 D-9 fuel switch works correctly;
53. Tempest Mk.V s.2 engine startup made faster;
54. AI Bf 109 K-4s correctly start their engines on parking;
55. FlyingTempest Mk.V s.2 without part of a wing became more difficult;
56. Tempest Mk.V s.2 stall speed increased by 6 mph;
57. Me 262 A elevator is less affected by ram air according to newly found data;
58. RPM control helper won't sometimes turn on by itself on Expert difficulty;
59. AI wing leaders flying on jet aircraft won't decrease their speed too much waiting for their wingmen;
60. AI pilots try not to exceed 5G (6G if they have anti-G suits) to prevent the loss of consciousness;
61. When starting a QMB mission close to AI aircraft they'll act more aggressively;
62. A bug that could cause AI P-39 pilots to overrev and damage their engines has been fixed;

Ground vehicle improvements

63. Vertical gun aiming speeds on all player-controlled vehicles were made realistic according to their correct reduction ratios and the handwheel rotation speed which is the same for all vehicles;
64. When player exit a gunner seat the gun or MG is left in the last aiming position;
65. When gunner opens his hatch, the turret is left in its last position;
66. Repairing of Pz.III main gun and turret traverse mechanism happens correctly;
67. Panoramic gunsight on KV-1s and T-34 (UVZ) mod.1943 tanks can be damaged by hitting its armored cupola;
68. The repair process has been corrected to prioritize the leaks;
69. Tiger main gun has been made sturdier against fragments;
70. Simple AI ground vehicles with damaged wheels, engine or killed crew no longer become an unmovable obstacle;
71. A destroyed AI object no longer causes excessive damage to other objects ramming it;
72. Ammo crates near artillery positions are not a difficult obstacle anymore;
73. Simple ground vehicles have realistic gun aiming speeds;
74. GAZ-AA and ZiS-5 trucks have correct mass (previously they had empty vehicle mass);
75. Simple AI tanks and guns have a delay between initial aiming and opening fire and between destroying a target and engaging another;
76. Detailed AI tanks button up when engaging a target;
77. Detailed AI controlled T-34 (UVZ) mod.1943 is correctly counted in statistics;
78. Destroyed Т-70 has correct tracks texture;
79. The forward lights of the G-8 locomotive no longer shift from it when viewed from a far distance;

Scenario campaign improvements

80. Fortress on the Volga: aircraft appear and disappear according to the new visibility distance;
81. Fortress on the Volga: you can encounter U-2VS when flying over the enemy territory;
82. Fortress on the Volga: U-2VS and Hs 129 can be seen on airfields;
83. Fortress on the Volga: the movement of all transport and armored columns has been corrected;
84. Fortress on the Volga: Soviet tank attack in mission 3 has been completely overhauled;
85. Fortress on the Volga: other minor improvements;
86. Blazing Steppe: aircraft appear and disappear according to the new visibility distance;
87. Blazing Steppe: you can encounter U-2VS in the air;
88. Blazing Steppe: U-2VS, P-40 and Hs 129 can be seen on airfields;
89. Blazing Steppe: the movement of all transport and armored columns has been corrected, there are more of them and they are larger;
90. Blazing Steppe: new aircraft groups added;
91. Blazing Steppe: all Soviet 85 mm AA gun batteries were overhauled;
92. Blazing Steppe: all static objects have been updated to correct durability values;
93. Blazing Steppe: the forces and mission logic have been corrected in missions 6 and 8;
94. Blazing Steppe: other minor improvements.

Crash · November 26, 2019

Another wall of text

Dear Friends,

Our team is glad to announce that we finished another update 4.002. In this version, all Tank Crew owners get the SU-122 assault gun. In addition, everyone gets many improvements - some of them our community asked for a long time. After additional work on the aircraft visibility modeling against the clouds is improved. We also added automatic dive-recovery controls to four bombers from Battle of Stalingrad and Battle of Moscow. The login time has been drastically decreased, it will now happen up to ten times faster than before. Tank and aircraft turrets aiming will be more convenient and there are many other minor improvements. Let's go into detail about the automatic dive-recovery controls:

Ju-87
When the dive system is engaged, the plane enters a dive when the air brakes are extended and will recover from the dive either by pressing the bomb drop button or when the air brakes are retracted. The dive system controls are separate: the trimmer tab on the right elevator is controlled by the dive system while the pilot controls the trimmer tab on the left elevator. Therefore the pilot input and dive system input of the trimmers are independent, and when the dive system is in operation, there is no indication of a trimmer position change in the technochat.

Ju-88
When the dive system is engaged, the plane enters a dive when the air brakes are extended or when the dive button (LCtrl + D by default) is pressed. The plane will recover from the dive either by pressing the bomb drop button or by pressing the dive button (LCtrl + D by default). The dive system will return to the neutral position of the elevator trim, while the full range of trimmer travel from the pilot’s input is preserved. Therefore the pilot input and dive system input of the trimmers are independent, and when the dive system is in operation, there is no indication of a trimmer position change in the technochat. Also, the elevator trim is automatically shifted when the stabilizer is moved to the landing position (when flaps are released to the landing position). This also shifts the trim back to the neutral position.

Pe-2 (both series)
When the dive system is engaged, the plane enters a dive when the air brakes are extended (pass through the 45° position) and will recover from the dive when you press the bomb drop button or the dive recovery button to exit the dive (LCtrl + D by default). The dive system controls the elevator trim -for correct operation, the trimmer must be in the range between -4.5 ° to + 4.5 ° before turning on the dive system. If the trimmer is outside this range or if the airplane is trimmed manually while the dive system is in operation or if the air brakes are retracted the dive system will disengage.

Ju-87 and Ju-88
Contact altimeters are installed on these aircraft. The RShift + K and RCtrl + K commands (by default) set the bomb release (contact) altitude. When the dive system is engaged, the buzzer will sound 250 m above the contact altitude. Buzzer turns off when the contact altitude is reached or when the dive system is disengaged. The pressure setting is adjusted by the same command as on the main altimeter (with a short pause after setting the pressure on the main altimeter). The contact altimeter is not connected with the dive system, it is a separate device that just gives an audio signal at a contact height.

Main features
1. SU-122 assault gun made by Ural heavy machinery factory in 1943 is now available for all Tank Crew owners;
2. Guns and MGs aiming using the mouse has been improved;
3. Turret aiming in VR is improved (you don't need to physically turn while aiming);
4. The issue with planes visually disappearing against the clouds at short distances has been minimized;
5. Planes visual pixelization against the clouds at medium distances has been greatly reduced;
6. Winter textures for all Bodenplatte buildings added;
7. Winter textures for all Bodenplatte vehicles added;
8. Speed and reliability of the online login have been greatly improved;
9. GMC CCKW fuel truck added;
10. Thanks to the new tech developed for Tank Crew, B-25D, P-47D and P-51D have correct British or US pilots depending on the country specified in the mission file;
11. Dive and recovery control automatics added to Ju-87 D-3, Ju 88 A-4, Pe-2 s. 87 and Pe-2 s. 35;
12. Ju-87 D-3 and Ju 88 A-4 dive bombers are equipped with contact altimeters;
13. LaGG-3 now sports 4K exterior textures made by Martin =ICDP= Catney;

AI improvements
14. AI pilots can resume engaging a target after losing it;
15. AI pilots won't try to engage a distant target flying at negative G for a prolonged time;
16. AI pilots won't crash into the ground while doing a defense spiral maneuver;
17. AI pilots won't get stuck in a shallow dive during a defense maneuver;
18. AI pilots won't attempt dangerous evasion maneuvers at low altitudes which caused them to crash;
19. AI pilots won't get too excited following a falling target and crash into the ground after it;
20. AI pilots attacking air targets will attack the planes that take off or land;
21. AI pilots won't get stuck in an upside position during a dogfight;
22. AI pilots won't get stuck in a roll during an evasion maneuver which could end in a crash;
23. AI pilots will try to bail out of a burning plane (now it depends on how fast it will decide to bail out and if he has strength left to do so);
24. Self-propelled AAA switch to combat position if they don't have movement orders and have an attack targets in area command (even if there are no targets present);
25. Ship guns aiming corrected;

Aircraft improvements
26. Ju-87 D-3 has animated servo tabs;
27. Ju-87 D-3 has visual indicators for the extended dive brakes;
28. Ju-88 A-4 elevator trim adjusts automatically when the stabilizer is switched to the landing position;
29. Ju-88 A-4 has animated servo tabs;
30. heavier aircraft like He-111, Ju-52/87/88, A-20, IL-2, Pe-2 won't shake as much when their tails are damaged;
31. Pe-2 and He-111: the camera automatically turns in a correct direction when switching to a new MG in turrets with several MGs;
32. Ju-52/3mg4e 2nd pilot animations have been restored;
33. P-38J-25: canopy close sound won't play too early;
34. P-38J-25: the instruments panel can be damaged;
35. P-38J-25: signal lights won't float in the air on a severely damaged aircraft;
36. IL-2 elevator control rods damage has been corrected;
37. All additional armor elements on Bf-110 correctly shield the aircraft;
38. P-51D-15 rear landing gear can be damaged now;
39. MC 202 s8: MG151 ammo reserves can be damaged now;
40. Fw 190 A-8 ammo reserves can be damaged now;
41. Fw 190 A-8 wing pylons look correctly from various distances;
42. Bf 109 G4/G6/G14/K4: the right underwing cannon won't stop working after the loss of ammo in the left wing anymore;
43. Bf 109s except for G14 and K4: jettisoned canopies are correctly repaired;
44. Bristol Fighter will correctly register radiator hits;
45. Pedals animated correctly on Bristol Fighter;
46. Static U-2VS has winter skin;
47. IL-2 mod. 1942 has its exterior color saturation corrected;

Tank Crew improvements
48. Visual detail of plates above the tracks on KV-1s has been improved;
49. Speedometer added to KV-1s (it is on the engine compartment bulkhead);
50. Batteries are visible in the KV-1s interior;
51. Many visual improvements to KV-1s interior (level of detail, textures, etc.);
52. Recoil indicators added to KV-1s and T-34 mod. 1943;
53. Panoramic sight cupola stopper added to KV-1s and T-34 mod. 1943;
54. T-34 mod. 1943 tracks have been visually improved;
55. T-34 mod. 1943 internal collision model (that is used in damage calculations) has been improved;
56. Engine exhaust is visible at the idle engine RPM;

Other changes
57. Caquot balloons won't disappear at medium distances;
58. The inner walls of the damaged detailed buildings on the Prokhorovka map won't disappear at medium distances;
59. It's now possible to turn off the VR rendering mode for the propellers - any negative values specified for the prop_blur_max_rpm_for_vr parameter in startup.cfg file (like prop_blur_max_rpm_for_vr = -1) will result in the normal propellers rendering;
60. Object Fake_Block can be used on the airfields (its collision object has been lowered below the ground);
61. Levitating buildings on Stalingrad map have been fixed;
62. It's now possible to win the 5th mission of the Turning point campaign after a successful retreat;
63. The excessive effect of concussion and possible loss of consciousness after HE hits at a tank or aircraft has been removed if the player or AI weren't wounded by these hits.
64. Ten Days of Autumn campaign: all static objects have been updated to correct durability values, other minor improvements;
65. Fortress on the Volga campaign: minor improvements;
66. A black line won't appear in the middle of some Bodenplatte timeframe newspapers;
67. Added another (fifth) voice of a Soviet tanker;
68. Trees preventing a takeoff from some airfields were cut down on all Rheinland maps.

Crash · November 26, 2019

Woot!

Dear Friends,

1C Game Studios is proud to announce our next combat theater in the IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles series of products – Battle of Normandy!

It was just over 75 years ago that the western Allies launched joint airborne and amphibious landings in the Normandy region of France. Both the preparation and execution of the invasion of Normandy had a large air component and involved many airfields in the UK and in France, especially after the Allies landed and built many Advanced Landing Grounds. Some German-built and occupied airfields were captured, repaired and re-used by the Allies as they advanced.

The Allied advance towards Paris and eventually Germany was not easy and air-power was heavily employed to help facilitate a breakout. The Germans had a very difficult time keeping their hold on France and were faced with defending against not only Allied fighters, but also dedicated ground attackers, bombers and even naval units. The history of this battle makes for a lot of interesting gameplay. We hope to bring this period of the war to life like never before, just like we have done with Battle of Bodenplatte and our previous Eastern Front titles. Due to its important location, Battle of Normandy opens up additional mission scenarios and a vast timeline for great aerial warfare action utilizing many aircraft and content from our previous titles. Plus, Battle of Normandy adds a lot of content that can be utilized in our Battle of Bodenplatte environment.

Content

Battle of Normandy, will continue to offer a wide variety of gameplay options and also push our product forward with additional technology, features and improvements. We will of course, have an awesome plane-set that represents the era in which the title takes place. It will also include all the features that is standard for our WWII titles such as QMB, Pilot Career, Custom SP Missions and Multiplayer support. We also plan to include a Scripted Campaign focusing on a specific part of the battle. See below for additional information.

Battle of Normandy Plane-set:

P-51 B/C
P-47D “Razorback”
Typhoon Mk.Ib
Mosquito F.B. Mk.VI
Spifire Mk.XIV (Collector Plane)
C-47 Dakota (AI)
B-26 Marauder (AI)

Bf-109 G-6 “Late”
Fw-190 A-6
Ju-88 C-6a
Me-410
Ar-234 (Collector Plane)
V-1 Buzz Bomb (AI)

This is what we plan to build based on our current research and desires. Of course, if for any reason one of these planes cannot be built to our satisfaction, we will find a suitable replacement.

Normandy Map

To support this particular Great Battle, we plan to build numerous ground vehicles, tanks, paratroopers, artillery, bunkers, objects, obstacles, buildings, airfields and ships that will bring flying such dangerous missions to life.

The map of Battle of Normandy is also planned to be very satisfying in its size, scope and detail. Substantial portions of Southern England, Normandy and Calais regions will be included. We plan to have two versions of the map. There will be both pre-Invasion and post-Invasion versions. This allows us the ability to have our Pilot Career span the period preparing for the invasion and post D-Day events. It also allows us to create scenarios that are even further removed from the invasion itself and explore the 1942-43 period with some assets from our previous titles and certain Collector Planes. The gameplay possibilities are quite exciting to us and we hope to you as well.

In addition to the content we plan to create, we will also continue to improve our Digital Warfare Engine and add some ‘in the works’ features that were not ready for BOBP release. This includes such items as, Air Marshal, improved MP Lobby, GUI-based Object Viewer, new rendering techniques and drop-tanks. Of course, this is on top of all the numerous small improvements, tweaks, fixes and enhancements we will continue to work on. We never stop working to improve our products and simulation engine.

BON Pre-Order Available!

To kick off Battle of Normandy development we have launched the Pre-Order period today! Our Pre-Order discounted price is $10 Off MSRP at $79.99 for the Premium Edition until the Pre-Order/Early Access period ends. The final MSRP at time of release of Battle of Normandy Premium Edition will be $89.99.

Pre-Order Battle of Normandy Here

We hope you are as excited as we are to build Battle of Normandy. When it comes to WWII, there are many interesting theaters, time periods and events that would make for an awesome product. There are also many fascinating conflicts outside of WWII that could make for a really fun combat simulation. We have considered them all. However, we have chosen Normandy as our next destination so we can explore one of the most famous battles in history and Normandy will allow for a more complete accounting of the air war over Europe (East and West) which gives you the player a more complete experience. Building Battle of Normandy also allows both the developers and the community to utilize some of our existing content to expand your gameplay options even more.

We also wish you the absolute best this Holiday Season to you, your family, your friends and our dedicated development partners all over the world. We appreciate all the support and nice words you have said about our products during this most recent development cycle which was a lot of hard work. We will continue to build a better product, grow the team a bit more and listen to you, our loyal customers.

We’ll see you on the beach! ….and in the sky!

The IL-2 Sturmovik Team

Jabo · November 27, 2019

Oh my...

DD_Arthur · December 6, 2019

Flying Circus!

Crash · January 17, 2020

More news

Dear friends,

The year 2020 is here in full force. Let's hope that the new decade will bring good changes to our world. We in the IL-2 Sturmovik team are beginning the work on the new project, Battle of Normandy. For instance, the production of 3D models for several new planes has started already. We're researching the possibility of moving the rendering engine to Deferred Shading tech. The map team has begun the research of the new map. We're making design documents on new buildings, ground vehicles, ships and motorboats.

We're continuing our approach of improving our sim constantly - the incoming update 4.004 will bring many improvements for our already released projects. It will also add the new tank for Tank Crew - Pz.Kpfw.V Ausf.D "Panther" - and additional airfields and visually improved banks of the countless rivers and canals on the Rheinland map.

Crash · January 21, 2020

Another update

We're glad to report that update 4.004 is released. The main additions of this one are a new tank for Tank Crew - Pz.Kpfw.V Ausf.D "Panther" - and improved look and additional airfields for Rheinland map (Battle of Bodenplatte). There are many other fixes and improvements as well:

Additions

1. Pz.Kpfw. V Ausf.D "Panther" for Tank Crew;
2. Better looking river and canal banks on Rheinland map;
3. 13 new airfields on Rheinland map:

Le Culot East (Y-10)
Kluis (B-91)
Mill (B-89)
Helmond (B-86)
Amsterdam-Schiphol (B-97)
Arnhem-Deelen
Soesterberg
Strassfeld
Strassfeld 2 - Odendorf
Hilversum
Diest (B-64)
Nivelles (B-75)
Bierset–Liege (A-93)

4. 4K quality exterior textures made by Martin =ICDP= Catney added for Yak-1 series 69;
5. The better-looking transition between the river and sea waters;
6. Improved Т-70 tank model and textures;
7. Updated texture cache system, it should reduce stutters in heavy load MP missions significantly;
8. Brightness and size of very distant aircraft LODs made more uniform (it differed too much on some aircraft);

AI improvements

9. Ground attack aircraft won't hit the ground when engaging a target with rockets and guns in a tight formation;
10. AI-controlled B-25 starts the engines correctly;
11. AI fighters attempt Immelman maneuver only if they have enough speed;
12. AI fighters open fire more aggressively;
13. AI pilots keep formation on large maps much better;
14. AI vehicle column won't drive into a river if the last waypoint was on a destroyed bridge or immediately before it;
15. Assault guns (simple and detailed) correctly face a target when set to LOW command priority in the mission;

Aircraft improvements

16. P-51, P-47 and P-39 have correct trimmer animations;
17. A-20 engines won't trigger wrong overheat messages;
18. Wrong engine overcooled messages on P-47D were corrected;
19. P-51 landing gear covers shouldn't open and close again and again anymore;
20. Cylinder heads overheat warning will be displayed correctly;
21. Flying Circus planes won't display a wrong message about engine failure when it is switched off;
22. The time it takes to switch to combat position and back has been corrected for all gunners;

Detailed tanks improvements

23. When the loader is killed, the time it takes to load the main gun or coaxial MG is increased significantly;
24. The visual effect of propellant gases is reduced when the exhaust fan is off or is not present;
25. The time it takes to vent the turret after the shot depends on the operational exhaust fan;
26. Detailed tanks won't visibly 'crouch' at a high speed;

Other improvements

27. All night bombing Career missions with more than 6 planes in the flight won't start in a map corner anymore;
28. Wrong ground attack German planes in the late Stalingrad Career chapters were corrected;
29. Duplicate ID error message in the dedicated server has been removed (it blocked the server, now it is visible in the console);
30. Correct season in the pre-mission hangar (Winter/Summer);
31. In Mission Editor it's no longer possible to select a wrong part of a multi-part vehicle skin;
32. Daimler M1914 FlaK 77/L27 and Thornycroft J-type 13pdr AA shells appear in the correct place ().

DD_Arthur · January 21, 2020

Well this is an unexpected pleasure!

Crash · January 24, 2020

oooo!

Hello everybody,

It finally snows in Moscow while we continue the work on the new aircraft. Including the new Collector Planes for both the Western and Eastern fronts of the war - Yak-9, Yak-9T and Hurricane. Today we're ready to show you the progress achieved at the moment for the British Hurricane, which will have 5 (!) different modifications in our sim:

Hurricane Mk.IIa: basic model armed with 8 х 7.69 mm Browning MGs;
Hurricane Mk.IIb: the number of MGs has been increased to 12;
Hurricane Mk.IIc: this model had 4 x 20 mm Hispano guns;
Hurricane Mk.IId: anti-tank model armed with 2 x 40 mm Vickers-S guns and 2 x 7.69 mm MGs;
Hurricane Mk.II with Soviet weaponry that was installed on the Lend-Lease aircraft: 2 х 12.7 mm UB MGs, 2 x 20 mm ShVAK guns and Soviet bomb and rocket holders.

We hope that this nice selection of the Hurricane models suitable both for the Western and Eastern front would be a great addition to IL-2 Sturmovik series:

Crash · January 31, 2020

And there is more!

Hello everybody,

This week we continue telling you about the new Collector Planes, now is the turn of Yak-9 and Yak-9T. Yak-9 was the most mass-produced Soviet WWII fighter, more than 14,000 were made on three factories in Moscow, Omsk and Novosibirsk in total. The production started during Autumn 1942 and peaked in 1944, but continued well after the war ended - it stopped only in 1948. They were used in combat en masse for the first time during Kursk battle in Summer 1943, but several documents reflect smaller scale combat deployments of the new fighters on other fronts of 1943, including the Battle of Kuban.

Yak-9, while being an evolution of Yak-7 design, had significant changes: metallic spars instead of the wooden ones, bubble canopy with an improved field of view, forward-and backward-facing armored glass pieces. The fighter armament was standard - 12.7 mm UBS MG and 20 mm ShVAK gun. It was powered by M-105PF inline engine.

We also recreate a special model of this fighter, Yak-9T, that was developed to counter enemy bombers and was also used against lightly armored targets. A powerful 37 mm NS-37 gun with 30 rounds ammo reserve required more space, so the pilot's cockpit has been moved back to make more room for it and to maintain the pitch balance. It's interesting to note that while this gun was much more powerful, the total weight increase was just 40 kg and the plane aerodynamics did not change for the worse noticeably.

We'll start the work on Yak-9T immediately after finishing Yak-9 (the exterior 3D model of Yak-9 is nearly complete while its cockpit 3D model and physical model are in the works and show good progress).

Crash · February 7, 2020

Tank stuff

239

Hello everybody,

It's February already and we continue to improve the project as a whole. In the next update, we plan to significantly improve the airframe damage calculations and the explosive and fragmentation damage calculations for all objects in the sim in general. More AI improvements are in the pipeline too - for instance, further improvements for the vertical maneuvering in a dogfight. We have found and fixed another possible culprit for the missing aircraft hit sounds in multiplayer. There are more other corrections and fixes being worked on simultaneously with the full-scale work on Normandy theater that is already underway.

And of course, we don't forget about the tank project. While Digital Forms studio creates the assault gun and the tank destroyer that are left, we added a long-requested feature - binoculars for the tank commanders. Other smaller, but nonetheless important improvements are on the way too. Take a look at the binoculars on these screenshots:

Crash · February 13, 2020

Hello everybody,

While working on the Normandy project and finishing Tank Crew, we never forget about the existing ones. Not only the most part of all the improvements we release in the updates are applicable for the simulated world as a whole, meaning they update all our theatres of war at once, but we update the content of the existing modules at every possibility as well. For instance, we'll be able to show you the first WIP screenshots of the new Soviet pilot soon. And in the next update, among many other things, you'll see two more aircraft updated to 4K texture quality standard.

The first one of these two planes is the MiG-3 series 24 that is included in the Battle of Moscow. It's external texturing has been reworked by Martin =ICDP= Catney - it should be noted that wear, specular map, micro features and damage textures were updated in addition to the paint schemes. The plane materials were corrected as well for more natural-looking glare and finish.

The second one is Bf 109 G-4 from the Battle of Kuban that has been reworked by Francisco =BlackHellHound1= Bindraban. Artists did not just redraw the textures in 4K quality - they do the research on the aircraft details and peculiarities of all known paint schemes and add many changes and improvements (sometimes even completely replacing one historical skin with another if needed). So everything possible is made to make the existing 3D models brand new, unlocking the potential our constantly updated renderer offers.

Crash · February 21, 2020

More

Dear friends,

The work on the Normandy module is at an early stage, but of course, this doesn't mean you'll have to wait for new updates for too long. Right now we're testing the next update 4.005 which will include a number of improvements for the damage modeling, especially aircraft damage (but it is more general than that, the way weapons affect various objects is also changing). We did a lot of research observing the community opinion on the various aspects of the current damage system that require attention and corrected our priorities basing on it. In the near future, we plan to publish a special Dev Blog issue completely dedicated to this matter.

We're also working on further AI improvements, namely on how they dogfight. Update 4.005 will include these improvements. In the future, we'll begin working on its tactical level and on how they follow the commands. 4.005 will also contain new ground vehicles - Soviet and German fuel trucks and ambulance cars. There are many other improvements across the board - for instance, you'll better hear the hits on your aircraft in multiplayer.

And today, as we promised before, we can show you the first Work In Progress screenshots of the new Soviet pilot in Summer uniform:

Crash · March 6, 2020

Loooooong read

Hi, pilots!
And hi gasoline cowboys! :bye:

Today I will tell you about changes in the new damage model (DM), which we are preparing for release in the near future. Daniel already mentioned it briefly in previous diaries, and now it is time to talk about the new DM in more details.

Well, how many lances have broken in talks about broken wings in our community? That guns are “not damaging”, that the Pe-2 is “rock”, tails of Messers are “cut-glass”, the P-47 is "way too weak" and falls apart after a few hits, and many many other opinions, claims and expectations. To be honest, we ourselves have long wanted to double-check the DM of all aircraft and put things in order there, bringing them all to a common concept. As you remember, we already went into this river a couple of times when we changed the DM settings and tried to find a “middle ground” solution with strength and vulnerability. However, it was obvious for us that all these accumulated problems could be solved only systemically, and this would require a lot of time. Finally, this time has come.

Firstly, from the very beginning we eliminated several fundamental limitations of the DM-core, which prevented us from moving on. This immediately “untied” our hands and allowed us to simulate combat damage to the aircraft structure much more flexibly. After that, a lot of research was conducted and several methods for calculating the damage of airframe elements from various types of ammunition were tried. The goal of this research was set quite ambitious (however, this is not the first time for us). We wanted to go away as far as possible from using the “game” settings of the DM, and use as many parameters and characteristics of the airframe from real life as possible. This work is not yet completed and right now the new DM is undergoing comprehensive testing (big thanks to our beta testers, and please take more ammo in the hangar!). Nevertheless now it’s becoming clear that the result of this whole work is exactly this one we really hoped for!

The main news is that our new damage model now uses data taken from blueprints and technical documentation. Such as: the number of structural elements of one or another part of the airframe, their material and geometric dimensions. An engineer who sets up the DM no longer needs to invent anything and rely on dubious empirical data. Now everything is extremely concrete and objective: what figures from documents you put in the model, such resistance to combat damage you get. Our engineering team carefully collected all this data for all 59 aircraft in the simulator. This is a lot of work, and it took a lot of effort and time. But the result was worth it: now all the planes in the Great Battles have such a balance of vulnerability that they, with a very high probability, had in real life.

In the new DM of the airframe, various types of ammunition “work” now in very different ways. Previously, their action differed in the settings of the ammunition itself. Now, the difference in calculation methods, which take into account the principle of causing structural damage in more detail, has been added.

For example, armor-piercing bullets and shells make relatively small external damages on the skin commensurate with their caliber. They do not cause “large-scale” damage to the structure frame anymore, but they do hits like a point strike, hitting through a wing spar for example, or breaking a hinge of elevator or aileron. A broken spar, of course, loses its strength, that makes the wing more weak and leads to break it under the less G-load (this is not new in our DM, by the way). But now, using armor-piercing shells to make several damages of the spar in the same area, you need to hit it many times, depending on the spar dimensions and the ammo caliber. In the same way, in order to turn the skin into “rags” or to tear off the landing gear wheel, you need to shoot a rather long time to the particular part of the plane. In other words, firing armor-piercing shells will not be as effective against the airframe as before. The chance to get into the structure frame and break it is not great, and the skin is not particularly affected. Although, with enough desire and having the presence of a sufficient amount of ammunition, you can "cut" the airplanes apart with armor-piercing projectiles if their weight of fire converges and causes enough damage.

Explosive bullets and high-explosive fragmentation shells are quite another matter. Only a few hits are enough (depending on the model of the projectile, its caliber, the amount of explosive) to make large holes in that part of the plane where you hit, and everything around it was cut with fragments. Managing such an aircraft will become quite difficult. It will noticeably lose its performances and become not a serious opponent in the battle. The structural frame will also receive “zonal” damage, mainly due to high-explosive impact. So now the effectiveness of this type of weapon against the airframe will be significantly higher than the effectiveness of armor-piercing shells and bullets. The skin will also get damages much faster than the structural frame. Thus, situations when wings or control surfaces fall off an airplane in a battle will arise much less often. To break the rear part of the fuselage by shooting will become very hard. Nevertheless, anything is possible.

In addition, in the new DM, we eliminated the problem of inadequate damage to the airframe when firing at those parts of the aircraft that do not contain structural elements. For example, firing at an engine of a twin-engine aircraft or at its propeller spinner can no longer break the aircraft wing. Also, due to the improvement of the DM-core, the old problem of “extra” damages the airframe when the same projectile hit several non-structural collision-zones of this particular part of the airplane was eliminated. A HE shell also will no longer inflict damage on the structural elements of the airframe with its initial kinetic energy of the intact shell, we fixed it.

The new damage model now correctly takes into account the type of material of the structural frame or skin. The same bullets and shells will cause different damage to duralumin, wood, or steel structural elements, making “virtual” holes of various sizes in them.

It is important to mention that this work is about the calculations of damages, and the visualisation of the DM (textures and 3D-model) has remained unchanged. As you know, all our planes have three fixed levels of visualization of external damage for each part of the airframe. There are “light” damage (bullet holes and small holes from shells), “medium” damage (larger holes) and “heavy” damage (big holes on the airplane). Each of these three levels, switched in sequence. They have been painted by our artists as well as our community enthusiasts with attention to detail for each aircraft. The new calculations in the DM will now switch these three levels of visual damage, taking into account all the features of the action of various types of ammunition and the damage they cause to the skin, which I mentioned above. Thus there is some improvement of DM visualisation too. Because of this new DM fine-tuning the variety of our existing damage textures has improved. They were not properly being expressed in the past. Because of some bugs and errors, parts of the airframe would fly off or fail and a level of damage it should have shown prior to that was skipped or rarely seen.

Moreover, there is another improvement of DM visualisation. The visual effects of hitting the plane (sparks, wood chips, etc.), as well as sound effects, will now depend on the part of the plane in which the projectile hit. Even when shooting at the same part, for example, on a landing gear wheel, one can see different effects of hits - sparks from the wheel’s disk (if the disk is metal) or a cloud of “debris” and “dust” from the tire. Also our online players, I think, will be pleased with the news that we found and fixed a bug of no sounds of hitting an airplane in multiplayer (dear God we hope, we hate this problem!).

For sure, making such a large-scale work to improve the DM of an airframe, it was reasonable to take a look at the other areas of the DM. Firstly, we slightly changed the settings of the combat damages of an engine from various projectiles. This was only a preliminary step, and I think that in the near future we will conduct an equally thorough review of the DM for engines and various aircraft systems: control systems, fuel systems, onboard weapons, etc.

Secondly, we rechecked the data for all types of bullets, shells, missiles and bombs in the game, such as armor penetration characteristics, high-explosive and fragmentation characteristics. Many tests were carried out and many inaccuracies and bugs found were corrected. As well as significantly optimized performance algorithms of DM. The results of this work will affect not only aircraft, but also all other game objects: ground vehicles (including detailed tanks), ships, buildings. The common model of high-explosive ammo was substantially improved. The penetrating explosion (inside the object) has become much more effective than the external one. A model of a "random" fragment for distant explosions was created, which takes into account the distance from the epicenter, the dimension of the target, and of course the type of ammunition.

As I wrote above, at the moment the new damage model is undergoing final testing and debugging of core-settings. We are looking forward to completing this work in a couple weeks. :rolleyes: And we really hope that the result will delight you and bring you many new positive emotions from playing the "Great Battles". This is invariably our top priority.

At the end I'd like to accompany this boring long-read text with some interesting pictures. Here are the first WIP screenshots of the first Battle of Normandy aircraft - P-47D-22 Razorback. It's a big deal since this is the first time we show you something from this newest project:

Jabo · March 7, 2020

I do hope the decisions of the development team are being driven by solid technical data and not the opinions of armchair experts who believe that aircraft A behaved in a certain way because it suits their world view. Who's to say whether or not the P47 would have shed a wing under a specific set of cirumstances? It's difficult for the devs I'm sure but we've seen the fallout of poor decisions here before...

FoolTrottel · March 7, 2020

DM will always be a problem/issue/source for debate...

All pilots wants to have guns that will kill quickly, be it smoke/fire/departing parts/PKs ... yet the same pilots will also want to be able to survive a hail of bullets fired at and hitting their aircraft - to continue the fight, or to limp home... yeah - conflict - oh well, there's a war on, so a conflict fits in nicely

As for DM modeling: The challenge for the developers is to somehow create a situation that results into an in game balance. It can never be based on pure technical data - back then there was no air crash investigation, no black boxes - most of the pilots shot down either never knew what killed them, or never took the time to figure out what caliber of gun hit where and did what kind of damage. When hit good and still alive, a pilot would try and assess whether he could get home, get over to friendly territory, or simply bail out as fast as possible.

This is where it shows it's just a game - main driving force here should be play ability - not realism, as that would mean game-over way too quickly and often, ie. no fun at all!

Sure, we call out there's a war on, but in the end it's just a game on!

:shaunv2:

delta7 · March 8, 2020

But but will 50 Cal's still kill tiger tanks ?

😄

fruitbat · March 8, 2020

2 hours ago, delta7 said:

But but will 50 Cal's still kill tiger tanks ?

😄

As long as 50's can still flip them 😁

Crash · March 13, 2020

The progress on many parts of the Battle of Normandy project is becoming more visible with each passing day. We have placed the order on the numerous ground vehicles that will be outsourced while the design document on the buildings for the new map will be finished soon. The list of the airfields and the map borders are final and the work on the map itself has begun in earnest. The list of the squadrons that will be recreated in the Battle of Normandy Career mode and its main scenario are prepared as well. Visual models of the three aircraft and the FM of the first one (P-47D-22) are in the works. Today we can show you the current state of the visual model of the second aircraft in development - C-47A transport plane which will be manned by AI. The famous WWII legend, it was the best known Allied transport plane. Built under license in many countries, its civilian versions are still in service now, in the early XXI century. This workhorse played a key role in the airborne operations of the Battle of Normandy.

Crash · March 20, 2020

More stuff

Hey everybody!

We hope you are hanging in there and staying healthy! While we're stuck inside our homes trying not to get sick I thought you'd enjoy some footage of our improved airframe damage model in action. These clips show how our wings are much stronger than before and how our improved damage calculations cause a myriad of failures that can bring down a plane, or in some cases, maybe allow you to limp home. Please note that the engine damage was turned off for this video as we are currently concerned with the airframe and how it behaves. Remember just because a plane takes a physical beating, doesn't mean all the systems are functioning. A knocked out plane may keep flying for a little while, but it is likely not going to make it home or stay controllable. My point is don't get too hung up on some of these planes surviving multiple HE hits. One good placed burst and your day is likely ruined, but your wings should not fold like a bad poker hand. Larger planes and historically tougher planes now have a better personality to match their reputation.

I pieced this video together in a hurry, so the commentary may not be the best and some of my American humor may get lost in translation. I hope you enjoy this little distraction during this crazy time. Our airframe damage improvements will be in the next update before the end of March.

My gunnery stinks I know. All AI is basically on Novice so I can actually catch them and hit them. These were just simple furball missions.

Try to have an enjoyable weekend everyone! And remember our Promo Codes are still good!!

Crash · March 27, 2020

more stuff again

Hello everybody,

In spite of the serious events happening in the world, the time flows and it looks like we adapted to the new work conditions. The work processes are set up and we continue at the usual rate. Since we plan to release important renderer improvements in late Spring, we set the workflow to develop the short and long term tasks simultaneously. We'll tell you about what will be released in Summer a bit later, while today we'll concentrate on the coming update 4.005. =AnPetrovich= and =Jason_Williams= told you about the main feature of this update earlier - reworked, improved and advanced damage model of the airframe - but it is not the only huge change that it will include.

Speaking of the battle damage modeling, another very important change is the improved frag and blast damage calculations throughout the entire sim. Thanks to the fresh look and research input by our partners at Digital Forms, which make the visual models of the Tank Crew vehicles, we were able to bring the fragments damage calculations to the new level of complexity.

Generally speaking, the calculations of the damage incurred by munition fragments became less abstract. The new model is universal for all munition types. The calculations of the warhead fragmentation are more life-like and give the initial speed, mass, and size of the fragments. New progressive methods of modeling their speed decrease use the integration of their movement.

The calculations of the penetration ability of the combined HE and frag damage is also less abstract. Instead of using an empirical parameter, the system now uses the speed, mass, and size of a fragment to model a penetration and the massed impact in case of a near explosion is also modeled. Since the calculations of the penetration ability and the energy of fragments were changed, the excessive effectiveness of the bombs against armored targets at large distances has been reduced. The penetration ability of the fragments created by shells containing a small amount of explosives relative to their overall mass was also reduced because of the same reason.

The blast damage calculations use a more accurate power law depending on the distance to the blast center. The damage inflicted by a blast and its ability to break through an armor sheet now drops as the distance increases faster than before, but became much more powerful at very short distances. It also should be noted that engines, drivetrains, reduction gearboxes, ammo racks and other large pieces of equipment now have their own hard casings modeled where applicable and they can protect them from some damage.

The visual and audio representation of the damage is also updated. The additional causes of the unhearable hits in multiplayer have been found and fixed, new sounds were added for ricochets while the existing hit and explosion sounds were improved.

In general, the update 4.005 once again is going to be one of the biggest in the history of our project, its change list contains more than 90 items already. It will bring not only the damage model improvements of course - the new content we told you before, many improvements and fixes for the aircraft and player controllable tanks, audio improvements for various in-game objects and more and more. The sim will be more accessible to the larger audience thanks to the additional language as well.

Our team hopes that the update 4.005 will be welcomed by you, our players, and will raise the quality level of our sim to the next level. To finish today's diary, let's add some nice pictures to the mix - this time they are the Yak-9 cockpit shots captured in the game. Its texturing is nearly final while the development of its FM is progressing at a full speed. We hope it will be available to you in early Summer.

DD_Arthur · April 12, 2020

Posted Wednesday at 11:58 AM

Update 4.005

Dear friends,

The IL-2 Sturmovik team is happy to announce that another, very big and important milestone in the evolution of our project has been reached and its result is ready to be downloaded to your PCs. This time the update doesn't bring new content since the development of the new Normandy project is at the very early stage. However, it contains an enormous block of changes paramount for the IL-2 as a combat flight-sim, namely the aircraft damage model and munitions damage calculations. Earlier we have published several Dev Blogs dedicated to these changes, where they are covered in detail and how they affect the gameplay.

Additionally, the external textures of four previously released aircraft are now available in 4K quality thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney and Francisco =BlackHellHound1= Bindraban. 4 additional ground vehicles were added to the sim - two ambulances and two fuel trucks. And a new language has been added to the game - Simplified Chinese! Well, at least most of the sim is translated, some parts will have to wait. More on that below.

But of course, this is not quite all we have done. The change-list contains a whopping 140 changes - this is the all-time record for our project! There are numerous improvements to the aircraft simulation, aircraft models, player controlled tanks (Tank Crew) and artificial intelligence (AI). The causes of several important issues we weren't able to reproduce previously due to their rarity and randomness and thus fix before were finally found and fixed. The full list contains many other improvements and fixes as well. Take a look:

Main features

1. MiG-3 series 24 exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney;

2. Pe-2 series 35 exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney;

3. Pe-2 series 87 exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney;

4. Bf 109 G-4 exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Francisco =BlackHellHound1= Bindraban;

5. Binoculars have been added for tank commanders (press LCtrl + 5);

6. GAZ-55 ambulance vehicle added;

7. BZ-35 fuel truck added;

8. Opel Blitz ambulance vehicle added;

9. Opel Blitz Tankwagen fuel truck added;

10. New language added - Chinese Simplified (简体中文). The career mode is not yet completely translated since the newspaper articles and some squadron histories and award descriptions are in English (they are not necessary for playing though). The Chinese symbols in the pilot name won’t work sadly due to the technical limitations in the mission file format.

Aircraft Damage Model Improvements

11. All aircraft got the new, significantly more advanced version of the airframe damage calculations: each aircraft has its own geometrical sizes of the airframe parts and the material types while the damage calculations take into account the peculiarities of the AP, blast and fragmentation damage;

12. A complete rework of aircraft skin damage calculations has been done and it now takes into account the projectile caliber or its HE capability: now AP ammo and bullets damage the aircraft skin to much lesser extent than HE ammo while ramming an aircraft with a propeller of another instantly causes severe aircraft skin damage;

13. Visual hit effects (sparks, splinters, etc.) and sound effects now depend on the material of a hit part of the aircraft;

14. A one projectile impact won’t erroneously cause multiple (doubling) damage effects on the airframe parts which have several hitboxes;

15. Projectile impacts (and ramming an aircraft with a propeller of another) at the parts which don’t have their own cracks modeled in 3D visual model (for instance, when shooting at a wing root that should cause a crack in the wing on the aircraft where a crack at the wing base is not modeled) are calculated in more detail;

16. Projectile impacts (and ramming an aircraft with a propeller of another) at the parts not connected to the airframe won’t damage the airframe (for example, hitting an engine nacelle of a twin-engine aircraft won’t destroy a wing);

17. The calculations of the energy impulse transfer to an aircraft from a munition it was hit by now take into account the shots that went through it;

18. Exploding shells no longer damage the airframe by their initial kinetic energy of an intact shell, only by the blast and the kinetic energy of its fragments;

19. The following visual effects of the aircraft fragments were corrected (turned on when needed and off when not needed): landing gear dust (in the flight), the lighting from landing and navigation lights, guns firing and engine exhausts, smoke from smoke generators and vortex trails from the wingtips);

20. The found discrepancies between a new and repaired aircraft aerodynamics have been fixed;

21. A rare issue that could cause the airframe cracks to preserve after repairing has been found and fixed;

22. The modeling of the combat damage of the piston engine crank gear became more detailed and takes into account the engine type (for instance, the damage of the crank gear of the air-cooled engines happens more rarely than crank gear of the liquid-cooled engines) and the peculiarities of the armor penetration, blast and fragmentation effects of the munitions. The damage of the crank gear can cause the wedging up and seizing up of the crankshaft while the heavy momentary incurred damage can cause the immediate stop of the crankshaft;

23. It is now possible to damage one or several engine cylinders at once by weapons fire, reducing its power output. Damaged pistons can affect the crank gear and can be accompanied by oil and coolant leaks. The calculations of the incurred damage and leakage values take into account the type of the engine and the peculiarities of the armor penetration, blast and fragmentation effects of the munitions;

24. The calculations of an engine fire probability from torn fuel lines and oil leaks take into account the peculiarities of the armor penetration, blast and fragmentation effects of the munitions;

25. The physical model of the engine now differentiates the two types of oil leaks: from the engine and from the oil system;

26. Only the actual oil leak from the engine now soils up the canopy instead of a general engine damage;

27. An excessive amount of piston engine shaking caused by the crank gear damage has been reduced;

28. The calculations of an oil tank or oil radiator leak probability, its size and leakage value take into account the peculiarities of the armor penetration and fragmentation effects of the munitions in detail;

29. The calculations of a coolant tank or water radiator leak probability, its size and leakage value take into account the peculiarities of the armor penetration and fragmentation effects of the munitions in detail;

30. The calculations of a fuel tank leak probability, its size and leakage value take into account the peculiarities of the armor penetration and fragmentation effects of the munitions in detail. The fuel tanks leak protection will be taken into account later, when the next level fuel system modeling is finished;

31. The visual intensity of a fuel, oil, and coolant leaks now corresponds to the actual severity of a leak closer;

32. When calculating the probabilities of a fuel tank fire and explosion, the different AP, blast and fragments effects are taken into account as well as the amount of the fuel leaking from the tank at the moment. Inert-gas pressurization and other fire countermeasures will be taken into account later when the next level fuel system modeling is finished;

33. Bf 110 G-2, Bf 110 E-2 and Hs-129 B-2 right engines won’t be excessively damaged by explosion fragments;

34. P-38J-25: a stabilizer won’t be destroyed by small fluctuating stress loads;

35. P-38J-25: it is now possible to hit and damage the right engine radiators;

36. P-51D-15: it is now possible to hit its oil tank and its armored visor is correctly included in the armor protection calculations;

37. P-51D-15 canopy will appear correctly soiled up by an oil leak both in internal and external views;

38. P-51D-15 3D-model won’t erroneously show the wing crack;

39. The landing gear doors on all aircraft are destroyed if landing gear wheels are torn off in retracted position;

40. Hs 129 B-2: the destruction of the right landing gear door won’t generate the landing gear door debris on the left;

41. Bf-109 (all series except E7): the loss of the vertical stabilizer and the central part of the horizontal stabilizer is temporarily blocked due to the interdependence of this damage in the 3D model, which makes this point extremely vulnerable to combat damage and causes undesirable results. We will try to move the breaking point above the stabilizer in the future and fix this limitation. Damage to the rudder, elevators and horizontal stabs are still possible and the rudder and elevators can still be detached. And the left and right portions of the horizontal stab can also be lost;
42. Bf-109 (all series): the mixed up locations where the debris of the landing gear bay doors appear have been corrected;

43. MiG-3 series 24: the main landing gear bay doors in the wing can also be torn off by an excessive ram air pressure;

44. Excessive rear hemisphere protection of the Pe-2 gunners from the fragments has been corrected;

45. Ju-52/3m g4e: the oil level gauges display the correct amount of the oil left even if it is completely gone or after the oil system repair;

46. Ju-52/3m g4e: first pilot bailing out won’t cause the death of the second pilot and the gunner;

General Damage Model Improvements (for all objects in the sim)

47. A complete overhaul of the blast and fragmentation damage, as well as armor penetration damage has been finished, including, but not limited to: correction of calculation errors, calculation speed optimizations, protection of the calculation results for finding possible errors in the initial data;

48. Insufficient blast damage in case of a very near explosion or inner explosion has been corrected;

49. The number of fragments hitting an object is correctly calculated basing on the distance to an explosion, including the case of inner explosion;

50. Now there is a possibility of a ‘stray fragment’ impact when the expectation function gives less than one fragment due to the distance to the explosion (outside the kill area), which is important in a case of multiple explosions;

51. The armor penetration ability and damage of projectile increases if the resulting impact velocity exceeds the muzzle velocity of a projectile in the reference test data;

52. The fragmentation damage modeling is made less abstract for all ammunition types: the formation of the fragments, their initial speeds, masses and sizes are calculated and their loss of velocity with the distance traveled is calculated using the modern estimates of their resistance factor and the integration of their movements;

53. The calculations of the penetration ability of the combined HE and frag damage is also less abstract. Instead of using an empirical parameter, the system now uses the speed, mass, and size of a fragment to model a penetration and the massed impact in case of a near explosion is also modeled;

54. Since the calculations of the penetration ability and the energy of fragments were changed, the excessive effectiveness of the bombs against armored targets at large distances has been reduced, but a very close explosion is much more effective than before;

55. The penetration ability of the fragments created by shells containing a small amount of explosives relative to their overall mass was also reduced because of the same reason;

56. The blast damage calculations use a more accurate power law depending on the distance to the blast center. The damage inflicted by a blast and its ability to break through an armor sheet now drops as the distance increases faster than before, but became much more powerful at very short distances;

57. Engines, drivetrains, reduction gearboxes, ammo racks and other large pieces of equipment now have their own hard casings modeled where applicable and they can protect them from some damage;

58. In a rare case of a direct bomb hit at a turret of a flying aircraft, aerostat or a parachute there won’t be a detonation delay that could cause it to explode at a distance to the object;

59. The severity of a wound depends on the impact area: a head hit is more critical than a body one while a body hit is less severe than it was before;

60. The crew members experience less pain shock from wounds and impacts;

Player controllable tanks improvements

61. The death of a radio operator now blocks the external communications;

62. Pz.III-L and T-34 STZ tanks ammo racks now are damageable;

63.The physical collision model of the Pz.III-L turret now correctly rotates together with the visual model of the turret;

64. The physical collision model of the T-34 STZ main gun barrel now correctly corresponds to its visual model;

65. The M4A2 commander’s machine gun can be damaged;

66. In the event of a catastrophic detonation, the turret flying away from Pz.III-L and T-34 STZ tanks will be visually damaged;

67. A knocked out machine gun won’t incorrectly cause the death of its operator;

68. The issue that could result in the destruction of a tank when its main gun and coaxial MG are knocked out has been found and fixed;

69. Several commands of the tank commander (for example, "Attack ground targets on sight") will work even if the mission script doesn’t include any commands for this tank;

70. Several non-working technochat messages about turret systems failure and repair (coaxial machine gun, main and backup turret traverse, vertical aiming mechanism, etc.) have been fixed;

71. Pz.Kpfw.III.Ausf.M, Pz.Kpfw.IV.Ausf.G and M4A2 tracks tension is correctly animated (it was reversed);

72. The tank radio transmitter failure makes the communication with other tanks of the unit impossible;

73. Viewing instruments on KV-1s tanks made more detailed;

74. The issue with KV-1s tracks visibly moving in the opposite direction when accelerating has been minimized;

75. The casing of the various large systems (engine, gearbox, ammunition) can protect them from shell fragments;

76. An additional armor sheet on the front hull of the KV-1s is now modeled;

AI Improvements

77. The AI pilots of the high-speed aircraft now try to use their advantage over significantly slower aircraft using the hit and run tactics;

78. The AI pilots of the high-speed aircraft aim better when firing the guns;

79. A failed bombing run won’t cause an AI-controlled bomber to fly beyond the map borders;

80. An AI pilot estimates the time required to destroy a ground target better;

81. The AI pilots won’t try to move the control surfaces of a crashed aircraft;

82. P-51D AI pilot will always close the canopy before taking off;

83. Gunners won’t do unnecessary motions when bailing out;

84. Additional improvements were made in the ground vehicle obstacle avoidance algorithm;

85. A rare issue that could cause vehicles of a column to move directly North after an emergency stop has been found and fixed;

86. AI-controlled ground based guns and MGs aim better in heavy wind weather conditions;

87. 76mm and 77mm AAA of World War I era aim better;

Visual aircraft models improvements

88. The bomb control panel on all Bf 109 3D-models is now hidden in the outside view if no bombs are installed;

89. The right landing gear wheel of the Bf 109 E-7 is no longer visible from a large distance when the right wing is lost;

90. The Bf-109 G-14 canopy cable looks correct when the canopy is open;

91. The gap between the bomb holder and Fw 190 A3 and Fw 190 A5 fuselages has been removed;

92. The gear wheels of the chain drive of the He-111 bomb bay doors are animated now;

93. The An-4 compass on Pe-2s has a functioning backlight now;

94. The excessive visibility of IL-2 mod. 1943 at large distances caused by a wrong glare setting has been corrected;

95. The rear navigation light of the La-5FN won’t be visible from the cockpit;

96. A damaged LaGG-3 won’t appear to have through holes when zooming out;

97. The Yak-1b rear wheel trace on the ground won’t visually thicken when zooming out;

98. P-51D and Tempest radio station bulbs made brighter when turned on;

99. An incorrect flare visual effect on the P-51D fuselage has been fixed;

100. An incorrect flare visual effect on the Fokker D.VII wingtips has been fixed;

101. Left ailerons of Fokker D.VII and Fokker D.VIIF won’t cause visible z-fighting effect;

102. S.E.5a: a dead or unconscious pilot or gunner won’t clip through a cabin side;

103. The animation of the 2000-pound bomb M66 impeller has been fixed;

Other aircraft changes

104. Another error that could cause the hits on the own aircraft to be not audible in multiplayer has been found and fixed;

105. When in the cockpit, the player will now hear different sounds when different parts (materials) of the aircraft are hit different types of ammunition (before that, sounds differed only by the type of ammunition and only in open cockpits or in an external view);

106. The ram air sounds in the cockpits of all aircraft have been re-adjusted, the sound changes depending on the state of the canopy (open or closed) as well as the position of the pilot's head relatively to the windscreen;

107. The positioning of the engine sounds in the cockpits has been improved as well;

108. Bf 109 G-6 in-cockpit sounds were corrected;

109. The issue with the pilots posing in weird ways should be gone now;

110. Ju-88 top shooter won’t continue to fire when the canopy and the MGs are jettisoned;

111. It is now possible to shoot a signal flare after opening the IL-2 mod.1943 cockpit;

112. The trace of an aircraft after a belly landing won’t disappear when zooming in;

113. Flying Circus planes will correctly show the dust from wheels effect;

114. P-51D wheels leave correct traces and their dust effects were corrected;

115. Opened P-51D landing gear bays cause less drag;

116. Bomb detonator switches are no longer inverted on P-51D;

117. A-20B, La-5 series 8 and La-5FN: it’s now possible to move the throttle control when it is in the idle position and ‘Engine auto control’ helper is enabled in the options;

118. FFB vibrations increased during control surfaces buffeting at terminal flight speeds;

119. Now a crewless aircraft will be removed from the simulation when it stays on the ground for 30 seconds (previously it was removed when its altitude was less than 10 meters and speed less than 10 meters per second);

Ground and naval objects

120. Projectiles of the multi-barreled anti-aircraft guns visually appear aligned with the positions of the individual barrels;

121. Tanks and trucks won’t leave marks on concrete surfaces;

122. Vehicles won’t create so much dust when moving on concrete and paved surfaces;

123. TRG_Spawn mission logic element won’t cause the spawned vehicles to have visual effects of a damaged engine;

124. The issue of random destruction of a train in QMB has been found and fixed;

125. Simple AI-controlled ground vehicles won’t visibly ‘shudder’ when moving on steep slopes, especially on the Prokhorovka map;

126. Sd Kfz 251 Wurfrahmen 40 rockets launch correctly visually;

127. The upper and lower armor of simple AI tanks has been corrected (made more resistant to fragments);

128. The visual model of a static railway tank has been updated (its frame);

129. The static T-34 model texture that appears at a certain distance has been corrected;

130. Railway wagons and locomotives won’t receive critical damage from any first hit;

131. A graphical corruption caused by G-5 gunboat firing its M-8M rockets has been fixed;

132. The issue that could make the naval guns indestructible has been found and fixed;

133. Ships that run aground will stop earlier and won’t display water wake effects;

134. A random issue with the parachute not completely descending to the ground has been fixed;

Other changes

135. VR zoom can be made instantaneous if the default speed gives you nausea - set the value of the vr_zoom_speed parameter to 1 (it is located in the camera section in data\startup.cfg file);

136. Ricochet sounds and graphic effects were added;

137. The physical collision models of the European suburban buildings in some blocks on the Arras map now correspond to their visual models;

138. The trees that prevented takeoff and landing were removed at the end of the strip of the Florennes airfield;

139. Bailed out pilots can be correctly captured by the enemy in the Bodenplatte career;

140. MCU_Waypoint mission logic element won’t receive input from other elements when deactivated.

Wow! :startle: Some substantial, fundamental stuff been has been added to the game this week. Going to be interesting. Looks like the Scottish Airforce might be smiling.......

delta7 · April 12, 2020

4.005b update now live

Crash · May 1, 2020

more stuff

DD_Fenrir · May 1, 2020

Nice!

New Game Launcher, New Set Up

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