ACG_Mephisto

I came across the author via twitter and he has been sharing some interesting facts collected during the research for the book. Now the topic is very niche and hence it is absolutely paramount for the publisher to achieve sufficient level of pre-orders for the book to be published at scale and be available for many aviation enthusiasts. If you find the topic interesting, please consider pre-ordering. I did so myself and now just trying to help the author further with this post. The book is about fighter aircraft piston engines from the Second World War, the men who designed them,and the secret intelligence work by Britain and Germany which decided so much. The Second World War, was the first global conflict to be decided primarily through air power – although very advanced jet and rocket engines were developed; the militarily significant battles were all fought by piston engined fighters. The winner of this war would be whoever could design the most powerful piston engines, and the story of this battle, hidden behind the closed doors of intelligence agencies and design offices has never been told. The book will focus on primary research material, and seeks to avoid the treadmill of recycled stories about British and German fighter aircraft, and replace them with a comprehensive review of original documents from the Military archives in America, Germany and Britain – together with access to original memoirs -never previously seen- written by German fighter engine designers during the Second World War. The primary credit for the creation of this book must rest with Doktor -Ing. Karl Kollmann, who`s father Professor Doktor -Ing. Kollmann was chief designer of the Stuttgart Unterturkheim design office, where the engine of the Messerschmitt Me109 was formed and developed until 1945. Dr. Kollmann provided his fathers memoirs to me so that a the story of the race for power between nations could for the first time tell the full story of the most important technical aircraft battle of the Second World War. https://www.calum-douglas.com/current-book-the-secret-horsepower-race/ You can order via amazon, e.g.: https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Horsepower-Race-Aircraft-Development/dp/1911658506/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secret-Horsepower-Race-Western-Development/dp/1911658506/

Just reading Walter Schuck's autobiography* and came across an episode where the author is scrambled to chase a light-weighted reconnaissances Spitfire and needs to climb to catch a much faster plane in a dive (crude translation from German): "Because Gyako [Walter Schuck's wingman] was slightly lagging I concluded that he was not aware of a trick to keep your flaps slightly extended in a climb. At 7 degrees of flaps one could achieve the optimal angle of climb with the Me 109 and could, even without risking a stall, really soar steeply." Plane used was a Bf 109 G-6. At the end he successfully climbs to 9000m and is able to catch the Spitfire in a dive and shoot it down from dead 6 o'clock. Russian pilot exits with a parachute. Overall ammunition usage: 5 shells from MG 151/20 and 30 from MG 131. It is his victory number 125 and the 12th plane shoot down within a 24 hours period on 17/18 June 1944. Would be interesting to test this trick in IL-2 if not already done. *Abschuss! Von der Me 109 zur Me 262 Erinnerungen an die Luftkämpfe beim Jagdgeschwader 5 und 7 [Victory! From the Me 109 to the Me 262 Memories of the Dogfights with Fighter Wing 5 and 7]

Thanks. Any impact on performance from the OVR Toolkit?

Thanks. I suspected that additional software would be needed. Can you set-up everything in a way that the overlay remains in VR and you dont need to grab and move the window everytime the game is started? This is the approach it seems outlined in various youtube video. Also I guess purchasing the OVRdrop software is a must? No demo versions / freeware to try it out? Would be stupid if it doesn't work at the end...

Any good solutions to display Teamspeak or Discord overlays in VR? Ideally just the names and highlight who speaks right now somewhere on the screen or cockpit. SteamVR for Valve Index. Any hints are much appreciated!

Flying IL-2 since 2000. Pre ordering all your products since first announcements. Thank you for your great efforts. Mighty impressed with GREAT performance on the zoom topic. Fantastic improvement in the last patch and impressive delivery on an expedite timeline. Clearly best sim on the market and equally best devs team! Thank you. Danke. Спасибо.

Yep, now we have a shitstorm on the general forum from pilots complaining that their harmless reshader mod is now banned at their favorite online server.

Rather interesting that Wings of Liberty implemented the new server feature (New multiplayer server option “Restrict Injectors) from 4.007 and general attendance yesterday evening was substantially below the usual levels. I wonder if some people who where pitchforking the zoom mode for VR got hit because they were using the reshaders in 2D.

Is 4.007 better?

New zoom levels are great. Good spotting and id'ing. Maximum zoom is slightly less then the last iteration of the mod (where you could stack in-game and mod zooms), but in my view fully sufficient. As this a native in-game zoom now you get somehow better rendering of objects, especially if you look at things on the ground. I mapped the maximum and two intermediate levels on my joystick so can now have 3 different zoom levels: two for spotting / id'ing and one to look at cockpit instruments if needed. Flew two sorties on Wings of Liberty last evening with this setup: 3 good kills, including spotting some ground attackers from 3km. Overall satisfaction level is high.

Still no from my perspective. Every time it is engaged quickly moving objects (yes, the guy your are chasing) start to create artifacts which makes spotting and following much harded.

Fully agree. Alternate Plane Visibility is really a godsend for VR users. I really see huge positive difference between my coop server where I train with my wingman / Berloga and over servers which do not have Alternate Plane Visibility. One reason I thought Alternate Plane Visibility is not so widely spread is the hit on performance. Is this in case?

Pre-ordered vol. 5. Spread the word!

How are your feelings when Yak-9 is on the receiving end of the German 20mm? Shooting couple of them seems to indicate that they are more robust compared to Yak-1/b. Would make sense to due metal vs. wooden longerons. Maybe somebody already did some testing...

I have been playing IL-2 exclusively on VR with DK2, CV1, Oculus Rift S and now Valve Index. I play MP only on servers like Wings of Liberty and Combat Box. Was clocking more hours more recently during CV-19. I must say that (i) developers have improved the VR experience substantially over the years (objective fact) and (ii) while there are some limitations in VR I feel that I can „keep up“ with my VR on MP servers against most players. For sure since quality of Oculus Rift S generation of devices. Now I have been using the mod obviously, but even now after the patch I do feel that I can be competitive and am competitive in my online flights. I mean spotting is challenging also on 2D monitor and Id‘ing is not always about only seeing the plane but is a much wider topic of adding up position, direction of flight, properties / acceleration of the „dot“ to properly identify who is who. Yes, it is now harder to Id the planes without the mod as you have much less „zoom“. Does that mean that I will stop playing MP because I am now „handicapped“? Absolutely no. Did I chase couple of friendlies and almost shoot one by mistake? Yes, but now you just need to be more sure before opening fire and friendly fire has been occurring in RL often enough, e.g. P40 mistaken for 109, Fw for La-5 etc. The change to my online performance after the patch is within the range of fluctuation I have on different days due to my flying skills, tactical ability and gunnery etc. We should not forget also the advantages VR brings in general of both having better spatial comprehension (much better gunnery!) and just the awesome feeling of actually being in a warbird. Plus it will be come only better: As the developers have demonstrated and proven over the years the VR experience in IL-2 substantially improves over time. This is an objective fact, demonstrated as recently as the new VR zoom rolled out on a very expedite timeline by the developers. So I urge everybody to continue to be optimistic, play the game, provide constructive feedback on the forums and support the team by buying planes and expansions.