Game Updates

1.1k · December 5, 2018

Dear friends,

We spent the two weeks since the previous release on intensive work on important aspects of the project. In the not-too-distant future, we'll be adding some huge new features for our Early Access titles, so we've decided to take some time and concentrate on several smaller, but important and long-awaited improvements and create this update.

The main feature of this release is revised airframe damage modeling - an important part of the damage system. Airframe damage system was completely overhauled to take into account additional parameters. The damage modeling as a whole was tuned and improved and bugs fixed - you can read the entire list below.

There is large amount of changes and improvements in aircraft systems, their model and the AI. We added the new British pilot model to the sim and all Bodenplatte and Flying Circus pilots can now take their oxygen masks and goggles on and off. Multiplayer improvements also continue since the last version too. There are new performance optimizations for sea maps. Users who encountered stutters using Microsoft Force Feedback joysticks and TrackIR now have an option to tune FFB effect polling frequency using the additional setting in startup.cfg file.

For mission designers we added a way to control Timer and Counter values dynamically. To do this, there are two new logical objects Modifier: Add Val and Modifier: Set Val. We plan to widely use them to alter various triggers in the future, but at the moment they can be used for:
- modifying a Timer trigger value. A modifier can set, add or substract the time value in a timer by using the 0 index of the controllable value and 1-st field of the value vector. When set to a negative value, the time counter is reset and the timer stops until the next input. For example, this can be used to reset and stop a timer in a mission, delaying some events tied to it.
- modifying a Counter trigger value and threshold (initiall set in a mission). To alter a Counter value, use the 0 index of the controllable value or alter Counter threshold using the 1-st index. For example, a certain mission event like a premature elimination of some targets can lower the threshold of a Counter to make sure the others are eliminated at the moment the player arrives to the waypoint.

Main features:
1. Late war British pilot added to Spitfire Mk.IXe;
2. New control elements added to mission logic (useful for mission designers): "Modifier: Add Val" and "Modifier: Set Val". They can alter the values of other logical elements - Counter and Timer (when used with a Timer object, Set Val can input a negative value to reset and stop a Timer);
3. Force Feedback joystick owners who experience stutters can alter the new value in startup.cfg that governs the maximum frequency of FFB effects polling to try to eliminate them (update_freq parameter in [KEY = force_feedback] section can be set to a value from 0.5 Hz to 10 Hz, example: update_freq = 10.0);
4. Additional renderer optimizations for sea maps (Kuban, Bodenplatte in the future) allowed to boost performance on such maps even more;
5. AA searchlights now can follow Attack Area command which can be used to limit their search area and/or use them as visible beacons (useful for mission designers);
6. Multiplayer: 'allow other players to man stations' option now saved;
7. Multiplayer: various issues like statistics 'freezing', inability to start a mission, kill messages disappearing were fixed for high-load servers;
8. Multiplayer: missing AP hit sound effects and some other sounds restored;
9. A rare crash that could happen in high load situations like joint air-ground engagements with many units has been fixed;
10. keep_binary_log = 0 option in startup.cfg correctly removes binary logs from the game folder on exit;
11. Career: mission area correctly set while escorting transport planes in Stalingrad TOW;
12. Incorrect navigational markers won't be shown in a mission without player aircraft;

Damage model improvements:
13. P-47D-28, Yak-7b and Spitfire Mk.IXe wings made less fragile when damaged;
14. Aileron control rods correctly damaged when Yak-7b, P-39L-1 or P-47 wing is damaged;
15. An overdone HE explosion effect on the primary structure of an aircraft has been reduced.
16. Damage calculations of the airframe take a hit angle into account;
17. Damage from direct hits and explosions on the skin and control rods has been tuned;
18. Minor visual damage correctly appears after a first hit;
19. The visual damage of a cockpit glass correctly appears after a first hit there;
20. Ju-52 instruments can be damaged now;
21. Aircraft primary structure won't erroneously receive double damage in case of hits on the internal components like fuel tanks, engine, radiators, etc.);
22. Airframe sturdiness tuned for all aircraft;
23. Armor of the internal components corrected whenever it was wrong;
24. P-47D-28 wing damage corrected (wing loss is preceded with a wing crack);
25. A weapon won't fire if its ammo supply was lost with a wing part;
26. Fuel tank fire probability corrected for Flying Circus aircraft;
27. Ammo detonation effects differ visually depending on the explosion power;

Aircraft improvements:
28. Bodenplatte pilots put on and remove oxygen mask when needed;
29. Bodenplatte and Flying Circus pilots put off their goggles on parking;
30. Ignition box cover animated on Pe-2 series 35;
31. CB panel cover animation corrected on Fw-190 A3/A5/A8;
32. Gunner folding seat animation corrected on Ju-88;
33. Bendix course detectors animations corrected;
34. Dead pilot model position corrected on Pfalz D.IIIa;
35. Bf 109 G-2 cockpit lamp corrected;
36. P-47D-28 visual wing crack corrected;
37. Visible projectiles at high aircraft speed appear correctly;
38. MK-108 fire sound corrected on Bf 109 K-4;
39. Fuel tank fire effect corrected on Flying Circus planes;
40. Ejected cartridges correctly appear in multiplayer;
41. The maximum number of ejected cartridges corrected based on real time instead of a simulated one;
42. In multiplayer, all visible projectiles appear from gun muzzles instead of aircraft center;
43. Visible gun convergence corrected in multiplayer;

44. The delay between pushing the fire trigger and experiencing the gunfire FFB effect has been reduced.
45. Pfalz D.IIIa performance corrected;
46. Sopwith Camel description corrected;

AI improvements:
47. AI pilots correctly perform Chandelle maneuver;
48. WWI AI pilots won't 'stuck' flying forward;
49. AI pilots evade ground even better;
50. Conditions for attempting vertical maneuvers corrected for all fighters;
51. AI pilots will bail out of aircraft with cracked wings or fuselage instead of trying to fight;
52. WWI AI pilots open fire sooner;
53. WWI AI pilots maneuver more aggressively;

GUI changes:
54. Starting altitude won't reset in QMB;
55. Flare gun indicator won't be shown after restarting a mission in external view;
56. Flight frequency option in Career corrected;
57. The wrong message about timescale won't be shown on mission end;
58. Interface music can be turned on when interface sounds are turned off;
59. Airfields are correctly shown after changing the current chapter in Career;
60. Previously selected modifications correctly shown in QMB.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · December 19, 2018

Update 3.009

Dear friends,

Trying to squeeze in more functionality, new content, improvements and additions for you before the holidays, we've prepared another update 3.009. This time, the main feature of this update is the new content: Collector Plane, famous Soviet light bomber U-2VS which is developed in cooperation with "Ugra-Media" company. At the moment it can be used in QMB and multiplayer modes, but we'll add new Career mission types especially for it (Stalingrad and Kuban ToWs) next month.

There are two new scripted campaigns available. One made by =BlackSix= happens at Stalingrad after 'Blazing Steppe' and continues the story of the German pilot that started in '10 Days of Autumn' campaign, while another made by =Gambit21= is dedicated to A-20 squadron operating in the skies of Kuban.

As usual, the update also brings numerous improvements and additions, upping the overall quality of the sim:

1. New Collector Plane U-2VS developed in cooperation with "Ugra-Media" company;
2. New scenario campaign 'Fortress on the Volga' by Alexander =BlackSix= Timoshkov;
3. New scenario campaign 'Havoc over the Kuban' by =Gambit21=;
4. New Career mission "Troop concentration night bombing strike";
5. New Career mission "Enemy airfield night bombing strike";
6. New Career mission "Railway hub night bombing strike";
7. New Career mission "Supply dump night bombing strike";
8. New Career mission "River crossing night bombing strike";
9. Our community enthusiast =BlackHellHound1= remade all outer textures of Bf 109 F-2 (main texture, bump, specular, damage) and made historically accurate skins for it in 4К;
10. Three new skins for Fokker Dr.I;
11. Two new skins for SPAD 13.C1;
12. The delay, when a new player connects to a server, has been minimized for other players;
13. Projectile hits at turret gunners now calculated properly (they weren't counted properly before);
14. 76 mm APHE rounds won't erroneously damage the internal components without penetrating the armor;
15. P-47D-28 skin damage has been corrected (increased);
16. Airfields surface on Velikiye Luki map has been flattened;
17. It is now possible to lean to the gunsight closer than before on all aircraft;
18. Visual propeller damage corrected on Ju-52 (previously damaging the right propeller would visually damage the left one);
19. Inability to start a new Career from an old one (lack of available units) has been fixed;
20. After spending all ammo of one kind in a tank the interface won't erroneously show the full ammo;
21. Escape menu works correctly even if there are no vehicles in the mission;
22. Wrong waypoint labels corrected in scenario campaigns;
23. Mission briefings text rendering corrected in scenario campaigns;
24. The random mirroring issue of a pilot portrait in Career has been fixed;
25. Creating new Career in Stalingrad ToW has been fixed for certain units;
26. An issue of jumping reflections in the water caused by mirrors has been fixed;
27. Vehicle pathfinding issue that could cause slow performance loss has been fixed;
28. Formation movement AI on land and water has been improved - the leader won't slow down if it is possible;
29. Collision detection routine improved (the detailed tanks shouldn't twitch in certain situations anymore);
30. Formation movement has been improved overall;
31. The bug that caused AI pilots to miss ground targets has been fixed;
32. AI checks the altitude in a downward spiral maneuver;
33. Bombs and rockets equipped AIs should correctly engage ground targets in QMB;
34. Modifier object: it is now possible to assign negative values to a counter. Both the current value and trigger threshold can be set for a timer;
35. Timer: when a new trigger signal is received, the timer resets;
36. Modifier and timer: parameter index 0 now controls the current timer value while parameter index 1 controls the timer threshold;
37. Modifier and timer: timer can be reset and stopped by parameter index 0 and value -1;
38. Fw 190 A-8: canopy raindrops added for Sturmjager modification;
39. Fw 190 A-8: windshield cleaner corrected for Sturmjager modification ;
40. Fw 190 A-8: too dark materials corrected at some places;
41. Fw 190 A-8: rocket control box decreased in size;
42. Fw 190 A-8: pilot model holds the control stick;
43. Bf 109 G-14: pilot model holds the control stick.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · February 4, 2019

Update 3.010

Dear pilots,

The new content will be made available in a few weeks, but we have decided to release the update 3.010 now to publish many improvements and fixes which are already ready. U-2VS Collector Plane is now available in Career mode and can be equipped with rockets. P-47D-28 now sports 4K textures made by Martin =ICDP= Catney. There are also DM improvements and we hope this update should finish the current cycle of DM improvements for now. Important multiplayer and AI fixes are also in. Last, but not the least, is the optimized GUI which should yield more performance in flight. The full change list follows:

Additions

1. New exterior 4K textures for P-47D-28 (main, bump, specular, official paint schemes) by Martin =ICDP= Catney;
2. U-2VS Collector Plane is now available in Stalingrad and Kuban careers (night bombing missions);
3. U-2VS Collector Plane can be equipped with ROS-82, RBS-82 and ROS-132 unguided rockets;
4. Buildings can be destroyed by an aircraft impact;

DM improvements

5. HE rounds no longer damage armored objects without penetrating the armor in certain cases;
6. AP rounds penetration of a multi-element armor has been fixed (reduced);
7. AP rounds can travel further after penetrating a target through;
8. Now wings are correctly damaged when their root parts are hit on Bf-109F/G/K, Ju-87, IL-2, I-16, La-5, Yak-1, Yak-7, LaGG-3, MiG-3, U-2, MC 202, P-39, P-40;
9. The sturdiness of the tail part of the fuselage has been corrected for all planes;
10. Ramming with the propeller has been reworked;
11. Previously developed tech (instability of the airflow around the damaged parts of the aircraft skinning) has been applied to all aircraft;
12. Ballistics and armor penetration of BR-350B and BR-350BSP rounds (F-34, ZiS-5 and ZiS-3 guns) has been corrected according to the report TsNII-48 2VV-2;
13. Pz-VI-H1: weak spots in the gun mantlet have been corrected;
14. Soldiers walking on airfields can be killed now;
15. Rear right wheel damage has been corrected for all wheeled vehicles;

Multiplayer improvements

16. A large mission running on a server won't prevent some players from joining;
17. Data delivery under heavy loaded servers has been reworked. We hope this will help to fix several problems caused by data loss, such as 'greyed out start button', 'damage application delay', 'AA fire delay', 'invisikle planes', 'invulnerable planes', etc.;
18. The game (and the server) won't freeze for several moments when a very large bomb explodes in a very dense built up area;

AI and FM improvements

19. One more case of AI following its target into the ground has been found and fixed;
20. AI correctly turns on the engine in a ground start situation without taxiing;
21. P-47D-28 stall behavior has been corrected;
22. Detached P-47D-28 flaps appear correctly now;
23. Bombsights in an automatic mode made less jumpy;

GUI improvements

24. Many GUI elements made clearer;
25. Automatic GUI scale option added (useful for 4K screens and VR);
26. Lists rendering has been optimized, improving the overall GUI performance, settings and Career mode responsiveness, etc;
27. In-game GUI has been optimized, yielding up to 20% performance in some cases;
28. Switching the HUD on and off or changing the mini-map scale no longer causes a delay;
29. Multiplayer gunner positions dialog window has been corrected for Ju 88 A-4;
30. Target symbols made clearer on the navigation map

Other improvements

31. Certain buildings shouldn't levitate above the terrain anymore;
32. Some bridges with uneven driveways were fixed;
33. Aircraft cruise speeds were corrected in the Career mode so wingmen won't lag behind the flight leaders;
34. Previously AI-only unit 293rd IAP is now joinable by the player in Stalingrad and Kuban TOWs;
35. "Blazing Steppe" and "Sea Dragons" campaigns are now available in French thanks to Dominique Girouard;
36. "Fortress on the Volga" campaign is now available in German thanks to II/JG11ATLAN, ram0506 and =27=Davesteu.
37. "Havoc over the Kuban" campaign has been updated.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · February 7, 2019

Update 3.010b

Update 3.010 brought many significant GUI changes, so now we're releasing the small update containing quick fixes:

1. Full-screen map position won't be reset after using the bombsight;
2. Text chat layout has been improved;
3. In-game chat shows previous messages when the Enter key is pressed;
4. Full-screen map transparency can be adjusted in the game options;
5. Airfield symbols in multiplayer have been updated;
6. Airfield symbols in multiplayer have additional elements showing the enemy threat level near it;
7. Threat level and amount of active players won't be shown for enemy airfields;
8. Multiplayer statistics screen is only updated when it is opened;
9. Multiplayer statistics screen sorts the players basing on the number of points by default;
10. Multiplayer statistics screen remembers the selected sorting criteria;
11. Secondary targets information on the multiplayer statistics screen has been repositioned ;
12. Servers protected by password and/or servers with a bad connection can be hidden in the servers list;
13. Frontline with the color specified as 255,255,255 will be displayed with correct colors like (0,0,10) since many created missions and campaigns rely on that;
14. Mission target markers have been adjusted for a clearer look while zoomed in;
15. Fuel and convergence sliders were made longer for easier use;
16. Mapping delete function in the game settings has been restored;
17. Ground object markers on the map have been made smaller;
18. Engine sound positioning has been improved;
19. Radio messages are made clearer;
20. Incorrect damage calculation has been fixed (a ricochet from a front lower hull of a tank could kill a driver or a radioman);
21. A random bug that could kill the Tiger tank crew after any hit has been fixed;
22. KV-1s and Т-34-76 aiming sights won't flicker;
23. I-16 aiming sight has been improved like on other aircraft;
24. Example multiplayer missions Cooperative_Complex_Example and Dogfight_Complex_Example show how different symbols or lines on the map can be created;

25. Stutters in firing from plane turrets and tank machineguns were fixed.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · February 14, 2019

Update 3.010c

Dear pilots,

This week we made several important changes to the user interface (especially multiplayer part of it) and damage calculations of the player controlled tanks - they are included in the maintenance update we release today. We continue the work on improving IL-2 Sturmovik and hope that you find the changes useful.

User interface
1. Dogfight: when the server changes a mission, the airfield locations from the previous mission won't stay visible on the map;
2. Dogfight: map position and zoom level are saved between player respawns;
3. Dogfight: a mission target won't overlap an airfield and make it impossible to choose;
4. Dogfight: selecting an airfield without available planes won't make the screen darker;
5. Dogfight: home airfield is highlighted on the map;
6. Dogfight: the info tooltip appears if you hover the mouse pointer over an airfield;
7. Cooperative: you can't select a locked out aircraft in the lobby;
8. Objects kill messages appear in the chat again;
9. Chat window won't appear before the mission start on its own;
10. QMB: certain text elements were made bigger for Spanish text;
11. Map: 'no units' and 'maximum number of players reached' tooltips added;
12. Map: air and ground attack events on an airfield are indicated differently;
13. Map: airfield information has been reworked;
14. Map: frontline color 255,255,255 now changes according to the interface color setting;
15. Map: unit dots are bigger and can be grouped;
16. Aircraft info: text layout has been fixed;
17. Career: active duty timeframe of certain units is shown correctly now;
18. Career: Unit symbols in various lists were made bigger;
19. Singleplayer: Flight Log button appears after a mission instantly;
20. Server list: 'auto-switch to joystick' message that appears when connecting to servers that enforce playing with joystick has been reworked;

Tank Crew
21. The bug that caused the crew of a tank to die when a nearby tree was hit by a shell has been fixed;
22. The velocity spread of the various tank cannon projectiles decreased;
23. The angle spread of the various tank cannons increased;
24. Excessive projectile ricochet probabilities have been toned down;
25. Missing armor parts in the rear of Tiger and KV-1s turrets have been repaired (physical model);
26. Tiger gun mantlet rear part sides armouring have been corrected;
27. Armor values for the coaxial MG and gunner gunsight on a Tiger tank were swapped (this is corrected now);

Other changes
28. Wrong player status (captured) that could trigger when a server starts a new mission with players left in the air over enemy territory has been fixed;
29. A rare problem of armor being ignored when hit into the internal seam between two armor sheets (with the angle between them is less than 180 degrees) has been fixed;
30. A possible incorrect penetration calculation when a projectile after ricochet hit an armor plate of a target moving towards it has been fixed.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · March 5, 2019

Update 3.011

Dear pilots,

Today is an important day. First, we just released two new WWI fighters for all Flying Circus: Volume I customers - Fokker D.VII and Sopwith Dolphin. They are 5th and 6th aircraft released for it, so along with the map of Arras being actively developed, we can say that Flying Circus project is progressing nicely and more than half of it is already completed.

Second, our Tank Crew project finally includes visible crew for two already released tanks. Since we'll be releasing four new tanks and Prokhorovka map really soon, this project is also maturing at a good pace.

Of course, we also prepared a list of many other improvements for you:

1. Fokker D.VII is available to Flying Circus: Volume I customers;
2. Sopwith Dolphin is available to Flying Circus: Volume I customers;
3. KV-1s and Pz-VI-H1 tanks (Tank Crew project) now have visible crews;
4. AI pilots correctly attack landed or taking off enemy planes;
5. Artillery markers on the map were updated;
6. Simple (not player controllable) vehicles now have more detailed armor. This is noticeable while attacking them from above;
7. Projectile ricochet modeling became more complex;
8. Wandering personnel on the ground won't die from collisions that easy;
9. The pathfinding of vehicle columns travelling through settlements has 25% less performance impact;
10. Simple vehicles adjust their speed accordingly to the surface type (road or cross-country);
11. There are new AI vehicle formations available - line left, line right, centered line - and ability to make naval-like all-together turn;
12. The ground AIs keep formation better;
13. Multiplayer: now at least 25% of the affecting player coalition or 25% of all players on the server must vote to ban a player;
14. Multiplayer: visible tank ammo won't visually 'shake';
15. Multiplayer: when other players occupy aircraft turrets, their remaining magazines and individual rounds are displayed correctly;
16. Multiplayer: net traffic for multi-crew aircraft has been optimized;
17. FM: a rare critical bug that could cause an application crash has been found and fixed;
18. FM: aircraft propellers interaction with the ground surface has been made more accurate so their blades won't sink into the ground during a crash;
19. FM: aircraft propellers won't vibrate when an damaged engine is off;
20. FM: Force Feedback effect during ailerons and elevator buffeting (when flying too fast) has been made stronger;

21. FM: Visual shaking inside a cockpit is added when control surfaces are buffeting at high airspeed;

22. The delay between releasing a trigger and the actual stop of firing has been minimized;
23. Several guns are now reloaded one after another, without overlapping;
24. In-cockpit gunfire sounds were improved for Flying Circus aircraft.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · March 18, 2019

Update 3.012

Dear friends,

We just released the new update 3.012. Only two weeks have passed since the previous update so the changelist isn't that long, but this time our customers will get FIVE new pieces of content for all three our current projects at once.

First, this is a new Collector's Plane for Bodenplatte - Fw 190 D-9 "Dora", one of the legendary late war Luftwaffe planes with very good speed and armament. Its main difference compared to previous models is Jumo-213 A1 water cooled engine equipped with MW 50 water-methanol injection system that can be used to increase the power output even more for up to 10 minutes. Another improvement of this plane is the automatic engine governor MBG and an effective engine cooling. This is also the first aircraft in our project to receive EZ 42 gyro gunsight. "Dora" could carry up to 500 kg bombs and R4M Orkan rockets (the new weapon in our project as well) which later served as a base for many post-war unguided rocket designs.

Second, we released the Prokhorovka map for Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka project. This map is an important step in our map technologies because the polygonal net of the landscape is 16 times more detailed than on previous maps. In addition, the detailed zone for ground warfare (20 km to the South and the West of Prokhorovka) contains new high detailed buildings with new damage visualization. It should be noted that this more detailed environment, of course, demands more from the graphics subsystem, but reasonable graphics settings can give you good performance even on middle range video cards. You may ask "Why don't you make all the new maps at this level of detail?", but the answer is that increasing the level of detail reduces the overall size of the map. A good map for the joint tank and air battles (100 x 100 km in case of Prokhorovka) would be not enough for a full-blown, 'air campaign' map that should be 200 x 250 km minimum. Therefore, Prokhorovka map is a fine balance of several things. It allows making interesting tank campaigns, having interesting joint tank and aircraft multiplayer, keeping the performance impact 30% or less at reasonable graphics settings, and having improved visual quality at the ground level required for the ground battles.

Third, Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka customers get two new toys: M4A2 and PzKpfw.III Ausf.M. Both tanks were interesting machines and they are recreated painstakingly and with passion. It should be noted that M4A2 could stand its own even against the heavier German adversaries thanks to its maneuverability, good turret traverse speed and sufficient armor penetration ability of its solid AP round. The medium tank PzKpfw.III Ausf.M also had a good chance against medium Soviet tanks - APCR rounds could penetrate their armor while its frontal protection was relatively good thanks to the spaced 50 and 20 mm armor plates. It also had a low visible profile, good maneuverability and high rate of fire.

Fourth, Flying Circus customers get Fokker D.VIIF. it was one of the best, if not the best, Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte fighter of WWI. The new and powerful for its time BMW IIIa engine gave the plane high speed and maneuverability at high altitudes while the oxygen supply enabled a pilot to fight up there effectively. Its armament is standard for German fighters of that time - two 7.92 mm LMG 08/15 "Spandau" (650 rounds per minute each).

1. Fw 190 D-9 "Dora" fighter is available to Battle of Bodenplatte Premium Edition owners;
2. Prokhorovka map (Southern part of the Kursk salient) is available to Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka owners;
3. M4A2 tank is available to Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka owners;
4. PzKpfw.III Ausf.M tank is available to Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka owners;
5. Fokker D.VIIF fighter is available to Flying Circus - Volume I owners;

6. UDP output API for moving platform simulators was added, details are in attached document;

Il2_MotionOutput.zip
7. Locomotive tenders are destroyable once again;
8. The oxygen system capacity corrected (increased) on Fokker D.VII;
9. The sound of a damaged engine made more pronounced on all aircraft;
10. KV-1s, Pz.VI-H1, M4A2, and Pz.III-M have night gunsight illumination;
11. KV-1s and Pz.VI-H1 turrets bend their antennas when rotating;
12. Rocket exhaust flame corrected - it cuts immediately when the engine of a rocket stops and its smoke trail disappears faster;
13. A game freeze (when a statistics screen was visible on top of the other menus) has been fixed.

PS:

Information for mission designers and server hosters:

'Block' objects durability has been changed.

Smaller objects like static vehicles (static_...) should have Durability = 500

Medium sized objects (static fighters, small control tower, etc.) should have Durability = 1000

Big objects (like static bombers) should have Durability = 1500

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · June 10, 2019

Update 3.101

Dear friends,

Today we have finished another huge update and it is already available to you. It includes the new war machines you can control - jet fighter/bomber Me 262 A Schwalbe for Bodenplatte, Т-34-76 made by UVZ factory in early 1943 for Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka and airplanes S.E.5a and Albatros D.Va for Flying Circus - Volume I.

Upping the exterior textures to 4К quality level for Bf 109 F-4 and Fw 190 A-8 are another neat feature, as well as adding visible crews to player controllable Pz.III Ausf.M and M4A2. All VR users get the long-awaited fix of an aircraft propeller that looked distorted with VR reprojection turned on. There are many changes in aircraft and ground AI. The level of detail of player controllable tank systems and their damage model is nearly final. And as usual, there are many improvements in FM and aircraft systems modeling.

IL-2 Sturmovik team wishes you nice summer weather and enjoyable flying in our sim!

Main features
1. Jet fighter-bomber Me 262 A "Schwalbe" is now available for all owners of "Battle of Bodenplatte";
2. Albatros D.Va is now available for all owners of "Flying Circus";
3. S.E.5a is now available for all owners of "Flying Circus";
4. T-34-76 UVZ made in early 1943 is now available for all owners of "Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka" (includes crew);
5. Bf 109 F-4 exterior textures are now available in 4К quality, including damage, thanks to =BlackHellHound1=;
6. Fw 190 A-8 exterior textures are now available in 4К quality, including damage, thanks to =ICDP=;
7. Crew models added to M4A2;
8. Crew models added to Pz.III Ausf.M;
9. In VR, active reprojection won't cause a rotating propeller to flicker;
10. The game launcher (non-Steam version) now offers more options (enabling or disabling VR, 4K textures, GUI autoscale and mods);

AI improvements
11. AI fighters may cancel the attack run when hit by a bomber gunner fire;
12. AI fighters aim better when engaging a straight flying target;
13. AI fighters open fire earlier when engaging a straight flying target;
14. AI fighters maneuver more carefully when covering bombers;
15. AI keeps the formation much better;
16. AI ground attack planes and fighters RTB if they have no ammo for forward-firing armament left;
17. AI bombers open bomb bay doors during the bombing run only if there are bombs inside;
18. AI bombers won't open bomb bay doors during the route by mistake;
19. AI won't attempt to land on tank spawn points in multiplayer in case of an emergency;
20. AI gunners fire only at targets selected as 'Engageable' (Mission Editor parameter);
21. AI guns and tanks aim in a more realistic way, there is a slight fire delay after aiming and before re-engaging;
22. Driveable tanks controlled by AI keep formation better, including cases of losing one or more tanks of a platoon;
23. Ground AI can set and keep User Formation by mission command (current relative position of vehicles in the group);
24. Ground AI has three new formations: line left, line right, centered line (relative to the group leader);
25. Ground AI now correctly selects and uses APHE ammo (it used only AP ammo before);
26. Ground AI won't fire at crewmen escaping from friendly vehicles;

New features for player controllable tanks
27. It's possible to limit the maximal gear by X and Z key;
28. Enter key invokes the damage control overlay;
29. Headlights state, engine damage and overheat, low oil pressure and battery charge, maximal selected gear limit are shown in the quick info interface panel;
30. Lots of instruments and controls are now animated: odometers, service meters, engine revolutions counters, ignition switches, starter buttons, oil temperature indicators, amperemeters, voltmeters, fire detection lamps, radio tuning dials, parking brake handles, turret locks;
31. Transmission damage affects the changing of gears, they become harder or impossible to switch;
32. Oil system damage causes engine damage at a progressing rate;
33. Cooling system damage affects oil and cylinder heads cooling effectiveness;
34. Electrical system damage affects the functionality of lighting, powered turret traverse and engine starter;
35. Engines have a heat model that is affected by damage;
36. Cold engine yields less power until it heats up;
37. An engine with overheated oil or cylinder heads accumulates damage fast;
38. 'Warmed up engine' option is valid for tanks too;
39. Fuel or oil leak could lead to a fire that can kill the crew and cause the ammo detonation;
40. In case of fire, the crew uses fire extinguishers if there are any left. It takes up to 2 seconds using automatic fire extinguishers and up 5 seconds using regular ones;
41. Damaged suspension springs or torsions can become lame;
42. If the coolant is boiling, there is a visible vapor exhaust from radiators;
43. A damaged engine can fill the tank interior with smoke;
44. Firing the gun and MGs can obscure vision in the tank interior;
45. Crew clothes, faces, hands, etc. can become dirty from smoke;
46. The turret traverse speed decreases with the inclination of the tank, it may be impossible to turn the turret at a high inclination angle;
47. The driver instruments functioning was updated;
48. Powered (electric) turret traverse mechanism added to KV-1s and Т-34-76-UVZ-1943 with the manual traverse as the backup one. The powered traverse mechanism won't work if it is damaged, there is no power or the engine is off;
49. Powered (hydraulic) turret traverse mechanism added to M4A2 and PzKpfw. VI Ausf. H-1 with the manual traverse as the backup one. The powered traverse mechanism won't work if it is damaged or the engine is off;
50. Backup (pneumatic) engine starter added to KV-1s and Т-34-76-UVZ-1943 that is used if there is no power;
51. Additional (panoramic) gunsight added to KV-1s and Т-34-76-UVZ-1943;
52. Backup gunsight (iron sights) added to Pz.III Ausf.M;
53. The shaft between the flywheel clutch and the gearbox on M4A2 is correctly animated;
54. Pz.III Ausf.M brake drums are correctly animated;
55. Pz.VI Ausf.H1 engine cooling fans are correctly animated;
56. Tanks won't 'jump' on rubble left from destroyed buildings;
57. A rare issue that could cause a still functioning tank to appear destroyed, but with functioning turret has been fixed;
58. A rare issue that could cause a still functioning track to appear destroyed has been fixed;
59. A small visual issue (grey square near the gun gunsight) has been fixed for Pz.III Ausf.M and Pz.VI Ausf.H1;
60. KV-1s paint color has been corrected;
61. The motion of a damaged right track of Pz.III Ausf.M has been corrected;

New features in aircraft physics, systems and animations
62. Infinitely firing aircraft of other players shouldn't randomly appear in multiplayer anymore;
63. Additional steps were taken that should eliminate a rare problem of another player plane being invisible before opening fire;
64. PTAB sub-munitions effect on ground targets has been corrected;
65. Damage calculations for AP, APHE and HEAT aircraft-launched rockets have been significantly improved;
66. Physical models of all aircraft engines have been revised, many rare bugs were found and fixed;
67. A rare issue that could crash the sim when all fuel was spent (or leaked away) on Ju-88 and He-111 H6/H16 has been fixed;
68. A rare issue in P-47 turbocharger that could crash the sim was found and fixed;
69. The error that caused the Flying Circus aircraft propellers to have more power than RoF ones has been found and fixed. The notable difference was found at lower flight speeds, but additional research showed that this error made during porting of RoF planes to Flying Circus more or less affected all flight characteristics of the Flying Circus aircraft. In this update this error is fixed, so flight characteristics of all Flying Circus planes fully correspond to RoF before update 1.034. You can see the updated flight characteristics of Albatros D.Va and S.E.5a in their in-game descriptions, while updated descriptions for other Flying Circus aircraft will follow in the next update when we redo all the required measurements;
70. All aircraft: when starting or shutting down the engine with all three difficulty options "Cruise control", "Throttle auto limit" and "Engine auto control" turned off you need to move the engine controls during the startup or shutdown procedure yourself;
71. All aircraft: wind noise sound with jettisoned or broken canopy won't disappear at 720 kph and higher speeds;
72. All aircraft: new technochat message informs the player about the engine failure (when it shuts off by itself without player or throttle limiter input);
73. All aircraft: new technochat message informs the player that the engine start command is ignored if the startup requirements are not met;
74. Fw-190 D9 and Me 262 A: there is a tip in chat clarifying that the engine throttle is blocked from moving to cutoff position when the engine is on;
75. Sopwith Camel and Sopwith Dolphin skid steering animations were corrected;
76. Weight values listed for all large gunsights of Flying Circus planes and for the camera on SPAD XIII.C1 have been corrected;
77. Weight values listed for additional Lewis MGs on Sopwith Dolphin have been corrected, speed loss information added;
78. Moving horizontal stabilizers control levers or wheels can be heard;
79. When an engine is turned off, the motion speed of a throttle lever with engine helpers turned on has been increased (it is now the same as its motion speed with engine helpers turned off);
80. In multiplayer, you can hear the engine starter of another player.

Because of the huge amount of changes, the track and mission format was changed. If you're an author of a custom mission or campaign, you need to resave your creation (it can be done quickly using 'Convert missions to binary in folder' in the Mission editor).

PS:

A video tutorial from =SYN_Requiem= : how to manage Me 262 A:

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · July 24, 2019

Update 3.102

Dear friends,

We're glad to report that the new update containing three new war machines are out. The first one of them is Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf.G German medium tank for Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka project. It was one of the most commonly used German tanks and had an interesting mix of powerful weaponry and lacking armor, making its use in the sim somewhat peculiar. It also had an interesting feature - autonomous turret traverse mechanism powered by a dedicated petrol motor.

The second one is the WWI RAF fighter bomber Bristol Fighter F.2B for Flying Circus - Volume 1 project. This airplane had good flight characteristics among the two-seaters, various armament and could perform a wide selection of tasks. Two modifications of this aircraft are included - with Falcon II and Falcon III engines.

And the third one is another Flying Circus - Volume 1 aircraft - German WWI ground attack plane Halberstadt CL.II. This multifunctional machine had good defensive turret equipped with one or two Parabellum LMG 14 machine guns fed by large-capacity magazines. Halberstadt could have one or two forward-firing MGs and carry 12 kg and 50 kg bombs, camera for aerial recon and radio for aerial spotting.

In addition to them, the update includes exterior textures in 4K quality for Bf 109 G-14 and Fw 190 A-3. There are also several important improvements in the full list of changes:

1. PzKpfw.IV Ausf.G is available to Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka owners;
2. Halberstadt CL.II (Mercedes D.IIIa (180 h.p.) and Mercedes D.IIIau (200 h.p.) modifications) is available to Flying Circus - volume 1 owners;
3. Bristol Fighter F2.B (Falcon II (255 h.p.) и Falcon III (285 h.p.) modifications) is available to Flying Circus - volume 1 owners;
4. Bf 109 G-14 has 4K exterior texturing made by Martin =ICDP= Catney;
5. Fw 190 A-3 has 4K exterior texturing made by Martin =ICDP= Catney;
6. User interface checkbox that disallows other players to occupy one of the stations of your tank in multiplayer works now;
7. Main tank gunfire sound won't be skipped while shooting at a maximum rate of fire;
8. Tank traverse systems on player controllable tanks can be damaged now;
9. Switching between main and backup gunsights on player controllable tanks happens correctly;
10. Chalk slopes on the Prokhorovka map won't visibly appear and disappear;
11. Forests on the Prokhorovka map won't visibly blink;
12. Looking at an aircraft mirror at certain view angles won't cause a severe performance drop that was noticeable at high visibility distance settings on low- and middle-end video cards;
13. Destroyed ground vehicles on the GUI map are semi-transparent;
14. Engine throttle control helper logic has been updated (previously it could limit the available engine power at high altitudes);
15. S.E.5, Sopwith Camel and Sopwith Dolphin ailerons buffeting amplitudes at higher flight speeds have been corrected.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · September 30, 2019

Update 3.201

Dear Friends,

The IL-2 development team is glad to report that the new huge update 3.201 is released. It brings you not only the 3 new aircraft and 2 new maps for two projects, but also many improvements in all areas of the sim - graphics, physics, audio, controls, armament, and instruments. You can find the in depth information about some of the new features in our recent Dev Diaries. Please note that this update is the last milestone before the release of two projects at once - Bodenplatte and Flying Circus Vol.1 - which should happen in a month or so. Moreover, this update contains many improvements for Tank Crew as well, paving the way for the release of its two scenario campaigns and tank commander interface.

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. Static versions of many airplanes models were added to the game for better scenery in missions;
23. New countries that participated in WWI and WWII added to the mission logic;

24. Bf 109 G-2 has 4K exterior texturing made by Francisco =BlackHellHound1= Bindraban;

25. IL-2 mod.1942 has 4K exterior texturing made by Martin =ICDP= Catney;

Visual improvements

26. 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;
27. New 'Distant buildings' option added;
28. Object markers can be blocked by landscape and objects, including own aircraft or vehicle;
29. Static objects rendering has been optimized to increase performance;
30. Sun glare from distant aircraft is visible better;
31. Fire can be visible inside the cockpit on single and triple engine planes;
32. It's possible to display a customizable photo in all aircraft cockpits and tank cabins;
33. Collimator sight reticle has been improved for all planes;

Aircraft improvements

34. DB-601 and DB-605 engine sounds improved for all Bf-109 and Bf-110 planes;
35. 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;
36. 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;
37. Oxygen deficit affects the human tolerance to high G-load more accurately;
38. Visual and audible high-G effects made more realistic;
39. The sound of the player breathing during a significant positive G load improved, that sound is no longer played during a negative G load;
40. G-suits increase the load factor tolerance of the crew;
41. The crew can become motion sick from alternating G loads;
42. High-G loads, powerful impacts and pain shock can render the crew unconscious resulting in a loss of control;
43. New 'Simple physiology' option added to the difficulty settings disables the load factor tolerance decrease, loss of consciousness and motion sickness;
44. Damage inflicted to the crew from powerful impacts and falls have been corrected;
45. The player can't get painful shock anymore if the invulnerability difficulty option is checked;
46. The ability of the crew to bail out is now limited by the G-load (including its direction), airspeed and crew health (wounds);
47. Crew bails out differently depending on the G load direction - down if the load is positive and up if the load is negative;
48. 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;
49. 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;
50. 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;
51. The adjustable stabilizer axis is no longer inverted (its direction is changed according to DirectX standard);
52. New commands for retraction and extension of the landing gear added;
53. 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;
54. 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;
55. 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;
56. Spitfire stall behavior with released landing flaps has been corrected;
57. British and American voiceovers added for Bodenplatte pilots;
58. 150 Octane fuel is available for Spitfire IXe that enables +25 lbs. With it enabled, switching supercharger gears becomes manual;
59. La-5FN skins should work on an MP server now, but this change requires reassigning its skins in the missions created earlier;
60. Bodenplatte pilots got Summer uniform;
61. Windmilling effect works on U-2VS;
62. British gyro gunsight G.G.S. Mk.IId (Spitfire Mk.IXe) now accounts for gravitational bullet drop when calculating the deflection;
63. Spitfire Mk.IXe electric fuel pump won't continuously switch on and off at low throttle on the ground;
64. Some instruments and switches sounds corrected on Spitfire Mk.IXe;
65. Me 262 A behavior at beyond-stall angles of attack corrected;
66. The physical behavior of I-16 fragments has been corrected;
67. Smoke clouds after a plane crash in multiplayer disappear correctly;

AI improvements

68. AI better aims at distant steadily flying targets;
69. AI better distribute enemy targets among themselves;
70. If an AI has a speed advantage over a target it is attacking, it tries to keep this advantage;
71. Combat turns, spirals and banking maneuvers in a dogfight are performed more aggressively;
72. AI won't switch maneuvers too frequently, distorting its planned tactics;
73. Criteria for choosing maneuvers in a dogfight were updated;
74. AI keeps the formation better;

Tank improvements

75. Offroad shaking has been made more natural;
76. All the tanks now use the M4A2 aiming method;
77. The engine startup sequence is now animated (master switch, excess pressure valve, manual fuel pump, wobble pump, caution signal);
78. Inner visual effects are not affected by tank movements;
79. Engine exhaust effect improved;
80. Driver gauges, turret instruments, MG elements are now animated in multiplayer;
81. Direction controllability improved;
82. APHE rounds cause more damage to inner components after the armor penetration;
83. The visual effect of the turret traverse motor exhaust added to Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. G and M4A2;
84. 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;
85. 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);
86. KV-1s, Т-34-76 UVZ (1943) and M4A2 have functioning klaxon (LAlt+S);
87. Inner details and texturing improved on KV-1s and Pz.Kpfw.VI Ausf.H1;
88. Pz.Kpfw. III Ausf. M, Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. G and Pz.Kpfw. VI Ausf. H1 bow MGs use the M4A2 aiming method;
89. There is an alternate DT MG gunner aiming mode on KV-1s - through the periscope (in addition to the regular one through the gunsight);
90. KV-1s commander and radioman have an alternate aiming mode - through a visor;
91. M4A2 turret traverse can be powered by the motor-generator;
92. M4A2 first-person view height corrected for a driver and MG gunner in unbuttoned positions;
93. Visible (from the driver seat) rotation of the steering drive shaft has been corrected on Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf. G;
94. Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf. M fuel or oil fire effect has been corrected;
95. A firing port in the panoramic gunsight armor added on KV-1s;
96. Air inlets of the engine compartment added on KV-1s;
97. Slits in the driver visor on KV-1s decreased in the visor open position;

Other improvements

98. The sound subsystem uses newer FMOD API - sound loss after long play sessions should be fixed;
99. Runway floodlights work now;
100. Coalition sorting functionality added to QMB mode;
101. An automatic chat message in the multiplayer reports if there is no UDP traffic coming from one of the players;
102. 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.
103. Radio chatter volume is affected if the player is concussed, lost consciousness or wounded.

P.S.

To add a custom photo to your airplane or tank cockpit you should replace existing default DDS image by another one in:

<game_folder>\data\graphics\planes\<airplane_folder>\textures\custom_photo.dds

or

<game_folder>\data\graphics\vehicles\<_tank_folder>\textures\custom_photo.dds

DDS image should be 1024x1024 in DXT5 ARGB 8bpp with mip-maps

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · November 7, 2019

Update 4.001

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.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · November 26, 2019

Update 4.002

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.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · December 17, 2019

Update 4.003

Dear friends,

We have decided to release a bugfix update to prepare for the coming winter holidays - it doesn't bring new content, but its fixes are important enough. The most of them are AI improvements - we have spent a lot of time this month to improve dogfighting algorithms and we'll continue to improve AI further. There are also important fixes for the player controlled ground vehicles and our friend =Luke FF= worked on improving the Career mode. The full list of changes is following:

AI improvements
1. AIs finish a ground attack run by pulling up harder, which should improve their survivability rate in hilly terrain;
2. AI bombers drop the bombs better;
3. Advanced AIs won't 'stuck' in an endless circle during dogfight anymore;
4. AIs perform "Low Yo-Yo" and "High Yo-Yo" maneuvers better;
5. Detailed AI tanks engage the nearest targets by default like simple AI tanks do;
6. AI drivers of self-propelled artillery and other ground equipment with a fixed main weapon now face the target to aim if the priority of the mission command being executed is LOW;
7. Ground vehicles won't 'jump' on steep slopes;
8. Ground vehicle AIs won't turn their engines off immediately after stopping;
9. AI ground vehicles have a variable exhaust effect when moving;
10. The steam locomotives won't turn on the lights during the day;
11. AA guns and machine guns mounted on trains follow mission command priority;

Aircraft improvements
12. The game won't crash when repairing a dirty airplane canopy;
13. Fixed excess clicks of triggers in the cockpit for missing weapon groups;

Player controlled tanks improvements
14. There is a turret ventilation sound in Pz.III Ausf.M, Pz.IV Ausf.G, Pz.VI Ausf.H1 and T-34-76UVZ-43;
15. The master switch is turned on not only when the engine is turned on, but also when the headlights, lighting, signal, tower control with electric trigger or fan are turned on;
16. Fixed the "loss" of the camera when switching from a gunsight to the normal view;
17. Detailed tanks gunsight adjustments are displayed in technochat;
18. Opening and closing of various hatches is displayed in technochat;
19. Startup procedures, the operation of turret and gun systems of the Tank Crew tanks are displayed in technochat;
20. Sub-caliber armor-piercing rounds now lose their stability and ability to penetrate further armor barriers after breaking through the first one;
21. On SU-122, the problem with displaying the commander’s sight in VR was fixed (the second eye was not deactivated);
22. On SU-122, when choosing the DG-460A HEAT shells, the slider of the scope scale is now correctly set to the third scale;
23. Added gunsight settings for firing using a gunner’s sight to the description of SU-122;

Career mode improvements
24. Awards in career mode adjusted to better reflect the historical reality for all nations;
25. Awards text descriptions updated;
26. US careers: medals are awarded according to the criteria set forth by the US 9th Air Force in 1944;
27. German careers: new AI pilots in the squadron with previous flight time now have the possibility to have campaign awards from earlier battles (Eastern Front Medal and Kuban Shield);
28. Soviet careers: new AI pilots in the squadron with previous flight time now have the possibility to have the Medal 'For the Defense of Stalingrad' from December 22, 1942;
29. Soviet careers: Order of the Patriotic War 2nd Class, Order of the Patriotic War 1st Class, Red Wound Stripe, and Yellow Wound Stripe no longer erroneously awarded during the Battle of Moscow;
30. British careers: Mentioned in Despatches can now be awarded multiple times;
31. More stock aircraft skins added to all phases of career mode;
32. German fighter and attack pilots will now fly an airfield attack strafing mission on January 1, 1945, in career mode;
33. Aircraft weapon loadouts and modification restrictions updated for all phases of career mode;

Other improvements
34. Loaders in player controllable tanks, Ju-52 Co-Pilot and A-20 Navigator are invulnerable if Invulnerability difficulty option is turned on;
35. All aircraft GUI previews updated to have a similar style;
36. Simple AI vehicle sounds completely overhauled (all large artillery guns, tanks and assault guns, GMC-CCKW, WillysMB, M16-AA, 72K).

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · January 21, 2020

Update 4.004

Dear friends,

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);

9. Added initial support for SimShaker to be used in conjunction with JetSeats and other audio powered feedback devices.

AI improvements

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

Aircraft improvements

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

Detailed tanks improvements

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

Other improvements

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

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · April 8, 2020

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.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · May 19, 2020

Update 4.006

Dear friends,

Around a month has passed since the previous humongous update and we have another right here. Its changelist is not as so hideously long (it is still too long, however - more than 80 items), but some of them are quite important. First of all, two new Collector Planes are released, Yak-9 and Yak-9T. It was the most mass-produced Soviet WWII aircraft, the real victory weapon. They had very good flight characteristics, bubble canopy with armored glass on the front and back, good manufacturability. The modification Yak-9T armed with powerful 37mm gun NS-37 was designed for bomber intercepts but was also widely used against ground targets. Yak-9s were used in the Battle of Kuban, so you can use it in the Career mode at this theater of war as well as in QMB and multiplayer.

For Tank Crew customers this update adds a long-awaited Zveroboy ("Beast Slayer") - self-propelled heavy howitzer (assault gun) SU-152 based on KV-1s chassis and armed with a very powerful 152mm gun-howitzer ML-20S. While these assault guns were designed primarily for knocking out heavy defenses, at the Kursk Battle it was probably the only Soviet armored vehicle capable of killing Tigers and Panthers at far distances. Its 152mm APHE round weighed nearly 49 kg and its hit was lethal for a Tiger up to 2 km distance. Panther's thick and sloped frontal armor and 200mm frontal armor of Ferdinand tank destroyers could withstand it, but a HE shell hit at a Panther turret guaranteed to breach the thin hull roof near the hit area and APHE hit at a Panther side could knock it out easily. Being very powerful, SU-152 wasn't an absolute weapon of course. Limited armor and gun traverse angles, low ammo reserve and slow rate of fire demanded the combat skills from the crew and interaction of a group of these machines to reach its combat potential fully. Nevertheless, it was the first dangerous adversary for the newest German cats of prey.

This update also includes three new Scripted Campaigns – Kaiserschlacht, Spring Offensive and Lightning Strikes.

Kaiserschlacht and Spring Offensive are two campaigns developed by our friends at The Syndicate which tells about the same events from different sides of the front line of the spring of 1918. Although previously released to the public, these campaigns have been enlarged to include new unreleased missions. These are the first official campaigns for Flying Circus, allowing you to more fully evaluate the full potential and atmosphere of this great product. These two campaigns will be available free of charge to those who have already purchased Flying Circus: Volume One. There is an accompanying skin-pack for this campaign. It is available in the forum.

And for those who own the P-38J-25 Collector Plane and Battle of Bodenplatte, we also have a cool new Scripted Campaign for you - Lightning Strikes! This campaign was developed by our friend and talented mission maker Jaegermeister and it portrays P-38 combat missions in the skies of Europe from October to the end of December 1944. The campaign includes an outstanding number of missions, 25 of them, the last of which tells about the notorious events of January 1, 1945. This campaign is included free of charge to everyone who owns the P-8J-25 and Battle of Bodenplatte. There is also an accompanying skin-pack for this campaign and is available in the forum as well.

While new aircraft, tanks and campaigns are the lead stars of our sim, the most important change in this update is the release of the new graphics rendering engine based on Deferred Shading. This is the base for a new powerful shoot forward in the visual part of the project. It's impossible to unlock all this potential at once, but in this update, we already added a number of improvements based on this fundamental change. More natural-looking aircraft exterior, cockpit and instrument reflections, better-looking water surfaces - this is just a start.

Thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney we have the external textures of 4 more existing aircraft in 4K quality: two bombers He 111 H-6 (BoM) and He 111 H-16 (BoS) and two Collectors Planes, La-5 series 8 and La-5FN series 2. The new textures push the visuals of these planes to a new level.

These huge additions aren't all - the update 4.006 brings many others which are also important. Aircraft FM and DM were updated basing on your feedback, Soviet fighter pilots have new visual model, there is a lot of changes for ground and naval units as well as for player controllable Tank Crew war machines. Multiplayer functionality has been also addressed. All this serves one purpose - constant improvement of the quality of gameplay and accuracy of the simulation. IL-2 Sturmovik team hopes that you'll enjoy all these changes.

Main Features

1. Yak-9 series 1 Collector Plane is available;
2. Yak-9T series 1 Collector Plane is available;
3. SU-152 heavy assault gun is available for all Tank Crew customers;
4. La-5 series 8 exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney;
5. La-5FN Collectors Plane exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney;
6. He-111 H-6 exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney;
7. He-111 H-16 exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney;
8. Two scenario campaigns, Kaiserschlacht and Spring offensive, are available for all Flying Circus Vol.1 customers for free;
9. A huge (25 missions!) scenario campaign Lightning Strikes is available for all Bodenplatte Premium customers (you can also play it if you have purchased Bodenplatte Standard Edition and P-38J-25 Collector Plane separately);
10. The graphics engine of the sim now uses Deferred Shading technology;

Graphics Improvements

11. FXAA or MSAA can be selected in the game options;
12. New option - cockpit reflections;
13. Metallic and lacquered aircraft surfaces reflect the light softer and more naturally;
14. There are canopy and instrument reflections in the cockpit;
15. The aircraft visual image won't suddenly darken when zooming out or at a distance;
16. Damage textures won't light up too much when zooming out or at a distance;
17. Rivers and lakes water visuals improved;
18. Clouds reflections in water bodies improved;
19. Excessive brightness of the high detail buildings on the Prokhorovka map has been reduced;
20. Shell casings won't become transparent when too close to a camera;

Crew Models

21. There is a new pilot model on all Soviet fighters and on A-20 (pilot and navigator);
22. This new pilot model has three uniform variations depending on the mission date (before April 1942, April 1942 - May 1943, late war);
23. The new pilot model has a sidearm (press RCtrl+4 when the cockpit is open). Pilots of the other aircraft will receive it when their models are updated;
24. Battle of Bodenplatte aircraft which have been also lend-leased to USSR (Spitfire-IX, B-25D, P-47D) can have Soviet crews if their country in a mission file is set to the USSR;
25. P-40E (BoM), Spitfire-Vb (BoK) and Spitfire-IXe (BoBp) have American pilots if their country in a mission file is set to the USA;
26. P-40E (BoM), Spitfire-Vb (BoK) and P-51D (BoBp) have British pilots if their country in a mission file is set to the UK;

Player-controllable Tanks

27. New quick missions for tanks - Tank Duel and Tank Skirmish;
28. All player controllable tanks have the transmission from forward-backward and left-right user controls to the simulated tank controls corrected, which improved their turnability at high speeds and reduced the tendency to enter a skid;
29. The commanders of the indirect fire capable self-propelled guns (SU-122 and SU-152 at the moment) can order the AI gunner(s) of their tank or tank platoon to fire at a set distance and direction;
30. T-34UVZ-43 got two new modifications - additional all-steel internally sprung wheels;
31. SU-122 OF-462 HE shell ballistics corrected;
32. Death of a radioman correctly affects the radio functioning on player controllable tanks;
33. When the turret ventilation system is off, you can see from the outside the smoke coming off the crew hatch;
34. The smoke can be seen escaping the engine compartment of KV-1s and M4A2 after a shot;
35. All Soviet tanks have animated oil pumping in the engine start procedure;
36. Т-34UVZ and SU-122 have correctly looking headlights at a medium distance (without a block dot);
37. Older Pz.III.Ausf.L and T-34-76-STZ-42 tanks have correctly damageable suspension and armament;
38. All 45mm and bigger shells don't have tracers anymore if a real shell didn't have it (HE shells mostly and 122mm HEAT). This is true for AI units as well;
39. All 45mm and bigger shells without tracers have a generic visual model (HE shells mostly and 122mm HEAT). This is true for AI units as well;

Aircraft Physics, Systems and Visuals

40. The maximum airspeed at which the pilot is able to bail out now depends on the vertical G-load acting on the pilot: the smaller positive G-load, or the greater negative G-load, the easier it is for the pilot to leave the plane;
41. A G-load indicator is added to the HUD. When simplified instruments are switched off, G-load is indicated without a fractional part;
42. A message about turret ammo replenishing and turret repair has been added to the technochat;
43. A message about servicing the engine oil system or cooling system in the repair area is added to the technochat. The service is performed if the engine oil or coolant have cooled down significantly during the aircraft stop (previously in these cases the player periodically received information about the repairing of the corresponding system, which wasn't really clear);
44. SPAD 13.C1: the roll oscillation of an AI-controlled airplane at a speed of about 200 km/h has been fixed;
45. Yak-7B polar curve has been corrected (the critical angle of attack was reduced, the inductive drag at large angles of attack was increased, the turn rate was reduced, the maximum speed and climb rate remained the same);
46. Yak-7B: the engine heat balance has been adjusted (the engine won't overheat as quickly as before);
47. Yak-7B, Yak-1 (ser. 69, 127): the ailerons hinge moment and ailerons effectiveness at high airspeed were corrected (the roll rate is increased);
48. Bf-110 (G2, E2): the airplane polar curve was corrected (aerodynamic drag was increased), the turn rate, maximum speed and climb rate are corrected to be as close to the values specified in the airplane in-game specification as possible;
49. Bf-110 (G2, E2): aerodynamic characteristics corrected at supercritical angles of attack (the effectiveness of slats was improved, the drag was increased, and the nature of the stall was adjusted);
50. P-38J25 landing gear doors are visibly opened in the hangar;
51. Bf-109 G14 emergency engine power has been fixed (increased);
52. An aircraft won't appear underground when a season is set incorrectly or undefined in the mission file;
53. Sopwith Camel: when the option “Simplified Controls” is enabled in the difficulty settings, the automatic helper better stabilizes the plane along the roll axis at a high angle of attack;
54. Spitfire Mk IX: excess struts on the pylons were removed;

Aircraft Damage Model

55. The piston engines' combat survivability has been adjusted - the protection from the engine casings has been reduced, bullets and shells cause more damage to the crank gear, while shell fragments cause less damage to the engine.
56. All Flying Circus airplanes: hitting at the central section of the top wing now also leads to breaking the top wing (its left or right part);
57. The geometry of wing spars of all Flying Circus airplanes has been checked and brought into strict compliance with known sources. In general, now it requires much more bullet hits to break the wings of World War I aircraft;
58. The absence of visual and hearing disorders under the high G-loads for gunners in the single-player mode was fixed;
59. A rare bug has been fixed, which caused the fragments not damaging the airframe sometimes;
60. Pe-2 (ser. 35, 87): fixed rudders 'wobbling' when their control wires are broken;
61. Pe-2 (ser. 35, 87): a bug has been fixed that caused the left rudder to react to the controls slightly when its control wires were actually broken;
62. All Bf-109 fighters except E7 can now lose the left or right side of the horizontal stabilizer when hit at its central part (Bf-109 E7 has a central part of the stabilizer which can be lost by itself);
63. P-38: fixed a bug due to which the oxygen system could erroneously take damage;
64. Ju-52: fixed rudder 'wobbling' when its control wires are broken;
65. Fixed a problem with repairing aircraft turrets;
66. Fixed the undamageable machine guns in a number of aircraft turrets;

Ground and Naval Units

67. Ships have a more advanced physical model - they can be damaged by collisions, run aground, lay on the shore (and not sink into it), and lay on the bottom when sank;
68. All naval guns and howitzers fire physically modeled projectiles (previously explosions were created in the target area), making their combat use much more realistic;
69. All naval guns and howitzers have AP ammo available (around 10% of ammo reserve);
70. AAA guns can fire at the ground area (if the mission trigger Attack Area is set on the ground level);
71. The issue that made the first several salvos of an artillery battery too accurate has been found and fixed;
72. The issue with AI aiming the guns of player controllable tanks has been fixed;
73. Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.F1 and Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.G have their armor plates thickness corrected;
74. Groups and columns of AI-controlled ground vehicles can stop on shallow slopes (previously they couldn't);
75. Tank AI gunner no longer try to fire at flying targets;
76. Ground vehicle AIs can't spot targets through a dense enough forest (if at least 50m of the line of sight to a target travels through the forest area);
77. Field guns (AT and divisional ones) can fire at a maximum distance when given the Attack Area -> Ground command in the mission;
78. Aiming tables for several AA guns have been corrected;

Aircraft AI
79. The firing accuracy at air and ground targets depends on the AI pilot level;
80. View sectors have been corrected for Hs-129, Ju-52, A-20 and U-2 crews;
81. The minimal fuel reserve calculations have been corrected (previously they could cause AI pilots to RTB too early);

Multiplayer

82. The audibility of hits on the own plane has been corrected when the cockpit canopy is damaged;
83. New server-side option “Restrict tank AI gunners” blocks the ability of the tank commander to assign a dynamic object as a target for the AI gunner or order it to search for targets on its own;
84. Tech chat and handling tips are now governed by difficulty settings that can be enforced on a multiplayer server;

General Fixes

84. The recently introduced error in the armor penetration modeling has been corrected (it made the projectile speed - armor penetration function graduated and could cause an armor penetration in a case when it shouldn't occur);
85. Concussion won't cause the loss of hearing for too long;
86. UK and US careers (Bodenplatte) will work correctly with the Simplified Chinese language selected;
87. A rare error in scripted campaigns that could cause the progress to be lost after re-entering the game has been found and fixed.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · June 9, 2020

Update 4.007

Dear friends,

We've decided to release the new update 4.007 relatively soon after the previous one, because the fixes and improvements it brings, while not being major, are nevertheless important for the project as a whole. We have heard your feedback on the view system improvements, added new options to the multiplayer functionality, which govern the usage of graphical mods, in addition, we did additional research on the workarounds for the Direct 3D functionality not supported by one of the graphics cards vendors. Damage modeling has been improved to take into account the control systems damage (rods, wires, etc.). We have also added a new German pilot model in the early summer uniform. The full list of changes follows:

1. Ju 87 D-3 dive bomber has been upgraded to 4K external texturing thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney, including two additional official skins;
2. Aircraft control systems DM has been upgraded. The probability of losing control in a certain control axis depends on the control wires or rods configuration of a particular aircraft and existence of a reserve control channel (or its lack thereof);
3. Workarounds for the remaining graphical artifacts on AMD cards (like black contour around the aircraft when viewed from its cockpit) have been implemented;
4. New multiplayer server option “Restrict Injectors” allows the server hosters to restrict access for users with graphics injectors like Reshade or 3dmigoto;
5. Five new mappable (RCtrl+NumPad_Del,1,2,3,0 by default) zoom commands have been added that allow quick zooming to various degrees (minimal, maximal and 3 intermediate levels). Zoom value set by a mouse or joystick axis or keyboard keys is not affected by the new quick zoom and after releasing a quick zoom button the FOV will return to the one set by an axis. These new commands work in either 2D or VR mode. The old 'VR zoom' command has been deprecated (its equivalent is the new maximum quick zoom, RCtl+NumPad_0);
6. There is a new setting in the Camera options that governs the speed of the new zoom commands;
7. Tank commander binoculars give three times more powerful zoom than before (they give a minimal FOV that is technically possible in the game);
8. The current FOV (Field Of View) value is shown next to the in-game FPS counter (that is activated by Backspace key by default);
9. Gunsight FOVs have been corrected for all tanks;
10. German fighter pilots of the Battle of Moscow, Battle of Stalingrad and Battle of Kuban have a new visual model and a sidearm during Summer (new Winter model, also with a sidearm, will be added later when it is ready). Because of this, the default camera position and user-customizable snapviews (.svc files) were changed on Bf 109-G14, Bf 109-K4, Me 262-A, Fw 190-A3, Fw 190-53, Fw 190-A8 and Fw 190-D9. The updater should overwrite the old files for these planes with the new updated ones for you, but in case this action was blocked by antivirus software on your PC and you see a wrong view in the cockpit of these aircraft in the game, please copy the new default .svc files for these aircraft from \data\LuaScripts\snapviews\defaults to \data\LuaScripts\snapviews manually. If you haven't customized the view positions on other aircraft, you can just copy all the files from snapviews\defaults to snapviews folder;
11. Bomb holders on both Bristol Fighters appear correctly depending on the ammo loadout;
12. Pedals on both Bristol Fighters appear correctly in a neutral position;
13. The issue that made the detached parts of Flying Circus aircraft invisible in the multiplayer has been found and fixed;
14. Fw 190 D-9 canopy glass appear correctly at medium distances;
15. Fw 190 D-9 oil on windshield visual effect has been restored;
16. Destroyed static KV-1 model won't have white tracks when viewed from a distance;
17. Tank turret turn indicator won't visually 'jump' when passing the back position;
18. APHE rounds stopped by the armor won't damage outside objects;
19. Train wagons won't appear detached from the locomotive in some missions;
20. Guest crew members in multiplayer will correctly hear the sound of the tank turret turning;
21. Guest crew members in multiplayer will correctly hear the sounds of the hatches closing or opening;
22. Certain HE rounds explosions can be heard from an aircraft cockpit;
23. The arm model has a correct sidearm in it in VR mode;
24. The arm model won't drop a shadow when there is no body rendered;
25. The arm model has the correct size in VR mode;
26. Missing road segments that sunk inside the terrain have been corrected on Kuban map;
27. Random CTD in multiplayer fixed in case when other player tank have been spawned.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · July 8, 2020

Update 4.008

Dear friends,

Today is a very important day - we have just released update 4.008 that includes the first Battle of Normandy aircraft and the last tank for Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka project. The first BoN plane is P-47D-22 "Razorback", the one so many of you had waited for. Battle of Normandy is at a very early stage of development, in the first quarter of the whole plan, but some of its parts are already taking shape - for instance, this new plane we told you in detail in the Dev Blog #225. This release officially starts the Early Access program for the Battle of Normandy and its owners will gradually get more and more content as soon as it is ready, starting with the "Razorback" today.

The last combat vehicle for Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka is Sd.Kfz.184 "Ferdinand" tank destroyer, you could learn more about its history and design peculiarities in our Dev Blog #254. Tank Crew owners can try it right now. This fearsome machine completes the vehicle lineup of this unique and interesting 'Clash at Prokhorovka' project.

Another new addition in this release is the new historical campaign Ice Ring by Alexander =BlackSix= Timoshokov. Consisting of 15 scenarios, it is dedicated to very interesting and strategically important events of November and December 1942 in Stalingrad area - the actions of the special IL-2 group under the command of Major Leonid Karpovich Chumachenko which was tasked with interdiction of the German 'air bridge', the air supply route for the encircled Paulus' 6th Army. The campaign can be purchased here and requires only the Battle of Stalingrad module to play. Check this link for details.

Battle of Moscow owners also will find something new in this update - Martin =ICDP= Catney has finished the work on new 4K quality external textures for IL-2 mod. 1941. They, as well as Battle of Stalingrad customers, just received the new early war Luftwaffe pilot model in winter uniform and additional stuff - sidearm, animations for putting the glasses on when starting from parking and the oxygen mask when it is needed.

Another neat feature we want to tell you about is the support for a special in-game voice communications system known as SRS - "Simple Radio Standalone" (IL2-SRS). At the moment its support is not final, but it can be used with ease already. You can find all the info on how to install and use it here.

Less than a month has passed since the previous update, but again we have found ourselves posting a vast list of changes made. Sometimes the corrections mean that a user-created content needs to be updated as it happened now with height map corrections for Battle of Moscow, but the required actions are minimal, you can learn more about them here. Other numerous changes and corrections in 4.008 are listed below. Please note that some of them are quite important and should get your attention:

Main features
1. P-47D-22 “Razorback” heavy fighter is available to all customers who pre-ordered the Battle of Normandy. Early Access phase starts for Battle of Normandy project;
2. Sd.Kfz.184 “Ferdinand” tank destroyer is now available to all owners of the “Tank Crew” project, completing its 10 vehicles lineup; Official retail release of Tank Crew is TBD.
3. The new historical campaign “Ice Ring” is released and available for purchase (it requires Battle of Stalingrad);
4. Support for special SRS Radio voice comms app. The final version of SRS for IL-2 is still WIP by its author and will be released soon. We have created a special section in the forum dedicated to SRS instructions and discussions - check this link;
5. The 1941 IL-2 attack aircraft now has 4K quality external texturing thanks to Martin = ICDP = Catney;
6. The new model of the early war Luftwaffe fighter pilot in the winter uniform has been added for Battle of Moscow and Battle of Stalingrad;
7. The new model of a hand holding a pistol or flare gun in a 1st person view added for early war Luftwaffe pilot;

Aircraft improvements
8. In a multiplayer game, the next steps have been taken to eliminate the problem of invisible planes that appear only at the moment they start to shoot. Because reproduction of this problem is extremely difficult, please help: if you encounter this problem again, be sure to report it and attach a flight record to your message;
9. The option to leave a destroyed object in the game now works for aircraft (uncheck the “Delete after death” checkbox in mission editor);
10. P-47D-28 stall behavior has been corrected: the aircraft is less likely to suddenly stall at a beyond-stall angle of attack;
11. P-47D-28: damping moments have been corrected, resulting in the more inert and 'heavy' feel of controls;
12. P-47D-28 controls effectiveness has been corrected. The maximum roll rate has been reduced to correspond to the historical data. At high speeds (before the air compressibility effects kick in) the aircraft is more controllable along the roll and pitch axes. During the Mach-tuck the controls lose effectiveness making exiting a dive more difficult;
13. P-47D-28: maximum wing lift with extended flaps has been reduced;
14. P-47D-28 engine thermal model corrected (it became more resistant to overheating);
15. P-47D-28: the visual image of the rotating rotorhead has been improved;
16. P-47D-28: the problem with the rotation of the bent screw when using boost has been fixed;
17. P-47D-28: 150-octane fuel modification has been added;
18. P-47D-28 injection system corrected: when there is no liquid in the system left, the engine can’t be switched to WEP mode. The pressure gauge shows correct pressure in the injection system;
19. P-47D-28: the description of the aircraft and the related tips in the technochat were updated;
20. P-47D-28: the outside and inside sound mismatch has been addressed;
21. P-38, P-47, P-51, Tempest, Ju-88, Me-262: landing gear doors of other players in multiplayer won’t stay visibly open;
22. Me-262: landing gear doors in the hangar are now open;
23. P-51: landing gear doors in the hangar are now open while the flaps are down due to the lack of hydraulic pressure;
24. P-38: antenna between the two rudders disappears when one of them is lost;

Player controllable tanks improvements
25. Crew members can be gradually poisoned with CO gas when firing the main gun with the hatches of the fighting compartment closed and ventilation turned off or damaged. M4A2, KV-1s, SU-152 the ventilation system is powered from a working main engine while on other tanks it is electric and won’t work with no electric power;
26. The engine won’t stop so frequently after a collision;
27. Tanks shouldn’t visibly ‘levitate’ above the ground;
28. A bug that reduced the actual number of shots for the main gun by 1 for each ammo type has been fixed;
29. A bug that caused the number of shells to be calculated incorrectly when one ammo type is spent (it did not decrease at first and then decreased by 2 after a next shot) has been fixed;
30. Driving along the shallow coastal part of the river is no longer like driving on a highway;
31. A toppled over tank won’t glide on a terrain slope like on ice;
32. A bug that could cause a detailed tank to explode multiple times has been fixed;
33. The effective destruction ranges of light vehicles have been corrected in HE shells descriptions;
34. Pz.Kpfw.VI ammo descriptions updated (trajectory drop and HEAT speeds);
35. Pz.III Ausf. M, Pz.V Ausf. D, Pz.VI Ausf. H1 starting procedure has been updated (the manual fuel pumping was replaced by an electric one with the addition of the required buttons in the driver compartment);
36. Pz.III Ausf. M now has a functioning fuel gauge (to the lower right on the bulkhead of the engine compartment);
37. Pz.III Ausf. M traverse indicator is now illuminated;
38. Pz.III Ausf. M and Pz. IV Ausf. G intercom Z18 parts are covered in self-luminous paint;
39. Pz.IV Ausf. G and Pz.V Ausf. D odometers have been corrected;
40. T-34-76UVZ-1943, SU-122 and SU-152 fuel and oil pipes color has been corrected (made less vivid);
41. The external tools attached to the German tanks were improved to look better, ground jack added for Pz.V Ausf. D;
42. Other changes and improvements to the German tank interiors;
43. The sounds of control levers, pedals and the hand brake are added to Tank Crew tanks;
44. Turning the SU-122 and SU-152 panoramic commander sight produces a sound;
45. Pz.IV Ausf. G and Pz.V Ausf. D odometers have been corrected indicate a change of direction;
46. A failure of one of the M4A2 engines now affects the instrument readings and the engine sound;
47. M4A2 low oil pressure indicator lamps have been corrected;
48. Sound of the M4A2 engine's startup has been improved;

Visual crew improvements
49. The color of pilot’s glasses of the late war Bf 109 Luftwaffe pilots has been corrected;
50. The “holes” in the texture of the American flare gun were eliminated;
51. The texture of the flare gun on the British pilot model has been corrected;
52. Shooting any pistol ejects a casing;
53. Soviet tankers have less gloss effect on the faces;

AI improvements
54. AI pilots won’t try to attack targets with the parameter engageable = 0 which could cause steep diving on a ground target with no chance of recovery;
55. AI pilots aim at air and ground targets better and the rockets and projectiles won’t fall short of a ground target at the beginning of a burst;
56. AI fighter pilots won’t chase its target too far from their assigned route or area of operations;
57. All AIs in a fighter group will attack a target (previously one of them could ignore it and follow its mates in a formation;
58. A rare random bug that could cause the AI gunner of a player tank to spontaneously rotate the turret at the beginning of the mission has been fixed;
59. A knocked off detailed AI tank (no marker visible and other AIs don’t see it as a threat) won’t continue to fire at targets sometimes;
60. When all the gunner visors of an AI-controlled detailed tank are damaged, it won’t track the targets and fire at them;

Other improvements and fixes
61. The residual inertia in the first-person non-VR view of the gradual zoom at maximum zoom and maximum zooming speed option when not using a mouse for looking around has been addressed;
62. The contours of objects against a clouds background have been minimized by using special tech;
63. The lowest cloud quality setting still causes significant artifacts on the aircraft visible against a cloud at near distances, but no longer gives an unfair advantage in spotting a distant aircraft;
64. The double triggering of onKilled events in the mission script shouldn’t happen again;
65. New training missions added for Battle of Moscow in the spirit of the real initial training of a MiG-3 pilot (Missions – Battle of Moscow – Migalovo training);
66. The recently found error on the Moscow map (the landscape height above the sea level was 50m less than it should) has been fixed - check this link;
67. The missing buildings at the Liege / Bierset A-93 2414/7 airfield on the Rhineland map have been added;
68. The poor-looking machine shop buildings in the industrial district of Belgorod (Prokhorovka map) were replaced with better ones;
69. The truncated or missing phrases of one of the USAAF air traffic controllers and RAF and USAAF forward observers were corrected;
70. The shimmering of very long railways on Kuban map that was visible up close has been corrected;
71. The look of the passenger and freight railroad wagon roofs has been improved;
72. Visual snow thickness increased on all winter maps;
73. The ground surface looks more detailed on all summer maps;
74. Selecting a random Entente aircraft in the duel on Arras map in QMB no longer produces a Bf 109F-4.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · August 17, 2020

Update 4.009

Dear Friends,

One month has passed since the previous update, and once again we are ready to present you with a new package of innovations and improvements. The main additions in this version are the new campaign Hell Hawks over the Bulge, new free summer map Velikiye Luki, and new single missions for the Bodenplatte aircraft and Tank Crew tanks - now each model of these modules has a single mission designed for it.

We have also added more beauty to our simulator, in several meanings of this word. First, the P-40E-1 Kittyhawk received 4K texturing of the outer model by Martin =ICDP= Catney. And second, U-2VS, Yak-1 series 69 and Yak-1b series 127 now have female crews option! U-2VS this was done in the memory of the 588th Night Light Bomber Aviation Regiment, known under the nickname "Night Witches", and for Yak-1s in the memory of the fighter pilot Lydia Litvyak, the most effective female fighter pilot of World War II.

This update includes a total of 78 points of changes mostly targeted at the two main areas - AI improvements in and the refinement of the recently completed line of player controllable tanks. There are many extremely important changes in this list for other areas of our sim as well. Despite everything that happens in the world this year, our team continues to work on improving the IL-2 Sturmovik game world and keep the fast rate of development.

Main features

1. The new map Velikiye Luki (Summer) is available to all owners of any IL-2: Great Battles module;
2. Velikiye Luki (Winter) map has been improved and updated;
3. The new historical campaign “Hell Hawks over the Bulge” is released;
4. The visual models of the U-2VS Collector Plane crew members were replaced with new ones in the correct uniform (according to the year set in a mission, without a helmet and a parachute);
5. Female crews option added to U-2VS, Yak-1 ser. 69 and Yak-1b ser. 127 aircraft;
6. P-40E-1 now has 4K quality external textures thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney;
7. Each Bodenplatte aircraft now has its own single mission;
8. Each Tank Crew - Battle of Prokhorovka tank now has its own single mission;
9. Since the technochat can be disabled by difficulty settings, the critical information such as the service maintenance indication (refueling, repair, first aid) will be visible in the HUD anyway;

Aircraft AI improvements

10. An AI flight leader shouldn’t circle on the ground after landing;
11. An AI error in the following terrain routine has been fixed that could cause the AI-controlled aircraft to stuck in the climb spiral and the AI wingmen in the formation to stall;
12. An AI flight leader will correctly maintain the set speed on the route;
13. AI climbing on the route corrected (they shouldn’t do too shallow of a climb and accelerate more than required as a result);
14. AI pilots shouldn’t climb on the route too steeply and, as a result, lose speed too quickly;
15. The low route speed limit has been corrected for a number of aircraft, enabling them to reach a maximum climb rate;
16. AI settings corrected for Yak-1, Yak-1b and Tempest, making them able to correctly maintain their position in a formation in level flight;
17. AI settings corrected for P-47D-22, making the formation flying more stable;
18. AI settings corrected for Flying Circus aircraft, making the formation flying more stable when descending;

Player controllable tanks improvements

19. IMPORTANT: all player-controllable tanks have detailed descriptions of their equipment, general control and functionality recommendations and individual lists of input commands accessible from the in-game Esc menu;
20. All the player-controlled tanks have animated and audible MG and main gun traveling locks;
21. Important information on sighting and radio communication equipment has been added to all tank help screens;
22. The powered turret traversing drives (where available) are automatically switched to manual mode at low turn speed for precise aiming and from manual to the powered mode drive for turning the turret fast;
23. Pz.III Ausf.M, Pz.IV Ausf.G, Pz.V Ausf.D, Pz.VI Ausf.H1 and M4A2 have functioning gyrocompass course director (controlled by the LShift + Z / LShift + X keys);
24. DT machineguns (T-34-76UVZ-194 and KV-1s) and M2 .50 AA machineguns (M4A2) iron sights can be adjusted for range (RAlt + Semicolon / RAlt + Period keys);
25. All tank radios have audible umformers (electro-mechanical converters) sounds;
26. Pz.III Ausf.M, Pz.IV Ausf.G, Pz.V Ausf.D, Pz.VI Ausf.H1 have audible gyrocompass sounds;
27. SU-152 and KV-1s: the control levers are locked in the parking position by the corresponding buttons;
28. Enabling and disabling a parking brake is reflected in the technochat;
29. To view a correct fuel reading on the KV-1s and Pz.III Ausf.M tanks, it is necessary to pump the fuel gauge first using the F key;
30. KV-1s: it’s possible to switch the fuel gauge indication between the different tanks with the LShift + F key;
31. M4A2: it’s possible to switch the fuel gauge to display the oil level as well as switch between the different tanks with the LShift + F key;
32. You can raise and lower the M4A2 commander visor;
33. M4A2 engine clutch lock buttons are correctly animated in case of a clutch failure;
34. You can use the loader visor when playing as the gunner on M4A2;
35. M4A2 AA machinegun can be shot off;
36. SU-152, Sd.Kfz.184, Pz.III Ausf.M and Pz.IV have functioning gun recoil indicators;
37. Pz.V Ausf.D ready to fire signal lamp has been corrected;
38. Pz.V Ausf.D gun mantlet armor has been corrected (its upper and low parts became more detailed);
39. All crew members who did not have access to tank intercom equipment are correctly displayed without headphones and microphones;
40. MGs and main guns won’t move a little in a stowed position;
41. The German tank commander model as been corrected (he is easier to hit in the unbuttoned position).
42. The crew models won’t appear and disappear when the camera moves in the cockpit (except the no-restrictions mode in VR);
43. The lateral aiming correction marks were corrected on German tanks;
44. It’s no longer possible to control tank weapons from certain crew stations that did not have access to them;
45. The ‘no ammo left’ message shouldn’t be repeated many times anymore;
46. AI controlled SPGs turn to face the target when ordered to engage it;
47. The ‘fuel system repaired’ message shouldn’t be repeated many times anymore;
48. The ammo counter correctly displays the remaining rounds when certain ammo load-outs are selected;

Other improvements

49. Yak-9T engine control helpers won’t cause the engine to stop when turned on at low temperatures;
50. Engine control helpers won’t incorrectly limit the engine speed after a short shutdown on twin-engine aircraft;
51. Ice Ring campaign is available in the French language thanks to our community member DN308;
52. Tank and aircraft turrets with 3 degrees of freedom have correct stowed positions;
53. Paratroopers jump from Ju-52 correctly;
54. P-38J: drag and pitching moment from the released dive flaps have been increased;
55. Il-2 model 1943: the front iron sight won’t fall off at minimal damage;
56. Pe-2 series 35 bomber: interrupting the startup procedure won’t make it impossible to start again;
57. The problem with resetting the controls to zero when switching between the engines on multi-engine aircraft has been fixed;
58. Bristol Fighter F2B control stick animation has been corrected;
59. A-20B: black artifacts that could be seen from the upper gunner station were removed;
60. Lewis and DT machine guns ammo drum won’t visibly ‘jump’ when reloaded;
61. Aircraft guns ammo reserve is correct now (it was 1 round short);
62. It is no longer possible to reload the magazine when the machine gun is cocked, which led to reloading animation errors;
63. Fighter and tank crew models are being loaded in the sim faster;
64. Character animations were further optimized, which could reduce the stuttering on some configurations;
65. Soviet and American pilots won’t be invulnerable when holding a flare gun or a pistol;
66. MLRS artillery won’t try to shoot at paratroopers;
67. The jerky behavior of rail cars on terrain bends and bridge slopes has been fixed;
68. A bug that could destroy a train when it changed the direction of movement has been fixed;
69. Sorting the list of game servers by the number of players now sorts from highest to lowest on the first click;
70. Fixed an issue that caused the world lighting to have a wrong shade for several seconds at the beginning of the mission;
71. The “F4” camera (chase camera) won’t cause graphics artifacts to appear;
72. A correct hangar will be displayed in the multiplayer lobby (previously it was always the summer one);
73. Camera behavior on mission end has been improved;
74. Numerous static objects won’t disappear from view to early and their collision models were corrected;
75. IV / JG27 will correctly continue after January 23rd in Rheinland career mode;
76. Rheinland Career mode cutscenes added;
77. The service times for all equipment have been adjusted. Now a service operation takes 2-4 minutes at the default service speed (x1 value set in Mission Editor).
78. The tank and aircraft repair settings were clarified in the Mission Editor dialog window.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · September 17, 2020

Update 4.501

Dear friends,

We just released the new update - 4.501. Its shifted version number means it is a kind of a milestone and it really is. First, the research we did on the community opinion on the aircraft spotting allowed us to make many improvements to this important part of the sim. The distant LOD scaling system has been adjusted, their lighting has been made full, atmospheric haze option and an increased MSAA level have been added. We're sure that this update will make the online multiplayer experience totally different from how it was before. Now our next target, for the next update, is the improved pilot G tolerance model we do after asking the community taking the account the new reference data provided by the community members.

Please take in attention: adding Haze option to the mission format makes previously saved .msnbin mission files obsolete. Delete them and save the new version using .Mission files.

In addition to these very important changes, today's update brings you the new campaign 'Wind of Fury' by Alexander =BlackSix= Timoshkov that is included in the Bodenplatte module. This means that our promises on what Bodenplatte will include are finally fulfilled. Of course, it doesn't mean we'll stop improving it, for instance, now we plan to improve the Rhineland Career mode.

Also, P-39L-1 "Aircrobra" (Battle of Kuban) and Bf 109 G-6 now have 4k quality external texturing created by Martin =ICDP= Catney. The work on bringing all the aircraft in the sim to 4K texturing continues.

Tank Crew gets the last planned features for its release in this update, making 4.501 a milestone for it as well. The new turret and gun control mode and fixed visor cameras were requested by the community for a long time and they are available now.

We think that this update will mark an important step for our sim and we hope you'll enjoy it!

Main features
1. The new scenario campaign "Wind of Fury" is now available to all owners of the Bodenplatte project for free;
2. P-39L-1 "Airacobra" and Bf 109 G-6 fighters now have 4K quality external textures created by Martin = ICDP = Catney;
3. The long-range LODs scaling system for aircraft has been adjusted. Aircraft spotting at short to medium distances, especially when using wide camera angles, is greatly improved. The visibility at distance has been adjusted to be closer to reality.
4. Alternate Visibility has been renamed Enhanced Visibility: this mode gives a much greater increase in aircraft visibility at long ranges compared to the new standard visibility. At medium ranges, visibility is also significantly improved compared to the old Alternate Visibility option;
5. MSAA x8 option has been added, but please note that this level of AA is very demanding to the graphics card performance;
6. The atmospheric haze density option has been added to the Quick Mission Builder. Its minimum value corresponds to the haze density available earlier;
7. Dawn/Dusk Fog option has been added to the Quick Mission Builder. This option is available only when the haze density is set to half of the maximum value or more;
8. The haze density option (from 0.0 to 1.0) is now stored in a mission file. Radiation fog appears at dusk if the value of the haze is more than 0.5 and the weather preset name contains an odd number at the end. The denser haze makes it easier to spot other aircraft against the background of the landscape when the distance from the observer to the target is much less than the distance from the observer to the landscape behind the target. This can be used when designing multiplayer missions for game servers;
9. Distant levels of detail (LODs) of the aircraft now have the same surface material setting as closer and more detailed LODs, making the lighting of distant aircraft much more realistic and enabling reflections and glints when the relative position of a contact, an observer and the light source(s) is right;
10. In a multiplayer game, a tooltip has been added to the list of game servers when hovering the mouse cursor over the difficulty preset icon. This tooltip displays all the difficulty settings of this multiplayer server;
11. This information is also available in the multiplayer server lobby (“About the server” section);

AI improvements
12. AI wingmen keep the optimal climb speed when the wing leader is far and higher;
13. AI aircraft now use combat and emergency engine modes for a fastest possible climb when following the terrain;
14. AI fighters now more actively attack maneuvering targets at lower speeds;

Player controllable tanks improvements
15. New control mode allows aiming a tank gun using a joystick (or buttons);
16. Aiming the tank guns and machine guns with the mouse is more convenient;
17. Fixed cameras added to tank visors and other observation devices. Loader viewing devices are, most often, can be used from the gunner's station. You can cycle the views using LShift + V keys;
18. The target marking cursor when giving orders as a tank commander is visible at any settings;
19. The current sight or observation device is indicated;
20. In multiplayer, a connected player in someone else's tank will correctly see the messages from the loader and see the ammo information in the HUD;
21. The time required for repairing the tank systems outside the service areas is doubled;
22. The projectiles correctly penetrate the armor if they hit certain extremely thin areas of the object's surface (a rare issue);
23. Ferdinand: the inverted direction of inclination of the panoramic viewing devices has been fixed;
24. An SPG AI gunner correctly fires at an invisible target by the order of the SPG commander (using the direction and range);
25. Fixed the issue where the AI gunner did not follow the commander's instructions to choose the ammo type in certain situations;
26. Pz-III-M: the KFF 2 binocular periscope is functional (when using the camera selected by LShift + V);
27. SU-152 commander can't use the panoramic sight when unbuttoned;

Other changes
28. Fixed an issue with parts of the canopy and cockpit instruments that could not be restored after repair;
29. Flare gun and sidearm ammo can be replenished in the reload zones just like other ammo;
30. SdKfZ 251 and similar vehicles and tanks can function as supply vehicles if set this way in the Mission Editor;
31. The dawn/dusk fog level has been corrected on Moscow, Stalingrad, Prokhorovka, Velikiye Luki, Lapino and Novosokolniki maps, it appears in the lowlands;
32. Due to the introduction of the atmospheric haze option, the issue of the dawn/dusk fog blinking near the horizon has been minimized;
33. The difference in the density of atmospheric haze is minimal when using the minimum (40 km) and maximum (150 km) visibility range options;
34. For a tank crewmember to recover from the loss of consciousness in the event of powder gases poisoning it is required for the air to become noticeably cleaner (now the loss of consciousness will last longer);
35. Fixed a graphical artifact at the base of the La-5FN headlamp switch;
36. Fixed the lack of sound when releasing or retracting the landing gear on I-16 and Ju-88;

37. Added the Spitfire IX invasion paint scheme.

Please discuss the update in this thread .

1.1k · November 5, 2020

Update 4.502

Attention Pilots!

On this chilly Autumn day, we’re releasing a large update to IL-2 Sturmovik - update 4.502 is here! The star of this update is the new Hurricane Mk.II Collector Plane. This plane has the most modifications in our sim and with a wide range of weapon loadouts available this makes it 5 aircraft in 1. You get several variants including the IIa, IIb, IIc, IId and the one with the Soviet armament. The famous Dust Filter and Merlin XX engine with +14lb boost are also available. On top of all that, you can use the new bird in the Career mode right away - we added it to the Battle of Moscow and the Battle of Stalingrad careers. In addition to the Hurricane we have added the legendary С-47А "Skytrain" transport plane for the Battle of Normandy. The C-47 is AI only, but adds a new dimension to our missions and variety of Allied aircraft you will encounter in the sky. It is also great for mission makers who want to make supply runs an integral part of their battle. And finally, Battle of Moscow players receive new 4K quality skins for the Bf-110 E-2 thanks to our talented friend Martin =ICDP= Catney.

On the technical front we have added a new and more realistic G-load physiology modeling system. This work was described in great detail in our Developer Diary #263. Additionally, a lot of work was done on all the aspects of the ground battles, significantly improving the quality and realism of Tank Crew engagements. There are many improvements to the pilot AI as well in this update. And finally, long-awaited Career mode improvements are finally starting to arrive.

Main Features
1. The Hurricane Mk.II Collector Plane is now available to its owners;
2. The C-47A transport aircraft is now available in the sim as an AI enemy or ally in the Quick Mission mode. It can also be used in the custom missions as an AI transport aircraft;
3. Female crews got female voices in the radio messages;
4. Pilot physiology modeling has been improved significantly. This is described in detail in the Developers Diary #263;
5. The zoom function now works correctly on VR devices with canted displays (Pimax) without using the performance-intensive Parallel Projection mode;
6. New multiplayer scenarios, including Cooperative ones, are added for Tank Crew (you can create a server directly from the game by selecting a scenario or scenarios from the Multiplayer\Cooperative\TankCrew or Multiplayer\Dogfight\TankCrew folders);
7. 4K external textures for Bf 110E heavy fighter (Battle of Moscow) are added thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney;
8. A-20 and B-25 bombers got new paint schemes with invasion stripes for different timeframes;

Tank Crew Improvements
9. Several missions of the Soviet tank campaign "Breaking point" were improved;
10. Both tank campaigns are now available in Simplified Chinese, German and French;
11. KV-1s got an additional paint scheme;
12. It is now possible to use binoculars or personal weapons after pressing the "T" button (except for the M4A2 tank, where binoculars and personal weapons cannot be used simultaneously with a machine gun);
13. It is now possible to designate a waypoint on the ground in a command mode while using binoculars;
14. The enemy spawn point in Tank duel quick mission is correctly randomized after the destruction of a previous one if the player did not leave its spawn point;
15. It is now possible to designate a target in a command mode while using binoculars;
16. Fixed the issue that prevented the tank commander from using binoculars or personal weapons after pressing the "T" key if he does not have a machine gun to operate;
17. Trying to fire the M4A2 machine gun while using binoculars or personal weapons won’t work;
18. AI gunners use bracketing the target with fire when engaging the ground targets both for the range and (if the target is moving or there is a wind) the azimuth error. The size of the initial aiming error depends on the AI level, distance, target speed and wind;
19. Ground AI gunners now have a certain delay in detecting and starting aiming at a new target depending on the AI level, distance and density of the group of enemy targets;
20. Ground AI vehicles return the turret and/or gun to the traveling position only after a considerable time after the destruction or disappearance of the last enemy target from the field of view;
21. Fixed an issue where detailed AI tanks (and especially self-propelled guns) could not hit the target at minimum distances (they were firing above the target);
22. SU-152 will correctly stop for a shot and won’t drive towards the target without firing;
23. The extra (maximum) AI level parameter has been removed from the Quick Mission, it caused errors in the AI functioning;
24. Fixed a bug due to which the AI controlled tanks did not attack obviously visible targets in some rare circumstances;
25. A bug has been fixed due to which there was no difference between aircraft or ground vehicle gunners with different AI levels;
26. The enemies and allies have correct marker colors in tank Coop missions;
27. Detailed damage buildings on Prokhorovka map are correctly displayed at far distances (the inner side of the walls was invisible far away);

Airplanes physics, systems and damage model improvements
28. 13mm German and 12.7mm Italian machine guns are no longer loaded with HE ammo only due to a bug;
29. USAAF pilots wear G-suits only when piloting P-47D-22, P-51D-15 and P-38J-25 in September 1944 or later;
30. A circular limit of the movable aiming mark of the Mk IID and K-14A gyro reticles has been implemented. The mark also bounces and stops at the working range boundary when the gyro mirror reaches its stop;
31. The characteristic whistle of P-51 machine guns ports during active maneuvering that disappeared before due to an error is back now;
32. P-51 and P-38 fighters won’t be pulled into a dive when their tail section is damaged;
33. Ju-52 / 3m g4e cargo containers drop animation has been corrected;
34. The mixture control of al aircraft with M-105 PF engine became standard (similar to Yak-7/9);
35. According to the historical data found, Ju-87D ammo counters are disabled when the BK 37 outboard guns are fitted;
36. Fixed an issue due to which hit effects weren’t visible on certain parts of the P-51 fuselage;
37. Bf 109F-2 cockpit canopy correctly jettisons;
38. All Fw 190 aircraft are less stable after rudder loss;
39. Tail combat damage causes less shaking;
40. Closed landing gear doors on P-51D-15 won’t be torn off at high speeds;
41. The top gunner of the He-111H-6 and the bottom gunner of the A-20B won’t always hold their machine guns and its hatches won’t be always open;
42. The turret hatch on certain aircraft turrets won’t start to close before the machine gun is returned to the stowed position;
43. U-2VS shooter's leg won’t clip through the fuselage;
44. Incorrect (missing) armor value of the armored glass visor and headrest has been fixed for La-5FN;
45. TIncorrect (missing) armor value of the armored headrest has been fixed for P-38J;

Visual aircraft improvements
46. Yak-9 s. 2, Yak-9T s.2, Fw 190 D-9, P-47D-22, P-38J-25, P-51D-15: jettisoned cockpit canopy has all the details;
47. Fixes for Bf 109 G-6 4K textures from Martin = ICDP = Catney (Barkhorn and Hartman planes);
48. The A-20B tail lamp no longer visibly detaches from the aircraft at a significant distance from the observer;
49. Fixed an issue where some of the glass fragments could be visible next to torn P-51D elements;
50. When moving the camera away from Yak-9 aircraft its effects won’t disappear;
51. In the upper MG turret of He 111 H-6 bomber some elements won’t visually jitter;
52. Damaged Pe-2 series 35 cockpit windows have a correct color;
53. Some of the Fokker D.VII airplane debris pieces won’t have extra engines visually attached to them;

Aircraft AI corrections
54. An AI issue that could cause a fighter AI to be unable to engage a slowly moving target flying in a circle has been fixed;
55. An AI issue that could cause excessive error in aiming the forward firing armament at ground and air targets (especially in a frontal aerial attack) has been eliminated;
56. Heavy aircraft will use the differential brakes after landing correctly to turn to a taxiway, preventing unintentional turns;
57. An AI issue that could make the bombers unable to start a bombing run after a failed first bombing run has been fixed;
58. U-2VS AI pilot can fire unguided rockets at the ground targets;
59. AI pilots attacking a ground target from a high altitude will reduce the altitude in a downward spiral first;
60. AI pilots now try to reduce the G-load they experience in order to prevent loss of consciousness if their condition is deteriorated due to fatigue or other factors;

Career mode improvements
61. An AI in Career mode won’t stuck at the first route waypoint after takeoff if its assigned target is very near (less than 5500 meters);
62. A random issue that could cause the bombers to stuck in a circle above the target area after dropping their bombs has been fixed;
63. Several typos in the Battle of the Rhine cutscenes were corrected;
64. Hurricane Mk.II fighters have been added to the Battle of Moscow Career mode, they are available in 5 squadrons: 1st GIAP (former 29th IAP), 67th IAP PVO, 157th IAP, 287th IAP, 736th IAP PVO;
65. Hurricane Mk.II fighters have been added to the Battle of Stalingrad Career mode, they are available in 2 squadrons: 651st IAP PVO and 629th IAP PVO;
66. There are now 13 additional subphases in the Rheinland Career frontline (18 different frontline positions according to the current career date in total);
67. Three American squadrons were added to the Rheinland Career, one of them is available for the player to join - 412th Fighter Squadron, 373rd FG (P-47s) and two are AI squadrons 410th Fighter Squadron, 373rd FG and 411th Fighter Squadron, 373rd FG;
68. 18 new target locations added for the following mission types in Rheinland Career: Ground troops cover, Enemy Troops Concentration Attack, Enemy Troops Concentration Bombing Strike, Railway Junction Attack and Railway Junction Bombing Strike.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · November 16, 2020

Update 4.503

Dear friends,

Less than two weeks (wink-wink) have passed since the previous update and we just released another - 4.503. It doesn't contain so many changes, but it adds a new aircraft to the Battle of Normandy Early Access - Bf 109 G-6 late. With the MW-50 injection system engaged, it was a formidable machine capable of confronting the Allied fighters of that time. Normandy map and Battle of Normandy Career are still in development according to the development plan, but you can already use the new addition in the Rheinland career - we've added it to the five groups that have been using this Bf 109 during the Rheinland career timeframe historically.

Also in this update, 4K external texturing for the German heavy fighter Bf 110 G-2 (Battle of Kuban) is added. As with other updated planes, this change is a big visual improvement. There are several improvements for Tank Crew as well in anticipation of its official release. The full changelist follows:

1. German fighter Bf 109 G-6 Late is available for Battle of Normandy owners;
2. Bf 109 G-6 Late added to the following Rheinland Career mode (Battle of Bodenplatte) groups the player can join: I./JG 3, II./JG 11, III./JG 26, III./JG 27 and II./JG 77. It is also used by AI-controlled groups III./JG 1, III./JG 4, III./JG 53, I./JG 76 and III./JG 300;
3. German heavy fighter Bf 110 G-2 has 4K quality external textures created by Martin =ICDP= Catney;
4. Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.M player controllable tank now has a lower armor plate under the rear overhang modeled;
5. All player controllable tanks now have bulkheads (made of regular steel) between the fighting and the engine compartments;
6. M4A2 tank commander animation corrected (due to an error he could be wounded by enemy MG fire when inside the tank);
7. AI-controlled ground vehicle tracks are resistant to combat damage similarly to player controllable vehicle tracks
8. Combat damage resistance has been corrected for several player controllable tank tracks;
9. The maximum speeds of the simple AI-controlled tanks now correspond to the detailed ones;
10. Tracked and wheeled vehicles move up the hills faster and more realistically;
11. Recently released Tank Coop missions were improved;
12. Tank gunner AI prefers APHE ammo when it estimates that the target armor can be penetrated with different ammo types at the current relative position;
13. Tank driver AI has been improved, resulting in less jerking while driving backward;

14. Oxygen mask breathing sound has been toned down a bit;
15. Bf 109 G-2, G-4, G-6, G-14 and K-4 wheels texturing has been improved;
16. Hurricane Mk.II compass now has fluorescent needles;
17. A rare issue with generating a new day in the Career mode has been addressed.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · December 16, 2020

Update 4.504

Dear Friends,

New player controllable aircraft or vehicles aren’t ready yet, but we have decided to release the update 4.504 that improves many aspects of the sim. The main feature of this update is the increased visual detail of the landscape at close distances, which is a graphics option. It makes the terrain bumps and unevenness, that were previously only calculated in physics, to be visible. Overall, this improvement makes the vehicle and aircraft movement on the ground look much better and natural.

The second main feature is a nearly complete overhaul of the sound volume balance in the aircraft cockpits which was done with the help of pilots that have experience flying similar aircraft, resulting in a more realistic sound environment in the cockpit.

There are many other important changes as well, for instance, many graphical effects were improved like large structural fires in cities and more detailed tank cannon fire effects. Even the grass now bends when you fire the tank main gun! The full changelist follows:

Main features

1. The terrain bumps that were previously only in the physics are now visible at a short distance, resulting in a much better visual look of the wheeled and tracked vehicles and planes on the ground movement. The detail of this visualization can be adjusted or completely disabled and works at ‘Medium’ or better graphics settings preset;
2. The movement of all simplified ground vehicles (cars and tracked vehicles) also looks more realistic since the benefit from the new tech as well;
3. Tanks transmission modeling was made more detailed, increasing their maximum climb angle;
4. New RAF paint scheme added for P-39L-1 by Martin =ICDP= Catney;
5. P-39L-1 pilot got a new visual model, animation of removing glasses on the ground and donning an oxygen mask at high altitude. In addition, setting the country of the plane to the UK or USA in the mission file changes the pilot model to UK or USA pilot accordingly;
6. The ram air noise sounds depend on the flight speed, taking into account the position of the pilot's head in the cockpit (in the center, near the side, overboard) and the cockpit canopy state (open or closed). The volume of the ram air noise has been increased, giving more audio cues in a closed cockpit;
7. Airflow noise sound when stalling or at a high-G load has been improved;
8. Stall sound on Yak fighters was adjusted to be more informative at high angles of attack;
9. The volume of other sounds in the cockpit (the noise of the aircraft moving on the ground on the landing gear, the hissing of the flaps and landing gear valves, the background power grid noise, radio communications, etc.) is balanced according to the new volume of the airflow noise. Corrections were made to the sound volume of several engines as well;

Tank improvements

10. New motion blur effect improves the look of the player controllable tank tracks if the ‘Cinematic Camera’ option is checked;
11. All Tank Crew module tanks got new gun and machine gun firing effects that depend on the muzzle power. If a gun has a muzzle brake, the effect has a corresponding shape. In addition, firing the main gun temporarily causes the grass nearby to bend down;
12. The "jitter" animation issue of aircraft and tank gunners when the player left the corresponding station has been fixed;
13. The tank turret stays in place when the player switches from the gunsight view to another station and there are no visible enemy targets for AI gunner to engage;
14. When giving an order to other tanks in the platoon only existing tanks are shown in the menu;
15. Only existing ammo types are shown in the commander menu when selecting the ammo for your tank;
16. AI gunners will correctly engage a target when several different targets were assigned by the commander one subsequently;
17. AI will load correct ammo as instructed by the commander;
18. Gunsight zoom on VR devices with canted displays and Parallel Projection mode works correctly;
19. M4A2 visors won’t look too bright in an external view;
20. The remaining .50 cal ammo is shown correctly when the M2 MG installed on the M4A2 tank is in the anti-aircraft firing position;
21. It’s no longer possible to hit the M4A2 turret by pushing the AA MG down and left to the limit when firing;
22. The free T-34/76 STZ (1942) tank turret switches to manual turret traverse when the generator is not working;
23. The free T-34/76 STZ (1942) tank field of view when looking through the gunsight has been fixed;
24. Free T-34/76 STZ (1942) and Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.L tanks have their turret traverse speeds reduced the more they are tilted, just like Tank Crew tanks;
25. SU-122 SPG mass has been corrected according to the latest data found (30900 kg);
26. Commander's machine guns (KV-1s and M4A2) won’t ‘stuck’ when trying to swivel them looking through the sights in VR mode;
27. The graphic effect and sound of a machine gun or tank gun firing won’t stuck when the tank is blown up;
28. In Quick Mission - Duel, tank settings are correctly applied;
29. The 1st and 3rd missions of the "Last Chance" German tank campaign were optimized to be playable on 3.0 GHz processors (without time compression);
30. The vertical adjustment sound of the PT4-7 and PG panoramas (KV-1s, T-34UVZ-43, SU-122 and SU-152) was removed since they can be adjusted along this axis separately;

Aircraft improvements

31. Pilot AI won’t dive into the ground after receiving a command to attack a ground target if there is no ammo;
32. Fighter pilot AI won’t open fire too far away in a ‘face to face’ attack;
33. A rare issue that could make an aircraft to levitate above the ground or sink into it up to 1m depth (it happened more frequently on Arras map) and therefore cause damage to it has been fixed;
34. U-2VS wing damage when touching the ground during taxiing has been reduced and the landing gear damping settings have been corrected. Now it is possible to land and take off on an unprepared field with a bit of luck;
35. U-2VS formation and landing lights functioning was corrected;
36. Pe-2 series 87 top turret camera corrected in VR mode;
37. Torn off A-20B bomb bay doors behave in a physically correct way;
38. A-20B bomb bay doors will be torn off during an emergency landing (landing gear up) only if they were opened;
39. A-20B cockpit view won’t shake when the mission starts;
40. P-51D level autopilot won’t turn off by itself at the start of the mission in the air if the fuel tanks are full;
41. Visually inverted MC.202 propeller pitch has been corrected;
42. The P-39L-1 antenna won’t ‘hang’ in the air if the tail section is broken;
43. Audio and visual effects when hitting the outboard cannons and bomb and rocket racks were corrected for IL-2 (all modifications), Bf-109 (all modifications), FW-190 (all modifications) and MC.202;
44. IL-2 mod. 43 gunner and rear fuel tank armor has been corrected;
45. An issue that could cause the aircraft with a repaired wing to move instead of stop when applying the wheel brakes has been fixed;
46. Pe-2 series 87 surface material won’t visually change when moving away from it;
47. A-20 cockpit glass won’t visually change when moving away from it;
48. P-51D-15 spinner was made less shiny;
49. Visual artifacts on the Bf 109 E-7 cockpit glass were eliminated;

Other improvements

50. The visual image of the sea surface was improved up close (the blackness on wave crests, shadows shake, reflection and glare when the camera was directed downward very close were corrected);
51. Fixed an issue that caused ships and aircraft on the sea surface to be unaffected by the movement of the waves;
52. Fixed an issue that prevented the submarines from moving when the waves were high;
53. Fixed a rare issue that could display a black screen when switching to F11 free camera;
54. F11 camera movement was made smoother;
55. An incorrect factory building roof in Stalingrad that glowed at night has been corrected;
56. The visibility range of large fires (static effects City_Fire, City_FireSmall, VillageSmoke and their new cyclic versions) has been increased to 100 km;
57. Settlement fire effects in Career, Quick Missions and tank campaigns won’t periodically disappear and reappear or ‘flip’ when you move the camera around them. These effects now illuminate the surroundings as well;
58. Three factory chimney smoke effects for mission creators were added: Chimneystalk_smoke_white, Chimneystalk_smoke_grey, Chimneystalk_smoke_black;
59. The “DummyGroundExpl” explosion effect set in the mission has been restored;
60. Visual mission effects AmmoExplosion and AmmoExplosion_Big have corresponding sounds;
61. House_smoke effect starts correctly, without an overly intense and dark first phase;
62. Сyclic settlement fire effects City_Fire_Loop, City_FireSmall_Loop and VillageSmoke_Loop won’t visibly disappear and reappear or ‘flip’ when you move the camera around them, greatly simplifying their use by mission designers and reducing the resulting performance impact;
63. German and French translations of Last Chance, Breaking Point and Wind of Fury campaigns were corrected.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · December 28, 2020

Update 4.505

Dear friends,

The IL-2 Sturmovik development team wishes you the best in the coming year and has a small gift for you - another update. It includes the work of the community enthusiast Chiawei =Oyster_KAI= Liang who agreed to work with us more closely and make his textures even better to be included in the sim officially. All the player controllable aircraft in this update have their cockpit textures considerably upscaled and sometimes corrected, resulting in a much better look of their cockpits. At the same time, Martin =ICDP= Catney has finished working on the external textures of another plane - this time it is I-16 - and they look great. There are many other fixes and improvements you can see in the changelist below.

Happy New Year and best of luck to you in 2021!

1. All player-controlled aircraft got 4K quality cockpit textures created by Chiawei = Oyster_KAI = Liang;
2. I-16 type 24 fighter got 4K quality external textures created by Martin = ICDP = Сatney;
3. I-16 type 24 fighter has a new “Silver” skin (painted with aluminum paint) by Martin = ICDP = Catney;
4. New visual effects added for and railway fuel tanks and fuel tanker trucks explosions. The airfield fuel storage also explodes with a new effect if there is an entity assigned to it in the mission file;
5. The A-20B bomber crew visual models were updated, as well as the animation of taking off glasses on the ground and putting on an oxygen mask at altitude. In addition, if the country parameter in the mission file is set to UK or USA the crew models will be British or American respectively;
6. Added missing fire effect to old player controllable tanks (T-34 STZ 1942 and Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf. L);
7. Old player controllable tanks (T-34 STZ 1942 and Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf. L) should no longer shoot at targets when considered destroyed (when their marker is removed);
8. Old player controllable tanks (T-34 STZ 1942 and Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf. L) have visual models of the driver and tank commander;
9. The surviving crewmen of the old player controllable tanks (T-34 STZ 1942 and Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf. L) leave if the tank is knocked out;
10. Old player controllable tanks (T-34 STZ 1942 and Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf. L) commanders have a pistol and binoculars;
11. Several cases of incorrect camera operation have been fixed (for example, when the camera remained in the cockpit of a destroyed aircraft or a tank);
12. The giant smoke columns from the Stalingrad city fires should now be visible up to 100 km away from the player starting point in QMB mode;
13. Wrong tree models on the river island near Stalingrad were corrected on Summer and Autumn maps;
14. The cropping of the ground structures outside the mission zone has been optimized, reducing the load on the system and speeding up the mission loading in the QMB mode on the Stalingrad map (all seasons);
15. The cropping of the ground structures outside the mission zone has been optimized, reducing the load on the system and speeding up the mission loading in all Career mode timeframes (BoM, BoS, BoK, BoBp);
16. All internal equipment of the armored vehicles was made less resistant to the fragments of APHE rounds that detonated inside;
17. Zademyanye airfield on Winter Velikie Luki map has been smoothed;
18. Ju-88 cockpit raindrops effect has been restored;
19. Pe-2 bombers right spinner won't become darker when the propeller is rotating;
20. The auto-oscillations of the La-5 elevator in the simplified control mode at low altitudes have been fixed;
21. A technochat error that could cause an incorrect message about the flaps release has been corrected;
22. Ju-87, Ju-88 and Fw-190 aircraft have technochat messages about releasing the flaps to takeoff and landing positions;
23. Yak-9 and Yak-9T water radiator drag has been corrected when the radiator shutter is closed more than a neutral position;
24. Lighting on both Halberstadt aircraft can be turned on only with cockpit lamp modification present;
25. Technochat flap position messages corrected on aircraft with fixed flap positions;
26. On A-20B bombers, problems with ANOs and bomb bay tail signal lamp at long LODs have been fixed.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · February 16

Update 4.506

Dear friends,

Today our team presents you the first IL-2 Great Battles update in 2021, 4.506. The main feature of this update is the Fw 190 A-6 fighter/bomber developed for the Battle of Normandy. The Normandy map is in development, but you can already fly the new aircraft in Rheineland Career mode, provided you have both Battle of Normandy and Bodenplatte. You can also encounter the new A-6 as an enemy in the recent Wind of Fury campaign and anyone can set it up as an AI in quick missions.

In addition to the new arrival, there is a significant number of other changes and improvements. The updated graphical effects are included (the ones that are ready), Chiawei =Oyster_KAI= Liang continued his work on the 4K texturing of many planes cockpits and Martin =ICDP= Catney created 4K external textures for Bf 109 E-7 and corrected a number of other aircraft. There are two AI corrections, but they are significant. Among other fixes are ones for aircraft systems, player controllable tanks, including an important one for the gun aiming, and many improvements for historical campaigns.

We continue our work as always and this Spring you'll see new planes and improvements for the game world.

Main features
1. German fighter/bomber Fw 190 A-6 is now available to all Battle of Normandy owners;
2. Fw 190 A-6 added to Rheinland Career mode (to the 1st and 2nd chapters to joinable squadrons III./JG 11, I./JG 26 and II./JG 26 and to all chapters to AI squadrons III./KG 51 and NSGr. 20);
3. Bf 109 E-7 got 4K quality external textures;
4. There are new truck variations (which look exactly like the regular ones) that are loaded with ammo and explode when attacked in a spectacular way;

Aircraft improvements
5. AI pilots of fast fighters engage slow-flying targets much better;
6. AI pilots that are alone or from different groups carry out a landing approach much better - now all the AI pilots form the landing queue, not only the ones that belong to the same group;
7. MC.202 propeller rotation and twist were corrected;
8. Yak-9 and Yak-9T elevator is affected at high speeds similar to other Yak fighters;
9. On all aircraft with set mixture control positions the current position is shown in the technochat instead of the mixture percentage;
10. UBT MG gunsight scale on IL-2 mod. 1943 has been recentered;
11. A damaged Fokker D.VII won't visibly disappear at long distances;
12. Gunsight adjustment (target size and range) using buttons happens faster and their default values are set for a close dogfight against a typical enemy fighter;
13. German gyro gunsight Ez.42 damping corrected, higher frequency oscillations of the aircraft affect the calculated lead less;
14. AI pilots fire all 12 Hurricane MGs when installed instead of only 8;
15. Water vapor effect added to the damaged or overheated Hurricane radiator;
16. Oil and water drops won't visibly appear on the inside surface of the cockpit canopy on many aircraft;
17. A number of typos that appeared on Soviet planes after increasing the cockpits to 4K quality were corrected;
18. Bf 109 E-7 cockpit: a typo corrected, detail of certain controls improved, dimmer looks more historically accurate;
19. Bf 109 F-2 and F-4 wheels corrected;
20. BG-25 detail increased (Bf 109 G6/G6 Late/G14/K4);
21. Rocket control panel detail improved on Bf 109 G6 Late and G14;
22. Fw 190 A-3/A-5/A-8 ammo counters panel detail improved;
23. Hs 129 B2 cockpit: weathering and scratches on leather objects, weathering of the gunsight parts outside the cockpit, more detailed dimmer switch, revised coloring and updated lettering of gauges and parts to make them more historically correct, alpha layer adjustments;
24. MiG-3: enhanced textures of braided cables, redrawn placards, alpha layer adjustments;
25. P-39L: control stick weathering, more detailed radio equipment (MN-52H, BC-345, BC-451) and recognition light switch box, more accurate white aluminum panels and detailed text, enhanced throttle quadrant and fuel prime pump handle, improved gauges and parts lettering, alpha layer adjustments;
26. P-40E: more detailed radio equipment (BC-366, BC-451A, BC-450A), throttle quadrant and fuel prime pump handle, historically correct texture for exposed wiring (black wires and white braided cables), alpha layer adjustments;
27. P-47D22/D28: more detailed BC-765 switch box and fuel prime pump handle, upgraded textures of the white screws on the trim indicators box and flap control handle slide rail, alpha layer adjustments;
28. Fw 190 A-3 and A-5 default pilot positions and some skins of these aircraft were corrected;
29. Radio and lighting switches are now animated in Fw 190 A-3 and A-5 cockpits;

Player controllable tank improvements
30. An option added that amplifies the gun aiming response to the mouse movement. If you play without a visual mouse aim indicator or aim the gun using buttons, it is recommended to leave it at the default setting (0);
31. Player controllable tanks now correctly collide in multiplayer;
32. A wrong technochat message about turning on and off the powered turret traverse won't appear while moving across rough terrain at high speed;
33. SU-122 and SU-152 crews throw out all the accumulated spent ammo casings when the hatches are opened;
34. The initial position of the shot off Ferdinand gun mantlet corresponds to the mantlet type installed;
35. 72-K 25mm round ballistics were corrected;
36. HE rounds of 72-K, 61-K, Flak 36, Flak 38, Flakvierling 38, Sh-37, NS-37, BK-3.7, M4 and Vickers Class S now have self-destruct fuzes (HE rounds without such fuzes were not used on these guns);
37. Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.M suspension animation corrected;

Visual effects improvements
38. New bomb ground and water impact (impact, not explosion) effects;
39. 50-100 kg bombs explosion effects have a new style (it is planned to update all the explosions in a similar way);
40. Additional explosion effects added for rounds containing more than 450 g and less than 1500 g explosives;
41. Improved gunfire effects for the detailed ground vehicles;
42. APHE explosion effects corrected accordingly to the number of explosives they contain;
43. Ground vehicles leave better-looking tracks;

Other improvements
44. The hook on port cranes is raised higher so it won't prevent larger ships to dock underneath;
45. The visual model of a destroyed 52-K AAA gun was corrected (it contained elements of an intact gun);
46. Blazing Steppe, Fortress on the Volga, Ice Ring historical campaigns: all fire effects updated, ammo trucks added, many other improvements and fixes;
47. During the Wind of Fury historical campaign you can encounter С-47 and Fw 190 A-6 while Bf 109 G-6 fighters were replaced by Bf 109 G-6 Late;
48. Fortress on the Volga historical campaign: fuel and ambulance trucks added to the transport columns, the overall number and size of the columns increased.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · April 21

Update 4.601

Dear Friends,

Our team is proud to tell you that the work on update 4.601 is finished and it is up already. This update brings you three new toys at once. The first one of them is Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XIV Collectors Plane (included in Battle of Normandy Early Access). This late model of the legendary fighter has great fighting capabilities while retaining its captivating charisma. It has several historical modifications that make the Spitfire family in our project even more variable.

The second one is a new Collector Vehicle - Soviet self-propelled AAA - 25-mm 72-K gun installed on GAZ-MM chassis. Recreated with attention to detail, this vehicle is a new object class in our project. The experience you'll get operating it is unique - the life of the low-caliber AAA crews in World War II wasn't an easy one. It comes with a special mission type in QMB mode and new single missions.

The third one is the first airplane of the Flying Circus Vol. 2 - French-made single-seat fighter Nieuport 28.C1 that was exclusively used in US squadrons. This speedy plane with good weaponry for its time was used by the most famous US fighter ace of the Great War - Eddie Rickenbacker. This aircraft had a unique way of regulating the rotative engine power by ignition breaker. All in all, an interesting machine - and it officially starts Flying Circus Vol. 2 Early Access program.

Also in this update are two very important new technologies, one of which is tactical numbers that can be customized before the mission. At the moment, it fully works on all Tank Crew tanks thanks to our partners at Digital Forms. P-51D-15 also got this capability for USAAF and RAF (it depends on the aircraft country specified in a mission) and it works on Nieuport 28.C1 too. Later this year we plan to enable it for all other aircraft (it takes a lot of work).

The second new technology is Dynamic Visual Damage (DVD) that visualizes the hit marks from various projectiles on aircraft and tanks. Please note that is a visual tech that is intended to make the battle damage more vivid. In the absolute majority of cases, the DVD hit marks will properly show the impacts, but there are limitations caused by multiplayer and performance that in some cases can make them inaccurate - the good level of performance is always our priority. Nevertheless, this new feature should greatly increase the damage diversity. Just like tactical numbers, this new tech already works on all Tank Crew tanks and P-51D-15 and Nieuport 28.C1 planes. Again, we plan to enable it for all other 60+ aircraft this year.

Also in this version is a huge update of the graphical effects. This isn't an easy task to do since we not only have to make them look awesome but retain the level of performance. This time we have all-new explosion effects for all HE munitions in the sim with increased variety - now there are clearly visible differences between, say, 50 and 100, 250 and 500, 1000 and 2500 kg bombs. The water explosions became much better and the explosions better light the surroundings.

Martin =ICDP= Catney updated a lot of the external textures he made for us and this time two of the previously released aircraft were updated to 4K - Macchi MC 202 Folgore Collector Plane and Ju 88 A-4 bomber (Battle of Moscow). Please note that soon all the aircraft in our project will have 4K quality external textures. Oyster_KAI continued his work on improving the tremendous amount of aircraft cockpits, namely all Spitfires, Bf 109s, Bf 110s, Ju 87, Ju 88 and U-2VS. All the text above is just the highlights of the new update, you can read the changelist below:

Main features
1. Spitfire Mk.XIV Collector Plane is available to all owners of Battle of Normandy Premium Edition;
2. Nieuport 28.C1 is available to all owners of Flying Circus Vol. 2 and the Early Access program for Vol. 2 officially starts;
3. 25 mm 72-К AA gun on GAZ-MM truck is available to customers who prepurchased it;
4. New special mission type for QMB mode and 5 single missions added for AAA guns;
5. Dynamic Visual Damage (DVD) technology is added to the sim, that shows (with some limitations) the hit marks of projectiles on various objects. At the moment it works for all detailed tanks of Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka, 72-K GAZ-MM AAA, P-51D-15 fighter, and Nieuport 28.C1 airplane;
6. Dynamic tactical markings technology is added to the sim, allowing to customize the tactical numbers on aircraft and vehicles. At the moment it works for all detailed tanks of Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka, 72-K GAZ-MM AAA, P-51D-15 fighter, and Nieuport 28.C1 airplane;
7. More detailed railyards added to 19 cities on the Rhineland map (Bodenplatte): Antwerp, Liege, Mainz, Frankfurt, Bonn, Cologne, Duisburg, Brussels, Charleroi, Düsseldorf, Munster, Koblenz, Eindhoven, Tilburg, Nijmegen, Essen, Enschede, Hengelo, Osnabrück;
8. Completely new graphical effects are added for all munitions in the game for ground, water and object impacts and for midair explosions;
9. All F, G and K series Bf 109 fighters got the corrected tail models. Now the sturdiness of their elements are on par with the rest of the fighters and these elements can be shot off individually;
10. 4K quality external texturing added for MC.202 fighter and Ju 88 bomber while all Spitfires, Bf 109s, Bf 110s, Ju 87, Ju 88 and U-2VS cockpits were updated;

Aircraft improvements
11. Spitfire Mk.XIV added to Rhineland Career mode (Bodenplatte) to the following squadrons the player can join: No. 41 Squadron RAF, No. 130 Squadron RAF, No. 350 (Belgian) Squadron RAF, No. 402 Squadron RCAF and No. 610 Squadron RAF.
12. The player flight takes off correctly in the 15th mission of the “Achtung Spitfire!” campaign;
13. An issue that could cause a AI fighter to approach to an air target too close and potentially to collide with it has been corrected;
14. AI fighter correctly attack balloons;
15. AI pilots aiming the MGs and guns at ground targets has been corrected;
16. Less experienced AI pilots engage the ground targets at closer distances;
17. Flying Circus aircraft visibility at large distances has been corrected to correspond to other aircraft in the game (it was 3 times lower);
18. Fuel tank and ammo explosion effects can be observed on other players in multiplayer;
19. An issue with potential fuel tank catastrophic detonation in case of engine(s) fire has been corrected;
20. The power of a fuel tank explosion now depends on the actual amount of ignited fuel or fuel vapors in a partially spent fuel tank;
21. Modeling of the putting out the fuel tank fire by sideslipping the aircraft at high speed has been improved;
22. Multiple ammo storage explosions are now possible (previously it could happen only once);
23. Maximum ATA near the ground level with C3 injection system on Fw-190 A5/A6 has been corrected (increased);
24. Roll shaking at high speed corrected for AI or mouse controlled Sopwith Dolphin;
25. A visual bar on the rotating Fw 190 A-6 spinner removed;
26. Rear formation light corrected on Fw 190 A-6;
27. Fw 190 A-8 small clock hand restored;
28. Added missing luminous paint on some Tempest, Spitfire Mk.IX, Bf 110 G-2 and Ju 52 instruments;
29. P-38 formation lights corrected;
30. Spitfire IX mirror position corrected;
31. Oil from the damaged engine on canopy effect corrected on P-51D-15;
32. A small visual issue corrected on MC.202 (attitude indicator tube);

Player controlled tanks improvements
33. All detailed tanks now have tactical numbers in Last Chance and Breaking Point tank campaigns;
34. Radio antennas on all Tank Crew detailed tanks can be damaged by enemy fire (in addition to damageable radio equipment that was modeled before);
35. Detailed tanks won't 'freeze in the air' after colliding with another object that was later moved;
36. AI gunners will properly burst fire the coaxial MGs of the detailed tanks;
37. An issue with the inability to hit the gun barrel on some tanks has been fixed;
38. Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.M lower turret armor has been corrected;
39. The missing part of the Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.M ammo reserve can be damaged by enemy fire;
40. T-34-76 UTZ (1943) coaxial MG can be damaged by enemy fire;
41. Additional external parts of Pz.Kpfw.VI Ausf.H1 like various covers and splashers can be shot off;
42. KV-1 and SU-152 splashers and rear deflector can be shot off;

Additional improvements
43. A graphics issue that caused z-fighting of the shadows on certain buildings in MSAA x4 mode has been corrected;
44. External objects like trees, buildings and aircraft drop visible shadows on the player aircraft or vehicle and its cockpit in non-VR mode;
45. Gamma can be lowered down to 0.5 for more comfort in VR mode;
46. A visible city blocks shadow 'border' at large distances has been minimized;
47. A visible city blocks fog 'border' at large distances has been minimized;
48. An issue with certain European buildings glowing in the night has been fixed;
49. A GUI issue that could cause the regiment symbols to disappear from the Career creation screen has been fixed;
50. A GUI issue that could cause the mission start coordinates to reset to 0 on the Career HQ screen;

51. Water explosions of large bombs have dedicated graphical effects;
52. 50, 100, 250, 500, 1000(1800) and 2500 kg bombs now have more diverse graphical explosion effects;
53. Soviet Tank Crew tanks headlamp lens, visor, and mirror textures have been improved;
54. The issues with pilots and tankers animations have been fixed in multiplayer;
55. The bomber group leader will correctly proceed to the next waypoint after dropping the bombs.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · June 1

Update 4.602

Dear friends,

Today we’re releasing another update, 4.602, that brings to you two new aircraft at once. British Hawker Typhoon Mk.Ib is the first and it is available in Battle of Normandy Early Access now - this powerful, fast and heavily armed machine could handle a variety of combat missions. New tactical numbers and dynamic impact marks technologies already work for it and it has a wide array of modifications - another engine, propeller, gunsight, additional armor and dust filter.

The second star of the day is the late Great War German monoplane Fokker D.VIII, which also supports the new tactical numbers and hit marks technologies. Having the same engine as Fokker Dr.I triplane, but a much better aerodynamical profile, resulted in a significant boost in combat characteristics. The only wing of this airplane had an unusual design for its time - it had load-carrying skin made of plywood instead of fabric. Being a late war plane, Fokker D.VIII could be equipped with Oigee collimator gunsight and was armed with two 7.92 mm LMG 08/15 Spandau. It is now available to all owners of Flying Circus Vol.II.

Moreover, there are 20 new AI-controlled objects added in this update - they were developed for the Battle of Normandy. They are British in origin mostly, but there are additions for the US and Germany as well. Some of them are new types in our project - radars and reinforced concrete bunkers.

In addition to all that, 4.602 addresses a lot of things - many graphical and audio effects are improved, there are several fixes for aircraft and ground vehicles AI, a significant improvement in ballistics, etc. The detailed change list follows:

Main features
1. Hawker Typhoon Mk.Ib fighter-bomber is now available to all owners of the Battle for Normandy;
2. Fokker D.VIII monoplane is now available to all owners of the Flying Circus Vol.II;
3. American paratroopers have been added to the project and can be dropped from C-47. The corresponding missions will be added to the Career mode later;
4. New graphical effects for various armor-piercing shell and bullet impacts added;
5. Improved graphical effects of burning ground vehicles and balloons added;

Aircraft changes
6. Fixed “jaggedness” of some shadow edges in cockpits;

7. Fixed canopy glass sun effects;
8. Single AI plane takeoff fixed (in some cases the takeoff run was delayed for too much);
9. Aircraft AI bug fixed which could cause it to ignore points of the airfield taxiway;
10. Fixed visibility of P-51D-15, P-38J-15, Ju-52, He-111H-6, B-25D, Il-2-42 and Il-2-43 at distances over 1 km (they appeared smaller relative to other aircraft);
11. P-51D-15 weapons and chassis can be damaged by collisions;
12. Missing luminescent illumination on the watch bezel in Bf 109 K-4 cockpit added;
13. Pe-2 series 35 propellers won’t visibly disappear at medium distances;
14. Hurricane landing lights won’t visibly disappear at medium distances, creating holes in their niches;
15. Bristol Fighter's Lewis machine gun casings ejection location has been corrected;

Player controllable vehicles changes
16. Pz.VI commander cupola wall armor thickness has been corrected (it was doubled before);
17. 72-K AAA: an incorrect operation of the automatic gunsight kinematics at intermediate elevation angles has been corrected (with zero corrections the sight axis appeared much higher than the barrel axis);
18. 72-K AAA: technochat messages will correctly appear in multiplayer for other players that joined its crew;

Career mode changes
19. The player can join new squadrons: 587 BAP in Stalingrad and Kuban careers and 46 GNBAP in Kuban career;
20. New targets for "Railway junction air strike" and "Railway junction bombing strike" mission types added in Rhineland career (Bodenplatte): Antwerp, Liege, Mainz, Frankfurt, Bonn, Cologne, Duisburg, Bruxelles, Charleroi, Dusseldorf, Munster, Koblenz, Eindhoven, Tilburg, Nijmegen, Essen, Enschede, Hengelo and Osnabruck railyards;
21. Typhoon Mk.Ib added to Rhineland Career mode: No. 175 Squadron RAF, No. 197 Squadron RAF, No. 247 (China British) Squadron RAF, No. 440 Squadron RCAF, No. 609 (West Riding) Squadron RAF and 16 more AI squadrons;
22. Formerly AI-only 587th BAP in Stalingrad Career can be joined by the player;
23. Formerly AI-only 587th BAP and 46th GNBAP in Kuban Career can be joined by the player;

AI-controlled objects changes
24. Simple AI ground vehicles correctly leave trails on unpaved airfields;
25. Simple AI wheeled vehicles correctly collide with static objects;
26. Simple AI tracked vehicles won’t make too sharp turns;
27. Sd.Kfz 251 1C half-track correctly leaves a trail;
28. The antenna of the airfield locator beacon now always stands vertically, regardless of the surface slope;
29. 10.5 cm Flak 38/39 anti-aircraft gun has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
30. QF 3.7-inch AA anti-aircraft gun has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
31. 40 mm Bofors L60 rapid-fire anti-aircraft gun has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
32. 3,7 cm FlaK 43 rapid-fire anti-aircraft gun has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
33. Ordnance QF 17-pounder anti-tank gun has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
34. BL 5.5-inch gun has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
35. Bren Mk.I machine gun in two variations (for firing at ground and air targets) has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
36. AMES Type 7 mobile radar station has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
37. SCR-584 mobile radar station has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
38. FuSE-65 Würzburg-Riese stationary radar station has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
39. British 150 cm anti-aircraft searchlight has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
40. M1-VLA low-altitude balloon has been added for the Battle of Normandy (for now it can’t be bind to a ship);
41. M3A1 half-track has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
42. Sd.Kfz. 222 armored car has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
43. Dodge WC-54 ambulance has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
44. Austin K2 / Y ambulance has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
45. H 634 machine-gun pillbox has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
46. H 630 concrete machine-gun pillbox has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
47. H 272 concrete gun pillbox has been added for the Battle of Normandy;
48. Batterie Todt concrete heavy artillery bunker has been added for the Battle of Normandy;

Other changes
49. Enemy aircraft that appear in AAA QMB during winter should have a corresponding winter skin;
50. Missing preview images added for various objects in the mission editor;
51. Ballistics of bullets, shells, bombs and rockets now take into account the decrease of the air density with altitude;
52. Heavy anti-aircraft artillery ballistics were corrected;
53. Heavy artillery ballistics were corrected (at large distances the flight time and the height of the projectile trajectory correspond to the barrel elevation angle quite accurately);
54. In multiplayer, the jittery turning animation of gunners was corrected.

Please discuss the update in this thread.

1.1k · August 11

Update 4.603

Dear friends,

IL-2 team reports that the new update 4.603 is released. It's a significant one for Flying Circus Vol.II - three airplanes are added to the Early Access program of this project at once.

Also in this update is the long-awaited Collector Vehicle - German AA half-track Sd.Kfz.10/5. It was an interesting experience to develop: this is the first player controllable half-truck chassis in our sim. A lot of work went into ballistics data and other ammo parameters research. Our partners at Digital Forms did a stellar job at references research and creation of the 3D model and myriad of its parts based on them.

Oyster_KAI improved all Flying Circus aircraft cockpits (both Vol.I and Vol.II) and Martin =ICDP= Catney created 4K quality external textures for the German Collector Plane Hs 129 B-2.

And finally, Alexander =BlackSix= Timoshkov finished his new campaign "Steel Birds" about Fw 190 A-5 missions over the Kuban and it is available in the game now (you can get it on our website if you haven't done so already).

Meanwhile, the work on Marshal multiplayer mode, fuel systems and drop tanks, environment graphics, Normandy and Western Front WW1 maps continues and we hope to show you the results sooner than later. This update contains many changes in addition to mentioned above:

Main changes

1. Collector Vehicle 20 mm Flak 38 anti-aircraft gun on Sd.Kfz 10/5 half-track is now available;
2. Pfalz D.XII is now available to all customers who pre-ordered Flying Circus Vol.II;
3. The early version of the Spad VII.C1 fighter with a 150-horsepower engine is now available to all customers who pre-ordered Flying Circus Vol. II;
4. The Airco DH4I two-seater single-engine bomber is now available to all customers who pre-ordered Flying Circus Vol. II;
5. New historical scenario campaign “Steel birds” is now available;
6. All Flying Circus Vol.I and Vol.II airplanes cockpits detail improved (Oyster_KAI);
7. Hs-129 B-2 attack aircraft now has 4K quality external texturing (Martin 'ICDP' Catney);

Aircraft changes

8. Fixed invisibility of paratroopers on Ju-52 and C-47 in a multiplayer game;
9. Removed the ability to select a pistol and fire it when the cockpit is closed (it is automatically holstered);
10. Fixed overload indicator for ‘guest’ gunners (other players) in multi-crew airplanes in multiplayer;
11. Maximum wing lift of the Hawker Typhoon Mk.Ib was reduced. Stall speed increased and turn performance reduced. The flight model of the aircraft was reconfigured in such a way that other significant flight characteristics of the aircraft (speed, rate of climb, control stick balancing positions, roll angular velocities) practically did not change;
12. The indicator in the bombsight showing the impossibility of dropping bombs from the current position has been fixed;
13. AI pilots won’t shake their aircraft along the pitch axis when attacking a ground target with cannons that have a mix of different types of ammo;
14. AI pilots won’t ignore a heavily damaged but not destroyed ground target;
15. The angle of a shallow bombing dive for Pe-2, Il-2, Fw-190, Ju-87, Ju-88, Bf-110, Hs-129 aircraft has been increased to 30°;
16. Bomb release sound has been added to all Flying Circus aircraft;

Player controllable tanks changes

17. "Turn off the engine" command works as it should and has voiceover;
18. Fixed an infinite rotation of AI-controlled detailed tanks after giving them a turn and stop order;
19. Fixed "turn shaking" of AI-controlled detailed tanks that sometimes happened after stopping;
20. Fixed "looping" of AI-controlled detailed tanks hat sometimes happened after "Turn by 180°" order;
21. Movement to a point and movement according to the mission scenario commands correctly function after issuing commands "Stop and hold position" and "Turn and stop";
22. The camera won’t be randomly stuck in external view after the death of one of the crew members and it won’t be possible to switch to a killed crew member;
23. The gunner now uses a manual turret traverse drive and its different gears if available depending on the aiming correction required (small adjustments are made using the manual drive);
24. Killed gunners won’t visibly "turn" after death;
25. Detailed tanks won’t "bounce" when collided with static versions of vehicles (static_ ...);

Graphic effects

26. Ship wake trails and splashes effects are improved significantly;
27. New ship explosion and sinking effects added;
28. Improved ship fire effects added;
29. New aircraft fuel tank explosion effect created;
30. Bomb ground detonations, railroad and road fuel transport explosions are improved and optimized;

Pilot's Career

31. New bombing mission types added for all fighter/bombers in all careers (8 types in total): artillery position, fortified area, troop concentration, airfield, river crossing, railway junction, warehouse, bridge;
32. The mission logic in all ground attack and bomber missions has been improved: the player's flight planes returning home with unused bombs and missiles should happen much less often;
33. The player’s fighter/bomber flight in all ground attack and bomber missions should have an escort depending on the type of the player's aircraft and the time period;

Other changes

34. The deletion of train cars by the MCU: Delete mission command fixed (previously it only deleted the locomotive, leaving the cars);
35. Fixed a problem with the part of the game interface missing in the screenshots;
36. A default tactical code can be set in the spawn point settings in the mission editor;
37. The discrepancy between the ship movement effects for different players in multiplayer has been fixed;
38. Corrected ballistics and penetration ability of German 20mm rounds used in anti-aircraft guns;
39. Thorny 13 pdr AA anti-aircraft gun firing sound restored;
40. Fixed the “Engageable” flag for GAZ-MM 72K anti-aircraft gun in mission editor (previously AI pilots attacked the vehicle even with it set to 0).

Please discuss the update in this thread.

4.4k · September 21

Update 4.604

Dear Friends,

We’re glad to inform you that a new update is released - 4.604! In addition to the new SPAD VII.C1 180 h.p. for Flying Circus Vol II, this update brings many improvements in different areas. There is a whole section of changes related to aircraft armament, including the much-discussed M2 .50 Browning machine gun rounds. We also worked on the improvement of everything connected with aircraft collisions with the ground - improved graphic effects, damage model of the airframe and pilot from collisions. The pilot's physiological model has undergone a new revision as well. A whole section of upgrades is devoted to improvements to previously released aircraft, and another to player controllable vehicles. And some AI objects developed as part of the Battle of Normandy have been introduced into the project.

Our team continues to work on improving the IL-2 universe in every possible way. Stay tuned for more updates this year!

4.604

Main Features

1. Late Spad VII.C1 modification with a 180 hp engine is now available to all customers who pre-ordered Flying Circus Vol.II;

2. LCI(L), Landing Craft Infantry (Large), developed for Battle of Normandy was added to the sim (no visible crew yet);

3. The nationality of the player's aircraft in the Quick Mission now depends on which paint scheme was selected before the mission was generated (which in turn determines the voiceover, crew, and tactical numbers);

4. Spad 7 instruments improved by Oyster_Kai;

5. Several additional textures improved by Oyster_Kai for multiple aircraft such as Bf 109 series, P-51D-15, P-47D-28 and Ju 88 A-4;

Changes to Armaments

6. Instead of having two sizes of tracers ("MGs" and "cannons"), they now depend on the projectile caliber and the tracer length reduces as the projectile speed decreases (important when viewed from the side). Visible tracers of machine guns and small-caliber cannons became significantly smaller, and the size of tank and artillery tracers increased as the result;

7. Smoke traces from tracer bullets and shells became less dense;

8. Graphic effects of armor-piercing 7...15 mm bullets hitting an aircraft were reworked to look more realistic;

9. US Armor Piercing .50 bullets mass and ballistics corrected. Muzzle velocity of 36-inch M2 .50 MG changed to 864 m/s;

10. M2. 50, M2 .30, Browning .303, Hispano Mk.II, Hispano Mk.V, Vickers Class S, M4 machine guns and cannons installed on aircraft (including turreted weapons) have their dispersion corrected according to newly found reference data;

11. Soviet guns dispersion data was adjusted based on a more critical approach to the choice of reference data options (gunnery test reports of obviously defective units were discarded) and using a different method of calculating the parameter of the dispersion function. In general, the dispersion spread either decreased slightly or remained almost the same;

12. The machine gun overheating of German aircraft turrets when firing long bursts was adjusted according to the same approach for all other aircraft (there was a discrepancy before);

13. Inadequate dispersion of turreted machine guns on Flying Circus aircraft was adjusted to match dispersion of these weapons installed on over-wing mounts;

Changes to Aircraft Damage Model

14. Improved aircraft damage model: tangential ground impacts at high speed are more likely to cause an explosion, impacts at medium speed cause more damage to the aircraft and fuel tanks are more likely to catch fire on impact;

15. The excessive likelihood of control wiring damage on all Flying Circus aircraft has been corrected;

16. If control wiring is damaged on Airco D.H.4, Halberstadt CL.II, Bristol Fighter, Albatros D.Va and S.E.5a, Fokker DR.I, Fokker D.VII, Fokker D.VIIF, Fokker D.VIII the corresponding rudders will "dangle" along the air stream (other aircraft will be updated in the next update);

Changes to Pilot Physiological Model

17. Impact and excessive overload injuries model has been adjusted for aircraft and vehicle crews. Collisions with the ground have become more traumatic for pilots;

18. The accumulation of pilot fatigue from overload during long maneuvers has been reduced. This will allow for somewhat longer aerobatics and combat maneuvering. There is inadequate information on the fatigue accumulation under the influence of prolonged small overloads in the publicly available scientific articles, the rare data is very contradictory and therefore the model in this part was adjusted based on the collected opinion of surveyed pilots. Throughout the year we received feedback from experienced pilots and it became generally clear that fatigue was somewhat overestimated. This was corrected;

19. Pilot's backrest angle was adjusted on Pe-2, He-111, Ju-88, and B-25 (it is taken into account in the G-force tolerance model);

20. P-47D-22 pilot no longer has G-suit due to the timeframe of the war this aircraft was designed for;

21. The maximum value of overload that can be displayed on the instrument panel (HUD) has been expanded;

Changes to Graphics

22. Graphical artifacts "thin white stripes in the distance near the coastline" on maps with sea have been removed;

23. Graphics artifacts "white dots along the edge of the sight reflector and some other glass facets when the pilot is wounded or at night when using MSAA and the maximum graphics preset" have been removed;

24. Fixed ships reflections jumping whenl looked at from the shore;

25. Fixed local troubles with sea "climbing at shoreline rocks" on Kuban map;

26. The delay between a high-speed ground impact of an aircraft and the resulting explosion has been minimized;

27. Graphics effects of aircraft falling and exploding when hitting the ground or water or suffering an air collision were improved. A fire now burns for a while at the crash site;

28. The effect of PTAB bursts landing far off the target has been restored;

29. Shadows rendering on tank's hull while quickly turning in 1st person view were corrected;

30. Turret and gun barrel shadows cast by player's tank on the ground during 1st person view were corrected;

31. There are no "holes" in the shadow cast by the Sd.Kfz.184 on the ground in 1st-person view anymore;

32. Airco D.H.4 detailed cockpit model correctly shows in all camera positions inside it;

33. Strong stuttering near Mill airfield on the Rheinland map has been fixed;

34. The visual disappearance of cockpit windows of a damaged Yak-9 at a close distance has been fixed;

Changes to Aircraft

35. Restored the cloud cover target obscuring for AI fighter pilots;

36. AI fighter pilots shouldn't fire at a target if there is an allied aircraft in the line of fire;

37. AI fighter pilots will correctly attack a locomotive instead as the last car;

38. Cockpit won't sometimes open by itself at the end of a mission and gunners won't try to bail out;

39. Crews will bail out slightly faster from multi-crew aircraft;

40. Pilots and gunners that were killed while leaving the plane will have correct poses;

41. Fixed roll trimming of Typhoon Mk.Ib;

42. Fixed (reduced) Typhoon airframe resistance to aerodynamic loads (destructive overload decreased);

43. Typhoon constant tail loose on ditching fixed;

44. C-47A can carry British paratroopers too;

45. Added a paragraph about automatic dive operation to Pe-2 aircraft descriptions (both of them);

46. Fixed the appearance of turn indicator on Yak-7 and Yak-9 aircraft;

47. Fixed an error in the RPK-10 instrument model on the Yak-1b;

48. The guest player occupying the position of the lower He 111 H-16 gunner will correctly see his collimator gunsight;

49. Airco D.H.4: mixed up graphic animation of fuel tank leaks and fires has been fixed;

50. Airco D.H.4: a graphical artifact in the gunner's cockpit when looking at it with the photo camera mounted has been fixed;

51. Airco D.H.4: an issue where damaged landing gear disappeared at a distance has been fixed;

52. Airco D.H.4: the front cockpit instrument glass won't be visible through the rear cockpit windshield;

53. Airco D.H.4: bomb racks won't visibly appear at a distance when there are no bombs;

54. SPAD VII.C1 150h.p.: "broken glare" issue won't happen at a medium detail level;

55. SPAD VII.C1 150h.p.: the installed Lewis over-wing MG will correctly cause drag;

56. SPAD VII.C1 150h.p. and SPAD XIII.C1 excessive batting amplitude has been reduced;

57. P-39 "Prototype" paint scheme no longer has the insignia;

58. All Spitfires: an excessive haze of the windshield armored glass has been removed;

59. Both Yak-9s cockpit glass won't visibly disappear at a distance when damaged;

Changes to Player-Controlled Tanks and Trucks

60. New flame effects from exhaust pipes were added to all Tank Crew tanks (it appears when the engine is damaged and when gasoline engines are outgassed);

61. New powder gases effects were added to all Tank Crew tanks (flashing out of the gun breech when the bolt is opened after the shot is fired);

62. On all player controllable tanks the shading from the sun in a dark area affects gunsights;

63. Wound effects correctly function in all commander' viewports and visors;

64. Hatches won't sometimes open by themselves at the end of a mission and the crewmen won't try to bail out;

65. Poses of unconscious tank crewmen were corrected;

66. The crew leaving sequences of player controllable tanks and anti-aircraft guns were improved;

67. The voiceovers of ammunition type in commander's commands to suppress point and attack target when selecting sub-caliber rounds and machine gun were restored;

68. Single shots of M2 .50 and MG-34 machine guns on player controllable tanks won't create multiple shot sounds;

69. AI drivers of player controllable tanks would correctly close the visor armor shield at the start of combat;

70. Player controllable KV-1s and SU-152 have an additional paint scheme based on historical one but compatible with custom tactical numbers;

71. It is now possible to fold the armored glass block on KV-1s and SU-152 (N key);

72. Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.M and Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.G driver's front and side armor flap opening controls are now separate (LWin+C for the front one as it was before, N key for the side one);

73. GAZ-MM driver's side window and windshield flap controls are now separate (LWin+C for the front one as it was before, N key for the side one);

74. Reflections in GAZ-MM windows are improved;

75. Sd.Kfz.10/5 driver's visor opening is now audible;

76. Sd.Kfz. 10/5 single-player scenarios were updated;

77. Sd.Kfz.10/5 notes now contain the info on how to use the searchlight;

78. The missing voiceovers of the commander's orders to fire machine gun on target and suppressing fire were restored;

79. All Steel Birds campaign scenarios were optimized for better performance;

You can discuss the update n this thread.

Game Updates

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