TFS Update 05/26/2017: Patch 4.5 details

[69thSpiritus]

As May comes to a close, TFS is pushing closer and closer to finishing up the next patch for the community. As things start to come together and testing begins, we wanted to reach out and give everyone somewhat of a "change log" of sorts about what to expect with 4.5. This list isn't everything nor is it finalized (see last week's post) with things possibly being added if time allows. 

 

The amount of work that has been done is impressive and the man hours involved countless. TFS sees 4.5 as what we hope will be a definitive and final version of the original Cliffs of Dover, with additional aircraft, bugfixes, and improvements which bring the game up to the level the original developers had hoped for.  

 

That said, here is a sample of what to expect with patch 4.5.

 

CODE:

 

- Complete rewrite of TFS mods to the source code.

 

- Enabling DX11 

 

- Aircraft mirrors enabled

 

CORRECTED BUGS:

 

- Distant rivers looking like lakes

 

- Flashing plexiglass from bombers, known as the “Christmas tree effect”. 

 

- Drained the three gigantic flooded water areas (#590) in France, aka known as "The Swimming Pools” @ AV02,       BC16, BD14

 

- Grandvillier Airdrome @ BC07 corrected to show all airfield hangers

 

- Relly Norrante Fontes @ BF17 corrected to show all blast pens and Isbergues rail station.

 

- Somewhere in France removed unconnected railway buffer.

 

- Marquise West @ BA20 corrected to show 49 new objects, on airfield and nearby village.

 

- Campagne Les Guines @ BB20 corrected to show all 64 objects instead of 2 at airfield.

 

- East of St Tricat, German camp discovered and now showing. 

 

- Frethun, railway station discovered and now showing.

 

- Spitfire I/IA/IIA cockpit fix for radiator lever. 

 

- Blenheim cockpit and bombardier cabin switches added.

 

- Field modded Hurricane bomb switches added to cockpit. 

 

- Hurricane wooden trim wheel corrected

 

EFFECTS: (Nearly all “particle effects” have been reworked, below are some)

 

- Engine damage smokes

 

- Exhaust flames

 

- Oil leaks

 

- Dust/Dirt

 

- Muzzle flashes

 

- Shell casings

 

- Weapon smoke

 

- Projectile impacts on all surfaces

 

- Tracer effects

 

- De Wilde impact flashes

 

- Bomb/Artillery explosions

 

- Vehicle explosions

 

- Flak effects

 

- Fuel fires

 

- Fuel explosions 

 

- Aircraft crash explosions/fires

 

- Environmental smoke

 

- Chimney smoke

 

- Ship wakes

 

 

SOUND:

 

- Sound catalogs being worked to hopefully provide great improvements for 4.5

 

 

TERRAIN:

 

- New English landscape.

 

- New French landscape.

 

- New shaders

 

NEW FLYABLE AIRCRAFT:

 

- Beaufighter 1F Dayfighter (early) and 1NF Nightfighter (early) with Hercules III engine (The Beaufighter 1C with           Hercules IX will not appear until TF 5.0).

 

- Bf-110C-6 anti-shipping and ground attack version, with 30mm cannon fuselage pod.  

 

- Bf-110C-4B, (early ground attack) with low altitude optimized DB601Aa engines.

 

- Hurricane I Rotol Fighter-Bomber fitted with eight, 40 pound bombs. Note: This aircraft can be definitively confirmed to have been used in the Desert and from Malta... but so far there has been no confirmation it was used on the Channel Front. We decided to include it in TF 4.5 for two reasons... 1) It would probably be missed in all the excitement over the new aircraft... (there will be a Fighter-Bomber version of the Hurri IIB) and 2) It will give mission builders on the Channel map the opportunity to build campaigns with fighter-bombers on both sides. If users prefer not to include the aircraft, that is their choice. 

 

- Blenheim IV, IVF (Late) with twin Browning rear turret. Bomb load additions include eight, 40 pound fuselage mounted bombs. Blenheim IV also has the ability of caring at least 2, possibly 4 SBC’s in the main bay, each holding six 40 pound bombs.  

 

- Armed Tiger Moths variants, one with four 25 lb bombs, one with wing-mount .303 Vickers, and one with cockpit mount Czech 7.92mm firing through prop. We included the version with the bombs because it was a historical BoB aircraft... a last resort to be used if the Germans landed. The other two are included because we believe players will enjoy the opportunity to dogfight with a biplane... we hope to see all Tiger Moth maps as short fun missions.

 

 

 

FM/DM FIXES:

 

- Spitfire fire (or lack of) bug corrected

 

- Re-mapped power physics .dll which corrects the engine bug, Spit MkIIA brakes/windmilling prop/restart, Tiger moth rudder trim, and numerous, numerous other corrections!

 

 

MISCELLANEOUS: 

 

- Tom's Air Force Bases/Maps

 

- New pilot uniforms and accessories

 

SKINS:

 

 

More than a handful of new skins for Channel aircraft. Here is one of the Beaufighter. (Reached my MB limit!) 

 

Edited July 2, 2017 by 69thSpiritus_Mortem

[Urra]

Great Stuff! (Insert pilot banter I can't understand).

Edited May 26, 2017 by TunaEatsLion

[gn728]

Yaah - Beaufighter   - even if TF hadn't become a business the day that came out I was gonna paypal  you guys some cash under the table - now that you're a commercial entity just start charging me whenever you're ready...

[A-E-Hartmann]

GOOD NEWS.

[BlueHeron]

Well done!

[Buzzsaw]

Yaah - Beaufighter   - even if TF hadn't become a business the day that came out I was gonna paypal  you guys some cash under the table - now that you're a commercial entity just start charging me whenever you're ready...

TF 4.5 will be free update for owners of the original game... TF 5.0 will be first pay to play.

[scotchegg]

Seems to be the right season for Europe-based WW2 combat sims! Good work chaps.

[sniperton]

Great news. May I ask whether it's planned / scheduled to resolve the FFB issue with the 109-E4 (the shake file is currently used instead of the cannonfire file), and whether it's planned to implement a quick record hotkey as we have it in the old Il-2 game and in BoX?

[LLv34_Flanker]

S!

 

 Great work. Keep it up.

[YoYo]

Crg! Nice news, my fingers are crossed! 

[I/JG2_Saladin]

Excellent news ! Keep the dream alive...

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

Very nice indeed.

[sallee]

You chaps are wonderworkers. Thank you.

[SvAF/F16_OndaAnkan]

Nice work!

[smink1701]

Sounds great. Updated gunsight effect like promo vid?

[senseispcc55]

Thank You for all your efforts and i hope they will continue, Senseispccc.   

[jeanba]

It looks nice !

[Blooddawn1942]

Looks and sounds very promising.

[Sutts]

I can't tell you how happy I am to see the continued development of this sim.  Thanks to the team for all their hard work.

 

Any chance you'll be addressing the little things like the dual fuel gauge in the spit (should be one I believe) and the lack of working push button to read it?

Also, the manual calls for full rudder trim for takeoff but the aircraft seems to behave badly with this.

 

It would be great if there was a way we could help fund the development of features we'd like to see - like crowd sourcing I suppose.  I'd happily contribute in between releases and I'm sure many others would too.

[JAGER_Batz]

Excellent work TF, you are the best 

 

Anxious for the next patch, and contribute financially with this beautiful work  

Edited May 30, 2017 by JAGER_Batz

[71st_AH_Mastiff]

Awesomeness!!! I never thought 5 years ago, I would get my $59.99 back from steam. Now I get my money's worth from TF!

Edited May 31, 2017 by 71st_AH_Mastiff

[dburne]

4.5 sounds very exciting indeed! Loving the move to DX11!

Perhaps one step closer to VR support!

[Gambit21]

I might actually pull my Clod disk out and install this thing. (Couldn't even get it to run 5 years ago and immediately uninstalled)

 

Nice work gents

[1/SG2_Ganeshka]

Oculus rift support ?! 

[1PL-Husar-1Esk]

I bought it for about equivalent of 3 $ - cheap investment I wonder how much TF 5 will cost ?

[Sokol1]

Oculus rift support ?! 

 

Not for 4.50: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/26759-discussion-about-1cgs-tf-clod-cooperation-announcement/page-12?do=findComment&comment=475141

[YoYo]

Any estimated date for 4.5? This summer?

[Talisman]

Question regarding corrected bug:

 

- Spitfire I/IA/IIA cockpit fix for radiator lever.

 

What is wrong with the radiator leaver?

 

I did not know that there was anything wrong with it.

 

Thanks.

 

Happy landings,

 

56RAF_Talisman

[69thSpiritus]

There is a placard now which shows how open or closed the flap is. 

[56RAF_Roblex]

 

 

Any chance you'll be addressing the little things like the dual fuel gauge in the spit (should be one I believe) and the lack of working push button to read it?

 

What exactly is wrong with the button?   I used to have to juggle the joystick to press the button before I assigned it to a button on my joystick.

Also what do you mean about 'dual fuel guage'?  I see only one.

 

Edited October 4, 2017 by 56RAF_Roblex

[Aap]

 

 

Also what do you mean about 'dual fuel guage'?  I see only one.

 

 

There is a "BOTT TANK" button next to the fuel gauge, so I guess pressing it would show fuel quantity in the other tank.

[56RAF_Roblex]

 

 

There is a "BOTT TANK" button next to the fuel gauge, so I guess pressing it would show fuel quantity in the other tank.

 

 

What it means is that pressing the button *only* shows the contents of the bottom tank.   You cannot tell what is in the top tank,only that it must be empty when the bottom tank starts being used. 

[Aap]

I think that is exactly what he meant by 'dual fuel gauge'. One gauge is showing content of two different tanks, based on wether the button is pressed or not.

[Talisman]

There is a placard now which shows how open or closed the flap is. 

Sorry Mortem, but I am still none the wiser from your post.  I still don't know what is wrong and what the bug is (also not aware that anyone I fly with knows there is a bug with the Spit rad lever).  We operate the rad control lever, we see it move, it opens and closes the rad and all seems to work OK.  What am I missing?  What is going to change when I fly the Spitfire after the patch? 

 

I ask because control of the radiator is very important and after all this time I had no idea there was a bug.  I am concerned to know what the change will be and what, if anything, I will need to do different when flying the Spitfire after the patch. 

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Happy landings,

 

56RAF_Talisman

[56RAF_Roblex]

I think that is exactly what he meant by 'dual fuel gauge'. One gauge is showing content of two different tanks, based on wether the button is pressed or not.

 

No.   It only shows the contents of the bottom tank and only if you press the button.  If you do not press the button it does not show anything.   The fuel gauge is electrically operated and until you press the button it does not work.  

[Aap]

Ah ok. Very weird engineering choice, I have to say.

[69thSpiritus]

@Talisman:

 

It isn't all that noticeable, especially for those well versed in the spit. There is a placard just to the left of the rad lever which shows you which direction is open and which is closed for the rad flap. It was missing before. 

[Sokol1]

There is a placard just to the left of the rad lever which shows you which direction is open and which is closed for the rad flap. It was missing before. 

 

Ahh, like the missing few pixels of P-8 compass Lubber Line - that is ways more useful than this placard that rarely someone will look at. 

 

I guess this placard is the one see there, right elevator trim wheel:

 

http://spitfiresite.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/01_kpit_003.jpg

Edited October 6, 2017 by Sokol1

[Talisman]

@Talisman:

 

It isn't all that noticeable, especially for those well versed in the spit. There is a placard just to the left of the rad lever which shows you which direction is open and which is closed for the rad flap. It was missing before. 

Yes, I see now.  The label with radiator flap control operating instructions on top of the map box.  Many thanks for explaining.

 

I read, in the Spitfire manual, that the red triangle shows the normal minimum drag position of the flap lever for level flight.  A notch beyond the normal position in the aft direction provides a position of the lever when warm air is diverted through ducts into the main planes for heating the guns at high altitude.  Air Publication 1565A, Vol. I Sect. I paragraph 17, and Air Publication 1565B, Vol. I Sect. I paragraph 17, refers. 

 

Thanks again and happy landings,

 

56RAF_Talisman

[5th_Barone]

Hi,

I remember an update where it was said that the ground handling would have been improved.

Is that expected for tf4.5?

Which improvement will be done? More realistic taxi system (i.e. brakes required to turn)?

Cheers

Edited October 19, 2017 by Barone