What will IL-2 look like a decade from now?

[Freycinet]

He, was it ten years ago there was a guy called Jason on the SimHQ forums who worked for TrackIR in some capacity?... - I wonder whatever happened to him...  ;-)

 

Just to say that it is REALLY hard to predict how flight simming will look ten years from now! I just hope we haven't been *deleted* by our new AI Overlords. 

[seafireliv]

From my experience it`s never as good as we`d like. In fact we tend to lose things that previous versions had. Sequels that are 10 years old are often better than the present day versions except that graphics, sounds and animations are better.

 

Xcom 2 gives less options than the original Xcom which I loved. Total War games today actually give less with fewer mechanics than the originals, etc, etc. Even BOS today has more restrictions than IL2. You can`t even play the Career mode (which is very good btw)  Offline which is actually a step back from the original, basically you`re stuck online forever which is a weak link.

 

Just pointing out the truth.

 

So I wouldn`t get too excited about it in 10 years... I`m sure it`ll look great though as it flies itself for you.

Edited March 27, 2018 by seafireliv

[Necrobaron]

I like a lot of what has been said already. I'd love to see dynamic visual damage and "deformable" aluminum skins and fuselage parts, wrinkling and crumpling realistically upon contact.  I've seen some of this in racing games even today and think it'd be a neat bit of eye candy in a flight sim.

[danielprates]

I would love if what happened to il2-1946 happened to BoX: that wonderful team like TEAM DAIDALOS kept developing content (mo' planes!) even after the game's commercial life had expired already.

[falle96]

4 minutes ago, danielprates said:

I would love if what happened to il2-1946 happened to BoX: that wonderful team like TEAM DAIDALOS kept developing content (mo' planes!) even after the game's commercial life had expired already.

I get the feeling that this will be BoX's fate in the end, but it's hard to say.

 

Across the industry, there has been a shift towards "Games as Services," meaning that everything is starting to slowly take on MMO-esque lifespans as they are updated and updated again for good measure. It is entirely possible, assuming no catastrophic changes to the world or to 1C in particular, and also assuming that the technology available to 1C cannot be improved beyond a certain point, that BoX could keep running for a very, very long time indeed.

 

I think the fact that War Thunder was able to update its engine with their latest patch makes me hopeful that perhaps the same will happen to BoX in the future as more and more modules are released.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

A decade from now, Il-2 will be largely abandoned unless there are continuous updates, comprehensive modding, or zero alternatives.

 

The longevity of 1946 well into its second decade can be attributed to these three things. Team Daidalos kept releasing new content and fixes. Mods such as UltraPack and HSFX added many exciting features. Meanwhile, there was no real competition until War Thunder thanks to the CloD debacle. 

 

Tank Crew adds even more uncertainty. Suddenly, we have a game that can shift gears and take us to new types of battles.

Edited March 28, 2018 by Mitthrawnuruodo

[SCG_Fenris_Wolf]

I think "Games as Services" is the right approach, along with engine updates and engine upgrades (dx12) like shown by other games like WT, Wot, Eve, MMOs, etc. 

 

BoX is a good brand with positive reception and the one to keep, and it should be avoided to get abandoned like 1946,  or the back then negatively perceived CloD. 

[ATA_Vasilij]

8 hours ago, seafireliv said:

From my experience it`s never ....

God, man, you wrote my own words.

The commercial actual times are producing visually stunning products without a soul, without a "hook" that catches you.

Games 10 years ago a man played because "playability" was awesome. Now all new games I play just 1/2 hour they have wonderful graphic, BUT its boring.

IL2 BOS is exception, just because of love in planes, and FM, and VR. 

But the last update, is in the same principle.... more visuals, but more stuttering, and lagging and less playable for me. thats how it is. 

[Royal_Flight]

Hopefully in ten years time we'll have heard some news about the Po-2 and Li-2. 

[354thFG_Leifr]

Bloody awesome, that's what!

[danielprates]

12 hours ago, FarflungWanderer said:

I get the feeling that this will be BoX's fate in the end, but it's hard to say.

 

Across the industry, there has been a shift towards "Games as Services," meaning that everything is starting to slowly take on MMO-esque lifespans as they are updated and updated again for good measure. It is entirely possible, assuming no catastrophic changes to the world or to 1C in particular, and also assuming that the technology available to 1C cannot be improved beyond a certain point, that BoX could keep running for a very, very long time indeed.

 

I think the fact that War Thunder was able to update its engine with their latest patch makes me hopeful that perhaps the same will happen to BoX in the future as more and more modules are released.

 

Quite agree. Companies like "paradox"  have found the way to give games a longer lifespan,  by constantly updating the "basegame" as they release new content over the years. Il2 seems to be going that way,  which is awesome.

 

Now,  if it hits a technological dead end,  where there is no choice but to scrap the game and create a new one,  I'll be very sad about it. It is certainly the worse scenario for us players. I say that because newer generations of games get increasingly more "watered down",  for commercial reasons. Even the current Il2 does not escape that logic. In 1946 and CloD we could set magnetos,  carburator heat,  fuel feed.... that was simplified in BoX. What would a future installment be?

[216th_Jordan]

12 hours ago, Mitthrawnuruodo said:

A decade from now, Il-2 will be largely abandoned unless there are continuous updates, comprehensive modding, or zero alternatives.

 

 

I don't think so. With the quality content that is likely to come in the next 2-6 years (Bodenplatte, Pacific), if not something major happens, this sim is likely going to stay longer then you'd think. It's more than 4 years "old" already, and you know that a lot of things have changed for the better. As long as the developer is actively standing behind the product he has been improving ever since this will most likely only get better.

 

We are at a point where in the department of quality you can not make a lot of things better without a major effort in time and money, not in the next 20 years at least. The bottleneck in development is the strength of the development team, not the computers limitations (mostly). So until we have completely new technologies to compute and access information this generation of sims are not going to be surpassed. Il-2 has a strong foundation now, and I hope they can expand on it.

What will really make this series last for a long time however is accessability for new players. I think the campaign for example is a great entry point and something that quickly grabs you and maybe holds you for a long time. And things like custom Icons would also be very welcome so you can scale the difficulty a lot more for intermediate players.

[falle96]

44 minutes ago, danielprates said:

 

Quite agree. Companies like "paradox"  have found the way to give games a longer lifespan,  by constantly updating the "basegame" as they release new content over the years. Il2 seems to be going that way,  which is awesome.

 

Now,  if it hits a technological dead end,  where there is no choice but to scrap the game and create a new one,  I'll be very sad about it. It is certainly the worse scenario for us players. I say that because newer generations of games get increasingly more "watered down",  for commercial reasons. Even the current Il2 does not escape that logic. In 1946 and CloD we could set magnetos,  carburator heat,  fuel feed.... that was simplified in BoX. What would a future installment be?

I don't imagine that you can simplify a WW2 flight sim beyond this point without losing the "sim" title. Managing magnetos, carburetor heat, fuel feed, and the like are features I imagine will return to BoX through the power of modding or by developer addition in future modules.

 

As for a future installment, I don't believe that 1C will "casual-ify" the game to the point of irrelevance. They know their audience, or are at least aware of their legacy, and will likely continue making sims until the company eventually passes into history. I do expect them to make a new BoX series when eventually the technology of today reaches its limits, but that might be a long time from now.

[CF-105]

14 hours ago, Necrobaron said:

I like a lot of what has been said already. I'd love to see dynamic visual damage and "deformable" aluminum skins and fuselage parts, wrinkling and crumpling realistically upon contact.  I've seen some of this in racing games even today and think it'd be a neat bit of eye candy in a flight sim.

 

*drools

[II/JG17_HerrMurf]

23 hours ago, coconut said:

The future of IL-2 will be decided by technological development (hardware and software), user base evolution and trends.

 

Technological development

CPUs won't be getting significantly faster. GPUs will, and will also be capable of executing more complex shaders, allowing for e.g. real-time ray-tracing. Integration between CPU and GPU will have improved, i.e. exchange of information between CPU and GPU will be such that maybe they'll be able to share memory. High-resolution VR will be available.

Internet bandwidth will increase, but ping will remain the same. Memory technology is an area when we can look forward to big advances. Some predict that the difference between RAM and static storage will be gone.

 

 

 

 

But won't the game (potentially/theoretically) use that CPU more efficiently? As I understand it we are not using all of the cores available to share tasks and make computations of those shared tasks. Or has this been resolved currently? Plus, separate issue, DX 12 offers the potential to increase object numbers, details and speed of rendering. Hoping both increase for future iterations of this already excellent game.

[Pict]

Something like this with any luck...  

 

 

Edited March 29, 2018 by Pict