Developer Diary 306 - Discussion

[[CPT]milopugdog]

I always love the small things that the devs are always able to surprise us with. I remember way back in the olden days, the talk of different seasons was brand new, and all of a sudden they were going back and updating the Stalingrad and V. Luki maps with seasons. Then retexturing the steppe to be more accurate. Inclusion of the free tanks just because, which eventually lead to Tank Crew. The upgrade from DX9 to DX11 and inclusion of VR support. The 4k texture upgrades which just got finished. Even more recently we had DVD, tactical codes, and the fuel system rework which are still WIP. Then we got new clouds, AQMB, and now the new sky.

 

I think playing the game now, we take a lot of these for granted. But they weren't always around, and the game was in a much different place. Among various other things, these surprise upgrades are why I love this team and continually support them anyway I can.

 

You can call me a simp if you want, but at least it's to something good. ❤️

[ZachariasX]

19 hours ago, Jason_Williams said:

Also, this sky is also part of our research in making a round globe for a future engine and future products we are researching.

The images are truly looking great. But you saying THIS made my jaw drop.

 

I am aware that things do take their time and this is fine with me, but I think this is another occasion where I want to say how much I am impressed with your and your teams diligence. Following the evolution of this sim over the years is quiet something.

 

Thanks man. You guys rock!

[dburne]

Wow new sky tech is looking and sounding great! Really looking forward to seeing it.

[Freycinet]

On 2/5/2022 at 1:07 AM, Jason_Williams said:

Not sure what priorities you think we should be working on, but we are working on ALL fronts every day.

 

Not sure it is a good idea to be taking a page out of the Wehrmacht's playbook....   ?  ?

Edited February 6, 2022 by Freycinet

[Gambit21]

8 hours ago, [CPT]milopugdog said:

I always love the small things that the devs are always able to surprise us with. I remember way back in the olden days, the talk of different seasons was brand new, and all of a sudden they were going back and updating the Stalingrad and V. Luki maps with seasons. Then retexturing the steppe to be more accurate. Inclusion of the free tanks just because, which eventually lead to Tank Crew. The upgrade from DX9 to DX11 and inclusion of VR support. The 4k texture upgrades which just got finished. Even more recently we had DVD, tactical codes, and the fuel system rework which are still WIP. Then we got new clouds, AQMB, and now the new sky.

 

I think playing the game now, we take a lot of these for granted. But they weren't always around, and the game was in a much different place. Among various other things, these surprise upgrades are why I love this team and continually support them anyway I can.

 

 

Amen!

What they’ve managed to do over the last few years under less than ideal circumstances is astounding. Far from the only accomplishment, the new sky/clouds makes it a new sim.

[SYN_Speck]

Gorgeous!

[Dallas88B]

Really terrific improvements...the new sky has made a big difference and these further advancements are just great. Thank you and thanks to your crew. 

[cellinsky]

Just my two cents: While the day-screens look ralistic, dawn/dusk is way off imho. The sky is never this dark and dirty when the sun is still over the horizon. Its not even when the sun is right under the horizon. Its a cool tech though, please tune as real as possible.

[Toots_LeGuerre]

While the day-screens look ralistic, dawn/dusk is way off imho. 

 

Move to Texas and dusk and dawn are right on.

Yes, the sky is that dark and dirty.

[No_Face]

I can't wait for the price of graphics cards to become normal again so that I can switch to VR ?

 

@Jason_Williams Could you make it a habit to put the screenshots in spoiler tags to load the DD page faster please?

 

Currently there are 40 posts per page, with an average of 3 or 4 screenshots per post, which represents between 120 to 160 screenshots that load. It takes time and it can also make the reading of the article less pleasant because once a screenshot is loaded it tends to move the article down the page.

 

Thank you.

 

[Props]

27 minutes ago, vonNutz said:

While the day-screens look ralistic, dawn/dusk is way off imho. 

 

Move to Texas and dusk and dawn are right on.

Yes, the sky is that dark and dirty.

I agree. I lived in Texas for many years back in the day and these screenshots are really good. I have lived all over the U.S., Germany for 4 years traveling a bunch in Europe, and now 5 years in S. America, as well as seeing dawn and dusk in places like Alaska in winter and summer and can tell you that sunrise and sunset sky appearances can differ a lot in these various locations. The best morning and evening skies are in the high desert with deep blues above during the day, while here on the equator, in the mountains of Ecuador, the sky is a lighter blue at midday while sunrise and sunset skies are usually a bit bland. In Europe I found the skies less blue at midday, often hazy in the mornings, and the sunrise/sunsets to be generally OK, with the exception of trips to the Mediterranean around Greece where the ocean definitely changes the sky for the better. The sky dome appearance can change dramatically dependent on location, dust and haze, time of day, temperature, altitude, and host of other variables so I for one do not see anything wrong with these screenshots - they look great to me. Kudos to Jason and the team on this new development!

[Dukethejuke]

Well I am going to get shot a lot more paying more attention to the skies beauty! Nothing more ugly than a 190 on your arse!

[Danziger]

Does this mean the screenshots with new clouds thread will be closed and a new screenshot thread with new clouds and new sky will be opened?

[NanashiAnjin]

Will this have an effect on visibility?

 

Spotting other planes might be a bit different?

[Tomi_099]

Augenschmaus ist wichtig !

 

Eye candy is important 

 

Edited February 7, 2022 by Tomi_099

[Frequent_Flyer]

The entire environment maps, skydome, new clouds and weather are beautifully rendered in my opinion. Hopefully soon the devs. are rendering the beautiful deep blue of the South Pacific.

[=FEW=Hauggy]

50.cals that work would be more beautiful tho

[Strewth]

7 hours ago, =FEW=Hauggy said:

50.cals that work would be more beautiful tho

There is a little squeezy thing on the front of your joystick.

If you squeeze it, the 5o cals work.

Really simple.

Follow me for more tips on making things work.

Cheers

 

[kendo]

7 hours ago, =FEW=Hauggy said:

50.cals that work would be more beautiful tho

 

Tired....really...

[Diggun]

17 minutes ago, Strewth said:

Follow me for more tips on making things work.

Liked & subscribed!

[Sitaro]

I really do appreciate the work involved in the graphics update. And they do look much better. I am just hoping the fuel system reworks addresses some of the functionality issues in the game. At some point, function is more important than appearance.  Not saying appearance is not important. 

[Livai]

Quote

This technology should not have much of an impact on your performance, however, it does use more Video Memory

 

-> As far I know "Physically-based rendering" create more Shadows. More Shadows rendered = means higher FPS drop specially near ground than before.

 

[Gambit21]

1 hour ago, Livai said:

 

-> As far I know "Physically-based rendering" create more Shadows. More Shadows rendered = means higher FPS drop specially near ground than before.

 

 

 

-> It’s not that simple.

 

Also the statement was - not “much” of a performance impact.

 

[JG7_X-Man]

Love it! Banding was the one thing no mater how I threw at my PC, I could never fix it - UNTIL NOW! 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

8 hours ago, Sitaro said:

I really do appreciate the work involved in the graphics update. And they do look much better. I am just hoping the fuel system reworks addresses some of the functionality issues in the game. At some point, function is more important than appearance.  Not saying appearance is not important. 

You do realise that the guy doing the graphics work is someone else than the guy doing the fuel system?  Improving the graphics will have zero effect on how soon any functionality is added or improved.

 

7 hours ago, Livai said:

-> As far I know "Physically-based rendering" create more Shadows. More Shadows rendered = means higher FPS drop specially near ground than before.

Not true. In itself, PBR has nothing at all to do with shadows. It merely means that surface shaders are created in such a way as to approximate the laws of physics as close as possible (i.e. the electromagnetic boundary effects between the two media: air and the material).

 

PBR is an equally meaningless buzzword/catchphrase as "Artificial Intelligence". Although both imply certain standards (90s graphics is clearly not PBR, a simulated monkey in the cockpit is clearly not intelligent), neither tells us about how this "physical approximation" or "intelligence" is achieved, and neither tells us what is considered "physically based" or "intelligent". One could easily argue that the current aircraft shaders are already PBR since they seem to model things as reflections pretty realistically. One could just as easily argue that only raytracing and photon mapping solutions are PBR since only these attempt to model light itself.

 

EDIT: Jason wasn't talking about PBR in his Dev Diary since one thing that *is* clear about PBR is that it concerns surfaces - and the sky by definition isn't a surface.

Edited February 9, 2022 by AEthelraedUnraed

[Asgar]

On 2/9/2022 at 5:01 PM, Livai said:

 

-> As far I know "Physically-based rendering" create more Shadows. More Shadows rendered = means higher FPS drop specially near ground than before.

 

let's be honest here, if your PC can't handle IL-2 GBS in the year 2022 it's time for an upgrade. Clearly they have been holding back for years now with big updates, always concerned about preserving the minimum system specs

Edited February 10, 2022 by Asgar

[Jade_Monkey]

54 minutes ago, Asgar said:

let's be honest here, if your PC can't handle IL-2 GBS in the year 2022 it's time for an upgrade. Clearly they have been holding back for years now with big updates, always concerned about preserving the minimum system specs

 

Couldn't agree more. 

[Lusekofte]

5 minutes ago, Jade_Monkey said:

 

Couldn't agree more. 

It is of interest being at a highest point possible.

But if I had to ditch my 1080 ti right now.

This game would be uninstalled before you could say hallo.

I understand the economical part of trying to get all aboard. And I think a slow progression would force most people to slowly upgrade.

 

[No.23_Gaylion]

On 2/4/2022 at 12:04 PM, vonNutz said:

The war is over for me.

It started with the new clouds.

Now with the new lighting effects, I will put on music and fly off into the sunset.

Beautiful.

 

Cowards will be shot. 

Edited February 10, 2022 by US103_Talbot

[Asgar]

14 hours ago, LuseKofte said:

It is of interest being at a highest point possible.

But if I had to ditch my 1080 ti right now.

This game would be uninstalled before you could say hallo.

I understand the economical part of trying to get all aboard. And I think a slow progression would force most people to slowly upgrade.

 

dude, have you even looked at the GPU survey? this isn't about GTX 10XX series owners, this is about the 30 people owning GTX 7XX series cards and whatever the equivalent AMD stuff is. 
There was talk of upping the minimum specs to 4GB of VRAM, even a 1060 usually has 6GB unless you're too stingy for your own good when buying hardware.

Edited February 11, 2022 by Asgar

[Mad_Mikhael]

I would like to see huge bombers formations with graphics like Clod then cool super-duper graphic stuff. Best games I've played were with "meh" graphic, like Project Reality or Silent Hunter ? Screw them graphics.

Edited February 10, 2022 by Mad_Mikhael

[Lusekofte]

2 hours ago, Asgar said:

dude, have you even looked at the GPU survey? this isn't about 10XX owners, this is about the 30 people owning GTX 7XX series cards and whatever the equivalent AMD stuff is. 
There was talk of upping the minimum specs to 4GB of VRAM, even a 1060 usually has 6GB unless you're too stingy for your own good when buying hardware.

No I did not, I focus on what I do. I am happy I do not have to cut away anyone from this sim, I find it sufficient for what I do with it. If low tech people enjoy this too, I am quite happy for them. 

[Asgar]

21 minutes ago, LuseKofte said:

No I did not, I focus on what I do. I am happy I do not have to cut away anyone from this sim, I find it sufficient for what I do with it. If low tech people enjoy this too, I am quite happy for them. 

sorry, but letting 50 people hold back the development of this sim will be a sure death sentence for the series

[BraveSirRobin]

1 hour ago, LuseKofte said:

No I did not, I focus on what I do. I am happy I do not have to cut away anyone from this sim, I find it sufficient for what I do with it. If low tech people enjoy this too, I am quite happy for them. 

 

That isn't how this works.  Eventually the people with the low end computers get left behind.  Otherwise we'd still be playing games with Red Baron graphics.

[BlitzPig_EL]

My only concern is the stratospheric pricing/poor availability currently on higher end cards.  Thankfully my 2070 Super is able to run the sim essentially maxed out. The rest of my computer is getting a bit older, but I can still host for my squad and play on the same machine, so I feel I have enough overhead, for the time being.

 

Time will tell of course, but in the current economy and world situation, I'm going to stand fast with what I have and see how things shake out.

[Gambit21]

3 hours ago, BlitzPig_EL said:

My only concern is the stratospheric pricing/poor availability currently on higher end cards.  Thankfully my 2070 Super is able to run the sim essentially maxed out.

 

My 1080 comes close to running maxed out and DCS as well.

If I had a 2070 I wouldn't even be considering a new card right now.

 

As it is I'm waiting for a 3070.

[IckyATLAS]

Let's face it, Nvidia new pricing policy is that the top card in a series has the numbering as the price. So simple and crystal clear.

Example the 3090 is 3'090 US$ and for the cards with smaller numbers like 3080, 3070 etc. a very small rebate is calculated from that reference price.

For the top TI version you add +50% if you can find it.

Gone are those beautiful days where you could buy the top card for about 500 US$ with the feeling that you did a good investment that will last for many years to come.

 

Here below an image of what market maddness means (price are rounded to make it simple):

 

As per today (yes prices change over time, they always increase)  I can buy at my local retail hardware shop an Asus 3090 Rog Strix OC 24GB card for 3'400 US$.

Yes you have other less expensive 3090 models at 3'200 or 3'100 US$.

The lower priced Asus 3090 is 3090 US$ (surprised!). No kidding these are the listed official public price.

 

All brands included as per today, the pricing extremes for a 3090 are as follows:

The most expensive 3090 stands at 3'600 US$. And the gold winner is: PNY GeForce RTX 3090 XLR8 Gaming Uprising Epic-X RGB Triple Fan Edition - 24GB

The less expensive 3090 is at 2'700 US$. And the bronze medalist is: Gigabyte GeForce RTX 3090 Eagle OC - 24G

 

And what is the most extreme prices listed for 30XX series card?

Highest is an MSI 3080 Ventus 12 GB  type for 4'100 US$. Most probably OC at 10 GHZ gold plated with coloured diamonds instead of RGB lighting. Let's be honest I can buy a car for this price. A used car yes but nevertheless a good family car.

Lowest is Gigabyte 3050 Eagle 8GB for a miserable 470 US$. We thank from the bottom of our heart Gigabyte for its help and donations to the poor and miserable gamers.

 

And because we are at it what is the extreme in the RTX XXXX series cards?

RTX Highest price winner overall comes same as before the special MSI 3080 Ventus 12 GB mentioned above 4'100 US$.

RTX Lower price winner isGigabyte 3050 Eagle 8GB mentioned above at 470 US$.

No error here, all the other RTX 10XX series and 20XX series are all more expensive and by far from the lowest price mentioned right above. Some 1080Ti and 2080Ti are more expensive that many 30XX series cards.

 

Just to close this horrific chapter what are the top and bottom price overall of the whole shop graphic card listing?

Winner overall in the top price category is an HPE Quadro RTX 8000  version going for 9'000 US$. A bargain but here definitively you buy the car first.

Winner overall in the bottom price category is Gainward GeForce GT 730 SilentFX - LowProfile - 2GB and for 110 US$. Yes run to buy it until their stock lasts.

 

Voilà have a nice WE and start putting money every month a share of your salary in a special Nvidia RTX accound to pay for the next 4090 Ti expected, no hoped at not more than 6'000 US$ base retail MSRP price. And sorry I forgot to add, you will need a 2.5 Kilowatt power supply unit and air conditioning in your room to avoid overheating. 

 

 

Edited February 11, 2022 by IckyATLAS

[MajorMagee]

It's all about taking the maximum amount of money from the Bit Miners...