PWCG Normandy Beta 2 Released

[Robi89]

39 minutes ago, PatrickAWlson said:

 

Targeting ships, ports, etc. is definitely high on the  list of priorities.   Of course, they are supposed to actually bomb the target.  

 

The issue might be in the intercept coordinates.  On intercept missions an enemy flight is chosen and your flight is supposed to fly to the area and do a search pattern.  

 

 

PWCG flights move virtually until you get close enough.  They spawn at any point in their flight.

Not saying there's not a problem but a lot of the behavior being reported could be normal - or not depending on circumstances.  I am still cleaning up a bunch of stuff but I'll look at flight patterns at some point.  If somebody can make an offending mission available (zip file) it will help.  I need the .mission and .eng files only.

 

Here you go.

PWCG.rar

[Stonehouse]

7 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

@Stonehouse  I am not seeing any skins in the directory that you describe.  Just plane part textures like engine, exhaust, etc.  

 

I do agree with you that "00" is probably just dropping to the default, however, that might be a perfectly decent solution.  

 

 

 

Hi Pat, 

They should be there in amongst all the other stuff. I ungtp'ed the plane gtps yesterday to try to ensure I was telling you the correct things and here is an example for the A20B. Note that I deselected the alpha channel or whatever the term is for the pic below. I think the ones with the ! prefix are lod dds files for the aircraft at distance but don't really know.  Unfortunately, you have to cherry pick the default skin out of the mass to see it. Only clue is the filename is mostly (thinking of the P51D exception mentioned earlier) the same as the plane name. Note that if you are just trying to see what the default is rather than trying to reference it directly in PWCG that you can always look at the thumbnail pic default.dds found in folder data\swf\il2\worldobjects\planes\plane name\skins although this is just a side on shot. (have to ungtp the swf.gtp file for these) 

I guess the easiest way to simply see the default skin is run the il2 skin viewer. Whatever loads initially for each plane is the default.

 

Edited October 7, 2022 by Stonehouse

[Stonehouse]

For the 00 skin - it was just an idea to try to save you work. Below is from a quick mission where I left the skin default.

 

If you don't have any skins set up in PWCG, what do you get in the generated mission? Same thing?

 

If that is right, then all you need for post 5.002 is a way to tell PWCG that you want to use tactical codes. At the moment I think you use the "use tactical codes" parameter on the skin setup but after 5.002 the default position is that every generic skin will use tactical codes.

 

So, you could have it in PWCG such that not defining any skin gives you the default with tactical codes from the squadron json and if a skin is set up then you use the "use tactical codes" parameter to control what happens. 

 

It would mean that perhaps you could avoid setting up a skin for a lot of the units particularly the German and American ones. In a way your skin setup in PWCG becomes an override to the default position of default skin with tactical codes. Anyway, it is just a passing thought. 

 

Spoiler

Plane
{
  Name = "";
  Index = 1155;
  LinkTrId = 1156;
  XPos = 186630.125;
  YPos = 1500.000;
  ZPos = 71057.625;
  XOri = 0.00;
  YOri = 232.00;
  ZOri = 12.80;
  Script = "luascripts/worldobjects/planes/p51d15.txt";
  Model = "graphics/planes/p51d15/p51d15.mgm";
  Country = 103;
  Desc = "";
  Skin = "";
  AILevel = 0;
  CoopStart = 0;
  NumberInFormation = 0;
  Vulnerable = 1;
  Engageable = 1;
  LimitAmmo = 1;
  StartInAir = 0;

 

Edited October 7, 2022 by Stonehouse

[Tirantfoc]

Hello,
I would like to know how these parameters affect mission performance. With Normandy I try to make the missions coast to coast attack and I don't know if it is necessary to change these settings:

1. Max dist in km mission center from base.
2. Min dist in km mission center from base.
3. Size in km of mission box.

I increased these values but the mission performance was not good. I would need some indication to put these parameters in their most correct value.

Thank you very much for your great work.
 

[Daisy_Blossom]

Hey Pat- 

 

III./ZG 26 flying ME410s out of Dieppe Saint Aubin do not have enough runway to actually get airborne. Regardless of how much fuel or how unladen the AI wingmates are... they always crash into objects at the end of the very short runway before getting off the ground. 

 

Thanks again for all of your hard work on this amazing program! 

[PatrickAWlson]

Beta 1 Fixes

Skins - in game skins for every plane corrected.
Some Typhoon mods availability pushed to mid 1944
Gap in 56 squadron assigned planes
Do not put troops and ground units in place for iconic anti shipping missions
- Mostly impacts Dunkirk 
Added code to not kill pilots who bail out
- Used to avoid killing everybody that bails out over the channel
- If you are going down over water, don't ditch.  PWCG can't pick that up.  Bail out.

 

The skins are a complete redo of every inn game skin for every plane.  That took some effort so some things posted recently probably did not get done.  I flew a very nice mission where I finally shot something down using .303s.  The skins all looked good for a change.  Having changed probably a few hundred entries in dozens of files the odds of a mistake in there somewhere are pretty high, but it should be a great improvement.

 

These 3 issues are NOT yet fixed:

1. There's still smoke rising in southeast England and the CH towers are still damaged, mission date is 08/06/1941.
2. I just flew two Intercept missions with 41 Squadron out of Westhampnett and both times the bombers we were supposed to intercept turned back before coming into range, never having dropped their ordnance. If they hadn't shown up on "radar", we never even would have seen them.
3. III./ZG 26 flying ME410s out of Dieppe Saint Aubin do not have enough runway to actually get airborne. Regardless of how much fuel or how unladen the AI wingmates are... they always crash into objects at the end of the very short runway before getting off the ground. 

 

18 hours ago, Tirantfoc said:

Hello,
I would like to know how these parameters affect mission performance. With Normandy I try to make the missions coast to coast attack and I don't know if it is necessary to change these settings:

1. Max dist in km mission center from base.
2. Min dist in km mission center from base.
3. Size in km of mission box.

I increased these values but the mission performance was not good. I would need some indication to put these parameters in their most correct value.

Thank you very much for your great work.
 

 

Increasing them will cause the mission space to be potentially larger and actually hurt performance.  However, probably not by any meaningful amount.    The prime performance drivers are AI objects, especially airplanes, and especially multi crew airplanes.

Edited October 9, 2022 by PatrickAWlson

[Stonehouse]

One of those times I wish I could put multiple reactions. So, I've put like already and I'll just say thank you once again Pat and upvote.

[Real_Ranger]

I don't know if this has been reported yet, but I downloaded the PWCG for Normandy today, and flew as a Bf109 pilot on a bombing mission over in Britain.   When I flew over the Isle of Wight I noticed that all the buildings were flattened... in 1 dimension.   When I got to the British mainland, same thing.  You have no buildings, just a flat drawing of them on the ground.  

 

Also... I am flying the Normandy Alpha... should I be doing the Normandy Alpha or the Normandy Beta at this time?

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by Real_Ranger

[Stonehouse]

Just checking Pat - I'm assuming (now) the Hurricane II is not getting the Merlin XX +14 lb boost engine due to date limits?  ie June 1941 is too early. 

 

 

My mistake originally in reporting it as a bug but just also to check the intro date is set for RAF use as circa 18 Nov 1942 in PWCG just in case the game is using different dates since the Hurricane was added to IL2 primarily for VVS use.

 

Reference for adoption date:

http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/hurricane/merlin-xx-18nov42.jpg

 

 

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by Stonehouse

[Letka_13/Arrow_]

Hello Pat, great job getting the beta out, there might be a problem with default skins as I am still getting russian skin for Hurricane mkII RAF, flying in 1943 for 74th Squadron in Normandy. 

[Patricks]

Know it was mentioned earlier but there are a couple units (plane under netting, AAA) intruding on the runway (early 56th missions). I have been missing the plane but yesterday I was rolling toward the runway exit and clipped a AAA sandbag on the edge of the runway, ripped the wheel off and stood my Hurri on its nose. Pilot dead!?!

[Letka_13/Arrow_]

49 minutes ago, Patricks said:

Know it was mentioned earlier but there are a couple units (plane under netting, AAA) intruding on the runway (early 56th missions). I have been missing the plane but yesterday I was rolling toward the runway exit and clipped a AAA sandbag on the edge of the runway, ripped the wheel off and stood my Hurri on its nose. Pilot dead!?!

This is maybe even a core sim problem, because I've seen units on the runway even in QMB.

Edited October 9, 2022 by Rudolph

[Robi89]

10 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

Beta 1 Fixes

Skins - in game skins for every plane corrected.
Some Typhoon mods availability pushed to mid 1944
Gap in 56 squadron assigned planes
Do not put troops and ground units in place for iconic anti shipping missions
- Mostly impacts Dunkirk 
Added code to not kill pilots who bail out
- Used to avoid killing everybody that bails out over the channel
- If you are going down over water, don't ditch.  PWCG can't pick that up.  Bail out.

 

The skins are a complete redo of every inn game skin for every plane.  That took some effort so some things posted recently probably did not get done.  I flew a very nice mission where I finally shot something down using .303s.  The skins all looked good for a change.  Having changed probably a few hundred entries in dozens of files the odds of a mistake in there somewhere are pretty high, but it should be a great improvement.

 

These 3 issues are NOT yet fixed:

1. There's still smoke rising in southeast England and the CH towers are still damaged, mission date is 08/06/1941.
2. I just flew two Intercept missions with 41 Squadron out of Westhampnett and both times the bombers we were supposed to intercept turned back before coming into range, never having dropped their ordnance. If they hadn't shown up on "radar", we never even would have seen them.
3. III./ZG 26 flying ME410s out of Dieppe Saint Aubin do not have enough runway to actually get airborne. Regardless of how much fuel or how unladen the AI wingmates are... they always crash into objects at the end of the very short runway before getting off the ground. 

 

 

Increasing them will cause the mission space to be potentially larger and actually hurt performance.  However, probably not by any meaningful amount.    The prime performance drivers are AI objects, especially airplanes, and especially multi crew airplanes.

 

To quote a certain epic war movie: "I see 'em, I see 'em! Bloody marvelous!"

 

 

However, the Ju-88As of II./KG76 seem to have received the wrong colors for their paint scheme:

 

[PatrickAWlson]

3 hours ago, Patricks said:

Know it was mentioned earlier but there are a couple units (plane under netting, AAA) intruding on the runway (early 56th missions). I have been missing the plane but yesterday I was rolling toward the runway exit and clipped a AAA sandbag on the edge of the runway, ripped the wheel off and stood my Hurri on its nose. Pilot dead!?!

 

Campaign squadron and date?

[71st_AH_Rob_XR-R]

On 10/5/2022 at 8:59 PM, 71st_AH_Rob_XR-R said:

So far the following RAF Stations appear to be missing from the AirfiledLocations.json:

 

Hurn 0802

Christchurch 0802

Andover 0304

West Malling 0217

Detling 0219

Kingsnorth 0421

 

Not sure how to get the loc data or I'd give it a try.  I can do it reliably in DCS though...

So for Beta 1

Hurn is misspelled Huen

Kingsnorth is misspelled Kingsnortrh

 

Andover, Christchurch, Detling and West Malling are all missing from the AirfiledLocations.json

[Stonehouse]

Based on this PWCG related post I finally remembered reading last year +14 lb boost was late getting to the VVS - Jan 1943. The RAF had it from around 18 Nov 1942 as per my earlier post a few up the thread https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/80370-pwcg-normandy-beta-1-released/?do=findComment&comment=1219724

 

 

I know it probably seems a small issue but a lot of the RAF squadrons transition through the Hurricane II in the early years and they need every assistance they can get as early as possible in the campaign to deal with better performing Me109s. It is usually a long way to go in terms of missions to get to Typhoons or switch over to Spitfires.

 

 

Edited October 10, 2022 by Stonehouse

[Patricks]

22 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

 

Campaign squadron and date?

 

Pat - it's the Newchurch Base, 56th Squadron, April 6, 1941. The runway running ~70/250. It can be avoided by using the ~340/160 main runway. Just updated to the Beta and I see my Alpha 2 campaign is gone, did I mess something up?

Edited October 10, 2022 by Patricks

[PatrickAWlson]

7 hours ago, 71st_AH_Rob_XR-R said:

So for Beta 1

Hurn is misspelled Huen

Kingsnorth is misspelled Kingsnortrh

 

Andover, Christchurch, Detling and West Malling are all missing from the AirfiledLocations.json

 

There were several airfields in the game that were so small I was afraid to use them.

 

@Patricks I rewrote some code to keep runways clear of supplies and planes.  For the Me410 takeoff issue I also had to play with the runway position and heading to avoid buildings.  For Newchurch I have used that  airfield many times so I am pretty sure that it is clear of buildings.  The new code to prevent object placement should eliminate that issue for all fields.

Edited October 10, 2022 by PatrickAWlson

[jollyjack]

With 5.003 you can expect this one for those fields:

 

[Patricks]

3 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

 

There were several airfields in the game that were so small I was afraid to use them.

 

@Patricks I rewrote some code to keep runways clear of supplies and planes.  For the Me410 takeoff issue I also had to play with the runway position and heading to avoid buildings.  For Newchurch I have used that  airfield many times so I am pretty sure that it is clear of buildings.  The new code to prevent object placement should eliminate that issue for all fields.

Never mind, all set, runway clear!

 

Edited October 10, 2022 by Patricks

[unclepants]

Re the missing models (flat towns) - this happened to me the first time I loaded the Normandy map (completely outside of Pat's Campaign Generator). I loaded a quick mission and went to my home town, It's not in DCS Channel or Normandy maps so I'd been looking forward to Normandy in IL2 - as it's not at the edge of the map I hoped it might be modelled. Imagine my disappointment when I just saw a rough plan 2D texture, no models. However, the next time I loaded, the models came in.

 

If this happens, it's an IL2 thing where, on occasion, models don't load. Just reload the game.

 

BTW, I can almost see my house ? OK, it's not an exact map, but if I look North West from the train station a couple of blocks there's something that looks almost like the street plan of my area. Ok, it's not exact, but if I squint I can just about see it!

 

Also Career mode in IL2 was feeling a little stale, especially on Bodenplatte. As with the actual events (I assume) that map has a lot of commuting in career mode. A lot. Then I loaded the PWCG Normandy Alpha 2. I'd heard of it but had never run it. Amazing! What an incredible addition to the game!

 

I'm about to load up the TC version of PWCG. As vanilla IL2 doesn't have much for TC, hopefully this will be how I get my tank fix. I play War Thunder for this (yes, yes, arcade etc etc) but some of the people who work for the publisher of that game have given me the impression they are fine with the invasion of Ukraine so I'm looking for an alternative.

[Real_Ranger]

I found out that I had several updates that needed to be downloaded.   I did that, and of course did the "turn it on and off", and now I have 3D buildings.  So, no problem.  Works great now. 

 

Thanks

[JTF-skypickle]

I tried the link on the front page but 'err connection refused'

[Patricks]

15 hours ago, sausagesskypickle said:

I tried the link on the front page but 'err connection refused'

 

Just tried it, works fine for me. This one?

[Letka_13/Arrow_]

Thanks for removing objects on airfields. Could the aircraft be placed more to the left when taking off from runways? The aircraft on the right takeoff from grass and have problems with it if there are objects. The picture is from Ford airfield May 1944. But I noticed it also on other airfields (possibly all?).

 

 

[PatrickAWlson]

34 minutes ago, Rudolph said:

Thanks for removing objects on airfields. Could the aircraft be placed more to the left when taking off from runways? The aircraft on the right takeoff from grass and have problems with it if there are objects. The picture is from Ford airfield May 1944. But I noticed it also on other airfields (possibly all?).

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately I have to go to every airfield and manually place a plane on the runway, then record the position.  It is not exact or consistent, so I can't just apply a little left or right.  Every field has to be adjusted independently. 

 

I'm curious as to how the game does it.  Maybe I'm missing a runway.ini file or something similar that would give me the information.  Of course, if there was a runway.ini file and it worked as well as the rail and road ini files I'm better off doing it myself.

[TheSNAFU]

28 minutes ago, PatrickAWlson said:

 

Of course, if there was a runway.ini file and it worked as well as the rail and road ini files I'm better off doing it myself.

?

[ssn650]

I'm not sure if this is a known issue, but often when flying a Spitfire MKXIV with 41 Sqadron in May 1944 (I've now completed 11 missions, and yes, I modified the input files to make the MKXIV available in May of that year) when we're assigned a bombing run, either with a single 500-lb or two 250-lb variants, the ordinance is dropped shortly after takeoff and no one is carrying any bombs en route to the target.

 

In most cases, this actually turns out to be a blessing, because we almost always run into enemy fighters along the way.

 

Just a side note because I know you can't do anything about it, but I was surprised to find there are no drop tanks available for long missions over the channel on either side.  Would have been interested to know what kind of difference that might have made for BF-109 pilots in the Battle of Britain.

Edited October 11, 2022 by ssn650
Update

[JTF-skypickle]

5 hours ago, Patricks said:

 

Just tried it, works fine for me. This one?

now it works... i guess the internet was having a senior moment

[Stonehouse]

@PatrickAWlson Just an fyi that there is now a camo5.gtp to camo8.gtp not sure of the contents yet but presume these are the new blank skins

Edited October 11, 2022 by Stonehouse

[Robi89]

 

Huh.

 

Either I broke something or the Update did.

[PatrickAWlson]

5 hours ago, Robi89 said:

 

Huh.

 

Either I broke something or the Update did.

 

That means that PWCG cannot match the latest PWCG mission files with the in game logs.  Maybe the logs were deleted?  

[Robi89]

2 hours ago, PatrickAWlson said:

 

That means that PWCG cannot match the latest PWCG mission files with the in game logs.  Maybe the logs were deleted?  

 

Found the issue. The logs were never generated in the first place, for some reason the Update caused the startup.cfg file to be reset to default.

[Patricks]

Does the 5.002 update require you to start a new Campaign or just make some startup.cfg changes? Also, is there a way to set default resolution of PWCG? It starts stretched across my triples (windowed) and I am just resizing it currently, be better if I could set it to one screen's resolution.

 

Edited October 12, 2022 by Patricks

[Robi89]

2 minutes ago, Patricks said:

Does the 5.002 update require you to start a new Campaign or just make some startup.cfg changes?

 

Just check the startup.cfg if the Update has affected it.

[Patricks]

9 minutes ago, Robi89 said:

 

Just check the startup.cfg if the Update has affected it.

 

It's dated today but seems to have the correct video resolution settings, anything special related to PWCG I should look at? Going to try and build a mission now, so maybe all is well...

 

Edit: Already had a mission generated in PWGC Beta1 from previous FB version, went in and it started fine, no errors or issues so guess no changes required!

Edited October 12, 2022 by Patricks

[Robi89]

5 minutes ago, Patricks said:

 

It's dated today but seems to have the correct video resolution settings, anything special related to PWCG I should look at? Going to try and build a mission now, so maybe all is well...

 

 

mission_text_log needs to be set to 1, otherwise the game won't generate logs for PWCG to read.

[Patricks]

18 minutes ago, Robi89 said:

 

mission_text_log needs to be set to 1, otherwise the game won't generate logs for PWCG to read.

 

It is, thank you for the info..

[Robi89]

Regarding the new tactical markings - right now, a custom skin assigned to a pilot will "overwrite" the ingame tactical markings. Will you keep it that way?

 

I am asking because the ingame tactical markings - especially for RAF birds - just don't look right for me. For planes from other squadrons I may only see in passing they're perfectly fine, but for the "hero planes" (me and my wingmen) I honestly prefer even my own rather low-skill skinning efforts.

[TheSNAFU]

I couldn’t seem to get a clear answer to the way tactical markings treat custom skins. My hope for pwcg is that I can chose the custom skins i

want for my plane and my squadron through skin management and they will not be overridden by the new game feature. All other ai planes would have the new markings unless they are also custom skins.