Developer Diary #332 Discussion

[BMA_FlyingShark]

Guys,

 

I don't want to sound to negative here but if the next theater is not part of this series, I'm afraid I won't be on board.

I have supported this series from the beginning, was there from RoF days and had great fun with both.

I have bought planes and theaters that I like and some that I found way less interesting but I still bought them to support the series.

However, I'm not gonna do that again and wait another so many years until my favorite planes get ready for release again.

I'll just stick to what I have in this series and eventually, when I'm done with it, find another hobby.

 

Have an nice day.

 

Edited November 9, 2022 by FlyingShark

[JG27_Arklight]

Any news regarding the Stug?

[Hotaru_Ito]

Just now, JG27_Arklight said:

Any news regarding the Stug?

 

 

Quote

StuG III will be finished soon - its physical model is ready and the artists are texturing its interior and exterior.

 

I don't remember if Han gave an exact release date, but it sounded like we'd have it by end of the year. Certainly by early next year.

[Luftschiff]

Very excited to hear about these ambitious plans - Graphics engine upgrade, UI, AI, Physics - all the most important systems to be adressed in such an ambitious way. Esp the GUI and AI have fallen behind and It's fantastic to see them touched up. Wasn't expecting much from the stream and was gutted to hear you so firmly reject Italy as a possible theatre, I was sure that was up next - but overall I'm very happy with this transparent and honest stream.

Thank you!

[IckyATLAS]

One thing they made it will not be Malta, Sicily, Africa or Italy. It will not be Berlin they explained how difficult it was with large cities to have them to their quality requirements.

My two cents here, it will be most probably either Eastern Front (Kursk or similar) or a Northern Front like the Winter War in Finland. 

Edited November 9, 2022 by IckyATLAS

[CUJO_1970]

30 minutes ago, sevenless said:

 

Sounds like a theatre which hadn't been touched in flight sims before.

 

It's been done before in original series, at least map has I think -  Balaton, Seelow Heights or Winter War - this one will be significant for the Russian side of history I think.

 

[moustache]

30 minutes ago, JG27_Arklight said:

Any news regarding the Stug?

 

28 minutes ago, Hotaru_Ito said:

I don't remember if Han gave an exact release date, but it sounded like we'd have it by end of the year. Certainly by early next year.

Jason had originally announced it for 2022, then it was announced for the summer of 2022...

 

 

Edited November 9, 2022 by moustache

[Jamppa]

Continuation War would be great with some Brewsters ? Winter War was quite short.

[sevenless]

1 minute ago, CUJO_1970 said:

 

It's been done before in original series, at least map has I think -  Balaton, Seelow Heights or Winter War - this one will be significant for the Russian side of history I think.

 

 

Yeah, but you know that there is that Tolstoi thing going on. How is it called? "Military operation and Peace" or something like that, and I really doubt they will touch on that subject for "reasons", which excludes the VVS for me. I could be wrong though.

[Han]

Guys, I wanted to say "thank you" to everyone have came to stream to support us. You're the best!

[Leftenant_Soap]

@Han 

Thank you (and Albert too)!

It was a really informative discussion and I appreciate how you guys spent an hour to answer people's questions and also speak candidly about IL-2.

 

I'm curious about what resources 1CGS can release to help third-party collaborators create content for the sim, like you mentioned possibly a flyable B-25, or even a full 4-engine bomber. It's a great idea to pull in help from the community but also a daunting task for us to do without guidance.

There is huge passion in this community and potential to help create great things.

 

I hope you can do more streams in the future with the team and possibly Albert when he can be coaxed out of his golden palace ?

Good luck with your trip to St. Petersburg, pray all goes well and maybe Tank Commander 2 will come with a Tiger II? ?

 

Long live IL-2

[Hotaru_Ito]

Another thing I appreciated that nobody's talking about* was the emphasis on inviting third-party devs to do map and plane modelling. That wasn't an offhand remark either, Loft mentioned it pointedly several times.

 

I really hope that opens the door to some stuff that would otherwise be off the table, like the IAR-80 we're already getting and the Velikie Luki map we've already got. They did mention flyable B-25 and B-26 as possibilities if some third-party dev stepped up to model the interiors.

 

* except of course the person who posted as I was typing this

Edited November 9, 2022 by Hotaru_Ito

[Jade_Monkey]

 

2 hours ago, CUJO_1970 said:

In addition, we plan to create several more Collector Planes, which will be the modifications of the various aircraft that exist in the sim.

 

I found this part to be quite interesting, many possibilities for all sides here.

 

My thoughts went to an early Stuka variant, it was widely requested (or maybe just some loude voices?).

 

1 hour ago, Voyager said:

I'm pretty much fine with the current GUI. It gets the job done and doesn't get in the way. 

 

I think they are implying it doesnt get the job done, at least not all the things they would like it to do.  Air Marshall comes to mind but other aspects of the menu are probably limited by current tech. I dont think it's as much about visuals as it is about functionality limitations.

[352ndOscar]

This:

 

“Also we're finishing several Battle of Normandy objects - Bofors AAA on Morris 9C chassis, M8 Greyhound, Sd.Kfz.234 Puma armored car, Universal Carrier and Flight Direction Tender ship”

and the StuG III news…..

[FuriousMeow]

56 minutes ago, FlyingShark said:

Spoiler

Guys,

 

I don't want to sound to negative here but if the next theater is not part of this series, I'm afraid I won't be on board.

I have supported this series from the beginning, was there from RoF days and had great fun with both.

I have bought planes and theaters that I like and some that I found way less interesting but I still bought them to support the series.

However, I'm not gonna do that again and wait another so many years until my favorite planes get ready for release again.

I'll just stick to what I have in this series and eventually, when I'm done with it, find another hobby.

 

Have an nice day.

 

 

What? Where did you get that from? All I read is about improvements, no shift to some other separate module.

[Boomerang]

1 minute ago, FuriousMeow said:

All I read is about improvements

[Hartsblade]

My guess is the next step will be jets, maybe Korea or Vietnam. 

[RoteDreizehn]

Third, we plan to make significant improvements to the physical models. There will be a revision of the many subtle aerodynamics aspects that accumulated through the years. Our physical models are already very accurate and are among the best in the genre. But there are always things that can be improved. As you know, recently we have tuned the damage modeling and achieved very good results. However, the experience of years of work and optimizations in various parts of the project allow us to make a next step in increasing the detail and variety of the aircraft damage modeling.

 

 

 

sry dont want to troll here - but cant share this opinion (..Our physical models are already very accurate and are among the best in the genre..).
you are intermediate. a lot of todo until you can say il2 is "among the best"
just my opinion...

[simfan2015]

Everything I heard was great! 

BTW Making core, engine and gui enhancements is what ED should have done a long time ago for DCS.

IMHO bringing out more collector items to fund further development while engineering new features is a wise way to move forward. 

 

[[CPT]Crunch]

1 hour ago, FlyingShark said:

Guys,

 

I don't want to sound to negative here but if the next theater is not part of this series, I'm afraid I won't be on board.

I have supported this series from the beginning, was there from RoF days and had great fun with both.

I have bought planes and theaters that I like and some that I found way less interesting but I still bought them to support the series.

However, I'm not gonna do that again and wait another so many years until my favorite planes get ready for release again.

I'll just stick to what I have in this series and eventually, when I'm done with it, find another hobby.

 

Have an nice day.

 

We don't fully know how incompatible, since he mentioned one of the planes we're about to get for this series will incorporate the new features and is being built to fit into the new game.  Makes sense since they'll need a test platform early on.  For all we know the other planes could be convertible in a fairly quick order as compared from scratch.

[CanadaOne]

New and better eye candy has me on board. 

 

But for the love of God and all that is Holy, if big changes are afoot will you please and finally make an in-game mission editor that does not require a degree in physics to use. Thank you in advance. 

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

2 hours ago, Voyager said:

I'm pretty much fine with the current GUI. It gets the job done and doesn't get in the way. 

 

The only think I could recommend is streamlining the game start process, so you don't have to wait through multiple loading sequences.

 

I would think moving log-in information to the the Launcher would solve that. Basically click the launcher, that window loads quickly, and holds the log-in credentials, then you launch the game and it handles all the loading until you're in. 

The current gui absolutely EATS cpu performance.

2 hours ago, Avimimus said:

I just wanted to say that the graphic are excellent (with a few areas for improvement) and the damage model is exceptional (with the exception of the lack of meaningful waterline hits/AP rounds against shipping, maybe the WWI aircraft wing damage model being overly simplified, and a couple of bugs).

 

The big weakness of the sim is the AI. The simulation really needs to have different AI 'repertoires' for different aircraft/eras/nations and to have more skilled pilots choose an appropriate 'repertoire' for a particular opponent (with the low AI picking something foolish). This would also help address the periodically broken WWI AI (which from Rise of Flight to today requires the player to pick tactics to avoid accidentally luring the AI into crashing).

 

The other area for revolutionary improvements would be to have an ability to save and load the sim state (allowing time jumps in missions) or optimizations to increase time acceleration further. If optimizations could allow larger formations or more AI gunners (and possibly involve a rethinking of how gunner AI logic works at a fundamental level)... that would also pave the way for larger ships, formations of aircraft, or more ground units in the distant future.

 

So if I were significantly reworking major systems - those would be my priorities (not graphics or damage models). That is my 'two cents' anyway, for what it is worth (from someone following this series for 22 years now).

The graphics are extremely dated compared to DCS. The damage model is not nearly as detailed as CLoD. I love GB, but the developers know these things too.

[Avimimus]

50 minutes ago, Han said:

Guys, I wanted to say "thank you" to everyone have came to stream to support us. You're the best!

 

Thank you! It was nice to see.

[MAJ_stug41]

1 hour ago, JG27_Arklight said:

Any news regarding the Stug?

Im right here

[Avimimus]

 

  

4 minutes ago, drewm3i-VR said:

The current gui absolutely EATS cpu performance.

The graphics are extremely dated compared to DCS. The damage model is not nearly as detailed as CLoD. I love GB, but the developers know these things too.

 

Is it really? I hadn't really noticed... I tend to notice when map objects are missing or terrain features are incorrect for the period... but I'm pretty happy otherwise to be honest. I don't see a huge difference between them (except for a bit of stutter on the Great Battles map).

 

I'd love an improved GUI for artillery spotting (with customizable fire missions, detailed orders etc.) but that is function rather than appearance or performance

[Jade_Monkey]

20 minutes ago, Hartsblade said:

My guess is the next step will be jets, maybe Korea or Vietnam. 

 

 

They previously said it's going to be propellers, so i doubt it.

[Avimimus]

14 minutes ago, RoteDreizehn said:

sry dont want to troll here - but cant share this opinion (..Our physical models are already very accurate and are among the best in the genre..).
you are intermediate. a lot of todo until you can say il2 is "among the best"
just my opinion...

 

This is also something I've seen no evidence of. The competitors are ...X-Plane and DCS (if X-Plane even counts)? The physics and flight models seem quite competitive to me. Some do some things better, others do other things better. But I don't see it as being noticeably worse - and it could be the best in a lot of areas. 

[I./JG52_Woutwocampe]

The team seems focused and highly motivated. Good to read and very promising.

[Avimimus]

1 hour ago, JG27_Arklight said:

Any news regarding the Stug?

 

Yes, they mentioned that the remaining work was tweaks to the textures. So it looks like we could see the StuG, Snipe, and Skytrain in the next couple of patches.

 

IAR-80/81, SSW D.IV, and Spitfire XIV seem to be further behind (with flight modelling of the SSW D.IV set to start soon). There are also apparently two more Collector Planes to be announced in the next month or so (although they did state that the actual development time for an aircraft is typically about one year, so I assume we wouldn't see them in game for a bit).

 

  

3 minutes ago, I./JG52_Woutwocampe said:

The team seems focused and highly motivated. Good to read and very promising.

 

It also seems like there is a lot of candor and participation from the team in some decision making processes. I'm actually kind-of impressed. I hope the decision to expand the core team and redevelop the core engine pays off for them.

 

Interestingly, it also appears that they have enough trained staff to implement more aircraft/vehicles, and with this not being a bottleneck (which I think it was at one point), they are courting third parties to provide some of the investment/3d modelling.... which opens up the possibilities for more products like TC/FC and more collector aircraft.

[354thFG_Drewm3i-VR]

5 minutes ago, Avimimus said:

 

This is also something I've seen no evidence of. The competitors are ...X-Plane and DCS (if X-Plane even counts)? The physics and flight models seem quite competitive to me. Some do some things better, others do other things better. But I don't see it as being noticeably worse - and it could be the best in a lot of areas. 

I agree. DCS does some things right, but I really think they overdo the rudder response.

 

IL-2 has excellent crash physics.

[moustache]

12 minutes ago, I./JG52_Woutwocampe said:

The team seems focused and highly motivated. Good to read and very promising.

what company would say that these employees are demotivated and on the verge of depression or appear tired and sad in a communication?

[RoteDreizehn]

25 minutes ago, Avimimus said:

 

This is also something I've seen no evidence of. The competitors are ...X-Plane and DCS (if X-Plane even counts)? The physics and flight models seem quite competitive to me. Some do some things better, others do other things better. But I don't see it as being noticeably worse - and it could be the best in a lot of areas. 

 

Wont disagree completely but did you tryed landing, takeoff and stall behaivours in DCS?
Also shoot down a plane if you shoot in another direction in Il2 . Ok this can be happend with latency in IP-Pakets
For me its not enough in il2 but for intermediate is good enough. As I said they have a lot of todo. 

however - we will see the il2 future 

Edited November 9, 2022 by RoteDreizehn

[Tonester]

Blah blah blah…just announce the next instalment ffs! Sick of waiting

[Motherbrain]

I've cared too much before and its burned me. Now I honestly dont care at all. I'll be happy with whatever they announce. I'm just glad we're getting anything at all (especially considering the circumstances).

 

Edited November 9, 2022 by Motherbrain

[WheelwrightPL]

Sorry, Devs, but I am not clear about the graphics engine for your new Products.

1) Is it an upgrade ?

2) Is it a complete rewrite from scratch ?

3) Is it adapting an existing 3rd-party engine (like UNREAL 5, Unity, etc.) ?

[354thFG_Panda_]

Great stuff! Looking forward to all the new technologies coming and improvements to the game as a whole. You guys (developers) seem very excited about the next module and the direction the simulator is taking. Thank you for doing the stream 

[Boomerang]

1 hour ago, Hotaru_Ito said:

nobody's talking about* was the emphasis on inviting third-party devs to do map and plane modelling. That wasn't an offhand remark either, Loft mentioned it pointedly several times.

This invitation also applies to our community continuing to proactively participate in historical research as well. The more the merrier, with respects to collaborative efforts, especially for future assets.

10 minutes ago, WheelwrightPL said:

Sorry, Devs, but I am not clear about the graphics engine for your new Products.

I understood this as an existing engine that's evolving.

[Gambit21]

52 minutes ago, CanadaOne said:

 

But for the love of God and all that is Holy, if big changes are afoot will you please and finally make an in-game mission editor that does not require a degree in physics to use. Thank you in advance. 

 

 

Please not this again lol.

 

As a 'power user' of both mission editors, there are some things that make the IL2 editor easier to deal with...trust me on that.

Bezier select, copy/paste logic is HUGE...I'd give anything to have that over there.

 

Further, the IL2 editor is not difficult to use once you learn a few things. 

I've no faster in the other editor that I am in the IL2 editor, and I have hundreds of hours in both.

 

I'd give anything to have a few features of each editor in the other, but if I had to only work in the IL2 editor and never touch the other one again, I'd be OK with that.

I wouldn't put it past them to improve it with time, but if it never changes I'm OK with it.

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, IckyATLAS said:

One thing they made it will not be Malta, Sicily, Africa or Italy. It will not be Berlin they explained how difficult it was with large cities to have them to their quality requirements.

My two cents here, it will be most probably either Eastern Front (Kursk or similar) or a Northern Front like the Winter War in Finland. 

 

How exactly are those "something new" ??

1 hour ago, Hotaru_Ito said:

Another thing I appreciated that nobody's talking about* was the emphasis on inviting third-party devs to do map and plane modelling. That wasn't an offhand remark either, Loft mentioned it pointedly several times.

 

 

 

It's going to be necessary long term I think...it's working elsewhere.

So at the rate this team works by comparison, then this speaks to a lot more content in the coming years...which is good news.

[Noisemaker]

No Italy, do it yourselves guys... 

 

Like we're all graphic designer/game designer/3-D modellers with tons of time on our hands... 

 

Mingya

[Adger]

2 hours ago, JG27_Arklight said:

Any news regarding the Stug?

 

 

 

 

 

  ?

Edited November 9, 2022 by Adger