Great Battles Future

[Jackfraser24]

How Battle of Normandy could be improved upon 

• By extending the Normandy map Westwards to include Brittany and Cornwall. If they would have to add in large cities like London and Paris they can make it a no-fly-zone for the player because I know getting your computer to process cities like that would be a nightmare.  
• By making pilot career start from from January instead of April.
• By making winter and spring maps of Normandy from January 1944 right through to July. 
• By including Operation Steinbock which went on from January until May 1944. 

Edited April 11, 2024 by Jackfraser24

[Jackfraser24]

IL-2 Ryukyu Islands 

• This would be in the new game, not Great Battles.
• Would include the Ryukyu, Volcano, and the Marianas Islands.
• Would cover the time period between February 19 - June 21 1945. 
• Would cover the significant battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. 

Why?

• Two huge and significant battles happened here - Okinawa and Iwo Jima. 
• It would be relevant to have the effective end of WWII in the Pacific here. 
• It would recreate the brutal environment that the poor soldiers had to fight on the air, ground and sea. 
• It was also of strategic importance. By taking the islands the Allies could be able to commence more bombing raids on Japan, quickening the end of the war.

Aircraft List

• A6M7-63
• G4M2E
• Ki-45 Kai Tei
• Ki-84-c
• P1Y1
• F4U-1C
• F6F-5
• P-51 D-25
• TBF-1C
• SB2C-4

[Aapje]

Okinawa should offer a decent amount of fighter combat, so that would be good.  Iwo Jima was mostly bombing and CAP, with poor results. The game could add kamikaze planes and napalm for Iwo Jima, which would be interesting.

[Jackfraser24]

9 minutes ago, Aapje said:

Okinawa should offer a decent amount of fighter combat, so that would be good.  Iwo Jima was mostly bombing and CAP, with poor results. The game could add kamikaze planes and napalm for Iwo Jima, which would be interesting.

That’s a good idea. 

[Jackfraser24]

IL-2 New Guinea

• This DLC would be in the new IL-2 game, not great battles.
• Not only would it include New Guinea but it would also include the surrounding Bismarck Archipelago and Northern Australia.
• It would initially be set in 1945, when the New Guinea campaign ended, and over the following after its release would work back all they way to 1942 when the campaign started. Starting in 1945 would ensure that they don't run out of new aircraft to do for future DLC's
• It would come with quite a few planes like the G4M and the Kittyhawk.

Why?

• The New Guinea campaign was a significant campaign in the Pacific theatre - would be good to commemorate that.
• Was also part of the IL-2 1946 game.
• Aircraft from both sides saw a lot of action in New Guinea, completing various kinds of tasks and missions.
• I think enough people would buy to break even.

Plane List

• A6M5c
• G4m3
• Ki-43-II Kai
• Ki-61-I Otsu
• N1K2-Ja
• B-25 J-1
• P-38 L-5
• P-39 N-1
• P-40M
• Spitfire Mk.VIII

 

 

[Jackfraser24]

I reckon there could still be an eastern front map in the works that we just don't know about yet.

Edited April 22, 2024 by Jackfraser24

[Jackfraser24]

Question.

 

I might or might not have asked this before so please forgive me if I have. 
 

How likely could 1CGS pull off an Amerika bomber dlc with their new project? I mean it would have to include aircraft like the Me-264, Ta-400 and the Horten H-XVIII (18) to name a few, aircraft that were either never completed, never entered service nor have survived to this day to be studied by the team. 
 

I would envision it to have all the Amerika  bomber projects like the ones I listed above as well as American fighter aircraft like the P-38, P-39, P-47, and P-63. In career mode players could start in Nazi occupied Europe and make the painstakingly long flight to the eastern seaboard of America, or they could start their mission up to 3-10 minutes in advance to the air raid. 

 

Obviously this would all have to be based on a realistic hypothetical scenario where Italy didn’t need help from Germany with Yugoslavia and Greece, the USSR fell in 1941 and Britain is struggling from falling to Germany. But that is just my view. 
 

In real life if Operation Sea Lion was to take place the British would have had repelled the invaders. They simulated this in the 70s and found that in almost every situation Great Britain would have prevailed. 
 

And of course a plane list to go along with this.

 

• Ju-390
• Me-264
• Ta-400
• P-38
• P-39
• P-47
• P-51
• P-63

 

 

[Aapje]

@Jackfraser24

 

I would say that the chance is between 0% and when hell freezes over, that they make an Amerika bomber DLC. Bombers are more work than fighters and there won't be good sources for something that didn't exist. And as you say yourself, there is not even just one bomber, but many. Those bombers would have no use outside of one hypothetical scenario. It would also clash with the realism goal of the game, to go into alternative history scenarios. And it would require a map that would be a lot of work, but would be useless outside of one specific scenario.

 

 

[Jackfraser24]

Would anyone be interested in a Crimea map?

[BMA_FlyingShark]

1 hour ago, Jackfraser24 said:

Would anyone be interested in a Crimea map?

I would.

 

Have a nice day.

 

[Jackfraser24]

On 4/28/2024 at 10:07 PM, FlyingShark said:

I would.

 

Have a nice day.

 

Quite a bit could be done with a Crimea map. Scenarios like:

• Crimean Campaign of 1941-42
• Siege of Sevastopol
• Battle of the Kerch Peninsula
• Crimean Offensive of 1944
• Kerch-Eltigen operation

[Jackfraser24]

What is the future of IL-2 at this stage? 

[AndyJWest]

1 hour ago, Jackfraser24 said:

What is the future of IL-2 at this stage? 

 

According to my crystal ball, the developers will release some new stuff sometime in the future. And forum regulars will complain that they are doing it wrong.

[BraveSirRobin]

2 hours ago, Jackfraser24 said:

What is the future of IL-2 at this stage? 

Korea.  

[Jackfraser24]

I don't think that 1CGS specifically stated that the new project is going to be a completely separate game to Great Battles. They may be doing that, or they could be doing a complete overhaul of the Great Battles series.

Edited May 17, 2024 by Jackfraser24

[AEthelraedUnraed]

49 minutes ago, Jackfraser24 said:

I don't think that 1CGS specifically stated that the new project is going to be a completely separate game to Great Battles. They may be doing that, or they could be doing a complete overhaul of the Great Battles series.

From their recent podcast:

"Transfer of Great Battles airplanes to a new project

For example, the airplanes of Flying Circus were transferred from our previous project Rise of Flight, so that is possible, but it is a matter of time and cost because their visual models will have to be redone."

 

There's no need to transfer or redo models if it's just a normal DLC, so this is a pretty direct statement that the new title is in fact going to be a separate game.

[Jackfraser24]

56 minutes ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

From their recent podcast:

"Transfer of Great Battles airplanes to a new project

For example, the airplanes of Flying Circus were transferred from our previous project Rise of Flight, so that is possible, but it is a matter of time and cost because their visual models will have to be redone."

 

There's no need to transfer or redo models if it's just a normal DLC, so this is a pretty direct statement that the new title is in fact going to be a separate game.

I stand corrected. Thanks.

[Jackfraser24]

Once Odessa is done, I think that they should do the following

• Kursk
• Smolensk
• Crimea
• Balaton
• Slovakia

[kraut1]

3 hours ago, Jackfraser24 said:

Once Odessa is done, I think that they should do the following

• Kursk
• Smolensk
• Crimea
• Balaton
• Slovakia

We need urgently a map to complete the pilot careers (especially for the russian pilot careers) at the eastern front.

From maps listed by you:

Slovakia from 10th or 25th march 45 - 5th May 45 + some extension to west

Edited May 23, 2024 by kraut1

[Jackfraser24]

On 5/23/2024 at 10:02 PM, kraut1 said:

We need urgently a map to complete the pilot careers (especially for the russian pilot careers) at the eastern front.

From maps listed by you:

Slovakia from 10th or 25th march 45 - 5th May 45 + some extension to west

I agree. But we’d need many of them. And I can’t stress this enough. This game needs a Kursk map. 

Edited May 24, 2024 by Jackfraser24

[kraut1]

14 hours ago, Jackfraser24 said:

I agree. But we’d need many of them. And I can’t stress this enough. This game needs a Kursk map. 

Kursk would be good too for Northern Part of Operation Citadel and for the russian counter offensives.

For the southern Part of Operation Citadel I have adapted EMG by Vander and created my first campaign.

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/87294-easy-mission-generator-by-vander-tc-map-belgorod-prokhorovka-map-41-43-mod-v02-update-for-emgv84/

From my experience, the Tank Crew map is very suitable for flight sim missions.

Pilot Career should be available for this map too.

 

Edited May 25, 2024 by kraut1

[Jackfraser24]

13 hours ago, kraut1 said:

Pilot Career should be available for this map too.

I agree. Another question though. What would you think about a Smolensk map?

[kraut1]

11 hours ago, Jackfraser24 said:

I agree. Another question though. What would you think about a Smolensk map?

In general an importent map for the German advance in 1941

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Smolensk_(1941).jpg#/media/Datei:Battle_of_Smolensk_(1941).jpg

and the Russian offensives 1943 and of course the importent Operation Bagration of summer 1944.

[Jackfraser24]

57 minutes ago, kraut1 said:

In general an importent map for the German advance in 1941

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Smolensk_(1941).jpg#/media/Datei:Battle_of_Smolensk_(1941).jpg

and the Russian offensives 1943 and of course the importent Operation Bagration of summer 1944.

Yeah. I’d like them to do maps that covered all of the major battles on the Eastern Front. I don’t know if they will do it though. 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

On 5/26/2024 at 11:31 AM, Jackfraser24 said:

Yeah. I’d like them to do maps that covered all of the major battles on the Eastern Front. I don’t know if they will do it though. 

I'd be very surprised if we're going to see any more new maps for BoX besides the already announced ones.

 

Unless some team of volunteers shows up, that is. Not likely, but you never know...

[Jackfraser24]

7 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

I'd be very surprised if we're going to see any more new maps for BoX besides the already announced ones.

 

Unless some team of volunteers shows up, that is. Not likely, but you never know...

Hopefully in the new project they will return to Europe once they have done the Asia-Pacific. 

Edited May 27, 2024 by Jackfraser24

[Enceladus828]

2 hours ago, Jackfraser24 said:

Hopefully in the new project they will return to Europe once they have done the Asia-Pacific. 

Perhaps. But if anything I don’t want Vietnam, that’s jumping the shark for me and would likely require 3 years of them developing another game engine.

 

I really wish that Sicily had come after BoN and then the new project/Korea. Not only would it have given us a place with great scenery and criminally under depicted but it would have give us some Allied aircraft that could also be used in the lead up to D-Day like the Spitfire Mk. VIII, P-38G, P-40N and Beaufighter. It also would have given us the SM.79 and MC.205 as well as the fact that the map can also be used for depicting the Siege of Malta and if enough of Tunisia was covered then the Tunisia Campaign. The latter two would have made the MC.202 no longer a white elephant in the game. For ships we could have the Dido light cruiser that saw considerable action during Operation Husky and D-Day.
 

In short this would have been the perfect capping point for IL-2 GBs but for some reason it didn’t happen (I don’t know what the devs were going on about when they said that they’d need to model Rome and Naples because a map stretching from Eastern Tunisia to Bari would work perfectly. I feel that was more of an excuse and they just didn’t want to do Sicily).

 

Unless as of this instant a team was to start up to cover the Invasion of Sicily in a high fidelity CFS and release it in 2027 then we won’t be seeing Sicily in a long time 😢

 

 

[Jackfraser24]

21 minutes ago, Enceladus828 said:

Perhaps. But if anything I don’t want Vietnam, that’s jumping the shark for me and would likely require 3 years of them developing another game engine.

 

I really wish that Sicily had come after BoN and then the new project/Korea. Not only would it have given us a place with great scenery and criminally under depicted but it would have give us some Allied aircraft that could also be used in the lead up to D-Day like the Spitfire Mk. VIII, P-38G, P-40N and Beaufighter. It also would have given us the SM.79 and MC.205 as well as the fact that the map can also be used for depicting the Siege of Malta and if enough of Tunisia was covered then the Tunisia Campaign. The latter two would have made the MC.202 no longer a white elephant in the game. For ships we could have the Dido light cruiser that saw considerable action during Operation Husky and D-Day.
 

In short this would have been the perfect capping point for IL-2 GBs but for some reason it didn’t happen (I don’t know what the devs were going on about when they said that they’d need to model Rome and Naples because a map stretching from Eastern Tunisia to Bari would work perfectly. I feel that was more of an excuse and they just didn’t want to do Sicily).

 

Unless as of this instant a team was to start up to cover the Invasion of Sicily in a high fidelity CFS and release it in 2027 then we won’t be seeing Sicily in a long time 😢

 

 

I wanted to see a Battle of Sicily module too. I wanted to be able to fly the Re.2005. Beautiful plane.

[Jackfraser24]

7 hours ago, Enceladus828 said:

I really wish that Sicily had come after BoN and then the new project/Korea. Not only would it have given us a place with great scenery and criminally under depicted but it would have give us some Allied aircraft that could also be used in the lead up to D-Day like the Spitfire Mk. VIII, P-38G, P-40N and Beaufighter. It also would have given us the SM.79 and MC.205 as well as the fact that the map can also be used for depicting the Siege of Malta and if enough of Tunisia was covered then the Tunisia Campaign. The latter two would have made the MC.202 no longer a white elephant in the game. For ships we could have the Dido light cruiser that saw considerable action during Operation Husky and D-Day.

Here’s how I foresee IL-2 is going to go. 

 

• Korean War module
• Pacific War module #1 Okinawa
• Pacific War module #2 Philippines
• Pacific War module #3 Western Pacific
• Soviet-Japanese War module
• MTO module #1 Monte Cassino
• MTO module #2 Southern France
• MTO module #3 Sicily
• North African module #1 Tunisia
• North African module #2 El Alamein 
• North African module #3 Tobruk 
• Western Front module #1 Rhineland
• Western Front module #2 Normandy
• Western Front module #3 Channel 
• Eastern Front module #1 Berlin
• Eastern Front module #2 Bagration
• Eastern Front module #3 Kuban
• Eastern Front module #4 Kursk
• Eastern Front module #5 Stalingrad
• Eastern Front module #6 Moscow

[BraveSirRobin]

8 minutes ago, Jackfraser24 said:

Here’s how I foresee IL-2 is going to go. 

 

• Korean War module
• Pacific War module #1 Okinawa
• Pacific War module #2 Philippines
• Pacific War module #3 Western Pacific
• Soviet-Japanese War module
• MTO module #1 Monte Cassino
• MTO module #2 Southern France
• MTO module #3 Sicily
• North African module #1 Tunisia
• North African module #2 El Alamein 
• North African module #3 Tobruk 
• Western Front module #1 Rhineland
• Western Front module #2 Normandy
• Western Front module #3 Channel 
• Eastern Front module #1 Berlin
• Eastern Front module #2 Bagration
• Eastern Front module #3 Kuban
• Eastern Front module #4 Kursk
• Eastern Front module #5 Stalingrad
• Eastern Front module #6 Moscow

Most of the current dev team will be dead before that list is complete.  Hell, they’ll probably be dead before half of that list is completed.

 

Also, they’re never going to do USSR v. Japan.  It lasted about 10 days and no one cares about it.

[Jackfraser24]

3 hours ago, BraveSirRobin said:

Most of the current dev team will be dead before that list is complete.  Hell, they’ll probably be dead before half of that list is completed.

 

Also, they’re never going to do USSR v. Japan.  It lasted about 10 days and no one cares about it.

Question. Where do you think it will go after Korea and the Pacific? 

Edited May 28, 2024 by Jackfraser24

[AEthelraedUnraed]

12 hours ago, Jackfraser24 said:

I wanted to see a Battle of Sicily module too. I wanted to be able to fly the Re.2005. Beautiful plane.

Can't argue with you there. The Italians have some interesting designs. For some like the Fiat G.50, "interesting" equals "ugly," but the Re.2005 just looks like the aircraft equivalent of a sports car🥰

 

Speaking about Italian aircraft; the G.50 is one of the few aircraft of which I think it's possible we'll yet see it in IL2. The Devs have said they're looking at if they're going to add aircraft to go with the Finland and Odessa maps, and I think the G.50 is a prime candidate given its extensive use in the Finnish air force. Then there's the very similar looking Macchi C.200, which saw action at Odessa and Stalingrad.

 

1 hour ago, Jackfraser24 said:

Question. Where do you think it will go after Korea and the Pacific? 

I agree with the Brave Sir in that we're never going to see such an extensive list. In IL2's 10 years of existence, we've had 5 modules. At that rate, it'd take 40 years to complete your list.

 

Frankly, I doubt we'll see any modules beyond Korea and the Pacific at all, except perhaps a port of the BoX content similar to how RoF became IL2:FC. IMO with current advances in AI, the way IL2's (and likely its successor's) map technology works will be outdated by the time the planned Pacific module is out. The current tech requires manual creation of maps, which is a helluvalotta work (speaking from experience). I think we'll eventually see a system where AI automatically generates the terrain based on period maps. Similar to how MSFS works, only with "artificial" (constructed by AI) satellite images. This would give rise to unprecedented map detail across a wide area, with minimal effort needed from the Devs (mostly 3d modeling).

Edited May 28, 2024 by AEthelraedUnraed

[Jackfraser24]

3 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

 

I agree with the Brave Sir in that we're never going to see such an extensive list. In IL2's 10 years of existence, we've had 5 modules. At that rate, it'd take 40 years to complete your list.

 

Frankly, I doubt we'll see any modules beyond Korea and the Pacific at all, except perhaps a port of the BoX content similar to how RoF became IL2:FC. IMO with current advances in AI, the way IL2's (and likely its successor's) map technology works will be outdated by the time the planned Pacific module is out. The current tech requires manual creation of maps, which is a helluvalotta work (speaking from experience). I think we'll eventually see a system where AI automatically generates the terrain based on period maps. Similar to how MSFS works, only with "artificial" (constructed by AI) satellite images. This would give rise to unprecedented map detail across a wide area, with minimal effort needed from the Devs (mostly 3d modeling).

I’ll shorten my list then. If they worked on it for 20 years, we should expect to see about 10 modules assuming they complete each module on on average about every two years.

• Korean War module
• Pacific War module 
• Pacific War module 
• Pacific War module 
• Pacific War module 
• Western Front module
• Western Front module 
• Eastern Front module 
• Eastern Front module
• Eastern Front module

To change the subject a little bit I think that they should re-do Normandy and Bodenplatte somewhere down the line. Reason why is that when they were made, player computers were not able to run them without lagging a little bit when they would fly over large towns and cities. And cities like Moscow, Paris and London could not be added into the game. But, by the time the 2030s come around I think computers would be able to process a map’s massive urban areas, therefore they should redo the Normandy and Rhineland maps.

 

Another question. Does anyone think that it would be possible for the Western Front to be done with using just one giant map in the ‘new project’? Would they invest time, money and effort into making a map stretching from airbases in England to cities as far in Eastern Germany, while going as far south as Southern Germany and central France? I wonder because if the game would run smoothly enough for this gigantic map, so they could not only have the Normandy Landings and the Battle of the Bulge, but also cover the strategic bombing operations over Germany. 

[BMA_FlyingShark]

3 hours ago, Jackfraser24 said:

But, by the time the 2030s come around I think computers would be able to process a map’s massive urban areas, therefore they should redo the Normandy and Rhineland maps.

If ever we get to that point and they can do that, I hope that they'll make one large map of Normandy and Bodenplatte, with the areas of The Netherlands, North France and parts of Belgium that aren't on those maps right now, added.

Just wishful thinking.

 

Have a nice day.

 

Edited May 28, 2024 by FlyingShark

[Aapje]

5 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

IMO with current advances in AI, the way IL2's (and likely its successor's) map technology works will be outdated by the time the planned Pacific module is out. The current tech requires manual creation of maps, which is a helluvalotta work (speaking from experience). I think we'll eventually see a system where AI automatically generates the terrain based on period maps. Similar to how MSFS works, only with "artificial" (constructed by AI) satellite images. This would give rise to unprecedented map detail across a wide area, with minimal effort needed from the Devs (mostly 3d modeling).

 

I can imagine a system where you draw a high level map with just the areas where the forests, farmland, grasland, cities, roads, beaches, etc go and then have a tool generate a base map from that. Then you would 'merely' have to fine tune the map (still quite a bit of work, but much less in total).

 

But I'm not sure how feasible it is. It would be great if both the studio and the amateur teams could make maps much faster and easier.

[AEthelraedUnraed]

4 hours ago, Aapje said:

I can imagine a system where you draw a high level map with just the areas where the forests, farmland, grasland, cities, roads, beaches, etc go and then have a tool generate a base map from that. Then you would 'merely' have to fine tune the map (still quite a bit of work, but much less in total).

 

But I'm not sure how feasible it is. It would be great if both the studio and the amateur teams could make maps much faster and easier.

Yes, that's my idea, to only create a high level map of the type you might see in period maps, and then have the AI generate the actual in-game terrain.

 

As for feasibility; I'd say this is already feasible right now. In fact, creating "satellite" images from maps was already successfully done back in 2017 with CycleGAN and pix2pix, using (cyclic) adversarial neural nets:

(Note that for our usecase we'd want the input and output the other way around; however images of that are hard to find since usually we want to do the opposite. However using CycleGAN, one is basically a byproduct of the other. If you read the CycleGAN paper you'll find a couple of images of map-to-satellite.)

 

6 hours ago, Jackfraser24 said:

I’ll shorten my list then. If they worked on it for 20 years, we should expect to see about 10 modules assuming they complete each module on on average about every two years.

• Korean War module
• Pacific War module 
• Pacific War module 
• Pacific War module 
• Pacific War module 
• Western Front module
• Western Front module 
• Eastern Front module 
• Eastern Front module
• Eastern Front module

To change the subject a little bit I think that they should re-do Normandy and Bodenplatte somewhere down the line. Reason why is that when they were made, player computers were not able to run them without lagging a little bit when they would fly over large towns and cities. And cities like Moscow, Paris and London could not be added into the game. But, by the time the 2030s come around I think computers would be able to process a map’s massive urban areas, therefore they should redo the Normandy and Rhineland maps.

*If* the new series lasts for 20 years, but I find that highly unlikely. I'd say another 10 years, max.

 

Regarding the redoing of large cities; you're kinda half right/wrong there. With the current technology, lags may occur. However massive cities are certainly possible to do relatively lag-free. Look at e.g. MSFS. The issue is that you need more advanced rendering technology, more LOD levels etc. and all that costs time and money. Which is also the second primary reason that there's no Moscow, Paris and London in game: even without improving the tech, it costs a lot of time and money to implement those cities (i.e. add buildings, ground textures, roads, etc.).

 

7 hours ago, Jackfraser24 said:

Another question. Does anyone think that it would be possible for the Western Front to be done with using just one giant map in the ‘new project’? Would they invest time, money and effort into making a map stretching from airbases in England to cities as far in Eastern Germany, while going as far south as Southern Germany and central France? I wonder because if the game would run smoothly enough for this gigantic map, so they could not only have the Normandy Landings and the Battle of the Bulge, but also cover the strategic bombing operations over Germany. 

*If* they implement technology such as I mentioned above, where an AI creates the actual terrain from a high level map. Otherwise, the enormous effort required to implement such a map and place all buildings, forests, ground textures etc. is always going to be a limiting factor. Also, with such large maps you really need to have a spherical coordinate system or deal with the significant distortions caused by projecting the spherical world onto a 2D surface.

 

But if they do implement such technology, then the sky is the limit. Look at how MSFS has basically the whole world and how you can seamlessly fly circles around the earth (if you've got enough time and fuel, that is). There is no technical reason why the same couldn't be the case for IL2.

[Enceladus828]

11 hours ago, Jackfraser24 said:

I’ll shorten my list then. If they worked on it for 20 years, we should expect to see about 10 modules assuming they complete each module on on average about every two years.

• Korean War module
• Pacific War module 
• Pacific War module 
• Pacific War module 
• Pacific War module 
• Western Front module
• Western Front module 
• Eastern Front module 
• Eastern Front module
• Eastern Front module

This is how I see it:

• Korean War
• New Guinea and Rabaul
• Okinawa
• Invasion of Sicily
• Berlin

[Aapje]

12 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

But if they do implement such technology, then the sky is the limit. Look at how MSFS has basically the whole world and how you can seamlessly fly circles around the earth (if you've got enough time and fuel, that is). There is no technical reason why the same couldn't be the case for IL2.

 

Yeah, I know that it is technically possible, but I am more worried about the resources. 1CGS don't have MSFS money to spend on developers.

[ITAF_Rani]

On 5/27/2024 at 11:38 PM, Enceladus828 said:

Perhaps. But if anything I don’t want Vietnam, that’s jumping the shark for me and would likely require 3 years of them developing another game engine.

 

I really wish that Sicily had come after BoN and then the new project/Korea. Not only would it have given us a place with great scenery and criminally under depicted but it would have give us some Allied aircraft that could also be used in the lead up to D-Day like the Spitfire Mk. VIII, P-38G, P-40N and Beaufighter. It also would have given us the SM.79 and MC.205 as well as the fact that the map can also be used for depicting the Siege of Malta and if enough of Tunisia was covered then the Tunisia Campaign. The latter two would have made the MC.202 no longer a white elephant in the game. For ships we could have the Dido light cruiser that saw considerable action during Operation Husky and D-Day.
 

In short this would have been the perfect capping point for IL-2 GBs but for some reason it didn’t happen (I don’t know what the devs were going on about when they said that they’d need to model Rome and Naples because a map stretching from Eastern Tunisia to Bari would work perfectly. I feel that was more of an excuse and they just didn’t want to do Sicily).

 

Unless as of this instant a team was to start up to cover the Invasion of Sicily in a high fidelity CFS and release it in 2027 then we won’t be seeing Sicily in a long time 😢

 

 

Italy was almost here if Jason had not left the team...so I don t think Italy/Med will ever see the light in IL2 GB....at least not before 2030.

 

 

Edited May 29, 2024 by ITAF_Rani

[AEthelraedUnraed]

22 hours ago, Aapje said:

Yeah, I know that it is technically possible, but I am more worried about the resources. 1CGS don't have MSFS money to spend on developers.

Oh I agree completely. But I'm optimistic. The performance of neural nets, the hardware and the availability of trained programmers are all rapidly improving. I think it's very likely that in the future, we'll see terrain that is at least partly generated by AI like in MSFS. Probably not in the IL2:Korea engine, but the one after that.

 

One issue that remains however is the starting cost. Even if you're using neural nets, the initial required effort of creating a map is most likely going to be much higher if you first have to program something that does the map creation for you, rather than just create the maps yourself. All the while, you don't really have anything to show for it while your existing team of map creators remains idle. A big company like MS (or Google or Meta or any of the other "usual suspects" when talking about Neural Nets) may well be able to fund such an experimental project (as we've seen with MSFS), but IL2 might not be able to raise the required revenue.