Where is IL-2 going? And some more questions

[SGJE1Tyrell63]

Hi everyone

 

I have no idea which subforum will be the best, so I will try here

(the the Admins, pls move this, if its wrong located here)

 

My 1st quesion is: where is Il-2 going? After Flying Circus with WW1 now to Korea?

Honestly for me: I am zero interested in Korea. This is out for me.

Why not adding the Pacific Theatre? There is nothing on the market.

And also in Flying Circus....there should be more different kind of missions. Im owning all 3 packages, but Im not flying anymore (at the moment) because its always only, start, fly to point A (some enemies) fly to point B (another enemies) and back. Im not sure, but I think there were also escorting missions, strafing and bombing runs, etc.. in WW1

But one of the main concerns I have....what will be with the graphics?

Im flying msfs 2024 most if the time (Ryzen 7, 7800X3D, 64GB DDR5, MSI 4090 supreme, Pimax Crystal Light)and its a difference like day and night. Is there a graphics update for Il-2 available? to make it more nice (not only flat, with 2 or 3 trees, boring green.....and the planes more exciting when smoking, fire in engines etc)

Maybe someone could answer this...

 

Best from Singapore,

Lutz

[BraveSirRobin]

They’re going to Korea and then Pacific.

[Aapje]

@SGJE1Tyrell63

 

They are working on a new game engine that will look nicer, but also be more demanding. This engine will be used for the new Korea module, and then for the Pacific module coming after it.

 

The developers are also doing a bit more work on the old modules, but it won't be that much.

 

And you might want to try PWCG, which tends to produce a much better variety in missions.

[TempestV]

"Honestly for me: I am zero interested in Korea. This is out for me." -  SGJE1Tyrell63  

 

Yeah same here. I have the MIG15 in and F86 in DCS. That's enough for me.. Do I feel and itch to fly the IL-10 or buy a Collectors Variant of same.... Or fly a campaign as a NK pilot. Nope.

[LukeFF]

Yes, the general plan right now for Great Battles is one more WWII module and some new content & updates for Flying Circus. 

 

We plan to introduce carriers to Korea after the initial release, which then helps set in place the work needed to move to WWII Pacific. 

[AEthelraedUnraed]

18 hours ago, SGJE1Tyrell63 said:

Why not adding the Pacific Theatre? There is nothing on the market.

There's nothing on the market for Korea either. In fact, the most recent Korea flight sim is even older than the last Pacific sim (Pacific Fighters)

 

18 hours ago, SGJE1Tyrell63 said:

But one of the main concerns I have....what will be with the graphics?

Im flying msfs 2024 most if the time (Ryzen 7, 7800X3D, 64GB DDR5, MSI 4090 supreme, Pimax Crystal Light)and its a difference like day and night. Is there a graphics update for Il-2 available? to make it more nice (not only flat, with 2 or 3 trees, boring green.....and the planes more exciting when smoking, fire in engines etc)

Maybe someone could answer this...

There will be some significant graphics updates in Korea: https://il2-korea.com/news/dd_17. I don't think there'll be any more graphics updates for GB.

 

But even in Korea, you shouldn't expect MSFS-level graphics. For the simple reason that 1CGS doesn't have Microsoft's budget. That doesn't mean it won't look nice though; I personally think this is rather pretty:

[Panzerlang]

Without early two-seaters in FC it's like it ran a marathon, only to fall in sight of the finishing line. Fe2s as stand-ins for at least one correct German two-seater is a sad legacy for FC to leave behind.

[Aapje]

9 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

But even in Korea, you shouldn't expect MSFS-level graphics. For the simple reason that 1CGS doesn't have Microsoft's budget.

 

There's also the issue that modern satellite and plane imagery doesn't exist for WW 2 and Korea. So the methods used for MSFS simply cannot be used for IL-2, no matter the budget.

Edited January 15 by Aapje

[SGJE1Tyrell63]

9 hours ago, Aapje said:

@SGJE1Tyrell63

 

They are working on a new game engine that will look nicer, but also be more demanding. This engine will be used for the new Korea module, and then for the Pacific module coming after it.

 

The developers are also doing a bit more work on the old modules, but it won't be that much.

 

And you might want to try PWCG, which tends to produce a much better variety in missions.

 

Thank you. Yes I will try out (afterI have find out how to use it)

[AEthelraedUnraed]

6 hours ago, Aapje said:

There's also the issue that modern satellite and plane imagery doesn't exist for WW 2 and Korea. So the methods used for MSFS simply cannot be used for IL-2, not matter the budget.

True... although generating fake satellite imagery from maps was one of the tasks the groundbreaking pix2pix neural net successfully tackled already back in 2017. There's nothing that keeps you from retraining this net (or preprocessing your input) to work with period maps from WW2, and then using the resulting fake satellite image to generate a representation of the landscape in the 40s in MSFS.

 

And of course there are many methods in MSFS that you don't need satellite imagery for.

[DanHR]

16 hours ago, LukeFF said:

Yes, the general plan right now for Great Battles is one more WWII module and some new content & updates for Flying Circus. 

 

We plan to introduce carriers to Korea after the initial release, which then helps set in place the work needed to move to WWII Pacific. 

Damn, no corsair in my good ol' great battles?

[=LD=dhyran]

17 hours ago, LukeFF said:

Yes, the general plan right now for Great Battles is one more WWII module and some new content & updates for Flying Circus. 

 

We plan to introduce carriers to Korea after the initial release, which then helps set in place the work needed to move to WWII Pacific. 

 

Hell YESSSSS 

 

its gonna be awesome! 

[LukeFF]

5 hours ago, DanHR said:

Damn, no corsair in my good ol' great battles?

 

No, but for Korea, yes. 🙂

[Enceladus828]

20 hours ago, Panzerlang said:

Without early two-seaters in FC it's like it ran a marathon, only to fall in sight of the finishing line. Fe2s as stand-ins for at least one correct German two-seater is a sad legacy for FC to leave behind.

Spot on man! I wish we got a better explanation for why no major work is coming to FC after Vol.IV other than simply "We have no plans". Rather odd that we're not getting the Channel map especially with a Zeppelin coming because part of that map already exists with the BoN map and only 3 (or rather 2.5) seaplanes need to be added.

 

We should have gotten a response from the devs like "We would like to add the Channel Map to Flying Circus to add another element of The Great War to the game. But unfortunately our partner, Ugra Media, does other work for other games like DCS and doesn't have the time to add the map. Making a map, even retexturing an existing one requires a lot more work than you think. However, if anyone has the skill then you're always welcomed to." 

[BraveSirRobin]

Yes, totally a mystery why they’re not doing a Channel map.

 

ok, maybe not a mystery to everyone who watched RoF MP servers empty when a Channel mission started, but totes a mystery to everyone else. And before someone says MP isn’t everything, I know.  

[Vishnu]

On 1/14/2025 at 9:19 AM, TempestV said:

"Honestly for me: I am zero interested in Korea. This is out for me." -  SGJE1Tyrell63  

 

Yeah same here. I have the MIG15 in and F86 in DCS. That's enough for me.. Do I feel and itch to fly the IL-10 or buy a Collectors Variant of same.... Or fly a campaign as a NK pilot. Nope.

Ya, I have zero interest in Korea too.  

[taffy2jeffmorgan]

If its a question of increased graphics to be able to play the future release of the Korea and the Pacific theaters could the Dev's give us pilots some idea of what will be needed.

 

Cheers

[LukeFF]

Enceladus, we've explained the reasons why no new FC module is coming. You can search my old posts to refamiliarize yourself with what I wrote. 

 

3 hours ago, taffy2jeffmorgan said:

If its a question of increased graphics to be able to play the future release of the Korea and the Pacific theaters could the Dev's give us pilots some idea of what will be needed.

 

Cheers

 

Specs for Korea will be released closer to the release date. 

[taffy2jeffmorgan]

Thanks for that Luke, 

[Trooper117]

13 hours ago, Vishnu said:

Ya, I have zero interest in Korea too.  

 

But lot's of us have 100% interest... 'check mate!' 🧐

[Avimimus]

I hid some quasi-political posts here (which implied contemporary or future events).

 

The interesting observation (before things started to go off track) was that Korea ended in a ceasefire, which means it is remembered differently from more decisive wars.

[Aapje]

You are being very strict, @Avimimus.

[I./JG68_Sperber]

35 minutes ago, Aapje said:

You are being very strict, @Avimimus.

Yes, shame, shame on me... I'm sorry too... But I think that unfortunately it will be our future! In any case, I'm definitely buying Korea to test my rig! I'm definitely a buyer! After the extensive test, I will never fly it online. I only fly 109s... 😂 it's not a Korea Problem...

[Enceladus828]

10 hours ago, LukeFF said:

Enceladus, we've explained the reasons why no new FC module is coming. You can search my old posts to refamiliarize yourself with what I wrote. 

Yes, I am very much aware of that. What I was mainly getting at is that I would have preferred a response by the devs similar to the suggestion in the second paragraph of my comment.

 

And I apologize if I've ever come across as being snitty about no FC modules after FC4 and regarded 3rd party teams as slaves. Yes, no WW1 maps other than the Western Front map were promised back in 2018 because, if anything, they would come many years down the road (FC2 wasn't even promised then), and further development of this is mostly based on profits and the partner willing to do it. I just found it quite odd that FC will stop short of where RoF got to, most notably two maps beyond the main Western Front map and we didn't get a coherent explanation by the devs. But Luke, you've made it clear that the Zeppelin and a finished Western Front map are very much it. 

[Aapje]

@Enceladus828

 

I think that Luke has been pretty clear that Ugra is not very interested right now, but it's bad business to be too open about this sort of thing. It creates bad blood between companies if one blames the other for something, especially if consumers start making nasty comments due to it.

 

And openness can mean that things that people want to keep a secret, become known.

 

Quote

 I just found it quite odd that FC will stop short of where RoF got to, most notably two maps beyond the main Western Front map and we didn't get a coherent explanation by the devs.

 

I wonder why you think that FC should become exactly like RoF. They've learned lessons from RoF, so perhaps they concluded that interest in the other maps was too low to be worth the effort. Or perhaps it is simply a matter of resources, where they had more capacity to do things back then. Or perhaps the new engine takes more effort to make things for, so they can't do as much with the same resources.

[ST_Catchov]

21 hours ago, LukeFF said:

Enceladus, we've explained the reasons why no new FC module is coming. You can search my old posts to refamiliarize yourself with what I wrote. 

 

In a perfect world sure. But in an imperfect world anything can happen. 

[Enceladus828]

23 hours ago, Aapje said:

I wonder why you think that FC should become exactly like RoF. They've learned lessons from RoF, so perhaps they concluded that interest in the other maps was too low to be worth the effort.

Because FC is the only way for more WW1 development, and quite notably for VR users to fly the RoF planes in VR. I'll freely admit that I got RoF after development had ceased so how exactly the Channel Map faired is something I'm not too sure about. But the Felixstowe is a very nice plane and presents lots of opportunities, so it would be appealing to FC users. Plus, a good chunk of the Channel Map already exists in BoN so it's not too much effort than for say bringing the Tarnopol Map over or making an entirely new map like the Gulf of Venice. Yes, no other maps for FC were promised to us but it just leaves a rather empty hole in FC without the Channel Map or slower two-seaters.

 

And this is just a personal thing, WW1 in let alone Europe was far more than just a failed German offensive to capture Paris but over 100 years later that's all that is mainly talked about, including in most games (except for Battlefield 1 and the WW1 Series by BlackMill). It's not so much so that the fighting and aerial warfare everywhere else were minimal in general, nor is it that the aircraft there are uninteresting and well known planes weren't used, it's that many are unwilling try something new like the Eastern and Italian after completing the Western Front. By that logic, only well known Eastern Front battles in WW2 like Moscow, Stalingrad and Berlin would be covered in high fidelity combat flight sims but with 1C Maddox trying something new in the late 90s, the vastness of the Eastern Front of WW2 is feasible in combat flight sims today. Lastly, the Tarnopol Map in Rise of Flight can be used to cover the Brusilov Offensive in 1916 and then the Kerensky offensive in 1917 so it's not like it covers one major battle lasting for a some months where aircraft were also used in considerable numbers and then boom, there's an armistice. The same would be for an Gulf of Venice map from Venice to like Trieste where all of the 3 year fighting can be covered on that map.

 

Anyway, a good possibility is that 1CGS needs all hands on deck for Korea and partners like Ugra are needed in order to meet the release date.

[Aapje]

47 minutes ago, Enceladus828 said:

Because FC is the only way for more WW1 development, and quite notably for VR users to fly the RoF planes in VR.

 

Yes, but that is very much a consumer perspective. One can deduce that 1CGS doesn't think that it will earn them more than Korea, so they put their resources on that. And Ugra apparently also has things to do that they consider more rewarding.

[Vishnu]

On 1/16/2025 at 6:43 AM, Trooper117 said:

 

But lot's of us have 100% interest... 'check mate!' 🧐

Yes....I acknowledge that.   There are lots that aren't as well.  

[Avimimus]

On 1/17/2025 at 9:39 PM, Vishnu said:

Yes....I acknowledge that.   There are lots that aren't as well.  

 

It is almost like the world has many different kinds of people in it and many different types of products to cater to their taste!