Il-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Roadmap
 

Hi everyone. I’m very sorry to see that some of you are having technical difficulties with the game. It pains me personally to see that these problems are preventing you from enjoying everything the game has to offer.

The team has been working at a frantic pace since mid-summer. I personally have been working 12+ hour days 7 days a week pretty much non-stop, with only a short breather around Christmas. Optimization has always been our top priority; for example, the game you are playing now is roughly twice as fast as the version shown at Igromir.

We are continuing to work at the same pace now, after the release – no weekends in sight. We are working very hard to make the game better, and we hope that even those of you who are unhappy with the state of the game are still able to see that it is worth the wait, and that you have faith in our ability to improve on your experience.

Here’s what we are working on at the moment:

1. Performance increase. Over terrain, the two things that slow things down the most are trees and buildings. We are currently in final stages of testing optimized buildings that almost double the FPS over London on a test machine.
Tree optimization is a little farther away. You will probably see changes in how trees are rendered, they’ll take longer to appear over terrain, but once again, performance increase should be significant.
If everything tests correctly over the weekend, both of these should be released by early to mid next week.

2. Enhanced multicore support. The mode that we unfortunately were not able to finish in time is sending all render to a dedicated CPU core. The mode is working but somewhat buggy. It easily doubles the FPS, and the performance boost is especially noticeable in larger missions with lots of stuff going on.
This is probably at least two to three weeks away, and we will probably do a short public beta of this major change before it’s made live to everyone.

3. Multiplayer. There is something in steam filters that prevents game servers from being found. This is only happening with live retail versions of the game. This apparently isn’t caused by us – hopefully it’s just a simple oversight somewhere and the fix will be a simple flick of a switch.

4. FM and ballistics. We have already addressed the issue where rounds appeared to leave aircraft sideways. This was caused by the difference between physical and rendered position of the aircraft, i.e. the rendered position lagged behind the actual aircraft position.
Our aircraft programmer has a huge bucket list of things to check, which he’s going over at a rather brisk pace.

5. Resurrecting SLI support. This is our next biggest priority; it’s done by the same programmer now in final stages of optimizing buildings. We are really hoping this will be a quick task, but I don’t have an ETA at this point. It’ll either be a couple of days, or a much longer undetermined amount of time if we have to submit versions to card manufacturers and ask for their input.

6. Bug fixes and support. We are reading this forum a lot and some Russian-language forums, and working very hard to address all issues as they are being reported.

7. New stuff – larger online maps, some new aircraft such as the 109E1 and E4 etc – are all in the pipeline too, but obviously we need to solve the bigger issues first and then deal with the freebies.


Thank you all for your continuing support! Just FYI, I’m constantly doing 20 things at once, so if I don’t respond to your question it doesn’t mean I didn’t read it! I’d love to spend more time on the forums talking to the community and answering questions, but unfortunately I just cannot do it as much as I should at the moment. Please bear with us, we do really want to make all of you very happy!

Sounds good Ilya.

Two questions from me:

1.) Currently there are a number of translation errors in the german version (wrong or missing translations). Any way I can help with these?`

2.) Are there plans for warships to be added? Right now there are none at all.

thx for the update

Fantastic news! I think the multicore and SLI support will solve 99.9% of the performance complaining on these forums. At least it should! Then you'll have to deal with FM/DM complaints from all of the 90 year old BOB vets on these forums, but I'm sure you're used to that. ;)

I'm not sure if the process for fixing SLI support will also necessarily fix AMD eyefinity / NVIDIA Surround support, but I think quite of few of us have sim computers built with multi-monitors, so support for them is key.

Thanks!

luthier, I know this right down your list of things to do (and rightly so), but if 1 of the aircraft you're considering making playable is the Defiant...please do not hesitate in contacting me. I have a wealth of good information on the Defiant (cockpit & turret gunner positions etc.) just waiting to be explored. Oh and just to sweeten the deal think about this...how many flight sims can you name that have the Defiant flyable?
Good luck with your patch am looking forward to it.

Keep it up!
 

Thanks for taking the time to give us an update!

It would be great to continue having 'weekly updates' as before, but instead of images and videos a status check on your progress getting the issues fixed.
I think it would mitigate a lot of the frustration and anger some simmers have of the current state of affairs. Visibility to keep up with the progress you're making with patching will keep peoples hopes up!

This game will be great as we get the performance glitches out of the way! And actually it's quite playable for me with 2600k + GTX580, but for the mid to low range spec it's a different story.

Thank you, some developers would run and hide at this point so it's good to hear that you are working on patches. My copy arrived yesterday, I've had to do quite a bit of tweaking and turned down detail but it's still very playable and I can see so much potential. All I ask is give us realistic time frames for this, if the timeframe you posted is achievable then that would be fantastic. I doubt some of the loudest critics even have the game but I'm happy I have my copy and look forward to the future.

I appreciate your posting very much. Thank you Luthier.

Thanks a lot for the update Luthier, it is greatly appreciated. Keep up the great work mate, I am loving CoD.

Thanks Luthier!

S!

Good news Luthier. Really waiting for CrossFire/SLI and multicore issues being solved + other performance issues. I slapped everything to Very High on 1920x1200 last night, just to see how the sim looks and it was gorgeous! Sure FPS was 11-35 over land with pauses and stutter..but you could see the potential!

Thanks to keep us informed. I know you'll do it right. And hopefully go for deserved vacation.

Thanks for the good news...

Not entirely true, I have a budget system: AMD AthlonII x3 (440) 3.0ghz, 4gb DDR2, Nvidia GTX460.

And after the latest patch I can play the game on medium settings without any major stuttering. It´s no near perfect, but the game can only be better from here on.

Keep up the good work Luthier and crew!

please add propeller to your list :)

Thanks for the writing, I appreciate it and it's good to hear your side of the story and what is gonna happen to make it actually playable.

I'll let you know how it feels from a customers point of view.

- Waited a long while for this and it's very disappointing
- Nostalgic feeling has turned into disappointment
- Bought a new joystick > 100 euro for this and now it's useless
- Bought the game for 49 euro on steam and it's pretty much unplayable
- I know the game is not finished but it is released so I feel scammed

Hope you guys will manage to fix this game soon.

Thanks for the info, really good to know what is coming.

If you stick with it you'll get thousands of hours out of this game - it is definitely worth the bumpy start.

Thanks for the info Luthier, any word on a 64bit exe?

Thanks for info Luthier.

Thank's for your hard work, just a few more weeks to wait, here in the States:grin:

I'm pretty sure that you guys will make this buggy game perfect in time.
cheers

Awesome! So I take it all, or at least most of this, should be resolved before the US release? That would be superb :)

Thanks Luthier,
I have no doubt in your determination in tuning and developing this huge project.
Look at the benevolent nature of our criticism, everybody have so much expectation in CloD, Maddox games as developer and this community as end user.
Keep going with the same enthusiasm! ;)

Tnx for the heads up. Im enjoying the sim already, and Im sure in a few months time the performance issues will be reduced...and you can take a well deserved holiday:grin:

Thank your for your dedication and hard work luthier.

Sounds good, but what about FFB support? It's kind of a deal breaker for me :(

No correction of the pastel colors and the "laser" tracers ?
At least, as an option in the setup of the game (a gama setting for the colors and a transparency setting for the tracers).

So delaying the release a month would have prevented all this controversy...nevertheless hats off to you!
Your post convinced me,this was what many were waiting for i guess....:cool:

Luthier, thanks for this post. I really appreciate and understand that you and the team have put/are putting your heart and sole into this.

It pains me to say it, but I had my first fly last night and I was really disappointed. The main issue for me is performance/frame rates. I am running an i7 2600 with GTX460 and 4GB RAM, so was expecting something better. However, I know you are aware of the issues and are working hard to fix them. You have my support.

BTW ... are there any plans to bring back the mouse functionality to pan around views smoothly, or have I missed something?

Thanks

PPanPan

Thanks for the update,this game seems to work better on ATI cards as it is atm,on nvidia cards its appalling tbh,the performace is so bad i dont even play it,hope fix comes soon.

Thanks Ilya for taking your time to respond and explain!
I have very high belief and confidence that you will fix "it all" in due time.

For sure understand that it is hectic times now after release to address all the issues and bugs that are turning up. But don't forget you need to be able to step aside, breath, clean out the mind and then get back at it with renewed strength and a fresh outlook! ;)

Many Thanks for posting this Luthier, I am very happy to hear tht people work frantically to address the most important issues and I am even more happy with the speed patches come out!

I am looking forward for another 4-5 exciting years to come, discussing about every aspect of this simulation.

~S~

Thank you for your hard work and for support your game.
I will buy it, but i must wait to 19th April.

Good News, Thanks!

I thank for keeping us informed, but I will thank you for a few weeks to see results!!:cool:
GOOGLE TRANSLATOR

Thanks for the opdate...

Don't you think there are some more urgent issues to attend with the title than those? Let's wait that it runs smooth and open up the neverending tracer and color discussion and chew on it for yet another six months.

Thanks Luthier - I'm sure you guys will figure it all out - happy to help test any fixes :-)

Just press F10 (clickable cocpit feature on/off).

Thanks for the information. Especially right now when the first instinct must be to run and hide. ;)

I wish you all the best of luck, and hope that the title lives to see its potential.

This is good to hear Luthier, I can not play this game at the moment due to having the wrong hardware(4870x2). But I can also see the potential and after having played IL2 for years I know you are good for it.

Thanks Luthier. Your hard work is really appreciated. Thanks for keeping the genre alive :)

Good news, Oleg - keep us informed here and the useless posts produced by anxiety or frustration will be cut by 80% ... and in the end you will save time :)

Cheers,
Insuber

Sounds good, but what about Force Feedback-support?

Luthier is the issue of GPUs not properly engaging their maximum clockspeeds for the game being looked at? It has been reported on AMD HD4xxx, 5xxx and 6xxx series of GPUs. Some Nvidia users as well are reporting that their GPUs sometimes downclock during the game also.

I was able to double my framerate in Cliffs of Dover by forcing the normal clockrate using a third-party overclocking program. However many users will not be comfortable doing this workaround so I would consider it to be a fairly urgent issue.

Please look at this thread: http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthr...t=19807&page=3

Thanks for the update :)

Force feedback, force feedback, force feedback.

We haven´t had any official answer yet.

At the very least make it playable with the G940.

just because i want the true be said... it is not some of us...it is all of us!

exept that...good roadplan i hope it will be follow!

When is expected Force Feedback?, I think it is at the same priority as SLI

well for FFB i prefer they work on optimisation...multi proc, SLI that the game be really playable... and after take car of bug like FFB and more...

Thanks for doing 20 things at the same time luthier:), I really appreciate everything that you and the team are doing.

Thanks Luthier!

Like most of us, when performance issues are solved, I really hope force feedback will enter the stage, rather than having more aircraft or a real weather system.

i do too... but guys before thanks...wit to see if the result will come. after all all this work should be done in beta test and before release.

i support COD, i have faith on this game, but after the result of the release and some false info during the dev and release....(i don't speak about filter who was the cause of SLI bad support) i wait result before thx anyone.

if in two month i can fly in COD with a good FPS everywhere on the map on a good computer.... i will thanks the all dev team for their titan work. even if bug of graphic or gameplay stay.

but now....i wait result!!!! we should all do this way!

sorry for my bd english ;)

Thanks Luthier!

Hopefully the multicore support comes as soon as possible.

Luither so do you know when the QMB will be implemented?

Haven't read the thread, but I just wanted to say that I highly respect and mirror your work ethic.

For that reason alone I will buy the game, even though I won't boot it up until the bulk of performance/rendering issues are resolved.

Well I think I read somewhere Oleg Maddox isn´t a fan of FFB so I´m not holding my breath.

It´s understandable that optimisation is at the forefront of the dev´s agenda, but for us FFB users it would at least help to know, they´re aware of the issue and are working on a solution even if it takes a while.

I like the bit were you said: Some of you .
I think its a bit more than, Some of you:rolleyes:

Thanks for the update!

The sim is already awesome - most of the stunning features are under the hood, of course. I'm sure you will fix the glitches quickly. Can't wait to see how the sim will evolve over the next months. :)

Thanks Luthier ! :-P

Impressive piece of work !

As for 64 bits and FFB, if Luthier allways skipped those issues, well, it must mean something ? :rolleyes:

Salute !

Yep...well...lets hope its at least on the back burner.

Thanks for your continued hard work, dedication, support and the updates Luthier! :)

I'm loving the work that has gone into this sim already. I'm on a mediocre rig, but with some tweaking done, I am now enjoying regular high speed dogfights over the channel. What is now obvious to me is the work that has gone into the damage modelling and AI- it a lot harder to get kills! :-P

I am really looking forward to any improvements that emerge over the next few weeks/months.

Thanks again,
BobTuck.

Thank you very much for all your and rest of the Cliffs of Dover teams hard work. It has definately been worth the wait.

Cheers!

Good too hear.. I hope you guys dont have any financing issues which could jeparize completing or continuing work in CloD

Thats great news, your an awesome team, really, very much appreciated work you do :))
Too bad first impressions can have such an impact, after about 10 hours with the game i can say its ten times better than Il2, which is already a great game. First i only saw the performance and flickering groundtextures, then after that first "shock" i started to notice the good parts of the game.
On a sidenote, one thing i noticed was that the colors on my samsung seem especially real at 1600x900, as example 720p looked somehow more yellowish and white. Didnt know that was possible but im pretty sure it is.

Have you pasted your configINI anywhere by chance? I am very interested in it.. or in any other suggestion.

Same here, the frame rate is horrific on my machine, and I'm only able to play over the channel. With my settings terrain looks worst at present than the original IL2 !! Any tweaking help would be most welcome !!
I'm glad to see that the team is still working its ass off to improve the game, however I would have much preferred been waiting 3-6 months more and get the actual finished game. I would have never imagine this coming from such a respected team and company.

Lets all hope the programmer Luthier speaks is not this guy... rushing to work on debugging:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XihQeZpwqpE

:D

I second this, a large portion of serious simmers own FFB devices

Thank you for posting this roadmap. Hopefully it calms the fears that this sim is not going to be supported going forward. We are all, I'm sure, eagerly awaiting the new patches and I can't wait for the 19th to get my copy!

Thank you Luthier! If your team needs more money, tell us and i will buy another copy. you keep the good work, i will keep investing money on you.

It's a rare sight that developers are this open and upfront about their software, especially in tight situations like these. Thanks to luthier & team for being "one of the few"... :)

While at this, please have a look at the new dual GPU cards too, Nvidia 590 GTX and AMD 6990

Very nice! Thank you!

But, truth be told. If you ask me: Take at least your sundays free. I think no sane person wants you too lose the fun in creating superb games. And six days a week is really anything we can ask.

Defo agree, I did a couple of video tracks whilst flying over water without any major performance problems, but i do question the AI gunners........ hoovering over enemy bombers and getting no major damage (at i was in a He-111)... Shall have to edit the tracks and post them on you tube...

Silly AI...

Thxs dude!

Theres all this talk about SLI but what about crossfire?

Oh yes..I have seen the Black Devil ride, always rumor that he's dead, but new videos still show up!

Thanks for the update Luthier! If you posted this a week ago you could have lowered our blood pressure! Can't wait to get some MP dogfights poppin, the wait might be worth it for the US release.

Could you tell me the details on the 64 bit exe? Does this only work on a 32 bit machine? I have W7 with 64 bit...
Thanks.

Thanks again Luthier.I hope when you said SLI support you were referring to multi gpus setups in general,not just only for Nvidia cards.Keep up the good work.

Thanx Luthier. Much appreciated that you're putting in so much effort. People sometimes forget that there are humans involved or don't care before having a good rant. I look forward to the improvements, but don't make a mess of yourself.

+1

Going to 64bit would most likely really help this game with resources. It looks like you guys have a ways to go before you can take advantage of some of the higher end rigs out there. Multicore MultiGPU and memory beyond 2 gigs might be what you really need to get the most out of this engine.

thankyou,its good to know that you are improving this game,it has great potential .well done for listening to us.

Thanks Luthier, we all know that the team is working hard and we all know you wont let us down.

Thanks

Couldn't have said it better myself!

Good work chaps, I'm loving it so far and cannot wait for future improvements.

Thanks for the update. Is me or the mouse icon in the cod moves with an slightly delay? is very annoying

Thanks Luthier for your post .I think id like most importantly is to get the online gaming issue sorted, i thought id broke it yesterday as it didnt pick up any servers.So Im glad you`ve listed it as one of the issues!! Without out this ability i cant play with my squadron nor practise with them, And before you all jump on my back saying there are more important issues, there isnt for me, thats the reason i like the il2 series. The online factor. the fact of shooting some poor sod down. So please track down that switch and turn us on!!!

Prioritising fixes
 

Luthier
Thanks for the update, I hope you have the time to keep this as a regular feature, I'm sure you've had a very trying week to say the least, but most of us can see the potential here in COD, keep the faith!

Can I ask how you are prioritising the list of bug fixes, additions, core engine improvements etc.?

With so many forum posts there's comments and threads darting about all over the place, I'm not sure how they do it, but the ARMA 2 developers I think have some sort of voting mechanism so that they tackle the most wanted fixes first (where its parctical to do it in that way) as voted on by their users. I'm just wondering how you get a feel for what's the most wanted fixes, additions, etc , apart from the perhaps obvious and pressing performance improvements everyone will appreciate.

My 'list' for what its worth' in order of preference, I guess would be something like :

1 Micro-stutter reduction/elimination
2 Multicore usage improvements
3 64-bit exe
4 Force feedback
5 'solid' trees in single player to cause damage
6 improve sound (greatly) and add missing sounds e.g train, wind rush (and volume controls like il2)
7 add a QMB/enhance the new quick mission page
8 add debris/wrecked plane to a big crash, all we get currently is a 'blast mark' decal on the ground (or sea for that matter) and no debris!
9 drivers in vehicles/gunners and at least a few crew animations, (performance dependent I know, for animations)
10 .....I'm struggling now for a tenth, I'm sure someone will suggest something ;)

Good luck with your roadmap.

Z

Thanks for letting us know!
C_G

Thanks for the update.

Thanks for the update...a very professional approach in all respects, both with regard to improving ClOD and also with regard to your obvious concern for keeping your customers informed.

Anti aliasing getting looked at? game looks horrible without it especially as most of use larger screens for flying.

Really appreciate the work you guys are putting in. I am not upset in the slightest even with the same problems because I can see where all this is heading. 1946 will keep me happy too while you iron out the problems.

Looking forward to each result of the patching :)

Thanks Luthier, any word on fixing the MSAA and is there a 64bit exe planned?

Thanks Ilya, we really needed this update!

That's just freakin' excellent, thanks for dealing with all this adversity (a part of which we the fans constitute from time to time due to our extreme enthusiasm) in such a professional manner.

I got my collector's edition yesterday, flown 3-4 sorties and despite the fact that it was not very playable on my specs (mid-range specs on an i7 920 based PC) i could see all the little gems under the hood waiting to surface.

If you could replace the weekly development updates with a weekly post on patches and what's coming next it would not only keep the fans happy, but also minimize bad press and give all the reviewer websites a clear indication about the commitment level behind this simulator, resulting in more favorable attitudes.

Finally, take a day off on Sunday and don't over-work yourself ;)

thanks luthier. That was the right signal to community.:)

Here is my conf.ini:

BobTuck.

and here is my confs.ini:

BobTuck.