Friday Development Update - November 18, 2011
 

Gentlemen,

A short update today.

Continuing to work on all fronts. The graphics reload has finally reached a sufficiently stable alpha state. Public beta is within reach. We’ll be benchmarking it next week and releasing the results. At this point we ourselves do not know how much better it’s gotten, and we’re as excited to learn as you are.

The sound has also gotten much fuller and bigger and more varied. We have ambient sounds, much more “vocal” airframe, and other cool things. I really enjoy listening to the game as I fly and look around.

Our team also continues to grow. We’ve just had two more people start on Wednesday. We almost ran out of space in the office that seemed half-empty when we were developing Cliffs of Dover.

I’ll conclude our tonight’s broadcast with a few photos. One shows the ongoing work on our FM; the guys are poring over Spitfire performance data (thanks Sean). The next one shows our graphics rewriting hero who is too shy to face the camera. He spent countless hours going over old code and making it better, and the game wouldn’t be what it is without his tireless efforts.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6217/...e0fa35dedc.jpg
IMG_20111118_135628 by IL2Sturmovik, on Flickr
http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6039/...e21d0bba74.jpg
IMG_20111118_153821 by IL2Sturmovik, on Flickr

wow, are the friday's update back? this would be great, thank you and good work :)

Thankyou!

Thanks for the update. Sounds great so far :)

Thanks Luthier, looking forward to beta testing the new updates :)

Much appreciated, this post is.

Thanks for the update, you see it wasn't that bad to type in a little information.

Thanks Luthier!

Well THANK YOU FOR THAT!

Your customer support is making progress!

It all sounds very exciting!
Thank you for the heads up!

Thanks Luthier!

Keep hacking away at it Gents. It is great to see everyone so hard at work! :grin:

There's just nothing about radio functionality. But the x-th graphics rewrite still seems to excite people (for the record, I'm just fine with graphics as they are right now). I just can't believe it... seems CoD will stay on the shelf for a looooong time...

Thank you , thank you, thank you. I bought COD at the begining, although i was not satisfied, i waited patiently for updates without whining on the forums.

Good luck to the whole team.

I loved il2 so i hope i will love COD too.

As english is not my naitive language, i want to be sure:

do we get an update next week?

Thanks for the update. Just those few sentences shorten the time of waiting so much you wont believe it. I am getting more eager on flying CloD again with every little update:)

Winger

great news Luthier can't wait to start beta testing the new changes!

Nice to have a Friday update!!Thank you!

Congrats and welcome to the new guys! Thanks Luthier.

our shy hero :-)

Seriously I hope they will (finally) bring a smile on our faces....fingers crossed...

Great news thanks Luthier!

Thank you for the update Luthier!!
We all are waiting for testing the new features... be sure we help you where we can... ;-)

I shouldn't even give this quote the pleasure of being reposted but I could care less about graphics, just like you.... BUT

He has confirmed the CTD's are a direct result of the graphics engine, and I think he is very concerned about performance, I think he said he wants 50% better performance to do things like, weather... Yea there are some other things that will be nice when they are done but in the mean time getting these CTD's ironed out and getting smoother gameplay for the guys with rigs that are modest is a noble area to work on...

Thanks for the info Luthier, good to hear we may have a new beta in a few weeks.

Thanks for the heads up, thank you for your hard work.

Keep it up.

~S~

thanks, i love friday's updates :)

Good to get in from work and find a little update waiting. Cheers.

"Yea there are some other things that will be nice when they are done but in the mean time getting these CTD's ironed out and getting smoother gameplay for the guys with rigs that are modest is a noble area to work on..."

This last paragraph worries me. Scalability so far has been horrible. On my one month old rig the game looks fantastic and it runs like a dream. On my 5 year old, duocrore at 3.4ghz, historic machine it does not run at all over land and barely over sea. If I turn the graphics down to the point where it works it looks like something from the early nineties. No kidding.

I'm now worried that after upgrading and being happy with the game's graphics state they're now going to tune the graphics engine down to the point where the wow factor is gone. We're then left with a slightly upgraded il2 1946 that'll run on most machines. Maybe Oleg's vision is not realisticly achievable on last generations hardware. The only way forward maybe to have a game engine that's scalable enough to keep us all happy or have a cutoff point about a year back. Make Windows 7 64bit and DX11 part of the min requirements. People with older equipment can stay with Il2 1946 untill they move up in a year or two. I know this is harsh and you'll throw a group of less financial able people under the bus. Most sim nuts have at some point in time bought a new rig for a specific piece of software.

One thing is certain. I'll make a copy of the current version before I update to the next.

Thanks for the update. You keep up the good work and I'll keep the faith.

do you know what mean the word optimization?

Luthier, you are turning into quite the game ambassador. Way to go!

Thank you for the update!

Excellent news!

I don't have the foggiest idea what you're asking me. I'm Dutch and a bit slow and have not had my coffe yet. Not a good combination. What the hell I give it a try. I know what optimization means. I may just not be happy with what they think it means. If optimizing means the game runs better and looks better I'm all for it. If it means the game gets dumbed down so a kid can play it on his PS3 or XBOX in 2 years (sarcasm) I'm not a happy camper.

thanks a lot for these good news. I am very happy to hear, that came out next week the new sounds and graphics....perhaps:grin:

Thank you very much and your team, and have a good stressless weekend




Bye


Towarisch

So next week we see some benchmarks.

Would be interesting to know the setup of the PC which is used.
CPU, Mobo, ram, HDD, SSD, OS, Drivers... You know the thing thats written in mostly all of our Sigs.

I don't think they are dumbing down something (well, I hope), what i mean and what the dev team are doing in my opinion, clearing the code, removing the part of it with bugs and bad performances, so everybody will be happy, from who have an old pc till you with your new rig. :)

A teardrop fell from my brows ... a weekly update, only one week after the latest one ... :D

:) Terrific news ,Thank you.All it takes is a 10 minute update once a week to keep people happy.
Well done hope it all works out.

Thanks very much for the update!

Thanks for this.

Looking forward to the next patch. :)

Oh Boy! What comes after Alpha???? Oh yeah Beta...nifty!

Weekly updates! BOOYAAAAA! Thanks luthier!:)

Wait a minute... I'm getting excited about Cliffs of Dover again! It's been a long time since that happened :grin:

Thanks for the update, luthier!

My size 11 foot in your A** ............ungrateful wretches :rolleyes:

Thanks for the update Luthier .

:)

Good news, thanks for the heads up!

Thanks for the Friday updates!

Heh heh! Woo-hoo! And other assorted expressions of pleasure and delight.:)

Nice to have a proper update, I haven't looked at the stickies much recently and would've missed this but for Alpha's link in another thread!

Thanks all, looking forward to the Beta.;)

Luthier - Please get did of the sound radar! Don't forget it, really, it ruins 80% of the surprise attacks.

Cheers!

Congrats for the regular updates. Wishes of a good work to you and the team.

Oh boy, I am frightened about his one. :roll: (IL-2 1946 ghosts I guess...)

PS: ~S~ (in particular) to the new team members. :cool:

Yee haw!

Don't worry, most people who complain about FM's can't fly properly anyway. I don't care if they glue sidewinders to the wings of the spitfire and install jet engines, these people will get shot down in droves anyway, be it spitwhiners or luftwhiners.:grin:

S!

Good news!

luthier......I start to love you....ciao!!

Hopefully we got some more info/good results soon, and I have to say I really wish we would get more frequent updates; but that being said it looks good that you are building the team and not using CRT monitors anymore :rolleyes:

Thanks Luthier,great news,great update,and we all appreciate it.

Good on you Luthier and the boys.

I for one will be like an expectant father waiting see if his new born hasn't got the dreaded Launcher exe gene. Joking apart, thanks for you and your teams stalwart efforts. As I've said before, the Champagne is still on ice.

Regards

Vonte

Thanks Luthier.

Really looking forward to the better sound...what we have now was such a giant leap in the right direction. It will be great once it's much more fleshed out.

Better graphics engine will help too. Hopefully it will increase fps, allow some AA, get rid of building popup...can't wait!

I've had tons of fun just flying around in this sim, can't wait to have even more fun. Christmas time shall be fun.

My performance is okay (not marvelous, but okay) and I sure as hell could wait another 3 months for updates in puncto weather. What I can't grasp at all is that radio command fixes just can't be slipped in somewhere up the priority line. It should (*should*... for non-1C companies) consume few resources and could be done relatively quickly.
And I'm quite sure that this is what puts off significant parts of the community - the fact that we've got a "WW2 aircraft simulation" here, not a "WW2 air combat simulation". But anyways, I'm just hitting walls with this... The only thing I'd really like to know is -after all these "graphics issues" are resolved- how many hours will you enjoy flying completely on your own before shelving the game yourself, silently whispering: "Ha! At least I drew those interested in actual gameplay down with me!!11".

Luthier - thanks so much for the update mate. Those short updates really do make a big difference to the engagement of the community - can't wait to help out testing the new patch.

Recon.

I just don't get it why so many people are complaining about the work on an improved graphic engine.
As Luthier stated in one of his last updates the new engine won't look ANY different from the one now, but its more like a rewriting of the inner core code to improve performance and make it more streamlined.
By achieving this they may have a performance boost that allows them to implement a damage model for the trees e.g.

Or is it me who didn't got it right? :)

Besides he's also talking about improving AI and in my understanding this includes the functionality of the radio commands?!

Love you guys. Mine is the only opinion that matters. :-P

If the FM's, DM's, lack of COOP and memory leak crashes are not fixed then MP is still not good enough.
If the wingman commands and AI are not fixed then SP is still not good enough.

It doesn't matter how fast and good the visuals are if these important problems are not sorted.

I like these flight models. One reason is is because I'm having much and I mean MUCH more success in COD than IL-2 1946. I'm actually on the positive side on the kill rates the past few nights. Remember James Holland said the 109 was the better aeroplane in the Battle of Britain :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8FsRU0fv_A

Just like the ones we have in CloD... :rolleyes:

Excellent news. Thanks for the update.

Thanks for the update!

I must add my thanks as well - thanks Luthier!

Thanks!:o

Sidewinders
 

Cool ... sidewinders on the Spit!

and thanks for the update Luthier!

Oh i forgot...............
Plz lets get rid of these washed out colors plzzzzzzz!!!

Thanks for the update!

Best of luck with the new code..

Do you guys accept pizza donations from across the pond?

Awesome news...

Thanks!
It is nice to hear something, even if it is two lines, it is nice! :)

Nice week end!

~S~

+2

Thanks for the news update Luthier and welcome to the New guys.
Well done & keep up the good work.

Great news, cheers for the update!

thx for info Luthier, very appreciated.

Any guys of team are working on new planes??? hehheheh please photos.

Thanks for the update! Keep em coming!

I greatly appreciate the breif update. Luthier if you do read these post ( although, not a very positive undertaking for anyone ), many months back it was mentioned you have dedicated personnel engaged in producing the " battle for Moscow " addon. Any chance we could see screen shots of the progress ?

Thanks in advance

Cheers for the more detailed update. Much better when there is a bit of info.

Looking forward to the beta.

This reminds me nicely why I love Gogol's short stories and Mussorgsky's music: they make no sense, but are great art. Ilya, moi drug, ya tebya ljublju!!

this lastone, : Skin of Afrika, :O?

Thanks for the update

+1 !

Nice... I actually really enjoy updates like this. To see the team in action that make this beauty is really awesome. If anyone on the team actually reads this: Beast Mode

I hope more updates like this continue every so often. (not that its needed but just for fulfilling my selfish wants)

A MUCH APPRECIATED UPDATE :):):):):):) I CANT WAIT FOR THE GAME TO BE WHERE I KNOW ITS GONNA BE:cool::cool::cool::cool:

I don't see the picture of the guy creating the Hampden, Battle and Hudson meshes? .. was he under the table sleeping it off? :grin:

.

He was drawn in the Volga when he admitted coding the SPit FM :rolleyes:

Tomcat, if you would stop whining so much in the chat when you fly, and realize that the 109 is not magic and cannot run down any plane by simply opening the throttle, you might gain some understanding of how and why you are getting shot down online.

No one is cheating.

The Spitfire is actually under modeled in both climb and speed.

You are a very poor judge of your energy state, much less that of your adversaries.

A Spit engaged you last night with a 3000 ft. height advantage and got you and you accuse the plane of being uber or the pilot of cheating.

You rammed my clearly disabled Hurricane that was making all of 160mph IAS because you totally misjudged the closure rate.

It's the man, not the machine sir.

:rolleyes:

Agreed, everything except the IIa seems to be undermodeled by around 10%, but since the undermodling is equal there isn't any real advantage to anyone!

Its a poor craftsman that blames his tools.

Quite right. None of the apposing aircraft have out climbed me when I've had hight energy advantage at the start of a battle. The only exception to this was when flying a Hurricane. If you avoid vortex streaming turns (they look good), but do a series of chandels, you keep your energy state and give yourself the option of a climb or dive gataway. As for Spit or 109, I love both for different reasons. The Spitfire is a beautiful aerobatic machine, the 109 is rubbish at tight loops or turns. The Spit on the other hand has crap armament, 15.7 secs of peashooter ammo, against 6secs of 20mm and 1 minute of twin 7.9 mm ammo. Perhaps I'm a rubbish pilot but when flying a Spit, I only seem to either kill the pilot or perforate his radiator. Conversely, when I fly the 109, I can use the MG's to slow the down the enemy AC, then give them the Coup de Grâce with the cannons at collision range.
Vonte

wall of smoke ElAUrens.

And stop referring to me I am not citing any name here even those insulting me in the chat-bar.

Just like the stupid sentence "it's not the plane it's the pilot" that show you didn't learn anything from WWII aviation history. :rolleyes:

Regarding the ramming I did apologize for tht if ever I had to (anyway you was going down).

You 're the kind of funny guy : stepping on conveniences and then writing abt morale in the forum.

May I say that I never heard abt any apologies after all the insults for hving a different opinion of you ?

So check you own low 6 before bad mouthing abt me here.

Last but not least, If you don't see what I am jocking abt with the Spit here, I am not surprised that you look like so (comfortably ?) blind with her FM.

I believe that most people still believe that a enemy plane must go down in flames or parts for a kill.

THAT ISN'T SO!

A plane rendered useless to fight, is a victory, even if it takes 10 min. for the plane to reach the place of its forced landing!

I, for my part, shot down 4 bombers and 1 fighter during one flight on the Atag-server with a Rotol-Hurri. One Bomber even lost a wing, but the last victory of that flight reached me well into my next flight.

Couldn't agree more. The good thing about Cliffs of Dover,is it rewards good piloting skills. Many a time I've nursed a badly mauled aircraft either back to base or to a outfield gear up landing. Usually using "crossed" controls and sympathetic use of throttle. I rarely "bail", if it still has some modicum of control, I'll stay with it. I get a great kick out of denying someone a kill.

More work for the devs in one of the patches after the next :D

+1 Check this please

You sir are the only blind person here.

I'm now done with you.

Sirs,

Please stay in topic.

Luthier - Please correct the sound radar! It's awful!

Thanks for all your hard work and the update!:-P