Friday Update, April 13, 2012
 

Good day everyone!

We're very glad to announce that the beta patch is largely done. It's going into wide internal testing today, which will last through the weekend and probably a couple of days more. After we make sure nothing is amiss, we'll make the beta patch available to everyone

We're ready to release details on some of the improvements you'll see in the patch. Here we go:

Performance

We've performed a huge amount of work improving both average and minimum FPS in the game. Most recommended-spec machine will see a roughly double average FPS and a significant reduction in the micro-freezes that had previously plagued the game. Their frequency, duration, and overall FPS impact will be greatly reduced or completely redone.

Some of the changes include:

• Completely rewritten rended pipeline, which reduced CPU load;
• Rewritten texture manager, reducing stutter when loading new textures;
• Moved landscape geometry generator to its own CPU core, reducing stutters;
• Optimized tree code, reducing stutters when moving across landscape or rotating camera;
• Moved grass generator to its own CPU core, decreasing stutters during low-level flight;
• Moved all building and vehicle damage models to be pre-loaded, rather than dynamically loaded when they are destroyed. This increased mission loading times and memory usage, and reduced stutters when blowing things up;
• Improved multithreading in many other aspects of the code, improving minimal FPS on most multicore machines.

Finally, we need to mention the launcher.exe crashes. This was a very hard issue to address as it wasn't caused by a single 100% reproducible bug, but rather rare combinations of various uncommon events. The work described above, coupled with a huge volume of general bug-fixing performed, should have at least minimized the number of instances that lead to crashes. We haven't encountered one in months, but determining whether that'll be the case for the general player base will be one of the leading goals for this beta test.

Flight Model

We've performed a tremendous amount of work testing and improving flight models in the game, as well as improving various aircraft engines. We used actual pilot's notes and flight testing data during the process (thank you Sean!). Unfortunately some deeply-set limitations in the engine code do not allow us to minimize the margin of error at altitudes about 7 km (21,000 ft) where most aircraft begin to perform worse than their real-life counterparts. Fixing this requires more extensive code rework and will therefore only appear with the upcoming sequel. However at lower altitudes most flyables will perform much closer to real life. We also have to note that some aircraft, most notably Spitfire Mk.II, had better performance than the real thing. Others, especially their engines, had reduced performance. We've addressed these serious issues and made our planes fly much closer to the real thing.

More specifically:

G.50
Temperature models of the engine were wrong due to incorrect data. The engine could not get up to required power at all altitudes. We've also added +100 boost for WEP mode.

Spitfire Mk.II
The aircraft's speed performance was too good at all altitudes, sometimes 60 mph better than the real thing.

Spitfire Mk.I
Fixed the top speed dip above 18,000 ft.

Hurricane Mk.I
Speed performance was also too good at all altitudes, similar to the Spit II.

Blenheim Mk.IV
Had many problems with the engine model. The engine overheated at normal RPM, the plane could not get up to stated airspeed at all altitudes. Maximum allowed airspeed was too great, and the plane could get up to 560 mph in a dive. A huge amount of work was performed to improve the plane's FM and bring it up to speed.

For a better example, here's a comparison of the old and new speeds of the Fiat G.50. The data was taken by a special internal module that tests speeds at a range of altitudes using optimal engine settings. Human players will likely not be able to set their engine precisely the same way, or fly exactly level at the exact altitude, so testing this for yourselves may give you slightly different results. The vertical axis is the speed in kph, the horizontal is the top speed.


Artificial Intelligence

Partial list:
• Fixed some non-working orders, removed others from the list. There are no more orders available to the player that the AI does not follow.
• Added a request for available targets;
• Turned off friendly fire for ground battles (improving FPS);
• Added the ability to query current waypoint for scripts;
• Told AI pilots not to commit ritual suicide when their leader crash-lands;
• Fixed out of turn take offs for AI pilots;

And there's lots more!

Finally, we continue to introduce you to the upcoming sequels. Here's some more village landscapes, showing the few churches still left around 1940s Russia. Once again, these are all coming from an external team that is very eager to do a great job and please the community. We'd also like to remind you that parts of the landscape such as the grass and the trees are temporary placeholders and will definitely not be a part of the final landscape.

Have a great weekend!

And more:

good news :)

Brilliant news, sounds great! Thanks B6

Great news thankyou:cool:

Indeed very good news, thanks for the update today!

Very promising!

Thanks B6

Great news.:grin:

Hi BlackSix, thx. the update.
Can you give any information about the 109?

Thank you B6...but now wishing I have more cores...nice pic's!

Great news indeed. A few days for the beta patch WOW!!!:-P

Thanks B6 and have a nice weekend

Wonderful!
Love you, guys!

Great! Thanks for the detailed info.
Artist

Awesome news! Thanks a lot!

Excelent news! ;)

Finally, I can't wait. Sounds very good. Thx for the info.

Looking forward to testing it out.

Last week I said the landscape looked like RO2, this week Men of War Assault Squad springs to mind (one of the maps with a church in).

Bugger internal testing, let us have it :)

Thank you BlackSix, please pass my thanks on to the team as well, sounds like it's going to be a pretty significant patch when we get it!!!

First off, thanks soooo much for fixing the G.50! Look at those curves, that's what I'm talking about. Thanks B6, I hope the G.50 manual helped you a little. Really nice update. A question though, will there be one big patch with all the things you mentioned in the update or only the graphics/performance part? Thanks again and have a nice orthodox Easter!

P.S Oh, the outcry when the Spit II will be nerfed, oh dear indeed.:cool:

FM - Discussions reloaded :rolleyes:

Great news!

S!

Thank you for the information! Let's hope the testing goes well! :D

The best news ever, faith is restored and all is well with the world

At least the tumbleweed can now take a well-earned rest.

What are the plans for Clod, specifically, after this patch? Will it be supported as a legacy app?

Will there be further patches to address other aspects of Clod?

(Apologies if I've forgotten my cheerleader's outfit and baton-twirling skills...I have a memory).

'Moderately hopeful' welcomes you to the village (again). Please drive slowly.

Ben

Don't worry Kodiak. It's gonna get interesting. I guess I better stock up on popcorn and beer. ;)

@ BlackSix

I have a question with regards to the village layouts. Are they hand-placed or was a template used? I wonder because one particular feature that appears again and again in various german Eastern Front books is that russian villages often "clung" to a road and were therefor rather "long and thin". This is what we germans call Strassendorf (Street Village).

This is Great new. Thanks for the update.

Great job Luthier and team, looking forward to the beta! :)

Very good update, this is what we have been waiting for! :-P


What about the axis aircraft?

Especially the 110 and 109?

Dum spiro spero


Thanks!
It still means nothing (because we do not hold the real thing) but it is a reason for hope.
And it sounds very promising...

Happy Easter!

~S~

Awesome!!! Another 5 days or so give me enough time to upgrade my ATAG mission to take advantage of some new features coming. Yhanks Blaksix!. Thanks 1c Team!

So the Russians can only have linear settlemetns and not nucleus settlements? Are not settlements down to the land scape and geographic conditions and terrain?

I thought the FM fixes and some other stuff were a bit of a unexpected surprise, this was supposed to be a pure performance fix as far as we were lead to believe, My guess is the fixes for the LW stuff will come later as they are less porked.

Is it possible, that you give us such a graph of all aircraft, when the patch comes out? Max level speed, climb rate, turning speed / time as well (like the old il-2 compre)?

Tnks you!! , and Happy Easter to all orthodox.

Oh wow.

Am I going to have to re-do the Blenheim tutorials again??? :lol:

Fantastic news all round and much looking forward to a thorough testing of the patch.

A little concerned regarding the FM alterations, but I'll wait and see.

Thanks B6. :grin:

A great update! Thank you!

One thing scares me: the flight model stuff.

I cannot believe that the RAF planes are going to be getting WORSE instead of better. I just cannot believe it. And no changes to the 109s. Reduce the IIa, sure (though 60mph seems a bit of a too big reduction), but the Ia is a joke currently.

I guess we'll have to wait and see. I hope this doesn't put me off flying vs other human pilots though. I hadn't even considered this until reading those changes, but the way things are going regarding the flight models I might go back to flying against the AI.... There's only so many times I want to take-off and offer myself up as target practice for the blue 109s. Right now, it's not too bad.

Just have to wait for the patch and see, I suppose.

You could make it up to us Red pilots by giving us a Spitfire V though! :) :) :)

Thank you Blacksix, a question if I may, regarding the launcher.exe CTD, how have you tested this? I am sure you are aware that in the main its an online issue (Multiplayer). have the dev's been flying online to test for crashes?

many thanks

S!

BlackSix the pictures are stunning. I'm not going to be paying attention to what I am supposed to be doing and just some sightseeing. Very impressive work. I show the people where I work and the results are unanimous they love it!

Ps 118:
+ + + + XB + + + +
<< Happy Easter >>

AI
 

Has the AI been improved to a point where we can get a decent fight with them? Much need for the offline players.

I asked because I haven't seen a single village with that layout, yet. ;)

German flyables were in a much better state than the British ones, so we can't report anything dramatic. You will probably notice some changes in the 109 if you fly it a lot, but the others will be even less perseptible, just seen on the graphs that we decided not to make public.

Hard to say, after how long this patch took. There's still a lot of things we'd like to improve, but the general idea is like this. We keep on improving the overall engine as part of developing the sequel. The things that can be put back into CoD get packaged up and released as a patch. When we get close to the release date of the sequel, we hold the changes for the sequel. If it's a major addition, not a fix, we also keep it for later.

This is how the current patch is being released. Ostensibly, everything done for it was done for the sequel, and then patched into the "old release".

We don't place the buildings manually, but we do mark the overall areas manually. We take a historical map and trace historical roads and outline historical settlements.

Then the standard "village" or "town" or "industrial" or whatever texture with the standard pattern goes on there. However that pattern lines up with the spline historical road - we don't know. In some cases it'll line up with the texture and the buildings, in other cases it'll cross the standard village streets at a 45-degree angle.

That's just how it is. If we had to place every building on a map manually, even a small 40x40 km online map would take years to make.

This is all great news, thanks for the update

Well maybe then it'll be 109s vs Spitt IIas on ATAG.

and i hope for more grassland in the map, the france map have to many fields.

Can't wait to try it! Thanks a lot for this massive update, and congratulations on reaching this milestone!

I hope everything will pan out as expected during the weekend, best of luck with the testing sessions!

Really promising update, Thanks BlackSix and Luthier and team.

Can't wait to try it out!

Happy Easter,

Regards, Sam.

Hey luthier! quick questions. Will the changes listed in the update be in one single beta patch? Also, about multi-core CPU support, in the update it says different things will be off loaded on to seperate cores, will that mean for us that have let's say just a dual core CPU worse performance than before? Stupid question but I'd like to know. Cheers!

..excellent update..many thanks to the whole team for their hard work.

Have a peaceful Easter

you know, in the Clod map you get no historical map it is all like in "Google map" see Dunkirk, Boulogne sur mer and Le Havre Ports

Not a great prospect if you fly a virtual squadron that flew Hurricanes until the Spit V came along.

Thanks for the update, really looking forward to this.

Can you say if FSAA is something that has had attention in this patch?

We wanted to make in-game graphs for CoD, but we ran out of time to build the GUI. And because we're moving to a whole new system for our GUI, thank goodness, we won't be able to make it for CoD.

Spit I got better. Its speeds at altitude got progressively worse than the real thing in the old build. The patch will make it better.

The Hurricane got about 20 mph slower, sorry. It's historically accurate.

The Blenheim got a major boost though, so - no reason to cry the way I see it.

We like the offline AI. It's realistically dumb on lower levels, and pretty tricky at higher levels. There won't be a huge change there.

Yes all of this goes into the one beta patch you'll be seeing in a matter of days.

If you have a dual core you will still see a tiny improvement, but it won't be as much as a quad or 8 core. Still, in the old build you still overused the first code and underused the second one, so there will be an improvement anyway.

Of course, there's a larger overall FPS improvement that's due to code optimization, not multithreading, so everyone will benefit regardless of system specs.

Church especially with kremlin(fortress) was core in any settlement(Moscow kremlin, Rostov kremlin). Village in other options builded along roads, rivers and coast of lake.

:grin:

No über spits anymore :D

Once online I thought I saw an UFO, but on a second glance it happened to be a Hurri :grin:

Glad those buggers are being fix't :D

Thanks for the response. We'll have to wait and see, I guess. Thanks for your hard work! I can't comment regarding the Blenheim stuff since I don't really fly it or know about it.

Would it be possible to post a graph like the G.50 one you put up? We'd love to see it if the speeds are more accurate. For both the Hurricane and the Spit I/II.

You could not encounter it because it is not present offline. As far as I know you do not run your own MP servers because your office does not have external IP address. At least this was the case 1 year ago when we provided server bugreports from Repka servers. Also you could not test if the bug is fixed on ATAG because it runs a different game version.

Please run closed online beta test to see if CTDs are still present. If you run open beta with CTDs not fixed and tested as it sounds to me now (knowing Russian vague wording), you will be publicly crucified.

@ all
Do not hold your breath yet. Another 2 weeks might be needed for online CTDs tests and subsequent fix.

Ok thanks for the answers. Looking forward to the patch!:)

Gulp… I seem to have swallowed my tongue.

+1 screenshot
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpos...48&postcount=2

thx b6 and team for the update its nice to hear that we are finally going to get the patch. and it does sound very good.

Luthier, thanks for info. Can you confirm that boost cut out now actually works correctly in RAF aircraft or not? It was mentioned some time ago by Blacksix that you and team were persusing info for 100 octane fuel performance in RAF aircraft too (which was in widespread, heavily documented use in the battle of britain), can you confirm that this has been added as an option, or that it will be in future?

Has the infuriating 'barrel rolls' of bombers and F16 109 rolls etc been addressed at all? They can currently be mitigated somewhat by changing values in FMB, but it is still really annoying.

Also, have the bugged bombsight systems and implementation in many aircraft received any attention yet?

This is good news overall though, look forward to testing it hopefully next week. :)

Cheers.

BlackSix and Luthier

thank you for the detailed information on bug fixes added to the gfx engine rework patch

but ........

can you please include the "FoV preferences/setup fix" in this release ? it should be a simple quick edit of your files, and not something lengthy and complex (so not time consuming or a cause for delay)

right now we have the problem that "normal" view is locked for all players to 70 FoV, and this 70 degree field of view is only normal for somebody sitting approx at arms length from a 30' monitor. however if you have a 24' monitor "normal" FoV should be about 45 FoV, and for a 27' monitor it would be about 55 FoV etc...

please understand the importance of this ! eg, when those 20', 22', or 24' or 27' monitor users have the 70 FoV setting set as normal, ALL INGAME OBJECTS SHRINK IN SIZE AND EITHER LOOK MUCH SMALLER OR LOOK MUCH FURTHER AWAY FROM THE USER, this distorts our sense of speed and distance to objects when we fly in the il2 virtual world BY AS MUCH AS 30 - 50% !

we need to be able to assign a FoV value in the preferences/options setup are (as we were able to do in the later versions of the il2 sim in previous years), so the "normal, "wide' and "zoomed" views can be specifically chosen by the user (with valus from 35 to 90 FoV) to suit their display hardware and personal FoV choice

a number of previous threads in this forum have raised this issue, and it has been reported in the "bug fix request" thread

Luthier, if I may ask, are you currently saying that the sequel to Cliffs of Dover will not be backwards-compatible with cliffs of dover?

I personally think one of the great contributors to IL-2 1946's success was the expansion pack system. You could use the original planes with the newest releases, creating a huge library of combat vehicles and aircraft from many theatres.

How do you currently plan to do it? And if you cannot make it backwards compatible, will there be made work to upgrade the cliffs of dover content, and add it to the sequel in the future?

I am terrible sorry to say this, but may I recommend you to rather learn to fly (l2f) instead

:grin::grin::grin::grin::grin::grin:

SORRY, but I just can't keep it to myself now :grin::grin::grin::grin:

Gonna need some good pint of ale today!

Cheers :DDD

I guess I can't blame you for not being overly optimistic.

We can run our own server though, and we do fly online :confused:

Hurricanes were never competitive against 109s - they were largely responsible for hunting down bombers and great at it.

@Luthier, I can see you feel pretty confident and optimistic! That's the best news, seem you have achieved a big step forward. Wish you all the luck and thanks!

Yes, that's great if the new patch allows big bomber formations. I'd be happy to go up against a 30+ group with my squadron. That's fun.

Being target practice isn't.

Very promising,thanks B6

No Il-2 product was ever backwards-compatible. You could not take a Pacific Fighters patch and apply it to an Ace Expansion Pack install. You cannot take graphic improvements in 4.12 and install them on top of the original Il-2.

The new line will work the same way. If you own the old product, you'll be able to install a new one on top of it; or you'll be able to get a compilation product like 1946 that includes old content from previous releases.

But once the sequel is released, there obviously won't be any more support for stand-alone CoD.

Smeeling like FM Discussion flies in again Luftwhiners vs Sissyfiremen Vol. II.
Keep it comin, Popcorn ready!

Maybe someone could leave a word on working Anti-Aliasing with the new or the updated grafic engine. Was AA adressed to this update or planned for another one, or maybe not planned at all?

a pretty stunning screenshot :)

i think Black6 new screenshots have AA ;)

I'm not even going to get into this. Enjoy your ale!

Thanks for your time, info and responses Luthier and BlackSix, it's appreciated.

Oh I know the ATAG blue bombers would love to join in on the formations!

They can't currently because of launcher crashes when flying close. Also, there is a new rotating mission on ATAG with armada of AI bombers, and shooting them down actually contributes to team score!

As always:
 

Thank you!
And have a good weekend.

Viking

Very nice update gents! Thank you for that! :grin:

One question though: Will the new beta contain an updated version of the sound engine? Like in one of your ground vehicle videos, where you can clearly hear better sounds for the Ju-87 e.g.

Would be really nice to have that included as well. :-) I just love the new sounds since the last patch! I would really like to hear loud formations of bombers... ( He-111, Blenheim etc are pretty quiet at the moment)

In some quick missions there are problems such as enemy aircraft refusing to engage and flying off on the straight path home. This is not quite the same as AI efficiency, but more a refusal to trigger into combat AI. Has this been fixed for offline fliers?

Thank you for the answer!

So basically, no more patches for those who don't own the sequel, I totally understand that, but the sequel will act as an expansion to the original (cliffs of dover) and will now be a combined product, which you will continue to support.

That is good news :) As long as you are doing like you did with the previous series of IL-2 sturmovik I believe you are working in the correct direction :)

Good luck with the closed beta, it sounds very promising :)

Thak you the answers.
What I miss in the current 109 FM, is the "notleistung" system (WEP, afterburner, whatever). We see on graphs, that the "notleistung" increase the engine performance about 15-20%, but the in-game top speed increase only a fraction of this value (+10 km/h ~ +2%). Is there a chance that it will be fixed in the future?

Yep, it's a great addition to the mission roster! Still too much emphasis in that one on RED making ground attacks in France, though, and on fighter/fighter points.

Like I said. Hopefully the patch will resolve some of the issues we have in putting up historical missions. I'm all for making a simulator simulate reality because that's fun to recreate stuff. But if you're not recreating history, you're just sending people up to shoot at each other in the air and any game like that is no fun for one side if it's not balanced. If you create realistic flight models, we need realistic situations to employ them.

Absolutely stunning news!:) Thank you guys!

Luthier, you said there are some minor changes to the 109FM...could you tell us what exactly they are?

thanks blacksix and team

Very well spoken.

A quality update

:)

What a great way to end the week.

Great news B6 and Team.

Maybe i should start working on my broken quad core PC soon. Didnt care about it for one year now, but this sounds as if the time might have come....

So close I can taste it. Thanks for the big update. Look forward to trying out the beta patch (been a while since I last was on CloD). And I'm looking forward to pastures new too, those Rata's are a blast, and my old friend the Friedrich.

Thanks again.

so close ;)
i hope they aren't critical bug who delay the release ;)
this sound good

Thank you team for the update! I'm looking forward to using more of my i5 2500k in this patch for an increase in fps. Right now I have the game already running at pretty good fps, can't wait for even more fps! Less micro-freezes will be nice, they are an immersion killer. I'm also looking forward to flying the Blenheim more.

My questions:

Luthier will the in-game AA work better now with the new patch? Right now the jaggies for me are a big turnoff. If not can we expect an improvement in the sequel?

Will this patch contain any further sound updates? I LOVED the new sounds from the last patch and want to see more added. Or has the sound guy been working on the sequel?

Thanks for your continued work!

Thank you for the update, good work!!! Looking forward to the patch :-)

Question:

- Will the patch include AA?
- What do you think about the 777's business model of selling single planes? Could you imagine doing the same for the Il-2 CloD series? Like the Focke 190 for 15$ or something?

Thank you again sir!

Thanks !
 

FIrst of all, good to have you back Luthier....Having you back here, is indeed very good news ! ;)

How about new clouds and dynamic weather system, pilot's bailout animation and all those beautiful visual effects that were shown during developpement ?
Are any of those will be in the final CLOD issue or only in the sequel ?

Thanks !

It is also a common problem, that the planes as dots appear at a long distance and when we get closer they simply disappear (or blur into the background) at a given distance and they pop up again when they are close.

Is it addressed in the new engine?

cheers
MM

Yes...I am hoping that BS comment "And there's lots more!" will include

-Fixing the stunt pilot AI antics
-The amazing new sounds Luthier mentioned four months ago

But, I am very excited to see the patch. After such a long time I'm sure the Dev Team will want to impress the community.

:)

Spit II and Hurricane
 

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What data have you been reading I am sorry to hear that the allied planes are dumb down again to meet the German Blue demand much like il2 1946. This sim is going the way of the dodo and the allied bird in your series have never met the correct speeds at sea level and still to this day even with the mods in 46 they still are tanks.

So at low alt the spit Ia still performs like a joke and you have to only fly above 18000 ft to see a performance increase. This is laughable. Who won the war for gosh sakes. what pilot notes are you reading are they Germans.

I am sad to hear this.

king

I do like their marksmanship!...but some of their maneuvers in bombers are breath taking.