BETA PATCH v1.06.17582 thoughts.
 

Salutes!

Let me recall BalckSix last week update previous to this weekend release:

These words now have a new meaning to me after going through the BETA PATCH v1.06.17582 experience.

I will not mention here my personal game situation, there is a bug thread here:
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthread.php?t=31760

This post is just to express my sympathy about the amount of pressure the 1C team must be suffering in order
to release a Patch in the actual state.

I personally think that after a full year of higher expectatives, now I do not care any more about tomorrow,
next two weeks, nor even next month…
I care about getting things right by the CloD 1C team. I care about the CloD 1C team taking back the control
of the situation.

Majo.

Well said.

Hi Majo:


I believe that it was a very difficult decision for them, to release this alpha-beta testing version or not. I imagine that the team was divided regarding that, but finally they decide to release.

The community was putting a lot of pressure, because is too long since the last patch, and because of the CTD online.

There was a poll about if it was preferred by us to wait until everything was perfect, or release it in whatever the current state was, to HELP with the testing process.

So finally they released, put a big warning, this is ALPHA DX-10, and asked us for help.

The results are what we know, and in line with what we could expect, seeing the results of the poll I mention before: a good part of the community took it as the patch they were expecting and a good part of the community took it as a testing release, and began to do correct tests (correct installs, methodic tests, hardware wise, in short, people who knows how to test, which it is not easy).


So I can understand that for a good amount of people, the patch is dissapointing, specially when they start to see unfinished things, graphics errors and so on. Many of them are surely very easy to fix ( I've seen so far z-offsets errors, alpha-channel errors, and some new CTD which could be related to normal and easily fixable code errors).

But I think they know what they are doing, and we must be patient. it's only a few days since they released this version.

I remember clearly, short after the NA release, we were in the exact same situation, and then they came with a patch that impressed nearly 100% af all of us, that was when we got the new amazing sounds and lot of new features. Please check back in time and see the reactions of the community in that patch (sorry I dont remember the exact version number). Then the infamous online CTD appeared, spoiling all this amazing job.

I only hope that Luthier and team can read correctly the forum reactions, and permit us to continue testing small new releases fixing this and that, and dont get blinded by the reactions of those who want to play now (understandable) and dont want to lose time testing. To this ones, please be patient, let the rest of us do the job of testing the game, so it can be fixed for all.

This method has worked in the past (again, see history around september 2011 and afterwards) and I am sure it will work again, and we will have a new milestone regarding stable releases.

Lud.

Yeah, this is optimistic and positive approach. But every action has reaction. Reaction here is that community will shrink once again. I really don't know how many people will be here to do this testing for next several months... Btw... Summer is coming soon....

People will stay and play if we have regular updates and patches to test..simple as that..

Id rather have an unfinished Alpha/Beta whatever you wanna call it to test and see than nothing at all...its the nothing at all that f*ks people off, especially at this stage of the game as in when it was first released.

Plus it helps the Devs...

For the life of me I don't know why we were not testing this before now, I guess they have their reasons

Nice thread Majo! Sure the pressure must be overwhelming for the devs and I feel a bit sorry for them.

We demanded the patch and now we got one which is unfinished in few parts. Damned if they do, damned if they don't! ;)

Allthough I must admit that I am a bit confused about the results of the patch ( esp. the results relating to worse or same performance of many users ) (see my post http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showthr...t=31780&page=7) I am just saying to myself that this is due to the patch being nothing more like an alpha to crush the remaining bugs of the new engine.

Since they stated that users should see at least a 50% increase (or more like 100% considering the comment on "roughly doubles the fps) I just hope that this Alpha/Beta is no reflection of the upcoming official patch. And with that Im not talking about the graphic bugs which are expected by me due to the extensive engine rewrite.

The problem is that for a lot of people, me included, and after a lot of months, this patch does not fix anything and "breaks" a lot of things that worked well. For that people there is nothing in this patch that can be seen in a positive way but a steep backwards, and for a lot of people that is very hard to assume after all this time, even being alpha, beta or gamma. I´m in the industry myself and I can understand that a mayor rework has this problems. But even me expected more than this for a patch that they have decided to launch for testing. They claimed almost no CTD, but a lot of us are experiencing CTD every 10 minutes even offline. I can´t see how this could go through their own beta testing. It´s not like they would say, we are experiencing CTD every 10 min, but we can´t found the problem, we need your help and logs to catch it... I could understand that.

One of the programmers said in relation to CTD:

"this beta was aimed at the elimination of the graphics and the game crashes and memory leaks, some problems (such as, for example, joint flight departures for several multiengined planes) were found and Fixed, but unfortunately not all, we hope, with dumps from a large number of players remaining will be easier to locate. "

Similar sentiments here, Majo.

I am a bit disappointed like most of the other users, though I don`t see a reason why we should help the team getting burned out. I saw that a lot of times. When you`re working hard, get frustrating results and big pressure from others, even love for a project will not last forever. And for this project I think it is so ambitious that it defines the persons working in it. Some time ago Luthier stated that the team was given some more time to work on this game and the next one. I don`t feel like ruining their enthusiasm.
I can always state how disappointed I am, but that doesn`t mean I have to be negative every time I post. Doesn`t help anyone really.

I always keep reminding myself that the worst I can feel is being cheated as a customer. For them it is losing their jobs, their dreams of this project getting real and their private lives torn (don`t say you never feel bad at home when you have that bad day at work).
What I see in CloD is dream of achieving the heights of air simming, especially when compared to other titles from the same genre. I don`t really agree that 1C should be THAT ambitious. It`s just that if they can achieve what they want, my simming experience will get better somewhere along the way.

And the last thing I think abou is that I myself do not work too well under pressure. When I work under pressure I make mistakes. Stupid mistakes. So I can totally relate to the IL2 team. And I will be the last person to add to the pressure, especially the negative type. It is not needed. It makes them nervous, maybe even affraid. I don`t think that thhe case of a video game is sucha case where pressure is mandatory. Sure, it is everyday experience of a programmer. But do I have to add to it? No. I can wait. If this means giving me the best simming experience ever then I`m glad to.

Keep the faith and never give up. ~S!~

Yes I know, they also said they have found only 0.8 CTD day.
A lot of people have over 144 CTD day.

So help them out. Send crash dumps. If they cant get them, they cant fix them!

Yes, I know.
Don´t take me wrong, I still have hope, less hope, but hope. As other people have already said... there is no other WWII sim out there that can compares with CLOD after all. And with a dying genre like this, we have to support this whatever the situation.

I dont think they can fix the game anymore imo, If they could they would have done it by now. They are trying to fix someone elses code, thats no easy feat and some might say impossible.

As far as dump logs/crash logs go, ive been sending them since they first asked us to back at release, if they had looked at them maybe it would have helped.
Have a look for the thread from last year (if it hasnt been deleted as it was quite some time ago) were loads of people posted their crash logs, see how many were picked up.

Maybe it did not make sense to study dumps from the old engine if they started a 20-50% rewrite of the engine anyway? Or maybe those crash-dumps were the reason they started the rewrite.

Now when most of rewrite is over and the new graphics guy studied the engine a bit things can change quicker. At least this is what the devs want and working on.

True. That could be the possiblity.

now guys.. really.. had this patch left you the impression that it was in an "almost ready to release" state for a few weeks?!!

because for me, those words are simply lies, considering the state of the patch.

I'm sorry, but this is the hard truth, which actually hurts more than the state of the patch itself. because it means there's no trust to be put anymore in the words of the developers :(

Depends only how much further from release it was 5-6 months ago. Thus, can not be a lie. We can not know in which nightmare state the previous developer who was fired left the engine.

If they truly on have 22 guys in their development team, lets assume these guys have similar computers, running similar set ups, then yes, perhaps they got the patch running to where it ran very well on their set up, but someone else out their with a different setup is having more trouble.

Hence you have this Alpha to try and collect more data from a greater variety of setups which will enable them to better track down issues.

Send in your data!

Hi Adonys

We were all moaning like mad for it to be released and there was even a vote to release it is what ever state it was in so we could test it. We got what we asked for.

While they work on the issues they know about they will now also be getting plenty of bug reports and crashlogs etc so hopefully this should help them.

Of course we are frustrated but like the Op and Carguy I do feel for them. They aren't the kind of people to release some rubbish and not care and I do believe that they must be feeling the pain more than any of us. Like Carguy said sure we spend some money (call it wasted money if you like) but those guys are spending every single day in front of a computer trying to sort this Sim out and it must be soul destroying.

No about of moaning on our part is going to moving things along and I am just as frustrated as the next guy but we've just got to hang on in there or move on.

Here's looking forward to the next patch :)

This.

Putting in the work is voluntary. But for those that don't want to do it, they should at least let the rest of us do. They stand to gain from this just as much as we do. Otherwise, if they keep sabotaging everything they'll have nobody else to blame for their unfixed sim.

Do you want to help? Apply the patch, fly and send in your data and bug observations.

You don't want to help? Sit back, have a beer and let the others do the job, but keep quiet and don't distract the people who are doing you a favor by being unpaid volunteers to fix the game you bought.

Pretty simple really ;)

Well said.

I have always found that to pick up a half done job and complete it is far more difficult and time consuming that to start it from the beginning.

It is testament to their character that they aren't blaming other people for the state of the sim and that they are just getting on with it.

At least we know they aren't going anywhere and that they have future projects so what ever the situation today it will be better tomorrow....or in two weeks at least ;)

The perfect example:
http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpos...65&postcount=1

Also, always good to put things in perspective, please check this thread

http://forum.1cpublishing.eu/showpos...47&postcount=1

Specially between the end of July 2011 and the beginning of September 2011, when we got a huge step forward with the release of 1.03.15527 (shadowed afterwards by the infamous online CTD bug).

S!

So so
 

Just played on the ATAG server.... no ctd (only played for a couple of hours mind) .... some minor lag during that time.

Just the new graphic errors need sorting!!!

O... and i still need to improve on my flying skills :-P....

Ross

Beta patches can be a disaster. Therefore most developers don't like to release beta, except to a select group of users.

It is strange how people will blame all issues they encounter after they receive a beta software.

Using the term beta infers problems and that is the sum of it.

Steam doesn't download betas, is my understanding. That is why we had an archived file to download.

In other words, whines and complaints about beta is worthless effort. I suggest making constructive comments to help the developer.

I do have some positive results from this patch, but I'm not going to make an issue out of it. Someone will certainly have a difference of opinion. LOL

Well, I can now play with good fps with textures on original and shadows on, so I see this as a positive. I can happily cope with the pitfalls of loading an Alpha/beta patch. They never said it was definitive. An Alpha/beta is exactly what it says on the tin.

Are you talking the hard lag spikes from time to time, someone from that server suggested it was the downloading of custom skins, I have not yet tried to disable that option under network to see if that goes away. But I had the same experience... no CTDs.

Obviously they are not capable,and trust me,it hurts me maybe even more than them..:(

havnt downloaded any custom skins...
 

The title says it all... lol

I havnt really been with clod lately... just waiting (like everyone else) for the game to ...run smooth? work? provide neutral performance for all?!

This might sound right but I really do not think is the way...

I will try to explain myself:

What was the purpose of releasing the patch public now (last Saturday)?
Maybe gathering help and information from the community... as good as this might sound, what is the difference
between today and let´s say last Friday?
What prevented the 1C CloD team to get support from the community as we were last Friday?

So willing to help as much as possible and considering the community as the highest asset, I still need the
1C CloD team to take care of their beloved project, to manage the collaboration, to take control of all this with
a purpose. This purpose will certainly will not satisfy everybody but it has to be the driving force.

Now, some of us have mutated from customers to supporters, from supporters to testers and from testers to…
There is a limit of how much we can do for them. The responsibility is only theirs, even with all our support and
collaboration.

Salutes.

I am talking online, and it doesnt matter if you dont have custom skins, your settings might be set to download others customs skins as they come into game using them.

Check your network settings...

bah... it's about 3 months that dev talk about "huge" improvement in fps... so that beta.

"double average FPS" are not words by whiners or trolls: B6 wrote that 5.5.2012 about the beta. Why? Are we kids to tell tales?

So? Is there a problem in communication? Is there a problem of player's comprehension?

It is not the first time. It is not professional. It is not whining.

Please, next time release patch without ridicolous opinion.

I disabled Custom Skins in the Network settings, but I still have the 0.5-1s stutters.

Ok, well it was worth a shot, and really these arent stutters, they are more of pauses, and they usually happen when someone joins the server, sorry, tried :/

Using the ‘Black Death’ recorded track, my average frame rate went from 27fps before the patch to 46fps afterwards – not quite double, but close. What cpu do you have – is it a dual-core or a quad-core? luthier stated “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.” Have you tested your average frame rate before and after?

It would help if you posted your system spec (or put it in your signature, as previously requested) and what problems you are having – there are many here that will have a similar system that may be able to help.

You should also realise that this was not an officially released patch that was supposed to improve the game; it’s a ‘beta’ patch available to anyone willing to test and report bugs that may not have been found by the dev’s. If this doesn’t suit you, wait for the officially released version to become available.

Yes. The patch notes say "Most recommended-spec machine will see a roughly double average FPS".

Depends on particular PC hardware, drivers and weather a player switches off epilepsy filter and closes browser, ICQ, skype, real-time antivirus scanners, etc. while playing. :mrgreen:

While it does depend somewhat on the above this isn't the fix in this case. I have a quad core 17 930, overclocked to 4.0Ghz and I have seen little in the way of improvements to my FPS. According to Blacksix post I should be getting around double, but in reality I have an increase of about 3 or 4 FPS. There is no reason why I shouldn't get what Blacksix has stated, I have the hardware and i'm pretty peed off about that statement to be honest. The game is the cause of this problem not the hardware. Graphics cards and ram all have limits to what they can and cannot do, but when the game has wide spread problems as this one obviously does, then it's the game.

The fault isnt with the patch being buggy, its the patch being buggy after 14 months of post release development.

This single handedly killed the squadron I fly with, because we want to do an online campaign going up against large formations, we were all holding on for that. Now its no where in sight.

I dont even know what to think other than that if this is how a 14month post release game is handled, why on earth would I pay money and suffer through mistake after mistake with another title...BOM. In fact I think that title (BOM) might actually be representative of 1C's performance throughout this debacle, from actual game fixing to customer relations all the way down to the treatment of forum posters.

Sad really we have no where else to go, but were all headed away any way.

In many important ways COD is light years ahead of IL-1946. The damage models ,cockpits and the landscape to name my personel top three. I was looking forward to someday in the near future implementing working clouds and weather that does not bring my machine to its knees.
Based upon this " beta " patch it would seem this realization is a long way off. This is disappointing to me.

+1
waiting half a year, and seeing this result is a bit disappointing to say at least.in my view they should from now on give us patches as quick as possible, even if it affects only minor aspects of the game, which we could test.
i mean, the devs didnt encounter launcher crashes for months now, and as soon as they release this alpha version of a patch, the bug section is flooded with comments like:experienced 15crashes today..
i think it would help the game if they would release anything they think they achieved to the community immediately, to be tested by a broader range of systems.
then at least we would have something to do.

THIS, 1C WAKE UP please.

You are apparently not the only one to experience this – in light of the supposed multi-threading support, do you run CloD with HT enabled? I had a huge improvement that I can only assume is due the improved threading that luthier stated that they were implementing in this patch. If not, it may be worth a try.

And thats no biggie. What makes this patch great is the fact that it almost totally eliminated the appearance of launcher crashes for me and all my squadmates. Yesterday i had one - fter 3 hours of constant flying. Thats very acceptable for a beta if you ask me.
Frames are almost all the time at 60 with a I7 2700k @ 4,7 GHz and a GTX 680 running 1920x1200 Resolution, and all settings to max.
Thanks for the hint with the multithreading. Ill look if i have it disabled. What i can recommend is trying adaptive Vsync. New feature in 301.24 Driver that intelligent enables and disables vsync according to the current FPS. For me the feature works great.

Winger

edited

"Most" does not mean "everyone". Check out all the positive reports.

The purpose of this patch is not to make customers happy but to collect bugreports from unhappy customers as stated in the patch notes.

Please test, experiment with different settings, try different hardware and drivers, check programs running in the backgraound and report issues and solutions to the devs and community if you want. Or revert back to old version and wait till official patch. Maybe it will not work on your system if you do not provide feedback to alpha now though.

BTW. Most of complainers do not even care to include their system specs to their sigs. No wonder they have issues.

Maybe just try to set some details higher.
Did that without a significant fps loss. For my rig it seems to be no great fps increase but I dont suffer from higher details either.
Can now play on maximum settings (AA 4x) with avg 35-40 on low level fights over England on ATAG! And my GPU is not highend anymore.