August 6 2011 Development Update

[Flanker1985]

Sorry sir. We just want to ask when does the eastern front version of this game is coming out. Because we all loved the previous IL-2 game especially the dynamic Soviet fighter campaign. Me and my friends are all eager to pilot the MiG-3 and Lavochkin serious in the new IL-2 game.

Thank you in advance for replying us.

[justme262]

Did anybody else notice that reflections were enabled in the last beta patch and then disabled again in the official patch? It was a nice effect. I was sad to see it gone again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye_VY1aV3Zg

I see real life pilots saying the cockpit lighting looks more realistic in the after screens. I suppose there would be a lot of ambient light in a cockpit on a sunny day...
What do the other who fly real planes think?

[bongodriver]

Originally Posted by justme262

Did anybody else notice that reflections were enabled in the last beta patch and then disabled again in the official patch? It was a nice effect. I was sad to see it gone again.

I see real life pilots saying the cockpit lighting looks more realistic in the after screens. I suppose there would be a lot of ambient light in a cockpit on a sunny day...
What do the other who fly real planes think?

I fly professionally and would agree the after shots are more realistic of ambient light levels but I actually preffered the old higher contrast.....but Luthier did explain this still needs tuning.

[klem]

Originally Posted by bongodriver

I fly professionally and would agree the after shots are more realistic of ambient light levels but I actually preffered the old higher contrast.....but Luthier did explain this still needs tuning.

I'm waiting for the patch to see what we really get but if the after shots turn out to be a good representation I'd say the cockpit is washed out but not the terrain.

[Continu0]

Without reading trough the whole tread, two things that came up to my mind:

1. Luthier is talking about a "Development Update", not about a patch- or bug-fix update. To me, this sounds like they know exactly that there is still a lot of work to do and they are also planing (and able(in terms of money, etc.) to do it!
Sounds positive for the future!

2. I am okay with the rare posts from luthier. People are moaning anyway and a weekly update with hundreds of replies like "but my priority-list looks different" etc. doesn´t help anyone.

So I am looking forward to the next patch and hope for the best

Continu0

[Sammi79]

Thank you Luthier for an informative development update. Sounds like work is progressing well, good news on all fronts - FMs, sounds, new aircraft, new ground units, graphics etc... keep up the good work.

[Rattlehead]

Originally Posted by Seeker

Thanks for the info.

Mind you, one is pressed to ask:

If you've had to make new graphic and sound engines in the past months, if indeed you CAN make new graphic and sound engines in mere months, just what the hell where the six years of development used for?

Probably for a number of reasons.

For one, the team are working flat out to release these patches, and in the early conceptual stages of the game, work was most likely undertaken at a much more leisurely pace, which is normal.

The early planning of this game must have taken months by itself, before even starting work on the engine.
Numerous meetings to decide what exactly they want to do with a new simulator, what content to include, what campaign to start with, what api to use, which members of the team will be doing what etc. etc.

Then, because of the new CEM, huge amounts of research was undertaken, which can take forever. Doing all the research for the content of this game, to keep it historically accurate, must have been exhaustive and taken up a massive amount of time.

Building the engine must have been another monstrous undertaking, especially with a small development team. Most game developers just don't have the time and money to build a whole new proprietary engine, preferring instead to use an already existing engine, but MG have built their own from scratch, and the graphics and sound are only a tiny portion of the overall engine build. Think of all the insane calculations done by this game...the CEM, all the collision detection, the AI...it goes on and on.

Given the size of the team, and given the fact that this was built from scratch with quite mind-boggling detail, I don't think 5-6 years is really unreasonable.

[Redroach]

Don't get too upset about the new graphics! The way I see it, they just fiddled a bit with gamma correction and edited terrain textures to darker colors, as of now. Let's see how it looks in the actual patch it is contained in.

Radio comms and loadouts plx!

[Mogster2K]

As someone who lives in the UK the new colours are much better, less lime green, I also like the softer shadows. Although the cockpit lighting looks a bit less WOW, I prefer that to the harshness of the old lighting, it feels more realistic.

So at a glance its a hesitant thumbs up from me.

[Kodoss]

Should'nt we all wait what we get in the next patch and then list the Bugs?

Luthiers Team is still working on it. Even if you complain now about things, does'nt mean that they would implement it.
IMHO its better to wait for the patch and look what we get, then to complain endlessly and never getting it.
I personally think that the beta will be out in approximatly 4 weeks.

But it would be nice if they could give us the SDK (or at least the specifications for A/C and stuff) with the patch and tell us which A/C they have in the line, that we could start on planning our own content.