Changelog - Updates for Core and Blitz 5.0

[ATAG Pattle]

Hi All,

Hope everyone has had a great first day in North Africa!

Here is the comprehensive list of fixes, improvements, and additions that all owners/buyers of "IL-2 Sturmovik Cliffs Of Dover - Blitz” will get with the update to 5.0

We will continue with identified bug fixing, and improvement updates to continually improve the sim and the playing experience.


*** 3DObjects: Beaufighter (all versions), Observer cockpit: the observer can now raise his head higher.
*** 3DObjects: Beaufighter (all versions), pilot cockpit: new high resolution textures for instruments,add of gauge glass reflection,minor improvement on some other textures
*** 3DObjects: Beaufighter (all) externals: Fuselage damage corrected.
*** 3DObjects: Beaufighter NF cockpit illumination too low. Cockpit illumination slightly more intense.
*** 3DObjects: Bf 109 E, Bf 110C, He 111: Electrical Gearlegindicator Fl. 32526 Secondary illumination command enabled (set to ON by default) for control of Electrical Gearlegindicator Fl. 32526. Works for Bf 109 E and Bf 110C.
*** 3DObjects: Bf 110 C-4NJG: cockpit lighting adjusted: Primary Christmas light-show reduced to more believable level.
*** 3DObjects: Flickering Hurricane lever fixed.
*** 3DObjects: G.50 & Hurricanes: 'UCx' chunk not found freeze. Fixed.
*** 3DObjects: Hurricane cockpit brake lever fix
*** 3DObjects: New weapon type "Landmine" : Objects of this type work just like objects of type Mines (which are Seamines), but unlike Seamines are not automatically positioned at sealevel (height zero) but honour location's terrain height and the object's "Ground_Level" hook.
*** 3DObjects: Rear turret of Flowers Class Corvette now functional.
*** 3DWorld: Collisions restricted to speedtree objects with collision objects: Bushes have the collision objects removed, so no collisions with bushes anymore
*** 3DWorld: Correct height determination in shore blocks. Planes now 'splash' correctly in blocks with both land and water.
*** 3DObjects: Ju 88, Animation fixed for prop pitch levers constant speed props.
*** 3DObjects: Turret swivel speed limited to 45 degrees per second max
*** AI: Air Group spacing, Values adjusted to reduce collisions
*** AI: aircraft performing strafing attacks will now execute multiple passes as specified in the Full Mission Builder. Multiple GAttack waypoints may be specified and AI aircraft will attack each in turn with specified number of passes.
*** AI: Code updated to stop aircraft from flying into the ground while attempting to strafe. Angle of attack reduced and time on target maximized.
*** AI: Dead turret gunners lean on trigger only 20% of the time.
*** AI: Free Hunt waypoint type. Removed requirement for attacker to have energy advantage. Now functions as 'Engage Fighter or Bomber'.
*** AI: GAttack Spiral Up now randomly spirals left or right. All spirals were to the right.
*** AI: Gunners now fire at all enemy aircraft.
*** AI: gunners will open fire between 300m and 500m depending on shooting skill: Old code had gunners opening up at a random distance from 500m to 800m. Now better gunners hold their fire until enemy is closer.
*** AI: Italian AI now speaks Italian
*** AI: Ships created with average skill level instead of veteran.
*** AI: Siren range: Sirens will now sound when enemy aircraft approach within 10km, up from 1km.
*** AI: Vehicle spacing increased. The BestSpace value for all ground vehicles was too small (two lengths) and has been doubled. This results in fewer collisions and less accordioning. Also code to maneuver around obstacles etc. now works correctly.
*** AI: Vehicles now staying on roads and crossing bridges. Please read the FMB manual’s guidelines on how to set vehicles’ paths correctly. Also note: Now that vehicles behave correctly, problems surface we did not have when they behaved incorrectly. Especially with bridges. Many bridges on the Channel Map were broken originally and never repaired.
*** Aircraft Damage Modeling: New damage models for all aircraft in BLITZ.
*** Aircraft Overheat Modeling: New overheat modeling for all aircraft in BLITZ.
*** Aircraft Weapons Modeling: New ballistics modeling for all weapons in BLITZ.
*** Vehicle Damage and Weapons: New modeling for all vehicles in BLITZ.
*** Ship Damage and Weapons: New weapons and damage modeling for ships in BLITZ.
*** Content: 4 New single player missions
*** Effects: Code change so ground vehicles do not show spurious exhaust effects
*** Effects: Fixed (regression 4.57): Vehicles with tracks do not throw up dust. But not all vehicles have been enabled yet.
*** Effects: Half-track vehicles now have dust effect. But not all vehicles have been enabled yet.
*** Effects: Hospital ship, "__SmokeCoal00" exception fixed. Smoke now works.
*** Effects: Muzzle flash fix
*** Effects: New Effects
*** Effects: Refactored algorithm to reduce incorrect reflections from beneath aircraft on ground
*** Effects: Removed bell sounds from warships.
*** Effects: Vehicles with wheels now have dust effect. But not all vehicles have been enabled yet.
*** Effects: Water fountain (instead of dust/sand/earth) effect on sea mine's explosion
*** Effects: no more dust/sand/earth effect on shots hitting wooden parts of aircraft (e.g. Hurricanes) [Artist]
*** Full Mission Builder Add newly saved and "Save As..." to "Recently Opened Files"
*** Full Mission Builder, local menu: added command "Dissolve Group" (visible only when objects are combined in a group)
*** Full Mission Builder, menu "File", new item "Import ...": Allows to import elements from another mission ( = template) into the current mission. [Artist]: Importable elements are those in the mission file's sections [Buildings], [Stationary], and [AIChiefs]. This roughly encompasses the Object Viewer's categories Animals, Artillery, Buildings, Mines, Searchlight, Smokes, Static, Static Ships, and Winches. The template mission must (naturally) use the same map as the mission you want to import it into.
*** Full Mission Builder, Options => Controls => Category "Builder": Corrected naming of Event Names "Select into Group" and "Remove From Group" (formerly both were named just "Select"): Function of both is to draw a rectangle over one or several objects to add them into (or remove them from) a group which then can be moved as a whole or saved to a 'paste file'.
*** Full Mission Builder, Scripting: AMission has Mission Duration function: This is to allow mission builders to calculate time left. The default value is four hours but mission coders can override that.
*** Full Mission Builder, scripts: //$include directive accepts relative paths such as "." and ".."
*** Full Mission Builder, Support for optional DespawnAfterLandingTimeout in mission file. This parameter can be manually added to the MAIN section of the zero mission file to set the timeout in seconds. If the value is set to -1 the aircraft will never despawn. Default value is 600 seconds, maximum settable value 86400 (24 hours)
*** Full Mission builder: Default AI skill values revised
*** Full Mission Builder: Default Battle Area settings revised: Grid set to 5km and area covers entire map.
*** Full Mission Builder: Default mission time on Load Map set to 10:00
*** Full Mission Builder: Fixed Crash To Desktop on exiting
*** Full Mission Builder: Objects can be rotated in one degree increments. New key mapping to rotate in one degree increments.
*** Full Mission Builder: Remove limit of 60 aircraft types per birthplace in netcode.
*** Full Mission Builder: Spawn Area window now has aircraft sorted by name
*** Full Mission Builder: Timeout parameter for Artillery now saved correctly
*** Full Mission Builder: Prevent game modules to be changed after map or mission has been loaded (cause of crashes)
*** GUI: Options=>Plane: remembers previously selected aircraft or selects alphabetically first.
*** GUI: Options=>Plane (and Loadout): GUI changed to prevent inadvertently discarded changes
*** GUI: Single/Quick customization, loadout dropdowns (under aircraft icon) now work as expected
*** GUI: STEAM overlay not invokable when disabled in STEAM (was disabling GUI instead)
*** GUI: Italian aircraft markings changed to conform (recently changed) Italian law
*** GUI: Prevent recordings to be started before player is in plane/vehicle/ship (cause for tracks starting with view on sea level)
*** GUI: Ingame map's briefing, when left open in last flight, now is updated to current briefing

*** GUI: Ingame map's briefing is scrollable
*** GUI: Aircraft weathering/aging default is now 50%
*** GUI: darker backgrounds on Options pages, add drop shadow to title labels and set default label background to white.
*** GUI: Fix crash in old bob mission when pressing OK in plane options.
*** GUI: Game Page 'Quick Mission' shows mission's title on top, not filename.
*** GUI: Game Page 'Quick Mission': Filter by Map
*** GUI: Incorporated many corrections from the localization team
*** GUI: Options => Controls => Aircraft; Keys: Oil Radiator Engine Numbering Inverted
*** GUI: Radiator cut-off commands now appear on the HUD
*** GUI: Removed unsupported controls in Options => Controls. Controls that are not yet supported (e.g. controls for engines #3 through #8, Arrestor Hook, etc.) have been removed from the Options => Controls list until actually needed again.
*** GUI: Renamed misleading 2nd false "External View" to "Release Position": There were two Controls (Options, Controls, Keys, View) named "External View": 1. The true "External View" (default F2), which changes the view to the outside while the player remains in the pilot's seat. 2. The false "External View" (default Alt-F2), which actually moved the player from his current position (e.g. gunner) back into the pilot's seat - while releasing that position back to the AI ...*or*, if the player is already in the pilot's seat, removes the player from the aircraft and hands the aircraft to the AI (multiplayer server usually destroy the aircraft then - preventing the player from re-taking control with "Take control of the selected AI aircraft").
*** GUI: Tank selector custom names now appear as cockpit tooltips on mouse over.
*** GUI: Wording, "Bomb fuzes" instead of "Bombs" (in Loadout) or "Detonators" (MFB)
*** GUI: Wrong measurements units for detonator delay, fixed.
*** MISC: Air spawns have gunsight on
*** MISC: Aircraft start with prop pitch to 100%.
*** MISC: Autopilot course set to current direction for airspawns
*** MISC: Game Version notation changed to X.YYY
*** MISC: New antialias system using FXAA and SMAA [xoriguer]: FXAA is an more recent version of the current anti-alias, this version supports more modes (3) and quality settings, is relatively lightweight (1 shader pass). SMAA is a more advanced technique (3 shader passes), provides 2 modes (Luma and Color, the second is more expensive) and 4 quality presets.
*** MISC: The launcher64.exe is now signed to hopefully prevent issues with antivirus-software (especially Avast and AVR)
*** MISC: When user has axis configured for prop pitch control it now spawns in neutral.
*** Single Player: Support for user created campaigns in <UserDocuments>\1C SoftClub\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover\mission\campaign\custom\
*** Sound: Allows more instances of external aircraft engine events to simultaneously play, which reduces the amount of "silent" aircraft.
*** Sound: Changed the sound engine from fmod4 to fmod5
*** Sound: Fixes ground explosion effects not being heard beyond 1000m.
*** Sound: Fixes various smaller sound bugs, such as detach sound not adhering to distance attenuation.


Cheers,

Pattle