Sorry but what are the limitations with regard to the weather system? I see it mentioned here that there will be no dynamic weather system but after re-reading the OP I don't see it. Please could someone clarify.

Oleg, or Luthier, said that the game is still using placeholder clouds. Not sure whether there will be a dynamic aspect, but Luthier did say that the clouds will change form to some degree...

Ok, but is it confirmed that there will be wind? I was so looking forward to that added challenge in the actual flying bit and using correct runways, possible field inspecting etc.

I do think that if the clouds can be represented in a good and improved way that it'd make a HUGE difference to the overall experience. Understandably not the easiest aspect of the sim to perfect.

There will be wind, Luthier said it just wont change direction or speed if I recall correctly.

Luthier said a few weeks ago that the dynamic weather would ship with the game but could only be utilised through the FMB. He said it could be used at your own 'peril.' On the large map it brought everything to a halt but might be playable on a small map. In game weather would be restricted for the time being to mondirectional map wide wind.

That's exactly what i remember them saying as well. So in summary, there will be two types of weather: a more or less static weather probably defined in the mission parameters/FMB, plus an early/beta/unoptimized version of the dynamic weather.

Static weather will be used in the missions and campaigns that ship with the game to ensure compatibility with lower-spec PCs, while making our own missions in the FMB we'll be able to use any of the two we want, so if your PC is up to the job you can use it and see what it's like.

I expect that static weather will be the most used initially, even by community mission builders, in order to ensure a wider audience for the community created content. I know i wouldn't bother making a historical single player campaign or hosting a multiplayer server that would only run well for maybe 5% of the the game's fliers.

What i will definitely do however is make a small, custom mission in the FMB with dynamic weather, turn down my other settings to lighten the load on my PC and give it a spin to sample what i can expect in the future. I expect a lot will do the same and through experimentation, hardware advances and patches we'll not only be able to find out how to tweak our systems to use it but also beta test it for the devs as it goes through its paces.

I heard a rumour that when they were testing the dynamic weather system, they put in all the enviromentally correct parameters for the South East of England and it rained every single day for the entire period of the campaign, thus negating any possiblity of actually flying.

Also, as the weather conditions for every single day of the Battle of Britain is readily availiable having a dynamic weather system would be rewriting history and spoil any chances of the virtual pilots getting sun tans as they waited for the scramble to be sounded!

What they didn't factor into the weather model was that the Summer of 1940 was unseasonally warm and that their model was infact completely correct.
Cheers! ;)

I think you misundertand the point. While I agree that there are many very talented skinners in IL2, that does not make them the majority. I agree that the majority do (or did, a few years back) those kinds of awful skins; very talented skinners... I know many, but I can count them with my 2 hands. Awful skinners? I don't know any, but pick the average Joe, give him MS Paint and a few minutes, and check what he is capable of :( . I don't have metrics so speculating about the actual figure is a bit pointless imho. I have seen many, MANY "quick hack-jobs" done in Paint, the kind of skins that don't even have any rivets/lines on them, just colors applied with a brush. Those skins (which can be cranked in a minute or 2) would have looked a lot better had the "internals" been separated from the paint layer.

Since the skins will sport lots of fancy new visual effects, at least the quick hack jobs will look a lot better... because let's be honest, people are still going to do them!

done :)

I agree with you but I guess it really depends on how many of your wingmen bite the dust! ;)