LATEST NEWS

Il2 DD Update Dev Blog 251 "New Shader"


By 76.IAP-Blackbird, May 19, 2020
Dear friends, Update 4.006 will be released soon and we can show you more of the coming improvements. Today we'd like to demonstrate how the aircraft materials and textures will look in the new renderer compared to the old one. For instance let's look at La-5 series 8, He 111 H-6, P-38J-25, Albatros D.Va:  
We also have good news about the changes in 4.006. First, the airframe damage model for the WWI planes will be tuned according to your feedback. Second, the ships in the sim will have more advanced physical models - they will be able to run aground, receive an impulse from collisions, etc. - this is important for the Battle of Normandy where they played a major role. Third, according to Tank Crew players' feedback, we added a server option to disable tank AI gunners in multiplayer. Another option that has been requested for a while - now tech chat messages are a difficulty option so the players will be on equal terms in multiplayer.   Our engineering department improved the FM and systems modeling for a number of planes, including Yak-7 and Bf-110. Tank Crew assault guns will be able to fire indirectly at a heading and distance set by the gun or platoon commander. In the graphics department, we're adding an alternative antialiasing method, FXAA, which trades some AA quality for a noticeable performance boost. It also has a side effect of somewhat improving the visibility of the contacts against the ground, especially when used in conjunction with the "Sharpen" graphics option. Several planes from already released modules will get the 4K quality external textures and the rivers and sea will get the updated water surface visualization.   As usual, the full list of the changes and improvements will be available at the update launch and it is already close to 70 items total. We're hoping that the next update will be another step forward in the development of the project and you, our customers, will enjoy it. And to finish today's Dev Blog, here are a couple of Yak-9 and Yak-9T Collector Planes screenshots from our Producer:     You can discuss the news in this thread
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The F-15


By Skyviper, May 12, 2020
The F-15 The F-15 is one of the deadliest aircraft in modern aviation history with well over 100 air to air kills this aircraft. This Quick Aircraft Video will try it's best to feature the story of this iconic aircraft in 3 minutes or less. As always, if you're hankering for some aircraft mods we have a few recommendations for you :)  
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E/A-18g Growler


By Skyviper, May 12, 2020
E/A-18g Growler Quick Aircraft Facts Video In last week's video we discussed the F/A-18 hornet and its path to becoming the reliable fighter aircraft used by the United States Navy and Marine Corps, and by allied nations as well. In this video we're going to quickly highlight the history behind E/A-18g Growler. The Electronic Warfare aircraft that has replaced the E/A-6B Prowler. Growler, Prowler all sounds the same doesn't it? I'm sorry to say that I forgot to include an overlay that mentions the fact that the Growler's call sign was changed to "Grizzly" to avoid confusion. All video in this presentation is from the men and women of the United States Armed Forces who kindly uploaded their works to Dvidshub.net a great place for military aviation footage. Their footage is released under public domain.     If you would like to discuss this video you're invited to do so here in this thread or in the pub if you wish.   Of course if you're not interested chatting and just want to get some SF2 action in with some Hornets created by our talented Mod Developers. We understand that too :)    
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Il2 DD Update Dev Blog 250 "Deferred Shading"


By 76.IAP-Blackbird, May 8, 2020
Dear friends!   We would like to congratulate you on the very important holiday - 75th Anniversary of the Victory in Europe! On this day 75 years ago the hard and long road to peace, that cost millions of lives, has finally come to its end at the European theater of the world war. The people of all nations got a second chance to live. Let's remember the heroic deeds of our ancestors and be thankful to them - even though that today's crisis and problems are significant, they can't be compared to the gravity of the situation and the hardships of those years of war.     The life that was given to us by the heroic deed of our ancestors continues. Coincidentally, this is a small anniversary for our project, which is entirely dedicated to the World War II events, as well - you're reading its 250th Developers Blog. Our work on the sim also continues - in 2 or 3 weeks we plan to release the next update 4.006. It will bring not only the new player controllable machines - Yak-9 and Yak-9T Collector Planes and SU-152 assault gun for Tank Crew - but also the fundamental changes in the graphics engine: the renderer will be switched to Deferred Shading. At the moment this update is already in the beta testing and our team is working on debugging and finalizing it. The changelist will be a long one once again, it already includes more than 50 changes in different areas of the sim. To illustrate what these renderer changes add to the visuals, we want to show you the in-game screenshots of Yak-9T, which is a good aircraft to display the new graphical capabilities:     Another pic we want to show you the WIP model of the early war German pilot which will be used in BoM, BoS and BoK timeframes. It's going to appear in the project a bit later, but it won't be a long wait:    
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F/A-18 Hornet Quick Aircraft Facts


By Skyviper, May 5, 2020
The F/A-18 Hornet The F/A-18 Hornet is a versatile aircraft capable of taking on a number of tasks, for air to air missions to assault missions you can count on the F/A-18 to get the job done. While this aircraft is vital to carrier operations, it had a lot to prove back in the day when the F-14 Tomcat reigned supreme. As is the story with most aircraft, it was a mixture of politics and finances that ushered in the era for Hornet, Super Hornet, and Growler, which we'll talk about next week. If you recall our F-16 video you may remember the LWF program which helped create the F-16 Viper. Since the Navy needed to save time and money they decided to use portions from the USAF's LWF program and thus the YF-17 become the F-18. The second engine added another level of protection along with other upgrades needed to help the aircraft to become worthy for carrier operations. McDonald Douglass was the primary contractor for the F-18. Northrop Grumman is the secondary contractor and their job is make the components needed to help the F-18 withstand the rigorous carrier operations. However, in the late 90s, Boeing merged with McDonald Douglass and became the primary contractor for this aircraft's production. Northrop Grumman is still doing their part. I wanted to have that written because I don't think it was 100% clear in this video. Speaking of the video I hope you all enjoy it and, as always, I look forward to knowing your thoughts about the aircraft.   As you know, CombatACE, strives to spread the joy of aviation and we have a lot of talented mod authors here that have gone through great lengths to create the outstanding aircraft models that are free for interested ones to download and use with their copies of Strike Fighters. More F-18s here: https://combatace.com/files/category/667-f-18/      
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The B-2 Bomber ... nuf said...


By Skyviper, April 28, 2020
The B-2 Bomber This aircraft needs no introduction. It's sleek, deadly, and stealthy. The history of B-2 Stealth Bomber goes back further than you might think and we'll do our best to feature this amazing aircraft's story in 3 minutes or less.   I hope I did this aircraft some justice within the time limit and honestly I have to give thanks again to all of the men and women in the United States Air Force that provided the amazing B-Roll of this aircraft in action.

As always if you're interested in talking about this aircraft we look forward to reading your comments. Or if you're wanting to add the B-2 Spirit to your Virtual Air Force I invite you to check out this file by @FastCargo don't forget to show him some love. Thank you for watching!  
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