LATEST NEWS

Il2 DD Update Dev Blog 237 "Hurricane"


By 76.IAP-Blackbird, January 26, 2020
Hello everybody,   It finally snows in Moscow while we continue the work on the new aircraft. Including the new Collector Planes for both the Western and Eastern fronts of the war - Yak-9, Yak-9T and Hurricane. Today we're ready to show you the progress achieved at the moment for the British Hurricane, which will have 5 (!) different modifications in our sim: Hurricane Mk.IIa: basic model armed with 8 х 7.69 mm Browning MGs; Hurricane Mk.IIb: the number of MGs has been increased to 12; Hurricane Mk.IIc: this model had 4 x 20 mm Hispano guns; Hurricane Mk.IId: anti-tank model armed with 2 x 40 mm Vickers-S guns and 2 x 7.69 mm MGs; Hurricane Mk.II with Soviet weaponry that was installed on the Lend-Lease aircraft: 2 х 12.7 mm UB MGs, 2 x 20 mm ShVAK guns and Soviet bomb and rocket holders. We hope that this nice selection of the Hurricane models suitable both for the Western and Eastern front would be a great addition to IL-2 Sturmovik series:         You can discuss the news in this thread
• 0 replies
• 1,067 views
• Add Reply



News on 4.004 update Il2


By 76.IAP-Blackbird, January 22, 2020
Update 4.004   Dear friends,   We're glad to report that update 4.004 is released. The main additions of this one are a new tank for Tank Crew - Pz.Kpfw.V Ausf.D "Panther" - and improved look and additional airfields for Rheinland map (Battle of Bodenplatte). There are many other fixes and improvements as well:   Additions   1. Pz.Kpfw. V Ausf.D "Panther" for Tank Crew;
2. Better looking river and canal banks on Rheinland map;
3. 13 new airfields on Rheinland map: Le Culot East (Y-10) Kluis (B-91) Mill (B-89) Helmond (B-86) Amsterdam-Schiphol (B-97) Arnhem-Deelen Soesterberg Strassfeld Strassfeld 2 - Odendorf Hilversum Diest (B-64) Nivelles (B-75) Bierset–Liege (A-93) 4. 4K quality exterior textures made by Martin =ICDP= Catney added for Yak-1 series 69;
5. The better-looking transition between the river and sea waters;
6. Improved Т-70 tank model and textures;
7. Updated texture cache system, it should reduce stutters in heavy load MP missions significantly;
8. Brightness and size of very distant aircraft LODs made more uniform (it differed too much on some aircraft); 9. Added initial support for SimShaker to be used in conjunction with JetSeats and other audio powered feedback devices.   AI improvements   10. Ground attack aircraft won't hit the ground when engaging a target with rockets and guns in a tight formation;
11. AI-controlled B-25 starts the engines correctly;
12. AI fighters attempt Immelman maneuver only if they have enough speed;
13. AI fighters open fire more aggressively;
14. AI pilots keep formation on large maps much better;
15. AI vehicle column won't drive into a river if the last waypoint was on a destroyed bridge or immediately before it;
16. Assault guns (simple and detailed) correctly face a target when set to LOW command priority in the mission;   Aircraft improvements   17. P-51, P-47 and P-39 have correct trimmer animations;
18. A-20 engines won't trigger wrong overheat messages;
19. Wrong engine overcooled messages on P-47D were corrected;
20. P-51 landing gear covers shouldn't open and close again and again anymore;
21. Cylinder heads overheat warning will be displayed correctly;
22. Flying Circus planes won't display a wrong message about engine failure when it is switched off;
23. The time it takes to switch to combat position and back has been corrected for all gunners;   Detailed tanks improvements   24. When the loader is killed, the time it takes to load the main gun or coaxial MG is increased significantly;
25. The visual effect of propellant gases is reduced when the exhaust fan is off or is not present;
26. The time it takes to vent the turret after the shot depends on the operational exhaust fan;
27. Detailed tanks won't visibly 'crouch' at a high speed;   Other improvements   28. All night bombing Career missions with more than 6 planes in the flight won't start in a map corner anymore;
29. Wrong ground attack German planes in the late Stalingrad Career chapters were corrected;
30. Duplicate ID error message in the dedicated server has been removed (it blocked the server, now it is visible in the console);
31. Correct season in the pre-mission hangar (Winter/Summer);
32. In Mission Editor it's no longer possible to select a wrong part of a multi-part vehicle skin;
33. Daimler M1914 FlaK 77/L27 and Thornycroft J-type 13pdr AA shells appear in the correct place ().           Please discuss the update in this thread.
• 0 replies
• 1,083 views
• Add Reply



DCS Weekend News 17 January 2020


By MigBuster, January 17, 2020
  We are pleased to announce that DCS: Supercarrier is available for pre- order with great savings! Pre-order DCS: Supercarrier and save 30% off the $49.99 retail value. Owners of DCS: F/A-18C Hornet will receive an additional 20% off, for a total savings of 50%. This is on top of ED Miles, you may apply.       The pre-order and savings are only available from the DCS World e-Shop. DCS: Supercarrier includes: Highly detailed and animated Nimitz-class aircraft carrier that includes the USS Theodore Roosevelt, USS Abraham Lincoln, and the USS George Washington. While in early access, additional ships of the sub-class will be added Fully modeled sensors and weapon systems Interactive carrier radio communications that include CASE I, CASE II, and CASE III flight operations that range from daylight/good weather landings to night-time/foul weather operations Animated deck crew to launch aircraft from all four catapults Numerous deck starting locations for aircraft in multiplayer New static objects for the Supercarrier that includes static deck crew and support equipment The DCS: Supercarrier module also includes the Russian Kuznetsov aircraft carrier, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, and the Su-33 Flanker D fighter. The Lunar New Year Sale Starting today, you can save up to 50% on most DCS World modules until January 27th. We will also be taking part in Steam’s Lunar New Year Sale; check Steam for the Lunar Sale start date and duration. The DCS World e-Shop will also feature the Naval Warfare bundle for just $64.99 that includes DCS: F/A-18C and DCS: Supercarrier (Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier, Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, and the Su-33). Head over to our E-shop to save on most of our library of aircraft, terrain and campaigns: Open Beta Update This week saw our first update since the holiday break, and the team jumped right back into action. Here are some of the highlights: WIP version of the AI short-range missile Scud-B launcher Many DCS: F-16C fixes that include INS adjustments Numerous fixes for the DCS: F/A-18C and other ED modules 3rd Party fixes for DCS: JF-17, DCS: AJS-37, and campaign fixes You can read the entire changelog here. As always, thank you all for your continued support!
The ED Team
• 0 replies
• 1,611 views
• Add Reply



Falcon 4 BMS 4.34 Update 2 released


By MigBuster, January 11, 2020
Ladies and Gentlemen,

on behalf of the entire BMS development team, I am happy to announce that the latest iteration of the Billion Soft Falcon 4.0 total conversion modification - Benchmark Sims 4.34 U2 - is available for you to enjoy as of RIGHT NOW!

BMS 4.34 U2 requires a legit installation of a Falcon 4.0 (all older and newer versions are accepted alike, i.e. Microprose, Hasbro, GOG, Steam, Retroism). The check is performed both at setup time and every time you start BMS. If no valid installation is found, BMS will exit with a corresponding error message.

U2 is an incremental update on top of 4.34 base + U1, so you need to have the BMS 4.34 Full Installer package and Update 1 available on your PC. You can both update your existing 4.34 base + U1 installation as well as perform a fresh 4.34 base + U1 + U2 installation from scratch, as you like. See the installation instructions below for details.


This mod may not be used for any commercial purposes. Any such use may constitute a violation of the intellectual property of Billion Soft (Hong Kong) Limited and the non-commercial Terms and Conditions under which Benchmark Sims make this mod available to you.     NOTES: — The build number string in the Falcon UI will read "4.34.2 (x64) Build 20805" after the update. — The shortcuts in the start menu and on your desktop will NOT be renamed to U2, they will still read "Falcon BMS 4.34" after the update. — If you have any questions or found bugs regarding the change log items please always! reference the revision number, e.g. "(r12345)". — The 4.34.0 manuals remain valid. — None of the .ini or .cfg files will be changed. U2 FIXES & IMPROVEMENTS: — CTD safeguard in case of bad PT crossing definition in DB. (r20778) — CTD fix for a CTD during BMS exit. (r20771) — CTD fix on Choongwoon. (r11869) — Fixed BMS Editor messing up data when exporting / importing objective data. (r20767) — TvT: Set "Lock Client MP" flag for all ground units, relocated Awacs, Tanker and Jstar squadrons, VALIDAC.ACT file adjusted accordingly. (r11887) — All Airbases: Checked and fixed lettering & crossing. (r11869) — Fixed F-16 RSAF cockpit RWR issue. (r11868) — Corrected stations+ils.dat file due to wrong ILS frequency for Taegu airbase. (r11867) — Fix for cloud restriction being incorrectly applied in deterministic / probabilistic weather. (r20779) — Fix for g_nFairCloudRestriction and g_nPoorInclCloudRestriction not reducing the number of cells displayed. (r20779) - Fixed interpolation issues with fog and skyfog. (r20801) — Fix Power Engine P1 vs RPM Idle interpolation chart. (r20780) * This bug was responsible of a wrong deceleration of our current model vs HFFM in the high supersonic region for GE engines. — Fixed an error at manual flight fragging in campaign due to bad team assignation. (r20781) — Fix flights being automatically started in flight if the Take off Time or TOT was moved 1H backward in the package page. (r20781) — Fix error of "no Slots available" when moving Take off Time or TOT despite slots being obviously available. (r20781)  
• 0 replies
• 5,902 views
• Add Reply



DCS Weekend News 10 Jan 2020


By MigBuster, January 11, 2020
    DCS World 2020 and Beyond – Non-Aircraft Projects In last week’s newsletter, we reviewed our 2020 and beyond plans for aircraft in DCS World. One aircraft we forgot to mention was the MiG-23 from RAZBAM. This will be a great eastern aircraft addition to the stable of jets to DCS World, and it is being created by the same RAZBAM team that created the MiG-19. For this week’s newsletter, we are excited to discuss the many other DCS World projects that are not aircraft. This includes both new modules and core features to DCS World. Like the aircraft, this is a listing of what we will be working on this year, but unless specifically noted, we cannot promise that all these projects will be completed by the end of 2020. In fact, some of the larger projects may extend past it. DCS: Supercarrier In the latter part of 2019, we released a video showing off some of the early fun parts of this project. We are now nearing the finish line. Much of the remaining work involves adjusting the complex deck crew animations to support the launching of aircraft from all four catapults; ship lights that include the floodlights, the Improved Fresnel Optical Landing System (IFLOLS), and landing area lights; damage modelling; network copy protection; and up to 14 spawn points in multiplayer for client aircraft. Following the early access release, more features will be added that include a briefing room, more ships of the class, player IFLOLS operation, and more. We are pleased to announce that the DCS: Supercarrier module will also include a greatly updated Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier (without deck animation), the Su-33 Flanker D for DCS World (for those of you who don’t already own it), and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer! The Kuznetsov is a Russian-built aircraft carrier that is substantially improved over the existing version in DCS World. It is a completely new model with detailed geometry, textures, lighting, and animations. Players can operate the Su-33 Flanker D from the Kuznetsov, including carrier landings and ski-jump ramp takeoffs. In addition to a formidable suite of surface-to-air defenses, the Kuznetsov is also armed with P-700 Granit anti-ship cruise missiles. The Kuznetsov sister ship, the Varyag, was sold to China and now serves in the Chinese Navy as the Liaoning. A cornerstone of today’s American Carrier Battle Group (CVBG) is an array of Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers. Built around the SPY-1D radar and AEGIS battle management system, the Arleigh Burke-class provides an effective air defense umbrella around the CVBG and is also armed with Harpoon and Tomahawk cruise missiles, close-in gun systems, torpedoes, and a 5-inch deck gun. These new naval elements to DCS World will be at home in the recently announced Mariana Islands map. Although the island portion of the map will be approximately 400x400 km, the overall map size will be 1000x1000 km in order to provide realistic ranges for modern-day naval operations, sensors, and weapon systems. As with the new Nimitz-class aircraft carrier model for Supercarrier, the Kuznetsov and Arleigh Burke will be visible to all in multiplayer, regardless if you own the Supercarrier module. DCS: Supercarrier will be available for pre-order on January 17th with a 30% discount and will deliver as an Open Beta by the end of Q1 2020. Owners of DCS: F/A-18C will receive a discount when purchasing DCS: Supercarrier. Maps The Channel Map In addition to the Mariana Islands map, we are pleased to announce the first dedicated World War II map for DCS World that is created by Eagle Dynamics: The Channel map! This map will represent southeast England, the English Channel, and portions of the low countries and north eastern France. The map is built to support missions and campaigns between the late 1930s and 1945 with a new level of detail and realism not seen before in a DCS World map. Airfields of the map include: Manston Detling Hawkinge Lympne Dunkirk Mardyck Saint-Omer Longuenesse Merville Calonne Abbeville Drucat It will also include detailed renditions of the cities, towns, road and rail network, forests, rivers, canals, communication lines, radar stations, of this important region during the Second World War. DCS: The Channel Map will be available for pre-order with a 30% discount in early February 2020. Third Party Maps While we are focused on the Mariana Islands and Channels maps, our third parties will also be quite busy! Falkland Islands Map The RAZBAM map team is making great progress on their Falkland Islands map, while at the same time creating new assets and player-units to suit. Syria Map After completing a great update to their DCS: Normandy 1944 map, Ugra Media will continue their work on the ambitious Syria map. This map spans from Turkey in the north to Israel in the south, with Syria and Lebanon in between. After an initial map review, the Ugra Team will be implementing the feedback to move forward on an early access release. DCS: World War II Assets Pack Work continues on the World War II assets pack, with the addition of several important air, ground, and naval units including: Ju-88A-4 medium bomber A-20 Boston medium bomber C-47 transport MK.VIII Centaur IV tank Mk.IV Churchill VII tank Elefant self-propelled artillery Stug III tank destroyer M10 tank destroyer QF 3.7-inch AA gun 37 mm Gun M1 M45 Quadmount that can be used on different platforms 8.8 cm Flak 41 AAA Flakscheinwerfer 37 and generator support unit Schnellboot Type S-100 E-Boat Type VII U-Boat We are also looking at adding some exciting new features to the Asset pack, which include Torpedoes, Paratroopers and functional searchlights. DCS World Core Updates The core DCS World program will continue to grow and improve in 2020 across several key areas. In fact, more than half of Eagle Dynamics staff is devoted to improving the core of DCS World and not for-purchase products. Vulkan API Support In order to improve game performance, particularly in VR and take advantage of today’s hardware, we have been working on the integration of the Vulkan API into DCS World over the past year. This is an important undertaking, but we believe it will be well worth the end-results. DCS World 2.5.6 Lighting Improvements This month we begin the testing of version 2.5.6 of DCS World that will include improvements to the lighting system. This will be most evident at night when viewing the cockpits. In addition to cockpit lighting, overall world lighting will appear more natural and balanced with improved tones. Following this, our goal will be to further enhance world lighting by allowing multiple world-lighting sources. This will provide a much more natural and realistic appearance to the world. Clouds and Weather Another important DCS World enhancement in 2020 will be the delivery of substantially improved weather and clouds. The first step is our new system will render many different types and sizes of clouds in multiple layers. These clouds will impact certain sensors, and be synchronized in network play. We are setting a high bar for ourselves, and it is taking a bit longer than expected. However, we trust that it will be well worth the wait. In parallel, we are also working on significant improvements to the dynamic weather system of DCS World that will also take advantage of this new cloud system as well as pressure fronts. Voice Chat (VC) In late 2019 we released the first test version of our free, integrated voice chat system into DCS World. Since then, we have been analysing your feedback to make further improvements. Thank you for all the great comments! In 2020, we aim to deliver peer-to-peer connectivity and user chat “rooms” generation. The next step thereafter will be to support radio modulation and frequencies as well as varied mic and audio characteristics of helmets and radios from different eras. Our final goal will be to include communications jamming and secure voice capability. This will continue to be a free and fully integrated feature of DCS World. Damage Modeling Another new feature of DCS World 2.5.6 will be the initial release of the improved damage system for the WWII fighters in DCS. As we have discussed in prior newsletters, this system includes a complex and realistic accounting of damage to aircraft systems, round trajectory and penetration, deflection, and localized damage. We have also added substantially enhanced visual damage effects that include missing structural components, fuel and hydraulic leaks. The new damage model will provide a much more engrossing and realistic experience. Once we and our clients are happy with the warbirds damage model system, we will implement this new damage modelling to the more modern aircraft, ground units, and naval units. Aircraft Artificial Intelligence (AI) In 2019 we made initial improvements to the dogfight AI that delivers more realistic and human behaviour, this also includes implementation of modern control theory Necessary Condition Analysis (NCA) and Incremental Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion (INDI) to all our AI aircraft in DCS in 2020. The new approach will extend flight envelopes and improve AI control quality and control response in mass and moment of inertia changes. In 2020 we will continue this effort, but also devote resources to improve other AI areas to include: Beyond Visual Range (BVR) offensive and defensive behaviour Formation keeping and correct use of external lights Air-to-Ground attack maneuvers Very-low level flight and terrain following Defensive threat responses (SAM and AAA) Airfield Air Traffic Control (ATC) Another AI task that we will kick off in 2020 is a new implementation of ATC radio communications for airfields. This will be a more realistic and complete ATC system to account for ground, tower, departure, and approach controllers, as well as account for variables that include VRF/IFR and overhead/straight in. We will be working with subject matter experts to ensure that this new ATC system is a valuable addition to DCS World immersion and enjoyment. Air-to-Ground Radar and Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) Critical to complete the F/A-18C and F-16C, will be the inclusion of completed air-to-ground (AG) radar and Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) sensor systems. Last year, the JF-17 Thunder used our AG radar application programming interface (API) to great success. We will continue to improve the AG radar API and use it for both the Hornet and Viper. We will continue to enhance this area of expertise and work to improve radar shadowing, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) support, and varied resolution based on the type and era of radar. The updated FLIR API will be used to improve the targeting pod’s infrared (black hot/white hot) cameras. This is a rather large undertaking because it not only involves programming tasks to account for thermal dynamics of world and unit objects but also creating thermal maps for all objects in DCS World and how they behave under different conditions. Missile Dynamics Last year we used the AIM-7 as a testbed to implement several air-to-air missile performance and guidance improvements. Early this year we will be doing the same for the AIM-120. The AIM-120 performance in 2020 will be closer to claimed specifications given adjustments to G-induced drag in the trans-sonic region, and we improved the efficiency of the lofting profile. New AI Units In 2020 we will continue to update older DCS World units. We are currently developing the SA-5 surface-to-air missile and the SS-1 SCUD surface-to-surface missile (we still need to develop the Short-Range Ballistic Missile flight model), the S-3B Viking, and cows of course! There are other units we hope to revisit to like the B-52H, C-17A, Tu-95, and others. Dynamic Campaign Work on the dynamic campaign has been underway for over a year, and the progress has been steady on this very complex task. We understand that this is one of the most awaited features in DCS World and we are giving it the attention it deserves. Much of the work is focused on the dynamic campaign creation tool layers as part of the Mission Editor, developing machine learning mechanics, and creating an AI neural network for the RTS element of the system. The machine learning and neural network tasks are particularly challenging, but we believe they should provide a unique dynamic campaign experience. We expect to start testing this feature in the latter part of 2020. Thank you for the support and kindness,
The Eagle Dynamics Team
• 0 replies
• 2,856 views
• Add Reply



Falcon 4 BMS 4.34 Update 1 released


By MigBuster, December 21, 2019
    The latest iteration of the Billion Soft Falcon 4.0 total conversion modification - Benchmark Sims 4.34 U1 - is available for you to enjoy as of RIGHT NOW!

BMS 4.34 U1 requires a legit installation of a Falcon 4.0 (all older and newer versions are accepted alike, i.e. Microprose, Hasbro, GOG, Steam, Retroism). The check is performed both at setup time and every time you start BMS. If no valid installation is found, BMS will exit with a corresponding error message.

U1 is an incremental update on top of 4.34 base, so you need to have the BMS 4.34 Full Installer package available on your PC. You can both update your existing 4.34 base installation as well as perform a fresh 4.34 base + U1 installation from scratch, as you like. See the installation instructions below for details.


For those of you who are still in need of a legit Falcon 4.0 version, note that Retroism currently has a holiday sale (lasting until Jan 3rd 2020), you can grab the whole Falcon Collection there with a hefty 60% discount:
https://retroism.com/falcon-collection/


This mod may not be used for any commercial purposes. Any such use may constitute a violation of the intellectual property of Billion Soft (Hong Kong) Limited and the non-commercial Terms and Conditions under which Benchmark Sims make this mod available to you.

 
• 0 replies
• 2,186 views
• Add Reply