Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
76.IAP-Blackbird

Il2 DD Update Dev Blog 218 "P-38"

Recommended Posts

Dear friends,


The Spring has come and in today's Dev Blog, after some delay, we're returning to our main project - Bodenplatte. This delay in the news has been caused by the fact that during the Winter all the work on this project was made at a deep level - it was hard to make a screenshot of something - but it was a hard work nevertheless. This was known beforehand and planned this way. If you were following us for some time, you may recall that such visible pauses in the development news in the middle of a development cycle happened in all our previous projects and are a result of the effective work and division of labor. But today we finally have some intermediate results to show, and there a lot of them.


First, we can disclose more details about the map of the project. Previously we mentioned only its size and location, but today we can tell you more information.
There will be more than 200 settlements of various sizes.
Air forces of the opposing forces will take off from more than 100 airfields.
The total length of all roads will exceed 20000 km.
The reachable zone of the map is 129859 square kilometers (400.8 x 324 km) while the entire map is 176947 square km (460.8 x 384 km).
The preliminary list of the cities we plan to have ready at the time of release follows:


Antwerp
The Hauge
Liege
Frankfurt am Main
Dortmund
Münster
Cologne (Köln)
Bonn
Gent
Rotterdam
Charleroi
Amsterdam
Düsseldorf
Aachen
Bruxelles
Arnhem
Duisburg
Essen
Apeldoorn
Maastricht


Again, if you have followed our development before, you may notice that the parameters of the new map are breaking the record once again. This is also the first map to be released with all four seasons simultaneously - a hard challenge for the entire team. To be able to complete the project before the set deadline without compromising quality, our Lead Map Artist Evgeny Isaev has found new methods of development and large cities creation. Also, Evgeny has designed artistic approaches that will not simply repeat the visual quality of the previous maps but will also give players a new visual feel that is characteristic for flying over Western Europe. But enough words, it is time to show you something new - on these screenshots you can see the central areas of Bruxelles, Liege, and Köln:

_P38_1.thumb.jpg.b4612e3b1e80b3bf04121b9447062268.jpg

_city_1.thumb.jpg.5a4b1032c63f8c7977d4e710727f479d.jpg_city_2.thumb.jpg.eb16471f813dd2a73d5d7d54182b980a.jpg

_city_3.thumb.jpg.2aac770991e4c0794647052870cde963.jpg_city_4.thumb.jpg.fe1904dbbc3210d87be1769d7cba2efa.jpg

_city_5.thumb.jpg.efa6d9e1a47c0adf62c5056e4d76c029.jpg_city_6.thumb.jpg.97bde4df86bada0fd4fd853753d2f776.jpg


But these map development news are not the only ones we have. We can show you the progress we have made on the three coming planes: P-38J-25 heavy fighter, B-25 heavy bomber (AI only), and Me 262 A jet fighter. For the first one of them, P-38J-25, we have used a new approach of creating the exterior and interior 3D models in parallel, not subsequently - at the early stage the model is divided into exterior and interior parts and the coordinates of their seams are stored, then both models are being worked on simultaneously to be connected back at the final step. This aircraft, of course, is unbelievable, what can we say - it's a legend:

 

_P38_2.thumb.jpg.6e126f0112fbabd15b0cd51a164130c7.jpg

_P38_3.thumb.jpg.679b7943e10c59af4b93c10fbed6226d.jpg_P38_4.thumb.jpg.cb06c634a86ce3ee733080162cd0a127.jpg

 

_P38_5.thumb.jpg.be9b7e22f1a6d6fc1565a1001411e466.jpg_P38_6.thumb.jpg.bb19f21d50f3b6c1f90b14a1798c6e3a.jpg

_P38_7.thumb.jpg.e8e61d592302a8c53b1894d0b2fecee7.jpg_P38_8.thumb.jpg.b43f729d56f570cea5475eeb9e3659de.jpg


The B-25 bomber will be AI-only in this project, but we'll try to make its exterior 3D and physical model at the same quality level as our player controllable aircraft. First, this is important for those who will be attacking or defending these planes in the Career mode, campaigns, single scenarios and Coop multiplayer. Second, who knows - perhaps a possibility to make it flyable will reveal itself in the future:

 

_B25_1.thumb.jpg.975a88015902b0783a6a0afc2cf9f45b.jpg_B25_2.thumb.jpg.8bc9a33ab297192fdce623e6d9c93871.jpg

_B25_3.thumb.jpg.34d69d6fa7d2e978119a3fc5e68f8034.jpg_B25_4.thumb.jpg.f3e52e6eb9f7dc66953c55a1ff0ea826.jpg


The exterior 3D model of Me 262 A "Schwalbe" is completely done, including the official skins. The interior (cockpit) model is almost done (currently the artists are working on its texturing), while our engineers are working on its FM and the physical model of a jet engine. When you look at this legendary aircraft, you can't help but think that it was ahead of its time:

 

_262_1.thumb.jpg.6f470a18f5651661f03eef35a852c5ae.jpg_262_2.thumb.jpg.2b1fdd683d3bd99e843bc02fbf2160fa.jpg

_262_3.thumb.jpg.8953dcfb04bd95a68878cb8b4f88f01b.jpg_262_4.thumb.jpg.71e7d915f396c744ee6fff0d77b7898a.jpg


To finish today's Dev Blog, we would like to congratulate the beautiful half of humanity on the coming holiday - International Women's Day. Dear girls, be happy!

 

_8March.thumb.jpg.2c9de3ebbe8ec1780dedbf90b6aed21c.jpg

 

You can discuss the news in this thread
Edited by 76.IAP-Blackbird
  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

All your recent works look really good, guys - for FLYING CIRCUS as for BATTLE OF BODENPLATTE! 
Since the movie CATCH 22 I love the look of the "Billy Mitchell" bomber, and the LOCKHEED "Lightning" is a true beauty of an aircraft -
I always wanted to fly it in a good sim. Guess I cannot get around it: BATTLE OF BODEPLATTE is on my "must-have" list now!

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

  • Similar Content

    • By 76.IAP-Blackbird
      Dear Friends, 
      Today we'd like to tell you about the new Great War aircraft that are in development. 
      While transferring them from our classic project Rise of Flight to IL-2 Great Battles, we are fixing problems we found during this work - sometimes there are some asymmetric aerodynamic elements, a wrong object hierarchy, engine overheating/overcooling, and other similar problems. 
       
      For example, while working on the Airco DH.2 recently, we found problems - it had an invisible "ghost" stabilizer in the physical model, inconsistencies in drag values, and it was also missing its top speed - judging by the reference data, it was missing it by about 15 kph. Well, mistakes happen, and they will be corrected: the DH.2 in FC will have recalculated drag values, corrected handling, and an increased top speed. Soon the beta testers will try it out, and some additional changes may be in order after these tests. 
      Its AI will also be updated as it needs to be taught how to use its blip switch for taxiing (such early flying machines had no throttle and the engine always ran at full power - its pilot had to press and hold a blip switch button that cut the ignition when he wanted to slow down). 
       
      Another upcoming aircraft, the Sopwith Pup, also had some problems with its flight characteristics and engine, which are currently being corrected. 
       
       
      While working on Flying Circus aircraft, we are not only adding new features thanks to the IL-2 Great Battles engine but also fixing old problems whenever we get the chance. The new Flying Circus aircraft pack is scheduled for release this summer. 
       
    • By 76.IAP-Blackbird
      Dear friends, 
      Today we'd like to inform you about the upcoming update 5.203. In this update, the AQMG (Advanced Quick Mission Generator) mode will be greatly expanded. New mission types will be added: glider towing to the Normandy and Rhineland maps and artillery spotting and balloon defense to the Western Front WWI map. But the most significant addition will be made to the detailed map of Prokhorovka. 
      Tank Crew will now have a completely new mode that wasn't available before - Ground Forces AQM. Just like its aerial counterpart, it will allow you to choose a specific mission type that will affect the composition and positions of your forces: Strongpoint Defense, Enemy Strongpoint Attack, Breakthrough, and Enemy Rear Area Attack. You'll be able to set an initial distance from the enemy (since ground vehicles are very slow compared to aircraft), the strength of your force, the enemy force, and air support. 
       
       
       
      Other changes in this update include the correction of the distance at which nearby aircraft can be heard, further updates to the Lightning Strikes, Havoc over the Kuban, and Hell Hawks over the Bulge campaigns, various minor improvements such as fixes to career progression, taxiing on certain airfields, mission generation, etc. The popular community-created campaigns Kerch-Eltigen Operation and Battle of the Hürtgenwald will be included in the game with the permission of their authors. 
      We also want to start a multiplayer-related competition today: submit your best in-game tracks of multiplayer action! You can show any action, plane, or tank, as long as it is interesting and recorded in multiplayer (if you already have a saved track that you love and it loads in the game, you can submit it as well). Tracks should be short, showing an interesting event and a few seconds before and after. Please submit your tracks by April 12th. Then we'll choose the best ones - their authors will be awarded Collector planes of their choice and we will create a multiplayer promo video using these tracks. Please post the links to your tracks here or in our Discord channel till the end of April 11th. 
       
    • By 76.IAP-Blackbird
      Dear friends,
      Today we would like to tell you about a new aircraft that our artists have been working on for some time and engineers have recently started to create its FM.
      The Ta 152 is the last creation of the German aircraft designer Kurt Tank, which managed to take part in combat operations during the Second World War. This aircraft was the culmination of the evolution of the Fw 190 fighter and Germany's most advanced piston fighter. It was in development for a long time, several years, and appeared at the very end of the war. During the development, several modifications of the original Fw 190 were produced, which finally led to the Ta 152 - the name "Fw" was changed to "Ta" in recognition of the designer's merits.


      Compared to the Fw 190D "Dora", the wingspan was significantly increased for better maneuverability at high altitudes, the fuselage was longer, and the new Jumo-213E engine was equipped with two boost systems: MW-50 (water-methanol mixture injection for low and medium altitudes) and GM-1 (nitrous oxide for high altitudes). The "Dora" engine was already characterized by a high degree of automation and regulation and thus complexity, but here the Germans went even further - the engine was equipped with a two-stage three-speed (!) supercharger.

      As you can see, these improvements were made for high-altitude combat, where the Ta 152 had to outperform the Mustangs and Spitfires of the Allies - the threat from the bomber armadas climbing higher and higher was growing every year. The plane had a pressurized cockpit and could reach a speed of 750 km/h at an altitude of 12 km, and its ceiling was 14 km! Think about it - a piston fighter that could climb and fight above modern jetliners had no equal. Its armament is also respectable, even by late WWII standards: 30mm MK 108 and two 20mm MG-151/20 cannons allowed it to destroy any air target.


      The Ta 152 went into production at the end of the war and appeared in the skies of Germany in January-February 1945, but due to the disparity of forces, they had no effect on the course of hostilities: they were produced in very small numbers (about 25 H-1s). They remained in history as a monument to German wartime engineering and design. In our simulator, we expect to release this very interesting aircraft this summer.
×

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue..