76.IAP-Blackbird

Dear Friends, Today’s Developer Diary showcases our upcoming and awesome Mosquito FB Mk.VI. Isn’t she a beauty? Our “Wooden Wonder” as it was called, is in the later stages of development and we have already completed some of her skins that will be included. Work on her flight model has begun and work on finishing her cockpit continues. We are doing all we can to get her into your hangars just as soon as possible. We know she is a hotly anticipated plane and the wait is difficult, but please have patience, we think she will be worth it! As you know, we frequently re-visit some of our older technology and try to improve it. A recent example is our sky, clouds and lighting, which we still hope to improve further in time. Recently, we finally had some time to re-visit our technology that affects the appearance of our Propeller Disk. Our current prop disk has some issues that we wanted to rectify including how it seems to disappear at certain angles. We also wanted to make its appearance more realistic and dynamic. We think we achieved this and here are a couple screens to help demonstrate. It’s hard to get the whole effect in still images or even a video, but we wanted to make you aware of this development. We think you’ll enjoy it once it’s in-game. Enjoy! The Sturmovik Team

Hello Everyone, A quick update on all that we are working on at the moment. We are preparing version 4.703 for release for middle of next week. Assuming, of course, no last-minute show stoppers arise. Update 4.703 will include three large planes – the JU 88 C-6, Gotha G.V. and Handley Page O/400. This brings some heavier metal to BON and some err… heavier lumber to FC2 I guess you could say. The Gotha, as it was in ROF is a handful to fly. See if you can master it! The Sopwith Tripe is also entering its later stage of development and will be in our next update. 4.703 also includes 40+ smaller tweaks and improvements including items such as: - New sky technology and improvements to lighting. Should see a reduction in overall blue tint. - Improvements to the appearance and lighting of snowy landscapes. - The position of heavenly bodies now depends not only on time and date, but also on geographic coordinates (including when moving around the map). - Quick Mission GUI now includes the ability to set any time of day with clues as to Sunrise, Daylight, Sunset and Night-time scenes. - AI with mixed cannon and machine gun armaments shoot more accurately. - Fix to the landing lights that are visible from far away issue. - Added the Ju-88 C-6 to Stalingrad Career mode with III./KG76 and for the Battle of Kuban 7.(Eis)/KG 51 and 9./KG 55. - Squadron II./JG 3 for Pilot Career Battle of Stalingrad moved from AI to player controllable - Squadron II./KG 76 for pilot career Battle of Moscow and Battle of Stalingrad moved from AI to player controllable. After much research and bug chasing, our engineers discovered clear issues with our modeling of some aspects of the Bf-109 airframe, which in some situations made their performance quite unrealistic. So, we have made some changes to most Bf-109 variants relating to the over-modeling of propeller performance and aerodynamics. Version 4.703 will include the following changes. - On all Bf-109 aircraft (except for the E-7) the aerodynamic characteristics of the propeller have been changed to eliminate the unrealistic behavior of the aircraft in the wake of the propeller and the possibility of "hovering on the propeller". The airframe aerodynamics of these aircraft has also been corrected so that the maximum speed, rate of climb, turn time, and acceleration time better corresponded to the reference values. - On all Bf-109 aircraft (except for the E-7) the effectiveness of the ailerons at high speeds has been changed (increased) (the "clamping" of the ailerons has been reduced at speeds over 400 km/h) The goal was to be more accurate overall, so in some cases speeds may be bit lower at sea level, but higher at rated altitudes and climb-rate may be a bit slower. But in some cases, turns may be quicker, but acceleration a little slower. As usual, we have used a mix of German and Soviet sources to try to get a more accurate picture. Also, Fuel System work has progressed to a late stage and has been in Beta testing, but the Beta testers continue to find issues that need addressing, so work continues. Its very frustrating, but we continue to work on it. And before we sign off for the week, here are a few pics of the Churchill Mk.IV tank being tested and tweaked in our virtual proving grounds. We hope you will like version 4.703. The Sturmovik Team

Hello Everyone, Today’s DD brings us some very cool renders of the Me 410 A-1 cockpit. It’s a very unique cockpit and has been a challenge to build, but it’s looking great now and heading into the final stretch. We continue to work on our next update which we hope will be next week. It will be a good one with the new sky and new airplanes like the Ju 88 C-6, Gotha G.V. and we think possibly the Handley Page O/400. Me 410 A-1 Cockpit in Development And our colleague =DED= Rapidus just handed me a link to a short video of our new sky and Ju 88 C-6 in action that he filmed while testing the Beta. You may want to check out. Has some funky beats. 🙂 *Any artifacts are caused by YouTube compression. Enjoy. The Sturmovik Team

Dear Friends, Once again, we are reminded that real-life is much more important than a video game or flight simulation. We pray for the safety and well-being of all our friends, family and associates no matter where they are during this difficult time. We are an international team and an apolitical organization and we wish to remain so. We ask that you help us keep our forum and other properties civil as world events unfold. We are operating as usual; development continues and we expect to continue to do so. For today’s DD we have new, never before seen pics of the Arado AR 234 cockpit under development. We also have some shots of the Bedford truck and fuel tanker. And finally, we have an image of our USAAF bomber pilots with different helmets. Please enjoy. The Sturmovik Team

Hello Everyone! Today we bring you some news from the Great War! We are nearing completion of the final trio of Flying Circus- Vol. II aircraft. The Gotha G.V., Handley-Page O/400 and Sopwith Triplane are coming along nicely. The Gotha G.V. will be released in our next update, which we hope will be by the end of this month. The HP O/400 and Tripe will be in a March update. The Western Front map for FC2/3 is also being worked on by Ugra Media, but it is not ready to be shown yet and will likely take more time to complete that we originally planned unfortunately. A clear estimate on its arrival is not possible at the moment, but will update you as soon as we get a better handle on it. Map making is a slow process in general. In some WWII news we have created new USAAF bomber crewmembers for our B-26 to man the gun stations. The work by Alexey is top notch as usual. We have also made more progress on our new sky technology and are currently working to put it into Beta soon. Next week we plan to update our Astro-dome (stars and planets) to be more accurate depending on the latitude of the map. This is a small, but interesting improvement to make our physical world a little more accurate. Work on our remaining Battle of Normandy aircraft continues. As I have mentioned previously, moderate delays have befallen these birds during the pandemic, but work continues and we hope to start showing you more of them in upcoming DDs. However, the Ju-88 C-6 should be ready for Beta testing soon and be included in our next update (provided testing goes well). We are finalizing our skins for it and getting ready to roll her out. We hope to have updated pics for you next week of the beastly Ju-88 C-6. It appears the world is finally ready to move on from the pandemic and we hope this means life will get back to normal. Of course, humanity will find a way to struggle to even get back to normal, such is our nature it seems. However, the long-term disruption to daily life, families, education, travel, medicine, governments and business norms that this pandemic has caused will be felt for years to come. In the face of all this disruption, we want to say THANK YOU to all who have supported us during the last couple years as we have struggled to maintain a steady flow of content and improvements for the Great Battles series. We can never thank you enough and we will continue to work hard for you. Enjoy! The Sturmovik Team

I dont have track ir, maybe you can ask the Community in the official il2 Forums, there has to be a solution for it Best regards Martin

Dear Friends, I wanted to post this before the end of the year, but our schedule was too intense and time was short. I also wanted to post it during our New Year’s holiday break, but as was trying to finish this up, I was forced to do battle with a moderate form of COVID. Luckily, after a few really annoying days I am able to function again and get back to our yearly round up. So, without any further delay here it is, finally. This was a very hard year for us, even more so than 2020 thanks to the prolonged pandemic and lingering half-open, half-closed nature of major cities and office environment coupled with our busy development schedule. In addition, we had several team members get sick and require time off, plus family members who got sick needed the attention of team members to aid in recovery. Also, doing remote work, which can have advantages, is not always ideal for our development work. Our office environment has always been one of our strengths where problems and discoveries can be easily shared and discussed much quicker and focus can be better maintained. Regardless we have continued our work and even with some aircraft delayed, our overall timeline for Battle of Normandy is on track. With each new product, we set more ambitious goals for ourselves and keep pushing what we are capable of as a team. Sometimes, these goals are easily reached and sometimes not. We promise to keep pushing in 2022 and beyond. Let’s take a look at what we accomplished in 2021 shall we. Q1 2021 started off promising with worldwide vaccination drives and we all thought it would allow us to get back to a normal work environment and I could once again travel to Moscow to meet with the team in person. That didn’t really happen as planned, but work on IL-2 continued and we were able to do the following in Q1. In February we released update 4.506. Highlights include: Hide contents In February we released update 4.506. Highlights include: - German fighter/bomber Fw 190 A-6 is now available to all Battle of Normandy owners - Fw 190 A-6 added to Rhineland Career mode (to the 1st and 2nd chapters to joinable squadrons III./JG 11, I./JG 26 and II./JG 26 and to all chapters to AI squadrons III./KG 51 and NSGr. 20) - Bf 109 E-7 got 4K quality external textures by Martin =ICDP= Catney - New truck variations (which look exactly like the regular ones) that are loaded with ammo and explode when attacked in a spectacular way - Many cockpit texture improvements by Chiawei =Oyster_KAI= Liang - AI improvements - Improved explosion effects Q2 The second quarter was a busy one for Sturmovik as we released two major updates - 4.601 in April and 4.602 in June. These updates brought several new planes and vehicles to BON and Flying Circus and even brought our first Collector Vehicle to market! Some highlights from 4.601 and 4.602 include: Reveal hidden contents Q3 Autumn 2021 saw two more updates that really boosted Flying Circus II content with 3 new planes and we released our mobile German Flak half-track. If you look through the highlights below, you’ll notice a lot of rather small, but important changes. Such details are important for our sim, but they take time and require research. Also notice our unique pilot fatigue modeling that makes dogfights and combat feel more real and less superhuman. Imagine being a young kid flying one of these machines and the physicality it took to be successful as a fighter pilot. It wasn’t always just about the performance of the aircraft like we seem to focus on in the sim. The human factor played a larger role in real life. 4.603 and 4.604 Reveal hidden contents Q4 The push was on to finish the year strong even though our fabulous twin-engine aircraft for Normandy had developed slower than planned. So, we focused on adding the AQMG and New Clouds to IL-2 as fast as we could. Update 4.605 came in October and updates 4.701 and 4.702 hit in December wrapping up the year. Updates 4.605, 4.701 and 4.702 includes these great additions and much more. Reveal hidden contents Special Thanks As is always the case, we cannot do what we do without the support of talent individuals that help us improve the simulation. Sometimes they help in small ways and sometimes in big ways, but it all adds up to make users enjoy Sturmovik that much more. This is in incomplete list and I’m likely to forget someone, but we want to say special thanks to ICDP, Raptorattacker, LukeFF, SYN_Vander, Jaegermeister, Oyster_Kai, Requiem, SYN_Haashashin, Pat_Wilson, MisterSmith, ShamrockFive, Gambit21, Haluter, BlackHellHound1, Rowdyb00t, SolidKreate, ROEN911, Juri_JS, PatCartier, Obelix, E69_Cananas, J2_Trupobaw, namhee2, SCG_Fenris_Wolf, LF_Gallahad, Mr. Black Dog and all our Beta Testers and anyone else who pitched in to help us this past year in any capacity! Also, we want to say thanks to our professional development partners Ugra Media, DigitalForms, Michael Luchin & Team and Ivan Shirshov who are doing a great job expanding the Great Battles series! Plans for 2022 So, what’s in store for 2022? Lots of things! Our main goals are to release BON and FCII by the summertime and work to release the Collector Planes and Tanks we have previously announced. As we do that, we will begin planning for future titles and continue to try and beef up our personnel so we can have better options then we’ve had previously for parallel development and new technology. You can check out the list of the content we previously announced and what their status currently is. There is much new content coming in 2022 along with some new features and usability improvements that we will share in our Developer Diaries. Fokker D.VIII - Released in 2021 Spad 7 150hp - Released in 2021 Spitfire Mk.XIV - Released in 2021 Fw-190 A-6 - Released in 2021 Nieuport 28.C1 - Released in 2021 Spad 7 180hp - Released in 2021 GAZ-MM 72-K - Released in 2021 Sd. Kfz. 10/5 + Flak38 - Released in 2021 Typhoon Mk.Ib - Released in 2021 P-51B/C - - Released in 2021 Pfalz D.XII - Released in 2021 Breguet 14.B2 - Released in 2021 DFW C.V. - Released in 2021 Airco DH.4 - Released in 2021 Western Front WWI Map – Scheduled for Q1 2022, might slip to Q2 if quality issues. (Made by Ugra Media) Normandy Map - Scheduled for Q2 2022 Sopwith Triplane – Scheduled for Q1 2022 Ju 88 C-6 – Scheduled for Q1 2022 Handley Page 0-400 – Scheduled for late Q1 2022 Gotha G.V – Coming in Q1 2022 C-47A – Scheduled for Q2 2022 (Made by Ugra Media) B-26 (AI) – Scheduled for late Q1 2022 V-1 Cruise Missile – Scheduled for Q2 2022 (new engineering needed to make this to launch and fly right) Ar-234 – Scheduled for Q2 2022 Mosquito FB Mk.VI – Scheduled for Q2 2022 Me-410 – Scheduled for Q2 2022 IAR – 80/81 – Second half of 2022 (Made by Ivan Shirshov) Churchill Mk.IV Tank – Summer 2022 Stug III Mobile Assault Gun – Summer 2022 Siemens & Schuckert D.IV – Scheduled for 2022 (Made by Ugra Media) Sopwith Snipe – Scheduled for 2022 (Made by Ugra Media) Li-2 – After C-47 (Made by Ugra Media) Thanks again to all of your support in 2021 and for your continued support in 2022!!

Hi I have checked it ingame to verify your observation. The Answer is easy, you are sitting to low. When you center the view und just "move" backwards ( I have no Track IR, so I use keys for the head position) Than move backwards and you will notice the rear cockpit bar in the mirror. I need to move the head downward, to have a clear view in the mirror as you do. So just move upwards

Update 4.702 Dear Friends, We're glad to report that the work on 4.702 update is finished and it is released. It doesn't contain as many changes as the previous one, but it does bring the long-awaited P-51B-5 fighter for the Battle of Normandy! It took a very long time, but there were some reasons for this - namely the long list of its modifications. It has three different gunsights(!), two canopies - standard and Malcolm Hood where the moving part of the canopy is a single spherical shaped piece of plexiglass. This aircraft is also the first to have flexible bomb loadouts depending on the country (please note that for this feature to work you should select the aircraft skin of a country you want before generating a quick mission and not after that on the hangar screen). Of course, it also uses the new DVD damage visualization system and dynamic tactical codes. Along with P-51B, we have a late Christmas gift for the owners of Flying Circus Vol.I - two new free campaigns Gallant Green featuring the British S.E.5a and Red Knights featuring the German Albatros D.V. There are also 10 new single-player missions showcasing all the birds of Vol.I. They were created by our friend Jaegermeister. A big THANK YOU to him for creating them. Enjoy! Jaegermeister has created 28 custom skins that can be used with the Campaigns. You can download them HERE. As usual, there are many other improvements and additions aimed at increasing the sim quality you can see in the list below. IL-2 Sturmovik team wishes you a Happy New Year, all the best and for your dreams to be fulfilled! 1. The P-51B-5 fighter is now available for all Early Access customers of Battle of Normandy; 2. The new free campaign "Gallant Green" (S.E.5a) was added for all Flying Circus Vol.I owners; 3. The new free campaign "Red Knights" (Albatros DVa) was added for all Flying Circus Vol.I. owners; 4. 10 single missions showcasing Flying Circus Vol.I aircraft were added; 5. Visual pixelization and shimmering of medium and low-density clouds at medium and far distances was minimized. Note: Radeon users may experience some minor artifacts or visual anomalies due to this change. We are working to fix this, but the solution may take until next update as we need to discuss with AMD. 6. Radio compasses of all German planes except Ju 52 were retouched (Oyster_KAI); 7. Seats and throttle controls of all Messerschmitts were redrawn (Oyster_KAI); 8. P-51D panel lettering improved (Oyster_KAI); 9. Detail of the sight cap on all Spitfires improved (Oyster_KAI); 10. All Fw 190 A8 paint schemes, including the default, were redrawn (Martin =ICDP= Catney) 11. All Bf 109 G6 Late paint-schemes, including the default, were redrawn (Martin =ICDP= Catney); 12. All Bf 109 G14 paint-schemes, including the default, were redrawn (Martin =ICDP= Catney); 13. All Bf 109 K4 paint schemes, including the default, were redrawn (Martin =ICDP= Catney); 14. All Me 262 paint schemes, including the default, were redrawn (Martin =ICDP= Catney); 15. All P-47D-22 paint schemes, including the default, were redrawn (Martin =ICDP= Catney); 16. All P-47D-28 paint -schemes, including the default, were redrawn (Martin =ICDP= Catney); 17. Fixed number of rounds for KV-1 tank when there are two ammo types with one prevailing type; 18. Tracers and navigation lights are not visible through clouds; 19. New effects of fires of aircraft engines and fuel tanks created; 20. Fixed misalignment of machine gun and automatic gun bursts on detailed ground vehicles; 21. Fixed an issue that caused large planes at a distance of more than 10km to be invisible in binoculars; 22. Morning/evening fog is now visible at different haze settings, not only the maximum one; 23. Low visibility z-fighting of the morning fog has been eliminated; 24. Reduced "blockiness" of cloud shadows on the surface; 25. The influence of launch tubes, transport containers and paratroopers on total aircraft mass was restored; 26. The old issue where the propeller was visible through the light halo of the cockpit light bulb is gone thanks to improved technology; 27. Fixed an issue where the formation lights toggle switches on American fighters were not animated when the engine was turned off; 28. Added parameter for VR: render_eye = 0 [-1, 0, 1] to startup.cfg. If set to -1, only the left eye camera will be shown on the monitor in VR mode, and only the right eye view if set to 1. If set to 0 it shows both eyes. 29. HUD appears faster on mission start; 30. Fixed problem with the direction of MLRS rockets in a multiplayer game; 31. Restored functionality of fixed cameras (LAlt+2) in multiplayer (both Cooperative and Dogfight modes) when starting the server from within the game with spectators allowed (difficulty option Allow Spectators).

Attention All Pilots and Tankers! If you are dreaming about epic dogfights after you eat your Christmas ham or turkey this year, you’ll be happy to know we have launched our Annual Winter (Christmas) Sale! As usual we are offering HUGE discounts on all your favorite Sturmovik titles and content. And remember you can buy and send Sturmovik titles as Gifts to all your wingmates, friends and family! They always make the BEST Christmas gifts! The Sturmovik Team wishes a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to ALL our friends and supporters around the world during this Holiday Season. As 2021 comes to a close we reflect on what a challenging year it was and how it pushed the team to its limit in ways never dreamed of. We hope the pandemic and all it’s inconveniences and distractions will finally subside in 2022 so we can make even more amazing content and features for Sturmovik with less difficulty. We hope you and your family stay healthy and safe through the holidays this year and let’s say a hardy CHEERS to an amazing 2022!! The Annual Winter (Christmas) Sale runs from 10:00am PST Dec. 22nd to 10:00am PST Jan. 5th in the IL-2 Official Webstore and on STEAM. IL-2 GREAT BATTLES IN IL-2 OFFICIAL WEBSTORE IL-2 IL-2 GREAT BATTLES ON STEAM BOS – 85% Off BOM – 75% Off BOK – 75% Off BOBP – 75% Off FC1 – 66% Off Tank Crew - 50% Off GAZ-MM 72-K - 40% Off Sd.Kfz. 10/5 Flak 38 - 40% Off Hurricane Mk.II - 66% Off Yak-9 – 66% Off Yak-9T – 66% Off Fw-190 D-9 – 75% Off P-38 J-15 – 75% Off U-2VS -75% Off Ju-52/3M – 75% Off Bf-109 G-6 – 75% Off Yak-1B – 75% Off Spitfire Mk. VB – 75 % Off LA-5FN – 75% Off HS-129 B-2 – 85% Off P-40E-1 – 85% Off Macchi MC.202 – 85% Off Fw-190 A-3 – 85% Off LA-5 Series 8 – 85% Off Steel Birds - 30% Off Ice Ring – 66% Off Blazing Steppe – 75% Off Fortress on the Volga – 75% Off Hell Hawks Over the Bulge – 66% Off (Webstore Only) Ten Days of Autumn – 75% Off (Webstore Only) Havoc Over the Kuban – 75% Off (Webstore Only) Achtung Spitfire! – 75% Off (Webstore Only) CLIFFS OF DOVER IN IL-2 OFFICIAL WEBSTORE CLIFFS OF DOVER ON STEAM Cliffs of Dover: Blitz - 35% (Webstore Only) Desert Wings: Tobruk - 20% (Webstore Only) RISE OF FLIGHT IN ROF OFFICIAL WEBSTORE RISE OF FLIGHT ON STEAM All ROF Content – 75% Off Enjoy! See you in the skies and on the battlefield! The Sturmovik Team

Attention All Pilots and Tankers! We are proud to announce that we have opened Pre-Orders on two new Collector Tanks and a new Collector Plane for IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles series! The following are now available for Pre-Order in the IL-2 Official Webstore! All feature a 20% Pre-Order Discount! - Churchill Mk.IV Heavy Tank - StuG III Ausf.G Mobile Assault Gun - IAR-80/81 Romanian Fighter-Bomber We continue to expand the selection of aircraft and tanks that can be operated on any map in the Great Battles series and create entertaining matchups in both our Single-player and Multiplayer environments. We have chosen these subjects as they further bolster the historical options you have as a player or mission builder for Tank Crew, Battle of Stalingrad and Battle of Kuban. However, as always they can be used on any map against any opponent you wish. These new tanks and the IAR-80/81 also add some very interesting history to the Great Battles series. The Churchill tank was offered through the Lend-Lease program and the IAR, flew for both the Axis and Allied sides during the war! The StuG was on just about every battlefield everywhere. The tanks are once again being built by our talented partner DigitalForms and the IAR-80/81 is being built by our long time friend and collaborator Ivan Shirshov. We also plan to make a Romanian pilot and language pack for him. Churchill Mk.IV The Churchill was a British heavy Infantry Tank that first saw combat during World War II in 1942 and remained in service in the postwar era until 1952. One of the heaviest Allied tanks of the war, the Churchill went into action for the first time during the Dieppe Raid in France in August 1942 and also saw action in North Africa, Italy, and on the Eastern Front. The chassis design proved very versatile and it was used as the basis for many specialized vehicles throughout the war. The Churchill Mark IV was the most numerous of the series, with 1,622 produced. This variant was virtually identical to the Churchill Mark III, with the main difference being a cheaper and better-protected cast turret. A Bedford 12-cylinder gasoline engine powered the tank and was capable of providing 350 horsepower. The tank’s top speed was around 24 km/h (15 mph), but Soviet tests claimed that a Churchill Mark III reached 28 km/h (17 mph). The main armament of the Churchill Mark IV was the Ordnance Quick-Firing (QF) 6-pounder gun of 57mm caliber. The secondary armament consisted of one coaxial 7.92 mm Besa machine gun mounted in the turret and a second Besa machine gun fitted in the hull. Beginning in 1943, some Churchill Mark IVs were refitted with 75 mm M3 guns taken from battle-damaged Shermans in North Africa (as well as a .30 caliber M1919 coaxial machine gun) and became known as the Churchill NA 75. Around two hundred tanks were converted in this manner. As part of the Lend-Lease program, the Soviet Union was sent 344 Churchill Mark IIs, IIIs and IVs, beginning in 1942, with 91 being lost enroute on the Arctic Convoys. Eventually, these tanks saw action at Leningrad, Stalingrad, Kursk, Prokhorovka, Kharkov and other battles. StuG III Ausf.G The Sturmgeschütz III (or StuG III) assault gun was one of the Germany’s most-produced armored fighting vehicles during World War II and saw action on all fronts in both Europe and North Africa. Initially deployed as a mobile armored light gun for infantry support, the StuG III underwent constant revisions throughout the war and was eventually heavily employed in the tank destroyer role. The StuG III Ausführung (Ausf.) G was the final and most common variant of the StuG III series with approximately 8400 built. Production of the type began in December 1942 and ended in April 1945. Panzer III Ausf. M chassis and Maybach HL120 V-12 gasoline engine rated at 296 horsepower allowed for a top speed of 40 km/h (25 mph). This StuG III Ausf. G was armed with the 75 mm Sturmkanone 40 (StuK 40) L/48 that was a modification of KwK 40 tank gun with different recoil absorbers (you may be already familiar with it from Pz.IV tank included in Tank Crew). Additionally, a shielded 7.92 mm MG 34 light machine gun was fitted above the loader’s hatch and spaced armor plates were also added to the vehicle front and sides from May 1943.

Hello Guys, The Team was busy this year with real life and many of us struggled with the current ongoing situation, financialy and with health. Our planed progress was not going as planed and we couldn't finish things as we wanted or as it was planed. Early next year the old Fitter will get back on the workbench, polished, refurbished and released. So far, wish you all blessed christmas and a great start into the year 2022. Best regards Our Team and Me

Dear Pilots! Happy Holidays to everyone in the IL-2 Sturmovik community! May it be filled with good health, family, friends and lots of time to play your favorite virtual air combat simulation! Today’s Developer Diary is a showcase of the beautiful P-51B which we are working very hard to finish for you by the end of the month. Just some minor bugs are left along with still finishing the tricky Malcolm Hood. We also have some shots of some new combat vehicles for you to check out like the M8 Greyhound and Universal “Bren Gun” Carrier Mk. II. And we have a new good looking USAAF bomber crewman model to show you. The fur sure looks look warm! We’re working as hard as we can to end this challenging 2021 strong so wish us luck as we battle to get things done! Enjoy! The Sturmovik Team

As long as it makes some money and the people are happy, why not. I would take a different approach to the Collector stuff, different vehicles and planes, but it is not up to me to decide... sadly

Hello P-51 Lovers! We know you’ve been waiting patiently to see more of the P-51B, so today we show you what it looks like both inside and out! This new ‘Pony’ should be ready by the end of this month. It’s the Holiday Season and a time for giving, so there will likely be two updates in December! One with the new clouds and the DFWC.V and the other with the P-51B and maybe, just maybe new fuel systems and drop tanks for several Bf-109 variants. Of course, plans are subject to change pending testing. And as mentioned previously the Malcolm Hood has taken extra work to get it right, so that component is not ready to be shown yet. Without further delay… Enjoy! The Sturmovik Team

Hello Everyone! Today is a Big Day for our project and our community - update 4.701 is now available! And with it comes a new game world technology – cloud rendering based on hypertextures. This technology, in comparison with the previous one, carries a number of improvements, such as: Increased variety of cloud cover; A new level of scale of cloud formations; Higher level (macro level) of cloud structures; Greater realism of structures and forms of cloud formations; Improved lighting model of clouds, and objects under and in the clouds; Diverse structure of overcast clouds (including "windows" and cloudless areas); Localization of precipitation under significant cloud formations and, as a consequence, localization of precipitation on the map; New visualization of precipitation at a distance; New rainfall lighting model; Lack of repeatability of the cloud distribution map on the scale of the game map; Reduced number of "compromise" solutions such as "object outlines" "mountain intersection aliasing", etc.; Increased performance of the graphics subsystem. The mission format was changed, so third-party missions and campaigns need to be re-saved using Mission Editor or Mission Re-saver utility. Old track records can be played by deleting the .msnbin file from their folder. We have taken great care in mimicking the current cloud selection options for mission builders, so all your older missions are technically compatible with the new clouds. However, the clouds will look quite different and you may need to adjust your mission design to get the desired result. The new clouds are much larger on average than the current ones so visuals will be quite a bit different. We apologize if the new clouds inconveniences mission makers. We hope that the improvements outweigh any problems and we also hope to add some additional cloud patterns in the coming months. Overall, we hope the new clouds will significantly increase the visual realism of our simulator, as well as bring a new greater simming and gaming experience. Another great addition in this update is for Flying Circus – Vol. II. Included is the versatile two-seater - the German DFW C.V. It was the most common aircraft of this type on the German side from 1917 until the end of the First World War. This small aircraft is capable of carrying up to 200 kilograms of 12- and 50-kilogram bombs. Additionally, it is armed with a Spandau machine gun and a defensive Parabellum. Various modifications are provided for the installation of a camera, radio, defensive turret with a Parabellum coaxial machine gun or a Becker 20mm automatic cannon. The placement of the Benz Bz.IV engine is a peculiar one, in which the pilot has significant difficulties in looking ahead. However, this motor is quite powerful at 200hp. Quite an accomplishment in 1917. In addition, this update brings a long-awaited development goal - all planes are converted to 4K skins texturing. This was done in coordination with a few super dedicated community members! The last aircraft to be converted from 2K to 4K texturing in update 4.701 is the Yak-1b series 127. In addition, the Battle of Normandy development plan is moving along, and in this update, all map building objects planned for Normandy are available in the Mission Editor. Also in 4.701, all ground vehicles, which were planned for the Flying Circus – Vol. II were added to the project. Finally, there are many other changes and improvements, a complete list of which you can find below: Main features 1. DFW C.V airplane is now available for all customers who pre-ordered Flying Circus Vol. II; 2. The new hypertexturing cloud technology added to the sim; 3. Yak-1b fighter has external 4K texturing done by Martin = ICDP = Catney; 4. Visual shot effect improved for all guns in the game; 5. New fuel tank explosion visual effects created: different for WWI and WWII era aircraft and for ground and in-flight explosions; 6. Wind direction can be chosen in Quick Mission; 7. Morning/evening fog can now be selected with any weather subtype in Quick Mission; 8. Precipitation strength can now be set separately from the cloud type in Quick Mission; 9. Cloud types have informative names in the Quick Mission weather panel; 10. Fw 190 A3, A5 and A6 aircraft paint schemes updated (Martin = ICDP = Catney); 11. P-39L paint schemes updated (Martin = ICDP = Catney); New objects for Battle of Normandy 12. European farmsteads “town_eu_small”; 13. English city blocks "town_gb_block"; 14. Temporary Mulberry harbor objects "mlbr_bridge", "mlbr_pierhead", "mlbr_phoenix", "mlbr_phoenix"; 15. Radar stations Chain Home Low, Chain Home RX, Chain Home TX, FuMG-401 Freya LZ-A, FuMG 41/42 Mammut; 16. V-1 launch site structures (the missile itself is still in development); 17. A short section ramps for railway and road bridges "br_rw_ramphish_dn" and "br_rd_ramphish_dn"; 18. A reverse arch for the automobile bridges "br_rw_invarch"; 19. Pier object “port_n_walkingpier”; 20. Hangars, barracks and shelters “arf_n_hangarb1”, “arf_n_hangarblister”, “arf_n_hangart2” (open and closed), “arf_n_nissenhut” (in blocks one, two and three barracks), “arf_n_hangarb1”; 21. Objects updated: airfield hangars “arf_hangars_1”, “arf_hangars_2”, “arf_hangars_3”; 22. Objects updated: "arf_caponiers_13_h_1" and "arf_caponiers_14_h_1"; 23. Coastal barriers ("hedgehogs", etc.) "bf_n_barrageat", "bf_n_barragebg", "bf_n_barragelog"; 24. Defenses “bf_n_mgpos”, “bf_n_aaposmid”, “bf_n_aaposheavy”, “bf_n_artpos”, “bf_n_comandpost”, “bf_n_pbunker” (as well as static artillery of the German coastline defense): 25. Unique landmarks: Ardennes Abbey, Caen Castle, Falaise Castle, Evreux Cathedral, Cherbourg Fort, Moncton Fort, Portsmouth Hospital, Stonehenge, Winchester Prison; 26. German long-range artillery concrete positions R669 (155 mm) and R683 (210 mm); 27. British armored car Humber Mk.IV; New objects for Flying Circus Vol. II 28. Renault FT tank; 29. Schneider CA 1 tank; 30. Mark V (female) tank; 31. The open version of Leyland 3 Ton truck; 32. The open and ambulance versions of Daimler DR4 truck; 33. The open and mobile AA searchlight versions of Benz LKW 1912 truck; 34. The open, ambulance and mobile AA searchlight versions of Jeffery Quad truck; 35. The German AA 37 mm automatic gun Maxim Flak M14; Aircraft changes 36. P-51D-15 engine model was fine-tuned and its speeds increased slightly (by about 5-8 miles per hour with a boost of 67 inches) as the result; 37. P-51D-15 handling at high speeds was improved. Controls are a little less stiff within the envelope; 38. P-51D-15 behavior at high Mach numbers was tweaked, Shaking and loss of control at the edge of envelope more severe; More likely to suffer airframe damage if trim used too liberally at high Mach. 39. P-51D-15 autopilot has been improved - the level flight assist more accurately maintains the altitude with different amounts of fuel remaining; 40. The excessive water spattering on the P-51D-15 canopy during the rain has been reduced; 41. Fixed shaking of both SPAD VII.C1 150 hp and 180 hp in the absence of a control signal at high (but lower than buffeting) speeds; 42. The issue of the absence of US pilots in B-25 and A-20 aircraft during Winter has been fixed; 43. The texture of the smoke generators in the hangar was corrected; 44. Fixed the "lagging" of the ammo explosion effect from the aircraft; 45. Reduced the likelihood of cases when a high-speed frontal collision won’t cause aircraft destruction; 46. Ju 87 D-3 brake flaps won’t visually disappear at a distance; 47. The AI pilots try to not hit allies in the line of fire (functionality restored); 48. Fuel tanks and aircraft structure are correctly damaged by AP projectiles fired by simple (non-detailed) AI-controlled objects; 49. Fokker D.VIII: the anemometer is correctly visible from the cockpit; Ground vehicle changes 50. KV-1s and T-34 mod. 43: the interior visual model of the gun in the mantle area has been improved; 51. KV-1s machine gun ammunition corrected (coaxial MG 25 magazines, rear MG 9 magazines, bow MG 15 magazines); 52. The overestimated combat survivability of guns, guidance mechanisms, electrical systems and radio stations has been reduced on all tanks, both detailed and simple. Tank guns can be disabled by an AP round hit of a similar caliber or multiple hits of .50 and larger caliber AP bullets; 53. MG firing sound correctly stops when a detailed tank is destroyed; 54. AI-controlled tank and aircraft turret MGs sounds corrected; 55. Some AI-controlled tanks and AFVs will fire their coaxial MGs (Humber, SdKfz-222); 56. A game and dedicated server crash bug that could happen randomly in multiplayer missions with A LOT of ground vehicles has been found and fixed; Career and Quick Mission changes 57. In Сareer mode the UK and US crews have the correct crew visual models and paint schemes depending on their country; 58. Random encounters with high-altitude interceptors (including Me 262) added to AQMG; 59. In AQMG, the behavior of AI bombers in Intercept Bombers type missions has been changed (they may panic, drop the bombs and run away when the flight leader is shot down); 60. UK and US callsigns of ground observation posts have been corrected in AQMG; 61. Correct paint schemes are assigned to aircraft covering the airfield in Attack Airfield type missions in AQMG; 62. The cruise speed of P-47D-22 and P-47D-28 in Career mode missions is adjusted to the historical 250 mph; 63. Two previously AI-only squadrons in the Career mode on the Rhineland map can be joined by the player: No. 322 (Dutch) Squadron RAF and No. 329 (Free French) Squadron RAF. 64. The redeployment mission from Migalovo to Dugino on 22.10.1941 for the German II./LG 2 squadron (Bf 109 E-7) has been restored; Mission Editor changes 65. Location of the toolbars are saved correctly, system toolbars and sections are removed; 66. It is now possible to set a block of buildings state to ‘destroyed’ by not entering all the individual IDs of the blocks, but only one ID = -1 with a damage level of 1. This should greatly save time for adding a destroyed block of buildings, reduce the size of missions created, mission loading time, and slightly increase performance. 67. Setting the value of block damage with ID = -1 between 0.1 and 0.9 will result in random destruction of the corresponding percentage of buildings in the block (the fewer buildings are in the block the more random it becomes). The random destruction of specific buildings is tied to the coordinates of the block on the map.

The plane is already under BETA testing and it is progressing and growing in details and refinement

Hello Friends! Happy Monday to everyone! We have a short DD for you today that features the DFW C.V for Flying Circus Vol. II and new 4K skins for our old friend the Yak-1b which were crafted once again by our partner Martin “ICDP” Catney. The Yak-1b completes our initial goal of bringing all aircraft and tank skins along with their templates up to the 4K standard. It took several years, but what an accomplishment!! Thanks again to Martin, Francisco (BlackHellhound1) and Marcus (Raptorattacker) for helping make all this possible! DFW C.V Yak-1b 4K Skins The DFW C.V, Yak-1b 4K skins and our initial release of our new clouds will be in the upcoming 4.701 update later in December. Which we pray to all mighty Jesus, Allah, Buddha, Yahweh, Zeus, Lucifer, Cthulhu, Thanos, General Zod or whatever powerful deity controls its fate, please give us the strength to finish the P-51B so we can include it in update 4.701! Enjoy! The Sturmovik Team

Dear Friends, Welcome to a rare Monday edition that is our 300th Developer Diary which happens to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the release of the original IL-2 Sturmovik for the PC! Two decades on and IL-2 products are still going strong! Simply amazing! We know you would like this to be a super special diary today, but for us, it’s just another busy week at work trying to finish our projects. Please don’t think that we are not proud of this milestone, because we are, but there is just so much to do and we need to stay on task! However, we hope that there will be 300 more DDs and 20 more years of Sturmovik products to come! We also realize that we could not have gotten this far without the financial support of our customers and those dedicated people in our community that help us make Sturmovik week after week. We salute anyone and everyone who has contributed to the Great Battles series over the years either as an unpaid volunteer or professional partner. From painting skins to developing apps, making missions to beta testing, 3D modeling to historical to research, localization of text to voice acting and on and on, this 300th Developer Diary is dedicated to you guys! THANK YOU! No DD is complete without some news and images about current projects and today’s is no exception. Both of these projects have been undertaken by third-party partners – the C-47 cockpit is being built by Ugra Media and the IAR-80/81 is being built by our partner Ivan. Both of these models have been shown before and they have progressed since we last showed them, even if their appearance is not drastically different from before. There is lots of work being done to keep the poly and texture budgets under control and make the model not only beautiful, but also efficient. This is always a big challenge for anyone who makes models for us. C-47A IAR-80/81 The IAR will likely go on Pre-Order next week as well as our two new Collector Tanks which Jason will also announce next week. Enjoy! The Sturmovik Team

Dear Friends, The cold November is here already and we continue working on our projects. An important milestone for the Battle of Normandy is getting near - its map will be ready to a degree that will allow us to begin the development of Pilot's Career for this theater (meaning that settlements, airfields, roads, rivers and forests will be there). It will be too early to share the screenshots of the map itself at this point since the work on its visual part - texturing and finalizing landscape features, coast and additional detail - happens at the last stage of development according to our workflow. Nevertheless, this stage is not very far away either, since the map overall progresses according to the plan. Speaking of the map, we can say that creation of map objects is finished, including the new city blocks characteristic for Britain, coastal defenses, radar stations, farmsteads for rural areas and, of course, unique landmarks. For creating believable airfields, certain additional airfield objects were created which are characteristic of this theater of war. The work on various naval and ground units for BoN continues - there are several ship types that participated in the landing, including landing craft and radar-equipped ones, and several vehicles like this British armored car Humber Mk.IV, which is ready for deployment. The German heavy fighter Ju 88 C-6 and the legendary US fighter P-51B-5 are getting close to release. Progress on the P-51B has been frustratingly slow with several technical delays due to research and software issues. Anyway, it's Flight Model 99% done and only Malcolm Hood visual is on the finish line of production. Please be patient the early Pony will get here we promise! Arado 234, Mosquito FB MK.VI and Me 410 are at earlier stages of development, but they are progressing according to the general plan. In the meantime, the work on the new fuel system is nearly finished and it will make its debut on Bf 109 fighters. As soon as it is ready we'll apply it to all the aircraft of the sim. This new tech will make the fuel system modeling more realistic, damageable in more detail and pilot interfacing with it will be recreated with more fine details. With this new technology up and running, we plan to switch to the development of the launch, guidance and warhead functioning of the V-1 vengeance weapon - its FM and 3D model, including the launch site, are already ready. There is good progress in Flying Circus Vol. II project is well. The German two-seater recon/strike airplane DFW C.V is the closest one for the release - at the moment its 3D model is nearly finished while its FM is in the works - and we plan to have it in the next update already. Sopwith Triplane should be also released before the end of the year as well as the British heavy bomber Handley Page O/400. Early next year we'll have to finish German bomber Gotha G.V, Western Front map, and two Collector Planes, late WWI fighters. In addition, there is a lot of WWI-era ground vehicles incoming - for instance, in the next update, we plan to release Jeffery Quad, Benz LKW 1912 and Daimler DR4 in several modifications and tanks - Mark V female, Reno FT and Schneider CA 1. WWI aviators will find their life slightly more complicated due to the addition of the German 37mm automatic AA gun Maxim Flak M14. All the things listed above are just a fraction of what we and our partners are working on at the moment, so please stay tuned - we'll be able to tell you more about the other development streams in our next Dev Diaries.

As we were talking with the Producer, there will be some very nice and interesting loadouts for this bird. Forward firering 20mm cannons etc

Dear Friends, Autumn has arrived in Moscow and Las Vegas and even thought the air temperature is dropping, our work pace is heating up fast. Work on our new cloud tech continues and is making rapid progress. We will make many different “cloud patterns” over time as we mentioned previously, but right now we are trying to create some quality cloud designs that we can put into Beta testing and fulfill the minimum designs needed to get you up and flying with them sooner rather than later. Please enjoy these screenshots and prepare to get lost in them! Work on the forthcoming P-51B continues and I really wanted to show you a shot of the cockpit with textures, but they aren’t quite ready for public viewing yet. But rest assured that the P-51B work is going hot and heavy. I am “encouraging” Mike as much as possible to get her done. So, we can’t show you the P-51B cockpit at the moment, but how about some shots of the Mosquito instead! As you can see, it’s taking shape and looking nice! Like our other British birds this one also has a busy cockpit that when finished will be nothing but Royal Air Force awesomeness! Testing on the new AQMG is progressing well and it should be released in our next update as mentioned last week. The Breguet 14 is also entering its final stages of tweaking before release as well. Work on the next update overall is going quite well so we expect a smooth release of 4.605 this month as planned. There has also been some good news with some research endeavors Jason has working on. If all goes well It may bring a new warbird to our skies. One that many of you have asked for. Stay tuned for more on that. And as mentioned by Jason in his recent Briefing Room post we have two Collector Tanks being worked on by our friends at DigitalForms and we will announce those very soon. Enjoy! The Sturmovik Team

Dear Pilots, This week we are working hard on the 4.605 update which will see two major releases. First, a French WWI bomber - the Breguet 14.B2 will be released for Flying Circus: Vol. II. The second will be the initial release of the Advanced Quick Mission Generator (AQMG) that adds a lot more mission content to the series. Breguet 14.B2 The Breguet 14.B2 was operated by the French, Belgian and American air forces during WWI and it is quite a powerful machine and successful bombing platform. It was well liked in Rise of Flight and we are proud to bring it to the Flying Circus series. This time around, we have taken the time to improve a couple details of this wonderful aircraft including the addition or Fuel Mixture and Elevator Trim. Both of these details were not included in the ROF version of this plane. Whenever possible, we try to add missing details to our re-born ROF aircraft. Advanced Quick Mission Generator The Advanced Quick Mission (AQMG) offers a very fast way to generate Scenario-style missions quickly that offer high quality combat. It’s not a campaign and it’s not the QMB. It’s kind of an in-between feature that lays the groundwork for possibly more detailed Scenario generating (building) in the future. It’s one more way to create combat missions without having to learn the complex Mission Editor. The AQM is more of a “generator” than a “builder “meaning most of the hard work is done by the system and the user does not have to make many inputs to get up and running. The goal is to create a mission that is fun with lots of combat with flexible settings for enemy activity. The AQMG is based on the very old Campaign generator we originally had for BOS that we set aside several years ago (it worked quite well though) to make the Pilot Career mode. We never tossed the code and have now adopted it for Great Battles. The AQMG is located inside the GUI beside the QMB and you can easily transition between the two features. The AQMG lets you choose several parameters that affect the mission, such as the map, airfield, mission type, starting position, your aircraft, loadout, weather, the time of day and the strength of enemy opposition. A mission is then generated from a historically based mission template that is populated with your objective and other friendly and enemy units that you may or may not encounter on your mission. It just takes seconds to set up a mission and get flying in a well-crafted historically appropriate mission that includes takeoff, ingress, targets, egress and landing. This is a bit more than your typically Quick Mission that is mainly geared for fast action and target practice. The AQMG can create thousands of different scenarios so no two missions will be exactly the same. This means thousands of hours air combat are at your disposal. Here are a few examples from the Moscow, Stalingrad, Kuban and Rhineland maps. The AQMG is available on all of our main theater maps at time of release. We hope to expand it to other maps in the future. The AQMG is one more tool in our mission creation toolbelt, alongside the QMB, Scenario Missions, Scripted Campaigns and Pilot Career offering a huge library of single-player content without the need to use the complex Mission Editor. In addition to all of these options, we recommend you also check out the Easy Mission Generator (EMG) by SYN_Vander and Pat Wilson’s Campaign Generator (PWCG) to have even more options for creating combat missions. Both are excellent, excellent apps! We will continue to explore ways to improve both the QMB and AQMG features in the future as well. Being able to adopt these AQMG missions for Co-Op is also high on our wish list. Old Clouds vs. New Clouds Video Work on our new cloud technology continues at a rapid pace. So much so that we can now show you a comparison of how the old clouds and new clouds compare when rendered in the engine. This video demonstrates just how powerful the new cloud tech is and its potential. We can now offer A LOT more cloud cover and not smash the framerate that you are accustomed to. Early testing points to a net gain in framerate even with exponentially more cloud particles and shapes in the scene. The video is a direct comparison of the same track and was originally captured in 4K and reduced to 2k thanks to Jason’s outdated movie editing software. The mission that was flown in the video was an 8 vs. 8 QMB mission on the Rhineland Map with all ground objects like vehicles, flak, trains and ships enabled. The cloud cover in the New Clouds portion is considered “heavy”. The Old Clouds portion is considered just your average ‘cloudy’ preset. Many of you will ask about how it performs in VR. To give you some idea here is what fellow team-member Jury aka Zeus told me today after testing it with his VR unit. This is a direct quote… and no he was not sucking up to the boss! Jury, 11:58 AM @Jason It's absolutely Awesome in VR On my settings (I did not change it from the release version), I did not notice a decrease in FPS at all in VR Hardware: I5-9600K overclocked by 4,8Hgz + RTX3070 + WMR "Samsung Odyssey+" in 60Hz refresh screen setting In all Isay`s clouds test-missions - stable 60FPS in VR in all altitude In QM battle 8x8 - stable 60FPS in VR in all altitude IMHO its huge step onforward like in a fairy tale in VR imagine you fly in a living volumetric sky ... Or even in a huge labyrinth of clouds We believe this is very good news for VR pilots and all IL-2 fans for that matter. There are still some bugs to work out and there is (as usual ) some issue with Radeon cards we have to solve first. However, we are quickly moving to put these in Beta soon and then work on making many interesting and realistic cloud designs! Enjoy! Jason P.S. Yes the music in the video is annoying I know. P.S.S. I mixed up my monitor listing in the video. I know there is no such thing as an ASUS Predator. I meant ASUS 43PGUQ. I also have an Acer Predator monitor.

Update 4.604 Dear Friends, We’re glad to inform you that a new update is released - 4.604! In addition to the new SPAD VII.C1 180 h.p. for Flying Circus Vol II, this update brings many improvements in different areas. There is a whole section of changes related to aircraft armament, including the much-discussed M2 .50 Browning machine gun rounds. We also worked on the improvement of everything connected with aircraft collisions with the ground - improved graphic effects, damage model of the airframe and pilot from collisions. The pilot's physiological model has undergone a new revision as well. A whole section of upgrades is devoted to improvements to previously released aircraft, and another to player controllable vehicles. And some AI objects developed as part of the Battle of Normandy have been introduced into the project. Our team continues to work on improving the IL-2 universe in every possible way. Stay tuned for more updates this year! 4.604 Main Features 1. Late Spad VII.C1 modification with a 180 hp engine is now available to all customers who pre-ordered Flying Circus Vol.II; 2. LCI(L), Landing Craft Infantry (Large), developed for Battle of Normandy was added to the sim (no visible crew yet); 3. The nationality of the player's aircraft in the Quick Mission now depends on which paint scheme was selected before the mission was generated (which in turn determines the voiceover, crew, and tactical numbers); 4. Spad 7 instruments improved by Oyster_Kai; 5. Several additional textures improved by Oyster_Kai for multiple aircraft such as Bf 109 series, P-51D-15, P-47D-28 and Ju 88 A-4; Changes to Armaments 6. Instead of having two sizes of tracers ("MGs" and "cannons"), they now depend on the projectile caliber and the tracer length reduces as the projectile speed decreases (important when viewed from the side). Visible tracers of machine guns and small-caliber cannons became significantly smaller, and the size of tank and artillery tracers increased as the result; 7. Smoke traces from tracer bullets and shells became less dense; 8. Graphic effects of armor-piercing 7...15 mm bullets hitting an aircraft were reworked to look more realistic; 9. US Armor Piercing .50 bullets mass and ballistics corrected. Muzzle velocity of 36-inch M2 .50 MG changed to 864 m/s; 10. M2. 50, M2 .30, Browning .303, Hispano Mk.II, Hispano Mk.V, Vickers Class S, M4 machine guns and cannons installed on aircraft (including turreted weapons) have their dispersion corrected according to newly found reference data; 11. Soviet guns dispersion data was adjusted based on a more critical approach to the choice of reference data options (gunnery test reports of obviously defective units were discarded) and using a different method of calculating the parameter of the dispersion function. In general, the dispersion spread either decreased slightly or remained almost the same; 12. The machine gun overheating of German aircraft turrets when firing long bursts was adjusted according to the same approach for all other aircraft (there was a discrepancy before); 13. Inadequate dispersion of turreted machine guns on Flying Circus aircraft was adjusted to match dispersion of these weapons installed on over-wing mounts; Changes to Aircraft Damage Model 14. Improved aircraft damage model: tangential ground impacts at high speed are more likely to cause an explosion, impacts at medium speed cause more damage to the aircraft and fuel tanks are more likely to catch fire on impact; 15. The excessive likelihood of control wiring damage on all Flying Circus aircraft has been corrected; 16. If control wiring is damaged on Airco D.H.4, Halberstadt CL.II, Bristol Fighter, Albatros D.Va and S.E.5a, Fokker DR.I, Fokker D.VII, Fokker D.VIIF, Fokker D.VIII the corresponding rudders will "dangle" along the air stream (other aircraft will be updated in the next update); Changes to Pilot Physiological Model 17. Impact and excessive overload injuries model has been adjusted for aircraft and vehicle crews. Collisions with the ground have become more traumatic for pilots; 18. The accumulation of pilot fatigue from overload during long maneuvers has been reduced. This will allow for somewhat longer aerobatics and combat maneuvering. There is inadequate information on the fatigue accumulation under the influence of prolonged small overloads in the publicly available scientific articles, the rare data is very contradictory and therefore the model in this part was adjusted based on the collected opinion of surveyed pilots. Throughout the year we received feedback from experienced pilots and it became generally clear that fatigue was somewhat overestimated. This was corrected; 19. Pilot's backrest angle was adjusted on Pe-2, He-111, Ju-88, and B-25 (it is taken into account in the G-force tolerance model); 20. P-47D-22 pilot no longer has G-suit due to the timeframe of the war this aircraft was designed for; 21. The maximum value of overload that can be displayed on the instrument panel (HUD) has been expanded; Changes to Graphics 22. Graphical artifacts "thin white stripes in the distance near the coastline" on maps with sea have been removed; 23. Graphics artifacts "white dots along the edge of the sight reflector and some other glass facets when the pilot is wounded or at night when using MSAA and the maximum graphics preset" have been removed; 24. Fixed ships reflections jumping whenl looked at from the shore; 25. Fixed local troubles with sea "climbing at shoreline rocks" on Kuban map; 26. The delay between a high-speed ground impact of an aircraft and the resulting explosion has been minimized; 27. Graphics effects of aircraft falling and exploding when hitting the ground or water or suffering an air collision were improved. A fire now burns for a while at the crash site; 28. The effect of PTAB bursts landing far off the target has been restored; 29. Shadows rendering on tank's hull while quickly turning in 1st person view were corrected; 30. Turret and gun barrel shadows cast by player's tank on the ground during 1st person view were corrected; 31. There are no "holes" in the shadow cast by the Sd.Kfz.184 on the ground in 1st-person view anymore; 32. Airco D.H.4 detailed cockpit model correctly shows in all camera positions inside it; 33. Strong stuttering near Mill airfield on the Rheinland map has been fixed; 34. The visual disappearance of cockpit windows of a damaged Yak-9 at a close distance has been fixed; Changes to Aircraft 35. Restored the cloud cover target obscuring for AI fighter pilots; 36. AI fighter pilots shouldn't fire at a target if there is an allied aircraft in the line of fire; 37. AI fighter pilots will correctly attack a locomotive instead as the last car; 38. Cockpit won't sometimes open by itself at the end of a mission and gunners won't try to bail out; 39. Crews will bail out slightly faster from multi-crew aircraft; 40. Pilots and gunners that were killed while leaving the plane will have correct poses; 41. Fixed roll trimming of Typhoon Mk.Ib; 42. Fixed (reduced) Typhoon airframe resistance to aerodynamic loads (destructive overload decreased); 43. Typhoon constant tail loose on ditching fixed; 44. C-47A can carry British paratroopers too; 45. Added a paragraph about automatic dive operation to Pe-2 aircraft descriptions (both of them); 46. Fixed the appearance of turn indicator on Yak-7 and Yak-9 aircraft; 47. Fixed an error in the RPK-10 instrument model on the Yak-1b; 48. The guest player occupying the position of the lower He 111 H-16 gunner will correctly see his collimator gunsight; 49. Airco D.H.4: mixed up graphic animation of fuel tank leaks and fires has been fixed; 50. Airco D.H.4: a graphical artifact in the gunner's cockpit when looking at it with the photo camera mounted has been fixed; 51. Airco D.H.4: an issue where damaged landing gear disappeared at a distance has been fixed; 52. Airco D.H.4: the front cockpit instrument glass won't be visible through the rear cockpit windshield; 53. Airco D.H.4: bomb racks won't visibly appear at a distance when there are no bombs; 54. SPAD VII.C1 150h.p.: "broken glare" issue won't happen at a medium detail level; 55. SPAD VII.C1 150h.p.: the installed Lewis over-wing MG will correctly cause drag; 56. SPAD VII.C1 150h.p. and SPAD XIII.C1 excessive batting amplitude has been reduced; 57. P-39 "Prototype" paint scheme no longer has the insignia; 58. All Spitfires: an excessive haze of the windshield armored glass has been removed; 59. Both Yak-9s cockpit glass won't visibly disappear at a distance when damaged; Changes to Player-Controlled Tanks and Trucks 60. New flame effects from exhaust pipes were added to all Tank Crew tanks (it appears when the engine is damaged and when gasoline engines are outgassed); 61. New powder gases effects were added to all Tank Crew tanks (flashing out of the gun breech when the bolt is opened after the shot is fired); 62. On all player controllable tanks the shading from the sun in a dark area affects gunsights; 63. Wound effects correctly function in all commander' viewports and visors; 64. Hatches won't sometimes open by themselves at the end of a mission and the crewmen won't try to bail out; 65. Poses of unconscious tank crewmen were corrected; 66. The crew leaving sequences of player controllable tanks and anti-aircraft guns were improved; 67. The voiceovers of ammunition type in commander's commands to suppress point and attack target when selecting sub-caliber rounds and machine gun were restored; 68. Single shots of M2 .50 and MG-34 machine guns on player controllable tanks won't create multiple shot sounds; 69. AI drivers of player controllable tanks would correctly close the visor armor shield at the start of combat; 70. Player controllable KV-1s and SU-152 have an additional paint scheme based on historical one but compatible with custom tactical numbers; 71. It is now possible to fold the armored glass block on KV-1s and SU-152 (N key); 72. Pz.Kpfw.III Ausf.M and Pz.Kpfw.IV Ausf.G driver's front and side armor flap opening controls are now separate (LWin+C for the front one as it was before, N key for the side one); 73. GAZ-MM driver's side window and windshield flap controls are now separate (LWin+C for the front one as it was before, N key for the side one); 74. Reflections in GAZ-MM windows are improved; 75. Sd.Kfz.10/5 driver's visor opening is now audible; 76. Sd.Kfz. 10/5 single-player scenarios were updated; 77. Sd.Kfz.10/5 notes now contain the info on how to use the searchlight; 78. The missing voiceovers of the commander's orders to fire machine gun on target and suppressing fire were restored; 79. All Steel Birds campaign scenarios were optimized for better performance; You can discuss the update n this thread.

Dear Friends, In today’s DD we want to show you some screens featuring our new cloud technology and renderer. We have been working on new clouds for a few months and we now have some WIP results we can show you. As you can see, they look more natural and have more variety and are larger than our previous clouds. They also have localized rain showers and react well with the lighting creating a beautiful scene. While other teams out there have more resources than we do to make amazing clouds, our new clouds are the work of just two motivated people on the Sturmovik Team (Sergey and Isay). And soon we’ll be working with community member and friend rowdyb00t who has previously made some cool cloud mods with our current technology. This new cloud technology has great potential and of course it will take some artistic talent to make it look it’s best. They should also offer better visuals with no loss of performance over the current technology, at least that’s what we see in early testing. We think you’ll like these new clouds and we’ll work to get these to you as soon as we can. The technology is being perfected as we speak and we will begin work on making the new cloud content shortly. Then they will go into testing with release hopefully in a few months. Enjoy! The Sturmovik Team