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Dear Friends, Continuing from the previous Dev Diary, this time we'll tell you about the second important addition (well, depending on your personal preference it may be the first important addition actually) coming in our next update - version 4.008. The P-47D-22 "Razorback", the first aircraft of Battle of Normandy, will kick off the Early Access program for this module. The main difference from the P-47D-28 you have flown in Bodenplatte is the cockpit canopy design with significant canopy framing and dorsal spine behind it. The front part of the canopy includes two angled parts and a windshield center post that would have blocked the view through the gunsight if it was installed in the center, so the gunsight was moved to the right like in the German fighters. The space between the gunsight and the angled windshield parts is occupied by the armored glass protecting the pilot from fragments and small-caliber projectiles coming from the forward hemisphere. On the top of the framing, a rear-view mirror is installed - it was standard-issue, not an optional modification. Contrary to the P-47D-28, the canopy was opened in a classic way, manually, and not by a fancy electric motor. The "Razorback" had a different propeller than the D-28 and the propeller pitch was controlled by hydraulics, not an electrical drive which had no manual mode. The P-47D-22 can use high-octane fuel, which affects the engine power, and the good news is that P-47D-28 will receive this option in the next update as well. As we have stated many times before, we don't forget about a module after its release date and will always continue to improve it and add new features whenever possible. While we were working on the Razorback, its successor from Bodenplatte got the same flight model refinements as well: for instance, the effectiveness of the flaps has been reduced somewhat and the aircraft behavior beyond stall angles has been corrected - it won't stall so unpredictably and will indicate the coming stall by buffeting and lowering the nose. The load on the control surfaces have been corrected as well - the ailerons are affected by the ram air a bit earlier, but the load increases at higher speeds more smoothly and the elevator load at high speeds was also reduced somewhat. The Mach number effect on the controls has been additionally adjusted. Overall, this resulted in better compliance with the reference data for roll speed and increased Mach-tuck tendency at high speeds. In general, P-47 now feels more like a heavy machine it was. It is interesting to note that while Razorback was an earlier model than D-28, it has a bit higher climb rate and significantly (+27 kph) speed at emergency engine mode. To a degree, this difference comes from a different propeller, but mainly it was caused by the dorsal spine. Bubble canopy, while being vastly superior for offering a much better view, creates flow swirling behind them. Dorsal spine fairing increases the lift-drag ratio of a plane. Bodenplatte fans will be happy to hear that we are going to insert the D-22 into the BOBP Pilot Career once the plane is finished. Some Razorback models were still in operation during this period so you will be able to fly them and against them in the BOBP Career before the Normandy Career is ready. However, you will need to have purchased BON to have access to their cockpits in BOBP. This gives an added benefit to participating in BON Early Access. Would-be Razorback pilots - it's time to enlist! To complete today's Dev Blog, we would like to showcase another improvement that we did exclusively for our previous projects - new early Luftwaffe pilot winter uniform which will be later used for all fighters and then bombers from Battle of Moscow and Battle of Stalingrad:

Hello! Today there will be a very small issue of diaries for the reason that we are preparing a release candidate for version 4.008, which we told you about before, we are doing the final tests so there is a lot of work and little time. However, even if this DD is short, it’s still significant - because for the first time we will show you screenshots of one of the English planes that will be in Battle of Normandy – the Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XIVc. In fact, this aircraft will have an additional modification with heavy machine guns, the Spitfire Mk.XIVe, but we will show you that version a bit later. This plane is quite different from the MK. IX Spitfire, which was previously included in BOBP. The main thing that catches your eye is the massive 5-rotor Rotol propeller, driven by the Rolls-Royce Griffon engine. To provide a much more powerful engine with sufficient cooling, radiators of a larger area are installed on the aircraft. Also, the tail area had to be increased for added stability. The aircraft will be presented with two types of weapon configurations - modification "c" with two 20mm guns and 4 x 7.69 machine guns, and modification "e" with two 20mm guns and 2 x 12.7mm machine guns. A 150-octane fuel option will also be available causing the already powerful engine to develop up to 2,200 horsepower. Work on this legendary aircraft is at a rather early stage, but much has already been done as you can clearly see in a small selection of screenshots:

Hello and welcome to the second Part of a very interesting Interview with the Developers of the IL-2 Sturmovik Great Battles Series

Hello everyone! As time goes on, the release date for the next update is approaching. As we said earlier, one of the central objects of this update will be a German tank destroyer - a self-propelled artillery Sd.Kfz.184 "Ferdinand". As many of you know, this monster was the result of the loss of Ferdinand Porsche in the competition for the creation of a heavy breakthrough tank for the Wehrmacht. That competition was won by the "Pz.Kpfw.VI Tiger" developed by Henschel. Porsche’s loss was caused by the extraordinary, even for the Germans, the complexity of the chassis. However, in the course of this rivalry, Porsche produced a significant amount of the chassis of a new type of heavy tank. This was subsequently used to create the most powerful and protected, at the time of the Battle of Kursk, anti-tank armored fighting vehicle in the world. On the Porsche chassis, an armored fighting compartment was installed, protected in the frontal projection by a 200mm armored plate, the weight of which was similar to the weight of a large truck. Even the Tiger gun is not able to penetrate this 200mm obstacle when using armor-piercing shells and 152mm armor-piercing shells of the ML-20 howitzer can't do it either. To bring the frontal armoring of the front of the hull in line with the existing 100mm armor plates, an additional piece of 100m armor was installed. The sides and rear of the vehicle were protected by 80mm armor plates, which were an extremely difficult, almost insurmountable obstacle for 76mm Soviet armor-piercing shells. The roof and the bottom of the hull were also armored considerably. The weak spots include the roof of a large-scale engine compartment, which was located in front of the tower and could be hit by large-caliber high-explosive fragmentation shells when they burst on the front armor plate of the fighting compartment. Also, the tank’s weak point is the relatively thin armor of the cooler exhaust manifold of the electric propulsion motors - a significant part of ammo is 'conveniently' located just above it. It is worth to note the completely unprotected gunsight of the main and only gun, located on the roof of the fighting compartment. The Ferdinand is armed with an extremely powerful 88mm KwK-43 L / 71 gun, that was created on the basis of the Flak 41 long-barreled anti-aircraft gun, while the shorter Tiger gun (also 88mm) was created on the basis of the shorter Flak 37 anti-aircraft gun. Firing a similar armor-piercing projectile, but with a more powerful charge and a longer barrel length, the KwK-43 L / 71 gun accelerated it to 1000 m/s against 800 m/s in the KwK-36. The Ferdinand had no machine guns at the time of the Battle of Kursk. The disadvantages of its armament include a panoramic sight that is not very useful in anti-tank combat since it doesn't allow entering corrections in the field of view (it had a significant degree of amplification though), and a low horizontal aiming speed. But the most remarkable feature of the "Ferdinand" is it’s progressive and promising, but very controversial electrical powertrain. This is one of those cases when technical thought was far ahead of technical capabilities. The idea of refusing the mechanical transmission of torque from the power plant to the propulsion system, which is widely used today in heavy equipment, at that time led to very serious problems. The electric drive motors gave an increase in speed, but with a significant loss of torque on the tracks. So the efficiency of the power plant as a whole, even when on a flat surface, was so low the vehicle could not reach speeds more than 20 km/h. Even with a huge fuel reserve of 950 liters, the range was just 150 km on the highway. Also, due to the features of the electric motors, the power plant had a reduced efficiency when driving backward. To supply the required amount of electric energy, two engines from the Pz.Kpfw.IV tanks were installed in the Ferdinand, each with a corresponding DC generator. Both generators were connected to a single line that supplied current to the electric motors, and each of the motors had its own regulator to control the speed and direction of movement. This made it possible to continue driving even if one engine or generator failed. The high cost of materials required for the production of windings, conductors and switches of the electrical powertrain, the use of two engines, plus its huge mass of 65 tons led to extremely serious technological and operational difficulties even for such a rich and industrialized country as wartime Germany. That is why the competition was won by the more traditional and easier to produce Tiger-I of Henschel design even though the Tiger from Henschel was also not a cheap tank by any means and the labor costs for its production were many times higher than required for a mass-produced T-34. On the other hand, the simplicity and ease of control of the tank, as well as the softness of the ride were a bonus to those who manned it. The ability to turn the vehicle on the spot without using advanced mechanical systems required for a traditional powertrain was a welcome bonus. Nevertheless, with all the technological and operational difficulties it had, this combat vehicle during the Summer of 1943 was the most dangerous on the battlefield - if it was able to reach it in time to participate in a head-on tank battle. It was important for us to recreate it as close to the real one as possible, just like all the vehicles we already have in Tank Crew, and it was really hard to do. There is only one early Ferdinand remaining in the world - #501, it is located in the armored forces museum in Kubinka near Moscow. Another one, later modification called Elefant with a commander cupola and MG installed, is in the US. The available documentation is very segmentary, short and incomplete. However thanks to the effort of our partners in Digital Forms and application of cross-checking analysis, we have one of the best recreations of this combat vehicle available. From our side, we contributed to the recreation of its maneuverability, armament and systems functioning peculiarities, which required a lot of work as well. On the screenshots, you see exactly that Ferdininand #501 that was captured in the Kursk battle and ended in the Kubinka museum. The last what we want to tell you about this tank destroyer - its release will complete the lineup of the combat vehicles we planned to recreate together with Digital Forms for the Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka project. This moment will be a very important milestone in the history of our project. It won't mark the end of the work on this project - as usual, we continue to support, improve and deepen all our projects after the official release date. IL-2 Sturmovik and Digital Forms teams hope you'll enjoy the result of our joint effort.

Update 4.007 Dear friends, We've decided to release the new update 4.007 relatively soon after the previous one, because the fixes and improvements it brings, while not being major, are nevertheless important for the project as a whole. We have heard your feedback on the view system improvements, added new options to the multiplayer functionality, which govern the usage of graphical mods, in addition, we did additional research on the workarounds for the Direct 3D functionality not supported by one of the graphics cards vendors. Damage modeling has been improved to take into account the control systems damage (rods, wires, etc.). We have also added a new German pilot model in the early summer uniform. The full list of changes follows: 1. Ju 87 D-3 dive bomber has been upgraded to 4K external texturing thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney, including two additional official skins; 2. Aircraft control systems DM has been upgraded. The probability of losing control in a certain control axis depends on the control wires or rods configuration of a particular aircraft and existence of a reserve control channel (or its lack thereof); 3. Workarounds for the remaining graphical artifacts on AMD cards (like black contour around the aircraft when viewed from its cockpit) have been implemented; 4. New multiplayer server option “Restrict Injectors” allows the server hosters to restrict access for users with graphics injectors like Reshade or 3dmigoto; 5. Five new mappable (RCtrl+NumPad_Del,1,2,3,0 by default) zoom commands have been added that allow quick zooming to various degrees (minimal, maximal and 3 intermediate levels). Zoom value set by a mouse or joystick axis or keyboard keys is not affected by the new quick zoom and after releasing a quick zoom button the FOV will return to the one set by an axis. These new commands work in either 2D or VR mode. The old 'VR zoom' command has been deprecated (its equivalent is the new maximum quick zoom, RCtl+NumPad_0); 6. There is a new setting in the Camera options that governs the speed of the new zoom commands; 7. Tank commander binoculars give three times more powerful zoom than before (they give a minimal FOV that is technically possible in the game); 8. The current FOV (Field Of View) value is shown next to the in-game FPS counter (that is activated by Backspace key by default); 9. Gunsight FOVs have been corrected for all tanks; 10. German fighter pilots of the Battle of Moscow, Battle of Stalingrad and Battle of Kuban have a new visual model and a sidearm during Summer (new Winter model, also with a sidearm, will be added later when it is ready). Because of this, the default camera position and user-customizable snapviews (.svc files) were changed on Bf 109-G14, Bf 109-K4, Me 262-A, Fw 190-A3, Fw 190-53, Fw 190-A8 and Fw 190-D9. The updater should overwrite the old files for these planes with the new updated ones for you, but in case this action was blocked by antivirus software on your PC and you see a wrong view in the cockpit of these aircraft in the game, please copy the new default .svc files for these aircraft from \data\LuaScripts\snapviews\defaults to \data\LuaScripts\snapviews manually. If you haven't customized the view positions on other aircraft, you can just copy all the files from snapviews\defaults to snapviews folder; 11. Bomb holders on both Bristol Fighters appear correctly depending on the ammo loadout; 12. Pedals on both Bristol Fighters appear correctly in a neutral position; 13. The issue that made the detached parts of Flying Circus aircraft invisible in the multiplayer has been found and fixed; 14. Fw 190 D-9 canopy glass appear correctly at medium distances; 15. Fw 190 D-9 oil on windshield visual effect has been restored; 16. Destroyed static KV-1 model won't have white tracks when viewed from a distance; 17. Tank turret turn indicator won't visually 'jump' when passing the back position; 18. APHE rounds stopped by the armor won't damage outside objects; 19. Train wagons won't appear detached from the locomotive in some missions; 20. Guest crew members in multiplayer will correctly hear the sound of the tank turret turning; 21. Guest crew members in multiplayer will correctly hear the sounds of the hatches closing or opening; 22. Certain HE rounds explosions can be heard from an aircraft cockpit; 23. The arm model has a correct sidearm in it in VR mode; 24. The arm model won't drop a shadow when there is no body rendered; 25. The arm model has the correct size in VR mode; 26. Missing road segments that sunk inside the terrain have been corrected on Kuban map; 27. Random CTD in multiplayer fixed in case when other player tank have been spawned. Please discuss the update in this thread.

Hello friends, As you know, the recently released update 4.006 brought many important and interesting changes. Our work continues and soon we will start to prepare the new update 4.008 that is planned to include P-47D-22 "Razorback" fighter for Battle of Normandy and tank destroyer Sd.Kfz.184 "Ferdinand" for Tank Crew. You may have noticed and wondered why the mission number isn't 4.007? The answer is that we plan to release an intermediate update before that, it will add some important functionality and new features. They will be based on your feedback mostly and will bring some features long-awaited by the community. The update 4.007 is already in beta testing and we hope it will be ready in the coming week. Among other changes it will include 4К quality external texturing by Martin =ICDP= Catney for the legendary Ju-87D-3 from Battle of Stalingrad, here are some screenshots of it: Speaking on the update 4.008, which is planned for late June - early July, we have also something to show you already. Another legendary plane, P-47D-22 "Razorback", will begin the Early Access for Battle of Normandy: You can discuss the news in this thread

Dear Friends, Today we'd like to present you the final part of the Stalingrad trilogy, the ending of the story that started in "Blazing Steppe" and continued in "Fortress on the Volga" campaigns. The new campaign will tell you about the combat operations of the Soviet IL-2 attack planes in December 1942. The development of the third part took much longer than we initially expected, partly because of the need to research a huge amount of data from the archives telling about the actions of the three Soviet Fronts and Air Armies, but the result will prove itself worthy of the effort spent. We are proud to announce the Pre-Order of the new historical Campaign "Ice Ring" for IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad. Basing on the combat order records and operational reports of the Soviet 8th Air Army, we have managed to recreate an absolutely unique history of combat operations of the 226th Ground-Attack Air Division regiments. The campaign consists of three large stages, during which you'll operate from 4 different airfields and take part in the most dramatic events of the final part of the Battle of Stalingrad. The successful counter-offensive of the Red Army in November 1942 led to the encirclement of the 284 thousands troops including the German 6th Army and 4th Tank Army, as well as Romanian divisions. Then the task of supplying the troops was assigned to the transport and bomber units of the Luftwaffe, so the first part of the new campaign is dedicated to the very beginning of the Soviet air blockade formation. At the end of November, the command of the Soviet 8th Air Army issued an order to relocate the 235th Fighter Air Division to the south of the city. It was also decided to form a special air group of IL-2's pilots from the 226th ShAD who were experienced in dogfights and flying in difficult weather conditions and place it under the 235th IAD headquarters command. During this period, you'll fly reconnaissance flights, search and destroy German transport aircraft in the air and strike at their take-off and landing airfields inside the cauldron. The situation of the encircled enemy group on December 2-6, 1942 from the reporting map of the Don Front and the situation at the morning of December 2nd from the campaign map. In mid-December, when the special air group was disbanded, you'll return back to your regiment. Against the background of the ongoing reorganization in the division and the beginning of the enemy offensive from the direction of Kotelnikovo (Operation "Winter Storm"), you'll have to fly several combat missions directly against the surrounded German troops. At the end of the campaign, when the situation on the southern flank of the Stalingrad Front becomes critical, you'll be sent to the most threatened sector. As part of a hurriedly formed ground attack air group, you'll take part in the heaviest battles on the Myshkova River, which determined the outcome of the entire German counter-offensive and sealed the fate of the troops surrounded in and near the devastated city. Events on the Myshkova River from December 22 to 26, 1942 from the reporting map of the Stalingrad Front and the situation in the middle of December 22nd from the campaign map. You'll fly 15 combat missions on the IL-2 AM-38 (model 1942), about 7 hours of gameplay in total. The new campaign is scheduled to be released in Summer 2020. The IL-2 Sturmovik Team

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

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

Hello everybody, After releasing the update 4.005 last week we continued on polishing it, addressing the issues that were found after the public release. We hope to release another hotfix tomorrow that will improve the public version stability. Of course, the work on the next update is being done in parallel - for instance, the new heavy assault gun SU-152 for Tank Crew project will be finished soon. This one, being a symbiosis of a heavy tank and a heavy howitzer, really stands out. It's no wonder that such a war machine required adapting and improving the core systems to support it properly - there is no reason not to implement something created for one unit to all others that were released earlier. For instance, all 45mm and higher caliber shells that in reality did not have tracers will have a visual model of a flying shell (one for all for now) instead of a symbolical tracer. Firing the main gun without working ventilation and closed hatches will result in carbon monoxide poisoning of the crew and we created additional effects of the evacuation of the propellant fumes from the engine compartment for vehicles that used it for the fumes evacuation. The new system that allows a commander to order his gunner and other self-propelled guns under his command to fire at a specified direction and range is also almost complete. There are also finishing touches like oil pumping animation before starting the engine. The visual model of this vehicle, that probably has the most firepower in the project, is also nearly finished. We would like to emphasize that many things that were done for Tank Crew also improve the aircraft - for example, the Tank Crew separate animations tech and the new models of the Soviet and German pilots that are being created using it for BoS, BoM and BoK allow us to put American and British pilots into the lend-lease planes. This means that soon you'll be able to witness RAF and Soviet pilots in Spitfire Mk.V and Spitfire Mk.IX and RAF, USAF and Soviet ones in P-40E, P-47D and B-25D (according to what country is specified in the mission file by its author). A bit later, when we complete the required animations for the new pilot models, this will also work for A-20B and P-39L. In addition, the same approach will allow having a correct visual model depending on the timeframe: Soviet pilots will appear in correct summer uniforms depending on the mission date (there will be three different models for early war before April 1st, 1942, between April 1st, 1942 and March 1st, 1943, and late war). Later, when we have German and US pilot models ready, their uniforms will also change depending on the mission date, including the g-suit. And we plan to give all the WWII-era pilots hand weapons as a final touch in this department. You can discuss the news in this thread

Update 4.005 Dear friends, The IL-2 Sturmovik team is happy to announce that another, very big and important milestone in the evolution of our project has been reached and its result is ready to be downloaded to your PCs. This time the update doesn't bring new content since the development of the new Normandy project is at the very early stage. However, it contains an enormous block of changes paramount for the IL-2 as a combat flight-sim, namely the aircraft damage model and munitions damage calculations. Earlier we have published several Dev Blogs dedicated to these changes, where they are covered in detail and how they affect the gameplay. Additionally, the external textures of four previously released aircraft are now available in 4K quality thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney and Francisco =BlackHellHound1= Bindraban. 4 additional ground vehicles were added to the sim - two ambulances and two fuel trucks. And a new language has been added to the game - Simplified Chinese! Well, at least most of the sim is translated, some parts will have to wait. More on that below. But of course, this is not quite all we have done. The change-list contains a whopping 140 changes - this is the all-time record for our project! There are numerous improvements to the aircraft simulation, aircraft models, player controlled tanks (Tank Crew) and artificial intelligence (AI). The causes of several important issues we weren't able to reproduce previously due to their rarity and randomness and thus fix before were finally found and fixed. The full list contains many other improvements and fixes as well. Take a look: Main features 1. MiG-3 series 24 exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney; 2. Pe-2 series 35 exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney; 3. Pe-2 series 87 exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Martin =ICDP= Catney; 4. Bf 109 G-4 exterior textures, including damage, are in 4K quality now thanks to Francisco =BlackHellHound1= Bindraban; 5. Binoculars have been added for tank commanders (press LCtrl + 5); 6. GAZ-55 ambulance vehicle added; 7. BZ-35 fuel truck added; 8. Opel Blitz ambulance vehicle added; 9. Opel Blitz Tankwagen fuel truck added; 10. New language added - Chinese Simplified (简体中文). The career mode is not yet completely translated since the newspaper articles and some squadron histories and award descriptions are in English (they are not necessary for playing though). The Chinese symbols in the pilot name won’t work sadly due to the technical limitations in the mission file format. Aircraft Damage Model Improvements 11. All aircraft got the new, significantly more advanced version of the airframe damage calculations: each aircraft has its own geometrical sizes of the airframe parts and the material types while the damage calculations take into account the peculiarities of the AP, blast and fragmentation damage; 12. A complete rework of aircraft skin damage calculations has been done and it now takes into account the projectile caliber or its HE capability: now AP ammo and bullets damage the aircraft skin to much lesser extent than HE ammo while ramming an aircraft with a propeller of another instantly causes severe aircraft skin damage; 13. Visual hit effects (sparks, splinters, etc.) and sound effects now depend on the material of a hit part of the aircraft; 14. A one projectile impact won’t erroneously cause multiple (doubling) damage effects on the airframe parts which have several hitboxes; 15. Projectile impacts (and ramming an aircraft with a propeller of another) at the parts which don’t have their own cracks modeled in 3D visual model (for instance, when shooting at a wing root that should cause a crack in the wing on the aircraft where a crack at the wing base is not modeled) are calculated in more detail; 16. Projectile impacts (and ramming an aircraft with a propeller of another) at the parts not connected to the airframe won’t damage the airframe (for example, hitting an engine nacelle of a twin-engine aircraft won’t destroy a wing); 17. The calculations of the energy impulse transfer to an aircraft from a munition it was hit by now take into account the shots that went through it; 18. Exploding shells no longer damage the airframe by their initial kinetic energy of an intact shell, only by the blast and the kinetic energy of its fragments; 19. The following visual effects of the aircraft fragments were corrected (turned on when needed and off when not needed): landing gear dust (in the flight), the lighting from landing and navigation lights, guns firing and engine exhausts, smoke from smoke generators and vortex trails from the wingtips); 20. The found discrepancies between a new and repaired aircraft aerodynamics have been fixed; 21. A rare issue that could cause the airframe cracks to preserve after repairing has been found and fixed; 22. The modeling of the combat damage of the piston engine crank gear became more detailed and takes into account the engine type (for instance, the damage of the crank gear of the air-cooled engines happens more rarely than crank gear of the liquid-cooled engines) and the peculiarities of the armor penetration, blast and fragmentation effects of the munitions. The damage of the crank gear can cause the wedging up and seizing up of the crankshaft while the heavy momentary incurred damage can cause the immediate stop of the crankshaft; 23. It is now possible to damage one or several engine cylinders at once by weapons fire, reducing its power output. Damaged pistons can affect the crank gear and can be accompanied by oil and coolant leaks. The calculations of the incurred damage and leakage values take into account the type of the engine and the peculiarities of the armor penetration, blast and fragmentation effects of the munitions; 24. The calculations of an engine fire probability from torn fuel lines and oil leaks take into account the peculiarities of the armor penetration, blast and fragmentation effects of the munitions; 25. The physical model of the engine now differentiates the two types of oil leaks: from the engine and from the oil system; 26. Only the actual oil leak from the engine now soils up the canopy instead of a general engine damage; 27. An excessive amount of piston engine shaking caused by the crank gear damage has been reduced; 28. The calculations of an oil tank or oil radiator leak probability, its size and leakage value take into account the peculiarities of the armor penetration and fragmentation effects of the munitions in detail; 29. The calculations of a coolant tank or water radiator leak probability, its size and leakage value take into account the peculiarities of the armor penetration and fragmentation effects of the munitions in detail; 30. The calculations of a fuel tank leak probability, its size and leakage value take into account the peculiarities of the armor penetration and fragmentation effects of the munitions in detail. The fuel tanks leak protection will be taken into account later, when the next level fuel system modeling is finished; 31. The visual intensity of a fuel, oil, and coolant leaks now corresponds to the actual severity of a leak closer; 32. When calculating the probabilities of a fuel tank fire and explosion, the different AP, blast and fragments effects are taken into account as well as the amount of the fuel leaking from the tank at the moment. Inert-gas pressurization and other fire countermeasures will be taken into account later when the next level fuel system modeling is finished; 33. Bf 110 G-2, Bf 110 E-2 and Hs-129 B-2 right engines won’t be excessively damaged by explosion fragments; 34. P-38J-25: a stabilizer won’t be destroyed by small fluctuating stress loads; 35. P-38J-25: it is now possible to hit and damage the right engine radiators; 36. P-51D-15: it is now possible to hit its oil tank and its armored visor is correctly included in the armor protection calculations; 37. P-51D-15 canopy will appear correctly soiled up by an oil leak both in internal and external views; 38. P-51D-15 3D-model won’t erroneously show the wing crack; 39. The landing gear doors on all aircraft are destroyed if landing gear wheels are torn off in retracted position; 40. Hs 129 B-2: the destruction of the right landing gear door won’t generate the landing gear door debris on the left; 41. Bf-109 (all series except E7): the loss of the vertical stabilizer and the central part of the horizontal stabilizer is temporarily blocked due to the interdependence of this damage in the 3D model, which makes this point extremely vulnerable to combat damage and causes undesirable results. We will try to move the breaking point above the stabilizer in the future and fix this limitation. Damage to the rudder, elevators and horizontal stabs are still possible and the rudder and elevators can still be detached. And the left and right portions of the horizontal stab can also be lost; 42. Bf-109 (all series): the mixed up locations where the debris of the landing gear bay doors appear have been corrected; 43. MiG-3 series 24: the main landing gear bay doors in the wing can also be torn off by an excessive ram air pressure; 44. Excessive rear hemisphere protection of the Pe-2 gunners from the fragments has been corrected; 45. Ju-52/3m g4e: the oil level gauges display the correct amount of the oil left even if it is completely gone or after the oil system repair; 46. Ju-52/3m g4e: first pilot bailing out won’t cause the death of the second pilot and the gunner; General Damage Model Improvements (for all objects in the sim) 47. A complete overhaul of the blast and fragmentation damage, as well as armor penetration damage has been finished, including, but not limited to: correction of calculation errors, calculation speed optimizations, protection of the calculation results for finding possible errors in the initial data; 48. Insufficient blast damage in case of a very near explosion or inner explosion has been corrected; 49. The number of fragments hitting an object is correctly calculated basing on the distance to an explosion, including the case of inner explosion; 50. Now there is a possibility of a ‘stray fragment’ impact when the expectation function gives less than one fragment due to the distance to the explosion (outside the kill area), which is important in a case of multiple explosions; 51. The armor penetration ability and damage of projectile increases if the resulting impact velocity exceeds the muzzle velocity of a projectile in the reference test data; 52. The fragmentation damage modeling is made less abstract for all ammunition types: the formation of the fragments, their initial speeds, masses and sizes are calculated and their loss of velocity with the distance traveled is calculated using the modern estimates of their resistance factor and the integration of their movements; 53. The calculations of the penetration ability of the combined HE and frag damage is also less abstract. Instead of using an empirical parameter, the system now uses the speed, mass, and size of a fragment to model a penetration and the massed impact in case of a near explosion is also modeled; 54. Since the calculations of the penetration ability and the energy of fragments were changed, the excessive effectiveness of the bombs against armored targets at large distances has been reduced, but a very close explosion is much more effective than before; 55. The penetration ability of the fragments created by shells containing a small amount of explosives relative to their overall mass was also reduced because of the same reason; 56. The blast damage calculations use a more accurate power law depending on the distance to the blast center. The damage inflicted by a blast and its ability to break through an armor sheet now drops as the distance increases faster than before, but became much more powerful at very short distances; 57. Engines, drivetrains, reduction gearboxes, ammo racks and other large pieces of equipment now have their own hard casings modeled where applicable and they can protect them from some damage; 58. In a rare case of a direct bomb hit at a turret of a flying aircraft, aerostat or a parachute there won’t be a detonation delay that could cause it to explode at a distance to the object; 59. The severity of a wound depends on the impact area: a head hit is more critical than a body one while a body hit is less severe than it was before; 60. The crew members experience less pain shock from wounds and impacts; Player controllable tanks improvements 61. The death of a radio operator now blocks the external communications; 62. Pz.III-L and T-34 STZ tanks ammo racks now are damageable; 63.The physical collision model of the Pz.III-L turret now correctly rotates together with the visual model of the turret; 64. The physical collision model of the T-34 STZ main gun barrel now correctly corresponds to its visual model; 65. The M4A2 commander’s machine gun can be damaged; 66. In the event of a catastrophic detonation, the turret flying away from Pz.III-L and T-34 STZ tanks will be visually damaged; 67. A knocked out machine gun won’t incorrectly cause the death of its operator; 68. The issue that could result in the destruction of a tank when its main gun and coaxial MG are knocked out has been found and fixed; 69. Several commands of the tank commander (for example, "Attack ground targets on sight") will work even if the mission script doesn’t include any commands for this tank; 70. Several non-working technochat messages about turret systems failure and repair (coaxial machine gun, main and backup turret traverse, vertical aiming mechanism, etc.) have been fixed; 71. Pz.Kpfw.III.Ausf.M, Pz.Kpfw.IV.Ausf.G and M4A2 tracks tension is correctly animated (it was reversed); 72. The tank radio transmitter failure makes the communication with other tanks of the unit impossible; 73. Viewing instruments on KV-1s tanks made more detailed; 74. The issue with KV-1s tracks visibly moving in the opposite direction when accelerating has been minimized; 75. The casing of the various large systems (engine, gearbox, ammunition) can protect them from shell fragments; 76. An additional armor sheet on the front hull of the KV-1s is now modeled; AI Improvements 77. The AI pilots of the high-speed aircraft now try to use their advantage over significantly slower aircraft using the hit and run tactics; 78. The AI pilots of the high-speed aircraft aim better when firing the guns; 79. A failed bombing run won’t cause an AI-controlled bomber to fly beyond the map borders; 80. An AI pilot estimates the time required to destroy a ground target better; 81. The AI pilots won’t try to move the control surfaces of a crashed aircraft; 82. P-51D AI pilot will always close the canopy before taking off; 83. Gunners won’t do unnecessary motions when bailing out; 84. Additional improvements were made in the ground vehicle obstacle avoidance algorithm; 85. A rare issue that could cause vehicles of a column to move directly North after an emergency stop has been found and fixed; 86. AI-controlled ground based guns and MGs aim better in heavy wind weather conditions; 87. 76mm and 77mm AAA of World War I era aim better; Visual aircraft models improvements 88. The bomb control panel on all Bf 109 3D-models is now hidden in the outside view if no bombs are installed; 89. The right landing gear wheel of the Bf 109 E-7 is no longer visible from a large distance when the right wing is lost; 90. The Bf-109 G-14 canopy cable looks correct when the canopy is open; 91. The gap between the bomb holder and Fw 190 A3 and Fw 190 A5 fuselages has been removed; 92. The gear wheels of the chain drive of the He-111 bomb bay doors are animated now; 93. The An-4 compass on Pe-2s has a functioning backlight now; 94. The excessive visibility of IL-2 mod. 1943 at large distances caused by a wrong glare setting has been corrected; 95. The rear navigation light of the La-5FN won’t be visible from the cockpit; 96. A damaged LaGG-3 won’t appear to have through holes when zooming out; 97. The Yak-1b rear wheel trace on the ground won’t visually thicken when zooming out; 98. P-51D and Tempest radio station bulbs made brighter when turned on; 99. An incorrect flare visual effect on the P-51D fuselage has been fixed; 100. An incorrect flare visual effect on the Fokker D.VII wingtips has been fixed; 101. Left ailerons of Fokker D.VII and Fokker D.VIIF won’t cause visible z-fighting effect; 102. S.E.5a: a dead or unconscious pilot or gunner won’t clip through a cabin side; 103. The animation of the 2000-pound bomb M66 impeller has been fixed; Other aircraft changes 104. Another error that could cause the hits on the own aircraft to be not audible in multiplayer has been found and fixed; 105. When in the cockpit, the player will now hear different sounds when different parts (materials) of the aircraft are hit different types of ammunition (before that, sounds differed only by the type of ammunition and only in open cockpits or in an external view); 106. The ram air sounds in the cockpits of all aircraft have been re-adjusted, the sound changes depending on the state of the canopy (open or closed) as well as the position of the pilot's head relatively to the windscreen; 107. The positioning of the engine sounds in the cockpits has been improved as well; 108. Bf 109 G-6 in-cockpit sounds were corrected; 109. The issue with the pilots posing in weird ways should be gone now; 110. Ju-88 top shooter won’t continue to fire when the canopy and the MGs are jettisoned; 111. It is now possible to shoot a signal flare after opening the IL-2 mod.1943 cockpit; 112. The trace of an aircraft after a belly landing won’t disappear when zooming in; 113. Flying Circus planes will correctly show the dust from wheels effect; 114. P-51D wheels leave correct traces and their dust effects were corrected; 115. Opened P-51D landing gear bays cause less drag; 116. Bomb detonator switches are no longer inverted on P-51D; 117. A-20B, La-5 series 8 and La-5FN: it’s now possible to move the throttle control when it is in the idle position and ‘Engine auto control’ helper is enabled in the options; 118. FFB vibrations increased during control surfaces buffeting at terminal flight speeds; 119. Now a crewless aircraft will be removed from the simulation when it stays on the ground for 30 seconds (previously it was removed when its altitude was less than 10 meters and speed less than 10 meters per second); Ground and naval objects 120. Projectiles of the multi-barreled anti-aircraft guns visually appear aligned with the positions of the individual barrels; 121. Tanks and trucks won’t leave marks on concrete surfaces; 122. Vehicles won’t create so much dust when moving on concrete and paved surfaces; 123. TRG_Spawn mission logic element won’t cause the spawned vehicles to have visual effects of a damaged engine; 124. The issue of random destruction of a train in QMB has been found and fixed; 125. Simple AI-controlled ground vehicles won’t visibly ‘shudder’ when moving on steep slopes, especially on the Prokhorovka map; 126. Sd Kfz 251 Wurfrahmen 40 rockets launch correctly visually; 127. The upper and lower armor of simple AI tanks has been corrected (made more resistant to fragments); 128. The visual model of a static railway tank has been updated (its frame); 129. The static T-34 model texture that appears at a certain distance has been corrected; 130. Railway wagons and locomotives won’t receive critical damage from any first hit; 131. A graphical corruption caused by G-5 gunboat firing its M-8M rockets has been fixed; 132. The issue that could make the naval guns indestructible has been found and fixed; 133. Ships that run aground will stop earlier and won’t display water wake effects; 134. A random issue with the parachute not completely descending to the ground has been fixed; Other changes 135. VR zoom can be made instantaneous if the default speed gives you nausea - set the value of the vr_zoom_speed parameter to 1 (it is located in the camera section in data\startup.cfg file); 136. Ricochet sounds and graphic effects were added; 137. The physical collision models of the European suburban buildings in some blocks on the Arras map now correspond to their visual models; 138. The trees that prevented takeoff and landing were removed at the end of the strip of the Florennes airfield; 139. Bailed out pilots can be correctly captured by the enemy in the Bodenplatte career; 140. MCU_Waypoint mission logic element won’t receive input from other elements when deactivated. Please discuss the update in this thread.

Hello everybody, The weather in Moscow isn't really fitting for April, but these times it doesn't make a big difference; we're continuing the work on the project. The 4.005 beta testing is nearly finished, and soon you'll see by yourself what all the latest DDs were about. So today we'll tell you a bit about the current work that will yield more distant results. We have mentioned before that we're working on moving the graphics engine to Deferred rendering and now this process gives good results. The main goal in implementing this renderer is to open new visual possibilities while keeping the current level of performance and not making it worse. Till the recent time, we could only hope that having both options is possible at all, while our Lead Programmer Sergey Vorsin was working confidently and his task is nearly finished. We have managed to keep the general level of performance during this transition intact and we already can show you one of the possibilities this technology opens for our sim. The first visual bonus that comes from Deferred Shading is the dramatic improvement of the quality of the reflections on various surfaces. While the existing reflection system was progressive for its time, today the standards are upped. For instance, its issues include too much bloom in reflections from various aircraft surfaces, the lack of diffusion of the reflections - they should be softer and more natural-looking. The new tech makes this possible, resulting in more realistic visuals. Here are a couple of screenshots showing this: But the improvements are not limited to the existing reflections on the external model of an aircraft. Now a feature that was requested by the community for a long time becomes technically possible - reflections in the canopy and instrument glass. In other games this effect is imitated using a prepared or generated texture which is rendered on the glass surfaces without following the laws of optics - this technique gives a cool wow-effect for a couple of times, but it quickly becomes annoying when you realize it is fake. Deferred Shading allows us to create complex and optically correct reflections in the cockpit. They depend on the external lighting and environment of course, the camera position in the cockpit and other factors. It's clear that the best way to show you this new effect would be a video, but it will be ready later - we're still working on this new reflection effect. Today we can show you a couple of screenshots that demonstrate this effect in general though: The work on the new pilot models we announced earlier for Battle of Moscow, Battle of Stalingrad and Battle of Kuban continues as well. Earlier we published the WIP images of the new Soviet pilot in Summer uniform without textures that weren't ready, but now we have the completed models both in Summer and Winter uniforms and for early and late war timeframes as well. At the moment we're working on the animations for the new models for all Soviet aircraft in the project - and started the work on the new German pilot model of the early war. To finish today's Dev Blog we want to present you the new work of =HH=Pauk, this time he created the new promo video for Flying Circus. We think the author has managed to the feel of the last knights' epoch perfectly, highlighting the project potential. Enjoy:

Hello everybody, In spite of the serious events happening in the world, the time flows and it looks like we adapted to the new work conditions. The work processes are set up and we continue at the usual rate. Since we plan to release important renderer improvements in late Spring, we set the workflow to develop the short and long term tasks simultaneously. We'll tell you about what will be released in Summer a bit later, while today we'll concentrate on the coming update 4.005. =AnPetrovich= and =Jason_Williams= told you about the main feature of this update earlier - reworked, improved and advanced damage model of the airframe - but it is not the only huge change that it will include. Speaking of the battle damage modeling, another very important change is the improved frag and blast damage calculations throughout the entire sim. Thanks to the fresh look and research input by our partners at Digital Forms, which make the visual models of the Tank Crew vehicles, we were able to bring the fragments damage calculations to the new level of complexity. Generally speaking, the calculations of the damage incurred by munition fragments became less abstract. The new model is universal for all munition types. The calculations of the warhead fragmentation are more life-like and give the initial speed, mass, and size of the fragments. New progressive methods of modeling their speed decrease use the integration of their movement. The calculations of the penetration ability of the combined HE and frag damage is also less abstract. Instead of using an empirical parameter, the system now uses the speed, mass, and size of a fragment to model a penetration and the massed impact in case of a near explosion is also modeled. Since the calculations of the penetration ability and the energy of fragments were changed, the excessive effectiveness of the bombs against armored targets at large distances has been reduced. The penetration ability of the fragments created by shells containing a small amount of explosives relative to their overall mass was also reduced because of the same reason. The blast damage calculations use a more accurate power law depending on the distance to the blast center. The damage inflicted by a blast and its ability to break through an armor sheet now drops as the distance increases faster than before, but became much more powerful at very short distances. It also should be noted that engines, drivetrains, reduction gearboxes, ammo racks and other large pieces of equipment now have their own hard casings modeled where applicable and they can protect them from some damage. The visual and audio representation of the damage is also updated. The additional causes of the unhearable hits in multiplayer have been found and fixed, new sounds were added for ricochets while the existing hit and explosion sounds were improved. In general, the update 4.005 once again is going to be one of the biggest in the history of our project, its change list contains more than 90 items already. It will bring not only the damage model improvements of course - the new content we told you before, many improvements and fixes for the aircraft and player controllable tanks, audio improvements for various in-game objects and more and more. The sim will be more accessible to the larger audience thanks to the additional language as well. Our team hopes that the update 4.005 will be welcomed by you, our players, and will raise the quality level of our sim to the next level. To finish today's diary, let's add some nice pictures to the mix - this time they are the Yak-9 cockpit shots captured in the game. Its texturing is nearly final while the development of its FM is progressing at a full speed. We hope it will be available to you in early Summer. You can discuss the news in this thread

Hey everybody! We hope you are hanging in there and staying healthy! While we're stuck inside our homes trying not to get sick I thought you'd enjoy some footage of our improved airframe damage model in action. These clips show how our wings are much stronger than before and how our improved damage calculations cause a myriad of failures that can bring down a plane, or in some cases, maybe allow you to limp home. Please note that the engine damage was turned off for this video as we are currently concerned with the airframe and how it behaves. Remember just because a plane takes a physical beating, doesn't mean all the systems are functioning. A knocked out plane may keep flying for a little while, but it is likely not going to make it home or stay controllable. My point is don't get too hung up on some of these planes surviving multiple HE hits. One good placed burst and your day is likely ruined, but your wings should not fold like a bad poker hand. Larger planes and historically tougher planes now have a better personality to match their reputation. I pieced this video together in a hurry, so the commentary may not be the best and some of my American humor may get lost in translation. I hope you enjoy this little distraction during this crazy time. Our airframe damage improvements will be in the next update before the end of March. My gunnery stinks I know. All AI is basically on Novice so I can actually catch them and hit them. These were just simple furball missions. Try to have an enjoyable weekend everyone! And remember our Promo Codes are still good!! Jason P.S. I have been asked what I filmed this on. Intel i7 7200K 4.2ghz, 64Gb RAM, SSD, 20280Ti, 4K res on Asus 43" G-Sync monitor (120hz Refresh / 144hz OC). Ultra Graphics maxed. Average FPS 90-120. Captured with DXtory app at 60fps at 50% size which is 1080p.

Hello everybody, The progress on many parts of the Battle of Normandy project is becoming more visible with each passing day. We have placed the order on the numerous ground vehicles that will be outsourced while the design document on the buildings for the new map will be finished soon. The list of the airfields and the map borders are final and the work on the map itself has begun in earnest. The list of the squadrons that will be recreated in the Battle of Normandy Career mode and its main scenario are prepared as well. Visual models of the three aircraft and the FM of the first one (P-47D-22) are in the works. Today we can show you the current state of the visual model of the second aircraft in development - C-47A transport plane which will be manned by AI. The famous WWII legend, it was the best known Allied transport plane. Built under license in many countries, its civilian versions are still in service now, in the early XXI century. This workhorse played a key role in the airborne operations of the Battle of Normandy.

Hi, pilots! And hi gasoline cowboys! Today I will tell you about changes in the new damage model (DM), which we are preparing for release in the near future. Daniel already mentioned it briefly in previous diaries, and now it is time to talk about the new DM in more details. Well, how many lances have broken in talks about broken wings in our community? That guns are “not damaging”, that the Pe-2 is “rock”, tails of Messers are “cut-glass”, the P-47 is "way too weak" and falls apart after a few hits, and many many other opinions, claims and expectations. To be honest, we ourselves have long wanted to double-check the DM of all aircraft and put things in order there, bringing them all to a common concept. As you remember, we already went into this river a couple of times when we changed the DM settings and tried to find a “middle ground” solution with strength and vulnerability. However, it was obvious for us that all these accumulated problems could be solved only systemically, and this would require a lot of time. Finally, this time has come. Firstly, from the very beginning we eliminated several fundamental limitations of the DM-core, which prevented us from moving on. This immediately “untied” our hands and allowed us to simulate combat damage to the aircraft structure much more flexibly. After that, a lot of research was conducted and several methods for calculating the damage of airframe elements from various types of ammunition were tried. The goal of this research was set quite ambitious (however, this is not the first time for us). We wanted to go away as far as possible from using the “game” settings of the DM, and use as many parameters and characteristics of the airframe from real life as possible. This work is not yet completed and right now the new DM is undergoing comprehensive testing (big thanks to our beta testers, and please take more ammo in the hangar!). Nevertheless now it’s becoming clear that the result of this whole work is exactly this one we really hoped for! The main news is that our new damage model now uses data taken from blueprints and technical documentation. Such as: the number of structural elements of one or another part of the airframe, their material and geometric dimensions. An engineer who sets up the DM no longer needs to invent anything and rely on dubious empirical data. Now everything is extremely concrete and objective: what figures from documents you put in the model, such resistance to combat damage you get. Our engineering team carefully collected all this data for all 59 aircraft in the simulator. This is a lot of work, and it took a lot of effort and time. But the result was worth it: now all the planes in the Great Battles have such a balance of vulnerability that they, with a very high probability, had in real life. In the new DM of the airframe, various types of ammunition “work” now in very different ways. Previously, their action differed in the settings of the ammunition itself. Now, the difference in calculation methods, which take into account the principle of causing structural damage in more detail, has been added. For example, armor-piercing bullets and shells make relatively small external damages on the skin commensurate with their caliber. They do not cause “large-scale” damage to the structure frame anymore, but they do hits like a point strike, hitting through a wing spar for example, or breaking a hinge of elevator or aileron. A broken spar, of course, loses its strength, that makes the wing more weak and leads to break it under the less G-load (this is not new in our DM, by the way). But now, using armor-piercing shells to make several damages of the spar in the same area, you need to hit it many times, depending on the spar dimensions and the ammo caliber. In the same way, in order to turn the skin into “rags” or to tear off the landing gear wheel, you need to shoot a rather long time to the particular part of the plane. In other words, firing armor-piercing shells will not be as effective against the airframe as before. The chance to get into the structure frame and break it is not great, and the skin is not particularly affected. Although, with enough desire and having the presence of a sufficient amount of ammunition, you can "cut" the airplanes apart with armor-piercing projectiles if their weight of fire converges and causes enough damage. Explosive bullets and high-explosive fragmentation shells are quite another matter. Only a few hits are enough (depending on the model of the projectile, its caliber, the amount of explosive) to make large holes in that part of the plane where you hit, and everything around it was cut with fragments. Managing such an aircraft will become quite difficult. It will noticeably lose its performances and become not a serious opponent in the battle. The structural frame will also receive “zonal” damage, mainly due to high-explosive impact. So now the effectiveness of this type of weapon against the airframe will be significantly higher than the effectiveness of armor-piercing shells and bullets. The skin will also get damages much faster than the structural frame. Thus, situations when wings or control surfaces fall off an airplane in a battle will arise much less often. To break the rear part of the fuselage by shooting will become very hard. Nevertheless, anything is possible. In addition, in the new DM, we eliminated the problem of inadequate damage to the airframe when firing at those parts of the aircraft that do not contain structural elements. For example, firing at an engine of a twin-engine aircraft or at its propeller spinner can no longer break the aircraft wing. Also, due to the improvement of the DM-core, the old problem of “extra” damages the airframe when the same projectile hit several non-structural collision-zones of this particular part of the airplane was eliminated. A HE shell also will no longer inflict damage on the structural elements of the airframe with its initial kinetic energy of the intact shell, we fixed it. The new damage model now correctly takes into account the type of material of the structural frame or skin. The same bullets and shells will cause different damage to duralumin, wood, or steel structural elements, making “virtual” holes of various sizes in them. It is important to mention that this work is about the calculations of damages, and the visualisation of the DM (textures and 3D-model) has remained unchanged. As you know, all our planes have three fixed levels of visualization of external damage for each part of the airframe. There are “light” damage (bullet holes and small holes from shells), “medium” damage (larger holes) and “heavy” damage (big holes on the airplane). Each of these three levels, switched in sequence. They have been painted by our artists as well as our community enthusiasts with attention to detail for each aircraft. The new calculations in the DM will now switch these three levels of visual damage, taking into account all the features of the action of various types of ammunition and the damage they cause to the skin, which I mentioned above. Thus there is some improvement of DM visualisation too. Because of this new DM fine-tuning the variety of our existing damage textures has improved. They were not properly being expressed in the past. Because of some bugs and errors, parts of the airframe would fly off or fail and a level of damage it should have shown prior to that was skipped or rarely seen. Moreover, there is another improvement of DM visualisation. The visual effects of hitting the plane (sparks, wood chips, etc.), as well as sound effects, will now depend on the part of the plane in which the projectile hit. Even when shooting at the same part, for example, on a landing gear wheel, one can see different effects of hits - sparks from the wheel’s disk (if the disk is metal) or a cloud of “debris” and “dust” from the tire. Also our online players, I think, will be pleased with the news that we found and fixed a bug of no sounds of hitting an airplane in multiplayer (dear God we hope, we hate this problem!). For sure, making such a large-scale work to improve the DM of an airframe, it was reasonable to take a look at the other areas of the DM. Firstly, we slightly changed the settings of the combat damages of an engine from various projectiles. This was only a preliminary step, and I think that in the near future we will conduct an equally thorough review of the DM for engines and various aircraft systems: control systems, fuel systems, onboard weapons, etc. Secondly, we rechecked the data for all types of bullets, shells, missiles and bombs in the game, such as armor penetration characteristics, high-explosive and fragmentation characteristics. Many tests were carried out and many inaccuracies and bugs found were corrected. As well as significantly optimized performance algorithms of DM. The results of this work will affect not only aircraft, but also all other game objects: ground vehicles (including detailed tanks), ships, buildings. The common model of high-explosive ammo was substantially improved. The penetrating explosion (inside the object) has become much more effective than the external one. A model of a "random" fragment for distant explosions was created, which takes into account the distance from the epicenter, the dimension of the target, and of course the type of ammunition. As I wrote above, at the moment the new damage model is undergoing final testing and debugging of core-settings. We are looking forward to completing this work in a couple weeks. And we really hope that the result will delight you and bring you many new positive emotions from playing the "Great Battles". This is invariably our top priority. At the end I'd like to accompany this boring long-read text with some interesting pictures. Here are the first WIP screenshots of the first Battle of Normandy aircraft - P-47D-22 Razorback. It's a big deal since this is the first time we show you something from this newest project: Yours sincerely, Andrey “Petrovich” Solomykin – Lead Engineer

Hello everybody, Previously we talked mostly about the Normandy project, but today we have something to tell you about Tank Crew. Functionality wise, at this stage we're polishing the implemented modules. The coming update 4.005 will bring a dozen important improvements for Tank Crew and the commander binoculars we showed you earlier. Later we plan to implement the indirect fire capability for self-propelled guns (by inputting the distance and traversing angle) and new quick mission types for the tank commanders. It should be also noted that a lot of the damage calculation changes that are prepared for 4.005 also affect the detailed tanks, this is important for the quality of their damage modeling. Today we have something to show you as well. Our partners from Digital Forms just sent us WIP screenshots of the two latest war machines that are being modeled for the Tank Crew project. The first one of them is German tank destroyer Sd. Kfz. 184 "Ferdinand". Here are some shots of its interior parts. This self-propelled gun is very hard to recreate because there is a little info left and we have to conduct a lot of research to clarify how its internal parts worked and looked. But the result is going to be really good - these tank destroyers which first saw action in the Kursk battle impress with their power - take a look at the comparison of their main gun with the entire T-34/76 tank - and unique design decisions: The second war machine that is in the works now is the SU-152 assault gun that was built on the KV-1s heavy tank chassis and armed with 152mm ML-20s howitzer. It was designed incredibly fast - it's hard to believe, but between the decision of the State Defence Committee that a new heavy SPG is needed and the act of putting it into service passed only 37 days and it was ready for production by the end of January 1943. There weren't a lot of these assault guns made, but their combat debut at the Kursk salient showed that the Red Army has something to counter the newest heavy German tanks in the coming battles: You can discuss the news in this thread

Dear friends, The work on the Normandy module is at an early stage, but of course, this doesn't mean you'll have to wait for new updates for too long. Right now we're testing the next update 4.005 which will include a number of improvements for the damage modeling, especially aircraft damage (but it is more general than that, the way weapons affect various objects is also changing). We did a lot of research observing the community opinion on the various aspects of the current damage system that require attention and corrected our priorities basing on it. In the near future, we plan to publish a special Dev Blog issue completely dedicated to this matter. We're also working on further AI improvements, namely on how they dogfight. Update 4.005 will include these improvements. In the future, we'll begin working on its tactical level and on how they follow the commands. 4.005 will also contain new ground vehicles - Soviet and German fuel trucks and ambulance cars. There are many other improvements across the board - for instance, you'll better hear the hits on your aircraft in multiplayer. And today, as we promised before, we can show you the first Work In Progress screenshots of the new Soviet pilot in Summer uniform:

Hello everybody, It's February already and we continue to improve the project as a whole. In the next update, we plan to significantly improve the airframe damage calculations and the explosive and fragmentation damage calculations for all objects in the sim in general. More AI improvements are in the pipeline too - for instance, further improvements for the vertical maneuvering in a dogfight. We have found and fixed another possible culprit for the missing aircraft hit sounds in multiplayer. There are more other corrections and fixes being worked on simultaneously with the full-scale work on Normandy theater that is already underway. And of course, we don't forget about the tank project. While Digital Forms studio creates the assault gun and the tank destroyer that are left, we added a long-requested feature - binoculars for the tank commanders. Other smaller, but nonetheless important improvements are on the way too. Take a look at the binoculars on these screenshots:

Hello everybody, This week we continue telling you about the new Collector Planes, now is the turn of Yak-9 and Yak-9T. Yak-9 was the most mass-produced Soviet WWII fighter, more than 14,000 were made on three factories in Moscow, Omsk and Novosibirsk in total. The production started during Autumn 1942 and peaked in 1944, but continued well after the war ended - it stopped only in 1948. They were used in combat en masse for the first time during Kursk battle in Summer 1943, but several documents reflect smaller scale combat deployments of the new fighters on other fronts of 1943, including the Battle of Kuban. Yak-9, while being an evolution of Yak-7 design, had significant changes: metallic spars instead of the wooden ones, bubble canopy with an improved field of view, forward-and backward-facing armored glass pieces. The fighter armament was standard - 12.7 mm UBS MG and 20 mm ShVAK gun. It was powered by M-105PF inline engine. We also recreate a special model of this fighter, Yak-9T, that was developed to counter enemy bombers and was also used against lightly armored targets. A powerful 37 mm NS-37 gun with 30 rounds ammo reserve required more space, so the pilot's cockpit has been moved back to make more room for it and to maintain the pitch balance. It's interesting to note that while this gun was much more powerful, the total weight increase was just 40 kg and the plane aerodynamics did not change for the worse noticeably. We'll start the work on Yak-9T immediately after finishing Yak-9 (the exterior 3D model of Yak-9 is nearly complete while its cockpit 3D model and physical model are in the works and show good progress). You can discuss the news in this thread

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

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.

Hey folks, After a few weeks spent with IL-2: Battle of Bodenplatte plus the intervening two years of development, I wanted to present to you my full review for IL-2: Battle of Bodenplatte. This latest title is more evolution than revolution that iterates on the series while giving us some legendary aircraft to fly. I think the developers made the right choice picking a late war western front scenario and I think the features and iterative evolution of the series over these last two years have made the IL-2 series stronger than ever. https://stormbirds.blog/2019/12/03/il-2-battle-of-bodenplatte-full-review/ I hope you enjoy the review and I of course welcome others to share their own take on reviewing IL-2: Battle of Bodenplatte!

Dear Friends, 1C Game Studios is proud to announce our next combat theater in the IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles series of products – Battle of Normandy! It was just over 75 years ago that the western Allies launched joint airborne and amphibious landings in the Normandy region of France. Both the preparation and execution of the invasion of Normandy had a large air component and involved many airfields in the UK and in France, especially after the Allies landed and built many Advanced Landing Grounds. Some German-built and occupied airfields were captured, repaired and re-used by the Allies as they advanced. The Allied advance towards Paris and eventually Germany was not easy and air-power was heavily employed to help facilitate a breakout. The Germans had a very difficult time keeping their hold on France and were faced with defending against not only Allied fighters, but also dedicated ground attackers, bombers and even naval units. The history of this battle makes for a lot of interesting gameplay. We hope to bring this period of the war to life like never before, just like we have done with Battle of Bodenplatte and our previous Eastern Front titles. Due to its important location, Battle of Normandy opens up additional mission scenarios and a vast timeline for great aerial warfare action utilizing many aircraft and content from our previous titles. Plus, Battle of Normandy adds a lot of content that can be utilized in our Battle of Bodenplatte environment. Content Battle of Normandy, will continue to offer a wide variety of gameplay options and also push our product forward with additional technology, features and improvements. We will of course, have an awesome plane-set that represents the era in which the title takes place. It will also include all the features that is standard for our WWII titles such as QMB, Pilot Career, Custom SP Missions and Multiplayer support. We also plan to include a Scripted Campaign focusing on a specific part of the battle. See below for additional information. Battle of Normandy Plane-set: P-51 B/C P-47D “Razorback” Typhoon Mk.Ib Mosquito F.B. Mk.VI Spifire Mk.XIV (Collector Plane) C-47 Dakota (AI) B-26 Marauder (AI) Bf-109 G-6 “Late” Fw-190 A-6 Ju-88 C-6a Me-410 Ar-234 (Collector Plane) V-1 Buzz Bomb (AI) This is what we plan to build based on our current research and desires. Of course, if for any reason one of these planes cannot be built to our satisfaction, we will find a suitable replacement. Normandy Map To support this particular Great Battle, we plan to build numerous ground vehicles, tanks, paratroopers, artillery, bunkers, objects, obstacles, buildings, airfields and ships that will bring flying such dangerous missions to life. The map of Battle of Normandy is also planned to be very satisfying in its size, scope and detail. Substantial portions of Southern England, Normandy and Calais regions will be included. We plan to have two versions of the map. There will be both pre-Invasion and post-Invasion versions. This allows us the ability to have our Pilot Career span the period preparing for the invasion and post D-Day events. It also allows us to create scenarios that are even further removed from the invasion itself and explore the 1942-43 period with some assets from our previous titles and certain Collector Planes. The gameplay possibilities are quite exciting to us and we hope to you as well. In addition to the content we plan to create, we will also continue to improve our Digital Warfare Engine and add some ‘in the works’ features that were not ready for BOBP release. This includes such items as, Air Marshal, improved MP Lobby, GUI-based Object Viewer, new rendering techniques and drop-tanks. Of course, this is on top of all the numerous small improvements, tweaks, fixes and enhancements we will continue to work on. We never stop working to improve our products and simulation engine. BON Pre-Order Available! To kick off Battle of Normandy development we have launched the Pre-Order period today! Our Pre-Order discounted price is $10 Off MSRP at $79.99 for the Premium Edition until the Pre-Order/Early Access period ends. The final MSRP at time of release of Battle of Normandy Premium Edition will be $89.99. Pre-Order Battle of Normandy Here We hope you are as excited as we are to build Battle of Normandy. When it comes to WWII, there are many interesting theaters, time periods and events that would make for an awesome product. There are also many fascinating conflicts outside of WWII that could make for a really fun combat simulation. We have considered them all. However, we have chosen Normandy as our next destination so we can explore one of the most famous battles in history and Normandy will allow for a more complete accounting of the air war over Europe (East and West) which gives you the player a more complete experience. Building Battle of Normandy also allows both the developers and the community to utilize some of our existing content to expand your gameplay options even more. We also wish you the absolute best this Holiday Season to you, your family, your friends and our dedicated development partners all over the world. We appreciate all the support and nice words you have said about our products during this most recent development cycle which was a lot of hard work. We will continue to build a better product, grow the team a bit more and listen to you, our loyal customers. We’ll see you on the beach! ….and in the sky! The IL-2 Sturmovik Team

Dear Pilots! We have a few important announcements to share with you about our latest Collector Plane Pre-Orders, BOBP and FC Steam Releases and BOBP Standard Edition Release in the Official Webstore. Hurricane Mk.II, Yak-9 and Yak-9T Pre-Order Available We are proud to announce that we have begun taking Pre-Orders for the Yak-9, Yak-9T and Hurricane Mk.II Collector Planes. The legendary British-built Hurricane came to fame during the Battle of Britain where it did the heavy lifting for the RAF in that pivotal battle. The Hurricane Mk.II series which consisted of the a,b,c and d variants was outfitted with a few different armament configurations. This included either the 12 x .303 machine guns in the wings or 4 x 20mm Hispano cannons also fitted in the wings. Many of the Mk.II’s were of the ‘Hurribomber’ variety with wing racks for 250lb or 500lb bombs. One later variant could also carry two 40mm cannons for anti-armor duty. The Hurricane was built in large numbers and the Mk.II series was sent to all corners of the war to fly and fight, including the Eastern Front where the Soviet VVS put them to good use in several sectors. Pre-Order this legendary plane today right HERE! The Yak-9 was the first model in the most mass-produced family of the WWII Soviet fighters - with its many modifications the total amount of units produced reached 16,769. The work on the new long-range recon and fighter plane began in the Yakovlev design bureau during Spring 1942. Compared to the earlier Ya-7, it had a boosted M-105PF engine, a lighter wing of composite structure, and the lower spine with a bubble canopy that significantly improved the rearward visibility. However, the armament was reduced to one nose-mounted 12.7mm UBS MG and one engine-mounted 20mm SHVAK cannon firing through the propeller hub. The mass production of the new fighter and its arrival to the front-line units begun only in 1943. In combat, the Yak-9 proved itself as very maneuverable and easy to control fighter, earning the love and respect of many Soviet pilots along with volunteer French from the Normandie Niemen fighter regiment. Pre-Order this Soviet ace-maker HERE! An important variant of the Yak-9 family was the Yak-9T (tank), which appeared in early 1943. In addition to one 12.7mm UBS MG it was armed with a 37mm engine-mounted cannon model 11P (later NS-37) instead of the usual 20mm SHVAK. The installation of such a heavy and large weapon required reinforcing the airframe in the nose section and moving the pilot cabin 40cm (1.31 ft.) rearward, which resulted in worse forward and underside visibility. Combat trials showed that Yak-9T is capable of not only engaging bombers and various ground targets, but it could also hold its own as dogfighter. Its flight characteristics were only marginally worse than Yak-9 while packing a much bigger punch. Its production started in March 1943 and ended only in June 1945 with a total of 2,748 units produced. Pre-Order your tank-killing Yak right HERE! BOBP, P-38J-25, Fw-190 D-9 and FC Steam Release Date We are thrilled to announce that Battle of Bodenplatte and Flying Circus are coming to the Steam store immediately after the Autumn Sale ends. We are aiming for December 3rd 2019 for the release. The BOBP release on Steam will be the Standard Edition with the two additional Collector Planes being sold separately. Flying Circus will include all ten aircraft, same as on our website. Each product will have a launch discount equivalent to the current Early Access discount enjoyed by customers on our website. The prices are as follows. Battle of Bodenplatte on Steam - $44.99 (Reg. $49.99) P-38J-25 Collector Plane - $17.49 (Reg. $19.99) Fw-190 D-9 Collector Plane - $17.49 (Reg. $19.99) Flying Circus on Steam - $69.99 (Reg. $79.99) Note: The launch discounts on Steam will be in effect for two weeks once launched. BOBP Standard Edition, P-38J-25 and Fw-190 D-9 IL-2 Webstore Release We are also happy to announce that we are releasing the Standard Edition of BOBP along with the P-38J-25 and Fw-190 D-9 Collector Planes in the Official Webstore on Dec. 3rd, 2019. We will also offer an equivalent Launch Discount for these three items until Dec. 17th, 2019. Early Access Discount for BOBP Premium and FC Extended in the IL-2 Webstore And finally, we have extended the Early Access discount of $10 Off for BOBP and FC in the Official Webstore until December 17th, 2019. After that date the price will rise to its standard price of $79.99 and likely remain there for an extended time. Hurry if you have not already taken advantage of this great deal before it expires! Grab your copy HERE and HERE! The Sturmovik Team