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News, put together by Stormbirds IL-2’s Lead Producer, Jason Williams, revealed plenty of new information today in a post on the IL-2 forums with plenty of far reaching details on the release order of content coming to the IL-2 series including some surprise changes to the order of new materials. There has long been speculation on the order that content will release in for IL-2: Battle of Bodenplatte (not to mention Tank Crew and Flying Circus). In the post that went up a few hours ago, we’ve learned about each of the three titles and what content is releasing and when. Me262 coming sooner than expected Though long thought to be the last aircraft to be released, 1CGS has apparently made tremendous strides in getting the required flight model changes and jet engine modeling inserted into the engine – to that point that the Me262 will now release alongside the FW190D-9. That means that the FW190D-9, already well known to be coming next, will come with the Me262. That is incredible news and a change of plans from 1CGS on release order compared to what we previously knew. Here’s the new order: Me-262 and Fw-190 D-9 P-51D B-25 (AI) Tempest Mk.V P-38J Excitingly, the P-51D is next in the line-up but it does mean that we’ll be waiting for a while yet for another two highly anticipated types: the P-38J and the Tempest Mark V. Tanks will be coming in larger packs Eight more tanks are coming in 2019 for Tank Crew – Clash at Prohorovka. While the tanks themselves have been well known for over a year now, the actual release order has been only guessed at based on what we’ve seen from the work in progress images. The next release for Tank Crew will include: M4A2 PzKpfw IV Ausf.G T-34 model 1943 PzKpfw III Ausf.M Following that, a second release will include: SU-122 PzKpfw V Ausf.D SU-152 Sd. Kfz. 184 I would suggest to those unclear about this that it is very likely that there will be large gaps in between these releases as the models for these tanks are worked on. Two additional vehicles will be offered as Collector Vehicles (like Collector Planes) and they are: GAZ-MM + 72K Sd. Kfz. 10 + Flak38 These two mobile flak vehicles will provide a whole new aspect for the IL-2 series with a new mission – firing back at aircraft attacking ground targets and tanks. One thing is certain and that is Tank Crew will be growing immensely from its currently very early access state into a complete package over the coming months. Flying Circus aircraft still to come We already knew that the Fokker D.VII and D.VIIF were coming alongside the Sopwith Dolphin. From there we were only making educated guesses, however, according to Jason Williams, the order will go as follows: Fokker D.VII and D.VIIF and Sopwith Dolphin Albatros D.Va and S.E.5a Bristol F2B and Halberstadt CL.II and CL.IIau Flying Circus has four aircraft that have helped prove and cement the concept of bringing Rise of Flight’s aircraft to the next generation of the Digital Warfare engine – letting people experience VR WWI air combat and enjoying the benefits of years of development on the series’ engine. The rest of the aircraft line-up will help further sell the concept I think – and it leaves me hopeful for a future Vol 2 follow-up too. Map release order too We now have information on the release order for the new maps coming as well. Bodenplatte Map Arras Map Prokhorovka Map Last in the order is the recently revealed Prokhorovka map which is interesting because we’ve seen this map in development while the Arras map for Flying Circus has not yet been seen in work in progress screenshots. Many months ago we saw the first images of the Bodenplatte map followed up by images of new city layouts that would help the 1CGS team quickly populate the largest (and most densely packed) map in the series’ history. Of course, the Bodenplatte map isn’t just one theme as it comes with all four seasons – summer, autumn, winter, and even a spring thaw version of the map that is something we’ve not really seen before. And those other features Sometimes I think we get so caught up about seeing our favourite aircraft or tank added that we sometimes forget that the thing that helps propel all of this along are those “other features” that are so essential to making something like the IL-2: Great Battles Series compelling. 1CGS has no shortage of that planned. Bodenplatte Career Bodenplatte Scripted Campaign Another Payware Scripted Campaign or two from 3rd Parties Tank Crew Scripted Campaigns American and British Radio Calls Air/Field Marshal Feature Object Viewer New MP Lobby (Fingers crossed, this one won’t be easy) PWCG Online Co-Op Campaign (Go chew on Pat about this) and hopefully many other tweaks and fixes etc. as we go along. Things like a Career we’ve come to expect from the 1CGS team who delivered that feature in March of 2018 and which has, in my mind at least, transformed the single player experience. Other things like the Air Field Marshal and a new Multiplayer Lobby have the potential to be game changing for the multiplayer experience. We’ve got a lot to look forward to in the IL-2 series this year and I think we’re in for another transformative year for IL-2: Great Battles. And who knows… 1CGS always has a few surprises rolled up their sleeves. Original source https://stormbirds.blog/2019/01/15/new-2019-il-2-great-battles-content-release-info/

Hello everybody, So, this is the end of 2018. It was a very interesting year for us, it brought many new, but long-awaited changes and improvements to the project. Almost 500 points were listed in the update changelists in total and there were more minor, unlisted ones which are impossible to count. All this combined upped the quality of the sim to a new level. And right now we continue the development of our three Early Access projects: Battle of Bodenplatte, Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka and Flying Circus Volume 1. For the main project, Bodenplatte, we're working on several new aircraft at once. Having completed the implementation of the air compressibility and significant improvements to the damage model (they are already in the public version of the sim), our Lead Engineer is creating the physical model of the jet engine for Me 262. Of course, this work opens up the possibility to widen our aircraft pool in the future. Our partner Ugra Media makes the new WWI aircraft for Flying Circus - Fokker D.VII, Fokker D.VIIF and Sopwith Dolphin. They'll start the work on the Arras area map (1918) soon. The new tanks for Tank Crew that are being made by our partner Digital Forms are more than half complete already: M4A2, T-34 mod. 1943, PzKpfw IV Ausf.G and PzKpfw III Ausf.M. Meanwhile, we're making the map of the southern part of the Kursk salient ourselves. Soon we'll be able to tell you more about the tank commander and tank platoon commander functionality which will be the backbone of Tank Crew gameplay. 3D models of Soviet and German crewmembers are ready and will be added to the sim as soon as their animations are complete. The scenarios for two, German and Soviet, tank campaigns are ready, so soon we'll start to make the missions themselves. The detailed buildings tech that includes higher detailed 3D models and the physics of their destruction is nearly finished and we had a bit of time to make this short video for you: To complete this Dev Diary, we'd like to show you some screenshots. First, here is the finished Fw 190 D-9 cockpit. Also, the community enthusiast Martin =ICDP= Catney upped default and official P-47 skins to 4K quality: Our team wishes you Happy New Year and Merry Christmas. We wish you happiness and fulfillment of all your dreams in 2019! You can discuss the news in this thread

Update 3.009 Dear friends, Trying to squeeze in more functionality, new content, improvements and additions for you before the holidays, we've prepared another update 3.009. This time, the main feature of this update is the new content: Collector Plane, famous Soviet light bomber U-2VS. At the moment it can be used in QMB and multiplayer modes, but we'll add new Career mission types especially for it (Stalingrad and Kuban ToWs) next month. There are two new scripted campaigns available. One made by =BlackSix= happens at Stalingrad after 'Blazing Steppe' and continues the story of the German pilot that started in '10 Days of Autumn' campaign, while another made by =Gambit21= is dedicated to A-20 squadron operating in the skies of Kuban. As usual, the update also brings numerous improvements and additions, upping the overall quality of the sim: 1. New Collector Plane U-2VS; 2. New scenario campaign 'Fortress on the Volga' by Alexander =BlackSix= Timoshkov; 3. New scenario campaign 'Havoc over the Kuban' by =Gambit21=; 4. New Career mission "Troop concentration night bombing strike"; 5. New Career mission "Enemy airfield night bombing strike"; 6. New Career mission "Railway hub night bombing strike"; 7. New Career mission "Supply dump night bombing strike"; 8. New Career mission "River crossing night bombing strike"; 9. Our community enthusiast =BlackHellHound1= remade all outer textures of Bf 109 F-2 (main texture, bump, specular, damage) and made historically accurate skins for it in 4К; 10. Three new skins for Fokker Dr.I; 11. Two new skins for SPAD 13.C1; 12. The delay, when a new player connects to a server, has been minimized for other players; 13. Projectile hits at turret gunners now calculated properly (they weren't counted properly before); 14. 76 mm APHE rounds won't erroneously damage the internal components without penetrating the armor; 15. P-47D-28 skin damage has been corrected (increased); 16. Airfields surface on Velikiye Luki map has been flattened; 17. It is now possible to lean to the gunsight closer than before on all aircraft; 18. Visual propeller damage corrected on Ju-52 (previously damaging the right propeller would visually damage the left one); 19. Inability to start a new Career from an old one (lack of available units) has been fixed; 20. After spending all ammo of one kind in a tank the interface won't erroneously show the full ammo; 21. Escape menu works correctly even if there are no vehicles in the mission; 22. Wrong waypoint labels corrected in scenario campaigns; 23. Mission briefings text rendering corrected in scenario campaigns; 24. The random mirroring issue of a pilot portrait in Career has been fixed; 25. Creating new Career in Stalingrad ToW has been fixed for certain units; 26. An issue of jumping reflections in the water caused by mirrors has been fixed; 27. Vehicle pathfinding issue that could cause slow performance loss has been fixed; 28. Formation movement AI on land and water has been improved - the leader won't slow down if it is possible; 29. Collision detection routine improved (the detailed tanks shouldn't twitch in certain situations anymore); 30. Formation movement has been improved overall; 31. The bug that caused AI pilots to miss ground targets has been fixed; 32. AI checks the altitude in a downward spiral maneuver; 33. Bombs and rockets equipped AIs should correctly engage ground targets in QMB; 34. Modifier object: it is now possible to assign negative values to a counter. Both the current value and trigger threshold can be set for a timer; 35. Timer: when a new trigger signal is received, the timer resets; 36. Modifier and timer: parameter index 0 now controls the current timer value while parameter index 1 controls the timer threshold; 37. Modifier and timer: timer can be reset and stopped by parameter index 0 and value -1; 38. Fw 190 A-8: canopy raindrops added for Sturmjager modification; 39. Fw 190 A-8: windshield cleaner corrected for Sturmjager modification ; 40. Fw 190 A-8: too dark materials corrected at some places; 41. Fw 190 A-8: rocket control box decreased in size; 42. Fw 190 A-8: pilot model holds the control stick; 43. Bf 109 G-14: pilot model holds the control stick. Please discuss the update in this thread.

Update 3.008 Dear friends, We spent the two weeks since the previous release on intensive work on important aspects of the project. In the not-too-distant future, we'll be adding some huge new features for our Early Access titles, so we've decided to take some time and concentrate on several smaller, but important and long-awaited improvements and create this update. The main feature of this release is revised airframe damage modeling - an important part of the damage system. Airframe damage system was completely overhauled to take into account additional parameters. The damage modeling as a whole was tuned and improved and bugs fixed - you can read the entire list below. There is large amount of changes and improvements in aircraft systems, their model and the AI. We added the new British pilot model to the sim and all Bodenplatte and Flying Circus pilots can now take their oxygen masks and goggles on and off. Multiplayer improvements also continue since the last version too. There are new performance optimizations for sea maps. Users who encountered stutters using Microsoft Force Feedback joysticks and TrackIR now have an option to tune FFB effect polling frequency using the additional setting in startup.cfg file. For mission designers we added a way to control Timer and Counter values dynamically. To do this, there are two new logical objects Modifier: Add Val and Modifier: Set Val. We plan to widely use them to alter various triggers in the future, but at the moment they can be used for: - modifying a Timer trigger value. A modifier can set, add or substract the time value in a timer by using the 0 index of the controllable value and 1-st field of the value vector. When set to a negative value, the time counter is reset and the timer stops until the next input. For example, this can be used to reset and stop a timer in a mission, delaying some events tied to it. - modifying a Counter trigger value and threshold (initiall set in a mission). To alter a Counter value, use the 0 index of the controllable value or alter Counter threshold using the 1-st index. For example, a certain mission event like a premature elimination of some targets can lower the threshold of a Counter to make sure the others are eliminated at the moment the player arrives to the waypoint. Main features: 1. Late war British pilot added to Spitfire Mk.IXe; 2. New control elements added to mission logic (useful for mission designers): "Modifier: Add Val" and "Modifier: Set Val". They can alter the values of other logical elements - Counter and Timer (when used with a Timer object, Set Val can input a negative value to reset and stop a Timer); 3. Force Feedback joystick owners who experience stutters can alter the new value in startup.cfg that governs the maximum frequency of FFB effects polling to try to eliminate them (update_freq parameter in [KEY = force_feedback] section can be set to a value from 0.5 Hz to 10 Hz, example: update_freq = 10.0); 4. Additional renderer optimizations for sea maps (Kuban, Bodenplatte in the future) allowed to boost performance on such maps even more; 5. AA searchlights now can follow Attack Area command which can be used to limit their search area and/or use them as visible beacons (useful for mission designers); 6. Multiplayer: 'allow other players to man stations' option now saved; 7. Multiplayer: various issues like statistics 'freezing', inability to start a mission, kill messages disappearing were fixed for high-load servers; 8. Multiplayer: missing AP hit sound effects and some other sounds restored; 9. A rare crash that could happen in high load situations like joint air-ground engagements with many units has been fixed; 10. keep_binary_log = 0 option in startup.cfg correctly removes binary logs from the game folder on exit; 11. Career: mission area correctly set while escorting transport planes in Stalingrad TOW; 12. Incorrect navigational markers won't be shown in a mission without player aircraft; Damage model improvements: 13. P-47D-28, Yak-7b and Spitfire Mk.IXe wings made less fragile when damaged; 14. Aileron control rods correctly damaged when Yak-7b, P-39L-1 or P-47 wing is damaged; 15. An overdone HE explosion effect on the primary structure of an aircraft has been reduced. 16. Damage calculations of the airframe take a hit angle into account; 17. Damage from direct hits and explosions on the skin and control rods has been tuned; 18. Minor visual damage correctly appears after a first hit; 19. The visual damage of a cockpit glass correctly appears after a first hit there; 20. Ju-52 instruments can be damaged now; 21. Aircraft primary structure won't erroneously receive double damage in case of hits on the internal components like fuel tanks, engine, radiators, etc.); 22. Airframe sturdiness tuned for all aircraft; 23. Armor of the internal components corrected whenever it was wrong; 24. P-47D-28 wing damage corrected (wing loss is preceded with a wing crack); 25. A weapon won't fire if its ammo supply was lost with a wing part; 26. Fuel tank fire probability corrected for Flying Circus aircraft; 27. Ammo detonation effects differ visually depending on the explosion power; Aircraft improvements: 28. Bodenplatte pilots put on and remove oxygen mask when needed; 29. Bodenplatte and Flying Circus pilots put off their goggles on parking; 30. Ignition box cover animated on Pe-2 series 35; 31. CB panel cover animation corrected on Fw-190 A3/A5/A8; 32. Gunner folding seat animation corrected on Ju-88; 33. Bendix course detectors animations corrected; 34. Dead pilot model position corrected on Pfalz D.IIIa; 35. Bf 109 G-2 cockpit lamp corrected; 36. P-47D-28 visual wing crack corrected; 37. Visible projectiles at high aircraft speed appear correctly; 38. MK-108 fire sound corrected on Bf 109 K-4; 39. Fuel tank fire effect corrected on Flying Circus planes; 40. Ejected cartridges correctly appear in multiplayer; 41. The maximum number of ejected cartridges corrected based on real time instead of a simulated one; 42. In multiplayer, all visible projectiles appear from gun muzzles instead of aircraft center; 43. Visible gun convergence corrected in multiplayer; 44. The delay between pushing the fire trigger and experiencing the gunfire FFB effect has been reduced. 45. Pfalz D.IIIa performance corrected; 46. Sopwith Camel description corrected; AI improvements: 47. AI pilots correctly perform Chandelle maneuver; 48. WWI AI pilots won't 'stuck' flying forward; 49. AI pilots evade ground even better; 50. Conditions for attempting vertical maneuvers corrected for all fighters; 51. AI pilots will bail out of aircraft with cracked wings or fuselage instead of trying to fight; 52. WWI AI pilots open fire sooner; 53. WWI AI pilots maneuver more aggressively; GUI changes: 54. Starting altitude won't reset in QMB; 55. Flare gun indicator won't be shown after restarting a mission in external view; 56. Flight frequency option in Career corrected; 57. The wrong message about timescale won't be shown on mission end; 58. Interface music can be turned on when interface sounds are turned off; 59. Airfields are correctly shown after changing the current chapter in Career; 60. Previously selected modifications correctly shown in QMB. Please discuss the update in this thread.

Original Message is from ShamrockOneFive posted over at Il2 Forums. It was posted in April, but right now it is a good time to reread it and maybe, buy it as an xmas gift for yourself Hey folks, I spent some serious time with IL-2: Battle of Kuban and particularly with patch 3.001 before I started to write my review. I decided I wanted to write a review for new players coming in or old players that were used to IL-2: 1946 so that they would have an idea of what this series is all about. I didn't want to hide the few warts that the series still has but I also wanted to put them in context of all of the great things that it does so well. At a little over 4,500 words I think I've captured nearly all of my main thoughts and feelings on the recent final release of the title and I try and cover as much ground as possible. This review isn't so much for you guys as it is for new players coming in. In short, I think IL-2: Battle of Kuban is a crowning achievement for 1CGS and one that points towards a very bright future for the series. https://stormbirds.blog/2018/04/11/il-2-battle-of-kuban-in-depth-review/ Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the review! https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/35878-il-2-battle-of-kuban-in-depth-review/

Hello everybody, Today we'd like to dedicate our Dev Blog to the tank part of our sim. We attempt not only to create the authentic visual models of the tanks and model their movement, armament, and damage realistically. We also want to create an interesting gameplay, based on historical events, as usual, that will not only entertain you for some time but let you experience what a real tank warfare in a meeting engagement situation was like. The air part of our sim started at the great battle of WWII that changed its course and the course of world history, the Battle of Stalingrad. Following this principle, we start the tank part with one of the key tank battles on the Eastern front that decided the entire 1943 campaign - Prokhorovka. Beginning the campaign development for "Tank Crew – Clash at Prokhorovka" we faced the fact that a usual, common for flight sims approach just won't work - its unlikely that any single tank crew in July 1943 survived several large-scale engagements in a row (especially a Soviet one) and participated in all key points of the large Prokhorovka battle we'd like to reconstruct in our scenarios. Therefore we have decided not to link the scenarios with a personal story of one of the tank crewmen, but concentrate on creating a coherent story about July 6 -17 engagements. The mission briefings will include first-person remarks, but there will be several plot lines. This will allow you to experience the battle of Prokhorovka from several locations and command 2-3 different combat vehicles in the course of one campaign. "Breaking point" (tentative title) Soviet campaign This campaign will be dedicated to the heroic deed of Soviet tankmen of Rotmistrov 5th Guards Tank Army that disrupted the German offensive at the center of the southern part of the Kursk salient at the cost of their lives. The massive, but poorly prepared counterblow on July 12th stopped the German advance and eventually pushed them back to their initial positions. The later missions of the campaign will cover the subsequent, less known stage of the battle of Kursk on July 13th - 15th at the interfluve of Donets river. Timeframe: July 6th - 15th, 1943. Controllable tanks: T-34-76 mod. 1943, KV-1s Duration: 10 missions Average playing time: 5 hours "Last chance" (tentative title) German campaign This campaign will tell about the operations of the tank units of Army Group South during Operation Citadel. Having breached two army defense lines, German forces reached Prokhorovka as early as at the evening of July 6th and were close to capturing this key area. However, instead of continuing their advance they were forced to defend against numerous Soviet counterstrikes that culminated in the massive battle on July 12th. The second part of the campaign will be dedicated to German attempts to encircle and destroy Soviet 48th Corps at interfluve of Donets river and the forced retreat of the German 2nd Tank Corps to initial positions when the entire offensive failed. Timeframe: July 6th - 17th, 1943. Controllable tanks: PzKpfw III Ausf.M, PzKpfw IV Ausf.G, PzKpfw VI Ausf.H1 "Tiger" Duration: 10 missions Average playing time: 5 hours To make our feature about Tank Crew – Clash at Prokhorovka more visual, we can show you several WIP screenshots of the new tanks made by our partners - Digital Forms. They are planned to be released in Early Access early next year: - T-34-76 mod. 1943 produced by Nizhny Tagyl tank factory #183 in name of Communist International ("Uralvagonzavod") and - Panzerkampfwagen IV (Sd.Kfz.161) Asufuehrung G produced by Nibelungenwerke of St. Valentin To accompany them, here are WIP screenshots of Prokhorovka map being developed by our mapping team. The new landscape scaling tech has been developed specially for this map - by reducing the total size of the map from 400x400 km to 100x100km we were able to make its heightmap 16 times more detailed. The detailed area of the Prokhorovka map is still in development, but other parts of this map are more polished. We'd like to note that it is suitable not only for tank engagements, but also for aerial ones and, of course, for joint multiplayer battles that unfold both on the ground and in the air simultaneously. To illustrate this, today we can show you the views of Belgorod that is also there: Aaand we are delighted to present you the finished tankmen models. We still need to animate an each crew member in each player controllable tank in the sim, but now you can already see how they will look: You can discuss the news in this thread

Update 3.007 Dear friends, We just published another IL-2 Sturmovik update - 3.007. In this update we release 4 new aircraft: P-47D-28 and Bf 109 K-4 for Bodenplatte and Sopwith Camel and Pfalz D.IIIa for Flying Circus. But of course, these planes aren't the only addition - the two months weren't spent in vain and we have added numerous improvements to the sim. First, as announced before, we're adding new mission types to the Career mode. Second, there are many fixes that should make the multiplayer experience smoother. Third, important changes in the game stats adjust the kill registering logic. Fourth, the damage modeling of simple AI controlled vehicles is much more detailed now. Fifth, FM now takes into account the compress-ability of the air at high speeds - this complex modeling was required for late war aircraft, but it works for any plane in our sim. Sixth, pilot AI has been improved. There are other numerous changes in graphics, user interface, physics and aircraft systems, etc. Some words on the new aerodynamics feature presented in this new update: Our physics engine now includes the aerodynamic effect of air compress-ability at high Mach numbers. Our lead engineer has done the hard work of adding this phenomenon to the simulation so we take another step forward in our physics engine. As it is well known, when an aircraft’s speed approaches the speed of sound, many aerodynamic characteristics change; the drag increases a lot, the lift changes in a complicated way, the center of pressure and the aerodynamic center moves backwards. All of these factors affect the maneuverability, the stability and control-ability of the aircraft. When this happens the available G-load factor goes down, the turn rate decreases while the radius of trajectory does up and when pulling hard the airplane enters a stall earlier. Some airplanes have a tendency to become unrecoverable while in a dive at extremely high speed. As we plan to have high-speed piston and jet airplanes in Bodenplatte we could not ignore this aerodynamic effect. However, all airplanes in the Great Battles series now has this feature. So, dog-fighting at high altitude and high speed is getting another step closer to reality You can read the whole list of 100+ improvements that come with 3.007 below: Main features: 1. P-47D-28 "Jug" available to all Bodenplatte owners; 2. Bf 109 K-4 "Kurfürst" available to all Bodenplatte owners; 3. Sopwith Camel available to all Flying Circus Vol. 1 owners; 4. Pfalz D.IIIa available to all Flying Circus Vol. 1 owners; 5. New mission type for Career mode: Cargo paradrop for Ju-52/3mg4e; 6. New mission type for Career mode: Special squad paradrop for Ju-52/3mg4e; 7. New mission type for Career mode: Free Hunt for fighter planes; 8. Major FM change: air compressibility at high speeds now modeled; 9. New late war Luftwaffe pilot models added to Bf 109 G-14 and Fw 190 A-8; 10. Multiplayer: a kill will be awarded immediately only if an enemy pilot was killed, bailed out or his aircraft crumbled; 11. Multiplayer: a kill won't be awarded if a pilot manages to return and land at a friendly airfield (with the exception of point 12, see below); 12. In mission statistics, an aircraft will be scrapped only if its fuselage or a wing at its base has been ruptured; 13. New, more detailed damage modeling is used for simple (AI controlled) vehicles - it is now possible to damage their engines, wheels or tracks, crew and ammo rack; Multiplayer changes: 14. Engine sounds of other players planes won't randomly disappear; 15. Gunfire sounds of other players planes won't randomly disappear; 16. Net traffic generated by multiplayer clients has been optimized, which should improve the performance of multiplayer servers; 17. Other players position prediction routine has been optimized, resulting in a smoother multiplayer experience; 18. The delay between a player pushing the fire button and other players actually seeing his aircraft fire has been minimized to the best possible extent; 19. Other players gun convergence displayed correctly; 20. APHE and HEAT rounds fired by other players won't generate a double sound effect; 21. Server ping values appear correctly in the server list; 22. The coalition flag in the game world switches correctly; 23. Binary mission logs are now saved correctly (needed for mission stats debugging); 24. An exploit linked to navigation markers on the fullscreen map has been fixed; 25. Right Ju-52 engine animation fixed; 26. AA searchlights function correctly in multiplayer; Visual changes: 27. FPS in forest areas with lots of trees visible has been improved a lot thanks to the tree rendering optimization; 28. Aerobatics smoke effect has been improved; 29. Wrong 'black debris' effect issue while hitting enemy planes has been addressed; 30. Distant forests won't appear too white in morning or evening fog; 31. Water drops now appear on the pilot goggles in VR; 32. Water drops on windshield have been removed during winter (unrealistic); 33. Oil drops from the damaged engine will appear on the pilot goggles only if he peeks out around the windshield; 34. Engine start effect has been improved; 35. Flying Circus aircraft now has the new fire and leak effects like the rest; 36. Mission designers can place colored smoke signals in custom missions; 37. Too subtle sun glare effect has been improved on the Moscow winter map; GUI changes: 38. Tank Crew commands now have their own input settings section; 39. Starting altitude shouldn't reset in QMB; 40. Wrong aircraft type issue in QMB has been fixed; 41. Air turbulence and wind direction randomness work correctly in QMB; 42. Wind direction randomness near the ground works correctly in QMB; 43. Precipitations during bad weather work correctly in QMB once again; 44. Mission track records will be named correctly; 45. Mouse pointer won't disappear after opening Settings menu while replaying a track record; 46. GUI shouldn't flash after alt-tabbing anymore; 47. With Imperial units selected in settings, the atmospheric pressure is indicated in mm Hg in Career missions forecast; 48. Speed tooltip appears correctly while hovering the mouse cursor over a waypoint; 49. Career interface won't glitch after exiting a Career briefing using the top navigation buttons; 50. Chat messages delay in singleplayer has been corrected; 51. A possible crash bug tied to changing settings during a mission has been fixed; 52. Technochat has been optimized, making the game smoother in many situations; 53. Technochat tips have been moved to the main chat area; FM and instruments changes: 54. Engine oil in case of a leak or engine failure won't be splattered on the windshield or pilot goggles for P-39; 55. Aircraft fuel tanks may detonate (the probability depends on the amount of fuel left); 56. Fuel tank explosion correctly nullifies the fuel reserve; 57. You need a greater sideslip motion to put off the fire on Flying Circus aircraft; 58. Collimator reticles look better; 59. Revi 16B sight reticle made more authentic (Bf 109 G-14 and Fw 190 A-8; 60. In addition to critical aircraft damage or loss of controls on one axis (lateral or longitudinal) the tip suggesting to bail out will appear in the following additional cases: - no fuel left, - engine damage makes a horizontal flight impossible, - fire on board; 61. Artificial engine assistant now uses different mixture control lever positions: - He-111 H6/H16: decreased from 10 to 5 positions, - Hs-129 B2: increased from 4 to 5 positions, - Spitfire Mk.VB: decreased from 3 to 2 positions, - Spitfire Mk.IXe: decreased from 4 to 2 positions; 62. Artificial engine assistant now uses less different cowl flaps positions on Fw-190 A5 and А8 (3 instead of 5, like on other aircraft); 63. Radio direction finders corrected for all aircraft (inverted); 64. An error in aerodynamic momentum calculations while pushing the Bf-109 G14 rudder to the left has been corrected; 65. Spitfire Mk.VB and Mk.IXe coolant boiling temperature increased from 115°С to 140°С (MSL) and for MiG-3 increased from 115°С to 120°С (MSL); 66. Different mixture error that appeared while controlling Bf-110 G2 left and right engine throttles separately and that caused the power difference between them has been fixed; 67. Bailing out tip added for Fokker Dr.1; 68. Indication errors corrected in Fokker Dr.I fuel and speed gauges; 69. Fokker Dr.I and SPAD 13.C1 descriptions corrected; 70. Bomb lever delay fixed on SPAD 13.C1; 71. The default amount of fuel in GUI corrected for different aircraft; 72. All FLying Circus airplanes ground collision made more detailed; 73. Fokker Dr.I and SPAD 13.C1 visual damage appearance corrected; 74. SPAD 13.C1: erroneous speed, water temperature and fuel tank pressure readings corrected; 75. SPAD 13.C1: upper wing fuel tank leak and fire effects added; 76. SPAD 13.C1: bombs can be dropped only one after another; 77. Oil leak effect added to all Flying Circus planes; AI changes: 78. AI fighters, AA guns, etc. will continue to engage a target even if is criticaly damaged; 79. AI planes pursuing a target evade the ground better; 80. AI wingmen following the leader evade the ground better; 81. AI pilots check their speed and altitude before attempting Split-S and downward spiral maneuvers; 82. AI maneuver more efficiently after passing each other in a dogfight; 83. AI wingmen keep formation a bit better; 84. AI pilots take off correctly from Nizhny Balikley airfield in Stalingrad Career; 85. Turrets aiming at enemy planes corrected; 86. AIs controlling detailed (Tank Crew) tanks takes into account the different ballistics of various ammo types; 87. AIs aim the tank guns better; Other changes: 88. Pilots bailing out from Flying Circus planes are animated better; 89. IL-2 mod. 1943 gunner bails out correctly; 90. Sound volume balance between engine and wind sound has been adjusted; 91. The issue when the first login attempt resulted in failure message has been addressed; 92. Burning fuel tanks sound added; 93. Mouse control pointer (in mouse control mode) won't disappear if aircraft suffers heavy damage; 94. MG fire heard from inside of a tank has been made different and more realistic; 95. Blazing Steppe campaign: secondary task labels removed, scenarios #3, 7 and 12 containing Ju 87 groups have been corrected; 96. Steam locomotive explosion power has been reduced; 97. Destroyed Pz 38t and Marder III H burn correctly; 98. Iron sights textures won't blink on IL-2 mod. 1943; 99. Water drops correctly appear on all He 111 H-6 windows; 100. Ju 52/3mg4e gauge dials made clearer; 101. Rogue (enemy) Pe-2 won't appear while playing for USSR after January 16th in Stalingrad Career. Please discuss the update in this thread.

Hello everybody, The last month of Autumn has begun and we're preparing the next update for our three projects. We plan to release it in two weeks (doh!) or so and today we'll tell you about the upcoming additions. Of course, the stars of the show are FOUR new aircraft, two for Bodenplatte and two for Flying Circus. USAF P-47D-28 Thunderbolt is one of the biggest, powerful and menacing single-engine fighters of WWII. Its radial 18-cylinder engine with turbocharger, intercooler and water injection boost system enables this monster to reach 700 km/h at 7000 m altitude. Eight 12.7 mm M2.50 Browning machine guns with 3400 rounds total give a new meaning to the phrase 'spray and pray'. In addition, for strike missions, this fighter can be equipped with six unguided rockets and up to three 500 and 1000 pound bombs (225 and 455 kg). Being a late war aircraft, it has many interesting design peculiarities you'll be able to experience in the near future. Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109 K-4 "Kurfürst" is a glaring example of the inconsistency of the late war aircraft production in the Third Reich. This plane combines the newest weapon and engine technologies with maximum possible simplification and cost-cutting of the secondary systems. Its engines are a pinnacle of DB-605 line - standard DB-605 DB with water-methanol injection system and DB-605 DC with higher boost and power - and both of them will be available in our sim. Armed with 30 mm MK-108 gun and 13 mm MG-131 machine guns, it could also carry 250 or 500 kg bombs for strike missions (this is the first Bf 109 modification in our project that can carry a 500 kg bomb). It is interesting to note that this modification could retract its tailwheel to reach higher speeds - up to 715 km/h at 6200 m. Royal Air Force Sopwith Camel was one of the mainstay fighters of World War I. It was a contradictory machine, but in the right hands, it could face any foe. Carrying 168 liters of fuel (a very big reserve for its time), it could go on long patrols. This amount of fuel hampered its performance and made it hard to control and inert in a dogfight while full, but with about a half of fuel spent, the aircraft got a second breath and its horizontal and vertical maneuverability became on par with the best fighters of that time. Its two 7.69 Vickers Mk.I machine guns (late modification with the rate of fire increased to 750 instead of 500 and 745 m/s muzzle speed) were linked belt fed instead of fabric ones, reducing the misfire chance. It could also carry four 20 lb Cooper bombs. The Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte Pfalz D.IIIa was a second line fighter mainly used for escorting bombers and attacking the enemy balloons. It had very simple cockpit instruments because of the cost-cutting. Its one-and-a-half plane airframe (a design previously adopted by the French) was sturdy enough to sustain higher loads during sharp turns and dives. Its armament is standard for a late WWI German aircraft - two 7.92 mm Luftgekühltes Maschinengewehr LMG 08/15 (based on the original design of Hiram Maxim) with 650 RPM rate of fire and muzzle speed of 825 m/s, fabric belt fed. This fighter had an advantage of an excellent field of view, especially in the upper hemisphere. For Tank Crew - Battle of Prokhorovka project we plan to release 4 new player controllable tanks and the map of the southern part of the Kursk salient, but it will happen early next year. However, you'll see the new functionality being developed for this project earlier - it should be noted it will benefit not only the tankers but pilots as well. For instance, in the coming update, you'll experience the higher fidelity damage modeling for AI controllable ground objects such as trucks and tanks. Before, there was no difference where you hit a truck, but in the new system, each 'simple' vehicle has many types of simulated parts - wheels or trucks, engine, ammo rack, fuel tanks, driver, turret, main gun. By hitting a simple AI vehicle at these parts you can immobilize it or render it inoperable by damaging a turret or main gun if any. Statistics system will consider it destroyed if its ammo, explosive cargo or fuel tanks detonated or its crew was killed or its engine was destroyed or its suspension has been rendered inoperable (at least two wheels or tracks damaged). All this not only makes the tank missions more interesting but also increases the simulation accuracy of the ground attack missions for pilots. We also develop two scenario campaigns (USSR and Germany) for Tank Crew, each one containing 10 missions set in the second week of July 1943 near Prokhorovka. Another important change in the upcoming update is the adjusted logic used for scoring a kill. Previously, an aircraft was considered destroyed and a kill was awarded for it if it was damaged enough to prevent it from continuing the mission (for example, heavy damage of the controls, no fuel left, engine damage). Now, the 'aircraft lost' and 'kill awarded' events will be separated and their logic will be adjusted. An aircraft will be considered lost if its fuselage or wing at the base is broken, its pilot is killed or ejected. The victory, on the other hand, will be awarded if the scored hits were followed by the mission exit or disconnect in multiplayer, 'aircraft lost' event or the landing far from an allied airfield. Thus we motivate multiplayer players to try to reach a friendly airfield even if their aircraft is heavily damaged - even a hard landing there (as long as you don't break a wing at its base or fuselage) won't count your aircraft as lost and your enemy won't get the kill. We'll have other multiplayer improvements in the coming update as well: we have managed to find a way to synchronize weapon fire events on different multiplayer clients better, minimizing the total time of the delay to the total client-server-client ping and optimize the net delay compensation routines for transmitting aircraft positions and orientations. Server ping calculations will be also corrected - this is required for further improvements in the multiplayer lobby. Of course, we never forget about the singleplayer experience too - in the same update, we'll add 2-3 new mission types for Career mode, including Cargo airdrop and Free hunt. You can discuss the news in this thread

Dear Pilots, I am wrapping up another trip to our Moscow studio where we discussed the current successes and future challenges that face our team and IL-2 Great Battles series. As always, we have a strong team and the will to keep powering on pushing the limits of ourselves and our products. Battle of Bodenplatte is coming along nicely along with the PO-2 which we will officially rename the U-2 to be more historically correct. This cool little bi-plane is finally nearing the final stage. Matter of fact, we had a real pilot who has experience flying an actual U-2 test our FM. He really liked it and gave us some small pointers that we will incorporate into the FM. Additionally, Flying Circus work continues as does Tank Crew work including tank platoon commands and the more complex damageable buildings for the Prokhorovka map. Before I catch my flight back to the U.S. here are some pics of the skins that will ship with the P-47 D-28 “Jug” and the updated faces of our American USAAF pilot and our WWI Entente pilots. Per your feedback we have made them look younger. Quite a rugged, good looking fellow custom fit for the part. See you soon when I’m back in America. Jason P.S. Some of the textures on the ordinance is not finished yet so don't panic. You can discuss the news in this thread.

Dear Pilots, Today we are launching our Autumn Sale on Steam and our IL-2 and ROF websites! The sale will run from Monday Oct. 22nd (10:00 PST) through Oct 29th (10:00 PST). https://il2sturmovik.com/store/battle-of-stalingrad/ The Discounts are as follows: -66% OFF IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad (Premium and Standard) -66% OFF IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Moscow (Premium and Standard) -25% OFF IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Kuban (Premium and Standard) -30% OFF Collector Planes (Bf 109 G-6, Hs 129 B-2, La-5FN (Series 2), Spitfire Mk.VB) -40% OFF Collector Planes (Ju-52 and Yak-1B) -50% OFF Collector Planes (FW-190 A-3, La-5 (Series 8), MC.202 Series VIII, P-40E-1) -50% OFF Scripted Campaigns (10 Days of Autumn and Blazing Steppe) -66% OFF all ROF content https://riseofflight.com/store/

Hello Everybody, This week our Executive Producer, Jason Williams, paid a visit to our Moscow studio. Of course, we have many discussions about potential ways of improving the project in the near future and more distant plans. We can't disclose what we're discussing yet, but when we'll be able to tell you we're sure you'll be surprised and amused by the new prospects. Meanwhile, we continue our current work and can show you some new WIP screenshots. First, the new late WWII German pilot for Bodenplatte: Second, here are the first in-game Pfalz D.IIIa cockpit shots: And third, here is a sneak peek from our partners, Digital Forms - these images show the 3D models of the PzKpfw IV Ausf.G and M4A2 "Sherman" powertrains: You can discuss the news in this thread

Hello everybody, Today's Dev Blog will be a short one - we have a lot of work to do at the moment. Right now we're finishing five aircraft: Bf 109 K-4 and P-47D-28 for Bodenplatte, Pfalz D.IIIa and Sopwith Camel for Flying Circus and Po-2VS Collectors Plane. Two maps, Prokhorovka map (the map of the Southern part of the Kursk salient, to be correct) for Tank Crew and Western Europe map for Bodenplatte are also shaping up nicely. The engineer department continues their work on near-sonic aerodynamics required for late WWII aircraft. The interface is also being worked on - Marschal interface for multiplayer and tank (platoon) commander for Tank Crew. Speaking of more imminent changes, we plan to improve the in-game statistics and 'who gets the kill' logic in the next update. Today we can show you the in-game shots of Fw-190 D-9 Collector Plane: You can discuss the news in this thread

Hello everybody, We're another week closer to our target. We've made good progress in Bodenplatte development - Koln (Cologne), Brussels and Charleroi buildings are already placed on the map. The size of the cities and their number required to invent and successfully implement the new development approach. It allows recreating the basic city layout without compromising the schedule and visual quality. Here are some screens: It should be noted that Flying Circus map and its cities will be created in the same way, so Lille and Amiens would look like this as well. Meanwhile, our development partners for Flying Circus project were also busy and today we can show you the first in-game screenshots of the fourth WWI aircraft that will be released, German fighter Pfalz D.IIIa. Both Pfalz D.IIIa and Sopwith Camel are already working in the game engine and we're waiting for their 3D models and cockpit texturing to be finished. You can discuss the news in this thread

Hello everybody, Only two days have passed since the release of the big update 3.006, but the work continues according to the plan and today we can show you the new things to come for all three of our projects. First, detailed village buildings for Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka are nearly finished (they will be placed in the area of the map where the most important engagements took place). The work on the tank campaigns scenarios is underway. Today we present you the almost final look of these buildings and later we'll show you the new tech we'll be using to simulate their partial destruction. Nearly all the latest tech available in our project have been used to create them: Another neat stuff we can show you today is for Bodenplatte - the late war U.S. pilot model is ready and our animator started working on it. This new model, just like the two pilot models made for Flying Circus, has been made at the new level of detail allowing for the even more realistic look - its textures and materials are four times more detailed than older models: WWI fans will get the new toys this Autumn too - we plan to add Sopwith Camel and Pfalz D.IIIa to Flying Circus Volume I. The work on the updated 3D model for Camel will be finished soon and here are its first pics in the game engine. Since it was one of the iconic aircraft of the first air war, this is important for us: You can discuss the news in this thread

Dear pilots, The two next Bodenplatte aircraft are not yet finished, but we have decided not to wait for them and release the update that contains the results of our work since 3.005 release. There is a lot of changes, fixes and improvements, some of them are long-awaited ones. Many graphical effects were reworked and some new ones were added. Other fixes include Career mode, multiplayer, AI and collision system improvements. There is a new content as well - new modifications were added for Fw 190 A-8. The full change list follows: Graphical effects improvements 1. Fire effects improved for aircraft and ground vehicles, more dynamic and detailed; 2. Fuel leak effects improved (less noticeable, but more realistic); 3. Damaged engine exhaust effects improved (less noticeable, but more realistic); 4. Tracer smoke effects improved (more smooth and realistic); 5. Wingtip trails effects improved (more dynamic, less apparent beginning); 6. Water hit effects improved (more realistic); 7. Aircraft and vehicle hit effects improved (more difference between AP and HE ammo, more realistic, added debris); 8. Bomb detonation effects improved for 250kg + bombs, additional flash effect; 9. Water steam effects added for twin water radiator aircraft (Bf-109, Ju-87, Spitfire Mk.IXe, Pe-2); 10. Water steam overheating effects added; 11. Wrong mixture exhaust effects added; 12. Wood hit effects added for WWI aircraft; 13. Gunfire smoke effects added; 14. Oil leak during flight effect adjusted; 15. Fuel leak effect on the ground added; 16. Water steam effect on the ground added; 17. Oil drops on pilot googles effect was added in case of engine damage; Simulation fixes and graphical effects fixes 18. The water hit effects no longer appear like ground hit effects; 19. Bug fix: He-111, Bf-110 and Pe-2 right engine hits won't damage the left engine cooling system anymore; 20. Bug fix: Spitfire Mk.VB/IXe oil radiator leak will stop when the left wing is lost; 21. Bug fix: Ju-88 A4 right supercharger hits will correctly damage it; 22. Bug fix: engine fire now correctly works on all planes; 23. Bug fix: damage of the engines far from the cockpit (and the oil leak on Spitfires) won't make the cockpit windows dirty; Other improvements 24. You can set the starting altitude up to 10km in QMB; 25. Projectiles now can be stopped by trees; 26. Fw 190 A-8 modification: removal of two 13mm MG 131. This allows to model the bomber variant of the plane; some Sturmjager modification aircraft also had tem removed; 27. Fw 190 A-8 modification: F-8 with a 1000kg bomb with reduced stabilizer; 28. Flying Circus German and Entente pilots are now animated; 29. German WWI pilot now has a parachute; 30. 30 mm and higher caliber guns can overheat (they couldn't before); 31. All guns fire dispersion differ while firing single shots and in bursts; 32. Burst fire dispersion corrected for Soviet fuselage mounted guns; 33. Burst fire dispersion corrected for German wing mounted guns; 34. While driving, AI now takes into consideration all nearby vehicles instead of the vehicles of its group only; 35. AI has learned how to control the advanced (player controllable) tanks, they can be used in missions; 36. The water in all water cooled engines boils at different temperatures depending on the altitude; 37. Fuel actually burns out in an event of a fuel tank fire; 38. Fuel tank fire intenisity decreases when all fuel is burned out; 39. Fire intensity directly affects the speed of structural damage; 40. Fuel fires are extinguished when an aircraft hits a water surface; 41. Mission generator toolset released (you can download it here and unpack into your IL-2 install if you want to try it); Other fixes 42. Simple vehicles (not controllable by player) physics modeling improved. They shouldn't 'fly' away from collisions as they sometimes did before anymore; 43. German aircraft of Bodenplatte timeframe carry bombs of a different color that was used in the late war; 44. German aircraft of Bodenplatte timeframe carry SD 70 fragmentation bombs instead of SC 50 which production was canceled in 1943; 45. Aircraft loadout tooltips adjusted; 46. Career: the game won't freeze when creating a character in certain squadrons at a certain time; 47. Career won't freeze in May 1943; 48. Career won't show incorrect days at the end of February; 49. Player wingmen won't be captured by the enemy if the player finishes a Career mode mission above the enemy territory; 50. The player marker shows the character name in Career mode; 51. A rare crash in multiplayer has been fixed (it could happen when Pe-2 series 35 lost its wing). 52. The game server and clients won't crash when a player controlled tank impacts the ground, for instance, after falling from a damaged bridge; 53. Multiplayer net packets won't slowly increase in size over time; 54. Multiplayer net packets now have their CRC checked, this should improve the data transfer stability; 55. Net load decreased by optimizing the data packets carrying graphical effects data; 56. Statistics system accuracy increased (this should fix the situations with unaccounted kills); 57. Minimum starting altitude in QMB on Novosokolniki map has been increased to 250m; 58. Sharp texture changes were corrected on the Stalingrad map near Golubinsky; 59. The pilot won't be injured by the wing fuel tanks fire on Bf 110 E2, Bf 110 G2, P-39L-1 and Yak-7B series 36; 60. A rare crash has been fixed (it could happen when Pe-2 series 35 detonated after hitting the ground). 61. Bomb doors handle on He 111 planes is now animated; 62. Broken window in the lower cockpit fixed on He 111; 63. Fw 190 A-8 right WGr.21 launcher arming lamp now works; 64. On Fw 190 A-8 with F-8/G-8 mod the 20mm guns stay on the same fire trigger with MGs; 65. Radiator assist on MiG-3 and IL-2 won't overcool the engine at high altitudes; 66. Pe-2 series 35 upper turret correctly shows ammo left in HUD; 67. Yak-7B altitude mixture controller corrected; 68. Coolant overheat warning in technochat corrected; 69. Damage system performance optimization should decrease the CPU load; 70. Radiator assist closes or opens radiators in a more smart way; 71. Fokker Dr.I and SPAD 13.C1 durability are back to RoF values. Please discuss the update in this thread.

Hello everybody, Another week has passed and our Bodenplatte development progressed neatly during this short time. First, we have finished reworking the graphics effects system we told you about last week: 1. Fire effects improved for aircraft and ground vehicles, more dynamic and detailed; 2. Fuel leak effects improved (less noticeable, but more realistic); 3. Damaged engine exhaust effects improved (less noticeable, but more realistic); 4. Tracer smoke effects improved (more smooth and realistic); 5. Wingtip trails effects improved (more dynamic, less apparent beginning); 6. Water hit effects improved (more realistic); 7. Aircraft and vehicle hit effects improved (more difference between AP and HE ammo, more realistic, added debris); 8. Bomb detonation effects improved for 250kg + bombs, additional flash effect; 9. Water steam effects added for twin water radiator aircraft (Bf-109, Ju-87, Spitfire Mk.IXe, Pe-2); 10. Water steam overheating effects added; 11. Wrong mixture exhaust effects added; 12. Wood hit effects added for WWI aircraft; 13. Gunfire smoke effects added; 14. Oil leak effect adjusted; 15. Fuel leak effect on the ground added; 16. Water steam effect on the ground added. Second, we have revisited the gunfire dispersion model and performed additional research on the historical documents covering the fire dispersion depending on the gun mounting. There are no new sources, but we have re-analyzed our approach and one problem became apparent - some sources provide fire dispersion data for single shots while others have data for short bursts. For some aircraft, the sources provide dispersion data for both cases - this allowed us to build a statistical model for single/burst fire dispersion ratio. Having updated the dispersion model, we're now able to tune the fire dispersion separately for single and burst fire. Of course, we've taken into account the fact that even when you fire a burst, the first projectile has the fire dispersion of single shot while the subsequent ones deviate more because they are modeled as shots in a burst. The fire dispersion increases with the gun temperature as before. In the most cases, the fire dispersion has been already modeled using the burst fire data, so the changes in these aircraft will be hardly noticeable when firing in bursts, but the single shot dispersion will be lowered greatly: 2-2.5 times. On the contrary, the Soviet fighters were set up using single fire data before so now their fire dispersion will be increased 2.11-2.86 times depending on the gun and aircraft (this isn't that much at the effective fire distances though, see below). In addition, thanks to this research, the single fire dispersion of the heavy 30 mm and 37 mm guns has been slightly lowered while the burst fire values stayed the same. It should be noted that all these changes (applied to each aircraft independently) gave the overall effect of reducing the difference in the fire accuracy among the different planes (for fuselage mounted and wing mounted guns that are close to the fuselage). Excluding the rare exceptions, the fire dispersion for non-overheated guns is 0.66-0.95 thousandths of distance. At the effective fire distances, this results in the fire pattern of around 1 ft or slightly more. Surely, we have worked on the other parts of the sim as well. One month ago we could show you the 3D model of Me 262 without textures and a couple of weeks ago you saw the cockpit of P-47D that was untextured too, but today we present them to you in the game engine - the artists haven't finished the texturing and materials yet, but they are almost done. What can we say - while P-47D-28 cockpit is a bit overwhelming with all the details, instruments, controls and various information plates, the jet aviation pioneer Me 262 looks strikingly beautiful in the air. Here they are: You can discuss the news in this thread

Hello everybody, Today we'll tell you a bit about what awaits us (and you) in the near future. First, we plan to publish the new update soon, at the end of this month or at the beginning of October, that will bring numerous fixes and improvements for the existing stuff - Career fixes, multiplayer stability in tank missions, corrected German bombs for 1944 timeframe and new Fw 190 A-8 modifications we have covered in the previous Dev Blog. In addition, our programmers managed to improve the collision detection between various vehicles and objects without compromising performance and fix bugs, also, trees will stop or divert/slow projectiles. The graphics will get the attention as well - you can see some of the reworked graphical effects on the following screenshots: New Bodenplatte aircraft, Bf 109 K-4 and P-47D-28, will be released to Early Access later this Autumn. New Po-2 Collector Plane and two WWI aircraft for Flying Circus Early Access, Pfalz D.IIIa and Sopwith Camel, will follow before the end of the year, provided we don't run into unexpected problems. Meanwhile, we're also working on the new Marschal mode for multiplayer which should make it more interesting and refreshing for all multiplayer oriented users of our projects. New tank models take a lot of time to develop, so Tank Crew customers will get their new toys early next year, but it looks like they'll get a lot of other stuff in a short time frame starting with the map of the Southern part of the Kursk salient (see Dev Blog #195) and continuing with animated tank crew members (ETA: Spring) and their AI capable of controlling the new playable tanks (the work on it has already started). This will make possible to create the missions where the player tank will be a part of the unit fighting against the enemy tanks s which will have the same high level of modeling detail. The main tank systems and damage modeling should be finished before Summer. The work on the additional UI for tank and unit commanders has started too. And of course, there will be new tanks - our Saint-Petersburg based partner, Digital Forms, plans to have 4 of them ready before Spring: Lend-lease M4A2 Sherman; T-34-76 mod. 1943 made by factory #183 (most probably, we're still researching the exact variant); PzKpfw IV Ausf.G made during Spring 1943 with additional armoured sheets (Schürzen); PzKpfw III Ausf.M also with additional armoured sheets. Today we can already show you the early WIP screens of it: You can discuss the news in this thread

Hello everybody, The time flows and significant changes in our main project, Bodenplatte, are on the horizon. Lead engineer Andrey Solomykin has started the huge chunk of his planned work - air compressibility modeling at high speeds which is a must for the late war period when the aircraft speeds approached the sonic barrier. At the same time another engineer, Roman Kovalenko, is modeling a new device type in our project - turbosupercharger. The main difference between a turbosupercharger and other superchargers we already modeled in other aircraft is the fact that it is powered not by the engine shaft, but by the turbine which is rotated by the engine exhaust. Therefore, the manifold pressure created by the turbosupercharger at different engine modes has a much more complex formula and requires a much more complex physical model. The first aircraft in our sim that will have this device is P-47D-28 Thunderbolt. In the next update, we plan to improve numerous aircraft graphical effects and make minor improvements to the netcode. Meanwhile, Pfalz D.IIIa and Sopwith Camel are being developed for Flying Circus Volume I, the work on new WWI pilots animations has also started. For Tank Crew, M4A2 "Sherman" and Pz. IV Ausf.G are in the works. Both of these tanks have interesting peculiarities and we hope to model most of them in the sim. Today we can show you the first WIP screenshots of one of them. In addition, the work on the detailed buildings for Prokhorovka map will be finished soon. We begin the AI development for player controllable tanks and will start the work on implementing additional tank systems and their damage modeling, tank commander functionality and tank radio communications. You can discuss the news in this thread

Dear Pilots, Summer is winding down and we’re getting back to our normal work schedule. Here are some early pics of our Me-262 model. Looks fast doesn’t it?

Update 3.005 Dear Pilots, After months of preparation and planning following our big announcement this past Fall, we are proud to announce the Release of version 3.005 and launch of Early Access for both Flying Circus- Volume One and Tank Crew - Clash at Prokhorovka. They are now both available for purchase in the IL-2 webstore and making a purchase gives you access to new content as we roll it out and before the product is final. Flying Circus – Volume One Let’s first talk about Flying Circus and what the Early Access includes. As of now, you’ll get the SPAD 13 and Fokker Dr.1 to fly and fight one another in. The Lapino maps are acting as a stand for the future French map for now and both planes have been re-built and re-mastered by our partners at Yugra Media from earlier less complex models. This means improved mesh, textures, damage and other small enhancements of the same aircraft from previous products. However, you must remember that FC content is still a work in progress and more work will be necessary before WWI aircraft are fully supported in IL-2. As with all our Early Access periods more flyable aircraft will follow in the coming months. Time to get the goggles and scarves out of the closet! Flying Circus Early Access can be ordered HERE. We’d also like to take this time to explain our discount plan for special Rise of Flight users who purchase FC and qualify for a special discount code. We have chosen to give those ROF users who supported us in our darkest, most difficult days some special recognition with an additional discount. Without this support we would not be here today and is a small way to say thanks to those that supported us when it mattered most. Some customers really went above and beyond in their financial support and that is reflected in the discounts below. We only wish economic reality would allow for it to be more. First, everyone who orders during the Early Access period gets a $10 discount off regular MSRP no matter what. Second, if you are an existing ROF customer and meet certain criteria you qualify for an additional discount. The criteria are as follows. Anyone who purchased content for ROF between it’s launch in 2009 to Jan. 1, 2013 from our website or a boxed or digital copy from an official retail partners (Excluding STEAM. ROF was not available on STEAM during this period) during that time frame will receive an additional discount. If you spent between $0.01 and $70.99 you will receive an additional $5 OFF. If you spent between $71.00 and $200.99 you will receive an additional $10 OFF. If you spent greater than $201.00 you will receive an additional $15 OFF. The special discount period ends September 15, 2018. To get your special discount you’ll need to access your ROF user account on the ROF website and retrieve a promo code we have placed in your user profile. Then return to the IL-2 website and place your order for Flying Circus. Enter your discount code at check out. The additional discount will be reflected in the final amount. Tank Crew – Clash at Prokhorovka Next, we are excited to begin Early Access to Tank Crew and the initial release of our first two tanks – the mighty Kv-1s and the fearsome PzKpfw. VI Ausf.H1 "Tiger " Tank Crew Early Access can be ordered HERE. Due to development and gameplay considerations we have decided to create a separate AAA vehicles add-on featuring the GAZ-MM + 72K and Sd. Kfz. 10 + Flak38. We will prepare them as a separate product to be released later and work to make them a more interesting addition to IL-2 Sturmovik Great Battles then initially planned. In addition to the two tanks released today, over the next 14 months we will release the full line-up of tanks included in Tank Crew. Ten tanks in total will be created. T-34-76 model 1943 KV-1s M4A2 “Sherman” SU-122 SU-152 PzKpfw. III Ausf.M PzKpfw. IV Ausf.G PzKpfw. V Ausf.D "Panther" PzKpfw. VI Ausf.H1 "Tiger" Sd. Kfz. 184 "Ferdinand" In addition to the tanks we will be creating our specially designed Prokhorovka map and releasing that once it is finished. In the meantime, we are including the Lapino maps as stand ins. We have also added drivable tanks to the QMB including the new Kv-1s, Tiger 1 and existing T-34 and Pz. III tank models. Please note that the existing T-34 and Pz. III tanks are the original models previously released. Tank Crew will eventually include updated versions of these tanks. And the Kv-1 and Tiger tanks now support custom skins. Templates will be along soon for skinners. And we’d like to take this time to introduce you to our talented development partners at DigitalForms in Saint Petersburg, Russia who have taken on the task of building these amazing tanks for you. They have worked tirelessly since our announcement last year to put you inside some of WWII’s most deadly and fearsome weapon systems. They have helped us re-invent our tank technology and built some truly stunning tank exteriors and interiors. They hope you like their work! Fw 190 A-8 We continue our work on the coming Bodenplatte project and this time its customers get a new toy - German fighter/bomber Fw 190 А-8. It comes with many modifications: 30-mm Mk 108 guns, additional armour, bomb holders capable of carrying up to three 250 kg bombs, heavy rockets 21cm WGr. 42 and up to 12 anti-tank rockets R-HL Pblz. 1 "Panzerblitz". This makes the airtcraft the most packed one among the other Focke-Wulf models. Battle of Bodenplatte can be ordered HERE. Other Improvements In addition to FC and TC Early Access we have spent some time working on minor improvements to ground AI, bullet damage calculations, small graphical corrections to the He-111 H-16. A-20B, Spitfire Mk. IX and Bf-109 G-14. And of course, many other small enhancements, fixes and changes, which are too many to list in this post. Please discuss the update in this thread.

Dear Friends, Today I would like to tell you about what we plan for Flying Circus – Volume One and show you some WIP screens of our first two aircraft which are ready for Early Access release this month! But first let’s take a minute and talk about how we came to make Flying Circus and the challenges that we face in developing it. Of course, Flying Circus is going to essentially be our spiritual sequel to our ground-breaking WWI simulator Rise of Flight: The First Great Air War. ROF was the first product we ever made and over the course of several years we greatly expanded its content and created some really cool features for it, many of which were ported or updated to work in Sturmovik. We have not lost our affection for WWI and we have always hoped to be able to bring WWI combat to our updated Digital Warfare Engine. When we eventually ended work on ROF and shifted our focus to WW2 many WWI fans were disappointed. At the time, we had no intention of abandoning ROF or her fans, but the requirements for WW2 overwhelmed us and we had no resources to manage two projects at the same time and the technology we developed for WW2 was extremely difficult to retrofit back into our WWI engine without causing major delays to Sturmovik. Retrofitting WWI would have required an entirely new team of developers that we could not afford. So, we marched forward with WW2 hoping to someday find a way to come back to WWI and do a sort of parallel development. That opportunity has finally become available thanks to some creative planning and so we decided to create Flying Circus – Volume One with the help of our friends at Yugra Media. Yugra employees have been training with our team learning how to re-build our WWI content and make maps with our current technology. This has taken several months already, but our plan is to get WWI up and running as quick as we can and get WWI content brought up to our new standard. We hope to generate new revenue to fund more WWI development and general development of the common engine which benefits all of our products. We also wanted to give WWI fans something to cheer about after a long drought of development. Now it should be said that trying to bring all content and features of ROF to Flying Circus in one fell swoop is impossible. This will be a marathon, not a sprint and new features or old features found in ROF will take time to make in the current engine. Bringing WWI to our current engine which has been re-worked and modified for WW2 is a big challenge and some things can be ported relatively easily and others require all new work. As with Tank Crew, several months of work behind the scenes has already taken place laying down the foundation to support Flying Circus. This will take much time, but we will endeavor to make Flying Circus just as awesome or even more amazing than ROF ever was. However, for that to happen we need your support! Both Flying Circus as well as Tank Crew are experiments and first steps in working with qualified and trained third parties on new content and gameplay features that users have asked for or we feel have potential to help our overall cause. Our team is still small, relative to our competitors and we are still a self-sustaining team. Meaning, we sink or swim on our own, there are no bailouts if we fail regardless of who our benefactors have been in the near past. So, if you like anything about Flying Circus please support us by buying a copy. We want to make WWI great again inside the Sturmovik universe. So now that you know the background of how Flying Circus came to be, let’s take a look at the actual product. As you have previously read in other announcements here are the planes that will be included in Flying Circus – Volume One. We have decided to choose a plane-set that represents the period of April-May 1918. This period offers some great planes that will provide lots of fun match-ups. Planes: Spad XIII Sopwith Dolphin Sopwith Camel RAF S.E.5.a Bristol Fighter Albatros D.Va Fokker Dr.1 Fokker D.VII Pfalz D.IIIa Halberstadt CL.II. The first two planes off the assembly line and into Early Access will be the venerable SPAD 13C.1 and the Fokker Dr.1 triplane! All of the planes in Flying Circus have their roots in ROF, but the models have been re-worked by Yugra Media to be brought up to our current visual standard. That means improved mesh and new 4K textures. Map and Technologies Included will be a map that is approximately 100 km x 100 km that has is generally centered on the Arras sector of the Western Front. The map will include towns such as Arras, Cambrai, Lille, Amiens and St. Quentin and the dreaded No-Mans-Land along with several airfields to fly from. This map will be created using all our latest map making technology that is found in current IL-2 Great Battles products. It should make WWI a much more beautiful experience scenery wise. Matter of fact, Flying Circus will benefit from all current and new technologies in our updated engine. This means more than the graphical updates, but also improvements to AI and of course our amazing VR support is included! The difference from ROF will be quite remarkable. The plan is for future volumes of FC to include larger maps like we had in ROF. Exactly how big, is yet to be determined. For us to bring WWI to you in any reasonable amount of time, we have decided to use the Flight Models from ROF for our Flying Circus planes. We have done this for a couple reasons. First, we have spent a lot of time researching and building these FMs over a period of several years and unlike the 3D models, they stand the test of time and there is no reason to toss them and start over. Second, these FMs were built for an engine that was created solely for WW1 speeds and maneuvers etc. It was more prudent to build support for these FMs in the current WW2 focused engine, then to completely re-make these FMs with an engine designed for heavier and faster aircraft in WW2. In essence, we’ve been able to make both regimes co-exist side by side within the same environment without compromising the feeling of flight or their unique characteristics. Our engineering team as done a marvelous job building this support in just a few months! Without this work, Flying Circus would not be possible. Our Flying Circus planes will still have all the interesting quirks and characteristics that many of you know and love from our previous title. Finally, I must mention one of the driving motivations for making Flying Circus at all - VR support! There was simply no way to retrofit VR support into ROF properly. So, to bring our awesome VR support to the WWI battlefield we had to work on a new title with the tech already included. The end result did not disappoint, we really like how our open cockpits look in VR! This will be a really awesome experience for those that love VR. Features As I mentioned above, getting WW1 up and running again takes a lot of work, so Flying Circus will initially include support for the Quick Mission Builder and our Mission Editor. We will also create and include some custom single-player missions as we near completion of FC and if Volume One proves popular and we move to make future volumes, we will introduce the Pilot Career to FC. And Scripted Campaigns can be built for FC by anyone using our Mission Editor just like in IL-2. If you are concerned about the Pilot Career, please know this. We can’t support the Pilot Career for FC yet because we are still building support for WW2 and other general features and mission types it needs. Remember, it’s still new tech for the Great Battles series and we have to build this support in-house so we cannot place this task with a third party. We also have to build support for WW1 style missions and this will take time. If we include support for the Pilot Career in say Volume Two of Flying Circus, it will of course become compatible with Volume One. That is the beauty of our one client approach. All of our Flying Circus aircraft will come equipped with all field and factory mods that we used to sell as separate items way back when. This also includes pistols, scarves, streamers and special gunsights like the Aldis and collimator style gunsights. And last but not least, our pilot models for Flying Circus will be completely new and they will look really cool in our updated aircraft. They of course have yet to be animated, but the finished pilot models look to be really great! We hope this overview of Flying Circus is helpful and gives you a good idea of the great effort we are undertaking to bring WWI development back to our amazing WWI fans who enjoyed Rise of Flight so much. So please enjoy the following images of Flying Circus. Remember this is still a Work-in-Progress and the maps is obviously not WW1 France. For Early Access we will be including the Lapino map as a substitute until the French map is ready. You can discuss the news in this thread

Hello everybody, The time has come to tell you more about the historical timeframe of Battle of Bodenplatte. As we said in our previous Dev Blog #192, we're making all four different seasons for this map. Some might think that we'll model only 1-2 days of the actual Bodenplatte operation when the Luftwaffe made the all-out attack on the Allied airfields near Brussels and Antwerp. However, our “Battle of” series is much more than that! The Career mode for this new theatre of war will last from September 17th, 1944 to March 28th, 1945 – 188 days of war in total. Historically, 11 significant engagements took place in this area during the given timeframe. In the Career mode, you'll see your area of operations, mission types, acting air force units, their home airfields and other details that correspond to the historical data. You'll be flying in and around many famous operations and battles. Of course, we can’t model every skirmish or battle on the ground, but we will have an exciting Career spanning this later stage of the war when the Allies were fighting their way into Germany. Operation Market Garden (September 17 – 26, 1944) Battle of Aachen (October 2 – 21, 1944) Battle of the Scheldt (October 2 – November 8, 1944) Operation Queen (November 16 – December 15, 1944) Operation Watch on the Rhine (December 16 – 25, 1944) Allied Counter-Offensive (December 26, 1944 – January 25, 1945) Operation Bodenplatte (January 1, 1945) Operation Veritable (February 8 – March 10, 1945) Operation Clarion (February 22 – 23, 1945) Operation Grenade (February 23 – March 10, 1945) Operation Plunder (March 23 – 28, 1945) As said above, we won't be able to recreate these ground operations in super detail, but the overall situation, mission tasks, home airfields and mission targets will change as they should historically just as you experience with Stalingrad, Moscow and Kuban. This, along with the corresponding features of the Career mode like pilot biographies, squadron histories, newspaper articles, videos, squadron rosters, medals and rank progression will create an authentic experience of flying on the Western Front during the late war period. The whole timeframe will be divided into 5 chapters: Chapter 1: Fighting in Holland (September 17 – October 1, 1944) Chapter 2: Autumn Offensive (October 2 – December 15, 1944) Chapter 3: Battle of the Bulge (December 16 – 25, 1944) Chapter 4: Allied Counter-Offensive (December 26, 1944 – February 7, 1945) Chapter 5: Battle of the Rhine (February 8 – March 28, 1945) To create this new theatre of war, a thorough research will be done on where the units of both sides were based, their tasks and what aircraft they used day by day. Two new award systems for the US and Great Britain are to be created from scratch, as well as the late war pilot models for Luftwaffe, RAF and USAAF along with their chutes. The Newspaper articles is a huge task on their own and takes several months to complete. If you’d like to help with this contact Jason. We also plan on making additional mission types for this unique location and timeframe. All in all, this will be a lot of work for us, but progress is already being made. For example, we have finalized the map boundaries and the airfield locations. This map is bigger than we initially planned (flyable area is 401 x 324 km - it is 129.900 sq.km) and several compromises will have to be made to make it a reality. It will stretch us to the limit of what is possible in our development schedule, but as with our other maps it will be really cool when it’s done. You can discuss the news in this thread

Hello everybody, There are holidays at the beginning of May in Russia, but to this day we have managed to release the important 3.002 update and its hotfixes. Moreover, we have found a temporary solution for our Russian customers who were affected by the recent mass blocking of the Amazon IP addresses (we use its web services). While one part of the team has been working on the update, others have continued the development of our next big project - Bodenplatte. For instance, we have reached an important milestone in the development of the new map. Evgeny Isaev, our lead landscape and game world artist, has this to say: It's important to note that the new map will be special and different (once again!). The set development time limits force us to find the ways to optimize our work, simultaneously increasing the quality of the landscape. This means we ought to implement new design methods, namely using digital geodata (with required historical corrections) instead of drawing by hand. This way we can save time, but increase the accuracy of the resulting map. At the moment, we already have the map with height data, rivers and forests. The result is not final, but it required a lot of work already. Now we're working on the settlements. It is possible that we'll increase their number in the course of development, but we'll make the decision when we have the major towns and smaller settlements ready. The airfields list is ready and we have collected enough information to make them. In addition, we have a general concept of how we'll texture the landscape for different seasons, but we'll give it a bit more thought. It is said than one picture is worth a thousand words, how about fourteen: You can find it here https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/168-developer-diary/?page=5&tab=comments#comment-611219

Dear Friends, We are proud and excited to announce that the Battle of Kuban development cycle is completed and Battle of Kuban is officially released! As Producer of the Sturmovik product series it is always a pleasure to announce major milestones to the community and this one is very special. Battle of Kuban was a technical challenge from start to finish, but the team has once again proven why they are the best. When I took over as Producer I promised you a new and improved Sturmovik experience. A Sturmovik with a more hardcore feel with more classic flight-sim features for both single-player and multiplayer modes along with other touches that remind you of past Sturmovik titles while embracing new genre-leading technology. In the past 18 months we’ve done just that and transformed this generation of Sturmovik into a real leader. As you will see below, the amount of work that has gone into just version 3.001 is huge, not to mention ALL of the enhancements, improvements, fixes and content that was developed for Battle of Kuban and the engine as a whole during this cycle. Every department has worked hard to make this release special. This was months and months of hard work by an extremely talented and dedicated team who spent very long hours trying to make the vision I announced in fall 2016 a reality. If you are a fan of Sturmovik, either old or new, they deserve your continued support. Please tell your flight-sim friends about how much Sturmovik has improved with the Kuban release. Together, the Sturmovik line-up will continue to grow and thrive as our big announcement about Bodenplatte, Flying Circus and Tank Crews this past November shows. We have big plans, but we need your support to make them happen. We have no magic safety net. Your support allows us to expand our team and spend time clearing development bottlenecks or solving long stubborn issues. As with any major release, many compromises in scheduling and work-flow had to occur. Some features not in our original plan were added (new distant terrain rendering, new shadows, improved flight-models) and some were delayed (Air Marshall, Object Viewer) and some work took much longer than planned (Pilot Career, P-39). As a result, a few new features planned for the Kuban cycle have been pushed to this Spring and Summer and will be part of the Battle of Bodenplatte development cycle. Since our core engine powers all products it really is just one large development cycle. All we need is enough time, patience and support from you and all can become a reality Let this release be an example of our unending desire to make a better product and do the best job we can with our small team and limited resources. The team has worked a miracle here once again and made me very proud of them as I know my constant demands make their lives more difficult. Please think of them when you fly and enjoy Battle of Kuban. P.S. I hope to see some of you at the 2018 Flight-Sim Expo in Las Vegas, NV USA taking place June 9-10of this year. https://www.flightsimexpo.com/ Sincerely, Jason And without further delay, here is Daniel aka “Han” with the goodies you have been waiting for… From Daniel – Development Manager Hello Everybody, So, the day has come. Half a year has passed since the last update 2.012 which was, as you remember, quite large on its own and added many new features to the sim. But today the new 3.001 update, sets a new record for our project. We have never released so many additions of different types at once. Sure, it comes from the fact that much time has passed since the previous update. You may ask why it has taken so long - because two fundamental game parts were re-made almost completely. First of all, the old dynamic campaign is now replaced by the new Career. In this mode we have tried to create the best single-player experience we could. We’ve taken some elements from our Rise of Flight Career mode you may be familiar with and some from the Battle of Stalingrad campaign system and we added tons of new features and abilities along the way. This mode takes a WWII combat pilot experience to the next level and works in any theatre of war you own - Battle of Stalingrad, Battle of Moscow and Battle of Kuban. If you have all three, you can play through all of them with the same character, starting in the cold winter of 1941 and finishing in 1943 on the warm shores of the Black Sea. The AI has been significantly improved to function in this mode as well. It is important to note that we plan to develop it further improving it and adding new mission types and interesting gameplay features in the very near future. The second hugely improved part of the game is its core. The evolutionary development we started back in 2017 brings fruit right now in the 3.001 update. The biggest change is the increased rendering distance of course. But this fundamental change led to many other additions and corrections, you can read the change list below. Many of these changes were anticipated by the community while some will be a pleasant surprise. The cumulative result of these changes makes our graphics engine one of the best in the genre. Another important addition is the new Cooperative multiplayer mode. Together with the updated statistics system and other new features, it will give our customers who prefer multiplayer new exciting opportunities. And of course, the biggest chunk of the 3.001 update is the new content. Five new aircraft including two new Collector Planes and the new historical static campaign 'Sea Dragons'. Also included are many new aircraft skins, the ability to host a game server from within the game client without using the dedicated server executable, 'Mods On' mode and many others. It is difficult not to forget something in this short overview, so here goes the update 3.001 change list: New Content: 1. A-20B bomber is added to the project and all Battle of Kuban owners can fly it now; 2. Yak-7b series 36 fighter is added to the project and all Battle of Kuban owners can fly it now; 3. P-39L-1 fighter is added to the project and all Battle of Kuban owners can fly it now; 4. New Collectors Plane: Bf 109 G-6 fighter; 5. New Collectors Plane: La-5FN series 2; 6. New Career single-player mode replaces the old dynamic campaign; 7. The new Cooperative multiplayer mode is available along with the classic Dogfight; 8. New historical static campaign 'Sea Dragons' designed by Alexander -BlackSix- Timoshkov telling the story of an IL-2 mod. 1943 pilot is added to the project and all Battle of Kuban owners can play it now; 9. Now you can host a multiplayer server from within the game client and play on it yourself; 10. New 'Mods On' mode allows modifying the game files. Multiplayer server owners can allow or disallow players with the modified game files to connect; 11. Bf-109 G-6 Collector Plane comes with painstakingly researched paint schemes created by community enthusiasts III/JG2_Gustav05 and I./ZG1_Panzerbar; 12. La-5FN series 2 Collector Plane comes with painstakingly researched paint schemes created by the community enthusiast I./ZG1_Panzerbar; 13. IL-2 mod. 1943 now comes with all of its textures made in 4K quality (default and all official paint schemes, bump, specular and damage textures) created by the community enthusiast =BlackHellHound1=; Graphics: 14. Terrain visibility distance has been increased from 40 to 150 kilometers with Settings option; 15. New raindrops effect on the cockpit and pilot glasses; 16. Clouds visibility distance has been increased from 40 to 150 kilometers; 17. Heavy cumulus clouds were made more complex, some of the weather variations now have two level clouds; 18. Because of the increased rendering distance, cumulus cloud patterns were reworked for all weather types; 19. Fixed the issue where clouds could drop shadows on the mountains above them; 20. Cloud 'moving' effect when you fly very close to it has been minimized; 21. Large white horizon band has been removed thanks to the new rendering distance; 22. Skydome lighting has been made bluer; 23. Cirrus clouds rendering has been improved; 24. Winter lighting has been tuned for more contrast shadows with a slight blue hue; 25. Completely redone texturing of summer and autumn Stalingrad maps: overall steppe look was made more authentic, fields tiling has been removed; 26. Landscape texture flickering on the big and steep mountains has been eliminated; 27. Tree crowns drop more detailed shadows; 28. Landscape detail change with distance has been made less apparent on Ultra graphics preset; 29. There is a new graphics option that enables or disables 4K textures (when set to On, the game will use 4K textures if available); 30. Player controlled tanks use the new visual tech that simulates prismatic optical instruments; 31. Player controlled tank Panzer III now has a movable prismatic visor and armor hatches that can cover the view slits; 32. Main menu and aircraft settings hangar scene now has a different lighting; welding blinks and sounds were removed; 33. Player controlled tank T-34 now uses the new tech that allows very detailed tank tracks (it will be used for the Tank Crew vehicles); AI Aircraft and Game World: 34. Damage to large objects from small explosions now calculated more accurately; 35. Some trees (on tree-line, along with the roads, individual ones) can be toppled with a powerful impact; 36. AI pilots evade mountains and hills better; 37. Shallow dive ground attack procedure has been improved for cases with high initial aircraft altitude; 38. AI pilots evade ground objects during shallow dive ground attack procedure better; 39. AI pilots will follow the flight leader even if the wingman player decides to fly elsewhere; 40. AI Hs-129 B-2 takes off correctly; 41. Heavy loaded AI planes take off correctly; 42. All AI planes in the group attack targets if there are enough of them; 43. All AI planes in the group choose targets correctly and won't attack the same target if there are enough of them; 44. AI priorities during the ground attack were updated. Primary targets are AAA, then locomotives, then tanks, then artillery, then everything else. Targets closer to the center of the ground attack area have more priority; 45. Ships damage modeling has been improved, they are harder to destroy; 46. Large ships except tankers have simulated damage control; 47. AI groups taxi to a flight strip faster; 48. Parachutes are correctly modeled in multiplayer; Physics, Aircraft Systems and Models: 49. Yak-1 machinegun synchronizer C2K-19 has been replaced with C2K-26 that fires three rounds per one propeller revolution instead of one; 50. UB machineguns and ShVAK dispersion on Yak-1 fighters has been corrected using the newly found test data; 51. IL-2 canopies can be fixed in the open position; 52. Ultimate load factor calculations were updated for all aircraft; 53. 'Unbreakable' difficulty option now works correctly - an aircraft won't explode from a powerful impact when it is on; 54. The issue with He-111 engines having different initial throttle control positions after starting a mission in the air has been fixed; 55. IL-2 mod. 1943 instruments illumination works correctly now; 56. Compass locator on all aircraft now works only when powered and won't show strange readings when power is turned on or off or whenever a beacon signal is found or lost; 57. 'Unbreakable' difficulty option now works correctly for Bf-110, He-111, Ju-88, Ju-52, IL-2 and Pe-2; 58. 'Unbreakable' difficulty option now correctly turns flopped over MiG-3 and Hs-129 B2 back to normal position; 59. 'Unbreakable' difficulty option now turns flopped over planes back to normal position without excessive overload and won't cause shaking of aircraft laying on the ground with retracted landing gear; 60. An aircraft or its parts won't kick up a dust or snow hitting a runway or other hard surface; 61. An aircraft losing a small part won't display a debris cloud effect; 62. Damage model issue has been fixed (a fractured part won't break off when completely stationary); 63. Aircraft canopies now break off at correct places; 64. Jettisoned Bf-109 Е7 canopy now correctly adds drag, broken off parts have corrected aerodynamic characteristics; 65. Oil viscosity changes with temperature, causing an engine to be damaged faster when the maximum oil temperature is exceeded; 66. The control wheel of the R-7 constant speed governor rotates much slower according to reference data resulting in much slower propeller RPM switching (IL-2, MiG-3, Pe-2 series 87, Yak-1 series 69 and Yak-7b series 36 are affected); 67. Because of the slower propeller RPM switching on IL-2, MiG-3, Pe-2 series 87, Yak-1 series 69 and Yak-7b series 36, 'Engine auto control' difficulty option automatically lowers the propeller pitch if the landing gear is released and IAS is dropping (to make go-around during landing possible); 68. Ammo counters on Fw-190 A-3, Fw-190 A-5, Bf-110 G-2 and MC.202 ser. 8 were corrected; 69. Metal surfaces on P-40E-1, P-39L-1, A-20B and MC.202 series 8 now rendered differently for polished metal visual effect (others to come in the future); 70. IL-2 mod. 1943 visual damage effects were corrected so fractured parts won't appear hanging in the air; 71. Rear armored glass joints on Yak-1b series 127 now look better; 72. MG 15 reload handle position on Ju 52 has been corrected; Statistics System: 73. Remnants of the aircraft unlocking system in statistics are completely gone; 74. Statistics data in all game modes made more detailed with subcategories; 75. Statistics screen shows secondary objective status in all game modes; 76. Completed and failed objectives can be displayed on the flight map in all game modes if enabled by a mission designer; 77. Victory points are now calculated differently and don't depend on difficulty level; 78. All game modes now share the same flight status system. Point modifiers are changed in Dogfight mode; 79. Pilot capture by the enemy now works in all game modes (if a mission designer has set up the friendly and enemy territories using Influence Area instrument). Tank crews can't be captured; Multiplayer: 80. Multiplayer server options now don't depend on the difficulty level; 81. Player ban time can be specified in server options; 82. Players can view Dogfight statistics and vote for a ban in the lobby or during flight; 83. Dogfight servers now recognize Trigger Mission Objective conditions (completing Primary Objective grants a win to one of the teams while completing Secondary Objectives reduces the 'life points' of a team; User interface: 84. Mission route on the map made clearer; 85. Single mission lists made more convenient and compact; 86. Campaign designers can now block aircraft loadouts and modifications separately (previously it was possible to block them only simultaneously); 87. Many user interface elements made more compact; 88. New option added: user interface scaling (useful for monitors with high DPI); 89. Credits added to the main menu; 90. The game client won't hang anymore on the very first run during input devices initialization; 'Blazing Steppe' campaign: 91. The campaign has been updated to the current mission design standard; 92. Map tactical overlays are updated to be more detailed; 93. Waypoint following logic has been improved; 94. Take-off is counted when 30 meters altitude is reached instead of 200, making the take-off of large joint groups faster and reducing the possibility of skipping the first waypoint; 95. Text translations are updated. '10 Days of Autumn' campaign: 96. The campaign has been completely reworked; 97. Map tactical overlays are redone; 98. Waypoint following logic has been improved; 99. Take-off is counted when 30 meters altitude is reached instead of 200, making the take-off of large joint groups faster and reducing the possibility of skipping the first waypoint; 100. Skipping intermediate waypoints won't interfere with the mission progress and landing on the home airfield anymore; 101. Now there are more aircraft in the air at the same time in some missions, somewhat increasing the difficulty level; 102. Text translations are updated. Please discuss the update in this thread.

Hello everybody, Today we don't have a lot of news, we just want to tell you that the work on 3.001 update is near its end. We have 20 Career mission types working of 25 planned for the release. The most of the initially found issues are fixed and some tweaks are already in the place. To give you a general idea of the scale of this update, its change list will contain 90 items, nearly a third of which are significant changes and improvements. The sheer number of these changes means that after 3.001 release hotfixes will likely follow because there could be problems that couldn't be found by the testers. We're sure this teething period will be short. P-39L-1 cockpit is almost ready, perhaps we'll spend 1-2 days for final 'polishing' of its textures, but we can already show you its overall look. All other changes and additions planned for 3.001 release are finished. Therefore, we plan to release this humongous update in 2-3 weeks. We want to release it as soon as possible ourselves: all we're doing we're doing for you and your feedback is very important for us. But we need to make a bit more effort to give you the result that will not only be massive, but also good functioning, so these days will be spent on debugging and refinement of the new functionality. You can discuss the news in this thread