IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad News

DD 300

Dear Friends,

Welcome to a rare Monday edition that is our 300th Developer Diary which happens to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the release of the original IL-2 Sturmovik for the PC! Two decades on and IL-2 products are still going strong! Simply amazing!

We know you would like this to be a super special diary today, but for us, it’s just another busy week at work trying to finish our projects. Please don’t think that we are not proud of this milestone, because we are, but there is just so much to do and we need to stay on task! However, we hope that there will be 300 more DDs and 20 more years of Sturmovik products to come!

We also realize that we could not have gotten this far without the financial support of our customers and those dedicated people in our community that help us make Sturmovik week after week. We salute anyone and everyone who has contributed to the Great Battles series over the years either as an unpaid volunteer or professional partner. From painting skins to developing apps, making missions to beta testing, 3D modeling to historical to research, localization of text to voice acting and on and on, this 300th Developer Diary is dedicated to you guys! THANK YOU!

No DD is complete without some news and images about current projects and today’s is no exception. Both of these projects have been undertaken by third-party partners – the C-47 cockpit is being built by Ugra Media and the IAR-80/81 is being built by our partner Ivan. Both of these models have been shown before and they have progressed since we last showed them, even if their appearance is not drastically different from before. There is lots of work being done to keep the poly budgets under control and make the model not only beautiful, but also efficient. This is always a big challenge for anyone who makes models for us.

C-47A



IAR-80/81



Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

DD 299

Dear Friends,

The cold November is here already and we continue working on our projects. An important milestone for the Battle of Normandy is getting near - its map will be ready to a degree that will allow us to begin the development of Pilot's Career for this theater (meaning that settlements, airfields, roads, rivers and forests will be there). It will be too early to share the screenshots of the map itself at this point since the work on its visual part - texturing and finalizing landscape features, coast and additional detail - happens at the last stage of development according to our workflow. Nevertheless, this stage is not very far away either, since the map overall progresses according to the plan. Speaking of the map, we can say that creation of map objects is finished, including the new city blocks characteristic for Britain, coastal defenses, radar stations, farmsteads for rural areas and, of course, unique landmarks. For creating believable airfields, certain additional airfield objects were created which are characteristic of this theater of war.



The work on various naval and ground units for BoN continues - there are several ship types that participated in the landing, including landing craft and radar-equipped ones, and several vehicles like this British armored car Humber Mk.IV, which is ready for deployment.



The German heavy fighter Ju 88 C-6 and the legendary US fighter P-51B-5 are getting close to release. Progress on the P-51B has been frustratingly slow with several technical delays due to research and software issues. Anyway, it's Flight Model 99% done and only Malcolm Hood visual is on the finish line of production. Please be patient the early Pony will get here we promise! Arado 234, Mosquito FB MK.VI and Me 410 are at earlier stages of development, but they are progressing according to the general plan. In the meantime, the work on the new fuel system is nearly finished and it will make its debut on Bf 109 fighters. As soon as it is ready we'll apply it to all the aircraft of the sim. This new tech will make the fuel system modeling more realistic, damageable in more detail and pilot interfacing with it will be recreated with more fine details. With this new technology up and running, we plan to switch to the development of the launch, guidance and warhead functioning of the V-1 vengeance weapon - its FM and 3D model, including the launch site, are already ready.



There is good progress in Flying Circus Vol. II project is well. The German two-seater recon/strike airplane DFW C.V is the closest one for the release - at the moment its 3D model is nearly finished while its FM is in the works - and we plan to have it in the next update already. Sopwith Triplane should be also released before the end of the year as well as the British heavy bomber Handley Page O/400. Early next year we'll have to finish German bomber Gotha G.V, Western Front map, and two Collector Planes, late WWI fighters.



In addition, there is a lot of WWI-era ground vehicles incoming - for instance, in the next update, we plan to release Jeffery Quad, Benz LKW 1912 and Daimler DR4 in several modifications and tanks - Mark V female, Reno FT and Schneider CA 1. WWI aviators will find their life slightly more complicated due to the addition of the German 37mm automatic AA gun Maxim Flak M14.



All the things listed above are just a fraction of what we and our partners are working on at the moment, so please stay tuned - we'll be able to tell you more about the other development streams in our next Dev Diaries.

Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

Dear Friends,

The team is on a well-deserved extended weekend and Jason is lost in the middle of America on a research mission, so today’s DD is very straightforward. Behold the jet powered Arado AR 234 B-2 bomber! What sleek lines she has! As you saw last week, the Arado’s unique cockpit is also in development. We are working as hard as we can to make her operational as fast as we can.



Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

DD 297

Dear Pilots,

Today’s DD is short and to the point. We have WIP pics of the Arado 234 B-2 cockpit that is being built by Phil and one of our new modelers Vasily. It’s looking good so far! An interesting cockpit for an interesting and ground breaking plane.




Also, we have images of some new cloud formations, some thicker and some thinner at different parts of the day. Clouds are progressing. Not quite ready for beta testing yet, but getting closer.



And finally, you already have these in the 4.605b Hotfix we released yesterday, but we now have 4K skins for the Auntie Ju made by intrepid artist Martin =ICDP= Catney. Here are a few shots to show off some of his work. Almost all planes have now been brought up to the 4K standard. Really an awesome accomplishment considering the sheer number of airplanes involved and the time commitment! The template for the JU 52 is also now available. Thank you, Martin!



Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

Dear Pilots,

We just released the 4.605 update. The change-list is not as long as usual, but one of the additions is very important for all who prefer single player - Advanced Quick Mission Generator. This mode is designed for cases when you want something more advanced than a simple Quick Mission and less advanced than a full Career and gives the player instant access to customizable combat missions on Moscow, Stalingrad, Kuban and Rhineland maps. Base airfield, aircraft, time, weather, mission target, etc. can be customized, yielding a quick way to create and play a unique scenario you want (none of them will be the same thanks to variability). We're positive you'll like it.



In addition, we added another airplane to Flying Circus Vol.II Early Access program - two-seater bomber Breguet XIV.B2. It was recreated with additional detail compared to its predecessor in Rise of Flight - for instance, now it has manual fuel mixture control and a primitive flight stick load compensator. Its flight characteristics were checked and corrected. The gunner seat became more detailed.



There are many other additions as well: light tracers were made more visible by increasing their brightness keeping all their enhancements made in the previous update, various graphical effects were improved, certain AI routines important for scenario missions were improved as well.



The full 4.605 change-list follows:

4.605

1. Breguet XIV.B2 single-engine bomber is now available to all owners of Flying Circus Vol.II;
2. Advanced Quick Mission Generator added to the Quick Mission menu on Moscow, Stalingrad, Kuban and Rhineland maps with the following possible mission types:
a) Intercept bombers;
b) Intercept ground attack planes;
c) Intercept transport planes;
d) Escort bombers;
e) Escort ground attack planes;
f) Column attack;
g) Artillery position attack;
h) Train attack;
i) Airfield attack;
j) Anti-shipping attack;
k) Ground troops support;
l) Ships support;
m) Ships cover;
n) Cargo delivery;
o) Cargo paradrop;
p) Special mission squad paradrop;
q) Artillery position bombing strike;
r) Railway station bombing strike;
s) Airfield bombing strike;
t) Supply dump bombing strike;
u) Bridge bombing strike;
3. Thanks to our tester J2_Trupobaw, Polish localization was added to the Steel Birds campaign;
4. Projectile tracers brightness increased slightly;
5. Ricochets happen at reduced hit angles;
6. Additional improvements were made to the effects of aircraft explosions when hitting the ground;
7. New aircraft ammunition explosion effects added for aircraft of various sizes;
8. Pfalz XII and DH4 can have bullet holes on the expansion tank and upper fuel tank, respectively.
9. Oil splatter on windshield effect added to Nieuport 28, SPAD 7, Airco DH.IV and Fokker D.VIII;
10. SPAD VII 180hp - fixed a bug that caused the automatic helper to forcibly open the water cooler at high altitudes;
11. Airco DH.IV bomb coordinates corrected (the bombs were overlapping with holders);
12. Airco DH.IV wings are damaged by enemy fire correctly;
13. Fokker D.VII and Fokker D.VIIF airframe resistance to enemy fire corrected to reflect its construction;
14. Firing player-controlled anti-aircraft guns creates correct lighting effects;
15. Pz.III Ausf.M, Pz.IV Ausf.G and Pz.V Ausf.D with mounted side shields have improved interactions of the side shields with obstacles;
16. Animation of windshield wipers was significantly improved on player controllable trucks;
17. Fixed accidental death of some tank crew members when leaving a vehicle;
18. The point at which a plane appears in the parking lot of Mont St. Eloi Airfield (Arras, 0605-6) has been moved further away from the buildings to accommodate larger planes such as the new Breguet XIV.B2;
19. Fixed an issue where anti-aircraft searchlights were not targeting the player's aircraft in a Quick Mission;
20. A-20 and B-25 bombers: if the country is set to US the mission, the commander (and the assistant on B-25) now has a unique, historically more correct model. This new model includes combat-worn body armor and helmet;
21. Improved detailing of Fw 190 A3/A5/A6/A8 cockpits by Oyster_KAI;
22. Fixed an issue where AI fighters were endlessly chasing a fleeing target;
23. Fixed application crash of clients connected to the multiplayer server created from the game at the moment of the server exit to the main menu;
24. Added cloud subtype selection in Quick Mission (previously it was selected randomly);
25. Fixed an issue where only the leader of a group of landing AI planes defended against enemy planes;
26. Changed the probability of randomly selected allied and enemy squadrons in the Career mode which should increase the variability of different types of aircraft in a mission.
27. Buildings and other objects outside the mission area in Pilot Career mode are correctly removed to shorten mission loading time;
28. An error in the location database in the Battle of Moscow Pilot Career that caused 132nd BAP careers to stop working after February 27th, 1942 has been fixed.

We hope you enjoy this update!

The Sturmovik Team