IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad News

313

Dear Friends,

Today’s DD features two great, new additions that we think you will be excited about!

First, we have in-game pics of the awesome and often overlooked workhorse of the USAAF – the B-26! The B-26 was considered a fast medium bomber and it saw action on all fronts in WWII for the USAAF. It was somewhat tricky to fly and had a not so good reputation in the eyes of early aircrews. Accidents were known to happen quite often. But once in theater the B-26 rose to the occasion and usually bombed tactical targets from lower altitudes than the heavy bombers like the B-17 and B-24. Targets like bridges, airfields, command posts, beaches and railyards are all prime targets for the B-26. The B-26 in Great Battles is the Block 55 model which were numerous in the European theater during the Normandy time-frame and this model also came in both olive drab and natural metal finishes which will add variety to our skins. Our B-26 is an AI controlled plane, like our B-25. However, with the inclusion of the B-26 we can have much more interesting missions and gameplay with some proper Allied level-bombers playing their role. Plus, it is just a beautifully streamlined aircraft that really makes for some great photos! Also, we cannot wait to see what skin artists will do with her.



On a personal note, my grandfather served in B-26s during WWII in England and France with the 9th Air Force and seeing the B-26 take flight in Great Battles makes it extra special for me. It's this kind of personal connection to history that makes this job and hobby worth the effort.


I addition to the B-26 we have finally begun work on improvements to our controller assignment system. In Rise of Flight, we had a great system for assigning key maps, joystick curves to custom input profiles which could be assigned to individual planes or set as default. The system worked well and was popular.

We are now taking the time to add a similar system to Sturmovik and we think you’re going to be very happy with it. I hesitate to show you such early, early draft images, but they demonstrate where we are headed. Also, we are adding the ability to virtually adjust the pitch like we had in ROF, which for WWI crates makes them much more comfortable to fly and increases the fun factor.




Enjoy!

Jason and The Sturmovik Team

312

Dear Friends,

Today’s Developer Diary showcases our upcoming and awesome Mosquito FB Mk.VI. Isn’t she a beauty? Our “Wooden Wonder” as it was called, is in the later stages of development and we have already completed some of her skins that will be included. Work on her flight model has begun and work on finishing her cockpit continues. We are doing all we can to get her into your hangars just as soon as possible. We know she is a hotly anticipated plane and the wait is difficult, but please have patience, we think she will be worth it!



As you know, we frequently re-visit some of our older technology and try to improve it. A recent example is our sky, clouds and lighting, which we still hope to improve further in time. Recently, we finally had some time to re-visit our technology that affects the appearance of our Propeller Disk. Our current prop disk has some issues that we wanted to rectify including how it seems to disappear at certain angles. We also wanted to make its appearance more realistic and dynamic. We think we achieved this and here are a couple screens to help demonstrate. It’s hard to get the whole effect in still images or even a video, but we wanted to make you aware of this development. We think you’ll enjoy it once it’s in-game.



Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

Updaet 4.703

Dear Friends,

We have reached another milestone in the project development and are proud to present you our newest update 4.703, which contains a lot of great, new stuff.

First of all, there is a new heavy fighter in the sim – the Ju 88 C-6! It was created for the Battle of Normandy module and it was designed to take out targets easily with her impressive forward firing armament. It also had the capability to carry a significant bomb load due to it being the JU 88 airframe, which made it a truly multi-purpose aircraft.



The second and third big additions to this update is some 'heavy lumber’ from the Great War – the Handley Page O/400 and Gotha G.V for Flying Circus Vol. II.

The Handley Page was a giant capable of carrying up to 1,800 pounds of bombs, including the powerful 1,650 lb. bomb. It also has a wide selection of turret modifications for self-defense.



The Gotha is also an interesting heavy bomber that could carry up to 700 kg of bombs, but because of the very long wing and large ailerons placed on its ends this aircraft was difficult to pilot. Ailerons give a significant yaw momentum, so the pilot should be experienced and understand the physics of the process to handle it properly, especially at lower speeds.



The fourth big addition in the update is a new historical campaign called 'His Majesty’s Griffons' by Alexander 'BlackSix' Timoshkov. This campaign will bring you many hours of great British warbird gameplay in a late war setting. It requires the Rhineland map from the Bodenplatte module and Spitfire XIV from Battle of Normandy Premium. If you happen to have both modules or decide to buy both, it is FREE for you!





The final big piece to this important update is the new and improved rendering technology of our Sky-dome. This new approach results in a more natural looking and varied sky with a physics-based approach to sky colors etc. There are other significant improvements that come along with it such as, improved lighting, less 'banding' of the sky and realistic placement of heavenly bodies based on the location of the map. Couple this new sky with our recently improved clouds and the resulting picture becomes a lot more realistic and truer to life that rivals any combat or non-combat sim product out there.



In addition to the changes highlighted above there are many other ones listed below. And please note that due to an old bug we fixed with VR, we were required to update the track format. So, tracks recorded in previous versions of the sim won't be playable. We apologize, for that as always, but it is unavoidable.

4.703

Major changes
1. Ju 88 C-6 heavy twin-engine fighter is now available to all owners of the Battle of Normandy;
2. Handley Page O/400 twin-engine heavy bomber is now available to all owners of the Flying Circus - Vol. 2;
3. The Gotha G.V. WW1 twin-engine heavy bomber is now available to all owners of the Flying Circus - Vol. 2;
4. The new historical campaign His Majesty's Griffons (Spitfire XIV on the Rheinland map) has been added (it is free for players who have this map from Operation Bodenplatte and the aircraft from the Battle of Normandy);
5. The game uses completely new technology to render the celestial sphere, resulting in a more realistic picture;
6. In-game lighting has been completely reconfigured, reducing the "blue tint" (especially during winter);
7. The starry sky is now somewhat distinguishable at sunset;
8. Position of celestial bodies now depends not only on time and date, but also on geographical coordinates (including when moving on the map);
9. Winter snow rendering at close range has been improved;
10. Improved brightness balance between the ground surface and objects textures;
11. Quick Mission time settings allow to set any time, also it is possible to quickly select the time of sunset, midnight, dawn and noon;

Career mode changes
12. A new mission type, Traffic interdiction, has been added for German squadrons that flew the Bf 109 E-7, Fw 190 A-5, Fw 190 A-8, Hs 129 B-2, Bf 110 E-2/G-2, and Ju 88 C-6;
13. The Ju 88 C-6 heavy fighter is available in the Battle of Stalingrad Career mode (III./KG 76) and in the Battle of Kuban (7.(Eis)/KG 51 and 9./KG 55);
14. Player can join II./JG 3 in the Battle of Stalingrad;
15. Player can join II./KG 76 (Battle of Moscow and Battle of Stalingrad);
16. Battle for Stalingrad 7th phase (12 Dec. 1942 - 9 Jan. 1943) targets corrected (some depots to bomb were on friendly territory);
17. Rhineland map (QM, AQM, Career, Mission Editor Templates): large railway station buildings won’t visibly ‘hang’ in the air;

Aircraft changes
18. On all Bf-109 aircraft (except for the E-7) the aerodynamic characteristics of the propeller have been changed to eliminate the unrealistic behavior of the aircraft in the wake of the propeller and the possibility of "hovering on the propeller". The airframe aerodynamics of these aircraft has also been corrected so that the maximum speed, rate of climb, turn time, and acceleration time better corresponded to the reference values;
19. On all Bf-109 aircraft (except for the E-7) the effectiveness of the ailerons at high speeds has been changed (increased) (the "clamping" of the ailerons has been reduced at speeds over 400 km/h);
20. On all Bf-109s aircraft (except for the E7 and K4) the engine thermal model was corrected to eliminate the erroneous engine overheat warning message when the limits were not exceeded;
21. On Bf-109 F4 and G-series aircraft the engine model was corrected to eliminate an error that resulted in a decrease in the boost pressure before reaching the design altitude;
22. Nieuport 28 modification of the Vickers large-caliber machine guns ("Balloon gun") was corrected (150 rounds per gun instead of 200);
23. The S.E.5a machine guns are directed upwards relative to the propeller axis;
24. Fw 190 A-6: smoke from the engine exhaust is now visible from the cockpit;
25. Flying Circus Imperial system airplanes now have technochat messages also displayed in that system;
26. Aircraft with manually controlled engine exhaust flaps now appear in the sim with the flaps fully open (except for airplanes with individually configured exhaust flap positions);
27. Aerobatics smoke generators were corrected;
28. All collimator sights with a glowing reticle that has movable elements: the brightness increase effect in the center of the optical system has been corrected;
29. Ju-88 A-4 canopy jettison looks correctly in multiplayer;
30. The ability to set an offset position of the engine control axes relative to the "common" axis in the "All Engines Selected" mode on multi-engine aircraft ("thrust difference") when the control helpers are on is possible again;
31. Flying Circus bombs' warheads were corrected;
32. Reduced posterization of the gunsight reticle halo;
33. Heavy bomber AIs won’t try to evade an attack by zig-zag maneuvering;
34. AI will correctly aim any type of forward firing weapons (such as guns and machine guns) when the ‘primary’ weapon ammunition is spent;
35. Various improvements to Ju-52, Bf-110 E-2, Ju-87 D-3 and other German aircraft cockpit textures by Oyster_KAI;
36. Landing gear position indicator light brightness corrected on all German aircraft;

Graphics changes
37. New improved fuel and engine fire effects for jet aircraft added;
38. New improved fire effects for player controllable detailed ground vehicles added;
39. Fixed posterization of the moon and stars halo;
40. Fixed an issue with Anti-Aliasing not working well enough at some angles;
41. Fixed an issue with landing lights and flares being visible through clouds;
42. Fixed an issue with a "white streak" visual artifact going down the rivers at a great distance from the camera;
43. Reduced vignetting of the "Cinematic Camera" effect;
44. Fixed an issue with an incorrect gaze direction in VR devices when switching to the gunner on aircraft where a rear gunner sits close with his back to the pilot;

Other changes
45. Sunrise and sunset times are calculated more accurately where they affect the game logic;
46. Fixed an issue that caused the radio message to repeat endlessly when an AI wingman destroyed a train;
47. Railroad platforms with M2.50 anti-aircraft guns, DSHK, Bofors L60 and Flakvierling 38 added.

Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

311

Hello Everyone,

A quick update on all that we are working on at the moment. We are preparing version 4.703 for release for middle of next week. Assuming, of course, no last-minute show stoppers arise.

Update 4.703 will include three large planes – the JU 88 C-6, Gotha G.V. and Handley Page O/400. This brings some heavier metal to BON and some err… heavier lumber to FC2 I guess you could say.

The Gotha, as it was in Rise of Flight is a handful to fly. See if you can master it! The Sopwith Tripe is also entering its later stage of development and will be in our next update.

4.703 also includes 40+ smaller tweaks and improvements including items such as:

- New sky technology and improvements to lighting. Should see a reduction in overall blue tint.
- Improvements to the appearance and lighting of snowy landscapes.
- The position of heavenly bodies now depends not only on time and date, but also on geographic coordinates (including when moving around the map).
- Quick Mission GUI now includes the ability to set any time of day with clues as to Sunrise, Daylight, Sunset and Night-time scenes.
- AI with mixed cannon and machine gun armaments shoot more accurately.
- Fix to the landing lights that are visible from far away issue.
- Added the Ju-88 C-6 to Stalingrad Career mode with III./KG76 and for the Battle of Kuban 7.(Eis)/KG 51 and 9./KG 55.
- Squadron II./JG 3 for Pilot Career Battle of Stalingrad moved from AI to player controllable
- Squadron II./KG 76 for pilot career Battle of Moscow and Battle of Stalingrad moved from AI to player controllable.

After much research and bug chasing, our engineers discovered clear issues with our modeling of some aspects of the Bf-109 airframe, which in some situations made their performance quite unrealistic. So, we have made some changes to most Bf-109 variants relating to the over-modeling of propeller performance and aerodynamics. Version 4.703 will include the following changes.

- On all Bf-109 aircraft (except for the E-7) the aerodynamic characteristics of the propeller have been changed to eliminate the unrealistic behavior of the aircraft in the wake of the propeller and the possibility of "hovering on the propeller". The airframe aerodynamics of these aircraft has also been corrected so that the maximum speed, rate of climb, turn time, and acceleration time better corresponded to the reference values.
- On all Bf-109 aircraft (except for the E-7) the effectiveness of the ailerons at high speeds has been changed (increased) (the "clamping" of the ailerons has been reduced at speeds over 400 km/h)

The goal was to be more accurate overall, so in some cases speeds may be bit lower at sea level, but higher at rated altitudes and climb-rate may be a bit slower. But in some cases, turns may be quicker, but acceleration a little slower. As usual, we have used a mix of German and Soviet sources to try to get a more accurate picture.

Also, Fuel System work has progressed to a late stage and has been in Beta testing, but the Beta testers continue to find issues that need addressing, so work continues. Its very frustrating, but we continue to work on it.

And before we sign off for the week, here are a few pics of the Churchill Mk.IV tank being tested and tweaked in our virtual proving grounds.



We hope you will like version 4.703 when it arrives.

The Sturmovik Team

310

Hello Everyone,

Today’s DD brings us some very cool renders of the Me 410 A-1 cockpit. It’s a very unique cockpit and has been a challenge to build, but it’s looking great now and heading into the final stretch. We continue to work on our next update which we hope will be next week. It will be a good one with the new sky and new airplanes like the Ju 88 C-6, Gotha G.V. and we think possibly the Handley Page O/400.

Me 410 A-1 Cockpit in Development



And our colleague =DED= Rapidus just handed me a link to a short video of our new sky and Ju 88 C-6 in action that he filmed while testing the Beta. You may want to check out. Has some funky beats. 🙂


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]










*Any artifacts are caused by YouTube compression.

Enjoy.

The Sturmovik Team