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. 🙂













*Any artifacts are caused by YouTube compression.

Enjoy.

The Sturmovik Team

309

Dear Friends,

Once again, we are reminded that real-life is much more important than a video game or flight simulations. We pray for the safety and well-being of all our friends, family and associates no matter where they are during this difficult time. We are an international team and an apolitical organization and we wish to remain so. We ask that you help us keep our forum and other properties civil as world events unfold. We are operating as usual; development continues and we expect to continue to do so.

For today’s DD we have new, never before seen pics of the Arado AR 234 cockpit under development.





We also have some shots of the Bedford QLD lorry and QLC fuel tanker.



And finally, we have an image of our USAAF bomber pilots with different helmets.



Please enjoy.

The Sturmovik Team

Attention ALL Pilots and Tankers!

The WINTER 2.0 SALE has launched!! Time to fill up your hangar as we prepare our next releases and updates.

The WINTER 2.0 SALE runs from 10:00am PST Feb. 23rd to 10:00am PST Mar. 9th right here on STEAM.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/307960/IL2_Sturmovik_Battle_of_Stalingrad/

GAZ-MM 72-K - 50% Off
Sd.Kfz. 10/5 Flak 38- 50% Off

BOS – 85% Off
BOM – 75% Off
BOK – 75% Off
BOBP – 75% Off
FC1 – 66% Off
Tank Crew - 50% Off

Hurricane Mk.II - 66% Off
Yak-9 – 66% Off
Yak-9T – 66% Off
Fw-190 D-9 – 75% Off
P-38 J-15 – 75% Off
U-2VS -75% Off
Ju-52/3M – 75% Off
Bf-109 G-6 – 75% Off
Yak-1B – 75% Off
Spitfire Mk. VB – 75 % Off
LA-5FN – 75% Off
HS-129 B-2 – 85% Off
P-40E-1 – 85% Off
Macchi MC.202 – 85% Off
Fw-190 A-3 – 85% Off
LA-5 Series 8 – 85% Off

Ice Ring – 66% Off
Blazing Steppe – 75% Off
Fortress on the Volga – 75% Off


https://store.steampowered.com/app/244050/Rise_of_Flight_United/

All ROF Content – 75% Off

Enjoy!

See you in the skies and on the battlefield!

The Sturmovik Team

308

Hello Everyone!

Today’s Developer Diary has just one task. To show you the mighty Ju 88 C-6 in the engine and decimating targets with her awesome firepower. Don’t get caught in her gunsight because she can unleash a hellish barrage or bullets, cannon fire or bombs! A couple of these heavy hitters can wreck a convoy or an airfield in no time.

These images also include our New Sky which is nearing readiness for release soon. You’ll notice it looks not only more beautiful, but more realistic with no banding in low light conditions. The new sky when coupled with the new clouds and some new adjustments to the lighting, combines to make a beautiful scene!











We’ve also added the ability to set the time to the exact hour and minute you want in the Quick Missions GUI so it will be much easier to fly during your favorite time of day.

Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

Hello Everyone!

Today we bring you some news from the Great War! We are nearing completion of the final trio of Flying Circus- Vol. II aircraft. The Gotha G.V., Handley-Page O/400 and Sopwith Triplane are coming along nicely. The Gotha G.V. will be released in our next update, which we hope will be by the end of this month. The HP O/400 and Tripe will be in a March update. The Western Front map for FC2/3 is also being worked on by Ugra Media, but it is not ready to be shown yet and will likely take more time to complete that we originally planned unfortunately. A clear estimate on its arrival is not possible at the moment, but will update you as soon as we get a better handle on it. Map making is a slow process in general.





In some WWII news we have created new USAAF bomber crewmembers for our B-26 to man the gun stations. The work by Alexey is top notch as usual.



We have also made more progress on our new sky technology and are currently working to put it into Beta soon. Next week we plan to update our Astro-dome (stars and planets) to be more accurate depending on the latitude of the map. This is a small, but interesting improvement to make our physical world a little more accurate.

Work on our remaining Battle of Normandy aircraft continues. As I have mentioned previously, moderate delays have befallen these birds during the pandemic, but work continues and we hope to start showing you more of them in upcoming DDs. However, the Ju-88 C-6 should be ready for Beta testing soon and be included in our next update (provided testing goes well). We are finalizing our skins for it and getting ready to roll her out. We hope to have updated pics for you next week of the beastly Ju-88 C-6.

It appears the world is finally ready to move on from the pandemic and we hope this means life will get back to normal. Of course, humanity will find a way to struggle to even get back to normal, such is our nature it seems. However, the long-term disruption to daily life, families, education, travel, medicine, governments and business norms that this pandemic has caused will be felt for years to come. In the face of all this disruption, we want to say THANK YOU to all who have supported us during the last couple years as we have struggled to maintain a steady flow of content and improvements for the Great Battles series. We can never thank you enough and we will continue to work hard for you.

Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

306

Hello Everyone!

While we continue to work to finish several aircraft for BON and FC2, we would like to take a moment to show you something else we’ve been working on- our new sky technology! Many of you have complained in the past about “banding” that occurs in our sky-dome, especially as light begins to fade late in the day and at night. We agree that this was not ideal and we have decided to do something about it.

We have now adopted a more physics-based technology that has more or less become an industry standard these days. Before we had more of an artistic approach, but it had some limitations as many of you pointed out. The new sky is meant to simulate the sky on a round globe and we have adapted it to our engine. The results are pretty nice. The end result should be no banding, including the glow around the moon. This should give you a more realistic picture. Our new sky also allows us to change how we do dust and haze in the atmosphere which we will look at in the not too-distant future as well.

This technology should not have much of an impact on your performance, however, it does use more Video Memory, so we highly recommend you have at least 2GB or more. This was one of the reasons for the Video Card Survey we asked you to participate in last week. Which, if you haven’t taken the time yet, please do participate. It’s very helpful to us.

We feel that with this new sky along with our new clouds create a really great atmospheric environment to fly and fight in. We still need to tweak our lighting for each season and make some further small adjustments, but here are several pics that show where we are headed. Some pics are on clear days and some are on hazier days. We also show how the moon looks now and some of the new sunset colors that occur.







Note: Due to compression when I saved the images for posting I caused some loss in quality which may show some slight banding. This is not from the game itself. Please download and look at the originals here in this archive to see the difference if you feel it necessary. In-game there is no banding.

{LINK REMOVED}Uncompressed Originals

We hope you like it.

Enjoy!

The Sturmovik Team

305

Hello everyone!

Today’s DD is both informative and interactive! First, we have a couple shots of our new Recon GUI that heralds our re-establishment of interactive elements into our in-game environment. We had this feature in ROF and used it for recon and artillery spotting duties. We are bringing it back for Sturmovik and it’s starting to take shape. These shots are WIP, but you can see it will add some cool new mission types to our various modes of gameplay.



EVERYONE PLEASE TAKE THIS POLL AT THE IL-2 OFFICIAL FORUM

On a much different note, we are working on some changes to the engine and it might require an increase in certain minimum system requirements. Especially in the video card category. So, we would like everyone to take this special poll below and answer the questions. This will give us some insight into what video cards you are currently using, or if you plan to buy a particular card quite soon go ahead and select what you are planning to own say within the next 30-60 days. We know upgrading cards right now is tough due to shortages, but we’d like to know where you currently are or plan to go soon with a new card to give us a snapshot. Thanks in advance.

We would appreciate it if IL-2 users who use Steam participated in the Survey. We know Steam does its own hardware survey, but it would help us to know what video cards Steam based IL-2 customers are specifically using. If you don't already have one, you'll need an IL-2 Website User Account to participate in the poll.

TAKE VIDEO CARD SURVEY

Thank you!

The Sturmovik Team

Attention ALL Pilots and Tankers!

The Lunar New Year Sale has launched!! Time to save and get up and flying!

The Annual Autumn Sale runs from 10:00am PST Jan. 27th to 10:00am PST feb. 3rd right here on STEAM.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/307960/IL2_Sturmovik_Battle_of_Stalingrad/

GAZ-MM 72-K - 40% Off
Sd.Kfz. 10/5 Flak 38- 40% Off

BOS – 85% Off
BOM – 75% Off
BOK – 75% Off
BOBP – 75% Off
FC1 – 66% Off
Tank Crew - 50% Off

Hurricane Mk.II - 66% Off
Yak-9 – 66% Off
Yak-9T – 66% Off
Fw-190 D-9 – 75% Off
P-38 J-15 – 75% Off
U-2VS -75% Off
Ju-52/3M – 75% Off
Bf-109 G-6 – 75% Off
Yak-1B – 75% Off
Spitfire Mk. VB – 75 % Off
LA-5FN – 75% Off
HS-129 B-2 – 85% Off
P-40E-1 – 85% Off
Macchi MC.202 – 85% Off
Fw-190 A-3 – 85% Off
LA-5 Series 8 – 85% Off

Ice Ring – 66% Off
Blazing Steppe – 75% Off
Fortress on the Volga – 75% Off

https://store.steampowered.com/app/754530/IL2_Sturmovik_Cliffs_of_Dover_Blitz_Edition/

Cliffs of Dover: Blitz - 35%
Desert Wings: Tobruk - 20%

https://store.steampowered.com/app/244050/Rise_of_Flight_United/

All ROF Content – 75% Off

Enjoy!

See you in the skies and on the battlefield!

The Sturmovik Team

DD 304

Attention Pilots!

Our first Developer Diary of 2022 is here and it includes our first of two heavy bombers that are coming to FC2 – the mighty Gotha C.V. is up and flying! She’s a big bird that terrorized its enemies and foretold the future of heavy bombing in later conflicts. She’s a pusher design that is not so easy to fly, but in the right hands is an effective bomber. Load her up with your friends and multiplayer sorties become a whole new experience! We think you’ll like her and she’s coming soon to Flying Circus – Vol. II. The Handley-Page O/400 is also being worked on along with the Sopwith Triplane.




In Normandy news, we are developing some new and varied runway surfaces for our airfields and tweaking some existing ones. There were quite a few different types of surfaces used in this theater. Everything from asphalt to steel to wood chips mixed together with tar were utilized to build runways and taxiways. These pics are early WIP so may change before final, but we thought they are interesting to show you what’s in the works.




And we are also adding the British C9/B with 40mm Bofors to the BON vehicle collection. She’s looking nice.



We continue to push to finish BON and FC2 and so many things are being worked on at the moment. Several twin-engine planes, two collector tanks, two big maps (Normandy and Western Front) and new GUI features are in development along with some small, but welcome improvements like adjusting Navigation Lights to more realistic visibility. The new Fuel Systems modeling is also finally coming back to beta along with drop tanks for several 109s as a start. We’re also taking a look at some other FM related issues like propeller modeling where some old issues exist. We continue to research how to improve our sky even further, not to mention the continued implementation of Tactical Codes and Dynamic Visual Damage to all our airplanes. Career mode development for Normandy is also under way and Flying Circus Career work will begin just as soon the new map has enough of it ready. And I almost forgot, Alex has built a new Spit XIV Scripted Campaign for the Rhineland map called His Majesty's Griffons. It will be free to all who own both BOBP and BON and will be in the next update. So, 2022 is off to a very busy start and it will be a huge year for the Great Battles series!

Update 4.702

Dear Friends,

We're glad to report that the work on 4.702 update is finished and it is released. It doesn't contain as many changes as the previous one, but it does bring the long-awaited P-51B-5 fighter for the Battle of Normandy! It took a very long time, but there were some reasons for this - namely the long list of its modifications. It has three different gunsights(!), two canopies - standard and Malcolm Hood where the moving part of the canopy is a single spherical shaped piece of plexiglass. This aircraft is also the first to have flexible bomb loadouts depending on the country (please note that for this feature to work you should select the aircraft skin of a country you want before generating a quick mission and not after that on the hangar screen). Of course, it also uses the new DVD damage visualization system and dynamic tactical codes.




Note: This P-51B-5 is only available as flyable for Early Access customers of Battle of Normandy. BON will be made available on Steam just as soon as it’s completed. If you are not an Early Access customer of Battle of Normandy, the P-51B-5 is available as an AI controlled opponent or wingman in all modes of gameplay.

Along with P-51B, we have a late Christmas gift for the owners of Flying Circus Vol.I - two new free campaigns Gallant Green featuring the British S.E.5a and Red Knights featuring the German Albatros D.V. There are also 10 new single-player missions showcasing all the birds of Vol.I. They were created by our friend Jaegermeister. A big THANK YOU to him for creating them. Enjoy!



As usual, there are many other improvements and additions aimed at increasing the sim quality you can see in the list below. IL-2 Sturmovik team wishes you a Happy New Year, all the best and for your dreams to be fulfilled!

4.702
1. The P-51B-5 fighter is now available for all Early Access customers of Battle of Normandy;
2. The new free campaign "Gallant Green" (S.E.5a) was added for all Flying Circus Vol.I owners;
3. The new free campaign "Red Knights" (Albatros DVa) was added for all Flying Circus Vol.I. owners;
4. 10 single missions showcasing Flying Circus Vol.I aircraft were added;
5. Visual pixelization and shimmering of medium and low-density clouds at medium and far distances was minimized. Note: Radeon users may experience some minor artifacts or visual anomalies due to this change. We are working to fix this, but the solution may take until next update as we need to discuss with AMD.
6. Radio compasses of all German planes except Ju 52 were retouched (Oyster_KAI);
7. Seats and throttle controls of all Messerschmitts were redrawn (Oyster_KAI);
8. P-51D panel lettering improved (Oyster_KAI);
9. Detail of the sight cap on all Spitfires improved (Oyster_KAI);
10. All Fw 190 A8 paint schemes, including the default, were redrawn (Martin =ICDP= Catney)
11. All Bf 109 G6 Late paint-schemes, including the default, were redrawn (Martin =ICDP= Catney);
12. All Bf 109 G14 paint-schemes, including the default, were redrawn (Martin =ICDP= Catney);
13. All Bf 109 K4 paint schemes, including the default, were redrawn (Martin =ICDP= Catney);
14. All Me 262 paint schemes, including the default, were redrawn (Martin =ICDP= Catney);
15. All P-47D-22 paint schemes, including the default, were redrawn (Martin =ICDP= Catney);
16. All P-47D-28 paint -schemes, including the default, were redrawn (Martin =ICDP= Catney);
17. Fixed number of rounds for KV-1 tank when there are two ammo types with one prevailing type;
18. Tracers and navigation lights are not visible through clouds;
19. New effects of fires of aircraft engines and fuel tanks created;
20. Fixed misalignment of machine gun and automatic gun bursts on detailed ground vehicles;
21. Fixed an issue that caused large planes at a distance of more than 10km to be invisible in binoculars;
22. Morning/evening fog is now visible at different haze settings, not only the maximum one;
23. Low visibility z-fighting of the morning fog has been eliminated;
24. Reduced "blockiness" of cloud shadows on the surface;
25. The influence of launch tubes, transport containers and paratroopers on total aircraft mass was restored;
26. The old issue where the propeller was visible through the light halo of the cockpit light bulb is gone thanks to improved technology;
27. Fixed an issue where the formation lights toggle switches on American fighters were not animated when the engine was turned off;
28. Added parameter for VR: render_eye = 0 [-1, 0, 1] to startup.cfg. If set it to -1, only the left eye camera will be shown on the monitor in VR mode, and only the right eye view if set to 1. If set to 0 it shows both eyes.
29. HUD appears faster on mission start;
30. Fixed problem with the direction of MLRS rockets in a multiplayer game;
31. Restored functionality of fixed cameras (LAlt+2) in multiplayer (both Cooperative and Dogfight modes) when starting the server from within the game with spectators allowed (difficulty option Allow Spectators).

See you on the battlefield and in the skies!

Happy New Year everyone!

The Sturmovik Team