May 20, 2011

IL - 2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Update Released

IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover - Valve

Updates to IL - 2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The major changes include:

GENERAL

The game will now automatically delete and recreate its cache when a new game version is installed;
Medium-range terrain detail noise is less dramatic when seen from up-close;
Improved the lighting of spline roads and runways;
Fixed empty tooltips occasionally appearing at edges of the 2D map;
Map zoom extents now reset properly when switching between game maps of different size;
By popular demand, enemy indicator arrows will now only appear in the no-cockpit view, and will not show up when the cockpit is turned on, i.e. work they did in the original Il-2 games.

GRAPHICS

Added ATI Crossfire support. NVidia SLI support will become available when a profile for the game is added in an upcoming official driver release;
Reworked the lighting system in the game to improve the visual experience;
Added True full-screen mode. The game was previously playing in a stretched window; that mode is also still available. Switch between windowed, pseudo (stretched window) and true full screen modes in the Video Options. NOTE: If you are running an ATI video card and you notice reduced performance in True full-screen mode, please switch back to Pseudo to improve framerate;
Greatly improved performance over large cities, especially with Buildings Detail settings set below Very High. NOTE: if you do experience stutters over cities with Building Detail set to Very High, please consider turning it down. Even setting this to Medium will have almost no noticeable effect on visual quality of the game;
Introduced background landscape loading that slowly creates landscape under the player's camera. You can now quickly switch from England to France with virtually no slow-downs. Performance gain is most noticeable on CPUs with four+ cores;
Fixed a bug with distant forest lines appearing at close distances;
Fixed a bug with shadow stripes appearing at edges of screen;
Fixed improperly loading plane textures in the DirectX 9 render.

AIRCRAFT INTERNALS

Removed warnings of a missing "Select_F1" piece when flying a Hurricane.
The Sunderland will no longer cause errors when loading a mission.

AIRCRAFT VISUALS

Propellor visuals are now tied to epilepsy filter settings applicable regions;
Reduced head motion effects, especially in terms of G;
Added a range of new SFX for bombs hitting or exploding inside a building;
Increased draw distance for markings and decals on aircraft;
Reworked stopwatch behaviour on German planes. The minute elapsed needle now indicates minutes as it should.
Fixed minor Bf. 110 damage and animation issues;
Fixed weird movement of Bf. 110's magnetic compass dial;
Fixed Bf. 109 gunsight misalignment;
Fixed a hole under a damaged engine cowling in the Defiant;
Fixed visual issues with Defiant's tail damage;
Put a mirror onto the Hurricane;
Fixed Hurricane's tail damage visuals;
Updated Hurricane radiator animation;
Ju. 88 gear now open properly;
Fixed minor Ju. 88 damage visuals;
Asked the Ju. 88's pilot to keep his feet on the pedals;
Made minor changes to cockpits of G. 50 and Ju. 88;
Fixed a visual issue with the Spitfire's antenna;
Fixed minor Sunderland damage visuals;
Made minor modifications to Spitfire cockpit;
Fixed minor damage visuals in the Ju. 88;
Fixed minor damage visuals in the Hurricane;
Fixed minor damage visuals in the Ju. 87;
Made various modifications to SFX;
Made various changes to victory marking decals;
Fixed minor Blenheim damage visuals;
Fixed a rare instance where a propellor could be visible when an engine was detached from a 2-engine plane;
Inverted the movement of the Bf. 109's radiator flap indicator (raised when radiator closed).
Planes won't knock dust off the water any more when they land on it.

AIRCRAFT PHYSICS & A.I

Spitfires' payload in outer-most machine guns changed to contain tracers. The more historical no-tracers loadout can still be selected and applied manually in plane options.
Removed the ability to feather propellors on Daimler-Benz engines by increasing the pitch angle beyond normal operational range manually;
Carburetter backfire effects now require a certain amount of gasoline mix to be contained in the intake to actually do some damage;
The propellor pitch control on all Daimler-Benz-equipped Messerschmitts is now a spring-loaded electrical switch;
Aircraft fires now burn crew members;
Reduced the ability of bombs to bounce off certain surfaces;
Changed magnetic inclination to 10.11 degree west to reflect actual 1940 values;
Removed ignition control handle from the Bf. 109;
Defiant's gunner now opens both hatches when bailing out;
He. 111 top gunner's machine gun won't dip into the fuselage any more;
Made all fuel pressure gauges a single-tube type;
Made turret mounts unlock faster;
Removed the effect that made Bf. 109's motor shake at higher altitudes;
Added aircraft buffeting to wing icing effects;
Increased wing lift loss during wing icing;
Fixed the issue where non-symmetrical damage to landing flap mechanics resulted in symmetrical air flow over both wings.

GENERAL

Added Force Feedback support to the game;
Added six new Il-2-style Quick missions. See them at the bottom of the list
three each for German and British attacks of Airfields, Bridges and Transport Columns. Fly in bombers, escort and intercept and scramble fighters, with missions of up to 128 aircraft!
Improved the damage model for radar;
Made sure plane selection and other user modifications stick in Quick Mission Builder when returning to the interface after flying a custom mission;
Restored throttle-up smoke from non-player planes;
Fixed some pilot animations;
Updated some briefings and other in-game texts;
Improved the overall look of the 2D Map;
Added a Scale control to the 2D Map (imperial for British, metric for Germans and Italians);
Added city and airfield labels to the 2D Map;
Added larger 64x64 icons to the 2D Map;
Improved the order in which icons are drawn on the 2D Map when on top of each other;
Improved the look of the Battle Area grid;
Fixed icon size selection options;
Fixed issues encountered when destroying certain types of railway cars;
Improved ground crewmembers in online games;
Made sure Bobbin Cable can be selected in the FMB without issues;
Fixed an issue encountered when trying to load a mission with a balloon winch placed too near a hangar;
Fixed an issue encountered when trying to place crew into an object without a regiment;
Fixed an issue with launching night missions with search lights on dedicated servers;
Fixed an issue with launching missions with certain ships on dedicated servers;
Fixed an issue with launching missions with armor when sound is disabled.

MULTIPLAYER

Improved server and client stability and performance;
Improved statistics;
Improved user interface;
Made parked planes disappear after a certain period of time so as not to clutter the airfields;
Fixed phantom crewmembers occasionally appearing in place of dropped planes;
Made sure airborne planes are created with sufficient airspeed in online games (born speed now tied to the plane's top speed);
Conversion settings should properly synchronize between all players;
Fixed the weapon selection grid in online games requiring an extra click to save;
Made sure all players see the same time of day in an online server.

CHANNEL MAP

Made Dungeness Point look more like the real-life location;
Added the town of Horsham to the map;
Added Westhampnett airfield to the map.

SPECIAL THANKS

Sean Trestrail for his tireless efforts to test and improve the game;
3GIAP_Atas, Doug Watson, "The Oden", Repka Server, and other server hosts and testers that helped us iron out the multiplayer.