aaronwhite

I feel like it's just one of those things that always happens, which is why I understand when developers default to the usual response of "It's done when it's done. Hell, thinking back to the original Il-2 forums where "Two weeks, be sure" was the running gag anytime someone was curious about a release date for a product or patch. Too many people see "We hope to release by x" and think "Oh, cool. They're promising me that it's going to be in my hands on x date!" instead of realizing it's a goal in the world of flight sim development where unexpected issues or changes can easily derail your entire plan.

Yeah, I'm admittedly not skilled on the integration of stuff for Substance Painter, since I've never had a reason to pay to use it without it working with DCS. My guess would be that they would need to create some sort of plugin that works with the ED game engine and allows Substance to access the model and texture files while modifying the textures. I have no idea how plausible it is or anything like that, it's just a "If I'm wishing for things to make my life easier creating skins, here's my fantasy". That said, I'll absolutely settle for just being able to easily load up the models using the tried and true Model Viewer.

I definitely understand why ED wants to encrypt things, and I don't think the encryption itself is bad or anything. It makes it easier for ED to protect their products and prevent them from being snatched up and used in other games or anything like that. I just really hope making the model viewer work with the encrypted files is a priority as well. I can't remember if I mentioned it here or in another thread, but I would love if there was a way to use a tool like Substance Painter too. I imagine that could help speed the painting process up by a ton, assuming it works the way I imagine it does. Unfortunately, since I don't have a way to really use it with DCS or Il-2's models, I've never had an excuse to really get it and try it out for skin creation. But if I could just paint on the actual 3D model and not have to play the "Let's line up this straight line that's rendered slightly differently between these two different texture files" ever again, I certainly wouldn't be mad about it.

My history on here probably shows as much, but I love throwing together fun skins for the various modules we get. Especially since it's impossible for ED or the various third parties to conceivably cover all of the different liveries out there (not that our hard drives would want them to anyway) and it's really a lot of fun, even if it turns into hours of frustration trying to line up two pixels on the weird wing joins of the F-14 to get a stupid line right. I'm really hoping if the models are going to be archived going forward, which I understand the point of from ED's perspective, that they are going to at least update the model viewer before that become the norm, so we can at least continue working. Even on my relatively beefy computer, having to run multiple high resolution templates in Photoshop with the potentially hundreds of layers on each one, while opening DCS and having to load a mission just to go "Oh, no, that line is still 3 pixels too far off" is really time consuming and frustrating, to the point of being enough to kill my enjoyment and make me not want to do it at all. I've thrown together skins for the F-14, MiG-21, Mi-24 and the Ka-50, and I would love to have the MiG-29 added to the list with all of the great variety we would have doing some of the IRIAF skins and the really interesting weathering you can see on current Syrian Air Force examples. But if it become a chore, I just don't see myself putting in the time. That video really is full of them. This looks damn near like a real life photo, which would have been hard to even imagine back when I was playing Flanker 2.5 or the original Lock On back in high school. I thought the graphics back then were mind blowing. I still remember seeing the DCS update about the new Mi-24 model and textures back in Lock On and having my mind blown that the tires actually looked bulged from the weight of the thing. null

That's a good point I hadn't thought of that will definitely affect my purchase. If ED wants to encrypt everything, that's fine, but it would be nice if there was either an update to Model Viewer before that became the norm, so skinners can still do work. It would also be cool if they would embrace something like Substance Painter and create a plugin that would allow us to use that program to load the files and textures and just eliminate the need to load and re-load the model in the model viewer entirely.

Yeah, I think Steam requires a firm date to be set and then they also sometimes have a slight delay in posting things.

I like to live in the fantasy world where it might.

Yeah, the Dynamic Campaign's going to be a massive addition. It'll be great to just have it create missions for you on the map so you can just go out and fly into a mystery world.

It really does make you feel like you're trying to throw a massive helicopter around the skies, and while I've never flown a real Mi-24, or even a real helicopter, it just feels right to my unqualified brain. Can't wait to take the MiG-29A up soon too. I'll finally be able to have the full fidelity experience while taking on Bluefor and not feel like I'm completely outclassed. There's definitely no way I'm getting any kills against a Hornet while piloting an F-4 or a MiG-21.

The Hind was one of those helicopters that I thought was cool as a kid, but wasn't really sure it would be that cool to fly in DCS, since it didn't have a lot of the bells and whistles of a modern attack helicopter. Boy was I wrong. I'm so glad I purchased that thing. Now I'll always love flying around in the Soviet Murder Bus.

Looking forward to this one. The MiG-29's been a favorite forever, and it's great that it'll finally be available in full fidelity. Now all that's needed to be added to the collection is the Su-25.

I didn't see any IRIAF ones, but I'd be shocked if they didn't have some made. And if not, I'll be firing up Photoshop as soon as the templates drop.

I'm with you. I would absolutely love to have one and rekindle the Apache vs Havoc days when I was a kid, but with how things have gone with just selling the Russian helicopters in DCS and the cool upgrades for the Ka-50III like the President-S system getting the last minute axe, I'm guessing the odds of an Mi-28 are about as high as my odds of ever flying one in real life...

One of the easiest ways I've found to check is just to open the controls page and then select the axis that's giving me trouble and start moving everything. Move my head with TrackIR going, move any axis switch on my joystick/throttle and in case you play other games on your PC using a controller, be sure to check those too. Back when I was playing FIFA 23 (still mad at EA for taking that one out of the store...) I would have to play this game of disconnecting my Playstation controller when I was flying in DCS and then when I wanted to play FIFA I would have to unplug everything else to make sure there wasn't any conflicts.

Pure speculation on my part, but given the AI improvements and the importance they've placed on the dynamic campaign, along with them posting that survey a little while ago gauging interest in a SAM simulator (or something like that, I'm trying to remember the specifics) it makes me think they're almost certainly going to be improving the IADS and SAM systems to become more realistic. They've already added some things into the Mission Editor that let you make the SAMs do a little more than just turn on at mission start and wait to be destroyed, but there's still a gap between what we've got now in the stock game and what something like Skynet IADS can add to the game. But I have to imagine it's something they are working on to make more realistic, since realism in the SAM threat is going to be one of the biggest parts of the dynamic campaign outside of the AI planes and vehicles moving in realistic ways. And to echo what others have said, I would honestly be fine settling for an AI F-4G where it can run whatever default EW AI protocols that ED hopefully work into the game for AI SEAD and DEAD packages, but I can also understand that being a lot of extra work for Heatblur. But if they ever wanted to throw together a Go Fund Me to collect some funds to donate to paying one of their 3D modelers and texture artists for a little extra work to modify the F-4 we have into the F-4G, I'd certainly toss some money their way just to have it as an AI asset to throw into missions.