DCS World roadmap update

[fullcoupe]

As an air traffic controller myself, I'd be interested in what's being considered for that. I also have some training as a Combat Airspace Manager for an Air Operations Center. There's a way that aircraft go from the airbase to the fight and back...;)

 

As a RL private pilot, ATC and AI improvements are at the top of my list. I'm hoping at least some basic VFR framework is being planned.

 

Getting wacky altimeter settings, being directed to runway 3 at Nellis (3L or 3R?! argh!), no traffic pattern legs? All pretty essential stuff for even simple flights in both the SP and MP arenas.

 

We have plenty of toys. As many have said the DCS core needs more love!

 

That said, this post is much appreciated. And I'm extremely grateful for the toys that we do have, and the work that continues to be done! I'm here for the long haul!

[mmcintosh]

I have been a software engineer for 30+ years and I understand what delays are like and I have been a victim and a party to them. I will tell you how I grade a product and that is via constant communication of status. I looked and on 18/1/2020 I purchased Super Carrier for $24.99 and I believe at that time an EARLY Spring release was contemplated. I think it was a bad decision to not just go ahead and put SP in EA but that waterfall has already been gone over so it's spilt milk now. My main question is that since you didn't come close to making the stated deadline maybe instead of offering refunds you should instead give everyone the module for $24.99 USD? Keeping in mind that the customer is always right, this gesture could save you from losing customers over this? I have been through this a lot so I thought it might be reasonable to consider.

[sk000tch]

I am legitimately surprised by the amount of complaints. I mean, there are always complaints... If ya’ll gave away every ED module and map for free and just charged for missions and campaigns, I’m sure some one would complain that 3rd party stuff wasn’t free as well. But the ratio surprises me.

 

Nobody is arguing that DCS is flawless, or that development isn’t frustratingly slow at times. With ambition comes failure — or at least delays — and DCS is nothing if not ambitious. But everyone I’ve met there takes tremendous pride in their work, and is there for the love of aviation. It’s a tired cliche but it seems like a labor of love; I’m sure most everyone could be doing something else for more money (Nick could stage WWII LFE/red flags with his own hangar, I’m sure Wags would have no problem finding a program mgr gig that didn’t require 11pm conference calls and 9line has developed some serious anger management skills that I’m sure are in high demand among his notoriously angry countrymen). In all seriousness though, Kate’s post here (and the follow up) is proof that the efforts at improving communication and transparency have been a success.

 

No doubt the sim and sim related tech (certainly VR) are in a bit of a transition period. While that roadmap is clearly investing heavily in the future, I have an absolute blast with the game in its current form. I am no “make a wish” story by any means, but due to an injury and subsequent surgery I was unable to fly for most of the past year. The 200 or so hours I didn’t fly were made bearable by an unfathomable amount of sim time. Maybe it’s because I’m new to recreation/desktop sims, but DCS in VR blew my mind when I was introduced to it... and the future (albeit perhaps a bit more mid-to-long term than we’d all prefer) is pretty bright.

 

I’m no ED apologist but some of ya’ll need a little perspective I think... out of nowhere they announced the Typhoon, yet we completely lose our shit over clouds?

[Shack]

Getting wacky altimeter settings, being directed to runway 3 at Nellis (3L or 3R?! argh!), no traffic pattern legs? All pretty essential stuff for even simple flights in both the SP and MP arenas.

 

I’ll have to agree ATC is definitely a weak point. Thanks for the update Kate.

[r4y30n]

Hey Kate :). Thank you for the posts. <-- few words but big meaning :)...

 

I'd like to point out (and I know you aren't new around here) that as a forum community we have proven to be fairly immature and demanding. We've exposed ourselves as selfish, stubborn and very single minded as individuals... and each of our single minds appears to be focused on a different aspect of the sim as well :).

 

I fully understand that within the framework of our collective... there are both good and bad apples :). I'm sure I have been both.

 

To the point...

 

Please just understand this and understand that before each post, and especially around each release date, hit or miss, that the community will always find a way to feel that it's both the best and worst thing that could have happened to us :).

 

Roll with it please :). I have watched these forums for many years and have existed within the cycle of open transparency, community lash out and the resulting closed communication a few times. This is the cycle that has formed this post :).

 

You're doing awesome so far BTW :).

 

 

This is a super degrading post. You acknowledge that she isn’t new here then immediately treat her like a child with a page of “Lemme explain how the world works.”

[Drag80]

DCS team is doing a superb job. DCS is a very complex simulator so we shd keep in mind that there will be bugs. However, in its current running form, with or without bugs it is awsome.

[Mars Exulte]

This is a super degrading post. You acknowledge that she isn’t new here then immediately treat her like a child with a page of “Lemme explain how the world works.”

 

Knight, thy color : White

[bomber]

DCS team is doing a superb job. DCS is a very complex simulator so we shd keep in mind that there will be bugs. However, in its current running form, with or without bugs it is awsome.

 

As an original Blackshark devotee, I was going to chip in and say a fair bit about ED but the post above sort of says it all for me really.

 

summary-DCS "IS" a fantastic simulator. Maybe? they stretch resources too far -too many projects going on or not complete? , But we all want this or we all want that! And it is a business - WW2 etc etc.

 

When I start up and fly my Hornet I am literally in awe at the programming and development skills:thumbup:

[sangfhas]

Hey ED, Do you know, what the deadline is?

Every job in this world have its deadline, for the business that mean "The plan cannot completed in time, it useless plan"

[CHSubZero]

Hey ED, Do you know, what the deadline is?

Every job in this world have its deadline, for the business that mean "The plan cannot completed in time, it useless plan"

 

What are you complaining about? That you don't receive a module in the time you expected it? You know what? That's life. Keep more interested and focused in more important things like food, drinks, your own health and family.

 

DCS and its modules are the best I know so far and I'm happy with every module they release. What I don't like are modules released hastily to just meet the deadline. Those modules or products in common are known as full of bugs and incomplete. And you don't want to be frustrated of a buggy module even when they met the deadline.

 

So stay calm, keep safe and stay at home.

[grafspee]

What are you complaining about? That you don't receive a module in the time you expected it? You know what? That's life. Keep more interested and focused in more important things like food, drinks, your own health and family.

 

DCS and its modules are the best I know so far and I'm happy with every module they release. What I don't like are modules released hastily to just meet the deadline. Those modules or products in common are known as full of bugs and incomplete. And you don't want to be frustrated of a buggy module even when they met the deadline.

 

So stay calm, keep safe and stay at home.

 

Absolutely do not bring personal life in to discussion ever, this is the lowest thing you can do.

You have no idea in what situation other person may be.

[apolloace]

I have no issues with the SC getting delayed. Better to have a working product than a buggy one. When I pre-purchased the SC module, I was willing to wait.

 

But, what really disappointed me was that ATC improvements are Low Priority for ED.

Poor ATC comms really kills the immersion factor.

 

Lastly, some of us have been waiting for a Stable Update for a long time.

Edited April 16, 2020 by apolloace

[Mr_Burns]

Oh this community cracks me up, and it is a community, it takes all sorts in life and wouldn't do for us to be the same.

 

 

 

Its like the grumpy family down the road, the poor family over the road, the optimistic family laughing when a car plowed through their house, the new couple next door, the bitter family who still dont talk to me because I reversed over their cat, and Mack next door who stops me for a beer no matter what time of day I pass his house!

 

 

 

Thanks for the update ED and thanks for the lulz DCS community.

[FlyBoyd]

Kate,

 

Thanks for the update. I'm sure with everything going on in the world now it's not easy to maintain your schedule.

 

I can't express enough how much enjoyment the sim has brought and look forward to all ED has to offer in the future!

 

Keep up the great work!

 

v/r

 

Panic

[Joker69]

First of all thanks Kate for the clarification of the road map and for the transparency. Correctness is always a positive value. I love DCS World and in fact I own almost all the products.

 

My suggestion is to focus on the priorities since everything cannot be done simultaneously and creating modules as complex as functioning and graphics is a really difficult job. (special thanks to the whole team for this).

The Supercarrier is wonderful and I bought this immediately in EA. But it's still a new Module! Few days again is not a problem.

 

What is priority? In a simulator, I believe, the priority is to make things that lead to being as close to reality as possible.

Seeing an even more beautiful explosion is amazing but it is not the core of the simulation.

 

The priorities are:

- ATC: because every plane first of all in flight communicates (I am also a real pilot and I know how important aeronautical radio is)

- A/G Radar: F-18 and other modern fighters are multi-role. A/G radar is very important, even not completed in the first time.

- AI / Dynamic Campaign: the behavior of enemy units is essential for simulation. The unpredictability of a real scenario is not a shooting range.

- VR / Monitor Preset Switch: 2 graphic presets decided by the user to switch between VR and Monitor settings. One click and DCS World is ready for your VR graphics set, another click and it's ready for the monitor.

 

Having said that, I always consider DCS the # 1 combat simulator ever. Thanks to ED Team for the great work done and the great passion with which this product is developed.

Edited April 16, 2020 by Joker69°

[Worrazen]

I have no issues with the SC getting delayed. Better to have a working product than a buggy one. When I pre-purchased the SC module, I was willing to wait.

 

But, what really disappointed me was that ATC improvements are Low Priority for ED.

Poor ATC comms really kills the immersion factor.

 

Lastly, some of us have been waiting for a Stable Update for a long time.

 

Sorry ... there's been times before where Stable was way back and it wasn't a problem, the state of Beta right now is even more of a reason why you can't just get Stable so soon.

 

ATC Stuff is probably more special and more expansive than you may think.

 

I can understand the slower development, the voices have to be made right, those are going to replay over and over and over again, it needs finesse and it really needs to be done right for the proper effect.

There's a few non-sim software, haha games, that you can play for 20 years and never get bothered by the voices, that's something DCS should target, currently some of these voices while very basic ... they still work in that regard althought they're a bit lower quality sounding ...

The new ATC system could also have an improved signal-to-audio-quality system and not just a volume change, so the audio you would hear would be made up from a mix of layers of background noise, background static, microphone specifics, signal quality (distance and how many bounces off objects/terrain if possible) and signal interference (jammer, storm, etc) .. the background noise is a tricks one because these things usually have some background cancellation tech but I don't know, older airplanes probably not so much than the modern civilian ones I presume, certainly far less in WW2 modules case, which means you could hear faint noises from the engines and perhaps if the cockpit is blown off at high speed and a storm outside that could get interesting, there's a case where the window blown off a civilian jet and they had real trouble communicating on the radio.

 

Remember I had posts back quite some time, in order to make it, you would actually need to hire actors from that specific country o that you don't get a Texas accent when contacting Mineralnye Vody ATC, or a New Jersey accent when contacting Latakia Airbase.

Edited April 16, 2020 by Worrazen

[Kate Perederko]

I'm not trying to be a crap disturber here but why is it plan B if 2/3 of the players don't play in multiplayer (by your own numbers)? If people can be told to be patient waiting for stable updates so that they can play modules they've paid for, I don't see why people who want to use a model in multiplayer can't be expected to be patient as well. Again, all I really care about is that I get my frame rate back that I had pre 2.5.6.

 

We plan to deliver 2.5.6 OB today with increase of frame rate but it will not be the same as for 2.5.5 because there are changes in 2.5.6:

 

Improved Water

 

The transparency of the water has been improved; the depth of the water now feels more accurate and water becomes more blurred the deeper you go. The upcoming torpedos for WWII Asset Pack will be easier to track underwater. The shorelines also benefit greatly from this improvement, in particular the cliffs of Dover in the new theatre DCS: The Channel.

 

Improved Environment Lighting

 

We have worked hard to increase the range and visibility of lights to enhance the night flying experience. We know that it is far from perfect and will continue to improve the look and feel at night.

 

and it impacts on frame rates and there are some other changes to 2.5.5 that also impact, for example, an update of special effects.

 

 

Delivery of SC as a single-plater is a plan B due to technical reason and due to the community requests. WE do not want to play the game of Single player and Multi player releases. We want to have one release and full stop. Multi player was a special feature that can be in a game or can be delivered later at the beginning of the century. Nowadays, it's a must have without any doubts. We are modern game and modern company and would like to have multi-play and VR as inseparable part of the game.

[speed-of-heat]

We plan to deliver 2.5.6 OB today with increase of frame rate but it will not be the same as for 2.5.5 because there are changes in 2.5.6:

 

Improved Water

 

The transparency of the water has been improved; the depth of the water now feels more accurate and water becomes more blurred the deeper you go. The upcoming torpedos for WWII Asset Pack will be easier to track underwater. The shorelines also benefit greatly from this improvement, in particular the cliffs of Dover in the new theatre DCS: The Channel.

 

Improved Environment Lighting

 

We have worked hard to increase the range and visibility of lights to enhance the night flying experience. We know that it is far from perfect and will continue to improve the look and feel at night.

 

and it impacts on frame rates and there are some other changes to 2.5.5 that also impact, for example, an update of special effects.

 

 

Delivery of SC as a single-plater is a plan B due to technical reason and due to the community requests. WE do not want to play the game of Single player and Multi player releases. We want to have one release and full stop. Multi player was a special feature that can be in a game or can be delivered later at the beginning of the century. Nowadays, it's a must have without any doubts. We are modern game and modern company and would like to have multi-play and VR as inseparable part of the game.

 

Looking forward to testing later today, thanks for the update and the transparency

[MAXsenna]

Sorry ... there's been times before where Stable was way back and it wasn't a problem, the state of Beta right now is even more of a reason why you can't just get Stable so soon.

 

 

 

ATC Stuff is probably more special and they just

 

 

 

I agree, the voices have to be made right, those are going to replay over and over and over again, it needs finesse and it really needs to

 

 

 

Remember I had posts back quite some time, in order to make it, you would actually need to hire actors from that specific country so that you don't get a Texas accent when contacting Mineralnye Vody ATC, or a New Jersey accent when contacting Latakia Airbase.

Why actors? I'm quite sure many here would immortalize their voice.

ATC in Europe's from all over.

Simple "believable" ATC has been done already elsewhere...

 

Sent from my ANE-LX1 using Tapatalk

[MAXsenna]

We plan to deliver 2.5.6 OB today with increase of frame rate but it will not be the same as for 2.5.5 because there are changes in 2.5.6:

 

 

 

Improved Water

 

 

 

The transparency of the water has been improved; the depth of the water now feels more accurate and water becomes more blurred the deeper you go. The upcoming torpedos for WWII Asset Pack will be easier to track underwater. The shorelines also benefit greatly from this improvement, in particular the cliffs of Dover in the new theatre DCS: The Channel.

 

 

 

Improved Environment Lighting

 

 

 

We have worked hard to increase the range and visibility of lights to enhance the night flying experience. We know that it is far from perfect and will continue to improve the look and feel at night.

 

 

 

and it impacts on frame rates and there are some other changes to 2.5.5 that also impact, for example, an update of special effects.

 

 

 

 

 

Delivery of SC as a single-plater is a plan B due to technical reason and due to the community requests. WE do not want to play the game of Single player and Multi player releases. We want to have one release and full stop. Multi player was a special feature that can be in a game or can be delivered later at the beginning of the century. Nowadays, it's a must have without any doubts. We are modern game and modern company and would like to have multi-play and VR as inseparable part of the game.

I'm so excited!!! Bring it on!!

 

Sent from my ANE-LX1 using Tapatalk

[PE_Tigar]

Simple "believable" ATC has been done already elsewhere...

 

I'd argue that it's far from simple. Also, miltary ops - especially in wartime - are quite different from civilian ones. Not to mention country/alliance differences Procedures also change in time - WWII, 80's etc. I guess every map should have its time period assigned too, and get contemporary ATC. Maybe having a "default" ATC (military or civilian) is the way to go, but leaving it open for campaign and mission makers to change as they see fit. Today, it's solved with scripts - not optimal, but helps with the atmosphere.

 

In my community, we're flying campaigns with live controllers (through LotATC) - but since controllers are scarce we usually use them for AWACS and GCI. For us, more believable civilian and military ATC would be great - and combined with live AWACS and GCI it would be pretty much all we'd ever need.

[OPEC]

We plan to deliver 2.5.6 OB today with increase of frame rate but it will not be the same as for 2.5.5 because there are changes in 2.5.6:

 

Improved Water

 

The transparency of the water has been improved; the depth of the water now feels more accurate and water becomes more blurred the deeper you go. The upcoming torpedos for WWII Asset Pack will be easier to track underwater. The shorelines also benefit greatly from this improvement, in particular the cliffs of Dover in the new theatre DCS: The Channel.

 

Improved Environment Lighting

 

We have worked hard to increase the range and visibility of lights to enhance the night flying experience. We know that it is far from perfect and will continue to improve the look and feel at night.

 

and it impacts on frame rates and there are some other changes to 2.5.5 that also impact, for example, an update of special effects.

 

 

Delivery of SC as a single-plater is a plan B due to technical reason and due to the community requests. WE do not want to play the game of Single player and Multi player releases. We want to have one release and full stop. Multi player was a special feature that can be in a game or can be delivered later at the beginning of the century. Nowadays, it's a must have without any doubts. We are modern game and modern company and would like to have multi-play and VR as inseparable part of the game.

 

Hi Kate,

 

And please do not go down the road of splitting MP and SP. Just because of popular demand? Thats BS. If you do so, I bet you will get the same amount of bitching from the MP guys.

 

Just stick to what you think is best for YOUR product. If some Foodmanufacturers would listen to the loudest voice we would have the most disgusting chocolade and pizzas you can imagine. It's your product, and you guys have to be able to stand behind it.

 

Btw. - The water Looks amazing, also the lighting. So cudos on that one. That this will have an impact on performance, so be it.

 

Guess multithreading would be an awesome thing to have, but we all have to Keep in mind, it's Eagle Dynamics, not Electronic Arts or Ubisoft. So things may take a little longer.

 

And for everyone asking why there is an early access and why it is important - First of all, there are people that dont mind minor Bugs or incomplete modules and are having fun searching Bugs and reporting them. Secondly - just google "cashflow" and you will have an answer why EA is probalby an important thing to keep developments ongoing. Just my two Cents.

[Simon1279]

We plan to deliver 2.5.6 OB today with increase of frame rate but it will not be the same as for 2.5.5 because there are changes in 2.5.6:

 

Improved Water

 

The transparency of the water has been improved; the depth of the water now feels more accurate and water becomes more blurred the deeper you go. The upcoming torpedos for WWII Asset Pack will be easier to track underwater. The shorelines also benefit greatly from this improvement, in particular the cliffs of Dover in the new theatre DCS: The Channel.

 

Improved Environment Lighting

 

We have worked hard to increase the range and visibility of lights to enhance the night flying experience. We know that it is far from perfect and will continue to improve the look and feel at night.

 

and it impacts on frame rates and there are some other changes to 2.5.5 that also impact, for example, an update of special effects.

 

 

Delivery of SC as a single-plater is a plan B due to technical reason and due to the community requests. WE do not want to play the game of Single player and Multi player releases. We want to have one release and full stop. Multi player was a special feature that can be in a game or can be delivered later at the beginning of the century. Nowadays, it's a must have without any doubts. We are modern game and modern company and would like to have multi-play and VR as inseparable part of the game.

 

I believe you've made a great job with new light and water look, i must be honest by telling you that in VR: with video settings turned to default high, PD set to 1.7 and no tweaks at all on Nvidia control panel and SteamVR, i'm experiencing a boost in performance than i had in 2.5.

I don't know why but numbers are speaking by theirselves.

You're doing an amazing job with this great sim.

What i wrote above it's only related to SP because usually i don't play MP with the exception of playing COOP sometimes with a friend of mine and VR experience it's as good as SP.

I have performance drop in VR just on some planes (modules) and for the most they're early access modules, i mean F-16 and JF-17, while on F-18 and F-14 performance is great, even better than it was on 2.5.

[Kate Perederko]

Thanks for the communication from ED - always welcome to hear from the company.

As ED have access to alot of user data - (such as the SP/MP split - which ED have confirmed demonstrates SP is overwhelmingly the larger of the two user bases)

COuld ED share same data for the Stable Version vs Open Beta version split? And, (as they obviously have that data) - if not would they be prepared to answer why not?

 

 

I think many people, given the obvious low priority ED seems to give to the stable version (which in any software/SAAS I've ever dealt with commercially would be the priority) are curious as to why stable users seem so unimportant/under-valued by ED and wonder if thats because they (as ED priorities would seem to imply) are a vanishingly small minority?

 

We consider Stable Version as a safe to play version and we do not deliver any experimental update to it. 2.5.6 version is not good enough to be moved to Stable Release and that's why we fight for each FPS now and reconsider some large parts of code. We will have a new experiment delivered today and see how good it would be for the community. We think that today's update will go through with FPS, but we cannot be sure 100% without releasing it to Open Beta.

 

We do care about everyone and if you think that Open Beta is not good for you, please, deinstall it and use 2.5.5 until we will be ready to deliver a good Stable Version.

[Kate Perederko]

Now i read "Hornet out of EA in Dec" & "new FLIR engine some unknown time after that" - Without wanting to speculate, what does that mean for the ATFLIR? Is this still on scope as well? It should be, considering the fact the our Hornet is a very specific version, US Navy Lot 20.

Either way i would love to have some light shed on this matter.

 

Thank you for your comments and support.

 

There is a little misunderstanding of new FLIR system for the DCS World and a feature of FLIR or ATFLIR for an aircraft. It's two separate projects.

 

new FLIR system covers a different approach of heat sources for terrains, ground units, aircraft with different level of additional lighting and gradients.

 

FLIR/ATFLIR system for an aircraft is a camera feature that will use current technology.