DCS Newsletter discussion - 29th December 2023 - Happy New Year | Dynamic Campaigns development report | Festive Winter Savings

[BIGNEWY]

Dear Fighter Pilots, Partners and Friends, From all of us at Eagle Dynamics, may 2024 bring you and your family strength, health, immense joy, great success, and countless memorable moments in the virtual skies of DCS. We would like to offer you our most sincere thanks for your unwavering support. You make our dreams come true! We are thrilled to share some exciting progress on our Dynamic Campaign. Much of the most recent work has focused on realistic modeling of the ‘front line’ logic. There’s lots in store for the new year, and we look forward to sharing more with you very soon. Our E-Shop Sale will continue until the 7th of January, 2024 at 15:00 GMT where most of our products are available with 50% discount! Don’t miss our most popular modules such as the DCS: F-16C Viper, DCS: F/A-18C, DCS: Mi-24P Hind which are at 40% off. Enjoy! If you fly on Steam, please note that the DCS Steam Edition Winter Sale is now running at full power and will finish on the 4th of January at 18:00 GMT. Please hurry and don’t miss on some super savings.  Thank you for everything you have done for DCS and the Community in 2023. Have a wonderful holiday and a very happy and prosperous New Year. Onwards and upwards! Yours sincerely, Eagle Dynamics

Happy New Year See you very soon! On this very special weekend, we extend our warmest wishes to you and your loved ones for the New Year. We wish you happiness, prosperity and health. We also want to express our sincere appreciation for your continued support and feedback that makes DCS what it is today. Here's to an extraordinary year ahead, filled with epic missions, thrilling dogfights, and unforgettable moments. See you on the other side! 2023 was another important year for DCS with the introduction of several new products, the evolution of DCS core technologies, and an ever-expanding wealth of content from our partners and friends. 2024 promises even bigger and better things!

Dynamic Campaign Development Report DCS Dynamic Campaign (DCSDC) is one of the most important tasks for the future of DCS as it will add a new and much-demanded evolution/improvement of gameplay for both single player and multiplayer. Rather than mimic past solutions, we hope to set a new standard, one that provides a high level of interaction, authenticity, immersion, and ease-of-use. Our goal is to deliver a system that allows players to create their own dynamic (non-scripted) campaigns that will evolve based on strategic and tactical AI decisions, indirect player influences on AI actions, and direct player influences on the battlefield. This will all leverage existing DCS features such as Voice Chat, new ATC mechanisms, etc. This has been a tall order, and the effort has been underway since 2018 with a small but dedicated team. Our focus in 2022 was on the creation and testing of General Air Operations tasks. In 2023, we shifted our DCSDC efforts to Ground Operations. This area will break new ground for dynamic campaigns and includes the following tasks: The creation of a realistic road network system that is based on a new road editor system. This allows units to have appropriate road movement conditions that are tied to the logistics and supply network. This also integrates into the movement of ground unit formations. A new ground unit formations editor was created that allows for the accurate assembly of units-based levels of command from platoon up to division, with all command levels in-between. Command structures vary based on the country and era, just like the real world and with correct terminology. Unit formations then operate realistically within their larger force structure based on tasking such as road march, meeting engagement, assault, defense, retreat, route, etc. We addressed ground forces behavior once engaged. This was one of the biggest, most complex tasks. Much of this was dependent upon force tasking, support from neighboring forces, organization of frontline forces, logistics (munitions and fuel), and disposition of enemy forces. To assist with these items, a new and improved path-finding mechanism was developed that considers both the terrain topography and restrictive zones within it. This allows more sensible routing of formations based on the terrain properties. In addition to Ground Operations tasks, we continue to work on Air Operations related tasks. For instance, many airfields currently have too few parking spaces available for a large DC. We don’t want to be limited to such limited numbers for large scenarios. To address this, we have developed a new process to expand spawn points for aircraft. Next, we will finalize ground tasking, increase the level of internal and external testing, and begin work on the important Graphic User Interface (GUI).

Winter Sale Huge Savings! The DCS Winter Sale 2023 is the perfect time to bolster your arsenal of DCS modules. Take advantage of these festive deals before they disappear! The Steam Sale will continue until the 4th of January at 18:00 GMT and our E-Shop sale will close on the 7th of January, 2024 at 15:00 GMT. Don’t miss the great deals across all our most popular aircraft, terrains, tech packs, and campaigns.  Thank you again for your passion and support and everything you have done for DCS and the Community in 2023. Onwards and Upwards! Yours sincerely, Eagle Dynamics

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/news/newsletters/5bf6ef59f8b97771ba0e0ac9904be8f7/

[Jester986]

Hoping to see a solution for infantry not taking cover or entrenching. But otherwise great news! Can’t wait to see it in action. 

[Silver_Dragon]

The DCSDC go to great advances but has some "holes" no explained actualy, but surely will expanded in the future:

• Infantry operations with large only leg infantry and on motorized, mechanized, paratroopers and airborne formations, deploy infantry on attack, assault, defense, MOUT environments (forces into buildings, tunnels, defensive positions), support weapons, transport into vehicles, planes & helos, logistics and sanitary operations.
• Nick talk about SOF will coming, not bad see raids and others.
• No talked yet about logistic operations by air, meanwhile some movement talked by Nick about ED CH-53, ASC C-130 and others.
• Missing yet the naval operations, surely moving forward on next or follow years as transport, logistic by sea, landings, support operations, convoys, underwater operations, port use, and a long etc.
• Other point no talked yet has improve the artillery operations and all missing enginiering work (build fortifications, minefields, riveline operations, breaching obstacles).

Edited December 29, 2023 by Silver_Dragon

[linside]

DCSDC 2025?

[BIGNEWY]

5 minutes ago, linside said:

DCSDC 2025?

no date to share but we will keep you all informed of progress 

thanks

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

When the release of the Dynamic Campaign gets closer I’d love to hear which performance optimisations are included, as I suspect this system will be quite taxing…

[draconus]

8 hours ago, Silver_Dragon said:

meanwhile some movement talked by Nick about ED CH-53

You keep repeating this about Sea Stallion but aren't you confusing it with CH-47 Chinook?

[SparxOne]

10 hours ago, Silver_Dragon said:

The DCSDC go to great advances but has some "holes" no explained actualy, but surely will expanded in the future:

• Infantry operations with large only leg infantry and on motorized, mechanized, paratroopers and airborne formations, deploy infantry on attack, assault, defense, MOUT environments (forces into buildings, tunnels, defensive positions), support weapons, transport into vehicles, planes & helos, logistics and sanitary operations.
• Nick talk about SOF will coming, not bad see raids and others.
• No talked yet about logistic operations by air, meanwhile some movement talked by Nick about ED CH-53, ASC C-130 and others.
• Missing yet the naval operations, surely moving forward on next or follow years as transport, logistic by sea, landings, support operations, convoys, underwater operations, port use, and a long etc.
• Other point no talked yet has improve the artillery operations and all missing enginiering work (build fortifications, minefields, riveline operations, breaching obstacles).

 

All good points.

Though one i'd consider missing and has been on my wishlist for long now is how will Combined Arms be implemented withing the DCSDC ? Would that be a thing to take control of any driveable vehicle on the map and go about using it at your own wishes ?

Considering AI will be doing its own thing, whether defending or attacking points, if i were to take control of a tank in a random group to simply shoot stuff and progress manually with the rest of the group, will that be a thing ?

So many questions i'd wish to know regarding Combined Arms and DCSDC. Hopefully we get to have more info at some point

[Japo32]

my fear is, how they are going to resolve the performance problem. Right now if you put some ground units fighting each other, fps goes down a lot. That has been a huge problem for long time in DCS multiplayer missions. Hope they find the clue to solve those situations without any performance issues.

[Weasel]

my fear is, how they are going to resolve the performance problem. Right now if you put some ground units fighting each other, fps goes down a lot. That has been a huge problem for long time in DCS multiplayer missions. Hope they find the clue to solve those situations without any performance issues.

This is a fair point and ED is well aware to avoid fps goes down a lot. They are working hard on the core of DCS and DCS 2.9 was a big step in the right direction. With the implementation of multicore and Vulkan (maybe comming with DCS 3.0?), I am sure there is a good chance enjoying the dynamic campaign with a good and solid fps

[St4rgun]

Calculating with the number of patches / year in the past, the time needed from 2.9.2 to reach 3.0 (Vulkan?) could take about a year. So If we are lucky then maybe the core optimization will be somewhat complete with polished MT, Vulkan and optimized VR by the end of 2024 at last. IMHO it could take years from then to arrive to a full blown DC (2025-2026 or later).

I really hope that the Vulkan implementation is so special that the dev team dedicated to it doesn't do any other core development (like DC). The performance of DCS right now in VR is very pleasing in the air, if only it colud be possible to have at least 45 fps in all circumstances on all maps even on the ground then I'd be more than happy. It doesn't need a lot to get there, I have high hopes in Vulkan.

Thanks for all the developers the hard work in 2023 to finally reach this performance. I wish you all very happy new year!

[Gunfreak]

12 hours ago, Japo32 said:

my fear is, how they are going to resolve the performance problem. Right now if you put some ground units fighting each other, fps goes down a lot. That has been a huge problem for long time in DCS multiplayer missions. Hope they find the clue to solve those situations without any performance issues.

Don't even have to fight each other.

I made a SEAD mission and I wanted some ambiance. So I put down. About 12 AAA guns and made 10 of them fire at fixed points in the sky. While 2 could actively go after us in the air. As well as some SAMs that could do what they wanted.

And that together with the FPS  loss you gey when flying over cities. Tanked my fps so much the game froze a few seconds when a few of those SAMs got hit by Mavs and exploded.

City+AAA+explosions=0 fps.

[dawgie79]

I wish everyone at ED peace above all for 2024. 
 

[Deltahog]

I read through the latest newsletter for Dec 29th  - just wanting to get clarification in the newsletter - it looked like the DCS- AH-64D was indicating 40% off - was this in error? In the module page of the homescreen in DCS it shows 30%, so wanting to confirm...

Thanks!