26.01.2024 - Unified Build | AviaStorm's Tornado | Growling Sidewinder

[Graphics]

 
26 January 2024

 

Dear Fighter Pilots, Partners and Friends,  

In our ongoing commitment to provide a seamless and unified experience to all of you, we are moving away from the traditional Stable and Open Beta builds. Starting with the upcoming release, DCS will transition to a single, unified version. This move aims to streamline the update process, reduce fragmentation, and ensure that all pilots have access to the latest features and improvements simultaneously. This unified approach will not only simplify the user experience but also allow for more efficient development cycles, fostering a more cohesive and connected community. Your feedback has been invaluable in shaping this decision, and we are excited to embark on this new journey together.

The AviaStorm team has been hard at work crafting the highly anticipated DCS: Tornado module. We are pleased to share a development report to keep you in the loop. The Tornado is undergoing meticulous attention to detail to ensure an immersive and quality module.

We are delighted to spotlight the talented content creator Growling Sidewinder, whose dedication enriches the DCS experience for all of us. To show our appreciation, we're running a special promotion that offers exclusive discounts on selected modules. Check out his videos to learn more on Growling Sidewinder’s YouTube. 

Thank you for your passion and support.

Yours sincerely, 

Eagle Dynamics

 

Unified Release

A new era begins

For the past several years, we have released DCS in two forms: the Open Beta, which includes the most recent changes to allow broad testing and the Stable version which is based on the most recent Open Beta and has no known crashes, thus the term Stable. In 2024, we will be moving to unified DCS updates.

This change has been a common customer request and will streamline our release process. We believe that it will also help avoid version confusion for both single-player missions and multiplayer servers. Starting with our first update of the year in February, we will also be making the same changes to the DCS Steam Edition. Please stay tuned for more details. 

 

AviaStorm’s Tornado

Development Progress

Five 3D artists are currently working on the project, which involves significant personnel commitment. This investment will result in a module that meets your expectations.

AviaStorm has had the opportunity to examine many small details of this aircraft for the level of detail that DCS demands. Such details may not initially stand out, or even be noticed by most customers, but they are crucial in the context of creating a masterpiece that is the Tornado. An example includes the emergency RAM air flap and two cooling flaps.

“We are dedicated to achieving the level of quality we and Eagle Dynamics aspire to and what is expected from DCS customers.”

– AviaStorm

 

Growling Sidewinder

Affiliate Program

We are pleased to extend our warmest congratulations to Growling Sidewinder as he takes on the roles of affiliate and brand ambassador for DCS. His proven determination fuels our fires and we are incredibly thankful to have him on-board. Please check out the GS Discord and keep your eyes on the skies for some exclusive deals, only on Growling Sidewinder’s Youtube!

As always, thank you again for your passion and continued support, 

Yours sincerely,

 

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

Moving to a single Unified Release build for DCS is a VERY good thing for everyone  

[Hog_driver]

Sharing the same bugs will bring the community together like never before!

[Beirut]

Hope I don't have to do a 500GB re-install for the new all-in-one version. 

[twistking]

2 minutes ago, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

Moving to a single Unified Release build for DCS is a VERY good thing for everyone  

I'm also very optimistic. As a longtime stable enjoyer i just hope that my first taste of the binary avant-garde will be a relatively bug free release.

[BIGNEWY]

Just now, Hog_driver said:

Sharing the same bugs will bring the community together like never before!

There will always be bugs, the complexity of what we do can not be under estimated. We have a much better internal testing process now and the main thing is no known crashes into the public build. But we will still need to be flexible and use your feedback and reports to guide us. Hotfix can happen if required still. 

thanks

[SmirkingGerbil]

Looking forward to it for multiple reasons, as mentioned to build the community.

However, getting some disk space back, instead of running two separate copies, to host different dedicated servers etc. or even for a single player mission builder, is very nice.

Wondering though, which of my builds is the one that will retain all my module config files to get collapsed into a single supported version. Opph!!

[BIGNEWY]

1 minute ago, SmirkingGerbil said:

Looking forward to it for multiple reasons, as mentioned to build the community.

However, getting some disk space back, instead of running two separate copies, to host different dedicated servers etc. or even for a single player mission builder, is very nice.

Wondering though, which of my builds is the one that will retain all my module config files to get collapsed into a single supported version. Opph!!

For me, having one less version is great for my hard drives

For now you dont have to do anything apart from update, no matter the version you are on now you will get the latest one. 

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

This is not about 'fewer known crashes', but removing known headaches from both the ED team and the user base  
ED doesn't need to maintain 2 separate builds (no more need to compile several OB patches together at the same time) and for people who enjoy multiplayer this is also great news. 

[__Mad__]

Very nice! Finally.... an unified version is all that i wanted over the years 

[Czar66]

I believe this is good for everyone.

Also, keeping the ability to roll back to previous versions if some issue arises for those who are not into open multiplayer and/or enjoys a single player/co-op experience is a must.

[splash]

Do we need to uninstall the release or beta version? I have both versions installed currently and would like to recover some precious hard disk space. Probably the installer will update both versions to the latest unified version.

[IR.Clutch]

Good job, Aviastorm! Significant progress on these two panels

[Raisuli]

43 minutes ago, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

Moving to a single Unified Release build for DCS is a VERY good thing for everyone  

I would call it very unfortunate, for a number of software development lifecycle reasons.  Hopefully ED has their act together, but the complexity of what they do suggests otherwise.

 

This is one case where I would love to be wrong.

[corbu1]

Looking forward to the unified DCS versions.

I‘m one of those installing both DCS versions open beta and stable in the past for maximum safety, this will spare me some disk space now.

[BIGNEWY]

1 minute ago, Raisuli said:

I would call it very unfortunate, for a number of software development lifecycle reasons.  Hopefully ED has their act together, but the complexity of what they do suggests otherwise.

 

This is one case where I would love to be wrong.

QA and internal testing has improved a lot recently, this has helped in our decision to move to a unified version for public versions, it has been requested a lot in the community. 
We still have dev versions and closed beta testing, but your feedback and reports will continue to shape DCS and we are grateful for that.  

 

[exhausted]

I approve of the unification into a single version.

[Hoirtel]

49 minutes ago, Schlingel mit Kringel said:

"Hmm, i love the smell of DCS 3.0 in the morning" 

This big step of unifying versions at least sounds like we step up one digit.

I agree but we will surely see Vulkan in a 3.0 version?

I am all for a single release, considering there is also currently a single and multi thread version of each it can only be a good thing to streamline things. Also considering the massive adoption of open beta, it couldn't ever really be a proper beta. 

[Gunfreak]

1 hour ago, Beirut said:

Hope I don't have to do a 500GB re-install for the new all-in-one version. 

On steam, if you change from table to open beta or the reverse. You usually get like a 15-20 update if I remember correctly.

[St4rgun]

Very good news. I'm only concerned that the team would have enough resources to properly test everything before a new patch.

Or will this mean a much sparse patch deployment, like one new patch quarterly?

[BIGNEWY]

3 minutes ago, St4rgun said:

Very good news. I'm only concerned that the team would have enough resources to properly test everything before a new patch.

Or will this mean a much sparse patch deployment, like one new patch quarterly?

Patches will go to a six week or so cycle, just depends on development and testing 

thanks

[Drac]

So...I take it that there will be no update this month.

[draconus]

This February in the cloudy skies of unified DCS servers the two titans will finally meet in the epic battle never seen before - prepare for DCS 2024 The War: Beta vs Stable

[Raisuli]

9 minutes ago, draconus said:

This February in the cloudy skies of unified DCS servers the two titans will finally meet in the epic battle never seen before - prepare for DCS 2024 The War: Beta vs Stable

I've already contracted for a few tons of popcorn.  I seriously hope it's going to be enough, because spot prices have skyrocketed...then there's the batteries for my active noise-canceling hearing protection, but if the noise is canceled what's left? 

Am a bit curious about some of the finer (and honestly less important) details, but my gut is we're going to see a call for a larger closed beta team before the year is out.  I have an idea how QA works given I've been sucked into that department since I seem to be the guy who finds all the bugs at work (and I also work directly for the CTO, so no escape either...).  One of the developers has been assigned to me, but he's also the guy who collects real avionics.  No complaints!

The community has gotten its wish, probably because this simplifies life for ED as well.  They will get it ironed out sooner or later, but it might be interesting for a while!

But, to your point, isn't this going to be a battle between Beta, Stable, and Unified?  Last executable standing wins?  Scraps of shattered lua littering the battlefield?  Rivers of broken mods and disjointed missions soaking into the ground?  The unmistakable smell of charred DLLs and torn APIs fills the air? 

[BIGNEWY]

1 hour ago, Drac said:

So...I take it that there will be no update this month.

Will be in February 

thanks