DCS Update | Kola Development Report | Pimax Crystal Light

[Graphics]

 

 

04 October 2024
 

Dear Fighter Pilots, Partners and Friends, 

The September 2024 DCS update has been released and we kindly encourage you to download the latest version and read the full changelog. Multiple third party terrains have also received impressive updates, notably the South Atlantic, Sinai, Syria, and Kola maps at 20% off during early access. These improvements improve immersion and make for engaging missions. 

In light of the impressive new DCS: Kola map summer textures, Orbx Systems has prepared a summary on their most recent improvements and development timeline. Please read the details below. 

The following promotional message is from Pimax Virtual Reality hardware: Go to Pimax and use the code DCS2024 at checkout to receive 15,000 ED Miles when purchasing a Pimax Crystal Light VR headset. This offer is valid until November 29th, 2024. Visit the Pimax area of the DCS Forum for dedicated Pimax VR support.

Thank you for your passion and support.

Yours sincerely, 

Eagle Dynamics

 

DCS 2.9.8.1107

Development Progress

We're excited to bring you a new DCS update that features a variety enhancement and fixes across several DCS modules that both improves gameplay and realism. Last week we discussed some of the improvements coming to the F-16C Viper and F/A-18C, and these were included in this week’s update.  Additionally you will find a wealth of enhancements for a variety of our modules including Combined Arms, Black Shark 3, MB-339A/PAN by IndiaFoxtEcho Visual Simulations, JF-17 by Deka Ironwork Simulations, and terrains including the South Atlantic, Kola, Syria, and Sinai maps. For more details on all the fabulous enhancements, please read the full changelog.

 

Kola

Development Progress

“Check out the September update video of the reworked map’s visuals and additional Finnish airfields. We greatly appreciate your role in bringing Kola to life and invite you to visit https://kola.orbxdirect.com/ to submit new improvements.”

– Orbx Systems

Progress So Far
Compared to the initial release, the Kola map now has substantially improved natural terrain that includes a more detailed elevation mesh, summer and winter ground textures, vegetation, shorelines, lakes, and rivers. The initial focus area for airfields and infrastructure spans the Finland-Russia border regions, but we’ve also started adding more detail to parts of Norway and Sweden. If you were holding off on purchasing this wonderful map, now is the time to experience this epix terrain. 

Major updates since the Early Access release: 

• The addition of a complete set of high-resolution, winter textures that will be critical for the upcoming ‘Arctic Thunder’ campaigns by Reflected Simulations and Baltic Dragon. 
• The summer textures have greatly improved with much higher resolution that improves the low altitude environment. 
• The addition/improvement of four highly-detail regions covering four airfields in Finland: Rovaniemi (EFRO), Kemi / Tornio (EFKE), Kuusamo (EFKS), and Ivalo (EFIV); and five in Russia: Severomorsk-3 (XLMV), Severomorsk-1 (ULAK), RU-1110 (UMOE), RU-4464 (UOLE), and Murmansk (ULMM). 
• Added or improved two road runways in Finland (at Vuojärvi and Rovaniemi), three airfields in Norway: Bodø (ENBO), Kirkenes (ENKR), and Lakselv (ENNA); and five in Sweden: Kiruna (ESNQ), Jokkmokk (ESNJ), Luleå (ESPA), Vidsel (ESPE), and Kalixfors (ESUK). 
• An improved road and railroad network connected within the coverage area that includes bridges and tunnels that allow AI routing across the map. 
• Many new cities, towns, infrastructure, tunnels and other objects have been added to the map.

Future Plans
The next release will see the inclusion of Andoya (ENAN) airfield in Norway and Alakurtti (RU-0059) airfield in Russia with some additional infrastructure in the surrounding areas. Orbx has also reviewed a series of bugs and errors aiming for small performance improvements. 

Future releases will see the addition of more airfields and surrounding infrastructure including: Evenes (ENEV), Bardufoss (ENDU), Kittilä Airport (EFKT), Enontekiö Airport (EFET), Pudasjärvi Airfield (EFPU), and Sodankylä Airfield (EFSO). Beyond these, Cold War-era installations, military airfields, and other key points of interest are also planned. 

The upcoming Arctic Thunder campaign by Reflected Simulations & Baltic Dragon for the Kola map will consist of two scenarios: one for a Finnish Air Force F/A-18C and another for an USAF F-16C Viper. Both will share the same storyline and missions making it possible to play from different perspectives. 

Orbx has remained committed to continually providing frequent optimisation updates to the Kola Map. Please note that whilst in early access you can still enjoy a 20% discount!

 

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We hope you enjoy the latest DCS Update and we truly look forward to your feedback on the new enhancements to the F/A-18C, F-16C, F-4E Phantom II. Please make sure to read the full changelog for more details.  

Thank you again for your passion and support, 

Yours sincerely,

 

[Gierasimov]

Soldiers coming? Is DCS finally getting new boots on the ground then? I hope this includes AT infantry and JTAC  

[Beirut]

Love all the map work. That makes me happy. 

[flyingscotsman]

Like many Brits, I enjoyed...(a relative term) 3 months  in Norway, and Bardufoss was the base we used to get home from at the end of it. My main time was at Voss, before we went up into the artic circle....No idea where we were when we were up there, we just drove for Hours. Parked up and started the Exercise again, but from Tents....

"Never be the radioman on duty, when the tents go up....you get the door".  Sound advice I was given prior to the exercise, & sure enough it was my shift on the radio......He was right!

[Hotdognz]

The Kola map is my fav map in DCS right now, the initial release started off a bit rough but the work Orbx have done over the last 3 updates has been amazing.

Sent from my CPH2333 using Tapatalk

[Mr_Burns]

5 hours ago, flyingscotsman said:

Like many Brits, I enjoyed...(a relative term) 3 months  in Norway, and Bardufoss was the base we used to get home from at the end of it. My main time was at Voss, before we went up into the artic circle....No idea where we were when we were up there, we just drove for Hours. Parked up and started the Exercise again, but from Tents....

"Never be the radioman on duty, when the tents go up....you get the door".  Sound advice I was given prior to the exercise, & sure enough it was my shift on the radio......He was right!

We landed at rovaniemi -25 and there were Hornets taxiing! Lapland Air Wing. Holiday I’m not ex mil.

[YoYo]

@Graphics no any info about progress of ‚Hellcat” or MiG-29A? Any chances to see the release in this year still?

[Gierasimov]

3 hours ago, YoYo said:

@Graphics no any info about progress of ‚Hellcat” or MiG-29A? Any chances to see the release in this year still?

Would be winter treat if Fulcrum released in 2024 ! 

[Lau]

A very faint voice from the warbirds development undergrounds and WW2 asset pack...... S.....O......S....

Either through news letters or even better through change logs / updates.

Thanks,

[Beirut]

17 hours ago, Hotdognz said:

The Kola map is my fav map in DCS right now, the initial release started off a bit rough but the work Orbx have done over the last 3 updates has been amazing.

Sent from my CPH2333 using Tapatalk
 

 

I've been buying ORBX products for years, and I have faith that they'll keep up their good rep.

 

And yes, it's a great map. These are some quality updates.

[Boosterdog]

I have bought and tried to like both Kola and Afghanistan.  Both seem utterly unsuited for the tech being used to produce them given the prevelance of rocky, mountainous areas and the inabilty of the imagery to render them as anything but to fuzzy felt blobs. Moreover, the pre-release images of the airfields from OrbX do not, on any level, represent what we ended up with. 

I cant celebrate either at this point.  

[Gunfreak]

3 hours ago, Boosterdog said:

I have bought and tried to like both Kola and Afghanistan.  Both seem utterly unsuited for the tech being used to produce them given the prevelance of rocky, mountainous areas and the inabilty of the imagery to render them as anything but to fuzzy felt blobs. Moreover, the pre-release images of the airfields from OrbX do not, on any level, represent what we ended up with. 

I cant celebrate either at this point.  

The latest patch made some amazing improvements to the mountains. Yes within 1000 meters you'll see the bad textures. But you don't have to be at 15 000 feet anymore  

[Boosterdog]

30 minutes ago, Gunfreak said:

The latest patch made some amazing improvements to the mountains. Yes within 1000 meters you'll see the bad textures. But you don't have to be at 15 000 feet anymore  

It really didnt. It may have shapened stuff up for the average jet jock perhaps so they no longer have to QRF vertically out of the airfield but the fact remains that the illusion falls apart too quickly and in too many places. In short the tech doesnt cut the mustard and, for the area selected, probably never will. At this point it feels very much like a folly and race to the bottom in terms of enviromental creation. At least in the DCS engine. 

[Gunfreak]

27 minutes ago, Boosterdog said:

It really didnt. It may have shapened stuff up for the average jet jock perhaps so they no longer have to QRF vertically out of the airfield but the fact remains that the illusion falls apart too quickly and in too many places. In short the tech doesnt cut the mustard and, for the area selected, probably never will. At this point it feels very much like a folly and race to the bottom in terms of enviromental creation. At least in the DCS engine. 

I've now spent several hours on the new textures and the improvement are massive. The main jarring thing is the ground textures not covered by trees. They have very low textures when seen from above. But is just grass once you get low enough. And so looks fine when you put the camera at eye height.

Yes hopefully ED can fix their engine to allow for bigger texture files.

But even now, overall it the 3rd best looking map. After Syria and Normandy 2. Those are still king of the hill down low. It's far more jarring trying to fly on Afghanistan. Where there's just a few square meters you can use for anything. As even the "high quality" parts has only a few pieces of ground that doesn't look terrible anywhere you look.

On Kola I can plopp down ground units almost anywhere and it will look fine at ground units height. Not so on Afghanistan.

[Red_Pilot]

Looking at the Kola and Afghanistan maps that I did not buy, I am increasingly enjoying the Sinai map and especially the performance on it

Edited October 5 by Red_Pilot

[Boosterdog]

35 minutes ago, Gunfreak said:

But even now, overall it the 3rd best looking map. After Syria and Normandy 2. Those are still king of the hill down low.

Thats the thing - its a new map. It shouldnt be 3rd. Syria was certainly an outlyer in terms of execution and developer commitment though. 

3 minutes ago, Red_Pilot said:

Looking at the Kola and Afghanistan maps that I did not buy, I am increasingly enjoying the Sinai map and especially the performance on it

 

Looking at the Kola map from the Sinai is proabably about the best distance to view it from. 

[Gunfreak]

3 minutes ago, Boosterdog said:

Thats the thing - its a new map. It shouldnt be 3rd. Syria was certainly an outlyer in terms of execution and developer commitment though. 

 

It's early access. Syria has had like 5 years of improvement. 

In 5 months Kola has had 4 major update with huge improvement.

 

Kola looks really good now. And it looks good from quite low. Still needs work for it to be helo heaven like Syria or Normandy 2. 

The map isn't even half done when it comes to infrastructure like towns, cities and air bases. And we can continue to see improvements to textures, colours, performance etc.

[Boosterdog]

@Gunfreak 

Clearly we disagree. Im afraid I cant be as kind to either the map or OrbX as your good self. Different strokes. 

[freehand]

7 minutes ago, Boosterdog said:

@Gunfreak 

Clearly we disagree. Im afraid I cant be as kind to either the map or OrbX as your good self. Different strokes. 

So in your eyes which maps are contenders for the top 3 ?

Edited October 5 by freehand

[Pillowcat]

2 hours ago, Gunfreak said:

And it looks good from quite low

*Pictures with all trade is about painted black except skies* sorry i'm not very good with english, is it humor?

daylight variant (pictures in linked post. warning! Can suddenly rise 'Operation Flashpoint:Cold War Crisis' nostalgia) :

Edited October 6 by Pillowcat
damn autoreplacing of brackets to emojis

[Boosterdog]

7 hours ago, freehand said:

So in your eyes which maps are contenders for the top 3 ?

 

I dont do "Tops" as such. Each map has it good and bad points. I also prefer helos so my needs may  differ from others. Syria offers the best overall experience with a varied environment and good detail, Normandy2 offers similar in a temperate flavour IF you can get past the 1940s settings and cars driving on the wrong side of the road in the UK. The Channel map can be good for Helos as well as warbirds but has some faults that can get on your nerves if you let them though I think it has the some of the best countryside scenes. The Marianas has good coastal details that dont fall apart too much as you get closer albeit real estate is limitied. PG is good albeit a little bland and under developed. Caucauses is not bad for a free map and, if you choose your play area well, holds up reasonably well. NTTR is only installed because of the Mig Killer's campaign.  YMMV.

 

8 hours ago, Gunfreak said:

And it looks good from quite low. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 hours ago, Pillowcat said:

*Pictures with all trade is about painted black except skies* sorry i'm not very good with english, is it humor?

 

 

The irony of the images used to support the argument did make me smile. Ultimately there are those who are happy with the map and those who are not. Im obviously in the latter group. The EA argument both frustrates and annoys me. Im well aware of what EA is. I have enough modules under that banner to understand. This isnt about EA. Its about stuff that isnt up to par and never will be. I dont personally think OrbX and ED were as up front as they should have been been about the state of it on release and I continue to think the updates and improvements are over hyped for the overall effect to give an impression things are on the up.  I almost didnt pre-order Kola  but the images of the airfields pulled me in. Now to have OrbX shrugging their shoulders and blaming the engine for not delivering what was promised leaves a nasty taste. Like others, I've spent a lot with OrbX over the years in other sims. I expected a little more competency and honesty.  Equally ED made all the right noises about their new map tech (albeit without actually saying anything of substance on reflection) which also fooled me into thinking that, given Afghanistan is a pretty rocky place, they had a plan for it. They didnt and dont. Ultimately, the map making tech being used isnt suited to producing rocky features in large scale right now (if at all). That is clear. And it should (and likely was) have been clear from the get go. 

[Rene Coulon]

22 hours ago, Lau said:

A very faint voice from the warbirds development undergrounds and WW2 asset pack...... S.....O......S....

Either through news letters or even better through change logs / updates.

Thanks,

I am with you on this !. WW2 and support in DCS is getting weaker by the month. No Ships of any real consequence etc etc...we really are the left behind fans.

[Slippa]

23 minutes ago, Rene Coulon said:

I am with you on this !. WW2 and support in DCS is getting weaker by the month. No Ships of any real consequence etc etc...we really are the left behind fans.

We need reinforcements. Send the Air Force, Army and the Navy.

Never mind all that ‘and beyond’ give us ‘and they’re here’.

Pretty please, with many cherries. 

[Lau]

5 hours ago, Slippa said:

We need reinforcements. Send the Air Force, Army and the Navy.

Never mind all that ‘and beyond’ give us ‘and they’re here’.

Pretty please, with many cherries. 

Yes we do, forget the Air Force, the Army and the Navy and hire some coders, 3D artists, Beta testers, Support Staff able to liaise and address customers feedback, bug hunting. Forget about "and beyond", finish products now 'and they're here' to match the investment many of us have made with nearly 1000 EUR 'worth' of modules.

Warbirds and WW2 Pack...........S............O...........S..........

Just to make sure we are on the same line,

Pretty please, with many cherries 

[Lau]

3 hours ago, NIAGARA MOHAWK said:

 Give it up guys == forget WWII anything == ED has SHELVED anything and everything WWII / Warbird's / Maps .  It is Evident by their LACK of ANY INFO / PICS of progress .. We have been Played for SUCKERS / Smoke being Blown of our Collective  A #$'s == they probably get together on weekends and have a GOOD LAUGH at our Gullibility ... Save your $$$ guys !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

WW2 has not been shelved; it's just on pause, albeit it might be a long one... The birds are here and they are very good looking, the feeling of flight feels very nice to me. I will therefore never give it up, I rather hold accountable ED for pretending to work on WW2 assets and planes, for not following up on customers feedback and diligently fixing bugs. The reality however is I do not know, WW2 birds might be on sale (discounted) more often than not because ED has perhaps given up on the WW2 project altogether?

It is not the first time that customers have to voice their concerns for ED to reconsider things, the problem is that we do not voice it together as a group and have no way to talk the matter with ED to find solutions (e.g. pay more). Most of us got in the warbirds taking advantage of the many sales ED offered, while it felt nice to increase our virtual hangar size it was a trap in the end that got us interested on an unfinished product. As you say, it will probably never be finished if ED runs out of business. I have always supported ED the best way I could, buying old products through sales, even if I had little interest in some of them, did it for the big picture, so part of that investment goes in to the warbirds and WW2 asset pack. Ultimately we are all interested in seeing ED grow as a company. At least I am.

The problem I have right now is not the waiting, is seeing ED play with us, doing every possible effort to ‘shushhh’ any discontent by a very heavy moderation, even like that it is very hard not to feel it or witness it in the different subforums.

Just recently and to take an example, the artificial horizon has been broken in all warbirds for over a decade, Nineline finally showed up, deleted our messages, locked the topic, apologized for the delay (over a decade of delay!) and moved the topic from investigating to reported as high priority (over a decade later)...

There are other reasons as to why I did not purchase the KOLA map, mainly related to feedback from the South Atlantic Map and for fear to anything related to Razban, even if it is an ORBX product, the head of the project apparently is also head of the South Atlantic map project. Then it also came to quality, take away the complexity of our modules and the landscape surrounding our sim sessions is lacking in quality, but there again, is it possible elsewhere to have all this complexity running smoothly like we do since MT? Kudos to ED for the performance improvements.

It is never easy to have the big picture, the maps are bigger and bigger and DCS engine needs to cope with the new challenges we customers throw at it, boundaries have been pushed hard since I have discovered DCS and I am confident many more will be pushed 2024 and beyond!

DCS will always be an unbelievable challenge, if you have used and studied your modules however unfinished they are you can only agree.

The only point I am trying to make is that in an ideal world, all the products ED decides to sell should be supported and move forward, If customers take the time to test and report, the ED staff should be there to take action, products should be thoroughly tested before release and as close to finish as possible. This is what Heatblur is trying to do, it’s not perfect, but we can feel it through their released products.

ED has other sources of revenue, I just learned about MCS (Military Combat Simulation), maybe DCS is becoming less and less important to ED in terms of revenue, after all government agencies have far more revenue than private individual customers. Again, hard to assess the big picture.

What is sure is that ED should rather talk about the challenges they are facing, faithfully explain the direction they are working on even if that means recognizing that the warbirds and the WW2 project has been moved off the shelves. To me that would mean to remove it from the store or make it clear up front to future customers that it might take a very long time before the product is considered as released/playable, the meaning of 'finished' with ED products being hard to define, I guess as far away and advanced as possible, so every user can feel that the product is close to completion and that the list of Bug Reports have considerably reduced.

Considering that ED could fail in this big project, I find it ever more important that customers voice in an organized fashion their concerns but, at the same time continue to support ED achieving the different goals, trying to keep the big picture in mind as long as we can feel ED support on a daily basis, as this is the only way we have to feel the business is growing healthy and strong, respectfully to all parties even if that means we have to confiscate their barbecue for a couple of months.

With regards to VR, I have not made the step yet, mainly because I use a tablet where I can read my flight planning and documentation. I am not a specialist of VR and I am sure there are solutions to that, like switching off one eye on the headset. That being said one does not have to be an expert to feel the gear we use is already struggling to run with the graphics quality mix that satisfy us to know if VR could be an option without an upgrade. While we wait for kneeboards in game to be more advanced (ability to write on it like on the canopy with the F4E), I will continue using my old TRACK IR.

Respectfully, 

TIP: Take a screenshot of your messages before they are deleted 

Edited October 6 by Lau