F-104 Video Report | Fog Progress | Supercarrier Deck Crew | F-16C Arctic Thunder Campaign

[Graphics]

 

 

15 November 2024
 

Dear Fighter Pilots, Partners and Friends, 

Our new fog system will at last be coming to DCS in the next update! For the past three years we have worked hard on delivering a radically new fog solution that will dramatically change your level of immersion in DCS. Please read the Volumetric Weather White Paper. 

It’s with great pleasure that we also announce the deck crew director system for DCS Supercarrier also coming in the next update. This long awaited feature will direct player and AI aircraft from parking locations to catapults and from the landing area to a parking location. Please read the details below. 

We’ve also included an update from Aerges on their Mirage F1 and upcoming F-104. Aerges are making impressive progress and we can’t wait to see what you think!

The F-16C Arctic Thunder Campaign by Reflected Simulations will also be available in the next update. This intense F-16C Viper campaign over the Kola map will include 10 missions and over 2,000 voice lines. Check it out below.

Thank you for your passion and support.

Yours sincerely, 

Eagle Dynamics

 

New Fog Effects

Enhancements

The next update will feature substantial enhancements to DCS weather in particular a new state-of-the art fog and dust rendering system. This highly immersive solution, which took more than 8’500 man hours to develop, allows both automatic and manual fog generation and accounts for sensor and AI line-of-sight blocking. It is calculated with our future spherical Earth in mind and can be highly variable based on density and altitude. It supports self-shadowing, blends with clouds, and is fully animated with moving cloud banks.

Scenes from the early morning and evening hours are particularly convincing and offer a surprisingly realistic atmosphere.

Please do read our detailed white paper here: Volumetric Weather White Paper. 

 

New Supercarrier Plane Directors

Development Report

When DCS: Supercarrier was originally released, it included a rich set of deck crew and animations that mimicked the process of taxiing on to the catapult and launching. In the next update, we are delighted to announce the added feature of plane ‘directors’ (yellow shirts) who precisely marshall aircraft from their parking space to the catapult. This usually involves multiple plane directors passing control from one key position to the next ensuring precise hazard free taxiing of the aircraft to their designated catapult. After landing, the same new director system will marshall players and AI aircraft back to their designated parking location.

While the process of creating this for single player was a challenging task given the myriads of ways the process can be interrupted, the multiplayer aspect was far more complex than ever contemplated given the numerous ways multiple human players on the carrier deck could “break” the system. This led to more than four times the development initially budgeted for this feature and we apologise for the delay and hope you will enjoy the experience.

Regarding the CVN-74 John C. Stennis, it is available as both a free aircraft carrier and as part of the Supercarrier module. This allows the Stennis to be used by pilots that own and do not own the Supercarrier module. For now and to maintain this compatibility, deck crew will not be supported for this particular aircraft carrier. We are working on a solution to resolve this in the future.

 

F-104 Starfighter

Development Report

Aerges is pleased to update you on improvements to their Mirage F1 and C-101 and progress of their F-104.

Mirage F1M MFD and HUD symbology, as well as their respective avionics logic, are in an advanced state of development.

Much work is being done to polish the F1 systems in addition to fixing bugs reported by our community. Attention has also been made to the C-101 in order to keep it up to date and bug free.

There has been an overhaul of the code structure to allow more effective coding and feature-sharing between the F1 and the upcoming F-104. 

Research continues on radar picture rendering and physics improvements. The resulting technology is also expected to be used for the F-104.

Coding of the F-104 flight model and general aircraft systems is complete, as well as initial flight model validation. This includes engine, hydraulics, electrics, fuel, controls, armament, and miscellaneous systems. Avionic systems and integration with the cockpit animations and inputs is currently in-progress.

The F-104 external model and cockpit textures are the result of a thorough research that  included laser scanning. The next step will be the creation of the set of liveries. Please check out the F1 and F-104 development progress video. 

 

F-16 Arctic Thunder

Campaign by Reflected Simulations

February, 2024. Finland is on the verge of joining NATO when the unthinkable happens: Russian armed forces cross the frontier into Finland accompanied with massive air strikes.  Its NATO allies immediately join the conflict to push the bear back across the border. 

Reflected Simulations’ F-16C campaign over the Kola map is based on real life events and tactics. Strap into a US Air Force F-16C Viper against a formidable threat. Take part in study level, highly realistic missions such as CAP, CAS, SEAD and precision strikes. Follow real life procedures in unprecedented detail. 

Launching simultaneously, a companion F/A-18C campaign by Baltic Dragon will be available that is woven into the same storyline. Now is an excellent time to purchase the Kola map! Experience what it would be like to fly as a fighter pilot in a large-scale air war today. 

Key Features:

• 10 immersive missions with a variety of different tasks: CAS, X-CAS, CAP, escort, pre-planned strikes, and more.
• An interactive intro mission that guides the player through the most important aspects of the campaign.
• Operations from road bases in Finland.
• Over 2,200 lines of dialogue with voice-overs.
• Custom ATC interaction for all the missions.
• Optional use of air-to-air refuelling or the choice to skip it.
• Detailed documentation, flight plans, maps, and target information available in both PDF format and from within each mission as part of the kneeboard.

 Thank you again for your passion and support, 

Yours sincerely,

[MadMonty]

Amazing news! Looking forward to the next update. Thanks for sharing.

[Youtch]

New fog looks impressive. Hope it will not impact performance in VR.

[joker62]

yeah, really great news about new fog effects and new SC plane directors. At this point I can't wait for the next patch to be released.

Thanks ED for your continued hard work.

 

 

 

[Furiz]

Great news, hoped to see Sniper for the Viper, but this is great as well:)

[ouky1991]

Nice one with the core updates! Thank you ED. Hopefully mission editor select tool and sniper pod will make it in soon as well (end of a year? pretty please)

[AKULA_OPTIMUS]

New fog is a big deal

[draconus]

New deck marshalls, new fog impacting visibility and sensors... wow, you guys can deliver

[Gunfreak]

Very nice indeed. I share the hope the fog won't affect VR performance. Rain and snow effects still tank VR preformance 

[nachinus]

This new fog system sounds spectacular. Though it will require a lot of updating and testing in existing campaigns/missions, I reckon.

[Jayhawk1971]

Will the new plane director feature "recognize" the Tomcat as well, or has it been calibrated solely for the Hornet? I ask because there still seem to be compatibility issues with the F-14 regarding certain SC features (LSO call-outs, IFLOLS*). 

Just so I can manage my expectations.  

 

*or has the IFLOLS been fixed in the meantime? I seem to have read - around July (?) of this year - that ED was in the process of addressing that issue, so maybe it has been fixed (I'm on somewhat of a DCS break right now) 

Edited November 15, 2024 by Jayhawk1971

[Mad_Shell]

Hi @NineLine

do you know in the next update what sensors will be blocked by fog (IR seekers, lasers, some effect on radars...) and if clouds will also effect these sensors? It was a little bit unclear if it is coming for only fog or for clouds too.

Thanks

[YoYo]

The fog looks very nice, if anyone wants more screenshots it's worth taking a look here: https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/downloads/screenshots/572/

 

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

Oh wow, exciting news indeed! 

[ThorBrasil]

DCS is the best simulator and there is no other that can compete with it. I will buy the F-104 on the first day! Thank You ED!

[JSF_Aggie]

Looking forward to the SC deck crew improvements, thank you.  We need a video. 

[Bucic]

Any chance the white atmospheric haze and sky box color banding are going to be tackled in a related effort?

 

Skybox color banding - 2D Video Bugs - ED Forums - https://forum.dcs.world/topic/330726-skybox-color-banding/

[sthompson]

New F-16 campaign from @Reflected might be enough to get me to purchase the Kola map since he has an excellent track record of keeping campaigns up to date. But I'm not inclined to buy the companion FA-18 campaign by @baltic_dragon until there is some progress on his completely broken campaign for the MiG-19 Farmer. The Crime and Punishment campaign included with the paid MiG-19 module is currently unplayable. The bug was reported more than two years ago, with intervening promises to fix it. The last promise was made more than a year ago, but no action has been taken. I'm generally not a complainer, but my patience is at an end. ED really should fix a business model that prioritizes new content and features over game-breaking bugs. The bug report thread is here: 

 

[Bucic]

(fog)

Yes! Core, baby!  

[SloppyDog]

Good improvements to the core game. The white paper on the fog shows how difficult and complicated things can be to implement. but the end result should be very satisfactory.

Also, SuperCarrier Marshalls! Finally!

[Plokkum]

Since volumetric lights are also implemented, would that mean we should also see landing lights, beacons and propulsion systems illuminate the fog and clouds?

Edited November 16, 2024 by Plokkum
Spelling

[MAXsenna]

2 hours ago, sthompson said:

But I'm not inclined to buy the companion FA-18 campaign by @baltic_dragon until there is some progress on his completely broken campaign for the MiG-19 Farmer.

I see your point, while we're not privy to the deal between Razbam and BD, and how it affects the current situation. 

Lots of other stuff are affected too. Training missions, manual and what not for the Harrier and SE comes to mind.  

[Lace]

Forgive my ignorance here, but why couldn't the fog layer just be treated as it is in real life, i.e., a cloud layer in contact with the ground?  Why does it need to be rendered differently?

[nachinus]

hace 2 horas, Lace dijo:

Forgive my ignorance here, but why couldn't the fog layer just be treated as it is in real life, i.e., a cloud layer in contact with the ground?  Why does it need to be rendered differently?

I guess it's because fog needs to have a wide gradient of density and visibility distance impact from mist with >1km visibility to thick fog with almost zero visibility. Cloud system in the sim may be simpler in that regard.

Edited November 16, 2024 by nachinus

[Kisi]

Hi.
Is there a video / videos planned to showcase upcoming features?

Thanks!