DCS: Cold War Germany - preview

[Beirut]

8 hours ago, VFXBLENDER said:

 

Well, the map's 205. My computer's done for.

 

Amazon might be getting my money tonight for some new storage. I don't like having maps uninstalled but my 1TB DCS-only NVME can't handle all this map goodness.

[Woogey]

Dear Ugra @MAESTR0

Now that I’ve had a few days to go over the Germany map for DCS, it is done very well and dare I say probably the best map to release for DCS to date.  It is absolutely a solid foundation for many years of fun adventures to come.  I can't wait to see what kind of official campaigns come from this.

 

With that said, I do have some constructive criticisms.  The airbases all look the same and have very little character. The overuse the same generic hangars and buildings over and over is disappointing.  I hope that future updates may bring a little more life to the individual characteristics of each base.  Also, brought up a many times now here, the brown patches in the grass at EVERY airfield are overly exagerated. I get the vibe that UGRA media went for a late 1970’s timeframe. The color scheme they used for the NATO bases give a run down rusty vibe, which works for the Eastern Bloc bases, but not NATO.  Generally speaking, US Facilities but more than likely all NATO associated facilities have pretty well kept grounds.  Missing patches of grass happen, but not very often.  We mow our grass, and most bases would be considered "Well Kept Garden" like.  My suggestion would be to all but remove the brown patches from the airbases of the West Germany side of the map.  Doing this would give us the immediate recognition of which side we are on.  Similarly to how film directors use subtle light and color pallets to differentiate scenes for movie goers. 

 

As far as the Buildings and Hangars go, I recognize that compromises have to be made to optimize the gameplay and keep download sizes reasonable.  One thing that could help is to close up some of the Hangars and Hass Shelters.  If you get rid of some of the interiors of these buildings, then that gives a little more head room for custom details at a few choice bases.  A couple examples that I explored are Bitburg Airbase, and Giebelstadt Army Air Field. 

Bitburg Wishlist: Personally, I would prefer to see the base with the Tan and Brown painted buildings, The HAS Shelters in the Green scheme.  Minimize the brown missing grass patches. Add a custom Roether Memorial Alert shelter, add the missing weapons bunkers

For Giebelstadt AAF, Generic Hangars are re-used here again, and this is an acceptable compromise (even though the real live Hangars would bring so much Character to the base).  Unfortunately, the use of large light poles everywhere is not conducive to helicopter operations.  Also in your rendition there are a few prominent trees in the midfield that were never there real world.  Wishlist: is to "Green up the brown patches in the grass once again, Remove the light poles, and remove the trees.  Every picture I have found of the hangars had the doors closed. I know its a ton of work, but with the removal of the extra polygons for the Tree and Light poles, in combination with more simple closed up custom hangars could potentially yield no frame loss, and potentially not much more hard drive space.  See Below for examples of Giebelstadt.

To wrap up this lengthy post.  Thank you UGRA.  You have done an outstanding job, and I look forward to all that you will give to us in the future.  I Know that every base can't be a custom masterpiece, its just not feasible.  Maybe something like picking the top 5 most well known and documented airbases, and detailing them out with more custom buildings as "Flagship" fields could be the answer.  Or instead of top 5, maybe the bases that align best with the actual DCS Aircraft IE:  the New Eagle Dynamics F-15C main home will be Bitburg, Hahn for the F-16, or a Belgian F-16 base maybe, ETC. 

 

Thank you for this amazing WIP map. 

-Preston

 

Edited April 22 by Woogey
Grammar

[VFXBLENDER]

5 hours ago, Beirut said:

 

Amazon might be getting my money tonight for some new storage. I don't like having maps uninstalled but my 1TB DCS-only NVME can't handle all this map goodness.

God I love you guys, such a great community. Comedic, just as I like it. Bless you!

[Alicatt]

9 hours ago, Beirut said:

 

Amazon might be getting my money tonight for some new storage. I don't like having maps uninstalled but my 1TB DCS-only NVME can't handle all this map goodness.

The tipping point for me came at Afghanistan, whoops Amazon had to deliver a 2TB NVME to replace the 1TB DCS one and then a clean install 

[Wacky]

On 4/2/2025 at 3:00 PM, KarlRadek said:

Hello everbody, dear Team Ugra,

First off: wonderful work! I had not expected to be so excited about a DCS map of the place where I live.

Looking at the Leipzig area I noticed there might be something important missing that was very, very defining for the 80s here in “Mitteldeutschland”: The open-pit lignite-mining infrastructure.

In this screenshot (which is a view roughly north-to-south I presume, from Leipzig main station with the very well modelled Völkerschlachtdenkmal south-easterly direction) there are at least two lakes visible south of the city. These are the modern Cospudener lake and Markleeberger lake. Great places to swim nowadays!

But: These lakes did not exist in the 80s. These were active open-pit lignite mines. The pits were flooded in the early 2000s. In a mid-/late 80s scenario these mines would have been running at maximum capacity to feed the Lippendorf coal-fired power plant for the city, the heavy chemical industry to the south and west as well as provide traction power for the railway. Most houses in Leipzig were heated by ovens burning lignite-“Briketts”. In GDR economic planning terms this was a most critical piece of infrastructure as “Braunkohle” was the only domestic fossil fuel the country had. Wintertime slumps in production were compensated by deploying the army to the mines to avoid blackouts. Mig21 jet engines were used to de-ice railcars, tanks were used to shift the tracks for the excavators.

Look at this map: it overlays the modern infrastructure/terrain to the south of the city with the state of the mining pits in ca. 1987:
- Orange are the “reserved zones” into which the mining operation was planned to progress, this would be woods, fields or unlucky villages J
- Grey zones are the then-current mining pits where the excavators would be active. Please note how these very much overlap with the modern lakes!
- Green zones are the “recultivated zones”, the mine dumps being slowly reconditioned to be used a farmland. 

This might be a bit nerdy but seeing the correct Trabis and Barkas on the street it would be a shame not to have this truly defining feature of the GDR society represented. The pollution coming from these ever-expanding mines, their ridiculous infrastructure (railyards!) and manpower requirements and the sheer destruction of the landscape they caused were a major factor in the protest movements of the late 1980s and in the collapse the of the GDR. There are lignite deposits under most of the southern sections of the city and it was considered to be just matter of time before the mines would swing north and literally eat the city. Just like they had eaten the villages in the south. Very hungry caterpillars.

In DCS terms, the mines would be very useful landmarks for navigation, they would be interesting places for helicopter operations and the power plants connected to them are strategic targets.
The lakes we see now are products of the deindustrialisation post-1990 and of the very sudden and radical progress of environmental protection achieved during the `89 collapse of SED governance. They are wonderful to have today but for the 80s vibe, you need pits, wastelands and cyclopean excavators (+ smog)!

 

 

PS: This also applies to the Lausitz / Hoyerswerda / Schwarze Pumpe regions in Phase 3! So these assets will be reused  Plz PM me if you need maps/data for the GDR lignite industry of the 80s.

  

Thank you KarlRadek for pointing this out and providing so much detailed information!

When modelling coal mines in more detail, please also include the lignite mining areas west and north-west of Cologne which has hosted vast coal mines during the cold war and up to this day:

Rheinisches Braunkohlerevier (Wikipedia)

Rheinisches Braunkohlenrevier - - Flächennutzung um 1980 (Diercke)

Rheinisches Braunkohlenrevier - - Flächennutzung um 1980 - Nordrhein-Westfalen - Rheinisches Braunkohlenrevier - Landschaftswandel durch Bergbau. Source: Diercke

These areas are already visible in the surface textures of the sim, so I hope detailed terrain mesh, 3D objects and structures will be added in the upcoming phase 2 or 3, as they are major landmarks typical for the region.

Kudos, deep appreciation and gratitude to the developers, and please do keep up the great work!

 

Edited April 23 by Wacky

[clafly]

Fantastic map! When a map of Italy?

[VFXBLENDER]

3 hours ago, clafly said:

Fantastic map! When a map of Italy?

I'm surprised there hasn't been any large map for the United States. Developers have been focusing on Europe and Asia lately, but I would love to see some other places in the world. I think the east coast would be pretty cool 'cause that's where I live. Might be a little bit of my love for New Jersey, but all jokes aside I think it would be a great project.

[Tengah]

I would like to second Woogey's post concerning the texture state of the Airbases.  Having spent 3 years at RAF Bruggen as a "first tourist" way back in the day, I can speak with a little experience on this topic.

RAF Bases back in the 80's were some kind of OD green... Very, very green.  Everywhere you looked... Green.  The only colour was on the main gate, the Placard announcing you were entering RAF Bruggen.  Laarbruch, Wildenwrath, Gutersloh, et al were all the same.  The USAF bases always looked very smart in the light tan liveries, statements on their hangars, buildings, and towers.  The German fields were very much like the RAF bases, very subdued.  CFB Lahr and Baden Sollingen were just a little more colourful from memory.  All of the bases I have visited on the Ugra map look run down, rusting, and uncared for, and give a feeling of sad abandonment.  Trust me, the US and RAF bases were far, far from this.  A case in point (tongue in cheek), RAF grass is measured for uniform height with a half rule and a pair of stout scissors, and woe betide if you dared to walk on it!

Ugra, will you be replicating the nuclear weapon storage sites at Bruggen and Laarbruch?  These were very imposing areas of the bases and stood out as an area you were never destined to tread without permission from the supreme leader.

If anyone from Ugra is reading this thread, please do not get me wrong, I am grateful for the huge undertaking and all the efforts taken.  However, I am a paying customer at the end of the day and as such have the inherent right to whinge profusely.  Whilst the map is by far and away the best thing since sliced bread, a little more attention to detail could be taken regarding the airfield textures to provide a sense of being there.   As they stand on the map, the NATO airbases look and feel like run down versions of an Eastern Bloc civilian airfield.

Many of the younger generation will not have seen these bases, and as DCS is something of a window into the past, with such modules, a little more thought could be given.

Just my honest opinion, I am sure some people are more than happy with the Airfields as they are, and all power to them.

 

Linking YouTube videos of RAF Gutersloh and Bruggen as they are today.  The bases are in a rather sorry state, as one can imagine, but they still look squared away and purposeful.

RAF Gutersloh:

 

RAF Bruggen:

 

Many thanks to anyone reading this post for your time and putting up with an old man's griping.  To anyone from Ugra, I do hope you will take this post as well intended constructive criticism.

13 hours ago, clafly said:

Fantastic map! When a map of Italy?

Yes!  Italy!  Many fond memories of Trapani, Aviano, Gioa del Colle, and of course Decimomannu (Ok, this is Sardinia, but still Italy)!   This would be an awesome map indeed.

Edited April 24 by Tengah

[Wacky]

On 4/23/2025 at 8:22 PM, clafly said:

Fantastic map! When a map of Italy?

Italy alone might only make sense in a WWII setting. However, combined with Ex-Yugoslavia/Croatia/Bosnia-Herzegovina/Serbia/Kosovo etc. - as seen in Falcon BMS with the Balkans theater - it might be more appealing to DCS and the community if set in the 90s?

[Wacky]

On 4/17/2025 at 10:28 PM, _JMax said:

Really great to see this map added to DCS. Huge download size: ColdWar Germany-205 GB  Caucasus -16.6 GB I just transferred DCS to a new 1TB SSD....but I knew at the time that I shouldve gone for more storage,lol. 

Have you tried Compactor or CompactGUI yet? They're both on github and can be used to shrink the DCS footprint by 20-30% without noticeable performance hit.

[_JMax]

1 hour ago, Wacky said:

Have you tried Compactor or CompactGUI yet? They're both on github and can be used to shrink the DCS footprint by 20-30% without noticeable performance hit.

Thanks. Sounds really useful. I  look at a 2TB SSD as minimal now.. I can see myself filling that to capacity in the near future. And all I have on my SSD right now is DCS and IL2.....