Dear IL-2 fans,
Since the release of
patch 4.09, Daidalos Team has been working on the next official
patch 4.10. We have done a substantial progress already and we would like to start showing you our latest development and gradually revealing the content of the
patch until its release.
All the official updates for
patch 4.10 are going to be shown in this first post, please use the rest of the thread for comments and questions.
We would like to emphasize that everything we are showing here has WIP status and is not a finished yet. Please take it into account.
Thank you.
Daidalos Team
4.10
Patch Overview - updated weekly
- all listed planning and content is subject to change by DT or 1C/MG
Next week we will try to provide you with more information about the team and our future plans. Plus we are going to show you our solution for better control of multi-engine airplanes.
Development Update - 2009-01-21
Navigation improvements
One thing that has been requested often is improved navigation. The whole art of navigation in it's all forms is very complicated subject, but radio navigation is one small part that we decided to concentrate on. Currently the balance between playability and realism is such that the waypoints in mission act as sort of radio beacons and repeater compass has a needle that points towards the "beacons". This obviously has two issues. The "virtual beacons" can be located in too favorable and unrealistic positions such as middle of ocean or deep within enemy territory. Also most of the repeater compasses work like radio compasses which they didn't do in real life. Programmable waypoints for aircraft would be post-WW2 technology.
Here's Team Daidalos' solution for this matter:
Non-directional beacon object (NDB):
New stationary radio beacon object that can be placed on map. If any of these are present on map, all navigation instruments work only with beacons and not with waypoints anymore. waypoints are still there as usual (for AI), but they are just abstract points on map and compasses don't know anything about these. Old missions work as usual, since they don't have the new beacon objects.
Each beacon is given an unique two letter ID and also the friendly beacon icons & IDs are always visible in map, since their positions are known. Pilot will have two new keys. Next Beacon & Prev Beacon. These are used to tune radio to selected beacon frequency (based on ID). Beacon will broadcast it's ID as Morse code once in minute so pilot can hear if he is tuned to correct beacon. Also pilot can hear a static (chirring) background noise when beacon is transmitting constantly, but there is no modulated signal. Cone of silence is also included, so pilot knows when he has flown directly over the beacon.
Meacon object (masking beacon):
Meacons were trick to render beacons less usable for the enemy. Meacon basically captures enemy beacon signal and re-radiates the same signal from different location. Therefore confusing the enemy trying to use it's own beacons for navigating. This is a stationary object like the NDB.
ZB/YE "Hayrake" directional beacon:
The ZB/YE system that allied used was one way of finding a way back home to own aircraft carrier. ZB beign the receiver in plane and YE the rotating directional beacon installed to allied aircraft carriers. This device broadcast a different letter of the (Morse code) alphabet every thirty degrees as it rotated. These letters could be picked up by the ZB receiver in a plane as it moved into the radio signal range. From the letter heard the pilot could determine a bearing to the ship. In the corner of each pilot's plotting board was a compass rose. When preparing flight data before starting a mission, the pilot filled in each slice of the pie with letters designated for the YE that day.
In game this works as following way. Root of the orders menu (tab) includes details of all friendly "hayrake" carriers. For example
Lexington CV2 ID: FC Code: EWQ / KPT / VXZ / ADJ
Pilot will use again the Next Beacon & Prev Beacon keys to tune the radio to certain frequency (based on ID). If player would tune his radio to listen this CV2, he would hear Morse code about twice in a minute as the carrier's "hayrake" antenna rotates at 2 RPM and sending the signal. Code after the carrier name is the Morse code pattern that the YE sends to different directions. Each letter in code represents 30 dec segment starting from 0 dec. For example carrier transmits K to 90-120 dec. So pilot hears K (dash dot dash), the carrier is at bearing 270-300. Code is randomly generated, but still same for all online players.
IJN carriers have normal NDBs, since Zeros & Val have fixed D/F-loops and homing indicators. Acccording to our current knowledge, Axis didn't have similar system in use.
YG shore based "Hayrake":
YG was simplified version of the YE which was used on land. This is a stationary ground object like the NDB that can be placed on ground and is always visible in map with ID. Functionality is same as with YE, except the code is fixed and same for all beacons. Carrier's YE code was changed daily in order to protect the carrier in case enemy would have found out the code.
Lorenz blind landing beacon:
This is similar stationary object like the NDB beacon. It must be placed certain way at airports in order to work correctly. Again pilot user the Next Beacon & Prev Beacon keys to tune to correct frequency. Aircrafts approaching the runway in dark or bad weather would tune their radios to the broadcast frequency and listen for the signal. If they heard a series of dots, they knew they were off the runway centerline to the left (the dot-sector) and had to turn to the right to line up with the runway. If they were off to the right, they would hear a series of dashes instead (the dash-sector), and turned left. Key to the easy operation of the system was an area in the middle where the two signals overlapped, where the dots of the one signal "filled in" the dashes of the other, resulting in a steady tone known as the equi-signal. By adjusting their path until they heard the equi-signal, the pilot could align their aircraft with the runway for landing.
Two small marker beacons were also used with Lorenz, one 300 m off the end of runway, the HEZ, and another 3 km away, the VEZ, modulated at 1700 and 700 Hz, respectively. These signals were broadcast directly upward, and would be heard briefly as the aircraft flew over them. To approach the runway, the aircraft would fly to a published altitude and then use the main directional signals to line up with the runway and started flying toward it. When they flew over the VEZ they would start descending on a standard glide slope, continuing to land or abort at the HEZ depending on whether or not they could see the runway.
Many Luftwaffe planes have a combined blind landing & homing gauge AFN-1 or AFN-2 to show a visual indication of the Lorenz beam & markers. There are made fully functional with Lorenz blind landing beacon.
Lorenz blind landing beacon (internal DT development)
Realistic navigation instruments difficulty option:
Currently there are several navigational instruments in game which give too much information for player. For example the standard Luftwaffe & US repeater compasses work like radio compass. Pointing towards next waypoint or NDB. In real life these instruments didn't have any D/F (direction finding) ability. In order to have this, the plane needs a D/F-loop antenna.
Team Daidalos added a new difficulty option to enable more realistic navigation instruments. This is what happens when it's turned on:
-All repeater compasses stop working as radio compass.
-Manually heading indicators in repeater compasses are adjustable with two new keys. In LW compass this is the circular compass rose while the plane icon indicates magnetic heading. In US compass this is the fork like heading indicator which previously was pointing to waypoint.
-AFN-1 & AFN-2 gauges in Luftwaffe planes are operational in their homing mode indicating when plane if flying towards/away from beacon. The limitation of fixed D/F-loop antenna is included, so that it only measures signal strength, but cannot know it plane is flying straight towards beacon or away from it. Also AFN range needle is working. Some level of radio signal attenuation is modelled, so that the signal gets weaker/stronger based on distance, alt, sun and landmasses between transmitter & receiver.
-Similar gauges in other planes are working also as expected.
-In Russian planes these instruments are disabled IF the plane doesn't have D/F-loop. Acccording to our current knowledge, many russian fighters had an option to install direction finding eqipment, but they didn't have these installed.
-Planes that have a real radio compass (rotating D/F-loop), such as B-25, Bf-110, Ju-88, Beaufighter, etc. have their radio compass working as expected. Indicating relative bearing to selected NDB.
VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ljgmXx07R8
We are going to provide a higher quality version of the following video later this week, Youtube has compressed the original video and too many details have been lost.
I-15bis as flyable (internal DT development, textures with external cooperation)
http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/2594 ... 012103.jpg
CW-21 as flyable (3D model unfinished from PF development, textures upgrade and implementation by DT)
http://img651.imageshack.us/i/dt2010012103.jpg/
http://img85.imageshack.us/i/dt2010012105.jpg/
http://img651.imageshack.us/i/dt2010012104.jpg/
http://img651.imageshack.us/i/dt2010012106.jpg/
Development Update - 2009-01-16
New FMB features - more to come... (internal DT dev.)
Polikarpov R-5 - AI only - 4000 polygons (internal DT dev.)
Henschel Hs 129 - flyable with historical cockpit (internal DT dev.)
Henschel Hs 129 - upgrade of original 3D model + new weapons + new skin - 4500 polygons (internal DT dev.)
Videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/DaidalosTeam
Screenshots:
http://img695.imageshack.us/g/dt20100116content.jpg/
