ED talks new clouds, SA-5, Hornet and Viper updates

A new DCS World Weekend News update is here and Eagle Dynamics is talking about clouds, Hornet’s, Viper’s and a new SAM battery. Say hello to the SA-5!

Clouds!

Eagle Dynamic’s is talking a little bit more about their new cloud technology after they released a teaser image about a week ago. That teaser, shown below, shows a far more detailed cloud structure system that hints at what they are aiming to do with this new graphical feature.

DCS World has had some very good looking puff balls for clouds for a while but they lacked the variety of IL-2 or the sophistication of some of the volumetric efforts such as xEnviro for X-Plane. That’s to say nothing of what Microsoft is touting for their new Flight Simulator. Now, Eagle Dynamics is catching up and making a very concerted effort to improve their cloud tech and they have detailed some of the types of clouds they will be offering:

Cumulus
Сumulonimbus
Сirrus
And variations

Additionally, there will be sophistication in how they are constructed with the following features:

Localized precipitation
Multiple cloud layers
Multi-player synchronization
Lower Performance overhead with minimal to no “pop-in”

Frankly, the last two are the most exciting as DCS World has had a chronic problem of not transmitting cloud positions over the network. Hiding in a cloud is just not a viable tactic right now but that is going to change with these new features. Ensuring that there is low performance overhead and no “pop-in” helps with immersion and ensures that the new technology doesn’t push systems already on the edge, over – or at least that is the hope!

Enter the SA-5

The SA-5 “Gammon” or S-200 is coming to DCS World following on the heels of the SA-2. This medium to high altitude, long range SAM system is still in use in multiple countries and it is part of a growing collection of SAM systems that Eagle Dynamics has been busy adding to DCS World recently.

Months ago Eagle Dynamics indicated that they wanted to build a more sophisticated system that would control SAM systems in the sim and that should provide for the potential of deeper gameplay including SEAD/DEAD mission types and overall mission planning for both single player and multiplayer. Lots of potential here as these features are developed behind the scenes.

Hornet and Viper

Dual development efforts on the F/A-18C Hornet and F-16C Viper are focused on a couple of key items.

The first is TWS (track while scan) for both jets which have been long requested and awaited for the Hornet. TWS appears to now be on the priority list and that should hopefully come to both jets in short order.

The team appears to also be busy making sure that the F-16C is ready for DCS World’s stable release. While we’ve been flying the jet for weeks, it’s been in Open Beta that whole time, and not yet ready for the stable. That will change and hopefully we’ll see some key updates and improvements to that module soon.