Quite a large number of DCS World virtual pilots are on the open beta release system. That is where new content comes first and it is also what most multiplayer servers cater to. Updates to the open beta tend to come quickly with releases every week or ever two weeks typically, however, we haven’t seen one for a couple of weeks now and now we have news on when it might come – and we can read between the lines on some of the features coming in the next open beta.

Next week

In a post by Eagle Dynamics Community Manager BIGNEWY, we’ve learned that 2.5.6 open beta will likely be coming next week. Here’s what he had to say:

As mentioned here we are planning for an update early February, most likley next week, when we know for sure we will let you all know.

The team is preparing 2.5.6 and it needs a little more time.

BIGNEWY on the DCS World forums

As you might be able to guess by the version numbering, 2.5.6 is a relatively major point release for DCS World and that usually means that bigger changes are afoot including some core updates. That’s why we’ve waited a bit longer than usual as the team works towards implementing some of these changes. While the Open Beta is meant to be a community test, it’s also what most users fly on so it has to pass at least some checks to ensure that it doesn’t break everything.

If 2.5.6 is a big patch the next logical question is what are these changes? Lets have a look at what we know.

A bigger patch

The Eagle Dynamics team have set out a goal to update a lot of core technologies in DCS World this year and one of the ones that I’m excited about is the lighting system. While civilian sims have done an excellent job with night time lighting, DCS World has traditionally done a poor job with this. Using brightened textures rather than point lights, the effect has never really been all that convincing but in updates around the new year we learned that this was going to be one of the features of 2.5.6.

Another 2.5.6 update is the introduction of the new damage model for DCS WWII aircraft. Desperately needed to provide a more high fidelity experience for DCS World pilots flying WWII aircraft, this should add many more layers of damage both in terms of visual effects as well as damage to aircraft systems. These changes will ultimately find their way to the rest of the sim too – over time.

Of course these are just the big updates and there are bound to be a huge list of smaller updates from both Eagle Dynamics and from the third party developers. This is also the first of what will likely be a few big changes to the core of DCS World with new weather systems and cloud graphics planned sometime later this year.

Not confirmed and I’m guessing not coming in 2.5.6 will be DCS: Supercarrier and DCS: Marianas Islands, both which I suspect will come sometime in March which would be in keeping with Eagle Dynamics estimated release date for sometime in the first quarter of 2020 – though surprises sometimes do happen!