We have a bit more information shared with the community on the new decal system for IL-2 this morning with a base explanation of how and why the feature has finally come to the sim. Here’s what we know!
An update from IL-2’s Lead Producer
Yesterday’s developer update included a tease of a new feature that would have an effect across the entire series. Having decals on otherwise generic aircraft skins adds some extra life to the series and avoids the need to create dozens of skins to put the different letters or numbers on the side of an aircraft.
The latest information we have comes from IL-2’s Lead Producer, Jason Williams, in a post on their IL-2 forums. Here’s what he had to say,
The codes work with the bump texture. The engine was never designed to support this, but the team, namely Sergey, Mike and Daniel found a way. This is something that has to be designed to be included from the start as it affects all the models etc. Any next-gen product we make, will have this in the design from the start so it would be even more flexible than what we’ve come up with.
It won’t be ready for a while as we need to modify all planes and tanks to work with them, so please be patient. Maybe not until the end of the year. This was just a tease since we are pleased with the outcome. And once again, this solution was an offshoot due to working on tanks.
Jason Williams on the IL-2 forum
So, don’t expect the new feature right away as the team will need to implement the feature across the series 40+ aircraft and ten tanks. All of this in an engine that wasn’t designed to support the feature at the foundational level. It’s still an exciting development and when it does come it’ll be very good to have.
Stormbirds 
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