It’s another big moment for the IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles Series today as update 4.701 releases bringing with it a slate of new features with the standouts being the new cloud technology along with a new aircraft for Flying Circus Vol 2 and plenty of other adjustments to the series. Let’s have a look!
Clouds are here
Updating core technologies to do with clouds has been a reoccurring theme all year and IL-2 Great Battles is getting in on the action with their very own updated cloud technology. The new clouds are capable of being bigger, having more variation and variety, and with more shapes and structures than before. They also bring with them new visualizations for rainstorms and the ability for the sim to support localized rainstorms for the first time. This is clearly a big moment for the IL-2 series!
As much as these new clouds bring in new visual features, I’m more excited to see how these will alter the experience. Will multiplayer tactics change because of these clouds? That seems almost certain and some virtual pilots will need to adjust their tactics as the weather changes across the map and even over the same location over time.
DFW C.V has arrived
The DFW C.V, a heavily used 1917 era reconnaissance and light bomber, is to other standout feature in this latest update. Capable of carrying 200kg of bombs, dual Parabellum machine guns in the turret, or a Becker 20mm automatic cannon in the same position, the DFW C.V has some options available to it.
I’ll be checking it out in a future review of the aircraft.
Other updates
Although those are the standout features above, there are dozens of other areas of the sim that have been touched. New fuel tank explosion graphics, new 4K skins for the Yak-1B (completing the 4K skin upgrade project for the sim), paint scheme updates for the FW190A-3, 5, and 8 as well as the P-39L, and the P-51D has seen some big changes too.
The P-51D has been given a once over by the team and has seen some improvements to its overall handling. The engine model was tuned and speeds have increased slightly, controls are a little less stiff up to the edge of the flight envelope, and its behavior at high Mach numbers have been tweaked as well.
I predict that the improved handling will come with a small darkside where it will be possible to damage the airframe during high speed maneuvering if too many Gs are pulled at once. Expert P-51 pilots will learn to ride the edge of that and I’m sure the overall effect will make the Mustang just a little more deadly.
This update also brings with it new objects for Normandy including a series of radar installations (Chain Home Low, Chain Home RX, Chain Home TX, FuMG-401 Freya LZ-A, FuMG 41/42 Mammut), the famous Mulberry temporary harbours, V-1 launch site structures, new hangars and more. These will be essential when the Normandy map arrives sometime next year.
Stormbirds 
It seems to be an IL2 thing – (maybe a Russian mis-translation?) to call any type of defensive gun a “turret” (even when there clearly is no turret)
Anyway, that ain’t a turret, it’s a Scarff ring:).
Aircraft turrets didn’t appear until 1933.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarff_ring
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_turret
LikeLike
They certainly have some bulk now but they still look like mashed potatoes utterly lacking definition.
I know trueSKY is expensive and all, however the licensing system is modular and progressive. I’m still kinda taken aback by the fact that Team Fusion has chosen to invest in the system, out of pocket I might add, all for a sim that’s even more niche than BoX.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That struck me as well. Clouds to human eyes are actually quite defined, complex images rather than amorphous banks of vague vapour. Hope it looks good on release.
LikeLike
I have a tiny bit of an inside track on what they can do and they can do more but first the technology needs to get into the sim. Give them time.
LikeLiked by 2 people
This update was really good. Apart from the new clouds it also increases performance quite a bit – frametimes are far more consistent.
As for the quality of the clouds and comparisons being made to TrueSky or DCS clouds. IL2’s clouds still maintain parity between VR and screen. Exactly as you see them on screen they appear in VR (maybe a bit more dramatic due to depth perception), which is not the case in DCS. The latter’s clouds are phenomenal on screen but horrible in VR by comparison to the point that it tires one’s eyes trying to figure out the distance to them to the lack of any contrast/definition in their structure.
As for TrueSky, while it is nice and all, I’ve yet to see any implementation of it in a sim that did not have issues with contrast/overexposure and artifacts (not to mention that its quality in VR again differs vastly to the images seen on screen). In fact you can see all of the above in TF’s images from CLOD: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/73325-wip-truesky-and-4k-supermarine-spitfire/
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Sham,
do you know when new decals system have been or will be implemented? I have not been flying Il-2 recently, but I thought it was enebled for Mustang already. Am I wrong?
BR,
sun
LikeLike
Yes it has been implemented and is available on several aircraft and tanks. It’ll be a slow process to add it to the rest of the aircraft fleet but it will happen.
LikeLike
Has its been?! When and morę important: how to use it?
Thanks in advance,
sun
LikeLike
What’s the question?
LikeLike
Oh my, I am on mobile and it is not helping 😉 I meant: how to use/enable those dynamic decals? Is it available on (A)QM editor?
LikeLike
For the tactical codes? That’s available on the customization screen for the aircraft. Only the ones that support it.
LikeLike
OMG, call me a stupid, but it does not work for me!
I have checked P-51D-15, P-47D-25, P-38J, some Spits, some Yaks and I have not seen that meny anywhere! Should be enabled somewhere else? Like OpenBeta in DCS? AFAIK there is only one branch of Il-2.
LikeLike
Of those aircraft you listed only the P-51D-15 has the tactical code functionality. It’s been part of the public release updates for a few months now.
It’s accessible from the customize aircraft screen in single and multiplayer. Before you hit Fly. https://stormbirds.files.wordpress.com/2021/12/il-2-sturmovik-battle-of-stalingrad-screenshot-2021.12.13-10.50.10.88.png
LikeLike
How is it possible I do not have it?! I have new clouds, version seems to be OK, but this is not availble/visible to me!
I am really confused now. 😐
LikeLike
Found it! Thank you! 🙂
I have checked few other aircrafts, but it seems to be enabled only on Mustang.
LikeLike