We’ve got our first big update from Heatblur Simulations of the year via a post made on their official Facebook page. The update wraps up 2022 while offering details on the overall status of their projects including the highly anticipated F-4 Phantom, the Eurofighter Typhoon, as well as mentions of the A-6 and their previously released AJS-37 Viggen and F-14 Tomcat.

Wrap-up, Phantom and core updates

With a warm welcome from Heatblur we launch into the first big update of the year from this well known third party developer for DCS World. The first part of the update summarizes 2022 and the challenges that the year provided. Despite those challenges, Heatblur appears to have emerged from the year with increased capacity.

We’ve seen tremendous growth in capability and size, forged new partnerships and shipped features and improvements throughout the year. While still playing catch-up; we’re working as hard as we can to finish the first of our next generation of high fidelity simulation experiences, starting with the F-4E Phantom II and leading towards the Eurofighter Typhoon.

Heatblur on Facebook

The next section of their update goes into a few details on the status of DCS: F-4E Phantom II. Notably, the update reports that they have now achieved completion of nearly all major elements as they call them. These include the flight model, radar, and weapons systems.

Heatblur mention that they are keen to fully reveal the project and that such a reveal is coming soon albeit with no specific timeline.

There’s also quite a bit of discussion of core systems that Heatblur are using across all of their projects that have received a lot of attention. They list faster future development, multi-threading support, new features such as wear & tear, a Jester 2 AI update

Typhoon update too

I’ve interacted with plenty of people over the last several weeks who were hoping to see a bit more of the TrueGrit Simulations Eurofighter Typhoon. While it didn’t make its way into the DCS World 2023 and Beyond trailer like the Phantom did, it does sound like development is going at a good clip.

On the Eurofighter front, we continue to lay the foundations of this module through application of our next generation framework. Soon, the majority of the work will remain in high level parts: radar, weapons systems, displays and flight control systems- all leaning and benefitting from the completed next generation core. As an incredibly complex aircraft and project, the Eurofighter will be a litmus test for our team to ensure quality and accuracy while avoiding excessive technical debt.

Heatblur on Facebook

The update closes with an indication that we’ll see more of the Typhoon’s development over the course of 2023.

Tomcat, Viggen, and Intruder

The last couple of years have been good for Tomcat and Viggen fans with Heatblur’s original two projects continuing to see updates. That included a reasonably big update for the AJS-37 in December of 2022 which brought in plenty of fixes.

For the next year the team appear to be working hard on the early F-14A model as well as TARPS and FORGE for the F-14.

We don’t have much on the DCS: A-6 Intruder that Heatblur are working on except that the new JESTER v2 rewrite is intended to make all of their AI aircraft easier to develop for and have more flexibility with the A-6 given special mention in this section. No doubt development continues where it can while other projects are on the front burner.

The full update is available on Facebook which includes a short looping video clip featuring scenes of the F-4 Phantom as well as a nice HUD shot from the Typhoon showing off some beautiful art and HUD symbology in action. It’s just a taste of what is sure to come later on!