We’ve got a new developer blog that came out a couple of days ago (I’m playing catch-up after several very busy days) talking about some of the graphical improvements to the series. Let’s have a look!
Visual and gameplay effects of graphics
This dev diary for Korea IL-2 is all about the graphics engine. A lot of what they talk about we’ve already gathered from past updates but there are some interesting bits in there that I want to draw attention to. The overall picture is of a series of significant refinements to the old engine.
They make 22 different points of improvement starting with the implementation of the DirectX 12 API which, in theory, can do more and faster than DirectX 11. It’s also essential as DirectX 11 slowly fades from support.
There’s references to new runway decal technology for runway markings, improved building levels of detail, improved dynamic shadows on the landscape, tunnels (not something we had before), water visualization, 3D railroad visualization, PBR (we’ve talked about that before), city and runway lights, bushes, telegraph poles and more.
One feature that I think is particularly cool is not just a visual effect but also a gameplay element too. Volumetric craters!
Here we can say that it just looks cool. But it also has an important gameplay aspect — hits from large bombs will now be able to “close” runways. Coupled with the fact that we plan to remove the ability to take off in any direction even if there are runways on the airfield, this will be an important new gameplay feature in a multiplayer game.
That both looks cool and sounds like a good player possibility with craters clearly visible and playing a role in the operation of the airbase.
Stormbirds 
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