A bunch of DCS World news items coming up over the last couple of days. The big news is that AviaStorm, developers for the DCS: Tornado project, are now teaming up with Heatblur on some core technologies. That sounds encouraging! Less encouraging is news that a core technology, the General Flight Model (GFM), that was intended for AI aircraft is now apparently on hold. There’s also a DCS World Winter Sale on now with good discounts. Let’s have a look at it all!
AviaStorm with a sprinkle of Heatblur
The first bit of big news is an official statement from AviaStorm on their DCS: Tornado project. The team reports that they have been working and will be powering their Tornado project with Heatblur’s “ANVIL” technology. The technology is part of what underpins the Jester 2.0 AI system as well as the component based simulation.
Here’s the statement:
As the year is closing to an end and most of you are likely waiting for news about the Tornado development, we at AviaStorm are proud to announce that the DCS: Tornado module will be powered by Heatblur Simulations’ proprietary ANVIL Technology. This includes the component based simulation framework that powers Heatblur’s F-4E Phantom II and their upcoming modules for DCS World, as well as the JESTER 2.0 WSO-AI.
This is great news as Heatblur’s Jester AI system, while not perfect, is still the most flexible system available for supporting complex jet fighters. It works well enough with the F-4 and eventually Jester 2.0 is coming to the F-14 as well. Tornado picking that up as well as some of the other underlying technologies will no doubt speed that project along.
The provided screenshot also shows the 3D model and texture work in a state that we haven’t seen yet. Clearly they’ve made big progress since we last saw it.
Heatblur also chimed in with a brief statement on Facebook as well:
Thank you AviaStorm for putting your trust in our technology and for considering us! We could not be more excited to support this great project and cannot wait to see the Tornado take to the DCS skies!
Heatblur Simulations
Love to see the team up!
DCS World’s GFM development on hold
Topics come and go around the DCS community. One item that comes up, in name or otherwise, is the sim’s previously planned General Flight Model (GFM). Current DCS World AI aircraft use a vastly simpler model than that flown by human pilots and it often creates performance disparities. The solution? Develop a system that could be applied to AI aircraft with a combination of performance and AI applicability in mind.
This was something I last reported on in 2021.
Here’s what the original description was:
This fundamental work required about two years of programming with formation flying alone requiring an additional 5 months of intense development. The main task was to teach the AI to fly correctly but not as a supernatural drone but rather as a human pilot would, including micro-delays, errors and limitations. Soon, every pilot can practice the formation lead role and develop highly realistic skills without having to play online and depend on inadequate wingmen to hone his talent.
That all sounds pretty good, however, we’ve learned recently that the feature is not currently making any progress.
The source is a long running topic on AI aircraft performance problems where a quote, attributed to Eagle Dynamics Chief Operating Officer (COO) Kate Perederko reporting that the project had been shelved for the time being. Here’s part of the attributed quote:
The project that we worked on was called GFM. We invested a lot of energy into this scientific development, more than 4 years and had to stop it and put on hold. Those videos about it’s progress (you are talking about in the video) showed early stages that we were able to achieve. However, we were unable to scale the behaviour onto other aircraft an actually enhance the behaviour as it should be. The current state of the project is “on hold.”
As far as I can tell, the quote is genuine, although I haven’t been able to track down the originating commentary.
Certainly that’s a disappointing development. DCS World’s AI aircraft, though light on CPU cycles (the opposite problem of what IL-2 has), has often been a disappointing challenger. The AI tactics have gotten better but the aircraft performance remains highly problematic with some aircraft being bigger offenders than others. While GFM sounds like a great solution, something more stop gap may be needed. Tuning the current system would be better than nothing… let’s hope something like that is in the works.
Sale time!
Tis’ the season of sales and the DCS Winter Sale, hot on the heels of the Thanksgiving Sale, is here with discounts of up to 50% off items both on the DCS World e-Shop and on Steam.
The sale on the e-Shop ends January 12, 2026 at 15:00 GMT. Over on Steam, it ends a little earlier on January 5th, 2026 at 18:00 GMT.
Read more over on the DCS World Weekend news for a list of the sale items.
Stormbirds 
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