luthier1

Hello folks, Today’s update is a small miracle. By late night Moscow time, as we decided to take some screenshots, we realized that the game’s WIP render stopped working for everyone. Programmers responsible had already gone home hours before. I began writing an apologetic update, and then, somehow, someway, our ingenious junior aircraft programmer managed to get the game working on his machine. So, I’m very happy to present to you the 109 in combat. (please note that his version of the 109 has many animations not working, such as landing gear and propeller arc, and has a lot of other system stuff showing. We decided not to mess with his development environment because time is very precious) On the development front, most of the tasks this week had to do with the cockpit and the sound. The 109 is beginning to sound very mean and very authentic. Our wonderful sound engineer also wrote an incredibly rousing theme for the 109, but I won’t be posting it just yet. The wonderful composer, talented but naïve in the ways of the world, submitted the latest version with a background sound effect of a certain historical leader reading a speech to a rousing roar. We’ll make sure it is removed of course, but this being late Friday night in Moscow, it won’t happen today. Other than that, the tasks remaining for the 109 are, in that order: finalize and test cockpit procedures; finalize sound; DB 605 engine tuning for medium and high altitudes; finalize manual; overall testing; finalize external animations; finalize damage model visuals; finalize flight performance; create game interface. The plan will likely change, especially in the smaller sub-tasks that I am not listing for each major step. However, the first two tasks (sound and cockpit) should complete next week, and DB 605 tuning, unless something goes horribly wrong, should take be done, well, so quickly that I cannot even force myself to write out the task duration publicly. And then, ladies and gentlemen, we’ll just need to test this here thing for serious and crash bugs for as long as it takes that to ensure they do not exist. The biggest task for the coming days for me personally is to finish up the 109 manual. There’s not much work to be done, just write out all cockpit procedures and make sure all the buttons and checklists are correct. Shooting to have the manual finished by, oh, May 10th. I’ll wrap this up with a couple of beaaautiful diagrams done for the 109 manual by our very talented graphic artist. The manuals are looking very spiffy. Cannot wait to see them in print! Have a great weekend!

Hey everyone, Here’s some more on the Bf 109K-4. We’re pretty much done with the cockpit and external animations. The last remaining set of cockpit tasks should take no more than 2-3 days; plus we’ve compiled a final list of fixes and updates needed to the cockpit and external models based on internal testing, which should take no more than 10 days or so for the modeler to implement. We’re having an internal discussion on what exactly to consider an alpha stage for the 109. Obviously we owe our backers an alpha version. My own feeling is that we’re pretty much at alpha, while some at ED feel that this is very far from a version that can be given out. Next week, our plane will look like a 109, sound like a 109, and all the gauges and internal systems will operate as those of a 109. However it will not fly exactly like a 109. The engine model and the aerodynamic model is what takes the most time to perfect in DCS. We’ll have another big internal discussion on this on Monday. For now, here’s some screenshots of some more cockpit animations, working AFN2, and a near-perfect three-point landing. (please note that the new render is still in development, so you're seeing some glitches in trees and shadows and other components) Have a great weekend!

Hello folks, Ooh, how the time flies, another Friday already? My job is the least predictable of all in the project it seems. I tend to have a huge variety of tasks in my lap, all with five alarm bells ringing, and with no one to give them to. I’ve spent all week doing emergency translations and documents. Doing that while also trying to be a single father to two young kids means that there’s literally no time for anything, especially sleep. When Friday comes around, Friday morning my time, Friday evening Moscow time, that means a very sudden silence. The kids go to their mother, and there’s no urgent work that has to be completed by tonight – Moscow’s off until Sunday night my time. Then it’s time for me to relax, sit back, and write a Friday update – and after that, most incredible of all, I can finally go and catch up on some z’s. Work-wise, we’re moving ahead full speed getting the 109 to a stable alpha stage. Tasks are getting smaller, while the results are becoming a lot more noticeable. We’ve spent all week on the cockpit, on animating the gauges (about a third of all objects now move properly), recording new sounds for Dora and Kurfurst, completing an authentic electrical system, writing out the entire set of keybord shortcuts for the K-4 mostly based on the Mustang. Runway take-offs are finally nice and straight. The new render is still a bit wacky, and that’s completely outside our control, ED guys are putting crazy hours into it as well. So, the best we can show on screenshots is a couple of interior shots with needles properly pointing at things other than zeroes. Also, here’s where we are with the Me.262 external. Hope you guys have a great weekend!

Evening folks, The 109 is a lot more mature. Game development is always a funny process. For the longest time, everything is in pieces, really moving slowly, and you have no game, just the ingredients. Then you get to the stage where you put things together, and that’s where you begin to encounter various annoying and unexpected obstacles, and nothing seems to move forwards, and sometimes it even seems like you’re moving backwards, like the light at the end of the tunnel only seems to get dimmer. And then, suddenly, wham! Things just begin to work, and all of a sudden, in a very short time, you have something tangible, something that actually feels solid. You’re nowhere near the finished product yet, but at least you have a product and not a bunch of disjointed parts. With the 109, we still have ways to go. Most animations are not working yet, especially cockpit animations. If it seems trivial, here’s a few brief excerpts from our cockpit animation spec. This all takes time to spec out, to code, and especially to test. And there’s also some screenshots below showing some of the things implemented this week, like working radiator and rotating prop. If you’re one of the very few remaining people affected by access issues to the beta version of our Backer Section, please bear with us! We did uncover some unexpected bugs in the system which do unfortunately affect a few backers, and we’re working on them as fast as we can. Some just ended up needed more work than we hoped. Hope you have a great weekend!

Email backlog a lot better - only 38 this morning, plus about 20 still unresolved cases of people who ran into various bugs that the developers are fixing. In the meantime, in the virtual skies...

Hey folks, Just letting you know that I'm absolutely swamped at the moment dealing with the backer section's beta. I'm the last, and only, line of defense at the moment. I received 180 emails in the first 24 hours alone, and the volume is not fading. I've been at it for over 12 hours today, and I've never once been at a point where there's less than 50 unread emails in the inbox. As these are the people that cannot access the system or the forums at all, and making sure the system works for everyone is the main point of this current beta test, I'm not posting on here as much as I'd like because I'm absolutely swamped. Every time I step away for five minutes, 10 more angry emails drop into the inbox. So, please forgive me if I'm not answering your questions in here as well as I should at the moment. Hopefully things will quiet down tomorrow or Thursday, and the subsequent launch will have fewer problems, and I'll finally have the time to go through this forum and answer your questions here.

This is something we did wrong. We'll work to have this fixed.

The reward tiers currently go up to $250, and then everything else is "basically 250 and up". We did have a bug that made higher pledges see no matrix rewards, but we just fixed it. Please refresh the page, should be working now. Any additional rewards above $250 however, we figured, are a special case that decides special consideration. We don't want to show them to lower levels, but we currently not showing them for the people who are getting them either. We are work to have this addressed ASAP. Thank you very much for your support! Yess, thank you for discovering an issue for us! Pre-selecting rewards was a gigantic headache, and we obviously made a mistake with this particular rewards tier. Could take a little longer to address. Sorry, and thank you for your patience!

OK, I'm sorry. The kickstarter reward description for that tier is Is this not what you are seeing? Everything saves. We're just not issuing any rewards until the page goes live, which should be in a couple of days. We're just making sure we don't have any unexpected issues that cause something somewhere to blow up, just in case.

Looking into this. The management system for this thing, oof, it takes some getting used to.

Right. I think the first backer tier that had the DCS version of the 190 was $85. Technically, the developers of DCS WWII are a separate entity from the developers of FW 190, and the FW 190 product is owned by the Fighter Collection. We can't comp or offer discounts on TFC products at all, so, unfortunately, this is what we have to do. Reposting from the other thread The flyables vs rewards is the difference between DCS FW 190 and DCS WWII FW 190, or the two versions of the P-51. DCS P-51 is already available. DCS WWII is not available yet, so you can only fly the P-51 in DCS, but not in DCS WWII. DCS FW-190 will be ready soon. DCS WWII will be ready later, so you'll be able to fly the DCS FW-190 earlier than the DCS WWII version. In other words, you would select the DCS (not WWII) versions of these planes so you can fly them when they are available, before DCS WWII is ready.

This is still officially a beta of the thing. We're trying to iron out the kinks. We don't want to issue keys just yet in case something somewhere has gone horribly wrong and we have a crippling bug in the system. Also, we already issued some P-51 keys, but the system has not marked it yet. We need to put all that info in there (hopefully tomorrow morning Moscow time) before the system is ready to go. At this time the system can issue keys but won't mark your account as having it issued, which could potentially lead to a ten billion dollars worth of keys accidentally sent to your account. We'll issue all keys that are ready after we go live. Then you'll have them emailed to the email address on the account.

Just to clarify, my biggest involvement with the FW 190 is that I wrote its manual, and now I'm the team's best expert on all the cockpit procedures. I know the team is really shooting to have this ready as soon as humanly possible, and they're very close, but please don't take this information as a confirmed official release date. I don't think anyone could tell you when it'll be ready yet. Things always seem to go wrong at the worst time, and we're obviously not releasing the Dora until it's perfect.

This is just availability date. DCS P-51 is already available. DCS WWII is not available yet, so you can only fly the P-51 in DCS, but not in DCS WWII. DCS FW-190 will be ready soon. DCS WWII will be ready later, so you'll be able to fly the DCS FW-190 earlier than the DCS WWII version. In other words, you would select the DCS (not WWII) versions of these planes so you can fly them when they are available, before DCS WWII is ready.

Here's how this works. We'll try to pool your orders into as few shipments as possible, especially when shipping internationally. Until we collect and ship your order, you'll be able to update your shipping address at any time. So definitely don't worry about that for now. We will notify you a few days before your order is ready to go out, so you'll be able to double-check and update all information as needed.

Just testing the new forums. It's finally here!

Hello, I'm writing a manual for DCS Fw 190D-9. It's generally finished; however there are some holes in the historical reference we have. Some of the more obscure systems are not very well described at all, or at least, not in the way that we need to properly model them in a flight sim. Here's my list. 1. Is there any info on the technical specs of the boosted controls? By looking at the blueprints we can easily see the simple mechanism, but we need numbers. Is there anything like a graph or a text that says that for x degrees of control deflection you get y degrees of surface movement? 2. Same question for the engine's Bediengerät. Are there any numbers on it, precise data, as in, for an input of x, the device outputs y? 3. We cannot find good info on MW-50 Controls. Where is the On-Off switch? What does it look like (assuming Fl 32350). What about the MW-B4-Selector? 4. How does the Notzug system interact with the MW-50 system? 5. Is there the Auto-Hand Luftschraube switch with the corresponding rocker switch on the throttle, as on the earlier variants? 6. We could use more info on the pull-out Kuhlerklappen handle. When was it used? What effect did the flaps have? Was it in any way connected with the Bediengerät? 7. Is there a good quality hydraulic system diagram anywhere? 8. We need better info on the circuit breaker on the right console. What were all the buttons? What were the standard captions for each? 9. We need better oxygen system info: tank capacity, which order the tanks were used in, approx. oxygen supply at different altitudes. 10. Some references have the left console with only one FuG 16 ZY frequency dial, while others have a second one next to it. The first one we’re clear on, but the second one – the FuG 16 ZY Handbuch does not seem to mention it, but it's right there in the aircraft Ersatzteilliste. We have no idea what the switch does. 11. The Frequency dial – what do the frequencies actually do? The I position is for Y-Führungsfrequenz, or Management frequency. The II position is for Gruppenbefehlsfrequenz, or Group Order frequency. The ∆ position is for Nah-Flugsicherungsfrequenz, or the Air Traffic Control frequency. The □ position is for Reichsjägerfrequenz, or Reich Fighter Defense Frequency. That we're clear on. What they were used for however, we need more info on that. 12. The frequency dial and the AD 18 switch – what in the world does it affect? What's E-Messbetrieb? What's Zielflug-Anzeige? How did they actually work? What were the cockpit procedures? And why does the FuG-16 Handbuch only list interactions with AD 18 for Frequenzschalter in positions I and II, and nothing about ∆and □? 13. What did the earphone plug look like? 14. What did the Flugzeugvernichter button look like? A cockpit diagram from the Lehrmittel appears to show it as an actual cockpit control on the right console. 15. What did the Dora's “Hinweisschild u.Bauteilschild” look like? 16. What did the Dora's Baumusterkarte look like?

Hey folks, Sorry for a lapse in updates. I am almost comically plagued by internet issues on my trip; could make for a nice story all by itself. Almost considered doing a write-up, but perhaps in a couple of days when there’s no trace of bitterness. Catching a plane home tomorrow afternoon, where a nice PC with a nice Ethernet cable awaits. The things we take for granted. Anyway, while I was incommunicado, the rest of the team has been hard at work. We’re going to do a combined update on a bunch of fronts. The 109 cockpit, shown earlier, is virtually completed. It’s scheduled to be done by the end of next week. Here’s a teaser shot. We’ll do a full photoshoot once it’s finished and checked. The 109 external is not nearly as far along. We actually ran into a bit of delay with it, and we’re working double time to catch up. The 109 is still scheduled to be the first new RRG plane to be completed, in time for the closed alpha. The first step of making an external model for a DCS plane is to make its engine. Even though it’s not something you really see, this is what’s traditionally done first before the rest of the aircraft is built around it. We had an issue with blueprints and references that had us redo a portion of the model, and the engine is generally extremely detailed and elaborate, so we’re about a week behind schedule. The engine is generally modeled and mapped, so we’re ready to proceed with the rest of the aircraft. I am walking a very fine line here between keeping the fans and the artists happy. This is something I’m sure most of you did not think of at all, but the 3D artists making these models feel very connected to them and have a sense of personal pride, so asking them to show clearly unfinished models is always met with some resistance. I’m not the kind of boss who says “just shut up and give me the model to screenshot.” So, in this case, just like with the 109 pit, we have a modeler who really hates the idea of showing unfinished, “crappy” (in his words) WIP. He really asked to delay showing the engine until it’s shiny and perfect, so this is our compromise. Please consider this as a general showcase of our attention to detail. The flight model and the weapons and all the physics stuff for it has been in the works since July, but it's using the P-51 as a stand-in for now. We're rather far along with our physics model of the Bf.109, but obviously that's not something that can be shown with screenshots. We'll probably do some detailed lengthy videos once the 3D model is put in place, in the run-up to the alpha. Next, we have the current state of the P-47 cockpit. Again, slightly behind schedule there, but really working hard to catch up. No deadline jeopardized, just a bit of an extra crunch in the middle of the project. We expected to just reuse P-51 gauges for the Jug, but ended up having to redo most from scratch. We currently have the canopy framework, the dashboard, and the gunsight, all done from scratch for our brand new P-47D-30. All await the delivery of the last set of factory blueprints for a final accuracy check. Lastly, here’s where we are with the landscape. Been doing a lot of technical engine-related tasks. Redrew all the roads and crossroads. Redid the canals. Redid the flooded areas once again. Played a whole lot with the trees. Generally the terrain is beginning to look more detailed, but still a long road ahead. Now, the most important thing I’ve realized over the past two months is that if I was my own employee, I should fire myself as a community manager. I barely have any time to do it, and it creates a very poor impression. Now that we’ve finally received our kickstarter funds (by the way, yay) I really need to hire a more professional community manager. I’ll get busy once I’m back home this weekend. Of course, ideally it would be a member of this community. It would most likely be a salaried part-time position, and the qualifications would include a passion for flight sims, understanding of aviation, and good communication skills. I don’t know if it’s realistic to hope for someone who’s fluent in both Russian and English, but English fluency would definitely be a must, while Russian would be a huge plus. If you think you might be a good fit based on this preliminary announcement, email me at luthier1@gmail.com With that, I’m off to pack my suitcase. Hope you like the screenshots!

Hello folks, I’ve been absolutely swamped these past few days. Catching a plane to Moscow in a couple of hours, so I probably won’t respond to any questions or comments on this update for at least 24 hours. Here’s where we are with Normandy today. We started working on a 1:1 recreation of Utah beach. It’ll be one of the areas recreated down to each street, each object. It’s obviously in the very early stages. We’re playing around with the representation of the areas with German defensive flooding, and trying to get it so you can still see the fields and villages underneath the floodwaters. We’re also just generally laying out all the important areas, roads, bridges, villages, and so on. Finally, we’re also working on different types of coastal cliffs.

Yes I've realized I'd be here all day, plus all day tomorrow fixing and apologizing for copy-paste errors. Figured out a mail merge. Batches going out right now, many should be in your inboxes already. Really apologize it took so long!

Hello folks, I think we're going to do two development updates per week. Fridays will be our 3D development updates: planes, cockpits, vehicles, and so on. Tuesdays will be our landscape development updates where we'll be looking at our Normandy as it takes shape. We have a lot of stuff you haven't seen yet, especially in the 3D category, so hopefully these won't get boring or stale for a while. Today: first look at our Tiger I tank.

I'm sending these out today. Sorry it took so long, generating this batch took a lot longer than expected. Also I'm doing this manually, since I could not find a batch email program that does exactly what I need, and I don't want to waste any more time looking for it and delaying getting you guys the keys. Sending a few hundred of these manually, one at a time, will take a little while.

Thank you guys for running the unofficial one. Let's keep this one simple, and have a few rules. The LOGO. The series title is DCS WWII. The project title is Europe 1944 The logo needs to clearly define that. We are designing the DCS WWII logo that should be universal enough to fit other bylines. DCS WWII: Pacific 1943 or DCS WWII: Barbarossa 1941 or DCS WWII: Korea 1950 should all be possible with no redesign of the main portion of the logo. It should be country and conflict specific - no stars, crosses, plane silhouettes, etc. Please avoid cliches - metal sheets, rivets, bullet holes, stencil fonts. The logo should look good when printed on a giant banner, or in a corner of a business card. It should also look good as a desktop icon. Colors should be unique, and yet flexible when needed. The logo must look good in black and white. The logo should also be simple enough, or have a simplified version, to potentially allow for it to be embroidered on a shirt or a hat. In other words, there's a finite number of stitches per square inch, and obvious limitations to color. The logo needs to look OK when converted to embroidery. And my personal opinion, and not a guideline at all - I think the most visually strong logo here would simply be DCS WWII written in a unique, recognizable font, arranged into a unique, recognizable shape. I.e., the logo is not a thing with DCS WWII written on it, the logo is "DCS WWII". However, I'm ready to be proven wrong. The PROCESS: Let's keep this thread to submissions only. Please use the existing unofficial thread for discussions. Feel free to edit your submission here any time. We'll run this until October 15th, and then I'll select the logos I personally like the best, and then we'll have a poll. The winner of the general vote goes on everything. The author of the winning logo receives a prize equivalent to the Kickstarter MATRIX Tier 8 (two copies of the finished game plus any SEVEN extras, plus a special stand-alone mention in the game credits as DCS WWII Logo By) Once we have the logo, I'll do the same for a T-shirt design contest. We'll run it from the 15th till the 30th. We'll put it up for a vote, and print THREE of the top designs as voted for by backers. There will of course be rewards there as well. If you want, you can start thinking about T-shirts already. I really want to make it something better than a cheap flimsy shirt with a logo plastered onto it slightly askew.

I was going to make this backer-only, but then realized this cuts off all of the PayPal backers. So I made it public, and I'm also reposting this here so non-kickstarter backers can also comment. My biggest task for the next few days is to tally all Kickstarter and PayPal backers into a single database. Then we have to create a web interface for you to access backer-only content. Kickstarter by itself is no good since it leaves all PayPal backers out. In addition to content access, there will also need to be an interface for your reward management. It's a bit of a project, so we probably won't have it ready for a little while. My overall plan is to offer the matrix functionality to everyone. If you've selected a non-matrix reward tier, then you'll have the option of claiming it exactly as is, or substituting it for a matrix-style set of extras. My most important point here is that I want everyone to be happy with their rewards! Many of you asked for individual options during the kickstarter. With the way the rewards system is set up, I could not create all of the individual packages that people wanted, but now that we're here, I'll be more than happy to work with you. We obviously have a huge number of reward tiers. I'll tally everything early next week, when I've gotten some much-needed sleep, and I'll post the framework here. Then, the only thing that's really pressing is the DCS World P-51. It's the only reward that can go out right away. If you have selected a reward tier that specifically lists the P-51, you'll be receiving your product keys via email next week. Otherwise, the process will be completely manual for now. If you selected a matrix tier and wish to receive the DCS World P-51 as one of your rewards, just contact me and I'll issue you the product key next week. Or, if you explicitly selected the P-51 as your reward, but now decide you'd rather have something else, again, please contact me and I'll manually change your reward in my list. I'll provide more detailed instructions once my overall reward tally is out early next week. Then the next step that needs to be done is for me to start manufacturing any other rewards that can be produced. The P-51 manual is the only manual that can get printed right away. I'll keep you guys updated on the entire process. Project T-shirts and posters, too. I really want to make sure all the rewards are well made, good paper, good ink, good fabric, so they'll be something you'll enjoy using. At this point I just have some contacts, but no decision on where I'll be manufacturing all the physical rewards. If you can recommend a place where I can print out the manuals, posters, or T-shirts, especially if a backer is an employee or an owner, or if it's local here in Southern California, please let me know. Oh, and I'm going to try to do a little landscape development update, and then I'll finally hit the sack. Thank you everyone who supported this project! PS. One more thing. Kickstarter rules prohibited raffles. I also could not specifically mention my old project for other reasons. Nevertheless, I have some amount of my old series memorabilia that I was planning to give away as a part of this kickstarter. I have a few old signed copies of old boxes, some signed posters, and a couple of pin-up calendars. Even though none of that was promised to anyone, I'll be very happy to do a backer raffle. I'll post more about it next week.

We did it! Thank you backers! The Kickstarter Campaign is a success! What a wonderful Saturday morning! We really pulled through in the last couple of days and we did absolutely awesome! Current total: Kickstarter: $158,897 PayPal: $5,436.39 GRAND TOTAL: $164,333.39 We'll be shutting down the paypal page in a few minutes to coincide with the end of the kickstarter campaign. Please watch my celebratory video that talks about what happens next. Quick summary: 1. Your rewards. I have to tally all Kickstarter and PayPal backers into a single database. Then we have to create a web interface for you to access backer-only content. Kickstarter by itself is no good since it leaves all PayPal backers out. There will also need to be an interface for your reward management. It's a bit of a project, so we probably won't have it ready for a little while. In the meantime, the only reward that can go out right away is the DCS World P-51. If you have selected a reward tier that specifically lists the P-51, you'll be receiving your product keys via email next week. Otherwise, the process will be completely manual for now. I'll do a backer-only update in a little while that describes this process in more detail. 2. We'll keep on working on the project as previously scheduled. We are adding the Me.262 cockpit to our task list. It'll be done by the same wonderful duo of German cockpit experts that built the FW.190D-9 and Bf.109K cockpits. 3. We will be posting regular backer-only, and slightly less regular open development updates. We'll keep you updated on our aircraft and landscape. 4. The landscape SDK! We can start a dialogue even before the SDK itself is available. Obviously, the most ideal situation that I see is that the community forms a core group of landscape designers that will, with developer support, create more landscapes for Europe 1944. Again, please stand by for a separate more detailed discussion on this. 5. The main priority for the team however is delivering a good game to backers with the features we've listed. We will work very hard to have our alpha available next year. Once that's out, we will most likely open another campaign either on kickstarter or on our own site for more additions to DCS WWII: Europe 1944. I know that a lot of people really want the flyable B-17. I think it's the most logical next step for this product, but of course we have plenty of time for discussions. We will definitely discuss every single aspect of any future campaign with our backers before launching it. THANK YOU backers!