Get ready for DCS 2.5 (FAQ)

Hi all,

As DCS 2.5 is close, for convenience I compiled several thread discussions into a FAQ.

The goal is to be aware of what is going (likely) to happen, especially for mates that have not followed forums activity and recent news.

Available topics are:

• When DCS 2.5 will be released?
  
• Which DCS version and branch will turn into 2.5 stable?
  
• Will DCS 1.5 modules work in DCS 2.5?
  
• Will DCS 1.5 campaigns work in DCS 2.5?
  
• How does performance in DCS 2.5 compare with 1.5?
  
• Is DCS 2.5 CPU or GPU critical?
  
• Will DCS 1.5 still work after end of life?
  

If you spot something that is not correct or need nuance, constructive feedback is welcome.

Contribution (writing a question / answer) is also welcome, but please note that I would like to keep the content simple and understable (not too technical) by everybody.

Total number of topics will not exceed 20, and answers should be 1 to 5 lines maximum, for ease of reading.

PS: the FAQ is published on my new forum, but still available for everybody to read. You can comment on my forum or here as you prefer.

FYI, there are some conflicting information on the release date. On the DCS FB post, some (programmer?) posted that it will be released within two months. Wags post noted few weeks. Not really a FB guy, so I don't have the exact quote handy. But it was in one of the chit chat threads about the 2.5 release.

Hello hansangb,

Thanks for your heads up/warning.

I will however stick to the Wags'/ED Letter because it is official and wide communication. For most people, I believe that a bold information ("coming weeks!" or "within two months") is OK.

FYI, there are some conflicting information on the release date. On the DCS FB post, some (programmer?) posted that it will be released within two months. Wags post noted few weeks. Not really a FB guy, so I don't have the exact quote handy. But it was in one of the chit chat threads about the 2.5 release.

How does "within a few weeks" and "less than two months" conflict?

A few weeks can be anything from 3 weeks onward basically. In other words, DCS:W 2.5 should arrive within 3-8 weeks.

Hi all,

 

As DCS 2.5 is close, for convenience I compiled several thread discussions into a FAQ.

 

The goal is to be aware of what is going (likely) to happen, especially for mates that have not followed forums activity and recent news.

 

Available topics are:

 

• When DCS 2.5 will be released?
  
• Which DCS version and branch will turn into 2.5 stable?
  
• Will DCS 1.5 modules work in DCS 2.5?
  
• Will DCS 1.5 campaigns work in DCS 2.5?
  
• How does performance in DCS 2.5 compare with 1.5?
  
• Is DCS 2.5 CPU or GPU critical?
  
• Will DCS 1.5 still work after end of life?
  

If you spot something that is not correct or need nuance, constructive feedback is welcome.

Contribution (writing a question / answer) is also welcome, but please note that I would like to keep the content simple and understable (not too technical) by everybody.

Total number of topics will not exceed 20, and answers should be 1 to 5 lines maximum, for ease of reading.

 

PS: the FAQ is published on my new forum, but still available for everybody to read. You can comment on my forum or here as you prefer.

Wags said 2.2 was a sample of what's to come in 2.5 so I have no doubt and it would make perfect sense to go from 2.2 to 2.5, that's my unofficial opinion.

How does "within a few weeks" and "less than two months" conflict?

 

A few weeks can be anything from 3 weeks onward basically. In other words, DCS:W 2.5 should arrive within 3-8 weeks.

It doesn't mathematically. From culture standpoint, few weeks in US means less than a month. More like two weeks. So there is a big difference between a few weeks and less than two months in terms of everyday usage.

Considering how many whiners there are, I thought it would make sense to point it out.

hansangb, thanks for the US cultural note. Interesting. I did not know.

It doesn't mathematically. From culture standpoint, few weeks in US means less than a month. More like two weeks. So there is a big difference between a few weeks and less than two months in terms of everyday usage.

 

Considering how many whiners there are, I thought it would make sense to point it out.

Good point. To me "a couple of weeks" is around 2 (since, you know... a couple is literally 2), so a few would be anything more than that.

I know, I know, OT.

We all know its two weeks :thumbup:

Were not getting any more info but what they have said already.

It doesn't mathematically. From culture standpoint, few weeks in US means less than a month. More like two weeks. So there is a big difference between a few weeks and less than two months in terms of everyday usage.

Same in UK.

If the 2.5 will be released in the Alpha branch first then I do not see any reason to postpone it much unless there are some game breaking bugs. If the missions or campaigns are not yet ready, just do not put them there yet, people will be ok with it in Alpha. The moment it will be transferred to Open beta, then yes it should have everything in it so it can be tested.

Wags never said 'a few weeks'. He said 'in the coming weeks', with no quantity mentioned.

Hopefully they will just upgrade 2.2

I assume they would.

It didn't say "a few weeks" it said "in the coming weeks"

There is a huge, but clearly very subtle difference. And to define when "in the coming weeks" means - it means not this week, but in any subsequent week.

Frankly the whole premise of this topic is redundant as we will not know exactly when it will be released unless, and until ED have resolved any potentially delaying issues that may or may not have yet arisen - which is precisely why they have given no clear indication of when we will see 2.5.

So forget trying to second guess when it'll arrive. It'll arrive when it is ready to be released, and even then it will appear in a pre-release testing format, and no doubt everyone will start complaining that it isn't feature complete.

The way to know for certain when 2.5 will be released is by waiting for an announcement from ED. You will not miss that, so really, there isn't any point in wild, inaccurate speculation - which is all this thread will ever be.

It was not by intent to raise the discussion about the release date (already debated in many other threads) which is only one item in the FAQ.

Judging by what we're seeing, whenever it drops it will be an amazing step forward.

We all want things that are at a point out in the future. The BO-105, the Mi-24 Hind, the F-18, 2.5... So how does one cope?

You dig deeper into what you have right now. If things pop up in between, give them a try. It was like this for the Harrier at least for me. I got it on a lark, and it wound up being a tie for the top A/C that I fly.

My point is, there are amazing things to discover, master, and enjoy right now. Sometimes it's hard to have fun when you think about things you don't have yet. But when you focus on those you do, it's always a good time.

Pray, please do keep the ebullient wishes portended by the awesomeness of the sneak peeks we've seen going.

2 weeks or not the good news is that they have done an amazing job that is matters to me...eventually we gonna fly it:smilewink:

FYI, there are some conflicting information on the release date. On the DCS FB post, some (programmer?) posted that it will be released within two months. Wags post noted few weeks. Not really a FB guy, so I don't have the exact quote handy. But it was in one of the chit chat threads about the 2.5 release.

I'll post this link "https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=197414" here as I hope it's a good summary of who said what, including a reply by SiThSpAwN. Please note the hyperlink in the OP that brings up the fb post.

Glad they don't reside in Kenia, tomorrow or later there means something totally different.

It's here when it has arrived, PATIENCE young folks hehe :)

Getting back to the original post and the FAQ:

I wonder how well existing missions will work. I'd assume the placement of individual buildings in the new Caucasus map will be different from the old map. But I wonder by how much?

I've made a couple small missions where a target is a specific building; that will probably no longer be there in the new map, I'd assume?

Well any 1.5 texture mods building mods will be dead, You missed a working and improved netcode system. Hopefully we will have a 1..5.8 to fall back on. Like 1.2.6

Wags stated that all the Caucasus missions have had to be updated for 2.5. That was one of the reasons for the delay in it's release. It is therefore safe to assume that all our home spun missions will be in need of a lot of updating too.

I'm assuming that we'll first see 2.5 as an update for 2.2. It makes sense to release it into the Alpha platform first. It may of course be a case of updating via the Beta platform, with 2.2 just becoming obsolete, and once it has had some exposure to the wider environment, the release build will follow a week or two later. Again, unless and until someone from ED says something, we're only speculating.

Will 2.5 be faster of slower? Every released update so far has resulted in some saying it's faster, some saying it's slower. What makes you think 2.5 will be any different when there are millions of permutations of hardware, software, and software settings in the DCS World user environment.

Will 1.5 still work? Of course it will. You can still run the earliest versions of Flying Cliffs and DCS World. All you will need to do is not update the older versions.

Is it going to be CPU or GPU critical? All DCS Worlds so far have been CPU critical as they use just 1 and a bit cores. The GPU aspect is dictated by what resolution monitors or devices you want to display it on. If you have VR, it's always going to be on the limits until GPUs advance further.

How does 1.5 compare performance wise with 2.5? Probably not a lot different to 1.5 in comparison with 2.2. Some say one is quicker, others say the other. Again it is like asking the length of a piece of string. Unless you can state exactly the spec of the PC you want it to run on, it's anyone's guess how anything will perform.

So really, we have a bunch of questions, some lacking relevance, some asking based on inaccurate data, some simply unanswerable, and no answers at all will be forthcoming from ED apart from via their usual releases - merely speculation and guesswork provided by forum members themselves.

Nice try, but fundamentally a waste of pixels wouldn't you now agree?

Will 2.5 be faster of slower? Every released update so far has resulted in some saying it's faster, some saying it's slower. What makes you think 2.5 will be any different when there are millions of permutations of hardware, software, and software settings in the DCS World user environment.

What id like to see is Wags use 40+ units in 2.5.

When DCS 2.5 will be released?

In the Coming Weeks: https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=196539

Which DCS version and branch will turn into 2.5 stable?

The Likely Release path will be 2.5 in Open Alpha/Open Beta First, then Release, with 1.5 joining 1.1.1.x and 1.2 in The Legacy / Unsupported Group.

Will DCS 1.5 modules work in DCS 2.5?

Yes, All DCS 1.5/2.x Licenses will work on DCS 2.5

Will DCS 1.5 campaigns work in DCS 2.5?

Yes, All Caucasus Campaigns will work on DCS 2.5/Caucasus 2.5, They are in testing now:

https://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=196539

How does performance in DCS 2.5 compare with 1.5?

2.5 Will be similar in Performance as 2.2 Onward, as they use the new Terrain and Shader Engines.

Is DCS 2.5 CPU or GPU critical?

DCS 2.5 Will very Much be Similar to DCS 2.2 CPU/GPU Utilization Wise.

Will DCS 1.5 still work after end of life?

1.5 Will Work, but will not receive new modules/updates once it's been completely replaced by 2.5 in all branches.

It didn't say "a few weeks" it said "in the coming weeks".

That makes no difference. The take-away from such a comment is that the time remaining is best measured in weeks, rather than days or years. Once you go >1 month the most appropriate unit of time is months. That is why so many people were expecting it sooner.