Re : Letter from ED

Thank you Wags.

Wags,

 

Many thanks for the update.

Having been in and out of ED's Sims from the very beginning with Flanker 1.0, (Who else here was part of Adamski's original Flanker Ladder? :D ) it has been encouraging to see how the original vision has persisted and continues to broaden in outlook.

 

Great stuff.. :thumbup:

 

FP

:thumbup:

Plus outside beta tester. Those were the days.

Many thanks to ED! It's been a hell of a ride for me since Black Shark release and I'm incredibly excited, both for the current campaigns/aircraft I haven't gotten to play yet, and the new stuff coming out. Every day is Christmas with DCS! :D

Maybe I'm blind, can you copy paste that bit as I didn't see anything about "weeks"

No problem:

Dear valued DCS World customers,

 

Over the past several months, we have read your concerns and frustrations regarding aspects of the growth of DCS World. In particular, the length of time that it has taken to create the unified DCS World version (DCS World 2.5) and our DCS World War II developments. We’d like to talk to you about both of these to help foster a clear picture of where we were, where we are now, and where we plan to be.

 

First of all, thank you all for your support and being with us for the past 27 years and sharing our vision of what we believe the flight simulation genre can ultimately achieve. From the very beginning, when Eagle Dynamics was established in 1991, our main priority was the creation of highly realistic flight simulations. At that time, there were just seven of us when we released our first project: Su-27 Flanker 1.0 in 1995. Over the past 27(!) years, we’ve come a long way from a simple computer game, to a professional-level combat environment simulator. Today, we have about 80 internal programmers, artists, managers, testers and producers. Additionally, we have 18 partners and 3rd party developers that are participating in our internal projects, as well as developing their own modules for DCS World. During our entire history, we have remained loyal to our initial dream of making the most realistic combat aviation simulations. Starting from one simple, Standard Flight Model (SFM) Su-27, we took our next step in 2003 with seven aircraft for Lock On: Modern Air Combat (LOMAC). Following LOMAC, we created our first Advance Flight Model (AFM) for the Su-25T in 2005. Next came our first Professional Flight Model (PFM) for the Ka-50 Black Shark and the A-10C Warthog in 2008 and 2009. For an aircraft like the A-10C, it usually takes about three years of hard work to develop a PFM.

 

In parallel to development of the software for these aircraft, getting the required permissions/license agreements (aircraft manufactures and government) can often be a big obstacle and time-consuming process. For both the Ka-50 Black Shark and A-10C Warthog, we spent two years of great effort to get such permissions! More recently, and with great difficulties, we finally signed the necessary agreements to allow the sale of our upcoming DCS: F/A-18C Hornet. The team has been working very hard on this project and we are at the point now where we are talking much more about it with regular updates. After a long period of developing needed technologies (flight model and radar), research, design (data on late-LOT F/A-18C), and legal matters, we are nearing the point in which we will be able to provide the Early Access version of the Hornet. Right behind the Hornet, we have other modern, combat fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft ready for development within the Eagle Dynamics internal studio. Our talented 3rd parties are also working hard on other great aircraft like the AV-8B Night Attack S/VTOL, F-14 Tomcat, FC-17, F-4E Phantom II, Mi-24P Hind, Bo-105, and others. Naturally, all 3rd party projects are only made possible with very active, hands-on, technical support and creation of APIs from Eagle Dynamics. So, please be assured that we have not given up our initial dream! Modern, combat aviation is alive and well in DCS World and will continue to be. This is our bread and butter.

 

One of the biggest factors in creating a great flight simulation is the graphics engine. This is also probably the most technically complicated. During our 27 years history, we have internally developed five generations of graphics engines. This is a massive effort for such a small company, whereas many other companies use “off the shelf” graphic engine solutions. We have evaluated other engines (MSFS, OSG, etc.), but we always returned to our own internal solutions because only they provided the capability and quality we demand for a modern, combat aviation simulation. The biggest needs has been the ability to render an environment that looks and performs great from 1 meter to 50,000 meters. This is where we believe our graphics engine is quite unique and powerful.

 

Graphics cards are developing so rapidly that many companies are not capable of keeping their technology current with new hardware. After eight years of intense work, we recently developed a very stable version of our graphics engine that is based on DX11, Deferred Shading technology, and Physical Based Rendering (PBR). We are also developing our engine to take advantage of the Vulcan API to further improve game performance. Having a great looking game is moot if it does not perform well. It’s important to understand that a graphics engine is not only a Scene Renderer, but the terrain creation tool technology is equally important. This is the main reason why we could not merge DCS 1.5 Caucasus and 2.1 Terrains for such a long and regretful time. To do this, we first need to convert all the terrains, missions, training, and campaigns that were developed over many years for Caucasus map to an absolutely new terrain data structure and adjust all applied programs. We’ve put a massive amount of work into this effort and it is almost complete. We plan to release DCS World 2.5 in the coming weeks!

 

Now, let’s talk a little about DCS World War II and why it does not delay our modern day combat aircraft and why it’s a valuable aspect of DCS World for us and you.

 

• The Fighter Collection (TFC), Eagle Dynamic’s principle partner, has one of the largest,

private collections of World War II aircraft. TFC has been requesting World War II aircraft for a long time, so we cannot ignore our partner. We and TFC agree that WWII combat aviation is a very interesting flight simulation genre, especially for customers that enjoy history and massive dogfights. TFC has supported this direction from the very beginning.

 

• World War II aircraft attract new customers that may have not otherwise been familiar with DCS World. Many DCS World War II pilots move to our jet aircraft that are within the integral DCS World. So, our World War II aircraft provide a good advertising environment for the DCS World concept as a whole.

 

• Many of our new programmers and artists are responsible DCS World War II. They are separate from our main project (like the F/A-18C) developers, and they are not involved with the modern aircraft development efforts. Otherwise, it would not be practical/efficient to develop aircraft like the F/A-18C with staff split between projects. Also, DCS World War II is a great “school” for new programmers before they take on extremely complicated Modern Air Combat projects.

 

• We could deliver modern, complicated aircraft faster than we and our 3rd parties are already doing, but growing a business needs more and more revenue to grow the team and make better products. We were very surprised to find that the investment vs. generated revenue has been excellent for the World War II aircraft. In fact, the P-51D Mustang has twice the cost effectiveness of the A-10C Warthog.

 

As you can see, DCS’s World War II series doesn’t compete with modern aircraft projects for development resources. In fact, it supports it! The same is true with the L-39 and Yak-52 projects. These two projects were also sought by government institutions, but we were also able to negotiate their release to you.

 

We very much hope this all makes sense for you and sheds some light on these matters.

 

We are reaching an important milestone of DCS World with the release of DCS World 2.5. This combined with an exciting list of new aircraft, new maps, and great new mission content, is furthering our dream from 1991. Thank you for being part of the journey with us!

 

Sincerely,

Eagle Dynamics Development Team

Hmmm, no news about land and sea environment...... Carrier modules or other Land / Sea modules. Meanwhile Thanks Wags and ED team by the info :)

Good news and i agree on many points.

But there is just one thing i have to mention

World War II aircraft attract new customers that may have not otherwise been familiar with DCS World. Many DCS World War II pilots move to our jet aircraft that are within the integral DCS World. So, our World War II aircraft provide a good advertising environment for the DCS World concept as a whole.

But that is exactly the reason why so many, including myself, were unhappy with the WW2 assets pack being sold instead of just being part of the Normandie map and free.

Its not about it being too expensive for us that are allready here, but because it makes it harder for new players to get into WW2, sicne they have to buy a WW2 plane, Normandie map and WW2 assets to get a WW2 sim. Thats very expensive to get into compared with the competition. And also compared to DCS world with modern planes, which is free.

But as you said yourself, DCS WW2 acts as advertising not just for the WW2 part, but DCS as a whole and many once they are into DCS WW2 try jets as well, even if they initially claimed they care only about WW2 planes. Lets face it, when the planes are availible in the same sim you already play its just to tempting not to try.

That means if you would provide a lower entry price for DCS WW2 by having the WW2 assets pack free, you would not just increase the sale of other current and upcoming DCS WW2 planes, but ALSO the sale of all other DCS modules. Which would more than make up for a free assets pack and therefor creating more revenue while at the same time growing the community.

Customers since 2007, and will be for YEARS to come. The best flight SIM, period :thumbup:

I don't believe Wags until 2.5 will be out :))))

Many Thanks for the letter and clarifying the situation. Please keep up your excellent work.

Thank you ED!

I support that. In fact, it was the P-51D that brought me to DCS. One day two years ago, I opened Google and searched "P-51D flight simulator". I had never heard of DCS prior to then. But that day I found it.

However, I haven't veered from it. I will always be a true "prophead."

WOW, awesome! 2.5 in the near future. I am very excited for the release!

I would like to commend ED for the open communication and hope for more of the same in the future.

Oh, and as someone who loved SWOTL back in the day - WW2 planes are awesome fun and I'm very glad WW2 has a future within DCS.

Thank you for the update. Looking forward to all the WW2 assets. And Vulcan. and VR!

I wonder which will be those modern aircraft and helos... ("we have other modern, combat fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft ready for development")

thanks so much to ED tema.I will waiting for it

Forum updating too fast! Must try and return to work!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for the brilliant update, Wags.

I noticed you are right here in Phoenix. Good man!

Thank you so much ED for all this hard work ! :thumbup:

Thank you for all of your efforts, I appreciated it. :)

Whilst the thought was nice, once you strip out the history lessons and stuff we already knew (modern jets are more complicated than prop planes!) it basically just reads "please understand".

Are people who were concerned over the empty WW2 theatre and trickle of asset pack updates now reassured?

Thank you Eagle dynamic, Flying legends and all other involved parties.

I had the honor to be part of this journey since :

And what a ride it is! I hope this will continue till the day I will be given back to the soil.

Once you strip out the history lessons and stuff we already knew (modern jets are more complicated than prop planes!) it basically just reads "please understand".

 

Are people who were concerned over the empty WW2 theatre and trickle of asset pack updates now reassured?

I have to say for myself no

Unless of course we are about to get a dedicated server so people dedi hosting

for others to enjoy this sim are not going to have to pay for extras

that ultimately they will not be using eg maps or WW2 assets

I was suprised that staff numbers were that high I figured ED were only a handfull of people to be honest

Though I do think it was a good idea of Matt to do this Letter,

after the news from another WW2 sim last week it is a good

time to give some soothing news

modern jets are more complicated than prop planes!

I have a saying,

"With modern fighters, the plane flies itself. With WWII props, the pilot flies the plane."

Thanks for the update Wags, been here from the very start, (oh thanks for making me feel bloody old. ;) )

Have every intention of being here to the very end. Adore DCS. Best sim by far.

Cowboy10uk