DCS 2.7

[baksie]

So what all can we expect in 2.7??

[Silver_Dragon]

Eagle Dynamic FB

https://www.facebook.com/eagle.dynamics

Quote

Over the next coming weeks, a massive push is ongoing to prepare for the launch of DCS World 2.7. We are hoping to get there by the end of March and we are full burners on the job.
https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/products/world/

 

[Northstar98]

1 hour ago, baksie said:

So what all can we expect in 2.7??

 

Chiefly improvements to environmental modelling, namely new clouds. But I reckon 2.7 will also include provisions to facilitate numerous other improvements, many of which described in the 2021 newsletter.

 

The new clouds will be something coming basically straight away, there are numerous other things. IIRC the WIP Marianas map is a test bed for new terrain technology.

Edited February 19 by Northstar98

[pimp]

The only thing I know of specifically are clouds. I don't know if ED has ever mentioned other specifics for the next major release. I know in 2.5.6 release they mentioned the big improvement was lighting and other gfx effects.

[sirrah]

I hope 2.7 will also bring us things like improved cpu usage (multithreading? Sorry I'm not really into this technical computer stuff)

 

As most people here, I'm already struggling to find a balance between decent framerates and graphics.

 

Seeing those beautiful clouds, make me wonder if I'll still be able to smoothly run DCS 2.7 in VR

(Not that I don't want to upgrade my GPU, but the current market shortage won't allow me to)

[Worrazen]

On 2/20/2021 at 8:22 AM, sirrah said:

I hope 2.7 will also bring us things like improved cpu usage (multithreading? Sorry I'm not really into this technical computer stuff)

 

I'm afraid that won't be the case, because that is planned for Q3-Q4 2021 right now whichcould also change.

 

I think, with the announcement of the F/A-18C updates, it probably makes the groundwork, or will come right with it, the ATFLIR support, the proper FLIR rendering, and that's a big deal as big as new clouds almost, give or take technically at least, and will come with a big update to all the terrains or at least some terrains initially.

 

All this new big underlying tech is also what probably fueled the convenience to drop Win7 support, but all the graphics API and multithreading stuff coming later, probably as well.

 

 

Edited February 21 by Worrazen

[Raven (Elysian Angel)]

7 hours ago, sirrah said:

I hope 2.7 will also bring us things like improved cpu usage (multithreading? Sorry I'm not really into this technical computer stuff)

That one will likely arrive with DCS 3.0 .
Personally I do expect some juicy not-yet announced features in 2.7 however, given the fact that 2.6 was skipped altogether

Edited February 20 by Raven (Elysian Angel)
typo

[SharpeXB]

12 hours ago, sirrah said:

I hope 2.7 will also bring us things like improved cpu usage (multithreading? Sorry I'm not really into this technical computer stuff)

 

As most people here, I'm already struggling to find a balance between decent framerates and graphics.

 

Seeing those beautiful clouds, make me wonder if I'll still be able to smoothly run DCS 2.7 in VR

(Not that I don't want to upgrade my GPU, but the current market shortage won't allow me to)

I wouldn’t hope too much on that front. Other flight sims with Vulkan and/or multithreading don’t get a tripling of their frame rates. They’re still just as demanding as DCS. I don’t think VR will ever perform well in high fidelity flight simulations like this. And any performance overhead gained by the new engine will get eaten up with added features and graphics. The game isn’t going to remain static in development if the engine becomes capable of more, it will grow to exploit the new potential. The result will be a game that still demands the most from hardware and is intended to primarily run in 2D and it’s always going to be more demanding to run a game in 3D & higher FPS vs 2D & lower FPS. 

[Kang]

9 hours ago, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

That one will likely arrive with DCS 3.0 .
Personally I do expect some juicy not-yet announced features in 2.7 however, given the fact that 2.6 was skipped altogether

 

Ah, I thought I had missed something in regards to 2.6.

[CBStu]

I would prefer that they fix the various problems we have now vs coming out w/ an update. 

[Dragon1-1]

Well, they can't fix problems without pushing out an update.  Hopefully, there will be fixes besides all the new features.

[Beirut]

Any guesses as to update size?

[WOPR]

1 minute ago, Beirut said:

Any guesses as to update size?

Gird your loins.  It's likely to be equivalent to a fresh install.

 

[Blinde]

1 hour ago, WOPR said:

Gird your loins.  It's likely to be equivalent to a fresh install.

 

Why on earth? Not likely.

[Dragon1-1]

The big changes are, as far as I understood, mostly in code. This is not what takes up space. Assets take up space, and while there'll undoubtedly be a bunch of changes to those, most of them shouldn't change. 

 

I think it may be a larger update than normal, but not terribly so. The one I'm worried about is when they finish Marianas and throw that into the default install.  

[zionid]

It is impossible to gauge update size. Even "minor" updates sometimes vary dramatically in size, often ranging in many, many Gigs if you own a few modules. It is however fair to assume that it will be significant, given the new art assets of the clouds being implemented. Note; assume.

[Etirion]

If there are terrain changes, that always results in big download sizes.

[mwlue]

11 hours ago, CBStu said:

I would prefer that they fix the various problems we have now vs coming out w/ an update. 

Yeah, fix the very basic core function -> replay pls.

I'm looking forward to the new cloud tho. 

[Beirut]

20 hours ago, WOPR said:

Gird your loins.  It's likely to be equivalent to a fresh install.

 

 

My loins stand girded. Unlimited internet at the ready. 

 

Mind you, my 1TB NVME games-only drive is starting to feel the strain. 270GB left and as I understand it you should leave 20% empty for best performance.

[pimp]

Maybe there's new soldier animations and models. In the 2021 & Beyond video, starting ~ 3:22, I noticed a soldier walking at the bottom right of the screen. That animation does not currently exist. Looks to be more realistic.

 

 

[Silver_Dragon]

27 minutes ago, pimp said:

Maybe there's new soldier animations and models. In the 2021 & Beyond video, starting ~ 3:22, I noticed a soldier walking at the bottom right of the screen. That animation does not currently exist. Looks to be more realistic.

 

 

That animations has implemented on actual DCS soldiers (Georgian Soldier) from some years ago.

[pimp]

29 minutes ago, Silver_Dragon said:

That animations has implemented on actual DCS soldiers (Georgian Soldier) from some years ago.

Wow. I did not know that. I'm going to start using those soldiers instead. Thanks for that info.

[Gryzor]

15 hours ago, mwlue said:

Yeah, fix the very basic core function -> replay pls.

I'm looking forward to the new cloud tho. 

 

I prefer that they remove replay completely, just for freeing resources (more fps)

[Worrazen]

On 2/20/2021 at 3:31 PM, Raven (Elysian Angel) said:

That one will likely arrive with DCS 3.0 .
Personally I do expect some juicy not-yet announced features in 2.7 however, given the fact that 2.6 was skipped altogether

Personally, I'd expect much more from a 3.0 than just Vulkan API and multi-threading, but it could be just me being used to slow paced versioning where the first number really means something.

 

For 3.0 I'd expect changes across the board and particularly to those side and smaller or lower level things, GUI improvements, replay track improvements, updating a lot of the underlying legacy code, various optimizations, filesystem structure changes, file format changes that break compatability are best done when transitioning to a major new version, various config systems, the way things work in a number of ways that introudce a visible change the way user has to do it is best done on such occasion, so you'd want to pile in as much as possible of the smaller but handy stuff so that this kind of stuff isn't spread across when things are suppose to settle down in this regard, becuase many of such smaller things usually aren't important enough to warrant change/improvement because of the inconvenience it would cause to the user but also because it's simply low priority.

 

A lot of low-priority but also low-effort required stuff that has ammased in a previous version is best to work out in the next big one, that's at least my logic. Another thing is convenience stuff that isn't necessairly improving any technical, but it is improving clarity and quality of life kinda from a cosmetic and maintenance point of view, some things also help developer ease of management and less confusion is a good enough reason as well, that all counts to development efficiency, faster and less error prone patches.

 

I forgot refactoring (renaming things), this is a great way to also do this to lable things and change things up to make more sense as necessary.

 

Look at it as a major janitor cleanup, you kinda make even the little things extra attention just so you get all out of the way and sorted out and don't have to worry about it too much for the next whole cycle even. Because it's the worst thing when some little thing spoils the moment when you're so excited for the big new beef steak, you don't want some spoiled sauce to ruin the show there, or some bad aftertaste from the wrong kind of spice.

 

Edited February 22 by Worrazen

[BIGNEWY]

7 minutes ago, Worrazen said:

Personally, I'd expect much more from a 3.0 than just Vulkan API and multi-threading, but it could be just me being used to slow paced versioning where the first number really means something.

 

Than just vulkan API and multi-threading? months and months of work , this goal alone is impressive on its own and would warrant a version number change.