CoD Stuka Missions

For info I isolated the Stuka missions from the campaign for Old_Guy, but thought there might be others who might also want them to fly as Single Missions.

You can download all the CoD stock Stuka missions from here: http://www.box.net/shared/1bl7ugf6y2d3tlhhq1m9




Just manually unpack the zip file contents into your CoD user missions folder, usually 1CSoftClub>IL2SturmovikCliffsofDover>Missions>Single

All the Stuka missions should appear in your Single Missions folder.

Cheers,

H

Campaign walkthroughs added

It's a walkthrough of the stock Cliffs of Dover campaigns...no, it's a series of campaign combat reports...no, it's a story of love and betrayal on both sides of the Channel...no...

See for yourself.

Campaign walkthroughs in the main menu: Luftwaffe and RAF.

Mission of the Week #5: Corpo Aero Italiano

Download here: http://www.box.net/shared/re39nxougerpeelgd2ao

Fly CR42, Hurricane, or Fiat, though the mission is designed from the POV of a pilot in 257 Squadron RAF.

Background: The most damaging raid of the Corpo Aereo Italiano took place on 11 November 1940 (most British sources arbitrarily date the end of the 'Battle of Britain' at 31 October).

This raid of approximately 12 BR20s, 12 CR42s and some G50s was picked by British coastal radar stations at 13.30 hours, heading for the Essex port of Harwich.  Approximately 30 Hurricane fighters from RAF Martlesham and RAF North Weald were 'scrambled' to intercept.  British squadrons involved were nos. 257, 17, 46, and (belatedly) 249.

British combat reports from the day claimed 9 BR20s destroyed (plus 1 damaged), and 4 CR42s destroyed (plus 3 probably destroyed and 1 damaged), with 2 Hurricanes slightly damaged.  In the confusion and heat of combat, over-claiming was rife on both sides throughout the Battle of Britain.

A study in 1988 revealed that four BR20s and four CR42s were actually brought down.  Among those captured were Sgt P. Salvadori, Sgt Major A Lazzoni, Picto Appani, and two other unidentified aircrew.

Last Polish BoB pilot passes

From the Telegraph obituary:

Wing Commander Tadeusz Sawicz, who has died aged 97, was the last surviving Polish Battle of Britain fighter pilot.

When the Germans invaded his homeland, Sawicz was serving in Poland with the 114 Fighter Flight of No 1 Air Wing. On September 1 1939, despite flying an antiquated biplane fighter, he damaged a Messerschmitt Bf 109. On September 5 he was appointed a deputy commander of his squadron, and over the next few days was credited with destroying two enemy bombers and damaging two more.

Tadeusz Sawicz

On September 14 Sawicz flew from an airfield in south-east Poland to Warsaw, by then encircled by the Germans, carrying orders for the defence HQ from the C-in-C Polish Armed Forces. He landed under heavy fire and, after completing his task and repairing his damaged aircraft, he took off the next morning, again under fire.

With the Germans in control of most of Poland, Sawicz led his flight to Romania on September 17. He managed to reach France in early October , and joined a French squadron, Groupe de Chasse III/10, flying in action until the fall of France; he then flew to Algiers with other Polish pilots. He arrived in England on July 7 1940.

After a hasty conversion to the Hurricane, Sawicz joined the second Polish fighter squadron in the RAF, No 303, and flew patrols during the latter stages of the Battle of Britain from Leconfield in Yorkshire.

Tadeusz Sawicz was born in Warsaw on February 13 1914. Having first joined the Army, he went to the Air Force Cadet Officers’ School in Deblin, where he trained as a pilot.

After the Battle of Britain, Sawicz remained with No 303 Squadron, flying defensive patrols, before joining No 316 Squadron at Pembrey in south Wales in 1941. On April 9 he shot down a Heinkel III bomber near St Anne’s Head, the squadron’s first confirmed success.

In July, Sawicz was awarded a Krzyz Walecznych (Cross of Valour), the first of four he would receive, and appointed flight commander. In September 1942 he took command of No 315 Squadron, leading his unit on fighter escort missions and damaging a Focke Wulf 190 over Rouen. His squadron often provided a fighter escort for bombers of the USAAF 8th Air Force, and he was awarded a DFC (United States).

He was made deputy commander of No 1 (Polish) Fighter Wing at Northolt in April 1943 and for his leadership and gallantry was awarded one of Poland’s highest decorations, the Virtuti Militari (5th Class). In October 1943 he was decorated with a British DFC.

In March 1944, Sawicz was attached to the US 9th Air Force before joining the 56th Fighter Group led by his friend the American fighter ace “Gabby” Gabreski. Flying the P-47 Thunderbolt, he escorted USAAF bomber formations and was later awarded the US Air Medal.
Later that year Sawicz was appointed wing leader of 131 (Polish) Fighter Wing, part of the Second Tactical Air Force and equipped with three Spitfire squadrons. Flying from advanced landing grounds in France, Belgium and Holland, the wing was tasked in the fighter-bomber role to fly sweeps over the Continent.

Soon after taking command, Sawicz was seriously injured when his Spitfire was hit by a following aircraft while he was still on the runway. But he returned to command the wing, and on January 1 1945 led his squadrons in a successful attack on 40 German aircraft parked on an airfield .
He flew intensive operations throughout the spring of 1945 as the squadron moved forward with the advancing Allied armies. In June he received a third bar to the Cross of Valour. The Dutch government awarded him its equivalent of the DFC, the Vlieger Cruis.
After the war he commanded No 133 Wing and was released from the Polish Air Force in January 1947.

Sawicz remained in Britain for some years before emigrating to Canada in November 1957, where he worked in the airline industry.

In 2006, by order of Poland’s President, Lech Kaczynski, he was appointed brigadier-general.
Tadeusz Sawicz is survived by his third wife, Jadwiga

google-site-verification: google61d93933dd9fa5e3.html

BoB Game Hub Missions of the Week

Each week BoB Game Hub will feature a new custom designed mission for Cliffs of Dover. The focus of the missions is to recreate actual events from the Battle of Britain. Clashes between Aces, daring raids, heroic interceptions...

4 Missions are already available. Each mission features an easy self installer and uninstaller which does all the work of installing mission files, skins and images.

The fifth mission is in production.

Go to Cliffs of Dover Missions menu to download.

Luftwaffe and RAF campaign walkthroughs complete

What missions are available in the Cliffs of Dover stock Luftwaffe or RAF campaigns. How does each mission play out. Where are the bugs and how do I overcome them? Who is Spit Girl, and why?

The answers to all these questions and more, are to be found in the full Luftwaffe and RAF campaign walkthrough at SimHQ.

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3295421/FINAL_CHAPTER_Luftwaffe_AND_RA.html#Post3295421

New Cliffs of Dover beta patch Sept 2011 (updated with beta patch v. 2)

After some teething problems with the latest beta patch (BETA does mean BETA folks!) the latest version appears more stable, and closer to release.

From KiloSierra at SimHQ, "The sound is awesome! Letting the 109 warming up at around 800 RPM is really great. Minor complaint, the switch to "power-sound" is a little abrupt. Fly-by is like the real thing. Game is stuttering more for me, but I didn`t clean the cache and will have to defrag. Edit: Game looks better too, a little like RoF with this haze. And the coasts are looking better too."

NOTES
* RUSSIAN README: Извините, не успеваем перевести!
* ENGLISH README: This readme is only partial;
* SOUND: Still working on the content for the new engine, but many of the features are already present in this build;
* MAPS: No new missions are provided for these in the beta version of the patch.

MAIN
* Drastically reworked graphic algorithms dealing with in-game color;
* Rewrote the sound engine from scratch;
* Added three new multiplayer maps: Steppe (medium), Fields (small), and Scimitar (small);
* Updated multiplayer GUI to allow users to easily select a position in an existing plane.
* Added two new aircraft - Bf. 109 E-4 and Bf. 109 E-4/B. These two are equipped with MG/FF-M cannons and so make use of the famous Minegeschoss.

AIRCRAFT - MAIN
* Reworked routines for gyro bombsights;
* Removed allusion to Engine 4 from He 111 model;
* Improved memory consumption for multi-crew aircraft;
* Airborne status is now checked correctly even if the aircraft in question departed prematurely;
* Landing status should be applied correctly when ditching in water;

VISUALS
* Reworked bombardier cockpits in aircraft so affected (He. 111 and Ju. 8 to accomodate new Lotfe gyro routines;
* Small caliber bullet hits on the ground now show difference in material being hit;
* Modifications in Blenheim's damage visuals;
* Added a range of visual SFX for higher-caliber guns;
* New bombsight visuals in Blenheim bombardier's cabin;
* Returned the famous Il-2 stall sound effect;
* Doubled the distance at which the tracers can be seen.

PHYSICS & A.I.
* Increased Lotfe bombsight gyro operational limit to 15 degrees of aircraft roll / pitch;
* Lotfe type bomb sight now stabilizes aiming platform to horizontal plane;
* Removed sudden jump in view angle when viewing through Lotfe ocular and moving bomb sight elevation for the first time in the flight;
* Increased side slip input limit to +/* 30 degrees for the Lotfe bomb sight;
* Made Kurssteuerung mode 2 for level bombers. This mode will also stabilize the aircraft in level flight;
* Reworked motor startup routines to accomodate new options available in the new sound engine;
* Adjusted ricochet angles on firm surfaces;
* Redesigned bomb sight in Blenheim and made it easier and more realistic to use;
* Blenheim bomb sight plane is now adjustable to reflect changes in plane AoA in level flight. Correction is applied automatically over a period of sustained flight and can compensate up to 3 degree changes in plane attitude;
* Fixed issue where overstress would inflict damage to airframe regardless of the Vulnerability difficulty setting.

NETWORK
* Changes to bombs' detonators setup will now be carried over once applied without the need to rejoin the server;
* Increased Lotfe bombsight gyro operational limit to 15 degrees of roll / pitch. This will give more tolerance to aircraft maneuvers as strict limits put too much obstacle to communication between bombardier and pilot while playing on-line;
* When flying as a bombardier, you should now use "Aircraft - Drop Ordnance (Bombs)" key (instead of "General - Fire Current Weapon" key) to drop bombs. This will remove confusion of on-line bombardier players who could not drop bombs using the key we're accustomed to.

AIRCRAFT - MISC.
* Decreased bombsight altitude indents by ten times. This will give you more control of the altitude input and make bomb sight aiming more precise;
* You can now switch off the boost cut-out control in Spitfires.

Comparison: Wings of Prey, Cliffs of Dover, BoBII - over Dover

This comparison video shows a Spitfire II in flight over Dover Port in all three sims on the same PC. While it allows the viewer to compare how the sims look and feel in comparison with each other, it also allows the viewer to compare the different representations of Dover landmarks and landscape in each sim. Dover is a particularly rich area for study, as it features the iconic port, Dover Castle, Foreland lighthouse, Beachy Head lighthouse, the Cliffs of Dover and the RDF masts. Which sim do you think captures it best?

BOBII Update 2.12 progress

Work by the BDG on improvements for BOBII Wings of Victory update 2.12 is focused on improved historical accuracy of key locations and AAA emplacements. For an example see this photo of modern day Portland (top) and the BOBII version recreated from historical references (see below). Bomber AI has also been addressed, with more realistic bomber behaviour when bombers are damaged and break from formation.

New Battle of Britain video from Barfly

Some are calling it the best ever machinima for a Battle of Britain themed video. You be the judge!

Cliffs of Dover patch v 1.02.14821 misses the mark

The latest CoD patch has addressed a number of issues but you have to wonder about how the fixes are being prioritised back in Moscow... The sound in multiplayer, and AI behaviour remain flawed and buggy, but the 1C team has fixed an issue with the radioman graphics in the Italian G50, added a minesweeper ship and a Bf109e1 (thank goodness! That is what players have been crying out for!)
It sounds very much like a case of fixing what is easy, rather than fixing what is important.

Changes here:
GENERAL
* Added Bf. 109 E-1;
* Added a Minensuchboot 1935 German warship;
* Added crewmen models to various ships;
* Improved damage system for radars and other large objects;
* Improved in-mission map, added some simple navigator tools.

AIRCRAFT VISUALS
* Reworked Spitfire visuals;
* Minor changes to Spitfire hatch damage;
* Fixed graphical issues in BR. 20 radioman's cabin;
* Added machine gun belt animation to BR. 20's ventral gun. Shells now slide off 2nd tray opening when there are around 60 left;
* Minor changes to Blenheim Mk. I;
* Minor changes to D.H. 82 pilot's cockpit.

AIRCRAFT INTERNALS
* Ammo clip counters will not reset when a gun runs out of ammunition;
* Planes will no longer accept inappropriately named damages from user-made strategy modules and scripts (i.e. damage to 2nd engine on single-engine aircraft);
* Weapon slot definitions now accept overriding a gun's rate of fire, allowing special configurations and synching guns;
* Finalized routines for fixed loop radio compass.

AIRCRAFT PHYSICS & A.I.
* D.B. 600x - equipped craft (Bf. 109 & 110) now start parked with propellor pitch set to fine;
* Flak fragments now have more destructive effect;
* Removed rate of fire variation off Bf. 109's and G.50's synchronized nose guns;
* Will not attempt to reload a gun that has run out of ammunition. This will show correct animations and ammo counter readings on aircraft affected;
* Force feedback will no longer produce gun shake when guns run out of ammunition;
* Adjusted deceleration of detached aircraft chunks;
* Pilot's radio compass in BR. 20 M is now operational, and works in fixed loop mode;
* AI pilots can now leave combat when their morale is low, such as when suffering losses or losing leader;
* AI pilots can now give chase to enemy cowards trying to escape;
* Improved and expanded orders menu

MULTIPLAYER
* Redesigned the multiplayer and plane / player selection GUI;
* Added new graphical emoticons (smileys) to pre-game chat. Smileys do not show up when playing the actual game;
* Fixed "not found UC0" issue when connecting to a server;
* Engine RPM will no longer drop when you change position to gunner/bombardier while flying as a pilot on multi-seat aircraft;
* Game now properly displays Friends-only servers in server search;
* Enabled joining multiplayer servers from steam and not just from the in-game server search;
* Spawn areas now properly switch sides when airfields are captured;
* Improved script spawning for ground objects. 

Cliffs of Dover Luftwaffe and RAF campaign walkthroughs

It's a walkthrough...no, it's a FAQ...no it's a combat report...no, it's a war story full of laughter, sex and bratwurst...See the Heinkill Luftwaffe Campaign AARs here

CLICK HERE Luftwaffe Campaign AAR thread

Looking back on the first month

I have had CoD running at 20-30 FPS for a couple of months now. What is there to like? A lot! Like... a great quick mission editor and...

...well, a great quick mission editor and a good LW campaign. Hey, it's a start.

Read the definitive Heinkill review

The best CoD video to date? This is the video the publishers should have made!

17 April patch solves issues for many

17 April Update!

See details of beta patch testing here:

http://simhq.com/forum/

Positives emerge from Cliffs of Dover release

As with any new PC sim launch, there are teething problems, but some players are working through them to expose the huge potential in the Cliffs of Dover sim. Players with high end systems are reporting that with tweaking, they are getting frame rates over land between 20 and 40 fps, with some stuttering but the game is playable in solo flight or in small combat scenarios.

Simmer 'Devastat' reported on the 1C forums after disabling the Anti-Epilepsy Filter:
Yep I am positive now, the anti-epilepsy filter is definitely gone from my IL-2 the performance is so good. Now there is still a lot of tweaking needed to be done for sure, but now I am starting to believing in this project, the experience of playing this game is totally unique. I just saw blue fumes flaming out of my engine and it looked beautiful at 5am in the morning, and I was in top of london and still getting a playable framerate, but offcourse not as good as over the water.. (all graphics details on HIGH except shadows disabled).

I don't know if I could get such a good framerate from the international version tho, as we don't know if it is possible to disable this filter from that version..?? Well nobody knows at this stage. But it runs so well now that I wont install the international version at this stage..

I have to say that not has any game ever given such an feeling of "being there" as this game. It does feel totally immersive, as if you were really flying the plane.
If someone could help me to find binding key for changing the seat, I cannot get into any other seats in my planes as the keybinding C (which is supposed to be default) doesn't work for some reason, so I cannot test any other seats except pilot seats..

One of the first users to post a review was 'Sim'. He responded to the post from 'Devastat' saying, 'After tweaking some things, game play is much better than original. Now waiting for next patch to fix some big issues. '

Devastat's PC is an i7 920 2.7ghz, 12gb ram, ati radeon hd5850, settings on high, filter off.

He reports however, "Its not playable when approaching planes too close in fights. However no graphic setting really make difference onto this so i think that the problem is in CoD itself and it is not really up to hardware.

It is playable above london when just sightseeing."

Details of the full game map have also been put together from the Russian release, see the graphic below from Foobar, stitched together from two in game map screens. Mission builders will be glad to see so much of France included - Battle of France campaign anyone?

 Some beautiful user screenies are emerging eg these by 'highness' (albeit taken at 4-6 fps!)
 
New annoyances are however emerging. The developer recommends online players stick to the small online maps, such as this, because to play over the actual map of the Channel coasts would hit frame rates too hard.
 An online mode for a sim called Cliffs of Dover, where it is recommended you don't fly over the Cliffs of Dover? Say what?

Cliffs of Dover release issues

Cliffs of Dover release issues
Looking back:
Players angry
Developers apologised
Multiple technical issues plagued release

The long awaited release of Cliffs of Dover, the Battle of Britain sim from the developers of the IL2 series, hit turbulence from day one of the launch in Russia.

Teething problems with new sim titles are nothing new - witness the trouble plagued launches of the original IL2, or Lock-On, or Battle of Britain II. Sim developers have a dangerous combination of high ambitions and low resources, PC based sims have to function on a myriad of systems with untold variations of processor, memory and peripherals and it is usually the paying sim public which does the real beta-testing.
But hopes were high for CoD and disappointment was huge when players across Russia who were the first to download the sim started posting their experiences. Among the issues immediately reported were:

• Games crashing and freezing
• Disappearing props
• Bullet strikes appearing in the wake of the aircraft, instead of on the airframe
• Aircraft with missing wings flying onward unaffected
• Very low frame rates leading to stuttering and game pauses, even when only one or two aircraft were featured on screen, over water
• Landscape objects popping up rather than appearing smoothly on the horizon
• Sound effects which appear synthesised rather than sampled

Misinformation was rife, but among the most balanced and objective reviewers posting on the web was SimHQ member (appropriately named) 'Sim'. He started posting beautiful screen shots as soon as he downloaded the game. 

But his first gameplay reports were disheartening, "At the moment, this game is unplayable without a patch. It doesn't matter if you have super-computer because it will lag even on lowest settings. The game runs in 32 bit mode only, runs only on single core CPU and uses about 1gig of ram in quick mission over sea with one other plane...There are bugs - easily visible that should not have been at this stage of a game. Frame rate oddly enough shows 30-40 fps using in game counter. But my eyes sees 10 fps, if that. Patch is needed. And fast."

After some time fine tuning the game settings he reported, "In QMG (Ed: quick mission generator), there is an option with clear, cloudy and between those two. After flying through cloud while chasing Ju87, I picked up some light rime ice on cockpit. Kind of neat.

Right now I turned down some settings (tres/roads/houses) and playing over water. There is still some jerkiness going on, but it's relatively playable."

So what type of PC is Sim using? If you were hoping he is using a low end system, you are about to be disappointed. He reported his specs as:
Intel Core i7 920
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R
6GB DDR3 1333
GeForce GTX470
WD Caviar 1TB SATA
CORSAIR CMPSU-650T
Samsung UN55C8000 55-Inch 1080p LCD/LED HD/3DTV
Win7 64 Ult. 
Questioning on the forum moved to dogfighting. Developers had reported that the largest number of planes possible in the air at one time at the moment was 50. How did the game respond when multiple aircraft were dogfighting?

Sim generated a quick mission with 30 Blenheim IV, 12 Spit vs 8 109 and 8 110. FPS in external views varied from 5 fps to 29 fps. But the in cockpit fps was 1.

Yes folks, ONE frame per second.

What is driving these abysmal frame rates?

Cliffs of Dover released - first hiccup

The Epilepsy Filter controversy
Soon after release it emerged that part of the issue behind the poor frame rates was an 'Epilepsy filter'. A piece of code added to the game, to reduce the risk of players experiencing an epilepsy episode. At first the rumour was that this was done at the insistence of distributor, UbiSoft, out of fear of legal issues. The developers, 1C, quickly denied this on their official forums:
"Our game did cause wide-scale epilepsy failures when tested. Propellers, muzzle flashes, smoke puffs, explosions, falling bombs, flying or taxiing between buildings, sun shining through canopy framework, etc, they were all causing potentially seizure-inducing flashes.

We worked hard to address all these issues individually, but since a flight sim is all about fast-moving large objects, there were just too many instances of things causing high-contrast flashes.

So, as we were running out of time, WE decided to implement this epilepsy filter as a stop-gap measure.

The filter sits on top of the game's graphics wrapper. It saves a previous frame, and then compares it pixel-by-pixel to the new frame. When two pixels are found with a high degree of contrast between them, the new pixel is toned down to make the change less drastic.

This causes a visual effect somewhere between bloom and motion-blur that removes virtually all instances of high-contrast flashes.

However this pixel-by-pixel frame analysis and modification takes up additional resources, it in fact delays the showing of each new frame until each pixel of it checked, and therefore the filter is causing deteriorated performance that is especially notable on lower-end machines.

We are continuing to work to optimize the game and to increase its framerate. Ubisoft has been very patient and understanding with us throughout the entire process, and we are continuing to work with them very closely to find the best solution to epilepsy issues.

In summary, I want to stress that it is OUR code and OUR game engine that is causing performance issues. And it US who has to make it better, and that's exactly what we pledge to do. "
They advised that there was a config.ini text file alteration that could be made to turn the Epilepsy Filter off. Our trusty reporter 'Sim' tried this in his Russian version of CoD.
"I think this is a placebo," he said, "I could see no difference."
Conclusions
It is still too early in the life of this sim to conclude whether it will survive this difficult birth. Certainly there are some nice looking videos emerging as players sort through the game settings and find compromises.