BETA PATCH v1.06.17582 - May 05, 2012 - Start downloading!!!!

[ATAG_Colander]

http://oron.com/2nht5gp5h2c8

[ATAG_Bliss]

Good day everyone!

The patch is ready! What we have today is a DX10-only alpha. DX9 support is specifically removed. If you are running DX9, do not apply the patch!

The main purpose of the alpha is to find and squash any remaining or new bugs, especially crash bugs. The most common of the infamous launcher crashes have been fixed, but a few very hard to catch bugs remain. On average, a full day of flying causes about 0.8 crashes, and our internal testing has not yet provided the crash logs needed to zero in on the issue.

Download (International Version):
http://oron.com/2nht5gp5h2c8
(211,021,781 bytes)

Download (Russian Version):
http://oron.com/mzi00hqcijj4
(211,104,479 bytes)

Please enable logging in your conf.ini (Log=1). If the game crashes, send us your log as well as any crash dump files created in the cppdump folder in the main game installation. Email everything to ishevchenko@1cpublishing.eu

So! Get testing. Get reporting. Make sure your logging is enabled, and send us your crashlogs!

Installation Instructions:
Just extract to your
[Program Files]\Steam\steamapps\common\il-2 sturmovik cliffs of dover
And play!
Version number is 1.06.17582

We dont have a complete readme at this time, but a rough list of changes is below.

Known Issues

· Not fully optimized: grass, clouds, and trees. Clouds cause constant FPS drop; grass and trees cause hick-ups. A few extra days of work for this, a few days for grass, few days for clouds, we felt that we could start open testing the patch without waiting for these changes.
· Texture cache failing to draw higher-res textures on close-up objects with lower settings on below-recommended video cards.
· Weathering textures on aircraft appear shiny in shadows.
· No damage decals on aircraft from small-caliber hits.
· The hit flash effects are temporarily turned off.
· Far and medium distance clouds are temporarily turned off.
· Text in dialogue windows in the mission builder may appear bugged with other dialogue windows underneath.
· The front line in mission builder and minimap is drawn incorrectly.

Changes and Improvements

Performance

We've performed a huge amount of work improving both average and minimum FPS in the game. Most recommended-spec machine will see a roughly double average FPS and a significant reduction in the micro-freezes that had previously plagued the game. Their frequency, duration, and overall FPS impact will be greatly reduced or completely redone.

Some of the changes include:

Completely rewritten render pipeline, which reduced CPU load;
Rewritten texture manager, reducing stutter when loading new textures;
Moved landscape geometry generator to its own CPU core, reducing stutters;
Optimized tree code, reducing stutters when moving across landscape or rotating camera;
Moved grass generator to its own CPU core, decreasing stutters during low-level flight;
Moved all building and vehicle damage models to be pre-loaded, rather than dynamically loaded when they are destroyed. This increased mission loading times and memory usage, and reduced stutters when blowing things up;
Improved multithreading in many other aspects of the code, improving minimal FPS on most multicore machines.

Flight Model

We've performed a tremendous amount of work testing and improving flight models in the game, as well as improving various aircraft engines. We used actual pilot's notes and flight testing data during the process (thank you Sean!). Unfortunately some deeply-set limitations in the engine code do not allow us to minimize the margin of error at altitudes about 7 km (21,000 ft) where most aircraft begin to perform worse than their real-life counterparts. Fixing this requires more extensive code rework and will therefore only appear with the upcoming sequel. However at lower altitudes most flyables will perform much closer to real life. We also have to note that some aircraft, most notably Spitfire Mk.II, had better performance than the real thing. Others, especially their engines, had reduced performance. We've addressed these serious issues and made our planes fly much closer to the real thing.

Partial List:

G.50
Temperature models of the engine were wrong due to incorrect data. The engine could not get up to required power at all altitudes. We've also added +100 boost for WEP mode.

Spitfire Mk.II
The aircraft's speed performance was too good at all altitudes, sometimes 60 mph better than the real thing.

Spitfire Mk.I
Fixed the top speed dip above 18,000 ft.

Hurricane Mk.I
Speed performance was also too good at all altitudes, similar to the Spit II.

Blenheim Mk.IV
Had many problems with the engine model. The engine overheated at normal RPM, the plane could not get up to stated airspeed at all altitudes. Maximum allowed airspeed was too great, and the plane could get up to 560 mph in a dive. A huge amount of work was performed to improve the plane's FM and bring it up to speed.


Artificial Intelligence

Partial list:
Fixed some non-working orders, removed others from the list. There are no more orders available to the player that the AI does not follow.
Added a request for available targets;
Turned off friendly fire for ground battles (improving FPS);
Added the ability to query current waypoint for scripts;
Told AI pilots not to commit ritual suicide when their leader crash-lands;
Fixed out of turn take offs for AI pilots;

Sound

Partial list:
· Fixed two-engine flanger;
· Added detailed engine malfunction sounds;
· Added MG-34 and Bren Mk.II machine gun sounds;
· Added many other sounds: bomb whistle, bomb hit, atmospheric ambient, cockpit ambient, and many more;
· Improved and added engine sounds. For example, the Merlin family contains MerlinIII-RG-Hurricane, MerlinIII-RG-Spitfire, MerlinXII, and Merlin_III which all sound differently under various RPM conditions

Have a great weekend!

[III./ZG76_Keller]

How long 'til the server(s) are running it?

[ATAG_Bliss]

Working on it. Server 1 (Axis vs Allies) will have the beta as soon as it's downloaded. :thumbsup:

[III./ZG76_Keller]

Awesome Bliss!

[Biggus]

Working on it. Server 1 (Axis vs Allies) will have the beta as soon as it's downloaded. :thumbsup:

You are awesome.

Looking forward to a slightly lower workload with the Blenheim engines.

[Little_D]

Bliss, you are awesome.

put the E-4 and MkII out of the desk :-)

regards

Little_D

[ATAG_WatchMan]

Woohoo, workin on it now! Please be patient as we make the transition on Server #1

[Dutch]

Looking forward to a slightly lower workload with the Blenheim engines.

Heh! We should have a two stage working fuel mixture now too!

It does sound as if there may be a few negs in with the pos's here though.

[ATAG_Bliss]

Bliss, you are awesome.

put the E-4 and MkII out of the desk :-)

regards

Little_D

They are both going to be unlimited. Might as well see how the new FM's peform :thumbsup:

[Little_D]

Hi Bliss,

rgr that :hpyclp:,

installing now :bgsmile:

regards

Little_D

[[FFCW]Urizen]

http://www.smiliemania.de/php/sg/show.php?smilie=1845068-0.png

maybe i hit you in the sky :Grin:

[ATAG_Colander]

Now I'm doing F5 waiting for Bliss :bgsmile:

[ATAG_Bliss]

Haha - The beta patch is installed on the server and up and running :)

SpitIIa's/E4's are unlimited in every map. Now go kill each other and test like a madman!!! I'll be on in a few hours :hpyclp:

[Peaveywolf]

Honestly, just trying to download the patch is a trial in itself without having to pay for the download.

[Biggus]

Wish I had my joystick with me! I've installed the patch and watched a few tracks, but that's about all.

Clear your cache. I didn't, and I had stutters and non-loading textures.

A couple of things I've noticed so far:

- There's an ominous red box that appears when you run the game, and it seems to take a bit longer to start up.

- Black Death track runs pretty well, but I've had two crashes when I've tried to stop it and go back to main menu. This hadn't happened to me before. Fortunately, I don't really play with tracks very often.

[ChiefRedCloud]

Any thoughts on what, if anything, should be backed up first? Or is this all recoverable via Steam? :pouting:

[Biggus]

If I hadn't been so excited, I would have made a copy of the old parts directory. That's where the stuff being replaced is, so just copy that and put it somewhere safe.

[*Helo*]

How does the performance look now at Sea level between Spitfire and 109 ? In the Spit IIa I can get max 260-70 mph at sea level.

[Uther]

No time to fly! Aaaargh!

Have the bombsights been fixed?
Compass'?

[III./ZG76_Chasing Fear]

Lies, all lies!! I am out of town and away from my gaming rig, so the patch can't possibly be out.

Seriously though, sounds like results are mixed. I'm anxious to hear if bomber formations work.

BTW, Don't trust anything Doc says!

-Fear

[*Helo*]

With the new Beta, I get constantly the launcher crash while playing on the ATAG server after 20-30 mins. Pretty frustrating since beforehand I hardly had any launcher crashes :blush!::blush!: .

[Tvrdi]

Didn't tried it yet, but to improve FPS they removed clouds
Strange way of doing...

Most ppl reported only minor FPS improvement with less quality of graphics....

doh I hope this wont be an epic failure after all....the trouble

[Dutch]

[I]doh I hope this wont be an epic failure after all....the trouble

Don't hold your breath Tvrdi mate.

[Tvrdi]

Don't hold your breath Tvrdi mate.

Ok I gave it a short try...
thankfully, after i tried the patch it seams that I got a noticable performance increase (but i have trees, grass and clouds off as in patch info they said this wasnt optimised). But the graphics is...cockpit is a bit blurry (instruments)..like its of a less resolution.....I couldn join on the server because it was overloaded so MP test will wait...like the new sounds....

all in all I hope well get teh new performance with "old" graphics....and that well have AA properly working (within the game)....

[Ohms]

Going to fly the G50 as it is now the new Hurricane,WTF.:shocked:

[MOHAWK]

OK--I downloaded and installed as instructed and my game still shows ver 1.05 and no --FPS--increase at a spawn location in an -FMB--of mine , ---whats the deal ?? --have I done somthing wrong ???? ......

[ATAG_Deacon]

Red side still get launcher crashes...ugh! Every time I get behind another aircraft I crash :pouting:

[Fried]

With the new Beta, I get constantly the launcher crash while playing on the ATAG server after 20-30 mins. Pretty frustrating since beforehand I hardly had any launcher crashes :blush!::blush!: .

Same for me, so frustrating as i never crashed like that before, just the general launcher crash once in a while, delete cache and back in for another few hours, now playing red it doesnt last much more than about 20 mins then freeze and crash :sad!:

[workky]

With the new Beta, I get constantly the launcher crash while playing on the ATAG server after 20-30 mins. Pretty frustrating since beforehand I hardly had any launcher crashes :blush!::blush!: .

I have the same problem as you, never had crashes before, now just when i get up to altitude, it crashes. Its unplayable for me in its current state.
If anyone has any advice, let me know.
Im going back vanilla and flying on the ATAG 2 server, hopefull it has not been updated to the beta patch

[Fried]

For anyone getting launcher crashes every 20-30 mins check Kellers post in technical corner, after following his procedure I was able to play for more than an hour with no launcher crash

[ATAG_Torian]

I followed it as have others and still getting total freeze ups. Sometimes will go for a while and others are 20 mins apart.

[Atreides]

No time to fly! Aaaargh!



Lies, all lies!! I am out of town and away from my gaming rig, so the patch can't possibly be out.


I feel your pain. We wait for months for this patch and the one weekend I have night shifts...:angry: