We continue our discussion with Oleg Maddox about the two new IL-2 series add-ons “Sturmoviks Over Manchuria” and “IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946“, and an update on “Storm of War: Battle of Britain”. You can read the previous section of the interview here.
by the SimHQ Staff
Features
Q: Does the 1946 expansion have global improvements (such as Pacific Fighters did) to the simulation itself that will enhance even the Eastern Front and early war aspects of the series?
A: The latest expansions have a few old “issues” being addressed, such as updating and improving default skins in the simulation for some of the original aircraft from the start of the series.
Q: Are there other areas being revisited? (Such as the shadow cast by some Bf-109’s with round wings are of the Bf-109/E with square wingtips!)
A: Unfortunately, no for the Bf-109. This isn’t a key feature… and… It is really an issue of the engine — compromising of the optimization of work and speed of graphics, minimizing of memory use, etc. It was sorely needed when IL-2 was born, and it is still an actual concern for the lower end PC.
Q: Many have complained about the “bar” in the FW-190 sight. Are there any plans to alter it by either shrinking or enlarging it?
A: No, we have it very close to correct. Way more close than these users try to ask us to change it. The new cockpit of FW-190s will be only in a new sim. But already now I can say that the view will not be too different to the current modeling.
Q: Will the Storch or the Po-2 ever become flyable?
A: Unfortunately, Storch cockpit was made by one of the third party developers. He didn’t finish it and then disappeared. A completely new flyable Po-2 is being made by RRG Studios for their new project.
Q: The Lerche for the 1946 add-on presents one of most unique aircraft for FB. Were there any challenges incorporating it into the flight engine?
A: Yes. It is an interesting story about modeling of this aircraft in our team. This is the only one aircraft in our sim with vertical take-off and landing procedure. Would be better if I simply will show the part from readme of this add-on that explaining the problems of real project:
Heinkel Lerche III
We used the Heinkel Lerche II as the basis. However, after modeling the plane we’ve discovered serious deficiencies in design, and were forced to make many changes to make this plane suitable for combat. Modeled precisely to original specifications, this plane would never take off.
Correspondingly, we’ve made the following changes:
- Increased the fuselage cross-section;
- Installed more powerful supercharged engines;
- Used the details of a captured Hs-132 prototype as the basis for the cockpit;
- Replaced Hs-132’s landing gear well for an access hatch;
- Installed oil and water radiators into the circular wing;
- For take-off and landing stability, we’ve added automatic gas-powered control surfaces;
- Changed the landing gear and tail unit shape (as originally designed, the plane would fall over)
I would say also that for some German and Soviet projects or prototypes we also needed to invest changes, but which were not changing the external design of aircraft itself or cockpits, compared to changes needed to make for Lerche.
SimHQ Exclusive: Images from the new “Sturmoviks Over Manchuria” add-on
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