I don`t care much for the memory leak bug. I care for the coop-ware and online functionality. I could even run this sim on 1200x760, medium details no problem. The thing is, as it is, I don`t have much to do with my 109 in this game yet. I can come up with good fps and I really love the realistic gunnery and CEM. What I can`t come up with is the missions to play and players to shoot.

I can't go back to IL2'46 either, feels like an arcade game and looks like a cartoon to me.

Those of us that are flying CloD now will just be that much more ahead of the curve when the majority deem it time to leave '46 and join us. ;)

Pssst, dont tell them!!!

I think they will feel like the Luftwaffe rookies did in 1944 :D

I couldn't agree more, the AI, and COMMANDS etc are imperative for good offline play. The fact the sim was released before it was finished didn't help. Optimization, and game play issues have to addressed soon before any migration to COD happens. That said online doesn't have many of the same issues, and have found online far more immersive, than the original series. Offline play will catch up at some point.

+1

I have a feeling that if/when they iron out the AI/comms etc. that they don't plan on enhancing the offline experience much for COD. Would be nice to have ranks, medals, etc. but I don't see that happening. It's a shame because Oleg had stated that the offline campaigns is what generates the most sales, not so much the multiplayer.

Personally I have no doubt that the offline experience will be improved both by the developer and the community. Its just that multiplayer benefits the most from an unfinished sim as it doesn't require as many finished features to work well. When the sim is finished the offline community should be much happier. Actually the sim will never be in a finished state as long as the developers and community are adding theaters and features. The only down side is we will be constantly upgrading our systems to play more demanding features, much like we had to do in the original series.

I don't have time to read the entire thread but i see most of the questions have been answered.

The one thing i have to add is that i have quite a similar system:
i7 920 @ 2.7 Ghz (stock)
3GB RAM
Ati 4890 1Gb
win7 x64

It runs well with most settings on medium, but keep in mind that my monitor runs at a lower resolution than most. I'm using a Dell 22" 16:10 aspect ratio monitor for the increased vertical space (helps during dogfights :-P) and it runs at 1680x1050, so my resolution is easier to manage with my current graphics card.

The other issue is that the sim really needs a lot of RAM and video RAM. Not only due to the current memory leak bug in multiplayer, but in general.

What i find is that even with the textures on medium, in some aircraft i get blurry textures at some instruments because i don't have enough RAM plus vRAM to load everything and it "downsizes" the texture resolution.

This only happens in certain parts of the bigger, twin engined bombers though: the bombsight reticule in the He-111 an Ju-88, the bombsight instruments in the Blenheim and the stencils/marking letters on the external textures of the aircraft.

I have a suspicion that if i add another 3GB of RAM to get to a total of 6GB, then it will be easier to load textures into RAM, which will also help "shuffling" them back and forth between RAM and graphics card when it needs them, so it might solve my blurry textures issue. In any case, that doesn't stop me from flying because i can still make out what the instruments display and use them effectively.

As for performance, unless you are staring at a group of clustered burning wrecks with the zoom view (lots of smoke/particle effects), i get smooth gameplay at most altitudes.

My video settings are:
1680x1050 resolution
AA off
Vsync on
model detail high
forests low
roads, grass and shadows (the three tick-boxes) are on
land shading on high usually, medium if i feel i want the extra frames per second
everything else medium

I can get anywhere between 30 and 50 FPS with this setup in a somewhat more graphics intensive aircraft like the 110, while flying over populated areas at low altitude, so it's good for most types of flying i usually do.

If i upgrade anything it will definitely be the RAM.