What is the most up to date IL-2 PC sim?
 

I take it that IL-2 Series is still the latest most popular and up to date MASSIVE WW2 online flight sim for the PC.

But which is it? what's its title so I can buy it, because I've given up on this frankly insulting attempt.

This was nothing more than a slap to the face of the simmers. And I don't blame the Dev's too much, although they sold out pretty badly to the publishers. Allowing so many flaws and bugs to get through, as well as arcading up things to the max. e.g. gunners and bomb sites, as well as damage.

Anyway anyone could go on forever about the holes and flaws of this awful but sadly best attempt the console will ever see. But I miss the days of 200 people all in the same arena.

So yes, please, what is the most recent ww2 flight sim on PC please?

As of now the most up to date you can still find is IL-2 1946 (probably find it for $10 US). It's basically the game & all of it's expansions over the last 10 years all on one DVD. They just released a new patch for it with new maps & plane skins this month, look at the IL-2 forum on the 1C forums main list. The graphics are not as impressive as they were 10 years ago but with a good graphics card & AA & AF turned all the way up they still look pretty damn good. The gameplay is of course incredible from the flight and damage models to being able to create missions.
IL-2 Storm of war is suppiosed to be released next year (this is what has been said for the last 3 years). If it is ever released I think it's going to take a hell of a fancy rig to run it.

Thanks, I think I still have a copy of that from 2006 when it came out, sweet. I think I'll have to see if it will run on this laptop. Hope Its still got its CD-Key with it :S better search the boxes in the spare room. lol

It was brilliant from what I remember, but i'll take a hit in graphics for a game that actually works and wasn't coded by a special needs day outing.

I appreciate the reply. :)

there is a good helo sim out too dcs blackshark dont know if you are into helos house but it looks pretty amazing im on the look out for 1946 in my local game or gamestation

http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/3251...&ob=Price&fb=0

£6.44 from Play.com

I'll check that out, I'm not a huge Helo fan, but I used to love the Comanche series, and I'd love to try one.

JESUS CHRIST Black Shark looks bloody impressive and VERY hard!!! Might have to give it a go, just to see how badly I'll fail lol.... the physics looks amazing *cough* I can think of some people that could learn some stuff form that :)

nice one house one copy of 1946 on its way :grin::grin:

comanche i remember that mate played many many hours on that game :grin:

they released comanche 4 but i never got to try it i was hooked on janes ah64 longbow at the time

hell yeah mate check out some of the vids on youtube one is the start up sequence that takes 5 mins :o:o
luck you can taylor the controls to your liking :grin:

yeah my bro played the AH-64, sadly my PC wouldnt cope with Comanche 4 gfx at the time lol which sounds mental when you look at the graphics now hehehe

sweet I'll PM you my MSN addy, and if you want add, me and we'll meet up online on IL-2 1946 :)

sweet mate ill install msn on my lappy later and ill pm you my addy too mate

2 more bite the dust :(

the fan base gets smaller.

Just bought IL-2 1946 as well (download version)

Definately doesn't mean I'm leaving BoP though.

If i had 1946 and it worked well, then i would let BoP gather dust!! why wouldnt you leave BoP? 1946 offers everything you could want. Nobody would blame you for getting rid :)

I have people on the PS3 I like to play with. thats why

On BoP?

No patch then the novelty wears off and numbers dwindle, the other players soon move to new games. Does the PS3 offer party chat like the 360 or anyway of chatting privately? If so then you can do both :D play 1946 and chat on PS3 at the same time.

I love this game, i thinks its amazing and i wont be getting rid, but the sad truth is that all the players thats i added/added me for this game, only a handful play it anymore. With the release of MW2.... need i say more?

Hope im wrong, i really hope the numbers come back and this games carries on with a great community! met some great people in here and online.

Yea we have a chat system (not for cross game though (yet)).

I will definately be playing this game for a long time though, trust me on that one ;)

wow, I had no idea IL2 1946 could be got so cheaply now. Ive ordered a copy too, nothing to lose if it doesn't work on my PC. Don't worry though my BoP friends, I will still play BoP just as much.

1 more gone :(



were dropping like flies, this isnt good!! like 633 squadron this is,

we all go at it together attacking the target in the fjord, the target though is a patch for us and not a heavy water factory, but we slowly fall one by one!!


by the end of that film everyone had dropped!! a waste of alot of lives and mosquitos.



Were going the same way lol.

im always up for some il2 1946! just bought it about a week ago off steam for $10 (got fed up with waiting so I figured since I got a saitek X52 again to use with ps3 BoP ,that I might as well use it while Im waiting!.) , youll soon realize how much they took out of the game! Dont think even after the patch now Ill be playing too seriously on the PS3, there is just too much missing.

HOLY SHIT!

That's all I can say!

This game is incredibly hard. I don't know what half of the stuff there means, and I have no idea what I'm doing... yet... lol.

lol, Ill recommend turning off engine management for starters. Welcome to il2 PC!

There should be a couple.pdf manuals in your install directory ;) aircraft guide, manual, controls ..etc

And if you can, run it in perfect mod. You can alter the config to have moor trees and better water in openGL, water 2,3,4 with nvida cards. Run it in full switch sim, the flight models are easy to fly they are not as hard as BOP flight models in sim mod. They do not stall as bad, And use hyperlobby for easy multiplayer matches, the best one i ever played is on the 352NDFG server and spit v 109 server. But that was many moons ago.

Dazz you seem to be "Mr Heli" round here (for PC sims anyway).
Tried Blackshark but it wont run very well on my coal fired PC so what’s a good if older Heli sim I can go flying in.

(Always been more of a helicopter fan and buzzing about in the AH-6's in OFDR has reignited my passion for it).


p.s. of course I'll take sugestions from people besides Dazz as well

thanks jareth ive played so many heli sims i cant remember the names of most ill do some searching for you and post here some links for you mate
yeah for quite a few years i was a heli nut :grin: even brought a secondhand nitro rc heli and joined a local club and started to learn to fly gave up in the end due to the cost of repairs those things are expencive :eek:

i see what i can digg out for you mate

ok i played this for a long time mate it is a good heli sim very hard tho mate it has mission builder etc and if i remember right you can edit your own unit patch and nose art etc but that might of been janes ah64 ??? there are some patches you might need to download and there are a few mods out there as well a good starting heli game id say :grin:


http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/1028...&ob=Price&fb=0


then there is janes longbow if you can get a copy get the gold edition comes with the lot mate a very good sim with many different types of missions etc my fav was to pilot a blackhawk and do spec opps insertion extraction missions very tence mate :grin: its prolly not going to look that good graphics wise these days as it is a very old game but in my opion its the best one ive played :grin:

http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/2552...&ob=Price&fb=0



and then there is comanche 4 now this is more arcade based but a good heli game none the less ive played them all up to this one never got to try 4 but if its anything like the first 3 then it will be a great blast to play :grin:

i wouldnt bother with the first 3 i have comanche 3 on disc and i put it on my laptop even with full settings it looked way to ugly to play but i guess ive been spoiled but the next gen graphics im used too lol
:grin:

http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/1156...&ob=Price&fb=0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eThVlWL_Gw
This was the only version of Gunship worth playing Dazz ;)
Thanks for the heads up though mate, I'll see if I can borrow a copy of some of them off a friend of mine :rolleyes:.

lmao do you know if they released that on the old sega mega drive ???
i swear i had something very simular on it was the first heli game i ever owned

at the time it blew me away flying in formation even if it did look like flying legobricks :grin::grin:


oh and im lovin the new siggy gypo rising pure class:grin:

If you want IL-2 1946 to be even better, then check out this website; the biggest & best MOD site for everything 1946; new planes, maps, graphics, skins, servers. You won't be sorry; AND IT'S ALL FREE!!!!

http://allaircraftarcade.com ...... has the lot, & then some!!

also take a look at.....

http://www.mission4today.com ........ great for skins

http://specialaircraftservice.com ........ another great mods site. Check out their sea fury!!!

I've been shot down more times on this forum than in-game for comparing this BoP to 1946. My opinion has never changed. If it's brave enough to hold the name "IL-2 Sturmovik" then it must be comparable to atleast the original PC release & it really is worlds apart.
It's better that gamers that are lucky enough to have a half decent pc setup, experience what the community has done with 1946!!!

The best flight physics and damage models I've ever experineced was in "Red Baron 2".

The WW1 Bi-planes would creak like a sailing ship and sometime break up under high G turns, or in the case of the Fokker D.II or Neuport 17, just fall apart even during modest maneuvers.

Hits on individual wing struts, spars and fuselage frame members would severly effect structural integrety. I once had a upper right wing let go on a German twin seater light bomber when I pulled a swooping right turn to because I'd suffered a splintered outer right strut from a single bullet hit 3 minutes earlier in the game.

On top of coping with engine problems (Be.2, Re.8, etc.), watching the fuel, oil and temperature guages (if lucky enough to be so equiped), coping with some of the cronically unstable handling of some fighters (Dr.I, Sopwith Tri-plane, Camel, Pup, etc.) plus any damage from enemy action.... there was sporadic weather conditions, varying cross winds, FlaK, and having to actually read reproduced paper maps of the Western Front to navigate. The game required players to be able to navigate exactly the same way as their real life counter parts.

Players could attack Zepplins, patrol the front, straffe and bomb trains, attack observation ballons, maraud behind enemy line looking for target of opportunity, etc.

To say that the game was hard is an understatement, especially flying aircraft with wing warping instead of aerelons and rotary engines.

Any of the IL-2 titles come in a slose second to "Red Baron 2" and "Red Baron 3".

All my dogfighting skills were honed and polished on the "Red Baron" series of sims.... dogfighting WW2 fighters is easy by comparison.... at least the wings don't fall off when pulling a "retournment", "Split S" or coming out of a dive.

best explanation too date!

Wasnt it called LHX attack chopper

damn thats the one mate did you play it too for its time it was unbeatable:grin:

yup i had it, bloody loved it to!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC3OUrgf1Lg

I've owned IL-2 1946 since November 2008. I don't play it much now because the picture is distorted because of my monitor. :(

Honestly, play 1946 if you want realism. If you want fun, play BoP. :)

beg to differ sir, I have had TONS of fun with IL2 for PC. And VERY limited amounts of fun in BoP on PS3

Maybe realism is fun for you. For me, usually I just don't want to worry about setting the right fuel mixture, prop. pitch, radiator settings.

I also don't want to spend an hour flying to a target just so that I can drop my load of 2 bombs and then spend another hour flying back to base... It's authentic, but boring.

yeah. I can see all over this forum how fun it is!

You don't HAVE to do any of those things in 1946 if you dont want to. All of those options are there if you want them, but you can turn them off or speed up time if you like. Please dont trash an extremely well made game in defense of this one. None of the points you tried to make are valid.

And for those that are still playing 1946 make sure you check out all the mods that have been made available, you can find them here;

http://allaircraftarcade.com/forum/i...9124ecaeb20947

They have very strict rules in order to prevent any unrealistic A/C or weapons. There is a Korean conflict that has made the Sabre and Mig 15 available and are currently developing a WW1 mod not to mention the insane amount added to the WW2 aspect.

Cheers!

AX

True. But, it's seriously still boring for me. And yes, I do usually enjoy games even if they don't have very fancy graphics...

And I'm not trashing the game. I didn't say 'lol il-2 sucks its sooo boring'. I said I thought it could be boring sometimes, and I said why. I also mentioned that it can be really realistic, which can be a pain, and I'm aware that there are options to turn some of those things off. Also, if you have all the realistic settings turned off, it's basically BoP with a lot more content (planes that you will never actually use as well). (in defense of BoP) But as it has been pointed out countless times, BoP is for consoles and their lies a major problem in why it isn't nearly as perfect as the IL-2 series is for PC.

Maybe I'm just not in the mood to play the game seriously right now. After all, it's a game. But hey, maybe I'll enjoy it in the future.

It's all good, I didn't mean it in a "pricky" kind of way, I just dont want people afraid to give it a whirl. Believe me, I'd love to just turn on my 360 and jump into the cockpit of my fav bird, but there are just too many things missing for me at the moment. I check this forum daily in hopes of seeing an update or cockpit DLC.

Hope it happens soon-

Cheers!

AX

Got a quick question. I'd like to give you guys a quick spec on my ye olde PC and see if you can tell me if it's robust enough to run 1946 with some of the shiny mods available.

I've got a 3.2 Pentium 4, 256 Ati radeon X600, and 2 gigs of RAM.

Thanks.

Might be enough to run the game with maxed out settings, but the new maps included with the 4.09m patch and some of the more graphics intensive mods would probably cause framerate drops unless you turned down the settings.

Also, since Il2 runs best in Open GL , and Ati graphics cards do not support Open GL, the top tier of terrain graphics settings will be locked because these are not supported if the game is running on Direct X.

Hope that helps.

That machine should run the game fine if not at the highest settings. Also ATI cards do support open GL. I'm running an HD4850 and 1946 in open GL with the terrain set to "Perfect" looks great.

1 thing bop has done through this forum
introduce people to 1946 so its smiles for everyone anyway

quick question do nvidia geforce cards support opengl ?? i know it can run direct x 10 stuff but i dont know if it supports open gl
how would i go about finding out this info ???
many thanks
dazz

All modern graphics cards support openGL. Its a basic bit of support that all cards are now made with. However in recent times there hasn't been a game on the market that used the newer versions of OGL, which the cards support. And now with the release of DX11 it looks set to be a wasted effort in some camps. DX11 is actually a great api to code on, and its also a great api to game with for us peeps.

The things that makes it good is that if you have a DX9 or Dx10 card you can run DX11 natively. No need to upgrade your hardware to run it. The extra features it has for enhanced effects are not used if you dont have the hardware, so its a very flexible piece of kit (unlike dx10). And for the devs they dont need to make seperate code paths and exe files. DX11 runs DX9 and DX10 natively so if a games made for DX11 it works on any system with Dx9 or better.

So if you have Vista -download the dx11 update
Or better yet upgrade to Windows 7, as its a much better OS and comes with DX11.

Multiple Questions
 

Some questions here:

1. When I fly the Bf-109's, the position were he's sitting seems wrong... Like the aiming reticle is too far to the right. How can I fix this?
2. When flying the B-25, how do I get into the bombing mode. I no on the Pe bombers I press "C", but that doesn't work for the B-25...
3. How do you use the map :D fricken impossible to read the damn thing... haha.
4. In the conrtols, it says press F2 for external view, F4 for fly-by view, etc. These do not work. How come?

Anyone have a PC they wanna give me capable of running 1946?:P:D I hope not everyone ditches BoP.:neutral:

I'm not leaving, gaurenteed. :D 1946 is reallyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy hard. lol, almost too hard for my liking, but I just think it will take some getting used to.

It is just getting used to. There is one thing I really prefer in BOP sim mode, and thats the 'no external views', only cockpit/virtual cockpit.
In 1946 there are some servers with cockpit only, but those are 100% hardcore servers, with no icons (teams are not blue/red so figuring out friend/foe is 10x harder than in BOP).

I like 1946 and play it just as much as bop. What keeps me getting back to BOP, is the fact that I dont like to fly in 3th person all the time, being able to look in every direction with you mouse. Kind of ruins the 'sim feeling' for me.

Also in BOP you see a lot of action. In 1946 you have 75min games, where you only get 3 kills, and the rest is flying to enemy target zone, and back home. (I like the landing and taking off, but sometimes you just want to shoot down a hell lot of planes :evil: BOP!)

Shift+F1 (maybe F2 but it's one of those)

I think I'm gonna use 1946 as more of a screw around type of game, and BoP as my mroe serious game. I like the action in BoP, it's a lot more than 1946, I just wish there was a no respawn mode....

Sorry for double post, but thanks, I'll try that.

just look for 'gunsight view' in the controls, you can just set your own key for it

About your question on the gunsight: In many German planes the gunsight was off center to the right. There is nothing to be fixed, this is an accurate representation of the German cockpit. It was off center so it would would not be in the way on landing, taxiing etc. To look through the gunsight it was enough for the pilot to close his left eye (this is what shfit+F1 simulates). Why this works has to do with the mechanics of the gunsight and with optics, and that is another explanation. But the Bf109 cockpits in IL2 1946 are 100% correct.

LOL. Come to think of it, I think I'll probably regard my GT 5 Prologue & FORZA 3 as a bit of a 'screw around' & keep my Mario Karts going as the serious alternative.

I looked at that too and thought the same, but I figured ehh, I will let it go...

Sigh, Yep! Fair play to him I guess. He's more than entitled to his own opinion.

Find it a mighty baffling statement though:

1946
Flutter effects, realistic engine management, fuel mix, stress effects & damage, realistic t/o & landings, realistic gunnery effects, limited ammo & fuel, gun harmonization, etc etc ... all optional.
Mission editor, allowing you to quickly & easily set up a mission of your choosing, dropping in any plane, vehicle, building, object that you see fit; Quick mission builder set up aswell as superb online play ... all optional.
Weather effects & time of day.
Fully interactive set of radio commands inc. wingmen orders aswell as comms to & from the tower & even the choice to switch over to enemy frequency.
Choice to fly sorties in real time or just skip to the next waypoint or action
Every flyable aircraft with interior cockpit inc. every station within a bomber.
Dynamic campaigns aswell as thousands of downloadable content such as new campaigns, missions, aircraft, again ... all optional
Tons of camera views & angles aswell as the option to view back your entire mission via the track recorder, from any angle or any aircraft in the theatre at the time & even the ability to drop in a simple static camera at pre-mission at any point on the map of your choosing.

BoP
Umm.. hang on, gotta be something, oh yeah, limited ammo & fuel ... optional.
Weather effects & time of day...optional.

Strange to call that as the "more serious game!"

He's not saying BoP is a more serious game, he says he's using 1946 as his screw-around game, and BoP as his more serious game.
Just like you can use Forza as your screw-around game (bumping into others more than actually racing) and Mario-kart as your more serious game (actually racing, however arcade it may be).

As I've probably pointed out before...

In all honesty, despite some major issues found in the game (which I have gotten over pretty fast), I find BoP to be much more fun than 1946. 1946 is more challenging (realistic), but that doesn't mean I'm going to enjoy playing it.

What would I play if I wanted a realistic aerial combat sim set in ww2?
-IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946

What would I play if I wanted to just shoot down a few Bf-109's and enjoy myself?
-IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey

Never did I say BoP was more serious, I just said I'm gonna play it more seriously... I'm not in the mood to take off, fly for ever, kill two planes, then fly back. Not that fun in my opinion, which is why instead of doing the missions in 1946, I'll just set up my scenarion in Quick mission builder and "screw around."

Thanks for that :) I love these forums, I learn so much.

When I first got 1946 my initial reaction was very similar to yours. Kind of a little too intense, like there's so much to learn and you don't feel like learning it. So I pretty much played like 10 vs 16s Spitfires vs 109s, Spitfires vs Fw190s, P-40s vs Zeroes. Stuff like that, pretty simple and with the "superman cockpit view" with the gunsight floating in the middle of the screen, and unlimited ammo. I'd say I put in about 150 hours, mastered firing my guns accurately as well as anyone, ( I say better :) ) before ever going online. It's not until you hop into one of the "Full Realism Switch" servers that you begin to actually experience the game though. There's really no better feeling than taking off in a Spitfire from England, shooting down 3 109's over a span of a 1 hour flight, finding your airfield, and getting her down safely unscathed. Except maybe shooting down more 109s! Hah. Well all I'm saying is be very patient with 1946, MASTER your gunnery skills, this will take what seems like decades, and then commit yourself to "Full Switch" servers online, and you'll have picked up your new favourite hobby and never look back. See ya.

One problem I have with this game, which I should have mentioned in my arguments before, is that unless you have a joystick it's very hard to play. I in fact, nearly mastered playing with a keyboard, but it was still very hard to do and I didn't want to invest $60 for a good joystick at the time.

Without a joystick, control of the airplane is hard, maneuvers aren't smooth, basically any input to control the planes yaw, pitch, or roll is over sensitive, and I haven't found a way to change it.

why would you play a floightsim if you DIDNT have a joystick? that's like saying I'm going to go play Half Life, without a keyboard.:confused:

A serious flight sim can't be played without a joystick, no way.

Except you can play Half Life without a keyboard, I've played it on the 360. You can also plug in a 360 controller to the PC and use that as well, if I'm correct. :)

The one reason I bought 1946 in the first place was because of the damage model, it looked very realistic to me. I hadn't really seen that kind of attention to detail in a damage model before. Then, I got the demo, played it with a keyboard and (even though I sucked at it) still loved it. So I bought it.

Before that time, I wasn't really into flight sims and so I hadn't considered purchasing the joystick, and even now I don't play 1946 or BoP seriously, so I don't think the investment will pay off.

Also, I can still manage to shoot down many planes without a joystick. It's harder for sure, but it's definitely possible with a little practice.

well to tell you the truth, the way my jysticks behaving i might swtich to keyboard and mouse :rolleyes:

Cant be as bad as mine lol, ive got a logic3 Star fighter. shown below
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA280_.jpg

Recently pulled the thing out of the garage and the thing was so stiff i had to give it some WD40 action to the ball joint.

Oh and it works on BOP (which is rather strange)

Got a new PC, and also jumped into the 1946 pool; not because I'm fed up of waiting for a patch or anything like that (although it would be nice ;)), just because it really sounded my kind of thing. Must say it's very awesome, and BoP is definitely more on the 'game' side than the 'sim' side, although for graphics and action it wins out.

Now I've got it running at 1600x900 and set up my 360 pad to cover flight controls until I can get a stick setup, very nice indeed.

I've got a USB RC transmitter somewhere...might give it a go some time :grin:
http://www.realitycraftsales.com/ima...er_all_new.jpg

I can use the AV8R (360/pc version) okay but the throttle and rudder recognise as the same axis. I had a cunning brainwave and plugged in my Logitech DriveFX 360 steering wheel (works on pc but without the feedback) thinking I could use the pedal for rudder.
http://www.myhomesimulator.com/images/DriveFX.jpg
Genius eh.
But I cant get 1946 to recognise both input devices at once :(

house if you want to try using your 360 controller i could send you my quickfire dongle thingy it lets you use 360 controllers with you pc ???
let me know if you do ill send it to you :grin:

how much do they cost and I'll buy one?

i think i paid about a tenner for mine ill look em up now and post a link for you mate

ok after digging mine out to see that its not called quickfire at all its called crossfire duh!!!!
anyway i found this one on play but you can get them a lot cheaper than that mate i only paid around a tenner for mine from game but that was about a year ago :grin:

http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/3299...s/Product.html

sweet, ill do some shopping around. I dont find the controller to bad on BOP, so it might be ok for the PC too.

Thanks for that, ill look around.

If you have a wired 360 controller you can plug it straight in, although you'll probably need to get drivers it should prompt you automatically. Wireless won't work with a charge cable, it has to be a wireless receiver; cunning, huh.

If you're having trouble with the default controls you can change the HOTAS axis functions at the bottom of the control setup page; I used this to put my rudders on the triggers, Over-G style, and throttle on mousewheel. If it reverses your rudders or puts the throttle backwards, pull the other trigger/scroll the other way when setting the control. This will show as a negative (-) axis ie '-Z axis' as opposed to 'Z axis'.

Not totally intuitive but it made a huge difference to my immediate enjoyment once I'd gotten it set up.