From my emails between studios,

A-4,
F-4,
F-18,
F-14,
A-7,
F-16,
F-15

and at least 5 other jets from the late 60s early 70s are already “done”, just waiting for DCS to go Gold and some other things.

As it stands at the moment, we're one of a handful of 3rd party developers permitted to develop for DCS World. As has been stated to us, both IRIS and ED/TFC are in very early days with regards to 3rd party integration and we're both eager to see how the development process goes on both sides of the fence. We're also very enthusiastic to see developments progress..

All that being said, ED only has so much resources available to them, and they have to continue developments to DCS, do their own in-house product range and and other high priority things. In amongst that, they now have to develop an SDK (aka DCS development for dummies!) and hand hold a few choice 3rd party devs as we all work on our products.

Given all the above, it was made quite clear to our team by myself that it's pretty much a dive in the deep end and swim deal.. We have to come in and learn how things are done, how systems are coded, how flight models and audio are handled and much more. That's why we're focusing on building up as much knowledge from the community as possible.

So our thought process was thus.... Initially we thought "Great, let's do a fantastic in depth A-10C level of detail aircraft...." a few days later, we thought "Bugger, how are we going to do that when we're still learning how to put planes into DCS!"

After discussing with TFC and going over the business side of things, we're all of the opinion that it's far more beneficial to start simple and progressively increase complexity of products as a. our knowledge increases and b. ED's resources become more available.

Don't get me wrong, we're totally blown away by the support that ED/TFC are providing. We've worked with developers who've shown far less willingness to share information and assistance. We just aren't going to bite off more than we can chew..not at this stage.

So, the mindset in Team IRIS at the moment is as follows....

We develop our first aircraft for DCS which will likely be something fun yet simple. From this, we learn where we can improve, and what you as the customers want to see. Some thoughts are towards the Open Beta idea which TFC have encouraged. This allows us to provide a staggered product release over time, allowing us to get product to the customer earlier, and upgrade it as our skills and knowledge improve.

A prime example of this would be the development of a MFD system... initially, an aircraft might come with a single screen option without the possibility of changing screens, but as knowledge improves, you may see more depth to systems as upgrade patches etc.

As I said earlier, this is a learning experience for us. We know we're the new kids on the block with DCS, and whilst we're having great fun learning this platform and enjoying finally having a combat platform for our combat planes in, we're relying heavily on what you'd like to see.

If what you'd like to see fits into what we have the ability to produce, then that makes me a happy man.

David.

Okay, we've had the green light from TFC to let you all know the products we have planned from the IRIS team over the next 3 year development cycle.
(I hope they won't take that long to make! lol)

Contracts have been signed for the following products;

IRIS F-15E Strike Eagle for DCS World
IRIS F-22 Raptor for DCS World
IRIS F-14D Tomcat for DCS World

I will say that the F-15E is being developed with the intention of being submitted to ED as a DCS branded product (ie. DCS: F-15E Strike Eagle) and of course will be one of the longest to develop.

The F-22 will be looking at making use of the AFM for thrust vectoring and we'll be discussing this further with ED.

The F-14D is likely to be the first completed aircraft from the stable if all goes well.

We will be looking at the best way to develop these products from a business perspective over the coming weekend after a team meeting.

There MAY be another project being added to the list as a fourth product was dropped from the list at the last moment. We'll let you know when we know..

Anyway, have fun... it's nearly 1am here and I need to get away from this PC.. I'll see you all tomorrow..

Ciao folks..

Spanky.