#4391768 - 11/28/17 05:26 PM
A letter from Eagle Dynamics
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Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 797
leaf_on_the_wind
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Member
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 797
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Dear valued DCS World customers,
Over the past several months, we have read your concerns and frustrations regarding aspects of the growth of DCS World. In particular, the length of time that it has taken to create the unified DCS World version (DCS World 2.5) and our DCS World War II developments. We’d like to talk to you about both of these to help foster a clear picture of where we were, where we are now, and where we plan to be.
First of all, thank you all for your support and being with us for the past 27 years and sharing our vision of what we believe the flight simulation genre can ultimately achieve. From the very beginning, when Eagle Dynamics was established in 1991, our main priority was the creation of highly realistic flight simulations. At that time, there were just seven of us when we released our first project: Su-27 Flanker 1.0 in 1995. Over the past 27(!) years, we’ve come a long way from a simple computer game, to a professional-level combat environment simulator. Today, we have about 80 internal programmers, artists, managers, testers and producers. Additionally, we have 18 partners and 3rd party developers that are participating in our internal projects, as well as developing their own modules for DCS World. During our entire history, we have remained loyal to our initial dream of making the most realistic combat aviation simulations. Starting from one simple, Standard Flight Model (SFM) Su-27, we took our next step in 2003 with seven aircraft for Lock On: Modern Air Combat (LOMAC). Following LOMAC, we created our first Advance Flight Model (AFM) for the Su-25T in 2005. Next came our first Professional Flight Model (PFM) for the Ka-50 Black Shark and the A-10C Warthog in 2008 and 2009. For an aircraft like the A-10C, it usually takes about three years of hard work to develop a PFM.
In parallel to development of the software for these aircraft, getting the required permissions/license agreements (aircraft manufactures and government) can often be a big obstacle and time-consuming process. For both the Ka-50 Black Shark and A-10C Warthog, we spent two years of great effort to get such permissions! More recently, and with great difficulties, we finally signed the necessary agreements to allow the sale of our upcoming DCS: F/A-18C Hornet. The team has been working very hard on this project and we are at the point now where we are talking much more about it with regular updates. After a long period of developing needed technologies (flight model and radar), research, design (data on late-LOT F/A-18C), and legal matters, we are nearing the point in which we will be able to provide the Early Access version of the Hornet. Right behind the Hornet, we have other modern, combat fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft ready for development within the Eagle Dynamics internal studio. Our talented 3rd parties are also working hard on other great aircraft like the AV-8B Night Attack S/VTOL, F-14 Tomcat, FC-17, F-4E Phantom II, Mi-24P Hind, Bo-105, and others. Naturally, all 3rd party projects are only made possible with very active, hands-on, technical support and creation of APIs from Eagle Dynamics. So, please be assured that we have not given up our initial dream! Modern, combat aviation is alive and well in DCS World and will continue to be. This is our bread and butter.
One of the biggest factors in creating a great flight simulation is the graphics engine. This is also probably the most technically complicated. During our 27 years history, we have internally developed five generations of graphics engines. This is a massive effort for such a small company, whereas many other companies use “off the shelf” graphic engine solutions. We have evaluated other engines (MSFS, OSG, etc.), but we always returned to our own internal solutions because only they provided the capability and quality we demand for a modern, combat aviation simulation. The biggest needs has been the ability to render an environment that looks and performs great from 1 meter to 50,000 meters. This is where we believe our graphics engine is quite unique and powerful.
Graphics cards are developing so rapidly that many companies are not capable of keeping their technology current with new hardware. After eight years of intense work, we recently developed a very stable version of our graphics engine that is based on DX11, Deferred Shading technology, and Physical Based Rendering (PBR). We are also developing our engine to take advantage of the Vulcan API to further improve game performance. Having a great looking game is moot if it does not perform well. It’s important to understand that a graphics engine is not only a Scene Renderer, but the terrain creation tool technology is equally important. This is the main reason why we could not merge DCS 1.5 Caucasus and 2.1 Terrains for such a long and regretful time. To do this, we first need to convert all the terrains, missions, training, and campaigns that were developed over many years for Caucasus map to an absolutely new terrain data structure and adjust all applied programs. We’ve put a massive amount of work into this effort and it is almost complete. We plan to release DCS World 2.5 in the coming weeks!
Now, let’s talk a little about DCS World War II and why it does not delay our modern day combat aircraft and why it’s a valuable aspect of DCS World for us and you.
• The Fighter Collection (TFC), Eagle Dynamic’s principle partner, has one of the largest, private collections of World War II aircraft. TFC has been requesting World War II aircraft for a long time, so we cannot ignore our partner. We and TFC agree that WWII combat aviation is a very interesting flight simulation genre, especially for customers that enjoy history and massive dogfights. TFC has supported this direction from the very beginning.
• World War II aircraft attract new customers that may have not otherwise been familiar with DCS World. Many DCS World War II pilots move to our jet aircraft that are within the integral DCS World. So, our World War II aircraft provide a good advertising environment for the DCS World concept as a whole.
• Many of our new programmers and artists are responsible DCS World War II. They are separate from our main project (like the F/A-18C) developers, and they are not involved with the modern aircraft development efforts. Otherwise, it would not be practical/efficient to develop aircraft like the F/A-18C with staff split between projects. Also, DCS World War II is a great “school” for new programmers before they take on extremely complicated Modern Air Combat projects.
• We could deliver modern, complicated aircraft faster than we and our 3rd parties are already doing, but growing a business needs more and more revenue to grow the team and make better products. We were very surprised to find that the investment vs. generated revenue has been excellent for the World War II aircraft. In fact, the P-51D Mustang has twice the cost effectiveness of the A-10C Warthog.
As you can see, DCS’s World War II series doesn’t compete with modern aircraft projects for development resources. In fact, it supports it! The same is true with the L-39 and Yak-52 projects. These two projects were also sought by government institutions, but we were also able to negotiate their release to you.
We very much hope this all makes sense for you and sheds some light on these matters. We are reaching an important milestone of DCS World with the release of DCS World 2.5. This combined with an exciting list of new aircraft, new maps, and great new mission content, is furthering our dream from 1991. Thank you for being part of the journey with us!
Sincerely, Eagle Dynamics Development Team
Ferengi Rule of acquisition #1 Once you have their money ... never give it back.
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#4391769 - 11/28/17 05:39 PM
Re: A letter from Eagle Dynamics
[Re: leaf_on_the_wind]
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 16,082
- Ice
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 16,082
Philippines / North East UK
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Wow.... talking about asking for an honest word from ED! I hope this is the first of many steps in the right direction! I still see a few holes in the statement above, but I'll leave that alone for now..... We plan to release DCS World 2.5 in the coming weeks! We are reaching an important milestone of DCS World with the release of DCS World 2.5. Proof is in the pudding!! BTW --- Source
- Ice
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#4391774 - 11/28/17 06:08 PM
Re: A letter from Eagle Dynamics
[Re: leaf_on_the_wind]
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Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 797
leaf_on_the_wind
Member
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Member
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 797
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yep proof in the pudding for sure
They said that Hormuz was just about to be released 3 years ago .......
Ferengi Rule of acquisition #1 Once you have their money ... never give it back.
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#4391777 - 11/28/17 06:25 PM
Re: A letter from Eagle Dynamics
[Re: leaf_on_the_wind]
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 14,410
Tom_Weiss
Veteran
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Veteran
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 14,410
3rd Planet, Sun
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Dang !!! this had to happen just when I was about to leave the community ! a nicely written letter - I posted it at as well at http://www.****************/ in the news section,
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#4391783 - 11/28/17 07:03 PM
Re: A letter from Eagle Dynamics
[Re: leaf_on_the_wind]
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Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 797
leaf_on_the_wind
Member
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Member
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 797
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maybe register spockonfiles.com and do a re-direct to yours ? lol
Ferengi Rule of acquisition #1 Once you have their money ... never give it back.
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#4391786 - 11/28/17 07:38 PM
Re: A letter from Eagle Dynamics
[Re: leaf_on_the_wind]
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Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 337
Art_J
Member
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Member
Joined: Mar 2015
Posts: 337
Warsaw, Poland
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Ooops, the man has made a statement, and even though no carved-in-stone dates were given (" everything is subject to change" anyway, ain't it?) I feel they'll really push for release of the unified build before the end of the year, at all costs, no matter what . How polished it's going to be and how it's going to perform... Ha! That remains to be seen, but whatever... The sooner they drop the parallel two-builds path the better for everybody. Interesting month ahead.
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#4391788 - 11/28/17 07:44 PM
Re: A letter from Eagle Dynamics
[Re: leaf_on_the_wind]
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Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 797
leaf_on_the_wind
Member
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Member
Joined: Sep 2014
Posts: 797
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well we did say weeks
could be 4 weeks ..... could be 400 weeks
Ferengi Rule of acquisition #1 Once you have their money ... never give it back.
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#4391797 - 11/28/17 08:58 PM
Re: A letter from Eagle Dynamics
[Re: leaf_on_the_wind]
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Joined: Jul 2016
Posts: 30
Member01
Junior Member
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Junior Member
Joined: Jul 2016
Posts: 30
Germany
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Lol... weeks? For sure! He wrote: "..we plan to..." and "...in the coming weeks..."! "Coming weeks" are alle the weeks from now on till the release. Wags is clever as always he is promising all but saying nothing. So I bet ALL of my money there is a VERY big "holiday sale" coming in (F18 and the Harrier + DCS World 2.5.. very "cheap") and the "letter" is the big bait we/some people should bite..... as always! Look at every past year since 2017 and you will see that there was always such a "bait" and they NEVER did what they were "planning"... not one single time! Coming weeks? That's so funny.. all the guys jumping up and down not realising what Wags realy wrote.... lol I believe it was about the coming weeks next year. If not, it were easy to say so ".. the coming weeks this year..." Do NOT bite this bait!
Last edited by Member01; 11/28/17 09:04 PM.
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#4391803 - 11/28/17 09:33 PM
Re: A letter from Eagle Dynamics
[Re: leaf_on_the_wind]
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Joined: Jul 2016
Posts: 87
watermanpc
Junior Member
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Junior Member
Joined: Jul 2016
Posts: 87
Spain
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yes, I thought the same, not adding "this year" is really weird if it's really being released in the "coming weeks"...it could be in the next 25 coming weeks then...
i7 6700K/// Z170X-UD3 /// GB GTX 1070G1 /// 16Gb@2800 /// SSD + 1Tb Barracuda x2 (DCS here) /// NOX Hummer M750 /// HOTAS WartHog /// DIY IR Clip+Opentrack+PS3 EYE 60-120fps /// Win10 pro 64
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#4391805 - 11/28/17 09:41 PM
Re: A letter from Eagle Dynamics
[Re: leaf_on_the_wind]
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 772
Johnny_Redd
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Member
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 772
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I don't believe a word of it. Let's not forget "Everything is subject to change." These clowns have failed miserably too many times for me to believe 2.5 is in anyway near release. This probably has more to do with some of their player base jumping ship after the 1c/777 recent announcement.
DCS Kickstarter Wags July 2014 "In this July 2014 update, the primary news is in regards to the restructured backer rewards. After a careful review of the older system under RRG, we found it financially unattainable." Wags October 2017 "the investment vs. generated revenue has been excellent for the World War II aircraft. In fact, the P-51D Mustang has twice the cost effectiveness of the A-10C Warthog."
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#4391809 - 11/28/17 10:56 PM
Re: A letter from Eagle Dynamics
[Re: leaf_on_the_wind]
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 772
Johnny_Redd
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Member
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 772
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"We were very surprised to find that the investment vs. generated revenue has been excellent for the World War II aircraft." Heh yeah, thats because they screwed over the kickstarter backers. I remember all the "ED are taking a loss because theyve picked up the pieces of RRGs failure" BS . The truth always comes out in the end. "Not financially viable" hahahahaha fuc#ing liars
Last edited by Johnny_Redd; 11/28/17 11:09 PM.
DCS Kickstarter Wags July 2014 "In this July 2014 update, the primary news is in regards to the restructured backer rewards. After a careful review of the older system under RRG, we found it financially unattainable." Wags October 2017 "the investment vs. generated revenue has been excellent for the World War II aircraft. In fact, the P-51D Mustang has twice the cost effectiveness of the A-10C Warthog."
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#4391813 - 11/28/17 11:30 PM
Re: A letter from Eagle Dynamics
[Re: Johnny_Redd]
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Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 761
Speyer
Member
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Member
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 761
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I This probably has more to do with some of their player base jumping ship after the 1c/777 recent announcement. Exactly what I think has happened.
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