I'm assuming that the vast majority of people who play IL-2 only play it in single player mode because I just find it stunning how even on Saturdays and Sundays I will see at most 2-3 Coop servers running and maybe about 10-12 dogfight servers and several of these servers usually have no players. When you consider that the multiplayer browser shows servers being run GLOBALLY at that time, the number of servers is really pathetically low.

I used to fly on public servers regularly but most started regarding shader mods as cheating which puts VR pilots at quite a disadvantage so I stopped.

What are shader mods used for? I'm just curious to know why they could be construed as cheating in a flight sim.

Yes, Jason himself has mentioned the overall player base is actually around 90% single player -- that is the series bread and butter (though the official forums have an overrepresentation of multiplayers (actually that kinda logically makes sense too) at perhaps 50-50 in my estimation. Anyway, that would also in large part explain the struggles FC1 had regarding sales (very limited single player content on release).
(surprisingly the DCS developers as well have said they have a larger single player base than multiplayer too).

Thanks for that info Redwolf. It makes a lot of sense and helps explain some things.

They allow you to see other aircraft at a distance better, causing the aircraft to standout against the sky background more. Otherwise flying in VR and no labels you are at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to spotting enemies.

Ah ok, thanks. So in that case it's really not a cheat but levelling out the playing field between VR users and non-VR users.

To reasonable people yes

Some don't feel that way however.

Tomio is flying VR and sems to do OK

https://combatbox.net/fr/pilots/?tour=29&page=4

I did fly multiplayer in VR myself and felt blind as a bat, but then I'm getting older and didn't install corrected lenses yet, I think Tomio is quite younger (must be in his late 20s or early 30s) so he may have a better sight.

At 9 GMT there usually 3 to 4 multiplayer serves with people in it, but 2009 hyperlobby will never come back i'm afraid. I'm not fond of dogfight servers and prefer to fly organized events, sadly there are not this many nowadays.

This and DCS finally is fun to fly (F-18, supercarrier and DCE "dynamic" campaigns rule !), so little BoS flying, even in SP since the career missions are not satisfying and interaction with friendly AI is extremely frustrating, with very bad comms.

46 is still more fun to fly in SP sadly. Still buying every module in hope that Jason will finally manage to get us a good single player, since some significant progress has been made from the original stupid unlock process.

For me the best single player in BOX is using PWCG. I am now flying 5 campaigns using PWCG, 2 German, 1 Russian and 2 Allied. PWCG does have a learning curve but once into it there is a much better combat experience.

I sometimes fly a coop pwcg campaign with one or two buddies, it is indeed fantastic to have this available. Interaction with ally IA is still very close to non-existent, but that's what the game provides us, not paul's fault.